The "14th" Club

The Illustrious "14th Club" gained a new member December 14th, 2007. Bethany Nicole Moore was born with gusto, and joined sister Audrey Marie Moore (born April 14th, 2006) and Dad (born February 14th, 1978) in the exclusive club. Bethany certainly took an abnormal approach to joining the club. As you will see, she clearly did not want to be born too late.

Heather started having contractions around 5:00 a.m. We began to prepare for the big day by making sure that bags were packed and loaded into the car and that Audrey had people to watch her (Doug's mom in the morning and Heather's mom in the afternoon). Things progressed slowly. Heather's contractions were coming regularly but they were quite far apart and not too strong. As the day progressed, rather than getting stronger, they became weaker and further apart. At one point Heather thought about sending Doug back to work because she thought that she was having false labor.

Finally, things began to start moving. Heather had about 5 contractions in a row that were stronger and during these contractions, final preparations were made to go to the Hospital. Suddenly Heather's water broke. It was time to get going. Heather asked Doug to go get her some flip-flops to wear while she went to the bathroom and then we would go to the hopsital. By the time Doug got the flip-flops and got to the bathroom door, Heather shouted out "I think I am having the baby!" To this Doug asked "Can you feel it?" Heather Responded "Yes, Get In Here!" Doug immediately opened the door and found Heather holding the baby below her. Bethany was here! Doug ran in and grabbed her from Heather, checked to see if she was breathing (She was crying...ah, relief) and then checked to see if she really was "Bethany," and not "unkown male"(A Girl! Good work ultrasound lady).

Heather's mother was out in the hall with Audrey during all of this. Audrey looked a little surprised by all that was going on, but quickly found her toys more interesting than "the miracle of birth." As Doug gave the baby to Heather to breastfeed, Heather's Mom called 911. We were instructed to wrap her in a towel and wipe her mouth and nose clean. This was the easy part. The next instruction was to tie off the umbilical chord 6 inches from the baby. Doug went in search of a string, and soon remembered that his friend James Krause had a similar experience a couple of years ago, and used his shoelace. Doug whipped off a shoe lace, tied an overhand knot, and then after careful consideration determined to finish it off with a square knot.

About this time, the EMT's showed up. Dad was given the honors of cutting the umbilical chord (the EMT even let him keep the scissors). Heather was still in the bathroom, so we moved down the hall to the front door, and Heather and baby were loaded onto a gurney. As Heather was being wheeled out of the door, she looked up at Audrey, put on a big smile and said "I love you, Audrey." At this one of the EMT's said "Oh, that's it, this is the ultimate Mom." Dad had to agree.

Mom and baby arrived at the hospital in excellent health. Heather felt much better than she had during the previous delivery (She had only experienced about 5 hard contractions to deliver Bethany, and isn't really sure if she pushed or not, it happened so fast). Bethany was 6 lbs 15 oz. and 19.5 inches long, making her they exact measurements of Audrey.

Since delivery, both Mom and Baby are doing excellent. Baby has already gained about 2/3 lbs, and eats like a horse. This is a welcome change from a challenging feeding experience for the first few months with Audrey.

It has been an excellent Christmas. We are enjoying our new family member, and are so grateful that everything went so well. Below are several pictures of baby Bethany that Heather took. Enjoy.

Hallowe'en

So, I was supposed to post this weeks, ago, but better late then never, right? right.

Halloween is a favorite holiday around the Moore house, and this year, was celebrated with style. With Heather's usual enthusiasm, we found our house decorated to the hilt, including home made spider webs made of hot glue, a pot full of tootsie rolls cooking in a fire on the bar, ghost and spider lanterns hanging across the kitchen, and a halloween tree on the front porch, complete with ghosts and bats hanging from barren branches. To further add to the fun, Heather decided to invite several friends over as a trial run for a future tradition. We are planning on having an open house every year that starts before people leave to trick or treat. This year we just invited 20 people to gauge how easily we could handle the load. It went great. Heather put out quite a spread, there was an Italian sausage chowder (similar to that served at Olive Garden) Taco Soup, and Carrot Soup, a family favorite. There was hot cider drink, there were "monster toes" (soft pretzels the shape of a toe with an almond sliver as a toe nail) There were no bake cookies, and three variety's of home made popcorn. We had people coming all night, it was a lot of fun. Next year, I think we will make it a full open house. Dressing up this year was also a lot of fun, Heather dressed as a Nun, (a pregnant nun at that), and I dressed as the Father. Audrey was a cute little black cat, and even Atlas wore his best red tie. Audrey really got a kick out of halloween. She sang halloween songs with Mom and Dad, and loved dressing up as a cat (she wore the pants and hats for days afterwords). It was a great halloween. Any pictures in the Blog can be double clicked on to see a larger view

Strumming, 60's style

So, I got a call from Claudia, my mother-in-law who, through this story will obtain legendary status. She had seen an add in a newspaper about a guy who buys old Gibson Guitars, had contacted the guy, and found that he would be willing to pay $300 dollars for an old Gibson acoustic guitar in the basement. I was a little taken back. I had no recollection of any Gibson guitar sitting in her basement. I told her to hold off until the weekend when we would be staying with her for a few days.

When we got to Salt Lake, I immediately went into the basement in search of this guitar. As I found it and opened it up, I realized this guitar could be something special. It had ancient strings on it, and was obviously out of tune. I strummed lightly, and was impressed by the sound even with dull old strings (acoustic guitar strings start to sound bad within 3-4 weeks).

Rather than risk damaging the guitar by changing the strings and tuning it up, I talked to Claudia and she agreed to let me take it to Acoustic Music, a really good acoustic guitar shop in Salt Lake. When I took it there, we looked up the serial number, and determined that the guitar was a 1965 Gibson B25 Natural. I left the guitar with them for them to make sure that the truss rod (a rod that goes down through the neck) was still working, and to make adjustments if possible to obtain optimum playability. They called back a few hours later to report that the guitar was in near mint condition, that everything worked great, and it sounded great.

When I got the guitar home and began to play, I was so impressed with the sound. For those who don't know, acoustic guitars are like wine, they improve with age. The wood on an old guitar will vibrate with better clarity and sustain. This guitar certainly did that.

The estimated value of the guitar was much higher than the $300 dollars that Claudia had originally been quoted. I told her that she could sell it for much more. She asked me what I would do if it was mine. Of course if it was mine, I would keep it and play it, but if I was her, I would sell it because she wasn't going to play it, and I couldn't see it just sitting in the basement anymore. She responded that she didn't want to sell it to someone else, and asked if I would like it for Christmas. I responded as calmly as I could that I don't deserve such a nice gift. She asked, "well, would you want it?" I told her it wouldn't take much arm twisting to convince me to take it. And so with that, I received the second best Christmas present of this year, and perhaps my life time. The only Christmas present better than the guitar will come from my Wife and Heaven in the form of baby Bethany, who we can't wait to meet.

To conclude, I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed playing this guitar. It is amazing how a guitar can inspire you when it sounds so good. It is a joy to play. Thank You Claudia for an amazing gift.

I was helping heather work out some issues with her studio photography lights, and took this image of the guitar that I wanted to share.

Heather, the photographer

We recently went on a trip to Southern California for several reasons:

1. To test my driving stamina
2. To taste of salty water
3. To eat fish that doesn't come from the frozen section of Costco
4. To take as many pictures as a 2 gig, 1 gig, and 512 mb flash card can hold.
5. To spend time with family
6. To re-test my driving stamina

The trip was a ton of fun, We drove through the night in both directions in order to make the trip easier on Audrey, who slept comfortably in her car seat most the trip. The trip included Museums at Balboa Park, Mexico, The San Diego Zoo, a lot of time at the beach, and some great food.

Before the trip, Heather spent hours devising the perfect photo sessions for the family and for Audrey. There were several shopping trips to find the perfect set of clothes for everyone (who knew that some Khaki's are more pink than others), and a search for the perfect balloon.

Now, I was not at home during much of the balloon shopping, but I can imagine it. I would guestimate that approximately 38 phone calls were made to various craft, hobby, and party shops. I feel quite certain that If I searched our home carefully, I would find a small piece of paper with extremely small writing on it that would describe the information gathered from these 38 phone calls. Information like: Sizes of balloons offered, roundness of balloons offered, colors available, thickness of balloon wall, elasticity of balloon material, cost of balloons, availability of balloons, likelyhood that the company would trade balloons for a photo session, and a few other things that I wouldn't be able to decipher if my heart depended on it. You see, my wife is the consummate master of due diligence. I guarantee the balloon that was taken to California for one of the photo sessions was the best balloon available in all the world, and likely cost us nothing. In fact, we will probably get a check in the mail soon from the source of the balloon, and a letter thanking us for using their balloon. This is all a hypothesis, yet in my mind, it smacks of truth.

The end result in my opinion was typical of my wife. She created something great. We now have a picture that is hanging on the wall (well, it will be when I find the motivation to extract myself from the couch and do the actual hanging) that brings back great memories, and is a joy to behold. And so, without further ado, I present---"Audrey at the Beach."

Being the husband of a photographer has many benefits, but it comes with one major concern. Wall space. I thought we would be fine with our current proportion of wall space, until we discovered that Heather was pregnant with our second. Somewhere in the vicinity of December, 25 (yes, that is Christmas) we will have a second little girl that will be photographed from all angles, and in all sorts of attire. But do not fear, I have a plan- ceiling mounted pictures. I'll keep you informed of the successfulness of the plan and many other exciting adventures as adventures Beyond Saran Wrap continue.

It doesn't take much peer pressure

So, my buddy James starts a blog. I think "who is gonna read it." Than, I get the answer. I am. Then, I discover a link on his blog to....Ben and Mary Alice's blog. Wow. a whole new world. So exciting. So, I figure, why not?

As I decided to start a blog on a whim about 30 seconds ago, I really have no idea what this will become. I hope it will become a place for Heather and I to post little comments about what is going on in life, perhaps a few pictures, and maybe links to songs written by the band formerly known as Asher. Hopefully it becomes a place where friends can pop in and, well, keep up with our lives without having to actually talk to us. hmmmm.... maybe this isn't such a great idea after all. Well, we shall see.