Teammates!

Spring has finally arrived on Delmarva. Soon we'll be complaining that it's too hot! Springtime home preparations are significantly accelerated this year given the nearing arrival of Kemba. There is lots to do and Julia has tried to help every step of the way! She even helped make her first snowman when 3" of snow interrupted our Spring a couple weeks ago.
On Monday I picked Jules up at daycare and told her that we needed to stop at Home Depot before going home. Part of me was expecting a tantrum of some sort. It was a nice day and I knew she wanted to go home and play outside. On the contrary, her response was to throw both arms in the air as she let out a loud "YEAH!"

I wanted to buy some manure and vegetables for the garden. As she sat in the nursery area, atop a pallet of mulch, I was loading the cart up with forty pound bags of sweet manure. She asks, "Daddy, what's that?" My answer of manure was not sufficient, so I elaborated that it was poop that we were going to mix into the garden because it makes the vegetables grow big. She accepted that answer, but later I realized that I may have to explain later on why we don't poop in the garden. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it!Next, we went to pick out veggies. There were two other Dads there, each with a child around Julia's age. One child was running around like a maniac as dad filled his cart. The other was whining the entire time. But not my princess! Julia was by my side, picking out veggies, asking all sorts of questions and giving plenty of input:

• "What does that plant do?"
• "Can we get more tomatoes? I like those!"
• "That one looks sick. Let's get this one instead"
• "Are those peppers spicy? You like spicy peppers, don't you?"

We head over to the checkout and my little girl is standing there, hands on her hips and proud as a peacock. You see, she felt like she picked out each plant herself and she placed each one in the cart. I was standing, waiting our turn and actually thinking that it doesn't get much better than this...she was such a good girl! Little did I know that she was about to BLOW MY MIND!

She turns to me, hands still on her hips and says, (and I quote exactly!) "You know Daddy, you and I make a good team!" Then she walks around to the front of me, puts her arms around me, gives me a big hug and say, "I love you so much Daddy!"

The cashier had to call for the stock boy in the back to bring the mop and bucket up, because she melted me right there. The other ladies in line with us were beside themselves. There are moments in your life that you never forget. Most are major milestones or changes, but for me, few things top this moment. I will be able to hear those 16 words clear as a bell, feel the warmth of the day and smell that sweet manure in my memories for the rest of my life!We came home and Jules helped me till in the manure. We're planting this weekend if Mother Nature allows and I know she'll be by my side, up to her elbows in dirt and loving every minute of it! I also know that Courtney and I are raising this little girl the right way...not bad for a couple amateurs!

Now Kemba on the other hand...we'll see. He's starting off by trying to enter this world ass backwards! Stay tuned!

-Andy

Julia's Big Girl Room

It's complete...well, except for curtains, but that's not my department! Julia has been so awesome about giving up her room for her little brother and she is really excited about her new room. Seems my strategy was right on!
We dealt with some minor curve balls, but overall it came together well. I was pleased with the trim. Best part was that we used decorative florets at the joints so that we didn't have to cut any 45 degree angles.The new windows went in without any problems. It's one of those projects that sound really complicated and even scary, but it's really easy! I did them all by myself...no help. It took about 2 hours for me to put three windows in, but that was mostly because of the trim work once they're in.

Without a doubt, Julia's favorite part is bouncing on her new big girl bed. She's growing up so fast! I am truly enjoying this age!!! It's great that she gets offended if you don't let her help with chores...I need to figure out how to make that mentality last into the teens! Here she is helping Mommy sew some curtains.
The other day, I asked Julia "who fixed up your new room?" She responded, "Daddy". I asked if anyone else helped and she said, " Papa, Uncle Louie and Uncle Brent." I was highly impressed with her memory. Yeah...she's probably smarter than me!

Special thanks to Papa, Louie and Brent. A lot of work went into this room and we got it done in good time thanks to all the help we got!

Now...what's the next project?

-Andy

Progress and a Small Change in Direction

When we uncovered the brick fireplace behind the plaster, there were about twelve people who told me that we should leave it exposed. I wanted to cover it up, mainly because it would require a lot of trim work and that is my home improvement nemesis! Courtney can tell you how many perfectly good pieces of molding I've wasted because of lack of patience and foresight.
Nevertheless, I decided to change course and expose it. I think it'll be a nice feature in the room and the wall that we had put over it was pretty soft, because there was no stud behind it.
The room is coming along great! It's insulated. All the drywall is hung. There is a marked difference in the feel and temperature of the room.
Many, many, MANY thanks to Louie and Brent for all the help that they have provided with this project!

-Andy

OH BOY!!! Another Project!

Momma says that we need to get cracking on remodeling our third (and final) bedroom. This new baby is going to be here before we know it and we need to be ready! We have decided that the nursery will remain the nursery and Julia will get a brand new room...she is the princess after all!

This room is easily the coldest room in the house. It's on the northwest corner and has trees blocking what little sun it might see during the day. It does have a fabulous view of the lake though.
Courtney and I kick the project off by spending Martin Luther King Day stripping wallpaper. We actually did a great job...and by the way, the mixture of white vinegar and hot water is great for removing wallpaper and a lot cheaper than chemical removers!We finish stripping all four walls and Courtney is just whooped...we are admiring our work and I start thinking...that's where it gets dangerous. Our house was built in 1927. So I start wondering if there is any insulation in the walls at all. After performing a highly scientific "hammer test" it is determined that my suspicions were correct.

Well my little princess needs a warm room! So yesterday, we started stage two of the project. We removed the plaster in two walls, installed insulation and began hanging new drywall. My goal was to get all the drywall hung and we're a little less than half way there. All in all, I couldn't be more pleased with the progress.
Now that baby is coming quickly and I couldn't be happier. I have so much to teach him...plumbing, electrical, insulation, flooring, drywall, painting. The things that I've taken on in this house (with the help of some fantastic friends and family) are really starting to impress me. Now Julia is a big help, but I'm sure he will take it to the next level.Oh yeah...It's a BOY!!! Here's the photographic evidence...a view from the bottom. Let's the hope the ultrasound tech wasn't wrong. It looks pretty clear to me! Julia will soon be terrorized by a little brother. Boy oh boy is her world about to change.
But she is still and always will be my princess. There is nothing that I wouldn't do for that beautiful child...wouldn't you agree?

-Andy

A Great Labor Day...with the Girls!

With the exception of a fantasy football draft and poker game, I'm really grateful to have spent every minute of this long weekend with my girls! The ladies even came up to Chestertown for the draft, but hung out with the other wives and children in the league.

As always, the reason for Fantasy sports is to connect with some old friends. I really wish I could've made it to the CT and Chestertown drafts this year, but CT just wasn't in the cards. Hopefully next year will be different.

Possibly the highlight of the trip to Chestertown was spending a couple hours on the corner of the bar at the Blue Bird Tavern with Thad and Louie. I haven't been there in forever and that place just never changes and that's the best part about it!

On Sunday we spent the day in Cordova at Pop's birthday. Ma Jones, Mickee and Carrie put together a light lunch for us all consisting of BBQ Beef, Hot Dogs, Mac & Cheese, Coleslaw, Zucchini Casserole, Baked Beans, Stuffed Croissants, Fruit Salad, Cake and Ice Cream (why do I feel like I'm missing something). Every bit of it was delicious.

Last night we had some friends over for BBQ Beef ourselves. I tried a new potato salad recipe that went over pretty well and all the food came out decently, in spite of Mother Nature raining on my smoker all day. It did delay the meal a bit because it was tough to keep the heat up, but it turned out OK. It was great to see some good friends!

If you're a regular blog reader, you know that we just recently replaced the floor in our kitchen and by doing so, raised the height of the fridge, forcing us to remove a cabinet. Well today I fixed that project, cutting some ornamental moulding and adding a shelf. Still needs to be painted, but I was fairly impressed with myself. I really didn't think that I had the skill or the patience to cut the moulding. Check it out!

-Andy

Spring Yardwork

We spent a beautiful Good Friday taking care of some yardwork. We took out a row of bushes to expand our small yard a bit and give a small area that gets sun to plant a small garden.

Here are a few pictures of the finished project and Julia hamming it up in the sun!

- Andy

Finishing Touches

Leave it to Uncle Louie to start a comment revolt relative to our lack of posts lately. And leave it to Liz to latch onto that revolt, throwing out big pregnancy words that make me uncomfortable, even though I'm not totally sure what they mean. Regardless we're back!

We continue to try to put finishing touches on preparing for LBMF's arrival. I really can't believe it, but we're down to four weeks!!! And as I make that statement, in my head I hear my father laughing his semi-evil "now you'll see" laugh.

First we had our new windows installed. And I'm really impressed with how easy that installation is. I think I can definitely do that job myself. Anyhow, I have a piece of advice for soon to be homo's Amanda and Kenny. When you hire someone to do some work at your house and in the midst of that work they turn to you and say, "Ut-Oh!" That's not a good thing! It seemed that the manufacturer shipped the wrong sized windows for two of the windows in the nursery. They were about six inches too short, so we're stuck waiting about another week to FINALLY complete that room.

We used all of our wonderful Babies 'R' Us gift certificates to purchase a dresser for LBMF, so thanks to everyone who helped make that possible! That's a funny story too. Basically, I think that I shut down the entire computer system for Babies 'R' Us when making that purchase. I was at the register for about a half hour and at one point there were about 8 customers waiting on three store employees who were frantically trying to make the computer work. I just stood there smiling because no matter how aggravating it was, I could not possibly be more angry than the pregnant women standing in line behind me.

We also picked up a rocker, courtesy of Grandmom and Pop Jones (thank you very much!) that is on my honey-do list to get upstairs this weekend. And we added some wall decor to the nursery. Check out the pictures below!

-Andy

No Paparazzi Please!

This quality photo was taken of us at the BBQ Festival. You can clearly see me there, trying to ward off photojournalists trying to get shots of Momma. Now we know what Brittany Spears feels like! Courtney is going to kill me for posting this photo. She says that she didn't realize how pregnant she was until she saw this photo. I think she looks great and besides...I owe her for the last post!

Spring is definitely here and the weather has been beautiful. I'm working hard to get the yard ready for summer and the house ready for LBMF. We just filled our flower beds with impatiens, so we should be looking good all summer long!

Momma is working harder, just working. I think she's finally starting to really feel pregnant. She works hard and has not cut back, nor has she needed to, but the last couple of weeks have definitely been tougher for her. When she gets home at the end of a day, she just wants to sit and relax and that is fine by me!

I'm working diligently and I hope that we'll have everything ready! My goal is to have the entire house cleaned from top to bottom before Memorial Day. We'll see how that works out!

-Andy

FIN!

We set out on Sunday with these goals:

• Cleanup dust from sanding trim - Check


• Paint trim - Check


• Install ceiling fan - Check


• Assemble crib - Check


• Haul all tools out of the room - Check


• Clean entire room one more time - Check


• Move baby stuff into the nursery - Check!!!!!!!!

We got it all done!!! The key word in that sentence is "we". Courtney was right there with me and we made quite a team. All of the finishing touches on the project that was the nursery came together nicely.

The rest of the evening, I found myself randomly walking into our new nursery and just looking at it and feeling pride in our accomplishment. All we need now is a LBMF to call it home!

Here are a couple pics:

-Andy

Momma...Hard at Work!

There she is! Super Momma!!!

It seems that her patience with me has run thin as now Momma has taken things into her own hands to finish the nursery. She's tired of waiting and listening to me procrastinate! So here you see a couple shots of Momma and LBMF hard at work!

Actually, I'm only joking. She didn't take over the project, but we did work together to put the finishing touches on things yesterday. I can't thank her enough! I was so proud of her, keeping up with me while carrying around an extra 20-30 lbs.! I know that I woke up sore today, so I can't imagine what she's feeling!!!

In the top picture, she's taking on a part of the project that she wanted to try. We decided to try sponging in the super-secret room off the nursery and I thought that I better let her handle that, as anything that random and imprecise would surely get on my nerves!

In the other photo, she's playing with one of our newest toys...a mega wet/dry vac! I don't know how we lived without one for this long and let me tell you...this baby really sucks!!!

More pictures are coming soon as the nursery is...well let's just say that we can't use "working on the nursery" as an excuse anymore.

-Andy

Nest Preparations

Things continue to come together in preparation of the arrival of LBMF. In a move that will surely rock the home entertainment world at the same level of Babe Ruth's sale to the Yankees, the Maryland Wisks are switching from Directv to Cable! And we did it all for the baby...well sort of.

You see, Courtney and I have some favorite shows (especially Courtney) and we don't want to miss them just because LBMF has an irregular feeding schedule. So we are gettin' a DVR!!!

Directv offers them too, but in our market for some reason, we can't get local channels on Directv. I don't understand it, as everyone else that we know in other markets have no problems getting local channels. Salisbury is just messed up I guess.

We've been like kids in a candy store for the last couple of days, waiting for this installation. This is going to be great!! I think we'll spend the night recording EVERYTHING!!!

-Andy