Pictures!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/justinandhollytx/

All of the pictures to date....now get off my case! just kidding...sorta...

The First 48 Hours

Well it has been an exhilarating 48 hour ride. Lots of visitors and lots of staring have dominated our time. We have naps interrupted by nurses interrupted by more visitors. What a blessing to have so many people come and visit, pray and care for us.

Mom and Eli are doing great. They have had some challenges with feedings. Otherwise every nurse and doctor seems pleased with their progress. I have changed my first four diapers, including one where the pee soaked through the blanket! I was actually excited to be able to do that. We have prayed and waited so long for him, that it will take awhile for these little things to be mundane and old.

Here is visitor list in order of appearance:
Jenise - honor of the first non-grandparent visitor
Nathan, Abbey, Salomae & Jachin
Mary C.
Jordan and Lisa
Jim L.
Rosemary
Honorary Aunt Erin and Uncle Bryan
John and Robin
Larry and DeeDee
Andrew and Amy
Kathy and Abbey
Jeff, Teri and Rachel
Uncle Shawn and Aunt Dana

Thanks for your continued support and prayers. For all of you who have called and we missed you (SETH) please, please feel free to call again. I promise we were just tied up with baby business as the time. Our continuing prayer request is that Eli and Holly get to working together with their feedings! A few pictures:


Pops and Grandma meet Eli for the first time (Justin's Parents with Holly's dad in the background)


Papa and Eli having their first nap together. (Holly's Dad)

Nana meeting Eli for the first time. (Holly's Mom)

Eli just chillin'

Eli Grey Noble

We would like to introduce to the world, Eli Grey Noble. He was born on December 21st, 2007 at 11:16 p.m. in Dallas, Texas! He weighted 7 lbs. 12 oz. and was 18 inches long. He entered the world via Cesarean Section. Mom and Baby as well as one proud Dad are doing great.

If you are in town, visitors are welcome. Call Holly or my cell phone for our current location and visiting hours.





Justin, Holly & Eli

LIVE

from the picturesque Labor and Delivery room at Medical City...

Well we are at a nine. He has decided that hanging out inside mom is cool. So no baby yet, but we are getting there.

LIVE....

from Medical City it's another update...

Well we are at a six, for those of you who understand what that means. For those of you who don't, well lets just say we are just over half way to starting to push. They have her in the pretzel position in the bed, which is...ummm...well....comfortable if a baby is pressing on your pelvis but not exactly attractive.

Slow and steady delivers the baby.

Live...

from Medical City it's Friday Afternoon.....

Things continue to progress slowly. Holly is finally comfortable, thanks to some great meds. Nothing new to report. Have I told you one about a man and his donkey???? Ahhh nevermind.

LIVE....

from the Hospital it is Friday Morning....

Holly is uncomfortable and feeling the pressure. He overnight meds and pain meds finally hit around 1 a.m. She has been up and around a little this morning and had her shower. Now it is just a waiting game on the meds and for labor to get up to speed.

Todays the day, hopefully!
Justin

LIVE...

from the hospital it's Thursday night!

Holly is trying to get as comfortable as you can get hooked up to a heart monitor and a blood pressure cuff. She just took her sleeping pill, so we will hope that takes effect soon. Her parents are in town and my parents have set an early morning alarm. The wheels are all in motion.

I am quite sure that the updates tomorrow will be few and far between, but while I had a moment and free wireless I thought I would post an update.

Stay Tuned!

Week 38

by Holly

We had another doctor's appointment this morning and things are pretty much the same as they were a week ago. The only big change is that I'm contracting a lot more and actually was instructed by my doctor to not return to work this morning. So, I came home and slept for a slight 4 1/2 hours!!! Guess my body needed it.

We are ready for the big day, as much as we can be, and are anxiously awaiting our little one's arrival. We do appreciate all of the prayers and well wishes, and you know Justin will post the vital info and pictures ASAP!

4 more days!!!!!

Hope you all are doing well, enjoying December, colder weather, time with family and friends, and remembering our blessed Savior's birth.

Merry Christmas!

Baby by Christmas!

by Holly

Baby update for all of you wondering what's going on this week. Yes, he's still cooking, and yes, I'm still growing!

We had our 37 week OB appointment today, and the baby is still measuring 2 weeks ahead. We had a sonogram and his head is actually past 39 weeks, and the doctor is estimating that he is already past 8 pounds. While this is not huge or unheard of, she is concerned about him continuing to grow for another 3 weeks and me being able to have him without complications. Therefore, we have scheduled an induction for next Friday, December 21st. The baby is perfectly healthy as far as we can tell, and the amniotic fluid is good as well.

Justin and I are very excited about having our baby by next Friday, if he doesn't come on his own before then. Please pray that he continues to remain healthy and that the induction and delivery would happen without complications. We so appreciate all of your prayers, encouragement, support and excitement. We will let you know if anything changes or the baby decides he isn't going to wait that long!

We love you all!
Holly, Justin and Baby Noble

The Train Depot

Junior will be sleeping in his own personal train depot. Here is the bargain of a crib his Nana found for him. Hanging just over head, we will start in indoctrination early, as a Masked Rider teddy bear mobile will play "Strive for Honor, Evermore" over and over.
This is where PIP can expect many hours of stories and rocking. This happens to be a rocking chair and ottoman. Mom and Dad get the credit for this bargain find at the consignment sale, but Mrs. Amy gets the credit for giving us tickets for early entry into the event.
This is Georgie's grandma's bed. We decided to keep the old bed in the room temporarily to make it easy on those restless night to stick close, if need be. Holly gets all the credit here as she made the full denim quilt many years ago that makes this room, in my opinion.

Lastly we come back to the crib to show "Fuerte's" homemade quilt. His Crazy Grandma Kim made him a real homemade quilt. We both absolutely love the quilt and look forward to the day of telling him all the stories of how God made him so special for us just like this quilt was made special for him.

Now you may be asking yourself what is up with all the nicknames. Well since we are keeping the name secret, people have been giving our baby boy some interesting names. Holly's dad named him Junior by accident. People at my work refer to him as PIP, for no apparent reason. Holly's coworker changed names daily before settling on Georgie Porgie. Lastly after feeling his mighty kicks I often just use the spanish adjective for strong, fuerte. So until the big unveiling, name away, so long as it is endearing!

The Bump's Growth

BUMP

BOY

BLADDER BOUNCER

This Blog Sealed for Freshness

Holly and I went to Wal-Mart last night (not Target) to purchase some items needed for the hospital bag. While picking out some socks I noticed that the chosen sock bag had one of those resealable zipper things and a very proud statement of “RESEALABLE BAG”. I immediately began my normal mind game of who needs a resealable bag of socks? Now there are some obviously destitute people whom I am sure would need a resealable bag, however these were not the cheapest sock on the rack.

My mind quickly jumped to marketing. I am very cognoscente of marketing. I find the subject of trying to make you want things that “you don’t even know you want” to be fascinating. I want to know what study, survey or questions were asked to determine that a resealable bag would in fact be a value add to consumers and increase the amount of total sales of the product. How did they determine that resealable socks should go the way of cheese and other food products? I think most importantly, does it work? Do people really buy these socks because of a resealable bag?

Well while we figure this one out, have no fear, the stupid zipper didn’t work and it took a degree in engineering to figure out that just right place to open the top of the bag to not compromise the resealable quality of the package. Some things never change.

A quick baby update
We have started weekly appointments, which means the time is growing near. The nursery is complete, with pictures soon. Holly is completely uncomfortable. And the clock has seemed to stop while we await this final month. Tick – tock – Tick – tock…

Uninspired

By Justin

What do you write about, when you can not think of anything to write about? Life is just happening. Commutes are normal. Work is just happening. Even Baby Noble is just adding fat these days. I seem to be in an uninspired stretch of life for blogging. Sorry Dan!

We have finished our last baby shower. We had four showers and just loved being doted on. We received just about everything we needed to bring home Baby Noble, except the stroller and car seat combo. So Saturday night we headed to Target to buy it up. We were so excited that we installed the car seat that evening. We feel ready with only five weeks to go!

I do have a gripe about Target. We registered there and have received multiple duplicate gifts. We took several things back on Saturday thinking we would use the store credit toward the expensive stroller. When we went to the counter the lady explained that if we do not have the gift receipt that we cannot get credit. We knew that was the policy, except if you had a registry with them. She explained that as of August that they would not accept returns through a registry either. I was not happy and to keep from screaming at the lady, shut down. I know it was not her fault. Sounds like a policy an auditor would come up with, doesn’t it? We were allowed to return up to $30 on Holly’s license number, which we did. And we will probably return another item to get the $30 on my license. Now we are trying to determine if any gifts overlap into our other registry at Baby’s R Us to return there or if Wal-Mart sells them. Wal-mart is like Southwest Airlines, they will treat any customer with compassion, so long as you preach your undying love for them!

This gets to the heart of why I hate Target. It is a Wal-Mart store packaged in “modern” décor. It is branded to make middle class white people who shop there feel like they are not at a Wal-Mart. Heaven forbid that a middle class person shop with the lowlifes at Wal-Mart. In fact they both buy the majority of their products overseas, repackage them and ship them off to the big box store that is “convenient” for all your needs. My favorite person is a person who “loves Target clothes” then snarls at “Wal-Mart crap”.

Newsflash: They are both made by sweatshop labor in a third world country, while the textile centers of the United States of America are bankrupt and workers now working at Wal-Mart and Target to pay their sub-prime mortgages.

So thanks Target, yet another reason that I don’t have to shop your stores, unless of course you are closer than a Wal-Mart.

Maybe I was inspired?

Mecca

For old school Texas Tech students, Mecca might just be a memory of a shaved ice hut on the old Brownfield highway. Hot steamy Lubbock nights the first few weeks of school catching up with old friends while chomping on the world best snowcone, with cream, are things you will tell your children about. The old hut is gone. It has been replaced by “Paving the way to the Future” or the Marsha Sharp Freeway project. Progress, it seems, plowed through another memory.

Holly and I try to get to another branch of Bahama Bucks every time we return to Lubbock. Nothing takes you back to college days like have a Strawberry Bahama Rama with cream. Charissa will probably tell you that wedding cake was the best, she’d be wrong. Holly will espouse the glories of the Funky Monkey. She’d be wrong as well. You see in Mecca, or Bahama Bucks, it is the simple that is the best. Strawberry with cream. Yummy.

I was thinking about Bahama Bucks on Thursday of this last week. I though to myself, I wonder how much a franchise costs? I could own my own Mecca. As I stroll through the website I see an advertisement saying “Opening Soon in Plano”. In Plano? Plano, Tx? So I investigate.

Come to find out, indeed there are several Bahama Bucks scattered around the Metroplex area. One is not far from our house in Sachse. So after work, I simply tell Holly I have surprise for her and we take the fifteen minute trip to Mecca.

Our religious experience can be explained by the look on Holly’s face as she spotted the neon lights of that beacon of yummy hope. I got a strawberry daiquiri with cream and Holly indulged in a coconut with cream, of course. We lapped up every bit of goodness and told tales of the old days. It might have been 50 degrees outside, we didn’t care. We closed our eyes, heard Robert’s guitar, the cars honking as they went by and got our card punched for the free one!

Any of our long lost Tech friend’s jealous? Come see us, our treat!

Well I’ve been everywhere, man…

Dallas Love Field
Stop over in Kansas City
Change planes in Chicago
Two nights in Indianapolis
Return and change planes in Chicago, again
Stop in Kansas City
Two nights in Tulsa
Return to Dallas Love Field for two hours
Fly to Amarillo
Stay in West Texas for three nights
Return to Dallas through Lubbock

That was last week. Somewhere in there I got some work done and had a great time with the family in the panhandle. I’m tired….

A quick baby update: Things are going well. No major problems or issues. Holly is doing fine and adjusting (slowly) to not being able to do some basic things. The boy had a growth spurt and is measuring three weeks ahead of his scheduled date! Maybe New Years Eve was an optimistic hold out date afterall.

Did I Get Taken?

What a good weekend. I honestly cannot remember all the details, but I can tell by my relaxed feeling today that it was a great break from the norm.

What I do know is that we slept in on Saturday. Even our cat didn’t wake us up astronomically early, as if often the case. It had rained throughout the night and all day it was a cloudy overcast day. It has been a long time since we have had a dull day with dull weather. So very nice!

I decided that we would head over to Discount Tire and have Holly’s rear tires looked at. I am close to replacing her front brakes and while I was getting help on that our quasi-mechanic friend expressed concern over the status of Holly’s rear tires. He said it looked like uneven wear and a possible alignment problem. So I headed to Discount Tire to get a professional opinion.

The man that helped was the manager. He was a nice fellow. He looked at the rear tire and immediately said that it wasn’t alignment it was that we hadn’t rotated the tires. What? Ok. How often are you suppose to rotate your tires, I ask. Every 6,000 miles, he says. Ooops. How many miles has it been, he asks. I respond meekly, 35,000. Oh, is all he says.

He then looks at the front tires. He has the same diagnosis. I ask if we can rotate front to back and buy two new ones. He gives me this half agreeing smirk and says yes, but your front tires are pretty worn and who knows how long they will last. He suggest four new tires.

I quickly do a scenario in my head of my nine month pregnant wife calling me in Friday afternoon traffic on Central Expressway with a blown out rear tire and decide that safe is better than sorry. I have absolutely no idea how much tires cost. For that matter, I don’t know how much anything cost, short of a gallon of gas, for a car. (2.61 by the way) He begins by giving me a lot of details on warranties and mileage that is similar to me trying to explain the debt accounting accruals to Holly. A lot of ‘uhhuhs’ and head nods. He works his way through three tires, with the starting price of $678 and a low price of $616. At the bewilderment on my face of how much these cost he does offer a “low end basic tire” that is $414.

I am thoroughly confused at this point. What is the difference between a 678 and a 414, besides the warranty? He goes through it and convinces me that the 414 isn’t worth the money. I go for the 616 and call it good.

So the question is, did I get taken? How do you make spot on decisions on a subject you have no knowledge of? Would it be appropriate to say, “Hold on. I am going to call my dad” when you are 28 years old? The line in that place was atrocious as well. Anyway we have four shiny new tires, and a lot lighter pocketbook!

A Free Weekend?

I do not want to jinx it, but it seems that we have a free weekend. It is almost unheard of in our life to have a complete weekend to ourselves. We haven’t scheduled a social meal, outing or trip. Amazing. I was informed that the level of cleanliness of our house is not meeting Holly’s standards, and as such I can expect some cleaning chores. I will take that with the much desired home time!

Hankie Anyone?

by Justin

When did nose blowing become socially acceptable? My mother always taught me to go into another room, the rest room or at least excuse myself from the table to blow my nose. I was not allowed to simply pull a Kleenex and go to town on my nose. I also was not allowed to sniff it back up either. I was required to politely and discretely catch any drips until the occasion allowed to excuse myself to blow my nose. Is this not the case? Did I miss the change in etiquette or was I misinformed?

Case Study 1: The Man in the Balcony

I understand that the elderly are given greater latitudes. Hey they lived in the great depression, fought in world wars and birthed our parents in the 60’s. They can do a lot of things I could never get away with. Last Sunday morning a man, not that elderly, blew his nose three times during church. From the balcony it echoed all over the relatively small sanctuary. It was always during the critical point about grace and extending it. Was God speaking?

Case Study 2: My Cube Neighbor

The guy that sits behind me has a nose blowing fetish. It actually may be a OCD disorder. He will blow his nose no less than six to seven times a day. Most of the times it is a dry blow, meaning very little snot can be heard exiting his nose. On the rare occasion that snot actually exits it is excruciatingly gross to hear. Never does he exit his cube or say excuse me. I asked, about six months ago, if he had allergies. He said no, why? Why? I know it is just a fetish because we can sit in a two hour meeting and he never reach for a Kleenex (sitting on the conference room table), nor excuse himself. His nose blowing is not picky on the season of the year or time of day. He just has to blow it and it drives me crazy.

Crazy? I was crazy once. They put me in a room. A rubber room. Drove me crazy. Crazy?

Silence....

by Justin

We have been fielding a lot of questions about the silence on the blog about our pregnancy. Rest assured we are very excited to welcome our son into the world. However, we are being sensitive to the fact that we have several couple friends who desire families of their own and for various reasons are not currently pregnant. Holly and I were there. We completely understand and remember the difficulty and tears shed as people around us received the joy and blessing we were longing for. We know the heartache it took to read other’s blogs and emails. We have decided to keep our pregnancy to those who ask and those we are around. We would be elated to share pictures, stories and even tears, if need be. Rest assured that once our bouncing baby boy is on this side of the womb, stories and pictures will abound.

For an update, we are doing great. Holly feels good and is progressing normally. We are enjoying watching and feeling him move. We have officially registered at Target and have set the dates of the showers. Now we are tackling the nursery. It is going to be train themed. I loved trains growing up, so it is a natural fit for me! I am building a shelf around the top of the room for a track, and we are buying little train knickknacks for all corners!

That’s the update. Email for more info, if you wish!