Family Matters

Jeffrey Mullin

~ randyaa ~ 3 Comments

My niece’s brother, Jeffrey Mullin, was recently shot and killed in Rochester NY. It’s always extremely sad when someone so young passes away but when it’s from such a violent act it hits twice as deep. Unfortunately Rochester is one of the most violent cities in America and we live and work right smack dab in the middle of it. People here often dismiss the murders in Rochester to the gangs and somehow believe it doesn’t happen to good citizens. Try telling that to Cassandra, my niece. Somehow I think you will come away with a different opinion.

It’s time to wake up Rochester. We need more police presence and we need better schools. According to the 2006 census there’s roughly 200,000 people living in the city of Rochester. There were 54 Murders here in 2005 and 50 so far in 2007. That’s roughly 1 in every 3700 people. Put another way, thats almost 27 people for every 100,000. That’s almost four times the national average (which is only 7)!

The Democrat and Chronicle has a piece entitled Not Forgotten where they list each of this year’s murders and have short slide shows dedicated to them. I think this is important. I think people forget that these murders are more than just statistics and that every one of the people lost was important to someone.

I copied Jeff’s slide show for my niece and I thought I’d share it with everyone, so they could learn a little bit about Jeff instead of hearing about number 50.

I’ve also uploaded the original in case anyone wanted a copy to share.

Spring Lake Park

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

Denver at Spring Lake ParkA few weeks ago I discovered an excellent new park only a few miles from our house. Spring Lake Park is not a dog park but it certainly seems like one. I love exploring new places to take our canine friends as I get sick of walking the canal path every day. Our first trip to Spring Lake Park gave us an unexpected gift. Dogs dogs and more dogs.

As it turns out other locals take their dogs there to run and play. And all off their leash. This couldn’t come at a better time as I’ve been trying to find a place closer to home than my parents to let them run.

At first glance the park is relatively small. The real gem, the place where the dogs run and play free is in the back. After you park your car you have to walk back along a gated roadway until you get to the second field.
We’ve now been to the park 6 times in the past 3 weeks and we plan on going every time we get a chance. If you have a dog and live in the area I would highly recommend it. Letting them run and play with other dogs is great (for them and you).

High(er) Resolution Wedding Slide Show

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

I just stumbled upon stage6 and decided I’d finally upload a better quality version of the wedding slide show like I promised months ago. The experience has been good thus far except the site forces you to convert to divx before doing an upload. Since I didn’t have anything to do that with it took me a bit longer than I had hoped but worth it in the end.

[stage6]http://stage6.divx.com/user/randyaa/video/1776882/Randy-and-Rachel’s-Wedding-6/9/2007[/stage6]

Happy 80th Grandpa Heath!

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

Grandpa Heaths SurpriseSaturday we went to Grandpa Heath’s 80th Birthday surprise party. It was awesome because he has relatives all over the country who were able to make it, Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Massachusetts and even Hawaii. It’s very rare that they all get together in one place and its even more rare that he doesn’t know its happening. You could see the joy on his face as he entered the door and saw all these family members from distance places. I’ve met most of the immediate family (Rachel’s uncles and aunts) but there were several that I hadn’t and lots of cousins that I had not met before.

I had the chance to meet Rachel’s uncle Brian, for the first time, who lives in Texas with his wife Carolyn and daughter Kristin. I’m very glad I did, They’re neat people and we got to spend even more time with them on Sunday. Brian owns a paint contracting business near Dallas/Ft Worth. I offered to let him stay busy painting our dining room while they were in town but he declined. C’mon man we’re family now!

I had the pleasure of meeting two more distant relatives, Rachel’s father’s nephews, Matt and Dan. Matt has a house in Hawaii and offered to let us stay (although he assured us he would not guide us around, he draws the line there) the next time we go. That’s fine Matt, we’ll be happy to hire a tour guide with the money we saved staying with you! As it turns out Dan is very much into Genealogy and we got talking about Rachel’s family tree. Apparently he has traced their tree back to a revolutionary war soldier. That means Rachel can join the daughters of the revolution! Not quite sure what that gets her besides a plaque and probably a lot of junk mail though… We traded E-mail addresses and Dan agreed to send us the tree, I agreed to get it into Geni which I’m trying to get all our family to use and I strongly recommend it for those of you who haven’t yet.

I was also able to see some relatives whom I’d met before but hadn’t seen in a while. Among these was Rachel’s cousin Becky, who was pregnant with her second child, Cheyenne, the last time I had met her. This time around she had the third child, Desmond, with her. They were very energetic which meant they probably slept like a log that night and I’m sure Becky is thankful for that.

Flag and PlaqueTowards the end of the day Grandpa Heath opened all of his wonderful gifts and Matt, whom I had met earlier, presented Him with an American Flag which had been ceremoniously flown over the USS Arizona memorial in his name on September 11, 2007. It also came with a plaque with a military seal providing documentation that it was indeed flown over the memorial in his name at the time and date noted. It was all very moving because Grandpa Heath long ago served in the Navy during World War II until his responsibilities at home had called him back. The USS Arizona memorial had always held a special place in his heart but he hasn’t yet had the chance to visit it. I’m sure the flag and plaque will be long remembered by him as well as the rest of his family who was there to witness the gift.

A great event and I wish there were more like it.

Marry Me

~ randyaa ~ 1 Comment

According to the New York Times there’s a new trend going on in the world of proposals. People are paying lots of cash to have photographers disguise themselves in order for them to capture the moment. Normally this is a very private and very special occasion however people are beginning to publish everything about their life on the Internet and what’s the sense of leaving out the most romantic part of your life? To that end I’ve decided to share our story for everyone to read.

Our engagement story is both romantic and spontaneous. Maybe that’s the same thing? I had the ring in my possession for months in advance just waiting for the right time to ask. In October of 2005 we found out that our good friend Charles was living in London and he offered us a place to stay. We looked into flights and since it was past high-travel season the flights were dirt cheap. We were able to fly direct to London from jersey for under $300 a piece. After talking with Charles we found out that London would be celebrating Guy Fawkes day in 3 weeks and we made our plans to start our vacation that weekend.

At that time I had still not decided whether to use this opportunity to reveal my intentions or not. In fact until 5 minutes before walking out the door for the airport I still hadn’t made up my mind. At the time I knew of no truly romantic places in London. However, as many of you know, just before leaving the house I did decide to take the ring with me.

Once there, and after talking with Charles I decided that the top of the London Eye would be the perfect place. It took some effort, but I convinced Rachel to wait until the last day of our trip to ride it. This was so we could end our trip with the best part of all (providing she said yes).

Marry me RachelWhen we were finally at the top I asked a gentleman who was in the capsule with us to take our picture, much to Rachel’s dismay. She couldn’t understand why I would want a picture of us at the top when we wouldn’t even be able to tell and she asked:

Why don’t we get some shots of the beautiful scenery?

Then, while she was posing for the picture, I bent down on my knee and she began to ask “he’s taking our picture, why are you tying your sho….ohhhhhH!”

Will you marry me?

and we all know her answer.

In the beginning the only plan I had was to ask a stranger to take our picture at a romantic place and pop the question while he did. I think it turned out beautifully and the spontaneity just added to the romantic feel of the moment. What does this mean? That I’m 2 years ahead of The New York Times.

A big red truck for A big old Canton softy

~ randyaa ~ 2 Comments

So my dad finally decided to retire and it’s a good thing too. He’s been bugging all of us with his proclamations of retirement to hunt with his brethren for months now. He got a pretty good early retirement package from EDS and figured he should take it.

I’m happy for him. Retirement is an event that we all plan for (hopefully) and work for our whole life. Unfortunately because of the way our society works very few can actually enjoy it once it arrives. I’m very proud to say that he won’t be one of them. He’s plenty more active than I am and has so many projects going at any point in time that I cant picture him being done with everything he has planned already until into his 90s. Not to mention the zany adventures and crock pot ideas he’ll cook up between now and then.

For those of you who don’t know him, he’s a hunter, from ducks to bears and everything in between (I just recently saw the light in his eye when he told us about the recent spike in the Moose population of New York). He likes the outdoors and has spent probably more than 50% of his life outside. This is at least partly due to being born and raised on his parents homestead in Canton NY. That’s right he’s a good old fashion country boy.

Dad’s 2007 SilveradoHe also likes his toys, and for what I assume is his retirement gift to himself he bought himself a nice big red truck. Not just any truck, a Brand New Chevy Silverado extended cab Z71 4×4 fully loaded. He’s earned it though. Over 30 years dedicated to the same company and same wife. Both are pretty rare these days.

My Dad is a great guy, an excellent father and a patient teacher and has the best years ahead of him.

Congratulations Dad, you deserve it!

Thank you Everyone!

~ randyaa ~ 1 Comment

One and a half years of planning, four months of frenzy, a one day celebration and 2 weeks of relaxation… We did it!

Life as a married couple has been good to us so far. We’d just like to say a final thanks to everyone who made our wedding the most beautiful and blissful day a couple could wish for. Not to mention all the fun we had! We couldn’t ask for a better start to a long happy life together.

Special thanks go out to:

The Parents, without your love and support we wouldn’t have been able to do it at all

The Bridal Party Consisting of:

  • Lisa Jordan – Maid of Honor
  • Anthony Ventura – Best Man
  • Lisa Day
  • Miriam Cortez
  • Tess Hey
  • Jennifer Lehr
  • Brian Wilson
  • Charles Rich
  • Michael Heath
  • George Heath Jr

Claire Masten for her touching reading from 1st Corinthians

Elizabeth Fino-Radin from The Starry Strings Quartet for the beautiful violin

Annette Dragon for all the beautiful photography

Whirlin’ Disc DJ for getting everyone on the dance floor

Mike from The Burgundy Basin for making sure everything went smoothly

Phaedra Andalora from Liberty Travel for putting together our Honeymoon