Yeah, I hate it!

The waiting I’m referring to, is of Dominic’s arrival.  I am so very excited and I know we are as ready as we’re ever going to be for his arrival.  His room is done (though he’ll not sleep in there for the first month or so) and all his toys and stuff are put together.  For the hospital, batteries are charged for all the electronic devices I will take along to document and share the experience (don’t worry not GROSS photos or videos will be taken) and bags are packed and ready to roll.  Everything feels DONE!  I know Lori is!

Regarding labor updates I know it’s a challenge when you are going through the labor process to keep people who are waiting anxiously for updates, updated.  I plan on sending some text messages to keep a few people updated during the labor process.  However, sending text messages are kind of a pain especially when your list gets long and you have little time to do so because your wife is screaming with JOY!

So I’ve decided to try out live blogging now that I have a purpose.  In doing so, I finally figured out a practical purpose for twitter.

So if you are interested to follow along with the labor process (it’ll be filled with cool stats such as centimeters dilated, effacement percentage and contraction length) you can visit our Twitter Page Here and refresh every so often OR you can also subscribe to our Twitter RSS feed in your google reader (though be advised reader doesn’t update the feed as often as I would be able to keep it updated) OR I have a Twitter widget in the left hand sidebar.

Oh and Dominic, please hurry up because we have found your Halloween costume!

***No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you, this is, in fact, Lori posting. I know I know, I’ve now crossed over to the dark side.***

Well, today was my very last day of work for this school year!

With the baby due in just 2 weeks (OMG 2 WEEKS!)  I really wasn’t sure if I was going to make it ‘til the end of the year. See, I am one of SEVEN people pregnant at Old River this year and the majority of them had their babies 2 weeks or so early. I even had co-workers placing bets that I wouldn’t be at the end of the year luncheon and that made me nervous! So, I have been working feverishly trying to make sure that I finished all report cards and important end of the year paper work early, just in case.

But here I am! I made it! My room is cleaned out, my bins are packed and in the shed and I can officially relax, well… as much as I can for being 9 months pregnant in 100 degree heat!

In Septemeber, I will start a new chapter of my life at a new school! I will be team teaching with Gina in the first grade at Rio San Gabriel! I couldn’t be more excited about this change. I have always wanted to go down to primary and after 5 years in the fourth grade, I finally get my wish! Also, I will only be working 2 or 3 days a week which allows me (and Gina) to be home with my baby. This is huge answer to our prayers. Thanks God!

So, I’m sitting in my glider (the chair, not the plane) kind of not knowing what to do with myself. I’ve always entered summer with many plans and certain expectations. You know, summer means sleeping in, traveling, beach trips, etc. Well, this summer doesn’t include any of that! Nope, this summer I become a mom. a MOM. Wow. I don’t know if that has sunk in for me yet. No, I know that it hasn’t. I have to be honest, I’m scared. What if I’m not good at this? I have been told that I am a “natural” my entire life, what if that isn’t true? How am I going to deal with the lack of sleep? Angelo could tell you that I am majorly cranky if I don’t get enough sleep, so I am a little unsure how I’m going adjust. And, I’m nervous about going back to work! I know, I know. I haven’t even had Dominic yet but I’m worried about work? But seriously, how is THAT going to work!? He’ll only be 7 or 8 weeks by then, will he allow me enough sleep to function so that I can handle a bunch of 6 year olds? I guess only time will tell. Thankfully (another blessing) Angelo can stay home with Dominic while I am work because he can work remotely.

For now, I have a couple of little things that I hope to accomplish before this little bundle shows up. I hope to FINALLY finish my thank you notes from my baby showers! I promise that they will be out in the next few days!! I had 3 showers with in 7 days and my goodness, that’s a lot of thank you notes! We really are so thankful to everyone that thought of us. Dominic received everything he could *possibly* need, and then some. Angelo and I were so blown away by everyone’s generosity, honestly.  I also hope to visit Gina and baby Emma and maybe, just maybe go swimming at my parents house, we’ll see if that happens.

So, there it is, an update on my little life. Hopefully I’ll be posting here often, Angelo (and Rachel!) has been bugging me to do this for months! But, we’ll see how that goes.

*** oh, funny story- tonight Angelo and I went to dinner at the Outback and when they called our name they took us to a booth, only, the belly wouldn’t fit! We had to go back to the waiting area! Finally, they called us again, this time they took us to a smaller booth and put a chair on the end of the table for me! Ok, seriously??? I know I’m pregnant but geez! It’s so funny how I often forget how big i’ve gotten. Sigh… only 16 days to go…

Today is June 17, 2008 and I turn 29.

The sad thing is a few months ago, I couldn’t remember if I was going to turn 28 or 29 this year, so I used some web birthday calculator to solve my memory problem! The birthday doesn’t mean much for me this year as I’m so much more distracted with the anticipation of Dominic’s arrival.

Here are a few other notable things happening today:

Here in California same sex couples can get marriage licenses, how FABULOUS!

There is a new Silver Jews album, hopefully it’s good.

Blu-ray versions of Be Kind, Rewind and So I Married an Axe Murder are to be released.

For the nerds, today is the official release of Firefox 3 and there is a Download Firefox 3 and help set a world record competition going on so upgrade yours today!

Downlod for: OSX Windows

Finally, there is a UEFA Euro 2008 match between Italy and France. Both teams have not been doing well in this tournament, despite being the two teams in the World Cup finals of 2006. They both need to win this match and then have Romania lose (sorry Isai family!) in order to continue.

For those who don’t know [and don’t care :)] the UEFA Euro 2008 is like the world cup for Europe and also happens every 4 years. You end up seeing many top players from all over the world because many of them play in the European leagues to sharpen their skills. There have been some awesome matches and I’ve enjoyed it thoroughly. I’ve said it before, soccer is perfect for HD!

Today I will work (because there is enough work and I want to stay ahead,) hopefully watch the soccer game and probably get some dinner. So yes, it’s just another day because I’m really trying to save celebrations for who’s to come in the next few weeks.

Hopefully Dominic will laugh (and be silly), like his dad!

Lori’s been knee deep with thank you cards and report cards since our last two showers so I will forgive her and do the update.

On Friday (May 30) Lori had her work shower and she scored a bunch of nice gifts from her co-workers. I know she’s going to miss no working with them next year but she’s also excited to team (teach) next year along with Gina at an awesome school.

Friday I went to pick up tables, chairs and spare easy-ups and spent the rest of the evening cleaning up the house to prepare for the big shower the next day.

Saturday morning I woke up with intense pain in my left shoulder and neck. I took some aleve and hit the road to Donovan’s house to pick up our shower cake. Donovan really went above and beyond and created such an awesome and thoughtful cake (three flavors) we are spoiled by his friendship! I brought the three cakes into the back and put it together. I think I did a decent job, but I’ll be sure not to quit my day job!

The shower began around 12:00. I ended up hanging outside for a while to make sure Lori wasn’t over-doing things and to help out wherever I could. The pain in my neck and shoulder SUCKED bad! So I alternated between sitting on the couch and visiting (and taking video) outside. When the shower ended I loaded up my truck and dropped off the tables, chairs and easy-ups back over to Downey (thanks Paul!)

We got a bunch of great stuff from all the showers we had and after looking at the filled up baby room I realize we are truly blessed to have such generous friends and family who care so much about our little Dominic!

Sunday I woke up with the pain still, though the spasms were nearly gone. I head over to church and began to setup the audio along with help (thanks Tim!) I had a great time mixing and it’s SO much more enjoyable with the new Aviom system.

After the second service I helped tear down, we hit some lunch and then headed off to Disneyland with a few friends. Disneyland was fun and we rode the Buzz and then sat and ate corn dogs (Lori got the winner!) at the Tomorrowland Terrace, er Club Buzz while watching the band on stage.

Here’s a (short) video of Drew, Jackson, Ellie and Bella dancing to some Elvis. Drew was getting down and was stealing the dance floor. Hopefully next week (when my Vimeo quota resets) I’ll upload a longer version because I captured some improvisational break dancing and other fun.

If you don’t see the video above, or want to see a higher quality version, Click Here.

This update felt long and Jason Parks-like but I still think he holds the records for longest blog posts!

David Bowie is pretty decent.

I’m posting this because it’s time to update the old blog software.

Since I’ve been properly blogging over the last few years I have been trying to get Lori to also blog. Her response is always the same, “I don’t have anything to say” or “You usually post what I’d want to post” and finally “I have my myspace if I want to.”

So with Dominic coming soon, I think Lori’s finally ready to blog. So I decided to change the theme a bit (I’m still tinkering) and will encourage her to user her account and begin posting.

So today we bid a hearty “Off with ya, scurvy scum” to the “Captains Quarters” and give a big welcome to “The Albericos” (took me a few seconds to decide on the grammar/apostrophe usage in “Albericos”, feel free to comment/correct). Not much will change, there will still be photos, videos and the occasional nerd/tech stuff that interests me, though I will probably keep most of that (unrelated) stuff in my shared feed to the side.

I will encourage/help Lori post her first few posts, maybe she can begin talking about the final two showers!

If you have no idea what I’m saying, that is my sarcastic reference towards last night’s Lost Finale.

You see there was this boy on the show during the first season named Walt. He was supposed to be 10 years old.

Time on the show passes slowly (a few months) but in real life/production it’s passing years. So Walt being 10 starting to hit his growth spurts and to deal with it they eventually get rid of his character only to bring him back a few times in “flash forwards” where he’s been cleverly filmed to apear younger and only for a few brief moments.

That is until last night. We get to see *young* Walt again and boy does he look grown up. Supposedly 3 years have passed and we see a more grown up Walt. I nearly burst into laughter because Walt is taller and with a deeper voice and he appears to be in his early 20’s now (I think in real life he’s 16).

Anyway, regarding the finale, of course I loved it! The show is so suspenseful and is just such a great ride. I’m upset we had such a short season, but it was a good one. I’m glad we’ve had more time with some more important characters this season. I’m still impressed with how they’ve been able to twist the show and stories with the flash backs and flash forwards and keep the show mysterious after 4 seasons. Of course, the show left us with such a mystery, making the waiting for next season much more difficult!

Two more seasons to go!!

David has started a blog.

So why don’t you go visit and you might see pictures of his adorable daugter! Welcome David (and presumably Gina) to the blog, now your life will never be the same!

I made a quick video from a few quick clips from recent visits of our newest (newborn) friends, Charlotte and Emma. They are both so small and cute, Dominic take note! But you’ll have to wait 18 years or so to start dating! :)

Today was our Family Baby Shower held at the Pizza House.

There were probably 35 people at peak (mostly women). I showed up about an hour and a half into it and came just in time for the tail end of food. We had a great spread of food like usual and it was a fun time. I am overwhelmed with the generosity of those who came today, we got a lot of nice and thoughtful stuff.

After the shower we returned home with both my truck and Lori’s car filled / packed tightly (should’ve got a picture, it was a bit comical) and we unloaded all the stuff into Dominic’s room and began to loosely sort stuff. We have a crib full of diapers that will need to be sorted and packed into our hall closet and we will have to start washing his mountain of cute clothes and begin putting them away, woo Memorial Day!

I must say it’s all really starting to feel very real and I’m getting super exciting and nervous waiting for the moment of birth to arrive, or as I’ve dubbed it, it’s like waiting for ticking time bomb to explode!

¡Odelay Vero! Cuz like, Dominic gots his new Doyers clothes, and pretty soon he’s going to get his black sunglasses, his knee high socks and then he’s going to grow a weak mustache and then he’s going to want to take his little `Charo` to a game, fool! So you tall her she better be ready, all right?

Here we are a little more than 6 weeks away so that puts Lori in her 33rd week! It’s all happening so fast now and I’m super excited to meet our little boy! Here’s what’s happened in the recent times relating to Dominic being on the inside.

Almost two weeks ago we had our last monthly doctor’s appointment and now have been put into the 2 week pattern, this Friday is our next appointment.

This last Saturday we visited the hospital we hope to deliver in. It’s a smaller Kaiser that seems to be tailored well for birthing. The birthing rooms are large, private and very nice (they also have these cool robotic lights embedded in the ceiling.)

The post/recovery rooms are also private but a bit smaller but they have a pull out bed hidden in the recliner type chair for the dad (wow, that’s me!) to sleep in. Oh and they also seem to have free Wifi all over the place!

The hospital has a good philosophy regarding birth and post birth. They state that after the birth (and if all appears to be well by a quick pediatric check) they encourage (and will enforce for you) 1 - 2 hours of privacy/bonding for the mother, father and baby.

They usher out everyone and allow this time to be as uninterrupted as possible. After they do the blood tests and then any other necessary procedures. The cool thing is the baby stays in the room as much as possible. The staff seemed to be very nice and appeared to be helpful and enjoying their job.

We also found out that day what our co-pay would be for the hospital stay… it turned out to be $0!! So far I think we’re in it for two $5 co-pays during this pregnancy! God Bless medical insurance! I don’t know how people do with out it!

Tonight was our last of five, 3 hour lamaze / birth education sessions. While I’m glad the class is over, I did learn a TON attending it and contrary to popular thought, it’s not all breathing funny and sitting on the floor hearing people fart (that’s maybe 20% of the class) the remainder of the class is all educational. You will learn about EVERYTHING you want (and not want) to know about giving birth!

This weekend starts the first of three baby showers. We are getting close!!