Congrats: Russ & Jen

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On Saturday, we headed up to Flint for my cousin Jennifer's marriage to Russ. They had a beautiful ceremony at St. Pius Church. Their reception followed in the same hall that Michele and I had our reception almost 5 years ago at St. Michael's. While their reception was very nice, they were lacking in the Polish cuisine that we served, namely, cabbage rolls and pierogi. So, I think I'm going to give the advantage to us. Those people that don't care for Polish food, might vote otherwise. You can also find some photos from MPnA here.

Last Thursday, I was so anxious to just get an update out, that I forgot OUR big news. We met with the neurosurgeon Thursday afternoon and he agreed that Jake did have "external fluid collections of infancy" but that we wouldn't have to do anything about it. Unless Jake's head grows abnormally again in one of his regular checkups, he will not need to get any further MRI's or exams for this issue. Apparently, the extra fluid is quite common, and is also not limited to premature babies. Dr. Zakalik stated that he was surprised that it even made it to him with how limited the fluid level actually was. Needless to say, we are both relieved.

Lastly, those of you that are subscribed to our blog might get some notifications that our Spring Break (SB for those of you that didn't figure it out) posts have been updated. I merely uploaded and re-linked to the full-size images. There is no new text, and you probably wouldn't even notice a difference in the photo quality. So, unless you just want to re-live our vacation, there's no need to go back and re-read or re-view anything (although you are welcome to, of course).

Happy Friday!

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Where has the time gone?! We've been home for over a week, and this is the first blog post. Not only have I heard it from Jake's grandparents, but my own brother even got on my case about it.

To catch up, after we got home from our trip, against my better judgement, I let Michele give Jake a haircut. Fast forward a week, and Jake got to experience his first trip to a hair salon.

In the mean time, we had been hanging outside and getting the backyard ready to be Jake's summer jungle gym. We also went on a few more bike rides and visited the local park. Jake loves sliding down slides (with our assistance). It should be interesting when he's able to balance himself.

In more interesting news, some of our friends had big baby news. Mike and Melissa added to their family with their son Elijah. You can watch the sidebar over there to see when they get a chance to blog about him on The Noll Report. Until then, take a second to check out these photos. We'll need to find a free weekend to take a car trip down to Ohio to see them. Jeff and Marie also announced on their new blog, The Jurado Journal, that they are expecting their first in November! Again, you can find that over there to the right as well. We're so happy for all of them.

SB07:Day 7

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This morning, Pete and I got 9 holes of golf in at a great course right on the island. Pete didn't get out golfing at all last year, but he still had no trouble beating me by 4 strokes. We played with rented 2007 Nike clubs. The driver is larger than any driver I've ever swung, and I never did get a feel for the putter, but I'm sure I could get used to them. Too bad the putter probably cost more than my existing set. The course was not very long, but it was very tight between all the trees, water, and sand. I managed to rack up a penalty stroke on 7 of the 9 holes.

Later in the day, Pete and Teri took a flat-bottom boat tour. Teri really enjoyed herself, and Pete might have if his allergies weren't bothering him, and if he had taken a jacket.

When they got back, we all headed back to the golf course for a very nice "final" dinner.

We will be cleaning up the house tomorrow and then heading back up through Charleston to the airport in Myrtle Beach. We have a fairly late flight that won't get us into Detroit until around 10 pm.

SB07:Day 6

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Today was another lazy day spent on the island. Aside from heading to the beach, Jake and I got to rescue Teri and Michele as they walked a bit further along the beach than they should have. Later on, Michele and I got to take a short bike ride while Pete and Teri watched after Jake.

We're not sure if Jake is teething, getting a cold, or both, but he has been pretty snotty and drooly lately. Worst case, he could have developed another ear infection, but he doesn't really seem to be showing any of those symptoms, so we'll keep our fingers crossed that he doesn't before our flight home on Saturday.

SB07:Day 5

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Well, the storms that they were calling for did not materialize, so we got to spend some more time at the beach. Before we made it down there, Michele and Teri spent an afternoon getting pampered at a local spa. Michele got a manicure and a pedicure while Teri got a facial. Pete and I kept an eye on Jake who napped most of the time while they were gone.

Once they returned we all headed down to the ocean. The waves were a lot higher today and the water felt a little bit colder. There wasn't as much compacted beach NOT getting pummeled by waves, so there was less room to let Jake wander in. He still managed to try to cram tons of sand and shells into his mouth, but we were mostly successful in stopping it.

I did finally get around to snapping some photos of the house which you'll see if you follow the link above.

SB07:Day 4

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Today was a relaxing day spent without leaving the island. It even warmed up to around the mid sixties.

Jake got to see the Atlantic ocean for the first time today. The waves seemed to scare him when we first got down to the beach. Soon, just the feeling of the sand was bothering him. Eventually, he was crawling around like he was sitting in our living room. He even let me put his feet in the water! Michele and I also got to play a little catch. However, Jake did have a tendency to put shells, sand, and anything else he could find right in his mouth, so we didn't have much time to ourselves.

Tomorrow, they are calling for some pretty severe storms, so we might be stuck inside, or maybe we'll head back into Charleston.

SB07:Day 3

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So, today we headed back into Charleston. After spending most of the morning walking through the Charleston Market, we had a pretty good lunch at Hyman's Seafood. We were lucky that we got there early as there was quite a line by the time we left.

After that, Teri and Michele went to their cooking class while Pete and I took Jake to the aquarium. Walking into the aquarium, there was an excellent view of the Cooper Bridge and the aircraft carrier in Patriots Point. The Aquarium was somewhat smaller, but had many cool displays. Jake really liked a lot of the fish, but he liked watching the other kids get excited over the exhibits even more!

After their class, we all met up again and walked around for a little bit longer before heading back.

Everyone has decided that we've driven way too much in the past few days, so we're planning to stay on the island tomorrow.

SB07:Day 2

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So, we finally made it out of Michigan today. Our new tickets took us through Boston to South Carolina. It almost doubled our total air travel time, but worse off, it added an extra up and down meaning two more times for Jake's ears to have to adjust to the pressure.

Jake slept through the first take-off, and was MISERABLE during the first landing. He took a bottle and slept for the whole flight from Boston, and was very playful and didn't seem bothered by the pressure change on the landing at all.

Over all, I think he was a pretty good baby on the plane. There were quite a few other kids on the plane and many were quite a bit louder than Jake.

After arriving in Myrtle Beach, we immediately headed to find lunch. We found a restaurant called Sticky Fingers right outside the airport and we all really enjoyed the barbecue food. We then started our 3+ hour drive down to Edisto Island.

On the way down we eventually managed to find a Starbucks and then also had to go grocery shopping. In order to save space while packing we opted to just buy diapers and food for Jake when we arrived. As long as we got enough diapers, I think the plan worked out well.

The house we are staying in seems really nice. I hope to get some shots of it tomorrow. We're planning on heading back up to Charleston tomorrow. Michele and Teri will be taking a "Low Country" cooking class, and Jake, Pete, and I hope to visit the aquarium.

Once again, I want to apologize for the quality of the photos, but my connection is slower than dialup.

Also, we realized that it wasn't all bad that we didn't get to fly out yesterday. First off, we got to have a delicious dinner with the Pruss family which included a GIANT ham. Also, we got to go to the Easter Vigil at our own church which was very nice. Then, I got to watch (on Tivo-delay) the Spartans beat Boston College to become the 2007 National Champions of NCAA hockey. They were down by a goal and then finally scored to tie it up on a power play with about 10 minutes left. Then, with only about 20 seconds left on the clock, they scored the go-ahead goal. That forced BC to pull their goalie, allowing the Spartans one last empty-net goal, and gave them a 3-1 victory.

SB07:Day1

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Well, this first post is coming to you from sunny, frigid, Livonia, MI. Jake got to get onto his first airplane, but he never got to take a ride.

After he stayed awake through the security screening process, Jake slept right up until they dimmed the lights to get ready for take-off. He woke up happy, and excited to explore the plane from my lap.

A few seconds later, we heard that the person backing the jetway away from the plane might have hit an engine. About 10 or 15 minutes later, we were de-boarding, meaning, the person DID hit the engine. About 30 minutes after that, Teri joined the mad dash to the ticket counter to try to secure a new flight as ours was officially cancelled.

We are now flying out tomorrow around 7:00 am through Boston.

On the plus side, we forgot the accessories for Jake's nebulizer, so instead of figuring out where we can get them, we got to come home to get them. We also get to unpack an outfit each as we'll be going to church tonight for Easter instead of tomorrow.

Hopefully the next post will come from South Carolina.

On an administrative note, the photos I upload during the trip are going to be scaled down to allow them to upload over a slower connection. When we get home, I'll replace all of them with the full-size versions. This will only impact you if you wanted to buy a print. If you do, wait until I send the all clear meaning the higher res photos are available.

Away We Go

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In a few hours (yes, a few hours), we'll be getting up to head to Metro Airport. We are flying down to South Carolina with GnGT. We'll be staying in Edisto until next Saturday.

I'm taking my notebook, and my goal is to blog each day, but depending on the network connection I get down there, that may or may not happen.

Before we go, I thought I should get our memory card cleared off. So, here are the photos that were hiding out there. It was spirit week at Jake's day care, so some photos show him wearing his Tiger's outfit for opening day. Others show him wearing a cute MSU getup for "hat day".