Andy Black here. It’s been a long while since the last blog update and for reasons that might become clear, Diane has delegated this update to me. I will do my best.
My first thought was to make an April Fools Day prank out of this post by giving some outlandish update (or, alternatively, and very mundane one) but I don’t think I’m up for it right now because I only got a few hours sleep last night. Also, I'm a little late for that and there's nothing worse than a late (or early) April Fool's joke.
Diane and I welcomed the newest member of our family, James Michael Black, on March 31st at 11:53am. He weighed 9lbs, 9oz. and was 20.5” long. I’m told this is on the larger side, but I don’t have much experience with newborn infants, so he really seems like a baby to me. Diane is doing great and I’m very proud of how well she did. We had a scheduled cesarean-section because James was flipped upside down, or right-side up, or “breech”. On March 30th I would have very little idea of what these words mean and what implications they have on childbirth, but I feel like I am quickly approaching “know-enough-to-be-dangerous” territory. I won’t go into details here, but if anybody would like to discuss further you can be the first guest on the “Andy Just Learned a New Word, Listen to How Smart He Is” podcast that I’m starting this summer.
You could say it’s been a busy 12 months for our family. I suppose you could say that for a lot of families. In February 2020 I was finishing up a weekend on Lake Mille Lacs during the Perch Extravaganza where a bunch of out-of-state-ers slept on the ice, caught a total of zero fish, and played 437 games of Euchre. Little did I (or anyone else) know that a global pandemic was bearing down on all of us and we were about to spend the next 12 months in a bizarro world of lockdowns, social distancing, and mask wearing. In March of 2020 when stay-at-home orders and travel advisories were put in place, I figured we were in for a maximum 6-week impact to our lives. I would bet that many of you would have agreed. Oh, how wrong we were. Here we are, 12 months later, and we’re still wearing masks in public and social distancing.
It’s very encouraging that the vaccines are finally rolling out and it looks like many more people are becoming eligible. Because of the vaccine and all the people in our family who have been fortunate enough to receive it, Diane and I are very happy to be welcoming my sister Lisa, sister-in-law Sarah, Mike & Kathy, and Dan’s Family to our home to meet our newest addition over the Spring and Summer. I would love for everyone to get the vaccine so we can all finally leave our masks home and go to the bar. And a ball game. And the movies. The sooner we can eliminate community spread, the sooner we can get back to a normal life and I’m optimistic that can happen soon!
As for other important news: Diane is still enjoying her work at Kumon North America. She is starting a lengthy maternity leave that will last until September 1st, but she’s looking forward to continuing her career when she goes back. She’s learned a lot about corporate culture and how different it can be from teaching in a school. She’ll be giving me lessons on leadership and management in no time.
I’ve found myself back at New Hudson Facades working on design and development and I’m very enthusiastic about the next phase in my career. It’s been an interesting ride over the last several years, and if I wasn’t trying to keep this post to a manageable length, I could entertain you all with some pretty good stories. I’ll leave it at this: I’m very grateful for all the career experiences I’ve had since our move out East and I’m looking forward to many more to come.
Since I think I smell a diaper that needs changing, I’ll leave the blog here. Thank you for reading and you can get the next update from Diane in the near future. She’s a much better writer than I am, so you are all in great hands!
Lastly, I’ve made an email address for our son James and if you’d like to send him a note that he can read when he’s older, we’d absolutely love it. Reach out to Diane or myself and we’ll give you the email address.
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