Limbo

With only 3 weeks left until the baby's due, we're really close to reaching the crest of parenthood. Now that we are this far it feels like I'm an old man. (In fact, I took a real age test a couple weeks ago that said I'm actually 30 years old not 23.) It's kind of traumatic how much life changes with a child in the picture. There's plenty of things that change... here's a couple of things on my mind:

• No temple trips for Amelia until Jonah's feedings are at least 4 hours apart.
• Diapers
• Having another person around the house to communicate with.
• Having to teach that new person EVERYTHING they need to know about the gospel.
• Family Home Evening finally becomes family home evening. (maybe not for a few more years, but it will be different)

I'm sure there's plenty more, but those are probably the most foremost in my mind.

top ten things I miss

Well with only 3 weeks left to go, I've started thinking about all the things I miss.

Top Ten things Pregnant Amelia misses
10. Sleeping without peeing every other hour.
9. The ability to roll over in bed.
8. Not having to tuck a pillow under my belly so I'm comfortable.
7. Small boobs. (What's wrong with those women who get enlargements? Big boobs suck.)
6. A flat stomach.
5. No stomach problems...I have the worst indigestion. I eat a gazillion tums every day.
4. Tying my own shoes.
3. Being able to breath normally and not getting winded when I walk 3 lousy feet.
2. Feeling satisfied after eating, not like I'm gonna hurl.
1. Cuddling with my husband without having a 3rd person between us.

Grumpy Old Men

Last night I went to make a visit with my Elder's Quorum President. It was just a normal home teaching visit with lots of chatter and discussion about every day life. One of our subjects was about the drought. I thought about this man's job as an employee with the Flower Mound parks department, and I said, "What do you do in the parks department when there's no rain?"

He replied, "Well... we mow the grass even though there isn't any. We fix fences, and we clean poop off of playgrounds."

"You clean poop off of playgrounds," was my response. It seemed like it didn't fit his job description.

He said, "Yea, there's this old guy who has a playground by his house. He's mad because they built this playground right next to his home. So everyday when he walks his dog he takes the dog poop and smears it all over the playground so the little kids won't want to play on it. His neighbor caught him doing it and called us."

It seems really immature for a grumpy old man to be doing something like that. Don't you think?

01.20.06

Pregnancies are dangerous things. Luckily there are plenty of people that want to help men cope with the stresses and bruises that come with the transition from husband to father. It's probably really hard for some men to believe this but there are books that can tell you in a few simple sentences what to do with your wife when she's completely rabid. One book is The Baby Whisperer. Amelia shared some things with me from it last night, and I thought, "Wow, that's so true."

I started school this week. It's my 4th full time semester, 5th semester total. On Wednesday I went into my geology class and recognized a girl from my previous stake. Last time I saw her she was in high school. It was another attestation that the majority of my class mates are under 20. Maybe I should appreciate that more, but I don't. It only makes me want to get to the university faster. On a brighter note, when I drove up to school today there were cops, maintence people, and what looked like old ladies putting up barricades. I thought, "I guess I'll drive to the other side." So I did. When I got there I saw that there were more barricades and cops. I drove home and found out school was cancelled because a water main broke. I haven't even been in school a week and I already had some time off.

Hospital Tour

Last night Jordan and I went on a tour of the hospital where I'll be delivering. I should have foreseen the lack of intelligence on this tour before I even set out. They sent a letter to confirm your attendance that told all about how to get to birthing classes. I had to call find out where to go. And I still was unsure when I got there. Upon the arrival of the tour guide, I thought to myself "what an overly sweet kind of out-of-it" lady. She said, "We'll start at the beginning." Then we went to the baby nursery. I'm not sure how delivering a baby starts with the baby nursery but whatever. As we progressed through the tour, I realized she was failing to answer anyone's questions. At one point, Jordan asked, "So when we come to the hospital, where do we go first?" I can't remember her response because it had nothing to do with the question but I do remember thinking, "why is Jordan asking her a question?" Later he told me I even looked at him funny. When people asked questions specific to the hospital like, "do you have squat bars for birthing?" She responded saying, "Ask your doctor about positions for labor and delivery." Anyways, so we are briefly viewing a 2nd birthing room, and she says, "You'll have to excuse my awkwardness, I just had back surgery, and I have to wear this huge back brace." Then a lightbulb went off in my head. She must have been on some pain drugs or something
because she wasn't making a lick of sense. To make a long story short, we do know where to go but it was more because we figured it out than the "overly sweet definitely out-of-it on pain medication" tour lady.

NZ

My friend Geoff took a pretty big jump at the new year. After working like a dog for 6 months, he packed up everything he could take and moved to New Zealand. I thought I'd share part of an email I got from him. He shared a ton of information just by writing out a list... here are some interesting statements he made about "middle earth" since he's been there:

• The airline lost the bags that contained my clothes and power adapters.
• I wore the same shirt of three days. It was not pleasant.
• Then got tired of smelling and was forced to buy a couple ofStussy shirts because they are so cheap here.
• The crosswalks make really funny noises here.
• I sleep in a room with three other people who are from either A.The UK or B. Germany and don't like that I snore so loud.
• There are about one zillion cute girls here. None of them are "hot"per se, but all are more Geoff type cute, which is good. Also, theyall have funny accents.
• I have a psuedo-date with a gal named Sophia who is trying out to beon the New Zealand sailing team.

I think that managing to get a date after you've been in a foreign country for a few days is a pretty good thing. Unless she's some psycho like what you see in the movies who ends up stealing all of his money, and leaves him naked somewhere remote. Or worse in Geoff's case, a sailboat.

Cougardom Doth Grow

My brother D-Rock finished his application for BYZOO a few weeks ago. I told him that if he logged in to Route Y, he might see some new additions if he had been admitted. He called me the other day and said, "there's stuff on there I haven't seen before." I replied, with a kind of nervous pause, "Send me your login and I'll tell you if I find anything". In a few moments I was logged in and checking out his stuff. Under the personal information section I saw "admitted undergraduate - Fall 2006". I called him back and told him he was in.

It's pretty exciting to know I'll have a brother up there with me. Even though Amelia has family in Provo, I would still have to work on the whole BRT thing. I've already done that with Derrick, and spent the better part of 17 years doing it. He knows my blanky was red with soccer players, and I know his was light blue with cuddly bears. It's nice knowing I'll have a buddy close who shares those kinds of bonds.

Family

My sister, Ruthanne and her family have been in town from Oregon for almost 2 weeks now. When we were growing up and even when we lived together as roomies for a year in Provo, we fought all the time. Its amazing how things work out though. We get along great when we don't live together. In fact, I think my other two sisters have kind of paired off in a suportive sisterly relationship keeping in close contact and enjoying sisterly conversation. I must say I feel a special bond with Ruthanne that I never would have imagined having. Her son is the 2nd from the right and I must say he is the cutest. My sister is a great mom. I have a ton of respect for her. I'm also really excited because as soon as she leaves here, she is going to pack up her home in Vancouver and move to Boise. She'll only be a few hours from me in Provo and I'm so excited. I have a place to go for holidays that will have the same traditions that I have. The other kids are great too and my sister Ginney is a great mom too. I'm just feeling especially attached to Ruthanne since I haven't seen her in over a year. Anyways, families are amazing especially sisters...actually, my brothers...well I'lll write one about them another day.

Desperation

Last time I posted, I made note that I haven't been doing anything at work lately. I usually find that this is the time to pick up a good book and read it straight through. But it doesn't seem to work out that way. It's real easy when you find a stopping point in your reading to say, "I think I'm going to check out this blog", or "I think I'm going to play pool". I even found myself wanting to type a story, although I had no ideas for one in my head. If that doesn't display my desperation to make some use of this machine, then maybe saying that I sat here and hugged the monitor will.

School starts next week. Among my classes is a 3 hour block for PHED 1119... Beginning Weight Training. It's enough to scare me thinking about working out every day. I don't really feel that way. It's probably because I like working out when I have a schedule for it. If I don't, you'll only see a J-dog with a gut and big butt.

Before and After

I decided today that an increasing belly makes it feel like your arms are gettting shorter. The belly is placed evenly with all work surfaces so that you are too far from the table when eating. Too far from the sink when brushing your teeth. Too far from the counter with cutting potatoes. Too far from the desk so you can hardly type. Too far from the kitchen sink when washing dishes. I can barely reach the knobs. No wonder pregnant women have back problems we're always having to bend around funny. Anyways, I hope that it is my belly and not that my arms are truly getting shorter.

Afronomics

All but 1 one of my coworkers were laid off yesterday. One thing that really stinks about telemarketing is how unexpectedly it can turn over. Next month we might have a completely new team, but for now I'm stuck dilly dallying on the internet.

I have to make a note about one topic I read about today at wikipedia.org, and that is african economics. I've been turned off from the subject because it gets so much attention by music celebrities trying to make it the cool thing to do. I don't know what changed in me today, but I finally had some curious interest in it. So here's what I learned. Africa has a long history of detrimental acts which crippled individual countries until it spread throughout the whole continent. It's the only place in the world that gets poorer every year. That's kind of depressing if you think about it. It would have to get rid of despotism (what we call tryannical governments), wide spread disease, famine, violence, and debt to better its chances. It would also need huge developments to improve transporting goods from one end to the other. It's future is glorious if the right things happen.

Quitting

I quit my job today and I feel like a million bucks. I've decided that quitting a job is the best thing in the world. Every job I've had, after quitting, I feel euphoric. I love it. My excuse for quitting was that I'm just too tired to work anymore. I say excuse but really, during the holidays when I wasn't busy I slept for 12 hours. Normally, I get 8 and I'm exhausted constantly. I am so excited because next week, I get as much sleep as I can stand. On top of it all, I only gave 4 days notice and my boss still gave me her card and told me that anytime I ever need a reccomendation to giver her a call. She pretty much told me I was amazing. Its nice to be appreciated. the end.

01.01.06 "Ought Six"

Last night we slept in a camper. One day when I have grandkids that come over, I hope I have a camper that they can sleep in. My grandparents used to have one on the back of an old Chevy Silverado. I spent a few cold nights in there. That one didn't have a toilet like Dad A's does.

This morning we woke up and hung out with the Horton's. I'm really amazed at my sister-in-law's and her husbands parenting. It baffles me how prematurely mature their 2 year old son is. The kid can communicate better than most 3, almost 4 year olds.

"Ought Six" is going to be a busy one. A son. A new school. A new city, and a new state. My parents will mostly likely be in a new house soon. My little brother Derrick will find out whether he's going to school in Idaho or Utah. Lots of things in the mix. Stay tuned.

(new photos are up from the funeral as well as some birthday action. http://www.flickr.com/photos/fjsheen/)