Gregg & Heather helped us take out the pond this summer.

                              Video Link

We are 30 weeks into the pregnancy today and the weeks seem to be slowing down....  We're getting closer to being ready, at least from a physical side of things.  Mentally I think we have a little ways to go yet but thanks to some baby classes we're attending we're slowly getting there.  I'm more of an on the job learner so the real training won't begin until she gets here.  

The first night in the baby class the fathers had to draw the female anatomy while the mom's helped.  Let's just say my drawing will not be put into any science textbooks. Other then that we've watched some fairly dated videos of different types of births.  At one point I looked over to Elizabeth and she was covering her eyes and looked a little nauseous but I think she'll do fine the day of.  I'm worried I might forget some of the breathing steps but I'm pretty sure we'll come up with something that works in the heat of the moment.

Here is a pic/video of us assembling the crib.  Thanks to Mom and Jay for helping me paint, it wouldn't have looked as nice if I had done it all myself. We also found out that we will never use wallpaper as removing just a border was brutal.

video

We're having a girl!  Or at least the doc was 'pretty sure' anyway.   They said everything looks great, which I would totally agree with except about half the time I had no clue what was up on the screen.  I could see her head for sure at certain angles and her arms and legs but there were times I didn't even know if the kid was in the picture.  'That's the liver right there.'  Oh you mean that black blob is a liver huh, sweet. 

The lady giving the ultrasound had a hard time checking between the legs but never found any male anatomy.  'Pretty sure' didn't seem to be too thrilling for Elizabeth.  Our doctor has been at the hospital for 5 years and only 2 ended up being a boy after they gave their prediction as a girl.  Even though there's a small chance we could be #3 we're both pretty convinced and excited to bring home a baby girl in 20 weeks or so.  We've been delaying getting the room ready until the ultrasound results were in so I guess that process will start soon.  It still seems like a long time to go yet so I haven't hit that stressful phase yet.  

You got so much more stuff than I had.  I gotta study just to keep with the changin times, 101 dalmations on your cd rom, See me I'm.. Tryin to pretend I know, On my pc where that cd go. 

Did I just break out into a Will Smith song?  Yea that just happened.  It happened because this is my first official blog after finding out Elizabeth and I are going to have a kid!   The due date is October 3rd, a day before my birthday.  I haven't made a CD mix yet for the drive home from the hospital but I sure am looking forward to it.  

We had the 12 week appointment today at the baby clinic, which didn't end up being much of anything.  I helped fill out a questionaire while Elizabeth got weighed and had a few other checks done.  We did get to hear the baby's heartbeat for a few seconds which was pretty surreal.  Since I'm not the one carrying the baby (no I'm not showing!) it really hasn't set in yet what's in store for us.    We're both excited and reading as much as we can about what to expect but I have a feeling reading isn't going to fully prepare me for what's on the way..  Stay tuned.

I think it's fun to come up with top 5 lists of things such as favorite movies, songs, restaurants etc. as a way to pass the time.  Yea I live a crazy life I tell ya...  A few weeks ago Elizabeth was on the phone with her brother and he said Iron Man was good but it wasn't in his top 20 or anything.  I jokingly said I'd like to see that list, turns out he actually had one.  That inspired me to come up with my own. 

It's harder then I thought it would be.  How do you include only one movie out of a series?  How do you block out the freshness of a recently watched movie vs. a classic movie you haven't seen in awhile?  Well I couldn't do either...  And since I have more fun comparing these lists with others, feel free to add a comment with your list.  Mine is not set in stone so I'm interested to see if there's any I may have forgotten about.

Pretend you got this in the mail sometime mid December.....   

Merry Xmas From The Sievers! 

It's been awhile since I've sat down to write a blog but I just haven't had any material to write about....well I still really don't but I'll jot a few things down.  

-  Elizabeth has painted every room but one in the house now; we're on a first name basis with the Lowe's painting department.  Had to switch from Home Depot to Lowe's after my little stain spilling incident.

- We hung xmas lights outside along the garage and up the peak of the house for the first time ever.  Luckily Russ Griswold didn't have to help check every bulb as they came on with the first plug-in.  

-  The Vikes just gave up a long touchdown pass to the Bears; Not happy about it.  

-  We went to the Iowa Minnesota game with some friends.  This couple was not with our group and we didn't do any of the cheering in the bathroom but it sure was a fun game to be a hawkeye.

-   We went back to Iowa for Thanksgiving and hit up The Hub the night before which was a good time as usual.  It's amazing how good maidrites taste at 2:00 am.  We spent the rest of the weekend visiting family and friends which primarily revolved around eating some great food.  Elizabeth brought back the stomach flu and I brought back 'the common cold'.  We're thinking about trading here shortly.  

 Well I better switch my focus 100% to the Vikes game as it looks like they need me.  

The 4 of us made it to St. Paul last night to see Taylor Swift and Rascal Flatts.  If you want a professional review read this, we sat right behind him.  I'd say his review is pretty spot on, especially the part about guys being out numbered.  If you're looking for a date you might want to go on a road tour with these guys.

I was looking forward to Taylor's concert and she didn't disapoint. She really knows how to whip that hair around. I was pretty sure she waved at me once but I had to show her my wedding ring and that I was taken so that kinda ended that.

Rascal Flatts started out the show with a bang, literally. I had just got a full beer and of course I was holding it up watching the opening. BANG! Explosion into their first song. It scared me a little and I jumped, spilling a little beer on myself and the couple in front of me. The guy kinda looked like Steve Austin so I was nervous I was gonna get the stone cold stunner but he said it was ok. Dodged a bullet there..

The encore might have been the best when they brought out Jared Allen. He ran around the stage pumping the crowd up, lets hope he does that tomorrow!

Football season is here and I sure have missed it!  Chase and I are relaxing in the basement today watching games.  We had a little scare with him a week ago that involved a trip to the pet emergency room so it's good to have him here.  The episode started off with him shaking his head back and forth, which right away I associated that to fleas.  It's just fleas I thought....he'll get over it.  Fast forward 8 hours and I hear Elizabeth in a panicked voice to get up here, something's wrong with Chase!  He had small bumps all over his head and just didn't look right. 

Doctor Elizabeth didn't have a good prognosis at this point and immediately called the vet.  After a shot and quick once over from a grumpy vet we were told he just had an allergic reaction to something and they were hives on his head.   That seemed to settle everyone down and he's recovered fine.  I did find out that I'll have to be the calm one in this family.

On to another event that took place yesterday... I was in Home Depot picking up supplies for the ongoing house projects.  It took me awhile to find everything as I can never seem to find anyone to ask for help.  Well I'm standing in the stain aisle, looking for a specific color to match what's currently on our deck.  I can't find it anywhere and no one's around to ask.  I reach up to check a gallon above my head.  As I lift it up to read the color, a box holding two gallons of stain that was just barely balancing on the box above it falls.  Two gallons fall between the aisle and open up, spilling everywhere.  I look to my right to see if anyone else saw that....

What do you know... there's an employee standing right next to me and in a very unhappy voice straight out of Tommy Boy says "What'd you do!"  I apologize and try to move some cans around to see if I can help clean it up or at least stop it from spilling anymore.  The unhappy man standing next to me says "Just leave it alone."  So I stand there for about 30 seconds, the smell of stain getting worse with each passing second.  I decide now is not the best time to ask for help finding the color I'm looking for and procede to move out of the stain aisle and towards the checkout.  I felt bad but didn't know what else to do.... I couldn't help but laugh to myself driving home, just because something like that seems to happen to me quite often.

So how do you stay excited when it's upper 80's with sun beating down on you, no wind, and you're tearing off shingles?  You pump it up of course by telling yourself how much fun you're having.  Gregg came to town to help E and I shingle and boy did we have a blast.  

Sure I thought I might fall over a few times especially after hauling up 75 bundles of shingles to the roof....Ok I didn't haul them all up the ladder. Gregg gave me the choice of bringing them up the ladder or grabbing them and spreading them out on the roof, unfortunately there wasn't a 3rd option.

E went into the project as the ground girl but got promoted fast as she picked up the skills to tear off and hand out shingles, she was Fantastic with a captial F.

I wish I would've kept track of the water/gatorade bottles I drank for the weekend, it felt like about 50.  Sitting at an office job all day doesn't keep a guy in the best shape, that's why my favorite part was when Gregg cut starter shingles.  (I had to watch him closely and critique if needed)  He was a big help as usual, thanks man.

Here's a short recap of my weekend in Tripoli.....

Friday Night - Got Veno's, watched fireworks, street dance at the hub.

Saturday - Watched the parade, one at the hub, watched softball, played bean bags, watched more softball, street dance #2 at the hub.  

Sunday - Didn't feel good.

Well the 4th of July has come and gone which turned out to be a good weekend besides one little hitch (literally).  There's a series of checks I try to go through when taking the boat out that are mainly based on past mistakes I've made and this weekend I added one more to the list.  Our house is only a couple miles from the lake so we store it in our driveway and pull it back and forth, which is usually where the mistakes/stress come in.  Our driveway has a pretty good slant to it and sometimes it can be difficult to get the truck/boat level enough to hitch or unhitch it easily.  Well this Saturday I went through my checks and had the boat hitched up ready to go....what I didn't know was the fun that was about to hit.

I pulled the boat through a turn-heavy road in the neighborhood and up to the one and only stoplight in the trip, KERPLUNK, I looked back and the boat was leaning down and had apparently fallen off the ball.  The front of my truck was out in traffic a little bit so I backed up slowly pushing the boat back far enough so I could put my hazards on and go try to get it rehitched.  Luckily my dad was with me, E got to miss this fun as she had to work, or the next 20 minutes might have been worse.  We got back behind the truck and yep sure enough it had fallen off the ball and was laying on the ground.  We gave it a shot to lift it up and push out it's wheel but this thing is heavy, really heavy.  A nice guy driving past saw our issue and stopped to help out, thank god for that guy.  So at this point it wasn't good but just get the boat hitched on and we should be good to go......Problem #2 was about to occur.

I have a lock on the latch to at least make it harder for someone to steal the trailer/boat, which of course didn't come unlocked for me.  The lock was jammed down on the hitch which was probably enough pressure for it not to unlock.  As I was lifting the lock off the hitch to relieve the pressure it finally came loose and as that happened the key broke off in the lock.  GREAT!  So now we're standing there unable to hitch the boat to the truck without opening the latch, which is held down by a lock with a broken key in it.  

So my dad stood next to the boat which didn't have a vehicle in front of it parked right in the middle of the one and only turn lane while I drove back home and got a hammer.  Dad beat the lock off and we were able to lift off the latch.  We realized that the hitch appears to have some issues as it will not drop or open wide enough with the latch to get it over the ball, PERFECT!  We finally got it on by holding the piece inside the hitch open while we lowered the boat down onto the ball.  And after all that excitement we still tried to go relax a little while on the lake which was of course busy and the windy day didn't make things any easier at the launch.  Needless to say it was more of a relief to get home then anything.  

So I have another check to add to the list, Quadrouple check the hitch is down over the ball, I also need to get the hitch looked at/replaced.  Looking back it was stressful but could have turned out a lot worse had it happened while I was moving and in heavier traffic.  Only damage done was to my pride and of course a story that will never be forgotten.  

Saturday I was feeling pretty good until I looked under our deck..

30 hours later........

It's now Sunday and my back hurts.  E gets the MVP on this project though as she did 'all the tough jobs!'   

 It's been one month to the day when a hail storm came through and left some damage on our house.  E was gone for work and I was home alone with Chase when the tornado whistle went off.  It had only been a couple days since the tornados came through that did all the damage in the midwest so I headed for the basement.  I heard a clunk and walked over to the window to find a couple pieces of hail hitting the ground; 10 seconds later a shower of what looked like golf balls were heading right at the window which got the heart goin...  Chase ran upstairs barking like a robber was at the door (Can't blame him for all the tricks that get pulled on him with the fake knocking) so I had to run upstairs to get him and we sat under the stairs for a little while.  The hail lasted only about 5 minutes but did some damage to the siding on one side of our house, damaged the roof, and took out half of the landscaping lights.  

So now the excitement in my life is sorting through storm chaser fliers/knocks on our door and working with my insurance company to find out what's going to be covered.  I'm really not a big fan of dealing with high pressure sales and would prefer to get bids online.  Can you get a contractor on Ebay?   Either way it looks like I now have a project that needs to get done this summer. 

In other news Team Hit-faced (sand volleyball team) finished off the spring season on a high note; playoff champs!  Our 5th guy from last year Scoop who hadn't played with us at all in the regular season made it back just in time to get a ring (Or t-shirt).   Other then that I haven't been up to much besides trying to enjoy the weather with some boating and golf.  

I just read this article about a fan who caught a homerun hit by Alex Rodriguez at last nights Twins game and then proceded to throw it back.  Many readers commented this act just copies a tradition fans started at Wrigley Field and the guy was an idiot for throwing back a ball by a guy who has potential to break the career home run record and is for sure a future hall of a famer.  The Twins fans aren't the only Wrigley copycats as I saw the same thing happen at Yankee stadium. 

I have a feeling I would have done the exact same thing if I was at the game enjoying myself with friends and the crowd started the chant to throw it back.  In my mind I would stand up and launch it all the way back to the catcher like the kid in Rookie of the Year, but there's probably a greater chance I'd hit the left fielder by accident.  I would probably also have that same regret almost immediately after I sat down and the crowd cheer was over...

The only time I've been close to catching a homerun was a few years back at a Twins game when I was sitting in left field pretty close to the foul pole.  Somebody hit a shot right at me which landed in a seat below me.  I reached down between the seats along with a couple other guys who had got up from there seats to go after the ball.  I didn't shove anyone out of the way and didn't end up grabbing the ball but the guy in front of me who did immediately turned around and chucked the ball back into the outfield.  There wasn't a big roar from the crowd but instead a few chuckles.... Turns out it was a foul ball.  

 You just caught a homerun hit by ARod, what do you do?