along the journey

my jigzone album

I watched the last 45minutes of Big Brother 2 tonight, I was sad to see Bunky go. But that conversation they had while on the bed, fighting for head-of-household was so funny- she said, “Hadn’t you ever peed in the bed.” Harley said, “Never on purpose” - Funny stuff!

I’m trying to sell a motherboard on ebay- it’s the first time I’ve ever attempted to sell anything on ebay.

I other news- this is the farewell email I sent out to people-

Dear Friends,

Yes! The rumors are true, well, two of them at least. I’ll start with the good news. Well I think it’s great actually. Caleb Richard McKenzie was delivered via C-Section on Friday, August 10th @ 11:19. He weighed 7lbs 9oz, and was 20inches long. At the last visit, our dr. weighed him at 7lbs 12oz - that was a week ago, before we even noticed any weight gain. This week we’ve started to notice that his cheeks are puffing out and his legs are getting pretty thick. He’ll be dedicated this evening at the Vineyard Community Church @ 6:30pm. I’ve posted many of the pictures online. They can be found here- http://dean-o.org/photos/gmphotos2.php?TopicID=Caleb We’ve also got quite a few other pictures online. As well- Here’s where the pictures from Mason Community Players Shower live - http://dean-o.org/photos/gmphotos2.php?TopicID=MCPShower A few of our Know Theatre Tribe friends were at the shower at my mothers house- http://dean-o.org/photos/gmphotos2.php?TopicID=Family+SHower . Oh yeah, and Kathy Largent too!

The second rumor that I want to address is the one floating around that Amy is again pregnant. I want to assure you that this is definately not the case!!

(I don’t know that this rumor is going around, but wanted to add a little humor before I get to the depressing part.)

The actual second rumor which is true, is that I have accepted a job in Washington, D.C. and will be working at the Russell Senate Building. I’ll be doing pretty much the same thing I’m doing now- helping the helpless with their computer problems, only onsite with our countries favorite senators- the likes of Gary Condit and Hillary Clinton. I don’t believe either one of them actually spend any time there. And yes, there is an actual Senate building. About a month and a half ago, one of my co-workers was sent their on a temporary basis, until they found someone permanent. 3 weeks into his stay I heard that they hadn’t had any candidates that they were considering, and I volunteered. A few phone calls and several weeks later, on the same day as Caleb was born, I was offered a position there, making a bit more money. The Monday following that it was decided that my first day on the job in DC would be September 10th. Today, is August 24th. That’s correct folks- we only have 13 days before we leave for Baltimore. All of Amy’s family is there, and 7 out of 9 of my Aunts and Uncles live there, as well as my only living Grandfather. We’re excited to be taking our little one back to where he can be around most of his family. My mom and dad are, of course, disappointed, but as they always have been, supportive of my decisions. We’ll be moving in with Amy’s mom and step-father and hanging out there until we’ve got a bit more money, and some time to actually find a nice apartment, or a house to rent.

We want to take the time to thank all of you for supporting us during our few years here, your friendships and support have made being here so enjoyable. We certainly will miss everyone and wish everyone the best of luck in their future endevours. If you would like to follow our journey, please visit our websites- http://dean-o.org and http://amymckenzie.org/blog/bearlythere.html I’ll be able to be reached via email at dean@dean-o.org

Once Again, as a not-so-famous Mackenzie brother said- “Thank you for your support!”

__ (I tried a blockquote, but CSS seems to eat the blockquote up, if anyone has any suggestions please let me know. If that’s above your head- I’m sorry.)

Errata:

I sent it out yesterday- Caleb was dedicated on Saturday- when this email was prepared. Amy can also be emailed at amy@amymckenzie.org

I wonder what the person searching Google for Funny Chicken really was looking for when they wound up on my webpage.

Woh! Completely forgetting to update! I don’t care about you blog- no more! You’re not important to me. I’m really lying now, life has just become so complicated and busy, that any amount of time is spent thinking/worrying about our move! It’s happening for sure- We’ll be heading out on next Friday! I have a total of 5 days left here at this fine Mason office, before heading back to the big city! I’m really excited about it, lots to be sad about at the same time, however- I’m still very excited.

Caleb amazes me on a daily basis. I was chatting with Dana earlier, telling her how surreal it still feels. I wake up there’s this extra body in my bed, I feed it, change it, smile at it, talk to it- and then go to sleep- same old same old. Each day I see something different in his eyes- like the opening of a book- or the revealing of a plot line in a play- each day, an “Aha!” moment- as if his eyes are clearing and he can begin to recognize, and remember, and make connections! Man- it’s hard to even explain.

I will send out a farewell message to co-workers, and friends and family sometime before Friday. We’ve got a farewell dinner with Jay- from Know Theatre Tribe on Friday night, another get-together sometime on Monday with Mason Community Players. Last Friday night after our final small group meeting, Amy and I made our way down to Gabriels Corner- Know Theatre’s stomping ground. Jay made me lock up- i teared up- I said goodbye! For now- I’ll not return to GC. Said goodbye to Rising Phoenix the other night- had to wrap some stuff up. I’ve still got a computer that I need to return to them, but I said goodbye. Definately not easy. When I asked Amy why she hadn’t called a certain friend, she mentioned to me that she just can’t handle saying goodbye! I can respect that, but it’s completely different from my way of thinking- to me- I feel like if I don’t say goodbye, I can’t feel like I wrapped up- I feel like I’ll hurt people more by leaving without saying goodbye, then the hurt I’ll feel while doing it. And once done- it feels so good.

Hey Dennis!

A couple months back my dad did a search on Google looking for my webpage. He found a link to an old journal entry that I didn’t remember writing. He tried to remind me about what it said and I swore to him that I would never have written such a thing. But I did. I found that exact same entry while browsing some blog archives. It so funny some times. All of this today prompted by this. My first encounter with Frontier and Manilla. I remember that I had borrowed a buddies laptop, and was actually sitting in the hot tub, blogging! Check it out, it’s great to browse my archives, I’ll have to do it more often.

In other news, I’ve barely let my baby out of my site since I’ve been home. When I got home I started feeding him, then we took a nap on the couch for a few hours. Once I woke up, I laid him in the playpen/cradle and fixed dinner. I wanted to fix dinner for Amy, but she swore she wasn’t hungry. She wasn’t hungry for what I was eating- scrambled eggs and waffles! She ended up with a bowl of cereal. We then went to the store and got stuff for lunch. Since we’ve been back I’ve been sitting at the computer, wearing Caleb in the baby sling, and browsing the web. He got a bit fussy, so he’s laying across my lap, but I’ve got him here. I’m trying to bargain with Amy, I want to feed him his late night meal- sometime between 10 and 2, and his early meal, somewhere between 4-7. I’ve got to leave for work at 7:30. I told Amy that if she needs to get up and pump, I’ll feed, but I don’t want her feeding and pumping, at least for those two times. I hope she and I can work things out. I don’t want her to feel neglected, like she’s doing it all.

I miss my babies. I cried when I left this morning. I almost cried at 10:00 when I looked at the clock and realized that Caleb was probably being fed. I can’t believe that I’m working. Guess someones got to pay the rent…

This is the last day that i’m going to get to spend off with my baby and wife. Now everytime I come home from work I’m going to notice how much he’s grown. Instead of seeing it happen… I’ll see little 8hr increments. When we get to baltimore it’ll be more like 10/11hr increments. It’s kinda sad. Not too bad, but it’s definately not exciting. This is the first Monday of being 3 weeks away from my new position- that’s some scarey stuff too. I’m going to have post-partum depression.

We’ve had maitenance madness here at the old apt. Roto-rooter was here until 2am or so Saturday night dealing with a backup kitchen sink. He had to come back yesterday to finish his job. Then once he left, we found that our bathtub was leaking into our laundry room. Ugh! So today the maintenance guys are here fixing that. Apparently the drain pipe had corroded so much that it was just pouring out. You should’ve seen this pipe.

I’ve called at least once a day for the past 3 days or so trying to get information about breaking our lease. They won’t ever call back. When we have a maintenance emergency we call an answering service, and they page or whatever to get them to call us back. But not when it’s for leasing information. It’s a mess.

Been messing with stuff- freenet, WinMX, eDonkey2k. File Sharing Madness!

I’ve added a link in the left hand box directly to baby pictures- You can also

CLICK HERE