Usual stuff...

Well another week is almost done. Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the grind of work on the job, work on stuff around the house, and various tasks so that time seems to compress and speed up. Before I knew what happened, it is already mid-June of 2006. I have a feeling that this "time change" gets worse as you age. Sorry for the philosophy break, but I just started thinking about how fast things have come and gone.
There are some juicy things that happened at work this week, but I have to keep quiet about them for awhile. Remind me in a couple of weeks and I will tell you all about it. There is one thing that will make it interesting at work that I can talk about. One of our technicians left for another job. It is a good move for her, but it means having to find and train a new technician. My track record in that area is not stellar. In fact, the last couple of hires I have picked have bombed. I have decided on one of the girls already working in the store, so as to cut down on some of the Wal-Mart training that we have to endure. I just hope that she will be able to pick things up quickly and that everyone "jives" OK. Tensions at work are not a good thing to have to deal with. I often feel responsible for any little spats that come up because I am the manager. But as George McFly says, "I am sorry son, but I am just not good at confrontations." The other thing about hiring the new tech that will be fun is that she is not able to come over to pharmacy until July 7th. That means the week of July 4th will not be pretty. I am thinking about working by myself on the weekend of that week just so we can have 2 techs on each of the weekdays. It is going to be brutal.
Enough about work, I have not said anything about Abbie yet, have I? She is walking now. She has not quite perfected it, and she crawls when speed is required, but she is walking nonetheless. She is growing so fast (all except her hair). She is making more demonstrative actions of affection and there is nothing better than a smile or kiss from that little girl.
Once again, I will try not to let so much time elapse between blogs but I can not promise anything. Have a good weekend everyone.

Abbie's 1st Birthday Party

Abbie's 1st birthday party was Saturday the 10th and it went well. It was a stress on mommy, but she put on a great party and I think everyone there had fun. Even the little stinker birthday girl had a good time. The whole birthday party thing kept us busy this weekend. So much so that it was late Sunday afternoon before my wife and I said "Happy Anniversary" to each other. Even worse, we did not mention congrats to our parents either. I feel terrible about that and I hope they both know we love them and had we not been so distracted we would have celebrated with them as well. Anyway, happy belated anniversary to mom and dad and to Ralph and Janice. Back to the party, Abbie did well and received some very nice presents. She was a little fussy until she got some cake frosting in her. She has become little miss personality lately. Her dances, laughs, and general yelling noises are becoming more to "show off" and to elicit smiles from her audience. Once again, I have to continually thank God for how much he has blessed us with this little girl.
I hope to revamp Abbie's website and update it now that she is a year old. Give me some time though, I seem to have other things pop-up on me from time to time.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBIE!

Well, it is here! My little girl is ONE YEAR OLD today! That is hard to fathom. So many things have happened that make me say "I can't believe...." Things like: I can't believe I have been married almost 7 years, I can't believe I turned 30 this year, I can't believe I have a child, I can't believe I am out of college and have gainful employment. I still feel like a child myself. Here I have this little girl that is growing each and every day, and increasingly looking to me for most everything. If I step back and look at it like this, I just shake my head. Otherwise, things seem to just keep rolling along and we keep hitting these milestones. My parents will have been married 40 years this year. My in-laws will have their 45th anniversary. I know the saying that "life goes on," but I can not believe how FAST it goes on. One year ago today, my wife had 16 hours of labor and our beautiful 9 pound 7 ounce little girl was born. I can still remember that and so many other moments from this past year. In one year's time I have gone from thinking only of myself or my wife to thinking of what does this little baby need or want? Not that I don't think of my wife or myself, but it is hard not to be fixated on Abbie, as this blog obviously reveals.
Enough remember whens, I just wanted to say, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBIE!" 6-9-06

KIPPER

Kipper is a Maltese owned by my father and mother-in-law. He is probably Little Al's best friend. I am writing about Kipper because he died yesterday. He had been sick for maybe a week. Janice took him to the vet on Sunday and the vet said he had "the worst sore throat I have seen in years". So, Kip got a couple of shots and a couple of meds to take. He looked like he was going to be OK. We had a dinner planned for Monday in Oklahoma City to celebrate Ralph and Janice's 45th Anniversary, so Janice left Kipper with Al at our house on Monday morning. This has been the usual procedure when we all go to the city at the same time. Al and Kipper have kept each other pretty good company. Ralph and I came home last night because he had to water the yard and I had to work. When I got home it was strangely quiet. Usually when I open the door there are 2 tails wagging and 2 happy dogs ready to go outside. This time I had to hollar out twice before I heard Al's collar gingle. They were in the bedroom as Janice had left them. I opened the door and Al came out just like usual but poor little Kipper was gone. I am actually thankful that Amber decided to stay in the city until today. I do not think she would have been able to handle finding Kipper like that.

Dogs are wonderful and loyal companions. We speak of ours as another child. It is very painful to lose a dog and I am very sorry for Ralph and Janice. Our family (especially Little Al) will miss Kipper. He was a good little dog.

Epilogue: I have some new news on Kipper. We found out today that he died from cancer. He had severe liver involvement as well as other areas. It looks as if he would not have made it even if we had found out what it was. That is frightening to me because he was much younger than Little Al.

Yes, I have posted this picture before. I do not have access to all the pictures at this moment and I thought it might be nice to show what I have as wallpaper on my laptop. I hope to get some new pictures sometime this weekend. I feel like I need to get some shots every few weeks at least. Abbie is growing too fast. Today, she said "Hi" 3 times while I was at work. That is both exciting and frustrating. I know I have to fulfill my obligations at work to provide for us, but I am afraid of not being there for moments in my daughter's life. I can not get those moments back once I have missed them. Tonight she was bouncing around and holding her arms out as if to say, "Look at me, I am ALIVE!" I am unable to stay in a bad mood around her.
In college, I was in awe of God because of the complexity of his creation. Classes like Chemistry showed me his intricate design of elements and compounds. Now, when I look at my own daughter and her daily growth and changes I am reminded of this design again. I pray that I can express this to my daughter and that she will see the design as I do.
I do have a little griping to do. I got off of work today at 3PM. At 5PM, the phone rang and it was work. Derrick said, "Do you want the good news or the bad news first?" I thought of any number of catastrophic things that could be wrong. I said, "Bad news." It turns out that after I left there was a fax that came through telling of a conference call at 8:30AM on Friday for all Pharmacy Managers. The fax went on to say that all Managers were required to be on the call and if they were gone, to call them at home to let them know. This last little bit was for me specifically, because of the last conference call. That call was announced in the same manner and I was not there to receive the message Thursday afternoon about Friday morning's conference call. Since I was not at work either time I did not attend the call. I think I need better notification than that. Evidently, calling me at home is the answer instead of earlier notification. I am really not going to be happy if the call is not about something of vital importance. I am taking time at home (when I am not "on the clock") to deal with a work related conference call and that bothers me. I think that if the call is not due to groundbreaking changes, then the pharmacist on duty can handle taking notes and fill me in when I come to work. Is that being unreasonable? Is that being petty? Is that being selfish? Is that the actions of a manager that is trying to grow his business? Well, it may be and may not be, but I have become selfish with my time at home. If I am at work, I handle my work and do my best. If I am at home, I want to take care of things at home and leave work at work.

OK, I am done with that. If you have comments, suggestions, or think I should quit griping, I am all ears. Thanks for visiting and I will be back soon.

Little Miss Show Off

Well, another week has flown by. I was so ready to get on and talk about Mother's day and here it is one week later. This picture is from Mother's day evening at our house. Mom and Dad came over and Abbie put on quite a show. As you can see, she has a little cart that she can walk behind or ride on top of. Her grandpa pushed her around on it for awhile and she had on the goofy little smile that she always has when she rides the cart. Then we decided to see if she would walk behind the cart standing up. She really put on a show then. Abbie laughed and sqealed and walked with her little cart back and forth across the den. I realize you had to be there, but believe me, it was hilarious. I think Mom liked Abbie's show better than her Mother's day present. I took pictures (obviously) and Amber videoed some of it, too. I wish I could put video clips on here, but I do not think that is possible, yet.

After Mother's day I had to work all week as per usual. There was one thing that happened that I thought was pretty funny. I have to tell a story first to set it up, so bear with me. For the longest time I have had a clip on my cell phone from Napoleon Dynamite (if you are reading this, Mom, it is a movie the young kids really like). Just recently I changed the message alarm on my phone from Napoleon Dynamite to a clip from Pulp Fiction. The clip is this: {gunshot} then Samuel L. Jackson says "Oh, I'm sorry, did I break your concentration?" Well, I thought that was pretty cool for a message alarm. So this past week my boss and his boss (the regional manager) were in our district visiting the stores. That is not a big deal about my boss, but for the regional it is a big deal because we see him maybe once every 1-2 years. They came to chat on Thursday morning and we had a good visit. While I was talking to the regional manager, my wife calls my cell phone. The ring tone for a call from home is "Home Sweet Home" by Motley Crue. Needless to say, I muted the ring quickly. My wife then left a voice mail message for me, and what did my phone do? Yup, it went off with the clip from Pulp Fiction. I was mortified, but without skipping a beat, the regional manager gets a smirk and says, "Is that Pulp Fiction?" I was in shock. I said "Uh, yeah." Then he simply chuckled and went on talking. Once again probably a "you had to be there" story, but that is a better work story than talking about people getting mad about their insurance.

I have missed blogging about a number of things this week like Abbie running another low grade fever, and I got the yard mowed! I have long stretch at work again, but I am going to try and keep up with it better.

Almost Cooled off

Well, it is Friday, I only have to work until 3PM today and then I am off for the weekend. It has not been that bad, except for little miss Fireball in the picture there. Amber and Abbie went to OKC on Monday and sometime in the afternoon Abbie started running a fever. She has had fevers before, but this time she was running 102-103+. She has not been that HOT before. Tylenol and Motrin kept it down to 101-102 but she just would not cool down. We were able to get her in to the doctor first thing Tuesday morning. At the doctor's office her temp was 102.7. The doctor checked her ears, they were fine. He listened to her lungs, they were fine. He looked in her throat, and it looked fine. So, he swabbed her throat to check for strep, (which is what I was afraid it was) and that came back negative. Since that was negative he wanted to check her blood levels. So, Abbie got her finger stuck. She handled the stick OK, it was the squeeze, squeeze, squeeze on the finger that she did not appreciate. After another wait, the check on her blood revealed her white blood cell count was very high. The doctor said that it could be a virus, but he needed to rule out some things. Next, she had a chest X-ray. Sitting out in the hall and having to hear her during that was not at all pleasant. After waiting a while longer, the x-rays revealed that her lungs were fine. Then the doctor wanted to rule out kidney infection, so that meant a catheter for Abbie. She actually handled it OK, considering all she had been through. The urine looked good, no infection, so the doctor figured it was a virus. The instructions were to keep loose clothing on her, cold liquids, and tylenol and motrin. After more than 2 hours and having to put Abbie through all that, it was disappointing and relieving to hear. When I left for work later on Tuesday Abbie felt so HOT, it was very scary and worried me. Later on that evening, Amber called me at work and said "Your daughter is playing." It was good to hear. The doctor had said if she was lethargic, that it would worry him so I was a little paranoid about that. Now that it is Friday, Abbie has COOLED OFF and seems to be getting back to her playful ornery self. I used to not be concerned when she felt a little warm, but now I feel a little different about it. I felt terrible at the doctor's office. Abbie got to the point of hugging my neck and crying severely if anyone tried to pull her away. She had a very rough day on Tuesday. Hopefully, I can get some pictures this weekend if Abbie wants to cooperate. If I do not get back on before then, Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there!

It is always fun to find that I have pictures in the camera that I forgot about. This is one from last week when Abbie's friend Fischer came to visit. Unfortunately his family is moving, so there will not be many more photo ops like this one left. We will miss Fischer very much, I guess we will miss his mom and dad some, too.

I had my last day off for a while yesterday. The pharmacist I work with is on vacation next week, so I have 9 days straight. I may not be able to write much until I get some more time off, but I will do my best. I need to eat and get ready for work, so I have to cut this short.

I enjoy comments, so if anyone out there other than Tracy is reading my blog, let me know what you think. I shall return soon.

It's big brother!

I just could not let Abbie have ALL the picture time on the blog now, could I? For anyone who does not know, this is Abbie's big brother. His name is Little Al and he is a 6 year old 105 pound baby of a pit bull. Yes he is a pit bull and yes we are fine with having him around Abbie, so do not even go there. He loves his little sister and she loves him even more. She will follow him all over the place just to be around him. Speaking of Abbie following, it is so cool when I go into another room and she makes a bee line in her fastest crawl to follow me. She is starting to give hugs, too. It is the coolest thing in the world to see her light up and show affection. I forgot, this one is about big brother. Little Al shows affection, too. Unfortunately, you have to wipe the saliva off after he has kissed you. I wish he was younger, I hope he lives a long time and Abbie can grow up with him but I am afraid he will not get to be with her for a long time. He is still healthy, but he is getting older for a large dog. Amber and I will have a very tough time when he dies. He really has been like a child for us. I am sure some people think that is nuts, but they have never had a dog like Al. I just hope that Abbie will have the same love of animals (dogs in particular) that Amber and I have. There is nothing like a dog waiting for you with tail wagging every time (and I mean EVERY time) you come in the door. I have a hard time remembering that when I walk in and see Abbie smiling, too. It is hard not to pass over Little Al and grab Abbie up and love on her. Amber is good about reminding me to show Al some affection, too. Well, that is a little about Little Al, he is a wonderful dog and I am grateful to have him.

Time just flies by

As you can see, Abbie now has the run of the house, at a crawling speed of course. I can not believe how fast she is growing. I have told myself a number of times to remember these moments because they are vanishing quickly. Even now it is hard to remember a time when I could put Abbie down to change her and she didn't instantly roll over and try to get away. She had a doctor's appointment this week and her doctor asked if she was pulling up to furniture by herself yet. "Oh yes," I replied, and he said with a chuckle that she would be walking before I knew it. He even said I would wish for these times much more when she starts walking.
Her appointment was good, her weight was in the 90th percentile (just over 22 pounds) and her height was over the 100th percentile! Lets hope she continues that trend, I would love for her to be tall, say 6'6"? Everything else checked out alright and she seems to be on the downhill side of this cold. Unfortunately, Mommy has a sinus infection now. Amber has had a rough few months. If one thing starts to ease up, something else seems to go wrong. I just wish we could all be feeling good at the same time for a long time. But, as I think about it, God has blessed us with good health among many, many other things. It is so easy to get wrapped up in small problems so that we don't see the big picture of what God continues to do.

"May the Lord answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion. May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings. May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your requests. Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed; he answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm. O Lord, save the king! Answer us when we call!" PSALM 20

2 in 1 day!

This is unprecedented, another blog so soon! I have been looking at some recent pictures of Abbie and I wish I could put more of them here. I realize everyone who looks at my blog is looking to see what I say and not to see the pictures of my little girl, right? Speaking of Abbie Kay, she is having a hard time shaking this cold. Sometimes she seems to be breathing clearer and then before we know it she is almost completely plugged up. She has been in pretty good spirits except for waking up here and there all congested.

Last week I was able to take off and be at home. I really did not feel like I was on vacation, there were things going on each day I was off. Friday we went to OKC to stay with Amber's sister and her family. They are fun to be with and Abbie loves her cousins. I got to go to the Hornets final home game on Friday. It was a very good game, and fun atmosphere, even though they lost at the end. We had a picnic with more of Amber's family on Easter Sunday. That was fun, too. But by then I was ready to be home to try and relax for a little while before going back to work on Monday. It took me some time to get back into the groove at work, my feet reminded me I had not been standing like that in over a week.

I have a bunch of pictures to sort through so I am going to wrap this up, let me know if this is too boring and whether I should change to putting more pictures of Abbie and less writing from Daddy. Thanks.

Grandmas are Great!

Well, once again I have taken an unexpected hiatus from blogging. Sorry to have been gone so long, but it has been hard to find the time recently. I have been wanting to put a big thank you in for some time now to Abbie's Grandmas. Amber and I are so blessed by God with the families he has given us. Mom and Janice have been so giving of their time to help take care of Abbie while Amber has been sick. It has been a load off of my mind knowing that Abbie was taken care of and Amber was able to rest and recuperate. Abbie has the greatest Grandmas ever! Thanks again to Mom and Mom-in-Law, we love you very much.
I also want to thank Tracy and Dannielle for bringing over food for us and to everyone who was praying for Amber. She is doing better, although the healing process looks to be a long one. But it seems more tolerable since we know what is going on now. I will try to put some more info up as soon as I can. For now, thanks again to everyone.

Patience

"Patience is a virtue" Isn't that a common saying? I am finding it hard to be patient about a number of things. Amber has a kidney stone and it seems as if the wheels turn so slow in the heathcare machine. She had a CT scan today and they said it could be Monday before we know the results. Amber is handling it like a trooper, I think she is hurting more than she lets on. She is afraid that the scan will come back and say there is no stone, but all the signs are there just like before. I am ready for her to not have any pain so I can ease up on the worrying about her. It is hard at work when each phone ring makes me think she is calling to tell me it is hurting too much (especially because our phone rings often). It is also hard at work because I usually can not leave at the drop of a hat. If Amber needs me and the other pharmacist is not working, I would have to close the pharmacy to leave. While that IS what I would do, I still worry about the problems that leaves for the patients and coworkers at the pharmacy. I know Amber is much more tired of the whole thing than I am, she is the one dealing with a kidney stone! I should not be talking about my worries when I am not the one in pain. I just have a feeling of helplessness, I do not know what to do to make her feel better. Abbie Kay just woke up so I have to cut this short. I will talk more as I get the chance, please pray for Amber if you can.

What A Woman

Today after I got off work, I watched Abbie while Amber went to play bunco with the women from church. I told someone at work that I was going to "babysit." They said, "You do not babysit your own daughter!?!" I was not even thinking about what I was saying. While Abbie, Al and I were without Mommie, I fed Abbie, we played, and she got a bath. I say all this not to toot my horn but to say that it is more clear to me what a big responsibility my wife has each and every day. Many people comment on how happy and wonderful our daughter is, and I think that is a direct result of the person she is with the most: her mother. I did not think I could love Amber anymore than when I saw what she went through to get Abbie here. But I love her even more now that I see how she takes care of Abbie now that she is here. I love my daughter more than I ever thought I could, but that is only because of my best friend giving so much of herself to our little girl.

Finally back to blogging

Well I am back to work as is evidenced by my hiatus from the blogging (is that actually a word?). I am off for a couple of days before having a run of a few days straight. I never would have thought that I would look forward to days off the way I do. I enjoy my job, but it is so nice to be home with my family.
I took Abbie to the Doctor today and it looks like she is working on another ear infection. This will make three so far with tomorrow being her 9 month birthday. I really hope we can get these stopped, I do not want to have tubes put in her ears. I also took about 50, yes 50, pictures of her today. One of them is shown here. She is just the most beautiful little girl in the world. Have I mentioned that before? She did some real crawling today, too. I am afraid she is going to be mobile and getting into everything without some strong policeing. Even before crawling, she has been making her way into things she should not be into, she should know better, shouldn't she?
Hopefully I will be able to be more diligent about blogging. I enjoy any and all comments, especially if they are about this beautiful little girl.

How Amazing God is

I have been working on putting home videos on the computer from our camera. I have looked back in time and seen my wife 1 & 1/2 months before Abbie was born, Abbie's first bath (when she was one week old), and assorted other scenes from Abbie's first few months of life. It has made me realize in no small way how amazing God is. I can not imagine how he works to take 2 individual cells, JUST TWO CELLS, and he uses those cells to create a new life. I have been present for the whole process and I still am in awe of what he has done. Just seeing the birth and what mothers go through was amazing enough, but to see the changes and growth in my little girl continue to blow me away. I know there are so many things yet to come, but I do not want to forget these times and what it is like to see the changes God brings about in a new little life.

This is my little Abbie Kay. She is more than I ever dreamed she would be, and she is only 8 months old. God has blessed us and our little girl and continues to do so every day in so many ways.

Um... hello I guess

Obviously, this is my first blog experience. I hope to get the hang of it and post on a regular basis. I have a feeling my little girl will be making a number of appearances as well. I am just a little proud of her.
I am on vacation this week, so I do not have much to chat about as far as work goes. My wife and I have been doing some work around the house while I have been home. You could definitely call it a relaxing vacation. If anyone reads this, please respond, because I have my doubts as to whether this will be seen by anyone's eye beside mine. If you do, thanks for your input.