Staying in Touch and Immunizations

I have to travel this week for a couple days, and, unfortunately, Susan has to take Susannah in to her two month check-up and immunization shots on Wednesday without me. I’m kind of bummed I will not be able to be there.

Well, the beauty of modern technology is that I can still “be there” through web conferencing. It is not just for business. It can be used to be there right in the doctor’s office.

We may not use that option, but I will certainly call Susan on Wednesday to see how Susannah is doing. She is going to be sore from the shots she has to take this time. There are a lot of shots: Hepatitis B, DTaP, Hib, Polio (IPV), Pneumococcal (PCV), Rotavirus. That is just the first time. She will go through a series of these same immunization shots.

I do not want Susannah to hurt, but this is for her good. I just have to trust the medical community knows what they are doing.

What Should I Do With My Life? Play Golf and Bond with Dad!

It was April of 1996, a year after finally achieving my Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Music, and I was still unsure of my direction in life. After all that schooling and spent money, I still didn’t know what I could really do with my degree. I was frustrated and wondering and I needed to take my mind off my present situation. Easter weekend was upon us, so I went home to Cadillac, MI to hang out and have dinner with my family.

My dad and I had an interesting relationship. If we talked about anything other than golf or gambling we would butt heads. This was one of the good weekends. Since it was Masters weekend, we were in hog heaven and getting along handsomely. We were watching the final round of the Masters, the year of the colossal collapse of Greg Norman. Nick Faldo won that year, but all I can remember is how difficult it was to watch Greg Norman fall apart.

Unlike Greg, this was a very good weekend for me because I felt accepted by my dad. Not just because we were communicating well, but because of what I decided to then and there.

“You know, I wonder if I could get into the golf business. You know, just work in a shop and get into the business side of golf.”

My dad seriously shocked me. “That is a good idea. You should look into that. That is a great idea.”

Wow. My dad never thinks my ideas are good let alone great.

A week later, I had a job as an Assistant Golf Professional at Maple Hill Golf Club under Jim Ransberger outside of Saginaw, MI. Crazy, I know, but I just began making the calls starting Monday. I hunted down the job, and with God’s help of course and I got it. I was pumped up!

That winter I headed down to Orlando, Florida to continue my golf career. Rodney and Tina Porteous had made the move down there earlier that year, and they offered me a room for a month until I got on my feet.

I knew I was not there for Disney. No Kissimmee vacation for me. I was there to work and continue my new golf career.

After working for a month and a half with a Rent-A-Center place, I got the call I was waiting for. I interviewed with Metro West Country Club and got the job. I was there to pull carts out in the morning and push them back in the evening and carry clubs for the players to the first hole and pick up range balls, but I was excited. What an opportunity!

Three weeks into the job I got a call from Chad, my oldest brother. I knew that whenever I got a call from him something was wrong. He said our dad had been diagnosed with liver cancer. It was the third time he had gotten the hideous disease, and that was the last time. He died April 29, 1997.

But I hold dear the time my dad and I bonded over my golf career. He was so very proud of me because of that, and I was like a kid again relishing in his love and encouragement. That last year with my dad was the best year I ever had with him and for all the garbage we went through, it was worth it to get to it.

The Yellow Room

Susannah’s room is painted a wonderful shade of sunshine yellow with murals covering three walls. Hold on, I am trying to find the pictures I took of the room.

Well, I will have to find them at home. Don’t you hate it when you think you have your photos organized to a point where you think you can find anything?

I think I have them somewhere else on another portable hard drive.

{edit, hours later}I found them!

Anyway, this room is going to be Susannah’s room if we stay in our house while she grows up. We may very well stay here. We love it in Portsmouth. The neighborhood we bought our house in has great character. Our neighbors are like the neighbors of old. We talk to each other. The neighbors across the street from us just had a little boy and so they are very kind in offering any kind of kids bedding or a swing or a bassinet. We have used that bassinet a whole lot. Susannah sleeps in our room for now, but we will soon get her used to her own bed and her own room. The yellow room. She will love it!

Vacationing in North Carolina

I moved down to the Hampton Roads, Va area back in May of 2000. Susan moved down here in 1997 around May as well. She has absolutely loved the ocean since she’s been down here, but the whole ocean way of life had to grow on me. I just could not stand the bridges and tunnels. It is a starting and stopping way of life. And I really don’t like to swim in the ocean. I know, it is crazy, but I don’t.

But the whole area is growing on me. Susan and I spent a weekend with her sister when they rented some NC waterfront property down near Nags Head, NC. We slept in a downstairs room right off the ocean. That changed my tune quite a bit. I would love to even own a piece of property right on the ocean if I could afford it. So peaceful watching the surf roll in and out and going to sleep at night just listening to the waves hit the shore. And the sea air really clears out your lungs. It is like an extra charge of something. The more I live down here, the more I love it down here. And that is a good thing, because I don’t think I could drag my wife away.

Oh my Goodness, She is Crying Again…

Susan and I are at the three week and one day mark of being parents. It is so much fun watching Susannah get bigger and change before our very eyes. And we do even love her fussing and crying, strange as it may seem. We just know the crying goes with the territory of a newborn. She still doesn’t know what is happening around her and she just knows that she got fed twenty four hours a day, seven days a week in the womb, and now when she wakes up, her stomach is empty. And so she screams bloody murder.

And when Susan or I have a major headache from the screaming we have ways to deal with it. Take an aspirin or something stronger, like fioricet, a medicine for stronger-than-average headaches.

But we love it. That crying means that she is alive and well. No sign of weakness in her lungs.

Eating Habits

Susan and I usually have dinner at our dinner table, but there is the occasion where we like to bust out the folding tables and sit in the living room. We like Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy from 7-8pm, and when we are running a bit late, we like to do that sometimes.

Now since our family has grown by 50%, we find it easier to eat at the table while Susan or I hold Susannah or place her in the bouncer chair that we put together this weekend. We were putting Susannah in a little basket that we purchased at a garage sale, but she is quickly outgrowing it. It is quite snug even for a 7 pounder like Susannah.

Loss of a loved one

It is never easy to lose those we love. I have been through it with my birth mother in 1979 when I was an eleven-year-old boy, and I have been through it with my father in 1997 when I was a thirty-year-old man, and it is never never never easy.

Our next-door neighbor lost one of her three sons this week. He had recently gone in to have a blockage removed. He struggled with his oxygen levels for a couple days, but he wanted to come home. The doctors chose to honor his wishes. Two days later, he was with His Savior. We and many others offer not only our sympathy gifts in the form of flowers and donations to his church, but most importantly, we offer our prayers for his surviving mother, brothers and sister. They are great folks who love the Lord.

Day 4: Packing on the Weight

Susannah was born 6lb 12oz on Tuesday, and from what we have learned, babies lose weight initially. This was the case with Susannah. We left the hospital and she was down to 6lb 4oz. No problem. Very normal.

We were a bit more concerned by the next morning. We had been up just about all night with Susannah as she wanted to suck and nurse and nurse and nurse more. She was doing all the tell-tale signs an infant does to signal her hunger, and we were listening.

Since Susan’s milk apparently hadn’t come in yet, Susannah was getting the very-important first breast milk, the colostrum, but Susannah was working hard to get it.

Friday morning we went to our first pediatric appointment with Susannah. She was down to 5lb 15oz. She had apparently lost about 12% of her body weight since she was born.

Dr David Zlotkin of Pediatric Affiliates taught our first baby class we took at Chesapeake General and so we have decided to go to his clinic. He was a bit concerned over the weight loss, and so we are now supplementing Susannah’s diet with formula. She at a whole lot of breast milk and formula from yesterday till this morning.

This morning we went for a follow-up weight check and she weighed in at 6lb 5oz! Praise God! We are continuing the progress and we are thanking God for the weight gain. Yesterday was a scary day for us novice parents, but God is in control.

Living in the Tidewater Region

Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water and the region of land areas which surround it in southeastern Virginia in the USA. Hampton Roads is notable for its huge ice-free harbor, for U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force facilities, shipbuilding and repair yards, coal piers, and hundreds of miles of waterfront property and beaches, all of which contribute to the diversity and stability of the region’s economy. The Virginia Peninsula and South Hampton Roads are sometimes considered Tidewater, VA.

I have been living here since 2000. Susan has been here since 1997. She loves the water, but I am just now learning to enjoy what the area has to offer in terms water activities. Fishing, kayaking, harbor cruises, more than one yacht charter, swimming, and a whole lot more.

My goal is to experience the water side of life more and more now that our daughter is on her way. She deserves to experience the beauty of this area.

Show your love to your sweetie!

Susan and I bought our house in March of 2005 and we have loved virtually every minute of it. And because Susan had always loved playing piano, we bought one to go with the house, but it had some tuning issues. It was good enough to plunk, but for those who can actually play get frustrated when the pedals don’t work or when a key sticks.

I decided, this weekend, to get the piano tuned as a gift for my sweetie. And she did love it. She hasn’t played on it yet since it just got tuned up this morning, but she is quite excited to get home tonight.

My point is: do something nice for the love of your life. Whether it is printable greeting cards, songs written down and sung, or a piano tuned, do something for your honey!