What I love to see... What I hate to see

It really needs no explanation. In fact, I would bet just about anything you can guess which one I love and which one I hate.


I begged my niece Becca to come be my slave for the evening so I could get some stuff ready for Sunday. Thankfully, she's both easy to bribe and an insanely good worker. I may actually make some progress today if we work together! Hooray! :)

Shorter posts

I've decided that it's harder to keep up on all the blogs I read when the posts are long. They may be interesting, but it's just a little overwhelming when there are 30+ really long posts.

As such, I will try really hard to make my posts shorter. And still keep them interesting.

So here's what's up...

Felix finally started walking last week. He's not a pro yet, but it's his favorite game.
Yesterday I had a great birthday.
The pregnancy is going well. My official due date is January 2. The hormones come and go so I don't constantly feel like I'm going to cry. Just often. :)
I'm reading The Host and loving it.
I saw Indiana Jones and it was great.

I may get slightly more involved than that in the future, but I will still try to keep it simple.

I love you all!

In a funk

I really want to blame it on the pregnancy hormones. I hate feeling this annoyed at everything. And ready to cry at the drop of a hat. And so exhausted that I hurt all over. Then there's the having to wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. My sleep already sucks.

"Normal" isn't really comforting anymore.

We're going to look at beds. I need something comfortable to rest my bones on for 10-12 hours a night. Not even joking. I'm even taking my restless leg medicine. Of course, it could be the pregnancy that's messing with the legs too.

I feel like the walking dead here. How am I supposed to get through a summer with a toddler who won't sit still for two seconds?

And? They called me to the nursery. I'm thinking it's going to be a long summer. And not in the good sense.

Another day, another trip to the doctor

Felix has another double ear infection. Sigh. This makes number 4 and 5 in the past month and a half. So we're trying an even stronger antibiotic, and the doc said to give him albuterol treatments twice a day for the next two weeks as well since he's still wheezing a little bit from the last hospital stay.

We had dinner in the oven when dad and LD (he and his wife have been living with us since last summer) tripped all the electricity in the house. And since we had no idea how long it would last and we were babysitting two very energetic kids (their parents were off seeing Indiana Jones), we just packed up the car and went to Carl's Jr. The kids had tons of fun playing in the play zone thinghy and we didn't have to worry about dinner or entertaining them.

I had gone to Wal-Mart earlier today for Felix's new prescription and I saw something I just had to have, so after dinner we stopped off at Wal-Mart.
On our meander around the store, I got this little gem on my phone camera:
Oh yeah, the pregnancy is now official. Not like we didn't know, but now it is confirmed by professionals. The official due date is January 2. I'd go with that, but because Felix was 4 1/2 weeks early, when this baby shows up will be anybody's guess.

American Idol

So, Brent and I found American Idol last year and we found ourselves rooting for one or two contestants. This year when we found it again we watched the whole season and we ended up rooting for 5 or 6 of the contestants. We got totally caught up in all the fun. We've speculated on the contestants throughout the whole season.

Anyway, as some of our favorites fell out of the competition, we were happy enough to see that our two favorites stayed in. The ones we rooted for most enthusiastically:

We're watching the finale now and I feel strongly that I would be happy with either David winning. See, David Archuleta has a gorgeous voice. He seems so innocent and earnest and his voice is very pure. He sounds to me a lot like Josh Grobin. David Cook has a grittier and more emotional feel to his voice. I think David C might be better prepared to sell albums, but David A has a pretty strong fan base - even if that fan base is made up almost entirely of tweens, Utahns (he's from Murray), and older ladies. David C has done some brilliant things to some favorite songs. The three that stand out most in my mind are:
Hello by Lionel Ritchie
Always be my Baby by Mariah Carey
and First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack

Check them out yourself and see if you don't fall in love with him as much as we have.

Looks like America agreed. David Cook takes the night!

New shirt designs (this week it's text only):



Please, please vote.

Woot! and Wife!

Okay, I'm going to stun Heather by posting here and hope that in her weakened condition she doesn't have a heart attack. I'm sure she has thought that I've given up on this blog. The truth is that I'm just not much good at correspondence.

First, let me get a little shameless self-promotion out of the way. Those who have read recent posts here know all about the derbies at shirt.woot.com. We've been trying our hand at these contests for just over a month now with varying degrees of non-success (there are three winners out of often more than 300 entries). This week could be different. We now have a shirt in the competition that stands a decent chance of making at least that vaunted top 3! Check it out, and if you've ever bought anything from Woot!, we sure would appreciate the votes.



Okay, now that that is out of the way...

I've really been meaning to post on here for some time, but I never seemed to have the time. I don't really have the time now, either, but I'm stealing some time from the work I have to finish so I can write this, because I need to. It's mothers' day and I have some deep thoughts on my mind.

A little over two years ago I married Heather. That day was, up until that point, the happiest day of my life, marred only by the fact that my own mother was unable to be there, at least not in mortality.

While I'm on that subject, let me tell you a little about my mother. She was one of those popular, very pretty girls who didn't really care that she was popular or was never too concerned that she was pretty. My father met her while on his mission in the New England States Mission (yeah, that long ago). His companion had determined that he would find her and date her after the mission, and as luck would have it, by that time she had moved to Utah. She only had eyes, however, for my dad, much to his bewilderment (and, ultimately, delight).

Mom was the kind of person who was always collecting strays. Not animals, really (though we took in our share of those), but people. My sister's friend was thrown out of her house, so my mother took her in. She became like a member of the family. For a few years we were a foster family for an indian girl named Andrea, who was featured at one point on the cover of the New Era. It didn't seem to matter what the issue was. My mother was always willing to help if she was able.

My mom would also "remember" sounds - like a dog's bark - from books she read.

She read often.

Mom pretended to much more innocence than she truly had, insisting that "making whoopee" simply meant having fun. One of her favorite movies was Thoroughly Modern Millie, the cleanest movie about sex you'll ever see.

Four and a half years ago my mother passed away, survived by her husband and eleven of her thirteen children. It saddens me that my wife and children will not know her in this life. She would love them.

Speaking of which, it was a little more than a year ago that Felix was born. I can't honestly say that it was a joyous occasion. I was mostly stunned, and there was lots of blood and...stuff. The joy came later. As I sit here again in the hospital with him, rocking him to sleep - for the fifth time tonight - I'm still amazed that I am a father.

You see, I've wanted this my whole life, even though I've never really understood it until now. Being a father is by turns overwhelming, exhausting, joyful, fun, and downright difficult.

Even so, that's not the part of this whole deal I looked forward to the most. The thing that I wanted most of all, the thing that I longed for, the thing that caused my heart to ache for lack of it, was a companion. The very idea of having someone to share the journey with, someone who wanted to be with me, someone who would share my hopes and dreams, that seemed like heaven to me. Much like heaven, though, It always seemed out of reach, like something you hope for in some undefined future time, and it seems too good for you to ever be worthy of it.

Now that I'm here I can hardly believe it. That's not to say that it's all like a dream. It's not always easy. There are health problems and money problems. Some days we struggle just to get along with each other. It's no fantasy.

Except that it is.

There is no place that I would rather be than here in this hospital with my son. There is no one that I would rather share these days with than my wife Heather. It's adventure like none other.

Anyway, this Mothers' Day I just wanted to let Heather know that I love her. I love her for her independent spirit. I love her for her intelligence and her life experiences. I love her for her perfect nose with its triangular nostrils! I love her for her attitudes on life. I love her for her enthusiasm for people and for life. I love her for her willingness to help friends and family in need.

Mostly, however, I love her for her willingness to throw her lot in with mine, for the time we share together, for being there.

A little over two years ago I married Heather.
A little over a year ago our son was born.
Less than a year from now we'll have another child.
My little family is growing, and I couldn't be happier.

Health stuff

As would be expected for any insurance-less family, we've been a bit concerned about medical bills lately. My friend Michelle told me about a Health Fair down in Provo yesterday so Brent and I went to see if they could help us.

Besides the fact that almost everyone attending was Mexican, it was extremely crowded, and it was about 20 degrees too hot in the main room, there was some good information.

We went first to the Chip booth. I can't remember what Chip stands for, but it's essentially children's insurance for low-income families (i.e. when they can't afford real insurance - similar to medicaid). When we talked to the sweaty guy behind the table, he gave us what information he could and we left feeling like there was no way we'd be covered. We stopped by a booth asking for information about immunizations and the guy from the Chip table found us again and said there was a $50 drawing we should enter before we left.

Our next stop was to the immunization room. For the health fair, the cost went down to $5 per shot, but we didn't have any kind of health record for Felix so we decided to come back some other time. Regular cost? $12 per shot. Still pretty cheap, considering a doctor's visit costs around $50 not counting the shot.

While talking to the nurse about which shots Felix might need, we discovered he was very wet, so when we left, I took Felix to the bathroom to change him and Brent went back to the Chip table to enter the drawing. Apparently, the guy we had talked to had been thinking about us and he realized that there is a 40% reduction in income calculation when the income comes from self-employment. In other words, since our income is over the limit to qualify for Chip, but the huge majority of that income is self-employment, it counts as less and we do qualify.

Not only that, but they actually go back 3 months, which means that we can get at least some coverage for Felix for all his medical stuff since he was dropped off Medicaid when he turned 1. Hooray!!!!!!!


So that's the big (happy) news. There is always stuff going on, but that's one that takes a huge load off my chest at the moment. Last Saturday my niece was baptized. It was nice. That's the second baptism I've attended in the past month (the first was my cousin's son).

One last thing. I'm sick again. Dang it. I just have a terrible chest cold. I can feel the rattling when I breathe deeply and I'm coughing tons. I've now had an awful headache for 2+ days. The coughing is keeping me up late (well, to be fair, I had a girls night at a friend's house last night and didn't come home till about 3:30, but then I stayed up coughing for another half hour at least) and it's waking me up early. I'm sure the low-quality sleep isn't helping the headache at all. I can deal with a cough and a headache though. Hopefully no more hospital stays for the foreseeable future. Cross your fingers for us, won't you?

Due West

In case you notice the huge widget at the right, I have to start by saying I hate country music. But I respect these guys and their music. If you like country music (it's okay, I will still be friends with you), download their song for free through the middle or so of May.

This is all courtesy of my awesome friend Erin. Tell all your country-loving friends, and enjoy!

I worked all day

Today was one of the first full days that I've worked since before Felix was born. That's not quite true, since I have had days here and there, but yeah, it was a full day. And I liked it.

But I'm still looking forward to being a stay-at-home mom someday. Anybody want to help Brent find an art-type job that pays at least $40k per year? Seriously. Please keep your eyes open for us.