Ok so the picture on the left side is of me at around 8 weeks or approximately 2 months pregnant on our trip to Niagara Falls, ON on a very very hot day. The picture on the right side is of me at around 37 weeks or approximately 9 months pregnant when we got back from our friends Christmas party. There is only a slight change to my tummy right, LOL that is funny!

Hot babe in the video booth

Jon and Jessica (the amazing girl geek)

Tim Directing Video

The new stage

Shannon, VPT’s video director

Me, and Dave in the background, troubleshooting equipment at the last minute

My 32 hours of Christmas holiday being over, I’m back at work this afternoon… and I have to admit, there’s something kind of peaceful about it. Maybe it’s the calm of being back on a set schedule again, or the rhythmic lull of routine. Maybe it’s the fact that all of the crazy Christmas preparation is finally over and the whole world feels fat and lazy from their Christmas dinners. Whatever it is, there’s sort of a holy hush over the cube farm today — which could be because there aren’t very many people here — but this seems to me much more like Christmas should be. A quiet calm. Maybe the same kind of sacred peace that Mary and Joseph felt after the baby was delivered, the shepherds were gone, the cattle asleep, and just the two of them were left alone with their child.
I’m not alone with my wife and child right now. Instead I’m alone with 3 computers, two telephones and an iPod. But that’s OK, cause we survived Christmas and managed to find a nice day and a half together. And because my desk at work is sort of an oasis. While my desk at home is cleaned maybe once a month, and the various desks, tabletops and floors I’ve been working from at church the past couple weeks are far from clean, my desk at work is cleaned once a week — every Friday before I go home. It’s a peaceful little utopia, and probably the best looking cubical in the building. I’ve got my server behind me, my laptop and secondary monitor to one side, and a G4 cube with a nice LCD monitor to the other. From here I can touch the whole world via the Internet, or close some programs and not be disturbed at all. Sure it gets a little lonely sometimes, not working with anyone remotely close in age or beliefs… but on this particular day, it’s a good kind of lonely. A peaceful kind…

Well it hasn’t been much of a holiday for me, but that doesn’t mean it’s been bad. There were moments where I wasn’t sure I’d survive two jobs, on 5 hours of sleep. There were moments where I was pretty sure Nic was gonna kill me for leaving her stuck at home by herself all the time. I pretty much survived by going emotionally blank and just focusing on the job(s) that needed to be done, so as a result, I’ve sorta been a jerk to everyone.
But there were also moments that were amazing. Getting our Certificate of Occupancy from the city, two days before our first service at the new campus. Seeing dozens of volunteers pull together to make something like that happen. Learning new things, and meeting new people.
My grandma died last week. I don’t think I can get home for the funeral, even though I really want to. I’d just be so terrified that as soon as I got home Nic would go into labor. I’m not really good at dealing with death — I kinda don’t know what to do with it. But I know grandma is in a better place, and that she’s not in any pain anymore, so I have some peace about that. And to be honest, I haven’t let myself think about it too much — there’s been too much work to do.
So I get a day and a half of holidays. Today and tomorrow morning I have off, and then it’s back to work. I have some e-mails to write, and some people to talk to, cause I’ve pretty much ignored everyone for the past couple weeks. And Nic and I have some serious cuddling to do, cause any minute now our family is gonna get bigger!
Until then, you’ll have to accept best wishes from just the two of us. Merry Christmas, dear readers! We hope you all have a wonderful day with the people you love.

Well we pulled it off. Two services at the new campus down, two to go. The first was pretty rough but we got pretty much all the bugs out for the next one. In between services the staff all look as exhausted as I feel, but we pull it together cause for many of the people who come, this is the only picture of Christ they’ll see all year.
This campus has been a series of small miracles, combined with some incredibly hard work by the volunteers and by the staff — as our pastor says: God’s Super with our Natural — but it happened, and it was so awesome to see the place packed out.

Ok…so you have all probably heard that Jon wouldn’t let me put up our regular Christmas tree. Now some might be able to see his side but for those of us that love Christmas time don’t since I am the one to normally put it together and decorate it! Since it is a 71/2 foot tree I might be able to see where he is coming from given that we are in a very small apartment this year. Unlike our good friend Libby, who when she first walked into their new home already knew where all the Christmas items would go, I totally forgot about where I would put our Christmas tree when we were looking at this apartment. If we put it up in the living room it would block the front speaker, part of the TV and all of the electronic devices when sitting on the one couch. The only other place to put it would be in the hallway by the washer & dryer but then it would be very crowded their. So I decided to go and buy a 3 foot tree with lights already on it and I think it has turned out ok, less hassle later when putting it away since the baby is likely to be here by then. Even though I didn’t get my regular tree up I am still pleased with the overall outcome of our apartment.

Aaahhh….now I know what they look like, very ugly and not so much fun to walk on. So the last few weeks are turning out not to be as much fun as my weight is constantly increasing so is my belly as you can see from previous pictures, which is always getting in the way, but now my feet and ankles, or lack there of, have also decided that they want to join in the fun. This is not so much fun for me since now it appears that none of my shoes fit me except some sandals, which are not December weather worthy especially when the snow arrives, and of course my slippers. I did try on a pair of Jon’s shoes and they fit but they just make me look like I have clown feet! I can’t even wear socks because some of them cut off my circulation too much. Because I don’t seem to have any ankles left and my legs are also starting to swell…when will this stop ;-P.

I thought I would write about one of my jobs that I do once every two months. Not because it is interesting just because I really wanted to take a picture and what would I need a picture of this for except to maybe to write about it. But now that I am writing I don’t really know what to say except that I get to read the meter, which by the way is for hydro or ‘electric’ as they call it around here. (Don’t want to confuse any of our American readers!) Then I get to enter the numbers on the NYSEG website and submit them….sounds exciting doesn’t it. Not really since the last time I read the meter it was pouring rain and it was the last day to read it….my procrastinating showing there! It is kind of a neat picture but a very boring post…