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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.