Letter from Tanner

Hi! My name is Tanner Allan Coons. I’m new around here…I was only born about a week ago. I wasn’t supposed to come for another few weeks but I decided to surprise my Mommy and Daddy and come on the day they were married, September 4. In the hospital they told me I weighed 7 lbs. and 3 oz. and was 21 ¾ inches long. Everyone said I’m tall like my Daddy.

We had to spend a long time in the hospital cause they said my skin was turning yellow. I got to lay under these cool blue lights for a long time and wear sunglasses. When they finally said we could go home, we were all real excited cause we were ready to relax and get some rest.

Now that we’re home I am really enjoying myself. Some of my favorite things to do are sleep, eat and then pee when I don’t have a diaper on. Sometimes I like to suck my thumb, too. My least favorite thing to do is take a bath and put on lotion. Dad says lotion is for girls. During the day Mommy and me take naps on the couch together and wait for Daddy to get home from work. He’s pretty cool and sometimes he even gets up with me in the night so Mom can get some more sleep. I love it when he holds me. Mom always tells me how special I am and she sure kisses me a lot. Well, I can’t wait to meet all of you! Love, Tanner

Paint Extravaganza

I just wanted to use the word extravaganza... :D. Well, only about 3 weeks to go before this little guy arrives. As it gets closer I find myself dreaming about him more, thinking about him more and of course, worrying more. I guess that is to be expected. In preparation for his arrival Nate and I painted the nursery. It had to be done unless we wanted him to be femmy. The room before was pink with flowers, butterflies and a picket fence painted on the wall. Cute, but extremely girly. I should've taken a "before" picture to post but I didn't think of it.

This was my first time painting a room ever, so I learned a lot. There are things I would do differently but overall I think it turned out pretty well. The deacons in our new ward even came and helped out a little for mutual to get a painting merit badge. They mostly did the primer and then we finished up with the blue and the stripes. I'll post another picture when the room is complete with furniture and all, but for now here is the paint job. I also found this super cute wicker rocking chair on Craigslist that we bought the other day. Call me cheesy but I have gone in and sat in it a few times and thought about rocking the baby in it.
I am so ready for him to be here, let alone to be done with pregnancy. I am huge!! Not to mention uncomfortable and running out of clothes that fit. Throughout my entire pregnancy I have tried to gain as little as possible (me and every other woman on the face of the planet). So far, I have been right on target with my goal until I went to an appointment and they told me I had gained 5 pounds in only two weeks! I was devastated but the nurse told me that it was probably water weight and I would pee it out if I just drank more. (Sorry if this is T.M.I.) So I have been focusing on drinking more water, and I went in for my two-week appointment again yesterday and I had lost 2 pounds. Woo hoo! So, I am still on target with my weight gain goal. This is what I look like as of today...not the cutest picture but I just took a quick snapshot for the blog.
Yesterday I was worried I was going into labor because my back was throbbing and so sore...I thought I was having contractions in my back but they went away so I guess it isn't time yet. It gets kinda weird at the end, though. You want to keep living life and planning things, but you don't know when the baby will come so it's just so unsure. For instance, our fourth anniversary is coming up next week. We want to make some plans to celebrate, but don't want to set anything in stone, just in case. Maybe a quiet evening at home would be more enjoyable and relaxing anyway.

Baby shower numero dos is tomorrow...can't wait!! (Thanks Karli in advance...and Teri and Liora for helping!)Well, sorry for my rambling...hope you enjoyed the pics!

Squishy Face

Here are some more 3-D ultrasound pictures of my squishy face baby. I am SO EXCITED for him to come!! He's pretty stinkin' cute if you ask me. In some of the pictures there is a little squiggly line going across his face...that would be the umbilical cord. He even looks like he's smiling a little in one of them. And I love the one right below where he has his little finger up to his mouth. Anyway, only 4 weeks to go! I can't believe it's almost here!

The Double Deuce

Well, it looks like there have actually been two weekends go by since I last posted, so today's post is quite simple:

- the weekend before last
- last weekend
- an amusing anecdote

The weekend before last was quite exciting. It involved a lot of crawling around in a 130 degree attic. Corri's brother, Gary, and his family came up and spent the weekend with us. I had to work on Saturday, but that evening we went out to dinner and then got to work. We worked til 2:00 that morning, then again all Sunday morning. We worked until about the time Corri got home from church, which was 2:00 in the afternoon. As you can imagine, there were some wiring issues that needed to be resolved. Nothing urgently dangerous like before, but things that still needed to be done. There were three switches that had no apparent purpose, but were still hot. That's not a good sign anyway, but especially when the previous owner was an apparent moron. So we capped off two of the switches and rewired the third to the ceiling fan so that we now have separate wall switches for the light and fan. We also spent quite a bit of time following wires in the attic to see where they went and to make sure it was all safe.
In addition to all that, we also ran a cable from the cable box directly to the office. Our internet was really slow, due to poor connections and a half dozen splitters. So now our internet is quick and reliable. We also re-wired a phone jack that wasn't working. Upon investigation, we found the phone wire in the attic with another wire spliced into it (in the shape of a t), and guess what the connection was made out of - SCOTCH TAPE. I'm not kidding. Scotch freaking tape. I guess the moron had never heard of wire nuts. So we put a box up there and re-wired it correctly.
Other projects done that weekend included putting in a new garbage disposal (which happens to be my favorite kitchen appliance, and the only one that I really know how to use), fixing a toilet so that we didn't have to hold the handle down for 10 seconds (yes, only 10 seconds but it seems like 20 minutes when you're actually doing it), and fixing the bathtup so that it will actually hold water. Quite a productive weekend, I'd say. It would have taken me at least a month to do what was done in one weekend with Gary here.

Last weekend, I had to work again on Saturday (only 3 more weeks of Mon-Sat). After I got off, Randall and his family came out for pizza, swimming, and other fun things. It was a good time. On Sunday we drove clear the heck out to Gilbert to buy a buffet table thing that Corri found on Craig's List. We actually got a good deal on it, so I guess it was worth the drive. Plus I got to put my truck to use.

So before I wrap this thing up, here is the amusing anecdote that I promised. Apparently the city of Glendale came and visited today when I was at work. They told Corri that there was a complaint about our yard. The rain has created a bit of a weed problem on the side of our house. I was actually out there yesterday pulling them, but I didn't get finished. Anyway, I would normally be embarrassed to share that with you, except that the Glendale representative informed my wife that the complaint was made by someone who had basically driven our whole neighborhood and turned in a list of all the houses that were unacceptable. She said she had a lot of houses to visit. Apparently the complainer is really bored or something. If only I knew who it was, I would offer him/her a job...pulling weeds.

Well if you think my house is a mess, or if you would like to come to my house and pull some weeds, go ahead and e-mail me (or leave a comment). You're reading The Nathan and Corri Story. If you need me, I'll be outside.

Baby Shower Numero Uno

I have the greatest sisters (including in laws) and mother in the whole world...don't even try to argue. :D My sister, Tiff, and my mom planned a great baby shower for me and it was so much fun. Tiff worked so hard making cute invitations and planning games and then she and my mom both planned some really yummy snacks to have. Then two of my sisters-in-law, Maria and Heidi, came over early to help get the food and house ready for the party. We invited 26 people and 22 came! I was amazed that there was such a good turnout. I was definitely feeling the love.

My cute cake...it was yummy!

This was a gift chosen for me by my 4 year old niece...so cute!

This was one of the games we played. They had to try to guess how big around I am using toilet paper. Some obviously thought I am much bigger than I really am, as you can see by the above picture. :D

And others guessed a tad too small.

And some guessed WAY too small...this is me telling Tiana that I think it might barely fit around my thigh. I think she was just trying to make me feel good! :D That's why I love that girl.

Thanks to everyone for the wonderful gifts and for just coming at all. Oh, and by the way, I said "Numero Uno" because I am having another shower in the valley so people won't have to travel so far...I'll let you all know when and where. And we may be doing the same toilet paper game so if you come, you can't cheat and count the squares in the pictures. :D

A pleasant surprise

So I showed up to work at 1:00 today, and there were already two pharmacists there. Apparently it's my day off, so I got to go home. I knew this was supposed to be my 3 day weekend (I have every Sunday off and every other Sat thru Mon off), but I won't get any 3 day weekends until September (I'll be working every Mon - Sat, 48 hours/week). I thought that was starting this week, but apparently it's not til next week. I don't know if that made sense, but I'm too lazy to explain further so just know that today was an unexpected day off. That means I have 8 hours of spare time that I didn't know I had, so I get to blog today after all.

So in today's blog:
- The weekend
- New church callings
- Work

So I actually had a pretty fun weekend. It started Friday morning before work (technically not the weekend yet, I guess) when I put my new golf discs to use for the first time. I'm still quite rusty (remember I haven't played since my mission), but even then I never got very good because it was only in one of my areas and we only played once a week, but it's fun getting into it again.
The highlight of my weekend was Saturday morning when Corri went yardsaling. I was still at home in bed when she called me and told me that this guy was selling all kinds of tools and stuff because he was moving. I hauled myself out of bed and drove down to check it out. It was actually quite a sale. I told Corri which things I wanted, and she haggled with the guy. I ended up getting a 16 ft ladder, a weed eater (which runs quite nicely), a role of string for the weed eater, 2-stroke engine oil, a round point shovel, square point shover, a pick axe (all with fiber glass handles), and a gas can all for $100.
Saturday night we went and saw Batman. I actually had nightmares that night, and again during my Sunday afternoon nap. I guess I'm still a kid in more ways than one.
On Sunday, Corri and I had to speak in church. We did an awesome job. Actually Corri did an awesome job, especially for not practicing at all. I never practice anyway, so mine came out mediocre as always. Our topic, of course, was Our Pioneer Heritage. We also got new church callings. This ward is much quicker at that stuff than our last ward was. Our last ward was mostly students, so with the high turnover, it was a while until we got asked to speak, and even then we only had to speak once when we moved in and once when we moved out. Anyway, Corri is the primary secretary. I am the assistant varsity coach. I was a little worried about scheduling conflicts with work, but my boss agreed to let me work the early shift every Wednesday so that I can make it to mutual.
Let's see, what else happened this weekend. Oh yes, I got a new phone, FINALLY. As you may recall from earlier posts, the phone I have been using is the same one Corri and I got when we were first married. I now feel very fancy with my flip phone, and I no longer have to be embarrassed when people see my phone. It even has a camera, which I thought was getting a bit too fancy, but I don't know how to use it anyway. The best part about the phone is that I was able to get the U of A's fight song (Bear Down Arizona) as my ringtone. That was actually my main reason for getting the phone. My old phone couldn't do that. If it could, I probably would kept it for a few more years.
So my new job is going well so far. On Tuesday I got to go on a bit of a road trip to a different store for an appointment that I had with a patient (called Medication Therapy Management). Medicare Part D plans, as well as some other insurance companies, pay to have a pharmacist conduct an MTM appointment with patients that meet certain criteria (certain number of meds, certain health conditions, certain amount of health care costs, etc.) Anyway, I get to sit down with the patient for about an hour and go over all of their medications and health conditions. I then make recommendations to the patient and to the doctor to change, add, or discontinue different medications. This may sound boring to you, but it's actually pretty fun. We also have flu shot season coming up, so soon I'll be doing immunizations for the first time. In school we had to shoot each other with saline injections, but I've never done the real deal on a real patient.
Well, if you would like me to shoot you, go ahead and e-mail me (or leave a comment). You're reading the Nathan and Corri Story.

Nathan's Toy

We decided that we don't have enough debt yet, with the new house and the student loans, so we went out and obtained some more debt.

In all seriousness, we didn't just go spend-crazy now that Nate is done with school and making pharmacist salary. Many of you might remember that Nathan was in a bad car accident in February (or March?) of this year and our other car was totaled.

His seat was broken on impact and he was sent flying backward.

These were his glasses after the accident...he's not sure exactly how this happened but thinks that it may have been from the air bag. He was lucky to walk away with some minor bruises and scratches.

Anyway, we tried to last as long as we could with only one vehicle, but planned on buying a second vehicle after we purchased the home.

We also decided that we wanted a truck for several reasons. First, Nate has wanted a truck for close to forever. Second, we like the convenience of being able to haul things (especially with the new house...we've had to get a lawnmower, pool vac, etc. and will need to buy lumber and other things for some projects we have planned). Third, we both like camping and a truck will make that more convenient.

Once we decided a truck was the way to go we got more specific on the details of it. We wanted something smaller to try to get better gas mileage. We wanted something that would hold a carseat for obvious reasons and we wanted a camper shell if at all possible. Nathan did some research on Consumer Reports and found that one of their top ranked small trucks was the 2003 Nissan Frontier. So we just started looking and once we found one that met all our criteria (4 door, crew cab, camper shell) we snatched it up. And I have to say, I am quite the haggler. We talked the guy down pretty good and feel like we got a fair deal. Anyway, it's been fun and Nate is just in love with it...I'm starting to feel a bit jealous, actually. :D