Shaun Newman Podcast - SNP Archives #25 - Robin Acton

Episode Date: July 21, 2021

Stories from life in fastball, being married young, pivot points & "the beauty lies in the ordinary".   Robin is a business owner, wife, mother & community pillar.    Let me know what you think Text me 587-217-8500

This is Glenn Healy. Hi, this is Braden Holby. This is Daryl Sutterin. Hi, this is Brian Burke. This is Jordan Tutu. This is Keith Morrison. This is Kelly Rudy. Hi, this is Scott Hartnell.

Hey, everybody. My name is Steele-Ferre. This is Tim McAuliffe of Sportsnet, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Wednesday. Hope everybody's having a great week. We got a good one on tap for you today. Another archive episode.

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I stopped in last week, sat and had a couple of beverages with the group and had a nice little conversation. They obviously were supporters of the Bike for Breakfast initiative we put together, which raised money for Lloyd Public, Lloyd Catholic, Northwest, Buffalo Trail and Onion Lake School Divisions. They stepped up huge, donating $25,000, so I just want to shine a spotlight on Crude Master and what they do for our community. If you're looking for any outdoor signage, I highly suggest read and write and maybe hitting up Mrs. Deanna Wanler. They can make you look awfully, awfully sharp. Gartner Management is a Lloyd Mr. Base Company specializing in all types of rental properties to help meet your needs,

whether we're looking for a small office or a 6,000 square foot commercial space. Give Wade Gartner a call today, 780808, 5025. And if you're into any of these businesses, let them know. you heard about them from the podcast, right? Let's get on to that tale of the tape. Athlete, coach, business owner, mother, wife, and community pillar. I'm talking about Robin Acton. So buckle up.

Here we go. Well, it is November 29th, 2020. I'm joined in studio today by Robin Acton. So first off, thank you for coming in. You're welcome. Before we get going, I have to think, man, we were doing this morning Christmas decorations. And I don't know where this year's gone. It's been the longest year ever, 2020. And yet somehow here we are sitting at Christmas and the middle of a lockdown.

It's been a bit of a blur. You think you haven't done much. And then you realize the time also went by quickly. This is very true. In your lifetime, you ever experienced anything quite like 2020? No, I remember thinking with a group of my friends at the end of 2019 that it's okay for 2019 to be finished. Had enough of 2019, little did we know what 2020 was going to be like. Yeah, begging for 2019 back almost, aren't we? Everything, you know, put it in perspective. It changes everything. Well, we're here today to talk a little bit about you, a little bit about your life. As I told you before we started, what I want is I want.

you to bring me back to your childhood and we'll start there and we'll see where it goes for well i mean i am um i've lived in lloydminster since i was three months old um so i consider this my home uh so i grew up here it's an amazing community i think it's a pretty cool place did you grow up right in lloydminster then or out on a farm no i uh lived uh on an acreage so lived not on a farm but very close to a farm. My mom's family were all farmers, so it felt like I spent half my time on the farm, but we lived on the way to Sandy Beach, as everybody used to describe it, the four-mile corner. The house rate on the corner? The house rate on the corner? The house right on the corner? Yeah. Really? Absolutely. What was living off of Highway 17 like back in the day?

It was interesting. How so? Well, I mean, nowadays everybody has cell phones and whatever they need they phone for. But I would say that growing up, we were the local phone. You know, people would amazingly run out of gas two miles out of town. Or they, you know, there was always somebody coming in the yard saying, can I use your phone? I mean, it's been a big change, right? You run out of gas anywhere. You just beam me up, Scotty.

Absolutely. Shoot a text message and you got somebody there. Absolutely. I remember walking like two miles to get to a house so I could. get gas back in the day because you had no choice absolutely you know probably kids when they get their parents telling them uh you need to leave this house with X amount of fuel in there don't understand why that is yeah so I mean it was a great place to grow up and in a lot of ways we were you know close enough to town to feel like that we were in town getting into town was nothing

it was you know well it wasn't just two miles to the edge of the town like it is now but So Lloyd was much smaller then. Not that I really understood that as a young person growing up. Yeah, but the size changed, the size expansion that you've witnessed is what everyone talks about. Yeah, well, Lloyd did really explode. And it really shifted, you know, too. I mean, oil was always important to our economy, and then I think it got even more important, which is, I think, such an, well, that's why we saw such an explosion.

but being someone who's more rooted in the egg sector, it's interesting to watch the impact of agriculture. And how has it changed agriculturally in your eyes? Well, in my eyes, I think Leibnizier is a pretty progressive place agriculturally as well. I mean, we know, especially from the cattle producers side of things, but probably when I grew up, I think agriculture was a more prominent, significant industry. And over time, I think it got overtaken by the energy sector. And not that it quit growing. I mean, we still have a very vibrant ag industry.

And so it just isn't probably isn't as obvious as it was when I was growing up. Yeah, it used to be maybe not the second fiddle. Now it's been the second fiddle for probably 20 years. Yeah, absolutely. Because there is a lot of money in the old energy sector. But as it is being dismantled right now or falling apart, feels like for the last three, four years. Certainly been a shift.

Yes, a big shift. Yeah, absolutely. So when you grew up on the four mile corner, did you go to Lloyd for school then? Yes. Yeah. What school were you going to back then? So I did my elementary school at Queen Elizabeth. Then there was only one junior high.

In all of Lloyd. In all of Lloyd. And then, of course, I finished my 10th,000. to 12 at the Leibminster Comprehensive High School. The brand new? The brand new. Was it brand new? It wasn't brand new.

It wasn't brand new. No. Relatively new? It was relatively new. It was relatively new. I'm like, what? Well, okay. I mean, you know, at 16, I didn't really pay all that much attention to that.

What were you paying attention to at 16? Oh, well, what was I paying attention to at 16? Well, probably what most 16-year-old girls pay attention to, but plus sports, I was really into sports. You know, you mentioned in the few questions and answers about sports. You were heavily into softball, fastball. Absolutely. And all the school sports I could possibly play.

Yeah, so really, it's been a real driver in my life. What has it been about Lloyd Minster and fastball? It's taken a back seat now, I would say, with baseball, with baseball, with. with some of the facilities they've built now for baseball and just the fact that following with baseball, you can go on to play like pro if you become exceptionally good. That's a long shot, but I mean you can. But what was it about back in that time

that fastball was the sport in summer? Because it was a very big sport. And not only that, in Lloyd, there was fantastic teams. Oh, yeah. Louis Minster has a really strong history of amazing fastball. I think it's really about the people. But that's because I think it's probably about the people. Everything about everywhere is always about the people, right?

So there were some keen players. And then you had Lashburn, right? The small community just to the east, but has a pretty amazing history when it comes to fastball. So lots of interest generated, even being around them, right? So growing up, once I got to late teens, started to play on a women's team. And in 1983, which would have been my last year of junior ball, Mike and Vicki Lamb kind of spearheaded an initiative to partner up with a junior team out of Saskatoon.

And Lloydminster hosted the national championship for Junior A. Women's. And we were a host team. So when you say you partnered up or they you partnered up with saskatoon what you mean you mean you guys combined a team there was a junior a team in Saskatoon that was interested in collaborating I don't know I don't know I can't really remember probably all the details but a significant portion of our team were from saskatoon I mean to have a we didn't want to just have any you wanted a competitive team if you're hosting the national championship and there'd be been no junior A women's team in Lloydminster before. This was the very first. So there were probably six or seven of us from around here and another crew out of Saskatoon and we would meet once a week in North Battleford for practice and we'd play every weekend. It was crazy time, but it was a lot of fun. You know, that's funny. Can you imagine that today they probably wouldn't

let that happen. Team from Saskatoon and Lloyd combined. In saying that, when I was growing up by, well, I don't call it Bantam anymore. Robin, what do they call it?

You, I don't know, you 15? Yep. Something like that. I was driving to Grand Prairie. We played with, because Lloyd had lost

a good chunk of their team. There was like three of us that went to Grand Prairie probably once every two weeks, something like that. And then a tournament team, essentially. So that's got a strong history in the game too.

Absolutely. When your talent starts to go elsewhere or players, I shouldn't even say talent, you got to go see where you got to go. You either got to go or you got to build a team around what you have. Yeah. So when you look at Lashburn, right, once they moved out of junior women's to senior women's, I think when I finished playing junior, I played for the Bluebirds and there were probably two players. on the bluebirds that were from Lashburn, maybe three. You know, I'm going to, I don't want to offend somebody by forgetting somebody,

but there was, you know, two or three players from Lashburn. I was from Lloyd Minster, a few other Saskatchewan people. And at that level, you know, if we could recruit somebody from Ontario or BC, the way they'd come, you know, we had an amazing group of people around us who, would find jobs for their players they'd bill at them it was last brand was an amazing community when it came to to fastball i i marvel now um having been around sports for a long time the the fundraising that community would do to support our ball team was unbelievable what's some of the fundraisers that you remember do you recall any i mean we just our job was to play to dedicate ourselves to

playing and put a competitive team on the field, but they'd raise enough money to send us to nationals every year, irrespective of where it was in the country. And, you know, that's 18 to 20 people in hotels for four or five nights and flights and gear and everything else. And plus, typically, we would go to Vancouver for probably 10 days during the summer just to get to play competitively because we had to travel everywhere. So we didn't, we didn't get it. a good run of two or three solid of games a week, you could only play on the weekends and practice. So we'd go out to Vancouver and play it in Vancouver for 10 days to two weeks a year too. All of that costs money. So, I mean, there was an amazing, the community was amazing

support. And to have a home game was fantastic because they would all come up and watch. You had a fan base. It was fantastic. How did you ladies do then? Did you, like all the nationals you went to. Well, when I played, our nemesis was always Ontario. They seemed to be, they always seemed to be like four feet taller than us. We could, you know, hitting the fence was no problem. The, the years I played, one year we got a silver, and that was the best we were able to do in, I think, a couple of rounds. That really tough competition. But I think that's pretty amazing for a team that comes out of, we used to joke and say we'd be playing in Vancouver in an international tournament

like we'd play teams from other countries and some of the U.S. teams would come up and we're from Lashburn and they'd be like... Where? Lashburn? We always used to laugh. You know what the funny thing is though? I bet if you went and talked to people across the country

about fastball that were in the fastball circle, I bet you Lashburn would be a name. They go, yeah, I remember Lashburn. Well. You think how many times Lashburn went to nationals? Not only with women's, but men, like I mean. And then they came out with rugby and did some really cool stuff. But yeah, I was really lucky.

When I got to play, I was by no means a star. I had to work really hard to just be there to keep up and felt that was a privilege. There were at least four or five players on the team that were actually on the Canadian national team. So there was an incredible talent pool on that team. So it was a lot of fun. Very influential. But that's all you did.

You played ball, period. Didn't do anything else? What else do you have time to do? We would, my husband and I got married. The year I played junior ball. So I was the only married woman on my team. I'll tell you that for sure.

It was 21 and under. I always said to my kids, don't even think about it. But we were married then. And I remember he would be just, I remember saying to him, well, absolutely, that sounds like a great idea. Let's get married, but I'm not quitting playing ball. So we would hardly see each other in the summer because I'd be at practice two or three nights a week and gone every weekend.

So it was a big commitment. You still play this day? To this day? No. You don't play anymore? I don't play anymore. I coached for a few years when I was done playing. Love doing that, probably every bit as much as playing.

And, no, went back and played a little bit after, but got busy. I know, but for kids, jobs, careers. So got into golf. I'm a golfer now. Oh, my golf. Yeah. So. And of late, now pickleball.

But I hesitate to say that because everybody thinks that's an, you know, senior sport. And that annoys me. actually. What the hell does it matter if it's fun? Yeah, well. If I was in the lawn bowling, somebody can make fun of me for it, but if I'm having a good time doing it, what the hell does it matter? Yeah, if only I just did things for fun.

I just, I love to compete and that's kind of what drives me. It's not, yeah. Don't take my word fun not to have compete in it. Yeah, absolutely. That's true. Competing is fun. Competing is fun, right? Absolutely.

That's the best part of suiting up half the time is that. rivalry energy you get. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When you graduate, what did you want to do with life? Did you have big plans? I think that what you think you want to do when you're 18 and what you actually get to do

are probably two different things for many people. What did I want to do? I remember thinking I really probably wanted to be a phys ed teacher. of course, that was what I thought was where I should go because, of course, I lived to be in the gym. But, you know, that really wasn't where, you know, everybody said, well, no, you should go do this and you should go do this. And I guess I was easily influenced. So I started off, I went to university in commerce, found out pretty quickly that wasn't where I wanted to be and moved to education. and yeah, I didn't finish my university degree, something I kind of regret, but life takes twists and turns.

Where were you going to university? I was in Saskatoon, University of Saskatchewan. U.S. Yeah. Now, can you say to me again that line you just said about 18-year-olds? Well, me, I can only speak for me. I had an idea about what I should do in the world, but really was I all that clear about it. What was your idea?

Well, like I said, I wanted to do something in the sports world. And what, ironically, I think what I ended up spending a lot of my time on is working around, working with people. People fascinated me. I loved, like I think I alluded to that. I loved coaching, actually, probably as much as I loved playing. And then career-wise, did a lot of work in organizational development. and I did a lot of, I kind of did corporate training

and still do lots of work in leadership development. So I think probably what I thought I should do and what I'm, I think I'm doing what I should be doing, which is slightly different than my 18-year-old self thought what I should be doing. It's an interesting, the way you phrased it is an interesting thought, that's all. is what my brain went to is just at 18 you're so you think you're so old and you have the world by the

tail and then as you get a little older you look back and you go man we put a lot of emphasis on 18 being an adult and like you can think for yourself which is all good but you got a lot to learn absolutely now what is it about people that fascinates you so much well i think probably my sports background really help me learn how what an amazing sense of accomplishment it is to do something as a team to rally with others to meet your goal to and during the process you make amazing friends and connections and so kind of my I was always interested more in team sports than most other things and I enjoyed coaching and then when I got into the world of work I really enjoyed every opportunity I had to work with other people, project management, those types of things.

So my history and sports really did inform my career, not actually probably the way I otherwise would have thought it was going to. I didn't become a phys ed teacher. But you became a person who worked with leaders of companies? So, yeah, I worked for the federal government for quite a few years. and worked primarily in the employment field, worked as an employment counselor, project manager, got some amazing opportunities through that and started to learn more about organizational behavior.

Left the federal government, went into business with a longtime friend. They tell you never to do that, but we both went in with our eyes wide open and started a consulting company, essentially, where we did a lot of work recruiting physicians. We had a provincial contract in Saskatchewan, helping small communities and to recruit physicians, international physicians.

So some of my human resources background played in there. So in recruiting a physician, are you going overseas and like visiting these doctors? Nothing like that. No, no. We supported the health authorities in their recruitment efforts. So trying to help them line up, you know, when they're. had a visiting physician, what do you need to think about if your physician's coming to tour your community. We helped them get hooked into international recruiters if that was essential and did a lot

of work trying to link in our Saskatchewan train physicians into Saskatchewan opportunity. So it was an interesting contract. And how long did you do that for? Oh, I'm racking your brain now. Are now. Yeah, I'm probably upwards close to five years. Hmm. But of course, health, everything shifts. And at that point in time, there are 32 different health districts. And what do we have now?

I don't know. How many do we have now? We have Saskatchewan Health Authority. There's one. Oh, there's only one. Yeah. So at that time, there were 32 separate health districts. So why go to only one then?

It's not a question I can answer. What was the obvious things about 32? Was there like... I mean, it's pretty challenging. That's a lot of administration and a lot of, you know, and they needed to collaborate together at times and share services and support. So often you saw then that ultimately turned into fewer health authorities.

Right. So I don't remember the transition, but they went from 32 to... Down to one. But that was a process over time. Anyway, so that's... I did that for a while and then started to get a lot more into working with organized. I'm a trained mediator, so I started to work in the mediation field a bit,

figured out really soon into it that I would far rather work with organizations than in the family mediation side of things, and I'd much rather work with organizations before they needed a mediator as opposed to when they did. So when you say mediation, what pops into my mind, mind is me and you are in an argument and you're the media and then somebody sitting in between us just kind of meeting it guys be nice why don't we talk here that probably isn't exactly how it goes because i'm fair i've never been there but that's what you were doing yes but i didn't spend a lot of time doing that because like i said i figured out pretty soon i'd much rather work with groups and

organizations to set up processes that help them avoid the need for a mediation. So good conflict resolution processes, that type of thing was much more in keeping with what I was interested in doing. Solve the problem way before you get to this. Yeah. I can just imagine sitting in with family mediation. That must have been some, well, that's very personal. Well, and I didn't, I didn't do very much of that at all.

And, you know, then it very much became something that the legal field took on in collaborative law on that type of work. How did you meet your husband? You're a young lady, obviously. I did. I met him in Lloyd Minster. So I was at university, came home for the weekend and went out with a group of friends. And there he was. He was here, which is interesting because my husband's Irish, born and raised in double.

So he had family relations here and who had met him in Ireland and told him he shouldn't go to New Zealand like he was planning on. Instead he should come to Canada to Lloydminster. Don't go to maybe one of the most beautiful countries on earth. Come to the cold, windy one. He said, yeah, he was going to come for a couple of years. Well, you know, it's more than a couple of years later. What was it about him? I think I was, you know, pretty fascinated with the fact that, you know, he came from a different, you wouldn't think different culture, but absolutely a different culture. His experiences were very different from mine, and we approached the world somewhat differently, and that was fascinating. I got to, I'm curious now.

When you say you approach the world differently, how so? Well, I just, none of the, you know, it's interesting. you meet somebody who's not from where you grew up, you have no histories together. So you get to create it together. And that was very, I found that attractive. And of course, you know, he was handsome and all those other things too. How long did you guys date before you got married? 18 months. 18 months. And then he popped the big question. Oh, we were married within 18 months.

Married within 18 months. Yeah. married another moment I've said to my children don't do that don't even think about that yeah 18 months you guys are married yep so when did he pop the big question oh probably seven or eight months after we met yep really what did your parents think about that uh well it was actually my father had passed away by then so it was just my mom she yeah really liked him. So she did kind of look at me like, okay.

But, you know, what do you say when you're... What can you say? Yeah, what can you say? So, yeah, no. Clearly it worked out 37 plus years later. And I always... 37 years of marriage, and you've seen some things. Mm-hmm.

What can you tell people about marriage? that maybe you're into their first year. I'm going into my seventh year. What advice can you give us? Oh gosh, I don't think I'm the one to give that kind of advice. I don't know. I mean, I mean. You got 37 years of experience, right?

I think that, I often say I think I grew up with my husband. In some ways, right? We were young when we got married. So we learned some things together. And for us, I think what's important is that you share the same values base. What's important, you know, all of us have four or five key values. And I think it's really important to share those. What's important?

How do you make decisions if you can't? What's your filter? So make decisions as a couple. Your filter has to be the same. That's interesting. I like that. The filter thing, I've never, you're smiling at me. I've never heard, I've never, I've heard it said maybe different ways.

Maybe that's what I'm thinking. But that communication of figuring out those filters and how the other person thinks early on is a very smart thing to do because later on in life, after maybe kids and other things are in there, if you find out one of the filters doesn't align, that can be a very hazardous thing, shall we say? I feel very, I mean, my husband John's been very supportive of all the things I wanted to do. And we've both explored our various interests sometimes together, sometimes differently. I'm into different things than he is at times, but that's okay. I think it was important for both of us to have our own identities and our own interests,

as well as obviously some shared ones. That's important, too. Yeah. Well, you got, everyone thinks you want to be in the same room as the person you love for seven nights a week, 365, never leaving each other's side. But the truth of the matter is, you always need a little bit of extra time, or you need your own time, you need your own interests, but you need some common. So that there are the nights or many a night that you're together because obviously that ain't happening, right? Like I'm not trying to give myself marriage counseling here, but I think I think people just need to find out what works for them and for some people they

They can do that piece for us. It was really good that we both I think I know for me personally having particular interests that were mine were important to me. We've talked about different things. You've brought up different things when I asked the questions and sent them off an email. You called them pivot points.

Can we talk about some of the pivot points in your life? Sure. Where would you like to start with that? Because you know the pivot points. What have been some of the biggest pivot points in your life? Maybe how have they changed your life? How have they made you pivot? It's really interesting when you get sent a questionnaire that says, think about your life.

I mean, we don't often think about our own lives or I don't. I'm usually busy doing other things. So it took me a minute to kind of think, hmm, what have been those points in my life that have really shifted? And I think the first point would have been, I mean, I think as an 18-year-old when I lost my dad, that was a massive change for me. He was my kind of, he was a sportsman in the family. And, you know, I was raised. I had a sister.

There's just, I was the only one that was interested in sports, and it was a special bond. My dad and I had, and he was a ball player and of all coach, and that was my thing. And I was so into that then. So, you know, it was a shock to the system had been kind of carrying along with. Life was pretty rosy.

not much could go wrong, right? So that was kind of a moment where I figured out I wasn't immune to all the challenging things that happened to everybody else. They're just as likely to happen to me. And so that was interesting. We made it through that. And then I started to think about kind of moving forward. John and I got married and we're both working and long came time to start to think about having children. and our first child was born in 1988.

And I don't, I, you have all sorts of ideas about your children before they're born. And so then Aaron was born, and we realized that she had an intellectual disability. We realized that pretty quickly, because she has Down syndrome, and it's a crue. chromosomal thing, so they know very early right away. And I think that that was probably probably one of the, all of my children have shaped and changed my life. Absolutely having, and I have three, and they're all three amazingly wonderful young people.

Of course they are. No bias there at all. But I think Aaron really made us start to think about what. what was important in life. And when you asked me the question earlier about marriage and filter and values, I think probably my language, that language around values

is what Aaron gave us. Because to that point in time, like I said, other than the loss of my father, which was a moment for me, I'd pretty much got whatever I wanted out of this world, so to speak. you know, got the job I wanted, made all the sports teams I wanted, had a house, had a husband,

had a, you know, good job. We were just on the pathway, right? And all of a sudden, this little person comes along who's going to struggle to be on that pathway. And we had to face some really hard things about having to acknowledge that the rest of the world might not see her as we saw her. we saw her as a beautiful, wonderful child, like we saw the next two children that followed her. But that necessarily wasn't how the rest of the world was going to see her. So we had to figure out, or I had to figure out, really quickly on in my parenting journey, that if I was going to value all the things that I'd valued to that point in time,

or what I was going to think what was most important in life was winning and achieving and all those types of things, how was I going to be Aaron's mom? Because she will achieve and win, but not on the same context that I was thinking about. Does that make any sense? It makes perfect sense. So I think that really sent, I know my life in a different, in a different direction. And I would, I think it's, I would like to think it's a far better direction. I would like to think that I would have got there eventually. But I'm not sure. I can't say that with all confidence because things did shift for me.

And how would you ever know? And how would you ever know? And I'm not sure anything would have made me dig as deep as being Aaron's mom. I had to dig pretty deep. If I wanted her to have the life that, I mean, I want her to have a good life. And what is a good life? What is a good life? Well, that's the same thing probably you and I would say is a good life.

Friends, family. an opportunity to contribute to the world, an opportunity to pursue something you're passionate about, like all the things that make enliven me I want for her. And so I think I had to figure out pretty early on. That meant that I need to really think about that. I never noticed as a child growing up if people with disabilities were present.

it was a different time then. Not that different a time then. I'm not that old. But I had to figure out that if I wanted the world to change, if I wanted society to change, well, kind of the buck stops here. So I had to do some pretty big soul searching about how we needed to live our life.

If we wanted Aaron to have a good life, we needed to model that and we needed to be to think about. How do we give her every opportunity to get that good life. What was some of, or maybe what was one of the hurdles that you didn't see coming that you had to bowl through, jump over, break down? You know, and well, one thing about Lloydminster,

I was really lucky because there were some pretty amazing families that had gone before us. And Lloydminster has a long history of, being pretty inclusive. So there was the Lloydminster Association for Community Living existed when Aaron was born. It's now inclusion Lloydminster. And so met some influential people, Zui Said being one of the first one, Evelyn Nelson being one of the kind of pioneers of this, who really, I was lucky. I had some parent mentors who, when I'd say, you know, come out of the blue with some wild idea, they'd go, well, really let's sit down and think about that.

and, you know, why wouldn't Aaron go to the same play school everybody else goes to? And why wouldn't, you know, she should have to go to school with her peers and in her regular neighborhood, all those types of things. So I had lots of great guidance. But so I would say that I feel pretty fortunate that Lloyd Minster is a pretty open community and has been great in terms of. I'm now currently I've got that being Aaron's mom got me very involved in with the non-profit advocacy kind of work for people with intellectual disabilities and so I've been president of

Inclusion Alberta twice and I'm currently the president of inclusion Canada and so from that viewpoint I get to see what things are like across the country and nowhere's perfect. Lloyd Minister's not perfect either but we're pretty like. here to have have a history and a real sense of community that's made it a much more inclusive community than many others. And you're seeing that from across Canada. You can even see it within our own country. Oh, absolutely. There's a lot of diversity in our country around what's possible for people and because of where they, I mean, leadership is everything. So I go back to that whole piece about leadership. Leadership is everything. The values people use to lead are evident.

in the communities that we live in. Can we go back to your father for just a quick stint? Sure. I just wonder, thinking, if there was some questions that you always wondered about your dad that you would have loved to have asked them. Oh, my goodness. Not anything, it doesn't have to be anything,

I don't mean anything to pull tears or anything like that. I just, in doing this, I didn't. get to talk to your kids before we come in and my parents are both still alive so i've i've got to sit down with a dad and i got to do mom still and i get to do it right like where you just like pick the brain about different things because as we get older you start thinking about things like geez that math doesn't add up i wonder what that all was about right like and then you can actually ask him and then record it so the reason i ask that is is there anything you'd wanted to ask your father about his childhood or anything because then i can just reframe it on to you ma'am

because your kids are like you. Just like my kids one day will be like me and we'll want to know what life was. The only problem is my kids are going to hear my voice an awful lot on the airwaves. But if there was anything that you know, you've always wondered about your father and wanted to ask them,

maybe there's some way we can translate it into some questions for yourself. Yeah, you know, what's interesting is my dad was a World War II vet and he contracted to very, tuberculosis when he was overseas, and of course that got him sent home. And he spent seven years in a sanatorium, two years in a body cast because he had tuberculosis. So, you know, when I think of that as a young person, and he was young, because he signed up before he was legally able to,

I would have asked him what got him through that. You know, and when you don't, when I would like to know now what, how did he make it through that? How did he not give up? So that would be, and he didn't, obviously. He got out and carried on with his life and married a beautiful woman and, you know, had, and had a family and life was good. Well, I see in you some of the gumption he must have had. Well, I would like to know what he would have said, what got him through, because I know what kind of has gotten us through a bit, right?

So you alluded to it before. I mean, yeah, our life, I don't think it's been any more challenging than other people's. It's just our life, it's not a secret. You know what I mean? Like, you know, when you look at our family photo, you can see that, you know, Aaron, you can see what's different about us. You can see, you can suppose where our challenges go. I mean, Aaron and John were in a bad accident in 2004, and that shifted John and our family's life hugely.

you know, he can't do what he did before because he's limited and he has to, he uses a wheelchair. So I would, you know, and I know kind of what's got us through that. So what has gotten you through that? Well, I think when I talked about Aaron and having to figure out what was really important in this life and what we wanted for her, what we wanted for her was a, normal, typical, ordinary life. And so when faced with another situation that could take us off that pathway, we knew really how important it was to go back to normal, typical ordinary.

Because that's where the beauty lies. In our normal, typical ordinary life, we have friends that enrich that life and family, and we're part of our community and we're contributing and, you know, that we knew how important and precious and special was, was that just ordinary typical life. And so I think Aaron really, being her parents, gave us an incredible gift that I'd say saved us. We knew what we needed to get back to, and we knew how to get back to it. And we knew, what advice to disregard and what advice to embrace and we trust it in ourselves. And so, you know, from there, we just moved forward because what else are you going to do?

No, I think it's really, I don't know if I have the word, honestly, Robin. I'm trying to search for it. But I think it's, you know, when you think about your father, it's different by all accounts, way different. Yep. But you wonder what gets them through and I just hear what you're talking about and I go, you probably just figured something out early on, just like yourself. You know, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree or whatever you want for an analogy. But I mean, if this happens to 10 other families, who knows how they react? Different people have different strengths. And obviously one of yours that you learned early on stems probably from something around your parents.

because they've taught you something that is very instilled in there and I mean it's it's a very I want I don't know if admirable is the right word but trait and I think in our world some days you just got to get up and get going again and and where you go and people really like to dwell on things for a very long time and use certain substances and everything else to try and hide away from that pain, so to speak. Well, I think, again, I'm going to go back to you. I just think I feel really fortunate in the context of the people that I've bumped into who I've had the privilege of knowing who've pushed me and challenged me and nudged me.

And I think that what's sad is that when we see. people who don't have the opportunity or who don't recognize that the beauty lines in the ordinary and typical. So they accept different. I think it diminishes our lives. Our lives are the value of our lives is usually, you know, we equate to just typical ordinary lives. chance to have a home and be a family. What do you think people then think is a beautiful life? If you think it's ordinary and people don't think that. I mean, I have other, like, you know,

I really like to win my, the odd golf tournament and do all those types of just teasing. I mean, I just, I don't know. I think it's really about a values discussion. I really do. I think that we don't spend enough time. thinking about what's really important. I think it's easy to get caught up in chasing something that other people think is important. I think that's, you know,

obviously it's, you know, we all want to have a decent standard of living, so making an income and doing those things and we all, you know, everybody has their own maybe individual pursuit within that, and there's not. Nothing wrong with having those goals, but I'm just thinking things like that make your life good are actually about, you know, being healthy, having friends and relationships with people who make you feel better about yourself or good about yourself, a few people that, you know, give you the odd nudge when you need it too, and people who love you, that's really important. That's what makes our life good, I think. That's my opinion.

No, I think it's a good opinion. I think it's easy, though, to get caught up in looking at whether it's over the fence at other things or something beyond the horizon that you really want that probably doesn't mean a whole lot, right? But you think you want what's over there when, you know, I've had, it was Ray Ferraro once tell me, be where your feet are. Yeah. And when he said that, you know, 2020. has made us has made us all stay not what you you don't have to be where your feet are you can be you can be

in today's world you can be on the other side of the world i mean it's pretty easy but 2020 you hear more and more a lot of people saying you know for all the bad it's done it has forced you to stay at home within your household around your family etc etc spend more time and it seems you know speak for myself it was getting busier and busy and less time with family and doing little things. And this weekend, we went and bought a Christmas tree together and we put it up and we decorated it and the kids loved it. And I remember as a kid, one of my favorite times of year

was getting all the decorations out after we had the Christmas tree go down. And for a while there, we were doing that, but it wasn't like a day, you know, like you could make a day of it. And there's something special about that. And that's what I think you're talking about. And I think we just, in today's world, it's so easy to get lost in how busy you can be because there's so many channels coming in. Just think of your phone.

I mean, what I love coming about in here, Robin is, is the phones go off and it's just this, right? Yeah. It's one-on-one. And I think what you're talking about is being where your feet are. And there's a beauty in that, a real simplicity in it. Yeah, I mean, don't get me wrong. I mean, this year, I mean, my feet, I feel like they've been cemented to the front doorstep. And that's not usual and that's okay.

But yeah, you're right. I think 2020 is certainly given us an opportunity to reflect a little bit about what's important and realize some of the stuff we were doing wasn't really all that important. What's one of the things you've, in 2020 you've got back to? Is there anything that you've, you know, not being able to go anywhere, not being able to, you know, at times, I mean, have anybody over your house, right? I mean, Saskatchewan, five people in the house, right? Like, it's not like you can have a big, I don't know, I can't even think of a game night or whatever.

You can't do it right now. Try living in Alberta where you can't have anybody. That's right. There you go. Oh, what if, well, I think one thing that it's done is, I mean, I used to travel a lot, do lots. you know, especially with my work with inclusion Canada, inclusion Alberta, that kind of thing, realized how much unnecessary travel actually was there. So that's, I think, given me more time to, you know, maybe it's, you know, be where your feet are,

bloom where you're planted or whatever, to start to... Blueprint, I like that. Explore, you know, build more homegrown things. things to to spend more time with friends when you can have them to your house. You know, you can. You can do more things with your family. You talked about the Christmas tree, the idea of, you know, okay, well, I guess we're going to, we can't have everybody, you know, can't have a bunch of friends over to play cards or do

whatever we're going to do. Let's watch a movie together. Let's do this together. So, you know, it's, you have to look for, you know, some of the positives and all this, I guess. Typical Lloyd Minster. It was, I think it was yesterday. there was two ladies out on their driveway sitting socially distanced with like 12 blankets on them park is everything drinking i don't know

hot chocolate what does it matter having a conversation i had chuckle because i mean yeah welcome to the prairies in the middle of the winter yeah absolutely we haven't we haven't touched on lower shannon farms oh yeah that that obviously is a i don't know big passion would that be the right to words put in there? Well, yeah. So how did how let's start how did it? How did it come about? So oh well my mom was a Williams and she had two bachelor brothers who never got married who had didn't have any children. So my sister and I were the next generation. Neither one of us overly interested and then I married an Irishman who I thought you know here's this guy born and raised in Dublin, but what does he want to do? He wants to be a farmer. I laughed at that. I thought, how did this happen? But his family are all, his mother's family are all farmers in the west of Ireland.

And so his best experiences growing up were when he was able to be on their family farm. So when we got married, even before we were married, he started helping out my uncles at harvest and seeding and with the you know they had a small herd of cattle and just over time got more and more involved in that and then you know they were getting older and John had ambitions to take it over I'm not the farmer I call myself the infrastructure support which usually means if somebody needs to run into the town to get something or or you know they aren't always all that keen on my organizational advice shall we just say that i'm just saying with a bit of a grin on my face um but yeah and he was always interested in in um really had a

passion for local food and how do you how do you grow things that are sustainable and responsible and all that kind of stuff. And between, so we decided to diversify the operation and put up the greenhouse. And then our second child, Kelsey, was a dietitian by training. She isn't working as a dietitian now, but she has a passion and interest in food. And she came on board and she's heavily involved, both her and her husband, in working on the farm. And Aaron also has her own division of doing,

she's making herbal teas and selling herbal teas. And that's what. You should have brought some of those in today. I know. I said it's really ironic. Because we are all hardcore coffee drinkers, poor Aaron, who really loves tea. She's doing the herbal teas.

We figured out pretty early on she needed to find another group of people to test your tea with because we are not the best. But yeah, so it's kind of cool. My side of the family, my kids are fifth generation farmers. I didn't think I'd ever say that. I didn't think that was, but I'm really glad that that's where at. I'm pretty proud of what they're doing. And it's pretty cool.

Well, from being out from that way, I remember when that greenhouse went up. And I remember thinking, what is that? And then when the lights stay on pretty much, what is it? like, I don't know, six months of the year? They have to go on usually in November because we aren't getting enough daylight, so, yeah. What's maybe, you know, from the runner of the group for that, what's one of the cool things that have come about it, though,

because I assume that's a huge learning curve for your entire family. You know, cattle's one thing, growing crops is another, to having an indoor greenhouse that grows vegetables and everything year-round. assume there's a some like well a learning curve just like oh yeah it's a massive learning curve and we try to do it without we use organic methods so on the vegetables to try so that's been another piece I mean it's it's been really the learning curve it's a curve it's a vertical line

actually, that sometimes feels like a ladder that we fall off of every once in a while. But it's been quite the learning. I think the positive out of it is how much interest there is in the community about where your food comes from now. So that's been fantastic. We're incredibly grateful that our business has survived COVID. We were lucky enough to have an online platform in December of 2019 to sell kind of gift boxes, right? Because we do, we try really hard not to waste anything. So everything, if, you know, for example, if you produce a lot of tomatoes and they're not sold whole,

they get turned into salsa or they get turned into brachette or so we try to you know diversify our product offering but luckily we had an online platform that we were selling gift boxes through selling our canned goods etc and so we were able to actually convert that into selling all our everything we produce which of course is quite diverse now from pre-made meals to we direct market beef post pork, turkey, chicken, lamb. How many people you got work in there? Probably hovers around the 12 full-time equivalent right now. So it's a busy place.

Jack of all trades to be able to do cattle, to switch over and create some tasty brachetta? Well, that's my, you know, that's Kelsey's passion. she's you know very very interested interested and good at the food side of things and John's history I mean his history was he's went to college for animal husbandry specifically dairy farming and but that never came to fruition not that he didn't think about it if you could just see the frown on my face but you know so he was really interested in diversifying that way. So it's been an adventure. It's been an adventure. You know, with kids in their

formidable years, so let's, from when they're too, well, I hack, born to 18, what were some of the things as parents you really worried about? Like, you always hear things about drinking, drugs, that type of thing, what were your worries? What were your concerns that kept you up late at night, or maybe they didn't keep you up late at night? But what were some of the things you worried about for your children through those? Well, I think every parent where it's, where worries about, you know, when they're teenagers and they start to be influenced by many more people than just you. I mean, I think when your kids are little, you have way more influence than they do when they're teenagers, you hope you've given them the skills they need to discern right from wrong,

a good idea, from a bad idea. So it's always those things and that they have, you know, a sense of responsibility that every choice they make has a consequence. So be prepared. Every choice you make makes a difference. I think, um, Yeah, it was mostly about, you know, I worried about their safety for different reasons, right? And where, like, Mr. was, you know, there's affluence doesn't always bring good things. You know, like, I think life was pretty complicated for them as teenagers, more so than it would have been for me. but I just I wanted them to be good people I wanted them to have good values and to care about other people and yeah over your life 2020 like we've talked about has been probably a year that will go down as

for centuries they'll look back at 2020 I would assume I this has been one of the strangest things to wrap a person's head around and I assume you're a little bit of you're a older than I am. You've never seen anything like this before. No. What other, what other, what other, what other, what other life events or world events have happened in your time, good or bad, that stick out to you? Well, I think the, the only other event that I could say would have the impact that this had. I mean, there's, I think, have Canadian history, because of advocacy work, the, you know, Charter of Rights and Freedoms is pretty amazing kind of thing. That's a neat political thing that happened.

But in terms of anything on the scale of 2020, I think 9-11 was kind of another one of those moments where I couldn't imagine that would ever happen. That was so far out of my realm of thinking, it was unimaginable. And that's kind of what I think 2020's been for many of us. I guess if we were in the, obviously, if I was more involved in the medicine field,

or an infectious disease specialist, it would be less unimaginable. But I have to say 2020 for me was who would have amount. I've said that so many times I cannot say it. Who could have imagined? And that's how I felt about 9-11. I just was stunned. I never imagined that was even possible.

It was beyond what was possible. So that's kind of what I equate 2022. You think 2021 is going to be any better? Yeah, you have to. I do. I do. I do. I'm worried about the long-lasting effects of 2020. I think, I think, I hope we're smart enough to learn some lessons from 2020. I'm not always confident we are, but I hope we are. I think if nothing else, I think in my advocacy world, I think of we do lots of work to around inclusion, which is about creating communities where people, belong and you belong because we know that being connected to other people keeps us healthier. Well 2020's shown the whole world what it feels like to be socially

isolated. I mean look at the challenges we're having and that very much for people with intellectual disabilities is often one of their most major challenge. So my hope is when we come out of 2020 into 2021 we're from far more conscious about what's really important, about our connection to each other, about, you know, how we support and look after each other. And personally, I think the tragedy that's happened in the long-term care facilities in this country is horrifying, but it wasn't like it wasn't predictable. So hopefully we learned something about how to do things differently and to think about things differently. Here's a fun one for you. On that note, yeah.

Well, to tag on to it, you hope we continue to get better. I think one of the things I've learned in life is every year that goes by, I just continue to learn. And the day that stops, I'm probably in the grout. And I always use the analogy, not the analogy, I always use the visual that if I could look back through a, a top. tunnel, so to speak, and see myself every five years that I've lived. At 30, I'm 34, at 30, I thought I was brilliant. At 25, I thought it was brilliant. At 18, I certainly thought I was brilliant. But at all those times looking back five years previous, I was, man, I was an idiot. Like, why did I think that? And I, all I'm starting to realize right now is, man, I don't,

I don't think I have a grasp, like, I have a grasp on certain things, core values, sure. family and friends, I get all that. But I think, man, there's just so much to learn. Like, there's so much to learn. And nobody has to learn it by tomorrow morning by any stretch of imagination. But the instant you turn your brain off to allowing information to come in that could possibly help, the problem with today's world is there's just so much information coming in that it's only, almost overwhelming at times.

Actually, I know it is overwhelming at times. And you have to kind of like channel it. But in saying that, you still got to continue to experience and learn every day. That's how you get better as people, right? You learn, oh, that didn't work. And that's why that didn't work. Right? Or that worked really well.

And this is why we need to continue to do this and continue to build. And one of the things I love about coming in here on Sundays and being able to do exactly this is I get people who are old. older than me and they always go yeah well I don't got anything to tell or I don't got it and I go screw that like I hope when I'm I'm you know you're not in your 80s doesn't this is not where I was going but when I'm in my 80s somebody comes and sits across me and wants to know what I've experienced in life not that I'm a genius but 80 years not 80 years we won't 29 and a half thank you but years of

experience there's something there and to impart that wisdom just alone on me and then whoever else at some point gets to listen to it, I think is like invaluable. And you can do that to any of the older generation because you've lived through different experiences. You know, at 9-11, for instance, I was in high school and I have a vivid memory of it because teacher walked in, said shut up, all you shut up. Like, I mean, like, and we're all like, nobody said that. I mean, even then nobody said that.

rolled in a TV, hooked it up, and we watched that all day long, didn't do a stitch of work, but nobody said a word, right? Somebody five years older than me is going to have a different viewpoint of that, younger, older, whatever it is, but that's still a big event, and everybody saw it from their viewpoint. I mean, the people that are older than myself, like, you got to live through the 70s. The 70s must have been, you hear about it, you hear about the 80s. It's funny, though, you know, I don't, so it is really interesting when, so I'm 58 now. I wasn't trying to date.

No, no, it's fine. I don't care. I'm glad to be 58. The alternative kind of sucks, so I'm 58. Yay. I want to be 59 next year. I think that it is interesting when you think about. what you've experienced, but I don't feel any different now than I did when, I mean,

I don't feel any different now. When I go out to golf, I think I'm 21. Absolutely. I'm going to hit that ball as far down the center as I possibly can. When I go and play sports, I don't play any different than I did. I limp a bit more and there's the odd, you know, compromise I have to make, but I don't feel any different. But that's a good thing. It's always interesting to think back on that. And that's what I say to my kids. Like, think now about what's important in life and use that as your filter. How do you filter in all this information?

Is that a good idea or is a bad idea? And how are you going to judge what's good and what's bad if you don't know what's important to you in your life? Yeah, that's really interesting. I think that I could probably sit and think on that for a while to be completely honest. It is interesting, you know, when people start asking you about your life and you think, oh my goodness, am I that? What do you mean about my life?

I don't feel any different. Yeah, I think, you know, it's funny. Being as this is, I don't know, you know, with the podcast and these, I'm probably at 150, 160, I don't know what it is, something like that. Yeah. I get that an awful lot. right like I'm not that like I'm not that whole I don't know why you want to talk to me about my life and I've had people say I'm not on my deathbed like I'm not coming you know I don't want to come

I got lots to yeah I'm gonna shake things up yet yeah but this is what I told my so I went and interviewed my father-in-law my um we went down the states and I was saying him before we started Mel's from Minnesota so we went down and I sat and I said I want to interview and he says he's only 60 I think he's 64 apologies Dave if I got that wrong anyways I think he's 64 And he goes, I don't want to do this. And what I said to him was this. Listen, someday my kids are going to be older. And you're not going to be 64 anymore.

You're probably going to be 84. You're going to be whatever. And maybe before then something terrible happens. Maybe not. Maybe there's still the same guy. But in the inevitability at some point of wherever it is, they can hear who you were. And I think that's what we're doing. Now, obviously, we're trying to, we're not targeting the 25-year-old.

We're targeting the people who are, have been here and seen some things. But you have in your mind still and being able to just converse and be like, I'm not that old. Like, screw up. It's good. Right? But you think about it, right? Someday, whether it's your grandkids or it's your own children, I've had different people say at 50 that, you know, I don't know. I don't even thought to have talked to my parents at 80, right?

But now that it's there, they can go and listen to what they, And that's what I think we're trying to do. I don't think you have to be 95 to get interviewed about your life. I don't think you want to interview a 25-year-old. I don't know if there's much there to say just yet. You never know. But you never know. I tell you what, if you took an interview at 25 and 30 and 35 and had it all the way up,

it'd be a really interesting little project for then your kids to come along and be able to. I would love to go back and hear my parents at 20 or 25. My parents by 30 had five children, and I'm going like, how many, like, was that fun? Like, but in saying that, we just had, we had five children, well, we got three, and then we had her brother's kids over before the lockdowns. So we had five kids four and under at the house. Let me tell you, you don't need to go anywhere for entertainment. You got to hold on, but it's a lot of fun.

Yeah, absolutely. But now I'm getting long wind, and all I'm saying is I don't think, I really enjoy. getting to see into an active brain and how they look at the world because, you know, I just keep coming back to like the U.S. election, for instance. How can they be that divided? All you got to do is come in this room and talk to 50 different people and see how their brains work and go, how do you get 50 people even on the same? Like all 50 of them to go one way.

Absolutely. That's a very difficult thing. Mm-hmm. Now, I want a fun one for you. So I was looking down my question list. If you could go into a house party, okay, and you're looking back at yourself. So you walk in the house party,

and there you are everywhere, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, all the way up to where you are. Which one would you want to sit down with? Which Robin would you be like, I want to talk to that lady for 15 minutes? Well, boy, no, that's a question. Well, I think the obvious question is I'd want to talk to the 20-year-old, I think, probably. I don't know.

I mean, I think you'd say, the problem is when you're thinking about your own life, right, you'd think about what you'd want to tell your younger self to get ready for. What would you tell your younger self? What do you think you'd be like, listen, You need to, or would you, would you try and tamper in it anyway? No, I think, you know, I think my 20-year-old self would be the one I would say the same things I probably tried to say to my children. I would want to say to the 20-year-old self, you know, filter out the stuff that doesn't matter and figure out what does matter and pursue that. And, you know, think about that.

I mean, I'm sure that's what my parents tried to do for me. I mean, obviously, I think they, you know, they, I mean, my mom is still alive and is probably one of the most important people in my life. She's just an absolute rock and astounds me every day. But I hope that, you know, they tried to say those things to me. And I would want to go back and say that to myself, I think. It's just filter out the noise because the noise doesn't matter. and the noise usually stresses you out for no reason. It's good advice.

In the old bucket list, what do you got left? What's one of the things you haven't done yet that you're like, geez, you know, we should really get to that? Well, only because it's like COVID reality, I love to travel. So, John and I like to spend time in Ireland, and on my bucket list is at some point in time. I'd love the opportunity to actually live there for a little bit. Live in Ireland.

Yeah, I don't think permanently, but I'd like to, you know, I spend, we go and visit and they're there. It's just I'm pretty fascinated by the culture. Yeah. What is, I've never been to Ireland before. So what is one of the things in Ireland that is just like when you walk in, or when you fly over and you walk out of the airport or you drive through the countryside, whatever it is for you, what is the one thing that sticks out?

Well, we don't spend any time in Dublin. When we fly to Ireland, we leave immediately and get out to the country, to the rural areas, which is where I think the real area, like it just feels much more probably grounded, but that's because I live in a small center and that's what I'm. I think it's just a really, the history. And that's the one thing I learned. We're so young in Western Canada, right? Like my grandfather arrived. here the year after the Bark columnist. And that makes, you know, you're next to the pioneer and you go to a, you go to Ireland and there's thousands of years of history. And I, you know, and that, that to me is pretty cool about it. It's kind of a mystical place and just such a history. And it's pretty tragic history in some places. But I just, I mean, that's, that's on my bucket list.

Your final one. What is the biggest advancement you've seen in your lifetime? Oh, tech. Tech, I think. Well, seen in my lifetime. So from my perspective of just big picture things, I mean, the impact of technology on our lives and what we can do. I mean, my phone, my smartphone, my whole life's on my smartphone.

I don't, I don't, it's really the only thing I really need, you know, kind of idea. That, that piece for me is astounding still. And I think, as a community and as a province and as a country, when I look back, I think for the history of people with intellectual disabilities. And we've really, there's a long way to go. I don't want to make it sound like, boy, we've a wrong. because we haven't as a country by any stretch of the imagination. But we're, and it's not as fast as we want it, but things are improving. And again, I go back to that post-COVID.

My hope is we start to think a little bit more about how important community is for everyone, absolutely everyone. Well, is there anything else that I've left off the docket? We've talked an awful lot about everything. But if there's anything you want, if I didn't mention my son, I will never hear the end of this, you know, talked about both my daughters and their role and that kind of thing. And I just was sitting here thinking, boy, Connor listens to this. He's going to be mom. So, you know, I think I've talked a little bit about how all my kids have impacted my life. And yeah, absolutely, he has too. He was my sports guy. Not one of my children played fastball. Not one. Couldn't convince them?

I think that says more about me than it does about them. Neither one, none of them really want to ever come golfing with me either. I think that's something I have to think about. But anyways, yeah. Was he your third? Yep. Well, we'll blow Connor up for a second here. What was going from?

So first, one child. is life changing. There's no getting around. Absolutely, yeah. Going to two is changing in its own way, but as we all know, going to three is just a whole new ballgame. It is. The world's made for family of four.

If you could go back to when you had your third child, what was some of the biggest, not biggest, it's not the right word. What was some of the thoughts maybe that ran through your head, having three children. How busy were you? I remember saying to my husband, that's it. No more are we hauling these kids out of the house every morning to go to a sitter as we go to work because, of course, we both, we lived out northeast of Lloydminster and both worked full time. And yeah, I said, that's it. We've got to figure that out differently. But yeah. So that was a big change. Lots was a big

change. Connor's been, I mean, all three of my kids are unique and he's got his own perspective on the world and I'd love to spend time with him and see where his life's going. He's in the East Coast right now, so I'm living a bit of a different lifestyle. What is he doing out in the East Coast? He is doing his master's in civil engineers. Yeah. He's got his degree in environmental, he's an engineer, environmental engineer, and he's doing his master's. Does it ever, when, as your kids grow older and really start to have opinions, does it ever shock you? Like, how did that come from us? And I don't mean that in a bad way. I just mean that in like an opinionated, how? How? Well, in our household, nobody's shocked that there's a

opinions. Nobody's shocked that there's opinions. And when our son-in-law became part of the family, I think at one point in time, I watched him standing back from the rest of us because we are having a raucous debate. And we all are, if you look at conflict management, we're all probably come from the same orientation, which is win or lose. So we were, We're all like having a raucous debate. I don't even know what it would have been about. And Ryan just stood back and was like looking at us with his eyes wide open, like, what is with these people?

So I kind of laugh at that. I mean, my kids all have strong opinions about the way things should be and I wouldn't have it any other way. Well, thank you for coming in and sitting down with me. It's been an enjoyable hour and a half. Wow. Yeah, an hour and a half. It's been fun.

Thank you. You bet. Hey folks, thanks for joining us today. If you just stumbled on the show, please click subscribe. Then scroll to the bottom and rate and leave a review. I promise it helps. Remember, every Monday and Wednesday, we will have a new guest sitting down to share their story. The Sean Newman podcast is available for free on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,

and wherever else you get your podcast fix. Until next time. Hey, Kainters. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I'm going to be honest. I'm going to be taking a break. from the little segments after the episode's done here until I'm back from holidays. I take off this weekend and I'm gone for a few weeks heading down to see Mel and the kids

and the in-laws. And so I'm going to make sure I streamline this as much as possible. We're not going to skip a beat every Monday, Wednesday. You will be having a new episode out and I'm excited about it. But for the time being, until I get back, we're just going to streamline them as much as possible and ensure there's content and ensure that you've got some episodes that I think you're going to like coming up here. And when we get back, I'll be firing on all cylinders again. So I hope everybody has a great week.

Like I say, we're going to catch up to you Monday, Monday, a new episode, new guest, Wednesday, everything keeps going. but these little end segments are going to disappear here for about two or three weeks and then I'll be back filling your ear about where the champ is and whether or not he's golfing or just drinking beer at the lake. All right. So we will catch up to you guys Monday.