Category Archives: Peter

Land of the Free & Home of the Litigious

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We had a relaxing, if not terribly interesting 4th of July.  After going to church in the morning, it was nap time for me and Alethea while Peter watched the Twins game.  Then we played in the yard for a while, had dinner and Alethea went to bed.  We decided not to keep her up for fireworks, since she was likely to be scared of them anyway.  Later, Peter and I tried to have a fire in the backyard, but we gave up after the mosquitoes drove us inside.  Like I said, relaxing, though not that interesting.

I did get a kick out of seeing Alethea dressed up in her 4th of July outfit though:

Alethea had fun taking off the outfit and running around in her Splash and Play mat:

And Peter and I both cracked up over the mat’s warning label:

“No Diving”… Is that really necessary on a toy that has 1 inch of water at its deepest point?  Apparently someone in the Fisher Price legal department thought so.

New Rides

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Both Alethea and Peter got new wheels recently:

Both cars were previously owned.  Both were purchased off of Craigslist.  And both have new drivers who are excited to be behind the wheel.

The irony of it all though is that Alethea’s car was over 100 times cheaper than Peter’s AND it will retain its resale value better.

Sometimes being an adult really bites.

Happy Father’s Day!

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Several months ago I was at Target by myself late one Tuesday night.  As I unloaded my groceries on the register belt the teenage checkout girl asked, “How old is your baby?”

I guess she noticed all the baby food, diapers, wipes and formula I was buying.  After I answered her question, the checkout girl had another, “Where is your baby tonight?”

“Oh,” I replied, “She’s at home with her Dad.  He’s putting her to bed.”

The girl’s eyes got kind of wide and she said in an awed, sort of breathless voice, “Does he do diapers too?”

Happy Father’s Day to the love of my life and the best Daddy a little girl could ask for…

And yes folks, he does do diapers too!

It Finally Happened… Sort of

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So Peter and I have known for a while that his car was going to need to be replaced soon being as he usually has to pull over and restart his car at least once after he starts driving.  Transmission problems… <shudder>

His car makes me nervous since I’m always thinking that maybe sometime when he pulls over on the side of the interstate because the car won’t move into the next gear someone not paying attention will side-swipe him, or worse.  But since he mostly drives to the park and ride and back and only occasionally to work we were hoping to nurse it along until the end of the year.

Despite our hopes, I wasn’t really that surprised when a flat bed truck carrying Peter’s car pulled up in our driveway this evening.  What was surprising was that it turns out it wasn’t the transmission finally dying, it was the front axle breaking that finally did the Eagle in.  An axle that broke on the interstate in rush hour traffic.

I guess we can just add that one to our list of fun cars on the side of the interstate stories along with the time my breaks went out, and the one where I lost my cell phone out the window and the nice PA State Troopers stopped traffic to pick up the pieces for me.

I think we’re both fortunate to be alive.

The Weekend Report

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Friday

Peter and I went to our third and final Twins game of the week.  It was a fun game despite a certain unfortunate event that happened in the row in front of us.  I don’t want to go into too much detail, so let’s just say the boy sitting in front of us suddenly didn’t feel well and it’s a good thing the guy two rows up was wearing a rain jacket.  Ewwww…

Besides that though, the Twins played well, we sat next to some amusing people, and I got this cool picture of Peter:

And this cute picture of us:

Saturday

This was our “All about yard work day”. We focused some time an energy on “The Bean” area in our front yard.  Here is the before pic (notice the distinct bean shape):

After raking, weeding, and covering it in mulch The Bean now looks like this:

The cutest moment of the day goes to Alethea (is anyone surprised?).  She watched me as I pulled weeds in The Bean and threw them into my big bucket.  Then she got down on her knees and started picking up leaves and twigs and putting them in her little pail.  I’ve never seen her imitate me that closely and it was very sweet to know that she wants to be like mommy.

Sunday

The morning was church including a good sermon on the topic “hearing God’s voice when we feel outnumbered”.  We were challenged to consider the question “What is God asking me to do in my current situation to serve Him?” which is an especially challenging question to me since I feel like being a stay at home mom requires almost constant concentration just to keep Alethea fed and clean and clothed and out of trouble.  Sometimes I know all God gets is my sloppy seconds and a few minutes of my time when Alethea finally goes to bed at night.  So I guess I will have to give further thought to the question.

After church, the rest of the day was less remarkable, but not stressful, which is the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  Don’t you think?

Watch that Baseball Soar

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We’ve sure been having fun this week with the Twins first homestand of 2010.  Peter and I were fortunate enough to have tickets to opening day at Target field on Monday.  What a great game!  The atmosphere at the ballpark was electric and everything in sight was new and clean and shiny!  (And you know how much I love new and clean and shiny!)  The weather was beautiful, Jason Kubel hit the first ever home run at Target Field and the Twins won!  Hurray!

Our View of the Twins Home Opener

Our View of the Twins Home Opener

Today we went to the second game of the homestand with my mom and our friend Chris.  We were brave (or foolish) and also took Alethea.  She did reasonably well, although Peter and I have made the definite decision that she will not be attending any more games this year since we spent quite a bit of time walking the concourses with her.  Not that it was a total loss because in the process Alethea did manage to make a few friends: the two ladies at the beer cart who thought she was adorable, the 15 month old named Molly who was (I kid you not) a full foot taller than Alethea,  the chick who had “had a few” and told Alethea that it was okay to be bald since she herself had been bald until she was two years old and finally the woman manning the Budweiser “Good Sport” booth who informed a very interested Alethea that you had to be 21 or older to win.

I don’t mean to totally diminish Alethea’s sitting still skills.  She did manage to stay in her seat long enough to enjoy the pretzel we bought her as well as several licks of my ice cream bar.  After they were both gone, she enjoyed playing with the wrappers too.  Bonus! 

So to end this post, I know that I ought to put up a cute pic or two of Alethea enjoying her first Twins game, but unfortunately I couldn’t find my camera as I was running out the door to pick up my mom, so all the pictures of that game are on Grandma Debbie’s camera.  I’ll have to post a couple once I get copies from my mom.  Until then, Go Twins!

Indoctrination

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In the days of my youth I spent many a summer weekend playing in softball tournaments.  The other day I was wearing a sweatshirt obtained at one such event.  The shirt in question features a ball in a glove with a bat and words surrounding it, so that the ball is only a small part of the overall design.  This is why I was intrigued to notice that Alethea seemed excited by the shirt and kept pointing directly to the ball.  I said to her, “That’s a ball Alethea.  Can you say ball?”  She said, “Baa.”

My amazement at her picking up a new word so quickly was later explained when Peter arrived home from work that evening.  “Have you been teaching Alethea to say ‘ball’?” I asked him.  “Yeah, why?” Peter responded.  I explained to her proud Papa that Alethea not only could say ball, but also recognized a 2-D representation of one.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, any guy who tries to teach his 8 month old to play catch is probably going to teach her to recognize a baseball somewhere in the process.

All of this has me wondering what’s coming next.  In my mind’s eye, I can just see Alethea at her preschool screening when the nice teacher holds up the number 7 and asks Alethea, “Do you know what number this is?”

“Of course I do,” Alethea will say.  “That’s Joe Mauer’s number!”

Stomach Flu X2

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So yesterday was Alethea’s 10 month birthday.  Some of you may have logged on to view her 10 month update and were shocked at my tardiness.  My grand excuse: Peter and I both came down with the stomach flu.  Ugggg.  One small blessing though, Alethea has thus far escaped the illness and we are hoping it stays that way.

To Philly and Back Again

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As most of you probably know, I spent two years living in Philly after I graduated from college.  This past weekend Peter, Alethea and I took a family vacation to Philadelphia.  It was sort of a 3 year wedding anniversary gift for us, although, I have to admit, the trip was more for me than for Peter.  I know I married a great guy when he’s willing to spend his family vacation of the year visiting my old friends.  The trip wasn’t a total loss for Peter though, as we were able to procure genuine south Philly cheese steaks:

We also got to take Alethea to Love Park, which is where Peter proposed to me 4 years ago:

Friends were visited, including many of the seniors from the senior community center where I worked as well as my two former roommates, Katie Jo and Ann.

Alethea was a trooper and everyone enjoyed meeting her.  She even did pretty well on the airplane with only a few squawks here and there to indicate her boredom.

Over all, I’d say the trip was a success.  It was so nice to catch up with old friends and enjoy city living once more.