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:

Night in the box

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

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.

Family Picture

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.

This Weekend

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.

Snakey

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.

Peanut Butter and Salami

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 or so things about my Mom

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.

Nate's Football Game

Nate's first football game was today. The team had two practices before the game, and they played great. Of the four coaches, I'm the only one who has coached football before , so I ran the offense and defenses while one of the other Dad's helped out and got the hang of it. Nate started off as Quarterback and he played great. After playing for a few years, he's finally got comfortable in the pocket, and he threw a nice pass for a touchdown. I love seeing the joy on the kids faces when they make a big play or when they hear a complimentary word, even after a broken play went south and they know it. We won the game, 12 - 6.

Gift to my Family

As a kid on our family road trips, the 6 of us would pile into the car for very long car rides. My parents would keep us entertained by doing 'Talent Shows'. We would each showcase a talent like singing, reciting a poem or some other skill you could do while crammed in a four-door Oldsmobile. I was always guaranteed victory by doing a version of Kenny Roger's 'The Gambler'. My brothers thought I won based on pity, but I believe it was based on raw skill - because my Mom told me so, and I believe her. Jon and Dan got to the point where they would do motions to the song - purely in mockery of me, of course. My Dad would always do a horrible operatic/yodeling rendition of 'Little Boy Blue', but never ceased to get a laugh.

Star Wars Quotes

This is a list of Star Wars quotes that have been improved by replacing a word with the word 'pants'. My favorite:

I cannot teach him. The boy has no pants.

Coolest Costume Ever

I'm a big X-Men fan. This guy made the coolest Halloween customer ever. My brother Jon is the only guy I know with enough time on his hand to make a set of those working, retractable claws.

Warning Label?

What does this mean?

Mom and her favorite children

A few years ago, for Christmas Cathie, Sooze, Kris and Beth made my Mom a scrapbook of pictures from her life all the way back when cameras had just been invented. My brothers and I decided to try and claim credit for it, at least in a picture, which we all know is worth a thousand words. My Mom calls this picture, "Me and my favorite children". Dan and Jon calls this picture, "Our wives didn't pick out these pants for us."

Computer Science

In 1989 I began at MSU getting a degree in Computer Science. This was before the big .com boom. We would follow the average starting pay for the degrees pretty religiously and in the College of Engineering, Computer Science was one step above Civil Engineering and below Chemical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. Computer Science guys were still considered geeks - not .com bazillionaires. My classes were made up 98% guys and the classes were hard. I got by not by being the smartest guy in the world, but by being able to get the smartest, most anti-social guys in the class into my study group and facilitating and lead the guys to the point that we'd actually get the stuff done and by not ostracizing the smartest guys, they were glad to help me with the toughest assignments. My Computer Science degree from MSU was one of the best decisions I ever made. I've been playign with computers for 25 years and I still love them.

Over the past 10 years, there are fewer and fewer people getting computer science degrees. The feeling is that the really technical stuff is being sent offshore. This is a very interesting article that describes how demand for the degrees is going up, but the number of people getting them is going down.

Domino

I watched the movie Domino last night. It's the true story of Domino Harvey, a model who abandoned her career and a 90210 lifestyle to become a bounty hunter. She was also the sister of Lindsay Lohan's ex-fiancee, Harry Morton. Decent movie. Interesting lifestyle. My sister Susan would make a good bounty hunter.

Adidas

When Nate was 2ish, he was fascinated by construction equipment, aka "Big Trucks". He couldn't quite say "Big Truck" so he would call them "De-Das". When Nate and I were driving home, we had the following conversation:

Nate: "Dad, when I was little, do you remember what I called big trucks?"
Me: "Yep. De-Das"
Nate: "Yeah. I didn't know they were a kind of shoe."
Me: "Huh? Shoes?"
Nate: "Yeah. A De-Das. They're a kind of shoe."
Me: "Never thought of it that way. Guess you're right."

(Be sure and Note that Matthew, Andrew and Stephen are all wearing turtle-necks in the picture.)

Before and After: Maddie's Haircut

Maddie got her hair cut today.

Short. I think it looks great, but makes her look too old.


I want her to stay my little girl forever!

Hon

Nate and I both agree that waitresses under the age of 50 shouldn't be allowed to call you 'Hon' or 'Honey'.

Video Games and Food

Nate has his first football game tomorrow so we went out to pick up a pair of cleats and mouth guard. A new BW3's opened up over in Brighton so we grabbed dinner and spent time talking and playing these video game stations at each table. Needless to say, Nate was in heaven.