UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT

You may notice some changes around here. In what can only be described as a hostile takeover I have wrestled control of this web log (or "blog" as you hipsters are so fond of saying) and will heretofore be posting my own rants and raves. No, this is not an alternate personality that Crystal has invented as a way of coping with the ever increasing madness of the world. This is, instead, her loving and devoted husband. Since she lost interest in documenting what eventually became an increasingly sad saga of misfortune, I have heroically stepped forward to carry the flag. So, to begin, a little housekeeping. Here's what you've missed...

After our fourth miscarriage Crystal and I began to wonder if this whole "procreation" thing was ever going to work out at all. We feared that hope may have been lost. Desperately we grasped at any straw we could. Crystal resorted to acupuncture, while I consoled myself with copious amounts of fried food. Weeks turned to months and it was truly a sad period of our lives.

But enough of that...

As you may or may not have figured out, this is the beginning of a happy tale. One that began on or around September 14. You see, once again I performed my husbandly duties to perfection and wouldn't you know it, Crystal was pregnant. And the secrets began. We couldn't tell people, not yet. Given our history we were far to cautious to get our own hopes too high, let alone those of others. So we waited. On October 26 at 1:38 pm we saw what we had waited so long to see: a beating heart.

Now at this point in 5 pregnancies we had seen exactly 1 beating heart, so this was kind of a big deal. For the first time we looked upon a life we had created. This little ball of cells with a pulse was going to change our lives forever. But, still, we had to stay quiet. We decided that night that we would wait until Christmas to make the news public for two reasons. One, by then we would be much further along and in a more confident place. Two, it seemed to us that if we could get away with giving an "announcement" to our parents it would sure be a money saver! Word leaked a bit, as it generally does when Crystal tries to keep a secret, but for the most part, it was kept under wraps. We decided on pictures of the ultrasound for our parents (by this point we had had a second one done, and this time you could definitely make out that distinctive "baby shape"). It was quite the ordeal finding frames that suited each set of soon-to-be-grandparents, but eventually we figured it out. The stage was set, all we had to do was make it through Christmas Eve...

AAAAAAND that's enough for today. Gotta go cook dinner. We're having chicken tacos.

Be Good.

- Lee T.