Mom To Jacob And Allison

The Zoo Goes To The Zoo!

2008-11-07T22:09:00.000-05:00

Taking advantage of the kids being off of school and Abby visiting, we all headed to the zoo! It was me, Jacob, Allison, Abby, and my parents! It was supposed to be a sunny day however, the sun never came out but it was quite warm for November. This was Abby's first trip to the zoo and my kids had a great time showing her the ropes and pointing EVERYTHING out to her! Today's highlights were the treehouse playground and of course... the Naked Mole Rats! I think that Abby's favorites were the Elephants (a more normal choice in my opinion).

Aunt Kay

2008-11-06T21:54:00.001-05:00

The kids are off for a couple of days so today we made a road trip to visit Aunt Kay. It has been several years since we've seen her. We have attempted to visit her a few times but someone has always seemed to get sick and prevented the visit. She lives about 1 1/2 hours away so it takes a bit of coordinating.

Since Abby was visiting, we took advantage of the opportunity and hit the road. We took her out to lunch and then visited with her back at her apartment! We had a really good visit with her and so thankful for the opportunity to see her again! Aunt Kay is so faithful about sending the kids cards and mailing them little notes so I'm glad that we had the chance to take them to see her. We miss her tons and can't wait to see her again!

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T21:06:00.001-04:00

Today's activities started out at school with the school parade. The kids love parading around the school grounds waving to everyone!

We also had a neighborhood parade that kicked off the Halloween fesitivities! The parade was lead by the local fire department who had a couple of their trucks come to lead the way.
Everyone made their way down to "the patio" where lots of goodies awaited us. Thanks to donations of all the residents, there was pizza, soft pretzels, brownies, cookies, popcorn, water, juice boxes and more! After a quick dinner and some sugar.... the moment had arrived. We worked our way back to our house trick or treating at each and every house along the way! We finally made it home with WAY too much candy!

I was really glad that Halloween was on a Friday this year, no worries of rushing home and not getting ALL the candy we could possibly get! :o)

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!!

2008-10-29T22:54:00.002-04:00

The Phillies won the
World Series!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pumpkin Decorating

2008-10-27T20:41:00.002-04:00

This year the kids' school had a pumpkin decorating contest. There were 2 rules... 1) you had to use the "artificial" pumpkins; and 2) all pumpkins had to be themed around a local author of children's books.

Jacob's book was "They Came From Centerfield". This book was about aliens that landed while some kids were playing baseball. The aliens wanted to learn how to play the game so the group of kids taught them.

Allison's book was "Miss Daisy Is Crazy". Her book was about a silly teacher named Miss Daisy who actually taught the kids that they really enjoyed learning more than they admitted. Miss Daisy had very red and very curly hair!

The pumpkins will be on display for the week and the teachers will judge them and announce the winners. Each grade will have several winners so I think they have a good chance of winning something! :o) If nothing else, we had a good time creating them!

Trunked Treats!

2008-10-26T20:23:00.001-04:00

Tonight we spent the night tailgating at our church's annual Trunked Treats! Trunked Treats is where people from our church congregation come and park in the lot for a giant tailgating party and all the kids get to go trick or treating from one trunk to the next. We brought pizza and lots of snacks to munch on before the festivities and shared with all of our friends. Before the annual gathering of the candy, the kids were invited inside for a show. This year was a magic show that the kids thought was pretty cool!

This was a fun way to kick off our Halloween activities!

Out of the mouth of babes......

2008-10-23T18:10:00.004-04:00

Over the weekend, my parents took Allison out to dinner. While they were waiting for their food, she was busy coloring and drawing. My dad inquired if she always wrote with the same hand. Here is her answer....

"Yes. Even when I turn around, I still use the same hand!".

Hmmm..... :o)

Busy, Busy, Busy!

2008-10-19T21:10:00.005-04:00

While I was exploring NYC, Eric, Jacob, & Allison were definately not bored! Saturday was spent with a morning trip to a local playground with all the husbands and kids of the moms who were in NYC! After hoping all the kids were tired and worn out...they all went to lunch.

Later in the day, Eric and Jacob had a birthday party to attend that was actually a campout in the birthday boy's backyard! It was a very chilly night with temps in the low 40s but they survived and had lots of fun - good food, movies, flashlight tag, and of course smores! Allison had the opportunity to have a private sleepover at Grandmom and Grandpop's complete with dinner and dessert at Friendly's (her favorite place). So, I came home for the first time EVER, to an empty house - a bit weird and a bit nice all at the same time!

Sunday was no exception to the busy schedule. After church Allison and I had a field trip with her Brownie Troop to the Police Expo. What a fun day! It far exceeded all of my expecations and we had a great time. We were disappointed that Eric and Jacob couldn't have joined us for all the fun. There were representative and interactive displays from all branches of Community Emergency Management, police, fire, EMT, Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Game and Wildlife and more! Allison got to go inside all the differnt vehicles and boats, sit on a motorcycle and even wore some riot gear! For anyone who is local.... definately put the Police Expo on your calendars for next year!

While we were at the Expo, Jacob had yet another birthday party! Alot of the same boys were there that the had just seen a few hours earlier but they again had lots of fun!

From there, we all met up as a family at Jacob's soccer game which ended the busy weekend with lots of stress and nail biting!

Whew! A fun weekend, but glad that we are on the other side of it!

Girls Day in NYC

2008-10-18T23:35:00.000-04:00

Today I had the chance to spend the day roaming around NYC with 8 of my closest girlfriends! We've been planning this for a few months and were all so excited to get away for the day!

We left in 2 cars and drove 1 1/2 hours to Staten Island to take the Staten Island Ferry over to NYC. It cost only 5.50/car to park and the ferry was free - great deal! The ferry passed by The Statue of Liberty providing some great photos! Once on land, we wondered around Battery Park. There was a monument there that had been in the lobby of one of the World Trade Towers on the day of 9/11. Although in one piece, it had evidence of the terrorism.

We walked a few blocks to the subway and bought all day passes and started out to view ground zero. I personally had wanted to see it since I had not yet been to the site since 9/11. It was a hard place to visit knowing the destruction and it sent memories flooding back to that day - where I was and what I was doing. Unfortunately, there were many on the streets just trying to capitalize and exploit this horrific day. We weren't able to see much as there were tons of high solid fences around - a bit disappointing but understandable.

From Ground Zero, back to the subway for our next stop as hunger was setting in. We stopped at a small sandwich shop called The Peanut Butter Company. Everything on the menu was made from peanut butter. Only a few of us actually bought something there but tastes were had by all! The sandwiches of the day were "the cookie dough" which was peanut butter, cream cheese, and chocolate chips on white bread and "the elvis" which was peanut butter, bananas, and bacon on white bread. From there we spotted a flea market to explore. Found some great bargains and even got a bit of Christmas shopping done! From the flea market we went back to the subway to find some landmark stores of interest. First stop, The Stand Bookstore - known for having 18 miles of books! From there we hit a few others in the area and then found a fun Farmers Market to roam with all kinds of beautiful fruits and veggies!

Again, back to the subway, this time towards the Brooklyn Bridge for what we thought were going to be just a few photos but turned out to be quite the adventure. Before long, we found ourselves walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. The more we thought about our situation, the more we freaked ourselves out! The walkway was over the roadway and was a boardwalk in which we could see (and feel) the passing cars below! We walked only about 1/3 of the way way to the first observation deck. Although a little scary, I was glad that I did it! While on the observation deck, I called Eric to tell him where I was, after all, how often can I call my husband and tell him I'm standing in the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge!

After the Brooklyn Bridge, we were on the home stretch and all feeling a bit tired! We walked to South Street Seaport for dinner. We had just enough time to explore some shops along the pier before dinner and work up our appetite. We had a good Mexican dinner at restaurant called Red. Good food and lots of laughs with great friends!

A quick look at the Brooklyn Bridge lit up in lights, and a quick cab ride and we were back at the ferry terminal for our trip home! Despite tired bodies and feet, the ferry ride home was anything but solemn or boring! Lots of laughs and memories!

Since most of the girls who went on the trip read this... Thank you to all of you for your friendship and a great day! It always good to take time for you guys! Looking forward to our next girl's event!

2008-10-13T21:31:00.003-04:00

Today we took the kids to the zoo. It was a beautiful day with temperatures around 80 - a perfect day for an outside activity. We packed a cooler full of drinks and food and hopped in the car for our trip! We spent the day just leisurely walking around and looking at everything. Since it was just the 4 of us we had no agenda and just spent our day doing and seeing whatever the kids led us to. Since we bought a family membership, I'm certain we'll be back there frequently and they are open year round.

The favorite animal that seemed to be on both kids list was (warning you... this is strange...) the Naked Mole Rat. Who knew?! I'm not sure if they really liked the animal or just the name of it! Other favorites was the Lemur for Jacob and Kangaroo for Allison. Allison only liked one particular kangaroo - the one that looked like it was 1000 years old "because it walked funny". You never know just what will spark their interest!

Columbus Day Soccer Tournament

2008-10-13T20:08:00.004-04:00

This weekend was the infamous Ft. Dix soccer tournament. I'm beginning to think that this family will never experience the full tournament. Last year, Jacob was very sick and missed the entire tournament. Thursday afternoon, I thought we were headed down a similar road as Jacob got off the bus with a 102 temperature and feeling just awful. Since Friday was a day off of school, we opted to put family plans on hold and just have a quiet day and rest in hopes of making the tournament on Saturday morning. Our efforts paid off and no fever all day and felt great!

Saturday morning we packed the car for the day and headed out to the tournament. It was a beautiful day - perfect fall soccer weather! We sailed right through security (unlike last year - 1 1/2 wait through security) and set up camp - and I do mean camp! The team had 2 tents and everyone came decked out with food, activities and chairs since we would be there until dinner! After some hair paint for good luck, we hit the field for the first game! It was a really tough game but the boys hung in there and fought till the end despite the loss! The second game was probably the most intense game so far of the season. In the end though we ended the game in a tie. It was a great day and we all had alot of fun!

Sunday, though, was a different story. We all literally rolled out of bed since we had to leave at 6:30. Only one game though, we figured we'd be home by 10 and just shower then and still have our day ahead of us! The day played out much differently though! Just shortly after we got our chairs set up and the boys were warming up, Jacob became sick - fortunately there was an empty trash can right there! So we packed up and left with a very green little boy! We were home by 8:15 am! After a couple of hours, he seemed much better but still stayed low for the day.

So last year we missed the whole tournament, this year just half, so maybe next year we have a shot of making the full 2 days!

Caught Up!

2008-10-10T23:34:00.002-04:00

I've had most of the below posts in draft mode and just haven't been able to get a minute to work on my blog. So.... happy "catching up" with our comings and goings!

A Budding Artist

2008-10-10T20:45:00.003-04:00

We found out this week that Allison has a piece of her artwork on display at our town's Post Office. She was 1 of 3 1st graders to be choosen! We went over today to see it ~ she is so excited and proud of her work!
The photo is not the best as it was displayed up near the ceiling and in a glass frame.

My Dad's New Toy!

2008-10-06T20:54:00.000-04:00

Today was a big day for my dad! For the first time in about 30 years, he was actually without a boat for a few weeks. He sold his boat and didn't have one on the back burner to replace it. So... today he took his "new" boat for one last test ride and then had it pulled from the water to check it out completely. I drove over to photograph the event and see it! We are looking forward to warmer weather to come so we can all get a ride on it!

18 Years And Counting

2008-10-05T21:06:00.000-04:00

Tonight I met up with 2 of my very good college friends... Melissa and Angie. We met 18 years ago and have been great friends ever since. The amazing thing about our friendship is that we only spent 1 year together at the same college! We never have a problem picking up right where we left off! Angie is an event planner and happened to be in Newark organizing a conference so Melissa and I met up with her to visit and have dinner! We are already planning our next visit for next September!

You Know Its Fall....

2008-10-03T21:20:00.001-04:00

... when you go on a hayride with some of your closest friends!

Tonight we resurrected our yearly hayride and had a great time! Years ago before anyone had kids, we made a yearly tradition of going on a fall hayride. The kids were all so excited and everyone had a great time! We rode in a hay filled wagon out and around the farm property making a stop in the pumpkin field to pick pumpkins. Picking pumpkins in the dark added a new perspective to pumpkin picking! :o) After completing our hayride, we had full use of a decorated barn for snacks! It was a beautiful night - just cool enough to appreciate fall!

Brownie Investure Ceremony

2008-10-03T19:38:00.001-04:00

Tonight was Allison's Investure Ceremony for Brownies. She was pinned and officially became a Brownie! She has lots of friends in her troop and has great leaders! Her troop has 21 girls - all in 1st grade! The ceremony was in the backyard of one of her troop leaders. The girls sang 2 songs, and each came to the "pond" and received their official pin and a beautiful rose!

A Local Resident

2008-10-03T15:00:00.002-04:00

Today while picking something up at my parents house I found this guy sitting on their dock. It's the local Blue Heron. I've seen it from a distance before but never this close. I kept getting closer and closer and it wasn't moving. I was anticipating being freightened when it flew away but it never did! Pretty amazing!

Township Day

2008-09-27T22:32:00.001-04:00

We spent the afternoon at our Township Day! We had never participated in the past and really did not have any idea what it was. Turns out it was lots of fun with lots of free activities for the kids. There were giant inflatables, old fashioned carnival games and pony rides just to mention a few. Both kids had a friend with them and had a great time!

Ice Cream & Bingo

2008-09-26T23:09:00.000-04:00

We ventured out to a school social tonight. Usually this one social is 2 seperate events but this year... it was crazy! If you didn't have a headache before you got there, you definately left with one! I suppose I'm only speaking of the adults because the kids all seemed as though they were enjoying themselves!

According To My Kids.....

2008-09-26T19:00:00.000-04:00

.... this is their favorite meal! Oh well.... I guess it could be worse!

Our Crazy Life

2008-09-24T08:46:00.006-04:00

I've gotten several comments about my lack of blogging posts recently. We are attempting to adjust to our new schedules. Between everyone's different activities, things tend to be a bit crazy. We have busy days, busier days, and then below is a picture of our busiest days when we do homework and have dinner in the car!

We have managed a couple of trips to OC the last two weekends in between soccer on Saturday and Sunday. I'm pretty certain we are done with OC until next year.

My days haven't been boring at all....I have been spending my days keeping the house in order (something that hasn't really happened for 8 years) and you know I discovered that my desk actually has a glass top! I've also discovered that I haven't eaten lunch alone in 8 years! All my paperwork is officially submitted for substitute teaching and we are just waiting approval from the state - something that may take a bit of time. So I'm using this time to get caught up on things around the house. We are working toward a yard sale later in October so we've got our work cut out for us!

A New School Year!

2008-09-04T09:23:00.004-04:00

Today I have 2 children in school full time! I have definitely entered a new phase in my motherhood journey! For 8 years, I've always had someone home with me at least part of the day! Now Jacob is in 3rd grade and Allison is in 1st grade! I'm not so sure where the time has gone but I'm afraid if I blink again, we will be at someone's graduation!

Both kids were very excited about a new school year! They both were ready to get back to their friends too! I think that Allison was a bit nervous to venture into 1st grade. She never verbalized her nervousness but did give me some glimpses of being a bit apprehensive!

3rd Annual Back To School Breakfast at the Bus Stop Bash!

2008-09-04T09:07:00.002-04:00

Today is the first day of school here and so that means we kick off school with our Back to School Breakfast at the Bus Stop Bash! I got the idea a few years ago in a magazine and so the tradition continues this year. I send out invitations to all the houses at our stop and everyone brings a breakfast item to share. I provided juice boxes and everyone else filled the wagon with lots of food! Here are some pictures from our morning!

Summer's Finale

2008-09-03T20:59:00.011-04:00

We just returned from being in Ocean City for the last 2 weeks. We had great weather and made some great memories! We did all of our favorites activities and tried some new ones too! It's hard to believe summer is coming to an end! We stayed until the very last second - school starts tomorrow morning and we got home tonight! :o) Although it's sad that rest and relaxation is coming to and end, we are all needing some sort of a routine other than sitting by the pool during the week and sitting on the beach on weekends! Did I mention that I LOVE summer!

Tennis has become one of the kids new favorite activities. They are both enjoying learning the basics and since we have courts less than 1 block from our house - we played tennis often.

Two friends of mine came to visit one bay - here are ALL the kids! What a fun day!

Jacob tried to dig to china one day! This was by far the deepest hole he's done 100% on his own!

Allison discovered that the beach is a great place to catch some zzz's!

What vacation in OC would be complete without some rides! Abby got to join in on the fun, too!

We also had the opportunity to perfect our mini-golf game on the boardwalk one day!

The kids learned how to play Bocce Ball. This became an daily favorite activity!

We tried Crabbing for the first time. We first went to this very secluded spot on the island. We waited, and waited and waited some more, but not even a bite!

So... we changed our location and went to my dad's dock... and presto... a crab! We caught 3 "keeper" Blue Claw crabs and cooked them for dinner! I'm happy to say that both kids tried them and "think" they like crabs!

It became very clear to me this weekend that I now have 3 kids to watch in the water! They all had a blast boogie boarding this week - the waves were HUGE! Allison did her best to keep up with the "boys" and took quite a beating out there but never gave up!

One last shot of the life gaurd boat! Till next year........!

Summer Fun!

2008-09-01T23:01:00.002-04:00

I know that it's been some time since I've last posted but we've been truly enjoying the dog days of summer!

Our days have been spent poolside at our swim club just about every day! The kids have really enjoyed this year at the pool. They have met some really great friends and it's been like having a play date everyday! Towards the end of summer, the kids would sit around a table with an umbrella (can't get too hot you know!) and play card games. Sometimes it would be UNO, and sometimes random games that they taught each other with a regular deck of cards. It was mostly Jacob and his friends and they all looked liked a bunch of old men sitting there betting their lunches away!

When they weren't playing cards or cooling off in the pool, there were always rousing games of kick ball, dodge ball, or run the bases! Again, mostly boys, but that certainly did not keep Allison from joining in on the fun! There would be times when she would be playing with all the boys and Jacob wouldn't even be there! I'm wondering if I should be worried about how comfortable she is with hanging out with the boys!?

We had a great summer and are sad to see it end! We are wrapping up our summer in OC and will post about that soon! Lots of new pictures and stories!

A New Beginning.....

2008-08-08T07:53:00.003-04:00

For the last 5 months or so we, as a family, have felt disconnected and not sure where God was directing us or what the future looked like. I guess all along we kind of knew but we weren't 100% on board with God's plan. So... we tried to come up with every excuse, commitment, and reason to go a different direction than what God wanted for us. One by one, God removed all our "other" things so that it was clear just where we were supposed to be. But today the direction is clear. God is directing us down a road that although clear still has many unanswered questions. We are excited to see how God will be using us in this new chapter of our lives and excited to see what He has in store for us.

So starting this fall, Eric and I along with our friends, the Davis' will be starting our own mini-church. We were hoping that many of our friends from our old mini-church would come along for the ride, however that does not seem to be the case (but if any of our "old" group still isn't connected, we'd LOVE to have you ! :o) ). So, although the picture isn't totally clear, we look forward to new friendships and new relationships that God will be planting in our lives. We've been in contact with a few families that we know, and so perhaps there will be some familiar faces with us as we move on.

Although much still has to been planned and ironed out, the details seem to be coming together. Please pray for the 4 of us as we seek God's direction and obey His call.

Summer Swimming Lessons

2008-08-03T19:35:00.006-04:00

The kids just completed our 4th year of summer swimming lessons at our swim club. The way the lessons work is that each session is 2 weeks (9 days with 1 rain date built in) for 40 minutes each weekday morning. It gets to be a bit cumbersome but at least the last couple of years the kids have been at the same time!

Both kids are excellent swimmers at this point! Allison has learned tons since last year and is working toward learning all the various strokes while Jacob is fine tuning his strokes.

This year both kids have passed the swim clubs official deep water swim test and are now able to go off the diving board and swim in the deep water regularly. They are very proud of their ankle bands!

A Gray Hair Kind Of Day

2008-07-30T06:48:00.003-04:00

Yesterday started out just like all the others over the past couple of weeks, breakfast, swimming lesson, then back to the pool for the afternoon. The day took a quick turn in an unsuspecting direction about 30 minutes after being at the pool.

The kids were all in fun Connect 4 tournament at the pool with some friends. They were set up in the shade because it was extremely warm and humid. Allison came over to me saying she didn't feel well. She looked a bit pale and was sort of gagging like she was going to throw up. I quickly picked her up and ran with her to the bathroom - didn't take time to grab her shoes. We didn't make it to the bathroom. I spotted a trash can on the way and stopped there. After a moment or two of screaming (something that is common when she is throwing up) she said that she was dizzy. With that her eyes rolled back into her head and when I looked down at her, her face was blue. That is when a woman came over to ask if I needed help. She mentioned to me that as I was running by her with Allison, she noticed that she was blue at that point. Allison never lost conscienceness and never threw up. Someone had pulled a chair over to me and I had Allison laying on my lap. Out of nowhere, a young girl came over and said that she was a medical assistant and started to help to treat Allison, who by the way was still blue. Allison at this point was so lethargic and drowsy, we had a very difficult time getting her to stay awake but knew she couldn't go to sleep. At some point, a 911 call was placed and we knew that the paramedics and police and ambulance were on the way. We had ice chips behind her neck and a wet towel over her head to keep her cool. All the while though, she kept wanting to drift off to sleep. It took about 15 minutes for anyone to arrive and by then Allison had pretty much come out of whatever she was going through. Her color came back, she wasn't as sleepy and definitely more responsive. The paramedics put a heart monitor on, took her pulse and blood pressure, all of which were in the normal range. I don't think the paramedics thought she needed any further treatment but at the encouragement of all the others around me (friends, pool staff and the medical assistant), I opted for her to be transported by ambulance to the ER. I really didn't know what to do but relied on what my friends were just about insistent on. At some point in all this, Eric was called and was on his way. A friend said that she would keep Jacob at the pool - I had no idea what to do with him. So... off we went.

Because we came via ambulance, they took her right away and she got evaluated faster than they could check her in. The hospital has a little room w/ 3 beds just for pediatrics. We were lucky that she was the only one there! Because she was pretty much back to herself, I was feeling a bit silly for causing so much drama. After the Dr. examined her, there was no conclusive diagnosis or explanation for what happened. The symptoms that she displayed were not matching up with a diagnosis. Some symptoms pointed to one thing while others ruled that one thing out. The one thing that Dr. kept asking was "Are you sure she didn't choke on a game piece?". I'm thinking..."No... she's 6 yrs. old and doesn't put things in her mouth. Besides, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have been able to talk if she had been choking on a Connect 4 game piece (those pieces are big). Just to be safe, they did and EKG on her which came back "perfect".

So... if the Dr. was forced to make a diagnosis, it would have been a "doubtful temporal lobe seizure". What the heck does that mean, doubtful? Anyway.... 50% of kids that have this type of seizure will never have another. The first seizure is never treated anyway, so there wasn't anything they would have done for her. I on the other hand have my own thoughts on the diagnosis. I think it was heat related. Although she was not dehydrated, and her symptoms do not point to heat stroke, I still feel that it was the heat in combination with low blood sugar. She hadn't had lunch just yet when all this started and she had higher than normal sugary foods for breakfast (waffles w/ syrup and OJ). Allison has always been my one to be most affected by the heat anyway and she had not yet even gotten into the pool.

Within an hour of arriving at the ER, we were walking out the door. I guess there are definite advantages to arriving via ambulance! Allison wanted to head back to the pool but we quickly put the kabosh on that idea. She had a quiet afternoon with Eric here at home while I went back to the pool to be with Jacob and bring him home.

So...nothing like a little drama! Oh, by the way... although I had my camera, I felt a little funny taking pictures of my "sick" daughter! So for all my fellow bloggers, you will just have to paint a mental picture in your head! Hopefully that will be a (as Jacob puts it...) "once in a lifetime field trip"!

Caught Up!

2008-07-28T21:18:00.001-04:00

I'm officially caught up on our family activities. Read on and you can find out what we have been up to for the past month and a half!

Ohio Bound!

2008-07-28T20:20:00.006-04:00

We just returned yesterday for a trip out to Massillon, Ohio. Eric's grandfather is from Massillon. He recently though, moved to be with Eric's parents in Kentucky. Despite today's housing market, his house in Massillon sold in less than 1 week and had people lined up waiting for the buyer to back out. A quick sale was a huge answer to prayer!

So this weekend was clean out and move out weekend. Although Eric's mom has spent time over the past month preparing for this, there was still an incredible amount of things to go through and move. Since Ohio is about 1/2 the travel time as Kentucky, we decided to drive out and help and see Grandpa.

Our first stop was to visit with my sister and Abby overnight to break up the trip. I picked Eric up at work a little early on Thursday afternoon and we were out to my sisters in time for dinner. We had a picnic pizza dinner at the park behind her house and played outside before heading in for bed. The kids always enjoy spending time with Aunt Suzanne and Abby!

On Friday morning we left Suzanne's and drove the rest of the way out to Massillon. We arrived mid afternoon and jumped right into the moving. Eric's Aunt and some friends were also there to help with the move. After loading one truck and sending it on it's way, we all went out to dinner to one of Grandpa's favorite places to eat - a local lodge type of a place called Amvets.

After dinner we drove across town to visit with Grandpa's brother and his wife, Uncle Dick & Aunt Mary. They have an amazing yard! It was such a nice evening and fun to be outside. Uncle Dick and Aunt Mary did all the landscaping themselves. I'm told that each year they take on another project! I only hope that Eric and I have the energy and stamina that they do when we are their age!

On our way back to the hotel we stopped to have icecream! These little icecream stands are all over Massillon. They sort of stick out and catch your attention. They also have 28 flavors of soft serve icecream! Really yummy!

After a good nights rest, it was back to the house on Saturday for more cleaning out and moving. After lunch and after all the heavy big stuff was loaded, Eric and I took the kids to the local recreation center. Our hotel had free guest passes for us to use and the kids needed a bit of a diversion. At first glance it appeared as though the kids would have a blast. It didn't quite turn out that way though! There was a small lap pool, a lazy river, a splash pool w/ 2 slides and also a kiddie water playground. They were so excited and headed straight to the slides only to be met with the devastating news that Allison wasn't tall enough for the slides. After a few tears we told her she could do everything else though. So off to the lazy river - opps - again she wasn't tall enough! This time way more tears!!!! I was a bit irritated since most of the kids 2xs her size that were able to do those things couldn't swim at all and here is little Allison who now is a great swimmer! We made the most of the situation and she got lots of one on one time with Daddy!

We closed the weekend trip off with a quick visit with Grandpa on Sunday and then hit the road for our long car ride home! It was good to spend some time with Grandpa and the rest of the family!

11 Years & Counting!

2008-07-26T20:16:00.001-04:00

Today we celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe that 11 years have come and gone! I am so blessed to have Eric in my life. I am still amazed at just how God brought the two of us together. I can't even imagine my life without him!

Thank you Eric for 11 wonderful years - Happy Anniversary!

Makeover

2008-07-14T19:10:00.001-04:00

While the kids and I were in Virginia, Eric started to paint our bedroom. It was quite the task to pick the paint color. Normally, I have something in my head and have no problem - not so this time. Literally, I have been years trying to pick a color - that is why our room never got painted! So, Eric gave me no other choice and so I picked not one color but two! We choose to do a two tone seperated with a high chair rail. The high chair rail works well in this room since most of a normal height chair rail would have been covered by furniture. So here are the before and after pictures. We still have some accessorizing to do but we are both really happy with how it turned out!

Before:

After:

Flying!

2008-07-13T19:02:00.001-04:00

This is from this weekend's pool party. I thought this was a cool picture! Watch out for flying Jacob's!

Virginia!

2008-07-11T18:46:00.002-04:00

The kids and I took a short road trip to Virginia to visit my friend Angie and her family. Angie and I only went to school together for one year, but became best of friends! It's been a few years since I have seen her and more than a few since the kids have been together! The ages were perfect... 5, 6, 7 & 8! They instantly became best friends as if they had all been friends forever! We played games, went to a park, had ice cream, did water activities and let's not forget the Wii! My kids have already begun their Christmas list and you want to know what is at the top????? I think the thing that was most impressive for my kids was the fun that they had with Angie's husband, Jay! He didn't have to work too hard to get them all excited and crazy just when it was time for bed. In fact, I recall Jay being put in a time out in his room with the door shut! :o) Jacob had so much fun with Jay that he wants to make sure that Jay is not working the next time we visit! Thanks Foreman Family for a great trip!

Family Golf Night!

2008-07-06T18:16:00.002-04:00

It's become a tradition to go mini golfing at least one time while we are on vacation. So tonight our tradition was fulfilled! It's fun to watch how the kids learn to play and improve each year! Abby was just a spectator this year but next year - watch out!

Independence Day 2008!

2008-07-05T11:38:00.001-04:00

We spent the 4th of July in OC again this year! Although we miss some of our long lived family traditions at home, we are making some new traditions!

This year we found out about a bike parade on the island. It started a few blocks from the house so we thought it sounded like fun! On short notice, I was a bit pressed for ideas on decorating our bikes as well as trying to find stuff, but we pulled it off! Really in my mind I thought that this was a little bike parade for the kids in the parking lot of a nearby church. Boy, was I mistaken! This thing was HUGE!!!!! We arrived at the starting point and met with hundreds and hundreds of people with bikes and wagons of all sorts! I wasn't so impressed with our decorations once I saw some of the very well thought out and planned themes and decorations! Then, I discovered that this parade was indeed a "parade" not just a couple little rounds through the parking lot! It went about 15 blocks! Again, so not prepared in my flip flops! Allison started out biking but after a few blocks dropped out! Jacob choose me and my flip flops to walk with him for the rest of the parade. The whole time I'm thinking how in the world am I going to walk home after this?! There were judges and prizes and such at the end. Jacob was sure that we would win something but I was sure we would not! There is always next year - which I might add we are already working our theme!

After a great day on the beach, we headed off to the fireworks on the beach with Uncle Ray! He lives about 10 blocks closer to where they set them off so we staked our claim to part of his beach!

Just as the fireworks ended, it started to drizzle. Perfect timing!

OC Vacation - Week 2

2008-07-03T22:45:00.002-04:00

Our 2nd week of vacation in OC was a little less busy, but certainly no less exciting! We had daily visits from friends from home! While Eric was working for at least part of the week, we were busy catching up with friends we haven't seen for a while.

Monday, my friend Missy and sister-in-law visited for the day with their kids. It was a beautiful beach day and all 9 children played together nicely while the grown ups were able to sit and talk and catch up.

Tuesday some friends from our swim club came to visit. We opened the beaches before the life guards were even on duty! By early afternoon, the hot sun had made all of us tired! But again, another beautiful day!

Wednesday some of our friends from church came for the day. This was a big crowd - between kids and adults, we just about took over the beach! Big sand castles and great waves were the highlights of the day!

Eric took Thursday off so that he could enjoy a long weekend and we had a family day on the beach and lots of cousin time with Abby!

There will be another post about 4th of July!

OC Vacation - Week 1

2008-06-30T23:07:00.007-04:00

We had a great week of vacation! Eric's family came in from Kentucky for the week and my very good friend from college and her family (The Simon's) came from New York, as well as my parents, my sister and Abby! Wow! Lots of people and lots of fun!

Vacation kicked off with a family party for Jacob's birthday!We went bike riding on the boardwalk a few mornings which also meant donuts thanks to Grandpop!

The weather was perfect so.... lots of beach time! Thanks to Kristan, some yummy treats were also found on the beach!

Allison and Grandpa playing ball

Jacob, Allison, Tessa & Frank

Cameron & Allison

We can't forget kayak voyages! (Eric and David)

Our evenings were spent either playing games or going on the boardwalk.

Kaitlyn & Jacob on our new favorite ride!

Kaitlyn, Eric & Allison

Jacob & Tessa

Frank & Allison

Patience Please

2008-06-29T22:03:00.000-04:00

*** UPDATE ***

As most of you know, we are on vacation. I do not have a reliable internet connection and am not able to post very regularly. Don't worry though.... soon you will have lots of reading material as we've been very busy making lots of memories and having tons of fun! I'm beginning to back track so please read on below!

OC with Friends!

2008-06-28T23:28:00.001-04:00

Today our friends, the Davis family, joined us in OC for a full day of everything OC has to offer! We spent the day on the beach - which was beautiful! After cleaning up and some pizza for dinner, we went on the boardwalk for lots of rides! Thanks to the Davis girl's Allison went on her "dream" ride - the swings! She has wanted to go on them but her over protective mother has been too over protective to allow her to. In case you can't tell by the picture, she was in heaven! Everyone had a great day and needless to say - quite tired!

My 2 Pirates!

2008-06-27T21:10:00.001-04:00

My parents gave Jacob a "Pirate Voyage" as part of his birthday present. So, today Jacob & Eric took the voyage. Pirate Voyages is a privately owned boat excursion out of OC. When you arrive, you get your face painted and any other "tatoos" you would like, an eye patch, and a bandana cap. I was just along to see them off on their voyage and to take pictures. Once on board the pirate ship, all the "pirates" signed their flag and hoisted it up the mast. The "pirates" that were running the voyage were all dressed to play the part of a pirate. As the ship set sail, they followed a map to the hidden treasure which was marked with an "X". The booty was pulled aboard and divided among all the pirates on board. Before returning to dock, a "bad" pirate planned a sneak attack on the ship and a full out water war broke out with super soakers and water cannons! I'm happy to say that both of my pirates made it back to land safely and had lots of fun!

Party Time!

2008-06-18T22:46:00.000-04:00

Today was Jacob's "friend" birthday party! He's been planning this since oh, about June 17th, 2007! :o) His theme this year was a Pirate Pool Party at our swim club! He had a blast with all his buddies swimming, playing ball, snacking and swimming some more! We also had a pinata, however, I've decided that 8 year old boys have passed the age limit for pinatas! We barely got through the line with one hit per boy before the thing started to fall apart! I was just praying that all the kids got at least one hit although I'm not really sure they cared much about taking a swing at the pinata or were just excited about the falling candy!

Although the weather didn't provide us with brilliant sunshine, the party was great! Since the weather was questionable, the pool was empty with the exception of a few other families and except for a short period of drizzle, the rain held off! By halfway through the sun was out and it was a great afternoon!

Happy Birthday Jacob!

2008-06-17T23:56:00.001-04:00

Today is Jacob's 8th Birthday! I'm not quite sure where those 8 years have gone! I can remember holding my little (o.k, not so little) baby boy swaddled in a blanket just like it was yesterday! Today he is maturing into quite the young man (such a young man that we wear the same size shoes!)! If you were to ask him what some of his favorites are he'd say...swimming, basketball, soccer, friends, playing outside, video games, and the color orange.

For some reason I had a hard time grasping the fact that he no longer needed a carseat since he is 8! Jacob on the other hand had very little trouble with that point. It just seems so unnatural to me since it's something that he's been using since he was born! The first time in the car without the carseat he said he liked being able to touch the floor with his feet!

Regardless of when their party is, we have made a tradition to take the kids out to eat on their exact birthday so that the day feels special. Jacob choose to go to Friendly's tonight. The meal was complete with favorite foods and an icecream sundae!

After dinner, Jacob opened his gifts from us and from Allison. I'm pretty sure he really enjoyed his day!

Happy Birthday Jacob - we love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

School's Out!!!!

2008-06-17T23:52:00.000-04:00

It's officially the last day of school and I officially have a 3rd grader and a 1st grader! Wow.... Where does time go? I guess you could say that I'm graduating onto a new level also as I'll have more time on my hands come September than I have in a very long time! Don't worry... I'm sure those hours will be very well spent! :o)

First Ocean Voyage!

2008-06-14T23:02:00.002-04:00

Today Eric took his "new" toy out in the ocean for the first time. If you remember a few months ago, I mentioned that Eric purchased his long time dream toy - a 2 person kayak! Although this wasn't his first voyage, it was his first in the ocean! You may also remember that my kids had 2 very different thoughts on their level of participation. Allison was more than excited and Jacob was a bit hesitant. So today Eric put his life jacket on and Jacob was more than eager to go and wouldn't wait. So off they went. Jacob was taking cold waves right in the face on their way out past the breakers. They made it out and back and smiles were on both of my boys faces as they truly enjoyed their voyage! Allison was very eager to get her turn - that was right up until the life jacket went on! Reluctantly she went out for a short time and was less than thrilled! So Eric took Jacob a 2nd time - less waves in the face this time! As the boys were heading back toward shore - in pretty shallow water - they took a wave at the wrong angle and flipped it. I was thinking "well, that does it - Jacob won't be out on that again", but to my dismay, he was all smiles when he came up and will tell you that flipping was the best part! Who knew they would change their opinions so drastically!?

Bridge To Brownies!

2008-06-12T22:57:00.002-04:00

Tonight Allison crossed the bridge to Brownies. Basically this was a symbolic excercise to graduate from Daisies to Brownies. She won't officially begin Brownies until September. This has been a fun Daisy year and Allison has enjoyed meeting all the girls and making new friends! Thanks to 2 wonderful and dedicated Brownie leaders, all the girls from her Daisy troop as well as about 6 - 10 others will be in her Brownie troop next year!

Finny & A New Home!

2008-06-10T21:52:00.003-04:00

When we acquired our goldfish a couple of months ago, I didn't think that we would still have a goldfish! I know that's a horrible thought but I've always heard that they don't live long and they are just "throw away" fish! So, after a couple months of having to clean out the fish bowl every few days, we have moved on to bigger and better things (and I do mean bigger!)!

So.... here it is ... our new fish tank and an additional fish to keep Goldy (Allison's fish) company! Jacob was finally ready to get another fish so meet, Finny! I think he stands a better chance survival with the larger tank!
They seem to like the new tank and hopefully after all this effort, they will still be swimming in the morning! I'm looking forward to not cleaning the tank any time soon! :o)

Kindergarten Field Trip

2008-06-10T20:33:00.003-04:00

Today Allison and I spent the morning on her class field trip. We went to a local farm for a hayride, tour of a greenhouse and radish picking! Great kindergarten field trip with lots of educational opportunities but did I mention that it was 100 degrees today with extreme humidity to make if feel something like 105!? Man, was it hot! I was forcing poor Allison to constantly drink her water so she wouldn't dehydrate! All in all, she had a really good time! The moms were counting the minutes till we could get back to school and get into our air conditioned cars!

So now we have a bowl full of radish that I'm not sure any of us will eat. The farmer told us to fry them in some olive oil and make them into chips. He said they were really good that way and much better for you than potato chips, so we may try that - I'll let you know! :o)

Allison with the radish she just picked

So do you think Allison has had enough?

Heat Wave!

2008-06-09T21:44:00.002-04:00

We are in the midst of a terrible heat wave. These temperatures are unusual for anytime during the summer but definately not the normal for June! I hope this is not a sign of the upcoming summer! We hit 98 degrees today but with the heat index we were feeling like 105! Jacob and Allison's school is not air conditioned. I didn't quite know whether to send them but by 11 am when I picked Allison up from Kindergarten, I decided to get Jacob as well! I'm really glad that I did - I found out later that they gathered most of the school into the air conditioned gym to watch movies for the rest of the afternoon. They called a 1/2 day for tomorrow due to the severe weather conditions. Fortunately the weather is supposed to breaking tomorrow night with some storms.

Since our pool is not open yet, I decided to "spluge" and get the kids a slip and slide. I was at Walmart and found one for less than $8. After the heat of the day today I hooked it up and the kids went wild on it. I wasn't sure if it would be a hit or not but it was a good cool down for them! The down side was that once it was hooked up, I had to sit in the heat and supervise! Even if it only lasts until the pool opens full time next week, it was well worth the $8 investment!

Another Performance Day!!!!

2008-06-08T21:29:00.001-04:00

Today was yet another performance day for the kids! Pretty soon, they are going to need a booking agent! :o) As I mentioned in earlier posts, the kids both participate in our church's children's choir. Today they performed at all 3 services. They had to be at church by 7:45 am. This was a bit early considering our long day yesterday! We literally rolled Allison out of bed w/ just enough time for her to get dressed and get her hair done! Jacob, of course, was up in plenty of time but Allison would have been very upset if she missed this opportunity so she went!

The kids did a great job and had a blast. They especially liked singing "Lean on Me" where they had an opportunity to do some free style silly dancing! By the last service at 11:30, Jacob was coming out of his shell and "getting down"!

Recital Time!

2008-06-07T22:49:00.001-04:00

Today was Allison's 3rd recital. She absolutely loves dancing and loves performing. This year has been especially fun for her because she has had many opportunities to perform because she has been on a dance team. Tonight's performance was bitter sweet. Sweet because it was the end of another dance year and time for a break. Bitter because Allison's dance teacher, Miss Libby will not be returning next year. Allison has danced with Miss Libby for 3 years and we absolutely adore her! Miss Libby will be greatly missed! The girls also had an assistant this year, Miss Andrea, who is a senior in high school so she too will be missed a ton next year! Allison's class danced to a Disney Princess song called "Dressed for Tea". A very cute dance and the girls did a wonderful job! By then end of the day - 2 performances in fact - they were all very tired!

She will again be on the dance team next year and most of the girls she danced with this year will also be dancing again so it will be fun to reunite with them in September.

2nd Grade Field Trip

2008-06-06T21:53:00.005-04:00

Today was the long awaited field trip that Jacob has been so excited about. All four 2nd grade classes boarded the school buses and ventured out to the Museum of Natural Science. It was a really hot day so all the moms were thankful to be going to an air conditioned museum! Having never been there before, I was quite excited to go and see what all was there. There were replicas of dinosaur sketatons, we went digging for fossils, and saw lots of animals - even touched a snake, and walked through a butterly garden. I think the butterfly garden was my favorite exhibit although the fossil digging was pretty cool too!

All Fired Up!

2008-06-06T20:14:00.001-04:00

Last night Allison's Daisy troop went to a paint your own pottery. The particular place we went to was working with the local food bank and this activity was more or less a community service. We paid a small fee for the girls to paint a bowl. The finished bowl will then be sold for about $4 - $6 more and the profit will then go to the food bank to help provide food for those in need. The girls had a great time creating their masterpieces and painting!

UGH!!!!

2008-06-06T07:12:00.002-04:00

So, I didn't figure I'd have even one second for my blog before next week but I do....

It seems like as each waking hour goes by, one more thing breaks! I spent yesterday trying to "fix" Allison's recital costume so that the irritation doesn't cause her to break out in hives by the end of the day Saturday! That wasn't the quick fix I thought but I after just about devoting the entire day to it, I think we've got it under control.

Last night in preparing for today, we were getting the video camera ready - you know making sure it was charged and had a good tape in it. We are (or were) video taping Allison's dress rehersal since we are not allowed to do any photographing or video of the actual recital. Did you catch that I said WERE? Yes, that is because our camera just broke! Just like that broke! Perfect a few weeks ago, but now totally broke! So... I guess that we won't be taping dress rehersal! :o(

Went to bed last night with normal water. Woke up to tea coming out of my faucets throughout my whole house. Tea party anyone?! Guess what - boiling water does not take the discoloration away! Thought I'd try it but after 25 minutes of boiling, it still looks like a pot of tea! Anyone want to come over for a tea party?!

So...now I'm off to a 2nd grade field trip w/ Jacob - a day with 2nd grade boys should be just what I need for my frustration! :o)

S'mores & More!

2008-05-31T16:53:00.003-04:00

Last night we had dinner with our friends the Davis'. Since it was a warm summer day, the kids hit the pool while dinner was being prepared. The kids ate first then hit the pool again while the grown ups ate. The kids were freezing by the time dinner was cleaned up so they went inside while we hit the hot tub! Hot tub, mojitos and music - all kid free - what more could you ask for on a Friday night?!

After the adults had turned into prunes from the hot tub and our drinks were gone, it was time for S'mores! What a great time we all had! Thanks Davis'!!! :o)

Turkey Trouble!

2008-05-28T13:46:00.003-04:00

I think that I've mentioned before that I'm not a huge outdoorsy type of person. I like being outdoors, but not hiking in the woods or camping. I don't like the wild "animals" that come with the great outdoors! For those who have known me awhile also know that the "wild" always seems to hunt me down! I've had encounters with bats, racoons, skunks, & turkeys. My theory is that if I wanted to be with the wild, I'd go pitch a tent, simply being out in my backyard does not give the "wild" right to come find me!

So... as we were enjoying our beach time on Monday we got a call from my neighbor alerting us that there was an injured wild turkey making our backyard it's home! Great! She also said that at night it flew up to to tree but each day since Saturday, spent the entire day in the yard! Great... just what I need to deal with when I get home!

As soon as I got home on Tuesday morning, I started the endless phone calls to try to figure out how to remove this turkey. After a few hours of getting the run around, I was hopeful that animal control would be out. By noon, animal control was in my driveway but I quickly determined that animal control may not necessarily be the answer to my worries!

I was greated by an older man who didn't look too certain about what to do. He took a look inside the fence and said, "This is going to be a tough bird to catch!". So he returned to his van to get the necessary equipment! I turn around to see his high tech equipment that he is going to use to catch this turkey and found him carrying a fishing net - not even a large one - at best, medium sized! I thought, this is going to be a long afternoon! Then he turns to me and says, "I'm going to need your help." My help! Are you kidding me, why do you think I called you! I'm pretty sure that all of those things came out, in fact, I think that he thought I was some sort of lunatic! He then tells me that I don't have to touch it or anything and that the turkey is actually more afraid of me than I am of it! Apparently he doesn't know me and like I would even think of touching the turkey! I just kept thinking... this is not really happening.... I'm really not trying to catch a turkey! So this older man starts to move in on the turkey and wants me to go the other way to make the turkey think that it doesn't have a way out. Lo and behold, he gets this dumb bird into our back corner of our yard and whoosh, the net goes over the bird and it's caught. Now what!? He's got the turkey in this net pinned to the ground, now what's the plan. I asked politely if he'd like me to get one of his cages out of the car for him. Without answer, he begins to try to flip the net over and grab the turkey with his hands (did I mention that he didn't even have gloves on?! GROSS!!!!). Dumb move! In a blink of an eye, the turkey basically released it's feathers and took off in the air! Did you ever see a turkey fly? Kind of looks like a small plane. It flew clear across our backyard, across my neighbors yard and into the next yard which is surrounded by a 6 foot fence which the poor bird did not clear and smacked it's leg into. I'm thinking that things don't look too good at this point. So we go over to this other yard and there it is. In the meantime, I suggest to my neighbor who is watching the whole thing to go get Jason (the guy across the street who works from home) because I'm not getting any more involved in this capture than I already am and this animal control guy needs help. So... the animal control guy backs the turkey into a corner behind a wood pile and nets him once again. Again, I offer to bring the cage closer to him - this time he takes my offer! As I begin to give him the cage he begins to lift the net off the turkey. I promptly give him instructions to put that net down and don't move until I'm further away! I also suggested that perhaps he wait for Jason to arrive. Jason comes and the turkey is put into a little cage. Whew! Turkey captured and was now it it's way to a wildlife rescue nearby.

Later in the afternoon, I called the wildlife rescue to see how the turkey was doing and they told me it had a very bad leg fracture (bone was sticking out) and that it had to be put down. Poor turkey but at least it's not in our yard and I can once again put the dog outback!

In all the chaos, I still managed to take some pictures. My neighbor said, too bad we don't have a camera! I said I do... and whipped out my camera. I think the animal control guy thought that perhaps I needed some help! Who takes pictures of this? Hey! I have a blog and am always looking for good material! :o)

This is our poor injured wild turkey! You can see his right leg hanging.

The animal control guy with his net, closing in on the turkey!

Jason saves the day and carries the turkey out of the yard!

Summer Kickoff!!!!!

2008-05-27T20:29:00.006-04:00

This weekend was the official kick-off to summer. We packed up things and took off to the shore! We are there most years but every once in a while we don't make it there - but not this year!!!! It was a beautiful weekend - not a cloud in the sky all 3 days! My sister and Abby made it down so we had a full house!

Saturday started with a bike ride to the annual HUGE yard sale! A section of the island has this community yard sale every year! We were on a mission this year. Several years ago we purchased an "Alleycat" bike there and were looking for a second. An "Alleycat" bike is a one wheeled bike for kids that attaches to the seat of an adult bike so that they ride tandem. It's great for the shore since it will be a long time before I allow Jacob to ride by himself down there! The first street we went down, BINGO! Found one just like our first one. It needs a bit of restoration but a whole $5! You can now buy one at Walmart or Target for not too much but $5!!!! That was a bargain that even made Eric glad he went to a yard sale! We also found my sister a bike seat that mounts to the front on her handle bars for Abby! Again, another deal $15! After lunch we met up with a few of our friends, the Keltons and Hunts at the local playground. After a few hours of chasing each other around, they were all (9 kids in total) beginning to show signs of exhaustion! It was a bit cool for the beach so the playground was a good alternative! A good snack was in order after playing so water ice for everyone! After dinner our family ventured up to the boardwalk for our first official visit of the year! To our surprise, the crowds were relatively light! It goes without saying that everyone slept very well that night!
Sunday was another picture perfect day and a bit warmer too! We all decided to hit the beach! It was great to put our toes in the sand for the first time! Our friends the Davis' drove down for the day to join us. The water was really chilly (57 degrees to be exact) but that did not stop the kids from venturing in many times throughout the day! Truly crazy kids! When they weren't in the water, they were helping the dads build a massive sand castle. The dads got them started but the kids really finished it off! Good job guys! Speaking of guys, they left the moms and the kids mid afternoon to inaugurate the new kayak! The ocean was too risky of getting wet w/ the waves so they opted for the back bay. Although a short expedition, I'm told they had a lot of fun! Thanks to Kevin, I was spared the trip, at least this time! Since the moms were on the beach with the kids, there were no pictures of the expedition, but I promise pictures the next time! After dinner we went to the boardwalk again but this time met up with the Kelton's and Hunt's. It was crazy crowded this time and tons of kids wanting to go in all different directions! Not to mention my 2 crazy friends, Shelly and Jul, ventured onto the Double Shot! I assured them that they didn't want me to go with them or they'd be sure to be wearing my dinner! It was a fun ride - to watch with both feet plastered to the ground! Shelly and Jul said that it was fun too! I'll just take their word for it! By the end of the night, Eric joined in with the crazy ones and went on some ride that just looking at it made me sick. I didn't get any pictures though! Perhaps Eric will try it again - definately not with me - so he'll be looking for volunteers! Again, total exhaustion and everyone slept well!
a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3QTkXL6R77E/SDyzrwPdlCI/AAAAAAAAAtw/JgFciHmbqFI/s1600-h/P5250568.JPG">

Monday morning we all set out on our bikes for a ride on the boardwalk. We rode from our house to just about the end of the boardwalk and back - about 60 blocks round trip! I love riding on the boardwalk - but I don't love the crowds of people on the boardwalk while riding! Once home, we lathered up and packed up and hit the beach! The wind was coming from a different direction and so it was a bit more chilly on the beach but still a beautiful day! It was a nice quiet day with just the family. A funny note about Abby.... last year on the beach she was all over the place totally loving her freedom so we weren't quite sure what to expect from her this year now that she can walk. She hates the sand on her feet! Every time she gets even the tiniest grain of sand on her foot, she says "ouch - hurt". So she spends the time on the beach sitting in a chair with her feet up in the air! We thought that the 2nd day would be better or she would forget, not so much the case!>We had a wonderful weekend filled with friends, family and lots of fun things! A great way to kick off the summer!

One By One

2008-05-20T14:10:00.003-04:00

It's that time of the year that our schedule starts little by little to become more open. Although we thoroughly enjoy the activities, it is nice to free up some time and just be as a family.

Sunday was the last soccer game for Jacob. Although he has a few more practices and some tryouts for next year, the games are done. From here on out, you can count on beautiful, warm, sunny Sundays! I know this because they were very few and far between this spring since Jacob had games each and every Sunday!

Last night, the end of our spring swimming lessons. They will both take them later in the summer but for now, we have that off our schedule! No more dinner at 4:15 on Mondays!

We've got a few more activity commitments to finish up, but boy am I looking forward to that last day of school and heading to the beach to sit on the beach commitment free and not a care in the world!

Mother's Day!

2008-05-18T20:00:00.002-04:00

Although this post is a little delayed, I wanted to share with everyone my special day!

This Mother's Day was a different day than other years. I guess it's a sign that my kids are getting older. We spent the day on the soccer field about an hour away. Although it was sunny and warm at our house, that was not the case at the field. It was so cold that the winter coats were brought out!

After the game, we came home and had my mom and dad over for a Mother's Day dinner. After some really good grilled steaks, compliments of my husband, it was time for the gifts, which is really the point of this post. The kids gave me the most wonderfully cute handmade gifts.

Jacob made this card. I love that he came up with all the cute little phrases to spell out MOTHER. He did this all by himself and I just love it!

Allison made me a ceramic tile with her hand print on it, a coupon book and a card to go with it.
Thanks guys! I love you!

Community Fun Day!

2008-05-17T21:22:00.001-04:00

Today our development held a Fun Day. I have to say that the committee did an awesome job! They got tons of local businesses to sponsor various events for example, the local diner sponsored 2 moon bounces! Everything was free! The day consisted food (hotdogs, pizza, drinks, snacks, popcorn, & icecream), crafts for the kids (sand art, visor decorating, face painting, tatoos, games, rock painting & side walk chalk contests), raffles (KIXX games, restaurant gift certificates, pandora bracelets, teeth bleaching, summer camp package, & autographed sports memoribillia), and entertainment (DJ, clown & magician)! We spent the entire day there! It was lots of fun to see all our neighbors as well as meet some new neighbors!

Jacob was totally taken by the magician and Allison spent a lot of time with the sidewalk chalk. The jury is still out as to whether she or the sidewalk had the most chalk!

Performance Day!

2008-05-15T21:05:00.000-04:00

Today was the kids' music concerts at school. Jacob's concert was in the morning and then Allison's in the afternoon. So basically I was at school all day with a quick trip in between to have lunch.

This year was so easy! There were no costumes or special clothing requests. Simply khaki bottoms and then the music teacher purchased different colored shirts for each class! Perfect!

Great job Jacob and Allison!

Torture!!!!!

2008-05-13T21:40:00.003-04:00

Tonight I've discovered a new level of torture! Jacob has been working on a project for school about dinosaurs. He had to pick a dinosaur, research it, write a report, sketch a picture for the cover. As if that wasn't torture enough for me to supervise, they also have the option of typing the report! Great! We sat tonight while he typed on the computer only the 1st of 3 paragraphs. He was actually very good at the whole typing thing but as I sat here with him, it was oh so hard to not just take over and have the whole thing done in 5 minutes!

He thinks he is such hot stuff typing his report. And the good thing is that we can't argue about how neat or not neat his handwriting is or how the spacing is correct or incorrect. It's all done just perfectly on the computer - just quite long!

So tomorrow, we will return to the computer and continue the torture!

I love school projects!!!!!

Moving On

2008-05-08T16:26:00.002-04:00

Well, today was the last day of Mom's Time Out (MTO) for me. For those who are not familiar with MTO, it's a ministry at our church that started out as MOPS (Mothers Of Preschoolers), whose goal was to minister to just that, moms of young kids. We welcome the moms to a hot breakfast, coffee bar, adult conversation with moms, as well as a special speaker/discussion time and even a craft. All that came to a close for me today, as my kids are too old for me to attend any longer. It's hard to believe that I've been involved with this group since Jacob was a tiny baby and then moved on to lead the group for about 5 years. Come September, I'm not so sure that I'm going to know what to do with myself! I jokingly mentioned that one of the things I'm going to have to do is make my own breakfast every other Thursday morning. Part of me wasn't joking as we have this awesome hot breakfast buffet each meeting - really yummy and always something chocolate - I'm sure my Corn Flakes won't measure up!

This is just one of the really big areas in my life that is changing. I know that change is good, but right now, I feel like I'm losing a part of my identity. Most of my really close friends have been involved with MTO with me - some of them are moving on and others are not.

A lot of the same friends were also part of our mini-church. Eric and I have been with this mini-church for about 11 years. Some families have come and gone, and returned again during those 11 years but there are several who have remained constant. Regardless, we have developed many close friendships with these families. Anyway... our minichurch is "breaking up" and moving on. To me this is a little hard to come to grips with because I feel like part of who we, as a family, are, is this minichurch. The other difficult thing is that we live about 30 minutes away from almost all of the other families so without seeing them regularly at minichurch, a set time to share life's happenings, I feel like, in a sense, we're losing these relationships. Sure we will continue to see people at church weekly but it's not something where we get into life's struggles and triumphs with everyone - kind of a more surfacey sort of thing. We live kind of too far to just stop by for a short chat, or just pop in for a cup of coffee or whatever. So, it's going to have to be a more intentional thing, which is hard to do when life always seems to get in the way all to easily.

So, coupled with MTO ending for me, and the loss of our minichurch, - 2 huge aspects of my life - I'm struggling. Struggling to know that God has a plan, struggling to understand that God has only good planned for me (or us as a family) and that I have to trust Him. Struggling to know that I'm not out here alone to conquer life.

So... in the meantime, I'm looking to God for direction as to where He is leading us and me.

Rest In Peace....

2008-05-07T15:58:00.002-04:00

Last evening Blacky, Jacob's goldfish, died. Let me clarify that... he didn't just die, he died right before our eyes. Surprisingly, Jacob handled it quite well. Eric swore to me that it was something I had done as I had just cleaned their tank earlier in the day. I noticed that he was swimming in the front of the tank and near the top - totally unusual since they are pretty skittish fish. So, not totally convinced that I didn't do something and trying to save my son's fish, I called Petsmart. After going through the whole scenario with "the fish guy", I was sure that I was in the clear and not guilty of wrongful death. By this time the poor fish was barely swimming and more or less just leaning on the side of the tank. Then, while I was still on the phone with Petsmart, he died! Right there - Jacob watching the whole thing. "Wait Mommy.... I think he might have just breathed". Ugh! So without any tears, Blacky made his exit from our household down the toilet. We offered Jacob to go out to Walmart last night and get another but he said he was o.k.

I was really hoping that they would die at the same time, you know so we didn't go back and forth with replacing one fish and then the other. So for the time being, I'm leaving well enough alone and waiting to see if he really wants his fish replaced.

By the way... according to Petsmart, Blacky had some type of bacterial infection prior to me buying him. Ariel is still swimming strong. We thought she was exhibiting the same symptoms but we really think that she maybe was looking for her tank mate.

So for now... we are a one fish family.

A Very Busy Weekend!!!!

2008-05-05T14:56:00.004-04:00

We are just coming out of a crazy busy weekend! I'm still trying to find my house of all the clutter!

Friday brought a 1/2 day for the kids so they both had a playdate! The weather turned out to be quite warmer than predicted. Due to the heat, I pulled out some freezer pops and I think supplied the entire neighborhood! I also finally got all my flowers planted! Now bring on the mulch! That will be next weekends project! Our day rounded out with a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese! Surprisingly, it wasn't as crazy as I thought considering it was a Friday night! By the time we got home we were all whipped!

Saturday began with Allison's soccer game. Once again, a chilly and damp morning! Once home, it was time to get lunch ready and then make a fruit salad for a party for later in the day! This wasn't just any party, this was a Kentucky Derby party! Complete with hats, ponies, and lots of food and fun! A family we've gotten to know recently had this party and decided that we had to be a part of it since Eric is from Kentucky! What they didn't know is that Eric doesn't know the first thing about the Derby!:o) Our friends went way out including tents with heaters (which we did need), inflatables for the kids, port-a-pottys to ease the bathroom lines, pony rides, and catered BBQ chicken and pulled pork! The kids had a great time playing with their friends and making new friends! Allison was the only one in our family interested in the pony rides and had a blast! I'm afraid a pony will be on her Christmas or Birthday list in the near future! To top the day off, we won $13 in the Derby bet at the party. We picked names out of a bag and we picked The Winner!!!! A great day!

But wait... our weekend was not over yet! Sunday was even crazier, not to mention non-stop! So here is how the day panned out.....

9:00 am - Church & Kids Choir

11:30 am - BBQ at the Davis'

1:00 pm - Allison's Princess Tea Party with her Daisy troop

3:00 pm - Jacob's soccer game (fortunately at home)

4:00 pm - Tea Party over

6:00 pm - Soccer Pizza party

7:30 pm - Showers for some very, very dirty children

7:45 pm - Everyone crashes!!!!!

Meet Our Newest Family Members!

2008-05-01T13:40:00.000-04:00

So I mentioned in my earlier post that we won a "take home" prize at the AWANA Family Fun Fair!

Meet Ariel (or that is what her name is until Allison thinks of a better name)

So we've added a goldfish to our family! Allison won it by throwing a ping pong into the bowl! I was not at all prepared to take home a fish! No bowl, no food! Initially, Jacob was o.k. with his sister's prize, but then proceeded to cry most of the way home that evening. So.... meet Blacky! He is the one in the forefront of the picture. He is appropriately named as the tips of his fins are black. Ariel is completely gold! The picture also shows their new home - bigger bowl complete w/ an octopus cave and pump!

Any guesses on how long this will last?

Family Fun Fair!

2008-04-30T21:22:00.003-04:00

Tonight was the AWANA Family Fun Fair. The kids have literally been counting the days down just waiting for today to arrive!

The evening turned out to be a really fun night! The fair was packed full of lots of activities, inflatable, games, food and lots and lots of fun! We started out our evening with hotdogs and lemonade. Then we moved on to the inflatable obstacle course, some games, the velcro wall, the Awana store, and slushies, popcorn, cotton candy, and lots and lots of candy! Wow!!!!! The kids thought they were in Heaven!!! :o)

The evening ended with a great take home prize which I'll tell you all about later!!!!!

AWANA Awards Night

2008-04-27T21:07:00.000-04:00

Tonight was the official closing ceremonies for AWANAs. The kids were really excited to be recognized in front of everyone for their accomplishments. They both worked very hard all year to say their verses and work their way through their books! They will both really miss AWANAs!
Great job, Jacob and Allison! We are really proud of you both!

Wow! Am I Getting Old?!

2008-04-24T13:05:00.006-04:00

Last night Eric and I had a few hours to ourselves as the kids had their last night of AWANAS. We went to a local restaurant for a quick bite to eat. After a very relaxing dinner, Eric decided that he wanted some icecream and suggested an old favorite, Coneheads. It's been YEARS since we have been to Coneheads! We walked in and absolutely nothing has changed - nothing except the prices - yikes!

Anyway.... while we were sitting there eating our icecream, it occurred to me that I've been visiting Coneheads for a really, really long time! There is no way that I'm old enough to say just how long I've been going there - in fact - it's a little scary! I've been going there for 20 years! Is that possible?! Unbelievable! So I start recounting in my mind memories of going there with high school friends. Then I start thinking - WOW - have I really been out of school for that long!?

Just like that 20 years have passed by in what seems like just yesterday. Then there are times when those days seem like a lifetime ago when I look at my life now... a stay at home mom with 2 great kids and a wonderful husband!

All this over a bowl of icecream!

A New Summer Toy!

2008-04-21T17:52:00.004-04:00

So here it is.... the long awaited kayak. Eric has been dreaming about this for a very long time and now he is the proud owner of his very own kayak!
The idea was for Jacob and Eric to use it and that ocassionally Allison would want to join them. That's not exactly how things are panning out. Jacob vows that he won't even sit in it until we can prove to him that it won't sink! Allison on the other hand got right in it and wanted to know when we can put it in the water!

I Wish I Were A Squirrel!

2008-04-21T11:16:00.001-04:00

The other morning as I doing Allison's hair before school we had the following conversation that was too cute not to post!

A: Mommy, I wish that I was a squirrel!

M: You do, why?

A: If I was a squirrel, I could climb all the way to the top a tree and when I got to the top, I could see Heaven and then I could see Jesus!

M: Do you think it would be fun to see Heaven and Jesus?

A: Yes, and if I could see Jesus, then I could see GG because she is in Heaven with Jesus.

Opening Soccer Day!

2008-04-12T16:22:00.004-04:00

This morning was opening day for our township recreational soccer teams. Allison is the only one playing this year as Jacob's travel team is still playing their spring season. Allison was very excited about her season beginning! She is on the same team as one of her good friends, Jenna as well as one of her classmates.

We've determined that Allison is going to be the social butterfly of the two kids. Upon arriving at the field and walking to the field, everyone we passed was calling out, "Hi Allison!". Everyone seems to know her!

When we arrived in the parking lot, I felt like I was in the circus and seeing how many people we could get into our minivan! You see, we are watching my friend's 3 girls. So add my 2 kids to her 3 girls and Eric and I are terribly out numbered. As I was unloading them, I found myself counting to make sure that we had all 5 children!

The 4 kids that weren't playing all did well keeping themselves busy with bubbles and some soccer balls that we took with us! Unfortunately, the sky got black just as we were done with soccer so we were unable to make it to the playground as we had talked about. They were all good sports though and were having a good time running between the rain drops as the sky opened up!

Photo Shoot!

2008-04-10T21:06:00.005-04:00

Today my mom and I took the kids and my neice Abby to get some pictures taken. I tried a new photography place I've been wanting to try, Portrait Innovations, and loved it!!! The pictures were primarily for my Mom and Dad with all 3 grandchildren together. They were offering a package deal that I couldn't pass up - you all know how cheap I am! The kids did really well for the photo shooting part. After the pictures were taken and we had to view all the shots and make our selection was a totally different story - being that they took 113 photos!!!!!

Here are few samples of the day! Hope you enjoy! (Sorry for the sideways pics... these are unedited versions and are a read only file)

Roller Skating!

2008-04-05T22:15:00.001-04:00

Today the kids had a roller skating party. Besides skating out front of the house, the kids have never been roller skating at a rink! Jacob did quite well with his roller blades. He was pretty much independent and would pass by occasionally and wave. Allison was a bit of a different scenario! She was quite wobbly on the rink and was hanging on to me as if her life depended on it! We stayed with regular roller skates for her and we asked for the wheels to be tightened. By the end of the day she was getting the hang of it!

If you ask them both - they would both agree that they had a blast at the party!

Squirrel Proof?!?

2008-03-31T21:33:00.003-04:00

So I posted a few weeks ago that we got a new bird feeder. I wanted it to be a bird feeder and not a squirrel feeder. Up until now, we have been pretty successful. And then we come home to this! How on earth can I compete and outsmart these creatures! To interpret this picture, the squirrel is actually sitting on the ledge above the spring activated bar to keep the likes of him out! He then leans down and eats out of the trough - fully outsmarting the squirrel proof part of this feeder!

Hanging With Friends!

2008-03-30T21:23:00.000-04:00

This afternoon we went over to our good friends for an afternoon of riding bikes and playing! It was good to get outside and feel the bright sunshine! Looking for a little warmer temperatures! We are so greatful to have such good friends to just hang out with!

A Choir Field Trip!

2008-03-30T21:03:00.000-04:00

Today the kids went on a sort of field trip for choir. They participated in assisting with a service run by children at a local church. They sang 2 of their favorite songs and had a great time! After the service, the church provide a great lunch for everyone!

A Day With Nana & Grandpa

2008-03-24T20:52:00.000-04:00

Today was an entire day that the kids spent with Nana & Grandpa! I was sick in bed with a very bad case of the flu so although there are no photos to document the day, we wanted to remember the very fun day!

The day started first thing in the morning with a trip for 2 to the dentist! The kids are still at the age where they think that this is a treat! After the dentist, they took Nana & Grandpa to visit their school and walk around outside. The ended up of course at the township playground.

They then went on a little shopping spree to Target for a few fun pieces of clothes! Then lunch at Chick-fil-a where they ran into some friends!

After a brief stop at home and a snack, they were off again for an afternoon of bowling!

It goes without saying that EVERYONE slept really well!

And me, well, I was so thankful that they were entertained for the day and I could rest and recover!

Thanks Nana & Grandpa!

I Love This Picture!

2008-03-23T20:46:00.000-04:00

Too cute for words!

Easter Sunday!

2008-03-23T16:32:00.001-04:00

Despite our spring attire, it was a very chilly day to be hunting for Easter eggs!

Our day started out at home with the discovery of our Easter Baskets! After a quick once over on the baskets, off to find our eggs! It seems like every year there is 1 egg that is troublesome and difficult to find!

Once we were all dressed we left for church and had a great Easter service. We met up with my friend Melissa from college there. She joins our family every Easter.

After church we stopped at my mom and dad's for a photo shoot before everyone put their "comfy" clothes on! With the chilly weather, all photos were inside. It's hard to believe that some Easters it warm and all trees are in full bloom - not this year! :o(

My mom and dad hosted Easter lunch. It was very relaxing! Then another egg hunt - this time outside! Again - 1 egg unaccounted for and then after much searching - found! Abby really got into searching for the eggs - she is an old pro now!

It was a perfect day for a Grandfather/Grandson game of pool! Jacob is getting to be quite the pro!

Easter Eggs!

2008-03-22T16:04:00.000-04:00

Tonight we dyed our Easter eggs with Abby. Suzanne stripped her down to her diaper in case of a curiosity fiasco. Abby showed minimal interest this year and was content with me just "helping" her to dye the eggs. As long as we moved fast, things were great!

We had a full house with both sets of grandparents and Suzanne and Abby here!

Before dying the eggs, the kids had fun playing with the boxes that bar stools came in! Amazing what fun kids can have with plain old boxes!

Our Annual Trek!

2008-03-22T15:33:00.000-04:00

The day before Easter is an annual tradition for our family - one that was started by my mom when I was little! Every year, the day before Easter we head down to Ocean City to buy our discounted amusement tickets. You know that I love a deal and to pay full price for our amusement tickets would be unheard of! So whether rain or shine, cold or warm, we head down. Today, no exception! The forecast looked grim but reality was much better than predicted! We packed our lunch and loaded up the car and hit the road after Jacob's indoor soccer game. Once there, we divided and conquered all the ticket options. The boys took off to Playland, and the girls went to Wonderland.

Some Johnson's popcorn was a must!

And to end our day of tradition, a couple of rides to hold us over till warmer weather!

A Good Friday!

2008-03-21T14:42:00.000-04:00

Eric's parents are here visiting. They arrived late last night. Although it's a pretty day outside, it's really windy so we opted for a short trip to the local park/playground.

After dinner, Nana helped the kids make "Ressurection Rolls". They had a great time rolling out the dough and getting them ready to bake!

A Complete Kitchen!

2008-03-20T14:27:00.000-04:00

Finally! After months of waiting... and negotiating with Eric our bar stools have arrived for our newly enlarged island! We ordered them in January and finally they are here! I love them. It's a little weird getting used to the new look in our kitchen. After 4 years w/o anything in that space, it's taking some getting used to.

Sick Again?!

2008-03-18T13:01:00.002-04:00

So much for a short 24 hour thing! Jacob was not feeling well over the weekend and even had a low grade temperature. I thought he was better yesterday so off to school he went. Right now his chief complaint is that his legs hurt and he is really having quite a bit of difficulty walking. After down playing it yesterday and seeing no improvement today, in fact he's feeling worse today, we kept him home and took him to the Dr.

Turns out he has what the Dr. is calling "a really really bad case of the flu". The leg pain is causing myalgia due to the flu (simply muscle aching as a result of the flu). Although his asthma is flaring again, his lungs and chest are clear. So Motrin and rest and lots of fluid! No school today or tomorrow! UGH!

After I questioned whether or not he really ever got over what he had in February, the doctor responded with this little formula....
The average child gets 6-8 respiratory illnesses each year. Each illness tends to last on average 10 - 14 days. So... we are well under average at this point! Scary figures though!

A Bird's Eye View!

2008-03-16T14:14:00.003-04:00

Since we have moved into our house over 4 years ago, we have taken notice to a large variety of birds. I've never really been much of a bird "lover", but throughout the years, we've seem some quirky little birds most of which we've come to love! I think the fact that we back to some woods, increases the amount of birds that we get. We get everything from large wild turkeys to little sparrows and everything in between. For several years, I've wanted a bird feeder - a good one - and a squirrel proof one! We've had feeders before and seem to feed not much more than all the squirrels! So, I've been on the lookout for a good one! Yesterday we got one! I love it! It's so cute and sits right on a tree that you can see from the entire back of the house! So far we've had only a bite or two from the little Nuthatches that frequent our trees but I'm eagerly awaiting to see a huge variety. Some birds that we have seen in the past are 2 different kinds of Woodpeckers, Cardinals, Blue Jays, and Blue Birds, just to mention a few. Good friends gave us a bird book a while ago and we pull it out frequently - it's fun to figure out our new little feathered friends!

Yeah! Shamrock Shakes!

2008-03-14T21:38:00.002-04:00

Each year at this time, I crave only 1 thing!!!! A Shamrock Shake! I love anything minty, especially green mint ice cream! We made the mistake one year of going on St. Patty's Day, and good ol' McD's was sold out! I was a bit of a crazed maniac at the news so we make sure to get our yearly treat early in the promotion! So tonight was the night! After dinner we drove over to McD's for our treat! Unlike her mom, Allison did not inherit the love of mint! In fact she gags at the very mention of mint! So, she got a sundae instead! What a great treat!

Spring Is In The Air!

2008-03-14T21:27:00.003-04:00

Today was a wonderful prelude to spring! With temperatures in the low 60's it brought everyone out of their homes for some fresh air! Since we are in daylight savings time, there was even time for some hoops when Eric got home from work! I'm sad to say that winter is not over though, temperatures will be going down and there is even rumor of some snow on Sunday!

Prayer

2008-03-12T22:05:00.003-04:00

I wanted to pass along two families for you to pray for as you think about them.

The first is for Nate, Tricia, and their baby Gwyneth. Tricia has CF and consequently delivered a beautiful baby girl very prematurely. Tricia is waiting for a double lung transplant at Duke and Gwyneth is taking each day at a time growing and getting stronger. Today Gwyneth needs some prayer!

The other family is Leslie, Tyson, and their son. Leslie just had some major surgery to remove a portion of her forehead as a result of a bone infection following cancer. She is struggling right now as she recovers. You can read their blog to fill in all the details.

I know that both of these families covet any and all prayers! They are amazing families that need our support right now!

Thanks!

Are we famous?!

2008-03-12T21:50:00.004-04:00

I noticed alot of activity on my blog today. More hits than I've ever had! A big day before was 20 or 30. Today over 80! I'd like to just throw this out there.....

Besides my small group of local friends (and you know who you are) that I know read regularly, I'd love the others of you that are reading about our adventures in life, to comment.

For those who are new to blogging, simply click on the word comment after each post/entry and another page will come up, then, just start typing away. If you don't have a "blog name or identity" that's o.k., just sign your name at the end of your comment!

Thanks!

We're Home!!!

2008-03-09T10:10:00.000-04:00

After a long day in the car, we arrived home last night around 11pm! 13 hours driving from Jacksonville, FL makes for a long day! It felt very good to get home and have everyone sleep in their own beds!

We had a wonderful trip and enjoyed the time we spent with my parents (Grandmom & Grandpop), Suzanne, & Abby! It was fun to see Abby's reaction to all of the Disney magic for the 1st time! She loved the characters but not enough to walk up to them! The kids enjoyed the time they got to spend with all of us - uninterrupted! :o)

Allison had such a great time - she didn't want to leave. As we were driving away from Disney, Allison broke down in tears saying she didn't want to leave Disney and that she would miss it!

I've posted for each day that we were gone, so scroll down and hear about some of our highlights and a sample of our photos. All of the photos are on my flicker account to the left - just click on it and you will see us in action!

Animals, Animals, and More Animals!

2008-03-07T21:54:00.004-05:00

After checking out of our condo, we ventured into the land of the wild at Animal Kingdom!

First stop - Festival of the Lion King! Here I discovered that I live everyday with 2 elephants! Eric and Allison were choosed to lead the theatre in an elephant trumpet to call the elephant out for the show!

And finally, pictures with Mickey & Minnie - now our trip is complete!!!

After seeing tons of wild animals up close and all the other attractions, off we went for a final dip in the pool on a very warm day!

We went to Downtown Disney for dinner and shopping. Afterwards, we loaded into the car and headed up to Jacksonville for the night as we made our trek home. Florida was having really severe rain, thunder, and even a tornado or two so driving was quite an adventure! We were glad we only had to go as far as Jacksonville!

A Magical Day in the Magic Kingdom!

2008-03-06T21:45:00.003-05:00

With a plan in hand, we tackled the Magic Kingdom today! We had much to accomplish since this would be our last opportunity for the Magic Kingdom!

Allison ventured onto Space Mountain with Eric and I, while Jacob and Grandpop played video games in the gift shop!Jacob was finally tall enough to drive the Indy Speedway cars alone - what a big kid!
Abby was eagerly waiting for us to get off the ride! Don't you like our cool 3-D glasses?!

After seeing all the attractions, a parade and a stray rain shower, it was off to dinner once again at Epcot, but this time in Italy! Wow! A great meal and superb desserts!
I had to include this picture of Abby and her "silly" face!

Jedi School!

2008-03-05T21:17:00.005-05:00

Today was the long awaited day at Disney's Hollywood Studios! There is a Star Wars ride and for anyone who knows Jacob, knows this is his thing! Not only is there a ride, but there is a "show" where they pick volunteers out of the audience to be "trained" by an official Jedi how to use a lightsaber to "defend justice". Needless to say Jacob was more than eager to be chosen. There is no rhyme or reason to who is chosen - it's just luck! Our fear was that Allison would be chosen and that Jacob would not! What do we do then?! So as soon as the park opened we went right to that attraction and waited 45 minutes for the show. The kids were sitting front and center and given a lecture of how to look eager and excited to be chosen. Right off the bat - Allison was picked! Yikes! But they pick about 20 kids so there was still hope! With each child that was picked, my heart would stop! Finally - 3rd from the last to be picked - Jacob was living his dream! There they were on stage, in costume, learning to use a lightsaber when all of the sudden - Darth Vader and 2 Storm Troopers come out! One by one, each child, got to defeat Darth Vader! At the end, each child was given a certificate stating that they had successfully completed Jedi School!

Mission accomplished! All else for the day was simply a bonus! Allison and Eric ventured to Tower of Terror! Finally Eric has a playmate to go on "scary" rides! She says she only liked it a little bit! We had lunch at Jacob's favorite restaurant - Pizza Planet - from Toy Story!
Dinner was in a Japanese Steakhouse at Epcot! Really a good meal! The kids thought the chef was amazing! He made a volcano out of sliced onions!
Here's the whole gang at dinner!

A Little Break!

2008-03-04T21:09:00.004-05:00

Today turned out to be not so "magical" for Suzanne and I. We both woke up sick with some sort of stomach virus! Not so fun!

Since we were both sick and it was a somewhat warm day, the rest of the group decided to have a pool day. Suzanne joined them poolside later in the afternoon, however, I only moved from bed to the sofa!

By dinner time, I was feeling well enough to venture to dinner with the rest of the group who had already left for the Magic Kingdom to conquer some attractions before dinner. We with Pooh and his friends at the Crystal Palace. From reviews by the others in our group, this too was a good meal choice. I on the other hand had rice, a couple of rolls, a bananna, and some mashed potatoes - YUMMY! :o)

We managed a couple of rides after dinner - Buzz Lightyear - a family favorite!

The kids had a great time entertaining us all by being silly for Abby!

Princess For A Day!

2008-03-03T20:51:00.004-05:00

We started today with an early appointment at the Bipiddi Bopiddi Boutique provided by Grandmom and Grandpop! It's hard to tell from the pictures, but Allison truly enjoyed her moment to be transformed into a princess! It was amazing how different she looked! Several times during the day, Eric would be looking for her and she would be standing right in front of her!
As we were leaving Downtown Disney, this was the scene that I saw - can we say "like father like son!".
From the boutique to breakfast with Mulan, Snow White, Belle, Jasmine, and Sleeping Beauty! While we were waiting Abby was exploring the flowers nearby!
Allison was completely in her element enjoying every last minute!We spent the rest of the day in Epcot! Surprisingly, Epcot has turned out to be the kids favorite place in Disney! Some highlights of the day were Soarin', Test Track, and Nemo & Turtle Talk!From Epcot, we went to the Magic Kingdom for a great light parade and fireworks! Eric managed to get us a ride in the front of the monorail with the driver!

Swimming In March?!

2008-03-02T20:41:00.007-05:00

That's right, we went swimming and had a beautiful sunny and warm day! We started the day swimming at Bonnet Creek's pool which had a really cool lazy river that was completely Allison's speed!
We also got to see the REAL Santa who just happened to be vacationing at the same resort! Unbelievable! He came to the pool all decked in red (bathing suit, shirt, sun visor, and crocs)! At lunchtime, we took a short ride over to our resort for the week, Disney's Old Key West. We ate lunch poolside then spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool.Before we left, there was a really cool pool party that had dancing and hoola hoop competitions! A great start to a great vacation.For dinner we went to O'Hana's for one of our favorite dinners. We happened to have reservations at the same time as our family friends, the Horner's. As it turned out, we were seated right near each other! After dinner we celebrated my birthday with a cake made by the Disney chefs! Yummy!

Disney World Bound!

2008-03-01T22:00:00.007-05:00

Today we began a very long drive (16 hours to be exact) to Florida for a Disney vacation! We were all very excited as well as a little apprehensive (the parents anyway) since this would mark our longest road trip ever! We packed the car, got a few hours of sleep and hit the road at 4:30 am! The kids did NOT go back to sleep after getting in the car as we had hoped! I don't think we were on the road for 5 minutes when Jacob began to tell Eric how to drive. Shortly after that, the DVD player went on!
The trip went well and all according to plan! Part way down we remembered that the first week of March is bikers week in Daytona, consequently, tons of bikers either riding their bikes or trailering them down. It seemed like we were with the same group of annoying bikes the whole time!
My mom's cousins gave us a night at their timeshare for the night since our reservations did not start until Sunday. We stayed at Bonnet Creek Resort which is on Disney property but not a Disney resort. It was a beautiful condo with plenty of room for everyone since my parents, sister and Abby were already there! When we arrived, we had a little "family" birthday party for Allison, Eric and my Dad since all of their birthdays took place while my parents were in Florida.

Then off to bed!

A Presidential Project

2008-02-24T19:36:00.005-05:00

Jacob has been working on a school project that is due tomorrow. We are finally done! He had to pick out a president of his choice then write a 1 page report on that president. Then the fun part... he then had to make his president using a light bulb and a toilet paper roll, put it in a shoe box and decorate! Jacob choose to decorate his box with representations of different facts he learned about his president. Here is the final product! Boy am I glad this is done!