scutigera coleoptrata, anybody?

did you just pee your pants a little? i did, when i looked at that picture.... in fact, my skin started to crawl, too. then i felt nauseous... yikes!

the common house centipede
that's what you are looking at. and if you want, you can read about these creepy little buggers here, on wikipedia. we've all seen one of these guys. most likely scurrying along the floors of our own home at one time or another. they freak me out more than spiders do. ugh...

so, do you want to hear a story about one of my many encounters with your average house centipede? yeah ya do! here goes...

a long long time ago - about 5 o'clock in the morning this morning - i woke up to a tickle on my chest. i sort of shrugged in off, until that tickle moved its way across my collar bone. mortified; i froze.

"holy crap! what. is. that?!"

i had no clue what is was. all i knew is that it was alive and on me. my best guess could only be that it was a spider. eek!! i didn't want to freak out. because if i did that, then whatever it was would more than likely a.) bite me and/or b.) end up in my bed/sheets and still end up biting me. so i just laid still... and while my heart was pounding and sweat was beading on my brow, i laid there trying to think of the best way to get this thing off of me... you know... without freaking out...

tickle tickle tickle. it moved its way to where the neck of my shirt was. it seemed as though it was stuck there. maybe trying to get under my shirt. i don't know. but i could still feel it tickling me. just not really going anywhere at this point. i decided to make my move. slowly, i peeled off my blankets and decided that, as i jump out of bed i would simultaneously strip off my clothes and shake the ever-living-daylights out of myself and hair. and i did just that. boy, would that have been a sight to see.

i flipped on the lights and saw what you all saw when you clicked to read this post... a common house centipede!

mother f'er - crawling on me while i sleep!!!!!!! gah!!!!!!!!!!!!

you better believe i squashed that bastard with something i had nearby. how dare he crawl on me while i sleep. i was so totally creeped out that i could barely fall back to sleep. i mean... i did eventually get back to sleep. but it took a little while... and i know i'm going to have trouble tonight when i lay down in bed for the night. my skin is crawling just thinking about it.



......jfk.....

shaving it all

if i start to get bald spots from losing all this hair, im shaving it off!


or going for something like this - what do you think?




.............jfk.............

chewbacca: part duex

so. here i am again posting about my dear friend chewey. i didn't think i needed to post again about this, but this morning was exceptional - i thought. chewey was out. of. control.

first of all, yesterday i wore my hair in a french braid all day. that means that all day i didn't shed anything, because all my hair was held in it's place by the braid. it was glorious not to feel the tickle of falling hair. but this morning! lordy lordy... when i took the braid out, and did my usual finger comb through, it was nuts-o. i couldn't believe it! i'll give you the picture show...

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last time's pre-shower finger comb through hair collection


today's pre-shower finger comb through hair collection





last time's shower drain collection


today's shower drain collection





by the way - this is what it looks like when i scoop it up and sling it on the shower wall. i do this midway through my shower. that way the tub can continue to drain while i finish up my shower





last time's post-shower finger comb through hair collection


today's post-shower finger comb through hair collection





last time's full chewbacca

today's chewey

"bad chewey - go away."

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...........jfk...........

i'm a mom?

it's not like i don't know that i have a baby, or that i forget that lill really does exist... but sometimes, in the quietest moments of the day, i really tune in to the fact that i. am. a. mom. whoa! when did that happen?! february 19th at 11:10p.m., duh! but seriously. i'm a parent.

i remember the first days in the hospital, holding our little bean, and the first weeks home with her. my world was flipped upside down and shaken for it's lunch money. i was petrified with all that i had to learn about taking care of a newborn and how life was about to change...life would never be the same. but as the weeks went on, i started to get used to things - sort of - and i could feel a little relief fall over me. it was nice, but short lived, as a new worry was creeping up on me. one day i was going to have to go back to work. how in the world is that supposed to happen. how am i supposed to take care of myself and a baby and go to work on top of all the other daily/weekly/monthly happenings?

**side note** i know it seems that i am leaving mike out of this whole equation. like i did it all by myself. but i'm not. he was there and going through all of this too. and helping me out greatly with everything. i'm simply speaking on my personal feelings, my own struggles and realizations that came from within me. i love my husband and all that he does for us as a family. he's a hard working and caring man and i am eternally grateful that i married him.

fast forward to today, and all is fine. i didn't even notice that things were just moving along as they would. i mean; there have been some adjustments with schedules and timing and whatnot, but overall, things just kept going... seriously. one morning i woke up, stretched out my arms and breathed in real deep and was about to start my usual day when i realized, "hey. i am a mom! how and when did this happen?"

even though i feel like the same person i've always been, i'm not. i'm a version of my former self. i have a new type of life and a new schedule. i have a baby and yet things felt like they almost never changed. weird, because i sort of, kind of, didn't realize it till that moment while drawing in one super, deep and wakeful breath. things just felt normal up until that moment. normal; meaning that things were just the way they always were. but now i'm a mom. i have a baby now.

i went to sleep the night before as usual, and woke up the next day a mom.

maternity leave + outlet shopping

maternity leave + outlet shopping with my bff = the best, worst decision ever.

not too long ago, i decided to go shopping with my bff, beth. we wanted to hang out, shop and enjoy some quality time together as best friends often do. it was a nice day. we hit the outlets as they opened and walked around and shopped and then concluded the afternoon at the craft ale house, in limerick.

neither one of us is really a big clothing shopper and both of us had agreed we were each in serious need of some new clothes. i was winding down the home stretch of my maternity leave and it had been at least 10 months since i had really bought new clothes for my non-pregnant self and beth was trying to outfit her wardrobe to fit her new svelte body.


this is my depiction of beth and i that day at the outlets

we had a gay ol' time - bought clothes at the loft, gap, columbia, banana republic - even made a stop at starbucks for some iced deliciousness... by the end of our shopping, i new i was dangerously close to over-drafting my bank account, if not having done so already. but we weren't quite done with our time together - there was one more stop, and that was lunch/good beer at the craft ale house.

good times.

now, obviously i should have known better than to go on a shopping spree while i was still on my unpaid maternity leave. what was i thinking?! not much i guess. i just wanted to enjoy my time with beth. and that i did. though i guess if i made one smart move that day, it had to be that i put lunch on my credit card and not my debit card. by that point i had already over-drafted my bank account, even though i didn't really know it yet. i didn't find that out till later, when i got home and checked on the situation.

oops.

but there are four good things to this whole experience/situation 1.) i had a really fun time with my bff. 2.) my checking account is hooked up with my savings account. so if i do happen to do what i did that day, the overage comes from my savings and i don't have to stand there looking embarrassed and rejected by the person trying to charge my debit card. 3.) i guess i am allowed one over-draft a year, month or whatever, without incurring the $35 fee. so, all in all, it didn't cost me anything extra to be an irresponsible shopper that day. 4.) i learned a valuable lesson; don't go on a shopping spree with your bff when you are on an unpaid maternity leave.

..............jfk..............

chewbacca lives! in my tub every day

so. i've always lost a lot of hair on a daily basis. i know i'm not alone here. we all lose hair throughout the day. but it seemed that i was losing quite a bit. every day - every shower. i would be scooping out this massive sopping clump of hair from the drain/bottom of the tub. ugh. it was so gross - there was so much hair! so much so, that my husband and i fondly named the clumps of hair, my little chewbaccas. chewey, for short.

every day i'd scoop chewey out of tub.

"oughloughloughloughloughloughloughl"

this is an on going struggle that i still deal with today. but recently i was pregnant for 9 months and one of the only perks that i experienced while housing a fetus, taking a mega vitamin the size of a small bird's egg, drinking huge amounts of water and staving off things like alcohol, deli meats, sushi and fun sports like football, was that my crazy hair loss sort of subsided. chewey was... almost non existent. he wasn't really chewey anymore. it was... great! it seemed that for a while there our tub was draining 5x better than it ever had. it was glorious.

but alas. i knew it wouldn't last. something inside of me said, "you know jessica. when you are not pregnant anymore, it's likely that your cheweys will come back..." i knew that it was true. and guess what. chewey is back. that bastard!

but it's like super chewbacca these days. there is something about this wild roller coaster of post pregnancy hormones, or whatever it is that causes us mothers to lose our hair at a ridiculous rate 3-4 months after giving birth, that is just insane. holy moly. i've never seen chewey like this. when i go to scoop him up there is so much hair! it's so thick, soft and cushiony that i cannot even feel the tub drain. i used to be able to feel the tub drain. yowsers and gross!

i took pictures this morning of chewey because i knew i wanted to blog about him. and i didn't want to blog about him without pictures of my chewey. enjoy!

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this is what i remove from my head before i even get in the shower.
i do this by combing my fingers through my hair after i remove
my hair tie.



this is what i pull from the bottom of the tub after
my shower. aka. chewey!



this is what i remove from my head after my shower, when i once
again comb my fingers through my hair.



all my glorious hair clumped together; pre-shower,
shower and post shower.



postpartum chewbacca = chewey on steroids...

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and this is just what i get from my head in the morning time. i can't imagine what chewey would look like if i collected all my lost hair throughout the day and balled it up. bleh!





.................jfk.................