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...