Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions Essay

I found a really cool essay about the Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions. They relate the movies to elements of the biblical Genesis story. The main theme I found really interesting is this: God created everything including the serpent. He also gave mankind curiosity and modeled them after his own image. Plus since he is all knowing he basically set up mankind for the fall. This is modeled in the Matrix as Neo chosing the Red Pill, leaving the Matrix (the Garden of Eden), and entering the real world. Later Neo chooses Trinity over the salvation of Zion. He does this will the full knowledge of that choice. The author manages to relate this to humanity truely choosing our salvation in Jesus Christ. This is a better choice than simply loving God in Eden because we would have done so without the full knowledge of good and evil. You really have to read the article to get everything out of it. Obviously I should re-read it because I'm not describing it very well!

Bryce's First Doctor Appointment

Bryce visited the doctor Monday and received a good bill of health. He was 7lbs which is good because it's more than his weight leaving the hospital. He's sleeping a lot and we struggle to get him to stay awake after feeding. We're using elements of the BabyWise technique like we did with Sydney. Wow I just put BabyWise in Google and man are there a lot of negative articles. We don't really follow the strict scheduling (which seems to be the source of all the outcry) but try to follow the "Eat, Wake, Sleep" method. What's funny is that our pediatrician is Robert Bucknam who co-authored the book. He doesn't push the book or the technique and I'm sure he's aware of the criticism. His advice during the checkup was to try to keep Bryce awake during the feedings which is really difficult right now. All he wants to do is sleep! I remember this same behavior with Sydney and by the third week she had woken up and was colicly all night. Hopefully we'll avoid that with Bryce. So far he seems much more mellow than Sydney.

Today was the day we were scheduled to be induced. Bryce obviously wasn't waiting for that!

Grandma Jayne's Visit

IMG_3998.JPG, originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas.

Grandma Jayne arrived with Jerry on Wednesday night. They left this morning but we sure enjoyed having them. This picture was taken of Grandma with all her grandchildren on our couch. I've also uploaded more pictures from the hospital and from home.

Everyone is doing fine and Bryce is eating, sleeping, pooping, and peeing well. Having a boy is definitely a different experience for us already. Let's just say we've all gotten a little wet during the diaper changes! I'm going to stay home Monday to help out and take Bryce to his first pediatrician appointment. It's supposed to be 60 in Denver Monday so it will be a nice day to take off.

Sydney is still adjusting to being a big sister. She's had a few accidents lately so it appears she's regressing on the potty training. Hopefully she'll get that turned around but from what we've heard, it's going to be a long couple of a weeks ahead!

It's a boy!

IMG_3940.JPG, originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas.

Melissa woke me up Monday morning at 4:30 saying that she might be in labor. Her contractions were less than 5 minutes so we called the hospital for advice. They said to shower off and then come on in. So we both showered and got ready but by then the contractions had let up a bit. I went back asleep and woke up at 8 with Sydney. Melissa had been up the whole time and decided to go downstairs to dust and clean up a little bit. Yes, Melissa was dusting the house while in labor! We then ate breakfast and headed to the hospital with Sydney in tow. They checked us into triage to see if this was the real thing. At noon Melissa was at 4cm dilated and was still getting pretty regular contractions so they admitted us into a real room. The doctor came by about 1:30 and decided to speed things up a bit so he broke her water. About the same time Katie came to pick up Sydney and took her to Aiden's house where she took a nice long nap. Meanwhile back at the hospital things were progressing quite rapidly. Sometime after 3 the nurse said Melissa was at 9cm so she went to get the doctor. He showed up and Melissa really started pushing at 3:30. By 3:52 after three pushes we had a baby boy! His name is Bryce Patrick Thomas and he is 7lb 3oz and 20.5in long. He has sandy brown hair and looks a lot like Melissa's baby pictures. Katie, Glen, Aiden, and Sydney showed up around 7 so Sydney could meet her new brother. Sydney and I even got to watch Bryce get his first bath. Sydney and I finally came home at 10 and she finally fell asleep at 10:45. We headed back over to the hospital today and now I'm back at home for Sydney's nap time. Melissa and Bryce will stay another night and we'll all come home Wednesday morning. Jayne and Jerry are coming out Wednesday so we'll have a little help through the weekend. Click on the picture to see the rest of the photos posted on flickr.

Bathroom waincoat

This is the before picture of our downstairs bathroom. I've already started the demolition work of removing the baseboards.










This is my baseboard removal technique. I took the widest chisel I had and used it to pry away the baseboards. This worked pretty well because I was able to pound the chisel down behind the board without damaging it before prying the board away from the wall. The idea is to reuse the baseboards as much as possible.







The chair rail for the wainscoating was not a cap rail which looks like an upside down L. I decided against the cap chair rail because of how thin and uninteresting it was. At least the one style that our local Home Depot had was thin and uninteresting. So instead I got the only other chair rail they had. The problem was the bottom detail work of the chair rail was not wide enough to sit over the wainscoat. So I used my table saw to rip off this bottom detail. The picture shows the modified chair rail on the left and the original on the right. One disadvantage to using this chair rail rather than a cap rail is it doesn't hold down the top of the panels so you really need to nail the panels to the studs. It also doesn't allow you to hide the top nail holes under the cap.

The next step was to install this chair rail all around the bathroom. This is the method described to me by the Home Depot guy. "Whacha wanna do is snap a chalk line around and then hang your panels. Then slap the baseboard on the bottom." Well I didn't snap a chalk line because my room was so small. I just used a level and it worked out pretty well. Note if you do decide to snap a chalk line be very careful with the chalk. Only after I used this method in our baby's room upstairs (over the carpet) did I notice that chalk is made out of industrial strength dye that doesn't come out! Another tip is if you use a chair rail with bumps and reliefs like mine, nail it under one of the reliefs so the nail holes are in the shadow when the overhead light is on.

I bought adhesive (Liquid Nails) and applied it to the waincoat panels. Home Depot sells these big panels that you just cut to fit around all your obstacles. It was pretty easy in the bathroom because I didn't have any outlets to worry about. It was a little harder in the baby's room upstairs with the outlets and window sill to cut around. I don't really know how much the adhesive does for you because I think you still really need to nail it up with finishing nails. Try to find all the available studs because it makes it stick a whole lot better!




I cut a few strips of wainscoating out of my scrap to put under the panels. I did this just to support my baseboards when I nailed them to the waincoat panels. One probably obvious tip is to nail the bottom of the panel as far down as you can so hopefully the baseboard will cover the nail hole. That's just one less nail hole you have to fill. I had to trim my baseboards a little to account for the depth of the panels but otherwise they were totally reused. I just snipped off the existing nails rather than pounding them though the front creating all kinds of holes.

The worst part of the whole thing is fill the gaps and nail holes. I used regular paintable caulk and went to work on the whole thing. The Home Depot guy said that pros usually fill the nail holes with drywall spackle but if you aren't doing any drywall then you probably don't have spackle lying around. I found that caulk works ok although you can see the holes if you look.






Here is the painted finished product with the toilet and toilet paper reinstalled. It really lightens up the room which as you can tell was painted in a really dark blue. I hope everyone who uses this room has time to sit and enjoy it! :-)

Another Doctor Appointment

We had another doctor appointment today and found out Melissa is 2cm dilated. Otherwise we are to continue on bed rest until Friday and then wait for the baby to come! We're still scheduled to be induced on Feb 15 if the baby decides to wait that long. We're trying to get everything around the house ready because it could happen any day now. I installed the baby car seat this afternoon and am working on getting the cameras ready. We're already packed and have friends lined up for Sydney so it's starting to get exciting! Stay tuned.

Thanks for your help Jayne

Jayne left today at 10am after spending a week with us. Her help watching Sydney and doing chores was invaluable as we made it to 36 weeks on Friday. One more week to go of bed rest and we're through. I forgot to mention that at the doctor appointment Tuesday we were scheduled to get induced on Feb 15 if it doesn't happen naturally before that. Once Melissa gets taken off bed rest I'm sure she be running all over and probably will go into labor.

Speaking of going into labor, congratulations to our friends Nick and Krista Kliebenstein who gave birth to a daughter Nora yesterday and to Jason's cousin Steven and Suzi Fuerst who gave birth to a son Tomas on Jan 25.

Melissa and I both got a 24hr stomach bug this week. Melissa had hers all day Wednesday and I got mine on Friday. I came home from work a little early and puked for the first time in 5 1/2 years. Today I feel much better though. I was supposed to go into work today but I didn't want to push it after yesterday. I'll probably go in tomorrow during Sydney's nap. We have a major build of our satellite software scheduled for Thursday and there is always a lot to do to prepare for it.

Latest Doctor Appointment

We were at the doctor again on Tuesday afternoon. His diagnosis was to continue on as we have been for another two weeks. If Melissa were to go into labor now he'd deliver the baby but it might have to stay in the hospital for a little while. Each day we can wait lessens the chance of hospitalization so Melissa is still on bed rest.

Melissa's dad Sandy got here Tuesday afternoon and met us at Outback Steakhouse for supper. He has some business out here and will be back in a few weeks for a month. That will give him the chance to meet the new baby. He has already left our house for the night because he has a 6am flight to CA tomorrow.

Jayne is still here and Melissa is keeping her busy. She's done laundry, cooked, cleaned, and most importantly entertained Sydney so Melissa can relax. I don't know how we're going to do it next week but we'll figure something out like we did last week.

Homeless in our home town

I write this from the Westminster, CO La Quinta Inn (which has free wireless Internet) because we are having our hardwood floors refinished. During our final warranty walk with Neumann Homes Melissa convinced them that our hardwood floor needed to be refinished. They arrived today at noon to fill cracks, sand, and apply a new finish to the floor. We can't be on it for 24hrs so we're staying at the La Quinta which was one of the few hotels in the area that takes dogs and has a pool. Frank and Liz came over this evening with Sarah so Sydney had a buddy to swim with. We ordered pizza together and relaxed in the room.

Melissa is still on bedrest but she got in the pool to relax a bit. Jayne is coming tomorrow at 3 for the entire week so we'll have a lot more help. Of course the Denver Broncos AFC championship game starts at 1 so her timing isn't exactly perfect. Just kidding Jayne! Having her here will allow me to work full days next week and make up the time I took off this week. Melissa's dad will be here Tuesday through Thursday so we'll have lots of help this week.

We were at 35 weeks this past Friday and we have two more weeks to go! Stay tuned!

Sydney and the Monkey

IMG_3856.JPG, originally uploaded by jason_m_thomas.

I took Sydney to the Denver Zoo Saturday to give Melissa a break since she's on bed rest. Our friends Tyler and Heather came over with their son Cody but Sydney didn't want to go to the zoo without me. I was hoping to get some things done around the house during the zoo trip but I had fun taking her. She loved seeing the monkeys and especially liked the gorillas because one had a baby. One little girl about her age walked up to her and she said, "See that one has a baby." The little girl got excited and said, "That's my baby!" Sydney got all in her face with attitude and said, "That's not your baby! That's the momma's baby!" She also loved the polar bear because he was really active and playing with his ball. Check out our flickr photos to see the rest.