Genesis

Let's start out with the truth, no matter how harsh:

I suck at journaling.

It's true. My whole life people have told me I should write more, which has added up to a collection of half-filled notebooks spread around my house. While these journals are fun to go back and read later ("Dear Diary, today I quit my job at Dairy Queen by going through the drive-thru and handing over my uniform. It was the best day ever!), most of them are sad reminders that I never stick with it.

Okay, so we're trying again. We have a lot of good reasons this time. And I've been inspired by a lot of blogs I've read lately, including the one by my super-badass cousin Amy. So I figured, okay. This is it, chief. We're grabbing this bull by the horns.

I doubt any random strangers are going to read this and become compelled to follow my life, but in case they do, I might as well explain what this is all about. My name is Geriann Bartz, I am 27 years old and I'm married to a guy named Matt Bartz. I am from Walla Walla, Washington, a little town in Washington State that until recently was famous for two things: onions and convicts. Now, a bunch of rich people know where it is because it makes a lot of wine.

Right now, I live in Southern California in a city called Ventura. Ventura is about an hour north of Los Angeles (on a good day) and we live right on the Pacific Ocean. I live here because I am a nurse and wanted to find a job after graduation that wasn't in the tiny town of Walla Walla. So here we are, one thousand miles from my entire family and two thousand miles from Matt's.

And we're having a baby.

That's right, there's a bun in this oven. If you couldn't figure that out from the title, you should just leave right now. Seriously. You're going to fall behind.

So the reason for this blog, mostly, is to keep all my family up to date on how all this is going. I'm an Italian girl and I never expected to be having a child so far from my family, but I guess that's life and we're going to make the best of it. Years from now my hope is that my beloved child will find this blog and read it, only to notice, "Wow, my mom was a real smartass."

So please, strap in, relax, and join us for the saga of life, love, and raising a baby in Southern California. I promise it'll only hurt a little.

Love, Geri

p.s. For those of you wondering about the title, my family nickname has - and will always be, I'm sure - Bean or beanie. Geribean, you get it. When I told people at work this, Felycia noted, "Hey, that means you're having a beanie baby!" So, there you go.