Sick

I have the sickness. I have had the sickness for several days and the sickness is firmly entrenched in my body. I hurt, I cough, I can't sleep, I have crud in my chest, my nose, my ears and inexplicably in my toes (that may be something altogether different though). I have tried not to kiss my wife, and failed twice now on accident. Hopefully she doesn't get what I have and the baby stays healthy.

The doctor gave me antibiotics, an inhaler which raleigh found tasty and cough medicine that keeps me tossing and turning. I took unisom last night and actually slept a little bit. I took a couple hour nap on the couch but I have to be well before Sunday.

So if you pray, and you read this blog....play fervently that I am healed.

Thanks

Josh
President of Fatherly Duties
JandA Corp.

I have to dig a ditch.

I don't really have to, but if my basement wall is going to dry out before the end of time I have to divert the water away from the foundation of my house. Normally this would be an easy endeavor involving several types of shovels, a pick axe, tamping bar, sweat, blisters, and muddy feet. I'm not dealing with normal. I have a tree 10 feet from where I need the ditch to be....and I fear that in the ditch that was began by a nice young man named Pancho Villa (not his real name) I have already killed the tree while slicing through roots, but that the down hill slope I need for drainage won't work where the ditch was began. Oh...and I also have to deal with my natural need to procrastinate.

No worries though as I will spend this afternoon doing my best not to kill the tree while getting the hole deep enough to bury corrugated pipe, but not to deep that the water won't drain, and not to shallow that there will be a hump in the middle of my yard.

I'm so excited that my fingers can barley type out this sentence.....can you feel it?



yay.



I wonder if I can train Raleigh dog to dig in a specific area so I can sip tea and let her get that digging aggression out. Maybe I can lace the ditch with peanut butter......the procrastination is strong with me.

Josh
President of Fatherly Duties
Procrastinator Extraordinaire
Janda Corp

Easter

Easter weekend was a blur for us. It didn't feel like Easter, and we sure didn't feel like we celebrated the amazing gift Christ gave us on Calvary.

Our weekend went like this. We spent a nice Saturday morning at my other parents house in Old Hickory. They fixed us Egg's Benedict, fruit, and orange juice. It was great to watch their dog go crazy over the frisbee, throw itself on the floor to roll over and as was demonstrated several times....was really, really, really concerned about it's weight.

We got back from Old Hickory to head over to a friends house to hang out. I then snagged her son to help me dig a ditch. He's a ditch diggin fool.

Sunday we went to the early service, I headed to the dog park afterwards, we ate lunch, took a nap and headed over to the parentals for a large gathering of like minded folks who wanted to celebrate Christ's gift of salvation by eating a scrumptious dinner.

We then got home way late and fell into bed again.

Noteworthy things:

We took Raleigh to our friends house. She got herself tied up in a deck chair....which then "chased" her around the deck which literally scared the poop out of her. Luckily I was napping during this debacle.

My brother-in-law bought an engine for a car he is fixing. He was putting it in the car at 2 am on Saturday when he found out it was seized up. Luckily I was sleeping during this debacle.

That is all for now...

Josh
President of Fatherly Duties
JandA Corp.

Sickness

Abby and I are feeling under the weather. We both woke up at 2 in the am and couldn't get back to sleep. Me with stomach cramps and reverse puking, Abby with just being pregnant and not able to sleep.

My day didn't get any better...I was able to sleep for another hour or so before heading into my part time gig. I finished my work as quickly as possible and headed for the hacienda. I've had stomach cramps all day...and intermittent toilet-seatitis. Abby called out of work and spent a majority of the morning asleep with Raleigh dog peacefully on her bed. It's good that she did, Abby has felt bad for the last couple of days..and waking up 4 hours before normal and not being able to sleep made for a terrible morning.

I did make it to the dog park however....for a very short time before I needed to hot foot it home.....that dang-ole toilet-seatitis.

Josh
President of Fatherly Duties
JandA Corp.

If you blog......

And no one reads it.....does the blog poop in the woods?

Tuesday update:

The womb is very tired however off of the unisom. This is a big step and the next couple of days will be very telling if Abby can get by without having to take sleep medicine to combat the evil nausea that has haunted us since September. PLEASE LET THIS WORK!!!!

Raleigh went to the dog park and had a good ole time.......i "cleaned" up after her 4 times.....4 times. We were there an hour...and 4 times? She did run faster after each "clean up"....so maybe she's on to something.

Maybe one day our spawn will look back on this and appreciate the tireless hours we put into sharing inane details. Odds on that are slim to none....and slim left town with the only fertile figure of speech left in the one horse town.

Josh
President of Fatherly Duties
JandA Corp.

Greetings, Salutations... And A Clarification (Sort of)

Hello Everyone,

It is long past time for my first post here. Apparently it is not enough that I roll my newly rotund body out of bed every morning, scoot in to work only two minutes past eight despite the fact that I live 10 minutes away, manage to keep my eyes open all day, and trudge home on the last dredges of energy and patience only to collapse on the couch in a sleepy stupor. No, I can't simply enjoy the cleverness of my mower man husband, I too must scour my soul for creativity to update you on the various and sundry details of our soon-to-be parents life in a entertaining manner.

OK, now that the whiny run-on sentences are our of my system (hopefully), I can continue...

My subject today is the name of our blog. Why JandA Corp? Well, JandA is easy - J for Josh, and for - well and, A for Abby. But Corp, why would we use Corp? Are we trying to intimate that we are running a business of our marriage? Maybe that its a little CEO tumbling and turning in my belly? The truth is that there is really no reason other than it sounded funny. But we can't say that, so I have turned to Dictionary.com to see if they can help validate why we chose such a name - surely there is some definition we could use. This is what they said:

1. an association of individuals, created by law or under authority of law, having a continuous existence independent of the existences of its members, and powers and liabilities distinct from those of its members.

What?

2. (initial capital letter) the group of principal officials of a borough or other municipal division in England.

Hunh?

3. any group of persons united or regarded as united in one body.

OK, getting better. This makes a little more sense.

4. Informal. a paunch; potbelly.

Ooooh, I like that. It fits both Josh and I. We have a winner!

Abby
The Womb

Baby Update

We had a doctors appointment on Friday, April 3. Doc. Smallwood said everything was progressing as it should and that we are right at 32 weeks along. I will put up some belly pic's in the next day or so for those that are interested.

It's interesting watching your wife's body host God's creation.

That is all for now.

Josh
President of Fatherly Duties
JandA Corp.

I am the lawn mower man.....

And I have come to steal your grass's soul. I'm like the Dread Pirate Roberts, my cloak is aflame and I'm crashing at the gates to beautify your lawn....not really. I wouldn't cut your lawn...unless good ribs were involved.

Our lawn was in serious need of cutting. It's rained off and on over the last several weeks and the grass has been to wet to bag, and to long to mulch. So yesterday morning, morning dew be damned, I started up the mower and headed to work.

In my yard I have a 3:5 ratio of weeds to grass. I have the kind of lawn my mother likes to eat. She will go to the store, buy a bag of "spring mix" salad and in reality....I have enough edible weeds in my yard to satisfy her taste for lawn......love ya mom.

The wild onion in my yard is so dominant that I'm concerned that they have started a "grass" roots effort to communicate in secret about their own plans for my yard. They had one of their alleged secret meetings in my backyard along the back fence line yesterday morning. The onion saw me coming, put up their best defenses...yet I mowed them over with malice.

Now to the outside observer my body language and facial expression would not have been one of malice...it would have been 300 pound man pushing lawn mower bawling his eyes out. The onion was SO strong that I cried like a new born.....but the onion was defeated....or so I thought.

This morning as I walk Raleigh dog, I saw a smattering of onion stems poking up proudly in my yard. I guess the home office didn't let them know that I am the champion....my friend....and I suppose my onion will go on fighting to the end.

Josh
President of Fatherly Duties
JandA Corp.

The Roof, the roof, the roof was on fire!

Yesterday was the three year anniversary of our house fire. It's been three years since I was standing in the living room of our apartment, heard and felt the shotgun blast that was the lightning bolt that caught the roof on fire. It was a harrowing day, but it did have it's humorous moments.

For instance, I thought the fire would only consume our bedroom, and so I carefully laid out my wife's wedding dress on the couch because I thought it would be safe. It was safe from the fire...just not the embers, timbers and water. That dress is still at the cleaners.

After the fire, we hung up all of our clothes, blankets, towels and other assorted goods to dry on the fence of my parents house. No less than 3 people came by to peruse our "garage" sale. I wonder if those people thought....why is someone selling items that have all been singed? I know I would have!

Here are some pictures.

Fearless Leader....Salvaging The rest are just a hodgepodge the damage. Enjoy...we did :D

Josh
President of Fatherly Duties
JandA Corp.

Raleigh, Raleigh, Bo Bolly

We have a dog. It's a cute, sneaky ninja dog. She hasn't figured out yet that the lazy boy in the front room rocks, especially when she jumps off of it onto her bed. We just recently implemented the "no dogs on the furniture" rule and Raleigh has received the memo in triplicate......which she then ate.

So I sit in my office working away diligently trying to increase the value of JandA Corp and I think....hmm.....I'm thirsty. I role my chair away from my desk,head to the kitchen, and I hear mad scrambling from the living room. I walk in to discover my dog laying down on her bed, giving me the innocent eyes as the lazy boy swings in the wind. Ornery little sucker she is.

She had an accident on Saturday involving my truck and rapidly approaching asphalt. We were in the parking lot of the dog park when she decided to pull a Shawshank Redemption and jump out of the bed of my moving truck. She's no worse for the wear...and it was scary for a second...and hopefully next time she'll sit her boo-hiney down. Probably not.....like i said..ornery.

Here are some pictures.

Introducing Raleigh.
She's a mutt, but looks like this type of dog.

My girls Asleep.

Raleigh escaping from the frisky boys.

No joke...this is how I found her sleeping the other day. That's a mighty big rawhide she must have been chewing in her dreams.

Josh
President of Fatherly Duties
JandA Corp

Proud Papa Picture Pixelated Post

Here is the first picture of our baby. The lighting's not great and the photographer was a little bit of an amateur, but we paid a lot of money for this shot.

For those convinced it's a boy or a girl....this picture will not clear any of that debate up.

Technology blows my mind. One day I'll share the gullum picture from our 3D ultrasound.....it still haunts my dreams.

Josh
President of Fatherly Duties
JandA Corp