Blog Thief!

Nicole G. already knows it, but she is my blog thief. Except she always beats me to the post so my blog will now look like hers! I think from now on any post I want to do should just be linked to her blog! We both seem to think that Pittsburgh is an interesting place.

Here are some things make NO sense:

*a 3 way stop sign on a 4 way intersection. WHY????!!!!


*Giant Eagle. That is the main grocery store here. And just like most businesses in Pittsburgh, the employees are mean or non-existent. I was at the store loading up on groceries. This was a HUGE trip. We had nothing in our house. I went to check out and there was 1 lane open. There are about 20 checkout lanes in this store. Its HUGE! There was about 17 people in front of me. What is Giant Eagle's solution? Open ALL the SELF-Checkout lanes. Fabulous. Now I have a cart overflowing with groceries, an 18 month old who is ready for a nap, and I get to scan and BAG my own groceries. I think my items purchased was somewhere around 72. My story gets better from here! The scanner is really touchy and if you don't bag you items quick enough after it goes down the belt you get a huge flashing red light and it shuts down until an attendant can come restart the system. This happens no less than 4 times while I am checking out. Now I am done scanning and am running down to the end of the belt to bag the remaining items... The poor guy behind me is very anxious to check out and starts scanning his items before mine are done. Now I have all of his groceries mixed up with mine and we both can't separate them fast enough so the flashing red light goes off again and the attendant has to come save me. AGAIN. After all of that I didn't even make it home with one bag! I think the dude behind me got some dinner rolls, Gerber graduate granola bars and my pork chops.


Sorry, that was a long one. Moving on...



*This poor, poor tree!





*This house I saw on a walk was decked out for Halloween, but of course had to have its own little Steelers Shrine

*The Blessing of the Beast. Yes, you heard me right. That is what they were calling it. We were on a walk and the pastor of some church was blessing dogs in the front yard. Like 12 dogs. Weird. I regret that I did not take a picture... They might have sent the dogs after me.



* I got yelled at by an 80 year old man in a parking lot earlier in the week for "parking in the spot next to him". He told me I was "SO STUPID!"

Which brings me to my next point of interest:

*It is not required to take drivers education before applying for you drivers license in the State of Pennsylvania. No wonder people drive like idiots here.

* They also have their own rules for a 4 way stop.

example: Person A: waves on person B, who clearly doesn't have the right-of-way.
Person C pulls up at the intersection: Waves on Person A and Person B, who OBVIOUSLY have the right to go before them.
Person A and B then both join in on waving on Person C and by this time there are 60 cars behind them and NOBODY seems to mind that they make their own rules up!

Except me.

*I still have Arizona plates. Therefore I am entitled to go by Arizona laws which include
-Making a Right on Red. (This is totally against the law in Pitt)
- Taking the appropriate turn at the stop sign
-Cutting people off when I miss the non-existent turn lane.

*This brings me to my final gripe about Pittsburgh Driving, for now anyway... They have 2 lanes, a stoplight in each lane, but for some bizarre reason, when you go through the intersection, its down to 1 lane and the previous left lane had this phantom unwritten marker to turn left. Wow. I am soooo glad I have Arizona plates.

I am suprised I haven't seen something like this yet!

Strong Bad

I know I am supposed to be a "grown up", but some things I just can't give up. Like this website... If you want to be entertained by extremely pointless, stupid, crap and you have about 2 extra minutes, click here: Dragon Email
If you like that and want another laugh, click here: The English Paper
I just can't resist and every time I start watching I get addicted and end up hanging out with Strong Bad and his emails for WAY to long!

Picky Eater

I used to think I was the luckiest parent because my kid would eat ANYTHING! He ate shrimp, and salmon and asparagus and sandwiches and spaghetti and the list could go on forever... I am not so lucky now. He so picky. He eats fruit and bread and certain brands of string cheese and that's about it. Today for lunch I attempted to make a grilled cheese sandwich for him. Cheese, bread, together. Ya. Sounds like a hit right? Nope. Not even close. He screamed the whole time it was in front of him. Wouldn't even try it. Then, I finally gave up. So he ate a piece of bread and a string cheese for lunch. Ludicrous.

Family Home Evening part II

So last week I posted about FHE and made the comment that next week was Bryan's turn to plan it...

This is gonna be good. Can't you feel it????

Real good.

We fed the missionaries tonight. I made fettichini alfredo, chicken parmigiana, salad and we even had a pumpkin roll for dessert. (Okay- being fair- Bryan made the sauce) We all ate. They gave us a spiritual thought. Headed out the door.

Later Bryan says to me "See, that was a great FHE wasn't it? We ate, had a spiritual thought, good times right???"

This is what happens when the guy "plans".

Ha.

Peter! Peter! Peter! and a little Bryan...

This post is for family back home that is bugging me for pictures of Petey. I apologize if you are not one of them and are being subjected to way too many pictures of my child. Feel free to skip this post if you like!

Peter Walking

Abbi (aka my mom- this is her word for grandma) Gave Pete this really cool ladybug nightlight that projects stars onto the ceiling. He LOVES it!

Nana (Bryan's mom) gave Pete the ambulance. It was a gag gift for Grandpa (Bryan's dad) when he ended up in the hopsital last year, and was since passed on to Pete. (who I must say has gotten WAY more use out of it than his grandpa) He carries it around everywhere and says "Truck". I really need to teach him to say AM-Buuh- Lance....

Pooba (aka-my dad-this is our word for grandpa because he wouldn't give us a name) gave Pete these awesome converse that he wears everywhere. He LOVES them! He brings them to me and says "SHHHOOOEs.."

This is at the Science Center at the "Earthquake Cafe". We could sit in the booth and experience different levels of earthquakes. How funny- it was Peter's FAVORITE place in the center!

I thought it was kind of rough!

This one is for Kim and Talan, The BIGGEST water table you have ever seen!

See?! It just keeps going!

And going....

Another floor of the center was all about fish

Peter's new friends- Gage and Payton... I think Pete really needs to grow...

The biggest model train I have ever seen. This place had rivers, and mines, and even an amusement park and all the mini-people were motorized and moved!

The latest toy is anything that he can un-attach from the vacuum cleaner!

Yes, he is almost 18 months old and STILL in a rear facing car seat... Does that make me a bad parent?!

The ONE picture I got from Bryan's "white coat ceremony". Sorry honey, it sucks I know, but I was chasing your child up and down the stairs the whole time and we almost missed it!

Another of his favorite things... driving "Trucks"

Bryan is the designated toothbrusher. Pete hates it.

Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree!

What the heck is that song even about? Do you know? Because I honestly don't! We had our first official Family Home Evening on Monday with Peter. (I know- you are probably all thinking- Geez! About time...we've had it since before we had kids....) We just found it a challenge to do it with 2 and a 1/2 people. So we had an opening song, and a prayer and the worlds FASTEST lesson about what makes up families. It was seriously all of 25 seconds long. And then we sang another song...Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree. Peter can now remember it and walks around singing it all the time. "KOPcorn, KOPcorn! Cop! Cop!" and he does the hand motions!

My hope is to continue to have FHE on a regular basis. Next week Bryan is in charge of the lesson. (Which may lead to another post on the subject because the lesson might be about the more technical aspects of football, or how to set a screen, or something else entirely that I am yet to foresee...)