Monday, February 23, 2009

Big development

Okay, so its not that big to most people, but since we don't have a lil human to oogle over, it is. Cooper finally seems to get fetch. For some reason Sunday lela was on the deck and said "Come Here Cooper" and rather than bucking like a bronco through the yard he ran up to lela. Granted he didn't want to give up the tennis ball at first, but then he started to get that. Then it took him awhile to spot it so after a few Mike aided fetches, he learned to look while we threw it and then run down the steps. So for now we can only play it while standing on the deck, but as I told lela, that may be a good thing. That way I can just lazily sit on the deck while sipping on a diet sunkist that may or may not have alcohol comingled in it and a bucket hat on (to keep from burning - something the lil Wasian won't have to worry about as much) and throw it. Lela of course is trying to take credit for being the catalyst for this newfound fetchdom because he wouldn't fetch for me, but I like to think Cooper was just trying to show off for the ladies and would have done it for me. . . .

Anyway, tonight even better yet Coops seemed to get tall that, he started to comprehend "drop it" and then since it was dark he would look to me if he couldn't find it and I would point and he would turn where I pointed. Pretty much I think its a combo of the smartest dog ever and really great trainer. Okay, that might be a sligh exxageration, but that made the day a lot better. Along with the Hawkeyes finally getting a W, its been a good 2 days for the Huebners.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Lazy Sunday
















Yeah, still Mike blogging and no I won't have a video of the SNL Lazy Sunday video out there (though it is a classic). One of these days lela's workload will slow down a bit more and she can give some of her thoughts, but for now everybody is stuck with a 100% Mike blog.

Update on Cooper - I threw some pics of Cooper onto this one again. These are his "fox" pictures as when he lays on his back he sort of looks like a fox. One could say that is clever like a fox. . . okay I will quit. Cooper is definitely 100% recovered from his manhood being gone. He lost a tooth the other night while I was playing with him, which I found really neat (Lela thought it was not nearly as cool). He gets more fun every day really. I have started doing a thing where I attach his leash to my belt and he just walks around with me as I do stuff in the kitchen. He thinks its pretty neat to wrap the leash around me and to step over the leash and have it between his legs. He's been fighting fetch but finally started doing it today a bit which was fun. Its weird because when he was like 10-13 weeks he would fetch but has been boycotting for the last few months. He has graduated to the big kids dish that is elevated, so that's exciting as it has a drawer for food underneath. He's been pretty good though just overall where he doesn't try to eat us all the time and will just sit and enjoy being petted for a few minutes, so yeah, pretty exciting stuff. He can go a really long time now without having to go to the bathroom so its nice to be worried 24-7 that he is going to need to go to the bathroom. We have been really blessed with neighbors who can let him out during the day, but hopefully the days where that is necessary is coming to an end.

The weather keeps wanting to get warm. We went for our usual Saturday morning run yesterday and it was less than fun turning the corner to the North. Had we been running side by side I am pretty sure that we would have looked at each other and turned around. Luckily for us Lela likes to pretend she is fast and was ahead of me so we were able to enjoy a run. Anyway, the point is the last few weeks it has been getting up to 50 or 60 but just hasn't gotten to stay up there so we can enjoy some nice morning running and aren't running to and from the car when running errands.

Lela's doing well. Probably should mention that since the whole point of this blog was allegedly started to talk about her and the baby and not to give me an open forum to babble. She had a long week at work, so I think she's slept more than any 36 hr stretch this weekend, around 22 hrs at least. Since I enjoy a good nap, I won't complain! Regardless, its been good to have a weekend where we get some rest. We have also begun the discussions on how to paint the room depending on what sex it is, so that's fun. Well minus the whole fact that I anticipate about 100 decision changes in the next 2 months or so about it and a lot of heartburn for Lela:) She also learned of some thing you put around your stomach that can convert pants into options for wearing during pregnancy, so we'll have to stop by target and get one of those. Yeah, exciting stuff, this is our life! Lastly allegedly we will begin posting size of belly pics. Something to look forward to!

Remember the Titans is on tv. I like the movie but there are 2 things that bother me. 1 is the scene where Gerry (yeah I looked up the name on IMDB, not sure why its not Gary) points at the other coach randomly, which doesn't serve a purpose and I don't know that it would ever happen. The other is the fact that Julius is a high schooler when in Above the Rim which was filmed over 6 yrs earlier he was an adult thug. Since many of us who played basketball at Alden Community High School have seen Above the Rim an exorbitant amount of time, its just hard to reconcile that. Sorry, I felt that I needed to share that, its random, still a great movie.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Busy season

I am sure I have mentioned it, but we are in the throws of busy season right now in the Huebner household. I thought I would give a few details as to what the means to us and just some general observations by me to give you a better idea -

1) Our busy seasons aren't the exact same, which works out okay actually. Lela's is generally over at the end of February, mine more mid march. So right now Lela is in the throws of hers and though I am busy, I am not in the bad part like she is. In a few weeks those roles will likely reverse.
2) For me this generally means working later at night at home. I like to work in front of the tv, not that I am really watching it, but having it on in the background helps me relax for some odd reason. I will put on a movie in the background that I have seen a bunch while I work, a habit I picked up in college when my roomie Travis would watch Braveheart while studying for most exams. Right now my rotation includes Knocked Up, Superbad, 21 with a little Ocean's 13 mixed in. We have free movie channels for a bit so I have been rotating through those movies, with Knocked Up probably being number one since you know Lela is knocked up, except it is now cycling into a "oh, our lives aren't like that and some of the things on the movie are sort of sad actually" type thing where I can only watch certain parts. Once I get busy I will generally go to more of a Star Wars/Karate Kid rotation. Yeah, I know only cool people are into those movies;)
3) Weekends become a battle for efficiency. We don't watch any of our tv shows during the week (which includes 24, Lost, Heroes, Top Chef and Friday Night Lights) so we have to rush home on friday and then try to watch some fairly quickly so we can get to bed early, so we can get up early to go for a run before going to work. Yeah, its about as much fun as it sounds - I am all for getting an early start on my Saturdays since I am an old man, but there is a line that is a dot its so far behind us. If I were to need to go pick up something, say at CVS and we go back and forth about what to get a couple times, it escalates quickly into someone is wasting someone else's time because even trips to CVS must be ultra efficient. NOt that that would ever happen. . .
4) I have noticed that chain emails rise in public accounting land during this time. There's always a bunch of top 10 type lists floating around that say things like, 'The 6 phases of Public accounting' which would show how you come in all chipper and then are turned into this grumpy workaholic or "stuff accountants like" which would detail how we like post it flags, excel shortcuts, and workpaper references among other things. When the email goes out everybody talks and says, "that's so true, amen brotha." Well maybe I am the only one who adds amen brotha, but you get the theme. I think this yr there have been more, its sort of the cheezy christmas sweater party type phenomenon that occurred a yr or so ago. You know where everybody was throwing some variation of a cheezy christmas sweater party, and everyone goes because its such a novel idea, to the point where regular Christmas parties aren't cool anymore and you feel like you would never go to one of those any more? That's how these emails seem to have become, where its not enough to just say you are wore out anymore, you need a list. Actually, I am making a list of sort right now it seems, so basically I am now that cliche' guy. Whoops!
5) Lastly by the end of busy season I think we feel like we could never get anything done by just working 8 hr days, because we are brainwashed. Its almost eary being at home together and making a meal on a school night, you kind of look at each other like, woh, what should we do now. Obviously that feeling quickly disappears!

Anyway, just thought I would throw that out there so you all could better understands what busy season means and so you in accounting can have another list to say "amen brotha" to.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Monday Thoughts




I decided that blogging is a lot more fun than most things I do on my drive in to work today. So I thought I'd share with you all an average weekend in the Huebner household during busy season. Well not really average, but what we did.




Friday morning I dropped Cooper off at the vet to lose his manhood. Lela claims that because he isn't a man, he can't lose his manhood but I don't agree with that assertion. Anyway, it was fairly tramatic to say the least since normally we (and by we I mean I) take cooper out to pee, let him eat, then take him out to take care of #2 in the first 15 min of his day. The middle step is clearly his favorite and he couldn't feed him after midnight the night before, so he wasn't overly happy to say the least. Anyway, went to work (booorrring) and then came home that night. We went to the gym and then ran to chipotle in order to feed the pregnant lady quickly. I was thinking that morning that it would be a great break that night as we wouldn't have to take cooper out or play with him or watch him climb through the legs of the chairs in our table (his new favorite thing to do), sort of a parents night out without the kids. But it wasn't nearly that fun, just sort of sad and empty. I imagine that's how parents feel when they first leave their baby at home or something, probably to a greater extent, but anyway that was interesting.

Saturday was Valentine's day if you all were wondering. If I were at a stadium watching a game and Valentine's day was playing, I would start and "OVERRATED" chant, but I will refrain since Vday isn't a person and I am not watching it play a sport. Anyway, since Lela had to go into work we got up and went for a run and then I sent her off to work with some Kolache's. If you haven't had any of those, find a place nearby, quite tasty. I then went and picked up cooper who was already fully recovered and ready to play. I tried to work in the afternon, which was fun. I did have the iowa game on in the background, valient effort, but once again no dice. Anyway, I am sure you are dying to hear how cool our Vday plans were. Well we went to Lela's favorite Korean place and had some Korean soup. I know, exciting!!!!! In all seriousness it was nice, our favorite waiter was working (yeah its one of those places with one waiter) and made fun of me for not liking onions which according to he and Lela is a travesty.

Sunday lela had to go into work again and I held down the fort. Got a migraine so I spent forever holed up and didn't do anything noteworthy other than going to CVS and spending a total of like an hour there trying to find something pregnancy friendly to help lela with a cold she has come down with. Fun!


Today is Dad's bday so if you see him in the west side (alden restaurant, not a place where Cali Rappers hang) or any number of other places Dad is roaming around, wish him a good one. Of course tomorrow is Michael Jordan's bday, so do the same if you see him roaming whereever it is he roams these days.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

First day of blogging










So it seems that everybody and their sister has a blog now. Well except for us. Well until now anyway. So for right now, this blog is being written by me, Mike. I am sure when Lela get's less busy, she'll write some great, long, elaborate, well written blogs that give great details and insight into our lives. Until then you will be stuck reading my mindless meandering (not sure if that's a word and too lazy to look), made up words and randomness. So here goes.

Obviously the real reason we are starting a blog is because we are going to have a new member in our family come around Aug 7. Yes this will be the first Wasian Huebner, at least in our portion of the family. We are pretty excited for obvious reasons. I am because the kid will have a shot at being in the sun for longer than 10 min and not burning, Lela because she will have a child that will likely have my charm and wit. Well that last part I may have made up, but it sounds good. Cooper is excited because it means he gets another person to lick, which is really what his life is all about at this point. Cooper is our 5 month old Golden Retriever. He loves playing fetch (minus the part where he actually brings it back), eating pretty much anything possible, sleeping on his back paws up, eating grass, and pretty much anything else that involves consuming or running.

Anyway, back to the Baby Huebner part. Lela's been doing well. She made it through the first trimester without much for morning sickness and is now around week 15 or 16 or something. She's been tired, so we have been getting more sleep (or trying to which during busy season is a challenge). Its been a nice break for me because I am unlike both Lela and Cooper and do not have endless amount of energy and don't operate on a burn at both ends lifestyle very well. She's been reading bits and pieces of various books, and web pages, with the resulting answers being that lela should sleep 10 hrs a day, she shouldn't really eat anything besides bread and water and anything she does outside of walking to the car could be bad for the baby according to some bloggers. So that's fun.

I, as future dad, have read some of the pieces of the books (most of which is pretty gross and not fun from my perspective), checking into day cares, and washing endless amounts of fruit. Yes some women crave powdered donuts (I might be closely related to one), some crave peanut butter and pickles, but lela craves fruit. If anybody has a fruit washing service, please call me, its become a 2nd job. I previously thought that a couple couldn't go through the large quantities of fruit that Costco packages fruit in, but we are now on track to keep pace with what they can sell. I have also started planning our child's future. If its a girl, I think we might have to move closer to Blue Springs academy for gymnastics or whatever in KC, and if its a boy I have a training program to help him because a Wasian Bob Sanders, including playing for the Hawkeyes. Have they ever had a wasian on the team? I am sure they have, but I don't remember it so this'll be the first at least in my mind, which makes it cooler really. There was an asian girl from that gymnastics place that almost made the US squad last yr, so that ground has clearly been broken, but maybe the fact that this will be more Wasian is cooler too.

Okay, remember that part about meandering, yeah, I think I passed that awhile ago. I leave you with random pictures of Cooper because he's more fun than us. Actually they posted at the top, I will figure out how to put them at the bottom later.