The Arrival of Elizabeth (Part 1)

The 911 Communications Center, Friday, July 21, 2017 at 04:30. All is quiet. The admin line rings and is for me. Sarah is 2 days away from her due date.

The following transcript is written to the best of my recollection and partially (like 30-35%) fabricated.

"This is Mike"

"Hey, I think my water broke, but I'm not sure. It wasn't a lot." - Sarah

"Okay, does your back still hurt?" - Me

"Yeah, a lot." - Sarah

"What do you want to do?" - Me

"I'm not sure. What  do you think?" - Sarah

"Well if you aren't having contractions yet and your not sure about your water breaking then maybe we should hold off for a bit. Wouldn't want to have to be in the hospital for hours again for nothing. We live like 2 minutes away." - Me

"True. Okay." - Sarah

*Click* (probably some "I love you's" in there)

About an hour passes and the phone rings again. It's for me. I know it is time to leave.

"This is Mike."

"Hey my water definitely just broke." - Sarah

"How far apart are your pains?" - Me (like I know what I'm talking about)

"About 5 minutes. Maybe less." - Sarah

"Let's go." - Me

I got clearance from the boss to leave work and immediately headed home to pick up the now contracting wife. It was time to go to the hospital.

She somehow puts up with me.

Emily's Graduation Party

So where was I? Oh, yeah. I got up from my extended nap or short sleep if you will and went to Emily's Graduation Party. It was held at the Abbe Road Baptist Church, the same place as her brother's six years ago. The turnout was nice and the food was fantastic (priorities). I didn't get many, but here are some pictures of the event.

Clearly an underachiever (fun fact: I had to auto correct "underachiever").

2017 Kerstetter 5k

Today was a busy day, at least by my standards. I got off work at 7am and immediately went over to the Elyria Police Department where I would be running the Kerstetter 5k. I ran the race last year for the first time and even though I was thoroughly exhausted I had a good time. This year I was going to walk it with a very pregnant Sarah, but plans got mixed up and she had to work. I didn't want to walk by myself so I decided the run it again...without any training...extremely out of shape.

For those that don't know, the race started in 2010, the year that Sgt. Jim Kerstetter of the Elyria Police Department was shot and killed in the line of duty. Jim was a good guy. I knew him briefly while working at Giant Eagle. He would pick up the security details there and would bring in his family's computers for me to work on while I was assuredly supposed to be doing other things. He also earned the nickname "Sponge" because he would pick up all the available special details, including those at Giant Eagle. I guess when you have a wife and three daughters in high school/college, you gotta do what you gotta do. The race's proceeds go to the Kerstetter 5k Scholarship Fund and the run is conducted to preserve his memory and the memory of all fallen police officers. Here are a few pictures from the event.

I got there a little earlier so I took advantage of the time by snapping a few shots of the Black River and the falls.

Sarah's 27th Birthday

This past weekend was Sarah's 27th birthday. We planned a day full of fun and adventure that we thought might have to be cancelled due to a hospital visit on Friday.

We thought that the baby may have decided to show up a little early.