Or I could have with the money being spent on Elliots 5 day hospital stay. Over 16,000 dollars is getting billed to the insurance company! Thank God for double insurance coverage!!!
Still havnt gotten Crystals part of the bill yet...or we have and the amount was completely washed away when I saw his, I'm not sure.
It's back to work day for me today, :(
Part of me is happy to get back to working, the other 99.9% of me wants to stay home with mom and the baby. Oh well, I'll be only working 3 day work weeks from now til my vacation time runs out. Hopefully that will stretch out til May 1st or so..maybe longer I have to go back and recalculate since he came early and thru off my time line.
All is well with him and us, sure can tell he is growing just by looking at him, kinda scary, on the other hand, its just that much sooner I'll be able to get a golf club in his hands :)
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Just back from the 2 week check up...
And all is good! He's growing like a weed, 1.5 inches and 10 ounces, the doctor says he is doing just awesome for being so early. We knew he would, hes going to be a butt kicker for sure.
Nothing new to report otherwise here on the home front. I decided to say no to the airport job, too many cons to changing jobs right now. Hopefully with doing fire training things will improve for me, will give me something else to do during the day, that will be a nice change I think...I hope.
Had alittle fun w/ the camera today, thought I'd share it.
Nothing new to report otherwise here on the home front. I decided to say no to the airport job, too many cons to changing jobs right now. Hopefully with doing fire training things will improve for me, will give me something else to do during the day, that will be a nice change I think...I hope.
Had alittle fun w/ the camera today, thought I'd share it.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
1 Down, 9,687,421 to go...
Yesterday I got up and decided I'd get one of the things done on my "honey do" list around here. I've actually been doing lots of little stuff over the past 2 weeks. Inbetween diapers and bottles and stuff hasnt really allowed me to do anything big, but I told Crystal my plans and she was pretty excited to get it done so she silently agreed to take care of the boy while I worked.
And work I did, got started about 1030 in the morning, had to run a couple errands first then it was off to home depot. The first of 2 trips that day. Dont you just love Home Depot? Its one of the few remaining stores where you can go and walk past what you need 10 times and never see it. During those passes, your looking for someone to ask and point you in the right direction but they are never there, then when you finally do find someone, they end up standing right infront of the stuff you need...sigh.
I decided it was time to finish the family room. It's been painted, and repainted :), for at least 2 months now, all that was lacking was a new laundry room door and the trim around the doors and window, and baseboard trim.
I had figured on it being a long day, and I was ok with that, I wish it had gone alittle quicker, but I'm happy w/ the outcome of it anyway. The only down fall is that we have decided to use cedar boards around all the doors and windows. It looks awesome when its done, the only bad part is that none of the boards you go and buy are ever the same thickness. Someday I'll have a planner and can take everything down myself if needed, but thats many many moons from now. So at some of the corners, theres a little bit of a gap or one piece of trim is alittle taller than the other, nothing alittle putty and sand paper cant fix, but still.
I took before and after pictures, they are in the house work photo section over on the right here. It was 2330 when I took the "after" pix of stuff, I probably should have waited til I got up this morning to take them, but I think they turned out ok anyway. I'm no JB when it comes to taking pix, but sure wish I was, she does some good work. Someday I'll have to get myself a really good camera, I'm sure that helps alot.
Now that the room is done, we can go and get some blinds for the window and the sliding glass door. Next project will be to clean up the garage and the back patio, its time to start getting rid of some of this construction debris thats laying around all over the place. I plan on working on that all this week before I go back to work.
Speaking of work, the Airport has finally gotten back to me about a position out there, now its decision time I guess. So many pros and cons I cant decide if its something I want to go after or not. I guess I have time to think about it, which I do all the time now. Oh well, off to get some lunch then maybe a nap. Hope everyone is doing well.
And work I did, got started about 1030 in the morning, had to run a couple errands first then it was off to home depot. The first of 2 trips that day. Dont you just love Home Depot? Its one of the few remaining stores where you can go and walk past what you need 10 times and never see it. During those passes, your looking for someone to ask and point you in the right direction but they are never there, then when you finally do find someone, they end up standing right infront of the stuff you need...sigh.
I decided it was time to finish the family room. It's been painted, and repainted :), for at least 2 months now, all that was lacking was a new laundry room door and the trim around the doors and window, and baseboard trim.
I had figured on it being a long day, and I was ok with that, I wish it had gone alittle quicker, but I'm happy w/ the outcome of it anyway. The only down fall is that we have decided to use cedar boards around all the doors and windows. It looks awesome when its done, the only bad part is that none of the boards you go and buy are ever the same thickness. Someday I'll have a planner and can take everything down myself if needed, but thats many many moons from now. So at some of the corners, theres a little bit of a gap or one piece of trim is alittle taller than the other, nothing alittle putty and sand paper cant fix, but still.
I took before and after pictures, they are in the house work photo section over on the right here. It was 2330 when I took the "after" pix of stuff, I probably should have waited til I got up this morning to take them, but I think they turned out ok anyway. I'm no JB when it comes to taking pix, but sure wish I was, she does some good work. Someday I'll have to get myself a really good camera, I'm sure that helps alot.
Now that the room is done, we can go and get some blinds for the window and the sliding glass door. Next project will be to clean up the garage and the back patio, its time to start getting rid of some of this construction debris thats laying around all over the place. I plan on working on that all this week before I go back to work.
Speaking of work, the Airport has finally gotten back to me about a position out there, now its decision time I guess. So many pros and cons I cant decide if its something I want to go after or not. I guess I have time to think about it, which I do all the time now. Oh well, off to get some lunch then maybe a nap. Hope everyone is doing well.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Dish Network
Ok, couple entries ago I touched on our ordeal w/ the Dish network...it all finally came to a head today. Or at least I think it did.
Back in the middle of January, I called them up and said "I'm paid up til the 2nd of February, so I'd like to cancel my account. How do I get your recievers back to you folks?" Oh no problem sir, we will UPS you a couple boxes with return labels, just put your recievers inside and send them back to us, no cost to you. "Cool! ok, send the boxes, and I'll get them back to you ASAP", well sir, you will have to do it faster than that, we will have to have the recievers back in our posession by Feb 15th or we will charge 300 dollars for each one you have (we had 2). "ok, no problem, you get me the boxes and I'll get them on their way to you". Come February 10th, I still had no boxes, so I called them again. "yes, I called and canceled my account last month, was supposed to be getting some boxes to UPS back to you our recievers, but I still havnt gotten any boxes" ok, I see the request was entered but maybe the boxes didnt get sent. "Ok, thats going to be a problem then cause I'm not paying you guys 600 bucks since you didnt get the boxes to me on time" oh no, I'll extend out your time, the boxes will be there in 2 days. "ok, thanks". Later that very day...1 box arrived...but not 2. So, time to call them...again. "yes, I was supposed to have 2 boxes coming to me to ship back my recievers to you guys, but you only sent me 1 box" uh oh (that was an encouraging statement let me tell you) lets see if we can get you another one, will both recievers fit in the one box at all? "well, it will, but the 2nd one isnt going to have any kind of foam or padding around it at all. I'm more than willing to send it to you that way, but I'm not going to be held responsible for any damage thats caused in the shipping process" no, we wouldnt hold you responsible for that at all. Let me double check with my supervisor and see what he says.....4 mins pass....Ok sir, my supervisor says to just pack it in the same box as best you can and ship it out to us. "ok, but I want it on record again that I'm not going to be held responsible for any damage" no sir, thats on ups if its damaged. "ok, they are on the way then, I'm on my way to the UPS store." Great, thanks for being a dish network valued customer. "oh my pleasure....I guess". So I sent off the recievers, that was 2 days ago...today, a 2nd box showed up for the 2nd reciever...sigh. At least I know I'm not the only one not happy w/ their service, when I got to the UPS store, there were 3 other boxes waiting to be picked up going back to them. So now I have this dish attached to the house, that will be fun to take off, will probably wait til we redo the roof.
No funny/gross diaper stories today, was pretty uneventful around here today. Got some little stuff done around the house, which always feels good. Tomorrow I'm going to start finishing the family room, putting up trim and a new door into the laundry room. I decided to make another link on the side for all the house work we do, can keep them seperate from the pix of the little man, not much in there yet, will try and get some stuff in there of what we've done already.
Looks like we are going to get to bed before midnight tonight! Sweet! that means I'll be up by 6 freaking am! ugh...oh well, leaves more day light to get things done around the house :)
Bye for now.
Back in the middle of January, I called them up and said "I'm paid up til the 2nd of February, so I'd like to cancel my account. How do I get your recievers back to you folks?" Oh no problem sir, we will UPS you a couple boxes with return labels, just put your recievers inside and send them back to us, no cost to you. "Cool! ok, send the boxes, and I'll get them back to you ASAP", well sir, you will have to do it faster than that, we will have to have the recievers back in our posession by Feb 15th or we will charge 300 dollars for each one you have (we had 2). "ok, no problem, you get me the boxes and I'll get them on their way to you". Come February 10th, I still had no boxes, so I called them again. "yes, I called and canceled my account last month, was supposed to be getting some boxes to UPS back to you our recievers, but I still havnt gotten any boxes" ok, I see the request was entered but maybe the boxes didnt get sent. "Ok, thats going to be a problem then cause I'm not paying you guys 600 bucks since you didnt get the boxes to me on time" oh no, I'll extend out your time, the boxes will be there in 2 days. "ok, thanks". Later that very day...1 box arrived...but not 2. So, time to call them...again. "yes, I was supposed to have 2 boxes coming to me to ship back my recievers to you guys, but you only sent me 1 box" uh oh (that was an encouraging statement let me tell you) lets see if we can get you another one, will both recievers fit in the one box at all? "well, it will, but the 2nd one isnt going to have any kind of foam or padding around it at all. I'm more than willing to send it to you that way, but I'm not going to be held responsible for any damage thats caused in the shipping process" no, we wouldnt hold you responsible for that at all. Let me double check with my supervisor and see what he says.....4 mins pass....Ok sir, my supervisor says to just pack it in the same box as best you can and ship it out to us. "ok, but I want it on record again that I'm not going to be held responsible for any damage" no sir, thats on ups if its damaged. "ok, they are on the way then, I'm on my way to the UPS store." Great, thanks for being a dish network valued customer. "oh my pleasure....I guess". So I sent off the recievers, that was 2 days ago...today, a 2nd box showed up for the 2nd reciever...sigh. At least I know I'm not the only one not happy w/ their service, when I got to the UPS store, there were 3 other boxes waiting to be picked up going back to them. So now I have this dish attached to the house, that will be fun to take off, will probably wait til we redo the roof.
No funny/gross diaper stories today, was pretty uneventful around here today. Got some little stuff done around the house, which always feels good. Tomorrow I'm going to start finishing the family room, putting up trim and a new door into the laundry room. I decided to make another link on the side for all the house work we do, can keep them seperate from the pix of the little man, not much in there yet, will try and get some stuff in there of what we've done already.
Looks like we are going to get to bed before midnight tonight! Sweet! that means I'll be up by 6 freaking am! ugh...oh well, leaves more day light to get things done around the house :)
Bye for now.
Initiation...still not sure its a group I want to be in..but what can you do?
Overall I'd have to say I was having a good day. We got out and ran some errands today, actually got some stuff accomplished.
Then it happened...went to change lil Elliots diaper, no biggie, I've even gotten pretty quick at it. Started out like any other changing, checked inside to survey the damage, just a tiny little bit of poo in there, so got the old one off, was wiping his little tush when the flood gates opened. I had no idea so much poo could come out such a tiny spot. The best way I can describe it is well...you know how when you take a little pouch of ketchup from a fastfood place and you put it on the ground and step on one end and the ketchup goes flying out the other? Well, thats what happened, and when I say it went all over, it went all over...all over the couch, all over my hand, all over my other hand (I was trying to block it and lessen the damage, no such luck) all over my shirt, all over my pants, I think the only place that didnt get hit was my face (its all about the small victories!) 9 wipes later and I had a new diaper on him and could start cleaning myself up.
I wasnt to proud of the way I responded, I started yelling for Crystal to come and help, but she was all the way at the other end of the house behind 2 closed doors, and couldnt help me, sigh. So I yelled louder, and louder, and louder. Finally got him cleaned up and went running to the other end of the house w/ him and kept yelling, completly forgetting the fact that he had no idea what was going on, I think I might have scarred him alittle, which broke my heart after Crystal pointed it out to me, she said he had a little worried look on his face, which made her cry, which made me feel like even more of a dirt bag. Many appalogies later and I still felt like the poo I was covered in...warm and slimy :(
Its late and time for bed, maybe tomorrow I can get pee'd on and even get some throw up on me, then I can say I've done the hatrick!
Then it happened...went to change lil Elliots diaper, no biggie, I've even gotten pretty quick at it. Started out like any other changing, checked inside to survey the damage, just a tiny little bit of poo in there, so got the old one off, was wiping his little tush when the flood gates opened. I had no idea so much poo could come out such a tiny spot. The best way I can describe it is well...you know how when you take a little pouch of ketchup from a fastfood place and you put it on the ground and step on one end and the ketchup goes flying out the other? Well, thats what happened, and when I say it went all over, it went all over...all over the couch, all over my hand, all over my other hand (I was trying to block it and lessen the damage, no such luck) all over my shirt, all over my pants, I think the only place that didnt get hit was my face (its all about the small victories!) 9 wipes later and I had a new diaper on him and could start cleaning myself up.
I wasnt to proud of the way I responded, I started yelling for Crystal to come and help, but she was all the way at the other end of the house behind 2 closed doors, and couldnt help me, sigh. So I yelled louder, and louder, and louder. Finally got him cleaned up and went running to the other end of the house w/ him and kept yelling, completly forgetting the fact that he had no idea what was going on, I think I might have scarred him alittle, which broke my heart after Crystal pointed it out to me, she said he had a little worried look on his face, which made her cry, which made me feel like even more of a dirt bag. Many appalogies later and I still felt like the poo I was covered in...warm and slimy :(
Its late and time for bed, maybe tomorrow I can get pee'd on and even get some throw up on me, then I can say I've done the hatrick!
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
As promised
Just a quick update, got a photo album set up finally. Link over on the right hand side now at the top of the links section.
Took me a couple days to figure out what service to use, but in the end I think this one will be cool, looks like it gives the option for anyone to order up a print if they'd like. Kind of a cool option for grandparents and what not. Will get some more photos uploaded later today as time permits.
Took me a couple days to figure out what service to use, but in the end I think this one will be cool, looks like it gives the option for anyone to order up a print if they'd like. Kind of a cool option for grandparents and what not. Will get some more photos uploaded later today as time permits.
Monday, February 13, 2006
Dare I say a return to normal?
Normal is a realative term around here...I do live w/ Crystal after all hehe.
Managed to get lots done today while the boy was sleeping, mowed the lawn, finished cutting up all the garbage trim we tore out of the house, got the satelitte dish down to send back to the Dishtv clowns (I'll probably have a post dedicated to these jokers when I get it all resolved). My little brother and his wife (also named Crystal...) stopped by to see us today too...actually he let me borrow his ladder, so he had no choice, I didnt want to go buy a ladder today :) Thanks bro!
Tommorow we have 2 doctors appointments to go to. Will be Elliot's first pediatric visit, hopefully they will tell us all is good and he is packing on weight, pretty sure he is, seems to be filling out pretty good already, all his little fat rolls are there, they just need some fat in them.
Sat down and did my taxes today too, yeah!!! a return! thats at least 1 more month Crystal can be off work, that makes me happy...jealous too, but for the most part just happy. The time off will be great for her and awesome for the baby, he gets to have mom pamper him for a good long time...lucky little turd!
Its late, so off to bed now for a few hours anyway :)
Managed to get lots done today while the boy was sleeping, mowed the lawn, finished cutting up all the garbage trim we tore out of the house, got the satelitte dish down to send back to the Dishtv clowns (I'll probably have a post dedicated to these jokers when I get it all resolved). My little brother and his wife (also named Crystal...) stopped by to see us today too...actually he let me borrow his ladder, so he had no choice, I didnt want to go buy a ladder today :) Thanks bro!
Tommorow we have 2 doctors appointments to go to. Will be Elliot's first pediatric visit, hopefully they will tell us all is good and he is packing on weight, pretty sure he is, seems to be filling out pretty good already, all his little fat rolls are there, they just need some fat in them.
Sat down and did my taxes today too, yeah!!! a return! thats at least 1 more month Crystal can be off work, that makes me happy...jealous too, but for the most part just happy. The time off will be great for her and awesome for the baby, he gets to have mom pamper him for a good long time...lucky little turd!
Its late, so off to bed now for a few hours anyway :)
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Day 1: Under siege
Ok, so it wasnt really that bad. I tried to tell myself I wouldnt be one of those parents that was always jumping up to check on him, is he still breathing, what was that noise, did he throw up and now he's choking? Good lord, not only did I do it, I did it for almost 4 hours before I finally went to sleep! Still, I feel more rested now after 5 hours of sleep than I have all week. He has moments when he is a really fussy eater, sometimes he wants to eat right thru the bottle, sometimes he tries to push the bottle out of his mouth. I think psychologically we are still kinda hooked on the nurses schedule of feeding him every 3 hours, sometimes he just doesnt want that. We will learn, we have no choice.
Diapers: Oh boy! I've never seen such an assortment of colors come out of such a tiny little hole. Thank goodness they dont stink! Or is it just that my allergies are so bad and I cant smell them? Either way, score for me!
I'm alittle surprised at how quickly his "pencil sharpening" is healing up. They have us covering it w/ a vaseline covered quaze pad everytime we change his diaper, I would have thought all that moisture wouldnt allow it to heal up so good, but its doing the trick pretty well. Whats left of the ambilical cord is just about ready to come off also I think, not sure how I'll handle that one, hopefully it happens when Crystal is changing him =:)
Lots to get done today, and kitties are howling in the hallway while Crystal and Elliot are trying to sleep, so I have to go beat them into submission now.
Diapers: Oh boy! I've never seen such an assortment of colors come out of such a tiny little hole. Thank goodness they dont stink! Or is it just that my allergies are so bad and I cant smell them? Either way, score for me!
I'm alittle surprised at how quickly his "pencil sharpening" is healing up. They have us covering it w/ a vaseline covered quaze pad everytime we change his diaper, I would have thought all that moisture wouldnt allow it to heal up so good, but its doing the trick pretty well. Whats left of the ambilical cord is just about ready to come off also I think, not sure how I'll handle that one, hopefully it happens when Crystal is changing him =:)
Lots to get done today, and kitties are howling in the hallway while Crystal and Elliot are trying to sleep, so I have to go beat them into submission now.
Friday, February 10, 2006
The journey home....
Finally!!! 5 stinking days holed up in the nursery and they finally let our boy come home! Good thing too, cause I was ready to start tunneling to free him!
Everyone talks about how little sleep you get w/ a new born...and while its too early to say "its not so bad", let me just tell you this, with him being home now, at least we get the chance to sleep when he sleeps...not an option we had while he was in the hospital nursery.
This wasnt your average, old school type nursery, this place was straight out of the sick bay on the star ship enterprise. Various stuff plugged into the wall and hanging all over the place, cupboards, drawers, nooks and crannies to store things. Every kid gets their own little "suite" if you will, that part was nice. Up until about 2 months ago, the hospital still had the old style nursery, one big room that you had to look at the kids thru a window at...lame. Anyway, someone came along and donated 2.5 million bucks to the hospital so they could build a new facility, and they used up every penny of that money making one sweet place. However, not alot of concern was given to the parents that might be coming and staying with their sick/premmie baby. Dont get me wrong, their staff (except for a couple nazi nurses) were awesome, very caring and helpful to new nervous parents :) The EKG machine that they had him hooked up too gave them a 24/7 view of what was going on w/ him, including heart rate, respirations per minute and blood O2 levels. Now this wasnt a bad thing, however, the machine is set up so that any nurse thats working in the unit, can actually monitor other babies from any other room in the place...how do they monitor it? With this really cool sounding alarm, with 15 rooms full of babies that were in there for some kind of problem or another, how many times you think that thing goes off in an hour? Heres a better way to think about it, how many times you think its quiet in an hour! There was a small couch in the room that probably could have supplied a decent enough nap...if the gong show wasnt going off all the time. I think its great that the nurses have the ability to virtually be in 2 places at the same time, but come on, if mom and dad in room 8 (our room) want to take a nap...just set the alarm for their baby, if it goes off we will come and get you, otherwise, we dont need to know that baby in room 1's heart rate just went 2 beats per minute over the average.
Ok, enough about that...its water under the bridge, see I can let things go :)
The ride home was pretty non eventful, dont think I've ever driven that safely in my entire life, but thats ok, will probably save myself some gas that way :)
The kitties arent quite sure what to think about lil Elliot, he makes some weird noises for just looking like a comfy bundle of blankets to sleep on, so for the most part they pretty much stay away from him. We had him down for a nap earlier and used our little baby monitor that we got as a gift from someone at work (thanks LF) and that freaked them out when all of a sudden this little box was making the same noises as that bundle of blankets was...good entertainment, and cheap too! Which is a good thing since the tub of formula we had to go get to boost moms milk w/ extra calories was 15 dollars! No wonder that stuff gets sold on the black market, its worth its weight in gold!
Well, the lil turd is just about due to be fed again, so I'm off to help out w/ that then its time for a much needed nap! For everyone thats sent messages and emails, text messages and voice mail, thank you for all the well wishes and what not, if I dont respond its not cause I dont like ya, just busy w/ other stuff as you might imagine. Will write again soon.
Everyone talks about how little sleep you get w/ a new born...and while its too early to say "its not so bad", let me just tell you this, with him being home now, at least we get the chance to sleep when he sleeps...not an option we had while he was in the hospital nursery.
This wasnt your average, old school type nursery, this place was straight out of the sick bay on the star ship enterprise. Various stuff plugged into the wall and hanging all over the place, cupboards, drawers, nooks and crannies to store things. Every kid gets their own little "suite" if you will, that part was nice. Up until about 2 months ago, the hospital still had the old style nursery, one big room that you had to look at the kids thru a window at...lame. Anyway, someone came along and donated 2.5 million bucks to the hospital so they could build a new facility, and they used up every penny of that money making one sweet place. However, not alot of concern was given to the parents that might be coming and staying with their sick/premmie baby. Dont get me wrong, their staff (except for a couple nazi nurses) were awesome, very caring and helpful to new nervous parents :) The EKG machine that they had him hooked up too gave them a 24/7 view of what was going on w/ him, including heart rate, respirations per minute and blood O2 levels. Now this wasnt a bad thing, however, the machine is set up so that any nurse thats working in the unit, can actually monitor other babies from any other room in the place...how do they monitor it? With this really cool sounding alarm, with 15 rooms full of babies that were in there for some kind of problem or another, how many times you think that thing goes off in an hour? Heres a better way to think about it, how many times you think its quiet in an hour! There was a small couch in the room that probably could have supplied a decent enough nap...if the gong show wasnt going off all the time. I think its great that the nurses have the ability to virtually be in 2 places at the same time, but come on, if mom and dad in room 8 (our room) want to take a nap...just set the alarm for their baby, if it goes off we will come and get you, otherwise, we dont need to know that baby in room 1's heart rate just went 2 beats per minute over the average.
Ok, enough about that...its water under the bridge, see I can let things go :)
The ride home was pretty non eventful, dont think I've ever driven that safely in my entire life, but thats ok, will probably save myself some gas that way :)
The kitties arent quite sure what to think about lil Elliot, he makes some weird noises for just looking like a comfy bundle of blankets to sleep on, so for the most part they pretty much stay away from him. We had him down for a nap earlier and used our little baby monitor that we got as a gift from someone at work (thanks LF) and that freaked them out when all of a sudden this little box was making the same noises as that bundle of blankets was...good entertainment, and cheap too! Which is a good thing since the tub of formula we had to go get to boost moms milk w/ extra calories was 15 dollars! No wonder that stuff gets sold on the black market, its worth its weight in gold!
Well, the lil turd is just about due to be fed again, so I'm off to help out w/ that then its time for a much needed nap! For everyone thats sent messages and emails, text messages and voice mail, thank you for all the well wishes and what not, if I dont respond its not cause I dont like ya, just busy w/ other stuff as you might imagine. Will write again soon.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Family, friends and "who the hell was that?"
FAMILY
I'm not sure what it was, tv, books, active imagination...but all thru my young adult life, especially the older I got, a strong sense of family became something in life I really wanted. The gatherings at the holidays, or just gathering to gather. It didn't matter to me, so long as it was family. The very first time I got to meet Crystals family, I was, or at least it felt like I was, accepted right away. I was still nervous to be around them cause part of me just wasn't sure, but in the last 2 and a half years, that's pretty much gone now when I'm around them. Every time we get together, it feels like I always pictured it growing up and into an adult. With Elliot getting here, it became very evident to me that this is a family that will do whatever, whenever its needed. The rallying of support has been non stop, and much appreciated. With out fear of sounding like a puss, its a nice warm and fuzzy feeling all over :)
FRIENDS
Or maybe a better term would be "extended family". I've learned in a hurry there are just a limited amount of types of people. Those that you know, and those that you go out of your way to know. Its amazing to me how some people can be so giving and loving. For instance, an officer friend that I occasionally chat with over the computers at work, out of the blue made sure his phone number was passed along to me thru 2 others of my coworkers. So I called him and talked to him, he asked what hospital we were in and if it would be ok to show up and say hi, so of course I told him sure...Who am I to deny someone from seeing the cutest kid alive? Now keep in mind, this is a person I've met in person 1 time, for a total of about 20 seconds, I was riding along one night w/ another officer friend and we met up in a parking lot, shook hands and then he got a call and we didn't a chance to talk again that night. So here he comes and shows up at the hospital w/ his daughter in tow (who by the way wasn't far behind Elliot in the cutest kid ever list) totting a case of diapers and a case of baby wipes and a dozen flowers for Crystal. Pal, you scored HUGE points with me on that one, not cause of the gifts, but cause of the thought.
While that was a big gesture, a larger one hit earlier that day. A couple other friends of ours came up, R and S (the names have been left out to protect the guilty, er...innocent..something). A little back ground on R and S, R used to work with Crystal and I, S is a Portland police officer. These 2 people are so F'ing nice, it blows me away. They are so high on the nice scale, the clown in 3rd place could be considered an Ahole. Yes, they are that nice. They showed up with a card that Crystal opened and set down, thank god I didn't open it and read it in front of them, cause when I finally did, I balled like a baby...there, I said it, I really do have feelings. Inside this card was written that they wanted to be our "slaves for a day", now that in and of itself may not sound like much, but it sure felt like the world to me. That's better than any material gift, the offer to just "lend a hand", huge guys, huge! We had talked and you had mentioned it to me, but at the time for whatever reason (probably cause I was worried about the whole pump fiasco) it just didn't sink in till I read the card later after you'd left...and for that I'm sorry, I should have taken a breath and thought about your offer when you said it out loud so I could have told you in person how much that meant to me. For the 2nd time in this post, I'm going to expose my heart again...I love you guys, seriously, if you guys ever need anything I better be the first person you think to call, cause I assure you, I'll be there.
"Who the Hell was that?
Relatives I've never met from Crystals side of the family have been coming out of the woodwork to see Elliot, and who can blame them really (see the cutest kid ever comment above). I wonder if this is what those people that win the lottery feel like, "Hi, I'm your cousin twice removed on your dead great uncles side of the family, how the hell are ya!" um...good I guess...who are you again? 2nd cousin twice removed from who? Do you have a diagram that explains that, I'm a little tired and cant seem to figure it out on my own right now.
Elliot Update:
The little bugger is kicking ass and taking names..or he would be if he could get up and walk, and use his opposable thumbs. He is eating really really well now and putting on weight. The IV is out so now he just has his EKG,breaths per minute, and O2 saturation monitors on him, which I don't think he really needs, but whatever, the insurance is picking up the tab so the hospital might as well milk it for all its worth. The Dr. told us today that so long as he keeps putting on weight, he should get to come home sometime Friday. WOOT!!! Hopefully this weekend I'll get a link set up on the main page to take folks to a picture gallery.
I'm not sure what it was, tv, books, active imagination...but all thru my young adult life, especially the older I got, a strong sense of family became something in life I really wanted. The gatherings at the holidays, or just gathering to gather. It didn't matter to me, so long as it was family. The very first time I got to meet Crystals family, I was, or at least it felt like I was, accepted right away. I was still nervous to be around them cause part of me just wasn't sure, but in the last 2 and a half years, that's pretty much gone now when I'm around them. Every time we get together, it feels like I always pictured it growing up and into an adult. With Elliot getting here, it became very evident to me that this is a family that will do whatever, whenever its needed. The rallying of support has been non stop, and much appreciated. With out fear of sounding like a puss, its a nice warm and fuzzy feeling all over :)
FRIENDS
Or maybe a better term would be "extended family". I've learned in a hurry there are just a limited amount of types of people. Those that you know, and those that you go out of your way to know. Its amazing to me how some people can be so giving and loving. For instance, an officer friend that I occasionally chat with over the computers at work, out of the blue made sure his phone number was passed along to me thru 2 others of my coworkers. So I called him and talked to him, he asked what hospital we were in and if it would be ok to show up and say hi, so of course I told him sure...Who am I to deny someone from seeing the cutest kid alive? Now keep in mind, this is a person I've met in person 1 time, for a total of about 20 seconds, I was riding along one night w/ another officer friend and we met up in a parking lot, shook hands and then he got a call and we didn't a chance to talk again that night. So here he comes and shows up at the hospital w/ his daughter in tow (who by the way wasn't far behind Elliot in the cutest kid ever list) totting a case of diapers and a case of baby wipes and a dozen flowers for Crystal. Pal, you scored HUGE points with me on that one, not cause of the gifts, but cause of the thought.
While that was a big gesture, a larger one hit earlier that day. A couple other friends of ours came up, R and S (the names have been left out to protect the guilty, er...innocent..something). A little back ground on R and S, R used to work with Crystal and I, S is a Portland police officer. These 2 people are so F'ing nice, it blows me away. They are so high on the nice scale, the clown in 3rd place could be considered an Ahole. Yes, they are that nice. They showed up with a card that Crystal opened and set down, thank god I didn't open it and read it in front of them, cause when I finally did, I balled like a baby...there, I said it, I really do have feelings. Inside this card was written that they wanted to be our "slaves for a day", now that in and of itself may not sound like much, but it sure felt like the world to me. That's better than any material gift, the offer to just "lend a hand", huge guys, huge! We had talked and you had mentioned it to me, but at the time for whatever reason (probably cause I was worried about the whole pump fiasco) it just didn't sink in till I read the card later after you'd left...and for that I'm sorry, I should have taken a breath and thought about your offer when you said it out loud so I could have told you in person how much that meant to me. For the 2nd time in this post, I'm going to expose my heart again...I love you guys, seriously, if you guys ever need anything I better be the first person you think to call, cause I assure you, I'll be there.
"Who the Hell was that?
Relatives I've never met from Crystals side of the family have been coming out of the woodwork to see Elliot, and who can blame them really (see the cutest kid ever comment above). I wonder if this is what those people that win the lottery feel like, "Hi, I'm your cousin twice removed on your dead great uncles side of the family, how the hell are ya!" um...good I guess...who are you again? 2nd cousin twice removed from who? Do you have a diagram that explains that, I'm a little tired and cant seem to figure it out on my own right now.
Elliot Update:
The little bugger is kicking ass and taking names..or he would be if he could get up and walk, and use his opposable thumbs. He is eating really really well now and putting on weight. The IV is out so now he just has his EKG,breaths per minute, and O2 saturation monitors on him, which I don't think he really needs, but whatever, the insurance is picking up the tab so the hospital might as well milk it for all its worth. The Dr. told us today that so long as he keeps putting on weight, he should get to come home sometime Friday. WOOT!!! Hopefully this weekend I'll get a link set up on the main page to take folks to a picture gallery.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Written Monday Feb 6th at 01:45
Elliot Michael, born Feburary 5th and 01:09, 5 lbs 3 oz’s, 17.5 inches long. He came 5 weeks early, but so far he is doing very well according to staff. We were all worried he wouldn’t be able to come out and start breathing on his own right away, but as soon as Crystal gave that last push and he popped out, he started crying right away which was a HUGE relief. Being so little and so early he is still working on the whole eating/drinking/sucking thing, but made huge strides in that today. He started out this morning taking some formula from a cup but was spitting most of it back up, next feeding he tried w/ a bottle and the same result, finally this afternoon, his 2nd bottle…he drank all that the doctor wanted him to get down, and he kept it down! YEAH!!
The birthing center is packed w/ people…apparently July was a hot month and people stayed inside to stay out of the heat After a few hours of trying to find a pump so Crystal could try and get some colostrum (spelling) for the little guy, we finally got some to him and he got that in his most recent bottle and will again at his next feeding. Every nurse that’s seen what Crystal has been able to produce so far in that area is just amazed. Which means super good things for the baby, he’s getting moms good stuff! He is still having some trouble latching on, but he’s my boy, he will figure out that boob is a good thing soon enough! hehehe.
All growing up my Dad was my hero, sorry pop, you’re now #2. Crystal is now my #1. I’ve never seen anyone do such an amazing thing in my entire life. She has done so incredibly well I cant possibly put it into words…but I’ll try.
Labor started for her Saturday at about 1500, but she didn’t know it was starting. She actually went to work! I was already there when she came in, so she came over and told me she didn’t feel to good and was having funny “feelings” in her stomach. We both gave opinions of what it might be and she plugged into the phones at work to listen to everyone else’s problems while she sat and suffered. After 2 hours of that, she decided to call it quits and head home, I made her promise to call the birthing center when she got home and see what they suggested. I got a message from her saying they told her to take a nice warm shower then try and lay down for an hour and see if that helped, if not, come in and they would check her out. About and hour later, I got another text message “time to come home, I don’t want to be alone anymore and I think its time to go in”. 3 broken land speed records later, I pulled into the driveway, scarred, nervous and excited, but trying not to show it. I don’t think I did a very good job of it. We slammed together an overnight bag just in case (something we were planning on getting ready this weekend) and an hour later, we were on our way to the hospital. Being so early we were thinking it was going to be Braxton hicks contractions or something, she’d get a shot of some “make it stop” drug and we’d be sent home. After an hour of being in the “triage” area of the birth center, the nurse decided to do a pelvic exam and see what was going on. After the gloves were on the nurse and the blanket pulled back, the words I’ll never forget, “oh, your dialated about 8 centimeters, you’re having a baby!”. Instant panic behind Crystals and my own eyes, “he’s too early!”, “baby says otherwise” came the nurses voice again, “time to get you admitted, and in a hurry”. After the epideral was in and working, Crystal finally said, “I think I need to push now”, 10 contractions later, we were parents. She was absolutely amazing thru the hole process, she was even laughing and joking between contractions! I think I’m getting married to wonder woman! I was all set for the horror story labor session where I would be called every nasty word in the book…to be honest, it was alittle bit of a let down, but then we could see his head coming out, then the back of his head, then the top of his neck and the doctor turned his head and there was his face, my god he was gorgeous, next to Crystal the most beautiful thing I’d ever laid my eyes on! What a fantastic gift God gives us, so much instantaneous overwhelming love for a person we don’t even know. Right there on the spot with out warning, I was ready to kill anyone or anything that might try and do him harm. That’s an easy sentence for me to sit and write, but I don’t think I’ve ever said a more truthful statement about myself, its just a feeling in your bones that comes out of no where, this is my child, I’ll do whatever, whenever and however I have to too protect him. Evidence of this came just 20 minutes later as I watched a nurse try and draw blood from one of his tiny little veins, it wasn’t her fault and I wish I could find her again and tell her sorry, but the vein kept rolling away from the needle, so she just left the needle in and worked it around to try and get it, I could only stand about 15 seconds of watching this as he is balling his head off the more she moves the needle around “how bout you try a different spot instead of digging for china” comes flying out of my mouth and dead silence (except for the baby screaming) fills the room…even the heart monitor shut up for my split second of wrath. I didn’t even feel sorry for saying it until just now as I write this, oh well, I’m sure I’m not the first dad to freak out that his child was being hurt at the hands of a complete stranger.
The flood of emotions, along with about 4 hours of sleep over the last 48 hours has me seeing double of my double visions, so I’m going to shut this thing off for now and try to get some sleep. Crystal “might” get released later today, if not tomorrow, but little Elliot has to stay for a week or until he puts on some weight and can show every one that he will eat and keep it down. Updates will start coming pretty regularly to the site, so if you enjoy watching a grown man weep like a school girl with a scraped knee, or just want to share him growing up with us and cant do it in person a lot, stick around, I have a feeling its going to be a fantastic ride.
Elliot Michael, born Feburary 5th and 01:09, 5 lbs 3 oz’s, 17.5 inches long. He came 5 weeks early, but so far he is doing very well according to staff. We were all worried he wouldn’t be able to come out and start breathing on his own right away, but as soon as Crystal gave that last push and he popped out, he started crying right away which was a HUGE relief. Being so little and so early he is still working on the whole eating/drinking/sucking thing, but made huge strides in that today. He started out this morning taking some formula from a cup but was spitting most of it back up, next feeding he tried w/ a bottle and the same result, finally this afternoon, his 2nd bottle…he drank all that the doctor wanted him to get down, and he kept it down! YEAH!!
The birthing center is packed w/ people…apparently July was a hot month and people stayed inside to stay out of the heat After a few hours of trying to find a pump so Crystal could try and get some colostrum (spelling) for the little guy, we finally got some to him and he got that in his most recent bottle and will again at his next feeding. Every nurse that’s seen what Crystal has been able to produce so far in that area is just amazed. Which means super good things for the baby, he’s getting moms good stuff! He is still having some trouble latching on, but he’s my boy, he will figure out that boob is a good thing soon enough! hehehe.
All growing up my Dad was my hero, sorry pop, you’re now #2. Crystal is now my #1. I’ve never seen anyone do such an amazing thing in my entire life. She has done so incredibly well I cant possibly put it into words…but I’ll try.
Labor started for her Saturday at about 1500, but she didn’t know it was starting. She actually went to work! I was already there when she came in, so she came over and told me she didn’t feel to good and was having funny “feelings” in her stomach. We both gave opinions of what it might be and she plugged into the phones at work to listen to everyone else’s problems while she sat and suffered. After 2 hours of that, she decided to call it quits and head home, I made her promise to call the birthing center when she got home and see what they suggested. I got a message from her saying they told her to take a nice warm shower then try and lay down for an hour and see if that helped, if not, come in and they would check her out. About and hour later, I got another text message “time to come home, I don’t want to be alone anymore and I think its time to go in”. 3 broken land speed records later, I pulled into the driveway, scarred, nervous and excited, but trying not to show it. I don’t think I did a very good job of it. We slammed together an overnight bag just in case (something we were planning on getting ready this weekend) and an hour later, we were on our way to the hospital. Being so early we were thinking it was going to be Braxton hicks contractions or something, she’d get a shot of some “make it stop” drug and we’d be sent home. After an hour of being in the “triage” area of the birth center, the nurse decided to do a pelvic exam and see what was going on. After the gloves were on the nurse and the blanket pulled back, the words I’ll never forget, “oh, your dialated about 8 centimeters, you’re having a baby!”. Instant panic behind Crystals and my own eyes, “he’s too early!”, “baby says otherwise” came the nurses voice again, “time to get you admitted, and in a hurry”. After the epideral was in and working, Crystal finally said, “I think I need to push now”, 10 contractions later, we were parents. She was absolutely amazing thru the hole process, she was even laughing and joking between contractions! I think I’m getting married to wonder woman! I was all set for the horror story labor session where I would be called every nasty word in the book…to be honest, it was alittle bit of a let down, but then we could see his head coming out, then the back of his head, then the top of his neck and the doctor turned his head and there was his face, my god he was gorgeous, next to Crystal the most beautiful thing I’d ever laid my eyes on! What a fantastic gift God gives us, so much instantaneous overwhelming love for a person we don’t even know. Right there on the spot with out warning, I was ready to kill anyone or anything that might try and do him harm. That’s an easy sentence for me to sit and write, but I don’t think I’ve ever said a more truthful statement about myself, its just a feeling in your bones that comes out of no where, this is my child, I’ll do whatever, whenever and however I have to too protect him. Evidence of this came just 20 minutes later as I watched a nurse try and draw blood from one of his tiny little veins, it wasn’t her fault and I wish I could find her again and tell her sorry, but the vein kept rolling away from the needle, so she just left the needle in and worked it around to try and get it, I could only stand about 15 seconds of watching this as he is balling his head off the more she moves the needle around “how bout you try a different spot instead of digging for china” comes flying out of my mouth and dead silence (except for the baby screaming) fills the room…even the heart monitor shut up for my split second of wrath. I didn’t even feel sorry for saying it until just now as I write this, oh well, I’m sure I’m not the first dad to freak out that his child was being hurt at the hands of a complete stranger.
The flood of emotions, along with about 4 hours of sleep over the last 48 hours has me seeing double of my double visions, so I’m going to shut this thing off for now and try to get some sleep. Crystal “might” get released later today, if not tomorrow, but little Elliot has to stay for a week or until he puts on some weight and can show every one that he will eat and keep it down. Updates will start coming pretty regularly to the site, so if you enjoy watching a grown man weep like a school girl with a scraped knee, or just want to share him growing up with us and cant do it in person a lot, stick around, I have a feeling its going to be a fantastic ride.
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Ok, one more quick post before bed time, when we moved into the house, having our computers seperated was one of our big concerns. With Crystal taking her online courses for school, we figured it wouldnt be such a hot idea to have our computers in the same room anymore, apparently she thinks my yelling things like "oh thats f**king bulls**t" or "I cant believe that so and so did that" or just plain "F**K!" while playing my online games (link on the right side to my stats page) wouldnt be a good idea. So...in the spare room, which also became the sewing room, I took the closet doors off and turned it into a computer alcove, built and stained the desktop and shelves myself, came out pretty good I think. Even made a couple shelves below the desktop, one to hold the computer, and another to hold the obnoxiously loud woofer for my surround sound speakers :)
Time to show off some stuff....
Ok, as promised, an update! woot! I'm already ahead more than I did w/ the old website!
This was some work we did wayyyy back in October. I had, what I like to think of anyway, a very good friend come up and help me do the work, he took the photos (which might explain the fuzzy one, hehehe) and we had a good time, I ended up replacing the other sliding glass door in the master bedroom too, after learning how to best get this one out, that one went in like butter on toast, fast and easy! It was an instant difference in the heating of the house once these doors got replaced, the master bedroom one was so bad if you pushed on the stationary pane of door you could actually see daylight at the edges...its true they dont make houses like they did back in the 60's, and in most cases, I think thats a good thing. More photos and updates to follow, stay tuned.
This was some work we did wayyyy back in October. I had, what I like to think of anyway, a very good friend come up and help me do the work, he took the photos (which might explain the fuzzy one, hehehe) and we had a good time, I ended up replacing the other sliding glass door in the master bedroom too, after learning how to best get this one out, that one went in like butter on toast, fast and easy! It was an instant difference in the heating of the house once these doors got replaced, the master bedroom one was so bad if you pushed on the stationary pane of door you could actually see daylight at the edges...its true they dont make houses like they did back in the 60's, and in most cases, I think thats a good thing. More photos and updates to follow, stay tuned.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Making changes...
Ok, so as some (or most?) of you will know, I hardly ever updated the old website. It was very time consuming to do so and very limited on what I could do over there....not sure if that was due to the hosting service, or my limitied webpage abilities :)
Anyway, this will allow me to post more regularly and have a few more options as to what I can do, adding photos will be much easier, and I can post new things quickly and not take 3 hours to get it done.
So, stick around for some fun updates, things have been moving along pretty quickly recently here at the house, its amazing what a little fear will do to you...it sure lit a fire under my butt to get things done around here before Elliot arrives. I'll go take some pix of some new stuff now and get them posted on here in alittle bit.
Anyway, this will allow me to post more regularly and have a few more options as to what I can do, adding photos will be much easier, and I can post new things quickly and not take 3 hours to get it done.
So, stick around for some fun updates, things have been moving along pretty quickly recently here at the house, its amazing what a little fear will do to you...it sure lit a fire under my butt to get things done around here before Elliot arrives. I'll go take some pix of some new stuff now and get them posted on here in alittle bit.
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