Abbey Road

Posted on November 25, 2006

I thought this was a lot of fun. My brother in law, Chris came up with this idea and we all had fun with it. He wanted to do a version of The Beatles album cover of Abbey Road. So we (the four brothers and I) went out to the middle of 76th Ave and 135th Street and took a bunch of shots of them. Then, I tried my hand at merging the shot with the original cover of Abbey Road. I think it looks great…if I do say so myself! What do you think?





NOT a morning person…

Posted on November 20, 2006

Oh no. Not at all. Mornings are the bane of my existence. And when my daughter wakes me up at the butt crack of dawn, just ’cause, I tend to put her on the top of my “I Love You But, I Don’t Really Like You Right Now” list. The butt crack of dawn for me exists anytime before 7am. For some that might seem lazy, but lazy I am not! Ava usually wakes me up around 8 or 9am. That I can deal with. Even 7 is tolerable, but she will still end up on the list, just maybe further down the line. But she’s been sick for the last couple weeks, so she tends to get up around 6am. Not cool. I am definitely an night owl. I usually end up going to bed somewhere between the hours of 11pm and 2am. And most often it’s about 1am. I tend to get more things done then including me time. I think that is why I hate mornings so much. There is no me time. First thing I have to do is get her out of her crib, change her diaper while she screams “juice!”. Then I get her some juice or milk, and sit her in her little red chair and bundle her up in her blanket so she can watch some morning cartoons. Meanwhile, Samson, my dog wants to go out, and while I’m up, he wants a treat too. I hate when he is up and about in the morning, because he has long toe nails and we have Pergo floors. So, I constantly hear him hurriedly clicking back and forth until he gets outside. He usually gets yelled at a lot in the mornings, poor guy. By then the cat is usually meowing and winding herself through my feet making sure I notice her (how can I not notice a black, annoying, whining tripping hazard?) and give her some food. So fine, here’s your food Mow. That’s about the moment that Sam comes back in and begs for some food and water. By the time I’ve got the animals squared away, Ava’s screaming “all done!!”. Which means she is done sitting in her chair and wants to play- she can’t get out of her bucket chair by herself yet, so I have to get her in and out of it. So then I have to make breakfast. It’s usually eggs and toast because my brain doesn’t feel like functioning enough to read a recipe for pancakes or french toast until at least 10am. About a half hour to an hour later, if he’s home, that’s when Todd wakes up. And of course he’s on that list too, because he gets up, smiles and says “Good morning” and gets to pee. He has nothing else to do by then. Through all that, the only thing I can think of in the morning is “I just want to pee and have some coffee…” And I usually don’t get to have either until about a half hour after the mayhem begins. So if you happen to talk to me before 9am on any given day, I might sound cheery to you (I’m good at pretending) but you are probably on my list too.





I NEED GIRLY WEEKEND!!!

Posted on November 18, 2006

15 days….15 days….15 days!!!! I can’t wait for girly weekend!! Every once in a while, my best girlfriends and I get together. We all have husbands and kids and our lives are hectic. So we look forward to the day or couple days we have to unwind, relax, chat about old times and catch up on the new, and generally have fun! No husbands, no kids. We don’t even have to do much. I think the four of us could be in prison together and have fun. I’d rather not try that out, but I’m pretty sure we could laugh all the way to our parole dates. We’ve all known each other since high school…but none of us went to the same school. I think it was more youth group. So, we are going to meet at the Embassy Suites and then go Christmas shopping for the weekend. I hate Christmas shopping. I worked for 10 years in retail so I generally hate this time of year. Yea, yea, Bah Humbug to you too. But, this year, I am really looking forward to it. I think we should do this every year! So girls, here’s to us and 15 DAYS!! Oh, and rbrtrbr.





SHE’S HERE!!

Posted on November 10, 2006

My sister Jessica delivered her baby the other day and I got to be there for the whole thing!! I came in for visiting hours and I stuck to the room after they were over. (They only allow 2 adults other than the fater to be there- My mom, my sister Fran & Jack were all there.) The nurse asked me who was staying and I told her “Well, as many as you will allow!” Later, when it was getting time for Jess to push, I asked her if it was ok that I was there. She said “I don’t mind, as long as you stick to the corner and keep quite, you should be fine.” So, YAY I got to stay! It was wonderful! I was there when my sister Fran delivered her son, Collin, and now I was there for her twin, Jess to deliver her beautiful baby girl, Abigail Kate. Jess did great, and her husband, Jack, who doesn’t do well around needles, did great too! At first we were worried around 9PM because she hadn’t dialated much since 10AM and the doctor was tal;king about a C-section. We were all pretty upset, mostly for Jess, because we knew she didn’t want that. The doctor said he would check her again in an hour and if she hadn’t dialated, they were going to get ready to do the c-section. Well, when he checked her, she had gone from a 4 to a 6 1/2! Thank God!! Then shortly after that, around 11:30PM she started pushing! I know my brother wanted her to hold out (his birthday was the 9th) but Abby was ready to see the world! She was delivered at 11:51PM. She is 7lbs, 3oz, 21in. She has this perfect little pinks skin, big blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair. She is gorgeous! We didn’t know her name, they wanted to keep it a surprise. And I’m so glad they did, because when they finally told us, Fran and I cried. Abigail Kate is a beautiful name!
My family has always been a little…how do you put it…clarevoyant? No, maybe connected is a better term. What I mean is, sometimes we get some strange instincts about each other. At 2:22AM on the 8th, my mom woke up. She had no idea why she had woken up at that time and thought “Hmmm, maybe Jess is in labor,” and went back to sleep. Well, Jess woke up at 2:30AM and thought she had had her first contraction. By 5AM she knew she had. Then, my sister, and Jess’ twin, Fran had a stomach ache the whole time Jess was in labor. Her belly would even tighten up sometimes too! Then, my sister Cheryl (who I thought for sure would have a dream about it or something…she has some insightfull dreams sometimes) thought the night before “I bet they are going to call her Abigail.” Sure enough she was right!
So, now Ava isn’t the baby anymore, but I’m sure she and Abby will be great friends since they are so close in age. Welcome to your big family Abby!!
Here are a few pictures I took:

Fran & Jess

Jack and Jess

Abby’s first picture

Precious little foot

Precious little hand

Welcome to the world Abby!!

Meeting mommy

Me and Abby

Sweet little girl!





Boo View

Posted on November 10, 2006

In case anyone is interested, I made a new site for my daughter, Ava. Head to www.booview.com to check it out! Feel free to sign the guestbook while you’re there so I know you visited!







copyright 2010 Christina Ragusin