In line at the Giant Eagle

Last Saturday Harper stayed the night with Grandma. Joe and I love these nights off (although I might be a little overprotective and call like three times...I'm sure this will go away as the newness of mommie-hood wears off)

With our night off we went to two places we've been meaning to go to forever.

The Elevator Brewery and Draughthaus - I ordered the pork chops. The menu said they were glazed with maple...what it should have said is they are doused in maple syrup...it was delicious.

We followed that up with a trip to The Book Loft, a fabulous book store with 32 rooms of books!

After that, we went to the Giant Eagle to get dessert and bottle of wine so we could indulge in some relaxation time on the couch. Mind you, it's 10:30 on a Saturday night...this means the weirdos are out in our neighborhood. Three people ahead of us are two women, dressed in leopard printed tight dresses and f*ck me heels, way too old to be dressed like that and way too tan for May in Ohio. They bought gum and cigarettes...and payed with a check. Yes, like write out a check and run it through the check reader...I haven't seen that in years.

Behind them was a man doing actual grocery shopping...toilet paper, milk, bread, the staples every person needs at 10:30 on a Saturday night.

Next was a young guy buying a bottle of barbecue sauce...that's it. A bottle of BBQ sauce. I don't think I want to know what late night plans require the purchase of only a single bottle of BBQ sauce.

Then it was us, and behind us were three college aged gentlemen buying beer. Three very strong looking guys leaving one guy to carry all the beer. He proceeded to drop a box, the beer bottles broke and leaked all over and he wanted to know if he had to pay for it. His buddy of course knew the answer "No way dude, the box ripped. You don't have to pay for a defective box." Somehow I think the defect was the fact that one guy was carrying all the beer while his buddies stood around and debated if they should go to Frog Bear or not.

And then to top it all off, as we left we saw a homeless hippie outside the store. We knew he was homeless from the random garbage bag of stuff he was carrying. We knew he was a hippie by the tye-dye shirt her wore under his overalls.

I need to start carrying my camera with me…and I need to figure out how to take pictures of these people without being obvious.

Say Cheese!

I know you've been waiting...we finally captured Harper's grin.

That smile makes getting up in the middle of the night totally worth it.

I think I threw up in my mouth a little

Oh no wait, that was my baby. Yesterday morning she was sitting in her bouncy seat and we were chatting. I'll be darned if that kid didn't smile at me. (She's been doing this for a couple of days...my new mission - capture it on camera) Her smile just melts my heart, so I leaned in to smother her with kisses. My reward: a mouthful of spit up. Just warm regurgitated formula. And the damn kid had the nerve to smile at me again.

The grossness of motherhood!

New Addition

I've added a new element to my blog...a Harper Picture of the Week. Now, I will most likely be tempted to change it more often than weekly, she just gives me so many darn cute pictures. So check back often to see what she's up to.

Harper got to see her first Hockey game last night. Daddy didn't score a goal, but the Gong Show did win, so she must bring some kind of good luck to them.

I get to go to work for a half day tomorrow for our Huntington Bank day. It's a day that we partner with Huntington Bank and show kids how far they have to stretch their dollars. They get jobs based on their GPA, they have families, have to pay taxes, health care and put money in savings. Then they have to go around to the different booths to gt housing, child care and the like. The best part is when you ask them what they learned, many times you will hear "I don't want to have kids cause child care is so expensive!" There's nothing better than a little subliminal abstinence lesson.

Happy Monday!

Damn you AT&T

Last summer I was eligible for an upgrade on my cell phone, so I opted for the LG Neon.

I'm not a huge texter, and I don't use my phone for internet or anything like that. I literally need a phone to make and receive phone calls, and to send the occasional text. So this basic phone, with a keyboard seemed perfect. And bonus, it was only $30.00 with my upgrade.

Well that was June. Around September this really weird thing started happening. (Caution: I know I will sound a little crazy, but I swear this is true) When I would call someone I called a lot, the phone would not connect on my end. I wouldn't hear ringing or anything. On the other end, the person I've called will be "helloing" and thinking they're being pranked called. They will even hear me (which led to my mom being able to repeat when I said "I hate this fuc*ing phone) This will last for about 10 seconds until the phone gods decide I'm worthy enough to participate in my own phone calls.

Being the procrastinator I was, I didn't do anything about it until like February. They sent me a replacement phone and things were fine and dandy for about a month. Then the problem started again. Weird part...if I called someone new, it wouldn't do the weird connection thing at first, but if I called them again the cycle began.

So I take the phone in again last week and this time they exchange the SIM card. All is good for 24 hours, but then the damn thing starts doing it again. Off to the store Harper and I go. All they can do is send me another "refurbished" phone. Now I'm pissed. I've been an AT&T customer since I was 20. I have both cell phones, land line and Internet with them. And they can't do anything for me except offer me another upgrade that I will have to pay for. I don't want a new phone that will cost me $50.00 and have 300 features I won't use. I want the phone I paid for to work properly. So they are sending me a new phone and I will wait for it to get here, and when the problem happens again, someone at AT&T customer service will be fixing my issue or I will be searching for a new carrier.

You've been warned AT&T!

Taking Suggestions

I realized that I got many of my good blog ideas from work. There's nothing like 8th graders to give you something interesting to say. Not being at work, and having my day filled with baby, I realized I haven't thought of anything good to blog about in days.

So I open it up to you...what would you like me to blog about? It could be something about me you're dying to know, a topic you would like my knowledgeable opinion on, or any other random thing that you might be interested in reading about.

Hopefully I will get lots of suggestions, and then can use baby nap time to fill your minds with my wonderful thoughts.

Happy Mother's Day

Today is my first Mother's Day. I got to sleep in, which was great. Then I awoke to a gift in the bed including my very first Mother's Day card with this picture.

I love that Joe had her sign the card. This will definitely be the first thing in my Mommy memento box.

Happy Mother's Day to all those Mom's out there. Now that I am one of you, my respect has grown for everything you all do. I always knew being a mom was a tough and rewarding job, but knowing that didn't prepare me for the reality of actually having my very own daughter. I can't wait for the many mother's days we will celebrate together.

God Bless....

GRANDMAS!

My mom is taking Harper overnight tonight and Joe and I are beside ourselves excited. We love having her, but it can really wear on a couple not getting full nights sleep. I knew that's what we signed up for, but when my mom offered to take Harper overnight, there was no way I was turning that down.

We have plans to meet up with some friends at a bar for dinner and drinks, but we have pre-warned them not to expect us out till all hours, we fully intend on taking advantage of a full nights sleep.

I can't believe this weekend is Mother's Day and I am actually a mother. What a weird and wonderful feeling. I feel like I'm starting to figure out our days together a little better, although the evenings are still giving us a little trouble.

Well, I've got some packing for the little one to do. Thanks Mom, this is the best mother's day gift ever!

Two Weeks

Chillin in my boppy pillow


Bathtime with daddy



Content in my bouncy chair

Harper is two weeks today.Time is simultaneously going slow and fast. We're still trying to figure each other out. The biggest thing for me is figuring out this whole stay at home mom thing. Murphy's Law plays into my day a lot. It never fails that when I sit down to eat lunch or try to get dressed, she wakes up and needs something. I'm not sure how that happens...maybe I'm just not paying attention to the schedule as well as I should.

I cut her nails for the first time today. That was very nerve wracking, but we got through it. They say you should do it when they are sleeping. But she has to be swaddled in order to get a good nap, so I'm not sure how those two things mesh together. I ended up doing it while she was awake, and it wasn't too bad.

Joe went back to work this week. That makes it very lonely here at home.

The baby blues aren't exactly the nicest. I'm not used to crying for no reason...that's just not my style. I can't wait for my hormones to return to normal, so that I feel like a regular person. Good news is I haven't cried today...at the same time it makes me sad that I can measure the amount of time since I last cried in hours.

Many of you will probably notice I comment on your blogs at 2:30 in the morning...this is when Harper is awake and decides she's not ready to go back to sleep. So I catch up on blogs with my ipod.

This was a bunch of random thoughts...some of you probably didn't make it through them all. I will make a goal to come up with something worthwhile to blog about in the next couple of days.