In the past year, Amy and I have celebrated our first anniversary, our second Christmas as a family, and several honor roll events for Emily. We have also endured difficulties with work and money, a miscarriage, and a few complications with Amy’s third pregnancy.

It gives me great pleasure to introduce you to Connor Reddick. His middle name is currently a topic of much discussion (and some controversy) but we will come to a decision in the near future.

Connor is scheduled to arrive on July 24, 2010, and we couldn’t be more excited!  Even Emily wasn’t the least bit disappointed to be getting a brother instead of a sister.

Currently everything is going fine, and we can hardly wait to welcome the newest member of the Reddick family into the world.

Do you ever just feel like nothing is going your way? I decided that it wasn’t cancer when I sat in the hospital room, but the doctors said otherwise. I decided that they would get it all with the surgery, but the radiologist disagreed. So I decided that his blood work would be fine and markers would go back to normal after the tumor was removed, but the oncologist said, “Chemo.” Then I geared up and decided that he wouldn’t get sick, I was wrong again. Hair fell out in clumps today, and he says, “Time to get a haircut.”

I am ready for things to go the way that I want them to.

The result Thursday morning was a beautiful blanket of snow over everything. Except for the occasionally howling wind, it was peaceful, quiet, and glorious. Lights from the city bounced off the low clouds and then were reflected off the snow-carpeted streets and yards so that there was luminescence all around even in the dark hours of the morning.

Our front yard and driveway are covered with snow

On into the evening, it was mostly rain until about 11 p.m. or so, when it turned to snow. Forecasters said we would have snow and blowing snow with increasing winds until mid-morning or noon. We’re expecting a high of about 39, so the six inches or more of snow we have probably won’t stay around.

Nonetheless, the voice of Der Bingler crooning the season’s anthem fills the mind.

He completed the first round of chemo on Dec. 18, and is scheduled in January for the second round. The routine has been that Grandma Nancy takes Kenneth to UMC in the morning about 8 a.m. They put him on an iv tube for a few hours, and then he goes home about 2:30 to 3 p.m.

He’s had to have extra fluids because of all he has lost during the treatment cycle.

Kenneth Faulkner

On Monday evening, we had a regular gathering in his hospital room while Kenneth drank the wonderful “shakes” they give before radiology. Kenneth’s dad (Sam), stepmom (Dana), and sisters (Pam and Melinda) were there as well as Jenni, Lilly, Aiden, Nancy, me, Jacob and Andrea. Later that night Kenneth had a CT scan that confirmed the earlier diagnosis.

They operated Tuesday, and the doctors told Kenneth to relax for a few weeks. Hah! No lifting for six weeks. Hah!

Preliminary biopsy results suggested they got all the cancer and that it was limited to one side. Pending further results, Kenneth and Jenni plan to decide whether to undergo chemotherapy and/or other treatments to stay ahead of the cancer.

Lanes before house at Middleton

It’s a grand place for families to visit. We spent an entire afternoon there, soaking in the beauty. drinking in the history, learning new things and enjoying each others’ company. We talked to animals like water buffalo, goats, horses and cows. We talked with a blacksmith about metal working in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We had experience shucking and grinding corn.

After a mid-afternoon supper, we helped milk Rio, an 18-year-old Jersey cow. Supper itself was something of a Southern country experience for the grown-ups. The girls settled for chicken fingers and fruit.

We then spent some time expatiating the grounds, touring the gardens, and (as the girls said) “venturing off into the wilderness.” Along the way, we visited an old mill on the Ashley River, next to some of the rice paddies where Middleton grew “Carolina Gold,” a strain of rice prized through the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.  Near the paddies was a terraced lawn perfect for rolling in the grass.

Jenna, Heather and Riley tumbling in grass

Earlier in the day we had the opportunity to see how to cook outdoors over open fires (much like we do in Boy Scouts. At the blacksmith shop, Jenna asked about the bellows and got something of an historical account of how bellows evolved between the 18th and mid 19th centuries. In the process, we learned several things about working metal and a few things about colonial supply and demand.

Then we had the opportunity to shuck corn using a 150-year-old machine and we ground the grain by using stones we had to turn by hand. Nearby was a clothier dressed in leather breeches, and out in the common area, Middleton Place occasionally a drummer and fife player would perform and then explain the role that drummers and fife players assumed in battle during the Revolutionary and Civil wars.

Riley and Jenna at corn mill

We visited Liza’s House to see how plantation slaves lived at Middleton. On one wall of Liza’s house is a registry of several hundred slaves who had been listed as Middleton’s “property” and the prices paid for them. It is as sobering as “The Wall” on the mall in Washington.

Riley shows her prowess at milking a cow 14 years her senior

Then Texas Monthly published this article titled “The 50 Greatest Burgers in Texas.” Well, you have to eat when you are on the road, yes? So Nancy comes up with this research project:

Let’s replicate the study done by Texas Monthly, and see if we get the same results!

Dutch's main dining room with Kay Greenlee greeting clients.

All 50 burgers? Well, no, just a convenience sample … just top burgers that happen to be “in our way,” along our pre-determined path. So if we get an early enough start on Monday, we should be able to make Fort Worth for lunch. There, on University Drive just two miles south of I-30 and on the edge of the TCU campus is Dutch’s, home of Burger #8, Dutch’s Bacon and Bleu Cheese Burger.

We ordered a couple burgers and some onion rings and then sat down to wait for our order. Up comes this blonde woman wearing a red-and-white striped sleeveless dress, saying “I see you’re from Texas Tech.” “Oh boy,” I thought, here we are in Horned Frog Heaven, all dripping with purple and white and I’m wearing black and red with an embroidered double tee on my shirt.

While I am wondering what kind of fight I just started and considering a diplomatic response, Kay Greenlee – the blonde, who just happens to be Dutch’s general manager – wistfully announces  ”I just left my baby there this weekend.” So that started a wonderful conversation about Texas Tech and Lubbock, and her son who is planing to major in sports medicine. It wasn’t long before the conversation turned to burgers and Texas Monthly. And presto! Our burgers were ready.

Verdict? A burger worthy of Top 10 designation, and better than burger #10, a designation belonging to the Cheeseburger in Paradise served up by Orlando’s in Lubbock.

The bacon cheeseburger served at Beck's Prime in Houston.

Beck’s Prime

After our experience at Dutch’s we were ready for burger #9, the bacon cheeseburger at Beck’s Prime in Houston. Beck’s Prime is actually a short order café at the golf course clubhouse in Memorial Park just south of I-10. Tuesday’s experience echoed Monday’s: Another burger, worthy of top 10 designation, and probably better than Orlando’s. But choosing between Beck’s and Dutch’s was more than we could do.

We had planned to try burger #12 in Austin (Chop-House Burger), but frankly, it was so hot in Austin (103-105 each day), and the humidity so high that we just wanted to stay close to the hotel. However, on the way home we stopped in Buffalo Gap, south of Abilene. There, at Perini’s Steakhouse, was another top burger, #7. We felt it was not good enough to dislodge Dutch’s or Beck’s in our minds, but it was worth the trip off the beaten path.

Second, Dr. Gombos had only praise for the work Donnie Franklin did on my prosthesis. Dr. Gombos called it “better than most” and said “it looks really good.” Coming as it does from the ever conservative, close-to-his vest Dr. Gombos, this is high praise.

We were somewhat expecting the “all clear” message on the cancer. I had been having diagnostic CT scans, X-rays and blood work every 90 days. Following the June round of work this year, I had received orders for the next round to be conducted not in September but in December. The doctor himself asked a couple questions about Dr. Allison and the care I was getting in Lubbock, and then offered me an option. See Dr. Allison every six months and visit Houston every 12. I jumped on the offer.

So my next visit is scheduled for next summer, with diagnostics to be executed in June.

Once again, we are grateful for the many blessings we receive and for the gift of sight.

We have a pet Black Widow (typical David) that we found in our sandbox.  I just couldn’t kill it.  I have always had a strange thing for dangerous spiders.  Maybe compassion because everyone else just kills them and doesn’t see their value.  Jenna and I created a habitat for it and we have had two eggs sacks (that I exterminate).  I am holding the spider in prison as it awaits it ultimate death sentence.  Jenna asked me why God made spiders that are dangerous.  I told her that God made dangerous spiders so that we could learn wonder and curiosity.  And in some unfortunate cases, great pain and suffering.  A healthy black widow can live up to two years, and we keep “Charlotte” as Jenna named her well fed.  ~Two years on Death Row maybe?

We also have brown widows and red widows here.  They are cool and dangerous, but not as dangerous as the black widow.  We have brown recluses, but I have yet to find one (and I have a keen eye for finding spiders).

We harvested 10 lbs of carrots today.  Home grown are they best.  They taste different!

Well, take care and we’ll talk more soon.

Love, Dave

Aiden Faulkner, Grandpa Randy, Davis Hindson at Caprock Canyon July 21, 2009

Grandson Davis Hindson spent July with us, and we had plotted an overnight camp out at Caprock Canyons State Park just for the boys. So we loaded Davis, Aiden, Grandpa and Jake into the Element right after lunch on Monday, July 20. The trip to the canyon was interrupted only by a half hour construction delay south of Floydada.

We registered for a camp site, and enjoyed the drive into the park, taking in red cliffs over the green vegetation. When we reached the Little Red campground, someone else already occupied our favorite site; so we had to do a little scouting around. We found a fine place and proceeded to set up camp.

By the time we had the tent up we were feeling the 104 degree temperature. We could tell by impressions in the campsite sand and by the nearby creek beds that it had rained recently. We built four lizard catchers and set out to see what we might find. Jake almost caught one, but the little guys were just to active and too fast.

I spent a fair amount of time examining crystals in the soil and studying the flora. On one slope I found what I had thought was peyote cactus (Lophophora), because its form and habit resembled a photo I had seen in the 60s. I now doubt that conclusion, but the plant was in blossom and was interesting.

As the afternoon wore on, we all became somewhat enervated, and vainly sought relief from the heat in the shade. At night we all slept on top of our sleeping bags.

We had gone to bed without putting the rain fly on the tent, but lightning some time after midnight inspired Jake and me to put the rain fly in place, despite the warming effect it had on the inside of the tent.

Turned out to be a good thing. It wasn’t long before the thunderstorms came blowing and crashing through the canyon. The storm had more wind than rain, but enough moisture to get many things wet. And there was enough wind to blow around anything that wasn’t tied down.

Aiden and I went to Honey Flat to fill our water jugs, and then we had breakfast before breaking camp and looking for more lizards. We found more horseflies than we did lizards. Next year we may go earlier in the season!