My Last Day as a Duck

Today is my last day as a Duck.  I have spent the last 11 years and seven months working for this company in some capacity – a developer, a QA person, a Content Developer, and most recently a Product Support Engineer.  Working at Duck Creek has allowed me the opportunity to meet so many amazing, smart, hard-working people.  I am honored that I have gotten to be a part of the Duck Creek story.

Here are a few special memories of my time there:

·         My first day – January 2001.  One other intern and I were assigned to Barry Tate's watch.  One of the most important life lessons Barry taught me – never wear cheap running shoes.  That was pretty huge coming from one of the most frugal people I know.

·         Taking my first business trip to a customer site as a 21-year-old with Doug Roller.  I was too young to rent a car, and after Doug left to visit another client, the customer I was working with had to come pick me up at the hotel and take me to work. I felt like a 15-year-old girl all over again.

·         Nate joined me at Duck Creek in February of 2004.  It has been so fun to watch him grow in his career from a front row seat.

·         Nate and I visited a client in Illinois together – he was the sales guy and I was the Solution Architect.  We made a great team!

·         Duck Creek User Forum/Flocking in St. Louis.  I taught a course on ManuScript debugging, and I got raving reviews.  Several people told me how awesome the course was, and I learned that teaching big people is really not so different from teaching little people: they will do anything for candy. J

·         Cooper’s Baby Shower – At the time, I worked on a team with seven or eight other guys.  For my “shower” we all went and ate at El Rodeo, and (this is the BEST part) the men all wore baby bonnets for part of the meal!  My gift was a used potty seat with words of advice from each of them.  (And they also blessed me with a 1 year Netflix subscription – I guess they knew we wouldn’t get out much!)

·         Solving issues – every day.  The job I am currently in is truly my nitch.  I. Love. It.  Every day is different and challenging, but oh-so-rewarding as I figure out the cause of a difficult issue!

I would be lying to say this has been an easy decision.  As I read through the memories I thought to myself, “Why am I doing this? I love my job!” And I DO!  But I love my God and my husband and my kids more, and right now I feel like the Lord is leading me to Homeschool Cooper.  So today I waddle away.   Thankful for what I have had, allowing myself to mourn the loss, and excited and confident about the next season of life.

Colorado

Nate planned an amazing vacation for our family to take to CO.  Here is our itinerary, with some highlights.

Day 1: Drove from Bolivar, MO to Hays, KS.

• We stopped in Topeka to see the Haraders, and my amazingly hospitable sister bought us dinner.
• We drove past the wind farm just west of Salina - SO BEAUTIFUL!
• The kids hit a rough patch on the drive, and this is what Nate posted to FB: Miles is crying. Cooper is moaning with a tummy ache. Madagascar is in surround sound on both screens. Carey has escaped in the passenger seat with her iPhone and headphones. And the good news? Only 266 more miles of Kansas...

Day 2: Drove from Hays, KS, to Colorado Springs, CO.  Visited Seven Falls.

• We stuck the boys into their beds sleeping and we pulled the boys out of their beds sleeping - they never saw the Hays motel.  Praise the Lord they slept after we put them in the car!
• Seven Falls has changed quite a bit from my memory of it.  They changed their staircases to 2 ginormous staircases that we crept up and down, praying to the Lord that our kids wouldn't stumble.
• The kids enjoyed hiking the trail at the top of the stairs!  Jedi do this kind of thing.

Day 3: Visited The Royal Gorge.  Drove from Colorado Springs, CO. to Vail, CO.

• Our family walked across the bridge of the Royal Gorge.  That's trust right there.  Miles only felt safe when Nate was holding him.  I admit I kinda wanted Nate to hold me, too.

• After some convincing (all of us...not just the kids), we rode the gondola back across the Royal Gorge, again, trusting that the engineers knew what they were doing.
   

 Days 4 through 7: Vail, CO

• The Gore Valley Trail was just outside our hotel and ran along the Gore River.  It was beautiful scenery for us to workout by! 
  
   
• The boys played at some really super playgrounds. 
   

• On Wednesday, we rented bikes and tag-along bikes for the boys.  We had four hours with the bikes, so we rode out, had a picnic, and rode more, totaling about 3 hours of riding.  Miles only wanted to ride with his daddy, and Cooper only wanted to ride with his daddy.  I really tried not to let it bother me, but after several minutes riding with Miles crying and saying hurtful things, I admit my feelings were hurt.  The good news is we survived!
   



• We hiked along a stream our last evening there.  We saw several dams, but no beavers.  When we were driving home, we drove by a dam on a stream that created a lake.  I pointed it out to the boys, "Hey - look at the dam." Miles said, "A beaver dam?" and I replied, "No, a dam dam."  Oops.  That one slipped out of the lips before I considered what I was saying.

Day 8: Drove from Colorado Springs, CO, to Colby, KS...our old stomping ground.

• We visited with some very special friends - Bev and Dean Anderson, Tim and Leisa Hansen, and Bill and Terri Adams. 
• We drove by all of the old houses we lived in and pointed them out to our kids...all they really wanted to do was play at Fike Park. :)
• We enjoyed Taco John's for dinner - it is SO much better than Taco Bell!

Day 9: Drove from Colby, KS, to Bolivar, MO.

• We started our day with Daylight Donuts.  Unfortunately, getting there 7:30 meant we missed out on the Peanut Butter Cinnamon Rolls.  And that was a HUGE bummer.  I might have even cried a little. 
• We stopped by Dad and Beth's house to wish Dad a happy Father's Day and give him a Vail Moose.
• We got home!!  Our beds had never felt so good.

Overall, this was a super vacation!

Miles Henry Bethell

This is the true story of Miles Henry Bethell. (And also a little bit of confession...)

In September (right after Cooper turned one), I was running with Sarita and I felt very winded.  I couldn't catch my breath, which does happen from time to time, but this was the third run in a row like this.  I was sweating buckets.  Discouragement was kicking in.  I remember sitting on the end of my driveway stretching after a run, reflecting on how much it hurt, and Sarita said, "Are you pregnant?"  "Oh, no way," I replied.  Sarita answered, "Well, I just remember you feeling like this when you were pregnant with Cooper." 

I couldn't shake our conversation, so I gave myself 4, yes FOUR pregancy tests that day.  They were all positive. Not believing it could possibly be true, I asked Nate to stop by the store and buy the more reliable test on his way home from work that day.  He bought a two pack.  The first was positive, so I did the second, too.  It was positive, too.  It would be an understatement to say I was in disbelief.

After that the crying began.  This was really not my plan.  I watched as several families around us had babies close together, and I thought that was not our style - I needed time to recover from the first.  Surely God didn't have this in mind for me - didn't He remember how hard being a new mom was for me?  Nate travels - remember God?  I think I cried for about 2 weeks straight.

Looking back, I am really embarrased about the way I handled this surprise gift the Lord gave our family.  I wish I would have been mature enough to laugh, to enjoy, to celebrate God's gift to me.  I remember telling a wise friend about another experience that I look back and regret, and his encouraging advice was something like this: Looking back with regret shows we have grown.  Oh, how I long to grow!!  My response to my pregnancy with Miles' really revealed more selfishness in me that the Lord continues to strip away, one piece at a time.  After I married Nate, I remember falling on my face, overwhelmed that I could be so selfish.  Then, after I had Cooper, more and more layers were stripped away.  This life isn't about me, and having a child made it very clear to me that my needs neet to be set aside.

Enough reflecting.  I am a sinful, selfish woman, saved by God's grace.  God has used my children to refine me, break me, and mold me.  He gave me Miles Henry Bethell. And I am thankful.

Just think, I would have missed all this:

Catching Up

Well, it's been a little while.  I thought the easiest way to play catch up would be through pictures...so here goes nothing:

In December, Nate took me for a surprise weekend in KC to celebrate our 10 year anniversary.  We attended the BEST Chiefs game of the season - against the undefeated Green Bay Packers.  And as you can see, the Chiefs defeated them!

In January I visited my very sweet friend Sarah in Phoenix, AZ.  The night before I left, Coop was up puking about every 20 minutes.  I went anyway, and left Nate with 3 sick boys, including himself.  Sarah and I visited Fashion Square in Scottsdale because the two of us are so...uh...fashionable.

In February, Nate picked up our new dog in Seattle and brought her home.  We only had her about a week before...

...our house nearly burned to the ground.  That might be a bit overdramatic, but it was pretty serious.  It took about 5+ weeks to recover from the smoke smell.  One of the firemen, our friend Jim, said if our cabinet or laundry room door had been open, our house probably would have been a complete loss.

So we moved in to Tom and Sarah Jones' flat for 4 weeks.  That's right - the four of us lived in one big room for a month and we didn't kill each other!!  So many of our friends blessed us in generous ways.  It was amazing to see the body of Christ at work!

We moved back in on March 15th, Nate's birthday.  Our carpet was not yet installed, but we decided to tough it out on the subflooring.  Here is our van with everything from the flat - all we really needed to live for a month could be reduced to this:

We even had cake to celebrate Nate's birthday.

Aunt Hanna, Claire and Katie came to visit while we were still sans carpet - we made the best of it!

The boys played soccer in March.  Cooper was pretty into this year, while Miles enjoyed hanging on the periphery.

March also included a trip to Kansas City to Dad and Beth's house to celebrate March birthdays, and the boys got in a little Jedi training while they were there.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we couldn't (and can't) keep Fiona from digging holes for her friend Frank to come over and play.  She lived with Frank while our house was cleaned after the fire, and they are such good friends now! 

We celebrated Easter in Enid with the Bethells.

The boys caught several fish!  We had so much fun with cousins - flying kites, breaking open a pinata, and hunting eggs!

That gets us through April.  We are living in our (God-given) home, we have carpet, we are not puking - we are BLESSED.