Rescuing the Princess

Superman, newly caped, spent the day rescuing the same maiden again and again. She seemed to need it. He was up to the challenge though: rescuing her from the work of opening her presents, getting stuck in the tree, a rabid puppy and even managed to save her from eating anything until mid afternoon due to all of the excitement.

Christmas Dog

Merry Christmas

(Click for Christmas Morning videos)

Christmas

Engaged!

Congratulations! Jonathan Sadd and Rachel Snyder are engaged! WOO HOO!

The family (on both sides plus Mateo) lay in wait while Jonathan proposed during the sunset on the banks of the ohio river. Within a day of Rachel's birthday it seemed a great plan. We surprised them, toasted their future together and spent most of the rest of the evening in hugs and praise.

We love you both and are so excited for you!

(sorry I am almost a month late in my blogging)

Taking Pictures

It's been a while since I just went out and took pictures. Thanks, Al, for the inspiration. These are just a few around Savannah.

Caged Beasts

Photoshop and the Group Picture

There is a great temptation to take the best expression/head/pose from each person in a group shot in order to create the "perfect" composite of what might have been if everyone had cooperated at the same time. But, as my dad always says, "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should." In this case, a bunch of pics tells a much more interesting story than a single mugging perfection. (shown here are the kids with the Sadd cousins, Joshua and Abby, in Pittsburgh)

Cousins

More Beah

I know, I know, enough is enough! Well, it's not actually because since you aren't paying customers, I post whatever I feel like! What's that? The sponsors are mad? They say we don't vary the content enough? HA!

Anyway, there are more shots of our Beah the wonder dog. Here's a shot of Noah picking her up to move onto the couch. (Yes, she is allowed on the furniture so that she can be where Noah is going to be.)

Growing 10 lbs this month means that she seems to be getting bigger by the day. But, she is completely trained to go outside to relieve herself and even to use a small, fenced in area to the side of the yard. She is almost always approaching and sitting to get attention instead of making contact...

She rode to Noah's school on his lap this morning. Noah rode with one hand on her head and the other straight up in the air to keep the sticks he was holding away from her (even though she hadn't expressed any interest.) Crated while Molly and I walked him into the school was easy and quiet. Then Molly and Beah and I went to my staff meeting at church for a good fondling.

I made an interesting discovery the other day too... Dogs aren't like cats in that they don't stay on your lap very well. They kind of leave the "not falling onto the floor" part of the deal to you instead of being perfectly ballanced at all times. That's a bit weird to me since I have never had a dog before. It's pretty darn cool, though.

Beah, Day 2

Sleep, play, stretch. Repeat with some food. Now a trip outside. It's a wonderful day.
Here's some pics of Molly playing the first tug of war (no, her sleeves are not wet fom this game).
Noah and Beah got to spend some time togeter after he came home from school. It's clear that he wants her to pay attention to him withouth his having to do much in return just yet. The cool thing is that is how it works.
Sleep went pretty well last night. One trip outside in the middle of the night. Beah hasn't figured out that she fits quite easily between the slats of the fence. Hopefully it will be just the right amount of time before she tries to get through. ;-)

Welcome Home Beah

Beah came home tonight. After a ride with Emily in the car, she started in the back yard and was introduced to us slowly from there. Once inside, all the pillows came off the couch and the children took turns gently welcoming Noah's new puppy. Throughout the evening, Noah fed her, petted her, carried her, snuggled with her and gave her his sticks to hold. More story and pics later, but it's late and dead batteries spoil the shots. Time to put Noah to bed. He's in the hallway clearly saying "Beah" over and over and over...

The Weather in Bluffton

From our local weatherman (or youth intern) Chris...


On the left side of the page you will find permanent links to both our photo and video albums. Check them out...

Meet "Green Girl"

This is "Green Girl" who, after a long search, will be joining the Sadd family in another two weeks. We spent the afternoon with Alysen and David. We got to meet their children, Zoe and Janessa, and a whole pack of dogs! Here's the whole gallery.

After spending much time looking, prodding, calling, playing and generally watching all of these beautiful animals interact with us and with each other, we narrowed the field to two: Green Girl (pictured) and Yellow Stripe Girl (they are named by collar color until they find homes).

But, one of the main things we were looking for is a dog that is very interested in Noah as well as one who fits the rest of the profile we were looking for. Green Girl is it.

In watching GG and Noah it was fascinating to see how they worked. GG would approach Noah and stop inches from his foot. She would raise one paw and look up at him as if she was about to paw his shoe, but she never made contact. And, then she would wait. When he bent down and invited a further advance, then she would move in. She was very persistent and very patient. And Noah also noticed her. He had a stick he would give to the puppies (or keep from them as was the case more often), and whenever GG was near him, he was very careful to make sure that she was the one who got it. When it was snatched by another dog, he would give chase and return it to GG.

There was one incident in particular which stands out in my memory. Noah and GG were seated in front of the dog house. She was on his lap and went up too close to his face. He calmly took both forearms and pushed her head down as he defended his face. She responded by backing off and waiting at what was clear to me was the exact distance that Noah had requested. And as they played, she never crossed that boundary again unless invited. Amazing.

So that's it. Two weeks and we get to bring this treasure home and begin the hard work. They still have one dog left if anyone wants a truly amazing animal. Now, for a name...

Friday

Friday we go up and look at all the dogs... Please pray that we are given wisdom in finding the exact one for Noah.

Lost and Found

Powerful church service this morning. Did you ever notice that both brothers in the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15) have the same problem? They both made a deal with the father. They treated family as a business relationship. The younger thought that he could be happy by taking what was his and leaving. The 0lder thought that he could make dad owe him something by staying and always obeying, but with a cold heart. In both cases, the kids didn't get the whole idea of a father's love.
Anyway, on with the post. Here's a video that we put together for the sermon this morning.

It was shot on Saturday and Wednesday by Jody Dorrell and edited by me with lots of help from Josh Bell (the guy playing the son). Thanks to Jay for the idea and vision, Jody for the gear and shooting expertise and Josh Bell and Howard and Dawn Duff for their acting skillz.

The Dog Saga Continues

Well, we are just about a month away from our new puppy... Here are some new pics and movies.

A few of you have asked what happened between the stories of Lexie and this new puppy. Sorry for the confusion, I need to read my own blog a little better, but here's the story:

Lexie is an amazing dog, but she was never going to be ours. We were greatly blessed in the time that we got to know her. But, it was pretty evident that she was not the right dog for Noah. One of the keys to a therapy or assistance dog for him is that the dog needs to be low energy. Noah needs a dog who will have a calming effect on him. While Lexie could be calm with Noah when he wanted to be calm with her, the dog's natural response to a human touching her was to get more and more wound up. Noah needs a dog who will usually be calmer than he is.
Also, most of Lexie's significant skills would be lost on Noah. Drop a fork and instantly, Lexie would pick it up. But, Noah can pick up his own silverware (and does whether he's eating or not). It would have been a loss for someone in need of physical assistance not to have these skills and so it would be wrong of us to keep Lexie.
We miss her terribly, but are excited at her future with someone who really needs exactly who she is.

So, we wait for the puppies to grow up a bit more. We will then be able to go and take a close look at all ten dogs in the litter to find exactly the right one for what Noah needs. We are working on names now, but that's a secret. Noah may have some ideas on that front too!

What does david really do at work?

Left over footage from a Sunday morning video.

Thirty Four!

Woo hoo! Happy Birthday to Emily!

Crabbing!

Another day on the dock netted us ten good sized crabs (and 20 more that we released). Noah played with them more alive than cooked and has a few pinch marks on his hands to show for it. It's hard to keep a determined seven year old out of a game he wants to play. As hard as it is to watch, sometimes it's just better to let the crabs do the teaching.

Andrew and Elaina worked hard bringing crabs out of the water and into the big bucket (with lots of terrified/excited screaming). Elaina got so good she even caught two at once!

Then came dinner; what a fun mess! Noah only seemed to want to play with the shells. Andrew had a great time smashing things with his hammer. Elaina did very well and has the cut up hands to prove it. Because crabs contain trace elements of mercury (something the boys systems can't process), they didn't get much meat, but had a ball anyway.

"Baby Dog"

Noah spoke this morning: he said, "Baby Dog!"
Emily was showing him pictures of his dog who was born Last Saturday. She wasn't sure he could recognize a dog at only 2 days old and so told him it was a baby dog. Noah grinned and danced over to the couch where he sat thinking for a moment. All of a sudden, Emily heard, "Baby Dog," come from over on the couch. When she ran over and asked him about it, he repeated it again, "Baby Dog."

And after I got home from church I was looking at the pictures and Noah said it again! "Baby Dog" are his first words in the last bunch of months. Hurray!

The pup is baby Goldendoodle (half poodle, half golden retriever). David and Alysen at CorinthDoodles have been the most wonderful gift to us. Another 8 weeks to prepare the house for a puppy! We can't wait!

Sisters!

Getting the children in bed (as I understand) can be very hard in many homes. But, for some reason it's almost always a wonderful time here. (I am NOT talking about the process of falling asleep, mind you. lol.) Here's Elaina and Molly on their way to bed.

Lexie Part 4 - From CH 11 News, Savannah

This video was from the CH 11, Savannah, morning show. We don't have TV, so it's ripped off a DVD that was kindly sent to us by the reporter. If you can't get it to play, try clicking here. (or ask your system administrator if the firewall is blocking YouTube.com).
Here's the photos from the actual shoot.

The Fence

1500 lbs of Polyvinyl Chloride Fencing. 4300 lbs of cement. 3 days. 1 beautiful fence. Click the pic for the photo gallery.

Ready for Bed

Noah, after a seriously good haul of balloon animals from the church's Lazy Labor Day Picnic. Here he is on his way to bed. No, he didn't get to sleep with them all! lol.

Getting SO Big!

For the full archive of Molly Eating pics...

Andrew Art 1

I need some art experts and those of you with a command of child development to take a look at these two pictures. They were both drawn by Andrew (Age 5 1/2) and are quite typical of his drawings. The top one is Dumbo. Two ears flank the head (with trunk) and a hat floats on top. The bottom drawing is a pumpkin. It was drawn in sections from left to right and then the stem in the middle was added. The spiraling horizontal pattern is Andrew coloring the complete pumpkin orange. What I would love some insight into is the fact that when Andrew draws, he builds his compositions from seperate parts and nothing ever touches. His pumpkin isn't a round object with stripes, but strips of orange which have a kind of round shape when together. Dumbo is the same. Ears, head, hat all seperate.

There is an artist by the name of David Hockney who does some fascinating colage like art. Often photographing a scene many times and piling the photos up to represent the feel of the scene, but without any of the connection we are used to seeing. I have linked to a piece of his of a chess match. Here is an old woman. Here is a chair. A Man. and a Tree.
Many autistic adults have compared the photomontages of David Hockney with the way in which they see the world. Tiny slices of data stitched together in a way which only sort of represented the actual subject of comprehension. One autistic artist consistantly drew people with eyes that look straight out of the canvas and mouths on the sides of their heads. The reason was that he coldn't see the mouth and the eyes at the same time. To view a face required several snap shots which had to be merged in the brain later. A person looking at you one moment would be looking away when the mouth was viewed a moment later so as to appear that the mouth was on the side of the head.
The question that I have is this: do the art and development folks out there think that Andrew's drawings of things as seperate and non connected components look to you like he is unable to view the whole of a scene in order to draw it correctly? Or, does his artwork look like the drawings of a five and a half year old who doesn't care about realism and is having a lot of fun with a pencil or crayon? Thoughts? Thanks.

Guitars in Church

There seems to have been this period before I was ever aware of such things where guitars were considered instruments of the devil and so weren't allowed in church. I'm glad that era is passed and a gutar is just another instruement in the band. This is a video clip from the 1940s. It shows sister Sister Rosetta Tharpe who was one of the earliest pioneers of real rock and roll. Ironically, she influenced a whole generation of musicians (Bob Dylan brought her back into the spotlight most recently) who went and gave the guitar it's so called demonic reputation. Weird how stuff starts in one place and goes full circle. I also wanted to share it with you because she just plain rocks!

From the Archive

Here's an old one. Noah and Elaina from three and a half years ago. As I sort through my archives (over 15,000 shots right now), I will post some from the years. It's so cool having photo albums from the kids' lives right on the hard drive. (And for those of you who are wondering about keeping that kind of record on something as potentially faulty as a hard drive, they are all backed up on DVD-R's and kept at my work in case something nasty happens to my computer.)

A trip to the pool

Just a quick 4 hours at the newly opened pool. Look at those wrinkled feet!

Andrew went from walking very gently through the shallow end yesterday to floating all over the pool. Here he is with his floating assistance pulling his feet up as he learned a valuable lesson in buoyancy.

After several hours, mom joined us, but forgot her suit. Which since we were the only ones at the pool and it was incredibly hot, didn't seem to matter as Elaina pushed her into the pool. Here she is still dry...

Thing #241 not to let your child do

I turned around to refill a dish for Noah and (in less than 20 seconds) Molly was around the table, had climbed onto the wooden kitchen chair and had was gnawing on Elaina's discarded chicken leg! Needless to say, she wasn't allowed more than a few seconds lest she cause herself serious harm. Luckily, she is enough of a ham that no gnawing took place during the taking of this picture. And, (for the lawyers) no children were harmed in the taking of this or any other picture.

New photos

My usual posting technique is ofline for the moment, but there are new galleries of a spaghetti covered child and a fun afternoon swimming off the dock.

On the Dock

Aug 1, 2006 - 14 Photos

Spaghetti

Aug 5, 2006 - 5 Photos

Blogging Pause and Silliness

Hi there.

Sorry it's been so long since the last update. And this really doesn't count as it won't contain any real news (if that's what you come her for). But, I have new respect for the news media. A little at least. And, it comes with the following observation:
When you are the primary reporter of your life, you are always faced with a choice, do I document what's going on in order to share it, or do I live in the moment and let the record keeping fall to the wayside. So, let's hear it for all those journalists who have given up living in order to keep records.
Anyway, lots has been happening, too much to write, but I will have a post tomorrow morning with some pics from a family adventure yesterday.


While you wait, buy a gallon of milk. No really, go on. But, before you purchase it, you should read what almost 500(!) customers have said about this delicious gallon of whole milky goodness. A few samples:
"After drinking this milk, I could fight Chuck Norris and win!"
"Unfortunately, after a terrible night's sleep, I have concluded that this product is not suitable for use as a pillow."
"I drank the entire 128 fl oz in one gulp, and for the next 43 minutes and twelve seconds I could divide by zero. The taste is okay, but what makes it worth the shipping is the ability it confers: the ability to defy the laws of mathematics with impunity."
"Horrible service, I bought my milk and went with the 7-9 day super saver shipping method and it arrived warm and curdled. "

Happy Birthday Elaina!

It's Elaina's 9th birthday today! We built our traditional "donut cake" and had a delicious breakfast with our beautiful daughter. If you read this blog post today (Friday, July 21st), give us a call and wish her a happy birthday! And no, I am not going to post my phone number on the internet... silly.

Sometimes you just need a better beat...

Drummer Buddy Rich vs. Animal on the Muppet Show in 1978

Beach day with Oma and Opa

Andrew really came into his own as the tide came up around him. He was a wild man in the waves. Elaina found the coolest tiny little clams which she collected. Noah wrapped himself in a towel, but came out to dump buckets of water into the hole. Molly did just about everything but drown (thankfully). More pics. here...

POOP!

Baby Molly arrives in the room carrying a diaper and a box of baby wipes. She drops them at mom's feet and exclaims, "Poop!" Turns out she was correct in the observation. Dad, who taught her the word the day before, wasn't home for the clean-up. lol.

Rainy Day Fun at Church

Rain before church: stay dry, keep clean, struggle to get to worship.

Rain during church: loud on the roof, plans for the day ruined, dark.



Rain after church: TIME TO GET WET!

Don't go to the beach on 4th of July weekend!

Hilton Head Island had a wee bit of traffic yesterday (read: 3 hours drive to the beach instead of 25 minutes). So we scrapped our island plans and went crabbing. Some friends of ours have a wonderful dock where we spent the entire afternoon lounging on the huge porch swing, catching blue crabs and small black tip sharks and generally being out in the breeze. The dock has full child proofing (since it's owned by the grandparents of the triplets) and even a sand box so Molly could be left to roam and play with the swimming noodles as she pleased. We ended the day with 7 large crabs and about the same number of sharks. The sharks and smaller crabs got thrown back.

So, this morning I have a sun burned neck and a dead crab sitting next to the computer keyboard while Andrew sings songs about it. Apparently he wasn't very clear on the whole "going home to eat them" thing and so, after cooking, he has been given a crab for a bit to play with. Watching the crab go Night Night in the fridge was an experience.

Here's what the traffic looks like right now (updated every 5 secs)
(view is looking across the bridge to the island)

More Photo Resources

Just a quick link list for those of you wanting more ideas/better skillz for you photography. ('cause girls only like guys with skills)
Very well done photography blog: www.digital-photography-school.com
Photoshop podcasts: PhotoshopTV.com
More in-depth, check links at top of page: The Luminous Landscape
Lots of info: Digital Photography For What It's Worth
Buying a camera? Start here: www.dpreview.com
Also 1 tip: good pics depend on not leaving the camera at the office... (see above post)

Photo workflow and free stuff

Hi all,

I am asked on a regular basis how I shoot, organize and post pictures on the blog, so I thought I would give a quick tutorial.

I am shooting with a Canon Digital Rebel camera (but just about anything will do). (here is the best review site).

I use two different cataloging programs, but I want to point you to Picassa as the better for most people for three reasons: It's completely free, it's completely integrated with Blogspot and it has a quick and easy photo editor that is nondestructive. That means that you can edit a photo (crop, change the color and contrast, even make it black and white) and the original file isn't changed. You can come back six months later and simply hit the undo button for that photo and it's back to where you started. check out: picasa.google.com.

Picasa organizes all the shots in chronological order so it's easy to find any pics (it's great that digital cameras write the date and time in the photo code on every shot). There is also a companion application called Hello (also free, also made by google) which allows additional connection to the Blogspot site.

And a new thing just came out (although it's still in testing mode and ha limited availablilty): Picasaweb. This takes whole groups of shots and posts them in high resolution form on the web in albums that are very easy to organize, share and distribute. Anyone viewing the album can actually download a high resolution version of any of the shots. AND visitors don't have to sign in (the best feature).

So... in addition to this blog, we will now have photo albums available on the web. Check out...
picasaweb.google.com/davidsadd for our albums. Or you can click on the topmost link to the right where it will live from here on out.

L8R all!

A New Family Photo

Taken today after the last day of Vacation Bible School.

More pics of the fam here.

Meet Lexie - part 4

Well, the guy from Channel 11 came over yesterday and shot a bunch of footage of the kids and Lexie. Here's a shot of Noah and this wonderful dog on Lexie's "place."

And here's a shot of Casey shooting the kids on the couch with el dogo.

And in the back yard...

Lexie was a little drugged during her visit because she had just been to the vet who x-rayed her hips. She is in good shape and can definitely function as a service dog. She passed everything and is on her way to being someone's helper.
Now, if she's not ours... what dog should we get? Seriously, what are your favorite breeds (I am not saying you get to pick our a dog for us, but I am interested in your thoughts!)
HERE is the photo album page with more pics.