Vacation Part 2

We took two day trips while we were in Maine. Papa and Grandma came with us to Fort Knox and the Penobscot Narrows Observatory (atop the Penobscot Narrows Bridge).

Here's the Younger overlooking the town of Bucksport from the Fort grounds:

Inside the Fort:


I neglected to take many pictures because we had a "tour time" for the observatory and felt a little rushed. As it turned out all you do is show up at the observatory and an attendant puts you on the elevator and tells you a few facts about the bridge, so it's not like we would have missed our chance if we were 15 minutes later.

Below are two views of the bridge - one from below and one from the observatory. You will see that there are actually two bridges - the old bridge is on the left and will be taken down when the state gets around to it. The new one is "cable-stayed bridge" (which I had never heard of) and on this particular bridge the cables run down the middle with traffic on either side. The observatory at the top is the highest public bridge observatory in the world.




Our second day trip was down to Freeport to visit LL Bean and a Stamping Store that I found online, as well as to see a friend in Topsham. It rained the day that we planned to go and we figured that it would be great since Freeport is a walking town so it should be empty, right? So we headed out and planned to go south and work our way up - off to the stamp store. We couldn't find it. I later learned from another stamp store owner that the one in Freeport had been out of business for 2 years. OK, then off to Bean. First the Clearance Store which was a ZOO. If they were giving away stuff I still wouldn't have stood in the checkout line. So we'll head to the Retail Store. Wrong again. The entire town was nearly gridlock and we couldn't find a parking space within a mile of Bean. So we promised the kids that we would either return another day or stop on our way home.

So we drove 15 minutes or so up to Topsham to visit our former Interim Pastor at his new church, and on the way back home stopped for milkshakes and a quick trip in to a Goodwill Store where I bought Montel Williams' recent book about his experience with MS. He writes likes he speaks - intense and repetitive, but interesting, with lots of expert opinions backing him up.

Anyway - more later

Vacation, Part 1

We had planned to leave Saturday morning around 3am. Unfortunately that Friday I was useless - so tired that all I could do was lay on the couch and direct the kids. When The Husband got home from work (and ran all of the errands that I had been unable to do) he and the kids finished packing inside, then went out to pack the van (mostly in the dark). Around 9pm a huge storm blew up and we lost power for a few hours, so we decided to finish packing at daybreak and didn't actually leave until 8am. We later learned that a neighbor's house was hit by lightning and had the electric panel and many appliances fried.

I managed to sleep in the car (miraculous, since I NEVER sleep in the car) for much of the trip, but I'm told that it wasn't a pleasant drive. LOTS of traffic and when we were in northern Massachusettes I saw something that I've never seen in my van before:

Yes, we really were travelling NE but we were sitting in the gas station parking lot at the time of the photo...

We finally arrived but I was in such a fog that I barely remember that day -- I even skipped church on Sunday morning. Dad commented that I would do anything to avoid hearing him preach. Darn! He figured it out! Yep, that's why I purposely contracted an incurable neurological disease

Home!

Yes, we're still alive. We returned Monday afternoon from Maine - 3 kids and 3 dogs in a Minivan for 9 hours is less than fun, but we all survived (and the puppies all behaved themselves). We're still recuperating but we're getting back into the swing of things. The Husband stopped in yesterday at the Jeep dealership and found out, much to his exceeding joy, that his 2008 Red Rock Rubicon Unlimited is on a train in NJ and scheduled for delivery next Wed/Th.

Younger daughter had soccer last night and The Boy started Fall Ball tonight, so I guess we're officially home again. I'll post some Vacation stories with pics tomorrow so stay tuned :o)

12 days til school starts!!

Younger daughter is fearless around the horses. I had never been to the barn before the day of the horse show and I couldn't believe her. She treats them like big dogs.

Here's cousin S with Abby


And Older Daughter's very first competition:


Poco has some new jewelry to wear

Home for awhle

Busy few weeks! We went with The Husband's family on our annual trek to Knoebels Amusement Park and a long weekend of camping. We went too close to July 4th this year so it was much more crowded than usual. Hopefully next year it'll be a little later.

We had to take all 3 dogs with us since our usual dog sitters were on vacation, and I'm happy to report that everyone was very well-behaved, including Shadow, the car-ride-hating, obnoxious-barking sheltie. When we went to the park we left the shelties back at the campground with Grandpa and took Wilma. She was wonderful at the park but she decided that she didn't want to go on the Antique Cars with her former roommate, Hayden (my SIL's Lab). So younger daughter drove the car with her two aunts and Hayden. (Unfortunately I didn't get a picture).

The kids have been going to "Receation" at the park every morning last week and this coming week. The park has a really nice pool and on really hot days they get to swim. There's also a mini-golf course and a real, working carousel. I don't think they've been on the carousel except when we went to the town's anniversary celebration last month but they do get to play mini golf. It's been a nice break in the middle of the summer to give them something different to do and give me a few hours break every day.

Thursday The Husband had to go into NYC for yet another medical procedure. In typical Columbia Presbyterian fashion they called me in after 2 hours only to tell me that they hadn't started yet. Anyhow, everything is well for the time being.

Yesterday Older Daughter participated in her very first Horse Show. She and her 3 cousins all did very well. She won 5th place in one of the two events that she did, but several of the riders in those divisions were either professional or had been riding for many years. Apparently the rule for her division is that either the rider or the horse has to have been showing for fewer than two years. Dumb. I'll post pics tomorrow since I'm completely wiped out today from all the sun (major sunburn even though I was in the shade most of the day)

This week we're trying to fit in a viewing of "Order of the Phoenix" before Friday night when Hubs will take the older two to Barnes & Noble for the LAST of the Harry Potter book release parties. That night I'll be taking younger daughter to see the Scranton Yankees game since we have tickets and she and I haven't had a chance to go yet.

So we have a few quiet weeks before heading up to Maine in early August. And I think the minute that we get home The Boy starts "Fall Ball", so I plan to enjoy a few weeks of baseball-free evenings.

SOMEONE lost some weight recently...

...about three ounces of metal, to be precise!

Happy Father's Day

1. GO YANKEES!

2. Our bunnies are becoming fearless. Peter (or one of his siblings) is sighted nearly every day, usually by the shed. He keeps his distance from us but doesn't run away. Then last weekend an older bunny (currently known as Big Bunny) peeked into our backdoor, then hung out on the porch eating cardboard. We saw him again several times during the week. Today we had a picnic with my side of the family - 7 adults, 5 kids and 5 dogs. Big Bunny decided to visit despite the commotion and he hung around eating strawberry hulls from the compost pile. Here's my 3yo nephew:

Sign spotted in New Hope

The horror of blimps

This is the story of a man and his toy blimp. I stumble across it once or twice a year and every time I read it I laugh so hard my sides hurt.

The horror of blimps

How drunk do you think this brickmaker was?

Bricks on the Visual Arts building at Lafayette College

Stuff I found while looking for other stuff:

Odd tools and stuff:
What is it?


"Modern Mechanix

Yesterday’s tomorrow, today."

The Vintage Projects Collection

Pictures

The back bed in this picture is planted with strawberries that are desperately in need of weeding and the front bed has tomatoes and herbs. I still need to put up the trellis. The third bed has more tomatoes and peppers (bell and jalapeno). The fourth bed isn't yet planted but it has a trellis and will get a few pumpkin vines and lettuce and radishes that can be shaded by the vines.


YoungerDaughter had a Spellathon last week to raise money for the American Lung Association. They had a list of 100 words to study and got pledges for each word they spelled correctly. Three kids who spelled all 100 words correctly got goodie bags and a trophy:






And The Boy in action at the All-Stars game.

Catching up again

I had a very long post written out with photos planned to be inserted but I can't get the darn pictures out of my camera. I'll have to hook everything up to the other computer tomorrow and see if that one will work. I *love* tefhnology some days....

The Boy's team lost both of their All-Star games last weekend, but he played well and had fun. He has a game tomorrow when it's supposed to be 90 degrees out. It's days like that that I wish he'd play Ice Hockey instead!

Younger daughter had a game tonight and she played very well. She was more focused on the game than usual - we think it's because she was the "pitcher" where all the action takes place (it's coach-pitch softball, but the coach only pitches so she did the fielding .

I went to Home Depot today to buy topsoil and manure (I can't believe I actually paid money for ...manure). I actually had two employees offer to load the bags for me - one onto my cart and the other into my car, so all I had to do is get it out of the car. The Husband is presently useless as far as manual labor goes since he had a nasty growth removed from his middle finger last week and the dermatologist wants him to do nothing until it heals completely. And I actually heard her say it so I can't very well call him a liar.

I got two of the garden beds planted - one to go (pics are stuck in the camera), and the soil I bought is for a flower bed by the shed - because I need yet another project to work on, in addition to painting chairs, re-planting trees that died over the winter, painting the shed doors and the front door, re-stacking the bricks around the front tree that I knocked over with the tractor, fixing the dog-fence, replacing the siding that blew off the summer kitchen, and-and-and.... Oh, and school gets out next week :o(

So much for an unscheduled weekend

On Thursday we learned that The Boy is on the All Star team again this year. We also learned that the games are this weekend. Tomorrow's game is at 10am and if they win they also play Sunday's game.

Next weekend he goes to Scranton for the regional MLB Pitch, Hit and Run competition. He won the local hitting competion in his age group a few weeks ago and advanced to the second level.

Baseball is our life.

Girl Stuff

Older Daughter at riding lessons last week. To say that she enjoys it would be a *huge* understatement!



And here's Younger Daughter at her first softball game last Thursday. She got a base hit and later scored! And the game was mercifully short - about 45 minutes. So we were home by 7, which is the earliest evening we've had in ages.


And today for Mother's Day the kids have been weeding the garden while I sat and supervised. Meanwhile, The Husband assembled the new weedwhacker. He began cutting around the garden beds then stopped when he miraculously spotted this:


Peter is a lucky rabbit because he not only has all four rabbit feet but he is virtually unscathed. We spotted a tiny spot of blood on the tip of one ear, but otherwise all is well. After a few minutes of calming he hopped off. Her rested for awhile under the maple tree then disappeared (probably to underneath the shed). And we will be totally paranoid about weedwhacking forevermore!

One Hour

Yikes! I didn't realize how long it's been since I've posted.

In the past hour I have:
taken the dogs out
dug a hole for the new apple tree
banished the two big dogs to their crates for not listening to me and crossing the road
emptied the dishwasher
refilled the dishwasher
chiseled jelly off the kitchen table
ran a load of laundry
loaded pizza dough in the bread machine
taken a shower
(most of those things have been MUCH easier to do with the two dogs locked up!)

We've been keeping busy with baseball and softball practices. The Boy started games a few weeks ago but Younger Daughter has her FIRST softball game tonight. She's very excited to say the least.

I can't find the photo that I wanted to post so here's one of my favorites fo the 3 monsters from about 4 years ago.

Printable coupon

for Dick's Sporting Goods: $10 off $25. Expires 5/19

The traditional two-weeks-after-Easter photo

Because Easter Sunday was *freezing*. I got the girls to wear their Easter clothes to church yesterday but I knew there was no hope to get The Boy to wear a dress shirt and pants twice in one month!

Excellent Book Sale next week

Friends of Parkland Community Library
Troxell School Building
2219 N. Cedar Crest Blvd.
(Rte 22, exit at Cedar Crest Blvd., turn right and proceed north for 1.4 miles; building on right. Parking at rear of building.)
610-398-1361
April 21 - 28

* 17th ANNUAL USED BOOK SALE
* 75,000 to 80,000 Items!
o Hardbacks, Paperbacks
o Children's Books
o Videos
o Audio Cassettes
o CD's and DVD's
* Preview:
o Saturday April 21, 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.. $10 donation per adult, $3 donation per child
o Free Entry: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
* General Sale - April 22 to 28
o Sunday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
o Monday thru Friday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
o Saturday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
* Directions: PA Rt. 22, exit at Cedar Crest Blvd, turn right and proceed north for 1.4 mile. Troxell Building is on right. Enter on lower side of bldg. Used Book Sale entrance and parking in rear of bldg.
* Presented by Friends of Parkland Community Library

Rumor has it

that Spring will actually be happening in the coming week. I'll believe it when I see it. Last night Younger Daughter had softball practice. Now tell me - do you really think that second graders can actually learn softball fundamentals properly while wearing winter coats/scarves/hats and jumping in place trying to keep warm?

Things are drying out around here following the Nor'easter. New Jersey was hit far worse than we were. Our garage didn't flood, which it is prone to do in heavy rain. I don't think there was very much flooding in Easton, either (where we cross the Delaware River into NJ). But we're keeping the flooded communities in NJ in our prayers - I think Bound Brook had 7 feet of water on Main Street and Manville didn't do much better.

It's cloudy and icky so we've had a lazy day. We watched the first half of 'The Music Man' (the Matthew Broderick version), and 'Annie Get Your Gun' is next in line.

I have some pictures to post if the camera ever shows up...

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I'm a blog neglecter

partly because there hasn't been much to report and partly because I tend to break computers. Now the light in my laptop's monitor has died so I have had to hook up the laptop not only to the ginormous docking station (and mouse and keyboard) but also to a huge boat anchor formerly known as a 17" CRT monitor (the big heavy ones). And for about a week I couldn't find the keyboard so I had to use the onscreen keyboard that is part of windows. It's no fun to type more than 3 words at a time using the OSK....

The Boy started baseball last week (his team is the Yankees again) and Younger Daughter starts softball on Tuesday. Tonight (Maundy Thurday, unfortunately) The Husband is taking the older two to the home opener of the Scranton-Wilkes Barre Yankees, the NY Yankees new AAA farm team. We got 3 ticket packs for 10 games that include free parking and all you can eat from the concession stand (and a line for those ticket holders so we don't have to wait with the people who have to actually have to pay for their food. Even so, The Boy informed me that he wants to have a "small dinner" before he goes....

Meanwhile Younger Daughter and I will be dining at our finest local diner (since we don't have an IHOP which is where she wanted to go) then returning home for a private screening of the new Charlotte's Web DVD. She's extremely excited - she bounced into our room first thing this morning giggling because she was so excited.

How do you clean soap? The other night Wilma was sitting on the bed with "the look" on her face - she gets this odd look when she's hiding something in her mouth. Normally when you tell her "out" she will drop it, but this time she wouldn't even open her mouth. I had to pry her jaws open (with much resistance) and found a whole bar of soap! Fortunately it was the bar that The Husband uses, not mine :o) Either way it was gross.

Except for the color, this is my van!

Aahh Spring

Mud Season is in FULL swing here. The yard right off of the back porch consists of about 6 inches of mud that the dogs keep tracking in. We decided that we're going to sod the area because with 3 kids and 3 dogs grass seed doesn't stand a chance. On the plus side the kitchen floor got a good cleaning yesterday when I let the muddy dogs in and none of them would listen and stay by the door. All 3 of them pretended to be deaf as The Husband and I both hollered and grabbed at fur.

The Husband has been complaining about how much I've torn up the lawn with the van (it's the only way I can drive into the garage at the moment). Well since he drove home from church on Sunday there is no more grass in that area - and the ruts are 8" deep. Consequently he finally agreed with me that we need to actually make that area driveway (I've been trying to convince him of this for 2 1/2 years).

Younger Daughter and I have started planting seeds so I guess it's time to get the Christmas garland down off the deck. The ice is finally gone so I can get out there without breaking my neck.

Other than that everything around here is status quo (and I'm not complaining about that!).

More than you ever wanted to know

about toilet paper

Too busy to blog!

Well, actually too lazy to blog... Nothing much going on around here. We had a snow day yesterday - there were about two inches of snow and ice. At first they called for a 2 hour delay so Younger Daughter was getting ready to go to the bus when Sassy Neighbor called and alerted us. So the two younger kids played in the snow for most of the morning and much of the afternoon while Older Daughter, who had a room-cleaning reprieve last weekend because of illness, got to clean her room.

We Netflixed "For Your Consideration", the latest Christopher Guest "mockumentary" and found it rather dissappointing. The others were far more entertaining (A Mighty Wind is my favorite).

I'm taking an online class (not for credit) in Old Testament History from Covenant Seminary (PCA). The best part is that it's FREE, as are two dozen or so other courses that they offer. I looked into auditing some classes from a local seminary but just to audit one class would be almost $700! Click on the link above and look in the left-hand column for their other courses. Lectures are in MP3 format and notes are in PDF format.

I'm seriously in love!

Yep. With my supermarket! I did my grocery shopping last night in my PJs. Today The Husband and I went and picked up the order. Since grocery shopping wipes me out I was thrilled to have someone else get everything I needed, bag it and load it in my car for a $10 service fee. I didn't even have to set foot in the store - the clerk came out to me. I didn't have to haul dog food and 15 bottles of PowerAde (on sale) and 4 cases of Diet Pepsi, and make sure that I didn't pile any of that on the eggs and bread... And it helps that it's the store with the best prices in the area so I shop there several times a month even though it's 20 minutes away and Giant is only 5 minutes up the road. Definitely worth $10 once in awhile - especially when The Husband can pick up on his way home from work.


It's 7pm and it's still 38 degrees out. The hard white stuff started melting today and turned to the consistency of a Sno-Cone. I hope to get the van out of the garage someday soon!

We made it home!

We spent Tuesday night at the InLaw's house helping them out after Dad's procedure. We didn't get a lot of snow, either there or here at home, but we did get about 2 inches of white stuff that resembles snow but that feels like ice.

Wednesday in the sleet The Husband took his Mom to the spine doctor to have her brace tightened (and he showed us how to do it). She's doing well and goes back in 6 weeks. Unfortunately, without us being there to beat her into submission she's going to be doing way too much bending and picking stuff up off the floor...

We decided to stay there Wednesday night figuring the kids would have at least a delayed school opening, plus I was too wiped out to drive home. As it turned out school was closed Thursday, too. So Aunt L came to keep The Grandparents in line so we could go home. We got home Thursday around noon and The Husband attempted to pack down enough snow/ice with the truck to enable me to get into the garage. He was minimally successful, but I did get into the garage without too much difficulty. I don't, however, expect to get back out much before April.

Today we're just hanging out and watching movies. The kids were out sledding for an hour or so and I baked a Birthday Cake for church tomorrow night. We're having a Birthday Party for everyone and I volunteered to make the October cake.

Oh, Older Daughter has been given notice. Her disasterous room is to be in reasonable condition by the end of the weekend of I will be posting a photo here. Stay tuned...

How cold is our house?

Yesterday I stopped at Dairy Queen after grocery shopping for a soda at 2pm. I went to the carwash before going home (boy was my van happy!). At 7pm I picked my cup up to throw it out and it still had ice in it.

We seem to have a major storm rolling in - there's nothing happening yet, it just started snowing but the schools have early dismissal and I'm assuming a snow day tomorrow. The Husband spent last night at his parents' house in order to drive them to the hospital this morning for Dad's procedure. He's finished but after talking to the doctor The Husband and his Mom (who's in a neck brace) feel that he should stay with them tonight, too. So I'm going to pack up the kids and dogs and head over there later today

I've been waiting for winter to finally arrive...be careful what you wish for (and when!)

Thursday

Nothing much happening here. The kids actually went to school at the regular time (there was only one school delay on the news this morning - the past 3 days there were 120+). But it's still cold...11 degrees this morning, 20 now. And windy.

I'm gonna get a hernia carrying this laptop up and down the stairs! And the keyboard is driving me crazy and opening things while I'm typing. Maybe I should read the manual, huh?

LOST returned from hiatus last night with a great episode. Unfortunately ABC moved it to 10pm which is wayyyy past the time that I can easily follow a plotline, much less LOST's plotline. Here's an article on the Top 50 LOST Loose Ends that many of us are waiting for answers to (yup, ended that sentence with a preposition).

Delayed opening?!

ALL of the schools around here had a two hour delayed opening both yesterday and today. Because. It. Was. Cold. ??!! OK, actually our schools didn't open late yesterday but only because they had a half day scheduled already. How wimpy are we that people can't stand outside in
0 degree weather for five minutes to wait for a school bus?

In other news, I am the latest victim of the malady that has struck our household. I'm much better today, except for the headache that I've had for two days.

And The Husband did not have to go to jury duty today (he was #200-something and they only needed up to #177).

Hopefully I'll be blogging a little more often. My laptop has been having power issues so I couldn't move it very well lest it shut down. We bought a docking station for it which bypasses the power cord and I got a seperate keyboard. It's now MUCH easier to type.


This is what my "laptop" now looks like with it's ridiculously enormous docking station:

If you're looking for helpful information about adapting things for use by someone wearing a neck brace for a broken neck

that she broke in May but didn't tell anyone about or see a doctor about until January... don't accidently hit 'enter' after just typing "neck brace" in Google. If you do, the first many hits you get will be of fetish sites -- ewwwww!

Happy Birthday, Boy!

Someone turned 10 on Monday...



















And his Dad decided to get him a pellet gun. Mom got him the safety glasses - you know -- the ones that he's not wearing in this picture...





Dad set up the shooting gallery on the deck off of our bedroom ( ??). That's Sassy Neighbor's house in the background. And it's way too cold to go out there and take down the Christmas lights and garland. Heck, out tree just moved out of the living room on Sunday.









As part of the birthday festivities the girls put on a show. I think the true color of younger daughter's eyes show in this picture... I'm pretty sure that there are horns under that blonde hair.

Malady of the week

The Husband has been unwell since Sunday. Today he finally got himself to the dr for a Strep Test which was positive, naturally (he seems to get strep once or twice a year, whereas I think I've had it once in the last 20 years). Then monday The Boy wasn't feeling well and has been home from school. His throat isn't sore but he may be going to the doc tomorrow anyway.



So the two boys have been holed up in our bedroom with the Nintendo and I've been camping out on the couch. I had such a bad night last night that I was up at 5am doing laundry and making pancakes for breakfast. I can't even remember the last time I made pancakes for breakfast.... This evening my lovely Older Daughter pulled out the air mattress for me so I don't have to sleep in a ball tonight. Plus my sick husband crawled downstairs to diagnose my Internet problems that I had been fighting a losing battle with for an hour. So I'll be spending the rest of the evening catching up with the Works For Me Wednesday ideas over at Rocks in my Dryer (which Blogger won't let me link to...) http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/shannon/

Book Sale Thursday and Saturday

The Bethlehem Public Library is holding one of their famous book sales this weekend.

Jenny, it's only 15 minutes from the airport - I'll pick you up at noon.

One week

since The Hub's ablation and as Sonny and Cher once said, "The Beat Goes On". Keep your fingers crossed. Better yet, say a prayer.

As you know

24 premieres tonight (2 hours tonight and 2 hours tomorrow. I promise that you'll be hooked by the end of this evening if you've never watched before). We highly recommend that you watch it along with Dave Barry. Here's his preview.

Unfortunately, beginning next week it will be on opposite Heroes. I *really* need to get my PVR up and running again. I've been having to use the VCR for a few months - I feel like I'm living in the Dark Ages!

Tuesday morning The Husband had an ablation done on his heart in an attempt to stop the arrythmia that he's been in for 3 years. We are cautiously optimistic that the procedure worked. He had popped back into an arrythmia on Wednesday morning, but as the cardiologist came in to check him out before sending him in for a second ablation procedure (which he was not looking forward to - 4-6 hours on the table then another 6 hours of lying flat and not bending his right leg) the doc discovered that he was back in a normal rhythm. After an hour or so of trying to induce an arrythmia (by having him exercise while attached to an EKG monitor) he was finally released. He will be monitored for 3 weeks while hooked up to a telemetry monitor and we'll be seeing the cardiologist and the arrythmia specialist frequently in the coming weeks, but at the moment he's feeling pretty good (albeit somewhat sore).

Also, his MP3 player that seemed to have been 'fried' by one of the machines they used at the beginning of the ablation has been resurrected by his lovely wife.

7 Days...

...til the sixth season premier of 24 .

Check out DeeDee's post
“Basic Truths About Jack Bauer”

In the Workshop

**I'm not ready to publish this post because I don't have a photo of the completed project yet. Blogger has other ideas and won't let me save posts as drafts or edit posts. Grrrrr. So I'll upload an accompanying photo tomorrow.**

Here are some images from the Christmas Workshop (aka the kitchen). We made 13 Nativity sets for family and friends. Everybody helped - Daddy and the older two cut wood and sanded, everybody except Younger Daughter did some woodburning and staining, and everybody, including YD (especially YD) did some painting. The top photo is of the staining process. The wood was stained with Walnut Ink that I made this fall from Black Walnuts that my InLaws gathered for me from their yard last year (Black Walnuts are Biennial - they fruit every other year).
The second photo below shows YD painting. We used Grammy's paints and brushes, which thrilled the kids.

Happy New Year!

I have some blogging to catch up on now that Christmas is finally done. Well, Christmas isn't done until January 6th, but we have finally seen all of our family and exchanged gifts and all that. Dad and Joan came down from Maine in a snowstorm on Saturday and we saw them at my sister's house yesterday for a few hours before heading home to get ready for church. I didn't make it but The Husband took the kids and his parents. It was a Love Feast service and we really enjoyed the Christmas Eve Love Feast and Mom and Dad wanted to experience one, too.

One of the things the church does at the beginning of the year is hand out a Bible verse to everyone (they're all different and random). I don't know if it's a Moravian tradition or one particular to this congregation. It's a special verse for you to focus on and perhaps study and meditate on. My verse is:

God alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
Psalm 62:6

Back to Christmas. Santa was good to everyone, especially Younger Daughter who actually got a warning note from Santa, pointing out that he *should* have put her on the Naughty List this year but he is giving her a warning and a Grace period to clean up her act!

The theme for The Boy seems to be 'Gross Stuff'. Aunt W and Uncle D gave him a GrossStuff board game, Papa and Grandma gave him a Gross Stuff electronic game, and Daddy gave him a book entitled "The Day My Butt Went Psycho". Lovely. Grandma P gave him a really nice Yankees Jersey and some other assorted Yankees items.

The girls got lots of books and jewelry and other girly stuff. Older Daughter got a Swiss Army Knife and Younger Daughter got a Polly Pocket Cruise Ship with a million and twelve tiny pieces. Santa and others gave us some games to play. I need to sit down with the kids and actually see who gave them what - so many little things. Since the week of vacation was spent mainly playing video games (thanks AuntieL! The Husband is addicted!) today is Room Cleaning Day so we can start the year in decent order and with presents put away nicely. Well, I can dream, can't I??

Mom and Dad got each other nearly identical MP3 players, unbeknownst to each other.... I'm loving mine - I've been listening to lots of podcasts. For The Husband I've been 'ripping' some of his audiobooks to MP3 format for him to listen to.

More later--

Busy, busy, busy

The Husband is officially on vacation until Jan. 2 - and his cardiologist is on vacation all next week so hopefully we won't be summoned to the hospital til after New Year's.

I ran out to Michael's this afternoon to return a few things. I shopped around with a 40% coupon and a $10 gift card in my wallet and didn't spend a thing. I even gave my coupon away. Then I got to my car. No keys. After a few minutes of panic and a call to The Husband I spotted them in the car. I have OnStar but Hubs came down to open the doors since he was coming that way anyhow. I took him to lunch and spent the $ I had gotten back from the returns.

While I was waiting I wandered into Barnes & Noble, a place I seldom go because Amazon and Half.com are so much cheaper. I need to do that more often because I sat in the magazine section and read all of their papercrafts magazines (they have at least 30 now) so now I don't need to buy them. And while I didn't see MAKE magazine, they did have Make's new sister publication, CRAFT. At $15 an issue I'm not likely to subscribe, but it's definitely fun to read (and I'll be at B&N when the next issue comes out). One of the interesting articles (that isn't on the website) was about an artist named David Cole who knitted a Ginormous American Flag using two excavators holding light poles. His yarn was 18" wide lengths of felt. I have no plans to take up knitting on that scale at any time soon.

Older daughter and I finished up her friend's gifts this afternoon - we made 50 'pots' of lip balm in various flavors, and we're getting most of our family Christmas project painted tonight. Tomorrow I'm expecting the last Amazon.com shipment and I have some ornaments to finish up. I might actually have most everything done before 2007! It'll be really nice to be able to enjoy the church services on Christmas Eve. The church is having a Love Feast at all the evening services and The Boy is excited about getting to have a snack in church.

Twisted Sister goes caroling

Trees

This is one of the deformed giant trees at the first tree farm we visited last week. Fortunately, Older Daughter spotted another tree farm over the ridge and we managed to find our way over to it. Younger DAughter in her Elf hat. Can you guess what she wants for Christmas? The school nurse pulled her loose tooth last week when it wouldn't stop bleeding.

Here's the tree we picked. Apparantly we had to sell our son's winter coat in order to buy it.

The final cut:

Dr. Update

Sorry - I couldn't post last night and today we've been out Christmas shopping (almost done!!).

We left the hospital together yesterday - and before 5pm. It was probably one of the shortest visits ever, but it helps that they're consolidating some of the services that we used to have to run all over the hospital for into one area.

The Husband came home with a Holter monitor on (24 hour EKG) so they can see how his rhythm is over time. We'll get the results from that on Tuesday. Meanwhile the Cardio is consulting with the Arrythmia specialist to see whether another ablation procedure could feasibly help. Stay tuned.

The Boy's first concert

Second row, green shirt. He started playing violin in September. They played Jingle Bells and Good King Wenceslas very nicely.

One of our straightforward road signs:

Dr. update

The appointment was moved to Thursday so I went shopping instead :o)

Done!

The van finally fits back in the garage! We couldn't believe that we got it done this afternoon. The Husband and I did a lot of it by ourselves while the kids dealt with cleaning up from a sick dog. Better them than me...

Tomorrow is Tree Day. It's 'supposed' to be 50 degrees and sunny out -- time will tell.

Monday, if you're keeping track (JG) The Husband has a cardiologist appt in the afternoon, meaning we'll probably be heading out of the city between 5 and 6 - my favorite drive time on the GW Bridge!

Jenny -- sorry I haven't called you back about your email -- I haven't had a voice all week (the one person I had to call kept calling me "Mister"!). And I updated the post below for you :o)

Searching for charity

Searchkindly.org is a site that launched in October. It is powered by Google and they donate all of their Google AdSense revenue to charity. The current beneficiary is Invisible Children. Thus far they've raised $370 since they launched, but they're hoping to spread the word and be able to make "significant" donations in the future.

FYI, The Boy is fine. A day or two of rest and some Aleve (and a negative x-ray) and he's back to tormenting his sisters.

I keep finding dead leaves in the house. At first I thought they were blowing in with the wind, but today I noticed that when Wilma chases leaves she doesn't leave them outside. So now I have to check her mouth before I let her inside.

We got some chores done on Sunday, despite The Husband's raging cold (which I seem to be getting now). This morning I slept in. Around 8:30 I heard a scratching at the headboard which woke me up real quick! I sat still listening for awhile until I heard a thump and then felt a rabbit jumping up onto the bed. Guess who escaped and came upstairs for a visit? So I got up and took all the animals downstairs (since there was no chance of going back to sleep with 3 dogs and a rabbit on my bed...) and let everyone have the run of the downstairs until the kids got home.

Gotta run - it's hard to blog and watch Heroes at the same time.

So much to do...

I've been hit HARD with fatigue lately (sleeping as much as 12 hours a day and being groggy and listless most of the rest of the hours). We had grand plans for this past weekend, of which very little actually got done. I was hoping to get outside Christmas lights up while it was 60 degrees out instead of later this week in the rain. I just checked and Thursday's highs are supposed to be in the 60's - I'll keep my fingers crossed that I'll find some energy that day.

We're working on a family Christmas gift project involving wood and saws and paint and woodburners. We managed to get much of the wood cut and some of it sanded, so at least we're making some progress.

I make Christmas ornaments every year with the kids photo inside a glass ball. I've also started making them for my sister to give as gifts and some as gifts for friends (if I have a pic of their families), plus I've sold some. I've managed to make a dent in my sister's and some others, but we haven't even gotten a photo of our kids yet. We also need to take a Christmas Card photo - I have the cards halfway finished but the photo is part of the design.

The Boy woke up this morning with a very painful spot on his thigh - barely able to walk on it. The Husband has him at the Doctor as I type this. And he just called and they're going for an x-ray. The Boy couldn't pinpoint any injury or anything. But he is a member of the familly of medical mysteries...

It's 5 o'clock - I guess I should start thinking about dinner. Crackers and popcorn are currently at the top of the list.

High-speed videography

53 degrees

I can't believe that kid's father let him out without even a shirt on....

RIP Ben the Hamster

We had a bad weekend. Friday it was discovered that Ben the Hamster (Habenero, officially) had gone to that Great Hamster Wheel in the Sky. It has been a very emotional weekend here as a result.

Interment took place in the backyard under a pine tree out in the "Back 40". The Boy, in particular, was instrumental in the final arrangements.


Unlike certain other people who shall remain nameless we don't leave our dearly departed in a brown paper lunch bag in the Arizona sun for the pool installers to trample. We do things differently in Pennsylvania. Just sayin'...

I'm not bragging or anything...

Your Vocabulary Score: A

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

How's Your Vocabulary?

TODAY ONLY 11/20

Giveawayoftheday.com is a great site that I discovered recently. Every day they give away a different piece of software. The catch is that the download is only available for 24 hours and you have to install it in that 24 hour period.

Today's download is Photo Toolkit 1.5 . It adds functionality to Windows Picture and Fax Viewer that allows you to do quite a bit of photo editing. I've been editing some photos this morning and the only thing I needed Photoshop for was to make the background transparent - everything else I could do right in Win Pic/Fax Viewer.

Go! Now! If I have to reformat my computer and lose this software I will definitely buy it.

Here's the garden, Jenny. We still have a little green - Italian Parsley and a second (tiny) crop of Cilantro. I'm sloooooowwwwly cleaning it up...

Cousins in the leaves

The two little ones are my sister's boys

Just a pretty picture

I thought of you, Jolene, when I took this photo:

Scary

After posting the pics in the post below I thought that YD looked really familiar. She turned 7 in October. Here's a pic of my 7th birthday many, many Octobers ago... Can you figure out which is me?

Pictures

This year's Jack O'Lanterns. Younger Daughter cut most of the mouth of hers; OlderDaughter spent mucho time cutting her cat out; and The Boy cut the skull.



Younger Daughter's last soccer game two weeks ago -- and her first lost front tooth, just in time for Halloween!


















j

The Husband remarked that I haven't blogged in awhile, so I am at least dropping in to say hello.

I have a backlog of photos in my camera that I need to post. Fortunately I remembered this before I did laundry this morning (bear with me - this will make sense) . Our desktop computer is having issues and needs to have Windows reinstalled. We haven't been able to do that because we need to find the driver for the hard drive (and The Husband just picked up the phone to call the Computer Store to get that! Yay!). So since that computer is mostly non-working - none of the USB drives will work - I can't use my camera dock. So last night I took the card out of my camera to take upstairs to my laptop. For some stupid reason I put the card in the little watch pocket of my jeans so that when I emptied my pockets I didn't pull out the card. The jeans then went into the wash. Something made me remember the card this morning.

Maybe I'll find time to post some photos later - right now I'm scrambling to figure out dinner and I'm going to a Pampered Chef party tonight, not to mention that Jericho and Lost are both on tonight (both of which are mind-blowing shows that one needs time to process so they shouldn't be on consecutively. I really wish we were a Nielsen Family - they NEED to know my opinions).

This...

...is what the world frequently looks like to me. Give it a minute and you'll feel nauseaous :o)

If blogging seems light lately

it's because my Mom took the kids apple picking last weekend and they picked 70 lbs of apples! So I'm spending my days looking for apple recipes. We had baked apples and apple pie. Tomorrow is apple cake and I'm considering apple pancakes for dinner...maybe some apple chip cookies or macaroni and apples?

My total

at the grocery store this morning was $50.00 even. Shouldn't I get a prize or something?