Blog Archives - September 2006

Saturday, September 30, 2006 - Pretty Dogs and New Features

Moxie is one goofy dog. She thinks she's the princess of the house and everyone should pay full attention to her. Julie has been wanting to get her a rhinestone collar so Moxie can look just as regal as she thinks she is. I wasn't too happy about the idea of my dog wearing jewelry so we weren't looking very much.

Then Wednesday evening Moxie and I were sitting on the recliner. She was acting dumpy and I asked her what's wrong. "Do you want a rhinestone collar?" I asked, thinking she'd ignore me. But no. Immediately her ears perked up and she looked right at me. "You want a rhinestone collar?" I asked again. Now I had her full attention. She jumped off the chair and looked at me expectantly. Julie laughed and said "I told you she wants a rhinestone collar!" And that was it. Moxie was off running to Julie.

"There's no way she understands what we're saying" I said. "She's never even heard of a rhinestone collar before. She probably just recognizes the word collar." All the while Julie and I were discussing the rhinestone collar Moxie was getting more and more excited. She went and got her squeak toy and insisted on playing fetch. I tossed the toy a few times, amused at Moxie's excited state. Every time Julie or I said rhinestone collar her ears perked up and she cocked her head, as if asking "When do I get one?"

So I started telling her we'd get her a rhinestone collar (Moxie starts bouncing up and down) for Christmas. Thinking she was just excited about the word collar (she's heard that one before and knows she wears a collar), I asked her how she's like a poop collar instead. No reaction. "She wants a rhinestone collar" said Julie. Immediately Moxie ran over to her. We laughed and I threw Moxie's squeak toy for her again. She took off after it and Julie said "We'll have to get her a rhinestone collar." Mid dash Moxie can to a sliding halt, spun around, and ran back to Julie.

So I think it's safe to say Moxie understands what a rhinestone collar is. Thursday evening we went to Walmart to pick up some stuff and Julie found a black leather collar with rhinestones in it. We decided we had to follow up on our promise to Moxie and we picked it up.

As soon as we got home we told Moxie we got her her very own rhinestone collar. The excitement was uncontrollable. She was dancing around the kitchen, running circles and bouncing all over the place. We took the collar out of the bag and Moxie couldn't even contain herself. I could barely put the collar on her she was so jittery.

As soon as I got the collar on her she went prancing around the house. I've never seen a dog so excited to get a new collar. She's definitely a girl... Jewelry makes her happy! Hank on the other hand is a typical guy. If he can't eat it he doesn't care. So he got an extra treat (which was gone in a split second) and Moxie got her bling. And I have to face the shame of having bought jewelry for a dog. But at least Moxie and Julie are happy. I guess that's what counts.

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On another note, I've updated some features on the web site. I made my blog database driven and added an admin feature to it. That way I'll be able to post a message from the hospital as soon as the baby is born. Hopefully I'll be able to upload pictures right away, too. I also added old news entries from my old web sites - all the way back to 2001. And finally, today I added the ability to have comments on my blog entries. So let me know what you think of my ramblings!

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Wednesday, September 27, 2006 - One More Ultrasound

We had one more ultrasound today. The doctors want to keep an eye on things and monitor the size of the baby because of the possible complications due to Julie's nerve problems. But everything looked good today. It does look like we're going to have a pretty big baby though. At just 38 weeks the baby is already 7.5 lbs! And it's supposed to gain a half a pound a week. So if we go the full 40 weeks we're looking at an 8.5-9 lb baby! Said with Eastern European accent: Big strong Polish baby. Pull cart and bull.

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Friday, September 15, 2006 - Ambulance chaser!

We had a bit of excitement today... Julie went to school, as normal, despite feeling cramps and what we thought might be mild contractions for most of the night. Then this morning the contractions started getting stronger. Around 11 she called me from school and said they were getting worse. She went to the office to see if someone could watch her class for a while while she rested in the nurse's office. The nurse thought what Julie was feeling were actual contractions and that she should go home instead of staying at school. So Julie called me to let me know she was going to head home. I didn't need to come pick her up because she thought she would be fine. Two minutes later she called back and said that the nurse wouldn't let her drive home so I had to come pick her up when I could, but no big hurry.

So I finished up what I was working on and went to take the dogs outside when I got a call from the assistant principal. "We didn't want to worry Julie, so we said there was no rush, but we think you should get here as soon as possible," she said. "This could be urgent." So I hurried the dogs into the house and ran out to the car. I sped out to her school, about 20 minutes away, and arrived just as an ambulance was pulling up.

"You're not here for a pregnant woman, are you?" I shouted to the paramedics. "Yes, are you the father?" Great. So I rushed into the building behind the paramedics, thinking I was going to see Julie giving birth in the middle of the hallway. There she was, in an office, surrounded by administrators, the school nurse, and paramedics. They were all making a fuss and Julie, of course, was being nonchalant. They were timing contractions, about every 2 minutes and lasting 30 seconds or so. The paramedics were taking blood pressure and asking questions. Julie looked more upset at being the center of attention than anything. So the paramedics decided that with contractions that close we should head to the closest hospital, about 15 minutes away. That wasn't our hospital where our doctor was so we said we'd prefer to go to our own hospital. Reluctantly the paramedics said ok after we signed a waiver saying we understood the risks of going to the hospital that was five minutes further away.

So now that we were going to head to our own hospital the next task was to convince Julie that she should ride in the ambulance instead of just having me drive her. She was convinced that this wasn't really the baby coming, just complications with her foot and nerve problems, but the paramedics, and I, insisted that she go in the ambulance and I follow in the car.

Now starts the really exciting part of the story. I'm not sure I was supposed to do this, but I followed the ambulance all the way to the hospital. I sped along behind the ambulance doing up to 85 mph at times. I even went through a stoplight (shhhh...). I couldn't believe how many people refused to stop and pull over for the ambulance. The ambulance even had to come to a complete stop once while two cars went right through the intersection without even slowing down. Shame on all those people.

Anyway, we finally got to the hospital (15 minutes for a normal 25 minute trip). They brought Julie into the emergency doors and made her use a wheel chair, despite her protests. Then it was off to a birthing suite for monitoring and an exam. As soon as she laid down and started to relax the contractions eased up. After a short while our doctor came in, asked a few questions, and did an exam. No baby yet. He said that things looked good and the contractions were probably a result of the baby shifting and pressing against new nerves and muscles. That, combined with Julie's nerve issues, was probably causing the mild contractions. He told us what to keep an eye out for and told her to relax this weekend and get plenty of rest. The baby can still come any time, but not this afternoon.

So, after all the excitement we're still waiting. We're at 36 weeks, so a baby now would be fine if a bit early. But at least we have a great story to tell Baby when it's older. And I got to pretend I was a lawyer, chasing ambulances (sorry Mel and Zeus...).

Anyway, I'll keep everyone posted as things progress (or just pretend to progress).

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Thursday, September 14, 2006 - Any day now... And a good laugh.

Well, we just got back from a Dr. visit this evening. We may be having a bundle of joy a little sooner than we were expecting. This weekend the baby dropped, which typically means 2-4 weeks to go. Today the Dr. confirmed that things are indeed progressing pretty quickly. He said that the baby can come any time now. It may be a matter of a few days or maybe hold off for a few weeks, but we're definitely in the home stretch.

Unfortunately the house isn't in the home stretch yet. I'm just finishing up the baby's room - just have the quarter rounds to put in. Hopefully I'll have that done this weekend. But there's still baby stuff piled up everywhere in the house. And tons of other stuff that the baby stuff has displaced while we've been working on the baby's room. Hopefully we'll be able to get everything in order over the next few days. At least I should have the baby's room ready and waiting by this weekend.

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On another note, I just have to mention what happened to Julie in school last week. Her students came in one morning complaining about the rough and scary "inner city" school that they had to go to for a soccer match the previous day. The team that they played was full of tough inner city kids and the school was real scary looking. Surprised that a school from out here in the boondocks would be travel ling to an inner city Chicago school she asked them where they went. She was barely able to swallow her water when they replied "Oh, this scary school called Stagg." "Stagg?" she said. "That's where my husband went!" Stagg is anything but an inner city school. It's in the southwest suburbs (Palos Hills), a long way from the city, and practically surrounded by forest preserves.

But wait... It gets better... After she got home and told me the story I told my parents. They couldn't believe that anyone could mistake Stagg for an inner city school either. But my dad mentioned that there is a Stagg school in the city. Maybe that's where they were. So we got on the Internet and looked up all the Stagg schools in Illinois. Sure enough there is a school in Chicago called Stagg, but it's just an elementary school. The only other Stagg in Illinois is mine, in suburban Palos Hills. So then I decided to check the school's sports schedule. Nope, varsity soccer was not at Stagg. According to the schedule they were at the Morris Invitational in Morris, IL. That couldn't be right. Morris is a small city about 65 miles southwest of Chicago, west of Joliet. There's no way that could be confused with an inner city school. So I checked the Stagg soccer schedule. Maybe Julie's school had the schedule wrong. Nope. Stagg was also at the Morris Invitational. We were flabbergasted.

So the next day Julie asked the soccer coach where exactly he took these students that they thought they were at an inner city school. "Inner city?" he said. "No, they asked where the school was and I said it was 'In a city'." Yeah, that's right. They were at a school in a city, not an inner city school. Needless to say, her students are pretty embarrassed. At least we got a good laugh out of it.

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Saturday, September 2, 2006 - Kitchen Pictures

We've finally finished the kitchen. It's been over a year of working on stuff, but I finally put the finishing touches on it this week. I've uploaded a photo gallery that shows the kitchen before, during, and after the whole refinishing process.

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