Jabulani Jonny

Well we made it back to the States yesterday, and back to our house today, after two weeks in South Africa with Sunette's family.  Unfortunately I haven't had internet access since last Thursday morning so I wasn't able to post for the last few days while we were down there and the two or three days we were traveling. 

We had a phenomenal time while we were there.  As you can see from the previous posts, we visited a few game reserves, hiked around Hogsback and then Sunette's sister got married the Saturday before we left.  I'll post some pictures from the wedding below.  Keep in mind, I wasn't the hired photographer so I was going after the shots that he wasn't there to take.   

It was a lovely outdoor wedding; a beautiful bride and handsome groom, perfect setting, perfect weather and a hopping dinner and reception.  Sunette and I took ballroom dancing lessons to prepare since the new husband and wife are phenomenal ballroom dancers.  Needless to say the DJ didn't quite play the same kind of music that we had practiced to.  So can you guess which person at the dinner decided to break the ice a bit by providing a firm demonstration of the Tootsie Roll.  Yeah, being the only American there, I had to represent.  Needless to say the party and the dance floor loosened up a bit after that.

All in all, it was a fantastic time.  I pictured it being essentially a photo expedition and that's exactly what it was, from capturing nature and animals to weddings and receptions.  I definitely learned a few tricks and I feel like I got some great images from the trip.

Can I say that we missed Elliot something fierce?  Luckily we were able to video Skype with him while we were there, which made it much easier to be away for so long.  Now we're back home as one big ol' happy family.  I'm sure the routine is just around the corner, but we'll see if we can fend it off for a few more days at least. 

Eight years ago I married the woman of my dreams. I knew after our third date that I would marry her. Every thing about her intrigued me and still does. She is naturally beautiful, but will deny it every time. She is poignantly witty, but will be the first to laugh at herself. She can be stubborn and hard-nosed, but will be the first to say she’s sorry. She is true in every sense of the word and she challenges me to be the same. Happy 8th anniversary honey. Here’s to many more.

There’s this tough little joker I know. His body has been beaten up a little and he’s got lots of issues that nag him. Things that would make me whine and snivel, he just takes in stride. Yeah he gets ornery some times, but who wouldn’t. I really wish I could just take half of his burden for him, but I know I’m not strong enough to carry it. He knows my voice, but I don’t know that he can really see my face. That makes me sad, but to him, maybe my voice is enough. He’s a tough little T-monster and he’s got 100% of the love that is in my heart.

Firstly, I got a new computer at work and can now actually post to my blog using Typepad’s web interface.  That’s good news for my blog.  Before i had to use either Write to My Blog, or Google Docs built in blog publishing tool, but neither fully did the trick.  So I decided to try Typepad again and see if I could get through whilst on severe IT lockdown.  Bingo.  It works.  That’s good.

Secondly, I’ve got a birthday coming up March 1st.  I’m trying to decide what to ask for as a present.  See, I see birthdays as an opportunity to ask for something that may cost just a bit more than you’re able to spend out of your own money (yes we operate on a budget, and i get an allowance).  You probably don’t want to ask for something that you could put in your family budget, like clothes, or shoes.  Though I need both for work, that doesn’t feel very "birthday’ish".  Use-ability and tech geekery rank pretty high on my list.  We’ll I’ve got my new computer and I’ve got my ipod, we’ve got a pretty decent digital camera and have just picked up a nice HD camcorder.  I can’t justify the expense of a new TV.  We like to watch movies and since we’ve had Elliot we watch a lot more, but sometimes find it tough to get to the video store.  We’ve tried Blockbuster and Netflix, but this whole waiting for your movie and committing to a monthly charge kinda chaffs. 

(cue Apple TV)

Yeah.  I’m thinking that’s a pretty good choice.   The ability to rent movies directly from your TV.  I have several movies and TV shows on my mac and this will let us watch them directly on the TV, without having to burn it to disc or watch it on my laptop.  I’m liking it.  Whadya think?

This Sunday Sunette and I took some family photos, since it was gorgeous and we had Elliot off oxygen for a few minutes.  I wanted to get Los’ buddy Daley Hake for a photo shoot, but we decided to postpone it until Elliot is a little more interactive, maybe we can hook up after the first of the year.  We were trying to get one good shot of the family for our thank you cards which will go out this week.  The first one is what we went with. 

No that’s not pig-latin or baby speak.  It’s Afrikaans for Happy Birthday, since Saturday was Sunette’s B-day.  Unfortunately Saturday didn’t feel like much of a birthday for her since we spent the day in the hospital with Elliot.  He’s doing pretty well, we’re just trying to get the feeding thing worked out.  He’s going in for his G-tube on Tuesday and a Nissin procedure which should help with his reflux.  Hopefully those procedures will clear up the nagging little issues that have been hanging around.  I’m hoping we can be home in about a week after his G-tube procedure.  We’re in our 8th week up here in Philly so it can’t come soon enough.

Anyway, Saturday wasn’t much of a birthday but I made reservations at a phenomenal restaurant for Sunday night.  It’s a Tapas restaurant in downtown Philly called Amada.   I  had to call 5 days in advance to get reservations at a decent time, it’s that rockin.  We got there last night at 9pm and had one of our top dining experiences ever, seriously. 

The selection was amazing, the presentation was impeccable and the flavors were out of this world.  If you’re not familiar with tapas, they are kind of "mini-meals" that are traditional spanish fare.  Typically you combine several and share them to create a full meal, but made up of lots of smaller dishes.  Here’s what I love about tapas; the chef’s full attention goes into that one dish, then the next, then the next.  It’s not this big heaping thing of pasta that you fill up on or get tired of halfway through.  Every bite you take has been meticulously crafted to be the best bite it can be. 

We had about 6 dishes in all and a dessert.  I wish that I could describe them for you, but this post would get gargantuan, as you prolly know how much I love food, I could wax poetic.  Needless to say, we both agreed that it was close to, if not, our top dining experience ever.  I also surprised her with a special "dish" I ordered just for her.  I conspired with the waitress to bring out a couple pieces of jewelry that I was giving Sunette on a plate as if it were another dish.  Oh I know, stop it…. stop it.  She was surprised to say the least, since we’ve been spending all waking hours at the hospital.  I stole away for a couple hours and hunted down a couple special gifts for my special woman.  Love you hon!!  Happy Birthday!!

Well from my last couple of posts you can see things have been a little crazy around the house.  Things are settling in a little bit about the baby.  We still have our moments of doubt and some fear, but I know that everything will turn out ok.  So what’s new?

Well, with a new baby on the way, one with possible heart issues, I want us to be closer to town, closer to a hospital, closer to me during the day.  So we made the decision to get our house ready to put on the market.  There are a few things that still needed to be done, ie. paint the garage, finish the bonus room, and I’ve been working like a fiend since we decided to put it on the market. 

On Saturday, whilst I was building a new wellhouse, some folks that run a tree farm on the next property pull up.  They get to the point quickly and say that they heard we were going to put our house on the market and they were interested in buying it before we get a realtor involved.  WOW.  We just decided to move to Columbus and we’ve already got what looks like an extrremely motivated buyer.  We took them on a tour of the house and they absolutely loved it.  Everything, loved it. 

So, an appraiser comes out next week to appraise the house and we’ve got to settle on a price.  See, we have to get a certain amount out of this house in order for us to move to living off one paycheck when we move to Columbus.  I want Sunette to be able to stay home with the baby indefinitely and that’s going to take some adjustments, primarily a lower mortgage.  We built our current house, with us doing the sub-contracting and lots of the work, which means we’ve got a good chunk of equity in it right now.  My plan all along was to sell it in about 5 years. 

It looks like the time is hear and there are definitely some pangs of sadness with selling this house. It is absolutely perfect for us, situated on 5 wooded acres, plenty big with lots of great features.  The only problem is that it ‘s  30 minutes from everything and one paycheck won’t carry us and the mortgage.  So we gotta move. 

So if we didn’t have enough going on with the baby due in August, now we’ve decided to move before the baby gets here.  That’s a lot on our plate, but I’m actually really excited about the move.  I’m excited about being closer to my friends, and a 10 minute drive instead of 30 minute drive everywhere.  May not sound like much of a difference, but it is. 

So hold on big city, the country Payne’s are movin’ in. 

So I've been out of touch again for the last week.  There's an explanation.  As you may or may not know, we're expecting our first child in August.  We're about 20 weeks along right now.  This pregnancy has not been easy.  It has been an emotional rollercoaster from day 1.  Without getting into it, it's taken us a long time to get to this point.  Sunette and I have been married for close to 7 years and our endeavor to have a child has taken the last 4 years.  So now we're here, but it hasn't been easy.

Sunette was on bed rest for three of the last 4 weeks and she's been on administrative duty only at work.  Even before bed rest there were some scary times.  

Fast forward to last Monday.  Our primary doctor had referred Sunette to a antepartum (pre-natal) specialist, for what we thought was just clearing her from bedrest.  Well, she was cleared from bedrest, but they discovered that there are some major issues with the baby's heart.  They couldn't really tell us anything other than that the baby's heart had two chambers instead of four, it could be related to Downs Syndrome and it might cause other complications.  That was all we got.  So needless to say, we were wiped out.  

They scheduled an appointment with a pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Borkat, which we met with last Thursday.  This guy was phenomenal.  They studied the ultrasound of the baby's heart for probably 10 minutes, looking at the structure and formation.  We could hear what our other specialist, Dr. Stauffer, was saying, but we couldn't hear what Dr. Borkat was saying.  Well, we were holding our breath when he came back in to tell us what he saw.  

The first words out of his mouth were, "It's fixable".  Wow.  I don't know that I've ever felt relief like that.  Once we heard that, he could've said anything and we would have handled it.  So what did he see?

It looks like the baby has what's called an Endocardial Cushion Defect with a small left ventricle.  What this means is that the wall between the left and right ventricle (the lower chambers) isn't formed.  This doesn't really affect the baby while it's in the womb, but it does cause complications after birth.  So that means the baby will need heart surgery right after birth and possible several surgeries depending on how extensive the issues are.  

So we've been a little tied up, a little preoccupied around the house lately.  We thank God for the wisdom of our doctors and the fact that it looks like everything can be repaired.  There are still very scary steps that have to take place and we have a long road in front of us.  However, we are confident that God will continue the good work He started and we will come through this with a beautiful child.  Your thoughts and prayers are appreciated.   

Wow, so I’ve been out of touch for a week.  I mean it was my birthday on March 1st and now it’s March 10th.  Where the heck did those 9 days go?  Oh I remember, when I wasn’t at work, I was at home attending to Sunette who’s been on bed-rest for 3 weeks.  Although it has allowed for a lot of time in front of the computer, it hasn’t prompted much exciting "post-worthy" happenings.  That’s cool though.  It’s really been a great time for us.  We basically camp out on the couch together.  She’s there all day of course and i join her when I come home from work. 

So here’s my random thought this week while watching the opening to "The Illusionist", which I thought was a great flick BTW.  Topic:  Movie Intros  Thought: There are some movies where the intro of the movie is actually the beginning of the action, literally the start of the movie.  Where other movies, ie. any James Bond flick, have an "intro" showing all the actor’s names over a mysterious background of some sort.  The movies of the first sort just kinda stick the actors names down in the corner while the action is going on so as not to detract too much from the start of the actual film.

This got me thinking…is the purpose of the latter sort; the ones with a true "intro", with actors names truly being focused on, either over some mysterious background or in some interesting sequence, solely a self-serving, Narcissistic purpose?  You follow?  What is the purpose behind the movie "intro" other than to tell you who did what?  So really, maybe the movie intros that focus solely on the names, forcing you to recognize who the executive producer was, are nothing more than Hollywood saying "Hey Look At Me!".  Wait…don’t they already do that?

to me.  I know that last post made it sound like I was bummed at my job.  I'm really not, it was just an interesting observation  I thought. 

Anyway, today's my B-day.  My wife has given me a wonderful gift.  Some of my favorite memories are the fly-fishing trips I get to take with my buddy Carl from Callaway Gardens.  If you didn't know, I'm a contract fly-fishing guide for Callaway.  I used to work there full time back in the day and Carl and I became fast friends.  He's an amazing guy and I really treasure the trips we get to take.  It only seems to happen once a year unfortunately.  

Well last year he and I took an amazing trip to Unicoi Outfitters in North Georgia for some trophy trout fishing.  Carl was going to be writing a magazine article specifically on Unicoi Outfitters and the fishing they provide.  I was the lucky guy that got to tag along and be photo fodder for print.  Needless to say, it was one of the best two days I've had in my life.  Amazing locations, amazing fish and amazing people.  

I was going to insert a pic here of a huge brown trout I caught last time, but alas, I'm posting from work and I'm behind a corporate firewall that won't let me upload the pic.  Doh. 

Well this morning I awoke to breakfast in bed and a card.  In the card was one of the best gifts I've ever gotten.  A voucher for 2 days of fishing with Carl on trophy trout waters guided by Unicoi Outfitters.  Holy mama-sita.  That is a phenomenal gift.  I'd take that anyday over some toy or gadget, and that's saying alot if you know me.  

So, thanks hon!  You're a wonderful bride and……..

mother-to-be.  You read that right folks.  We've got #1 on the way.  August is the time when life forever changes.  I hinted at some changes several weeks ago, so now full disclosure.  We're about 18 weeks along.  Your thoughts and prayers are coveted.  

So I guess that's two birthday presents.  I'm a lucky guy.