NC and Jake!

I am now a very proud new aunt . . . I think he is the cutest baby ever, smartest baby ever, etc. Whenever I see new pictures of him I just want to squeeze him and kiss him and he makes me smile soooo much!! Well, I finally got to actually do that when I went home for a week and a half! It was a MUCH needed break. I smashed a lot of things into a few days but it was still great to be home!

I first went to HP to see Mom and Dad, sleep in my own bed, see some friends and do some little errands. It was sooo nice because I had not been home since November . . . I did not realize how much I was home sick until I got there. It was nice just being in my comfort zone for a little bit! And of course I had to get some good southern food while I was home . . . nothing better than a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit with a Cheerwine!!

During this time at home, I also went to Charlotte for the day to play in the Camp Lurecrest golf fundraiser with my dad and my golf buddies from church, Don and Bob! We did alright as a team (3rd place) but I was really rusty since I had not played in 5 months! The best part was that I got to see Poppy and a lot of friends from camp that I had not seen in a really long time.

Also while at home, I went to the dentist for the first time in a year and a half, and I sure did pay for it!! Everyone was telling me I have such beautiful teeth and keep them really clean, but I still had 5 cavities . . . yes thats right 5!! I have always had soft teeth but living in a place where there is no fluoride in the water I guess makes it worse. So I had to go back to get those fix which I will talk about a little later.

After the dentist I got to hang out with 3 of the most amazing girls I know! I fixed the pizza dough and then went over to Liz's house to have a little girls night with Carolyn, Dana, and Liz. The night would have been perfect if only Schrum (or I should say Cronin) who had left for CO the week before had been there, but it was still very fun. It is so nice to know that you have such great friends that you can go long periods of time without seeing each other or even talking with and everything is normal and fun when we do finally get together. I had not seen Liz in over 2 years because she lives and works as a teacher in Thailand . . . we seemed to always miss each other when we were home.

After a little time in HP, the family went to Wilmington for Easter! It was such a beautiful weekend and nice to be around family. I played golf one day with my Dad and uncle and probably played better than I ever had . . . it is sooo much fun when it justs clicks! The best thing about those couple of days was going to church with my whole family. It has been such a long time since I have been in that type of environment! My soul definitely appreciated that!

The pups wanted to go with us!!

After Easter I headed back home to go back to the dentist. My plan was to go straight to Raleigh to see Jake after Wilmington but things change!! Because I came back home I got to have lunch with Grandma which I was sooooo thankful for. She is such a beautiful person inside and out. She is so encouraging and recently has been telling Becca and I a lot of interesting family stories. So maybe God gave me those cavities so that I would come back home to see her!! Anyways after seeing grandma I went to the dentist and told them to fill all my cavities at the same time since I did not have much time and really wanted to get to know Jake . . . the reason for the trip back home!! They said I was going to be a little numb but that was an understatement!! I could not feel my mouth or tongue . . . nothing. Of course they like to ask you questions afterwards too which I could not answer because my mouth did not work! Right after the dentist I left for Raleigh numb mouth and all. I had to call Mom who was already in Raleigh which in the end made me cry from laughing so hard because I could not talk and they were making fun of me . . . thankfully after the hour ride to Dan and Lizzie's house my mouth de-numbed!

The last couple days of the trip I hung out with Lizzie and Jake!! Dan had a buisness trip so it worked out that I could help out as much as I could even though it was not much. I love him so much already and he is not even my child!! I am sooo excited for Dan and Lizzie and can't wait to see him again in November which I know he is going to be sooo much different/big than these pictures below!

Sorry for such a long post, but I realized I have not written in such a long time . . . sorry about that!!

While Waiting for the Little Man to Arrive

When I went offshore I was first in a semi-submersible platform called IOLAIR. I had a room and bathroom to myself which was nice because one of the client bedrooms was free. Most of the time I was there in IOLAIR I was working or dealing with the client and logistics so the time went really fast and where I stayed did not matter to much. Because the clients liked me, however, I was able to check my email everyday, and everyday I was hoping for news of Jake but there was nothing.

After finishing the perferating job at that one well, we moved all our equipment to another semi-submersible platform called Brittannia. This platform is huge . . . around 700 people can live here at a time (normally other semis can only hold 300 people). This platform was really nice because it has women quarters that usually only have two beds. When I went to my assigned room there was already another women staying there but she was not in the room at the time I placed my bags and stuff in there to then go to eat. I got back from eating and she was really shocked when I walked in. I thought it was because of my height which was probably part of it. She was packing all here stuff and then told me that she was moving into another room. The reason was because she thought I was a guy. All she saw was my boots and coveralls (which are both really big especially considering the size of the women here in Mexico) and assumed that they were from a man!! She went to the supervisor of the platform and got him to move her to another women's room!! It made me laugh!!

While in Britannia, I spent a lot of time in the office of the client because we were waiting on a program/job to do. Well, I ended up talking a lot with all the clients and again for some reason they seemed to like me even though my spanish was not good sometimes!! They ended up inviting me to eat with them which was at a different time than everyone else on the platform and in a different room with different food. I ended up eating with the captain of the ship, doctor, etc. . . all the important people! The clients wanted me to stay there for a couple of weeks to perform more jobs. However within 2 days of being there I was being transferred to another platform to perform another operation with another crew. Again I checked my email everyday waiting for some good news but again nothing!

I was moved to the next well to possible do another memory logging and perferation job. The other platform needed me quick so I got to ride in a helicopter again. This time it was in a bigger helicopter and I had to ride to a lot of different platforms picking up and dropping off people. I literally was in a taxis that was in the shape of a helicopter! This time the platform was a small fixed platform. I lived with 3 other guys that were not part of my crew because the room at its own bathroom. This kind of platform just has a shared bathroom for all the crew and just a few rooms have there own bathroom. The client ended up not needing a memory log so I did not have to do another job with the special tool, however we did do a job pumping nitrogen in the formation. That job ended up taking 24 hours (installing and performing the job). Because of that I was not able to call home any . . . plus I was not as close to the clients at that job so I was not able to check my email regularly. I decided to call home the morning after the job and just asked jokingly has Jake come yet. I was expecting no but to my surprise he had!! He had been born the morning before while was pumping nitrogen in the well! I was soooooo excited and at the same time sad because I was not there with the rest of the family, and I was a day behind all the news! Thankfully, I ended going back to land that day so I was able to see pictures of the Little Man!!

Since I have been back on land I have gotten to see Jake on skype which was sooooo much fun. I just sat there watching him. I still cannot believe he is here. One reason is because I missed a lot of the process and have not held him yet. Thankfully, I am going home tomorrow for 12 days so I can finally feel like an aunt!!

Since I can't take a camera onboard I am lacking in photos of my experiences so here are just a couple of what I see around the office (my desk, etc.)

Adventures of Running a New Tool

The last 2 weeks have been a whirlwind with all sorts of emotions. I got to go offshore which I was very thankful to be able to get out of the office some! The scary thing about this job was that I was going to be in charge of a memory logging tool by myself and I had never worked with it before . . . I ended up learning how to program it the night before I left! I had to go the next day since the other more experienced engineers with this tool could not go! That was pretty intimidating at first because one I was in charge of this operation/tool so it was up to me for this operation to go smoothly and two it was my first job ever for memory logging and perforating with guns!

When I got there I did a practice run of programming and testing that all the functions of the tool worked. Everything went smoothly. Then it was time to finally run the tool down the well. The most critical job was putting the battery into the tool so that the tool could actually record the data. You do not know until the tool is back up from the well that it recorded anything or not. Being a worrier those 4.5 hours of running the coiled tubing in and out of hole were very stressful!!

So I finally got the tool back up and had to dump all the data on the computer and interpret it which should be easy and was! I was able to get all the information but the problem was that I was not able to get that data off the computer or put any other file on because the computer could not read any USB. I had to combine to files to make a correlation so I had to be able to use a USB. Thankfully after 3 hours of troubleshooting I was finally able to get all the information of the computer and send it to the base (that was about 3 in the morning and I really wanted to just throw the computer like a frisbee into the ocean)! I could have been charged for this downtime but thankfully the client representatives liked me and just put "waiting for interpretation of data" in the report!!

Right after that we ran in hole again but this time with guns, and I had to make sure that we were in the right place in the well to fire the guns. If I did not fire the guns in the right place I could have been fired right there because that is a huge service quality rule . . . thankfully after being up 26 hours straight we had finished the job and everything went well and the client was pleased!!

Jake has arrived!!

I am an Aunt . . . I cannot believe it at all!! It is very surreal, and it will not become real until I finally get to hold the little man (one week and counting)!! Praise the Lord that both Lizzie and Jake are doing great and everything went well.

I was offshore when I found out the news. I had worked 24 hours straight on April 7th and after much needed sleep on the 8th I called home from the platform and asked if Jake had come yet . . . to my surprise and joy he had early in the morning on the 7th (Jacob Emerson - 8 lbs 6 oz)!! Below are some pictures of the cutie.

Thank-you family for posting all the pictures . . . it stinks that I was not there but the pictures help!! Love you and see you soon!