May 25, 2009

Baby On The Way! For Real This Time!

I know that some of you were mad at me when I chose to play an April Fool's joke about Heather's pregnancy on Facebook but I just wanted to make an official announcement and say for real this time, "Heather and I are expecting to have another baby on December 11, 2009."

To answer some questions that you may wonder about, No we will not find out the sex early. No we will not tell you the names we have picked out. Yes we will accept any baby donations you are willing to give.

We are very excited and can't wait to add another member to the Bashaw family.

P.S. Emma is convinced it will be a boy this time. Well actually a while ago Emma said, "Mommy had 2 babies in your tummy. A boy and a girl." Then it changed to just one baby, a girl. But now she knows for sure it is one baby, a boy.

Happy Birthday

I recently celebrated a birthday and turned the ripe old age of 29. It was a wonderful birthday.

So let's recap. My birthday fell on a Wednesday. I woke up and went to work. Sounds pretty exciting so far huh? During the day at work I kept thinking about what I would be doing later that night. Heather works on Wednesday nights, Emma and I go to church for Wednesday night activities. I just assumed that we (the family) would partake in some fun activities on the weekend. During work Heather sent me a text and asked what I wanted for my birthday dinner, sloppy Joe's or tator tot hot dish. I chose sloppy Joe's. Well as work was wrapping up my friends asked what I was going to do later that night. I said well go home, eat supper with Emma (remember Heather works) and then go to church. They wished me a happy birthday and I was on my way home.

Now the plot thickens, I arrived home to a wonderful greeting from Emma and Heather on the back deck. They greeted me with hugs and kisses and many happy birthdays. We proceeded inside when I noticed a pot on the stove without the stove on. I went over to check the stove and Heather had put a note in a pot that read, "Happy Birthday We are eating out at Blackwoods." I was very excited to learn Heather got her shift covered and had the night off. I then asked if we were going out to eat by ourselves. Heather said our friends weren't able to make it.

Plot gets even thicker. As I began to get ready for dinner, Emma says, "Daddy guess what?"

I say, "What?"

"Stephanie, Cory, Kelli and Matt are coming out to dinner with us," Emma says with a big huge smile on her face. I look over at Heather who says, "Emma you ruined the surprise."

Heather had got all our friends together to have a great birthday dinner with us. I was super excited and because of Heather I had a wonderful 29Th birthday.

Watch out world, coming next year the big 3-0.

Fishing

Tis the season for fishing. The fishing season is upon us and many have embarked on the journey to the open waters hoping to catch the big one. Today was my day to try and get that big one on the St. Louis River. I am very lucky my father has a nice boat we can use to get out and enjoy nature. So to make a long story short, during the 5 hours of fishing today I did not get a nibble, a bite or even see a fish at the end of my line. I did however get to witness my wife catch her very first walleye (2.4 lbs). She was very excited. And can you believe she caught this fish within the first 10 minutes of fishing. In the back of my mind I was thinking, "wow this is going to be a fun day." Well unfortunately it was the only fish we saw all day. Despite only one fish in 5 hours it was a wonderful day.
I remember when I was young and I wouldn't last a single hour without complaining to my dad, "Where are all the fish dad?" When I was young I remember thinking, "How can he (my dad) do it? Sit in a boat all day long and not catch anything and be the happiest man alive." Now without any explanation I can honestly say fishing all day long is one of the most fun activities I can do.


So why do I love to fish even when I don't get anything all day long? There is just something about sitting in a boat, enjoying the water, holding a pole and trying my best to get something on the end of my line. I love the challenge and despite not getting a single bite, I would prefer to fish. I don't know how to explain it.

May 1, 2009

I LOVE My Wife!!!


Isn't she beautiful!!!!


I am so proud. She just finished Grandmas Half Marathon in 2008.

At the Big Sand Dune in North Carolina.


We are very happy together!



She looks pretty sexy in those shoes!

Crazy Hair Party!














Emma convinced Heather and Kelli to have a crazy hair party!


Christmas Pictures of Emma!


Santa how about for Christmas you give me some Barbies, clothes, and how about a Dora book!





Wow Emma got everything she asked Santa for. It is amazing how that works!

Pandora Radio

Pandora Radio was recently introduced to me and I wanna take time to pass on this great site to everyone. If you Google Pandora Radio you can get yourself signed up for one of the best music sites out there.

This site allows you to pick your favorite band and then you will get to hear other bands with the same type of genre. Some genres I enjoy are U2, Coldplay and the Newsboys. Once the music is playing you can give the song a thumbs up or thumbs down depending on if you like the song or not. If you give the thumbs down you will never hear that song ever again. Once you have picked some songs of your liking you will get a wider range of music and often times you will not have a repeated song. Another benefit of Pandora is when you open a new window you can surf the net and listen to a good variety of music while you do whatever it is you do on the Internet.

Another benefit of Pandora Radio if you have an iPhone (who doesn't have an iPhone?) you can download the free Pandora Radio Application and listen to this music where ever you may be.

I really wish I would have known about this website sooner because I really love it now. With the Internet being so big it is always nice to pass on some good sites to everyone so they get a chance to check it out. For those of you who have never heard of Pandora Radio I have a strong suspicion you will enjoy it. Check it out.

Disturbing Day Care Story

The Bashaw family has been quite lucky for the past 4 years to have had a wonderful day care provider. At the beginning of March our world was flipped upside down when we learned Emma's day care provider would be retiring at the beginning of April. When we got the news, I was quite disappointed but I thought we could find another good place. Well, this search is harder than I thought it would be and I want to take the time to share a disturbing day care story.

Heather and I found a new place we thought would be perfect. Emma's new place was closer to my work, flexible hours, and we could have more vacation days. Well to our surprise it was far from perfect. One Friday morning I dropped Emma off and headed to work. After a long day of work I went to pick her up. To my surprise Emma came over to me wearing a "new" pink hat. I quickly asked her, "Where did you get that?" Emma responded, "From the store." I looked quite puzzled and the day care lady quickly said oh we went to a rummage sale and the lady hosting the rummage sale gave it to Emma. In my mind I'm thinking oh they walked to a rummage sale. Emma then proceeded to say, "Daddy today I saw where I go to swim lessons." Now I was even more puzzled. The school where Emma has swim lessons is across town. After Emma said this, the day care lady filled in, oh we drove to a local church who was having a rummage sale. Well this church was on the opposite part of town from this day care. The day care lady then proceeded to tell me after the rummage sale they ate lunch at McDonalds. After the story seemed apartently over, and the day care lady was a bit rude to me, I took Emma and went home.

Now as I am driving home these questions began going through my brain. What if she got in a car crash? Was Emma in a car seat? What if someone snatched Emma while they were out? Why am I paying someone to watch my daughter and then run her personal errands without telling me? Why didn't she tell me they were going to be leaving the house? Why was Emma the one telling me the story and not the day care lady? Why is this day care lady trying to hide stuff from me?

After cooling down I decided to give this lady a call. I very politely expressed my concerns to her about Emma being driven around town and not having any idea this was happening. She apologized and said that in her contract it states on days when she only has 1 or 2 kids she may take them and run errands. She then acknowledged that I had not been provided with a contract yet and because of this I would not know this information. I informed her, this new information made me uncomfortable and Heather and I would have to rethink about Emma coming there.

So, Heather and I talked about it and decided we would start to search for a new place. In the mean time we had to send Emma back to for 4 more days. That first day when Heather dropped Emma off, the day care lady asked if we had made a decision because if she would not be allowed to transport Emma around town she would give us our 2 weeks notice to get Emma out of her day care. She then asked Heather if Emma was ever driven around town by her grandparents? Was this lady trying to compare herself to our parents? WHAT???? After a brief conversation Heather told me about it. It was at that point we said, Emma is out of there.

I'm a new day care daddy but is this behavior from day care providers normal? If she would have just told me when I dropped Emma off this was going to happen I could have taken it a bit better but why the secrecy? At the last day care place, it was always communicated if Emma would be even leaving the house to go for a walk and Emma never left in a vehicle to go somewhere. So, the search for day care continues and we hope in the near future we can find another good place.

If any of you are in search of day care providers good luck because as I am learning good day care is indeed hard to find.