Joining the Darkside

Dad was Right is please to announce that Michael Houston, a father to be in a few weeks, has himself turned down the dark side and started a blog. You can find Not OK anymore at:

http://notokanymore.blogspot.com/

He writes in one of his initial posts about how Iraq has really been all about Iran. We have long agreed and actually surprised each other that we had come to the same conclusion. Iraq and Afghanistan places us right next to and surrounding the two largest and longest state sponsors of terrorism.....Syria and Iran. Hence our desire to go into Iraq.

Dad Was Right welcomes Not OK Anymore to the blog world. Excellent......(Mr. Burns voice)

Settling In

Things are beginning to settle in. Will is falling into some fairly normal routines. He has been known to sleep for 2.5 to 3.5 hour chunks of time at night and in the late afternoon, so all is good. My Mom and Dad are in town and it has been fun to visit with them and to see them interact with Will.

It has been particularly challening trying to balance work with home. Working halftime is kind of a joke....I have meetings for the entire time I am in the office (10 am until 3 pm) and have no time in the office to accomplish anything. My meetings stayed with me and I lost my get stuff done time. Yuck! My parents leave on Tuesday evening and so I will be taking next week off completely so that Cambra can have some more time to adjust before she is home with Will for extended periods of time by herself.

On a completely different note, I find it quite amusing that John Kerry announced today his plan to try to garner support for a filibister of the Alito nomination for Supreme Court. It is clear the votes are not there to support the filibuster and numerous recent polls showed that the between 65-75% American people believe that Alito should be confirmed by the Senate. You can't get 65-75% of the American people to agree on anything it seems. And, it is clear by the vote counting that the filibuster has no chance. Ed Kennedy has also joined in in vocal support of the filibuster. So, either Kerry and Kennedy can't count or they are simply interested in propping up a Kerry 2008 presidential bid by blatantly pandering to the extreme left wing of the political spectrum. As if the Democrats have the guts to nominate anyone other than Hillary in 2008. Mark it down folks, it will be a Hillary Clinton running with either Barak Obama, Henry Ford, or Mark Warner as her VP nominee. If the DNC had half a brain in its strategy, they would understand that the current electoral map is so tilted to the South (where the Republicans rule the day) that they simply have to nominate a candidate who can break that block. The Dems have not been able to elect anyone who came from outside of the South (LBJ, Carter, Clinton) since JFK. If the Dems had vision, they would nominate a ticket of Mark Warner (Moderate Democratic governor (socially progressive, fiscally conservative) of Va and pair him with Barak Obama from Illinois (pacify the extreme left flank of the party) or Bill Richardson from New Mexico (Richardson could help break into the Mountian West....New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada). The Dems just don't have that kind of vision (at least it does not look like it right now). They would rather run a true blue, Northern, urban liberal and lose than run a moderate and win. They are making the same mistake the Repubs did when they ran Bob Dole.

Enough politics for now. Will needs to go to bed.

Life is Already Getting Crazy

Well, I got home from work today at 3:30 pm or so. I have an incredible job that is basically allowing me to work half time for ten weeks total and also have an additional two weeks off completely. Since my mother-in-law is still in town, I have been working so as to save my time completely off of work for when all parents and such have already left.

Anyway, I got home from work at about 3:30 pm or so and for the next seven hours, all I did was hold, take a nap with, feed, change, and basically hang out with Will. Pretty amazing to me that he is so darn sweet. He is a pretty laid back baby until/unless he wants/needs his food and/or a diaper change.

It has been crazy trying to balance being a dad and also being at work. I have a hard time being away for the time that I am, and yet I also feel some relief when I go to work. I don't know how Cambra is able to do it....to give herself completely over to the baby. I am so in awe of her and how wonderful a mother she is already. I feel guilty about feeling relieved to be at work....but I also miss Cambra and the baby tremendously while I am away. Lots of mixed emotions on all of this.

I'm not sure how things are going to go once all of our help is gone. Thelma leaves on Saturday and then my Mom and Dad come on Tuesday for a week. It will be a good trial run for the two and a half days in between parental visits/support. We need to figure out ways to be with Will and also get stuff done.....we are looking for a play pen to have and also another way to have him strapped to us while we work (we currently only have a Baby Bjorn chest pack).

The biggest thing I guess I am trying to give our son right now is time and attention. I know these moments will be gone so fast. I want to be truly present for as many of them as possible. Not sure how all of this will work once I am back to work full-time. Cambra and I have been in some discussions about how to work her back into some of the things she needs/wants to be doing as well....stuff with her friends, church, and her crafts (Cambra does not work currently). She will need her sanity and time away from the house too.

I guess it is all of these issues that make family life and parenthood the wild ride that it is.

Charles Willard Strawn (1/9/2006) 

Mom, going to the hospital 12 days after the due date to indice labor (Sunday morning 1/8/2006) 

Charles Willard Strawn

On Monday January 9, 2006 at 5:08 a.m. PST, Charles Willard Strawn (aka "Will") was born. Will was 22 inches long and weighed 9 pounds and .5 ounces. We named him Charles Willard to honor both our Dads (named Charles) and because Willard is a family name that is passed down in my family (Scott Willard Strawn).

The birthing process was pretty sureal and also awesome. Cambra had to be induced and little Will had the cord wrapped through his underarm and around his shoulder/neck which made for several instances where his heartbeat decelerated significantly. Ultimately, they had to use a vacuum to help get him out. Cambra was awesome. She went five hours or so of labor with no epidural before she relented. Induced labor is always longer and stronger....I was ready for her to get it before she was. She is my hero.

Anyway, all is well at home. We are working on adjusting and Cambra is doing well. More to come.

Told You

I told you Texas would win. If this game was any place other than the home field of USC, Texas is two TDs better than USC. It's not that I like Texas, I just hate the arrogance of USC and how much ESPN and all of Hollywood just simply drool all over USC. How can you call a team that had yet to win the National Championship game one of the best of all time? Does that mean that this Texas team is the best of all time since they beat USC.....give me a break!

Cambra still has not gone into labor. We go in for more tests on Friday and will make a decision then and when to induce labor if we need to. So, we continue to wait.

Not Yet

So, the baby still has not come yet. Cambra has a doctor's appointment tomorrow and depending upon how that goes, we may induce labor on Wednesday. If everything looks really good, we will give the kiddo until Saturday to come out before we induce. Our doctor does not want to let the kiddo go more than 10 days over due.

OSU won the Fiesta Bowl game today, beating the Dome heads from Notre Dame 34-20. Ginn, Holmes (who is going to turn pro), Smith, Hawk, Schlegel and Pittman all played wonderful games. The game was really not as close as the final margin of two touchdowns. If not for two turnovers in the red zone and two blocked field goals, it would have been a much larger margin. This seems to confirm my thought that Texas will beat USC on Wednesday....USC barely beat Notre Dame and Texas barely beat OSU (without T. Smith BTW).....OSU kills Notre Dame.....Texas wins by ten or more points.

The Cowboys did not make the playoffs.

I did win my Fantasy football league. The waiver wire addition of the Redskins defense was the difference in the final margin of victory. I have retired officially from Fantasy football and will be turning over full control and ownership of my squad to my son. More to come on this.

More to come tomorrow after Cambra's appointment. Happy new year!