tammyandtom.com

Poooooot. Exscuse me! Sheryl and Stephen getting comfy in the chair.

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I was just listening to Zoe and when I got up, I noticed that I left a nice ear print on Tammy’s belly!
It sounds amazing!

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Tammy has the fortune of seeing and feeling little Zoe move around. I felt her kick me in the ear the day before yesterday. Today, I was able to actually witness her belly jumping visually! I’m so excited! She is extra strong like the daddy! I hope she looks like the mommy. :).
The picture depicts the exact location of movement.

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The bad?  I was laid off last week.  It’s not the best of time since I have a child due in December and will have a child that relies on me in addition to a wife.  Of course I understand the business reasons but personally, it stinks.  

After the news, I went with friends on a 4 day trip that we officially named “Mancation 2.0″.  I had a great time and took time to clear my head.  Monday, I revised my resume from the ground-up.  Tuesday, Tammy reviewed and offered excellent corrections/advice on my resume.  The remainder of Tuesday consisted of posting my resume on job sites and on our website so I can link it everywhere.  Today, I am submitting it to applicable jobs and following leads.

I am going full speed to find another job.  This is where I am finding out how great people can react.  Tammy sent mail to her company’s HR department to find out about insurance and such.  She copied her boss to let him know of her request.  Immediately, he called her with concern and asked that I send a resume to her company and gave all of the contact information.  As others found out about my situation, they came running to help.  

Clif Smith has sent internal job postings - twice!  Rick Reeder has offered (and is still offering) numerous leads and assistance.  He even posted an outstanding recommendation on LinkedIn.  I have had calls/emails from Kevin Foster, Kirk Hubble and Dag Nybo at Vignette offering condolences and assistance if needed.  I can’t thank you all enough.  I would really like to thank Tammy (wife), Tan (wife’s boss), Clif, Rick, Kirk, Dag, Kevin and all others that have contacted/helped me.  You all make me feel SUPER special in a non-special time.  

Well, back to work on the job search.  My resume is posted here: http://tinyurl.com/tombraselton-resume.

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Tammy is making a little heart on her belly in our birthing class. How cute. We were practicing our breathing techniques.

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Mancation 2.0 has officially started! We have begun!

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They are both in the Snoogle. Too cute!

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I am a couple of days off of schedule but I did my “after two weeks” test. I was able to do 30 good pushups. That puts me in the hardest column again going in to week 3. It is looking good so far.

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Yep, that is it. That crazy thing has EVERYTHING on the planet!

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She is test driving her new van!

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I’m watching an old episode of the original Star Trek, Metamorphosis, and this is the episode where they first meet Zephram Cochran. He is the fellow that discovered Warp technology. His character was also featured in one of the “Next-Gen” movies. They are very consistant with their characters and information.

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When we found out about Zoe’s gender, Tammy and I visited the local Wal-Mart and went a bit crazy buying clothes.  Today, I reminded Tammy that it is tax-free weekend here in Texas.  She immediately came to attention and whisked me away to the mall.  We visited JC-Penny’s, Dillards and Janie & Jack.  We got clothes at each store.  There were many sales and we were able to save a bunch on taxes.  Please beware that Dillards was charging tax on our baby clothes.  Tammy had a sharp eye and saw it immediately.  They had to refund the bunch and start over while hitting the “no-tax” button for each.  It is a real scam.  There was another lady close to us that came back from shopping in the morning because she wanted her tax money back.  

Here is a scary sight, the clothes (click for larger image)!

Here are close-ups of the sections (they are BIG pictures if you click…):

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The kids are waiting patiently to go to sleep as mom reads a story to Zoe. It’s all good.

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I woke up this morning reading my Tweets on my iPhone while taking the dogs out at 06:00.  The application I use to read Twitter posts is called Twinkle.  I read all of the tweets from people that I have decided to “follow”.  These are people like @leolaporte, @typicalmacuser, @maccast, @kevinrose and so on.  They are all computer industry related people.  My normal scan for the  morning.  Most of the participants are at the New Media Expo in Las Vegas at this moment.  I like the ability to see what is happening in the industry in real-time.  It is a very interesting technology.  

I then switch to the “nearby” tweets.  You can configure Twinkle to see the latest nearby tweets.  It uses your current location to see who is close to you.  I was reading the tweets as normal and checked out some of the pictures.  The normal “beer bottle” pictures appeared as expected when people are describing their night out.  I was shocked seeing two of the pictures from the same user.  This is where my horror begins.  One of the pictures from this user was of his penis while it was urinating.  Another was of his penis while erect.  Immediately I begin to think about my little and unborn Zoe.  Twinkle is an innocent application as one would expect.  It is the users that make it scary.  I was thinking of all of the filters that I could apply to any computer that Zoe might use and how I could keep this stuff out of her view.  Twinkle would not have even been on my radar as an unsafe application.  

In thinking about all of messed up crap that my child will be exposed to, I begin to worry.  I can only hope to educate her to the best of my ability about the strange and dangerous people that are out there.  She has to know that it could be as close as the guy across the street that we say good morning to weekday mornings while going to school.  She has to be armed with as much information as I can give her to quickly asses situations and avoid any danger if necessary.  Hopefully, I can provide her ammo.  

Does anyone have advice that they would like to share that would educate/shield her from the freaks of this world?

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Too cute! I heard Tammy talking in the bedroom. I peek in and she is reading to Zoe! Ok, I teared up a little. That is AWESOME! I had to snap a picture.

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We ordered her minivan and my truck at the same time - 3/11/2008. I have had my truck for some time. We have not heard a peep about her van. We would casually ask about the van every now and then. When we reached the 5 month mark, Tammy started calling. David (Salesman) said he would call back a couple of times but did not. He would apologize but that was not getting the van to us any faster. I put on the “man pants” and gave him a ring. They were not able to get the “exact” one but got us one with a ton more options for close to the same price they originally quoted. I think she will be VERY happy as this thing is FULLY LOADED. It is missing one SMALL thing. That is it. Out of all of the options, it is missing a glass break sensor. No big deal as she will get an alarm with a remote-start anyway. That will include glass break. The van is coming from Houston and should be ready next week! Yay!

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I just finished putting her bed together. Many parts with a thick manual!

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Grandma Anne has already been hard at work. Zoe receives her first package today!

Note from Grandma Anne -

Package contents -

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I did this before encoding the ultrasound video. I just goofed around with a little clip of Tammy. Enjoy!

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This ultrasound showed us that our child is a GIRL!

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Lightning is now called Zoe Kathleen Braselton! It’s a GIRL! Break out the spoiled girl stuff!!!

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We picked this up yesterday evening for the baby. I couldn’t resist.

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I find it far too common for people to rant and rave about bad service.  I would like to praise the work of my wife’s doctor, Dr. Gus Freiha.  He is a Urologist in the San Marcos, Tx area.  

I’ll start with a small background about my wife’s situation.  She was 5+ months pregnant and I rushed her to the emergency room as she had a severe pain in her back along with vomiting and cramping.  After several hours in the emergency room, they transferred her into the hospital.  We spent several days there as she was diagnosed with a 12mm kidney stone which was successfully removed by Dr. Freiha.  

I was able to attend all meetings and discussions with my wife and Dr. Freiha.  The only time that I was not around was during surgery.  Dr. Freiha explained every detail of the surgery and left little room for questions.  The questions that did arise were answered politely and with great detail.  He spent ample time with us and we never felt rushed.  Prior to my wife entering the operating room, Dr. Freiha explained every step.  He told me that he would come see me in approximately 45 minutes, explain how things went, then go back and she should be ready in about an hour.  I did not have to wonder about what I should do or how long I had.  I waited 45 minutes, had a discussion with the doctor and had time to get a quick lunch before seeing my wife again.  I never felt left out or wondering what was going on.  I could almost picture every event in my head. 

Our follow-up visits have been just as smooth.  He removed her stent in his office and explained everything to the second.  She knew when to expect pain and for how long.  This made the process extremely smooth.  When you know that there is pain coming, it is good to know that it will end very soon (stent removal only gets a little bit of local numbing).  He even considered our child in all of this ordeal.  He asked that we come back after the child is born so he can get complete x-rays to check the other kidney.  He could not be as thorough as he would like to be as there was a baby in her belly.  

If I should ever need medical help in the future, I hope that I would be lucky enough to find someone as good as Dr. Freiha.  I would recommend his service any day.

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It’s Sunday. We are at Cracker Barrel again. We ate breakfast at home and we are having lunch here. Well, she is having lunch. I am having breakfast number two.

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Little ibbi is resting on Daddy’s pillow. She thinks that she is human!

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Well, I finally got her to get a haircut. I think it looks great! It is pretty short.

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Mamacita’s for dinner then Batman for desert! Yay!

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Olive Garden’s soup and salad. We had to wait in Home Depot for the restaurant to open.
I learned that you can rent tools in Home Depot. A small thing but I learned something new. We also looked at sheds. Just to look.

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She is just going up on the rack for a checkup after the kidney ordeal. I’m there to coach and offer guidance.

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I saw a tweet that Kevin Rose was going to join the hundred pushups challenge.  I decided to join the challenge too!  If you are going to do it also, drop me an email.

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