Home Again Home Again, Jiggity Jig

We're back in town and everything is as it was when we left it. That's always a weight off of my shoulders. We had a great time but coming home is nice too. We just missed the snow in ABQ which is a good thing, as our drive was uneventful. Seeing a snowstorm is a unique experience when you have been living in Waco, so we were also sad we missed it. If you are driving far I recommend some podcasts from Itunes, there are books that are free so you don't have to buy them. We listened to Huck Finn and Robinson Crusoe. They made the 700 miles go pretty fast.
See you around, we will be trying to get all we can out of the rest of our vacation days. And by the way happy 2007!

Kelly's Belly 22.5 / Merry Christmas

Ok, so we are in ABQ so there has been a slight change of venue but I thought some of you would appreciate the update. We are having fun. There is snow on the ground and ABQ is beautiful this time of year. We have been hanging out with family, trying to eat our fill of NM food, and wrapping Christmas presents. We have also been attempting to train 3 dogs to coexist in the same house. What will be fun is when we add two more "members of the family" to the equation tomorrow. Enjoy your time with family and may this Christmas truly be a memorable one.

Westward Ho'

Today we push west towards Albuquerque, hopefully the weather will hold off for another day to provide safe driving and a white Christmas. I know you're not supposed to notify people when you leave town but if you are reading this and know where we live I would like to think you weren't the sort of people who would steal our stuff. Perhaps you are out of town too, hopefully both. Plus we took practically everything good with us and our neighbors probably know more about what goes on in and around this house than we wish they did, they are very attentive to the goings on around the house.

We are excited about going "Home for Christmas" but a little less excited about the 700 miles and 11 hours it takes to get there. Then again, I think Kelly and would get a little restless and probably couldn't afford to stay around here brainstorming about things we "needed." So it probably is a great thing that we are able to make the trip. We attempted to purposefully scale down the packing to check the feasibility of making this trip next year with a kid and all the accompaniments therein. We will no doubt make it. It is just a matter of if there is room for my toothbrush after we bring all the kid's stuff. It remains to be seen if Heidi will be making the trip next year, hopefully we can squeeze her in.
Another experiment we will be conducting today is the, "How many pit stops does a pregnant lady need on a 11 hour road trip?" Should be a good one, but all I know is she better time them well because there aren't too many trees, gas stations, or rest stops past Clovis.

We'll with all that said, "We'll be comin round the moutain!"

Tricia & Co.

Tricia came to town and we enjoyed seeing her and the rest of the gang. She is one week ahead of Kelly, and is also having a boy, their second child (*see below). We don't have any pictures of Jeff because he was asleep half the time, so if there would have been a picture it would have been of him sleeping, trust me not worth posting on the Internet, . . . this time.
Addison, on the other hand, is cute as a button and I can't believe how grown up she is every time I see her.

We have ourselves a hotrod!!

Ok so really it's a dryer vent, but I am calling it an aftermarket modification so that my dryer really purrs. Seriously it sweeps my back patio when its on. We finally got this put in so that after using the dryer for a few loads of laundry the garage didn't feel like your were doing laundry in Guam. It's nice not having all that dryer lint on the cars too. Thanks to my Dad who said he would pay for it as my birthday present! (***note:it is a late present because I am behind schedule not him)

Kelly's Belly w21.5

Kelly is feeling just dandy now, and has a bit more of that glow that people always talk about. She gets all smiley thinking about giving our baby baths, pushing him in the stroller, or pretty much anything. She has even admitted to the nesting behavior they speak of. This is great thing because it means a clean house and more cookies for me to eat. Although I have to put up with the vacuum cleaner when the TV is on. Is that the universal cue for, "Get off your hindquarters and help me clean," or what, my mom did the same thing? Not to worry I picked up on this subtle hint of the female mind and dusted a little and took out the trash.
With the nesting instincts and the glowing comes this other strange side affect that apparently is common. It appears that creating another human occupies part of the brain that usually is attributed to little things like remembering right from left, common vocabulary, general motor function and other skill sets common to daily function. The overall clumsiness I can understand, biomechanically there has been a slight shift in her center of gravity that would throw most of us off. This could explain why a typically graceful individual trips over the dog and breaks a few dishes but that still doesn't explain the slightly less than optimal brain function. Kelly is a amazingly intelligent person gifted in the art of teaching, management, and organization. In fact the only reason I have a chance at noticing is her otherwise impeccable record. I know the whirlwind of hormones has strange affects on people but I can't understand how any of them would be linked to brain performance. For a while I thought since Kelly is actively "making a brain" that some of the neurons, synapses, and nerve endings usually available to Kelly may have been in a sense "deployed" to our baby boy to set up camp there. Only to return when things looked like everybody had learned the ropes. This is far from scientific journal and you guys probably don't want to hear my hare brained theories, but this is the only way I will get them published. Mostly you want to see pictures and hear what has been going on, so I will add a few more, at later time.
Either way we continue on, excited about our news, as the baby room begins to fill. I will continue to do research on this great mystery and study both of my subjects carefully, keeping an eye on them, mostly to make sure she doesn't really trip over the dog.

It's a . . . . .

BOY!!!!!

Kelly's Belly w20.5

It sort of depends on the shirt, but my belly is definitely growing! Tomorrow we get to find out if we are having a boy or a girl. I have had bad dreams that for some reason, we forget to find out. Obviously I have been looking forward to this for awhile. I am really excited! Take a quick second to vote on what you think the baby will be by scrolling down and looking for the poll box on the right of the screen. Right now the poll is 50/50! We'll let you know the results sometime tomorrow. :)

Why clean out your garage, you may ask?

A dirty garage has no victims. No one suffers as a result of untidiness, or do they?

I give you Romero and Julietta the frogs who perished within my garage. They led otherwise happy lives, gobbling up numerous bugs and avoiding Heidi the hound dog. Romero would recite Julietta sonnets, frog couplets (croaketey croak croak and what not), bring her fresh junebugs, and generally look out for her best interests. But it was not to be, their families resided on separate banks of the creek. There was only room for one more frog in each nest prior to hibernation season. Knowing that they could not make a hibernation season without each other they resolved themselves to attempt to hibernate together. The young inexperienced frog knew of a place that remained a constant temperature year round, the only trick was getting in the door. So away with haste they hopped to the house, but alas young Romero did not know the garage was not temperature controlled. Julietta would succumb to the temperature that very night, and then whilst thinking of life without is sweetheart, Romero resigned himself to stay near his bride until the end. The first freeze came quickly as did their deep sleep when they no doubt sought shelter in the corners of the garage, and perished therein, not to be found until their slippery frog skin was dry and crunchy, their bodies mummified in the arid expanse of my garage floor. Goodbye my froggy friends.
Pictured here for the last time Julietta and Romero repine on the park bench

Make Way For Bebe!

If you say it right it totally rhymes so cut me some slack, titles are sometimes difficult part of this process.


You guessed it today was clean out "the baby room"day, otherwise the extra bathtub will have to function as a bassonet. We started today with a closet full of junk in the extra bedroom/office and have since cleared it of almost all but baby stuff. A task we are somewhat proud of. The thing with emptying a closet is that the stuff you took out usually spills over into something else that must be cleared out and so on and so forth all through the house.

The good part is that is sort of forced our hand a bit in clearing some different areas but not quiet as much as we should have. We are fully aware that a small closet will not contain the plethora of things that accompany a child. I know the picture may look decidely pink, but the bag was Kelly's and the piggy bank is just a reminder to save for the little one. Besides the stroller (gracias momma or should I say Grandma Pace) is blue so don't think we are hedging our bets or anything.



Here was the modus operandi for today. Clean out office Closet ---> excess items overflow to extra bedroom closet ---> extra bedroom closet stuff overflows into -----> Garage ----> Garage overflows to Trash and Goodwill.


Check out the final results on the Garage (trust me this is better).

Kelly's Belly w 19.5

As far as new developments in Kelly's pregnancy, we are pretty sure that we have started feeling the baby move. This includes Kelly and myself, which is pretty fun. Apparently the little one has a pretty active night life, especially the night Kelly had a particularly potent batch of green chile enchiladas. We are unsure whether this means the little one has an affinity for spicy native New Mexican cuisine or a general dislike of said food but I guess one way or the other he/she will be a Texan so it could go either way.
This weekend we stayed mostly around the house for a change. I tried to put up the Christmas lights (ala Griswald) and somehow got back to the corner of the house where I plug everything in with two ends and no way to plug the things in. It wouldn't be a problem to get back up on the roof but when you don't own a ladder it becomes a little more adventurous.
As all of my engineering friends and family collectively sigh at this type of oversight I might as well own up to the other comical development that continues to occur in relation to the nearing due date of our first born child. We went to Target trying to figure out which items were "must haves" and which were useless, unsafe, overkill, or flat out ridiculous (butt paste?!?, parents are all nodding in agreement, non parents look it up, it exists I promise). We investigated the ease of manipulating supposed "easy to handle" strollers, pack & plays, car seats, and various combinations of said items. We were taking things apart, pulling things off shelves, and very few of them met the manufacturer's claims of ease. At one point, no doubt seeing the look of overwhelming confusion on our faces, a good hearted woman actually recommend a pack & play because of it ease in collapsing for travel. Not to take any ones word for it and to figure it out ourselves, Kelly and I decided to test this nice woman's word. We proceeded to try our best to dismantle then reassemble this contraption in the aisle of Target (if there is surveillance footage of this spectacle I would like to see it, sound would be a comedic plus).
It included the usual,
"I think you just broke it,"
"I didn't break it you broke it,"
"no you have to push this,"
"then why isn't it working,"
"surely it can't be this hard,"
as well as significant amount of flailing and frustration. Nevertheless we push on toward the goal of preparing ourselves and our home for our firstborn with excitement and trepidation, so if you have any advice we will gladly accept it. Heeding that advice, as you can tell from this story, is something that may escape us and we may just have to figure it out on our own. To that end we will treasure your prayers and wisdom as we go about this process.