Thoughts from Sun night: Driving down and into Gulfport yesterday, I was struck by how normal things are now. You really couldn't see the external signs of Katrina very much unless you knew what to look for. That was a welcome blessing. We arrived at Trinity UMC right on schedule, and the boys handled the 12+ hour drive very well. There was a group of 25 youth and adults from Yardley UMC north of Philadelphia. They are splitting into 4 teams so we're joining up with one of them. I'm curious to see how much the coast has changed because you can't hide that damage.

Monday night: You would think from the picture Katrina hit a few years ago rather than 11 months (aside from the blue pipe). This happens to be the first couple blocks of the coast in Long Beach. Our work is going well so far. I had a scare from Merrie who had some contractions this morning, but her appt today went just fine. The boys are having a good time. Today we sanded drywall. We'll continue tomorrow and then prime.

I was very disappointed and saddened by one thing today. I went by a house I had gutted in early Oct and saw no change on the inside. This couple had plenty of insurance, too.

A group of 35 (mostly youth) from VA showed up tonight so Trinity is hosting 63 right now. I am at Gateway UMC now (to use the internet) and they have a large group of mostly youth from NY here.

Well, little Samuel made out like a bandit at the shower held at Merrie's work yesterday. She was up until midnight writing thank yous since we had Stephan's party to do also. Check out all the goodies - they filled the back seat of the car. The only thing we thought we missed were bumper pads, but I picked up a set last night during the party.
One other thing Samuel REALLY needs are some flannel outfits like big brother Sydney had...

I told Merrie she'll have to make some if we can't find any. :)

The boys and I built a temporary wheelchair ramp for one of Merrie's hospice patients the last day and a half. The timing was great as it was sort of a "test event" for our trip to Gulfport next week since there really wasn't much to do on the Habitat house last week. Here is our finished product.


We have to get a few more supplies the next 2 days for our trip. Tomorrow night is also Stephan's friends party at Lazer Tag. We'll have a family dinner on Sat. Hopefully we can also celebrate him getting his permit that morning.

Merrie's work is having a breakfast party/shower for her in the morning. Only 2 days of work left for her. W00t!

We had an anxious moment at the doctor's today because he didn't like the fetal monitor trace. She had to get hooked up again for over an hour and that one he thought was fine. Samuel was very wiggly on the first one so perhaps that's why it wasn't as expected. He's running out of room, too - the ultrasound showed the fluid level was nearer the low end of the desired range. Obviously, this is to be expected since he is growing, but it would be nice if I could just "top her off" to make sure there's no problems. :) Sam may be growing but Merrie isn't. I think she's gained less than 12 pounds nor does she look as big as she did with Sydney. She actually said she wasn't that hungry anymore, too. So things are still on schedule for now. We expect D-Day either Aug 13 or 16.

We're on the home stretch now - 4 weeks (we think) and counting. Merrie had the first of her weekly non-stress test and ultrasound and all went well. Here is Samuel's current profile.


There isn't much more to report. Stephan just got a cell phone. The boys and I are still planning to head to MS the 30th. Work has been keeping me busy for now. Merrie is going to try to have a yard sale this Sat. That about covers it.

Merrie has started exhibiting nesting behaviors, which of course means a honey-do list. :) Somewhere in this week I took the time to put the crib together (including duct tape!) and we moved some beds around. It's similar in concept to the one we had for Sydney but is not designed as well so it's flimsier - perhaps Samuel can rock himself to sleep. It beats the cardboard box I had as an infant though. What had been our "guest bed" is now in what normally is Stephan's room (he often sleeps downstairs now but has been trying out the "new" bed this week) and his bed went upstairs. I'm not sure we gained much by that, but guests can now have a somewhat private room. I think my parents are the only guests we've had in forever, but Merrie's mom is hoping to come over for a week or two to help out with Samuel.


I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays. I was busy most of the weekend preparing to have some database downtime on the 4th for one of my clients. We did manage to make it to fireworks Monday night though. I think they must have lit the wrong end of the fuse though as the finale was at the beginning it seems. Here are a couple pics. I like purple so that is why that one got picked and the other one was a fairly unusual shell design.