Wow, it's been a long time since I've done anything with this blog. I was looking at Google today and there was some link about "My Google" so I clicked on it and sure enough, there was a link to Blogger, since Google owns them and everyone else in the world. Anyway, things are good. Ethan is almost 8 months old, and he's pulling himself up on all sorts of things. He's got 5 teeth, and he's been quite a terror lately. His latest thing is crying his eyes out when we leave for work. He doesn't want Momma and Daddy to leave. Poor thing!

Speaking of Momma, it's Ashley's birthday on Sunday. I wanna do something special for her, I just dont know what. She'll be 20 yrs old, so it's not a hugely monumental age, but still, I wanna make it count. Anyway, I gotta get back to work. Since I started working at Desert Cities Honda, it's been great. Things are well, more to come later.

Bathtime!

So we gave Ethan a bath tonight. I thought for sure he would like it, since it is warm and wet and may possibly remind him of being inside Mama. No such luck...

He screamed and cried his head off. We used some Johnson & Johnson No More Tears all over baby wash. Needless to say, we made it quick and tried not to subject him to the tragedy of being clean. Oh well, at least he smells good now.

So I have had a couple really good days at work. It looks like this may be turning out to be a good month for me. I have made somewhere around $900 in the last couple days. No complaints here. I need a good check.

Speaking of money, I am pissed. I finally got my last W-2 from Leisuremax, and when I plugged it into Turbo Tax, my federal refund went from $2302 to $1589. My state refund dropped from $1574 to $998. So I lost a bunch of tax money thanks to someone not withholding enough taxes from my checks. Doesn't that suck? Oh well, our total combined income last year was $57,000 so thats not too bad. Right about where I thought it would be. With no college education, thats not a bad income at all.

Anyway, enough rambling, I need to get something for dinner now. Bye! ;-)

Another day, another dollar...

So today was a pretty good day. The sales meeting was this morning and I found out that we have a new GM at work. His name is Steven Lang, and he seems like a pretty cool guy. He's been working with Nissan (several different dealerships) for the last 20 years, so he really knows about where Nissan is coming from and where they're headed. Seems like he'll do us some good.

Anyway, I managed to eek out two half deals today. First one, Miguel asked me for some help because he almost let a guy with perfect credit walk out without a "new" car. Anyway, I shut that deal and all is well.

Next one after that was a friend of Mark's, and they got an '07 Maxima. Damn those cars are sweet! Probably my favorite out of everything we sell. So my wife called at 7:30 and asked for some help with the baby so I picked him up and took him into work with me for the last hour of the night. He slept the whole time.

After that, Bryan and Renee came over to the store to show me the new Corvette they got with my assistance (negotiation skills). They managed to get $2000 off MSRP on a car that most other dealers are charging $4000-$6000 OVER MSRP for. So, they feel like they got a pretty good deal, and they're jazzed too, so thats what counts. I wouldnt be too jazzed with an $800/mo payment, but thats not my cup of tea. Oh well.

All in all, pretty good day. Hope I can make tomorrow count too, I need to get busy and sell some cars! I'm out, night! :-)

First of February

So, it's February 1st today. I was just thinking, I had better get busy at work this month since there is only 28 days in which to sell 10 cars minimum. I am so tired of giving away half deals all the time. Had I not given away any, I'd have sold 8 cars last month, even taking into account the 2 weeks off I had for the birth of my son. So if I had had no time off, I may have sold 15. And that means a good check instead of a shitty one like the ones I have been getting.

I cannot believe that 2007 is already one month over. It seems like it just freaking started yesterday! Damnit time flies when you're old like me. Oh well. Since I have the day off today, I think we are going to run down to Jet and visit for a little while after everyone gets back from lunch sometime around 1:00pm.

I hope that I can get some extra sleep (maybe a nap) today because I need it. I am over-tired most of the time and dead tired the rest of the time. Oh well, it's worth it. I highly recommend having kids to ANYONE. Well, anyone who is responsible enough to take care of a child and is MARRIED. ;-)

End of the Month

So, it's the end of the month. I can't believe January is over already. My son is already 16 days old! Before I know it he'll be 16 YEARS old and asking me to borrow the car. Wow.

So today was a pretty good day, work was a little slow but I actually got a decent couple hours of sleep last night, thankfully. My sister came in to see me at the dealership, she is trying to buy a new car now (actually, lease) and get herself out of the pickle I tried to help her avoid 13 months ago. That was the fact that she's severely flipped upside down on her car. It's a Hyundai, what do you expect?

So anyway, I let her take an Altima home to Dale, and he really liked it. Sweet car, or so she says. She said she was driving around "bumping it." Am I really related to these people or is it all a fallacy? Who knows? But yeah, I got off around 5:30 and came home and laid down with my wife and son for a little while. He has been unusually fussy today and yesterday and we think we've narrowed it down to the Dr. Pepper Ash had yesterday.

It's almost Date Festival time, I can't wait. We went three times last year, and now I can take my son. I am gonna go lay down now, because I am tired and I need some sleep. Thanks for reading this.

Oh yeah, check out this new pic Ash took of me and my boy. Click on it to make it bigger if you want to. OK, now I am off to bed, night!

Just like clockwork...

My son is waking up about every 2 hours, right on the nose during the night. We fed him and went to bed around 11:30, and he was up around 1:30. Fed him again, and back to sleep. 3:30 rolls around and he's awake again. I'm glad he is self-regulating when it comes to feeding times. At least if we get into a routine, it will be a lot easier to know what to expect.

Also, the breastfeeding thing is going much better for my wife. He seems to latch on right away and eat for probably 30 minutes, and then go back to sleep. He is so precious. I still can't believe I'm a father though, it's awesome so far. Every little bit of lost sleep and tiredness is wayyy worth it. I am going back to bed now, so good night.

He's finally home!

After a 7 day stay in the NICU at DRMC, my son is finally home with us. We finally get to enjoy waking up several times a night to change poopy diapers and feed him. I am so glad everything turned out ok. When he was at JFK, he developed a blood infection of some kind. Turns out, the infection was a staph infection. Staph normally lives on the skin, so we are thinking that when they pricked him one of several times with needles for blood samples and stuff, he got it that way. Needless to say we will NOT be going back to JFK to have the next kid.

The staff at the NICU at DRMC was very good to us, with the exception of one or two nurses who are idiots. We won't name names right now, but if your baby ever has to go there, know that he or she will be well taken care of. I snapped a picture tonight when Ethan was laying on my chest.



Aww, he's so cute. I just love him to pieces! We're gonna go visit Auntie Katie and my brother Steve so they can finally meet him. I should get to bed though, it's my first day back to work tomorrow and I need sleep. Wish us luck on the rest of our babymoon.