This week you got an infection behind your leg. Figured out how to climb in our bed, and said purple... Regardless of actual color. :)

Mallory discovered her shadow tonight at Lewis Ginter festival of lights.

Mallory's first steps were seen yesterday by Beth at daycare.

Baby's Here and Everything is Different

So everyone tells you how your life is really gonna change and oh what a difference and nothing can prepare you for what is about to happen and they are all right.

I haven't slept for more than 4 hours without interruption in four months, I'm constantly in search or my next napping opportunity. Drinking with the guys is no fun cause getting up at 5 am drunk and/or hungover completely sucks. Everything requires additional planning. Eating out is seldom worth the headache of a potential meltdown. All expenses and savings revolve around baby needs or parents wants for the baby.

And as much as this all sounds miserable you love it. Now there are times you wanna pull your ears off rather than hear her cry but even still once things calm down you smile. It's crazy. I know i'm a more involved dad than some of my friends but I wouldn't have it any other way.

My only regret is not doing it sooner so I wouldn't care as much about the lack of sleep but then I probably wouldn't have been mature enough for it.

In-Laws

I feel like I have some of the weirdest in-laws on the planet. I know I don't but as is common with any group you are forced to get along with and be cordial to I see them far too often.

First off they enjoy working, and I mean working hard and there is something to be said about that but the down side is they never stop. When they are finished with one project they create new absurd projects so they have something else to be working on. I should have know early on to expect some of this when I visited their house and discovered they had 3 shed's. There are only two of them living there (roughly 2500 sq ft home) and they have a full basement and attic. What are we storing?

They have built a back deck, a gazebo off the back deck, a deck off the upstairs off the back of the kitchen (because walking down to use the grill was too far). Then they decided that once they put the table and chairs out on the deck upstairs with the grill there wasn't enough room to hang out. And we cant have that, no one ever comes to visit so when they do we sure wouldn't want them to feel close to each other on the back porch. So now they've built an 8 foot extension on the deck upstairs so there are roughly 300sq ft of deck space elevated 20ft in the air so they can grill and eat out side once a summer. They literally have 2000 sq ft of exterior deck space and when asked last weekend hows the gazebo was told. We haven't used it for two years. . . WHAT?

They have also painted the whole house interior at least 3-4 times in 10 years. The last time they did such a terrible job selecting colors (wouldn't want to ask your graphics-art-minor-son-in-law if colors match). The kitchen colors instantly induced nausea and not the mild that doesn't look good kind I mean, wow this is my 10th tequila shot feeling. For some insane reason the kitchen was a green (a Tums color chalky green) and pink (pepto pink) with Gray cabinets. . . they painted the cabinets themselves, one because they dont make grey cabinets this ugly for a reason and two because its hard work so might as well torture yourself while creating a masterpiece of ugliness. Don't ever get me started on cabinets, the job we started with them on our old house almost ended my marriage and in retrospect maybe should have sent me packing or at least suggesting we move far away.

Hard workers are great they are what got this country where it is but hard work with no one at the steering wheel gets out of hand. Lucky for us when they get really bored and want to see their daughter they offer to do stuff around our house. I don't think I could get my parents to cut the grass if it were 2 feet tall (i wouldn't ask them in the first place and they enjoy relaxing and know how to do it). Her parents would offer even if I just finished cutting it. Now some would say "man you got it made", "jump on it", "that's awesome", etc. Those people have not experienced it.

What makes things better is once they do something for you it's like you owe them.Nothing really they just act like you owe them something but never ask for anything just mention every visit. "Since we painted your nursery, can you move some bricks for me." Your 80 years old, i'll move them because your my father-in-law and its not a big deal but bringing up what you did for me makes me wanna tell you to f off. Since my parents raised me much better than that I bite my tongue and move on to brick relocation.

Even as I type this i'm actually working later than I have in 2-3 weeks to avoid them. When I do get home I'll go chainsaw some branches that are in the back yard in 98 degree heat (risking life and limb) to avoid sitting in an air conditioned room with a paint fume buzz around those two.

Ugh. I think I just gagged.

Happy Thursday folks. Baby is due in 11 days and Doc says he'd expect to see her go into labor next Thursday or Friday. Which works perfect since i'm still hoping to make it to Fed Ex field and back to watch the Hokies play Boise State. Happy Labor day weekend!

Nursery Windows

Today we're having new windows from Home Depot installed on two sides of the house. Nursery will have two new windows (nursery is in the back corner of the house) one in our bed room and one in the bathroom. These windows are $666 each a little less for the bathroom since it's smaller. Additionally they have since implemented some new laws around handling of lead paint so we have to pay an extra $34 per window for some extra process to prevent lead paint from flying everywhere.

Haven't been up there yet but just learned one of the windows shipped is too big. (three windows are the same size but some how we got one too big) Nursery will be complete but our bedroom will not. . . . nothing ever happens as planned.

On the flip side the tree guy showed up and is gonna take down a dead branch for us that we've been wanting to get removed.

We went with the Home Depot windows because they come with a double life time warranty and I expect Home Depot will be around for a long time and it should be easier to get replacements if needed. They also did all the windows downstairs and ended up being only a little more than others as far as cost.

Tonight we're going to do a plaster mold of my wife's belly, some may think it's kinda weird but I think it'll be pretty cool. Baby is 37 weeks and 3 days today and based on the size she could be ready any time so we better knock it out tonight or we may miss our opportunity.

We're mid process of refinancing our home to a 20 year loan (vs the current two loans; 80% for 30 years and 15% for 15 years with a ballon payment at the end) and with guidlines so tight these days it has not been easy. My wife and I both have excellent credit scores (over 700) our DTI is also great but even still we have to provide all kinds of info. Funny how 5 years ago they wanted to give us twice as much money with half as much proof. Which explains why the nation is in the trouble it is but that's a long story. Hoepfully we'll get it paid off by the time our daughter is starting college. That would be awesome.

Also signing up to donate our cord blood to a public facility. Private is pricey and since we dont know too much about the benefits, we're going public in hopes we'll get someone else's if ever needed. I'm sure with the medecal advances being made our cord blood will help out someone in need.

Speaking of blood, I gave blood for the first time ever last week. Got light headed at the end but I think I was squeezing the sponge too much which makes the blood flyout into the bag with speed so I was only there for 5 minutes and they had a full bag.

Quick post to get the ball rolling.