Baby

Audrey was born June 18, 2008 at 4:02pm, she weighed 8 lbs 1 oz and was 20 3/4" long.














I think she looks just like her dad..this is a picture of him when he was a baby.














Labor was not fun as to be expected but its all over now and we have a healthy little baby girl. we got home from the hospital friday afternoon and things havent been too bad. Ryan had researched how to introduce the baby to the pups and so far so good. the only pup interested in linus - Hopefully it wont be long until she is not obsessed with her.

Settling in now to long nights...

Here are some pics

big baby

well there has been 24 hrs of no new groundhog stories...thank god. I took linus to the vet and it cost $100 to have her looked at, shaved and the wound cleaned, and some anitbotics. All in all 15 minutes of the vets time. they picked the right business. this morning she wasnt acting normal, she didnt even want a biscuit when i offered her one- i'm hoping by tonight when i get home she will be back to normal.

i had an ultrasound this morning and the baby is estimated at 8lb 13 ounces. i'm hoping that they are way off. especially since i have atleast a week to go. i'm putting money on june 27th to deliver. Ryans guess is June 22nd.

dogs vs groundhog round 2

well if sundays attack/killing wasnt enough excitement for the dumb groundhogs then yesterdays better have been.

i got home from work and let the dogs out- i checked the right side of the yard (where the previous attack happened) before letting them out and it was clear. i watched the poms run about looking for the goundhogs and then saw them both sprint over to murphy on the left side of the lawn. The big fat mother groundhog was in the fence! and murphy was surrounding it- then all 3 of them were. I was TERRIFIED that one of my dogs was going to get very hurt. i was screaming at the top of my lungs at them. i didnt know what else i could do. well screaming did nothing- the dogs all ignored me. i panicked (surprise, surprise) i was running into the house and back out screaming for them to stop and let the thing go- the groundhog was screeching and the whole gang of them were moving toward the house. i was honestly thinking it might try to run into the house to escape the pack of dogs. i threw our lawn chair out toward them to try to break it up. nothing. meanwhile i think i was screaming the whole time. the pack was moving a little to right of the yard - where the ground can escape - if it makes it alive. well in my last ditch effort i throw our other chair at them and it separates murphy and linnie from patty and the groundhog. enough space that the groundhog gets a few feet away and darts toward the fence. patty runs along barking at it like an idiot. the groundhog escapes- not sure with what damage.
then i ran inside and lost it. hysterically call ryan who probably thought something had happened to the baby or something.
well linus has some battle wounds- a cut on her muzzle and fang marks on her side. i bet she was the only one who actually bit the groundhog though. we called the vet after some research on the internet knowing full well they would just want us to come in so they can take $. i think linus will be fine. we cleaned the wounds with peroxide and bag balm and she didnt even wince. but i am taking her today to get a rabies booster shot and have her wounds checked out. this wont be cheap.

and i bet the baby crawled into my ribs and will never want to come out now into our crazy madhouse.

karma gets even dogs...

heat makes dogs kill

there are always stories about people going crazy and killing during hot hot days- like it makes people crazy or something- i think (hope) the same is true for pomeranians. Yesterday we had a crime committed in our backyard. This weekend it was 95+ on saturday and close to 100 on sunday. Saturday while I was in the kitchen I noticed the big fat mother groundhog in our fence. i opened the window and yelled at it to get out. it did listen to me and left the fenced in yard. Well sunday afternoon about 1pm Murhpy and Linus were sitting by the back door (shade was pulled) so i let them out thinking they hadnt been out in a while. for some odd reason i watched them as they ran out the door to the corner of the yard right where the groundhog had left our yard the day before. As I was saying to ryan isnt it weird they run right over there i see a little baby groundhog running for its life to the fence and jumps through it. then i see linnie dart to the right and out of my sight. i see 2 more baby groundhogs running from the yard to the fence. both of them make it out. then i look over to see linnie and there is something brown in her mouth! i started screaming at ryan- oh she got one! she got one! ryan ran outside and had to pry her away from the poor dead groundhog. he disciplined her pretty good- hopefully it helps. i doubt it though. luckily the big mom wasnt in the yard too or linnie would have had her hands full. i bet murphy would have gotten involved if that happened. Murphy was just watching her in disbelief i think.

what is wrong with my dog?!!?

Classes

With the upcoming birth of our baby Ryan and I have been preparing by taking some classes that the hospital offers. It was when my niece was born that I realized soon I was going to have a newborn to take care of only I knew absolutely NOTHING about babies. so i looked into the classes that were offered and signed up for all of them that applied to us.

so far we have completed the CPR and first aid for infants- that class was good except that i think they really try to scare you and basically call 911 if anything happens was the message we got. We did learn how to do CPR though. Hopefully nothing we learned in that class we ever have to use.

we then took a 4 week childbirth class. There were 8 other couples in that. we toured the birthing center at the hospital, learned all about whats going to happen, they showed lots of videos on birthing that i chose not to watch, learned about breathing for pain control, pain meds, c-sections, shaking baby syndrome- NOTE to all - shaking a baby violently can do serious damage to their brain and could kill them. Soooo basically I learned WAY too much and now i am terrified. that class made it all too real. Ryan has taken on the 'coach' role and he is very serious about it - its kinda cute.

Last night i went to a breastfeeding class- which I thought was actually very informative and didnt totally gross me out.

We have one last class on newborn care to take next weekend and then she can come- we will be educated :)

like new Garage

Before
After
Before
After

unfinished projects

well we didnt finish the garage this weekend, we ran into a few snafus... Saturday morning ryan started bright and early while i slept in. about 10 am it was time for me to help steer the bug out of the garage. so the garage was pretty much empty by 11am. Thats when the painting was to start- but that was the first problem- we tried to use the spray painter ryan got for christmas- after a trip to lowe's we still couldnt get the sprayer to work- so we gave up with that and ryan started to paint with a roller. Painting wasnt finished until about 6pm. Ryan then started building his bench and got alittle done and then gave up for the day.
sunday it took all day for the bench to be built, so by sunday night we had very little done. but we were invited to a party of one of ryans coworkers so we went to that. The coworker of ryans is vietnamese but lived in cambodia most of his life. when we got there i had a corona handed to me..if only :) and then after that a steady stream of cambodian food- i ate some curry soup - the broth was very good, a little spicy but yummy. when i noticed ryan pulling things out of his mouth and putting them on his plate i decided to stick to the broth. turns out it was chicken in the soup- bones and all. and the chicken had been killed that morning at the asian grocery store nearby. too much information and freshness for me. i was "full" soon after that came out. ryan thought it was cool- he had some chicken wings after that- he said they were very good. i wouldnt know.
ryan proceeded to drink alot- so monday morning he was alittle slow getting back to work.












monday we organized as much as we could and then went to a nearby lake to take the dogs for a walk and have a picnic. the park was beyond packed though with lots of dogs - so it wasn't that relaxing...

organize

its so strange not to have a survivor update to post.. but it never fails i have a house project to report on. this weekend we are going to tackle the garage. the plan is to remove everything- paint the walls and ceiling and then unpack and organize it all back in. and all this in 2 days. we want to have monday to relax but we could always finish monday. and i am not suppose to lift heavy things- so ryan is going to be very tired by monday.

i'll be sure to post the before/after pics.

Tonight we are going to see Iron Man... after getting such rave reviews from becky i want to see it...and i have always loved RD jr too. i havent been to a movie since last year i bet. with netflix i just put them on my queue when they start advertising them in the theaters and before you know it they have been released and delivered in the mail. so much thriftier :)

Hello Kitty will rule the world!!!

proof she is on her way....

NYC

This weekend ryans parents came down to visit and go to a NY Yankees game...since the stadium is closing this year...so we paid 4X's the face value of a ticket and took 3 trains/subways to get up to the game- walked a million and 2 steps to our seats. we literally were the very last row of the stadium. the nice part about it was you could stretch your legs into the steps...but i held on the my seat the whole time- it was quite high and scary...and i only went to the bathroom once- thank god it was a quick game. i was not treking up and down those steps more than once. The game actually was alot of fun- there were no drunks that could spill beer on us either- it was literally impossible. the guy sitting in front of us had come all the way from alaska for the game. note to anyone going to yankee stadium- they dont let you bring in backpacks- we had to check our backpacks at a bar across from the stadium and put anything we wanted into a plastic bag...at the phillies stadium i could have brought rolling luggage if i wanted...
The yankees didnt win but it was an exciting game- lots of runs. i was so exhausted by the end of the day though- we did alot of walking around after the game too. i think i'm still sore.

we took the subway to the WTC and got the best view of ground zero- the subway runs/ran right into the bottom of the building. it made me realize that people were probably in there when the buildings collapsed though. scary.

here are the pics from the game

we also pretty much finished the nursery- a few more shelves and pictures to go up but 90% done...here some pics if you want to see them too.

SOLD!!

We finally only own 1 house!!! so exciting!!! our house sold today... thank god- i was starting to panic about it...thinking it would never sell. we didnt make any money on it and we put alot of money/work into it- but oh well. atleast its no longer our problem.

RIP Portville house

road trip # 84,700

This weekend was another road trip- this time we went to portville for my baby shower. It was alot of fun. I got soooo much cute stuff. I havent really gotten to really look at anything yet though- we didnt really have a lot of room to bring stuff back and ryans parents are coming down this weekend for a yankees baseball game so they are bringing our presents. so it will be like the shower all over again this weekend. :) Sunday morning we made breakfast for the mothers on mothers day. it was yummy.

here are beckys pics from the shower. luckily she got a new camera and didnt forget to bring it to the shower because I did.

Last night we got home about 7 and had to quickly plant a bunch of rose plants and other plants. We finished just in time to start watching survivor. needless to say i am very tired today at work.

Final Survivor: Fans vs Favorties Update

Well Hope should have won IF Amanda didnt choke every time she got infront of the jury- oh it was so frustrating to watch her answer questions. it was flashback to survivor china. only this time she actually had a good case and SHOULD have won. I wanted amanda or cirie to win- i didnt want parvarti to win. i dont think she was a mastermind at all. it was a bizzaro jury though. what was up with natalies question? i think she was hitting on parvarti.


Anna - James & Mary
Becky - Ami & Chet
Carrie - Jonathan & Kathleen
Dad - Parvarti & Erik
Emily - Johnny Fairplay & Joel
Hope - Amanda & Tracy
Luanne - Ozzy & Jason
Mom - Eliza & Alexis
Nicole - Yau-man & Natalie
Ryan - Cirie & Mikey B

Survivor Update #13

OMG!! I felt so bad for Erik!! it was too hard to watch when i thought he might give the necklace to Natalie...and then he did! he is so innocent and so not bitter- in his after video he wasnt even mad. i just cant get over him. I loved James reaction too- I really think Cirie should win- was it her idea for this? I couldnt remember. Anyways that was one of the best episodes...


Anna - James & Mary
Becky - Ami & Chet
Carrie - Jonathan & Kathleen
Dad - Parvarti & Erik
Emily - Johnny Fairplay & Joel
Hope - Amanda & Tracy
Luanne - Ozzy & Jason
Mom - Eliza & Alexis
Nicole - Yau-man & Natalie
Ryan - Cirie & Mikey B

Happy Birthday To Murphy!!

today is murphys 2nd birthday. I will add pictures of his birthday party tonight - but thought it would be reminiscent to put last years picture of him being tortured with a party hat...i think i have a nice hello kitty party hat for this year. i made him a special dog biscuit too.

Survivor Update #12

Two more people out...this is a record. i was sad to see James have to leave. He really is a geninuine person who you just wanted to win the money. And finally the idol has been played- that was exciting not knowing if she found- i didnt think she had the way she was playing it up so bad. Next week will be interesting- the previews were good- Oh now that we are down to the end- Nicole and Anna still need to pay. Also you can check out this link to see the videos of the people who already got voted off. Becky highly recommends them.


Anna - James & Mary
Becky - Ami & Chet
Carrie - Jonathan & Kathleen
Dad - Parvarti & Erik
Emily - Johnny Fairplay & Joel
Hope - Amanda & Tracy
Luanne - Ozzy & Jason
Mom - Eliza & Alexis
Nicole - Yau-man & Natalie
Ryan - Cirie & Mikey B

housework

finally got the "we have alot to do to our house before the baby is born" bug into ryan. This week he has been painting our bedroom- it looks so nice- i love the color its making it look very classy. he is doing one wall a night though so pictures wont be up until next week. tonight we have yard work to do instead of painting and then cath and mike are coming to visit so it will be 3/4 done when they see it. i can start decorating the walls he has finished. this weekend while ryan and mike are golfing, cath and i will be slaving in the garden. hopefully not in the rain too. it will be nice to have the outside of the house looking complete. We only have one more room to paint after the bedroom and then the spare bathroom to update and we should be ok. Besides actually finishing unpacking our stuff. i only have 51 more days till this baby is born- its crazy how fast it has gone.

Cleveland

Well this weekend was one of ryans friends wedding in cleveland. we drove to cleveland saturday morning (left at 4am!) got there in time to walk the dogs and get ready for the wedding and go. (oh dog owners- FYI red roof inn is pet friendly.) the ride actually wasnt too bad- i was expecting to be uncomfortable for the whole 7 hours but i didnt pretty good- i was actually able to sleep alittle too. ryan drove 5 of the 7 so that helped too. the wedding was a catholic ceremony and lasted a little over an hour. then we had 3 hours before the reception so we went back to the hotel walked the dogs again and i took a little nap. Then we went to the wedding which was at the brides family business- they own a catering service and a banquet center- so it was very nice. i think someone said 400 people were there. the dinner was good- but the cookies and cake were the best! by 10:30ish i was ready to go- my feet were hurting and everyone was pretty drunk so there was lots of dancing- i managed to get ryan to go home about midnight. but even then the party was still going strong. i wonder what time it ended- i bet the sun was up. because they own the place there was no time limit...

the next morning wasnt so pleasant...we got up about 9am and were on the road by 10- we had to make an unexpected stop for ryan...too much beer :) luckily him and his friends never got into the shots or liquor.

oh ryan also says next time we move its going to be to ohio- we stopped at a cvs to get some bandaids for my new shoes and he wanted to get some beer- well in ohio they sell beer, wine, liquor and champange in drug stores! he was so excited...

here are the pics from the wedding

Survivor Update #11

Survivor Update will be delayed because princess becky hasnt seen it yet...


**UPDATE**

I couldnt believe what a baby Ozzy was being about getting voted off...he should be kind of embarressed now i think. Half way through the episode i was liking Natalie- but by the end of the episode i was thinking shes a little too cocky and a little coockoo - talking about taking Jasons jugular and flossing with it.

Anna - James & Mary
Becky - Ami & Chet
Carrie - Jonathan & Kathleen
Dad - Parvarti & Erik
Emily - Johnny Fairplay & Joel
Hope - Amanda & Tracy
Luanne - Ozzy & Jason
Mom - Eliza & Alexis
Nicole - Yau-man & Natalie
Ryan - Cirie & Mikey B

Phillies-Mets

Saturday we went to the Phillies-Mets game. We went down extra early so that we could walk around the stadium and watch the warm ups and batting practice. it was cool- it reminded me of when I was little and we would go to the syracuse chiefs games and get autographs from the baseball players. One home run from batting practice came within 100 feet of me and that was enough- scared the crap out of me. I saw where our seats for the red sox game will be- very good seats. I want to go early to that game too because then atleast i will know the players that are warming up. I dont know any mets or phillies players. It was a beautiful day too- 80 degrees and sunny.

The downside to the day was our section. We got up to our seats and it was pretty much empty- and it was 5 minutes before the game started. It soon started to fill up with Mets fans. And not just mets fans- but mets fans who had taken a bus to philly and apparently started drinking the second they got on the bus. 'obnoxious drunk new yorkers' was used about these people numerous times throughout the game. About the 3rd inning the first fight broke out. And two people were escorted out of the game. I think every inning after that the police and security were up in our section. i had some beer spilled on me...a drunk guy almost fell on me as he was passing by my seat, a drunk man was in the womens bathroom- claiming it was a 'uni-sex' bathroom. The attendants from our section were pretty rude to everyone because of the crowd i think. i had to show my ticket everytime i left and came back. People were warned that no 'cursing' was allowed- and one drunk kid behind me was told to sit down and watch the game or he would be kicked out. so the kid sat down right behind me and complained for about 30 minutes on how he couldnt stand up. How he was going to talk to that attendants manager. meanwhile this kid was slurring every word out of his mouth and when the phillies scored yelled 'its only 1 point'... so as a manager i would definately listen to what unfair treatment this kid was getting.

Pics of the day

all in all i've decided that sporting events in philly are going to be filled with drunks...