Pet Peeve

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What is the second-to-last number in the sequence?






If you guessed 8, you are incorrect. If nine is the last number in the sequence, then 8 is next-to-last. Seven would therefore be second-to-last since it is two places away from the last in the sequence.

Got it?

Glad we had this talk.

Parenting Pitfalls

These things that I'll talk about are some things that I've learned, and am trying to unlearn, from the generations that came before us. Our culture has taught us, quite wrongly at times, ways of discipline that, while maybe immediately effective, generally produce no long-term heart change within a child. As parents, and especially fathers, we must struggle to maintain a correct attitude. How does our Father treat us when we disobey? How can we, I, make the best decisions when disciplining our, my, children. I will use masculine pronouns when referring to a singular parent or child. If you think it's sexist, then you have a problem.

1. I'm Bigger Than You
This style is generally undertaken by fathers, who, when repeatedly bombarded with whiny, willfully disobedient children, threaten the child into capitulating. Notice that I didn't say obeying, because true obedience is doing the right thing at the right time with the right motive. This isn't acquiescence or placation. Typically the child does what he is supposed to do because of a fear of punishment, not because it's the right thing to do.

2. The Escalator
This type tends to fall hand-in-hand with I'm Bigger Than You, but often precedes it. Usually this tactic is implemented when one, or many, calm overtures are made to encourage the child to obey. At first, it probably will be many, but as time goes on, in a long car ride perhaps, these pleas become fewer and farther between. You try to stay calm at first, but doggone it, that kid will not obey. And as time elapses, the disobedience becomes louder and/or encompasses more things. So you getting louder. And it goes back and forth until one of the parties gives up. The main problem with this pitfall is that once you get to a certain point, what used to be loud, is no longer such, but normal. Therefore, to get the same effect, you have to get louder and louder until you have no effect at all, except to deafen ears.

3. Let Them Be Kids (a.k.a. Let's Just Be Friends)
'He's just a kid.' 'Aw, he didn't mean to hurt nobody.' Well, actually, he did and it's up to him to restore the relationship/toy/valuable. This is especially dangerous because it's no discipline at all. The parent is so worried about not wanting to offend the child, or wanting his child to "like" him, he doesn't concern himself with the aftermath, namely the destructive force his child will become as he nears adulthood. This parent typically does not tell the child no or make him take responsibility for his actions. This is most grievous since as an adult you are legally responsible for your actions. Now, thanks to the ACLU and other litigious persons, one can go out of his way to be stupid or malevolent and get the benefit of other irresponsible jurors like himself to award him millions of dollars. They should be shot and hanged shortly after him. This tendency absolutely disgusts me. It sets an ugly precedent and leads down a very slippery slope. You can blame these people for all the rising healthcare costs and good doctors going out of business because their insurance premiums are sky-high. Getting back to the original point, in the end this parent is not a friend, but a joke. The kid knows when he says jump, dad will ask how high. Wanting "what's best" for junior isn't good for anyone, let alone best. A lifetime of crime or failed jobs/relationships may await his child because he doesn't know how to take 'no' for an answer. Or he cannot work within the boundaries set before him in the "real world".

4. The Absentee
This is akin to Let's Just Be Friends, but is more insidious because, although the parent is physically in the picture, he is mentally checked out. He knows his child should take responsibility for his actions, but hey, he just got home from a long day at work and doesn't really feel like being bothered. I mean, isn't that why mom stays home all day? I'm here to bring home the bacon, mow the lawn, take out the trash and try not to make too much of a mess as to be a nuisance to mom. This parent doesn't make excuses for the child. He ignores the child. And you have a young man desperately trying to please his father. The fortunate realize what's going on with the old man. The unfortunate try Solomon's route of women, spirituality and Mammon. Others try the Hank route--Jr. or Sr., take your pick--and turn to the bottle or drugs. Some end up so depressed they commit suicide.

5. My Baby
This parent doesn't know when to let go and is a distant cousin of Let's Just Be Friends. Instead of letting the child make mistakes and experience the consequences, this parent tries to shield the child. This can take the form of simply not letting the kid do/see/listen to anything that can "harm" him or not giving him opportunities to grow by making his own decisions. While well-meaning, this parent inhibits the life experiences that might have made his child better suited for marriage/fatherhood/corporate world. This pitfall fosters resentment between parent and child.

6. One Size Fits All
Unfortunately, no it doesn't. You can have four children and they all have different temperaments. While one child may only need a stern word, another will need a spanking to reinforce the rule. Still another might need several spankings an hour because he is so strong-willed, and like Ol' Blue Eyes, he'll do it his way. Don't foist one parenting style on all your children because chances are it will only be effective on one. And possibly, what worked for Johnny yesterday might not work in a few days/weeks/years.

7. The Busy Bee
Most parents want their children to do well at something. However, in the quest to find out what that something is, they're too busy hauling the kids to and from school, band practice, and soccer practice to actually develop relationships with them. Doubly doomed is the child with parents from East Asia, where the pressure is on to have kids in school on Saturdays learning a language and the violin/piano. These children aren't so much kids as employees. The extreme cases turn into vicarious living. The other side to this coin is the dad that is too busy at work to spend time with his kids. Just listen to Henry Chapin's song Cat's in the Cradle.

Now, don't be fooled. One can be all of these for long periods of time or even short stints. It is something that all parents, dads and moms, will struggle with throughout their parenting lives.

Moreover, don't be fooled. While these behaviors promote mimicry or extremism in many cases, children are resilient and can excel despite the parenting model shown them. Oftentimes there will be one parent, or a mentor, that can provide guidance to the young person on how to appropriately parent.

So what?

How can we avoid/curtail these behaviors as parents? Here are some suggestions. Caveat: I'm not particularly good at these things all the time. That huge sucking sound you just heard was the millions of people who don't read my blog simultaneously gasping in dumbfoundedness. Yeah, I like that word. Just made it up.

1. Pray
It sounds simple enough, but when practiced without ceasing, can yield a more gentle, quite spirit. This is especially important to begin your day with. This will set the tone for the day. It prepares you for the possible struggle ahead and helps you focus on the Source of your strength.

2. Read The Word
Read it topically. Read it straight through. Read it chronologically. Read it for the Names of God. Read it for the promises. Read it for its historicity. Just read it! If you have a commitment to His Word, He will be faithful to show you truth. (Note: I'm not talking about truths as in finding what's true for you, but absolute Truth, because it's true for everyone.)

3. Got Friends?
It may come as a complete shock to you, but you are not the only one going through your situation. Chances are their are couples around you fighting the same battles you are. Use them to your advantage. Pray together. Weep together. Have fun together. If you don't get out, you'll go out of your melon.

4. Focus On Your Marriage
Men, do yourselves a favor and make sure your wife has "adult time" with other women. Whether it's watching the kids for the night or at a party. Your gray hairs are an investment in her joy and sanity. This also takes the form of discussing parenting styles. This can happen before the kids arrive, but the refining fire of parenting will fine-tune your skills. This also means not disagreeing/fighting in front of the kids. If you don't agree with your spouse on an issue, defer to her in the moment, then go and talk about it later. Chances are you misunderstood because you missed something or were too fed up to think straight.

5. Study Your Children
If you make a habit of knowing your kid, you will become an expert and understand what makes him tick and what will truly motivate him to obey. It can be an encouraging word. Whatever it is, do it and do it often to show him that you care about him enough to know him. Remember that mistakes will happen, but can be a learning tool to give you insight into your child.

6. XXXOOO
Be generous with your hugs and kisses. You simply cannot give these out enough.

7. Stop
Instead of shuttling your kids between different activities, pare it down to one thing a semester. If you find you don't have enough time with your children after that, cut out some TV. I know this anecdote has been said many, many times, but it bears repeating: No father on his deathbed ever wished he had spent more time at work/with his buddies.

By no means am I an expert at this parenting thing. These are just some things I've learned along the way, and some are wisdom handed down from those who have gone before.

Hang in there. Remember that it might just be a phase, and that phase won't last. You aren't the only one. And even if you're the perfect parent, your kid can still turn out "wrong". So don't beat yourself up.

Sadie Laughing Video

Getting out of my way

Romans 12:3 tells us “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.”

There have been many times in the past few weeks where I have thought more highly of myself than I ought. I do a lot of things around the house; I won’t enumerate. Sometimes in the midst of one of these tasks I’ll think to myself of how I keep this house running. I start to feel like I am pulling more than my weight around here. But as soon as I do, I am reminded of how much C does. I recently remembered how an old Sunday school teacher told us that marriage isn’t 50-50...it’s 100-100. If I focus on doing “my fifty percent” then I’ll become bitter that C isn’t doing “her fifty,” when in reality she does more than her fair share. But if I understand that I am responsible for all of the things in my life, then I will notice there is quite a bit of overlap. That shows you how selfish man can be and how quickly selfishness can destroy a marriage. It also shows how a spiritual gift/love language can become distorted. When I focus on the things I’m doing instead of who I’m doing them for, I begin to resent the person I’m doing it for. And it’s not as though I’m even focusing on the right person that I should be doing these acts for. I shouldn’t focus on doing things for C, but for the glory of God, as Colossians 3:23, 24 say “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

So I need to remember Who I am doing these things for and to take care of my gift. If I don’t use it properly, it will begin to atrophy, and then it will be of no use.

The Week in Review

I think we'll go in reverse order.

The FDA showed up yesterday. There's been a quiet uneasiness in the air. The auditor found at least one thing today, but it was something we caught several months ago and fixed ourselves, but there was still a lot of tension. Our QA staff deserves a nice long break after this. And so does our CEO. Not that she'll take any break since she lives and breathes our company. And I know this will sound weird, but it just didn't feel like Friday to me. Perhaps it's because the auditor was supposed to come on Tuesday, but had to postpone. It was just an odd week at work.

My buddy Mike (a.k.a. Sarge) was in town and he came by to hang out last night. It was good to catch up. That's one of the amazing things about having soul bonds with other men. Even though we haven't seen each other in at least two years, we can be real with each other like it was back in college. He enjoyed seeing us and the girls and I hope he left encouraged in the Lord.

Uncle N came down on Wednesday since he had some red tape to work through with the state regarding his doctor's license. Thankfully he brought his dogs CJ and Abby. Last weekend M was dialing on her play phone and one time said "Hi Uncle N. How are your doggies doing?" I think he enjoyed loving on his nieces. And M enjoyed loving on CJ and Abby. The funny thing is that she isn't big enough, so she still runs away when they come to give her kisses.



The biggest news this week is that M is potty training. She started off getting it down half the time, but the last three days she's only had one accident. So she's having a lot of colored marshmallows for her success. She has been close for a while, but hasn't been really into it until this week. C has done a great job with her and I know she's a little relieved that we're finally getting to this point.

Sadie has had a silly week. She's been making a bunch of funny faces and grunting a lot. I'll let you check out C's blog for most of those photos, but I had to show you that my daughter has learned the air guitar.

That's it for me tonight. We'll hopefully get some good sleep in. We've been crazy and haven't gone to bed before 10:30 most nights this week.

It's supposed to be another rainy weekend here in Round Rock. I wish that God would space it out a little bit, but I'm not complaining. I'd much rather have to cut my grass once a week than have to water it every couple of days so it doesn't die.

Stay dry.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to me.

C let me sleep in till 8, at which time M woke up. While I was asleep C was busy making some yummy chocolate chip muffins. I also got a sweet card from my Babe and one from my Honey and Darlin'. Those are my nicknames for M and S. They put their handprints on it and M put some fun stickers and scribbled on it for me. It's definitely going on my instrument tomorrow.

After church we went to Nana's apartment to have lunch with her and Mamá & Pop-Pop. Nana made an exquisite roast with potatoes and carrots. We had brownies and ice cream for dessert. After Mallory woke up from her nap she was in a funky mood. But I coaxed her into sitting on the chair with me and I got her night-nights and pink blanket and we had some good snuggle time.
Then we went to Nana's pool and had some fun swimming, splashing and jumping. It was starting to sprinkle about the time that S was ready to go home, so we packed up and headed to the casa, giving plenty of hugs and kisses before we left.

When we got home, we had some family time before we took baths. Sadie was in an especially giggly mood and we were able to get some fun videos on the camera. We also had some fun daddy daughter time.

All in all, my best Father's Day ever.

Thank you girls for making this day so special.

Love,

Daddy

School's out for summer!

Too bad work ain't!

June has and will be an interesting month. The main reason is that the FDA will be here next week to do a site inspection and going through our records. Now, most of us are pretty seasoned vets at audits since there were a slew of them this year, especially Big Pharma in March. However, they don't have the power to shut your doors like the Feds do. For those of you who haven't been through an audit, I'll give you a brief overview.
1. The Audit team arrives and holds a brief meeting, w/ a schedule for their visit.
2. They take a tour of the facility--show and tell--and ask questions, usually wrapping up by lunch.
3. After lunch they dig into paperwork for the bulk of the remainder of their visit.
4. An audit boils down to two things:
A) Do you have procedures for what you're doing?, and
B) Are you following your procedures?
5. They'll do a wrap-up with the managers and send a formal report a couple of weeks later, which, if there are recommendations or deficiencies, we'll have a couple of weeks to respond with how we've fixed things or plan to fix them.

I feel fairly confident that we are on the right path to being FDA-compliant, but you never know. Our client sent an independent auditor to see how we're doing with things. He was able to bring up some things that we haven't thought of that we can put in place before next week.

But since our QA (Quality Assurance) department is scurrying around making sure all our ducks are in a row, our throughput has been scuttled. The thing is, we're exceedingly busy with several new products that we haven't tested before. And QC (Quality Control) is also R&D. It's been hard to keep up with all the work. Actually, I personally have hope our QA department won't be wound as tight as a Major League baseball. This week they were at what I like to call 'Def Con 5'. They had their doors shut and kept calling people in to make corrections. I didn't even try to make them laugh. They might've bit my head clean off. I shudder to think what next week will be like. Is there a Def Con 10? I think it might be invented.

Stay cool...if you can.

De Plane Boss! De Plane!

No, I'm not talking Fantasy Island, although that was a really fun show to watch back in the '80s. Too bad TV isn't what it used to be. That was back when it was truly must see.

Anyhow, God has given our little M very keen senses, including sight. There can be a plane at its peak altitude 10 miles away, but she sees that little trail of atmosphere and knows there is a plane in the sky. And she will point out each one she sees.

But do you remember the day the planes stopped? I do. I was on the bus to campus. We were sitting at the light at MLK and I-35 and a fellow passenger ends his cell phone conversation by announcing that a plane just hit the World Trade Center. Like probably most Americans, I told him "Ha Ha. Very funny. That's not something to joke about." But he was serious. I had worked in the EHS building during the summer and knew the President had a TV in his office, which was only a block away from where the bus left off at the Stadium. It was no joke. A minute after I get to the office the second plane hits. It was such a surreal day. It was the only thing people could talk about in class. The professor acknowledged it and then quickly got on with the day's lesson. But when I got home, I just sat in front of the TV and the computer, watching the horrific reality that we were not safe. I mean, terrorism happens in Africa, Europe and Asia. Not the US. How do the Israelis do it? Bombings, fire-fights, and kidnappings week in and week out. The part of the aftermath that had the most gravity with me was for weeks there were no planes in the sky. And living around 5 miles from ABIA, that's something that you notice quickly.

But will M ever understand that moment? Unfortunately, I think she will. There will come a day when a guy with pictures and schematics of Mansfield Dam and the Frost Bank Tower slip past a diligent patrolman and back to his cell to plot their insidious attack. She will be touched by terrorism. But will she have a President that will take a stand, albeit a tenuous, unilateral stand, against our enemies? Sure W hasn't had the best foreign policy, but would Al Gore or Flip-Flop Kerry have had the stones to do what he did? I faced some fairly harsh treatment by some guys while I was an RA at Texas, but nothing compared to the vitriol that President Bush receives, even daily. Only time will tell Bush's legacy, but I say "Thank You President Bush" for doing what you believed God was calling you to do. Remember that you are not the only one going through such trials, but you have a Friend who sticks closer than a brother, who has been tempted and tried in every way, but was without sin. Keep your eyes on Him, and you will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.

God bless America.

And if that Mockingbird don't sing...

...Daddy will be a very happy man.

Seriously though! There is a mockingbird that makes its dwelling 100 yards south of our house and has the loudest pipes this side of the Morten Meyerson Symphony Center. (I got to play there two times in high school. Awesome acoustics!) Anyway, it must be mentally handicapped, because it usually sings each night from 1-6 in the morning, at which time the other birds take their cue from the rising sun. I mean, it just goes through its repertoire non-stop. It will usually do anywhere from 3 to 12 repititions before moving on to the next one. All I know is that it can't sing without permission from its Creator. He's obliged me a few times by closing its mouth long enough for us to get back to deep sleep. I don't want it dead...just silent.

Starting Over

It's been a veeeerrrry long time since I blogged last. Not that many people read this, but still, there is at least two people who will read it.

As I'm sitting here, my almost-5-month old is having a hard time falling asleep and my two-year old is having another one of those days. Tonight we chose to take on the food battle. I know. The AAP says not to make food a battle. Well sometimes parent intuition supersedes some very well educated and experienced doctors and practitioners.

It's been this way for some time now. At least two weeks, and possibly three or four. M chose to throw her paci away and we rewarded with a swing set. Reward is a rather loose term since we were going to get one anyway to put in the play area we made in the back yard. But ever since, going to sleep has been a struggle. There are nights when she does quite well. And there are nights when it takes an hour and a half for her to finally nod off. C and I take turns lying beside her bed on the floor so she'll stay calm enough to fall asleep.

That's not to make you think it's been all bad. She has made some excellent choices and given us those morsels of toddler truth that make you smile and thank the Creator for allowing you to be a part of this process. Saturday, upon handing her her juice, I said "Knock yourself out kid!" She retorts: "I'm not a kid; I'm a girl." Well said. And a week before that I was changing her after she woke up. I put my head beside hers on the changing pad and she said resolutely "No Daddy. This is my changing pad." And one thing that never gets old is coming home from work and my little blonde ball of energy running at me, ecstaticly saying "Daddy's home!" and asking me "Have a good day at work Daddy?"

S is just a little bundle of love. It's awesome that she knows I'm Daddy. When I get home and give her a kiss and tell her that Daddy loves her she beams with an incredible love, seemingly at once telling me without words that she loves her Daddy and her Daddy loves her. She's not doing things at quite the pace M was, which is fine by us. We'll chalk that up to not having our every-waking-moment devotion that M obtained as the first-born. However, she is keeping pace on the measurables and the not-so-measurable "gallons-o'-drool".

God bless C. No really. If I had to stay home with the girls the way they are when I get home, we'd all be much worse off. Cl says it's some hormone that men lack. It's somewhat easy to take a hard line on some things with M when I'm not around her 12 hours a day, and it's amazing the patience, energy and guile that C exhibits daily to keep this house running. There are no commendations known to man to reward what she does for us. And I know that she enjoys it most of the time because that's what she's wanted to do since she was little. But to put up with the whining and willful disobedience that much? I'd barely last a day. We had a great Mother's Day. We were able to dedicate S at church two years after dedicating M. It was a blessing to have family there and at our home. Uncle N came down from Fort Worth, as well as Grampa, Opa & Gramma. Nana, Mamá and Papá came. What stunned us was when Aunt B, Uncle S and cousin Bob came to our house afterward. I don't think stunned quite describes it though. Flabbergasted more likely. But overwhelmingly pleased nonetheless. A quick note on the baby dedication: It is dedicating us as parents and the church to raise our daughter to know Christ as Lord and Savior. It does not bring her salvation, nor is it a baptism, since baptism is an outward expression of the choice of salvific faith in Christ.

Work has been back and forth, as most of you can understand. I'm in a lull with incoming work, so I've been filling my time updating methods & SOPs and trying to be productive with my time. I'm on a two-game win streak in Scrabble for those of you wondering. The FDA will be coming soon, so it's a little frantic around the building, but not too bad.

The thing I'm struggling with is feeling entitled to, when coming home from work, not having to deal with whiny, crying kids. It's wrong on at least two levels. You want me to enumerate? Okay.
1. Cheryl doesn't get a break.
2. That's part of the package deal with having kids.
But it's hard sometimes to come home from a grueling day at work and have to immediately put on the happy face and be the best husband and father I can be. Part of it is laziness. Another part is selfishness. But it would be an extreme disservice to C if I did that. I know that at least understanding this is half the battle. That if I was either ignoring it or just plain ignorant (that's ignert in the South), then I would be sunk, unable to at least be thinking and praying about it. And so it is that God is pruning me during this season of life to be the man He wants me to be. And that's just it: a season. This too shall pass.

That's it for now. Time to go spend time with my Babe.

Long Overdue

I'll just jump right in because there's so much to cover.

Longhorns:
Disappointing the last two weeks. But at least I can make fun of my Aggie coworkers for at least a few more years of coach Fran mediocrity.
I hope Colt heals to where he's 100% for the bowl game. FIRE GREG DAVIS!! Okay, I didn't watch the whole game so I can't speak for the entirety, but how can our offense score only 7 points against that defense? It all started on that horrible call on fourth-and-short at the end of our first drive. Why in the world would you run Melton off-tackle or stretch like that? You've got three big men in the middle of the line and a lineman at running back and you run that play? Maybe with Jamal Charles and a pulling guard, but certainly not Melton. That gave the boys in maroon hope, and that little sliver was all they needed to think they could play with us. And we couldn't stop the option.
And I don't mean to bust or hate on Gene Chizik, but if he's this big defensive guru, how come our secondary was a train wreck all year with Sportscenter DBs? I guess it all comes down to the CEO, er, head coach.
I think Bob Stoops at OU should be Big XII Coach of the Year and in the running for national awards.

House:
The last three weekends before Thanksgiving were full of yardwork in the back. There's still a lot left to do, but it's looking a lot more manageable. Just several more bushes and small trees that need dug up. Sheesh.
Saturday was a busy day. Put up the tree. Hung the outside lights. Trimmed the oak tree in the front. Washed the cars. Put some stuff up in the attic. Hung two shelves in M's room. C organized the garage.

Work:
It's going okay. TNG (The New Guy) is slowly improving and desire to improve and be the best he can be. Things are crazy busy right now with the end of the month hitting us. There are so many things I need/want to get to, but can't right now because TNG isn't ready. That's a little frustrating. The thing that complicates all of this is when Sadie is born, because I'll take 5-7 days off for paternity leave and I'll need someone to cover my remaining three duties while I'm gone.

Weather:
There's nothing like Spring in November, is there? There's supposedly a norther coming in tomorrow night that'll give us 50s for the highs...until Tuesday. I feel sorry for M and S. We got snow once every ten years up in Fort Worth. And since we had snow on Valentine's '04, they'll be nine and seven and then 19 and 17 the next two times it snows. Poor girls.

Thanksgiving:
It went well. The 4-hour drive to Fort Worth was quite bearable. M did very well. Kudos to C for thinking of some park time before the ride began. C had hyped up the trip to Uncle N's and his dogs and cats to the point that when M awoke when we arrived, with her eyes barely open she said "Un-sa Nay-Nay. Doggies." with as much energy as she could muster. Nana, Pop-Pop, MaMá and Aunt B arrived about 90 minutes after we did. We had a very pleasant time visiting with everyone in large part because there wasn't the looming anxiety about Papa W.
We had a good time, and an even better night's rest, at Grandma and Opa's. We went to the park three times. We even saw Aunt C, Uncle S and Cousin D right before they left, so that was nice.
We only got to spend an hour with Grampa over his lunch break, but it was still good to see him.
The trip back home was quick and fun. M didn't fall asleep until after Belton, mainly because she kept herself awake hoping to see Christmas lights as we went along. She'd say "More Pitmas" after a while of not seeing them.

M:
A lot of her latest cute things I've mentioned. She continues to string together words to form small sentences and she tries to say almost any word you give her, including gangsta--she was walking around the kitchen with one pant leg hiked up.
Eating continues to be a challenge, but we might have stumbled onto something tonight: give her a choice between the meal or something she dislikes more and she'll choose the meal. We'll keep trying that one to see if it works.
I think she is really starting to get the whole S thing because, not only does she go in the nursery and point to things and say "S's", but she's getting extra clingy to C. I just worry about the whole Mommy and Daddy are going to the hospital and Nana's going to stay with you and you won't get to see them for a while.

S:
Still growing. Still kicking and flailing away in Momma's tummy, much to her displeasure. Her due date is December 31st, so we're about 5 weeks away. It's been a lot different with her than M. I guess it's because the newness is gone. We didn't go to Bradley classes, so we're trying to bone up on that. We already, thankfully, have most of the things we need, so we're not out shopping. We kind of know what to expect as far as labor and delivery go and I think we'll be much more relaxed about getting to the hospital this time. But we're still both very excited about this new addition to our family, wondering who she's going to look like--Mommy, Daddy or M. Oh, and I've already called her M a couple of times. I'm not even 30 yet. I can't be doing roll call!!

C:
She's doing very good. She has been very blessed this time around in that all her symptoms are so much less than with M. Her main problem has been side pain. That and the whole getting up 10 times a night to pee thing. We're both really hoping that S will come before the 23rd or on the 31st so Dr. B-G can deliver her since she wasn't able to deliver M. Thank you ahead of time for all you who will bring us meals. That was a huge blessing when M came and we look forward to it again.
I couldn't be more proud of and thankful for her. She continues to amaze me with the energy she has to devote to me after a day full of M and cooking dinner almost every night. I am truly blessed with a great woman. Proverbs 31 has nothing on her.

I'm sure I missed something, but I'm sure it'll come to me. Not that I'll have time to post.

Take care and God bless.

The End of an Era

One of the fun things about M is how she is so close to pronouncing things right, but doesn't quite get there. My favorite has been her attempts to say "Sit up," which, until recently, sounded like "shaw bup." The best part would be when she drew it out, as in "shaaaaaaaaaw bup." Always brought a smile to my face, and it still does when I think about it.

Right now she is giving some of the best hugs known to man. She wraps her arms around your neck and pulls tightly close to you. As Barry White used to say, although in a much different context, "I can't get enough of your love babe!" She will also ask to do "eh kisses" and we'll proceed to rub noses. That never gets old.

It is pretty close to 6 weeks left before S is set to arrive. December 31st seems a lot further away than that, but with Thanksgiving only two weeks away, it's much closer than I'd like it to be. But I know C is ready to get her out. Both Momma and baby have been quite healthy throughout this pregnancy, with C's symptoms and pains noticeably better than with M.

Well, the new guy at work has been here for three weeks now. I'd liken it to parenting, in that, many times I just want to step in and do things for him so we'll get things done faster, and, more importantly, "on time", but that will just stunt his growth and will be bad for both of us, because I'll get frustrated and he won't be able to learn. He's right on the cusp of letting him fly on his own, but there's still a few things that aren't sinking in, and I wonder if he needs a different perspective than what I can give him to get those fundamentals down.

On the home-front, things are going fairly well. We had a very productive day last Saturday around the house, and tomorrow should be more of the same with yard-work. One thing that I have been a little worried about is finances. There are a lot of one- or two-time-a-year expenditures that are happening all at the same time and it's going to be really tight through the middle of next year. Well, we are blessed at our church to have the wisdom of Dr. Chris Thurman, who has just finished a series based on his book The Lies We Believe. I am noticing that one of the lies that I have been believing is : I am a bad husband/father if we go into debt. Last night after C and I prayed about this, I had a dream. Now, a disclaimer must be stated: although God still works through dreams, this one won't come true. So, C and I were at a restaurant and received the worst service, even to the point our entrees did not come out. I asked to speak to the manager and she said they don't usually give meal vouchers for poor service. However, there was something she could do and proceeded to take a $1000 bill and a $3750 bill and hand it to us, at which point I started crying because I was so grateful that God had provided in such a miraculous way. Yeah, a $3750 bill. Told you it won't come true. But I think He did work through that crazy dream in reminding me that He will provide our daily bread. What that looks like is up to Him. It may not mean a cushy retirement or even staying out of debt all our lives--which would be a miracle for most Americans--or a pantry-full, but wants me to have an even deeper and fuller sense of trust in Him. No doubt, He has provided miraculously for us in the past, and I know He will continue to do so. Hopefully I will remember to be thankful and give Him the glory.

So, that's pretty much me in a nutshell. The Longhorns are trucking along. I am very excited about the Colt McCoy era at Texas. It'll take a lot to get us back to the title game, but even if we don't make it, we are headed in the right direction. Thanks to Rutgers, though for taking care of Louisville last night. One less hurdle.

Until next time, take care and God bless.

R

The Week That Was...and is to come

Decent week at work.
Despite my best efforts to do nothing, I got a lot of stuff done today.
It's T minus 2 weeks until the new guy gets here.
Of course the best part about work is lunch.
We had some very spirited Spades games this week.
Today had to have been the most impressive of all.
D$ and I were partners and we were up against Chuck and Jefe.
Some brief stats from the last six hands that were played, spanning one and a partial game:
4 successful 10-for-200 hands
3 of those were me and Money
4 successful nils
1 of which was mine.
The most exciting 10-for-200 hand was when Chuck had already taken 3 tricks and there were 7 left. And D$ and I needed all seven. Fast forward to the last four tricks. I was holding the Ace and 8 of spades, the Queen of Hearts and a low Diamond. I knew either Jefe or D$ had the King. I had a gut feeling Jefe had it, so I threw my Ace and landed his King. I threw the diamond, which D$ trumped with a spade. He then threw a club and I spaded it. For the last hand I threw my Queen of Hearts. Jefe and Chuck threw the Queens of Diamonds and Clubs and D$ had a trash card. We'd made it! An exhilarating hand!

On the home front:
I have been using the "I love you" sign to M since she was born. She started using it back this week. She's just closing her hand, but we all know what it means. And although she's an ornery little thing sometimes, there are those moments that you hold onto. Like when I get home and she runs at me with all her might and I pick her up and give her hugs and kisses. Or when she's so tired and I pick her up and she gives me a big hug around the neck. We've been going out on the deck most nights and she'll get her wiffle balls and roll them down to me. Just so. Very precisely. Every time. She can count to 5 with a little help on four. M has been transitioning pretty well to her big girl bed. We've been putting her down for naps, but haven't made the leap to the overnight yet. And she's been eating better. But those pesky teeth still haven't broken through yet.

C and I are settling back into our routine of no social engagements for a couple of weeks, then cram two weeks worth of things into one week. This is said week. Tuesday night was Bible study. Last night we picked up furniture from the Os. (Thanks so much to JC for letting us borrow his pickup.) Tonight I did yard work in preparation for the garage sale tomorrow morning. And Sunday we have a leadership meeting during church, lunch with the K&J G and then a birthday party for West Kouri. Phew! Oh yeah...there's a little scrimmage tomorrow at 2:30 called the Red River Rivalry. Don't know if you've heard of it. A school from Austin, TX and one from Norman, OK. More on that in a bit.
Do you remember August when everything was hitting us all at once. Well, this week our AC was on the fritz and needing fixing. And today our garage door opener stopped working. Sheesh. Thankfully God has provided amazingly for us. And He only promises us our daily bread. Nothing beyond that. That one has stuck with me since Matt M pointed it out a few years ago before a flag football game.

Momma and baby are doing well. We think we've got the name now, but we'll probably not finalize anything until we see her. Everything is progressing well. C hasn't had many problems with her sciatica or nausea, but they creep up every once in a while.

Sports:
Now, if I was an immature male, I would probably say that OU SUCKS! But I'm not. I done growed up. I was telling my boys this week that our D is probably going to give up near thirty points, especially since Robison is dinged up from that Iowa State leg whip and our secondary is more porous than a sieve, even though we've got some great playmakers. HEY SECONDARY COACH. HOW 'BOUT BUMPING THEM AT THE LINE?! That's that side of the ball. Now if Greg Davis WOULD GROW A PAIR and let Colt actually be a man instead of a mouse, we actually might win this game. It's either going to be Texas 17 - OU 31 or Texas 38 - OU 31. There's no in between. That's been Greg Davis' m.o. since he's been at Texas. At some point, you have to understand that these problems we're having this year come from the top. THAT MEANS YOU MACK! I know you've won your Big XII and BCS Championships, but you still have work to do.

Okay, that's pretty much it for tonight.
Take it easy, God bless and Hook 'em Horns.

A Long Time Coming

"Hi. My name is R..."
"Hello R."
"...and I have neglected my blog for almost a month."
"That's okay. We've all done it."

There's a lot to cover folks. So let's get to it. In no particular order...

Football:
My Horns lost to OSU at home. Horrible play-calling by Greg Davis. What little confidence Colt had from those two first-half drives was scuttled by the "Let's hold down the margin of defeat" attitude that plagued us for so many years during the Mack Brown Administration. Our secondary got exposed. They didn't bump at the line like I told them to and we paid dearly for it. Tarell Brown wouldn't have been much help. Chizik really lost some luster with me after that performance. I think Colt will become a top-notch QB in the next few seasons. I mused that we should make the field soggy to minimize OSU's speed. That came to fruition this past weekend against Penn State. Oh well. That's what they get for not listening to me. I'm actually a little scared about the OU game. Not that they have a defense either. I'm not saying we're gonna lose; just scared.

A hardy "Get Well Soon" goes out to the Blonde Blunder that is Chris Simms. I'm sure he's happy knowing that he has a bosom buddy with my boy Sarge; or should I say a spleen buddy. In all seriousness though, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. To take all the garbage we gave him at UT and not whine about it shows you his character. Here's wishing him a speedy recovery.

Work:
Well, it could be worse, right? There's this one drug product that our company bulk manufactures and we've had lots of problems with it. A good Doctor that has spent many years dealing with this compound class once said to my lab manager "I hate XYZ!" Needless to say, this last batch ran into a large problem yesterday and put us behind schedule. Well, not put us behind schedule, but the GMP group. It's just that QC is essentially the last stop and most of the blame and vitriol gets thrown our way. It doesn't matter that the folks upstream have done all the getting behind. It's up to us to get it out three days ago, and when there are problems, and inevitable if something is 'RUSH' or 'BACKORDER' it has problems, the question is "What's the holdup?" and the answer is "QC." And it seems that 90% of the prodcuts coming into QC are rush or backorder. And there's this cute little trend starting of not one, but two bright green BACKORDER stickers.

But things are looking up. The first reason is that we are in the process of interviewing candidates to take over part of what I'm doing. Let's review the hats that Ryan wears at work:
1. Running/Maintaining 3 Gas Chromatographs (GCs)
2. Running/Maintaining 2 Gas Chromatograph - Mass Spectrometers (GCMSs)
3. Sampling of GMP raw materials
4. Sending Outsourced Analyticals.
Most of our instruments are purchased from Agilent and you can see what a GC looks like in the upper lefthand corner of their Gas Chromatography page.
The candidate we will hire will take over Hat #1...which will free me up to do special projects. Don't get me wrong. It'll be nice to have someone take that over for me. The thing is, it really hasn't been busy enough to need that 2nd person. I've been able to handle this workload for the most part and I think I've done more than a bang-up job of it. But when I get our new hire trained, whenever they do hire someone, I will be foisting Hat #4 on that person as well. Devious, I know, but that's what happens to the rook.

The second thing I'm happy about it that I just finished the annual OQ (Operational Qualification) on GCMS#2. It takes two days if everything goes right. Well, last Friday something went wrong. Terribly wrong. There are these things called filaments in the Mass Spec that provide the electrons to make things happen. Well, one broke. And it's best to replace both filaments, not just one. So I rush-ordered some filaments and got them yesterday morning. In the meantime I cleaned the ion source and put in a new column, so everything is pretty much brand spankin' new. And it passed with flying colors today!! What a relief. Especially since last year's calibration expires in four days. I know, I know. It's hard to kick the habit, but I excel under pressure.

Third, I won Scrabble today. Ended quite a drought. We―me, Red, D$ and G-Ray―all have comparable vocabularies, so the saying has been "Whoever draws well, wins." Except the prior three weeks I've drawn two 7-letter words during the course of play, but had nowhere to play them. So it's been frustrating to me, and the game has lost some of its luster. Today I didn't draw exceedlingly well, but I managed to get 'nettled'. I tried to play it twice and the combo word was challenged and I lost my turn. Brian throws out an innocent enough word in 'rice' on the line above the bottom. During D$'s turn I see him staring at the top-right corner of the board, where he ends up playing. G-Ray thinks about throwing back, but wants to get some points in hopes of drawing a consonant to make his 7-letter word. He plays in a different part of the board, and I get 83 points for 'nettled', 're' and 'id'. It's all academic from there folks.

And there's usually Spades going down the rest of the week, which is tons of fun. It gives us two things to look forward to each day instead of one, because it gives us a break from all the muck and mire of the day.

Last, but first in priority, Family:
C looks so beautiful carrying our next daughter. We still haven't completely decided on her name, but we've been calling her Abby for the past month-ish. She just has this glow about her that you'll only understand if your wife or a close friend is pregnant. I'm vehemently hoping that the December 31st due date holds up so we can get our tax break. It's the little things in life. Thanks to all the wonderful ladies who come to playgroup and especially to MP, TO and AF, who are flexible to make playdates on the fly. I appreciate y'all just as much as C does.

M's vocabulary has just exploded. She tries to say almost every word we give her. One of my daily duties that has come with C's ever-expanding belly is bath-time. It's been loads of fun as we have made our own routines. Whenever we're heading out of the bathroom she has to turn the light off. And when we get into her bedroom, she turns the fan and light on. Momma was giving her a bath the other night and didn't know this and M made sure that she got to do the lights and fan. She's been trying to pick up water with her fists and eat it. She's into going down the slide on her belly. Tonight she climbed up into the cradle in our room. She's been getting better at using soft hands with us and with friends. Mealtime has gotten a little better, too. But it's still hard to realize that her diet will balance out over the course of a month.

Gramma and Opa came down this past weekend and we had a fun time with them. M showed them she knew the sign for W (Opa's name) and said Opa and Gramma repeatedly. Tonight she stood at the window saying "Gramma. Gramma. Gramma." They also helped us do some housework, which we are very grateful for.

Well, that about sums it up. If you can call it a sum. I know there are many things I've forgotten, but this'll have to do.

I hope you have a great rest of the week.

God bless,

R

Week 1 Recap

So, we don't have cable; therefore I had to listen to the game on KVET.
From the highlights I saw and from what I heard on the radio, I still think we're in good shape against OSU this Saturday.

1. Our stable of horses ground out over 200 yards.
2. Colt managed the game well. Sure he didn't throw for 250+ yards, but he didn't get picked either.
3. Our defense smothered UNT's offense. Granted, it's UNT, but still, 95 total yards is exceptional, with most of that coming on the initial drive of the second half.
4. 6/12 3rd down conversion and 2/2 on 4th down.
5. Only 4 penalties.
6. Of the two turnovers, both were fluke plays: one a weird hop on a punt that nicked Aaron Ross and the other on a ball that could've been caught being intercepted.
7. Decent special teams: Greg Johnson averaged 43.5 on two punts. Only 5/9 kickoffs were returnable.

In summation, great balance on offense, a smothering D and solid special teams.

A preview for Saturday:

1. Although Colt distributed the ball to 6 different receivers, none were to tight ends. They need to be involved against a much faster, stronger Buckeye D.
2. I really would've liked for our place kicker to have gotten a couple of tries to get him battle tested, even though this game will again be in the friendly confines of DKR/Memorial Stadium.
3. Whither Lyle Sendlein? I know he injured/tweaked an ankle in the first half. He needs to be 100% on Saturday.
4. We can exploit the left side of OSU's offensive line which starts two rookies this year.
5. You can't stop him, you can only hope to contain him: Troy Smith, Teddy Ginn Jr and Antonio Pittman. We could probably do a box-and-one on Ginn and limit his damage.
6. I think OSU got a better taste of a good rushing attack than we did this week, and they could punch us in the mouth early.
7. I think we have the advantage in that we can throw more fresh, talented bodies at OSU than they can throw at us.

My prediction:
Special teams, special teams, special teams. I think Robison and Michael Griffin will be disruptive enough in the kicking game. If our kickoff guy can consistently put it through the end zone, we can limit Ginn there. Colt McCoy will manage the game well enough to keep it close throughout, with a final score of Texas 28 - OSU 24.

Title Defense Preview

This is the email I sent to my boys about our chances this year on August 28th:

This is going to be a crazy year. Since Mack now has a National Championship under his belt, he can do a little dabbling without too much ruckus from the Longhorn rabble. I just hope he doesn't get all Phil Fulmer on us and play two QBs so that neither can get a feel. I don't think that's going to happen, however, as many reports out of Austin and in national media believe that it's Colt McCoy's job. I think that will go a long way in providing stability to the program, even though neither he nor Jevan have taken a college snap.

I actually really like our chances this year. Yes, we lost a lot on both sides of the ball, but there are players with game experience that are in place to take over. Our D will be in fine shape because there is stability on the line, with the backers and with the secondary. And it has another year and off-season with Gene Chizik's schemes. We still have a fine stable of receivers and running backs. I REALLY like our O-line. I think that whoever is under center/in shotgun will have plenty of time to scan the field and make good decisions. If not, it could be a rough year (see: Miami-Florida, University of; see also: Wright, Kyle). I think it's possible that we can lose the Ohio State game by a close margin, which wouldn't drop us too far in the polls, run the table to rest of the way and have a rematch in the Fiesta Bowl if everyone else loses a game. Call me crazy.

But this team is going to be focused. It desperately wants an identity outside of VY. This weekend I saw that Mack's team motto this year is "Do what you can do." It's simple, but powerful at the same time. It says don't try to be Vince. It says Be Smart. And oddly enough, that was Ohio State's game plan in 2001. Great D, great special teams, and have a QB who may not be spectacular, but won't get you killed.

I guess what worries me the most this year is special teams and the fullback position. Both our kickers and our FB are gone from last year. It's one of those things with the fullback that you don't realize what you had until it's gone. I still think that our RBs will be able to move the ball because our O-line will open up some nice holes in the trenches. But what scares me is the kicking game. A punter can be minimalized since we'll have a good cover team, but you can't have inconsistency with your PK. I think the one game that'll rear it's head the most is with Ohio State.

I wish I had tix to that game. The atmosphere will be arguably the most electric in the history of DKR/Memorial stadium. And have you seen the size of the "Godzillatron"? Wow. Heck, I'll just put a lawn chair and a minifridge up on the roof and watch the game from Round Rock.

A few more things

M has learned a new game this past week: 52-card pickup. She doesn't get the full enjoyment yet of spraying them around the room for me to pick up. She usually just takes them off my nightstand and spreads them in a small area on the floor nearby.

I'm glad "So You Think You Can Dance" is over. Was Cat Deeley not the most horrible host/hostess in the history of TV hosting? She wore hideous clothes 90% of the time, her English accent was a lot more annoying than cute, and any time she opened her mouth I just muted her because she never had anything of substance to say. That and Mary Murphy was often loud and screaming. Seriously though. That must be her schtick now. She can't leave it behind. Unless she starts appearing on infomercials.

My buddy D has a bumper sticker that says "Pray for Rain!" Obviously, I'm not praying fervently enough. But it did cool down to 95 earlier tonight and it felt great outside. Those clouds did their job today and held it to a mild 103 today. Summer in Texas. It's faaaaantastic.
At least we have an AC unit that works correctly now.

Have a great week folks.

R

The Latest

What an incredible two weeks it's been.

Some of M's latest words that I've been working with her on: Honey, Dude and Two. She's been saying Honey quite a bit, but it all started after a long day of work. I plopped down on the floor and she plopped down on me and I said "I love you Honey" and she very cutely replied "Huh-nee!" Dude and Two are cute because she makes duck lips while saying them.

She must be growing because she's been eating/drinking and sleeping a lot this past week. I was noticing last night how long her little legs are.

Things continue to be crazy around here. After getting another obscene electric bill from TxU, we asked the neighbor across the street who we know does AC work and he came over and took a look at things. It took him an hour and a significant amount of our money, but things are much better now, especially in our room, which usually runs 5-10 degrees hotter than the rest of the house.

And my car was leaking gas. And it's got a wobble. I mean face it, it's 13 years old, it has no AC as of two years ago, the radio doesn't work. It's on it's last legs. I'll drive it till it won't go no more.

And C called me Wednesday morning to ask my help in changing a tire on the good car. It has a nice kiwi-sized hole in it. [Editor's note: It apparently was closer to orange-size than kiwi-size; that is, if we're using fruit as an analogy.] Thankfully, however, she was able to navigate her way to the side safely and was only 5 minutes away from work. We decided new tires wouldn't be such a bad idea.

All this to say that, without Christ and His perspective on money, we would probably be in worse moods right now, with God and with each other, especially since I have a tendency to get frustrated easily. We still are well in the black, but it was just one thing after another and it was really getting to me at times. But He is our Provider and He is sovereign.

Oh yeah, the knee. Well, it's been doing okay. The doc said the MRI showed a partial tear of the PCL, but it's in the right cavity and feels tighter than the first time he saw me. He doesn't consider reconstructive surgery an option since it looks so good, but I'll need to lay off it so that it can heal properly.

Work's been fine. A bunch of OOSes on some compounds that should've been run by HPLC, but the batch records weren't updated, which would've saved a LOT of work on my part. However, today was a little slower, so I was able to finish writing a procedure and three analytical methods.

We also said goodbye to Tío & Tía. They're headed back to Spain, particularly Malaga, to reach out spiritually to the students at the university through Campus Crusade for Christ's Agapé ministry. I know C will especially miss the friendship and sisterhood she experienced with Tía this year. We love y'all!

R

What a Week!

So, last week was crazy with work, but this week was crazy for different reasons.
Let's recap:

At work, I gave myself two titles:
Director of GC and GCMS Services, which is quite an accurate descriptor and it has a nice ring to it. I didn't want to say President because there are others in the lab that are more tenured and I didn't want to step on any toes.
Second, I dubbed myself Chief Morale Officer. This one got a lot of laughs, which fits right in with the name. I like to make people laugh and we have a pretty good time. We try not to take ourselves too seriously or we'll get too worked up over silly stuff that can stress you out. By the way, if you go to the profile and scroll to the bottom of the page, I'm the devilishly handsome fellow on the back row in the blue shirt and yellow tie.

Wednesday, we went to find out if M was having a baby brother or sister. Now, M took her dear sweet time before we poked and prodded her into moving her legs. This little one, however, only took 5 minutes after the sono tech was done with all the measurements. She was rambling on about "there's the feet...and the thigh...and here's the girl parts...and" Wait a minute! Girl parts? We were totally expecting a boy since C's symptoms were so different. But after the shock and mild disappointment wore off, we are very excited about our perfect little girl. So, your next question is obviously, do we have a name? Yes and no. Yes on the middle name, but no on the first. We're still working the kinks out.

We got ants. Not just any ants, fireants. Coming into the house. At multiple points. So we--we being C--called around and got somebody to come out Thursday afternoon and treat the house. We spent Thursday night killing hundreds of ants that had been creeping in through our closet and onto my clothes. Not good times friends; not good times.

Friday morning at work I posited to a coworker that maybe God was giving us fireants so that we could find something else wrong before it got much bigger. Well, since we had so many ants in the closet, the exterminator came out again Friday afternoon and, while he was spraying around the hot water heater, found that it was leaking. So, while we were less than happy about shelling out some more dough to fix the hot water heater, we're glad we caught it before it got much worse.

And in other news, M hasn't really been sleeping all that well. She's teething, which I'm sure doesn't help. Last night she was awake for 2.5 hours. C was very kind and allowed me to sleep in this morning. Thanks babe!

In still other news, FOOTBALL IS BACK!!! Woo-hoo! It's been a long seven months. Just as long as I spend as much time with my girls as I do in front of the tube, I think we'll be alright.

Take it easy and have a great week at work, whether it's in a building or at home.

R

Soapbox Time

Okay, so here's the deal: people tend not to take responsibility for their actions.
I know that's not a new one on anybody, but athletes take it to a whole new level.

The latest examples:

Maurice Clarett thinks he can drive around with a tenth of vodka in his system, wearing a bullet-proof vest and wielding four guns, including an AK-47. We all know, though, that this isn't his first run-in with the law. Compounding the issue is the fact that this "man" has entered the gene pool and is madly in love with his baby girl. The life guard must not have been on duty that day. And the worst part is that people are making excuses for him.
Says Dan Shanoff on the 8/11Daily Quickie: "Meanwhile, I can't help wondering if all this would have been avoided if the NFL had let Clarett into the league after his freshman year."
HUH??!!
No, this all could have been avoided if people quit glad-handing him and giving him special privileges since he can tote the rock. If someone said no to him. Maybe spanked him whenever he did something wrong. It's not the NFL's fault for not letting him in early. It's not the Denver Broncos' fault for "not connecting with him [sic]". It's Maurice Clarett's fault for making bad choices and for those in position of authority for not enforcing punishment, and therefore reality, to let him know he's not above the law.

Next up, Jeff Allison. After his second, not first, second, OD on heroin, his friend tells ESPN that "He screwed up a few times before, but he always had baseball to fall back on, and I always believed as long as he had baseball he'd pull out of this thing. It's possible that he doesn't have baseball anymore and I also think that's a deciding factor in what's going on and whether or not he'll be able to pull out of this."
So it's the Florida Marlins' fault that this kid likes to sniff the line, not walk it. Unbelievable.

People need to stop making excuses and start taking responsibility for their actions. Their family and friends need to stop being sycophants (yes-men). Authority figures need to stop brushing their "little indiscretions" aside and make sure that they understand that every decision has a price tag.

All right. I'm done. Taking a deep, cleansing breath. In with the good air, out with the bad.

Update

So, the knee is feeling both better and worse. I'm going to see a highly-recommended orthopedic surgeon on Friday. At least I'll have answers.

Of course, Friday is pretty much doomsday at work. A very high priority project that has a drop-dead due date of next Monday has fallen on hard times. It doesn't help that the autosampler on GCMS#2 decided to quit last night...during the middle of my sequence...before it had finished one of my two standards I was running for this project. Oh well. Not much I can do about it. At least I had managed my expectations well for this week.

M continues to be the cutest thing. I piqued her curiosity the other day when I was practicing for my duet with D for last Sunday. She had a fun time ripping the mouthpiece out of my mouth while I was playing it. So I blew air through it and showed her how to push the buttons. She liked it but wasn't too enthused. So then she climbed up in the papasan and peaked over the cushion at me. Those two cute little beady eyes staring at me in wonderment. I wish I had the camera.

So, you know how competitive C and I are. Well, there's a game called Bejeweled, which I used to play a lot in college. When C plays I try to help her out when she gets stuck. I asked her if I could play a game. So I was doing pretty good and she left the room to check on M. She came back and was wondering if I had started another game. No, I insisted, I was still on the same one. To make a long story short, I played for 23:19, had over 80,000 points, cleared 107 jewels per minute and had a best score of 2800. And it wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't started the game at 5 till ten. But it was fun.

If you haven't heard by now, we are expecting number two at the beginning of January. We go to find out whether it's a boy or girl next Wednesday. I'm pretty convinced it's a boy since C's symptoms are so different, namely that she wasn't yakking every morning between weeks six and sixteen. She's had a fairly good pregnancy up till now considering how her allergies get worse and now that her sciatica is coming back.

How about this weather huh? I hear it's supposed to be a hundred and death-teen degrees tomorrow. Sheesh. Thankfully it's been a mostly dry heat. Because it ain't the heat that gets you--all together now--it's the humidity.

I must be off. C and I are trying to figure out a girl's name, just in case.

Take care and God bless,

R

Getting Older and other things

There are many signs that one is getting older. The graying of the hair. The losing of the hair. The memory fading. And the body doing strange things.

Last Saturday, I was playing flag football and I received the ball, made a cut and was tackled, both literally and figuratively, and drove my right knee into the ground. So, I got up and took a step back to the huddle and my knee had a little give to it. And when I tried to run I heard this clicking sound in my knee. I stayed in for a couple more plays until halftime, even catching a ball and futily hopping on one leg toward the end zone before the safety flagged me at the 5-yard line. But I decided to be a man and stop so I wouldn't hurt myself worse. To make a long story short, I went to ARC's Far West clinic which has after-hours care and got myself a wheelchair ride, some X-rays that were negative, a leg immobilizer and some crutches. The last two things are very good for sympathy. A quick side note: my friend Fen's team was gracious enough to go a man down for the second half when they realized I was done for the game. An absolute splendid show of sportsmanship and Christian character.

Lemme tell you, you don't realize how much your knee means to you until you can't use it properly. For instance, I still can't bend it all the way back, which makes squatting impossible. Neither could I chase after M in my normal way. I like to get on my hands and knees and hit the floor announcing "Daddy's gonna gitcha!", which is shortly followed by my little one giggling and running away. I've been able to do it a little bit as my knee has gotten better, but it's just not the same. One other interesting thing is when you have restless legs and you have an immobilizer on. It's darn near impossible to get that puppy to sleep. But one of the highlights was driving home with the immobilizer on. Now, as I'm sure most of you have done, when I get bored on long drives or when my foot starts to hurt, I'll switch 'em and drive with my left foot. So, thankfully I've had practice making my left foot an ambidextrous driver. So I open the passenger door, pull myself through, get my leg in and then the crutches. Now the tricky part was that my leg was pushing against the shifter, so that it wasn't locking in Drive. So I had my right leg in the passenger side, my right hand holding the shifter in Drive, my left foot handling the braking and accelerating, and my left hand steering. I know if I'd've seen that next to me, I would've had a few laughs. So, "You're Welcome" to those of you who cracked a grin my way that day.

This morning I got to get M ready by myself since C was playing her violin for church. Wow! So much respect to those moms who get their basketball teams ready and to church on Sunday mornings. Let's just say that, although M's hair wasn't perfect and I left the Bible at home, we got there at 9:30. And that was with some mild speeding. But it was an interesting experience that showed me exactly why C wants to get ready before M wakes up. Makes total sense now.

Anyway, we had a fun afternoon with Bible study friends. Good burgers. Good fellowship. Good times. I must go now. Tis ev'n, and I needs my beauty rest.

Have a great week.

R

Poor Little Cutie Pie

Before I proceed with today's post, I have to add something to the July 1st post. Another thing I really enjoy is how she uses me as her own personal jungle gym. Sometimes she'll sit on my tummy or my chest, and even my head, and bounce up and down like I'm an exercise ball. Good times are had by all.

So, M has been sick since Sunday with at least a viral croup, and the doctor thinks something more. She has this cough that just won't go away. Her throat 'll be so dry during the night that we've left some water in her crib for her. The other morning C went in to take care of her and she was so hoarse she could barely even say "wa-wa."

One cool thing was that our CEO gave us Monday off too, creating a nice little four-day weekend. Well, when Wednesday rolled around and it was time for me to head to work she gave me kisses and hugs and then cried as I pulled out of the driveway. Poor thing. Broke my heart.

One thing that doesn't break my heart though is how she is into this hitting thing. You mightuv heard of it. She rares back and slaps you in the face. Yeah. Not good times. Especially since she'll be a big sister around the Second of January.

WHOA!!! HOLD THE PHONE! YOU DIDN'T TELL ME Y'ALL WERE PREGNANT!

I know, I know. We just wanted to get past the tricky first trimester, and since C wasn't showing, we weren't in a hurry to tell folks. Sorry you've been kept in the dark. But she's been feeling really good with this one, which is what makes me think it's a boy. But we won't find out for another 5-6 weeks, so you'll have to wait with anticipation.

Well, my bride would like to do a puzzle, and, seeing as how blogging is counterproductive to puzzling, I must go.

Have a great weekend and feel free to give us a call.

Forget Me Not

So, M is just over 15 months old and it's getting hard to remember some of the things that she did when she was little. So here's a small list of some of those things:

I want to still be able to remember her "machine gun laugh" ten, twenty years down the road.
I want to recall all those silly faces she makes.
Her little square pouty lip whenever she bonked or didn't get her way.
The guilty way she ran away when Momma asked her "Whatareyoudoin?!" because she got caught getting into her night stand.
The hours spent rolling around on our bed.
Those precious moments when C was tickling her and they would laugh together for minutes on end.
All these mornings when we get her out of bed and she runs around her crib and flops like a rag doll.
The animal sounds she makes (dog, cat, elephant, cow).
All the signs that she doesn't do exactly right but we know what she wants anyway.
The wonderful snuggles when she's tired.
The slobbery kisses she gives.
How she always liked to bite my nose.
The look in her eyes when I'm wearing something that she's looking for, like "Heeeeyyy, wait a minute!"
Her concentration face when she's playing with one of the Metrushka dolls.
The way she likes to "Rock, Rock" on her horse or the Harley from Uncle N.
How she would giggle at her funny Tío.
The times that she chases after her best friend Chickpea whenever church is done, and especially the time she bear-hugged Tate from behind and ended up toppling over.
All those cute positions that she's sleeping in when Mommy and I check in on her each night.

Thankfully we've captured a lot of those memories on film or video. But there's a lot of times that we didn't have the camera ready.

I love you cutie pie. Thanks for all the fun memories. I look forward to all the many more we'll have together.

Daddy

Eskimo Kisses

You know the song "Butterfly Kisses" by Bob Carlisle (I think)?

Well, for me, it's Eskimo Kisses! For about a month now, I'll go in to be with the ladies while C changes M's diaper, and while M is squirming on the changing table, I'll say "Eskimo Kisses!!" and proceed to rub noses with my dear little girl.

Fast forward to this weekend while we're visiting my folks in Fort Worth. We're all in the living room and it's way past M's bedtime, and I ask her if she wants to give Daddy some Eskimo kisses. She comes over and sticks her nose out and touches mine. Talk about melting your heart.

It's moments like that that make my heart jump for joy. I hope I can treasure these memories forever. And I also hope that she won't mind giving her Daddy some Eskimo kisses when she's a teenager. Who knows.

Thanks cutie-pie for making my day. I love you!

Growing up so fast

So, M is 14 months old now. That statement enough is crazy to think about. But she is tall and she is talking all the time and learning new signs to help her communicate. You can see more about that on C's blog. It's how things work.

But the hardest thing is that, although we can take mental snapshots, and even some digital ones too, there's no way to remember everything, especially those special moments that don't happen that often and you can't get the camera fast enough.

Like the times she comes up and hugs one leg and pats the other one.

Or when I get home from work. She knows the sound the garage door makes and heads straight to it if she's not eating. I'll stoop down and open the door slowly and there she is, waiting for me, and greets me with an excited "Dada!!"

Or like last night. I was lying (laying? does anybody really know which one to use?) on the floor with my head propped up on the couch, and the little munchkin had decided that she didn't want to go to sleep, but she was sooooo tired. She was just toddling around in a sleepy stupor and came over to me and layed (laid?) on my chest for a good minute. I know; aaawwww! But this doesn't happen that often. She's never been a particularly cuddly girl after she turned 4 months. It's one of those things that I will cherish in my heart. Just like in Luke 2:19 "But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart."


She is a special young girl, this M. She has lived up to her middle name of Joy. She has a smile on her face wherever we go and waves at everyone she passes. Many people, including a grandma-ish woman at the restaurant last night, tell us how precious or sweet or cute she is. Those dimples could calm a savage beast.

She's also pretty smart, too. She and C watch these Signing Time videos and she has learned many signs, which enable her to communicate more effectively and lead to fewer tantrums and whining. Some of the signs she knows are: water, ball, please, help, cracker, strawberry, eat/food and the latest one, book. It's particularly satisfying for me when I make a concerted effort to teach her one and she gets it and uses it. The sign for help is one of those. Sure, she doesn't do it the exact way, but we know what she means. She was able to pick up book rather quickly, too.

Among all the prattling she does, M actually has a few words that she uses, such as wa-wa, ball, ees (please), esse (let me see, particularly in reference to our cell phones), mama (of course) and the multi-use da-da, which, in context, can mean dada, doggy, or all done.

And those are all the things I do get to see. I have a love-hate relationship with work. I love it because I enjoy the work for the most part and I really enjoy the folks I work with. And God uses it to provide for our family. But I hate it because it keeps me away from the ones I truly agape love. I usually leave around 8 in the morning and leave as close to 5 as possible so I can spend as much time with them as I can. For a month or two I would piddle around on the computer to relax in the evenings, but C reminded me that M was still awake. And God called to my attention the fact that I spend more time with my coworkers than I do with M. So now I at least wait until M goes to bed. But then C needs my attention too. Maybe that's part of picking up my cross daily and following Him. There are times when I just want to veg and have me-time, but I know my family needs and wants me more than I need the solitude. And all the stuff we've been blessed with won't be coming to Heaven with me.

Well, I've rambled long enough. I hope this is a sufficient update. I'll try to post more than once a month. But if I don't, you can always visit C's blog, where there are more frequent updates and a fair amount of pictures.

Take care and God bless,

R

The Atomic Poop

Wow! I'm sure you other parents out there have experienced this after your kid is on solids. But man, I was not ready for this one. Yesterday before I left for work, I was holding M and giving her some hugs and kisses when my nose was befouled. So, like any parent, I lifted her up to smell her bottom to see if that was in fact what was rotten in the state of Denmark. Nearly threw up. It was that bad. Fortunately for me, and unfortunately for C, I was needing to leave for work. Needless to say, that bag o' diapers went into the garage trash immediately. It's one of those things that you probably wouldn't even wish on your worst enemies, although it'd be far more innocuous than many other things that are racing through your mind.
Beware the Atomic Poop.

In other news, M continues to soak up sign language and is even practicing words. She signs the following words with regularity and understanding their meaning: eat, more, all done, water, ball, baby. She is close to saying three words other than mama and dada: ball (sounds like bah, as in humbug), dog (like dog without the g) and light (which is just the 'L' drawn out a couple seconds).

In still other news, M enjoys aping us as we say and do things. When I was watching my 'Horns finally lose their horribly played game against LSU, I was growling and grousing about. Mallory then echoed my sentiments.

That's pretty much it for now. Work has been a bear this week, and shows no sign of letting up. But that's a good thing. I'd rather be so busy than bored. Since our lab did such a great job with the retesting of one of our GMP products, our CEO gave our manager the green light for an activity on the company. So yesterday we went bowling. Had a lot of fun with everybody and I even bowled my high game: 164. I only had two open frames and even had two strikes in a row.

Enjoy your day.

Happy Birthday M, Part 1: Conception to birth

It's crazy to think that it's been a year since you were born. There have been a few hard times, but overall it's been a great year. So let's start at the beginning.

It was early in the morning and Mommy had gotten out of bed because she was so anxious to see what the result was. We were trying to have you, but I still had no clue. So at about 6:30 in the morning, she crawled into bed and woke me up with the sweet words "Good morning Daddy." Now, I wasn't fully awake, but I understood exactly what she meant. And that's how it began.

Soon afterward, she started having morning sickness, so we kept a supply of crackers handy so she could munch on them in the morning to settle her tummy down. It didn't work most of the time, so I would get her some water and try to comfort her.

We wanted to wait as long as we could to tell people, but Mommy had to tell Mrs. Bird at work so she could find a new teacher. And since she had to know, we wanted to tell our family so they wouldn't get their feelings hurt. But it was good for Mommy so she could enjoy being pregnant more and could talk with other moms who could share in her excitement. One way we did that was by taking Bradley classes so Mommy could have you naturally. The breathing and mental exercises would come in handy later.

We were so excited to find out if you were a boy or girl so we could start calling you by your name instead of "it" and "the baby." But you were being modest, as Mommy liked to say, and you wouldn't let us see. So Mommy got up and walked around a little and the sonogram tech made an "earthquake" and you finally started to move your little leg. It took a lot of coercion, but we finally saw that we had a Mallory Joy on the way. However, it took mommy a lot of convincing, because she didn't want you to come out and be a boy and not have a set of boy clothes.

One of the things she loved to do was whenever she felt you kick, she would tell me to feel. It was fun the first few times, but it got a little old after awhile, because I felt that once you've felt one kick, you've felt them all. But as you got bigger, you started packing quite the punch.

We took a photo of you and Mommy every month so we could see the transformation taking place. As you got bigger, Mommy started getting sciatica, so we learned some exercises and she started sleeping with many pillows, so that Daddy only had a tiny sliver of bed to sleep on. One of my fondest memories during this time was helping both of you go to sleep. Mommy would lie on her side and you would immediately start flailing around. She thought maybe you were just jumping on the bed. But I would put my hand on her tummy and you would stop moving. It was something I looked forward to every night.

Perhaps the hardest part was having realistic expectations of when you would come. We both knew that first pregnancies usually went past the due date, but Mommy was convinced that she'd have you out by your due date. We went on long walks and even took a hike up Mount Bonnell to try to speed things up. When you still didn't come, we decided to induce. But after two hours on the highest levels of petocin, it was quite evident you were just gonna take your sweet time. The funny moment from that time was when our nurse Ed put your monitor on, your heartbeat was quite loud and so I asked him if we could turn it down. He said it'll be the last time we're able to turn your volume down. Boy was he right! God has given you quite the set of lungs.

That Saturday night, Mommy started to have real contractions. We started timing them around 8PM and saw that they were getting longer, stronger and closer together. Not wanting to go back to the hospital and come home empty-handed again, we tried everything to make sure this was it. We went on a walk, Mommy ate something, and then she took a shower. After all of this, the contractions still kept getting worse. So we decided to go in. The nurse examined Mommy and said that she was still only 1.5cm dilated. We decided shortly thereafter that you weren't coming and that we'd go home and try to get some sleep. Well, that really didn't happen. We probably only got 6 hours between us as the pain was getting worse.

Sunday morning we decided not to go to church, mainly because I didn't want Mommy to have to hear "You're still here?!" from all the well-meaning folks. And so we did all the exercises, went on a little walk and tried to keep her in as little pain as possible. But it was getting so bad Sunday night that we packed our bags and the cooler and headed on to the hospital to check in. Again. But this time there was great news. Mommy was at 4cm!! Which was good for the nurse, or Mommy might've hurt her. Just kidding. We had great care from all the nurses and doctors and Mommy was making good progress. The only bad thing was that you were face up, which meant very painful back labor for Mommy and the possibility of a C-section. So we settled into a routine of ice chips and peppermint oil after contractions, and Daddy counting for Mommy to help her hold the pushes. But you weren't coming, even after two hours of pushing. At this point, we decided that Mommy should get an epidural, even though we wanted no drugs. But she needed it. It was a very hard time, because I didn't want to see her in so much pain and she was doing such a good job. Dr. B-G said that if you were face down it wouldn't have taken nearly as long. Oh well. God had perfect timing as He always does. We just didn't feel it at the time. After another couple of hours of pushing, you were out and we were thankful Mommy didn't need a C-section. It was an amazing and disgusting thing, but you were here! It was exactly 5:30PM on Monday, March 21, 2005. I got to cut your umbilical cord and then I gave Mommy some hugs and kisses while they took you to clean you off and get weighed and checked. You were so tiny!!

We took some pictures and then let the family come in to see you and take pictures with you, but it had been pretty much since Friday night when we had any good sleep, so we took you to the room upstairs and settled in for the night. Everybody got some much-deserved rest!

Bracket Busted

So, I picked Kansas to not only make the Final Four, but to lose to UConn in the title game. See, this is why I didn't fork over five bucks in my office pool. I hadn't watched much college ball, but I knew that KU had rock chalk Jay-hawked all over my 'Horns in the Big XII championship game. They're my 'Horns because I'm an alumnus of 2001. But for posterity and just to have something to talk about with friends and coworkers, I filled out a bracket on ESPN.

Some brief comments on the Tourney so far:

A&M suffered a severe Stomach Punch game against LSU last night. I really feel for my Aggie coworkers. But they have a bright future as long as Billy Gillespie stays.

Lamarcus Aldridge is for real. He's pretty much the only reason we won that Penn game on Friday night. He just needs to take it to the hole with more authority. None of this namby-pamby layup jazz. Throw it down like you mean it big man!

You thought the NFL had parity?! None of the 1-seeds beat the 16s by more than 16 points, with UConn nearly being on the wrong side of history against the Great Danes of Albany. And kudos for Jim Calhoun tipping his hat to those kids and their coach. They had a great game plan, but just couldn't hit those buckets at the end of the game.

The Big Least is exposed! Mo Valley and the CAA are not overinflated. I bet Dr. Littlepage from UVa is giddy as a school girl with the results of this first weekend, especially after the vitriol he endured from Jim Nance and Billy Packer during the Selection Show last Sunday. And major co-jones on his part for actually being accountable for the committee's picks. Sure, he danced around like a good politician, but it was good to see him defend himself. And even better when the Air Forces of the collegiate world backed him up.

The NCAA. It's faaaantastic.

And finally, props to my gal for letting me plop in front of the tube for hours on end watching this Madness. I love you C!

P.S. Coming Tuesday: Reminiscing on the first year of M and that crazy weekend one year ago.

It's a Flurry!

No, unfortunately, I'm not talking about snow, although we are expecting a freeze tonight. I haven't written in a long time and tonight you get two blogs for the price of one. Well, this is going to encompass a lot of things since it's been so long, but that's what you came here for anyway. Right?

Awkward pause....

First things first, huh? How's the family? Doing great. C and I both just got over the flu. It was a pretty nasty one since it actually took me out. It's hard to imagine, but C and I will be married four years come early March. In some ways it doesn't seem that long, but in others, it seems like this is how it's always been. We continue to learn more things about each other. There are some overachievers out there who say they learn something new about their spouse everyday. Is that even possible? If it is, am I just being lazy? Wait, don't answer that one. M is 10.5 months now and has learned to walk. She's only stringing together 10-15 steps at the most right now, but she's picking it up fast. Looks like a zombie, but a cute zombie at that. She still doesn't have any teeth. She's a picky eater. Gee, I wonder who she got that from?

You guys moved into a house? Congratulations! How's home ownership? Harder than I expected, but superb nonetheless. We've had a lot of help from Opa and Grandma. But that's what's great about grandparents. They would help you do anything as long as they get some baby time. And that's scarce when you live 200 miles away. They really have been a great help, from helping us clear out our back yard and haul off the brush to helping us refinish our deck. The next time they come down, they'll actually see some green in our front yard. Yep, we're getting our grass tomorrow. It'll be nice when it's done, a culmination of a lot of sweat and not a few unhappy thoughts about the previous owner and all the trees and rocks she put in the yard. But hey, this will be the last time we have to do all this work for this front yard. And it'll be nice to have a place where M can play and we won't have to worry about her getting hurt. This house is such a blessing and the Lord gave us a great deal on it. It's not more than we need, but not less either.

So how's the job? The obligatory shooting the breeze question. Well, it's going alright. There've been a lot of changes in the seven months since I started and we're headed in the right direction. Sure, I may not have gotten the raise that I was hoping for, but any raise is a good raise. A lot better than a pink slip. I've learned a lot and there's still much more to learn to be the best analyst I can be. The best thing is that I've got a great team to work with. And you know how important that is, and what a luxury it can be, especially if you've had a not-so-good work environment. It really is fun to work with the folks I work with. Especially the Scrabble guys. D-Money, BES, A-Wong and G-Ray. They've worked together for several years now and they've let me join the club. I really look forward to those days when we gather around that board. You never know what you're going to get with these guys. Every now and then someone gets a little excited or someone slips Freudian-like and the hilarity ensues. I haven't laughed as hard with such frequency in a loooong time. Good times, good times. And you can't beat a <10-minute commute that doesn't include I-35 or Mopac. :o)

What are the other typical questions? Ooh, How bout those 'Horns? NATIONAL CHAMPS BABY!! I really do feel sorry for whatever pro team drafts Matt Leinart and his dad. Because they're a package deal, just like Doug and Mr. Christie. Do you really want a guy leading our team that spouts such an absurd statement "I still think we're the better team. They just made more plays than we did." Do you want some cheese with that whine? Was I disappointed that Vince left early? Of course. But I can't blame him.

Well, my computer's doing weird things, so I'm off for tonight.

Good-bye and good luck.

Underration (the state of being underrated)

So, I haven't had radio for a little over a year now in my car.
It stinks some times, because I want to kick out the jams.
But other times, it's nice not to have the radio.
Because then you get to hear things you might not have heard otherwise.

Namely, you can't just listen to the rain pelt the roof of your car.
You should try it some time. One might say it's therapeutic. To me it's just relaxing.
And that's a good thing driving in Austin traffic.

When I was growing up, one of the fondest memories I have is when it Texas-rained--and if you've lived in Texas long enough you know what I mean--we would open the garage door and put down the tailgate on my dad's truck and we'd just sit there watching it rain.
We'd feel the mist from those drops hitting the driveway.
And we'd take in a long, deep breath of the lovely smell of rain.
Aaaaahhhh.....
You know the smell, don't you?
Well, if you don't, I'd propose to you that the next time it rains, you take some time out of that busy schedule of yours and enjoy the rain.
Open the garage or sit on the porch with your socks off.
Pull up a chair and watch it come down.
Hear the ebb and flow of the intensity.
Watch it pour down in your yard and not in your neighbor's yard across the street.
Watch the wind blowing so hard that it's practically raining sideways.

And thank God for that wonderful smell and the peace that you feel in the midst of such violence.
Because only He could put those two together.