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  Opps, Sorry Sandra for the outdated material.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!

The last sevearl months have been really busy with school!  I was taking Quantitative Business Analysis, Systems Analysis and Design, as well as Spanish I.  Not a good combination of classes to take at one time!  Especially when I had a two week vacation planned.  That vacation cost me a C in Spanish versus a B-.  I lost 50 points for missing two classes and that made the difference.  Of course, I found Spanish to be the most challenging course I have taken!  I still not very confident in what I have learned and I have to take Spanish II starting in January!

We did have a good time on vacation to Florida and on a Cruise.  We spent four nights on Carnival’s new ship the Splendor.  The ship was very nice, though very very long! (3 footballs fields in length).  After that we spend Thanksgiving week with Jennifer’s Aunt Shirley and Uncle Bo.  We always enjoy visiting them and I guarentee anybody that visits will never be hungry!  Then we spent a day with my Sister and her family.  Wish we could have spent more time there, but with them in school and us having a two day drive… it just wasn’t possible this time.   Erica and Isabella were with us, and I believe Isabella found plenty of attention!

Now I am on a very much needed break!  I am off work and school until the first week of January.  It feels good not having the pressure of something that must get done.  Though there is plenty of work around the house that needs done, just haven’t got in the spirit of doing it yet!

We are scheduled to move to North Carolina around June.  Lots to do in order to prepare for a move.  I will be busy in January and February in school with another 3 courses, and then it will calm a bit as I finish my last two classes in March and April.   I hope we can start seriously searching for a home around April time frame.

I will be working to update this site over the next couple weeks.  You may find it changing and then changing again.  I do not have a set idea in mind yet, so I will experiment with different themes, widgets and plug-ins until I find something I like.  So check back every now and again for updates to the look and feel, as well as content.

Have a Merry Christmas and Safe Holiday season.

This past Thursday August 14, 2008,  Mack Trucks CEO announced Mack Trucks, Inc. World Headquarters in Allentown along with Mack Test Center in Allentown are moving to Greensboro, NC.  All jobs except for about 200 will leave Allentown in 2009 and 2010, including IT where I currently work.  So what does this mean for me?  I will find out next week what options I have, but it looks like I will either have to move to NC, or loose my job.   Stay tuned for more updates to come.

If we move, it probably will not be until sometime in 2009.  I am hoping I can finish my B.S. degree in April before anything happens.  Stay tuned for more info on what our future looks like.  I am taking a positive thought approach and praying this is a big blessing.  Any way you look at it though, it is an end to another era in my career.  I started in NC and worked there 8 years, then moved to Middletown PA for 5 years, and I have been in Allentown 10 years.  Where and what the next era holds…..stay tuned.