Journal

Our Daily Fun - Jan to Dec 2005

Dec 14th, 2005... I haven’t written in over a month.  We have had too many things happening lately.  I guess I will start back at thanksgiving.  Christy and Max were staying in Destin while I was in New Orleans working on the house.  I got a call from an old friend that I used to work with.  He is now out of the Air Force.  He had been trying for about 6 months to get me to come interview with his company.  I kept putting him off.  Well, this time I decided to go visit and see what this company was about.  Christy and I flew up to Tennessee for a few days.  We had a great time.  The company is called Jacobs Engineering.  The division I interviewed with is Sverdrup Technology.  They provide engineering services to NASA, Air Force, and other customers.  The people were extremely nice and welcoming.  They took us out to dinner and invited us over to their house.  To make a long story short, they made me an offer and I accepted.  My starting position will be as part of their business development team.  I will be working on proposals to help grow the business.  It is a great opportunity for me.  One of the great benefits is that I will have a more normal life.  The town we are moving to is Tullahoma, Tennessee.  It is about an hour south of Nashville.  It is a small town, but I can live 5 mins from work.  I will be able to spend much more time with Christy and Max.  This was a very tough decision.  I really like Procter & Gamble, but the situation in this town has made living here very hard.  I gave my notice at work and they were very disappointed.  They made me a counter offer, but I had already made my decision to leave.  As hard as it was to make the decision, I am now very excited and ready to move on.  I think there is a lot of opportunity at Jacobs for me.  

Well, after our trip to Tennessee, we spent Thanksgiving in Destin with Christy’s parents.  Her mom cooked us a big turkey dinner.  We also had a little Birthday party for Max.  He is now two years old!!!  I can’t believe how fast he is growing up.  That’s part of the reason that I want a career where I can have a more flexible schedule.  I don’t want to miss another day of Max growing up.

After Thanksgiving, Christy and Max came home with me.  We had Lowe’s put in our floors while we were gone.  Well, they didn’t order enough floors, so they didn’t do the bathrooms and two of the bedrooms.  They also put about 10 oak boards in the middle of our pine floor!  The entire installation job was awful.  We have spent the last few weeks trying to get the floors re-done.  We have come up with a short term fix, and we are going to have to have the whole house re-done after we move out. 

If that wasn’t enough, Max is sick again.  He has RSV.  RSV is just a virus that causes coughing and runny nose.  Kids catch it at day care.  He has been on antibiotics for the past two weeks.  He is doing much better now.

Christy and Max are going to spend Christmas in Jackson with her dad.  I decided to go ahead and work at P&G on Christmas.  I could have left, but I feel obligated to help them get through the Holidays.  I told Jacobs that I would start work on Jan 9th.  I hate to miss Christmas with Max, but I want him to spend it with a lot of people that love him.  He has a great time at Larry and Jackie’s house (aka Papa and Nana).  He loves his cousins Ryan and Brook.  He had a great time over Halloween with all of them.  It is important to us that Max has a close family.  Being adopted is hard enough, so it is great that he has a connection to other family members. 

Nov 6, 2005…Max and I had a great time spending Halloween with Papa, Nana, Brooke, Ryan, Dixie and Taco.  Max and I drove up to Jackson on Friday and he started the night by being Nana’s date to the Pearl High School football game.  Max’s cousin Brooke was cheerleading during half time.  Mommy stayed behind to recover from the 6-hour drive with a screaming toddler.  Saturday started with cousin Ryan’s birthday party.  Ryan’s party was held at the agricultural museum.  They had horse rides, a petting zoo, a carousel and train rides.  Max thinks Ryan is cool!  Sunday Nana tried to have Max’s photograph taken.  Max would have nothing to do with it!  He cried and yelled and cried and yelled!  Hopefully this was not an indication of how Max will act on Santa’s lap.  But the best part of the whole weekend was “trick or treating”.   Max went dressed as the cutest Monkey you have ever seen!  He spent the whole night making monkey sounds…EEEOOOH.  He never mastered “Trick or Treat” but loved saying “Boo”.  Nana drove all the kids around in the golf cart and Brooke, Ryan and Max would run up to the doors and collect tons of candy!  While Max was “trick or treating” another kid (about Max’s age) was dressed as Elmo.  Max attacked him!  E-MO, E-MO, E-MO!!  Every time we ran into this kid, Max would run up to him and try to hug him.  This scared the kid to death!  Max was so funny and had such a great Halloween...Thanks Nana and Papa!   

While, Christy and Max were in Jackson having a good time, I was at work in Slidell.  Another 7 days of night shift!  The worst part is that I get to come home to a house with no floors and no walls.  We have a guy doing the drywall now.  So while I tried to catch a few hours sleep he is banging nails in the drywall.  It makes for great sleeping.  Anyway, all of the drywall is up and now I am just waiting on the floors to come in.  I have an appointment with the installers on Wednesday.  I hope that they will be able to complete the floors before Christmas.  The installers say they are already booking up fast.  I just want the house back together so Christy and Max can come home.  As far as work goes, we have pretty much got things stable now.  Everything is up and running.  Our only problem still remains not having enough employees.  We still have about 100 employees that have not come back to work.  We have hired a lot of temporary workers, but they don’t have the same skills and experience of our P&G employees.  I think that I will continue doing the shift work until after the holidays.  Although I don’t like it, it actually gives me more time with Christy and Max since they are still staying in Destin.  I still count my blessings everyday.  There are many of my coworkers who are still living in campers or with relatives.  Most haven’t even started working on their homes yet.  Although the rest of America has moved on to the latest news story, New Orleans has just barely begun to rebuild.  It will take years…

Oct 17, 2005…7:15am…I went upstairs to check on Max.  I had visions of him knocked out on the floor from falling out of bed.  I had visions of him not sleeping all night and playing with all his toys.  I had visions of him filling up the tub with water and swimming.  But there he was…my big boy…sitting up in bed talking to himself.  He was a little angel!

 Ok nap time is a different story.  Max does not like the idea of sleeping in a big boy bed for his nap.  It took almost 2 hours before he finally settled down and went to sleep.  I finally had to get in the bed and basically lay on top of him.  Finally, he gave up and went sound asleep.  He has so much energy!  When he is laying down he uses the time to sing, talk and use hand gestures to act out his day.  It‘s really cute.  I think he is practicing everything he has learned for the day.

 7:12pm…I put Max to bed.  I decided that I would not check on him until at least 8pm.  He has started playing a game with me.  When I put him to bed, I am so nervous about him going to sleep, that I check on him every couple of minutes.  Well, he has caught on.  Now when I crack open the door to check on him, he is sitting up in bed waiting for me.  When he sees me, he buries his head in his pillow laughing.  He’s having much fun at my expense.  So, tonight he fell asleep in about 30 minutes without me checking on him.  When I finally looked in on him, he was sound asleep, turned the wrong way, pillow on the floor.  So with some adjusting he should be good to go until 9am (Ha!  I just wanted to see what that sounded like).  I’m sure we’ll be up at the crack of dawn.  If it’s not Max then it will be Daisy.  I can’t win…..

Oct 16, 2005…Tonight I put Max into a “big boy” bed.  I don’t know what inspired me to do this, but he just seemed so grown up today.  I managed to push the twin bed against the wall and put his pack-n-play up against the bed to act as a buffer.  The pack-n-play is tall enough to keep him from rolling off the side of the bed (I hope)!  So far, so good (@7pm). 

Well, it is 8:20pm and Max is still awake.  I don’t know if this whole “big boy” bed is his cup of tea…yet.  He’s gotten out of bed twice, but now seems to have settled down.  I think he feels out of place.  I think our whole family feels out of place right now.

 8:30pm and Max is sound asleep!  My sweet little boy is growing up.

Oct 9, 2005…Well, the water swept into our home during Hurricane Katrina and swept out the next 6 months of our life.  Max and I have relocated to Destin and Byron is staying in Slidell/New Orleans to work and rebuild our home.  Crews arrived this past Friday to take out our wood floors, 4 feet of our drywall and most of our cabinets.  What a mess!  Byron is meeting with a mold specialist Monday to “chemically” treat the interior and do some additional moisture testing.  We have mold growing on the walls and on the back of some of our cabinets.  We have already replaced the exterior air conditioning unit, bought new flooring, repaired the garage door, paid crews to demolition the interior and “patched” the roof.  We’ve done all these repairs without knowing what/when our insurance is going to pay us.  It is very scary but the work must be done.  The longer you wait to do the repairs, more damage is created from mold and the harder it is to find contractors to do the work.  There are storm chasers all over the area so it is very hard to know whom to trust.

Max has been getting sick again.  His runny nose and irritability has re-surfaced.  I am going to try and take him to a Pediatrician on Monday.  After his hospitalization in August, I don’t take any chances on his cold symptoms.  I’ll also call some of our local churches and try to find Max a school program to attend (we could be here for awhile)!

24 Sep 05 - Well, another Hurricane...we'll get to that later.  It has been crazy again.  I went back to work last Sunday to start my 3 days on (12 hour shifts).  My days were crazy.  I had to manage about 20 Folgers employees and 50 construction workers.  We are still doing a lot of cleanup, but we are also running.  We started making coffee on late Saturday.  We still have a lot of major issues.  The biggest one for the plant is water.  We just don't have enough.  We are trucking in water, but we use so much that it is not feasible to truck it in.  We are now looking at drilling a 600 ft deep well.  That will probably take about 3 weeks.  The other major issues is trying to feed and shelter our employees.  We ran into a few snags with the trailers and we only have power to about 35 of the 175 trailers.  We also don't have water to the showers.  We contracted with a company to have food delivered, but they kept running into problems as well.  So late Sunday night, I called Christy in Dallas and she got in touch with the Wal-Mart manager in Slidell.  They agreed to let me and another guy come shop at about midnight.  We bought about $700 worth of food and two barbecue grills.  We were able to cook food for the night shift and then breakfast the next morning.  The food saved the day.  I was about to have a mutiny on my hands, but everyone appreciated the hot meal.  It takes about 2 hours to get back and forth from Slidell to the Plant due to traffic on the one bridge that is open.  Needless to say, I only got about 3 hours sleep that night (and no shower).  The next night, we finally got power and water to the showers, but still had food problems.  I went with my boss Rick to buy 50 pizzas in Mandeville from Domino's, but by the time we got there it was already getting late.  So we called in a helicopter to fly the pizzas to the plant.  That was probably the most expensive pizza delivery ever.  I also had to make another midnight run to Wal-Mart Monday night to buy breakfast foods.  By Tuesday, the food service was working better, but still ran low on food.  Besides that, we have had all kinds of tours.  On Monday, the Louisiana governor and many local politicians toured the plant with CNN to see how well we were doing. Then on Tuesday, President Bush and New Orleans Mayor Nagin toured the plant.  That was exciting.  I spent 8 years in the Air Force and never met the President, but 3 months at Folger's and I got to shake his hand and talk to him for a minute.  President Bush spent 30 to 45 minutes just talking with our workers about their experiences with Katrina.  He seemed very sincere and it was a big morale boost for everyone.  Well... now I guess I can talk about Hurricane Rita.  I was planning to leave Wednesday morning and go to Dallas, but many of our employees had evacuated to Houston, so they had to re-evacuate.  My replacement couldn't make it in, so I agreed to work the night shift Wednesday.  Then, late Wednesday afternoon, my department manager called and said he was on his way, so I could have my three days off.  I hopped in the car and headed to Dallas.  I got in about midnight.  Well, like everyone else, we were watching this storm closely.  They decided to evacuate the plant again Thursday afternoon.  I think they went back in to the plant today, but I am having a hard time getting in touch with anyone.  Rita has come right up the Louisiana Texas border, so I can't drive back until it passes.   Hopefully, we can leave Monday morning.  Christy and Max are going to come back with me.  We have a mold specialist coming out Tuesday to look at the house.  I have a big fear that we are going to have to rip out 2 ft of sheet rock throughout the house.  If that happens, then Max and Christy will probably have to go to Destin until I get it all fixed.  Max can't live in the house with mold and dust.  It was only 5 weeks ago that he was in the hospital with pneumonia.  This has been a crazy time for all of us.  We are just taking it day by day and are happy that we are all together again. 

17 Sep 05 -   Sorry I haven't updated the journal in a while.  I didn't have access to the internet until yesterday.  I stayed in Alexandria working at the call center until 10 Sep 05.  That was a tough job.  We had over 200 employees that lost everything.  Many would call in a panic.  You could hear the desperation in their voice.  They didn't have a place to live and they thought that their job was gone too.  When I told them that we were working to get the plant up and running and that P&G would do whatever they could to keep everyone working, they were so relieved.  I left on Saturday and headed to my house in Slidell.  There are plenty of gas stations now.  Plus, Walmart and a few grocery stores are up and running.  When I got here, I had power and water, so overall it was not too bad (just no cable or internet).  I spent all day Saturday and Sunday, mopping the floors and baseboards with bleach water to kill any mold or mildew.  The worst part was cleaning out the closets.  Anything on the floor got wet.  I had to keep an inventory and take pictures of everything for the insurance.  By Sunday night, I had the house livable again.  Monday I went to Lacombe to the Folger's warehouse.  We loaded up buses and took a convoy into the plant.  When I got there, we still didn't have power, just a few emergency lights run by generators.  We got city power to the plant on Monday afternoon and had Natural Gas by Tuesday.  I spent the week cleaning and inspecting all of the equipment.  P&G has hired a lot of construction workers to help with the cleanup.  Since we are a food manufacturer, we have to sanitize everything so we can pass an FDA inspection.  Our goal was to be packing coffee by Friday, but we ran into a few problems  Our biggest problem is water.  The plant uses approx 350 gallons per minute and the city water is still bad.  We constructed our own water tank and plan on trucking in our own water.  It is a monumental task!  P&G has set up trailers for employees to sleep in.  They plan on technicians working 7 days on and then 7 days off.  Much like an off shore oil rig schedule.  Managers are going to work 3 days on and 3 days off.  They have brought in a company to provide 3 hot meals a day and are even setting up a recreation tent with ping pong tables, etc.  As of today, the trailers still didn't have power, so no one has stayed there yet.  Hopefully we will have power to the trailers soon.  I took today off so that I could work on the house some more.  I mowed the yard and spent the day cleaning out the garage.  We had mold on the sheet rock, so I ripped out about 2 ft high of drywall in the garage.  The water wasn't that high in the house, so all I am going to have to do is rip out the baseboards and wood floors.  The insurance adjuster stopped by today and took a lot of pictures.  She didn't say much, just that she would write the report and then USAA will contact me.  Christy and Max are still in Dallas.  Today they drove down to Waco, TX to visit my parents for the weekend.  I start my 3 days on tomorrow, so I plan on going to get them on Wednesday and bring them home.  I miss them so much.  I haven't seen them since Labor Day.  Overall, things are getting better.  It is going to be a tough couple of months, but hopefully, we can start to get back to normal by the first of next year.     

06 Sep 05 - I made it to Alexandria today.  The trip was uneventful.  No problems finding gas.  The NOLA (short for New Orleans Louisiana) P&G employees have done a remarkable job setting up the "command center".  At this point, they have just been concentrating on locating every employee and making sure there immediate needs have been met.  I think we are still missing about 40 out of the 500 employees.  Over 2/3 of the workforce has lost their homes.  P&G is going above and beyond for its employees.  I have only been with the company 2 months, but I am very impressed by their sincere concern for their employees.  They are continuing to pay all employees (both salary and hourly) while we assess the damage and come up with a plan.  P&G is also increasing all benefits so medical and prescriptions drugs are covered 100% (No copays).  They are also giving $5000 no interest loans with deferred payments plans.  Above that, they are finding people temporary housing and helping with all the basic needs.  In the meantime, they are also doing all they can to get the plant running so that all of these employees will have their jobs.  This really is a monumental task and I am proud to be part of such a great organization.  No official decisions have been made about the plant.  We are still in a day-to-day assessment mode.  Once we locate everyone and assess what the business needs are, then we will try to get the employees that are able to work to start coming back for the reconstruction and start-up.  It is still a very uncertain future.  Many employees have lost everything, so some may decide to start over somewhere else.  Some may want to transfer.  A lot will depend on what happens over the next few weeks with the city of New Orleans.  I am also in a day to day mode.  I won't make any long term decisions for a few weeks.  One of the employees at the Tide plant is letting me stay at his house while I work in Alexandria.  All of the people in Alexandria have gone out of their way to help us.  Christy has found Max a day care program in Dallas.  It will be good for him.  He really likes being around other kids.  We are just going to pay for it week to week until we know more about our long-term plans.   

05 Sep 05 - I am going to go to Alexandria, La tomorrow to work at the Tide detergent plant.  Folger's has set up a "command center" there.  I will probably be there for a week or so and may try to go in to Slidell and check on the house.  Christy and Max are going to stay in Dallas until I can sort things out with work.  Here is a funny picture... This is Daisy during the Hurricane...

03 Sep 05 - We left Jackson at 8:00 am yesterday and headed west.  We felt very relieved to get out of Jackson.  We just felt like we were in the middle of the disaster there.  Jackson like many towns close to the gulf coast are feeling the strain of dealing with all the evacuees.  As we drove west, there was gasoline in Vicksburg, but the lines were extremely long.  We stop in Delhi, LA and they were out of gas altogether.  That made us a little nervous.  The next town was Rayville, LA (about 100 miles west of Jackson).  They had gas, but we had to wait about 15 mins.  After that, gas lines were normal in Shreveport and fine all the way to Dallas.  The drive wasn't bad.  Max actually did really well.  He only fussed once or twice.  He was happy watching his DVDs.  Daisy slept the whole way.  I think she is still traumatized from the storm.  All she does is sleep now.  I think Daisy and Bella are mad at me for leaving them at the vet hospital.  It is going to take a while before I make it up to them.  Anyway, we made it to Christy's Mom's house in Dallas around 4 pm.  Today, we had a very normal day.  We took Max swimming this morning, went out for a nice lunch at a cafe, and spent the afternoon watching football.  Then Christy and Dale made a great dinner and we played with Max until bedtime.  It was very nice to be here and out of the "stress".  We are going to wait here until Procter & Gamble makes some decisions about my job.  Hopefully we will be able to start making some longer term plans later next week.  In the meantime, we are just going to try keep Max on a normal schedule.

01 Sep 05 -  As everyone can see on the news, it is a real mess in New Orleans.  Even if the city can be put back together, it will take years to get the economy on the gulf coast anywhere near normal.  There is even a sense of PANIC in Jackson.  This has become a "Border Town".  People from South Mississippi and Louisiana are coming in to Jackson to buy food, water, and gas.  All of the stores are running low and have started rationing supplies.  There are still parts of Jackson that are without power, but overall Jackson is fine.  I think a lot of people are just scared and overreacting to the uncertainty.  I had to wait in line for three and a half hours to get gas today.  They have National Guard troops at the gas stations directing traffic and keeping order.  It is pretty crazy.  We are hearing that there are also shortages in Vicksburg and Meridian and maybe even as far as Monroe.  Christy and I decided to go to Dallas tomorrow to stay at her mom's place.  We are very thankful to her dad and Jackie for taking care of us and Max these last few days.  We wanted to go to Destin, but we just feel more comfortable going West and getting out of the Southeast.  I talked to some friends in Ft. Walton Beach today and they say everything is normal there, but is still difficult to get there.  We can't drive through Hattiesburg or Mobile, so we would have to go over to Montgomery, AL or Columbus, GA first and we just don't want to take the risk that things get even worse in the South.  We feel safer going West because my parents are in Waco and Christy's Mom is in Dallas, my grandparents and other relatives are North of Shreveport and Christy's got family in Oklahoma City.  We just have a bigger safety net over that way, plus, Dallas has a major airport that I can fly out of if I need to.  Also, if something worse happens with my job then Dallas is a bigger city to start over in.  I think that P&G will take care of me, so I am not too worried.  But I don't know if life will ever be normal in Slidell and New Orleans again.  I finally talked to my Department Manager today.  They have set up a "command center" in Alexandria, LA to take phone calls from employees.  No one from the company has been allowed back to the plant to make any damage assessments, so they really don't have any information.  They just want us to call in every day to check on the status.  Once I get Christy and Max settled in Dallas, then next week maybe I can start making some decisions on what to do with the house and maybe work will have more information.  On a happier note, Max had a good day today.  We went to a local park and fed the ducks.  There were a bunch of baby ducks and he would throw the bread at his feet and all the ducks would swarm to the food.  Then he would just giggle and do it again.  (Sorry no pictures, the digital camera is still at the house in Slidell.)  I am just thankful for having him in our lives.

31 Aug 05 - I made it to our house in Slidell, La today.  I loaded the car with a couple of cans of gas so that I could get back.  I drove I-55 from Jackson down to I-12 and then into Slidell.  There was no traffic on the roads.  The biggest problem getting there is that there is no gasoline.  Everything south of Jackson is out of electricity, so the pumps don't work.  There were police at the intersection of I-12 and I-10, but they were not checking IDs.  I-10 towards Biloxi and I-10 towards New Orleans were blocked off.  My exit, I-10 Exit 266 Gause Blvd, was open.  I went straight to the vet clinic on Gause Blvd (Faust Vetinarian).  There was a family that road the storm out at the vet office with all the animals.  DAISY AND BELLA ARE OKAY!!!  They were a little shaken and scared.  When I got them back to Jackson, Christy took Bella to the vet here and she was a little dehydrated.  I think they were just so scared that they didn't eat or drink.   Anyway, when I left the vet office I went to our house.  From the outside it looked pretty good.  No noticeable roof damage.  All the windows and doors were in tact.  When I opened the front door the inside of the house had been flooded.  We probably had 2 to 3 inches of water in the house.  All of the wood floors were starting to buckle and all of the carpets were sopping wet.  I think most of the furniture will have to be replaced.  The house was already starting to smell like mildew.  I cleaned out the fridge and pulled all of the wet carpets out of the house.  Then I gathered up some of our belongings and headed out.  I think my side of town fared pretty well.  Most of the houses are standing with only minor structural damage,  Probably every tree in Slidell is blown down.  I don't know how long it will be before power and basic food and water are restored.  There is no news about the plant I work at in New Orleans.  The bridges to get into New Orleans are destroyed.  It is very depressing and a lot of businesses and families may never recover.  I am just thankful that Christy, Max, Daisy, Bella, and myself are all ok.  We plan to stay in Jackson for a few more days and let things calm down.  Once it looks like power and gas are available between Jackson and Meridian, we will probably make our way east and then down to Destin.  Christy and Max can stay at the Beach house in Destin while I try to figure out what to do with the house and figure out what's going to happen at the Folger's Plant.  I took a few pictures today and I will try to post them tomorrow.  We will update this web page when we can to keep everyone informed.  Thanks for all the phone calls and emails.

Aug 15, 2005... Fridays are Byron's day to take Max to school.  Byron wakes Max up, dresses him, then drops him off.  While this is happening, I get to sleep.  Something happened Friday morning that made me get out of bed and say goodbye to my men.  Well it's a good thing because just as they were walking out the door, I notice Max was not himself.  He felt hot and was acting lethargic.  Byron noticed that he had thrown up in his bed but felt like he had gotten strangled during a coughing fit (Max had been on steroids, nebulizer treatments and antibiotics for a virus).  Max was running a fever of 103.5 and his eyes were glassy.  I put him in my bed while I cleaned his room.  For two hours he did not move.  I called the pediatricians office at 8:30am when they opened.  They told me the Doctor could see Max around 10:30...I told them that the doctor would see him now...I was on my way.  When I got to the office they took one look at him and started to run test and treat him.  The doctor ordered a chest x-ray and told us we would have to drive down the street to another office.  His doctor gave him a breathing treatment and took blood.  Max perked up a little bit and the doctor told us that we could go get the x-ray, then go home unless something funky showed up in his blood work (i.e. a white count of 20,000).  She left the room and said she'd be right back with the results.  Well, his white blood count came back at 45,000!!  To give you an idea of what this means...an appendix that is about to rupture will have a 35,000 white count!!  Off to the hospital we went IMMEDIATELY!  Max spent two nights in the hospital with pneumonia.  We were admitted Friday and discharged Sunday.  Trying to keep a 21 month old to stay in a hospital bed for two days straight is quite the feat.  We watched a lot of Disney TV and took turns pulling Max around the hospital in a wagon.  He really liked stopping in the Maternity ward and waving to the newborn babies.  The night's were the worst part.  The nurses' would come in every hour or so and checked his vitals or give him a breathing treatment.  Needless to say, sleep was impossible.  Max is doing much better but is still not out of the woods.  We go back to the pediatrician tomorrow.   We've decided that it's a good thing Max has two parents, we keep each other in balance.  As a side note...be nice to Byron, he feels really bad for almost taking Max to school with full blown pneumonia!!!!

July 9, 2005... What a whirlwind of a summer this is turning out to be.  Milestones are just flying by and we are losing track of our journal.  Max has gone from a baby to a toddler overnight.  He just woke up one morning (after growing 4 inches) and decided that he would be a toddler.  His vocabulary is expanding daily.  Currently, his top words are:  Ttrruck, Duck, Jo-Jo, Da-zey (aka Daisy), Budder-fly (aka Butterfly), Was that (aka What is that), By-ron (He got Byron’s name from me always calling him) and of course, Daddy.   You can’t forget all the animal sounds and the flips he performs off the ottoman, backwards.  Yes, it is a three-ring circus and his school sent home a note today informing me that Max sat in time-out twice for climbing on the table and flipping off the chair.  I think that Max has gained control and his parents have lost it!

Max is so outgoing and loving.  He gives hugs & kisses to everyone he meets and never misses the opportunity to wave hello.  We started him in swim lessons (don't tell his ENT doctor) out of necessity.  He is swimming!  I swear I am not bragging.  He just went under water and that was the last we saw of him.  I called a swim instructor and told her what was happening.  She did not believe it until she saw it with her own eyes.  Needless to say, my "advanced for his age" boy is in the 3-4 year old swim class (he's only 19 months)! 

We celebrated a wonderful anniversary on June 24^th.  It was Max’s 1-year adoption day anniversary.  Can you believe that it has been a year?  Where does the time go?  We celebrated the special day at Max’s school with decorations and cookies.  Ok, those of you who know me well, the decorations were bought from Wal-Mart and the cookies were “slice-n-bake” (My friend Scotta is probably mortified).  It was really the thought that counted, we want Max to be celebrated for his adoption just like you would a birthday.

We are finally starting to settle down.  We moved to a small town called Slidell.  It is located just north of New Orleans (~30 minute drive).  We decided against living in NO because they have had over 120 murders since January.  What a difference from FWB!  We did however escape the soaring home prices and managed to get allot of house for the money.  So, what money we have saved in square footage, I am making up the difference in new furniture.  True to our nature, Byron and I have managed to redo the kitchen in a “new” home.  We can’t leave well enough alone!

OK...This is Byron talking now.  I just wanted to add a few words about my new job.  I have been at Folger's for about 3 weeks now.  It is a great place to work.  I am an Operations Manager in charge of 70 people.  We are responsible for making 24 million cases of Folger's Coffee a year.  That's a lot of Caffeinne.  Last weekend, we made it through Tropical Storm Cindy without any problems.  Now we are watching Hurricane Dennis.  They say it is headed for Pensacola, so we are probably ok here.  Our prayers are with all our friends in Fort Walton Beach.  Be Safe, God Bless... 

June 10, 2005… It has been another whirlwind month. We left Destin on May 30th and drove to Slidell, Louisiana (30 mins east of New Orleans). We got a room at the local Holiday Inn. They had a “kids suite”. It was basically a normal room, but had a partition with bunk beds. We were able to put Max’s play pen in the partition area, so it gave us a little more peace. We still heard his every move, so we were up at about 5:30 every morning. Max is an early riser! We started him in a church mother morning out program right away. It is only from 8:30 to 2:00 a few days a week, but it gives us a chance to get some things done. Max loves his new “school.” It has a real curriculum, so they dance and sing and do activities. He really loves it and the teachers take great care of him. They are doing a safari theme right now, so every day he learns about a new animal. Today it was Giraffe!

We closed on our new house on June 3rd and got all of the utilities turned on. We were getting claustrophobic in the hotel, so we went ahead and moved in the new house on June 4th. We had to buy us a new mattress, so all we have in the house is a mattress and Max’s play pen. Even with no furniture, it has been much better than the hotel. At least we have space for the animals and a place for Max to run and play.

Since we had a little time in the house before I start work, Christy and I decided to replace the backsplash in the kitchen. It was an old plain tile. I knocked it out (creating large holes in our kitchen walls of our brand new house…Christy was not impressed). After rebuilding the drywall, we put in a really nice tumbled stone tile. We used a rope tile and put squares on the diagonal to create a nice in-lay effect behind the range. It turned out great. We ordered new countertops from Lowe’s and have hired a local guy to paint our cabinet doors. Once it all gets completed, I think our kitchen will look really good. I’ll post pictures in a few weeks when we get it all done.

We have also done some furniture shopping. Our stuff was going on 7 to 8 years old, so it was time to get some new furniture. We found some pretty good deals and have a lot of furniture on order. It is going to take close to 10 weeks to get everything delivered. Anyway, we have blown the new house budget, so I think we are done buying house stuff for a while. This house is only three years old, so it doesn’t need much work, but I am sure Christy and I can find plenty of projects to keep us busy anyway…

Our mover’s called again and are still delayed, they plan to be here tomorrow. Of course, we have Tropical Storm Arlene headed right for us, so it will probably rain all day tomorrow…

May 15, 2005...  We are out of our Ft. Walton Beach House now.  The movers came last week and packed everything up.  Christy and I went back to New Orleans on Friday to look at houses again.  This time we left Max with Melissa (his babysitter on base).  We were gone just one night, but it was tough to leave him.  Max had a great time with her.  Melissa took him to CiCi's pizza and to the pet store.  He also got to play in the sprinkler at her house with her kids.  Max really loves Melissa.  He bonded with Melissa the first time he met her.  When we picked Max up Friday night, it was sad to say goodbye.  Melissa and her family are moving to Germany next month.  Max had to say goodbye to his first girlfriend, Abby!

Our second house hunting trip went a little better.  We found a great house and it is only 0.3 miles from Grace Baptist church where we registered Max in a mother morning out program for this fall.  The house is in a great little neighborhood and it is close to I-10, so it should only take me about 20 minutes to get to work.  We put in an offer and are waiting to finalize the contract.  We hope we can move in by June 1st, but it will be tough to get everything done in time to close so soon.

We are taking these next two weeks and treating them like a vacation.  We are just going to relax as much as possible and spend time with Max.  Today we took him to the beach and the pool.  He loves the water.  He is not afraid at all.  He jumps right in and goes under water.  He holds his breath and hasn't cried once.  I think he is part fish!!

May 4, 2005...  Christy, Max and I have had a crazy couple of weeks.  I went on 5 different follow-up interviews and ended up getting 4 offers and had to turn down two other invites for follow-up interviews.  I think I have been to just about every corner of the U.S. in the last few weeks.  After much thought and prayer, Christy and I have decided to accept a new job with Procter & Gamble!  I will start out as a "Value Stream Leader" for Folgers Roast and Ground products at the Folgers Coffee Plant in New Orleans, Louisiana.  The position is a great opportunity to have a significant impact on the plant.  I will be working as a process engineer leading a large team of people to improve the production processes.  P&G is a great company and I can stay in New Orleans for awhile or I can move anywhere in the company (worldwide) as my career progresses.  Christy and I are both excited at this great opportunity.

We are driving to Pensacola today to meet with Phil Boyd, our social worker.  Can you believe that Max has been with us a full year already?  It is time for us to file another post-placement report with the Russian government.  It is amazing to look back at all the pictures and see how much he has grown and changed over the past year.  Christy told me yesterday that she had fallen in love with another man!!!  I said me too!!  Max is the love of our life.  He is so much fun right now.  He laughs at everything and he learns something new almost everyday.  It is incredible to see the world through his eyes.

We are going to go straight from Pensacola and head to New Orleans for a short "House Hunting" trip.  We are just going to spend one night and get a feel for the area around where I will be working.  Our movers show up in Ft Walton Beach on Monday, so we have another couple of busy weeks ahead of us.  I plan to start work around the first of June, but I may put it off a week or so depending on how quickly we can get into a new house.  I'll keep our address and everything up to date on the web page.

Apr 16, 2005...  It has been another crazy month.  Before I can turn around twice I feel like the month is over.  Max is growing every day.  He is really loving the summer weather we are having.  All he wants to do is play outside.  Max is all boy and just loves chasing Daisy and Bella around the yard.  He likes throwing balls and playing in the dirt.  Last weekend, we turned the sprinkler on and let him run in it.  He thought that was just awesome.  He has so much energy.  He still isn't saying hardly any words, but he has learned to use his lungs.  He loves screaming and running.

Christy and I have taken Max to gymnastics a few times.  Now he loves doing somersaults off the furniture!  He is pretty good at the balance beam, but he won't hang from the parallel bars.  He mainly just likes running around in circles and looking at himself in all the mirrors.

I have been very busy going on interviews.  Christy and I went to Charlotte, NC for a bunch of interviews.  Her mom came in to town and took care of Max while we were gone.  We were gone for 5 days!  I think it might be a while before Grandma Justice volunteers to baby-sit again!!  Max is a handful!!

As far as my career search goes, I have 7 or 8 companies that I am following up with.  Over the next two weeks, I am flying to Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans, North Carolina, and California.  There are a lot of great companies and I hope to make a decision with one of them very soon.  Keep us in your prayers!!!

Mar 22, 2005...  I only have a second to write, but you have to check out the pictures of Max and the Big Trucks.  Our town put on a "BIG TRUCK" day for the kids.  They got to climb all over the trucks.  I think Max was in his element.  He had a blast!  We also got Max's first Haircut.  Of course, Christy couldn't have it done at a Supercuts.  We had to find a "Man's Barber Shop."  It had a stripped pole and everything.  Max did great, he didn't cry at all.  He got a little nervous when the clippers came on, but Christy kept him entertained.

Mar 16, 2005...It seems like I am updating the journal less and less these last few weeks.  I think Christy and I have just been too busy.  Max is in to everything these days.  All he wants to do is walk around and around the house.  I am not sure where he gets all this energy.  Well, Christy and Max went to Dallas last week.  They flew up on a Delta Buddy Pass from a friend of Christy's.  Of course Max screamed the whole way!  During the week both Christy and her mom got sick.  It made taking care of Max tough.  My parents drove up for the weekend and kept Max at my brother's house.  This gave Christy a little break.  Max got to play with his cousins.  Mom says he had a great time.  They went to the park a couple of times and then spent the afternoon at Chuck E. Cheese. 

Well, because of Spring Break, all of the flights were full coming home, so we ended up having to buy Christy and Max a ticket back home.  Christy is still fighting her pneumonia, but she seems to be better today.  I am glad they are back in town.  The house is too quiet without little Max.

I have been working hard these last few weeks preparing for my interviews.  I am getting out of the Air Force on May 1st.  Christy and I are going up to Charlotte, NC on April 1st for some interviews.  I am working with a recruiter and I hope to have several offers by mid April.  It's scary not knowing where your next pay check is coming from!  I am sure God has a plan for us.  He has brought us this far.  Dale (Christy's Mom) is going to come take care of Max while we are gone. 

On another note...Christy and I are re-adopting Max in the state of Florida.  We want to be able get him a Florida Birth Certificate.  If he ever plays little league, gets married, or wants to adopt on his own, it would be nearly impossible for him to get copies of his Russian Birth Certificate.   We only have ONE copy.  By re-adopting he can always get a copy from Florida.  We contacted a lawyer, but they wanted $1300. So we decided to try and act as our own lawyer.  I think I have got most of it figured out.  We got some help from a lady in Tallahassee and from some other sites on the internet.  If we get it all figured out, I will post the instructions here for other families to try and figure out.  The government sure doesn't make this stuff easy!

Feb 23, 2005…Well, we new the day would come.  Max has been dropped from Occupational Therapy.  His therapist tested him at an 18-month skill level (he’s only 14 months old) and could no longer justify seeing him.  Of course, Byron and I both take credit for Max’s advanced skill level!  So this latest news leaves us with Physical Therapy once a month and Amy (state of Florida, early intervention program) every other week.  What shall we do with all our extra time?  Maybe, a more consistent bathing schedule for mom?  Maybe, a cleaner house?

This past weekend Byron’s parent came for a visit.  Max really seemed to bond with Byron’s dad.  I think it was the mustache that had him mesmerized.  Max enjoyed all the extra attention and continually showed off his new walking abilities.  He literally never slows down.  He walks in circles…like making laps on a track…around and around.

Feb 8, 2005…Max is doing great!  He has 8 teeth, weighs 26 pounds and turned 14 months last week.  He is walking (still prefers crawling) and babbling like crazy.  He still does not associate words with actions/nouns, but he is getting there.  However, he will grunt like a pig when asked and makes fish noises with his mouth.  He loves books (Byron’s influence) and eating (my influence).  He can use a spoon but I’ll admit that I don’t work with him on his technique enough.  I just hate the mess!  He uses a straw sippy cup and we left the pacifier behind last month.  His physical therapy has gone from once a week to once a month and his occupational therapy got cut back to once a week instead of twice a week.  All in all, his development has been nothing short of a miracle.

Max is all boy!  Dirt, trucks, blocks, balls…anything that he can throw and smash.  His Sunday school teacher, Gail, has nicknamed him "Tonka."  We had to laugh…it fits him well.  We think Max is having his first crush.  A little girl in his daycare named, Abby.  Every time I drop him off, she comes running, hugging and kissing him.  He smiles so big at the sound of her calling his name.  In fact, when I picked him up from daycare today, he cried.  He did not want to leave Abby.  You should have seen him.  Completely showing out when I tried to get him in the car seat.  He stiffened that body and would not bend.  He was looking at me saying, “You just try to get me in this car!”  Needless to say tickling did the trick.  Tomorrow we are having Valentine Day pictures made; hopefully we can get them posted before Monday.  Be sure to check back at the web site.

Jan 17, 2005...  Sorry it has been a couple of weeks since we wrote in our journal.  I think we are still just catching up from the Holidays and January has just gotten away from us.  We have all been a little sick these past two weeks (colds and flu).  I think I got it first, then Christy, then Max, and now it is getting passed back to me again.  It is a vicious cycle.  I hope eventually I will catch enough baby germs to build up my immunity.  Max is really growing these days.  He finally took his first steps on January 12th.  His first few steps were really his feet just stumbling forward, but yesterday he took about 10 steps all by himself.  It won't be long before he is running everywhere (Bella and Daisy better watch out!).

We took Max to Chuck E. Cheese last weekend.  Both Christy and I were sick and we felt guilty for not spending much time with him on Saturday, so Sunday we packed him up and went to party with the Mouse.  Max Loved it!  He just loved watching all the kids, riding the fire truck, and crawling through the balls.  It was really a fun time.  We thought we had found a great new place to take him, but we found out that they closed their doors for good last week.  Oh well, I guess we will have to stick to the McDonald's playground.

For those that have read our adoption journal, you all know that we had a tough time in Russia.  We ended up turning down two children before we found Max.  That was the hardest thing we have ever done and we were crushed emotionally.  We have worried every day since then about those kids.  Well, God truly does have a plan that is bigger than any of us and we can never fully understand it.  But through some extraordinary set of circumstances, we have found out that both children have been adopted by Americans and are now living in the U.S.  Albert is in New York and Dmitri is in Illinois.  We have been in touch with their parents and have seen some recent pictures.  They both seem to be healthy and happy and doing wonderful.  It just proves that Max was meant to be our son.  Albert and Dmitri were meant for another family.  We thank God every day that the kids are doing great and we are just so thankful that we were able to find out information about them.