Dave Kurt's Blog

I've been having some problems with my Linksys WRT54G wireless router and was searching online for a firmware upgrade that might solve the problem. I stumbled across this linux based replacement router firmware. It's super easy to install, it's free, and amazingly powerful. The new firmware gives me the ability to boost the power of my router to about triple what it was before, do automatic dynamic DNS updating, do VPN right to the router,QoS rules for throttling traffic and setup my router as a wireless hot spot. Routers with this kind of functionality cost a lot of money. This is very cool and very painless to upgrade and configure.

You can read more about it here at Lifehacker.

Last Saturday, our friend (and one of my old youth group kids) came over to watch our kids and the Schultz's kids - giving a total of 4 girls under 8 plus Nate. Needless to say she was beat. We got home and found her passed out on top of her homework on the couch, drooling on her books. Our babysitters deserve hazard pay.

The kids had a chance today to wear their costumes at school for the big parade in front of all the other kids. Cathie was helping out in the kids classes and got a chance to see them both. Nate was an old man, and Madeline a modern pumpkin.

Our friend (and Nate and Maddie's kindergarten teacher) Sheri has some pretty amazing costumes each year, that leave her open to plenty of mockery later on by us. This year was no exception as she was a giant pencil.

Will, Monaca, my Dad and Sheri all came over for dinner and then to go trick-or-treating. The Madeline's went trick or treating together and Nate got to go solo for the first time with his two friends Austin and Enno.

We didn't have a ton of kids this year, so people must have been pretty generous. My Dad took Emily, Monaca took the Madeline's and Will and I monitored the boys for the first few houses while Cathie and Sheri manned the front door and sampled the candy:


Both Nate and Maddie hit every house in the neighborhood and did pretty well for themselves.

The oddest thing any of them got was by Nate, who got a rubber band and a box of raisins from the same person. Once they came back, Cathie and I "checked their candy" which means we went through and took a 10% tithe with anything that looked good (or dangerous, as we told them, and our parents had told us). This is a time honored tradition passed from generation to generation, only our kids have caught on to it.

We went over to the Niemi's last night for their annual Halloween party. We've been doing this with the kids since they were babies and Jen keeps out doing herself every time. We all came dressed in our costumes with Lori and Em both dressing as Dorthy:

Jen had a haunted house set up in the basement that was fun, but the highlight was a dance routine that she worked with all of the girls on for a month choreographing to the song "I want Candy". They had matching outfits and it was a great dance routine:

Justin dressed up as a South Lyon native, while Lori and Emily had matching costumes. Lori took her wig off later and we got to see her without her makeup.

I was able to test drive a new hair style, which I found very becoming (I call it my Dorth-hee look), but Cathie and Lori had better looking wigs.

It's been a weird last month. As chaotic as my life can be, I keep a pretty regular rhythm to it. I have some very regular things that are normally non-negotiables in my world. Things like:

• Getting up at 5AM to work out with the guys at Triad on Monday, Tuesday and Friday
• Having my cup of coffee in the morning and spending time reading my bible, praying and journaling before work
• Going to church on Sundays and being tightly connected into other church stuff happening, like our junior high youth group on Sundays mornings and Tuesdays.
• Regular date nights with Cathie

I've worked out twice in the past four weeks. I've sat down in the morning and opened my bible maybe once. I finally went to church this past week after being gone for a month and done one date night with Cathie in October. Life was crazy last month. Between my Mom's death, going to Europe and our family vacation, it threw my life out of whack and it feels good to be getting into my regular rhythm of life again. I'm back to the gym, I sat down this morning and read my bible, I got a chance Sunday to go to church and hang with my junior high youth group kids (who are the greatest junior high kids in the world. They're just amazing and bring a giant smile to my face when I get to spend time with them) and I want to schedule a date night with Cathie. It feels good.

I'm traveling tomorrow for a couple of days and them I'm home, until I'm not.

We carved pumpkins today - kind of. Nate wasn't in the mood for carving, so he didn't even get a pumpkin. Maddie and I did one of these crazy, complex pumpkin carvings.

Maddie and I scooped the pumpkin out and I spent 30 minutes doing a pretty bad job trying to carve out intricate detail:

Em decided she wanted to paint her pumpkin, and paint she did. Every square inch was covered at the end, topped off with about 3lbs of glitter:

In the end, the pumpkins turned out pretty neat:

For some strange reason, every time Bob Rays has a party, the next morning we have load-up. It never fails. Brad, Bob, Eli and I do load up and take down at church on the first and fifth Sundays of the month. We show up about 7:30 AM on the given Sunday at the school where our church meets. We unload 20 or so 8'x5'3' crates into the auditorium, setup the chairs, screen and unload some of the sound gear with Mark, Les and Mike. After church, we do the same thing, but backwards. It's not the hardest thing in the world, but 7AM on a Sunday morning just feels early and we finish around 12:30ish. In breakfast, hang out and catch up on life - which is one of the big reasons we do it.

As I said before, 7:30 is early. It's even early if you show up at 6:30 because you forgot about daylight savings time and then sit around for an hour thinking your friends blew you off. If you did all of those things this morning, your name would be Eli. We assumed the best about Bob this morning when he didn't show, figuring he had broken his leg, had liver failure, or misunderstood the daylight savings time concept, thinking that it was a 12 hour shift in time, and showed up this evening.

Even after starting yesterday at 4AM, nothing would keep us away from a Ray's party. We went to their masquerade party last night and had a great time. From the picture, it may look like I didn't dress up. I did. I went as my friend Brad. This wasn't tough to do. Brad has three main outfits and I just chose one of them, consisting of:

1. White Jeans (he claims that they're for his veterenarian practice, but he wears them all the time)
2. These weird rubber shoes that he claims are for duck hunting.
3. A cut-off MSU sweatshirt
4. "Old red" Brad's red jacket. He has had this jacket for at least the 12 year I've known him. He has left it to me in his will.
5. An Independence Day movie t-shirt. 10 years ago, my brother Jon gave me a box of these and we used them as prizes at a youth group event. Brad has worn his non-stop since then.
6. A can of Budweiser and a tin of chew. He never goes anywhere without them (except the chew, which he has finally quit.

I was able to spend the night saying inappropriate things, using a lot of hand geastures and saying "Whoah" a lot.

Eli went as a pirate (and learned you shouldn't drive whit an eye-patch) and Bob and Anne had a Phantom of the Opera thing happening.

Cathie dressed as a princess, complete with Madeline's tierra and banner. The outfit slowly tranformed a she added Eli's pirate wig and hat to the ensemble. Rudy's costume deserves special mention, going as a stylin pimp. I'm not sure if this was a costume, or more every day wear for Rudy.

What is a Harvest Party? No idea, but we went to one today after church at our church's property - where my friend (and church elder) Nicki was dressed as Tigger. Since Dana and Eli decided not to invite us to Olivia's birthday party, we had no choice but to go. Apparently, a Harvest Party is a Halloween party, but if a church had a Halloween party, people would think that the church worship's satan, and we can't have that, therefore we had a "Harvest party" sans devil worship. The kids got dressed up, got to paint pumpkins, play games and trick-or-treat from the backs of people's cars. The great thing about the event is that the whole event was done as a food drive for our local Active Faith food bank. People decorated the back of their vans with amazing, elaborate decorations. We hung some spider web stuff. Needless to say, we didn't win the decoration contest.

Emily was dressed as Dorthy and brought Riley as her Toto. She won a prize for her costume. Nate went as an old man, complete with grey hair, beard, cane, teeth and glasses.

Nate's latest thing has been to do the "bunny ear" thing to people in pictures. We have 100 pictures from vacation, some with Nate in them making the "bunny ears", some with just his hand making them.

We Got home around 2 and then carved pumpkins. We've been on the go so much, it felt good to just be able to come home and hang out and crash. The Lions have a bye week so they're not able to lose.

Lots of people dress differently when they go to church for lots of reasons. Dear Abby had a recent article asking people's opinions on how they dress for church. Check it out, there's some great perspectives in it I thought Mark Driscoll's blog post, Dear Abby: Can I wear my swim trunks to church? was an interesting take on the whole thing.

In my opinion, how you dress is ultimately a heart thing. What are your motivations for how you dress. If dress is how you express reverence and worship God, then go for it. I like to be the lowest common denominator so that when someone comes to church and feels under-dressed, they can always look at me and know that there's at least one guy dressed worse then them.

We were the last ones on the plane for our 6:25am flight out of Orlando, just barely making the flight. Our flight from Memphis had mechanical difficulties so we sat on the plane for almost three hours before taking off. For the Memphis to Detroit leg, Cathie deserved first class,so I hung in the back with the kids. Emily listened to High School musical and entertained everyone around her by serenading her stuffed animal Simba, as you can see from this video below:

Madeline eventually finagled her way into a first class seat next to Cathie while Nate, Emily and I sat in squalor back in coach.

Thanks so much to Nicki and Chuck for watching Riley and for Tammy for looking after the house while we were gone and for the Raitz family for helping cart us to and from the airport.

For the most part, my brother Jon is a funny guy. The only problem is that he knows it and doesn't mind telling you. His favorite way of sharing the joy long distance through his blog comments. Often times, they're very funny, and I'm all for funny comments. Recently, he's taken it upon himself to make sure others know how funny his comments are. He has been known to call people, and then bring his own blog comments up in conversations repeatedly to remind people of how funny they were. For example, he recently posted a comment (on his own blog, mind you) that he found funny:

Yes Dave, I did come "out of the cupboard. Are you trying to tell the world something? Maybe you should look up the definition of "out of the cupboard" on Urban Dictionary before you leave a comment like that.

It wasn't enough for Jon just to post this funny comment. He also sent me the following e-mail, forwarding the comment, with the preface:

I am the lyrical gangster, the comment master...

If you get a chance, please drop Jon a quick note and let him know how funny he is and how funny his comments are. It will make him feel good...and funny (ha ha, not peculiar).

Last night while walking back from the pool Emily saw two spotlights in the sky circling back and forth. She said to Cathie:

Mom, do you see those lights? That's Grandma. She's an angel in heaven and she's flying around waving to us!

• Staying in a two bedroom condo with all of the amenities was way better than just sticking ourselves in a hotel room. We had a full kitchen, washer/dryer and two full baths, including a king-size bed and jacuzzi tub and full bath for Cathie and I. We loved having the space to get away from each other, and each person having their own bed.
• Throughout the week, we tried not to cram too much in. On our days at Universal, we would start early to beat the crowds, ride everything, and then get out there by oneish and go back and hang at the pool.
• Bringing snacks, drinks and lunch to the parks was genius. Not only did it save us a bundle, but we didn't have to wait in long lines for food only to eat stuff that was nasty to begin with.
• There's not much new under the sun. Each of the parks has pretty much the same as every other (with the exception of Animal Kingdom) with only minor differentiators. They've all got the 4-D movies where the water splashes on you and the seats vibrate. They've all got the 3-D rides where your car moves around a 3-D screen, log rides and circular rides where the kids control the vertical axis with a joystick.
• Emily is scared of just about every ride in every park except rides involving animals.
• Everyone needs to bring a Cathie with them to think of every detail and bring every conceivable thing that any of us could ever need before we think of it.
• This is the perfect time of year to go on vacation down to Florida. We never waited in lines more than 10 minutes at any park we went to, yet we still had beautiful weather.
• Disney has thought of every possible way to make money while you're on vacation. Every single one that's legal at least.
  

Nate's Top 5 Rides (Updated)

1. The Slingshot
2. Hulk (Islands of Adventure)
3. Spiderman (Islands of Adventure)
4. Men in Black (Universal Studios)
5. The Mummy (Universal Studios)

Maddie's Top 5 Rides*

1. The Slingshot
2. Space Mountain (Magic Kingdom)
3. Splash Mountain (Magic Kingdom)
4. Thunder Mountain Railroad (Magic Kingdom)
5. Woody Woodpecker Rollercoaster (Universal)

*Maddie was not tall enough to ride a lot of the coasters at Universal/Islands of Adventure

Our last day of vacation (sigh). Today was a lazy, sleep-in day. The kids have made it a fun thing to run up to the resort general store in the morning and get me my Wall Street Journal and some donuts. Yesterday, I got a bonus when they decided I needed one of every paper they had. Maddie and I ran up to Chik-Fil-A to get some Chick-n-Mini's (per my brothers Jon's and Dan's recommendations).

The original forecast was for thunderstorms all day, but it's since changed to sunny and mid-80's. The girls went shopping this morning while Nate and I went to DisneyQuest, a giant interactive arcade, Disney style. Nate was in heaven at DisneyQuest.

The place was a five story arcade with big group games and individual video games, all free. The first thing we did was a design-your-own-roller-coaster ride that allows you to ride it in a 3-axis simulator. I learned that fake roller-coasters make you more nauseous than the real ones. We kept going on it and making nastier and nastier coasters that threw us around worse and worse. Most of the games were 3-D, like the fighting game where you had a 3-D sword and a 3-D helmet.

It was amazingly realistic. We spent almost four hours just running around playing video games, and Nate could have easily spent another four hours there.

Meanwhile, Cathie took the girls shopping. They went over to Disney Marketplace and over the course of 3 hours hit one store: The World of Disney. The girls each had some money to spend, and spend they did. Madeline bought a princess kit and Emily bought a watch and a bank.

You can see from the picture, that Emily got a little annoyed after a while at how long it took Maddie to pick something out. Later on, Emily discovered her new love at the giant Lego store: playing with Legos.

After swimming and shopping, we went swimming at the pool to get one last day in. It topped of at 85 today, so we soaked in the sun before heading out to dinner.

We hit The Cheesecake Factory for dinner in order to enjoy gigantic portions that we could never finish and not even take home with us.

Cheesecake Factory+Palm Trees and eating outside in October. Gotta love it.

On the way home, we hit the Slingshot. The Slingshot is a set of 210 foot towers with a capsule pulled back between them, like a slingshot. You're launched into the air 330 feet at 110 miles per hour, pulling 6Gs as you shoot up in the air. At the vertext, you flip over and free-fall downward 200 feet before rebounding back upwards, bouncing back and fourth until you come back down. It is comparable in thrill to freefalling while parachuting or bunjee jumping off a mountain. The force when you are shot straight up, peak, and then free-fall is second to none. Nate, Maddie and I all went. They were less afraid than I and both said it was the best thing they've ever done.

Tomorrow we wake up at 4:30, load the kids at 5AM to make a 6:30 AM flight.

Today was our big day at the Magic Kingdom, the happiest place on earth. We started off when the park opened and met Sheri's friends Charlotte, Jeff and Spencer. For the first ride, Cathie and I took Nate and Maddie on the infamous Space Mountain while Charlotte and Jeff took Em and Spencer on the Tomorrow-land ride. We saw this stockade and after seeing a picture of Jon and I in the same stockade, had to take a picture.

Between 9 and 4, we hit the park in it's entirety. We never had lines over 10 minutes or so, which was great. We brought our own lunch and split up occasionally on rides like The Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain. Charlotte got the girls into Cinderella's castle (she works there) to see Cinderella and get their picture taken:

While Cathie, Nate and Maddie were on a coaster, Em and I found Wendy and Peter for a picture.

We ended the day by getting the kids Mickey ears with their names on them. I was talking to the lady Doris who monograms them and asked her how many she'd done in her lifetime. She said she'd probably done millions. She'd been doing this for 20 years and lost track after the first million of them.

We had a blast at the Magic Kingdom, ending the day with a big parade. It hadn't changed much in 14 years. They've added a couple of rides and kept up the traditional rides, but it's still the same as it was when I first came. I think my expectations for Disney were higher than the kids, remembering how much awe I'd been in when I went 20+ years ago. With all of the technology that kids are exposed to, I'm not sure Disney is as awe inspiring as it once was, but the kids had fun.

We came back, went to dinner at BW3's and then headed to the pool. Emily made the brilliant observation:

Mom, I know why they call it a hot tub. It's hot, and shaped like a tub.

We're hanging out in the room, Nate and I cheering on the Tigers in the World Series. Casey just hit a home run.

We got up early and made our way to Universal Studios theme park. We got there when it opened, but it didn't really matter, as the park was pretty much deserted the entire time we were there. Cathie and I had been there fourteen years ago on our honeymoon, and not much had changed. They had some decent rides and shows, like The Mummy roller-coaster and the T2/3D show. When Nate and I had talked yesterday about the ideal roller-coaster, he told me it would be to have a roller-coaster that let you play video games on it. He found it in the M.I.B. (Men in Black) ride where you have a laser gun and get to shoot aliens as you play.

By one we had pretty much seen the park and we were able to find the first Starbucks we'd seen anywhere, which tasted just like home.

In the afternoon we came back to the condo and went swimming. The weather was perfect and we couldn't tear the kids away from the pool.

For dinner, we went to Medieval Times for a dinner show. When you arrive to this giant castle, you can first tour the old village around it and watch craftsmen do their work. For dinner, you're seated at tiered tables around the arena and you're assigned a Knight to root for. We rooted for the red knight. The waitresses (self proclaimed, "wenches") bring you food without any eating utensils, which Nate loved. From the time we entered, they referred to each of the girls as Princesses and to Nate and I as "My Lord". The girls loved this, and it got old for Nate after a while. As dinner is served, the knights compete in different competitions with the highlight being a joust and fight to the death.

Each knight picks a fair maiden who he is fighting for in battle by presenting a red scarf to her on the end of his lance. When our Red Knight came over to Madeline and presented the scarf to her over everyone, she was in heaven. She had the biggest smile on her face throughout the rest of the knight and walked around on cloud nine.



We finished up the night heading over to Disney Village and checking out the shops, including some life-size lego creations at the lego store and a giant McDonalds.

Today was a lazy, sleep-in vacation day. We slept in until about 9:30 and took it easy. Nate and Maddie were excited about being able to run up to the resort general store by themselves to get me a paper and some donuts. Cathie and I then sat through a 90 minute spiel from the Starwood time-share group. It was funny watching the guy do the soft-sell on us - starting with some bonding and report building, lots of negative reversals and pattern-interrupt stuff. We told him we'd think about it, at which time they sent out the used car "sales manager" who brought out the high power sales cheese, which I had fun with, trying not to be too much of a tool back to the guy. It reminded us of a time when Cathie and I went to Bally's Fitness and at the end of the sale, the guy tried to close it with, "So you don't want to be healthy then?" We ended up getting some great discounted tickets and cash out of the whole deal and it was interesting to learn about how the whole thing worked.

It was record cold for this time of year down here, in the 50's this morning, so there wasn't much in terms of swimming time.

We hung out during the day and then checked in over at the Nickelodeon Hotel, but the water wasn't much warmer as you can see from the picture above. The hotel was designed for kids, as you can see from this part of the water park. They had a giant water contraption with slides, a basketball court, a mini-golf course and periodic shows poolside. Every so often the bucket at the top of the water park would be filled with green slime and dumped on the kids below.

We went out for pizza and then came back and saw some of the Nick Shows that night, and Maddie was picked for one of the games (that's her on the far left).

They had a giant arcade situated right next to the bar, so the parents could drink while the kids play. We came back to the room, ate some popcorn and the girls made watched their show while Nate and I watched the World Series, which we turned off after the 8th inning. Nate and I both giggled every time they said Albert Pujols name (pronounced poo-hole).

Today was Disney's Animal Kingdom. Em & Maddie had bought Thing 1 and Thing 2 shirts yesterday from Universal's Dr. Suess Park, and decided to go today in matching outfits after their morning modeling shoot:

We met up with Sherri's friend Charlotte and her son Spencer and went through the park with them. Charlotte helped us navigate the park and as a Disney employee, even helped us jump the line to get in through the back door of the Bug's Life show. The Park was about 80% shows and animals with very few big activity rides. Emily was in heaven with the animals. They had a very cool Safari and you wouldn't know you weren't in a jungle. We saw Lions, Giraffe, Hippos, Crocodiles up close. While Cathie and the kids went on the big roller coaster, Emily and I went to their petting zoo, which was pretty lame, but we got to take a train ride to get there. The Maharajah Jungle Trek takes you through an Asian village where you see Komodo Dragons and Tigers in a cool setting. We went to a Lion King show that was pretty amazing as well. Looking at the picture of the kids with their fingers in the monkey nose, you're probably wondering what they have in common? All we can figure out is that they both had the same kindergarten teacher (Sheri's childhood friend Charlotte made this observation):

There was this giant (read 100 feet tall) tree at the center of the park called the Tree of Life. When you looked up close it had all of these intricate carvings of intertwining animals with waterfalls and other things all over. We also were walking down the path and saw this giant moving tree, which turned out to be a Cirque-de-Sole person on tree-stilts, dressed like a tree.

Throughout the park there were animals everywhere. You'd look up and there'd be monkeys climbing over your head. The atmosphere of the whole place was so impressive. As you moved from Africa to Asia, the music, the smells, the villages seemed so real. This baby squirrel found my shoulder and rode around me for part of the day, eating snacks that I fed him:



We got to the park around 9:30 and left around 4:30, making it a pretty complete day. As we left, there was a whole line up of yellow cabs. Emily thought that since all of those people had bought the same color cars, they must have a tough time picking out their own car when the leave.

After the parks, we came back, hung out for a while, hit the pool and then went to dinner. We headed into Disney Downtown and walked around for a while. Once again, the girls were out cold five minutes after we left.

We spent the day today at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure Park. We got there before the park opened to try and get a jump on the crowds, and beat the crowds we did. All day long we simply walked in on any ride we went on. The longest part of waiting was having to wind your way through all of the roped in areas that are normally filled with people. We started off with the the Spiderman Ride, the Dr. Doom Free Fall and the Hulk Roller coaster, which were amazing. Unfortunately, Maddie was not quite big enough for the last two, short by a couple of inches. Cathie and I switched off taking Nate on the roller coasters, while the other took the kids on other rides. We were all able to go on the Spiderman ride - which is this cool 3D ride that completly disorients you to the point that you have no idea which is way is up. We all liked it except Emily, who was a little freaked out by it.

Cath had the forsight to fill a backpack full of water, snacks and everything else we could ever want, which saved us a fortune in $5 waters.


We then went to Dr. Suess Land, which was done up exactly like the stories. The whole city was builton the Dr. Suess books with all of the characters and stories. The kids are standing in front of the Lorax set. Going through this area, I was reminded how my Mom used to read these books to us, and most of them she'd read enough that she didn't have to even look at the pages.

Throughtout the park,t hey had great signs, including this one on the battling dragon roller coaster, which I'd never seen before.


In the super hero area, Nate and I tried to get our picture taken with as many cheesy characters as possible. They meant well, but the costumes were a little corny, especially wolverine, who apparently rides a four-wheeler.

We left the park around 1:30 and headed back to the hotel for lunch and to go swimming. The nice thing about the unlimited pass is that you don't feel like you have to fit everything in at once. We came back, and had some downtime (hour long nap for Cathie and I) and then hit one of the pools with a cool water slide.

We went out to a Japanese Steakhouse tonight, which the kids had never been to. They had fun with the chopsticks, seeing it all cooked in front of them and a little fire mixed into it all. The kids fell asleep on the five minute car ride back to the resort.


You can see the pictures for the vacation so far here at the Kurt Family Photo Album. Tomorrow we head to Disney's Animal Kingdom to go on a safari.

95 outside, but it doesn't feel that bad.

Beautiful day, empty park.

The flight here was great and the kids loved it. I fly all the time but it was so much fun being able to see the whole experience through their eyes. Everything from the airport and watching the planes to the take off and landing. The kids were great and switched off with the window seats so they could see outside. During the landing on our first landing, Emily explained to Cathie that her ears were "puckering". Emily's favorite part of the flight was getting two straws in her apple juice. On the second flight, the attendant came up to us and asked us if we all needed wheelchairs. We all looked at each other oddly, looked back at her and told her no. She told us she had us all listed as needing wheelchairs. Go figure.

We got to the condo this evening, the Sheraton Vistana Resort, and couldn't believe how beautiful our room is. It's a two bedroom suite with a jacuzzi, screened in porch over looking the lake and full kitchen. The place we're at is amazing. It has seven pools and is completely built for families. We just got pizza and we're heading swimming while Cathie heads up to Wal-Mart to stock up on food and drinks for the week. Tomorrow we're heading to Universal. Let the fun begin.

We've got such an amazing group of friends. We've had people bringing us dinner over the past two weeks and it really amazes me how generous and wonderful our friends our and how they come around us during tough times. We had the Warroway's, Muzzi's, Workman's, Niemi's, Clark's, Hannigan's, Lanam's and Sheri Brainard all brought us meals and Jess Shinn and Delaney DeFelice and Katie Green came over to watch our kids and clean our house for us while Cathie and I went on a date. We've got such an amazing group of friends and such a great church that have come around us. I have learned so much about how to extend love and grace to others through all of this and what it means to be there for other people in tough times by how others have demonstrated it to us.

We leave for vacation tomorrow. We've been planning it since January and we're finally ready to go. This is our first big family vacation out of state. We've been to Memphis and Iowa, but this is the first time we're flying somewhere and doing 8 days away. We were originally scheduled to leave a couple of weeks ago, but sutff wtih my Mom forced us to push it out. Luckily we were able to reschedule things.

In true Kurt fashion, I was able to use frequent flyer miles for the airfare via Northwest, frequent rental credits with National for the rental car, Cathie's parents hooked us up with their timeshare right outside of Disney and our friend Sheri hooked us up with a friend who works at Disney for discounted tickets.

We're heading to Universal and Disney parks and the Ocean in between. Universal has this amazing deal where you get a week long pass to both parks for only $80. We're spending one night during the week at the Nickelodeon Hotel outside of Universal, which should be a blast. It's got themed rooms (we're in the Fairly Oddparents room) a great pool and water silde, and kids shows and movies night.

The kids are at an age where they're all able to enjoy and appreciated the whole experience. It's also the first vacation where we've doing on an all cash basis - saving up since January as a part of our budgeting process (thanks to Dave Ramsey's FPU).

When people clean out fish tanks, they should not do it over the sink.  Tiny little rocks are bad for garbage disposals.  Really bad.  It's tough to clean out 100 rocks that get jammed up.

This line art sledding is a blast, but a big time waster.

This is my new car. After four years of driving cars that I couldn't stand, I've got one that I love again. About four years ago when my lease on my Chevy Impala was up, I went car shopping and bought a car that I hated for three years. It was a dumb decision in a lot of ways:

1. I bought a two door car. Try fitting three kids and three car seats in a two door car. I also found out the hard way that Nate got car sick in the small back seat easily. Nothing like vomit to kill the new car smell off right away.
2. The car was gray. That's not really a color, is it?
   
3. It was a 3 year lease. After hating the car at day 2, I was stuck with it for a long time. Not to mention that leases (or Fleeces, as Dave Ramsey calls them) are a sucker move financially.
   
4. I didn't include Cathie in the decision. She was gracious and after talking about it on day one, never rubbed it in. My kids on the other hand would tell me daily how they hated my car.
   

As penance more than anything, when my lease was up, I got Cathie a new car and drove our other mini-van around until now. The van was slowly dying, but it was paid off. The power steer was leaking like a sieve, but it worked for the most part. I was able to deal with it because it at least had a nice stereo, and somewhere along the way driving was instilling some spec of humility in me.

So a few weeks ago, I looked at the budget and figured we were at a point where we could make the move and I'd buy the car. Who's the first guy I call? Bob. Bob Rays is what Malcolm Gladwell calls a Connector:

What makes someone a Connector? The first--and most obvious--criterion is that Connectors know lots of people. They are the kinds of people who know everyone. All of us know someone like this. But I don't think that we spend a lot of time thinking about the importance of these kinds of people. I'm not even sure that most of us really believe that the kind of person who knows everyone really knows everyone. But they do.

Bob knows everyone and has a guy for everything. Everything. He has a slurpee machine guy, a video game repair guy and I'm sure he's got a left handed unicyclist guy somewhere in his Rolodex. On top of all that, Bob is a sexican - half Mexican, half Syrian. Bob loves to negotiate. Everything is negotiable. Brad tells this great story of one time when they were on vacation and they went out to get firewood. They found this little old lady selling it on her front lawn for a couple dollars a bundle. Much to Brad's embarrassment, Bob proceeded to negotiate with her, trying to get the best deal, cutting her prices in half, as Brad tried to disappear. We refer to the art of the deal as "Bobbing" someone down on price.

So I called Bob and he had a guy to hook me up with the car. He called his friend Dave at Livonia Chrysler, whose team took great care of me. You'll hear people say that all the time, and then give you the same deal they give everyone else. Not so here. Being a friend of Dave's got me treated like royalty at the dealership and everyone went out of their way to help me out with every aspect of the deal.

Anyways, I've got the car. I'm sure it will make me happy forever. Just like "stuff" always does for me.

We had football practice last night, trying to teach the kid show to do a double and triple-reversal (similar to the triple lindy). This involves some somewhat complicated in-motion action from the kids, the completion of multiple hand-offs on the fly and actually getting them to move before the quarterback hikes the ball. There's a million things that can go wrong in the play, but if it works, the mis-direction makes for a pretty significant gain. Practice was like herding cats getting the kids to put all of the elements together, but we eventually got it and when they did, the kids were pretty proud of themselves.

I posted my scenic pictures London online here in the Kurt Family Photo Gallery.

Buck sent me this very interesting article from TIME.com: Why a Christian in the White House Felt Betrayed by David Kuo. I think it shows how tough it is to do good on such a large scale in such a political system.

What a small world. One of the my co-workers in in Europe used to live in the states, working in Ann Arbor, living about 10 minutes away from where we live. One of the companies we met with from India has a large facility right down the street from where Cathie and I lived in Livonia.

I picked up souvenirs for the kids at Heathrow airport and hung out for a while in the KLM World Club lounge. I flew into Amsterdam, hit the duty free liquor store (20 Euro for a 12 year bottle of Jamesons), bought some more souvenirs and the boarded my plane. I watched movies (Lucky number Slevin, A Scanner Darkly and Click) while I sat next to Anastasia, an 80 year old woman from the Ukraine. Anastasia spoke almost no English and it took me about 30 minutes to help her fill out her customs information and immigration forms. Questions that seem pretty simple, like "What city did you fly out of" or "What's your middle name?" don't translate well into English. Just saying the words slower doesn't really work either. Eight hours straight on an airplane in coach is painful, especially after you burn through both laptop batteries. The seat back had these cool little interactive computer systems you could select movies and play games on, but mine seemed to be the only one on the airplane that kept crashing (it was Linux based, and not Microsoft based as you might guess).

Random things I learned this week in London:

• The British love gossip as much as the US does, maybe more. The newspapers and TV are filled with the stuff.
• Maybe I just don't notice it in the US. Madonna's baby adoption was the biggest piece of news all week here.
• British newspapers are a lot more risque. Going through the Detroit News, I don't typically expect to find pictures of naked women.
• You can only bring one bag through security at Heathrow. No carry on luggage plus suitcase stuff here.
• My Northwest Gold Elite status gets me into the KLM World Club without any additional membership.
• You can say just about anything with a British accent and it sounds polite.
• You need to look the opposite way when crossing the street over here than you do in the US British food is pretty horrible.
• Calling someone a Numpty is similar to calling them a numb-skull, which is scottish in origin (that sounded very Willish.
• On average, the Brits don't have the same kind of dental hygene that we do in the states (not including West Virgina, Arkansas and Alabama).
• The US is not all that beloved outside of the US. Sometimes being the top dog is tough.
• Make a copy of your passport and keep it separate from your actual passport (thanks Dan for this tip AFTER the fact. Losing your passport can put you in a world of hurt, but you can book an appointment at the U.S. Embassy online.
• A five hour time zone change is tough coming this way, but not as bad going back.
• I'm barely functional with european currency: quid, pence, pound and euro - especially the change. There were times when I would just hold a handful of random change out and let them pick out the right denominations for me.
• When riding in the passenger side of a European car, get in on the right otherwise they'll think you want to drive.
• There are a million pubs over here.
• TV over here is pretty horrible.
• Budweiser is an import here, and lots of people drink it. It is the king of beers after all.
• England uses the metric system, except for miles (the measurement system, not the guy).

Wow, it seems like a really long week so far. We had another long day of meetings today, finishing up around 7pm. My company happens to be a Ducati racing sponsor and they were out in the London office that week selling gear. We got to check out the racing bikes:


and the executive team that was out here this week (you'd be surprised at how much mockery I got from my orange shirt):

We headed to the pub from there for dinner, where I got the chance to try Bubble and Squeak (mash potatoes deep and cabbage patties deep fried and topped with egg and a holindase sauce) and bangers and mash (weiners and mashed potatoes) along with lamb with apple mint jelly. The food over here is pretty much horrid.

Each time we've gone out to eat, the people we're with have explained to us the crime problems in London and told us we should always bring our bags into the resturant with us. Apparently it's a fairly common occurance to have someone jimmy the boot and nik'd his gear (break into your trunk and steal your stuff). All of us brought our gear into the pub except for one in our group. About half way through our dinner, someone came in asking "Who owns the Grey Mercedes wagon right out front?" Innocuous question, right? They went out and here's what they found:


Normally, this wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, right? A stolen work laptop is bad, but not the worst thing in the world. Unfortunately, the briefcase had my colleague's passport in it along with his travel itinerary. We spent the rest of the night helping them get an appointment setup with the U.S. Embassy to get a replacement. What a crummy way to end a good trip. We all learned a great lesson about what to do if your passport is nik'd. Bottom line, put it in the hotel safe.

I fly back tomorrow through Amsterdam, getting in tomorrow evening.

We went last night we went out to dinner to an Indian resturant. Apparently, Indian cuisine has surpassed traditional British food as the most popular food in the U.K. I learned that there's nothing I like about Indian food except the giant potato chips they give you as an appetizer.
Walking between the buildings, we walked by a guy with a Falcon mounted on his glove. Apparently, they use these to keep the pigeons at bay. They fly them around the building, take down a few pigeons here and there and the word gets around in the bird community to stay away.
I've been learning even more great phrases that I'm hoping to come back and incorporate into my everyday conversation until it gets annoying:

• Cheers - Thanks
• Cheerio - Hello/Goodbye
• Nick/Pinch - To Take
• Boot- Car Trunk (Jimmy the Boot - Break into your trunk)
• Hops are Beckoning - I need a beer
• Lift - Elevator

I went to bed about midnight last night, fell asleep right away and woke up 15 minutes later. I laid there wide awake until about 3:30 AM. Getting up at 2AM EST for 12 hour meetings is a killer.

My co-workers and I met up at 2pm to head into downtown London to do some sightseeing. Andy, the husband of one of our UK co-workers is a cab driver and he and his wife took us downtown. Imagine a big, bald man with a thick British accent and you've got Andy. Andy used to work security for rock bands back in the 70's and we were able to pry some amazing stories out of him. He told us about being responsible for Keith Moon (now dead drummer for The Who) and having to try and get him on stage while he was pounding pills and drinking heavily. He told us a story about running security a club where the Sex Pistols played before they got big and spending time with Sid Vicious's girlfriend Nancy Spungen (who the movie Sid & Nancy was made about). We kept asking about bands, and he kept sharing stories - ranging from Led Zeppelin to Cream. One of the best stories was about how he ended up punching out Ginger Baker of Cream fame.

Andy was also telling us about the camera systems all over London. The freeways have a set of average speed cameras which photograph all of the cars over a stretch of road and if you were speeding, they send you a picture of you driving the car, your average speed, and a ticket. The cameras are all over London to film the cars making any traffic violations. It's possible to come home after a bad day and have lost your license. There are cameras everyone around London filming people and doing facial recognition as well. The whole thing is a little scary.

We got to London and started off by going up in the London Eye, a giant ferris wheel that takes you hundreds of feet above the city and gives you an amazing view of the city.

From there, we walked around and saw place after place: Hyde Park, Picadilly Circus and Buckingham Palace to name a few. I wanted my picture taken somewhere, and learned that there are few things more ackward than the "single guy having a picture taken by another guy" picture - both during, and after the picture:

You couldn't get close to the guard at Buckingham palace, but I did run into this guy downtown. Up close, this guy was really intimidating. I didn't want to get too close, as you can see by the picture:

We ended the night down in the Picadilly area, hitting a bunch of cool pubs before we got picked up and stuck in traffic downtown for an hour. I'll never complain about Detroit traffic again.

This time change this is crazy. I'm heading to bed right now, and our first meetings are tomorrow at 8am (3am EST). Ouch. Five hours difference.

I made it to London. I slept about 5 hours on the flight to Amsterdam and I keep trying to convince my body that it's noon right now, even though it's pretty sure that it's 6am. I wandered around the Amsterdam airport for a while browsing the shops and then flew into London. I made my way through customs and found my driver waiting for me. It's crazy seeing everyone drive on the wrong side of the road. My hotel is about 20 minutes outside of London. Myself and some of co-workers from the states are going downtown to go sightseeing this afternoon and then meet up with some of our European colleagues for drinks. I figure if I can make it through the day without sleeping and get a good night sleep tonight, I should be alright.

Amusing language heard so far:
Lift - Elevator
Queue - Line
Loo/W.C. - Bathroom
Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey - The French

I figured I'd be able to get to the airport in Boston, find a bar and settle down to watch the Tiger's game. There's not a single TV in this airport except for the flight monitors. ESPN has a pretty sweet setup for watching MLB online. It shows you where every pitch was, exactly the path the ball followed after it was hit as it's moving and virtually every detail you can imagine on what's happening with the game. (My brother Dan gets all the credit for showing me this.)

I got Jimmy Buffett's new album, Take the Weather with You. This is the album that Eli, Brad, Bob and I saw him tour on a few weeks back. His first song on there is called Bama Breeze, a tune about a place that I've been to - The Florabama (called so because it sits on the border of Florida and Alabama) I was down in Mobile, AL a few years ago working on a project with two good friends Greg Kandra and Glenn Anderson. Glenn's a native southern boy who takes a fair amount of flak for his love of NASCAR and roadkill, and he took Greg and I on a tour of the finest parts of Alabama. We drove for a while and pulled into this dive on the ocean that looked like a liquor store. We went in, both Greg and I pretty skeptical of where we were at, in the middle of nowhere. Behind the liquor store was a crazy set of disjointed bars, all of the looking like they'd been cobbled together in someone's spare time, complete with women's undergarments stapled to the ceiling. Greg and I still weren't convinced, but Glenn told us to trust him. On my way to the bathroom, I was looking at the memorabilia on the walls and it finally clicked where I was at. There were picture of Jimmy Buffett and a bunch of other famous people along with lyrics of all sorts of Buffett songs involving the Florabama. This was one of the bars where Jimmy Buffett had made it big and still comes pretty frequently to play and hang out. We hung out, had a few beers, and watched some great Carribean style musicians. The place was destroyed a couple of years ago during a hurricane and has since been re-built, but I'm not sure how it can have the same kind of character it originally did.

I'm in the Boston airport with a ridiculously long layover before my flight to Amsterdam. I rarely talk to the people sitting next to me on the plane but for some reason I asked him the simple question, "Is Boston home for you?" He proceeded to talk... and talk.. about himself....and I kept asking him questions. It got amusing after a half hour, so I kept asking him questions mostly to see how long he would go without him going outside of himself in the conversation. After about 45 minutes, I was able to get my iPod on and read. Gosh, I hope I don't do that to people when I get talking - just talk about myself over and over.

We won again today. The other team's first play was a three-way reversal that really confused our Defense and ended up in a touchdown. The kids played great and we took the lead early in the 4th quarter and won the game. My Grandma needs to hear about this. She laughed pretty hard when she heard I was coaching Nate's football team. I only wish I'd of thought ahead of time to put some money on the game with her.

I'm heading to the airport in a few to London Heathrow via Boston and Amsterdam. I get to London at 10am tomorrow morning. To make things even sweeter, I'm in coach for the nine hour flight to Amsterdam.

Eli, Mark Kohne, my Dad and I met up at BW3's in Brighton to watch the Tiger's game. I hit the head and found the most perfect toilet in the world. I started talking with the guy in the urinal next to me about how wonderful this is and he made a great point. The only way it could get better is if there was a TV in the crapper.

Jess Shinn, Delaney Defelice and Katie Green were kind enough to watch our kids and clean our house last night while Cathie and I went on a date. To top it off, the Warroway's brought over an amazing dinner. We went to see a movie, Employee of the Month, which we both liked. A little predictable, but a good, mindless laugh.

"When my mother was pregnant with me, they did an ultrasound and found she was hjaving twins. When they did an ultrasound a few weeks later they discoverd that I had resorbed the other fetus. Do I regret this? No. I believe his tissue has made me stronger. I now have the strength of a grown man and a little baby."
--Dwight Schrute, The Office

I responded to over 100 different e-mails yesterday of people expressing their sorry and prayers for my Mom. We came home to a fruit basket and lots of flowers. We've had friends from church volunteer to bring dinner this week and Jess and some of the girls from her bible study are coming over tonight to watch the kids while Cathie and I go out and get some time together and received a bunch of cards and phone calls from friends just to check and see how we're doing.

Maybe everyone gets this, but I continue to be blown away at the way our friends have supported us in all of this. It makes me feel pretty selfish when I think back to what I haven't offered up in the past when people around me have been hurting in the past. I had no idea that some of these small things could offer so much joy.

I'm also so thankful for my beautiful wife, Cathie. She gave me the opportunity to drop everything last week so I could spend the week with my Mom (Thank you Lori for that wonderful advice!). Cath dealt with everything in the peripheral so I could focus on spending time with my Mom and did it all with such a kindness and joy. Meanwhile, she made five trips back and forth to Dewitt to make runs for clothes, kids and to be there for me and to visit with my Mom.

I woke up this morning to snow. Snow? It seems way to soon. Even for Michigan.

After being out of pocket last week and part of this week, I jumped back into work full bore starting Tuesday night. I cranked through about 300 e-mails and started Wednesday morning with a day filled with back to back conference calls start at 8 and ending around 6, non-stop with no breaks. The focused work has been a good distraction for me after having such an intense week with my family. It makes for an easier transition into the real world.

I'm working late tonight to try get things ready for a meeting in I've got in Europe next week. I leave Saturday for London via Amsterdam and come back Wednesday night. We were supposed to be on vacation this week and we were able to reschedule our vacation to the week of October 21st so I'm trying to get all sorts of things prior to this time out of the office. The good news is, I'm catching up on the past couple weeks of episodes of the show Lost and other shows while I'm getting things done.

I ran across this blog post that of someone I've never met that my Mom's life impacted in a good way.

Cathie and I went to Amer's Mediterranean Deli in Brighton for lunch. I'd heard great things about the locations in Ann Arbor and when we stopped in there were at least 100 different sandwiches to choose from. I asked the guy behind the counter was great and he told me all about Flafel (Deep Fried Chick-Peas). I'd never had it, but figured I'd give it a shot. He told me to trust him and he'd make me an awesome sandwich. He brought me out a #77 Flafel on an onion role with Avacado. It was the greatest sangwich ever. Wars could be fought over this sandwich. I am in love (with the sandwich, not the deli guy) and will be back frequently.

I've been using my blog over the past week or so as a journal on what's gone on with my Mom. I've probably shared more information that people care to hear, but I did it primarily so I could remember the whole situation - my thoughts, our laughter, our sorry, our stories with a clarity that my memory doesn't always give me. I took pictures of my Mom and my family as we hung out together by her bed-side. Again, this might seem weird to some and others would say, "Why remember her in such a weakened state?" It sounds strange, but my Mom radiated this amazing beauty as she lay there, and i don't want to forget that. Her body was wasting away, but she had something deep inside that showed.

Blogging was cathartic for me. I was able to take a step back from everything going on, process it, write it down and sit in it for a while. It also saved me from having to tell everyone outside of the situation what was going on. They were able to read what was going on and be a part of it to the degree they wanted to. As I said before, the Kurt family is inclusive, even in our sorrow. There's lots of detail I held back, but for the most part, it's enough of a picture that I can re-read it and re-live the experience when I need help remembering.

Throughout this whole process, thousands of people prayed for my mom. Literally thousands. I know God is sovereign. I get that for the most part. What I didn't get was how he could ignore so many prayers and not be moved by their sheer multitude. On Saturday night while talking to my cousins Jodi and Connie, I think I started to understand. They told me the story of my Uncle Jack, their Dad, and his battle with pancreatic cancer. They discovered his cancer in the beginning of October and he was gone by the end of the month. My cousins shared with me the excruciating pain my uncle was in at the end because of his cancer. What a contrast to the eleven months we had with my Mom and the peaceful way she passed, spending the hours and hours together by her bedside laughing and telling stories. We wanted a huge miracle for my Mom. I always thought we didn't get it. Maybe we did. Just different miracles than we'd hoped for.

Last Sunday, Sherry's Pastor's sermon talked about my Mom in terms of her relationship with Jesus and the peace in which she died because of that relationship. Next week at their church is "Bring a friend to church Sunday" and he summed the message up by saying something to the effect of "Who do you know that doesn't know what Lynn knew?"

We met Pastor Maier at the Relay for Life where he walked with my Mom and Dad and family. He visited her on one of the last days of her life as well.

My blog and Susan's blog even made Our Savior Lutheran's web site (in a good way) as we journaled through the events of this past week.

After the funeral we went back to my parents, changed and hung out. It was a little strange having all of these black Cadillac Sedans from the funeral home caravaning through the neighborhood and dropping us off at my Dad's house.

We were all looking forward to giving Sherry a gift that we'd bought as a family for Sherry. In my Mom's last days, we asked her what her favorite "Sherry memory" was. Even though there are a million, my Mom's favorite, and one of our families favorite was when Sherry was picking up a National Speaker for an event at the Lansing airport to head to my parent's house in Okemos. She called my Mom from Grand Rapids, an hour in the opposite direction. Sherry has zero sense of direction and frequently calls the family for directions to places she's been a million times. We love her for this. It's part of what makes Sherry, Sherry.

My Dad started things off saying in a pretty serious way, "Sherry, the phone calls for directions just have to stop." Pause. We presented her with a Garmin Car GPS system. We hooked it up for her and took her for a ride, showing her how it works. Sherry was most impressed that it didn't shame her for making a wrong term, instead just saying "re-calculating". She loved it and we were all excited for her. This will give her back hours in the day from getting lost and hundreds of dollars in gas.

Update: I talked to Sherry today and she was raving about how it worked for her. She told me how she used it to get to Subway, but when she left, it kept routing her back to Subway. She said it only took five minutes for her to figure out that's what it was doing. When I set it up with the address to my Dad's house, I must have programmed it for their neighbors. My parents in on the right, there house is on the left. Jon told Sherry how proud he was that she didn't turn into their house, but went to the right place, even though the GPS told her differently.

We headed over to Cathie's parents to pick up the kids. One of their neighbors had seen Cathie's family getting out of the car in black and proceeded to bring a gigantic chicken dinner for everyone. Again, people's kindness and generosity just blow me away.

Looking back on the past week with my family, I would count it as one of the saddest, but one of the best weeks in my life. I had a chance to spend such an intense with my whole family non-stop. For some people, that would be considered hell. For me, it was fantastic. We laughed together, cried together and told stories together. We never fought, never argued. We consoled each other, shared tough times and loved each other in a way I'll never forget.

Yesterday was my Mom's funeral. Ugh. It was hard. Really hard, starting with walking in the church. It proceeded to be a series of hard moments, mixed with small moments of joy in between. There were so many people at the funeral to the point that it was standing room only in the church. I saw a baby sitter from 30 years ago who had heard, friends from church, friends from work (including my boss, John, who gets the award for traveling the furthest distance. He flew up from NC to be at my Mom's funeral). All of our spouse's extended families came from all over. People really made big sacrifices to be there, like Ed & Stacy who were in different states, re-routed their plans, met up together and bought clothes when they got here. This is just one of a lot of stories of people who made a huge effort to be there because my Mom was special to them.

Walking into the sanctuary started my tears going and they kept coming. The funeral started with bagpipes, which I love. We had them at my Grandpa's funeral and my Great Grandma's funeral (both being natively from Scotland) and I love the sound of them, but it was sad to hear them. I overheard my 5 year old Emily behind me after the bagpipe player finished: "Wow, I'm glad that's done", which made me smile.

I was selected as the mouth of the family to eulogize my Mom (I'm sure my siblings meant mouthpiece, but they kept saying I was the "mouth" of the family. Go figure). I shared what an abundant life my Mom had and how it radiated from her in how she loved babies, loved the people around her, love stories, loved to celebrate, and loved God in a mighty way. I made it through most of it without crying. Her amazing life made it so easy to share her story. Most of all, I know that my Mom would have wanted people to know that she was not able to pour out her life the way she did without having a firm foundation and the love of God constantly pouring into her, so I shared that.

We joked with my Dad that this was the best our family has ever been in church. Typically on Christmas Eve, the whole family goes together, taking up 2 rows at my Mom's church. An average Christmas service at St. Luke involves us poking each other, whispering back and forth, mocking each other and trying to burn each other and their church program during the candle light portion of the service.

My Mom's pastor, Pastor Dave Davis shared a very cool sermon about my Mom as a leader in the world around her. As a side note, I've gotta say that I don't know a ton of Lutheran Pastors, but this guy rocked. I'd seen him before at Christmas at my Mom's church, but first met him when he was at my Grandma's visiting her. He had a sense of humor, great counsel and was very moved by by Mom's loss. If I was going to a Lutheran church, it'd be his.

At the end, we moved the casket out into the car. My friends Will, Noel and Mike and three of Sherry's four boys: Adam, Bill and Nate. Again, another tear-jerking moment in the process. We headed back in for a luncheon and got a chance to catch up with friends we hadn't seen in years and hear some more great stories on my Mom and catch up with people that I hadn't seen in forever. I saw one of my brother's friends who I knew from Campus Life that became a Catholic Priest who's now in Ann Arbor (I pumped him to see if he was part of the DaVinci Code Conspiracy) and looks like Friar Tuck - complete with beard and hair. It was good to catch up, but the circumstances to do it sucked.

We headed over to the graveyard for the burial. The last step in the process. Pastor Davis said a few words, we prayed and then said our tearful goodbyes. It was a very intimate setting and one of the first times I'd been in this situation at a cemetery. We all took roses from the casket, hugged and stood there silently for a minute. As we stood around the casket, I whispered to my Dad, "I'll be Mom would think it was funny if I stood in front of her casket and sung The Gambler acapella while Dan and Jon did the motions." We laughed together and then headed home.


Noel snapped this picture of my middle-daughter, Maddie, looking underneath the casket, and I later looked as well.

We came home to a lawn mowed by friends from church and our neighbors and a mysterious guest in my bathroom. On top of the toilet was this figurine of Jesus and a note: 'Lo, I am with you always.' And I thought I had a shy bladder before.....

After the visitation, we went to bar in town for beers with my cousins from Iowa Jodi and Connie. Now in order to understand Connie and Jodi, you have to understand where they came from. My Dad grew up in a small town in Iowa - and I mean a small town. We loved going there as kids and hanging out on the farms and in downtown Bellevue, staying at my Grandma's house. In order to get us out of the house, my Dad would give us a few bucks and my brothers and I would walk up to the local store where they would ask us, "Who do you belong to?", meaning they knew we weren't local and they wanted to know our lineage. We'd let them know we were Raymond Kurt's son Jim's kids and they'd in turn share a story of how they knew my Dad, Grandpa or other relative. Our visits would actually make the local paper. We always got a kick out of the fact that everyone in Bellevue loved to sit in their garages in lawn chairs and watch the world go by in the evenings. You had to drive with one hand on top of the steering wheel in order to wave at every person you knew who drove by.

We'd make the eight hour trek to Iowa 3 or 4 times a year as kids, and now once a year for our family reunion. As we've gotten older, we've come to appreciate our cousins even more and really look forward to these get togethers. Connie and Jodi are farm girls, who my Mom loved dearly. We also ride them pretty hard about being from the sticks - until they came to Dewitt, MI for my Mom's funeral.

After the visitation, we invited them out for a beer at the local bar in town, Relli's. My Dad and the rest of my siblings and their spouses were all there along with Connie and Jodi, hanging out eating and drinking. Right in front of us, a bar fight breaks out - and we had front row seats for it. We sat there pretty amused watching the whole thing, except my cousin Jodi who tried to jump in. (She could have whooped them all. She's an Iowa farm girl after all).

The cops got there pretty quickly so I nonchalantly tried to get a picture of the whole thing. The bartender apologized and bought us all a round of drinks. Never a dull moment.

We stayed for a while, laughing hard and catching up, sharing stories about my Mom and other things. It was excellent. I just learned that my cousin Jodi was the number one sales person for all of Mary Kay, complete with Pink Cadillac and a gargantuan "diamond" ring from Mary Kay for the accomplishment.

We've got our family reunion coming up next year in Iowa and the theme is bib-overalls and farm hats. We can't wait.

The visitation yesterday was strange. I've always been on the visitor side of things and it was strange to be the one people were visiting. I didn't really know what to do except stand around talk to people as they came in. I gave up trying to figure out whether to hug people or shake hands. It seemed every time I extended a hand to shake, people went for the hug, so I just defaulted to the hug. My Dad had a continual line of people waiting to talk to him and share how much my Mom meant to them.

So many people came to see my family. People I hadn't seen in forever. I saw old neighbors, co-workers of my Mom's, friends from church and people whose life she had touched in one way or another. My Mom had this way of making people feel special when she would meet them. She was so genuine and comfortable with who she was and so interested in everyone around her. She had a memory a mile long and remembered the smallest details about everyone there and ask you about those things 10 years later to see how you were with them. I heard so many wonderful stories of the way my Mom touched people's lives. I'm so proud of how she lived her life. I'm so proud to be her son and to call her my Mom. I hope my funeral is half of what my Mom's is.

Cathie and I were so touched by the friends of ours that made the trek from South Lyon. We had neighbors and a teacher come, along with a huge crew from our church. I had a number of current youth group kids, old youth group kids who've since grown up, friends and families all come and love us. Some had met my Mom, but most hadn't. My church showed up because they care about Cathie and I, and our grief is there grief, our loss is their loss. Their pain for us and their kind words healed my heart. It's tough for me to get that people care this much. Family after family from church made the hour plus drive to see us, just because they love us and wanted to show it in a tangible way. Wow. We had over 60 friends show up from South Lyon. It makes me feel pretty selfish at times as I've been too lazy or didn't want to be inconvenienced to attend a funeral or visitation. My brother Jon was very excited to see an elderly (she's 88 now) neighbor that he had a pretty significant crush on, making the whole event very special for him.

The whole visitation was incredibly draining, but really wonderful in a weird way. After the first two hours, we went home, I took a quick nap and we went back at it again. There were times as people shared things with me I would start to cry as the memories came forward and other times I laughed at the stories, hearing new aspects of my Mom that made me smile. I know people who are tremendously successful in business, make a fortune, have all kinds of power yet never change the world or impact people around them in a significant way. When I die, I hope to have a visitation that is half the celebration of life that my Mom's was.

I hate to use churchy words like "blessed", but I don't know any other way to described the way people have taken care of my family in this whole process. I think a better word is "ridiculous", in a mouth gaping open, stunned kind of way that people have poured out kindness and grace. Over the past 11 months, people have done amazing things and have continued to go over and above over the past week. I never really understood why people brought food to people in times like this, but I now get it. We've had lots of family here at my Dad's (it strange not to say Mom and Dad's house) house and neighbors, family and friends have brought food over non-stop. I'm pretty sure I've put on about 10 lbs this week. The last thing you want to do in these times is to cook, clean and run out for food. My Mom got this kind of stuff. She was always the kind of person to bring food, gifts, notes or an offer of help to someone else.

I remember back 11 years ago when Cathie and I had a series of miscarriages. Prior to that, i didn't really get how significant of an event a miscarriage could be in someone's life. It sounds ignorant, but I didn't get how tough it is to lose a parent, and I didn't get how wonderful things like notes, food and kind words can lift your spirits when you're going through stuff like this.

Yesterday was a weird day. My Dad, brothers and I had to go and talk to my Grandma about my Mom's death. Cathie and I went to talk to our kids also. Yesterday was Gabe's birthday and we wanted to make sure it remained special. Kevin and I took the kids to see the movie Open Season and then went to the Park for pizza.

Even in the midst of sadness, there was joy.

And rest.

And cleaning.

Last night, Jon, Beth, Dan, Dad, Will, Monaca, Kevin and I all went to the local Irish pub for a beer. We all waited with anticipation to see how Will ordered his beer. Will has been to Ireland, and with that comes a special belief that by entering an Irish pub in the US he will magically be transported to Ireland. Anytime we go to an Irish pub, Will orders a Guinness by asking for a "pint" just like in Ireland. We all held our breath as the waitress asked the question that we all hoped she would: "A pint of what?" The whole family busted up.

When it rains, it pours. Remember my earlier scooter picture? My 88 year old grandma was riding it today, ran into the wall and broke her ankle. Dr Jon and Dr. Beth came to the rescue and took her in to get it fixed and Jon saw fit to make us all laugh by sending this picture from the doctor's office. Jon is wearing an X-Ray protector thingy on his groinal region.

"Dad, my name is really famous. It's on a magnet." -Emily, age 5

My Mom's Obituary:

Lynn Kurt, age 62, safely walked into the arms of Jesus on October 6, 2006 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. She was the daughter of Harry (deceased) and Agnes Smith; sister to Bill (deceased) and loving wife to Jim Kurt. Lynn was a Proverb 31 woman who will be missed by all, until we are all reunited with her in Heaven.

Jim and Lynn have been blessed with four children who married wonderful spouses: Daniel & Kris Kurt; David & Cathie Kurt; Jonathan & Beth Kurt and Susan & Kevin Mayes. Lynn loved spending time with her grandchildren. They are Matthew, Nathaniel, Andrew, Madeline, Stephen, Gabriel, Emily, Allison, Benjamin and Libby.

She spent her life in service to others. Her passion was protecting unborn children through Right to Life, Lutherans for Life, Pregnancy Services of Greater Lansing and the Republican Party.

Lynn was involved in her church, St. Luke Lutheran, and felt greatly blessed by the members. A special thanks to her best friend and shopping buddy, Sherry, who has given unselfishly of herself in caring for Lynn and her family.

A memorial service will be held Monday, October 9, 2006 at 11 a.m. at St. Luke Lutheran Church, 5589 Van Atta Road, Haslett with Pastor Dave Davis officiating. The family will receive friends from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. on Sunday, October 8, at the Gorsline-Runciman Funeral Home, 205 E. Washington Street, DeWitt.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to: Lutherans for Life, Pregnancy Services of Greater Lansing, or PanCan Research in memory of Lynn.

My baby-sister Sooze had such nice things to say about me, I'm quoting them here because I want to savor these words forever.

My brother, Dave, never seizes to amaze me. I think he has 2 spiritual gifts:

1. To make people feel very awkward in a normal situation or...

2.To make people not feel awkward at all in a very awkward situation

During this time with my mom this week, Dave has really stepped up to the plate. At a time, when even I feel weird, he can walk into the room and make everyone feel comfortable.

Now most of you know, this is not usually how Dave is. Normally, his goal is to see if he can make everyone in the room feel as uncomfortable as possible. 99% of the time, he succeeds.

It's pretty cool to see him like this. He just seems to know what to say at the right time and even the right way to say it. (Very unusual for him to actually use this the right way)

My Mom is gone. She died tonight around 11pm. We were all there with her as her soul went to heaven and her body became an empty shell. She was at peace. She knew where she was going. I've never experienced anything like this in my life. There's a part of me racked with grief and another part of me that is glad she's not hurting any more. We have so many wonderful stories, memories and pictures to keep her memory alive in our family.

We were talking tonight about my Mom being in heaven. We believe that she will either be the greeter at the gates, welcoming people in and telling them where to eat or she will work in a giant heavenly nursery, holding the babies.

My Dad is without his wife of 40 years. My siblings and I are without a Mom. Our kids will miss their grandmother like nothing else. Sherry is without a sister and best friend. My grandmother now has no surviving children. So many people lose in this deal.

I keep thinking about this verse:

13Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. (1 Thes 4:13-14)

As I sat there with my Mom at the end, I was thinking about what race she has run. She lived life to the fullest, she loved God deeply and she loved people so very, very well. I want to run the race like she did. Serving others, loving the hard to love and helping the helpless. I admire and love my Mom so much. She modeled this for me. She trained hard, she didn't run aimlessly. She got the prize:

24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

25Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

I am sad. It hurts. I don't understand it, but buried beneath the saddness is a relief and happiness for where my Mom is at and for this week with her that I have locked away in my heart forever.

My family is here at my parents house, here for the last moments of my Mom's life. We're all in the bedroom with her. We're crying, laughing, praying and sitting quietly thinking and watching my Mom. The end is near. I'm just thankful it's not really the end.

The Kohne's were kind enough to let Maddie stay over last night and the Schultz's watched Emily last night. As sad as I feel, I can't help smiling when I look at this picture.

My Mom is fading quickly. The Hospice nurse came today and said that the end is coming soon, likely in the next 24 hours. I am very sad, but I have this joy in me from what I've experienced with my Mom and the rest of my family this week. It's a weird contradiction. I have things locked in my heart from this week that will be with me forever.

I sat by my Mom's bed this morning reading her some of her favorite Psalms. She's not responsive to us any more, but when I stopped reading, she lifted an eyebrow to tell me to keep going. She's radiating such a beauty even though the cancer tried to take it from her. I am sad.

My Grandma got this new scooter and she has not wanted anyone to look at it or touch it. Dan tried to ride it the other day and got yelled at, after he got done breaking her TV (he turned the volume down and didn't show her how to turn it back up again). Beth and I were over visiting yesterday and when she left the room for a second, I was able to take it for quick ride.

My brother Dan and I decided to take Libby and Ben out for a walk and get out of the house. We walked through the neighborhood until Dan had the bright idea to take the strollers on the wood-chip covered nature trail. It was like plowing a dirt field the wheels of the stroller. Libby cried without her Mom and Dad nearby. Ben just loved the attention.

The whole thing tired Dan and Ben out.

My sister-in-law Beth (she's just like a real sister, but if I referred to her as that and to her husband Jon as my brother, it would be strange to people) is a phenomenal doctor. She is doing her fellowship at St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis in hemotology and oncology. She is one of the smartest people you'll ever meet tempered by the fact that she's one of the kindest and most humble people you'll ever meet. Jon clearly married up. Way up.

She was featured in a Memphis magazine as an up-and-coming doctor that talked about why she'd chosen to live in Memphis. Beth and I were over at my Grandma's yesterday and I read the article to my Grandma, adding in a few lines to the effect of, "Dr. Kurt attributes much of her success to her brother-in-law Dave who has been both an inspiration and source of strength in her journey towards healing others." My Grandma didn't buy it.

This story is a little strange, but it's tempered with enough love and kindness that you probably won't be too creeped out. Before I share it with you there are two important things to know about the Kurt family:
1. We are very inclusive about adding people to our family
2. We love good stories

A few months back, a person named Sarah started reading our family's blogs. She left some nice comments on them and started e-mailing back and forth with a few of us. Her and Susan got to know each other more and more as they e-mailed back and forth and Sarah's husband was going to meet up with Jon down in Memphis when he was there for business. So far, not too weird, right?

This Tuesday, my brother Dan answered the door and standing there was Sarah. She announced, "Hi, I'm Sarah, you must be Dan." Dan's jaw dropped. The first questions we all thought was, "How did she find us and why is she here?" the next was, "Is she a crazy stalker who kill us in our sleep, poison our food and kidnap our children?"

Sarah had been praying that God would bring people along side our family to help us out. She said that she felt like God was telling her that she could be that help for our family. She said it wasn't her style to just show up like this, but after ignoring what she thought God was telling off a few times, she called her husband who told her that it must be God, because it wasn't the kind of thing Sarah would do. She jumped in the car and drove five hours by herself and showed up at my parent's house unannounced.

While she's been here, Sarah has offered herself up and she has cooked, cleaned, written thank you cards and anything else that needed to be done. She got a chance to see the Kurt Family first-hand in all it's glory, got a chance to sit with my Mom and see her life celebrated with our family. All in all, Sarah seems to have a great heart and is a very kind, loving person.

Is it all still a little creepy? Yeah, but not as much. I personally could never show up at a stranger's house and do what she did, but she has done a great job of hanging in the background and offering herself up to help and serve wherever she could. We're most thankful that she didn't steal any of the children or our wallets. We probably won't know if she wrote down our credit card numbers until much later. :)

My Mom loves her holiday sweaters. As a 62 year old woman, she can wear them. Apparently they don't look as good on me.

These pictures were taken as the little bird was singing "If you're happy and you know it..." as Libby screamed for all of the world to hear. We all found this very funny. Every time Libby cries, Jon explains that she's sick and that she never normally does this. We all chuckle knowingly and ask him to keep his daughter under better control.

My brother Jon teased our children mercilessly growing up. If our children were to cry, Jon would ask us to make them stop because it was annoying to him. He would ask why we were such bad parents and why we couldn't teach our children not to do this.

All of us are torn on how to treat Libby. She is beautiful and wonderful, but there's a part of all of us that want to get back at Jon. The problem is that it's really not fair to Beth or Libby. Jon is the Mother/Father of a first child and like all parents of first children, thinks it's the toughest thing in the world - having no idea what it's like to raise two or more kids at the same time. The best we can really do is sit back and laugh as Jon does typical "first time parenting" things. This annoys Jon while at the same time giving us some satisfaction.

I'm exhausted. Tired at the core. We spent the day with Mom, with friends and with family. There was a little downtime, which you can see Susan took full advantage of in the awesome picture above.

Mike & Micky came by and so did Chad, both friends from back in the days when Jon, Susan and I were involved in Campus Life/Youth For Christ. Mike and I were leaders together at Everett High School and Chad was the leader for Okemos for Jon, Susan and I. They just naturally became connected into the family.

We were talking tonight about what a big heart my Mom has. Here's a story that really exemplifies it for us:

Cathie and my Mom were walking through the Mall and went into Hudsons. My Mom saw a woman, ran up to her and hugged her. They both realized that neither of them knew the other, and they probably stayed in contact afterwards and sent Christmas cards to each other for years.

There are a million stories just like this about my Mom. She loves people and people connect to her because she is a very genuine person.

The toughest part of today for me was when my son Nate was here. Nate, Cathie, my Mom, Dad and I all hung out in the room for a half hour talking. Nate sat there holding my Mom's hand, talking about life. There were moments when he was trying so hard not cry and be strong in all of this. I was sitting behind him with tears running down my eyes just watching him. Nate and I went for a walk afterwards and talked about it. It's hard for him, but he gets it. We talked about how this is a part of life, it sucks, but learning to be sad, understand it and work through stuff like this is part of life, and part of becoming a man - which is slowly becoming in such a great way.

I came upstairs this morning and was greeted very seriously by my brother Jon:
Jon: "Dave, I think I understand why Mom is having a tough time telling what day it is."
Me: (Thinking he's got some bad news to tell me about Mom) "Why?"
Jon: "You've been wearing that shirt for a few days now. It's probably time to change it."

Some people measure their lives in terms of the position they achieve, the money they make or the stuff they have. My Mom is a person who measures her life in terms of the number of people she loves and impacts in a positive way.

Throughout this past year, we've gotten a taste of the people my Mom has impacted. She has received so many cards, meals, prayer and support that it is really unbelievable. Maybe ridiculous is a better word. In a world that seems to be so self-centered, so many people have stepped up and done amazing kind gestures, small and large. My Mom has savored everyone of them and has been in awe of each of them. People sent her cozy bathrobes, cards, pictures and meals. People have brought her books, driven her to chemotherapy and called and shared their love.

Even in this time where my Mom's body is quitting on her, she is radiating this joy and beauty from every fiber of her being. Even in her pain, she still has a smile on her face. 2 Corinthians 4: 16-18 fits her well here:

16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

I read Beth's sister Laura's blog earlier today, and think it's a great example of how many lives my Mom has touched. This is one of many:

It's been a tumultuous and challenging 12 months for the Kurt family, and I don't think that even begins to describe it. Many of you have been praying for my brother-in-law Jon and his family as his mom has been fiercely battling pancreatic cancer. I thought I'd take a few minutes to tell you about Mrs. Kurt:

Beth and Jon have been married 10 years and dated for several years prior to that. Having said that, I've had the privilege of knowing the Kurt family for many years. I actually worked with Mrs. Kurt at Eddie Bauer on a couple of different occasions in college, once during the holidays and again during a summer. From the day we met, it was not unusual to be greeted with a hearty hug any time our paths crossed. Her home was always open to us and as 'extended family,' we were (and still are) often invited and strongly encouraged to come to Kurt family functions and parties.

Fast forward several years....I will never forget the phone call that I received from Mrs. Kurt when she learned that Paul and I were expecting a baby. You would have thought she was to be a grandma again. She was so excited for us and read to me Psalm 139 (the entire chapter) over the phone.

I later received a package from her that included a small plastic baby at 3 months gestation, and a description of all the miraculous ways the baby was growing and developing at such an early age. Truly every child is a gift of God. I know that Mrs. Kurt believes this with all of her heart. When Elise was born, Mrs. Kurt came by to meet her. I will never forget the way she held Elise with a look of adoration and love. "What a beautiful baby!"

When it came time for Libby (my niece) to join the Kurt family, Grandma and Papa Kurt traveled to Memphis to be present for the big day. Paul, Elise and I were there too. Because Bethie was scheduled for a C-section, we were unable to be there when Libby was born but that didn't stop Grandma Kurt. At the appointed time, Grandma, Papa and Auntie Laura sat in the waiting room for what seemed like an eternity, waiting for some news (any news) of Libby's arrival. Grandma was absolutely beside herself as she waited to see her newest granddaughter. She even attempted to schmooze the nurses into giving us information....Unfortunately without success, but the nurses learned about her family and all of her grandbabies in the process.

One of the most beautiful things about the last 12 months is to see the love and dedication of her family and friends as they have gone through this experience with her. Dave and Susan have some entries in their blogs that will make you both laugh and cry. Be inspired! This family is one of a kind! And Mrs. Kurt will truly be missed! We love you!

My brother Dan has had this little fella hanging from his eye. We thought it was a bread crum, but it's not. Dan named him Ernie, but it's really a skin tag. My sister-in-law Beth is a doctor and highly qualified to snip the little fella. Of course, nothing happens without a camera present, and I think we captured the moment and the close-up nicely.

What a great day today. It seems strange to say that in the midst of what's going on, but it was a day that I will hold in my heart. Noel, Mike and Cathie's parents came by tonight. Each spent about an hour hanging out and talking with my Mom, reminiscing and talking about what's going on in their lives. Cathie's parents and I sat with my Mom remembering back to Cathie and I's engagement and wedding. Even in the midst of pain meds, my Mom is sharp and her memory is working pretty good most of the time. She amazes me with the things she remembers. I setup a video camera in the room and I've been taping my Mom in moments as she tells some of her stories, to preserve them somehow. Every word that comes from her mouth is filled with joy, graciousness and thankfulness. She could choose to be so bitter and angry, but instead she is filled with Joy to the core. She has blessed so many people's lives, but she looks at it from the perspective of how many more people have blessed her.

In the midst of today there were kids running around, people all over, laughing, crying and reminiscing. I hate thinking of a world without my Mom. She's always carried the torch for our big family gatherings that we do all of the time, and I can't imagine a get together without her. We are a family of stories, though. It's part of who we are. We love to tell stories about what's happened in our lives, which is probably why my siblings and I all have blogs. The stories and pictures that we have will keep my Mom's memory alive for a long time. My Mom's friend Sherry is a part of our family who tells the stories of my Mom with just a joy and laughter that you can't help but smiling. We've already told her that whether she wants it or not, she's in the family - and as Will can attest to - once you're in, you never get out.

The present moment is great, but when I think forward to where this is going, it's going to be tough. I can't think about it without crying. It's so hard to talk about what my Mom's funeral will be like, seeing her obituary that she's already written. It's a reality, though. My Mom described the dress she wanted to buried in to Susan, who instead said she had other ideas for an outfit, and proceeded to bring out this ugly flannel jumper:

We just finished up sitting with my Mom again, telling stories, laughing and joking. Beth, Will, Jon, Dad and I stayed up until 12:15am, sitting around Mom's bed talking about everything from our family values to funny stories from my Mom and Dad's days together. We heard stories about how bad of a cook my Mom was when she first married my Dad to retelling the stories of how i caught my room on fire with fireworks and Jon had to help me hide the mess. We talked about heaven and what and who she'll see. We laughed so much tonight, all in the midst of grilling Will on why he hasn't popped the question to Monaca and set a date.

This was on Monaca's blog today. Monaca is Will's potential future fiancee, but Will hasn't popped the question yet, even though it is one of my Mom's last requests. Monaca has received the thumbs up from my entire family, including my Grandma, who is the toughest of all of us. She and Will came to visit my Mom yesterday, and her entry touched me.

Today Will and I went to visit Mom Kurt. I had told myself that I wasn't going to cry, but failed miserably. She is someone that I wish I knew much better than I do. I can tell by her family that she is a remarkable woman full of strength, grace generosity and love. Her life resembles the heart of Jesus more than anyone I have ever met. You can sense it with out her even saying anything. I hope that everyone has an opportunity to meet someone like this in their lifetime. It is a humbling experience.

My job constantly reminds me of the brokenness of society, of families and of people. The Kurt family has reminded me of what God intended family to look like. All of the Kurt households are filled with love and laughter and a genuine concern not only for each other, but for everyone around them that is rare to find. I have been more loved and accepted by this group of people than by some of my own family. I don't have words to express how overwhelming that is to me. I hope that some day I am able to be the mother of a family that resembles this one.

She prayed for Will and I before there was an "us". It amazes me how God works like that. I spent so many years confused and praying that God would bring someone into my life, not just anyone, but a specific person with a good heart who loved Him, and to know she was praying for the same thing for Will just reminds me of how big our God is.

At times like these it is hard to understand the plan that God has. I do pray that he will be the comfort, strength and peace for the entire family right now and help them to celebrate the amazing gift they have in their mom.

This post about my Mom was on my friend and adopted brother Will's blog. I read it to my Mom today and had a tough time getting through it:

After class, Monaca and I had lunch at McAlister's Deli, and then we spent the afternoon at Mom and Dad Kurt's house. We got to talk to Mom Kurt for a little while, and let her know what a blessing she has been to both of us. She has such a big smile on her face, and has such a sense of humor. She seems very much at peace. I find myself in awe of her strength and faith. I hope that someday I could have just a measure of her faith in Christ.

If you don't know my story, I accepted Christ 10 years ago last month. It was during my fifth year of college, and was due in large part to one of my best friends, Dave. After a barbecue at Dave's house where I met Noel and Mike, I saw something in their friendship that I lacked in my life. There was some quality, maybe joy, that was just so attractive to me. I wrote Dave an email that night thanking him and remarking on what I observed. "Lucky" enough, he and Noel were having lunch the next day in East Lansing, and would I care to join them? I can only describe those few hours as the "full court press," "tag team," or "the used car salesman" approach to evangelism. I can't be 100%, but I'm pretty sure that the question, "what will it take to get you into salvation today?" was used during our afternoon discussion about Jesus. Within about a week or two of that afternoon with Dave and Noel, I asked Christ into my life while walking down Shaw Lane. I had come to the conclusion that I could no longer continue the path I was on and that I needed Him to guide me.

Now, from what I just told you, it would seem that Dave's involvement in leading me to Christ was a two to maybe three week deal. Not even close. About a year before the barbecue, Dave and I had been working together in Detroit, and on our way to lunch, he asked me what I believed in. At that time, I was an agnostic, claiming that the truth about God was unknowable. I was raised as a skeptic, and frankly, I saw most Christians in the light of Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, and Jerry Falwell (note: after becoming a Christian, I still don't really care for this archetype of Christian, although Jim Bakker seems to have gotten his head on straight since going to prison). Well, between that conversation and the moment I accepted Christ over a year later; Dave, his friends, his church, and his family prayed that I would come to know Jesus. One of the people praying was Mom Kurt. This afternoon she told me that it was funny, but all that time ago, she knew that she was praying for one of Dave's friends, but had no idea who I was.

Over the past 8 years or so, I have become increasingly close to Dave's extended family. Mom and Dad Kurt have played a large part in making me feel welcome (even expected) at Kurt family functions. And let me tell you, there are a LOT of Kurt family functions. They celebrate every holiday together, and get together for all the kids' birthdays. These times are all raucously fun, filled with laughter and children screaming (10 grandchildren, age 10 and under) and the occasional crying child if Uncle Jon is around. Mom Kurt has always been the first to offer me a smile and a big hug, and to heap praise on me. Practically since the first few times I met her, Mom Kurt has been praying for the right girl to come along because she always thought I would make such a wonderful husband and a good dad. Early on, she even played matchmaker, but respectfully retreated when her choices and I didn't quite hit it off. To be fair to Mom Kurt, pretty much every woman in my life who tried to hook me up gave up a long time ago.

It wasn't too long after Dave added his prayers to Mom Kurt's when Monaca and I started dating almost a year ago (1 year, Oct. 19th!) . If there is something that Mom Kurt has passed on to Dave, it is a fervent belief in the power of prayer and the commitment to actually pray when they say they will. I am humbled by the love and faith that this has demonstrated to me over the years. About a month after we started dating, Monaca accompanied me to the Kurt Family Thanksgiving. That evening, I was notified that Monaca had the Mom Kurt stamp of approval. I know that Monaca, this wonderful woman that I love, is a gift from God, and an answer to Mom Kurt's prayers. For that I cannot be thankful enough.

At a time when I was a fledgling Christian, and when the pain of my parents' divorce had made me question whether marriages last, Mom and Dad Kurt and their family welcomed me in from the cold and wrapped me with all the love and support that I could ask for. Their marriage and my adoptive tight knit family have embodied hope and provided an example for me. I am so thankful to be a Kurt. Thank you, Mom Kurt. I love you.

My niece Allie is quite the artist. She made this picture for my Grandma. Andrew has a very pointy head and Allie was very generous with the amount of Grandpa's hair.

Look at this picture very closely. You'll notice that one of the children is cross-eyed. There's a great story behind it. When we got these pictures taken, I thought it would be funny to cross my eyes right before the photographer had us say "cheese" for each shot. We got the pictures back weeks later and every shot had me cross-eyed. We ended up stuck with them, but they make a great family story.


This is one of those pictures that we asked my parents, "What were you thinking?" today. My brother Dan has always had a sort of God-complex as the oldest brother (he believed most of the time that he was our father with all of the privileges vested in that position). Apparently when the photographer suggested they take a pictures of Dan hovering overhead like God, my parents thought it was a great idea and went with it. Again, it makes for a great story.

Nate had a pretty rough day today. After Cathie and the kids got home, Cathie and Nate were talking some more about what's going on with my Mom. They got to talking about how Nate's Aunt Bethie works at St. Jude's Cancer Hospital in Memphis as a doctor. They were talking about some of the research that's done there, and Nate committed to Cathie that he wanted to start giving his allowance to the pancreatic cancer researchers so that no other kid's would have to be sad and lose their grandma's from this disease. Nate told Cathie that he if Grandma was healthy and lived in Memphis, she would be at that hospital every day, praying for every one of the kids, giving their parents hugs and slipping the kids candy when no one was looking. At the end, he told Cathie that he'd be willing to have his stomach pains for the rest of his life if it meant healing Grandma.

Maddie and Nate made these bracelets for my Mom. One says Faith, Hope and Love and the other says "We Love You".

I love this picture. Anne took it at Jason and Jess's wedding and I received it as a gift. I in turn gave it to my Mom as a Christmas gift, which as you can imagine, she loved.

Cathie, the kids and I came down to see my Mom today. I'm staying here at the house with my parents for the next few days, working in between spending time with my family. Jon, Beth and Libby are here from Memphis as well. We've been spending time with my Mom, hanging out, reminiscing about our family growing up, trying to soak up our time with her. She's spending even more time sleeping, but she's still aware of what's going on around her. I hate to see her like this, but I love the time with her. I was sitting next to her today as she was sleeping and a wave of saddness overtook me. My Mom grabbed my hand, looked into my eyes and told me how proud she is of me, how special I am to her and how much she loves me. I love this time with her and I'm trying to seal every moment in my heart. One of the toughest things for me today as a Dad was to be there with Nate as he said his goodbyes to my Mom. Part of me hates to expose him to some of this. Nate has always had such a special connection with my Mom and this has been hard for him from the beginning. He' grieving through it step by step, but I hate to see him hurt like this.

Will and Monaca came by to see my Mom. She worked them over hard to get a wedding date, but no luck. My Mom would love to be at Will's wedding almost as much as Will's own Mom.

I spent some time over at my Grandma's house and sat there listening to her stories. My Grandma is almost 90 and is sharp as a fox. She was telling me stories of how my Mom first met her Dad at the train station coming back from WWII when she was 21 months old. She told me stories of how my Mom trained to be a flight attendant and of how she met and dated my Dad.

I love this picture my Mom and her little princess.

Our babysitter Tiffany has a Mac Powerbook with a camera mounted on it. The great thing with this camera is that it lets you take pictures in all sorts of crazy modes, including the following:

I went to check on the kids Sunday night and found Emily sleeping inside of this school bus, inside of a cardboard box. We never know where she's going to end up in her room at night.

My Mom is moving towards the end of an eleven month battle with pancreatic cancer. She has fought so hard and battled through so much to get to this point. She has fought the fight against one of the toughest forms of cancer with a faith, a strength and optimism that I hope to have some day. My Mom has never doubted God's greatness or God's goodness in all of this. She has spent each day with a gratefulness for that day and clung to the smallest joys, appreciative of everything that people have done for her - never pitying herself in all of this. When I think of her faith throughout this, the lyrics to the hymn On Christ the Solid Rock come to mind:

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

My Dad has fought the fight right along side of my Mom and saying that I'm proud of him doesn't do it justice. I am in awe. After 40 years of marriage, my Dad has shown me how seriously he takes the "in sickness and in health" portion of his marriage vows. He has stood by my Mom, made her his top priority and served her tirelessly through everything she's gone through over the past 11 months, not to mention the rest of their marriage. He has been a model father and husband all of his life and I am so proud to have him as my Dad. I want to be that kind of man and that kind of husband someday. He is truly my hero and my role-model as a man.

This has sucked. I have had sadness in my life I've never experienced. I know people go through things like this every day, but I had no idea something like this could hurt so much. I don't know how I would get through this without my faith. I've thought a lot about this over the past months and spent a lot of time praying and dealing with God on this, trying to get a handle around suffering as a follower of Jesus. Throughout all of this, I have had to come back to these fundamental truths over and over again:

1. God loves my Mom with a love beyond what I can understand.
2. God is big enough to heal my Mom
3. God could heal my Mom if he wanted to
   
4. God has a perfect plan
5. I don't always get God's plan, but that doesn't change the first four tenants for me.
   

I've never gone through something this tough in my life. I am sad at the core of my being. I hate seeing my Mom, my Dad, my Grandma, my kids - my whole family go through this. I am thankful that we have such a close family and we can lean on each other and grow closer throughout this. It still sucks in a big way.



One bright light in all of this has been my Mom's friend Sherry Burmeister. Sherry has been my Mom's best friend for a long, long time - I think around 25 years or so. Sherry radiates joy about her in a way that you can't help but smile. She has a laugh that is contagious and her and my Mom are hilarious together. They have a friendship that is deep beyond explanation. Throughout my Mom's battle, Sherry has been there every step along the way. She reads to my Mom, she paints her toenails and gives her foot massages. One of Sherry's few flaws is a complete lack of a sense of direction. She frequently gets herself horribly lost trips across town. She has been known as "wrong-way" Burmeister for years. One time she was picking up a speaker for a conference from the airport in Lansing. She got on the expressway and before she knew it, she was in Grand Rapids, instead of Okemos. Oops. This is a weekly occurrence for Sherry, but we love her none-the-less and consider her a part of the family.

Cathie and I have been at my parents house today spending time with my family. Jon, Dan, Susan, Cathie, Sherry and I spent some time looking at old pictures in a giant bin. This was one of my favorite thanks to Susan's bangs, Jon's drugged out look and Dan's huge glasses. I'm wearing my favorite three-piece cordoroy suit with a clip-on time.

What a horrible week for sports in Michigan. U of M won, MSU lost, the Lions lost and the Spartans lost. The only bright spot in the weekend is that I crushed brad with a humiliating defeat in Fantasy Football. The Lions game was bittersweet because I had Jackson and Bulger on my team and every time they scored, I scored big.

I went to see Jackass 2 this weekend with Brad, Will and Eli. I have not laughed that hard in a long time, which felt great. Today turned into a beautiful day. I mowed the lawn and the kids played with friends, while Cathie met her friend Debbie for lunch in Howell. Maddie stayed over at her Grandma and Grandpa Lebbon's for the night and then met up with Cathie to hand her off. She had a blast seeing her Grandparents, Ed & Stacy and most of all their dog, Justice.

We got the kids down and I made a fire in the fireplace on our deck and we sat outside, enjoying the nice fall weather.

While I was mowing the lawn today, I found this tiny little gardner snake. Emily loves animals of all kind, including bugs, worms and snakes. Emily has a wonderful naming convention for everything - it's very complex. For a pink bear - she calls it 'pinky'. For a pet frog, she calls it 'froggy', and you can guess that the snake would be called - 'snakey'.

She carried this snake around for a while, showing the neighborhood boys. Growing up, we used to bring all sorts of snakes and frogs home. My Mom doesn't like either, but she always pretended to be interested in what we'd bring home and shared our excitement about findings.

Emily is a great contrast: a girly, girl who loves to wear dresses - yet loves snakes, bugs and any other living creature.

This is odd. Emily's sandwich of choice today for lunch was a peanut butter and salami sandwich. Peanut butter and bananas I can see - but salami? She must have gotten this from Cathie's side of the family.

10 Things about my Mom:

1. She's one of the few people that are allowed to call me David.
2. She has asthetically-challenged, but very talented toes. She can pick things up with them and pull weeds with them.
3. Over the past 15 years she has kept a journal on her vacations, writing down everything they did, everywhere they stayed, and most importantly - where and what they ate.
4. My Mom was on the front page of the Detroit News when she met her father (my grandpa) for the first time as he came home from the war.
5. My Mom collects teapots. She has a bazillion of them.
6. My Mom loves just about every food in the world except for brussel sprouts.
7. My Mom keeps a journal of every book she's read and the author of the book. She reads about 75 books a year.
8. My Mom has cross-stitched for a long time. She has made us at least ten different pieces, including one about computers and a sampler for our wedding.
9. My Mom has been there for the birth of every one of her grandchildren and in the delivery room for three of them (Maddie, Emily and Ben).
10. My Mom has read the whole bible every year for the past 20ish years.
11. My Mom has told this crazy 'Peanut butter stuck in my mouth' story, complete with voice inflection and motions, since I was a kid. She told it during our car talent shows and a few months ago, she told it to my kids while sitting at Scoopy Doos eating ice cream. It never ceases to make me laugh.
    

Most of all, my Mom is the woman in my life by whom all other women are measured. I married my wife because I saw in Cathie the potential to have the kind of relationship my Dad and Mom have, and saw in Cathie the ability to be a phenomenal Mom to our kids, like my Mom was and is to us. My Mom loves her grandchildren so much treating each one as if they are her favorite. She listens so attentively to every story they tell her and treats each gift from them - whether it's a scribble, a picture or a special rock, as a treasure.

My Mom is a woman with a giant heart for others. I remember when one of the kids in my youth group had cancer, my Mom would send her gifts, never having met her. She is an amazing woman of God who has prayed for me daily. Beyond that, she prays for friends of ours that she barely knows. She is where I got my optimistic outlook on life. For my Mom, not only is the glass half full, but it's probably full of the most wonderful drink in the world and will be full tomorrow. All throughout my Mom's battle with cancer, she rarely complained and never asked for pity. She has always looked on the bright side, reflecting that things could always be worse, and would likely be better tomorrow.