Dominic Dube

 For those that ever wondered what I do in my spare time.

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This is too funny not to share. The tech guys will get a good laugh if you pay attention to what is really happening.

Click here to see the video

So it’s been a very long time since I have posted anything on my blog. I’ve been so very busy with everything happening with the new job.

A few weeks ago, we had our friend Julie C Butler take our fall pictures not too far away from the house. It was a beautiful autumn day as you can see from the pictures. The only down side was that Vincent deviced to sleep for most of it, so e don’t have many pictures of him. Hope you enjoy the 100+ pictures. We certainly do!

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Hello Everyone… yes I know I’m a week late on my photo but I have good reason, I forgot b/c I’m pregnant! (Those of you who have been pregnant before will understand that saying!)

As you can see, I’m on the verge of looking like a whale… but I guess that comes with the territory, especially at this point.  And if I don’t totally “look like one” I certainly feel like one.  I don’t know how many times in the past few weeks that I’ve walked around corners and misgauged my belly and hit the wall - seriously.  At this point, my moto is “don’t rush me” as I move at the pace of a snail but think I’m moving quite fast (Chris is good at telling me otherwise).

Ethan has been very active and doesn’t have much room left to kick and punch.. so he’s reverted to rolling and squirming.. which can be quiet painful at times with what I call his “pointy elbows and bony bum”… I have a few choice words for him when he gets out!

That’s about it for now, hope all is well with everyone”.

Isabelle

There is a problem with the JavaScript required to make the photo albums animate. This has just recently occurred and I’m not too sure what has happened. I figure it has to do with the e-commerce functionality that I have recently added and the JavaScript code from this plugin affects the Photo Gallery. I’m looking into this. In the mean time, I have turned off the effects so if you click on a picture, you’ll have to use the “back” button to return to other pictures, or use the slide show feature which works just fine. In the slide show feature, you can click on the picture to load the next one quicker without having to wait the 4 seconds for the next to load.

Enjoy,
Dom

I’ve decided to take my big brother’s advice and start using his website as a place to send people when there are updates on my pregnancy.. and eventually additional updates and photos of Ethan and the family.

As a general update since the last photo we’ve been doing some reno’s in the house (a patio door went into our kitchen – you will see it in the photo’s), we’ve done some painting, busted out a few walls and well.. that’s enough for now.  Chris and his father have begun building our deck off the patio door yesterday, and it should be finished tomorrow afternoon with any luck.  Because Chris is very busy working on building a basement apartment for a friend of the family’s he’s had to do our house reno’s on his “time off” on top of some farm reno’s that are never ending as well.  Slowly but surely everything will get done, one piece at a time.  I think that next will be finishing the office and putting in the French doors – right now, the wall is simply opened up and the drywall went up on the ceiling, but that’s it.

The pregnancy – well,  to be quite honest with you all… umm.. being pregnant SUCKS!  I can’t lie.. I’m not liking it at all.  For those of you who respond by saying, “really?  I love (loved) being pregnant” … well… bite me, and good for you!  The weight is really starting to take it’s tole on my body and it’s just not fun.  I keep on trying to be optimistic and be like, “it’ll get better”, but every week something new arises and compounds onto the existing uncomfortable-ness, and often painful existing “symptoms” – if you can call them that.

I have an ultrasound booked for Friday (8th) to determine whether my placeta privia has “moved out of the way”.  If not (which is likely, based on some of those “symptoms” I’m experiencing)…. This will mean an automatic c-section, and that will throw a major wrench in my existing labor plans!  So much for a natural birth with the help of my doula – but I can’t do anything about it – so what shall be shall be.  The only up side…  I’ll be delivered at minimum 3 weeks early from my due date to be certain that I don’t go into labor on my own.  (Woo Hoo – I’ll take it!)

Everyone is doing well, dogs & cats included and I hope the same is for all of you.

To see the pictures, visit the Photo Gallery and look for the Isabelle’s Pregnancy album.

Have a good one.
Isabelle

I’ve updated/ added pictures to some of the photo albums in the gallery. The albums are listed as “updated June 29, 2008″, but you’ll have to find the newly added pictures yourself. They should be the one at the end of each album.

Enjoy and don’t forget to use the Tell-a-friend feature at the end of this post, to send them a message about this site so they can check it out and subscribe to the site updates. Summer’s here, so more pictures are sure to come.

Videos are coming soon too! I’m just in the process of converting them over and cuting them down into managable lenghts.

Today Joelle had a scrapbooking party to attend during the day, so I decided to take the boys to the Ottawa Air Show to see some planes. It really wasn’t hard to convince them. I simply had to mention planes, the Snowbirds and a ride on dad’s weekday limousine (public transit bus) and everyone was jumping for joy.

It was a nice day to start off with. So we put on the sun screen and I took Jakob, Jeremy and Justin into the van and we went off to the the park & ride where the boys took their very first ride on the public transit bus. They loved it, and it reminded me of my first time on a public bus with my two step sisters back in Seattle many years ago.

Once we arrived at the air show, the party started. The boys could barely contain themselves. I did have a little bit of fun trying to keep the three boys from running all over the place but we managed.

The boys had the chance to sit in some of the airplanes and see many things including sky divers, old war planes, aerobatic airplanes, an F-18 Hornet; not the twins most popular…at the time because of the loud noise but Justin didn’t mind, and of course the Snowbirds. All in all, a great afternoon.

At the end of the show, it started to rain and not just a little but rather quite hard. We had an umbrella, but that didn’t really help as we had to wait about 30 minutes in the rain for buses to pick us up. There were about 3000 people waiting for the buses and we weren’t close to the start of the line. We eventually got on the bus and were good to go.

A great day. Mom had her scapbooking, dad got to spend time with the boys (minus 1), the boys saw some planes and we even got a free shower! Oh, and a warm supper was waiting for us when we got home. And it didn’t cost more then $75.00…how mush did you spend on scrapbooking today Joelle?

Pictures are added!

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I’m happy to announce that Fuel Coffee; owned by Dani Cone my step sister, has won the 2008 Favorite Independent Coffeehouse award.

You can read more about this here.

So what started off as one coffee shop with a very determined owner in a world’s capital for coffee, has now turned into three very popular and successful coffee shops. Congratulations to Dani! A well earned success.

So to all that travel to Seattle WA, I highly recommend dropping by one of her shops and enjoying the unique styled environment, pleasant staff and of course the coffee.

Fuel Coffee

"Tasty, funky, artsy," a reader enthuses about Fuel Coffee. While those three words could be applied to any number of coffeehouses, they seem particularly apt in application to this local operation, serving up the hot stuff in Montlake, Capitol Hill and Wallingford daily. They get their beans from Caffe Vita, and their baristas know how to make them taste great. Each location "captures the essence of the neighborhood in which it resides," writes a fan. And there's always art on the walls that's just as tasty as the art in your cup.

Fuel Coffee (Capitol Hill)
610 19th Ave E., Seattle
206-329-4700

Fuel Coffee (Wallingford)
1705 N. 45th St., Seattle
206-634-2700

Fuel Coffee (Montlake)
2300 24th Ave. E., Seattle
206-328-0700

Well, the official soccer season has start for us. It really started last week, but because of the Diego show, today was our first day. The boys had a blast and so did I. I’m the assistant coach for the team.

To my surprise, all the kids were extremely open to my direction. I would have thought that since none of the kids knew me that they’d all be very shy and picking flowers. But no, that was not the case at all. Everyone had fun and Jeremy even scored a goal during the game, with Jakob coming very close twice. The game isn’t about scoring or the “real” rules. No one really keeps score (but I think we won). It’s about giving confidence to the kids and having fun. The only real thing we’re trying to teach the kids this year is not to touch the ball with their hands, which we already don’t have a problem with.

The side lines are not there to mark “out of bounds”, but rather to keep the parents off the field. There are no goalies and if you happen to score on your own net, well CONGRATULATIONS on your goal. High fives for everyone! There are no refs or whistles. Although I might debate that one to control the parents a bit. They can get so loud with their encouragement, that we the coaches are drowned out.

The “interesting” part, although this is an English club, 50% of the team is French and the other in English. I’m the translator for the kids since the coach is primarily English. We didn’t seem to have many problems with this, but the coach and I should really learn the names of the kids a little more. It’s hard to give direction to a child without their name. Lets just say there was a lot of running by the coach and me to catch up to the kids to tell them what to do (run that way, kick, get the ball to him/her, pass to …?).

Fun was had by all! I was even asked by one of the little girls on the team the following as the game is going on and I’m on the field: “Coach Dominic, can I ask you something” [in a faint voice, as I kneel down to her]. I’m thinking she wants to be on the next shift on the field. “Can I go play at the park over there? My daddy said no.” As I repeated what she said to me to her parents on the side line, the crowd burst in laughter. I knew there had to be some other catch to the assistant coach job.

This will be an interesting and fun summer in soccer. I can’t wait until next week when the official coach will be away and I’ll be alone coaching the team. Go Blueberries Go!

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