Harvey’s been licking his foot a lot lately and it looks like one of his nails (claws?) has split or something.  Amanda finally called the vet today and they knew exactly what was going on when she started describing it.  She’s taking him by Dineen tomorrow afternoon.

When Kirsten came over to watch Milly tonight Amanda told her that Milly had bigger nipples, or maybe she said we gave Milly new nipples.  Either way, she was talking about putting nipples with larger holes on the bottles, but she should have mentioned the word “bottle” somewhere.

Amanda and I stopped by Sam’s to pick up some soap and Similac on the way to small group.  At the checkout line I was talking about how cool it was that Milly can be made to laugh so hard by smacking her in the face with a pair of folded socks, then I hit Amanda with my jacket sleeve, which made her laugh a little.  Then I saw a gift card with a Thomas Kinkade picture on it and I remarked how amazing it was that he could paint something like that on such a small card.  For some reason that struck Amanda as really funny, like the long, silent laughs where you keel over or need to lean on something.  I don’t know if it was just that or that way I kept looking at the gift card in wonder or the fact that I kept moving slightly to be obnoxiously close to her or what, but for some reason she was just beyond tickled.  The lady in line behind us even told her to be careful she didn’t split wide open.  Whatever the deal was, I really enjoyed it.

Small group was pretty fun tonight.  We got to talk about the two things you’re not supposed to talk about: politics and religion.  Mike had been waiting for this chapter for a while.  On top of that, Joel and Mia were pretty entertaining.  I don’t know what exactly happened but there was some confusion in feeding Felix (who seems to have already gotten longer) and they both ended up in the kitchen.  There was some sort of crash or splash noise then Joel saying, “Mia!” then another splash noise.  The second splash noise was a cup of coffee being knocked over.  You had to be there though- it was one of those things where everything seemed to be going wrong and then it all reached a climax and everybody just had to laugh.

The ladies discussed going out some time next month and possibly putting together a mom’s small group.  Sarah’s in one now.

I’m pretty tired right now, but I think I’m going to do a bit of work.  There were a couple things I wanted to get done that didn’t get done today.  It was a good day though, as I had a (successful) meeting with a company from Hampstead.  We met at the Port City Java in Porter’s Neck, but it was nice out so we didn’t even go in.

Zach Dotsey

Amanda hasn’t been feeling the absolute best the past few days, so last we decided to play by ear which church service we’d go to today.  Harvey ended up deciding for us though, as he was whining from about 7:30 on this morning.  I don’t know if it was because he wanted to go outside, though I let him out at 4:00 when I woke up from falling asleep on the couch last night, or if it was because he’s used to having breakfast at 6:30 when Amanda gets up during the week or what.  It was obnoxious, but since he’d woken us up Amanda and I decided to go ahead and get ready for church.

After church Amanda and I ran by the house to get another bottle for Milly, let the dogs out and grab a coupon (which we forgot to use) then headed back on out to meet my brother, Adam, at Sam’s Club.  Originally we were going to get something for our dad from our mom for Christmas, but my mom told me not to worry about it this morning so he just tagged along to buy some things.

When we left there Amanda, Milly and I went over to Anna and Barry’s.  Hannah got to change her first Milly diaper (it was wet with a small bit of easy-to-clean attached) while I watched a good bit of Terminator Salvation before Anna went with us to take a few pictures on the beach.  The wind was cold and Milly started fussing after a little bit, so we weren’t out there long.

From there we made a stop to pick up a few Christmas presents, so we’re all done with that now except for my shopping for Amanda.  I think I know what I’m going to get her now, my original and much more exciting gift idea having been basically nixed.

We were pretty beat once we got home.  We had things to put up and bottles to clean, not to mention a baby to feed again.  Milly had virtually not napped at all today and ended up sleeping from the time she finished her 4:00 feeding (about 4:30) until about 7:00.  Amanda and I watched TV and messed around on the computer in the meantime.  Hopefully the late nap won’t mes up Milly’s sleep for tonight.

Brittany Murphy was found dead of cardiac arrest today.  It’s been a while since she’s been in anything and there was a Saturday Night Live bit on the Weekend Update segment making fun of her getting fired from a movie recently.  It was from last week’s SNL and we watched it after the news had broke but before we found out about it (from an off-hand comment my friend Jason Revill made on his wall).  Dying from cardiac arrest at the age of 32 makes one jump tp conclusions as to the cause of death.

Zach Dotsey

After that we headed over to Wrightsville Beach to see the Frazelles and take a walk on the beach.  I ended up helping Barry back some files up on his Mac because he was going to reinstall the operating system, which is a few years old.  It needed it, too.  It probably took more than five minutes for that thing to reboot.

We took our walk with Barry and Anna, but Barry didn’t get too far because their dog, Scout, got tired really soon after we got out there.  Anna mentioned that he probably wouldn’t be brought out on the beach much anymore for walks.

Milly got to taste a couple new things today.  Barry had a chocolate-dipped granola bar still in the wrapper that Milly was enjoying playing with, so I actually let her lick the chocolate off of one.  She really liked it and had chocolate all over her mouth and running, mixed with drool, down her face.  Later on I let her try a granola bar without chocolate and a BBQ potato chip, which she also enjoyed licking.  I didn’t think her reaction to that would have been so positive.

So the tally so far is BBQ chips, chocolate, granola bars, pizza sauce and chicken salad mayo sauce = yummy, apple sauce = icky face.  My girl’s going to like junk food.

When we got home Amanda and I (mostly I, but Amanda seemed to look forward to it despite not liking football) watched Duke play at Carolina.  It was Duke’s most favored chance to beat Carolina in a really long time.  The end of the first half saw the score tied at six all, all points scored on field goals.  Carolina turned it up in the fourth quarter though and ended up winning 19-6, which was disappointing.  Duke’s offense just couldn’t do much.

Amanda went and got us some chips and some sandwich supplies, but one of the bags of chips was nasty and stale, though it was still sealed when we got it and the date on it was fine.  I took it back at halftime and checked the new bag before I even got out of the store.

Amanda folded a bunch of clothes tonight.  We got into laundry mode for the day because we had some clean clothes sitting on the guest bed that Cobb decided to pee on.  I blame ourselves because the litter hadn’t been cleaned in a bit.  Still, it’s frustrating.  Fortunately we don’t think the cat pee went through to the mattress.

I tried something new when I gave Milly her bath tonight, and that was to just pour the cup full of water that I use to rinse her right down her head, not worrying about directing it away from her face.  It didn’t seem to bother her at all, which bodes well for her living at the beach.  More importantly, it made all her hair go down in front of her face, like bangs.  She has some hair that comes down past her eyebrows, but what I want to get at is that when I did that and then she opened her eyes, I think I could see her as she’ll look as a little girl.  I mentioned a similar vision in regards to Eli Warkentien a while back, but now I can see it with Milly, which is pretty cool.

I talked to my mom for about a half hour tonight.  I think the commute to Rochester during the week is tough on her, but it sounds like she’s pleased with a lot of stuff going on at home.  At the end of our conversation, talking about Milly, Mom agreed that she’s a very pretty baby, but she also said that she’s very endearing with her little personality.  In my best Robert Barone: “Everybody loves Milly.”

Zach Dotsey
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Amanda, Karen and I went to the 8:30 service at Port City Community Church this morning.  As with last week we got up at 6:00 (or Amanda did, anyway) to do it.  Regardless, we were able to pull it off, which is great.  We really like going to the 8:30 service.  In a few months when they go to four services we’ll go to the 9:00 (services will be at 9:00, 11:00, 4:00 and 6:00), so then we’ll at least get to sleep in a little bit more.

Milly slept through all the loud music but got fidgety when the sermon began so I took her out of the main auditorium and watched the message in the hall, where she stayed awake but didn’t fuss or cry.  I talked to a couple other parents with babies out there as well as Kirsten Paschal, who got to actually hold Milly for a while today.  Last week when they met, Milly was sleeping.

We went to Sam’s after that, mainly to get some bottled water.  Personally, I hate spending money on bottled water, but Amanda doesn’t like the tap water here.  (I don’t either unless I add ice, which oddly makes it better to me.)  Since the bottled water is so much cheaper there and Karen has a membership, we took advantage.  We also got a few other things.

We used to have a membership to Sam’s, in case you’re keeping track, but it was through Amanda’s work and they discontinued that not too long ago.

Upon getting home I learned that pitchman Billy Mays had died.  Like Michael Jackson, he was only fifty years old.

Billy Mays was best known for his beard and his shouting tone in all of his infomercials.  “BILLY MAYS HERE.”  Yeah, he talked with the CAPS lock on.

It was a pretty big surprise, especially coming on the heels of Ed McMahon, Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.  Just wasn’t a good week for being a celebrity.

Billy Mays was in a new show (I think on the Discovery Channel) I watched once or twice called Pitchmen, where he and another guy, his British equivalent I think, look at products to endorse.  It was a pretty interesting show and I he seemed like a pretty funny, down to earth kind of guy in it.  Anyway, my prayers go out on behalf of his friends and family.  I believe the cause of death was something to do with his heart.

I decided it would be a nice time to take a nap on the couch, so I did.  There was a sale at Old Navy so all three of the girls went to that and after a little rest I met Michael and Lars for some surfing.

We had quite a good time and were out there for about three hours.  It got crowded in about the middle of the surf zone, and after a while Michael and I got out (Lars had gone to sit with Kaitlyn for a little bit a while prior to this) and walked to the southern end of the surf zone.  Lars had gotten back out there a few minutes earlier, and we found that not only was it much less crowded, but the waves were better there too.

A little while after I got back home Karen took off back to Richlands.  Amanda and I gave Milly her first non-umbilical corded bath and were pleased to see that her hair curled up when wet, just like it was at the hospital.  It didn’t stay that way long, but it gave us hope that it would end up being curly.

Zach Dotsey

After we got back to the house I went to go surfing with Michael and Barry.  They hadn’t been out long when I got to Wrightsville Beach, but I walked down just past the pier to talk to Nick and Amy Warkentien, who were out there with Mike and Kirsten Paschal, Josh and Rebekah Asselin and another couple I don’t think I knew.  I ended up talking with them for a while before heading back, and as I was paddling out Michael was coming in.  I stayed out long enough to catch four or five waves, but the area I was in started to get crowded plus I don’t have as much fun by myself, which was probably the bigger reason that I went on in.  The waves I caught were really good ones though, and they were easy to catch.  I probably should have stayed out longer.

When I got home I noticed that the newer wet spots on the ceiling were bigger and definitely damp, which was disheartening to say the least.  I got up in the attic (sweating so much that I disrobed entirely after I got back down because I was so wet) and saw the problem.  The tray I rigged up, which was doing an admirable job for the most part, had gotten damp on one side and allowed some water to drip out the side.  The insulation around the box hanging off the end of the unit was so damp that I went ahead and ripped it off (mostly) and discovered that the box hanging off the end is a metal one that just has water condensating on the outside of it.  My plan is to make another tray, but to build it from plastic or maybe a metal that won’t rust.  I need to run it by someone who knows about such things first though.  I also need to see if there’s a reason the thing was insulated in the first place.

After that fiasco I jumped in the shower real quick then Amanda and I went to Sam’s Club to buy some things for Nick and Amy’s bonfire tonight, namely hot dogs.  We got two 28 packs, which I think was just about enough.  We also bought a giant can of baked beans, which had to be transported very carefully.

We got to Nick and Amy’s just a few minutes after 6:00 and stayed until about 9:30 I think.  There was a good turnout and we had a great time.  One thing of note is that there were two girls there, Lauren Millard and Wendy Larrabee, who were both pregnant and due yesterday.  They said it would be okay for Amanda to go the same time as them, but not before.  Both are, like us, having girls.  There was one other pregnant girl there, Jenny Vetter, who is due, I think in August or September, and she’s the only one having a boy.

We let our fire pit, the one I bought for Amanda’s birthday last year, be used as a secondary fire/cooker (which worked well for hamburgers).  Unfortunately one of the stone slabs on it was heated and dropped and it broke.  I won’t mention who dropped it because I know he feels bad and we’re not upset about it.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the night.

Zach Dotsey

I usually don’t discuss much in the way of specifics about clients on here, but I helped my baby sister’s husband, Josh Sawyer, get set up online today.  He’s making a go at running his own plumbing company.

After work Amanda and I went to Sam’s Club.  She has a membership through work, but they’ve said they’re not renewing the company memberships again, so we bought a few things that we thought would be good to go ahead and get there.  This was mainly driven by the fact that we ran out of trash bags.  Judging from how many bags we use on average in a week (one), we shouldn’t have to buy another box of trash bags for about three years.  In fact, I think that’s about how long it’s been since the last time we bought a box.

After that we headed on over to our first baby class at Carolina OBGYN.  We got there at 7:00, as did one other couple, which is what we were told to do, but the class didn’t start (and most people didn’t get there until) 7:30.  Not sure how that mixup happened.  There were also supposed to be no more than fourteen couples, but there were twenty.  Now, some of them were only coming to tonight’s because the lady teaching the last class had gone into labor or some such, but even taking that into consideration there were more than there were supposed to be.  We did learn a few things already, namely what to look for you think you’re about to have a baby.  The instructor seemed pretty nice.

We got home about about 9:00, just in time to miss the one hour season recap of Lost.  Amanda went ahead and got ready for bed then we watched the two hour season finale.  Man, that’s a good show.  One season left, and I still have no real idea what’s going on.

Zach Dotsey

Went back home, Amanda and Karen went to Sam’s Club to get a few things.  Karen went back to Richlands after they got back.  Amanda and I hung out until 3:30 then headed out to Wrightsville Beach.  Barry and I went out surfing with Lars, who showed up a few minutes after us, and Amanda and Anna went for a walk.  Michael came out shortly after.  We all did pretty well out and I had a really great time.

Came in a little before dark.  Amanda and I went home and ate sandwiches.  Michael came by and picked up his dry clothes (which Karen folded for him earlier) then we watched Saturday Night Live.  30 Rock did great the the Emmys.

Talked to two cousins today.  David Cherryholmes called for Andra’s number and I chatted with him and I IMed with Francis Horner on Facebook.

Zach Dotsey