Mudbloggin'

Status report!

2012-01-17T17:51:00.001-05:00

This kid has never come across a fake mustache he didn't like. He had been wearing these goggles for a couple days. Without interruption. To school, stores, even fell asleep wearing them. When the weekend came, he added the gun and mustache. He's definitely ours.

This is my aluminum anniversary gift. What is it, right? They hold up my bathroom mirror. Pretty sweet, right?

Custom

But mostly,with these photos, I'm practicing with my camera. I'm determined to have nice, enjoyable pictures.

It's a work in progress and one that I'm going to share with you. I will continue to post more and more pictures to show you how well I'm doing.

These are my beautiful flowers that Hubby had delivered to my office. I don't know what these white flowers are but, if you do let me know. I think they smell like cinnamon and enjoy them tremendously.

I didn't take any of these on auto setting. However, I cannot tell you what setting I did use. I know that I adjust the white balance setting. Which gave me this bright snow reflection white.

No, they are not giant monster roses.

Does this look like a rose to you?

Yeah, me either. If, for whatever reason, you don't know what this is, it's a stink bug,Halyomorpha halys. <----Fancy, huh? Anyway, these guys are creeping up the ladder of things I do not care for. On their way past mud, which I will elaborate shortly. They are harmless. They don't bite or sting. Apparently, they stink but, I will be honest, I have not smelled them. Not even after I opened the sliding glass doors a couple of months ago to find dozens and dozens of them smashed in the jam.
There was a bunch of news stories about them a couple of months ago, too. Again, I say, a couple of months ago. I really would have thought that they would have been gone by now. There were a few stragglers but now, they are more. They like to hang out on my kitchen window sill and in my bathroom. Again, not a problem but, they like to try and dive bomb me. Their favorite times are right in the middle of cooking supper and when I'm trying to do my makeup in the morning. They know when I'm not paying attention and can catch me off guard.
Not cool. They're despicable and they have my number. They know I won't kill them because I know that it will smell bad.
Aside from the bugs, it won't stay cold here. It's the middle of January in southwest Pennsylvania. It's not supposed to be in record high temperatures in the 50's. It's not supposed to be thunder storming. It's not supposed to be making mud and puddles. The ground is supposed to be frozen and covered with white stuff. HELLOOOOO?? I'm almost over this negative nancy nonsense. I don't want to have to wipe the dogs feet every time they come in the door. Like the dive bombing stink bugs, the dogs have my number. If I don't wipe the mud off their feet when they come in, the very first thing the do is take a lap around, what we call "the race track", and make muddy paw prints the whole way around the house on the hardwood floor and ceramic tile. Also not cool. And the last thing that rubbed the whole thing in was the vehicle that had the bumper stinker that read......."Got Mud?" Really? That was my insult to injury.
OK, I'm done but thought that I should give a shout out to my namesake blog.

0112200201122012

2012-01-16T21:30:00.000-05:00

I would like to say that the title is some secret binary code that only really ~~nerdy~~ smart people will be able to read. After googling binary code, I found out that there seems to be no 2's. Go figure. The title is my way of saying Hubby and I recently celebrated our 10 year anniversary.
We are so very blessed to live near family that are willing to keep our kiddos for overnight visits. My Ma was gracious enough to keep the kids Friday night and Hubby's Mom and Dad took them Sunday night to the lake house. Needless to say it was on the quiet side at our house. It was very relaxing. I think that I find it more relaxing to stay home and be comfortable in my own home than travel somewhere unfamiliar for the weekend. Sure it would be nice but, I would rather be home.
I've been doing a lot of reflection and not a lot of shopping for an anniversary gift. The traditional gift for a ten year anniversary is aluminum. The possibilities are endless for someone like Hubby. I just could not come up with anything. I definitely was not putting much effort into either. I usually try to get something relatively thoughtful. I am really not sure what happened this year. He even gave me ideas and I didn't even order them. I think it was because they weren't my ideas. After this many years together, I'm really starting to run out of ideas.
We went to our most favorite, fancy restaurant, Red Lobster for a nice meal together. The server was so sweet and asked us if we were celebrating our engagement. I guess we still look young. She commented on how nice it was to see two people so in love. When others can see it, I would say it's real. And that was about the extent of any excitement for our anniversary celebration. We came home and hibernated under a blanket on the couch and watched hockey the rest of the weekend. We really did that. Wow. Just thought about that. Hubby had the most beautiful flowers sent to my office. We almost went and bought a new garbage can for the kitchen but didn't want to get too crazy.
It was actually a very nice weekend enjoying one another. It's incredible how much better our communication has become. Not only better but, it exists. It's nice to not have to hold things in and bottle them up anymore. If there is something I think that may be a little sensitive, I pray about it and really think about how important it really is. Pet peeves are nothing to constantly fight about. Quirks, either. Talking to "The girlfriends" lets me know that it's not just him, as I have said before. I have my quirks too that I know bug Hubby. Even if it is something simple or not important, it seems that we can handle it better. We take it lighter and less to heart. I think we both realize what goes around comes around.
Pastor had given us a marriage DVD. This speaker was so smart. He explains it in such simple terms that make so much sense. I will never hide the fact that I like everything and all things explained to me like I'm a seven year old. This DVD does that for me. It's about love and respect. It's a six disc series. I think we watched the first one. We keep saying we need to watch the others. We're turning our Sunday food fests with our friends into DVD time since our Sunday school class has been changed to something that is not our marriage class that we all so enjoyed. This should help us get through the discs faster. Especially, if we feasting about every other week.
Like I said, it's been mostly reflection. This time last year, I was thinking it's been nine years. Is it the same thing to wonder if we would make it to this year and not have any doubts that I would? Yeah, that doesn't make sense. I guess I just meant that I had strong feelings that I would but knew that there was a lot of work ahead of me to make it happen. It was a very unsettling feeling at the time. I don't like to feel like I don't know what's going on. (I'm not really sure who does, actually.) It was a constant feeling of not knowing exactly what lied ahead which was very difficult. Waiting on the Lord is hard. But it's the only way.
This year is completely different than last year. I have the Lord to thank for that. If it weren't for Him, I don't know what I would be posting. I may not be and then what would you all be reading!?!? Geessshhh.
I reflect on the fact that the Lord put me in my situation last year to bring me to today. It was not always easy and I'm glad about that. It can't all be easy. It's those trials in life that make us strong and who He wants us to be. Everything is a gift from God even if it's not always something cheerful and pretty. It's for our own good, if you will. There has been so much growth for Hubby and I. Especially, spiritually. I find it more and more exciting every day. Hubby and I are walking together spiritually which is something that I really wanted for a long time. We are having a wonderful time on our journey and cannot wait to spend the rest of our lives together on this walk. I'm so in love. Teehee. Sometimes I'm giddy about it.

Things

2012-01-10T15:30:00.000-05:00

I apologize for the lack of pictures, recently. Today, I will overwhelm you with blurry, random photos. I stole the Christmas Tree idea from MckMama. I don't think she minds. It was our center piece of our dining room table for the Christmas season. It is now on it's way to the burn pile along with a ridiculous amount of card board boxes and our old down comforter. Hooray for 2012! Getting to put the very old comforter into the burn pile meant replacing it. The kids and I set out Saturday in search of one. Much to my excitement, we found a quilt in the price range I wanted that I quickly pic messaged to Hubby. I was so relieved when he gave his approval. And then, I got it home to wash it only to find it was, in fact, not the right size. No, I did not return it to the store. I proceeded to wash it and put the, too small quilt on my bed. Good enough. I'll post pictures of the pattern soon.

I have a photographer friend who was showing me how to use the manual settings on my camera. She told me, if I'm not going to use them just go get a point and shoot. Shaaaaaa......no way. So hopefully, as time goes on I will be able to give you better pictures. I am having a super fun time playing with the settings. I still don't really know what the heck I'm doing but I know that I like the way the pictures are turning out. Much better than before. I'm mean, come on, look at that face up there. Such loyal subjects. For the Lego game and for photography.

Take that as a warning that there are a lot more Lego pictures to come. This is one of many Lego games that Xzavier has. We play this game but, as you can see it is excellent for independent play, as well. Come to think about it, I should move it up to his room where he reach it better.
If you were to ask me what settings I used on the camera, I would stare at you blankly. I know it was a manual. Does that count for something?

Mmm.....bacon. Yes, I am very well aware that this picture is blurry. This was breakfast the other morning. Bacon bites is what I call it. Not to be confused with bacon bits. Should I feel guilty about feeding my children a bowl of bacon for breakfast? It's protein. And it was thin cut. They have been enjoying the thin cut. As long as I don't burn it, that is, which I have a tendency to do unless I hover over the pan. If I succeed in not burning it, it is perfection. mmm.....bacon. See the grease in the top left? I put it in a jar and put it in the fridge so I could use it later. Not sure for what. Perhaps I'll cook the bacon in it this weekend. Hahahaha but not really. mmm....bacon. No, I didn't get any.

I had this. Mmm.....supplements. Yes, I know this one is blurry, too. I'm working on it. It seems that the focus is on that crumb on my dirty counter. sigh. I'm only sighing a little bit because I know this is what is best for me.
I wanted to detox and purify after the holidays. My body is overwhelmed with all the goodness that I had over the holidays. That's a way to say that I've gained several pounds and need to make some lifestyle changes. The key words there are "lifestyle change." Not a diet. I don't need to diet. I just need to be more cautious of what and how much is going into my body.
Side note: My/The girlfriends, their husbands, and Hubby and I have been meeting Sunday evenings. Just to hangout and talk. Not every Sunday but we try about every other week. We were together this past Sunday and New Years and a couple weeks before Christmas as well. My point, when we gather, we feast. It takes me and the girlfriends the week before to prepare the menu. For example, this past Sunday, brisket, acorn squash, sauteed greens. New Years Eve, stuffed mushrooms, crostini with mozzarella and prosciutto, bacon wrapped shrimp (mmm...bacon). Forty cloves and a chicken was served at a previous week. This is serious food. And usually, a lot.
This is what I'm trying to detox and purify against. It doesn't happen. My witch doctor, who happens to be one of my girlfriends, knows this too. She gave me suggestions but knew I would struggle with it.
I appreciate that because I don't want to waste her time. This helps me realize that it can't be some kinds of crash diet deal. It has to be a "lifestyle change." because I cannot do it any other way. I figure if I gradually make these changes that they will just become second nature and the lifestyle I need to lead. And hopefully, lose the ten pounds that I have gained in the last couple of months.
I'll keep you posted on how my pants fit. My next hurdle is getting back on the treadmill. I know that this will be what is really going to make the difference as far as my pants fitting. I tried to get on last week. It's located on the main living floor. I turned it on and ask the kids if the noise was going to bother them after they went to bed. "THAT SCARES US!!!" Of course it does.
I will get back on that treadmill. I'll let you know when.

It's 2012

2012-01-04T23:06:00.000-05:00

I desperately wanted to write this post last night on my little net book. However, since it is so JUNKIE!!!!, I have to shirk at work and do it here. I could have waited for the JUNKIE thing to download Google Chrome but knew I would be asleep before the two hour download was complete. JUNK! Although it is serving the purpose of Eden completing some assignments for school. She kept barking about "Mom, we have to get on A.R.!" As always, with my distracted ways, I said "uh huh, OK." When the teacher sent the third paper home with her sign on and user name I realized we actually have to do something. It didn't stop me from writing a letter to the teacher, on said third sheet, stating that we do not have a regular home computer with Internet access. She called me the next day and I increased the data package on the net book so we could "get on A.R.!" It's not mandatory but, I don't want to deprive Eden because I'm too cheap to buy a regular home computer right now.
Update: A day later and the download only takes less than ten minutes. So, all that trash talk above, I guess, does not apply. I only got the above paragraph written at work which means there was no shirking. Here it is at 10 o'clock in the evening and I can finally do my post like I wanted.
Patience. that's what Google Chrome was teaching me. It's something I continually pray for. It seems selfish to me at times to ask the Lord for it but, really He doesn't mind. I also have to send out texts to two of my favorite Godly woman who will send me prayers. As I also do for them.
Several months ago, while Hubby and I were having some time with our Pastor, he told us to surround ourselves with Godly people. Surround myself with Godly women. I'll tell ya. At that time, I was not having it. In the last very few months, I have found myself surrounded by the two most awesome women I could ask for. That's not even right. I didn't ask for them. God gave them to me.
I am so very blessed with these women. There have been several things about these women that have created these "awe" moments, as Hubby and I call them. First thing, that all of us noticed, we all have Jeeps. Which you don't know about because, I probably have not posted about the Jeep we bough last July or maybe I have. We bought a Jeep, it's orange. Anyway, a sure sign that the Lord Almighty has brought us to be friends for a reason.
The next thing, and this is from my perspective only, one is a lawyer and one is a doctor. I'm all set, right. Whatever trouble I get into I have good friends that will, hopefully, offer me good advice. I have also considered the fact that I am in the insurance business which deals with...........law and doctors. But, not really from my position.
Next, for Christmas, the boys were all given mini-marshmallow guns. None of them are ten years old which would be a more suitable age for such a gift. They are all in their mid thirties. That did not stop them from covering the floor with marshmallows to test the guns. On an important marshmallow gun note, that will not be forgotten by any. The first shot Hubby took was right at X's neck at, not so far away. Poor kid. I have to document this only because I can't say I wouldn't have done it myself. Really. How bad can a mini marshmallow hurt? From close range and enough pressure built up? A lot, especially to a five year old. It did make an awful popping sound, as well, which did not help the situation.
Most recently, one of the boys, not Hubby, took a picture of what I can only describe as a hair/dirt/lint/animal hair ball with their cell phone. He then showed it to Hubby who laughed his "Yes, that-is-awesome,-I-want-to-put-that-on-a-stick-and-chase-people-around-with-it" laugh. Yeah.
I kind of got side tracked with the fact that there are other men out there that act just like Hubby. It's comforting and troubling all at the same time.
What I find comforting is that I can text and talk to my one friend, who has kids very, very close in age to ours. It's like talking to myself but, better because 1. I'm not talking to myself because that would be crazy and 2. it's a relief to know that it's not just me. She can be talking about her kids and it's almost a mirror image of what is going on in our house. It's one of those awe moments that I am so very thankful for.
They are considered my girlfriends. Something I have never been too keen on. Women are hard. I know I can be less than pleasant more times than not. It's something I'm working on. But I am so thankful to have girlfriends and I've needed them. You read article after article about women together. Having their "girl time." I couldn't figure it out. I suppose I was looking at it from a working mom point of view. Mom's that work don't have time for girlfriends. But we do. We find it and realize how important this time with one another is. It's an important outlet to have. It's so relaxing and refreshing to know that I am not alone.
I'm never alone. I have the Lord and He has me. He brought these wonderful people into my life. He brought me to them, who bring me closer to Him. It's this awesome cycle that I get so excited about. It's such a great feeling to be able to surround myself with Godly people. Where I may have felt intimated to do so because I wasn't being the Christian that I should have been. Or because they knew more of the Bible than I did or whatever was going through my mind. It doesn't matter. The Lord brought me to these people because He knows that we are similar. He knows that we fit together and as a body will glorify His name.

No pictures but....... a testimony

2011-12-14T02:48:00.000-05:00

I was going to start this post out by saying that I wish that I could make my font bigger so it would look like I have more to say. Then, the "try new blogger interface" button was all up in my face and, low and behold bigger font. It's really not making that big of a difference but, I just don't like to read small letters sometimes. Coincidentally, it wasn't a font size issue, it was a font type issue I was having.

I'm puzzled as to why I picked today to post since I am in a bratty mood. I'm aware of the reasons and I think that laying them all out there will help change my frequency and not be a brat. I keep telling myself that I have no reason being as I comfortably fit into my size 2 corduroys this morning after weeks and weeks of feeling chubby. Yes, I know, size 2 and chubby don't belong in the same sentence. Except in this case.

Hubby has been on midnight shift this week which is causing the mood. Which seems a bit backwards since he is the one working it and not me. Needless to say, if it were me working it, this would be way worse. I'm finding it troubling to wake up with a dose of bitter after having a good night with my girls from church, a whole night of sleep, and my Christmas shopping practically complete. I just have to keep reminding myself that the Lord is with me and teaching me something. Part of which was get my work done that has been sitting on my desk for too many days. Bury myself in my work and worry about your mood later. Well, that took all of 45 minutes. I still have more to do but would rather be doing this.

I'm just going to go ahead and switch gears altogether. So, on Thanksgiving Eve Hubby and I were baptized. Pretty cool, right? Yeah, it is. We got a video of it and I would have put it on here but, I don't have it right now and after watching it, I have discovered my voice does not match my face and it's just weird to watch myself. The work the Lord has done in our life in the last year is absolutely incredible. It's simply amazing what He can do to a heart.

I wrestled with the devil that day. I had had plenty of time to put my testimony into words. Weeks. However, I did it when most people would have. A couple of hours before hand but' not a couple minutes like Hubby did. I sent out the prayer request text message to my girls and was finally able to pin it down after several taps of the backspace key. Pastor Jim had me all stressed out because he asked us to keep it fairly brief. I struggled with that. I found it odd how I can think that I don't have a testimony and not be able to put it in so many words at he same time. I feared that I would just go on and on.

It went a little something like this but not this long: I grew up in a church home/family. We went to a small church that I remember very clearly. We, meaning my siblings and I, went to Sunday school and Vacation Bible School. My Sunday School teacher's name was Lucy. She was a heavy set woman with a lazy eye and a passion for the Lord and for us children to know Him. The Pastor was a small man who, I believe, is still involved with the church in one way or another. Perhaps how Pastor Jim is involved at our church where he is supposed to be retired but the congregation won't let him. The Lord has certain plans for these men I suppose, and they know that.

I couldn't really pinpoint when we stopped going to that church. We had attended with my Nan, who is my mother's mother. I remember attending a different church with my father's parents for some time as well. This would have been when I was older. I was just "doing" church at this time. I couldn't even say who the Pastor was. I can tell you it was a massive church and the organ was exceptional. I love a good organ.

Some years later my Nan had found a different church that we started to attend regularly. This would have been about, let's say 13 years ago. I was working and in college. I would say that I was still just doing church at this point. I was no doubt a believer. I was even elected as a deacon. The Lord was speaking to me through the Pastor. Hubby was coming to church as well. Pastor had a way of explaining the Word to me so that I completely understood. It was good. It was my church family at the time. Hubby and I were married there by the Pastor.

However, there was a scandal. I don't know the details nor do I want to. Or maybe I do but I suppose there is still some denial on my part that the whole thing happened. The end result was Pastor left the church and his wife and boys. My parents divorced. No, it's not a coincidence. I'll turn Forrest Gump on you and say "That's all I have to say about that." The new Pastor that came in was not getting through to me. I need enthusiasm and he was just too soft spoken. I couldn't hear the Lord through him. I suppose I stopped going there right before Eden was born which would be about seven years ago.

I tried only a handful of different churches in the time I left there and the time I found my new church home. We had tried the Byzantine Catholic church that Hubby had attended growing up. I tried. I did. It just wasn't a fit. I constantly prayed for the Lord to lead us to our new church home. I felt that He was OK with me not attending, or maybe he wasn't, but I knew when the time was right, He would lead us in the right direction.

At the same time I was praying for Him to lead us to a new church home, I was praying for my marriage. I was having a heck of time. I wasn't happy. I read a couple books about what I should be doing to put the marriage where it should be. The Power of a Praying Wife. Good book. My beloved sister-in-law referred it to me. It seemed to me that nothing was working.

I have to back track. Shortly after Eden was born, Hubby confessed to me that he had an addiction problem which we worked through. I will admit that I am extremely naive. I had no idea but, I knew that it was something that could be dealt with. However, about two or three years ago, I started to recognize the pattern. I didn't confront him which resulted in a lot of resentment for a long time. Volatile fights. Words only but, they still hurt. After many months of this behavior the Lord presented a situation. In February of this year, in the middle of one of our snowiest days of the year. If not only snowiest day. Hubby received a text and said that he was going out. This was common, although it was later in the evening and there was several inches of fresh snow on the ground. I questioned him before he left. Key words there, "before he left." I was able to prove the next day that old habits had resurfaced. I waited until after Eden's birthday and I left and stayed with my mother.

There had been other times in the prior years that I thought that I would leave. I prayed about it. This was the right time. The Lord never left my side.
We sought counseling with Pastor. This is our main Pastor. I know, I refer to a lot of people as Pastor. Sorry. I never pictured Hubby and I in a counseling session. I knew that we should be, I just didn't think we would actually go. I was relieved when Pastor was able to enlighten Hubby of my feelings without me having to say a word. He was saying things that were so accurate about what I was feeling. It was such a relief to have him understand and be able to interpret to Hubby for me. It was so cool. What was not cool was my new thought process. I was thinking, "I have the Pastor on my side, I've been fighting with this guy for years, I've done all I could, and I was finally out." It was somewhat relieving. Here's why I say "somewhat." I knew what the Bible said about divorce and I knew that it couldn't be this easy. (Although the world sure makes it look like it is. Annoying.) I just knew that the Lord was not going to allow it but, I sure did act like it sometimes. I considered it and then I prayed about it. I repeatedly put my questions at the Lord's feet.

I could see a lot of changes that Hubby was making. I just didn't know if it was genuine. Pastor would say the same thing to me but, he believed that he was. It was also awkward. There were times that Hubby was trying to get me to come back home and it was just too soon. I continued to pray and wait to know what to do.

I can't pinpoint the time but, the Lord got a hold my heart. He told me it was time to go home. After three months, I packed up everything I had moved to my mom's and went back home. I don't regret a second of it. I know that I made the right decision and the marriage is where it should be. Hubby and I are on our faith walk together just like it should be. I can't say it's perfect. Especially, since I was crabby about his work shift earlier in this post. It is the best it's ever been. I can't say completely but, very, very different than before. I don't say completely because we're still the same knuckleheads we were before.

This church the Lord led us to is the reason that this turned out the way they did. If we had not been in that church with those people that care about us it would have turned out completely different. When I first started coming to church, I was probably still "just doing" church. Then, last fall when Pastor spoke on Matthew 12:25 "Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand." That opened my ears because I knew He was talking to me about my house. Instead of "just doing," I immediately got involved in numerous ministries. I immediately was welcome and felt comfortable. The difference between doing church and being a part of the church family is knowing our Lord and Savior and know how He died on the cross for us. It's an overwhelming feeling and I am so excited to celebrate His birth in eleven days. Thank you Jesus.

Goooooooooooo Team! ugh

2011-11-22T09:38:00.000-05:00

GAAAAA!!!!!! This is taking me forever to get this post done. I will prevail today, thirteen days after starting it. No, I didn't. It's now another two days later. FOCUS WOMAN!!!! GEEZ!

This is what we woke to on Saturday 10/29. We haven't seen any since but, I've heard that there may be some in the forecast for tomorrow. It caused mixed emotions. Any other Saturday morning I would have been very excited to sit inside under the warm, cozy blue blanket with my coffee and just stare out the window at the falling flakes. However,.......

Eden had to cheer. At 9 am. Seriously? It was her last one and we all endured it. I give that girl mad props. The poor thing came home Friday and just laid around. Not her perky self. She got up Saturday morning and cheered and by Saturday night had a fever of 103.7. Missed church the next morning and school the day after that. And I picked her up early one other day. What kind of mother am I that I made her do that? One that was not paying attention to her symptoms Friday night. Oops.

All of that shortly after her experiencing her second earache in less than two weeks. Earaches make me nervous. I don't mess around with them and try to be prompt and call the doctor in order to get the antibiotics going. And I know that they make her miserable and extremely uncomfortable. So, when this second one surfaced, I called the doctor and got an appointment. Shortly after, it occurred to me that I absolutely, did not want her on any more antibiotics. So I called my witch doctor. He told me what to do....he said....oooo eeee ooo aa aaa ting tang walla walla bing bang....... Wait.... what? No. She said... Alright, that's enough shenanigans. I text my witch doctor who is really a chiropractor and kinesiologist. Yes, she knows I call her a witch doctor. She was able to fit her in and adjusted her and showed me some things to do in order to keep that fluid out of her sweet little head. I should have done it the first time so she would not have had to take any antibiotics.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not one of those crazy, all-natural, don't vaccinate or medicate my kids person. My kids have been vaccinated since the day they were born. But, if there is a more natural cure I will take it. It just makes sense. It want sometimes doesn't make sense but I think is really awesome is when I said to my witch doctor, "She(Eden) often complains of a stomach ache. Can you test her to see if there is anything else going on?" She proceeds with her testing, and discovers that I think the sickness is finally leaving our entire house. At least until next month.

Such a trooper. And this picture shows her most perfect nose. My mother has commented on her perfect nose since the day she was born. Hubby and I are so blessed with our beautiful children. Should we have more? Who knows. Not me. Xzavier had me laughing forever the other night with his incessant talking. It wasn't even rambling. He apparently had numerous things to tell Hubby and I, as we tried to watch the hockey game. I seriously giggled the whole time with his stories of "humpy dumpy." We were still laughing about that the next day and were sure to tell our friends at church. And with the comfort of a pillow and his blanket, he was silent. I said to Hubby after we had put them to bed, "it's so quiet, so quickly."

This guy was in our back yard. Actually, since starting this post, he was in the yard again. It's encouraging. I hope he makes it through hunting season. Eden finds the need to tell us every single time there is a deer in the back yard. I don't mind them and enjoy seeing them but, if you've seen one, you've seen them all. If only I could see them through her eyes then I would have a better appreciation for her screaming every time the come into view.

On an ending note, because it's now the 22nd of November and I still have not pushed the "publish post" button. I leave you with this random story from the car ride home last night. Eden has a loose tooth. It will be her first lost tooth which is very exciting. The dentist has been telling her for over a year that she should start to lose them. (Loose, lose gee whiz I hope I use the right words here.) So she keeps coming up to me and says, "My tooth came out." Kidding, of course. As we started down our road, in the dark, I asked her if she knew the story of the boy who cried wolf. She said no, so I proceeded to tell her the story and compare it to her continuing to tell me that her tooth came out. Her response was, "Don't tell me about wolves right now, Mom." Doh!! FAIL on my part. I know she doesn't like wolves. So, not only did she not get what I was telling her but, I scared her too. Some days my parenting card needs suspended. Luckily, there were no bad dreams. OK!!! On to the next post that will take me three weeks to post. I promise to do better.

Spoiled

2011-11-03T14:02:00.005-04:00

Found this in my drafts. Original start was 7/28/2010. Additional comments in italics. (I tried to do a different color and it didn't work.)

Ya gotta take your heels off to go fishin'. We were fortunate enough to get to the lake again for the 4th of July weekend. It seems to get better every year. We got up there Saturday evening and had the whole day Sunday to lay in the lake. Hubby spent the weekend in trees, and Eden and I spent it in the lake. The girl can swim for hours on end. Xzavier did not swim Sunday. He did get in briefly Saturday. I think he was having a hard time the fact that he couldn't see the bottom. I can't blame him. I do not prefer to touch the bottom but, it just makes everything a lot easier if I just suck it up and not think about how yucky it feels. You saw that right, 2010. Not this past July. However, this is about the same as it was last year. Except I don't think those heals fit Eden anymore. Much to her dismay. I would also like to add the Hubby and I went and took the boat out of the water a couple of weeks ago. It was a date day. We spent the entire day ~~cussing at the boat~~ together. The boat posed a challenge. It was maybe six inches from being under water when we got there. It required towing straps and the jeep to pull that thing out of the water. Needless to say, my body hurt the next day from having to move the thing and get it flipped the right way in order to get the water drained so we could then carry it up the driveway. Good times. For real.

I am not doing a very good job finishing these posts, at all. I started this one six days ago. I'm just gonna go ahead and change the subject. But not really. I keep coming up with all these ideas for my posts, the trouble is, always at times I can't put them down. I'm gonna see if I can remember my thoughts for the last six days.

We could talk about this picture first. This hole is way older than six days. Yes, it's still there. This is to extract the child's gardening tool from the trap in the sewer line. That's all I can say about this, otherwise, I will go off on a frustrated tangent. I can talk about this again without getting upset. This project actually went very well. It may have taken a while but, it still went very well. And we got a truck load of pea gravel which, if it were up to me and we could afford, would fill all the flower beds. It's super fun to walk and play with. The flower bed idea is probably not such a good idea. It would all end up washed to the bottom of the driveway and the street. And then I would be sad. This hole was filled in and just recently there was another hole just Northeast of this one on the corner of the farm house. Hubby had to drill a hole into the foundation of the farm house for plumbing reasons. This particular hole was dug and I found him with a very frowny face one afternoon and his tools stuck in the foundation of the house. I slowly backed away and went back later to find him in a tree instead of in the hole. That sounds pretty funny but, it's true. He also likes to put the kids up in a tree too. He got them climbing harnesses and everything.

In other news, or no news really. I drag my kids to mom's pool every opportunity I get. Yes, I did this same thing this past summer too. It occurred to me yesterday that they may get bored with this activity. I could do nothing but sit and read a book or take a nap all day long. Eden and Xzavier need activities and accessories to keep them occupied. I was feeling a little guilty for constantly taking them swimming and then it occurred to me, if they didn't want to swim, they wouldn't be in the water for hours and hours at a time. I got over them possibly being bored and said to myself that it's better than playing at home in the hot. They are not bored. And they are excellent swimmers. I spent most of the summer trying to imagine them not being able to swim like some kids. It was weird to me.

This week is calling for some rain. Of course, that will change. I intend to stay home and try and clean the neglected house. I tell myself, if I do at lease one chore, then I don't have to feel so guilty about spending the entire weekend at the pool. It also occurred to me that if I'm constantly at the pool, then the house isn't getting that dirty. Especially, the dishes. I cannot tell you the last time I cooked a meal. Sure, I've pulled things out of the freezer and heated them up but, I don't consider that cooking. I try not to make any more heat in the house than is absolutely necessary. 90 degrees for many days in a row does not make our house comfortable. This was the same scenario this year too. This past weekend consisted of pulling a lot of things out the freezer and heating them up. I got frustrated with that and needed some fresh food. I wanted to cook something but time did not allow so I went to Sam's and bought a big bag of chopped lettuce and that seemed to suffice for a little while. Lame. I think I ended up making cookies. That's sort of fresh, right? I made them from scratch.

I find myself feeling spoiled. What do I do to deserve to be able to spend weekends at a house on the lake? Why do I deserve to sit by a pool while my kids play until they can barely keep their eyes open? I am so grateful to be able to do these things. I enjoy every minute of it. I take nothing for granted. I love spending time with family. This is especially true. I am so blessed. My blessings continue to accumulate. I'm feeling especially spoiled by my church family. I am so thankful to be able to say that I have a church family. I love being surrounded by those Godly people. I'll talk more about my blessings in other posts. Who knows. There might even be a hole in the yard to talk about too.

Francis.....or August....They know what I mean

2011-11-02T14:03:00.000-04:00

This is a cousin of Hubby's. I'm going to go ahead and consider him a cousin of mine too since I have known him since he was born. And no, that doesn't help me know which one it is. Francis gave me the ok to post the pics. THANKS FRANCIS!! Sorry August. He said I could. That's a just a plain old nylon strap they tied to two trees. Kids these days. So smart.

WEEEEE!!!

June

2011-10-25T09:39:00.002-04:00

I apologize for the weird pictures and the lame title. The pictures really do not depict what happened here. This is our tree. I believe we call it a choke cherry and it's very large. Even after being struck by lightning this past June. Did the children and I hear it, you ask? I've never heard anything like it. It happened at 4:38am. Why do I recall that? I'll tell you. Not only did the kids and I hear it but, my father-in-law, who lives only a couple miles away, saw it. We were talking about it a couple days later and he was able to tell me what time he saw this explosion. It threw wood shards several feet away. It never knocked the power out, thank goodness, because Hubby happened to be on midnight shift that week and was not home when this happened. I hate being home without him when the power goes out. Not really sure why.
So when I woke up the next morning I went looking out windows to see what happened and this is what I discovered.
Notice the kids' swings. That kind of freaked me out. The Lord prunes, at least, one of our trees every summer. Usually the biggest one. It was the tulip tree last year. We believe it will be the walnut tree next year which, I have mixed emotions about. I did gather a ridiculous amount of walnuts one year and tried to dry them out only to get preoccupied and never go back and crack them. I may have cracked one or two to find that they were rotten or something. I think I got discouraged by that. So now all they do is fall off and make a mess on the driveway and in the yard. I was slipping on the wet, green outer shell just this morning. That is reason I have mixed emotions. I can do with out the walnut mess. And the creepy way they fall and scare me when they hit the ground.

Hubby and I waited until one of the hottest days to clean this up. Loading all the branches and driving them into the back field and dumping them on the "pile", formally known as the "hole". Yes, the random hole in our back field is no longer. It's a little disappointing because we were growing some nice cat tails up there. Oh well. There will be other holes. Actually, there is one! Hubby plans to play in that one later today. He's not too excited about it and I am mostly going to find him climbing a tree instead.

In other news...work is on the stressful side. My sister never came back to work after having her fourth child last October. Lucky. And my brother will be gone by the end of the week. He and his wife are moving to her native Canada. So it's just Dad and I and we hired someone to help out with the front desk and payments and what not. (I typed that "what not" without even realizing it.) It's a tough situation and I do my best to stay positive. In all honesty, none of us, meaning my siblings and I, wanted to continue to be in the family business. It wasn't the working with family that was the issue. We worked very well together as far as family businesses go in my opinion. Sure we had our moments but, it's been several years and we are all still speaking to each other. Perhaps we were on the verge of losing our tempers with one another and that is why they have moved on. The Lord's plan for them prevented a tragedy here in the office. I can guarantee that the speaking, that we all once did well, will be slim to none with us separated and not working together.

I am very happy for my brother and sister and their new ventures. I have times that I feel abandoned but, they are short lived. There are times that I feel like I've been left to clean up the mess. I get over it. Other opportunities gave them the outlet to move on. I continue to pray and wait to see if a particular opportunity arises for me to move on. I also consider that I am not supposed to move on. Perhaps this is His plan for me. I'm struggling, and have struggled in the past with this. But I will wait and see and continue to pray for His guidance.

"It's not yours!"

2011-10-24T12:11:00.003-04:00

So yeah, I did just happen to go back and read the post from August of 2010. I probably should have done that before I did the previous post. What a terrible blogger I am. I would love to catch you up to speed on everything that has happened since then but, it would be a very wordy post and even I don't like to read things with a lot of words sometimes. So I will tell you about the church that I went to that Sunday following the post. I do believe that I went that Sunday. If it wasn't that Sunday it was one or two weeks after that but, I am sure that it was that Sunday.

I had prayed for many months for God to point me in the right direction to the church where I belonged. We had stopped going to the church that we were married in when the Pastors were switched. God was not speaking to me through the new Pastor. Is that horrible to say? I suppose it happens. Hubby and I haphazardly tried different churches without any luck of feeling at home. At least, not for me. I had even tried the church that I went to when I was a child. The one that first taught me that Jesus is my Lord and Savior. I remember Sunday school in the downstairs and Vacation Bible School. Lucy was my Sunday school teacher. That church has since put on an enormous addition which I think is fantastic. I love to see a large church family. However, no longer my church home.

Hubby had been reacquainted with an old friend from school that is now a chiropractor here in town. They had mentioned their church several times in the many visits that we had made to their office. These two, husband and wife, are also where I have found my new found love of natural remedies. Just last week, we'll call her Dr. T, was able to clear up Eden's earache that the pediatrician failed at the week before. My Nan had also told me that it's the same church that some of my cousins went to and that they had an amazing youth ministry. So we went. At least the kids and I. I'm not sure if Hubby went that first week or not. I instantly felt welcome. Around every turn was someone else I knew, making me feel even more welcome. We've been there ever since. I would love to say that it's been every Sunday but, we did miss while we went to the beach and there were some other times that I didn't make it. Times when I need to be there the most.

This is what my church is all about. I never new about Alliance churches. Needless to say, I had a lot to learn. I was a little apprehensive at first because it was so foreign to me. Learning about the Alliance didn't hinder me from getting involved in church activities. Right now, I am involved in the AWANA program on Wednesday nights, Hubby and I help in the toddler nursery once a month, I am getting ready to do my first Children's worship, I attend Alliance Women once a month, I have a secret sister from that group, Hubby and I are on the decorating committee, and I think that's about all for now. I am trying to go to another group every other Monday but our weekly schedule can get crazy with other activities and trips to the chiropractor for at least one of us. Eden is in the bell choir and Hubby just recently joined the choir. There is no way that I would have been able to get involved in any of this if I was not this comfortable with these people.

There is missions conference every November. It's a week when missionaries come to our church and talk about what they are up to and just hang out and do different activities every night. I missed it last year, conveniently, for personal reasons. That's a whole other post. Even without personal reasons I was still intimidated by it since I was so unfamiliar. Not this year. I'm anxious to hear the stories of the darkness being pushed back in these countries where our missionaries are working. It's so awesome to see God work.

Let's see....what else can I tell you? OH! So, back to the youth ministry. Not only is it awesome but in the year since we've been there, they put on addition just for the kids. Matthew 19:14 Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." I'm just overwhelmed and excited to have this church family. There is nothing like it and I am so grateful. These people are responsible for bringing me closer to Lord and I love them all for it. I learn so much from these people.

I like to take three word sayings from my Pastor. I can hear him saying those words from the title of this post yesterday with such conviction. It's not the first time he's said them either. Makes me realize that my plans are certainly not His plans. I need the reminder a lot of times. And when I get the reminder, I'm like "oh, yeah and thank goodness, too." I would otherwise make a mess of things. As I have done in the past. I'm thankful for my Savior and that he forgives me. I've also taken the three words "God is enough" from Pastor and had them tattooed in Hebrew on my right arm.

I have very good intentions of giving my testimony on here. The more I think about it, the longer it becomes. I never thought it was anything special until one of these awesome ladies from church gave hers and it kind of started out the way I think of mine. We don't think we have one but, in fact, it's huge and meaningful. Soon. I'll do it soon.

What'd I miss!?.......

2011-10-20T10:23:00.000-04:00

More importantly, what did you miss? A little of this and a lot of that. I'll start with the beach vacation 2011 sponsored by my most lovely Mother and Stepfather. Also, these are the pictures that I felt the need to share to get back into the swing of blogging. I considered just doing a post with no pics and thought that was a bad idea. Did you see that giant baby?!

This vacation was, actually, ending this very day two months ago. Hhhmmmm.....seems longer. We traveled, sort of, by caravan all the way to lovely Oak Island, NC. By caravan I mean our family of four in the Jeep, my sister's family of six+ one in the diesel, and my Ma, Step dad, and Nan in the Nitro. Three cars that did not stay together on the journey. We did meet up at Monticello about 2/3 of the way through the day. It was a nice break in the traveling and we all learned a little something. I learned that huge house still has extremely small rooms and they get even smaller when you're piled in there with 20-30 other people including small whiny children. I mean, I learned that I hope to have gardens like those someday with all the wonderful, organized flowers.

Next stop, Carter Mountain Orchard. My brother-in-law and sense fresh and local produce within a 50 miles radius. We were able to purchase some fresh and local peaches and also have some slushies. Including Peach Sangria for me and my Ma. The also have their own wine. Which was a delight. The above picture does not do any justice. The view was actually incredible. You could see for miles. A nice recovery from being crammed inside an old house. I mean..... History is not my one of my favorites in case you haven't picked up on that yet.

We eventually made it to our stopping point of the day far too late for all of us. And then onto to beach the next day. We were so blessed with beautiful weather all week. Good relaxing times for all. It had been a long time since I had got to play in the ocean. The kids had a great time playing in the waves too. Xzavier is such a fish. After being home for several weeks, he drew a picture of us at the beach. We were all in it, except for Hubby. X stated that he was at the store buying him new goggles at that time and that is why he was not in the drawing. Yes, that did happen. And just last night, he and I were snacking on dry roasted almonds and he told me the next time we go to the beach we should take almonds. I know, right?!

And what vacation wouldn't be complete without a souvenir? You go to the beach and what do you think of? Ninja gear. Of course.

I have a lot more to share and hope to be able to find the time to get the posts out. I cannot guarantee additional pictures. Although this does give me a reason to pick up my camera that has been sitting almost as much as this blog.

The last post shows a picture of Eden moving on from preschool. Even that was months past the actual event but, she is now in first grade. Xzavier and I are getting ready for our third and last field trip to Trax Farm tomorrow. Three years of preschool is plenty. Poor kid. However, I am definitely having mixed feelings about the fact that I have kindergarten registration and orientation on my calender in a few short months. And now that ~~you~~ I mention it, that will mean that Eden will then be in second grade. Gee whiz! Where did that time go? It's enough to make someone feel old. But not me. I have recently been energized and can't wait to share about it in future post.

Until, then....stay tuned. I've got a lot to say. Hopefully, I can find my netbook in order to make sure it gets out there. Thanks for your patience.

A Little of This, A Little of That

2010-08-26T21:18:00.000-04:00

We are not going to talk about the fact that I started this post on June 2. It was a couple days after Eden had "graduated" from Preschool. We are not going to talk about the fact that I haven't even looked at any other blogs I follow. I haven't been to blog frog. It's summer. I've been at the pool. No, I can't prove it with photos.

We can talk about this kid. He's four today. I can't come to terms with the fact that I already have a four year old AND a five and a half year old. I remember always looking forward to the next step in my life. Getting engaged. Getting married. Having babies. Having a house. I hadn't really thought about what step I would take next. I have it all so I guess I have to just see where God takes us.

The summer has gone by in the blink of an eye. I keep telling everyone that there is no way that summer went by this quickly when I was younger. I kind of feel bad not letting my kids stay up later and play outside until it was completely dark. I know there where many evenings that it was barely dark and I still put them to bed. I told myself, at the time, that they were little and needed their rest. They had played hard the rest of the day and they don't nap anymore. At this point in the summer, and several days of excitement for his birthday, Xzavier falls asleep if he sits still too long. I will definitely let them stay up longer next year. Most times, they have to go to bed because I want to go to bed. I'll admit it.

In celebration of Xzavier's fourth birthday, step dad Al and I, decided to have a pig roast. It was a huge success. I think everyone had a fantastic time. The pig was delicious. I am not going to post pictures because I would have to put that warning on it. The one that goes ".....some images are for mature audience members only...." I am also not going to disclose what parts of the pig Hubby decided to sample. The same warning would apply. Xzavier was very patient with opening his gifts. The gifts kept multiplying and I had to keep telling him he had to wait. He would turn and hang his head ever so slightly and give me his "otay."

I invited some friends and their kids to the party. At the end of the evening, when it had eventually started raining, the kids were all piled in one room causing chaos. It was intense but, fun to listen and watch. They all had a good time and I'm glad there were other kids that were able to come and play.

The rest of the summer has been all the same. I guess I will use that as an excuse for not posting. We spent most weekends at the pool. We've been very fortunate to have perfect sunny weather just about every weekend. I do believe that the kids may want to do something else at this point. It's been the same routine for them and I get the impression that they are looking for a little variety. They still love to swim and they get better and better every time. Xzavier has taken off the swimmies. He likes to swim underwater. He and Eden can both snorkel like they were Jacques Cousteau.

I have better intentions of getting back into this. I have some things to share about some alternative medicine that I am hooked on. I hope to share about Eden's first week of school. I can't share any of the work that we've done around the house. There hasn't been any. I pull weeds here and there but, not really. It has not rained and everything is dry and crusty and crunchy. Not very nice to look at but, it makes me feel less guilty about being at the pool all the time. I also have the very best of intentions of going to a new church on Sunday. I will definitely have to report on how that goes.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am still here and will be back shortly.

Your SUSPECT!!!

2010-06-15T23:10:00.000-04:00

Back when we went to the Maple Syrup Festival I thought it would be a good idea to get Hubby an anvil for Father's Day. Upon doing research in finding the right one, I discovered I didn't want to be bothered with shipping a 165 lb. piece of metal. I think that is how much it weighed. So, I kept thinking. Look what I decided.

His name is Sergeant, Sarge, for short. Of course, he is an early gift. He was also a surprise. He is a very sweet, ornery pup. I haven't had a puppy since Ruger was born, and not even really then because my Dad was keeping him while Hubby and I were residing in an apartment. Sarge seems pretty well behaved so far. He doesn't seem to be chewing things in excess and he is very close to being potty trained. I guess it's not potty training if he isn't using a potty. You know what mean.

I found him at a breeder about an hour and half south in West Virginia. I was lucky enough to have my brother drive me all the way down last Saturday morning. Now, I was working out the details the entire week before. Luck had it that I had planned on taking part in my Nan's community garage sale that morning. Perfect excuse to be out of the house.

On a side note: Friday night before, I invited friend Mike over to play Wii, which always involves a couple of cocktails. Well, a couple turned into a lot for me. Hangover does not explain how I felt Saturday morning. Brother and I get on our way and I get a text from Hubby asking how the sale is going. I am not good at answering questions on the spot. Lucky for me it was a text and he couldn't pick up on my stuttering. Shortly after, he calls. Uuhhhh, OK, have fun, talk to you later. Geez. My guilty laughter is always suspect. Lucky for me, I was not feeling well and it didn't take over.

I wish that I would have taken my camera with me to take pictures of the road that we traveled. Eleven miles of mountains and hair pin turns filled with pot holes. Fortunately, there were only four cars on the road the entire 11 miles there and 11 miles back. Every home had at least one ATV in the yard, and of all things to have on this road, deer processing. Of course. Country roads, take me home, indeed.

I had let Mike in on the plan for the morning and naturally he wanted to play his part. He was in charge of distraction and did a fine job keeping Hubby away from the garage sale, so not to blow my cover. When he finally brought him home and Hubby saw the pup is was just what I thought. He was happy. Another dog has always been a topic of discussion. We want Ruger to have a friend. We just like dogs. I will complain about the stick of dog until the day I die but, I still love my Labradors. Just look at them. I think Ruger is glad, he just won't admit it. I caught him just yesterday, almost starting to play tug of war. He immediately stopped when he saw I was watching.

See? Pretending not to like him. Or being blinded by the flash. Whatever. I do have to get up bright and early to cater to a small puppy bladder. Last night was the first night that we crated him over night. I was tired of coming downstairs and cleaning up. He did extremely well for not having to sleep in there any other night. He is a good puppy.

He seems to fit right in with the family. The kids enjoy him. Eden likes to baby talk and get in his face and call him "sweet boy." They tease him and then scream bloody murder when he comes after them. That's not true, they don't tease him. They make an effort to play with him and when he wants to play a different way that involves biting and scratching, they don't like that so well. I don't blame them. I do have additional "MMOOOOMMMM, the puppy..........." As opposed to the "MMMMOOOOOMMMMM, Xzavier pinched me, punched me, etc" or just plain whining.

This little guy is also taking the place of the decision to have more kids. At least that is what I'm telling myself and I did tell Hubby. So far, it's just like having a kid. Minus the fact that I can leave this one in a cage when I leave the house.

That is the latest going on here. Upon getting ready to do this post I discovered that I had started another post with some other happenings. I will get back to that later. I still have my thoughts for it. I have not been working in the yard as much as I should. But, look what Hubby found a couple of weeks ago when he was moving some rocks around. It's only a black snake or a garden snake. I don't know nor do I care. I just don't want to see it very often. I don't mind if it lives where it was living. I know that he is pest control. He gives me the creeps and I don't want him crawling in the house. We're known to leave the door wide open at times while we're playing and working outside.

Yeah, that's his tongue and now I've been thinking about this too much. Makes me have the creeps. Creeps, I tell you!!!

The yard is not suffering too much from my lack of effort. We almost have our second load of mulch spread. I could have done it tonight, come to think of it. It was way hot. I was sweating just raking the grass to put into the compost. The same day Hubby found the snake, I trimmed and cleaned up the rose bushes and must have found some kind of poison. It ended up on my shin. I have never been allergic to poison ivy. I can lay down in it if I want. At least, I could have. I don't know if it's poison ivy or not but, whatever it is Eden got it on the palm of her hand. Poor thing. There is nothing fun about an itchy palm. She scratched it until it was bruised. We tried Jule Weed, Calamine, a steroid creme, and hydro cortisone. It's been going on for over two weeks. I finally took her to the doctor and he prescribed prescription strength hydro cortisone that is already working for both of us. Gross.

I haven't done much more in the yard since then. I did start the weed whacker by myself and took care of a little trim work. It's a proud moment for me. I started it again yesterday. I even had to fix the twine. Not refill it but, the one line was not sticking out and cutting. I try to even out the time I spend in the yard and the time I spend at Mom's pool. We have had some really wonderful days. My tan looks fantastic. I enjoy sitting by the pool but, I go mostly for the kids. Eden is such a fish and they are more than patient with me when I am working in the yard. They are able to occupy themselves and play together without hurting each other too bad. Until the next varmint.

Of the Second Degree

2010-05-18T14:38:00.000-04:00

I finally went inside and got my camera to take pictures of the lawn for y'all. I finally got myself, actually my uncle delivered it for me, a load of mulch to start spreading throughout the land. So I have some before and after photos of what exactly is going on out my way.

I am oddly hypnotized by this photo. I have stared from this angle hundreds of times. I guess I've never really "looked" from this angle. Or maybe it's that it seems fake to me and there are too many "happy little trees" that Mr. Ross has put into his painting, once again.
This is only a small part of the property. This is on the side of the house the Hubby and his family referred to as the "play area." Actually, we still refer to it as the play area. I am sure that I got an actual explanation for it being called this but, it is not coming to me at this moment. It probably because it is a nice area to play in the summer once all the leaves come in on the toby tree. (I do believe we have been calling it a toby tree but, it appears it is a Northern Catalpa.)
This is looking at the "play area" from the other side. This is where the mulching began.

Stepping further back to get the rest of the play area. If you look closely, that pink dot by my wheel barrow is Eden. She is playing in her garden. This is an area that is lined with block to create what may have been a sand box at some point. We did refer to it as the dirt box last year since there was a lot digging in the dirt. Now it is overgrown with weeds that Eden says I am not allowed to pull because they are hers. She does occasionally trim some leaves or pull an onion out. It's rectangle and the one side is stepped up and about four block high. Eden and Xzavier will go round and round balancing on the blocks and going up and down the steps. Good times.

Before.After.

This photo really does not do it justice. The poor plants are all beat up from us trying to get the mulch underneath. I am hoping they perk back up.

Before.
After.

This was the first bed that we did. We started out small and simple on Friday evening. Hubby had to work a terrible shift of 5am to 1pm Saturday so I did some more preparation while he was at work. I do recall thinking to myself that I wasn't going to be able to get myself in the yard first thing in the mornings. I was not thinking correctly. If the weather is cooperating, I am outside by 9am. This past Saturday was no exception. Out I went to clear some weeds in the front planter boxes and the area down by the mailbox. I should have taken before and after photos of these two areas because it was a huge difference. There I was from 9am to 3pm out in the sun in my raggedy bikini top with no sunscreen. Yes, I know better. No, I won't put it on. Yes, I will be sorry later. I'm a bit sorry now since I can't reach the itchiest part of my back.

Hubby came home from work and immediately jumped on his "girlfriend" to get me a scoop of mulch. We, mostly he, finished spreading the almost four yards of mulch in about two hours. At the one hour and forty-five minute mark I warned Hubby that I had lost my enthusiasm for the yard work and I would be quitting. I can only handle about four hours of straight weeding and then I wanna do something else. Six hours was really pushing it.

This bed here is Hubby's. I call any area around the locust trees growing something like daffodils or hostas a bed. Hubby enjoys the clover. The purple flowers and the way it naturally covers an area. I do my best to let it go but, when I know it's a weed, it's hard not to go yanking at it. I asked him if I could at least just pull the clover that was growing amongst the daffodils. I am not sure if he ever agreed to it but, he didn't have to because the bees told me otherwise. I went to pull the clover out while Hubby was at work and not looking and a huge bumblebee came at me. I assume there were more where he came from and I realized I will just leave that bed alone.

Well, what do we have here? Is this in my yard, you ask? It was until Hubby threw it in the back of his truck and let me drive the truck around for a week with it in there. You can almost see where this is in the first picture. This is in between the play area and the planter boxes of the yard. It was part of the great "archaeology dig" Hubby took the kids on. There has always been a dip in the yard here. And then there was a hole. Not like a rabbit hole or a groundhog hole but, a hole that seemed to lead to an underground chamber. Kind of frightening. Hubby took his "girlfriend" over to see what was in there. He discovered a huge, heavy, rusty metal sink among other garbage. Horseshoes, leather straps, part of a railroad tie, a bottle, and some rusty chain. Yeah. In the yard. Buried. The kids had eventually come in the house so I went over to see what was going on. He was a little annoyed with these findings. I came to find out from Hubby's Mom that the people they bought the house from used to just dump their garbage out into their yard. And apparently, bury it. Sha!! What do you do with your garbage? Grr.

On a different note. This bird pecked at our window for about three days last week. This is a bad picture because the bugger wouldn't sit still long enough for me to get a good photo. He started tapping on one of the windows and when me or the kids got close he would go to the one right next to it. He hung out for a couple minutes the first evening. The next morning I was getting ready for work and he came tapping at my bathroom window. That same evening he was tapping at the window again and eventually was tapping at the glass door and my kitchen window. It's a Northern Oriole and he was so cool. I really wanted to open the window and cage him and keep him. How mean is that? I know. You can't make a caged bird sing and he sure did have a pretty song. We haven't seem him for a couple days. He must have known that I was going to try and capture him.

SAHMIAMNOT

2010-05-02T21:30:00.000-04:00

Only a few will know what the title says. This past Friday I was fortunate to have a day off. It is a weird thing for someone who works 8am to 5pm Monday through Friday. Every other week that is. Hubby swings shifts, so do I. It's a fun day for me to pretend like I am a Stay At Home Mom. Pretend, is the key word there.
I have to work. Bottom line. I am blessed to work with my Dad, Brother, and Sister. Not so much like work but, it is where my paycheck comes from. I have been extremely busy for the last several weeks so, still work. Sometimes I don't want to go but, who doesn't. I have realized that this is how our family functions. Two parents who work full time and the kids need to go to the sitter. I am blessed that the kids do not have to go to day care. Dad's wife watches them three days a week and Hubby's mom watches them the other two. Super convenient. Now. Since Suzie(Dad's wife) watches them Monday, Thursday, Friday, if they plan to go out of town for the weekend that means I'm out of a sitter. This is awesome, especially when the weather will be sunny and hot.
Dad had "reminded" me that he was not going to be there Friday on the Thursday before. I totally forgot seeing as, the only other time he told me about it was the first of the month. I immediately get to work planning a day of activities for the kids. Lucky for me, I was already chatting with a friend on Facebook that was coming over that evening with her husband. (Separate story that takes the "dirty nerdy" to a whole new level.) I told her she should come to the park with us and that I would also call my sister-in-law that was already a mutual friend. Actually, sister-in-law re-introduced us, if you will. She was game since she was on maternity leave and had time to kill since baby boy was showing no sign of making his appearance. While on-line, I sent a message to a SAHM that organizes all kinds of activities and playgroups. Her and I continue to try to get together and it just never happens because I work. I was super excited when I immediately got a message back from her saying that they were meeting at the park right by our house.
I kid you not when I say that I did not sleep Thursday night because I was so excited to play outside all day. I think part of it was also the anticipation of going to the playground and the kids having so many other kids to play with. Eden said to me, just the other day, how come she doesn't have a play date. Two girls in her class were having a play date and must have been talking about it. Not an easy thing to take in when you work full time.
Eden had school in the morning so I was able to run some errands while she was at school, pick her up and head straight to the playground. There was six to eight mothers with multiple children. There may have been fifteen other kids, mostly, if not all, toddlers. My friend greeted me immediately while my kids made a dash for their favorite playground. I didn't want to interrupt the conversation she was in so I watched over the kids. I have never felt so out of place. I know there was no reason for it but, I felt like the outsider because I am usually at work while all these women are sitting at the playground. It was very awkward and I was happy to look at the time to find that we were to be meeting at Mingo for a picnic. I said goodbye and made my way out of there.
I was so excited for the kids to go and play with those kids. Neither one of the kids made an effort to play with the others children. I found this odd. Any time we go in the evening the kids never have any trouble approaching the kids. Makes me wonder if they felt how uncomfortable I was. I know there was no reason for me to feel the way I did but, I haven't stopped thinking about it.
I am not upset about feeling like I wouldn't fit it. I realize that my family is the way God wants it. Those families where mom or dad get to stay home all day are the way God want it. I get to work with my family and that is what God wants. I get to go into work late so I can get my kids to the sitter. I get to leave early if my kids need to get to an appointment. I get to go to the park if I lose my sitter. These days off that I get so excited about, are very special to me. That day was about them. I wanted to make sure that they had fun and got the exercise they need. There are too many days that I don't make my days off about the kids. Saturday and Sunday are usually the only days I get off which at this point in the year go to cleaning and weeding. No, I have not finished cleaning the windows. The weeding time is not bad because the kids will come outside and ride their jeeps or play "princess and Weazleby" on the rock wall. I'm always doing something and I wish that I was able to spend more days like Friday. But, until the next time I lose my sitter, I'll be at my desk. Because that is how this family is blessed.

And Mingo was his Name-O

2010-04-26T21:55:00.000-04:00

Eden's preschool class took a field trip to our local park for a nature hunt. I'm way behind on this post because it was about a week and a half ago. This is the most wonderful park and I often forget how close it is to our house. The above picture shows what it's all about. The park is well cared for and this creek meanders throughout.

Eden's class was combined with the other class at her school. It was somewhere around 30+ small people. It is very impressive to see anyone to wrangle this many little ones. Sadly, they are not that little anymore. Their five and going to kindergarten this fall.

The nature hunt lasted about an hour and then we were free to play at the park. I took the day in anticipation of enjoying the park. We had taken a day about a year ago and come to the park with Hubby's sister and mother of Joel. Cousin Joel is six months younger than Xzavier. We made a day of playing in the creek on that visit. I didn't really plan for that kind of fun this trip because the weather is, well....it was a Friday, if that indicates anything to you from my last post.

However, I did bring their rain boots in case it was raining or the grass was wet. The meeting place for the nature hike was a perfect spot down the creek. There lots of rocks to walk on and the water is shallow. Why no, I did not trip on said rocks and almost fall down and smash my face and camera.

It never occurred to me to feel the temperature of the water. The sun was blazing hot at this point in the day.

Eden was having the time of her life and would have stayed there all afternoon.

This is Eden's classmate. He did not have rain boots. He did have some sort of boot on but, nothing waterproof. Even if it had been waterproof, it wouldn't have mattered. He eventually fell down in the creek and was wet from head to toe. This resulted in the old "if he can do it, so can I." Eden was knee deep, and boot full of water not long after.

So, of course, you have to take a time out to empty your boot.

Xzavier only tolerated the wet boot and feet for a short time and then wanted to be dry again. Which is the exact opposite of what Eden wanted. Again, she would have stayed there all day.

How do you get soaking wet kids home, you ask? You strip them down and head on down the road.

This is me as a Homer-owner!

2010-04-26T20:37:00.000-04:00

Yep. Groundskeeper Willie. We finally closed on the house last Wednesday and the property is officially ours. I guess. I don't really feel like I've paid for it. Our first mortgage payment won't be taken until June. Another confusing aspect of the whole buying a home. And irritating. I kid you not when I when I say, that nothing made sense about that whole process. The poor woman at the bank was just as irritated with the closing company and we were able to laugh about it later. Thank goodness it's over and we don't have to do it again.
How about this weather we're having? Typical weather in these parts calls for beautiful, sunny weather all week long and torrential downpours all weekend long. It worked out when it was snow and everyone was snowed in for the weekend. There has not been that much rain. Not enough to cause mud. And certainly not enough to make the ground loose to pull the weeds out. About two weeks ago I started the weeding. After four hours, I quit. I was getting frustrated with the dirt not letting loose of the weeds and not seeing any signs of progress. I told myself that I was going to wait for some rain to help loosen the soil. And of course, it rains on the weekends when I have the proper time and energy.
Well, this Saturday was no different. And then. Sunday. The sun was screaming at me to get outside and find my gloves. 8:45am or there abouts, I was outside in the dirt/almost mud.
Another four hours in, it occurred to me that I was the maintenance man/woman. There is no way that I will ever be able to plant, in addition to keeping all these weeds away. Upon this realization, I tried to come up with an alternative.
My first thought was bulbs. I will throw bulbs all over the place and that would be my flowers and they would come back every year. No fuss. No muss. Then I remembered how we have varmints that eat the bulbs. I don't really feel like feeding the varmints. Then. Mom-in-law just happened to get her Garden Designs magazine delivered to us. I found a webiste in the issue that sells moss. I thought that would be so cool and less maintenance. I'm not gonna throw moss all over the place but, there are some shady places that I would enjoy to grow some moss. I mentioned it to Hubby and he thought it was a good idea. Then he brought to my attention that the old house will be coming down and not be there to provide some shade. We will have to wait until later in the summer to decide.
During the weeding of a smaller bed around some locust, I noticed a vine. I clipped it at the bottom and proceeded to pull it all the way down. Upon looking up the tree to see how far up it went, I see a furry face staring at me through a whole in the tree. I screamed and backed away quickly. The squirrel, as I presume it was, continued on it's way up the inside of the tree. Scared me more than all the weird bugs that are crawling around in the dirt I have my hands in. But probably not has much as all the empty holes in the ground. They make me nervous. One of these days something is going to come out of one of those holes.
So that puts me back to be groundskeeper Willie. It's all good. I will be excited to get some mulch and continue to pluck every weed as it pops out. Imagine my victory when all the beds are weed free. Who am I kidding? That will never happen. There is also the other job of picking up the sticks. We had a pretty good thunderstorm last Friday evening that brought severly damaging winds. So, in addition to all the branches that fell from the weight of the snow and ice in February, the storm brought down any loose danglers and then some. Hubby pointed out that, almost every time he comes up the driveway, there are pine branches on the ground. Just after he has cleaned them up the day before. The pine tree thinks it's funny.
Back to my weeding. I had made my way to what was going to be the final bed of the day. I was about half way through unstrangling of a peony when I looked up at the sky. The rain was coming. Again. Hubby was just finishing up the grass and I was able to signal the approaching rain to him. Let's talk about Hubby and his "girlfriend" for a moment, shall we? His girlfriend was a priceless investment. She cuts the grass with speed and precision. There isn't too much she doesn't do. Unless I am driving her. She hates me. She even cuts the ridiculously scary, steep bank in the front. This is something I don't like to watch. Most times I don't have to. However, my flower bed just happened to be near the front. I tried not to look but, it was like a train wreck or, a tractor wreck waiting to happen to be more precise.
The grass cutting takes a couple of hours and for the most part it is fairly simple. Hubby will take one of the kids and cut with them. Xzavier will usually fall asleep. Now. I notice that he had his earphones on yesterday. Usually, it is just hearing protection but I notice that it's his headphones.(Actually, my headphones, now that I think about it.) I assume he has his phone that he has songs downloaded. He would be shouting out some lyrics throughout the morning that I could not understand. I assumed it was 311 or Primus. However, after coming in from the rain I find my teeny tiny ipod shuffle laying on the counter. He was listening to Lady Gaga.
I may eventually start documenting the weed pulling. Doing some before and afters. I had one of our contracting clients in our office today that was telling me about putting fabric down before mulch. He said it would keep the weeds out for a long time. Maybe when I start the mulch, I will start the documenting. So you can get a better idea of what is going on here.

Aaahhhh, Spring

2010-04-11T21:33:00.000-04:00

What? This isn't what you think of when I say spring? We had a small gathering for the hockey game on Saturday and I asked Mike to cook the steaks. Neither Mike, nor I, purchased these. It was my brother-in-law. Can you even believe that the man wearing a Ruger t-shirt and Steelers headband while standing in front of a gun cabinet would pick the most giant Fred Flintstone steaks? They were quite delicious. I often ask Mike to come over and grill my food. Beef mostly. He and I are having grilling lessons this summer. This was the first lesson and the only time I was at the grill was to take that picture. Hhhhmmmm. Just realized that. Lesson learned.
Hubby also set all the branches and twigs on fire that have been accumulating in the burn pile since the big thaw. The pile of cardboard was getting out of control as well and I was very glad to see it all go up in flames. I went out to see the fire long enough to not quite roast a marshmallow to put on my Reese's peanut butter smore. Mike suggested the Reese's substitute last year and it is quite delicious. And rich.

It was a most productive weekend. I actually started cleaning the windows. I started to count the windows and then thought better of it because it would have made me weary. I cleaned the windows of the balcony where my plants thrive however, my poor peace lily was very frowny. I finally re potted the snake plant that outgrew it's current living arrangement two years ago. And also my poinsettia. I was pleased with that progress. Was even able to clean all three bathrooms and go to the store to get ingredients to make cole slaw from scrap far before anyone showed up.

Isn't it always the busiest at the grocery when you want to get in and out the fastest? GGRRRR

What do wear when you go to steak dinner? Seven rings, of course. Including one that is a doll. Eden wore these for most of the day. The girl is always accessorized. Including, but not limited to: crown, necklace, bracelet, rings, and the occasional ribbon around her upper arm. She wears all these things while doing everything. They never get in the way or hinder her abilities. She freaked me out yesterday when she told me the boy in the I Carly video was handsome. She's five. I attribute the handsome comment to her and her princess fairy tales. The princes are always handsome. This is what eases my soul. The boy was not handsome.

THIS handsome prince was not about to let me walk away with me taking a picture of something he had. I was so excited when I captured the exact moment. He loves to constantly have something in his hand. It is usually something small like this that will fit in his closed hand. It's usually Buzz and Woody Lego guys. It used to be a small Diego. Notice Eden in the background with the crown, headband, and princess hairpiece. To go with the rings. I believe she also had a necklace.

This was today. Obviously, less accessorized but, you don't want to take away from the outfit or the fact that she was being a teapot. She was still wearing the doll ring and eventually a crown came into play that got tangled in her hair twice. I will never forget these days. I allow her to dress as she pleases as long as we are staying home or visiting immediate family. I try to get her to tone it down and match if she is going to school. We argue to tears most days. Lucky for her, it's only every other week since Hubby handles it the opposite weeks. He may have let her go to school like this but, I couldn't say. These outfits remind me of my niece when she was younger. Not that long ago actually, and I wondered why my sister let her go anywhere looking like she did. I understand now. It's a hard battle and not worth fighting. I keep telling myself that I am only going to buy her certain things that will not clash. That has not worked out so far.
In continuing with the productive weekend starting yesterday, I feel good about the fact that the first level of the house has clean windows. I really just wanted to go out and pull weeds today but, I felt like I was neglected all the inside spring cleaning so I had to do something. I pulled weeds on and off for four hours. Man, is that boring. It's really hard on someone that has to pull every single blade of grass that is out of place. I guess it was progress but, it is no where near complete. While I weeded, Hubby was climbing trees and knocking down the remaining dead branches. When I say climb, that's what I mean. If I had any concept of distance, I would tell you that he was 15 or 20 feet in the air. He may have been 30 but, I couldn't say. It was high and I don't really care for him to be up there without a harness or safety net below. You now, because everyone has a safety net laying around after practicing their tight rope act.

It was an awesome weekend and I can't wait for next weekend.

Easter Fred

2010-04-05T22:20:00.000-04:00

I wanted to document and share the process of making the annual Easter Bread. The above picture is the milk scalding. It only occurred to me this year that I was not 100% sure why I was doing this, besides the fact that Hubby's mom told me to do it this way. Upon googling, I found that it may or may not be necessary due to pasteurization in this day and age. I will continue to scald the milk and break down the proteins and completely destroy the protease that is bad for the yeast. How did that sound? Almost like I know what I'm talking about.

So, here we have the next step. This recipe is so simple and I always forget this until I start making it. After I scald the milk, I add 1/4 cup of butter(I only buy salted butter. The words unsalted butter do not exist in my house.), a cup of sugar, and a tablespoon of salt. It's important to let this mixture cool ever so slightly. It's hard for me to do but, this also contains four eggs. You don't let it cool, you get scrambled egg bread. This has not happened to me but, I know that I would start over after a few choice words.

This is what you get after adding the milk mixture to seven and a quarter cups of flour. There is also two packages of yeast and a 1/2 cup of warm water. In addition to not scrambling the eggs, I have not killed the yeast or had it not activate. You have to let this sit because it's very sticky and all it does is stick to your fingers.

This is what you get after kneading for ten minutes. Isn't it lovely? This is Hubby's grandma Edie's bowl. It reminds me of my Nan H. I think she had one similar. I'm honored to have it in my kitchen.

This is four batches. It made twelve loaves of bread. The slips of paper on each bowl are numbered and have three different times of day on them. I realized later the numbering was not necessary but, I numbered them before I thought about putting the time on them. The bread rises three times. Three hours the first time, two hours the second time, and about an hour the third time. For the third rise they get put in the bread pans. Once the first rise is past, it gets a little hectic. It was hard for me to keep up. I also only had enough bread pans for two batches at a time. I mean, really, who has twelve bread pans? It all worked out and I pulled the last three loaves out of the oven before five pm. It's usually dark outside any other year.

This is what it looks like when they are all out of the oven. She is the bread princess. No, I do not wait for the bread to cool before I cut it open. I have to know whether it is cooked all the way through.

No, it wasn't. I wasn't worried. This is how Hubby and his siblings prefer it. This was the first batch and I do believe that the others were not this raw. I have never undercooked them this badly before. Something I always took pride in. At the same time, my pride made for Hubby's disappointment. He longs for that doughball. He even loves to say doughball. I find it quite yucky. Oh and the title is a shout out to my niece and when she would not say "bread" but "fred." Thanks, Lily!!

Remember these? Guess what? I tortured myself by making rabbits, lambs, and chicks. I iced every last one of them. Somewhere between 125 and 150. They were just as crack-like as the turkeys. We celebrated Easter at the lake house and they were hidden on the dessert counter where they were not as easily accessible as I made the turkeys. I had several left over.

The weekend was full of tasks. I had the bread and the cookies. I completely ignored the regular house chores; sweeping, bathrooms, laundry, etc. The weekend consisted of temperatures in the high 70's and 80's. While Hubby and a friend of his were being "dirty nerdy" in the basement, I got my work gloves out and the tractor and decided to move a stack of firewood. I moved it from the lower part of the driveway to the stack of other logs and stumps behind the burn pile. I decided to load most of it in the "dirt truck." The truck that does not have a functioning tailgate. I did not break it. So, I had to lift all the wood over the side of the truck. I had to do it with a lot of care so not to break the back window. Load the bed, drive it up the hill, and then throw everything back out of the bed. I'm happy to say it was only two truck loads and I did not throw myself into the pile logs while tossing the stumps. I did have to take two trips with the tractor for the bigger stumps.

Yeah, did you get that? Kneading for forty plus minutes the day before and then throwing stumps. My biceps and shoulders are HUGE!!! But not really. I feel good about my accomplishments. Not to let you down. After dropping off the last load I headed down to the house to grab my phone. When I was coming down the hill, I said to myself that "I should raise the front end loader so I don't get it stuck in the yard." And then I got the front end loader wedged in the yard. Hubby had to come get it out. No harm done. Not even to my pride. Every time I start that thing, I have to have Hubby rescue me one way or another. It's my way of showing his "girlfriend" who's boss around here.

Don't forget. Hockey playoffs are starting next week.

I Crossed the Line

2010-03-30T22:00:00.001-04:00

Twice, actually. It was the Mason-Dixon line.

This past Sunday, I was fortunate to accompany my sister and her family to the Maple Syrup Festival in Meyersdale, PA. Hubby opted out of this trip. It was too far and too boring, I guess. It was almost not meant to be. I had the kids all packed in the car ready to head to our 8am meeting place and the car wouldn't start. Always a puzzler since the car is only three years old. It was only a dead battery and Hubby had it jumped in ten minutes. So we head down the driveway.

Now. Our meeting place was a straight shot down our road. Less than two miles but, I have no concept of distance. However, they are replacing the bridge that results in the underpass being closed on our road. This means a ridiculous run around. On back roads. I am familiar with them but, I still ended up making a wrong turn.

We finally get on our way and make a quick stop for gas and potty break. I lean over to get my purse so my sister can go get me money from the ATM. No purse. When the kids and I went back in the house after learning the car wouldn't start, I took my purse with me. Then, when the car started and we were leaving, I did NOT take my purse with me. That's right. Two hours away, no identification and a sole twenty dollar bill in my back pocket. That was strike two indicating that this was going to be a long trip.

"Bug-Bug-Bug-a-da-Bug" says the Hubby as I'm trying to complete this post. Here is sister at our breakfast table. I tried to post as many horrible pictures as I could of her, strictly because it's funny. There is another one. The pancakes were some of the best I've ever had. Not too heavy like I make at home. The plate of butter. I always appreciate others' love for butter. Notice the empty cartons of orange drink. Not to be confused with orange juice.

There is that other horrible picture of sister. It looks like she was trying not to step in a horse patty. In fact, I do believe she was trying not to step in the mud. Do you see that wild Indian covered up in his animal skin? Blacksmiths. Can you see the Father's Day gift idea for Hubby?

These skates were on display in the Manor house. It was a nice tour through the house of the Meyers family. There was so much history. It was so cool. I am terrible with history. I wish that I was able to remember more dates and time periods. The exit of the tour was through the kitchen where they were handing out 7 root soup. I was afraid but, sister grabbed it up. She let Eden and I have a taste. Eden and I were sorry we didn't get our own sample. I found a recipe and will be making my own. Ether and Suction machine. You know. Anesthesia. Yikes. No thank you. Maple Syrup a cookin'. I realized later that the only maple syrup I consumed that day was at breakfast. I figured that the kids and I were going to be extra sugary by the end of the day.

The best part of the whole day was the horse pull. It was my first time. I was very impressed. I was impressed even more when the announcer/auctioneer informed us that the heavyweights were coming up after this group. These horses in these pictures weighed around 3,700 pounds. The final weight they pulled was somewhere over 9,000 pounds. The heaviest of the heavy weights were 5,000 pounds. I wish I could say that we stayed to find out how much they pulled but, I can't. Although it was early afternoon, the kiddos were spent.

This is what happens when you go to the PA Maple Festival. Why no, I did not take these photos while driving down the highway.

In the middle of this post I had to google the population of Meyersdale. Less than 3,000. This is a small festival but, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope to go back next year.

Georgia on my Mind

2010-03-18T18:41:00.001-04:00

But not really.
I have been surrounded by situations that are making me second guess my decision to not have anymore children.
When my sister-in-law became pregnant last year, it didn't make me want another baby. I was glad it wasn't me. Now. When my sister became pregnant recently, through a freak birth control failure, it made me think. A lot. I kept wondering if I should have another one. If it were up to Hubby, we probably would have about four children by now. I also had a birthday last week. It was the cut-off birthday for having children. The last thing is the house. We are in the middle of purchasing the house and making it our own. A house that has one more bedroom not spoken for. hhhmmmmm It's senseless, but funny, to discuss this with Hubby. Again, he's ready any time. I got so wrapped up in all these thoughts that I started to think I might be pregnant. I won't lie when I say that I was a little disappointed when I found out that I wasn't.
Well, I quickly got over that. Xzavier helped. He is going through a phase right now where he doesn't want to go potty. He ends up having an accident. Last night was the cake topper when he made it to the bathroom and then peed on the floor and walls. I had to walk away and call Hubby. I wish that I didn't yell at my kids as much as I do. I get so upset after the fact. Sometimes, even when I'm doing it. I didn't yell at him last night. I went downstairs, cried a little bit, and then went back upstairs to put them to bed. It was just one of those times where I felt like I was having a major failing moment as a parent. It locked in the fact that I was not meant to have anymore if I couldn't handle these two. I won't lie again, disappointed, on more than one level.
I slept on that decision and woke up with additional reinforcements to solidify the decision. First thing, I didn't have to get up in the middle of the night. This is a rare occasion. Yes, Xzavier still gets up in the middle of the night. At this point, it is to go to the bathroom. It used to be to climb into bed with Hubby and I around 2am. I guess I wasn't getting out of bed for that but I was still being woke up. Before that, it was because he was an infant and that's what infants do. I admit that it gets better every night. Hubby and I have switched sides of the bed so now I will just shove him to make him get out of bed.
I also realized that in addition to the spring cleaning coming up is the spring gardening. This job is far more involved than the cleaning. Hubby's mom has been here up until this year doing most of it. I know that she won't be able to resist getting her hands in the dirt but, I know that I will be doing most of it. Like the spring cleaning, I can't wait to get into it. Me and my unshowered, bikini top, garden gloved self could spend hours weeding. This is also another reinforcement. Spending hours outside at a time is not something you can do with a baby. The kids are finally at an age where I can lather them up with sunscreen and let them loose while I sit in the sun and dirt. I just have to make sure they aren't throwing things down certain pipes that would cause certain blockages in the septic system. (True story, that is kind of gross and could have been a lot worse and disastrous.) I remember when Eden was an infant and we lived at the house my dad now lives in. I believe I was in the garden at 7 am because she would be sleeping for another couple of hours and it was the only opportunity I would have to pull the giant thistles from the flower garden. If you revert back to the previous paragraph, that would tell you that it doesn't make it very likely that I am going to jump out of bed these days to pull weeds.
Reinforcement #3. All of the baby equipment was given to a family that had lost everything in a house fire. No clothes, no crib, no car seat, no breast pump. We would have to start all over again. Something my sister is facing right now. I have no problem getting that stuff second hand but, it was so liberating getting rid of all of it the first time. It's not the expense of it all, it's all the stuff in general.
Finally, pregnancy is soooooooo long. It has it's perks, but if it weren't so long I wouldn't mind it so much. Don't eat this, don't lift that, you can't roller skate in your third trimester, pee in this tube once a month. I had very uneventful pregnancies. Up until I found out Eden was breech. I found out about the same time we were in Lamaze class. The class that made me realize that I was actually going to have to give birth and not walk around pregnant forever. I was actually relieved when I found out I was having a c-section. No pushing, no labor, morphine button, and you get to deliver a week before your due date. As soon as I saw the doctor when I was pregnant with Xzavier I said "sign me up."
I have been trying to do this post for days. After last night, the content drastically changed. So, it was not the post I originally thought it would be. I have worked on this post half the day. I realize that I still am not 100% certain. I guess I will just do the same thing my sister did regarding her pregnancy. Pray to God. If He wants us to have another child He will give it to us.

Remember when.....???

2010-03-17T16:02:00.004-04:00

I started the following post on 2/3/10. The first part now makes no sense but I'm gonna leave it anyway.
I was having some sit down time with Hubby last night. That is all it involved. Him ~~switching my controls on the~~ playing Nintendo DS and me sitting next to him watching hockey. Not the Penguins. Huh? I don't know who it was now. Minnesota Wild? Anyway. For some reason the SNL The Chris Farley Show with Paul McCartney skit popped into my head. Dang. I can't find a YouTube with Paul McCartney, but the skit went like this. That, in turn, made me think of all the stupid things that I used to do when I was younger. In no particular order, without proper punctuation, or any photos.

First title: My sister and I...

used to make "outfits" out of scraps of fabric. Kind of like Pat Benatar and her crew in Love is a Battlefield. My grandmother and mother both sewed which gave us a lot to work with. Usually too short and never enough of one piece. We never actually sewed them together but, held it all with a belt.

We made a point to see how many hair accessories we could put in our hair at one time. This experiment also included a belt. There is a picture to prove it. This experiment coincides with putting pantyhose on your face, then pulling it off to laugh at the distorted mess. Usually, your face took on an Asian form.

We are the product of two working parents which would leave us by ourselves during the summer months. We would wake up at some late hour in the morning and make our fail safe "Golden Buck." This is not the original recipe that we used but, this was one has Colt 45 which makes it even funnier. It's the same delicious idea.

Our grandmother had a swimming pool when we were growing up. We liked to take kickballs and get them to stay on our head by covering them with our hair. There is a picture to prove it. Soooo stupid.

Bike rides around #4 Dam. Crawl up the walls in the hallway. Stay up all night playing Rygar in the basement. Computer games on the Tandy. Aaaahhhh, the old house.

Moving right along. I had a meditation session this morning. You know. I ran the sweeper. I was going over in my head the fact that this weekend is spring and how much cleaning I get to do. It was brought to my attention the night before when Mike came over and was telling us about how his mother had been "spring cleaning the cabinets." I had been aware that the spring cleaning was approaching, I just have not made my list.
As I was meditating, I was wondering if cleaning could be considered a hobby. Then it occurred to me that some people call that Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. That doesn't bother me. What bothers me is when I came down stairs this morning to feed the kids their breakfast, I had to dust the cabinets first. The sun was coming in the window at just the right angle where it was shining on all the little ledges of the cabinets. I immediately walked over and wiped them down. The sun was also showing me how dusty the cabinets are on the bottom closest to the floor. I would have never guessed that much dirt kicks up and sticks to the front of my cabinets. Made me realize how much work I have to do. I just hope that I can do it all. I like when things are clean. The floor is something I worry less about being clean. With the mud and all.
On the subject of the house. We applied for a mortgage to purchase the property. I was a little nervous at first. Once we actually put our signature on the application, I felt good. It was the right time. I do not know the first thing about buying a house, or mortgages, or politics. I don't pretend that I do. It's a go with the flow attitude. You all may know about this $8,000 tax credit for first time home buyers. It was a mad rush to get this paperwork together in order to make the deadline. The lady at the bank even let us know that we would be getting the credit. I got back to the office after signing the application and my Dad let me know that, in fact, we do not qualify since we are buying from family. Sure enough, the IRS website confirmed it. No harm, no foul. It really didn't matter to us one way or another. Everyone kept telling me about it but, I had a feeling that it would have ended up coming back and biting us in the butt some how. So, the appraiser is coming Friday and then we will wait some more until someone tells us to do something else.
I should post again real soon. I've got something else on my mind. Once again, hockey is on so I must go.

We went to Disney World!!!!

2010-03-12T19:23:00.001-05:00

I know Hubby is chomping at the bit for a post. Here goes it.
Sooooooo, we went to Disney World. Huge success. Mostly, due to sister(my sister-in-law) Sonja making every last teeny tiny arrangement. Even had an itinerary that we did not fully follow. Toddlers and more toddlers and about ten other adults do not always make it easy to be at the same place at the same time. I have a few pictures but, my camera and computer do not get along. My computer refuses to take all the pictures from the camera without choking on them.
The trip to the airport and getting on the plane was flawless. Everyone made it onto the plane without any problems. Ten of us, including an infant. This is our second time flying with the kids. We flew to Myrtle Beach a couple of years ago. It's the only way to travel with small children. We're blessed to be able to do it this way. Oh, and don't forget the Nintendo DS. We stayed right in one of the Disney Resorts. This means we get a refillable cup to get drinks whenever we want. This also means that there is a bus stop for each of the theme parks. No worrying about getting lost, parking, or traffic. Priceless. I highly, highly recommend doing this. Unless, you like to take your own car and fight that traffic. Do what you want. Our destination the first day was The Magic Kingdom. This was Eden's outfit to go meet Mickey Mouse and princesses and Tinkerbell. (Unfortunately, it was Tinkerbell's day off and we did not get to see her. I was unaware that fairies got a day off. Even I know they are supposed to be preparing for spring.) Let me break this outfit down for you. I know, rationalizing it doesn't make it any better. It was the middle of February. It was cold. Especially, in the morning. So, she had her clothes on, leggings and shirt, her jacket, her Tinkerbell dress, her extremely filthy gloves, and her hat. I only realize now what she was wearing. That outfit was not out of the ordinary that day from any other day. I remember when my niece used to wear the most bizarre things. I would think to myself, "What is wrong with my sister? Why does she let her dress that way?" See what I get? I should have never thought anything of it. They're expressing themselves. I guess. The Magic Kingdom has this wonderful little place where the princesses sit for a little meet and greet. Also where the fairies would have been. I'm really unsure how Eden really felt. These women are wonderful. They talk to these little girls like they were long lost friends. I think Eden was excited. I do have this day documented with these photos of her in this outfit meeting her most favorite princess in the whole world. I hope she remembers.These women were truly fantastic. They were so sweet and even made a point to include Xzavier who was hanging out in the shadows. Can you imagine doing what they do? It's not for me. I did appreciate that each one of them had hand sanitizer. There was also a gentlemen that was ushering us in that asked if Sonja was eating "donut seeds." I heard him ask but, did not see what she was eating so I quickly turned around. Cheerios. All the employees at all the parks were fantastic. Again, not for me. Maybe when I'm older. We did not end up seeing very much of the Magic Kingdom that day. We had a park hopper and just figured we would end up back there in a couple days. We were a bit overwhelmed, it being our first day. It was very crowded. More crowded than I anticipated for the middle of February. I did find out a day or so later that the people from the North are on winter break. I am not familiar with winter break but, I guess that would explain all the people.Look at these two. This was the same scene everyday. Eden isn't sleeping. They were bored, I suppose. Neither one is at an age where they are tall enough to ride everything. They are also not at an age where they want to wait in line. There is no way you could do these parks without a stroller. The parks are just to big. There are a lot of strollers. So many, in fact, that there is stroller parking EVERYWHERE. You park your stroller, go into the attraction or wait in line for the ride and when your done, go back and get it. When you pick up the stroller in the entrance of the park, you get a name card to slide into a pocket so you know which one is yours. Handy. I could not say what command was given here but, Xzavier's response was "Yes, sir!" Isn't Eden's hair pretty? It is when it wants to be or when she lets me round brush with the hair dryer to smooth it out. And then...It can look like this. These are not good photos. She had a princess make over on our second day. Instead of heading to EPCOT with everyone else the second day, we headed down town. The main reason for heading downtown was to take Hubby to Legoland. The Lego store. It was pretty fun but, crowded. I couldn't fully take it all in and appreciate it properly. The same for Hubby. I ended up sending him back our last night there so he could get some "supplies." The other score downtown was the Disney Toy store they had that included the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. This is were these girls get all made up. You can walk around Magic Kingdom and see all these little girls with princess dresses and their hair in a perfect bun with sparkles. They get their makeup done and their nails painted. Obviously, a big deal, especially for a five year old. However, not real sure about that when it comes to Eden. It was the same as when she was meeting the princesses. You can't really tell if she is happy or just wants to move on to something else. She got to choice her hairstyle. She chose the one with the pink hair piece. Of course. She also insisted on wearing the paper crown she was given. It was from the Frog and the Princess and she was wearing the frog side. I thought that it made her look like that bad gremlin by the end of the day. It had turned into a sort of mohawk. Again, all the employees were wonderful in this boutique that had about twelve salon chairs. The girl that did Eden's hair was actually from our area here at home. "It's a small world after all. It's a small world after all. It's a small, small world." Yeah, we rode it. Creepy. I mean. So fun.
We did make it to EPCOT that night. We were trying to stay for the fireworks but, this was the third day the kids had not napped and they weren't making it very far into the night. If you've seen one firework, you've seen them all, right? We also decided it was better to leave when we did so we wouldn't have to fight and wait for our bus to take us back to the resort.
Friday, we ventured to Animal Kingdom. It was our favorite. We were surrounded by trees and more trees and it makes you almost forget all the black top. We ended the day in Dinoland which was geared toward the kids. All the parks have playgrounds for you to release your kids. Obviously, this is where they had the most fun. It's an area that they can't get out to the rest of the park without someone seeing them go but, that didn't stop me from following them around where ever they went. I got one kiddo, Hubby got the other. I just had to know where they both were at all times. It made me too uneasy if I couldn't see them. The last day we went to Hollywood Studios that had the Honey, I shrunk the Kids playground. By far, the favorite. They had a "spiderweb" that was a rope maze that you climbed up and then back down. It was pretty fun but, not after the 15th time on the hottest day while carrying a stuffed leopard. You know how that goes. And I ended up hitting my head on the way out of the ant hill/colony that required me to crawl. I think only six people saw me do it. Classy. I had a lump on my head for a couple days. Besides the playground, Hollywood did not have much to offer. Other than the smoked turkey leg I chewed on, just like Fred Flinstone. So delicious. After that we headed back to the resort to wait for the bus to take us to the airport. We were all pretty tired at this point. It's a lot of walking. I thought it would be a good idea to get those Reebok Easytone sneakers to wear for all that walking. Let me just say, that they do what they say they will do. My butt and thighs were sore everyday. We were home in our living room by 9:30pm or so and I was relieved. It was a long day.
As I was writing this, I got a recorded phone call from my local grocery store. Allow me to back track only a couple of hours when I was at said grocery store. I was searching frantically and as quickly as possible for our family's favorite snack mix. Quickly, because my kids cannot help but to pinch and squeeze and terrorize each other other in their race car grocery cart. Furiously, I walk away from the snack aisle empty handed because the snack mix was not in it's usual place. I was really considering asking someone where it was. I didn't. However, mystery solved by the phone call I just received saying it's been recalled due to salmonella poisoning. I'm not exaggerating when I say we eat this a bag at a time and have eaten close to a dozen bags in the last three months. All I have to say is that they better fix their mistakes and clean their equipment and get that stuff back on the shelf.
Upon further investigation, but not really, I learned that we are not in any serious threat of being poisoned from the incredibly delicious snack mix. Conveniently, Eden had a check up with the pediatrician. I decided to ask what the deal was, since I was there. Our awesome pediatrician is a no nonsense kind of guy and I love it. I specifically ask to see him for every check up. Sure, he closes his eyes the entire time he talks to you but he calms all your worries and doesn't make you one of those frantic parents. For example, regarding the salmonella poisoning, he says there is no worries. He stated that I would have to "eat 12 raw eggs in my potato salad" to really be worried about being poisoned. Random. He also said that we would have had diarrhea and been throwing up long ago had we been poisoned. Or this one, when the kids had just turned a year or so, "they can have some peanut butter but not like two inches thick, like I do." The man knows what is good. Most importantly, he made sure not to make me one of those freaks regarding the H1N1. I appreciate his honesty and he knows his stuff.
I have more to say but, I'm gonna save it for another post. And hockey is on so I gotta go.

Exhaustion

2010-02-23T22:07:00.004-05:00

I have no idea why I feel so compelled to write this post when I am so tired from so many things. I just got back from vacation. Shouldn't I be well rested and ready to get back into my routine? Disney is not a place to get well rested. Especially for the kids.
We returned from our Disney vacation on Saturday night. I will post about the trip very soon. As soon as I stop fighting with computers and their refusal to want to store my photos. I was very excited to get back into my routine. I knew there was laundry that would go on for days. The floor would need swept, and I would go back to work on a full week. No half days, that is. As I sat down to write this I realized there is a set of sheets in the dryer. It's been there since last night. I'm having a hard time letting it go. I'm not the type to let laundry pile up. Anywhere. Whether it be dirty laundry or clean laundry. I like everything in it's place. I guess it will be OK since I barely picked up any toys and lazily stuffed a bunch of paper in the art drawers. I'm tired.
Why am I going to stay up and continue to post? I don't know. I was away for only five days. I am proud to say that I never logged on to one computer. I didn't miss it but, as soon as I was able to get my hands on my keyboard, I did. I have spent the last two days catching up on blogs that I follow. I think that is why I feel so compelled to share my exhaustion.
I was all ready to go to work yesterday. I was ready to get back into my routine. I did not prepare myself for the likes of that day. Allow me to remind you of the two feet of snow we received, approximately three weeks ago. This snow results in catastrophic loss in the wonderful word of insurance. Every time I picked up the phone yesterday, someone different had some sort of damage to their home from this snow. I have never seen anything like this in my eight years of insurance. I did not prepare myself for that day and it got the best of me. According to my "co-workers," yesterday was nothing, compared to last week. It just didn't occur to me that I would have that many phone calls, with that much damage. It drained me. Today eased up. I didn't take nearly as many phone call with damage.
In addition to work I am trying to figure out what is happening at preschool. The kids missed two whole weeks of school. Not just from vacation. It was mostly from the snow. I am fortunate to have one of the mother's email address and she got me up to speed. She informed me that the pile of 30 valentines I had for each kid's class would not go to waste and that they were being handed out yesterday or Friday. Eden will finally get to deliver her Valentine's tomorrow and I will be rid of them. Hooray!!! Oh. I came to learn that I was missing five valentines from the box that I was storing at my desk. While I was away, Dad took it upon himself to start handing them out assuming that they had gone to waste. Ugh. Now I have to try and find five Valentine's somewhere on clearance to make up the difference. Nope. I proudly admit that I RE-Valentined from Eden's loot. Her backpack was full from her day at school so I picked five nice ones and sent them to Xzavier's class. Frugal and the least stressful. My kids don't need all that candy. We have cookies.
And then....My first born will be five years old tomorrow. It's hard to understand where the time goes. She requested a party at Chuck E Cheese and cherry cheesecake. The Martha Stewart that I am, found silicone cupcake holders at Target in the shape of butterflies and flowers. I thought they would be perfect for single serving cheesecake. That was a couple weeks ago. It's crunch time now. And why are there so many variations on a cheesecake recipe? The single serve cheesecakes turned out splendid. I only had twelve holders. The rest of it was made into regular size cheesecake in a spring form pan. I really had no idea if they would turn out and was pleasantly surprised when they came out perfect. Well, maybe slightly undercooked but, I didn't mind because it was like pudding. I let the birthday girl sample. I'm convinced she was strictly looking for the cherry pie filling. I may have been able to just hand her a can of pie filling and she would have been just as happy. All we have to do now is wait for Sunday to party at Chuck E Cheese.
I was having severe refusal of gifts and decided to enroll her in dance class. I can't handle anymore stuff in this house. Although, we did bring a significant amount back from Florida. And I did get her the ballerina Dora that she threw a tantrum about at a previous grocery shopping trip. Hubby and her brother also got her some sketch books. Needless to say, she will still get gifts from grandparents, galore. I'm not worried.
I look forward to next week when I lose my Suzie, who watches the kids three days a week for me. Her and Dad are going on a trip which means I have to stay home. I am hoping that I will be able to relax and "get organized." I look forward to being home and being on vacation at the same time. Organizing and cleaning out the house sounds like a vacation to me. Especially, if I can take a nap when the kids take one. Although, I won't because I like that time to enjoy the silence.
Two days have kicked my butt and the end is not even in sight. I just keep telling myself that I don't have it so bad. At least I don't have water damage in my house from two feet of snow melting. I'm tired.

Bringin' it back

2010-02-09T22:20:00.005-05:00

It snowed here. Two feet. We haven't had snow like this in over a decade. Hubby is all about the documentation. Taking pictures of the kids not being able to walk in the hip deep snow, the tree limbs touching the ground with the weight of the snow if they weren't broken. I am all about playing in it. Seriously, I snapped a couple pictures and then put the camera in the house so I could use the snow as my Craftmatic adjustable bed. This is the perfect snow to build an igloo. I tried, only to find out I have no engineering skills. Or igloo building skills. Or bo staff skills. I really wanted to make a hiding place for me and the kids. I actually realized that it was going to take an enormous amount of snow piled up and then dug out. Too much snow for me to pile up by myself. Especially, with Eden being the "cat that claws on the walls." It was a two step forward, three step back process. I admit, I gave up. Hubby later told me that all it takes is some Tupperware to make bricks. OOooooo I couldn't wait to give it a try.
Yeah, we got two feet of snow but, we also got no electricity to go with it. For over 48 hours. My sister is going on 96 hours. I anticipated the snow. I was super excited. It started Friday afternoon so we had all weekend to clean ourselves out. It never occurs to me that we are going to lose power. It's always an after thought. It's funny to hear about how busy the grocery stores are the day before a storm. Everyone purchasing "bread and milk" and other necessities. I pride myself in my constantly stocked pantry and freezer. So when the electricity is out for the first full day, it occurs to me, what the heck is everyone doing with all that stuff they just bought at the grocery? Ya can't cook it! Your milk is going bad in the refrigerator that now has no power. Just something I thought of in the deafening silence. I sadly lost a lot of ice cream and ice cream sandwiches. There were some other things but nothing as good as the ice cream. I did keep some ice cream. They were brand new containers. Never opened before today. I googled, and consulted my sister, whether I should keep the ice cream that had thawed and then became frozen again. It's a 50/50 discussion. Some say you will get food poisoning while others say you will just lose the quality of the product.
Now. I reside in a large, fairly open floor plan home with a green house on the front. The green house has no glass just plastic to keep the cold out. The plastic is on its last leg and coming off the front of the house. There is not a lot of open space but, the little amount there is, lets in a tremendous amount of cold. We all know the flooring situation, hardwood, ceramic, goony carpet, and area rugs. What am I getting at? My heat comes from the most fantastic ELECTRIC hot water boiler to heat this house and floor. Lack of electric and faulty plastic makes quick cold. Except, when Hubby gets the propane heater pumping. He blasts that heat straight up stairs to the bedrooms. The balcony in the great room was unbearably warm.
The electric went out on us Friday around 9:45pm. Hubby fussed with heaters and propane tanks and cussed regulators for a couple of hours before realizing he could do no more until morning. That was the same time he came upstairs to go to bed, only to find me smashed in our bed between two toddlers that refused to settle down and go to sleep by themselves. He found comfort in Eden's make shift sleep-over bed in Xzavier's room. I think he was more comfortable there. He finds comfort in the most odd places and can fall asleep at the drop of a hat. Something I wish I could do.
First thing Saturday morning, Hubby heads out to get his "girlfriend" ready for a day of pushing and shoving hundreds of pounds of snow. It was kind of a repeat of the night before, fussing and cussing with the tractor and back blade and cussing at the fact that he is the go to guy since he has the dirt truck that is like the postal service. Neither hail nor sleet nor snow. He put more miles on his truck in two days than he does all week. We purchased more fuel in two days than we do all month. He was quite the trooper. All he asked at the end of the day was a hot shower that we were able to get at his Mom and Dad's apartment. He did all this while I was playing in the snow with kids. The snow eventually stopped but, the power did not come back. I do believe the main issue was the major downage (that's not a word) of power lines, poles, and trees down our road. We had to take the long way around to get anywhere. I was shocked when we traveled to his Mom and Dad's Saturday night on clean roads. The road in front of our house was like the rest of the yard. One of those times when you could have been on your sled and not been able to stop and ended up in the road and been OK. Except here, you wouldn't stop in the road, it would be the weed patch across the road. Hahaha. It would still be a fun ride.
Where was I? Sunday was a repeat of Saturday except, no snow and it was booger freezing cold. Too cold to have a good time outside. Although, the way I dress me and the kids, we would have been alright. By two o'clock, I had it. Two days with no coffee in the morning had resulted in migraines in the afternoon and evenings. The kids had cabin fever and I was done. I reluctantly packed our bags and headed to my Ma's house. It would give the kids the other set of toys that hadn't played with for a while. Yes, I wussed out and went the easy route to electric. It was a matter of sanity. The kids and I ended up cuddling together and watching movies until bed time. We had a delicious hot meal of chili. The kids were able to play in a hot bath and have, yet another, sleep over. I slept, in what was the most comfortable bed I have ever come across. I am sure that I have slept in that bed before. I just don't remember it being that comfortable. Or. Our bed is really THAT bad. I am having "buy a new bed" refusal these days.
The kids and I got up Monday morning and took our time having breakfast and getting ready for me to go to work. I called Hubby and learned that the electric had come on during the night. Hooray!! Again, took my time getting a proper shower and making myself feel like a real person. Head towards Dad's to drop the kids off with Suzie only to find Jefferson Ave a thick sheet of ice. I was not comfortable with the ice. The snow I am OK with. The ice I know I have less control over. I took a time out after dropping the kids off and had a cup of hot coffee with Suzie for a couple of minutes until Dad started calling because him and Jimmy were hungry after answering phones all morning by themselves. I get brave and head to the office, which is about a mile from Dad's house. The side road to the office was clear. Made me mad.
I worked a few hours. Listened to other's story of trees down, potential frozen pipes, and loss of everything in their chest freezer. You get the same weary tone from them all. Listening to all of this while just wanting to be at home in anticipation of the next front coming through this morning. By the time I picked the kids up, Jefferson Ave had melted due to the sun being out all day. I know it's God watching out for me. He also didn't bring the six to ten inches we were supposed to have with this front. I know it's not over but, at least I can go to work tomorrow. In confidence that I am not going to end up in a ditch.
Hubby was switched to midnight. I layed down with him before he went to work last night. He asked what I wanted to watch. "What's on the NHL Network?" Of course. I missed two Pens games during this interruption. Not cool. There is only a handful of games before Olympic Hockey starts. I gotta get my fill, as I sit here and listen to Detroit get their butts kicked by Edmonton. Teehee. And now, by the time I proof read, the game is tied. Gotta go. Pictures to come.
Happy Birthday Hubby!!!! I love you!

_________________________________________________________

So, here we go. These are in no particular order. These also made me realize that I need to make an effort and document. The above picture is the pathway from our house to the farm house. Yes, I crawled through it because it was a magical winter tunnel. I looked back to see Eden grinning and wanting to come through as well. Between her and Ruger, they mostly knocked all the snow off the branches.
This is Ruger, aka Ru. Ru just turned seven on January 13. He's not an old dog, but has severe hip displasia and is rickety as can be. He so badly wants to run and play but, his joints just don't let him. He's very shaky after about 15 minutes and has to be put back inside.
This is Eden walking the air hose up to Hubby's "girlfriend." Yes, it's hip deep for her.

What do you do when there is two feet of snow? You get your plastic lawn mower out and try and push it. Don't forget to get real mad when you can't do it.

This picture was taken Friday night before the real snow even fell. This is the side of our barn. You can see the foot prints up to the cars. In a few weeks, this will be mud.

Oh, and Detroit did not get beat by Edmonton. It was St. Louis. Zetterberg couldn't get the job done in the shoot oot. (No misspelling. That's how you pronounce it.) I giggled.

I ventured out and came to work today. Learned that my sister finally got power at 11 o'clock last night. Also learned that there are still people without electric. Not good.

Weather

2010-02-01T14:02:00.000-05:00

The weather is extreme here in our part of the country. It has gone from several inches of snow, to booger freezing cold, to rain, to back to snow, and now it is back to booger freezing cold again. (I used too many commas there.) The only part that infuriates me is the rain. We all know why that is. I believe it was my last lazy Sunday that I sat on the couch and watched the rain come down. All day. By the time I had gone to bed and I could still here it coming down, I was out of my mind. I told Hubby if it didn't stop, I was going to freak out. It did stop during the night, and then a day or so later I left for work and noticed the above picture. It had snowed a little. I'm always glad that it covers up the brown. Well, it had rained so much and saturated everything that the mud prevailed where the spring house used to stand. GGGRRR!!!! It's not a very good picture but I think you get the idea. This was also the place the giant willow tree stood. When Hubby and I first started dating it stood tall and strong. Over time it rotted and deteriorated. It was chopped down and all that was left was the stump. I guess you call it a stump because, it still stood taller than me. Several months later the stump fell down. Crumbled is more like it. Hubby took his "girlfriend" down and shoved the mulch into a giant pile. Upon noticing this mud puddle the other morning, it occurred to me that the pile is now gone. I imagine it has washed down the drain and into the creek down the road. It just makes me realize how much time has passed. Kind of sad.
This picture is also from this past weekend. (Now two weekends cuz I take so long to post) Hubby made this out of plumbing fittings for Mike's 11 year old son. You hook it up to the air compressor, build up some pressure, load some ping pong balls, and FIRE!! He and Eden had a fantastic time making sure it worked well. I wish I had a photo of the perfect circle bruise on Hubby's back. I believe he received that mark for shooting Mike's brother in the leg. Good times. It was a huge hit with Mike's son as well. The day after delivering the launcher, Hubby was searching the cabinets for the pancake mix and discovered the giant marshmallows. Another excellent choice to shoot out of the air-powered weapon.
The above and following pictures are a little gross. I was heading up to bed the other night and this caught my eye in the fish tank. I took these pictures with the camera that I still have not learned to work completely. (That is a bad sentence, I know.)
Can't see what's going on here? Let me explain. This is was one of our fish that is tangled on the air tube by it's entrails. Gooo. However, I was completely fascinated. I must have snapped forty pictures because it kept floating all around allowing me to get many angles. I believe the photo below gives the best shot of the giant hole left from the other fish snacking on him/her. Goo.
This was one of our many fish. We started out with six. At one point we had over twenty. Now, we are back down to around twelve. Mollies, I believe is what the pet stores call them. I am probably wrong. I don't think they are doing so well right now. Probably due to the fact that there is more than one dead fix in the tank polluting the water. Great, now I made myself feel guilty and will go home and clean the fish tank after I make supper. Not what I had planned but, now that I think about it I enjoy these fish. When they multiply for free and keep the tank busy, it makes me happy. I would rather sit and watch a lot of little fish swimming around than have a bunch of fancy ones. I do sit and watch them, too. Especially, right after I have cleaned the tank.
Goo. I apologize to the more sensitive viewers. I see something and I am compelled to post about it. Like the mud and dead fish. It has taken me exactly a week to get this post done. I am not very good at this.
My spiritual journey, you ask? Stalled. Broken down, if you will. I think about it everyday and get frustrated with my lack of discipline. Another reason it takes me a week to do a post. I have no discipline. One of many things I need to work on doing way better.
Oh, something else that will help with my discipline, Reebok Easytone shoes. You know, those shoes that are supposed to tone your legs faster while walking. I wore them all day Saturday while cleaning the house. I then trekked over to my Ma's house to try them out on her treadmill. After a half an hour I was convinced that the left shoe had a deflated air pocket and it was making me lop-sided. The next day I went to exchange them, and spent half an hour trying the same two pair of shoes. One pair on, the next one on, the first one back on, the second pair back on. When I realized I had been doing this for half an hour, I ran out of the store with the same pair of shoes that I took into the store to exchange. CCCRRRRAAAAZZZEEEEEE!!!!! I have not put them back on but I convinced myself that it was psychological and that the shoes were the same. I'll let you know how that goes.

I Feel Better

2010-01-20T16:30:00.000-05:00

These are the photos of the picture frame I had promised. Super cool!!! I chose this special back drop. It's the piano with Christmas gifts on the back. These photos had to be quickly taken in fear that the weight of the frame was going to snap the music stand. Yes, it's heavy. As is everything Hubby makes for me.

Notice the orange bottle in the background. It's to make martians. Thanks Santa. It keeps the kids attention not long enough to complete the project but, long enough for mom to get covered in martian goo.
This summarizes our entire New Year weekend. They're in my spot. I was cuddled with them while watching the hockey game. I had to very gently get up from the couch in order to not disturb this. Our baby boy is quite the cuddler and good at falling asleep. Staying asleep in his own bed is another story. Ooooooo this makes me want to cuddle him just looking at this. Moving on from this random photo I was compelled to share.

The title of the post is the new joke in the office. The office that I was recently whining about not wanting to work in anymore. Well, I feel better about the whole situation. Hubby and I had a conversation that made me realize that the timing is all off. It's just not possible at this time to make any major decisions. I'm good with that. Like I said, I feel better. I need to not dwell on everything that is not working and focus on what does. There is a lot that does work and a lot that I can make work even better. I realized I can do this job and do it well.

Part of the timing issue is Hubby's Dad wanting to take the entire family to Disney next month. Eleven people traveling in an RV to the Magic Kingdom. I think it will be more fun than I can wrap myself around right now. I also think that we will all be on each other's nerves. But I hope that it is not until the trip back. I'm excited for the kids. Hubby and I both growled at the initial mentioning of the trip. Traveling with toddlers and then waiting in lines with toddlers is not Hubby's idea of a good time. I don't mind doing it because I know how excited the kids would be to see all of their favorite characters. I won't mind getting away from home for a while, either.
My spiritually enlightened journey that I started ten days ago is running long. It's been ten days but I haven't made it to Day Three yet. Let's just say I've had a couple layovers. I think that it is a good thing for me to focus on what I've read for more than one day. I need to really pound it into my brain.
Well, since it takes me a week to post something the vacation has been confirmed. However, we are traveling by air. The kids are going to have a great time. The adults may have a different emotion.

The next big event on the horizon is the purchase of the property. The piece of property that we have been living on for over four years. The property that produces the mud that I do not get along with so well. I have been anticipating it(mud) for about a week now with the warm up but, it has stayed away. Kind of exciting, both for the purchase of the property and the mud. Mostly nerve racking. But, mostly exciting because it means that the house will get finished. For those of you who don't know me, this house is a very sensitive subject. I only just recently learned from my husband that the reason some projects have not been completed was because he was waiting until the house was actually in our name. Recently, meaning a few months ago. Recently, not being the four previous years before that. So, yes it is exciting. What will be even more exciting is that I hope to do some before and after posts. Obviously, months and months from now.

The sensitivity of the house has been hard to take all this time. My sister and I moved into our respective houses at approximately the same time. As I have watched her turn hers into a home, mine has remained the same as when we moved in. With the exception of, the addition and subtraction of large pieces of furniture. I have pictured many times in my head, carpet in the bedrooms, pictures on the wall, the grand room with hard wood and a huge, magnificent area rug, and curtains on the windows. All the things that make a home your own.

For four years, I've lived with a carpet that was taken out of my mother's house that doesn't quit fit in the grand room. It's a hideous stained green thing. I actually have a love-hate relationship with this green monster. While it is obviously full of germs and dirt that I pretend are not there, this grotesque piece of carpet, hides muddy dog prints like none other. I will not miss it when it is gone.

The bedroom floors are painted gray. Three out of four, anyway. The kids have an area rug in each of their rooms. Large enough to almost cover the entire floor but, not quite. Their curtains are hung with thumb tacks. At least the curtains on the sliding glass doors that go out onto the balcony. The other windows have curtains hung with tension rods. Curtains I made from pieces of fabric. Basically, I just hemmed the pieces of fabric and put them in the windows. Our bedroom also has a tension rod but, no hemming on the piece of fabric hanging from it. The loft bedroom/sewing room/"I hope someday I can make it a guest room" has a tension rod as well. No piece of fabric. It's three wool scarves sewn together to make a curtain. That's right. From the Gap. And so on and so on.

It's things like the above that I hope to take before and after photos. The transformation will be great. I already have plans for two small rooms that shouldn't take too long to make over. I figure I need to start small. I'll figure that and Hubby will figure something else.

Also, in my extended time periods of posting, I read another day of my journey. I'm convinced that the house is a big part of my journey. I know I'm well on my way and I am loving every minute of it.

Ctrl+Alt+Delete

2010-01-04T10:06:00.013-05:00

I've been wanting to push these buttons in my brain for weeks. Doesn't quite work the same as the computer. But, it's the new year and, aren't we supposed to start all over? It's six days into the new year and I can't find a starting point. I'm on the same wave length I have been on for weeks which is, all wave lengths, all over the place. It's frustrating. Most of the reason for no posting.

I hate being "negative Nancy" on my blog. There is no therapy in whining. I've learned this. So, I guess, my New Year's Resolution is to find out where I'm headed. What is truly going to make me happy? My fellow blogger, MckMama, has recommended to "blog boldly" and that is what I am going to try and do. To be authentic. To not hold back. In hopes that it will clear my mind.

The Christmas season came and went without much excitement. The time together with all the family is what I look forward to the most. Just hanging out, this year at mom's, and eating and drinking and being merry. Xzavier was, by far, the most excited. Each present he opened was the best thing he had ever seen. Every gift brought excited screaming and jumping up and down. On Christmas day he made a point to cover the entire floor with gifts. He was incapable of opening two gifts in the same place.

Eden was most excited about her pink fuzzy blanket. I can't blame her. It IS soft, in a gungy(pronounce with hard G's, not soft) way. She loves all things soft and more importantly, pink. Had the blanket not been pink, she would have questioned why not. She does this with all gifts. I don't mind the pink. It's the princesses that are starting to get to me. In particularly, Princess Aurora/Sleeping Beauty/Briar Rose. Yeah, that is the same princess in case you were wondering. Most mother of toddler girls do. However, in our house, it's just Aurora, as is most everything else Eden decides to name. Ugh. And, less than two weeks after Christmas, what are the kids playing with? Cat and Grover. The stuffed animals that are forever glued to my kids hands. Of course.

Hubby received magnets. Teeny, tiny ultra-strong magnets. Teeny, tiny ball bearing magnets. And also some rare earth magnets, apparently. I was not responsible for those and they might even fall under the already mentioned categories. He was excited as his three-year old son.

Me? I got an exquisite picture frame MADE by hubby. I will definitely post pictures soon. It is (and I'm gonna get hell for this) my most favorite piece.

The New Year was just as exciting. It wasn't. I am no longer interested in going out and celebrating the New Year other than in the safety of my own home. My celebration consists of cocktails at home with Hubby and our friend Mike and a wii remote. Good times. I did stay awake to see midnight and then some. Something I haven't done in a couple years.

On a sad note, New Year's was the passing of Hubby's grandfather. The following photo was from his 90th birthday last year. Hhhhmmmmm.....there seems to be a generation missing in this photo. This photo also shows Xzavier desperately wanting to pick his nose. At least that is what it looks like to me. Although it was a sad occasion, it brought the entire family together from across the country. The next day, Jan. 2, my niece arrived about two weeks early. My sister-in-law posted "As one life ends, another begins. We mourn the loss of my grandpap, and in the same breath, celebrate the birth of Kira Joy Ali." Perfect. And she is beautiful. Both my sister-in-law and Kira, that is.

Which brings me to now. Six days into the new year. Where am I going? What great things am I to accomplish this year? Am I supposed to quit my job and move on to something else like I have been pondering for the last couple of weeks? Where would I go? Do I want to go back to retail? These questions have been causing most of my inability to focus on the rest of my life. I feel like I can't move forward with anything else until I have a definite answer on this major question hanging over my head. I think that I already know that I won't leave the current job situation and that makes me sad. Sad because, I'm not brave enough to move on. Not brave enough to say to my "boss" that I can't work there anymore. That some of my unhappiness is due to one of my "co-workers."

I said to myself on the way to work this morning "that I was going to look at this job in a different light today." I did, somewhat. It was hard to do because the same disruptions are still there. Coincidentally, by the end of the day we were having a major security issue across the branch office and our office. As in, police getting involved. None of our office staff were in trouble but, it is causing the office to be closed for the first part of the day tomorrow. So, yeah, that was a different light. Not at all what I had in mind but, at least it stirred things up a bit.

So I wonder, what happened in the last couple of weeks that has made me back track on my positive energy? The attitude that I can do anything? I can attract all good things that I want right to me? I'm at a loss and it bothers me. I cannot change my frequency and that bothers me.

So, I'm taking a journey on the advise of a friend. Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life. 40 days to figure out "What on Earth Am I Here For?" I find a lot of solace in books about spiritual enlightenment. I've gotten away from reading the stack that I have next to my bed. Right now, I should be reading them over and over again. They give me so much strength. They give me my own identity. For the past couple of weeks, I've felt like wife, mother, and whatever it is that I am called at work. I know that I am those things but, I haven't been doing them the way I want "me" to do them. I'm not putting the effort into these jobs that I truly want to do. I'm totally slacking and not taking responsibility for it. For some reason, I keep reverting it back to not being able to make a decision about my job. I guess it is not being able to make a decision in general.

I'm hoping to blog my way through my journey but, seeing as it has been six weeks since my last post, let's not hold our breaths. I am gonna try. Blog boldly. So, bear with me, as I will probably be a bit boring for the next forty days. Or maybe not. It can only get better and I am most excited.

Well, that was like, two decisions right there. I'm feeling better already.

Turkey!!!!

2009-12-02T10:55:00.017-05:00

I 'm pretty sure I may had mentioned that I was hosting Thanksgiving this year. I use the term hosting because that is basically all I did. I made a few side dishes and the extremely popular turkey cookies you see to the left. Eden woke up the day before Thanksgiving and stated that "we need turkey cookies for our feast." She was right and I could do it. These cookies ~~are~~ were about the size of a silver dollar. I made them from "scrap." There was over 100. I iced most of them throughout the morning in between making other things. Once I became cross eyed, I had decided that they did not all need icing. Sister G said she preferred them without. They were the hit of Thanksgiving. Everyone had their hand in this basket.
The hosting was flawless. The day could not have gone any smoother. Final count: 23 adults and five children. I think. We feasted, laughed, and were merry.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday with Christmas coming in at a close second. The togetherness (let pretend that's a word) is my favorite. The memory I will take away from this Thanksgiving is the moment just after everyone arrived. I stood in my kitchen and just listened. The sound of the chatter filling my house, filled my heart. I can't imagine not being able to be with family on Thanksgiving. It would not be the same.

What am I thankful for, you ask? God, of course. I can do all things through Him. Phil 4:13(another favorite) Freedom. Hubby's Dad makes a point to remind us to be thankful for our freedom. I am thankful that he does. It is sometimes neglected or taken for granted. Family. I would be nothing without every last one of them. Health. Love. I just hope that I give as much love as I receive.

I could go on and on. I'm very blessed and God watches over me and protects me and leads me in the right directions. So, yeah. Thanksgiving was a complete success and I hope that I get to host again next year. I WILL make the turkey. And probably the turkey cookies.

The Saturday after, the whole family went to the lake. We hadn't been in so long. Hubby decided he wanted to go to the Amish Hardware store. It had been a long time since he had been there and his Dad suggested going and looking at the wood stoves. It worked out pretty well. We made it to the lake and by the time everyone was settled the kids needed a nap. We put them down for a nap and headed down the road. Now, this 2009, but we do not have GPS. We had a paper map. Several, actually. I was the reader of the map. Hubby's Dad had given me directions that we were following just fine. I got curious and started looking at the map. Long story short, I was reading the map backwards. I was thinking we were coming from the opposite direction which resulted in the long way.

We saw a lot of fields like this one to the left. These are corn stalk that the gather and bundle. I think it is fantastic. However, what I don't think is fantastic, is all the people that come into my office day in and day out who do not work. The whole time we were driving around I couldn't stop thinking about how hard these people work. I even saw children working in the garden. People around here have no concept.

Hubby did not complain about me leading us in the wrong direction. I apologized over and over again. I did feel bad. We had been in the car a long time. We did finally make it to the store. It was a store that had Amish Hardware on the walls as decorations. That was cool. Not the other merchandise that I can get any old place. We milled around for about an hour and got back in the car. And headed in the wrong direction, again. In case you were counting, that makes three turn arounds for me.

Further down the road, the fourth turn around, was Hubby's. However, I did get some good pics of Amish country. I got this picture when we stopped at a gas station for an energy drink. I thought it was so funny. It's like he's getting gas for his horses. Tee hee.

We arrive back at the lake house. Mangry (Mad+Hungry=Mangry. Pronounced like mango not man. word courtesy of Sister B.) We were able to have something to eat and continue to visit with everyone.

So, I started this post about a week ago (CHARLIE MURPHY!!!!!!!). Not sure what it says but it's getting posted. Thanks for reading. New and better post coming soon.

Dirt Truck

2009-11-17T10:20:00.003-05:00

I open the door of the truck this morning to go to work and this is how I am greeted. It's hard to read. Let me tell you what it says. "A bolt fell out of the gear shifter, be careful that you are in the correct gear. Double check when putting into park, may need some wiggling." Ohhhhhh K! I do not like driving the truck to begin with and when I encounter something like this it makes me like it less. I have to drive the truck to work in the mornings that Hubby is on second shift because he needs my car to take the kids to school.
I'm immediately nervous. I through my, many, bags in the truck, tuck my coffee in it's holder, put the key in the ignition. Nothing. Seriously? The lights on the dash came on but, no sound. I also noticed that it did appear to be all the way in "park." I had left Hubby and the kids in the big bed watching cartoons. I call him from the driveway to let him know that the truck won't start. "Uuuggghhh! For real? Just take your car." K See ya!
I call him a little later in the morning and he already has the dash ripped apart and has found where the bolt goes. OK. That's a good sign. I asked him to call me when he got it back together. Surprisingly, less than a half an hour later, it was put back together.
Hubby loves his dirt truck. It's paid for and he doesn't car how dirty it gets. I don't like the way it drives. The steering is too tight.
My fondest memory, so far, was some years back when we decided to go clay pigeon shooting. We were using a hand thrower. We were in a field and we had the tailgate down to have our supplies set up. At that time, we were capable of having the tonneau cover on the truck. It's my turn to throw. The truck is to my right and I am getting ready to throw the bird straight ahead. Nope. That bird went flying right in the back of that truck. It shattered like fine china. I believe I was laughing so hard I fell down. It all goes back to the lack of coordination.

Go Stillers!!!!!!

2009-11-16T10:38:00.009-05:00

No, this mob of people does not spell anything. This is the gate Hubby and I had came through about five minutes prior to this photo. There may have been more people at that time, I could not say from where I was standing down there. This was my first Steelers game. They lost. Didn't even score one touchdown. Disappointing, to say the least. It was one of those things to cross of my list of things to do before I die, I suppose.

I had called my Dad's buddy who holds these season tickets on Tuesday prior. Left a message. He calls me back whispering. Oh My! Are you sick? "No, I'm hunting." Of course. He immediately says I can have them for Sunday. Whoa! Wasn't prepared to go so soon but, Super! I call Hubby to tell him he's(Hubby) taking me to the game. And I quote "Who's taking you!? You, Hon. Oh, OK." And I proceed to make arrangements for the kiddos. Mom is happy to take them.

Let's rewind a minute to the previous night. The Pens game. Now, the Pens had been on, what Bob Errey calls, "The Shnide." I have no idea if that is how you spell it. I'm not real sure of the exact definition. Lost their road trip games. Lost most of their team to injuries. It's quite a thing. Brother says today, prior to going to the game this evening, "If I wanted to watch the Wilkes Barre/Scranton team, I would buy tickets and go." Well, they played the Bruins. It went back and forth the entire game. Excellent game. Malkin's first game back in about two weeks. It was 5-4 with a minute to go in favor of the Bruins. Geno and Bill Guerin score with something like .4 seconds on the clock. Awesome. Tied. Let's go to OT. I still forget that it's only four on four in OT. Anyway, Tim Thomas left the net open for Dupuis to score. His 100th career goal. Thanks Tim!! Pouter.

So, (football)game day arrives. Mom had advised us to leave around 10:30am for this 1pm game. What???!!!!! No. There is no way it is going to take over two hours to get to this game. We drop the kids off at 10:30am and get on our way. I did remember that there was major construction downtown, although, it does not really affect our route to the stadium. It took us over two hours to get to the game. Thanks, Ma. That did include stops for gas and Wendy's. It also included, at least, a half an hour on the parkway. We debated whether we should take the runaround into down town. It did not matter to me. However, the thoughts running through my head at the time were as follows: we went around and around and around the last time we took the run around. I'm not sure but, we may have ended up in some one's driveway. And, I wanted to have the slow commute into town to have some chat time with Hubby.

I know that I have mentioned Hubby's work before. As you may know, the foreman position has been handed over. However, when that was handed over the company decided to run ten hour shifts. Boooooo!! So, we still don't get a lot of one on one time together. Thus, the reason for the "date" to the football game. It did work out. We both had to pee something awful the whole time but, it was OK. What are sporting event parking lots for? Certainly not JUST for parking. Not my finer moments. (Yes, I have done it on more than one occasion in my lifetime) Ask most women. I'm sure they have done it. At least most of the women I know.

So, we make it downtown and head toward the stadium. The first parking lot you see, the major tailgating parking lot, I presume, is quite a sight to see. I wanted a shot but we were in the wrong lane for me to get a decent shot. It is, literally, a sea of black and gold. Hubby had made the comment, if you were an outsider from another city, you would be amazed. We keep driving through the bumper to bumper traffic. We are corralled around one block, then two. We come upon, completely random, woman with an orange flag, sweatshirt, and a sign "Parking $40." Now, I had been forewarned that parking was going to cost us $25. Really? Hockey costs $5. For this occasion, we did pay $40. Makes me kind of sick. I reiterate, RANDOM! This was not a parking lot. This was the back of a building where a tractor trailer was being stored, a box truck, a couple of wooden pallets, and perhaps, another empty trailer. Shadiest guy taking our money. Directed us into our spot in front of the box truck very professionally. Assured us that he would not park a car in front of us. We get ready to make the trek to the stadium and I jokingly ask the woman to "take good care of it." She rolls her eyes and gives me her best, "Yeah, right." Hubby and I both agree that we'll be lucky if the car is there when we come back. Not the first time I have had this fear when we have parked somewhere random downtown. Needless to say, it was there and that lovely couple made $200 parking cars in that particular "lot."

We head to the stadium. Not real sure which direction to go but, all we had to do was follow the crowd. We happen to come upon the stadium at the particular gate our ticket indicated to enter. The crowd that crossed the street with us, quite a thing. I have no concept of how many people. I am no good at estimating anything. It was a lot. We make it to the gate, get shuffled in and make our way to the top. Stop to take the first pic on this post. Moving on to find the bathroom, beverage, and our seats. Of course, Hubby runs into a co-worker. He is starting to be like my Grandmother, you can't take them anywhere without them seeing someone they know. They're popular, likable people. What can I say? I'm blessed to know them.

Here we are! This was our seat. The southwest side. Pretty Awesome! I could have snapped this picture and called it a day. I am gonna be honest. I am a hockey fan. Not a Football fan. I try. I do. I enjoy football for the sound of it. I can take a nap to the sound of a football game like it's nobody's business. Especially, during the 2nd quarter, half time, and the 3rd quarter. The best sleep I can get. The fact that the home team was losing had a lot to do with the atmosphere of the stadium. The energy was not there. Eventually, Hubby and I did not want to be there. This is not to say that I did not take away any memories from the occasion. First, you can enter into a drawing for a "Ham of the Day." I believe someone named Jeff won. I am not sure if that is all the time or just when the holidays are approaching. Second, you can see the enormous ketchup bottles on the....scoreboard?......giant TV?....whatever. At one point, I happen to be watching that giant TV and it started to fill up with blood from two streams. What? Why blood? It wasn't blood. It was Heinz Ketchup. The giant bottles remove their cap and tilt down to fill the giant TV with ~~blood~~ketchup. Clever. Hubby and I both wondered how much those giant ketchup bottles cost. Regardless, I love ketchup! Third, that stadium holds over 65,000 people. WOW!!!!I never believed that I had any kind of social anxiety disorder but, if I do, I had an anxiety attack as soon as they displayed that number. It was shortly after that we decided to leave.

I have no regrets leaving before the third quarter ended. I am not sure that I would have had regrets even if they had been winning. I feel fantastic knowing that I avoided traffic of over 65,000 drunken, disgruntled fans. We were able to head out of the city and make it to a restaurant to watch the rest of the game. Good times.

I am not trying to be "Negative Nancy" regarding our beloved Stillers. I am Pens fan, first. I am starting to understand the rules of football. I thought I was understanding most of it until there was a two point conversion thrown into the mix. Hubby is not a sports fan. One of the things I love most about him. I can't imagine how I would deal with him getting all up in arms about some game, ~~like I do with hockey~~. He does know the rules of the game and he can teach them to me in a simple way that I can understand. Hell, I still can't catch all the calls in hockey. I was never a huge sports fanatic. I'm not very coordinated. Ask Hubby, he tells me I need a helmet to walk around. I will continue to cheer for the Steelers. I hope they continue to win. I will also continue to try and take a nap during the 2nd and 3rd quarters. They need to keep winning so we can continue to be The City of Champions.

And as I conclude this post, The Pens win again. LET'S GO PENS!!! Go Stillers!!!!

Victory is Mine!!!

2009-11-08T18:21:00.005-05:00

It's a creepy thing to watch your furniture burn. Even if you put it in the burn pile yourself.

We have, what I call, an obscene amount of furniture. Now that I think about it, most of it is probably not even ours. By default, I suppose. I only burn what is mine. Prior to the bonfire, we had two couches, a love seat, and the sectional sofa with a chaise lounge. All on one floor. Hubby's Dad brought us a piano last week during the move. We have the space to accommodate all of this but, it's starting to close in on us.
The piano took the place where the play kitchen was and the kitchen ended up in the middle of the floor. Now, the kitchen originally started in the middle of the floor when Santa brought it two years ago. Imagine my elation when I was able to move it against the wall, some time back, and it was no longer in the middle of the floor. Just think how excited I will be when the kitchen finally goes into the recycling. I check all the kids toys for that beautiful triangle with the number in the middle indicating to me, that some day, I will be able to put it in the recycling. I don't wish that anytime soon. Eden and I enjoy a nice kitchen play time when she will insist that I have the "hot peppermint tea" and not the coffee like I request. She also insist that I get my own pie since it's a "nice" kitchen and you can just get things yourself.

So, for the last week I stared at each individual couch trying to determine who was going to the burn pile. I took the topic up for discussion to my mom and brother. It was a matter of deciding what couch needed to go the worst. Which was least comfortable and not the right color for our family. Before taking the topic to mom and brother, I proposed to Hubby that we boot the brown love seat. He didn't say no but, he didn't say yes. I took it as a yes. And ran. After talking it out with mom and brother and then coming home, it was decided that the red was going. The deciding factor was the color and fabric. Xzavier had taken it upon himself a couple of weeks ago to put racing stripes on the front of the chaise. That is, in addition to the other coloring he has done on the other part and whatever other stains that have made there home there.

So, of course, this was not the couch that was discussed with Hubby earlier in the day. I wasn't worried about his reaction. Any conversation that pertains to removal of anything in the house results in him saying "I like....." He liked having all the couches. The key is to have everything in it's place by the time he gets home so he realizes that it's gonna work. He also realizes that certain pieces of furniture end up in the burn pile so that he will stop sleeping on them, and start sleeping in his bed. I know he knows this, because he sets the fire right away.

Upon the final decision, I immediately text brother to come over to do the dirty work. He came over straight away. I only throw furniture in the burn pile when Hubby is at work. Lucky for me, but not for him so much, he had to work second shift on Saturday. Somewhat awkwardly, the same time brother and I are "moving" furniture, Hubby's mom shows up to get the kids for a sleep over. Her only concern is replacement seating in the room. She was reassured the next morning when she dropped the kids back off.

Now, if you caught all that, I have an empty house, furniture included, to play with until eleven o'clock. 10:30pm if you count the hockey game but, we're not counting that game since the Pens decided to take a nap. Having the house to myself is extremely rare. Especially for this amount of time. I was excited all day in anticipation of the evening. For the most part, I was anticipating cleaning the house uninterrupted and then enjoying the hockey game in a clean house. The moving of the furniture was bonus. By the time the couch was out and everyone was gone, all I wanted to do was rearrange the furniture. I had to force myself to do the cleaning upstairs. Surprisingly, to myself, I put the usual amount of effort into it, which is only a little. I finally made it downstairs only for the rearranging and cleaning not to take nearly as long as I was hoping. I could have mopped the floors but, I didn't.

I was able to get the play kitchen out from in the middle of the floor. One of the many couches that we have was in the toy/play room. It was being used strictly as storage. You really could not sit on it without moving Matchbox cars first. It was moved into the grand room to replace the red. Another thing that was refreshing was being able to clean the floor where the couch had been. Now, I know I could have done that any time. However, it would have required me to move the couch and then move it back. I have made the effort with the couch that is off the dining room. Needless to say, the floor was dirty. There was a weight lifted off my shoulder once it was clean and to know how easy it will be to clean there now. It allowed me to space out some toys. I need to thin them out. Especially, before Santa comes.

I had mixed emotions about the piano coming into the house. Strictly because there was so many couches. The timing was bad. I played the piano when I was younger. My parents even paid someone to give me lessons. When she would show up at the house I would hide and pretend like I wasn't there. Typical reaction to piano lessons, right? I expect my kids will do the same. I suppose I can't blame them. I did sit down at the piano to see if I could remember how to play Fur Elise. Just the right hand, of course. I remembered most and then had to look up the music on the net to get the rest. I was never good at playing the piano. I did know all the notes and could read the music. Fur Elise was my favorite song and I would play it as loud as possible. Needless to say, I'm glad it's here and can't wait to go get some music.

So, that is my victory. It's huge for me. I feel good. Especially, since I will be hosting Thanksgiving. Have I mentioned that?

Seasons Change and does my Hair Color

2009-11-01T10:25:00.002-05:00

I thoroughly enjoy making sure that my hair color is very rarely the same twice. In all honesty, I'm not sure if this makes my colorist, Shannon, mad or glad. I know I made her work this past weekend to achieve the hotness that is my hair. I love being a redhead. I feel that it matches the changing of the leaves that is in full bloom right now. I would be red all the time if it wasn't so much work to keep beautiful. The leaves are breathtaking right now and I love every second of it. Except for the ones that get dragged into my house right after I have run the sweeper.
The changing of the leaves has also surfaced the fact that people come and people go in our lives. This is a tried and true subject that I read and hear about all the time. I wanted to make sure that I got my two cents in on the subject. My brain was all abuzz, at some random hour this morning, with the number of people in my life right now. God and I were discussing each individual one. It then made me realize, Wow, I have an awesome life. There are so many people, not just the ones I know, that need prayer. I'm not saying I don't, I just know that others need it more. It works. Every time.
I had a discussion with one of my friends about being a sporadic friend. Which I admitted. It is not a good thing and I don't feel good about it. I reconnected with people and I don't want to loose that connection. However, the activities we were partaking in were becoming destructive. I came to realize that I was behaving inappropriately. I was trying to have a life that was not mine. I am glad that I came to my senses before something bad happened. I just hope that I am able to keep in touch with everyone without acting irresponsibly. My number one is my family. Period.
This particular season has brought a change that I just was not expecting. My in-laws have moved. They have lived on this property for approximately thirty years. We have lived on the same property with them for the last four. Closer than neighbors. I can honestly tell you that there was never a moment that I was not glad they were here. It's always been extra convenient, actually. Hubby said that he was helping them move today. About a week and half after they told us they had looked at an apartment. His mother had told me about it when she came to babysit one day. It was discussed only in passing. I mentioned it to Hubby later that day, assuming it was the last time it would be brought up. I never would have thought they would have decided on it so quickly.
Hubby tried to explain to me that it was going to happen someday. I know that. I just didn't know when. And I definitely didn't expect it now. The reason for the move is that their house is past it's prime. It no longer holds heat. It's about 101 years old. However, it does not lack character. I can't wait to harvest pocket doors and handrails and other pieces of family that are part of the house. Now, those things will probably end up in the barn but, when I need them, I will know where to find them. That's hard to even think about.
While the manly men were moving today, I was trying to get my spring bulbs that may have been sitting on my kitchen counter for the last two weeks. I only glanced in the kitchen door when I went down to the house for the garden tools. The refrigerator was gone and the kitchen table. I didn't dare look any farther. After the move was done, I told Hubby I didn't think I would be able to go in yet. He said it was sad. I'm not even curious to go and see what is missing. The nice thing for his mother-in-law is that she does not have to get everything out in a certain time. That house has accumulated thirty years of five children and two adults. Actually, I probably have stuff in there. From what she has told me, it sounds like she has done a pretty good job of sorting things. It was a job she did and did not want to tackle. On two previous occasions, we had discussed bringing in a dumpster to clean out both houses. Her eyes always lit up as she told me how she wanted it below the attic window so she could just push everything out and into the dumpster. Unfortunately, the dumpster has never made been rented. I believe that this move was a good way to motivate the cleaning. It always starts out good, of course, and then when you get in the middle of it and find it overwhelming, then it is not good.
I know that this is going to be a good thing. It will be weird for a while. I love my in-laws and we have always gotten along. You hear so many horror stories about couples not getting along with their in-laws. When I hear those stories, I smile and say, I have no idea what that is like. Everyone just stares. They stare even worse when I tell them I live on the same property as them. I'm very blessed. I will never say it enough.
And on a closing note. I am hosting Thanksgiving this year. I know that I can hand the task off to someone else but, I think I want to roast my first turkey. I was thinking I was going to practice with a chicken. Maybe not. I might have someone else do it but, then I thought, it's a good excuse to get my AllClad roasting pan that is not in my kitchen. It's one of few tools I don't have in my shop. You gotta have the right tools for the job. Right, Hon? I have a list/menu started for my favorite of all holidays. It needs expanded and prioritized. I'm going all out. Hopefully, I will stop being a slacker and start being a blogger. I will keep you up to date on my progression.

And Then

2009-10-21T15:45:00.005-04:00

Yes, I know it's been a month. Here's why. The subject of the last post has left me overwhelmed at times. Hubby's new dirty nerdy position at work as left me with more running. At times, it has been hard to handle. Thus, the reason for no posting. I don't want to say things I don't mean.
Hubby's schedule has changed my schedule. Where he used to swing between two different shifts every week he now works an awful ten hour shift. Sometimes longer. Sometimes, repeatedly returning to work. It's anyone's guess and he also has a clipboard now. That is an extra sign of nerdiness to me. If you hadn't guessed, it makes him tired. Fair enough. It should make anyone tired.
I am slowly getting used to his schedule. It is an adjustment. Hubby and I talked about it last night. He hates it. It is supposed to be temporary and right now, it looks as if the end is near. He desperately wants back into is old position and back on the outages that give him the opportunity to "travel." I was having a hard time with all this and I finally got over it. I could not change my focus to the good of the whole situation. I feel that hubby is having the same trouble. I did finally change the beat. I'm convinced that part of my problem was hormonal. This opportunity has presented itself to show us that this is obviously not the time for this job. It may never be the job for him. I also saw it as a test on the marriage, that we passed. I've been calling it the Gold Circle Coin Marriage of Champions. Anyone who has seen Pretty Woman will understand.
This new schedule has given me a different perspective on "soccer mom." I am no such mom, yet. It makes me wonder how the heck they do it. How can a mother of multiple children, not only remember where they are supposed to be, but get them there. I guess I had decided to take a break this week without fully recognizing what I was doing. Eden first, then Xzavier, have come down with a cold. I can say it's a cold and not that ridiculous swine flu nonsense that everyone is up in arms about. I kept them home from school. Not because I thought they were too sick to go but because I don't need others freaking out because they THINK my children have the swine flu. Eden has a cough that she will probably have for the rest of the winter. I know that, her dad knows that, others do not. However, when I did not get out of bed this morning and get ready to take Eden to school I questioned myself. Was I being lazy? Was I not taking her because I didn't want to do the running? Maybe. Am I feeling guilty about it? Yes, I think. I may have needed a break but I feel that I went about it the wrong way. Now what? I have to get back into the routine, regardless. When do the "soccer moms" take a break?

Look at this. This is a photo taken on the school field trip to Trax Farm. We got to go on a hay ride which I had not been on in so long. Super fun. The weather wasn't much to be desired but I was extremely prepared. It looks like it was real cold and Eden's nose is red from being exposed to the elements but, that is not the whole reason for that look. The previous night she attempted to jump on the bed in the pitch black. She missed, which in turn caused her to smack her face off the wall. Poor thing. She was fine. Her face healed rather quickly. I had never been to this particular farm which is HUGE!!!! Compared to the usual farm I visit. And when I say usual, I mean two times. The trip resulted in the purchase of local and homegrown apples for me to bake pies and crisps and whatever else tickled my fancy. A friend also has a dumpling recipe that is on the list as well. Eden's teachers pointed me in the right direction to the perfect combination of apples. Trax bags them especially and includes several recipes. I have never been much of dough maker. I am intimidated by it yet, refuse to bye premade store bought. I have made one other pie outside of home economics which turned out delicious yet weird looking. The top crust did not fall down like usual which resulted in a pie that resembled Mellon Arena. So it may have discourage me a little. However, I love my kitchen and won't give up. I used a different recipe that my grandmother uses that involves Crisco. Ouch! Was not excited about that but she calls it "No Fail." It didn't. Another deterrent of any apple recipe is the peeling and slicing, decoring. It takes forever. Not Anymore. I purchased one of those combination peeler, corer, slicers. The one with the crank and makes the lovely apple skin ribbon. It has revolutionized my apple baking and my possibilities are now endless. I will insist on finding a "no fail" pie crust recipe that does not include Crisco. Hockey is in full swing. Hubby and I went to the game last night and had an awesome time. There is nothing like sharing a goal with 17,132 other fans. So yeah. All over the place there. As usual. I hope to get back into the swing of things and post and post and post.

Dirty Nerdy

2009-09-16T22:21:00.000-04:00

This is a bad photo, I know. I was being sneaky and, it was the best I could do without being busted. This is hubby working. He is highlighting German blueprints wearing radio earphones. Sexy, right? I think so. I call him a nerd for a lot of reasons. However, since he's a welder/fitter and comes home covered in black weird dirt he's "dirty nerdy". He knows his stuff. We are in the middle of putting drawer pulls on my vanity cabinet. I'm making him teach me how to take all the measurements and use the drill properly. I'm learning but, it's intense. He knows too much. I think he showed me, something like, three different ways to find the center of the drawer.

He's "trying" out a new position at work. I say trying because upper management asked him to try it out to see how he liked it. He tried for a week, told them he didn't want to do it, and they asked him to keep "trying" it. Basically, he was put into the position. Notice how I don't say "given" or "he took". It actually is a huge compliment. He has not been with the company very long and has survived many months of layoffs. He does have a horrific shift of 6am to approximately 4:30pm. It's sort of bitter sweet. I'm extremely proud of him. I told you he knows his stuff. "Dirty Nerdy"

I change gears to my past Friday evening I had with old school mates. It was only two of them. I guess a third, but I never knew him until Friday. (Their names will not be changed because they are not innocent.) Charlie brought one of his co-workers(it may have been a former co-worker). This was her first night out after having a baby. Her baby is three years old. I told her it was long over due. For her own sanity. Trust me. Not only have I been there, but I'm there now. I do hope I see her again.

Good times. The establishments we visited were not busy due to a Toby Keith concert. First stop, biker bar with no bikers. Second stop, um, chubby girls in bikinis selling jello shots??!!! Those of you reading from my hometown, I will not disclose the location. As a resident, I feel like it was a necessary experience. The quiet bars were perfect for me. I don't care about being in a crowded bar. I believe it was like that so we were all able to talk and hear one another. I was able to giggle about it all of the following day. I would check in to facebook every once in a while to see the comments from everyone. I had a good laugh about the conversation between Chris and Charlie talking about the free passes he received for the nudey bar. It was a conversation you would only understand if you had been there the night before. The other conversations that have generated since have been just as hilarious.

The evening conversations pretty much revolved around our hometown. Ehren was able to fill me in on a wealth of facts. For example, how he used to pay off the homeless people with cheap beer to look out for the cops when they were underage drinking. Apparently, the bums let them down one night because Ehren sent them too much beer and they got too drunk to warn that the cops were on their way. How did he get the beer in the first place? He had a partner that looked older than his age and was able to purchase it without being carded. I say partner because Ehren had the van for the delivery service. Yeah, they bought and delivered beer to all the underage drinkers. His partner earned enough profit from that job to buy his first car. Crazy kids. I've known Ehren since grade school. This is one of the very few times we've hung out together, on purpose.

The evening with friends was fantastic. I am so glad that I went. I have bee the type of person that will commit to things and when the time comes to actually go, I bail. I am proud of myself for committing and following through. Charlie and Ehren are great friends. I've know Charlie since Middle School. We were basically neighbors once my family moved into my Pap's house. Charlie, and our friend Joey, would play basketball in the driveway. Charlie knew my Pap. One of very few friends that did. My new friend Chris is a fellow hockey junkie. He's a fancier junkie than me because he's played for 18 years and was being scouted to play professional. He may be able to get me some Cup time. I do enjoy talking hockey with whoever I can. Especially, if they can teach me things about the game.

I continue to start posts and not finish them. In the back of my mind I hear the post calling out to me to "finish me." My trouble lately, I think of something else to post. I don't start that post because I know I already have one started and don't want to neglect it. This post here was started about five days ago. I cannot figure out how Mckmama posts once a day if not more. Where does she find the time? I am going to do my best to post more even if they are short blurbs. I've been enlightened and I want to share. I have had a long overdue attitude adjustment and it has made such a difference with everything. It is also the basis for my next tattoo. I'm livin', lovin', and bein' loved and it feels damn good.

Counting

2009-09-09T15:47:00.001-04:00

So I've been slacking. What can I say? I will say, that I stole the title from one of my fellow bloggers. I stole the title because I'm stealing the idea of the post. I hope she doesn't mind.

I dropped Eden off at preschool this morning. She starts real Pre-K today. That means, this time next year she will be in kindergarten. She was ready to go back. She woke up around 6:45am and said she couldn't go back to sleep because she was too excited to go to school. As soon as we entered her classroom, she was gone. She didn't even care that there was twice as many children than last year. I guess she was excited to see her old friends. And new ones.

Brant said to me last night that we made her grow up too fast. After I dropped her off, I realized she is only four and half years old. She is still so young. I don't feel like we made her grow up too fast. I think it may be the closeness of age between her and her brother. They are only 18 months apart. Maybe she just didn't get to be the baby long enough. I don't believe that it will have any lasting effects on her. She is a pretty smart toddler. She is a wonderful big sister. When those moments occur, that is. I'm extremely proud of her. She is one of my many, many blessings.

That led me to think of some of my other blessings. My mother-in-law and stepmother. They are taking a huge amount of stress off me this school year by picking up and dropping off Eden at school. I had to take them to meet the teacher today. That is how I introduced them. "My blessings."

And then........I started to think about how blessed I am to have Suzie(stepmother) in my life. I truly believe that God has our life planned for us. Suzie is my free childcare. She has taken care of my children since I went back to work after maternity leaves. I count my blessings daily for her. There is no way on this earth that Brant and I would be able to afford any kind of childcare/daycare. So my thought came down to my parent's divorce. If they had not, then I would not have childcare. It may be a sensitive subject for some. Everything happens for a reason. Period.

My next blessings are rediscovered friends. I am thankful that these people are interested in how I am doing. Yesterday, some of them organized dinner and a band for Friday night and they asked me to attend. I'm excited. If you remember from last post, I don't socialize. I'm not going to pretend that I am going to start. It will be a nice change of pace. I need a little variety.

Next. Hubby. I think he worries sometimes that he won't be included in this list. There is not a day that goes by that I don't thank God for this man. We are coming up on our eight year wedding anniversary. We have been inseparable for the past 15 years. We've had our moments in the past. I'm sure we will have moments in the future. He loves me unconditionally. I love him exponentially more every day.

My mother. She is, hands down, my best friend. I pray that Eden and I will be just like us. We have so many laughs and cries together. There isn't anything that I am afraid to tell her. I know I don't tell her I love her enough.

This list could go on and on. I had started a post over a week ago and never finished it. I had briefly become overwhelmingly hormonal over the weekend. I feared my loss the loss my ability to stay positive. I was able to turn it around and by Tuesday morning I was so energized I wanted to jump out of my skin. I know that it had something to do with The Secret. It's just awesome. When I came to work, finally, Tuesday afternoon. It flooded right into my office. My energy is off the charts these days and I'm lovin' every second of it. I was happy for the fact that I could bring this energy to work. I need it here. Yes, I write my blog at work. Sometimes. It's one of those blessings. Working with family.

On an unrelated note. Actually, this was the beginning of the original post. This was the menu for the wedding we attended a couple of weeks ago. It's not important if you can read most of it. The important part is at the top. "The Roving Feast." And that, it was. Weddings are so fun. This one was for my "brother from another mother and father." My brother's best friend, that is. I tagged him "Habib" back in high school art class and it stuck for many years. Occasionally, he will get a shout out but, I guess we're all grows up now. There was no good reason for the tagging, I just thought he looked like a Habib.The wedding was held at the same location Brant and I had our first date and first kiss. Weddings are also a blessing. Best Wishes Randy & Bub. (I know they won't read this)

Get a Life

2009-08-31T14:12:00.001-04:00

I've had several different things on my mind the last couple of days. They all come down to the same thing. (I hope this doesn't come out the wrong way.) I need to unplug from my crackbook. Sure it's fun to know how everyone is doing. I was glad to find these people well and happy. Why do I feel the need to know everyday for hours at a time. I have only had this addiction for a few months. I find that it is taking over me. I did get hooked on a game or two. I believe they were my biggest downfall. I quit the on cold turkey. Sure I had to spend hours to complete the closure, but I'm done. It's of no use to me and I want to put my energy some place else.

In the short time, I have friended(not a word, I know. You know what I mean) almost 200 people. The fact that they confirm my friendship makes me feel like I wasn't a total jerk back when I had regular contact with them. I've chatted with a few. Of all these people that I have been reconnected with, two have consistently sent me messages. New friends, right? Sure, but I still have yet to have any face to face contact with them. I have stepped it up a notch with the one. We now text. I started thinking about this the other day when it was one of my friend's birthday and they post that they have all these facebook friends and not one was hanging out with them on their birthday. They received lots of birthday wishes, but none face to face. A couple days later I was chatting with them. It was the end of the day they were going to watch some show. My comment to them was "get a life." Their comment to me was "look who's talking." It made me think. Yeah. Why don't I get a life. Move on from sitting in front of the computer and get outside with my kids and the sunshine. Quit worrying about this computer.

The next thing that got me thinking was this post. This is the life I want to get. My version. Notice my comment. Trouble with me is that I sit in front of a computer at my so-called job. The temptation to check in on Facebook is constantly staring me in the face. I'm happy to report that as of me beginning this post, I only do quick peaks. A couple minutes at a time.

I have a handful of people that I call friends that I don't see. It doesn't bother me. We catch up every once in a while. This has been my way of life for a long time now. I guess when I started the whole Facebook thing I was expecting to spend more time with some of these people. I don't know why. It seems like it's a good way to make plans and meeting arrangements. It is, just not for me. I blame only myself for not making more of an effort.

Totally started this Friday morning and it's now Monday afternoon. So, of course, I've lost my train of thought and I'm closing this post. I've enclosed pictures from last Saturday morning on my way to my Motorcycle class. I took them while driving with my cell phone. Not safe. Oddly enough, later in the week, one of my facebook friends post similar photos. I suppose I'm still connected.

Giddy with Pride

2009-08-24T13:54:00.008-04:00

I passed my motorcycle riding test. I have now operated a motorcycle for all of 10 to 12 hours. I set upon this journey as mostly a personal challenge. The other part was to have quality time with Hubby. Something for the two of us to do together. I was challenging myself to learn how to operate a motorcycle. I had never even turned the ignition on a motorcycle let alone balance it on it's two wheels. This was a four day safety class that the state of PA provides for free. I had heard nothing but wonderful things about this class. The people that I had talked to said that they not only learned a lot, but had fun doing it. If someone were to ask me, I would say the same thing. The instructors were awesome. They want you to succeed. Obviously, because they ride motorcycles and they want you to be safe when riding your motorcycle. I was fortunate to have great people in my class to make it fun. This group of 12 was together for a small amount of time, but the support we all showed for one another was awesome. I truly believe that we all wanted the other to succeed.

It's not easy. There is a lot involved with operating that piece of equipment. That was my challenge. Did I have the coordination? Yes. I do. It's very reassuring. I'm proud of myself. I have to say my success was mostly mental. I never let myself get frustrated. I can only remember one point where I was close, but I told myself to brush it off. Whatever I had just done to frustrate me was done. I couldn't change it. I just had to try again. The "Coach" even made a point to tell everyone how much fun I was having. He said all he could see was teeth when he was watching me. I couldn't help it. I was giddy. I was tickled that I was able to handle these tasks they were throwing at us. I told myself on the day of the exam "I learned a lot even if I did not end up with my license." Brant later said the same thing. He said at least we would have a starting block to work from rather than me crying from him teaching me. He's a good teacher. I'm just sensitive.

There were two other women in my class. They both left before completing the class. The last one to leave needed to change her beat. I could see how nervous she was. I tried to encourage her. Everyone did. I just hope she doesn't give up.

And then there was one. I was feeling a little outnumbered at this point, but not intimidated. I felt like those guys wanted me to succeed more than ever now. At least that's what I told myself. I probably got more comfortable at that point. I was one of the guys. I didn't have any dirty jokes, but I did turn the sailor mouth up to high. I think I have tourette syndrome.

Long story not as long. I passed. I only lost points for going out of the box doing my figure eight.I can't turn left. I'm not an ambi-turner. I kept saying that throughout the class. I don't think they got it. It's from Zoolander. When all else fails, "just gun it!" That's what Brant tells me and in my own special way, it works.

On another note. Look at this three year old. I don't get it. Where are the last three years? Where did this little guy go? He turns three tomorrow. We did celebration yesterday. In this photo: new boots, new hat, and new monkey. Why yes, the monkey does make an obnoxious sound, but it's also a sling shot. Pretty funny actually. I took these pictures yesterday and upon review could not figure out how he's not a baby anymore.

Xzavier has gone through a tremendous transformation in the last several weeks. He's almost potty trained. He and Eden both potty trained around the same ages and got it right away. I was lucky. It's still hard. One of the hardest things I've come across as far as parenting goes. I guess I'm not a very good disciplinarian either. No wonder they play me for the fool. Besides the potty training, his speech has come to. It has been something that has concerned me. Up until a few weeks ago he would only use a handful of words. Mom, Dad, No, Yes, Duss. What is "duss," you ask? It's everything. It was a universal term for everything and everyone. Brant and I were becoming frustrated because we could not understand what he was trying to tell us. Every time you ask him to say a word, he would just say "duss." He would do a couple letters of the alphabet. I don't know what happened. He now will repeat most words you ask him to pronounce. He calls everyone by there name. Giddy with Pride once again, I am.

Now, he started talking and stopped going to bed on his own. I find this frustrating since bedtime is my time. Brant and I cannot figure out if he is actually scared of something or if he's just playing us for the fool. (Yeah, I said it again only because I say it to myself over and over again when my kids are in the process of playing me for the fool.) The last two nights have been less vocal. Previously, he would scream and cry in addition to getting out of his bed. I keep telling myself that he's three and this is just a phase. That, of course, sends me back into the whirlpool of "Where are the last three years?"

Happy Birthday, Buddy!!! I love you!

Trees

2009-08-19T20:15:00.002-04:00

I wanted to make sure that I made a post regarding this bartering treasure. I don't remember the other half but Brant ended up with a pair of tree gaffs from his friend that used to do some kind of cable work. They are quite the apparatus. Brant had to order different spurs. The ones that came with them were for telephone poles. He needs spurs to dig into tree bark. I like to call them his Forrest Gump high heels. He tried them out for the first time about a week ago. He was very excited. He had recently watched some professional tree men take down some trees. He was impressed with their skills. It does look like a lot of fun. He got all strapped in and ready to go and I took this picture. Pretty cool, huh? He gets ready to jump up on that tree only to stop and look down. I saw it too, did you? Wrong feet! I started laughing. I felt silly since I had been taking close up shots of these things on the wrong feet. Finally, he gets them on the right feet and up the tree he goes. Oh, Yeah. Look at that get-up. The boots. The socks. The shorts. I know. Hot. He's all mine. Look at him up there. He's really not that high. I was squatting down to make it look that way. He didn't want me taking pictures of him climbing the wimpy trees. I would have laid down to make it look even higher but, the grass was wet.
I mean. He was like, thirty feet up. I had to use my super zoom lens. The kids and I lost interest shortly after this. He practiced for some time.
I am confident that these will come in handy on shockingly numerous occasions. It's like when you need something, anything, you can find it in our barn. It wasn't always my barn but, Brant's mom makes it a point to remind me that, in fact, whatever is in that barn is mine. Lucky for me, it's also everyone else's. The sisters will often come and remove things which leaves less for me. I keep close tabs on the antique ice box and the Pyrex and Corning bake ware. I hope to one day pull the ice box down and refinish it to feature it in my kitchen. The Pyrex and Corning is endless. Brant and his Dad used to clean out HUD houses and come home with wonderful treasures like boxes and boxes of bake ware. A couple years back I told Brant I needed six bread pans to make the Easter bread. He walked away and came back with them in less than five minutes. And then I needed large glass bowls. And casserole dishes. And six chain saws. And a wheelchair. And a dozen weed whackers. And a snakebite kit. You get the idea.

______________________________________________________

Brant informed me that he was too young to go with his Dad to clean out the HUD houses and that I somehow got the gaff/spur apparatus mixed up. He told me the right thing but, I guess I wasn't paying attention. Again. I told him close enough. However, here I am posting the corrections.

Past and Present Thoughts

2009-08-13T21:46:00.003-04:00

So I'm gonna try and do the post that I have been desperately wanting to do for almost two weeks. It all stems from a prior post. What the hell is that supposed to mean? Rebooting? It was actually the post before that I had to edit for content that was the trigger. I started venting about things too specifically on my blog. Feelings were hurt. Even at the time of the post, I knew that feelings were going to get hurt and I posted it anyway. Luckily, a friend read it before the edits and offered me some reading material. I will be forever grateful to her.

I started reading and didn't get very far. Kind of like me doing this post. I don't think that I have read a single word in over a week and I still feel just as good as the first day I read them. I keep saying the same thing over and over in my head, "I have little use for the past, and rarely think about it." Eckhart Tolle from The Power of Now. Read it. I made it to page six, so far. This keeps me from holding grudges. I'm pretty good at it and I can be pretty mean. However, I realize I waste a lot of energy being so crabby about some small thing. I make sure to stop and think whether it is really worth me being Debbie Downer. Not usually. I guess it can also revert back to, it takes more muscles to frown than to smile. It takes way more energy to be a crab than to be happy. What a waste.

Every word that I have read in these books is so brutally honest and accurate. I have come across books that really make a difference in my way of thinking. Books that seem like they were written just for me. The ones that I am excited about now are: Thoughts are Things by Ernest Holmes, The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, and The Secret by Rhonda Byrne.

I've been wanting to post this and now that I am doing it I just can't seem to find the words. I believe it was on Mother's Day this year that we attempted to get into a Sunday morning church regime. Hubby and I both agree it would be nice for our family. Unfortunately, it hasn't worked out. I find myself feeling only feeling partly guilty for not going. I strongly believe in God. He does amazing things everyday. I know that He has a divine plan for me and my entire family. I pray that he will lead me to my church at the right time. Brant and I were members of a church in the past that switched pastors. It isn't the same. I feel that some churches lose focus of the reason they are there. They become to concerned with extra curricular activities. I guess it works for them. I need more structure and tradition. Something that requires a "church pinch."

In the last few months I have been connected with people that I haven't been in contact for years via Facebook. If I stop and think about how long, it makes me feel old. I find it fascinating to see what people are doing and where they are. As a mother of toddlers, I like to see other people's toddlers. I get stuck on that stupid blog page playing games for the most part. However, it has connected me with people that make me realize I need to be myself. And more importantly, I need to be happy with myself. I need to love myself the way I am.

I am slowly realizing that I don't need to impress anyone. Life is full of so many other things than just trying to keep up with the Jones'.

I get crabby because the house I live in is not finished. I can honestly say that I thank God for the roof over my head and the walls around me. I need to make myself aware that it is my lack of patience that causes this crabbiness. I think that I realize it sometimes but, it doesn't stick. I know that continuing to crab about it does not make anything get done. I also know that I am capable of doing things myself. I become apprehensive as not to disappoint hubby. These same thoughts have burdened me for some time now. They made me a miserable, miserable person. I hope that I have finally come to terms with that fact that stewing over it doesn't make things happen. Why bother? There are too many fun things to go out and do. I realized that is what happened to my latest attempt at completing the staining of the window pane.

I located the stain, tested it on a piece of wood that hubby found for me, made a huge mess in the garage with the stain, and then started spending all my free time bicycling on the Montour Trail with Jibby and Sylvia. Uuuuggghhh. Nothing to complain about there. Although, Brant might have some complaint. Sorry.

Well, I guess I posted most of what I wanted. Hubby has been working the day shift which puts him here in the evenings. I try to spend time with him or leave him with the kids. Depends on the cycling weather. I don't spend my time blogging. However, Hubby did give me some good material for a future blog.

I'm just sayin' read the books. And also get Excuse Me, Your Life is Waiting by Lynn Grabhorn.

I have uploaded this random photo.

Sooooo, Yeah.

2009-08-10T12:56:00.002-04:00

I've felt like such a slacker with my blogging lately. There is so much that I have wanted to post but have not had the time.
My first story comes from last Friday when I came home from my bike ride with Jimmy and Sylvia to a giant tent right outside the back door. When I say giant, I mean, easily sleeps six to eight adults and six feet high, and separates into two rooms. I have never been in a tent so large. Mostly, because I have no desire to go camping. I like my running water and electric. I don't want to have to worry about some large animal sneaking up and waiting outside my tent to give me rabies. I couldn't completely write it off. The kids and Brant were both in the tent with their lanterns and flashlights. They were so excited. I can't compete with that. Lucky for me they weren't prepared to sleep in the tent that night but, the next night was promised. I prepared myself all the next day to get ready to camp. It was fine. I have to admit, that after the air mattress and all the pillows and blankets, it was extremely plush. It was quite comfortable and I have no complaints. The kids went right to sleep and slept all night. Even when it started pouring down rain. We kept the tent up for a couple more days. It was a nice rumpus room for the kids. I mean rumpus, too. At one point they were boxing each other. Eventually, it came down in order to pack it for a weekend at the lake.
Sooo, yeah. I started this post on Friday and it is now Monday afternoon. I thought that I would be able to get back on the wagon here but, it was a nonstop weekend. Now that I stop to think about it, that is exactly what it was.
We headed up to the lake on Friday evening. We had this weekend planned for a while. Brant's friend from Ohio came with his family and Jimmy and Sylvia came up for the day on Saturday. I find the packing and loading of the car get more stressful for me every time we go. This time was no exception. However, I find it comical looking back on it. Apparently, we had a departure time. There was a miscommunication and I was unaware of that time.
I got home after a whirlwind of a day at work on Friday. I got up around 5:45am. My standard time when the kids have to go to Dad's for the day. I was able to start some desperately needed laundry before leaving in the morning. I also put together some clothes for the kids and I to put in a suitcase. I was able to go do some quick shopping during work before my work day turned into a nightmare. I picked up the kids after work and attempted to get gas but, there was a long line and I was not going to wait. I head home and get the groceries unloaded. I fold the laundry. Find the suitcase, etc. I do all this with Brant at my heals the whole time. I thought he was glad to see me and wanted to hang out. Nope. He just wanted me to hurry up. He finally came out and said it and I got into to fifth gear. It caused a little tension. It worked it self out and we made it safely to the lake house.
Upon our guests arriving, I learned that Carrie (Brant's friend's wife) had the same experience as I. It was nothing a little Grey Goose couldn't fix and, several beers into the wee hours of the morning.

Carrie's husband, Dennis, picked this flower from a lily pad on his fishing expedition in the canoe. I'm sure he brought it for any one of the three girls in his life but, Eden grabbed it up first. I felt bad so I put it in a vase on the table for everyone to enjoy. The weather did not cooperate very much on Saturday for a fun filled day on the water but, Sunday did. We won't discuss our departure from the lake house. We made it home safely.

I look forward to planning another weekend with more friends and family. We did a lot of grilling and eating and drinking and were merry.

I have lost focus so I'm posting this and will be back soon.

Oh yeah, the kids and I were the first ones in the pool. FIRST!!!

Day 5

2009-08-06T10:59:00.006-04:00

That's right. There is water in the pool. Thus, the reason for the lovely orange fence. I really want to get in but there is some electrical work going on and the whole chemical and filter lesson still needs to take place. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get in anyway. Al thinks it will be too cold since it takes the heater 24 hours to heat the pool. It really just comes down to me being the first one.
I promise to post something besides pool updates in the near future. I'm having blog refusal.
Stay tuned.

Day 4

2009-08-04T20:18:00.004-04:00

Well, the concrete is poured. I think the excitement has turned into relief as each day has gone by. Relief that the weather has cooperated long enough to get the next step down, and that much closer to having the yard put back together. You can't tell, but they put a lovely traction pattern in the concrete. As I was talking with Al yesterday during the photo shoot, I found it quite impressive that these pool guys do all this work. Dig, electric, heater, filter, concrete, chemicals, etc. There is a lot involved in this and these guys do it all. I think a separate company has to come and erect the fence. Good, hardworking guys.
As this pool is being installed it makes me realize how blessed I am to be able to have access to this. At least I think Mom will let me have access to it. I am very blessed with what I have access. It also comes to my attention as we get ready to spend another weekend at the lake. I am very lucky to have these things available to me for no cost.
Until Day 5.

Day 3

2009-08-04T14:27:00.004-04:00

Although it has been many days, this is the real day 3 for working on the pool. The weather has, in fact, created mud. I'm including more pictures this time since this one really does not show the extent to the work they completed in one day. This was yesterday. I just got the update that they are working again today. I'll stop over and get the appropriate pictures. I hope to be able to post tonight in order to get back on track. My micro laptop likes to give me grief about uploading pictures so sometimes I have to wait and do it on the desktop.

There was only one thing better and one thing worse than the progression of this project. The better thing is the sigh of relief from both Mom and Al from getting their yard back. They no longer have to stare at the mounds of dirt. The worse thing is that Brant does not get the mounds of dirt. He even did they pouty, stick out your bottom lip face. He said, "I was really looking forward to having a big pile of dirt."

I could go on and on about a lot of things today but, I just don't have the time. I hope to be able to bore you all on the next post. Which is only later today if I'm not too tired. Until Day 4.

Day 2

2009-07-28T22:07:00.006-04:00

Yes, I know these were posted on the same day but, today is the real Day 2. I did not have the energy Monday night to do the real Day 1 post. I reiterate, these guys do not mess around. Not only that but, my mom tells me that the owner of the pool company is a sixty some year old man that runs circle around his crew. They all work very hard and mom also said that at one point during the day when they were pouring the concrete they looked like a merry-go-round with their wheelbarrows going all around the sides.

You will notice that the dirt is covered with tarps. The crew is anticipating rain tomorrow. They don't work in the rain. Makes sense to me. However, it does put a delay in my laps. If I can't go on a bike ride with Jimmy, I would much rather do laps than run on the treadmill. So, maybe tomorrow will be Day 3 or maybe not. Tune in to find out.

I also would like to commend my almost three year old son and the terrific job he is doing with his potty training. We started full force last Friday. He is making it easier on me than his sister. This has been one of the hardest parts of raising these toddlers. It's no nonsense. It's all or nothing. I feel sort of guilty because the whole thing was prompted by a conversation I was having with Eden regarding going back to school soon. He wants to go in the worst way. I told him couldn't go until he peed in the potty. That's really all it took. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do in a couple of weeks when Eden goes to school and he doesn't. He's already in his tighty whities with his Disney characters. He has not committed completely to #2. He will be rewarded with ice cream. He is aware of this. I have not had to use a reward system with him like I did with this sister. He's a smart boy. Now, if he would only speak English.

Day 1

2009-07-28T08:46:00.006-04:00

Oh look! Someone else has a giant hole in their yard. This is an awesome hole that will be a swimming pool in a few short days. This hole was dug in one day. These guys do not mess around. I intend to blog a day by day of the progress of this magnificent event. My mom is trying to steal my mud hating thunder. She is a bit overwhelmed with the amount of dirt overflowing her yard at the present moment. I am overwhelmed with excitement because she is putting in a pool.

I wanted to give a recap of my weekend. I did not do anything exciting except for going on a bike ride Saturday and Sunday with my brother and sister-in-law. I think that it relaxes me. We don't go very far but, it doesn't matter. We headed to dad's for some eats and more relaxing on Saturday evening. Sunday was by far the "Best Day Ever."

It was just effortless but, I did a lot. I did some light cleaning before heading out for our bike ride in the afternoon. I came home and made a super delicious supper of 100% home made roasted garlic mashed potatoes (yes, I even roasted the garlic), crab legs, tilapia(for the kids) and zucchini. Yum. It was the most time I had spent making a supper in a long time. Well, worth it. I was able to do all the cooking while listening to Brant cut the grass and the kids playing outside with the neighbor girls. And a lovely glass of wine.

Brant decided to burn all the cardboard and paper. I thought it was the perfect opportunity for a tasty treat. I went scrambling for the perfect roasting stick and found two. The kids and I waited patiently for the fire to burn down just right. While we're waiting and watching the fire I notice a patch of what I thought was weeds on the burn mound. It looked a lot like a zucchini plant and I thought that I saw a zucchini sitting on the ground. I went running over and found this little guy:

We have a massive gourd plant with a ton of flowers. I am so excited. I can't wait to see how many more grow.

Finally, we get to roasting the marshmallows. I was not really in the mood for the whole s'more. Previously, I had just caught my marshmallow on fire and let it burn for a couple of seconds before putting it on the chocolate and graham. I like the black char and that is all the patience I had. However, I learned that long and slow is the way to go. (I learned this from Brant) It is well worth the wait. The outside forms the perfect crust, the inside is practically liquid, and it's just lightly browned, no black. I completely lost all sense of time while roasting my marshmallow to perfection. I actually had to ask Brant what day it was. It showed me that it is the simple things that keep me relaxed. Sara thought maybe there was something burning in the fire that made me lose track of time. I hadn't thought about that but, maybe.

The fire died down and we all were full of sugar. We decided to head back over to the house to think about getting ready for bed. Eden asked if they could have a glow stick. Why not. This is them using them as light sabres. I could not capture the image I wanted. Brant was trying to tell me what to do. I couldn't figure it out and he gave me the old "MOOOOOOOVVVE!" Yes, he knows how to work my camera better than me. I don't mind.

Because he gets the cool pictures.

This is the kids shaking their glow sticks around. Something about the aperture. I'm supposed to know all this. Brant will get mad because I don't. I'm working on it. Kind of.

I hope the rest of the summer gives me weekends like this. Good times. Tune in tomorrow for Day 2 of the pool progress.

Just thinking......I mean Not.

2009-07-21T15:03:00.005-04:00

I find myself thinking and rethinking everything. I think about all kinds of things that weigh heavy on my entire body. My sister told me to stop thinking and I did just that. I instantly felt better.

So, to my husband. I've stopped thinking about things. You know the things.

I do not intend to stop working my brain. I just have to learn new things and teach them to my kids. And not dumb things that will make me crazy.
It's my way of chilling out and not getting worked up about everything. I'll let you know how it goes.

Eat Your Heart Out, Martha!!!!!

2009-07-21T14:53:00.001-04:00

I had a fairly uneventful but, entertaining weekend. Brant left Friday morning for an outage that has kept him away until hopefully, Monday evening. I was oddly enough calm about the whole weekend. I had no idea what I was going to do to entertain the kids and myself for all those day. The bonus was that I got to take them to work with me on Friday because Dad and Suzie left for the weekend.
We took our time getting ready Friday morning. Eden is slowly starting to sleep in. I don't want to tamper with that. I asked Eden if she wanted to go to the bakery to pick something out and she got dressed as fast as she could. Of course she only wanted the chocolate chip cookies. It was a special day, why not? Why not get mom all the bad pastries she was drooling over as well? Seamless outage #1.
We arrive at work around 9:30am or so. I had already anticipated leaving early however, the kids were very well behaved and lasted until 3:30pm. Which is still early but, later than I expected them to last. This was with zero naps between the two of them. They did start to unravel. I left before it all fell apart. Outage #2, relatively seamless.
I decided to take them to Toys r' Us since they were so good. We hadn't been there for a while and it's a form of entertainment. It usually costs me. It's about a five mile trip from the office to the store. Xzavier was asleep before we got there. As soon as I took him out of the car and he saw where we were he was wide awake. The real purpose of the trip was to find Eden's mermaid tail flipper(s). An hour and a half later the mermaid tail was put back in place of the princess dress and shoes, Xzavier has a race track and two foam swords. Good times and relatively cheap. Seamless Outage #3.
I had been promising the kids that I would take them to the movies when the weather got rainy. It was pouring when we came out of Toys R' Us. This weekend was looking half rainy. We head over to the theatre to see the next available showing hoping it's soon. Half an hour away. What to do? I didn't want to do everything all in one day and not have anything for the next two days. I called Mom to see what she was up to. She told me I wasn't allowed to take the kids to the dirty theatre and wait until tomorrow. OK. We went home so they could play with their prizes.
Saturday I had a plan. Target. Grocery. Movies. Go hang out at Mom's for a while. Again, no hurry. There were plenty of show times that would work for us. When I asked Eden to get dressed my only request was that she matched. Her Dad is more liberal with her outfits. I can't help it. I'm matchy. She chose spaghetti straps. I told her she was going to be cold and I thought she should have a jacket or sweatshirt. She promised she wasn't going to be cold.
Target was going smoothly. Eden got cold. Really? I had spotted some skirts that were on sale to show Eden. She was not interested. What's going on? She always wants everything. She said she just wanted to go home and lay down. What four year old says that? I took them over to Mom's house so I could get the shopping done. Long story short, Eden and Xzavier both developed a fever that put them down for the count. They were not interested in doing anything but laying on the couch. I did give them some Tylenol which perked them up enough to make it to the movies. I had been promising for quite some time. I really just wanted to get it out of the way.
Needless to say, we all slept in the big bed that night. I'm not sure any of us slept.
Sunday, I had to make up for all the not doing I did at the house the previous two days. It included a long list of cleaning and more cleaning. I had to throw some kind of fun activity in the day. I promised cutout cookies with the new cookie cutters I got them from Williams-Sonoma. I wasn't real excited because it was the type of cookie where you had to refrigerate the dough, roll it out, put it back in the fridge, and so on. So I had to get the cleaning done and put these cookies together while Xzavier is glued to my side. The poor thing was so pitiful. He was still fighting the fever from the day before. Eden was back to her normal pink sparkles kitty with pink princesses, or however it goes. I had to take a lot of breaks to hold him because that's all he wanted. It would only last for a couple minutes because I constantly had the other tasks on my mind. I know. I know. I should have been more attentive to him. I gave him a dose of Tylenol and took him up to my bed to sit with him for a while and he just passed out. I did not have the intention of anesthetizing him. It was late in the day and he had not had a nap. I was able to get the cookies out of the oven and take a shower in the short amount of time that he did sleep. By that time, the cookies were cool and the kids were able to ice them. Eden did the princesses of course. I did help Xzavier with his. He was only interested in eating the icing. I did overcook the cookies slightly but, they were still good to my surprise. There was a lot of icing leftover so I colored the rest of the cookies.
I was extremely proud of myself. Not one of us freaked out once. I think a lot of it had to do with them not feeling well. It still makes me feel stronger. Until the next outage.

Cents

2009-07-16T20:37:00.005-04:00

This photo is from this evening. My almost three year old and four and a half year old played on this thing for about two hours. Now, anyone with toddlers knows that this is a significant amount of time for their attention to stay on anything. I hooked it up to a hose that was dispersing cold water, of course. That did not deter Eden one bit. Even after the sun went down. She has to be part fish because, she will withstand cold water until the bitter end. She does the same thing at the lake. Xzavier will not even go near the water that he knows is freezing. Same with the lake. He doesn't really go in there either. He eventually got on after I turned the water off and they were able to slide down with their wet bodies and the little bit of left over water. Every once and a while I would pour in a couple of gallons of warm water and they would keep on going. I never heard one yelp about being covered in grass or brush burns. Easy two hours for me.
As I'm watching them, I say to myself, "how much could that piece of plastic actually cost to make?" I figured $.12. It does have some harder plastic pieces for the hose and anchoring plus the valve to hold the air in the inflatable part. I wish I was more inventive and marketable.

Then, there is this gem. I cannot look at it without laughing. Yeah, it's a blue crayon dog. It also has a tail. This beauty came from the glorious Kennywood Park. Xzavier won it at the fishing pond. I don't get it. This started the whole, "how much does that cost to make?" episode. I figured $.08. Maybe. I know these things are cheap because they have to give them away. However, who comes up with this concept? I wonder if it's a dog crayon from the land of crayons where everything is a version of a crayon. Crayon cats, crayon fish, crayon people. Or is it a dog in a crayon costume? I keep going back to my first assumption due to the shape of his head. It does keep me wondering and laughing. I guess that's worth it. And yes, he is constantly in that "gangsta" pose.

I know that I was going to take a break but, I was able to reboot in a day.

Rebooting.

2009-07-15T11:12:00.001-04:00

Taking a break. Be back soon.

Thar she blows.....

2009-07-13T15:13:00.004-04:00

Yep. That's her. The solar panels are the black strips in the way of where the seats go in this particular picture. I'm not gonna pretend to be mad at this boat anymore. The truth is, I really enjoy it. I especially like the fact that it has a motor.
I completely ran away from my house on Saturday. My fury level was at an all time high Friday evening. I had a hair appointment Saturday morning in the South Hills. I stayed in the area for the rest of the morning and some of the afternoon. After completely changing the color of my hair. Again. I took a trip to the "Fancy" mall. First stop. Williams-Sonoma then, Anthropologie, and finally Restoration Hardware. Now, come on. Who do I think I am? I like to think I'm fancy. It's kind of hard when I have to drive the "dirt truck" to the "fancy" mall. I tried to hide by parking in the garage. However, I did not make clearance and continued to smack the CB antennas on the ceiling. Yeah, there is a CB in the "dirt truck."
I made several purchases. Including the championship!!!! Matching throw pillows for the couch cushion I just covered. I was very excited. Paid way more than I wanted. It was making me feel fancy. I also bought my sister the magical glasses from Williams-Sonoma that we ooohhhhhed and aahhhhd over in the catalog. They were on sale. I stopped and got a "fancy" coffee and headed South. I did some research for Brother at Best Buy and was heading toward home. I called to check on what was going on at the house when I decided to get a frosty treat from my Brother-in-law.
When I got there it was my Sister-in-law instead. Even better. She suggested swimming. Too bad I didn't have a suit. Unacceptable. Let me run across the parking lot and purchase one real quick. We were in Canonsburg pool within half an hour. We had the entire pool to ourselves except for three other kids and the lifeguards. She was just as excited to be there as I was. Her husband and child were away while she ran the family business. She goes to the pool often but, it's not the same when you have a 21/2 year old tag-a-long. It was extremely refreshing even if it wasn't completely sunny and hot. We did some diving board games and synchronized swimming. We lasted about an hour and a half. I hadn't eaten anything and I was getting hungry at 3:30pm.
I stopped at Brother's house on the way home. I thought maybe he would have some kind of tasty snack to hold me over until supper. Nope. When I got there he was washing his car. Big surprise. I parked the truck and he has the nerve to question why the truck is smoking. I didn't know at the time but, it was the emergency brake that was on since I left my sister-in-laws. It's only about two miles. Oooops.
We headed to the lake Sunday morning. I got a nice tan.

Ain't she a beauty #2?

2009-07-07T21:21:00.003-04:00

I know there is no picture. I realized I hadn't taken one when we left the lake house on Sunday. We had another awesome time up there for the 4th of July. Only to come crashing down Monday evening. I'll get to that later. I feel that it will be a long post. I have to go back to Friday when I worked a half day. Actually worked for the three hours I was there. Then I got to go golfing with my Dad and brother. That would be me and my bro in the photo. Notice the professional attire. I do not golf well. I do not pretend to golf well. I strictly go for the entertainment which is always there. We headed out to Rolling Green. I had never played there before. Not that it matters. I hit the ball a lot. My theory is that I am getting my money's worth. Or my Dad's, since he paid. Except for the the 18th hole when I got an Eagle. For you non golfers, that is two under par. I do not pretend to know the definition of par but an eagle is good. Everyone was very excited. Especially, since I had been drinking the prior 17 holes. Another notable moment was on the 10th hole. I had teed off and hit it about fifty feet. I don't know. I have no concept of distance. It wasn't very far. The (other) funny part is that my dad's wife had come along for the ride. This made her laugh. Which made me laugh. Which made me only hit the ball about fifty more yards on the next shot because I couldn't stop giggling. Good times. We have a lot of do-overs too. And beers.

Also, the Penguins signed Fedotenko for one more year. Hooray!!!!! My jersey is still good.

So, Brant and I head up to the lake that evening because he had to mess around with the new boat. I'm done crabbin' about this boat. My main issue was the cost and the sisters came through. Brant's sister Gay had come up Friday to spend the night which gave me someone to talk to while Brant did nerdy things with the pedal boat and the in-laws took the kids to wait for fireworks. The boat required solar panels and converter boxes, among other things that required installation. It's all nerdy, if Brant is doing it. Dirty nerdy, if he's at work.

The 4th was "edible." The clouds took the sun away but, it was still relatively warm. It didn't stop Eden from swimming in the lake. Good food and good times. Brant and I took the boat out into the open water and let the wakes rock the boat. We realized that we had been wasting some fun times in the boat by not taking the boat out where all the boats are making waves. I have yet to discover whether we are legally allowed to drink on the boat, seeing as it has no motor. I'm pretty sure we're not. Repeat on Sunday. Except.........

My kids still take a nap, almost everyday. Well, I laid the kids down and went to lay down on the giant raft down at the dock. Brant had already taken his fins and life jacket across the lake. I must have fallen asleep because, Brant scared the drool out of me when he grabbed my foot. I decided to go check on the kids to make sure that they were sleeping. I peek through the crack of the door and see Xzavier still not sleeping but not making a fuss. I head to the kitchen to get a refill on my water and head back to the raft. I peek through the door one more time and the boy is sticking his fingers down his throat like a bulimic. There is no description for "Mom panic mode." He had a plastic bead stuck in his throat. I only know this at that moment because I remember seeing them when I laid him down. As a mother, I lost control and took him to Brant. He ended up getting it out on his own. Rewind two years to when Xzavier and I took an ambulance ride to Children's to have a dime surgical removed from his throat. Almost to the day. I will never forget when he had to be put under anesthesia. I wish it upon no mother. I cannot even begin to know what mother's of seriously ill children go through. And then I wonder what would have happened had I not gone and checked on them. He's fine except for the broken capillaries around his eyes from gagging so hard. I supposed that was the beginning of the end of the relaxing weekend.

I fast forward to Monday evening. I told Brant I needed to go the grocery and that I would take the kids. I know that I shouldn't take them but, Brant has a goofy schedule this week and I was trying to make it so he could get some rest. The last time I took the kids, I said it was my last. I even recall this when I told Brant that I would take them. It will be OK this time, I say. Nope. The worst yet. So bad, that not only are the kids in tears by the time we get to the checkout but, I am too. Embarrassing.

Two days of relaxation shot down the tubes. It was supposed to last about three weeks. I guess that just means that I have to plan another trip to the lake house sooner than I was expecting. I think that it is inevitable with the full moon and all. I believe that it is making me extra crazy these days.

Steppin' in the Creek

2009-06-27T21:54:00.006-04:00

I'm presently beside myself. I guess written whining makes the stress go away.

My sister-in-law and I took our kids to Mingo Park today. It was an exceptional day. They had an awesome time. Dara(sister-in-law) had already gone with Joel(nephew) on a previous occasion and immediately recommended us going. So, with Brant being gone, I thought this would be an easy stress free way to entertain the kids. It was. They were so excited to go and Eden asked me all morning, "When are we going?" I found myself falling behind my anticipated schedule trying to get things together for this day trip. All the while thinking to myself, why do we need all this? It was like packing for a weekend at the lake. I tend to over do getting organized. We actually did use quite a bit of it.

When we finally arrive, it took the kids all of about sixteen seconds to get in the water. They weren't the least bit afraid to walk through that creek. The could see the bottom until they walked through and stirred it up. The water bugs freaked them out at first until they realized they only swim away. Same with the crawfish, or crowfish according to Eden. Xzavier and I did get one good scare when we got tangled in some floating leaves. I shouldn't say scare but grossed out. No, I did not make Xzavier wear that hat. He stole it from his Poppy right when we were getting in the car to leave. He eventually took it off, as did the princess with her sunglasses. We found this perfect spot for them to play. There was enough dirt and the rock to make it fun. There was another rock right next to this one where Dara was sitting watching the kids. That is, until Eden pointed out who else was sitting there. These were the biggest, most creepy spiders. I could not get a good shot of them. It would not have captured the creepiness anyhow. We were able to get the kids out of the water to enjoy the massive cooler I had packed. They finished their lunch and dessert. To make sure they got good and sweaty for reentry into the creek they ran around in circles. A lot. It was the simplest thing I've ever seen. And I, no doubt, also did it as a child.Back into the water. We ended up staying a little over four hours. My original plan was to take a blanket and they could take a nap. That did not work out. They all laid down at some point. I think Xzavier laid down the longest for about six minutes. Eventually, everything started to crumble. Eden was furious because she couldn't catch the butterflies and Xzavier was furious because......I still don't know. I know he was being uncooperative. Dara told me that Joel would be asleep before we exited the park. He was. Xzavier was asleep not long after. Not Eden. My kids go into zombie like trances when they are exhausted. I find it humorous only because I know I'm getting a good night's sleep.

So, after this perfect day I come home completely relaxed. Not exhausted or overwhelmed for taking care of two small children. What is this? Why am I not pulling my hair out, crying, drinking? What made this so easy today? I know that Dara had a lot to do with it. I'm pretty sure I didn't put any thought into making it the perfect day. I have some thinking to do about that. And we'll see how tomorrow goes.

More cultivation

2009-06-25T23:26:00.002-04:00

If it's not the mud, it's the heat. Or the heat/humidity threatening mud. That's a vicious cycle.

I took my kids to see Washington Community Theatre's Beauty and the Beast tonight. It qualifies as cultivation even though Brant was not there. I did not know what to expect from a play that was being put on in the main pavilion of the town park. What kind of budget do they have? Where do the actors and actresses come from? I was anticipating that everyone is local and that I would be able to recognize some faces. There were a few. I was completely blown away by this production. I am by no means any kind of critic. I couldn't even say whether there was good or bad acting. This production was full of talented people. Young and old(er). I already knew the story. I used to watch the movie every day. I know most of the words. These people did a wonderful job. For me to say that about a musical is really something. I would recommend anyone go see it but, it will probably be over. However, I can recommend going to see whatever WCT puts on.
I bought the tickets to this show early in the week. I asked Brant on Monday if he would like to go. He said he would. I warned him that it would probably be crowded and hot. He still said he would go. I asked him this after I told him the new boat was going to be delivered the next day, Tuesday. Still going. The boat was delivered , inspected for damage, assembled, and Brant was able to surprise the parents with it. They were very excited due to the other boat not being comfortable. Brant is excited because they're excited. He would like to take the boat up to the lake for the parents to be able to use it this weekend. He thought he would be able to get someone to go up with him and help him unload. No dice. Brant had also been planning motorcycle trip weekend with his friend from Ohio. This is one of those things where I don't want him to go strictly because I want him here. So, he starts the old "What should I do?" this afternoon when he gets done work. He was still doing it when I got home. The plan turned into him leaving tonight to go to Ohio to be back early Sunday to take the boat. Originally, he was supposed to leave Friday morning. What's a couple of hours right? It's a lot when there are two toddlers and a working mom involved. Here's the alternative to asking him to stay. He comes to the show with us that was very crowded and very hot. Brant does not sweat like me and the children but, he makes up for it in "It's hot." We were dripping with sweat. It did eventually cool down once the thunderstorm started to move in. I'm guilty of taking the first route because I can deal with the kids whining, for the most part. If Brant's not happy, nobody is happy. Especially me. I also don't want to be the wife that says, no to spending time with his friends. I envy his friendships. (I think it was a sign when he sent me a text message stating that he was in Cambridge and soaked to the bone.)
So I find myself thinking to myself "you do this to yourself." If I didn't want the stress of being a single parent for the weekend I should have said something. I believe I do it as a test to see how crazy I can make myself. I always make it through. I may even be stronger after doing it. The thought of not getting a break or any relief for the next several days makes me nervous. I think that is what stresses me out. The thought of crying the whole weekend because I'm spent. My mind just becomes so exhausted I can't handle it and I break down.
It is now the end of June. With Brant's work schedule this year, you would think that I would be used to it. I don't think there is any getting used to it. I think that it starts to snowball and gets to a point where I just boil over.
And yet, when he tells me to go relax or go do something, I can't. I use the work can't because no matter what I go do or where I go, I'm thinking about what's going on at home. I feel like Brant sits at home and is waiting for me to come back. I feel like the kids are making him crazy and he needs the break. I finally did take a day and went to mom's. I guess it worked for a little while.
I need to figure out what it is I need to do in order to slow down and let my husband take care of me. I know that he tries. I just need to let him.

So, I have a plan for this weekend. I think it's gonna be fun for the kids. I got a new camera. So that should be fun for me.

Good Times

2009-06-22T14:18:00.006-04:00

I never got to finish this the other day so it may end up very long.

I was extremely exhausted for this past weekend. There was too much going on. But......It was Awesome!!!!

It started with a matinee date to see Harry's Friendly Service at the O'Reilly Theatre courtesy of my sister-in-law. She is THE Prop Master. Brant and I call it "cultivation" any time we see something downtown. Most people call it culture. It's an extra special date when we have to take " the dirt truck." Excellent show!!

We were pretty hungry by the time the show let out. We were headed toward Dad's for supper to celebrate "My sister's birthday." We couldn't wait so, we stopped for a salad and cocktail. It was nice because my sister-in-law also volunteered to watch the kiddos while we went on our date. By the time we were getting out of the show she was just getting them to their destination to paint pottery. Brant and I had not been on a date in a long time and it was desperately needed. We were able to have some lovely salad conversation and sit down time together. Good date!!!

(Getting crazy with the punctuation today.)

We finally made it to Dad's, about an hour late I suppose. They did not wait on us to eat. Thank goodness. Another lovely part of the weekend with the fam. Lots of laughs, as usual. Sara got new jelly shoes, Mawzi made chocolate cake, and there were many games of basketball, or something like it. Apparently, Brant and I wore out our welcome. It was 11:30 pm by the time we got home. The cousins were playing so nicely together. I wasn't going to interrupt that. Plus, Xzavier was having too much fun on the neighbors quad. Which gave us the perfect idea for his birthday coming up.

The next morning was breakfast for Father's Day. Everyone was running late. I guess due to Brant and I wearing out our welcome. That was our excuse. Sara and Jim left early. It was a perfect breakfast of giant pancakes and omelets.

At this point in our lives, my family has broken into their own families. I kind of felt like the breakfast was a weak attempt to show Dad the appreciation he deserves but, there are too many dads these days. I am also fortunate enough to work with my Dad and see him about five days a week. I say "about" because my schedule is unpredictable. However, we do spend a lot of time together. Dad and I are both middle children. I've always felt like this has given us a special connection. "Special" meaning we're both simple(tons). Dad has always spoiled all of us rotten. The man has a heck of time saying "no". I love him. A lot. He's fun. I need to show him that I appreciate him more.

Next stop...The Ali's for BBQ. The kids had an awesome time. I watched Xzavier push this scooter up the very steep hill. As I am watching him, I think to myself "He's not going to try and ride that down the hill, is he?" Yes, he was. Not only down the steep hill but, try and use the eighteen inch path between the tree and concrete retaining wall. I ran fast. He looks at me like I'm crazy for stopping him. Eden did end up riding the scooter part way down the hill. The evening was very much enjoyed by all and came to end far too quickly.

Now I am anticipating this weekend when Brant is leaving for the whole weekend. I'm not sweatin' it. I think I have a plan.

Sleep Deprivation

2009-06-19T21:17:00.003-04:00

It seems all too appropriate that I have Fight Club on the TV in the background. It's the part where Tyler Durden aka Cornelius finally sleeps.
I had a fantastic, relaxing time at the lake last weekend. There wasn't anything bustin' through that. No stresses or downers. It really carried all the way through the week, until this morning/today.
I never worry about kids waking in the middle of the night when we are at the lake house. My youngest will be three years old at the end of August. He is not a consistent sleeper and has not been since the day he was born. To this day, he wakes up around the hours of 2am and 3am and wants to sleep in my bed. And I let him. Almost every night. I can't help it. He's so cuddly. He knows how to work me plus, I'm already to tired to fight him back into his bed. His sister was the complete opposite. She has slept through the night since she was five months old. It's part of the reason we had them so close together. Exactly 18 months and 1 day. Yes, I planned it.
This week has caught up with me. I figured it out today when I could not make a decision or a list that I am completely exhausted. Anybody that knows me if I can't make a list there is a problem. The scenario goes like this last night. I pick up the kids from my dad's house after work and take them on a whirlwind of errands. One stop being replacement fish. By the time we get to our last stop Eden's "walkers" are tired. Luckily, it was Sam's Club and we could have a cart. It's 7:30pm exactly twelve hours after my first trip that day. Both kids were very well behaved. It goes without saying that I bought them something. However, it wasn't the junkie stuff that they were whining to have. We finally make it home at 8pm. Ideally, for me, this is when I would be brushing teething, reading stories, etc. There had been no dinner at this point. Which is about right, this is when my kids want to eat. The main reason for the second trip to Sam's Club was to get the fish, for eating, Eden cannot live without. So that's what I was thawing out while putting all the shopping away. By the time it's fried just the way she likes it, it's 9pm. They hogged it down. I threw them in the tub. Read them one short story and it's 10pm. By this time, my "walkers" and the rest of my body don't even have the energy to play Farm Town. Not good. I'm pretty sure I looked at it anyway and probably played Hockey Tycoon until I was out of stamina. It passed some of the time until Brant got home from work. La La La. He gets home around 11:20pm, tells me about his daily injuries, shows me his black thumb and how the nail is getting ready to fall off, I tell him how Eden and mine walkers are tired, he concurs. It's 11:45pm. I pass out. For an hour. My sense of hearing has not shut off since the day I became a mother. Especially, when I'm sleeping. Although, I guess it does shut off at work. Approximately, 45 minutes later I hear crying. I automatically assume it's Xzavier. I head straight for his room to find him sound asleep. I go next door to find Eden sick. Poor thing. I'm now awake until 1:45am. Fast forward to approximately, 3am, if I remember correctly. More crying. I know it's Xzavier this time because Eden is already in our bed. I wake Brant up to let him know I'm going to sleep in Xzavier's bed. We have a king size bed that used to fit us all. Not really anymore. And then it's 6am when my alarm is going off. I get up. Whatever. Get ready. Let Brant know that if Eden is too sick to take to Dad's to call me and I will come home. Although, I already know she is OK because she is practically jumping on the bed while paying hide and seek with Xzavier in the blankets. It's 7:30am.
Still unknowing to me a this point, I get to work and push paper the way I should. I was proud of the way I cleaned up my desk, finalized paperwork, and made phone calls. And at 5pm. That's when it hits me. I'm freakin' exhausted. My sister concurs. I still have kids to pick up and dinner to make. Oh yeah, I have to stop at the pet store to get a new heater for the fish we bought last night. If I don't, they have to live in the ice tea container on the counter. Where is my second wind? It never comes. Luckily, I properly heat some dino nuggets (meaning in the oven), inform the kids they are eating lots of vegetables tomorrow, and let them lick m&m's off the counter as dessert. While I was aimlessly putting toys away and waiting for the oven to preheat, I look over Eden is quietly coloring and playing with stickers while her brother is laying on her head. I realize it's the reason I don't need a second wind. It's the reason I can stay up and mudblog until way past my bedtime. However, I do need to make a list.

The Lake

2009-06-15T16:07:00.006-04:00

This is my view from the right side of the deck of "The Lake House." This picture doesn't really do it justice. My in-laws have this house at Tappan Lake. I thought they got it for a steal but, apparently they don't actually own the property. It belongs to the conservancy.? I'm not sure. None the less, we get to go here any time we want. It's like vacation. But better. It's someplace other than home that is familiar. You don't feel like a tourist so it's that much more relaxing. It takes just over an hour to get there. The kids tolerate the ride. The cupboards are filled and, I know where everything is. Brant and I took the kids this weekend. Our friend Mike and his son Josh came and camped out down by the water. We made smores Saturday night. Those things are so good. Sticky but, good.

This place casts a spell over me. In the best way possible. No matter how bad of a week or day I've had this place makes me feel better. I don't care about doing anything. The kids amuse themselves. The dog doesn't run away. Even in the winter when I can't lay on my raft in the lake (I just found out my friend Bethany calls this the Red Neck Yacht Club) or go on the pedal boat, it just relaxes me to be able to stare out at the lake.

This weekend was no exception. I was a little skeptical about Mike and Josh coming and having to entertain them but, not a problem. There really is enough to do that no one has to bother anyone else. As soon as we got there on Saturday Brant and I take the kids on the paddle boat, Mike and Josh paddled their own canoe. It was immediate relaxation. Even for Brant, which is probably most important. Eden has these eagle eyes that spot whatever animal or bug is hiding in their camouflage. It's kind of frightening sometimes. Other times, when you can't see what she does, then it's frustrating. We spotted a crane that we tried to sneak up on only to have it fly away. However, we did find it further down the shore. So, we tried to sneak up on it again, only to have it fly away. This went on until we got the the shore by the road and the crane had enough and flew away for good that time. Our first ride wasn't very long but, we did do some donuts. In this boat, it's in slow motion. The kids like it and Brant and I think it's funny.

The in-laws have owned this house for maybe two years. When they first got it, there was no way I was walking in that lake. Water shoes or not. Ew. Brant's sister walks right in with her flip flops like she's in the grass. Ew. I am proud to say that I now walk in the lake wearing my flip flops. As Mike put it, "it's just dirt." I guess. My greatest accomplishment of the weekend was on Sunday. Brant wanted to paddle to the one end of the lake. Actually, this is my second greatest accomplishment. We pedal. And pedal. And pedal. "You wanna float?" "Yeah" Eden says "I'll do it, Dad." And she did. It seems like a small muscle that you use for this thing but, it does get tired. So we paddled/pedaled, whatever, to the end to find a concrete tunnel for the road over top. Eden wants to go through so, we start through. It was several sections of concrete rings stuck together to make this tunnel. We got close and could see the bottom of the tunnel. No worries, we're in a pedal boat. Until we get to the other side and bottom out. Now I make a point to put my bathing suit on and my flip flops before I get in the boat. You never know what may happen. Not Brant. He had on tennis shoes and socks. He's trying to grab a stick to use to spin us around. A stick that had been floating in the water for who knows how long and was covered in algae. He hands it to me. I got out of the boat and pushed us. I was done messing around. I think he was kind of grossed out by me standing in that water. It wasn't stagnant or anything. It was like this. Sort of. I guess not to that extent. So we get out of the tunnel and I'm trying to get back in my seat and accidentally kicked Brant in the head with my "swamp foot." I thought it was kind of funny. There was no wound or abrasion. I'm still giggling.

My other greatest accomplishment of the weekend was getting back in the canoe. It had been years since I had been in the thing because my first experience was not enjoyable. I had to sit down in the bottom while Brant and one of his sister's paddled. I was pretty uncomfortable. I was not actually in the canoe for my next experience. Thank goodness. Brant and Mike had decided to take the canoe to Cross Creek several years back. I stayed on shore. I told them have a good time. I'm not sure if that's what Mike called it but, I know Brant usually has a smile on his face any time they talk about the trip. Needless to say, they ended up in Cross Creek. The canoe was upside down. I have no idea how they got that thing flipped over but, they did. They made it back to shore and my decision to stay out of the canoe was solidified. Well, the kids wanted to go in the canoe on Saturday. So, I went. I got to paddle up front. Man, that was fun. I was a little nervous with the kids. They wanted to keep hanging over the edge to put their hands in the water. I know Brant was watching them but, I still put a krink in my neck watching Xzavier to make sure he stayed in the boat. I will go again. If I get to paddle.

Work was trying to ruin everything the lake did but, I didn't let it. Until the next episode.

Coool

2009-06-12T11:34:00.002-04:00

At least now I know. I had been wondering. Just go ahead. Go To. It's Fun.

R.I.P. Homer

2009-06-08T08:39:00.007-04:00

I'm going to recap my Saturday even though I asked for a redo on it at the end of the day. I'll start with Friday night when I wasn't feeling well. I decided to try and sleep it off. That didn't happen and I woke up cranky.

Hubby had slept fine and decided to start buggin' me about ANOTHER pedal boat. It took me a long time to figure out if he was serious. What's wrong with the one we already bought, you ask? "It's not comfortable." OK. I know that I'm not going to win this battle soooo, get to work. I have to do the research, make the calls, find out if it can be delivered. Fine. I did what I could for a Saturday morning. That did not stop him from asking me the rest of the day "What did they say?"

Moving right along. In addition to listening to that I had to clean windows. I did not want to do it by any means but, it needs done. Badly. I cleaned ten, inside and out, including screens. I figure, including doors, I still had 27 left. I decided in order to try and relax a little that I would take a little rest outside while the kids were napping. That worked out fine until Hubby came home from doing his running and started asking me about the pedal boat. I just asked him to put the blade on the tractor so I could go cut grass.

I will regress to last weekend's grass cutting for a moment. I had just started cutting the one section of the yard the prior weekend before this. It's a hard section to cut due to all of the flower boxes, beds, and trees. There is no easy way to do it and it is steep. I did fine the first weekend. Brant a.k.a Hubby, was extremely proud when he got home that day. The next time I was not so confident. There was what I call, and George Lucas, "A disturbance in the force." I started to notice I was making some ruts in the yard when I was making my turns. I thought maybe I was making my turns to sharp and the deck was cutting into the yard. I continue to cut. I start to notice that I'm not getting the traction I'm used to. The grass wasn't wet but, it wasn't bone dry either. I kick it into 4-wheel. I still notice the ruts. I turn the blades off, get off the tractor and look under the deck. "Am I draggin' a stick, what's goin' on?" I am making my last pass and starting up the hill when I look down and......the wheel is coming off the rim. It had been the whole time and was causing the ruts in the yard. I panicked because I am the Queen of Break My Husband's Tools. It was no big deal. Nothing was bent or damaged. Except my pride.

Fast forward. Brant gets the blade on. I decide to make myself a cocktail to take with me. It's 3 o'clock and the hockey game was on later. That cocktail was an excellent idea. I was feeling a lot better. More relaxed. I wondered why I hadn't been having drunken tractoring before now. I did know it wasn't going to be the last. I started wondering if I could have gotten a DUI if I had too much.

Brant likes to take the old Craftsman tractor and chase me when I'm on his girlfriend. I was about half way done with the back field when I saw him and the kids coming out of the barn on the old busted thing. When I look again, they're gone and the dogs are fighting, again.

We had adopted Homer last year from the Humane Society. He's the pristine white one. He was a "lab mix" according to the Humane Society. I had always thought that he was part dalmation. We had been having trouble when my sister-in-laws would bring their female dogs over to our house. Homer would attack Ruger. We knew it was a male dominance issue. We never had any issues any other time. It happened only a few weeks ago and another time before that. In the last couple of weeks, Brant and I had both seen a pit bull in passing. We had come to the conclusion that Homer was a lot of pit bull. We put Homer down due to his aggressive behavior. We buried him in the pet cemetary on the back of the property with the rest of the family pets. Brant has a huge heart for animals. I hated to have to do it. Mostly for his sake. There is definitely something missing at our house. The dogs make me crazy but, they're still part of my family.

After all of that, I had the hockey game to look forward to. "And that's all I have to say about that."

In order to reboot. On Sunday, I went to church and prayed for almost an hour straight. I then decided to go over to my mom's by myself and lay in her yard to take a rest. I even got on the treadmill and in the hot tub. I topped it off with a beer and Drover's wings.

You're it.

2009-06-02T13:53:00.003-04:00

I've been tagged. By my sister.

I was reading her meme and wondering what I would put if it were to come to me. Would I be able to come up with ten? Are they supposed to be positive things? Is it possible to come up with anything when you are as obsessive compulsive as I am? Before getting into this anymore I had to look up the definition of the word meme. I had to read it very carefully in order to figure out how it related to the list that Sara made. So, during my moment of zen, which is when I run the sweeper, I came up with the following:

1. I have three tattoos. Two of which go from my armpits to my hips. They are in need of repair from being pregnant. The third one is a design from my dad's Browning shotgun.

2. If given the choice of any plastic surgery, I would have my ankles done. Sorry, cankles.

3. I don't do one particular thing extremely well. I do a lot of things o.k. My husband makes sure I have everything I need to sew, cook, take pictures, etc. Oddly though, he just killed my treadmill.

4. My ears are two different shapes. I finally came to terms with it a few years back.

5. I follow the Pittsburgh Penguins. I have met some of the players. I did not miss one game the whole regular season. I turned off one. I attended four.

6. I call myself OCD. I sweep every other to every third day. I hate clutter. I pick up my kids toys immediately after they are finished playing with them. I don't leave laundry in the machines for more than a day. Same with the dishes. I use a sharpening steel every time I use my knife. My cupboards look like they could be featured in a magazine or on Cribs. However,.......

7. I have no bed frame. Only mattresses. As do my children. I have no carpet. Only subflooring upstairs and in the grandroom. I have no curtains. Only make shift with whatever piece of material I can hang on a spring rod. The combination of #6 and #7 make me a whirling dervish of insanity.

8. I had a pet chinchilla. His name was Chief. He used to hump my husband's arm. I don't know, that may fall under Great Honor.

9. I'm madly in love with my husband. And have been for almost 15 years. Yes, he does make me crazy.

10. I pray that my children will be passionate about everything and anything that they do. Which reverts back to #3.

I don't know if all of those qualify. They are true. I didn't come up with them all while sweeping either. I had to really think.

What I also caught myself thinking about this weekend was my classification. We have almost five acres of property to play with. Less than half is the back field. My in-laws used to have a landscaping business which results in beautiful gardens all over the property. They live there too. (my in-laws , that is) After living there for over three years, I am finally able to get out into the gardens and help maintain. I was working on the front bank this weekend trying to clean it up a little. It consists of some plants and bushes which I don't pretend to know the names of. It is all held up by rocks that have been cemented to keep from sliding down. I guess. I questioned Brant on it later. He went off on a tangent. As I'm sweating because, I was basically working in the baking sun on black top, I realized that I'm not a gardener. I'm a weeder. About two thirds of the way through I also realized that I was pulling out one piece of grass at a time. Not because I really wanted to but, because everything was so overgrown and mixed up. You would think this is how someone who calls themself OCD would want to do it. It's not. It's dumb.

I leave all the planting to my mother-in-law. I try to clean up all the beds so she can just bring home the flowers and throw them in the dirt. I did plant a small tray of flowers and green beans that I started from seeds. It was mostly for the kids to see how they grow. I also planted some basil, dill, and thyme in a small flower box. So this has resulted in me coming to the realization that I'm not a gardener, and by no means a farmer, but a weeder.

Lord Stanley

2009-05-28T15:50:00.000-04:00

Since the Penguins have made it to the Stanley Cup I will reminisce about facepants. My brother got me hooked on the Penguins. I follow their every move. It gives me something to be passionate about.

He(brother) surprised me for my past birthday by interrupting my treadmill run and taking me to the game. I had surprised him a day or two before. I told him we had a meeting at Southpointe and ended up taking him to Penguins practice for pictures and autographs. He had his picture taken with Philippe Boucher and others. I had mine taken with Ruslan Fedotenko, my favorite, only to make a fool of myself by telling him(Ruslan) "it's my sister's birthday." No, it wasn't. It was MY birthday. I was excited, I couldn't help it.

On the way to the game we were talking about the players and he commented on how his head was big but, not as big as Boucher's. And seeing how he had just pulled me off the treadmill, I said "at least you don't have to worry about your facepants fitting like I have to worry about my pantspants fitting." Obviously. He didn't know what to say. So then I said, "Hey, look at that coupe de jour." Again, he didn't know what to say.

So, there it is. In case you were wondering. I have yet to live these sayings down. Nor do I intend to. My brother is the one that suggested I put a reference to the mud and the facepants in my blog. This is just a small sample of the nonsense that comes out of my mouth.

Also, the rain has been threatening me with mud. So far, so good.

Go Pens!

Ain't she a beauty?

2009-05-26T09:34:00.000-04:00

This has been the debate for say, the last four to six weeks. That's how we buy things in my house. My husband will go back and forth in order to get the answer out of me. He tells me about it and tells me about it until I tell him to just go and get it. I wasn't hip to his game until a couple of years ago. I called him on it and he did not disagree. It's how he gets all his tools as well.

The decision on the boat was finally made ten minutes before I left for the weekend saying, "I don't want to listen to you complain about "I shoulda bought the boat." Go buy the boat, I'll meet you at the lake."

My in-laws have the most wonderful retreat at Tappan Lake. House and dock right on the water. Quiet side road. It's pure relaxation, even for the kids.

They wanted to buy one of these paddle/pedal boats to fully enjoy the surroundings and get into the water. Hubby bought it for them in appreciation of everything they do. Especially, letting us stay at their lake house.

Where I have a loathing for mud, I have a love for the combination of sun and water. Especially, when it is as God intended, i.e. lake, river, beach. I love the peace of it all.

This is our other purchase that took weeks to decide. I call it his "girlfriend." That was almost two years ago. We shopped every tractor store in the area til we found her. Although extremely useful, it is the reason for the random hole in our field. And other mud.

At least these things are finally purchased and I don't have to listen to any more features and options of this one and that one.

And so it begins.

2009-05-21T10:23:00.000-04:00

I am finally doing it. I would like to blame someone for getting me started on this so, I will blame myself. If ever there was a blog about nothing, this is it. I do not take credit for my title. It was a group effort but, appropriate all the same.

I hate mud. My house is surrounded by it. In order to get to my car, I have to walk through it, if it has rained. This makes me hate it. I have two dogs, who track it into my house. This makes me hate it. I watch it swell to magnificent amounts when it rains. I have no regrets about this hatred. I day dream often of the day it will be covered by a spacious deck. Until then I hate the mud.

The above picture is not the mud I am referring to. That is the random "hole" in my back field. Quite useful for my kids to throw dirt and rocks into for endless hours of entertainment.

Facepants, you ask? At least they fit.