one million american refugees

Never before have I heard the phrase American refugees. When you hear the word refugee you think of Bosnia, Iraq or Cubans riding makeshift boats to make it to Miami; not the population of new Orleans. I have been sitting and watching the news reports, looking at desperate people faces who simply want fresh water and a place to sleep that is far away from rotting corpses. The one vision of this is the pictures of the person at the superdome in new Orleans who had a sheet draped over them and a note as to whom to contact because they were dead. A human being, and American was shuffled in a corner tagged and covered. I don't even know who to be mad at.

A human being should not die that way, our society has more respect for livestock than to let them rot in a corner.


Another thing I have heard over and over again has been a sentiment that new Orleans is a lost city, that we should not rebuild it because it is vunerable to a natural disaster. Oh yeah, no other city is vunerable to a disaster such as this. There is no city in California built on a fault line. Nowhere in the Midwest can you find a town in an area called "hurricane alley". Here in the northwest we have cities where they are built in the shadow of an active volcano! Even Seattle is on a fault line and combined with that half of the city is built with fill dirt that will liquefy if; not if; when we have an earthquake big enough.
would you say the same thing about rebuilding Seattle or Olympia? If a catastrophic event happened here?

like most people I talk to about this tragedy, I am in shock and dumbfounded. Dumbfounded by the destruction, the chaos, and the lack of support these people have received.

I am sorry you hurt, I and many people I know are sending money, whatever we can to rebuild what you have lost. Not because we expect when this happens to us you will do the same, but because it is what we do as Americans. It is the right thing to do.

Friends who are family

now that you have met my wife and myself, I would like to introduce you to some of my friends , and turners friends. This picture is of turner and Lauren, one of the Jones girls. She is one of the bundles of joy that my good friends Nate and Christie are blessed with. Whenever these two are around each other you can count on two things
1. Lauren wanting to see turner and
2. Turner smiling like so at Lauren.

we need to keep these two separated in a few years.
Nate lives just around the corner and is a great moral support to jenny and I as we muddle through parenthood . Thanks Nate for letting me learn from your successes that flourish and the few foibles I see.

7...8...9...ready or not here I come

At least he waited until we were "moved into" our new home. April 11th was the closing date on our new house in Renton so we figured we had at least 5-6 weeks to get our home ready for our new arrival. Obviously Turner had a different plan.
On April 24th I went to work as usual. Throughout the day I was commenting to my co-worker that I felt different, I was having a lot of braxton hicks contractions however I figured them to be par for the course. After work, I went home unpacked a few boxed and went to bed. At around 3:30am I woke up suddenly and sat straigt up in bed. I knew at that moment that my water had broken. With calm prompting from Neal I called the hospital. My reaction was to go back to bed, I figured there was no way I was in labor already, after all I was not ready.... I did not even have a hospital bag packed! My son was throwing me off my schedule already! The on call doctor confirmed over the phone that my water had broken so off to the hospital we went.
When we arrived I was checked in immediately as my water had "ruptured", the nurses exact words. I was told to prepare myself for a long day, my doctor did not think I would deliver anytime soon. Boy did Turner and I fool her. My actual labor started around 11:00am and Turner Richard Schrepfer joined the world at 3:09pm. Present in the delivery room was Grandma Burns, Aunt Terrie, life-long friend and delivery room nurse, Joan, several doctors, several nurses, proud dad Neal (of course) and almost making it on time was Aunt Melissa. Aunt Melissa had left the deliver room to check in on her two girls, after all we figured we had a long day ahead of us and she wanted to get them situated for what was going to be a long night. She arrived in the room at 3:15pm, no joke. We are sorry she was not able to be there for the birth, however we want her to know how much she was appreciated that day. Aunt Terrie and Grandma Burns were wonderful, unexpected coaches! Grandma Burns was proud to cut the umbilical cord.
As they were getting our little man ready to be taken upstairs to the special care nursery, he was named by his father (mom was still groggy). Turner was a name Neal came up with and thankfully one we could finally agree on. Turner Richard Schrepfer was escorted up the the special care nursery by none other than his proud papa. As Neal noted previously, he was there for 8 long days. I was lucky enough to be able to stay with him while he got the care he needed in order to come home. We can not thank the wonderful staff at Evergreen, our incredible family and wonderful friends for all of the love, prayers and support we received especially during that trying first week. Thank You!

Schrepferworks........ Thy name is Turner

I guess it is a little weird to document your thoughts and history as a "blog" as it were. Who you are, family friends, events, wins, losses and general details about yourself. I actually like the idea, if for no other reason than it gives my son a history of our lives before he can remember it.
Ok on to the name Schrepferworks is a name I came up with long ago. It is like a woodworker or clock work.... Someone who builds something. As a parent I guess that is my job to "Build" or cultivate our little one into a amazing man. My name is Neal, his mom's name is Jenny and his name is Turner.
He was born on April 25th 2005. He was 18 inches long and weighed 5lbs 5 oz. His first week was the worst on me. I had to carry him up to the Newborn intensive care unit where he spent the next 8 days. The pictures of him with the tubes up his nose still turn my stomach. He had some problems eating and maintaing his temperature, but like any Schrepfer before him he was a tough little guy and his stubbornness got him through. Now he eats like there's no tomorrow and inherited his fathers internal heating mechanism.
Well, I just wanted to introduce him to you and tell you that like any father I love my son very much. It ought to be an adventure. Soon I will introduce the other players in his life. His mother, our friends and even me, his father.