That’s right, Susan is pregnant!

It was July 3rd at about 9:00PM when I walked through the door returning from an ExRAP in Washington, DC.  On the table, there sat a test with a positive indication.  We were ecstatic!  Our first appointment was going to be on August 1st, so I had to rearrange some travel for a trip out to Colorado.  We had both agreed not to tell anybody until we had the first appointment with the doctor.

The next day, Independence Day, brought all of the usual parties.  At Susan’s parents place, I pounded a beer and snuck inside to wash out the can (several times).  I filled it with water and brought it back out to Susan so she wouldn’t have to field the normal questions about why she didn’t have a drink in her hand. 

Throughout July several people asked if Susan was pregnant yet.  All received the SAME answer, including our parents, “NO!”  Sorry we lied. 

Fast forward to July 31st…I took the red-eye home from Denver to be back for the morning appointment.  Immediately after, we met Susan’s mom and Tommy at the Tom Sawyer Diner.  We sat down and they asked me how my trip was.  I said, “Great! Would you like to see some pictures I took?”

After that, I took out the ultrasound picture and they were elated.  We told my parents that night in a similar fashion.

We anxiously awaited the next appointments which were scheduled for the last week in August.  I was there for the appointment to hear the heartbeat, but I missed the one the following day where they did the good ultrasound.  Susan sent me a picture of the picture from her camera phone.  The doctor typed a message on the screen, “HI DAD I MISS U”

After this appointment, we began to tell a few more people before going completely public this past weekend.

There you have it!  We are pretty excited!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q:  When is the baby due?
A:  March 10, 2009

Q:  Are you going to find out the sex of the baby?
A:  We are not sure yet.  This can be determined during the ultrasound at week 20.  This is something we have been debating as it is one of the few great surprises that life presents you.

Q:  How far along is Susan?
A:  Entering the 14th week

Q:  Are you hoping for a girl or a boy?
A:  Either.  Our number one concern is that the baby is healthy. 

Q:  How is Susan feeling?
A:  Awful.  :(  She has been getting sick every afternoon for the past 2 months.  She’s going to sleep around 7:00PM.  Please don’t call at night.

Q:  Have you thought about any names for the baby?  If so, what names?
A:  Yes and we are not telling. 

Q:  Sounds like you’ve got some good swimmers?
A:  Yeah, just like Michael Phelps.

-Allen

Friday night we celebrated Susan’s birthday with her mom and Tommy at the Saddle River Inn.  This place has been rated one of the top restaurants in NJ.

Yesterday morning, I invited Susan’s family over for brunch.  I baked Susan’s favorite, yellow cake with chocolate icing.  All of us called Lisa (Susan’s sister) to sing Happy Birthday as March 8th is her birthday.

Last night the McKinley’s were gracious enough to host a birthday bash for 4 people.  Dave, Mike, Susan, and James all have their birthday within a week and a half of each other.  Since everybody turned 30, we decided to do a combined party.  I forgot my camera, but check out Jon and Kelly’s blog.

It was great to celebrate with friends and family.

Happy Birthday everybody!

-Allen

Today is Susan’s 30th birthday.  She has joined the club. 

Happy Birthday!!

-Allen

2007 brought some interesting challenges and adventures for Susan and I.  As the year comes to a close it’s time to recount some of those items and some of the interesting number

The year started off a little slow with a fun trip to NYC to see the amazing Les Paul play guitar at 91 years old!  This was followed by a trip to Redmond for a few weeks to participate in testing out some new products.

February brought an opportunity to go to St. Thomas (US Virgin Islands) for work.  Susan and I took a few days off and made it a mini-vacation.  What a great time of year to head down there as it is cold in the north east.  This was followed by a NASTY cold that kept both Susan and I bedridden.  The end of the month and into March was a stressful time at work as we struggle to patch computers for the Daylight Saving Time (DST) changes in the US.  There were many a sleepless not and countless man hours dedicated to the effort.  After the DST fun, I had an offsite in Las Vegas.  It was nice to relax for a few days.

April buried me in a tremendous amount of work as I was finishing up graduate school.  By the end of the month I had completed the program through Boston University and achieved a Master of Science degree in Computer Information Systems with a concentration in Information Security.  By the time May rolled around I was ready to blow off some steam and I went to 4 moe. shows in 5 days in NYC.

June brought a unique opportunity to deliver a workshop in Asia for other Microsoft employees.  I tacked on two weeks of vacation and Susan came with me for 3 amazing weeks in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. (check out the blog posts from June and July for more details)

In July we went down to North Carolina for a week at the beach with Susan’s siblings and her dad and Julia.  This was followed by a trip to Seattle for Tech Ready 5 and time in Colorado seeing friends and a moe. show.  I also got to see my first rodeo and first time in Wyoming.  The remainder of July and August brought countless hours of relaxation at Susan’s mom and Tommy’s pool.

The end of September and early October Susan had a conference in Huntington Beach, California.  I tagged along and was able to meet up with my cousins that I haven’t seen in 18 years!  We celebrated our 1 year anniversary out there as well.

Later in October Susan had another trip in Denver.  The Colorado Rockies were playing in the World Series and it was a crazy time.  We spent time with friends and visited Rocky Mountain National Park again.

November was a life changing month.  :)  It started off with my father and I going to our first Devils game at the new arena in Newark.  Also, I turned 30 and we went to Paris and Amsterdam to celebrate. (Thanks Mom and Dad!!!)  I saw my 30th moe. show on my 30th birthday.  As if Amsterdam wasn’t enough, Susan had planned a surprise birthday party for me when we got home.

Rounding out the year, December was busy with the holidays.  We had our annual Toys for Tots party which was our most successful ever!  I spent time in Burlington, Vermont for work under 2 feet of snow and enjoyed every minute of it.  The end of the month was spent with friends and family and brought everything back into perspective.

2007 was a great year and I look forward to 2008 being even better!  Let’s take a look at the numbers (in no order):

• 1 - the Anniversary we celebrated this year
• 6 - countries we visited
• 4 - National Parks visited
• 30 - the birthday that I celebrated this year
• 13 - moe. shows I saw this year
• over 7000 - pictures taken this year that we are still sorting out
• 42 - hours to return from Asia (Chiang Rai to Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur to Dubai to New York)
• 9 - babies born to friends and family
• 6 - Blue Whales spotted on our trip in California
• 88 - nights spent in Marriott hotels this year
• $520 - worth of toys collected from our annual Toys for Tots party which was then matched by Microsoft!

-Allen

It’s that time of year again, time for parties, year end reflection, and

time with friends and family.  Christmas Eve began with the traditional gathering at Susan’s mom’s house with family.  As always things are elegantly decorated and the food is nothing short of spectacular.  After the food it was time to open presents.  Each of the grand kids gets a "tower of presents".  Seeing their faces light up when they opened their presents was really fun to see.  The innocence reminds me that sometimes all the stress just isn’t worth it. 

From there, we went to my parents house for desert and to see my side of the family.  After a long day we went home to catch a few minutes of sleep. 

All pictures can be found at:
http://www.susanandallen.com/photos/2007/2007-12-24-ChristmasEve/

Christmas morning, Susan and I have my parents, her mom and Tommy over for breakfast.  We have been doing this for the past few years and has become a nice tradition.  This is when we do our gift exchanges.

In the evening we went to Grandpa Wust’s for dinner and Grandpa Seifert’s.

A busy few days, but it was great to spend time with famliy.

-Allen