August, 2010

We've had a really busy August. We went to Chicago earlier in the month to celebrate Julia's birthday by going to Shrek the Musical.

We stayed with Jason and Tracie while in the city and they took us to Millennium Park. The Bean, as it's called, was really cool. I especially liked the way the Chicago skyline looked in the reflected surface.


While walking around downtown, we stopped and watched a few street performers. One was a man dressed and painted in silver. He stood or sat completely still like a statue but once in awhile would move and do something funny. Mandy told Finn to go sit by the statue and he didn't think twice about it. A bunch of people were watching him do it and he had no idea why he was getting all the attention. When he looked over at Mandy while sitting right next to the guy, the man turned his head to look right at Finn. Finn turned back, saw him, and made a horribly frightened face and ran back to Mandy. I got a picture of him sitting there, but I wasn't ready for the next part. Finn was a little leery of being so brave after that.

After playing outside in puddles, Skippy does her best drowned rat (or maybe fox) impression.

As rough as he sometimes is with her, I'm surprised at how much Skippy still snuggles up to Finn.

Back on Track - Skippy

The second installment of blog posts aimed at getting me back on track.

In the beginning of May we got a puppy. Skippy is a Pomeranian. She started out as a half-pound ball of fur, but she's changed a lot in the last few months. These pictures are all from the furball phase.

But first! If you dare try to harm our pup, you'll have to deal with... Weapon Master Finn!


When we got her, she was barely eight weeks old. Below is Julia holding her in the car when we picked her up. Following that are more pictures from Skippy's first day at home.




Skippy is a good sport about being played with by the kids.

She's also enjoys snuggling.


Even though it's cute, we don't let her sleep on the steps because we're afraid someone won't see her and step on her.

She does this adorable thing where she looks at you and cocks her head really far to one side.

So much for not eating meat!

We found out that Grandma Ruth's Pomeranian, Maggie, is Skippy's half-sister. So Skippy may look like this in a few short years.

We really don't make Finn sit in Skippy's pen, but we might if he used his weapons from the first picture too often.

Back on Track - April

After fighting a month-long battle with a computer virus (on both computers), I got behind on keeping up with pictures. After that, my inactivity in blogland kind of snow balled. A few quick blog posts is my attempt to get back on track.

Finn turned three in April.


Some things go beyond a mutl-generational gap. One of those things is the love of donut holes.

And the willingness to fight for the last one. Joking aside, it's great watching Finn and Great-Grandpa Ronnie interact. From early on, those two have had a great time together.

Peace is helping Finn get his truck.

Julia definitely has an affinity for art.

February, 2010

Family shot, with Finn still recovering from his nap.

For my birthday we broke out the fine dishes and thankfully none actually broke. If you look closely at the cake you might be able to figure out Mandy's clever way of showing my age.

The kids got some special Valentine's Day treats. Finn shows them off while Julia phones to give a thanks.

Julia posing in pink with a homemade snowflake.

A red-cheeked Finn takes it upon himself to get his own snack. He could do worse than pretzels.

Julia shows people what a real tea party looks like.

Plenty of options for dress up can lead to some interesting costumes.

Julia plays some PBS Kids games online on our new office desk.

Finn and Mandy baked some really big monster cookies.

We all enjoyed the warming weather with a nice walk along the river.

Sometimes we all need a little snuggle time.

A New Year, A New Blog Post

Finn had the honor of handing out presents for our family Christmas before we traveled. His small body was perfect for getting under the tree for those hard to reach gifts.

Julia and Finn are all smiles while hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Here is a picture at the kids' Great-Grandma Laverne's: Amanda, Torey, Julia, Finn, Finn's belly, Grandma Laverne, and Chris.

It may look like she's hamming it up, but Julia wasn't sure how to get out of there once she squeezed her way in.

Finn has had a big last couple of weeks. He's started sleeping in his toddler bed and he even helped take down his crib.

He also has had some interest in using his potty chair.

Despite his advances, he was still left out of our New Years Eve celebration. We watched a movie while snacking on chips and guacamole, cheese, sausage, crackers, and some tasty drinks.

Completion of NaNoWriMo 2009: Finding Methuselah

As I had indicated in several previous blog posts, I participated in National Novel Writing Month this year. It's an event where people try to start and finish the first draft of a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. At around noon on November 30th, I completed my goal and reach 50,197 words! It was a lot of work and I am very proud of myself. My NaNoWriMo page is here.

Some other interesting 2009 NaNoWriMo stats:
- There were 167,150 participants, up 40% from 2008's total of 119,301.
- There were 32,173 winners, i.e. 19.2% of the participants reached 50,000 words.
- There were a total of 2,427,190,537 words written.

Some people asked for more information about my story, so I wanted to provide it.
- Synopsis
- Chapter 10
- Chapter 12
- Chapter 26

Finding Methuselah: Synopsis

Click here to go back to read more about Finding Methuselah.

Below is the synopsis for Finding Methuselah. Beware, the last sentence is super cheesy!

Alan and Susan have two children, a son, ten-year-old Jace, and a daughter, seven-year-old Sarah. The family lives in Chicago and leads a very normal and happy life. Their lives get shaken up when Jace is diagnosed with leukemia. Everyone handles it differently but surprisingly, Jace handles it the best. Susan is distraught at the possibility of losing her son. Alan's outlook is, “get the treatment, put it behind us, move on with our lives.” As for Sarah, if her brother is handling it well, she follows suit. Jace undergoes chemotherapy and the cancer goes into remission.

Months later, during a routine screening, signs of the cancer appear again and it has spread to numerous places throughout his body. After a few more tests, the doctors determine that even aggressive treatment would only slow the cancer down, at best. Jace opts to forgo any treatment and to live the remaining time he has without the suffering he went through during his first rounds of chemo. Susan slowly accepts her son's decision and his inevitable demise, but Alan doesn't. He's angry that things didn't work out and he feels that his son is giving up.

The next few months are spent with the family spending a lot of time together, enjoying each others company, and enjoying life. Jace feels okay most of the time, but he feels weaker as time goes on. One day he tells his parents things he's been reading about and makes a request. He explains how a certain species of tree, bristlecone pines, are the oldest living things on Earth and one specific tree, named Methuselah, is considered to be the oldest living life form on the planet at nearly five thousand years old. His request is to travel to Inyo National Forest in California and find the tree. It might not be easy though – Methuselah's whereabouts are not made public to protect it.

His parents okay the trip and Jace suggests that only he and his dad go. Susan reluctantly agrees, hoping that the time together will help Alan accept their son's fate. The two travel to California and set out on a journey to fulfill a dying boy's last wish and ease a father's fears of the future.

Click here to go back to read more about Finding Methuselah.

Finding Methuselah: Chapter 10

Click here to go back to read more about Finding Methuselah.

This was an interesting chapter to write. It's the chapter where the family finds out that Jace's cancer is back. I had already written a chapter that took place inside of a doctor's office and didn't want to do another one. What I came up with was to highlight some of the normal families in their neighborhood, how things aren't perfect, but they're normal. And then from there, it moves on to Jace's family, which was a normal family who has now run into this bad time, but from the neighborhood view, it might not even be known. It's told kind from a kind of pulled-back-looking-down point of view.

I like the chapter and I like the different feel it has, but I'm just not sure that it works with the rest of the story.

Oh, and upon reread, I noticed some tense issues, I seem to switch tenses throughout the chapter. And there are some awkward sentences. So keep in mind it's a first draft that's been reread once to fix glaring mistakes.

Chapter 10 – Regression

[Redacted]
Click here to go back to read more about Finding Methuselah.

Finding Methuselah: Chapter 12

Click here to go back to read more about Finding Methuselah.

This chapter takes place after Jace has explained to his parents that he does not want anymore chemotherapy. It's the first of several chapters that deals with the family just trying to find some normalcy in their lives. I really like the playfulness of most of the chapter. I enjoy writing playful scenes and they're the ones I enjoy reading the most after I've finished them. I had forgotten some of the details of this chapter and it made me smile while reading it. The aquarium visit that gets mentioned happened in a previous chapter.

Chapter 12 – Living

[Redacted]
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Finding Methuselah: Chapter 26

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This chapter takes places after Alan, Jace, and a forest ranger named Thomas have made it to Methuselah. It's after dark and Alan and Thomas hike back to the truck to get sleeping bags to sleep out. Jace is left alone for awhile.

While reading this chapter all the way through for the first time after writing it, I wondered if it was too sugary. I would have to read it within the context of the whole story, I think. In any case, this is the last chapter of the book. It's only an excerpt, about half of the chapter – I can't give it all away!

Chapter 26 – Sleeping in the Shadow of Infinity

[Redacted]
Click here to go back to read more about Finding Methuselah.