new life – Tales of an Introvert

A New Year…Some New Stuff

Holy cow! I believe my wordpress.com page has changed three or four time since I last posted something of unimportance. I am a huge slacker in the blog world. My Twitter account is seeing all the action these days. Maybe I should look back on my ‘tweets’ and consolidate them into some sort of narrative longer than 140 characters.

Here’s the update: The Elder Extroverted Holy One is now the Reverend Elder Extroverted Holy One. Damn, her alias is getting longer. Maybe I’ll just call her “The Chosen”, or “The Truly Better Half.” How about “The Reverend Extroverted One?” That works for now…Well, The REO (awesome! “I can’t fight this feeling anymoooooorrrrrrrre”) was called to a church in Chattanooga and has since been ordained in the Presbyterian Church(USA) and is now serving that church. It’s a pretty cool small thang but with some great potential and I do believe that The REO is the youngest person there. tee hee

The Young Extroverted One is now firmly planted in a new school which is near our new house. It was a totally different experience dropping her off for her first day than her first day at the old school in east Nashville. But that’s for another post I suppose.

The Mullethead is now one year old and is doing great. Cruising around and standing on her own. We’re waiting for her to take some steps any day now. Look out world! When she can walk by herself I’m getting her a job! She needs to start earning her keep around here.

Speaking of earning one’s keep, I am no longer earning mine. I am back to being a full-time stay-at-home dad. My frequent tweets have changed dramatically from ‘doom and gloom’ to ‘rainbows and unicorns’. Sort of . . . those of you who follow me either on Facebook or Twitter would understand.

Selling our house in Nashville has been another issue entirely. The economy bit the big one right around the time we were getting our house on the market. And there it sits. All alone and empty. Waiting for someone to move in. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Something-d-o-o economics…anyone?

We are in a house that we really like in Ooltewah, TN but it’s only under a lease/purchase agreement. Basically, we’re renting it until someone buys our house and than we can buy this house. But since we’re renting the owners didn’t want us to have our pets here. So, Bosco, Maya and Aine (pronounced “anya” yeah, we’re weird) are living the good life at grandma Lucy’s house until we can buy this house. I don’t care much about the cats but I miss my dog. Sigh . . .

So, that’s us in a nutshell. Boring I know but that’s all I got for now. I would like to write more regularly on things that interest me in the future and hopefully I will. Until then? Just read this over and over again.

The Okay-est Story Ever Told

Thinking back on the birthing experience I just have to chuckle to myself because it was very different than the Young Extroverted One’s birth. For the YEO we basically did all of the labor at home so the Elder Extroverted Holy One could eat stuff and move around. She also took an Ambien given to her by her doctor so she could get some rest in between contractions. Needless to say, EEHO tripped balls through the major part of labor and wasn’t counting minutes between contractions. I was sleeping in a different room and awoke to the sounds of grunting coming from the bathroom. Quick call to the doctor, labor confirmed, and off we go to the hospital. We beat the doctor there and EEHO was fully dilated and ready to drop the kid and a couple of pushes later the Young Extroverted One arrives and all of the nurses are quite amazed at the EEHO and had to ask if this was her first child.

Now that’s the way I like it. I don’t have to wait around and watch my lovely wife endure the pain of contractions. I was so worried that I would pass out up until then but when the time came we didn’t even have time to get the cameras, the boom-box and CDs with handpicked labor tunes and even our luggage out of the car. I have come to realize that I’m a good reacter (is that even a word?) and not a good waiter. If something comes up out of the blue I got your back. If I have to wait for something to come up I may have to lie down some.

Which brings me the birth of our second wonderful child. For now she’ll be named The Other Extroverted Child (at least until she gets a little older and is either very intimidated or encouraged by the YEO). EEHO’s water broke around 4AM. She woke me up with the wonderful news to which I had to lay down because I got a little light headed already. Made the call to the YEO’s grandma who came out and off we were to the hospital. As EEHO was checking in I had to lay down again. Woof, anticipation is a little rough on me (or it could be that the EEHO wouldn’t let me drink beer for two weeks prior because, “You have to be sober to drive us to the hospital!” Egad, up until then she was the designated driver and I was the one drinking for three!).

From 6:30-ish until noon or so we basically sat around and watched some crappy t.v. They have nice labor and delivery rooms at baptist but a little light on the entertainment end. Through a couple of more checks pitocin was added and contractions got a little rough. During this time I was updating my Facebook status and bidding on a Rudolph the Reindeer from the Build-a-Bear Workshop on eBay. So, in between switching out cool washcloths and making sure the EEHO was as comfortable as possible I was checking the intertubes to see if we got the friggin’ doll whose nose lights up, has a compass in the stock and a thing that tells time. Twenty minutes or so before the OEC arrives I announce, “We got it!” Luckily, the EEHO didn’t rip the side rails off of the bed and throw them at me. The pushing came and then so did the OEC! Around 2:34PM the doctor held her up to me and asked me to make the boy or girl announcement. Which took me awhile because I wasn’t quite so sure why she was holding this slimy, pinkish, purplish thing at me. I cleared my head and said, “It’s a girl!”

And we lived happily ever after . . . at least until the teenager years.

The Parasite Arrives!

Yesterday (12-19-2007) at 2:34PM (CST) the parasite arrived into the wild, wooly world that we live in. She is a girl (if you didn’t catch the hint) and rings at 7 pounds, 15 ounces and 21 inches long. Both she and the Elder Holy Extroverted One are doing very well. In fact, people are very impressed that the EEHO was epidural-less. She is certainly more of a tough one than I. While I did hold in there during the right moments I also spent some time with my head between my legs trying not to black out and/or puke. I will write more when I have a chance, I just thought the blog-world (all one or two of you) might want to know how the Introvert/Extrovert family are doing, right now I have to hold the former parasite (acronym to be forthcoming). . . . . satisfied sigh . . . .