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Dog Bites and my community

Yesterday was a tough day for us.  My daughter Anneliese was bit on the face by a dog at about 7pm.  I got the call from Danielle and it was really scary.  Of course I was in the Youth room at church where cell phone coverage is pretty spotty.  My daughter was bit on the face by a friends dog.  Danielle and Anneliese were in an ambulance heading to the hospital and I met them there.   The community we are in was amazing though.  My youth staff went into action and came over to my house and just handled our boys and our neighbors kids so Meghan (next door neighbor) could bring things to the hospital for us.

We were in an amazing hospital but they had just upgraded their computer network this week and the system was slowing everything down.  On top of that there were 80 kids in the ER when we got there.    We checked in at 8pm and didn't end up seeing a doctor until 4:30am.  On a positive note though we were in our own room and people kept texting me and telling me they were praying. 

I sent out a few twitter messages that connect with my facebook and I knew that 1000's of people were praying.  Anneliese ended up being a trooper and only had to get 4 stitches.  After 10 hours in the ER we were home this morning at 7:30am.

It's been tough living in Texas and being so far away from our family and long term friends but our church really showed up last night.  We felt totally cared for and supported by the church and our community.

On a funny note my parents are in Mazatlan Mexico and my mom found out about my daughter in the ER and the dog bit via twitter as it connects with my blog page that she reads.  Never underestimate the power of the internet.

Looking for Danielle

I wish I'd thought to take a picture today. I came home from lunch and was looking for Danielle and Jakob (our new dog) and couldn't find them in the house.  I happened to walk out the back and found them both asleep laying on a blanket in the backyard.  80 degrees blue sky and sunny with a light breeze.  How was your day?

Our new puppy

Here's a picture of our new dog Jakob and Wonder Woman (Anneliese)

Merry Christmas everyone.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. Hope that this is a wonderful season for you all.  My Christmas is usually aimed at trying to stay positive in light of my kids just wanting to open the next present and seeming to not appreciate the one they just opened.  Working on that part of my attitude usually gets me through the morning and then around lunchtime things start to pick up as the TV gets turned on and food and drinks start flowing. 

This Christmas is a bit strange.  The last time we spent Christmas day in Washington was about 12 years ago before we got married.  In a strange coincidence it's also the last time they had crazy snow up in Washington.  My dad told me last night that year there was 18 inches of snow.  It's nice to be with my side of the family but kind of a bummer to not be with Danielle's since that's really what we've done for so many years and all our kids really know.

Our kids are doing great considering they've only been out of the house a couple of times (and then only to the front yard) since Saturday.  It's not supposed to snow much anymore so it looks like we'll be able to get out of the house this afternoon or tomorrow for sure to at least drive around and go to a park or something.

On a positive note my sister and her husband John have an amazing home overlooking the Marina in Olympia.  The view is incredible and definitely makes me miss the Northwest.   There house is also huge so we have our own apartment downstairs which makes it a nice place to take a break.

We're up in Washington until Monday.  Hoping to get back into Seattle this weekend to visit with some friends before we head home to Dallas.

Dec 21, 2008

Stir crazy in the house so Anneliese decided to break out the 'Drinking fist of fury'

Dec 19, 2008

Heading to Whidbey Island to see family.

A great cold day.

Spent the day with great friends here in Seattle.  One of the first couples Danielle and I ever spent time with live here and have for a while.  Chris works as the Director of Modern Worship at First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue.   His other half Tara works there too.  They've got kids pretty similar in age to our so we get along pretty well.  My good friend Josh who was the best man in my wedding and his cool wife Cami and their kids also joined us for the day.  We took the Trolley downtown Seattle and had lunch, went on the carousel and  got some Starbucks. Then we came back to our hotel and destroyed the indoor swimming pool for an hour. Later we made it to Pagiliacci's pizza for dinner.

It was supposed to dump snow all day but it didn't. Chances are it will tonight but it's been pretty nice today.  By nice I mean 35 degrees and not raining.

Loving being with my family. Loving that we have a suite with a door to close off the kids, loving being with friends and kicking it in a city that is close to my heart.  Looking forward to being here for a bunch more days.

Dec 13, 2008

Cowboy Santa and the Roid kids at the Fort Worth Stockyards.

Things changed today

While I type this post I'm involved in an online chat with 3 friends from California and my 8 year old son Soren.  He is proving to be a funny chatter and has good typing skills.  It's a big moment I think as I'm passing on huge knowledge to him.  The internet is so funny he's growing up  with it and it's going to be who he is.  Knowing how to "find" information is a huge skill. Probably the most important skill that there is now.  I'm proud of him. 

I am the muscle Danielle is the skill.

Today we switched bedrooms with our boys.  Danielle had prepped me for it about a month ago and today she mentioned it and I decided to let it happen.   I pretty much had the job of moving the big stuff and she took care of making each room home.  Taking apart bunk beds and moving dressers is what I'm good at. She rocked it for hours after my work was done using a bunch of powertools putting up all the stuff that needs to hang on the boys walls.

Now we have a bigger room and it has a bathroom attached to it but no closet.  We have a funny old house that has 4 bedrooms that are pretty much all the same size.  Each room has 3 windows though and the layout of the windows was perfect for us to switch rooms as our King bed fits between windows and the boys bunk beds fit perfectly in our old room.

Nothing much else going on this weekend. Just hanging at the house. We didn't leave today except to walk out to our trash cans.