The Ninth Day

January 30th, 2010 • 2 comments Ashleigh, Life, zoe

Today almost felt normal. I was able to pull weeds and turn dirt in a few of the boxes in the garden. I was also able to plant the onions I bought almost two weeks ago. I had put on wool socks, a beanie, gloves, and my rain jacket just to keep warm though. We had a cold front come though yesterday or so and we were in the 40’s today. It feels like winter again.
It also felt half normal as we didn’t make the second trip to the hospital for the day. Stephanie and I just kind of sat on the couch with Zoe and watched a few movies. It felt good to have a bit of normalcy in the house. Though now I feel horrible that I didn’t say goodnight to Ashleigh. This past week we have made a point to go to the hospital twice a day, usually sometime early in the afternoon and then after 8pm. I know that me going up there doesn’t do much good (or does it?), but it just eases my mind knowing she is okay. We have the direct line to the NICU if we wanted to just call and check on her, but doing it in person is much better.
Stephanie and I have both grown to like one of the night nurses, Ashli, and a few of the day nurses. Yesterday we were able to speak to the Neonatologist about the PDA. It got smaller. It’s now 2mm, which is very small, but not good enough. So he started the second round of Indocin treatment. The last dose was given around 8pm tonight. Tomorrow, Ashleigh will begin feedings again. Monday will bring another Echocardiogram to see if the PDA has fully closed. Lets hope it does, as the next step is surgery.
I also found time to crochet a cute little hat for Ashleigh. I’m not sure how long she’ll be able to wear it though. I’m hoping she grows fairly quickly.

No time for love Dr. Jones

December 21st, 2009 • 2 comments Life

Well it seems life and the season has caught up with me be able to write. Most of the past evenings if I have had time to write on here, I’ve either spent it horsing around with Zoe on the floor listening to that sweet giggle or resting from the overtime two Saturdays ago and then again during last week. The OT couldn’t have come at a better time. I’m so lucky to be able to provide for my family. Lots of families struggle this time of year to make it and give a little something to their kids. There have been lots going on around here. We finally put decorations on the tree last Friday. I was beginning to wonder if anything was ever going to get put on. I haven’t started any new crochet project. I’m thinking some booties for Zoe. We’ll see.
I’ll try and write more tomorrow.

Soooooooooo…….

October 7th, 2009 • 4 comments Life, gardening

I figure Misti was tired of looking at a dead animal for the past few days on here, I figure I should do some kind of update. Though, if she wouldn’t have deleted her timesuckbook page, then she’d know the past few days I’ve been posting pretty heavily, or randomly. Take your pick.
We won our volleyball game last Monday putting us at 5-1. Five wins baby!! Eat that Romo. Lots of events in the new few weeks. We are taking Zoe to the circus next Tuesday. I hope she enjoys it. Then two days later a Mavs game. Two weeks later, another Mavs game. Church carnival on the 25th. Then the 8th of November is a Nascar race. 3rd turn, towards the top. Not the best seats in the house, but certainly not the worst I’ve sat at there either. Then camping at Benbrook lake the following weekend.
So fall got booked up pretty quickly, which was a good thing as things in the yard are certainly slowing down. I didn’t mow last weekend. The garden is slowly becoming inactive. I did pull a handful of green beans today. The first of the year!!! Embarrassing, I know. I’m slowly collecting the dried up okra pods and taking the seeds out of them. I swear, if I had a few acres of empty land, I could start an okra farm and supply a few grocery stores. I’ll take a picture tomorrow of all the seeds. I dug up most of the banana trees in the front and moved them all to the backyard. They got very little sun where they were and never grew tall. Where I moved them to seems to be the middle of the yard and awkwardly out of place but we plan to build a shed in the coming months to fill in the gaps.
Whats going on with Zoe, you ask? Not a whole lot. She has a molar or two now. Today when I got home from work I barely opened the door and I hear in the cutest little voice, “DaaaaDDY.” Next thing I know two dogs and munchkin bombard me at the doorway. It was the best.
Its been dreary for what seems the past 10 days, but I guess there were a few clear, sunny ones in between. Its really put me in the mood for Fall. I need to get all the decorations down from the attic and pick up a few pumpkins. Perhaps a straw bale. I think a square bale is 5 or 6 bucks. The mums by the mailbox bloomed. Pretty. Pretty soon Santa will be visiting Zoe. I hope she was a good girl this year.
Here she is after she finagled an arm out of a shirt sleeve. Goofy.

Expecting the unexpected

September 16th, 2009 • 4 comments Life

I just want to point out that ‘the pill’ is only 99.99% effective. With that being said, we’ll be adding a new family member to house come April 2010. Gotta love those little surprises in life. I honestly cannot wait. Taking care of and loving Zoe this past year has been great. Now I get to lay on the couch and fall asleep with two little munchkins.

Stephanie had went to the doctor on Monday for something not even close to a baby and I get a call from her and she immediately puts me on speaker. “Listen to this,” she tells me. I knew exactly what it was as soon as I hear it. The baby’s heart beat. Could it be? I mean we weren’t really trying. The only form of contraception was that little pill. This was just God’s way of saying that it was time again to have another baby. I really do not care what the gender is, just that both are healthy and come though everything okay.

Look for the world premiere of ‘Baby 2′ sometime in late spring 2010 in a hospital near you…

A trip through Deep Ellum.

August 19th, 2009 • 7 comments Life, dallas, photography
Tags: dallas, deep ellum, music, trees

With the reopening of Trees this past weekend, I thought I would take a walk during lunch and see exactly how bad off things are, what has closed, what has opened and take some photos of the awesome murals.

Read more »

A Year in Review…

August 4th, 2009 • 4 comments Life, zoe

A year has come and gone and Stephanie and I now have a one year old on our hands. Where did the time go? Words cannot express how fast it came and left. We are having a birthday party for Zoe on Saturday. I’m hosting a birthday party for my kid. WTF? I remember yesterday I was having a birthday party at the mini golf course and riding bumper boats with my friends. It’s all kind of surreal to say the least. Read more »

Retirement

July 5th, 2009 • 1 comment Life, zoe

Another year has come and gone. Fast. Extremely fast. I turned 26 a few days ago and 30 is fast approaching. Last year Zoe was born and life has gone in a totally different direction. Actually it hit that fork a few years ago. I’m no longer a carefree 20 something. I’m a father. A husband. A provider. Caring for a baby is one of the coolest things. The unconditional love is awesome. Last year proved to provide THE happiest day of my life. Marriage(sorry sweetie), graduation, moving out on my own. Nothing compares. Watching the miracle of birth is an amazing thing. I cried the hardest I had cried in a real long time. Twentyfive was a growing up year. I finally considered myself a grown-up. I’m leaving for Colorado in less than 12 hours to go backpacking for a week. Though I haven’t told anyone until now, this will be my last hiking ‘trip’. There may be the occasional weekend getaway, but its time to move on. We are going to Arizona at the end of August for a week long vacation with Zoe. As the years go on I want to give Zoe the most memories that I can. I want to be able to take her to Disneyworld, Mount Rushmore, and to other cool places that I never got to do and share them with her. I just don’t want to take that extra week away from her. When she gets older and starts looking at all the old photos of me in my prime and wants to know what I did, then perhaps I’ll dig out all of my gear and show her the ropes.
So until a great opportunity shows itself or Zoe peaks interest, I’m done. This next week is kind of like a farewell tour. Or it could just end up being a like a Cher farewell tour….

Until then, I leave you with the words to a song that means a lot to me…more times than not, it seems I succumbed to what I never wanted to happen.

“I Don’t Mind” – by Peter Bingen

Well I am looking, I am searching, I have found
Near the ground, my soul, myself, beneath this trail.
There’s no other place I’d rather be.
Can’t you see me out here walkin’ in the rain and hail.

Purpose of life seems to me is
Not to take yourself too seriously.
I wouldn’t want to be an old man sittin’ in an office
Building someplace far away, with worry on my face.

Well you can take my car, my stereo, my little money.
Leave me with nothin’ but my trail family.
Take my dress up clothes, my cheap cologne,
My college loans I don’t mind, I don’t mind.

Well if that taxman comes lookin’ I’m at 10,000 feet
Cookin’ up some oatmeal or some rice and beans.

I worship the Spirit who doesn’t just look down
He looks up and through and all around,
Find Him in the rocks and trees. Cause there’s no reason to pray
When you wake up every day to the sunrise over Cito Peak.

So find some ground lace up your boots start walkin’
And you will find reason, enough reason to believe.

Well you can drop your worries at the parking lot
Or way down in the city where the sun burns hot.
Although civilization is a nice place to visit,
I wouldn’t want to live there.

Oh just one final paragraph of advice don’t burn yourselves out. – - -
Be as I am. It’s not enough to fight for the land.
It’s even more important to enjoy it while you can, while it’s still here.

So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around.
Ramble out yonder, explore the woods, encounter the grizz,
Climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers,
Breathe deep that yet sweet lucid air.

Sit quiet for awhile contemplate the precious stillness
That mystery and awesome space enjoy yourself.
Keep your brain in your head and your head attached to your body.
Body active and alive. And I promise you this much.

I promise you this one sweet victory, over our enemies.
Over those desk bound people with their hearts in a box
And their eyes hypnotized by calculators.
I promise you this one sweet victory…
YOU’LL OUTLIVE THE BASTARDS!

Wednesday Fiasco

June 25th, 2009 • 1 comment Life, soapbox

Seriously!!! Okay, so my parents went to Port A last weekend and are out of town. Stephanie parents left yesterday morning to take her grand parents back home to Michigan. Goodrich to be exact. So we had to take Zoe to a lady from church yesterday and today. We had planned to get everything packed last night becuase we were going to drive down to Port A tonight to make for a long weekend. I picked up Zoe and was just about home when she started hurling Buick’s in the back seat. STINKY!!! No big deal, until I walk inside. Man, it sure seemed hot. Thermostat read 83!?! WTF? Why would Stephanie set the thermostat to 83….oh wait, no its set to 75…hmmm. Okay. I give Zoe a bath and get her cleaned up. Then it started to rain. Steph got home and took Zoe while I looked outside at the A/C unit. The line from the unit to inside was completely frozen over. WTF? Its over 100 degrees and I have ice frozen over on the line. Okay. We got on the schedule for Thursday, and tried to do some packing but with no air circulation, Steph had had enough so we grabbed some clothes for work and some stuff for Zoe and headed to her parents empty house. Well long story short the refrigerant was low by about 2 lbs. Now its 4pm on Thursday, my car still need to get unloaded from work, we still gotta finish packing, Zoe running around in just a diaper(its still 80 inside, man that electric bill is going to suck). Still waiting on Steph to get home. Plus I need to mow, otherwise Gizmo won’t poop outside because the grass ‘tickles’ his ass. So I’m hoping we can get outta here and on the road by 6pm. That’s in a hour and forty five minutes. Wishful thinking.

Trying to catch up.

May 26th, 2009 • 2 comments Life
Tags: family, sleep, vacations, zoe

Well, alot has passed since I last wrote. It seems that every time I try and make time, usually at night after Zoe and Stephanie have gone to bed, I seem to either think of too many things to write and about and never know where to start, or I seemed to doze off at the desk and just call it a night. So now….wait…….okay, I’m back. Zoe woke up. Stephanie and I are over at my parents house. We had dinner. She had put Zoe down for a nap just now. I’m guessing she needed a burp becuase she woke up. The past few days have been great. For me at least. Zoe seems to be finally letting me put her to sleep, or perhaps I’m not getting as frustrated with her when she cries. Last night when I got her to sleep, she slept a good four and a half hours. She still isn’t sleeping a full night. Sucks!
We took her to get her picture took last Saturday. They turned out great.

She is getting so big. Giving herself a drink from her bottle, saying ‘bobble’, ‘dada’. She is sooooo close to walking own her own its not even funny. She does this little 4 step gig and then falls down. She just laughs it off. We set up a little blow up kiddie pool in Mimi and Grandpa’s backyard tonight. She loved it. I’m hoping she likes the ocean just as much. We are going down for a long weekend to Port Aransas in about a month. I remember going down there when I was a kid and riding the ferry across from Aransas Pass into Port A. Sometimes you could see dolphins in the bay. I love the smell. Ahh. There is this one picture, somewhere, of me wearing this pink ball cap. Totally dorky. I think I may have even worn some knee high socks with shorts back then too. Gah! I hope one day Zoe will look back and have as many wonderful memories I as do on vacation. Thanks mom and dad!! Or the one time we were staying in Rockport at this rent house, Misti (my cool sis) and I would going fishing in the canal behind the house and would catch shimp in the castnet.

The three day weekend has come and gone. Didn’t do much of anything. It was kind of nice actually.

3 quarters of a year

May 3rd, 2009 • 2 comments Life, zoe
Tags: growing up, Life, zoe

Zoe turns 9 months old tomorrow! Can you believe that? It seems like just yesterday I was taking her into the room at the hospital where the nurses cleaned her off and took prints of her cute little feet. Those feet have grown tremendously since that day. Zoe crawls, pulls herself up, talks (she loves saying ‘dada’). There is about 18inches between both of our couches in the living room and she is now pulling herself up at the end of one and lets go thinking she can make it to the other one and sways for a moment and then sits down, then she does it over again. She is this close to walking, I can feel it.

Stephanie took Zoe with her last weekend while she was looking for a formal dress for work. You can see Zoe has some cookie in her mouth, and yet she has the biggest smile on her face. Nom Nom.  Some say she is the best baby. I have to agree. What isn’t there about her you can stand? I mean even if she has figured out how to fight sleep at 10pm and cries, bawls, kicks, grabs, and pushes her bottle away, that just means I know where she got her temper from!

Happy 9 months, Zoe Grace Sister Nuthead Spider-Pig Whitlock. I love you.