Man, What A Year

Well here we are. The final few hours of 2008 have come. I would have to say that for DeAnne and I 2008 was a pretty good year. It's had it's challenges, but for the most part we had a good time. I think the highlight would have to be the string of short trips we made throughout the summer. Instead of just taking one whole week, we turned the summer into a 3 month procession of 3 day weekends that included trips to 4 different beaches across Florida and one of the most incredible concerts we've ever been to (Butch Walker). We really didn't slow down until we started the fertility treatments. That's where the challenging part of the year came in. I counted the other day and all totaled DeAnne made 20 trips to Mobile between October and the middle of December. It was a hard process to go through and then even harder dealing with the loss of the baby, but the Lord isn't called the Great Comforter for nothing. He saw it through with us and now we feel ready to try again in the coming months.

I also want to say that I consider this blog a success for the year. I started this little project (blogging every day) back on March 4th. Since that time, I've posted every weekday except for vacation days or days when I just couldn't get to it for one reason or another. This post will be number 216 for the year. That's not too shabby in my book. I'm still not really sure how many people read this thing, but for those of you who do, thank you. I'm looking forward to 2009.

So, tonight we're going to Bryan and Adrienne's to hang out and shoot fireworks. Other than that we don't have any plans. We'll be going to DeAnne's Mom's house tomorrow for the traditional New Year's meal. Then Friday, it'll be back to work and business as usual. I may blog tomorrow. I haven't decided yet. I know it's a holiday and I usually don't blog on holidays, but it's kind of sad at the same time not to start the new year out with something. We'll see.

Have a great Wednesday and a wonderful New Year.

--Paul

Seriously...

The saga with CenturyTel, long thought finished, has continued this week. As I mentioned yesterday, we've been having problems with our internet for the last week or so. The CenturyTel tech didn't even come out yesterday. He called and said that they're having problems all over the area and he thinks it's due to all the kids being out of school and being on the internet and playing games and stuff. That answer would be all fine and good if we were just having problems during the day when school is normally in session, but our problems are at night when kids are at home anyway, not just during the holidays.

Edwin and I tried again last night to play Gears and had no luck so I called CenturyTel back to get it on record that I was still having problems. As much as we pay them every month for our services, I expect them to work. I think the plan now is to do a speed test ever evening and call and complain until they get the problem fixed. If they've over-sold their bandwidth, then they need to do something about it in a hurry. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect to get the speeds that I pay for, much less a connection that's reliable enough to use to play online games. Maybe I'm being a little harsh, but I'm really unhappy with CenturyTel right now. We went a whole year without a single problem and now it seems that from the moment I re-upped to keep getting the discount, we've had problems. Oh well, let's see what they say today.

Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

The Weekend Is Done

We had a pretty good weekend. Saturday we went down to Graceville and swapped out some pants that DeAnne had bought me that were too small and then we headed up to Dothan to exchange some stuff that DeAnne had got for Christmas. We stopped by Lowes and used a couple of gift cards to buy a new light fixture for our bathroom. DeAnne did a little shopping with her Christmas cash. She got a new pair of jeans, a new pair of shoes and a new pair of dress pants and some new sunglasses. It was a good trip. Shopping always wears me out and I don't really enjoy it, but DeAnne and I always seem to have a good time on road trips.

Yesterday we just went to church and hung around the house. I was a bit frustrated yesterday as nothing seemed to go right. I tried to put up our new light only to find that the screws in that came with it aren't going to work with the way I have to mount it. Now I've got to try and find some at a hardware store that will work. On top of that, our internet connection has been acting up again. I first noticed it about a week or two ago. I was having trouble staying connected with playing games online with Edwin. I thought maybe it was just a temporary thing, but it reared it's head again yesterday. I called CenturyTel and they're sending someone to look at it today. Hopefully they'll figure out what's going on.

So that's about it. I'm going to be working all week except for Thursday so no major plans for the New Year's. Have a good Monday.

--Paul

Whew

Well Christmas has come and gone and we all survived another year. Actually, we had a really good Christmas. The Lord really is the Great Comforter. It was easy to see His hand in our lives this year.

I've already told you about my Mom's family from last Saturday. Our next stop was with DeAnne's Mom and her family on Christmas Eve. I got a nice shirt and some socks, DeAnne got a rug for our guest bathroom and together we got a little cash and a gift card or two. The food was good and it's always fun to see the kids opening stuff and seeing what they got.

Christmas day started out with me and DeAnne at home. She got me a new pair of black dress shoes, a bag of my favorite M&M's, a copy of "Beedle the Bard", a little key chain flashlight, and a couple of other little things. She got some new sheets for our bed, a copy of "Multiple Blessings" (the Jon & Kate +8 book), some candy of her own, some Burt's Bees chap stick and a couple of other little things. Nothing extravagent for either of us from either of us, but we were a little strapped for cash this year when it came time to buy each other presents and I think we did pretty well considering the circumstances.

We hit Dad's house for lunch. The food was excellent. There we got a decorative plate for the house, DeAnne got a new coat and I got a copy of Fable II (an xbox game). We also got a gift card to Lowes and a little cash. Here again, I think I had the most fun watching the kids open their stuff. There are some toys that haven't changed from when I was young, but then there are toys that are completly new. It's the new ones that I always want to play with myself. I can't help it, there's still a big kid in me.

Anyway, we wrapped up the day back over at DeAnne's Mom's house just hanging out and eating leftovers. We're done with presents, but we haven't seen all of the family yet, so I think we're heading back over there tonight. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Have a good weekend and I'll see you on Monday.

--Paul

Tis the Tuesday Before Christmas

...and I still have to work.

Okay, so maybe that's getting a little old the second time around.

Anyway.

DeAnne always kills me at Christmas. First, she can't stand anything to be a surprise. If she knows it's getting close to time for a present holiday, she'll try her best to find out what she's getting. She hasn't been bad about it this year, mainly because she knows we can't afford much of anything, but she also knows everything that everyone in her family is getting her. Second, if there is a present under the tree with her name on it, she can't stand to not open it, even if it's 4 days till Christmas. Take for example, yesterday afternoon. Her present from her sister arrived in the mail and after being home about 30 minutes with it sitting on the tree, she decided to go ahead and open it as her "one present to open today". It's slightly annoying, but it's also pretty cute and even a little funny to watch her around the holidays. I can only imagine what she was like as a child.

So this it for me until Friday. I hope you all have a blessed and merry Christmas. Be safe if you're traveling and I'll see you all back on Friday.

Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

Tis the Monday Before Christmas...

...and I have to work.

A lot more depressing than the original story, huh? I've got to work today and tomorrow. We've got Christmas Eve and Christmas day off and then I'll be back at work on Friday and I imagine I'll be about the only one there. Oh well. I'll be blogging each day except for Wednesday and Thursday.

We had Christmas with my Mom and that side of the family on Saturday. We drove up to Tallassee and ate lunch and exchanged presents. We had a good time and got some good gifts. My Mom gave me a collectors set of the first 5 seasons of 24 that had a behind the scenes book and a t-shirt with it. Awesome. We each got a memory foam pillow. Awesome. And we got a lot of other cool little things. Awesome. It was great to see everyone. We haven't been up to Tallassee since around my birthday/Mother's day so it was good to talk with everybody and catch up.

I have to say, the Blackberry is pretty cool despite the fact that I'm toting work around with me. There's a gmail client for Blackberry, so I'm able to get my gmail on it also. There's actually a good bit of software available on the internet for it. Google makes some of the best ones that I've tried, but there's a lot of cool stuff out there. I'm still figuring some things out, but overall, the geek in me has taken over and now I'm pretty excited about having one. I guess that might change once we get the alert system fully implemented, but for now I'm geeking out over it.

Have a good Monday.

--Paul

Christmas Is Upon Us

We went and ate dinner with my Grandmother last night at Dad's house and had Christmas with her. She's heading back to Atlanta on Sunday, so we wanted to go ahead and swap gifts with her. Next up, we're heading to Tallassee tomorrow for Christmas with my Mom and her side of the family. So Christmas is here pretty much. It's hard to believe that the year is this close to being over. It's really flown by.

Not much to report otherwise. New regulations at work have required us to implement some new system monitoring and threat detection tools. Basically, you set up some software and train it to look for certain things and then if it sees that happening, it sends out an email to alert us as to what's going on. It was decided that an email alert isn't much good to us if we don't get it right away, so yesterday they issued our group Blackberry's. It's a cool device, but it'd be a lot cooler if it didn't have my work email tied to it. Of course, if it didn't have my work email tied to it, I'd have to be paying for it and then I wouldn't have it at all. Basically I'm torn between my inner geek that loves new little tech toys and the part of me that wants to leave work at work.

Anyway, have a good Friday and a good weekend. See you on Monday.

--Paul

Coming To A Close

Our trip to Mobile yesterday went about as well as it could have. We did one more ultrasound and there still wasn't anything to be found in the gestational sack. What really convinced the doctor though was that it looks like there's some bleeding starting to occur around the outside edge of the sack. So between that and her hormone levels, we feel confident that we've lost the baby.

It's been hard but I really think the hardest part of it all is that we've been dealing with it for two weeks now. It's nice to finally have a definitive answer so that we can go ahead and get through the grieving process and get back on our feet. That may sound cold, but we've been through such a long cycle of hope/grief/hope, that it's just a relief for it to finally be over.

So that's where we stand. In trying to carry on with life, we watched Kung Fu Panda last night. It was pretty good. It had a couple of really funny moments and it had a nice moral to it.

Have a good Thursday.

--Paul

Just To Let You Know

We're heading back down to Mobile this morning to talk with the doctor. We don't have to be there until 9:00 which is why I'm posting this morning. I just wanted to keep you guys informed. Have a good Wednesday.

--Paul

Not The News We Were Hoping For

DeAnne's labs yesterday didn't go well. The gestational sack has grown some more but there was still nothing to be seen inside of it. Then yesterday afternoon we got her blood work results and her hormone levels have dropped. So it's not the news that we were hoping to get, but I'm thankful that the Lord has answered our prayers in that this trial is close to coming to an end. It's been hard and neither of us are looking forward to starting over, but we know that God is with us and we know that when the time is right, we'll have a baby.

I know it's short, but I just don't have it in me to say anything else today. Keep us in your prayers and have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

Back To Monday

We had another great weekend.

Saturday night we had a Christmas party for our Sunday School class. We met at David's and ate dinner and then headed back to Ben and Mendy's house for a "Dirty Santa" gift swap and some games. We had a great time and really enjoyed getting out of the house and doing something different on a Saturday night. It was also a nice relief from all the stress we've been under lately.

Yesterday was the usual with church. The children presented their Christmas musical last night and it was really good. We had a great turnout and everything went really well. We had fellowship afterward and it was as good as ever, especially the sweets table.

I know that I've been avoiding the subject, but I'm going to go ahead and talk about the baby situation. We still haven't seen anything developing in the gestational sack. DeAnne's going back for another ultrasound this morning (her Mom's going with her). Hopefully something will be there today. On Thursday, the gestational sack was still growing and her hormone levels were still rising, so we've decided that until one of those two things changes or she actually starts to miscarry, we're just going to be patient and wait it out. When the time is right, the Lord will bring this trial to an end and it'll be the end that glorifies Him, so no matter the final outcome, it'll be okay. Of course, we continue to pray that something will show up and that everything is fine, but we're trying to prepare ourselves for the worst and at the same time, trust God that he's in control and that He knows what's best even if we can't see the end of the road just yet. Just continue to pray for us and we'll keep you posted.

Have a good Monday.

--Paul

At Least It's Friday

It's been a long week and I'm glad it's coming to a close.

We watched the remake of Get Smart yesterday. Overall it was just okay. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either. There were a few throw backs to the TV series and that was kind of cool. There were a few moments that were pretty funny, but for the most part it was just okay. A decent renter if you've seen everything else that's out.

It's getting close to Christmas. It's still hard for me to believe that the year is pretty much over with. Time really seems to be moving pretty fast. In fact. I'm going to be late if I don't wrap up this short post and get going. I hope you all have a good weekend and I'll see you on Monday.

--Paul

250

This is post #250 for this blog. It's also post #204 for the year. I've talked about numbers and all in the past, so I won't go into all that again, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

We finally caught up with Heroes last night. We haven't watched it since our receiver went out. We were 5 episodes back. We watched 2 of them on Monday night and then finished them up last night. The quality of the first season just hasn't been there the past two years and I'm really disappointed. I've read on the internet that after the beginning of the year they're supposed to start a new storyline that is more focused and less convoluted. I just hope that's true. I think their main problem is they have too many people who can wind up with the abilities of other characters and they rely too heavily on time travel. I'm waiting to see what happens after the first of the year, but I have to say, I haven't missed the show much in the 5 weeks we didn't watch it. Maybe they can get my attention again and get back to the great shows they were having in the first season.

So by catching up on Heroes, we've finally caught up on everything that we missed when the receiver died. The only thing I haven't watched that I've recorded since then is the 24: Redemption movie that came on a couple of weeks ago. Dad missed it and Bryan wanted to watch it with me also, so I've been waiting for a chance to watch it with one or the both of them. We've got until the middle of January before the show starts, so I guess there's no rush, but I'm still anxious to watch it.

No blog tomorrow. Pray for us that everything goes well tomorrow at the doctor. Have a good Wednesday and Thursday.

--Paul

So

As always, we had a good trip to Mobile. We went ahead and left on Sunday morning so that we could avoid some of the traffic and just take our time and not be in a rush or anything. We spent Sunday night with our ever gracious friends Courtney and Edwin.

The doctor's appointment went okay. He was expecting to see the heart starting to form but they didn't find anything. He said everything was fine, but kind of acted concerned at the same time. He wants us to come back again on Thursday, so that kind of has us worried. Hopefully, on Thursday, we'll be able to see something inside the gestational bag.

That's really about all that's going on. There won't be a blog on Thursday due to the trip back to Mobile. We'll have to leave the house about 5:30 to be there when we're supposed to be. We've got a pretty busy weekend ahead of us, but I'll get to that tomorrow.

Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

Sweet Friday

One downside to all the driving back and forth to Mobile over the past couple of months has been that I've had to take a lot of time off from work. I could probably count on one hand the number of full 40 hour work weeks I've had in the past two months. That may sound great to some, but when you do finally work a full week, it makes it seem like it last forever. I'm taking off Monday to go back down there again so that's just going to make the week before Christmas really long. Also, there won't be a blog Monday, due to going to Mobile.

DeAnne hasn't really been showing too many signs of being pregnant yet. Her eating habits are starting to get a little weird, but the biggest thing is that she's been extremely tired all week this week. I don't know if it's that she's not sleeping well or what but I'm hoping she can catch up a little today. She's not been called to work yet, so maybe she'll have a day to rest.

It would also give her a chance to take the cat to the vet. We found an abscess on his head yesterday and it's needs to be checked out. He slept a good bit yesterday and didn't seem to want to go outside which is pretty unusual for him. Hopefully it's nothing major.

Have a good weekend and I'll be back on Tuesday with a baby update.

--Paul

Going To Be Short

I'm running a little late this morning. The nerd in me got the better part of me this morning. It looks like DISH is getting ready to fire up some new HD channels and they changed the encoding method for some older HD channels last night and I was checking the run-down over at satelliteguys.us. New HD always gets me a excited.

Anyway. Thanks to everyone that's sent their congratulations to us on the baby news. Everyone's been really excited for us and we just really appreciate it.

I've listened to the new Guns N' Roses album again and I'm starting to get my thoughts straight about it. I still don't like the song that's on Rock Band 2. Other than that, I think there's maybe 2 or 3 songs that are weaker than the majority of the album, but for the most part, it's a good album. Despite the fact that over half of what I consider to be Guns N' Roses is no longer in the band, it does sound like a Guns record. There are moments and a couple of songs that even sound like they could have been on one of the Illusion records had they been recorded at that time. I know I'm rambling, but I guess I'm just trying to make peace with the whole idea that Guns is back and Axle finally got the album out. It's not the band I grew up loving, but it's a band that I can enjoy today.

Have a great Thursday.

--Paul

After Yesterday...

After yesterday's big announcement, I'm not really sure what to talk about today. You'll have to forgive me if I fall back on baby talk.

To a certain extent our lives for the past two months have been consumed with doctors visits and driving to Mobile and waiting. I guess the chaos is just getting started, but it's still kind of strange. Most people who get pregnant would at this point probably still not know they were pregnant. We've known for since week 2. In a lot of ways it's going to be pretty cool. By the time week 12 rolls around we should have about 9 or 10 ultrasound images that show the weekly progression of the baby. I imagine that that's something most people don't get and it should make for some cool stories down the road. Talk about embarrassing your kids with baby pictures.

"Here he is at 3 weeks in the womb. Isn't he cutest little spot you've ever seen? Oh, and here he is at 4 weeks. He's really starting to get to be a big boy here." It makes me smile just thinking about it. This is going to be so much fun.

Have a good Wednesday.

--Paul

The Big News

In case you don't have myspace, facebook or read DeAnne's blog, DeAnne made a major announcement yesterday. If you missed it, go here and catch up. I'll wait here for you.
...
...
...
...
That's right, we're pregnant!

As DeAnne said, we've actually known for a couple of weeks now and some of you who read this blog probably already knew, but here it is for all the world to see.

DeAnne's post really covered most everything. We've been trying for over a year now. She was diagnosed with PCOS. We were referred to a fertility doctor in Mobile. He put her on a round of shots and then we did an IUI and here we are. We followed the steps, prayed it up, trusted God and He has given the blessing. It seems that we may be deemed witnesses for God's provision when it comes to matters of health. Every year we've been married we've seen him work in some matter of health in our lives. My heart surgery, DeAnne's back surgery and now becoming pregnant. Time and time again we've faced a fairly major health crisis and every time we've turned it over to God and every time He's provided. Now let's just pray he keeps DeAnne and I sane through the rest of the pregnancy.

We've still got to make weekly trips to Mobile for the duration of the first trimester. At that point, the fertitlity doctor will turn us over to a standard OBGYN and we'll actually get to see what being pregnant is like for most people as far as doctor's visits are concerned. In case you're wondering, this also explains the days that a post was missing. At one point DeAnne was having to drive to Mobile every day so that they could follow her progress on the shots. For her sainty there were days that I would go with her. We usually left the house around 5:30 so bloggin wasn't even on my mind. Thanks for being patient with me and understanding. I'll be going with her again next Monday, so there won't be a post that day. I'm trying to strike a balance between how much vaction time I burn taking off work and being there so that I don't miss anything. It's hard not going with her every time, but if I want to have any time to take off when the baby gets here, then I've got to keep some saved back.

So expect more posts in the future about the prenancy. We've got a lot to do in the next 8 months or so.

Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

War Eagle Anyway

I can't say that I'm surprised with the way the Iron Bowl turned out this year. It would have been nice for Auburn to at least get a field goal, but I guess that's the way it goes. I didn't really see anyone on the team who looked like they wanted to win. Even Tuberville just looked like he was going through the paces and seemed to have already given up before the game started. It's a shame that the season has been as bad as it has been. At least when you're at the bottom, you can only go up.

So much for getting the yard work done this past weekend. We had 3 1/2 inches of rain between Thursday night and Sunday morning.

I wanted to mention Child's Play again this year. Every year, gamers all over the world come together and raise money and buy toys and video games for children's hospitals all over the globe. I'm sure by now, you're all aware that I love video games. I'm also sure that you're aware of my heart condition and surgeries. Between the two, Child's Play has become pretty important to me. I wasn't able to give as much this year, and I know that you might not be able to either, but if you can, visit the Birmingham Wish List, pick something out and buy it for them. Not all the things on the list are video games. There's everything from movies to coloring books and crayons to playdough and board games. There's a lot of stuff on the list that's less than $10.

And in case you missed my full story about Child's Play: Here's a link to my 2006 post.

Have a good Monday.

--Paul