Entries Tagged as “Events”
OMG We're pregnant!
Yes thats right we're pregnant! Finally I get to tell everyone now that we are officially out of the first trimester. That's a difficult secret to keep let me tell you.
On May 9th 2011, Heather came home from work all happy and glowing. She whispered to me, "I think we have some news." I knew immediately what she was talking about. After all we had been trying for several months to have a child. I just wonder how she knew so definitively before taking a pregnancy test. I am chalking it up to motherly intuition.
We bought a home pregnancy test just to see if Heather's intuitions were correct. Our first test read nothing. No plus no minus, nothing. So does that mean she's not pregnant? I'm not sure how difficult it is to pee on a stick but it must pretty hard, because as it turned out, Heather missed the stick completely! Oh brother!
We weren't sure if the test stick was still usable or not. We decided to retest with the same stick and see what happens. The second test came back positive and we were both pretty excited. Then we started thinking. Was the sticks integrity compromised after the first attempt? Would the long exposure to oxygen cause a false positive? Crap! the instructions make no mention about a mis-fire in the troubleshooting section!
We decided not to get to excited just yet and retest in the morning.
Heather retested in the morning and it we got the unmistakable "+" sign. Now it's time to get excited!
(8 weeks)
To tell or not to tell
We debated at length if we should tell our friends and family or if we should wait until we cleared the first trimester. After all, if anything were to happen, it would most likely happen during the first trimester. We decided to wait on making a big announcement.
We really did try to wait to make any announcements. However, after a few close calls where we almost spilt the beans, we decided we just aren't good at keeping secrets. Especially from our family. We decided that we had to tell our families.
We made some simple announcement cards and presented them to our mother's on the weekend. As you can probably imagine, they were both very delighted with the news. Watching them pull the cards from the envelopes, you can see in their facial expressions that they knew instantly what the big bold letters on the cards cover reading "Surprise" meant! The moment was—to quote a popular credit card slogan—"Priceless"
First Ultrasound
On June 10th 2011, we had a doctor appointment to do our first ultrasound. This would be our 8th week so the baby was a only 2 cm long. I wasn't sure what we would see if anything. To my surprise we actually got to see the tiny heart beating on the black and white ultrasound monitor. I have to say, it was pretty amazing to watch. I had no idea the tiny heart was already beating at just 8 weeks. If I wasn't such a manly man, I probably would have teared up a little.
(12 weeks)
→ Respond NowTags: baby · Events
4th Annual Mud & Crawl
I posted the same video and text on our norcaljeeps.com site, but figured some of you may not even know about the jeep site, and are probably expecting it here. So here you go.
My brother Joe, talked me into competing this year at the Surplus City 4th Annual Mud & Crawl event held at the Urban Assault OHV Combat Zone up in Oroville CA.
Joe was my spotter, and I was driving "Wobbly Bob" (that's the name of my Jeep). We have never competed before and have limited experience in the rocks. I had hoped that our first competition would have turned out better than it did, but that would be too easy.
On the first course (C1) I broke my front driver side hub right out of the gate. In the video you can see at about 1:23 while backing up the jeep come to an abrupt halt. Then continues with a slight pop. We were so focused on the course that we failed to notice it. Not knowing the front hub was broken, I tried to climb the concrete obstacle at the third gate and broke my rear passenger side axle shaft (approx. 1:57). Thus ending my first ever event course just four short minutes after it started.
Don't count us out though, we Aplet's are resourceful bastards. We replaced the rear axel shaft with a spare, "jimmy rigged" the front hub into the locked position, reused the old gear oil and went back out in hopes of completing the rest of the courses. Only, we rolled it on gate two. (should have stuck to the plan…)
In our original plan, we were going to winch to the top of the slick rock climb below gate three, but after tapping a bonus cone on gate one, we decided that we wanted to try and keep the 15 points that we would have taken for winching, and instead gun it up the slick rock climb to gate three. Bad idea as you will see in the video. As I start to climb the slick rock the jeep drifts just a bit and my rear tire catches a tree spinning me 90 degrees whirling me into a concrete obstacle at close to full throttle. (approx. 2:54)
What did we learn from this? Pay attention to everything! The spotter can only see so much. Communicate more, and above all. Stick to the plan unless you absolutely must change your strategy!
→ Respond NowTags: Events
What are you thankful for?
I love Thanksgiving. It's that one time of year when our two families join together to share a colossal turkey that can feed an army. We share in the preparation of funny foods that would have no other place except thanksgiving day. We are thankful for our family's help this year, and every year for that matter. Thanks to everyone that pitched in and helped make a dish, chop vegetables, cook, and of course the dreaded cleaning up part. Heather and I are thankful for your help.
Even though we had a wonderful thanksgiving, I couldn't help but to notice that we were missing a few people at the dinner table this year. For those that could not be with us, we would like to think they were with us in spirit.
Thanksgiving is a holiday for sharing a delicious meal, spending time with friends and family, remembering the old memories and making new ones. It's also a time for being thankful. So we would like to ask you. What are you thankful for?
→ Respond NowTags: Events
Bon Voyage Nathan
Saturday was Nathan's going away party. He'll be moving to Oklahoma City in a couple of weeks, so we thought we would throw him a party before his schedule got too hectic. It was a beautiful day – thank God it wasn't as hot as it had been a couple of weeks ago. We had family from the Bay Area and Elk Grove come to wish him well. I think the kids had a good time improvising new ways to have fun. Please note the garbage bag sac races and the scrap lumber limbo bar. =)
Thanks for wishing Nathan good luck on the new chapter in his life. Of course, photos of the event can be found on Flickr.
→ Respond NowTags: Events
Easter Sunday
On Sunday, we went to Aunty Lillian and Uncle Don's for their annual Easter event. We couldn't have asked for better weather. It made for a perfect Luau. Mark and I were even on time this year, so we didn't miss the roasting of the pig. :)
We left before the Easter idol competition, so we missed out on many karaoke performances… maybe next year. As usual, here are some photos from this years event. Enjoy!
→ Respond NowTags: Events