Welcome!

Welcome to little Annabelle Sage Abraham! She was born on Saturday. Heather updated her blog with pics as well. :)

Auntie Tonia was in town as well...it was nice having her around the house as we got used to Annabelle living with us. Plus, she helped us finish up the baby's room. :)

Visits

Our visit to MI last weekend was fun. Had a big Tday meal at the Josef family farm and got lots of goodies at the baby shower. We even had some nice snow coming back home...it wasn't nearly as bad as last year though, just some delays going through Chicago.

This past week has been busy at work and home. The house is starting to come together...continuing the prep work for LBA (little baby Abraham). We brought in reinforcements for this week, as Tonia is paying us a visit from AZ. I picked her up at the airport yesterday, and she is here until next Friday. We already put her to work. :)

Here are some pics that Auntie Alane took a few weeks ago while she was here:

Pass it to me, I'm open!

A three picture sequence...

Take a look at this kid...he's sick! Parts 1 and 2 are on there too.

Birthing Class and Swollen Doggie

We had a fun, short visit with Auntie Alane last weekend. She helped us put plastic on our windows and came to watch my hockey game. During the week Heather and I worked on the baby room. Finally finished moving the office downstairs into the sunroom.

On Saturday we went to an all-day birthing class at the hospital. It was very informative and nice to work on all the breathing techniques, etc. It was crazy, but we were easily the oldest couple in there...it looked like half of them were still in HS. Insane.

On Sunday I skipped the last cross race of the season. I had been neglecting my riding since it got cold, and I wasn't in the mood to bust out the bike again. So I called it a season. I see that I still finished up 3rd in the Cat 3 standings despite missing the last two races though, so that's pretty cool. :)

We are going to the Josef house in MI for a combo T-Day celebration and baby shower this weekend. Should be fun, we just have to hope for nice driving weather on the way there and back...unlike last year!

We had a bit of a scare from Vontoux tonight. This morning he had to get his distemper shot since we are kenneling Willa and Vontoux during our trip to MI. He was fine all day, but around 9pm he started vomiting and his face started swelling up. His right eyelid was so swollen he could barely see, and his lips were all huge and hard. Vet-tech Heather gave him some Benadryl and iced his face down. He appears to be doing better now, so hopefully he's back to normal in the morning.

I'll leave you with a picture of cute pregnant Heather, 8 months along.
Hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving!

Skipping Things

Hello everyone. So I skipped work on Friday (vacation) and got some stuff done. The Suby got some love...oil change, tire rotation, and car wash. Work is almost complete on the guest bedroom, and then we can get that baby room ready to roll. I also skipped the cross race today. We had a late night last night...went to the new Bond movie with two of my co-workers, Bruce and Dave, and their significant others. So I just did stuff around the house instead. Auntie Alane is paying us a visit this weekend, so that will be most fun. She also said that she's coming to my hockey game tomorrow night! :) Here are some pics from last weekend's trip to the Dells:

Vontoux loves his new fox stretch toy.

But then he gets sad when we take it away.

We got a bit of snow while we were there, but it melted soon after.

This bridge is not safe for women or children.

Strange tourist attractions in the Dells...like an upside down White House.

Our cabin came equipped with an Atari game console. Yes, we played it.

Willa doing what she does best.

Heather with her three kids.

When we got back, I assembled a new desk for our sunroom. Vontoux and Willa are helping nicely.

Bad race / good race

Another double cross weekend come and gone. And just like last time, I had one bad race and one good one. Saturday's race was at Kletsch Park in Milwaukee. I had hoped to do well here (it was my best race last year), but I didn't feel all that good right from the start. The big hill run-up kicked my butt each lap, and I ended up finishing in 11th place.

On Sunday it was back to Milwaukee for the race at Estabrook Park. I like this course with its mix of singletrack, long road sections to hammer/recover, and lots of switchbacks in the trees. I got a good start and settled into about 5th wheel for the first lap. Tim took off in that first lap and Dave gave chase (bunny-hopping the barrier for style points). I was in a group with Kevin and another rider for pretty much the rest of the race battling for 3rd. I think the long pavement sections took their toll on Kevin (on his singlespeed) and he dropped off with a few laps to go. I put in a big effort on the last lap and ended up crossing the line by myself for 3rd place.

I now sit in 3rd place in the standings with only two races remaining...7 points behind 2nd and 21 points in front of 4th. Tim in first place has more points than 2nd and 3rd place combined.

Team Blue got hosed on Sunday night. We ended up losing 10-8 to Team Red in a game that we should have won by multiple goals. Our goalie let in 4 goals from behind the blue line!! Pregnant Heather could have stopped those shots. Insane. Oh well, we'll get them next time. No goals for me, but I got two assists.

This weekend Heather and I are taking off for a relaxing weekend at a cabin near the Dells. We did that last year too in November. Should be a good time. It's on a lake, so little Vontoux can swim until he passes out.