Trick or Treat!

Emma's not terribly excited about having her picture taken, but they couldn't wait to get out the door.

Corben is a moose, and Emma is a unicorn (what else could she be?)

I took them around the cul-de-sac, they got a few treats, it was fun.

They are headed over to Nancy's folks house for dinner, I'm going to my drawing class.

Flickr: Photos from eye:hand

A cool idea. I tossed up one of my own:

http://flickr.com/photos/eyehand/

Helping hands

Last week, Nancy's mom fell and broke her right foot. She had planned on being available to help Nancy ease into being a mom of 3, but now she can't get on her feet for several weeks.

Nancy went over to her house last week to help her pass the time. Monday she was going to bring her mom over to our house to give her a change of scenery. As she was getting ready to go get her, she got a call and found out that during the night Nancy's mom had fallen and broken her right wrist. Now she can't use crutches.

I offered to work from Nancy's folks house until they don't need my help. I can get done what I need to from her dad's office, he can go to work at his office, and I can help her mom if she needs it.

So I'm here at their house now. So far she doesn't need me for anything. It may end up just being a good time for me to get stuff done without the distractions of home.

random image

So this is an image I did a few months back using the GIMP, with some simple postproduction done in Picasa -- both programs are free! 

12 day old baby

Well Abby is 12 days old. She's doing well. She's really cute. She sleeps a lot during the day and not a lot at night.

I've ended up holding her - several times - in the living room for 3 or 4 hours in the middle of the night so Nancy can get some sleep. I think I will end up doing that tonight.

We're doing well. Money is tight waiting for some billing to come in and for some of the projects I have put a lot of time into securing to actually start.

I played guitar again this morning in church and it went well. We do this mix of relatively current songs and way dated songs. The current ones go well for me. The dated ones I really struggle with. The 12-chord-changes-in-two-measures songs drive me a little nuts. It's like worship music went through some phase where the more chord changes you could throw in somehow made it better.

There's a reason a lot of songs have 4 chords, and that's not just because they're easier to play, although they are much easier to play. I like songs that sound great because they are written well and have meaningful lyrics, not because the composer was able to prove something with the inclusion of random modulation and complicated chord progression.

Oh well, that's all just venting I guess. I enjoy playing on the worship team and am thankful I've been given the opportunity.

I need to go to bed, unless of course I end up holding Abby.

Today's disappointing survey

I'm mildly into sci-fi -- meaning that I enjoy many sci-fi movies, but I can't speak Klingon or tell you what color Luke Skywalker's underwear was in The Empire Strikes Back.

I took a survey to see which SciFi Character I am.

I am Princes Leia. Honestly I was hoping for more of a Buck Rogers or Han Solo result.

DOH!

ok, so I got "tagged" by Eve and Emily[I think I'm "it"]

THE RULES: List five songs that you are currently loving. It doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they're any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artists, and the songs in your blog. Then tag five other friends to see what they're listening to.

Dare you to move -- Switchfoot
Come to Jesus -- Mindy Smith
Stuck in a Moment [acoustic] -- U2
Molly Bán -- The Chieftains and Alison Kraus
Mill O' Tifty -- Old Blind Dogs

Friends who are now "it":

Karl
Kathy
Shane
Darin
Kelly

Let it be known that I don't "forward" stuff, but since this was only on personal blogs and it assumes mutual readership, I didn't feel too bad doing it.

Dad's turn

 

Still resting

 

Resting

Abby has found her favorite spot to rest. If she won't sleep in the clear baby-holding device provided by the hospital, she sleeps perfectly on mom. 

Jonathan's second visit

Jonathan stopped by again today, this time we had something useful to show him. 

All bundled up

The hat pretty much cracks us up.

She's so cute. I love holding her. 

Clean baby

 

Abby Renee Daharsh

Abby Renee was born at 3:57PM.

She is 21.5" long and weighs 8 Lbs, 8.5 Oz.

The delivery went very smoothly with no complications. Our friend Jen showed up just before Nancy started pushing, so she becameone of our photographers and stayed for the delivery. She is a nursing student, and it was neat having her here.

Nancy's mom was also here for the delivery and took a ton of photos.

Abby is healthy and she and Nancy are doing well. She has already started breastfeeding. 

Final stretch

The doctor just broke Nancy's water. Her mom is here now.

Things are much calmer this time around -- with Corben and Emma, things went crazy as soon as they broke her water.

Maybe third time's a charm. 

Truck and time alone

Well turns out things have quieted down quite a bit after all the epidural stuff. I just got a call on my truck, the fuel pump and Oxygen sensor are not functioning well, but they don't know if anything else is wrong until they replace those things. We're looking at around $800 to fix what they know is wrong. They should have everything done by tomorrow afternoon, then they can check to see if anything else is wrong.

I'm generally happy with how things are going here, and our nurses and doctors are great.

The only thing I would change is that whenever our nurse comes in, she talks with a pretty loud voice. I'm sure outside our room things are louder. Inside our room, though, things are pretty calm. So when she comes in and announces herself, it sort of jars us out of the calm of the moment.

Nancy is still 75% effaced, but she is a 6-7 now. Water breaking will happen soon.

Nancy's mom should be here by now so I'm going to give her a call.

My baby is almost ready for our baby

They just finished putting in the epidural. It has kicked in and things seem good. Nancy isn't feeling the pain of contractions right now and is getting some rest before things go crazy.

She called her mom and she should be here any moment. The kids are with Aunt Sarah at Nancy's folks house.

They will probably be breaking Nancy's water soon. I don't know if I'll have another update before the baby or not. 

Alyssa's second visit

Alyssa stopped by again today. What an encouraging friend.

I think the epidural will be happening soon.

After that it may be a dash to break Nancy's water -- once that happens it's only a matter of a short time until our baby is out. 

Starting to hurt

Nancy's contractions are starting to hurt now. She will probably get her epidural soon.

I grabbed a quick lunch. While I was gone, Emma from Peak stopped by for a quick visit.

We found out that some old friends from Peak (from before we moved to IL in '97) are here as well. Our friend Louie had a stroke the other day and is not doing so well. His wife Ardelle -- who used to play piano for our worship team is here with him.

Depending on how things go I may try and visit with Ardelle. I haven't seen her in years.

Things are moving along. 

Progress

Nancy just had a checkup, she is a 3-4 (she is dilated 3-4 centimeters) and is 75% effaced. She will probably be getting an epidural in an hour or so before the contractions get too painful.

A friend next door

Nancy's friend, Kathleen, is right next door and is having a baby today as well.

I don't think she knew that Kathleen would be here at the same time.

I just met Kathleen and her husband RJ, they seem like great people, and they live right behind us.

Nancy's contractions are getting stronger, but we don't know a time estimate at this point.

I'll keep everyone updated. 

First visitor today

Jonathan, from our small group, just dropped by. I was so excited to see him I forgot to get his picture. He brought a fun little flower for the baby who should have been here with us.

We had a nice visit for a few minutes, then he had to go. He works here at the hospital, too. 

Going back in

Well we called at 6:45 this morning to see if we should come in or not, and they gave us the green light. We were sent home last night around 10, after Nancy was in the hospital bed for 9 hours.

There is a medical concern with her laying in one spot for that long. She has several "factors" with her blood that give her a tendency to clot. Normally she is on a blood thinner that would prevent any problems. Well in order to deliver safely, they took her off this medication 11 days ago and they can't put her back on until the baby is delivered. So this is more than just a minor inconvenience, this could be a very big deal. I don't think it will, but I don't like increasing the chances for problems.

I will be running our truck over to the mechanic sometime this morning due to it's increasing unreliability. I wasn't sure if we would make it in or not this morning.

We're back in the same room as last night. On the image here, you can see the baby monitor on the top and the monitor for Nancy's contractions on the bottom. Right now Nancy is resting, waiting for the IV person to come.

Once the Pitocin starts again, the little bumps on the bottom monitor will be much wider and will go completely off the top of the graph. 

Sarah visited then we got news

Well Sarah (Nancy's sister) came to visit. She brought me some dinner, which was good. When I returned to the room, the doctor came in and said that they were too busy to induce Nancy tonight and that we needed to go home.

We are extremey bummed. Nancy has been in bed all day and hasn't eaten since lunch. She shed a few tears and we will be leaving in a few minutes. We're supposed to come back tomorrow.

First visitor

We're still waiting here at the old hospital. They're telling us that they will turn back on the Pitocin at 7:30 (after shift change)

Meanwhile, Alyssa came by. Alyssa is one of our friends from small group and is in her residency here at the hospital. 

It's nice to see a familiar, smiling face.

waiting

We've been seeing all sorts of news about the weather here in Colorado while we've been here this afternoon.

It hasn't started to snow here in Fort Collins yet, although the foothills were getting snow just west of us.

Meanwhile, due to staff calling in sick and several emergencies on the floor, they are taking Nancy off Pitocin until there is a nurse available (hopefully by shift change). This means several hours just sitting and waiting. A little bit of a bummer. 

Isn't she cute.

Nancy always looks great. Today is no exception. We'll keep you posted. 

starting the process

We're here at the hospital. I have a wireless connection, so I'll post photos of our little adventure.

We arrived at 1. By 2 Nancy was in the hospital bed and had her IV going.

They have started the Pitocin (causes labor to start), and now Nancy's contractions are getting stronger. She isn't in any pain right now, and the overall activity level is still relatively low.

This is the nice stage of all this. Chaos is coming. 

Head spinning

My head is spinning.

Last week I was doing mental inventory several times a day trying to make sure we have everything set for the new baby.

We bought a Mazda Protege in February. It is a great little car. It can ony fit 2 car seats in the back. If we put in a third, or a third person and 2 car seats, we can't close the doors.

I mention this because sometime this week we will have a third car seat. My truck can accomodate 3 car seats and 2 adults. My truck drinks gasoline like a Falcon's player drinks gatorade in the Georgia heat. It is also not running well. Nancy has been wanting a mini van for quite a while now. We bought a mini van Friday. I own a mini van.

I hate buying cars, but I am pretty good at working the price down on used cars. On the truck and now on the mini van, I have managed to get around 3000 each knocked off the asking price. It's hard though. We were at the dealer for 4 hours Friday. The truck took 6. Then the financing guy wouldn't take "no" for an answer trying to sell us an extended warranty. After an hour and getting a manager really angry, I finally convinced them that there was no way we were buying the extended warranty.

We have a 2000 Chrysler Town and Country. I hope it runs well for a while.

Yesterday I played guitar for the first time in the worship service. I filled in on bass a few weeks ago, but I actually played acoustic in the service yesterday. It has been a few years since I have played in a worship team, and it was good to be able to start again.

This morning we woke up to a cold, cloudy, rainy day. I just got back from running some errands and the foothills are white with the first snow of the season. It is supposed to be a mix of rain and snow all day.

This afternoon we go into the hospital and Nancy will be induced. We are supposed to be there by 1, at which point they will start Pitocin via an IV to begin the labor process. With our other 2, we had a baby within 6 or so hours, so I am anticipating a new baby sometime today.

We don't know if this is a boy or a girl. We hope our baby is healthy and the delivery goes well.

I'm feeling a lot of things right now. I'm still extremely unhappy with the financing process of buying the mini van, I'm excited to have a baby, Nancy's sister is in town to help out this week, which makes me happy. I have projects that I need to complete this week, which gets me a little stressed out. I hope that I can really disconnect from everything else that is going on and just be present and in the moment once we get to the hospital today.

I'll post news and hopefully photos as soon as I am able.

whoa.

I had a new experience last night.

As many of you know, I am in charge of a figure drawing class on Monday nights at CoCoA. Two weeks ago I had to turn away a man who wanted to start drawing for the first time -- who had brought no drawing supplies -- who admitted to having been on a drinking binge for 2 solid days leading up to our conversation.

Last night I was outside getting ready to come back in from one of our breaks, when a car pulled into the laundromat next door with the engine off, and as it was still rolling out stepped one of our member artists. He promptly kicked the car as it rolled past him. For the sake of this little description, I'll call him Ed.

I hadn't seen Ed in a while, and knew him to be a little eccentric, but very nice guy. I asked him if he was having car trouble, and he said that his car was leaking something. I asked him if he needed a tow, as I had driven my truck and had a tow strap. He said his car would run, but that he'd had a really rough day and had just been kicked out of his church for the second time.

I asked him where he went to church, and he said he didn't want to talk about church. I asked him if he wanted to talk about whatever was going on in his life and he mumbled that "yeah, I think I do." I went back inside and had one of the artists take over for me and let everyone know I would be outside talking with someone.

I went back outside and Ed had grabbed a french easel and painting supplies from the trunk of his car and was headed for the front door stomping and muttering to himself. I was between him and the front door and wanted to make sure he was ok before I let him in. I asked him again, "So, you want to sit out here and talk?" Suddenly, the nice Ed I knew left and Ed put all his stuff down, got right in my face (and I mean inches away) and started yelling profanity at me asking me who I was to talk to him, that he didn't want to talk to me and that he just wanted to draw.

I told him that he needed to calm down before he went in, so after a few minutes of intense monologue, he sat down and politely offered me some food that he had brought with him. I declined and we talked cordially for a few minutes. He said that someone had told him that he was crazy that day, then he turned to me and asked me what normal was, and I said that I thought normal was pretty messed up. He went on about how people are crazy, then I asked him what he meant by crazy. He rambled for a few more minutes, then I asked him what he thought normal was.

He got upset that I had asked him two questions in a row, and started to become agitated again and stood up and slammed his stretched canvas against the side of the building and quickly turned and came at me, again yelling profanity and getting right in my face. I took a sip of my iced tea, and he backed away again, but kept yelling.

He then grabbed all of his stuff and headed toward his car, then sat it all down and said "I'm a nice guy, you're a nice guy... Jesus was a nice guy, right?" Then knelt to pick up his stuff and started crying. I waited a moment, and said, "Yeah Jesus was a nice guy. Do you want me to pray for you?"

This is not what he wanted to hear. He got in my face again yelling. I took another sip of my iced tea. He pulled his shirt off and stomped back towards his car. He said he was going to be coming inside in a minute.

I quickly went inside and told everyone that we were taking a break. I grabbed my phone with the intention of calling the police if Ed got physical. I told the model -- who was modeling for us for the first time -- to get dressed and go into the back. I then asked everyone else if then knew Ed and told them I thought he was stoned out of his head or on something.

I stayed out front for a few more minutes, then two of the members who said that they knew Ed came out to try and talk to him. They mentioned that he had psychological problems and had likely not been taking his medication. They both tried to calm him down and talk him into going home. He put his shirt back on after some coaxing then stormed off.

In the meantime, the model said that she had been assaulted at a bar by someone named Ed, and went on to describe our Ed. I asked her if she had mentioned to anyone that she would be modeling and she said only a few close friends. I assured her that no one knew who the model would be prior to the evening except me.

We had the model call her ride, then told the other members that we were calling off drawing for the night. The director of CoCoA walked up and we told her what had been going on, and she called the police.

I did not know this, but Ed had been banned from a number of establishments in Fort Collins recently for similar outbursts and had been getting increasingly physical.

After Ed stormed off on foot the first time, he came back by twice, still in a huff. The last time by, he got in his car and drove off.

I had not felt frightened during any of our conversation, but was expecting to get hit several different times. After Ed left and I let down a little, my hands were shaking and I was shivering.

The director and I sat outside for an hour and a half waiting for the police to arrive. Ed had long since left, so we called at 10 and told them not to bother coming.

I had done some decent drawings in the warmups, and was looking forward to getting some nice work done last night, but it never happened.

I came home and debriefed with Nancy a little and we prayed for Ed.

Changing Seasons

This past weekend, Mark and Jackie came up to Fort Collins and we went to Roosevelt National Forest to get some photos of the Aspen changing colors. I try and go every year because the color change is so dramatic and it only lasts a week or so. We had a great time.

You may have read Jackie's comment on my previous post about Jax. I wanted to take Mark and Jackie by Jax if we had the chance. It turned out that we did have the chance, and it just so happened that is was Jax' 50th anniversary weekend. They had an assortment of free activities for the kids and us adults. Mark and I shot paintball guns, the kids jumped on inflatable amusement rides, we had free Ben and Jerry's ice cream and we had a little lunch at the Boy Scout BBQ.

It was so great to spend some good time with such great friends.