Matt Stratton's LiveJournal

I know I don't LJ anymore...but this needed sharing

2009-08-11T18:41:12Z

I realized today that there might be some of you who I have fallen out of touch with (due to the fact that I post on my blog now, and not LJ) so you might have missed what is possibly the most important announcement of my life.

I'm cross-posting it from the original blog post, so you don't even have to click through if you don't want to.

Regular readers of this blog know that my wife and I have been struggling with infertility issues for a while now. Over the past 18 plus months we’ve played games with having “relations” on a specific schedule (whether we wanted to or not), injected more needles than Sammy Sosa, and moved genetic material around in all kinds of random ways.

And it’s finally paid off.

Yes. For reals.

We are going to be parents.

But wait, there’s more…

We are having TWINS.

As I told my friend Marcelo last night – it’s not so much a matter of “slipping one past the goalie” as much as “body checking the goalie and whipping two pucks into the net at once”. But it worked.

The Stratton twins will be joining this world circa January 2010.

As you might expect, we are super excited about this. It’s quite a shock to have two for the price of one, although really it’s like double the cost of what we had planned. In the same conversation referenced above, Marcelo told me that we should have our own reality show. I said “Yes. It will be called Matt and Carrie Plus Two Minus Money.” We’re doing research on all things we DO need two of…and what we don’t. Fortunately, Carrie’s cousin has twins, so we’re getting a lot of great knowledge from her. And the internets…bless the internets…

But yeah. We’re jumping ahead and having two at once. They are fraternal, but we won’t know their gender for a few months. But feel free to start the pool – I just ask that you give the house a 5% cut on all bets. We have names in mind as well, but only for a boy and a girl – if we have double-up gender, we need to do more thinking. And I’m not telling you what the names are yet. You can try to guess if you want though.

We want to thank all of you for your love and support through all of this. It’s been a rough road, and our friends and family are all too aware of this. But now, the good news is, you can stop hearing us talk endlessly about infertility.

Now you get to hear us talk endlessly about multiples.

listening to "Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean - Sarah Vaughn" on Blip

2009-04-30T00:08:29Z

Love me some Sarah Vaughn

My LiveJournal Has Moved

2009-02-18T16:24:20Z

Apologies if you're seeing this on your Friends list; I just wanted a post at the top of my LJ explaining and redirecting.

I have moved my blog off of LiveJournal, and it can now be found at http://mattstratton.com.

If you would like to add it to your LJ Friends list, please add mstrattonblog.

You can also subscribe to it by adding http://mattstratton.com/feed to the feed reader of your choice.

Follow my blog...

2009-01-20T02:41:55Z

So the feed is working and won't shouldn't flood your Friends list if you start following it now.

mstrattonblog

Remember - if you comment on the feed posts that show up on your Friends list, though, I'll never see those comments. You gots to comment on the blog itself :)

This LJ

2009-01-12T03:10:44Z

So, I'd been thinking about porting my blog from LJ to a "main" site for a while, and I finally got around to doing it. The catalyst for this was the rumors of the Russians shutting down LJ, which appears to not be a concern now, but the point is, I did it anyway.

You can add it to your friends list by adding mstrattonblog . However, I recommend waiting a few days to add it, since as soon as the syndication picks up, that feed is going to FLOOD (since I ported all of my LJ entries to the blog). I'll post an LJ reminding you about it in a few days just in case. But please, don't add it now or you will regret it :)

I won't be posting here anymore, but I will still be reading, so please don't take me off your f-lists, as I'll still use this account to read all your super private thoughts :)

Week 2/52

2009-01-07T02:10:14Z

Week 2/52
Originally uploaded by Matt Stratton.

This is my self-portrait for Week 2. I kind of like how it turned out, despite the fact that the portrait-within-the-portrait is not a very flattering picture of me. But then again, if I am doing this to show flattering photos of myself, there's no way I can pull off 52 weeks :)

Tweets for today

2009-01-05T02:06:13Z

22:57 @croppold @eliii It's "le gushka!" #
23:00 twitpic.com/zij2 - Fun photography tonight with the dogs! #
09:39 @lenoxlyn I like the look and layout...but I cannot find an RSS feed for it.I highly recommend enabling RSS + making it easy to find. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Lily

2009-01-04T05:17:41Z

Lily
Originally uploaded by Matt Stratton.

This is my sister-in-law's dog, Lily. She's a 14 week old Border Collie/Black Lab mix that Becky adopted six weeks ago.

She's friggin' adorable. Scout loves her. It's going to be a lot of fun when she's full grown and bigger than he is!

Tweets for today

2009-01-04T02:16:08Z

21:52 I have decided to grow a beard. It's not due to the Year of the Lumberjack, but it does mesh nicely with it. #
09:25 twitpic.com/z9q7 - Week 1 of the 52 Weeks Project #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Week 1/52

2009-01-03T14:30:57Z

Week 1/52
Originally uploaded by Matt Stratton.

Inspired by the glamorous swifty0682, I have decided to take on the 52 Weeks Project. Similar to the 365 Days Project, but with far less committment, this is a photography "assignment", so to speak, which results in one self-portrait a week for a year...ultimately, 52 portraits.

You can watch my progress on Flickr, but I think I'll be posting each week's portrait here as well.

Tweets for today

2009-01-03T02:09:39Z

11:11 @brianburch I just hit 100 followers myself the other day. We rock. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Tweets for today

2009-01-02T02:10:32Z

15:16 You stay classy, Kathy Griffin. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Tweets for today

2009-01-01T02:10:39Z

14:09 Happy Trails, DeRo...we'll miss ya! #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Tweets for today

2008-12-30T03:13:49Z

22:14 Rocking TGI Friday's in the suburbs with @lilieblue and @ryanswift #
07:29 I swear I will LJ it up today while at work. It's been a very long time since I've updated, and both my wife and Kim have commented :) #
19:43 Didn't get a chance to update LJ today since work was crazygonuts. And I don't want to do it tonight. Maybe tomorrow! #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Tweets for today

2008-12-29T02:11:05Z

09:55 @ryanswift If you guys are in the burbs now, you're actually pretty close to our new house. Let us know what you're up to! #
15:21 Anyone else in Chicago burbs experiencing terrible AT&T service right now? #
15:22 @ryanswift and @lilieblue - we are going to see Marley and Me at 3:50. Hopefully AT&T phones will be working again by the time we are done! #
18:23 @ryanswift Apparently, At&T had some major system outage this morning that's knocked out service in a lot of Midwestern states. #
20:00 waiting to bowl it up with @ryanswift and @lilieblue #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Tweets for today

2008-12-28T02:08:25Z

17:26 Congratulations to Dallas and Devon!! #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Tweets for today

2008-12-26T02:11:31Z

12:51 Watching xmas home movies of my wife's family from Christmas 93 #
12:53 @EllieG - nice glasses in 1993 :) #
17:37 @lilieblue When are you guys going to be in the burbs? #
17:37 @snora88 Is that going to keep Hedda from Marie's?? #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Tweets for today

2008-12-25T02:14:39Z

22:16 Made it back to Chicago, but our plane has no gate to go to, so we're stuck for now #
22:28 @ryanswift It's too cold for that, yo. #
22:32 At least another 30 minutes until we get our gate... #
22:34 Now it is going to be an hour and a half at least due to stupid de-icing...just let me off! #
23:48 Still on the runway. No eta from pilot - airport is not providing them any updates #
23:49 At least I don't have to work tomorrow! #
23:54 "Operations does not know why the other plane has not left the gate yet" - well, go ask!! #
23:57 2 hours waiting on the runway with no end in sight #
00:10 Finally heading to the gate. I'll believe it when I am on the jetway. #
00:17 OFF THE PLANE!!! #
07:06 @lenoxlyn Good luck getting here...I somehow squeaked in last night, but ORD is a hot mess right now! #
07:52 twitpic.com/vw0i - Testing twitpic...disregard this image :) #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Tweets for today

2008-12-24T02:08:50Z

06:38 Heading to O'Hare for a one-day trip for work. Fingers crossed I don't get stranded! #
17:19 Probably going to be stranded here since doesn't look like any flights are getting into O'Hare. :( #
19:02 boarding..fingers crossed #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Tweets for today

2008-12-23T02:08:37Z

10:44 @acmaurer That link for the winter storm warning seems to be from last week... #
14:17 @acmaurer Very strange. When I clicked on it the first time, it was the alert from the 18th...but it is right now. Crazy internets! #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Tweets for today

2008-12-22T02:06:50Z

08:56 @limorama Welcome back! #
19:12 @Schmeesy Step 1 - cut a hole in the bacon... #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Tweets for today

2008-12-19T02:17:54Z

06:55 Giving Twitterberry a try on my new Bold. Still not sure why this is better than just using the web interface. #
20:01 @brianburch I don't think there's any cool geo features in Twitterberry...wish there was some kind of pic posting/url trimming feature. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Tweets for today

2008-12-15T02:08:06Z

20:31 What is the opposite of a "sausage fest"? #
20:50 @rikomatic Oh yeah! What was I thinking! Don't tell @croppold; she'll never forgive me #
21:55 The beaver lodge/taco party/muffin gala has become somewhat more balanced :) #
22:13 @kristabella and I just decided it should be "taco fiesta" not "taco party" #
22:26 I was just asked "Can you unwrap this penis so I can eat it?" #
22:33 @croppold "Clam bake" FTW #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Tweets for today

2008-12-11T02:08:08Z

14:51 @fuzzy - Having many browser windows open, none of which are work related: multislacking #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Tweets for today

2008-12-10T02:04:51Z

11:57 RT @brianburch "a Senate seat is a f*cking valuable thing, you just don't give it away for nothing" - Rod Blow-Goldfish #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter