The News - Part II

If you are familiar with the picture on the previous post you will know that the blurry blob of a photo is of a rice grain sized organism currently residing in my wife's innards. Allow me to share some of the responses of people that have been informed of the news.

- "Oh CRAP!" (That was mine)
- "What are you crazy?!?"
- "You know...they have ways to prevent this from happening."
- "Congratulations?"
- "Are you nuts?"

If you weren't around us over 3 years ago you may not be aware of the terrible difficulty it was to get the evil one, I mean Erin, here. (She's getting better.) With Erin's pregnancy Mary Ann was pretty sick. She never made it onto official bed-rest, but she did plenty of time on the bed. Oh, and there was that occasional trip to the ER, the pick line inserted into her arm giving her the fluids and medication through 2 bags of IV a day, the blood clot the pick line caused the last month of pregnancy, which caused the need for blood thinner injections twice a day, and the inability for pain medication during the delivery due to the blood thinners.

The IV pole became part of the family during that time. Mary Ann couldn't part with it. She still hangs a stocking from it every year at Christmas. Through that rough pregnancy I was out of town a lot for work. It was hard. I was hoping to post some photos of Mar looking miserable during that last pregnancy, but I don't have any. I think she wouldn't let me take her photo or there just weren't that many "happy" occassions to think to bring a long a camera. Here' one of the only ones I could find. (That urine colored bag on the pole is IV fluid with vitamins and anti-nautia medication injected into it.)


Though we are both trying to stay pretty optimistic about this one, Mary Ann is already feeling the woes of pregnancy and is downing her fair share of anti-nautia pills. (Thank goodness it went generic and is probably 1/20th the price it used to be.) She already expects the "hookup" to become part of her daily routine again.

Its going to be a long 7 more months. No more eating out as a family. Oh yeah, Erin already ruined that with her allergies. No amusement parks as a family. Bad idea anyway. That may have been what turned Erin evil in the womb. And, oh yeah, the discussion about the third child and the dreaded words...mini....van. AAAHHHHHHHHHH!

The News

Something To Do While Sick

I have a confession to make. I've been sick for about the last week. (That's not the confession.) When your sick you don't feel like doing much. So there's usually a lot of daytime TV that gets watched on the first day that just makes you want to go back to work. So you go back to work the next day and find out your body isn't ready to go back to work and you end up taking another day off. You try to watch a movie or two that you've been wanting to catch up on.

Here's an alternative. Sure, reading a book, scriptures, or some other hobby might be more constructive. But (here's the confession) I've put in numerous hours watching Top Gear on youtube over the last couple of days. For those that don't know Top Gear is a british TV series on BBC America about cars. My brother Ed showed us this show once last year and I can't seem to get enough. We don't have BBC America so we resort to the wonderful youtube or you can go to their website. http://www.topgear.com/us/videos

I've put some youtube spots on the sidebar as well. Where else can you see guys launch cars like darts, race old mini-vans, play soccer with Minis, take a scary road trip through the south, race a bullet train through Japan, or ride Vespas through Vietnam. The outcome is hilarious. It by far is the best thing on TV, or the internet if you don't have the channel.

Even if you don't have apassion for cars, the presentation is great. Next time you are sick or just have time to kill, direct your youtube search to top gear usa, or top gear viet nam. It has some definite laugh out loud moments.

- Scott

Top Ten Things I Learned in 2008

10. How to blog. Yes I still have to ask Scott how to log in. I never said I was a blog master.
9. That construction on your home WILL take twice as long to complete as promised and WILL cost twice as much as you think it will. As such, our basement still sits unfinished!
8. That Erin really isn't evil, but food allergies will make you think that of her. (by the way, rice icecream is horribly expensive!)
7. That in our lovely city, you can go 2 months without mowing your lawn without getting a citation! There is the consequence of your neighbors not being able to sell their home as they would have liked. But it was so cool to prove that rye grass can grow past 24 inches.
6. Don't invest in the 2008 stock market - unless it's in rice ice cream.
5. That our 7 year old really doesn't understand why she cannot eat like a squirrel at the dinner table.
4. 20 gallons of different paints, primers, and undercoaters in an enclosed home is NOT a good idea. Now I understand why my father, the painter, is such a jolly guy all the time.
3. That we can actually enjoy a family vacation together again.
2. That Erin is never going to sleep through the night.
And the number one thing I learned in 2008........................
1. That the animal conspiracy is true and I think they've gotten to my 7 year old!!! See for yourself at www.vaguebuttrue.com
-Mary Ann:.)

All I want for Christmas is my tooth to fall out...

It's a little after Christmas but the tooth that Amanda wanted out has finally come out. She has had a hard time eating the last couple of days because the tooth was twisting around in her mouth. It finally dropped out today. Unless something miraculous happens we need to start budgeting for braces.