House in Color

Until yesterday the only thing of substantial color on our lot was the green port-a-john. Now we have Tupelo Tree and French Roast. We're feeling pretty good about the new make-up job. Mandy is having dinner at Jane Fonda's tonight in Atlanta while I go to Hickory, NC for a erosion control workshop. We're trying to get Juniper out of the bed cold turkey. We let her in for morning snuggles, but we're keeping her in her crate at night. It's getting more uncomfortable in the bed for Mandy because of her bulging belly. Unfortunatley, our beloved hairy girl doesn't help. Have a great Wednesday!

House After the Holiday

There was a sheetrock party on Gray Street over the holiday. It was nice to arrive back home to new signs of progress with the house. We're now picking out carpet and other flooring material and interior paint colors. We drove about 1,900 miles in the past week. We're both surprised at how fast it went. Now it's back to house chores and our own bed- both of which are better on our rear ends than driving. It was great to see both families and as usual we came back home a little sad that the time went so quick. But hey, there's always Christmas...

House Insides

The first picture is of the living room; the second photo of the stairs leading to the 2nd story loft where we hope to fit a plush couch set courtesy of corey and irene; the third photo is of the new siding job. The house just passed the framing/wiring/mechanical/plumbing inspections. The inspector failed the stair cases the first go-round because they were .5" too narrow. The framer was called back in and had to tear the old stairs out and re-work 'em. Tomorrow the insulation begins and the sheetrock will follow right after. we're about two weeks behind schedule and we're hoping to rocket through the interior finishing work. To all our devout blogger fans: we love ya. good night and good luck.

The Long Awaited Belly Shot

After weeks of much pestering from my sister and my mom, here's a new belly shot...it looks big, it feels big, and it only promises to get bigger. I am entering into the third trimester at 28 weeks. There are definitely some interesting things happening...I no longer sleep through the night about every other night, because Bean kicks me awake, or I get up to go to the bathroom and then get a sudden hunger that leads to a bowl of cereal. My ribs feel like they are falling apart, all these relaxing hormones pregnant women's bodies release help things to shift to make room for the baby. And sometimes I have a little bit of blurry vision, or a sudden numbness in one leg, all responses, I've been told, to circulation being compromised by the position of the baby. But really, I feel great. I am especially thankful to get out with Juniper once or twice a day, we take a 15-20 minute power walk, and it gets the blood flowing. And I do love the constancy of Bean's kicks and movement. This is my last travel month in my WAND job before Bean's arrival. On Friday afternoon I flew to Minneapolis to do a training on Saturday morning, then arrived back in Asheville at 11:30pm on Saturday night. Whew! One more trip to DC, then one to Atlanta at the end of the month, not to mention our impending road trip up to Michigan, over to New Jersey, and back for Thanksgiving. It's all exciting stuff, but I'll also be grateful when December rolls in and we hunker down at home a little more. Who knows? Maybe we'll even be in the new house in January.

Halloween Guests

Meet baby hazel and her proud father Paul. Despite the blood and gore he's actually quite a nice fellow. Mandy and I had two trick-or-treaters last night- one very polite spiderman and a fairy in Dorothy ruby red slippers. Needless to say, we brought back a lot of candy to our respective offices this morning.