What better time than to announce the obsolecence of this blog by forwarding you to Elise's second birthday post on our new blog, to which Julie is sure to post far more faithfully than I.

We welcomed Elise Joy into the world yesterday evening. She's the fourth of four beautiful girls, and we're happy to have a healthy mom and healthy baby home tonight.

Sarah turned 8 on Friday, and she had a great birthday weekend. One of her best friends spent the night after we had dinner at Applebee’s, cake and ice cream at home, watched Sarah opened some gifts, and then watched half of the new “Narnia” DVD.

On Saturday we had a real treat – (Great-) Uncle Stan walked Sarah and her friend around on horses through a beautiful landscape on a gorgeous day. They also finished “Narnia”, bought a few things at the garage sale at the Lynden Fairgrounds, and we got to see Sarah’s friend’s new house!

On Sunday we went to Grandma and Grandpa’s house after church, where we had a great birthday dinner that ended with strawberries on angel food cake. Sarah got her biggest present – a combined gift from many relatives – a real live basketball hoop! I don’t doubt that a “real man” could have had it assembled in an hour or so, but it took this man about five hours. Still, I finally completed it last night before the sun went down, so Sarah and I were able to play a few minutes before bed.

The Seahawks played a good game on Superbowl Sunday, but they didn't have enough to win. A number of questionable calls by the referees didn't help, either. But, it was fun to have a team to really root for, and fun to hang out with friends for the big game. Did the Seahawks make a fan out of me? Maybe I'll actually watch their first game of the next season...

Yes, the Seattle Seahawks are going to the Superbowl. This football season has been vaguely reminiscent of the 1995 Seattle Mariners; then, too, I wasn’t much of a fan until they started to win, at which point I began to watch faithfully. I watched both playoff games this past Sunday, and much of all four playoff games the Sunday before, and a number of other games ever since the Seahawks had accumulated 10 or so wins for the season. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy watching football before; I’m just a bit of a fair-weather fan. Like most people, I have a lot more fun when I can watch my local team win. So, come Sunday after next, I’ll be staring at some television somewhere, rooting for our team. Go Seahawks!

In case you haven’t heard, we’ve been getting a lot of rain in these parts lately. We’ve basically had rain every day for the last month. Seattle had its 27th consecutive rainy day on Saturday. We had a reprieve this weekend, and actually got to enjoy a bit of sun, but the rain is back with a vengeance today. Generally speaking, I don’t think that we deserve our rainy stereotype, but even I am ready for a change in the weather. The combination of dark skies, hard rain, and faded road lines make for a stressful commute, and daily lunchtime walks are a lot less enjoyable.

Today wasn’t all gloom, though; the kids had the day off school, so Julie brought them to Bellingham and we had lunch together at the “wood fire pizza” restaurant near the office. We all enjoyed our pizza and a little extra time together.

When you haven’t blogged for a while, you realize that there are a few important life events that you haven’t mentioned. It’s rather unlikely that I have any readers that don’t already know this, but just in case…

Julie’s pregnant! If you have any questions, please check the FAQ:

Q: When is Julie due?
A: Mid-June. She’s glad that’s before the hottest summer months.

Q: How has Julie been feeling?
A: Pretty well. She didn’t feel great for a while during the first trimester, but she doesn’t get morning sickness as badly as many other women, so she took it in stride.

Q: Do you know what you’re having?
A: A human. (Har!) We don’t know the sex of the baby, nor do we intend to find out (until it is born, that is).

Q: Did you find out with any of your other kids?
A: No. We like the surprise.

Q: How many kids do you have, anyway?
A: When we bring the new baby home this summer, we’ll have four kids in the house.

Q: You currently have three daughters, right?
A: Yep.

Q: I guess you’re pretty outnumbered, ha ha.
A: That’s not a question.

Q: Wow, that’s three weddings to save up for. Maybe four!
A: A question, please?

Q: Sorry. So, you must be hoping for a boy, eh?
A: I’m good either way. Another girl would be easiest, of course, but I think we’re up to the challenge of raising a boy.

Q: The more girls you have in a row, the more likely the next will be a boy, right?
A: I think we have at least a 50% chance of having a boy.

Q: Have you decided on names?
A: We have a number of possibilities, but no definite names yet.

Q: What are some of the possibilities?
A: None of your bee’s wax. You’ll just have to wait like everyone else.

Q: Are you praying for a happy pregnancy, a safe childbirth, and a healthy addition to the family?
A: Absolutely.

Welcome to 2006! It seems unlikely that I’ll manage to start posting to this blog on a regular basis again, but it’s a new year, so I should at least give it a try.

I was reasonably productive at work today, considering it was my first day back since Thursday before last. I had a great time on vacation. We didn’t have to do any traveling this year, because our families came here! We had Julie’s two brothers in town with their wives, and my parents! Along with the normal fellowship, food, presents, etc., there was also some serious gaming – Settlers of Catan, Euchre, and Rook! We watched our share of football, spent some time looking for eagles, read books, visited extended family, went bowling, drank coffee, and all manner of other memorable activities. But now it’s all over, and we’re left wondering when we’ll get to do it again. As soon as possible, I hope.

My family was invited by friends of ours to a free (!) premiere showing of The Lord of the Beans, the latest VeggieTales movie from Big Idea. It isn’t even released yet, but Child Evangelism Fellowship got hold of it and gave a free showing in the beautiful Mount Baker Theatre in downtown Bellingham. I had the honor of taking Sarah and Bethany to this amazing event.

I should be ashamed to admit that we own every single VeggieTales episode ever released. (In fact, we bought our first VeggieTales videos before we even had any kids!) Combine that with my love of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, of which the VeggieTales movie is a parody, and you’ve got a match made in heaven. We really enjoyed the show; for my part, the parody aspect could have been better, but it definitely had great moments.

Thanks again to the Alberts for inviting us! I’ll be surprised if the DVD isn’t part of our VeggieTales library by the end of the year…

Julie and I went to our first and last Mariners game of the season on Friday. We had a great time. Some of the highlights:

• Julie’s parents offered to watch the kids, so the game was really a date! Thanks, Mom and Dad.
• It was Dan Wilson’s last game in the Major Leagues. He was set to retire this year anyway, but an injury kept him off the field for most of the season, so he played catcher one last time for the first inning of play, and walked off the field for the last time at the top of the second. Not only is Dan my favorite baseball player, he’s also the last Mariner that was on the team during their 1995 season, which “saved baseball in Seattle,” and got Julie and me hooked.
• Dan Wilson caught for Jamie Moyer, another of my favorite players. It’s always been clear that Wilson was Moyer’s favorite catcher, so it was fun to see them together one last time. They embraced when Dan left at the top of the second, and I daresay there were quite a few moist eyes in the stadium as he left, including mine.
• Willie Bloomquist, yet another of my favorite players, had been getting a lot more playing time this season before his recent injury, and won an “unsung hero” award. (Eddie Guardado got “best pitcher” and Richie Sexson got “best player”.)
• Julie and I shared a big pile of garlic fries. Yummy.
• Ichiro, the shining star of the Mariners, managed to break another record. He hit his 200th hit of the season, and became the first player to do so during each of the first five years of his Major League career.
• The Mariners won 4 to 1, sealing Moyer’s perfect record at home at 10-0. It also maintained Julie’s record; the Mariners are undefeated at home whenever Julie has been in attendance.
• The kids stayed the night at Julie’s parents, which meant that Julie and I got to sleep in a bit on Saturday morning. Rebecca has a knack for waking up by 6 a.m., so that was a real treat. Thanks again, Mom and Dad!

I’m in my prime again – I turned 31 this past Friday. I had a great birthday weekend! Our tradition at Logos is to take coworkers out to lunch on their birthdays, so I had a great lunch at Lemon Grass Café (Thai) on Friday afternoon. On Friday evening, we had friends over for dinner, with whom we watched the latest VeggieTales video with my daughters, and then played a rousing game of Settlers of Catan!

Julie and the girls took me out for a birthday dinner on Saturday night. It was my choice of restaurants, so I picked On Rice – I do love Thai food. We started with three inexpensive appetizers, hoping to find some things that the girls would enjoy (we did). We followed that up with spicy soup (for me), garlic chicken (for Julie), and fried rice (for the girls). Our waitress found out that it was my birthday, so we were serenaded with the birthday song, followed by complimentary fried bananas and coconut ice cream, which I’d never had before, but were delicious. It couldn’t have been better.

On Sunday, we went to church, and then had Julie’s family over for a great dinner. I even got a few more presents, including two Settlers of Catan expansions, one that extends the game to support more than four players, and another that adds the Cities and Knights rules. I can’t wait to play!

On my way home from work on Friday, I stopped by Best Buy to spend some birthday money – I bought a nice portable CD player that plays MP3 files, so that I can record a number of albums on one CD. I got a car kit with it for free, so I was able to rock out to another of my birthday presents on my way to work on Monday – the latest Switchfoot album, Nothing is Sound.

Thanks to everyone who made my birthday weekend so much fun!

Last night was “parent night” at Lynden Christian, so Julie and I got to spend some time listening to Sarah’s and Bethany’s teachers talk about how the school year will go. It sounds like Sarah and Bethany have a lot of learning to look forward to, and a lot of fun as well. I think both teachers are just what Sarah and Bethany need to have a great year.

Rebecca is sleeping in her "big girl bed" tonight. She's had a few good naps in it, so we're making the transition. The crib is still in the room in case of an emergency, but we'll be dismantling it soon. Before and after:

My new commute is better than I thought it would be! My old commute from Mount Vernon was about 30 miles, and took at least 35 minutes. I carpooled consistently, which saved gas, but added another 5 minutes or so. My new commute from Everson is 16 miles, and usually takes less than 25 minutes in the morning. (The afternoon commute is a bit busier, but still takes under 30 minutes.) It doesn’t seem like much in print, but “under 30 minutes” somehow feels a lot closer than “nearly 45 minutes”. I’ve also shifted my schedule a half hour earlier, which means I get to leave work at 4:30 pm each day, which gets me home at 5 pm, which gives me almost an hour more time with my family each evening than I was getting before. All in all, it’s turning out to be a great deal.

I neglected to mention that I completed our taxes a few weeks ago and got our refund lickety-split. I'll not talk about the fact that our federal tax burden is down around 1% this year; I talked enough about that last year. A friend of mine reminded me that I'm still paying lots of money to Social Security and Medicare, though, so I shouldn't feel too unburdened...

If you haven't done your taxes yet, be sure to do and submit them online, for free! Just go to http://www.irs.gov/, click “Free File”, “Start Now!”, and then click on your favorite provider. Mine was TurboTax – they've been doing online taxes for years now, and it's free for everyone through the IRS link, even if you itemize. That's how I did my taxes this year, and it worked out wonderfully.

I've been either too busy or too lazy lately to blog, but I wanted to reassure my many readers without any other way of knowing (ha!) that our family is fine, if still off-and-on sick. All of my girls have a cough of varying severity; I seem to be largely spared, for now. We're hoping that spring will bring renewed health and happiness.

I leave you with a direct quote from Bethany: “I never sleep. I just stay in bed for a long time.” She's something else.

We’ve been having our share of fun these past days. About a week ago, we discovered lice in Bethany’s hair. We did the whole lice thing – shampoo and nit-picking and bagging and vacuuming and the like. We’ve been doing multi-daily checks of everyone – Bethany has been clean, and nobody else has had any… until last night, when we discovered one lousy louse in Sarah’s hair. So, we did the whole lice thing, again. And everyone is nit-free, again. We’ll be diligent for the next few weeks; hopefully we will have finally seen the last of it. I’m told that lice are hard to get rid of… <sigh>

So, we had a busy night last night, and we had a busy morning this morning. I’ve never felt more like a “soccer mom” – I brought everyone to drop Julie off at her dentist, then brought the kids to Sarah’s dentist and waited there for her short visit, after which I brought the kids to Sarah’s school and dropped her off, after which I brought Bethany and Rebecca to Bethany’s school and waited for it to open and dropped her off, after which Rebecca and I picked up Julie at her dentist and went home, after which I was finally able to head to work. Fortunately, that’ll be Julie’s last trip to the dentist for a while (she’s not fond of dentistry), and Sarah’s minor orthodontics are going well.

Anyway, I was finally on my to work. I got all the way to Bellingham and drove happily down Holly, a minute or two from the office. I was in the right lane of the three-lane one-way road that is Holly. The car in the center lane, slightly ahead of me, stopped for a pedestrian on the left side of the road that wanted to cross the non-signaled, non-stop-signed crosswalk. So, I stopped as well. Unfortunately, the Ford F-250 behind me did not.

I didn’t even see it coming; perhaps that’s best. The rear bumper and tailgate are pretty tweaked, and my left rear turn signal is out. The damage somehow cascaded all the way to the driver-side door, which I can no longer lock. Amazingly, the truck still runs fine, I think, except when I wonder if I’m hearing new noises… The damage would cost $2,700 to fix at the body shop – approximately 270,000 times the “fair market value” of the truck – so I’m sure that the Ford’s driver’s insurance will declare it totaled. We shall see what tomorrow brings; I’m waiting for a call from his insurance company.

I’m okay, but understandably sore. I was convinced by, well, just about everyone, that I should see the doctor, so I did so – on the Ford’s driver’s insurance’s dime, of course. She told me to expect to be even more sore tomorrow, and for the next few days. Ibuprofen and I shall be good friends. Otherwise, I’ll probably be fine. But now I must retire, and pray that I can get out of bed in the morning. Good night!

I hope that you had a nice day! I had a good evening with my four valentines, but our primary celebration was Saturday night. We went out for Thai food and then to Dairy Queen for dessert. I’m sorry to say that the Thai food wasn’t a big hit with Bethany or Rebecca, but I’m quite glad to say that Sarah liked it a lot! Of course, she simply had fried rice – nothing too savory like Julie’s garlic chicken, or too spicy like my Tom Kha Ghai soup – but that’s a good step in the right direction! For me, the only thing better than enjoying a Thai meal is having leftovers. I am forever indebted to my boss for introducing me to the joy of Thai food when I arrived as an intern over ten years ago. I could go on and on, but enough about Thai food. The ice cream we had a Dairy Queen was enjoyed by all, which ensured that everyone had a great Valentine’s celebration.

Update: Actually, tonight did turn out to be an eventful Valentine's evening. Julie and I had some quiet time together as a couple, if you know what I mean – we painted the kitchen and the dining area! Woo-hoo!

We went to Jungle Playland a couple of weeks ago – we got a free pass for our whole family as a Christmas gift from good friends of ours. We had a great time! Jungle Playland is a big “play place” for kids – tubes and slides and the like. It recently moved to a bigger location, so it’s really cool now. It even has a miniature climbing wall. The real shocker is that they have decent food. Well, probably not all of their food, but they bake Papa Murphy’s pizza, so that was quite nice.

Most interesting was watching Rebecca. They had a nice area for toddlers, but she wanted to roam most of the time. The “big kid” stuff was a little intimidating for her, but she managed. Until she saw the giant monkey head, that is. It’s a large head that kids can crawl into from one of the tubes, and is high enough in the air that I can barely reach it. She saw it and instantly fell to the ground staring at it. I’m not sure if she was afraid she’d bump into it, or that it would fall on her, or eat her, or what. She wasn’t terrified, per se, but she was not anxious to walk under it. I eventually coaxed her to walk around it, and she was fine – until she saw the giant tiger head and responded similarly. I suppose fear is a natural reaction to the slavering fangs of a giant tiger; I should be proud of her instincts.

This past week was not a favorite for our family – this was the week of the dentist. On Monday morning, I had a dentist appointment. On Tuesday afternoon, I took Sarah and Bethany to the dentist. And on Wednesday morning, Julie had a dentist appointment. I don’t actually mind the dentist much. The girls put up with going to the dentist, but just barely. Julie… let’s just say she’s “not fond” of the dentist and leave it at that. In any case, I won’t go into all of the gory details – our dental health is acceptable.

This weekend was better – all three girls got to spend Saturday night at Grandma and Grandpa’s, and Julie and I got to start painting the kitchen and dining room and then hang out together for a while. In fact, she actually watched Gattaca with me, even though she finds it a bit boring. Inconceivable. Anyway, I think everyone had a great time. Still, it was nice to see the kids again today when we drove up to Lynden for Sunday dinner. Now we’re all back together again and ready for a new week.

Did I mention that we’ve been under the weather? We’ve all had various stages of a cold in the last few days, though we also seem to be getting better. We’re also under the weather in a real sense – I’m beginning to wonder what a cloudless sky looks like, not to mention the nearby star around which this planet revolves…

Yes, Christmas. I had a great Christmas holiday, and I feel bad that I never managed to tell you about it. Not that you care terribly, of course. So, considering that you don’t really care, and Christmas is long over, I won’t blame you in the least for not reading the rest of this summary of our Christmas joy.

• We had a fun Christmas party in Coupeville with Julie’s mom’s family.
• Julie put her back out quite severely while reaching to pour milk.
• Pam and Jeff, good old friends from Michigan, stopped by for a visit.
• Mom and Erik visited for five days – not nearly long enough!
• Mom, Rebecca, and I forged a new walking path in the bitter cold.
• We had a nice dinner at the Skagit River Brewery.
• Mom and Erik taught Julie and me how to play pinochle! (It’s a card game.)
• Rebecca had a fairly high fever with no other symptoms through Christmas.
• We ate great food and opened great gifts on Christmas Eve.
• We went to church and then to Lynden for a nice Christmas Day.
• Julie’s dad made his “famous” salmon – I love brown sugar…
• We opened excellent gifts from Julie’s family on Monday night.
• We attended a Christmas party with Julie’s mom’s mom’s extended family.
• We finally opened our last but not least gifts on New Years Day.

I hope that your Christmas was as merry as mine! Glory to God in the highest!

Winter is here! It started to snow up in Bellingham on Thursday – enough, in fact, that I left early so I wouldn’t have to drive in it in the dark! By Friday morning it was bad enough up there that we felt it prudent that I work from home instead of braving the elements in my pickup truck.

Well, last night the snow came here as well! We woke up to a winter wonderland, so of course we had to spend plenty of time outside in the snow. Not as much as the snow storm we had last winter, but enough to get a few decent sled runs down the street, and to make a few snowballs, and to build a very short snowman. The girls had a great time with their neighbor friend, a young girl about Sarah’s age that we hardly ever see – except when it snows!

Much of the snow has already melted away – but the forecast calls for possibly more tonight, so we’ll see what the day brings!

I don’t get really sick very often. In fact, I was feeling quite confident that I’d made it through another family illness unscathed. That is, until Sunday afternoon.

Don’t ask what I had for lunch on Sunday, because it is unlikely that I’ll ever be able to eat it again. After lunch, I started feeling cold, even though the house was reasonably warm, and I started feeling sore, and tired, and needing-to-lie-down, and needing-to-get-up-again. It soon became clear that I was ill, and that my illness was going to demonstrate itself in a most unfortunate manner. So, though I could not determine the time of said demonstration, I at least was able to determine the place. The rest of the evening was no better, as I was too sick and sore to fall asleep, and thus spent the entire night in a horrible daze, no doubt keeping Julie awake, who caught the same bug during the night.

And so it was on Monday that the kids had no parents, because Julie and I rarely had the energy or stomach to stand, let alone move. Fortunately, sleep came easier Monday night, so the kids had about one full parent with both of us home on Tuesday. Wednesday was a reasonably normal day – I even made it to work – and we’re both feeling a lot better today.

Because I’m so seldom sick, I easily forget how miserable it is – the horrible violence of your body rejecting its contents; the constant shifting of positions in a feeble attempt to find physical comfort; the inability to form a coherent thought or do anything productive. I realized my lack of compassion for the sick, even when they are my own family members. Many sick and elderly live like that, or worse, day after day, with no end in sight; how blessed I am to generally live in good health, with a healthy family.

Unfortunately, it’s not been as happy as I would like. I’ve had a nasty sinus infection for the last few days, but I could have easily managed enough happiness for the new year if not for the fact that the rest of my family hasn’t been feeling well, either. We did manage to have our own early evening New Year celebration with the kids – right before Bethany demonstrated that she wasn’t feeling well all over her bed, followed closely by a similar demonstration from Rebecca all over me. Repeated demonstrations were the theme of the evening, until about 2 a.m. this morning, when all was finally quiet. Sarah and Julie weren’t feeling well either, but they fortunately had no demonstrations of their own.

So, we missed the celebrations, the fireworks over the Space Needle on television, etc. We also had plans for today that have been replaced with rest time. Still, it’s 2005 today, and we’re praying for a good year.

Wow, it has been a while since I’ve written here. I should try to catch up on everything, but considering I had to ask Julie to remind me what we did only yesterday, that would be a fruitless exercise. So, I’ll just hope that you all had a nice Thanksgiving and move right along to this weekend.

Well, first I should mention that Sarah had her Christmas program this past Wednesday, and Bethany had her Christmas program this past Thursday, and they both sang very nicely.

Yesterday morning, we went to Sarah’s first real piano recital. What, I didn’t mention that Sarah is taking piano lessons? Well, she is, and she’s doing exceptionally well. She played two Christmas songs for her recital, and I’m sure she’ll play them again for my parents after they arrive for the holidays later this week.

Yesterday afternoon we went to pick out our Christmas tree – our annual Christmas tradition is to go to Alpine Meadows with Julie’s parents. Alpine Meadows is a “you cut” Christmas tree farm on Highway 9 between Bellingham and Lynden. They’ve got great trees and a nice warm cabin to drink hot chocolate in when you’re done. There was hardly anyone there this year; apparently the Saturday before Christmas is a bit later than normal. In any case, we found a very nice tree, and it looks lovely in the corner of our living room. Oh, and I should mention that I was very happy that we had to drive only one vehicle to the tree farm – in years past, I would have driven my pickup separately from the minivan, but now that we have a roof rack, we could just strap the tree to the top and go!

Today I had choir practice before church and choir practice after church, because this afternoon we had our annual Candlelight Service. The choir and the Sunday School kids were involved, and I think the service went really well. Julie did most of the planning for the service, as well as directing the kids, so she deserves a big round of applause. Julie’s parents came down to enjoy the service as well, so we hung out with them at our house this evening and had some tasty snacks, all provided by Julie, of course. She’s amazing, isn’t she?

Before the service, we finished decorating the Christmas tree, which is now beautifully covered with lights, ribbons, berries, and ornaments. I’m looking forward to all of the festivities, and I hope that you’ve got fun plans as well. Merry Christmas!

It was Julie’s thirty-somethingth’s birthday today! (I’ll give you a hint – it’s a prime number, and she won’t be able to say that again about her birthday for another six years. Not that she would ever say such a thing. For some reason, I’m the only one around here that seems to take interest in the mathematical qualities of our ages.)

She claims to have had a great birthday weekend, even though I didn’t have to wasn’t allowed to buy her a gift. She decided to build “credit” for new living room furniture instead, so we visited a couple of furniture stores on Saturday, including the gigantic Costco Home warehouse. We didn’t find anything too promising, but we’ll keep looking.

We also went to the new-and-improved Everett Children’s Museum, which was really fun for all three kids, and great for Julie and me to watch them have fun. After that (proving that, in fact, we were celebrating Julie’s birthday) we went to Wight’s Home & Garden, which is having a huge Christmas extravaganza with all manner of Christmas stuff for sale, including millions of ornaments, a few of which were purchased and brought home. For dinner, we had tasty Mexican at El Gitano.

Sunday was also an exciting day. We went to church at the host church for Bethany’s preschool, because Bethany and her classmates sang a few songs for the congregation. (Bethany did great!) Then we went to Applebee’s for a birthday dinner (i.e., lunch) with Julie’s parents! (The old-fashioned Reformed man in me wants to assure you that going out to eat on Sunday is an incredibly rare occasion for us; in fact, Julie’s birthday falling on a Sunday is probably a prerequisite.) After dinner, we went home for cake and gifts, graciously provided by Julie’s parents.

So, I had a great weekend, and I think Julie did, too. Other festivities will come later this week, of course – Happy Thanksgiving to all, and to all a good night. I’m going to bed.

I returned to work today after a bit of a vacation – my mom arrived in Seattle this past Tuesday, and hung out with my family for about a week. I brought her back to the airport this morning – hopefully she survived the long flight back to Florida.

We had a great time. The best part was that the kids got to spend some quality time with their Grandma Freeman, of course, but we also did some special things, like watching the Red Sox win the World Series, attending Bethany’s preschool’s Harvest Party, going to the Children’s Museum in Bellingham, eating at Billy McHale’s, celebrating Rebecca’s first birthday, carving pumpkins with friends, and having a nice Sunday dinner with family.

Our house is your house, Mom – come back any time! We miss you already! And drag that husband of yours along next time!

Julie's parents invited us on a nice three-mile hike today at the Stimpson Family Nature Reserve east of Bellingham. Rebecca enjoyed the view from my back, and the rest of us followed a trail loop that wound its way through a dense forest with lots of moss, leaves, mud, and a few bridges, which are always a highlight. It's good for the soul to get away from the sights and sounds of modern life every once in a while...

Update: Corrected the name of the reserve; added a link for more information.

I had a great birthday party last Friday evening with some of my best friends – ten good friends from work.

As I said, it was a great party, and not just because I conquered the world. The evening started out with “gourmet” pizza from a local pizza place and some non-work-related conversation. Then we started the games – half of the party gravitated toward the kitchen table, where a rousing game of Monopoly was played, and the other half to the card table, where an interesting game of Risk took place. Various snacks were available throughout the evening.

I'm told that James (a fellow developer) ended up the grand monopolist. I staked my claim in New Zealand early on in the game of Risk and played it safe until I was finally able to capitalize on an opportunity to conquer Asia, then North America, and then the rest of the world. A side game of Stratego was also played, won by John.

Thanks to all who came and made my birthday that much brighter. Thanks particularly to Julie, who planned the whole event and made sure that the available food was truly all-you-can-eat! A great start to my next decade of life.

Yes, it’s true; I’m now an old man in my thirties. It’s not all that bad, really.

I’ve had a great birthday celebration so far. Last Thursday, on my 30th birthday, Julie surprised me by coming to my work with Rebecca, some black balloons, and Krispy Kreme doughnuts for my coworkers! That evening, we went out for dinner and dessert, and I got to open my birthday present – a Timex Ironman Data Link watch! It’s very cool, and I’ve been having fun uploading alarms, appointments, phone numbers, and even a simple Yahtzee game to the watch from my computer. It’s a fun toy, to be sure, but I hope to get good use out of it as well. Of course, the best part is that I can look to my wrist when I forget what day of the week it is!

I also got a lovely card from my favorite daughters… On Saturday, the girls went to Lynden to hang out with Grandpa and Grandma, so Julie and I got to stay home and do some chores that needed to get done. Saturday evening, we went out to eat with friends from church – we drove down to Everett to eat at Chang’s Mongolian Grill. Very good stuff – I ate far more than my fill.

Today (Sunday), Julie and I went to church together – without kids – almost like old times – and then went to Lynden to reunite our family and have Sunday dinner with Julie’s parents. We had a good dinner and dessert, and I got to open another present – the Babylon 5 Movie Collection! I can’t wait to watch them! I’m also very thankful for the cards, gifts, and birthday wishes I got this past week from others in my family. Thanks, everyone!

So, I’ve had a great birthday, and more is on the way – Julie has graciously planned for me a birthday party with friends from work this Friday night, which is sure to be a great time.

If I am to grow old, I’m so glad I’ll be doing it with my wonderful wife Julie. I have no doubt that the best of life is yet to come – Lord willing.

On Friday evening we enjoyed the annual Carnival at Mount Vernon Christian School, where Sarah attends first grade. Unfortunately, the weather was a bit drizzly – autumn has come early to the Pacific Northwest – but they moved many of the attractions into the gym, so it wasn't so bad. We had hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, and a drink for dinner, followed by a variety of games and activities in exchange for tickets, which were purchased for 25 cents a ticket. There was a bouncy castle, popcorn, cotton candy, a throw-the-ball-into-the-hole game, and a bunch of other activities we didn't participate in, including a dunk tank and pony rides! Our final activity was the Cake Walk, which is a little bit like musical chairs, except that it's not so competitive, and the winner gets a cake! We won a tasty white cake and had some of it for dessert this evening.

Anyway, it was a good time, and it's always nice to help the school. The event seemed well-attended, so hopefully a good amount of funds was raised.

It's video time! Click on the pictures below (and wait!) for short videos showing Sarah, Bethany, and Rebecca in motion!

Yes, Sarah is back to school this week. She’s now in first grade at Mount Vernon Christian School. Kindergarten last year was five half-days per week – now she’s in school for the full day every day. I think she’s going to have a great year.

Was she excited for her first day in the first grade? We report; you decide:

I have an irrational fear of spiders. You’d think I’d have had the common sense to marry someone that would be willing to squash them for me. On the contrary, I managed to marry the only other human on the planet that is more terrified of spiders than I am.

Thus it was that a large spider fell out of a paper towel roll and froze in fear, hearing the deafening scream of a grown woman. It was then covered with a Cool Whip™ bowl and the room quarantined until the “man of the house” returned home. It was he that was required to move the spider to an undisclosed location, release it, and then stamp it into oblivion lest it spread its genetic material and breed the next generation of even larger spiders.

I will admit, it was very big – the biggest our house has seen. Now it is very dead.

This past weekend was nice. Friday night we went swimming at the YMCA in Bellingham. Well, the girls swam, anyway – it’s a pretty shallow pool, so I just walked around and made sure that Rebecca didn’t find a way to get her head underwater. The girls are making good progress, though.

After swimming, we went to Billy McHale’s for dinner. It was great, especially since we got to use our “thank you” gift certificate from Mike and Susanne! Thanks, guys! It’s a really great family restaurant – not terribly expensive, fun atmosphere, great food, and small portion desserts for less than $2! We’ll definitely be back.

Saturday was a standard chore day. I rented a lawn roller to try to smooth our back lawn out a bit – not sure if it’ll have any permanent impact, but hopefully it improved things a little. We finally got some rain in the afternoon and evening – in fact, it rained buckets, which seemed quite unusual after weeks and weeks of sunny weather. Unfortunately, Saturday night was spent at a five-hour emergency school board meeting…

Sunday was a nice, slow day – church, newspaper, etc. We also drove the girls and their bikes to a student parking lot of Skagit Valley College so that they could practice riding. Bethany is doing really well with her training wheels, and Sarah is making great progress without them! If we could just get her on the bike a little more, I know that she’d be a pro in no time.

And let’s not forget the Olympics. I’ll be glad when they’re over so that I won’t be tempted to watch so much television any more, but it has been fun to watch the Americans do their thing.

Last weekend, that is. I haven’t had much opportunity to blog this week, what with the Olympics and all. So, let’s start way back on last Thursday night, when I went to the bachelor party of Julie’s younger brother Mike. I joined the group at Cornwall Park, where we played a round of Frisbee Golf – I even bought my own set of discs for the occasion. We had a good time, and I even managed to get a birdie once…

After golf we ate dinner at Diego’s, a good Mexican restaurant in Bellingham. We went from there to one of Mike’s friend’s house, where there was plenty of gambling, drinking, and smoking. I participated only in the former (I dislike beer and have never smoked), but had a successful night playing various forms of poker. Beginner’s luck, I assure you. All in all, it was a great party, and I’m very glad I was there.

Friday was dedicated to wedding preparations, the rehearsal, and the rehearsal dinner at Julie’s parents. Saturday was the wedding. My three daughters participated as three of the four flower girls! Julie, Jen (Julie’s older brother’s wife), and I served as hosts at the reception, though the women did all of the hard work – I was mainly along for the ride. The wedding was beautiful, and the reception was great. Congratulations, Mike and Susanne!

We stayed in Lynden on Sunday for church, a birthday party for Bethany, and farewells to Mike and Susanne, who drove back to California for their honeymoon. Monday was a family day as well – some of Julie’s immediate family drove to Artist Point at Mount Baker and hiked around a bit. It’s beautiful up there.

Vacation ended when I drove back to Mount Vernon for a school board meeting on Monday night. To see the weekend in pictures (except for the bachelor party – sorry), be sure to check out our latest photo albums.

Julie claims that she’s never attended a Mariners game where the Mariners lost. If there was any season where that string would be broken, you'd think it would be this one – but she just got back from watching the Mariners scrape by the Minnesota Twins.

I wish I could say that the winning run was scored by my favorite player, Dan Wilson, but at least it was Willie Bloomquist, another of my favorites. It sounds like a good time was had by all.

Bethany turned 4 today! She says it feels completely different than 3. I think she’s going to make a great four-year-old.

Julie and I just returned from celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary! Neither finances nor our nine-month-old baby allowed us a Hawaiian vacation, so we did the next best thing – we spent a night on Orcas Island. We had a really great time. The pictures tell the story, so be sure to check them out.

Special thanks go to Julie’s parents for watching our kids while we were gone, and to Rebecca for not crying the entire time, and to Sarah and Bethany, for being good girls and having lots of fun with Grandpa and Grandma.

We’ve been having exceptionally hot weather around here lately – at least for us. High temperatures have been above normal for the past two weeks. In fact, this past Friday and Saturday, we experienced 90-degree weather. This is status quo for other parts of the U.S., of course, but we’re not used to it around here, and I’m looking forward to some cooler weather. Particularly because the air conditioning unit on my side of the building at work isn’t able to keep up with demand, and I really don’t enjoy working in 80-85 degree heat.

We have no air conditioning at home of course, so we’ve had to make use of our two fans to keep cool, as well as the 500-gallon swimming pool we bought recently. That’s enough water that I have to worry about chlorine and all of that business, but it’s been worth it to beat the heat…

Recently Sarah lost two teeth in as many days – here’s a picture of her new smile.

She’s playing on a playground near Lake Padden, where Logos had its annual company picnic this past Saturday. We had a great time eating, playing, and chatting. The girls and I even waded around in the lake a bit – fortunately, we didn’t get Swimmer’s Itch like some of my coworkers and their kids. Of course, nobody realized that the lake was infected, or we wouldn’t have touched it. Live and learn…

As you probably know, I’m a big fan of really spicy food. The best way to “pump up the volume” of my favorite Mexican dish is to add some hot sauce, so I enjoy trying different varieties – the hotter the better.

Julie’s parents recently got back from a trip to Hawaii and were kind enough to bring me a gift pack of tasty hot sauces from Hawaii! There are plenty of mediocre (or worse) hot sauces out there, so I was happy to find that these sauces are really quite good.

All three sauces have scotch bonnet peppers as their main ingredient. I wasn’t really familiar with that pepper, so I was surprised to find out that it is very like the habanero, the hottest pepper you’ll find at a grocery store, and just about the hottest pepper you’ll find anywhere. (In fact, the scotch bonnet and the habanero are the same species; you’ll have to ask my brother-in-law what is required for two different peppers to be the same species.)

Thanks for the great gift! The best thing about really hot sauces is that you can’t use much at a time, so they last a good long time! Frozen chimichangas for lunch aren’t so bad with a good hot sauce…

It's time for the next exciting installment of the Rebecca video saga: “So Big!”

RebeccaSoBig.mpeg (830 KB)

Our family had a nice Fourth of July weekend. Saturday was a normal day of chores and such, though we did watch a couple of movies – the girls watched the Lion King 1½, and Julie and I watched Miracle, which was a good movie about the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey team. (I’m afraid I was too young to remember anything about the actual game, though the 1984 Summer Olympics certainly put a soft spot in my heart for the Games.)

On Sunday we attended church, had a nice walk/ride/skate with the kids, and watched fireworks on TV that night – the whole family watched A Capitol Fourth, and Julie and I watched the Boston Pops. So, a relatively quiet Independence Day for us, except for the war zone outside our house – fireworks are still legal here in Mount Vernon, so it was a long, loud night. Running fans in the girls’ rooms provided enough white noise to keep them asleep all night, thankfully.

Today was a big day – Sarah finally got to eat “real food” again after her surgery. She’s back to her old self in that regard, often eating more than I do! The girls also started their summer activities today, with their first gymnastics lesson this morning and their first swimming lesson this afternoon. Sarah also practiced piano – she practices every day between lessons. We all went to the park for a late lunch and had a great day.

If you’d like a more visual take on our weekend, be sure to check out our photos, organized and captioned by Julie. Hope you all had a great Fourth of July weekend yourselves. Happy 228th Birthday, America!

I've got plenty to blog about, but it's hard to write this late at night. I'm going to bed. Hopefully the frantic pace of life will slow down enough to blog soon...

We have reached a new milestone – our third child is now mobile. She's officially “into everything,” which is a first for this house. We're learning what isn't baby-proof by trial and error.

We were somewhat prepared, though; a few weeks ago we bought and installed a safety gate at the top of the staircase. Now to remember to keep it closed.

In the grand tradition of Rebecca milestone videos, I proudly present:

RebeccaCrawls.mpeg (890 KB)

I had a great Father’s Day this past Sunday. We drove up to Lynden to spend the afternoon with Julie’s parents. The weather was beautiful (we’ve seen quite a few nice days this month). Sunday dinner was great – Julie’s dad made his “famous” salmon, barbecued with a brown sugary glaze.

The day was even more interesting because we were able to visit with “long lost” relatives from Michigan – Harry and Sandy, cousins of my mom. Julie and I hadn’t seen them since our Calvin days, so it was great to catch up a bit. Can nine years really have gone by since then?

Sarah had surgery to remove her tonsils and adenoids yesterday morning. The surgery was “outpatient” and only took a half an hour or so. Coming out of anesthesia is never fun, but she didn’t panic, and after a nap at home, she was already walking around a bit. She was pretty nauseous much of the day yesterday, but seems to be better today. She doesn’t like taking her pain medication, especially in the middle of the night, but she’s otherwise recovering very well. She isn’t allowed to do much for the next two weeks, and she’s not allowed to eat anything that wouldn’t survive a blender, so things are going to continue to be frustrating for her, but she has been a very brave girl and we’re really proud of her.

The first thing that anyone says when they’ve heard about her surgery is something along the lines of “I didn’t think that they did that surgery very much any more.” It does seem to be a lot less common these days, but there were three other kids having the exact same surgery that morning, so it can’t be completely uncommon. Sarah had the surgery to hopefully eliminate her chronic sinusitis, which is related to her allergies, but was apparently exacerbated by her tonsils and adenoids. We’re very happy that the surgery went well, and we pray that it will have the desired effect.

What a joy it is to sleep through the night. Rebecca was sick for a while about a week ago, which resulted in her waking up every hour or so every night for a while. That can get pretty tiring, as I'm sure you can imagine. Thankfully, she's better now, and she's slept all night long for the last five nights or so. She's still getting up a bit early for our tastes, but we'll take what we can get. And now, to bed, to sleep, perchance to dream...

“My MRI showed no evidence for active tumor growth.” Always nice words to hear, particularly from one's own mother.

“I'm thankful for every new day the Lord gives me.” Wise words for us all.

Yes, we're back from our trip to Eastern Washington. In fact, we've been back since Monday evening, but I haven't managed to write since then. So, here goes...

Bethany's end-of-school program last Friday morning was nice and simple. The kids all went bowling afterwards; Bethany had a great time. I think I'd enjoy bowling a lot more myself if I got to use the gutter guards.

That afternoon was Field Day at Mount Vernon Christian School. I was one of the many parent helpers there that day, and it was pretty fun. The kids are split into many teams of about a dozen, mixing the Kindergarteners through fifth graders. There are only ten kids in the Kindergarten class, so each team had one of them. It was great to see kids of all ages working together to compete in various events, including many normal track-and-field events and some more interesting events, like a water balloon toss, walking with an eraser on your head, etc. It was a very rainy day, but it barely rained at all while the kids were on the field, so the whole event turned out quite well.

The rest of the family met us at the school, and after Field Day was all over, we left for Eastern Washington to see our friends the Boons. It was a decent drive for the Friday of Memorial Day weekend; not too much traffic.

We had a really great time with the Boons – mostly a relaxing time of being away from home and other responsibilities. The Boons have two girls of their own, so our girls always have a great time. The older girls spent a lot of time outside in their huge yard; they've got a swing set, lots of grass, dirt, and rocks, and even a litter of five cute kittens.

We adults played cards in the evenings, ate lots of great food, drank more alcohol than I’ve ever drunk in a weekend (don’t panic – that would be two hard lemonades and a daiquiri), and relaxed as much as possible. Greg and I even managed to fit in two games of Risk. His dice were gracious hosts.

The view from their house includes farmland and horses; in fact, from the window, we watched a horse give birth! Amazing how quickly a foal gets on its feet; Rebecca is still trying to figure out how to get from point A to point B.

The wives took the younger girls shopping on Monday, so the husbands took the older girls to the “dinosaur park” that’s nearby. After a great barbeque lunch on Monday, we finally had to say farewell. I wish we’d have stayed a bit longer, because we soon hit standstill traffic outside of Cle Elum, and spent a couple of hours driving a handful of miles.

Still, we finally got past the traffic and made it safely home before the Mariners game was over. A great Memorial Day weekend that I hope we can repeat in the future.

Tomorrow is a busy day. I'm taking the day off, because we've got a lot to do. There's Bethany's end-of-year preschool program, there's Sarah's Field Day at school, and there's the drive over the mountains to see our good friends in Eastern Washington. It'll be good to see them again, and I'm sure we'll have a great time. We're spending the weekend over there, and will be back home Monday night.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Much to our surprise, Julie and I have become baseball fans since we moved to the “Seattle area” after college. An exciting 1995 season got the ball rolling, and the 116-win 2001 season was great fun. However, the team-that-must-not-be-named hasn't been doing as well the last couple of years, and they're doing really badly this year, currently last in their division and having among the worst records in the Major Leagues. So, baseball isn't as much fun this year. I'm a fair weather fan, you might say, and there's storm clouds as far as the eye can see.

Of course, they say that every cloud has a silver lining, and I find mine in the great performance of Dan Wilson, my favorite baseball player. He's been a great catcher in Seattle for ten years, has a great attitude, and I've always had a liking for him that I don't fully understand. He's rarely had great stats compared to the other players on the team, but so far this year he's leading the team in batting average and runs batted in, and it's been fun to watch – when I can bring myself to pay any attention to the games at all...

Our entertainment for yesterday evening was the Elementary Spring Program of Mount Vernon Christian School. The program was enjoyable, but it also demonstrated the music skills that each class learned throughout the year. Each class from Kindergarten through fourth grade had their own musical numbers – Sarah and her fellow classmates did a few songs, including the classic song about a bunch of monkeys jumping on the bed.

Particularly interesting to me were the second and third graders, who played instruments I'd never seen before called “Boomwhackers”. Each student had a long plastic tube, some longer than others. They'd hold it with one hand and strike their other hand with it to sound a hollow note – the longer the tube, the lower the note. Different notes used different colors. It seemed like a great way to teach the notes to the kids – and a lot cheaper than handbells!

Can you spot Sarah?

I just wanted to wish a happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers that might be reading this blog. In particular, I'd like to thank my own mom for being such a great mom and helping me grow into the man I am today. I only wish I could have stopped by and said “hi” today! A phone call will have to do...

I'd also like to acknowledge the mother of my three daughters, who also happens to be the love of my life. She's the best!

We just got home from a trip to Lynden to celebrate with a few of the other great mothers in our lives, including Julie's mom and her mom's mom! We had a great day, and I'm hoping for a great week.

Sarah and I had a great time at the zoo today with her Kindergarten class. It was a beautifully sunny day, and felt far more like summer than spring, which is great for being outside, but not so great for seeing lively animals. Still, we saw our share of God's creatures, and the entire field trip was without any unfortunate incidents. I think everyone there had a good time.

Special thanks to those good kids, great parents, an outstanding Kindergarten teacher, and my boss, who, though I have yet to speak with him in person about my absence today, will, as I know from past experience, be generously understanding about this last-minute vacation day.

A trip to the zoo isn't complete without lots of pictures – here's a picture of Sarah taking a picture of a big python...

In a last-minute change of plans, I'm taking the day off work to go with my daughter Sarah and the rest of her Kindergarten class to the Woodland Park Zoo! Sarah has been expressing concern all week that neither of her parents would be tagging along, and she was quite distraught last night, so I caved. Mom's a lot happier, too, and I know Sarah and I will have a great time.

I would like to extend my deepest apologies to my many avid blog readers – things have been very busy around here the last couple of weeks, and I simply haven't made the time to blog.

I could write a long entry about all of the things that have been keeping us so busy lately, but that would require remembering them, so I'll just focus on what I remember best, which is Sarah's 6th birthday! She's been showered with parties, gifts, and love from friends and family for the past few days, and has had a great time. Six doesn't seem all that old, but it's more than half way to ten, and that's way too old, so I'm just not going to go there...

Anyway, to reward your patience, here's a picture of my pretty girls sitting among the tulips. Hopefully my next post will be sooner than another two weeks from now...

We're home! We had a nice drive to Modesto on Thursday and enjoyed dinner and fellowship with Rob and Nell that evening. The drive on Friday was long – from Modesto to Portland – but we managed. Today we took it a little easier; we swam a bit in the hotel swimming pool this morning, and spent a few hours at the Portland Children's Museum. What a cool place! Anyway, another four hours of driving and we made it home. It's great to be back. We won't be able to get everything unpacked tonight before bed, and we'll be celebrating Easter tomorrow, so I'm afraid Julie will still be unpacking on Monday...

We really had a great trip, and I can't wait to do it again someday. For now, it's time for bed. Good night!

In a few hours, we start our journey north. The last couple of days were nice and relaxing. Visited some more family, played at Mile Square Park (where Julie and I had our first date!), checked out my old church (where Julie and I had our first kiss!!), did a little swimming, watched Toy Story, hung out with my brother and sister-in-law, walked a pier in Ventura, checked out my step-dad's job site, had sushi and fish tacos, and hung out with my mom and step-dad. We've said all our goodbyes, and we're off to Modesto. Special thanks to all of our family that made this such a great trip for us! We had a great time, and I'm already looking forward to our next visit back to sunny Southern California. Bye!

Our California vacation continues... It's been a good trip so far. We've been seeing lots of family -- brother and sister-in-law and new niece and grandmas and mom and dads and aunts and uncles and cousins and cousins once removed and brother-in-law and future-sister-in-law-in-law. :-)

Anyway, it's been really good to see them all. The girls have been great with all of the driving, though Rebecca is getting pretty tired of it. We're looking forward to a relaxing day tomorrow, and more good times in Southern California. Here's hoping the Big One waits until we're out of here...

We had a great day today! Spent some quality time with Rob and Nell this morning, had a nice drive to Ventura this afternoon, and made it to Mom and Erik's place in good time. We even stopped at In-N-Out for lunch, which has become something of an Californian icon since I was a kid. We just had a great dinner at Mimi's with Mom and Erik, gave the kids a bath, and now we're settling down for the night in our hotel. A nice, relaxing day, really. We're looking forward to spending tomorrow with my brother, his wife, and their new baby tomorrow (and Mom and Erik, too!). We did have a near miss today in the car -- it wasn't my fault; the guy wasn't watching where he was going and almost plowed right into us -- so we're praying for continued travelling mercies as our big California trip continues...

This blog post is my official reminder that 17 hours of driving is too long. We left just before 4 a.m. and got to Modesto just before 9 p.m. That's a long day of driving. Fortunately, we made it here safely, but the trip was not uneventful.

The most unfortunate thing that happened was... well... I fell asleep at the wheel. Or something like it. One of those things that only other people do, and I went and did it. In fact, only an hour before we had seen someone fall asleep at the wheel and spin out of control, fortunately into the median without hitting anything or hurting anyone. There I was, driving along, minding my own business, not a care in the world, listening to music, thinking about something or another, occasionally glancing at my happily sleeping family, and then -- rumble strip. Thank God (literally!) for the rumble strip, which startled me out of my light slumber, at which point I made a safe maneuver back into my lane and counted my blessings (primarily the four that were still safe in the van). We switched drivers at the next rest stop. I'm just thankful that this lesson learned was not a hard one.

Fortunately, I was able to prove my driving skills later that evening, where I successfully managed to eat Nachos Supreme while driving at 70-some mph, mostly thanks to my Mom, who taught me from an early age (by example, in our old Volkswagen bug) how to drive with my knee. :-) Don't worry, I was very careful...

Anyway, we've had a very nice time with our good friends Rob and Nell, who graciously allowed us to sleep in their comfortable bed last night. The weather is beautiful, I feel great, and I'm ready for the trip down to Ventura, which should be a lot more pleasant than yesterday, if only because I can count the hours of driving on two hands.

A few hours of sleep and we're off to California! Our first road trip in a long time, and with three kids, no less. We're planning to stay in Modesto at the house of two good old friends of ours tomorrow night, so we've got a lot of driving to do. Here's hoping for a great trip...

As you may have noticed, I haven't thought to post much to my blog in the last week. Nor do I have anything particularly exciting to blog about at the moment, so you'll have to make due with this cute photo of the women in my life posing in front of some local daffodils. Beautiful!

After years of indoctrination to watch out for the Big One in Southern California, it finally hit... Mount Vernon. Julie and I were awakened last night at 3:34 a.m. by a shaking bed. It's amazing how quickly the body can get into emergency mode... Fortunately, the shaking stopped as suddenly as it started, and it didn't seem bad enough to do any damage, so we checked on the kids – who didn't wake up, of course. The frightening reality is that kids don't seem to wake up for anything – not an earthquake, not a smoke detector, not anything.

Anyway, so we checked on the kids, wandered around the house, and checked the television and the radio for news. Unfortunately, those two forms of media were not helpful for our frame of mind, since we couldn't find a channel or station that even mentioned it. I tried to sleep, but I couldn't live with the uncertainty... Where was the earthquake? Has Seattle been leveled? Or, worse yet, Bellingham? It didn't seem likely, considering the TV and radio didn't yet think it newsworthy, but... Did our furnace explode? Something else nearby? Have the Russians invaded? It's amazing what your mind will come up with in the middle of the night.

So, I finally decided to Google it. What would we do without the Internet, and what would the Internet be without Google? Anyway, I quickly found my way to the USGS Recent Earthquake Activity site and noticed a little red box in northwestern Washington that was bigger than most of the other boxes on the map, so I clicked it, and clicked it again, and clicked it again, and it became clear that the epicenter for the earthquake was right in Mount Vernon, Washington. In fact, it was about a mile from my house. I'm sure I've never been this close to an epicenter before, even growing up in California, so I'm glad it was only a 3.8. It was certainly comforting to read the details and validate our experience so that I could finally get back to sleep.

When I was a kid, I thought earthquakes were a blast, and couldn't understand why my Mom would so quickly appear at my bedroom doorway in a panic. I didn't have any kids of my own, then. Earthquakes don't seem that fun anymore.

Things aren't peachy-keen here at the Ball household. It all started Wednesday night; Julie wasn't feeling well – sore, tired, sick, etc. – and I ended up staying home on Thursday to make things a little easier for her, though I'm afraid my nursing skills are far below par (sorry Mom...).

That same day, Sarah had her appointment with an ear, nose, and throat doctor – Sarah was referred there by her allergist and our family doctor in the hopes that her allergy symptoms can be reduced. The “ENT” recommends that she have her tonsils and adenoids removed, so that'll happen some time after school is out.

To top it all off, Rebecca has been pretty sick – very congested and uncomfortable, and incapable of sleeping more than two hours at a time, even during the night, so sleep has been a precious commodity.

Friday started out pretty normally; Julie was feeling a lot better, so I went to work. Unfortunately, I got what she had and was feeling pretty bad by the end of the day. So Julie was up most of the night taking care of Rebecca, since I was all but useless, which wasn't great preparation for a busy day on Saturday.

We didn't get much done on Saturday morning, though Sarah did make it to a friend's birthday party. Julie's parents came on Saturday afternoon to help us with what was certainly the highlight of the weekend – we now have a new kitchen window! It's a garden window, so it helps our kitchen to look a bit bigger, and certainly nicer – Julie's dad did a great job of installing it for us.

Unfortunately, at one point during the day, Bethany accidentally scratched Sarah's eye with her fingernail, so after dinner, we ended up taking Sarah to the emergency room while Julie's parents kindly watched Bethany for us. Sarah was in a lot of pain, and has a nasty scratch on her eyeball. She's doing a lot better now, and is using topical antibiotics to prevent infection. Thanks again to Julie's parents, who went above and beyond the call of duty yesterday!

After another sleepless night, our family was clearly not going to be able to make it to church today, so I'm afraid we had to skip. Julie has been doing a great job of taking care of the family, and me in particular – I sincerely hope that I'll start feeling better by tomorrow morning.

All in all, I thank God for Julie, and I feel for all of the single parents out there. Days like these are hard enough when there are two parents – I simply can't imagine what a single parent must go through when they get sick...

Time for me to go and get some more rest. Here's hoping for a good week!

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, and that certainly happened this weekend. Julie and the girls had hoped to visit friends of ours in eastern Washington this weekend, but it was not to be. Rain here has meant snow in the mountains, enough of it that driving over the pass is ill-advised. So, I get to hang out with my girls this weekend after all. At least they didn't get stuck over there...

If you've got the patience (or the bandwidth), check out this video clip of Rebecca laughing... (Try to ignore her father.)

RebeccaLaughs.avi (1.64 MB)

Of everyone in our family, Rebecca is certainly growing the fastest, so you'll see pictures of her here from time to time, for no reason other than to see her taking her next step (metaphorically speaking, at this point).

With a little assistance, Rebecca can now sit up and play nicely. She's also learning the joy of having toys in her mouth...

Of course, at the moment she's screaming her head off because Mom's at church. You take the joys, and you take the sorrows. That's parenting for you. :-)

I sent in my 2003 Federal Income Tax return yesterday; it's always good to get that done. I filled in the same blanks as last year, just with different numbers, so it wasn't too bad. I'm getting a good-sized refund this year, though I had adjusted my withholding somewhat so that my refund wasn't quite as big as last year. Yes, I know that I should do a better job of matching my withholding to my actual tax burden. Yes, I know it's basically an interest-free loan to the government. Even so, I find great joy in getting an “extra” check every spring to save or spend. I suppose it's just a little enforced saving. It's certainly better than the alternative – having to send in a check – so I'm happy to leave a decent-sized buffer zone and live with the theoretical loss of interest.

Speaking of taxes, even though it's fairly common to complain about the federal government taking away too much of our money, I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that we personally have nothing to complain about. Politicians, and thus tax laws, are these days very kind to single income, married with children families. Our tax “burden” is less than 3% of our total income, thanks in large part to the $1,000 per kid that we get through the “child tax credit.” Still, I'm happy to complain about big government taxing us too much, at least for the sake of my bachelor friends and coworkers, who are paying a much, much larger chunk of their total income, I guarantee.

Yes, Bethany fell asleep watching a video that Sarah picked out. (It's an old desert life documentary that Disney put out years ago; for some reason, our church library has a copy, and she checked it out.) Bethany didn't sleep for very long, but even if I had not seen her asleep, I would know that she had fallen asleep at some point today. How would I know this? Because she is still awake, and it is almost 10 p.m. She's generally pretty good at falling asleep well before 9, but if she sleeps even for a nanosecond during the day, she can't sleep at night. That's just the way it is; another small adventure in parenting.

It’s true; our kids love the television. We limit their TV time to quite reasonable amounts (at least in our opinion), but sometimes it’s nice for them to have a bit of calm entertainment so that the parental units can more easily get stuff done. VeggieTales has always been a big hit at our house – I had already purchased a tape or two before our oldest was born! Even at her young age, Rebecca is no different; here she is, taking a short break from wailing for dinner to watch a few minutes of VeggieTales:

Has it really been a whole week since I’ve written here? I guess so. Well, I just wanted to give an official online “Congratulations!” to my brother and his wife on account of their new baby girl! I’ve seen pictures, and she’s a sweetheart, though I’m pretty sure they pulled this picture from Eric’s baby album by mistake...

If you give a man a digital camera, he'll probably want to take it on vacation. And if you let him take it on vacation, he's sure to ask for a carrying case. And if you give a man a carrying case for his digital camera, he's going to take lots of pictures. And if a man takes lots of pictures, he's bound to want an extra battery for when he uses up the main battery. And if you give a man an extra battery, he'll more than likely want a travel/car charger to go with it. And if you give a man a car charger, he'll ask for a tripod, because he'll want to get the total bill for all the camera accessories above $60 so that SterlingTek will ship it all to him second-day FedEx for free.

I'm not terribly comfortable with Internet stores that I've never heard of before, and I generally figure that if it's too good to be true, it probably is, but SterlingTek has great reviews, so I went out on a limb. The big draw was the generic camera battery, which cost only $18.50, in comparison to the Sony camera battery, which retails for $60! The carrying case was also cheaper than I could find anywhere else, the car charger seemed like a smart idea, especially consider we'll have two batteries now, and a tripod is the best way to get high-quality portraits. It all added up to $81.96, no tax, free shipping -- a pretty good deal, considering all of the stuff we got, and the fact that it arrived in two days, and the fact that it all works. Call me another satisfied customer. Now I just have to wait for our next vacation...

This past Saturday, the family spent some time visiting car dealerships shopping for a new minivan, but came up short. However, we all left the house early this afternoon in a 1995 Plymouth Grand Voyager with 120,000 miles and returned home in a 2003 Chevy Venture with 12,800!

Our new minivan has some amazing features:

• When you turn the key, the engine starts.
• When you press on the gas pedal, the van goes forward.
• When you press on the brake pedal, the van stops.

These are critical features for me, and I'm happy to report that the new van performs them admirably.

But wait, there's more! Our new van has a number of additional incredible features. For example:

• When you apply the brakes to a complete stop, the new van doesn't shudder and slide.
• When you accelerate from a slow speed, the new van doesn't lurch when switching gears.
• When you make a sharp turn at slow speeds, the new van doesn't make horrible metalic noises.
• When you attempt to use the cruise control, it actually works.
• The new van doesn't have a slow but annoying transmission fluid leak.
• The new van doesn't have a loose hood ornament; in fact, it doesn't have one at all.

Needless to say, we're quite happy with our new van. It also has a few less interesting features:

• Dual sliding doors, one of which is a magic power sliding door.
• Power windows and power door locks.
• Remote keyless entry, including a button for opening the magic door.
• Eight-passenger seating; any or all of the three middle seats can be folded, reclined, or removed.
• Driver-side power seat control.
• Magic doors that lock when you start driving.
• Magic headlights that turn on when it gets dark and turn off when you get out.
• V6 engine, ABS brakes.
• CD player.
• Rear defrost, rear wipers, rear washer fluid.
• Rear climate control.
• Lots of storage space in the back, including cute little compartments under the floor.
• Roof rack.
• A couple years of bumper-to-bumper warranty.

Watch for our new van tooling around Mount Vernon, or cruising down I-5 somewhere between Western Washington and Southern California in the early spring...

We're big fans of our library here in Mount Vernon. We try to get to the library one evening a week so that we can check out a bunch of children's books for the kids to read and for us to read to the kids. Better still is Story Time on Tuesday nights, where a very nice young woman named Lisa has a half-hour with the kids to tell them stories, sing songs, and the like. We've participated in Story Time for the past three years or so, and we're still loving it. So, we love the library -- free books, free entertainment, and it's always a bonus when you can directly benefit from your tax dollars at work!

Bethany had her dentist appointment with Dr. Larson this past Friday morning. I expected that I'd have to tell you that she refused to get her X-rays and screamed through her cleaning and exam; after all, that's what happened last year...

But I don't have to say those things! Because she did great, and I'm really proud of her! She sat very still on my lap for the X-rays, and she didn't terribly mind the pretty hygienist cleaning her teeth while she watched Dora on the ceiling TV. She even managed to endure the dentist poking around in there (she doesn't fancy most men, even in the nicest of circumstances). She got a brand new toothbrush and a little toy top for her troubles, not to mention a big happy hug from me and her mom.

Oh, and the results were good, too. No cavities, and her two front teeth are hanging in there (they've suffered quite a bit of damage due to a couple of bad falls). We have to floss a little more often than we already have been, but otherwise it was a miraculously pleasant visit to the dentist. Hooray!

Enjoy these portrait-worthy pictures of Rebecca!

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Sarah and Bethany both use Dr. B. J. Larson as their dentist. He's a pediatric dentist, so we probably pay a little extra, but his office is pretty amazing. The friendly voices, calm atmosphere, special names for dental tools, comfortable exam tables, televisions showing cartoons built into the ceilings, and a chest of trinkets to choose from when its all over make it more like an amusement park than a dental office!

At any rate, Sarah had her latest dentist appointment on Tuesday afternoon. Unfortunately, she's had a few cavities over the last year or so, so we've been pretty fastidious about brushing twice a day, flossing every night, and chewing a fluoride tablet once a day. Thankfully, it all paid off -- no new cavities! The X-rays, cleaning, and exam all went smoothly, and we don't have to make any return trips until her next exam in six months or so. Hooray! We have only to look forward to her losing more baby teeth -- 2 down, 18 to go, and one of them will be falling out any day now...

Things are considerably less exciting around here now that the snow is gone. Last night we had a little video game party with friends of ours from church, so that made for a more entertaining Friday night than is typical for us.

I did some chores this morning and went to work this afternoon -- trying to make up some hours for the snow day I missed. While I was gone, Rebecca started doing a few exciting things, though. She's beginning to laugh, which is always exciting -- nothing funnier than watching and hearing a newborn baby laugh! She also rolled over, though she wasn't happy about it. Attached is a video of the event, recorded with our new digital camera! Let me know if you have trouble viewing it. (Click on the link below; it might take a little while to download, so be patient...)

RebeccaRollsOver.avi

I slept in yesterday in case the roads were bad, but I needn't have bothered. The drive to work was almost totally clear, and there was very little snow to be seen anywhere on the way home. Winter Storm 2004 is officially over, at least for us. Well, it was fun while it lasted. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

It seems like we spent all day out in the snow... I certainly didn't have a very productive day off work. At least I took some pictures. Here's a better picture of the snow -- to capture falling snow, use the flash!

Rebecca even made it out into the snow today!

Here's Julie and Bethany walking down our street.

And here's our snowy house.

Forecast calls for rain, so we'll be saying farewell to the snow real soon now...

Yesterday was a cool, clear day, so I actually made it to work, though I went in a little late, and made sure I carpooled. Not that I’m particularly uncomfortable driving on solid ice, mind you – I did spend three winters in Michigan, after all – but my truck happens to have less traction than your average toboggan, so I was happy to drive most of the way in a compact car with front-wheel drive.

Today, however, is a different story. As predicted by the weather people, we have awoken to this:

(I need to play with the camera some more; I'm trying to get a picture of falling snow, but it either looks like haze or rain so far...)

Schools were already announcing closures last night in anticipation of Winter Storm 2004, so the kids have no school, and I’m certainly not going to work. Hopefully we’ll make a fun day out of it.

I certainly hope today will be a better day around here than yesterday, when the furnace broke! I wasn’t here, so Julie had to deal with the excitement. The same part that failed about a month ago failed again, so we called the same company out to fix it. Fortunately, they were able to make it here yesterday afternoon (Julie and the kids stayed at a friend’s house for a while), and they made the repair for no charge. So our rapidly cooling house was warm again. I just hope the same part doesn’t fail again...

We did decide to go for it, and thankfully made it to church and back without incident. Our steep driveway and sloped street were my primary concerns, but it didn't turn out to be a problem, at least for the van. Hopefully my pickup won't have difficulties when I head to work tomorrow morning...

When we got back from church, I snapped a shot of our backyard with Sarah's camera -- yes, we really do have snow:

After church and lunch, we went back out there, this time to go shopping. I'm not fond of shopping on Sunday, but we weren't able to get out yesterday, and there were some things we needed. And one thing we wanted, i.e., a new digital camera. That's right, the Ball family is now the official owner of a super-cool digital camera, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P10, a compact 5MP camera. I haven't had much time to play with it yet, but I'm sure you're dying to see a photo, so here's a snapshot of our piano:

When we got back from the store, the kids and I played a bit outside with Joe and Kiara again, so it was a busy day. Hope you had a great weekend yourselves!

Oh, and one more thing: Happy Birthday, Eric!

Happy New Year! Welcome to my first entry for my new Weblog! I decided that one of my "resolutions" for this new year should be to keep in better touch with family and friends, so this "blog" is going to be my attempt at doing so. Check back periodically to find my latest posts, if you like. Most of what I write may only be interesting to my Mom (and maybe not even her), so I don't expect that this blog will be well-read. But, it'll give me a place to vent a little bit, and hopefully some of you will be curious enough about the latest goings-on in my life to drop by every so often. (Believe it or not, I already have a "work" blog, which you can find at http://www.ejball.com/EdAtWork/. That one is really unlikely to be of interest to many of my family and friends, but you're free to check it out if you like.)

Anyway, today was an exciting day -- we woke up to a few good inches of snow on the ground! We won't be leaving the house any time soon -- our vehicles aren't "winterized" by any stretch of the imagination -- but we had a great time in the snow this morning. Sarah and I had a particularly good time, finally having an opportunity to use the plastic sled we bought a year or two back. Inner tubes work best up in the mountains where there's plenty of puffy snow, but hard plastic was great for speeding down our street, which is a pretty decent hill (as a poor teenage girl found out when she tried to drive up it -- she didn't make it up, and had to turn around).

The wildest part about the morning was actually meeting and talking with a few of my neighbors! That's right, real, live, next-door neighbors! Now what were their names again? Sarah and I mostly hung out with Joe and his daughter Kiara; the two girls sped down the hill many times on the sled, with Joe and I running beside, trying to keep up, mostly to keep them away from parked cars and mailbox posts! We largely succeeded, and there were thankfully no injuries. Anyway, this was the first time we've experienced what it's like to really play in the snow at home, so we had a great time. The snow is too soft for an easy snowman for the moment, but maybe we'll figure something out before it all melts...

(One other thing -- the trouble with a Weblog for “keeping in touch” is that it can be a bit one-way. The Comments link below is a great way to keep the lines of communication two-way; if you read this and have anything at all to say in response, even just “Great to hear from you, Ed!”, please click on the link and leave me a note. Thanks!)