Well hi!

I didn't realize that it'd been so long since I've been here. It's been mainly out of laziness (and some business). We got through the beginning of school and the girl's birthdays (now 13 and 8) and now we're ramping up for Halloween/Thanksgiving and Christmas. Plus we've been getting more involved in our new church - older daughter is in confirmation class, which is quite active with classes and activities and mentors and service projects, plus youth group. We just started choirs (senior, junior and bell choir) this past week (once sports was over).

I just found out that one of my favorite musicals is being remade by Tim Burton and Johnny Depp (no, it's not The Sound of Music, but THAT would be interesting). One would think that someone who counts Sweeney Todd as one of her favorite musicals would like Halloween more than I do..... (Yep, I'm still costumeless for Saturday's party)

Pray for us

We are now officially the parents of a teenage girl!

Guess what wii finally found?

(Yes, he still loves his Jeep.)

Today The Husband took The Boy to spend some saved money on GameCube games at EB Games. You see, last Christmas we promised the kids that we would get a Wii as soon as they became more available (figuring Feb/March). Well we searched for months and in the meantime our GameCube played its last game. So last week we finally gave in and bought a new GameCube to tide us over until the next century or Nintendo got its act together, whichever came first. Naturally, when they walked into EB Games there was a lone Wii awaiting them. It had been promised to a customer who left to get cash after his card was declined, but since he had been gone an hour they let us have it. So Hubs and the younger two are currently unwrapping and pluging in and reading instructions. I made supper but I doubt anybody will be eating for awhile.

In other news, Statler, the world's biggest Collie (my sister's dog) just left after spending a week with us. He spent most of the time sitting next to the rabbit cage staring at Neo and salivating. We kept repeating the mantra of the week: "Bunnies are friends, not food". Neo is currently happily running around the house after not being allowed out all week.

The smile has not yet left his face...

Picked it up on Tuesday and he's giving me a rash about not yet blogging the arrival.

I no longer have to the plantive wail of "I want my Jeep...". Now I am continually asked: "is it gonna rain tomorrw?".

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.