Afternoon cat nap for Em

Best Letter to the Editor EVER in the South Lyon Herald

The best part about our local newspaper, The South Lyon Herald, is the letter's to the editor. About a month ago, there was a letter from a guy who spent about 1,000 word lamenting his van that burned down. It was odd and boring, but amusing in it's own way.

Today's paper had a response to the guy's story about his van. It is fantastic. My theory is that anytime you bring Hilter into your argument, you've already lost. Check this out. Sheer lunatic genius:

I read the letter headlined "Van will be missed" in the Sept 10 Herald, but I cannot in good conscience echo the sentiment, or provide any condolences. The writer of the letter may miss his van, but I can bet the earth will not. I say kudos to the flames that rid the world of one more gas guzzling mechanized earth destruction device. The letter's author may not be happy, but the planet is ecstatic.

The author discusses all the precious memories of times spent in the van, but what about hte future generations that will not have the chance to make the same memories? That van, and other vehicles like SUVs, trucks and the despicable Hummer, are doing their best to leave those future generations without a planet to make memories on. You had that chance, but at what cost? The cost of our comfortable climate as you, and your whirling death machine, prodded us ever closer to becoming Venus II.

The author discussed 15 years of memory spaning things stored inside the van. The letter leads one to believe that things like paper, and plastic products were strewn about that van. How many others ended up in landfills? How many animals lost their habitat whenever that van was cleaned? The things he talks about as memories sound like trash to me. The noble flames that destroyed the van thankfully destroyed that polluting garbage, too. At least some things won't end up festering in a landfill.

I urge everyone not to accept sob stories about vicious things. I'm sure Hitler had a few sad things happen to him in his life, but I sure don't want to hear him whine about it. Billions of people are at risk of death from a runaway greenhouse effect. I ask all the Herald's readers to stand up, and let it be known that we won't tolerate perpetual pollution peddlers like vans and SUVs. If you see a person driving one of those vehicles let them know you disapprove. Don't be mean, don't be rude, and try to avoid the one finger salute. Give them a stern disapproving lot, and make sure they know that they are destroying the planet just so they can drive their unnecessary gigantic greenhouse gas spewing death pods.

Adam Gjokaj, Salem Township

Em, Colleen & Ashlyn at the Hannah Montana concert

Where the Hell is Matt?

This is an amazing video I found that was filmed across 42 different countries. This guy dances as well as I do.

Daddy Daughter Date for Chinese Food

Em's a cat

Go State!

Florida Sunset

Only in NJ can I get Lingerie and Cleats at the same place

Sunset at South Lyon Football

He's Going the Distance

Last Saturday, Bob, Brad and I ran the local Witch's Hat 10k race. This was my second time running it after doing the race with my brother-in-law Kevin, with last year's time being 46m 2s and a 7:25 min/mile pace. I ran the 10k a couple weeks after running my first half marathon and didn't really know what to expect. My goal this year was to beat that time.

I ran the first three miles at a 7:05 pace and then started dropping off a bit for the final three. I paced myself against the same 70 year old man Kevin and I followed last year, but this year I passed him in the end. The final leg to the finish line is up hill, which is brutal, but you've got a whole cheering section there that makes you dig deep.

This was Bob and Brad's first 10k and Bob finished in 55 minutes, which is great. Bob and I waited for an hour at the finish line for Brad for a while and then started getting worried. We walked back part of the course and couldn't find him. As old as Brad is, we figured he'd had a heart attack and died. Apparently he pulled his achilles tendon (one would expect that he would of pulled his groin).


I had my heart rate monitor on this year, my heart rate got to places I've never gotten it before, even on my long runs. I was upwards of 181bpm towards the end as compared to my resting heart rate of 45bpm normally, and 175bpm on a typical hard run.

My time was 44:46 with an average pace of 7m13s, 12 seconds per mile better than last year. You can see the runkeeper map here.

Emily's Horse at riding lessons

Movie Review by a Middle School Kid

I found this on the wall in a group of movie reviews and posters on
the wall. Nice movie choice...

Quality Emily Quote

Emily: "I'm Mad at the cat."
Me: "Why?"
Emily: "Because he's bad luck."
Me: "Bad luck? Why?"
Emily: "I wouldn't have gotten a punishment if it weren't for Rascal being bad luck. Black cats are bad luck, Dad."

Nate's Pic of Daunte Culpepper

The Lions QB was at our High School FB game last night watching his
son play on the opposing team. Kid Rock at a Panthers game last year
and now this. Our opponents seem to be a big deal.

Afternoon picnic in the park with my wife

Emily's new pet: Colleen the Snake

I found this Gardner snake while I was running today. I carried him
home and Em named it after her friend, Colleen Sugar.

Sleeping Beauties

Early Adopter - Story of My Life

Running out of Duty and Obligation Sucks - My Affair with @runkeeper

Most people don't know this, but I'm not sure I enjoyed running all that much last year. I talked about it all the time, including how I started in April and ended up running my first 10k and half marathon by the end of the year. When I look back on my running last year, it was pretty miserable. I remember getting to the end of my half marathon telling myself, "I'll never do this again."

Running last year consisted of me measuring, charting and plotting, following programs pushing myself again and again. The joy for me wasn't in the run itself - it was in pushing myself, and seeing how hard and how far I could go. The joy for me was when my long run each week would grow from 4 miles all the way to 17, when my 3 mile time dropped from 36 minutes to 19 minutes. Short of the runners high I would get at the end of my route, the actual running part was rough. I had to listen to books on tape or podcasts so that I wasn't left to mull over the fact that I still had X number of miles left to go.

The funny thing is that this year, I love running in a way I never did before. I enjoy it during the run. I look forward to my runs. I know how far and how fast I can push myself, so that hasn't been the rush for me. I don't write down my runs any more (short of my runkeeper tweets, which everyone in my family seem to love), I don't consciously map out a course before I got for the run. I simply head out in a direction and go as far as I feel like running. For some reason, this changes everything. I have a rough pattern for the week - but nothing too rigid. I do a long run anywhere from 8-15 miles every week, a speed relay run and runs just to run. I'm running because I want to, because my heart feels compelled to run and to move. When I'm out running, I can run with or without music or podcasts, thinking, reflecting, but never hating the run I'm on, because at any time, I know I can turn around and end it - just because I want to.

Today, all that changed. For the first time all summer I sat down and mapped out a course of about 15 miles. I was trying to find a new course and wanted to be able to tell Cathie where I was running in the event that I didn't come home, she could go and find my body. I set out to run, not because I wanted to run 15 miles, but suddenly feeling like I HAD to run this course, HAD to run 15 miles. My heart wasn't in it. In the past I had run a similar course and remember smelling the smells, hearing the birds, noticing the farms and horses. This time, it felt dry and sterile. Does the heart really have this much to do with how we pursue something? Seems like it does for me. It got me thinking of other areas where the same concept applies.

Growing up, I reached a point growing in my faith where I was doing all sorts of good things (going to church, going to catechism class, learning good things and doing good things), but felt like I HAD to do them, and as a result, I resented them. When I was suddenly given the choice to go to a youth group on my terms, all the sudden it changed the whole context of things. I've often pushed myself to DO the kind of things on the outside that are good, decent, righteous things - but that only lasts for so long if I haven't been changed on the inside.

I'm gradually learning that Jesus came to set me free from a faith built on the pillars of duty and obligation, from doing the right things externally without the right kind of heart and being the right kind of person. I'm learning that when I give my life to Jesus, he changes my heart to one where these kind of actions naturally flow from. I've seen it in myself when I let go and stop trying to arrange my life just so, and allow God to change me inside. The more I focus on Jesus, the more my heart changes. Crazy, huh?

Contrary to what I'd said last year, I'm running a half marathon again this year and a 10k. I'm in better shape, I'm faster and can run distances with an ease I never thought I'd achieve. I'm interested in seeing how my times are this year, but I'm not as interested in breaking records, as seeing what naturally comes out of my training program this year.

5 lbs of fresh rasberries

Picking Rasberries

Thoughts on my Kindle

I got my kindle a few months ago. It's a pretty amazing device. I've been playing around with this trying to figure out how this technology could fit with what my company does as a future offering in the document space.

I like my device a lot. I've read a number of books on it, and I get my Wall Street Journal delivered to it daily.

Here's what I really like about it:

• It works over a cellular network, not a wireless network, so you can get content any time, any where.
  
• The size and form factor. It fits well in my hand and in my backpack for when I travel.
• The easy of which you can buy books and even test drive a book is great. You can shop from the device or from the web site.
  
• The end user experience is awesome. The packaging was awesome and when I opened it up, it was already linked to my Amazon content, with a personalized letter from the God of Amazon - Jeff Bezos.
  
• The ability to have it read to you through headphones. I ran across my first book where the publisher had turned the feature off, which was annoying.
• The screen quality. The screen is ePaper, which means that once you light up a pixel, it stays lit up without additional power. It actually cycles the screen every so often with a picture of a different author, in fairly high resolution.
• I love the iPhone sync feature. On my iPhone, I can open the app and read exactly where I've left off on my Kindle, and vice versa once I go back to my Kindle after reading on my iPhone.
  

The downsides I've found so far are:

• No back-lighting. I think Amazon treats this more like a book, which needs lighting as well.
  
• No touch-screen. I don't mind it as much as think it could provide some cool features
  
• Power consumption will give you roughly a week of usage, lots longer if you turn off the wireless connection.
  
• You have to be a bit stealthy to read this on an airplane before you get up to 30,000 fee because of their rules on electronic devices.
• No ability to check a book out, like you would from a library. The books are cheap, never more than $9.99, but the library is still a lot cheaper.
• PDF viewing. You have to convert PDF's to Amazon's kindle format unless you have the larger Kindle, which will read them natively. The upside is that can e-mail content to your kindle's e-mail address and for around $.10 it will deliver the document right to your device, converted and ready to go.
• You can't charge it with a standard usb cord, instead having to use Amazon's special plug to charge it with higher voltage.

All that being said, I think this will change things. I'm trying to start to use this for document storage for meetings. It will never be a notebook computer, even though you can browse the web with it. You can highlight areas of a document and clip notes out that you can reference when you sync it up to your computer. I haven't figured out how to deliver an article or book clip via e-mail yet, which would be nice. I'd love a print driver that would easily feed documents to my kindle instead of a printer.

Twilight Football Practice

Riding the Roomba

My brother Dan sent me this video... We have a roomba, a robotic vacum cleaner we call rover. I'm pretty sure that after Emily sees this she'll try and teach Rascal, the giant cat, to ride it. Here are even more videos if you're into this stuff as much as Dan.

Family Walk

While Nate and Maddie were at practice today, Cath, Em and I took Lola for a walk to a nearby pond. Lola had a blast running around chasing the birds and bugs. I'm pretty sure that Emily had more fun just watching Lola run, and she gave us a play by play of everything Lola was doing - even though we were only ten feet away watching the same thing.

Being a third child, Em soaks up the one-on-one time like this and we had a blast doing this with her.

Season 3 of Panthers Football

Panthers season has officially begun. Our Saturday's are booked for the next 12 weeks. Last year Maddie cheered for Nate's team. Nate has moved up to Varsity and Maddie does cheer and Pom for the JV team, which plays a couple hours before Nate.

The South Lyon Panthers football organization is pretty amazing in terms of it's organization and structures. It's all parent/volunteer run, which means that each family has to sign up for a certain amount of volunteer time. I chose the chain gang this year, which is about as a fun as a volunteer job can get. How do you beat standing on the sideline next to the action, watching the kids play and listening to the opposing coaches bad-mouth your team?

This is Maddie's second year of cheer and Pom (yes, there is a difference) and she loves it. Her background with gymnastics gives her the chance to do some of the stunting and she's a natural leader out there with the girls.

This has been an interesting year for Nate as he enters into Varsity. The guys on his team are as big as 230+ lbs and at 80 lbs, he's one of the smaller guys. He's been playing corner and running back, but the contrast in size, as you can see from the picture on the left, is pretty huge. There's nothing easy about an 80lb guy hitting up against a 160lb line men, or getting tackled by one. They intensity of the workouts has increased significantly from JV. They run the guys hard, near the equivalent intensity of what we do in our Triad workouts. They had some extended three hour practices last week and I felt for Nate when he came home wiped out. I think the team is seeing a big difference from the conditioning, as they've still got plenty of gas in the second half of the game.

I'm so impressed with Nate's attitude about about the intensity and the disparity. Nate doesn't complain, he goes in with no fear, and he works his tail off. As happens with all of the teams, the coaches play the bigger, faster second year guys and the more junior, smaller guys don't get the same kind of playing time. It's frustrating for Nate, but he gets it, and I think it motivates him to push a little harder to stand out. I never had the guts to do what Nate's doing when I was his age and I'm so proud that he is. He's doing it because he love it, not because of what anyone else wants him to do.

For the past few years, I've also been the unofficial team photographer. Don't get me wrong - love doing it, but it just takes a ton of time. Not only do I take pictures through the two hour game, but it takes me 2-3 hours to go through the pictures and edit the 500-700 pictures down to the a couple hundred really good ones. I try and get pictures of all 30 players, not just the stars who make all the plays. It's amazing how cool you can make an out of context show look, by cropping it just right to not show the fumble or the missed block. At first I wasn't sure if anyone actually looked at these pictures. One of the Mom's on the team shared with me that some of the Dad's go through the pictures one-by-one with their sons, looking for their own pictures, missed blocks and good hits.

My Tombstone

Em and I saw this when we were out for a bike ride the other day. We cut through the cemetery and stopped to check out some of the tombstones. How cool is this one?

Best Panthers Volunteer Job Ever

Social Media is moving at the speed of light

Got this video from Shinn.. Very interesting, especially the ramifications around the documents and communication overall. Communication seems to be speeding up, our lives moving faster. I'm just not sure my life needs to move any faster.

Final thoughts on dead parents and dead dogs

I've been told I'm a bit oblivious at times - glossing over details and over generalizing a bit. It's a nice way to say that at times, I'm a bit clueless about things, until I live through them. As dumb as it sounds, I'd never understood what a monumental thing losing your parent could be. To a degree, I figured that everyone's parents died eventually and people had been dealing with this for years - how bad could it really be? I learned the hard way just how difficult and life changing this was when my Mom got pancreatic cancer and died. Out of that situation I developed a whole new level of understanding and compassion for what it's like to lose a parent. In hindsight, I went through a similar epiphany over the past few weeks when my dog died. I know it sounds weird to compare the loss of a parent with that of a dog - but bear with me.

I remember a couple of years ago, one of my boss's dog died. I went through the motions of saying how sorry I was, but there was a part of me that was thinking: "Really? It's a dog - come on, time to get over it." I thought the same thing to a degree when our friends dog Guinness died: "You really need to grieve for 40 days and write that many blog posts about a dog? Comon - it's just a dog!"

Fast forward to a few months ago when I started setting the stage for the kids that our dog Riley might not be around forever. She was slowing down and showing signs of wear, but I really hadn't thought the whole thing through myself. About a month ago when my wife and the kids were out of town, Riley got sick and I took her to the vet. As I sat in the room waiting for test results, I imagined having to tell the family when they returned that Riley had died. She didn't, but I didn't know at the time just how close it would be. This is when reality started setting in for me that Riley wouldn't be around forever and it would be a much bigger deal than I had ever imagined.

On Monday when Cathie took Riley in and I got the text message from Cathie "Bad news. Brad (our vet) will call you to explain" reality set in even further. I knew we had a week left, best case, and my wife and our three kids all started dealing with the end with greater intensity as the week drew to a close. I cooked eggs and chicken for the dog, I catered to the dog, we all spent lots of time giving her hugs and the kids grieved in their own way with tears and caring for her.

Here's what I came to understand, and I'm sure this isn't a major revelation to most people who've lost a dog (or a parent for that matter):
Riley was with us for 13 years, from the beginning, involved in virtually everything our family did in some way, shape or form. She was an animal, yes, but she had a personality as distinct as any of our family members. She was connected to each member of my family, and even many of our friends, in a way that transcends the fact that she was a dog. I mean I'd talk to Riley and she understood things. I'm not talking philosophy, but she would show joy, remorse, shame and I swear she'd occasionally roll her eyes at me. That kind of connection made it a whole different deal for me than losing a guinea pig, snake or cat (not to mention that I can't stand most cats and I'm an avid dog person).

If you've never had a dog for this long, or if you hate dogs, or had a mean one - it might not resonate. I know for a fact that there are a ton of people who have lived this and get it in a way that I never did prior to this week. I received more tweets, facebook messages, facebook comments, blog comments, cards, phone calls and e-mails expressing understanding and compassion for what we were going through. It was something that would have seemed like overkill or just surface sentiment in the past - but was huge to me, and something I want to pass on to others going forward as they go through this. I also want to say thanks to the many of you who reached out with kind words to me and my family over the loss of our dog. Your kind words meant a lot.

I've dealt with my share of major events in my life: death of family members, miscarriages, addictions, betrayal by friends, and more. Now I add to that list the death of a dog. I'm not comparing their magnitude. I'm simply comparing the fact that all of these things made me someone more capable of understanding other people's pain and made me more able to love others than I ever could before. Things have all sucked in the midst of them, but I can point to places where I've been able to reach out to people around me and walk with them and find common ground in our wounds. Maybe this is what James was talking about when he said this:

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. - James 1:2-4 (The Message)

The pain, as crazy as it sounds, has been a gift in the end. Don't get me wrong. The event itself was not the gift. The pain that resulted from it and the learnings that came out of it was the gift. It showed the cracks in my life and matured me. Those who know me will be quick to point out that I've got a long ways to go before I can be, as James says, "not deficient in any way".

G.I. Joe with the Kung Fu Grip

Nate and I went to see the G.I. Joe movie. I'd heard pretty horrible things about it, so I had low expectations going in. I actually enjoyed it - at least more than I did the Transformers 2 movie. I didn't expect good acting, but I was hoping for a good homage to the original cartoon and action figures - a "Kung Fu Grip" and "Knowing is half the battle" reference. I got both.It was non-stop action without much character development, but the weapons and technology were pretty cool.

The members of G.I. Joe had these great things called accelerator suits for which they pretty much stole the ideas from Nate and I. When Nate was little, I used to tell him stories when I'd lay down with him for bed time. I'd make the stories up based on what he wanted to hear, and we came up with the character called "Gun Man". Gun Man had this cool mechanical suit where different weapons would pop out of, and would give you super-strength. I'd tell Nate stories about him, as gun-man, in this suit, saving the world.

This was when Nate was in his super-hero phase of growing up. My favorite story was when Nate wore his super-man pajamas underneath his clothes when Cathie took him to the store. When he got home, Cathie noticed he had two sets of clothes on and asked him why. Nate explained that just in case the store was robbed, Nate could change into his superman outfit and save the store.

Don't set your expectations too high for the movie, but you can feel a little famous knowing that you know the two guys who came up with the idea for the accelerator suits.

Our Honeymoon

Cathie and I were out last night and were reminiscing about our honeymoon.  Seventeen years ago today was a Sunday and we woke up from our hotel room on the corner of Grand River and Hagadorn in East Lansing.  We headed over to my parents for brunch and to open some of our cards and wedding gifts.  We took out every dollar of cash from the cards and then Cathie's parents took us to the airport.  This was a huge trip for us.

We were 21 and young.  I was in my senior year at MSU and Cathie had just graduated.  This was our first trip together, our first plane ride, just Cathie and I, our first everything for the first time as Mr. and Mrs. Kurt.  We had never rented cars, gotten our own hotels or traveled on our own schedule with just the two of us.  

When we got to the airport we were hit with our first dilemma: There was a major hurricane heading towards Miami and we may not be able to get there from here because flights were being diverted.  We boarded anyways, figuring that together, as husband and wife, we could make the best of any situation.  The American Airlines gate agent noticed our shiny rings and probably our post-wedding night glow, not to mention that I was telling the whole world that this was my wife.  She gave us our tickets and we boarded the plane.  We walked all the way to the back of our plane, unable to find our seats anywhere, thinking how much worse than the back could they be.  We asked a flight attendant and she pointed us towards the front.  The gate agent had upgraded us to first class as a kind gesture.  What a start!

We were heading to New Smyrna Beach, South of Daytona.  My groomsman Web Smith's parents had been kind enough to let us use their condo for the week.  We made it through Atlanta and landed in Daytona, excited for the week to start.  We went to rent a car (not easy to do when you're not 25) and again gushed about our new marriage.  The guy upgraded us to a cavalier convertible and we thought we were in heaven.

We made it to our condo, navigating our way there in the times before GPS and Mapquest.  What more could a newly married couple want: A condo in florida, a convertible, a week of being together and doing what we wanted and more cash than we'd ever had on us in our life (probably $800 - which seemed like $10,000 at the time).  We actually hid the cash in a cookie jar because we didn't want to carry that much money on us and apparently because we figured that the elderly community in florida were all cat burglars on the side.

We got to our room and turned on the TV to watch Hurricane Andrew start to destroy Miami as the wind blew around us, but it was nothing compared to what was happening South of us.

Webb's dad had written me a note, explaining to me where everything was and a list of things that a good husband could do for his wife - like go get fresh croissants and fruit for breakfast in bed and romantic restaurants and places to go for a walk.  I took him up on all of his suggestions, figuring he knew what he was talking about.

We went wherever we wanted to go - the beach, the dog track, the mall - all in our convertible, thinking we were the greatest thing in the world.  Cathie and I were reminiscing about a few things last night:

• We went to a mall in Orlando and bought the book Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy, based on the Saturday Night Live shorts.  I would drive as Cathie would read this to me and we would both laugh until we cried.  Genius stuff like, "Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, you'll be a mile from them, and you'll have their shoes."
• My Dad gave us two free passes to the newly opened Universal Studios in Orlando.  
• We walked the beach at Canaveral National Seashore at the end of the New Smyrna point.  As we walked, we saw a dude in the distance on the beach who looked pretty naked - and creepy.  We continued to see more and more of these people - all old, creepy and saggy.  Turns out, we'd wandered onto a nude beach. Ew.  
• We went to the dog track and bet on dogs based on which one relieved themselves before the race.   We even won occasionally.
• We went to restaurants and couldn't figure out why the were so empty in the evening.  Turns out people don't like the hurricane season and old people in Florida hit the restaurants at 4.
• Our theme song for the trip was, Life is a Highway by Tom Cochrane.  We heard this every time we got in the car and we turned it, again, in our convertible as we drove.

We've been on some great expensive and exotic vacations all over since our honeymoon, but as we talked last night, we agreed that nothing compares to this first trip.  We were young, didn't expect much, didn't have much except each other and a cookie jar full of money.   We returned to reality in our 400 square foot apartment in University Village at MSU, but proud because it was ours and knowing that we were doing it together, and had nothing but the future ahead of us.

Cathie's Goal: Michigan Homemaker of the Year

Goodbye to Riley, May she Rest in Peace

Well, today was the day. Riley was at a point where it was time. Nate and I took her into the vet for the last time today. Prior to going, the kids, Cathie and I sat around and came up with a list of the awesome things that made Riley, Riley.

• Whenever possible, she would sleep with her head on a pillow
  
• She would never bite a kid even when she was bit or had her hair pulled by a kid - she just licked back
  
• She let Emily dress her up and lock her in her closet
  
• She always looked like she was smiling
  
• She wasn't afraid to climb on the counter or the table to the food
  
• Chased rabbits and squirrels but never knew what to with them when she caught them.
  
• Had one run-in with a skunk that about destroyed our furniture from the smell
  
• Loved to roll in wild animal poop moments after she had been
  
• Possibly the only Gold retriever lab who didn't like to swim
  
• The only chocolate lab mix I've seen who wasn't brown
  
• More scared of Desiree Defelice and Katie Freier than any dog ever
  
• Adopted by Nicki Workman Family as their honorary third dog
  
• Loved everyone (except Katie and Desi)
  
• At the end, was deaf as a rock. She would start barking when Lola would, but had no idea why
  
• She knew not to sleep on our bed, unless we were gone, and would jump off when she heard our car pull in
  
• Riley would wander the yard without a leash, never going further than she was supposed to.
  
• She would get matting behind her ears and tail that looked like dreadlocks
  
• Riley would wrestle with Lola and put her in her place
  
• She was scared of our kitten Rascal
  
• No matter how long you were gone, she would greet you like it had been a week
  
• She was our doorbell for the longest time when it broke. Riley was the only way I would know that someone was at the door from my office.
  
• Everything tasted better to Riley when it came from the trash can.
  
• Riley would steal sandwiches and pizza slices right off your plate if you walked away
  
• She cleaned up the crums and food droppings from three babies
  
• She knew when I was heading up for a nap and would head up to sleep next to me
  
• She has eaten more choclate than me in her entire life and never thrown up, including a box of Godiva chocolates intended for my grandma
  
• She would sit next to me on the deck during my morning quiet time
  
• She would go room to room at night to check on the kids
  
• She shed enough to make 10 fur coats over her life
  

Here are some pictures of Riley over the years.

Lessons from a Dog

My Dad sent me this set of lessons to be learned from a dog. I wish I could be the kind of person my dog thinks I am. Riley must think I'm amazing based on how she greets me when I come home from a trip, or even leave the house for a few hours.

• When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
• Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure Ecstasy.
• Take naps.
• Stretch before rising.
• Run, romp, and play daily.
• Thrive on attention and let people touch you.
• Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
• On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass.
• On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.
• When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
• Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.
• Be loyal.
• Never pretend to be something you're not.
• If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
• When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by, and nuzzle them gently.

My Riley

We've had Riley for almost 13 years. We got her when Nate was a baby, thinking what better thing to add to having a brand new baby than a brand new puppy. Riley is a mix of chocolate lab and golden retriever that we got from a person my Mom worked with at Eddie Bauer. Dumb idea at the time to get a puppy, as it was like adding a second child into the mix. We made it through it all and in the end, it was worth it.

She grew up with all three kids. They learned to walk by pulling themselves up on her. They all teethed by chomping into her. No matter how hard they pulled or bit, she would only lick them in the face until they let go. She's been my buddy for 13 years. Following me around as I work at home. She knows when I'm going to take a nap and lies down next to me. She knows when she's been busted by Cathie for getting into the trash and even pretends to look ashamed.

She's the kind of dog you can let out of the back yard and she'll wander just far enough, but always come back and never go in the road. She's lived through three cats, where even more brutal than the babies. Rascal, our latest, would sit on her hind legs and swat at Riley's face and ears while she would playfully and gently nudge her right back.

Riley has cancer. The kind where she only has a little bit of time left with us, measurable in days. I've known lots of people whose dogs had died. As Maddie told me yesterday,

Dad, I never knew it was this big of a deal for your dog to die. I'm so sad. This stinks.

I agree. My heart is broken over losing my buddy. She's been with us through so much, my kids don't remember a time without her. She's stone deaf, she's old and she's in pain, but she's still my buddy. She has such a special place in my heart. Cathie, Nate, Maddie, Em and I are all broken up about this. We've been enjoying the last few days we have with Riley.

My friend Brad Jeffrey, the owner of Jeffrey Animal Hospital, has been a great friend and vet throughout all of this. He's been a vet for almost 40 years (I'm guesing just based on the fact that he's really old), yet his heart hasn't hardened on the difficulty of this kind of stuff. He's coached us not only on her health, but on understanding where the end is and on dealing with the end with our kids. Thanks Bradly.

Emily's Tree Frog Menagerie

Emily has collected 7 different tree frogs so far. She's feeding them
bugs, worms, moths and anything else she can find.

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What was Staring me in the face this morning

As I walked onto my deck to have a cup of coffee, this was eye level
on the other side of the doorwall.

Em is one of the Crossroads Backup Singers