Monthly Archives: August 2013

Mom & Dad #1: How We Met

By the time you read these, I may be a bit old to remember the details of how your mother and I came to be. My memory is not bad, although your mom would argue this fact to the death, and I still have a vivid picture of how things went.

I am going to do these posts in order, and will span them out to cover different monumental moments. This is the first in the series…how we met.

How We Met

First, let’s get this out of the way, your mom was 15 when I met her and I was 18. This is not a practice that I encourage, so don’t ever use this as justification. It was December of 2002 in Tucson, and your mom was visiting with her best friend who happened to be Cousin Elizabeth. There were the same age, and went to school together in Sun Valley. It was just a few days before the new year, maybe the 29th, and they were staying through the 3rd or so.

I had graduated high school in May of that year, and was back in Tucson after attending Eastern Arizona University for a semester to play baseball. I was burnt out on playing and would be attending Pima Community College in the spring in preparation for UA. This was during winter break.

Elizabeth had already been down for a little while and mom was flying in just for a few days. She almost never made it actually. Mom and Mia were driving to Boise for the flight in winter conditions when their car spun out on the road and they hit a snow embankment. Luckily they were not hurt, but had to be towed out and mom missed her flight. They almost turned around, which possibly would have changed both our lives forever, but she was able to jump on another flight.

Now, this is going to sound really corny but I swear it is the truth. I was working at a restaurant at the time, Old Pueblo Grill, as a bus boy. Part of the job was also doing security in the parking lot once a week or so. That night, I came home as I had recently moved back and was staying with Boppie while looking for a place, and your mom was there. I swear, no joke, the minute I saw your mom I knew I was in trouble.

She was there in jeans and a cute shirt, I has been patrolling a parking lot and was in a grey sweater and jeans and looked like a bum. I met your mom at the kitchen table and knew instantly that we had a connection. She did not have the same strong feeling, although she definitely had an interest me, but we instantly hit it off. Your mom was reserved and smiled a lot, she was just perfect.

Here was the problem, I had a girlfriend. I was still dating who ended up being my high school sweetheart, her name was Annie. We had been together, on and off, for about 3 years and since I had moved back we had been together and moving pretty quickly in terms of plans. Annie was a year younger than me, still a high school senior, and was really my first love. We had been through a lot together and really couldn’t imagine our lives without each other.

When I met your mom, she changed all that overnight…

I know it sounds ridiculous, but there was a shift in my feelings immediately. All I could think about is your mom, all I could dream about was finding a way to get her, and being the person I am that doesn’t give up on something they want I began to court her.

How Things Progressed

The days leading up to New Year’s Eve we talked, but she was really consumed with doing stuff with my sister and Elizabeth. I did get to see her here and there. I actually blew off a date with Annie one of those nights, saying that I was going to a movie with my dad, and got caught as she saw him at the movie. I blew it off because I knew your mom would be coming home while I was gone, and I didn’t want to miss her.

Annie was a very intuitive person, and one of the few people in the world that could see through my bullshit. Perhaps this was because she had so much practice, but regardless she was never someone that it was easy to lie to. Annie knew from the moment she met Caroline that there was something up. She even told me that she knew I liked you mom the very first time she met her and saw me with her. Annie was not really the jealous type at this point in our relationship either, so this comment really took me by surprise. But she was right and I knew it.

The day before the new year I took the girls, not including Annie, up to Phoenix to go shopping. This was the first time I really got any decent amount of time with mom. On the ride back, everyone fell asleep. After a little while your mom woke up and we got to talk the rest of the way home. She told me about her family, where she was from,  school and her ex-boyfriend. I was falling for you mom fast. That’s when new year’s eve came…

New Year’s Eve

On New Year’s Eve my best friend Mike was having a part that we were all going to. Now Mike is an awesome guy, was single at the time and a desirable dude. All week Elizabeth and my sister were working on fixing mom and him up as they were both single. Mom and Mike has a lot in common. Both came from wealthy families, both their dad’s were successful business men, both intelligent and shared a number of other similarities. On paper they were a great fit. That being said, their personalities could not be more different and they could not possibly disagree more on pretty much every social issue out there. Regardless, Mike is a smooth talker and mom was a beautiful girl.

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Not mom’s best picture, but she was a little tipsy 🙂

Annie and I headed to the party a littler earlier than mom and the other girls. When they arrived, I remember this specifically, I was sitting on the counter with Annie standing between my legs and we were, well, flirting and such. Then I saw your mom. This is where any doubt about my feelings towards your mom in Annie’s eyes were put to rest, as I jumped down from the counter and went and gave your mom a big hug. This came to be known as the “prolonged hug” as Annie put it, and sent Annie into full defensive mode.

Meanwhile, Mike was working his angle on mom. Mom, and you can ask her about this as this is not just my opinion, was not really all about Mike and honestly I don’t think he was really all about her either. That being said, it was New Year’s Eve and decisions are not always thought through.

The night continued on, and midnight was approaching quickly. I had a pissed of girlfriend on my hands and couldn’t help but not care as I was focusing on mom too much to care. So when there was about a minute before midnight, and Annie and I were preparing to ring in the new year, all I could think about was your mom.

The moment came and went. I kissed my girlfriend, and your mom kissed my best friend. Oddly enough, rather than upsetting me or making me sad knowing that they kissed, it hardened my resolve. Annie was a a great girl and any guy would be lucky to have her, but it was at that moment I realized that things would never be the same between us. I thought over the previous days that perhaps this infatuation I had with your mom was just that, an infatuation, and that it would pass. After this night I knew that was not the case. After this night I knew that your mom and I had something, whether she knew it yet or not, and that I couldn’t rest until I either had her or gave it my best shot. My life literally changed that night, unknowing to me at the time, and things would be different from then on out.

Your mom was leaving in 2 days, and I had to see if what I thought was there actually existed…

2 Days To Go

Annie spent the night that night, and pretty much told me that she knew I had feelings for your mom. This was emphasized when I got up and went out in to the kitchen and found your mom there and talked to her for 30 minutes just to have Annie come out mad and call me back to bed.

Really didn’t get a lot of time with mom over the next couple days, until the night before she was supposed to leave. Everyone had fallen asleep and we stayed up talking, and flirting a bit. At this point I think we both knew something was going on, but with her in Sun Valley, me in Tucson, with a girlfriend and her in high school it seemed not just improbable but impossible.

That night though, and I never recommend cheating because it is bad, but your mom and I kissed for the first time. It was January 2, 2003, and it is was confirmed, for at least me, that I couldn’t just let this go. I had to pursue your mom no matter what that meant. Elizabeth wouldn’t like it, Annie wouldn’t like it, our parents wouldn’t like it and likely nor would any of our friends; but I could care less.

This is what sparked our relationship, and out of this a tremendous amount of effort, love, sadness, anger and a number of other emotions and actions would result. Your mom left the next morning without me knowing my next move, and left me thinking about if this was really feasible. I felt like I was in love with your mom then and there, a feeling I had never experienced before and definitely not this quickly. I pondered for days about what to do, and in the next post we will go into it.

Hope this gives you some insight into just how it all started. Can’t wait to tell you more.

Love, Dad

Grandparents’ Jobs

I remember growing up, thinking to myself that there was just no way that my grandparents could have possibly worked. By the time I came they were either retired or very close and I would hear in spotted conversations about their work history. Figure here I can give you a very real observation on each one of your grandparents as they are all currently still working. I am going to use the names that I assume you will refer to them by, but who knows if that will stick or not. Let’s start with mom’s side…

Papa – Lawyer

Papa is a Lawyer that specializes in business and real estate law. He graduated from USC undergrad, and then went to law school at Southwestern University. He has been practicing law for over 30 years at this point, and works from home. He has about 3 huge clients that he handles and also is an avid investor in real estate and some stock market.

Mia – Teacher/Real Estate/Food & Beverage/Stay-at-home-mom

Mia has done a variety of different things in her career. She graduated from USC with a degree in Political Science. She was a teacher in Palm Desert when mom was little, and once they moves to Sun Valley she took on a more motherly role. Once mom got into high school, Mia started doing real estate. She has also been with Michel for about 10 years at this point who owns a high end french restaurant in Ketchum. She helps him run the restaurant and serves as a hostess as well.

Now let’s look at my side…

Boppie – Railroad Engineer

Let me start by saying that I broke the Donegan tradition. 5 generations of Donegans had worked for the railroad, I broke the trend (always feel a bit guilty about that). Anyway, Bop is a railroad engineer meaning that he drives trains. He started working for the railroad when he was 19 years old, and will actually be retiring in March (you are due in February) and will have been there for 41 years.

Nonnie – Finance

Nonnie has been an accountant since graduating college. She graduated summa cum laude from University of Arizona with a degree in finance. She went to work for Ernst & Young straight out of college, didn’t care for the corporate world, so focused most of her career in the non-profit sector. She has been an accountant, bookkeeper, controller and even a CFO. She has a masters in education and a masters in business, and currently works for Smith Optics as an accountant (could have a higher position, but doesn’t like managing people).

That is the current status of everyone. As you can see, they kind of run the gamete in terms of diverse professions. This should be a good thing because you will have plenty of experts in various fields. Hope this will serve as a reference point for you in the future and you can avoid the confusion that I experienced.

Love, Dad

 

Second Ultrasound

Last week we made our second visit to the doctor. This one consisted of another ultrasound as well as mom getting some blood work done (in addition to our billing meeting, basically paying for the whole thing which is not a fun meeting let me tell you). We haven’t got the results from the blood work back yet, but it appears that you are a healthy kid from the sonogram.

You are 2.9 inches long right now. That’s it! I’m looking at a business card on my desk right now bigger than you. But the cool part is that you are developing at a rapid rate. The first trimester, which is now complete, is the most important for a developing baby. Major complications are more likely to happen in the first 13 weeks than at any time during the pregnancy. You made it through and with flying colors!

You are developing bones. In the ultrasound we could actually see your spine, skull, fingers and toes, nose and other appendages. You were actually touching your face and kicking mom’s belly while we were watching you. It was incredible! You are growing by the day, and getting closer to the point when we can tell if you are a boy or girl.

We were also given another photo of you, this time with some labels.

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As you can see you are startling to loom like a real baby. You looked so big on the screen, we couldn’t believe that you were in reality so small. You can see the pics that label the hands and there is another without a label of your toes. It was a pretty cool thing to watch.

At this point, now that everyone knows, we can share the pics of you. Our next appointment isn’t for another 3.5 weeks or so, at which point mom will get a little more blood work done. We are so excited to meet you, and soon I will update you on the preparation of your room!

Love, Dad

The word is out!

Today we told everyone about you! This included from mom’s side: Papa, Aunt Kate, Tita and the remainder of mom’s friends. On my side we told Boppie, Aunt Madeline, my Nonnie and Boppie and all of my friends. We also put together a photo to post on the various social networks and send out to friends:

Announcement FINAL

Pretty damn cute right?

Now that the word is out I am sure we will be inundated with questions and status updates, but it’s all good. Just glad that we can finally talk about it freely!

We are more excited than ever to meet you, and love you already.

Love, Dad

12 Weeks Come and Gone

You are now the size of a lime!

Well, the length of one, you only weigh half an ounce.

Some of the more incredible developments this week include that you now have reflexes. You are able to open and close your hands, curl your toes, clench your eye muscles and even make sucking motions with your mouth.

You are also at the point where your kidneys are developed enough that you can create urine, which is just weird. Here is an image of what you kinda look like:

Picture of your developing baby

Look like a little alien in there!

We have a doctor’s appointment next week where we will get our next look at you. We will also get to tell everyone soon after because the chance of a miscarriage will be so low.

Next Thursday when we meet with the doctor you will be 13 weeks, and I will have another update on how big you are at that point. Can’t wait to get another picture of you and see you squirming around in there. Can’t believe how much you already mean to me.

Love, Dad

What Does Dad Do?

The last couple of days have been pretty exciting for me, as I was a contributor to a pretty major inbound marketing piece that was put out. Figure at this point it is a good idea to fill you in a bit on what it is that I do. I am very excited because I work in a field that changes it seems by the day, so by the time you are old enough to read this my role will likely be completely different.

In a nutshell, I help companies optimize their websites so they show up higher in search engines (primarily Google). I do this a variety of ways which I won’t go into, but it is a combination of code changes in addition to off-site factors that help to create basically an online reputation for the company website. My current title is SEO/Product Marketing Manager and this encompasses a few other things as well.

In addition to SEO (which is explained above and stands for Search Engine Optimization) I also manage web analytics, social media product development and PPC strategy. Let’s start with analytics.

Web analytics track everything that happens within a website, from traffic to time on page to the links that are clicked on. It has thousands of metrics that are accounted for, and I use these to draw conclusions on how we can better optimize and arrange the sites as well as report out to the brands that we work with.

On the social side, I manage the product strategy in what we develop. For example, we recently built a Facebook product that allows major brands (Wendy’s in this case) to post in geo-targeted areas on their national page. We are working on Twitter and Pinterest product currently.

Finally, on the PPC side (pay-per-click) I work with new clients on their strategy in terms of paid search. I work on what their approach should be in each market and then we have a team that will execute on making it happen.

It is almost guaranteed that I will not be at this company by the time you get this, but I currently work for a company called Balihoo that works with Fortune 1000 companies to help them market on a local level. Some of the clients that I do all the above for are Aflac, Pearle Vision, Kohler, Wendy’s and Behr.

The goal, and one that will hopefully be reached within the next decade or so, is to become a CMO or VP of Marketing for a company. I aspire to be an executive that runs an entire marketing department, or at some point possibly a company in general.

Anyway, thought I would fill you in on what I do now at the age of 29 and see where things are in the future. Can’t wait to see you!

Love, Dad

Back From Fishing, On To Rocking Chairs

Fishing Trip

I survived the camping trip. Not only that, but it was a great trip all around. We stayed at Garden Creek Campground on the East Fork of the Big Lost River, and it was pretty amazing. Basically just followed Trail Creek road, up over the pass and about 4 miles past the turnoff for Copper Basin (Wildhorse Road). Ended up being 29.9 miles from the stoplight in on Main and Sun Valley Road in Ketchum.

The campsite was killer, right on the river and no one else around. Here is a pic:

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After getting there and setting up camp we set out to fish. We caught about a dozen fish in an hour and a half which was a great start. That night we cooked up some chicken burgers for dinner and gutted some fish for breakfast the following morning.

After having breakfast, bacon and cutthroat, we headed out to fish the main waters of the Big Lost river. We started just below the dam of Mackay Reservoir and did really well. Caught another dozen or so fish, almost all on dry flies (orange stimulators) and then headed to the upper waters above the reservoir. Did not fair as well there, as Uncle Matt pulled just one fish out and other than that we were stifled.

We decided to head back to fish around camp, and the next couple hours were pretty dead. After that the fishing picked up, and while your uncle went for a hike I pulled 4 rainbow trout out of the river just south of the campsite. Overall is was a success. Here is the biggest fish from the trip:

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Rocking Chairs

Mom has this weird obsession with the south. She loves plantation style homes, the big trees, the culture and the large lot sizes. She wants us to move there and has for some time. When we were looking to leave San Diego, she was sending me jobs daily in places like Charlotte, Atlanta, New Orleans, etc… and asking me to apply. I of course obliged, but the jobs were never really specific to what I do. The funny thing about it is that mom has never really been in the south for an extended period of time. She has never been to Atlanta, Charlotte, Charleston or a number of other places that she wants to pick up and move to. I cannot explain how she came to have this fascination and love for the area (although I am pretty sure that Young House Love had a lot to do with it), but regardless she feels a connection.

With that in mind she came up with the idea of how to tell our extended family and friends about you when the time comes (which is only about 10 days away now). We ordered some rocking chairs that were delivered last week and we will be taking a picture on our front porch with Layla, your mom and I. We will be holding up signs that say the due date and that we are pregnant. The signs will be blank and I will photoshop in the text later on. We will then be sending out an email with the news, as well as posting it on Facebook and Instagram (really curious to see if these social medias still exist when you are old enough to be online). We will of course contact directly our immediate family that doesn’t know and tell them before posting it anywhere, but this way we can hit everyone we know and care about.

One thing that you will learn about your dad is that he is good at a lot of things, but handyman tasks are somewhat of a weakness. It is weird, because MY dad is great with these kinds of things. He actually built the first house I ever lived in from the ground up. Unfortunately I was too busy with other things growing up to learn from him (although he will tell you I never took the time to learn despite his best efforts). Anyway, I will be assembling the rocking chairs this week all by myself as your mom is still gone for another 5 days, so if the picture is missing the chairs it is probably because the assembly did not go according to plan. 🙂

 

We have another doctor’s appointment a week and two days from now and get to see you again in the ultrasound and I am counting down the days. Cannot wait to tell EVERYONE about you next week either. Enjoy your time in that womb of yours, because once you get out of there you are going to be smothered by people who want to be around you and love on you.

Love, Dad

 

11 Weeks & A Couple Trips

11 weeks has come and gone, today is 11 weeks and one day. More importantly, it is just 13 days away from our next doctor’s appointment. Really nothing all that cool will happen at the next appointment, other than we will be at the end of the first trimester and can safely tell people about you.

Today also marks the day that your mom is leaving for a trip to the Caribbean, St. Maartens to be exact. Yes, your mom is spoiled. She will be going for a little over a week. This will actually be the longest we have been apart since being married, if you can believe that. Here is what mom’s life will look like for the next week (this is even a pic of where she is staying).

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However, in her absence, Uncle Matt and I are going fishing/camping over the weekend. We are heading up to Copper Basin, which is about 30 miles Northeast of Sun Valley. Going to fish a river called the Big Lost, starting with the East Fork of the Big Lost and then heading to the main waters tomorrow. Here is our campsite as well as where we will be fishing tonight.

Trail Creek Rd Mackay ID 83251 Google Maps

 

Just to keep you in the loop on me, I am also training for another half marathon. The funny thing is that I don’t care for running all that much, but I have found that unless I have a goal that I am working towards it is hard for me to stay motivated regarding fitness. I will be running in the City of Trees half marathon here in Boise on October 13th.

At this point you are apparently the size of a fig. Your hands are forming and your fingers are as well. Your bones are beginning to solidify and you are starting to get teeth as well. Most exciting part is that you are beginning to stretch and kick! Even though mom won’t be able to feel this for another couple months, it is pretty cool to think that you are starting to rock out there in the womb.

I will be out the next couple of days, but will try to get some pics of the fish. Hopefully someday you and I can go together, as that was one of the best things I ever did with my dad and I would love to share that with you. You are constantly on my mind, and cannot wait to meet you.

Love, Dad