Erica has created a page at Caring Bridge to keep people update on Raymond’s progress.  You can follow his progress by visiting  http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/raymondchristopher .

I only have eight more weeks of School!!  I am excited, but I guess that will be squashed when the student loan payments start.  But for now, YEAH!  All I have to complete is my Senior Seminar which includes a project for an area School district, and a research paper with teaching the subject to the class one night.  And I have a Liturature class to complete.  I still plan to continue in the Master program, but until I move and get settled, that has to wait.  Hopefully this one year wait won’t turn into 20 like the last time I waited a year!

Jennifer and I are going to New York City tomorrow to do a ship inspection on NCL’s ship the Gem.  Should be nice as it is NCL’s newest ship in their fleet.  I will spend the morning touring the ship, then lunch and the afternoon will be spent exploring and taking pictures to show clients.  Should be a nice day.  We might wander around NYC in the afternoon depending on how tired we are.

I plan to sign the papers on Monday to put our house on the market.  Little scary with all that is going on in the economy and with the drastic cuts Volvo has been making.  My area at work is like a ghost town.  I remember as little as four years ago we didn’t have enough space for all the employees.  We have eliminated most of our contractors and now it is so quiet!  At the end of March, we start loosing employees that have chosen not to move with the company, so it will only get worse.

I have added a couple pictures of Raymond. All are doing good. Erica is suppose to come home on Thursday, and of course Raymond will stay for at least 7 weeks.  Follow the pictures link above and click on the picture to see a larger image.

We are proud grandparents again! Yes, Erica did have the baby 2 months early today. She was admitted to the hospital on Friday as they felt the baby was not moving around enough and they knew he had some problems with his heart as well as he was behind in development. This morning they felt the baby was in distress, so they went ahead and took him. He weighed in at 2 lbs, 13oz. They also said he has down syndrome. At this time, I don’t have a lot of information, but I believe it is a mild case of DS. Any way, he is so tiny, but absolutely precious. He is named Raymond Christopher Burch, after his father Chris and Chris’s father. He will be in intensive care for at least six weeks. I can’t wait until he is progressed enough that I can hold him!

It will be a rough road ahead, but I am sure Erica is capable of the challenges. All your prayers are appreciated. I will post more later, with some pictures.

Ok, So I planned to work on my site over the holidays.  But as you can see, not much was done or added to the site. 

I am still here though, but again very busy!  My classes started again in January and as I mentioned before…. Spanish II is killing me!  I just don’t get it!  I memorize material and then a week later it is foreign to me (pun intended.)  Oh well, if I can just pass the class, it will be over in three more weeks!  My Managerial Finance class is going very good.  Seems the financial subjects have all come easy to me for some reason.  Guess I know more than I thought about accounting and financial management.  I am also in my Senior Seminar.  That class is fun and not to hard.  I am working with two other students on a project for one of the local school systems, and I have a subject that I have to teach to the class one night.  Not bad for a Senior class.

Ok, so I know people are occasionaly visiting my site.  I mentioned something to a co-worker the other day and she said “Oh yeah, I read that on your site.”  Opps, Sorry Sandra for the outdated material.  I will get this site in shape…..some day! (of course I may steal some quotes from her for this site.  She is good at finding decent quotes.)

I recieved a phone call today from a long time old friend, Dee.  I was quite surprised to hear from her as we haven’t talked in several years.  Unfortunately she had some bad news… Cecil Hardison, a former friend, died this past week at age 45.  I will always remember Cecil as a kind wonderful person.  I haven’t seen him in nearly 20+ years, but I can only imagine he was a better person than even I remember!  As for Dee, call me sometime with good news!  Dee and I were once very good friends as most of life involved her and her family in some way.  Hard to imagine how we have gone so long without talking.

I hope to have my house on the market sometime this month.  Anybody looking for a nice 4 bedroom home?  I met with 2 realtors last week and I was very pleased with the list price and expected price they believed I should get.  Ideally it would be nice to find a buyer that is willing to wait until May to close, or willing to close and rent back to us until June.  I don’t think we will have trouble selling our house as we live in a desired neighborhood, and very desirable School district.  Homes are moving in this area, just not as fast as they were two years ago, and definately not with multiple offers as 2-3 years ago.   Just keep my fingers crossed that mortgage rates stay down for another six months or so.

Well, there you have it… a short update, but an update none the less!