Ok ok ok…

Sorry, I know I’m not giving anyone much time to comment.

And I know I said I was going to wait with the pictures until the furniture arrived.

But here are some images of how the room turned out.

Painting the clouds was a lot of fun.

You can see more HERE.

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Stay tuned for more updates!

Folks, I gotta tell ya… the nursery turned out really well.

Not to toot my own horn but HONK .. it’s fantastic.

Perhaps I’m biased by the unmitigated failure of our first attempt…. but I am super pleased.

BIG BIG thanks to my parents for coming down two weekends in a row to help make the vision a reality.

It’s an aviation theme and by the end of the week the furniture will be in the room.

At that point I’ll take a few images and post them.

I’ll also share the in-progress pictures for a step by step walk through.

Stay tuned.

Ok ok ok … I know it’s been a long time since there’s been any update.

Sorry we’ve been busy.

Here’s the low-down on what’s been going on…

The big news is that I started a new job!

Yes sir I’m out of Thomson and have moved on to a company here in Indy called Exact Target.

It’s a big change and definitely for the better.

There are so many reasons why Exact Target (hereon referred to as ET) is better than Thomson that I’m not even sure where to begin.

For starters ET has a bright, open, creative workspace.

Thomson has dark, gray, square cubicles looked down upon by special florescent bulbs that slowly suck the life force out through your eyes.

ET is a market leader in an exciting, growing, and dynamic industry.

Thomson works with a beleaguered brand and deals primarily with commoditized product that exist in an ever more dusty and cobwebbed industry. - (heck they’re selling off business units like it were Don Trump’s garage sale)

The people at ET are passionate, bright people who are excited to be a part of THEIR company.

The people left at Thomson are tired, downtrodden people whose will have been broken by the company.

ET sits right on the circle in beautiful downtown Indianapolis.

The exciting venue offers employees ringside seats to all the special events held downtown (fireworks, the lighting of the Christmas Tree, free concerts, etc)

Thomson sits just outside the Indy Metro area, housed in the only building I’ve ever seen that actually looks wet when it rains.

And last but not least ET’s offices are right above one of my favorite cigar bars of all time.

Needless to say I am very excited to be here.

The product is cool, and being a bit of a computer geek, I’m pleased to be back in an IT focused position.

The position is a perfect merger of my favorite parts of my previous jobs.

(I have some training next week … yeah that’s right training!! Thomson never had that at all.)

I’ve sat in on a couple calls and though I’m no expert I am at least grasping the issues and able to determine what the solution could be. I enjoy presenting and look forward it. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.

In other news…

We started to paint the nursery last weekend.

… and this weekend we’re starting over.

Well.. not OVER.

But we tried to do this cool “technique” painting.. and I don’t like how it’s come out.

So this weekend I’m UN-doing the wall and a half we tried it on and putting a new base coat down.

Then we’ll try a new technique that is much easier.

(and actually looks much better too.)

We’ll have some in process pictures when it’s done.

Also…

Jana and I are going to go in for the 3D ultra sound soon.

That should be a lot of fun.

I’m still hoping to use some video footage from our 20 week ultra sound for a vlog.

Maybe I’ll have some cool 3D ultra sound footage to add to it.

We’ll see.

Still no name for the little guy…

All for now!

Yesterday Jana’s dad passed away.

Mike Scaggs.

He’d been sick for some time.

Although some comfort can be found in the fact that he’s no longer in pain It’s still not fair.

He was 53 years old.

Jana’s Christmases and Thanksgivings will never be quite the same.

Our baby will know him only through the stories we tell.

And we won’t have any pictures of him holding our baby.

Mike was a big guy.

Tall, broad shoulders, and smile nearly as wide.

He was thin. A Quarterback not a Linebacker.

Literally.

He still holds several football records at his high school.

Being an athlete, a coal miner, and generally active guy it was doubly cruel when he was stricken with a rare and incredibly aggressive form of multiple sclerosis.

It took only two years for the disease to completely immobilize him.

Still those that knew him are at least thankful that it happened quick. Mike couldn’t stand the thought of being helpless. Trapped in his own unresponsive body.

For what it’s worth … we are all relieved that his pain, frustration, and fatigue are over.

I remember the day I asked him for permission to marry his daughter.

You see when Jana and I were serious enough that we knew getting married was on the horizon I told her I would need to talk to her dad before I ever asked her.

A lot of people don’t bother with that these days, but the way I figured it, the whole thing about the father walking the bride down the aisle indicates that the couple has his blessing. That being the case I should probably make sure we had it.

So not surprisingly Jana had been taking me down to Petersburg quite often, giving me every opportunity to talk to him. And I would not do it. I wanted my proposal to be a complete surprise so I certainly wasn’t going to give her any idea I had talked to him.

I called him one night , told him I’d like to talk to him, and could I come down to visit. Now Petersburg is at least two and half hours away from my house so at that point he had to have some idea what was up. He suggested that we meet half way.

So late that night, while Jana was at work, I met Mike in a Denny’s somewhere in Bloomington. And as Mike liked to say got his daughter “for a sixty nine cent cup of coffee.”

For the record though I also had chicken strips so I actually had to lay out something like four dollars in order to win Jana’s hand.

All joking aside it was, of course, the event itself that was important. In my mind it was just the right thing to do. A simple respectful gesture to the family I was hoping to become a part of.

But it was more important to Mike than I had known at the time.

And aside from cementing what was already the beginnings of a great relationship with the Scaggs family … I gained a deeper insight into who mike was.

We shared a few important beliefs in what, to us, was just plain right.

Our families weren’t all that different apparently.

One of the many reasons I feel so much a part of theirs… and I hope they feel of mine.

He was Jana’s dad.

Which is, I’m sure, at least one of the many reasons Jana is the person she is.

For that I will be forever thankful to Mike.

Mike was able to walk Jana down the aisle - and I will forever be glad for that.

I will forever be grateful for that late night hour and a half trip to Denny’s.

Because I knew that walk wasn’t simply ceremony.

It was real.

There’s no doubt he will be greatly missed.

I am glad however that he’s no longer in pain. No longer chair bound.

Whatever the check-in procedure is for the after life I can’t help but picture Mike strutting up to the counter and ringing the bell.