Bridget (Nov. 22, 2002 - Feb. 24, 2010)

Three months ago, on a Wednesday evening, Bridget had her first seizure (that we saw). It was a very small one, and we didn't think a whole lot of it, I think because we didn't want to think of it too much. But it was the first of many to come... many longer and more serious ones. She didn't respond to medical therapy, and we weren't optimistic at the outset that she would. There just aren't any good reasons for a 7 year old Boxer to begin having seizures.

We were able to tolerate them when they were fewer and further between, but about 4 weeks ago they started coming every day. Treatment helped a little bit, but not to the degree that it restored any quality of life. As things played out, yesterday afternoon she was as close to normal as we had seen in weeks... and then last evening came. It was clear that she was not moving in a good direction, but rather a direction that was a slow downward spiral. We didn't pursue MRI because we weren't going to pursue surgery for the brain tumor that it would reveal. We stopped the suffering today because she didn't deserve any of it. We didn't want to put her to sleep because we didn't want to lose her. But we had already lost her.

We have so many good memories of Bridget that we can't recount even a fraction of them here. In fact, Bridget didn't create a single bad memory for me. Sure she chewed one of Jenn's shoes when she was a puppy, but we asked for that, leaving her outside of her crate with things to chew on.

God really did bless me with a great dog for my time in vet school, and Bridget was always our "good" dog. She was absolutely wonderful with Lincoln from day one when he was a cryer/screamer, and all they way through her last day when we were still teaching him how to pet a dog nicely. We couldn't have had a better family dog.

Jenn and I were blessed to have a few bonus years with Bridget. You'll recall a few years ago that she had discospondilitis, a horrible bone infection of two of her vertebrae. I remember the evening like it was yesterday that I thought we were going to have to put her to sleep because her pain was so severe she could hardly walk straight and she couldn't use stairs. She endured extreme suffering before we could determine what was wrong, and she made a remarkable recovery. Her radiographs were never the same, but she was a happy, functional Boxer.

Bridget was part of our marriage from the start. Jenn and I picked her out in the winter of 2002, the year before we got married, after looking for weeks for a Boxer puppy. We went to a breeder that seemed to have good answers to our questions and there were two that held our interest. One was a fawn with a black mask and little flash that was darn cute but very mouthy. The other was a fawn with a lot of flash, a cow-lick like patch on the back of her neck, and not mouthy at all. Had we left the breeder with a pup on our first visit, we would have left with the former. But I insisted that we leave and think about it. We returned a few days later and came home with Bridget, and we never regretted our decision for an instant over the past 7+ years. In fact, from 2006 throught 2009, I told folks that my three least regretable purchases of my life were our cedar picket fence (at Norton Rd.), Jenn's engagement ring, and Bridget, and not necessarily in that order!

She was a great dog with Casey, Mom and Dad's old Yellow Lab. When she knew Casey, Casey was an old lady that couldn't wrestle too much, and Bridget was gentle with her. She was also a good dog with Kyra, our Doberman, as she could wrestle and bang with her and the two of them could wear each other out. She was great with Betty because she could take a lot of her crap, but then lay the smack down with the swift movement of her paw, pinning Betty on her back and showing her who was boss. How can we replace that?

There's so much going on in all of our lives that seems so much more serious than losing a dog. It may be hard to identify with our grief, and that's okay. Lincoln doesn't understand why his Mommy and Daddy are so sad right now, and he'll have no memory of Bridget when he's older. This is extremely sad for both Jenn and for me, by the way. But it's important to know that Bridget held a special place in our family that we simply cannot replace.

Late February

Our first dinner party at 2044 Forest Edge

German Chocolate Mousse

Lincoln likes to soup up his car before taking it for a spin.

~Up Close~

The new thing is pushing his cart across the floor, and when he does this, he assumes a bowling posture. It's a funny thing to witness.

Betty in a Box

After a week of working solo at the clinic, and Lincoln staying with a new sitter, and Jeen cooking an awesome dinner for our "adopted" Chinese students on Friday night, and moving more than a ton (literally) of snow over the past week, Jenn and I feel like this was a complete week. The capper is a big, fantastic dinner

Saturday's Dinner: Salmon in Lemon Brodetto with Pea Puree

tonight with our small group from church.

On Friday night it was a Beef Short-Rib dish with a Malbec sauce and a Bananas Foster Upside Down cake (Jenn would be able to describe all of these much better, but you get the idea). Tonight we'll be having a Pork Roast with a homemade bread that Jenn was working on yesterday (it smelled wonderful!), and our friends are bringing salads and sides and things like that. This evening we'll be using for the first time our dining room furniture and the accessories that go with our Winter Frost dishes that Grandma Gates and Mom gave to Jenn this past Christmas. We're excited to host our first dinner party in our new house!

The fun continues at the Gates Home. Lincoln hasn't tired of playing with his boxes. This time Betty got in on the action.

Baby in a Box

When Grandpa Doug and Grandma Paulette get back from their vacation, they're not going to believe all that Lincoln says now. He's stringing two words together, and repeating everything that we say. He stayed with Jen Claytor, a friend of ours from church, for Monday and Tuesday while Jenn and I were at work, and when I went to pick him up on Monday, Jen said, "Holy cow, he repeats everything I say." Jen took him to the Library for story time, to church for a mom and kid event, and Lincoln got to play with Elise Claytor, who's within just a few weeks of his age. Typically, he was an all-star for the Claytors, and now, on Wednesday, he's back to his usual I'm-at-home-so-I-don't-want-to-nap self. (Jen said that on Tuesday, he was taking more than 20 minutes to fall asleep so she went into his room and rubbed his head until he fell asleep. I'm sorry... you're talking about my kid????)

The previous Saturday, Jenn took him to Candy's house (Candy is a tech up at Village where Jenn works) and he played with her and her four grandkids. She said he was the best kid for her.

I've been trying to find new things to do with him at home, and I wasn't sure if he'd be interested in climbing in the box, but this turned out to entertain him for about 30 minutes. It was kind of funny because for months we've pointed to his diaper boxes and said, "Baby on a box!" This time it was, "Baby in a box!"


Another funny story, on Monday when we arrived home in the evening, Lincoln was a live wire. He started playing in the pantry, picking things up and moving them around, and Jenn looked at him when he had two objects in his hand. She said, "That's garlic and onion." He repeated, "Ga-lic... Onnnyin." And then he said it again, and again, and again for quite a while.

We keep getting dumped on as far as the snowing goes. Dad's snowblower has been ejoying Camp Ryan's Driveway for the week. I'm really going to have to get one of those before next winter!

(I apologize for the photo quality in the last post. I tried using an image compressor to save space in my online photo account, but they turned out really splotchy. It won't happen again.)

Big Snow

We've had quite the snow accumulation here in Ohio.Also, for the Lincoln-starved, here's the good little boy at play in his playroom (our basement).

Sick - Jan/Feb Style

Lincoln's been getting over something for about 9 days now, I had it for a couple of days (ZICAM!!!), and Jenn's been struggling for a few days now (she's not taking any meds). Ugh. It's head stuff. No v/d, thank goodness.

Lincoln has been expanding the vocabulary further. Last night at the end of dinner, he gave us an, "All done!" He tells us often that the wants to go "upstairs!" It's the two syllable words and phrases that have been coming more frequently lately. So have the meltdowns. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, we're having to enforce a bit of discipline because the defiant behavior has been increasing as well. It's all part of growing up, huh?

Singing

Lincoln's songs have been part of our lives for some time now. "This Old Man," "I've Been Working On the Railroad," "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt," etc. Two of his favorites lately have been "Meet Me In St. Louis" and "Carrot Stew." Go figure. There's a line in the chorus of "Carrot Stew" that says, "We'll get a pot and a carrot or twooooooo, and cook up a carrot stew." When it gets to the part of "carrot or twoooooo" the song crescendos, and when we were driving home from Mengyu's apartment, Lincoln actually sang the line. Jenn and I looked at each other and howled with laughter. Later than night he sang a few notes from "Meet Me In St. Louis." It's not something he' do on command so I can't record it, but oh my goodness, it's hilarious.

Our Little Man

Edge Games, Potty & Prayer

Things continue to chug along at the Gates Home. I've been busy with work, both with the veterinary side and with taking on a few more small roles on the business side. The latest is developing material for a website for the clinic.

Lincoln is growing up, one day at a time. On Thursday, Jenn took Lincoln to get a new potty. He loves it! He doesn't use it for it's intended function yet, but he loves to sit on it, sans diaper, for long periods of time. When he was showing it to me on Thursday evening after work, he sat there for a moment, and then looked up at me and said, "Close." So I nodded, not knowing exactly what he meant. Then he stood up, walked over to the door and shut the door in my face. Hmm. So I promptly grabbed his How Do Dinosaurs Clean Their Rooms? board book, opened the door, handed it to him, and then shut the door behind me. He stayed in there for another five minutes or so. Then I went back in the bathroom to find him playing with some of his bathroom things in the drawers, still sans diaper. I picked him up to take him to his changing table to get him ready for bed, and as soon as he realized I was taking him out of the bathroom he started crying and saying, "Poop. Poop. Poop." I said, "There's no poop in the potty, and you were playing anyway." He settled down after a minute or so. In the 36 hours since then, the potty novelty has yet to wear off. We're not going to tackle actual potty training for a while, but we want him to like the potty, and that seems to have been accomplished.

The Edge Games started last night. You may recall my posts about taking photos at last year's Edge Games (post 1, post 2). This year, as an Edge Small Group leader, I'm a team coach. My small group is part of Fiji. I should explain that there are eight teams: Cambodia, Togo, Uruguay, Fiji, Aruba, Bahamas, Djibouti and Iceland. These eight teams are made up of a couple of small groups and all the friends they can invite. There were around 500 kids there for the first night of the Edge Games, and there were two sets of games, relays (involving a dizzy-bat race and Spam) and a fun game in the gym where each team was assigned a corner, and then had to make it across the gym to the opposite corner either crab-walking, crawling, rolling... whatever the game leader decided to call out. It was utter chaos in the middle of the gym when the teams collided! Then there was a "capture the bacon" style game where the kids run to the center and send yoga-balls and inner-tubes back to their corners. The game always ends with about 15 middle schoolers attached to an inner-tube trying to get it back to one of their corners. Again, it was chaos.

Jenn took Lincoln to Toddler Open Gym last night. When I arrived home from Edge Games and asked her how Lincoln enjoyed it, she said, "Well, all the other kids had fun!" Apparently he was a bit "clingy" for the first 40 minutes.

Another of the neat things that Lincoln has been into recently is praying before our meals. We've always prayed before bed time and he's learned to fold his hands and bow his head. Sometimes he even says, "Amen," at the end. But lately he's been very interested in praying at lunch and dinner time... even mid-meal. Yesterday, he and I prayed five times before I finished my ramen... and he wasn't even eating. He had been play with his tool box, then he walked over to the table and said, "Pray." So I thanked God for Lincoln, my meal, the blessings God gives us and the forgiveness that is ours. Lincoln stood beside my chair with his head bowed and hands folded. When I was done, he went back to his tool box. He came back four more times.

Shower & Sled

Jenn and I were both off of work today, and it's been a big day for the three of us. Lincoln now does very well in the shower with me, and he even enjoys making the shower look ship-shape when we're all done.Jenn and I have been giving some thought to taking Lincoln sledding. We thought he might enjoy playing in the snow. Well, not so much. He was okay with watching me throw snow balls. But as soon as he got snow on his shoes, the interest was lost. He let us tow him around a bit, and he and I went down the hill once (one of the hills back around Virginia Kendall Park), but with the snow flying up in our faces, and with his having snowy eyebrows by the time I stopped the sled half-way down the hill, he checked out in a big way. There's always next year.On another note, we've been enjoying our Christmas gifts in a big way. Jenn and I played Wii Sports Resort last night and had a good time. Lincoln's been playing with all of his new toys, too. And a big "THANK YOU!" to everyone who gave Lincoln clothes. He's wearing them all (he tends to get messy at times and wearing two outfits in a day happens at the Gates Home).

Aperture Learning Curve - Early

Jenn's Christmas present to me was Aperture 2, Apple's RAW photo editing software. I LOVE IT!!! I'm cleary not an expert at this stage on the learning curve, but I'm already fascinated at what this program can do. Again, I want to say at the outset that I am a very amateur photographer. I'm not a professional, nor have I taken any photography courses. I do not claim expert status. There, I feel better!

The first photo was taken at dusk on Grand Turk. Ever since I started playing around with a long shutter speed in the dark in Salt Lake City, I've looked for cool opportunities to practice. I set the shutter speed to 1/4 second, set the aperture to 2.8, and set my ISO to 100. This is what I got:Pretty cool, if I do say so myself, for an amateur. I was attempting to get the ship to light up on the "film" more so than it did to our own eyes, and that came out alright. Of course the sky was also lightened in the process, but that was alright with me.

So then, taking Jenn's gift, I monkeyed around with one of the pics in this series (I'm only showing you one of several here to save you the boredom) a bit and came up with this:Richer colors. Less bleaching. Manipulating shadows. It's been a blast to play with the color, light and exposure of my photos. My more experienced photo-friends (you know who you are) may be rolling their eyes about now, but for this novice, dipping my toe in the photo editing software pool has been a lot of fun.

Oh, and JOSH CRIBBS FOR NFL MVP!!!

Rose Bowl Winners!

GO BUCKEYES! There was much relief in northeast Ohio, as well as the whole state. Even when they were winning, Tressel-ball was making me nervous.

Jenn, Lincoln and I enjoyed our New Year's Day pork and sauerkraut with Grandpa Doug, Grandma Paulette and Aunt MarySue.

We had a fun trip down to Columbus to see the Parkinsons on Saturday. Lincoln warmed up right away and we had a fun time catching up.

And I'll say it again: JOSH CRIBBS FOR NFL MVP!!!

2009... Over and Out.

This will be the final post of 2009. Holy cow! This has been an eventful year.

Lincoln, January 2009

When we think about where we've come as an immediate family, as an extended family, as a nation... wow. All of the stories that we could revisit (see the blog post list to your right for the details) all illustrate that you never know where life is going to take you. Through all of the twists and turns of 2009, God has been very, very good to our family, and we're very thankful for his provision.

We've got plans for New Year's Eve with some friends (provided Lincoln doesn't get sick), and then on New Year's Day, Jenn plans to get her sauerkraut fix at Grandpa Doug and Grandma Paulette's house. It'll be low key with just close family... and the Buckeyes!

Auntie Em got to spend some good time with Lincoln this Christmas break.

We wish you a great 2010. Pray and seek the Lord's will and guidance, and you'll be able to look back, as 2011 approaches, with great satisfaction.

Christmas 2009, cont'd

After much noise from the public, I've set aside the pressing needs of my home and posted some Christmas photos of Lincoln. Enjoy!

On my way out to Phoenix I spotted another Lincoln in the airport!

We went to a Train Park in Scottsdale. Lincoln was into the sights and sounds.

Clearly I've been blessed.

The carousel ride was... interesting. Lincoln did not like going up and down without me sitting behind him on the horse, but when the ride was over, he signed, "More! More!"

Lincoln can do the smaller slides by himself now.

But he loved riding beside his Auntie Haley!

Snack Time

Lincoln received his very own tape measure...

... as part of his very own tool box. Was this a great Christmas, or what?!!

The concept of receiving and opening presents wasn't terribly exciting to Lincoln, but he did enjoy unwrapping a few things.

Grandpa Dave, Auntie Haley, Lincoln and I stacked blocks for a long time. The stacks always ended with Lincoln taking his very own hammer to the towers.

The plane-ride home was much better than the trip out.

Flashback: October 2008

Lincoln actually napped on this flight... a HUGE help!

Lincoln now has his own chair!

And his own Pooh!

Belly Laugh

Lincoln gets along quite well with his Uncle Jeremy.