Help name our kid

Want to help name our baby girl? Here's your chance to give your totally honest, totally anonymous feedback on some of our initial name suggestions:

www.surveymonkey.com/s/G7BNTV7

Obviously we want to pick a good name for our kid -- one that we like and one that she won't hate us for. But there are a lot of other things to consider. For instance, is it a name that some bully could easily make fun of? Is it a name that people will call weird? Is it too hard to pronounce? I really like unusual names. But since I also really like my kid, I don't want to stick her with something awful...... and that's where you and your opinion come in.

So please, take the survey.

"Pickles" understands N8's frustration

Hahaha! My mom sent me this cartoon today from the newspaper. This could seriously be me, Nate, and Jack. (Hint: If you click on the image you should be able to see a larger version.)

(Source of this image: http://olive.columbian.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VENMLzIwMTEvMDEvMjgjUGMwMjIwNw%3D%3D&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom)

Jack sits anywhere...

This post makes it at least one too many "Jack and Nate" posts, but seriously, how cute is this?

Don't you love it?

I love it. I would love to have a wall of build-in bookshelves just like this in my house. I think we'll add it to the list :o)

Nate and Jack

I owe a longer post that this, but alas, all the posts I start only ever seem to get halfway done. So, for now, enjoy some pictures!

Cats curled up as they sleep? Always cute.

But here's the real "story" -- a continuation of a previous post: Jack really loves Nate. Jack will do anything and everything he can to be near Nate. Sometimes that means balancing precariously on the back of a chair:

He's constantly "asking" to be in Nate's lap. Sometimes Nate actually allows this:

And Jack's newest favorite thing is to steal Nate's chair as soon as Nate gets up.... but only when Nate is intending to return. Just a minute ago, for instance, Nate got up to go brush his teeth and get ready for bed. Jack did not steal Nate's chair. But earlier this evening Nate got up at one point to go wash his hands, and he came back 90 seconds later to find his chair stolen:

Dresser, final (more or less)

Hey mom, here are the pictures you asked for. The lighting is not the best, but you'll get a chance to see it in person soon enough. I think it turned out okay. It will work well with the blue paint and the fabric for the curtains.

A passing

Nate's grandpa passed away last Friday. It was a bit of a surprise (at least, it was to me). I was out of town for training all week, got home late Thursday night, and then Friday afternoon Nate told me that during the week his grandpa had gone to the hospital (congestive heart failure) and been sent home with hospice and morphine. We didn't know how long grandpa had left to live...

And we got the call late that night.

Amy wrote about this on her blog. She said it just the way I would have, so I decided to quote from her:

"We had the funeral Tuesday. It was a happy death, because he [grandpa] was 97 years old, and basically has been ill for years. He fell every other week, always breaking something, so we were all relieved and happy for him when we found out he died because we know he's now with his sweet wife... I'm glad they are together now and that he doesn't have to live in his awful sick body anymore."