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

Yesterday began with Tasha and I fighting off sleep at 7am and getting ready for her to get some lab work done. Tasha couldn’t eat or drink after midnight the night before because she would be doing a blood glucose check for gestational diabetes. When she got there she had to drink a cup of some really sweet liquid and wait an hour before they drew blood. We had some spare time so while we were there we pre-registered for her to have Canaan there, and we went and scheduled her next appointment with our baby doctor for Friday.

Tasha had been complaining about swelling in her feet, but that’s fairly normal in pregnancy. The nurse who drew her blood when we got back noticed that her hand was very, very swollen too (around her wedding ring) and told us to make sure to keep an eye on her blood pressure. Tasha had also been complaining of her tummy and head hurting yesterday, and when she went to get her new drivers license yesterday, she had a hard time seeing out of her right eye (blurry vision). We went to Wal-Mart, and while we were there we checked her blood pressure. It was in prehypertension according to her chart, but it wasn’t too too high. To be safe, we called her doctor who told us to be cautious but that it was likely nothing too serious.

Well, we had our first baby shower last night with the Chi Alpha girls (thank you, ladies!) which I’ll discuss in my next post. After her shower, her feet were swelling so much that her ankles began to hurt, and her fingers were tingling…

My Mom warned us of preeclampsia this weekend. Tasha’s friend, Sally, warned us of preeclampsia this weekend. Tasha’s Mom wisely suggested we go to the hospital last night…just in case. So we went to the ER. When we went to check in they asked how many weeks pregnant she was (34), and then told us to come on to the back. They quickly took us up to the Women’s Health Clinic (same place where babies are delivered).

When we got to the Women’s Health Clinic, they tested Tasha for elevated protein levels (preeclampsia indicator), and they were negative…so that’s good. They decided to monitor her heart rate and blood pressure for a while, so they hooked her up to a machine that monitored her pulse, Canaan’s pulse, and took her blood pressure every 14 minutes. The readings went back and forth from very high to just a slight bit high over and over again. The diastolic number was the one they said they were most concerned with, and it kept going fairly high. Also, she was having minor contractions 7 minutes apart during this process (not actually in labor or anything though).

So, they aren’t sure what was causing it, but after a while, it leveled out in that same prehyperstension range we saw earlier that day. They let us come home but told us to be careful and to come back if necessary. They wrote her an excuse for school today so that she could rest and prop up her feet.

Tasha’s doctor called us today, and they told us that Tasha’s glucose test came back “abnormal.” So they need us to come in again tomorrow for more tests. They will be doing multiple glucose tests an hour apart to verify for sure whether she has gestational diabetes or not. If she does…then it will be a very strict diet for the remainder of the pregnancy.

So yesterday was very long and emotional.  It’s terrifying… Tasha was scared, and I was scared too.  I couldn’t act scared though because that would scare her even more (possibly making her blood pressure raise even more).

Things are okay, and we’re trusting that God will take care of everything.  We believe in the power of prayer, so please keep us in your prayers!

Tasha and I go to Fellowship Baptist Church in Benton, La most weekends (whenever we’re in Benton). They are a small church, but they have tremendous hearts. Tasha was a member of the Fellowship youth group when she was in high school (her Dad was the youth pastor), but we just started going back there this year. I got saved at First Baptist Church just down the street from Fellowship, but I had never gone to or known much about Fellowship. I’ve got to say, that we really appreciate the love, support, and encouragement that we’ve been shown at Fellowship. Fellowship agreed to partner with me on my mission to South Africa, and they are making a sustained effort to gather financial support from now until the time I leave for the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (UKZN). They took up a love offering today, and while I have no clue yet how much it was… I feel as though that church has showed me and my wife an invaluable amount of compassion, love, and support. Tasha and I went to the VA hospital to visit her Grandpa who is there for surgery for blocked arteries in his legs and an aneurysm in his aorta. I had the opportunity to have some quality conversation with him about his relationship with Christ, and his heart and his life experience speak volumes about his character. He’s an Army veteran who spends a great portion of his free time, dedicated to continuing to serve other American veterans through the American Legion. I truly respect him and am honored to be a part of his family. Please, keep him and his family in your prayers as he goes through his surgery and medical process. Tasha and I, still in our church clothes decided to take a few pictures tonight…because, let’s face it, we’re one attractive couple (and baby bump)!  So for your viewing pleasure…some pictures of us at 34 weeks pregnant!

My beautiful girls...!

Check out that belly!

I love this one...

and this one...

and especially this one... (I love the smile on her face!)

There were regional experiences representing the missionaries all across the world.  Europe and it’s harsh post-Christian culture, Africa and the AIDS epidemic and poverty and education crisis, China and it’s unreached masses.  There were even sessions on reaching Muslims and Hindu people here in the United States.  Every meal we had the opportunity to sit with missionaries from various places around the world.  At these meals, we got to learn about the personal struggles, motives, experiences, and excitements that these people face every day.  I ate with missionaries from China, Algeria, Lithuania.

There were some amazing times of prayer and worship at the summit…

When we found out about the trip to South Africa for this summer with our Chi Alpha group I felt God calling me to go.  The trip is 3 weeks long in late July-early August.  Canaan will be about 3 months old…  So I thought, and everyone I spoke to agreed, that this was a legitimate concern and reason (excuse) for not going on the mission trip.  Also, Tasha and I are on a pretty tight budget as a young married couple going through college, about to have a baby, and taking the world by storm.   People also agreed that this was an acceptable reason to not go on the trip.

This was all wrong though…

God spoke to me at the summit…  If GOD tells me to go somewhere, there is NOT legitimate excuse not to go.  If GOD tells me to go to Africa then God will make a way for me to afford getting there.

So while my selfish desires and conventional wisdom say that I had a pretty sound reasoning for NOT going, God has made it clear that as the Bible says… His foolishness is above man’s wisdom.

So I’m going to South Africa this summer.  So, many of you may be receiving (or have already received) letters requesting financial support/sponsorship to help me pay for this trip.  This will actually be my first mission trip…

I’m scared and sad about leaving my girls, but I’m leaving the camcorder with Tasha so she can record evvvvvery waking moment that I’m gone.

I know and understand that not all of you that I’ve contacted for support will be able to support me financially.  Where this is the case, I ask that you support our family and the mission team in prayer.  We believe that God will be faithful to provide, and we believe that your prayers help.

-Cy

So, as most of you know, Tasha and I are members of Chi Alpha. Chi Alpha is one of the campus ministries here at Louisiana Tech. The body of believers in Chi Alpha varies greatly as far as the background denominations of its members. The organization itself though, is sponsored by the Assembly of God (AG) church. AG hosts the World Missions Summit (WMS) every 3 years.  At WMS, Missionaries from all over the world come together to recruit, train, educate, inspire, and minister to (primarily) college students interested in being missionaries (long term, short term, etc.).

Over New Years holiday I had the opportunity to go to Cincinnati, Ohio  for WMS with a group of people who are in Chi Alpha with us.  Unfortunately, Tasha could not come, as her doctors advised her not to do any extended traveling as long rides and such can cause blood clots in her legs (and would be uncomfortable in general).  Soooo, Tasha and I spent our first married New Years apart …  The bus ride was about 13-14 hours I think, and I slept probably 12 of those hours.

There were big praise/worship and informational services and skits throughout the WMS.  In between these services we had breakout sessions and meals.  The breakout sessions were AMAZING.  The most popular one was probably the Eurasia Experience.

The Eurasia Experience is a tour of a fake “country” called Eurasia (referencing the geographic region, of course). Each visitor is issued a fake “passport.”  As we waited in line, customs workers came and separated us having men stand on one side and “women and the unclean” on the other.  Also, we were required to remove our shoes.  We were warned not to have any religious materials for distribution and that in Eurasia cameras and videos were not allowed.  As we waited to enter, the customs agents came through interrogating people about their religious materials and “arresting” people who had materials for distribution.  You enter the room, and men are issued a traditional ethnic hat from various Eurasian cultures.  The women are given scarf head-coverings.  You begin by walking through a “bazaar” where vendors are shoving “fresh meat” in your face.  The skinned goat’s head reeked, but it looked…plastic.  I touched it thinking it was fake.  It was real…and gross.  There were people “pickpocketing,” and there were so many people that you couldn’t tell who was doing it.  There were people selling women into prostitution/etc.  Then you get to a big room where we all sit on the floors.

People who are arrested are placed in a guarded mock jail-cell to the edge, but when everyone is seated the show begins.  There’s a man dressed in religious Hindu attire who dances through the crowd placing a red dot on the forehead of the women.  There’s a Buddhist who goes through the crowd performing a religious ceremony.  There’s an Orthodox Jew who goes through doing a ceremony. There’re Muslims on the center stage praying toward Mecca on mats.  Then, person after person comes through describing the violence, aggression, persecution (reasons NOT to go into missions) and finally, the breakthroughs (the reasons WHY to go into missions) that they experienced in different cultures or parts of the world.  These people are making a huge difference in the Kingdom of God, reaching people who would never have heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ, were it not for their selfless sacrifice.  It was…amazing.  The reason why cameras weren’t allowed was really “for security purposes.”  Some of the missionaries are in closed countries, places where they would be kicked out if discovered to be missionaries.  Even more unsettling, in some of these nations, missionaries can be arrested and ultimately executed.

It was…an amazing experience.  Also, we got to keep the hats!

This is only the beginning of the amazing things God did during this trip, but I’ll save that for the next post.

-Cy

Here’s something new! The first video on RaisingCaney.com:

Don’t laugh (too much) at my singing… !

What's Tasha's dad doing to that reindeer?! (Marshall, Tx)

Tasha and her Mom at the Marshall, Tx visitor center (it was cooooold!) Tasha and her Mom at the Marshall, Tx visitor center (it was cooooold!)

Tasha and I at the Marshall, Tx visitor center (see my new favorite hat?!)

Making peanut butter rice krispie balls for the cookie competition at the Sumralls

Tasha and I have made a gingerbread house for the past 3 Christmases now. Nice, huh?

More peanut butter rice krispie balls...

Peanut butter is messy...

...but yummy!

Nanna watched us make the gingerbread house and peanut butter balls

She's an angel in disguise...

I should begin by telling you all that there are something like 41 pictures in this post. So the pictures will probably go on after the text is done. Also, the pictures are smaller for the same reason.

Soooo, Tasha and I had a very exciting and busy Christmas! If you’ve seen the movie “Four Christmases” then you know (sort of) how our Christmas was. Here’s how it happened:

-On 21 December we went to Marshall, Tx to see the lights and to ice skate (Tasha is pregnant and my knee is hurt so no skating for us) with Tasha’s family and some family friends.
-On Christmas Eve Eve Tasha and I had our Christmas for each other (and Christmas with my Momma and Nanna).
-On Christmas Eve afternoon we did Christmas with Tasha’s parents and brother and sister.
-On Christmas Eve night we did Christmas with the Sumralls (my Mom’s boyfriend’s family) and my Momma.
-On Christmas morning/afternoon we did Christmas (including lunch) with Tasha’s grandparents.
-On Christmas Evening we did Christmas with Tasha’s extended family at her Nanna’s.
-The Saturday after Christmas we did Christmas (including dinner) with my dad and his girlfriend and my brother and his family.
Soooo, as you can tell…we were quite busy!

We got a ton of smaller gifts/stocking stuffers. I got a bunch of tools and an awesome tool box. Tasha got a digital camcorder (30GB hard drive). We got a ton of clothes and a front-to-back baby backpack carrier for Caney. I also got a new bottle of Armani Acqua di Gio cologne (my favorite cologne which I had run out of). Annnnd we got a $100 bill.

We had an awesome Christmas. We really did get some really cool gifts, but more importantly, we got to visit with both of our families and loved ones.

Opening her first gift!

Trying to figure out why her husband wrapped old CDs with her present (so she couldn't figure out what it was by feeling it, duh!)...

A magnetic cork board/whiteboard for the fridge

Warm hands! (Can be worn with my ROTC uniform too!)

Another gift disguised with something random (the flashlight). Awesome!

Baby Scrapbook Paper

Annnnd...a scarf (a really nice one, actually)!

+2 beanies AND (a much needed) child-protected surge protector. The power is MINE!

My awesome toolbox and my level!

Our Christmas kiss .

Caleb opening his present from us.

Caleb the Pirate!

A new Richard Scarry book!

A princess tiara!

Makeup?! Oh nooos!!!

He had to close his eyes for an unwrapped gift. Cute picture.

A poodle doll for Sidney

and a white tiger for Caleb.

A pirate and his dad...

Arrrrgh!

A Saints football that plays music and makes noises when you hit it!

A bunch of screwdrivers in a utility toolbox. The small ones are perfect for operating on my laptops!

Tasha has to share all of her presents with Canaan so she says she's not eating this chicken noodle soup until after Canaan is born. Hehe.

A big framed picture of our wedding for the house and a small one for her desk!

Every LSU fan needs one of these for the front of their house, right?

I think he's got the pirate look perfected...

Loooots of beautiful Caney clothes!

Another pirate picture.

hehe...2 pretty girls.

Annnnd the princess/diva arrives!

As for our first New Years married, we spent it apart … It was sad, but I got the opportunity to go to the World Missions Summit 2 in Cincinatti. Tasha couldn’t go because the long bus ride would have been terribly uncomfortable for her. I’ll try to post pictures (and maybe some videos) of the WMS2 tomorrow along with a post explaining how awesome this was. God is great.

We love you all. Merry (belated) Christmas, and happy (belated) New Year! Go out and use 2009 to bring glory to God.

-Cy

Toby Mac – Relient K – Family Force 5 – B.Reith

So, Tasha and I are going to see Relient K (and others) with Rex Kingham tonight. The three of us went to Baton Rouge to see Relient K last year too. I know that with these pop-centric Christian-influenced bands, the focus sometimes lands on the artists themselves. For instance, I often tell people that “Relient K is my favorite band!”

Relient K makes many Pop/Punk Christian songs, some that might even be considered Praise and Worship. All of the members of the band profess to be Christians, but to be fair, they do not play ONLY Christian music. Toby Mac’s music tends to be more blatantly Christian, although it has a hip hop/pop sound to it as well. I think it’s awesome that these guys are able to potentially reach a demographic with a Christian message that may otherwise not get through.

I love music…from nearly very genre… Organized noise impresses me. So, I enjoy listening to the music and experiencing the environment of a good concert for a purely musical experience. This having been said, it makes an awkward situation for me to attend these concerts that I love so much. The problem is that praise and worship for me is completely removed from general music enjoyment.

Praise and worship is an intimate experience, often times a conversation, with God. So, I sometimes get distracted one way or the other at concerts like these. It’s common for people to raise their hands and dance and scream at a concert, but is this directed at the band or at God? I think it can be difficult to mix music praising God with music that’s just…for fun. Now, I’m not implying that having these concerts is sinful or wrong. I simply find them awkward at times.

I don’t intend to put praise and worship into a box or genre. I love listening to a good punk or rock song giving glory to God. I love dancing and screaming and giving all my energy to God in praise. The separating issue is the lyrics/purpose of the music being performed. If the Myspace Profile for the Winter Wonder Slam Tour (the name of the concert) is any indication of the music to be played, and I hope it is, it will be almost all God-centered music. I never know what to expect at these concerts, but I hope that I get to hear some good music tonight. More importantly though, I hope God gets glory tonight, and I hope I can experience a time of worship with people I love. I’ll post about the concert (hopefully with some pictures) soon!

-Cy

———–UPDATE——————

So, the concert was great, obviously.  I didn’t really know what to expect from Family Force 5, but I had the impression that they were more Pop Rockish.  They call themselves Crunk Rock.  I think that’s probably an accurate description of their genre.  They had a great stage presence, and they earned at least one new fan.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see all of the Toby Mac show (but I could hear it) because I was out waiting at the signing table.  They didn’t know/wouldn’t say who was signing, but I was hoping to get a picture with the guys from Relient K.   It turned out to be Family Force 5, but that’s ok.  All in all, it was a good, enjoyable concert.  As for the pictures, we didn’t get many, but we’re trying to locate what we did with the few that we DID get.

-Cy

It’s been a few days since we last posted, but it’s been a pretty busy week!  Thursday we did Thanksgiving at Tasha’s grandparents’ house.  As usual, there was a lot of really great food, and Tasha and her Grandmother actually went out of their way to make me my favorite Thanksgiving/Christmas dish, candied yams.  They were delicious!  On Saturday, our friends, Heather Ashton and Brian Dean, tied the knot.  Tasha was one of the bridesmaids, and it was a very nice ceremony.  The reception was at the Officer’s Club on base, and it was a great reception with really good food too.  Tasha was in the wedding, and she was gorgeous in her bridesmaid’s dress.  We saved $45 bucks on getting it altered by having her Nana tack the shoulder straps for her.  Woohoo (thanks Nana)!  The last few pictures were taken with a camcorder so they aren’t as high quality as the pics here usually are.

I told you she was beautiful!

Canaan Sidney

During the wedding photos

My girls are so pretty ...

She caught me taking pictures

Such a beautiful smile

She makes me...

The bridesmaids actually made the bouquets themselves.

I'm her biggest fan...

annnnd...that's all I've got of my beautiful girls at the wedding.

Then Tuesday night we decided to put up our Christmas tree.  This ordinarily wouldn’t be too difficult of a task, right?  Well, when missing supplies and kittens are involved it gets a bit trickier.  So, a couple of weeks ago we bought our tree skirt, ornaments, and the little ornament hangers.  We found our ornaments and our tree skirt, but the ornament hangers are nowhere to be found.  We started setting up our artificial tree, and after I got the first level up, I decided I would go to Wal-Mart to buy some ornament hangers.  Tasha called me right after I got to Wal-Mart to let me know that Snookerdoodle had decided that she wanted to climb the Christmas tree…

Snookerdoodle is heavier than the fake tree branch will support…so she bent the bottom branch down to the ground.  Fortunately, I was able to bend it back into place…sort of (it’s not technically where it should be but you can’t tell).  Our cats love shiny things, dangling things, and, apparently, tree-like things.  Snooks has caused trouble a couple times since then, but our other kitten, Kilimanjaro (Kiki), is the real Christmas tree menace.  We can’t keep her off of it!  Keeping the cats off the tree should prove an interesting experience.

So, I’m at Wal-Mart, and I discover that they haven’t restocked their Christmas decor aisles from the Black Friday rush…so noornament hangers.  Thinking it would be a simple, affordable alternative, I buy silver thread instead.  Tasha and I threaded a bunch of ornaments only to discover that most of their knots slide right out when we go to hang them.  Sooooo, we spent a lot of time re-tieing the knots (a different kind of knot) on alllll the ornaments.  So what should have been a 1 hour tree decorating turned into an all-night event.  We had a lot of fun doing it though.  We also hung up 2 stockings for ourselves, one symbolic stocking for Canaan, and 2 stockings for the cats.  After hours of decorating fun, we finally completed decorating our first Christmas tree, and we got pictures of our finished product and of me crowning the tree with our star tree-topper.

Our first Christmas tree (before the star was added)!

annnnd the crowning moment! Also, notice our new modular dresser that we recently got from Target. We love it! Oh, we got some new shelves and decorations as well (some of which can be seen in the picture).

Tadaaaa!

We hope you enjoyed another round of pictures, and we look forward to hearing from you all.  We love you, and Merry CHRISTmas!

-Cy

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