Status on July 14th

I was going to write the status for July 13th but then I looked down at my watch and realized that it was 12:10 AM and was now the 14th. Rachelle is doing OK. Right now it is a day to day thing. She had been having contraction issues all day I guess and they kept threatening to put her back on the mag. She also told me that for some reason these contractions felt different. "Tighter" was how she described them. So far, however, she is still not on it but that could change by the late morning.

The reason I am up so late is that my aunt Victoria and aunt Linda are here in town fixing up my house. Trying to do it by myself was just not going very well. I was actually embarrassed when they came over because everything was almost all still in boxes. Even though I had been here for about three weeks or so, it looked like nothing had been done. In just two days they have completely transformed the place. I think I need to put pictures of Riley's and Kaiya's rooms on here because they did a really good job. They also did a great job in rearranging everything to be in the best place. I had just arranged stuff so that it wasn't totally in my way but they have taken it and made it look great. My good friend Neil Taylor came over for the last two nights and helped me install ceiling fans in all the rooms. I think he even missed out on going to Sea World with his family to come and help me out. It was a huge pain and I wouldn't have been able to do it without his help. One of the rooms wasn't even blocked for ceiling fans and we had to re-block it without access to the attic space (if anyone wants to know how, they have a really cool thing at Home Depot that you can stick up there to secure the block between the beams without ripping out the drywall). Anyway, we have been up late every night trying to get it all ready and, much to my relief, it is really getting close to being ready. As soon as I have pictures, I will put them up.
A lot of people have thought I was in Arizona (which is really where I should be) but I have been in Austin for the last 5 days trying to tie up loose ends at work and get the house really ready. This time of year happens to be the most difficult time of year for my team (I manage the multimedia group at National Instruments). In particular, I would normally be in charge of the AV for our big conference coming up in August. However, I have to say that the guys on my team and on my friend Amanda Webster's web cast team have really stepped up and are making it possible for me to leave without being too worried. I am really grateful for that. Anyway, I am planning on leaving for Phoenix next Wednesday. I thought that if I could hold off on going out there until Rachelle was at 32 weeks, it would give her that much more incentive to wait until then to have them.

There is still a lot to prepare and a lot of unknowns going on right now but things are really starting to work out with all of the help I am receiving. Some things we definitely don't need anymore of are blankets and preemie clothes. I think our babies will definitely be dressing in style (thanks to all the generous people) for the first few months of their lives. It almost makes me want to have them a little earlier so that they will be sure to be able to wear all the preemie clothes they have. OK, I am kidding there. I wouldn't mind it if they were just too big and healthy to fit in any of those clothes.