Zach Dotsey

Didn’t Amanda do a great job of writing a post tonight?  I tried to get her to write while she was pregnant with Milly, but I never could get her to do it.

There’s not much I can add to it, except that I was a little stressed out with work towards the end of the day.  The phone seemed to ring incessantly for the last hour.  I’m planning on putting in a little work tomorrow.

Amanda’s grandpa, Earl Lemons, called me today with a pretty big surprise, which Amanda may or may not have figured out.  (She did.)  It’ll be here Monday.  I felt bad because he wanted to talk to me about it, but it was during the absolute most stressful time of my day.  I’m extremely grateful for what he’s doing, and I hope my stress didn’t keep him from realizing it.

It was really great catching up with the old small group, though I wish Elliot could have been there.  Melissa and Lisa are pregnant, so from what I could tell, a lot of the girls’ conversation centered around that.  Mike, Justin and I mostly talked sports.  How stereotypical is all that?

Everyone seemed to really enjoy holding Milly, and aside from making some screeching noises before she was fed, she was very well behaved.

Zach Dotsey

Today was my mom’s last day at home before starting her new job in Rochester, New York.  She’s going to be making some pretty decent money up there and will be home on the weekends.

My dad invited everyone to go to church with him, but he didn’t have any takers.  I felt kind of bad about that, but Amanda and I were already planning on going this evening anyway.

Not too much to tell about this morning.  We packed up, showered and all that stuff.  Aside from Erin we were the last to take off.  We left right after feeding Milly and got home at exactly 3:10.  We ran in to the house where I changed Milly’s diaper and Amanda changed her shirt.  We were back in the car at exactly 3:20 and arrived at Port City Community Church at 3:30.  Milly wasn’t happy about these events.  She had been fussy the last few miles on I-40 and really did not appreciate being put back in the car so soon.

The church service was great and it was a lot of fun.  It was PC3’s ten year birthday and featured a look back and a look ahead.  Lots of music and videos plus a special guest sermon from Pastor Jackson, who came here from Kenya with his wife for the occasion.  At the end they had people hold up signs, sort of a before and after thing.  It was touching by itself, but a friend of ours whose story we know well was up there, and that, to me was even more moving.

It was Amanda’s week for Grow Zoning Milly, and Matt Davis went in just ahead of her, so Melissa Davis and I walked to the Grow Zone exit to wait on spouses and daughters.  Matt went on ahead so he could say something to Pastor Jackson once he got out, but Melissa stuck around a minute to see Milly.  She said she’d seen how cute she was from Facebook stalking, but this was the first time she’d gotten to see her in person.

We also ran into Blake and Stephanie Konny, Mike (Lars) and Kaitlyn Boscaljon and Kristen Barriner.  This was our first time attending and evening service, and I guess evening services are where everyone we know hangs out, but we really like going in the mornings and having a full day ahead of us.

Zach Dotsey

I went to bed earlyish last night.  I fell asleep on the couch but got up and went upstairs when I let the dogs in from when Amanda let them out to pee.  Getting up and walking around tends to wake me up some, and I didn’t fall immediately back to sleep when I got in bed.

I did go to sleep early though, like I said, and I ended up getting up just a little before 8:00 this morning.  I was planning on getting Milly’s breakfast ready and getting her up at 8:15, but Amanda told me from upstairs at 8:14 that Milly was up and crying.  I fixed the bottle and went upstairs, where Amanda was going into the nursery.  She doesn’t get to get Milly up often in the morning, so she was kind of excited going into the room.

We fed Milly and watched House.  After that Amanda showered and we walked to the store to pick up a few things with Milly in her stroller.  A lady at the store told us that we had a beautiful baby.  When we were in the checkout lane Justin Hauenstein walked up to us.  Justin lives on the south side of town, but he was up this way doing some work for Time Warner.  He said that he said to himself when he walked into the store that he thought he’d see me.  We talked for a few minutes.  He and Lisa are expecting a baby, and Lisa’s had a rough first trimester.  They find out the sex in about a month.

Most of the rest of the day was spent taking care of Milly and cooking.  Well, Amanda cooked.  We were going to Blake and Stephanie Konny’s tonight and she made chocolate chip and toffee cookies and macaroni and cheese to take there.  The house smelled good.

Amanda’s brother, Michael Mercer, and his girlfriend, Jenn Greenawalt, came over at 4:00 to babysit Milly for us.  Amanda gave Michael a crash course in feeding and diaper changing (which Michael was not pleased to learn) and showed Jenn what to do when putting Milly to bed.  After that we headed over to Blake and Stephanie’s.

Blake and Stephanie, as long as we’ve known them, lived in a one-room (well, two if you include the bathroom) garage apartment behind Stephanie’s sister’s family’s house.  They moved into a rental house not too long ago, and this was the first time we got to see it.  Mike (Lars) and Kaitlyn Boscaljon were there when we got there.  We haven’t seen them in quite some time.

We had a good time there.  Chris and Katy Davis were there, and even though Chris had to leave early I talked to him a bit.  I also spent a good bit of time talking to Stephanie’s brother-in-law.  Amanda and I both thought that his and her sister’s younger daughter, Sophia, looked a bit like we imagine Milly will look like in about a year.

Later on we played The Blake Game.  Guys versus girls, as usual, and also as usual, us guys won.

Early on when we were at Blake and Stephanie’s I got a call from Michael.  Milly was screaming in the background and he was wanting some advice on calming her down.  He called again a little later and she was quieter.  Eventually they took her for a walk and she fell asleep, and I think things were fine from then on.

When we got home we looked in on our sleeping daughter then talked to Michael and Jenn for a bit before they borrowed a few DVDs and took off.  A few minutes later Amanda and I heard Milly crying upstairs, and to be honest we were a little glad since it gave us an excuse to interact with her.  We changed her diaper, gave her her sweetmaker and put her back in bed.  She gave us a smile before rolling over on her side and falling right back to sleep.  Amanda pointed out before that she sleeps like me.

The only real regret I have about going out tonight is that Duke played NC State tonight, kickoff being at 4:00.  Duke versus State was the game I went to last year, and the Wolfpack beat the Blue Devils.  They got some revenge tonight though, and how!  The score was 49-28.  I wish I had DVR’ed it.

Zach Dotsey

Well, Milly did wake up at 3:00 this morning, but when I went to check on her she was merely requesting a diaper change.  After I changed her she went right back to sleep and didn’t get up again until… what was it, about a quarter of 8?  That’s not bad.

Amanda’s dad, Phil Mercer, came by and took us out to lunch today.  We ate at Red Robin and I had a pretty yummy BBQ burger.  Amanda had the same, but it was a BBQ chicken burger.  Milly slept the entire time that we were there.

After we ate we met Seth and Dana Holloman at the Wirhgtsville Beach park then rode over to Anna and Barry’s.  When we had dinner the other night surfing came up so we planned on going out for that.  Lars was there when we got there.  The waves were mostly pretty small and they were breaking pretty close to shore, but there were some decent waves that came in now and then.  There was one where I got a nice little drop and a good turn to the left.  There were several waves times where all four of us (Amanda wasn’t our surfing, of course) all caught the same wave.  Dana did pretty good considering that she’d only been out once before and was always pushed into the wave instead of having to paddle for it, and Seth, who said he used to surf years ago, picked it right back up pretty quickly.  He obviously had a good time because Barry told us how good it would be later in the week and he wanted to come out for it.

Amanda and I stopped at the grocery store on the way home and picked up stuff to make a salad.  Nick and Eli came over and we put Milly and Eli on the couch next to each other while Amanda prepped the food.  It was sweet.  They’d take turns making small crying noises while the other one seemed perfectly happy.  Milly talked a little and at one point when Milly was crying Eli reached over and touched her face.  Nick said it looked like what he and Amy do to try to comfort him sometimes.

After dinner we took some pictures of the kids before putting them down then we watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which I haven’t watched in forever.  I claimed to be very annoying to watch it with since I know most of the movie by heart, but I think I kept myself in check pretty well.

Amy, who was working, came by towards the end of the movie.  I fell asleep towards the end but woke up enough when it was over to socialize a little before the Warkentien crew took off.

Zach Dotsey

Amanda and I switched feeding shifts last night, so I got the honor of waking up at 3AM to feed Millybug.  I guess it wasn’t all that bad.

The series that started this week at Port City Community Church is about the Book of Ruth.  I like these in-depth studies because Mike Ashcraft, the preacher, gives a lot of historical and cultural insight.  He rounds the stories out more so you get a much better sense of what’s going on.

When we took Milly to Grow Zone I insisted on being the one to drop her off, so Amanda got seats with Ben and Jessica.  I also decided I’d be the one to pick her up.  Now, Milly, being such a beautiful baby anyway, tends to get a lot of oohs and ahhs, but this week we decided to not bother taking the car seat in and we just carried her.  To and from Grow Zone, she got even more oohs and ahhs than usual.

After church, the almost-six of us went to Atlanta Bread for breakfast then headed on back to the house, where the Lambeths hung out for a little bit before heading on back to Lewisville.

I took a pseudo-nap (lying on the couch trying to fall asleep and not being too aware, but not being fully asleep either) then Amanda and I packed up Milly and headed out to Wrightsville Beach.  My brother, Adam Dotsey, was going out too, so, to save some parking at the Frazelles’, we met him at the Wrightsville Beach Park and all drove over together.

When we got there Amanda’s brother, Michael Mercer, along with Barry Frazelle and Lars, were already out in the water.  The drift was pretty bad and it seemed like we spent the majority of our time out there paddling.  The guys who were already out there went in and Adam followed a little while later.  I took Terry, one of Barry’s boards, from Michael when he went in.

I tell ya, I used Terry a decent amount back before I bought my board, but I wasn’t nearly as good as I am now, just shy of a year later.  That board is so freakin’ smooth.  You definitely have to paddle a bit more with it, but when you catch a wave it turns sooo easily.  It’s like a sports car to my pickup truck.

I caught a couple more waves after I thought I saw Adam head in then went on in myself.  It was raining a little and I thought I saw some lightning, so I thought it’d be a good time to get out.  Plus, like I said, I kept getting dragged up the beach.

As I got to the house Adam was leaving with Michael.  Amanda, Milly and I hung out a little with Anna Frazelle.  Apparently Kirsten, my youngest Frazelle cousin-in-law, is now going out with her buddy, Mikey.  He seems like a pretty good guy.

We went home after a bit, where Milly decided she’d be pretty fussy.  Nick Warkentien came by and returned the lawn mower, even though he’s only done about a strip of the yard so far.  I’m hoping to get some mowing done before Karen Mercer comes and says something about it.

Zach Dotsey

I guess it was because we put her to bed early last night, but Milly was about half an hour early in waking up for everything last night, from her “11:00″ feeding to her early morning wake up.  Somehow that made everything tougher on us, I guess because Amanda and I are adjusting to the schedule.  The good thing though is that it shows that Milly’s getting a good internal alarm clock.

I spent about half an hour this morning after eating my cereal and reading in the Bible playing with Milly.  She was in a good mood and was so cute.  I didn’t want to leave her when I did, but I had work to get to.

I talked to Scott first thing.  I guess he likes the way things are going right now.  Though I’m doing a lot more work, I’m liking it too because the work I’m doing is more interesting plus I am getting significantly higher commissions.  We’re going to keep trying it and see if it keeps working.

There was nothing to eat at the house today so I decided I’d walk to the store (and pick up some Chef Boyardee) and Amanda decided she’d go too and we’d bring Milly along.  I like walking to the store and prefer to do that as long as I’m not on a serious time crunch or I’m not picking up a bunch of stuff from the store.

We hit a snag with Milly’s insurance, but I’ve got to say I’m really impressed with how it all shook out.  I don’t want to go into details, but I’m thankful for the help we got to make it all come together.  The situation isn’t ideal (we’re having to get temporary insurance to cover August), but it’ll work out and Milly will be covered.

Twitter.  I thought it was a pretty silly and pointless thing at first, but then Nick Warkentien suggested I check out TweetDeck, and I’ve since found it much more useful.  Not only can I keep up with what friends are up to, I can check and update Facebook statuses, get local news, see what some Duke basketball players are up to, hear about recruiting buzz, get news of deals at local stores and all kinds of other things.

A while back someone who works for (or maybe is) another web design company here in Wilmington started following me, and when I saw that we knew a lot of the same people I started following him.  We chatted a bit today and I remarked that it was odd that we work in the same field and know so many of the same people, but we’d never met.  He suggested lunch, so I suppose I’ll be meeting with him next week.

Mike (Lars) and Kaitlyn Boscaljon came over and brought dinner from Subway tonight.  The main purpose was to discuss a t-shirt company they want to start and talk about what I can do to help them with a website.  I’m looking forward to playing an integral part in helping get their site going.

Amanda’s been very sweet lately.  I told her I love her even more now that we’ve made a child together.

Zach Dotsey
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Milly did pretty good last night for her first time in the crib.  I woke her up to feed her at 11:30 then I think she woke up at around 1:00, but I got her to go back to sleep.  Then she woke up again at about 4:00 to eat and fussed for a little while.  She ends up in our bed most mornings after that final feeding.

Amanda continued reading to Milly today, working through The Lorax today.  Amanda mentioned how you don’t know how to pronounce some of the words until you see what they rhyme with, and I couldn’t help but think that that would eventually change.  At one point today Milly was sitting against Amanda’s legs, facing her momma, just smiling at her Press Frog, a stuffed frog that musics Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (or the alphabet song or Mary Had a Little Lamb, whatever your preference to that tune is).  It was so cute and she was so entertained!  It wasn’t doing anything and she wasn’t doing anything, but she was just so excited by it!

We also set up the pack & play in the living room today.  We’ll have to do some rearranging soon, because it’s taking up a fair amount of space.

In my last bit of baby news, we also put some batteries in the mobile Adam got us for Milly’s baby shower, so now Milly has something to engage her while she’s lying in the crib.

I met a client at 4:00 today, and since they are near Wrightville Beach I thought I’d go out surfing afterwards.  I met up with Jeaneal Guy at the park and we rode over to la Casa Frazelle.  Michael was busy hanging out with some girls downtown and Lars got there right as we were leaving.

The waves were pretty big today, but for a large chunk of the time we were out there they just mushed out.  Despite that I had a lot of fun and caught some pretty big waves.  I’d say they were about shoulder high.  I had some really fun drops.  I remember a particular one where I caught a nice left and watched the wave contunuously break as I rode along it.  Not quite a barrel, but at this point it’s probably the closest I’ve come to riding one.  So yeah, it was lots of fun when it was good.  And it wasn’t nearly as crowded as I thought it would be.

Both Lars and Michael said something about going out really early in the morning tomorrow.  Barry said they’d be the best waves of the year, which may or may not be hyperbole.  Either way, I’m strongly considering it.  Really just depends on Milly I suppose.  I’ll likely be awake anyway.

I talked to my dad this evening.  He and my mom have a busy time coming up.  First off, there’s a concert at the DAP (Durham Athletic Park) with Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp and… somebody else, though I can’t remember who right now.  I was surprised at the quality of the show to have it just being at the DAP, but he said apparently these guys have been touring around for a while doing this.

Then this weekend Andra’s family is going to visit.  That’s actually the main reason he called, was to let us know and see if we wanted to visit the Rouge, but I don’t know if we’re up to it yet.  We could, but we’re still trying to get the Millster into a schedule.  We really should visit my parents soon- I think the last time we were there was THanksgiving.

Anyway, then next week they’re going to Lexington to get some leftover flooring from Baba (The family pitched in and redid her kitchen floor a few weeks back when everyone was in town for the previously-scheduled vacation.)  After they pick that up they’re going to go spend some time at a lakehouse with their friends, Pat and Peggy Paine.  I told him they should think about making a trip down here next month sometime.

Zach Dotsey