ZACH ATTACK!

Hey everyone,

An uber-talented artist I've known for a while did up this awesome "cartoon" Zach as an exercise. I've got a link to his blog to the right side of your screen. May I introduce to you all the amazing MIKE TISSERAND! Keep in mind he's in-between places right now and drew this on his lap! ON HIS LAP (I'm having a bit of an inferiority complex right now, but I'll get over it... promise)! Check his blog for other very cool stuff.

We now interrupt our regularly scheduled program...

Zach blows some kisses at the end, it's just that his hand is in his mouth so it's hard to tell...

Video fun!

Weather outside is Frightful

Well before we get to that I have to show you my boy in all of his standing glory. Of course at seven months he has to do it leaned up against a chair back, but hey he kept himself there. Besides he's cute so no matter what he's doing it's worth showing you pictures.









And some video for fun!





On to the weather. We had some freaky weather happening across our fruited plains these last couple of days. Mom's area was hit with some nasty tornadoes that killed a bunch of people in the south. I talked to her today for any that might be worried and she's just fine. She said the sky turned black and was pretty freaky but her and Tristan just cuddled up while she prayed and assured T-dog all would be well. He fell asleep at six in her arms and was out for the night. To any fool who may have doubted there's just more proof that my Mom RULES!

Alllrightythen, onto what's up here in the Land of Cheese and Beer. We got walloped with a huge snowstorm. Biggest this area has seen in my almost eleven years here. We received a bounty of snow from our Lord averaging around eleven inches in the Madison area. I have photos and video to prove the madness. It took me around an hour to clear the drive WITH my Toro. But the job is done and I should be able to get my car out of the driveway tomorrow. Heidi and Zach stayed home for a snow day together so I took the Lexus to work. Which is good because my car would not have made it.











That's all folks!

"I'm too sexy for tummy time"

Yep our fair boy Zach is seven months old. He sits up on his own like a perfect gentleman, has gotten his first tooth to break through with another following shortly and still freaks like we're dropping him off at the orphanage when we put him on his tummy.

It's been a rough January. Between Zach being sick, Heidi and I getting sick (don't eat at Chipotle people), doctors visits, missed work, trying to make up work, clearing the drive of snow every other freakin' day, getting Zach's pictures taken, then sending them to my Mom with what little "free" time I have, getting a message from said Mom scolding me for not sending a note with the pictures (my Mom loves notes) and work being unpleasant, I've about had it.

Not really, I'm an eternal optimist (even with our government) but it does tend to wear on a fella. I'll be leaving tomorrow to have my saint of a brother fix my cars' many woes (brought on by our insane winter and all that, that implies). Trying to get back in time for some time with Heidi and Little Z, hoping there won't be more snow on the driveway needing to be cleared. Although thank the Lord for big favors... that little Toro I've got rocks the Casbah.

Other highlights:

Packers lost, and seriously, on the NEWS, they have therapists telling Packer fans how to deal with their DEPRESSION! Can you imagine that kind of nonsense on the Chicago news after the Bears lost the SuperBowl? You lose a leg, or a relative, or a car? Okay be depressed. Your sports team loses a game? Get over it and yourself.

Went to see I Am Legend on a rare treat of having a night with the wife. BIG MISTAKE. I think it's a great movie but not one for a date night, especially when they are in short supply. Guys, make sure when trying to encourage your wife that you don't take her to a movie that makes her want to jump off a bridge. On a side note it was at the IMAX and we saw the five minute Dark Knight teaser which got me super pumped for that movie and then BAM Ledger is dead. Probably won't take Heidi to see that one.

Our church may be getting a new, more acomdating facility to meet in (YEAH) but we still have to meet at night (not so yeah).

Thass all for now!

To all 3 of you who check my blog, my apologies...

Hello folks. It's been a while I know but I have a good reason, several actually... most of them involve laziness so I won't bother you with the details.

Rather last minute like Heidi and I decided to join some of my family in Arizona for Christmas. The travel down to Midway was scary to say the least. We saw around twenty cars/trucks in the ditch. Heavy blowing winds and very icy roads made getting to Chicago an adventure in and of itself. Mercifully once we got into Illinois the roads were much better and the winds not as severe.

Traveling with a six month old is not something I'd recommend. Yes it was worth it in the long run but if you thought flying was a pain already it only gets worse. On the way back from Arizona we had a run in with security and ended up having to wait more than 2 hours just to get on the plane since Midway was restricting landings due to wind and ice conditions. Zach was amazing on the flights, not a peep out of him even when the plane was swinging left to right and the wing tips were tilting up and down during our landing he was totally chill. After we landed the pilot gets on the P.A. and assuringly announces "Whew, we made it!". Not what I want to hear considering I'm going to fly again someday and may experience weather like that again!

Our time in Arizona was fun. We were able to hang with my brother Steve's family and my sister Debbie's fam as well. Everyone loved Zach and he was pretty good while we were there, save the last day when he started getting sick. Sunny days will throw you off when you're coming from two feet of snow to sixty five degree weather. It was excellent walking around in a t-shirt shorts and sandals, while everyone else is talking about how "cold" it is.

Christmas was fun watching all the kids tear into their stuff. It's been a long time since I've been able to experience that and it made me look forward to the time when Zach and his future younger sibling(s) will be able to do that. Besides all the cool stuff he gets will probably have to be put together first and I'm ace at that! Tom and Deb's kids got a wii. Bowling is a lot of fun. So much so that after the kids went to bed the adults would stay up to play. The bummer is that Deb and Steve both got pretty sick and had to miss out on some family time which stinks. Steve and Karen are excellent hosts and made us feel welcomed and loved. It was a great time to be with the family.

Peep some video I shot of Christmas morning...





After we got home we had a day or two to try and recoup, with Zach being sick that wasn't very easy. Heidi's family came for our Christmas celebration with them and that was cool. We had her parents and her sister and brother in-law stay the night. Got up the next morning and did the gift exchange. We are very fortunate to have such generous families. We were given much more than we should have and Zach made out pretty well to. We took Zach to the doctor late last week and he had to put him on Prednesone and we had to do 3 nebulizer treatments a day for a week. It is miserable administering this stuff to your kid. He's doing a little better now but is still having a hard time getting a good nights rest (and so are we).

Since the third it's been back to work for both of us as we try to figure out how to manage our time better. Heidi and I still have need for alone time, time together, time with friends, etc. Certainly neither one of us has ever been terribly selfish with our time with exception to our time with each other. But there's just such a steep learning curve with parenting you tend to unintentionally neglect each other's needs in favor of your new child's. Hopefully this is something we can look to friend's and family for advice and grow in this area of our marriage.

Saturday we had some pictures taken of Zach that I'll hopefully have some examples of here in the next week or so.

Monday Heidi took Zach in for his six month check up and we now have the okay to go ahead and torture our son with pureed vegetables. Here's a three part video series to see just how that went for the very first time...








I'll have more video and pictures to share later.

New drawering (updated with some tweaking)

This is the main character from a book called The Long Count that a friend of mine Josh is lettering... it comes out today.

*UPDATE I talked with the writer of the series today and he said if the finished product looks as good he'll use it as a pinup in a future issue. Here's hoping I don't ruin it in the inking process.