About the Peanut

Name: Daphne Claire

Age: 3 weeks, 1 day

Weight: 8 lb, 6 oz.

Eyes: Still blue so far.

Hair: Red (?!) and unruly

Likes: Sleeping, eating, bath-time (especially hair washing), toys, making funny faces, taking walks with daddy, swinging on the front porch, playing on the Gymini.

Dislikes: Diapers, diaper changes, being woken up from napping, having to wait more than thirty seconds for food.

Best friends: Ralph Monkey, Mommy and Daddy.

It has been quite an adjustment, but we are all doing well. Sorry I haven't had much time to call people or email or blog. I usually try to sleep when I have a block of time. Daphne is great, we are so proud of her. She is more and more alert every day, and she keeps us entertained with funny faces and baby noises. Hope you are all well. More blogs coming soon...

The Peanut Has Landed!

Well, our Peanut (aka Daphne Claire) finally arrived on Monday June 5 at 1:25 in the afternoon. She is doing great, I am recovering nicely, and Kev and I are very proud and tired parents. The whole process was a great experience, and not anywhere near as scary as I thought it would be. The first picture is from Tuesday, when we brought her home, and the second one is from Thursday, when she was all dressed up in her Uncle Jeff outfit, and getting ready for Game One with her Mavs pacifier. As you all know by now, the Mavs won Game One, so all in all, I'd say it's been a pretty great week. Time to go enjoy a rare opportunity to nap. More soon!

MAVS WIN!
MAVS WIN!
MAVS WIN!

February Belly / June Belly

In the time it has taken the turkeys at the garage to fix Kev's car, my belly has grown this much. Take one last look, because after tomorrow, the belly will begin to disappear. Hopefully very quickly.

It is our last weekend as a family of two. We spent most of today dealing with the trim carpenters, who seemed to need more supervision than some of the other crews we've had. Maybe tomorrow we can actually do something fun, like see a movie. Something where I can sit down, because standing up, and especially walking, require a surprising amount of effort. Especially outside in the hot hot heat.

I'm not sure how much blogging will be done in the next few weeks, but I will try to at least get up a picture or two of the Peanut when we get her home, and maybe I will even publish her name for those of you who have been trying to figure it out. My dad had a dream that we named her "Cribby." I assure you, that is not the case.

Tonight is Game 6 of Mavs/Suns Western Conference Finals, and I am hoping the Mavericks can just finish them off tonight so I won't have to be worrying about how am I gonna watch Game 7 on Monday while I'm in labor. We are thinking about painting my belly like a basketball with "go Mavericks" or something on it, and then sending a picture to Mark Cuban to see if he will send us some of his spare money, or at least some tickets to a game next year. His behavior is really embarrassing to the organization, but he does give out a lot of free stuff to fans when they do wacky things.

OK, well, I'm signing off now so I can go have a baby. Talk to you later...

And It Was All Yellow

So here is some continued house progress. Yesterday, the outside crew primed the exterior, and today they came back and painted. Looks pretty darn good, I think. It looks like it was always part of the house. Also yesterday, the inside crew put down the hardwood floor. They are going to have to let it acclimate to the house for a few days, and they will stain it on Monday when I am in the hospital because it is apparently stinky. I thought the trim would go up today, but I don't think anything happened inside. Maybe tomorrow.

Tomorrow is my final doctor's appointment before the Peanut comes. I would be kinda glad if they decided to admit me tomorrow, except that my doctor is on vacation, so I need to wait until Monday if I want her to do the delivery. I can't believe it is only 5 days away.

I just realized that if the Mavs/Suns series goes to Game 7, it will probably be on Monday night. Does anyone know? I guess I can check the internet. If so, I will have to make sure the Peanut comes before tip-off. Then we can all watch Game 7 as a family. Too bad I don't have any Mavs-wear for the baby. She's a big Josh Howard fan.

Kev's car is supposed to be done tomorrow or Friday, but I'm not gonna hold my breath. Those turkeys have been stringing us along for months. I think they should just give us a new car at this point. I'd like a sage-colored Passat wagon or Suburu Outback, please.

The Sprayer

This morning as I was leaving to go celebrate Memorial Day with my family in Garland, the construction crew was arriving. I didn't expect them to work today, since it is a holiday and all. But there they were. They worked yesterday too, even though it was Sunday. I said to one guy, "You're working today?" He didn't speak much English, but he replied, "Yes, I am the sprayer." Um, OK. So when I got home from celebrating, I saw that the sprayer had been very hard at work, spraying the walls with texture. The sheetrock crew was back too. These guys really work hard. They work so hard that I'm not really even mad at them for breaking the curtain rod in my bedroom. If I wasn't so pregnant, I would make them a cake or pie or something. Anyway, the room is looking good and more importantly, nearing completion.

Speaking of pie, my mom made the best Memorial Day fruit pie today. She got the recipe from a recent Martha show...it is on the Martha Stewart website and it is called mixed berry slab pie or something like that. It is GREAT, and we had home-made ice cream to go with it. I recommend this pie for your next gathering, especially since berries are in season and so delicious. My mom said it was easy to make.

One week from today, the Peanut will arrive. It is very hard to believe. I am trying not to freak out, and so far I am doing a good job. We will see how I feel next Sunday, though.

The Home Stretch

Well, if I was going to bet the trifecta, I think I'd go with this:

1. Kev's car
2. Peanut
3. Room finished

I don't think my belly button is going to pop out, and it sadly seems very unlikely that LarryFeathers will ever blog again. The ridiculous auto shop finally received the part from Germany, and the car could be ready today. The room is still scheduled for completion on June 9, and the baby is still scheduled for June 5. I am officially 38 weeks pregnant, and I am finally feeling like someone who is 38 weeks pregnant. There are all kinds of new weird little pains and sensations, and I am uncomfortable more often than not. That's OK though. I have felt great most of the time up to this point, so I can't complain. The computer is misbehaving now, so time to stop blogging. Have a good holiday weekend.

UPDATE: Well, the turkeys at the garage now tell us Thursday or Friday on the car, and the Peanut is acting like she wants to come out, so I think it'll be neck and neck between those two at the finish line. I'd still bet on the room completion to show. We have sheetrockers here now...pictures to come soon.

Fixing a Hole

Behind the plastic-covered bed, there used to be a window. They patched up the hole today, and this is what my bedroom looked like when I got home. There is dust everywhere, and my usual path to the bathroom, which I have memorized and follow many times nightly in the dark, is completely blocked. It will all be worth the inconvenience in the end though. Glad things are moving along.

Padded Room

They did the insulation today. Looks kinda better from the outside, huh? Sheetrock tomorrow I think.

Hot Hot Heat

It's hot already. It makes me sad that I won't be able to take the Peanut out for a decent stroll until probably at least October. Once again, I will not embrace the heat. But since nobody likes a complainer, I will try not to dwell on it in this blog. As a sign that I mean what I say, here are some good things about summer:

1. Berries
2. No school zones
3. Baseball

Well, that's all I've got.

Question

Can I rub my own belly for good luck, or does it only work for people outside the shirt?

(See two blogs down if confused)

More on the House

So, the outside is now pretty much done, except for painting the siding. I think this means we can probably call Dish to come out and put the satellite back up soon. That will be great...we'll be able to watch the Mavs/Suns series, which can't possibly be as exciting as the series with San Antonio, but should be good nonetheless. By the way, if you missed that San Antonio series, you missed some of the best basketball in the history of basketball. It was pretty amazing. Anyway, our house has passed the inspections for electrical and HVAC, and we are supposed get the framing inspected today. If we complete that trifecta and get another green card, we should be getting sheet rock on Friday or Saturday and then hardwoods installed Monday. That just leaves trim and painting and finishing out the closet. I'll try to get a decent picture of the inside soon.

Separated at Birth?

Me and Buddha.

Teachers

In 7th grade I had a math teacher named Mr. Mezzles. His name was pronounced like "measles." He was very mean, and I think he had a chip on his shoulder because of his name and because he was very short and bearded, so he looked like a troll.

In high school, there was a teacher named Mrs. English. She taught English. My English teacher was named Mrs. French. There was also a teacher named Miss Spell, but she taught Physics. She was sorta crazy, and always wore socks and sandals. My French teachers were named Madame Parrot, Madame Moula, and Monsieur Tanton. Madame Moula, in spite of her name, appeared to be very poor. Monsieur Tanton was nice, but ALWAYS had sweat rings, even in winter. Years later when I was a substitute teacher at my high school, I was shocked one day in the teacher's lounge to discover that Madame Moula and Monsieur Tanton were smokers. I don't know why this was shocking.

What's More Annoying?

The Snuggle Fabric Softener Bear or the helpful paperclip pop-up on Microsoft Word?

Pioneer Days

I never could have made it as a pioneer. I like having all mod cons. As you know, we haven't had TV for a few weeks. Not THAT big of a deal, biggest whip is not being able to watch basketball. But on Friday, things got worse. The computer crashed, so we were without internet all weekend. The computer is now mostly repaired, but we are still not using the internet because we don't have an anti-virus loaded yet. So, no TV, no internet. All weekend, I had no idea what was happening in the world. I had no idea of the weather report. No email. No bloggability. Plus, inside our house were the many mosquitos let in by the construction crew, so we were fighting bugs all weekend. I think we killed most of them. Kev is a skilled mosquito killer. Anyway, I'm glad I'm not a pioneer.

So, sorry if you have commented or emailed and gotten no reply, that's why, and I'm sorry. I am at work now, and hope to get to some email and blogging before my client arrives.

And when we can use the internet at home again, I'll put up a few pictures of addition progress. Estimated finish date: June 9.

P= 14 days!

Back View / Side View

It looks like some electrical stuff was done today too. Things are progressing. Noise isn't too bad. Worst part is mosquitos are getting in. I just got bit right under my eye.

Me-oh My-oh

Yesterday I made a big ol' pot of Jambalaya. I should have maybe made it a little spicier, but it was still good and reminded me of being in New Orleans. New Orleans has some of the best food ever. Kev must have liked it, because he took this picture. Anyway, if you have never had Jambalaya, you should make some. It is really fun and easy to make. It is so good that the great Hank Williams Sr. even wrote a song about it.
The only thing I didn't like was that this time I had to take the tails off the shrimp myself. Usually the fishmonger has already done that gruesome task for me. It is almost worse than cleaning chicken.
We are going to have it again tomorrow night, and freeze the rest for the days ahead when I am too tired to cook.

Speaking of which:

P=19 days...

Roof

It's beginning to look a lot like a real roof. Maybe shingles today?

Touchdown Arthur Jefferson!!!!!

Well, last night we were up until midnight listening to the great Mark Followill and his over-excited call of the Mavs game in a scary and stressful OT victory over the Spurs. Sometimes Followill gets so excited that you can't understand a word he says, and it takes a few seconds to figure out what actually happened. But that's OK. Especially when the alternative is listening to the Frankensteinian Glowing-haired repetative Bill Walton and his ABC crew. They are terrible. Anyway, it was a great game, and it puts the Mavs up 3-1 in the series. They are certainly proving themselves.

In other sports news, Triple-A Sacramento's Tim Rall has not played in a while, and I was worried, but as it turns out, he's on the DL. I can't find out any info on his injury, so maybe Marty can help us out. I am just glad whatever it is hasn't gotten him sent back to Midland, at least as far as I can tell.

And the 1st-place Rangers FINALLY beat the Yankees.

There is your sports for today.