In the history of ever.

I drive cautiously on Saturday morning with my wife. They usually involve some sort of last-minute, life-threatening, swerve-into-oncoming-traffic maneuver towards a meandering path of flimsy neon pink garage sale signs.

Thankfully for everyone, I am well-skilled at Pac man, and am trained to get us there without being eaten injured.

Having spent long periods of time in the parking lot of The Holy Grail of Thrift Stores --three of them strategically placed in one shopping center-- waiting for her to appear with a you’ll-never-believe-what-a-bargain-I-got deal, I know the drill.

And if I groan as we pull up, she will say, “Oh, that’s okay. We don’t have to stop.”

Which really means, “Let me out right now. And give me your wallet.”

And I do.
Because I’m the best husband ever.
In the history of ever.


This weekend, in the middle of 52 other things to do, she scored a medicine cabinet for $7. And I guess we can thank me for that.


That medicine cabinet inspired us to keep going onto day 3 of Project Bathroom.


Things that are empowering:
Buying power tools.
Taking apart the water supply and fixing a leak.
Knocking down a wall.
Seeing a completely bare bathroom ready to be built back up.



We decided on the bathroom layout: the cabinets, the granite countertop, the tile and the grout color.


What used to be a cabinet…

Is now:

What used to be a dividing wall…

Is now:

What used to be a random counter...

Is now:

Taking out sinks and toilets look WAY easier on youtube, by the way.

What used to be a 60-year-old vanity…

Is now:

What used to be tiled…

Is now:

If you’ve ever thought of taking up tile, here’s a little tidbit of the fun process. (turn your volume down)

A bloody-good job for sure.


The mirror was just plain fun. Sarah hid in the hallway for the first one. I convince her to come inside and watch the other one come crashing down, agreeing to be videotaped only because the sight of her with that pink camera is almost second nature now. (turn your volume down)

What not to wear

ZZ got dressed for the first time ALL by himself.

Head to toe.

Quite impressive.

In other news, we are still designing our bathroom.

I say designing.

What I mean is, we walk aimlessly around stores like Home Depot and Builder's Surplus attempting to determine the difference between khaki and beige, while entertaining a Preschooler with fun educational toys like paint sticks and broken tile.

Prefab or tile shower?

Built-in shampoo shelf?

12X12 VS 18X18 tile

Remove the half wall? Keep it?

Color of paint, countertop, grout, cabinet

High efficiency toilet?

Instead of dwelling on all this, we went ahead and got an estimate for new windows. Because it's much more fun to be in the middle of 17 different projects than trying to actually complete one.

Other things have kept us busy as well.

Zac completed swimming lessons without ever having to put his head under water. We were quite proud.

He continues to impress us with the many ways he can avoid bedtime. (Ask us if you haven't heard the "shoo-WAH" story. Classic.)

And he has finally stopped carrying the bat with him around to all the bases during our family baseball games. You'd think beating him with the actual bat would have been enough.

Sarah and I had exciting pregnancy news, but we lost the baby a week ago. We are doing well and appreciate all the love and prayers. She was on Vicodin, which made for some good laughs during a sad time. There's nothing like hearing your princess wife have gas like a college frat boy.

Sarah was also diagnosed with hypothyroid, which not many people talk about - but it is actually very common and probably had something to do with the miscarriage. (although demolishing the bathroom might not have been our best idea) Daily medication will solve the thyroid issue, so we are very thankful for that.

My weekly adventures to the Northeast continue. Yous guys wouldn't believe how country we sound down here. Okay. Maybe it's just me.

That's all we got. Have a good one!

"Let's take down that wallpaper in the bathroom"

That was easy.

Let's put on funny goggles and take this tile up while we're at it.

A little more work than we bargained for. But once you start....

Now what?

5K Fun

Our most recent 5K was at Dallas Cowboy's Texas Stadium.
The finish line was the 50 yard line.

We ran at DadFest - an annual run supporting Prostate Cancer research.

Zac: Realizing the importance of a strained muscle

You gotta have a good tackle on the Cowboys field.

Go get ‘em buddy.

Remember 2nd place is the first loser.

(joking!)

He finishes!!

Gold medals for everyone!!

Walking through the helmet.
On the way to the real deal.
The Dallas Cowboys Locker Room.


Jealous?

What if I told you that’s where the prostate screening was?

Does that make this picture less cute?

Home Depot had a workshop set up.

Insisting on writing his own name on his apron.

Here it is…our football-peg-board-hanging-thing-that-will-never-actually-be-used.

We didn't do as well at this race. Despite the fact that we actually DID train for this one. 31 minute finish. It was a rough course with a lot of hills.

But we finished strong.

Because the race photographer was at the end.

Family 5K

Sarah has a way of convincing me to do things....

So, here we are at our first 5K together. We ran the Faith Run in Flower Mound. We actually made pretty decent time for pushing Zac and not training in any way whatsoever.

Before the run....


Zac actually ran his first race, too. He ran an entire 1K. In his crocs.

This is Sarah running him in....



Zac crossing the finish line...

Sarah at the finish line....

Zac and Daddy B at the finish line....

Our rockin family after the race.....
And, since I ended up not having a terrible time, we are now signed up for our next one.

Dadfest 2007 here we come!

Sick Days

Traveling to New York has some advantages.


But, this week was not a good one for me to be gone.

Poor little guy. Ear infection, strep throat, and high fever.

And the threat of fever-induced vomiting thrown in there for good measure.

Sarah trying to handle the dr appt, the pharmacy, forcing tylenol and omnicef into a half-conscious but still able to fend off those 4X his size and if that doesn't work, then just SPIT 33-pounder.

Her choices for sanity are slim. Contagious child. Sewing table is broken. The bike trailer won't hook up to her bike.

Sarah's cell phone died this week. This time for good, we think. So communication between us is the old "let it ring, then call me back."

This is why marrying a single mom is a great thing. She doesn't mess around. I wish I was there to help, but I know she's got the whole thing under control. I know it's still chaotic, though.

I guess she gets one more week.

But starting Monday, I expect June Cleaver. For real.

Hello Internet

Long time, no see.

Instead of inundating you with the myriad of reasons for not blogging, how about we just pop back in like nothing happened?

Would you feel better if I just told you that we were knee-deep in our efforts to pay for the new air conditioning and heating system? A well-worded cardboard sign on the corner of Lovers and 75 can really bring in some sympathy. Throw in a 3-year-old trained to cry on command, and we had that thing paid for in cash.

Dave would be so proud.

And, seriously. We are newlyweds. You should have been encouraging us to spend more of our free time together. Shame on you.



So, that leaves us here with the awkwardness of not seeing each other for a while. Do we catch you up on all the details? Pretend like nothing happened? It's like a social quandry from Junior High.

How about a list of the latest news that you can skip, skim, or study.... and then tomorrow we can just pick up where we left off. Good for you?

* Sarah's last day of the daycare was this past week, and now she is officially a stay-at-home mom. To congratulate her, I got her an apron and a list of my favorite breakfast foods.

* We are on a major bike-riding kick, and spend most evenings riding around, with Sarah stopping occasionally to embarrass us by peeking inside the windows of houses for sale while I pray that nobody is home.

* We are losing the minivan at the end of the summer. It's the end of an era, people.

* I am now traveling to the northeast instead of my hometown Texas territory. Just when I had perfected my Texan draaaaawwwl. Catching up on Sopranos and Good Fellas to better acclimate myself to this new position.

* Learning quickly not to ask Sarah what she is going "to do all day." Not a great conversation starter.

* Zac just gets smarter every day. He loves to read and sound out words. 4 letters is about his limit, so Dr. Seuss is as good as it gets around here. Didn't stop me from getting him his own subscription to Buckmasters.

* Thanks to Sarah's landlord, we are now well-versed in the Texas Property Code and tenant rights. Good times. Like we needed more attorneys in our lives.



Although, we've been out of the loop with some of you, the past two months have been a blessing for us to bond as a family.

We've persevered past the 12 hour work days, division of household responsibilities, and budget meetings.
We can tell you how long each person's shower can be before bed, so the last person doesn't get stuck with cold water.
We've turned off the computer, no calls at dinner, evening lightning-bug parties, family movie nights.
We've learned about each other and how to better honor God with our words and actions in our communication.
And we've prayed over this sweet little boy, who is coping with struggles that he is much too young to understand, while we struggle with our own frustration and sadness at situations we cannot fix for him.


The Lord has been our rock and our redeemer. He's not just in our "Top Five." He's got the Number One position. And I've never been happier in second place.

Here's to our reunion, Internet! See you again soon!