Put Mocha down today

Mocha, our cat, has part of our family for 17 years or so. She was with us before any of our children were born, and was a fun friend to have around the house. I remember when I worked shift work and came home late she would be there to play with, waiting to pounce on me from around a corner. Even though she didn't let us pet her or hold her a lot she became more affectionate in the last couple of years. The kids have all enjoyed growing up with as part of our family.

So it is with sadness that I post this today. She hasn't been eating, and had gotten to the point of being extremely skinny. That combined with her inability to control her bladder and her age led us to the decision to have her put down today. Sue took her to the vet around 12:00pm and had it done.

I know that I will miss her as much as I miss our dog. We'll have to wait and see if we get any other pets in the coming months...

Happy Birthday, Sue!

Today is Sue's birthday! She had a busy day at church, teaching a Sunday school class, praying for the service, and helping to interpret the service, then staying after for the Leadership meeting. Her mother and sister came to celebrate, so we went out to dinner (an hour wait at Joe's Crabshack!) - it was nice having them at the house and here for her birthday.

I struggled with what to get her, but in the end came up with a new car stereo (thanks, Steve!), which she is really enjoying. It reads data CDs, so I can load her up with mp3 disks, and it has built-in XM radio, which cleans up the dash for her.

I baked her a triple-layer red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, which everyone is looking forward to, and she has some gifts to open when we get home from dinner. Happy Birthday, Sue!

Snow in McDonough

For the second time in a week it's snowing at our house! It started around 11:30am today and is still coming down. We're keeping busy with projects inside the house but will be going out to play in it soon. Whee!

Happy New Year!

We're ringing in the New Year with my brother and his family in MD this year. We've been enjoying just hanging out with them, letting the boys play and generally loafing around all day. It's a lot of fun!

We hope you and yours have a fun and safe celebration and a healthy, happy, and prosperous 2008!

Ice skating in Atlanta

We went downtown to the annual ice skating rink with the Campbells tonight - it was lots of fun! We ate dinner at the Varsity, and even though the prices have gone up it was still good fast food. The ice skating rink was full of people slipping and sliding around in a big oval, so it was fun it was cool to look around and see CNN, the World of Coke, and the Omni hotel all around the park. It was great to catch up with Doug and Roberta, and see the Stephen and Kevin playing with the Campbell boys. Woohoo!

Merry Christmas!

We have enjoyed the whole season, and are having a great time celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior. The season brought many fun events: I went to a play with the people in my office (thank you, Mary!), Sue enjoyed the annual party at the MacBrayers, we heard Christmas concerts, and we had a great time decorating and looking at other people's Christmas decorations. My parents came up to celebrate with us (woohoo!), so we enjoyed spending today together, going to the Cmas Eve service at Harvest Point, watching "A Christmas Carol", and opening a gift before bedtime. We're looking forward to a fun morning, then maybe a nap, and then making and eating tacos (our traditional Cmas meal :-).

We wish you a Merry Christmas wherever you are, and hope you see the true meaning of this wonderful season when you see the baby in the manger in the many nativity scenes you come across.

Christmas Season in full swing!

We are going fast and furious with the fun of Christmas, doing stuff all the time and shopping in preparation for the traditional gift-giving that happens. We had a good Pinewood Derby in Cub Scouts this past Friday night, and as Sue and the other kids are ready for Return to Bethlehem at our church Jacob is getting ready for a Boy Scout campout (I'm the dud again - I'll be working on the basement :-) Hope you're enjoying this year's celebration of the birth of Jesus!