Little girls & big trucks.

So in reality, nothing much happens here in Central Illinois. So if the circus does come to town then everyone goes. Like wise, when big trucks roll in it's time to check them out. The city of Champaign host an annual Touch a Truck Day where trucks from all around the area are put on display for all the kids to climb on. So Alyssa and her Grandmother went for a half day of fun. There were dump trucks, bottling trucks, tow trucks, even garbage trucks. We know Alyssa is going to be a car girl as she already has a habit of crawling into the drivers seat and pretending while one of us is getting stuff out of the backseats. Short of pulling a Brittney Spears and driving through town with her on my lap this is as close to the city roads as she's going to get for a while. Here is a choice picture Linda took with her and Central Illinois' own Raminator monster truck. I see these guys house/shop off of 57 on my way to Rantuol with 3 huge tractor trailers in red with Dodge sprawled on the sides. I understand they are up there with Bigfoot and the Grave Digger.

Baby Update

Well today we went to the doctors for a sonogram. Unfortunately we brought Alyssa who I had to spoon feed M&Ms to sit still and watch as the baby's image came up on the flat screen. The baby appears to be all there and with nothing to indicate problems. It was curled up in a ball for most of the session but moved around a lot the technician said. I couldn't tell. It was like reading hieroglyphics as a blind man. I just nodded my head and intently waited for her to call out the sex. Finally she was able to get a shot between the legs...which reminds of a great story regarding Alyssa. While I was in Iraq and consequently through Holly's pregnancy with Alyssa, I received an email from Holly's account entitled "Shot of girl between legs". Well, I didn't even open it thinking it was spam of porn somehow sent from her account and therefore erased it. Several weeks later while talking with Holly on the phone she made mentioned to the sonogram pictures of Alyssa and how she'd sent them via email and snail mail. It dawned on me what I had erased. As well, in our first area of operations we ha been receiving mail and supplies via air drop. This was due to our distance from any other forward operating base. When chute's broke or neglected to open and mail scattered over the desert, they started trucking it in. On one occasion one of these trucks crashed and caught on fire. It happened to be the base's mail. I can remember going on patrol past that burnt truck and seeing the thousand or so empty water bottles used to try and extinguish the blaze and save the mail. several months later I received a letter that was burnt up but still sealed. In it was Alyssa's sonogram pictures, perfectly visible with charred edges and some smearing of color due to water. Back to today's visit....we are having another GIRL!

Do you play with snakes?

So, many of you know about my side hobby/business. Yet I bet there are few of you who have seen some of the creatures living here in the wild kingdom known as our home. Although very inactive, snakes do require some maintenance. Today I was cleaning the big kid's enclosures as it seems all of them conspired to go the bathroom at the same time and yes it can get raunchy. So as I was letting the animal safe disinfectant dry I took a couple outside for a photo shoot. Now these kid's are all 6 feet or more and tame as puppies. Would I let the chihuahua around them...only if I really wanted to get rid of her without anyone knowing. I'm kidding of course (as Maggie runs under the bed...haha).

I have a total of 30 snakes at the time being. Normally though it's 7 but we did have a litter born in March of 25 boas and I've received a new one in trade for one of those babies. In addition I'm expecting about 4 or 5 more new snakes or different ages when it's all said and done to be able to offer a variety of different boas to those looking for a huggable and cuddly reptile. You can see most of my boas on my crudely constructed web site at dbboas.com. Soon we'll have a new site which thankfully I had nothing to do with so it's 10 times better.

It's Monday and no school!

So finals are over with and I find myself with a lack of things to do today. I finished the semester of 21 credits with 5 A's and my usual B, and for the third consecutive time I'll see my name on the Dean's List. Holly has worked out schedule for both of us to manage both businesses, my gym time, and Alyssa. I've been given the green light not to work this summer if I can take care of the house and the little one. Hopefully, I am the man for the job.

Speaking of jobs. Just got back from the mail box and I got a letter from the University of Illinois Human Resources Department. As many may know I've tested with the U of I police department last month and then had an oral board interview last week. Well drum roll please..................It says I am currently ranked 2nd on their hiring list! What does that mean. Well, using my experience with the Champaign police department it runs like this. For Champaign 400 tested and only the top 100 passing scores from the written test move on to a physical abilities test. This is a pass or fail test and should you pass then you go on to an oral board test. This board in both cases was 3-4 individuals of some importance or another and they ask several predetermined questions. At this point a list is generated with the individuals accumulative scores for the written and oral exams. With Champaign PD I am 7th out of 100. A few differences in the U of I testing; we took the physical abilities test first to weed out the weak. I killed the run which was a mile and a half and my age group had to do it in under 13:46. I told myself I was going to do an 8 minute mile but my legs thought they were back on the track at Kingwood High running for the Mustangs and I ran a 10:12 with very little effort. A little more than 70 should up for that and later that day there was somewhere in the 40's for the written exam. If you passed the written you were assigned a time for the oral board which like I mentioned was this last Tuesday. Unlike Champaign though we were given 5 minutes at the beginning for an oral resume or as I like to think of it a brag session. And bragging is what I did. As you probably assumed I did have to tone it down a bit to fit all of my many accomplishments in to five minutes. I don't know if this score reflects the board interview as the letter only mentions the exam so we'll see if I stay at the same rank or move up to #1.

While we were out I snapped some pics of Alyssa playing at the playground. Can't get mail without an hour lay over on the swings and the slide. Take a look at her hair. It's still trying to find it's identity and if you have any suggestions we are open to some new looks.

Mother's Day

Hopefully all the mothers out there had a wonderfull day yesterday. Alyssa and I went out on Saturday afternoon to do our shopping. You may be saying to yourself, "isn't that typical" in regards to our choice in waiting till the last minute. Yet you don't understand the workings in our house. Holly watches that bank account like a hawk and so theoreticly I can't spend a dime without her knowing. So how does someone secretly buy a gift for his wife and have it be a surprise when you're getting grilled as to what I spend fifty bucks on the other day? So now that we are all on the same page Alyssa with lolipop in hand accompanied me to our destination. She would have been a bigger help if she hadn't found it increadibly funny to run up and peeking back to see if dad was after her. That and she wanted to touch everything at her level with her sticky hands. Alas, we succeded and promptly went home to sign the card and wrap the chocalates. I purposefully left it out on the kitchen table partly to say, "see, I remembered" and also to test Holly's will power. Well she was a rock and waited till breakfast on Sunday.

After Church we grilled out and had our weekly family dinner at Holly's parent's just down the road from us. Holly received some more chocolate and I'm starting to catch on that pregnant women love any and all forms of it. As well, Alyssa has discovered the fun of a trampoline and surprised me by how well she can jump twice and land on her butt. Fear got the better of me when Holly joined her and proceeded to see how how she could get little Alyssa by double bouncing her! As I stormed off, not wanting to be a part of a soon to be hospital trip Holly explained how she's had this trampoline since she was a kid and no one has gotten hurt. Write this down, experience with a trampoline doesn't equal common sense. Well to give my wife credit 95% Alyssa was laughing. I think it was only when she was laid out looking down at her mother while being ten feet in the air did she have a neutral facial expression.

If you are wondering if tha is all we did for Mother's Day, Holly and I did go out to eat Saturday night. We took Alyssa as well and all though she didn't eat great we now know she loves ranch dressing as she devoured a small bowl of it. Our figuring was if it keeps her quite and adds some meat to those bones then have at it. Our server brought her a balloon which once she was done and I was paying she walked around and showed everyone. The cutest moment was when she proceeded around the bar, running mind you, and all you could see was this white balloon. The staff got a kick out of it. It's times like that which make me gratefull for outstanding mother's especially my own and my wife.