Packers Monday Night!

Just checking the weekend schedule of games … the first prime-time match of the Packers season is Monday!  A FULL Packers game to watch … cool.  I hope they do well, because I’m sure it would be very painful to watch a 37-3 beating.  Watching their pre-season beating against Tennessee was bad enough – and that was preseason!  Perhaps my expectations are still a little high and I should just be happy to be watching the Pack.

Thanks Janette and Kristin for your advice on Jet’s leg cramping.  I’m sure she will be drinking lots of water today.  I massaged her lower back last night and it seemed to work wonders for her, Kristin.

Looks like we will be heading back for Thanksgiving!  Jet was able to get off of work the few days before Thanksgiving, but, unfortunately, she has to be back by “Black Friday” because the only two people higher-up than her at the bank will be off.  Therefore, we will likely take a flight that arrives in Milwaukee on Friday, November 17 and return on a flight that leaves either the day before Thanksgiving or on Thanksgiving day.  We will likely purchase our tickets soon because the cost of flights right now is pretty cheap.

Backwards?

It has been a while since I have posted, so I thought I just share what’s on the menu for today.  I have been very busy with school spending a bit of time lately getting ahead of things so that I can spend the upcoming racing weekend with Dad without a heap of work to come back to.  I am also trying to dream up a new course to teach in the spring.  It will likely be either something Web related and/or project management related.  Just figuring what students would take that class and whether I would enjoy teaching it is making me take longer in deciding than I probably should.  In addition to that course,  I will be teaching Software Engineering II for graduate students, so I will be teaching the same 3-4 students in the spring that are in the Software Engineering I class I have now.  The third course I will be teaching is the same Software Engineering I course for undergraduates that I am teaching now.

So I come to work today and get on with my daily routine of checking my e-mails and the news online.  I still check the Milwaukee news daily, perhaps out of habit, but also because I like to see what’s going on up there.  So today when I check jsonline, I notice that the weather is currently 58 degrees (compared to 55 right now in Oxford) and gas prices have dropped to 2.19 (compared to 2.27 in Oxford).  What’s up with that?  Well, looking at the next few day’s forecast for both Milwaukee (50’s – 60’s)  and Oxford (70’s – 80’s), I am feeling better.  However, how come gas prices around here haven’t dropped lately?  They have been stuck at the 2.30’s and 2.20’s for the past 6 weeks!  During my earlier visits to Alabama and when I first arrived here in August, gas prices were 30 – 50 cents cheaper per gallon.  Well, I guess that’s great news for everyone up there that the prices are still coming down.

One week from today I will be picking up Dad at the airport in Atlanta.  Both Jet and I are really looking forward to his visit.  It will be nice to become reacquainted with Dad’s BBQ ribs and lasagna.  We have talked up those dishes to the neighbors, so I’m afraid it may be hard for Dad to live up to his reputation.  Particularly for the BBQ ribs, which people in the South take seriously.  Unfortunately for Jet and I, we haven’t tasted any BBQ that matches what Dad is capable of producing.

Before I go, I don’t want to forget to mention that I got to see the Packers game on Sunday!  What an unexpected treat!  Well, not the whole game.  The Carolina Panthers had just kicked a field goal to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  Fox then switched over to the Packer game which had 24 seconds remaining.  You should have seen me hooting and hollering at Jet to come see.  At least I was able to see the Pack win their first game of the season.  I just hope that it won’t be their only win!  Talking to Josh on the phone last week, he mentioned that he was actually rooting against the Packers in their last game in favor of the Saints.  Humph.  Fair-weather fans.

Fifth Month!

I finally felt something moving in my belly!  First, I didn’t know what it was … then it happened a couple more times.  I told Andy that I thought I felt the baby moving.  He put his hand on my belly for a few minutes, but thought that it was me moving my belly on my own.  When he realized what it was, at first he was shocked.  Now every night we check my belly to see how often the baby moves.  He only moves when I take a rest (at least what I notice), not when I am walking around.  Is that normal?

On Saturday we went to Atlanta for a few things.  We first went to Andy’s Aussie Rules Football game.  He did well this time because he didn’t get hurt!  Afterwards, we went to an expo center for new parents.  I didn’t really know what to expect, but was disappointed (paid $5 each) because we wanted to see more.  The event was held in one large room of the expo center and was held next to another event where there were hundreds of people (teenagers and adults) dressed in strange costumes, like star wars, star trek, or cartoons.  They was something really strange.  I wish that I took some pictures to show some of the things we saw. 

After spending time (about an hour) at the expo center, we got a call from one of the faculty members (Prof. Sonny and family) who had finished attending a conference in Atlanta, and asked us to meet them for dinner.  We ended up spending the whole day in Atlanta.  It was so great.  It almost felt like we were on vacation in a different place much further away than Atlanta.   We met at the Perimeter mall, which is a mall that I liked a lot and had never been there before.  Andy had been there before with Maggie two years ago when they went to Atlanta for an Aussie Rules Football tournament.  For dinner, we went to celebrate Jima’s birthday(daughter of Prof. Sonny) at an Italian restaurant and we then went to ColdStone (the most expensive place for ice cream).  I really enjoyed spend time with them.  I can’t wait when y’all come to visit us because I have found so many places that we can show you. You will LOVE it.

Housewarming Party

We had our housewarming party yesterday and it was a great success!  There were around 40 people that attended and there was a lot of great food to sample.  This was a pot-luck event, so there was a wide variety of food to sample.  Fried Okra, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Fried Chicken competed with my Beer Brats and Jet’s Curry and Pud See Ew.  Needless to say, everyone left very satisfied and very full.  I have included some of the pictures from the bash below.  In addition, I have added another picture of Jet to show her progress in the pregnancy (21 weeks!).

     

Whew! Another week in the books

Thursday afternoon and my week is done!  I have been very busy at school lately, taking up a variety of different tasks.  It really isn’t as dramatic as the title of this post sounds, because I am really enjoying what I am doing.  Jet has been very busy as well at work and today happens to be the day of their annual audit.  She has been putting in some longer hours and is gaining additional stress along the way, but I think she is enjoying the challenge, which is something that she has not had in a while.

The weather has been just great here the past few days.  It gets in the mid to upper 80’s for highs, and late in the evening/early morning it is in the upper 60’s, low 70’s.  Just perfect.  I think that I have read that the weather in Milwaukee is getting colder, which I suppose is typical this time of year.  At least this is one thing that is helping my transition to living down South go a lot smoother.

Thanks for all of your feedback regarding the name.  Jet has still not warmed up to the name “Matt”, yet, but I haven’t really come across another name that I like yet.  I think Jet is becoming more and more frustrated by how picky I am, because she always has a new name in mind for me to consider, which ends up being another name that I don’t like.  Perhaps another name will come along, but I feel confident (for once) with the name I have chosen.  As for why I came up with the name … I wanted to have a name from the Bible that people in Thailand could easily pronounce.  In addition, the name “Matt” is a name that I had always liked, it has a good meaning, and is one that I have grown fond of.  The majority of people that hear my choice (to Jet’s chagrin) like the name too.  Please keep giving us feedback, because we do appreciate it and look forward to reading it every day.  As for the middle name, I wanted it to be a Thai name.  Jet and her Mom had a couple of choices, but unfortunately I can’t remember what they were or I would share them with you!

Before I forget to mention, Jet and I had breakfast at Cracker Barrel on Sunday, which was the first time we had ever eaten there.  We figured that we had to go sometime soon since everyone down here was always raving about their food.  They were right!  I had pancakes with baked apple topping (which tasted just like Dad’s baked apples!) and Jet ordered the pork chop with special gravy and biscuits.  Outstanding.  I even tried the grits which were bearable after I added 10 small packets of sugar.  We are likely to go there again in the near future – for sure when Dad arrives here for the Talladega race next month.

Speaking of Talladega, we found out that our neighbors (Linda and Donald) are NASCAR fans, well, Donald is at least.  I am not sure if we have spoken much about Linda and Donald, but we visit them (two houses over) nearly every day and talk for at least an hour each time.  They are an older couple (early 60’s) and they are very kind to us.  In fact, they made homemade peach ice cream for us last weekend that was absolutely delicious!  The funny thing about our conversation yesterday was that when Donald asked me what driver my Dad and I liked, he replied (in his Southern accent) “Maat Ken-saath”!  It was priceless.  He happens to be pulling for Jimmy Johnson and Chevy.  Dad and Donald should get along great.

Baby Boy

Since I know that we are having a baby boy, I always think over and over about how much my family is so excited.  I am sure that Ciganek family will be excited too, but since our baby is number 10 in the family, I think that everyone is used to baby news. My mom is a little disappointed that we are having a boy because she really wanted to have alittle granddaughter around her. She wanted to buy lots of cute dresses and put her hair up. Oh well, I think she will be happy either way when baby is born. Hopefully, our baby boy will be loving boy like TY. My dad and my sister are very HAPPY because they wanted a boy first.  I remember that I said I didn’t want to have another baby for a while, but I think my mind has changed because I am sure that I want one little girl.  We went to baby R us yesterday to look at strollers and cribs.  There are so many diffirent styles, so we didnt’ get anything yet till we know what we like.  Andy didn’t help me much with the ideas and what we should get.  I guess it is up to me now.  I miss all of you so much because I know you will help me make a good decision.  Another thing now is that I have no-one to show my baby clothes to when I buy them because Andy won’t care so much.  I can’t wait to see my baby boy, but I forget to realize that I am only half way there!

We are trying to pick the name, but we still didn’t find one that both of us agreed on yet. Andy likes “Matthew” but I am not certain yet. What do you think, “Matt”?????

It’s a Boy!

Jet had her first doctor appointment in Alabama this morning and had her second ultrasound … it’s a boy!  The baby was VERY active (we have the videotape to prove) and is healthy … everything is normal.  Jet was very happy that the baby is a boy, I really did not have a preference (although Jet does not believe it).

First Day at Work

My first day at Colonial Bank went very well.  In the morning I had an orientation session in Anniston, and in the afternoon, I traveled to Pell city where I am going to work. I sat with the personal banker and tried my best to learn what I will have to do. There are a lot of customers that I saw here that I don’t think I would ever see in Wisconsin. It was not a typical day because there were two customers that came in simply to figure out why their check book wasn’t balanced. It took us about one hour for each customer and I couldn’t understand why they needed help since I never keep tracking my expenses from the back of my checking book (I always keep track of expenses online). There are a lot more that I have to learn, however, I am very excited since my title is “Supervisor” and it appears that I will have to handle a lot of different things and will be faced with a lot of different situations. My desk is at the front of the door of the branch (I don’t like it) but my manager said she wants me to greet every customer and that it is important for me to know all customers. I am also trying to get used to driving to work every day (about 30 miles or 25 minutes). Another big change is that I have to get a new look because now I am working directly with customers. As you know that all my shoes are high heels, so now I have the problem that I need new shoes in light of my pregnant. Now I think I would like to have another baby so it will be worth it for the money that I am spending on my new clothes and shoes .

Big Bash Scheduled

We are sending out invitations on Tuesday to all of the faculty members in the Math and Computer Science department at JSU for our housewarming/start-to-semester celebration to be held on Saturday, September 16.  With over 30 faculty members, it could get very crowded in our new home.  We have decided to make it a pot-luck dinner with each family bringing one dish from the “place of their origin”.  For example, Jet may be making Pud See Ew and Mussaman Curry while I will be making Beer Brats with Sauerkraut.  Should make for an interesting party.

First day of classes went well for me.  Typically on the first day of class I go over the syllabus, talk briefly about the course, and then let the class out early.  Since they have not read any material yet (or have even purchased the book), I just don’t think that it makes sense to stay the entirety of class.  The reason I bring this up is I may be the only faculty member that did this at JSU, so I was a bit nervous letting the class out early.  The undergraduate course had about 18 students, which is a good size.  However, the graduate course I taught in the evening had only 3 students!  I don’t know if the class will be cancelled, but I had no choice but the change the style of that class from a lecture to a sit-down discussion format.  I really hope they don’t cancel that class because I spent quite a bit of time preparing for that class and have a lot planned for the students.

Jet called Colonial Bank yesterday (Friday) to find out more about her job.  They had told her last week that they would contact Jet this week and let her know when her first day is.  After briefly talking with them, they told her to meet their HR people on Tuesday to start.  The bank then e-mailed her an unofficial offer letter and again reminded her that her first day is on Tuesday.  They then sent an additional e-mail with the dress code, which was very professional (suit coat and no open toed shoes).  Tomorrow we are planning on going to Birmingham so that she can bulk up her wardrobe.