R a i s i n g C a n e y . c o m

Soooo, it’s almost time for that one day where we all say what we’re thankful for.  In reality, every breath and every day is a blessing.  So we should be thankful every day…we all know this.  However, there’s nothing wrong with setting aside a day to remind ourselves what we are most thankful for.

I can’t exactly show you an image of what I’m most thankful for, but I’ll try to describe it.  Most of us are thankful for our friends, those special relationships that give added value, purpose, and meaning to our lives.  Now for the corny part.  I met this guy who, quite honestly, changed my life.  In fact, He gave me life.  I’m most thankful for the relationship that I have with the very real King of Kings.  Jesus Christ, who gave me eternal life, who is present in my every day life, who answers my prayers, is my best friend and the person that I am most thankful for.

Now, my faith being the most important thing in my life, leaves the second most important thing in my life.  This would be a person too, I guess.  My second best friend, and the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known, Tasha Robinson, is the person that I am second most thankful for.  It doesn’t hurt that she’s taking part in a miracle, creating a life, our first child, Canaan Sidney Robinson.  Pretty amazing, huh?

Here’s a little bit of the beautiful woman that I tricked into marrying me and our amazing little baby bump.

Around 23 weeks with Snookerdoodle Robot Girl

Around 23 weeks with Snooks again

Barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen? (my Dad's kitchen, actually)

Around 24 weeks, I'm clearly... excited (Tasha says nerdy)

These are from today:

Almost 25 weeks... She's beautiful. I love my girls!

Snooks wanted in the pictures with her Mommy.

Tasha and Snooks

annnd again!

OK Snookerdoodle... last one!

My amazing wife

She has waaaay too many scarfs...

haha...she's had enough of this outfit!

My favorite girls!

I'm so proud of this girl.

These two are my favorite (also from tonight):

My best friend...

This gorgeous girl and the baby in her belly are what I am thankful for. They are my greatest blessing from my awesome God.

Most of you didn’t come here expecting a full photo-blog today. So consider this an early Christmas present!  I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Don’t forget to thank God!

-Cy

Dear readers!  I apologize in advance.  This post is not a happy one.  Rather, it’s a rant.  If you’d rather not read a rant (about medical care) then please skip this post!

So Tasha’s health care plan only has one dentist within 1 hour that is allowed to work on pregnant women.  His name is Dr. Kirt Touchstone with ArkLa Family Dentistry in Bernice, Louisiana.  His mission statement says that part of their mission is to provide care in a God-fearing environment.  Well, that was certainly a pleasant surprise to read!  So I was optimistic!  Life is never that simple though, is it?

Our first visit to Dr. Touchstone began with him insulting us for not having had regular dental appointments for the past 2 years.  Let’s see, Tasha is 20 years old, and she hasn’t had coverage since she turned 18.  I am recently separated from the military, and I haven’t had coverage since I separated.  When I explained this to him, he insulted us again, telling us that if we were smart we would have figured out a way to pay for it.  OK, so we’re stupid BECAUSE we can’t afford to pay for medical care out of pocket.  We left offended, but we wrote it off as him perhaps having a bad day…or something.

The second visit, he attempted to drill/fill a cavity without anesthetic (because she’s pregnant), and when she responded to the pain, he stopped and said, “We’ll have to do this later with anesthetic because obviously she isn’t enjoying it.” So he wasn’t able to finish that day, although this day was perhaps not his fault.  Another one written off as an unfortunate result of seeking dental care while pregnant?  Sure.

So we went back again today, and he’s write inside the door yelling at some unfortunate young lady that she needs to stop “half-a**” taking care of her teeth.  Well, I’d be insulted and embarrassed if I were her, considering her only path of exit is right through the main door, past everyone who heard the harassment.  Hrmm…interesting.  So, my wife goes back, and they give her 5 shots that are, we guess, supposed to numb the area.  Well, her mouth was not numb…at all.  There was none of the droopy, drooly cheek that normally accompanies such shots.  She told the dental hygienist who gave her the shots, and she told Dr. Touchstone.  He didn’t seem too concerned, as he came in and started drilling anyway.  My wife, feeling every turn of the drill, grimaced, and eventually said “Ow!”  Dr. Touchstone, jerked all the equipment out of her mouth and told her she would need to find a new dentist because SHE wasn’t relaxed enough to not feel the pain.

My wife comes out, crying.  Angry-Mode Cyrus begins.

I tell Tasha to wait in the car, and I ask to speak with Dr. Touchstone.  Now, I’d like to preface this by reminding that I DO agree with my campus pastor, Pamp, that “the motivation for confrontation should be reconciliation.”  He eventually calls me into his office, and I explain to him this series of events that is causing me to doubt his “God-fearing” environment that he claims to provide.  I also explain that he’s the only dentist within an hour of where we live that we can see.  He tells me that “God punishes those that he loves.”  I responded, “Sure! But you are NOT God, and you do NOT have the right to PUNISH my wife.”  He says, “Ok” and looks at me with a blank stare.  After a 30 second stare-off (that I won!  Woohoo !), he asks “Well what do you want from me?”  I said, “Well, for starters, an apology for my wife!”  He then said, “Well, I’m sorry that you feel that way.”  Hrm, he’s apologizing for the way that I feel implying that I’m the one who is at fault.  This is a passive-aggressive attempt to appease my request for an apology without actually having to apologize for his actions.  Frustrating.  It’s clear, at this point that he a)is no longer willing to provide us with any sort of quality medical care, b)is NOT going to apologize for his behavior, and thus c)reconciliation is not likely to result from this exchange.  I walked out, hopeful that I can at least warn other families against his medical practice.  Consider this my personal review of the service (that I will also rate on Google Maps).

In case you didn’t know, Tasha and I are inmates (er, students?) at Louisiana Tech University.  We’re up for parole after I graduate this Summer (or so it looks at this point in time).  Louisiana Tech is on a quarter system rather than a semester system.  This means there are Fall, Winter, Spring (these three make up a normal school year), and Summer quarters.  Summer quarter is broken down into two sessions.  Well, Tasha and I just completed the Fall quarter.  Finals are always tough and stressful, but this quarter, Tasha and I had some additional stress influencing our grades.  Monday, Tasha had her Math 101 Final and I had my CIS 323 Final.  Monday night, Tasha and I were playing with our kitten, and I was sitting on the floor.  I went to stand up and *POP*… I fell down.  I winced in pain and held my knee close to my body.  It was a familiar pain.  It felt just like it did when I torn my LCL the first time…  So, we went to LSU Health Science Center in Monroe, La (free for poor folks like us!).  They did X-Rays (which won’t show ligaments), but they concluded that I, at the very least, sprained my LCL, but that I likely tore it at one of the points where the surgery had bolted down the cadaver ligaments.  We finally left the hospital at around 6am.  We got home and in bed by 7.  We both had a Biology 102 final…

…at 10.  I also had an ROTC briefing at 2 and an ROTC final at 3.  Needless to say, we got little studying done that night, and we were both exhausted throughout the day.

Tasha and I both got an 83 on our Biology final.  Before the cheating accusations come out, I should tell you we had different tests!  I’ve gotta admit though, it is a bit suspicious!

Tasha had her Geology final today, and I had a comprehensive final in my CIS class to make up for a test I missed while I was working in Boston.

Anyway, Tasha managed to get an A in Math, a B in Geology, and a B in Biology.  I think that’s pretty awesome for a girl juggling baby appointments, a sick husband (earlier in the quarter), a broken-knee husband (see above), and all sorts of other hindrances that go along with having a husband (named Cyrus Robinson).  I’m proud of her!

I got an A in Biology (89.89% rounded up to an A, thank God), a B in ROTC (yeaaaah, I had an A until the final…), and I am still waiting on the results of the CIS comprehensive final (I needed a 17% for a B and a 71% for an A).  Overall, it was a pretty hectic quarter.

So, there’ve been some special requests for pictures.  There’ll be more to come, but here are a few.

Jon Copeland asked for me to start training Caney to enjoy Cane’s, and to document it.  Soooo, tonight I went to Raising Cane’s to celebrate the end of the quarter!

Mmmmm, Caney with Raising Cane's!

Soooo, Tasha’s Mom also wanted some new side-profile pics of the baby bump.  I agree, and so with no further ado:

I know, I know... Wal-Mart does not like people to take pictures in the store, but my wife is just so pretty! I could not resist.

Ok, that’s all for tonight.  I promise more pictures soon!  For now, I’m off to Crescent City Coffee to hang out with Rex.

-Cy

Isn’t my wife beautiful?

Caney and Tasha in Class... The guy in the background is taking a nap!

So the first time Tasha got a craving was on our way home from Maryland this summer.  We were on a rather long drive, obviously, and it was about time for us to stop and stretch our legs.  Tasha told me she was hungry, which was fine, but I was shocked when she told me what she wanted to eat…  biscuits and coleslaw.  Initially, I thought this was quite an odd combination, but then it came together.  Trying to figure out where to go for such a request, Tasha was quick to suggest KFC or Popeye’s, so we went to Popeye’s, which serves both coleslaw AND biscuits.  So, what I initially thought an odd request turned out to be normal side orders at most chicken joints.

That having been said, I now understand a bit better how my wife’s cravings (don’t?) work.   Basically, my wife hasn’t had any really extraordinary requests or cravings.  She used to drink a lot of Coke (the general term for carbonated beverages in the South) and caffeinated drinks.  Since she got pregnant she hardly EVER drinks ANY caffeine.  That’s mostly for Caney’s health, but in general, Tasha’s desire for Cokes has mostly gone away.  Now, she drinks almost exclusively…H2O.  Weird, huh?  She craves water…

As for food items, she’s always liked pickles, but I think I’ve actually seen a slight increase in her liking of pickles (but it’s hard to say).  Also, she’s taken to eating plenty of fruits and veggies.  You read right, fruits and vegetables.

I’m starting to think there may have been a rational reason for my wife to have lost weight initially in the pregnancy.  She craves healthy food.  Weirdo!  Actually, there’ve been a couple instances where she’ll get these crazy cravings for candy, and she’ll go buy a MASSIVE bag of candy from Wal-Mart only to discover that she doesn’t really want candy very badly…and the massive bag sits on our coffee table until my friends come over and scavenge like vultures.  Thank God for friends taking the candy, lest I eat it all!

So, you must be wondering what the “Power Tools” part of the title is referring to.  Well, as some of you might already know, my Momma gave us a small unfinished wooden round dining table (that’s a lot of adjectives!).  It looks exactly like this, except this is a dollhouse table:

Like this, only...much bigger.

It’s very nice, but it’s unfinished.  Also, we’ve repeatedly put cups on the table that had created a total of 17 noticable water stain rings.  Tasha let me get a power sander.  I got a Black and Decker Mouse Power Sander that lights up light green if you’re not pressing hard enough, dark green if you’re just right, and red if you’re too hard.  It has several really cool little attachments that are for sanding odd-shaped surfaces, and it has a carrying bag.

This is the sander I got. It's my first power tool! Haha...

This was my first “home improvement” project.  I sanded the table, stained it, and noticed that the water stains were…MORE noticeable.  Sooooo, I re-sanded… much better this time, and I restained it several times.  It took several days of hard work (and trusting that no one would steal it from in front of my apartment where I had it drying).  I put the final satin finish clear coat on it, and it looks wonderful!  I’m very proud of it.  Here are a couple of pics of it now:

Here's Our Table!

Heres another view of our table. Notice the bridal picture frame in the back? Thats new too!

There’s home improvement project 1!  I know, I know, it’s not perfect, but it’s my first project.  I like it .  Wait, there’s more though!  Power Tools is PLURAL.  So there’s MORE!  So, we’ve been talking about/looking for some shelves to put up to give us more horizontal storage space (we have a lot of pictures and such that we like to display).  Also, I’ve been wanting somewhere to hang our backbacks that’s easy to access, looks nice, and helps us clean the clutter a bit.  Soooo, everyone knows that you need a good drill to put up shelves properly and such properly!  Soooo, Tasha let me buy a Black and Decker Drill and some bits for it too!

This is the drill that I got.

When I installed the shelves and the hooks I did it the right way too (using drywall anchors for support)!

Here are some pics of the shelf and the hooks:

This is our shelf! Its hard to see, but the pictures frames (with engagement pics) are new too. Also, notice the manger up front. This is the beginning (a bit early!) of our Christmas decor.

These are the hooks in the bedroom above the shoe rack.

Just to show you some more of our home, here are a couple extra pictures:

This is our bed with a crochet picture that Darla McDonald made us (it's awesome) as a wedding gift.

The crosses are a wedding gift from the awesome Michelle Harper. The black shelf thing is our wedding display. We have a huge poster sized print of one of our wedding pictures being developed to go above it. The square lamp is a wedding gift from my Dads friend, Mr. Dennis Dean.

Tasha (playing Fable 2 on the Xbox 360) and Rex studying (aka watching Tasha playing Fable 2). The 3 pictures frames to the left and the 2 top ones to the right are also new.

So, our cat has a 6 level (including the roof) play house. There are toys scattered throughout it, and the top is basically her throne. She doesn't usually climb through the maze of the inside to get up the levels. She prefers to just leap and use her claws to climb to the top. She's an awesome little ninja.

Sooooo, welcome to our home (and what will be Caney’s first home?), and thanks for enduring my excitement about power tools/home improvement…and cravings!  Let us know what you think!

-Cy

So Imraan found the text of the poem I wrote.  Here’s a little background setting.  Tasha and I went to Dr. Flores for the first time, and we were really really hoping and wanting to be able to find out the sex that day.  He told us that he uses the hospital’s ultrasound machine in radiology to determine the baby’s sex because his personal machine is older and not as clear.  He agreed to attempt for us anyway.  Well, we saw Canaan, but she was facing away from us, and she was bent over.  She was MOONING us.  We went to the hospital’s ultrasound machine two days later, but this poem was written in between the two ultrasounds.  It’s pretty funny.

The Little Moon
Little person you keep me guessing
What color I should robe you in.
So, so early you’re already testing
The woman that God did grow you in.

I saw your tiny head and your curved spine.
I saw your heart quickly beating,
And then I knew you MUST be mine;
For a full moon you displayed fleeting!

I’m hopeful that this world wont tame you,
And i’m sure you giggled as i sighed;
For instead of showing us how to name you,
You showed us your behind!

(c) 2008 Cyrus Lee Gerald Robinson

-Cy

So, we had our doctor appointment yesterday, and all was well.  It’s always comforting and exciting to hear Caney’s little 148 bpm heart thumping along.  We did that yesterday, and they started measuring from top of the pelvic bone to the top of the belly.  Tasha is currently 23 inches, and Dr. Flores said that’s right where she should be.

Source: blog.mlive.com Obama and McCain

In other (personally, less important but more data-rich) news, when Canaan is born (if God’s timing is the same as nature’s), America’s first African-American president (President-Elect Barack Obama) will be in office.  I didn’t vote for Mr. Obama.  I voted for Senator McCain.  I’ve seen many different responses.  Most of the people I know on Facebook have left comments ranging from “how stupid Americans are” to “plans to move to Canada.”  It amuses me.  I seem to recall the exact things being said by most of my more liberal friends when President Bush was re-elected.  The really funny thing is that Canada is a very socialist country, and people are threatening to move there to escape Senator Obama’s socialist-leaning presidency.  What scares me the most, though is the Congressional elections in conjunction with the Presidential election.  The Democratic party is nearly filibuster-proof.  They control the House, the Senate, and the Presidency.  Also, two Supreme Court Justices will probably be retiring/replaced by liberal judges.  This means that the whole “checks and balances” thing will be very iffy this time around (if present at all).  It seems as though any liberal agenda would EASILY be pushed through the legislation process.  This concerns me because I tend to be more conservative.

BUT…

Hebrews 13:17 says:
Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.

and

Romans 13:1-2 says:
1) Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2)Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

God has a plan and has a will in whoever and however a nation is ruled.  We may not understand how or why, and it may not necessarily be what would be considered “good” for a nation.  However, the authority that exists (and will exist with the next Presidential Inauguration) does so by God’s establishment.  That having been said, as a military man, I am obligated to support my Commander-in-Chief and His policies, directives, and lawful orders.  That being said, congratulations to President-Elect Obama.  May the Lord be with you, and may your will be His.

-Cy

So, Tasha and I watched Juno last year (the title of the post is a line from one of the soundtrack songs).  We both loved the movie, and we tried to get my Dad to watch it.  He lost interest almost immediately, but Tasha and I…still love it.  Many people don’t like it or haven’t seen it, and to that I say “GO WATCH IT!”  That having been said, here’s the poster for the film:

The Juno Poster

Now, here are the costumes Tasha and I wore to the Chi Alpha ROCKtober party:

Our Juno MacGuff and Paulie Bleeker Costumes

Now, again, not everyone had seen the movie, but everyone who recognized our costumes LOVED them.  We had tons of pictures taken of us.  It was a blast.

We definitely wanted to incorporate Tasha’s baby bump into our costume, so we originally considered going as an oven with a bun in it and a chef.  There’s a costume set you can buy for it, but we could only find the chef (aka Bun Maker) half.  We could have made the oven out of a box, but we didn’t want to spend that effort.  Then we remembered the movie, Juno, and our minds were made.

Completely unrelated to our costumes, we went to Heather Castille’s surprise 22nd b-day party a few days before the ROCKtober party.  Heather is a friend from Chi Alpha, and we bought her the Apples to Apples for her birthday.

Apples to Apples Card Game

Here are a couple of pics of us at the party:

Tasha, Cyrus, and Caney at Heather Castille's surprise birthday party

Tasha and Caney at Heather's party

There you have it ladies and gentlemen.  I am still trying to track down the poem about Caney mooning us in her ultrasound, but I can’t find it at the moment.  We have an appointment with Dr. Flores tomorrow just for a check up.  I’ll be sure to report back to you all soon.  Take care, and God bless you all.

-Cy

Sooooo, Tasha and I got married on 07 June 2008.  We had talked throughout our engagement about our desire to have a child as we got married and how we both felt called to parenthood.  We felt this was God’s will.  2 weeks before our wedding we decided and agreed that we wanted to wait until we were “established” and graduated from college.  We had changed our minds, but…

God didn’t change his mind.

After our honeymoon we were living in Hyattsville, MD right off of the University of Maryland campus at this house:

Claymore House

So, the signs began to point to a Baby Robinson not long after we got to Maryland.  In order to illustrate the significance of our miracle in the making, I must be a bit graphic for a moment.  On our honeymoon, we “took the proper precautions” for NOT having a baby.  So three pregnancy tests later, we discovered that we would be following God’s plan, not ours, and thank God for that!

Tasha’s first response was to cry.  She was afraid of what her parents might think.  She was also afraid of… having a baby living inside of her.  I suppose those can both be pretty scary things.  I’ll admit, I was also terrified when I first found out, BUT… I was also excited.  Er, I still am terrified, actually.  I know a baby has input and output…like a computer.  I’m told it’s not as simple as that though .  I immediately started cheering and jumping and screaming and hugging/kissing my wife, who probably thought that I was crazy.

We went to Johns Hopkins University Medical Center, and they gave us our first glimpse of Baby Robinson:

Caney at 6 weeks along

Yeeeep, she’d be the little peanut in the middle there.  Well, we finished off the summer in Maryland (I was there for an internship), and we came back to good old Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, La.

Tasha and I both wanted our first child to be a boy.  Now, this isn’t because we won’t (or don’t) love the idea of having a little girl. For Tasha, she thinks having a little boy will be so much easier.  Boys are rough and tough and resilient, right?!  I guess I agree with her, but my motivations were a bit different.  I’m afraid that if I have a little girl first I’m going to be unfairly strict on her.  I was hoping to have a big bro around to beat up any little boys who look my daughter’s direction in the future.  I joked around with folks that if I had a girl first, I’d just ground her until she’s 30.  The first time we went to find out her sex,  Baby Robinson was turned the wrong way and she was mooning us.  I wrote a poem about that, but I’ll upload that in a later post.  We went back a few days later to try to find out the sex again.  Well, here’s how that turned out:

It's a Girl! 17 weeks along (I think?)...

Apparently the two horizontal white lines to the right mean “little girl.”  We want to use Biblical names, so we decided that if it were a boy we’d name him Elijah.  However, we’re having a little girl, so her name shall be Canaan (technically this is a guy’s name in the Bible, but we like it for our little girl)!  Now we’ve come full circle, and reached the namesake of this website.  Canaan’s nickname is Caney, and I like Raising Cane’s so… welcome to RaisingCaney.com!

Here are a few more pictures of Caney at around 17 weeks along:

If you are imaginative, you can see her face to the top of this picture. She is facing to the right, you can make out her jaw bone and her eyes. You can also see her heart.

Her head is at the top (a bit of it is cut off) and her spine is to the left.

This next one is probably my favorite.  Her little legs were just a kicking during the ultrasound.  It was awesome to see her moving around.

You can see the bottom of one foot, and the toes pointed down of the other. Amazing...

Here’s my baby Momma at about 18 weeks:

Tasha Marie . She's beautiful, and so is that baby bump!

So, we were scared because for the first 18 weeks, Tasha actually LOST weight (despite her belly growing).  She lost, I think 8 pounds total, but the doctors told us not to worry because she’d gain it back.  She has started gaining the weight back now, and her baby bump continues to grow.  It’s really late, and I’ve got work bright and early, so I am going to end this post for tonight.  Thanks for visiting, and welcome to RaisingCaney.com!  Feel free to leave a comment.