The Life of Brian

We're Home!

2008-08-13T17:49:00.002-04:00

He's finally here, and in a big way! Camden weighed in at an impressive 9.6 lbs, 21" long on 8/8/08. From what everyone is saying, this is supposed to be a pretty lucky date!

We're so happy he's here and have had an amazing 5 days of getting to know the little guy. Kristi did an amazing job during delivery and looking back at it is surprised at how "easy" it was. Obviously, there was nothing easy about it, but compared to some of the horror stories we've heard, she is pretty lucky!

Our first two nights home were a little rough. The five of us (dogs included) were up all night! Speaking of the dogs, they are great with the baby. Until he makes crazy noises, they completely forget he's even there.

That's about all I can think of right now! My brain is still a little scrambled...hopefully I'll be able to catch up down the road. For now, enjoy some pics of the little guy:

Gone Fishing...

2008-06-29T18:55:00.004-04:00

but still not catching anything! OK, so I didn't even try this weekend, but I did have a nice relaxing weekend up at the lake once again. Except of course for a little incident with Winston.

The poor little guy got one of his claws stuck in the netting of a raft, so we had to take him to the vet and have it removed. This happened on day one, so he didn't have such an exciting trip. The poor thing was pretty much forced to lay around all weekend...and he loves the lake!

Aside from this unfortunate accident, it was a pretty relaxing weekend. It was too wet to mow, so I got off easy there! We dodged storms all weekend and when it wasn't raining, it was absolutely perfect! The cloud cover made for some very cool sunset photos.

More excitement to follow as we'll be up there two more weekends before Camden makes his debut!

Graduation!

2008-06-01T22:18:00.001-04:00

Congratulations, Karly! We're so proud of you and wish you all the best at Ball State!

If you didn't figure it out, my cousin Karly graduated from high school this weekend. My entire immediate family went up to celebrate along with Karly. They live just a few minutes from the lake house, so we were able to spend some quality time with the whole family!

Zane (my nephew) just keeps getting bigger and bigger! I can't believe how much he's changed in the few short weeks since I've seen him last. I'm sure he'll be a completely different person in another two or three weeks when I see him again! He has to be the happiest baby I've ever seen...no doubt it's because of his awesome parents!

Zane giving Grandpa the rock!

It's mandatory to have at least one nursery shot per post, so here it is. Kristi bought a mattress and put the bedding together...looks awesome!

One of my Favorite Events

2008-05-28T20:51:00.000-04:00

I am such a golf geek. For some reason, not too much excites me more than spending a day at a golf tournament. The Blue Jackets Foundation rents a house the Wednesday of the Memorial and we are able to entertain some clients for the day. Unfortunately, my clients didn't show...but that certainly didn't stop me from having a good time!

I was definitely "that guy" today. Having just purchased a new camera, I wanted to take it out and try it on the golf course. I guess you could now say I was mixing two of my favorite hobbies...photography (new one) and golf (tried and true!). I ended up getting some pretty cool shots!

#12

Skip Kendall (I think) on #4...I love this shot. Note the golf ball in the perfectly blue sky.

#18

#14

Phil Mickelson

"The Golden Bear" Jack Nicklaus

Holiday Weekend!

2008-05-27T06:29:00.000-04:00

Finally, a three day weekend...sort of! What a great holiday weekend for me...it started on Friday morning, when I got to the office and had an email inviting me to tee it with a customer at noon. Since I wasn't prepared, I had to leave the office at 10:30 to run home and get all my goods.

The weekend continued with rounds of golf on Saturday, Sunday and Monday! I haven't played four days in a row since college. The good thing is I have an adjustment and massage all set up for Tuesday! Monday was one of my best rounds in a long time...I was three under heading onto 17 and told myself not to finish double bogey-bogey. Almost...I finished bogey-bogey for a one-under 69. The first time I've been in the 60's or underpar for 18 in a LONG time.

I mixed in a little work on Saturday, yard work on Sunday and some grilling out on Monday to wrap up a nice long holiday weekend. Next week will be just as fun as Kristi and I are taking Friday off to head to the lake for my cousin Karly's graduation.

NURSERY UPDATE:

We're almost there! All that's left are the blinds, a rug and a threshold.

New Toy

2008-05-18T19:44:00.000-04:00

Thursday night, we went to Bruner's (where Kristi works) 50th Anniversary party at their office. It's a fantastic company...the first Friday of every month they shut down early and have some type of party and they have great holiday events! As I expected, they went all out yet again. Kristi is starting to get a little tired, so we did not stay long.

On our way home, Kris decided she was exhausted but didn't want to go to bed right away. To stay up a little longer, she says "let's stop by Cord Camera and look at some digital cameras." About an hour later, we walked out with a new Sony SLR, printer and other accessories. What a surprise...I did not expect this at all! With Camden under three months away from being born, we've been trying to save every penny. It was needed however...we'll be getting a lot of use out of this new toy. For now, I'm practicing on the pups...

Room update:

I spent most of today working on the trim. I borrowed a compressor and nail gun from a friend, but for some reason it was not working correctly (probably user error!). In frustration, I asked Kristi to run to Lowes and pick up some trim nails and I just finished the room the old fashioned way. I made a lot of mistakes, but hopefully after a fresh coat of paint it'll look like a million bucks!

The Floor...

2008-05-07T07:45:00.000-04:00

Not much time to write as I'm about ready to head to work, but I wanted to post some pics of the floor...it's almost done!

All that's left is the final strip, the closet and then the trim!

Finally...

2008-05-04T19:26:00.000-04:00

We're done with all the painting! Here's the final product (at least the walls, now comes the floor!):

Kristi was able to help since she purchased some baby friendly paint!

Catching Up

2008-04-29T06:38:00.000-04:00

So what's new???? The guys weekend in Michigan was a blast. We pulled in on Friday night just as the horn sounded the end of Timbo's lacrosse game...they won easily! We spent that night playing quarters in his garage since the neighbors below him were not too happy about all the noise at 1:00 AM! Saturday, we went to Tim's game where they lost in the 3rd sudden death overtime. It was an exciting game, but needless to say Murray was not at all pleased with the result. We ended up going to the piano bar in downtown Grand Rapids...it was a great weekend!

On the baby front...we had a 4-D ultrasound done over the weekend. It was straight out of a science fiction movie! It's just wierd seeing that much detail of the baby still inside of Kristi. Camden was hiding for the first five or ten minutes and then finally gave us a little look at his face. He was hiding some other parts as well, to the point where I almost had to make a trip to Lowes to change wall colors. Fortunately, after he heard us say our girls name, he started flashing us!

Camden giving us a little smile!

The room has color! The entire weekend was dedicated to Camden...after the ultrasound, it was back to working on the room. After some work on the ceiling (thanks Dad!), I finally was able to get some color on the walls. We went with light blue on three walls and a teal on the other. Check out Kristi's blog for a photo of what the room will look like.

That's about all for now...the baby isn't even here and he's already dominating our lives! I wouldn't have it any other way!

Last guys weekend???

2008-04-17T17:31:00.000-04:00

It's been a little while since I've posted...since nobody reads this, I guess it's not the end of the world! Tomorrow, I'm heading out for one of, if not the last guys weekend before the baby comes.

First thing in the morning, it's off to Indy to meet Will for some golf. After that a few of us are heading up to Michigan to hang out with Tim and cheer on his Rockford Lacrosse team. Should have plenty of great stories for you next week.

Until then, I'm out!

Camden...

2008-03-28T08:42:00.000-04:00

We had our 20 week appointment yesterday...the development of little Laurent is right on track. We're able to call the kid by name now...we found out we're having a boy!

Camden J Laurent

We found the name in a baby book I gave Kristi for Valentine's day. As we were reading through the C's, we just fell in love with the name. The middle initial is a bit of a tradition now on my side. My brother and I both have initials...mine happens to be J as well after both of my grandmothers (both named Joan).

Both of my parents middle names begin with J, so it is fitting there as well. If your name starts with J, feel free to claim that we named our kid after you!

Birthday Week

2008-03-23T21:40:00.001-04:00

Hey everybody...or the two people that may actually be reading! It's been a while since I've really put any thought into this blog...not quite sure tonight's going to be that night, either. Things have been crazy this month. The Jackets have played around 9 games already in March, plus the Destroyers kicked off their season this month as well. Needless to say, I've been spending a lot of time in the office (probably not even as much time as I should).

With work taking up so much time, I've not really had a whole lot of time or energy to do projects around the house. Fortunately, this weekend I was able to sneak in a little project in the soon to be nursery.

I scraped the popcorn ceiling on Saturday...it really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Just wet down the ceiling and use this little scraper...piece of cake! Next comes the priming and painting of the ceiling and walls then the floor! Can't wait for it to be over so I can have some time to golf come spring.

As most of you know, Friday was my birthday. I'm not letting Kristi make a big deal of them anymore. We decided to have people over to the house with the agreement that it would not be a birthday party...just a get together with good friends. It was a great night. All the usual suspects stopped by for a while and also some of my new friends from work. The word got out that it was my birthday, so a cupcake was used a a makeshift cake and the crew sang to me. It was very nice!

The new gang at work also pitched in to get baby Laurent a onesie! We created a little "Old School" like fraternity and all have sweatshirts with the letters on front and nicknames on back. Being the outsider to the group, I was given the name Cheese...the onesie matches our sweatshirts and has the name BABY SWISS on the back. Very cool! This is a great group of people to be working with.

Saturday, after working on the nursery, Kristi and I went to the hockey game. It was my first experience at the game just as a fan. Normally I'm in my suit entertaining clients...this night I had a beer and some peanuts watching the game in the very first row. Kristi and I both loved it! We came upon the seats as a gift from the team owner for a sales contest...I came in second in the contest but the winner couldn't use the tix, so she gave them to me for my B-Day. It was a nice way to celebrate my birthday with Kristi.

Today, being Easter, we went to church for the first time since I can't remember! We're looking into churches in the area and settled on a Presbyterian church with some of our friends. The building itself is one of the coolest interiors of a church I have ever seen! When the congregation outgrew the original church, they decided to build a barn right next to the old one...have a look, it's beautiful!

http://www.libertybarnchurch.com/home.html

We spent the afternoon with our friends Keira and Brandon at Keira's family's house in Grove City. As usual, I ate way too much! I couldn't help it, the food was delicious and there was plenty of it!

I guess I've rambled long enough. Hope you are all doing well and I look forward to seeing you soon!

Fun with the NFL Draft

2008-03-17T14:51:00.001-04:00

this is great...

http://www.tiricosuave.com/2008/03/05/2008-nfl-movie-character-mock-draft/

Anniversary #2

2008-03-13T17:23:00.000-04:00

Anniversary #2 was on Tuesday. We tried to go to Bravo for dinner, but a 30-45 minute wait and the fact that there was no place to park forced us to move the party to Bonefish. What a great decision! If you haven't been, you need to give it a try. They have one of our favorite appetizers...Bang Bang Shrimp. Delicious! After the appetizer, salad, lots of bread, steak, potatoes and hot fudge brownie with ice cream for dessert, I felt awful!

It's crazy to think it'll be our last anniversary alone!

Blizzard of 08

2008-03-09T20:50:00.000-04:00

What an exciting weekend! The "Blizzard of 08" started Friday afternoon and by Saturday evening, it left 20 inches of snow behind. I had to shovel an area just so the dogs could go outside. Fortunately, my neighbor called from sunny Florida to let us know we could borrow his snowblower. This was a life-saver and allowed me to go help the rest of the neighborhood clear their drives.

Lucky for Kristi, she was not able to participate in any of the festivities! She did manage to sneak a few pictures of us working and of the dogs enjoying the snow.

We're only a little over two weeks away from finding out what we're going to have! Can't wait to share it with you all!

Week in Review

2008-03-02T23:25:00.000-05:00

After a long, crazy week, I figured I wouldn't have any trouble sleeping tonight. Unfortunately, that's not the case...so here I am just doing a little recap of the week to pass the time.

Kristi has gone from morning sickness to a cold! Needless to say she is miserable but also grateful that the morning sickness has gone away. Coughing and sneezing all day is a dramatic improvement from praying to the porcelin god morning noon and night! We had our monthly visit with our doctor on Tuesday and once again were able to hear the baby's heartbeat and actually hear it move. This whole process still amazes me. We get to find out what it is on March 27th. That's when I really get to go to work on the room!

Even though Kristi was a bit under the weather, she still managed to go with my Group Sales Department to a Cavs game on Friday. The trip was a nice gesture from our management to reward us for beating our number from last year about half-way through the season. Since I came on board so late, I really had nothing to do with it but was thrilled to be able to go. We took a limo-bus up to the game and had a private suite to watch the action. It was a great night that didn't see us home and in bed until around 4:30 on Saturday morning! Kristi was a trooper and somehow managed to put up with a bunch of us loud, obnoxious guys on the trip home!

After about 3 hours of sleep, I went in to the office a little early on Saturday to prep for the big UFC event that was in town. I had a bunch of clients at the event so I wanted to make sure everything went smoothly. Fortunately all went well and everybody was happy. It was my first experience at one of these and I was in awe of the energy surrounding the fights. It's not really my thing, but one can see how this is becoming one of the most popular sports in the country.

Today I was supposed to head over to the Arnold Classic, but think I caught a bit of what Kristi has. I was out of it all day and spent it wrapped up in the tiger blanket watching golf and whatever else I could find. I feel bad not going because a former client gave me the tickets, but there's no way I could have made it through the day!

Now I'm thinking of the long week ahead...events on Thursday, Friday and Sunday with a bachelor party worked in there on Saturday. Should be another fun week!

The finished product

2008-02-26T21:19:00.000-05:00

Just thought I'd share a photo of the new, somewhat finished closet...it's a beauty Clark!

And so it begins...

2008-02-23T13:14:00.000-05:00

I'm still in disbelief that we're having a baby, but with only a bit over 5 months to go...we need to get things ready for the new addition. Today it began!

It's not a good thing that Kristi and I are both pack-rats! Our nursery has served as a big storage closet for the past year. Last weekend we began going through some items to figure out what we can get rid of, store for a while, etc. What a task!

With some of these items tossed or just moved to the office, I have a closet to start working on! I removed all the old hardware, filled in the old holes and am writing this as I let the spackle dry so I can paint. Once that's done, we start hanging the new closet unit!

Yes that's me in a pink shirt...I need a haircut!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T22:24:00.000-05:00

Valentine's Day was very uneventful at our house this year! With Kristi being so sick lately, we decided not to make any plans and just stay in. Great idea to me! I cooked steaks and tater-tots per request. We watched a movie and then one of our favorite shows, LOST. It couldn't have been any better.

Between work and other activities, Kristi and I have not had a chance to spend much time together as of late. It was nice to relax with her, alone for a change and talk about what we have ahead of us! I got a book of names as part of her gift this year, so we rattled off names during commercials. That's going to be quite a task!

1st Birthday!

2008-02-09T23:43:00.000-05:00

Happy 1st Birthday, Zane! Zane turned 1 on Thursday so Patrick and Maya had the family in to celebrate over the weekend. He's the happiest baby I've ever seen and is an absolute joy to be around! Today, he spent 15 minutes chasing his own shadow and then staring at a reflection of light on the wall. When it was time to eat, he then became a favorite target of the dogs.

It was great to see the family...hopefully we can do it again soon!

Another shot...

2008-02-08T18:43:00.000-05:00

I decided to give this blog thing another shot. I started one a few years ago and never kept up with it. Hopefully this time will be different.

The goal is to post at least once a week about what's going on in my life and in the lives of my growing family.

As most of you know, Kristi and I are expecting our first child this summer. Nothing is more exciting than learning you are going to be a father! We have seen the baby twice and heard the heartbeat once...by far the greatest moments in my life up to this point! We're thrilled to be welcoming a new addition to the family!

Hope you enjoy the blog...say hello every now and then!

B