One Way or Another...

After waiting all night and have way through the day today, Julie was having strong contractions, all the monitors said so. Unfortunately, while Thomas was handling labor well Julie could not get passed a 5 on a scale that goes to 10. The contractions were not causing the progress they were supposed to. A decision was made, we had little choice in it, that while baby was still doing well a C-section would be performed. Twenty minutes later Julie was being wheeled in the O.R. and a couple minutes after that we had a beautiful baby boy just 37 weeks old. Strong, and healthier than anyone expected he scored 9 and 9 and weighed in at 5 lbs 9.8 oz, just 17 inches long, Thomas quieted right down and settled into daddy's arms. He had a little squeak when he first cried, and concerned about fluid in his lungs he was sent to the NICU just in a transitional state, meaning he wasn't being admitted just checked more closely. What a beautiful blessed day this was both mom and dad were so proud.
After arriving at the NICU with dad, the cardiologists performed the echo to double check his heart, all was as expected, and he was to be discharged to the healthy baby nursery. Mom was doing great in recovery they stapled her up nice and she was progressing well as well. I brought the camera back to Julie so she could see the pictures of Thomas I had taken. After checking on mom I headed back to be with Thomas. That's where I found the cardiologist and the bad news. Just after I left they had taken one more picture of his heart and he appeared to have a narrowing in his Aorta that could be dangerous and require immediate surgery as soon as the fetal valves began to close (usually within 24 hours of birth). Thomas would be staying in the NICU. I took the news back to Julie, it was a very emotional time for us. We were so glad to have our little angel here, and so sad he couldn't be with us.

Just a Checkup!

Today, we went to Phoenix for Julie's weekly checkup. We packed our bags just in case as we have done everytime we headed south, never really beliving they wouldn't let us leave. After an ultrasound we waited for the doctor, who came in to tell us some unexpected news. Concerned about the baby's growth and some other factors they told us to head over to labor and delivery, we would be having this baby today!! Julie got all hooked up, got her juice and a sucker, had her IV put in by a student nurse (OUCH!!), and waited. We waited all through the night, first was a drug to prepare Julie for the delivery, it takes 12 hours to work, then the drug to begin strong contractions.... still waiting... Midnight came and still no baby.

Hangar Party

There was an airshow this weekend in Prescott. We didn't get to go because I had to work, however we did get to take in the festivities the night before. Courtesy of Lockheed Martin I was awarded two tickets to the Hangar Party the night before. The tickets were priced at $60 a piece, and catered by the fanciest restaurants in town. It was basically a dinner for VIPs, airshow pilots, and sponsors to say good luck. We had a good time on what may be one of our final nice nights out together before we have to start worrying about babysitters and such. Hope you enjoy the pictures we enjoyed being there

Finally Ready

His room is done, the backs are packed, a new car is in the driveway, everything is ready to welcome Thomas, Especially us!!

It's been a long wait, but we know it will be worth it, we are ready for our lives to change for the better.

2 more weeks!!

He's almost here. If he hasn't come sooner Julie will be induced on October 22. We can't wait!

Yes this is an old picture 4-months old in fact.

Baby Showers with new friends!!

Here are some pictures of some of the friends we've met in Prescott, and of the showers they threw for Julie.

Preparing His Room

We have been busy preparing for our new arrival for the last several months, needless to say the blog has sufferred. I am getting around to putting up our recent pictures, especially of our preparation. We are enjoying life in Prescott, and excited for Thomas, we'll try and keep this updated especially after the baby comes we know family and friends will be interested.

Building the crib....

Looking good...

Is this straight?

Time to catch up!!!

Ok so by now you can tell that I am just about the worst blogger ever. Truth is the weather had been so nice and gas prices so low (below $2.00), that who would want to sit around and type on a computer all day. Well, you are in luck, the weather has turned colder, fall came and went in a week, and the harsh cold winter is about to set in. So, I'm back to keep you updated on all our adventures, but first to play a little cath-up. The next few entries will go month by month and include all the fun activities you see here. So stay tuned for an update on our exciting life.... 

Somebody turn on the A/C

Well, its been hotter than... well, you know. The last couple weeks we've seen temperature in the 90's, even up to 96 the other day, and with the humidity around here you'd almost think that we are no longer in North Dakota. And then you realize that no one ever imagined that they would need air conditioning in ND so they didn't install it. Well, we went to Wal-Mart and bought a fan that we carry around the house to blow hot air on ourselves, since the air conditioners were like 75 bucks... I can't wait for winter. You know when it's freezing you can always put more clothes on... but in the sweltering heat you can only take so many off, and even less outdoors. Maybe we'll see a lot of movies this summer, or like teenagers spend time hanging out in the mall bumming some of their A/C!

19 Credits... 6 Classes... 1 Grade... Priceless!!

Julie's sooooo proud! That's 3 semesters in a row, we'll just see if I can keep it up this summer with more advanced classes.

AVIT 103: Intro Air Traffic Control - A
AVIT 208: Aviation Safety - A
AVIT 260: ATC:Tower Operations I - A
AVIT 261: ATC: Radar Operations I - A
ECON 303: Money & Banking - A
MATH 146: Applied Calculus I - A

Courses Attempted - 6
Units Passed Toward GPA - 19
Current Term GPA - 4.000

Stress... Stress... & MORE STRESS

Stress...

Well we learned recently that Julie's job is coming to an end. Blue Cross Blue Shield is shutting down the Grand Forks office in her department. We are hoping that they will be able to place her in another office here in Grand Forks and it will be a seamless transition. Needless to say, it's been kinda wait and see and so far we haven't seen anything. So we're worried and stressed and on top of that...

Stress...

It's finals week, the time where all the time work and energy you've put in all semester can be pretty much thrown out the window by a poor performance on an exam with no recourse. So I've been studying and praying, that I will do well enough to get the grades I want. I feel ok about most of the ones I've taken, the last one is tonight at about 5:30 - it's Calculus which has been kicking my butt all semester, in other words I need to do really well. After that I'll have a couple days off to relax before... I get to start the cycle of stress all over again as a new semester starts on Monday and I'm fully loaded with classes. They cancelled one of my summer courses which threatened for a time to push my graduation back till next May, all for a 2 credit class, but luckily I spent a single semester here back in 1999, and that class hadn't been invented yet, so I don't have to take it. And then...

AND MORE STRESS....

Late last week I got a call asking if I could drive to Fargo early Saturday morning to meet with the Stake President. So we got in the car, made the long drive, and got the news... more on that later...

But we did have some fun in Fargo, Julie wanted to check out some garage sales, and man do they take those things seriously out here, cars were parked for blocks as we walked street after street of one large neighborhood where everyone was out hawking there stuff... I've never seen such madness.. The even had professional hot dog vendors and such out for the event... We did get a nice desk for 5 bucks for my future studies and some other stuff to, we took in some Famous Daves with a giftcard while we were in town, and went to Kohl's for the latest deals. It was fun...

It's just too bad that it was the result of somebody feeling they needed to extend me a calling of Elder's quorum president... Yeah, I'm going to be busy. My plan is to just choose a couple good counselors I can lean on a great deal, only problem is we haven't been here very long and I don't really know hardly anybody, I have been staring at the ward list night after night hoping for a name or two to pop out at me, but so far no luck. Well I'll keep you informed, boy I sure wasn't ready or even expecting that one, after all it's not like we are going to be around for very long.

Well keep praying for us... We sure need it!!

Easter etc....

Well the water is receding, and the grass is turning green, overall things are great. We've had temperatures in the high 70's while it was snowing in Utah, and are enjoying the outdoors with nice long walks, For example for Easter, Julie got me a football and frisbee, so we've been known to walk to the park or just hang out and play.



Speaking of Easter it was good we died eggs, got gifts from home, and have plenty of candy to last for a while, I made French bread (I make bread a lot) and baked artichoke-spinach dip, and we ate that along with some spaghetti, and Julie made no-bake cookies it was good!

THE GREAT FLOOD OF 2006

I know it's been a long time since our last post, so forgive us.

As I discussed in last time, the mountains of snow had to melt sometime. Well, with the recent warm temperatures, it has!! And boy has it melted, the only thing keeping us dry, is the brand new levees they started building after the town was turned into a lake in 1997. We have seen minor and moderate flood stages come and go, and now we sit at several feet above MAJOR FLOOD stage with the Red River.

We went down for a walking tour and took some pictures for you all to enjoy. As you can see the roads are closed downtown, the bridges over the river have closed, since the water is now flowing over them.

There were a lot of people out taking picture of the event, walking on the dikes, and a few were trying to fish off the bridge, where the water is normally about a forty foot drop, but today it was up and over in some places. Now, we may have had to go over or under some yellow "do not cross" police line tape to get these pictures, but honestly, like some little yellow tape is going to keep us away, this is the biggest thing we have seen happen in our four months here!

This is the Minnesota side of the Bridge, Nobody is getting into East Grand Forks anytime soon, at least not this way.

Notice the gazeebo, there is supposed to be a large park here, playground, benches, tables, etc. Oh, yeah and that is the bridge that the water is usually a 40-foot drop.

Closed?? C'mon I have four wheel drive!

Sometimes you just can't find a convenient trash can.

I need some waders to get to Cabela's, but I need to get to Cabela's so I can get waders?

I hope nobody parked on this street.

The city is shut down, nothing to do, why not see if there is any fish in that flood. After all the river is a lot closer now!

If you want more or bigger pictures just e-mail us and we'll send them. And thanks to my family for the digital camera, so we can post these pictures the same day. Anybody want to buy us a raft, we can get a great parking space at Applebee's!

2 Years & Counting....

We recently celebrated our two year anniversary; it’s crazy to think that we’ve already been married that long. Of course, Julie says it seems like forever – I don’t know what that means. But it’s been a great two years, and we look forward to many more.

School is still going good, and still tough, calculus is killing me, of course I haven’t been in a math class in 6 years, so right now 8th grade algebra would probably whoop my butt.

The snow keeps coming down and the wind keeps blowing, and it never gets above like 10 degrees here (last week wind chills were between -40 and -60), so the snow doesn’t melt, so it just keeps piling up. We don’t have real mountains, but the way they pile up snow in these huge piles, you would never know this part of the country is flat, it looks like we have rolling hills.

Can’t wait for spring to come, just glad we live on the second floor, because when it warms up and the “mountains" melt, up will come the flood.

I have received requests to put more pictures up, so even though we don’t have any recent ones, we need to buy a new roll of film, I thought I’d post some from our Christmas away from home. We set up a small tree on a TV tray and put presents under it, got dressed up in pajamas my family sent to us and made the best of it.

Really Freezing!!!

After the warmest January ever recorded in Grand Forks, winter has finally decided to kick in. The last few days we have seen crazy blizzards and temperatures in the negatives with wind chills of -20...brrrrr.

The good news is we finally got our pictures developed and decided to start posting some on our blog. This is the picture of our apartment building. We live on the second floor, it's not as bad as Julie would have you believe.

We went to a hockey game the other day. These people take this sport way to seriously. First of all all the chairs in the arena are leather and trimmed in cherry, the concourse floors aren't concrete, they're granite! We got seats in the student section, which aren't free for students, but they're not as expensive as the rest. This is no E-Center Grizzlies game either, where they're lucky to get a thousand people to a game. No the place is packed with sold out crowds of 12,000, oh and though they have a huge parking lot next to the arena, nobody gets to park there. Then the fools, at least the ones by us feel that they need to stand for the entire game... it's hockey for heaven's sake and collegiate hockey at that... We found some seats though where people were sitting down so we could get off our feet. Well, anyway it went into overtime.. a whole 18 seconds of overtime before they lost, but oh well, it was still fun they had some cool laser shows during the break, and it wasn't too cold that night, good thing since we had to walk for like a mile away.