Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

Bethany and I are doing well even though we got about 12 inches of snow in the last 48 hours. I've been constantly snow blowing and shoveling, but the snow isn't wet so it isn't too bad. Our neighbor (Carol) and I have a good deal worked out. I take care of the maintenance on her snow blower and she lets me use it. I take care of her driveway as well, because using the snow blower saves soooooo much time.

The classy city of Pontiac, Michigan only took two whole days to come out and plow our street. We got stuck coming back from the church Christmas party. I was able to dig the car out without getting hit by anyone else coming down our street.

The dogs are enjoying the snow, but they have to stay in certain parts of the yard or the drifts are over their head. It is real cold for the first time this winter. With the wind chill it is hovering around 0 degrees.

The baby is doing well as far as we know. We go in on the 29th of December for the big ultrasound. We aren't going to find out the sex of the baby, but they do all sorts of tests at the big ultrasound.

We're glad to be surrounded by good friends in Michigan, although, when I look at the temperature in Harlingen, Texas, it makes me a little sad. I remind myself that working the midnight shift at a federal detention center probably isn't much fun regardless of how nice the weather may be.

We want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Andy

We heard its heart beat

We went for an ultrasound nearly two weeks ago. Blob had done quite a bit of growing. Blob weighed 3 ounces. You could clearly see its head and body (or tail as I referred to it and got in trouble). We were able to hear its heartbeat (158). The technician said that the heart rate is not an indication of the sex of the baby. The old line of thought is that if the heart rate is over 140 then it will be a boy.

Bethany and I are in the early stages of planning a trip to Mexico. She said that she wants to Mexico before the baby comes and with her possible travel restrictions (I think that she can't fly a month before the baby is due) we are looking at going in early February.

I will try to get my scanner hooked up so that I can get a picture of the baby on the blog.

Second Post

Nothing too exciting has been happening these past two weeks. The baby is, apparently, 1/2 ounce.
Bethany has been feeling better, but a bit moody. The good thing about a bit moody, is that she has been funnier than she has ever been. But, the bad thing about a bit moody is that she gets very angry with me sometimes. On occasion, it is angry for a good reason (i.e. I called her "Preggosaurus Rex"), but on other occasions it appears that Bethany has opened up a factory to begin manufacturing fake reasons for being very upset with me. The factory has a lot of output... they might be running a double shift. Who knows?
I am enjoying my job and will continue training through the end of 2008. Bethany's work has been going well, but some days it is hard to get out of bed in the morning.
We raked leaves in Friday for several hours and we were half way finished with our yard. On Saturday, we were both sore and I remembered that it isn't nice to make your wife do yard work in her delicate condition. So, I hired one of the teens from church to help me with the yard work. We finished the leaves and then spread mulch. It looked great until I woke up this morning and saw that about 5 more bags of leaves fell last night. We did about 20+ bags of leaves on Friday and Saturday.
On Thursday, I had several friends come over while Bethany was at work. Like the cool, hip, awesome people that we are... we played Jeopardy on Playstation 2. I only made it to final Jeopardy on the last game (I think we played 4 or 5 total), because if you get the "daily double" and don't risk it all, you get berated. I risked it all and lost.
Other than that, we have a doctor appointment on the 13th (I think) in which they are going to perform the in office ultrasound. We're still not sure if we're going to find out the sex of the baby, but if it is only 1/2 an ounce, I doubt very much that we'll see anything other than a little blob. Blob Brockman will be its name for now.
Take care.
Andy

First Post: Back in Michigan

Hi Everyone,

I decided to start a new blog for all the news and updates regarding our return to Michigan.

After our eventful summer, we decided that it would be best to come back to Michigan. The economy is such that selling a home in Michigan (for any price at all) is nearly impossible. There is a house a block from us that has been on the market for several months and it is for sale for $9,000.00!!!! There is nothing special, but it isn't a burned down house, either.

So, we're back in Michigan and very excited to see our friends again. I was able to get a job with another insurance company and it has worked out great. I will be working from home, which will save money and time. The company is taking very good care of us and paying for many of things that I will need to have a home office. I have included a picture of the new home office. We had to supply the furniture, but they are handling the phone/fax line and cable modem.

The best news that we've had since coming back to Michigan is that we are going to have a baby. We believe the baby is due in late May or early June. We don't know what it will be yet, and it appears that Bethany doesn't want to find out. That being said we already have several outfits for our gender unknown baby. Of course, the majority of clothes are wiener dog themed. Bethany has made a rule (she loves making rules) that I am not allowed to dress the wiener dogs in the baby's clothes. I have agreed, but only because the dogs are so filthy and smelly! We went to the doctor a few days ago and had the preliminary appointment. They said Bethany is doing fine and in 4 weeks we go in for an ultrasound.

Last night, we had dinner with our friend Lindsay from Minnesota. I've known Lindsay for 15 years because we went to school together in Mexico City. She and Jason (hubby to be) gave us the first gift for the baby. Jason went and picked up a baby t-shirt from the University of Minnesota. Bethany loves it because she is from Minnesota. I suspect that the baby will be coming home in that t-shirt from the hospital.

Tonight I am going out for dinner with a group of friend from Rochester College. Our friend Chris is back for a visit from his second tour in Iraq. We're glad that he is back safe and hopefully he will be back for good soon.

Take care and I will try to keep this updated as we have more news.