Welcome Nikolai

Robin & Sisko welcomed their new "little" one.





Nikolai Manuel Farinas arrived at 7:25 this morning (August 11, 2009), weighing in at a whopping 10 pounds, 5 ounces.

Here is Uncle Travis holding baby Nik

Nikolai, Mom & even Dad are doing well.

Nikolai Farinas

We went to Robin's 3-D ultrasound last weekend and Nikolai was being a stubborn little boy (wonder which side of the family he gets that from?) and not showing us his face; so they are redoing the ultrasound this week and hopefully Robin will send us some pictures of it. In the meantime, this was a picture from last week's go around - Sisko was jiggling, wiggling, tickling, and making Robin do squats to see if the baby would turn so we could get pictures. I thought this picture was really, really sweet.

Desert Botanical Gardens

We visited the Desert Botanical Gardens today to see the Dale Chihuly exhibit. Mr. Chihuly is an extrordinary artist in the realm of blown glass. His work is breathtakingly beautiful and anyone that is capable should take the opportunity to see it if at all possible.

Before we went to the gardens, we got together for lunch to celebrate Ryan's 4th birthday!

One week to go!

Yes, it looks like I'm going to make it through another semester. The highlights... I've actually completed my first "painting" - it was for my color class. We had to create patterns and then colorize them. I built my own canvas which was a hexagon (Barb can't do anything "normal" can I?) and then we had to trace one of our patterns on it and then paint it. They get hung up in the hallway at school for the next semester. I actually spent about 10 hours painting it. Kinda cool...

For my custom class; we had to design a custom rug and then a custom chair for a celebrity who's name we pulled out of a hat. I got Jack Black and had visions of doing a "Kung Fu Panda" chair - but I actually ended up doing a Nacho Libre one; because there was no doubt that it was for Jack Black - the panda chairs I sketched just ended up looking like a child's fun chair. We actually then had to hand off our drawings so someone else could build the scale model. Which means I had to build one that looked like a clear parfait glass... which entailed trying to stretch a plastic parfait glass to about 4 times its original size! Can you say four-letter words? LOL! Our last project is working in a group to design a hotel lobby with a theme we (*again*) pulled out of a hat. Our theme was "planets" but Kim & I decided to take it a step further and do "space" in general. I created an elevation of our registration desk and then rendered it. What do you think? Look a little "spacey"? Wait... don't answer that! LOL!

Art History was a piece of cake class - I took it online and I honestly should have waited until this summer to take it so I could have done another class this semester. Oh well ~ hindsight!

My last class was space planning - we had a partial building where we had to design a Culinary Arts school for our first/second projects and our last project has been a three-story art gallery where the first two stories are for the art gallery & peripheral stuff (offices, restrooms, etc.) and the top floor was living quarters for the owners. It was kind of neat being able to work out all of the details, find all of the furniture, lighting, flooring, paint, etc. I still have a little bit of work to do on this but am having problems concentrating on homework right now since I've been awake since 2 this morning (and up doing homework since 3... yeah I know there is something terribly wrong with me!).

The Blowhole!

Ok, we spent 4 nights on the Carnival Paradise; which wasn't. I was very disappointed in the ship and the crew was not nearly as friendly as *ANY* of the other cruises we've been on. I guess it all started by them telling us that we had to eat dinner at 8:15 - ain't happening! So we got stuck eating at the buffet for every meal, which was not very good. The silver lining was that it made it easier to stick to my diet since their salad bar was the only thing worth eating!

The highlight of our cruise had to be our trip in Ensenada to the Blowhole - one of only three in the world. It was pretty cool to see water blown 75 feet or more into the air.

Spring Break!

I have had a serious case of spring fever this year. Usually, I'm working so we aren't able to go anywhere - but not this year. We leave Sunday for a Mexican Baja cruise. It is only a 4-day cruise, but it should still be very relaxing and a lot of fun. Can you san "tan"? :-)

February Activities

For being a short month, February has been very full! We've had Bandit in obedience class for the last eight weeks and he graduated either at the top of his class or the bottom (they didn't tell us but since there were only two dogs in the class - he had to be one or the other). Actually he's done really, really well. We now have the knowledge on how to get him to stop tugging at the leash when we take him for walks. He can sit, lay, stay, come when called, shake, high fives, do doggie pushups as well as other things. It was kind of fun to do this with Bandit *and* Travis. Next, Lindsay and Peter now have an adorable 11-month old foster daughter. Her name is Kalaya and she was a premie with a lot of medical problems. They thought she was going to be deaf and blind because she was so early but she's made tremendous progress and has her sight and hearing. It sounds like they are going to have her for somewhere from six to twelve months. Here are pictures of Uncle Sisco & Aunt Robin with "Kiki" as the boys are calling her. Robin and Sisco came over to show us the photos from their ultrasound. While it is a little early to know for sure the preliminary indications are that it is going to be a boy!

Robin's Due Date...

Robin wanted me to make sure that everyone knows when she's due - August 22nd (Ed & my anniversary) but Travis is really hoping that his new niece or nephew will be born on his birthday (the 26th).

New semster, new schedule

I'm trying to get back into the routine of school. I'm taking a full load again this semester... Art History, Color & Design, Space Planning and Custom Design. So far I'm designing the layout for a Culinary Arts School, painting, and designing a custom rug. It's been fun and hopefully not quite as much work as last semester. I'm in class Monday through Thursday from 11:00 to 1:30 and then on Monday and Wednesday evenings. But the class right in the middle of the day sure puts a damper on my lunch rendezvous with friends! (The only drawback to this schedule)

I went to my bariatric doctor this week and (drum roll please) ... I'm down to the weight on my driver's license! I only lost 4 pounds over the last month but with as sick as I was and only wanting to eat crunchy things that scratched my sore throat; I'm happy with a 4 pound loss. In another 10 pounds or so I'll post another "this is where I'm at photo" so you can all see my progress.