Nesting... Again

There are no shortage of children around the hallowed halls of the SFA. Among the 3 of us we have approximately 35 kids. Well, at times it feels like that. However you do the math, it makes for some great stories and some 180+ blog posts. This will not be a great story, but more of a brain dump on what happens to me when we are getting close to baby time.

Gonna need a wider lens for another kid.

So this will be my fourth and final kid. I've paid good money to a doctor to make sure of that. There's a lot going on around the house these days. We closed on our new house in January and we found out we were pregnant 2 days prior to closing. Since then its been a whirlwind of unpacking boxes and getting settled into the new house. What we didn't realize or even think about when moving in was that the two oldest (both girls) were going to room together and would need a larger room to fit all their clothes, beds, and emotions. So, instead of the typical "lets get the baby's room ready" it has turned into "lets move everyone's bedroom to accommodate the small pink room for the baby". So instead of 1 room to get ready, we've had 3 (we had to move my son out of his room). At least we are having a girl and the girls' room was pink to begin with. Hooray for no painting.

Seems quiet... Too quiet.

Clothing and everything else baby... When we had our 3rd kid almost 2 years ago, we were done. No mas. So we did what every other couple would do, give everything away. All the standard baby stuff was not needed anymore: Changing table, High Chair, shoes the size of my ear... All gone. So there was a small freak out session of not knowing where the F we would get all this stuff. We really weren't up on the idea of buying all new baby stuff. Luckily we have been showered with people's leftovers. You know the people that said they were done with kids and actually meant it???? We have been very blessed to have almost 2 of everything now and we have to kind of turn stuff away. So, with this influx of new stuff, it adds some additional stress of "where are we gonna put it all?" This is slowly becoming a non-stress issue, but I am sure we are missing stuff. Like Diapers. We need small diapers!!! Damn it. I'll go to the store this week and get some.

Finally there's me. I usually do something kind of stupid and pointless before a child is born. I am waiting for it to happen. Usually it involves me, booze, a late night, and a bad decision to gamble or almost get my ear cut off . However, I think I have it mitigated that this time. I signed up for my first Olympic distance Triathlon. So, I've always been a runner and last year, I did my first Tri. It was fun. I did one earlier this year but the distance was pretty short. This will be a large test of energy to finish. So hopefully this goal will keep me from doing stupid stuff from here on in.

What I am still amazed with every time we have a baby is how my wife deals with it. The physical stress it has to put on the body is remarkable and how she hasn't disowned me with the first 3 is beyond comprehension.

Oh its a girl. BTW.

Glory Days Pregame Show

In true Project Manager fashion, John Offered up some Lessons Learned after the weekend.

So this weekend is the 90th anniversary weekend for Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity being founded on the campus of what is now known as Truman State University. This matters to me because I went to Truman State and was in fact a Sig Tau. Depending on where you live you may have never heard of the school, and if you've never heard of the school, chances are you haven't heard of the fraternity.  We aren't very big nationally (as evidenced by the 15 minutes it takes the website to load up) compared to some other houses. In Kirksville, however, we were the first and have always been one of the biggest houses on campus. I'll spare you all quite a bit of intra-fraternity chest beating here and just say... nothing (which is exactly what they would have taught us to say had we believed in hazing, which we didn't, because hazing is wrong).

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="This was the only picture I could find from college."][/caption]

It's been ten years since I've been in Kirksville, and I'm sure a lot has changed (more with my friends and me than with the town, sadly). As I'm beginning to show my maturity and professionalism, I'm going to break the potential for this weekend down with a SWOT Analysis.

Strengths

• I haven't seen a lot of these guys in a long time. Can't wait to catch up and hear how fatherhood has changed the life of the guy who once put a Chevette in the basement of a house or how the guy who used to put vodka in a beer bong is now a doctor.


• I can now afford good beer (which I couldn't do in college). Of course, I'll still be buying Natural Light to remember the good old days, so the strength here is that I'll save some money. I may even spring for bottles.


• I can also afford cabs and hotel rooms now. No more long walks home.

Weaknesses

• I'm fairly certain I'm not cut out for rolling out of bed at 10 am to pull a beer out of the fridge and keep that pace going until 4 am anymore. I'm actually 100 % I'm not. I'm just hoping I don't have one of those terrible drinking days where I take a nap half way through and wake up with a headache just in time for everyone to need taken care of.


• I'm not sure I'm still properly inoculated against whatever strain of e. coli is residing on the TV room couch in the old fraternity house.


• Speaking of a weakened immune system -- and this is tough for a man as pretty as I am to admit -- but in the midst of a month-long battle with Poison Ivy, I'm not looking my best. Some patches are still visible, and I've literally put back on the 15 or 20 solid pounds I've taken off and kept off since college.

Opportunities 

• Kirksville has a super cheap standard of living. In college it wasn't uncommon for 10 of us to be at a bar for 6 hours and have a tab in the $12-$15 range.


• It's entirely possible that some of the 30-40 somethings that travel back up with me will wake up on Sunday morning with rugburns their foreheads. Can't wait to see them try to explain that away at work on Monday.


• If I play my cards right, I can order a George (with Ranch on Sourdough, of course) to eat while in town and take a couple of frozen Ronzas home to share with the kids. I do miss you Pagliai's.

Threats

• I'm hoping for their sake that the bartenders we had when I was up there have moved on. I'm guessing this will mean our bar tabs will be a little more accurate than they used to be when I'd sneak into the kitchen and make everyone sandwiches for the after-party on our way out.


• Last time I visited Kirksville was for a court date I had to attend because the second-to-last time I visited I took one step outside of a bar with a drink still in my hand. Ten years later I may just let the next one go to warrant.

Conclusion

While there are some potential pitfalls, I am really looking forward to seeing some old friends, drinking some beer, and feeling just plumb-god awful on the way home this weekend. My college experiences (almost all of which involved my brothers) are some of my favorites, and it'll be nice to refresh some of those memories.

Here's to thinking we look like this.



When we really look like this.