The Halloween haul!

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The Week: Friends and Family

This week was a whirlwind of sorts for a variety of reasons. For starters, the kids were out of school all week as teachers has both parent conferences as well as a development conference our of state. We had our conference for Maddie...whew, we have some work to do :-) Just kidding...She is doing great. Mrs Norton is an awesome teacher and Maddie is really enjoying learning this year. For KK we had a family potluck night where we were able to meet some other families in a casual atmosphere.

Wednesday started to get a little nutty as Steph left at about 5am for a visit back to Nebraska where her grandma is packing up to move to an assisted living facility in St. Louis. St. Louis is where steph's uncle lives and there is a great facility for her grandma to move to. With steph out of town, and kids out of school, we had a bunch of great friend and family helping out with the girls. Wednesday they spent the day with Roberta. I think they not only had a great time with her, but also with Grace and Andrew (Roberta's grand kids) once they got out of school. Thursday we had one of their favorite babysitters, Katie, over in the morning...then Nana J took them in the afternoon. Mixed in there was a play date for KK with her friend Sara, for a Tap Class! The day finished off with Soccer practice and dinner at Pegasus on Alki. Friday, the girls spent the day with the McAllisters - their BFF's :-)...Maddie had an overnight, while KK spent the afternoon with her classmate Sophia. That night KK and I had a quiet night. Dinner at home, Slurpee for dessert, and a movie.

Times like these where we remind ourselves how blessed we are to have such great friends and family that our kids can be with. Other than a broken door at the McAllisters, I think they behave themselves pretty well-gulp! Sorry Rob, the girls are looking through all their play stuff for coins and money to help pay for what ever is needed to fix it. So far, they have about 9.58.

Steph gets in Monday night after her 5-6 days in Nebraska...Looking forward to having her home.

Start of School

Well, school has actually been "in session" for about a month, but just now getting around to posting about it. The start of school has been great....Maddie now in 3rd grade and KK in P4. Both love school, their friends, learning, and Hope.



With 3rd grade Maddie is busy busy...her teacher is super tough (just kidding Mrs. Norton)...she has a good amount of homework, lots of reading time, weekly memory and spelling tests, etc. Right now she is reading a mystery book as she prepared for her 1st book report! She also was elected to Student Council a couple weeks ago.




Kenzie is in P4 with Mrs. Tornow. She is one of just 3 girls, but she loves it. Her best bud Lukie is there, and is making some new friends as well. This week we have a fun Pre-School family social which will give us the chance to meet other kids and families.



As much as KK likes P4, she is right on the coat tails of big sissy...and I think she wishes she was in 3rd grade too :-)

Gloria's Miracle

Been meaning to write up a blog post about this for some time, but with Labor day, the start of school, family in town, and work travels...just havent had the time. (more on all those things soon) However, got a few minutes between sunday school and church this AM, so I thought I would "make it happen."

One of the greatest things that about this "story" that has happened, is exactly what I think Gloria would have wanted, and that is the fact that this story is being told and re-told over and over. Through the web, through face to face conversations, through blogs, etc.

About a year ago we bit the bullet and got a facebook account. Yes, only 1 year on that mammoth social networking site. In the "rush" that is social networking I began to find old friend from all walks of life..work, family, friends, etc. This included some of the guys that I played baseball back in the day. Since I played from the time was 9/10 all the way through HS, I had the opportunity to know a lot of different guys. One of those guys was Doug Strauss. My memory isnt great, but I distinctly remember being a cool, fun guy..always having a good time and great teammate. Like i have done with many others, I discovered Doug on Facebook and was re-introduced to some things that have happened in his life since baseball days, that I had heard about. His daughter, Gloria (1 of 7 kids) was diagnosed with a rare, uncureable bone cancer. Gloria's story, as well as the story of the entire Strauss family, was chronicled by Times Sports writer Jerry Brewer after he did a story about Kennedy HS basketball (where Doug coaches). Over the course of a year or more, Jerry, who was touched by this family, this litle girl, and her story...spent time with the family and this situation...until the final end, when Gloria passed away. Since that time, Jerry has been working with the Strauss' on his first book that brings their story to life. I wont go into a lot of details, because one of the purposes of this post is to encourage you to get the book and read for yourself.

OK, so I rambled a bit there, how does this related to now....Well, through the FB connection, Doug invited me to the book launch event for "Gloria's Miracle." I had seen it a number of weeks before, but never got it on the calendar. When the day of the event finally came, I just felt called to make it to this event. So, on the way I home, I called Steph and we said let's do it. After grabbing a quick bite to eat, we made it. There we had the chance to see Doug for the first time in probably 20 years...reminace about some of the common friend we have, get a book signed, etc. The main part of the event was to program of personal messages, readings from the book, musical performances, etc. We had to leave a bit early because the kids had school the next day, but we really enjoyed our time.

So, what the big deal...whats the punch line Mike? Couple things. First, you never know what people might come back into your life and for what reason. So, keep an open mind, look at the doors that might be put in front of you and be ready to go through them. Second, the kind of inspiration you get from a little girl that is faced with a life ending illness, but has such a positive faith-focused attitude. Again, i'm not going to go into a lot of detail because you need to read the book...and you can get the "full story" here http://www.gloriasmiracle.com/

It has been a blessing to be able to share Gloria's story and I hope you will take a look.

Summer Wrap Up

With today being the last day of August, even though Summer is not "officially" over, it is starting to feel like it. The last few weeks have been pretty busy. For starters, we welcomed a new member to the family with the birth of our nephew, Felton Briggs. For obvious reasons, we haven't had the chance to connect much with the proud parents(Steph's sister Stacey and brother-in-law Ryan), but we hear from Steph's mom that all is well...and Haas is enjoying his new little bro!



A couple weekends ago, I had the opportunity to join 3 others on a trip to Bandon, OR...the home of Bandon Dunes golf resort. We played both Bandon and Pacific Dunes...two of the top 10 courses in the entire US. It was an amazing experience, especially since I played one of my best rounds ever given the conditions.






After returning from Bandon, we packed up the family and headed north to Semiahmoo for a few days. We were racking our brains for a place to go and we were glad that Semiahmoo came to mind. We enjoyed just walking on the beach, riding bikes, going on walks, visiting Langley, etc. On the day we came home we spent a few hours walking around the WWU campus with the kids. It was great to see how things have built up, and our old dorm rooms up on "the ridge."





On Wednesday we have our first official "back to school" activity with orientation. Maddie starts 3rd grade this year, while Kenzie is in P4, at Hope. Both are getting excited to be back at school with friends and their teachers. This week we are trying to get back into a routine of early to bed, early to rise, so that next week is not too big of a shock to the system.

Staying put...for now.

We gave it our best shot, but after 3 full months on the market, we officially pulled our house off the market a couple weeks ago. Way back in February we found a new house just north of the junction, but in order to make it work, we of course had to sell our house. Although we had a TON of traffic through our house, and a lot of interest, in the end we only had 2 couples that were interested enough to make an offer...and in both cases I am not sure they understood that our house was built in 1910...and with that "vintage" everything isnt new. So, we took to failed attempts as our sign that it just isnt the right time. We think that there is still an outside chance that something happens, but it will have to be just right for us to think about it. So, for now, we are settling in, enjoying the house we do have, and letting the kids be kids! Josie came back from her "vacation" so it is nice to have her back to keep the raccoons and cats out of the back yard.

Where did July go?

Holy flying months Batman? Where did July go? Realizing that this is the last week of July, yikes. Only 1 more month of summer vacation. Steph was out with the kids and hitting some of the back to school sales already...crazy!

Since the 4th of July recap, things have been fast and furious. We spent a great weekend at the Coaches Time Out conference in Vancouver. It was a great event (as always) and gave us a couple days on our own. It was refreshing to be driving in the car and be able to have a full conversation for more than 30 seconds :-)

The following weekend, I passed up my Sounders vs Chelsea tickets :-( for an awesome time with the Hope caravan in the West Seattle parade. Our new tradition of piling about 20 kids in the School Bus and handing out candy to the parade goers. This year SLHS was in front, followed by Hope Church, then us in the back. The cool thing was that Hope got 1st place in the "community" category, so we were really excited to be a part of it.

Spattered among the weeks have been Hope Softball games...a new adventure for me as I have not played softball since the 8-ballers back in 2001 when Maddie was just a little tyke. I had a lot of fun, and I think the girls enjoyed playing with friends, occassionally watching bits of the game, etc. Tradition was to always hit up DQ after the games with the team, so we all really liked that. As of today, we officially are done after a 3-2 loss in the playoffs. I managed to eek out a few hits here and there....and only tweak my hamstring a couple of time. I must be getting old!

This last week was a big milestone as Steph helped put on VBS at Hope. Her and Leighellen spearheaded the effort and did an AMAZING job coordinating the week. Over 150 kids and 50 volunteers were a part of the week. Steph led all the crafts and had a ton of cool ideas to pass along to the kids. Her creativity and organization skills were at their best.

Story of the month, and especially right now (literally) is the heat wave. We have had like 2 days with any measurable rain since June 1st....amazing. This week we are breaking records for the heat, with tomorrow supposedly flirting with 100!!! After that it "cools down" to around 90 over the weekend. As you can imagine, we have moved all our time at home to the basement, including sleeping. Not sure we could make it without it.

On the House front, there has been a lot of activity, but I am not going to write anything in case it might jinx it...All I can say is pray for some good mojo :-)