I’m still working on the layouts and what not so please be patient if something doesn’t look quite right.  Thanks!

After we got back and ate a little we decided to hop in the 4×4 and cruise to as close to Hog 1 as we could get. We’re trying to find the best route from which to make our assault in the next few days. Here’s a shot as we were heading up the trail.

Tomorrow I think we’re gonna attempt the summit for some shots. On Friday we’re heading to a game reserve then Sunette and I will head to Addo (Ah-dew) Elephant park, another game reserve that has the big 8. Hopefully we’ll be able to see a few elephants. I’m getting the camera all geared up.

You may be asking how in the world did this town earn the name Hogsback.  Well, in the photo below you'll see the three "razorback" ridges that give the town its name.  And yes, it's remote as it sounds.

It's a gorgeous locale that is a backpacker/hiker destination for the amazing countryside.  Sunette and I have climbed Hog 1 (the peak on the right).  We'll repeat that this trip and hit all the other trails and waterfalls. 

Her parents have a beautiful 8 acres perched on the hillside with almost all of the property developed as a natural garden.  Lots of flowers and nooks and crannies, it's very tranquil.  It's heading into winter so there aren't a lot of flowers blooming, but I was able to squeeze off a few shots.

Oh and the tradition with Sunette's family?  How 'bout coffee about 15 times a day…literally.  I'll drink more Joe here than I do back home.  It's hard to believe I know.  3 o'clock in the afternoon?  Sounds like a good time for coffee.

So the next few days will be full of absorbing the out-of-doors, taking pics, drinking coffee, reading and so on.  I do have internet access so I'll be able to keep you up to date.  So…you ready for a trip to Hogsback?

This was a quick trial with my new lens. 

Dang he’s cute.  Here’s a glimpse of his first two teeth poking through.

Well, by Friday night Sunette had it, and it was not pretty. She’s still dealing with some of the lingering effects. By 5 am this morning I picked it up. My version wasn’t as explosive, but it didn’t feel any better. There is nothing like being cooped up in a hotel room with three sick people. Especially when it’s a disaster zone and we all look like this.

…week together just the two of us

…4 days in the house we designed and built ourselves

…walk down Bugg Road 

There are too many “lasts” this week.  It’s a bit depressing but I know that it’s all for the good.  We did find a house in Columbus, nothing special, but it’ll do well for us. 

We did decide to go to Philadelphia to pursue the best possible chance of survival for our baby.  We have a real sense of peace about this decision now.  At first we didn’t and we were ready to stay in Atlanta.  I think that was really our way of completely letting go and putting the baby in God’s hands.  I think we have done that and even as we decided to go to Philly that peace remained.  I think we’re doing the right thing and God is really opening doors and blessing us during this time. 

So we leave on Tuesday and will be gone 2 to 2 1/2 months.  We will be staying in the Ronald McDonald House in Camden, NJ, which is about 20 minutes from the hospital apparently.  I will be creating a carepage for the baby when I get there so those that are interested in following only the baby, and not have to endure the other things on my blog, will be able to do that.  I’ll post a link to that when I have it.

So there we are, going to Philly on Tuesday, and coming home in a couple months to a different house.  Just a little bit of change going on right now. 

That’s part of what we’ve got going on.

I’m also trying to get our house on the market, get it sold and move to Columbus before the baby gets here.  I’ve got to finish up a bonus room before we can put it on the market, basically put up sheetrock, paint, tile and the like.  I’ll be doing everything after the sheetrock is up, not the carpeting though.  I really need to finish it up in the next 3 weeks and get this thing on the market.  That will give us about 2 months to get it sold and move.  Wow, kinda pushing it close.

That’s something else that we’ve got going on.

With a baby like this you pretty much can’t put them into daycare, that’s out of the question.  They have to stay at home, which means Sunette will not be returning to work once her maternity leave runs out.  That was really the plan all along, but it’s not a choice at this point.  That means we have her paycheck until February.  Our drop dead date for moving is by February. 

Another thing that’s going on is we are partners with 2 other couples in a local real estate investment.  I’ve pretty much taken on the role of managing the weekly goings on for this project until it’s completion.  Things are going fine on it so far, but there is an element of risk in that we won’t get this property sold and it will be one more thing we have to carry financially.  Being a banker I’ve looked at it 100 ways to Sunday to make sure we can do it and everything looks good at this point, but it is certainly something that plays on my mind with everything else going on.

So where does that bring us………

Oh yeah, this weekend.  That was just a long intro if you didn’t know. 

Saturday I had a guided fly-fishing trip over at Callaway Gardens.  I was scheduled to be there all day.  Sunette was planning to take Barley for a walk with one of our good friends.  Well apparently they met at the trailhead and were saying there hello’s when Barley took off and literally jerked Sunette off of her feet onto the pavement.  Barley’s about 110 pounds and a pregnant Sunette is about 120.  She landed hard on her left side and got bruised and scraped up pretty bad.  Needless to say she was worried about the baby.  So she and Elizabeth called the doctor and spent the next 2 hours at the hospital monitoring the baby. 

Turns out the baby was fine and Sunette’s fine, but they did notice that she was having contractions.  What?  She’s 27 weeks along, she can’t have contractions, we can not have this baby early, they won’t be able to do surgery on a preemie.  Well the contractions subsided a bit and she came home.  Of course I didn’t find all of this out until I got back from my trip. 

Fast forward to last night about 12:30am.  Of course I’m completely comatose in the bed by this point.  Sunette wakes me to see if I can get her a Tylenol, sure.  Then she asks for my watch, sure.  Ummm, what for?  Well she’s having contractions again, pretty regularly right now.  Her contractions were 4 minutes apart.  That’s not good for a 27 week old pregnancy with a baby that needs heart surgery 4 days after birth.  So off to the hospital we go at 1am.

We were there for 3 1/2 hours while they monitored the baby and monitored the contractions.  Luckily after that time the contractions subsided.  They would have had to give her some medicine to stop them if they didn’t stop on their own. 

With all that said, and it was a lot, we got home about 6am this morning. 

What the heck is going on?  I mean, why do I feel that we’re just being picked on at this point?  It literally is just one thing after another to worry about.  If it’s not about the baby, it’s about the house, or finances when Sunette comes home.  I’m just not sure how much deeper it can get. 

Can you pimp my pic?