#Miller6Pack

Along with all the "normal" emotions associated with parenthood, Amy and I were presented with an entire subset of feelings in 2004 when we became parents, because of some minor details such as traveling across the globe to get our little girl, or having to adjust on the fly to having a 10 month old in the blink of an eye. September and October always invoke a stronger form of these emotions and memories because it was this time of the year when our lives changed forever. (for the better!) "Free time." It is something we truly take for granted until we don't have much of it and we then realize how much we actually had before. Anyway, one particular thing I remember was how instantly should I say abruptly Amy and I became aware of how much "free time" we had before Gracie came into our lives. The first few weeks after we returned from China with our little girl we commented about how little time we had but we quickly realized this was due to all the...

I spent today with some general errands and chores, like I would any other relaxing Autumn Saturday. The colors are just starting to pop everywhere you look and the air just smells like Fall. It was a productive day that included some fireplace modification for installation of a new electric fireplace as well as fixing my Grandpa's email and paying him (and my Grandma Perry) a visit. Conversely, one year ago today, wasn't such a typical Fall day. It was one of toughest days I've ever experienced as I had to take our beloved dog Griffey to the vet to be put to sleep. Griffey lived a very full life and was a great dog. I can still feel him in my arms peacefully going to sleep for the last time. The weight of his body as he drew his last breath was something I will never forget. One year later time has helped our heavy hearts, but still miss our Griffey greatly and think of him often. I just wanted to post today in honor of Grif. 

I've been meaning to get a couple blog entries up in the past few weeks, but with "life" happening at breakneck speed, my best laid plans have often been pushed aside. But I find myself at the computer this evening after another very full day, capped off by wiggling a loose tooth belonging to our soon-to-be 7 year old (yikes) and then reading her a story before bed. So much has happened in the last few months yet as I looked at our blog I noticed the last time I took time to write was on the day of the passing of our cat "Little Al."  In an effort to adhere to my resolution, I'm trying to allow myself to post simple things to the blog to 1. Help me express my thoughts/feelings in writing 2. Share our experiences with friends and family and 3. To help me to constantly remember the abundance of things that I am thankful. (topic of this post) I thought the picture I included with this post was worth more than a thousand words. It was taken this August when we...

It has been another tough week for the Millers. We've known for a month or so that it was time for our "Little Cat That Could," Alex to leave this world. Lil' Al, as she was known after being named after Alex Rodriguez, was getting up in years (over 14) and was having increasing difficulty with the day to day activities of a house cat. It was with teary eyes that I drove back home after taking her to Kellogg Pet Medical this 16th day of July. I'm sure there will be more memories to post, but I wanted to get this one up in honor of our little cat. Lil' Al was indeed the sweetest cat and won our hearts the minute we met her scared, wet, hungry, and cold on our back doorstep when we lived on Cameron Avenue. Amy and I didn't hesitate to both agree that Al would become our 3rd pet, joining Sadie "Pretty," and Griffey. After we brought Al in and fed her, she purred like a cat 4 times her size. That first night she spent with us, she purred the entire...

Well here we are, another 4th of July Weekend is upon us. It seems like a few days ago we were saying goodbye to 2009. I admit regrettably that I struggle to post to this blog regularly. The frustrating part is that I have no shortage of things to write about. In fact, I often have thoughts multiple times per day that I instantly think, "this would be something to write/blog about," but I then find myself getting too busy to find the time to write it out. To make things worse, I then find myself saying "I can't blog about Y before I blog about X, since X happened first. I then neglect to write things out pushing things further and further out. So no more empty promises or resolutions about more blog posts, or devotion to writing regularly, because I know I'll fall short. Instead I'll bust out of the chronological rut and hopefully get some stuff going.  It has been a great week at the Miller household. Nothing spectacular has happened, no great revelations. ...

I have a list of topics I want to blog about, but it has seems like by the time I get home after being on the computer all day long configuring email servers, spam filters, content filters, print servers, user profiles, answering help desk calls, listening to vendors, and a myriad of other technology related conundrums, that I can't muster up the brainpower to craft anything readable or interesting. Additionally, I'm married to an English major, which makes me hyper-sensitive to typos, run on sentences, fragments, and ending my sentences with prepositions! Nonetheless, I know that this blog post is long overdue. A combination of the aforementioned fatigue and equal parts of frustration and disappointment have created an ache inside that makes it tough to find the time and energy to creatively write about it. As the title of this entry suggest, this is an update on our adoption process for all of you who have asked many questions, prayed, and even shared in our frustration. ...

It is hard to believe it is December already. The cliche' "it seems like yesterday" seems so appropriate, but we find ourselves saying it far too often. We have had a very blessed and memorable year and pray that you have too. We have received some fantastic Christmas letters from some of you thoughtful cards too. We enjoyed reading every update, and looking at every picture. We are thankful to have such wonderful friends and family. This December, we are going "green" and rather than sending out a card to everyone, we figured it would be fun to do a quick blog that contains some brief highlights/updates as well as some links to pictures. With the emergence of "Social Networking" we estimated that about 85% of our friends and family are using these digital tools to keep in touch. OK, so I'm not totally sure if the electricity my laptop is burning is less than the postage and paper for the cards of a traditional Christmas card, but it sounded cool,...