Baby News

For the people, who didnt notice Katie's Big Sister shirt. Lori and I are expecting. The due date is Oct 9th. The doc has already scheduled the C-Section.

We had our first ultrasound earlier in the week. We got to see fingers and toes. The baby was moving around a lot. Much more than we ever saw Katie move around. Everything appeared to be normal. It was very very fun.

Our second ultrasound was later in the week. We went to a doc that uses a high power ultrasound so a nuchal translucency test could be performed. The test screens for Downs and consists of measuring the fluid gap at the back of the neck, combinded with a blood test ( Lori). The gap appeared to be normal. We will get the results next week. The results will show if we have better or worse odds than the norm for Lori's age. It will not definitively say whether the baby has Downs. A Amniocentesis could tell, but it is an invasive test and could result in a mis-carriage. We dont plan on doing that.

However the doctor was very negative. You could tell he did not approve of older mothers having babies. The first words out of his mouth was, "Boy, you guys are brave". This doctor specializes in high risk pregnancies and his attitude was awful.

So earlier in the week we had a wonderful ultasound and were on a great high. Later in the week we had a very negative opinionated doctor . So there has been a lot of up and downs this week.

Kevin

Aunt Elaine's Funeral

My aunt Elaine died this past week. I took dad down to McAllen for the funeral. Elaine was dad's last living sibling.
It was good to see my cousins. Aunt Elaine was a great woman and raised some great kids. She was buried at Valley Memorial next to her sister Edna.

Thanks to Richard and Kim for letting Dad and myself spend night. And thanks to Doyle and Pat for carting dad and myself around.

Outdoor Play

Previously I blogged about the new picnic table that we got Katie. Here a couple of picture of Katie outside playing.





Sitting at her new picnic table.







Pushing some chairs around.






Running around on the grass.

Shuttle Launch

Watching a shuttle launch is on my 100 things to do list. I have been on the Nasa email list for about a year. The email list informs you of launches and special events at Nasa.

I have attempted to buy tickets for launches before, but they were sold out. I was able to get tickets for shuttle launch STS-123. STS-123 was a night launch on March 12, 2008 at 2:28 in the morning. My flight to Orlando was a late flight and was really getting me into Orlando to late. I got up early Monday morning and did stand-by until I got on a earlier flight to Orlando. Didnt take to long, as I got on the second flight of the day to Orlando. After getting to Orlando, the car rental place decided that I didn't have a reservation. I forgot the print out at work :( The car rental place was out of cars. ( Spring break was starting that week. ) They suggested the car rental place next door. L&M, they had one car left. I took it!
I checked into my hotel, and then drove to the Space Center. Took about an hour to get to the Space Center. I hit the shops for a souvenir shirt. Second stop was the 3-D Imax movie. Next was the space shuttle display and shuttle launch simulation. Movie and simulation were both fun.
I got lucky on supper. The cafeteria was already closed, and I was at the end of a very long line for a hot dog stand, when an employee informed us they were opening up a restaurant. Ran over was able to get some food.

After supper, I headed over to the Rocket Garden to find a spot to watch the lift off. Nasa has a big screen tv, bleachers and chairs set up in the Rocket Garden to watch lift offs. I found a spot on bleachers. I sat near a dad and his daughter and another guy and his father in-law. We sat around for the next 8 hours, watched Nasa videos and swamped some stories. As it got to close to launch, there was probably a couple of thousand people in the Rocket Garden.
They also had a guy come out on the little stage, they had set up, and let us know what was going on. He described what we would expect to see. The shuttle would take off and we would be able to see if a couple of seconds later. From where we were sitting it was behind a tree line. As the shuttle climbed higher in the sky, it would like the sky up like day time, turn the sky blue and would be able to see the clouds. Sounded really cool.

Count down 5,4,3,2,1 lift-off. We could see the glow behind the trees, climbing higher and then it disappeared into the clouds that had built up after it got dark. So we didnt get to see a spectacular launch. I was bumbed, but I am still glad I went. May have to have a do-over though. The last scheduled shuttle launch is sometime in 2010.

Starting a blog

Well I'm starting a blog. Wonder how long it will last? :)
I will be including some pictures in this blog. But you can find more pictures at http://happefamily.homeserver.com

Katie's grandma came into town yesterday. She is a great grand ma. Everyone enjoys having her around. She hails from Decatur, Il, so she was glad to get down to Dallas for some great weather.

The last couple of weeks Katie has been placing Mom, Dad or who ever she can find in the correct position for her play. Mom you go here, Dad you go here. Lets play ball ! Very cute.

The weather has been wonderfull since we got our snow a week ago. She has been playing outsite alot. We recently got her a picnic table and filled up her water table. She just loves em. Oh a new thing this week is actually playing(walking) in the yard.

We bought a Katie a special shirt a couple of weeks back. She is going to model it for grandma tonight. I will post a picture later of it. We like the shirt a lot.

Dad's last surviving sibling(Aunt Elaine) died this week. I am taking dad down to McAllen this week end so he can attend the funeral.