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Christine and I moved to Fort Worth from Fort Lewis, Washington in 2000.

We wanted a dog (well, I wanted a dog… Christine’s always been a cat person).

We’d met a Bichon Frise on post in Washington, that was so happy and fun, that I just had to have one. That Bichon was about 3 feet tall, and rather large (we later learned he was a Bichon/Poodle mix).

So, we found a Bichon breeder in the area, out near Reliant airport, and drove out to pick out a dog. When we got there, we were faced with a choice of one of two females, or the male runt. We chose the runt. The puppy could fit in the palm of one hand… or at least that’s what I remember.

On the way home, we were trying to pick out a name, and were naming off lots of names together… when we saw a billboard for the Law School at Texas Wesleyan… and being a good Methodist, I said “How about Wesley?” And it stuck.

We brought Wesley home, and I promptly went on a business trip (the first of many MacWorld Conferences, on behalf of MacNN). Christine was left to deal with a puppy that had horrible seperation anxiety, and couldn’t keep any food down, while I was out in San Fancisco enjoying a trade show… and to top it all off, we were living in a tiny apartment with all of our belongings still in boxes, while our first house was being built. Needless to say, they got to bond pretty tightly while I was gone. And I’m pretty sure Christine considered taking the poor little guy back while I was out of town, at least once.

We finally got him nursed back to health, and semi-potty trained, and finally moved into out house on Belladonna. Wesley and Patton used to LOVE playing with each other in that house… and I do mean play with each other. They were the best playmates each other could have… and fast friends.

I also started calling Wesley “Waggers” because the dog was always soooo happy to see us… anytime we came through the door.

Wesley was a little dog, but he made up for that in spunk and effort. I remember going for a quick mile run with him once… and picking him up after the first quarter mile, because he just didn’t have it in him to run that far (yes, I actually ran after the Army, at few times – or at least attempted it)

Fast forward a few years, and we moved four times with Wesley, and he saw the birth of two boys (with Jack and with Grayson), and the growth of our family. He’s been an everpresent presence, and never shied away from our love… always returning it in multiples.

He knew all of our friends, and loved every single one of them. He greeted everyone at the door, and was always very excited to welcome them into our home.

He loved to give kisses to anyone that would let him…

He even put up with us putting bows and silly bandanas on him:

He loved it when we gave him a good old fashioned scratching:

Somedays his hair was better than others:

A couple of weeks ago, Christine and I noticed that one of Wesley’s eyes looked a little swollen, so we took him to the vet… then to a specialist. Turns out the poor guy had some kind of tumor growing behind his eye. So we brought him home, and gave him some medicine and some ointment for his eye, but it was apparent the little guy was in pain.

So, this morning, I made one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made, and left him with out vet at around 8:15 a.m. I gave him a big hug, and a kiss on the forehead, and told him I’d see him on the other side… and with that I left him in the care of a wonderful and caring veterinary team… I said good-bye to one of my best friends… “Wesley Waggers”.

Tonight Jack told me at dinner that he “just wanted to hold him one more time” and it nearly broke my heart to tell him that “we’ll just have to hold him in our dreams and our prayers and someday, we’ll get to hold him in Heaven.” Jack then proceeded to thank God for Wesley during his prayer for dinner… and to ask for another puppy.

I’ll see you on the Rainbow Bridge buddy.

“The measure of a society can be how well its people treat its animals.” – Mohandas Gandhi

And thank you to everyone that posted well wishes and condolences on Facebook today. Really appreciate it.

My dad died on this day twenty-two years ago. I was 11 years old:

The text in the Houston Chronicle read:

John F. Engler, Jr. died age 39. November 22, 1987, in Denver. Services will be at Graveside, Forest Park Lawndale, December 5 and 2:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers send donations to John Engler Memorial Fund, c/o/ Margo Bergesen, P.O. Box 105, Round Mountain, Tx. 78663.

Sucks to lose a dad when you’re 11. Sucks to lose a dad period.

As a follow up to our trip to Kemah earlier this year, I’ve finally posted all of the photos from the trip… and talk about some fun photos.

I think these are my favorites:

We took a photo at the Houston Space Center last week (more on our trip later when I take the time to write it) and I loved the photo so much, I just had to throw it up here:

If you’re checking englers.org for updates, and have been disappointed, I apologize. We’ve just been so busy, it’s been hard to keep up with posting new stuff.

While I’ll continue to post to englers.org in the future, I am inviting you to follow us on Facebook or Twitter, if you really want to know what we’re up to all the time:

John on Facebook
Christine on Facebook

And, even my little brother Evan is on Facebook.

I’m also on Twitter @johnengler.

See you around!

This year, we headed out to the lake again. Debbie and Raymond had a full house… so full we shared a room with two cousins! Jack got to sleep on the floor on a pallet, which Christine and I shared one double bed, and the two little girls shared the other double. Grayson was in his playpen that first night. We were all so exhausted after a full Friday, that it didn’t matter a bit (and I hope my snoring didn’t keep anyone up too much during the night).

We went swimming as soon as we got there, and the boys had a blast swimming with their cousings:

Aunt Peggy and Payton were in charge of dinner Friday night. Talk about good! Mmmmm. Mmmmmmm… Everyone got plenty of good food (fish, chicken, and beef) and lots of great conversation.

On Saturday, we took all of the kids out on the lake in the morning, for a little fun in the sun!

Grayson got sick that afternoon, and so he and I headed home… Christine and Jack stayed and played… and headed to church on Sunday before heading home to hang with us.

Good weekend, althought it was too short.

See all of the photos here.

Christine, Jack, Grayson and I drove up to Dallas this weekend to attend Steven’s graduation ceremony from SMU.

Talk about being proud of someone… I could see the pride in Michael, Mary, Frank, and Christine’s faces… And I must say he looked good in blue and red. And you can see the excitement on Steven’s face too:

Can’t you see it?!

Seriously, though, we had a blast. The kids played a lot at Nana and Papa’s, and had a blast, and Christine and I enjoyed visiting as always…

Murrell Cato Helmke, 86, died Thursday, March 19, 2009 at Duke Raleigh Hospital.

A resident of Magnolia Glen on Creedmoor Road, Murrell remained an active and enthusiastic participant in all aspects of her life. She loved her family deeply and valued the friendships she had made both here and abroad. She will be greatly missed.

Preceded in death by Jim, her husband of 58 years.

Murrell’s survivors include son, James Helmke and wife, Bronwyn; daughter, Gretchen Weakley and husband, Terry; daughter, Karen Rectanus; niece, Helen Barrow and husband, Brad; grandchildren, Karl and Tim Rectanus, Hannah, Jon and Matthew Weakley, Maggie and Abby Helmke and Derek and Gregg Helmke; six great-grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews living around the globe.

A memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at White Memorial Presbyterian Church in Raleigh.

In lieu of flowers, Murrell asked that donations be made to a charity of one’s choice.

Arrangements made by the Cremation Society of the Carolinas.

Online condolences can be made at www.cremnc.com

From the News & Obeserver website.

It’s hard for me to write this post.

My Great Aunt, Aunt Murrell passed away today.

Murrell was my mother’s aunt. Her mother’s sister. She was a Cato.

My mom called me this evening to tell me the news, and it sounds like Aunt Murrell passed away like she lived:

Full of grace and dignity.

Christine and I got to spend some time with Aunt Murrell back in 2005 on two occasions: We spent some time in Raleigh with her and that side of the family and then she came to Austin with two of her grandkids.

I’ve never met a woman who lived a more full life, or lived it with such grace and vitality, and who was truly sincere and committed to every action she took. Aunt Murrell is an inspiration and role model, and I can only hope when I look back on my life it was as full and honest as hers was.

You will be missed Aunt Murrell … by many. My only regret is not spending more time with you. We will remember you always.

On November 16th, 2008, we celebrated Jack and Grayson’s birthday together at Kiddie Acres here in Austin.

Boy did we have fun (parents and kids included). We took a butt load of photos that day, but my favorite has to be this one:

Marc took that one, and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Notice that as Grayson blew out the candles with Jack, he spit a little… you can see it coming out in that photo. Yes, it landed on the cake, and yes someone ate that piece of the cake. Not sure who ate it, but I love that it happened, and no one seemed to notice but Marc and I, and we didn’t say anything to anyone. No harm, no foul, right?

Anyways…

LOTS of photos of kids having fun here.

On November 15th of last year, Ella and Momo came to visit, as did Michael, Nana and Papa. So we had a little “family” birthday party at the house (we were planning the big party with all of the friend’s the next day).

Some of the photos we took came out great:

There are a bunch more here.

We had a very good Thanksgiving this year, out at the lakehouse with Debbie and Raymond. Cheri, Greg, Paige, Patrick, and Matthew were there too, and our friends Joan, Ted, Lydia and Leo joined us as well. I took a bunch of photos but haven’t downloaded them to the computer yet. So here are a few that Peggy took:

Like I said, Thanksgiving was very good this year

We went to Dallas a few weekends ago, on our way home from Tulsa, and spent a few days. I had to speak at a DFWIMA meeting on Tuesday evening, and we wanted to spend some more time with the family, so we just stayed over for a few days on our way home.

We did lots of fun things while we were there:

1. Frank set up a tent in the back-yard for the boys to play in… and Jack and I spent the night in it the first night in Dallas. Who knew that my kid tossed and turned so much? I woke up at one point with toes digging into my neck. We slept inside the rest of our trip. heh.

2. We celebrated two birthdays. Steven turned 30, and Grayson turned 2. They were both good sports about sharing a party, though afterwards Grayson pulled me aside and said “Next year, remember I’m the one that’s most important, and while I love my Uncle Steven, he has to get his own party… oh, and I’m not wearing a damned hat again. One last thing: that cake was good. Do that cake again, please, Daddy.”

More photos of the party here.

3. We opened presents. Woohoo! Presents!!!!

4. I spoke at DFWIMA, and Christine got to come with me and see what I do when I’m speaking at industry events. It’s always fun to speak to peers with other peers.

“… I’m too young to marry…” – or at least that’s what I remember hearing about Tulsa from some country song…

Christine and the boys and I headed to Tulsa the weekend of October 11th for, Christine’s cousin, Christopher’s wedding.

Talk about fun!

First we flew to Tulsa (on Southwest of course), rented a car, and then drove to the Embassy Suites. We were experimenting with staying in a hotel room that actually has two rooms and a door between the two with the kids. It worked, although, sleeping on a pull out couch isn’t ideal.

We went to dinner with Uncle Ben, Aunt Gayle, and Angela on Friday night (at Luby’s) and had a lot of fun (the boys running around) and great conversation.

Then on Saturday we got up and went to a wedding.

It was great to see all of the Kamps in one place. Everyone looked fabulous:

The wedding was a lot of fun, and we were really glad we went.

That evening we drove out to their land just outside of Tulsa, and had fun getting to know more of the couple’s friends, listening to good music, eating good food, and drinking good beer.

On Sunday we flew to Dallas for a few days…

More photos here.

This year, we took the boys to the Austin County Fair, but only on Thursday and Friday, because we flew to Tulsa on Friday for a wedding.

On Thursday, we drove to Bellville earlier than we’d planned so that we could see Ella compete in the Little Miss Austin County competition:

Her outfit was adorable, and she told the judge she wanted to be a singer when she grew up. When the judge asked who her favorite singer was she said “My daddy.” I turned to Evan and said “I didn’t know you sang?” He replied “I didn’t either” and we all laughed a little. It was pretty cute.

In between the contest and the awards, Ella, Jack and Grayson shared juice boxes and candy confections.

Afterwards, we went and got dinner. While I was chomping down on a humungous turkey leg, Christine took this photo of Momo and the kids:

Then it was time to ride rides. And boy did we ever. Momo sprung for about $60 worth of carnival ride tickets, and the kids used them all up in the course of about an hour or so. Grayson and Ella were cute as they watched the other kids ride, while they took a moment to say “I love you” to each other:

The rode a train ride, and a truck ride, and a motorcycle ride, and a helicopter ride, and an airplane ride. Jack went way up in the air on the burlap sack slippy slidey ride. Twice. All by himself. It was pretty cool to see him having that much fun on something that high, all by himself.

Then, for the last ride, Jack and Grayson and I rode the big ferris wheel. Here we are before the ride, looking up at it:

After the rides, we moseyed over to the cars. On the way, we rode a few tractors.

On Friday morning, we got up and ate breakfast at Momos house, and then headed to the fair. We got there early enough to claim our premium seating, next to the little house with a dirt drive way (okay, I know, most houses in Bellville are like that, but you know the one I’m talking about, right there on that corner).

From our premium seats, we sat, and waited, and then watched:

The ambulances and fire trucks that passed by us were really loud. Again (they are loud every year). The kids got to meet the fire dog that was driving down the road too… he came right up to them and said hi. We also saw bands and big tractors.

Towards the end of the parade, the kids decided to lay down on a blanket to watch. It was a great trip:

Movie coming when I have time to edit it a little. It’s got some fun footage of Jack driving a jeep after dark. The rest of the photos are here.