Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone!

2011 was a year of many ups and downs.

I spent the first 6 months unemployed. Then I got a great job with a local IT company. The pay wasn’t as much as I made before, but I am really happy with the working conditions.

In February, we found out we were going to have a baby. We had been trying for just a little while. Violet is amazing. She joined us on Halloween. Everyone says how much it will change your life, but you really can’t understand until it happens to you. I love her so much it makes my heart hurt when I don’t get to see her for a while.

It seems that this was the year to have a baby. Kristen’s sister had a little boy in April, her cousin had a girl just before we had Violet, and our good friends Patrick & Lindsay had Stella about 2 weeks after Violet arrived.  Yay babies!

Our gaming sessions have been interrupted a bit because of the babies, but it was a great year for games. We started playing Pathfinder and have been working through one of their huge adventure paths. Collin introduced us to some more Steve Jackson games. It seems that every week we get some games in. I’m hoping we can get back to a regular schedule.

All in all, there were a lot of ups and downs in 2011, but it ended on an upswing. We closed out the year with Erin, Billy, & Robbie over to play games and watch the Dick Clark special.

I hope everyone has a fantastic 2012!

Violet is here!

VJ is hereAt 1750 (5:50PM) on 31 October 2011, Violet Jane came into the world. She was 7lb 11oz & 19 inches. She was due on the 29th, but was running late. We decided to induce on the 31st, but hours later there was little progress. We talked to our Dr about a possible C-Section in case things weren’t going well, but after hours of labor, it was looking more and more like we would have to do that.

I was lucky and got to go into the OR with Kris and was there to bring our baby into the world. It was an amazing thing. Admittedly, I got to see more of my wife’s insides than I would have liked, but it was still an incredible experience. I cried when the Dr held up Violet and showed her to us. Yeah, she was all covered in baby cheese, but she was still perfect.

We are staying with Kristen’s parents for a few days so she won’t have to go up and down stairs until she has some energy back and can heal up some. I’ll add more soon. 🙂

Busy…

It has been a busy month. Holly & Mad came down for some the end of vacation week and then they stayed a few extra days to get stuff done in the soon to be baby’s room. We have 95% of the furniture in there and it is painted. Just need to get the book shelf and the rocking chair. I’m so excited about meeting Violet.

The new job is going well. I started on June 13th at ITVantage in Fort Myers. It’s a bit different than what I am used to, but I really do enjoy it. Except for firewall issues. That’s a pain in the ass. 🙂

Lots of gaming going on lately. Mostly Pathfinder and Munchkin. I did get Munchkin Quest, but we have only played that once. A bit more complex, but a lot of fun. I would like to have someone else take over some of the DMing. Jim is getting burned out.