So we got home yesterday and are getting settled in.  Stephanie's mom is staying with us this week which is a huge help and will definitely help us get things on track quicker.  We have had a bunch of visitors over the last couple of days to come and see Brennan.  My parents are on a cruise in Alaska that was booked long before we knew about Brennan and they are dying to get back to see her.  Until then, expect to see gratuitous amounts of Brennan pics here and on brennanlowe.com as they do have internet access and want to see the goings on with her.  Here is a slide show of pictures from day 2 through now and most of the visitors we have had.

Stephanie's doctor came in a few minutes ago to check her and asked if we wanted to go home. We immediately replied "YES". So they checked with Brennan's doctor and everything is good to go with her as well. So we are just waiting on all the paperwork to get finalized and we can check out of here. They are talking about us getting out around 1pm so I have started packing everything up and am thinking about how pack the van. We have gotten so many flowers and gifts, it's been amazing, thank you to everyone for your care and support. I've just got to figure out how to get everything packed to survive the ride home. We can't wait to get home and sleep in our bed and start to get Brennan acclimated. Thanks for all the prayers, we'll see you soon, from home!
Stephen 

Here is a slideshow with more pictures than you probably care to look at.  This is from pre-op through making it into our room.  I opted not to post the actual pictures from the c-section, figured that might freak some people out midway through the slideshow :) 

Here's the first picture I took with my camera phone. I have a lot more to post from the regular camera in a bit. Stephanie is still in the recovery room and Brennan is in the nursery. We have been told we will be in a room shortly so once we get in and settled I'll get the rest of the pics posted.

She made it! Mom and baby are in good spirits and health. She was born at 12:44 and weighed 8 lbs. She just went into the nursery so we should have the length soon. Thanks for all of your prayers. We'll be posting pictures soon.

I can't believe that tomorrow, I will have a baby girl. In some ways it seems like it has taken forever to get to this point and in others it feels like we found out we were pregnant yesterday. So we report to the hospital at 11am and are scheduled for surgery at 12:30pm. If everything goes as planned, we should have a baby around 1pm. I don't have a lot of faith in the hospital getting us in on time but check my twitter feed for up to date info on the goings on and here and brennanlowe.com for pictures and more in depth information. Pray for a healthy mom and baby!

I starred in an A-Team episode once.  The makeup artist on site that day was terrible and I ended up looking like a cartoon character.  It was worth it for my 15 minutes of fame though.

Link to video Here

MP3 players have been chewing away at CD sales for a number of years now.  I still know a few people who buy them instead of downloading because they want the case with the graphics and liner notes and whatnot but other than that, there aren't many compelling reasons to go out and purchase a CD in my opinion.  I haven't purchased one in almost a year thanks to online retailers and more recently, Zune Pass.  I saw this story today on PhoneScoop.com that I beleive will be the final nail in the CD's coffin.

So apparently the Microsoft commercials with Seinfeld and Gates are over.  I thought it was going to be a series or something.  It looks like they are going to redo the PC vs Mac stuff which I think is a huge mistake.  With all that $ kicking around over there you think they'd be able to hire someone creative.

We have been playing an inordinate amount of Mario Kart at the Lowe house over the past month on the wii. Ethan has been getting better and better the more he plays and is starting to get competitive, like really competitive. He gets mad if he doesn’t make it to the finish line on his final lap. He yelled at me for beating him not long ago saying "I wanted to win!", it's cool to see him getting so passionate about something. The weird part is that as competitive as he acts, he still hasn't connected the dots between how he drives and the place he finishes in the race. So basically the race will start, he will sit and watch Steph and I race for a minute, maybe comment on what we are doing or what’s happening, then he'll start driving. Usually he will see something on the track he wants to check out and drive his car off the road or backwards to go check it out. He does all of this and still gets upset when he doesn't win, no matter how many times we tell him he can't win the race driving backwards.

I can so relate to this. I am a very goals oriented person. I set goals and do what it takes to make them happen, I like things to be planned out. With that comes the constant threat of not just getting off target, but making sure that what you are doing is moving you closer to the center of the target. Having a goal in place, and doing the things it takes to achieve it are two completely different things. I have to constantly evaluate my efforts and gauge the results from them against the goal I'm trying to achieve.

I think that many times people give up on their goals because they struggled to achieve them for years and never got any closer, generally assuming the goal was too big. My guess is the methodology being used to achieve the goal was the problem, not the size of the goal.

Wow, what a week, here we go.

Here is a picture of some of the various smartphones I've used over the years. This isn't all of them, just the ones still rattling around in my office. Some bring back good memories and some I would question using the word "smart" to classify them. I am taking this picture with my blackberry curve whose days are already numbered, come on thunder!

Ethan started his first day of school today. Technically yesterday was the first day but it was short and included moms so I'm thinking it doesn't really count. I wasn't there when E got dropped off today but Steph said he was so excited he tried to sprint to his class as soon as the van door opened. She is sad to see her baby all grown up and going to school. It will probably take a few days for her to get past that and start to enjoy her new found freedom which will come to a close sometime around the 25th of this month as we welcome Brennan into the family.

As for me, I'm just hoping he follows a better path in school than I did and can stay out of trouble. I know kids are always coming up with new tricks but I was pretty crafty in my day when it came to getting in trouble. Hopefully that will come in handy the older he gets and I have to outwit, outsmart and outplay him in the game of adolescent survivor. Time will tell. For now he is a cute, innocent, curious boy always having fun and bringing joy to my heart. These are the times to treasure.

I am blogging from a new browser, Google Chrome. So far it's very cool. Super clean interface, very fast and responsive. It was just released as a beta today so time will tell how well it really works. Most of Googles beta stuff I've used is pretty solid anyway so it should be good to go. If I can just get all my plugins from firefox in this interface it would be perfect.

I also installed Digsby today. It combines all of my IM accounts, email, twitter and social networking into one interface. Very nice so far, now I dont have 3 or 4 different apps running to monitor all these things. One of the best features is you have 1 digsby login and the system remembers all your settings and account info for you. This is especially nice when you use multiple machines as I do. I set it up once with everything and then just login on any machine and have access to all my accounts.

We had a great labor day weekend filled with a mix of fun, leisure and a bit of real labor. Here's some quick dumpage of the weekend.

- We went to the park on Saturday morning and I brought my skateboard with me. It was a blast, I forgot how much I like riding and Ethan was learning a bit too. We'll definitely be doing that again.
- I cooked some steaks on the grill Saturday night and it's obvious it's time to look for a new grill. I have not been happy with evenness of the heat for a while and I ended up having to use the microwave post-grilling, I was not a happy chef. Any body seen any sales on grills?
- Sunday at Fusion was very cool. We had Paul Peterson come in and teach for us and he did an incredible job. Considering this was the third time he has taught in the past year, I can't imagine how good he will be when he is in the groove bringing it every week. Cincinnati, watch out!
- Sunday night we went to the laser show at Stone Mountain. We got there about 3 hours before showtime and there was about 4 square inches of unused lawn left. Amy saved our bacon and had some room to fit us in on their blanket village. The highlight of my night though, was when Chad and I dominated Seth and Ashley in a wheel barrow race to some random dudes cooler and I ate grass in the process. Amy and her crew left as soon as the show was over and we hung out to watch the mass exodus. We were able to snap this pic before heading out.

















- Things are getting weird on the baby front. Stuffs happening and we are praying Brennan doesn't decide to make an early appearance. Just gotta hold her in till the 25th, right Babe?
- Anybody else following NASCAR? Check my prior post from February of this year here. I hardly ever get to be right.
- We start a new series on Sunday called Alive. I think it's going to change lives in a huge way, don't miss it!
- Heroes starts in 3 weeks, can't wait!

I'm out, time to hit the sack. It's going to be a crazy week, gotta fit 5 days of stuff into 4.