As I am sure most friends and family know that BJ got a promotion at work. The increase in income is equivalant if not more than what I would have been making at a part time job. I could be a stay at home mom. A new mother’s dream come true, right? However, I have known nothing but the workforce for the last several years of my life and a paycheck of my own. So to just cut that off so suddenly was hard and to stay away even harder. C’mon, who doesn’t like an extra paycheck?! I still wanted something outside of the home and an opportunity to socialize even if it meant work. Things came together where I was able to go back to my old job on an as needed basis. Mostly to cover vacations, sick days, etc. Just enough to get what I want but not too much to be away from Sophia for too long. I have discovered the life a working mom and it is tough!! Juggling taking her to my mom’s house, making sure the diaper bag is loaded with all necessities, pumping at work, driving home in rush hour with a crying child……it is TIRESOME. I cannot imagine if I were to work full time. UGH! I feel so blessed that I only need to work occasionally. I miss Sophia when I am gone. I know she is too young to really “miss” me, but she does know who I am and when I am near her. I have been working 3 days a week for the last few weeks because they had not found my replacement yet. In another week I won’t be working as much and will be on the PRN status. As much as I want to work and the money it gives me, I still find myself saying the night before “This sucks, I wish I didn’t have work tomorrow.” It would not be so bad if I knew I would not have to get up for one or two night feedings and then be tired the next day. Well, I have made my choice and must suck it up…….off to bed—-I have work tomorrow!

Categories: Heather
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Our precious Sophia is 2 months old already!!! How did this happen? Where did the time go? Everyone tells me to enjoy this time now because they are only this small for so short a time. How true it is. This past month has been filled with so much growth and change. She has gained some weight and is getting baby rolls (or chubs as I like to call them). She has gotten more beautiful, but that was to be expected. Sophia focuses her eyes on us and objects and reacts to them, mostly with smiles and babbling. That’s another thing….she is ‘talking’ a lot right now and cooing. She is also on the very edge of getting a laugh out. It is so nice that my baby can now truly look at me and recognize me. It makes me feel good. She also knows what it means to get scared. I was feeding her the other night sitting next to BJ. He sneezed really loud and she got the biggest frown on her face and then started to cry. Her scared cry is so different from her hungry or tired cry. It sure helps for me to be able to interpret what she needs/what’s wrong.

I also have people ask me frequently if motherhood was what I thought it would be. I tell them “No, it’s even better.” It is actually not as hard as I thought and much more fun. Sophia is a joy to play with (I feel like I will do anything for a smile) and a joy to care for. I’m sure I would be singing another tune if she were a difficult baby, but seeing how she isn’t……motherhood is great!!

Categories: Heather, Sophia
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You have to behold the majesty of this video. There is nothing that can properly describe how awesome this is. There has never been a more powerful moment imagined in all of videogame-dom. The ultimate mash-up. The best one is Michael Fantasy.

Michael Jackson vs Videogame History.

Yes, it was real; just understand that things like this can only be truly appreciated once. This video could change the course of history.

Categories: BJ, Entertainment
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So, about a week ago I added a profile to myspace, for no apparent reason, not realizing it was a transdimensional hub to high school. I don’t mind, I suppose. I find people generally interesting. I also was intrigued by the fact that you could write css/html in your profile and it works. I haven’t figured out why they did this, but I’ve had some fun with it.

By no means is this an open endorsement, but it has been interesting to exchange messages with old friends. To be honest, it’s kind of surreal. I’m happily married now, I have a beautiful daughter, yet I feel like it’s high school all over again, except I can’t remember who anyone is. Now I feel fat, old, and stupid. In other areas of life it’s easy to remember faces but not know anyone’s name. High School is exactly the opposite. I remember names but I can’t seem to recall if that’s what people look like, or for that matter, if I even was friends with them.

Apparently, I was much smarter back then than I am now. This means I’m going to be a blithering idiot by the age of 40. I don’t think I’ll mind as much since the house will be paid off and I’ll be able to afford awesome toys, if everything goes according to plan. This seems to discount having more children though, so I guess what will most likely happen is: I’ll have a small gaggle of children, who are much more intelligent than I am, running around my legs, getting what they want because I’m too slow to remember if they’re in trouble for boiling the cat, while I try to figure out if the person visiting me from out of town is a relative or a person I don’t remember from high school. My wife will sigh. I will take a nap; then I will wonder why my honda hydroecocivic isn’t a ferrari and why my parents keep saying I told you so. I have a solution.

Just lie on myspace. I’ll tell everyone I’m a hojillionaire, and the pagani zonda is in the shop. In the end, friends will know what’s true and everyone else will be impressed. I could impress you now if you go to my myspace page.

Categories: BJ, BJ's Life
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There’s a hilarious side effect to targetted advertising. I have a tendency to inject a bit of sarcasm into my posts, and apparently, bots don’t catch sarcasm. I didn’t expect them to, but I also realized I complain a lot. I’m a whiner. Whining on a blog with contextual advertising just means you’ll start advertising what you’re whining about.

On a lighter note, I won’t have the Xbox tutorials up as soon as I thought. I need to order a modchip first, and the place I used to order them from was apparently selling cloned chips. This is probably the reason that Bekah’s Xbox’s modchip is toast.

Categories: BJ
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This is my first Father’s Day. The only presents Sophia gives me are full diapers, and a beautiful smile. Eventually, my refrigerator will be covered with notes to Daddy, and colored pages of princesses and ponies, but for now it is bare. The only thing I can share with Sophia right now are baby secrets. What I mean by this is that any experience with a baby is a personal one. There is only one interpretation of what Sophia is thinking, and for now that is the interpretation of the person she is interacting with. You look for visual cues she hasn’t learned yet and decide what she is feeling. When something magical happens, like a smile, you can only tell people “Sophia smiled at me.” While this is certainly not a miraculous occurence, I am here to tell you as I approach my first Father’s Day as a father, that every coo, smile, giggle, hiccough, stretch, nuzzle, and cry is a miracle. This must be the first inkling of a father’s joy. I’m sure there will be more trying times in the years to come, but for now I can’t help but be swallowed up in the idealism and sheer wonder of having a beautiful, healthy daughter

It just so happens that I have a father too. I’ve always been able to feel his respect; that might sound funny, but I could always feel his belief in the potential of his children. This may have lead to struggles of focus, direction, or conviction, but in the end I was made stronger. Sure, I could look back and criticize portions of my upbringing, but the viewpoint of a teenager is hardly an impartial judge of how to raise a child, and sadly my memories were filtered through that teenage viewpoint. I can only comment on the results of that upbringing, and I am proud of who he helped me become. I am proud of my father, and can see his deep love for his children. I can see his deep love for me and I appreciate his guiding words and reassurance. I gave him a picture of his granddaughter for Father’s Day. He loved it.

Happy Father’s Day Dad.

Categories: BJ, BJ's Life
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Everytime I update xbox media center for my xbox I inevitably forget something. This is why, over the next few weeks, I’ll be documenting my next upgrade for the little machine. Bekah also has felt it necessary to break the Xbox I modified for her, and has thus given me the opportunity to fix it. It probably just needs a new chip, so I’ll take some photos and do a writeup on getting a modified Xbox up and running from start to finish. I’m not trying to replace any guides from xbox-scene but it will help me in the future, since 2/3 of the information there ends up being useless for my specific case.

To be completely honest I hope it’s her chip. If it’s not, then I’ll have to get a solder pump and clean some of my previous work up.

Categories: BJ, Entertainment
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Sorry but this seems to be turning into some kind of video collection site. I just had to put this up here as well. It’s too amazing for me to lose. It’s called “The Powers of 10″ and takes the viewer on a journey where the scope of vision increases by a factor of 10 every 10 seconds, then back in again to the atomic level. Check it out.

Wheeee!!!!

Categories: BJ, Entertainment
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