We went for our second ultrasound yesterday, which was good not only because we saw a better picture and a growing baby, but it was also the FINAL TIME we have to visit the Fertility Clinic.

We’ve been going there for about…a year and a half now, so being able to leave for good was nice.

So we got a new picture from the almighty ultrasound, and the kid is bigger now, and supposedly has little arms and leg stubs growing out. Last week the one I posted had something I thought was his head, but now I’m thinking it was the yolk that the little bugger feeds off, so who knows what I’m seeing now.

But this picture is better.

I’m pretty sure…the little round circle at the bottom attached to the embryo wall is the yolk, and the little peanut shape is our kid.

Judging from the size of the yolk and the kid’s head, he’s sure eating a lot. Reminds me of the pile of chicken wings I ate last night.

The baby is coming in December, and with Jina potentially staying home for a few years to raise the little tyke, the less bills we have going out each month, the better.

And the truck (below) was one heck of a bill!

I loved my truck, it was named Jill and was very good to me. I’d driven her about 32,000 miles so far in two years and not once did she let me down. Always up for passing a slower vehicle, the best at honking the horn at annoying drivers and her BRIGHTS were always at the rear view mirror-level of the moron in front of me.

I got her dirty a few times, usually with clippings and trash from yard work, but it didn’t bother her at all. She was just like that. I know if she could talk, and was a little smaller, she’d want to come on inside and watch the Suns with me.

She was that kind of girl. And I’m going to miss her.

But when push comes to shove, I’d rather my little one have his momma around more often than my truck, so it was time to cut it loose.

So it got traded in, paid off and I bought this sweet Jeep for less than half of what I owed on the truck. In fact, if all goes to plan, it should be paid off before the baby comes, which is exactly what I wanted.

I’m liking the Jeep so far, but it needs a name. Any suggestions are welcome, but it has to be good.

You know how it goes. Life is going by just fine, things seem pretty good, pretty routine and then out of nowhere it happens:

Life throws you a curve ball.

How you handle it tells you what kind of man you are.

So today that happened to me. It took place over lunch, was pretty subtle, yet completely threw me for a loop. I staggered a bit, but caught my balance.

When the guy at Subway handed me my sandwich, it wasn’t in the normal horizontal bag I’m used to.

You know what I’m talking about. The longways bags that you basically slide your sub into, which can usually hold one or two footlongs.

Well, suddenly, out of nowhere, my Subway has gone to a VERTICAL bag, much like you’d get a grocery store. It’s a bit modified of course, it’s a foot wide at the bottom, which kept my Chicken Bacon Ranch nice and snug, but no matter how you slice it, this isn’t your grandpa’s Subway bag.

When I left the store, I was carrying my sub parallel to the ground, instead of vertically like I’ve been doing for many years.

Somehow I made it to the truck, rested the sandwich on the passenger side and took a deep breath.

I made it. I was fine.

And I’m pretty proud of myself too. A lot of guys might have dropped their sandwich, or not even known how to properly hold the new bags. I saw some guys leaving who kept trying to keep their sub upright like in the old days. So funny.
But skilled as I am, I was able to overcome.

I laugh at you “life.” Throw another curve ball, I’m ready!

(And for the doubters, here’s the proof)

Okay, this picture is pretty fuzzy and the baby is so small you really can only see his huge head. And I mean huge compared to the rest of him. If I didn’t know better, I’d think there was some funny business going on between my wife and the guy from the Jack in the Box commercials.

Anyways, here is the first shot, we’ll get some more next Tuesday and maybe we’ll get a few better quality images.

Enjoy!

(the little spot labled “1″ is where his head is located)

Okay, so none of the predictions were right. Not 6, not 2…just one. One little, itty, bitty baby.

We saw the heartbeat, it was 140 beats per minute, which was strong the doc said. Probably means it’s a boy, he likely gets that from me.

The doc also turned on the speakers so we could hear it beating and that was pretty awesome. I still find it hard to believe that something so tiny has something beating inside it. I mean, what is it pumping? Blood? Through tiny veins?

It’s all absolutely amazing to me…

I’ll be scanning the pictures they gave us tomorrow at work and post them here ASAP.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers, this little guy is looking good!

Around 4:30 today we head over to the Fertility Clinic for our first ultrasound, which should hopefully tell us how many babies are in there, and also be our “bon voyage” from that place forever. We’ll finally be able to go to a real OB/GYN.

So this is a big day. We’ve both been pretty mellow about being pregnant so far, mostly because it doesn’t feel that “real” yet. I think after today though, with an idea of what we’re facing, things will start to ramp up.

There have been lots of predictions. My insane brother-in-law says 6, but he also predicted Memphis would win the NCAA Championship.

My prediction is two, but mostly because I’m hoping for that many. A boy and a girl.

It’s been such a long struggle to get to this point, that having two would be a blessing I think.

We’ll post the results later on tonight.

A week and a half ago I ran a golf tournament to raise money for the Relay for Life/American Cancer Society event and this past weekend that event actually took place.

It was a long, long, loooong night. I was at Marcos De Niza high school from 4:30pm to 6am the next morning, never slept and walked about 13 miles or so.

My team right now is in third place with $4417 total raises thus far. Apparently we have until April 30th to get final donations in, so we could actually move to second if things go well. We had last minute donations on Saturday, plus we sold energy drinks to Relayers to keep them going all night long, raising another $88 from those sales.

The event itself was pretty awesome. They did a reading of names of cancer survivors and those that have died related to people in attendance. We did a lap around in complete silence with everyone joining in, which was a cool experience.

I just wanted to thank you all who donated and supported me through this. I personally raised about $500, a lot of which came from you guys, so thank you.

The only downside about the success we had this year is that I’m already expected to put on a second golf tournament next year, and captain the team again (of course, if I’m still employed by my company).

The golf outing was a hard, hard job, so going through that again will be a challenge.

Again, thank you so much for your support, this has been a rewarding experience. A couple of times while I was walking I thought that I just needed to stop, but then I thought about what these people with cancer must go through EVERY DAY, and it helped me go on a bit longer.

If you’ve never done something like this before, I highly recommend it. It’s good for the soul.

I wrote a short story awhile ago and always meant to have it in eBook form so that it was easy to download and read, instead of spread apart this blog in four parts.

So here it is, in all it’s glory. I wrote it with a purpose in mind, stuff taken from my life, so it has some meaning.

It’s called Running, and I’ll let you figure out on your own what it’s all about.

Please leave any comments you might have about the story, thoughts on what YOU think it means and whatever you want.

Download the ‘Running’ eBook…

Some of you knew about it, some didn’t, but I put on a golf tournament for my work this past weekend, with a load of help from some people at work and other places who got prizes and all kinds of stuff to make it happen.

It was to raise money for the Relay for Life event this Saturday, of which I’m captain of my company’s team that entered. The golf tournament brought in just over $2,200 in direct proceeds.

Relay for Life raises money in turn for the American Cancer Society, so being able to help in that cause has been a blessing.

It was a ton of work, and a job that I don’t necessarily want to do again, but it was such a success, I think we’ll end up repeating it.

Anyways, the point of this is to state that there is still a few days left until the Relay takes place, so if anyone has a few heavy pockets that they feel the need to lighten, you can donate to me personally, or to my entire team, which is totally fine. I’ve raised $505 so far, and while that was my goal, there is nothing wrong with overachieving!

We’re in third place overall in total donations for the event, and would love to move further up.

Thanks to those that have already donated, I appreciate the help with trying to raise money for this cause.

If you missed my original post on this stuff, it now resides on PopCritics.com thanks to my Auto-Forwarding of older posts, so here it is below again (after the jump), in case you want to read WHY I’m Relaying.

Continue Reading »