Happy 4th of July!

Yes, It's a holiday weekend and I am sitting in my house just vegging. I do have an excuse -- Ron has to work, so we couldn't travel. (Not that I'd want to anyway being 7.5 months pregnant). Also, I'm on the activities committee at church and was supposed to plan a huge 4th of July celebration with a patriotic program, a pancake breakfast and a kiddie carnival. yes, I had it all planned out, and then a week ago the Bishop dropped the bomb that the ward counsel voted to cancel it. :( After all that work... They said it was because there was too much going on. oh, well. They want me to do it next year. (nice)

Anyway, here's the updated ultrasound picture I promised. I feel bad because I forgot it in the car overnight, which usually isn't a big deal, but this week was in the mid-90's, so it darkened a bit. It's hard to see, but pretty much looks like the last set, so no worries!

Week 32 Ultrasound: He's laying on his left side, looking at the camera, if that makes it easier to see. His little fist is resting on his cheek on top. And he still has those adorable chubby cheeks! His weight was estimated at 5 lbs, 11 oz, which is in the 82nd percentile. (Still a big boy!). What a cutie!


"Babies are such a nice way to start people."
-- Don Herrold

It's a Boy!

I think most of you already know that it's a boy by now, but I'm catching up on my blogging!! Work has kept me pretty isolated for the last few months. Now, i'm only two months away from delivery and I'm nowhere near ready... But, at least I can post some cute ultrasound pictures for all to see. I picked the best from each visit and they are way cute! A few of the ultrasounds the technician didn't give me any pictures to take home... what a jip! So here are the ones I do have:

Week 6: He looks a little like the Michelin Man here. :) It was so GREAT to hear his heartbeat so strong! My previous pregnancies didn't last much longer than this, so I was extremely anxious at the time.



Week 9: He was already moving around alot by this time. There was a point where he stuck out his arm and waved it at us. The nurse caught the last little bit, so you can see his arm poking out. It's way more amazing when you're watching it on the monitor, but still, oh, so cute!


Week 18: Yeah, this seems like a jump, but there was a transition from the specialist to a regular OBGYN, and there were a couple of ultrasounds in between where there was no picture printed. (and there was the cutest little footprint during one of them!). Something about the technician not being certified on the machine... whatever. But, at the 18 week ultrasound, we discovered the gender of the baby!!! (IT'S A BOY!). We're so excited! I thought about posting the tell-tale picture here, but I thought that would be a bit too much... take my word for it, there's no mistaking! :) And, no, we still don't have his name picked out, but we're getting closer!


Week 24: We don't have pictures from this one either (I think the tech was new). But, the tech did a preliminary weight estimate (from measuring the head and belly), and he was estimated at 1 lb, 1 oz, which is in the 49th percentile. Ron was so funny after the appointment -- I told him just to drop me off at work, and he insisted that we go eat something. "Obviously, you're not feeding my kid enough if he's only 49th percentile." :) I love Ron.

Week 28: OK, he got remeasured and now, all of a sudden, at 6.5 months, he weighs approx. 3.5 lbs, which is HUGE! No, I didn't change my eating patterns one little bit. But, he's now in the 86th percentile! My OB looked very nervous when she read over that report. So, I'll get two more ultrasounds by the time it's done! :) One on this Tuesday, and one in ~4 weeks. She wants to monitor to make sure he doesn't get too big... Early delivery? :)

This first picture was adorable!! He was making kissy faces at us through the whole thing. Luckily Suzanne (my favorite technician at the clinic) was able to catch one. If you tilt your head to the left, you can see his belly at the bottom, then his pursed lips going up from there, and then his nose on top of that, and his little arms are at his side. You can't really see his eyes (they're in the shadows), because the focal length of the ultrasound doesn't give a very large depth of field... But I'm so glad we got this picture!



This next picture is a portrait! He looked right at us, like he knew what we were doing. So, what do you think? Does he look like me? :) I hope he's handsome like Ron!


When I get more pictures, I'll be sure and post them much sooner this time. Hopefully I'll soon have the nursery ready and then I can post pictures of that. :)

"A new baby is like the beginning of all things-wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities."
-- Eda J. Le Shan

So So Busy!

I can't believe it's February already, and I haven't even posted anything in 2009 yet! I do have the 9.5 week ultrasound, but it's at home and I'm at work, so I'll have to do it later. I will say that the little legs kicked for us, and the little arm waved "hello". It was so cute! and still healthy, so I'm heading to an OB soon.

Meanwhile, I just got back from a 10 day trip to "power on" a new product. (That means that we had new silicon, new boards, and new software that all have to play nice together and there are usually bugs in everything). The good news is that there were no significant board problems. The bad news is that there were some significant silicon bugs that prevented us from booting up quickly. (Typical of new cores, but still makes for a stressful poweron).

I had an interesting dream during the last week that Bethaney might find humorous. It was February (now), and I realized I had forgotten to take a final for a calculus class in college in December, and I probably forgot to complete the course work for the last few weeks of class. Panicked, I went to investigate and sure enough, I had failed the course, so I would have to re-take it. Not only that, but there were a few other classes that I still needed to take in order to graduate. I then tried to figure out how to take a leave of absence from Intel so I could go back to school for a semester and graduate without letting my manager know that I didn't actually have a degree... talk about a loaded dream! When I woke up I had to reassure myself that I did, indeed have a degree in Electrical Engineering, and that my job was safe! and then, the next night, I dreamed I was back in high school.... I must be regressing. wierd.

Otherwise, the new year is going well so far (knock on wood!). And, we're looking forward to the short holiday coming up -- maybe we'll spend it at the coast.

"Education is one of the few things a person is willing to pay for and not get"
-William Lowe Bryan

Some New Year's news

It's still early, but we had such positive news at the ultrasound, we decided to let everyone know that we're pregnant! (yay!) This has been a very long, up-hill journey and we are not out of the woods yet. But, we have reason to be optimistic this time. The first two (possibly three) miscarriages were diagnosed due to a septate uterus (mine, unfortunately). After having surgery to correct it, I then discovered that I also suffered from PCOS & Glucose intolerance, both of which can cause infertility. So, I went to a specialist to treat the conditions, and voila!

Here are the pictures that everyone has been asking about. The first one is a life-size portrait. You can see the black circle in the upper right of the "white fuzz". That is the sac. The little white dot in the black circle is the fetus (only 5mm long). The doctor was nice enough to zoom in for me.


This is slightly bigger....

And this is all the way zoomed in. It looks so cute!!


I am only 6 weeks, 3 days along, but doctor was able to detect a heart beat, beating at 112 bpm. It was SO LOUD on the ultrasound, it sounded like a big, bass drum.

And, here are the first sets of stats for our little person. Everything appears to be stable and well-attached. (Which is good news since it is most likely that the previous pregnancies were not). My blood levels are good, and fetal developement is right on track.

So, since it appears to be a typical, healthy pregnancy, we decided to let everyone know. Ronna made a good point that either way if I lose this pregnancy, I will be devastated again. So, I may as well enjoy it now so I can appreciate this (possibly short) time together. Wise words, Ronna!

Our next ultrasound will be at 9 weeks (so 2.5 weeks from now). I'll post more pictures if anyone is interested. (I'm sure at least our moms would be..... :)).

"Before you were conceived I wanted you. Before you were born I loved you. Before you were here an hour I would die for you. This is the miracle of Mother's Love."
Maureen Hawkins

Happy New Year!!

Just a quick note to say "Happy New Year" to everyone!

"Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve. Middle age is when you're forced to."
~Bill Vaughn

O Christmas Trees! O Christmas Trees! How lovely are your branches.....

We finally got our tree decorated last weekend. Here are some shots of it, especially since the weather is too terrible to travel and no one will get to enjoy it with us. Maybe Aaron and Megan if they're not snowed in... We are getting some crazy weather last week and next week. Today we got ~10" of snow dumped on us, and tomorrow's going to be even worse. It usually doesn't snow in Oregon, so this is really difficult for people to deal with. Portland has all of 2 snow plows in the city... they can't keep up with this.





Adrianne spent most of the day trying to help me lick envelopes for our Christmas cards. The problem was that she would lick all of the sticky off in one location, then nothing on the rest of the envelope. Finally, I had to get Ron to do the job when he was home on one of his breaks.


Ron tried to keep Anna out of trouble, but as you can see, she was trying to eat all of the fake garland and fake poinsettas she could get her mouth on. Luckily they were fake... I don't think she ate very much.



Did I mention the snow here? It never snows! this is crazy weather...
Here are some shots of the front yard and street:








And here are some shots of the back yard. Too much snow!!




I'll probably sign in again before Christmas, but if not, HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!!!

"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all year."
~Charles Dickens

A little bit about what I do...

So, a few months ago (like 6), my brother Wendel asked me to fix his laptop power plug that was flaking out to the point where it wouldn't charge any more. It's kind of like asking a car mechanic to fix your refrigerator, since I design motherboards for desktop and CE devices, not laptops and not chassis', but I thought I'd give it a try. There were a few delays, but I finally took it apart tonight.

First diagnosis, it looks like someone has tried to "fix" this with tape previously... I know Wendel got it for a good deal, so this seems highly likely. Coupled with the fact that you can see the tape on it, and there are three cracks in the plastic housing.



Second diagnosis: Once I pulled the PCB out of the chassis, I could see that the connector was not usable anymore (no more tape!). You can see both halves in the next two pictures.
The half that came off:

The half that stayed on:


Third diagnosis: I can re-solder a new connector on there, if we can find the right one. I'm pretty sure it's the CQ21516 from Laptop Jacks, but we might be able to find it cheaper.... I'd also like to see a data sheet, but I don't think I'll get that lucky. (Side note, I just found it at DCPowerJacks.net as well, much cheaper!)


And, finally, for anyone who wants to know what a laptop looks like if you're trying to fix "one little piece" here it is. Believe me, I couldn't have done it with fewer parts taken out.... These things are like onions and I'm trying to get to the inner-most bulb.... There were a hundred little screws that I didn't have the right driver for, but I found something that worked. also, there are several connectors and ribbons that I *think* I can remember how to plug them in...


Sorry you had to see that, Wendel... But no worries! We'll get it back together. and hopefully I won't have a bucket of parts left over. :)


"All of the biggest technological inventions created by man - the airplane, the automobile, the computer - says little about his intelligence, but speaks volumes about his laziness."
~Mark Kennedy