Project Nursery (continued)

Day 2 - Today began with an ambious start. Dave began the day sanding down all of the spots he had spackled. After this chore I was finally able to help some by cleaning the walls and base borads to prepare for him to paint the trim and eventually the walls. Dave then began painting all of the trim in the room, along with the closet doors and bedroom door. Unfortunatly the heat did catch up to him since he had to open the window to help prevent painting it shut, but he pushed through with lemonade and my humorous way of trying to sneak in to take pictures of all of his hard work. This workaholic daddy then moved his work to the garage and began sanding and priming the chair rail!





I eventually convienced him to take a break for lunch and to run some errands, on the way home we stopped at Benjamin Moore and Home Depot to buy the supplies needed to paint the walls. After returning home shortly after 5:00 this eager father-to-be got to work. Hours later, Dave had a stiff shoulder, a sweat soaked shirt, and all four walls painted in Moonlight (a pale yellow).



Throughout the night we both walked through the room admiring his hard work and thrilled with how everything was coming together and matching!

Day 1

Project Nursery!

Day 1 (Monday night after leaving Seabrook and visiting with Mimi) - We began our remodel adventure with a trip to Big Bit'z for dinner followed by a shopping trip to Lowes. After getting the necessary supplies we were back home to begin clearing out the room. While clearing out the room Dave realized two items we forgot to pick up at Lowes - so off to Home Depot we went. Upon returning home he began to spackle some irregularities in the wall and sanded some areas I had spackled last week.



Our excitement led into a 9pm decision to start painting the ceiling. So off to Wal-mart I went to get a rolling pan (yet another thing we seem to have forgotten or thought we had at home and of course after 9 Wal-mart is the only option). While driving home with the rolling pan an anxious daddy-to-be called asking how my trip was going and informed me that he had finished cutting in the entire ceiling. (I was only gone for about 30 minutes total.) So at around 9:40 Dave began rolling on the ceiling pant.


The finished ceiling!!

Weekend Trip to Charleston

Sharon, Itty and I all took a trip down to Charleston to get a little rest and relaxation and too help drive Julia to here SCUBA certification Dives.

We didn't do too much other than wake up at 5am to drive Julia into Charleston for here dives. Unfortunatley Saturday's dive to called off due to weather, so we went back to sleep. Later in the day, we went down to the newly renovated beach club pool and did a little swimming followed by a Ocean side dinner at the new Pelican's Nest.

Sunday's dive was fortunately on, so off we went at 6am to drop Julia off. After dropping Julia off and making sure everything was good, Sharon and I took the opportunity to have brunch at the Hominy Grill and then walk around Charleston.

Monday, We packed up the car early and drove up to have lunch with Mimi. After a great lunch of Homemade chicken and dumplings, we said our goodbye and drove home. Ending our great weekend and the restful and relaxing part of my summer vacation.

Pictures Link

Next up: Finishing the Nursery.

The Crib Adventure

It started out like any other weekend trip to Columbia, SC except this one had a purpose. We were going to come home with the sales reciept to a new crib for our little bundle of joy to arrive. Why so early you may ask? Well, Sharon has been dreaming that she will be put on bed rest any time (No worries, there haven't been any issues), but she wants this crib and wants it yesterday. So, back to the trip. We left home around 8:30 on the hottest day of the year heading to the hottest city in the South East. (If you have been there you know Columbia is at least 5 degrees warmer then the surrounding areas.) We had an uneventful trip down to the store and started looking around. Well I have never seen so many cribs and so many different types of cribs in my life. If we didn't know what we wanted from our research, we would have lost our heads. Looking around, we finally narrowed it down to 2 models, and both we quite nice and a were bit more then the typically Babies R Us models we had seen early. Being a cheap and indecisive guy, I wanted to recheck out the cheap models thinking that after seeing the higher end models, they would look better. So we pack up Sharon, Mrs. Hinson (who had joined us in the search at this point) and myself and headed over to the other store in lunch time traffic at a crazy busy mall.

Needless to say, it took a bit longer to get there then planned. After looking at the cribs and remembering why we didn't buy one from there, we decided to take a look at all the other fun stuff you can buy. Strollers, stroller frames, infant seats, pack and plays and the other options that didn't exist when I was growing up and now it seems like they are must haves. For the record the tick isn't baby toys related. I was just dropped repeatedly. :) By this time we got a call from the Hinson men saying they were on their way to Lunch. So we looked around for a couple more minutes and then headed over to lunch.

The trip to Lunch - Remember that crazy busy lunch traffic I mentioned,well it got busier while we were in the store. Instead of taking 10 minutes, it was more like 25. It is a "No, no" to keep the Orr men from eating, but that is easily match by the "No no" from keeping the Hinson men from Rush's. We need hamburgers and frys stat. We made it and got food in everyone and no one starved, but it was a nail biter. But during lunch, we made good progress, we picked out what we were going to buy, and since it was in stock, how we were going to transport it from the store. Now Sharon's happy meter was way up. I was the greatest husband of all time, not only were we going to have the sales reciept in hand, but we were going to have a crib in the back seat. So, after lunch we went to the Hinson house to put into action Operation BUY CRIB.

Operation BUY CRIB - Calls for 2 cars, 3 people and one credit card. I head over to the store early to buy the crib, while Sharon and her mom followed in the van talking about baby stuff, crib stuff, more baby stuff, other people's baby stuff and finally more baby stuff. I was very happy to have a car to myself. So, I get there and sales lady can see it in my eyes, she has got the sale. She rings me right up and I whip out my card and bam, I am the proud owner of a new crib and chest of drawers combo. Right about this time the women show up to celebrate victory, while I head out to the car to go move it to the loading dock.

I get to the car and hear ".......", no click, no radio, no nothing. The car is dead. Yes, it took us from Charlotte, to Columbia, baby store 1, to baby store 2, to lunch, home and back to the store and nothing. It wouldn't start and by this time Sharon sees I am not moving and wants to urge me on. Plus we were going to need both cars to get it all. Now, on the hottest day of the year, in the hottest city in the Southeast, we have just purchased out crib and I have a stressed out wife, worring mother in law and car that won't start. Well, Sharon calls AAA and her Daddy to get a jump and Janet backs the Van up so I can help load up the crib and chest of drawers. All of which fit with maybe 1/2inch to spare. Thank goodness.

At this point, everything is ok, AAA showed up and got us running and Sharon's Daddy showed up to follow me to the Autozone, and we where off to get a new battery. Sharon's Happy meter is up again and I am close to being the best husband in the world again. Life is good, we are back moving, all loaded up and headed home... Almost. it wouldn't be much of an Adventure without a few more bumps, or today dead cars. We get to Autozone, one limping car, one truck with F-I-L and one car happily talking baby. We just was we were about to pull up ... nothing ... no power steering, no power brakes and worst of all no a/c. Dead again, blocking half a dozen cars in the lot and an Autozone employee telling me to move my car. Explaining to him, I can't he tells me to put on the hazzard lights. Which by the way were on, but with no battery they aren't so bright.

Sharon Happy meter: Definiately better husbands in the world, but hey she had a crib so I was still a keeper.

At this point we have a set of jumper cables so we jump the car, can decide it is the alternator so we head over to the dealership which was closing in 45 minutes. We were only 15 minutes away, so no big deal. The women left the cars to the men and drove off to the baby stores in town. They had had enough of the car saga. It was an uneventful drive, no catastrophic failures, no crazy mid train track, with train coming jumps, just a nice slow drive over the the dealer. We got to the dealer, tested the car, and yes the alternator was bad. No big deal, extened warranty is on file, after all they purchased the car there... Nope. Ok, no big deal its in the car, with every single possible piece of paper ever printed after a service, inspection, oil change this car has seen in the 97919 miles since it rolled off the lot. Talk about a needle in a hay stack... So I called... And Sharon came...

Happy Meter: Not going up, what sort of husband can't find a piece of paper in something the size of the glove box?

Vindication at last, it wasn't there. Mom looked, Dad looked, Sharon looked. Husband isn't complete idiot after all. But we did find the name of the warranty company on a service contract. Finally saga over. New alternator, warranty over... Not so fast, no alternators in stock, and the warranty company is closed for the weekend.

Sharon Happy meter: Hot, hot and more hot. Husband is not complete idiot, but it is hot.

Well, it all ends well from here, we left the car for a Monday repair. We got back to the house, in the air conditioning had some father's day cake, and ice cream and mellowed out. It had been a day. In the end, we borrowed the Hinson's van, so we could get home to Jake and get the crib to Charlotte. With luck, we will trade cars Tuesday and we now have a fantastic tale to tell the future little Orr about the day we picked out her crib.

Sharon Happy Meter: Air Conditioned; Husband not soo bad.

PS on the way home we stopped and picked up the car seat with a coupon that was going to run out.

Sharon Happy Meter: Air Contioned: Crib: Check Car Seat: Check - Husband is on his way back up.

Story Time!!

David and I have been having a blast reading each night to Itty. A family in my classroom gave me an awesome book last week, Oh, Baby, the Places You Will Go. I read it aloud that night and Itty went wild with movement. So when David came home on Thursday I had him put his hand on top of my uterus and had him begin reading. Yet again, Itty went wild and he was able to feel her move for the very first time!!! We have gotten such a kick out of her joy of having story time that we have continued to read to her nightly. Unfortunately, many of my children's books are packed and locked up in my classroom, so I headed out to the library today and picked up 10 adorable books for us to read over the next week.

Doctor's Appointment

Itty and I had our 20 week check up today. Her heart was beating at 143 and the doctor's comments of the ultrasound from 2 weeks ago were all positive. Unfortunately, she does seem to be taking after me a lot too. She has David's inability to sit still and my size. I was born weighing 9 pounds, 6.5 ounces. During our ultrasound the technician estimated that Itty was weighing about 10 ounces. This would have been on our second day of Week 19. (The books I have say that at the end of 19 weeks the baby should be around 8 ounces.) During my examine the doctor did mention that my uterus was slightly larger than they would expect, meaning she seems to be running a little large. Maybe she is going to be more of a momma's girl than we were thinking. :-)

Flicking

Prior to last Friday I felt what I thought was "fluttering;" however, was thinking that with the amount I was feeling that some of it may have just been in my head or wishful thinking. Then the ultrasound confirmed that we were having a very active girl. (She must already be taking after her father.) Then this weekend the flicking began. Every so often I will get this feeling like someone is flicking me from inside... It has actually been quite humorous with work. I'll be in the middle of working with a small group when the flicking begins. I'm so amazed by this miracle that I totally lose focus on what I'm doing. Oops! At least I only have 5 more instructional days.