Story of a Couple

Well, we've let this slide by the past couple of days. Still healing up from this darn bug we've had. However, we haven't stopped working on our goals. In fact, YO has been hard at work on our goals, whilst I sit by and wait for direction and timing. This project we are working on is great fun for us! We are both looking forward to seeing it through to it's final stage.

I met a man today who lost his wife to cancer about 5 years ago. What a great guy! He had such a wonderful outlook on life. Ten days after he came home from Vietnam, he was in a bar in a small town here in Oregon and this beautiful woman walked in. She was about 130 pounds with long dark wavy hair. He took one look at her and told his friend he was going to marry her. Thirty-six days later, they were married. He said it took some fancy talking and a lot of lies on his part to make it happen. They started a trucking business together, she did the books, he handled the trucking and sales. Their goal was to build a life without worries so they could raise their children (5 of them) in comfort.

When their children were nearly grown, this man (Kurt) bought a brand new fancy semi truck. His wife was ANGRY. He bought it without talking it over with her, and she new it would cut into their lifestyle. Not that they lived a plush life. They had their needs met.

One night, he walked into the house after work and she gave him a kiss and handed him a stack of papers. He said, "what is this?" "Divorce papers" she answered. She was leaving him because he stepped over the line by spending that kind of money, and he wouldn't turn the truck back in. She took her bags and walked out the door as he stood their completely bewildered.

In divorce court, the judge ruled that Kurt could pay $300 a month per child for support. His wife started waving her arm saying "Your Honor! Your Honor!" When he asked her what the problem was, she said "He can't afford to pay that much! I do his books! Now that he's bought that truck, he can't afford anything! That's what this is all about!"

The judge asked Kurt if this were true and Kurt told him yes. The judge then asked Kurt's wife if she loved him. She said yes, with all her heart. He ordered Kurt to get rid of the truck. Kurt agreed, and his wife was home with him again that night.

I laughed the whole way through this man's story. I just thought it was GREAT! And what a way for her to make her point! Stick to our goals! Don't go off on your own little tangent without me!

Kurt said that they retired 5 years before she died of cancer and they were able to travel around in a travel trailer and had the best time together. It was what they had been working toward all along. The children grown and gone, and just the two of them, living their dream. When she died, he went back to work. Lucky for me, because that is how I got to meet him today. He is a janitor at Spirit Mountain Casino and I have to tell you, listening to his stories are better than sitting at a comedy club. He ended the story by telling me that once she was gone, there wasn't anything left for him to do but go back to work and wait out his time to be with her again. I almost cried. And I'm a better person for having met him. I hope I see him again someday.

This is what I want. A relationship that involves two people working together on goals that will further their future. Allow them to have a little fun later in life. I think -- no, I know, that is what we are working toward here. Thank you, Honey... for what you are doing right now. I'm behind you all the way. But... if you buy a semi truck... I'll be handing you papers as well! :)

Thanks for reading - Dawn

Nyquil

The sickening, screw up your head, make your eyes water when you try to swallow it, fade into oblivion medicine. Where's Dawn with that water when I need it? Ahhhh. Anyway, if this post is a little sloopy, plaease forgive me. Thankshh.
So we took a small leap of faith in my idea and invested a little bit of money into it. I have always been an idea man, kind of like Michael Keaton in Night Shift... anyone see that one? I bought it out of the 5 dollar bin at Walmart a few years back. It wasn't a good as I remembered, but still had it's moments. Anyway, in the movie, Michael Keaton is always coming up with these hare-brained schemes and never following through with them. Mine are not quite so hare-brained, but the following through has always been a bit of an issue with me. Not quite sure why. Friday and Saturday night, we took steps 1 and 2 to ensure that this isn't just another thing we end up chasing for a short time and blow off. I think you'll like it when we are ready to show it... hoping by the end of next week.
That's it for now. I'm about to go off into never never land. Sunday will be a big day for us methinks. I gotta get some rest. John

Sickness Be Damned!

This has been a rough week all the way around! I don't know about the rest of you, but when I'm sick, I am completely drained and devoid of any desire to be productive in any way. The only thing I want to do is look at the back of my eyelids. Let me tell you, I've looked at the back of mine a lot the past couple of days, and man o man have I had some really bizarre dreams as a result of that! I'm sure the antibiotics the doctor prescribed have a lot to do with that.

John seems to be kicking the bug with the same attitude he always has when he starts to get sick... "I am NOT getting sick!" For some reason, when I try to kick a bug headed my way, my legs get swiped out from beneath me and I'm down for the count. I'm sure my employer thinks I'm out having a great time shopping. I'd love to show him the multitude of wadded up kleenex on my floor filled with, well... you get the picture.

So my thought today has been "why in the world do we have to work 5 days a week and only rest for 2 days a week." I say that tongue in cheek, a bit. But I actually mean it. John and I are not cut out for working for someone else full time. That has always been something we both want to conquer as soon as possible. Part of our "goal reaching" is to get us to that point. We have talents. I don't know if anyone would pay to see John juggle eggs or not, but we got talents.

Tonite, I saw my husband dance/bounce up and down on the bed because he has come up with a great idea that we are going to pursue. I won't share what it is yet. It will be sprung on the world soon enough. But, I just thought you should know, that even though we are sick and feeling cruddy and foggy headed... we can at least still THINK about our goals. This one is a good one. Genius even. Worthy of adding to the posterboard, lemme tell ya.

It's late. I just needed to get this down before I fall asleep tonite. Goals are worth striving for. And sometimes, when you become goal oriented, a great idea hits. I love that. - Dawn

quitting smoking

So now I am feeling sick as well. Not nearly as bad as the other two in my house, but not good either. Dawn went to the doc and she has bronchitis and an ear infection. I just ache everywhere. Sarah is in the kitchen coughing every 30 seconds or so. We aren't very motivated to go for goals right now. I've been motivated to sit around and do nothing today though. I accomplished that one for sure. WTG John!

Anyway, I don't feel that this will be too big of a setback. I'm just hoping that Dawn's antibiotics, and my vitamin C and rest will help us have a better day tomorrow. Here's the good thing that has come out of it. WE ARE GOING TO QUIT SMOKING! It's been something that we've wanted to do for a long time, but never seem to get done. Last time we tried, I was the one who caved. I was not functioning at all. After a week, I literally stopped being human. Couldn't eat, sleep, couldn't do my business if you know what I mean, and I was not a nice person. Those of you who know me know that I'm almost always nice. I got downright nasty.

Not this time though. I've tried the patch and the gum and pills and none of them worked. What works for me is the lozenges. I bought some not so long ago and when I really need a smoke and can't go have one, I take one of those. They work. Of course I'll have to wean myself off of those over time, but I am going to make it. Dawn did okay last time, other than having to deal with her nasty husband. It's going to work! We need to do it for our health, and we need the money. Cigs are going up around a buck a pack in this area the first of next month. I'm seriously done this time. I mean it!
John

Communication Breakdown

So Dawn is sick. Very sick. She has a bad case of bronchitis and is not feeling up to doing much of anything. I tried to get her to stop worrying about folding laundry and that kind of thing, but the best I could do in that area was to just help out. She was talking about getting ready for bed soon and I asked her if we could talk about things for a few minutes before she crashed out. "Just like 10 minutes or so, okay?" She agreed. I sat back down at the computer and saw a friend I know via telephone at work (she's one of my drug vendors) on facebook and started to chat with her. Of course, that was when Dawn was ready to spend our 10 minutes. I began wrapping up my conversation before it had even started and Dawn said in a slightly irritated voice, "Just tell me when you're ready."

Now in my mind, when she said she was almost ready for bed, but was still clicking away on the laptop, that said to me that she wasn't quite ready, and that it would be okay to continue with what I was doing for a little while. The irritated voice a few minutes later told me something different. I quickly said goodbye and saw that Dawn was folding clothes on the bed, so I jumped in to help. I started to talk about an idea I had for the blog and she said that I'm too focused on the blog as a goal rather than have the blog as a tool we are using in order to focus on our goals. This made some sense to me. But I had no idea what to write about. I said I'd figure something out as we finished off the folding, and then I went back to see what was going on at Facebook. Big mistake! It turned out for the best, but it felt like one of our semi-annual arguments was about to take place for a minute or two there. I closed internet explorer down entirely and turned to look at her. She even seemed mad about me doing that for a bit and I said. "I thought we were done. 10 minutes, right?" She said in a very calm tone of voice, "If you want to be done, then that's fine."

The failure of my 1st marriage, and several years of dealing with women has made me a whole lot better at reading them than I used to be. 15 years ago, I would've thought to myself, "I guess everything is fine. I'll just head back to the computer and see if my friend is still on." Not that I had Facebook back then, but you get the idea. I wasn't very bright back then I guess. Anyway, I knew it was time for a talk. What came out of it was this. I don't pay attention sometimes. Weird right? A guy who gets involved with computers, sports, tv shows, movies etc. and ignores his wife. Who woulda thunk it? Dawn is funny sometimes. If she's telling me something and I catch myself not being focused and I ask her to repeat herself, she won't do it. Figures if I didn't think it was important enough to listen in the first place, then why should she have to tell the story again. That happened more often early in our relationship than it does now because we are both working to meet somewhere in the middle. We both realize that I don't always pay attention. I'm trying to get better at listening and catch myself quicker, while she's trying to make sure she has my attention. It's starting to work. But it took some effort to get here.

Tonight we made a deal. If I'm playing around on here and Dawn has something to say, she will call my name and then wait for me to look. My part of the deal is that I have to try to look up quicker. It's not that men (or in this case me) don't want to listen to their wives. We do. I promise. It's just that we get caught up in what we are doing and are unable to instantly turn that on and off. I'm generalizing by saying that, but it seems to me that most men are guilty as charged on this count. And if I had to guess, I'd say it pisses most of their wives off.
John

Weekly Goal Review - Week 1

Whew! We made it through the first week. Now it's time to see what we've accomplished. Obviously, we started a blog, which may not sound like a big deal, but it is something I've wanted to do for a long time. We have over 200 hits in the first week, many of which would be from Dawn and I, but if I had to guess, that number would be around 50 or 60. So that, along with the comments we are getting on Facebook, tells me that some people are actually reading our work here and enjoying it. As someone who loves to write, I can't begin to tell you how happy that makes me. It's also an excellent motivation to continue.

We worked out 1 time only. We each have legitimate excuses for not doing it more, but in order for us to accomplish the goal of getting in better shape, we will have to fight through those. One of our goals in this area is to buy a Wii and also the Wii fit program. I hear it is fun and a great workout. It's just a matter of coming up with a few hundred spare dollars, which is something we don't have right now. The other thing we are doing in order to get in shape/get healthy is to look online for recipes for inexpensive, healthy meals. That can be a problem with eating healthier; it costs more. That's Dawn's department. If we find something we like, we will share.

With the exception of the night at the hospital that Dawn described so wonderfully, we have put in our hour per day faithfully every day this week. It hasn't been easy, but we have done it. The habit is beginning to be formed. The baby steps are being taken. It has caused us to think about things in a different light. Even at work, while I'm filling prescriptions, something will pop into my head quite often. A new idea to take things just another step further. A new way of processing thoughts to open myself up to opportunities has begun forming itself in my mind. As the great poet Alan Menken put it, "A whole new world, a new fantastic point of view. No one to tell us no, or where to go, or say we're only dreaming." Yes, it's corny and a cliche, but it's also true. We, as individuals, have been given the power to change our lives. Most won't do it, or blame their circumstances on others, but each of us truly has the power to make ourselves better.

This is a call to action for those of you who have been reading this. Nearly everyone has something about themselves that they would like to change, or something that they've always wanted to do but haven't gotten around to yet. What is it for you? Think about it for just a few minutes after you read this. Napoleon Hill says "What the mind can conceive and believe, it can acheive." Let us know what you can conceive. We truly want to hear from you. The next step is allowing your mind to come up with ways to believe in the idea. If you stop listening to the naysayers, and the negative self talk that you probably have rattling through your brain, you could just come up with and do something that will amaze you.
John

Birth from a Grandparent's View Part II

-- If you haven't had the chance to read part one of this post, I hope you take the time now --

The long break between part one and part two of this portion of our blog wasn't NEARLY as long as Wednesday night at the hospital waiting for Alakai to finally arrive. The helicopter fiasco was a tiny diversion in our time at the hospital.

Thirty minutes after we settled back in to watch more Grey's Anatomy on the laptop, Matthew sent me a text message telling me that Anna was just about to get her epidural and that once the procedure was done, I could come back to see her. When I got back to the birthing room Anna was propped up on her bed all grins. No more pain! Although she was smiling, tension was flowing off the two of them in waves.

Matthew said that Anna had been in hard labor for about an hour when the announcement about Life Flight came over the PA. While John (YO) and I were having a great time with the whole situation, Matthew and Anna were panicked. The announcement shook them up, certainly, but the mother in the room next door was delivering her baby amid screams of pain caused the two of them to worry about just WHO the helicopter was coming for. Not very reassuring when you are trying to calmly deliver your first child. Thankfully, their wonderful nurse Theresa was able to calm them and explain the situation to them.

Finally free of pain, the sound of screaming women and whooping sirens, they were able to relax as Anna entered the last phase of dilating. Theresa shut the lights out and told them to get some sleep as she and I left the room. By this time it was around 3:30 in the morning. Sleep came in short fits for both of them as you never really can rest while waiting for something monumental to happen.

I walked back to the waiting room and to my very patient husband who was still fiddling with the computer and writing his own blog entry. Shortly after I arrived, Theresa walked into the room holding a cup of tea and told us we should try to sleep as well. Whatever! YO and I are great at all nighters! She resigned herself to the fact that we were going to wait up and decided to visit with us instead.

I've had some wonderful nurses in my time, but Theresa was absolutely exceptional as a birthing nurse/coach. She was funny, gentle, kind, knowledgable and loved her job. She also took a liking to our family, as we did to her. In fact, I plan to create a scrapbook for her to fill with her own pictures as a thank you for how much she meant to us. We got to know her not just as a nurse, but as a single mom of three, a new resident of Silverton and a person who seems to love life. I'm thankful and blessed that we got to spend time with her.

Another hour and a half passed by after she left the waiting room when we received a text from Matthew saying that Anna was fully dilated and ready to push. It was shortly after 5 AM. Time to get up anyway, so I phoned my son Jeremy and told him it was nearly time. He and my daughter Beth arrived to wait out the last hour or so with us. Hour or so? Yea right.

Anna pushed for an hour. Matthew tells me that she did such a great job; he was so very proud of her. But birthing is rarely easy and Alakai was coming out with his face turned to the side rather than down as it should have been. Because of this, he seemed to have wedged himself in the birth canal. (Funny that during birth we call it the "birth canal," but at other times it can have such disgusting names.) Not only was he wedged, but in fetal distress; he had a bowel movement. Now that seems funny when you think about it, however, imagine bodily waste floating in the air you breathe. If it comes close to your face and you have no way to avoid it, you're going to breathe it into your lungs. Much scarier when you look at it that way. Now I realize that babies receive their oxygen through the umbilical cord, but some of the amniotic fluid does go into their lungs.

As far as we were all concerned (including Anna's parents, John and Kristen) it was time to open her up and TAKE him out. Rather than do that, the epidural was increased and Anna was told to rest for an hour. We paced. We drank coffee. We all tried to lighten up the situation with quiet laughter. We took bets. Matthew joined us in the waiting room for a few minutes and went back when it was time to try again. And then we heard nothing.

YO had to leave the hospital, exhausted and concerned, to go to work for the day. He'd put in a full night and hadn't had one second to rest his eyes or his brain. I've no idea how he made it through the day. But he did. At 9:38 AM I received a text message that said "we have a baby boy! don't come in yet."

Alakai gave them a scare when he was born. He didn't want to take a breath. Our first instinct as a parent is to rush in and take over. Matthew had the good sense to stand by Anna and allow the physicians and nurses do their work. Finally, a breath, a cry. Nine pounds five ounces and 21 inches long... Alakai left his mother's womb to join us. It was after 11 when we were allowed to finally enter and visit the newly formed family. I was thrilled! Nearly "high" on the emotion of the night and the arrival of my grandchild. My son and daughter-in-law's child. That little bundle of love and stress and happiness. I hear they both cried when they met him. The tears this time were not the tears of fear that Anna shed in my bedroom 8 months earlier when she told me she was pregnant. I cried too.

The family is now home for their first night alone. I've let them know that I will have the phone on me at all times if they have any questions. I'm sure they have a long list of numbers they can call if needed.

Thank you for sharing this with us. As far as the goal portion of this blog goes, our goal is to be wonderful grandparents not only to our new grandson Alakai, but to Emma and Conner as well - our grandchildren in Illinois. This whole experience made us both long for the United States to shrink so we could be closer to the rest of our family. We've decided to do what we can to make that happen by keeping in closer contact with Laura and her children through snail mail and by purchasing those webcams. We don't want to miss out on a thing!!

Thanks again for taking the time to read!

Goal Posts

First of all, I want to thank all of you for reading this, and also for the positive feedback we have been receiving. It's very motivating and rewarding. Thank you so much.

Dawn had a really bad case of heartburn tonight and did not feel up to posting the 2nd half of "The birth of Alakai". She will post sometime tomorrow. I will keep this short and to the point as it is after 3 am and I have to work at 9. I've already missed a lot of sleep this week, so I guess I'm a little crazy to still be up now. For those of you who know me, I can almost see you shaking your heads. "What does he mean a little crazy? That guy is certifiable." Thank you for that.

As far as our goal development, I went to the store and bought some posterboard and a couple of Sharpies. Dawn wrote down several of our goals, including daily goals, short term goals, and long term goals. They are as simple to accomplish as "Eat some fruit and/or vegetables" to as difficult as "Become debt free." One of our biggest weaknesses is spending too much time goofing around on the computer, so that thing will be plastered on the wall of our bedroom, right behind the PC. It will serve as a reminder that we have more to offer to the world than to be great at computer games, or have tons of Facebook friends. We didn't do a whole lot more since she wasn't feeling well. That goes along with our goal of getting healthier. Anyway, I think it will be a good tool, along with the spreadsheet we will create over the weekend. I will tell you more about that next time.

Switching gears to something that has nothing to do with goals, but that I found very interesting; I chatted on Facebook with a gentleman from Georgia tonight. I don't mean state above Florida. Not that Georgia. This young man is from the country that was at war with Russia right before the US elections. His name is Irakli and he wrote in English very well. I should backtrack for a second. Dawn and I play Mafia Wars on FB. At first glance, it seems kind of stupid, but has proven to be very addictive. Dawn found a Facebook group where you join, then post a short note asking people to join your mafia. In order to get them to join, you have to add them as a friend. My friend from grade school, Kathleen, pops in and says she can't sleep, and would I like to play a word game with her?" Well, while we are playing, I'm getting all kinds of new friends, and it shows in her chat window that this is happening. She says "You are just a friend machine aren't you? You've gotten more friends in 5 minutes than I have friends." I explained what I was doing and she kind of scoffed at me, but then we saw Irakli's name pop up. She clicked on his profile and dared me to ask him if he was from THAT Georgia. So we chatted. It was WAY cool. My favorite quote of his was this, "I want you to know that we have excellent relations between our two countries have and we are grateful to the American people for their assistance." Pretty sweet if you ask me. And not bad at all considering that English is not his native tongue.

1 quick question for you and then I'm off to bed for a few hours. Are our posts too long? From what I see, most blog posts are shorter than this one. Does it make you less likely to read if it is a very long post? I guess that's 2 questions. You can post your answer(s) as a comment on this blog, or write something on either Dawn's or my wall on Facebook. Thanks again.
John

Birth from a Grandparent's View

Working toward our goals as a couple the past couple of days has really gone by the wayside. At least in the formulaic sense we laid out for ourselves. For very good reason, certainly. And in truth, part of our goal quest was to draw us closer to each other and to being the people we know we were meant to be, so I feel as if our goal reaching was exceeded rather than stunted.

I have an amazing husband. Those of you who know me have heard me say that many times, I know. What you may not know is that he chose to stay with me at the hospital all night long, wide awake, worrying, rejoicing, laughing and allowing me to be the emotional wreck I had to be throughout my son and daughter-in-law's birthing ordeal. And then, when morning arrived, rather than call in sick he hugged and kissed me goodbye and went to work. As exhausted as we both were, when he got home from work tonight, he drove to the hospital to visit the new family and hold Alakai as I snapped picture after picture. I am blessed, and loved. As he is greatly loved in return.

Alakai took his sweet time in finally arriving. 9 pounds 5 ounces of baby is proof of that! Anna's doctor finally decided it was time to induce her on Tuesday the 17th of March. St. Patrick's Day. Unfortunately, we were put off till yesterday morning as there were so many walk-ins ready to give birth Tuesday. So we spent one more night resting and waiting. Once again, at 7:30 AM Wednesday morning, we were told there was no room at the inn and to try back at noon. Finally, after a long morning of waiting, Anna was admitted to the Silverton Hospital Birthing Center at 3 PM. Even though I know from four of my own births that birthing can be a very long process, I wanted and needed to be there for the whole experience.

Oh how beautiful Anna looked! Smiling, light-hearted, joyful. And Matthew looked so strong and responsible and full of anticipation. Anna's contractions were light enough to come across as a hug across her belly. I'm sure neither of them fully understood how long the rest of the day or night were going to be! We can only share rather than impart our experiences to our children. I was happy and excited for them, yet scared to death of what would come.

They broke Anna's water in the early evening hours, which did finally bring on stronger contractions. She spent much of her time sitting on a large hippity-hop ball with no handle. How boring is that? If they would just put a handle on those things, the moms-to-be could bounce their way up and down the hospital corridor in childlike glee. Shoot, if they'd had any extras around, that's what I would have been doing!

Around 9 PM the doctor decided it was time for a pitocin drip to kick the contractions into high gear. It did the trick, that's for sure! But Anna was a trooper and a poster-child for laboring women. I'll never forget standing in front of her as she sat in a rocking chair, gently gliding back and forth through a strong contraction watching her calmly breathe deeply with her head laid back and her eyes closed. She brought her baby boy into the world without fighting the pain ravaging her body. I, on the other hand, brought my first child into the world kicking and screaming!

I left the hospital room to allow Matthew and Anna the privacy they so needed to bring Alakai into the world. My husband, children and I spent a lot of time in the waiting room or wandering the corridors to keep ourselves occupied. Matthew would routinely send me a text message to let me know how Anna was doing.

Shortly after midnight, my children all went home to sleep, knowing there was still a long wait for birth to finally happen. I urged my husband to go home and sleep as well, so he would be rested for work in the morning. He stayed.

My husband is funny - in many ways. One of his peculiar "funny ways" is the fact that he can't make up his mind. When I asked if he wanted to go home he responded "oh, I don't know." I knew then that he would stay with me throughout the night. Sometimes I just go ahead and read his "oh, I don't know" to mean, "I'm sticking with you." We lamented the fact that we couldn't get online to play Mafia Wars... couldn't even watch videos on Youtube! We felt quite disconnected! However, in preparation for the long hours to come, I added 10 episodes of Grey's Anatomy to my laptop. So, we scrounged up coffee, commandeered a small waiting room, moved the furniture around so we could put our feet up, and enjoyed hour after hour of my favorite show. What a trooper he is!

At 1:30 AM a booming announcement went out over the PA system: "Life Flight will be landing shortly in our parking lot. Please remove all vehicles parked in front of the Birthing Center to make way for the helicopter." The announcement was repeated in multiple languages. Being the camera happy girl I am, I grabbed the camera while he moved the car. What ensued after we did our part, was something right out of a Saturday Night Live skit.

Two cars remained in the parking lot. A red sedan of some kind on the hospital side of the median, and a white Honda Accord on the other side, overlapping the landing pad. As we stood outside waiting for the arrival of the helicopter, a police sedan pulled up at the end of the landing pad, a ways away from the Accord. The two officers got out of the car, walked to the Accord and used their maglights to shine up and down the sides of the car. The both of them huddled together and began to scratch their heads. Really. Then, back to shining the lights on the car, huddle, scratch heads. Within a few minutes, a firetruck showed up and 5 firemen piled off the truck and walked to the car. There was a civil servant huddle for a moment, someone popped their gum, and more heads were scratched. I, of course, snapped pictures. Firemen look really cool at night when a flashbulb is involved!. I'll have to post a picture to prove it. All of them turned my direction after the flash, and then continued to shine flashlights on the car, huddle and scratch.

Five minutes into this odd situation, a hospital administrator walked out the front door on his cell phone, mumbling about the cars. He marched over to the huddled civil servants, and began to pace from one car to the next, booming commands into his cellphone. And yes, all the while, the policemen and the firemen continued working out the problem huddling, flashlighting, and scratching their heads. An exhausted physician walked out the front door wearing scrubs and demanded to know if he would be able to drive his car out of the parking lot. Once he was assured he could leave, he glanced at the Accord encroaching the landing pad and said testily "The helicopter can't land with that white car parked there." Now, I'm not the most diplomatic person when humor is presented. I snorted out a laugh. The doctor turned to face me, his evil physician's eyes glaring at me, and stomped (yes, one can stomp even while wearing blue booties) back into the hospital in a huff. His huffiness caused YO and I to laugh even harder.

Finally, the helicopter was within sight. One more time an announcement went out over the PA system, and two sheepish men came out and moved their vehicles just in time. Head scratching done, the civil servants wandered out of the way to allow the helicopter to land. We were rudely ushered back into the hospital so as not to be covered by whatever the helicopter would kick up during it's landing.

I will share the last half of our eventful night tomorrow. My husband's snores are beckoning me to join him in blessed sleep.

Alakai has ARRIVED

One goal down!! After an extremely rough night of it, Matthew and Anna have a 9 lb 5 oz healthy baby boy who happens to be 21 inches long! He was in the birth canal long enough that he has a cone shaped head with lots of black hair! Mom and Dad are spending some quality time with him right now; grandparents, aunts and uncles are waiting in the wings for the first glimpse. I sure do appreciate all of you. I am looking forward to a long nap and a good blog this afternoon sharing the crazy night we had! Thanks for checking in to follow along with the progress. - Grandma Dawn

Or maybe not

I take it back. The baby is not out yet. He has turned the wrong way. We thought he had gotten into position properly, but he is sideways. We have no idea how long it will be. Anna is resting at the moment. So, we are still sitting here. I am off to work in less than two hours. I am too tired to write complex sentences. Hope I can make it through the day. Send me an energy pack, please. :)

It's time

Anna is now dilated to 10 cm and is about ready. The doctor is on her way and we expect that Alakai will be joining us in the next hour or so. We are extremely excited and exhausted at the same time, but who's complaining. Anna's the one doing all the work. I have an admission to make. We did NOT put in our one hour toward fulfilling our goals yesterday. Since I've stayed up all night and have to go to work in a few hours, I'd be kind of surprised if we do it tonight. But, one of Dawn's goals was to be a grandma again, so I guess we're good, right? Anyway, that's all for now.
John

Quick update...

Just to let everyone know, they broke Anna's water a few hours ago and not much was happening. They just started her on Pitosin, which is the inducing drug. It will likely be very late when she has the baby, but we will post it here and on facebook as soon as we can.

Grandparents

I will never forget the day eight months ago when my son's girlfriend, Anna, walked into my bedroom crying. I felt the biggest rock plop into my stomach, crunching my heart as the rock plummeted. My greatest fear has always been that something horrible would happen to one of my kids. Was it an accident? Was he hurt on the job? It was an accident all right, but not what I'd been fearing.

Anna plopped down on the edge of my bed sobbing. "I'm pregnant!" She sure didn't get the response she thought she would from me when I burst in to laughter and began clapping! A BABY!

If God had given me the right to hand pick a woman for my son, I would have picked Anna. No question. My dear, serious, responsible son needed a silly, loving and outgoing woman to balance him out. To bring out the silliness I knew he had hidden deep inside him. I was extremely thrilled and blessed that he'd chosen Anna, who was already a friend and child of my heart.

And now, they were going to bring a child into the world!

Here we are finally, a week and a half after the due date, ready to welcome our grandson to the world!

We already have two grandchildren. Sadly for us, they live in Illinois and we rarely get to see them. I would say that I'm entirely too young to be having grandchildren, but I'm thrilled with the fact that I AM young and I'll be able to spend quality time with my grandkids. I'll just look good while I'm doing it!

So at 3 PM today, I'll be whisking out the door, heading for the hospital to lend support and cheer to my "daughter" as she goes through the worst pain she'll ever experience but will soon forget when her son is finally and firmly laid in her arms for the first time. I'll have the camera at the ready, the phone set to dial and my laptop available to send out announcements.

And here is where my darling husband and I add another goal to our long lists of goals. To be the best grandparents we can possibly be, to be involved without being overwhelming, and to share our parenting skills with as much love and encouragement as we can without saying "do it OUR way." I'm thrilled right now, and I can't wait to share it with you all!

A little tired tonight...

...but we pressed on. I know, big deal. It's the 2nd day. The thing is, whenever you start to try to create a habit, the biggest resistance happens at the beginning. It's called inertia. I'm sure most people remember the laws of inertia from high school, but here goes anyway. An object in motion tends to remain in motion. An object at rest tends to remain at rest. These laws apply unless they are acted upon by an outside force. Well, in our case, the objects (Dawn and I) have been at rest for a while. The fact is, we have to force it to get things rolling. We are going to do that.

Today's baby-steps were a different sort than yesterday's. Today we sat down and read about blogging software called wordpress, one of the most widely used programs by professional bloggers. We are going to learn to use it via wordpress.com and have a blog there as well. I know that sitting and writing a blog doesn't exactly sound all that productive, but we both are amatuer writers and want to become more proficient at it. One of our potential goals is to blog as a business, attempting to gain a following and earn money from ads via Google AdSense. So, we learned a little about that.

We also decided to say a short prayer at the beginning of our hour every day. Some may consider this a waste of time. Here's what I say: Even if you don't believe in God, taking a moment to gain your focus through a higher power, as we believe, or to just get in focus with the universe like a new-ager, or to meditate like a Buddhist... taking this time is beneficial. It sharpens the mind and invigorates the body. We believe in prayer.

Enough about that. Another decision we came to tonight is that we will occasionally post a funny video that has absolutely nothing to do with our blog. We also believe in laughter. Every now and then, you must laugh. When a good speaker is leading a seminar, (s)he doesn't strictly stick with the subject at hand. In most cases, that would bore the audience to tears. The speaker will throw in a joke or two to break the monotony and to grab your attention. It's also why I try to think of funny things to say to my co-workers even on a busy day. Laughter is important. It is what gets me through most days.

Fianlly for tonight, I promised you I'd go over some of our goals. We believe that setting goals creates a road map in your mind of where you are and where you want to be. Then all you have to do is figure out how to get from point A to point B. Actually, I'd say we are at point C right now. We are pretty average as far as acheivement goes. We want to get to point A+. Some of our goals were the obvious ones; get a nicer car for each of us, gain financial independence, get in shape etc., while some are different than what most people would want. I am going to do stand-up comedy one day. It may be a one time shot, or I may try to do it often. But I am going to put together a routine. Dawn is going to become a published photographer. She plans on traveling to do various photo shoots and will be taking a course on photography in the fall in order to bring this dream of hers one baby-step closer to becoming reality.

Some of our goals are what I'd call "maybe goals". I think I'd like to own a restaurant. It's been in my head for years. I also want to be a novelist, screenplay writer, radio station owner/operator, talk show host, voice-over talent, sportscaster, professional blogger, website owner, and stock investor. Dawn would like to be a professional photographer, scrapbooking supply store owner, web designer, freelance author, and world traveller. Now obviously, we won't end up doing all of these, but having them listed out like that tends to make our brain try to make them happen.

My suggestion to you is that you spell out your goals as we have done. Examine your lives together. Where are you? Where do you want to be? Plan for your lives like you will live forever, but live today like it is your last day on earth. Seize it. Live it. Love it.

Tomorrow will be a special day for us. We are expecting the birth of our 3rd grandchild. We will fill you in more tomorrow night on details, and tell you what we've done to further our goals while sitting around in a hospital waiting room.

Today is the first day...

... of the rest of our lives. Cliche? Absolutely. Today, it also happens to be true. My wife and I have embarked on a journey that began just a little over an hour ago. It's a decision we made last week when we looked around at our lives, realized we were extremely happy with each other, but not at all happy with our situation. In the next few months, we will "officially" reach our mid 40's as we both turn 44, and our finances and our physical condition has gotten worse. We've aged and gotten no closer to our goals of financial freedom, freedom from smoking, and freedom from living in the rat race.

I came to a decision last week as I sat on facebook and wasted several hours doing nothing, that I was going to change my life a little bit at a time. In the past, I've looked at all the things I wanted to do and basically just thrown my hands up in the air thinking, "It's just too much!!!" Then I went back to watching a movie or playing around on the computer to escape the reality that my life had become. We are not destitute by any means, but we are not thriving. I am ready to thrive.

So I came up with an idea. I had always told my daughter that if she wanted to improve herself, she should do it little by little. Then, I looked in the mirror. Duh! I was NOT practicing what I preached. If you have to clean the kitchen, do you do the dishes, wipe the counter, sweep and mop the floor and clean the microwave all at the same time? Of course not. So why should I look at "cleaning my life up" any differently.

Financial experts always tell you that you have to budget your money. I decided it was time to budget my time. Yes, I can still chat with old friends on facebook. Yes, I can still go goof off on my xbox. I can still pop in a movie, or sleep in late on Sunday if I feel like it. But, and Dawn has decided to go along with me on this, (wow, 2 conjunctions to start a sentence. Mr. Anderson would be proud.) we are spending 1 hour a day on doing something toward attaining our goals. Just 1 hour. If we want to do more, then so be it. 1 hour is the minimum. Every day.

I hope you find this interesting. I will be blogging every night explaining what we did to further ourselves that day. I expect most of our steps to be small, especially at this early stage of the process. Today, we moved a few things out of the living room, brought in an excercise machine from the garage and worked out for only 5 minutes each. We both need to get in shape, and our backs will force us to take it slowly. I started a blog. Dawn set up her account at Google Reader to follow websites devoted to scrapbooking, something she loves and would love to start some kind of business with. Tomorrow will bring more baby steps. I'll also go into more detail about some of our goals. Hope you'll come along for the ride.
John