My interview went well Friday so we'll see what happens. They want somebody with controls experience though, but I offered to do contracting for their software needs if I'm not offered a job. Hopefully I will hear something soon so I know what to do with some other consulting opportunities.

We had our sonogram this morning. Everything went well except that God is blessing us with another son! We all had wanted a girl. So here is Raisin now at 19 weeks with his arm going up alongside his face. You can even see the lenses of his eyes (the dark circles in the sockets).



I won't post the pic of his private parts in case he turns out to be bashful. We forgot to ask if our due date was still the same so if we're on the same schedule we have a very good chance of a healthy boy in just under 5 months.

Well, the actual meeting part is over. There's just my going-away dinner to do now in about 10 minutes. I was not a happy camper earlier today because some proposals I really wanted passed were shot down (haha - bad pun). I was the lone supporter on 2 things that we need to grow our sport. I was so mad inside for a while I was not going to come back to the meeting after break or go to my dinner. I listened to one of my fav bands and calmed down while we finished up other business. At least I have all tomorrow morning to reflect and enjoy some R&R before heading back home. I have an interview with DADC again Friday. Still not sure what to think about that.

NCAAs turned out well. We only had one issue to deal with and the competition in the individual finals was tough. For the first time ever, women took the top 2 places in both events. Luckily, the teams weren't as close as last year so we didn't have to worry about dealing with a tie. I had a good time overall. I am really going to miss not being there next year unless I can finagle a position somehow. I caught the shooting bug again in a way. I decided it was time to see if Sydney wanted to shoot so we have started this week. I figure if Sydney is shooting, I can shoot with him. :) My intention is we will only do air pistol. They have a program out to get more youth into pistol since we have a serious drought of good pistol competitors in the US so he's got a much better chance to succeed in pistol than rifle. Plus pistol is cheaper and more time efficient to do.

Merrie is still hanging in there. She still gets sick at times and is unfomfortable much if the time it seems. I bet she wishes she was 6 or 7 (or 20!) years younger. She brought home a doppler (?) unit last night that she had to use on a visit so we listened to the heartbeat (we got Sydney out of bed so he could, too). It was in the high 140s to 150 so there's a better chance for a girl than the 130s we were told on the 6th.

I'll be busy consulting again for a good month or two. I had a phone interview Wed with one of the few places in town I would want to work, but I don't know what to think about it yet. First I'll see if they still are considering me in a couple weeks and deal with it then. Being out of work for so long has got the freedom bug in me now so it would be really difficult to go back to a normal job.

I'm in Colorado Springs for the NCAA Rifle Championships. I'm on the games committee, which oversees the running of this event and the playing rules. Today was just a practice day for the student-athletes so it was pretty uneventful. Tomorrow they shoot the smallbore event and Sat is air rifle. This could be my last year here since my term on the committee will end after our annual meeting, which is in less than 2 weeks back here in COS. Last year was the best Championship ever for several reasons and was also held here so we'll see how it turns out this time.

Everything is going well. We had our monthly appt yesterday and the heartbeat was still there. Unfortunately for Merrie it is going down, which usually indicates a boy. I guess because our hearts our bigger. :)

I'm getting things ready today to be off to the NCAA Rifle Championships in Colorado Springs the rest of the week. This is my last year on the committee and am acting committee chair. This means I will miss our county men's meeting at church Sat where one of our guys will be talking about his relief work with the Red Cross. I've given him my diaries/blog and pics so he can share some of my story as well.

I also got our Emmaus site switched over to a new host yesterday. I'm looking forward to making some of the changes I've wanted to do to it for a couple years now. I added a link to it on the right.

Busy would describe the last couple weeks. Not because of anything in particular, other than some contract work that took nearly all of last weekend, including a 20 hour day Sunday morning to Monday morning. I got caught back up with my Bible reading and study on Tuesday and this has been a great week for that. I've had lots of new insights in Scripture, which really hasn't happened much at all in the past. I'm not sure why this is happening now since I'm not really doing much different, but I think part of it is I'm at least trying to focus on God more. I think AfterHim.com has been helping as I've been spending a lot of time interacting with the other men there and spending less time on the Christian music forums I frequent. In fact, I've given the latter up again for Lent.

I need to get our Emmaus website moved this weekend to a new host so I've been busy researching Christian web hosts the past few days and have it narrowed down to just a couple. I may even decide tonight though I need to get my Katrina material together to give to someone at church tomorrow. Our church is hosting the county UMM next Sat and the presenter from our church is talking about his time with the Red Cross in LA last fall and he wanted to mention about my work in MS. Sadly, I will be in CO for the NCAA Rifle Championships next week. I am seriously considering going down again with Sydney (and maybe Stephan) over spring break though. In fact, I finally called Fay Jones to see how things were going and found out they aren't running the Coastal Outpost anymore because Pete has had some health issues. So pray for him back in Bastrop, TX.

Merrie is hanging in there. She generally doesn't do too bad unless she has a hard day at work, which are more frequent than we care for. They finally are advertising her job though so maybe some relief will be in sight soon!