Oh My Goodness, We Have A Baby

I realized at 2:35AM the other morning, as I sat there yelling at Candi to shut her baby up, that I was a father. Not really, I am just kidding...it was 2:45! No, in all seriousness, it is finally starting to sink in that we are parents. As most everyone knows (since we were like the last ones in the world to have a child) you have to "slightly" alter your life style and schedule to make accommodations for the new arrival. Things like, only doing activities that will take two hours or less so you can feed the baby. Or like planning days in advance to go to the grocery store. Or planning showers schedules to coincide with JJ's eating cycle. JJ seems to think Candi is like the 24 hour drive through at Taco Bell...always open for food.

JJ is doing well, except for I think he might be getting a skin condition due to being exposed to bright flashes of light every other second. Yes, we are max performing our camera with this little guy and if you would like to see more, again you can see them at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/candijeremyp. We are only uploading 20 per hour. Here are just a few pictures and note the one with JJ and his new best friend...yes, the one with the dog. Jaxson is absolutely in love with the baby and won't leave his side. He has to just sniff JJ every so often, then goes back to laying down or doing whatever he was doing.

Luckily, we have been getting some good help this week. Vita has been here this week and has really been a big help cleaning, cooking, running errands, feeding JJ...ok, maybe not the last one, but she has been doing everything else. We planned this pregnancy and birth out just right so we would have our own personal chef here to cook us Thanksgiving dinner. It was awesome and just like home, minus a table and tons of people.

We were also blessed to have my San Diego family come to visit. John and Sharla drove the six hours just to see me, but for some reason they haven't said much to me. The only time they will talk to the one I am sure they came to see, is when they say, "where is JJ" or "give JJ back so I can hold him again." Odd, but I am still convinced they came to see ME!

Candi continues to do really well. She is a bit upset that her old pants are tight and hard to fit into! Yeah, she is wearing her old clothes one week after giving birth...and complaining that they don't fit as loosely as they did a year ago.

I finished up my in-processing this past week and will start class tomorrow. I am looking forward to finally starting this phase of training, just not looking forward to doing it with less sleep than normal. Candi is the one getting up at nights to feed, since my milk still hasn't come in, but the monitor still limits my REM sleep cycles. Something I am told I should get used to...which, by the way was not in the books I read. Apparently, I shouldn't have been reading the books, magazines, and handouts that have planes or motorcycles on them and should have been reading the ones Candi gave me instead.

Just Another Boring Week

Well, not really anything to report...wait, there was something...let me think. I will go ask Candi what it was, but there was something I was going to report. Candi said it was probably THE BABY! Yes, that is right, we had our baby. I know most of you who read this, got an email or saw it on Facebook, but if not, Jarrett John is now a part of the Presley family.

God blessed us with JJ at 4:41 on Friday morning. He weighed in at 7 lbs., 1 ounce and 19 inches long. He is as healthy as he could be and Candi is, too!

Candi did really well with the whole thing, if you couldn't tell by how great she looks just minutes after JJ's birth.

The whole thing went quickly. Candi's water broke at 1:30am and she wasn't sure what just happened, so she got up and started reading about it. She started feeling some pains about 2:15 and that is when she decided that it must have been her water that broke and that she was now having contractions. At that point, she woke me up about 2:30. We decided to call the hospital and they told us to take our time since it was our first baby, but that we should come on in. Candi took a shower, fixed her hair, did her nails...ok, not the last one, but the others were true and she was taking her time. I started timing her contractions and they were only three to four minutes apart, so I was urging her to get going. She said that the contractions were only 45 seconds long, so they couldn't be the real deal. A few minutes later and she was doubled over on the floor. The increasing of pain helped her see the urgency and we got into the car around 3:30.

It is about a 20 minute drive to the hospital, so by the time we walked in and got a nurse to look at her, it was about 4:00am. After looking at her, they started really moving fast. The next thing I know, she is in a hospital gown and they are hooking her up to an IV. I was getting ready to go park the car, get some magazines to read, and grab my IPOD, when I asked the question, "so when do expect the baby to start coming out," to which one nurse said, "right now, honey." I truly expected the answer to be eight or so hours, but NOW...

We had to wait for the doctor to get there and then sixteen pushes later, JJ was born at 4:41AM. Candi had the baby all natural, not because she wanted it that way, but because it happened so quick. Long story short, I still made my 9:00 tee time.

We were pleasantly surprised to get a call from Derick & Megan Staffenson, who were passing through Tucson on their move from Florida to California. It was nice to see a familiar face at the hospital!

All is well with JJ and Candi and we got released from the hospital today. The first newly elected grandma is in town to help us out, which my golf partners are very happy about.

Thanks to all who have sent prayers, flowers, emails, Facebook comments, etc., it has been very nice to have second-hand support, since we weren't able to have first-hand until the arrival of grandma Vita, today. We still aren't sure if she cares about her grandson, but I think she will warm up to him in time.

If you would like to see more pictures, Candi has set up an online album at: http://picasaweb.google.com/candijeremyp.

God blessed us with a quick delivery, a healthy baby, and a healthy mother. Not to mention, I will now get to spend a week with Candi and JJ before class starts. And who knows, we may even get to come home for Christmas now. God is good. Well, I better get back to my golf...I mean helping out with the baby, but thanks again to everyone for their support.

Settling In

We come to you from the land of the sun! We have been here a whole week and only one day has there been a cloud in the sky. The weather is great…mid 70s during the day and 40s at night. The air is minus what we learned in Texas was called “humidity.” The absence of that word has led to me going through Chapstick like it was Peanut Butter M&Ms (which if you know me is more frequent than even changing clothes...i.e. a lot). The surroundings remind us a lot of home…at least compared to Texas. I say all the time that this is just like home, but Idaho doesn’t have 70 degree weather in the winter, doesn’t have cactus everywhere, and doesn’t have dried up rivers everywhere. I think they sing “Bridge Over Troubled Sand” here because there is no water under their bridges. But, the mountains all around are what make it a lot like home. If you replaced cactus with sagebrush and palm trees with maple trees, I think it would be fairly close.

We have spent the last week giving our own economic stimulus package to the Tucson area. We didn’t take any food with us, but apparently we didn’t bring anything else. Some of the more happy purchases were some cat pillows, chicken wire, boards, etc. to make a mansion for Candi’s cats, so they could transition to outside cats. Outside is a broad term, since we made a cat door and created a cat palace in our garage, complete with heated blankets, night lights, and fountains. But, hey, if it keeps them out of my sight all day, I am not going to complain about how long it took me to build it or how many times I stuck my fingers on the chicken wire.

The rest of our time was spent getting our house ready to live in and ready for a baby to live in it. Ok, not the entire rest of the time, since Candi has been working and I have had enough time to squeeze in a round of golf, but a lot of our time has been spent in this area. We have put together all the items that we left in boxes for the move, such as the Pack and Play, stroller, swing, etc. Our dogs have really stepped up and helped with this effort. Apparently, they don’t want to leave our side for fear that we might up-root their home again or get the "cat" treatment.

JJ’s room is now complete and looks something like this:
Candi is doing well and continues to grow. She is having a hard time finding shirts that cover her entire belly. She has been wearing some of my shirts...so I think that means I need to hit the gym a bit harder.

She has her first doctor’s appointment tomorrow. If my busy schedule will allow, I will go with her. After the appointment, we will feel a little better about the whole thing. We still want to get a hospital tour in and see where we will need to go when JJ decides it is time to come out of hibernation. I have him scheduled to make the decision on Tuesday, so I will have the most time to be with him and Candi before I have to start class in two weeks…although I have to check in this week. If he doesn’t comply with my wishes to be “on time” then I know he is going to be a lot like his mother!

We Made It!!!!!!!!!!!!

Greetings from nice, warm Tucson! The traveling zoo rolled into town Sunday afternoon and was all moved in to the new house by 1300 on Monday. The trip and move in went very well. We are now getting all settled in and Candi is already back to work.

My dad flew into San Antonio on Friday and we left early Saturday morning…er…late morning. He drove the U-Haul truck, pulling Candi’s SUV on a trailer and followed Candi and I in my pickup. We made it a full day and stopped in El Paso the first night. Sunday we finished up the trip and rolled into Tucson before 3:00 PM. We were able to get a quick walk through of the house that we had already sent a deposit on, turned on the power for, paid for other utilities for, and scheduled cable for…in other words, we did things a bit backwards, but I didn’t want to sign a lease on Monday morning without actually seeing it. Monday morning we went to the property management agency and listened to a lady tell Candi and I (on a second grade level) that we couldn’t remodel the rental or commit crimes in the rental…and then she finally let us sign the lease. We immediately went to the new house and the three (and a half) of us had the U-Haul unpacked by 1:00 PM. Even with dad doing a lot of this:

The house turned out to be great. It was built in 2000, but it has been given a new coat of paint, new tile floors, and new fixtures so it looks almost brand new. Best of all was the huge walk-in closet…it could almost be a drive-in closet, but don’t let anyone know what I thought was the best part because I am supposed to be a “fighter pilot!” The tile floors will make it easy to clean (although we have already bought a few rugs) and all the yards around here are all rock, so that will be easy to maintain. On a side note, I still think yard means grass area, but I don't know what else to call it..."rock area that surrounds our house"??? That is way too long, so we will go with yard. Jaxson (our year old yellow lab) still isn’t sure about it…he still walks on the rocks like they are hot coals, which is one of the funniest things to see: a big, clumsy dog try to tip-toe. Our other dog could care less about the difference. In true Arizona form, we have cactus in our yard.

Our new address is 7733 S. Titanite Lane, Tucson, AZ 85747, for those of you who want to send me lots of chocolate and surprises! If you Google map it, we are just South of Davis-Monthan AFB (DM) and the massive bone yard that is co-located with the base. Our house and solitary subdivision are right off the East side of the air traffic going in and out of DM. Candi doesn’t run outside every time a jet flies over, so I am guessing she doesn’t think our location is as cool as I do.

Here are a few pictures of the house.

Notice that Zoe is not caring about the rock backyard and Jaxson is watching from the flat surface...he is such a wuss! I have a lot of work to do to get him to be a hard core hunting dog!

The trip was painful for Candi, but she did great. She was very uncomfortable and said, "I just want to get there" many times, but never complained. We tried to hurry as much as possible, but we couldn't go too fast because I didn't want to blow up my second U-Haul transmission. Most importantly for us, we went to DM yesterday and got enrolled in Tricare (the military insurance program) so Candi can go off base for her health care. All she has to do is meet with her new doctor and then she is good to have a baby. It is just that simple.

Well, we will share more later, but many were wanting to know the latest. We still haven't gone to the grocery store and we are tired of eating out, so I must leave you all now. Not to mention, we have HD television now, so I better get back to watching TV while Candi continues to get the house ready. Not really, but the new TV does look awesome in high definition. We're also still trying to get our wireless up and running. Many thanks to a neighbor for not securing a "BelkinWireless" and allowing us to "borrow" their internet service. It isn't stealing if it is for a good cause, right?

Last Week in Texas

I just want to start out by saying that I am very disappointed in all but one of you. Many people read by blog, but only one asked what were the names behind the initials “JJ.” My great aunt Betty was awarded the knowledge of what “JJ” meant…which is Jarrett John. We decided on that name and it will probably stand, barring the fact that “JJ” is a girl. I wanted something with a “shawn” in it, since I think that almost guarantees that your child will be an athlete. “Jerashawn” was considered, but I guess Candi wanted to leave room for him to be a dancer. We plan on calling him “JJ” until we need to get his attention, at which point we will use Jarrett John, along with some words that are best expressed by holding down the shift button and then the numbers along the top of the keyboard.

I am officially done with my extra flights and ready to get out of Dodge. We are expecting to leave Saturday morning, so I guess that means we need to start packing. I tried to lean forward a bit and start packing up the kitchen, but I got half a box into it before Candi started yelling, “We will need that tomorrow, you know!” The point of taking only the bare minimums in the first place, is the reason why this will be a frantic scramble to pack on the last few days. However, even with the “bare minimums” on my clothes and shoes, I could still probably pack three-quarters of them and not really be effected too much. It is bad when I took less than half of my shoes and I still packed 23 shoes on Saturday…and I left 6 to wear during the move. The sad thing is, that isn’t a joke. I blame my mother for those issues!

Candi and I went to Dallas to watch a Cowboys game for my birthday this weekend, hence the late post. We had a good time, but the Cowboy’s game was less than pretty. The team is horrible, but that is a whole other can of small brown earth dwellers.

The stadium was the impressive thing and the 60 yard long, high definition TV was amazing. The picture below is of the TV screen, you can read the tattoo's of former BSU player, Orlando Scandrick. In other news, I have started a campaign to convince Candi that our 55-inch TV needs to be bigger. The stadium had television screens everywhere, so you would never miss the game no matter where you went. Not to mention it had cars stacked on racks (Ford is a major sponsor), the largest pro shop, pools with fountains, etc. Jerry Jones really did pull out all the stops on that one...too bad he didn't put more into the team!

Candi and JJ continue to grow and both are healthy (only about 5 weeks to go!). We now have an overnight bag ready, just in case JJ wants to see the outside world anytime soon. I will be driving the fragile cargo to Tucson in my pickup, following my dad in the U-Haul. I will also be hauling the two dogs and two cats…the latter of which I am not tying down the carrier and leaving my tailgate down!

Thanks again to all those who called, emailed, sent, or Facebooked me birthday greetings. The next post will be from Tucson, see you then!