Eli Photo Update

A picture update...Holly, Eli and I went to a nature preserve in McKinney a couple of weeks ago. Eli took it all in and more! He loved the view in his marsupial pouch! My back didn't enjoy it so much after two hours!!!


Eli went swimming for the first time at the Draper's! He freaked out a little at first, but got comfortable with it. Yes we know we are white, but we do not plan to die of skin cancer!

Eli found his feet and loves to play with them. He can get four toes in his mouth now!!! We try to avoid this at dinner.
Just plain pooped out. Too much fun this day. Besides Larry and Bob can just sing him to sleep at any point. The arm prop is our favorite part of this picture.

This is not Eli's first Southwest plane trip, but it is the first documented family trip. The last two times he flew he was with Holly alone. The reasons are too numerous to name here. The best part was the unexpected guest of Jenise (a friend and coworker) on this flight. This flight was this Saturday for a visit to the West Texas grandparents!

Here Holly gets in a last minute snuggle nap. We left Eli with Nana and Papa Jack in West Texas for a WHOLE WEEK.

A few more pictures are on the Photos de Eli link.

April 15th

By Justin

April 15th was the last time I blogged. That is a long time. I honestly think I just needed a vacation for the blog world. We have been busy with a million things and a lot of coming and going but nothing of note. I also think that a comment made about our blog by a reader turned me off to wanting to write. I am over it now and back in action.

The upcoming week is going to be an odd week. Eli's babysitter is heavily involved in our church's Vacation Bible School. To limit her exhaustion we are going to fly him to his grandparents in West Texas on Saturday. He will stay all week with them. We are going to be childless for an entire week.

Of course we have great plans of deep cleaning the house, working in the yard and spending quality time together...but I predict sleep (at least some please Holly!).

Well I am back. Sorry for the long vacation!
Happy Friday

Jonas Paul Maney

by Holly

Congratulations to Paul and Sarah on the birth of their son, Jonas Paul Maney! He was born on May 20th and is so cute! Check out their pictures on the link to the right, the Maney's. We hope you guys are doing well, we pray for the very best for you all as you adjust to being parents and also that little Jonas would grow and sleep and eat well and be a very happy baby!

What's New With Eli?

by Holly

So we've been hounded for more Eli pictures and updates. Honestly, I have been wanting to share these, and just received my first lesson on adding pictures to the blog. (Yes, I learn by being shown and am absolutely useless at teaching myself anything.)

Anyway, Eli is growing and changing, and oh so much fun! He will be 5 months old on May 21st, and we can't believe the time is going so fast. He has two teeth, the two bottom center ones and they are surprisingly sharp. He grabs your finger and has it in his mouth gnawing on it before you realize what's happening! He has been eating baby food for a couple of weeks, starting with carrots, butternut squash and sweet potatoes. I do believe we are starting peas tomorrow- a whole new experience with a different color. These pictures are actually him eating rice cereal which he started before the yellow veggies.

Eli started on the cereal, gained two teeth and rolled over all in the same week and my parents happened to be here visiting at the time. They were so glad to witness this fun stuff themselves. Justin was in Vegas for work and Mom and Dad came to visit and help me with Eli, while also giving Abbey a week off. The picture below is what happens when my dad has a little fun with Eli when undressing him for his bath. My bebe' looks French!

And finally, we drove to Lubbock this past weekend for my cousin's wedding and for Mother's Day and got to go to our nephew Jared's teeball game. It was so fun to watch the little guys play and they won 21-14! Go Mudcats! Eli sported his new shades, courtesy of Grandma Noble. He was a hit!

I hope to get back to blogging more regularly, but it seems each day passes so quickly, and another night of too little sleep is on us again!

Prayers Answered

Jackson did great through surgery and is recovering well. His tumor was BENIGN and it was a vascular malformation, nothing even remotely cancer related. He will have the same recovery as before, as the mass was removed, but there is no follow up in the way of chemo or radiation.

Read the Kolb's blog for all the details, but praise the Lord for his answers to prayer!!!

May we all rest in peace tonight as we thank Him for our loved ones and His provisions for us all.

Update on Jackson

by Holly

Thank you all so much for your prayers for little Jackson and his family! They feel the love and support of thousands of strangers besides their own family and friends, and it is awesome.

Please check their blog again for an update and some precious pictures of little Jackson. He is having surgery today to remove the tumor from his leg, which so far appears to be contained to the one area. Pray that it has not spread and that he will maintain function of his leg, that the surgery and recovery would go well, and that Seth and Kristen will have everything they need in the way of support and provisions. Seth will have to go back to work in Columbia in the near future, so pray that the timing on this will be okay and that God will sustain their family as they are apart.

Thanks for your love and compassion. May God bless each of you in turn!

Prayer for Jackson

by Holly

Please take a moment to read the last three entries on the Kolb family blog; the link is on the right. These are our friends Seth and Kristen who live in Columbia with their 9 month old son Jackson. Seth works for the State Department.

They learned yesterday that a lump on Jackson's leg appears to be malignant cancer. They are back in the States for medical treatment as of today.

Keep them all in your prayers as they go through this ordeal and stay strong for their son. Pray for fast healing/removal of the tumor, grace and wisdom for the medical staff, and peace for Jackson's parents and extended family.

Thank you all for your friendship and support. We thank God for you in our lives!

Earth Day

by Holly

Well, today is Earth Day! That may mean a celebration to some of you, or a reminder of what you already do, or maybe nothing at all. To me, it is a new beginning. I know there has been a lot of hype about 'going green', but honestly, its taken that much to get me to sit up and take note of what I am or am not doing, to make our family healthier, our waste less, and the environment cleaner.

I have been reading "Green Housekeeping" by Ellen Sandbeck and am captivated by just how much we live our lives according to what is advertised on TV and by what is convenient. So, I am going to share a few tips that I am incorporating into my lifestyle for the betterment of my family and the earth. Some of these may seem like common sense, but trust me, these are huge changes for me, and hopefully the beginning of much more to come!

* Buy reusable shopping bags at your local grocer. One WalMart reusable bag saves 50 plastic bags.

* Check out alternative cleaning products, such as using spray bottles of distilled white vinegar and then hydrogen peroxide for cleaning your kitchen counter, appliances and even your fresh veggies and fruit.

* Think twice before reaching for that paper napkin or paper towel- could you use a cloth napkin instead and then throw a load of them in the wash at the end of the week? Or even use inexpensive dishcloths for this same purpose.

* Place a small glass dish of either baking soda or a cotton ball soaked in vanilla extract on your kitchen or bathroom counter for natural air freshener.

* Take your own coffee cup to work instead of getting the styrofoam one. I'm actually using the last of my WalMart plastic bags to bring home my rinsed recyclable items since my company does not have recycling programs.

Whatever you do, think about the impact you may be having on your family and the earth, and enjoy! Its fun to learn new ways to love the Earth!

M.I.A.

I will forgo the song that is in my head about "We've been to ... ... ... ..." and just say we have been busy. First off we owe a big congratulations to my childhood and boy scouting friend Scott on his marriage to Laura this last weekend. Scott and I go way back. His mother has pictures of us in diapers. Laura found a good man!

After weeks (or months) of hounding, I have added pictures to our Photos de Eli link. There you will find two new folders, one of Eli and the other of our DC trip. The photos of Eli are in time order so the most recent are at the end of the group. Here is our cute little boy now....

More details coming soon!

Five Years

Five Years is a long time to be married. People will laugh, but it is true. A lot of people don’t make it five years. You add our five years of marriage to five years of dating and that is just genuinely odd. Holly and I have made it a tradition to get out of town to celebrate our anniversary. In recent years we have always celebrated in late March or early April due to a certain Scouting event and its propensity to be on our anniversary of March 15^th. This year we got lucky when I opted out of Twin Arrows due to Eli’s birth. We made the most of it with a trip to Washington D.C.

We left Thursday night with a goal of making it to Nashville and to overnight and catch the 6 am flight to Baltimore on Friday morning. When you are flying free you don’t want to fly on holidays or Spring Break. It is extremely difficult to pull off. We decided to break the golden rule. I had a great plan all worked out until our original flight from Dallas to Houston was delayed due to maintenance. Not good.

We landed in Houston with plenty of time to catch the connection, however; by the time we got to the gate all open seats had been given to other ‘free flying’ passengers. I was not happy as the agent technically gave boarding passes to people below us on the pecking order. Oh well. We quickly changed plans and decided to get to Jackson, Mississippi and overnight there instead. After some frantic calls to my dad and some hotels we canceled our Nashville room and found a hotel in Jackson. The next morning we left Jackson without delay!

We arrived in Baltimore and took a train into DC. This was our first time on a ‘train’. While not a true cross country experience, it was still very exciting for us. Unfortunately on the train is when we learned of Trigger’s death. After some tears and checking in with Eli and the grandparents we arrived at Union Station in DC in time for Lunch.

We stayed at Hotel George right next door to Union Station. It was a nice place, but overpriced for what they billed as boutique hotel. We checked in, scoped out the lay of the land and decided to make an afternoon run to Arlington National Cemetery. Unfortunately our guide said the Cemetery closed at 7pm, when in fact it closed at 5 pm. We wasted a good chunk of time making the run up and back. We decided to see if any tickets remained for a show called Capital Steps. They are a Comedy Troupe that makes fun of political situations. I knew Holly wouldn’t catch a lot of it, but I loved it. She said she enjoyed it and caught a majority of it.

Saturday morning we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel and made our way to the capital. We got our tickets for our capital tour and head to the Library of Congress. It is an absolutely beautiful building. I think my friend Jenise has it right when she says it is the most beautiful interior in DC. After LOC we walked around the capital past the Supreme Court and into the new American Indian Museum. Besides being a great building architecturally, they have a really good cafeteria serving food of native tribes from across the country. We left the Museum and headed over to the Capital for our noon tour. We had an excellent tour guide, which is always a plus. Following our Capital Tour we headed back out to Arlington.

Holly and I both said on our next trip we will allot a greater portion of our trip to Arlington. Besides the obvious, the cemetery is truly a national treasure full of great monuments. We simply did not have enough time to visit what we wanted to with before closing. We did get to see the changing of the guard and laying of the wreath ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns, a must. After Arlington we went to Pentagon City for our anniversary dinner at a pub. We left the pub and then took the metro back to the city for a monument tour at night.

I say if you are going to view the monuments in DC, do it at night. Not only are crowds less, but they have a completely different feel at night. Plus they are practically the only thing open 24 hours in DC. Do the daytime only stuff during the day and leave the monuments for later. We visited the Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korean Memorial, DC WWI Memorial and the WWII Memorial. All amazing. We have to go back to get the other side of the tidal basin!

Sunday we slept in a little and made our way through the rest of the must dos. We started by actually going through the American Indian Museum. We made a quick pass through the Air and Space Museum. We then headed over to the National Archives to view the Bill of Right, Declaration of Independence and Magna Carta, the highlight of the day for sure. We closed our time in DC by eating and partaking at a place called Capital Brewery.

Monday morning we caught an early train back to Baltimore to catch a connecting flight through St. Louis back to Dallas. I headed home and Holly headed to Lubbock to pick up the kid. All in all it was an extremely exhausting, rewarding and active anniversary trip.

Sorry for the long post, but it has to be detailed right? We will post pictures in the next couple of days.

My Heather

by Holly

I would like to welcome a new addition to our friends listed on our blog. If you look to the right you will see "Heather" who was my college roommate and very dear friend. Please check out her blog and let her know you've seen her site.

Heather is an artist and designer and lives outside of Nashville, Tennessee. She is a beautiful, talented woman and I am blessed to call her friend. Welcome Heather!

The Passing of A Legend

It is with very many tears that we announce the passing of Trigger. We will postpone our full post about our anniversary trip to DC for a few days as we deal with the loss of our kiddo. He wasn't just a cat to me or Holly. He was a member of the family. It is true that his place in the food chain changed when Eli came along, but we still loved and cared for him deeply. He passed while at the vet being boarded for our trip. We already miss him deeply.

2 Year Blog-aversary

Two years-whew...

Who knew we could come so far. Now it is the primary tool we use to stay in touch with so many of our far off and close by friends. In two years we have had a child and shared they joys of that news through this amazing new medium. In two year we have had our ups and downs and journaled them all here. In two years we have come a long way.

Through blogging we have learned that some friends in the Carolina's read but chose to remain silent. There are others like the east coast friends, say our friend at Audelia and 635 or the person who sits across the cube wall at work. You know who you are, and there are others.

A few blog stats:
156 Posts
"Secret Stairwells" had the most comments with 21

Thanks for reading and Happy Anniversary to US!

Texas Weather

This week's weather has been particularly amusing to me. Monday morning I went to work knowing that it was going to be a cool day. With highs in the forties and a chance of rain. They said there was a small chance of snow, but with no accumulation.

Now normally with the slightest chance of the possibility of the isolated probability of one snowflake causes TxDOT to jump into action, the news station put the sorry saps outside in the freezing rain and all we talk about is how it MIGHT POSSIBLY think about MAYBE have some ISOLATED showers. Not this time. For once in their life, the news didn't overreact. The funny thing is, they were wrong.

I was at a Company event until 9 p.m. on Monday night. I left the Nokia Theatre with HUGE wet snowflakes falling from the sky. It was so beautiful. You native Texians know how special snow is to us. It wasn't sticking, but it was pretty. On my drive home I was driving 60 mph in Plano. Five miles later in Allen the roads were slick. The overpasses were icing and I was driving 30 mph. Oops.

The following morning Holly and I carpooled and it took us about an hour to do thirty minutes of driving. Now this Tuesday morning was cold, by Texas standards. But the afternoon high was 55. By Wednesday the temperature was a nice and balmy 65 degrees. From snow to 65 in two days.

Now the big flip happens again. They are predicting snow again for tonight and tomorrow. Fear not, the news won't be caught off guard again. They have crews stationed "around the metroplex for complete Team coverage". Oh boy.

A bombing occurred in Times Square this morning. I listened to fifteen minutes of weather on my way in before it was mentioned. Even then it was a "developing story that we are following, now back to Brad Barton in the KRLD Weather center." I turned it off.

Snow twice in a week? Must be Global Warming...

Now I am off to buy a snow shovel.

Remember the Alamo!

Fellow citizens and compatriots: I am besieged by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna--I have sustained a continual bombardment and cannonade for 24 hours and have not lost a man--the enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison is to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken--I have answered the demands with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the wall--I shall never surrender or retreat.

Then, I call on you in the name of liberty, of patriotism and of everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch. The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily and will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor and that of his country--Victory or Death.

William Barret Travis,
Lt. Col., Commander.

March 2nd, 2008: 172 years after Texas Independence we still stand proud.

Happy Texas Independence Day.

Eli's First Day with Abbey

by Holly

Well, today marks the beginning of a new chapter in Eli's young life. Its his first day staying with our nanny. I'm not sure 'nanny' is the right term, but its the best I can come up with. What do you call the person who you trust to care for your baby, to feed him and change him and love him and teach him new things, when you can't be there to do it yourself? Abbey is one of my best friends and I love her dearly. That is why it isn't harder to leave Eli and come to work. He's in good hands and will love going to her house 3 days a week. Abbey has two children, a daughter who is 3 1/2 and a son who just turned 1. I foresee lots of fun to come!

It was crazy getting out of the house this morning, and hopefully it will be better tomorrow. I had the 'first day of school' jitters for my son, even though he was just cooing and smiling all the while. At least one of us was calm! I also had a paper sack full of stuff, a diaper bag full of stuff, Eli's nebulizer, an insulated bag with frozen breastmilk, the extra car seat base, and the car seat with the baby all strapped in and tucked in tight with his fuzzy car blanket. And that was all for him! For me, I had my purse, lunch, breast pump, to-go cup of water and a glass of milk for breakfast on the run. Oh, and our diaper bag in case I needed something between Abbey's house and mine this afternoon. Whew! I know that most of his stuff will stay there and I won't have to deal with that daily, but please say a prayer for me tomorrow morning around 5 a.m.!

We left our house at straight up 6:00 and got to Abbey's at exactly 6:30. After 15 minutes of instruction and thank-you's, I left at 6:45 and got to work at 7:10. Not too bad! We'll see if I can shave a few minutes off tomorrow.

Eli is feeling much better, although he has a lingering cough and sore throat. He had his two month checkup yesterday and got 5 shots and an oral vaccine. Poor baby! Justin said he screamed for a while and was fussy the rest of the day. I think I would have cried; Justin just treated himself to Jack in the Box and muddled through. We're still doing the breathing treatments, but hopefully that will be gone soon.

Hope you are all doing well! I hope to get back in the blogging world soon!

Eli is Sick

.Well it was bound to happen eventually. Eli has a "reactive airway". Now I don't really know what that means, but he is wheezing and couching deep in his lungs. We took him to the doctor Saturday and now we are doing breathing treatments every four hours. Poor baby. Holly goes back to work Monday and she was not looking forward to leaving her healthy baby with the sitter, it is even worse now.

On a brighter note, I have uploaded our month two pictures. It includes our trip to Friona. Click the Photos de Eli button above!

Format Changes

So it seems that my last format couldn't stick. Every time I went to the blog it wasn't working in a different way, without me tinkering with it at all. Alas, I have changed it again. Please be aware that with every change I loose the link section of the blog. I tried my best to track down all the links, but if you are missing please feel free to email me. Let me know what you think of the new layout.

Water is not Hypoallergenic

By Justin

A friend noted that if I wasn’t married I should title this blog Justin’s Rants. If you feel I have mislead you on the purpose of our blog, sorry. I honestly feel that our life is pretty ordinary and bloging about ordinary just isn’t much fun. I would rather point out the crazy and rant about it

I am not a germ-a-phobe. Never have been. I think it might be impossible to be a Boy Scout and be a ger-a-phobe. I do have a minimum standard of washing your hands after using a restroom, particularly a public restroom.

As part of my researching for my rant I have become increasingly aware of people’s hand washing routines in the bathroom at work. Guys are the worlds worst at washing hands after a restroom stop. We all know it. I have classified three types of hand washers:

First the ones that actually wash their hands, soap and all.

Second the non-hand washers.

Third the guys that turn on the water, but don’t use soap. Now these guys are interesting, some how they have taught themselves that water is naturally hypoallergenic. By simply turning on the water and running their hands under it, they are clean. You can tell these guys simply by listening to the amount of time they have the water on. There is simply no way you can get soap on your hands and wash it off in less than three seconds. What really makes me laugh is they are not only wasting water but the paper towels to dry their hands off with as well. It is a double slam on the nonrenewable and renewable resource side. Maybe that is the cause of “global warming”, Trey?

I will say that I encountered a new low last week. While doing my business I heard the water come on and turn off in a matter of one second. Litterally. Do it in your head right now. SHHHHHHt. Then I didn’t hear the paper towel dispenser. CSI Noble jumped into action. I washed my hands, with soap, and got my paper towel. Before I completely pulled open the door I ran the paper towel down the handle. Sure enough, there was no moister on the handle. So we can reasonable conclude that this guy turned on the water because I was in the restroom to make me think he washed his hands. Wow. Save the water next time bud, I am on to you.

OK. There is the rant. Wash your hands. Just please use soap. At least while I am around.

Pay it Forward

Holly and I refinanced the house on Friday afternoon. Why it takes a mountain of paperwork to say yes we will pay, we agree to how much we will pay, and you can kick us out if we don’t pay, I will never understand. It is truly legal and government craziness gone amuck. Now we have two stacks of useless papers in the filing cabinet, one from the original contract and now the refinance.

As is now customary in the Justin and Holly marriage world, any major item is celebrated with a good meal. While driving around in a relatively unknown section of the Dallas suburbs to us we ran across a place called La Hacienda Ranch. It was some delicious Tex-Mex fare. They had a very diverse menu and you could spend as much or as little as you like.

We had Eli with us. He just slept the meal away. Holly and I did what too many fat Americans do; ordered much too large of a plate plus an appetizer. I was still stick to my stomach the next morning. It was just too good to put down.

We were at the restaurant at 4:30, long before any crowd had started. We were actually the only people in our section for a long time. After our appetizer came a couple that were in their late 50’s early 60’s came in. We made eye contact and the gentleman made a whimsical comment to the hostess that I chucked and smiled at. I might have even said “good evening” as he passed by, but I can’t remember.

As our meal was winding down the waiter came by and dropped the check. I wasn’t quite finished with my meal so I didn’t look at it, and I just sat it on the edge of the table. Two minutes later he came back by picked it up and said he was sorry but he needed to do something. I figured that he forgot my refill on my adult beverage.

Two or three minutes passed and he came by a few times. It was clear we were waiting on our check and the waiter told us that the check had been paid. We were very confused. I asked on the house? He said something like that. It took me about ten seconds to realize that the couple in the corner had paid for our dinner.

I ran the waiter down and he confirmed that they had but he insisted that they didn’t want us to know that and to not acknowledge it. I made sure to inform him to express our deep deep gratitude after we left.

I was curious why someone would do that. We didn’t look struggling. We were eating a nice meal. Holly was dressed to get out of the house. Eli was in a name brand car seat. I wasn’t wearing my holey jeans. Maybe they wanted to celebrate Eli with us. Maybe they just are nice people who have means and like to spread the love. May they are Christians and heard a sermon on helping your fellow man. Maybe they just like to try to impress people.

I think they are amazing. I don’t even know their names, but I have prayed for them to get back everything they have given so humbly. I am on the look out for a situation I can do the same. To “pay it forward” and “pay it back” the same kindness that happened to me. How the world would be different if we all did what this kind couple demonstrated.

One Month Down

by Justin

Well we have made it this far. We are transitioning well. Learning the difference between wet diaper cries and hungry cries. More importantly we haven't inflicted any known harm on Eli for a whole month!

I have uploaded some one month photos on the web album link. Here is a sample.

Otherwise things are just going. Holly returns to work on Feb. 15th or there abouts. I have started my new ten hour day schedule. It is taking some getting adapting too. We have made a few decisions as of late. We are refinancing our mortgage into a low fixed rate. We have had an adjustable rate mortgage that has paid off well for us, but now is the time to lock in for awhile. We have also decided that we are going to celebrate our five year anniversary in March in D.C. I have started scoping out the best place to stay and how long we should stay. If you have any beta on the location feel free to pass it along. Lastly for my dad's birthday (Jan 11) I decided I would schedule a trip for the two of us instead of gift. Is there a better gift than the gift of time. I am scoping out a few places but I am thinking Big Bend in April or May is a good idea. If you have any good camping ideas pass those along too. All right....good day all!

EPA = SUV

While driving down the highway on my way home yesterday I noticed a Dodge Durango with government plates driving in the HOV lane. I ran up beside it to look at the logo on the door and guess who it was? The Environmental Protection Agency Region Six. I started laughing.

How ironic is it that the Federal agency in charge of cleaning up our air and keeping the environment protected drives a Dodge SUV. I decided to do some research. The Dodge Durango gets about 15 miles per gallon. On the EPA’s website [www.epa.gov/greenvehicles] it is well below the top twenty five “greenest” SUVs. In fact on a ten point scale, with ten being good, the SUV gets a 6 by EPAs own standards.

I couldn’t help but laugh. I get grief all the time for driving a Ford pickup and how economically unfriendly it is. I guess I will consider getting rid of my ride…oh who am I kidding, I love my pickup!

Eli's First Bath

Eli had his first bath today (1/2/08). A milestone for sure. He enjoyed some of it, but mostly he was unsure what in the world was going on. Holly was glad he didn't pee on her! The video is seven minutes long and 71mb, so give it some time if you are on dial up or slow connections. Happy viewing.

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!

My Brother's Wedding

Well as promised here are some wedding pictures.

First off our unexpected overnight in Charlotte. Thanks Clint and Erin!
The Bride and Groom (Shawn and Dana)

The Wedding PartyShawn and I messing around in the ocean. Absolutely NO comments about my whiteness are needed. For the record, I didn't come back sunburned either....
Here is Holly's Island Hair!
Our last night on the Island
Misc Pictures:

The Highlight of My Commute

You will have to wait till Justin gets home from San Francisco for wedding pictures, because he took our camera with him. In the meantime...

I saw the funniest thing in traffic today, and I thought it would be perfect to share with you since we waste so much time here complaining about traffic. I'm driving along on my way home and I come up beside a reallllllly old car. I don't know anything about cars, but its old, its a little boat-like and I think it used to be green. Or some version of it perhaps. The windows were down, and I was surprised to see a well-dressed man in a long sleeve button up shirt with a tie, clean shaven and quite respectable looking. Hmm.... you never know. Then I look beyond him to the sign he has posted on the rear driver's side window.

It states:

* No air conditioning
* No cruise control
* No car payment since the Nixon administration

Now, that is funny! I chuckled about it all the way home, and actually laughed out loud when I was a couple of streets from my exit and saw him again. It really was priceless. Good for him for not getting drawn into the materialism of our world. I hope he's doing something great with his paycheck!

By the numbers

Well he did it. I didn’t think I would see the day, but my brother actually got married. We spent a few extra days and flew down to Sint Maarten to attend the ceremony. We just missed the hurricane and thankfully it swung south altogether. So here are a few numbers to get us started.

7: The number of airports we were at over our trip to Sint Maarten.
Dallas Fort Worth International (DFW)
Charlotte Douglas International (CLT)
Princess Juliana International (Sint Maarten) (SXM)
Miami International (MIA)
Fort Lauderdale – Hollywood International (FLL)
William P. Hobby Airport (Houston) (HOU)
Dallas Love Field (DAL)

5: The total number of days for our trip
4: The total number of hotels we stayed at during the trip
3: The total number of different airlines it took to get there and back.
2: The number of bags American Airlines lost.

Or in short: Five days, Four hotels and three airlines.

What happen you ask? Well hold on…

Thursday night Mom, Dad, Holly and I are staying in a hotel by DFW. Our flight is at 7:15 Friday morning and we are flying standby, so you have to be early. Thursday night also happens to be the night the Tropical Storm Erin dumps a lot of rain on the metroplex. This causes Thursday night flight to be very delayed. Friday morning we check in and learn that due to late arrivals, the crews are on mandatory rest and cannot fly before 9:30. The airline is rebooking paying customers to the next flight, so there is no way we are getting out earlier than that.

So we finally get off the ground and head to CLT on US Airways. As expected we misconnect for our flight to SXM. We quickly make plans, rent a car and get a hotel for the evening. We do get a great break and our great friends (the ones who never comment on this blog) had an open evening and invited us over for some good home cooking. It was yummy, but the company and welcome nature of our friends is what made the evening. The next morning we get up and head to the airport for our flight to SXM.

We load on the plane and sit there. An hour later we finally move. It seems the jet bridge was stuck up against the plane without power. We arrive late to SXM and just a hour and a half before the wedding. So very tired and travel worn we check into our third hotel.

The wedding is nice. It is actually the uneventful part of the story. A separate post with pictures will follow.

We are planning to take US Airways home on Monday. I wake up and check the flight to find that it is sold out, time for our backup plan. We immediately pack and head to the airport to get on American Airlines. After a lot of confusion of whether or not there were seats on the plane we are on our way to MIA. We land in MIA with a four hour layover. We go to the gate to see our place on the standby list is 27 thru 30^th. NOT GOOD if you are dead last on the plane. We get a very helpful AA flight attendant, but some very rude AA employees otherwise. She informs us that she will barely get on the plane, we have no chance. Sure enough we were four of the six people not making it on. So we decide that we are not going to chance it with American Airlines anymore. We hop in a cab, after finding a hotel in Fort Lauderdale. We check into our fourth hotel.

The next morning we head to FLL and get on good ole Southwest Airlines. There noting quite as comforting as home. SWA treats us good, understands our predicament and is nice to us. What a concept. We change planes in HOU marking our sixth airport, landing safe and sound at DAL.

We rent a car and head to DFW to retrieve our luggage that went on American Airlines the previous night. After a lot or running around we learn that one of my parents bags is lost at DFW and the other bad went to Buenos Aires. Now that is a trip!

Needless to say we are tired. But our standby travel saved us over $800. Well sort of, now we have to deduct hotels and rent cars! However, even if we had a ticket we would have misconnected on our outbound. We had a good time and look forward to a longer trip sometime in the future, albeit not on American Airlines.

P.S. I wrote this fast and furious late in the evening. Sorry for bad grammar and no reading checks! Justin

May we introduce...

Well after much anticipation and even a few tears, we are proud to announce our baby is a BOY! To avoid child porn issues, I will spare you the pictures that prove this point. Take our word for it, there was no IF or even well lets see. The sonographer went to "take a peek" and there was no "peek" to it. Clear as day! We are excited.

We are headed to St. Maarten on Friday. Pray for Hurricane Dean to stay south and west!

Justin, Holly and our Son!

Our Crazy Life

by Holly

We are finally finished with the actual wood floor itself, but still lack transitions, so you have to be careful around the edges and in doorways. We actually went back to the flooring store with our measurements to order them, and found out that the manufacturer doesn't stain the type of transition we need with the color of stain we need. Why not? I do not know. We were advised to go to Home Depot or Lowe's, buy our own trim and stain it ourselves, and save some money as well. We'll see when we find the time to do all of that...

Which brings me to the fact that we are leaving on Friday morning at 7am for St. Maarten and will return late Monday evening. I'm going to make the most of it, although I'm not too excited about the trip and all of its family spider web-o'-drama. I'll leave it at that. On a positive note, it should be a nice, romantic getaway with my hubbie before our little one arrives on the scene in a few months. And it is supposed to be in the 80's with thunderstorms, so that beats this 105 degree heat all to pieces!

And if you ask Justin, he will roll his eyes and exaggerate at the list of other things we need to accomplish at home. I don't know if its true nesting or not, but I am motivated to clean, clean out, and organize! We have a few things for the nursery already, but can't put it together till we get the scrapbook and sewing stuff out of there, and we can't put that in the non-dining room until we get the dining furniture back to his aunt and uncle. What a maddening circle of projects!

We'll get there. I'm just ready for a break, to put my feet up and not think about the chores still waiting for me. Maybe I need a visit from my mom to help me cross off some things. Mom, where are you??