Life is amazing!

Last night my sister had her first baby. She let me be in the room with her while she gave birth. It was absolutely amazing.
He is not my first nephew, but it was the first time I was able to be there when one of them was born. My brother lived 9 hours away when their daughter was born and 13 hours away when their son was born. My brother and sister-in-law live 26 hours away. So we were not there when either of their two boys were born.
I am excited about having a little nephew nearby. I'm sure my sis is glad I'm close too, cheap baby sitter.
My parents drove into town in time to be there for the birth too and my brother and his family will be here on Thursday. This will be the first time we will all be together since October. I'm really looking forward to it.
Here's one of my favorite pics of him that I took last night. He was only a few minutes old.

I'll be going back to the hospital this afternoon. I'll definitely be taking more pictures.

Tornado season is starting early this year.

Well it may be the end of February, but it sure doesn't feel like it today. Unbelievably enough it's 72F (22C) outside! Just over a week ago we were having snow and ice. Unfortunately spring like weather may be nice, but it's dangerous as well when you live in Oklahoma. We could see our first tornadoes of the year today. While they aren't common this time of year they aren't unheard of. We've even had them in December and January before. Personally I have only ever been through one tornado and that was many years ago so I've been quite lucky. There have been many land within miles of my home though.
The weather forecasters are recommending that everyone prepare for severe weather today. Even if we don't have any tornadoes there is a high chance of large hail and very strong winds. Matt and I make preparations everytime there are chances of a tornado. We gather all our important documents into one bag, grab my laptop and backup files from our PC's and get the cat carriers ready. They also recommend having bottled water, a first aid kit and a flashlight handy; I really should get a small kit together to have on hand. Whenever the sirens start going off in town that's when we actually put the cat's in their carriers and leave the house.My cousins live two houses down so we go over there and watch the weather reports. If a tornado actually lands near us then we head to the storm shelter in the backyard. Most times we never have to leave the house and out of the few times we have we've only needed to actually get in the shelter once. Hopefully this year will be no different.

What does economic development mean to you?

What kind of question is that? :p
Today we had our leadership class. This one was all about economic development. The first speaker had each of us answer that question before we began this morning. Thankfully I had at least a general idea what economic developmnet is partly because of where I work and partly because of what my dad does for a living.
My answer at the beginning of class was that economic development is all about improving government and business relationships. While not a wrong answer it's definitely an incomplete one. Economic development is so much more than that. It's also about creating more jobs, increasing city revenue and then in turn bettering the community.
Oklahoma City has seen a huge turnaround in just the last 20 years because of the efforts being made in economic development. The downtown area of OKC has been completely changed. What once used to be a dangerous area is now a place where families go to spend time and feel safe while there. Whenever I have family or friends in from out of town I love to take them to bricktown. It's a great place to do tons of different activities all in one area. There are also a variety of wonderful restaurants there.
Overall I really enjoyed this class. The next one is going to be our community service project. It is the only one that lasts all day. Hopefully the weather will be nice because we're supposed to be working outside.
Well that's enough rambling for today.

It had to happen eventually

Well here it is. My 29th birthday! I can't believe it, only one more year left in my 20's. Hopefully this doesn't mean I need to grow up.  Time has been going by so quickly. I have a feeling that this year will be no different.

In other news, it won't be too long before I'm an aunt once again. My sister is due with her first on the 24th of this month. It would not surprise me if she has the baby sooner than that though. If she goes into labor while she's at work, she'll be calling me to take her to the hospital. I hope I won't panic too much. :p

Not much else is going on at the moment just work. I suppose Matt and I will go to dinner and a movie at some point over the weekend to celebrate.