baby stuff and other stuff

[creative title, no?]

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i’ve recently been pestered (in the nicest way possible) to provide baby updates, especially on the “photos” front.

here’s the thing: i really wish i could provide pictures. i really, really do. alas, we just haven’t been able to make the time to do anything proper. our schedules, and specifically Jackie’s schedule, just haven’t provided time to make a day or an afternoon out of it. we will do it… we just haven’t yet. for now, you can have this (if you haven’t seen it yet)…

silhouette (click for full size)

i took this picture while we were in Seattle, specifically, at Puget Sound at sunset.

as far as news goes, everything is progressing quite nicely. lil’ Miss Rosemary is quite the active gal and we’re beginning to make out what seems to be limbs passing under the belly. all very alien and cool. tomorrow, we go in for the glucose test.

we also started birthing classes tonight. it was an experience and while perhaps not quite necessary to everything, its good to be surrounded by folks who are right around the same stage you are. also, i got picked on a small bit and was chosen to wear the Empathy Belly tonight. if you’re not on Twitter or a FB friend, you can see some of that action here.

we (Jac & i) did have a discussion on some things regarding the day and some of our expectations. i’m certain most of ours fall within normal guidelines. for now, she’s content with having a camera (one photo, one video) available on the day, so long as i am the only one with access to either. i feel a mite special in that regard. should this agreement remain intact, it’ll push whatever documentarian skills i have to the limit playing journalist (in a small degree) and husband/incoming father (to the Nth degree). i’m excited about that challenge.

past that, i’m having my own personal emotional peaks and valleys. most days i am totally excited and on cloud nine. but today i hit a bit of a valley with worries for the future. it can be just so overwhelming at times to try and comprehend how we’re going to make it for an extended period as a single income family. yes, there will be the L.A.P. income, but for a little while, that’s going to be sporadic.

right now, all i’ve got are deep breaths. it’ll have to do for now.

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i’ve tried to conjure up a cohesive post regarding the return of Michael Vick to the NFL, but nothing great has come up yet. so i’ll just lay it out there.

the man served his time in a small jail cell, seems completely humbled and heartfeltfully (yeah, i made that up) apologetic about what he did, and deserves a second chance.

people who have been charged with sex crimes are allowed to rejoin normal society after a period. hell, folks who have killed other people are allowed to go free. but Vick also shares something in common with those people: he will always carry that stigma with him. its something that will stick with him for life, whether he realizes it (which i think he does) or not.

on top of that, he also has massive amounts of debt to repay, more than most people could think of. what, you think he can pay that pack in any given time working a 9-5, $10/hour construction job? let him earn that by playing and paying it off instead of being a burden to his creditors.

now you have to understand: in no way do i feel what he did should be brushed off. while not a member of PETA or any other wacko animal group, i am an avowed defender of animal’s “rights.” i’m sickened with every story that comes across digg or the mainstream news regarding animal cruelty. i can’t watch the Animal Cops show on Animal Planet because it just hurts my heart too much. but nine times out of ten, the jackasses who get caught don’t feel or let on that they feel the slightest shred of regret for what they’ve done. Vick has, and he served his due time in prison for it.

also, i trust Tony Dungy. he is by far one of the greatest leading men in all of sports. and if he is personally willing to back up Vick and mentor him and say “let him play,” then i am willing to say the same.

so there.

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alright, its time for bed.

g’night.

politics, growing up, and… stuff

the flag over Baltimore's inner harbor

the single, most exciting time in my short political activist life was last year, Election 2008. i could not be stopped, and i loved, loved getting into with other folks. for all the inanity of it, i actually enjoyed having my blood pressure shoot up a few times a day and trolling around the internet for the latest breaking news stories regarding the presidential race. it made me feel… i dunno, alive? like i was helping (eh hem) to engage in a broader spectrumed [ed. note: that's not a real word] debate of what was going on across the country.

it was fun.

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fast forward to today, a little over eight months later. in the grand scheme of it all… i really don’t care that much anymore. sure, i’ll get into the occasional spat or engagement, but now… meh.

perspective can be a real bitch sometimes. now that there’s a lil’ Miss Rosemary on the way, my attitudes and priorities have shifted. i’ve dug my heels deeper into work and home and a burgeoning small business than i do with the Huffington Post or CNN. no, i don’t care if you’ve read all 1,000+ pages of the latest HC Reform bill (mainly because a big part of me wants to call “BS”).

don’t get me wrong: its not that i don’t care. i do care, deeply. but we’re still at a point where debate can’t be had without someone throwing personal jabs or just being overall sh***y in their words. [for the record, i'm not calling anyone out that i know; i'm taking a broader look at things.]

i’ve taken more concern with ensuring that we get the right camera to capture Rosemary’s everything rather than sourcing my thoughts and opinions on policy. the simple fact of the matter is this: a baby changes everything. its not an excuse, its not a copout. its the truth. [however, i will defend my friends when they are called out. just sayin'...]

does this make me better? well, no. in some exceedingly small, infinitesimal way, i kinda’ envy those that still have the mindset to go about and do what they do when they scrabble out their political opinions (on both sides). but we’re talking about 0.0000000001% small.

its just different, folks.

when you first get the news of “you’re having a baby!,” every passing day seems to chip away at that desire to stay fully active in whatever political scene you’re into.

when it turns into, “you’re having a girl!,” its about damn certain that whatever is left is shrunken to the size of a lemon seed.

taxes and trade? i’m gladly trading in thoughts of that for thoughts of teas and tiaras. [ed. note: that example was given merely as a clever form of alliteration. in no way does the author endorse the use of tiaras. tea is ok, though.]

of course, this doesn’t mean i’m completely recusing myself from everything political. i’m just choosing my battles a bit more prejudicially. this also isn’t my way of saying i’m completely shirking my duty as a God fearin’, America lovin’ liberal Democrat.

in the end, i just care a whole lot less. and i’m sure that when it comes time for others, they’ll find the exact same thing.

baby stuph

crafty!

just because we’re back from “vacation” doesn’t mean we’re both back to the real world. Jac had the brilliant forethought to continue her vacation after Seattle, setting up some serious time for baby stuff. this, of course, was the perfect antidote to an earlier post where i expressed concern over her complete lack of time to do baby stuff.

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her sister, and then her mother, came down to Montgomery this week to pull off a miracle in what is now the nursery. up until Monday afternoon, the only thing accomplished was the removal of desks and computers and other office stuff. three days & nights later, we now have a full fledged nursery, about 99% done.

would you like to see it? ok. here it is.

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so, big huge thanks to Jenna and Miss Rose for coming down and helping accomplish what seemed nearly impossible on Monday night. the curtains, just so you know, were handmade by Jenna. good stuff, yes?

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in other big news, i’ve been given the go ahead to reveal the name to the general public…

Rosemary McCord Lucas

(-:

yay! she has a name! and its not Ice Cream Chocolate Chip Cake Doughnut Sandwich Lucas!

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and with that, i am going to bed.

g’night!

ketchup, pt. 426

more about “ketchup, pt. 426“, posted with vodpod

yet another full day around these parts. lets catch up.

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the video above (yes, all 8+ minutes) is of our official “gender finding” ultrasound today. confirming what we already knew, we’re having a girl! wooo! but as most of you have already seen that via twitter or facebook, here are some of the pictures the nurse snagged during the course of the ultrasound.

neat-o!

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thus far, response to the launch of little acorn photography has been wonderful, with a huge outpouring of support and well-wishing. we’ve got a facebook page now, as well as a twitter account. (as far as who is managing that twitter account… well, that shall remain a mystery).

so now comes the next thing: proper advertising. even with all the great snazzy web stuff we’re able to do, we’re not gonna get much of anywhere without advertising. and, as you can imagine, advertising with any sort of legitimate impact can be a bit expensive, especially when starting off.

the tools and know-how are readily available (perks of having a graphic designer in the house), its just a matter of coming up with a grand scheme of how big we want to start adverting. i mean, do we want to take out a full page ad for one month in a couple of the Montgomery magazines that float around and then scale it back for the proceeding months (big splash, then smaller reminders thereafter)? even for one month, it seems financially daunting.

we’ve a whole bunch of these sorts of things to discuss during our trip to Seattle next week, including tweaking the pricing plan we’ve already had in place. it’ll be good to get out of our normal element and away from the constancy of “life at home” to get our minds in a place to work these things out. while we’re at home, we just have so many distractions to lead us away from hammering out those details. hopefully next week will bring some great results for putting everything else into place.

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speaking of Seattle… we leave in like two days. wow. that rolled around quickly.

we have stuff on the agenda, but nothing so much that we’re not allowed any sort of down time to just venture out. so far…

• cheezburger night at SafeCo Park (Mariners v. Rangers)
• [hopefully] a night at the Experience Music Project where we’ll hear the widow of Jim Henson give a talk
• Coldplay at the Gorge

… and that’s about all that’s in stone.

i’m really stoked about this trip. its also the first trip we’ll be photographically armed to the teeth. Jac will have her fancy shmancy camera in tow (along with fancy shmancy lens) and i’ll have the still quite capable XTi to shoot with.

you thought we took tons of pictures on our trips before now? you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

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week two (now week three?) of the Great Uncaged Abby experiment is still going along beautifully. her demeanor… i just can’t get over how much its changed for the better. she’s so much calmer when we’re home from work.

i’ve also (fingers crossed) gotten the flea problem under control. i’ve now sprayed the back yard area down twice with some sort of all-purpose flea mix stuff and its worked wonders. Abby also got a big ol’ dose of Advantage today and the results were astounding. i hate paying money for that stuff, but if it works, its worth not having that annoyance around.

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i’m sad we won’t be around when Mr. & Mrs. H roll into town in the next few days.

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and that’s about it.

g’night!

havin’ababy,itsagirl

oh hai!

its (99%) official: we’re having a girl!

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this all came about quite as an accident (the knowledge, not the baby).

jackie had an “emergency” unscheduled ultrasound today. nothing huge or major, but she called her doctor this morning with a concern and they immediately told her she needed to come in for an ultrasound. so she scheduled for 3pm-ish and off we went.

when we got to the ultrasound lab, the topic of gender came up. we’ve planned all along to know, so to make an early attempt at knowing was worth it (after, of course, learning that everything was ok).

aaaaaaand… BOOM. there it was. the first time we’d seen the baby since the very first ultrasound. only now, we could actually see a baby, proper. it was being pretty still, just hanging out, not really moving. we got a great heartbeat and images of the profile, feet, hands, etc.

but then, all of a sudden, it became a she.

lolwhutomgwtfbbq!!!??

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this is actually completely out of left field. for weeks, the speculation, based upon family history and other assorted things, had been pointing strongly towards the reveal of another Lucas male to the family. we were certain it would be a boy. me mum was certain it would be a boy.

but… she’s not. she’s a girl, our daughter, a granddaughter, and a great granddaughter (a first for Grandma Lucas).

and we. are. freaked.

its not that we were so certain about a boy that we hadn’t thought about girl stuff. its just that we don’t know girl stuff. Jac’s not really (at least, not admittedly and not since i’ve known her) a girly girl, and i didn’t grow up with sisters. its just such a strange and weird thing to us: a girl.

we keep asking ourselves: what are we gonna do with a girl!?

at this point, our only plan is this: make her AWESOME. that sounds pretty solid, right?

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interesting notes about the odd coincidences from today:

• i wore a pink shirt today
• mom was wearing a pink shirt on her walk/run today
• on the way back to the Mielke’s house, Nick’s truck (driven by Laura with Jac as passenger) got a flat tire. they had to stop in front of a house with a pink ribbon out front, signifying the homecoming of a newborn girl to that house.
• as we were waiting at the doctor, a mom and her two girls came walking through the waiting room, looking quite prissy and such, and i said, “man, i hope we don’t have that to look forward to” and Jackie agreed (re: having a girl).

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everyone we know is having girls, save one couple. so that’s kinda’ weird.

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as you can imagine, its been an exhausting, emotional day. so…

g’night!

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oops. almost forgot this cool little tidbit.

so not only did all that awesome stuff happen, but today, my friend Mark Hunter of TartanPodcast fame released the latest Sleepy Sunday Show (clicking that link will open iTunes up) today, and it included my interview with him. we talked last Thursday via Skype (which was a whole new thing to me, and very cool).

i’ve talked previously about my love for the TartanPodcast, so i’ll say it again: its one of the best podcasts out there. Mark’s getting back into the swing of things after a bit of a prolonged absence and he hasn’t missed a beat. check him out, and enjoy the interview, too!