If you haven’t been back to kimandedjr.com  since I last wrote about it, here is a friendly reminder.   Kim has already written two blog posts and there are some good conversations going on over there.   She seems to be  falling into a weekend blogger, which is the complete opposite of myself, so be sure to check in at least weekly.   We haven’t added any new baby pictures yet, but lately all the talk is about baby names.   We had the chance  to visit some friends of ours who just had twin boys, and they also got us thinking about all the fun stuff we are going to need in the near future.   Busy times are ahead!

If you haven’t already heard, I am going to be  a father!   Kim is pregnant and due on January 14, 2011.   We couldn’t be more excited.   We have lots to do between now and then with the house, so I’m sure the time will really fly by.   We converted our old wedding website into a blog for baby updates, so be sure to check out kimandedjr.com.   There are already a bunch of ultrasound photos there and I’m sure there will be many more to follow.   I’m trying to convince Kim to post on the blog, and hopefully she will add an entry soon.   Be sure to check back regularly for updates on the baby.

Originally today was supposed to be a vacation day, but things are pretty crazy at work recently, with another deadline coming at the end of next week.   Kim has been out of town this whole week, and when she returned last night, she brought along her youngest brother, Nick.   He will be staying with us through the weekend and then flying back to Cincinnati on Sunday.   We have lots of exciting plans for the weekend, so I’m hoping to finish up a few things here at work today and then not think about it at all until Monday.   I already missed bowling today and a stop at Chipotle.

Awhile back I uploaded a family tree to Geni.com.   At some point in grade school I created an electronic version of my family tree by copying a paper copy along with some help of my parents.   The file that I created is eventually what I uploaded to Geni.com, which is partially visible here.   The cool thing is that this site can automatically find matches between your tree and other trees, and if both parties approve the trees can be merged.   Over the weekend I was constantly merging trees and have emailed back and forth with a couple of distant relatives.   It’s especially cool to find out that you have things in common with some of these people, like occupations and interests.   I even found out that the Naked Cowboy is a distant relative, my third cousin once removed.

I hope I don’t jinx myself, but my allergies seem to have disappeared. While others are reaching for allergy pills, I haven’t taken any since sometime last year and I’m feeling fine. I brought along some Claritin on my trip this week but the only time I’ve opened them was to give one to a coworker. I’ve heard that this is one of the worst allergy seasons in recent years, so my cure couldn’t have come at a better time.

*knocks on wood*

Please keep Kim and her family in your thoughts and prayers.   Her last surviving grandparent passed away over the weekend at the age of 84.   As Kim often said, I wish I could have met her before she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.   From what I’ve heard, she lived a wonderful life, which was even evident to me in the few years I knew her.

DIERSING Lucille (nee Vetter), beloved wife of the late Elmer Diersing, dear mother of Jim (Susan) Diersing, John (Diane) Diersing, Mary (Chuck) Hais, Jerry Diersing, Carol (Joe) Ransick, Joe Diersing, Jay (Denice) Diersing, Betty (Mike) Tepe and Jeff (Sarah) Diersing, dear friend of Maury Drummey, grandmother of 27, great-grandmother of 7, sister of the late John Vetter and Betty Nolte. Died Saturday, March 06, 2010 age 84 years. Visitation will be held at Bayley Place Wednesday 12 noon until time for the Mass of Christian Burial at 1 PM. Burial St. Joseph Old Cemetery. In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, 4420 Carver Woods Drive (45242) or to Bayley Place, 990 Bayley Place (45233). Condolences may also be expressed to the family online at www.rebold.com.

Thank goodness! It’s been a busy week. Fortunately it was fast as well. Hope everyone has a good weekend. More from me next week.

I just wrapped up another uneventful trip to the dentist, which is a good thing, right?   I had a quick cleaning and evaluation with no problems found.   I really like this dentist that I’ve been seeing for the past year.   The office is pretty much a two women shop, obviously one is the dentist and the other is just the receptionist.   That’s right, there are no hygienists in this office.   Instead, the dentist is the one who actually cleans teeth, while doing the evaluation at the same time.   So rather than just seeing the dentist for a few minutes at the end of your appointment, you get to spend your entire visit with one.   I think this leads to a great quality of care, not to mention that she is really nice and efficient.   If you are in the Denver area, I highly recommend seeing Pamela Rotwein.

Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of the Lenten season.   Traditionally, it is the day to officially give something up for forty days.   Unfortunately I don’t have any good ideas for myself.   I can’t think of too many vices that I could easily do away with.   I don’t really snack or eat chocolate.   I’m not a big soda drinker and haven’t been drinking caffeine much at all recently.   I feel like those are the big items that most people usually fall back on, but none of them really apply.   A cousin of mine is giving up alcohol, but I’m already drinking much less than I had previously.   I don’t really want to cut it out completely, especially with my 30th birthday falling before Easter.   So, does anyone else have any good ideas or want to comment on what they are giving up?   I haven’t eaten meat today, which is not normally a tradition I take part in.   Maybe I’ll actually give up meat on Fridays for once, though that’s a bunch of pizza between now and Easter.

Over the years I’ve become accustomed to receiving a rather large tax refund check around this time of year.   Last year, after filing our taxes, I went along with Turbo Taxes suggestion to rework our W-4’s so that we neither owe a large amount or receive a large refund.   The theory behind this is that we get to keep more of our earnings throughout the year so that we can invest it ourselves.   Well, it actually worked.   We will likely owe around $200 to the federal government, while our state refund will still be a few hundred bucks.   The question now is where exactly did all of that extra money go throughout the year.   I’m not really sure that we have much more invested than we normally do.   I guess we should put more of each paycheck aside this year so we can really see the difference it makes.