The Miller's Place

Wow, I’ll be honest. I’m a tad bit nervous and that is the understatement of the decade, but don’t tell Michelle that. While Matthew and Morgan could not have been more different, in a few ways they are very similar. Main thing, timing. What I mean by that is both deliveries have crept up. You may not think that with Morgan since she already is at full term but it’s true. With Matthew we went to the hospital and the doc said, well let’s get this baby out. Total surprise, I knew Michelle was having issues but never in my wildest dream 6 weeks earlier would I think the doc would say lets get that baby out of there. Totally blind sided. Well with Morgan, because of the issues with Matthew, Michelle and I went into this waiting for the other shoe to drop in a way. Well funny thing is, it never has dropped. Well the issues were going to be my wake up call, and I never have had that wake up call. There has been not one issue, thank God. So today as we are 18 days away, just a tad over two weeks, did you hear me, two weeks???, as I said am a tad bit nervous.

The big news in this post is late last week Michelle scheduled the induction for Friday May 23rd. So if Morgan doesn’t show up by then she will 🙂 Did I mention that is just over two weeks away. Anyway everyone is doing very well. Michelle is becoming very much immobile. Hurts to do most everything. But all in all, everyone is well.

Last but not least, another thing to make me nervous is that we have scheduled a weekend getaway to visiting my family at the beach this weekend. I have had my worries as it is about 2.5 hours away from the hospital but Michelle wants to go, so Friday we are off to spend some quiet peaceful time at Bethany Beach.

We’ll keep you updated as time ticks on by 🙂

Scott

A journey down the path of my mind and the various thoughts that inevitably pop in and out ad nauseum.

National Pastime vs. National Pastime – Enjoying the wonderful springtime weather we have been having has been our neighbors, at least some of them. Behind our townhouse is a stretch of grass where a lot of the kids play.  Well recently we have had a mirror image National Pastime game going on.  On one side is the kids playing baseball with a tennis ball.  The flip side was a group of Indians playing cricket; real, live, cricket.  It’s been wild watching.  I will be the first to admit I am a pretty big sports nut but I have never paid much attention to cricket.  It’s been fun seeing both catchers back to back as they play.  I don’t know if the guys are playing legit rules or not but it does look interesting.

Our Other Neighbors – They are real jackasses.  No serious, they are, see…

It seems everywhere we go we have animal life following us.  Many of you that have been following us around know about good ole friendly Groundhog.

He took up residence underneath our shed at the old house.  We only saw him the first year and then we saw him no more.  But in any case, in front of our townhouse across the cul de sac is a small farm that houses the three donkeys shown above as well as a goat or two and a flock of Canadian geese.  The other day after church, Matthew and I walked over because we saw that they were all out close to the fence.  Matthew proceeded to feed them dying grass and pet them without fear at all.  I was a little concerned just because of their look 🙂

Pregnancy Update – I guess if I am going to post something I should update the pregnancy eh 🙂  Michelle is doing fine.  We have past the “Matthew Mark” where Matthew was born at 33 weeks and 6 days, which I think has relieved some stress on Michelle.  This pregnancy has been polar opposite of Matthew’s.  Michelle really has had no issues at all, knock on wood.  Michelle is now starting to see the doctor once a week and is undergoing non-stress tests twice a week to ensure all is continuing as it should.  One of the last ultrasounds we actually got a half decent shot so I will try and scan some of them and post for all.  Going back in time some just because I never remembered to post it.  It was funny when all this started we went to Hospital at the University of Penn for the first time, Michelle had been having nausea problems, much unlike Matthew’s pregnancy.  The funny thing is the link between smells.  When we got to the hospital, Matthew had to potty so I took him while Michelle was waiting and I was washing my hands afterwards and the smell of the soap brought back so many memories of being in the NICU after Matthew was born.  I washed my hands so many times going in and out, I don’t think I will ever forget that smell.  At the time and even now I thought it was funny that Michelle was having so many problems with smells and this smell brought me back to one of the happiest moments of my life.

Netflix – Since the loss of DirecTV to try and save some money as well as fighting with the Installer about what he could and couldn’t do to the townhouse, we added Netflix to compensate for my loss of movies 🙂  I am not prepared to say that it is in the same category as Sirius Satellite Radio or Tivo but I am digging it.  It is nice to just request a movie and it be here in a day.  I have really enjoyed putting lists together which falls in line with one of my all time favorites “High Fidelity”.  I have added our Queue on the main page, probably right next to this if you are reading it 🙂  Enjoy what we are about to enjoy 😉  In this same line, my top ten favorite movies…

1. “Ocean’s Eleven” – An unbelievable movie with a great cast.  Awesome one liners and an incredible witty dialog.
2. “The Matrix” – Simply amazing visual movie and a techie’s dream 🙂
3. “Se7en” – Fascinating movie.  Very dark and disturbing.  I have always had a fascination for serial killers and the such.
4. “Serendipity” – With main characters being in my top 5 it’s hard to find something wrong, other than Molly Shannon of course.  This movie will always remind me of finding my wife 🙂
5. “High Fidelity” – Cusack strikes again 🙂  Incredibly funny and “this one’s creeping up the charts.” 🙂
6. “Notting Hill” – Sucker for Romantic Comedies.  Great soundtrack.
7. “August Rush” – I love music and music and movies are an escape for me.  This is a great movie!
8. “Constantine” – Keanu is in my top 5, yeah I know, but I can’t help it.  Reminds me of This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness by Frank E. Peretti.
9. “Alien” – How can you not love this movie.  One of the first movies where you think something is gonna happen the music makes you think something is gonna happen, but nothing does, and then someone turns the other way and there is an alien ready to implant you!  Gotta love it.
10. “Equilibrium” – Wow, along the lines of “The Matrix”.  Christian Bale is creeping into my top guys, don’t believe me check out “The Machinist” yikes.

So if you’re on Netflix, add me as a friend.

NFL 2008 – So the season is upon us, yeah I know it’s still 5 months till opening night, but the draft is less than two weeks away.  That’s the start of the season for me 🙂  Michelle knows draft weekend, I disappear in front of the TV to watch all 20 hours or so 🙂  The scheudle was released today and I can help but show my optimism.  Overall the Eagles have a balanced schedule with a max run of 2 road games and those are Cincy and Baltimore.  5 prime time games is very good.  2 Monday night games with one at home.  Icing on the cake, Thanksgiving night game at home against the Cards.  My first projections of the year…

W, L, W, W, W, W, Bye, W, W, L, W, W, W, L, W, W, W = 13-3

That’s right, 13-3, and should be first seed in the NFC 🙂  Not your typical Philly Fan, what can I say.

So that’s it for now.  I’m tired of typing, dinner is being fixed, and the Flyers are about to come on.  Stole home ice advantage and first home game is tonight.  The Wachovia Center should be hopping!  See ya!

Scott

Some of you may already be aware of the fact that last week we had to take Freddy, one of our cats, to the vet because he was constantly vomiting and lost quite a bit of weight. Well it turns out the prognosis was stomach or pancreatic cancer. We wanted to see if by chance there was a possibility of pancreatitis but Freddy has not gotten any better with medication. Today Michelle has taken Freddy to the vet to be put down to ease his pain. He hasn’t been eating and has been quickly getting worse.

Matthew I think is just under the age of understanding completely. We told him that Freddy has been sick and he has seen all he has gone through. We told him that Mommy was taking him to the doctors and he wouldn’t be coming back home. He was going to go play with Jesus in heaven. Matthew was sad, but I don’t think he fully understood, which is a good thing in my opinion.

Freddy was a unique cat to say the least. Huge, was the first impression you got, between 25 to 30 pounds, Freddy was imposing 🙂 Just as anal retentive and a loner as his owners, Freddy wasn’t as friendly as our other cats. Freddy wanted to be petted when he wanted to be petted. If you started petting Freddy as you were walking by and he was laying there, he would get up and walk away from you. Freddy mostly wanted to be petted after you got out of the shower making sure you were clean before you touched him 🙂 Michelle often called him the Hairy Hemorrhoid as he always wanted attention when you were the busiest, i.e. getting out of the shower, sitting on the toilet, or doing dishes. The funniest thing about Freddy, with his size, and the fact that he always laid on his back, he looked like a furry dog a lot of the times 🙂

Freddy, a great cat who will greatly be missed…

So we had our first real scare today.  Michelle IM’ed me at work that she may need to go to the doctors.  She hadn’t felt Morgan kick most of the day.  The last doctors visit kick count was part of the conversation.  Well she called and they said they wanted to see her so off I ran.  We got to HUP and got in very quickly which I was relieved.  What was odd and disconcerting was that the room we were in was the same room where a doctor told me a little over 4 years ago that I was going to be a dad pretty quickly, 6 weeks early!  All in all everything checked out A OK.  Morgan must just be taking a day off, must be nice 🙂

They had 2 monitors on Michelle listening for kicks and movement and it got pretty loud anytime Morgan moved.  When Matthew and I were allowed in, he was listening and said “Is she talking to me?”.  The longer he listed he started having a conversation with her.  It was the cutest thing.

Well it turned out to be a costly visit, as a studious cop decided to pull us over as we were crossing the state line into Delaware.  No I was not speeding, I saw him twice already and knew he was going to be there, once going to get Michelle and once on the way to the hospital.  So as I passed by he decided to pull behind us, I don’t think he was targeting us but he ended up pulling us over.  Yes I know my tags have been expired for 4 years now, that’s what happens when I move back and forth and back and forth.  Anyway he was nice enough not to tow the car seeing Matthew in the back seat, but he did issue two tickets in excess of 150 bucks.  Yippee..

So all’s well that ends well.  Everyone is doing good.  Time for me to crash as it’s been a long day.  Take care.

No it’s not Rose, although I am watching Titanic right now, but we have decided on a name.  To be honest I think it was decided when Michelle first heard it.  For those that voted on the site, many thanks.  It’s nice to know we are all in agreement 😉  Michelle liked it from the get go, I thought it was good until Jose at work decided to make light a nice little nickname she may be called in the future, and help the soul who does.  I must say I am not thrilled at the fact that it can be used as either male or female but all in all I am pretty happy with it.

With nine weeks to go I present you with the soon to be next Miller…

Morgan Michelle Miller 

So there you have it, enjoy 🙂

Scott