One of the few times I'm able to blog from work. It's raining like crazy now, although, actually, it just died down. The thunder was loud though. Laura and I were both thinking about Callie.

Counting down the hours and minutes to go home. Three more hours...sigh.

This weekend Laura's parents and Dawn and, I think, Ron are coming to visit us and Kelly. We're getting lunch tomorrow and they're seeing our houses. We need to clean a bit tonight, but our house is mostly clean!

Dang, already February! 6 more weeks and it's baby time. Still hasn't hit us yet, but today Laura's back was bothering her. I'm trying to find some motivation to start writing my fantasy, but I also want to finish my autobiography up as well. I found a few resources for making your own book, complete with instructions on printing and sewing up the bindings of the pages, which I think is the hardest part in my opinion.

Other than that, the car parked outside of our house is STILL there...I'm really not sure at this point. I dunno if it's the neighbor's friends or what, but I'm going to start looking up what to do to have it towed...not my fault if they get pissed. Either tell me what they're planning to do or just park in front of another house...not ours.

The bubbles in the tint are actually starting to go away...a couple more days will tell us how it'll be I think. The problem "bubble" is the last one that is left and it's about half the size it was yesterday.

So tired today.

Anyway, my birthday was good. We ate pizza and Laura made me an apple pie with Reddi-Whip. It was all good! Low key is how I like it. Got a baby bag, some baby books, and a baby carrier that I need to get used to. Wait, it feels like I already talked about what I got...anyway...

Church website is coming along...a few more weeks I think and it's ready to go.

Work did sing for me yesterday. Embarrassing as always, but oh well. Sometime next week is going to be the dreaded day to tell them about my next few months...ahhhh.

The last spot on the window for the tint to cure is the spot that I was talking about. It seems like there's some bubbles in it, which I don't think is going to go away...we'll see though. It should all be gone by now, but after one more day, if it's not gone, I think it's going to have to go back for repair...sigh.

Other than that, it's 7:30p and I already want to go to bed.

Garsh, it's already the end of the weekend. Why do they go by SO fast and the rest of the days just drag like no other?

Anyway, Saturday was a productive day, I suppose. We ran some errands, went to Barnes and Noble, cleaned up around the house and made some homemade mall pretzels. They're a bitch to make since you have to knead the dough for like 10 minutes, but it's so good.

Did much of nothing today though. Oh, almost forgot! Laura, Kelly, Ryan, and Wesley got me tint for the front windows of our car for my b-day present. It looks good. There are still some bubbles in their that need to evaporate away, but I'm skeptical that it will. I know that from personal experience, swirls and stuff go away, but these are like, big water bubbles, probably just under a 1/4 inch or so. I parked the car outside most of the day today since it was sunny. The driver side is getting much better, but many more to go on the passenger side. Apart from that, I got a baby backpack thing to carry the essentials, some books and a baby carrier. The carrier is kind of hard to use at first, but I'm hoping after many repeated uses, it'll go on easy.

Tomorrow I have a meeting with the Deacon again to go over some final web stuff. I just want to get this done at this point. They're taking so long to get the content we need for the website.

I'm also done with my autobiography. I think I may have already mentioned that. I just need to go through it one more time cleaning it up and I'll let Laura read it. I thought about printing it out as a book, but I think it's too much to go through just for this. I will definitely for my other fantasy book.

If only I had more time.

Tomorrow is of course my birthday. I'm not looking forward to my work singing for me...I know they are, but maybe, just maybe, they'll forget somehow like they did at my previous work. Doubt it because it's on the calendar...I could go delete it off the calendar...

Anyway, laters.

Glad Friday is here!

Let's see, the big news was that yesterday morning, I accidentally spilled my coffee over my crotch as I was getting out of the car. I'm not sure, but I wasn't really paying attention to how I was holding it I guess. I remember trying to carrying a few things with my hands, so I probably carried too much. Anyway, it really spilled half on me and half on the car seat, which was good for me but crappy for the car. It didn't leave a stain, though. Surprisingly, I didn't have a stain on my khaki pants, either. Strange.

Today, we went to this Spring convocation for faculty and staff. It was better than I expected. I thought it was going to be an hour and a half of mingling, but it was all sitting down and listening to people speak. The president of the university, though, I must say, was a pretty good motivational speaker. After a while, he got a little boring, but from what I could see, he did most of the speech from either memory or on the fly, which was impressive. I couldn't do it.

Finishing up hypnobabies tonight and going to sleep I think.

We've been going to sleep so early, it's crazy talk. But, I'm finally getting more sleep, so that's good. I still wake up a few times during the night...dunno why. I must hear Kip or just wake up for no reason, but thankfully, each time I wake up, I see that it's only 1am, 2am, etc.

Another boring day at work today.

I actually called the tag agency and the exam site to see what I needed to do to get my OK license and pretty much I just need to bring my current license and a birth certificate. No tests or anything. Woot. I may try and do that tomorrow.

I also want to swing by the clinic sometime and maybe get this sinus/headache thing looked at. I think I have a sinus infection, because it has been like this pretty much from after I got that 2-day cold during Christmas. I'm pretty sure it's not allergies too.

Had the infant CPR class today. I suppose it was good information, but the teacher sucked. She was just annoying to me. Also, they gave us little babies to practice on...they gave us alcohol wipes to wipe the mouth so we could practice giving it mouth to mouth...it's like, come on, no, I'm not going to put my mouth on this thing that has had hundreds of people's mouth on it....

Anyway, I'm tired.

The weekend is almost already over. They go by so fast. Did a little cleaning of the junk drawer, got some more hangers for the closet and some trash bags for picking up poop and for the little trash cans. Nothing else interesting.

Tomorrow we have a 1-hour infant CPR class after work.

Among other news, I finally finished (I think) the outline of the fantasy story. It's time to just write, write, write. I need to learn little though on how to write a novel. I'm not quite sure about when conversations occur and stuff.

Well, the dermatology appointment went okay. Nothing wrong with any of my moles, although he didn't do a very thorough check. He looked at them from like 2 feet away...anywho.

Got wrapped up in my fantasy book outline/plot. It's 1am and I'm going to be tired tomorrow! We're taking Wesley to the science museum, so hopefully that's fun and Kelly and Ryan get some cleaning done.

Lates.

Oops, sorry. I missed a couple of days there.

Didn't miss much though. The extra weekend day went by really quick. We didn't get to eat at the New York Pizza and Pasta place I wanted to take Laura, though. Josh never called, either. Oh well. I wasn't sure what I was going to say anyway.

Tomorrow I'm going to have to get an appointment at the dermatologist. They never responded to the online form.

At least it's already Thursday tomorrow. I love short weeks.

Gotta get back to finding a present for Matt and my Mom. Also, I think I'm done with my preliminary autobiography!

We got the stuff for the popsicle stick bridge building competition and did that yesterday. Wow, we sucked! Laura actually did great and built this arched bridge and held the most amount of books. I started out, what I thought was good, but that hour went by quick and I just ran out of time. I had to resort to just creating a flat bridge that held like 2 books. Ryan had the most difficulty. He had the right idea, but just ran out of time. Now I know how those cake decorating shows on TV feels like.

The place I wanted to take Laura today, the New York Pizza and Pasta place, was closed today, so hopefully they're open for MLK, Jr. Day tomorrow.

I made great progress on my blog as well. I'm at the point where I'm in Portland now, so only a little bit more to go. I'm at 60 pages already!

Finally, the weekend. The day went by quicker than I had thought, which was good. I asked Laura if she wanted to do a toothpick, bridge building contest to see who could build the strong bridge this weekend. I think she's up for it. I was at Hobby Lobby and saw the big pack of wood sticks and I just thought of it because I remember making these in middle school, I believe.

Anyway, Josh wrote back and he's calling me over the weekend, which is cool, but it's also going to be weird talking to him after 10-15 years of nothing. Plus, I'm not a talker on the phone to begin with.

Oh, and while I was parked at Hobby Lobby, this lady parked next to me (I was already at the farthest spot you could be from the entrance) all weird, i.e. taking up more than the space for one car. I got mad for some reason that someone would park like that, so I threw my last potato wedge from KFC on her windshield and rested in that area where the windshield wiper blades rest. Bam. I was like, planning to do it for a few minutes, too. I just didn't want anyone to see me do it. As I moved my car closer to the entrance (since I was actually going in), she didn't parked as badly as I thought, just crappily...still, she took up way too much on the second spot, so whatever.

Time to take a bath.

Glad tomorrow is Friday. And a 3-day weekend to boot. Time to relax. Laura and I have a couple of things to do for the birthing this weekend. Coming up with a birth plan/choices and maybe coming up with an itinerary of things to do in the coming month. I figure we should do that now before time is out.

I want to FINISH my autobiography this weekend. I probably have 10 pages or so to go. Once I get that done, I want to get into getting my fantasy book started. Still doing research and coming up with a solid plot. I have a plot already, but I want to make it good.

I'm going to try and get an appointment at the dermatologist tomorrow as well. Sort of nervous for that.

Anyway, gonna work on the book a bit.

Another long day. Seems like every day I'm losing time doing stuff like surfing and working on my projects. Work was quite boring today and it should be the same tomorrow. Now, about quitting...

We had our baby yoga class tonight. I actually liked it a lot and I think it helped us get a better idea of how to stay relaxed and stuff from early labor to birth. I think it could have been a little shorter though. 3 hours was kind of long. 2 or 2.5 would have been just right, I think. About half way through I almost started laughing because this one yoga move was the exact same as Spongebob's "take it arouuuuuund town" thing that he did this one episode. Laura and I have been laughing at it ever since.

Anyway, I'm fricken tired. It snowed a bit tonight and it was windy as hell, but we were inside the entire time it was doing its thing. Probably was a good thing, although it was annoyingly loud in the building that we were in.

I actually got up from bed to come write this blog, so it better be a good one, huh?

Actually, it is going to be a good one. Why? Because I got a surprise e-mail today from someone that I thought would never e-mail me. Josh Petrone, from my childhood. I was like, whoa, what? To keep it short, I was pretty excited to finally get back in touch with him after almost 10 years. The last time I saw him was sometime in 2001 I believe and it was only for one night since I went to California to see my brother and couldn't stay that long. Anyway, we have a lot of catching up to do. I gave him a super condensed version of my last 10 years and I'm hoping that he will do the same. If I ever get out to California to visit my Dad's cemetery, I'm definitely going to meet up with him and relive the old times. What got me was this one thing we used to do as kids that I totally forgot about, he mentioned it at the end of the e-mail and it just brought back memories. Those were the days. Trouble and care-free. Well, maybe not trouble-free.

Among other news, met with the deacon of the church again tonight to go over some website stuff. It's going well and it should hopefully be up by the end of the month or by the end of next month at the latest. It's really his side that's taking up time since he needs to get me the changes to the text, photos for pages, etc.

I'm not going to like working with the people who redesigned their website, though. The project manager is this girl who, to me, seems all cocky, but, whatever. The deacon said that they're paying like $90/month to host this site...I'm like, what the fuck?! (in my head of course). They aren't getting ripped off or anything. I think they've been paying this for the last 2 years too, without even having the website up and running, even now. That's crazy...what a waste of money.

Anyway, I'm tired. I'm going to bed.

Played some Alhambra last night. I came in last, but I think I'm getting a better idea of how to go about in terms of strategy...we'll see about next time.

Currently downloading some songs to put on the USB drive for the car. Listening to some 90s/early 2000s songs. Brings back memories. Seems like, compared to now, I listened to a lot more alternative songs and just more music in general. I rarely listen to the radio anymore, though I've sort of started in the last couple of weeks. I usually listen to the classical station to calm me down when I'm driving. I think it works a little bit, but I just can't stand stupid drivers.

Not sure if Laura said she would wait to go to the store until later, which is when I said I would go since it wouldn't be as crowded.

Annnnd the weekend is coming to a close. Goes by so fast. I need to set up an appointment with the dermatologist this week, too.

For some reason, I felt like I was in Laramie for a little bit today while I was driving to and from lunch. I think it was the super mild weather that made me think back to Laramie. It was like in the 60s today, not too hot or cold and I had some of windows down. Yeah, I can't explain it, it just felt like the Laramie days.

Glad it's Friday, though. Hopefully we get to sleep in tomorrow. Although, I hate sleeping in because the day is pretty much shot when you do that and the weekend becomes so short. I kinda want to see the outlet, but not really...I guess for something to do.

Maybe we'll play a little more Alhambra with Kelly and Ryan. It was a fun game. I think a lot better than Settlers of Catan for a couple of reasons. Since it's about half chance and half thinking on the fly, you really can't screw anyone else over to the extent that you take over the game. I like games where it's a battle with your own mind and you can't blame anyone else.

Another warm day. It's supposed to get a little colder the next couple of days, though.

Been busy at work this past week due to the backlog of two weeks of donations, but that should clear up soon I think and I'll be back to boredom. My boss is going to be out the next week as well.

Speaking of which, I need to start preparing how to tell them about the next few months...eek.

Today was a rather warm day. It didn't feel like Winter at all. It looks like the next few days are going to be on the milder side, perhaps a bit overcast (sort of like Portland, but mellower).

Trying to work on my fantasy story the last few days, I keep getting hung up on this certain aspect of the story. It's a pretty big part of the story line, as everything revolves around it. I have the basic idea, but it just doesn't come together/fit in the ending that I want. I'm tweaking it bit by bit, though. Good thing is that I can make stuff up to make it work, but I don't want it to be the "same old" fantasy ingredient, if that makes sense.

I'm going to try to write perhaps every other day this year...yes, I was going to say "I'll write everyday." but that went out the window already...blogging is tough work.

Hello!

So, it's time for my year-end summary. Let's get right down to it.

January-March

We were still in Portland, of course, at this time. Things were still normal as can be. I don't remember anything big during this time. We were both working and all that. I think we started dabbling about when we might start trying to have a baby, though. After some discussion about moving and such, we decided to start trying and aim for having the baby in the Fall. We didn't want it to coincide with Laura's work, but, oh well.

After looking at my blogs, it looks like in March, we also decided that we would be moving to Oklahoma City for Laura's post-doc as well. That was a pretty big decision, I guess, especially considering we really loved Portland up to this point and that Laura had a post-doc lined up for Portland. I remember the night we decided pretty vividly. We decided to discuss whether or not to stay or choose OKC over dinner at Azteca. After some back and forth discussing, we decided OKC for some reasons such as support after having the baby, easier vacationing, lower cost of living, etc. We would always have the opportunity to move back to Portland after the post-doc and that for the current situation, trying out OKC for a year or two wouldn't be so bad. 

On the drive back, of course Laura couldn't wait telling people so she called Kelly and let her know. She was excited and I think we started to look around places where we might be able to rent, but it was much too soon. 

April-May

During these months I think we were still mentally getting ourselves ready for the move to OKC, I think. Although, I think we started packing little by little each day so that we weren't scrambling at the very last minute. I also had to tell my job that I would be leaving for OKC in August. Well, we would actually be moving mid-August, but I wanted to give myself some time to help out with packing and all that. Plus, we wanted to have a little vacation time before we left as well. 

I think I ended up telling my work in May or so. I wanted to give them plenty of time to find someone, hire them, train them, etc. for my position. We let the landlord know as well. We still had 2-3 months before the reality hit, so I don't think we were panicking at this point. 

June-July

 Around this point, Laura's schedule started to get busy. I know she flew out for Mother's Day and stuff (actually I could be wrong about that). We've been trying to have a baby for a couple of months at this point, getting ovulation strips, apps, and thermometers for Laura and stuff. Anyway, we found out Laura was pregnant in early July, right before she left to go to OKC to look for houses and stuff. I remember when she told me too. She used the pregnancy strip in the morning and she brought it over to me while I was still sleeping. I was like "yaaay" real quiet, but I was pretty asleep or wanted to go back to sleep or something. I just remember it probably wasn't as exciting as it should have been. 

It seems like we were pretty ahead of packing as well, having most of it packed and we were just finishing up the garage. The things we couldn't pack, we just had to wait, like the dishes and such. Other than that, we were just trying to enjoy Portland with the little amount of time we had.

I do remember near the middle/end of July, Laura was freaking out about finding a good place to stay, because we hadn't found anything at this point. They all turned out to be crap. I kept telling Laura that it will work out. She did work a lot at trying to find a good place for us, which she ended up doing. Kelly was also a big help since she was the one driving around and meeting with the realtors in OKC for us. I know she went and looked at several before we decided on the current Edmond house.

Around this time, I had my exit interview with my director since I was leaving work on the 5th of August. I told her about our baby since we thought it was safe the word wouldn't travel to family. They were all excited and sad that we wouldn't have another baby in the office. My work would have been perfect too to bring the baby and also work.

August

Ahh, August. It was a pretty hectic time. I quit my work on the 5th and we had a vacation planned for a few days at Depoe Bay at a place that Laura found. It was nice to relax for a few days right near the beach. We went to Newport and stuff. 

Afterwards, a week or so later I think, Laura's parents came out to vacation for a little bit as well as to help us pack the ABF truck. Our plan was to move on the 17th, I believe. We had the truck parked for a couple of days in front of our house to pack it up. We made good time as it only took a day and a half to pack it all up. ABF called to see if they could pick it up a day earlier. Good thing we were all ready. The first day was hard work, though, but nothing like OKC was going to be. 

So, the ABF truck left earlier than expected and we were on our way with our drive to OKC over the course of 3 days, stopping in Denver to see friends/family, etc. For a more detailed explanation of our trip, please refer to my blog entry about it earlier. No need to relive that hell!

Once we arrived in OKC, we had roughly 4 days or something to unload the truck. Man, the heat was brutal. It was record setting temps for this Summer in OK in history. It was a great time to unload the truck. After unloading a little bit, even at night, it was too much. We ended up unloading the truck in the first half of the day while it was still cool. It went pretty smooth. For the next week or so, basically the last week of August, we unpacked and tried to get settled in.

September

There was a Labor Day party planned for us at Laura's parent's house with family flying out. That was fun, but because of that, I pushed my efforts to find a job until after this. I'll just blame the fact it took so long for me to find a job due to this week. :)

After the weekend of the party, we finished more unpacking. I think we made pretty good time. It probably took about a month or so to be completely finished. I started looking for a job around early September. I probably applied to a place or two every other day. There weren't many.

During this time, we also had to deal with my car, which overheated if driven in the intense heat. Although, stupid me, I finally put a little effort into what could have been causing it and I saw that the radiator cap was completely busted...I'm not sure when it busted, but I'm going to bet it busted sometime during the Colorado stretch on the way to Chris' house. If I would have just replaced the radiator cap then, instead of now, I think the trip would have been slightly less hellish. It sucked having to go so and so speed and stopping every couple of hours - sometimes every hour near the end of the trip. Anyway, after replacing the cap, it didn't overheat anymore. Not sure if that was the real issue, but I'm sure it helped.

October 

So, we started looking for a car to buy. One, to replace my car and, two, to have some to carry the baby seat in. After a few weeks of searching, we found a couple of prospects. We were aiming for Hyundai Santa Fe, Honda CRV, or Subaru Forester. There is a big shortage of these types here in OK...not sure why. There were a TON in Colorado. Anyway, we finally picked our first one out and went to go buy it. Long story short, they said the car was "already sold" after we picked it out, went through some of the paperwork to buy it, just before it was official. Our theory was that it was priced incorrectly (too low) so they made that shit up. Whatever. We didn't like them anyway. Our search continued. We finally found one a little bit later and went to buy that. It was our first big purchase experience ever. It was weird. 

November

Late October I finally got SOME kind of call back from all the places I was applying. The University of Central Oklahoma called for an interview. I went and a week later I got word that I got the job. Not to brag, but when I interviewed, I sort of had a feeling that I would get the job. I was qualified for the job and I had experience doing pretty close to what the job entailed and felt that they liked me. After the interview, I kind of stopped looking for a job. Glad I was right!

Most of the rest of this month was just working and getting ready for the baby. We're close to getting the baby room set up, though there are still lots to get at the baby shower.

December

Well, this is where we are. Things are good and we're sort of starting to plan for the next few months. The big thing is me figuring out when to inform my work about what's going to happen when the baby arrives. I hate situations like this. 

Anywho, Christmas went well. I did get sick for a couple of days right smack during Christmas Eve and Day, which sucked, but oh well.

Well that's about it, really for the summary. I think the summaries are getting more and more boring each year. I should go read my previous summaries. I think they were more reflective or something of myself, not just a straight-forward summary.

I do think that next year will be a very different year and primarily that's going to be because of our baby boy. Things are going to change quiet a bit, but I think it will be for the better. I can't wait to raise our boy with Laura and teach him all the things that make us who we are. I think it's a pretty cool thing to be able to raise a child that sort of mirrors who you are, although you don't want them to be totally like you. We're still deciding on a boy name, but I think we're pretty close and decided now. Yes, I was a little bummed that it was a boy vs. a girl, but I think I'm over it now. We'll have more chances to have a girl, so.

Hoping for another great year and let's hope 12/21/2012 passes by without demolishing the world.

I love you Laura and our boy, and Kip and Callie (even though you've been expensive this year).

Happy New Year.