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.

We had a bit of a scare with our new television – suddenly channels 4 and 5 didn’t have any sound! First I assumed it was some sort of cable malfunction, but our other TV didn’t have any trouble with the signal. So I then began to think that it must be a malfunction in the TV set. I really didn’t want to pack that heavy thing back in its box and take it back, especially after the great deal we got.

Fortunately, a bit of experimentation led me to the discovery that it was in “SAP” audio mode. I don’t know what that means, except that some channels have audio in that mode and some don’t. Switching to that mode must be a pretty useful thing, because the button to do it is easy to hit on the remote. In any case, I hit that button a few more times and audio was restored.

(Okay, I couldn’t resist figuring out exactly what SAP is, so I “googled” it. It’s the “secondary audio program,” which would be used for an alternate translation (e.g., Spanish) if it was available, but in actuality is used inconsistently and thus causes people such as myself great confusion.)

I made my first visit to the Skagit County Superior Court this morning. Fortunately, I was not there as a defendant, but as a juror.

This was the first time that I’ve had to report for “jury duty,” and it was certainly an interesting experience. I was at least prepared – the jury selection process can involve a lot of waiting, so I made sure to bring reading material, and was glad to have it. My biggest mistake was trying to bring my pocket knife into the courthouse; I was stopped at the metal detector and asked to bring it back to my vehicle, so no harm done.

Unfortunately, the case was not a pleasant one. Perhaps none are, but as a father of three young girls, this particular charge led me to indicate that I was afraid that my objective judgment might possibly be clouded by my emotion. I stated it only as a fear and not as a fact, so I was not immediately excused, though I was unsurprised when, in the end, I was not chosen to be on the jury.

They’re not letting me off the hook that “easily,” though. I have to call back again Friday night to find out if they need me next week. To be continued…?

Ronald Reagan became President of the United States when I was seven years old, and was President until I was fourteen, so it was only natural that I would have idolized him a bit. I was proud to be an American, and I was comforted that Reagan was on the watch in the days when global thermonuclear war seemed like a real possibility. I didn’t follow politics, but I knew I was a Republican. I looked up to Reagan, and I think he proved himself worthy of my admiration. When I contrast his legacy with that left by our more recent two-term President, I’m thankful that I was born when I was.

I’m glad that God has finally taken Ronald Reagan home, and I hope that He will continue to bless the United States of America.

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.