Life and times of a father in America

September 21, 1996 I married Harmony Dawn Walker. That means that yesterday we celebrated our 13th Anniversary. I would love to sit here and brag about surpassing the national average of years married before a divorce. I would to expound on how 13 as a traditionally unlucky number is a significant number to survive. But lets face it, we are not of this world. Our standards for marriage are established by God and listed in the Bible. 13 years is no big deal to remain married, divorce is simply not an option. 13 is a number given to us by the dominions of hell to be afraid of. Any little foothold given to them leads to trouble. I for a foot in for a mile with satan. Happy Anniversary Harmony. I love you, and thank you for always being there and taking care of the kids. Thank you for stepping up and seeking a job. Tonight is your first night on the job, and right now you are training. I am home with the kids and remembering all the wonderful years together. I remember our wed...

I sit and read the Texan Adventure and listen to Noelle try to convince herself that 90 is an acceptable temperature. Yesterday we packed the kids up, I was expecting a warm 80 degrees, and headed to the beach. It was breaking 70 when we left the house. All 4 of us were in t-shirts and shorts. 2 hours of driving, and we hit an overcast Washington coast. The van told us it was 61 degrees. OK, we lost the shorts, and put on pants, but 61 is still warm enough to run around, play in the sand, look for pretty rocks and shells. Evie could not get enough of the water. She just loved how the tide going back out made her dizzy. Sam wasn't into the wet as much, but loved finding shells everywhere. Evie napped for the 2 hour trip back home, where it was back up at 72. Overall a great family outing, and we found a beach we really like.

Noon - I went to lunch as usual. Enjoyed some spaghetti leftovers and an apple. Continued to read my book. 12:30 - the light show began. A little spot of brite light in the middle of my left eye that slowely expands until it becomes a ring of light. Eventually it expands beyond my periphial vision, but that can take a full hour by which time.... Nausea kicks in, leading to tension in the neck and shoulders. And last, but definately not least, the throbbing migraine headache follows, making sure I am as miserable as can be while trying to survive the second half of the day.

Wednesday after work I made my way home, helped Harmony finish loading the van, and hit the road. We arrived in Hillsboro between close to 8 PM, and soon after attempted to put the kids to bed. Thursday morning we woke at around 6 AM, and after breakfast hit the road heading over to Chuck and Shari's house to hook up with Jacob and Talia. A little before 8 we all hit the road. After pretty much 8 hours straight of driving, enjoying sandwiches on the road, we arrived in Sagle , ID. The story goes that the people of Sagle wanted to name their town Eagle, but Eagle, ID already existed. Thursday night, we took about 4 hours packing and organizing the house before collapsing in bed. Friday morning we woke up and headed into town for breakfast and to collect the truck. Jacob and Talia chose to use Budget rentals to save a little money. Technically a commercial truck, a higher bed in back, just not as clean as a U-Haul, and the customer service was lacking a little. But a large...

Last night was a long one for me, and a bad night for Sam. I didn't really look at the clock, but somewhere in the midnight to 1AM area I woke up to realize that Sam was walking around our room. He was shuffling from Harmony's side of the bed past me towards the door. I could hear him sniffling like he was trying really hard not to cry and wake us up. I called him over and confirmed he had a bad dream and started to pick him up to snuggle with me a while. YUCK! Sam was soaked from the middle of his back to his knees. He stumbled along with me to his room, where we found a 2 foot wet spot on his sheets. His pillow was wet, his favorite blanket was wet, his mattress was wet, on top of his pajamas. He was so out of it and miserable he couldn't even begin to take his PJs off without help. After getting him into dry clothes I put him to bed with mom and grabbed some clean sheets and a new pillow. He snuggled a little while as I pulled out the trundle we keep for Aiden...