Blog

As most of you know, I’ve suffered some complications with the birth of our daughter, Lexi. I’ve made some improvements, but boy has it been a rough road. Since things have been crazy here, we haven’t even had the time to call our family to let them know of the great event has taken place. Sorry family. But this post is so that everyone knows what has been going on. So let’s back up to Tuesday, September 4, 2007 at 800am, when we arrived at the hospital.

Ok, it was more like 8:05, 8:10—we had to be late or it wouldn’t have been the Sackriders. When I got to the hospital to be induced, they took a urine sample and I had one point of protein (protein in the urine is a sign of toxemia). Not too bad since I’m there to be induced, but that was the start of everything. I was almost 5 cm when I arrived, so they said to walk and try to get the labor to start naturally. I walked and walked. I was progressing but at 3:00pm my doctor decided to start pitocin. At 5:30pm, the doctor broke my water. I was still laboring quite well at this point with no pain killers. At 7 cm, I began to feel labor pains in my legs that were more intense then anything. I finally asked for the epidural. Both my hubby and my nurse tried to talk me out of it but the pain won. I just couldn’t imagine going for an hour or longer in the intense pain that I was in. I was vomiting and shaking from the pain. So the nurse checked me at 7:30 before the epi was given—8cm. By the time he was done I was over 9cm and all of a sudden the room was filled with people flying around setting up. Seems I went much faster then anyone had predicted. At this point my blood pressures were rising. But I was unaware of it. At 8:00pm I began to push and at 8:13pm Lexi was here. (more…)

First, I want to thank everyone that has been praying for Stephanie and me. I know that a lot of you out there care a great deal about us and we know your prayers have been with us. Stephanie is still on bed rest. We have a follow up appointment for her blood pressure this Friday and today we take Lexi to her first doctor’s appointment.

When we had Zander, Stephanie did the overnight feedings. She is a stay at home mom and has always been great about letting me sleep so that I could get up for work the next day. There were many women that commented that I should help with the over night stuff and my favorite – “she doesn’t get the day off while you are at work, so why should you get the night off?” I usually replied with something like “And I don’t get to take a three hour nap in the middle of the day – she sleeps when baby sleeps – I sleep when my boss does”. Stephanie changed most of the diapers, handled most of the feedings, and allowed me to (for the most part) just enjoy Zander. But this time – she is on bed rest…

Stephanie’s mom is here and she has been wonderful in helping with meals and cleaning and Zander. We’ve also had several meals provided by members of our church. Just last night, we had the best chicken pot pie meal I have ever had – which included salad, rolls, and a desert cake (Thank you, Connie)! The outreach has been grand and help me realize that family doesn’t stop with people who share your last name. Still with Stephanie being on bed rest, I’ve been up for many of the over night feedings, I’ve changed more diapers this week with Lexi than I think I did with Zander for the first three months. I’ve washed bottles, done laundry, attempted to clean (although I don’t do the same quality job Stephanie would do), and this time around we have a three year old to keep engaged in non-destructive activities! On top of all of that, I’ve had to go back to work this week.

My job however has been wonderful, in that I’m allowed to work from home while Stephanie is on bed rest – a blessing most people do not get. It’s still difficult to stay on a conference call while your three year old is yelling, “Daddy, come play with me” or “I have to go uckies!” – Or trying to explain that the last instant message was from my son and not me, I would never have typed “fjsdaklnzxvzxnasvaiqvfasdiqa dasl;fdasnsd” and I don’t know what it means.

Being Mr Mom is hard work! I know there are women out there that love to comment during times like these, “Now you’ll appreciate your wife more” or “See, its tougher than you thought”, but comments like that suggest that I didn’t already appreciate my wife or that I thought her job was easy. I’ll try not to come back with “try writing a script to install the new version of drivers that will work on linux and windows” or “if you think that’s tough, trying building a virtual server that time syncs with the database server so your application doesn’t crash on reboot”. I’ll try to hold those comments back, because my wife’s job is tough and she deserves the recognition regardless of whether or not my day job is tough too. I’m not as good at it as she is, but God (and Grammie Shorey) are helping me pull though while Stephanie gets better.

You asked for them – here they are:

Alexis Carol was born at 8:13pm, weighing 7lbs 6.8oz, measuring 20.5 inches long. Click on her picture for more photes!

I was playing hide and seek with Zander today – actually for the first time.  He had this idea that he would hide and call out to me – “come find me”.  At first I was caught up in getting things done for work so that I could take the next week off without ‘too many’ worries. I didn’t want to stop to play with him, but reluctantly I did.

After a couple of half attempts to ‘find’ him and get back to my computer, he comes to me and says, “your turn daddy! Go hide!”.  I realized that he has never played hide and seek and came by the game naturally.  So I turned off the monitor, stopped being annoyed, and started to cherish the moments I had with him.  I explained to him that he had to count to 10 and then come find me.  He counted, then ran straight to me – I was ‘hiding’ down the hall.

So being ‘it’ I told him to go hide, while I counted to 10.  I shouted out, “Ready or Not, here I come!”  Then despite the fact that I knew he was hiding in the den, I walked around the house, jumping around corners shouting “Gotcha!” then in a disappointed tone I would say, “No, he’s not hiding here”.  Each time I would hear Zander giggle in the den.  Finally, I got to the den and he took off running.  I chased him around the house, both of us laughing and sliding in our socks.  He naturally ran to ‘base’ where I had counted.

Then he started, “1, 2, 3…”  I started looking for a place to hide. “4, 5, 6…” I decided on hiding behind the kitchen island. “7, 8, 9…” My heart was racing, “10! Ready or Not, Here I come!”  Zander copied my example to a tee – shouting “Gotcha” and “Nope, you’re not in here” as he want around the house.  Then he jumped into the kitchen and the race was on!  We had a lot of fun and I’m glad I took the time.

Well, Zander isn’t the only child of mine shouting “Ready or Not, Here I come!”  Today is the eve of the BIG day!  Dianne is coming over around 6:30 am to watch Zander.  Stephanie is packed.  The appointment is at 8:00 am.  Everything is set, everything is ready – well… not everything.  I’m not.  In less than 24 hours I will have a new child in the world, and a daughter at that!  Alexis Carol Sackrider is almost here.

I look forward to many great moments with her like I had with Zander today, but I also dread the first time she falls down, the first time she is disappointed, the first time she is embarrassed.  I don’t even want to consider first boyfriends, first dates, first kisses.  Ready or Not…Here she comes!

Just a few of the recent things Zander has said:

“My nose is falling down” – referring to a runny nose
“bye-bye uckies” – while flushing the toilet (we broke him of saying “I love you, uckies” at the same time)
“but the sun is up” – in protest to nap time
“that’s not my choices” – when he doesn’t like the choices we give him
“now my abc’s” – instead of “now I know my abc’s” while singing the alphabet
“I want to go to NEW church” – after he moved to a new class in church (its in a different building)
“who let the dogs out, who, who, who let the cats out” – after watching Shrek the movie (the song is at the end after the credits – he added cats after I said – what about the cats Zander”

My recent favorite:

“can’t wait for Lexi!” – referring to his soon coming baby sister

Have ever seen the insurance commercial where some guy is trying figure out what a light switch does in his house and the garage door two houses down is going up and down, up and down, up and down on some lady’s car, as his flips the switch, then the voice over says, “Life comes at you fast”?  The guy asks his wife to look and see if any thing changes in the house while he is hitting the switch – and she just sits outside his view reading a magazine saying, “nothing, nope, I don’t see anything”.  Some days I relate this guy – having some switch in my life that I have no idea what it does, and no one is helping me to figure it out.  Today I feel like the old lady down the street.

My life is getting slammed over and over and with no apparent cause.  I just know that some guy two houses up is saying, “Anything yet honey?”.  Nope, nothing yet…  Look lady,  just get up and help the guy – we’ll all be happier for it.

BTW – TV Fast is still going strong.  I’m catching up on my reading. More on that later…

My first “Moments of Insanity” thought since I started writing the book – Saturday night (Aug 18th), on the way home from my brother’s house, riding in the car with Cher, Dad, Dianne, Zander, and Ava – I thought to myself – I should go a month without watching TV.  It just hit me.  We were not talking about TV in the car.  It didn’t flow with any of our conversations of the night.

But there it was – no TV for a month.  So I thought to myself, how do I determine a ‘moment of insanity’ from a wild crazy uninspired thought?  Maybe I’ll have to explore that as a chapter in the book.  Maybe I will also need a whole chapter on fasting – fasting food, TV, computer time, any kind of fasting.  For now, I am forced to deal with this current idea of fasting television.  Is it inspired?  I’ll let you know after a month of no television (today is day 2 of 30).

… an entire month without any kind of TV?!?! That’s just crazy!

C.S. Lewis happens to be my favorite author, and The Silver Chair happens to be one of my all time favorite books. I don’t believe I will ever be as excellent a word smith as The great C.S. Lewis but I do hope to one day be a published author. I have had a strong sense of the book I would very much like to write for many years now, but never have I taken a moment to jot even one line down. My unwritten book, whose working title is “Moments of Insanity”, is based on a passage from my favorite book by my favorite author. I don’t know how many people will relate to the premise, which I’m sure would be essential for a successful book, but the whole idea strikes deep within me and I would very much like to finish the work if for no other person’s benefit than my own. I’ll pretend this is a two way conversation and that you’ve just asked “What is the premise?” Many of my friends might suggest that reading my blog is very much like a conversation with me – one in which you don’t often get a word in, but I digress. To answer your question:

In the book, The Silver Chair, there is a Knight who assists the Queen of an under world and is in all discernible matters a very well put together, very sane person. At night however he is strapped to an enchanted chair because, we are told that he has fits of rage and pure insanity. The enchanted chair is the only thing keeping him together. But during one of these nightly fits, the Knight shouts these words:

“Quick! I am sane now. Every night I am sane. If only I could get out of this enchanted chair, it would last. I should be a man again. But every night they bind me, and so every night my chance is gone. But you are not enemies. I am not your prisoner. Quick! Cut these cords.”

In this moment, we are faced with a choice. Do we believe this insane, enraged maniac? Or do we prefer the put-together version of the character. As a Christian, I have had moments in my life when everything suddenly seems more clear than before, when I know some action I must do, despite not always knowing to what end or what purpose that the thing must be done. These moments seem to occur most often during a church service or personal devotion; times when my focus is most on the creator.

I believe we are created beings, creatures made by a creator. I believe God created us with a purpose or purposes in mind and that at some point we as a species left that divine purpose to follow our own. For the most of us, we get along just fine in this condition; pursuing careers, mates, pleasures on both intellectual and physical levels. These are our daytime hours, our daily lives when things are almost on auto-pilot. I wake up, goto work, goto lunch, return to work, go home, spend time watching TV, eat dinner, spend time with the family, goto bed, wake up, and do it all over again. But there are moments that break the white-line-fever method in which we go about our lives. Its in those moments that I believe we become aware. I want to write a book about those moments. Or more precisely, how to ‘cut these cords’ that keep us from leaving the ‘chair’ and walking in that strangely clear frame of mind.

I learned something interesting as I was watching a documentary about Border Patrol last night.  Drug smugglers from Mexico will use people who want to come to America as distractions for the border patrol agents to allow themselves a window to get their illegal imports across the border.  They send people across with a people smuggler and watch from the Mexican side how the patrol officers find them, where they come from, how they catch the illegal aliens, and then use that information to cross undetected.

I thought of a friend of mine, who is a magician (http://tru-magic.com).  He uses entertaining stories to distract his audience from whats really going on.  A simple waving of his hand, or making eye contact at just the right moment, delivering a punch line, these are the tools he uses to create the illusion of magic.  Distractions…

Yesterday I got an email from an old high school friend informing me that she was no longer going to accept the new gold dollar because the words “In God We Trust” have been moved to the edge of the coin instead of on the face or the back as in previous versions.  This fact was brought to the attention of many people when the US Treasury mistakenly minted several coins without the inscription on even the edge.  This upset many Christians and has resulted in several angry emails and email chains like the one I got today.  My friend didn’t seem angry, just adamant in Her decision to expressly not use the new dollar. 

Not to pick on my friend, but think about that for a moment.  There are Christians who have decided to ‘take-a-stand’ for God by refusing to use the new dollar coin.  I began to consider how they would make this stand.  Images of gas station clerks standing baffled as some stranger explains to them why they won’t except those ungodly coins as change come to mind.  Are we really so distracted from the great commission that this is what we allow to pass as taking a stand? 

The enemy has sent distractions across our borders and is watching us react, all while moving undetected in the process.  We are watching the left hand, while the right hand is doing that thing we needed to see.  I don’t believe we should ignore the attack on our faith in matters such as the inscription on a coin, or “under God” being removed from our pledge, or the Ten Commandments being removed from our court house walls, anymore than I believe the border patrol should ignore illegal immigrants crossing the border.  But aren’t these things simply symptoms of the problem? Isn’t there a better way to spread this Gospel than refusing to accept a coin?  We are focused on the left hand when our attention should be on the right.  Wouldn’t it be great if we actually showed people how to live the montra “In God we trust” instead of demanding it be printed their coins?

Family night out tonight with Zander was fun. We went to see Underdog because it was the only movie playing (other than Hairspray) that was rated PG. The main character is a police dog that isn’t very good at his job (voice by Jason Lee – The guy from “My Name is Earl”). Through a series of events, the dog (later named Shoeshine) is removed from his job, captured by a lab, experimented on by a mad scientist (played by Peter Dinklage), and finally finds himself in a home with a widower (played by James Belushi) and the widower’s son.

Only after Shoeshine has found his home with this father/son combo does he begin to realize he has ‘super’ abilities. Almost by accident, he saves a girl and her dog from two would be robbers, who in typical cartoon style decide to restrain the girl while going through her purse right there in the alley. This gives our hero enough time to destroy a city block while figuring out how to use his abilities before he is able to get to the crime scene. Eventually, Shoeshine takes on the superhero identity of Underdog and learns to use his powers to fight crime.

My son seemed to enjoy the movie and it kept his attention for the entire 84 min running time. My wife also enjoyed it and felt like it was ‘a good movie’. I had a different take on it. Jason Lee has a great voice and although I never followed “My Name is Earl”, I did enjoy watching the show from time to time. He narrated much of this movie in the exact character and style as Earl. I don’t know that I would call this a bad thing but for me it was a little distracting. Underdog was clumsy and destroyed property, stole food, destroyed street merchant’s stands while fighting petty crime.

In an attempt to ‘spoof’ famous movie scenes, Underdog takes a girl dog on a flight (Superman), then steals a couple’s food so that he and his date could eat spaghetti together (Lady and the Tramp). He also jumps into a phone booth to change clothes and completely destroys the phone booth while changing. He tears up a hundred yards of asphalt trying to stop a car with no brakes before it hits children crossing the street while a crosswalk attendant simply stands there with a stop sign instead of actually getting kids out of the street. With superheros like underdog, who needs villains!

One out of Four stars, two thumbs down, I would put this one on the rental list if you have one of those monthly all you can rent mail order plans or a buy one/get one coupon the next time you are actually at a rental store.