I Need a Drink

Have you ever had one of THOSE weeks?

You know the type I am talking about. It is the type of week in which every day seems to last 36 hours, and somehow you still have more work to do at the end of the day than when it began.

When you finally try to go to bed, every time you are just about to fall asleep, something (or someone) wakes you up. This way you are never able to sleep more than 20 minutes at a time.

When you are out driving around, you actually began to think you are like Bruce Willis's character in the Sixth Sense because everybody is cutting you off and merging into your lane while you are still in it.

It is one of those weeks that you shutter every time the phone rings because you are sure that is something else to compound your woes.

It is one of those week in which many people would heading straight to a bar Friday night for a drink.

I am having one of those weeks. I know it is only Wednesday, but truthfully, I was having one of those weeks by Tuesday. I, of course, cannot head to the bar Friday Night for a drink.

That doesn't mean that I can't have a drink though. So on my way home, I swung by the local 7-11 and picked up a Extra Large Slurpee (Crazy, I know). And I must say, it helped.

One Month Check Up

Little B went in for his one month check up today. Here are the results.

August 26

8 pounds, 10 Ounces

20 and 3/4 Inches Long

Today

11 Pounds, 8 Ounces (90th percentile)

22 1/4 inches long (75th percentile)

And perfectly healthy in every other aspect.

Is it too early to start thinking about a football scholarship to Notre Dame?

First Night Out

Saturday night was our first night "out" since Little B was born.

One minute we were looking forward to a nice relaxing night at home, the next we were rushing around, finding a baby sitter, packing Little B's things and getting ourselves ready at the same time.

It is probably better that it happened so quickly. This way M did not have much time to think about how much she was going to miss him.

We dropped him off with M's parents, and met some friends for dinner followed by a Stand Up act at the Improv. Dinner was great, the comedy was OK, and the company was awesome.

Overall, it was really nice getting out, but we were definitely ready to pick Little B up when the night was over.

One Month Old

It was one month ago today that our lives were forever changed.

We are one month into the greatest adventure of our lives, parenthood. I would say that we have loved every minute of it, but I am not sure even that does it justice.

We still sit and stare in awe of our little miracle. We have waited so long for this, and because of that, every moment seems that much more amazing.

This one month has been so incredible, I cannot even imagine what lies ahead of us.

Daddy's New Mug

Remember this?

Back in April, some friends threw me a little get together at a paint-your-own pottery studio, complete with food, wine and a lot of laughs. I painted the above mug, that was inspired by a painting my wife had done that week for the nursery (see below). At that time, Little B was nothing but a dream. Now that he is here, we returned the that same studio.

Here is my new mug.

It was not easy getting the hand prints on there, and he got much more paint on himself, than the mug, but it was worth it. Especially now that coffee has become my new lifeline.

A Streak Comes to an End

8 months.

259 days.

6,216 hours.

372,960 minutes.

You get the point.

That is how long it has been since my transplant, and in that time, I have not had a single fever, couch, sneeze, sore throat or anything else that resembles a cold.

That streak came to an end Sunday.

I woke up with all of the above, minus the fever. The absences of a fever meant that it was nothing serious, more of a nuisance then anything. Of course with all the news coverage of the H1N1 virus, I was of course worried about that, especially considering my compromised immune system. That plus the fact that I feared that the Swine Community might be looking for payback after this post. My transplant center said that as long as symptoms went away soon I was fine.

The symptoms are gone now and I can move on. Although I will be keeping my eye on any pigs that cross my path.

A "Normal" Weekend

This is our first "normal" weekend at home since bringing Little B home from the hospital. The first weekend we were home, their was a constant parade of guests coming in and out of our house. The following weekend we were in Orlando and this past weekend, my parents were staying with us. We enjoyed each one of these weekends immensely, but this one will be different.

Today, I woke up with almost no plans for the entire weekend. And I must say, that for some one who wrote this, I am really looking forward to it.

Homeless Bags: Revisited

Our small group from church got together again on Sunday to make another round of homeless bags. We did this once back in in March, and M and I have been doing it on our own since January.

Yesterday we made 60 bags in total, and each person walked away with 5 bags to keep in their cars filled with water, food and a hand written note.

M and I were able to put these bags to use almost immediately. Within 20 minutes of leaving the house, we came across a man on a street corner holding up a sign saying, "Hungry". I rolled down the window, and stuck the large ziplock bag out of the window. The man approached the car, took the bag and quietly said thank you.

As we waited for the light to turn green, we watched as he opened the bag. He went straight for the bottle of water, and as he drank, something else in the bag caught his eye. He reached back into the bag, and pulled out the note. Inside the note was a verse for the Bible, along with the words "Made For You with Love From..." with each of our signatures on the note.

After reading the note, he looked back up at us, smiled, and said Thank You again, this time with more feeling.

I love our small group and we have a lot of fun together. It is nice to know that we are making a difference as well.

Are You Ready For Some Football? Early Review

Day one did not go well.

Cubs lost late after coming back from five down.

Notre Dame lost a heartbreaker. This one hurt.

Ohio State lost late in an otherwise boring game.

0-3 on Saturday.

It has to be better tomorrow. Right?

Are You Ready For Some Football?

I had to run out of the house this morning, and this is what I came back to...

More on this in a bit.

I have been looking forward to this weekend for some time now. Not only is it opening weekend for the NFL, but there are some big college games as well. Here is a breakdown of me TV viewing schedule for the weekend.

Saturday

1:00: Cubs Game (Yes, I know it is not football, but I'll still be watching. There is still hope.)

3:30: Notre Dame vs. Michigan (If I could only watch one game all weekend, this would be the one. GO IRISH!)

8:00: Ohio State vs USC (See picture above. Now, I by no means a Ohio State fan, but with M being born and raised in Ohio, and both of us spending four years of college in Ohio, we have plenty of friends and family that are Ohio State fans. So it looks like M and Little B are as well. Regardless, I will be rooting for them, or anybody for that matter, against USC.)

Sunday

1:00: Tampa Bay Bucs vs. Dallas Cowboys (Not much hope for the Bucs this season, but it would be nice to beat the Cowboys.)

2:20: Cubs game (see above)

8:00: Bears vs. Packers (The Jay Cutler era begins and against the Packers no less.)

I am trying to start Little B off on the right foot. Not sure if M has the same idea.

M.I.A.

I realize that it has been awhile since blogging last, but I feel that I have a good reason for that. Actually, two good reasons.

1.) I love the pictures from my last entry so much, that I hate to see them get bumped down. So if I repost those pictures, you will know why.

2.) I am pretty open about most aspects of my life in this blog, but I try to keep my work out of it as much as possible. And that is basically all I have been doing recently. Late nights (didn't get home before nine one day this week), combined with early mornings (courtesy of Little B), have left little time for eating, much less blogging.

Now if you will excuse me, there is a women in my bedroom. I think it might be my wife, but I have forgotten what she looks like.

Photo Shoot

I have been dying to do portrait studio style photographs with Little B. We finally got around to it this morning. Here are a few of the 450 I took this morning.

The Other Part of the Weekend

I have already written about some of the amazing, and powerful stories from this weekend. It was however significant for us on another, less significant way. It was our first road trip with Little B, and his first trip to Disney. Of course, being 10 days old, we know he will not remember any of what happened, but it was fun for us just the same.

Friday night we took him out the observation deck of the contemporary resort and watched the fireworks show coming from the Magic Kingdom. Saturday night, we took Little B on his first Monorail ride. The monorail actually has a stop inside the resort we stayed at, so it was just a matter taking the elevator up a few levels and we were rolling around the park.

We are determined to continue out life of travel and adventure, even with baby aboard. This was a good practice run for traveling, and it was a huge success. So we had to celebrate, right? Tonight we had our first dinner at Roy's with plus 1. Little B was perfect during dinner, but made up for it on the ride home.

Even though we did not go into a park with Little B, we are still very happy with the way the weekend went. I mean, who brings a 10 day old baby into a Disney Park? We are waiting until he is seven weeks old.

Technical Diffilucties

Not sure what the problem is, but my last few entries never posted. I am working on fixing it and will hopefully have them up soon.

Did not Disappoint

There are so many incredible stories from today's R.O.C.K. weekend events. There are two that really stand out though.

The children (and us) spent their day involved in mostly engaged in active sessions. During Actor's Studio, the children acted out scenes from Fairy Tales. During Roots of Rhythm, the spend 45 minutes banging away on drums. During Mission Possible, they problem solved their way through team building challenges. The most memorable moments came at a time when the children where in a more passive mode.

One session is called Sound Off! During this session, the children have the opportunity to talk and ask questions with each as well as other cancer survivors on the Volunteer Panel. During my session with the kids, one question came up that went something like this;

"For those of you that have a brother or sister with cancer, would you trade places with them and take away their pain?"

I was in a group of 60 eleven and twelve year olds, about 45 of them had a sibling with cancer. Every single one of them that spoke, said that they would trade places, and take the cancer onto to themselves.

Some then turned the question around and asked;

"If you could give your cancer away, and give it to someone in your family, would you?"

Not a single person said yes.

I had goosebumps then. I have goosebumps now.

I told my wife this story later in the night, and she told me about what happened in the same session with 5 and 6 year olds.

The question was;

"What is the best thing about being in the hospital when you have to go in for treatments?"

One 6 year old boy spoke up and talked in a sweet innocent way that only a 6 year old can speak in and said;

"The best part about having to go to the hospital is that I got to meet God when I was in the hospital."

I had tears in my eyes then. I have tears in my eyes now.

This event is about so many things, but I think these two stories do a pretty good job of summing it up.

R.O.C.K. Weekend

This afternoon, M and I (and Little B), will be heading out to Orlando for our annual Labor Day weekend tradition. Every year, over Labor Day weekend the American Cancer Society hosts Families R.O.C.K. (Reaching Out to Cancer Kids) Weekend.

For this event, families from all across Florida that have a child with cancer, are invited to spend a fun and educational weekend at the Disney Contemporary Resort. For the last six years M and I have volunteered for this event as part of the children's groups. While parents are in breakout sessions with doctors, child life specialists and American Caner Society support staff, the children (both the kids with cancer and their siblings) spend their day in art, drama, P.E., team building, music, and support sessions.

This event has always been one of our favorite weekends of the year. A few years back, I missed out on Jimmy Buffett playing at Wrigley Field for this event. This year, we passed up a trip to Madrid. Both times, we were happy to do it.

I hope this years weekend is as powerful and memorable as years past.

P.S. Yes, Little B will be coming with us. M's sister will be watching him during the day on Saturday while we are with the kids.

Checking in on "The List"

If you have been reading this blog for awhile, you may remember back in January I had a list of 50 goals or resolutions I wanted to accomplish this year. (If not, click here.)

About a third of the way through the year, I checked in on the list to see how I was doing. (Click here to see that post.)

And now, believe it or not, we are 2/3 through 2009. Where has the time gone? So with only four months left in 2009, it is time to check in on the list again.

Checked off the list

• Go hiking somewhere new. (Puerto Rico and Lake Cumberland)
• See Jimmy Buffett in concert.
• Take more pictures. (The number was 300 back in April. I do not have an exact count, but 5000-6000 would be a good guess)
• Keep up with my blog (This in my 213 entry of the year. Not bad.)
• Get back to the ropes course at the YMCA
• Go back to Chicago (Never made it in August. Looking at December now)
• Go to Hiking in Red Rocks (Trip planned in November)
• Go Surfing (Cocoa Beach)

Partial Credit

• Overnight Boat Trip - Although we did not go on an overnight boat trip, we did go for a weekend at a Lake House and spend almost the entire time on the water.
• Go to two concerts other then Buffett. - We made it to Dave Matthews and had tickets to see O.A.R. the night LIttle B was born. Obviously, we did not make it.
• Wakesurfing. - We had the boat, WE had the board. We got up, up were never able to get a big enough wake to surf on. Partial credit for trying.

Not Looking Good

• See the Cubs win the World Series. (Wait 'Til Next Year. Again)

Still Need to Do

• Rock Climbing
• Sailing
• Get back on the Golf Course
• Go to the Zoo

And of course, the number one item on the list every year since I started it;

BECOME A FATHER!!!

I could have accomplished nothing else this year, but that, and it would be the best year ever. Although there are still four months left of 2009, so far, I have to say it has an amazing year.