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Goodbye Betty

Posted in Uncategorized on May 1st, 2020 by c-had – Be the first to comment

Yesterday, my step-grandmother, Betty, died. She was a lovely lady and a joy to have around. I have lots of great memories of her and Grandaddy. I thought maybe a trip down memory lane was in order, so here are a few of my favorite memories of her.

Grandaddy and Betty got married in 2004, a couple years after Jen and I did.

Cake cutting

Betty and Grandaddy came up to Maryland for Molly’s baptism. This was likely the first time she sang to one of my children, but certainly not the last. She loved to sing, especially to little babies. (Apologies to Caroline for including this picture :) )

Betty singing

And here’s a similar picture from 3 years later. Betty sang to Leah for quite a while, and Leah stared at her the entire time.

Singing Betty

Probably my favorite memory of her was from our family trip to Savannah in 2009. We were there for the 4th of July (as usual), which meant we celebrated my dad’s birthday there (July 2). We actually drove down that day, and Betty was great and made her highly regarded pound cake to celebrate.

Birthday cake

Unfortunately, she accidentally grabbed the green food coloring instead of the vanilla when making it, so it had an interesting color. Tasted great, though. We still talk about that green pound cake in our family to this day.

Green cake

Betty brought a lot of joy to Grandaddy's life, and for that I will forever be grateful.

Grandaddy and Betty

Grandaddy and Betty

Family photoshoot

Posted in Uncategorized on February 19th, 2019 by c-had – Be the first to comment

Fall was super busy, but we managed to fit a very quick family photoshoot in. I found this nice spot in our neighborhood. And I may as well start by showing you the winning shot.

Family photoshoot

And here are some of the runner-ups.

Alternate pose

And another pose

Runner up

There were a lot more pictures taken, mostly to try to find a way to get a reasonable smile out of Molly. Too many looked like this.

Ridiculous smile

Yikes!

Garage shelves

Posted in Uncategorized on July 7th, 2018 by c-had – Be the first to comment

Our garage was full of stuff, which was making it difficult for me to use it as a workshop in addition to parking Jen’s car in it. To give us some more garage storage, I built a bunch of shelves.

Shelving project

There’s a large shelf along the ceiling, then a few shelves down the side. It took 17 2x4 studs and 2 sheets of plywood. I also installed a workbench light from it so I can see better. Here’s what the back wall looked like before, for perspective.

Shelving project before

Tree needles

Posted in Uncategorized on February 6th, 2018 by c-had – Be the first to comment

Our Norway Spruce tree looked great, but it was horrible when it came to needle retention. This is what the floor looked like after we finished taking the lights off. Yes, all those needles fell from undecorating the tree. We even undecorated early because we didn’t want it to get any worse.

Tree needles

A new car

Posted in Uncategorized on December 21st, 2017 by c-had – Be the first to comment

I got a new car! My old Passat was nearing its 13th birthday and having more troubles than I was willing to keep fighting. So, now I’ve got a brand new 2018 Subaru Impreza, which I love.

Impreza

It’s got all the fancy active safety features (which Subaru calls Eyesight), all-wheel drive (as all Subaru’s do), CarPlay, great gas mileage, and is a lot of fun. I look forward to many years behind the wheel.

Theater outing

Posted in Uncategorized on July 23rd, 2017 by c-had – Be the first to comment

Jen and I had an actual fancy date before heading out of town. We went to see Finding Neverland at the Hippodrome. It was quite good.

Theater outing

It was also fun to walk to the tech booth at the back during intermission to ask what software they were using for audio playback. They were using QLab - the software I make in my job.

Manidokan Fun!

Posted in Uncategorized on August 27th, 2016 by molly – 3 Comments

Hi, it's Molly.

Camp drop off

I had a great time at camp. My parents dropped me off on Sunday, August 7, 2016. I had a fun time after that. On Monday, I went to the Flying Squirrel. Here’s a picture of me doing it.

Flying Squirrel

After the Flying Squirrel, I had lunch. Then, I went to the pool. At the pool I jumped off the diving board. Then, I had store time. At the camp store, I bought 2 snacks and a drink. After store time, I had some time in my Lodge. Then, I had dinner. After dinner, I had a camp fire, where we sang songs. Then, I went to bed.

On Tuesday, I went to Harpers Ferry. It was my first time walking from state to state. I walked from Maryland to West Virginia. It was a long walk there. When I was almost there, I saw the results and learned that a man was painting an ad for a company on a mountain. But to pay for the paint stuff, he cheated on his wife, he used his wife’s money! So when he was painting on the mountain, held up by a rope, his wife cut his rope, he fell, and he died. When I was at Harpers Ferry, I went to an ice cream shop and a candy shop. Then, I had a long walk back to camp.

Harpers Ferry hike

On Wednesday, I went on the hard and easy tall climbing walls. I was the first to go on the hard climbing wall. The hard wall was hard because at the top there was an angle (looking from the side, the angle looked like this: / ), and then another angle (from the side, the angle looked like this: \ ). When you got to the top, you rang a bell. For my evening activity, I did Mission Manidokan. That is when we talk about our mission for camp. To learn about it, we made cardboard houses to see what it would be like to live in the house if we were homeless.

On Thursday, I went on a river trip. I rode on the Potomac River in an inflatable raft. I paddled for like an hour or so and then I had lunch. After lunch, I swam in the river. I jumped off of a jumping rock a lot. Then, I got back in my boat . I paddled for thirty minutes to an hour and then I swam in the river again. Then, I got back in my boat and paddled to our destination (where we were going to be picked up). During the time we were getting to our destination, my boat (and the other 2 boats) crew leaders had to get out, and pull the boat since there was a nice breeze that pushed the boat back some.

On Friday, I went on a trail called Sawmill. I swam in a part of a river next to Sawmill. I jumped off a jumping rock, it was 10-12 feet above the water. I jumped off the jumping rock 2 times. I had a lot of fun in the water. Then, I went back to camp. When I got back to camp, I had lunch. After lunch, I packed up my stuff l brought to camp. Then, I watched a movie. The movie was called Tangled. Part way through the movie some kids (like me) went to the pool, the other kids finished the movie. Then, I had store time. Then, Lodge time. Then, I had dinner. After that, my parents came, and we sang some songs to finish off camp.

Camp pick up

Goodbye Dad

Posted in Uncategorized on February 11th, 2013 by c-had – 5 Comments
Goodbye Dad

My Dad, Chuck Sellers, passed away February 4, 2013 after a year and a half battle with cancer. For more information on his battle with cancer, see his CaringBridge page. He was buried in Savannah, Georgia on Saturday.

I feel the need to write something here about this, but struggle with what to say. I miss him greatly. I am sad that I won't get to see him again. I am even sadder that my girls won’t get to have him around any more. His dad, my grandfather, died when I was a little kid as well, so I know what it's like to have a grandfather that everyone thinks the world of but you didn’t get to have around as you mature.

I am comforted that his struggle is over. The past year has been awful. He was amazingly strong as he endured both the onslaught of cancer and the effects of its treatment. By the end, he was ready to go. He could no longer live life and was in constant pain. While I never wanted to lose him, I’m glad his pain is gone.

I am also comforted knowing that he is now in Heaven. I don’t really understand what that means, and don’t believe any of us can understand it with our Earthly perspective. But I believe that Salvation is real and in Dad’s case, I believe he has indeed been saved. It’s hard to know what someone else holds in their hearts, but Dad made it clear what he held to through his words and his deeds.

It’s upsetting to lose such a great example of what we should be. I hope I can live up to the example he set. He was a model of consistency, unwavering in his devotion to his family, his country, and those around us who he took under his wing. I’ve tried through my life to be like that, and I want to be even more like Dad in the future.

So, goodbye Dad. I’m incredibly sad to see you go, and will do my best to emulate you as my little family grows up.

Indie+Relief

Posted in Uncategorized on January 20th, 2010 by c-had – 1 Comment
I presume all of you are familiar with the devastation from the earthquake in Haiti last week. Many of us have looked for ways that we can help with relief efforts (you've already seen Jen blog about Craft Hope). A bunch of indie Mac developers, including myself, have decided to respond by donating all of their sales revenue today to relief efforts. You can read more about the effort at Indie+Relief, and more about my part at my company blog. If you're a Mac user, I highly recommend considering purchasing some of these great applications and helping the relief efforts in the process.