In which our little lady comes crashing in.

The title for part II of Chickpea's birth story comes from a song by Imogen Heap that was released just before her birth.  You can listen to it here.

I've combined my memories with the notes Bill took directly after the birth to bring you this complete(ish) account of our little lady's birth.

We decided not to take our stuff in with us to the hospital, since I thought labor was just getting underway and that I had actually just wet myself and they might just send us home.  I'd had a contraction in the car, and was now feeling them in my abdomen.  I had another when we arrived (it was only like a 5 minute drive) and one in the hallway to L&D.  I actually could have kept walking through them, but decided to take Bill up on his offer to take a little rest.

The nurse at the station asked "What's up?"  I wasn't really sure how to answer that, but went with "Well, I'm hoping I can stay here."  She probed for more information, and I told her that I thought perhaps my water had broken.  She showed me to a labor room and another nurse came in and had me change.  She asked if I wanted an epidural and I explained that I had thought I wouldn't get one, but now I wasn't so sure because I hadn't slept at all that night.  She suggested we revisit that after they got the lab result testing for amniotic fluid.  In 40 minutes.  That sounded like an eternity.  Then she had me get on the bed to get checked for dilation, which I did strategically so as not to put any pressure on my behind.  It seemed to be taking an awfully long time to do this task.  Then she just says "hold on, I need to get someone else," and left the room.

Other nurse came in and checked me and said "Yep, she's complete.  Probably a +2."

Um, what?

I started crying.  I was just not mentally prepared for that.  Bill asked for a kleenex for me.

Other nurse left the room and the first nurse explained how she needed to get other nurse because she couldn't believe that I was complete.  She thought she could feel baby's skull sutures and hair, but doubted herself and thought maybe my cervix was really high up or something and that she wasn't even reaching it.  She and other nurses around assumed they were going to have to send me home based on how calm and collected I was.

The room quickly filled with people, including the nurse who checked me the second time, one other nurse and the on call doctor.  This happened at about 10:15 AM, according to Bill's notes.  Apparently my doctor was going to be back in town  in a few hours, but I obviously wasn't going to be able to wait that long.  They started breaking down the bed around me.  I was supposed to get IV antibiotics but that just didn't happen.  I noticed that my left hand was going numb, and so they gave me oxygen.  I didn't realize I was hyperventilating.  The doctor introduced himself.  He works in the the same office as my doctor, so I'd at least seen him before, and heard good things about him from friends and acquaintances who saw him.  He asked about my birth plan.  I told him I'd wanted to do an all natural birth.  I couldn't think of the specific things he might want to know.  He responded with "Well I think you've done that, and we're very proud of you."  That made me feel good.  He had a calm, encouraging disposition throughout the whole crazy delivery, which I really apppreciated.  He then asked if I'd discussed any birth positions with my doctor, which I hadn't, because I thought there was still plenty of time left to do that.  So I ended up in the awful on the back dying bug position.  And I never want to do it that way again.  After assuming said position, doctor announces we're going to have this baby right away, gave us a run down of how it was going to go, and the 2nd nurse gave me tips on pushing.

I had a contraction and the 2nd nurse coached me on pushing.  She was coaching me in the way I'd wanted to avoid, but I went ahad and tried  the hypno birth birth breathing that I'd practied.  That just wasn't working, unfortunately.  Not to say that it doesn't work, I just wasn't getting the hang of it.  I also wasn't feeling the urge to push.  After that first contraction she had me practice pushing and I gave that a try on the next contraction.  It took a few tries but I got the hang of it.  Baby moved a little bit, but I still wasn't feeling the urge to push.

Fortunately, the urge kicked in with the next contraction and I couldn't NOT push like the nurse was suggesting.

That was a powerful feeling.  Truly amazing.  I'd heard the affirmations like "my body knows how to birth my baby," and I sure could feel that!  I didn't have to try anymore.  Those pushes were very effective.  I was able to get 2-3 pushes in with each contraction.  I was concerned about pushing after the contraction ended for some reason, and 2nd nurse yelling "push, push!" at me wasn't really helping.  I was able to get the third push in when one background nurse quietly said "you can do another one."  I felt like she understood why I was hesitant, and her gentle words gave me confidence to go for another push.  I so wish I'd taken note of her her name!  She was my very favorite nurse, although they were all really great.

The doctor had asked if we'd picked out any names.  We explained that we had it narrowed down to two choices, one for a dark haired girl and a different one if she didn't have dark hair.  He told us that she was going to get the first one.  That was pretty fun.

Baby crowned with the next contraction, about 10:45 AM, and that Bill announced "I can see her!"  He got a little teary.  I wanted to share in on that moment with him, but I felt so disconnected from everything except my body that all I could do was look at him and attempt a happy face.  The doctor asked if I wanted to touch baby's head or to use a mirror to see her, and I declined.  I was in "the zone" and just wanted to focus on working with my body to birth my baby.  I felt like the mirror especially would be more of a distraction than a help.

We did run into a super minor hitch.  The doctor had been trying to help make room for baby's head, but I wasn't stretching enough.  The doctor suggested that my tissues weren't going to stretch any more and that I was either going to push for quite a bit longer and suffer serious tearing, or get an episiotomy.  Episiotomy is an intervention I had really REALLY wanted to avoid, and since this doctor wasn't the one I had come to trust, I had a hard time knowing if it was really necessary.  But I needed to make a decision fast, so I decided to trust his experience, and I told him to do what he thought was best.  He went ahead and performed the episiotomy.  Blerg.  I was numb so it didn't hurt, but I hate the thought of incisions.

I got two really long pushes in with the next contraction.  I had a had time breathing between pushes because the urge was so strong.  Our little lady's head was delivered and she turned to the side, just like she was supposed to.  The doctor suctioned her mouth and nose a little, and according to Bill, her shoulders and the rest of her body just slid right out on the next.  I felt a bit of pain with the delivery of the rest of her little body, like the doctor was pulling on her.  That was really the only pain I experienced during the whole delivery though, so I really can't complain.  She was born at 10:51 AM.

I remember being happy to see her, happy to her sweet tiny cry, and unhappy at the sensation of the doctor gently pulling her body out of my body.  He placed her on my tummy and I observed how tiny she was.  Not just like newborn tiny, but like twin sized tiny.  I estimated that she was probably around 6 lbs.  I wasn't worried though, because she was a beautiful shade of pink and was breathing just fine.  I was kind of just wrapped up in my thoughts and didn't know what to do.  I think the 3rd nurse was trying to help bring me to the present by saying "look at that beautiful cord!"  Which I did.  Soon after, Bill cut her cord, then took my hand and placed it on baby.  I rubbed her little pink, soft arm and shoulder.  I wasn't really sure what to think.  I was just so shocked.  It all happened so fast.


Next baby was placed on my chest.  She ended up staying there for quite some time, since all the nurses disappeared after the placenta was delivered.  Turns out that it was an incredibly busy day and they had to attend a c section.  They did clean me and baby up a bit before they disappeared, so our parents got to see baby while we were waiting for the nurses to come back, and it was wonderful to see their reactions.

Eventually the nurse that first checked me came in and weighed our little lady.  She weighed 5 lbs 14 oz and 18 inches long, so I was pretty close with my estimate.  Then she helped me latch little lady.  This was kind of difficult, but fortunately our sweetheart was very eager to nurse and once we found the right angle and other things, she latched on and had a good nursing session.  Shortly after that, someone from our pediatrician's office came and did some initial observations.  He mentioned that our tiny lady was one of the most alert, bright-eyed newborns he'd ever seen.  After that my favorite nurse came in and performed a few procedures.  She put the little pink bow on baby's head, and decided to call her Princess Pie as I wasn't completely ready to settle on the name we had chosen for our dark haired girl.

We stayed in the hospital for two days so baby could be monitored for infection since I didn't get my antibiotics.  My favorite nurse was assigned to me both days that I was there, which made me really happy.  She told me that I was a little bit of a celebrity in L&D.  My doctor dropped by the next morning and also was impressed by my story.  He told me that I have a gift, and that I should make some backup plans for the next baby.

Between baby's eating strikes, vitals checks for us both, jaundice, and visitors (we loved seeing them though!), we didn't get much rest in the hospital.  We were very excited on Friday morning to learn that we could go home, as long as we came back the next morning to get little lady's bilirubin checked.

 See her cute baby fuzz?!

This sweet photo was taken by Bill's mom.

 It was so hard to listen to her cry and not be able to comfort her while she was on lights.  Fortunately, one awesome nurse figured out how to make her feel secure and snuggly.

We'd heard that when we got home we wouldn't know what to do, but we found that it seemed pretty natural.  We just took care of our sweet little lady, slept, and snuggled.  Her daddy didn't want to put her down.  His instant bond with her was one of the most gratifying things I've ever seen.

I guess that's the end of the story of how our little cutie came into this world.  We love her more and more every day!

**Please note, we have decided to keep her name and birthday private.  If you know this information, we ask that you don't give away the surprise!  If we see you in person, we'll be happy to introduce you to Chickpea, given name and all ;)**

Thanks for reading!

In which we learn why labor is named thus.

This post has been a long time coming.  I've wanted to write it down but I've either been to emotional to finish, or too distracted by life.  I decided to put other things aside on this Mother's Day and record the story of the events surrounding our little lady's birth, as remembered and experienced by myself.

After doing quite a lot of research and reflection, I decided that what made the most sense for me was  to have a minimal intervention, unmedicated birth.  I hoped I'd start labor on my own, and I did a lot of reading about the stages of labor and how to know when it was "time."

I was going have my baby after my due date- or at least I had convinced myself that I would.  I didn't want to experience the anxiety associated with waiting for baby to come around the due date, so I mentally added two weeks to that date.  At my 38 week checkup (a Wednesday) I wasn't showing any signs of progress toward delivery.  We scheduled my next appointment for the following Friday since my doctor was going to be on vacation for several days.  I figured baby would come in about 3 weeks.

Here I am at 35 weeks pregnant.

Late on Friday night, I started feeling some low back pain that kept me from falling asleep.  This happened every now and then during my pregnancy, as did insomnia, so I wasn't really worried about it.  I just used a heating pad as usual to try to get some relief.  It was taking me a long time to feel relaxed and tired, and just before I was finally ready to catch some Zzzz's I observed that I was showing some early labor signs.  I panicked for a moment, but remembered that this probably didn't mean that baby was coming immediately, so I calmed myself down and decided to try and get some sleep.  This was difficult because the pain continued when I laid down, but I discovered if I elevated my head it eased up a bit, so I finally got a little sleep.

On Saturday, I figured I'd better start preparing for baby's arrival in earnest since it was looking like she'd come closer to my due date than I expected.  I did important things like make hair bows, create two new playlists for labor, tidy up the nursery, and other things of supreme importance.  Early labor signs continued.  That night Bill and I started watching The Lord of the Rings trilogy, just because.  I did call my doctor's office to see if I could get some advice, but the answering system just said to go to L&D if you thought you were in labor.  I was pretty sure that wasn't necessary so I just relaxed that evening.

I was feeling optimistic about getting a good night's sleep and going to church in the morning, but when I laid down I would feel pain in my hips and couldn't sleep, even in a more upright position.  I became frustrated to tears, and sweet Bill caught on and offered to get out pillows and blankets and sleep on the couch with me.  I managed to get comfortable enough with him there to get some sleep. 

I did not make it to church the next morning, on account of having not slept much in the night.  Bill filled in for my calling as primary chorister.  The rest of that day I tried to relax and I ate when I had an appetite and managed to take a little nap.  Hip pain continued, though I did get some relief when we sat on the couch to watch our movies.  Bill gave me a massage before bed, but again, I couldn't sleep.  I started to notice that the hip pain definitely came in waves, so I tried to time the pains, thinking that perhaps they were contractions.  They would happen every 10 minutes or so, and according to what I had read even if they were contractions, it still wasn't "time."

I think it may have been that night that I asked Bill to give me a blessing of comfort.  I was very concerned that since I wasn't sleeping I might not have the strength to give birth, especially without medical interventions like I was so intent on doing.  In the blessing he said that I would have the strength I needed when it came time to give birth, that my Savior Jesus Christ understood the pains and emotions I was experiencing, and  that I had been entrusted with the life of this particular spirit.  I did find comfort in those words, as well as a sense of wonder, awe, and humility.

The next 36ish hours are a little bit of a blur.  I slept very little, did some easy chores around the house, felt confusion over the hip pains, had an appetite on and off, took showers at odd hours to get some pain relief.  During the day on Monday I was able to use my relaxation techniques to get a good nap in spite of the pain. The highlight of every day was our nightly movie watching time, because I got to be with my husband, and sitting upright eased the pain substantially. 

On Tuesday night things got intense.  It hurt to go to the bathroom because I was feeling so much pressure.  The pains in my hips had started to feel like a very strong person was squeezing my hips from behind, trying to break them.  Soon, the pain became constant.  Now you might be thinking "why didn't you go to the hospital?  Or wake your husband?" The answer is that it didn't even occur to me.  The pain was all consuming.  Also because I'm a rather reserved, private person and I don't like to inconvenience others, and I generally deal with difficult things on my own.  So I just sat in the rocking chair in the nursery trying not to stay relaxed, and for the first time in my pregnancy, I felt angry at my tiny baby for causing me so much pain.  In hindsight, I think I may have been in transition at this point.

After several hours of this, things calmed down very slightly.  I took a shower and got in bed, but didn't sleep.  The pain continued to subside, but I was pretty sure I was in some stage of labor.  I laid in bed until Bill woke up, which was pretty early.  He started timing contractions for me.  They were anywhere from 4-17 minutes apart, so we figured it wasn't quite time yet.

Bill decided to go ahead and go to work.  I ate a little, then knelt on the bed with my legs tucked underneath me, leaned against the headboard, and feel asleep.

I don't know how long I was asleep, but when I woke up around 9 I realized I was noticeably damp.  I evaluated myself for signs of bladder leakage and didn't find any.  I texted Bill about this discovery.  He called my doctor's office.  They told him we should go to the hospital.

He came home and we packed up a couple of last minute items into the hospital bag.  I changed clothes and tamed my bangs, and decided to skip doing my hair.  Bill put our things in my car, and we were on our way to the hospital.  What a long, painful drive that was!  I could no longer sit without feeling substantial pain.

(This story will continue in another post.)

How it all began

It all starts with my friend Kara conspiring with her husband Chris.  Kara has been my friend since HS, and Chris has been Bill's since [Bill insert answer here - well, I've known him since my family moved to Enoch, sometime around Middle School].  I teach violin to my friend, and she had actually been trying to get me to do activities where Bill would be for quite some time, and the time she actually organized it I couldn't go for some reason or other.  Then I kept being *ahem* occupied in my free time, so Kara's plans kept being foiled.  But magically, in the middle of January of 2012, I became unbusy, so Kara wasted no time setting us up for a date.

On January, 27, 2012 we were to go on our first date.  My roommates and I were awaiting the event with much anticipation.  I had come up with all sorts of images as to what this Bill would look like.  I had talked to him briefly on the phone, so I had at least heard his voice.  I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw when I opened the front door.  There was a tall, nicely formed, dark haired, light skinned, well-dressed, light brown (hazel) eyed man.  I guess I was so used to seeing less than spectacular specimens as possible mates that I was rather surprised.  Pleasantly.  Quite pleasantly.

I had decided to wear my gray, stingy brim fedora that night.  When Heather opened the door, I doffed the hat.  Her roommate Clara saw this action from afar, she thought that I actually bowed to Heather.  What with this action, and the seemingly old fashioned gesture of wearing a hat, I earned the nickname "Mr. Middle Century".  She thought that perhaps I had stepped out of a more chivalrous time perhaps.

We went to dinner at a little cafe that also has antiques.  There I found out that Bill liked antiques (there were old kitchen utensils and Gramophones!), and that he knew an awful lot about some of them.  And that he didn't quite have my name down yet, I guess (I accidentally introduced her so some acquaintances of mine that we ran into with another name).  Anyway, eventually the two other couples we were to meet there showed up and we ate food.  During the date, I learned that Bill was quite well-informed, and he seemed to be more acquainted with the good things in the world than many other males I had gone on dates with.  I learned a little bit about his schooling in Arizona and the place where he lived there.  He seemed quite agreeable.

We were supposed to go bowling next, but it was really full so we opted to play games at Chris and Kara's place instead.  We played a board game called Kill Dr. Lucky, which is basically reverse Clue, and I didn't get it.  Like, at all.  I just did what the other Chris told me to and pretended I understood his logic so I wouldn't look too stupid to this handsome new stranger.  Meanwhile, I was trying not to get too distracted by this nice, fair and pretty lady seated adjacent to me at the table.

Bill took me home just after 10:00 PM I think, and he said "we should do this again some time" and I said "yeah."  He called me the following Sunday and I didn't answer because a Chinese New Year party was happening at my house.  I figured that I'd done my part without wanting to be overbearing, so I left it up to Heather to decide if she'd call me back or not.  I got around to calling him about 10 days later (I admit, I was feeling a bit undermotivated in the dating department at the time), and we had a great phone conversation.  I believe we just chatted that time, and set up a plan for a date later on.

On date number 2, we went light painting.  It was the first time either of us had tried such a thing.

 I was fairly ridiculous at it, and felt even more ridiculous because Bill was quite good at it.  Let me show you what I mean.

My light dinosaur, featuring Bill's trees:

 Bill's light dinosaur, featuring a part of a light dinosaur by me:

But I did have fun, and decided Bill was really pretty cute.

Plus, we'd bonded criminally too.

Our 2 1/2 date happened when Bill delivered the image files to my apartment a weekish later.  He brought raspberry white chocolate kisses with him, which I liked.  And ate lots of.  We might have got watching YouTube videos or something, I am not sure.  I do remember that I was really hungry because I hadn't eaten dinner yet.  I mentioned the fact, thinking perhaps he would take the opportunity to take me out to eat somewhere.  Basically I was giving a subtle, feminine hint.  He didn't pick it up, though (silly typical male, not picking up on those things).  I ate some frozen TV dinner after he left.

I would like to point out that we pretty much didn't plan dates while on a date at first.  He would call later, or sometimes I would, and then we would set it up, after talking for a really long time.  It was crazy how long I could talk on the phone with him, seeing as I despise making phone calls and talking on the phone.  But we bonded better this way and got to know more about each other than we would have otherwise.  This system was new, and really appealing to me.

By this time, I knew I needed to decide to either stop going on dates with him, or to start going on dates only with him.  On our third date I thought I would make the decision.  He took me to his house and made me a wonderful gnocchi dinner (ooh, that sounds good right now!), and then we watched a movie.  Galaxy Quest, I think (yep).  We sat on the same couch and didn't hold hands (eww, cooties).  I actually really appreciated the way he didn't force or rush anything.  Being together always felt natural and good to me.  Once I got past the fact that he wasn't broken in any way, that is, which was also very new to me.  After the movie, we got talking about Bill's work, and he showed me some examples, and we talked about his family, and who knows what else, until it was quite late.  Or early.  Whichever you prefer.  He drove me in the Z that night, which was quite fun.  Oh, and I had decided he was a keeper by the end of the night :)

When he called me next, I was playing Uno with a couple of roommates in my bedroom.  Sophie was rather upset that I would ditch our game to talk on the phone with a guy, and made some comment like "fine, go talk with your boyfriend!" and Bill, of course, heard that.  To get away from the noise, I went to my car to talk.  I was quite seriously twitterpated by this time.  We talked for a long time.

For our fourth date, we decided to share some talents.  Heather gave me my first violin lesson and I gave her a rundown of basic vehicle maintenance tips.

On our next date (six weeks since we'd been introduced to each other), we went to SUU's latest opera production (I brought some Thai takeout that we chowed down on beforehand).  At the opera, Bill said something really smooth about the seats making hand holding awkward, and we held hands.  Then we went back to my apartment and did I know not what (just talked; we still had plenty to learn about each other).  As he was about to leave, he said something about Sophie's boyfriend comment, and very smoothly implied that he would be ok with "having that title" is what I think he said.  I said I would have to think about it, though I had pretty much already made up my mind.  I just had to be very sure, because I had no intention of dating another guy I wasn't going to marry.

I deliberated (which for me involved a lot of prayer) while Bill was at a family event.  We meet up soon after he got back, and I told him I had made up my mind.  I'd thought about it, and I liked it.

And that's how it all began.

In which we are exactly the same as we always were. . .

It can be rather disconcerting when you hear your husband say

"I've done 15-20 ccs today.  But some of those were multi-packs."

Why my brain thought he said that I know not, seeing as Bill was surrounded by CDs, so I probably should have determined that he was talking about CDs, not injections of unknown substance.  (He is working on backing up and cataloging all my CDs.  Such a nice husband!)

Yesterday, Bill said this:

"How did I know we were in for some communism and marching?"

This just in:

"Should we get ready for bed?"
"My eyeballs are kind of sleepy.  But my toes are full of energy!"

So as you can see, we are doing fantabulously!  We love being married, and we love being in love, and we love laughing, and are having lots of grand (kitchen) adventures.  We will fill you in on all the fun stuff (including our take on our wedding and reception, and the honeymoon) soon. 

Places to Stay, Where to Eat and Things to Do

We wanted to give all of our out of town guests some ideas for hotels to stay in around the Cedar City area as well as provide a list of places to eat and some sights to take in while here for the wedding and reception.

While it may have taken us a while to research and put together a list like this, our work has already been done by the nice people over at the Cedar City / Brian Head Tourism Bureau.

Bill knows they're nice because he's done work for them in the past.  Head on over to scenicsouthernutah.com for all the goodies.  Just in case, we'll include a few links.

Lodging Choices in Cedar City

Yummy Grub In Cedar City

 Downloadable PDF Dining Map for Cedar City

Some Recreation Areas

Arts & Culture Including the Utah Shakespeare Festival

See you all in a couple of weeks!

Bill's First Adventure Into Wood Furniture Refinishing

Well, it turns out that in order for two people to live together, they need some furniture.  I already own a rather large desk, a couch and matching bedroom furniture.  I have also been given a used, but solid dining room set and an end table for the living room.  This meant that we were lacking a few simple items, like a coffee table, somewhere for a TV to go and bookcases.  In case anyone wasn't aware, I like books.  One potential problem already surfaced when Heather and I discussed our ideas on color selections for the living room and kitchen.  Since these two rooms generally flow together, we wanted matching pieces for each.  We also want quality items that will last a lifetime if need be.  No laminated particle board for us anymore because we've each been there and experienced that.

The glass topped end table I have is cherry stained, and the kitchen table set is a medium-dark brown.  Heather and I decided that we wanted to have dark brown wood furniture.  Not exactly black, but a very dark brown instead.  Since we made that decision I have acquired a large glass topped coffee table that pretty closely matches the design of the glass topped end table, but is a different shade of medium-dark brown than the kitchen table.  I also happened to be at the local D.I. thrift store last week and spotted a $6 beauty.  It was a medium size, solid wood table that could possibly pass for a decent coffee table.  I thought it might make an excellent TV stand instead.  I looked the piece over very carefully, and cosmetically it was in decent shape notwithstanding the fact that it was much, much lighter in color than any of our other wood furniture.  There was good sized ding on one leg and a few spots on this table where the varnish was scratched through completely or accidentally removed.  The other major detractor was that it seemed to be missing a major structural bolt; meanwhile the three remaining bolts were only half tightened.  I tried to pick it up in the store and the bottom half of the table tried to fall out completely.  It wobbled horribly, but the piece had some good potential.  Since it was only $6 I couldn't pass the thing up though.

Here's the table after I got it home, tightened the three extant bolts (which completely eliminated the wobble and made it solid as a rock) and sanded the finish off of the top of the table.  Keep in mind that this is the first time I've ever attempted to refinish any piece of furniture.

I used 220 grit paper in a random orbital sander and it worked great for flat surfaces.  Still took quite some time to get all the old finish off through.  I had tried using some lacquer thinner and then movd on to varnish remover with 000 steel wool, but it apparently was coated with a modern urethane enamel and those chemicals didn't impact it in the least.

After completely removing all the old clearcoat and stain via mechanical means, I re-stained the top with one coat of a 'dark oak' color that Heather had picked out at the hardware store.

This was before applying a new, clear urethane topcoat of my own.  After 8 hours of curing time for the stain and two coats of clear with 4 hours of curing time each, the table top was looking great, so I dismantled the rest of the supports and gave them a thorough going over.  The long, straight slats were easy to dispatch with my trusty random orbital, but the more complicated legs posed a different challenge.  By now I'd wised up and purchased some more powerful semi-paste stripper.  I had to use this product on those legs because it simply would have been too much work to jam sand paper in such cramped quarters.

Here's a side-by-side during the chemical stripping process:

It took a lot of time and effort to scrape away all the old finish (plus, the new chemical stripper made a giant, goopy mess), but after some final hand sanding of each piece with 220 grit paper in the direction of the wood grain, everything was ready for some new color.

Then came two coats of new topcoat and a 24 hour cure time before reassembly could take place.

I apologize for the atrocious glare in this photo.  I'll be sure to take one or two more of this piece when the table is finally put to work in our new place around the middle of this month.  I think it looks pretty decent for my first time trying any wood project like this.  Oh, and I also found a new bolt to replace the one that was missing when I bought it.  This table should be a nice, solid addition to our budding furniture collection.

Now, on to stripping down that large kitchen table with two leafs and six chairs so that I can make them all match.

After that I've got a coffee table.... an end table.... a record storage box.........

Our FAQs and ***Spoiler Alert***

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: How did you two meet?
A: It was a dark and stormy night.....  No actually our good mutual friends set us up.  That's it really.

Q: What does he do?
A: 3D modeler and texture artist.  Still, many people don't entirely grasp that, so sometimes if the concept is related to Pixar movies, it helps.

Q: What does she do?
A: Private violin teacher and elementary school orchestra instructor.

Q: Is he from here?
A: Yes, though he was born in Anaheim, CA

Q: Is she from here?
A: Yes, though she was born in Lexington, NE

Q: Are you two sticking around here?
A: Yes, we'll be staying in Southern Utah

Q: Was it love at first sight?
A: No.  It was about the 3,478th sight roughly.

Q: Did the chair make that noise?
A: Yes, usually.

Q: How are your wedding plans coming along?
A: We've had the whole thing planned since about May.  All of the vendors and service providers were paid or selected before the end of July.  Basically, all that's left is to finalize some of the reception decorations and plenty of fine details.

Q: When and where will you be getting married?
A: September 21st in the St. George temple

Q: When and where will the reception be?
A: September 22nd in his mother's back yard



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 Spoiler Alert
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Q: Where can I see some awesome photos of the two of you in your wedding attire, looking cute and such?
A: Follow this link: Dulce Photography Blog Post With Bill & Heather!