When I lived in Sacramento I worked for a great little engineering firm, German Engineering. It was owned and operated by the most amazing couple I have ever known, John and Lois German. John and Lois are two of the most generous and giving people a person could know. Over the course of nearly four years while I worked at German Engineering, John and Lois helped out many different people, giving them jobs, teaching them skills and compassion, and as a surrogate family for as long as they could. Often times the employees were not skilled enough to operate a stapler, but John and Lois still worked with them to at least give them enough to get by. They are just amazing people.
Anyhow, while I was working there they hired a guy who had graduated from CSU, Sacramento, which is where John teaches surveying. The employee's name was (Juan) Peyton Menendez. Peyton was a problematic employee from pretty much the day he was hired. He was never quite able to arrive at work on time, he had a difficult time with the surveying and wasn't quite able to master the drafting portion of the job. Several times he came to John and Lois and asked for some favors that would have really bothered some people, but they were always there to help him in any way they could. Following the examples set for me by John and Lois I too invited Peyton into my life and tried to help him out. In order to help him get to work on time I invited him to stay on my couch several nights a week. He would come over after work and my roommates and I would feed him, give him beer, company and pretty much anything else he needed. This enabled me to physically wake him and drag him to work each morning. In a house of 5 permanent roommates Peyton was always welcome and accepted. It seemed to help for a while, especially since he never seemed to get along with his own roommates wherever he was living at the time. During this period all of us roommates had noticed how odd Peyton was and how scary some of his "daydreams" were at times, but hey, who were we to judge, we were all a little weird.
When Dana and I were living in Eureka I got a call one morning from Lois telling me that "Peyton had done some very bad things" and that I had better read the Sacramento Bee newspaper online. After being fired from German Engineering, Peyton worked for a large engineering firm in Sacramento, Carter and Burgess. He was fired after working there for only 3 months or so. About one month after being fired, Peyton went to their office early one morning and killed a former coworker.
I cannot even imagine the impact this event has had on either of the families of this tragedy. I consider both Peyton's family and the victim's (Mr. Topor) family to be deserving of all of my sympathy. I can only share the pain and sorrow that an outsider can feel while looking back in. Peyton was a good friend while we spent time together. He never did anything to purposely hurt or negatively affect anyone I knew, and he always tried to be overly-conscious of whether he was imposing on someone. It is because of these things that I cannot grasp how he could commit such a horrendous act. It can be very tough being the disassociated past-friend. There is no appropriate place for me to discuss my feelings regarding this event since I am not family and was not an active part of his life in the year or two leading up to this terrible event. Nonetheless this has weighed heavily on my mind and heart since the moment I first heard what had happened.
On Friday, May 18, 2007 Peyton was sentenced to life in jail without the possibility of parole. I only hope for Peyton that he can come to accept what he has done and know true sorrow and regret. I hope that the families are able to find closure and solace in his incarceration. I am relieved that justice can be found without needlessly taking another's life in exchange.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Sad and Unfortunate...
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Which Lebowski Character Are You....?
This one is for all of you Lebowski lovers out there... Take this quiz to find out which Lebowski character you are.
According to the "Which Big Lebowski character are you?" quiz:
Why don't you check it out? Or we'll cut off your Johnson!
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Lorelei Growth Stats Revised!
Ok...so Lorelei had another doctor appointment today and either she has shrunk in length almost two inches or there was some serious mis-measuring going on at her checkup a week ago! The last measurement was 28" for her length, but the doc measured twice today (to be sure) and she is most definitely only 26.25" long! So...here are her revised stats (along with her new weight from today's appointment).
9.5 months old:
length: 26.25", percentile: 9th
weight: 16.5 lbs, percentile: 5th
So, now she is no longer our string-bean, but our little itty bitty "beanut"!
Monday, June 18, 2007
June fun for Lorelei
Well, Lorelei is now 9 and a half months old and is as busy as ever. It seems as if every day she shows us a new "trick" that almost always involves us keeping an even CLOSER eye on our little mover and shaker! She LOVES to help us hang laundry (it is too hot here to run our dryer during the day).
Actually she "helps" us to unload the basket of wet clothes onto the grass as we are trying to get the clothing on the line. But she thinks it is a kick! Pretty much every activity that she chooses involves standing and she is starting to really enjoy pushing her walker. Lorelei can now point out my nose when asked "where is mommy's nose?" but I believe that she thinks that only Mommy has a nose- no generalization yet. She loves pointing to everything now! She's been making a silly fish face lately and seems to always be experimenting with new ways to contort her face and make us laugh. Her smile has changed quite a bit now that her two top teeth are coming in! She is looking less and less like a baby! Lola has also started to imitate the "woof" sounds a dog makes and as always, LOVES Bailey and Baxter. She spent a nice Father's day with her Daddy (since I was in bed with the flu!) and made Matt really work for the title of "Dad"! What a fun time this is!
Check out some photos here:
9 month fun
Monday, June 11, 2007
String-Bean
So, Lorelei had her 9 month well-baby checkup today and here are her stats:
Weight: 16lbs 4oz
Height: 28 inches
Head circ: 44.5 cm
Height for age percentile: 61%
Weight for height percentile: 5%
Weight for age percentile: 5%
Head for age percentile: 55%
So...to sum it up, our little "Lola-Bean" is our little "String-Bean"! Healthy, but lean! Probably due to the fact that she is so darn busy all of the time that she burns off all of the calories that she takes in!
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Lorelei is 9 months old!
How is it that our little girl is 9 months old already? This past month has been a BUSY one...she has sprouted three more teeth (with another about to pop through), she has learned how to crawl (and FAST!), she has gone for her first swim in a pool and liked it, and she has had a lot of fun outdoors too! The dogs are still her favorite form of entertainment and she loves them to pieces and they can't seem to stop licking her so I assume the feelings are mutual (or she just has left over carrots stuck to her face). She has also started baby foods with meat and LOVES cheerios, pieces of banana and rice cakes. She is a busy, busy little girl and loves her new found independence with crawling but is not quite sure that she wants Mommy and Daddy to get too far away. What a fun time this is!
P.S. Babyproofing an 80 year old home is no piece of cake.
Check out some of Lola's 9 month photos here:
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| lola 9 months |
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Fun with extended family!
We had Great Grandma Searcy (Dana's maternal grandmother) in town from Kansas City for a week and had a great time with her! Lola took a bit of time to warm up to her and she kept staring at her white hair, but eventually Lorelei found a buddy in GG-Ma. We also got together with Dana's cousin April and her boyfriend Larry for a BBQ with GG-ma. It was such a blast to be with family and Lola loves to entertain!
View these photos here:
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| Fun with extended family! |
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Baker family time!
On Memorial Day we spent time with the Baker clan BBQing and swimming! It was great to get Matt's family together and we captured some great photos too!
Click here to see the photos:
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| Memorial Day 07 |
Monday, May 28, 2007
Fun with the Millers
Over Memorial Day weekend we were so happy to have our dear friends Darcy, Luke and Sasha (same age as Lola) Miller visit us from Orange County on their way up to a family wedding in Washington. We met Darcy and Luke in the Birth Preparation class that we took at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills, CA. Darcy and I had our girls within a week and a half of one another and we spent many, many hours together in the days and weeks following their births offering moral support and sanity to each other! It was sad when we left Orange County to move away from them as well as our other dear friends the Bluniers (Karen Blunier was my nurse during my labor and delivery at Saddleback Hospital).
These two couples were our entire social circle down in Southern CA. It took us a while to meet them, but once our lives crossed paths they were an integral part of our happiness in the time we remained in Orange County...and continue to be now! It was so wonderful to see Darcy and Luke again and we had not seen Sash since we had all spent Halloween together last October, just before we left for Lodi. Sasha was only 7 weeks old at the time and Lorelei was 9 weeks old. They have changed a ton since then. It was adorable to watch them interact and climb all over each other. We had a blast swimming with the babies, walking around downtown Lodi, and having a bonfire with s'mores! We were sad to see them leave, but they'll be staying with us one more night on the way back so the goodbye wasn't too difficult for now!
Check out photos of our visit with the millers here:
Fun with the Millers
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Sunset Cuddles
We had an hour to kill before Lola-bean would hit the sack...so instead of staying indoors with a cranky baby crawling all over us, we headed out to enjoy an hour spent in the cool breeze and beautiful light of a Curry Avenue sunset. We snapped a few great shots in the process!
Here are some of our shots:
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| Sunset Cuddles |