Up To Date

So Ryder is now ten months and Robby just passed his forth birthday. Now that everyone is up to date I will start adding in photo's and stories of our experiences raising two boys as I juggle work and family. One thing is for sure it is bound to be a fun ride! Thank you for visiting and remember to click on the follow link on the right! Feel free to leave me a messege!

Round Two!

So we always joked around about the fact that we wanted a big family, but each child must come with a new financial accomplishment, management was our first one. Shortly after accepting a position and moving once again, this time on the companies dime. Amanda stopped working and became pregnant with our second child, Ryder.

If you have not figured out yet where Triple "R" came from... I figure I am safe with this title, if it is me and the boys we got three, f we have one more? We still have triple "R"! My Dream is to eventually own a small ranch to raise my family on. One thing I always wanted as a boy was a horse, I would like to make that dream a reality for my kids.

So Ryder was the complete opposite of Robby. Even though I was terrified of another round of hospital hell, this time Ryder was quick, easy and for me at least painless. We jumped straight into the C-section, and it was scheduled for a time other than the middle of the night. We how up bright and early and go get read for surgery. I was concerned about the jokers they had doing the procedure, since they spent the whole time cracking jokes and talking about their life out of work! The anesthesiologist even offered me a hit off the oxygen jokingly... I Hope...

Anyways 20 minutes later they plop another baby in my arms and send me back to the room, while they close up Amanda. I was impressed to say the least.

Now there was one thing that was different between Robby and Ryder.. Robby was a very quite baby.....

The Transition

So, we are now in Texas living in a little whole of an apartment. One thing is amazingly different though, at least for me. In Washington I lived next to the same person for years, I never knew their name. In Texas, the first night in my new apartment I decided to go for a walk. People were outside everywhere BBQ's and Beer. No matter where you go, someone was saying hello and inviting you to take a seat and have a drink, meats on the grill help yourself. I could not believe it! Where was I for the first 20 years of my life?

I have since grown to love the personalities and southern hospitality that you will find down here. I have not traveled the world and I don't know much, but Texas has some of the most unique and friendly people I have ever met. I will always remember my first real meal in Texas, Wild Hog, Brisket and Moonshine! Brisket would be my new favorite food, but the most interesting thing I tried was crawfish.. They say you should suck on the heads... I am not that brave!

Anyways, we spend the first year down ere just struggling by, but making it. Then one day, my boss comes up and asks me if I am ready to take control of my life and take on new responsibilities. Well heck yeah I been doing it for the last two years! So I jumped head first into management, it's been several years since then but I still remember sitting down at my interview and answering the question from one of the big wigs. "Where do you see yourself in ten years" My answer of course? In your seat....

The Move

Well year one is almost over and Robby's first birthday is coming up. Amanda now has gotten a little home sick. The choice we have to make now is what do we want. Naturally family being important to both of us it was not a choice that we made easily but eventually I can handle being away from home and something new sounded very exciting. We were moving to Texas!

We made some calls, sold off one of the cars, loaded everything up and said our goodbyes to everyone. Her father flew up to help with the driving the Kia and I got in the U-haul. It took every cent we had but we were on the road.

It took five days and 3200 miles of nonstop driving with an infant and two vehicles but we made the trip and even stopped in El Paso just so I could stand on the border, literally on the line at one of the crossings lol. Hey it was my first time this far south!

We had made arrangements to transfer restaurants (Great thing about coorporations) so everything was ready when we arrived. One last night in the Holiday Inn Express and then we were able to move in the next morning. We had arranged to share an apartment with her cousin Tabitha so she met up with us to sign contracts and get keys.

I can honestly look back now and say without feeling to stupid that Texas was not what i expected. I thought tumbleweed, dirt and ghost towns with ugly guys and big hats. Who would have known it's no different than anywhere else really?? Just hotter!

Year One

The first year was challenging, we were both new to something that is very different from the norm. We both worked at the same restaurant, she would work the mornings and I would work the nights. We quite literally transferred shifts. Robby was the star of the show, all of our fellow team members knew who he was and for that 20 minutes a day we played pass the baby. People would take turns holding him as we closed out our shifts or started our daily routine. I can honestly say if it were not for our friends during this time life would have been much more difficult.

Having your first baby is definitely a life changer though. When you go from being the life of the party to being a parent, expect even your best friends to become a little more distant. Not because they don't like you, but because you are now different. Money is always an issue, but I think everyone underestimates the cost associated with feeding, clothing, and basic care of an infant. Well if your going into this stage now don't worry, the stress and the anxiety will eventually fade it's only the beginning and it is all worth it. Just be patient.

A year goes by and now there is a new choice to make. One that will change life forever.

The Wedding!

Well, call me old fashion but before our first son was born I was intent on being married. I also wanted to do something special for my family. So 2 weeks before Robby was due Amanda and I hit the court house. We had our sister and her boyfriend join us as witnesses with my grandparents standing behind us and we were wed. This happen to be the same night our Lamaze class so it was all around an exciting day!

Well, court house weddings are great for getting your names the same and getting a piece of paper after you say "I do" but we did want a real wedding so that summer we did it all over again. We of course were on a budget so we enlisted the help of everyone. As well as utilized some of the great bargains you can find online like http://www.orientaltrading.com/ Her mom did a majority of the preparation from 3200 miles away and mailed everything to us. My Aunt and Uncle hosted the wedding and reception in their lawn which turned out amazing. My grandparents and them also helped cover some of the decorations, food and alcohol. My poor grandmother and great aunt at the very last minute ended up needing to prepare the wedding cake! (It turned out perfect)

We had a friend of ours fill in as DJ and the day of the wedding all the family showed up to get things going. If you look closely at our wedding picture you'll notice my redness, I wasn't blushing. We all worked out in the sun all morning setting up. In fact in wasn't until guests started arriving that I was even able to climb off the ladder and get in the shower. It made for a very long day.

Our ring bearer (Robby) had to be rolled down the isle but he did his part to make the day a success. My cousins also dressed up and participated in proceedings.

The wedding was fantastic everything went off without a hitch, some of her family were able to fly up from Texas and fill in as brides maids and my friends all jumped for the chance to be grooms men. One thing though a surprise guest arrived on her side which made the brides maids outnumber the groomsmen so at the last minute my sisters boyfriend ran out and got a tux and filled in!!

By the end of the night we were all so exhausted we could barely move. Amanda and I drove home to get some rest before coming back and cleaning up in the morning. Wouldn't you know it when we got back the next morning the entire family had gotten up early and taken care of everything. The only left to get rid of was the keg of beer. Well that meant several rough days by the pool, but wouldn't you know it we were able to finish it off lol.

The Pregnancy

Alright, nine months go by and despite what everyone thinks they are not bad. Guys make women out to be insane during pregnancy, Amanda was quite pleasant just needed a little more help with odd things. We are getting close to the due date and we have just done our Lamaze class. We are all set to go. Well the time comes and goes and no baby. About a week after her due date we go out to the hospital where they are going to induce labor. Wow now this was fun for us both, lol they induce her and still nothing happens a couple days pass and nothing. They break her water manually one night and holy crap the world turns over. Now she feels it!

Unfortunately they they feel this is a good time to leave us for a few more hours.

Now its in the middle of the night, she is in pain and the only one who could do anything about it in the middle of the night, is in another surgery. Later that night the anaesthesiologist finally comes in and things calm down some. The night goes on into the early morning when her doctor comes in, with 9 other people by the way it's lesson time. They decide finally that Robby's head is just to darn big and the square hole will not fit in the round hole so on, so forth.

C-section time! Well if you ever tried forcing something to fit and finding out later it won't you can guess where this is going. She is on the table and I am at her head. Robby is stuck, this is my first baby as well so here I am watching in the doctor's goggles as she is forcing and prying and trying to loosen the baby. She literally climbs on top of Amanda yanking trying to get him out. they try some huge suction cup thing but it doesn't work. Next they try some kinda clamp you might find in a mechanics garage, I imagine this felt fantastic by the way. Baby comes out but he is not breathing. To top it off the good drugs are wearing off and Amanda realizes she is cut completely open and can feel people poking around.

Well, they knock her out instantly, the baby let's out a whimper and I am kicked out of the room. I get left in waiting with my mom for about an hour when they finally decide to let me see Amanda and the baby. Where on earth they get the nerve to just leave me out there with no idea of what's going on who knows, it was during this time I really was regretting that I quite smoking when she got pregnant cause I was about to lose it.

Anyways I eventually get to go in, life is good everyone is OK. Robby was a little jaundice and Amanda was very sore (Duh). After a total of 6 days in the hospital let's just say I was not looking forward to going back anytime in the near future.

The Meeting

So I guess for my very first post I may as well talk a little about how my wife (Amanda) and I met. Don't laugh but crazy enough almost 7 years ago we both loved video games. You guessed it, that's exactly how we met. We both used to play an MMORPG (Multi massive online role playing game) called Dark Age of Camelot. We sound like nerds, I know but it was great we were both in these caves just sitting around and working on leveling up our characters. we got to talking and teamed up for a while and eventually it became a common occurance for us to track each other down for a little level grinding.

After some time we each made new characters that complimented each other for strictly farming(that's killing random monsters to make money or rare items). We got very good at what we did and started adding more and more people to our little group to the point that we had our own guild of friends. We had a blast farming and making boat loads of money as well as starting up some stealth assasin classes for some good player vs player. We spent hours first on yahoo chat and eventually several very expensive cell phone bills.

Anyways long story short this continued for a little over a year when we finally decided to meet face to face. She lived in Texas and I in Washington state. She flew up one January for a week, we spent going out and visiting the mountains (not something you find many of in Texas). Six months later it was decided and she was moving up for good. I flew to pheonix where I met up with her and her mom, we started our long drive back with a short (hehe) stop in vegas, a very addicting place I might add, back to Washington.

So about a year and half later her comes round one Robert Dean...