Travel

a tailgate full of firsts and lasts

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Texas A&M hasn’t exacty had a great football season to speak of. Mike Sherman’s first year in the Big 12 could prove to be his toughest. Three teams from South division make up the top 5 in the COUNTRY, and TAMU will play all three in just over a month. The Aggies are progessing every game, but they are the equivalent of “the worst house in a great neighborhood”, so it’s hard to get excited when everyone around them is doing so much better.

Julie’s friends from college have been tailgating together, along with her parents and their RV, since about 2000. After graduation, they have managed to organize themselves for at least one game a year to get back together in the name of Aggie football and good old-fashioned tailgating — If you cook it, they will come.

Nowadays, after all the weddings have passed, they have all settled down (more or less) and started their own families. The scene has changed significantly in a just a few short years. There are just as many diaper bags as there are coolers now, and half the entertainment is the kids running around (or getting passed around). The old classic college stories have been replaced by diaper changing horror stories and discussions about how much daycare costs.

I’ll take this chance to list the attendees and their respective half-pints:
Scott and Summer Keith: Kaitlin (14 mos)
Sapna Pringle: Maya (10 mos), Honorary Rookie
Josh and Lindy Hernandez: Mariana (5 mos), Honorary Rookie
Jim and Sarah Pike: Kate (1 month), Honorary Rookie

The weekend was great and everyone enjoyed the beautiful weather in College Station, but it did end on a sad note. Shiloh, Julie’s Golden Retriever from college and tailgating veteran, has been diagnosed with Lymphoma (cancer in the lymph nodes), and this was likely her last trip to College Station. The news certainly deserves it’s own post and more details, but it put a perspective on the weekend that with every new life, there are those that have come before us that have come to an end.

-RB

Julie, Travel

Alaska

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Last week I was in Alaska for work.  Thankfully it was my last work trip before baby comes.  I truly love Alaska and would recommend that everyone go there at least once in their life.  I have been lucky enough to go 4 times in the last 2 years.  All that being said…this trip is the latest in the year I have ever been.  It was cold, and dark.  The sun came up around 9:45am and then set at 6:30pm.  Each day we lost approximately 6 minutes of daylight.  The temperature fluctuated from a balmy 28 to a frigid 3!!  For me, the cold wasn’t the bad part….it was the darkness.

The flight itself was very long.  I had to stop in Houston, Seattle, Anchorage and finally Kenai.  Monday morning I spent over 15 hours in airports and on planes.  Then I repeated the same flight pattern Thursday night/Friday morning.  When I left Kenai on Thursday afternoon it was 18 degrees, when I landed in San Antonio on Friday it was almost 80 degrees.  All the climate change and the excessive number of altitude changes have caused me to get a double ear infection.  However, if an ear infection is the worst that happens to me while I’m pregnant I won’t complain.

I’m 21 weeks now and still don’t have much of a belly to show off, but I promise to take a picture tonight and post it in the morning.

Julie

Julie, Randy, Reed, Travel

He’s Alive

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Friday was easily the best day of pregnancy so far.  Not only did we find out that baby Baldwin is a boy, but I when I was laying down to go to sleep Friday night I felt him move for the first time!!!

We were in College Station for the Aggie game and Randy was at midnight yell with his sisters.  Mom, Dad and I stayed back because we had to get up super early to hit HEB around 7am.  We were all starting to fall asleep and I felt this bubble in the left side of my stomach.  I yelled to my parents that I just felt him move for the first time.  I was sad Randy wasn’t there, but he wouldn’t have been able to feel it anyway.

Now that I know what it feels like I feel him moving all the time.  It is so sweet (at least it is now before he is kicking me in the ribs in the middle of the night).  It makes me feel so connected to him.  The best part about all of this movement is that I don’t think I will forget I’m pregnant anymore!!!

Julie

Julie, Randy, Reed

it’s a boy!!

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Julie and I have had this day on our calendar for 2 months — Friday, October 17th — the doctor’s appointment to determine the sex of the baby.

If you asked us each what we thought we were having or what we wanted to have up until Friday, you would have had an uncertain and very reserved answer. Julie “felt” like it was a girl long ago — many superstitions and some facts gave some grounds to back it up, but nothing was for certain. (She had only known girls growing up with 3 sisters and no brothers, so I attribute some of her feeling to that.)

I, on the other hand, was very torn. I knew what I WANTED. However, I reserved my desires in the event that the nurse told us that we were in fact having the OPPOSITE of my preference. My real desire was to have an impartial yet excited reaction when we found out, so I told everyone that I would be happy either way. It’s in God’s hands and we truly have no control over the situation.

However, God does know each of our hearts — whether we vocalize it or not.

When the sonogram, showed “two legs and something in between”, Julie and I almost cried right there in front of the nurse. It was amazing. She and I had been holding back what our true preference was so that we wouldn’t be disappointed. Now that we knew, it was a huge weight off our shoulders and we could get back to being excited about the pregnancy. In the blink of an eye, our future as parents had a much more defined path and it is the path we each hoped to be on.

I am more excited now that I ever imagined I could be. I’m anxious to meet my own son!

-RB

ps — The only question left: Does he throw with his right or left?
Other Babies

Katherine Grace Pike

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Our dear friends Jim & Sarah welcomed their first child today.  Kate and Sarah are doing great, and we can’t wait for our annual rivier trip…with kids!!!

Congrats Jim & Sarah!!  We can’t wait to join you as parents.

Julie

Julie, Reed

Pregnancy Update

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I have been horribly slow posting updates about me and baby and how things are going.  I promise to try to do better, but be forewarned that this post is long.  Right now I’m at 16 weeks.  I was very lucky through the first trimester and didn’t have any morning sickness.  That good feeling has continued into the second trimester and so far everything is going so well that most of the time I forget I’m even pregnant.  (I’m hoping that will change soon!!)  Physical changes are definitely starting to happen, but I’m not showing just yet.

During the last 2 doctor’s appointments I got to hear the heartbeat, so we know everything is still going well.  The most exciting news is that on October 17th we have scheduled another ultrasound and get to find out the sex of the baby!!  I promise to let everyone know as soon as possible once we find out.

A few days after I got home from Salt Lake City I shared the news with my office.  I couldn’t wait any longer because I’m currently scheduled to go to Long Beach, San Francisco, Mandan, ND and Kenai, AK in the first 4 months of 2009.  Obviously that is not possible.  It felt like the right thing to do even though I probably could have waited another few weeks.  Needless to say I will be leading those audits from San Antonio,

As I mentioned before, I thought Salt Lake City would be my last work trip before baby comes.  That didn’t quite work out for me.  I’ll give you a short explanation of what happened…

I have unofficially become the Maintenance Turnaround and Capital Projects senior.  I love going to the refineries and enjoy operational audits much more than SOX or financial audits.  I also tend to get along with the refinery guys very well so it is a perfect fit.  The 4 trips I mentioned I was scheduled to take in 2009 are all for maintenance turnarounds.  One planning step performed by each turnaround team is a Peer Review.  The Peer Review takes place 6 months prior to the turnaround.  Engineers from each refinery attend the review, walk the units, and go through the plan in place and offer recommendations on how to improve the plan and shorten the length of time the plant is shut down.  As the turnaround senior I also attend these Peer Reviews.  Today I’m in the thriving metropolis of Bismarck, North Dakota and the last week of October I will be in Kenai, Alaska.  After these two trips I should be grounded until our vacation to Mexico in early December!!

One thing that’s fun about my travel is that so far baby has been to the lake, the mountains, the beach and while in Alaska, baby will also be in snow.  Lucky kid!!

So there you have it…long winded update!!

Julie

Julie, Reed

Roscoe

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Baby Baldwin has already been given a multitude of nicknames.  Much to my mom’s dismay, the one that pops out of my mouth the most is Roscoe.  I did not come up with it…I promise.  In Randy’s family the first born male in the family is supposed to have the initials RMB.  As such, we have been trying to come up with good “R” and “M” boy names.  While in Salt Lake City for work (it was supposed to be my last work trip, but I will go into that in another post), I was having dinner with two of my favorite co-workers.  We were discussing names and Todd decided we should go with Roscoe.  Since we work together, and he is stuck working with me on most of my jobs, I see him more than most people.  He asks how Roscoe is doing quite often, so it stuck.

Mom is not happy about the nickname and thinks Kip is much better, but it will only be baby’s name for a few more weeks.  We will be finding out the sex of Baby Baldwin in just a few short weeks.  Then we can get serious about names…

Julie

Randy

looking back at thirty

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Thirty was an AWESOME year! In retrospect, Julie and I are amazed at the changes that have happened to us in just the past year. We feel very blessed and are proud of the life have been given together.

In an effort to document our memories of the last year, beginning with my 30th birthday, I’m going to list the things that Julie and I have come up with. Here they are, in mostly chonological order:

  1. My new car (greatly needed to replace the aging, fuel-sucking pickup)
  2. First trip to California (Napa Valley, then LA and Long Beach)
  3. Job change #1
  4. I rejoined the Boy Scouts with a troop that our neighbors are a part of. I’m now an Assistant Scoutmaster for the older boy patrols.
  5. Started competitive, open-gym volleyball night in our new church gym
  6. Julie passed the CPA exam
  7. Julie’s cousin, Simon, lived with us for 4 months
  8. The Reasonovers likely celebrated their last July 4th at the family’s lake property
  9. We got pregnant with our first child
  10. I went on my first international mission trip (Costa Rica)
  11. Got braces
  12. Job change #2
  13. Throughout the year Julie traveled for work to: Kenai (AK), San Francisco, Minneapolis, Anacortes (WA), Hawaii, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake City

Wow. What a year!! To any of you that needed an Executive Summary on our lives this past year, there it is!

My next thirty years will be bookmarked by the memories provided by our kids and our growing family. We are excited to make the transition and know that from everything we’ve heard, nothing will compare to the happiness you get from your kids. If that is true, then someday we will look back at the list above and realize that these would not even make our Top Ten list (with the exception of #9 I’m sure). I’m hopeful that we have more to come in this life on Earth than what you see here.

-RB

Randy

the saga continues

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(This post is pre-dated to keep with the time line of events. -RB)

I started a new job this week. Well… new position, old company.

Anyone that I have talked to in the last year about work knows that I was going through a period of restlessness as a web developer for the company I had been with for 6 and a half years. I left last January to pursue different work as a web developer, knowing that I eventually wanted spread my wings and move up. In small companies that’s hard to do. In big companies that is easier to do, but there is a catch… you have to buy into that company’s culture and find your place before that happens. Once I made the transition, I quickly found out the hard way how much that culture comes into play in job satisfaction, and I wasn’t buying into this one.

Like an old friend, I stayed in contact with my old company and I even had informal discussions about the possibilities of a return, should certain positions become available… all the while knowing that it could be YEARS before that happened.

Well… during my mission trip to Costa Rica. I got a phone call from the old company and the position I had named as my top choice to fill and rejoin the company, had become available!! I was asked to call and do a phone interview and start as soon as possible! Apparently I still had a few advocates, and I thank them for supporting me and putting my name at the top of the list of replacements. It was an answer to a prayer I wasn’t actively praying. I knew I had made the right choice to leave in the first place to spread my wings, but the new company was not the place I saw myself being successful or even happy.

The intangibles of job satisfaction are hard to duplicate. I am happier now and more so than I have been in a long while. My new position, Director of E-Commerce, is challenging with a touch of familiarity. I’m back to learning every single day and love what I am learning. I thank God for knowing my heart and where my happiness lies. I wouldn’t trade them for the world.

-RB

Julie, Randy, Reed

making room

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Living in a 3-2 house has afforded us the space to have a spacious office AND an extra bedroom for guests. That extra bedroom has come in handy several times in the 2+ years we’ve been in the house. The list of distinguished guests includes: Amber, Lindy, Simon, Grandma Killam and even a group of traveling christian skaters (they came to give their testimony and demonstration to kick-off “Skate Church”, a new outreach ministry at our church). Before the end of the year we are likely to host another friend that will be in-between appartments for a few weeks, and then Grandma Killam again. As you can see, our extra bedroom has been utilized and we’ve enjoyed the ability to offer it to those who have needed a place to stay.

All that is about to change.

To say that Julie has been excited about transforming our extra bedroom into the new baby room would be an understatement. She sees visions of safari animals and baby cribs and rocking chairs dancing around in her head. No offense to Simon, but she was so anxious for him to move out so she could begin her nesting and transform this rather drab-colored room into a “Baby Safari”.

The closet in this extra bedroom has been the resting ground for crafts, holiday decorations, extra hanging garments and unused wedding gifts. The first steps toward transformation is to clean out (and relocate) a lot of the “stuff” in that closet. The usual three piles of cleaning apply: Trash, Save, Give Away. It’s always good to do…. but it’s just freakin’ tedious!!

We’ll keep the extra bed in that room until it is time to trade out the bed for the crib, but a word of caution to our house guests until then: you may have flashbacks of daycare during the night.

-RB