The cutest thing

On Lynettes most recent and final baby shower we got something from our good friend Laura. Lynette wanted me to post this right away, but I've been a little lazy. I'll give you this one and let Lynette post something about the showers themselves.

Laure gave us these and they are so cute. They remind us both of Avery. If only they were a little bigger I'm sure Avery would want to borrow them.

Chaetophobia

Actually, chaetophobia is a fear of hair. (the same source says Trichophobia is a fear of hair as well) But I have a fear of getting my hair cut.

My barber shop was closed, so I had to settle for Great Clips. There are 2 stylists working and a total of 4 people in front of me. As I'm waiting I notice that one lady has a "Stylist of the month" sign above her station. I won't make a fuss about who I get but I secretly hope to get her. Finally it's almost my turn and I'm going to be seated at the stylist of the month's station. As I'm waiting for her to get cleaned up a guy walks in with funny hair. He has a buzz cut on his entire head, but a large circle of shoulder length hair right on top. It's too much of a mullet to be considered a mullet. The top of his head looks pretty short, so I can't help but wonder what he's doing. Is he actually going to get it all cut off? His hair needs to improve, how will he do it?

He says to the lady, "I just got my hair cut here and she did it all wrong." Hooray. He recognizes that his hair looks silly. So MY stylist, the stylist of the month, sits him immedietly. Dangit. As he's seated, I'm listening in to hear, "The top is uneven." That's the problem? Not the freakin half-spawn between a mullet and rattail? Seems that except for a few long hairs on the top/front of his head, he was perfectly happy with this look.

SO then I sit down. At the other lady's stand. She starts asking me a bunch of questions that I don't know the answer to, and a bunch more questions that don't matter.

"So you want a 3 on the back?" What's a "3"?
"Do you want me to square off the back or round it off?" I may have an opinion if she wanted to give me zig-zags. But I'm willing to bet that 5 out of 100 guys my age have a true preference. The other 95 just say whatever.
"What are we going to do with these bangs?" Cut them? Maybe? Unless you can lengthen them and turn them into pretzels. That would be OK too.
"So you off work today?"
"Do you have any kids?"

Normally talking about my expected child is one of the funnest things I can do. But small talk with barbers and the like is just so uncomfortable. Talk always leans toward a short list of subjects. Weather, local sports (in season), occupation, kids.

"Did you see the [insert local team name] game last night?"

"Yea, it was good they won/bad they lost."



"I hope it rains soon. We sure do need some rain."

"Yup, we do."

And that is why I hate getting my hair cut.

The Baby's Room

Lynette was talking to our friend Sarah (who is now expecting with their second, Wooo Hooo!) and talking about how we finally moved into this place and now have a room for the baby. Lynette was feeling a little bad that we only had 2 months before the room needs to be done. Sarah tried to make Lynette feel better by telling her how Sarah's baby room wasn't finished until Sarah was 7 months pregnant as well.

But When Lynette was 7 months pregnant we hadn't even started. In fact, when she was exactly 32 weeks, we didn 't even own a babys room. But now we do. And though there are still some bits and ends to finish up, we are actually ready-ish. There is some organization and a couple of things left to buy. And Lynette wants to sponge the walls to make them look pretty. But here you go. And if you look at the crib, you will see hoe many clothes we have. Before the baby is born, we have alredy filled a rubbermaid tub of stuff that we are giving away.

On a side note, not only do I realize that we are 6 weeks away from Lynette's due date. I also realize that when the doctor said that she hopes Lynette will go into labor at 36-37 weeks. That's only 2 weeks away.

Though I realize that waiting is in the cards, and I'm very used to waiting. It's crazy to think that Lynette is nearing the point of being ready at a moments notice to have our child.

It is finished

The dresser has a couple of spots I can touch up. And there are a few spots that need to dry before I can move it inside. But I am finished painting the dresser.

So since that was all I had to say in this post, I wanted to tell you about my new camera. Fact is, I've been saying that I need an new Sony camera. I have fallen into the trap that Sony has set. I own SOny products, therefore I have MemorySticks. Now that I have the MemorySticks, I really don't want to buy something with CompactFlash, SD, etc. But if I were to have my way, there are a few features in a camera that I want. And if I could chose anything, I would chose a Canon. That's exactly what I got, every feature I want in a Canon. And to top it off, a 256m SD card to boot. No worries about getting a new memory card.

And as Dad said, "Well, I figured that you printer is older than your computer anyway." So I have a Canon Pixma printer/scanner to go with it. Again, everything is more than perfect. This is my way not only to brag. But to brag so openly to let Mom and Dad know how much I enjoy their very generous gift to us.

Thank you.

What have I been doing?

So I haven't been posting, I haven't been replying to others posts. What have I been doing?

Everything else!

A staff change kept me at the restaurant for most of the week, then finally on Sunday I had the day to myself. In fact, Lynette had her baby shower and I was at home. Not even my friends Kirby or Mike were going to be in town. But I spent the day working on the dresser.

Lynette's parents gave us the dresser that Lynette used when she was a baby. It's perfect. A little aged, but we are taking care of that.

I spent the day stripping all the old paint off of it. I sanded it down best I could. Now Lynette and I are painting it. We have white, pastel pink and pastel purple. The colors look too light, so we'll see if they all blend together or not.

It feels really good to accomplish something on your own. I shouldn't be saying it yet. I need to at least wait until it's done. But today is the day. There is no way I'm turning back now.

You can also see that the pictures I have are a lot more clear than the last ones. That is thanks to Mom and Dads baby shower gift to Lynette and myself. They got us a new camera. One that takes video and a printer to go with it. It's great. And I didn't actually know that screaming for something on my blog will get it for me. So let me try this. I NEED A DOWNPAYMENT ON A HOUSE!

Check us out

It's nice to see that everyone has blogs.

Out of the 4 kids, you can see the oldest at adventuresindicoccoville.blogspot.com
The next at fletherfive.blogspot.com
myself right here fletcharia.blogspot.com
and the youngest at thecraigzone.blogspot.com

We are all here

Now onto baby business. SO at Lynette's last doctors appointment her doctor told her that the baby, at full term, looks to be about 10 lbs. This is telling her that Lynette will hopefully go into labor naturally before the 38 week mark. If that's not the case, our doctor will see the progress and determine if inducing or even a C-section is in the cards. It's too early to tell right now, but we'll see later on. As it is, look for our baby to join us before July 27th (our due date) but a day or a few weeks before, we don't know.

Recent thoughts and rants

I don't think I have any pictures to go with this, this is just random things that I've been thinking of recently.

If there's 1 thing I've learned from Walden Pond it is this. You can never live a cheaper, fuller and healthier life than if you do it yourself. This leads me to believe that I can be healither and cheaper by cooking myself. But this is not always the case. I can go to the store and spend $1 on carrots, $1.50 on celery, $1 on onions, $6 on a chicken, I'll sy that I spend about $.50 on spices, a buck or 2 on noodles and I have 4 to 6 servings of chicken noodle soup for a total of $12. But I can buy a can of it for $2. So either I make it for $2/ serving or I can buy it for the same cost. True, my soup tastes better than the can. However, it also takes 2 min to make it from a can and about 10-12 hours to make it from scratch. So there's some give and take both ways. My soup may be healthier but the Campbells can sit on the shelf for a year, available for me anytime.

I realize that Thoreau would say I was silly. By raising my own chickens and using veggies from my own farm I could create gallons of chicken noodle soup for pennies or less. And on a more obvious note he would probably say that his book was talking about a quality of life, not cheap chicken noodle soup. But hopefully you see where I'm coming from with this.

Now that I've established my thought process I can jump to the point. As much as I hate the idea of putting all the additives from processed food into my body. As much as I can use my skills to cook just about anything. The fact is, it's difficult for me to pass up things like Hot Pockets $2 each, Totinos Pizza for a dollar each or chicken pot pies for $.60 each.

You can take this baby and stick it...

... in our new apartment.

I know, I know, Tracy graciously pointed out that I have not posted on here in a while. It wasn't so much that I forgot, or was lazy. Simply this. I was busy, and no new baby activity has happened.

I spent all day Friday doing a lot of work for the restaurant, and alternately starting the move to our new place. We are just down the road from our new place, but we are in a differnt apartment complex and we are in a larger 2-bedroom apartment. Saturday was all about work, and Sunday was all about actually moving, then Monday we spent the day cleaning our old apartment. And from Saturday to Tuesday, I didn't have a computer and Internet connection in the same place. Just when I thought that I'd have some re-coup time on Tuesday to sit down and write, or catch up, everything else had to be done (including an unfortunate flat tire that needed replacing rather than fixing.)

So here you see some pictures of our new place. I really enjoy the kitchen, and it is totally unpacked. That is actually the only room that is 100% ready for viewing, but the living room is not bad either. That is the reason that those 2 rooms are the only ones pictured. We also have a dining room that is filled with boxes and odds and ends (you can see the table through the breakfast bar, and the second bedroom, hence known as the baby's room, is still just a load of boxes.

P.S. Something else you can see is the grainy pictures we get from our older than dirt digital camera. You know, if anyone is reading this and interested, Lynette put a new camera on her baby registry... Was that too blatent? No? Then BUY US A CAMERA! There. That is.