Category: Christine & John

Posted on by John

Yesterday we took John Robert “Jack” to his first visit to our pediatrician Dr. Treybig.

He was so good on his first outing away from the house. It was really nice for Christine to get out too.

He received an excellent report! He is 7 lbs. 5 oz. now which made us so proud and relieved that he is gaining weight and getting proper nutrition. Dr. Treybig said that Jack looks perfect.

jack_dr_treybig.jpg
Jack with Dr. Treybig

We go again next week for his blood screening tests and at two months he will get his first round of immunizations. Dr. Treybig recommended that we wait until six to eight weeks of age before we take him around large groups of people. So we may be changing our holiday plans a little bit.

Jack’s first Christmas may be a quiet one at home. We’re looking forward to January when we’ll be able to travel and visit family and friends.

He’s sleeping really well in his crib in-between feedings, which is something we learned is important to establish now. Hopefully he’ll grow accustomed to sleeping in his crib as he grows older, so that mom and dad can get some sleep at night as we progress towards longer nights.

So, at this juncture, I present a few galleries of photos we’ve taken over the past week:

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Posted on by John

Debbie, Raymond, Payton and Peggy came over today to visit Jack.

Peggy held him the whole time they were here. He was very comfortable the whole time she held him. Aunt Peggy just has a way with babies I think.

Debbie and Raymond brought us some Aggie gear, so now Jack is ready for the game today:


Gig’em Aggies!

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Posted on by John

Last night, after Christine finaly got a couple of hours of sleep, I went in to wake her up to feed Jack. It was about 11:30pm, and she’d been sleeping since about 9:30. Christine hadn’t really slept more than those 2 hours all day, so she was considerably tired.

Jack was hungry.

So, I said “Christine, it’s time to eat. Jack’s a little hungry.”

Christine shot up to a sitting position and started arranging her pillows behind her, like a good mom, ready to feed, when all of a sudden, she shook her head and said “Wait a minute, I’m feeding him?”

I said “yes, babe, you’re feeding him.”

And she continued arranging her pillows, and when she was done she said “Wait. I’m feeding him right?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at this second question.

“Yes, babe, you’re feeding him.”

She finished getting set up, and little Jack ate.

About half way through the feeding, Christine chuckled to her self and said “Man, I don’t know what I was thinking there for a second.”

I guess that’s what they call “Baby Brain”.

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Posted on by John

We’re all home.

Today is Thanksgiving day, and Christine and I have so much to be thankful for. Most of all, we’re thankful that we’re home, and our little Jack is healthy.

“Jack?” you may be saying. Yes, “Jack”.

The baby’s given name is John Robert Engler, Jr. He’s named after his grandfather’s (my Dad’s) best friend, our Uncle John, and his Daddy.

To ease the confusion about who we’re referring to when we’re talking about John Engler or the baby though, as well as to give the baby a sense of individuality, we’ve decided to call him “Jack”, which is short for John. Yes, I know it’s not really shorter than John, but that’s how we’ll explain the nickname. Calling the baby “Jack” also honors my uncle Jack, who was one of the wisest men I ever knew, and I know will be looking after him as he grows.

So, look for us to call him either “Jack” or “little John” or “little John Robert”. You can call him whatever you want, but we’ll be calling him “Jack” most of the time.

…

So, we’re all home safe and sound, and healthy.

Jack is one hungry little son of a gun, lemme tell you. He’s eating like a champ. Christine has decided to breast feed him, so we probably won’t get a whole lot of sleep these first few weeks of Jack’s life, but I’m really happy she decided to give breast feeding a try. (And boy does it seem to be working well).

Patton and Wesley have both been curious about the baby. I think they’re just happy that we’re home and that we didn’t forget about them totally. They’re indifferent to the baby now that they’ve had a chance to smell him and decide he’s not food.

Mary and Frank have been wonderful. Mary’s cooking Thanksgiving dinner right now and Frank mowed the lawn for me (what a Godsend… with all the rain we’ve had lately, I’ve not been able to mow it).

We’re really lucky to have family willing to stay with us and help out. (I can’t wait ’till my mom comes up and stays with us in a few weeks too).

…

We were so lucky to have sooo many good friends come visit us in the hospital. Sooo lucky. This kid’s going to have so much support as he grows up we don’t know what to say or think. To all of you that made it up to the hospital… thank you for making us feel so special.

To everyone that couldn’t make it, stop by anytime, or let us know when we should bring him over, and we’ll be there (give us a few weeks to figure out this parenting thing though 😉

…

Lastly, Marc Swendner, a friend of ours that also happens to be a professional photographer, came by the hospital and took some photos of Jack. They are posted here, and are the best photos we have of the little guy so far. We hope you’ll agree that they came out great, and that the kid is just adorable. Not bad for 24 hours old, huh?

…

Happy Thankgiving.

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Posted on by John

2004-11-24 11:47:54

Wow!

Wow!

Yesterday, November 23rd, 2004 at 3:45 in the afternoon, Christine gave birth to a baby boy at St. David’s Hospital in Austin, TX.

Statistics:
Name: John Robert Engler, Jr.
Length: 20 1/2 inches
Weight: 7 lbs. 2 oz.
Eyes: Blue/Hazel
Hair: Brown (and lots of it)

I’ll let Christine tell you the birth story, if you’re interested (just email her) but let me tell you that it was probably the most amazing thing I’ve ever experienced. Christine was amazing, and did a great job throughout the labor. It went smoothly from checking into the hospital to having a baby 6 hours later or so…

Mom and baby are doing well today, and both are recovering from all the work they did yesterday at the hospital. Dad’s trying to get a little rest. The baby is eating well, and staying warm. He’s cute as a button!

Mary and Frank drove down from Dallas, and Jessica drove up from Bellville. Mary was present in the delivery room, and was a big help to both mom and me. They’ll be staying a little while with us we hope!

We had a lot of visitors at the hospital as you can see in this photo gallery.

We’re looking forward to a great Thanksgiving, as mom and baby should be home in time to have turkey dinner with the rest of the family.

Thank you to everyone for their well wishes… the phone calls mean a lot to us, so keep them coming. Our cell phone number is 512.658.5246.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Posted on by John

Christine worked her last day at the office on Tuesday, and it’s now Thursday, and no baby yet. She was due today (11/18) and it didn’t come. I’m now convinced that doctors don’t know what they’re talking about.

In the past couple of days, we’ve gotten the nursery completely finished. We changed the sheets on the mattress in the crib, put together a swingy-seat and a bassinet, and installed carpeting (okay, really, we just put down a rug).

It’s cozy in there, and the cat loves the bassinet, so we may just let him sleep in it.

Christine’s feeling fine, and is putting up with my constant “Are you having a baby, yet?” questions (I’m asking her that about once every 4 hours now). She keeps telling me “not yet.” But every few hours she says “ouch” … probably a contraction or something… so I’m hopeful that she’s really going to have the baby sometime in the next week or so…

We’ll let you know when we know something.

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Posted on by John

Christine sent this email out this morning:

From: Christine Engler
Date: Tue, Nov 16, 2004 10:43 AM
Priority: Normal

Good morning everyone!

John and I went to the doctor this morning. Things are progressing! I am 80% effaced and 1 cm dilated. Over the last three weeks I have shown steady progression, so the doctor feels that this thing will probably happen on its own within the next week or so. We meet with him again on Tuesday of next week (if I make it that long) at which point he will put me on the schedule for induction either late next week or early the week after. Today my first blood pressure reading was border line, so they took a second reading at the end of my appointment and it had come down quite a bit. He is not too concerned over the blood pressure, but the nurse told me to get plenty of rest. He said that if I needed to continue working I could, but also said it may be a good time to stop if I want to. I had thought that last Friday would be my last day, so I think I am going to finish some things up today and then stop working as of tomorrow.

I guess now we wait. We’re so excited!!!
Love,
Christine

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Posted on by John

Christine and I dressed up for Halloween again this year. The party was a blast, and we enjoyed seeing all of our friends…

Josh posted photos from before the party and during. Glad I’m not Catholic.

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Posted on by John

It’s November 8th, and Christine is due on November 18th. We’re officially 10 days away from the big day (though that big day could actually happen any time between now and Thanksgiving). So we’re ‘in the red zone’ … don’t know if we’ll pass, run or kick, but we’ll be going for it, rest assured.

I can’t accurately describe how I feel about the fact that I’ll soon be a father, other than to say I’m extremely excited (jubilant would be a good adjective, I think) and looking forward to welcoming our baby into this world (there are about 5, 000, 000 feelings running through me at any given time, and I’m not the one that has all the extra hormones running through my body). I feel blessed at this point that Christine’s pregnancy has been relatively trouble-free.

She’s been a trooper and I’m really proud of her and thankful that she’s been able to go through all of this so far. The best is yet to come for her, and I hope I can be strong enough to help her through the last few days of this ordeal.

I’ll post news to this website as soon as I can when we have the baby…

In the mean-time, I’ve posted a couple of photo galleries that hadn’t been posted before:

  • Setting up the Baby Room is from when Christine and her mom set up the baby’s room while Frank and Mary visited (and we had a couple of other visitors that weekend too).
  • Friend and Animals is from when Josh, Elise, and Michelle (with her new car) came over in September. The cat is the neighbors playful kitty.

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Posted on by John

Last weekend, Michelle Evans and Patsy Meriwether, two of our dearest friends here in Austin, threw Christine a baby shower.

Lots of our old friends and new friends, as well as some family, attended. Christine brought home lots of gifts, but she really said she enjoyed spending time with her friends and family in such a fun way more than anything. Patsy and Michelle really put together a fun shower, and had all of the girls that attended create a special keepsake gift that each one of them contributed to.

Thanks to everyone for the gifts, and for making Christine feel so loved.

Photos from the shower are here.

(Oh, and David and Evan and I had a good time on the golf course while the girls were all at the shower!)

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Posted on by John

Two weeks ago I started my new job at 24/7 Real Media.

Two weeks ago, I flew to New York for a week of training and to attend my first quarterly sales conference. I met the New York office, the CEO, President, and the rest of the executive team, a couple of the developers, the media sales division, the tech sales division, and all of the support folks. Talk about Great People!

I remember calling Christine on Wednesday at lunch time and telling her “I just feel good being around these people. They’re all smarter than me and enjoy their jobs so much, it’s invigorating.” It’s been a long time since I could say that about all of my co-workers (I could say it about a couple of handfuls of people at my last two jobs). All of the folks at 24/7 Real Media are top notch folks… I talked to my old boss, Andy, from Bestfares, and he said “John, it sounds like you really feel alive there” — he hit the nail on the head with that statement. I do.

So, on Thursday night in New York, I attended the launch party for 212 (the interactive marketing association of New York). Wow! What a blast. The party was held at The Deep, a club in Manhattan, and we had a great time at the party. I met old friends and made new ones.

Then I came home to Austin for a few days, before heading to San Francisco this past Thursday to meet a few folks from the SF office, before heading to the launch party for BIG, San Francisco’s Bay area Interactive Group. 24/7 Real Media is a big sponsor of BIG, so we wanted to have a decent prescence at the opening party, and our Senior VP of Sales, my boss, the VP of Media, and a few of us sales people attended the party. It was a blast. Again, met old friends and made new ones.

Then I flew back home yesterday and took it easy…

Two big parties in two weeks. I can already tell, I’m gonna love this job.

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Posted on by John

Here’s the official announcement on my new job:

John Engler has been named Director of Technology Sales at 24/7 Real Media.
In this role, he will be calling on publishers to talk to them about 24/7 Real Media’s award winning ad-serving solution Open AdStream, analytics technology Insight XE, and Insight ACT, 24/7 Real Media’s new behavioral targeting solution for publishers. John begins his role with 24/7 Real Media on September 27th, and will be responsible for the central region of the US.
Prior to joining 24/7 Real Media, John held the position of Online Sales Manager at the Austin American-Statesman for two years, where he laid the foundation for a strong online advertising sales force and team for statesman.com.

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Posted on by John

Forgot to write about this, but I was going through our photos earlier today, and I realized that I forgot to post the ones I have from Labor Day weekend.

This past Labor Day, Evan, Shadel, Ella, Christine and I, met Debbie and Raymond out at the lake house in Lakeway on Friday night. Raymond cooked out, and we enjoyed chatting outside on the patio.

On Saturday, The boys went out in the backyard and tore up the weeds and ivy that were infesting the flower beds, while the girls shopped, and then we all took a break in the pool. We took a nap or two sometime during the day.

We played poker that evening, before retiring to bed.

Then on Sunday, Ella took a bath, and Greg, Cheri, Paige, Patrick and Matthew came up for the day. We took another nap or two sometime during the day.

We all played and had a good time before cooking out again. On Monday we got up and all headed back to our respective homes.

The photos are online here, and there are some great shots of the kids mixed in. Click the big photo to advance.

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Posted on by John

Stuff from the weekend:

    Friday:

  • Accepted a job offer from 24/7 Real Media.
  • I gave my boss 2-week notice that I’m taking a new job at 24/7 Real Media starting on September 27th (that was tough to do… loved the old job and the old boss)
  • Christine took me to dinner at Moonshine in downtown (great dinner).
    Saturday:

  • Mowed the Lawn.
  • Painted the first coat on the walls in the master bedroom.
  • Caulked the guest bathroom.
  • Attended a very fun baby shower that Erin, Debra, Cindy, and Elise threw for us. (see photos) (see josh’s photos also)
  • Fell asleep (exhausted) on the guest bed.
    Sunday:

  • Woke up at 7:30 am, due to the fact that I fell out of the too small guest bed.
  • Bought donuts for the wife and myself.
  • Watered the dying grass in the front yard (our sprinkler system broke, and it took me a few weeks to notice).
  • Painted the final coat in the master bedroom.
  • Christine oiled the antiques my mom gave us. (Thanks so much mom — they’re gorgeous!)
  • Set up the antiques in the guest bedroom (they look good).
  • Watered the back yard.
  • Ripped a copy of GlenGarry GlenRoss for Josh.
  • Bought a crib and mattress for the baby.
  • Came home and did nothing until we went to bed.

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Posted on by John

Last Thursday Christine and I had an ultrasound done. And we got pictures!

The doctors said everything was going fine: two arms, two legs, two hands, two feet, one head, spinal cord looks fine, kindeys, liver, heart, head… it all looked good to them.

We turned our heads when they checked the privates of the baby, so we still don’t know what sex the baby is: we’re waiting for the surprise.

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