Lots to Update

In February I took a job with a company working at the Hanford reservation in the Richland-Pasco-Kennewick, WA area. I drove up in February and stayed in a corporate apartment until June while Crystal and the kids stayed in Austin, TX until the end of the school year.

I work a compressed work week, 9-hour days, with every other Friday off. This allowed me to see my other kids that live in Oregon every other weekend, which was nice. It's a five hour drive from Richland, WA to their house but it didn't seem so bad because a large portion of it is through the beautiful Columbia River Gorge.

Crystal flew up with the kids on 6/14. Originally we planned on having her drive the van up, but she had a car accident only five hours out from Austin in Pecos, TX. Fortunately nobody was hurt beyond a few bruises and no other vehicles were involved. Shelby wasn't in the car because we had planned on flying her up separately anyway so she was with her grandparents in San Antonio during the accident. Even so, the van was out of commission for the rest of the month, so Crystal decided to fly with the kids and have the van shipped once repairs were completed. I posted a pic of the van on my Facebook.

The whole family stayed in a small corporate apartment from Jun-Jul: 2 bedroom and a loft. My kids stayed with us for several weeks but it was broken up because of their summer camps which occur at different times. So we had from 5 to 8 people in the that tiny apartment. We diligently househunted most weekday evenings and on Saturdays. We finally found a house and just closed on it last Friday. It's on the other side of Kennewick so I'll have a 35 minute commute but that is what I was used to in Austin. The house is adequate to our needs and it will be nice when we move in this Friday to be out of this cramped apartment.

The scenery here is breathtaking with canyons carved out by large glacier flows and massive floods over the past few millenia as well as mountains inc. snow capped volcanos, lakes and rivers, forest and desert. The kids have never been outside of Texas, so the scenery is quite an experience for them. Most people think of lots of rain when they think of Oregon or Washington, but we are east of the Cascade Mountains, in desert country. There is little to no rain only 7 inches a year. The locals are complaining this is an unusually wet year - I think we had maybe fifteen days of rain total since I've been here since Feb 1. It was cool in the evenings through June, in the low 70s, and warm in the day in the 80s or 90s, and no humidity so as soon as you step into the shade the temperature drops 7 degrees. Now that August is here the temperatures have climbed to high 90s or low 100s in midday, but still much cooler at night.

So far this summer we've done the following:

(1) "Jump-Off Joe's" - an overlook at 2500 ft with a great view of the tricities and the Columbia basin. There are large wind machines up there, calling them "wind mills" doesn't seem right because they are huge metallic monsters. There was one that the kids could go right up to and look up at the huge turning blade.

(2) "Wallula Gap" along the Columbia River east of here - a canyon carved out by a massive flood one or two ice ages ago.

(3) Greenwood Renaissance Faire in Richland - very small, like a craft fair, but considering Richland is a small town it wasn't bad. We miss the ones at Scarborough near Dallas, or Renfest between Plantersville and Magnolia in east Texas (which is the largest in the country), but we are still looking for others in Washington and there is a Midsummer's Renaissance Faire near Tacoma in August we are planning on checking out.

(4) Gingko Petrified Forest State Park in Vantage, WA on the Columbia River north of here where we watched a small rattlesnake cross the footpath and curl up under a petrified log. I lived in Texas for 14 years and never once saw an armadillo or a rattlesnake in spite of the fact that I hiked the Hill Country all the time - I did see a coyote once when I was driving early in the AM, and also in Texas I saw a snapping turtle, racoons, and lots of opossums and deer, but for some reason the rattlesnakes and armadillos were elusive. In the past month here I've seen several coyotes and now a rattlesnake (there are no armadillos this far north). People tell me of Elk and several coworkers have seen them around here, but so far I've not seen any of those.

(5) Battle Ground WA - 4th of July at my brother's house. The whole family turned out, as well as many friends, probably 80 or so people. My brother put on a very large and elaborate computer controlled and choreagraphed fireworks show and we slept in a tent on his property.

(6) Seattle Aquarium and Pike Street Market. We had to go to Seattle Children's hospital for Shelby and decided to spend the day at the aquarium and Pike Street market.

Shelby continues to improve daily. She walks around the apartment, and can manage short walks in public, but generally anything longer than 15 minutes she needs to use her wheel chair.

Shelby Update 01/18/2010

One of our daughters, Shelby, had scoliosis surgery in early November. The intent of the surgery was to install metal rods and screws to straighten her spine and prevent further deformation. Because our daughter has congenital scoliosis, the risks were high and spinal cord monitoring was performed during the surgery. During and immediately after the surgery, all of us, including her surgeon (one of the top surgeons in Texas), believed everything went fantastic. The initial report was that her scoliosis was 90% corrected, which was far better than any of us could have hoped for; then things went terribly wrong. When she awoke in the recovery room she could not move her legs. She was rushed back into surgery, the rods and screws were removed, and she was in intensive care for two weeks in treatment for a severe spinal cord injury. She was completely paralyzed from the waist down for several weeks.

In December, about two weeks before Christmas, Shelby was moved to Our Children’s House at Baylor, a pediatric rehabilitation center, in Dallas, TX. She has since recovered motor control in both legs, but cannot yet walk independently, and is confined to a wheelchair most of the time.

Shelby is scheduled to be released from the rehabilitation center this coming weekend and will continue outpatient rehabilitation locally. She is excited to return home and to return back to school but will require accommodations due to her handicap. In spite of everything, the prognosis is good, and it is generally believed that she will be walking again sometime within the next year. She still faces a long and painful recovery and she still requires further surgery to re-install the rods to correct her scoliosis and stabilize her spine.

Shelby’s grandparents had been providing a great deal of help to our family during this difficult time and then two weeks ago; her grandmother had a heart attack. She recently underwent open heart surgery and is now herself in rehabilitation. We ask that you please pray not only for Shelby but also for the extended family during this extremely difficult time. We have had more than our share of tragedy in the past three months, but it is because of the support of family and friends that we have gotten through this. A website has been set up by Shelby’s teachers and schoolmates, located on Facebook, here. We welcome your well wishes and continued support and thank everybody for all of your kind words, your cards and gifts, and most importantly, your prayers. We ask that you please add Shelby's grandmother to your prayer lists.