City Girl in a Redneck World

Christmas Crazy!

2009-12-21T14:39:00.000-05:00

BurghBaby wants to see lots of christmas lights.

Well, here is one house that Justin & I passed on PA430 on the way from Erie to Peek n Peak. We had to stop because of the motorcycles! (Sorry the first pic is blurry).

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-04T12:29:00.003-04:00

I'll never forget this Memorial Day...

2009-05-25T23:21:00.003-04:00

Since it's the one where I ran over a kid.

You heard me. Here's the story:

My best friend Jen is in town for Alex's baptism (which was yesterday - I'll write a post about it on Alex's Blog in the nex few days or so). Justin went golfing with my dad, so I decided to pack Alex up in his carseat in the big blue truck and go visit Jen and her family for the day. As I was driving across 12th St (a 5 lane road - 2 lanes in each direction, with a turning lane), I had to stop for a red light. I stopped back at the white line, and thought to myself, "Boy those people next to me sure pulled up far - what if someone wanted to cross the street?" The light turned green, and I started accelerating. That's when this 16 year old kid on a bicycle came screaming out from beside the building into my traffic lane. I slammed on the brakes, and he disappeared then popped up in front of me. I put the truck into park, and got out of the car. The car that was next to me was already across the intersection, but pulled over and got out. The SUV behind them stopped next to me, and the car behind me also stayed.

The woman behind me is a nurse, and she checked the kid over. He said he was fine, but his bike was obviously wrecked (the front tire was at least). He had knocked off my front license plate, and he was *VERY* lucky we didn't have any kind of receiver in the front hitch. He was spitting some blood, due to the fact that he hit his mouth off of his handlebars.

The cops were called, and a fire truck, an ambulance, an EmergyCare SUV, 2 police cruisers, and 3 motorcycle cops showed up. The kid was cited for failure to stop at a red light, and possibly for riding the wrong way in traffic (since he was riding against traffic, instead of with it). His parents arrived, and I assume they took him home. I feel sorry for what happened, but that kid was very very lucky that I was paying attention and not talking on my cell phone, taking care of Alex, or dealing with some other distraction.

Oh, and Alex is fine - he slept through the whole thing.

Beware of the attack beagles!

2009-05-05T12:25:00.003-04:00

It amazes me how many people are afraid of Chance and Harvey. Of course, we live in "the ghetto," and I have found over the years that many, many black people are afraid of dogs. I've even talked to my black friends about it, and they agree there's a high percentage of blacks afraid of dogs.

At least several times a week, whenever Justin and I are outside of any length of time, we tend to take the dogs out with us. They play in the driveway, pee on the garage, and sleep under the bush on the grass. More often than not, they are not on any sort of leash or chain, because they simply do not wander. It amuses me to see how many people cross the street to avoid the dogs. Dogs that are most likely doing this:

The people that aren't afraid? Little old white ladies. They will come right up and pet the dogs.

There are times where Chance & Harvey do bark - but it's mostly because someone will be walking by, minding their own business, and happen to look over and jump and exclaim something (usually a swear word), and get nervous.

Oh well. At least it provides amusement, and no one is going to bother us with our "attack beagles" around!

Big Scary Fish

2009-05-02T17:51:00.006-04:00

Four years ago, we were garage-saleing, and this lady had a ton of aquarium stuff she was trying to get rid of. Eventually she persuaded us to take two 10 gallon tanks, a bunch of rocks, a half dozen filtration units, several dozen filters, some breeding tanks, a bunch of fake plants, and a couple of heaters all for $10. We got home and six months later cleaned everything out (hey, it was a nice wintertime project). We threw away the rocks, because Justin said you don't know if they have anything harmful in them, and it's always best to have new rocks. Justin just wanted to have plants. Ha! We did go to petsmart to get plants, but they were also having a 99 cent fish sale! We ended up getting some zebra and neon tetras, a pleco (algae eater) and an aquatic frog. (oh, and a few plants)

Well..... the pleco died because we were stupid. It was a NEW tank, therefore there was no algae for the pleco to eat, and we didn't know we were supposed to feed it when there wasn't anything else! We took it back and got another. The aquatic frog died after a few days, so we returned it and got another... which also proceeded to die. We got yet another, which ALSO died. At that point, we decided to stick with the 3 zebra tetras, 2 neon tetras (which actually I think originally was 3), and the pleco.

The pleco quickly outgrew the 10 gallon tank, but we didn't want to upgrade. We named him Big Scary Fish, because compared to our 1.5" tetras, this sucker was a good 8" long. Whenever we would replant the fake plants, he would go around and swish his giant tail to free them all again. Eventually we quit replanting them, because obviously, BSF wanted the room.

All this time, we've either had to go back to our house in Ohio, or ask our neighbors to feed the fish on the weekends. Finally, last weekend, we purchased a brand new 29 gallon tank from Walmart, and set it up. We headed out to our house on Sunday, and loaded up the fish in a 5 gallon bucket with the bubblers in it, and covered the top with Glad Press-n-Seal. I plugged the bubblers into my handy-dandy 110v outlet in my Vibe, and we headed back to our apartment. Since the water in the bucket and the water in the tank were two different temps, we decided to let the fish hang out in the bucket overnight so the temps would equalize.

Monday morning, I got up with Alex around 7am, and fed him. Afterwards, we hung out in the living room for a while, and around 8:30, I was walking past his bedroom (where the fish tank is) to ours, where I was going to lay Alex down for his morning nap. I happened to glance on the floor, and I saw BSF on the carpet, not moving! I told the dogs to stay, then hurried into my bedroom to lay Alex down in his bassinet. I then ran back to his room, and grabbed the net. I put the net under his tail, where he was stiff as a board. "Oh no," I thought, "BSF is dead." I put him in the new aquarium any way, which at the time had nothing but water in it. No rocks, no plants, no bubblers other than the filter. It was even only filled to about 15 gallons. He sunk to the bottom and since there were no rocks in the tank, I could see his sucker moving on the bottom. He was still alive!

He looked pretty bad though. He had flopped on the carpet at least 4 feet from where the bucket was, and had hair and other carpet fibers on his body. I let him be for a while, since I didn't want to stress him out more. After a few hours, I added the other fish and more water to the tank. When Justin came home from work, he put in the bottom filters, the bubblers, the rocks, and the fake plants (we have since added some live ones).

BSF was (and is) starting to look pretty jagged. I took these pictures on Friday:

His dorsal fin is even worse, and his tail fin is starting to die off. His back scales are flaking off and they are pretty red underneath. I went to an aquarium shop a block from the house and talked to the owner, and he gave me some medicine to hopefully fix him. I have to put in 1tsp/10gal of water for 7 days. Hopefully he can hold on that long and his fins will start to grow back. If not, he will just be even scarier, I guess.

Alex

2009-04-30T00:36:00.000-04:00

I've decided to move all my Alex posts over to a new blog:

http://alittlebitofalex.blogspot.com/

That way I can keep bitching over here (making it public again), while giving the family baby updates.

Besides, Justin and I will both be posting on that one, so hopefully it will be updated on a more regular basis.

Winter, please come back!

2009-04-29T13:59:00.003-04:00

So this past weekend it was beautiful and HOT out. While it was nice, there are several reasons I want winter to return:

1. I was pregnant the whole winter. While it was nice I wasn't huge during the hot sticky summer months, I ski in the winter! I missed the whole downhill skiing season! Guess I'll just have to plan my next pregnancy better ;-).
2. I live in the ghetto. The cold and snow kept people indoors. For example:

Sunday night after we got home from Cleveland, I was finishing feeding Alex and heard a commotion outside. As I was burping him, I was going from window to window trying to find what was going on. There were probably 50 people in the street screaming and yelling at each other, blocking traffic on my road. I was seriously getting ready to call the cops when they got out of the road and seemed to calm down. I don't really want to be "that" person, but I totally will. Black people are afraid of my dogs, and I'm not afraid to use that to my advantage. (But seriously, has anyone ever heard of a beagle attacking someone? I didn't think so).

One bad thing

2009-04-24T17:21:00.003-04:00

One bad thing about living on a busy street and finally having nice weather is that once you have all the windows open, you risk going deaf beacuse you have to turn the TV up so loud over the traffic noise. I'm contemplating turning on the closed-captioning just so I can understand what the heck is going on!

Lightweight

2009-04-21T13:10:00.002-04:00

Sunday night Justin and I went to Olive Garden for the first time in probably two years or so. BB (before baby), we would get a pitcher of Sangria (the red/berry kind). Over the course of the meal, it would make us feel pretty good, and tasted awesome.

Well, I just ordered water since I'm trying to be a good mom and all (don't want a drunk baby :-D), but Justin got a glass of Sangria. I had a sip, and holy crap have I become a lightweight. ONE FREAKING SIP and I was already getting that lightheaded feeling.

Well, if I ever become an alcoholic, at least it will be cheap!

Question of the day

2009-04-13T20:34:00.000-04:00

What's 11.5 lbs and 23.25" of cute?

This guy:

He had his 1 month well-checkup (at 6 weeks, but whatever). He goes back to the Dr in a month for his first set of immunizations. I'm sooooooooo looking forward to that (not).

Visit at daddy's work!

2009-04-08T17:54:00.003-04:00

Today I had my 6 week postnatal appointment, where I was cleared to, *ahem* resume normal activities. On the way home, I had to pass Justin's work, so I called him and asked him if it was a good day to show off Alex... or not. He said that while it was a bad busy day, things had calmed down, and he had some time. So Alex & I visited Justin as work for the first time. All his fellow engineers ooh and aahed (well, as much as men do) and said he needed a tiny hard hat & safety glasses. Well, I already bought Alex some sunglasses, but I bet I could find him a tiny hard hat.

I went to a children's consignment shop, and picked up Alex a cute little overalls & long sleeved onesie outfit, and it's quickly become our favorite outfit. Here he is in it, sitting on the couch:

In other news, we have been giving Alex "tummy time" a few times a week. Today I put him on his tummy on the couch, and he lifted up his upper body on his arms! He is getting to be so strong!

1 month and 100th post!

2009-04-01T10:56:00.004-04:00

Today, Alex is one month old. In that month, Alex

has used about 250 diapers (we have yet to pay for any though! yay for diaper raffles!)
has peed on me four times, and daddy only once (dang it).
has decided to paint the changing table a lovely mustard yellow twice (I was too slow with the next diaper).
has had four baths - 2 sponge, and 2 in his lovely pink tub (sorry buddy, but it was cheaper than the blue one!)
has stretched his nighttime sleeping to 4 1/2 hours sometimes.
has had lots of kisses by mommy, daddy & Chance.
got lots of new outfits.
has been to mass twice so far.
has gotten lots of compliments on how cute and handsome he is.
has drained the batteries in his swing once so far.
can hold his head fairly steady.
has started smiling and focusing on faces.
makes "ooh" and "ah" noises.
has wrapped everyone around his tiny little fingers... of course!

(I'll add more today when I think of it)

Your face is kinda scratchy!

2009-03-29T20:51:00.001-04:00

365 days to the big 3-0!

2009-03-25T10:23:00.000-04:00

Yikes!

Support a great cause!

2009-03-20T11:51:00.001-04:00

My friend Paul is raising money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association again.

Please support him!

http://www.outlandishbiscuit.com/2009/03/mda.html

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2009-03-17T18:48:00.002-04:00

Today Alex & I went up to my Alma Mater, Penn State, and spent the day showing off my sweet little baby. Of course everyone loved him!

...yes, yes you are.

Sunset on Lake Erie

2009-03-16T22:31:00.004-04:00

So tonight we decided to try out Backyard Burgers, but first went and drove around the Peninsula. It wasn't too cold, and the wind was relatively calm, so we got Alex out of the car and enjoyed five minutes or so of the pre-sunset.

If you've never tried Backyard Burgers before, I highly recommend it. It's "fast food," but tastes like a higher quality burger. We will definitely go back.

Surreal

2009-03-15T20:09:00.006-04:00

It's been two weeks since Alex was born, and it still doesn't seem real (maybe it's the sleep-deprivation talking).

We're still having some issues - he doesn't sleep consistently yet (but I know it can take up to 6 weeks for him to get in synch). He also sometimes has problems with latching on to feed. Sometimes he will just scream & scream until he gets hysterical. When he does this, I feel so bad for him. He will turn really red & have tears streaming down his face, and sometimes can take twenty minutes to an hour to calm down enough to decide that the boob in his mouth is actually food. Other times he latches on right away. It can be frustrating, and there's nothing I (or Justin) can do but wait it out.

We went on our first walk yesterday. It was chilly but sunny. I got him in his car seat, then hitched up the dogs and took the dogs outside to wait.

I grabbed his stroller frame, and took that downstairs. I then grabbed my camera and Alex and carried him downstairs and put him in his stroller frame. We all waited for Justin to finish messing around with his new tractor, then we went for the walk. It was nice - I just had to make sure I didn't walk too fast (I have a long stride and would trip the bar between the wheels) or hit any lips in the sidewalk (the wheels aren't great and would pitch the whole stroller forward), or run over a slow-moving dog.

New Blog

2009-03-14T12:00:00.002-04:00

My husband started his own blog. Feel free to take a look!

Grease, Gas and Wildfire

Maybe I'm taking too many pictures...

2009-03-13T09:49:00.002-04:00

Best. Diet. EVER

2009-03-12T22:52:00.004-04:00

Not that I've ever dieted or anything (heck, I never even owned a scale until my husband's aunt & uncle died, and he "inherited" it).

Alex is 11 days old. In those 11 days, I've lost 30 pounds so far. Thirty freaking pounds! Last week I was able to "fit" into my regular jeans, but I had quite the muffin top going. This morning I put on my maternity pants and took the dogs for a walk. I practically walked out of my pants! I think I'm down to one actual pair of jeans that I can wear - my "shopping" maternity jeans that have the extra supportive band at the top that gives me a weird indent halfway up my stomach, but my pants stay ON dang it! I think I'm going to have to pull out my regular jeans again and see if I'm any less banana nut-like. Hopefully the weight keeps coming off, and maybe I'll even eventually be a whole size smaller! That would be nice.

First (sponge) Bath

2009-03-10T00:10:00.004-04:00

Alex got his first bath at home on Sunday evening. Since he had just lost his stump and was circumcised just a week ago, it had to be a sponge bath. I got to use some of the Cucumber Melon body wash that I got from the baby shower.

He wasn't too happy about it.

Cord

2009-03-07T18:08:00.000-05:00

Alex lost his umbilical cord stump today! We're one step closer to giving him an actual bath.

Alexander James

2009-03-04T15:49:00.007-05:00

Born: Sunday, March 1, 2009 @ 2am
Weight: 7lbs 14oz
Length: 21"
--------------------------------------------------------------

On Saturday, I woke up around 3am with minor pains. I went to sleep on the couch (Justin was snoring like usual), and woke up around 9 or 10 with more consistent pains. Justin had gone into work for a bit, and I just rested and checked my email - normal stuff. By the time he got home, I was looking for an online contraction timer, and they were erratic, but slowly getting closer together. I took a shower, and Justin made lunch. As I was eating, I was timing my contractions, and they were about 4 mins apart, and just over a minute(ish) long. I eventually got ahold of my mom & asked her to come get the dogs & change the guinea pig cages. We started gathering up what we needed for the hospital, and left about 6:30.

Once there, they checked me & saw that I was already at 5cm! They asked me if I wanted anything for the pain, but really, it wasn't that bad. Around midnight or so, I was nearly dialted the whole way, and the nurse had me lay on my side, which made my contractions feel 10x stronger (and made me throw up my lunch - hopefully I'll be able to eat rotini & meat sauce again). My body did its job though, and soon it was time to push. I won't go into details, but I pushed for an hour and then Alex was born! He ended up coming out with his hand right by his face. (ow).

<-- Check out my Twitter

2009-02-28T07:02:00.004-05:00

I just recently re-remembered the Twitter text address, so I've been sending some txt's from bed lately.

Since I *think* I've been having contractions since about 3am, I might not make it until Monday! Keep an eye on my Twitter bar, or add me as a friend on Twitter to get updates right on your phone!