New Video

Grabbed a video this morning of Zac playing with Nana. It should be showing up on the right side where the videos are before too long. Enjoy!

Well, Numb But OK

Alright, so I have weird numbness in spots and still sit here with gauze to stop the bleeding, but overall I feel surprisingly well from the oral surgery this morning. What's funny to me is that I was wide awake one moment, then the next thing I know I'm waking up. I would've thought I'd have drifted off slowly or at least sensed the tiredness coming on, but it was literally a case of being awake one moment and absolutely out the next. Very cool, since I didn't want to remember any of this.

Now, we'll see how the swelling goes. I have quite a bit, but overall I'm not yet uncomfortable. I prayed this morning that God would keep the discomfort and swelling down from normal levels so I can feel well and in good spirits to take care of Zac. For now, his Nana is keeping him for me this afternoon until Katy picks him up after work. I'm not allowed to drive for 24 hours, but that's OK. :)

I Like To Share

I suspect that by the time most of you read this, it will be Monday some time, or later, instead of Sunday night. It is likely, then, that while you are being wowed by my incredible writing, humor and wisdom, one-third of that combination has just been removed.

You guessed it, Monday morning I am having 3 of my 4 wisdom teeth removed. When I inquired of God as to why I had to have this done, He simply replied that it was time for me to "stop hoarding all the wisdom and let some others get in on it for a bit." I think the method for being forced to give up some of my apparent great wisdom is pretty lousy, but I can see His point. Really, how fair would it be for me to be the only oracle when others could also get in on the act?

Some of you may be wondering why they are leaving one of my wisdom teeth in. Well, I'm sure there are actual dental and medical reasons for this, but my personal opinion is that if they remove that last one, the next sentence to leave my mouth around the house will be something akin to "I love Hot Pockets!", followed by a toothy grin and a watery "Phhhbbbtttt." That's it. I genuinely fear for what is to come. I really do.

UPDATE, Monday Morning 10 a.m.: Alright, nothing on the wisdom teeth as that happens in about 45 minutes, but wanted to include this pic of Zac I just took while he's out cold this morning. I've decided that when he is sleeping is just one of my favorite times with him. And no, I'm not trying to be funny. It's just that when children are sleeping, there is nothing else to consider other than watching how amazing they are. He's so cute, you know? I like to simply sit and watch him sometimes. It makes me feel good inside. :) I did the same thing with Claire, too. It was always so enjoyable to watch her sleep. So peaceful, so carefree, so happy.

Changing Routines

One thing that's always interesting about children is watching them grow in so many different ways. Up until just a few days ago, Zac's routine was very predictable. He'd wake up in the morning, eat and play for about 90 minutes, sleep for two hours, then do it all over again until evening when he'd eat his last time and sleep through the night. He generally has his last meal around 9 or 9:30 and after that he sleeps until at least 8 in the morning. Yeah, I know, it's great!

Well the other day he decided he's going to begin staying awake longer at times during the day, and not at all consistent with what he had been doing. So sometimes now, he'll sleep maybe 30 or 45 minutes during a 4-hour period, typically earlier in the day. And even later, he'll sleep at the most 90 minutes, usually, instead of a few hours. This is all just part of him getting older, sure, but it's still fascinating to watch.

I think as parents we have to achieve superhuman patience and focus sometimes, but it's made easier when we pour ourselves fully into our children. I missed out on much of that with Claire from the time she was about 2 years old on, but that's why I focus so much on her when we do spend our time together and talk on the phone and e-mail. I love watching her grow intellectually, physically, spiritually, socially. It's just so much fun to watch her grow up, and I LOVE watching her play sports. She really must be my daughter to have such a love of sports! I'm so proud of her for her perseverance and ability to maintain a positive attitude in the midst of sometimes not so positive things. She is really a gift God gave because He knew she'd do great things for Him one day.

Katy and I feel the same way about Zac. We know he was a miracle and given all we had to go through to get to this point, it makes it that much sweeter that he is so healthy. He's so much fun to watch as he figures things out and I love watching kids anyway try to work through things in their minds. Katy and I were discussing last night that Zac is probably intellectually where a 4-month-old would be, but his motor skills are closer to that of a 2-month-old, which aligns with what we were told to expect given he was born so early.

It sure hasn't stopped his growth, though! Every week he grows just enough to not be able to wear even more clothes. So in case anyone feels like sending him some summer 3-6 or 6-9 month stuff, feel free! We're running out quick! :) I told him this morning that his daddy needs to get a job so he doesn't have to walk around as a little naked boy. By the way, the pic above is from yesterday afternoon. He drifted off after his Nana fed him and he slept like this for about 3 hours. Oh, and if you haven't noticed, I put up a new video on the right side the other day. Enjoy!

Father's Day Weekend

Well, we are almost through this Father's Day weekend. Here in Omaha, the NCAA College World Series began yesterday and this town will be consumed with the event for the next week and a half or so. We love hosting the CWS and college players all over the country love coming here. I believe we've been hosting it for 50-some years so far and we just signed a contract with the NCAA to host it for an additional 25 years beyond our existing contract, thanks to a new stadium being built downtown.

Keeping with the sports-related theme, Katy and I drove down to KC yesterday to watch part of a tournament Claire's softball team was playing in. Unfortunately, the games started so early we were only able to catch the last 20-25 minutes of her second game, then the third game of the day later that evening at 6 p.m. In between, we had lunch with everyone, and then spent part of the afternoon with her before going back for her final game of the day. Though her team didn't play as well as they'd hoped in terms of results, they did give great effort. It's hard to play your third game of the day, though, 8 hours after the second one ended. I know, since I've done it before in tournaments as well.

Claire gave me a super cool Napoleon Dynamite card, key ring and Pet Tornado (not kidding), all of which I just love, for Father's Day. This morning, Zac greeted me with a 3-D card featuring monkeys on the front, which he finds fascinating, and a great older movie, "The Thrill Of It All", starring Doris Day and James Garner. Very funny movie. Then Katy gave me a pop-up card (my favorite kind) and the DVD for "The Number 23", which was a thriller starring Jim Carrey that we saw last year. Great story and very suspenseful.

We then headed off to Chad & Mickie's church for the baby dedication of the twins this morning, and off to La Mesa for lunch, which is a very good Mexican restaurant with a few locations around town. It's been a good day, though after yesterday's long travel day and getting up so early, we're taking it easy the rest of the day. Happy Father Day!

The Weather Continues

By now, everyone has heard of the tornado that hit the Boy Scout camp an hour north of Omaha last night. After the tornado hit the camp, it continued east to the town of Moorhead, IA, where storm chasers making a video for another production were also broadcasting their feed live to channel 6 here in Omaha. The video can be found here: Tornado Video

Katy and I were watching it live as it happened and it was really something. Unsure if you can tell in this video or not, but their vehicle turned 180 degrees at one point as the winds spun them around. They were driving a large SUV, and I know one of the windows was broken by the hail that hit them. The pic above is one Katy's boss found and sent around. I believe this must be from either Moorhead or Little Sioux, which is the town nearest the camp.

Interviewing Update

OK, everyone, time to call all the prayer warriors. :) I had a third phone interview this afternoon with Ticketmaster's VP for domestic call centers. I'm not happy with the way I interviewed in the beginning, and thanks to this gentleman's comments part of the way through, I now understand why I've felt fairly blah about every interview I've done in the past 4 or 5 months.

When I began this job search process back in August last year, I was passionate. I was fired up, ready to move on to a new challenge and extremely excited about the opportunities presented before me. My passion came through in my interviews. I sold myself and my ideas and drove home my experience and how it would benefit me in the position they were interviewing me for.

Then, sometime in December or January, I began to feel I was losing that passion, that focus, due to some unforeseen failures in landing jobs I knew were mine. It's difficult when you come in second on multiple jobs, to watch job after job go to someone else when you were one of the finalists. Part of the trouble with being out of work so long is you begin to lose that passion and it's harder to call upon it.

Today, I found it again. We were through the primary part of the interview when the VP mentioned to me he wasn't sure if I was ready for this job, that it was a step up in responsibility and he wanted to be assured he brought in the right person who was ready for the commitment. He said I was a very nice person, and that was the reason he'd continued pushing through the interview, plus the previous two people I'd spoken with had said very good things about me. That's when I jumped. I dove into the conversation with that passion that's so much a part of me, especially in my work life. I ran off a list of things I was ready for, the details I'd had to go into over the past 3 years at Intuit, how I'd been preparing myself for this type of step up for all that time and how the people I'd worked with felt I deserved to hold that type of role. Basically, I stopped selling myself short and decided to stop worrying about being the nice guy so many interviewers seem to want.

Well, he liked it. He said in the 5 minutes I spent extolling my abilities and explaining why I deserved this job, he'd seen the passion that had been missing earlier. That's when he shared with me that the previous two interviewers had been impressed with me.

So you know what? I've been sitting on the sidelines for too long, letting others decide my fate. Katy and I have been praying in our devotions that God will influence the decision-makers who will determine my next job. I think it's time to ask everyone else out there to pray with us on this as well. I believe Ticketmaster is the right type of company for me. From everything the other employees have told me, it's the right company, in the right place, with the right family atmosphere, with the right desire to be the best. I truly hope this is God's will, for me to have this position, but if it's not, I know He's got something even better in mind. Thing is, why not pray NOW that THIS is it? God, You alone are worthy of our praise and worthy of our prayers. Only You can make something where we previously saw nothing there. I know You are orchestrating my life to where I can be of the best service to You. I'm ready, so let's do it now. :)

Zac Size Update

Wanted to pop in here with a quick size update for Zac. He's 18 1/2 weeks right now, meaning he's in his 4th month, though we know he still does some things like a 9 1/2-week-old baby since he was 9 weeks early. :) He had a checkup today and received some shots. It's the shots and his extreme tiredness that kept me from taking a picture to post up here today, but we'll get one up in the next day or so.

So here are some particulars on size. He's 12 lbs, 8 oz. and 23 1/2 inches long. Now, at his last visit about 5 weeks ago, he had been measured at 23 inches, though I know that was wrong, that he was really 22 1/2 inches. Today, in fact, I had to make the guy measure him a second time to get his true length because he initially measured him at 23, even though you could see his heels touched at least the mark at 23 1/2 inches. So, we'll go with that measurement, though he's really closer to 23 3/4. If he was a regular 4-month-old, he'd be in the 5th percentile for height (was 3rd percentile 5 weeks ago) and 10th percentile for weight. I don't know where he fit into the scales last visit. I didn't have Dr. Ogden give me an adjusted percentile for what is considered his true age (generally take a month off) but maybe Katy can ask that when she goes in tomorrow. That's it for today. :)

Close Call

This picture shows the neighbors just to the north of Chad and Mickie. If you look at it, their home is the green one in the middle of the three you can see. Though they escaped this type of damage, their deck furniture was not so fortunate. The table was mangled and up against their backyard fence with the glass blown out, and the umbrella covering was sucked up and tossed over their house, ending up in a neighbor's yard across the street from them. So if there was any question before as to whether or not the tornado ran through their neighborhood and yard before...

Tornado Path

The Omaha World-Herald newspaper posted this image of the tornado path and strength. If you look at the lower left of the graphic, that first neighborhood it goes through is where Mickie & Chad live. It initially touched down maybe 4 or 5 blocks southwest of their home as the crow flies. That's a bit too close for comfort! Add to this that the National Weather Service botched their job and didn't even issue a tornado warning until 2:26 a.m., 9 minutes after the tornado initially touched down.

What boggles my mind on this is that I know when I lived in Oklahoma the National Weather Service issued tornado warnings based on radar, not on spotters, because you can't always trust the eyes or location or visibility of a spotter, especially at night. The radar images and the wind patterns indicate whether or not a tornado is forming. We know this now based on all the years of research, much of it based out of Oklahoma University in Norman, OK. I'm bothered that the personnel here didn't issue a warning when they could have as a precautionary measure. We're very fortunate nobody was killed in this.

Tornado!

No, that's not our house. :) It's from the area that did get hit last night.

Now, Katy and I are big fans of weather, and as much as we enjoy it, I think Claire might like it even more. Well last night we had a chance to enjoy it a bit differently than we have so far this year. Though the La Nina weather pattern has shifted the jet stream north the past two weeks so that we are now seeing some fun weather, we hadn't received anything in Omaha until last night.

At about 2:30 a.m., I woke up to silence. Silence is key because we always keep a fan running on high for white noise so I can sleep. One of our circuits had tripped and that shut off a few outlets, but all else was fine. While I was laying there, however, I could hear fairly strong winds and certainly see plenty of lightning outside the windows. Apparently winds in our neighborhood, or very close, were about 70 mph. After not being able to get back to sleep, I decided to turn the TV on in the living room to see if anything interesting was happening. I used that one because it's hooked up to rabbit ears for local channels in case the satellite was out. As I turned it on, I heard the weatherman stating our county was no longer in a tornado warning. Interesting, I thought, since the sirens hadn't been on at all. Just then they started, though it was far too late and they shouldn't have at that point.

For the next 90 minutes, I watched storm information roll in about a tornado that had touched down in the Millard area, which is southwestern Omaha. This is the area where Katy's sister and her family live. The tornado had not touched down in their neighborhood, but they were right in the path as it did indeed touch down about a mile northeast of them. Most of their damage appears to be minor, some shingles off here and there and especially on a backyard shed, but a neighbor's fence was blown down. The image above is in the neighborhood where the twister touched down a little before 2:30, I believe, this morning, around 139th & Z, which is a few blocks north of Harrison for those who know Omaha.

Again, sirens didn't go off until after the storm hit, according to residents of that area. I suspect the tornado wasn't showing on radar in time to get the warnings out...or at least I hope that was the reason because otherwise, I would think someone at the Weather Service office is going to be in a bit of trouble today. Fortunately, nobody has been reported injured and the damage seems to be just frayed nerves and property.

Quick job update...Ticketmaster decided to hold off and make a decision on things this week due to some unforeseen delays, I'm told. Still no word from anyone else, but honestly, as long as God is in control and I believe He is in control, I'm not horribly worried. I feel this will all be solved pretty soon. :)

Washcloth Head

Last night, Zac was having a very fussy time. We are under the belief he is getting close to starting to teethe, as he runs a little warm off and on right now and has times where he is just not at all pleased with anything. As we were trying to watch a movie and he was having another meltdown, Katy placed a cool washcloth on his head to help him feel a little more comfortable. Well, it helped!