deer creek lane

oh yes ... our fort wayne home is on the market again after our renters ditched us a few months early ... which works for me because it positions us for the peak selling season for homes.

the home is VERY competitively priced. homes with similar square footage are on the market in glens of liberty mills for at least $15,000 more! it's a great home and i wish we could move it to arizona! the home is meticulously clean thanks to my parents and in-laws - who we can't thank enough for getting it ready to sell!

if you know anyone who is looking for a home in the fort wayne area, please send them this link. the slideshow link will direct them to a quick webpage i made that will allow them to schedule a showing.

i learned about this fancy little "sprout" thing today from that weird website i blogged about earlier. pretty cool stuff. if you have a myspace page or facebook or whatnot, you can add it my clicking on "share" below the slideshow.

anyway, direct the people to me because if i find a buyer myself i can direct them to a real estate agent other than the listing agent and collect a referral fee since i am licensed in arizona.

thanks!

save money. get an iPhone.

I love technology - but I love it even more when it saves me money. Today, Stacey and I went to Staples to get a new office chair. We found the one we wanted for $171 - a bit more than we wanted to spend. I jumped on my iPhone and did a price comparison for the chair ... low and behold it was available on a website for $139. I asked if they'd price match it, showed them my iPhone with the price and free shipping the site was offering ... and STAPLES matched it. NICE!

Do that a couple of times a month with any purchase and the damn phone plan and the phone will pay for itself! Good thing I don't pay for my plan ... but it's another benefit of getting with the times! Everyone should have an iPhone.

what the hell is this?

have you seen this website yet?  it's been creating a little web buzz but nobody knows what it is ... hmmm.

off to buy a new office chair.  stacey's back has been killing her due to our very unsupportive, old chair.

It's official ...

Stacey's been stressed so naturally her back is tense.  Tonight, I was giving her a back massage and she was laying on her stomach when all of a sudden she jumped up and yelled "holy shit!"  I said, "Shit!?? What's wrong?"

Yes, that's the reaction we had when Stacey first felt the baby move.

It kept kicking or tugging or whatever babies do at 17 weeks while I was giving her a massage.  

We were at the doctor on Cinco de Mayo and the doctor said we have a lively one on our hands - it was kicking and moving around quite a bit (probably realizing it was Cinco de Mayo and was ready to party just like mommy and daddy).

Do we want to be called "mommy" and "daddy?"  Hmm ...

Brad's Tucson Trip ...

Well, I spent the last two days in beautiful Tucson.  Usually I think of Tucson as a dirty, nasty town but for some reason it didn't bother me this time.  In fact, I finally found some very good restaurants (which in my rating system is a requirement for making a town acceptable).  Maybe it's because the last time I went to Tucson for work I went with another person and he annoyed me and wanted to eat at Red Lobster.

Anyway, I went to Tucson on Monday afternoon (for work, again, in case you missed that).  I stayed at "The Varsity Clubs of America."  It happened to be half hotel and half interval ownership suites which in everyday talk means time share.  Funny thing.  I was looking at the other properties available and one of them was Rancho Manana in Cave Creek, Arizona.  To most of us this means nothing - but it's actually a resort owned by my friend Matt's family.  I've only been there once but it was beautiful.  It was ironic to me because the "hotel" I was staying in was nothing spectacular.  I'd never spend more than the $125 a night my company was paying for me to stay there yet this beautiful resort in Cave Creek (just north of Phoenix) was also an option.  Huh.

I was supposed to be in Tucson all week but it seems that the world's largest communication company has issues communicating.  The work force I was supposed to be training was at a different training all week so my first class on Tuesday only had three people - which was fine because they were all business reps.  I was supposed to have an afternoon class on Tuesday as well but it was cancelled early last week.  So, I asked the participants in the class where I should go hiking.  They recommended a place called "Sabino Canyon," which is where I ended up going. 

I hiked a total of about 5.5 miles round trip and went up 2,500 feet.

Here are some pictures from the hike:  Click here.

I've decided I've gotten a little to plump and made a promise to myself to not be a fatty when my child is born.  I also made a semi-intoxicated promise to my brother's girlfriend, Kelly, that I'd do a mini-triathlon on September 6.  Therefore, I've been picking up on the working out and overall activity since May 1.  I am hoping to do that triathlon ...

Today, after I went to the hotel where I was conducting training and nobody showed up, I decided to drive to Mt. Lemmon which is only about fifteen miles east of Tucson but about 30 miles of road and an hour of time.  When I thought (ten years ago) I was going to go to The University of Arizona I had read about Mt. Lemmon which promised snow skiing in winter which amazed me considering the winters in Tucson were usually in the 70's.  So, since I had nothing to do today I took that drive to see what all the talk was about ...

The drive starts at the entrance to the Coronado National Forest.  It's 100% desert with huge saguaro cacti powering through the rocky desert floor.  That was an artistic sentence, wow.  Five minutes later, due to the altitude, there are no longer any cacti, just small bushes.  Twenty minutes into the drive pine trees begin to appear.  By the time you get to 8000+ feet you are amidst a dense pine forest ... pretty amazing to see everything from desert to deciduous to pine in one one-hour drive!

Here are some pictures from that drive:  Click here.

I was planning on hiking today too but I got the "go ahead" while driving up to Mt. Lemmon to cancel the rest of my classes and go back home so I decided to do that instead.  But, to keep up with my "training" I did work out right when I got home.  Then I ate a great pasta bake I made for us for dinner.  I need to work on the "good eating."

a regular green thumb

You'd never know it - but evidently Stacey and I have green thumbs.  Our rose bush has well over thirty buds and is beeeeeeeeeeeautiful!  Don't worry, in a few months everyone in the midwest will have these too!

obama + IU

did you hear?  i am sure if you are in indiana you already knew about it.  but here i sit, in the phoenix sky harbor airport, and on CNN is a piece on barack obama at indiana university.

dave matthews played a free concert in support of obama at IU yesterday at assembly hall.

it was pretty cool to see the IU logo with "change" right underneath it.  i wish i could find a picture!

no matter what the outcome is of this election ... i think it is fantastic that so many people - young and old - are getting involved in the election.  i seriously doubt that people would've line up outside assembly hall like they did in the picture above for the last election or the one before when i was at IU.

Hoosier - excited for baby?

Could it be that Hoosier is excited for the baby? Every time we open
up the closet where we plan to store the baby... Er, where we store
the bassinet... He sniffs it for as long as we will let him.

Come on people. There's nothing like a good baby in the closet joke.

On a side note... I am starting to get a little excited about the
child. This is my first public acknowledgment. I think it will be
very wierd though, to have a little person that looks and acts like
Stacey or myself.

I mean I guess the world could definitley use more of us!

little people doors, cut the frills

tonight, stacey and i went to a very, very good "gourmet mexican" restaurant at a new mall that just opened nearby us.  i don't know if i'd consider it gourmet mexican but it was damn good.  they made tableside guacamole.  nice.  stacey's tortilla soup was good (besides that it included half a chicken in the "cup").  my chicken tacos were some of the best i've had.

anyway, we planned on going to see vantage point at the movie theater but once we got too close stacey smelled the popcorn.  ever since she's had bun in said oven she can not stand the smell of popcorn.  it's an instant gag.

so, we walked around and looked at the little people stores.  here are our findings:

boy clothing is so much cooler than girl clothing.  boy baby clothing rules.  most girl baby clothing sucks.

for example, a boy could be like, "check me out.  i have an awesome fire truck on my shirt.  i so rock." 

exhibit a:

on the other hand, most of the girl clothing is frilly bullshit.  too many roses.  too many flowers.  a lot of it looks like a damn quilt with some ruffles.

i mean, a girl would be like, "oh my god.  this ruffle makes me want to vomit.  oh crap, i think i am going to spew on this ugly, ruffly, flowerly dress.  here ... it ... comes ... blach!"

exhibit b:

so, we'd rather there just be a penis on this thing than the other option.  we'll know in late may/early june...

of course, we have nothing against little girls but we are thinking for us we'd like a boy.  let the conversation begin about how we'll regret writing this if we end up with a girl ...

the other finding was that little people doors rule.

exhibit c:

and of course, that puppies that sleep on each other are always cute.  we saw these guys at the puppy store ...  it would of course be exhibit d(og):

too many vaccines = autism/other disorders?

hmm... i actually stumbled upon this information but had heard something on the TODAY show the other morning as well, although each is pointing to possible different causes for the outcome of more autoimmune diseases in young people these days and autism.

the article i am going to point you to is actually by jenny mccarthy and jim carrey whose son is autistic ... or a recovered autistic.  they believe that children today are sent to the doctor for too many vaccinations before the age of two.  

in 1983 there were only 10 vaccinations for a child before age two.  now there are 36.

hey, i lived through only 10 vaccinations and turned out fine.  granted, i had the chicken pox but it was like a rite-of-passage.  hell, i didn't even know they had a vaccine for it!  what people are starting to point out is that as a result of so many vaccinations so early we've seen a dramatic increase in things like autoimmune disorders, neurological disorders like autism.

jenny mccarthy changed her son's diet, decreased metal exposure (some vaccinations actually contain traces of mercury) and other things and her son is now "recovered" from autism.  coincidence of misdiagnosis?  

to me, there's no surprise that drug companies are one of the only industries that are rarely affected by the economy.  push more "required vaccinations" into law and their profits soar.

the other thing i saw was on the TODAY show which discussed that americans are "too clean."  we disinfect everything.  there's actually a link that if children grow up in too clean of a household they are also prone to more autoimmune disorders, allergies, etc.  the philosophy with that is simply our immune systems are "bored" and start to turn against the body.  they have nothing to fight - like the flu virus on that table your son just licked or the chicken pox virus because you already have a decent immunity to it - so it starts turning on you.

anyway, read the article and let me know what you think.   especially if you have kids or are educated on this!  

here's the article.

oh, and if you've never read Belly Laughs by jenny mccarthy i'd highly recommend it!  stacey and have been reading it off and on.

you can read the first few pages here ...

and you can read more about the case against vaccinations here ...

bradnstacey.com

I just "redesigned" www.bradnstacey.com ... and by redesign I mean I simplified it with links to this blog and to some photo albums as well as some other random musings.  Check it out.

Citrus Groves in Arizona

Stacey and I went to a citrus grove in Mesa the other day.  Last year I had to go to this golf thing in Mesa (we'll leave it at that) and I saw fields of citrus trees.  It's no secret I love oranges and grapefruit - ask my grandpa who used to spend forever cutting them for me when we'd visit their place in Florida!

Anyway, we went to "The Orange Patch" and were pleasantly surprised.  It was the tail end of orange season ... in fact, yesterday was possibly the last day for navel oranges according to their sign.  You'd think citrus from the desert would not be sweet or juicy like it would be in more tropical climates ... but the oranges are some of the best I've had and the grapefruit were pretty dang good too!

In the early to mid 1900's the people of this area took the wide open spaces away from Phoenix and created acres and acres of citrus groves.  Sadly, a lot of the groves have been destroyed for "progress" of rows and rows of houses that look all the same.  However, the cool thing is that many of these area still kept quite a few of the mature citrus trees.  

This time of year, when you drive through much of the Phoenix area, there is a sweet smell in the air of citrus blossoms.  I think it is one of the best smells in the world!

Damn Baby

Ever since conception (well, a few weeks after conception), Stacey has been telling me I need to watch "The Waitress."  It's a movie with Keri Russell where her character gets pregnant unexpectedly and how she deals with it.  

Often, people tell us, "Congratulations!"

Well, we are still working through everything in this unexpected journey.  "Congratulations" is something you say to someone when they win the lottery, they get a promotion or get engaged.  Stuff they wanted to happen.  This movie portrays very well what Stacey and I are going through right now in a comical way ... 

Of course, every day is different for either or both of us ... but, go ahead and rent The Waitress at your local Blockbuster, via NetFlix or rent it on iTunes ... and let us know what you think!

Our Little Keylime

Here's a picture from the concert last night. You can roughly see the word "keylime" in the scrolling text bar at the bottom of this jumbo-tron.

You could text message a message to be displayed at the front of Cricket Pavilion. I texted:

"happy st. patty's day to my lovah and our unborn keylime."

We are calling it a "keylime" because one book said it is the size of a lime this week while another said it is the size of a lime. We decided to go with a keylime since it is in the middle of the two. 

Its called compromise people.

MB20 Concert

I surprised Stacey with two tickets for the Matchbox Twenty concert on St. Patrick's Day.  Hey, it won't be long before we can't simply decide to go to a concert on a whim ... without having to worry about finding a babysitter (Troy + Kelly, thanks in advance!).

We went to dinner at Westgate to Bar Louie where Stacey was upset she couldn't partake in the green beer.  Don't worry, I am respectable and only had two pints.  You can't not drink green beer on St. Patrick's Day!

The opener for the concert was Mute Math ... which we rather enjoyed.  They were very crazy on stage.  The lead played the piano while also doing handstands on it.  They played the piano top, microphone and more with the drum sticks.  Here's a video from YouTube:

Next, the "main opener" was Alanis Morrisette.  She very odd on stage but at the same time very awesome.  She sounded better than she does on her albums which is pretty impressive considering she sounds great there.  She did a lot of her classics like "Ironic," "Jagged Little Pill," and "You Oughta Know" while also debuting some new stuff.  She was pretty good even doing a weird version of "My Humps" by Black Eyed Peas.

Finally, two plus hours after the 7 PM start time, Matchbox Twenty hit the stage and did not fail to impress.  MB20 is one of our favorite bands ... we've seen them three times plus Rob Thomas once.  We were five rows from the stage but off to the side.  They did all the stuff from their new album while also hitting all their classics. 

It's crazy when you think about how quickly time flies.  We were talking in between bands and remembered Alanis Morrisette was the big "to do" when we went on spring break to Florida in 1996.  Matchbox Twenty became more popular my first year of college in 1997.  Damn it, people, it's 11 years later already!

how to subscribe to our blog

on the righthand side of your screen at the top there is a box that says "subscribe via email" and then a box to enter your email address.  simply your email address and follow the next few screens and then you'll get the ever-important updates via email... simple as pie.

baby names

go ahead and make any suggestions you have for baby names ... here are our current top picks:

Boy:  Boston, Coleman (Cole), Landin

Girls: Annabelle (Belle), Cecilia, Alexandria (Alex)

leave your comments for favorites, either our current ones or add your own.  we've only gone thru the "K's" so far on one website ... so i am sure this list will morph over the months.

we are hoping for a boy - screw that "as long as it's healthy" bit ... of course, who doesn't want their baby healthy?  the question was do you prefer a boy or a girl, right?

We're pregnant ...

In case you haven't heard - we are pregnant.  As of today, we are a little over nine weeks along.  The due date is October 17 for the little bugger.  As this wasn't a part of our "bigger plan," we are both slowly coming around to the idea.

Here's a picture for you to frame from about two weeks ago.  I know, isn't it cute?  It looks like an alien.  At this point, it still had a tail.  Eww.

WTF Man?! W T F ?

So, what's with Purdue doing well in the Big Ten? Did we all see they beat Wisconsin - at Wisconsin. Uncool that they now own full rights to the Big Ten 1st Place position. Ugh.

FBR Fun!

This weekend, Stacey and I met Troy and Kelly, her sister, Jen, and friends Chris and Jane at the PGA's FBR Open in Scottsdale.

This was our first time at the FBR and we're sure to go back!  Because the Super Bowl was in town too there were record crowds at "Golf's Biggest Party."  I could've done without a few (thousand) of the people there (mainly those girls and guys dressed like there were going to a NYC or Miami club).  But, once you got out of the major party area around the 16th hole there was still good times to be had.  We stayed on the 17th green and watched the last few groups of golfers go through.

After the FBR, Troy, Stacey, Kelly and I had dinner at this fantastic Italian restaurant near their house in Scottsdale.  And by fantastic, I mean FAN-Fing-TASTIC!  Not too expensive (if we didn't get those two bott-ows of wine) and family-owned ... it was great!  We'd definitely go back!

The weekend itself had much to be desired as far was the weather goes.  Saturday morning and early afternoon were actually nice - sunny and in the low-60s.  Then, in the late afternoon, clouds rolled in and it got quite cool.  Superbowl Sunday was not so great with a few rain showers and highs only in the low-50s.  Worse yet was Monday.  I had an all-day meeting in central Phoenix/Tempe and when I left at 4:30 it was raining and 43.  43?!?  The rain was actually partially slushy/snowy.  In the mountains just east and north of the valley there was quite a bit of snow.  We've been lucky to have a lot of snow in the Arizona mountains helping to alleviate the drought out here.  In fact, tonight, I heard that the Arizona ski resorts could NOT GET ANY MORE SNOW from today forward and still be open until late April!  Maybe I'll get to ski this year yet!  It's still weird to me ... today I was in North Phoenix/Scottsdale and although the immediate mountains in the suburbs were not snow covered, the McDowell Mountains and the eastern Superstition Mountains were all covered in snow.  In fact, all the mountains past the immediate ridge of the valley were white.  It's crazy to see palm trees and snow all within the same view!

But, this week brings much warmer weather ... weather we haven't seen in about two months!  By Friday and Saturday (I have to work both days, ugh!) we are supposed to be in the upper-70s and keep it that way for the length of the forecast!  This is what I'd expect in a desert winter!

So, this past weekend was good times!  Hopefully everyone else had fantastic fun too!  Woo hoo Giants!

Happy Super Tuesday!

Well, the past has not been too political in our lives.  However, since the last presidential election (my first time voting - for Kerry) I have slowly become more interested in "the issues" and politics...

Last week, I was in Albuquerque conducting some training downtown.  As it should turn out, Barack Obama was speaking in a convention center directly across the street from the hotel where I was located.  

On my lunch break, I walked out (this is actually when I found out it was the convention center next door) and saw secret service agents and police all over.  About two minutes later I was directed to either go back inside or stay on a street corner.  As I was walking to the street corner a parade of SUVs came plowing through and out hops more secret service agents, suits and Barack Obama himself!  He waived to the few of us that happened to be on that side of the convention center (there were fewer than 15 of us).  Wow, I saw a possible future President from just twenty feet away!

So, I go back in, eat, and decide to go back outside and see if he had left.  Outside, everything looks the same (secret service, police, etc).  I could hear the crowd cheering in the convention center.  There was a downtown park right nearby that I saw a bunch of people gathered.  I thought, "wonder what's going on there ... maybe a republican candidate or something," and I walked over there.  

When I got to the square there was not much happening except a bunch of people there.  Then, as I turn around I saw the police taping off the street with yellow tape and I couldn't get back across the street.  Sure enough, Barack was coming from the convention center to the square to do a little public speaking!  

He walks up, gets on the stage and tries to use the handheld loudspeaker ... but it wasn't working.  So he says, "the heck with it ... I don't need this thing!"  The crowd cheers.  When he was done speaking (about 7 or 8 minutes) I was cutting my lunch short and started walking back to my hotel.  I had five minutes until my class started and the secret service and police stop me and others from walking across the street so that Obama could walk back.  

He walked right up to us, shook our hands and moved on.  He had really soft hands.  Sounds weird, but I thought Larry would appreciate this, given his soft hands.  Many of you may not understand.  He looked young and healthy!

So, today, regardless of that experience ... I voted for Barack Obama in the Arizona primaries.  While I'd probably be happy with either Hillary or Obama ... there were a few issues that I agreed with Obama more on, most notably, healthcare.  

So, there you have it!  Me (and Stacey too, but she forgot she registered as an "Independent" so she couldn't vote today) being political and involved!