Baby Pictures of Leah

I just got a quick break from my duties at the hospital so I rushed home to upload pictures to serve as photographic evidence of the new child. Mom's sore and tired, but is progressing as she should be.



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Drum roll please...

I am ecstatic to share that Melissa gave birth to a baby girl, Leah Lyn Neumeier, last night at 9:30pm in Blairmore, AB.

Leah came into this world at 22 inches in length, 7 lbs 14 ounces, a little bit of dark hair and a wonderfully calm disposition. This last trait was very welcomed by the new parents as we had a very long ordeal of a day which included 18 hours of tough labour followed by a cesarean section after it was determined that our little girl was not going to drop into place to have a traditional birth.

Mom did an amazing job and has already put the excruciating experience behind her and has really taken to her new role. While Dad was just a bit player in the production, I happy to report that he held his own and remained calm as can be, until he hard Leah cry as they removed her from Mom's belly. He promptly melted into a puddle of tears. He pulled it together to spend Leah's first hour with her until Mom was out of recovery. We had a converstaion (albeit a little one-sided) that I'll never forget.

Melissa will be in the hospital for until at least Thursday and maybe longer as she recovers from the abdominal surgery.

Pictures of the child have been taken, but will have to wait a day for publishing here as doofus Marty forgot the camera at the hospital.

Changes in Latitude

Well, I'm 2 weeks into the first phase of my new life (working in Canada) and another day closer to beginning the second phase of my new life (baby). As anyone could have guessed, I am struggling somewhat with the adjustment back to a conventional work situation and being here full-time. Adding repatriating back to Canada with a new job and family addition in such a short time frame is bound to be complicated. Short term pain for long term gain though. When this job came up, it never crossed my mind not to do it just because it would be difficult. It was clearly the best thing for me and my family so we are hunkering down and getting on with it.

Here are a couple of adjustments that I have dealing with.
*Commuting. Door to door, my commute time is 57 minutes. And then another 57 minutes home. I am not minding the drive as it is an easy highway drive (that may change once the snow hits). As well, it is a georgeous drive. I kind of like the solitude and get to catch up on all my CBC podcasts. However, it doesn't make a great deal of sense to spend so much time driving. It may only be temporary though as we plan to look for another house in the next few months once things calm down (although we haven't decided if we will remain in the Crowsnest Pass or move to Pincher Creek).

*Short work days. I haven't been feeling overly productive at work as I can't seem to get any momentum. I'm used to 12 hr days (84 hrs a week) and am now dramatically dropping down to 40 hrs a week.

*Weekends. I really haven't had a weekend in 4 years. It is different looking forward to Fridays and dreading Mondays. Someone in Yemen characterized rotational work as being 34 Mondays followed by one Friday.

*The pain that goes with learning a new job. In what I do, so much of it is job/company specific. I have been very overwhelmed thus far, but know that it will come around. It is no different than when I arrived in Yemen. It just takes time and patience to pick up what you need to be successful. On the plus side, the people at the new job have been very supportive and helpful so far.

*Being the boss. I had a supervisory capacity in Yemen, but the new job is requiring a lot more in this regard. It has been really interesting so far, but this will be my main challenge in picking up the role.

*Vacation. I have been granted a generous number of vacation days. I figured out that I have to work 210 days a year. The Yemen job was 183 (but this didn't include about 15 days of travel and numerous more being jetlagged). I am excited to have more flexibility around when I can take days off.

As for Baby, we are now 2 days overdue and are starting to get anxious. I have to admit that I have almost been solely focused on the new job and kind of forgot about baby. Now that it is very imminent, I can't wait for it to happen. I have arranged to take about 2 weeks off when baby comes.

Any thoughts on the sex? Post your comments.

Due date

Today's the day. Unfortunately, no sign of baby yet.

Photos of the Fortnight 1.7

Beard had to go this week.



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50waystohelp

Airplane Blogging

I'm currently high above the clouds, travelling home from Yemen (my other home) for the final time. Specifically, I am somewhere above Nunavut although all I can see is a blinding sea of white clouds when I open the window cover.

Note: This was intended to be a posting about leaving Yemen (and I will get to that further down), but it kind of ended up being a career retrospect.

I have been most passive about my career. I have had great success, but it has nothing to do with any sort of career plan on my part. I've just sort of gone with the flow of things. The funny thing is that if an outsider looked at my career map, it would look that I am very career-minded with a specific target in mind. I wish I could take credit for envisioning such a plan, but it was a series of consecutive lucky beaks that lead me here. I am probably being a little too humble. Melissa reminds me ofen that it must have taken some ability and hard work for someone to keep noticing me and offering up these opportunities.

Here's my resume. In my final summer semester in University, I accepted a job for 4 months in Calgary with a Canadian energy company. They were impressed enough (or maybe so short-handed) that they offered me a full-time position when I was finished my degree. I was part of some sort of new grad development plan where they tried to cycle inexperienced university grads through 3 jobs in 3 years. After my first year doing very basic work, I was transferred to the international exploration division, the sexiest division in the company (unsolicited lucky break #1). I hadn't put any sort of a request in, I just happened to be due when the opening came. Before they could rotate me again, the company went through a merger with another company in what was the largest merger in Canadian history. Somehow, the new grad rotation was forgotten about amidst the chaos of bringing the two companies together (unsolicited lucky break #2). This suited me fine as I was learning a great deal from a group of mentors that seriously influenced my abilities as an accountant. Before you know it, I am going on exotic business trips to the Middle East and South America on my own.

In 2004, I received a phone call from a colleague who had just left the company. He had accepted a high ranking finance posting in Yemen and thought enough of my ability to offer me the chance to work in Yemen (unsolicited lucky break #3). I wasn't looking to leave, but I've learned that you must grab opportunities when you find them (or trip over them like I seem to). Off to Yemen I go. Four years later, here I am.

My latest career move is to a very exciting job (a nice career advancement located in my backyard in rural SW Alberta) at the perfect time (won't have to leave my new family every second month). It is not easy to give up the perks of the Yemen job. Half the year off to do anything and everything I've ever wanted to do, favourable income tax on overseas income, exciting work environment, air miles like you wouldn't believe and a generally low-stress job. In fact, there was only one job in Alberta that would have lured me away from Yemen...and it did. In mid March, we came back from Calgary on the same day that we bought our truck and I checked the internet for news when we got home. This is normal for me. I am an internet info junkie and will head straight to the computer to get the latest as soon as I walk in the door. One of the websites that pings on my Google Reader is Eluta. My feed reader is set to show me any jobs posted on the web that are within 100Kms of Sparwood, BC, our neighbours just accross the border. I've linked to this mainly out of curiosity than anything and never dreamed a senior accounting posting would ever come up. That changed when the title "Project Finance Manager" pops up. A click later and I find out that this job was as close a match as you can get for my area of experience and expertise. That alone would not have swayed me, but the fact that it was within daily driving distance of our mountain home did.

We have come to really value our rural small town lifestyle and have been thinking of options to avoid being dragged back to the city. This job was just that. A position of the same calibre as any in the city with the chance to live in a small town. Long story short; I applied, drove to Calgary for a 2 hour interview, had a second phone interview a week later and a satisfactory offer was presented to me the next day. They got their man and I got the only job in Alberta I wanted (I just didn't know it).

I am having very mixed emotions about leaving Yemen. These emotions are amplified due to everything happening so quickly. I always expected that I would have six months notice with plenty of time to say my goodbyes and to transition back to a working life in Canada. I wasn't looking to leave my job in Yemen. In fact, I was content with being there another 1-2 years until my function was replaced entirely by capable Yemenis.

The past four years has changed me personally and professionally in a very profound way. I am a very different person and a much stronger accountant than I was four years ago when I showed up in Yemen with my backpack. The job provided me with a lot of this, but the situation allowed me to make other life enhancements (moving out of the city, seeing the world through extensive travelling). For many different reasons, my values, goals and perspective on life have changed in a very pleasing way. I feel more than ever that know what I want in life and have the confidence to make it happen. All of this because of an unsolicited phone call.

The last four years by the numbers:
20 - number of rotations completed ranging from 3 to 6 weeks
16 - Countries I have spent significant time in
720 - Estimated hours spent on airplanes (just airplanes, not including airports, hotels or buses)
1.8 - Years of my life spent living in the Yemen desert
45 - Nights spent in Dubai hotels

Update: Nunavut is long gone, over the Yukon now about to cross into Alberta.