'Tis the season

It seems that we repeat ourselves each year around this time. School starts up and our kids excitedly go and come back with new friends, new homework, and new colds.

This year has been no different. We're finally on the up swing now, but we've endured a few colds and even the flu over the last month. Karina was hit so hard by the flu that she ended up in Urgent Care and almost the hospital due to her dehydration. We battled with her poor little body a bit and finally were able to keep some fluids in and begin to build up her system again. It's always amazing to me how fast we go downhill with something like that and yet how incredibly long it takes to make up lost ground and get our bodies back to 100%.

Julie has fought through a few colds, too, which is no easy task when you're a pregnant mom already taking care of an extra little one inside of you. But she's battled well and hopefully out of the woods now. She even found the energy in the middle of her cold to perform a lip sync to a song at church with two other gals during a MOPS fundraiser dinner. It was hilarious! They danced and acted out motions to "The Mom Song" by the band "Go Fish."

I, Mark, have seemed to avoid the colds and flu, but unfortunately hurt my lower back at work and have missed a few weeks now. My nemisis has been making 4-5 trips a week to Seattle or Issaquah for doctor and physical therapy visits. Of all the pains, it seems sitting (especially in a car) is one of the worst - there's the drawback to living so far outside the city - long drives to good doctors. But I go back in Tuesday for another update with my doctor to review my MRI, and hopefully the news will be good and I'll be able to get back to work quickly.

That's the quick update. Hope you're all enjoying the beautiful fall leaves like we are!

They were so good we used them twice

Halloween was a blast this year, as always. The kids had a great time. When it was time to decide what they wanted to dress up as, we tried and tried to suggest different options. But the kids' minds were already made up - they wanted to be the same things they were last year.

So Karina was a tiger and Jadyn was a puppy. We went over to a friends' house and all the kids from the neighborhood banded together to trick-or-treat as a bunch.

Jadyn took to it right away, being a pro and all from her many, many years of experience. But Karina wasn't so sure at first. At first she wanted to go home, then she would finally go up to the first house as long as I was holding her hand. The second house was a little easier - she went with Jadyn and Cameron (another friend). And as she walked down from house #2 she had the biggest smile on her face and proudly announced - "Daddy - look! They gave me more candy!"

Every house after that was great - and every time she walked back down the driveway, she again proudly proclaimed, "They gave me candy, too! I really like trick-or-treating!"

We had fun with friends, and the kids came home with more candy than they could eat in a whole year. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, yet...

Carving our pumpkins

Early Morning Fire - UPDATED

I couldn't say anything earlier (ongoing investigation), but now that it's public - the other part of the bummer of this fire was that the 89 year-old man started the fire and then shot himself. So unfortunately there was no hope of saving him - he was already dead by the time the fire had been reported by a neighbor.

http://www.king5.com/video/news-index.html?nvid=297008

This video link best sums up the scenario and you can even see me (look for my name of the back of my jacket - 36seconds in...) as we headed back in to the building after changing out our air bottles to finish checking for hot spots on the top floor.



My (Mark's) engine company was first-in to a 2 alarm fire this morning on Capitol Hill. We had an intense fire fight - when we arrived (only about 8 blocks from the station), the fire was already blowing 30 feet out the windows on the unit and swirling around with intense heat and fire-created wind. (The picture from the newspaper shows what the fire looked like just before we arrived.)

We attacked the fire on 3 floors of a mostly abandoned building scheduled for demolition. We had to break down 2 doors to get in - one outside the building and one to his apartment unit. The fire started in the apartment of the lone tenant left in the building - a pack-rat apartment with debris piled floor to celing in most of the 2-bedroom unit. Unfortunately the lone tenant appears to have died in the unit.

Here are a few links to the articles online with some good video footage:

http://www.komonews.com/news/33355744.html
http://www.kirotv.com/video/17810170/index.html
http://www.kirotv.com/slideshow/news/17810052/detail.html
http://www.king5.com/video/index.html?nvid=296980
http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_102708WAB_apartment_building_fire_LJ.15342bf1a.html

~Our "new" backyard~

Backyard re-landscaping.

We spent the last few weeks working outside in the yard. Our home had a very small, often described as "pathetic" backyard when we moved in. You can see it in the picture above. Our grass was not even big enough to adequately be used as a putting green, and most of the yard was hill sloping up to the woods behind our house.

We've had plans for a while, but of course had to wait and save up to make the changes we wanted to make. So finally in the end of September we were able to undertake our project.


The kids were great helpers, we borrowed lots of different tools from friends to make it possible, and even enlisted a few friends in our slave labor. And three weeks later (with some days off for torrential rain and work) - we finally made it!

Final tally was around 25 yards of very rocky topsoil dug up and moved out (what we here in town lovingly refer to as Covington Bedrock - including several rocks that took 2 people to dig out and move), 4 yards of gravel put down under and behind the retaining wall, 5 yards of fresh topsoil under the sod and behind the wall, 320 square feet of new sod (and yard!), and 250 concrete blocks to make the retaining wall. Here are a few pictures of the progress and final outcome.

Thanks to everyone who either helped out or loaned us wisdom and/or supplies to make our new yard possible! The kids (and we) are loving it! We were done just in time for Jadyn's party, too - you can see those pictures in a previous posting below.