Another Disappointing Bowl Game

Last night OU lost its FOURTH straight BCS game as they lost to West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl. At least last year they could claim they played whole-heartedly as the game went into overtime and was deemed one of the best college bowl games ever. This year it didn't look like they showed up. Granted they had several players benched or injured, but this team has claimed to be deep and versatile all year. What happened? It was honestly hard to watch and I didn't finish watching the game. I decided I wanted sleep more than I wanted to watch another disaster. I am not a fair weather fan...I was a fan when their quarterback Charles Thompson ended up on the cover of Sports Illustrated in his orange prison jumpsuit, I was a fan when they went 3-8 in 1996, I was even a fan when the horrible Howard Schnellenberger coached them; I would just like to see OU have a little pizazz and a little more heart in the post-season. I also realize football is not that important. It is a fun hobby to watch the Sooners play each fall, but I can't let it be that important.

What is important? Jake, of course. Jake is always important! I'll finish my sad diatribe on college football and switch to the real love in my life (besides Ty, of course!) Jake's energy level seems to be increasing daily...he's exploring the house like he's never explored before...he's "talking" all day long. Yesterday he said "mama" all day long and it was so beautiful to hear. Granted, he calls everything "mama" and says it just to hear his voice, but I don't care. It still is a wonderful word. He laughs so hard at everything and still gives kisses incessantly. His favorite is to give himself kisses in the mirror...we're not too worried about his self-esteem :) I was worried I would go crazy during our "incubation" period while Jake has to stay in and let his immune system go back to normal, but I'm really enjoying my days with him. I even looked online and found baby lesson plans. I guess maybe I just miss teaching, but I got so excited looking at them. One website just has fun songs and games to play with your baby. I realize I have so much to teach Jake. Now if we just could get him to sleep through the night, we'd be doing great! Here he is today in his cute hoodie sweatshirt his Aunt Jen got him...he's happy in one picture playing with his baseball and pretty mad in the next. What a kid!

Happy New Year and Thank You!

Since it's the first day of 2008 and I've been a bit absent from the blog I thought I'd just take some time to write. This blog has only survived due to Amy's excellent posts and numerous pictures of Jake so please thank her if you have enjoyed it.

It would be impossible to describe 2007 with words as it has seemed to fly by at times yet it's included some of the longest days of both mine and Amy's life. I guess that's the way it is when you have the birth of your first child and your famliy goes through a second open heart surgery. Over the next few months and as time allows I will most likely be writing a few different posts about our experiences in dealing with congenital heart defects. Being the sports fan I am, I am reminded of Jim Valvano's famous speech he gave on ESPN when he received the Aurthur Ashe Courage Award. This was given 2 months before he passed away of cancer. A portion of it is as follows:

"To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special."

This helps to describe our year as we have had many, many full days yet it's been something special. We are eternally grateful for all the support through encouraging discussions, cards, meals, emails, and most importantly all the prayers. Without those things we would have most likely gone insane. We look forward to getting back to "normal" in about 4 weeks when Jake will be fully recovered so we can spend some time with friends and family.