No more training wheels

We took the training wheels off Jude's bike this week... He was off on his own on the first try.

Whitewater Rafting on the Gauley River

This weekend, I went Whitewater Rafting in West Virginia with some of the guys in our church. What a blast! (The guys above from left to right are: me, Shaun, Bob, Blair, Brett, Jennings & Taylor.) We rafted the Lower Middle Gauley River which had several class III rapids and also several class IV & class V's. I did Jump Rock, about a 20-ft cliff, into the Gauley which was excellent. I was able to sit in the front seat for half the trip. All eight of us on the raft were able to jump out on the swimming rapids and float down for about 1/2 mile.



I took some beautiful pictures while out there... however, digital cameras and white water rapids are a combination doomed for failure. I thought I was prepared; I had the camera in a zip-loc baggie, but the water seeped through half-way through the rapids and the camera was dripping. I was able to salvage the memory card from it, so all the shots I took to that point were saved. So, could we have a moment of silence for my Sony digital camera that has brought memories to my family for the last five years?

-sigh-


That's me & Jennings above, and below is the last picture I took with my ill-fated camera. It may not look like much, but the rapids past the big rock in the center of the picture was the point where the water got into it. If you think, 'What rapids? Water looks a little calm to me!' you are correct. The only time I had to take pictures was when we were in between rapids. If I had shot any pictures of when we were in the middle of the Class III's, IV's, or V's my camera would have been tanked from the beginning. :) If you want to see some rapids footage, check out this website, its a few action shots of our group on the Gauley. I don't know how long these pictures will be up on that website, so I won't be surprised if the link is broken after a week or so.

Image seven-thousand five-hundred... I guess I won't be posting any 'new' photos until we buy a new one. Until then, I have plenty that I can post.

2007 Fantasy Football Draft Complete

I just got done with a 4-hour draft for the fantasy football league I am in. I made this logo for my team about 10 years ago and still use it.

For those of you interested in these sorts of things, here are the players I drafted by position:

QB: Donovan McNabb (PHI), Brett Favre (GB), & Tarvaris Jackson (MIN)
RB: Brian Westbrook (PHI), Edgerin James (ARI), Vernand Morecy (GB), Chris Brown (TEN), & Chris Henry (TEN)
WR: Anquan Bolden (ARI), Plaxico Burress (NYG), Joey Galloway (TB), & Greg Jennings (GB)
TE: Ben Walston (NE)
K: Jeff Wilkins (STL)
DEF: San Diego Chargers

Not a bad draft considering it was a keeper league.

I'm sure this season will be full of frustration and bad moves like they always are. I always seem to bench the guys who go off and play the guys who lay an egg...

Kerrigan's First Day of Kindergarten

Doesn't it just seem a few months ago when I posted a picture Jude's first day of Kindergarten????

Me and Jones

Just me and my little man.

Practice Making (Almost) Perfect

Jude and I have been practicing off a tee in the backyard.

This is Jude's first year playing on a city league. There are a lot of more-talented kids on the team, but he sure does have the best attitude! In this picture I'm having him practice off a tee, but the league is coach-pitch. Last practice, he was batting and took a good fifteen cuts without hitting a fair ball, but when he grabbed his glove and ran out to me by the shortstop (I'm Coach Doug) he yelled, "Isn't baseball awesome?!"

"Yeah, it is!", I called back to him. I'm so proud of him.

Special Day

Last Friday night, Amy took Kerrigan to see 'My Little Pony' live at the RBC Center. They had a great time together and Kerrigan was beside herself when she saw the ponies onstage...

Kerrigan's Birthday

Happy Birthday Kerrigan!
I can't believe you're five.

Kerrigan's Birthday Cake

Amy's amazing creation for Kerrigan's birthday was this 'Day at the Beach' cake. It was a standard yellow cake, but all the decorations were to make it look like a beach. The water is blue jello, the inner-tubes are candy, the palm trees are pretzel rods with green frosting for the leaves, the sand is crushed vanilla wafers, the bears are teddy-grahams, there are also goldfish decorations on the side.

Hat's off to you, babe. This one was awesome.

NC Museum of Art visit

Today, we took the kids to the North Carolina Museum of Art for the first time. It was also the first time that Amy and I went as well. It is actually a very good museum. In fact, they are currently undergoing a renovation/new addition that will make it one of the biggest art museums in the South. That's what they boast anyway... Now, I'm not a particularly wise connoisseur of art museums, but Raleigh's was okay. Not brilliant, but it did have some impressive items. There were three Monet's and an excellent Ancient Greek exhibit with a marble bust of Marcus Aurelius and several other excellent marble sculptures. Not entirely kid-friendly, but the kids did have fun, albeit they did want to move along quicker than I would have liked, but what could have I expected??? They both wanted to come back again and that is something.

First day of baseball practice

Last Monday was Jude's first day of baseball practice. After all the kids were dismissed we let them run the bases for a bit. Jude did great!

Carolina Beach II

At Carolina Beach

We went to the beach on Sunday and had a blast.

My Girl

More Mom in NC

Mom in NC

Mom has been in town for about a week now and we have had such a great time!!!

This kids are so excited and are soaking up every minute with her.

This picture was taken on a nice walk through the trails behind our house.

Vacation?

What a vacation this has been so far. This picture was taken when Jude, Kerrigan & I were all still healthy... not two days after this was taken, Kerrigan was dehydrated and throwing up, Jude had pneumonia and I had... well, I'll tell you in a minute. See if you can figure it out. Amy was the only healthy one before Kerrigan and Jude started feeling better, although Jude is still on medication.

I had been having an increasingly severe migrane headache and a bad earache since Saturday morning but thought they'd go away with some tylonol/advil. When I woke up Tuesday morning, I had a huge rash on my forehead and near my eye. We all thought I had touched some poison ivy and then rubbed my head where my migrane was. The headaches increased and I couldn't sleep that night. Finally, by Wednesday mid-day, Amy and I drove to the urgent care to see what was going on and they said I had Shingles. The rash wasn't from poison ivy, but rather the blisters formed by the shingles. The fun part is that the shingles I have are not on my side but on my face. Because it's near my eye, I have to be careful or else I could lose my sight in my left eye which is annoyingly swelled up right now.

I'm glad the kids have their chicken pox vaccinations... Anyway, even though all this crazy stuff is going on, we're having a good time. We are, however changing our vacation plans and will not be going to Florida. When we told the kids that we weren't going to Disney, they were incredibly understanding and didn't whine or fuss at all. I am so proud of them.

I think we'll need a vacation from our vacation when we get home.

sigh

Vacation

Ah, it's completely dark, calm & quiet out here on the back deck of the beach house we're staying at in Corolla, NC. We'll be here nearly a week then we're driving straight down to Florida to take the kids to the Magic Kingdom at Disney World... Can't wait.

I'm going to get off this computer and enjoy the evening.

Midnight Outdoor Guitar Hero

Dave took this picture of Taylor and I when we were at their place a few weeks back.

Dave, Taylor, Jude and I camped out in the back yard and played Guitar Hero for hours under the full moon. We toasted marshmallows, ate s'mores & listened to great music.

One of the cool things about camping out was that Dave's tent had a mesh top so while we were laying down we could look up and see the stars. It was Jude's first time camping out and we all had such a blast. Needless to say, the girls stayed inside :)

Parenting Magazine

The next time any of you are in the check-out isle at the grocery store, pick up a copy of June 2007 Parenting Magazine and flip over to page 15. Jude is in the advert for SwimWays!

Amy saw it today as she was flipping through. Jude was fired up to see himself in a magazine :)

How cool is that?

Graduation for Kerrigan

Kerrigan's pre-school graduation photo.

Man, it won't be long before we're looking at her high school graduation pictures... -sigh-

May 4, 1970

37 years ago today in Kent, Ohio was the Kent State shootings where four Kent State students were shot by Ohio National Guardsmen while over two thousand students were protesting the American invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War at the campus commons.

This picture was taken by John Filo a short time before the shootings took place.

I lived in Kent for a short time, and was there the year that Crosby, Still & Nash came to the campus to play at a May 4 memorial in 1997. There are still bullet holes that have been preserved at the scene. I saw one on the brick of Taylor Hall and then another on a metal sculpture.

As awful a tragedy as it was, how could the students be suprised? They had been rioting for three days, looting and destroying main street stores and shops. They set the ROTC building on fire and stopped local fire responders from putting it out. When the National Guard finally showed up, the kids pelted them with rocks. I don't want to say the kids had it coming, two of the four kids killed weren't even part of the demonstration, but what do you think was going to happen? Maybe if the punk bikers who started the riots the first day were the ones shot it may have ended differently...

Anyway, it was a tragedy plain and simple. Blame it on Nixon, I guess.

Scott and Amber

Our friends Scott and Amber pulling their son, Riley, and Kerrigan on our way back to the waterfall.

Justin and his son, Brock

Great day for a walk

Scott, Kerrigan, Amber, Riley, Sunny, Tiffany & Amy on our walk in the back...

On a walk

Me and Ames on the trails past our backyard with Rob & Tiffany, Justin & Sunny, and Scott & Amber... on the way to the waterfall.

Visit from the Jeffers

This weekend, Rob, Tiifany & Kathy came down for a visit from Virginia Beach. What an amazing time. We're so grateful to have friends like them.

Me and Moo Moo at the park

Guitar Hero

Guitar Hero is amazing. Today, I picked up a second guitar so Amy and I could throw up the horns together in guitar-shredding unity. I predict that Jude is going to be the next Yngwie Malmsteen.

Hokie Hope

BT in the house

We had not-so-near, but very dear friends from Elyria, Ohio visit this weekend. Even though Samantha and Abbey couldn't make it down, Brian and Jessica came and we had a blast!!

God gave us an extra day because it was supposed to thunder storm Thursday, all day Saturday and then a dreary/rainy Sunday. Thursday was nice; Friday was brisk in the AM, but awesome the rest of the day; Saturday, which was supposed to be wet and nasty ended up being the day we spent almost entirely outside playing with the kids; then Sunday ended up being a decent day for a drive home for those guys.

What a refreshing and fun time! We played golf, shredded on Guitar Hero, had a nice cookout, played baseball, kickball, football, dodgeball and took the kids to the park... we all had a blast.

Sad News

Last weekend, Amy and I went to South Carolina for a funeral... for a 7 year-old. Amy's cousin, Jane, lost her son, Nicholas, in a car accident.

Below is an email from Amy's cousin, Carol (Jane's sister):

As many of you already know my nephew was killed in the accident on Monday involving the logging truck hitting a minivan in Richburg SC as the children left school. My sister's friend Alice Quinton was driving, her daughter Hannah (9), her son Timmy (7), my nephew Nicholas Cherry (7), my niece Taylor Cherry (5) were in the minivan. Nicholas and Hannah were killed instantly. Timmy was thrown from the vehicle and although he is making progress he is still in very critical condition, continued prayers please... they are working! Alice and Taylor were the least seriously injured. Alice was discharged today and Taylor hopefully in a few more days.

You can read about the accident on www.heraldonline.com or www.wcnc.com.

People have been asking what they can do. Funds have been set up for the families. The Quintons have very little if any insurance for expenses. People can mail donations, wire donations or walk into a branch office.

Founders Federal Credit Union
c/o Hannah Quinton Memorial Fund
607 North Main Street
Lancaster SC 29720
800-845-1614

First Citizens of SC
c/o Quinton Memorial Fund
3551 Lancaster Highway
Richburg SC 29729
803-789-6161

First Citizens of SC
c/o Cherry Memorial Fund
3551 Lancaster Highway
Richburg SC 29729
803-789-6161

For international donations, there will be a website for Hannah Quinton soon that will allow PayPal donations.

Thanks,
Carol Lambert

Below is Nicholas' obituary:

RICHBURG -- Master Nicholas Wayne Cherry, 7, of 3094 Lizzie Melton Road died Monday, March 26, 2007.

The funeral will be 11 a.m. Monday, April 2 at Greene Funeral Home Northwest Chapel, with Minister Wallace Beasley officiating. Burial will be at Forest Hills Cemetery.

A native of York County, Nicholas was the son of Wayne E. and Jane M. Cherry of Richburg. He was a second grader at Lewisville Elementary School. He was a member of Lesslie Highway Church of Christ and loved reading Bible stories with his mom every night. He loved fishing with his dad, who was his best friend, and was a loving child who enjoyed doing things for others. He loved his big brother and loved picking on his younger sister. He was mama's boy and will be greatly missed.

In addition to his parents, Nicholas is survived by his brother, William M. Patrick IV of Richburg; his sister, Taylor N. Cherry of the home; and his maternal grandmother, Barbara S. Williams of Rock Hill.
The family will receive friends Sunday from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at Greene Funeral Home Northwest Chapel, 2133 Ebenezer Road, Rock Hill and other times at the home.

Memorials may be made to Lewisville Elementary School PTO, 4006 Lewisville High School Road, Richburg, SC 29729.

Just today, it came out that the driver of the logging truck is going to be charged with wreckless homocide.

Isaiah

Just a couple weeks ago while we were up in Northern Virginia for a visit to see Amy's folks. While there, I took this picture of Isiah, one of about a dozen horses at their house and also my favorite. A few days after we got home from our visit we got word that Isaiah had become sick and died unexpectantly. All their horses are pretty cool, but Isaiah was the coolest and I was so bummed to hear that he was gone.

None of these pictures truly do justice to the size of this magnificent animal. He had to be totally bent over for me to be taller than him. When he was completely upright, he towered.

He was definately my favorite of all mom's horses and I'll miss him a ton. I'll try to attach a few other pictures of him as well.

Band Madness

So, with VCU and Wisconsin both eliminated from this year's NCAA basketball tournament we can shift to more important issues... MUSIC.

Rob turned me on to a great site that is set up like March Madness, but for music... BAND MADNESS!!!

Unfortunately, I'm posting this half-way through the voting of round one... sorry! But, it's not too late to go to the site and you can vote on head to head match-ups. The styles of music span the entire music spectrum.

A few examples:

Led Zeppelin vs Evanescence
Stereolab vs Faith No More
Decemberists vs Andrew W. K.
Steppenwolf vs George Thorogood
Creedence Clearwater Revival vs Carole King
The White Stripes vs Foreigner
Robert Palmer vs 50 cent
ABBA vs The Replacements
Johnny Cash vs The Villiage People
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah vs Godspeed You Black Emperor

...and so on.

Here's the opening of the official entry from the site:

"BAND MADNESS is a March-Madness style, single elimination tournament of pop/rock bands where the winners are determined strictly by fan voting. There are 512 artists from various decades and genres, all battling it out to determine once and for all which band is the voted-for-the-most-est!

The rules of voting are simple: vote for who you like better. That’s it. Not for who you think you should vote for, not for who’s more historically significant, etc. Just vote for who you like better, then go ahead and post some inflammatory comments about bands other people voted for. After a couple days, the voting wraps up, we move on to the next bracket, and a whole new round of voting and inflammatory comment-making begins. Simple enough?

The bands are divided into four brackets (check out the full bracket here) Right now, voting for Round 1, Bracket A is open now; the rest of the brackets will open as follows:

Round 1, Bracket A - Monday, March 12
Round 1, Bracket B - Wednesday, March 14
Round 1, Bracket C - Monday, March 19
Round 1, Bracket D - Wednesday, March 21

Pretty cool, eh? Better than basketball.

Go vote!

VCU defeats Duke

It's going to be a fun day at work tomorrow :)

I just watched my alma mater VCU Rams send my 'home-town' Duke Blue Devils packing 79-77.

Even though a majority of my co-workers are NC State folks, they all know I'm a VCU guy and it'll be nice to raise my VCU coffee mug in victory at our staff meeting tomorrow.

Well done guys!

Typical Monday...

A Monday wouldn't be a Monday without drama, right?

A little backstory first:

Back in October, a few days before our two-week trip to Wisconsin, my car died and was beyond what we could afford to fix but we were lucky enough to find a guy that would buy it for a small but helpful amount.

Amy and I managed with one car for 4 months. She would bring me to work, take the kids to school then go home, pick the kids up from school and then pick me up from work. Last week, we finally scraped up enough to get a cheap car for me to get to work everyday.

Well, that lasted just over a week. This morning, when it came time to go outside to warm the car up (yeah, there was frost on the car down here in Raleigh) the car wouldn't start. After we got someone to look at it, turns out to be a combination of the timing belt, alternator, and bad/wrong spark plugs. Comes out to be a bunch more money we may have to put into it.

Lame...

Great Concert

On Saturday night, Amy and I were able to go see Billy Joel at the RBC Center... for free.

Okay, a friend at work sent an email out to the company, "I have 5 free tickets to Saturday's Billy Joel concert. If anyone is interested, stop by." Needless to say, they went quickly... and before I was able to lay claim to two of them. She said she could make a call and land a few more. She ended up passing out 15 plus extra tickets for us at work... nice hook up!

What a great show! I liked him a lot when I was younger but lost interest over the years. When the ticket offer initially came up, I wasn't paticularly keen on going, even though the tix were free. I'm so glad I changed my mind, Amy and I had such a fun time. He was funny and engaging throughout the show, often poking fun at himself, his age, & his "auto-insurance rates".

I can't remember the order, but here's a set list of songs that I can remember:

Angry Young Man
My Life
An Innocent Man
Everybody Loves You Now
The Entertainer
New York State of Mind
Zanzibar
Allentown
Don't Ask Me Why
Movin' Out
Keeping the Faith
The Downeaster Alexa
Go to Extremes
She's Always A Woman
The River of Dreams
We Didn't Start the Fire
Big Shot
Root Beer Rag
You May Be Right
Only the Good Die Young
It's Still Rock N' Roll to Me
Piano Man (encore)

There were more that I can't remember, but as you can see he played a ton of his classics! I was hoping for my fav's "Pressure" and "Longest Time", but they didn't make it. And as an added bonus, their guitar roadie, "Chainsaw", came out and sang a uncannily Bon Scott version of AC/DC's Highway to Hell! Billy grabbed a Gibson Les Paul and shredded like Angus Young. For me, it was the highlight of the night.

I totally didn't expect to leave the show with my ears ringing, but hard as it is to believe, Billy rocked the joint.

Our free seats ended up not being bad ones either... Even though we were third deck, we were behind and to the left of the stage, which gave us a great view over the stage, plus with Billy's piano spinning around every few songs we felt like we were far from nose-bleed caliber seating.

Thanks for the tickets, Kim! You're the coolest.

Guitar Hero II

There's nothing like winding down at the end of a long day and shredding to some rockin tunes on Guitar Hero II.

About a week ago, we bought it and have been melting faces with pure rock adrenaline since. Even Amy has been into it... I have some pictures of her playing, but she won't let me post them :)

Dave, the next time I'm in Charlotte, you're going down!

Let's get rockin!

New friend for Kerrigan

The little kitty on the left is Princess Kitty Cat. She is forever attached to Kerrigan. Amy got her for Kerrigan a while back when she and Jude went on a trip to New York City.

When we realized how in love with her Kerrigan was, we searched for another one just like it... just in case she ever lost it.

Well, she never lost her, and the 'clone' was waiting in a bag in the closet for the fateful moment when Princess Kitty Cat came up missing. Amy and I thought that rather than leaving the new one in the dark, we'd tell Kerrigan that Princess Kitty Cat's sister came to stay with her.

Needless to say, Kerrigan was beside herself. She named her Princess Kitty Meow-Meow, and both of them are now forever by her side... so much so that she pretends to be a cat as well, her name is Princess Kitty Kerri.

Beyond the back yard

Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but the Neuse River runs just a few hundred yards from our backyard. The cool part is that there is an excellent trail that runs along it's shore. If you follow it long enough, you'll run into a great park.

Along the way the other day, we took a detour on a less traveled path that we'd never been down before. On the way, we ran into a small waterfall. The kids loved it and we'll probably be taking that detour from now on :)

Jude & Kerrigan

Packers' Favre to return for his 17th season

Packers' Favre to return for his 17th season
February 2, 2007

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -- Brett Favre will return for his 17th NFL season, undeterred by his injuries and hoping to lead the Green Bay Packers back to the playoffs.
"I am so excited about coming back," the 37-year-old quarterback said Friday on the Web site of the Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss. "We have a good nucleus of young players. We were 8-8 last year, and that's encouraging."
Packers general manager Ted Thompson confirmed Favre had told the team he plans to return.
"The Packers are excited by his decision and look forward to a successful 2007 campaign," Thompson said in a statement.
The team scheduled a 4 p.m. EST news conference Friday.
"My offensive line looks good, the defense played good down the stretch," Favre told the Biloxi newspaper. "I'm excited about playing for a talented young football team."
The news came as a surprise to Packers CEO Bob Harlan.
"I hadn't heard it, and I hadn't seen the Biloxi paper -- not that I read the Biloxi paper every day," Harlan told The Associated Press on Friday.
Favre last left the field in an emotional scene in Chicago after leading the Packers to a victory to finish the season 8-8.
He has started 257 consecutive games including the playoffs, an NFL record for quarterbacks. Favre broke Dan Marino's record for career completions (4,967) in 2006 and is closing in on Marino's marks for career touchdown passes (420) and yards passing (61,361).
As he has done in the past several offseasons, Favre returned to his home in Mississippi after the season to deliberate about his future. Last year, Favre waited until late April to tell the team he was returning.
Favre complained about nagging injuries and the drudgery of practice toward the end of last season, then choked back tears as he talked about missing the game and missing his teammates in a television interview immediately after the regular-season finale in Chicago -- leading many to believe he intended to retire.
Apparently, he couldn't resist one more chance to try to lead the Packers back to the playoffs after the Packers won their final four games and were in playoff contention until the final weekend of the regular season.
Favre has led the Packers to 10 postseason appearances, six division titles, three NFC Championship games, two Super Bowls and one championship following the 1996 season.
Favre was acquired in a trade by former Packers general manager Ron Wolf after one season as a backup in Atlanta in 1991. He completed his first NFL pass -- to himself -- on Sept. 13, 1992, catching a deflection and losing seven yards.
The following week, he replaced injured starter Don Majkowski in the third quarter and led the Packers to a come-from-behind 24-23 victory over Cincinnati.
Favre started in place of Majkowski on Sept. 27, 1992, beginning the streak he often has called his biggest personal accomplishment. The 237-game regular-season streak is nearly six seasons ahead of the Colts' Peyton Manning at 144.
Favre's accomplishments include winning three league MVP awards -- he shared 1997 honors with Detroit Lions running back Barry Sanders -- and throwing two touchdown passes in a 35-21 victory over the New England Patriots in the 1997 Super Bowl to give the Packers their first championship in 29 years. Earlier in that championship season, Favre spent time in the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kan., battling an addiction to painkillers.
Favre led the Packers back to the Super Bowl the following season, but they lost to Elway's Denver Broncos 31-24.

Me and My Girl

The 'Deserted Island' music question

Have you ever heard of the old question, "If you were stranded alone on a deserted island and could only have 10 cd's to listen to for the rest of your life, which ones would you pick?" Well, the question is a bit silly, as electricity would have to be part of the equation, but the point is not lost on me. What music could you live with forever? It's a formidable task to list only a few titles, especially for the music-lover. Before I give my list, a confession:

A couple months ago I posted a picture and message of my 'biography' (Thursday, August 17, 2006 to be exact). As thorough as I tired to be, I was remiss in not making my love for music more prominant. I think all I had was my djembe drum... oh, Doug, what were you thinking? I grew up with music, lots of it! Two of my older brothers were in rock bands when I was still in middle school and I remember mom and dad taking me to the bars and clubs back home in Oshkosh to go see them play. Music was always on in the house, and loudly. Often, mom's Willy Nelson would be cranked upstairs while my Van Halen was shaking the walls downstairs (yes, I was a cellar-dweller).

So, with a little consideration, I came up with a list that I think I could live with forever on a deserted island with my miracle hi-fi. I did, however, cheat; I could not bring myself to stay within ten, so I stretched it. It's my list, so there... and since we're on that note (pun intended), this kind of question is all but obsolete anyway, what with the ability to just download any song you want from iTunes. The new question may soon be, 'What 20,000 songs would you download to your solar-powered iPod if you were stuck on a deserted island?'... anyway on with the list:

1. A Perfect Circle, Mer de Noms (2000)
2. The White Stripes, Get Behind Me Satan (2005)
3. John Coltrane, Blue Train (1957)
4. Incubus, Make Yourself (1999)
5. The Beatles, Revolver (1966)
6. Faith No More, Album of the Year (1997)
7. The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Time Out (1959)
8. Beck, Mutations (1998)
9. Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II (1969)
10. System of a Down, Toxicity (2001)
11. Vivaldi, Four Seasons (1725)
12. Cake, Pressure Chief (2004)
13. Queen, Queen II (1974)
14. Morphine, Cure for Pain (1993)
15. Mad Season, Above (1995)
16. Hobex, Back in the '90s (1998)
17. Blonde Boy Grunt and the Groans, All Folked Up (1998)

I tried to write a short explaination on each one, but (1) I didn't want to bore you any more than I have already, and (2) it was taking forever.

So, if you're still reading, there you have it. It will probably be different next year...

Jude's teeth

This picture was taken this past Saturday at Chloe's birthday party.

Sorry it took so long to get a picture of Jude's missing chicklets... He's bought a couple Hot Wheels cars with his Tooth Fairy money so far. :)

Kids & Santa

No Marines this time to keep Jude from seeing Santa.

The line was long, but Amy had the brilliant idea of grabbing Happy Meals and eating in line. It was easier than you'd think and when the food was done the kids had a little toy to keep 'em occupied.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas

Hello Friends and Family!

I was able to get out a number of Christmas Cards, but not nearly as many as I would have liked. I realize every year how few addresses I actually have written down. I found myself getting addresses from the envelopes of folks who sent us Christmas cards first (the ones who planned and sent them out early, unlike myself).

Anyway, please forgive me if you didn't get a card.

Love and Peace to all of you, and a sincere hope for an excellent 2007!

~ The Smiths

The Tooth-Fairy

I regretably do not have a picture of this yet but Jude has now lost his bottom two front teeth. Not only that, but his top two front teeth are loose as well (one of them he can bend straight out). Within the next month, he'll have all four of his front teeth out.

Can't believe how big he is getting. [sigh]

Santa vs a Marine

Something interesting happened today. Stay with me for a minute because this may take a minute (and more than a little sensitivity) to explain.

Before Amy and I started dating, Amy's brother, Eric, died while in the Marines. In fact, Jude's name is in honor to him as Eric's middle name was Jude. Jude knows him only by a few pictures and many of those pictures are of him in his dress uniform. Obviously, everytime he sees a Marine he says they look like Uncle Eric.

Anyway, this afternoon we head out for Kohl's for some shopping. In the lot, a truck for toys for tots is there. We decide to pick up some toys to donate and go over to see the Marines. It was a nice little set-up: Santa was there, someone was taking poloroids of the kids with Santa and giving them out for free, an elf making balloons for the kids, a little train making laps around the parking lot and a couple Marines in their dress uniforms receiving the donated toys. Kerrigan wants to go see Santa while Jude was a bit shy and didn't want to. A woman took a poloroid of Kerrigan giving a hug to Santa so I asked Jude if he wanted a picture with a Marine instead, to which he smiled and said 'yes.' The Marines were great and were so nice to Jude and took a great picture with him. They said it was the first time a kid wanted to be with them rather than Santa.

Amy cried and Santa let out a comical comment about getting passed up for a Marine, to which we all laughed. Jude may not know how special that moment was right now, but I'm glad we got a picture. It's something Amy and I will never forget.

Miss you, Rick. As far as I'm concerned this is a picture of Jude with you.

Merry Christmas.

Nearly 11 years ago...

I was in our closet yesterday and I came across a card I had given Amy to say 'Happy 1 year & 10 months' since we had started dating. It is dated 3 October '97.

In a few days, Amy and I will have been together for 11 years. I'm looking at her right now as she's asleep on the couch and she's as amazing now as when I first met her... no, more so! I am so grateful for her and wish I could be with her another 90... then another 900!

Below is the card I had given her then. It was blank, so I created a story to go with the cover. It barely fit, but I remember how fun it was making that story up.

"Once upon a time, there was a boy who lived in the countryside in a small house. He occasionally would play in the trees surrounding his house, or perhaps walk along the stream that slowly stirred down the rolling hills.

"Although he was a content boy and happy, there was a world of emptiness inside. He had the trees to play in and his friends, the rabbits, but there was a pain and loneliness deep in his still heart that even the deer and butterflies couldn't fill.

"There was no color in his world. The boy had never seen color before; at least not in the rich, full color that comes from true joy that you or I may see. One day he saw a small puff of pink and splash of bright blue while he'd been laughing and playing with the rabbits. He stopped laughing and looked at the sky in awe at the new sight, but it had faded away as quickly as it had come. Questioningly, the boy sighed and sadly plopped down beside a tree and cried, thinking about the wonderful thing that had lit up the sky for a sweet moment.

"That afternoon, just before his mother was about to call him in for dinner, he was wading his feet in his favorite part of the stream, looking for playful fish or perhaps a smooth-sparkly rock he could skip. His child-like eyes widened as he sighted a conch shell propped up against a large rock at the bottom of the stream.

"A shell? he thought. In my stream?

"He knew that conch shells only came from the magic places his father would tell him about during his bed-time stories, but he never thought he'd see one. Especially in his stream.

"He excitedly rolled up his sleeve and dipped his small hand into the cold water. His heart welled with tears as he picked up the wonderful, colorful shell. Colors of every kind danced and flowed over the surface of the shell and as he looked inside there was a pool of color so deep and wide, so deep and bright that he thought it was heaven. As he was holding the shiny shell, it began to change; it became a beautiful brush. He himself began to change as he took on the very colors the brush was radiating. On the opposite side of the stream was the ladder his father had left where he'd been picking apples before he had gone back to the house. The boy ran to it, brush in hand, and climbed to the very top of the ladder. Stretching his arms out and smiling as wide as the sky, color as beaming and as beautiful as his wildest dreams shot from the brush across the dull sky. It was amazing.

"In that blanket of color, the boy saw a girl as radiant as the rainbow itself and he reached out for her. She came to him smiling.

"Soon the whole land was filled with the rainbow's radiance and the two sat together with their feet wading in the stream's brisk-blue water.

"He never heard his mother call for him, for he had found his friend. His heart was now alive and he felt it beat for the first time.

"He was with Amy.

xxoo

3 Oct 97 Happy 1 year & 10 months!

D.

Happy 11 years since we started dating, Ames.

I'm still holding that brush. You and the kids give me so much life and the color you paint my world leaves me open-mouthed. I am so grateful for you. I love you.