Father's Day - Salty Sea Dog Style

Here are the boys aboard the Texsun II, a fine boat available for charter into the Galveston Bay. The CFO at the hospital (Chuck - the guy in the hat and sunglasses right behind the boys) invited us to go on a charter fishing trip this Saturday with his church. The morning trip booked before we could get our reservations made, so we decided to book an afternoon trip. In this picture, we are leaving Pier 19 on the way to our first stop in the bay for a little fishing. With Cap'n John at the wheel, and Ken the Deckhand assisting the fellars in the back of the boat, greatness awaited one of us.


Turns out that the mighty fisherman among us was Austin, who was fishing beside me off the back of the boat. After catching a couple of 1 - 2 pound hardhead catfish, Austin hooked this beast which you see above. It hit his bait hard, and bent his rod so much I thought it might break. He try to control it for a little while, then said "Dad, I'm going to need some help with this one." I handed my rod to Chuck, asked him to keep Braden from falling off the boat, then started cranking on this stingray with Austin. Kenny had everyone on the back of the boat pull up their line, so we were free to roam across the full back end of the ship to try and keep this winged water-beast below us. We'd crank and reel, it would run and pull out line, we'd crank and reel some more. Eventually, we stripped the reel because we were trying to reel it in while it was running out. That meant I had the pole, Austin worked the reel, and the K-man held the line against the pole to keep La Pescado Diablo from pulling out any more line.

Once we wore it out, Austin and I managed to pull the fish up to the surface of the water, where Ken gaffed it and pulled it up onto the boat. By this point, all 10 or so of the fisher-persons on the back end of the boat were just watching the action, with Austin right in the middle of it all. The Horst family fishing record books will reflect that on Saturday, June 17, Austin caught a 50 pound Stingray in Galveston Bay. Not bad, considering his Class 2 Medical Form we just completed for scout camp lists him @ 84 pounds himself!


From spot to spot in the Bay, we would go inside the cabin and have something to drink and horse around. Here Braden is recreating the look on the face of one of the catfish he caught as he pulled it out of the water. Braden and I worked one of the fishing poles together, and everytime I would feel a fish on the line I'd have him reel it in - very exciting! "Hey Brur, you wanna see my fish?" A fellar four spots over from us caught a 4-foot long hammerhead shark, which (needless to say) Braden thought was very cool. After we watched them remove the hook and put the shark on ice, Braden turned back to me and said "OK Da-ee, now we catch a shark".


After how well they did on our trip (4 hours total), I took the boys over to the beach for a couple of hours while we still had some daylight. The beach was nasty, the wind was blowing, but Braden is a beach boy in his soul. He ran and played non-stop until we finally had to take showers, get back in the car and go home. After dinner at Chick Fil A, he was asleep in his car seat before I was able to get out of the parking lot. It was a quiet, happy trip home to hot showers and cool beds.

Now we just need to figure out the best way to prepare stingray filets, because I have about 15 pounds worth in my freezer...

11 Going on 25

Austin's birthday was a low-key affair this year. He wanted to go to dinner at the new PF Changs near our house, but when we arrived, the wait for a table was two hours. We took the beeper anyway, and went up the street to Academy Sports store, where - thanks to the generosity of Grandma and Grandpa - Austin had a gift card to spend. He bought a putter, and nearly got golf shoes, too, but they did not have his size in stock. By the time we got back to PF Changs, our wait had dwindled down to only an hour, so we turned in our beeper and said "thanks, but no thanks".

Chinese food? No go. How about Japanese, instead? We wound up at Hido's, a Japanese, hibachi-style restaurant. Once an older couple and two (very polite) teenagers on a date were seated around our grill, orders were taken and the show began! Sheila and Austin started with California rolls, which is like sushi for beginners. Next came the main event, which had Braden quite anxious because of the occasional bursts of flames coming from the other tables. Feeling safer sitting in my lap, we watched as our cook sliced and diced his way through our dinner. At one point, after the cook had flipped an empty bowl up into the air and caught it on top of his chef's hat, Braden exclaimed "you are duh greatest magician ub my life"! The older lady seated next to Austin offered to take our picture, and we gratefully accepted as she snapped the shot above.

Once home, we sang "Happy Birthday" and each had a slice of Sheila's Mississippi Mud Pie, which is Austin's favorite new recipe she's discovered by watching the Food Network. Then it was off to his room, to hook the the old eMachine's PC we had repaired, since his computer (2 generations ago) stopped working amidst a small cloud of smoke last week. He'll be happy loading iTunes and "Roller Coaster Tycoon" onto that computer until his summer bedtime of 11:00pm.

11 years ago tonight was an awful, long night in the waiting rooms of Northwest Texas Medical Center, worrying about my wife's recovery from a difficult deliver and my day-old son's response to the antibiotics our pediatrician said he needed to fight off a potentially fatal infection. Shelley's roommate was really hateful about me being in the room after visiting hours, but had the nurses bring her baby into the room, crying and waking Shelley all night. I remember trying to sleep on the chairs in the waiting room and on the floor of the waiting room, but sleep just would not come to me that night. I remember going to the nursery @ 5:00am hoping to see Austin, and being thrilled to see the pediatrician already there, holding him, remarking to the nurses and me how strong Austin was and how much better he looked than the night before. I remember crying different tears than I had ever cried before as I rocked him for the first time later that day, having been introduced to the countless anxious hours that would arrive at his expense.

He's so grown up now, so handsome, so funny, so damn difficult. I worry constantly that I am doing right by him, giving him the right environment for all his God-given abilities to mature and make him a good man. After all, I owe him. He made me a dad, and there's not anything else in my life which means so much.

The Boys

Quick post to show off a couple of recent pics. First is Austin featuring the shiner he got when he took a throw at first base right over the top of his glove and straight into his right cheekbone.



Second pic is of Braden wearing a thin veil of patience with both the costume he was forced to wear at his Wee Wun's Easter party and the need for his mother to take his picture.



Never a dull moment, as they say...

Top Ten List

"Things You Do NOT Want to Hear Your Doctor Say During a Vasectomy"

10. Are you cold?
9. I wish I could get this hand to stop shaking.
8. What's the worst pain you can imagine?
7. I'll feel a small prick - er, I mean YOU, you'll feel a small prick.
6. Your gender-reorientation surgery shouldn't take more than a few hours.
5. Your HMO only pays for the "banding" method.
4. That reminds me - I'm supposed to pick up some Vienna Sausages on the way home tonight.
3. Are you as furious as I am that "Brokeback Mountain" didn't win the Oscar?
2. Nurse, bring me my web-cam.
1. After sticking this needle in your scrotum, I will punch a hole in your scrotal wall, hook your vas deferens, cut them, put titanium caps on the ends, and push them back in. We'll be done in 10 minutes.

"Be Still - This Won't Hurt a Bit"

Sheila went to Waxahachie, Texas on Tuesday to be present for the first hours of the life of London Grace, Wendy and Paul's second daughter. London and her mother are both healthy and happy, and Sheila got to spend three nearly uninterrupted hours with them both in the hospital before returning to Cypress. Such close proximity to a tiny (six pounds) baby girl, along with 'pretty in pink' photos of her newest niece Lydia and hopeful predictions that Jamie is carrying a girl (we won't know until August), have her literally surrounded by girls. That her life consists of wall-to-wall boys is as often a torment as a blessing, as Julie surely knows. No bows for the hair, no frilly clothes, no tea parties, no dance classes.

Well, no dance classes isn't entirely true. You might count Austin's annual 'square-dancing' demonstration at school during the Houston Rodeo days, an event which inspires unparalleled mortification in Austin for two reasons: he's having to dance and he's forced to have physical contact with girls not of his own choosing. I say "not of his own choosing" because he might gladly hold hands with one girl in particular at his school, though the opportunity has not yet presented itself to express his affection for her. I'm sorry not to offer more details, but I'm not quite ready to accept this new, pre-adolescent development and therefore cannot yet write about it... After all, he's still just a baby!

Braden is 3 1/2 and yet has already developed a keen sense of the importance of the day's first pot of coffee. We have established a habit of having him "help" me make the coffee every morning - "I help you Da-ee?" - which is so important to him that he burst into tears one morning when he came into the kitchen and the coffee had already started brewing. He has two responsibilities - putting the filter into the basket and pushing the on-button. I have been going in to work pretty early the last two weeks to help night-shift employees with their annual benefits enrollment paperwork, so Monday morning I was making the coffee a little after 6:00am. He must have heard me, because he walked sleepily into the kitchen from his room holding his blanket in one hand and rubbing his eyes with the other. Stopping in front of the coffee pot, standing there half asleep, he put his right index finger on the on-button and waited for me to put the carafe in its place. After pushing the button, I carried him in to "Ma-ee's bed" so he could "nuggle", and he was back asleep within five minutes.

As for Sheila, she will love on any girl who crosses her path for the rest of her life, but as an Aunt or surrogate Aunt only. I have an appointment with a urologist in just a few weeks that will put an end to our procreation, so it's two boys for us, thank you very much. Two loud, wild, silly, big, messy, rough, smart, funny, beautiful, healthy boys.

"A blessing since the day they were born," as someone once said...

A New Year

Well it sure seems like Christmas and New Year came and went in a hurry. So much hustle (and bustle) and then a New Year is off and running.

Christmas was fun in Fort Worth, staying with Jeff and Jamie at their new house and spending Christmas Eve at Jim and Sheryl's. The boy's got a ton of new toys, books clothes and one iPod which is the apple of Austin's eye (pun intended). Santa brought Braden the excavator for which he was hoping, and so many toys that some found their way to the attic when we got home to be "discovered" in a few months when the excitement of his other toys wears off.

Jeff & Jamie came here for New Year's. Austin, Jeff and I went to the EV1.net Houston Bowl to watch TCU beat Iowa State, and enjoyed that with one of Austin's best friends (Trevor) and his father, who secured the luxury box tickets. The presence of two teenage girls gave Jeff and me opportunity to torture Austin ("go talk to her", etc.) when the game was slow.

New Year's Eve was quiet, with steaks and a movie. Austin set off fireworks with Trevor's family and enjoyed that. Since Jamie is pregnant (due this summer) it was a peaceful and calm evening for all.

Our anniversary weekend we went downtown to the Hilton Americas and enjoyed a vacation in town while Sandie came down from Tyler to stay with the boys overnight. The pictures are of the boys at the pond that weekend, which you can tell was absolutely beautiful - more like spring than winter.


My birthday weekend was very nice, with a special breakfast, grilled meat for dinner, presents and a family viewing of "Waking Ned Devine". Sheila suggested that watching that movie on my birthday should become an annual tradition, and admitted (I believe for the first time) that WND is one of her favorite movies, too. Now that's a good woman!

The Holidays, Houston Style

Two pictures and a quick story for your holiday edification.

The first picture is Austin and one of his best buddies Gibby, preparing for a little No Limit Texas Hold 'em poker action. The glasses are to prevent the other players from telling when you are trying to bluff, and the posturing is part of the male psych-out ritual which boys seem to have learned by age 10.


The next picture is of Braden playing in the "snow". Our neighborhood has an annual Holiday party which includes having human-made "snow" dumped on the ground near the clubhouse, one patch for the pre-schoolers to enjoy and one patch for the bigger kids. Here is Braden with a couple of kids on their patch (approx. size 10' wide x 25' long). Please note green plants and grass in background.


Finally, Saturday night we enjoyed our annual Christmas tradition of going to Starbucks for coffee and hot chocolate (5 words: Chai Egg Nog Latte - yum!) and driving around looking at Christmas lights. After a half hour or so, Braden shouts from the back seat "Look Ma-ee - it duh "kay-no". (Proper spelling would be 'cano.) We had him repeat this several times, as no one could figure out what he meant. It was not until several blocks later that we realized he was saying "volcano" in reference to the strings of light people had placed in their yard going from the ground to a tree that looked like an upside-down cone. To him this obviously looked like a volcano, so the rest of the night we all took great pleasure in pointing out the Christmas 'canos in people's yards.

"But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy." - Luke 2:10

Thanksgiving, Approx. 9,000 Words

Halloween, 2005

In a highly unusual turn of events, weather has impacted the Horst family in Cypress, Texas. The skies opened up and rain fell in sheets starting at about 5:00pm tonight, or about a half-an-hour before we were set to unleash the pirates upon the neighbors for a good old-fashioned ransacking.

Dawn brought over her 2 boys (JP - the older boy and Miles) who hung out with us for awhile, joining us for some Mummy-dogs and spooky juice. After pictures, the Moms grabbed their umbrellas and set out to do some trick-or-treating or else...

With All Due Respect to His Uncle Steve...

Have you ever seen a finer pirate in your entire life?

This is Braden's costume, which he wore on Friday night for the carnival at his pre-school. He tells us that he looks "boo-key" (spooky), an assessment with which all of us are inclined to agree.

Austin will also be going as a pirate, so we should have pictures of the two scurvy sea-dogs up later in the week.