Picking up again

Alright, where I left off...
Why Idaho sucks...

If you haven't heard of the latest movement in Idaho, it is called Add the words, or add the 4 words. We are trying to fix our human rights legislature in our state. Currently sexual orientation and gender identity are NOT included in basic human rights. What does that mean? It means I can deny you service, I can fire you all based on the fact that you are different. Reminds you of something? Something like the civil rights movement?
All of our rallies and letters have been ignored. As if almost in retribution for pushing the issue, a bill has been introduced to give protections to people who excercise their religion as a means to discriminate. Professional licenses will not be under review if you are a doctor and decide not to service someone who is not your idea of lets say christian.
I went to the public hearing on this bill. I got there about 6 minutes late. I don't know how security is at the capital building but it seemed as if there were security guards posted near every door. Kind of set a precedence on how they viewed the hearing. Again, 6 minutes late, room was full, I was directed to the opposite side of the building to the overflow room. It was about 1/4th full in the overflow.
Each person was allocated 3 minutes to testify for or against the bill. After about an hour they had gotten through 1 page, of 21 signed up to speak. People began cutting down the length their testimonies as the same voice was being said over and over in different variations. What voice was that? NO, please vote no! Why should legal discrimination be allowed? At least in Boise, we have options, but the rest of Idaho, if you don't get service, you need to drive hours out of your way. Out of the 3+ hours, only 2 people said vote yes, but did not have a reason why other than because, and did not have an answer to rep. Gannon's questions.
As for the other 3+ hours of testimonies of discrimination, the representatives asked for proof of police reports and documentation of a group of people who feared coming out as who they are for fear of retribution, and as such since no documentation was made, it did not happen and they were all liars. One representative even went as far to say, if I have to force someone to give you service, what kind of service do you expect to receive. It was so ironic that in the overflow room was a giant painting of Abraham Lincoln. All I could think of was, if we had that way of thinking, we would still have slaves, women wouldn't vote, and we would still segregate everything. ALL of these had to be enforced, and forced upon those who did not want to participate. We have made so much progress isn't it great!
So as a result of these countless hearings the vote was still 5 no and 11 yes. The bill will be introduced to the house to be voted on. Of those 5, 2 republicans voted no, those republicans are super awesome, and my groups are going to be signing thank you cards for them, including one more who will vote no when the bill reaches the house.

(one last rant, KTVB sucks hard. Learn how to count. The rally had well over 1 thousand people gathered, how they reported "dozens protest". Then the hearing was a full room, and then more in an overflow. Reported again as "dozens". What does an out of state newspaper report as? Hundreds, and over 500, respectively.)

Now you see why I needed to take a break before talking about this? In other news I will be spending time at the courthouse on valentines day to be at the same sex marriage rally! That is a much much much better use of my time on that holiday!

I guess since I have had time to vent and relax, I don't really care about how people do not understand the scientific theory, evolution, or what should be taught in schools. I will just leave that you should do some research, as some points were made, that got me searching. To sum things up, scientific theory is the highest form of knowledge in science, it has been tested, proven, and has numerous evidence and reviews in it's favor.

A favorite quote of mine is, "Gravity is just a theory, but I don't see you jumping out of any windows".

What about, "I don't like evolution is the only theory being taught in school, I wish other theories were being taught. Great point! I would enjoy other theories being taught, except there isn't ANY OTHER THEORIES. But but but, creationism, or as reworded and the exact same thing intelligent design.....NO....those are hypothesis. They have no evidence....sorry a mistranslated book that you do not take literally and pick only what you want out of it DOESN'T COUNT AS EVIDENCE. The only people who are reviewing these hypothesis as true are church organizations? So if another theory comes about, guess what, science will flock towards it, because science LOVES being wrong. Why? Because it means science has learned something NEW, and new is amazing, our knowledge and understanding has expanded! Isn't that great!? What happens when religion is wrong? It loses power. It loses credibility. It has nothing to gain by being wrong.

Ok I lied, now I have a rant going so I will spend more time on it.

But we don't have thumbs on our feet, we can't be apes. Wow you are right! We AREN'T APES, we don't have thumbs on our feet! Let us give this man a prize for having NO IDEA WHAT EVOLUTION IS! YAY! Let us start off with, we are not apes, we did not come from apes. We are the result of a branching off from a common ancestor. Chimps went in a different direction and humans went theirs. Each change best suited the acclimation and survival of the environment each species lived in. As traits were developed that did not work best for the environment they died out and did not survive. We worked best on land, as chimps worked best in trees, thus the difference in feet.
But we're so different! Yes, we are very different, but guess what, that is what happens with over a million years of change. Well I don't see it happen in less than 100 years so it doesn't work. MATH TIEM! What is 400,000 divided by 100, 4,000 of your lifetimes to change. That is also just if gave birth at the end of our lifetime, let us be fair and say 20 is the average birth age, that number is now 20,000 chances of having changed. Guess what, that number gets even bigger, this number is assuming you only have 2 children, and those 2 children only reproduce 2 more children, and so on keeping the population constant. Kinda crazy isn't it? Think of all those variations!
So let me leave this with you, other than disproving ONLY A SECTION of the bible, which you already nit pick what parts you follow and which you don't. What do you have against having a COMMON ANCESTOR to chimps? Are you that arrogant that the thought that humans were once a lowly animal? Got news for you, we're still animals. Get your ego in check, I am not calling you a chimp, just how amazing it is what different routes we changed in.

Stay tuned for all of my rants, questions and logical fallacies about religion next which led me to doubt and begin my horrific route towards....GASP....ATHEISM....

Rants and Praises

I know, I know, it has been a very long time since I have updated. I have worried about who reads this blog, and what people think of it. I have a great relationship with my family, and I didn't want to ruin it. I have many many feelings about religion that would trample on this relationship and so I have to tread very carefully. I am proud of my family, I think they are amazing people, but I do not agree with them on many things. Even if they themselves do not feel that way, they participate and empower a process that does do harm to people.

That is now off my chest, and that is as detailed as I wish to divulge and will probably get a phone call later...

Let's cheer stuff up for a bit, I wanted to praise an old friend I had the pleasure of talking to last night. Mike was a high school friend, that I met through another friend. I was still mormon at the time going through the usual questions of if I lose the church will I go crazy? What is a person without religion? Don't they all go drink party and have sex? why else would they leave the church if they only wanted to commit sin? Mike and his family as weird as they are, were perfectly normal, behaved, suburban family. Without even knowing they were role models, showed me that religion isn't necessary, just by being there. No talks, no lectures, no questions, just being people. It was amazing and I loved every bit of it. This was probably the first steps into my atheism and I encourage anyone else who is questioning things, simple meet someone outside of your church, observe them, would you be able to tell what religion they were or were not without them telling you or displaying symbols? Your way, is not the only way, people are not lost, they are different.

(out of context insert) Oh also my friend Candice is writing a blog, and with her optimism and dedication has motivated me to pick up the keyboard again, thank you

Wow turning into a rant already....I get very opinionated about this stuff.

Let's dive in then.

I had the "privilege" of watching Nye vs. Ham debate. If I had a drinking game for every time Ham said I have all the answers right here in this book, the Holy Bible, I wouldn't be able to find the keyboard 16 hours later. The contradictions from statement to statement hurt my head, the lack of even listening to a single thing Nye said, and not actually answering any questions. Things that really struck out at me were: Talking about how correct the bible is and that the bible is the word of god and it is full of truths, basing every part of his model on this book. Then when he is asked about if he would stone someone for touching pigs skin, his reply is the book was written by man and is full of mistakes and rules of the current writer's society. It is OK though, Ken Ham knows exactly which parts of the bible are accurate. Later they talk of survival of the fittest, Nye explains that it is a misconception that fittest does not mean strength as in gym fitness but in what fits in best with nature. Not 30 seconds later, Ken Ham attacks survival of the fittest and says it isn't survival of the fittest it is survival of the survivor.....facepalm. He then provides an example of a cave fish who has ancestors that had vision, but now it is blind, see evolution doesn't work because the fish lost a function.....that it no longer uses.....and isn't needed......and doesn't help its survive in it's environment....

Ok so I had a huge break since starting writing and taking care of abby when she got home from school, and I got in a few disputes on facebook that really really irked me. So I guess I will talk about how much Idaho sucks in another post, and why just a theory is a stupid stupid thing to say. So I am going to put the keyboard down, punch a pillow and come back at a later time.

Thanksgiving "Vacation"

That's right "vacation". It is a time where you are to have fun, cut loose, and relax. Unless.....you have a child, a dog, and 4 niece/nephews visiting at your parents house. Tuesday morning we head out after packing that morning, yeah, we procrastinated, who doesn't. We drove the opposite direction to get to campus so Morgan could talk to her professor about something that didn't exist and that he wasn't there, because that something was automatically posted from last year. Long story short, it was a waste of time, so we laugh about it get back in the car, and start driving west to Vancouver, Washington.

DVD player is already started before we get out of town, Morgan has decided she would work on her paper in the car (using a laptop), I think she got about 2 pages done in the 7-8 hour trip. When she wasn't working on her paper, she was reading Hunger Games: Catching Fire to me, since she had a captive audience. We stopped at a rest area to let Freddy run off some energy, probably shouldn't of had him off leash, but we were the only ones there, so whatever. We got hungry early and stopped at a subway (instead of the one in Hermiston/Pendleton that we always stop at). By the end of the trip we were sick of being in the car and just wanted to blast our way through no stopping.

We arrive in one piece, Abby has half a water bottle in her lap from holding it upside down for an hour or so. She looks like she has peed herself about 8 times over. We get scolded from my parents that we should change Abby during our trip, I tried to explain that her diaper is full because they absorb water even if its an outside source, phew, I am off the hook this time, and Abby is changed into a very large T shirt until we can get her unpacked into some other clothes.

Abby has a blast being the only grandchild for a whole day, well, 2 days basically. My younger brother Andrew and his wife arrived sometime in the middle of the first night there. My sister arrived later that next evening, they called at 1 pm for Nana (Mom) to talk to the oldest niece while they pack, dead give away that they would not be arriving anytime soon.

So my plans for this week consisted of....NOTHING. I figured I would try to make it to OMSI/Zoo/Children's museum, or even Voodoo Doughnuts. I never got a chance, so since I never planned to go, I was not disappointed. Totally out of order but the first day we arrived we had to figure out what to do with Freddy (the dog). My parents had gotten new carpet installed and did not want a dog inside. We put Freddy into the back yard, and he got out 3 times trying to make his way inside this new house trying to find us. Parents decided, well the upstairs doesn't have new carpet, we'll put him upstairs. Freddy came inside and sat down, all nice and chill. Never ran in the house, didn't destroy a thing, went outside to go potty, didn't track any mud inside. At one point he waited by the baby gate downstairs (just before the carpet) waiting for Abby to finish playing with all the new toys in the family room.

Freddy slept upstairs with us the first night, when Andrew arrived that night Freddy did his usual OMG THERE'S SOMEONE HERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT I MUST PROTECT! *Woof* (once, quietly to alert me he thinks something is up) *walks quickly out of the room*. Great....so I chase after him and do my harsh whisper, FREDDY! Sit, Stay! I greet Andrew, and Freddy wags his tail like crazy ready to meet new friends. I think I have almost trained the protective instinct out of him and all that is left is love and fun.

That next day we were planning on sleeping arrangements, we were being relocated from the nice comfortable bed to the downstairs uncomfortable IKEA pull out bench/bed King size mattress from the caveman era. The Croods had a softer cave then this slab of wood and 2 inch mattress of death (Mom if you are reading this sorry, we really hated the bed, but thanks for having us!). Question was, if we were downstairs in the no dog zone, where would Freddy sleep? No dog zone area was removed and Freddy had free reign on the house. He was everywhere at all times, 5 children, 8 adults, Freddy was in someone to follow around at all times heaven.

Journey to Vancouver, check, dog issues, check, tiny tornadoes....incoming. My sister has 4 children, they are everywhere at once, it was chaos, it was madness, it was not Sparta. We (Morgan and I) were constantly doing head counts to make sure we still had 5 kids and 1 dog. We also had to make sure that the 2 oldest girls were not torturing Freddy with affection (pulling on his collar to have him come play with them). Lucky for them Freddy is AMAZING with children, and all 5 kids made it out alive.

Later that week one of the kids said look a doggy! and pointed outside. Great, how did Freddy get out...wait....that isn't Freddy. There was a random dog in the front yard. I grabbed everyone who was outside and stuffed them inside, and went to confront this dog. Dog was barking and would not let me approach him, so I had an idea (dog had a collar with tags), I would get the leash, dogs love walks and love leashes. I open the door a crack and ask dad to hand me the leash. He opens the door fully and hands me the leash. Freddy BOLTS out! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I fly down the stairs and try to break up the incoming dog fight, I grab Freddy before he can destroy this dog who was not playing nice. I am in panic mode because I have Abby crying, Dad staring, Freddy frozen in fear of my wrath (won't move to go inside), and a loose dog who I have no idea his intent/nature. FUN TIMES! I start screaming for some kind of assistance to get the other dog away, dad casually walks over and says shoo to the dog. The dog moves about 10 feet and is still loose, fantastic. Mom tells dad that we need to restrain the other dog not just tell it shoo casually. I get Freddy on the leash and rush him inside, Abby is still crying because I won't let her outside.

Everyone is back inside and I have a leash, it works perfectly, the dog comes to me and sits waiting to get latched on. I read his tags, extremely useless information, Dogs name, a road (incomplete abbreviations) and a phone number. I look up the road, it is in Kelso (one hour north), great, guess I won't be returning him. I call the number, disconnected. WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE!? Why would you have a dog tag if all of your information is old, incomplete, or completely invalid?! Ok, time to go door to door, someone might be visiting and their dog got loose. One problem, pretty much every house I went to, had dogs, and not just dogs, but dogs that love to dart out and kill on sight. Now I know why I hated dogs growing up. Doesn't anyone train their dogs to behave, give them attention and take care of them instead of just locking them up in the backyard all day? So after about 7 houses and 3 near dog fights later, a car drives up and I flag them down. It turns out to be part of the search party for the dog. I tell them they need to update their tags as all information on it is completely useless.

So what about Thanksgiving, well, we had it, I think. The kids had a table to eat at, and the adults, theirs. We wrangled up all the kids and sat down to say the blessing. By the end of the blessing, all the kids had taken 1-2 bites, and had already run off to cause mischief. Fantastic. We finished our meal realizing we had made about 4x more mashed potatoes than anyone could possibly eat. Stuffed ourselves on pumpkin pie, I got in trouble from my wife for having too much pie and whip cream. Two days later Andrew got a 24 hour fever/stomach flu, which spread to his wife, the oldest niece, dad, Morgan, and Abby. Best thanksgiving ever. We bailed just as it was spreading in hopes of getting out alive. Abby threw up the night we got home, luckily on our carpet and not my parents brand new carpet.

And this has gone on too long so I'll have to talk more about the foster care program, neighborhood reunion later.

Feeling Inadequate

Well that did not take long, only 3 sessions in and I am beginning to question myself. Morgan is telling me it is scare tactics to weed out the less capable. I don't know if it is true or not, it really doesn't matter. I have never been able to connect with people on an emotional level. Ask any woman I dated...I can't read people unless they talk to me and speak in plain English what they want or what their problem is. Oh right, you are probably ignoring everything I just said and focusing on WHAT IN THE WORLD HAPPENED IN SESSION 3?! Abuse, neglect, and everything wrong in the world happened in session 3. If anyone who has a heart attended that session, their stomachs would churn, their hearts would sink, and if they are anything like me, they would feel helpless in solving the worlds problems.

Let me just interrupt this with a comic relief story, with a story told to us during session 3. Child A and child B are born at the same time, both from new parents, A however has a strong marriage, and B, well B not so much. A did whatever they could to meet the needs for their child, B not so much, B could not really put up with their child so they turned to the MARIJUANA and that made them ignore their child even more. I get it, it was less about the drug and more about the neglect, it was just a very humorous insert into the story....I can think of many things that would be more dramatic and effective at abuse. You know like smoking (not vaping), and alcohol for starters.

Now that you have a half smile, let me crush it. I over simplify feelings, because I don't understand them. I can tell you that child B suffered neglect and abuse, as to the specific kinds of abuse/neglect, I could not answer any questions during the story, nor could I respond with what child B was feeling, other than crappy and miserable.

Every movie and story was mostly about a male figure being the abuser, it scares me to think that I would be a monster in some children's eyes, just because I'm not female. This fact worries me that because of my emotional detachment from everyone I won't be able to do this. I don't mean to say I am a robot, I am a fun and loving guy, I enjoy every moment I have with my daughter (even when she is super duper annoying) and I want to have more children. I just wont be able to help someone who is, I hate to say, damaged, I won't be able to identify what is wrong, without being told what is wrong.

I really hope that this week break I will have for thanksgiving will allow me to breath and think about it. I will be surrounded by my immediate family next week, and it could not come at a better time, they are my pillar, my support. If I ever thought I was not capable of accomplishing something, they are there to encourage and believe in me. If they think I can't do something, they help teach or show me the way on how I can.

On a completely off subject post ending statement.....my daughter is awesome. Thank you so much for getting me sick, I love it.....this feeling is so good to have just before a big trip. You are the best COUGH COUGH BLARGH.

Games?

Ok ok ok, so I have got the dad, and the atheist input on there, what about the games? Well gee maybe that's why I haven't posted in a while. GoG was/is having their insomniac sale, which in my opinion was the dumbest sale idea ever! Why you ask? I'll tell you, take every person that has ever purchased from GoG sitting at the computer looking at the main page, ONE game is sold at a time with quantities varying from 50 to 500 (some free). NOW take those 50 copies at 75%-Free, and have probably over 1 million people click ALL at once! Wait.....why did the server crash? WHY did this not go through! Wait NO I lost out on this game I really wanted! Don't worry it will go on sale AGAIN, and AGAIN, and AGAIN....but there is a catch, you have to sit through and wait until ALL the games that NOBODY wants, gets purchased before they cycle the next game on sale. You could of just said this game ACTUALLY has 1500 copies at this price, instead of selling 250 each time it comes around, and just let everyone buy the game they want. So with GoG complaints out of the way (picked up Startopia and Beyond Good and Evil), lets move onto the Humble Bundle Store. 

Awesome, Humble Bundle has a store front! great company doing great things, games will always be sold at whatever price (comparable to GoG/Amazon/Steam), and 10% goes to charity, smaller cut taken from developers, its a win win win. I just wish that Humble Bundle kept with their DRM free philosophy, like GoG does. For anyone who doesn't know what DRM is I will do a short angry explanation for you. It can vary from something as simple as enter in a CD key, to something as stupid as, enter in a CD key, but you only have 3 times you can install/use CD key, then you have to authenticate with online servers, if the servers are down (which they usually are) you cant authenticate, then after authentication you need to stay connected to their server to play the game, on single player.....ever played a game on single player and died from server lag? its crazy I know. So with Humble Bundle kicking out DRM free only you have to be wary, at least when you highlight the game it will say which OS (Windows/Mac/Linux/Android/Steam) and if it is DRM free. Picked up System Shock 2 from there, NOSTALGIA OVERLOAD!

So aside from playing a ton of Awesomenauts, X-Com Enemy Unknown (not the recently released DLC Enemy Within), Startopia, and Beyond Good and Evil, we have been keeping busy getting the house Foster Child Ready, We will call this FCR for short, I like it! We went to a VIP sale at furniture row and found a nice bunk bed with stairs instead of a ladder to get to the top bunk, and on these stairs, each one has a drawer! Then after getting 2 bunk beds/4 mattresses we went down to the Honda dealership where we got the CR-V. Instantly got nabbed up with the first salesman when we walked through the door. Said we just wanted to test drive an Odyssey since we wouldn't be getting a van till we get approved for foster care. So he sits us down and starts running numbers. Great...I know where this is going. Then as he's talking about sales we see our original salesman (from the CR-V) who recently returned from fighting fires and said to my wife hey look there is Ben! Salesman realizes hes never going to get the sale through us, and turns us over to him. Ben actually remembers us from 2 years ago (creepy and awesome) and without setting us down, goes and tracks down keys for an Odyssey for us to drive. During the drive we go through all the questions and concerns as well as selling points, great experience. Currently Odyssey's are nearly impossible to find, and the only one on the lot cannot be sold until they get the parts to fix the recall, which are back ordered as late as February. We have our fingers crossed that everything goes well.

Well, this is awkward...

Lets dive in to what I have experienced so far, being the introduction and the first session. First off Foster parents are in high demand here in Idaho, if you are interested check out the health and welfare website. So we watched a video about how the children really felt like nobody could love them, but they were glad that they came around to their foster/adoptive families, it was depressing, and heart warming. We asked questions about legality issues, background checks, safety and other concerns. It was quite the informative meeting.

There is also an organization called One Church One Child, very misleading name, since I am all for the separation of church and state, you know, being an Atheist and all trying to take away your rights to oppress all other religions into forcing your religions beliefs into law that conflict with everyone else, shame on me. It was included with all  the paperwork and is endorsed by H&W, I had to find out more, like how can they get away with this. Turns out it started by a religious guy, and then turned into a Community Group or Church. I am going to look into later to get my group the Idaho Atheists, West Valley Freethinkers involved in this and at least the minimum a support crutch for my fostering.

The title of this post suggests there is something awkward going to happen, well it is just around the corner. If you aren't atheist you probably don't understand what its like to be, alone...sure you can say oh I have had that experience all the time when I am Catholic in a room of Christians. Not even remotely close to the feeling of exclusion you get as an Atheist. No matter what religion you have, they all have God in common and hey if you're going to hell because you didn't choose THAT religion, at least you thought you were trying, A for effort! WOO! Atheist how ever have nothing in common with any religion. So situation slightly understood by all walks of life now.

We start the first session by introducing ourselves, drawing a picture on the back of our name card showing what is important to us, like an ice breaker. Well it started out with Hi I am blah blah blah, and my faith is important to me, and then my family. Hrmm interesting. Hi I am blah de derp de blah, and my faith is also important to me, oh yes and family. Great, our turn. Hi I am Morgan, and my family is important to me, my stick figures suck and this is supposed to be a dog, I also like music and school. Weird no faith. My Turn. Hi I am Chris, and I LOVE VIDEO GAMES, I drew an awesome controller! I also enjoy playing around with my family and having fun, my stick figures are way cool, here is me lifting my daughter over my head and playing airplane while my dog tries to jump in...oh yeah and here is the family cat way off to the side glaring at us for having fun. Nailed it. Next person, Faith, family, next, faith, family.....ok ok I get it Morgan and I have nothing in common with you guys way to single us out. I think there was enough murder/torture devices drawn on name cards to kill all 12 apostles.

The meeting then went on talking about taking the kids to church and using your church as a crutch and your church will be there for you and to use your church. Oh yes H&W will be there too, sweet I can use them. Then the meeting took an odd turn, they started talking about if you got a child that was NOT of your faith! GASP WHAT! NO! NOW WHAT!? Well um, accommodate their faith silly, you are not here to convert them, you are here to give them a safe home and keep them inside the community they are used to. So I think to myself dude peace of cake, I have every Sunday free, and I have no religion to convert the child to, I have a leg up on all these people! I am actually excited because now I have a reason to go to ANY church and learn from the inside what they are all about and what their way of thinking is, it will be a wonderful educational experience.

I am atheist, but I am not a monster, I will not tear down a child's belief system, they do enjoy believing in Santa, Easter Bunny and such, why ruin the fun. Now when they get older I will perhaps let them know that their way is not the only way, and that they could just be nice, out of the idea of being nice. I will save that for another time, point being. A small child who doesn't know any better is safe from my evil ways, and I am going to be more then happy to take them the church of their choosing, if they have none, great! I can also show them how ethical you can be to better humanity without a belief system. I hope.....

OK SO, big posts are out of the way....I hope, I thought this was going to be small but I had to vent, it really sucks being alone and not able to have the courage to say I AM AN ATHEIST. Thank you so much IA for being so supportive, you guys make me feel like I can do this, and this is the right thing to do. I just live in fear my application will be denied and I am unfit to be around children or some crazy thing because I put down that I am part of IA.

The Adventure Begins!

So I have decided that I will at least somewhat perhaps maybe try to document my adventures from here on out. Well with the exception of getting you up to speed with where I am at currently of course. It all started in time long lost and forgotten, 3 weeks ago to be exact. I have finally turned in my badge at Micron, laid off at last! Abagael, my daughter, had finished her last day of daycare as well.

I was now officially Stay-At-Home Gamer Dad, an upgraded model of just Gamer Dad. My wife got her job offer at a CPA firm just down the road, so everything was just going great. We went out and adopted our new dog the next day. He had been staying at a foster home on Elm Street, because he wasn't doing well in the dog shelter. He had been biting his leg out of stress/scared/etc. So it was only 4 days before Halloween, he was staying on Elm Street, so we decided to name him Freddy Kruger, or just Freddy.

So far Freddy has been a great addition to our family. Despite being a stray (I don't believe it for a second, aka we believe he was abandoned) he is extremely well mannered, knows many commands already, house trained, in fact he has a special poop and pee spot off to the side of the yard! He follows us around everywhere in the house, doesn't need a leash (unless required by law of course).

Abby and Freddy have become great friends, Freddy guards her door sometimes when shes napping. He has learned that Abby is not a big fan of being licked and has kept it down to a minimum. While we are preparing dinner, those two will just wander around together in the backyard, doing their own thing, but together.

Well now that we have the career for one parent, and a stay at home parent, we decided it would be time to expand our family. Abagael is already 3, and after a pregnancy, she would probably be close to 4. That age difference felt like it would be too much. So we thought, the world has a population problem already, lets do our part and take in some Foster children. It is going to be tough, but these children need homes, we have one, with 2 unused bedrooms.

Of course with announcing that we are going to be in the foster care program everyone had to put in their two bits, such as you have to watch out for those foster kids, they are in the program for a reason, or those are just bad kids you don't want to do that, and my personal favorite you aren't cut out to be a parent. Love the support guys! You are awesome!

We are still going forward, we have found many people who have come out of the woodwork and have actually given support and think this is a fantastic idea and have volunteered help whenever needed. So we filled out the application, set up the initial training, background checks are underway, fingerprinting is just down the road and we are super excited and nervous.

(Halloween 2013)