informing the world, one post at a time

It’s been a while since i’ve given you all an update for what’s been going on with us in our erm, “happy little family”. We moved to coos bay to work for a call center here, ACS. Were currently living with sabrina’s aunt however are expected to be able to move into our own place friday, so that will be nice. I’m not saying I don’t like staying here, but as the saying goes, there’s no place like home. We are both doing good at our jobs, but i’m still waiting for sprint to get it on there site for jaws to work right so that I might personally take calls. One of these days however, i’ll log into our software and it’ll come up talking. That’ll be nice. Right now however, i’m taking calls and someone else is doing the work. I then have to talk with the customer as the other person tells me what’s going on on the screen. A bit of work, but totally doable.
I also listen into calls so that I have a better chance of being able to have my calls “Flow” when I do finally take calls. For the most part it’s working well. I however, have to admit that I can’t wait to be able to take my own calls. When I can i’ll be doing a lot of OT, and so Sabrina doesn’t have to listen to me bitch and stuff, smile.
Nicholas is doing wonderful. He has a doctor appointment tomorrow after work, so we’ll get him his shots, and his weight. When we did take him to the doctor a couple of weeks ago, he did way 14lbs, and was looking healthy. However, tomorrow is his wellness checkup appointment with shots given as well.
Anyways, as I said things are going well. We can’t wait to be in our own place, and do like it down here. I miss alaska a bit however, but think honestly in the long run this being down here is going to be for the best for all of us. You know, if you look back in my blog, like a year or so you’ll see how much I didn’t like alaska, and now I miss/like it? It’s strange how so much can change…
Anyways that’s it for now. I’ll update again when I have time and something to say.

The life of having a baby home hasn’t been to bad in the aspect of him being around and our lives adjusting to his needs and requirements. He’s as I type this laying on the couch making a lot of noises and getting to the stage that I am not sure if it’s the Crying noises or the just playing around noise. I however guess if he’s hungry he’ll tell me…
Wedding planning goes ahead however with wedding planning comes the stress of finances. I would really love to stay in Coffman right now as it’s the most cost effective however on the flip side of that, it’s also becoming expensive. Not only are we, me and Sabrina not working but this summer were going to have to rely on my adult public assistance and my social security income. That’s a total of $1036 for 2 adults and a baby to live on. Granted yes we get food stamps however food stamps can’t pay sabrina’s truck bill and nor can they pay for our wedding. So, this is a very stressful time of life right now because of the lack of finances. And though I would have had near $2400 extra this summer semester relieving a lot of the stress, because i didn’t get very good grades this past semester they moved me to a non degree seeking student making me not eligible for financial aid this summer semester. So, there’s another $2406 bill that i have to figure out on my own to pay. Yes, very stressful and it’s about time something comes our way giving us something that can help and make some of the stress go away. At least until august as that’s when things should be a bit better in the aspect of finances. But i do firmly believe in the phrase, “Everything happens for a reason”. Lets see what this reason is? I have to admit however that if we lived down south we would have to be concerned with expensive rent bills, food, bills, and i wouldn’t get my APA, adult public assistance. So, right now Coffman is the best bet for us but it’d be nice if there were more jobs. I’m sure everyone in town feels this, smile.
Nicholas is rolling over half way so that’s good. For those of you who have me on your Facebook you can view photos of him. He’s growing a lot and when he was last wade he was 8.5 pounds and 21 and 3 quarter inches long. I know that doesn’t sound like a whole lot however, he’s growing a lot. That’s over 4 pounds since he was born in only 2 months. If he keeps growing like that he’ll be 48 pounds by his first birthday wow.
I would love to say everything’s going ok, however, until we can get our finances figured out life isn’t going the best. If anyone has any ideas, were waiting, smile.
Thanks all
Mike–Out

Our Microsoft access instructor asked some good questions, and i thought some of you may want to read my responses to his questions, so here you go.
Kevin;
Wow, Lotus Notes/Domino haven’t seen that in a while. Do people still use it? I haven’t seen that since 8th grade, and then i was just a user, and didn’t get to look at the administration side of the software at all, and as you will soon see below, administration sides of stuff is what makes me happy.
Who are you and where are you located?
Well, my name is Michael Babcock, and on many social networking sites i’m often known as “Creepyblindy”, i’m sure you’ll understand in a bit. I live in Coffman Cove, a small town on the prince of whales out of Ketchikan. However, for the time being i’m in seattle as my soon to be wife just had a baby on march 5th. Nicholas was early, 33 weeks, and so they have kept us here for a month. However the word came today that we should get to go home in a week or less. Ah, what it will be like to sleep in my own bed again…
Why are you taking this particular class?
I have always had a major intrust in databases ever since i found out that stuff can be kept in databases. I think the first database i ever worked with was my blog’s database, and to be honest, i haven’t done anything with it really. It’s the whole concept that makes me smile, you can put a lot of stuff in a database, write a script, and get that information displayed to a user? Wow. Oh, and well i thought Access might be a better place to start if i want to know about mysql more, as i don’t know if there is a mysql course in the UA system.
Do you have any previous background with database software? With MS Access  specifically?
Well, i do a little. I have never used access before. I however have used a bit of mysql. I run a site that is database driven, and we get about 2-3 support tickets opened a day, and as many if not more responses to those tickets. I have a friend manage the database, however if i can eliminate him from the picture then so be it. I would rather manage it if possible. I assume that mysql is a bit different then access yet also assume that if I can master access, then the likelihood of me being able to master mysql is drastically increased.
What is your aim? (This is a different question than “why are you taking this class?”. What do you want to get out of the class?
I want to be able to learn more about the database concept, and apply this to reel world life examples. There for being able to increase my general database knowledge and use it to apply to website development projects.
Tell us one thing about yourself that the rest of us can associate with your personality.
For the most part, i don’t let anything get me down. Something can hurt my feelings, however i would not show it and normally people would not know that it hurt me. Sometimes i think this is bad, but because of something else (soon to be known), it is beneficial.
Something about me:
Well, something that you can also associate with me is that i’m blind. I use screen reading software, voiceover on the mac and iphone, and jaws or system access n windows. I don’t let this get me down at all, and i’ve attended public schools all of my life, excluding a two week assessment that i had to attend at the school for the blind in Oregon.
Useless Trivia Question #1: what was the last book you read?
That would be “Kiss the girls” by James Patterson, and right now i’m reading “Jack and Jill” by the same author. I now need to find the book that kevin talked about in his introduction post, “Little Brother”, as i loved the monkey wrench books, and have the new one coming out on april 29th on pre order from amazon.

this is a quick update to let you all know what’s going on. We are still in seattle, mainly because the doctor and nurses want nicholas to do his best when he goes home. They want him to drink 8 complete bottles, about 2 ounces each, before they will let us go home. This is in a day. He got up to 6, and he just had a bad day, so the next day they dropped us back down to 2. He did his 4, to the best of my knowledge yesterday, so today’s goal should be 5 bottles. Followed by 6, etc tomorrow and onward. However, if he gets back to 6, and they try to drop him back down to 2 again, i feel i might ask if they drop him, to not do it so much as obviously he can do 4 for say because he’s done it twice. However, lets hope it doesn’t come to that.
The doctor said that we should be home “with in a week or less, but way before his original due date”, this is april 21st. So, i will let you know when we get to bring the little guy home. He’s getting bigger though, as of yesterday morning, his weight was albs, 2 ounces, 2 lb. in just under a month, not to bad. He’s also 19 inches long.
Well, here’s to us getting to go home to alaska soon.
mike

A question that i have never thought about came to me a few moments after walking home from the hospital. I had never thought about it, and guess that this is because when we had to do this we didn’t have to pay. George asked me if he could go to Ketchikan once, and maybe stay at the homeless shelter. Well, we found out that they charge $5 a night to stay there. And on the way back from the hospital it hit me, why does a “homeless” shelter charge “Homeless” people to stay the night there? I guess i can’t fathom this idea… And to be honest, don’t homeless shelters get donations? If they do, then why do they charge homeless people to stay there? Doesn’t the government have some sort of program to help get homeless people off the streets? Normally they don’t bother me, but, is it to much to ask our government that is now giving every person in the united states medical, but they can’t give a person a bed to sleep on? Please, leave us some comments.

I thought that you all would like to get a quick update. Those of you on Facebook, and twitter are best to know what’s going on with nicholas, however, sometimes it’s good to just update everyone all at once.
First of all, Sabrina created nicholas a website. You can view it here:

Nicholas Dean Babcock

Second of all, nicholas has a goal of eight feedings by bottle. He made 2 on saturday, and sunday he had 2, however didn’t want the third. As of right now we don’t know if they gave him the third one and he took it at 11:00PM. However, if he didn’t then we will try it with him again today.
He is eating 46 CC’s, just over 1.5 ounces right now. And he seems to be taking this good however, at times i think they might be giving him a bit much. At 40 cc’s, he starts to get sleepy and is normally out by 45 cc’s, the 1.5 ounce mark. But, may be they are feeding him enough.

We also learned yesterday that nicholas ways 5 pounds. Yep, that’s right he went down to 3 pounds 14 ounces, however, is back up to 5 pounds. I think it’s because his favorite nurse returns tuesday and he wants to way a lot for her, smile.

Right now we don’t know when we will get to go home, however for the sake of all our sanity we hope soon. I told the nurses at the nurse station that “I hope we don’t have to see you for much longer,” and they laughed and said they hope so as well. If all goes to plan then i guess we should be home or headed home on the first.

Anyways that’s a quick update for you all so you know what’s going on. Keep an eye on 
My twitter
and
my facebook
for updates.
mike

nicholas is no longer in the NICU, they moved him to the second floor, i forget what it’s called. This means that mom and visitors can go visit him more often. This also means he’s doing better, so i figured i’de just update you all. He also, acquired a slight case of jaundice this morning, however, everyone’s telling me that a lot of babies get this, and i think all of my brothers did as well; therefor, i’m not to worried about it. I got to hold him, and wow, he’s small. But cute to.
mike

Nicholas dean Babcock was born at 01:54AM PST, at 33 weeks. He was 4.16
pounds and 16 inches long.
It was a quick delivery, only 4 hours. We are in the sweetish medical center
in seattle right now, and he will be in ICU for at least 3 weeks, however,
they have his release as 04-21. 04-21 is Nicholas’s original due date.
However, he’s breathing with out oxygen, so this is good.
Please, keep an eye on both

http://gwfans.net

and

http://twitter.com/creepyblindy

for updates on us. We will be in seattle until  Nicholas comes home, and are
trying to get medical for the state of alaska to pay for our hotel, and the
social worker just informed us that Sabrina has medical and she just needs to do some more stuff in order for the baby to get medical.
Anyways all, i just wanted to update you.

good day;
it’s been a while since the last time I wrote a blog, so I thought I would go ahead and write one, update you guys all on everything that’s been going on, as well as to just say In effect, not a lot has happened lately. I do have to admit though, you last night, I had the chance to go ahead and feel the baby kicking for the first time. Sabrina, claims it was quite active, and yes I have to admit that I could believe that. It’s exciting, yet scary at the same time. I know a lot of people do it, but I’m sure it might get easier after time. Am I scared? Yes. However, I feel i’ll be able to be a good dad, at least that’s what a lot of people tell me.
it’s a new year, new resolutions are in order. did I keep any of my 2009 resolutions? Well, I think I did. Though I’m not quite sure, if I even made any. It’s possible that I didn’t. However, this year I do know that I have a few. Whether or not I’ll go ahead and keep those, I’m not quite sure, however, I will sure as hell try my best.
The first of which has to be of course, being a good dad. I know that this is something that will be an ongoing resolution for me probably, for the rest of my life. However, let’s go ahead and start 2010 with a wonderful resolution. I., Michael Babcock, resolved to be an excellent father for the child to be.
and, my second resolution, will be what everyone else tends to make a resolution of. And the likelihood of me keeping it, I have to admit, it’s very likely. I resolved to lose approximately 20 pounds by the end of the year. Not that much weight, but it’s something that I think I might be able to do. Running around with the new kid might make it even easier.
The third and final resolution to have the 2010, is to be able to become more financially stable. Though, my financial situation isn’t too terribly bad, it can’t hurt to have more financial stability in my life. 2010, will be the year of finances. Or, at least that’s what I hope.
So there’s a few news resolutions that I need to go ahead and keep. Whether or not i’ll be able to do that, I guess time will see. I really need to learn to update my blog more often, as that would eliminate the purpose of me doing quite lengthy blog entries. Is it bad that I’d rather dictate my blogs now and type them? I don’t think so, I have the software, so why not use it?
I have one more resolution. It goes along with my third resolution of bringing financial stability in my lifehowever, it is slightly unrelated. I., for the fourth resolution of 2010, resolved to find myself a stable job. See, a kind of ties into the fair resolution of becoming financially stable in the year 2010. But, it’s still different.
Well bloggers, I think that’s it for now. Please, leave your comments on the blog and or on Facebook, and I’ll be sure to reply to please most of you.
tell me, in your comments, what are your New Year’s resolutions?
with my best regards
sincerely
Michael A. Babcock.
Mike — – — – — – out

hi bloggers;
So here’s what’s going on. I am traveling to Sitka next week, well this week whatever you want to call it. I leave the 15th and come back the 19th. I will be there for that week doing some testing and stuff to get me the ability to get some assistance with job placement in the state of alaska. So they are paying for my ferry trip, flight, hotel, and food so I’m not complaining. THis will however be the first time i have traveled 100% alone on a plain, so i hope all goes well. I will be with sheffield though so i guess i have to trust him a lot.
I will blog, or should blog when i get to the hotel monday night. Right now how it goes is i will go over with sabrina’s dad to ketchikan, find something to do for a few hours then go to the airport. This should be rather ok and i hope to be able to find my way to the hotel on monday night, shouldn’t be a problem, so i guess i’ll just update when i get there and let you all know how it’s going.
So here’s to safe travel, and well a fun week.
mike