2007 Year in Review

Since today is the last day of 2007 and the conclusion of year 1 of the Chateau Dusseau blog I thought I would post a year in review picture slideshow. Many of the pictures you may have seen throughout the year, some probably not. The pictures are in chronological order too. Anyway, I hope this has been a great way to keep up with family and friends throughout the world this past year. See you in '08!

Christmas Vacation in Florida

We spent a relatively short time in Florida this past week. We returned to go to a wedding yesterday, which was very fun, but it cut our trip to Florida pretty short.

Some highlights of the trip included great weather. I always felt bad for people when they came down to FL for the week and we had a week of cool (cold to us) weather. I got to golf twice and carded a 38 on the front nine on the second day. I "could" (good golfer term) have shot par or under par but I couldn't make a putt. For those of you who golf with me, you know that is the weak link in my game, but just the day before I was draining 30 footers left and right. Unfortunately I couldn't hit a 10 footer to save my life. Anyway, 38 represents my low 9 ever. Pretty good with rental clubs. We also went to the Arabian Nights dinner show. It was OK, I guess I'm glad I went. Liam got to putt-putt golf, go swimming, and went to breakfast with Mickey with Grandma & Grandpa. And of course, we opened presents. All in all a great but short trip.

Owen in the pool... nice hat!

Liam with his new Michael Redd jersey.

Liam golfing...

Owen getting some ice cream... all over.

Christmas

We had our Children's Christmas Service tonight, but since my parents were in FL there was no one to take non-flash pictures. It wouldn't have mattered this year since it seemed like we had a lot of flashes going off anyway. Here are some pictures from after the service, thus Liam's tie being a little undone.

We are leaving for Florida for a couple days tomorrow. Sorry no pictures of Owen, he is fully mobile and tough to get a good shot of. We will be back in only 5 short days due to a wedding we need to be at on the 29th, oh well.

Merry Christmas from Rob, Cathy, Liam & Owen
-- and Sofie and Fred the Bat.

Bats

So... last night I was upstairs getting Owen's PJ's and something seemed like it flew into his closet. I did a little investigation but chalked up to the creeks and cracks of a house built in 1920. Well, today we get home from church and Liam calls for Cathy saying "I need your help!". She goes upstairs and then comes down and says we have a "mouse" up on the valance. Well it was no mouse, it was a bat! Not a real big one (I guess) and now I'm no chiropterologist (one who studies bats) but my scientific knowledge identified it as a common brown bat (Myotis lucifugus). Liam told me he knows more about bats because... he's... BATMAN! Anyway. I got a ice cream pail and the clear top to a tub and after taking pictures, reading How To Catch A Bat in Your House, and contemplating how not to get bit and die of rabies I simply put the pail over him/her (didn't check) and slid the plastic top behind him. I then took him over to a tree line nearby and dropped him off. I felt kind of bad in this bitter cold, but he can't live in my house! So, that was the fun for the day.

Owen Walking

I posted some videos a while back of Owen and his early attempt at walking. Well, he is now fully mobile. He hasn't hurt himself yet thank goodness. Notice the bandage on his left hand.

Agony & Ecstasy

As most of you probably know, I have had a Call to St. Lucas Lutheran School in Milwaukee for the past 6+ weeks. It has been an exercise in not eating or sleeping, although I did manage to lose 15 lbs. in the ordeal. It was a tough decision, one based on trying to figure out where I am going professionally and what was best for our family. It kind of depended on what day you asked me on where I was going. Two or three self-imposed decision deadlines came and went and I still couldn't make up my mind. One school of thought is if you can't make up your mind you should stay where you are, but that didn't seem to fit. I had used that before with a Call to Salem, OR, but just didn't feel right about it. I went and visited to see if that would clear things up, but it really didn't. So I told people my announcement would come today so that I couldn't back out of it.

Well, last night when I went to bed I was 80% sure I was going to be making a move, but when I woke up this morning (and through the night as I didn't sleep much) I had decided to stay at St. John's. Everyone here was happy, although calling St. Lucas wasn't a fun task.

We will see if it turns out to be the right decision, but at least I will be able to sleep now. Got a free drink out of my faculty after school today anyway.

Owen and the Dr.... Again

Well, Owen made another trip to the doctor yesterday because he decided it would be a good idea to pull the cord dangling off of the bathroom vanity. Unfortunately for him it was attached to Cathy's curling iron. He got a nice big burn on his the back of his hand. I didn't think it was that bad (having burned myself at Thanksgiving on the grill) but while we were at church some of the 'concerned' moms talked Cathy into it. Since we are way past our deductable it really wasn't a big deal I guess. Poor little guy is oft injured, probably due to the fact that he isn't real coordinated and loves to climb things and because we just don't pay as much attention to him.

The Worst Day of the Year

Well... it happened today, it snowed (sigh). I know I've said it before, but I was just ignorant about the cold for much of my life. Now that I have experienced the joy of 80 degree December days the cold depresses me. May be someday again. The picture doesn't do that good of job showing the driving wind and blowing snow.