the trip was great and the weather was beautiful! it got down to 43 degrees at night and i had the window open… cocoa and i slept like babies (side note: the phrase ‘slept like a baby’ has a very different meaning to me now, and i’m not sure it applies to this situation), well, we slept good. it had been a while since we’d been up north to see the family and we were glad we went up to enjoy a nice relaxing weekend.

back to the first statement… we left on frid afternoon, stayed up north on saturday and came back sunday morning. i had a bag, katie had a bag, cocoa had a bag, joseph had a bag and of course we had to pack up a bunch of other accessories… a 48 hour trip and the trunk was full. i don’t know what we’re going to do if we ever have to go on a long trip. cripes!

p.s. i’ve updated the photo gallery and in case anyone is looking for a photo of a delicious pie… check this out. that’s an award winning pie and very scrumptious!

again, thank you to everyone for all the support we’ve gotten. we honestly can’t thank you enough. and to all of our friends who are still waiting to see the lil guy… patience

It has been amazing to see the response of family and friends. Katie, Joseph and i are truely blessed.

Born June 24th, 2008 1:27am

19″ – 6 lbs 15 oz

both baby and mommy are doing fine!

update:
i’ve gotten a couple requests for photos… and well, this is what i’ve got so far (katie’ll probably not appreciate it too much), that’s what’s been goin on here and now it’s time for me to go put momma to bed!

everything is normal, good and progressing wonderfully! i took photos of katie the other night, i’ll have to post them… (she’s gotta big ole belly now)

it was actually quite humorous, after i took the photos of her we looked back at some of the previous photos we’d taken of her when she was about 20 or 25 weeks… and she thought she had a big belly then, my how things change

p.s. if you’ve checked out the latest found web comic and started reading from strip one, you might understand why i’ve suddenly obtained a newfound want to play quake…

now the restaurant, Akita Sushi and Habachi, was very nice looking. The service… questionable at best. it took FOREVER for us to get even our waters, but once we did, the water had ice and was cold. they have two different methods of eating – ala carte or all-you-can-eat. now the all you can eat method is quite pricey ($21.99), but then again, we’re talking about sushi here. i can eat a lot of sushi. i’m writing this today to tell you exactly how much i ate (i’m not sure exactly of prices, but i did eat more than $22 worth), i had to keep the receipt – as a token of my victory over akita… the list:

• 1x Sushi Pizza
• 10x Unagi (my super most favorite sushi EVAR)
• 1x Snapper (sushi)
• 4x White Tuna (sushi)
• 2x Salmon (sushi)
• 1x Cucumber/Sea Clam Roll (6 pieces)
• 1x Rainbow Roll (6 pieces)
• 1x Crispy Roll (6 pieces)
• 1x Unagi Roll (6 pieces)
• 1x Spicy Salmon Roll (6 pieces)

now, we did check the ala carte menu at one point… 5x sushi = $5.99 (1x = $1.99), each roll was between $3.50 and $5.50… do the math, i done pretty good. i will be back as the food was VERY good – and next time, i make sure to get even more bang for my buck!

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in addition: last weekend katie and i went down to Des Moines to visit with Rusty/Laurie/Jacob, Heath/Lindsay/Ella and Stephen/Betsy… it was a GREAT trip and i meant to write about it before, but didn’t have time. This was the 4th or 5th year we’ve gotten together (the four couples), usually on NFL Draft weekend, but this was by far the most differentest trip. this year, Rusty and Laurie had their 9 month old and Heath and Lindsay had their 6 month old. Katie is 7 months along on our first crib-lizard… so we took many mental notes. They made me hold babies, and i played with babies. while they don’t get super fun for a couple more months now, it was still a cool experience. it eased some of the worries and it made me excited for the drastic life change that i’m about to go through. even now, i’ve got katie’s hypnobirthing cd playing (which always puts me to sleep, so it’s getting tough to stay awake) and i’m looking more and more forward to late June/early July or whenever it is i become a father…

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side note: sometimes when i type, i wish i had a blue screen and yellow/white text like doogie always did

We met with a different midwife this time because the midwife that Katie had initially chosen might be unavailable during the time of birth… so i think we’re going to be visiting with different midwives so at least we get to know the majority of them before the birthing process begins. With that in mind, we’re also doing a home-flavored, hypnobirthing class. we got the materials from the first midwife and that’s a TON cheaper than going to an 8-week class (and more convenient). We’ve been listening to CD’s at night – i haven’t made it past 10 minutes before i fall asleep yet – so i’m not really sure what they’re all about. we do have a book to read, a chapter every week, which i’ve been reading before we pop on the CD tracks. it’s a lot of hippie mumbo-jumbo, but it’s what Katie wants to do. So i being the awesome me that i am, am going to go along with it and help her as best i can… tis the least i can do at this point (i guess my work here is NOT done).

i’ve also started reading a daddy book – i forget the name and author, but then again, i really haven’t delved too far into the book as of yet. this, however, will change as i’m now done with the other book i was reading (the final book of the Left Behind series – i shall have to post about that some other time).

point of this post? things with baby are progressing nicely. please keep us in your prayers that these things continue to progress as they should. thanks

anyway, i figured i’d post some photos, cuz everyone loves photos…

the classic profile

and some more photos from the ‘photo shoot’… the last one is the best

a straight on ultrasound face shot

the baby’s foot – both feet had 5 toes (and both hands had 4 fingers and a thumb)

we caught baby in the middle of a yawn! aaaawwwww, how cute!

everyone now… AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

for those not in the know… this video should indicate the biggest news i’ve had since the notice of the wedding (which should be another hint). Got it yet? If by chance you’re THAT dense… the wife and i are expecting a baby. I’ll use that as the ultimate scapegoat as to why i haven’t posted in FOREVER. I do plan on posting more often and i’ve even got thoughts of finishing this website and the rest of the sections that have been empty since the redesign.

we are very excited and nervous about bringing another life into this f’d up world… but we’ve got time to prepare yet… due date is the 7th of July. So far all of our appointments have gone swimmingly (can i say pun intended there? ha). we’ve got our second ultrasound this wednesday, i’ll post a photo (the first photos weren’t all that exciting). More info to come, i’m sure.