Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from our little cheerleader! (UPDATED: Better picture of the girl!)

Mom's note: A new development with her is that she won't wear dresses. Skirts only OK if worn over pants or stretch pants (tights are also a no-go!). This skirt was OK since I found a pair lightweight stretch pants. Funny....

Girls are taking over our house!

We had our half way (20 week) appt. and ultrasound today. We found out, as you guessed from the headline, that we are having another girl. Charlotte is happy, she's been talking about a baby sister for a few weeks now. Here's the first portrait of our second daughter. She looks a lot like Charlotte, there are features we see even remembering back to Charlotte's ultrasound.

p.s., we are not sharing names. It's hard enough for two people to come to agreement, and we don't want to name her until we meet her (did the same with Charlotte). So, if you ask, I'll give you ideas such as Hammer, or Bold, or some other crazy name! ;)

Sometimes I wonder how I got so lucky

If you're anything like me, most days are pretty much the same at work. You have some good days, and some bad days. Most of them are pretty stressful, and you wonder if anyone actually notices the work that you do.
Then once every couple of years, if you're really lucky, something crazy out of the ordinary happens, and you realize that you have a pretty cool job.
Last week that day happened at my place. Our office got treated to a day of playing softball at Safeco Field. The sun was out, the roof was open, and there was almost no one in the stands, so it was just like a Mariners game! In my first at bat I struck out with the bases loaded and two outs. That hurt. But I did rally back in my next at bat with a solid single, and eventually crossed home plate to score a run. Our team won 19-18 on a controversial play in the last inning.
The cool part has been how things have been around the office since the game. The mood seems to be better across the board, and people are still talking about the highlights of the game (thanks to Bryon Washington for having a much more spectacular strikeout then me, thus saving me the humiliation of having to relive mine all the time). Anyway, it was a great day all around, and it reminded me I work at a pretty cool place.

BREAKING NEWS:: She's back!!

We've had a hard couple of weeks, from the decision to try to find a new home for Murphy and the act of actually leaving her has had me in tears many days. The couple who had Murphy are fantastic, and if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have figured out everything we thought was behavioral was actually medical. The very reasons we decided to give her up actually sum themselves up in a disease called Cushing's.
She came home last night and I saw the vet today, we're going to give her a break the next week and just get her stable (she's got some skin rashes and overall a little stressed, imaginably) and lots of TLC. She'll go in for tests end of next week and then we'll figure out a treatment plan for her.
We've all missed her, I'm happy to have her home and I think she's happy too. Now that I know all of this is medical, finding a different home for her is not an option. She's here to stay!

Goodbye, Old Friend

This is one of the hardest things I've ever written. We're saying goodbye to an old friend today. Murphy has not passed away, but she won't be living with us anymore. After months of thought, debate, soul searching, and agony, we've decided the best thing for her would be to live with another family. As she's gotten older, she needs more and more attention on a daily basis. We've found that with our commutes and changes in my job, we are unable to give her the attention that she needs and deserves. Instead of continuing to have her to live in unhappiness for the last few years of her life, we felt that if we could find the right situation for her, we might be willing to let her go.
Sadly/Happily we recently found that situation, and as painful as it is, it's time to let her be a happy dog again. The family that adopted her is a younger couple with two cats and another wonderful corgi that Murphy seems to get along with. They've been in our house and have really fallen in love with her.
It's been 10 years since she came into our lives. Her name was Candy Apple then, and she was a neglected two year old who had lived in a family with lots of other dogs but not much individual time for her. She had several ailments when we got her, including heart worm. She cowered every time I stood up. It was almost two years before we heard her bark.
She has moved with us from Medford to Spokane to Seattle, never once complaining. She welcomed a crazy little cat named Cougar into the fold, showing her all the little tricks that made us laugh.
Murphy certainly wasn't a perfect dog, but she will be missed in our home. The look on her face when we return is always welcoming, and when I'm home by myself the jingling of her collar always makes me feel a little less alone. That silence will be deafening.
It would be selfish of us to ask her to continue living with us, since we aren't able to devote enough time to her. Both of the humans in her new family work at home and go to the dog park at lunch time. It will be painful to let her go, but I know that she will eventually be a much happier dog with her new family. I just hope she can understand that we did it for her.

What's it gonna be?

Well, with Charlotte we didn't know if she was a girl or boy until the day she was born. This time around, we have decided to find out what we are having. Our ultrasound is scheduled for Oct. 27th. So you have a couple weeks to take the poll and tell us what you think we're having!

Almost Ready

Charlotte's new room is just about done! Now we just have to figure out how to get her to move into it...

Jim and Pat celebrate 35

Went out to dinner with Andrew's tonight and watched Pat and Jim down a couple ones, Mexican style, to celebrate both their birthdays.

Happy 94th birthday Grandma!

It was my Grandma's 94th birthday today and we celebrated down near Olympia with her along with aunts, an uncle and a cousin. Charlotte enjoyed seeing "MY great-grandma" and especially enjoyed helping her blow candles out.