Baby update...

Not too much has changed, at least from my perspective. Maria continues to take care of her self and is doing her best to ensure that we have a healthy baby. A while back I wrote about our baby to be being the size of a lime (click here for a reminder) and am proud to announce that our little guy (or gal) has surpassed the lemon stage and is now an apple!!

I am still confused why the prego sites relate your unborn child to fruits and vegetables. It is essentially the other side of the same coin that Aunt Jann presented in her blog regarding naming the plants in your garden that you will ultimately be faced to eat.

This was further illustrated at the grocery store when Maria and I came across an 'ultra sound,' if you will, of our little one... How am I to enjoy another glass of lemon aide after seeing this?

Hurtful betrayal of an old friend...

On the way home from class, with the needle indicating empty, I had to stop and get some gas.

Hungry, I entered Wolverine Conoco looking for something to hold me over through the night. When I saw an old friend.

Wandering up and down the isles, avoiding each other, I contemplated the consequences of reuniting myself with such a friend.

Our past was behind us, and the termination of our relationship was not intentional-- it was more of a gradual forgetting of one another as time crawled by.

Nervous, I built up the courage and walked over and extended my hand in a welcoming gesture.

The reunion was as sweet as it was bitter. I thoroughly enjoyed our time together - and as usual it was my mouth that did most the moving.

It was not long after the old friend was gone that I began to feel the pain and regret.

I left that gas station with exactly what I had stopped for...

Oh bean and cheese microwave burrito, old friend, how could you do this to me?

Could anything else go wrong?

I worked all day yesterday on a paper for one of my history classes. It got to be more than 2,000 words, 12 pages, and 19 pictures long! It was a work of art! I printed two copies and I proof read one and Maria proof read the other and I stayed up late last night fixing the little errors we had found. I saved the paper to a thumb drive and to the desk top and went to the other computer to print it off. When I opened the file to print it - it said that the file was corrupt! Begging to stress and freak out I went back to open the copy saved to the desktop in the other room and it too was corrupt! All I had were the two marked up rough drafts!

Fearing that I would have to retype the paper and find the illustrations again I was feeling overwhelmed. Then I remembered-- I had a copy saved to the desk top of my computer at work too, it did not have all the corrections we had made but it had the illustrations and the bulk of the text!

Anxious and upset, I could hardly sleep last night and woke up before the alarm clock that I had set to wake me up super early. I went to the office, found the copy I had saved there and made the changes. Things started to look up from there. Then I remembered that our color printer in the office would not print anything because it was out of blue toner!!

Desperate, I took the blue toner cartridge out and shook it violently; I then placed it back in the printer and hit print hoping it would work... and it did! Whew! I left the office and headed for school. While at a red light I flipped through the pages and found only one error but made the correction in ink and when I got to class I pointed it out to the professor who said that was fine and I turned it in.

What an ordeal!! I am glad to have gotten it done though and will have to see what kind of grade I will get for all my work, stress, and help from Maria. I can't wait 'til summer!

Do you know Juno?

Maria bought "Juno" yesterday and we watched it together last night after class. If you have not yet seen Juno I would highly recommend it. It is about a high school junior who gets pregnant and is faced with the decision to keep the baby, abort it, or place it up for adoption. I am sure most of you knew someone in high school who got pregnant and went through similar situations and this movie captures the experience from their point of view. The humor is much like that of "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Dan in Real Life" (both great movies too).

If you've seen it tell us what you thought of it and if you haven't seen it yet, go get it and then tell us what you thought of it.

Nacho Update

Well as was blogged a while ago, Maria and I got rid of our dog, Nacho, due to the assessment of fines by the HOA for his excessive barking. We enjoyed him while we had him but are loving not having that added responsibility. Maria had a co-worker who was willing to take him and has loved him from day one. Unfortunately Nachito's new owner is no longer working with Maria so we get fewer updates these days.

Maria got a call a few days ago from the new owner who had called to find out if Nacho had all his shots. She also told Maria about there latest excitement with Nacho.

One day they noticed that Nacho felt a bit bloated and was having troubles pooping. They noticed that there was something sticking out of his bum and that it was essentially plugging him up. They tugged on the item a bit was afraid of hurting Nacho and decided to take him to the vet.

At the vets office they were able to tug and pull until they were able to remove the foreign object from Nachito's bum. Nacho had eaten an entire knitted cap! Yep the whole thing! The vet diagnosed him with some term meaning that the dog will eat what ever will fit in its mouth, much like a goat!

The vet was even kind enough to offer to rinse off the cap so they could keep it if they wanted.

Un-Happy Birthday!

Last year I had to work on Maria's birthday. I was supposed to have the night off but the tyrant who employed me last year made me stay late for reasons that I no longer remember (ten bucks says Maria remembers though). All I remember is Maria being very upset and sad that I could not celebrate with her. I am sure it was even made worse that she had such a huge part in making my birthday months earlier one of the best in my life, and I could not even be there for hers.

I did what I could and met up with the group late at El Paso and tried to make the night as enjoyable as I could but most the damage had already been done by that time.

This year I was wanting to redeem myself and do something really special for her.

Today I began my thinking and planning a bit when I discovered the worst possible scenario. Maria and I are both supposed to work that day until 5 pm and then I have a final scheduled from 5:40 pm until 8:30 pm!

What am I supposed to do now! I can't do nothing but at the same time I can't possibly miss a final! If you have any ideas call me (that way I can take credit for the idea without Maria knowing!) I can't be in the dog house again this year!

Video of Scout Camp 2007

I came across this video today that a friend had helped me make for a court of honor (COH) shortly after scout camp last year. Unfortunately the COH kept getting pushed further and further back for a variety of reasons and during that time Maria and I moved wards so the boys nor their parents ever got to see this.

Watching it reminds me how much I miss that ward and being a part of their scouting program. It was a ton of work being scoutmaster but I also had a ton of fun doing it!

PS - My friend and I were up until after midnight the night before the originally scheduled COH working on this, because of being so rushed there are a few gramatical errors and misspellings but fortunatly they are all in Spanish so few of you can call me out on them.

Really good Realtor

The house buying process can be an enjoyable one or a miserable one, your realtor can be a key to these fluctuations. I know this from second hand experience only though. When Maria and I were in the process of buying our condo we managed to find one of the craziest Realtors in history. I say I only had second hand experience in this because Maria did most, if not all, of the work in purchasing our condo. All I know is that Maria did not enjoy the process and says I am doing it next time.

It may also be that this was the first experience either of us had in going through this process of buying a home, but we are both still very inclined to believe that it was much more to do with our realtor.

On the other hand though, Maria's parents are in the process of buying one of the units in our complex for Karen and roommates to live in and seem to be having it much easier. Last night their realtor called and asked if Maria and I would be willing to assist in the inspection of the unit before it moves to escrow. She also told me that she has enjoyed working with my mother-in-law and is very happy to have been able to help her. I asked her where she was when we bought our house and she said she didn't know but she will be around to help us in our next purchase.

Because, again, I have only gotten to witness this second hand, Maria's parents might think the contrary. I am excited though to have them as neighbors regardless.

Here is the realtors info if any of you'd like it:

Shannon Railsback

First USA
480-313-2222

When given a lime...

Sunday at Jen's house I referred to our little Cletus the Fetus as being peanut sized and was quickly corrected by Maria. Turns out my little squirt is much bigger, lime sized as a matter of fact.

I don't recall having been given many limes in my lifetime, if any at all, up to today. This morning I got in the car to go to class and found a lime on my dashboard with the message "Hi Daddy, I [heart] you."

Maria has accused me of not showing enough excitement for the arrival of our first born child and I have responded several times that when we can begin referring to it as a he or she I will begin to show more excitement. The truth is though that I am very excited but am a bit more quite in my expression.

Yesterday I sat down to do some homework and began to tare out sheets of paper from my notebook that I had doodled or drawn on while bored in class. I bet Maria would be surprised to see how many of those pages were filled with baby names, nursery ideas, and other baby plans.

I guess my point is that just because there is little outward expression of emotion does not necessarily mean that those emotions do not exists. Everybody expresses excitement, fear, uncertainty, joy, and love in a variety of ways.

Thank you Maria for that little lime and know that I am very excited for what it metaphorically represents.

More truth to the joke than she thought...

It has been a while since Maria or I have had enough time to sit down a blog. Last week Maria was overwhelmed with a ton of homework because of system errors that kept her from finishing her homework from the week before, so she had to play catch-up this week and I have been busy with work (on top of school last week I managed to put in 47.5 hours at work!)

A friend asked me Saturday how Maria was feeling and I said "I don't know, I haven't seen her since Wednesday." Later that day the same friend, trying to re-tell the joke, told Maria that she had asked me about her and Maria, before she got to the punch line, said "he wouldn't know, he hasn't seen me since Wednesday."

Neither of us anticipate being that busy again for a while.