Christmas Exhaustion

See more Christmas pics here

Santa's Little Helper

Goin' Out In The Cold

New Pics

Eleanor just released two hot new albums, just in time for the holidays!

Sale starts Black Friday at 4am, but you can ONLY get a sneak preview HERE:
First Bath
Making Faces

Ellie and her dad in their favorite chair

The 0-6 month hat is really for 6 month olds

Miss Ellie and I went on a walk on Thursday. It was her first venture outside the house other than going to see the pediatrician. We got bundled up and in the stroller and met up with our neighbor, Kristie, and her two kids, Autumn who is 5 weeks old and Lukas who is 2. It was a lovely, sunny day in the high 50s and we walked to the park. On our way back, the sky darkened abruptly and the wind came up and suddenly there were gusts of 50 mph. Empty garbage cans and tumbleweeds were rolling down the street as we fought our way home. Ellie slept through the whole thing.

She already bleeds Blue

Ellie and Ian watched their first Duke basketball game together. We made sure she was properly attired and we are already having her practice spelling Coach K's name. She watched for 5 minutes and then fell asleep.

I'm just going to close my eyes for a second

Ellie and Grandpa Crane are spending some quality time together.

Ellie gets out the vote

"Babies for Obama. Yes it IS time for a change."

Halloween

Ellie's first Halloween.

Baby Heisman

I tend to carry Ellie around like a football...

Birth Story...

(This post is a little out of order, but wanted you to share with you how our Friday afternoon/evening went...)

heather's water broke friday around noon. fortunately we had just returned from from the grocery store, so there was no "clean up on aisle 3."  we gathered our bags and went into the hospital.   she wasn't having very strong or regular contractions and was only 2cm, so they started her on pitocin around 2pm.  heather's plan was to see how it goes and take drugs or epidural only if she decided she needed it.

she had a pretty easy first 6 hours as they turned up the pit.  then around 8:30 or so they started getting really strong and lot more painful.   she was a champ and breathed calmly through each one while clinching my hand with a death grip q2-3min.

around 10pm, she'd had enough and got 10mg nubaine and 12.5mg of phenergan.  her next words were "whoa....i'm so high. don't let me go apneic."  the relief only last about 15 minutes before she was more miserable than before and put up no argument when i suggested perhaps she might like an epidural.

so they checked her before the epidural and she was 4cm. she went through the worst of the contractions as they placed the epidural. she was so focussed on the contractions and her breathing that she really didn't notice the honkin' needle in her back.   after a little trouble, the CRNA got it in and relief was on it's way.

so after the epidural kicked in, they checked her again about an hour after the last time and she was now 9.5cm! she labored probably through 4-8cm in about 45min and without any epidural assistance.

so the funny thing was our OB had the day off.   his son was playing in a high school football game, so he came in at 8pm before the game and then when it was time to start pushing, he called from the stadium and said to hold on b/c there were 3 min left in the game.  he arrived just in time as her head was starting to show.   heather had to push less than 30 min total before she popped her out.

heather birthed like she was a G10 P9. i think the next time there is a good chance i could be catching the baby at home she might go so fast....

Eleanor Margaret Crane Hall

October 25, 2008, 12:52AM.  8lbs even.  21.5 inches.

....after enduring 8 hours on the Pitocin "naturally," Heather decided to use a lifeline and went for the epidural.  She cruised right on past the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th parts of labor, and pushed out the little one in no time.  All are resting comfortably in their new environs.

Laboring...

Heather's water broke this morning, so now we're in the hospital and we ain't leavin' till we get a baby!

Snow!

It snowed Friday night in Boise about 2 inches. This was the earliest recorded snow for Boise. Hope that is a good sign for ski season...

Pregnant, Barefoot, and in the Kitchen...

Canon 40D(amn!)

Just got a new Canon 40D fancy camera to take high quality pics of my daughter. No daughter yet though, so I've been practicing around the house...

Still Pregnant!

Can you believe she's due on Friday?

Cellball's Nursery

We wanted to go with more neutral tones because Ian is afraid of too much pink. The pictures on the walls are from our travels, both in the U.S. and abroad. We're amazed by the amount of cute, fuzzy stuffed animals she already has.

Hmmmmm.....?

I (Heather) was following this truck on my way to Sun Valley for the weekend. It had all of the important things: tools, duct tape, old clothes, random deer head. The usual...

Baby Shower!

Thanks to everyone who came to the shower.  We had a fun time and thank you all for the fabulous baby gifts!

Baby Shower!

Last weekend, we had a baby shower.  Family came from CA, WA, and MT.  The catering was done by our friend Amy who has a second career ready when she decides to retire from medicine.  The food was AWESOME!  Here's Amy preparing in our kitchen.  Thanks, Amy!

Cellball's First Fair

Cellball at the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe, WA

Cellball in Yakima

Cellball visits Uncle Chad's sculpture in Yakima

Cellball goes out on the town

Cellball's First Piano Lesson

Cellball Goes to Work

The Greatest Invention EVER

So part of moving into a new house involves setting up the home theater system and the DirecTV.  I won't get into the details of why I chose satellite over cable, but the important part of the story is that DirecTV DVR requires TWO separate cable inputs into the receiver box (I don't know why they couldn't use one like TIVO).  Anyways the TV is set up in front of one cable jack, but the second cable jack in the living room is on another wall.  I was surprised to learn that running a black co-axial able across the living room and in front of the fire place didn't jive with Heather.  This presented a dilemma:  how do I get the cable from one wall over to the other side while hiding it from view.

Our house is relatively new and in good condition, so tearing apart the wall for a new cable outlet seemed a bit extreme.  I attempted to try to feed the cable under the carpet with the assistance of two unwound coat hangers, but that only went about a foot (it needed to go about 7 feet).

Off to Home Depot we went.  As new home owners, Home Depot (and Fred Meyer) are the best stores ever.  I set out to find some sort of firm, yet small, tool with which I could push or pull the cable under the carpet.  I found a 12 foot wooden dowel and an equally long piece of small diameter PVC pipe.  I was going to purchase both and try my luck, but decided I'd see if the helpful Home Depot employee had any tricks hidden in his orange apron.

I explained to him the task at hand.  He said, "Well I got some Fish Tape on aisle 37." 

I'd never heard of such a thing.  No, it's not for gathering your kill after a day at the lake.  It's the greatest invention EVER.  I want to buy the inventor of this stuff a beer!  He new exactly what men needed because his wife wouldn't let him string wires across his living room either. 

If you're not familiar with it, this stuff comes in several different forms and lengths.  It's basically firm, hard to bend metal which you can use to "fish" cords, wires, etc under carpet, through walls, or wherever the heck you need to get it.  

This thing did the trick and kept our home and marriage intact.  Thanks, Fish Tape!

Kauai's #1 store for pool supplies ...and late night "relaxation"

Back from Sabbatical

We're back!  Thanks to all our fans who've been checking the blog eagerly awaiting our return.  Our first month of blogging took a toll on our fingers and minds.  We had to take a break and gather ourselves and focus on our vision for the future of this blog.  The month of soul-searching (and rehab) has paid off.  We're able to get back to the studio to record a new album as well.  

Thanks for sticking with us.  We hope you enjoy the blog.  Keep the fan mail coming.  We've been BLOWN AWAY by the words of support during our time away from the blog.  We are coming back FOR YOU!

Love,

Ian, Heather, and Cellball

Out with the old...

In the words of our former governor:  Hasta la vista, baby!

Idaho Street Names

How sweet would it be to live on this street?!

Bienvenidos a Idaho

Where's the potatoes?

Maximum Overdrive

The moving truck arrived today and took up most of the street.

Behind door #3...

Where's Waldo?

"They cut it out and gave me a bag of poison to kill it"

Bah tells us about his stromal tumor  ....again....

Good-bye Ol' Friend

Heather gives a hug good-bye to her faithful 1990 4-Runner which was her first car and had almost 250,000 miles on it.  She donated it to the local NPR station.

Last Day with Air Rescue

So last Sunday was my last day with the Sheriff's Air Rescue Helicopter. It's been by far the most enjoyable thing about Southern California for me. The last call of my career was a stranded hiker on Mt.Baldy. She was too fatigued to walk out and had spent and unplanned night on the mountain. She required our services to hoist her out with the helicopter. I got the entire thing on my helmet cam (thanks Garrett!). The above is the clip of us going up to the helicopter together. Not sure if people dangle much from helicopters in Idaho, but I'll have to look into it....

If the video above doesn't work, Click Here

What is it?

Han Solo frozen in carbonite?? Nope. That's Cellball. And she's a girl!

Anyone got a siphon?

Ian went to Baja this past weekend for the Baja 500 again.  Nothing exciting medically, but there's always a good story when returning from Baja.  The other helicopter ran out of gas...not while in flight though.  They were low on fuel and had stopped at one of the two designated fuel stops out in the desert (the helicopter company posted two fuel trucks along the course so helicopters didn't have to fly all the way back to Ensenada for fuel).  Somehow the fuel at this stop had become tainted with some water and thus bad.  They found this out when another helicopter was revving up to take off and it "flamed out" (the turbine flame burns out due to the water).  So the fuel was unusable and there were quickly 3 or 4 helicopters there for fuel and non had enough to escape back to Ensenada.  We were nearby the other fuel stop and dusk was 2 hours away.  We pulled out the seats and loaded a 50 gallon barrel of Jet A and fuel pump into the back of our helicopter and they flew it out to the stranded helicopters.  They left me on the ground (I didn't mind not sitting next to 50 gallons of fuel) and then came back to get me.

The funny thing was the other helicopter had a patient with them (some dehydrated racer).  While they were grounded at the bum fuel stop, the racer spotted his team driving by on the highway and flagged them down.  He got a ride home with them, but not before they got several tanks of diesel from the small town for the helicopters (helicopters and planes which normally use Jet A can use diesel for brief periods in a pinch without harming the engine).

First Post

We just returned from a week in Boise and house hunting. We have some friends who have recently started blogs after moving to document their move, new lives, etc. It seems like a good idea, so we'll start here. Boise is a fabulous city and we loved our past week there. Despite being busy with looking at homes, getting pre-approved for loans, home inspections, etc, we managed to mountain bike, hike, run, drive up to the mountains, and enjoy some great food and northwest microbrews (at least Ian enjoyed the beer). We can't wait to live there!

We have titled the blog "Chaos in Paradise" for many reasons. Being newlyweds and moving to such a perfect place like Boise, we can't help but consider it paradise. However the prospect of moving, starting a new job, and having a baby all at the same time does create some chaos. We also thought the daily chaos of our lives in the ED would continue despite the temporary chaos mentioned above. It's also the name of Heather's new heavy metal band.

We bought a house in Boise. That's it above. You can see more pictures at Picasaweb.