dubnet 2.0

Trying Hard

2011-11-18T08:23:00.001-06:00

Again, sorry for the gap in updates. This should go live on Friday.

Things have been going good. Harrison's doing well. He's 4 months old now and has really started lighting up the past couple of weeks. It's amazing to see him learning new things. It's not uncommon for DeAnne or I to see something new happen and call for the other to come check it out. Usually, Harrison will decide at that point to not repeat whatever it was, but DeAnne and I have come to an understanding that the one who saw it is not lying and in a day or two, Harrison will be repeating whatever it was consistently.

Thanksgiving is next week. No major plans. DeAnne will be making her annual Black Friday shopping trip with her mom. Maybe with some time off I can actually get a blog post up two weeks in a row.

We're heading down to Mobile this coming Friday. We're going to head down when DeAnne gets off work and spend the weekend with Courtney and Edwin. We haven't been down in a long time and we're looking forward to seeing them. It'll also be interesting to see how Harrison does in a different environment. Hopefully we'll manage to remember everything we'll need.

For those of you that saw on Facebook, our cat Izzy is doing well. It's not much fun trying to give him a dropper full of antibiotics, but such are the things we do for the fur-babies.

If there's any interest, I may do a single post updating the Christmas shopping posts from last year. I never heard if anyone found them useful and no one ever used a link I posted to purchase anything, but I've already been asked by a few people at work about things such as Xboxs and Playstations. Let me know if you would like to see an update and I'll see if I can't get one put together.

--Paul

Long Time Coming

2011-11-04T08:09:00.001-05:00

I have to apologize for the lack of updates to the blog. It's been a crazy couple of weeks and the mornings just don't afford me much of an opportunity to blog anymore.

Harrison's doing well. He's growing like crazy. We had to go to the doctor on Monday and he weighed 16 lbs and 13 oz. He hadn't been feeling good all weekend so I took him in to get looked at. Turns out he has a double ear infection. This is the second ear infection he's had in 6 weeks time or so, so it looks like we're heading towards tubes. Tubes are pretty common these days, so I'm not terribly worried about it, but I hate that he's going to have to go through anything like that. We had really hoped and prayed that he wouldn't be sick like his mom and dad have been all their lives and while it looks like he been blessed to have avoided the major issues, he may still have to face the combined force of our allergies.

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So it's now Friday. I didn't have a chance to really finish the post until now. Harrison's doing better but DeAnne is still struggling. She's probably going to end up going to the doctor on Monday. This past Wednesday we went up to Birmingham and met with a neurosurgeon about her back. He wants her to do physical therapy and come back in six weeks. I was pretty happy with that order but DeAnne seems to think that surgery would be an instant fix and was disappointed that he wasn't going to cut on her. Crazy, I know. You can't tell her anything sometimes.

No major plans for the weekend. We're having another yard sale in Opp on Saturday but other than that, we're taking it pretty easy. It's been a crazy couple of weeks for me at work and I need some down time. Between work and all three of us being sick at different times, DeAnne and I are both pretty run down. Hopefully next week we can recuperate some.

Have a good weekend.

--Paul

Just Because

2011-10-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

Not really much to report on for this post but I promised to try and come up with two posts this week, so here's the second one.

Harrison seems to be much better. He's not all the way there but he's pretty close to being 100% again. He woke up early Thursday morning. It's the first time he's done that in a while and it definitely took a toll on DeAnne and I both. Neither of us were doing very good Thursday morning. In fact, when I left the house, I grabbed what I thought were my keys. My keys were in fact in my bag already and I grabbed DeAnne's keys, took Harrison to daycare and then went to work only to have DeAnne call me about five minutes after I got into my office asking if I had her keys. So I had to run back to the house and while not "late" to work, she was later than she likes to get there. Good start to the day, that was.

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A week or two ago I started using a service to make posts to my facebook page when new blog posts go up. I'm not sure that it's working very well though. I'm not seeing them in my feed and I'm curious if any of you are seeing the facebook posts in your feeds. If you could like the link or comment here and let me know if you're seeing it, I'd appreciate it.

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We may actually not have much going on this weekend. It's probably the calm before the storm. November is looking like it's going to be crazy. The big goal for the weekend is to get the grass cut. I'm not really sure when the last time I cut it was and it's looking pretty shabby. It's going to take a while to get it done and looking good and I'm probably going to have to sweep up the clippings after I'm done. It'll be a long morning, but once I'm done, I'm hoping it won't need it again until the spring.

--Paul

Infectious

2011-10-12T07:00:00.000-05:00

I took last Friday off so that I could take Harrison to the doctor. He woke up with a snotty nose and crusty stuff around his ear. He had been acting kind of off all week and we figured it'd be better to go ahead and take him to the doctor instead of trying to ride through the weekend and him get worse. Ear infection was the verdict. He's pretty young to be having one already and that kind of concerns us. DeAnne had to have tubes as a child although I was fine. Hopefully he doesn't have his mother's immune system and allergies.

Saturday, Harrison turned 3 months old. We celebrated by taking his 3 month old pictures. They went pretty well considering he wasn't feeling the greatest in the world.

As if being sick for pictures wasn't enough, we had baby dedication service at church Sunday morning, so he was sick for that too. He did pretty good there too though other than getting hungry while we were all standing up front at the end.

The other major event on Sunday was that the antibiotics he's taking for the ear infection took hold. On the way home from eating lunch, he blew out his diaper and got all kinds of good stuff all over his car seat. I had to strip the car seat and briefly considered just taking him to the sink in the kitchen and using the little spray nozzle to clean him off, but in the end opted for the traditional methods. DeAnne was privileged enough to get to miss this little episode as she was off shopping with her sister.

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Harrison seems to be improving a good bit. He was pretty happy this morning when he got up. Thankfully, despite being sick, he's still sleeping through the night. It's hard to believe that either of us were ever able to function when he was getting up twice a night and that entire time now seems like some kind of weird, hazy dream. Sleeping through the night is definitely nice and we are very thankful that he's sleeping so well. In fact, now that he's three months old and doing so well, we're going to be moving him from the bassinet in our room to the crib in his room. I just have to move the motion monitor to the crib and we'll be good to go. It's going to be kind of strange not having him in the room with us, but we want to move him to his room before he gets too used to being in the room with us.

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Looks like I might actually be able to get two posts in this week. This one is going to go up Wednesday morning and I hope to have another for Friday morning.

--Paul

Troubles (Can't Bring Me Down)

2011-10-06T07:00:00.000-05:00

Friday afternoon was met by a new level of diaper explosion. We got home from daycare and I picked Harrison up out of the car seat only to have it drip down my hand and onto the floor. I had to strip and wash the car seat and DeAnne somehow got the boy clean without giving him a bath. I don't really know how she did it, but the clothes he had on had to go straight into the wash. Mind-blowing is probably a poor choice of term considering the situation, but I'm having difficulty coming up with a better description.

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The yard sale went really well. The family did good overall and considering we basically went down to the storage building and packed up a bunch of junk at the last minute, we did good, coming out with about $140. It was a pretty fun day hanging out with the family. Harrison seemed to enjoy sitting outside and with the weather being so great, it was hard to not stay outside all day. He got fussy towards the end of the day but it was mainly because he didn't take a good nap all day. There was just too much going on and too many people passing him around. He slept through the night though so it worked to our advantage there at least.

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Sleeping through the night is awesome. Except when the diaper doesn't hold up through the night. Then you kind of almost wish he would have woken up just long enough for you to change the diaper before it reached the point where you had to strip the bedding and the baby and wipe him down as best you can in the morning when you're already running late.

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There's been a good bit of new music to have come out the past couple of weeks. Two of the albums I've picked up are "The Reckoning" by Needtobreathe and "Vice Verses" by Switchfoot. Both are pretty incredible albums and I highly recommend getting both of them, especially the Needtobreathe album. If you don't already own all of their stuff, do yourself a favor and go get it. They're probably one of the best bands out there right now.

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DeAnne's back continues to hurt, possibly even getting worse the last couple of days. We're trying to see if we can get her appointment with the specialist in Birmingham moved up. Thankfully, Harrison has decided to start sleeping through the night on a more consistent basis. He's made it through at least two or three nights out of the last five. However, he's also gotten clogged up along the way. The last dirty diaper we had was Monday night. It's now Wednesday morning. Hopefully he'll go today. We've given him gas drops and sugar water. Prune juice is next on the list if something doesn't move at daycare today. He's also had some crusty mess in his ear off and on the past couple of days. Hopefully it's not the start of an ear infection.

So, it's been kind of a crazy week. On top of it all, Emma was having stomach problems earlier this week and then yesterday one of the cats had a hairball issue. I guess the animals were feeling left out and decided they had to throw in on the chaos.

--Paul

Trippin'

2011-09-30T07:00:00.000-05:00

So as I mentioned last week, I had to go up to Minneapolis for a business trip. The trip went well; we got everything done we had hoped to do and we were even able to come home a day early. The only real hiccup with the trip was that our luggage didn't make it onto our connecting flight in Atlanta on the way up. We had a pretty short layover to begin with and while we were on time landing, there was some kind of gate snafu and we ended up taxing around the airport for around 20 minutes. Once we de-boarded and checked for our connection, we barely had enough time to briskly walk two concourses down to where the connection was leaving from. We got to the gate about the time they were beginning to board our zone. We kind of assumed it would be a stretch for our luggage to make it on the plane and when we landed, I already had a couple of emails saying our bags didn't make the flight. We checked with the counter and the lady was able to tell us that they were on the next flight up and then set it up to have them delivered to our hotel that evening. When we got back to the hotel from eating dinner, the luggage was waiting on us.

While things in Minnesota went well, things on the home front quickly went downhill. Namely, DeAnne's back went out on her again. She had mentioned it hurting some the Saturday before I left, but during the week, it took her completely down. She went to the doctor and he gave her some stuff to calm it down and then ordered an MRI. We got that done Monday morning and got the results Tuesday afternoon.

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The MRI showed that DeAnne has spinal stenosis. She's going to need surgery, it's just a matter of when. Be praying that the pain she's in currently will subside and that we'll at least be able to put off surgery until around Christmas so that she doesn't have to miss much work.

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No sooner than I posted about Harrison's sleep patterns than he blows it all away by sleeping through the night Tuesday night. He went down about 9:30 and didn't budge until about 4:45 the next morning. DeAnne and I were both pretty excited. In fact, I bragged on him so much that he had to show me who was boss and proceeded to get up twice on Wednesday night. Oh, well. Like I said though; maybe we're getting closer.

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The only plans for this weekend is the yard sale that DeAnne's family is having at her grandmother's house in Opp. We've got some stuff we're going to take over there but we haven't really had time to dig through all the stuff we have in storage to see what really needs to go.

Have a good weekend.

--Paul

Wow

2011-09-28T07:00:00.000-05:00

This post is actually being written over the course of several days during different chances I've had to get to it. It's crazy and it's probably going to be long, but this is the new format I'm probably going to be faced with if I intend to keep blogging. I'm probably going to start writing blogs ahead of time and then scheduling them to post automatically when I'm done with one. If I can build up a few, then I'll be able to miss a day or two and it not be a big deal. It's just going to take some work to get it rolling.

Harrison hasn't so much changed the morning routine as the combination of having Harrison and DeAnne working has changed the morning routine. We usually get cracking around 5:15 instead of my old 5:45 and DeAnne's old 6:15 and whereas I used to start getting dressed and walking the dog at 6:30, I now have to be getting in the car at 6:30 if I'm going to get Harrison dropped off and still get to work by 7:00. DeAnne and I have talked a little about me changing my work schedule. PowerSouth lets us set what time we come in and leave so long as we're putting in 8 hours of work each day and the schedule doesn't change every day. We may try me going in at 7:30. The only downside is that I would have to work to 4:00. I know 30 minutes isn't a huge change, but we're so used to both of us being home by 4:00 that it would pretty drastically alter our routine in the evenings.

Of course, I'm not so sure that any of this is an issue once Harrison starts sleeping through the night. We've gotten close a couple of times, but he's still getting up about once each night. His schedule does seem to have changed some the past couple of nights though. He was going down around 9:00/9:30, getting up around 2:00/2:30 and then getting up around 5:30/6:00. The past couple of nights he's gone to bed around 8:00/8:30, gotten up around 11:00/11:30 and then again around 4:00, although today he made it all the way to 5:00. The new schedule wouldn't be awful as long as he can stretch that last stint out to 5:00 or 5:30. I think we're on the cusp of making it through the night, we're just not quite there yet.

--Paul

The Great White North

2011-09-20T06:51:00.001-05:00

It's not actually white up here yet, but I'm in Minneapolis for the week doing work for a hardware upgrade that we have coming up. It was always hard to leave DeAnne before, but it's been really hard to leave her and Harrison. Things went really well yesterday and if they continue on at the current rate we may get to leave early. The one really interesting thing that's happened on this trip was that our luggage didn't make the connection in Atlanta so when we got to Minneapolis we didn't have our bags. It worked out though. Delta knew the bags didn't make it and had them brought to our hotel. It took a while, but when we got back to the hotel from dinner, they were waiting on us. Maybe I'll be able to blog this Thursday and hopefully it'll be from home. --Paul

MeMaw

2011-09-13T05:40:00.000-05:00

This past Sunday, my grandmother, "MeMaw", passed away. She was 75. She'll be laid to rest next to my grandfather, "PePaw", in Mobile this afternoon around 11:00.

MeMaw was many things: a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, wife and widow, friend, sister, aunt, an adopted mother to many and most of all, a Christian. Both of my grandmothers have always been great pillars of faith in my life. Without either of them, I'm not sure where I would be now.

MeMaw loved with a heart so big, she couldn't contain it. There were countless times I've met someone who knew her only to hear them tell stories of how she did things for them when no one else would; how she took care of children who needed taking care of; how she gave of herself so others could have.

Giving may be her biggest legacy. She wanted nothing more than for her children and grandchildren to have a better life than she had had. She worked long hours in a sewing factory when my father and uncle were young just to provide them with opportunities that she had never had. It was a trait she instilled in her sons. It's a trait that my father has instilled in me. To give all of one's self for your family to prosper, for you children to have better than you had.

She was proud. I remember that for many years her van had a front license plate that read: "Let me tell you about my grandchildren." She wouldn't just tell you about her grandchildren though. She would tell you about her boys, her grandchildren and anyone else that she had considered a child to her through the years. She was proud that her sons work as hard as they do and have done as well as they have to provide for their families. She was proud of her grandchildren and the things that I and my cousins have accomplished in our lives. She was proud of the things that the Lord had blessed her with and she was happy to share every blessing she could with anyone she came into contact with.

She could cook. I know no one's ever had a grandmother that couldn't cook. MeMaw came from such humble beginnings that she never wanted anyone to go without food. I don't know of a time I didn't step foot in her house when she didn't ask me if there was something I wanted to eat. She had two great specialties: sweet pickles and pound cake. Personally, I've never been a fan of pickles, but I've been told hers are some of the greatest ever made. And while I can't attest to the quality of her pickles, I can boldly declare that her pound cake is quite possibly the greatest thing ever made by human hands. I firmly believe that the Lord imparted MeMaw's pound cake recipe to her so that she could share a little taste of Heaven with anyone she came into contact with.

It's been a little over two years since MeMaw was first diagnosed with cancer. After surgery and treatments, she was given a clean bill of health and she had a good life for the next 18 months or so. After the beginning of the year this year, her health deteriorated quickly and she spent the past 6 months or so struggling just to eat, sleep and be comfortable. After my grandfather passed away, she missed him terribly and has never quite been the same without him. I have no doubt that they are now standing together worshipping the Lord in Heaven. She's finally at rest; no pain, no suffering, no tears and while we who are left behind mourn our loss, I have no doubt that all of Heaven rejoices at their gain. I rejoice with those Angels and Saints knowing that my grandmother is finally home.

This past Christmas DeAnne and I announced our pregnancy to each family as we had Christmas with them. We gave each of our parents a set of baby booties. When my dad opened his set, it took MeMaw about half a second to realize what they meant. I don't think anyone across all of our family caught on as quick as she did. I also think she had possibly the best reaction and the biggest smile. I didn't know it at the time, but it was the last time I ever saw her that happy. I really think she held on as long as she did in part to be able to see Harrison be born. We took him to see her as often as we could and you could tell that it always brightened her spirits to see him. DeAnne and I took video of our parents opening those booties and MeMaw happened to be sitting next to Dad as he opened his. I wanted to share that video with you all so that you could have a memory of MeMaw that was made of pure joy.

--Paul

And So It Begins...

2011-09-06T05:30:00.003-05:00

Up early this morning to make sure we have enough time to get ready and get out the door on schedule. We went down to the school for about an hour yesterday to make sure DeAnne had everything ready to go and where she wanted it.

We had a good weekend for the most part.

Saturday, DeAnne met Sara in Baker and picked Liam up. (Harrison and I were at home watching the Auburn game.) One of Sara's friends from Utah came to see her and so we took Liam for a couple of days and then DeAnne's mom has him until Wednesday, I think. It was interesting trying to take care of an 18-month old and a 2-month old at the same time, but it wasn't terribly difficult either. Liam's a lot of fun and as long as he gets his nap in, he's a really good kid. He just really needs that nap.

Harrison wasn't feeling good on Sunday. He was running a low-grade fever and had a stopped up nose. A little Tylenol broke the fever but it came back Sunday night. Thankfully, he didn't run one at all yesterday and his nose seemed to be better, but he got stopped up a little early this morning when he got up to eat. We're thinking maybe the weather changing so drastically had something to do with it and hopefully he'll get past the nose thing after last night.

Pray for us, and especially DeAnne, today.

--Paul

One Post Kind of Week

2011-09-01T06:12:00.001-05:00

It's been a week to say the least.

If you're friends with me on or DeAnne on Facebook, then you already know that I had a stomach virus on Monday. It wasn't the worst one I've ever had, but it still wasn't pretty. I spent the day quarantined in the bedroom trying to make sure that neither DeAnne nor Harrison picked it up. So far, they seem to have avoided it and I've not really heard of anyone else that we were in contact with over the weekend being sick, so I've been wondering if it was something I ate. Who knows? Whatever it was, it was bad.

So that kept me down Monday. Tuesday morning I was feeling better, but I slept late and went in to work around 9:00, so that's why there wasn't a blog Tuesday.

Backtracking a little, we had a good weekend. I don't think we did anything Friday, but Saturday we went to Opp for our friends Charlie and Erin Robinson's daughter's third birthday party. We haven't seen Charlie and Erin in years and it was good to get to see them and catch up. Their little girl is precious and it's hard to imagine that in no time, Harrison will be that big.

Harrison went to daycare for the first time yesterday. He was only there from 8:00 to 11:30, but it was a lifetime for DeAnne. He's going to go for a whole day today. We're making a trial run. We got up and got going like we'll have to next week when DeAnne goes back to school. I'm going to take him and pick him up and DeAnne's going to try her best to stay occupied all day so she doesn't go get him early. He did good yesterday and I'm happy with the place he's going.

As to the weekend: We're going to have Liam overnight on Saturday. It'll be a fun little experiment to see if we can handle a toddler and a new born. Trial run for the next one, if you will. We haven't really seen much of Liam lately, so it'll be fun to have him over for a night. Maybe he won't destroy the house. We're going to have to spend Friday toddler-proofing as best we can.

I guess missing a day gets you a longer post. Should I consider going to one post per week or stick with two? Let me know.

Have a good weekend.

--Paul

Another Week Down

2011-08-25T05:50:00.003-05:00

Time continues to fly by. Harrison will be seven weeks old tomorrow. He starts daycare on Monday. Get ready for the tears.

The plan is to put him in for a half week next week to kind of ease all of us into it. He's going to go Monday, Wednesday and Friday and probably for just half days. Then on the next Tuesday, after Labor Day, DeAnne will start back to work. I'm sure everything will be fine, but DeAnne and I are understandably nervous about it all. Just pray that the Lord will give us peace about it and that everything will be fine. I'll let you know how it goes on Tuesday.

There's not much else going on. We're still getting up early. He was up at about 1:30 last night and then again at about 4:45 this morning. By the time I got him fed and changed this morning, it was almost 5:30, so I just went ahead and got a shower and got my day started. I guess that's just going to be the way it is until he starts sleeping longer at one time.

Have a good weekend.

--Paul

Up Early

2011-08-23T05:58:00.001-05:00

Harrison decided that 4:45 was a good time to eat this morning, so as I type this, I've been up an hour already. He's doing really well overall though. He's still sleeping from about 10:00 to 2:00 and then he'll sleep from around 2:00 to somewhere between 4:00 and 6:00. You'll notice there's a bit of a spread on the latter. You just never know when he's going to be up. I think it mainly depends on how hard he sleeps the first time down. We've started giving him rice at night, but that doesn't seem to make a difference with the sleep time. I think we're just putting on more chunk. Anyway.

We had a good weekend. Sara, Mike and Liam came up so we spent the majority of our time in Kinston visiting with them. Mike's about to deploy again and he'll be gone until sometime around Christmas. He'll be flying this time, so he'll be in a bit more danger than before, so please pray for his safe return.

Outside of that, it was pretty laid back. I got up early with Harrison on Saturday and eventually he and DeAnne slept until about 10:30. She was glad for the sleep and I was happy to take care of things and let her get it.

Daycare is all set up and ready to go. We're actually going to send him three days next week just to ease us and him into it. It's hard to believe that we've got just a little under two weeks before DeAnne goes back to work and he starts daycare. It's going to be hard to leave him, but I'm excited for him to get to interact with other people and other kids or at least that's what I'm telling myself to make it easier on me.

See you Thursday,

--Paul

Going on 6...

2011-08-18T06:30:00.000-05:00

Six weeks, that is.

It's hard to believe our little man is already six weeks old tomorrow. It's been amazing to watch him over the past weeks and see all the changes that have happened just in that short period of time. He's an awesome little guy, for sure.

No real plans this weekend either. It's kind of nice just being able to relax and enjoy being a family. We've only got a little over two weeks before DeAnne goes back to work and he starts daycare, so we're trying to enjoy all we can while we can.

I had to feed the bugger when I got up this morning and it's later than I realized, so that's all I've got for today. I think he may be taking after his daddy on his sleep pattern. He seems to be a morning person so far, which is fine with me. DeAnne says that he's usually really awake and alert in the morning. Hopefully that bodes well for being able to get him up and ready for school down the road.

Have a good weekend.

--Paul

Same Ol', Same Ol'

2011-08-16T06:05:00.002-05:00

Not much to report. We had a pretty quiet weekend. I was on call, so we couldn't really go anywhere. I did get the grass cut Saturday. Mom and Sid also came down Saturday and visited for a while. It's always good to see them.

Harrison is doing well. He's hit a new sleep pattern where he'll go down between 9 and 10 then he's up between 1 and 2 and then up again around 4 or 5. The first two parts of the schedule aren't that bad, it's the up around 4 or 5 that's putting the hurt on us. Just this morning, he started getting fussy at 4 and DeAnne tried to get him back to sleep but around 5 he woke me up and I got up and changed and fed him. By the time I got him back down, it was already time for me to start getting ready, so I guess today I just get to be up from 5 on. If we could just get him to tack another hour onto the end of that second sleep so that he was up around 5 or 6, it'd be really awesome. One day.

--Paul

Wha?

2011-08-11T06:03:00.002-05:00

I'm a little out of it this morning. Harrison's still doing fine, but I've been having trouble at work with a server and I've spent two days fighting with it. That on top of waking up once or twice a night is starting to take its toll on me evidently. DeAnne's not much better off. For the past week, even when Harrison sleeps, she's not getting much herself because of her back hurting.

DeAnne went up to Montgomery yesterday to see her back doctor. He gave her a shot and ordered some physical therapy. Hopefully that will get the nerve calmed down before she has to go back to work next month.

I'm on call, so no plans for the weekend. If it's not raining, I'll be cutting grass Saturday morning, but that's just par for the course. Have a good weekend.

--Paul

1 Month

2011-08-09T06:15:00.002-05:00

Yesterday marked Harrison's one month birthday. It's hard to imagine that a month has gone by already. I'm guessing all you other parents out there are just nodding your heads and thinking how I have no idea how fast it will go.

What might almost make me feel older than my own son being a month old is my nephew, Liam. Sarah and Liam came up for a few days and when I saw him yesterday, I was pretty floored by how big he's gotten. The last time we saw him was when Harrison was born and things were so crazy then that I didn't really get to spend any time with him. A year ago, he was barely bigger than Harrison is now. Now, he's this massive little man running around and starting to talk. It's insane.

I had a good time keeping Harrison last Thursday and Friday. We hung out, watched some Shark Week that he had already watched once with his Mom, played in the floor, slept and just had a good time.

At some point during the three days DeAnne was sitting in meetings, her back flared up and she's been hurting pretty bad since about Friday. Needless to say, we didn't do much this past weekend. She called yesterday and has a doctor's appointment Wednesday. Hopefully they'll be able to give her something to calm the nerve down and get her some relief. It was about this time last year when her back flared up. I guess we're just going to have an incident about once a year where she has trouble with it.

That's about all I've got for today. See you Thursday.

--Paul

Daddy Day-care

2011-08-04T07:16:00.001-05:00

The boys are hanging at the house for the next two days. Even though DeAnne's taking leave for the first month of school, she's going to the inservice days today and tomorrow. So, I'm taking off and putting in some quality man-time with Harrison. DeAnne's been gone five minutes. So far, so good.

I kid.

I don't really anticipate any problems. Harrison's a good baby and I've got all the major protocols down. Changing diapers, feeding and getting him to sleep. I think we're good to go.

One more easy weekend coming up. I got the yard work done Monday and Tuesday, so nothing to really do there. We really need to do something about our closet. Now that DeAnne's not pregnant, I'm sure there's a good bit of stuff that could be moved to storage. I know I've got some shirts I haven't worn in who knows how long that could stand to go to Christian Service also. Who knows if any of that will actually happen though.

Have a good weekend.

--Paul

Time Flies

2011-08-02T06:21:00.002-05:00

Time is flying by it seems.

Harrison is now over three weeks old. He's not sleeping as well as he was a week ago. We're not really sure what's going on. My guess is that he's just decided that he's going to eat more often. Growth spurt, maybe? Who knows? Maybe he's just reached a point where he's more alert and awake more often. At any rate, it's kind of put a damper on our enthusiasm for his sleeping habits the past couple of nights. He did better last night, only getting up twice, but that's still a pretty big change from only getting up once like he was. He's still an awesome baby and we have nothing to complain about, we just seem to be getting a little dose of reality.

School starts back next week. DeAnne is going to be off for the first four weeks but she is going to go to the inservice days the last three days of this week. I'm going to stay home with Harrison and keep him while she's gone, but we're expecting her to be able to come home at lunch and then take him back to the school with her. It'll be a good test run to see how DeAnne does away from him and to see if she can get herself up and ready in the morning.

See you Thursday.

--Paul

The Chill

2011-07-28T06:17:00.002-05:00

The freezer is supposed to be delivered today. Hopefully it fits in the spot I cleared out the other night and hopefully we don't have any problems getting it in there. I guess we'll know soon enough.

In the midst of having a baby, NASA completed the space shuttle mission. One thing I'll always be able to remember about Harrison's birthday is that he was born the day of the final space shuttle launch. The shuttle program was literally as old as I am. The first launch was on April 12, 1981. Twentynine days before I was born. For as long as I've been alive, the space shuttle has been operating. I never got to see a launch. I've watched plenty of them on TV and the internet, but I always wanted to see one in person. Hopefully, it won't be long and we'll have a new generation of flights lifting off. Of course, private companies are already getting close to sending unmanned ships to the space station for supply drops. They expect the first of those flights to happen before the end of the year even. Maybe when NASA finally gets back into the game, we can take Harrison to the launch and he can have that memory that I never did.

Anyway. No major plans this weekend. I've got to get the grass cut at some point. It's approaching nightmare levels. All this rain has kicked it into high gear. I'm glad we're getting rain though. It's a lot better than being as dry as it was earlier. It was kind of nice not having to cut the grass though. Have a good weekend.

--Paul

Business As Usual

2011-07-26T06:09:00.003-05:00

Harrison is slowly becoming integrated into our every day lives. Now that he's two weeks old, we've been taking him out with us more and more. He's made a couple of trips to Wal-Mart, went out to eat with us a couple of times this past weekend, and made his first Sunday church service this past weekend.

Saturday, Mom and Sid and Grandmother and Granddaddy came down so that Grandmother and Granddaddy could meet Harrison. Since they had to come from Tallassee, they decided to not come to the hospital so that they would be able to spend more time with him when they did come. It was a good visit and we got some good pictures.

Sunday went really well. I thought it was pretty awesome that Harrison's first Sunday service was Homecoming. It was an extended service and he slept for a good bit of it. DeAnne did have to get up and take him out once, but for the most part, he was a little champ. He also slept through the fellowship lunch after services. I told him that one day he'll come to really enjoy the great southern tradition that is eating after church and that I thought it set a good precedent that his first Sunday in church was one that had a fellowship meal.

Finally, we've had to break down and buy a freezer. We really could have stood to have one for about two years now, we've just been putting it off. We went to Sears yesterday and got one that will fit in our storage room. The only real problem with buying a freezer and putting it in the storage room is that it meant cleaning out the storage room so that we could get it in there. I didn't think I would get it done yesterday, but after about four hours of sweating like crazy, I had the corner the freezer is going in completely cleaned out. The rest of the storage room is kind of packed out now and there's a good bit more stuff in the storage building, but we should be able to get the freezer in place. Maybe now we'll actually be able to see what's in the freezer in the kitchen.

See you on Thursday.

--Paul

All About Baby

2011-07-21T06:28:00.001-05:00

I'm sure you've probably already expected this, but I would imagine the blog is going to mostly be about Harrison for the foreseeable future.

The photo session Tuesday afternoon went well. He did really good up until about the last half hour. We stopped for a bit so he could eat but after that he was awake and not very cooperative. He seems to usually get kind of fussy around 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon. We're not really sure why, but he just always seems to get a little work up around that time. We figure it's better then than in the middle of the night.

Sleeping is going well. The past three or four nights, he's only gotten up once. He usually goes down between 9:00 and 10:00 and then sleeps for four or five hours, wakes up, eats then goes back down for another four or five hours. It's about as perfect as it could be. I'm sure there will be nights to come cutting teeth or sick where we think we're going to loose our minds, but as long as he keeps this pattern up, we can't complain.

He had several "firsts" yesterday. DeAnne's mom came over and was going to take him over to Opp. First they stopped at David's for lunch then they ran by Wal-Mart to get DeAnne's grandmother an oil change. After that it was raining so much that they just came back to the house and canceled the trip to Opp. So first trip to David's (or anywhere out to eat) and first trip to Wal-Mart. Then last night, DeAnne decided that she felt good enough to go to church, so we took him to church with us. So that was his first church service. I was excited that his first time in church was when I was helping lead worship playing guitar. I can't imagine a better start than to set the precedent of Harrison's dad serving in a church service. He also got to sit in on his mom's small group session and saw her leading that. I hope DeAnne and I are always such an example for him to see.

Today is his two-week check-up and tomorrow he'll actually be two weeks old. DeAnne's excited just for the fact that tomorrow she'll be able to drive again. I don't think there's going to be much stopping her once tomorrow comes. The poor boy will probably not remember what it's like to not be in his car seat (I'm kidding, DeAnne). We're planning on taking him to church Sunday. I think it's pretty awesome that Sunday also happens to be Homecoming at church. My mom is brining Grandmother and Granddaddy down Saturday to meet Harrison. They've not had a chance to come down yet, so it'll be good to see them and let Harrison meet his Great-Grandmother and Great-Granddaddy. Have a good weekend.

--Paul

Back In Action

2011-07-19T06:08:00.000-05:00

As I'm pretty sure most everyone who reads this blog is aware by now, Harrison was born July 8, 2011. It feels good to get back to the blog this morning. So here's what's been happening.

The Wednesday after my last post, DeAnne had her weekly visit with the doctor. When they checked her blood pressure, it was through the roof. She was also slightly dilated, so Dr. Browing went ahead and sent her to the hospital. He was afraid that she was developing preeclampsia. So DeAnne was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday. I left work and spent Wednesday and Thursday with her waiting for test results to come back to see if she had preeclampsia or not. Thursday evening, Dr. Wells came by, said the tests were negative but her blood pressure was still high. He felt like she was dilated enough and contracting enough already that he could induce her and that would cure the hypertension.

At 10:00 Thursday night, they gave her an induction pill. That was all it took. The plan was to give her another pill at 2:00 and then start a drip at 6:00. She was contracting enough at 2:00 that the nurse didn't give her the second pill. At 3:00 her water broke. At 6:00 she had already had the epidural for over an hour and at 9:00 she was pushing. She progressed like clockwork and everything looked great until the pushing started.

Unfortunately, Harrison takes after his dad in one very important way. He got stuck trying to come out. He was face up and sideways and just couldn't make it out. After three hours, Dr. Wells told us that DeAnne and the baby were fine and she could keep pushing if she wanted to, but if she was ready, he would do a section and get him out. DeAnne was exhausted, so she agreed to the section and at 12:37, Harrison entered the world screaming like a rock star. After he got the baby out, Dr. Wells said that all the pushing in the world wouldn't have gotten him out and that it was good we went ahead with the section. DeAnne and I were both a little disappointed to have to go that route, but like I told her that afternoon; 30 years ago they would have broken her tail bone.

Harrison's doing great and so is DeAnne. She's recovered very well from the surgery. It's been a great week and a half and I can't imagine having things any other way. He's probably the greatest earthly gift that God has ever given me and DeAnne and I are both so very thankful for him. Harrison really is a miracle and a revelation.

We're supposed to be taking pictures this afternoon. Then Thursday is Harrison's two week checkup. I've got plenty more to tell, but it's great to get started.

--Paul

Too Short Long Weekend

2011-07-05T06:07:00.001-05:00

The long weekend was far too short for my tastes. We had a good one though.

Saturday was actually pretty productive. I got the grass taken care of but little did I know that while I was out in the yard, DeAnne had gone full nesting mode inside the house. She was cleaning like a crazy person and had plenty for me to do after I got back inside. She did give me a chance to take a shower, rest and eat lunch first, but after that, we were back at it, putting up laundry, sweeping and vacuuming, and hanging up a list of items that I've never managed to get on the walls. Saturday night we spent some time with MeMaw and when we finally hit the sack, I slept about as hard as I ever have.

Church was good on Sunday. I always love seeing baptisms. They're one of those things that are guaranteed to make you smile. The church picnic Sunday afternoon was good too. We didn't make it to the fireworks show, but we enjoyed talking with everyone, watching kids (and some adults) on the slip-n-slide and of course, the dessert table.

And then the day off. The 4th. We lounged, we went to Wal-mart, we lounged some more and then we went to Opp and ate dinner with DeAnne's family. Simple, easy, nice and relaxing.

Harrison watch is at 17 days and counting. Still hoping for DeAnne's sake it's less than that. Her feet have gotten worse the last couple of days. Sunday night they looked awful when we left church. I've been talking to him trying to coax him out, but he seems pretty determined to stay right where he is for as long as possible. I think it means he's stubborn like his momma, but don't tell her I said that.

--Paul

Potential

2011-06-30T06:15:00.000-05:00

We had an ultrasound yesterday to try and see about how big Harrison is just to make sure he's not so big that he needs to make an early entrance. There's potential that he's going to be a pretty good size baby, but nothing scary.

Overall they estimated him to be about 7 pounds. Tomorrow will mark three weeks to go and babies usually gain about half a pound a week, so if the estimate is right, he may end up between 8 and 9 pounds but there's a +/- 2 pound window on the estimate. They may be right on or he may be as little as 5 pounds. The measurements they took make me think he's closer to that 7 pound mark though.

His head measured right on with where he's at: 36 weeks and 5 days. His abdomen measured way ahead of that though. She measured it twice because the first time she came up with over 40 weeks. The second time she got about 38 and a half, so still big, but not so far out as to be worried. Finally his leg measure a few days over 37 weeks. Who knows exactly what all that means, but just looking at the numbers, they all kind of average out to about a week ahead of where we're at. I doubt that means he's going to come a week early but who knows?

DeAnne is starting to get fairly uncomfortable. We've been so thankful just to be pregnant and to have this blessing that she's really tried this whole time to not complain about anything. The past few days have been testing her resolve on that though. She's not getting much sleep, she's having a hard time moving around and getting up off anything she sits or lays on and she's retaining enough fluid that her hands are swelling and hurting. Harrison also moved yesterday afternoon and ended up pushing on her back in a way that made her back start hurting. While she tells me all this stuff, she's been good not to really complain about it. She has started talking to him trying to coax him to come on out though.

So we're getting closer. 3 weeks and a day left. No plans for the weekend. With the recent rain we've gotten, the yard has actually grown a little, so I'll be cutting grass Saturday morning. Other than that, it should be a pretty low-key weekend. Probably going to be that way from here on out.

Have a good weekend.

--Paul

24 Days

2011-06-28T06:07:00.000-05:00

We had a pretty nice weekend. Friday, DeAnne had to take the car over to Enterprise to get a leaking seal replaced so she spent most of the evening in Kinston with her mom. This gave me the chance to do something that I haven't really done much of lately: play video games. I don't know how much time I'll have after the baby comes, so it was nice to get to play some.

Mom and Sid came down on Saturday and took us out to lunch. It was good to see them both and spend some time with them before Harrison arrived. We had to go back to Enterprise to pick the car up that afternoon so on the way back we stopped and ate dinner with DeAnne's mom and Wayne.

Then finally, Sunday was the usual with church and just being lazy around the house. We did watch a movie called "The Legend of the Guardians" that was pretty awesome. It's an animated movie about owl warriors. It really seemed like something that would be from my childhood and the way it was scripted and the way the story moved felt like the old animated movies that I loved as a kid. I thought it was great and DeAnne liked it, so it must not have been too terrible. Worth a watch.

24 days to go.

--Paul

On and On

2011-06-23T06:04:00.000-05:00

DeAnne continues to progress along. The doctor said everything looks good even though she's beginning to swell some and is retaining more water than she had been. I can't really speak for her, but I know that I'm starting to fight with impatience. I know he'll come when he's ready and it's time, but I can't help but be ready to see the little guy. 29 days and counting. We're scheduled to tour the hospital and preregister today so that should be fun.

Everyone say goodbye to my little white car. I put a sign up at work with both the Sentras saying one of them had to go and the white one went first. I'm kind of sad to see it go. It's the car that took me to Troy and back when I moved up there. It's the car I drove up there and back nearly every weekend for a year to see DeAnne. It's the car we were supposed to drive away in at our wedding until I scratched the side up on Memaw's van that morning. There's a lot of memories in that car. I've had it for nearly 10 years but it's time to say goodbye. Plus it'll be really nice to get the refund from the insurance company.

Have a good weekend.

--Paul

Not Much To Say

2011-06-21T06:00:00.000-05:00

We had a pretty laid back weekend. We just stayed in and watched T.V. and really just did a whole lot of nothing. It was pretty nice and it may be one of the last times we get to say that for a long while. I did finally get the grass cut Saturday. I got started as early as I could but it was after 11:00 before I finished and by then it was incredibly hot. With everything as dead as it is and as dry, I was pretty much covered head to toe in dust, dirt and grim. It was not pleasant.

Other than that, on Sunday we ate lunch in Kinston and then spent some time with my dad. Like I said, it was pretty laid back.

DeAnne's doing good. She's going to the doctor pretty much every week now. At the moment, she's going on Wednesdays. She'll be 35 and a half weeks this Wednesday. There's a little concern about the potential size of the baby. Last week at 34 and a half weeks, the doctor measured her stomach at 36 weeks. Right now it's a wait and see type thing but they've scheduled an ultrasound for Wednesday week to try and measure him and see if we can get an idea of what we're looking at.

See you Thursday.

--Paul

Looking Good

2011-06-16T06:04:00.000-05:00

DeAnne will be 35 weeks tomorrow. After yesterday's appointment, it looks like we're to the point of going every week. Throughout the entire pregnancy, her stomach's always measured a week ahead. Yesterday it was measuring 36 weeks. So as a precaution, they scheduled us for a visit next week and an ultrasound the week after that, just to see if they could measure the baby and see how big he is. Everything's looking good, it's just all the signs are pointing to him being a hoss.

We're also getting closer on the nursery. I've got one more letter to hang up and then I've got a hook to hang behind the door for a height chart and after that, I think we're done. The only other thing we've got to do is get the car seat base into the car and pack the hospital bag and then we'll just be patiently waiting for him to decide it's time.

Yard work is finally on the horizon. It's so dry that even the bahiagrass is starting to look bad but at the same time, the yard just looks kind of ragged. At least if I cut it, it will be trimmed and dead instead of ragged and dead.

Other than that, it should be a fairly relaxed weekend. Have a good one.

--Paul

Getting Closer All The Time

2011-06-14T06:06:00.000-05:00

We had a great anniversary weekend.

Friday was filled with the excitement of Bryan and Adrienne having their baby, Jay. He was born around 8:00 that night after about 12 hours of his parents being at the hospital, so it was a stream of updates throughout the day.

We got to see Jay on Saturday. We stopped by the hospital on our way to Dothan and baby, mom and dad were all doing well. Saturday was a pretty productive day. We had just a few things to return that we had gotten duplicates of, so we took care of that, we picked up the nightstand from Our New Baby, hit Babies R Us to get the few things on the registry that we didn't get and then picked up a fan from Lowes for the nursery. There were a few other stops here and there but that was the major stuff. We celebrated our anniversary with dinner at Olive Garden and then hit Krispy Kreme on the way home since the sign was on.

Between services on Sunday I managed to get the curtain rods and the fan put up. We also bought some letters to hang over the crib and DeAnne got those painted like she wanted them. We grocery shopped, picked up some screws to hang some hooks on the wall and swung by to see Memaw and that was about it. There's still a lot of little things to do in the nursery, but we're getting close to being done with it. There's just a few more things to hang up and that's about it. It's getting closer and closer.

--Paul

6 Years

2011-06-09T06:09:00.000-05:00

Saturday marks mine and DeAnne's sixth wedding anniversary. I seems like we barely just started dating. I'm so blessed to have been able to meet such an incredible woman and now to be able to spend the rest of my life with her. I love you, DeAnne.

Some interesting things about our anniversary this year. With it being the sixth and counting leap year, this is the first year since we were married that our anniversary falls on Saturday. It's also been six years since the busiest hurricane season ever brought us the likes of Katrina and Wilma. The list of storm names cycles around every six years and they reuse names for anything other than major, memorable storms. So once again this year, there will be an "Arlene", the same name as the tropical storm that came through on our wedding day.

With Harrison just around the corner, we didn't really make any big plans. We're going to head over to Dothan on Saturday shop for the last few things we need for the nursery and then we're going to go to dinner at Mikata's.

Speaking of the nursery, a big thanks goes out to Sara and Sally who spent the last two days painting the nursery for us. They did a great job and kept me from having to worry about it, so I will be forever grateful of that.

And that's about it. Have a good weekend.

--Paul

One Wild Day

2011-06-07T06:14:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was pretty crazy. VBS started and things seemed to be going pretty well until DeAnne called me around 10:00. Each day they take pictures of the kids doing different things and then drop them into a slideshow that tells a story. The problem is that the software that runs the show only displays the show on the primary monitor. Our projection system is set up as a multi-monitor system with no way to really display the primary monitor to the projectors. In the end, we had to go up to the church yesterday afternoon and I set up a laptop to be a second computer on the projection system. It's not perfect and it messed up some of the settings on the main computer, but it works. I'll just have to deal with getting everything back to the way it's supposed to be after VBS is over with.

In the midst of all that, DeAnne's mom and sister decided that they were going to paint the nursery for us but that they had to run back to Navarre and get some of Sara's stuff so she could stay longer. To keep Liam on his routine, he spent the night with us. He's been pretty good. He didn't have a nap yesterday so he was a little ill last night, but he went down with no effort and is still asleep right now.

Finally, yesterday marked the start of both the annual E3 video game convention and Apple's annual developer conference. Apple showed off some really cool stuff for the next version of both the Mac OS and iOS. I was pretty impressed with what they've managed to accomplish. iOS 5 is going to be a pretty big stab at both Android and may be the nail in the coffin for Blackberry. They didn't announce any new hardware (iPhone 5), but the new iOS 5 is going to work on everything 3GS up, so hardware probably isn't a huge concern. They'll refresh it when they have something ready.

The only real news I read from E3 was the Xbox presentation. They're really pushing Kinect and it looks like it's going to be integrated into more and more games. If anything, Mass Effect 3 showed that even if it doesn't allow for motion control, there are small things like giving your AI controlled squad mates commands and selecting dialog options by actually saying them that will make games more immersive. They didn't talk about, or announce a new Xbox system though. This isn't a huge issue, but looking at the games they showed, it seems that the Xbox 360 has probably reached the extent of what it can do graphically. None of the sequels they showed looked any better than the previous games in those series. They're pushing Kinect as an upgrade to give the system more life, but you have to wonder if a new system with Kinect directly integrated and better hardware isn't a real need at this point.

Anyway, yesterday was crazy and now it's Tuesday. Hopefully it will be a little less crazy.

--Paul

Hot

2011-06-02T06:08:00.000-05:00

The heat has been incredible this week and it looks like it's going to be that way for a while to come. At this point, my yard is so fried I think I may just take the weed-eater and knock down the bahia and be done with it. Nothing else is really even close to growing.

There's not really much going on. We've kind of entered the calm before the storm. DeAnne has one last shower in Opp this weekend and after that, we'll just be trying to get everything organized and ready to go for Harrison's arrival. We're excited. DeAnne's doing good though. She developed a sinus infection this week, but that's nothing that some antibiotics can't take care of. Other than that, it's been a really good pregnancy and she really hasn't had anything to complain about. We're just so excited that God's blessed us with a child, I don't think she would complain even if something was bothering her. This is just too great a miracle and too great a blessing to make it about us. We want Harrison's birth to point to the Lord and we pray that it shows others what He has done for us.

So that's about it. DeAnne's been working on getting her lesson plans ready to go for next year but other than that, she's been enjoying her summer. It's business as usual at PowerSouth, and here at home, we're just patiently waiting. Have a good weekend.

--Paul

Fun In the Sun

2011-05-31T06:13:00.000-05:00

We had a great weekend in Navarre with Sara, Mike and Liam. We left Friday afternoon and came back yesterday. We hit the beach Saturday and Monday but Liam's still too small to really get in the water and enjoy it, so Sunday evening as it was cooling down, we took him to the Sound side of the island where it's more like a lake and he seemed to enjoy himself better there. Mike took him out in a little jet ski float and he had a pretty good time getting pulled around in that.

The beach was really great. The surf was a little rough yesterday, but it wasn't terrible. We managed to keep from getting sunburnt mainly thanks to Sara's SPF 85 baby sun block she had. I think I might actually be whiter now than when we left.

One thing Liam did eventually start enjoying on the beach was playing in the sand. He has a little bucket that looks like a castle tower when you flip it upside down, so we started stacking those up for him. He seemed to enjoy playing Godzilla and smashing the little castles. We also built "Ft. Liam" right against the water. Basically just piling up sand into a semicircle wall around him. Every now and then a wave would make it around the wall and fill the hole with water. He got a pretty good kick out of that.

On Sunday, we decided that even though we were at the beach, we would go to church and after it was over we were glad we did. We went to First Baptist Church Navarre and they had a wonderful and powerful Memorial Day service. A large part of their attendance is Air Force personnel and you could almost feel the reverence they held for the fallen.

So all in all, a really great weekend. With so much left to do before Harrison arrives, it may be the last chance we have to really do anything, so we were both glad to have the opportunity. The only thing that really stinks is that I have to go to work this morning and now that school is out, DeAnne just gets to get up whenever she wants to. Of course, I wouldn't be a teacher for all the money in the world either, so I guess she's earned it.

--Paul

Church Kitty

2011-05-26T06:12:00.000-05:00

Garrett and I practice for Wednesday night band on Tuesday nights. This past Tuesday night we were out on the porch of the church talking and we heard this sound. At first we thought it might be a fox pup since there have been several dens near the church over the years. We started walking towards the road and instead of a fox pup, a little orange kitten popped his head over the curb of the road and started coming towards us. Of course, being the tender heart I am, I called DeAnne. I knew it didn't matter what was going on, as soon as I said "we found a kitten", she would be on her way to come get him. She got to the church and helped us catch him and after a phone call, DeAnne's sister, Sara, decided she had a new cat.

So we're currently cat sitting until Friday when we're going down to Navarre to spend the weekend with Sara, Liam and Mike. With the holiday Monday and school getting out this week, we figured this would probably be the only real chance that we had to get down to the beach and enjoy it before Harrison arrived.

The school board met yesterday and hired DeAnne back for next year. We're both pretty excited. She had a great year this past year and she's really happy at Pleasant Home. It means she's got a lot of work to do this summer though. She's actually already started making sub plans for her maternity leave. She wanted to get a jump on them in case she was hired back. So she's got that to finish up and there's still some things she wants to get cleaned out in her room. Hopefully she can get it all prepared before the end of June and be able to relax a bit in July as we get down to the due date.

Have a good weekend and I'll see you Tuesday.

--Paul

The Home Stretch

2011-05-24T06:12:00.000-05:00

We've made it to the last week of school. DeAnne's had a good year and she's mentioned to me several times that she's going to miss this group of kids.

I didn't get anything accomplished this past weekend. We were so lazy Saturday it was sad. But it's okay. Every now and then you just need a lazy Saturday. It may be one of the last we get to enjoy for a while to come.

The baby countdown hit t-minus 60 days yesterday, so we've made it to 2 months to go. After school lets out, I think DeAnne is probably going to seriously enter nesting mode. We're getting close and without school to occupy her time or tire her out, she's going to have time and energy to think about what she wants done to the room and all before the baby gets here. I'm probably in for a load of work the next couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to it though. I'm ready for Harrison to be here. We've waited so long for this it's almost hard to believe that it's really so close to becoming reality.

One final bit of good news: Memaw should be discharged from the hospital today. It'll be the first time she's been out of the hospital since Andalusia sent her to the Opp nursing home over a month ago. UAB was able to put a stint in the narrowing of her intestine and that seems to have done the trick. She's started eating again and she seems to be doing good. She's going to be coming to the Andalusia nursing home for 20 days for rehab but hopefully after that, she'll be able to return to life as normal. Thank you all who have prayed for her and please continue to pray that she regains her strength and is able to get back to normal.

--Paul

Struggling

2011-05-19T06:06:00.000-05:00

I"ve set here for a few minutes this morning trying to find a topic to talk about and I'm just not coming up with anything.

We don't have any plans for the weekend. Like I said on Tuesday, I'm on call this week, so that pretty much keeps us close to home. I do need to cut the grass. The little bit of rain we got last weekend kicked up some of the yard and it's looking kind of shabby now. I think I also mentioned that last group of bushes that needs trimming. Maybe I can get those done along with the grass.

We also have a massive amount of stuff that we need to clean out of the office. There are piles upon piles of things that we need to find a home for. I'm really not sure where it's all going to go. We've been trying to sell our old bedroom set but so far haven't had any takers. If we could move all of that stuff, that would free up a good bit of space in the storage building. So, if you know anyone looking for a queen size bedroom set, send them our way.

Harrison's room is pretty much together. We need to find a rug and we want to replace the light in room with a ceiling fan, but other than that, we're in pretty good shape with it. The only other thing I can think of off the top of my head is that we still need to find a lamp base to match the lamp shade we got to match his bedding.

So that's all I've got today. Short and kind of random. Maybe I'll have something better to talk about on Tuesday. Have a good weekend.

--Paul

Back To Somewhat Normal

2011-05-17T06:05:00.000-05:00

After all the craziness of the past few months with the class and all, we're slowly getting back to a more normal routine. I'm taking this as the calm before the storm because I'm sure once Harrison gets here, normal will have to go through a complete re-difining.

We had another great weekend. Saturday we rode up to Tallassee to see my Mom's side of the family. It was kind of a belated Mother's Day gathering. It was unique this year in that my Uncle Keith and Aunt She-She came over from Arizona and my grandmother's twin brother, Uncle Ken, came out from California. It was good to get to see them along with the usual crowd that we don't get to see often enough. So we had a good time visiting, eating and taking family pictures.

Sunday after church, DeAnne threw me a birthday party. She had told me that I was going to have a surprise on the table when we got home Saturday night and that I wasn't allowed to look under the tablecloth. I assumed that part of what was under there was a cake. I was slightly wrong because it turned out that the entirety of what was hidden was a cake. It was a four foot long replica of my Les Paul. It was pretty amazing and incredibly thoughtful, so after all the grief I gave DeAnne last week about not ever telling me "Happy Birthday", she more than made up for it with the party and the cake.

So that was the weekend. We actually don't have any real plans for the one coming up. I'll probably end up working outside. I still have a set of bushes to trim and after finally getting some rain the yard is starting to look like it needs cutting.

--Paul

30

2011-05-12T05:58:00.000-05:00

I don't think I mentioned it Tuesday, but yesterday was my birthday. I turned 30 this year. It's kind of crazy when you think about how much life changes in 30 years but it's been a great, blessed time and I really think life has just begun. I had a lot of people ask me yesterday how it felt to be 30 and honestly, it doesn't feel all that different from being 20-something. I'm sure that if I could step back into my 20 year old self, I would be able to tell at least a physical difference, but looking back from where I'm at now, I can't feel it.

It was a pretty routine day. Work, home and then church. I do have to give DeAnne a little ribbing though. When I left for work yesterday morning, she made no mention of it being my birthday. She's usually still half asleep when I leave though, so I didn't really think anything of it. Later that day though, she needed something and called me real quick from the school. Still no mention of my birthday. Then later that afternoon she called me again and still didn't say "happy birthday". Finally, we had a doctor's appointment (her now every two weeks routine visit) and we were sitting in the waiting room and she was just going on about how her day had been and finally I just had to ask her if she knew what day it was. She said yes, it's Wednesday so I asked her if she remembered that it was my birthday. This is where it gets rich. She told me that she did know it was my birthday and that she just hadn't had the chance to wish me a happy birthday yet!

Yesterday I was a little offended but looking back, it's pretty funny so I have to rib her for it a little. In her defense, I will say that she was really busy yesterday. They had awards day at the school and she was pretty much in charge of running a reception for all the "graduating" 6th graders and their parents, so she had a crazy day. Still, it's pretty funny that she had four chances and never told me until I asked. She also never gave me my card. She said she had one for me but when we got home from church, she laid down on the couch for a minute and fell asleep. Maybe I'll get it today.

So anyway, thank you to everyone who told me happy birthday yesterday, it was a great day and I'm looking forward to the next 30+ years.

--Paul

Harrison's Heart

2011-05-10T06:14:00.000-05:00

DeAnne and have spent the better part of the nearly six years that we've been married praying for not only God to bless with a child/children but for various aspects of our children's lives. One of those aspects is health. The various health problems that DeAnne and I have faced throughout our lives have been pretty well documented here on this blog. We've always prayed that our children would be spared those same trials and that they would be healthy. Yesterday, we got to see the first confirmation that the Lord is answering those prayers.

While we were in Mobile for my annual cardiologist visit in April, we mentioned to my doctor that we were expecting and asked about the potential for Harrison to have some heart defect similar to what I had. He referred us to another cardiologist in his group that does fetal diagnostics. So yesterday we shot down to Mobile, got to take a peak at Harrison one more time and found out that for as far as they can tell at this stage, he has a perfectly healthy heart. On the way home DeAnne and I were talking and we came around to the peace that God has given us about Harrison's health. Neither of us really feel like he's going to have anything wrong with him and we both agreed that while our faith comforts us and pacifies our fears, it was incredible and uplifting to physically see God working and answering prayers that we've prayed for so long.

So that was just Monday. We had a good weekend too. Yesterday was actually the second time we had been to Mobile since the weekend started. On Saturday, "little" Edwin had his first birthday, so we headed down to celebrate with Courtney and Edwin and a host of other friends and family. It was a good time and it was good to get to see a lot of people that we haven't been able to see in a while.

Mother's Day was spent in Kinston with DeAnne's family. We ate ourselves silly and had as good a time as we always do. DeAnne's grandmother who we've been asking prayers for is home now although she's not able to stand or walk, but she looked really good and it was good to see her feeling so much better and sitting up in a chair and eating.

My grandmother was moved to UAB late last week and they're still working to find out what exactly is going on with her. Hopefully today they'll be able to do the CT they've been wanting to do for a couple of weeks now and we'll know something more.

See you all on Thursday,

Paul

Not So Easy "A"

2011-05-05T06:12:00.000-05:00

DeAnne's class is finished and she finished up with a 94. I'm incredibly proud of her and the hard work she put in. There were several times where things got a little intense while we were talking about the class, but that's all over and done with and now we can just enjoy the fact that it's over and she made an "A".

With the class over, we'll be turning our full attention over to baby stuff. Specifically, the nursery. We have a lot of stuff to take care of in a short amount of time. They're brining the furniture on Tuesday and by then we have to get DeAnne's old hutch and my old toy chest cleaned out and moved out of the room. That may not sound like a huge deal, but trust me, there's a lot of stuff in those two things and I'm not really sure where it's all going to go.

Memaw was moved to Birmingham last night. This makes the fourth hospital and the fifth facility over all that she's been in in the past month. Hopefully, there will be someone in Birmingham willing to make a decision and do something about finding out exactly what's wrong with her. Please continue praying for her.

Have a good weekend. We'll be heading down to Mobile on Saturday for baby Edwin's first birthday followed up on Sunday by Mother's Day. See you Tuesday.

--Paul

Finishing Strong

2011-05-03T06:04:00.001-05:00

We're down to the last few days of DeAnne's class and it looks like she's going to finish it out on a high note. She took the third test Saturday and made an A on it and last night the instructor posted the grade for her paper and she aced it too. She finished up the discussion board work last night and so now all that's left is the last test which is open book.

DeAnne called the store we ordered Harrison's furniture from and they're going to be bringing it next Tuesday. So that gives us just enough time to try and get the rest of the nursery cleaned out after DeAnne finishes up this last test. We also had our first shower this past Sunday and Harrison got a lot of nice gifts. We hate to put any of it in his room though because we're not sure how we're going to lay out the furniture so for now it's all just piled up in the living room. I get the feeling that this is just the beginning of a never-ending mess in the main part of the house.

DeAnne's grandmother is going to be released from Healthsouth on Friday. She's not really much better but her days are up and they can't keep her. She still needs prayer that she'll regain her strength and be able to get up and get around some on her own. Memaw still isn't much better either. They're planning on doing a CT but they have to wait for the dye they used for the contrast x-ray to leave her system. They thought they might be able to do the scan yesterday but there was still too much dye in her. Hopefully they can get it done today and we can find out what the problem is.

See you Thursday.

--Paul

Getting There

2011-04-28T06:12:00.000-05:00

It's going to be short today.

DeAnne's research paper is done. Huge relief. With that out of the way, we were able to work a schedule out for her to get her through the next week or so and put the rest of this class to bed. Hopefully by this time next week this thing will be behind us and we can focus on Harrison and getting ready for his arrival.

I went to Dothan yesterday and spent the day with Memaw at Flowers. She was doing a little better. Towards the end of the afternoon, they decided to try and see if the procedure they did on Tuesday had helped her digestion and gave her a popsicle. It was the first thing other than ice chips that she had ate in probably 2 weeks. Hopefully, prayerfully, this is the start of the end of all this mess and she'll be getting back to normal soon.

And that's about it. I'll talk about the weekend on Tuesday. See you then.

--Paul

Crunch Week

2011-04-26T06:15:00.000-05:00

We've made it down to the last two weeks of DeAnne's college class. This is crunch week. She has a quiz to do this week and her paper is due at the end of the week. If she can make it through this week, she'll just have one more quiz to take and a couple of discussion board questions to answer and she'll be done. It's going to be a long week and it's going to be tough, but I know she can get it done.

As I've said before, once we get through the class, we'll be down to finishing up preparations for the baby. DeAnne's about to start having showers, so we've got to get the rest of the baby's room cleaned out so we'll have somewhere to put all that mess. On top of that, the furniture should be coming some time in the next week or so. DeAnne's getting antsy about the furniture so I'm probably going to call and check on it this week. I think she starting really get that nesting feeling so the biggest thing I've got to do is to keep her focused on her class this week and get through that. Then she can turn the nesting loose and worry about the nursery.

We had a good Easter. We rode over to Dothan and saw DeAnne's grandmother for a little while. She looked a lot better. She's at HealthSouth rehab now and once they get her back on her feet, I think she's going to be pretty much back to normal.

My grandmother was moved to Flowers in Dothan yesterday. They're going to run another scope today and see if they can pinpoint the blockage in her GI track and once they do, we'll know more about what it's going to take to fix it. We're praying that it's fairly minor and that it won't require majorly invasive surgery to fix.

See you on Thursday.

--Paul

The Song Remains the Same

2011-04-21T06:07:00.000-05:00

I'm having a hard time this coming up with something this morning. Nothing's really changed since Tuesday. DeAnne's grandmother is still in the hospital in Opp and they've moved MeMaw to the Opp nursing home. DeAnne's still doing class work. There's just not really been anything that's happened since Tuesday. We're in a holding pattern waiting for the air traffic controller to wake up from his nap.

The weekend is probably just going to be more of the same. DeAnne doing school work while I do yard work on Saturday. Sunday is Easter, so that should be awesome. I'm really looking forward to next Easter. Harrison will be about 9 months and should be stinking cute in a little Easter outfit.

That's about all I've got though. Sorry that it's so short. Hopefully next week will be better and I can find something a little more interesting to talk about. Have a good weekend.

--Paul

More of the Same

2011-04-19T06:11:00.000-05:00

Not much happened over the weekend. The biggest news was that DeAnne made a "B" on her latest test and she made a 100 on each of the three projects that were due to be turned in by Saturday. She was pretty excited about both grades and I was pretty excited for her. She practically killed herself trying to study for that test so it was good to see all her hard work pay off. The only bad part about it was that there wasn't much time to celebrate her victory. The next test is now just a week away and her research paper is due in less than two weeks. There's about three weeks left in the class and they're going to be intense.

One other really cool thing was that we had our 4-D ultrasound on Friday. The girl that did it was really nice and really took her time to try and get some good pictures. It was a good experience and the pictures turned out pretty good. Harrison didn't really want to cooperate at first, he kept getting his hand in the way of his face, but eventually we got a couple of good pictures. I've alway had a hard time looking at these things and telling anything about them, but I guess I just needed it to be my child it was a picture of to understand. From all I can tell, he's a cute little booger. DeAnne posted several of them to her blog, so if you haven't seen them, be sure to go there and check them out.

There's no real change with the grandmothers. We ask that you continue to pray for them. They moved my Grandmother to a regular room on Saturday and she seemed to start going back down hill when they did. DeAnne's grandmother just continues to be in the Opp hospital and doesn't seem to be improving at all. We know that the Lord will do what's best and what is in His plans, but at the same time, we're asking that he allow them both to see their great-grandson in July.

I'll see you back here on Thursday.

--Paul

Music Time

2011-04-14T06:06:00.000-05:00

It's been a pretty good while since I talked about music, so I figured it'd be a good topic for today. The other day, I got an email coupon for a discount on CDs from Amazon and I took the chance to pick up a couple of albums I had been wanting for a while.

First is Chris August: No Far Away (MP3 $5.00, CD $8.99). I've been hearing "Starry Night" on the radio for what seems like forever now and I've always wanted to pick up this album just based off that one song. When the new single, "7x70", started playing a couple of weeks ago, it kicked me into overdrive wanting this CD. I haven't had the time to really listen to it like I want to, but from what I've heard, the rest of the CD is just as good as the first two singles. August is nominated for several Dove awards this year and it's pretty obvious why.

Next up is Matthew West: Story of Your Life (MP3 $7.99, CD $8.99). After having listened to this CD two or three times and reading the liner notes, I'm convinced that every single person should own a copy of this album. When West got ready to record what would become this album, he asked fans to send him the stories of their lives. He took those thousands of stories and read them and then wrote this album based off them. The liner notes contain the lyrics for each song followed by a summary of the story (or stories) that inspired that song. It's an amazing project that simply and beautifully testifies of God's love and grace and providence. West covers a broad range of topics and in the end there's inspiration to be found in pretty much whatever situation you're facing. You owe it to yourself to get this CD, and I would encourage you to get the actual, physical CD so that you can really read the liner notes. On top of the stories, the songs on their own are really good. Anyone that listens to Christian radio has heard "My Own Little World". The rest of the album stands up to the quality of that single and even surpasses it at times. Best $9 I've spent in a long time.

So that's the two newest CDs I've been listening to. Have a good weekend and I'll see you back here on Tuesday.

--Paul

Tough Going

2011-04-12T06:12:00.000-05:00

We seem to be entering one of those times in life when you feel like you're going to get buried by it all.

My grandmother, Memaw, is back in the hospital. She's not been able to eat or drink the last couple of days. Hopefully they'll be able to do some tests today and find out what's going on.

DeAnne's grandmother, Nanny, still isn't doing well either. She's in the Opp nursing home right now but they want to move her to Andalusia for rehab. They can't move her though because she's not even got the strength to stand up right now.

On top of all the sickness, DeAnne's class is still going strong and she's getting close to the point of getting behind on things. On my end, the yard work that needs doing is starting to pile up. Bushes need trimming, grass needs cutting and pine straw needs spreading. Then of course, there's the baby preparations. We still don't have the nursery cleaned out. The furniture is supposed to be in at the end of the month and we've got to get the hutch and my old toy chest cleaned out and moved along with a pile of other things that need to be put away.

As much as I feel threatened by all of this, I know that we're going to be fine. We're going to be fine because the Lord is in control and I'm trusting in Him to guide us through all of this. Really, this is probably one of the greatest times of our lives. Harrison is a blessing that neither of us can give enough thanks for and he's not even here yet. Things are crazy and things are busy and our families are hurting from sickness, but how blessed are we that we have these problems and yet know that the Lord is in control and He will guide us through them.

--Paul

I Got Nothing

2011-04-07T06:09:00.000-05:00

I don't really have anything to talk about today. Sorry, but we're just kind of in a holding pattern until DeAnne gets done with this class and there just hasn't been anything going on the past couple of days and we don't have anything planned for the weekend. I know, it's a huge change from a month or two ago. It seemed like we had something every single weekend there for a while. Maybe we're just naturally slowing down in preparation for the baby's arrival. Who knows?

I'll probably be doing some yard work Saturday morning. Pretty much every bush in our yard needs to be cut back. It's going to take forever to do it, so I might as well get started. The grass actually doesn't need cutting that bad. I guess the couple of cold snaps we've had since I first cut it has kept it from getting wild. I also spread about four bags of weed and feed on the areas with the most weeds and that stuff has done an amazing job so far. The only problem with it is that you can see where I missed because the grass is so green where I put it out. It's better than having weeds though.

If I'm in the yard, you can bet that DeAnne will be inside studying. That's probably going to be the mode of operation for the next four or five weeks. Her next test opens up next week and she's already starting to worry about it. Be praying that the next few weeks move quickly and that she's able to get through this class.

Have a good weekend.

--Paul

School Is Hard

2011-04-05T06:13:00.000-05:00

If this class that DeAnne's taking doesn't kill us both, it'll truly be a miracle. I don't know if it's that having been out of school for more than five years or that it's the totally online thing or just that it's a master's level course and it's harder than undergrad classes were, but this thing is kicking both our rear ends. I've taken to reading the chapters along with her so that she'll have a person that she can have a fluid conversation with about the material. Of course, I'm not a teacher and I've never studied any of this stuff before, but it's a lot of philosophy stuff about teaching and education and to me, a lot of it just turns in to a bunch of wordy psycho-babble that you end up boiling down to about one sentence. A lot of it also seems fairly liberal and that part of it just crawls all over me and my conservative, Christian influenced views. Things like corporal punishment and the sin nature of man are blatantly looked down on by the author of the book. Thankfully, if we can just get DeAnne through this one class, she'll be able to get her certificate renewed and we can decide later if she really wants to finish her master's or not. At this point, I'm not sure if either of us believe it to be worth the cost.

So that's my soapbox for the day. We had a pretty good weekend. DeAnne studied, I cleaned up some of the house, we spent some time with family and friends and we had our usual Sunday of church, grocery shopping and church. Pretty standard stuff. Hope you had a good one too. See you Thursday.

--Paul

Baby Naming

2011-03-31T06:12:00.000-05:00

We've been tossing around different baby names since we started trying to have a baby over three years ago. We came up with several girl names over those years but we had always struggled with boy names. Of course, the Lord has a keen sense of humor, so when His time was fulfilled and he blessed us with this pregnancy, He decided to give us a boy. After a lot of thinking and running through possibilities, we finally landed on something.

I was actually going to make the announcement part of my "special" blog post this past Tuesday, but I never talked to DeAnne about it and I didn't want to do something without her approval. Up until yesterday, I wasn't even sure if it was final. I think really, we both liked it and started using it some between the two of us and after a couple of weeks now, it's kind of stuck.

So in July we'll be welcoming Harrison Paul DuBose into the world. We're going to try our best and not saddle our children with the curse of using their middle names (both DeAnne and I go by our middle names), so we're going to call him Harrison. We're also pretty adamant about not using shortened versions, so no Harry or Harris or anything like that. Harrison.

A couple of funny stories. DeAnne first suggested the name and I liked it. After a couple of days of trying it out, I came to a realization. I told her that if we stuck with Harrison, that'd be fine with me because I wouldn't mind my kid sharing a name with the guy that played Han Solo and Indiana Jones. I asked her to consider changing the middle name to something from an actor in the Back to the Future series that way we could cover the big three from my childhood. That got shot down on the spot.

Two, the young lady that plays bass in the youth band at church is a pretty big Beatles fan. She made the connection even before I did that with his full name, he'll share names with two of the Beatles. I don't know if the next child has to cover the other two or what, but I guess we'll see when we get there.

So there you go. DeAnne told a pile of people yesterday and a few of our friends and family had already grilled it out of us but now it's official. Have a good weekend. See you Tuesday.

--Paul

Mania

2011-03-29T06:09:00.000-05:00

Things have been crazy around here the past couple of days.

DeAnne's Nanny is still in the hospital. She's been very weak ever since she went in to the hospital and she's just not able to get up and get around to get to go home. They're talking about moving her to rehab today to see if they can help get her up and going.

Also on DeAnne's side, her sister threw her back out late last week and hasn't been able to move much since. She's got an appointment today to see a doctor and hopefully he'll do an MRI so they can get a better look at what's going on.

Finally, as far as sickness goes, my MeMaw was put in the hospital here yesterday. She's been having some stomach problems and bad acid reflux for a couple of weeks now and they admitted her last night for observation because they can't seem to figure out what's going on.

On top of all that, DeAnne's first test for her online class opened up last night and when she tried to take it, the program she has to use to take it with kept hanging up and bombing out. She tried three times with no luck. The only good thing about it is that before she tried taking the test, she had no idea what to expect as far as what was on it. She has a bit of an idea now though, so hopefully she can study for a day and be better prepared.

On the brighter side, we managed to get a good bit done on Saturday when we went to Dothan after having the Rogue serviced. We found a baby book and a coming home outfit and I found some much needed new shirts. So we had a pretty successful trip and even made it home pretty early that afternoon.

I know that I promised today was going to be a special post. It is in fact post #650 to this blog. That's pretty mind-blowing if you ask me. So I wonder where my book deal is.

Anyway, finally, ending on a high-note after all the doom and gloom: I got my iPad in yesterday. Things were so crazy yesterday that I barely had time to do anything with it, but from what I've seen so far, I'm completely in love already. I would have wrote this post on it, but I figured it would be easier today to just go ahead and do it from the laptop like I always do. Keep us and our family in your prayers and I'll see you for post #651 on Thursday.

--Paul

Insanity Incoming

2011-03-24T06:12:00.000-05:00

We're in for a couple of crazy days coming up.

DeAnne's Mom is having to move some bedroom furniture out of her house and since it's pretty nice and what we have is starting to show its age a little, we volunteered to take it. So now it's a matter of moving everything around. We could just about open up a used furniture store out of our storage building. We have a living room chair and couch that we're not using and now we're going to have an entire bedroom set and we're got a hutch that's in the nursery that we're not going to use and have to move out before the baby furniture arrives. Maybe we should buy a townhouse in Auburn, furnish it, and rent it out to college kids. Knowing my luck the first tenant would destroy all the furniture.

I got a great email yesterday morning. The iPad has shipped and should arrive either Monday or Tuesday. Ordering stuff from apple always cracks me up because most of the time when you check the tracking it's coming straight from China. It happened with the Macbook and it's the same with the iPad. I just checked and this morning it's made a stop in Hong Kong.

Finally, Saturday we'll be making a trip over to Enterprise. DeAnne's already got enough miles on the new ride that it's due for its first oil change. While we're over that way we're going to head on over to Dothan. I'm in need of some new clothes and DeAnne wants to look for a baby book. We haven't found one she likes yet, so that's the major goal for the day.

Maybe Tuesday I'll type my post from my iPad. Who knows? It'd be pretty cool though. Tuesday's post is special for another reason that I'll explain then. Have a good weekend.

--Paul

Generic Post Title

2011-03-22T06:09:00.000-05:00

Nothing really amazing to report this morning. We had a good weekend. Saturday was DeAnne's Mom's family's (whew!) annual reunion. It's always a good time and this year was no exception. DeAnne did give out a little early, so we didn't stay as late as we usually do, but that's probably going to be the case for the next couple of years until the baby gets older.

The final part of what we spent our tax refund on arrived last week. We both wanted to get a good camera for the baby so we bought a Canon Rebel T2i. The 8 or 10 pictures we've taken with it turned out pretty good considering we were just using the fully automatic setting. It's going to take a while to really learn how to use the thing and get good pictures out of it, but it should be fun. Dad having been a photographer when I was little, we've got him to fall back on for advice. Despite all the advances in technology over the years, the basics seem to still be the same so he should be a good resource.

Other than that, DeAnne's been hitting the books pretty hard. I'm trying to help her out as much as I can, proof-reading stuff for her and talking about the material in kind of an attempt to replace the live classroom discussion that doesn't exist since it's an online class. She seems to be doing well with it though. She's tired, but she's staying ahead or on time with everything so far. Thankfully the class only lasts till the beginning of May.

That's about all I've got. See you Thursday.

--Paul

Japan

2011-03-17T07:22:00.000-05:00

From time to time I've talked about world events and politics here on the blog and today is going to be another one of those times.

Tomorrow will be a week since the tragic earthquake and resulting tsunami hit Japan. It's pretty amazing how quickly it all unfolded and how suddenly everything changed for not just that part of the world but for all of us. If you're friends with me on facebook, you've no doubt seen the several videos I've shared there. Everything I see about Japan is not only heart-wrenching, but for me has become an incredible reminder of just how little control we have over anything and how much control God has over everything. The earthquake, the tsunami and now the nuclear crisis; none of that has taken God by surprise and he understands all that has happened and will happen over there. It's heartbreaking and I pray that the grace and glory of God are made more evident to a lost and dying world.

I do want to speak more to the nuclear side of things. Being employed in the power industry, I get to see and hear a lot of things about government regulations and trends and such as that that a lot of people may not even be aware of. Most people fall into one of two groups: those that aren't happy their electricity is costing more (I land in this group) and those that aren't happy that electricity is primarily made from the burning of fossil fuels. You can't really be in both groups because if you want cheap power, the best way to get it currently is through burning coal and natural gas. There is a potential middle ground though: nuclear energy. It's not cheap to build or maintain, but over the course of several decades, it's cheaper and more reliable than solar or wind can ever hope to be and it's completely carbon neutral. There are still issues with radioactive waste but that waste can be reprocessed and made to be fairly harmless. Without a doubt the energy future of the United States rests in a nuclear foundation and what has happened in Japan should not deter us from moving forward with new nuclear initiatives that have been started in the past couple of years.

--Paul

Birthday Boy

2011-03-15T06:12:00.000-05:00

Liam's birthday party was pretty great. Everything went really well and he was as cute as he could be. We managed to get him a nap in before everything started and that helped get him through the afternoon without any big trouble. He seemed to really like the cake. I think he takes after his Uncle Paul a little though. He started off by pinching off icing from the side and eating that. He didn't really get into the cake until DeAnne pushed his hand down in it pretty good.

We came on back on Saturday night so we were able to make it to church Sunday morning to hear Bro. Johnny Powell's testimony. DeAnne and I both have been through some pretty tough medical issues but nothing near to what Johnny's been going through. Still, I think it gives DeAnne and I the ability to really understand better what Johnny was saying. It was incredibly powerful and I'm glad we made it back in time to hear him speak.

The final two purchases utilizing the tax refund, and thereby exhausting it, have been made. First was the new iPad. It's probably the last thing I'll really get to buy myself. Unfortunately, the demand is so high it's probably going to take three weeks for it to ship. We also bought a Canon T2i digital SLR camera. This is more for the baby but really it's kind of for DeAnne. She's always been the picture fanatic and she's done some amazing things with just a point and shoot, so it'll be interesting to see what she can do with something closer to a professional camera. It also shoots HD video and while it's not as easy to use as a dedicated video camera, I think it'll server the purpose for at least the first year or so, especially since we've got DeAnne's phone which takes pretty good video on it's own.

See you Thursday.

--Paul

Baby Blogging, Again

2011-03-10T06:10:00.000-06:00

With everything starting to bloom, DeAnne's asthma has been flared up and she's had a sinus infection that she hasn't been able to shake so on Monday we rode over to Dothan to see her pulmonologist. The appointment went well. She's already on some antibiotics and those seem to be helping so there really wasn't anything the doctor could do other than tell her to come back after the baby is born and see how she's doing then. The real action was at the stores.

We hit Target and Babies R Us to finish out the registries there. Now that we know we're having a boy, DeAnne wanted to get some gender specific things. We also got all the furniture for the nursery ordered from Our New Baby. It was expensive, but we bought a crib to college set that will probably be the only furniture that Baby DuBose has until they get out on their own and buy something for themselves. Fortunately, we got our tax refund from the Feds last week, so we were able to pay for it then and be done with it. I think this is the first furniture we've bought that we didn't spend a year paying for.

So the furniture is ordered. It's supposed to be here towards the end of April. It seems like forever, but I'm sure we'll probably still be trying to get the room cleaned out the day that they bring it over.

One last thing: I have to say "Happy Birthday" to my awesome nephew, Liam. He turns 1 today. We're going to be heading down to Navarre tomorrow evening and his party is Saturday afternoon. I can't wait to see him with a cake in front of him.

See you on Tuesday.

--Paul

Cat, Tree & Me

2011-03-08T06:07:00.000-06:00

A story I failed to mention last week:

We were getting ready for bed and a lot of nights, one or both of the cats will go outside while I'm walking Emma before bed. This time they both went out and it just so happened that the neighbor's dog, Samson, noticed us and came over. Samson's a pretty nice dog. He's a little bit bigger than Emma and all he really wants is for Emma or one of the cats to play with him. Of course, Emma's some kind of snoot and won't play with other dogs and the only dog the cats will go near is Emma, so poor Samson usually finds himself out of luck when he comes over to our house.

This night, he must have got too close to Mama Kitty because I heard her hiss and then him yelp and then Izzy chased him back to his house. None of this was a big deal until another dog came to Samson's rescue and chased Izzy up a pine tree behind our house. Unfortunately for me, the pine tree Izzy chose was half dead and every branch he touched on the way up broke off. He finally found a solid branch around 16 feet in the air.

So DeAnne and I hear all this and we get some flashlights and head down to the woods and start looking for Izzy. We find him and then the question becomes, how do we get him down? Blessedly, we just happen to have a 10' ladder, so I get that, lean it up against the tree and climb to about the 2nd to top rung just to find I'm way too short to get him. I ended up having to steel my nerve and stand on the very top of the ladder, hugging the tree for dear life with one arm and reaching for Izzy with the other. Thankfully, he was ready to come down and when he saw my arm was close enough to reach, he made his way down my arm and on to my shoulder.

Total time for rescue: about 40 minutes. I never, ever want to be a fireman.

--Paul

It's A...

2011-03-03T06:09:00.000-06:00

Boy!

I didn't think we were ever going to get in at the doctor's office yesterday. I don't know if they were backed up or what, but we were there for about an hour and a half. I guess we were just meant to have to wait it out as long as possible to find out. Thankfully, out little guy was cooperative yesterday and it didn't take long to get a good angle.

Everyone seems to assume that I'm more excited for a boy but I really don't think I'm any more excited than I would otherwise. It's just amazing what God has done in mine and DeAnne's lives and this is just icing on the cake. Of course, that may be a bad analogy since anyone who knows me knows that the icing is my favorite part. Anyway...

If our boy turns out to be a little tech geek like me, I'll be able to tell him that the day we found out he was a boy was also the day that the iPad 2 was announced. No real surprises from what I saw. It's thinner, lighter, now also comes in white and has a better processor and a front and rear camera. Pricing and storage stayed the same. Reading that, you would think I wasn't excited about it, but I'm pretty sure that this is the model that's going to get me in to the iPad. I said last year that I was really only waiting for it to have a camera and that's there now.

No major plans for the weekend. I'm on call. I think we're going to hit the Little Lambs sale Saturday morning and then I'll probably be doing some yard work after that. Have a good one.

--Paul

Big Wednesday

2011-03-01T06:06:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow's looking like a pretty big day.

First up, I'm going to be taking CPR training at work. They offer it about once a year and with the baby coming, I figured it would be a good time to take it. I was certified once upon a time a long, long time ago but it'll be good to get it again.

I'm going to have to cut out in the middle of the class though to go to out next ultrasound appointment. We're going to be making an attempt to determine the gender of our little one. They tried when we went a couple of weeks ago and he wouldn't cooperate so hopefully this time we'll get a good look.

Finally, Apple is set to announce the next generation of the iPad tomorrow. The press event starts at noon. I'm really not expecting anything earth-shattering hardware wise. It'll have front and back cameras and a new processor but that'll be the extent of the hardware changes. The unknown factor is iOS 5. Will the iPad 2 be the debut of the new operating system or will we just get a preview and have to wait until the release of the next iPhone to actually get the new OS? That's the major question for me. I'm also curious to see what they do with price/storage configurations. I would probably be surprised if they stayed the same as they are now but I'm not sure what the possibilities would be otherwise. I'll let you know Thursday.

--Paul

Baby Blogging

2011-02-24T06:11:00.000-06:00

Things have been going well with the baby.

For the most part, DeAnne's past the nausea. She still has moments of it, usually triggered by strong smells, but she's not been just walking around feeling like she's going to hurl all the time. Now if she could just shake this cold that's been hounding her for the past couple of weeks, she'd be in good shape.

We've been taking pictures each week on Saturday but we missed this past week's because D-Now. It's actually been kind of hard to tell if she's been getting bigger week to week in the pictures so I'm kind of curious to see what a difference two weeks makes.

We had an ultrasound last Wednesday and made an attempt at determining what we're having but the little stinker didn't want to cooperate. We're going to try again in about a week and a half and hopefully this time we'll be able to get a definite answer. We've got ideas about furniture and bedding and things, we just need to know what we're having so that we know which way to go with all of it.

Probably the most exciting thing is that the baby has become a pretty active little dancer. DeAnne feels him moving pretty often now and the other day I was actually able to feel it for a brief moment. It was probably one of the single most amazing things that's ever happened. To know that another life is in there, moving around and just waiting to make it's debut to the world is just mind-blowing. I really can't wait for July. It's going to be a lot of work, but we're going to love every second of it.

--Paul

Roaring Like a Lion

2011-02-22T06:07:00.000-06:00

What a weekend. It was long, tiring and sometimes chaotic, but it was probably one of the coolest things I've ever been a part of. If I tried to tell all the D-Now stories here, I would probably never finish. Suffice it to say, it was a great weekend with hundreds of kids worshiping and learning more about the Lord.

Before Friday night, Kristian Stanfill might not have been a name that very many people in Andalusia recognized. After the way he led worship for three sessions Friday and Saturday, I don't think anyone in Andalusia is going to stop hearing his name for a long time. One of those rare talents that actually sounds as good live as he does on his albums, Kristian and his band were obviously sincere about why they were here and even though they're from Atlanta and didn't know what to expect from a little town like Andalusia, I think they left impressed with the way everyone responded. They were really just down to earth, nice guys and you could really tell that they loved what they did and they loved God.

On top of the band, Ben Nobles had some great messages too. The theme for the weekend was "What if...?" and I thought Ben did a great job of speaking to the love that God has for us and how we should return that love both to Him and to others around us.

I think both DeAnne and I are still trying to catch up on sleep that we missed, but that's okay. It was a great weekend and I hope and pray that it impacted the kids in our youth group in a way that will set them on fire for the Lord like never before.

--Paul

What If...

2011-02-17T06:08:00.000-06:00

That's the theme for D-Now this year. What if... I and probably close to 700 other people are going to hear those words a lot over the weekend. If they make a difference in the life of just one of these kids, it'll be worth it.

We're in for a crazy weekend. Last night's kick-off rally was awesome but it alone was pretty exhausting. I can only imagine how tired we're going to be after going all weekend. It's going to be great though. Tonight we're going to be prayer-walking the church that the corporate worships are going to be held at and after that we'll be buying some supplies for the weekend. Then everything kicks off Friday night and goes until the end of church Sunday morning.

I just feel kind of bad for our animals. They're not going to be seeing much of us this weekend. Emma's probably going to be a little distraught.

I'm sure I'll have some stories to tell on Tuesday. Until then, pray for us and pray for these students that this will be a weekend that changes lives.

--Paul

One Crazy Week

2011-02-15T06:08:00.000-06:00

This is going to be one of those weeks where you wonder how you're going to do it all but hopefully it's all worth it in the end.

I guess it really started on Saturday though. Garrett, Bryan and I spent the morning running network cable in the sanctuary. The projectors we use have a web interface you can get information off of if they're networked. We're also working towards getting an internet connection to the computer so that we can download songs from Lifeway and get new backgrounds and things like that easier. So we got that done and then Saturday night was the Valentine's Banquet.

DeAnne was off from work yesterday so I took off with her and we took the Rogue over to Enterprise to let them detail it and tint the front side windows. They gave us a loaner car so we headed on over to Dothan to do some registering for baby stuff. We also looked at baby furniture. We're waiting to find out what we're having to pull the trigger, but we were able to get a plan together on what we want. We also found a great deal on a pack and play in Burlington Coat Factory and went ahead and got that.

As for the rest of the week, it's all going to be about D-Now, the annual county-wide youth weekend. The kick-off rally is Wednesday night, we'll be prayer walking the venue on Thursday and the Friday the rally starts and goes through Sunday. It's going to be a long, tiring weekend, but we're praying that it's all worth it. We've got a revival scheduled for March but I'm praying that it starts this weekend with our youth group.

So that's the build up for the week. Maybe by next Tuesday I'll have recovered enough to let you know how it went. See you Thursday.

--Paul

In Flux

2011-02-10T06:09:00.000-06:00

I know that I usually talk about weekend plans, but at the moment everything is kind of in flux. All I really know at this point is that I'm going to be in town this weekend. DeAnne, that's the up in the air part.

I do know that I'll be running network cable at the church on Saturday morning. I've got a plan to extend our internet connection to the sanctuary so that we can download new backgrounds, move files around and just in general make life easier for us in the back but it requires running cable through the attic. Garrett and I took an initial shot at it a couple of weeks ago and didn't accomplish much. I think we're better prepared this time though. For one, we know what we're getting in to this time. The last time around we spent a good bit of time just figuring out how to get around in the attic. Now we know where we're going and how to get there. We're also going to have more help. Bryan's going to give us a hand and we may even have one or two more helping out. Should be fun times.

Other than that, we're waiting to hear funeral arrangements for one of Courtney's uncles. She sent us a message yesterday saying that he had passed away. He was incredibly young and it's incredibly sad. He was always smiling and always kind. It's a real shock for him to be gone. If you will, join us in praying for Courtney's family today.

Have a good weekend.

--Paul

Sick Again

2011-02-08T06:04:00.000-06:00

DeAnne's sinuses have kicked into high gear and after being miserable most of the day Sunday, she went to the doctor and got some antibiotics yesterday. Hopefully they'll knock this mess out and get her feeling better.

Saturday we went up to Montgomery to see my Mom and Sid and help them out with a few things around the house. Sid looked really good and seems to have made some great improvements since the last time we saw him. He's got a long way to go before he's fully recovered from his stroke, but if he keeps making progress like what DeAnne and I have seen between the visits we've made then it shouldn't be too long.

We also spent some time with my Memaw Friday night. She's got a long recovery ahead of her too but her foot seems to be doing pretty well. My Dad said that she's had some pain but other than that, it's healing well and as long as she stays off of it for the right amount of time, she should be fine.

So that's about all I've got. Not the happiest post with three paragraphs about different sick people, but that's what I've got for you today. Maybe Thursday will be better.

--Paul

Shades of Things to Come

2011-02-03T05:50:00.000-06:00

In what I view as a glimpse of the future, Emma, and now it appears one of the cats, has had the pet version of the stomach virus this week. We took Emma to the vet on Tuesday and she was running a small fever so we got her some antibiotics. She seems to be improving. She hasn't had an accident since yesterday morning but we're still being cautious. Just when we were beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel with Emma, last night we returned home from church to find one of the cats had been sick all over the office. It was not pretty.

I look at this as just the beginning though. A little pre-baby training via animal testing if you will. It's just the animals testing us instead of the other way around. I guess the hippie-libs out there will love that.

So that's been this week's adventure.

I began work on our taxes yesterday. That's always a pile of fun too. Fortunately, software is getting good enough now that it's not much more than coping numbers exactly as they show up on the forms. If we had some kind of business I probably wouldn't do them myself, but no more than we have to deal with, it's just a matter of getting everything punched in.

--Paul

Rollin'

2011-02-01T06:14:00.000-06:00

We took another step on our journey toward parenthood this past Saturday. We bought a new vehicle. We got a 2011 Nissan Rogue. It's Nissan's mid-sized crossover. I really wasn't planning on buying it on Saturday but I guess with it being the next to last sales day of the month, they were looking to get something sold and we were able to hammer out a deal that I was pretty happy with.

We didn't trade either of our cars in, so now not only have we bought a new car, we have a car for sale. We're actually willing to sell either one of our cars. They're in about the same shape, have about the same miles on them and are only a model year apart from each other. I guess it really depends on if someone wants white (with a scratch down the side) or green (with paint fading on the trunk).

So that was our morning Saturday. After we finished with the car dealer, DeAnne took off to Dothan with her Mom to pick up some maternity clothes. She's gotten a lot of stuff from different people, but there were a few things she needed to round it out and get her through the week. I came back to Andalusia, picked up Trey and we headed down to Crestview for the pre-release tournament for the newest Magic set. This was the third pre-release I had been to and Trey's first. The level of geek was pretty high but after doing just okay the past two tournaments, I managed to finish third in this one. I was pretty happy with how I did although I think a lot of it was me getting lucky in the pairings. Whatever it was, I finished 4-1 and couldn't be happier with how I did. Trey had a good time too although he didn't have quite the success that I had.

So that was the weekend basically. We had a crazy Saturday and then Sunday was it's usual self. February is shaping up to be a pretty crazy month though, so I guess this past weekend was just the start.

--Paul

On A Roll

2011-01-27T06:12:00.000-06:00

We had another good night at church last night. The Lord has really been working on the band and we've had three or four good weeks in a row now. The band's playing well, the students seem to be participating in worship more and the small groups we started a while back seem to really be coming along. With D-Now coming up, I'm just straight-up excited about it all.

Outside of talking about the last appointment, I haven't said much about the baby, and I'm not really sure why that is. I think that it has a lot to do with how long it took for the Lord to get us to this point. It's kind of a casual thing for us. It probably also has a lot to do with not telling anyone for pretty much two months. At any rate, DeAnne's doing pretty good. We're almost fifteen weeks now. She's still nauseous pretty much every day but she doesn't complain. Instead we just give thanks that there's a reason for her nausea. Besides that, she's been fighting her sinuses this week and that's been giving her headaches. Hopefully, she'll be able to fight it off though and avoid having to get treated for a sinus infection.

We return to car shopping on Saturday. I'm not terribly excited about the idea, but it has to be done. I would love nothing more than to be able to get a deal done and be through with it. I'm praying that the Lord will direct us to the right decision. I've been reading "Radical" by David Platt and it's really convinced me that while we may want a vehicle with a bunch of fancy extras, that's what we want, not what we need. What we need is just something DeAnne can get the baby in and out of without destroying her back. If it meets that criteria, then there's not reason for us to spend a bunch of money on other things. Anyway, off my soapbox.

Have a good weekend and I'll see you all back here on Tuesday.

--Paul

Keepin' On

2011-01-25T06:08:00.000-06:00

We had a pretty standard weekend.

Friday was Pleasant Home's Homecoming, so after eating dinner, we headed out there with Garrett, Amy, Bryan and Adrienne. I'm still kind of getting used to the idea that my wife now works at the school I graduated from. The building her classroom is in was still being built when I graduated, so I don't have any real memories of that building but when we go to a school-wide function like a basketball game and go to the gym, it's a little surreal to be back in those places again. Anyway, we had a good time even thought the boys lost their game.

Saturday we spent some time over in Kinston visiting with Sarah, Mike and Liam. They were up for Wayne's birthday. Saturday afternoon, the youth boys from church all got together at Bryan's house and we played football and ladderball, ate pizza and had a good time just hanging out.

Sunday, DeAnne wasn't feeling good so she stayed home trying to get her head to stop hurting. We had to run to Kinston again for Wayne's birthday party but I had to be back for the start of the guitar lessons I'm now teaching at church on Sunday afternoon. I had 7 show up for the class, so I was pretty happy about that. I think it went pretty well and I'm looking forward to seeing how far I can take the class.

So, as I said, a pretty standard weekend. Nothing wrong with that.

--Paul

Heartbeat

2011-01-20T06:16:00.000-06:00

We had our January appointment yesterday and we were able to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time. It was pretty stinking awesome. We would have loved to have had another ultrasound also, but we're not up for our next one until our next appointment. It's still pretty hard to believe that this is all happening and it's going by so fast. It seems like we just found out and now we're three and a half months already. It's crazy.

We haven't really talked any more about the car thing. I'm on call this week so outside of revisiting the local dealerships, we're not going to be able to do much this weekend. We've also got to get back to work on the house. We still have a couple of closets to clean out and we've got plenty of stuff in the soon-to-be nursery that's still got to come out. It's all a bit overwhelming, but at the same time, I've never been happier to be overwhelmed. I just thank God every day for this amazing thing that He's done for us.

I was listening to the radio on the way home the other day and that day's "Walk In The Word" was about Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." I don't know how many times I've heard this verse before, but this was the time I heard it and got it. The Lord is addressing the Israelites but I couldn't help but think after all that DeAnne and I went through and all the time we waited trying to have children that this verse really summed all that up perfectly.

--Paul

Car Shopping Is Not Fun

2011-01-18T06:08:00.000-06:00

With the baby on the way, we've decided that the time has finally come for us to start looking for a new vehicle. We spent all day Saturday looking here and in Enterprise. I have to say, it wasn't a terribly pleasant experience.

Like most people who are car shopping, we're trying our best to stretch our money while at the same time trying to get something that's going to meet our needs. Everybody wants to sell you on the flashy extras and we're not really interested in that. We just want a small SUV/crossover that DeAnne can get a car seat in and out of without throwing her back out. As long as it fits that criteria, is reliable and drives good, then we're pretty much set. The problem is that the vehicles that meet those items are all priced and equipped so differently that it's hard to determine just what exactly is the best deal.

I just read that paragraph again and while I'm not going to rewrite it, it makes it sound worse than it really is. It is frustrating, but it was our first day looking and we made some good progress considering we didn't really know what we wanted to look at when we started. Like everything, it's going to be a process and it's going to take time. It's still not fun. Driving away in a new (to you at least) car will be fun considering we've been driving our Sentras for nearly 10 years now, but the process of finding that car is kind of painful. Who knows, maybe this will be easier than baby furniture.

--Paul

Title?

2011-01-13T06:13:00.000-06:00

After all the years I've been blogging, titles still give me the most trouble. Something else that gives me trouble: coming up with something to talk about sometimes. Outside of the BCS game, there really hasn't been anything going on this week. For the first time in who knows how long, we don't have solid plans for the weekend so I can't even tell you about that.

The youth band is going strong. I really think the last two Wednesdays have been the best we've played and I feel like the kids in the youth group noticed it. Attendance was down a little last night but it's the loudest I've probably ever heard the crowd sing. With church, when there's a full band, I think it's easy to just walk in and think that they're there to entertain you. Garrett and I work to remind the kids that are playing in the band that we're not there to entertain. We're there to lead worship. I think that's really come across the last couple of weeks and I think that as a result, the youth that come have had a better worship.

The annual Disciple Now weekend is coming up for the youth and this years worship leader is going to be Kristian Stanfill. He just released a new album this week called "Mountains Move" (mp3) and it's pretty awesome. I'm hoping that not only do the youth learn some new songs from him but I'm hoping that I can watch and learn and become a better member of our worship team.

So there's a little brain dump for you this morning. Have a good weekend.

--Paul

How Sweet It Is

2011-01-11T06:15:00.001-06:00

I decided a little over a week ago to not go out to Arizona for the BCS National Championship game. In the end, I'm glad I didn't go. It was the right decision for me to make for myself.

Instead, I watched the game last night huddled around a T.V. with the friends and fellow Auburn fans that I've watched the majority of Auburn games with for the past three or four years. Together we watched Auburn trudge through the lows of the 2008 season. Saw the firing of a once beloved coach and the hiring of a new coach that no one was sure of. 2009 was better than I think any of us had hoped for and when the 2010 season began, we were cautiously optimistic that we might have a great year.

It hasn't been easy being an Auburn fan this year, especially for someone with a heart condition. The close games, last second finishes, the come-from-behind wins and yes, the Cam Newton "controversy" all made for a hard season. Through it all, I think this team proved that they were forged in fire. Made stronger by those things that they faced. It wasn't always pretty, but in the end, this Auburn team always found a way. When it mattered most, the kids on this team answered the call.

This was a special team. One that doesn't come around very often. One that, when watching, you could almost feel that this was how it was going to end for them. What more appropriate ending could you have asked for? This team was never meant to win in a blow-out. Anything less than a heart-stopper would have been out of character for this team. What's not out of character for them is the heart and soul that they showed on the field last night. That is why I'm an Auburn fan. We may not have the most National Championships, we may not have the most SEC Championships, we may not always beat Alabama or Georgia but Auburn fans, players, coaches: We're family and we're all in.

--Paul

At A Loss

2011-01-06T06:13:00.000-06:00

I've stared at the screen for about 3 minutes now and I still have nothing to talk about, so I guess I'm going to talk about not having anything to talk about.

I'm still reeling from the youth service last night. I know I'm in the band, so I might be a little biased, but I really think it was probably the best we've ever played. It's hard when you don't have any more time to practice than we do but it all seemed to come together last night.

Not only was the band good, but I felt like Garrett had an excellent message and then small groups seemed to go really well too. It was just a really good night.

Since I only blog two days a week now I need to go ahead and say "Happy Birthday" to DeAnne. Her birthday is Saturday and I'm not sure if she's to the point yet of not wanting to say her age, so I'm just going to play it safe and not say anything about how old she's turning. This will be the ninth birthday she's had since we met and I'm so grateful to her and to God that I've been able to be a part of her life for all these years. We've celebrated birthdays as a dating couple, as an engaged couple and as a married couple and I can't wait to celebrate the rest of our lives birthdays as a married couple with kids.

DeAnne, you're probably the most incredible person I've ever known. I love you, and I want to wish you a very happy birthday.

--Paul

Off To A Good Start

2011-01-04T06:10:00.000-06:00

The new year appears to be off to a good start. In case anyone missed it on facebook, DeAnne and I have announced that we're going to be having a baby sometime around the middle of July. It's nothing short of a miracle of the Lord and we fully acknowledge it as being something that came straight from Him. After all that we tried, His time has been fulfilled for this and now we're off on the adventure. I can't wait.

We found out about the baby the day before Thanksgiving. So for us, Thanksgiving held some pretty special meaning in 2010. When we finally started telling people at Christmas, one of the questions we got pretty often was "How did you keep it a secret for so long?" The short answer is that it was hard. We wanted to make sure that we were past the most dangerous part of the pregnancy before we started letting it out. We praised God in our hearts and with each other and trusted that He would provide us the right moment to reveal it. There were a couple of people who knew but it was a very, very short list.

Christmas, a time when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, seemed to present itself as the perfect opportunity to share the news. We were in Burke's one day and found some little Auburn baby booties and decided to give a pair to each of our parents. We made sure it was the last present anyone opened and we recorded the reactions with DeAnne's phone. They were pretty priceless.

So that's how the new year started for us. Sharing great news with friends and family. Not a bad start at all.

--Paul

...And A Happy New Year

2010-12-30T06:22:00.000-06:00

Last post of 2010!

2010 has gone by fairly quick. It's been a wild one, but in so many ways, it's been a pivotal one for DeAnne and I.

We marked our fifth wedding anniversary. We had an amazing vacation (thanks, Mom!). We watched Auburn march to an undefeated season. We got to see the first eight or nine months of Liam's life. We entered the world of Mac and iPhone. We started working with the youth at church. I fell back in love with two of the major driving forces of my teenage years, playing guitar and playing the game Magic: the Gathering, and found them little changed from when I left them. I found myself in a band again for the first time in eight years. We saw some awesome concerts with awesome friends. Went on a date to a Broadway show. DeAnne found a school and a grade level and coworkers that she loves. We spent time with our friends and our families. We prayed for so many who were told they had cancer and we saw the Lord heal many of them in miraculous ways. We let go of things we couldn't change and because we gave them up the Lord has blessed in ways we can't even comprehend.

It's been a great year. We had struggles too, but in the end we've been more blessed than ever. I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us in 2011. It's going to be mind-boggeling.

--Paul

A Merry Christmas, Indeed

2010-12-28T06:06:00.000-06:00

We had another wonderful Christmas. We ate, swapped gifts, ate and then did it all over again for two days after the first one. We had a good time though and all in all we couldn't have asked for a better Christmas.

I even got away with the cardinal sin of gift-giving. I gave my wife a vacuum cleaner. Not only did I give her one, but I gave her two! And she loved them! Okay, so maybe they're not the traditional vacuum cleaners, they're Roombas, the robotic vacuums, but still, I gave my wife a vacuum cleaner for a gift and got away with it. That's a pretty impressive feat if you ask me.

DeAnne got me a really nice new coat. I've never really had a nice jacket that I could wear to church. I've just always used pull-over fleeces and things like that, so I'm pretty excited about it. It was really nice to have on Sunday when we went to Tallassee and it was like 25 degrees the whole day. It snowed lightly the whole time we were up there. It wasn't sticking, but still, I guess we got to see a white day-after-Christmas.

So like I said, all in all, an excellent Christmas. I hope yours was too.

--Paul

Tale As Old As Time...

2010-12-16T06:08:00.000-06:00

For as long as I've known DeAnne, I've known that she loves Disney's "Beauty and the Beast". So when it finally came out on DVD/Blu-ray a month or two ago, I had to buy it for her. About that same time, I found out that the Broadway in Birmingham series was bringing the Broadway show of "Beauty and the Beast" to Birmingham. I was going to wait as long as I could to tell her we were going, but I ended up telling her pretty much the day I ordered the tickets which was about a month ago.

So Saturday, we're going to have a "date day". We're going to dress up nice, drive up to Birmingham, watch the show and then go out to eat. We haven't really been out on a "date" in a while and we're both pretty excited about it. Of course, DeAnne's pretty excited just for the show. I'm not sure that we've ever been to a play or musical like this before. We've been together for over 8 years and I can't recall ever going to one. I honestly wasn't sure if she would like the idea, but she was pretty excited when I told her about it.

That's about all we have planned. It's the last week before Christmas. It's hard to believe that it's already here. It seems like we just finished eating Thanksgiving dinner. Here we are though. I haven't decided what my blog schedule is going to be like next week. At the moment, I'm thinking I'll write on Tuesday and that'll be it. We'll see though. Have a good weekend and I'll see you on Tuesday.

--Paul

Topic-less

2010-12-14T06:06:00.000-06:00

We had another good weekend.

Friday night the girls in the youth group had a get together so while our wives were at that, Bryan, Garrett and I got together and watched "The Expendables". Other than some rough language, it was pretty good. It was cool to see all those old action stars in a movie together.

Saturday we went up to Montgomery to see Mom and Sid. Sid's doing a little better since his stroke but he's still got a long road ahead of him. The good news is that the repairs to the house are finished and Mom is back living in it. She's still got a lot of little things to do like hanging pictures, but all the furniture is in place and everything's functional again.

Sunday was church. We did head over to Kinston for lunch. Sara, Mike and Liam were in town to get some pictures made so we got to see them.

All in all, a good weekend. Nothing Earth-shattering to report, but we were busy so at least we weren't bored.

See you on Thursday.

--Paul

Child's Play - 2010

2010-12-09T06:07:00.000-06:00

Every year I talk about Child's Play (www.childsplaycharity.org) and this year is no different. I'm not sure how many years the charity has been running, but counting the first post I made about it on the surgery blog, this is the sixth year I've talked about it.

Just to refresh your memory, Child's Play is a charity that donates toys and games to the various Children's Hospitals around the world. The very first thing you see on their website is a map with all the different hospitals. If you click on a logo for a hospital you will be taken to that hospital's Amazon wish list. You can then buy a toy, game, movie, etc... and it will be shipped directly to that hospital.

You can also donate cash through paypal or this year, they've started a text donation. You can text "GAMERS" to 50555 and make a $5 donation that way.

You can go back to the old posts and see my thoughts on why this is such a great cause. Not only am I someone who fits into the "gamer" caste, but through my experiences at hospitals as a kid, something like a video game or a movie can go a long way to distracting from what a sick kid is going through.

Have a good weekend.

--Paul

Glenndale Bound

2010-12-07T06:00:00.000-06:00

So after Auburn's decisive win over South Carolina in the SEC Championship game, they're heading to Glenndale for the BCS National Championship game. I'll be there.

A couple of weeks ago, Edwin sent me a message asking if he was able to get tickets to the BCS game would I be in to go with him. At the time, Auburn was 10-0 going into their off week before the Iron Bowl. If we got tickets and they fell along the way, we would have to sell them. I said I was in and the rest is, now, history.

I'm pretty excited.

It's short, but that's really all I've got for today. I'll see you on Thursday.

--Paul

One of Those Days

2010-12-02T06:17:00.000-06:00

Well, it's one of those days where I'm not really sure what to talk about. I guess I'll fall back on the "weekend plans" topic.

The only thing about using the "weekend plans" topic is that this is one of those weekends where we don't have a whole lot planned. Saturday morning I'm going to be helping the kids at church practice for their Christmas musical. They're performing it on Sunday night. So really, that amounts to the big plans for the weekend. Outside of that, the only other thing happening is the SEC Championship game.

Since everyone else with a blog has weighed in on the Cam Newton story, I guess I can too. I'm excited and relieved that he was declared eligible. I'm also happy that the NCAA found no evidence to indicate that either he or Auburn knew anything about a pay-to-play scheme. It's sad that his dad attempted it with Mississippi State and I'm sure it's probably led to some hard times, hurt feelings and damaged relationships in the Newton family. Really though, the real tragedy is the character assassination that some sports writers carried out on Cam himself. Now that he's been found innocent of any wrong-doing on his part and seems to have had no knowledge of the actions of his father, you would think there would be some apologies coming from some people. Don't hold your breath. Thayer Evans, who has been one of the worst offenders, has a response article out full of anonymous quotes from "coaches" saying that this is the worst thing that could happen and now anytime there's a question, the player, coaches, etc... can just say "He didn't know." He also quotes an unnamed source saying that Newton shouldn't be given the Heismen after what happened with Reggie Bush. Evans has probably already forgotten that his beloved Kellen Moore and Boise State got beat by Nevada less than a week ago. I'm sure if you asked him, he'd say it didn't really happen.

This is just more of the same from writers like Evans. No facts, no real sources, no real journalism. It's sad that we live in a time where supposed "journalist" can attack and try to destroy a 20 year old college kid with seemingly no second thought. From all I've seen and heard from both him and his coaches all the way back to high school, Cam Newton is a great guy. He's also the most explosive player in college football right now. If that's not good enough to get the Heismen, then who needs it?

Okay, I'll get off the soap box. Have a good weekend and War Eagle!

Back In Action

2010-11-30T06:13:00.000-06:00

I hadn't really planned on it, but I guess you all noticed that I took last week off from blogging. It wasn't intentional, it's just the way it happened. I'm back today though.

So what's been going on? A lot of sickness for one thing. First of all, Sid continues to improve but it's been slow going. He and my Mom still need lots of prayers. He's still not able to do much on his own and his time in rehab is about up. Mom's working on an appeal to get him 21 more days but it might not happen.

Then we have our grandmothers. DeAnne's Nanny had to go to the hospital for her heart early last week. She got out for Thanksgiving so she wasn't in very long but it was still scary. The doctor told her that if she had waited to go to the hospital much longer, she would probably have died.

You might remember that my Memaw had kidney cancer last year. They took it out and she did a round of chemo and was thought to be cancer-free. A couple of weeks ago, they found a tumor in her liver. She's going for a biopsy today so we'll know more after that but the chances are good that it's malignant.

So, as you can see, our families could use your prayers. Hopefully the Lord will move in each of these situations (as He seems to have already for DeAnne's grandmother) and our families will have some peace.

Other than those things, we had a good Thanksgiving. We stuffed ourselves silly and then on Friday DeAnne made her usual shopping trip with her Mom. They also went shopping on Saturday. I hung around the house and did a few things but mostly watched football (War Eagle by the way) and I finally got to watch "The Blind Side". So even the movie I watched over the weekend was about football.

The Friday before Thanksgiving we went up to Birmingham with Garrett and Amy and saw Needtobreathe. I've talked about their albums in the past and I have some of their song samples in the Amazon player on the right. They were pretty great live. Besides the band, the place was pretty awesome too. It was at the Alabama Theater which I've heard of before but never been to. Our seats weren't that great but it was still a great show and a great time.

That pretty much catches you up with what's been going on with us the past couple of weeks. At this point, I'm going to go back to just regular blogging and abandon the Christmas posts. The ones that I've done already are the main topics that people ask me about each year so I've covered the major topics (except for maybe the Nintendo DS). I've gotten a good bit of traffic from them but they take a good bit of time to put together and I've not had a purchase from a link yet. To be honest, I just haven't enjoyed the process as much as I thought I would. Maybe it's because it's a materialistic thing and it just doesn't seem that important? I don't know. If someone asks, I'll be happy to make recommendations and if anybody wants to see a post on a particular subject, I'll do a post for it, but barring requests, I think I'm going to leave the buying guide where it is.

See you on Thursday.

--Paul

Christmas 2010 Buying Guide - Cameras

2010-11-18T08:05:00.000-06:00

Originally, I was going to cover a whole host of different topics today but by the time I finished with cameras, I had a pretty good post just on that, so today's post is about cameras. I admit to not knowing a whole lot about cameras. We only own a Canon point-and-shoot, so I may be in the dark a little on the digital SLR and video camera aspects, but I've done my best to do some light research and make solid recommendations based on modern features that I felt were the most important considerations for new purchases. Basically, I treated it like what I would go for if I was buying one of these. Certainly, there may be other models and brands that are better or equivalent to what I've mentioned here, this is just a starting point.

Still Cameras
Point-and-shoot: When looking for a good, simple, point-and-shoot camera, the current standard for most small cameras is 14.1 megapixels. 12 megapixels isn't terrible though and might save you a little money. For zoom level, you really want something between 4x and 6x optical. In that range, you can still find a small, pocket-sized camera but still get some decent zoom. A couple of examples of cameras in this range include the Canon PowerShot SD1400IS ($175), the Sony DSC-W330 ($140) and the Nikon Coolpix S80 ($260). Each of those is 14.1 megapixels with the Canon and Sony at 4x zoom and the Nikon at 5x. They're each good cameras, solid brands and span a decent price range. The Nikon has a few more features that make up the cost difference, but it is probably the best of the bunch.

DSLR: Digital SLRs have become a pretty big craze as prices have come down some, they've become marginally easier to use at the entry level and as digital has become the gold standard in taking pictures. These are the larger cameras with changeable lenses that all the soccer moms are toting around now. Again Canon, Nikon are probably the major players in this area but Olympus, Sony and Panasonic also have good choices. Most of the time you can find a package that includes the camera body and a lens (usually an 18-55mm). The price ranges vary wildly based on model a features with some entry level models starting as low as $450-$500. Generally speaking, I would avoid that level though and look more to the $750-$1000 range. If you're in the market for a DSLR, then you should be serious about your selection. The Canon T2i is 18 megapixels and records HD video also. With the 18-55mm lens, it runs $850 on Amazon. Nikon has the D3100 that comes in at 14.2MP but is a bit cheaper at $650 (w/a 18-55mm lens).

Video Cameras
I admit to not knowing much about video cameras. YouTube has changed the field some though in that you can now get small, fairly inexpensive video cameras that are designed to record and post video to YouTube along with getting something more along the lines of a traditional camcorder.

Flip: If you don't have an iPod Touch or an iPhone 4 and you're looking to post cat videos to YouTube, then it's hard not to recommend the Flip camera line. They have a couple of different models but the Flip MinoHD 8GB (2 Hours) is probably the way to go. It's $199.00, records 2 hours of HD video and is about the size of your cell phone.

Camcorders: Camcorders now do HD and can record to either tap, a hard drive or a flash memory card. Personally, if I were looking at getting one, I would probably lean towards the flash memory option. You can always buy more cards, they generally don't fail and they're small enough you can carry a ton of them in the camera bag. The Canon Vixia HF M31 is $500, has 32GB on board flash memory, an SD card slot and records 1080p HD video. Or, if you're looking for more features and even better quality, the Canon Vixia HF S21 is $1099 but has 64GB on-board memory, 2 SD card slots, a better zoom and a host of other "pro-sumer" features.

So that's cameras. For the more advanced stuff, there are a lot of considerations to make and I might not have covered everything that needed covering, but maybe this post can give you a good starting point.

Christmas 2010 Buying Guide - PS3

2010-11-16T10:57:00.000-06:00

We now turn our attention to the final home video game console, the PlayStation 3.

Hardware wise, you've got two main options, the console with a 160GB hard drive and the console with a 320GB hard drive. The 160GB version is $299.99 and the 320GB is $349.99.

Much like Microsoft and the Kinect, Sony introduced a motion control system this year called PlayStation Move. They've got a bundle for it that includes the 320GB console and the hardware for one Move setup. It runs $399.00

If you already own a PS3, you can purchase the Move controllers in a couple of different ways. The best place to start is the PlayStation Move Starter Bundle. It costs $99 and includes the video camera, one Move controller and a game, "Sports Champions". To go along with the bundle, you'll want to get a PlayStation Move Navigation Controller ($29.96). This is the Sony equivalent of the Wii's Nunchuk and is required for some games. You can also get individual PlayStation Move Controllers ($64.99) that will be needed if you want to have more than one player.

So, for Move, I would recommend purchasing the Starter Bundle, a second controller and two Navigation controllers.

So what about the games? Sony has gone back and added Move compatibility to some games that were already released. Tiger Woods 11, NBA 2K11, The Sly Collection and Time Crisis: Razing Storm are all good games that can use either the Move or the traditional controller. There are several Move specific games that are worth checking out too. Much like the Kinect's Kinectimals, Sony has "EyePet". "Sports Champions" that was mentioned above is also a must have if you don't opt for the Starter Bundle. Finally, "The Shoot" is a gun-based game that is pretty highly reviewed.

Outside of the Move, there's a pile of good games for the PlayStation 3. There's some cross-over with the Xbox with titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops and Fallout: New Vegas appearing on each. You'll also find PlayStation 3 versions of the annual sports titles like Madden NFL 11 and NCAA Football 11. Then there are games like Uncharted and Uncharted 2, LittleBigPlanet and Gran Turismo 5 that are exclusive to the PlayStation 3.

Finally, you might also want to pick up a second standard controller (DualShock 3 - $44.80) and if you intend to use the PlayStation as your Blu-Ray player, you'll want to pick up a PlayStation Blu-Ray Remote ($19.30).

So that's about it for the PlayStation 3. If it seems like it was less informative than the Xbox or Wii, I apologize. I don't actually own a PS3, so I'm going mainly by things I've seen from friends and what I've read on the internet.

--Paul

A Normal Post!

2010-11-12T06:12:00.000-06:00

So I thought I would take this morning and write a normal post to talk about all the craziness that's been going on.

First, I hope you're all enjoying the Christmas posts and that they're proving to be useful for you all. Remember that if you really want to show me some love, you can buy from the Amazon links provided in the posts and I'll get a small commission. It doesn't cost you anything extra, Amazon just cuts me in to say thanks for the advertising.

So it's been a wild week full of ups and downs. Last Friday I entered Garrett into a radio contest to win two tickets to a worship conference in Mobile. I got a call late Saturday that we had won. So on Monday and Tuesday Garrett and I were in Mobile soaking up all kinds of good information on how to better lead worship and tips and tricks for worship bands and all kinds of good stuff. Probably better than all the information though is that we spent a lot of time in worship. By the time Tuesday was done, I felt more full spiritually than I have in a long time. It was really a great blessing to be able to get away from everything and be able to focus on the Lord and just be able to worship for two solid days.

That's not to say that the devil didn't try to interrupt. I think I got more email in those two days than I have in the last month. On Monday I told myself I was going to only check my BlackBerry if it was an actual phone call or just in between sessions. On Tuesday though, Satan upped the ante. My Mom called early Tuesday morning to say that my step-father, Sid, had had a stroke during the night. He was in ICU and at the time they didn't know much. My first thought was to leave Mobile and the conference and head to Montgomery. At the end of her message though, Mom asked for prayer. I figured if she was asking for prayer, what better place to pray than at a worship conference surrounded by God's people lifting up praise. So we stayed and went to the second day and I prayed. A lot.

Sid's doing better. We came home from the conference Tuesday and after talking with Mom, we decided that we would work Wednesday and then since DeAnne was off on Thursday for Veteran's Day, we would go Thursday and see Mom and Sid. So yesterday we headed up to Montgomery and in the end it proved to be the perfect time for us to go. I mentioned here a couple of weeks ago that my Mom's house had flooded while they were gone on vacation. They're still not done with the work so they had just gotten an apartment for a month when Sid had his stroke. Unfortunately, it was on the third floor of the complex. Mom called the manager and found out that a ground floor apartment had just opened up so yesterday she was set to move their stuff down to the new apartment. So it worked out that we were able to help her move and it went pretty quick.

As for Sid, he was moved out of ICU and to a regular room yesterday. He's beginning to get a little more feeling and movement back in his right side which was the side that was affected. So that's a good sign. He's been approved for rehab so when they release him from the hospital, he's going to be going to HealthSouth for a month. I haven't talked to Mom this morning, but yesterday they were talking like they might be able to get him out of the hospital as early as tomorrow.

So that's been the crazy kind of week I've had. To top it all off, while we were on our way to Montgomery yesterday, DeAnne got a speeding ticket in Georgiana. We're not even sure how it happened but I think we just drew the short straw since there were a couple of vehicles in front and behind us and we were all going about the same speed.

I've sent messages to a lot of people asking for prayer for Sid. If I missed you or you haven't heard from someone else already, I'm sorry. Continue to pray for him and my Mom. Hopefully, Sid will make a full recovery and in a month they'll be back in their house and have things back to the way they were.

We've got Liam this weekend! We're going to pick him up tonight, so that'll be pretty much our weekend. Hope you have a good one.

--Paul

Christmas 2010 Buying Guide - iPad & Kindle

2010-11-11T07:29:00.000-06:00

Today I'm going to talk about the iPad and the Kindle. Let's start with the Kindle.

The iPad and the Kindle are a good bit different from each other mainly in that the Kindle is pretty much strictly for reading. I has a monochrome display, limited sharing features and is a whole lot cheaper than the iPad. If you know someone who is an avid reader but isn't really interested in surfing the web or checking email, the Kindle is great. Let's talk about the different models.

The cheapest is the Wi-Fi only model. It's $139.00 and comes in a nice graphite color. Since it's Wifi only you'll have to either connect it to your computer or be near a wireless hot-spot in order to download new books.

The next version has Wi-Fi and 3G. It runs $189.00 and is also graphite. It uses the cell phone network to allow the user to download new books anywhere they are. There's no extra cost for the cell connection. It's included in the cost of the device.

Finally, there's the Kindle DX, also graphite, it runs $379.00. The difference here is that the DX has a 9 inch screen instead of the standard 6 inch and the device is 3G only, no Wifi.

Amazon also still sells older generation Kindles at various prices, but with anything like this, you're going to get the most life out of the most current model.

If you're looking for a more robust experience though, it's hard to ignore the iPad. While it may seem like a blown-up iPhone or iPod Touch, it's amazing what the extra screen real estate gets you. It's really an amazing device. If you're considering purchasing one, you have six options. There are three storage options, 16, 32 and 64GB and two connection options for each size, Wifi only and Wifi+3G

The 16GB model runs $549 for the Wifi only and $698 for the Wifi+3G. The 32GB model is $672 for Wifi only and $810 for Wifi+3G. Finally, the 64GB model is $767 for the Wifi only and $890 for the Wifi+3G.

As for recommending which model to purchase, it depends a lot on the user. The 3G option requires a single month payment to AT&T. You can purchase either 200MB of data for $15 or 2GB of data for $25. It's month to month and you don't have to sign a contract so you can choose to only pay for the 3G coverage when you know you're not going to be near a Wifi hotspot. This is nice for frequent travelers. Most airports charge for Wifi and some hotels do also. Having the 3G option gets around those fees. For someone who doesn't go on the road much though and just wants to have one to surf on the couch, a Wifi-only model should be fine.

Storage size choice also comes down to the user. Do they love movies? Then they're probably going to benefit from the larger storage offered by the 32GB or 64GB models. Do they just want to surf and watch the occasional movie on the road and listen to a little music? Then the 16GB option will probably be more than enough. Personally, if I were to buy one for myself, I would probably get the 16GB Wifi+3G. I'm not a huge movie watcher and my 16GB iPod Touch has been more than enough in the past for my music tastes but I do occasionally go on the road for work and it would be nice to have the 3G option available.

So that's the breakdown on Kindle and iPad.

--Paul

Christmas 2010 Buying Guide - Xbox 360

2010-11-06T08:13:00.000-05:00

The Xbox 360 has had a pretty big year. They've got a new, smaller box, it's a little cheaper than last year and of course, now there's Kinect, Microsoft's camera-based motion control system.

First up, much like I did with the Wii, I'm going to start with the system hardware. If you're new to the Xbox, it's a great time to finally get in on the action. You've got four different choices on where to start:

1) Xbox 360 w/4GB storage ($199.99): This is the entry-level model for the Xbox 360. It plays all the games, it's compatible with Kinect and it's got enough storage built in so that you can download a game or two from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. Great for the younger set who are wanting an Xbox.

2) Xbox 360 w/250GB hard drive (holiday bundle) ($299.99): The larger hard drive allows for more downloads. This is especially useful for music games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero if you plan on downloading additional songs. The holiday bundle comes with two games, both rated "Teen". "Alan Wake" may be a bit inappropriate for the younger set. It's a "survival, thriller" type game with a complex story that may be difficult to understand. The other bundled game is "Forza 3", a racing game that should be fine for anyone.

3) Xbox 360 4GB w/Kinect ($299.99): This bundle gets you the 4GB Xbox from #1 above plus the new Kinect motion control hardware and the Kinect game pack "Kinect Adventures". This actually isn't a bad deal as most of the Kinect games run $49.99 on their own and the Kinect hardware on it's on is $149.99.

4) Xbox 360 250GB w/Kinect ($399.99): This is the same system from #2 with Kinect bundled in. It also includes "Kinect Adventures".

All of the systems come with one controller, one headset for online chat and 1 month of Xbox LIVE Gold.

So that's the systems. For the younger crowd, I would probably recommend #3. Kinect is going to be the hot thing in Xbox for Christmas and #3 is far and away the best way to get into it if you don't already have an Xbox. For teenagers and up, I would definitely get one of the 250GB consoles (#2 or #4). The extra storage is needed if they're going to be playing a lot of games and/or downloading much content from the Marketplace.

If you already have an Xbox and are looking at Kinect, they sell it as a stand-alone. The Xbox Kinect Sensor retails for $149.99 and also has "Kinect Adventures" bundled with it.

If you do get a Kinect, you're probably going to want to look at getting a game or two that use it besides the "Kinect Adventures" that comes with it. The following are the three best games currently available and are the only ones I would recommend.

1) Kinect Sports: This is basically the same concept as "Wii Sports", just for the Kinect. It includes a range of different games from volleyball to boxing and some track and field events. It's been one of the best reviewed Kinect games so far and is pretty much a sure bet.

2) Kinectimals: Definitely the way to go if you bought a Kinect for your young child. You get to own a virtual pet and interact with it in different ways. These aren't your standard kitties and doggies though. We're talking big cats like tigers and panthers. As an adult, there's probably not much here of interest, but you can look at a screen shot and instantly see the appeal to kids. These things are stinking cute:

3) Dance Central: This is a dancing simulator from the same people that make Rock Band. You follow the moves on screen and the more in beat and crisp you move, the better your score. It only scores one person at a time, but friends can stand around you and still have a bit of the experience. This is the Kinect game for the teenage set.

So that's the Kinect games, but what about non-Kinect games? Well, I'm glad you asked. For older teens and college students, especially the boys, you can't go wrong with a good first-person shooter and the Xbox has a pile of good ones. Halo Reach, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Fallout: New Vegas and Medal of Honor are all safe bets. Other games for the older set include Fable 3, Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction. For the younger crowd you have Rock Band 3, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, The Sims 3 and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2. Finally, for the sports fans you have the usual crop of yearly titles: Madden NFL 11, NCAA Football 11, FIFA Soccer 11 and NBA 2K11 just to name a few.

Finally, if you're buying for someone who wants to play online, they'll need an Xbox LIVE Gold account. You can buy subscription cards in various monthly increments but the best deal is a 12 month card. Microsoft uses "Microsoft Points" to purchase items from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. These are also available as cards. You can get 1600 or 4000 point cards costing either $20 or $50 respectively. Also, if you're buying a new system or need an extra controller, they run about $40 each and are available in White and Black.

So that about covers the Xbox 360. I do want to say that if you have any questions about any of the items/topics I'm talking about or would like a recommendation on a specific item I've glossed over, feel free to email me, message me on facebook or leave a comment here on the blog and I'll be happy to give you some more information. Also, I changed the font color for the links to make them more visible.

--Paul

Christmas 2010 Buying Guide - iPods

2010-11-04T06:02:00.000-05:00

I started this post as a discussion of all Apple products. After covering just the iPods though, I had a rather lengthy post and decided to cut it off there. I'll continue with the other Apple products at a later date.

There are currently four different base model iPods and each base model has various colors and/or capacities. I'll describe each model and then make a more general recommendation at the end.

iPod Shuffle: (silver, blue, pink, green, orange)
The iPod Shuffle is the smallest cheapest and most basic iPod available. It comes in only one size: 2GB and is available in about five different colors. There's a clip on the back to clip it to your clothes with and the front has the basic controls. There's no screen. Cost? $49 from Apple but Amazon has the price listed at $47.54 currently.

These are probably the best option for younger children. They don't have a screen that can be broken, they're easy to operate and they're dirt cheap as far as iPods go. The biggest downside is that they're extremely tiny and therefore fairly easy for a child to loose.

iPod Nano:
(8GB: Graphite, Silver, Blue, Green, Pink, Orange)
(16GB: Graphite, Silver, Blue, Green, Pink, Orange)
The iPod Nano received the most dramatic makeover this year, going from a widescreen, pack of gum look to something that looks like a larger version of the iPod Shuffle with a screen. The Nano is now a touch screen iPod, has a clip like the Shuffle and probably most importantly, no longer plays video. It comes in 2 capacities: 8GB ($149) and 16GB ($179) and each size comes in six different colors.

The Nano would probably be good for "tweeners", a child that's a little more mature and can handle a little responsibility but maybe isn't someone you want to spend more than $200 for a device on. They're neat in that they're kind of like a tiny iPod Touch and at 8 and 16 GBs, they can hold a pile of music. They're middle of the road price-wise with Amazon selling them for around $143 for the 8GB and $172 for the 16GB.

iPod Touch: (8GB, 32GB, 64GB)
The iPod Touch is probably the Cadillac of the iPod lineup. It's definitely the product that Apple is pushing people towards. This is basically an iPhone without the phone part. It has access to all the apps in the Apple app store, it can access the iTunes store, the internet, mail, games, etc... The newest model even has front and rear cameras allowing for Facetime video calling and 720p HD video recording. It doesn't have a cell antenna, so communication is achieved via built-in wifi. The prices run $229/$299/$399 for the respective capacities. Amazon has them for $223/$288/$382.

This is the model for anyone and everyone. If you have a teenager, they've probably already asked for one and if they haven't, they probably will. Great for wives, husbands, young and old, this is the iPod that can do pretty much anything that anyone without an iPhone can want to do. The higher capacities are more expensive, but the cost versus the feature set is a pretty good value proposition I feel.

iPod Classic: (Silver, Black)
This is the latest version of the granddaddy of iPods. It comes in two flavors, Silver and Black and both clock in at 160GB of capacity. Retail is $249 but Amazon has them for $228.99 and $232.95. They do play video as well as music.

If you know someone with a massive amount of music and they want to be able to take all of it everywhere with them, this is the iPod for them. It's easy to use, now familiar interface has been around since nearly the first iPod released. It's going to be a little heavier and larger than the other models and you don't want to drop these since they use an actual hard drive instead of flash memory, but for the user that has a vast amount of media, this it their iPod.

iPod Recommendations
As I stated in the descriptions for each model, there are pros and cons for each based on who you're buying for. That said, I have a hard time recommending either the 16GB version of the iPod Nano or the 8GB version of the iPod Touch. For the nano, I think 16GB is unnecessary since you can't do video. 8GB is plenty of music and at the lower price point, to me, is a better value. Similarly, I think 8GB is far too small a capacity for the Touch. This is especially true when you consider that you can and probably will be recording HD video with it. Finally, I wouldn't recommend the Classic for anyone who hasn't specifically asked for that model. The audience for the Classic is just too specific and narrow and the Touch is just far better for the general user.

So that leaves us with the following:
1) The Shuffle is generally great for the younger set since it's cheap. Only one size so pick a color and you're set.
2) If you're looking at the Nano, don't worry about the 16GB version. Go 8GB, pick a color and you're good to go.
3) The Touch is the hippest and coolest option. Skip the 8GB and look to the 32GB version as the sweet spot of the price vs capacity scale.
4) The Classic is for true music lovers with a huge library. If you have vast amounts of mp3's ripped from your stash of LPs, this is the iPod for you. The choice is Black and White.

And that about covers the iPod lineup. I think that in order to keep up with the personal posts, I'm going to have to start doing the Christmas posts at night or something. Maybe on Saturday/Sunday morning, something like that. Anyway, have a good weekend.

--Paul

Christmas 2010 Buying Guide - Wii

2010-11-02T06:17:00.001-05:00

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. At least, as far as Wal-Mart is concerned. Every year, I get a ton of people asking me what kind of gadget, game or do-dad they should buy for someone. I'm not being self-absorbed when I say that it seems I've become the go-to guy for a good number of people when they need advice on electronics. I thought last year I was going to have to start a personal shopper business. Instead, this year, I've got a better idea. For the entire month of November, I'm going to post Christmas gift related posts. Each post will cover a different topic and will include links to where you can purchase each item from Amazon. The Amazon links will be for my Amazon associates account, so if you see something on a post that you like and would like to show your appreciation to me for pointing you in the direction of a great gift, use the link to buy the item and I'll get a percentage from Amazon for the referral. You don't pay any more than you would otherwise, I just get an "advertising fee". It's a win-win.

So, that said, I thought we'd start today off with a topic that's been very popular the last couple of years: The Nintendo Wii.

First, if you don't already own a Wii, you'll need the system itself. They now have 3 color options. You can get the classic white one (here), or you can get one in black to match the rest of your entertainment components (here). Also, Mario is celebrating his 25th anniversary this year and in honor of that occasion, there is a special red Wii available for a limited time (here). My recommendation currently is to pick up the red one. Not only is it incredibly cool, it also comes with one of last year's best games: New Super Mario Bros. Wii. All three versions cost $199.99 but with the extra game, the red is easily the best value.

After you have the console, you'll also need an extra controller or two. I recommend only buying the official Nintendo-made Wii controllers and nunchuks. There are white and blue and pink versions. The nunchuk's are also available in white and black and run $19.99 retail, but are usually cheaper on Amazon.

So, now we've got a console and a few extra controllers, now we need something to play on this bad boy. I've already mentioned New Super Mario Bros. Wii. If you buy the red console, you get it free. If you don't buy the red console, this is a great game that I highly recommend. I would also recommend Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2. The last Mario game I would consider would be Mario Kart Wii. It comes with a free "Wii Wheel", but you can get more of them for $10 each here. There are also some great games that have come out this year. Kirby's Epic Yarn has gotten great reviews and is a pretty safe bet. Donkey Kong Country Returns is a game that I'll be buying or asking for this year as it's a return to a favorite from my childhood. Disney's Epic Mickey isn't out until Nov. 30, but it promises to be a great game from what's been shown so far. Another great game for the whole family is Wii Party. For someone a little older, I would suggest Metroid: Other M. It's a little more action oriented game that would be great for teenagers. The same goes for Goldeneye 007. Finally, there's the sequel to last year's surprise hit, Just Dance 2 and of course, we can't talk about the Wii without talking about fitness games. There's the classic Wii Fit Plus (with Balance Board) and EA Active 2 (that includes some other accessories.

Most of those games are going to run in the $50 range. Amazon is good about giving $4 or $5 breaks though plus everything you buy should be free shipping and no tax, so you're coming out money ahead if you order from Amazon. The only thing on the list over $50 is the Wii Fit Plus and EA Active 2. They're both in the $100 range because they're bundled with either the Balance Board or some workout accessories from EA.

So, you've seen the options. What about recommendations. If I were buying for my 10 year old, I would definitely get the Mario 25th Anniversary Red Wii console, an extra Wii Remote and Wii Nunchuk and then I would probably start with Mario Kart Wii and Donkey Kong Country Returns. Then, if buying for a girl, I would get either Just Dance 2 or Kirby's Epic Yarn and for a boy, I would get either Goldeneye 007 or Madden NFL 11 (if they like football).

So there's my recommendations on Wii purchases for Christmas 2011. I'll be covering PS3 and Xbox 360 and I'll also be talking about things like iPod/iPads, TVs, laptops, cameras/video cameras and anything else I can think of. If there's something specific you would like for me to cover, leave a comment or email me and I'll be happy to talk about it this month. Happy shopping.

--Paul

Last Minute Music

2010-10-28T06:10:00.000-05:00

Tonight, we're going to head down to Pace, FL for a concert. It's funny. We were eating dinner last night at the church and talking with Joy and Hubble Sowards and Hubble was telling me we should go so I asked DeAnne and she said she was cool with it, so when we got home, I called and got us tickets and now we're going.

It's three Christian bands that all have pretty good songs out right now. Leeland has a great song out right now called "Follow You". Then there's The Afters, whose name I love and I'm pretty obsessed with their single, "Light Up The Sky". Finaly, I think Sanctus Real are the headliners. Their current single is called "Lead Me". So it should be an awesome show. The proceeds go to help fund WOW 90.9, the Christian station that we can pick up, so it's for a good cause too.

So that's the plan for tonight. I would imagine that after tonight, we'll probably spend Friday night recovering and then we'll see what happens the rest of the weekend. We haven't made any plans, but I think we're going to try and tackle trimming some bushes on Saturday morning.

Sunday night is the annual Carolina Baptist Church Fall Festival. If any of you who read my blog are in the area, come out and join us. We're going to have games, music, door prizes, free food and a good time. It starts at 4:30 and goes to 6:30.

Have a good weekend.

--Paul

Struggling

2010-10-26T06:08:00.000-05:00

I'm stretching for something to talk about this morning. The weekend was good but it was fairly uneventful. We went to the Pleasant Home game Friday night. It was a good game and by winning, they made it to the playoffs. Saturday, I cut the grass and then we spent the afternoon in Kinston. Sunday was church. In between services we went over to MeMaw's for a little while and visited with her. So it was pretty straight forward and pretty uneventful.

One bit of excitement: We're going to be going to see Needtobreathe in Birmingham. I ordered the tickets Friday. I'm pretty pumped for it. I love both their albums (The Outsiders and The Heat) and from what I've seen on the internet, they're supposed to be great live. Garrett and Amy are going to go with us. It should be an awesome show and a great time.

I don't really have anything else. Emma's doing better and seems to be back to her normal self. I don't know what got her sick but I pray it never happens again. Speaking of prayer, pray for my mom and step-father. They came home from vacation last week to find their house flooded from a broken refrigerator line. All the flooring, cabinets, a foot of sheetrock and who knows what else has to be replaced. They've been living out of a hotel room for over two weeks now counting their vacation and I know Mom's just ready to be home.

And I'm not going to talk about it, but I think I'd really rather be #2.

See you on Tuesday.

--Paul

One Sick Puppy

2010-10-21T06:12:00.000-05:00

I came home yesterday to find that Emma had been sick all over the house. Evidently, something's gotten hold of her stomach and it's doing a number on her. We took her to the vet and he gave her a couple of shots and said she should be fine in a day or two. I feel so bad for her. You can tell she doesn't feel well and I think she's embarrassed about having an accident in the house. I know how I hate having the stomach bug. I'm sure it's not quite the same for dogs, but you can tell she's not happy about it.

So that was the big adventure yesterday. It pretty much meant that I went non-stop from the time I got up yesterday morning until the time I went to bed. By bed time, I was exhausted.

There was some excitement from Apple yesterday too. They announced new versions of their iLife suite of Mac applications along with previewing some of the features from their next operating system release and they showed off a new Macbook Air that is pretty incredible. They also announced that Facetime is coming to Macs so now all those people with iPhone4's and 4th generation iPod Touch's will be able to make video calls to Mac users and vice versa. Still no new iPad. I fully expect that in January. I think we'll see a press event then that announces the new iPad and that the iPhone is expanding to Verizon.

I did order DeAnne's iPhone for the AT&T switch the other day. We looked through all the phones that compared to hers and they all seemed like garbage, so she decided she wanted to just go ahead and take the plunge and get an iPhone. I'm incredibly jealous. The people in charge of phone decisions at work won't budge off of the Blackberry server so for the time being, we're stuck with Blackberry and not able to get an iPhone. I'm hoping that once everybody in Andalusia starts toting an iPhone around that it'll get some of upper management wanting one and that things will change. I'll just have to be patient though.

Yard work is on tap for this weekend. Pleasant Home's last home game is Friday night, so we're going to go to that. Saturday will be yard day though. It's in dire need of some attention. Hopefully, we're down to the last cutting of the year. I'm ready to winter-up and be done with the yard for a little while.

Have a good weekend.

--Paul

Family

2010-10-19T06:05:00.000-05:00

We had a pretty decent weekend.

Friday we went over to Kinston and hung out with DeAnne's family over there.

Saturday was the family reunion. We had a good time. We haven't had a family reunion for that side of my family since before DeAnne and I started dating, so she had never met the vast majority of the people there. I haven't seen them that often myself, so I didn't even know half the people's names that were there. I kind of hate to say that, but it's true. We had reunions more often when I was a kid, but back then all I was worried about was playing. By the time I was a teenager and would have been able to really start remembering who people were, the reunions had dwindled down to be so infrequent, I just never had a chance to really remember many of them.

The reunion was at a camp in Foley and it was outside under a pavilion. The weather was perfect for it, but I think it may have done DeAnne's sinuses a number. She woke up Sunday morning feeling pretty bad. She went to the doctor yesterday and got some more antibiotics and she was feeling better before the day ended, but I hate to see her sick again. She's just barely gotten over the last sinus infection. We really need it to rain and knock some of the peanut dust and golden rod out of the air.

Have a good Tuesday and I'll be back on Thursday.

--Paul

Once Again

2010-10-14T06:07:00.000-05:00

Again, I find myself without a real topic to talk about. You know the drill by now, let's see what random thoughts I can find.

I watched a little bit of the miner rescue yesterday. It's pretty awesome that they were able to keep those guys alive and rescue all of them. Definitely a "God thing" if there ever has been one. Garrett showed me an article last night that talked about one of the rescue workers who is a Christian sending them music and sermons to listen to. I didn't read the whole article, but Garrett said that some of the trapped miners got saved while they were down there. Simply awesome.

We're going to be on the road again this weekend. We're having a family reunion for my Dad's side down in Foley. It's been a pretty good while since we had a reunion so it should be good to see a bunch of people I haven't seen in a while. DeAnne's never met the vast majority of this side of my family so it'll be a lot of new names and faces for her. Should be fun.

Other than that, there's not a lot going on. DeAnne started me a Frontierville account last night to boost hers with so if you see a bunch of that stuff posting to my wall, just know that it's not me playing it but DeAnne. Have a good weekend and I'll see you all back here on Tuesday.

--Paul

Titles Give Me Trouble

2010-10-12T06:02:00.000-05:00

No topic jumps to mind so I guess I'll cover the weekend.

Friday we actually had a quiet night at home catching up on some TV watching. It was pretty nice to just do nothing for a little while. First time that's happened in a while.

Saturday we drove over to Dothan only to find out that the teacher stores in both Enterprise and Dothan are closed now. Of course, it wasn't a total loss as DeAnne wanted to do some clothes shopping also, but she was still pretty disappointed about the teacher stores. She's got several things she was really wanting to pick up and that was the main goal for the trip. She made up for it with shoes though. We got a new pair of dress shoes for me and I think she came home with three pairs of shoes for herself. A few shirts, and a couple of other things later and we headed home in time for the Auburn game.

It was nice to see Alabama finally loose. If nothing else, their fans needed it to take some of the hot air out of them. I know a lot of nice people that are Alabama fans, but it seems like the larger percentage of Bama fans are arrogant and rude beyond belief and it's only gotten worse as this season and last have gone by. Maybe that nice tall glass of shut-up-juice will quiet the obnoxious fans down some.

That's about it. See you on Thursday.

--Paul

Music Time

2010-10-07T06:08:00.000-05:00

So without a topic really coming to mind for today, I'm going to turn to the old fall-back: music.

I've started co-teaching the high school boys Sunday School class at church and as part of that, we've started a thing where we find Christian music we think they might like and give it to them. We're trying to get music into their hands that they can listen to and enjoy and not hear the kind of mess that most popular music includes.

Suburba by House of Heroes was the first album we did. I would call them a pop-rock band but they have a little bit of a punk rock flavor to them too. They started off as just being "Christians in a band" but over the last couple of albums, their faith has been coming more to the forefront of their music. It's a good album about being growing up in suburban life and getting in to trouble and looking for answers to all the big questions. I really enjoyed it and from what I've heard from the boys in class, they all did too.

We just gave out the second album last Sunday. Horseshoes and Handgrenades by Disciple is a little more on the heavy side of things than House of Heroes. If you've heard of Skillet, then imagine them with a little more heavy metal in them. The album is pretty incredible. Heavy where it needs to be yet still melodic enough that it doesn't give you a headache. These guys are great musicians. Disciple has actually been around since 1992 and they've been nominated for six Dove Awards (Christian equivalent of a Grammy) durning that time and I feel like this album will get them a couple more nominations.

So that's two of the main albums I've been listening to lately. Of course, if you're interested in them, click through the links I provided and pick them up. If you do, I'd love to hear your thoughts on them.

Have a good weekend, War Eagle and I'll see you all on Tuesday.

--Paul

Just Us Men

2010-10-05T06:05:00.000-05:00

We had a pretty good weekend. I enjoyed it mostly because it was full of football. We went to the Pleasant Home game against Brantley Friday night. PHS lost, but they played really well and if not for a couple of terrible calls, the score would have been a lot closer than the 26-6 that the game ended at. It was a good game and we had a good time cheering them on.

Saturday was interesting because Sara asked us to babysit at the last minute while she went house hunting in Florida. Mike's getting close to being done with his classes and they've got to find a place to live in a month or so. At the point she called though, DeAnne had already made plans to work on cleaning out her classroom. This meant that Saturday morning, I found myself babysitting Liam all on my own. It was fun though. We watched football and played and napped and ate and just hung out all day. He's a really awesome baby and only gave me trouble when I was trying to feed him dinner. I don't think he's crazy about the green beans. He eventually got it all down though and DeAnne got home just in time to help me give him his bath and get him ready for Sara to pick him up.

Sunday I had planned on helping unload Memaw in between church services but they were late getting on the road and didn't make it to town until around 4:30. I did go by yesterday and hook up her TV and computer for her. She seemed pretty happy to be here. Hopefully she'll be able to find some things to do to keep herself occupied.

That's all I've got. See you all on Thursday.

--Paul

Moving

2010-09-30T06:06:00.000-05:00

Don't worry, the title doesn't refer to DeAnne and I. I'm actually referring to my Grandmother. That's right, my Memaw is moving to Andalusia. She's got an apartment behind the hospital and so this weekend, she's going to be moving from Atlanta down here. I'm not really sure what brought on the move, but I think more than anything she's tired of the size of Atlanta.

I think it'll be good having her around. She's been in Atlanta for more than five or six years now and we've only seen her when she's been able to come down or when we've gone up there for something. Hopefully, she'll keep herself occupied by baking plenty of pound cakes.

So helping move Memaw is the big plan for the weekend. I also need to cut the grass at some point. I almost want to just wait until it all dies now, but I think if I cut it this week, I'll be able to get away with waiting after that. So hopefully I've just got two mowings left this year. Of course, after it gets and stays cool, all the bushes need trimming. That's going to be a killer of a chore. They're pretty wild right now. We cut them back in the spring but I think all the rain we got earlier in the year put some major growth on them.

Other than that, I think we're going to go cheer on the Pleasant Home Eagles tomorrow night. I think it's their next to last home game for the season and we've only made it to one so far this year, so we want to try and at least make one more if not both of them.

Have a good weekend and I'll see you on Tuesday.

--Paul