Life's a crazy thing, isn't it? You wake up one day thinking you're going to be doing A, and end up all the way at the other end of the alphabet doing Z.
Let's start with last week, because last week was a 'fun' week.
Monday - Wednesday
The previous week, you see, my Sister had come down for a visit to see the Babies (Ours and our Fathers). While she was here we had our typical business meeting about where the business is going to go, and how much longer it's going to take to get there. This is my Internet Business that you can read about in my Developer's Blog. And you can even sign up to BETA Test our games.
Only this time was different. Since being off work my father and I had laid out a six month development time line that makes our launch sometime towards the end of this year in December - a scary prospect to be sure. The problem is, there are alot of elements (Marketing, Artwork, Payment methods, etc etc) we haven't yet explored that all need to be done by then. The end result of our meeting was that we all had alot of work to do, and quickly. So starting Monday I jumped all over that and actually started developing the game, putting a firm art list together for our art team, and putting a package of some reference material together for them to look at. And recruiting a team of BETA/ALPHA testers, and building some admin tools so I could track them, and updating the developers blog - this monster has turned into a full-time job! At any rate, getting all of that aligned filled up most of my early week, so it's no surprise that I didn't get to my dad's computer until...
Thursday
Last week my dad took a business trip all the way up North to San Francisco. While he was gone his new computer arrived and I began the time honored task of moving a hard drive from one computer to the other - they're both SATA drives, one slightly older then the other, they're both SATA Mother Boards, they're both DELL PCs with fairly good components. There should be no problem, right? Plug in the new SATA, and everything is good to go.
I wish. I plugged in the new hard drive, and Win XP started to load...only to crash to the Blue Screen of Death halfway through loading...everytime I booted it up. Wow, this was a problem. But not so big, I though. I tried repairing the Win XP installation - no luck. I tried adding the new drivers for the new hard ware, no luck. At this point I was pretty frustrated, so I thought I'd move it back, set up his old computer, and figure out what to do next at a later date. So I took the drive and put it back in the older computer and booted it up.
It didn't get past the boot screen before I got so many errors I thought my brain had just crashed. And then the computer shut down.
Now this seems a good point to mention that all of my dad's business data is on this drive. It pays his bills, and since we live with him, puts a roof over our head. At this point I was starting to sweat a little. But I hadn't formatted anything, and I hadn't erased anything, so all the data still had to be there, right? Somewhere?
And then my phone rang. It was about 4:30 and my wife was going to be home from work soon, the boy was happily playing in his little entertainment seat while watching either Baby Einstein or Toy Story (Which seems to be the only animated/disney movie he loves for reasons I can't fathom). It was my dad, on the phone, wondering if I could come pick him up. "Sure!" I said. "Where are you?"
"Oh," came the reply. "About an hour outside of San Francisco."
For those of you who don't know, San Francisco is about a 6-7 hour drive from our house. But what you probably don't know is that my dad is a pretty silly guy. He likes pranks and practical jokes, and I was honestly not sure if he was serious or not. So I asked him about six times, and he said yes, he needed me to come pick up. So I waited until 5, my wife came home, and I headed to San Francisco. He actually met me a little closer, he found a tow-truck driver. My family is not shy of hotels, so the whole way up there I was burning with an intense curiosity to see why it was he had such a pressing need for me to come pick him up - I got a nasty shock when we got there. His Toyota Avalon of Eight Years was being laid to rest. Apparently and unknown oil leak had caused the engine to seize up. We took many family road trips in that car, and it served us well.
I didn't get home until 2 AM.
Friday
Data recovery on the hard drive from dawn until dusk. I started by looking for some information online, and found some good tutorials...but by that point in the day (about noon) the boy was just being too difficult for me to get anything done. I downloaded some utilities and loaded the drive to dual boot with another (good) SATA drive and started making phone calls. I HATE asking for help. It's like the bane of my existence, but I'm not above knowing that I need it sometimes, and today if dad's data was going to stand a chance, someone else needed to watch the baby.
I got a hold of my aunt, who asked my cousin to come babysit, and true to her word, showed up about an hour later and absolved me of my baby duties for the day. I only wish it had been sooner. At this point I was throughly stressed. I was hoping the data was still there, but I didn't know for sure, and I needed to find out. Fortunately, one of the programs I was using worked! I could see the data, but I still couldn't access it, and it was giving me an error every time I tried. It turns out, correcting that error restored the hard drive to it's formally bootable status. But I still got the blue screen of death trying to boot it in the new computer.
The good news was: data was intact. The bad news was: He needed a new OS installation, which of course means reinstalling ALL his old files all over again. But his data was back.
Early Friday evening, as my cousin was still there, we had agreed to have dinner with her and my dad - before I was invited to go to Game Night with the guy's for a while. It was very difficult working around the hard drive, trying to help my wife with dinner (Which ended up getting passed to my cousin anyway) and trying to get out the door to see the guys all at the same time, but we managed! And we had chicken tacos - which aren't as good as beef, but are still pretty good.
I ended up at Matt's for Game Night on Friday night, with my wife and the baby (Which is always pleasant!). There was, evidently some confusion about our plans to continue our D&D Game, because I had told them when they invited me I wasn't interested in RPing that night, so we ended up with some Battlefront to play instead. After a half hour of configuring computers, we got things all set up and played a match or two, only to drop out and re-host with different settings: 2 v2 sniper duels.
That went fairly well for the first map. I think technically we 'lost' because they captured all the spawn points, but we also 'won' because we had the most kills (I had the most kills, by three or four. Kill counts all around were fairly low - I was the only one to break 10). It was quite intense and very enjoyable, even though some of them didn't want to play initially we all had a great deal of fun on the first map.
We made a mistake switching maps on the second game, though, because we ended up on a map with vehicles (And I also discovered/remembered that I could use my remote droid to call down orbital bombardments, which basically meant I hid a few steps away from an ammo droid and ran my remote out to call down strikes of doom on the other team for the whole game). It quickly degenerated into a free-for-all but I had to call it a night and so I left some time early on...
Saturday
Saturday was both one of the easiest and longest days yet. We had to get up early - on a Saturday - to go visit my Aunt's House for a going-away-party for my Cousin Michelle. It's a bit silly, really. They live an hour away from us, and she's only going to college 10 minutes from our house, but we love our family so we'd promised we'd be there. It was just a very long tiring drive (my wife drove out there, I wasn't feeling well). I had intended to get some work done in the car, as I was now two days behind on my business work because of dad's computer, but I was feeling so bad I just ended up dozing until we got there.
I tried to drive home, too, but ended up being too tired. I decided it was safer to switch with my wife. The most significant part of the day had happened that morning - when the bassinet the baby was sleeping in broke, we've no idea how. The leg splintered and the wheel fell off, and there was no way he was going back in that tonight. That meant, of course, assembling the crib as soon as possible - which was, of course, after we arrived home from our long and tiring day with the family.
So I had to clean up all the computer parts and components and boxes which were literally covering our whole bedroom before we had enough room to set up the crib, which of course also involved moving every piece of furniture in the bedroom around to accommodate it. On that related side note, the bed is now in a corner and SUPER COMFORTABLE. There is no scientific explanation for it, but we LIKE the bed now. We sleep better, we sleep warmer, we sleep cooler and we sleep more comfortably. I tried to go to bed early, and it worked.
Sunday
I played hookie from church and slept until almost 11, my wife went though, but I defiantly needed the sleep. After 12 hours I was in much better shape. Today I had already decided to catchup on my server work - and I managed to do it and then some! I got done everything I'd wanted to get done on Thursday and Friday, and some additional work for Monday! It was very exciting.
Monday
I started off Monday trying to help my dad restore his computer, the baby was a bit fussy but tolerable. Especially once I turned Toy Story on. He's going to wear out that DVD, if such things are possible. We got most of the way through this day with almost all of his programs installed, but were still having difficulties finding the rest of his data. I was all set to take a break and have some lunch when my phone rang with a number I couldn't recognize.
It was my old boss - he was stuck out of the country and needed some art work done that day, so I told him no problem, packed up the baby, and headed back to work! My wife graciously took the baby to her office for the rest of the day and I ended up working until 7 to get the printers going so they would be all caught up - I also agreed to work the next day (today) all day! So here I am on...
Tuesday
And I'm back at the office for a full day for the first time in forever. Did I forget anything? No, not really. The hardest part? Climbing up the stairs to my office. I have changed my mind about wanting a two-story house.
I've gotten some bug fixing done this morning while I waited for some art to download, and I'm almost done with laying out what they needed me to layout today, which means maybe when they all get back into town (they think around 3 this afternoon) I might be able to go home and try and get some work done.
And that's been my crazy week!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
http://thinkingthelions.blogspot.com/
I'm starting off today's (maybe this weeks) post with a link to my friend the Trouble With Roy in the hopes that after reading todays post he can provide me with an answer to The Question.
When I started this blog it was very hard to come up with a good name, I finally settled on "Life, The Universe, and Everything" which is, of course, a vague nod in the direction of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and to my Sci Fi background, which largely consists of Star Wars (and now Battlestar Galactica) and other obscure things like (Wing Commander).
However, this line is very relevent to The Question, because the question is part of Life, The Universe, and Everything.
So without further ado, here is The Question:
Why do babies clothes have pockets?
Let me know if you figure it out. I sure can't.
Onto more important things...I really want to have six kids. People say I'm crazy and I don't know what I'm getting into but I don't care. At the end of my life when I'm laying in a casket and everyone is saying fake nice things about how wonderful I was and pretending to cry but really just wondering what kind of food is back at Aunt Maggies house and will they get there in time to get a good parking space and a good spot in line I want to know that I really truly left something behind. And one child just isn't enough.
I mean, one child is one cancer case from the extermination of my family line. Or one salmanella poisioning away from the wiping out of my entire genetic code.
I don't want that!
Six kids is like six times redundancy in the event that something goes wrong (hopefully they will all be boys, too - God forced me into a house with three women so I figure having six boys bounces that out, right? Because that's how God works?).
There's a major obstacle in my way to this plan though, namely my Wife. If I could order Babies on Amazon I'd have six kids right now (and probably not enough time to read this sentence, let alone write this post) but that's just not possible. Biologically I need another person to help me along in this venture.
So we're going to have to be extra nice to the wife from here on out so she'll keep producing babies.
This is sort of like my dad's 65 Mustang. When he dies, I'm sure he's going to leave it to my older younger sister (I have two younger sisters now, so this sentence is technically correct as he will leave it to the older of the two). My younger sister will - undoubtedly - promise at some point in the future (an undetermined point to be sure) to give me the car, if I am nice enough. It's easy to see what follows - even though I know she would never give me anything if her life depended on it (If my life did it goes without saying she would not) I will cling to the desperate hope that maybe one day she will give me the car, and she will suck the life out of my body with that fake pretendeness.
Fortunately, I don't mind being extra good to my wife.
I'm starting off today's (maybe this weeks) post with a link to my friend the Trouble With Roy in the hopes that after reading todays post he can provide me with an answer to The Question.
When I started this blog it was very hard to come up with a good name, I finally settled on "Life, The Universe, and Everything" which is, of course, a vague nod in the direction of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and to my Sci Fi background, which largely consists of Star Wars (and now Battlestar Galactica) and other obscure things like (Wing Commander).
However, this line is very relevent to The Question, because the question is part of Life, The Universe, and Everything.
So without further ado, here is The Question:
Why do babies clothes have pockets?
Let me know if you figure it out. I sure can't.
Onto more important things...I really want to have six kids. People say I'm crazy and I don't know what I'm getting into but I don't care. At the end of my life when I'm laying in a casket and everyone is saying fake nice things about how wonderful I was and pretending to cry but really just wondering what kind of food is back at Aunt Maggies house and will they get there in time to get a good parking space and a good spot in line I want to know that I really truly left something behind. And one child just isn't enough.
I mean, one child is one cancer case from the extermination of my family line. Or one salmanella poisioning away from the wiping out of my entire genetic code.
I don't want that!
Six kids is like six times redundancy in the event that something goes wrong (hopefully they will all be boys, too - God forced me into a house with three women so I figure having six boys bounces that out, right? Because that's how God works?).
There's a major obstacle in my way to this plan though, namely my Wife. If I could order Babies on Amazon I'd have six kids right now (and probably not enough time to read this sentence, let alone write this post) but that's just not possible. Biologically I need another person to help me along in this venture.
So we're going to have to be extra nice to the wife from here on out so she'll keep producing babies.
This is sort of like my dad's 65 Mustang. When he dies, I'm sure he's going to leave it to my older younger sister (I have two younger sisters now, so this sentence is technically correct as he will leave it to the older of the two). My younger sister will - undoubtedly - promise at some point in the future (an undetermined point to be sure) to give me the car, if I am nice enough. It's easy to see what follows - even though I know she would never give me anything if her life depended on it (If my life did it goes without saying she would not) I will cling to the desperate hope that maybe one day she will give me the car, and she will suck the life out of my body with that fake pretendeness.
Fortunately, I don't mind being extra good to my wife.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
You can already look through the entries I've posted to see what my posting schedule is going to be like. Or not be like, since it's really just sporadic postings when I feel like I have something meaningful to talk about (Guild Wars is too meaningful!).
But actually, somewhere down below if I get to it before Joshua decides he needs my attention I do actually have something meaningful to say (I won't blame you if you scroll ahead right now). First things first, let's have an update!
I've been out of work for just over one week now and I couldn't be happier. I'm sure anyone (former bosses included) reading my previous blog entries would have no trouble reading through the subterfuge to find I was a disgruntled employee (what subterfuge?). I'm done with that now and I couldn't be happier. That job was the pits, to stressful, to full of politics and just...to messy. I'm home now with the boy and I couldn't be happier.
All of the parents out there reading this right now (there MIGHT be two) are probably saying to themselves "Give it another week" and I'm sure they're right. To say I've been with the boy a week already is a complete misnomer, because last week I went to...drumroll... BATTLE MOUNTAIN! Where is Battle Mountain, you might ask? It's in Neveda. Oh, so it's near Las Vegas, right? No. Laughlin? No. Reno? No. Lovelock? Hell yes!
Right, like anyone would ask about Lovelock. I don't know if any of you have ever seen the Tenth Kingdom (You should, by the way. It's a great DVD.) But there's this scary love town where everything revolves around special things to do with your 'sweetheart' like laying down in the REAL glass Coffin of Snow White and getting kissed at this massively beautiful overlook. That combination of creepy and cool is what reminds me of Lovelock. In between the Casinos lies a tiny little town (With the best Diseal Prices we saw the whole trip - go figure). Apparently the town gets its name from a wall in the Town Plaza (Any place with a Town Plaza automatically gets no higher then a B-rating in my book) where people 'travel' to to place a heart shaped lock (that you can buy just about anywhere in town) on the wall with their sweetheart. Yeah, creepy.
The strangest part was that we drove through Lovelock at Eight O'clock on a Friday Night. And not a single person was out or alive in the whole town. It was deader then dirt, even at the casino restaurant (the best food in town - it wasn't) which consisted largely of a large room filled with mismatched card tables and folding chairs.
But that's not even Battle Mountain - and Battle Mountain is barely where we going. Battle Mountain is located in the upper right hand corner of the state for anyone who is looking for it on a map right now (Good Luck) it's about an hour from Winnemucca (Any town with 'mucca' in it's name also gets a B-rating). And that's where the nearest shopping is. I guess for people who live in Victorville and Phelan driving for an hour to get to the grocery store is nothing new, but there are about ten grocery stores within ten minutes of my house and I have no intention of leaving here ever because of that fact. It's sort of like how we planned to go to the Movies in Bishop California, only to ask at the front desk what times the movie showings were. The answer? Six and Nine.
Where I live we have a AMC 30 Screen theatre ten minutes in one direction. An Edwards 18 Screen Ten minutes down the freeway. A Regency 10 Fifteen minutes away, and a Edwards 12 fifteen minutes the other way. 20 Minutes away there's a Kirkorian Ten, another AMC 20. And that's just that I know of. After about 11 o'clock in the morning one of those theatres has a showing at least every half hour (usually closer to every 15 minutes). So this was a bit scary.
Anyway, I'm skipping the most important part of this story. We drove a 22 Foot Truck to Battle Mountain from the Pasadena, CA area through the desert of California (I know it was desert because we passed through Mojave) and Neveda in a truck THAT HAD NO AIR CONDITIONING.
People have no concept of what the word "Hot" means. At one point I commented it was like being in hell - I was stuck in a truck for 12 hours everyday following other, more slowly moving trucks through the dead heart of small town america...and my dad was driving.
But yeah, anyway. That was Thursday-Sunday of last week, and the hardest part of the whole trip was being away from my Wife and Son because I had not been away for Joshua (except for work) since he was born, and my wife since...as long as I can remember. Probably two summers ago was the last time we spent any significant time (meaning going 24 hours without seeing each other).
So that was last week. This week started off with an Interview at the Christian School I'm applying for a job at - I'm not sure where that's going to go. I'm sure I'm probably not their first choice and I'm oddly okay with that. I think the other candidate is probably more technically qualified then I am - but I come to board with a pretty complicated and unique skill set that anyone would be hard pressed to match...and my time table for the job works better for them, I think. So we'll see where that goes.
I thought at first I would be disappointed with going back to work, but I have become oddly accepting of it. It would be nice to work (finally) in a professional environment.
So the boy laughs and coos alot now. He's much more interactive. He's tow months old now and ready to crawl - yesterday I had him on his belly and he was doing everything he could to get to me on the bed...which wasn't much, but he was very enthusiastic about not doing anything, and that was very exciting for me. He does like being read to - especially with the Musical Whiney the Pooh book, which he enjoys even though it's broken and repeats pages alot because it doesn't keep track of the fact that you turned the page.
He also likes the color Orange. If you put anything Orange in front of him - from a Sunkist Can to a Disposable Camera package - he'll do anything in his power to get to it, like reaching out for it like Darth Vader does in Empire Strikes Back when he steals Han Solo's blaster. Apparently my fledging Padawan has already embraced the power of the Darkside...or Dorkside. Whichever term your prefer probably applies.
(This is the more meaningful part of the post, and is meant for Christian or Christian based readers. If that's going to offend you, you have a constitutional right to turn off the computer and go back to watching the Tri County Rodeo. Which nearly caused us to not have a hotel room and sleep in the truck.)
Something that I've been thinking about alot, and have wanted to talk about here on the Blog is being a Spiritual Leader in specific regards to a phrase the Bible uses called "Standing Upright" before the Lord. This phrase actually comes from the story of Zechariah and Elizabth, the parents of John the Baptist, but is also referenced differently in the story of Job, in which Job is said to be in perfect standing before the Lord. This isn't really meant to start a religious debate about what these phrases actually mean in the Bible, because that's not really relevant to my topic here.
What is my topic here? Being a Spiritual Leader to your household. This is the most interesting concept I've been introduced to through marriage. It's the single thing that every single person told me I needed to ensure I did. Before anyone insisted that I provide for my family, or care for my family, or make my family a priority they insisted that I be a Spiritual Leader to the household.
Naturally, my inquisitive nature demanded I explore this concept fully, so I asked everyone I knew - or who I thought might know - what exactly this phrase meant. Naturally, I got alot of differant responses. "Pray over your family everyday." One person told me. "Provide for them as the Lord would." (As if such things are possible for Mortal Men) "Lead them to a walk with the Lord." That one was in specific regards to my Children. But I believe that the term "Spiritual Leader" entails much more then any one or two of these concepts, and so I return to the Phrase "Standing Upright Before God".
Ultimate in our lives we will all have to stand Upright Before God, fathers or not. So it seems a misnomer to apply it here to our Godly Walks as Fathers. Instead I'm going to alter the phrase to apply it slightly to the topic at hand: Stand Upright Before...Our Families.
Now there is much room for confusion and error here. For example, it would be very easy to become to prideful with this approach, but I believe that Standing Upright has little to do with Pride. There is also the temptation to see ourselves as greater then we are with this approach, which is also not something that is true.
Standing Upright before the Lord undoubtedly requires applying Humility to all aspects of our lives, and so does Standing Upright before Our Families. I do not believe that Standing Upright for one minute means that we are perfect in front of our families regardless of what else happens - such thoughts are ridiculous when we know that we are only made in God's Image, not made to be God himself - and only God is perfect. This Humility is what allows us to Stand Upright. We are not perfect. We do not always make the smartest best decisions. We don't always do what we're supposed to do (Like remembering to empty the Diaper Trasch. Sometimes on Purpose).
Through Humility in service to our Family we can accept these facts, and allow them to accept these same facts in us. Standing Upright doesn't meaning leading them to always do the right thing - it means even when we don't do the Right thing we still stand before them as the Leader the Lord calls on us to be. And of course, as Christian Men, standing upright before our Family naturally involves standing upright before the Lord, praying over our Families, Leading them to walk in the World and providing for them as best we are able (I will not say as God is able, because no one can provide for our families as God can).
So just one last phrase I leave you with now, this phrase has been on my mind since I started reading and praying about this topic, and it's a quote from a song called "What if I Stumble" by DC Talk, not a band that I would normally listen to, but a Christian Band nonetheless, even if their style is not one I would normally prefer:
But actually, somewhere down below if I get to it before Joshua decides he needs my attention I do actually have something meaningful to say (I won't blame you if you scroll ahead right now). First things first, let's have an update!
I've been out of work for just over one week now and I couldn't be happier. I'm sure anyone (former bosses included) reading my previous blog entries would have no trouble reading through the subterfuge to find I was a disgruntled employee (what subterfuge?). I'm done with that now and I couldn't be happier. That job was the pits, to stressful, to full of politics and just...to messy. I'm home now with the boy and I couldn't be happier.
All of the parents out there reading this right now (there MIGHT be two) are probably saying to themselves "Give it another week" and I'm sure they're right. To say I've been with the boy a week already is a complete misnomer, because last week I went to...drumroll... BATTLE MOUNTAIN! Where is Battle Mountain, you might ask? It's in Neveda. Oh, so it's near Las Vegas, right? No. Laughlin? No. Reno? No. Lovelock? Hell yes!
Right, like anyone would ask about Lovelock. I don't know if any of you have ever seen the Tenth Kingdom (You should, by the way. It's a great DVD.) But there's this scary love town where everything revolves around special things to do with your 'sweetheart' like laying down in the REAL glass Coffin of Snow White and getting kissed at this massively beautiful overlook. That combination of creepy and cool is what reminds me of Lovelock. In between the Casinos lies a tiny little town (With the best Diseal Prices we saw the whole trip - go figure). Apparently the town gets its name from a wall in the Town Plaza (Any place with a Town Plaza automatically gets no higher then a B-rating in my book) where people 'travel' to to place a heart shaped lock (that you can buy just about anywhere in town) on the wall with their sweetheart. Yeah, creepy.
The strangest part was that we drove through Lovelock at Eight O'clock on a Friday Night. And not a single person was out or alive in the whole town. It was deader then dirt, even at the casino restaurant (the best food in town - it wasn't) which consisted largely of a large room filled with mismatched card tables and folding chairs.
But that's not even Battle Mountain - and Battle Mountain is barely where we going. Battle Mountain is located in the upper right hand corner of the state for anyone who is looking for it on a map right now (Good Luck) it's about an hour from Winnemucca (Any town with 'mucca' in it's name also gets a B-rating). And that's where the nearest shopping is. I guess for people who live in Victorville and Phelan driving for an hour to get to the grocery store is nothing new, but there are about ten grocery stores within ten minutes of my house and I have no intention of leaving here ever because of that fact. It's sort of like how we planned to go to the Movies in Bishop California, only to ask at the front desk what times the movie showings were. The answer? Six and Nine.
Where I live we have a AMC 30 Screen theatre ten minutes in one direction. An Edwards 18 Screen Ten minutes down the freeway. A Regency 10 Fifteen minutes away, and a Edwards 12 fifteen minutes the other way. 20 Minutes away there's a Kirkorian Ten, another AMC 20. And that's just that I know of. After about 11 o'clock in the morning one of those theatres has a showing at least every half hour (usually closer to every 15 minutes). So this was a bit scary.
Anyway, I'm skipping the most important part of this story. We drove a 22 Foot Truck to Battle Mountain from the Pasadena, CA area through the desert of California (I know it was desert because we passed through Mojave) and Neveda in a truck THAT HAD NO AIR CONDITIONING.
People have no concept of what the word "Hot" means. At one point I commented it was like being in hell - I was stuck in a truck for 12 hours everyday following other, more slowly moving trucks through the dead heart of small town america...and my dad was driving.
But yeah, anyway. That was Thursday-Sunday of last week, and the hardest part of the whole trip was being away from my Wife and Son because I had not been away for Joshua (except for work) since he was born, and my wife since...as long as I can remember. Probably two summers ago was the last time we spent any significant time (meaning going 24 hours without seeing each other).
So that was last week. This week started off with an Interview at the Christian School I'm applying for a job at - I'm not sure where that's going to go. I'm sure I'm probably not their first choice and I'm oddly okay with that. I think the other candidate is probably more technically qualified then I am - but I come to board with a pretty complicated and unique skill set that anyone would be hard pressed to match...and my time table for the job works better for them, I think. So we'll see where that goes.
I thought at first I would be disappointed with going back to work, but I have become oddly accepting of it. It would be nice to work (finally) in a professional environment.
So the boy laughs and coos alot now. He's much more interactive. He's tow months old now and ready to crawl - yesterday I had him on his belly and he was doing everything he could to get to me on the bed...which wasn't much, but he was very enthusiastic about not doing anything, and that was very exciting for me. He does like being read to - especially with the Musical Whiney the Pooh book, which he enjoys even though it's broken and repeats pages alot because it doesn't keep track of the fact that you turned the page.
He also likes the color Orange. If you put anything Orange in front of him - from a Sunkist Can to a Disposable Camera package - he'll do anything in his power to get to it, like reaching out for it like Darth Vader does in Empire Strikes Back when he steals Han Solo's blaster. Apparently my fledging Padawan has already embraced the power of the Darkside...or Dorkside. Whichever term your prefer probably applies.
(This is the more meaningful part of the post, and is meant for Christian or Christian based readers. If that's going to offend you, you have a constitutional right to turn off the computer and go back to watching the Tri County Rodeo. Which nearly caused us to not have a hotel room and sleep in the truck.)
Something that I've been thinking about alot, and have wanted to talk about here on the Blog is being a Spiritual Leader in specific regards to a phrase the Bible uses called "Standing Upright" before the Lord. This phrase actually comes from the story of Zechariah and Elizabth, the parents of John the Baptist, but is also referenced differently in the story of Job, in which Job is said to be in perfect standing before the Lord. This isn't really meant to start a religious debate about what these phrases actually mean in the Bible, because that's not really relevant to my topic here.
What is my topic here? Being a Spiritual Leader to your household. This is the most interesting concept I've been introduced to through marriage. It's the single thing that every single person told me I needed to ensure I did. Before anyone insisted that I provide for my family, or care for my family, or make my family a priority they insisted that I be a Spiritual Leader to the household.
Naturally, my inquisitive nature demanded I explore this concept fully, so I asked everyone I knew - or who I thought might know - what exactly this phrase meant. Naturally, I got alot of differant responses. "Pray over your family everyday." One person told me. "Provide for them as the Lord would." (As if such things are possible for Mortal Men) "Lead them to a walk with the Lord." That one was in specific regards to my Children. But I believe that the term "Spiritual Leader" entails much more then any one or two of these concepts, and so I return to the Phrase "Standing Upright Before God".
Ultimate in our lives we will all have to stand Upright Before God, fathers or not. So it seems a misnomer to apply it here to our Godly Walks as Fathers. Instead I'm going to alter the phrase to apply it slightly to the topic at hand: Stand Upright Before...Our Families.
Now there is much room for confusion and error here. For example, it would be very easy to become to prideful with this approach, but I believe that Standing Upright has little to do with Pride. There is also the temptation to see ourselves as greater then we are with this approach, which is also not something that is true.
Standing Upright before the Lord undoubtedly requires applying Humility to all aspects of our lives, and so does Standing Upright before Our Families. I do not believe that Standing Upright for one minute means that we are perfect in front of our families regardless of what else happens - such thoughts are ridiculous when we know that we are only made in God's Image, not made to be God himself - and only God is perfect. This Humility is what allows us to Stand Upright. We are not perfect. We do not always make the smartest best decisions. We don't always do what we're supposed to do (Like remembering to empty the Diaper Trasch. Sometimes on Purpose).
Through Humility in service to our Family we can accept these facts, and allow them to accept these same facts in us. Standing Upright doesn't meaning leading them to always do the right thing - it means even when we don't do the Right thing we still stand before them as the Leader the Lord calls on us to be. And of course, as Christian Men, standing upright before our Family naturally involves standing upright before the Lord, praying over our Families, Leading them to walk in the World and providing for them as best we are able (I will not say as God is able, because no one can provide for our families as God can).
So just one last phrase I leave you with now, this phrase has been on my mind since I started reading and praying about this topic, and it's a quote from a song called "What if I Stumble" by DC Talk, not a band that I would normally listen to, but a Christian Band nonetheless, even if their style is not one I would normally prefer:
What if I stumble?
What if I fall?
What if lose my step and I make fools of us all?
Will the love continue
When the walk becomes a crawl?
What if I stumble?
What if I....fall?
What if I fall?
What if lose my step and I make fools of us all?
Will the love continue
When the walk becomes a crawl?
What if I stumble?
What if I....fall?
This song is meant to be sung about our walk with the Lord, but after listening to it many times I believe it applies here equally as well. As Men, as Sinful and Prideful Men we are prone to Stumbling. Prone to making fools of ourselves (and therefore our families) and fearful - I know I am - ever so fearful that when we get up again the love will not continue. It's an easy thing to fear, really. That old saying Pride Goeth Before the Fall comes to mind. Rather then admit we are wrong, out of a very real fear that the Love will not continue if we are anything but perfect husbands and perfect fathers drives us to beat our heads against the wall.
The underlying message in these song lyrics, I think, is that we will stumble. We will fall. But the love continues, and by admitting that we are wrong, that we have fallen, that we have stumbled, that we have made our share of mistakes that need correcting we recognize and accept that Love - love that would not be there were we to take the arrogant and prideful way out.
You can stand Upright before your Family without being perfect. You can stand Upright before the Lord without being perfect. And you can Stand Upright before the World without being perfect. I think that our call to Stand Upright means immediately that we're already not perfect - but that we need to acknowledge that as part of our desire to strive for Perfection....and that is what Standing Upright is all about. The humility to know when we are not perfect, and the courage to also admit that those times occur more often then we would like, and the Wisdom to take steps to correct those mistakes before they have done more damage then we can contain.
The underlying message in these song lyrics, I think, is that we will stumble. We will fall. But the love continues, and by admitting that we are wrong, that we have fallen, that we have stumbled, that we have made our share of mistakes that need correcting we recognize and accept that Love - love that would not be there were we to take the arrogant and prideful way out.
You can stand Upright before your Family without being perfect. You can stand Upright before the Lord without being perfect. And you can Stand Upright before the World without being perfect. I think that our call to Stand Upright means immediately that we're already not perfect - but that we need to acknowledge that as part of our desire to strive for Perfection....and that is what Standing Upright is all about. The humility to know when we are not perfect, and the courage to also admit that those times occur more often then we would like, and the Wisdom to take steps to correct those mistakes before they have done more damage then we can contain.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
So for those of you who don't me, I'm a shameless gamer. Not only am I a shameless gamer, I play Guild Wars, a MMO. It's like World of Warcraft, sort of, but better. In general, it's a more difficult game then WOW to Master, because in WOW anyone can grind their way to the Max Level. Guild Wars only has a max level of 20, and if you do everything you're supposed to, you hit Level 20 halfway through the main campaign of the game (another way it differs from WoW - you can actually 'win' at Guild Wars).
What's interesting about mastering Level 20 is that the enemies continue to get stronger, even if you don't, so you're constantly having to find news way of re-inventing your character to remain competitive with your enemies. My personal strategy is to max out my runes and armors and make sure I have the proper skills. This means knowing what lies ahead, and the Guild Wars Wiki is my best friend for doing that.
What gets more interesting is that, since you can reach level 20 fairly early on, and you can beat the game, after you've done both these things, you need to find something new to do to keep you interested. Some of my suggestions are below.
This is a castle I found in the Nightfall Campaign. It's actually in the middle of the mission, and most of the mission has you sneaking around it. But you can come back after the mission, which is what I did, and raid and pillage it. Which I also did. Then I posted my Ranger Heros on the wall and took a nap in the shade. It was quite a bit of fun (even after I killed the army guarding it) to run around inside a castle I had conquered with the help of my heroes and henchmen (one of whom kept yelling something about throwing iron skillets).
This is a posed picture of the Guild Hall, with my darling wife and her level 20 character standing next to me. This is shortly after our three Scrimmage Matches. The First was my Level 18 W/R against her Level 19 W/R, she had her pet and pwned me badly. The second was my Level 18 W/R with a differant skillset against her Level 19 W/R and her pet. I killed them both, but nearly died doing so. The third was my Level 20 Ranger against her Level 20 Warrior. I pwned mercilessly with a Condition Spammer build that I've carefully cultivated for PVP use.
This is a larger shot of the Guild Hall, it's actually much larger then that as there are hills mountains and a dock to explore. It's almost fully outfitted to - which is rather ironic, since there are only two people in the Guild (and you can see them both in this screenshot, too).
What's interesting about mastering Level 20 is that the enemies continue to get stronger, even if you don't, so you're constantly having to find news way of re-inventing your character to remain competitive with your enemies. My personal strategy is to max out my runes and armors and make sure I have the proper skills. This means knowing what lies ahead, and the Guild Wars Wiki is my best friend for doing that.
What gets more interesting is that, since you can reach level 20 fairly early on, and you can beat the game, after you've done both these things, you need to find something new to do to keep you interested. Some of my suggestions are below.
This is a castle I found in the Nightfall Campaign. It's actually in the middle of the mission, and most of the mission has you sneaking around it. But you can come back after the mission, which is what I did, and raid and pillage it. Which I also did. Then I posted my Ranger Heros on the wall and took a nap in the shade. It was quite a bit of fun (even after I killed the army guarding it) to run around inside a castle I had conquered with the help of my heroes and henchmen (one of whom kept yelling something about throwing iron skillets).
This is a posed picture of the Guild Hall, with my darling wife and her level 20 character standing next to me. This is shortly after our three Scrimmage Matches. The First was my Level 18 W/R against her Level 19 W/R, she had her pet and pwned me badly. The second was my Level 18 W/R with a differant skillset against her Level 19 W/R and her pet. I killed them both, but nearly died doing so. The third was my Level 20 Ranger against her Level 20 Warrior. I pwned mercilessly with a Condition Spammer build that I've carefully cultivated for PVP use.
This is a larger shot of the Guild Hall, it's actually much larger then that as there are hills mountains and a dock to explore. It's almost fully outfitted to - which is rather ironic, since there are only two people in the Guild (and you can see them both in this screenshot, too).
Monday, April 28, 2008
So we had our first real eating out experience with Joshua last night, and it was QUITE the experience. But to understand this story we need to rewind a few days to FRIDAY....dun dun dun!
Friday I arrived at work at 11 o'clock. I was late. But I had a good reason - Joshua had his second check up that day and I want to make sure I attend as many of his appointments as I possibly can. He's very healthy, he's gained about a pound since his last appointment, about a pound and a half in two weeks, which is a good healthy weight. He sure eats enough. I thought - and so did my boss - that even arriving late on a Friday I would leaving work at the usual time. Yeah right.
As it turns out there is a Convention in Canada this week, so everyone I normally deal with to do my job (including my boss, and his boss) are in Canada this week showing off for each other like a bunch of peacocks strutting about with their feathers all poofed out. Normally this is not a problem, but my Boss wanted us to get some art finished and approved for this week last Friday. I ended up staying at the office until 7:30, not even half done with what I was working on.
I had grand plans for this weekend. My tires have been low on air for a while, I'm due for an oil change, my wife's car hasn't been looked at twice by anyone for more then a few weeks. Our bedroom needed to be vacumned. We had a stack of paper work that's been building since the baby was born we were planning to file. And some of that was supposed to get done Friday night, freeing up Saturday for work on a website contract I agreed to do, and then Sunday was going to be time for the family. Yeah Right.
The end result was that nothing got done on Friday, some of the website work (and the cars, because they're important) got done on Saturday (accompanied by the bad news that I now need new tires for my car - a lovely expense that goes along with the expenses of having a new born baby) and Sunday is when our adventure truly begins.
Saturday we got a call from my cousin Eric, who evidently got a job in Neveda and is moving up there at the end of next month. Yes, rather suddenly. Eric already has two little girls, Isabel and Erica. Normally, I don't post their names, but their names are part of the humor of the story. They're also pregnant with a third child - this one a boy, which will be named Daniel. Isabel Erica and Daniel. Look at the Initials: IED. Now go watch CNN's coverage of Iraq. Well, maybe Fox's coverage, since CNN seems more bent on blaming Bush and Fox seems more interested in covering the war itself. For those of you who haven't been following the news, IED stands for Improvised Explosive Device, a commonly used ambush weapon in Iraq, and believe me, these three kids will live up to their name.
At any rate, they wanted to come by on Tuesday to see us, which we said was great! We like spending time with them, Eric and his Wife are fun people who we can really engage with, and they've been the most supportive through the pregnancy and marriage, too. Well, second maybe to my Aunt Emmy, because she's my favorite (and always will be!) part of my family. We were delighted to have them...on Tuesday.
We were not prepare for the phone call on Sunday asking us if we'd be home, because they were coming to see my dad anyway (whom we live with) and it would be much faster to see us all ont he same day. Prior to this, we'd already made arrangements to have Jessica's Aunt visit us. Her Aunt and Uncle live up by San Francisco (They're the ones, incidentally enough, who came down and performed our Wedding for us) and so have not had a chance to see the new baby yet. For whatever reason (This time was transportation issues, I believe) Jessica's family has an aversion to visiting us at our house, however, so instead we had to pack up the baby and drive to Jessica's Grandparents house so her aunt could meet the baby. For anyone else...I might not have done it, but I really like her Aunt and Uncle, and wanted to make sure that at least her aunt got an opportunity to meet the baby. Naturally, both my cousin and her aunt wanted to see the baby at exactly the same time. Because anything else would have made my life easy and simple, and I wouldn't want that, would I?
As it turned out, we were just getting prepared to load the baby in the car (my wife's car, with new fluid levels! Because driving in my car risks blowing out a tire and killing us all, which naturally means that the carseat has to be moved) when my cousin pulled up. We had a nice visit for about a half an hour, then piled into the hot car and drove to her Grandparents house, where we had another nice visit.
At this point it should be noted that I asked to drive her Mother (my mother in law) back to her house. You see, they had been away on a Woman's Retreat all weekend together (Jessica's Mom, Her Grandmother, and her Aunt) and so only one of them had a car (Which as mentioned before, is where the aversion to visiting us at our house comes from). Her Mother lives about 10 minutes down the freeway from our house, and driving her home from the Grandparents was actually on the way. For some reason though, the Grandparents were disappointed about the fact that they didn't have to go way out of their way to take her home. I don't know why. Everyone thought it was some kind of burden on us.
So on our way to take her home and the phone rings. I'm naturally a distracted person - and this is doubly true when I'm driving. There's just so much to look at - I can't resist. So I try not to talk on the phone when I drive, because that's asking for trouble. Instead I give the phone to my wife. It's my cousin. They want to go out to dinner.
Now, let me say that this website contract I was working on was on a deadline, not only that but it was on a deadline in another time zone. I couldn't just work on it when I wanted and finish when I want. I had to work on it when they were awake and finish it when they were awake. Dinner at this point, was a very bad idea.
But when someone is leaving the state, what choice do you have? We agreed to rush back and go to dinner with them. This was to be our first trip out somewhere with Joshua. We'd gone to see family before, but only when we knew there was a spare room for feeding (my wife is shy, and has not yet perfected the art of using her wrap).
We got back to the house and fed the baby (we knew he was due to eat because he cried the whole way home - which is as much as he cried all together in the last two weeks, we're so blessed). And then sat around and waited. And waited. For dad. Because he was finishing up some business. And had to change his clothes. Then they had to decide where we were going to eat. Then we had to load Rebekah (my six month old sister) Isabel (my three year old cousin) and Erica (my one year old cousin) and Joshua (my two week old son) into the car. I'll let someone else explore the illogic of taking four under four children to the restaurant for dinner.
Then we had to juggle the car situation - Rachel's sister (who was originally coming to babysit) was going to come to dinner and watch Rebekah at the table instead, and she was the second to last person to arrive, so she was blocking Eric's car, which they had to take because it had carseats in it. And I was blocking her car, because the driveway was full at this point, but we had to take our car (my wife's car, anyway) because we needed it for Joshua's carseat and Dad had to take his car because it had Rebekah's carseat in it.
And let me say, for the record, I'm rethinking my agreement with my wife to have four kids at this point, because the carseat situation is a mess. Three is the perfect number of children, because if you have one car with five seats and you go to dinner with your wife and children then there are exactly enough seatbelts for everyone. You'd almost think they planned it that way. I really really really want that other tax deduction though, so four kids might be better.
So we get TO the restuarant and find parking (Seperatly) and get inside and inform that there will be seven adults (six couples plus Rachel's sister) two children with booster seats/high chairs and two babies. And I thought they were going to cry. Twenty minutes later...they somehow figured out how to sandwich the tables together and we finally got to sit down. Only to have to wait another 20 minutes to place our drink order, and another 10 for it to come. And that was just for it to START coming. By the time they'd gotten our drink order right and delivered it to the table another ten minutes had passed, and I'd finished my first (of many) root beers for the night and half of my wife's. In my defense, we don't buy soda at home (too expensive and bad for you) and it was Barq's, which is my favorite.
The two young girls at the other end of the table were, at this point, attempting to emulate my father (who was throwing wads of paper from straw wrappers, napkins, and napkin paper holders at people at the table), Rachel's Sister was discouraging him, most of us were looking at the menu, Rachel was trying to calm Rebekah who was upset for some odd reason...and Joshua was peacefully sleeping through it all. Which he did for the rest of the meal.
I'm not going to describe the rest of the meal except to say that Joshua was the most well behaved person at the table (he slept nearly the whole time). And I feel bad for Dad and Rachel, because Rebekah screams and cries so much it's impossible for them to enjoy going out with her. I could see it on Rachel's face all night. I'm so glad I don't have to worry about that.
It was also very COLD in the restaurant. I feel this is worth noting because Jessica gave me the baby to hold while she eat and then cruely took him back just when he was starting to keep me warm.
So that was my weekend - I finished most of the website contract sunday night after we got back (I worked on it for two hours straight and hammered out all the important parts) and even got to be around 12:30 (which is good since I got up for work at 8 this morning). Needlessly busy and chaotic, but at least half of what I WANTED to get done got done, and I can be satisfied with that.
And we got to go out with the Baby, which was quite a treat.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Babies, it's What's For Breakfest!
Well I'll start with the prequired picture of Joshua Tyler, because that seems to be the important things these days. Important meaning that Josha > Showers/Meals/Sleep combined. But we don't mind a bit. Most of the time he's fairly well behaved. Today we changed his diaper a number of times AND gave him a bath and the only time he cried was when we had to hold his head under the sink.
Of course all of you are reading this "We" and misunderstanding that "We" means Jessica, my wife. Last week "We" meant Jessica and her Mom, this week "We" has been downgraded to just Jessica.
Okay, so I'm mostly kidding about that. I've changed my share of diapers the last few days, done laundry, wrapped the baby, made the bed, cleaned the room, set up dinner and various other things for my wife and the baby to help out, so I am pulling my weight.
Anyway, I had an interesting thought. I'm usually very bad about posting in a blog on a regular schedule, but SOMEHOW I manage to send out a newsletter with our family news in it every month to the important people in our lives (which is not to say that you're not important if you're not getting the newsletter, just that I don't have your email address!). And so I thought, I should post the newsletter here! That way people can read it at their leisure. And so I am. Here's the Newsletter, enjoy:
Don't think we're stopping the baby updates! There's still lots of news to come! I'm going to learn how to use my video camera properly so you can all get video of his first walking!
(To the Dragon Squadron Pilots: I don't normally send you guys my updates [they go out about once a month] but this is the BIG ONE and I still feel like you guys are my aliit [Family, for you non-mandos] from my time as CO, and so I wanted you to be included in this! Even though I'm not so brazen as to send it to the rest of the RS!)
NOTE TO ALL: If you've heard the whole story (minus my humurous [ I hope ] side notes) you don't need to read the whole email. There is picture that was 10 minutes old when I started this email and an hour and a half old when I finished it attached and visible either at the top or bottom of your screen depending on what program you use to access your mail! In fact it's been so long that I now have to switch from battery to AC power because my battery on my laptop - which was fully charged - is now drained.
Also, for anyone reading this, scan the email addresses (most of them have names by them!) and forward it on to anyone else you think would appreciate it, or better yet: Send me their email addresses so I can put them on the next mailer! Don't think that emails are going to stop anytime soon (Maybe I should put a "Send an email HERE if you want to unsubscribe!" option at the bottom of my emails). The feedback from the Baby News Emails has been fantastic, so I'm going to keep including everyone who says they want to be included! In fact, because Joshua is here now, we're going to expand it into sort of a catch-all (to use a term from my websever) email that will keep you updated about our family life. I'm also going to start updating them, so I can refer back to past issues when I'm telling stories! (Refer to Family News Issue 1138A, for example! [Special numbers for any geeks heart. Don't worry RSers, I won't send you all of those unless you ask for it!])
So here's your first update! We're home, and settled. We were discharged from the hospital around 3:00 PM today, quite fast, actually. For those who haven't been updated on everything:
Jessica started having labor pains around 5 PM on Wednesday, we were staying at her parents house for dinner and we decided to leave a bit early to go home and rest. Jessica had a shower and cleaned herself up, and we decided that her contractions were regular enough to warrant a trip to the hospital.
We got to the hospital - and inside about 10:15. It was 12:00 before we saw the doctor (it was a busy night at Labor & Delivery, we offered to go home but for some reason they said we couldn't wait until tomorrow to have the baby. Yes, I actually asked them [I was kidding].). And they decided that Jessica was not dilated enough to warrant a stay in the Hospital. This was distressing all of us as her labor pains were quite strong and she was in quite a bit of pain and distress. I made the mistake of calling Emi before we left for the hospital, promising to call her as soon as there was news, and in her loving manner rather then wait to hear we had been admitted she jumped in the car and flew to the hospital to stay with us while we waited (And we love her for it, crazy as she was!).
We walked the hospital four for about forty minutes (during which Jessica spent as much time walking as she did resting in a wheelchair) to see if she would dilate at all and went back inside desperately hoping she had, as the pain she was in seemed to only be getting worse. They got her back to her room and back in bed, and on her third contraction - the Doctor still hadn't come in - her water broke. She promptly announced this to the doctors - along with a request for an epidural, a request that was repeated every half hour for the rest of the night - and they admitted her on the spot, much to the relief of everyone in the room. This was about 2 AM in the morning. At this time, Jessica had dilated all the way to about 4-5.
At about three they finally gave her the epidural and the remainder of the night/morning passed without incident until about 8 AM. They came in and said that Jessica had been dilated to Nine, but there was a lip that was preventing the baby from being pushed out. We started pushing to clear the lip at 8 AM and didn't stop until 9:49 when the baby was finally arrived! Unfortunately, due to the fatigue I was unable to hold Jessica's hand up until this point - at 8 AM Emmy Bonja - who had stayed awake all night at the hospital with us, and Jessica and I had decided would be a blessing to have in the delivery room was able to spell me for the last hour, making sure to grab me (literally) and drag me (Also literally) to the table to watch the baby coming out. Which allowed me to see everything I wanted to see - and alot that I didn't!
Of course, the immediately put the baby atop Jessica, and he started bleeding out of his cord almost immediately. There was apparently a rupture inside the umbilical cord below where they had clamped it. It wasn't a problem for Baby Joshua, but they called the NICU as a precaution to have him checked anyway, even though they moved the clamp and stopped the bleeding.
(Authors Note: I heard the call for the NICU, but not the reason, and was completely unaware of the reasons for the call. I was not placing the NICU call with the Umbilical cord bleeding because our Kaiser Classes had prepared us so well for the possibility of cord bleeding that I was actually not worried about it at all. So when the NICU call came I almost had a heart attack and started praying immediately because I didn't know the reason for the call. Joshua was also so calm - if you can believe this - that for the first five minutes after he was born, he didn't cry, even though he was very much alert and alive. I remember watching his head turn as he tracked all around the room. I was very happy and pleased that he was looking around - but still convinced that he might be dead because he hadn't cried yet. I know, that's a little silly. But I'd been awake all night, I was also not worried because several times through myself I had to remind myself that Joshua and Jessica were both in God's hands, to do with as he pleased. I'm not to self-less to admit that I told God several times that he had exactly two hands, and one belonged with my wife and one belonged with my child even if it meant War somewhere else in the world. This is all abit silly since God has as many hands as he wants to have, but it accurately reflects my mood at the time so I felt like including it. And for the record, I would never want innocent to die just to keep my wife and child(ren) [there WILL be more, Jessica said so!] safe.).
They took the baby away from Jessica almost immediately as they waited for NICU to respond.
What's interesting to note is that at this point Jessica, her Mom, Emmy, Myself, and now Baby Joshua were all in the tiny little room - along with SIX nurses, and the Midwife who delivered the baby. When the NICU Team arrived (That's what they called it) there were 7 Nurses, the Midwife, and the Doctor, plus the five of us. How they all managed to function I will never know.
NICU arrived a few minutes later and laughed because the baby was fine. The cord had ruptured during delivery - they thought after birth - and he had absolutely nothing wrong with him. He just wasn't very fussy. He did start to fuss, and then stopped almost immediately when we started talking to him. He also started tracking and responding to people talking to him immediately to the shock of almost everyone in the room.
At this point we were all calmed by NICU and their response, and things proceded well from there. Official delivery time was 0949 - That's how the hospital rights it, Nine forty nine AM for you non-military people out there. He was 18.5 inches in length (and already seems to be growing taller) and 6 pounds 8.2 ounces. Our doctor (Linden, the nice older experianced one for those who recall silly stupid details I don't really NEED to share with you, and you don't really WANT to hear from me) had predicted this exact weight about four or five weeks ago.
He and Mommy are both doing very well, Jessica was up and moving around within several hours of her pregnancy while they moved her to her private room, which was much cleaner (Anecdote: Prior to the delivery we were informed by the nurses that some of our bags in the delivery room were in the "splash zone" which caused all of us to laugh, believing they were kidding, but they were quite serious. We moved all the bags in the areas they indicated and - I wish I'd thought to grab a picture of it - had any of them still been where we had them, they all would have been trimmed very nicely in a deep blood red.). Though the new room was also much smaller and much less comfortable (Especially for daddy, who slept all night on the floor rather then the three level bed-chair they had in the room for me).
We spent the night in the hospital and were both able to get some rest - Joshua was almost distressingly quiet - he did not wake me all night long. Jessica said he only fussed a little, and then only once. She said at one point she woke up (she had put the little clear crib thing Joshua was in right next to her bed) and he was staring through the plastic - wide awake - right at her. She had to wake up a few times to feed him (we are Breast Feeding) but he's quite a little angel most of the time. This morning they drew blood from him without a fuss, and from his heel for the PKU without a fuss either (he cried during his circumcision, but stopped when they did [we heard this second hand from the Nurse who was present) and completely ignored the shot they gave him this morning. I blame Jessica for his clam-ness - Force knows that part of him didn't come from me! - she was quite controlled during the pregnancy, and didn't shout or yell at anyone for all of it (except for yelling at the Nurse at one point to check her dilation).
Discharge went as smoothly as it possibly could have today, coupled with her mother being present to give us a hand at the hospital and for the first few hours we were home we've gotten some hands on experience (For which we are truly blessed) and she got to be very excited about being a grandmommy (yay!).
There are many other exciting stories about our trip to the hospital that I will make sure and share with you later - but for now I need to spend some time with my wife. (Meaning that BSG has finished tivoing and we've been eagerly waiting for the new episode. Clearly the Force (of God) had us in mind to get home in time to watch it tonight!
So for now, Goodnight from Jessica Joshua and Mark (Maybe I should change my name to Jark so we all start with a J. I'll have to think on that!) another update will be forthcoming as we give you news of how we're all adjusting to the now no longer pending role of being mother and father! (Maybe I will let Jessica write the next one!)
(Oh, and there's a picture attached, too!)
With Much Love for everyone,
Jessica, Mark, and Joshua
PS: Cindy, thank you for the book and for loaning us your mother for a few days! She was a big help, and the book will be too!
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