A Eulogy: Satchel Paige Soderlund

In the last 5 years, he ate roughly 1825 Scoops of 'breakfast pellets', 5475 leaves of lettuce, 1825 carrots, and almost a whole farm of brocoli, cauliflower, and celery. And enough hay to feed a horse for a year or two.

Tonight, after a little bit of trauma in the living room and a few calls to different animal hospitals that know rabbits, we had to put Satchel, our rabbit of 5 years, to sleep for good.

No more heir balls (get it?) floating around the living room or clogging the vacuum. No more stench from his litter box moving downwind towards the dinner table while we ate. No more pictures with the neices and nephews at Easter time. Or running around in circles around the couches. Or chewing on the furniture that he felt was in his way from where he wanted to go. And no more stray poop pellets on the living room floor.

Now, his large section of the living room is officially empty. It was one of the hardest things that I've had to do in my recent memory. To assign his fate with my signature and credit card was a little surreal. But through some tears, our family went from five to four. He had been carrying a sickness for a long time and apparently tonight was just his night to go.

He lived a full, fun life. He made us laugh plenty of times. One of our favorite memories was at Christmas time when he stood on the side of the couch stretching as far as he could to nibble on a Christmas tree branch and fell off the side and into a Christmas present bag. He was a great pet. We already miss him and it's only been a few hours. The living room just isn't the same without him.

Named by his 'father' after the great baseball player Satchel Paige. Satchel is survived by owners Aaron & Beth and their children Nathan and Josh.

Guitar Hero - Legends of Rock

Learning the proper way to hold his guitar.


Yep - No shirt. He's learning to fit the part.


And now playing with daddy (He's not beating me though, I promise)


I'm currently borrowing Guitar Hero from a friend of mine and I think that Nathan likes it just as much as I do. I can beat him in a face-off, but he's loving getting to play a 'real' guitar.

"Happy To You"

I'll bet you didn't know that I have sung the song "Happy Birthday To You" AT LEAST 4 times a night since March 1st. No joke. We celebrated Beth's dad's birthday on March 1st and ever since, before bed, Nathan requests to sing "Happy To You" ('birthday' was too hard to say, so he just skipped it). We go through and sing it to Mommy, Daddy, Nathan, and Baby Josh every night. But many nights he wants to also sing it to Nana & Papa, "Bamma" (Grandma Nancy), "Emmie" (cousin Emily), "Dyle" (cousin Kyle), "GG" (Great-Grandma), "Papa Don" and sometimes he even wants to sing it to "Papa's Plate". Yep, his plate. Like the kind you eat off of. Plates don't have birthdays. Yet, we sing it to the plates quite often. Ridiculous.

Anyway, so that's what we do every night as we're going to bed. Nathan and I sing Happy To You.

The poor kid didn't even know anything special was happening when we sang it to him for his birthday that night. It was just like any other night.

Needless to say, I'm a little tired of the Happy Birthday song.

The child to whom the towel belongs

How I know I have too much stuff lying around the hallway

Today while we were watching some "worters" (worker men) and their "tru"s (trucks) outside Nathan's window, Nathan tried on his brother's bath towel, which of course was not hung in the bathroom but was left lying in the hallway. Quite pleased with himself and hoping to share his wit, he said, "show daddy," but daddy was not available- someone has to support this family by working outside the home.

So Nathan suggested, "show worters" and stood by the window loudly saying "hallo." They were not available- they apparently could not hear the plea for attention.

So finally Nathan wanted to show someone who might really fein interest in his cute appearance and said, "show boots" (books). He then stood near his basket of toys and giggled before abandoning the new costume.

Ha ha ha. What a funny kid. I wish I could share the audio as well.

This Saturday Was Brought To You By The Number 2.

Welcome to Soderlund Station



Nathan and his train



The train cake that Beth made for the party - she always outdoes herself



The birthday boy. (OK, seriously... do they get much cuter than that?)



Nathan opening one of his presents









The couches were moved, the rabbit away
Even the barstools did not get to stay
The stage was all set for six kids to play
There would be chaos on this Saturday

Cardboard box train, balloons red, black and white
A Pinata to hit at a two-year old's height
A train cake to eat with Oreo wheels
Sandwiches and chips for everyone's meal

Crayons and toy trains to play with at first
Train hats and whistles and tears come in bursts
Grandparents and kids, generations abound
Inside some presents Little Einsteins were found

A fun day for all, at least so they said
But when it was over, it was time for bed
It was all about trains, the beloved "choo choo"
It was Nathan's birthday, and he just turned two.

Home: Volume 1, Chapter 1 Title: Percocet

Awww...



Mmmmm... Percocet



Nathan taking care of his little brother.



Not Mommy or Daddy's favorite toy at 8am. :)



Nathan doing the post-game recap with Brad Adam and Bill Krueger after Monday's Opening Night Mariner win.












Percocet. The great equalizer.

There has been a lot of sleep going on in our house lately. With Beth recovering from her C-section, she's been on percocet since Josh was born for pain of the incision. Naturally that'll put anybody's head in clouds a little. The interesting part of that, however, is that it then gets passed through Beth to Josh when he eats. Now before anyone gets in a tizzy, this is perfectly OK, otherwise the the doctors wouldn't have put Beth on it. Now that we all realize that this is OK, we'll move on. There is a VERY little amount that actually gets transferred, but Josh is only 7 1/2 lbs right now. So that little bit pretty much causes him to sleep all day. So from about 1pm to 4pm, the entire house goes to sleep, except for me.

However, the Percocet is about done and Beth is weening off of it. Which means, we may actually get to see Josh's eyes a bit more. But that also means that we might be getting a little less sleep starting very soon.

Nathan has for the most part recovered from his sickness or whatever he had. He's eating again and his ear is better, mostly. But all of the drama seems to be over with him too. He actually has taken to 'Baby Josh' quite well. He often asks to hold him and he rubs Josh's back and kisses his forehead. He has even offered to let Josh play his toy saxophone and trumpet. All in all he's taking this whole baby thing really well. Granted, I have been at home since Josh was born and am through this week. So Nathan has still had at least one parent that was still able to focus on him. We may have a much different title to our blog next week. We'll see how he does when it's just Beth, he and Josh during the day. But he's a great kid and I'm sure he'll do alright.

Beth is recovering really well. She's a very good mom and takes very good care of all of us, even when she's supposed to be resting more than she is. She's up and around a lot and back to her creative self. We have to get ready for Nathan's birthday 2 year old birthday party next weekend!

We'll try to keep you updated on everything! Hope you enjoy the pictures.