Christmas Shopping with Hayley

So I took the afternoon off to shop for Jens present. Hayley and I hit the mall. I figured it would take just a few minutes to find some stuff. Well we hit our first store and Hayley noticed Santa so we waited in line for about 40 minutes so she could sit on his lap. They suckered me into buying some pics too. It was kind of funny cuz Santa asked Hayley what she wanted for Christmas and she turned to Santa and asked him if he liked her shoes. That was really funny.

Eventually we made our way around the mall and I loaded up on a bunch of presents for Jen figuring if I buy a ton of stuff she'll like something that I got her and she can return the rest. I was going to get her a automatic car starter but it would've been over $400 dollars after installation so I punted on that idea. I saw some necklaces at Target that I thought were nice so I brought Hayley there and I let her pick out one from her and the boys. When we got home she told Jen "Mom we got you a necklace!!!" I told her that she was supposed to keep that a secret. Well when she was with Jen later she said "shhhh it's a secret, but we got you a necklace". Funny stuff. Oh well I guess.

Congrats JEEEEEAAAAAANNNNNN!!!!!!

Jean graduated!!! Wooohooo. Nice work Jean. You worked hard going to school while working full-time. For those of you who don't know Jean, well she is the reason Jen and I hooked up. My roomate at the time, Scott, and Jean were kind of dating and they made a date to go to a bar. Well Scott didn't want to go by himself and Jean didn't want to show up by herself so they brought Jen and I. Scott and I got to the bar early and had a few beers waiting for Jean. When they show'd up we hit the dance floor. I didn't notice Jean brought anyone at the time, instead I just kind of jammed around the dance floor. There was a DJ there from KCLD 104.7 in St Cloud. They had a best pickup line contest and I had just read a email chain that day full of "best pickup lines" so I entered the contest with one of the lines I read in that email and won the contest. Good times.

After the bar closed down we were all walking out together. I still hadn't been introduced to Jen yet. We were almost to the door and Jean asked me and Scott if we would take her and Jen for a ride on our crotch rockets. We agreed and we ended up riding around St Cloud and the surrounding areas until sunrise. Jen got my number that night and at the time I wasn't really interested in a girl friend but Jen kept calling and calling to do stuff so eventually I fell for her. I basically stayed that year at Jean and Jens apartment. Scott and Jean broke up a few months later. :( and the rest is history.

Anyway, I didn't really mean to hijack Jeans congrats blog post. Jean graduated from St Cloud Tech back in the 90's with an accounting degree. She got a job in the cities and decided to go for a bachelors degree in accounting. So Jean congrats again. Hopefully your investment in yourself pays off. Now that you're out of school maybe we can turn you away from the dark side of what is the Democratic party. :P j/k

Sledding

One thing I was looking forward to with moving back to MN was being able to take Hayley sledding. It was a perfect day for it. Lot's of fresh snow and it wasn't too cold. We started out on a small hill and Hayley had a blast. Then I asked if she wanted to move to the bigger hill and she said yeah so we trecked over to the other side of the park where the hill was about twice as high. It was quite a workout walking through all the snow and up the other side. So I wasn't to happy when Hayley was scared to go down. So I talked her into riding down with me. Everything was going great until we hit a snow mound and snow flew in Hayley's face. She didn't like sledding much after that. But I got her to go back to the smaller hill for a couple more runs. She got bored and wanted to play at the park instead. Good times.

Here's some more video's and pics from the day.

Box Seats for the Wild

I just got done watching the Wild from our companies box seats. Sitting in box seats is an awesome way to watch a game. I basically sat at a bar and watched the game. We had appetizers and free beers. On top of it all the Wild shut out the Blues 4-0.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Willmar this year.  My brother had a packed house of about 30.  One nice thing about having a big family is that there's generally no shortage of family at holiday events.  The kids were awesome and the food was outstanding.  There were five kids under 10.  The family is having a mini baby boom.  Anyway, while looking through pictures I think I found my favorite picture of the twins so far.  
** Correction ** Lisa informs me that my kid count is off
I just read the blog…CORRECTION: make that 8 kids under the age of 9!
1. Paige
2. Lilly
3. Dillon
4. Chloe
5. Maggie
6. Hayley
7. Braxtyn
8. Elliott



Checking out their reflection.

Back to the 80's

After surfing the Internet got boring today I decided to watch some old videos from way back in the day when MTV used to actually play videos. This site http://www.mtvmusic.com lets you view just about any video from the past, it so reminded me of the 80's. I used to record videos to VCR and watch them over and over. One of those video's was Bad Medicine from Bon Jovi. Man I can't believe the outfits and hair from back then. To think I was in 8th grade when it came out just blows my mind. Life without the Internet is just weird to fathom.

What's Best For The Consumer, Is Best For The Economy, Is Best For The Country

With the presidential election just around the corner and all the crap going on with the economy, banks, mortgages, etc. I've been reflecting on our choices of candidates and who is better to lead our country through this rough patch our country is in. I find it amazing that both parties are trying to blame wall street greed for putting us in this mess. Ultimately it boils down to us, the individuals, that got us into the trouble we're in. When a bank offers a loan that is easily out of ones means to afford the monthly payments, is that wall streets fault that the individual didn't take a step back and calculate what they could truly afford? Is it the banks fault for offering adjustable rate mortgages when rates were at an all time low? Is it really that hard to calculate what the monthly payments will be if the interest rates go up? I understand the dream of owning a home and when we bought our house we spent more than we probably should've. However, with that being said, we spent a lot less than we were approved for. And now that we had twins we're living in a two bedroom house with 3 kids. Our house is worth 20k less then what we owe on it so we're going to be living here a while...wait maybe we should just walk away and let the government deal with it. Yeah, no. So why doesn't either candidate say something to the effect that we need more discipline in the consumer market and not just oversite of wall street and the banks? Well that would be unpopular and certainly lead to defeat come November.

So back to the topic of our presidential options. Neither party has really hit on what I feel is the most important issue and that is balancing the budget and paying down the national debt. The interest on our debt was 400 billion in 2006. That's half the buyout of the banks. Imagine if we didn't have to pay this interest year in and year out. Just think, about 20-25% of your taxes every year go to pay interest on the debt. Just think of what our future holds, if our government tanks, all our savings will be worthless. And who's to blame for this mess, well the voters that votes these guys in office and then don't demand a balanced budget. I could keep beating this drum but that's enough said.

As for the title of this blog post, we live in a consumer driven economy. If there's not a customer to buy a companies product they go under. Our auto industry in the US is not competitive and therefore countless jobs have been lost because of it. It has nothing to do with NAFTA, the consumers are choosing what companies stay alive. Companies need to be able to reach as many consumers as possible and they need to stay competitive. The population of the US is just over 300 million, the population of the world is 6.6 billion. So it really doesn't make sense that raising taxes and restricting trade on the richest corporations and businesses is going to somehow fix the situation that we're in. The last thing we need as a nation is the government trying to dictate which companies are evil and greedy, and then taxing them for being successful. The richest people and companies will move where it makes the most sense to do business. It happened in California and it'll happen to the country. We are the richest country in the world because companies can reap the biggest reward here as opposed to any other country in world. If that incentive goes away so will the rest of our jobs. And just remember, the rich already pay a huge percentage of our taxes already and they are consumers as well and we need them buying things to keep our economy strong.

So who do you think I'm voting for??

Kids update

Hayley has been busy going to preschool on Thursdays and Fridays. She seems to be enjoying it. Braxtyn and Elliott are rolling over and are getting a lot stronger. They love to stand against things as long as Jen or I are there to catch them when they fall sideways. I got home today and Braxtyn was going crazy rolling over and scooting backwards. Pretty entertaining stuff.

Hayley and I playing Mario Kart Wii style.

Braxtyn and Elliott playing in their toys

Braxtyn Scooten

Six Months Old!!!

Wow what a ride. Time has been flying by since the twins were born. It seems like yesterday that Jen, Jens Mom and I were trying to soothe these guys the second night we had them home. I've never heard so much crying in my life. We still joke about how Jens mom couldn't wait for her flight outta San Fran that next day. I so would've considered giving the twins up for adoption during those first few months. My head was so foggy from no sleep and the constant crying. Fortunately for us they are two fun babies now. I'd take credit for it but Jen would probably beat me silly. She spent many a night telling me to get my crabby butt sleep and that she didn't want to listen to me whine anymore. So I say to Jen "Nice Work!!!", she definitely deserves a nomination for mom of the year.

Braxtyn Bouncing

Just a quick video of Braxtyn bouncing.

The Helmets Are In

For the last couple week the twins have been wearing helmets to help with their flat heads caused by Torticollis. I'm pretty disappointed that our doctor in CA didn't warn us of it during their one month check up. Both Jen and I tried to rotate the sides these guys would sleep on but they would eventually wiggle their way back to the other side. We should have had them in physical therapy earlier which could have helped them sleep better and reduced the all day crying we had to deal with. I'm not sure what the change is now, whether it be physical therapy or they have just grown out of it, but they are much happier babies now. Even though they both have ear infections again. They sleep a lot better, although they are attached to their pacifiers so a couple times a night one of us has to get up to put it in when they cry. It's amazing to watch them go from a full out cry session to sleeping in a second after putting their pacifier in. I guess that's the next habit to work on breaking.

State Fair

We went to the State Fair for a couple hours the other night. It was pretty fun and the twins didn't cry at all. The food was good but I didn't get to eat fried candy bar on a stick. After eating a turkey sandwich, a caramel roll, and two corn on the cobs I was full. We stayed late to watch the fire works since Hayley didn't get to see any this last forth of July. Hayley was a little bummed she didn't get to ride any rides. She went down the slide with Dad and Mom so hopefully she wasn't feeling too disappointed.

Comparing the Twins to Hayley

More then once I've said "why can't these twins have the temperament Hayley had when she was a infant?" I know a parent shouldn't compare their kids against siblings but it's tough not to. Especially when they are so different. Hayley was so easy going and she was always smiling. Everywhere we went she'd smile at strangers prompting comments such as "she's a keeper" and "what an awesome baby". Hayley was the only baby out of 10 that did not cry at her baptism. By four months Hayley was sleeping through the night most of time. When she started teething she would wake up a here and there but for the most part a quick comforting and she'd be back sleeping. When Hayley was born she had to go to the ICU for four days to monitor her for a possible infection. Having this IV in her head didn't bother her a bit.

Anyway, since the twins were born they have been in constant need of attention. It's so stressful to take them anywhere because it's inevitable they will end up crying. Especially on long road trips. Since they seem to sleep better in the truck we'll even bite the bullet in gas money and drive it instead of the car. They aren't too bad during the day, but around 7pm they start their usual cry fest. One or the other is always in need of something and they do not enjoy laying on the floor like Hayley did. It drives us so crazy. When we had Hayley we didn't know what to expect. It was such an awesome experience we couldn't wait to have another one. Now we sometimes question having more then one. Which makes us feel terrible. There's a couple across the street from us waiting to adopt another child and here we are complaining. Hopefully now that they are closing in on four months old things will get better.

Wally Worst

After about a year of procrastinating getting our hallway painted I finally got to it today. It's been a major pain in the butt. It started a few years back when the wall paper started pulling away from the wall. When Hayley started crawling she tore a bunch more of it off. Eventually I tore off the wall paper when I was home last Christmas which caused a chunck of sheet rock paper and mud to get ripped off as well. I tried skimming the wall but after I sanded the wall I primed the wall only to have a bunch more sheet rock paper come loose. Finally I just started ripping a bunch of the sheet rock paper off and I tried priming over that. Needless to say it looked terrible. I finally gave up and decided I'd spend some time on it to do it right. Since Jen was in Little Falls this week I skimmed the wall again with mud and sanded. I repeated the processes a few times until I got the desired result.

I got up early today (9:00am) to get some more primer and paint from Wal-Mart. I was the only person in the paint area for 10-15 minutes or so. I had picked my color out so I waited for the employee behind the counter to finish putting away a cart full of stuff. Clearly one could see I standing next to the counter waiting for help. Then a couple came walking up looking for paint and they asked a question and the guy started helping them. When he was done I asked if I could get some paint mixed. He said "I was helping them first, I'll get to you when they're done". We'll this is fine but they were picking out a color. So this guy couldn't help me quick and while they were picking out their color. At first I was just going to wait but after thinking about it for a sec I said screw it and I left my cart in the isle with my grocieries that I'd picked up and left. I went to Home Depot where the paint guys behind the counter were more then happy to help me.

I really can't stand Wal-Mart. Why people continue shopping there is beyond me. (Myself included) They've basically undercut all their competitors to the point where there is no competition anymore in many towns. Luckily I live next to a Super Target, it's to bad they don't sell paint.

The Car Seat Dilema

A couple weeks ago we drove home from Little Falls and the Twins fell asleep in their car seat. We brought them in the house and just let them sleep instead of trying to move them into their crib. They woke up about 8 hours later. Whenever we put them in the crib both twins generally wake up once a night or about every 4 hours. Two nights ago they both got up twice and woke up super early. So being super sleep deprived we decided to try letting them sleep in their car seats last night. Braxtyn fell asleep at 9 and Elliot at 9:30. It's 6:30am now and both of them are still sleeping.

When they slept for 8+ hours last time in there car seat I mentioned it at work. I thought maybe we should use their car seats all the time. A girl overheard me and stopped by my cube to tell me that her doctor said that it causes the back of their heads to become flat. I wonder if there is a way to prevent the flat head thing in a car seat. In the crib we use a blanket to prop them up on one side or the other but that's difficult to do in a car seat.

Hayley's First Time Fishing

Sunday Hayley's uncle, Matt, wanted to take Hayley fishing. We were planning on heading home early so my dad could meet the twins for the first time. We tried to sneak in a quick fishing trip, but as it always turns out a quick trip turns into an excursion. The fish were biting within 10 seconds of casting so it was a ton of fun for Hayley. Hayley's grandpa caught a fish and after to unhooked it, he dropped it on the dock and it bounced up into his drink. That was pretty funny. So needless to say we missed my dad. Sorry dad. Anyway, hopefully they'll get to see them soon like over the 4th of July. In the mean time here's some video of Hayley catching fish.





Head on over to the photo gallery from the day if you're interested as well these videos are in full resolution too. Although taking video into the sun didn't work so well.

Unpacking More Boxes

I've basically been on baby watching duty as Jen is going through boxes. She's about half way. I can see outside the porch windows now. It's starting to look promising. Here's some pics of my big helper and the twins.

Headache

About mid afternoon yesterday I started getting a small headache. I took some Advil but that seemed to work for an hour or so but then it came back pretty strong. By the time I left work my head was pounding so bad that my commute home was horrible. I couldn't get home fast enough. After I got home I took a nap that lasted 12 hours. I felt bad cuz Hayley was so excited to see me and then she started crying when I went to take a nap. I was hoping for a quick turnaround so I could play with her but it wasn't happening this time. Normally after a long rest my headaches are gone but it's still there today, just not as strong. Headaches are one of the biggest pains in the arse for me. I get them about once or twice a month. Lately they are more frequent and they're getting worse. Last time I asked the doctor about it he said it's just stress. Maybe I'll try a different doctor cuz if it's just stress, then I've been stressed since I was a kid. I remember getting headaches as far back as 10. Hopefully I didn't pass that trait onto the kids.

The Porch

Boxes piled to the ceiling and a small walkway through it. This would be our porch. Now this is normally not a big deal if a house is empty, the problem is our house is currently fully furnished. So where the heck did all this crap come from. I'm hoping it's just a bad packing job and maybe there's just one or two small items per box. With 2 month old twins and Hayley we don't have a lot of time to find out.

Unpacking

I finally got my computer up and running at home thanks to Janel watching Hayley and the twins this morning. Jen and I got all our bedrooms organized and most of the bedroom stuff unpacked. Now its on to organizing the living room, kitchen, basement and porch. Looking at the porch now I don't think it'll ever be livable again, there are so many unpacked boxes in there. I have no clue how we accumulated so much stuff.

Now that I have a computer working I'll try and blog again more often. In the mean time here's a slide show from my last day in CA during the 17 mile drive.

Last Day In CA

Last Saturday was my last day in CA. I haven't had a computer to blog with since then so I'm blogging about it now. Friday I left work early to hit the 17 mile drive. Jen has taken a few guest on the drive and the pics she has taken are awesome so I wanted to see it before I left. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. Pebble Beach golf course is on the route as well so it was cool seeing that. I was tempted to pay the 600+ to play 18 but a 2 month advance notice tee-time is needed. Other then that it was mostly just cliff and rocks. We saw some historic bridge too. Had I had a coat Chad and I would've climbed to the bottom. It was very cold out. We turned about at the bridge and headed back to Sunnyvale. It was kind of sad leaving CA. Getting another upgrade to first class took some of the edge of leaving though.

Mountain Biking

I never got to capture video from my mountain biking excursions but Ben over at studio711 made a great video of him biking in Washington. From the video it looks like the trail he's on is similiar to the trails here in CA. Check it out video, it's pretty cool.

Mario Kart

Well I just finished whooping up on Mario Kart. I beat all but levels but he easiest. I beat a few series on the easy level and it was too easy so I moved up after a few races. There's a medium level that is motorcycles only, a hard level that mixes both karts and motorcycles and another hard level that mirrors all the tracks. I met my goal of beating the game before the movers came tomorrow morning. I would've been tempted to keep the big screen here had I not finished the game. Mario Kart is all about luck. I had so many races where I was winning for two laps and on the final lap I'll get hit with blue shell that blows me up and the a bunch more shells and before you know it I'm in last place. That part of the game kind of sucks but it adds a chance factor to the game. One can't just master the game and beat it every time they pick it up. I love the Wii Wheel. It'd be so awesome to have the wheel for Forza or Burnout. No wires or mounts to worry about just hold up the wheel and race away.

Upgraded to First Class

I went to check in yesterday and I wasn't assigned a seat when I purchased my ticket so I was expecting to have to select a seat. Well low and behold I was upgraded to first class. That was a pleasant surprise. At some point I accrued enough miles to make silver elite but I'm not sure when. The breakfast was great even for plane food. (Either that or I don't eat good otherwise making this breakfast seem awesome) Hopefully I'll be upgraded to first class on my flight home.

The only complaint I could muster on this trip was the vehicle I got from Avis. You'd think they hate me or something torchering me with a Hyundai something or other. It's a cross over and it's the most awkward driving thing and it's super uncomfortable to sit in. But I only need to drive it for a week so I'll live with it.

Hayley Flying

iFlickr
Originally uploaded by ksetrum

Hand her a Video iPod with Cars loaded and all is good. Actually she had an older lady sitting next to her that played with her the entire flight except for the last 30 minutes or so that she slept in my arms. It was great having that lady play with her as I was able to catch a nap with the twins sleeping.

The Twins Flying

iFlickr
Originally uploaded by ksetrum

We headed out for the airport and I was thinking we had plenty of time. We actually ended up being lucky the flight was delayed since we probably would've missed our flight otherwise. Security was a major pain with the twins. We had five bags 3 carseats, my laptop and a stroller for twins. It probably took 15 minutes just to get our stuff through.

When we got to the gate the twins started screaming and we could see the eyes looking over at us thinking "We don't have to deal with that on do we?" But we got on the plane and got everything situated and after feeding them they slept the entire flight. If they would sleep on every flight I'd probably buy tickets just so they'd sleep.

Heading Out

Well this is our last night in CA together as a family. The twins got immunization shots this morning so they were kind of crabby all day so Jen couldn't get much packing done. We ended staying up pretty late packing and we still have more to do tomorrow morning. Hopefully we have enough stuff packed to hold us over until the movers get everything to us. I'm looking forward to being home and taking a long nap when Jens mom gets to the house. It gets even better when I get to come back to CA by myself next week and catch a ton of sleep without interruptions. I might just take a couple days off from work to sleep. It'd be nice if I could bank some sleep while I'm out here. Oh and I can't forget the Mario Kart either. Between sleep and Mario Kart it's going to be a great week next week.

Picasa Slideshow

Picasa is my favorite photo management tool. It has built in editing capabilities and it's one of easiest and best tools I've used, it's free and it's available on both Windows and Linux via Wine. I recommend it to anyone who is looking for a photo management tool. Tonight I was going to upload a bunch of photo's to the blog but I thought that it would clutter the site so I thought it'd be cool to embed a slide show of photo's instead. Although it's been a feature forever I just found it when I searched for features on Picasa Web Albums. So here's a slide show of recent pics of the twins. (many of the pics haven't been rotated... I blame Jen) We had guests over tonight an they all agreed that they look like they've doubled in size. So far they've gained about 4-5lbs.



And just an FYI - if you use Flickr you can get the same slide show feature.

Weekend Recap - Harley, Toys R Us, and Ikea

This is our last weekend in CA and it pretty much went out with a thud.. but what do you expect with new born twins. The weekend was one of the best weekends we've had this year weather wise. It was close to 100 Wednesday and Thursday so the 80's we got on Friday - Sunday felt pretty good. (Actually the 100 degree days weren't bad since there is zero humidity here) Friday after getting the twins feed and what not Hayley and I hit the pool. She spent close to two hours there. It was pretty fun as she's gotten really good with her arm floater's.

Saturday we took Hayley to her favorite park where they have a water fountain. I was kind of nervous since they are so water conscious when the weather is hot. I figured they'd have it turned off. But they didn't which was great for Hayley. After spending a couple hours at the park we went to Harley to pick up some Harley shirts with some local logos for Mike. It was pretty comical cuz as we were leaving Harley Hayley said "Toy's R Us". I didn't see a sign for it but I new it was around there somewhere. (I miss the GPS already) So I drove around a six block radius and it was right across from Harley. I swear I looked all over for the sign when Hayley said it but I figured she just new it was around there or something since we mentioned it earlier. Toys R Us is a great store for Hayley to run around in. It keeps her occupied for hours. One interesting toy we saw there was a back yard water slide. This thing looked awesome.

After Toy's R Us we went to Ikea to get Sven and Sandra a gift card for watching Hayley so much. While we were they we ate some Swedish meatballs and potatoes. I've never really thought about Ikea as a restaurant but after eating there we're going back there more often. The food there was good and cheap and the portions were huge.

We wrapped up the weekend taking Hayley swimming again and hanging out with Sven, Sandra, their daughter and their twins. Moving back home is going to be a bummer cuz we won't be able to hang out with them. Hayley and their daughter Simera get along really well. They've given us plenty of advice as well since they have twins and a daughter Hayley's age. I get a kick out of their stories, but then it's not so funny cuz now we're living it.

Anyway, it's 4 days and we're back in MN.

Conflicting Advice

After we had Hayley, Jen and I got a lot of conflicting advice from Doctors and Nurses on how to best care for her. (Read Post) Whether it be holding them while they sleep or putting them in their crib after feedings, almost every nurse had their own opinion. Basically it boiled down to what works for you. It was almost comical with the twins as one nurse insisted on swaddling them with their arms down while another nurse commented that in the Nic U they swaddle them with their hands by their face cuz it makes them more comfortable. Almost every parent has an opinion on how best take care of a new born. All this is not all bad either as we give anything new we hear a try as long as it doesn't sound harmful.

Braxtyn and Elliott started out of the shoot eating a lot. Especially Braxtyn, who was eating double the suggested amount at each feeding. He was eating so much that Jen and I were concerned about it, but we figured as long as he wanted it that it was ok to keep feeding him. When they had their first checkup at three weeks they were up to 6-7 oz at most feedings. The doctor said this was way to much. She said eating that much was bad for their small stomachs and that we risked frequent spitting up and obesity. She said to try and use a pacifier to satisfy them after they've eating 4oz. (The twins rarely spit up) So we fought for the next three weeks trying to feed them less only to have to deal with them crying and crying. It was getting frustrating to say the least.

At our doctors appointment last Thursday we saw a different doctor since their doctor was on vacation. She asked us how they were eating and we said good. Then I asked what was the max they should be eating and she said there was no max. Just feed them until they're satisfied. We told her what the other doctor said and she just said "she flat out disagreed with that!". She said as long as we weren't force feeding them we were fine. She said they don't worry about getting to much food at this age. We were relieved to hear this as we could feed them until they were happy and maybe they'd stop crying so much. In most cases hearing conflicting advice has confused us but in this case I'm happy we saw another doctor. We'd still be fighting through this had we not. In the future I'm not going to hesitate getting a second opinion if we're having issues with the kids.

What Works

Lately we've been trying everything to get the twins to sleep. A while back Jen said that they stopped crying when she vacuumed. So I download an mp3 of Ocean waves and burned it to a CD. The CD sat on the desk ever since then. I kind of thought it wouldn't work so I never bothered with it. Well last night we couldn't get them to stop crying for anything. I put Braxtyn in the playpen to see if he'd cry it out for a few minutes, it wasn't working. Finally I grabbed the CD and put the player in their play pen and cranked up the sounds of the ocean and it took no more then 5 seconds and he stopped crying and went to sleep. Jen at the time was holding Elliott, trying to get him calmed down. She saw this work for Braxtyn so she put Elliot in the play pen and they both were soundly sleeping for about a half hour. They woke up because it was feeding time but after we fed them they went back in the playpen and slept. They woke up once during the night which was great. Last night was also the first night the twins didn't need their car seats to sleep. We're pretty excited about this, hopefully it continues to work.

Mothers Day Recap

We didn't do much on Mothers day. We were both pretty shot from Saturday. We brought Hayley to the park with the water fountain that kids can play with. She can spend hours playing in wet sand. Other then that was just sat around the house and Jen took a nap. The twins did us a favor though and slept from 10:30-5am. That was pretty cool, hopefully that trend continues. They've slept for 4+ hours the last three nights now.

We also watched the Twins on TV since they were on the ESPN. What a great game. Pitchers duels are great, but once in a while it's fun to see a game that's dominated by offense.

So Long Mio

After a trip to the zoo yesterday we returned to our vehicle to find the passenger side window smashed in. Who ever broke into the car tried to break the lock on the driver side door with a screw driver or something. It was hacked off and showed little resemblance of a door lock. A guy was walking by and he said there were 4-5 vehicles parked on the street that were broke into. Before I touched anything I called the police and they said they couldn't do anything and if I wanted to fill out a report to do so by phone or online. That was great getting blown off by the police. After calling the cops, I inspected the vehicle to see what was all stolen. The only thing taken was the Mio GPS. Before I left I put the Mio in the center console but I left the charging unit plugged in. Thankfully, Sven and Sandra were with us so we were able to pack all our stuff in their van and head on down to the local Avis and get a different vehicle. I'm glad we're driving a rental, not having to deal with fixing the window was a huge relief. It took about 15 minutes to fill out a form at Avis and we were on our way with a different vehicle.

This is the fifth time I've had one of my vehicles broke into. The first was my Bronco II that I had a stereo installed with speakers. The Speakers weren't mounted and they took them and they tried for the stereo but they couldn't get it out before someone at work noticed and chased them off. The second time was in Q lot when I was at St Cloud State. This person was dumb enough to break into 6 cars and was caught by campus security. (I almost had to forgive them for all those parking tickets) The third time was at an Applebees in Willmar. That sucked cuz they got Jens purse and she had to try and remember where she all wrote checks and what not so she could call them. The forth time was at our apartment here in Sunnyvale where they got Jens purse again, her coat and my golf clubs.

I spend most of the night trying to figure out if there was something I could do to catch these A-Holes. I came up with some ideas but it would involve so much time that I'm not even going to bother. I guess one has to just carry anything of value on them. It's pretty ridicules.

Braxtyn and Elliott are 1 month old

It's crazy to think the twins are one month old today.  Time seems to fly by a lot faster when we're sleep deprived.    They gave us a great present last night sleeping from 10:30 pm to 4:00 am which was the first time both of them actually slept great on the same night.  Normally one or the other sleeps great and the other one winds up with gas or some other aliment that keeps him up most of the night.   Anyway, here's a video of the twins getting some tummy time.

2 Week Countdown

Two weeks from now we'll be on a plane heading back to MN. It's been 1 1/2 years here in CA and it's really grown on me. If it wasn't for the price of housing I'd move here in a second, but we'll make the best of it in MN. Having the kids grow up around family will be worth dealing with the crappy winter weather in MN. Our family is growing by what seems like 2-3 cousins a year so Hayley and the twins will have a lot of kids their age to play with.

Looking for your Stimulus Check?

Here's a link to get the status of your stimulus check.

https://sa1.www4.irs.gov/irfof/IRServlet?app=IRACTC

Elliott and Grandpa

Hayley, Braxtyn, and Elliott

Maybe I was delirious last night but when I'd glance at Elliott I swear I could see my grandpa Setrum in him. I don't what do you think family?

Elliott

Braxtyn

Roll Over

While trying anything and everything to get Braxtyn to stop crying Jen suggested putting him on his tummy. So I did and we watched him cry for a couple minutes and to our astonishment he rolled onto his back. I know it's a fluke but it was pretty impressive for a 3 week old born two weeks early to roll over. After he rolled over Jen and I just kind of looked at him for a couple seconds and finally Jen broke the silence by saying "he just rolled onto his back!!". So ignoring his crying I grabbed the camera and put him back on his tummy to see if he'd do it again. He didn't do it again and I think we made him pretty upset. I think he had revenge on his mind because he didn't sleep more then an hour and half at a time last night.

Hayley Sleeps Sitting Up

Even Hayley is getting worn down by the the twins. She fell asleep while we were eating supper in her highchair. Funny stuff.

Michelle strolls in for a visit

Michelle, one of the original Eaganites that worked on SBIRS with us, flew out to visit. She said she misses CA and she wishes she would've extended her rotation here. Originally she planned on flying out to visit everyone still here and maybe hit Tahoe for one last ski trip. Although I'd love to ski again, the twins are keeping us way too busy. I'm thinking we need an overnight nanny when we get back to MN. 2-4 hours of sleep isn't cutting it.

Weekend Recap

Jen and I had a triple team babysitting crew come over on Saturday so we could go out for our anniversary. Nothing special, we just went to Chili's for dinner. We were gone for about an hour and a half. We got home and there were no issues which was good. People probably think we're big whiners when they come over cuz the twins are always sleeping. They are deceiving little buggers. They love the night life. Although it's getting a little better I think. They don't quite cry as much as they did. (They still cry a lot though) It's hard to believe they are going on three weeks old. Time flies by so fast. We did make some progress though, we can definitely tell the two apart. Braxtyn's head got a little out of whack going from the delivery since he was head down. Elliot's is more normal looking for now. I'm sure Braxtyn's head will even out eventually. I'll leave this post with some pics of the last week.

I believe this is Elliott in the foreground and Braxtyn in the back ground.

Happy Anniversary Jen

It's our 5 year anniversary. Time has been flying by. I can't believe it's been 5 years. I tried to think of something funny for the blog and all I could come up with was digging up the old Brother and Sisters video from our wedding. Enjoy!!

Some Sleep.. for me

I stayed up last night and watched the Twins on TV since they are playing Oakland. It's the only televised game on TV while I'm here in CA. So I took care of the twins while Jen was sleeping. I fed them both around 10:30 and they were sleeping so I brought them into our room and went to bed. I woke up around 5am to feed Braxtyn thinking we had a good night. Jen was just going to bed so I figured she had just fed Elliott and was going back to bed. On my way to work at 8:30am I asked her if she enjoyed her sleep. To which she replied "What sleep?!?" I was taken back by the comment and I asked where that came from. She said she was up all night with Elliott. Apparently he woke up around 11 and didn't get to bed until 5am, just before Braxtyn woke up. Man, we just can't win, when one sleeps the other is up. I'll have to take the shift tonight or this weekend.

Big Loss

I found out today that the project I was scheduled to work on when I get back to MN in June was lost today. Northrop won the BAMS contract. I guess it wasn't that big of a shocker but it's kind of a bummer because I was going to get in on a project from the start and hopefully see it though. Well it's on to trying to find another project to work on. I wouldn't mind working another off site rotation but I think Jen has had enough of the off sites and she's ready to get back to MN, and after having these twins for a week we could probably use some help from the family too.

Sleeping Better

Well Elliott has slept through most of the night for two nights in a row. He seems to have switched schedules a bit as he is staying awake longer during the day and just taking everything in. Braxtyn on the other hand stayed up almost the entire night two nights ago. The only way he'd sleep is if Jen or I were holding him. So I broke down and put him on my chest and slept. Last night though he woke up twice for feeding and went to sleep on his own. That was great. Hopefully we'll get more night like last night. I know I'm feeling refreshed after getting 6+ hours of uninterrupted sleep. We've taken the suggestion of making it as light as posible during the day and not trying to be quiet. Seems to be working. Although it's tough to say after two nights.

A Few Pics

Training Hayley for Night Duty

Elliott as Zoolander

Their first bath

Zonked

Over Night Marathon and an ER Visit

We had another long overnight struggle of trying to catch some sleep in between Braxtyn and Elliott's feedings. Neither of the babies would cooperate and sleep at the same time. They also didn't seem to get enough during their feedings. As soon as we thought they had enough and they were content, sleeping in our arms they'd wake up and start whimpering for more. I was trying to run some tests for work as well during the night so it was crazy busy. Hayley also didn't help matters waking up a couple times.

Anyway, about 7am, after we thought we were ahead of the battle with both babies sleeping soundly, Jen had a clot dislodge and she started bleeding really bad. She called the hospital and they had her on hold forever, but eventually they told her to get to the ER ASAP. They also said if she felt faint at all to pull over and call 911. After hearing this I immediately had scatter brain. I was trying to figure out what to do with the kids, what to do with my lab session, and wondering who to call to watch the kids or if I should stay home and have someone run Jen to the hospital. Our project at work is pressed to get done and lab time is super tight so I didn't want my session to run over and waste anyone else's time. But immediately that became the lowest priority. Next was trying to figure out who to call. I tried Ali, who lives in our apartment complex, but she didn't answer. Then I thought about calling other moms in our apartment but I figured they all had kids that were sleeping and they'd probably have a hard time getting here. So I called Chad and he was fortunately on his way to work so he was able to swing over. I was still trying to decide if he should run her to the ER or if I should watch the kids. He doesn't have kids or any experience taking care of kids so I was nervous that all the kids would wake up at once and overwhelm him. But since the twins have been sleeping through the morning like clockwork I decided to run Jen in.

We got to the ER and we had to give our information at three different desks. The last desk we got to there was absolutely no urgency at all. My head was spinning with thoughts of "My wife is bleeding to death and you guys are picking your arses!! Get your lazy butts over here and take care of this" We finally get to give them our information and pay our co-pay and we end up waiting in the waiting room for another 25 minutes. Apparently the lady on the phone made this sound a lot more serious then what it was. I don't know I guess. I just hope I don't have to rely on that hospital to save my life. The doctor examined Jen and she had an ultra sound to check for any signs of missed afterbirth and blood work done to make sure she had enough oxygen and what not to make it through. She had to wait 2-3 hours for her ultra sound and blood work so I went home to check on the kids and Jen caught some ZZZZ's in the exam room. Thankfully Jens bleeding got a lot better. She had to monitor it close for the next 4 hours and if it didn't reside we were to head back to the hospital for a blood transfusion.

I'm thinking all the times Jen got up and down from the rocking chair and bed must have caused the bleeding. Darn kids. Today we're trying to keep them awake from 6pm until 9ish. I gave them both sponge baths when they were about to fall asleep to shock their systems. That actually work pretty well. We're off to bed, hopefully we get a few hours of sleep.

Up All Night Sleep All Day

Anyone have any ideas on how to switch the twins schedule to a day schedule? The twins are great sleepers, sleeping 8-10 hours during the day. We were up a good 6 hours last night. Every time we thought they were ready to put them down they'd wake up a few minutes later. Oh well. Here's some pics.

Weekend Recap - What was sleep again?

Needless to say the twins did not pick up Hayley's demeanor so far.  They have however developed very powerful lungs and they are making themselves known to this world.  We have been getting about 2-3 hours of sleep a night.  With Jens mom here we've been tag teaming between the twins and Hayley.  The twins are spending about 7-10 hours sleeping during the day and at night they'll pretty much only sleep if we're holding them.  Hopefully it'll get better in the following days.  Hayley has been handling it pretty well.  She's woke up a few times when the twins are screaming but so far it hasn't been to bad.  

Anyway, here's a quick video from the hospital.  Enjoy!! 

The first 24 hours

Although the doctors and nurses deliver babies for a living the room seemed like organized chaos. The room was small and there were 2 doctors delivering the babies, one nurse for each baby, one nurse for each doctor, an anesthesiologists, and a pediatrician was called in during the delivery of Elliott since he was being delivered breach. Everything was normal with Braxtyn. I was a pretty anxious because I wasn't sure how developed his lungs were. The two doctors working on the delivery were getting phone calls every couple minutes to attend to another birth so there was some tension with them trying to get done as soon as possible. When Braxtyn was born it took him a while to cry and the crying wasn't that loud. (As compared to the incredible pipes on Hayley when she was born. When Hayley screamed she made me wonder what the heck I was getting into, I'll go insane if I have to listen to that.) So for the for few minutes after Braxtyn was born I was watching him close as the nurse was working on him.

In the mean time I was missing what seemed like panic going on trying to deliver Elliott. One doctor was using the ultra sound trying to determine where he was. As soon they realized he was breach they started the breach extraction before the birth canal shrunk. While one doctor was pulling on Elliott's legs the other was pushing hard on Jens stomach, guiding Elliott out. That was kind surreal in itself. At this point the doctors are working in panic mode and the world has stopped around us. With all the trouble they were having, Jen and I were thinking "Why are we going through this, why didn't we do the C-Section?" The pediatrician came into the room and asked why he was there. One of the nurses said "because they're doing breach extraction" to which he replied with a facial expression of "Why the hell are they doing a breach extraction and risking the babies life?" He saw me looking at him and just kind of calmly walked to the other side of the room and put on his gloves. So now the panic mode in me is through the roof. I turned back to the action and I started praying hard and the constant argument in my head about whether God intervenes with our lives while we're on earth was gone. At this point Jens doctor, who is pushing on her stomach is barking orders to the other doctor on positioning and which way to pull. This went on for what seemed like forever but eventually the nurses started cheering and the doctor showed Jen and I the baby.

The panic in both Jen and I was not gone yet as Elliot hadn't taken a breath and his color was a darker red then Braxtyn's was. He wasn't crying and to me he looked like he was struggling. But the pediatrician took a look at him while the nurse was cleaning him and he started to leave. I asked him if everything was OK. He smiled and said we have two very healthy babies. I was relieved after that. Elliot then started crying so I pulled out my camera and started taking pictures.




Lost in my pictures taking and checking out the twins was the two doctors still working on Jen. I'll leave the gross out but she was losing a lot of blood and it looked like the doctors were struggling to get it under control. But they were a lot more calm then when they were trying to get Braxtyn out so I didn't think much of it. Jen was shivering uncontrollably. The doctors got everything under control and we headed back to the delivery room to wait for a recovery room. Jen got to hold both babies on the way back to the room as well which was awesome.





Everything was good waiting for a recovery room. The nurse gave the babies a bath and their first shot. Which they didn't cry much. I called family to spread the word the world is getting more trouble makers. Jen and I waited up for the new room but it was taking a long time so after an hour or so we tried sleeping only to have the nurse come and and tell us they were ready to move us. On the way to the new room we set off an alarm because the babies got to close to an elevator and the hospital was shut down until our information was verified. That was interesting, they attach electronic monitors to the babies and if they get close to an exit a hospital lock down gets enacted and nobody is allowed in or out.

After getting settled in our new room the babies took turns crying and needless to say I wished I would've slept in the delivery room waiting to move cuz I was soo tired. We finally broke down and gave them formula and that put the twins to sleep for the next 12 hours which let Jen and I catch up on sleep.

Jen got a surprise as her mom flew in from MN. Ali and Hayley picked her up at the airport. After Ali, Ryan and Hayley showed to visit Jens mom walked in a few minutes later. Jen was so surprised she almost cried. It was pretty cool. So that pretty much wrapped up the day. Later I went home to watch Hayley over night and I let Grandma stay with Jen and the twins.

Babies are in

Jen woke me up around 9 to call the nurse. After a quick doctors visit we were off to the operating room in case Jen needed an emergency c-section. Baby A was born at 10:06 pm, he was 7.14lbs. Baby B was born 11 minutes later via breach extration. Names are Braxtyn Avery and Elliott Lyn.

Still slow going

I just got back from having supper with Chad and Hayley. Jen requested an epidural before I left and its in and working. Her needed pain relief is a good sign that the contractions are getting stronger. Nobody is estimating a time though so I'm guessing we still have a while.

Slow Going

It's slow going. Jens contractions a not increasing in frequency. The nurse has been increasing the pitosin levels every half hour. I'm thinking another 7 hours. We're both trying to take a quick nap.

so it has begun

The doctor has finished her exam and Jen had a second thought about a c-section but she ultimately decided on a natural birth. Baby a is head down and baby b is breach so there is a slight risk baby b might be taken c-section. We'll see.

I'm off to grab some lunch.

At the hospital

We dropped Hayley off and we are at the hospital waiting for the doctor. This is my first post from my new iPhone. The iPhone is awesome!!!

Heading to the Hospital

Jen called the hospital and they said to be in around 8:30am. We have 4 different friends set up to take shifts watching Hayley. Hopefully she's alright today and tonight. We've really never had anyone watch her overnight except her grandma.

Happy B-Day Eric - AKA The Duck Commander

Date Set

Jen went to the doctor today and the big day has been set for Wednesday. Thank goodness cuz if a date wasn't set Jen was ready to throw down. Her legs and feet are about twice the size of mine. I've had to help her get socks on and it's a chore. She's been wearing most of my cloths lately. With that being said after the twins are born sleep is going to be a luxury.

Feeding Ducks

Next Assignment

Work in my home state of MN has been pretty slow as of late. So slow in fact I was told to find work else where. The only position I could find that seemed remotely interesting was in Taiwan. So I've accepted a position there for the next 6 months. It could get extended up to a year depending on the workload. We'll see I guess. It's going to be weird raising kids in a different country, especially one where nobody speaks English. But it's going to be great opportunity to see another culture and learn a new language.

[Update] - April Fools!! I pulled a Ben this year.

It's April and Snowing in MN

So far this year the best part of my rotation in CA is this pic taken today by my sister-n-law.

vs today in CA

Yeah, I really don't miss that crap. I'm really not a snow lover as you have probably guessed.

Goodbye Grand Prix

The Grand Prix has been frequently beeping to inform me that the car needed an oil change. I wanted to keep the car until my rotation was over but the beeping got to annoying, and I might feel a little guilt if the car lost some life from not changing the oil for an extra 2 months. So I went in to trade it hoping to get another GXP but the Avis computers were down so they were doing everything with paper. At this point I didn't want to deal with it so I told them I'd take a Grand Prix or a Chevy Impala. So now I'm driving an Impala with a 6 cylinder. The car is so slow it sucks. I feel like I'm pulling a 2 ton trailer behind it, and to think I used to think it was fast compared to my Mazda 6. It's going to be real painful driving that when I get back.

The Send Off

Jens mom and Tina went back to MN yesterday. Since she's been here Hayley has refused to nap and she's been waking up early everyday. One of the mornings I went to get her and she flipped out cuz she wanted grandma to get her. You could tell Hayley was so alert to grandma's visit and she didn't want to waste a minute sleeping. Funny stuff. Anyway, on our way home from the airport Hayley zonked out. We got home about an hour later and she didn't wake up for another 2 hours. She was pretty much out for 3 hours. Hopefully she gets back to her normal sleep schedule.

Weekend Recap - Jens Mom and Tina Visit CA

Jens mom and Tina came for a visit while Tina is on Spring Break. Everyone has their fingers crossed that the babies will make an early appearance. So far it hasn't happened. Jen is going in for a stress test tomorrow and the last time the nurse said that if the swelling didn't go down in her feet they might have to do something about it... we'll see what happens since the swelling has gotten worse!! (She's got some big feet and it doesn't look at all comfortable)

We did the usual when we get visitors and a few extras - San Fran, Golden Gate, Zoo, Big Basin, and Gilroy Gardens. The drive to Big Basin was the most brutal drive, we had about 20 miles of hair pin turns on pretty much one lane road. On the way back we saw a biker down around one of the turns. We sat there for about 5 minutes wondering what to do as there was already a crowd around him and there was no cell phone coverage there. Finally the guy got up with some help and they moved his bike out of the way so we could around. I felt bad for the guy since he just biffed a sweet looken Harley. At least he seemed ok. We saw a cop a few miles up and told him about it so hopefully all is good. Some advice if you come across and accident in a remote area, try and write down the exact location. I felt like a moron trying to explain to the cop where it was cuz I really had no clue how far I had driven.

Anyway, here's the video of the week. I'm shooting for a minute or less a week. I left sound out, I'm not really sure if playing music with it is better or worse since my taste in music is terrible.

Weekend Recap

At one time I was going to start a video podcast of mountain biking around here but I didn't want to buy the helmet cam and supporting equipment. I'm thinking instead I'll start a video podcast of the kids growing up so they have something to look back on later in life. I plan on adding a feed to it at some point in time but for now I'll just make the videos. I'll be playing with different formats for these video's in the future and experiment with music as well. This first video has some pretty long scenes that will probably make it boring. This podcast has music because there's hardly any dialog. So here's the first in hopefully a long running series of video podcasts.

Weekend Recap - Twins update

The twins are 5lbs apiece which is above average for one baby at 33 weeks. Jen wouldn't mind if the twins were born today. She asked about being induced around 36 weeks and CA law forbids it before 38 weeks without an Amnio. So she's gotta live with a sore back and all for another 6 weeks or so.

We didn't do much else over the weekend. We enjoyed the great sunny weather as usual. We bought some kites and went to a park with Hayley but it happened to be the one day of the year the wind wasn't blowing.

Happy B-Day Ginger

err - Sorry I'm a day late.

Hope you have fun in FL.

Weekend Recap

Not much happened this weekend other then enjoying 65 degree sunny weather. We decided to buy a new camera that takes better video then our Kodak. We use our camera for 30 second videos quite often so our new camera is much better at taking video. We also wanted a thinner camera as our Kodak is huge. We ended up getting a Canon SD750.

MN Budget Deficit

Keeping up on MN politics and taxes, the latest coming out of the state is a billion dollar projected deficit fresh off the heals of a veto override of a 6.6 billion transportation bill. Now I wouldn't want to be in the shoes of our legislatures but I hope they'd take note to what's happening in CA. California is one of the most gorgeous states and most desirable places to live in the country. However, because of the higher tax rate, the wealthy citizens are moving out and the wealthy contribute a larger percentage of the tax revenue. Now CA faces a 14 billion dollar deficit this year.

The source article states:

"When California faced a Mount Everest-sized $14 billion deficit in 2003, one of the major causes for the red ink was the stampede of millionaire households from the state," says a report called "Rich States, Poor States" by economists Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore. "Out of the 25,000 or so seven-figure-income families, more than 5,000 left in the early 2000s, and the loss of their tax payments accounted for about half the budget hole."

Raising taxes seems like a logical solution to fixing the budget, but like CA, many of the wealthier citizens might take their tax money an move out.

Jumpcut

Sven sent me a video he made on Jumpcut. I've never heard of it until now. Basically it's an online movie maker.

This is video created with Jumpcut just after I figured out how not to fall and before the weather got to bad.

Lake Tahoe - Kirkwood

Yet another item to check off since I got to CA. A group of us from Lockheed and a Yahooligan went to Lake Tahoe skiing. It was a blast. The morning started out with 4 of us meeting at Chad's to drive to the Sports Basement and catch the Bay Area Ski Bus there. We got there and went to check in and the guy said I had the wrong pick up location. Chad and Paul signed up a few days before I did so that location filled up before I signed up. So while I was wondering what the heck to do Sven noticed he was at the wrong location as well. Chad was nice enough to let us take his car to the right location and thankfully our bus left a half hour later. But we got there 30 minutes earlier since our driver didn't take a wrong turn

I haven't skied since 1993 and I found out quick that skiing a few times at Powder Ridge doesn't prepare one for skiing Tahoe. My skiing abilities were basically ski down hill until I was going to fast and then hit the snow plow to slow down with no ability to turn. Well these abilities don't bode so well on a real mountain. We hit an easy first run to get the snow plow feel back. Under normal circumstances I would've taken a few more runs down the hill to maybe figure out how to ski for real, but I was with Sven who is pretty awesome at snowboarding so I didn't want him to get board so we hit a few runs that led us to the other side of the mountain for some much longer and steeper runs. Every run we hit was a little steeper and longer but the snow plow was working just fine and there weren't a lot of big turns so I was fine. Then we hit one of the longest runs on the mountain, not to mention it was really steep. As we were riding up the lift I started getting nervous as this lift just kept going up and up and it got real windy and at the top our faces were getting pelted with snow/ice. It was at this point I wish I would've ponied up $40 for a pair of goggles. The Oakley's weren't cutting it. We hit the end of the lift and I stood up to get off and the chair hit the back of my knees and I sat back down. Now I'm 5 feet in the air starting to head back down the mountain so I jump off and lost a ski.

So I get my composure back and I'm ready to start down the hill. At this point it's learn to ski or ride down on my arse. I spent more time on my in the snow then I did on top of it. I was fortunate Sven was with me and every time I'd lose my ski's after a fall he'd get them and jump back up the hill to give them to me. He wasn't much of a skier but he was trying to give me tips and he noticed a skier shifting his weight to the outside leg on turns. I had been putting all my weight on my inside leg and i couldn't get my other ski around so this was a huge tip. A couple tries and falls later I had it down. Sven said it was really impressive how I improved by the minute. The rest of the day was awesome until the last run which I tried a black diamond. I think I would've been fine but I couldn't see a thing, it was a friggen blizzard and total whiteout conditions. After falling about 6 times I rode on my arse until we got far enough down that the trees blocked a lot of the wind and snow so I could see. After the run we called it a day.

Click here for some pics of from the day.

Race Day

You're thinking the Daytona 500 right? Unfortunately I couldn't watch it since I had lab time at work. Which bummed me out since I wanted to see how Junior would do on Gordon's team. I arrived to work to find the usual parking lot I park in blocked off and full of cones. WTF there's friggen race track set up and screaming rice burners hitting the track. How safe is that I wondered. These cars are racing 10-15 feet from light pulls. Then I thought about asking if I could take my rental out on the track. But I'm probably one of the worst drivers ever so I decided against it. Most of the cars were 90's looking, the Fast and the Furious wannabes, but there was a newer looking Corvette, Mazda RX8, and I think a Lotus. I was late for my lab time so I couldn't watch that long but it was cool from what I saw. It looked like each car got two laps and they they had to get back in line. They had a dude taking times and all.

So does your employer let you turn their parking lot into a race track on Sundays?

9-1-1 is busy

Friday Jen and I were heading to Blockbuster to get some movies. I was in the second lane from the right on a four lane expressway. There was an Explorer a couple car lengths in front of me one lane over and I noticed it starting to drift into the far left lane and BAM it nails the car waiting for a left turn signal and veers sideways into my lane. I slammed on the breaks and maneuvered away from the car and the debris left from the accident. For a second I thought the driver was going to just drive away but he/she eventually turned into a parking lot. I'm not sure why they just didn't pull over to the shoulder but whatever. By this time I'm past the accident and there are a lot of cars behind me so I didn't stop. I called 911 and got a recording asking if it was an emergency to which I replied yes. Then I got another recording saying that all lines were busy and to wait until the next available operator. I waited for a bit and by this time I figured someone else had gotten through or something so I hung up. I couldn't believe that 911 was busy. I wonder how often that happens and if anyone has died because of it.

Twins Update

Jen had another ultra sound today. All is great. The twins are 3.3 and 3.4 pounds. Jen checked what the weight is supposed to be and they're supposed to be 2.5lbs so they're growing really good. The babies are getting big enough that it's really hard to see them in the ultra sound. I thought as they got bigger one would be able to see the features better but it's opposite. The scan only covers a small portion of the baby.

Now we need names. I'm thinking Eric and Al after my brothers but Jen isn't going for it. All the names we pick are taken by the family or they're pets of the family.

Super Awesome

With Jen pregnant and not feeling the best we ended up just hanging out at the apartment to watch the Super Bowl. At half time I paused the game with our Comcast DVR and we went to Target grocery shopping. When we got back I started the game again and during the fourth quarter with the Patriots driving the DRV skipped to the post game celebration. I was so mad that I missed the last two drives but on the other hand I was happy the Giants won. I was a Patriots fan until last year when Belichick wouldn't acknowledge Payton Manning when he tried to shack his hand. All year I wanted the Pats to lose at least one game. I figured they'd win the Super Bowl but as long as they didn't go undefeated I wouldn't care that much. To stomach having to hear about them year in and year out would suck. But now that they've lost it moves the Vikings '98 season as the 2nd best team to not win a Super Bowl.

The Grand Prix

One perk of this off site rotation is having a rental car. If I don't like the car I can trade for a different one at any time. I pay for the car with a CC and my employer pays me back so it looks like I'm spending a lot of money on rentals, so now every time I get a top of the line model car. The rental I have now is by far the best car I've rented, a 2008 Grand Prix GXP with leather seats and satellite radio, it's top of the line. It's got a 300hp V8 and it's figgen fast. I love it and I wish I would've bought it instead of my Mazda 6. Although it only gets about 20 mpg with my driving compared to almost 30 with the Mazda. I think the extra power on the freeways here is totally worth it. Satellite radio is great too, but I wouldn't get it if I had to pay for it.

Here's the list of cars I've rented in order of favorite to least favorite:
- Pontiac Grand Prix
- Chevy Impala
- Chevy Malibu
- Dodge Charger
- Hyundai Elantra
- Hyundai Entourage
- Chevy HHR
- Mercury Grand Marquis (this car was so big I couldn't reach the radio without having to lean forward)