The Best Pizza Ever

Last night I went to school and Kurt was home watching Micaela and Jonathan. When it came time to make dinner, we really hadn't planned anything, so Kurt decided to order pizza. Since we don't know too many places out here he got online and searched for local pizza shops. He didn't really want Dominos or Pizza Hut, so he looked at this place called Beach Cities Pizza. All the reviews were great - quite a few people had said it was the best pizza they'd ever had but it was a little pricey. Kurt's one for quality, so he gave them a call and ordered a pepperoni pizza and asked them to recommend another pizza. They told him "the Doheny" was really popular so he added it to the list along with a six-pack of diet coke. Kurt didn't quite hear the guy give the price, it sounded like $62.17 but must have been $16.17. 45 minutes later the delivery man shows up at the door with a bill for, sure enough, $62.17. Two pizzas for $62!!!! Kurt and I are on a pretty tight budget, so a meal like that is kind of a big deal. When I called Kurt on my break, he started out the conversation with "I just did the stupidest thing ever." Of course I replied "worse than the kitchen catching on fire?" He said that was an accident, and this was just stupid, and then relayed the pizza story to me. I told him that for $62 it better be the BEST PIZZA EVER and he said it actually was. I got home and had a piece and it was good (I was eating it while watching the USC game, so I was in a pretty bad mood, or else I would say it was delicious). I still wouldn't have bought it for that price, but at least we got something good out of it.

Micaela's New BFF

I have to admit, it was nice having a quiet and somewhat clean house for the first few days after Mari and the girls left, but I'm ready for them to come back. When Micaela's source of entertainment left, I became a poor substitute; dinner all last week was mediocre at best (except for the day Shellie came over and cooked for me); and Jon is completely off any sort of schedule and will probably be up all night (he's been sleeping for 5 hours and it's only 9pm). The good news is that Kurt is home now and will hopefully help with all of the above problems, but when he leaves for the Instructor Pilot course next month I'm in trouble.

Let's see, not much exciting has happened in the last few days for me except Kurt coming home. Micaela, on the other hand, started cheerleading and made a new best friend. I was hesitant about putting her in cheerleading, but mom and Mari convinced me that it would be good for her and they were right. She thought gymnastics and soccer were okay, but she LOVED cheer. She got to dance and jump around and it wasn't very serious, just fun. Then on Friday she came to meet me after school and asked if she could have a playdate with her friend. Her friend came down and told me that they lived on Calle Maria, which is conveniently our street too, so it worked well. I met the girl's mom and she seemed nice and told me she would walk Micaela home after a few hours. When they brought her back, this friend went crazy and started running all over the house, including the upstairs which is Kurt's and my office and bedroom. I was about to yell at them when they came downstairs and ran out into the backyard. This girl started playing on all the baby toys and then yelling that she wanted to go in the playhouse out back. I told her that it was full of spiders and rats and that she couldn't go in it, but she didn't listen and continued to whine that she wanted to go inside. I kept saying no and was getting irritated that she wasn't listening and that she was behaving so badly in a house she had never been in before. I didn't yell at the girl because her mom was standing next to me and we were talking (the mom is nice). Then the girls ran into the garage and the friend hopped on Micaela's bike and started riding around the garage. There are still a lot of boxes in the garage and it's no place to be riding a bike. Her mom finally realized that her daughter was getting out of control and told her it was time to go. The girl threw a little fit about not being able to have a sleepover, but she finally started to follow her mom out. Just as they were getting to the door (after her mom telling her at least 10 times that they needed to leave), she saw my massage chair and flopped down and turned it on. After a minute her mom told her it was time to go, but the girl wouldn't get up. Her mom said she was leaving without her and walked out the door. When she still didn't follow I stepped in and told her that if she didn't listen to her mom, she wouldn't be allowed over. She finally left. After I shut the door Micaela told me how they were best, best friends. I was ecstatic, best friends with a poorly behaved 8 year-old... great. The girls attitude had worn off on Micaela and she got an early bed time and a talking to about what her friend did that was wrong (just to make sure she knew not to act like that). Despite that episode, we let Chloe come over for a few hours on Saturday and Micaela did a great job of letting her know what she was and was not allowed to do. I'm still not sure about letting them have sleepovers, but Micaela is very happy to have a new friend on our street.

On to Jon. He is growing fast. I don't really see it by looking at him, but when I put him in his bouncer I can tell it needs to be raised again (we just raised it when Mari was here). He's also learning new things, like how to grab stuff, rolling from his tummy onto his back, making razz/spitting sounds, and high pitched squeals (happy ones). He's been good for everyone who has watched him and starting tomorrow I'm going to try to get him back on a normal schedule (fingers crossed). I've taken a lot of pictures of Jon recently, so here they are:

Despite all the Steelers apparel, I'm not a big NFL fan,

but we compromised and at least he's wearing a Polamalu jersey

I asked Micaela to show me her new shoes and I got a whole leg,

but she was proud that they were Penn State colors One more funny picture of Jon and Jude
I laughed that Caroline took it upon herself to empty Mari's diaperbag,

but I know a year from now it's going to be my bag getting dumped on the ground

And some videos:

This was the first time I had seen Jon figure out how to roll the toy on the bouncer

Jon's new sounds

What happens when Kurt gets the camera

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

I'm not really big on birthdays, but I'm all about finding excuses to eat junk food and spoil myself. One of my earliest memories is hiding under a picnic table at my 4th birthday and not wanting to come out even to open my presents (I was that shy). I also forget my age sometimes and have to calculate (well, if it's 2008 and I was born in 1981... oh wait, is it before or after my birthday?) I'm showing my blondness there, I know. It's a good thing I'm not into birthdays, because this is how this one went:

Woke up at 4am because Jon was fussing, brought him upstairs to feed him, and never really fell back asleep (should have left him downstairs)

Got Micaela ready, made her lunch and put the dogs out back before leaving to walk her to school.

Came home after a 30 minute walk and went to let the dogs in, but only Spot came in. I went looking for Bear, stepped in dog poop, and then realized he had dug a hole under the fence and gotten out.

Hectically, got my diaperbag and the baby to go look for him, then remembered to check my voicemail. Sure enough he went back to the same lady and she took him to the pound (after trying to return him).

The pound here doubles the fine for the second offense (thankfully only one dog got out). The pound is closed on Tuesdays, so I actually made two trips there before I was able to get Bear. My morning was shot, I didn't have time to eat breakfast, and was quite grumpy.

My day got a little better after I got home from class and Hannah (Mari's sister-in-law and our babysitter) had everything under control with Micaela in bed and the baby just falling asleep.

I improved the night even further by treating myself to a big glass of wine and some pretzels while watching mindless TV. Now I'm blogging and in approximately 15 minutes I'll be asleep, so good night!

What a day

Here's a quick recap on the week so far since I've been a horrible blogger: on Monday I had my first GIS class which took up the whole afternoon. On Tuesday, I took Kurt to the Long Beach airport, came back, picked up Micaela, and then when back to Long Beach for school. So after two days with very little free-time, I was looking forward to not having any classes today and being able to do some fun stuff with my sister and the kids. I should have known things wouldn't go according to plan when I woke up after only 6 hours of sleep (4 less than ideal). The morning was a little crazy with all the kids waking up early and Micaela needing her hair done because it was 'picture day'. Somehow we managed to get out the door in time and after dropping Micaela off at school, Mari and I went for a short walk with a stop by Pines Park to let Caroline run around (she really does run... everywhere). It was nice to be out of the house and Mari got some good pictures and videos. When we got home, I took a shower and the dogs took it upon themselves to go for a walk. It's probably the 6th time they've escaped (I think they're trying to go back to VA and our don't run away training isn't working). The last 5 times they've gotten out, it's been pretty easy to find them. This time, I drove around for about 15 minutes and no one had seen them (very unusual). I got home and checked my voicemail and sure enough someone had found them. The lady lived about 4 houses down from us, so they didn't get far. Unfortunately this lady didn't feel like waiting to see if I would return her call, and took them straight to the pound (where she was a volunteer). The thing that sucks about that is, instead of walking down our street to get them, I had to drive about 5 miles (twice if you count that I had to go home and get their rabies certificates) and then pay over $100 in fees to get them back. It took all morning and by the time it was over I was pretty irritated. And then on the way home from the shelter, they decided to get sick in Kurt's car, which just topped it all off. My 'supposed to be fun' morning was exhausting (okay, I'm done venting now). The afternoon was a little better. I picked up Micaela and ran some errands and when we got back, all three babies were awake, so I suggested that we go to the beach. Isaac stopped by so we invited him to go too. It was crazy with 5 kids and two of us, but we did fine and had fun. We even got to feast our eyes on two old men in speedos (it was gross). We only stayed about 40 minutes, but it was nice. At home I got most of my homework done, but was too tired to finish (but not too tired to blog, hmm) so I'll have to do it tomorrow. Here are some of the pictures from the last week:

Jon's already getting pushed around by girls

Anabelle and I hanging out at the park

At the beach I was supposed to be watching Anabelle, which I did,

I watched her scoot right off the towel

Jon's second time at the beach was a lot like his first... spent sleeping

This was our attempt at getting a picture of all the Erdman grandkids, they're all there!

Picture Update

I'm tired and need to go to bed, but since I've been lacking on the blogs, I thought I'd at least upload some pictures. Mari has my camera with Micaela's first day of school pics, so these are all Jon:

Where's Waldo?
He's a happy baby

When he's not happy, he's very serious - this is a typical face