Simply being Me

~I heart faces…..touch of nostalgia

2009-08-25T15:28:00.003-04:00

Every time we get together with Duane’s lil sister, we take a group shot of the kiddos. It started way back when Cody was a baby and Cristy was still a teenager. I had lots of pics of the 2 of them together. Now it’s all 5 of the kiddos (and one really cute dog, who actually poses for the camera) So of course when they were here this summer I HAD to get a group shot! But the really nostalgic part of the pic is the brick building. The building the kids were leaning on, is my old school. It was build in the 1870’s (and no, i’m not that old, even tho my kids seem to think so) Even as a child I loved all things antique, vintage and old!!!! So the zillion year old school was very intriguing to moi. Now I have a really special picture with the kiddos I love and the old school that I love!
Click on over to I Heart Faces to see what other people get nostalgic about.

~what a co-inky-dink!

2009-08-08T12:59:00.001-04:00

Aunt TT came to stay for the summer while their new house was being built. TT is the name Cody gave her when he was a little guy because he couldn't say Cristy. Look how cute these pictures of Cody and Aunt TT are! While editing pictures I had a feeling that the picture somehow looked familiar, so I started going thru pics of Cristy and found the one of Cody and Aunt TT on July 4th, 1996 at Ft Bragg. She had come down to visit us before leaving for Army basic training in SC. Now that Cody's taller than her, she has to lean on him LOL

~baby Ashton

2009-08-08T11:08:00.003-04:00

<><>My beautiful nephew Ashton is such a sweet lil man. We have fight over who gets to hold him :-) I'm so blessed to have them living with us for the summer, so that I get to see him everyday!

From Collages

~Lets hear it for the boys....I heart faces boys week

2009-06-23T14:02:00.006-04:00

click the picture to make it bigger

click on the button to see all the entries, leave some nice comments and go enter one of your favorite picks of your favorite boys ;-)

I heart faces ~ Kids sepia

2009-06-16T13:47:00.007-04:00

Love those summer memories!

~I heart Faces .... Sepia tone week

2009-06-15T14:21:00.006-04:00

Thought I'd have a little fun with this weeks "sepia toned" theme. I'm feeling creative. When I think of sepia photos I automatically think of pics of ancestors on my moms stairway walls. I thought I'd turn myself into one of those vintage photos with a lil help from my paint shop pro program. I have one of Duane too but since it was his DA photo and I didn't take it, I can't use it for this contest. If I find the original pic of myself that I took in sepia mode, I'll add it later.

~Memorial Day Weekend

2009-05-26T14:46:00.009-04:00

making cody test the swing for me ;-) if it holds him, it'll hold moi.
We ended up having an impromtu cookout at my parents Monday night when we went to pick up Courtney who was playing with her cousin Cora. A quick jaunt to the store and Viola`, instant cookout! Any excuse to eat brownies and other junk is fine with me :-) My Dad tilled up some land for me to use for pumpkins so we got those planted too. Yay I won't have to buy the dern things for the kids this year! I've run over to my parents house 4 times in 4 days which is back roads the whole way. Is it any wonder I have to wash my car all the time?

Beautiful ending to a lovely day.......

~Happy Mothers Day!

2009-05-26T14:08:00.005-04:00

I had a peaceful Mothers Day spent in the backyard eating BBQ. Ahhhhhh! We had all the 'rents and siblings over after church and just hung out. We acted like Ohioans and played cornhole and tossed around the football. And for some strange reason I have no pics of any Mothers!

And my hubby and kiddos got me something I've been wanting all year............
I'm in love :-)

~Cue the Flowers

2009-05-26T13:55:00.002-04:00

Wahoo I've got foliage!!!! I've never been into gardening until this year. Probably has something to do with all the hours of weeding I was FORCED to do as a child. It's been a few years and I guess I've finally gotten over it and moved on. When we bought our new house it didn't come with anything except a lot of trees and those don't really count as "landscaping". Do they? We've been here for over a year and finally decided to do something about the pitiful lack of foliage. That might not be the whole truth, the kick in the tush might have come when a teenage neighbor came over and said he'd help me with a flowerbed this year if I wanted him to. If teenagers are starting to notice your lack of flowers then it's pretty bad! The plants are still pretty puny right now but they'll fill out soon enough. It's a good start :-)

Before:

After:

~Welcome to the world, Ashton

2009-05-23T09:07:00.007-04:00

My sister-in-law, long time BF, Cristy was pregnant with baby#3. Unfortunately her hubby got sent to DC for work and wouldn't be around to finish what he started. (lol) So Cristy and I came up with a plan. She was to get induced on a Saturday morning. I was going to drive up (with Mother in law in tow) on Friday morning, we had a girls day all planned out. Shopping, Hibachi for dinner and Dairy Queen ice cream cake for dessert (we were also celebrating HER birthday and Mothers Day), head home to watch a chick flick and chill out before the big day. All girly, all day :-) But the lil man didn't think much of our Girly Day, so he showed up on a Tuesday. Cristy called at 7am saying her water just broke!!! Luckily I was already packed because she had been having false labor pains for a couple of days and I'd just been waiting for 'the call'. We got up to Lansing in about 3 1/2 hours and ran into the hospital. Luckily her dear friend Renee was available to drive her to the hospital since I couldn't. They even made a little pit stop to a few stores on the way. True Cristy style :-) Two hours after I arrived, we had Ashton Grant and he's beautiful!!!!! And yes I said "we" because I got to be her 'hubby' LOL I had the wristband on, I coached her, I got dirty and I got to cut the cord. I have a whole new repect for what the men do. I had Renee helping with all the running around and it was still exhausting (kids, dogs, cooking, cleaning, etc. on top of being at the hospital all day). But it's sooo much cooler when I'm not the one in labor! :-) Seeing a new life come into the world is amazing. (my MIL doesn't think so, she about passed out) I felt the exact same when Cristy's first lil guy was born when we all lived out in Colorado, I was there for him too. I'm not all that great at giving birth myself but I'm good to have around if someone else is :-)

Proud big brother and sister

Dad was able to fly in for a few hours to meet his new baby

~Vacation '09 ~Williamsburg VA

2009-04-24T10:42:00.004-04:00

Click the link below to see the vacation pictures.....

(hit the 'slideshow' button)

We're home from vacation........wow, how do vacations go so fast? One day your anticipating your upcoming 'getaway', then BAM! It's over!!!! The above picture is of our condo, which in my opinion is the only way to go :-) If it were only a 1-nighter, a hotel room would suffice, but for a week long vaca, only a condo will do! The kiddos had their own bedroom and bathroom, we had our own room and BIG bathroom, living room, dining room and a nicely stocked kitchen. I was able to make Cream of Wheat and turkey bacon every morning and make dinner every night. Roast beef, mashed potatoes, steamed squash for example....not bad! Except on the kids pick night we had fish sticks and tator tots :-( and I added peas :-)

Something I learned on vacation.....I'm getting old! The kids have so much energy! We must of walked 12,483 miles every day and we'd come home exhausted but the kids would want to go swimming or to play putt-putt or basketball. Oy!!!!

I also learned that vacation isn't very 'restful'. Every day I had to be up and in the shower by 6:30am, except for one day we could have slept in a little because Busch Gardens didn't open until 10am..............and Cody woke us all up at ..... 6:30 :-( Ugggg!!!! Duane and I enjoyed all the architecture and "old stuff" as the kiddos called it. The kids of course marked Busch Gardens as their favorite, and now they've got the roller coaster bug. They are already trying to plan a Cedar Point trip for this summer. I'm so glad Cody was around to go on the BIG roller coasters with Duane so I don't have to this year. Some of the crazy 90 degree straight down stuff they have out now is just gettimg TOO extreme for moi!!!

I've looked at other peoples vacation pics from Williamsburg and I missed soooo much. We spent 2 days there and barely dented all there was to see. Alot of it was because it was spring break and the place was packed so it was a lot of 'waiting to get in and hurry up to get out'. I'd love to go back when it's not quite so crazy and be able to take some pics without all the tourists in the way :-) and to eat at some of the more "authentic" restaurants.

I didn't do the place justice with my pictures so go HERE for pics from Igougo.com

~I heart faces......self portrait week

2009-04-20T16:41:00.004-04:00

I heart faces~ pets entry

2009-03-31T12:13:00.001-04:00

Happy Rockin’ Birthday Courtney!

2009-03-15T14:45:00.002-04:00

My baby turned 11 on Friday!!!! holy smoley! 2009 is the year of Rock n Roll around our house. My kids know more bands from the 80s than I do thanks to Rock Band! It kinda took me by surprise when Courtney said ‘Warrant is my #1 fav band followed by Beatles….I just love their antonyms' (aka hello, goodbye)

What on earth!? I don’t even remember what songs Warrant sang! Clearly my family is much more musical than I am. Duane plays acoustic, Cody plays an electric guitar and now courtney is the proud owner of a lovely pink guitar. I’m feeling a little left out. Duane did try to teach me “hey there Delilah” but it didn't stick :-)

Since she wanted a Rock n Roll theme. We took her to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner, made her a guitar cake and bought her a guitar. She also got an Alvin and the Chipmunks CD, DVD, DS game and a stuffed Alvin. She got new drumsticks from the Hard Rock too- she’s planning on switching from flute to drums next year. Oh dear, I think we’ve created a monster. I just hope she doesn’t want a tatoo for her 12th b-day!!!!!

View Full Album

~Winter comfort food = Yummy!

2009-02-11T10:57:00.004-05:00

Found this yummy recipe in the family fun magazine, it's the perfect winter comfort food and it's Delicious! It tasted awesome with this French bread I made from the kitchenaid cookbook that came with my mixer that I just found packed in the moving boxes. Guess I should've unpacked it sooner- because it was gooooood. Something about working hard for your bread, makes it tastes so dern good :-)

Creamy Mushroom and Chicken Soup (from the family fun magazine-they have great recipes!)

6 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, chopped
3 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
6 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 pounds mushrooms, sliced
3/4 cup sliced celery
3/4 cup chopped carrots
2 cups quartered baby red potatoes
1 cup chopped yellow squash
1 1/2 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed
2 teaspoons thyme
2 cups light cream
3/4 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for garnish if desired
2 cups chopped cooked chicken

Step 1
In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until tender, about 6 minutes. Stir in the flour, salt, and pepper and mix until smooth. Gradually add the broth, then turn the heat up to medium-high and bring the soup to a boil. Add the mushrooms, celery, carrots, potatoes, squash, corn, and thyme. Reduce the heat and simmer the soup, covered, until the vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.

Step 2
Add the cream, Parmesan, and chicken. Heat the soup for an additional 10 minutes, but do not let it boil.

Step 3
To serve, ladle the soup into a bowl and sprinkle it with more Parmesan, if desired. Makes about 15 cups.

Nutritional Information:
Per serving (1 cup):
Calories 226
Total Fat 14 g (22% DV)
Saturated Fat 8g (39% DV)
Cholesterol 59 mg (20% DV)
Sodium 845 mg (35% DV)
Total Carbohydrate 14 g (5% DV)
Fiber 2g (7% DV)
Sugars 3g
Protein 12 g (24% DV)
Vitamin A 1484 IU (30% DV)

Percent daily values are based on a 2,000-calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

~The best chili I ever ate

2009-02-11T10:29:00.003-05:00

I'm forever looking for recipes to help me deplete our supply of deer meat in the freezer. Not because I WANT to eat it, but it's there and well, I don't want poor Bambi (or in this case, BUCK) to have died in vain---so we eat it :-( I found this recipe boasting to be "the best chili I ever ate" in one of Sarge's magazines and ripped it out to give it a try. It was made by a fellow named Ernie Nichols at a WV deer camp. I started cooking the meat Monday night for dinner, but I DESPISE the smell of deer meat and it made me feel ill, so we ate cereal for dinner instead :-) I finished cooking the meat tho and put it in the fridge for later. Last night I made this recipe with the meat that I no longer had to smell :) Maybe I'll just have to pre-cook alot of the meat and then store it all in the freezer to pull out as I need it - minus the retched smell. Enough about retching, back to the recipe.........Cuz I'm sure you're just dying to try it now aren't you?! LOL

I know I'm not making it sound appitizing, but it came with the title "the best chili I ever ate" and it really honestly was! So go put a clothespin on your nose, cook up some venison and make this super easy chili- you won't regret it!!!!

2 Tbsp veg. oil
1 lb ground venison (or any ground meat)
1 c. diced onions
1 medium red or green pepper chopped
16 oz can diced tomatoes
16 oz can tomato juice
16 oz can pork and beans
16 oz can kidney beans (drain and rince them!)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp crushed red pepper (i'm a whimp I didn't add this)
1 c. grated cheddar cheese (i didn't add this either)

corn bread topping:
2 c. cornmeal
15 oz can cream corn
1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. sugar

Brown venison in oil. Place in large pot. Add onion, tomatoes, tomato juice, pork and beans, kidney beans, salt, garlic, chili powder and red pepper. Cook on medium heat for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. In a seperate bowl combine cornmeal, cream corn, milk and sugar. Pour chili in deep 9x13 baking dish. Sprinkle with cheese. (i didn't, but i'm sure it's good) Pour cornmeal mixture evenly over top of chili. Bake in oven at 400 for 35 mins. serves six.

~Loving the sun~ I heart faces week 4

2009-02-04T10:43:00.013-05:00

oh boy, Siamese cats are hard to photograph! Their pretty baby blues are very sensitive to light, so my cat (Ozzie) is constantly blinking when I take his picture. I wanted to catch the awesomeness of his blue eyes and had to do everything under the sun to get him to keep his eyes open so that I could shoot using natural light. He's such a pretty boy and cooperated so well!

From Drop Box

check out:

~No wonder!!!!

2009-01-31T17:10:00.006-05:00

We were up and out the door early Saturday morning to take Courtney to archery (btw, she beat most of the boys heehee). As soon as we turned on the road we saw this nice neighbor fella plowing the roads. NOW I know why it takes so long to get these backroads cleared!!!! LOL

Just teasing, we do have these handy dandy trucks come thru sometimes too.

I actually think the snow is (kinda) pretty ~ when Duane is driving, not me! Look at that mountain of snow! shheeesh!

Nort did so well!!!! They don't usually shoot at balloons but the kids had a blast doing it :-)

~Merry Christmas!

2009-01-30T10:01:00.007-05:00

Hmmm someone's a little late getting the Christmas pictures on here, but better late than never I say!!!!

I adore this one of Courtney and Cora. Playing Rock Band on the PS3

She means it too!!!!

Liz, Mom & I

Clea and Chad

a little Christmas night music

~The frozen tundra

2009-01-27T13:32:00.006-05:00

....otherwise known as ...... OHIO

I find winter in Ohio utterly beautiful, but with a few stipulations:

1) it must be sunny 2) NO snow on the road! (all these pics were taken on our road)

Today the sun honestly TRIED to come out, this picture was taken at 2 in the afternoon, not exactly "bright and sunny" is it? but by-golly the sun was making an attempt!

I have to admit I'd make a miserable amish woman- can you imagine hanging up that much laundry in the winter!?!? It goes all the way from the left side of the pic (the whitesare hard to see) to the roof of the barn. Normally I love to see the laundry flapping in the breeze, but in the winter, it makes me shiver just thinking about it.

These pics are from last summer ~ Just to remind myself why I live here!

~ I'm MIA

2009-01-22T11:14:00.008-05:00

Yes it's true....I've been staying up till 2am every night searching for men.

Not to worry, I'm not leaving my hubby. The men I'm looking for are dead. Hmmm this is not sounding very good at all is it?! lol I'm been playing with my Christmas presents - Paint shop pro 'ultimate' photo 2x and a subscription to Ancestry.com :-) Add that to the new CD that has been playing continuously on my computer (and in my car) at top notch volume for the past 29 days and this is girl is in heaven! Hours of research and mindlessly singing along with Taylor Swift take me to my happy place where I feel completely calm.

Might as well stay in and do a little bit of research when it looks like this outside:

"a bit of research" to me means 8, 9, 10 hours of research, because I become obsessed with it. Like stalker style................. I stalk dead people!!! lol When I want to find something, I'm REALLY determined to find it and make sure it's correct so I have to find the documents to prove it.

Look at the mess I've made on the floor beside the desk.......The computer desk looks just as bad, there's paper everywhere, both computers are open, the printer is officially out of ink and the poor dog has to come beg to go outside every couple hours because I'm so into what I'm doing that I don't see him standing by the front door. Forget taking the dog for a walk-he's lucky if I remember to feed him.......oops I didn't feed him this morning! Luckily the kiddos are in school this week or they might be starving for attention and food too. I can't even explain how thrilled I get to find a new branch of the family tree or a new picture that I've never seen or new proof of who and where I came from. Especially when I find stories. Oh how I love to find a story that mentions one of my people. Like the one of my great grandpappy who joined the army at age 13, he was so tall he easily passed for an 18 year old. Or the great grandfather who was captured in the civil war by the yanks and held at Camp Chase right here in Ohio.

My breath always catches and my heart gives a lurch when I finally find some info that I've been looking for---then I do a little dance :-) I ooooh and awwwww alot when I find a census record for someone that I've always thought of as an 'elderly person' and suddenly I see their name on a document, stated as 3 years old. It makes me giddy to think of a great great grandfather as being a child :-) And I usually have 15,740 windows open on each computer (ok maybe just 10 or 15) because when I find something new I think of something else and go google it. I'm surprised the computers haven't gone up in smoke yet!

Don't worry you don't need to call the shrink, I'm not crazy......just passionate :-) I haven't even gotten any Christmas pics on my blog yet but I did manage to play around with the paint shop a lil. What's more fitting than 'painting' my room with the paint shop program? And I didn't even drip any paint on my clothes :-)

I just wish it was that easy to do a real makeover on the room!!! ok I'm off to get groceries. I don't want to leave my computer but I guess we have to eat something.

Oh Dear........again!

2009-01-01T20:36:00.006-05:00

*****I think the last half of this post is now null and void because poor lil swiss died already! thankfully I kept the receipt but I don't know that I'm ready to try this hamster thing ....again. And yesterday I looked in the fish tank and couldn't find the fish....anywhere! but he was just hiding Phew!!!!

Mickey Squeaky R.I.P

Last night my sister and I were flipping thru some pictures on the computer and some adorable ones of Mickey (the hamster) came up, so she wanted to go see him. I was opening the side of the cage and no sooner had she said "How long is that hamster going to live? He's already 2 years old isn't he?" then I reached in to wake him up and realized he was....... DEAD! :-(
(and he hadn't been dead very long) Of course Courtney and Cora walked in that same exact moment. Luckily Courtney was pretty calm about it since we had company over. She's not one for public displays of emotion. So this morning we had a little funeral out in the woods and she made a sign that says "My best friend Mickey the hamster" to mark the spot.
Here's Courtney & Gunner mourning over Mickey after the funeral. Breaks my heart! :-(

This morning, Courtney, Grandma and I went to town and came home with 'Swiss'. Isn't she pretty? We left with plans to find 'Cheddar', a carbon copy of Mickey that Courtney had already named last night. But there were only 2 hamsters at Petco, once grey and one white. So we now have "swiss", because "mozerella" just didn't sound right and we don't know of any grey cheeses. Apparently Courtney was determined to use a cheesey name :-) Marshmellow would be fitting too, IF we were going for sugary food names. Usually new hamsters are nervous about being transported, being in a new place and being handled which equals biting, and sometimes getting sick . But Swiss is adapting beautifully. She's already such a sweetie, who loves coming out to play and doesn't mind being handled at all. what a good girl!

Our other new addition (from a few days ago) is Bubbles the 28cent fish :-) Ozzie "likes" him... A-lot. I'm really hoping there are no more funerals around here any time soon!

Oh deer! :-(

2008-12-30T22:08:00.001-05:00

Oh goody a new decoration for the wall. yup I'm being sarcastic alright. puke and gag!

~A few of my favorite things

2008-12-24T13:33:00.002-05:00

Don't you just love Christmas!? I walked around the house taking pics of a few of my favorite things about Christmas. I love the ornaments....old, new, handmade, store bought. The stockings hung by the fire with care (so they don't fall down lol). I love the Christmas memories. I love love love wrapping presents :-) Leaving cookies and a thank you note out for Santa/Sarge. I love Seasonal coffee creamer :-) Making Christmas cards..... and this year I even made the envelopes! Unfortunately I didn't start on them until about a week before the big day then got too busy to finish :-( So I sent out cards to Aunts and Uncles and everyone else is getting their Holiday greetings via the internet. The few cards I started to send out a week ago, I found laying in sarge's truck seat a few days ago Grrrr. (anne, carrie, alisha....blame it duane! sorry!) I love getting a stack of cards in the mail. I love my snowman collection, especially the one Cody made me in 3rd grade with it's little stick arms, too cute! I love plaid. I love plaid. I love plaid! I love the get togethers. I love the kids Christmas programs at school. Cody no longer has them and I'm bummed. I love the cousins in their matching PJ's. And staying the night at Grandma's house. I love making the buckeyes and cookies. Although this year I tried to do a dozen different kinds in 1 day....I don't recommend it, what a job!!!! I love the Christmas brunch at my parents house and Christmas Eve meals at D's Mom and Dads house. I love the excitement and anticipation. I love torturing the kids by making them eat breakfast before opening the presents. I love the decorating. I might even like the predictability of sarge waiting until Christmas Eve to go shopping (which is where he is right now) LOL No.....I'll never love THAT!

~Thank you!!!

2008-12-23T17:05:00.007-05:00

Thank You Anne Hunter & Alex!!! I love finding packages on my porch :-) I so totally know what we're having for breakfast on Christmas :-) Woo hoo I can't wait to get into them (IF I can wait that long), I even have a new jar of Black forrest Jam to go with the english muffins. English muffins=my weakness!!! Thank You Thank You Thank You!!!! At least someone isn't a slacker, I on the other hand just got my cards out today heehee Running a little behind aren't I?!

ATC 2008

2008-12-21T14:18:00.012-05:00

It's so nice to get dressed up every now and then. For the recruiting world that means ATC. (annual training conference) We had a big king size room with a LaRgE bathroom with windows all across the way and an awesome view of the state house and downtown columbus. Our room was up by Andy Warhols eye, luckily we couldn't see him from our room :-) We arrived in Columbus Friday about noon. Sarge had to jet off to classes (hence the 'training' part) But I had more freedom. I met up with friends and we headed to the mall. I'm a big scaredy cat about driving in unfamiliar areas.....especially large, busy areas. But somehow I got talked into driving. I was doing good until D called and asked us to come back. It was impossible! It took us 4x longer to get back then it had taken us to get there. Even the gps couldn't save me. We were so extremely lost! The gps kept telling us to turn left onto one way roads or roads that were blocked off for construction. I could not for the life of me get back to the valet area of the hotel to pick up another wife so she ended up having to walk around the corner to where we were parked. After that I asked one of them to drive LOL seeeee....big chicken :-) There was a situation with a city bus, a screaming bus driver and illegal U-turn but I won't mention that. LOL Friday night we broke up by companies and had our separate parties. Some companies have themes for their parties so it looked alot like Halloween. We saw a cereal killer (Small bloody cereal boxes with knives in them stuck to someone's shirt) Thing 1 and Thing 2, a smurf, a couple of romans and I can't even remember what else. Luckily our company was just sports themed....as in, wear a sports jersey. But 'someone' forgot to tell me. We discussed doing an 80's theme next year-I'm all for that! I'm already looking for the perfect outfit :-) The company parties are always a blast. And here's where I brag on my hubby for a job well done. The brigade command sergeant major came in looking for Duane to commend him for a good year and present him with the Top Station Commander award, maurader coin and a shirt awarded for excellence :-) *beaming with pride* Saturday morning rolls around much too early and lots of sleepy looking people congregate downstairs for classes....again. Luckily they had lots of starbucks and breakfast ready for us. In the morning there were classes about being an army recruiting spouse and about the Family Readiness Group, etc. And the soldiers went over to the statehouse for a motivational speech by RUDY, Rudy Ruettiger, the football dude from the movie RUDY. Then a lunch break. Then us gals were back to class for a sensing session. which is basically bringing any questions or complaints to the commanders attn....quite annoying in my opinion because most of it was complaints or questions that the wives should have been asking their hubbies, not the commanders. I say if your not willing to help or be part of the solution.....then you're not aloud to whine. Then we had a spouse panel which I was on, in which the other spouses could ask us questions. Guess I'm of that older/wiser age now :-( sounds like code for : old. Then finally we got to go get ready for the ball :-) I was a little nervous because we didn't get to sit with our station this year, which took me away from 'my girls' :-( We were seated at the company commanders table but I ended up having a blast :-) The making of the Grog is always interesting. Those boys come up with some interesting stuff. Each time they add a bottle of alcohol (or whatever) they have some silly lil story to go along with it. Our redneck wine got filtered thru someone's lucky jockstrap, that hadn't been washed all thru college (as if!) The mixed up alcohol wouldn't be so bad if I dared to drink it (which I don't) but when they start adding stuff like pork rinds and last years grog that has been sitting in someone's car all year and swamp water...then it gets really really gross. But at least they are creative!

Sunday morning the Chaplain has a prayer breakfast (basically if you want breakfast, you're going to church too heehee) then the guys have a few more hours of classes. And alot of the wives spent the whole time trying to get the cars out of valet so they could be ready to go when the guys were done in class. The poor valet kids were overwhelmed with hundreds of people trying to get their cars out at the same time. Alot of people got them out before they went to bed at like 2am but we were not about to park the car out on the street all night. We went down at 8am and there was already a 30 min wait. The people that didn't venture down till later were NOT very happy because it took about an hour and a half. I'm sure valet parking is lovely when there aren't quite so many people :-) I'm already looking forward to next year's ball :-) And I'll make sure we take a government vehicle so that I can't be responsible for driving heehee J/K

~Flute Tooter

2008-12-19T17:14:00.011-05:00

5th grade band concert: They've only been playing for about 2 months! They are so darn cute I was beaming with pride thru every squeak, squeal and sour note they hit :-)

~Bad day...........

2008-12-09T10:52:00.002-05:00

Wow Saturday was a bad day to be amish...........
the pic looks extremely blurry but it's mostly because the snow was blowing completely sideways. Poor kids only had an umbrella as protection :-(

It was a bad day to be an amish horse too.

And it was a REALLY bad day to be a deer!!!! :-( Bambi slayer had 4 poor deer in the truck. Not exactly what I wanted to see while driving thru town!!! (so I figured I'd make you look too!!!)

~Rachel Ray Recipe Recommedation

2008-12-05T08:06:00.003-05:00

Try saying THAT 5x fast! ~Rachel Ray Recipe Recommedation~Rachel Ray Recipe Recommedation~Rachel Ray Recipe Recommedation~Rachel Ray Recipe Recommedation~Rachel Ray Recipe Recommedation

Rachel made this recipe on the show Wednesday, It looked yummy and I had all the ingredients here so I gave it a test run last night. Yummmmy! And it smelled heavenly! I highly recommend this one. So do Duane and Cody. I love my boys! They totally don't mind that I'm always experimenting in the kitchen, and they usually eat & like my creations too :-) Now Courtney on the other hand.........she's not willing to try much-she's too much like me at her age. I didn't try much (even coffee!) until I was about 30!!! Now that I'm a coffee addict and killed all my tastebuds, I eat all sorts of crazy things :-) I add spinich, edamame, sweet potatoes or flaxseed to anything I can. I added emamame to this recipe too-it just seemed to need a little more color. who would think butternut squash, dates and chicken go together?......not me!!! But it works. Try it!

Baking the butternut squash

simmering the chicken and spices

the finished product and almond citrus couscous

eatin' time!!!!!!

Spicy Chicken with Dates and Butternut Squash

Ingredients
1 butternut squash (about 1 1/2 pounds), seeded, peeled and cut into bite-sized cubes
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)l, divided
Salt and ground black pepper
2 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts and thighs, chopped
1 large onion, quartered and sliced
12 dried pitted dates, coarsely chopped (about 1 cup)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground turmeric
1 bay leaf
1 cinnamon stick
3 tablespoons flour
3 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup cilantro or flat leaf parsley leaves (a large handful), roughly chopped
Preparation
Pre-heat oven to 400ºF. Arrange the squash on a baking sheet, drizzle with 2 tablespoons EVOO and season with salt and pepper. Toss to evenly coat and roast in the hot oven until tender, about 30 minutes.While the squash is working, place a large, high-sided skillet over medium-high heat with 2 turns of the pan of EVOO, about 2 tablespoons. Add the chicken to the pan, season with salt and pepper and cook until golden brown and almost cooked through, 6-7 minutes.Add the onion, dates, spices, bay leaf and cinnamon stick to the pan, and continue cooking until onion is tender, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the pan and cook for about 1 minute. Add the stock to the pan and bring up to a bubble. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until thickened and dates are plump, 5-6 minutes.Remove and discard the bay leaf and cinnamon stick from the stew. Stir in the roasted butternut squash. Garnish with the cilantro or parsley and serve with Citrus Couscous alongside.

Citrus Couscous

1 tablespoon butter
1 cup slivered almonds
2 cups chicken stock
Zest of 1 lemon or orange
2 cups couscous
Preparation
Place a medium saucepan over medium heat with the butter. Add the nuts to the melted butter and toast until golden brown, 4-5 minutes.Add the stock and zest of the lemon or orange to pot and bring the liquid up to a bubble. Stir in the couscous, cover the pan and remove from heat. Let couscous sit for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork and serve. *add more liquid if needed, mine was a lil dry.

~Chuckle chuckle

2008-12-04T23:42:00.002-05:00

Look how my crazy cat was sleeping today! It looks like he was sitting up and just zonked out and fell over. Silly boy!

After taking a closer look at this pic I noticed Gunners eyes were glowing and he looks coo coo like Cujo so I added a sign for him lol

But really he's a sweety and his eyes don't usually glow I swear!

~Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2008-12-02T13:03:00.005-05:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We hosted Thanksgiving, like we do every year - it's "our" assigned holiday. Just about the whole immediate family was able to make it :-) so we had a houseful of 18. It was lovely!!! Even the turkey turned out wonderfully. It usually does because Duane is in charge of the turkey, except for last year when I tried to brine it-and it turned out rather....blah. We injected it the night before with marinade this year and it rocked. I'm so glad D's sister, Cristy (and family) got to come down from MI this year. My niece Hailey is getting so big and she's talking up a storm. She's such a lil doll!

Courtey & Hailey:

Hailey loving on Gunner:

Mom, Cora and Hailey:

I snapped a blind picture during prayer (I still had my eyes closed/head bowed) and God was really in the room! Look at all that light! I took a pic seconds before we prayed and it came out normal. Isn't that cool!?

chowing down: I didn't get to sit at the big table this year :-( lol

but at least I wasn't at the kids table :-)

Cristy & Hailey:

Sarge & Chad: Chad & Clea were late, big surprise!

I swear they do that just to get out of doing dishes LOL

~Thanksgiving Weekend

2008-12-02T11:15:00.009-05:00

Cristy, Craig and the kids came to stay for Thanksgiving weekend (weds-sat) And my in-laws stayed here too. It was utter chaos and it was great! We got up at 4am on Friday to go shopping for some sales. Craig, Duane and Cody took the truck and hit a bunch of stores and got all the stuff they were looking for, (GPS, MP3 players, digital camera, microwave, toys, carhart coats, pool table, ping pong table, tools) they were super quick shoppers too! Craig was tired of waiting in line so he was yelling "check out #11 is open with no wait" but there was only 10 checkout lanes. Dork!! LOL The guy really is good for alot of laughs. Cristy and I went to Staples for memory cards and to Walmart to people watch while we waited on the guys. Walmart actually wasn't that bad after 6:30--no lines at all :-) so we did end up doing some shopping. Then we all went out to eat. Then hit a few more stores together. Duane and Cristy's parents (who were still at our house) watched the lil kids, and when they were getting packed up to go home they asked if any of the grandkids wanted to go spend the night at their house. My MIL said the amish neighbor girls wanted to come over to put up the tree and decorate for Christmas (because they can't decorate their own house) When she went to pick the girls up, their mom, Fanny asked Courtney and Justin to stay and play with her kiddos. They made popcorn balls, played dodgeball, played in the barn and drove the buggy around - they love playing 'amish'! Actually Justin loves spending the night there when he comes to Ohio even tho they don't have nightlights, Courtney... not so much LOL Fanny also sent us 3 pumpkin pies and an incredible and I do mean INCREDIBLE peanut butter pie for Thanksgiving . Wednesday, when I was getting ready to bake some pies, my MIL called and told me I didn't need to make any because Fanny was sending some for us :-) Yay Fanny!

Hailey & Justin:

We had Christmas with Cristy's family while they were here

because they stay in MI for the holidays.

We played at the park alot, even Breck the dog had fun:

Duane went to wash my car right around the corner and said he'd be back in 10 mins........

but he didn't realize it was Saturday, date night! So all the young

men were there washing their buggies. it took Duane like 45 minutes to get back.

It's totally normal to see this, in town, where we're from. LOL

~Happy Birthday Cody

2008-11-24T12:12:00.004-05:00

My baby is 14!!!! We went to Kalahari for Cody's birthday (it was a few weeks ago, I'm a slow blogger!) The kids had the next day off school for some reason and the Kalahari stay was part of a school fundraiser so a lot of the kids friends were there too. I discovered that the inside of a water park is a horrible place to take pictures, but I managed to get a few (very few). Even from the resorts website you can not tell how cool the place is and the indoor water park is HUGE!!! Cody also got a electric guitar and amp which is exactly what he wanted :-)

Lazy River

the wave pool

It took them so long to climb up all those stairs but they come down so fast!

See Duane in the toilet bowl water slide? Me neither! I tried to catch him whizzing by about 5 times but he was just too fast.

~1/2 Bath

2008-11-24T11:09:00.004-05:00

I finally got my beloved slate tiles :-) I've always loved slate. We had a big ol' pile of it growing up. It was originally on the roof of our farmhouse but when the roof got replaced, the pile of slate was ours to play with. I liked to pretend I was Laura Ingalls and write on the slates like I was in a one room schoolhouse. We were suppose to put the slate in the kitchen but my poor lil heart got broke when Sarge said it couldn't be done. (something to do with the house beam and the slate cracking so easily blah blah blah) But at least it's in my bathroom now. I will happily mop my new slate every day (ok, maybe every other day) I don't have a before pic. But there was really nothing to look at. It was a sink and a toilet and a big huge blank mirror and flat white paint. Now it's got a bit of personality :-) It's such a small space, it's hard to get pics but you get the gist. I have a few spots of paint to touch up and I need to put the sealer down on the floor then it's Done done done :-) yay!

DURING:

AFTER:

~Buckeye heaven

2008-11-21T18:01:00.005-05:00

Here's my favorite holiday candy recipe...... It's an absolute must have for Christmas! And now that it's been requested I've been craving them BIG time! I actually meant to do this blog way back when I made them for Angie's birthday, even took step by step pics, but I got sidetracked. I get sidetracked ALOT and very very often :-) It's a honking miracle if I ever post something on time. I know this is 2 days late but here ya go angie :-)~num nummy!!!

P.S. ~ you better double or triple this recipe cuz they won't last long!!!!

Buckeyes:

1 1/2 Cups of creamy peanut butter

1 stick butter, room temp

2 1/2 cups confectionery sugar (more or less)

melting chocolate (I prefer chocolate almond bark, it's near the chocolate chips)

Mix together pb, butter and sugar. You may have to use your hands because it gets pretty thick. You may have to add more confectionery sugar. The dough needs to be nice and stiff but not crumbly and definately not sticky.

Roll dough into 1" balls and set them on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper and store them I the freezer until very very firm. (20-30mins should do it) (hint: you can fit lots and lots of pb balls on a cookie sheet but when you start dipping them they'll need more space so they don't touch)

Melt chocolate (I microwave it in 30 second intervals until smooth and runny, stirring every time I check it)

Get a few of the pb balls out of the freezer (hint: I only get about 10-20 out at a time because if they aren't really good and frozen, they start sliding off the toothpick and plop into the chocolate) Using a toothpick, dip them in the melted chocolate. Make sure to leave a bit of the pb showing at the top like a real buck's eye or buckeye nut. Place them back on the wax paper and into the fridge or freezer until the chocolate is set. Store in the fridge.

dip them just 'so far'

give them a spin to get the excess chocolate off ~yes there really is such a thing as "too much"

TA~DA!!!!

Now go store them in the freezer under the frozen veggies where the kids never look :-)

I usually have leftover melted chocolate so I dip mini pretzels, nuts, ritz crackers sandwiches with pb in the middle, oreos or crushed up starlight mints. Or you can dip 3/4 of a pretzel rod then roll it in sprinkles, the kids love those. My fav to dip is marshmellows and cashews~together :-)

And if you really wanna go into sugar shock try this OMGosh!!! Isn't it beautiful?!

Buckeye Cheesecake:
1 (8x8-inch pan size) package brownie mix

3 (8-oz.) packages cream cheese, softened

1 (14-oz.) can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)

1 (10-oz.) package peanut butter chips, melted

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 tablespoons butter-flavored shortening (or butter!)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare brownie mix according to package directions. Spoon batter in a greased 9-inch springform pan. Bake 20 minutes. Cool. Reduce oven temperature to 325.
In large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually beat in the sweetened condensed milk. Mix in the melted peanut butter chips, eggs and vanilla. Pour filling over baked brownie. Place pan in a larger baking pan with 1-inch hot water . Bake at 325 degrees for 50 to 55 minutes or until center is almost set. Turn oven off; remove baking pan with water. Let cheesecake cool in oven 30 minutes. Remove cheesecake from oven; chill 1 hour. Remove side from pan. Melt chocolate chips with shortening; stir smooth. Spread this glaze over top and sides of cheesecake. Chill 3 hours. Garnish with buckeyes.

............and now that I'm drooling all over the place, I'm dipping a spoonful of peanut butter into chocolate pudding--isn't that pitiful!?! It's all I've got at the moment :-( sooooo sad.

~Yummy salad

2008-11-19T13:56:00.003-05:00

I made this lovely spinach, edamame, shrimp salad just now with balsamic vinaigrette and then proceeded to put my "fancy" salad in a used coolwhip bowl! So classy eh? I had just rinsed the bowl out to recycle and it was the closest thing to me LOL I just can't bring myself to take a pic of my lovely salad in it's equally lovely bowl :-) anywho, here's a really simple basic recipe for the vinaigrette (below). I sauteed some shrimp in olive oil, threw some spinach in my bowl and grabbed some edamame out of the freezer and threw it in the pan when the shrimp was done (which helped defrost them + cool the shrimp off quicker) then ta-da! it's lunch. Easy breezy! I also had a spinach/mango/strawberry smoothie - no, I take that back - I had 2! Cody's not here and he usually halves it with me. So I HAD to drink it all heehee. And now I'm full as all get out!!! (whatever that is!)

Roast Garlic Balsamic Vinaigrette
1/2 head garlic
1/2 t. honey mustard
1/2 t. honey
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 T. olive oil
salt and pepper
2 T. water
Heat oven to 400. Slice 1" off top of garlic. Exposing cloves, wrap i foil and roast until soft and fragrant- 40-45 minutes. Cool slightly. Squeeze cloves into a mini chipper or processor. Add remaining ingredients and 2 T warm water blend until smooth. Refrigerate up to 7 days.

I have to admit tho, I was in a big honking hurry today, because it was already 1:30 and I was starrrving, so I just grabbed some minced garlic out of the fridge to make the vinaigrette :-) It's not considered cheating if you're starving to death. Didn't you know that?

~Tis the season....Deer season!

2008-11-02T10:52:00.008-05:00

Now that D is back from SC it's time to go over some safety lessons, lessons in climbing a tree. This was during the day of course. I'd love to see Cody doing this in the dark at 3am while trying to be quite LOL So far he doesn't have a really good track record at sitting still, so hopefully he'll have it down pat this year and get a deer. I love how every time Cody hit the practice target he'd grin at his Dad as tho to say "aw shucks". And I love the utter concentration on his face, hanging on everything D was saying to him :-)

~I'm ready for Halloween!!!

2008-10-29T22:44:00.007-04:00

Can you guess what I am, huh? huh? Can ya?! heehee I'm a Vintage Housewife!!! LOL Which isn't such a stretch from my daily title of "housewife" except I prefer to go by the term of "professional homemaker" or "housewife extraordinaire" :-) I should be good at it, I've been on the job for that past 15 years and haven't been fired yet. When my sister gave me this dress that she found in a vintage shop I just HAD to try it on. When I discovered it fit, I HAD to run and tease my hair and give it a good flip, then find my pearls and my "L" pin and pencil in my eyebrows. I just wish to heaven I had time to make a frilly white apron. Then I would wear my ensemble to Courtney's Fall party on Friday. I would definately look the room mother part, a room Mom that showed up 50 years late :-)

I even had my "L" on but it's for Lori not Laverne and I don't like milk with my Pepsi.

~The floor is almost dunzo :-)

2008-10-29T13:02:00.004-04:00

Back in September Duane layed tile in the kitchen and mud room. He got some of the grout done while I was in MI but neither of us cared for the grout (that HE picked out) that dried to a whitish color. Did I mention that D's color blind LOL So he ground all the grout out and I volunteered to do the (re)grout. Ya, I know I'm crazy, but it was fun, like icing a really large cookie :-) Mixing the grout stinks and all the wait time and wiping wasn't fun tho. D's been gone to SC for a month now and I still haven't gotten the sealer on OOPS! He'll be coming home soon so guess what I'm gonna do today? I gotta get this finished :-)

~Fall Party

2008-10-29T11:02:00.002-04:00

Last weekend the kiddos from Good News Club had a Fall Party. I'm helping out this year, so I got to go too :-) Marcia did a good job! We carved pumpkins in the toasty warm garage and had loads of pizza and lots of games. Marcia can make a game out of anything. She was my Sunday school teacher when I was little too so it's kinda cool to pass her on to Courtney :-)

ooowey gooey pumpkin guts

Courtney's Kitty pumpkinBible story

acorn collecting contest
Nort and Kristen could have stayed on the trampline all day

~Nie Nie update

2008-10-28T22:47:00.004-04:00

If you read my blog about Stephanie and Christian Nielsons plane crash last month, here is a beautiful tear jerker of an Update on the family. And a video of their girls singing at a benefit concert.

~Happy Fall!!!

2008-10-11T18:58:00.025-04:00

~Ramseyer Farms~

Help! I'm SOOOO tired & I'm lost in a cornfield!!!!
Good Job - you found wooster!

We spent the day at Ramseyer Farms with friends, Tiffany, Sawyer & Tanner. What a blast! There is so much to do. There were 2 corn mazes (5 acres each). The birthday cake maze looks really difficult, and it was, but we had a picture to guide us so it was bit easier. I can't imagine trying to doing it without a lil help tho. Funny thing is the kids still swear that THEY are the ones that got us out of there. It probably had nothing to do with Tif and I saying "go right" "go left" "that's a dead end up there, come back" nope, probably not. We couldn't have had a better weekend! After it's been in the 50's + 60's for the past few weeks, the 80's were a welcome surprise. It started getting awfully warm running around the maze, poor Tanner was so hot he started strippin LOL We were REALLY happy when we found the end of the maze (see Sawyer celebrating?).....

The Ohio maze "looks" easier than the other maze, as long as you can find the Indiana state boarder you could find your way out - no prob. But it actually ended up being a bit harder because the kids wanted to find the stamps for the back of our paper. All 6 stamps formed the great seal when complete. So we ended up running all over the state (literally) because the stamp stations were hidden - finding them was suppose to be 1/2 the fun. We spent a long time looking for the last one, but I finally called it quits. It was just too hot by late afternoon, I actually came home with a sunburned!

I think the kids favorite thing was the hay bale obstacle course, followed by the spud slinger :-)

I think the slide that ended in a ton of corn was cool. There was a wagon train pulled by a john deere. Tanner really liked the John Deere made out of hay bales. And the bunny village with the "hare solon" was adorable. They thought of imaginative way to feed the goats. There was a mini corn maze for the smaller kids and several box mazes that were pretty impossible to get lost in (for adults anyways) The Akron zoo had some critters there. There was a big Cornbox (instead of a sandbox) There was live music & some farm animals to feed. Lots of games. And of course a hayride & LOTS of pumpkins.(we didn't buy ours there, we get our from the amish neighbors for $1 or $2) And lots of food like pumpkin donuts, chili dogs, ice cream, cider, fresh chips and fries from the farm potatoes :-)

spud shooters

Jeez how can he be that tall already? He's going to catch up with his Dad soon!!!!

~Findings

2008-10-08T10:31:00.010-04:00

#1 I've been having trouble finding a whole wheat bread recipe I'd like to be loyal to. So this morning on the Today Show, Mark Bittman made an Easy, Fast, No Knead version that I'm going to try this afternoon. I'll let you know how it goes...........

#2 Goodwill has their own freaking website! Whoa--now you can buy other peoples junk, ebay style!

#3 I found sweet potato chips that I love (and so does the hamster!) at Walmart. We don't have a Whole Foods store within 50 miles of us, so when I find an item like this I get happy :-) Ya for only having 2 ingredients!!! Farm fresh food is easy to come by out here in the country during the summer/fall, but winter is creeping up fast, I'll have less access to the store and fresh foods so I'm turning into a lil chipmunk and stocking up on food, at least I put up some beans and corn already so I can have that 'straight out of the garden, yet slightly frozen cuz it's winter' taste during the snowy weather :-) I have a feeling I'll be eating alot of these....

#4 I found this super comfy dress yesterday, so in true Kasmira style I had to try it on a couple different ways and take piccies. I'll be honest, I've got brown patterned tights to go with, I was just being too lazy to put them on over my pastey white legs :-) And I plan on getting black fishnets to go with the black boots, I actually had my leggings on in that pic because I was getting ready for bed LOL Did you notice I have on 2 different black boots? The one on the left is regular tall boots, the one on the right is my warm cozy snow boots-at least I can dress them up and still get out in the snow this winter. So what do you think, love it or hate it? (let me repeat: it's SUPER comfy) It also comes in grey, black and dark purple.

#5 Left over chunks of chicken/mushrooms from last nights wraps taste mighty good with cucumber and swiss. LOL can you tell that was an after thought and I'm eating right now ?

~Another Cold Friday Football Game :-)

2008-10-06T10:33:00.009-04:00

Another Cold Friday night football game starring ....... the oh so shy Courtney! (wearing the red skirt/black gloves) The little kids cheered with the high school cheerleaders at the Homecoming game last Friday. My child (who doesn't talk to big people) had quite a good time cheering to a large crowd of big people. I was shocked!!!! I was one proud momma :-) Can you tell she's having a blast?!!?

Nort & Mi

~Baby Gracie

2008-09-24T19:45:00.007-04:00

Back in April I had a prayer request post about Gracie. I couldn't even bring myself to post this yesterday. Baby Gracie lost her battle to live Wednesday morning. I'm am completely utterly heartbroken for Amanda & Todd . (Todd and I go back about 25 years). They just might be the bravest people I know. They have been so strong in their faith thru all of this. 7 months of having their little baby in the hospital on the brink of life, brink of death, whichever way you want to look at it. What they've been thru makes my daughter, Courtney's open heart surgery seem like a tonsilectomy. I just can't even imagine.

Todd & Gracie

From Todd and Amanda:
The last few hours have been a whirlwind!! But, please do not be shocked and saddened--we are rejoicing. Gracie has been given the victory! We were fighting to keep her here and she fought with us each minute of each day without looking back....back when the Lord Jesus called her name, she obeyed and everlasting peace and comfort began for her--to never end!!

~Thanks alot Hurricane Ike

2008-09-16T11:55:00.007-04:00

I thought that I left the whole 'hurricane' thing behind when we moved from the Carolinas to Ohio.....maybe not. Usually by the time a hurricane moves across the states and reaches middle America, it's just a measley lil storm, but Ike held on and gave us some hurricane force winds. Several people in Ohio actually died! We were lucky and only had a 90 foot tree hit the roof of the wrap around porch (2nd time!). The wind was nuuuuuts, so we're lucky that a tree on the porch is all we got, considering that we are surrounded by woods! I was standing outside (holding the phone ready to call 911, just..in..case) while Duane was up a ladder cutting the limbs into pieces, and it literally sounded like I was standing right beside the freeway or the ocean on a really stormy day. The wind was that crazzzzzy loud!!! I'm not complaining tho because we were some of the lucky few that didn't loose power. Been there, done that. We went a week without electricity in NC - in the August heat! So I'm counting myself lucky this time since only the very tip top of the tree hit the house and didn't cause much damage. The schools are still without electricity so I'm hoping the kids go back tomorrow :-) The morning news looked like a blizzard hit because there were 100's of school closings. I love my kiddos but they've had a loooooong surprise weekend and they are suppose to have Friday off for a fair day too. I'm keepin my fingers crossed that the school has power by tomorrow!!!

~Prayers for Nie Nie

2008-09-10T10:26:00.021-04:00

~blue lilly photography

Ever since last year when I googled "Silhouettes", I have checked Stephanie nielson's blog everyday. I went to see vintage portraits and stayed because she was just so charming. But now I check her sisters blog since she, Courtney, is the one keeping the blogging world posted on Stephanie and her hubby Christian who were in a plane crash a several weeks ago, surprisingly they survived. "Survive" and "plane crash" don't seem like they go hand in hand, like they could NOT even possibly be in the same sentence. Unfortunately the pilot, Doug Kinneard did not make it. But Stephanie and Christian were very very blessed that day and they did indeed survive!!! But now they have to take the road to recovery and it looks like it will be a long and winding often bumpy path. I have been following their story over the past few weeks and was quite mad that I missed it going national yesterday. Every single morning I watch the Today Show, every day I tell you! But somehow I got busy yesterday and missed it. And wouldn't you know it.......... Stephanie's siblings were on, talking to Matt Laurer and I missed it! (but I found it here on youtube.com just now yay!) It's not every day that a fellow blogger makes the headlines! When I first heard the news, it was jarring, my heart dropped into my stomach. Isn't it amazing how someone can make such a huge impact on so many others lives when you've never actually MET them (in person). I had no clue that she had such a following, I actually didn't even know that my BF followered her blog until I told her about the accident and she started bawling. But apparently she has a huge following. Personally Stephanie has a way of inspiring me to be a better mother, I always feel so cheerful after reading her blog, I mean after all, she has twice as many kids as I do and she still seems to be sane, happy as a lark even. She ran a marathon this year, she's super faithful, she's a vegetarian (her food blog is Here) and she's got great style, the words Classic Beauty and Classic Mother come to mind. She is just an all around beautiful person. She has a wonderful extended family and friends (like Here and below) who are reaching out and helping in so many ways- Keeping the blogging world updated, and organizing benefit concerts, fundraising, auctions, etc. Her sister Courtney is taking care of the 3 older children and her younger sister Lucy is taking care of the baby. They had a huge balloon launch, sending up their prayers & wishes for the Nielson's. Actually there have been several balloon launches for them, all around the world. Christian was burned over 30% of his body, Stephanie over 83%, they have massive hospital bills already (over $2million last I heard) So please please PLEASE keep Stephanie, Christian (aka mr. nielson), their 4 children, and their families in your prayers.

*Stephanie's family had a cute tradition of letting off balloons as seen here for her birthday.

*Massive balloon launch from friends and family Here (i love this song!)

*(sister) Courtney's blog Here

*News sept. 4th Here

*Original newscast about the crash Here

*Blissfullliving.com post Here

*Today msnbc Here

*Stephs sister on the news Here

*Nie Recovery Blog Here

*Nie's Dad's Blog Here

*Article in the NYT Here

*Benefit Blog, you could win an auction or make donations Here

*One of my favorite posts of Stephanies Here
*I'm adding this one just because her brother cracks me up! Here
*Stephanie taught Silhouette making (& yoga) HERE , that's what I wanted to make for my dining room---which I why I googled Silhouettes and found Stephanie's blog :-)

~ummm Thursday night lights?

2008-09-07T19:01:00.008-04:00

Cody had his first game last week :-) I'm really not into football all that much, so the only thing for me to do is take pics during the game. So let me just apologize in advance because there might be alot of football pics on the blog for the next 2 months. But hey, I can't help it I'm a proud Momma, it's my job :-) One thing I discovered........I'm old, my booty hurt from sitting on those bleachers for so long. TMI?

pre-game huddle

I can spot my boy from a mile away

Courtney was just there for her friends and the concession stand

I need to take more cash next time!

Ok I'll spare you the other 50 pics for another time LOL

~Michigan Labor Day

2008-09-06T18:53:00.008-04:00

hailey & breck

slide surfing

cousins: justin, hailey, courtney

lil miss hailey & grandma schrier

My sweet sis-in-law's family

i cant write right now im grouting the new tiles (waitig 10 mins 4 it to set) i'll write more later when im usig 2 hands

~New

2008-09-06T18:47:00.005-04:00

Oooh and Aaaaah.......I (finally) got a haircut & a stormdoor. :-) I'm still itching to paint the door red, but I don't know now that there is a stormdoor. whatcha think? Other than a lil length you probably can't tell I got a h/c because all the layers blend, why don't my grays blend in too? I also found a cute fall welcome sign for the front door and a hooked rug that I just fell in love with. I love hooked rugs and I guess Ozzy does too! Why is it the white cat likes to sit on the black rug and the black dog likes to sit on my white rug????? To drive me nuts?

~Friday Night Lights

2008-08-23T14:10:00.003-04:00

It's high school football time, time to break out the jean jacket and pin on my 'mom button'. Can you smell the popcorn and crisp air? We lost last nights varsity game by a few points, but it was still fun to be there since I haven't been to a HS game in at least 5 years. The kiddos found their friends and were hanging with them, they checked in every now and then--to get money for snacks. The stadium was packed last night. We stood in line for 20 mins just to pay to get in! Good thing we got there 15 mins early sheesh. There was no room in the stands either, but we had a good view from the fence (and cody and his friends had a nice view of the cheerleaders LOL) Thursday night was the pep rally and "meet the teams" at which they introduce every single athlete at the school. We have a small school but I think every kid there must be playing a sport cuz it took quite a while!

The varsity game

Thursday's pep rally

After practice

~For Andrea

2008-08-21T07:23:00.007-04:00

Hey Teach, Don't these look like nice clean cut kids? No AC/DC shirts today :-) LOL!!!!!! (and he got to wear those black converse anyways, imagine that!)

Cody has "meet the team" today at the football stadium so he had to dress nice and Courtney just looked cute so I saw a photo op and ran with it :-) Gotta do it when they let me!

This is what he does about 10x before leaving...............................
and yes, he'd kill me if he knew that was on here so, shhhhh!

~Freedom!!!!!!

2008-08-20T22:59:00.006-04:00

First day of 5th grade

Freedom......Yes, that means school is back in session :-) I am free to listen to what I want to listen to in the car. I don't have to have an itinerary immediately upon rising every morning. I can shop without spending every last dime on these kids who constantly "need" things. I don't need to have the freezer stocked with ice cream that I "accidentally" eat after the kids go to bed. I can workout uninterrupted. I can think clearly. Courtney's friends aren't calling 25x a day anymore. I don't have to worry about Cody's friends popping by before I've showered or cleaned the house. I don't have to give up the TV so they can play PS3 with those friends. I can watch TV without having my finger on the remote because no one is going to walk in the room during some inappropriate commercial/show. Heck, I can shower with my door open if I want to! Unfortunately I also have to let the dog out myself, take the trash out myself, go shopping without Courtney, the kids aren't here for me to ask what they'd like for dinner, they aren't here to play games with, or make cookies with, they aren't here for me to joke around with, they aren't here for 8 hours solid!!! Wait Cody is actually gone for 11 hours solid!!!! With Cody in football now, I have about 3 hours alone with nortney which is really cool. Man was it quite at my house today. School started today and I cleaned, really well. And no one was there to monitor what I was throwing away from their rooms Heeheehee And no one was here to immediately mess it up again either. So while I'm happy to have them back in school, part of me misses them..................right up until they get home and start fighting again!!!!

Hot & grimy First day of 8th grade football practice

~Toscora Park....it's for big people too LOL

2008-08-20T22:25:00.005-04:00

I think Nick and Duane had more fun than the kids
courtney and duane
sarge
LOL jason & nick

Sarges company had a picnic at Tuscora Park this summer. It was so stinking H-O-T that day. Personally to me, it felt like 100, or at least 99, but rumor has it it only got up to the low 90's that day. I think those weathmen L-I-E. It's an adorable little place with an antique Carousel , batting cages, a train, a small (and I do mean small) rollercoaster, (i think Nick went on it at least 20 times LOL) swings, a playground, minature golf, a ferris wheel, a couple of pools, lots of pavillions and picnic tables, an ampitheater area where they have concerts. And the Army had it catered for lunch :-)

~Browns Game

2008-08-20T09:16:00.013-04:00

We headed to a Browns game last week, one last hur·rah
before school started. This was the girls on the way to the game...............

A tad bit hyper. They were hamming it up, having a good time being their typical goofy selves.

Now look how 'thrilled' Cody looks to be stuck in the backseat with the knuckleheads..............

Poooooor Cody :( LOL!!!

Then we walked and walked and walked thru downtown for what seems like 3 miles because we parked at the $6 parking garage......

Pretty soon it would be "poor.......all of us" See the dark clouds by the stadium and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? They were about to let loose........

We all went thru the check point and got thru...... except Cora because she had brought a little bag of stuffed animals and her DS with her, so they said she couldn't go in with it and they pointed to a trash can and said she could throw it away then go in. And she protested quite loudly that she was NOT going to throw her precious stuff away. So Duane was going to run the stuff allllll the way back to the car when it started pouring down rain............

So we waited and waited and waited in a dry spot outside the stadium and when it didn't seem like it was ever going to quit, we started the 20 minute walk back to the parking garage in the driving rain (the game was paused) and when we were almost out of Cleveland- the sun came back out! gosh darnit!
But we had fun anyways, we were sopping wet and the girls had a blast splashing in the rain and we got to come home, dry off and watch the game on TV. Which was fine with me because I had a close-up view of brady quinn :-)

the offensive backpack

~VBS

2008-08-15T08:49:00.011-04:00

These were my VBS ribbons - my mom saves everything!

Courtney took a couple of her friends with her to VBS this year, which was at my old church, where I went from 1st-12th grade. Where I grew up , got baptised, learned many life lessons, had my first crush, first boyfriend, first time at camp (which was always a blast!) first kiss, Lots of firsts and lots of good memories :- ) On the first day of VBS my old pal Andrea and I decided to stay and explore our old stomping grounds. I hadn't been there since I got married 15 years ago, it was so nice to see people that I grew up with! Andrea did a much better job writing about our jaunt down memory lane than I can, so go read her version HERE (hows that for lazy of me?!) We had fun, and I nearly cried when I saw the wallpaper (did ya read andreas blog yet?!) I wish Jodi had been with us tho ~ that would have made it perfect. We could have raided the church kitchen while our parents were in choir practice like we used to heehee :-)

So...back to this years VBS. The girls had a great time and really enjoyed it every night. Of course the last night was the best because they got to used all the tickets they earned at the festival. The dunking booth, the pony rides, the face painting and the "store" were their favorites. They were sooooo tuckered out that night :-)

no driving for a few more years honey!

court, caryn, cora and weslea

Courtney & Cora after the festival

4th of july

2008-08-09T22:47:00.006-04:00

she does love sparklers!
I almost got my whole name in "LOR"

Yes I'm running a bit behind in the blogging department here lately. I'll blame it on the fact that its' summer and that the kiddos are keeping me busy. So here's some very delayed 4th of july. We went to my in-laws to watch the "big" small town parade and have a cookout. Duane finallllllly got the underground dog fence in :) The kids spent the night at Grandma & Grandpas after the parade, saw another parade the next day, duane and I went to see Hancock the met up with the in-laws and kids for fireworks :-) the end.

this lil gal was waiting for candy.....

this was the cutest lil "float" in the parade (it was pulled behind a bigger float). the shower was really working and these girls were having a blast slinging bubbles everywhere. Too cute!!!

The double exposured sparkler 'ghost' picture of courtney

~Speed demon

2008-07-12T23:26:00.002-04:00

Courtney looooooves Uncle Craig's 4 wheeler- after she figured out how to change gears she was Flying around the field all by herself! It was good and muddy out today after a boat load of rain came down----perfect for 4 wheeling :-) We literally had to hose the girls off they were so muddy heehee

~Fun with my new camera

2008-07-11T14:59:00.003-04:00

I made cora match the carpet (& albino!) cora has purple hair like tonks
cora with a massive tan LOL
red courtney
I've been torturing the kids with testing out the funky settings on my new camera :-) My kids are tired of it, (obviously, see nort walking away?) but I can still get Cora to work with me.

~Old fashioned Lemonade stand

2008-07-11T14:40:00.004-04:00

Cora & Courtney are outside selling lemonade, cookies and popcorn right now. They just looked so cute I had to run out and take a picture. They lost $2.58 by sending cody to the general store to get them more cups, because they ran out (the .58 was his 'candy bar commission' for riding to the store for them, they just didn't know it LOL) Rather than having to deal with change they are just accepting tips, most people give a quarter or a dollar. One old guy gave them a dime, because according to him the cups were too small, and then he asked for a refill LOL!!! Guess that's what they get for putting "donations" and "free refills" on the sign. I hope they do well, but then again, I know if they make more than $5 they are going to want me to take them to the store so they can spend their earnings and I'm sooo tired I don't want to go anywhere right now, but I can't take a nap cuz they are out at the end of the road and I keep checking on them, of course I couldn't take a nap if they were in the house either cuz they are so noisy. They have a walkie out there with them in case they need me maybe I'll go fall asleep on the porch :-)

****update: they ended up making $24 yesterday and they were both able to get the webkinz they were hoping for :-) and they woke up this morning and wanted to do it again. Next thing ya know they'll be out there selling baked beans and toast cuz we're out of lemonade and cookies LOL

~Hometown carnival

2008-06-28T15:58:00.010-04:00

Duane and the boys had to setup the army simulator at the lil carnivaly-thingy that was in 'town'. I say that loosely because it's a wee small town, we're talking 1 stop light literally . The vermits and I stayed for a little while (until the rain started) to watch them tear down the tent and long enough for Cody and sgt Downy to play cornhole (who named that game btw?!) and long enough for nort to win some stuff. Me, I was sittin in the hummer. I pointed to the building and said "that's where I used to go back in '84" like I do EVERY single time we pass it and I was a little surprised to hear Cort ask "18 or 19 mom?" and I thought "18 or 19 what?!" and she oh so innocently said "1884 or 1984". (gulp!) The problem was she wasn't being sarcastic at all, she was quite serious. The old brick part of the building was built in 1870 pretty dern old, so I guess I see where she was coming from. She has no interest what so ever in history, unlike me, who was infatuated with Little House on the Prairie, Anne of Green Gables and Nancy Drew books. I knew and understood the different era's and decades even tho they were WELL before my time. And to further complicate things she's seen pics of a younger me sitting in my Dad's antique cars or in old log buildings and I still have a dress from when I was about 6, a prairie dress complete with apron that looks like it came straight from a trunk of the lost Donner party. So I understand her confusion, but still......did she just call me old?!?!?! She later redeemed herself by interupting a song I was singing in the car to ask me how someone could audition for American Idol. To which she promptly said I should definately try out because I'm such a good singer. What a tone-deaf little sweet heart of a daughter I have :-)

~Anniversary #15 6~26~1993

2008-06-27T10:30:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I was soooo busy having fun celebrating my 15th anniversary.................I think I had about as much fun as Andrea. (no, i'm pretty sure she had more fun since she has 3 lil ones LOL) Sarge took the day off to ......... golf......with Cody. And I was here with Courtney, Cora (who was spending the night) and Mariah. They may call it "having a friend over to play" I call it "babysitting" :-) Lets face it, when ya have kids and your Anniversary is on a weekday it sorta cancels out the romance. But hey, we're still just as married and in love weather we go on a hot date or not. This just happened to be a NOT year. Next year it'll be on a Friday and we WILL go out. Maybe Andrea & Mark can go with us :-) hahahaha

~Birthday #33 6~24~1975

2008-06-25T17:41:00.004-04:00

33rd time doing this and it never gets boring.

~RRRanch

2008-06-25T16:57:00.003-04:00

click to enlarge

We were suppose to go to Cleveland last weekend for my B-day, but the gay pride parade downtown hindered our plans. Cody was like "there are gay people in OHIO!???" See I told you we are stuck in the boondocks. LOL So we went to a ranch down in amish country instead. One of those that you ride thru on the wagon and stop and feed the animals. Mini-me's favorite part was at the end when we got to the petting zoo area, where there were baby cows from India, peacocks, monkeys, porcupines, etc. Personally I kinda felt like I was at Anne's house :-) (you don't have an ostrich yet do ya anne?)

~Summertime :-)

2008-06-23T17:55:00.006-04:00

yes, cora is a ham!

home at last (they wore me out!)

~The nicest Mom on the block Mwahahahaha!

2008-06-20T12:48:00.003-04:00

My kids think I'm the bestest mom in the world (not likely) I bought them loads of workbooks the other day. The sprouts have to study every morning before noon if they want to play on anything like the PS3, gamecube, computer, phone, DS, PSP, you know, all that electric junk. They also have to be showered and ready, have beds made and rooms picked up before they are allowed to even think about having any friends over after lunch. Look Alisha we're even studying FL since we weren't able to come down there :-) We got a boatload of library books the other day, we are going to try to study different cultures and we even got cookbooks to go along with the different states/countries. And since the election is upon us I have them studying that too so that they know what is going on when it's being talked about. Cody is very anti-obama, like moi, so I got him a book about B.O. to study - just to torture him :-) Actually I just wanted him to be informed about who he does and doesn't like. Courtney had to write in her journal about why we SHOULD have a woman president and next she has to write why we should NOT have a woman president. She came up with some cute answers. Anyways, I hope this keeps them from leaking braincells all over the place this summer :-)

~Gremlin hunting

2008-06-20T12:31:00.006-04:00

Hee hee hee

Cora watched Gremlins for the 1st time the other day, so of course the scary topic of the day was.......gremlins. The girls always have a scary topic to keep them awake every weekend. Makes for some long nights for Me. So yesterday they were running thru the woods looking for gremlins. Cody and I made some pics of Gizmo and he went and hid them in the trees to scare the girls LOL When I took the pic the girls had just heard something and yelled "did you hear that"?! Notice how they girls have their sticks ready? LOL And notice the lil chuckle forming on Cody's face? (click the pic to make it bigger) LOL He Looooves scary those two!!!!

~Brrrrrr

2008-06-20T12:13:00.004-04:00

I so remember the days of being a kid when hot/cold didn't really bother us. Playing from sun up to sun down, not caring how hot it was out or how sweaty we got. I remember laying out on the deck with my sister in April, well before it was even warm, just to try to get tan before prom. Boy, are those days long gone. I went outside yesterday and saw the kids setting up the slip and slide. It was only 65 degrees out!!! Can you say "knuckleheads"!?!?!? The funny thing was, they were pretending to be penguins :-) smart kiddos

~Hamster playdate

2008-06-17T15:59:00.005-04:00

Courtney's friend brought her hamster, Hammy over for a playdate the other day. So I made a Hamster Hotel for them and nort wanted me to put the pics on here for her friends to see. Hmmm the kiddos are slowly taking over my blog.

~S'mores

2008-06-16T16:29:00.004-04:00

I dont' want S'more, I want N'more. We've made s'mores every time one of courtney's friends have come to play this week, then again with Grandma on Saturday night - I'm afraid I may turn into one soon!!! LOL

~FL Vacation pictures

2008-06-10T12:50:00.009-04:00

Don't be jealous of us cuz we're sooo Hawwwt! Hahahahaha!

Alisha & Lori

Before you even ask, yes I lost a wee bit of weight, so much so that I now resemble a barbie doll!!!!---don't I just look fab!?! I actually look as tan as Alisha in this pic, thanks to my faux tan, like Oh my gawwwsh!!!! We're having a blast in FL with Alisha, Brandon & the kiddos. We're just bumming on the beach every day, soaking up the sun while the guys are fishing. I even let the kids bury me in the sand. Life can't get any better than this!

One day we stumbled upon a nudist beach, it was rather embarrassing since the kiddos were with us. Yikes! I had no idea there were nude beaches here!!!! (apparently these people are from Georgia)

Duane in the FL sunshine :-) He's totally hawt too!!

Well that's all the pics I have for now-hope we get some more later!!!!

**** Ok so maybe that's not entirely true, we're not really having fun in the sun like we originally planned. We are actually still stuck in Ohio. We were SUPPOSE to leave for FL today but Sarge's leave got nixed :-( -thanks alot Uncle Sam I love when you cancel our vacation! No wonder we've only had 2 vacations in the past 15 years. Thank the Lord we didn't buy plane tickets huh?---then I'd be seriously mad.

~Park play

2008-06-08T21:59:00.011-04:00

We have a quaint lil park close by that has a creek running thru it. I enjoyed an awesome (but very warm) day at the park with our friends Janine, Angie & Andrea and all 12 of our kiddos on Friday. My camera was acting up a bit so (send me more pics ang!) so i snatched a few pics from someone elses blog :-) I was a major baby hog and totally totally totally enjoyed snuggling with baby Jordyn all afternoon :-) Uh-Oh I've got baby on the brain now - watch out Duane! Check out the links to Angie, Janine & Andrea's blogs for more (much better than mine) pics from our day at the park.

Weston Hot, dirty and oh so Thirsty :-)

Courtney & Caryn. I can't wait to get the 2 sets of cousins together.

Courtney/Cora & Weslea/Caryn :-)

Courtney is still smitten by Nathan, better known around our house since he was 4 months old as Na-Na, and Courtney's own personal live babydoll. 3 years since the move and he took right to her :-) She was so happy! See her 'mothering' him in the pic?

the cousins checking something out

~Cody's new wheels

2008-06-06T16:37:00.003-04:00

He's not old enough to drive yet (thank you God!) But he did get some new wheels for the summer. Interesting "ghost" pic.............

~Snow in June?

2008-06-06T16:27:00.008-04:00

Ohio has been known to get the occasional freak snow storm in summer, but this wasn't one of them. Try as I might I couldn't get a good pic of the white flurries of 'stuff' (tree sperm?) coming down out of the cottonwood trees at the park - but it did really 'look' like it was snowing. You'll just have to trust me on this one.

~Mwuahahahahahaha!

2008-06-06T16:21:00.003-04:00

Hee Hee the photographer became the photographed! Ha she thought she could hide behind the camera rather than being in front of it......well actually she's doing a pretty good job of that isn't she? I hope she got some good piccies :-)

~Work work work

2008-05-31T14:58:00.004-04:00

I thought about working out this morning but instead Cody & I starting moving the big HUGE pile of wood. cha-ching instant workout! It'll probably take us allllll stinking summer. We found all sorts of interesting bugs and spiders in there and a couple of snake skins. Makes me glad I had gloves on!!!! We used to always have to help my parents stack wood, we carried it by the armful and without gloves :-( yuck yuck yuck!!!! I made sure we had gloves and a wheelbarrow---cuz I'm the mom and I said so :-)

Now I'm off to make a carrot cake (from scratch--hope I have carrots!) to take my my mama's house tonight. We are going to hang with the fam for a while cuz Liz, Cora and Craig will be there plus I'm dividing some of Mom's hostas to plant over here, cuz I have NO landscaping what so ever, unless you count the woods.......that sorta counts right?

~Tuesday........D's not so off day

2008-05-27T13:42:00.004-04:00

Hmmmm Sarge is suppose to have the day off, yet he's ..... at work :-( Some kids were shipping out today so he had to go in....good grief! Good thing I was actually looking for some alone time. alone. so i could blog :-) AND........ I totally forgot about this until I saw Sgt D's book on the counter. Every time we went into the hospital last week to see Dad, Cristy & I bought books from the book sale that they had down in the lobby. Paperback were .50 and hardbacks $1!!! I bought nearly every Clive Cussler book they had for Sarge, along with a bunch of James Patterson, John Grisham, Karen Kingsbury and Nicholas Sparks and I got a whole stack of Magic Treehouse books for Courtney. Yay Me!!!! Cristy got nearly all the Left Behind series, .50 each and they looks practically brand new ;-) I need to visit the hospital more often............naw never mind

~Sunday/Monday........Bye Bye!

2008-05-26T18:18:00.009-04:00

Sadly Cristy, Craig, Justin and Hailey had to go home today :( I guess I knew they'd have to go eventually, but that doesn't mean I have to be happy about it. (Come back Cristy!!!!) I'm just glad they got to come in the first place, since Craig was having a hard time getting leave and they weren't sure when/if they'd be down to visit this summer. Oh the joys of Army life. Maybe that was my father-in-laws plan when he got sick???? :-)Get put in the ICU so they'd HAVE to come? Thanks Dad, good thinking! lol Last night I added one more bacon cheeseburger with a baked potato to my list of sins for the week,-oh so tasty! But now that my company is gone and the holiday is over it's time to get back to chicken, fish and veggies. I don't know what's wrong with me lately, I was practically vegan there for a while and I compleeeeetely blew it this past week! Sgt D is outside grilling up some chicken right now. I figure if we use the grill 2x a day for at least a year we might get our money out of it lol We spent our Memorial Day watching the new Indiana Jones movie and going to Lowes. Duane rode in a convertible in a parade this morning and was the 'guest speaker' at the American Legion Hall. Unfortunately I have NO pics of him :-( just a pic of the plaque they gave him. Lord knows I tried to get a pic of the sarge, but "one take duane" gives me exactly that. If he happens to have his eyes closed in the first picture then too bad for me ;-(

At least I was able to sneak a picture of my not so little boy on the way into Lowes Hee hee

~Saturday.......cookout & fishing

2008-05-25T15:07:00.014-04:00

Saturday was cookout day for us. We just chilled at home and the in-laws came over. I have been eatin so much good/bad food this week it's ridiculous! Tastes good, yet so bad for me. I may not want to get in a bathing suit this summer. I've had McD's 2x this week, including the fries *gasp!*, fish and chips, pizza, lots of soda *gasp again* (because i don't like the water at my in-laws house and that's where I was most of the week) pumpkin cookies from my amish neighbors, meat & cheese from a new bulk food store cristy and I discovered, coconut pie, apple crisp & ice cream, burgers/hotdogs & chips, cheesy potatoes, chips-chips-and more chips. I might be the one in ICU next week! YIKES that's a lot of junk food! I'll move on now, cuz thinking about it is making me want to puke or go eat more, i'm not sure which. Maybe when Craig took the kids to play basketball or for a bike ride, I should have gone with them.

Justin & Courtney made sure we all had a good time at the cookout, they were in charge of entertainment. They made a checklist and made us all mark what we'd like to do. We played Red Rover because Craig had never heard of it and we had to make sure he left ohio knowing how to play it...just in case he should ever need to play it again:-) BTW the older you get, the more it HURTS!!!!! I bought a bullseye game where you have to throw little dart like "thingys" and try to get a bullseye but we got creative and played a bunch of different games with them. Who can throw the furthest...... then who can throw the farthest left handed, backwards, etc. the kids got inventive with it. Then they played baseball with the pool noodles which is much harder than it looks!!! We even had an egg toss. And of course Gunner was loving all the attention (and loving all the dropped food) :-) Fishing was interesting since Craig, being a city boy, has never caught a fish before. He finally got one, but I wasn't there to get a pic of his proud moment. Craig also got to chop wood for the first time :-) and he took Gunner for several runs all the way around the lake. Gunner is loving it cuz I sure don't do that. it's like 6 or 7 miles around the lake there's no way I'm doing it! Gunner lived with Craig and Cristy for 3 years while we were in SC so it was quite fun for Gunner to be with both his families, he was in heaven :-)

look, my FIL is actually relaxing!

gunner and hailey, love her pretty lil polka-dot cloth diapers! so cute! playing fetch ...... doggy heaven, the neighbors dog was sooooo jealous
noodle baseball, not so easy....

Hey Craigles, that's Haileys bike!Perfect temperature and plenty of sun. Oh my stars it was a beautiful day!!!!!

Justin & Courtney giggling over the worms Craigs way of fishing......1.look for a fish 2. drop the line on it's head

LOL why bother casting right?!

~Friday.......pizza & karaoke night

2008-05-25T13:15:00.014-04:00

Cristy and I have decided we're much too old to stay up past midnight singing :-( When we were kids, we could stay up past 3am with no probs, well it doesn't work quite the same now that we're moms, especially when haylie wakes up by 7am. It was fun doing Britney Spears karaoke battles tho. We tied nearly every time. Must be from all the practice we got on our road trips to Colorado :-) After Cody and Shane left to go to shanes house, we tried to move Haylie's crib from Courtney's room, to Cody's room without waking her up, but got stuck in the doorway and nearly peed ourselves giggling, especially when she woke up and looked at us like we were crazy. aaaah giggling till we pee just like old times, but noone's been drinking LOL

watching the boys play baseball

miss haylie is such a big girl (18months), sitting on a bar stool and feeding herself breakfast.

Lovin' on Gunner :-)
Dancin girl
Even Gunner sings Karaoke!
Justin was cracking up over Cody & Shane's singing
Justin was very VERY serious about getting this song right so he could beat Shane, not bad for a 7 year old eh?! just wish the lighting was better so you could see his face, cuz his expression were soooo cute. click PLAY to watch the video.........

~Thursday.......Goodbye & Surprise!

2008-05-25T12:36:00.006-04:00

Thursday was spent over at my parent-in-laws house. (new word!) Dad was feeling alot better, even took some amish runs because he just CAN NOT sit still for very long "resting". (that's what my in-laws do, they run amish around in their devil made, fast cars) Aunt Katie and family were here from Pennsylvania fabric shopping so we got to visit them for a while in Mt Hope. Then we went to some garage sales. Craig and Cristy packed up to go back to MI about 3pm and I went home to get the kids from school. Goodbyes are so sad..........

But around 5pm they called and said they were coming back :-) and they'd be to my house in about 1/2 hour .......surprise!!!!!!! :-)

My MIL with Cousin Chris & Aunt Katie Miss Hailey

Craig demonstrating another bathroom LOL actually I think he was waiting for us all to get out of the laundry room so he could do more than demonstrate

Lucky me, I just happened to put a chicken in the crockpot in the morning so I was able to whip up a descent meal for my company, otherwise I might have been flipping out over what to make for dinner :-) It was the first time I made it with lemon and rosemary and it was really good and super simple, try it sometime why don't ya?

~Wednesday....home again, home again jiggity jig

2008-05-25T12:28:00.003-04:00

My FIL got to leave the hospital today. Not sure that he's going to get any rest at home with all of us hanging out there tho :-) poor guy. It's a bit like this ..................

~Tuesday....Party in the ICU :-)

2008-05-25T11:45:00.008-04:00

My FIL was in the hospital ICU a few days ago (don't worry he's ok now) so Cristy and Craig came down to visit him, which worked out great for ME, cuz I love when they visit!!! :-) um thanks for getting them to come visit Dad hee hee We went to visit him in the hospital Tuesday and luckily he had a really cool nurse who didn't run us out of there. Technically there was only suppose to be 2 visitors at a time and NO kiddos allowed. Well there was 4 adults and 4 really loud kids in Dads room and the really cool nurse was really nice and just laughed and shut the door :-) The next day, the really cool nurse was not there :-( and in her place was a really mean nurse who was a stickler for rules, Wednesday wasn't as much fun :-(

"poooooor grandpa, hey lets take a picture with him!!!!"

Rock on Justin!

"wow Cody weighs alot!!!"

Grandma & Hailey

It's very unfortunate for you that you can't tell Craig is demonstrating the cool pull out toilet. Instead of having a real bathROOM in the hospital room, the toilet pulls out of the cabinet under the sink and really flushes. Never heard of that before but it was cool. It doesn't take much to entertain us LOL

~This week

2008-05-20T13:11:00.006-04:00

Lets see....... this week we are keeping busy. Last Friday and Saturday we (liz & I) had a garage sale. Did pretty good, we made enough to buy our plane tickets to FL next December for our 'moms only vacation' with Alisha and Missy :-) Didn't have much junk left by the time it was over, which was the goal :-) We had oodles of Amish come the first day, one of the oddest things any of them bought was a computer print shop program LOL not sure why....but hey, it was money so I'm not complaining. It rained in the morning but the sun actually came up in the late afternoon so my sleepy sister went out to sit in the sun. With the blanket on, doesn't it look like she's some patient at the hospital that got wheeled outside for fresh air and fell asleep? hahahaha I don't know how she slept with the horses in the driveway jingling their bridles and an amish lady that kept playing with a barbie toy that says "wow!"+"cool!" over and over and over LOLFriday night my In-laws came to stay the night and "help" with the garage sale the next day. (they ended up going shopping at other garage sales). Then they took the kids home with them to spend the night, Courtney and Grandma went to the Mother/Daughter banquet and courtney made a lovely straw hat for me. Cody and Gramps mowed the lawn at the church and did "guy stuff". Then they hung out with the amish neighbors, went to get ice cream and Cody got to drive the buggy home LOL wish I had pics of that!!! Duane & I got to go on a date!!!! We went out to eat with Lizard and Craig (who we reallllly like) and went to see Iron Man which we also realllly liked. I had no interest what so ever in the movie before, but it was surprisingly good! Got to see Sarge's new army office too, with the new furniture they just got, you can't really see it but there is a really big flatscreen tv in there.. ooooooh aaaaaaah I can't wait till he get all his stuff hung up on the walls (and out from behind my loveseat)
ANNNNNNNNNND I ate chicken wings for the first time. Sarge decided to make them on the grill for dinner and insisted I try them. I'm NOT a big fan of gnawing meat off a bone, like a dog.... Kinda makes me feel creepy. The only reason I gave in was because he smoking a cigar at the time and for some reason I find it cute. I think cigarettes are nasty, but Cigars I find sexy. I guess because the only time he usually smokes a cigar is at Army formals.........when he's in dress blues. And if you know what dress blues are you'll know what I mean :-) My SIL (and family) are here for a few days because Sarge's Dad is in the hospital (ICU!) Not sure what's going on yet, but he became violently sick & Migrane-y (i made that up) shortly after we picked the kids up at church. Hope my kids didn't drive him nuts!!! They are running all sorts of tests, MRI's and such, so hopefully we'll find out something soon. But at least we get to spend time with Cristy for the next few days :-) Duane's parents were suppose to be going to visit her in MI this weekend, and my FIL says they are still going!!!! The man is still in ICU and he thinks he's going up to MI in a few days to help Craig and Cristy WORK on their house!!! LOL The guy never stops working!!!! Hmmm maybe this is God's way of telling him to slow down????? Pray he'll feel better soon, they'll figure out what's wrong AND that he will learn to slow down and rest.

~Happy Momma's Day!

2008-05-11T21:45:00.012-04:00

Oh How I love Mothers Day! Because I don't have to cook or clean! and boy am I going to pay for that on Monday, my house is a disaster now. Saturday, was "my day" because we knew we'd be running around Sunday. Duane took us all out to eat and gave me rocking chairs for my front porch and adirondack chairs for the back! Just what I wanted!!!:-) Mothers Day is especially nice this year because we actually got to see our mothers, we're usually out of state. We picked up lunch and took it over to D's moms house, my sweet MIL gave me flowers and chocolates and gave the kiddos some presents too :-) Then Duane and Cody did the dishes after lunch yeah! We headed to my mom's house after that for dinner and cheesecake, that us kiddoss provided so mom wouldn't have to cook and my Daddy got volunteered to do dishes hee hee. My kiddos made me cards and gave me boxes of funky chocolates and best of all indulged me in a rare photo shoot.....

look how tall my "baby" is getting!!! he's 5'8" already!

he looks REALLY tall by grandma shortstuff, I mean schrier

~It doesn't take much to make me happy :-)

2008-05-08T15:35:00.013-04:00

3 things that make me happy today. 1)After a dreadful, dreary, depressing winter of BLAHness, we have GREEN!!!! I mean Green green, like "I'm in Ireland" Green :-) I'm so happpppy to have color back in Ohio!!! 2)D took the stinking blue tarp off the wood pile. You have no idea how I despised that blue tarp. It was such an eye sore! That tarp was so bright you could see it from the satellite. Alisha thought we had a pool when she looked up our address! The only time I liked it was when it was completely covered in snow. I literally jumped up and down when Duane took it off. 3)We have a pretty new grill that I'm not afaid to light. It's the simple little things that make me happy :-)

OHIO'S SO GREEN IT FEELS LIKE........

~Menu Monday

2008-05-05T16:35:00.004-04:00

Jumping on the "menu plan monday" bandwagon! I just went grocery shopping today so I have 2 weeks worth of groceries. I'm trying to find a nice balance between healthy food and food that Courtney will eat so I don't torture her every night---nooooot so easy to do. I try to make sure every meal is served with steamed veggies or grilled corn on the cob to help achieve the 'healthy' part. I love all the steamer veggie packs they have now in the frozen food aisle. Even tho I'd rather have the veggies straight from the garden. And I love the prettttty new grill Duane got last week, it's so easy to turn on. I'll be grilling alot this summer + no more worrying about burning off my eyebrows ;-)

Monday~BLT's

Tuesday~Turkey Tacos

Wednesday~White Chicken Chili + homemade bread

Thursday~Grilled Salmon

Friday~Pizza

That's as far as I got because I know that I cook whatever I'm craving at the moment, so the menu can't be "planned" for next week yet or it will surely change and then I would feel like I was lying. I keep a handy list of "main dishes" "side dishes" &"desserts" that I have ingredients for, so I just pick a main dish that I'm in the mood for (or have time for) and then figure out which side I'd like. If the kids are lucky I'll even make dessert.

next week we will be having:

meatloaf, crockpot chicken, breakfast for dinner, burgers, pork chops, speghetti, and pizza on Friday.

~Dogs

2008-04-25T10:41:00.003-04:00

Did ya know that yawns really are catchy? Every time I yawn my dog and cat start doing it too lol Did ya really think I could post something without talking about Gunner & Ozzie? My kids will barely let me take pics of them anymore, guess I've crossed that 'Too dang many pictures' line, so I have to take pics of my other babies.

Courtney wanted me to put this pic on for Brooke and Bub. She made her webkinz dog some bone shaped cookies. She wants to submit it to the webkinz site in the craft section.

~My guilty pleasure.....

2008-04-25T08:48:00.003-04:00

MTV heeheehee I've been watching the Real World since year #2. Why stop now? Just because I'm in my 30's? I don't think so. I'll admit that I look at these "kids" thru different eyes now that I'm older. When I was 18 it was like "they look like fun!" now it's more like "stupid kids! what are they thinking?" But when I think about it. Back at the beginning the kids were no where near as Risque` as they are now. The show was much calmer. Or if things were going on, they didn't show it on the show. Back in the day the worst thing that happened was puck ate out of the peanut butter jar after picking his nose (gross!), Jon sat around doing nothing, Dave pulled the blanket off Tami and there were some racial arguments. Now a days they are having sex under the covers on the night vision cams, pole dancing, getting completely utterly drunk, getting arrested and who knows what else. So far I'm liking this years cast, they seem......I don't know, I just like 'em better than the past couple seasons. Even tho they have already started fighting beginning with Kim saying Ghetto to Bri which started a big ol fight. And she's so very southern (columbia SC) that she pronounced it GeT-Toe. Joey is sure to be interesting, he says he's over the the club/drinking/partying thing so he stayed home with the girls and they did mud masks. Greg seems like a pompous jerk but I think he had great negotiating skills in the last episode. My personal favs so far are Sarah & Dave. I used to love Road Rules too--in the beginning they just traveled around working odd jobs like at ice cream shops and alligator farms to make money. It was like Real World on wheels. Lately, it's gotten so goofy I don't even watch...it's just not the same anymore. I do however love the challenges/gauntlets. I love those and I laugh so hard when the new kids call the 'older' cast members grampa/grandma because they are like.....gasp.....34 years old LOL I remember when RR2 had to break into the RWmiami house and steal the 8 ball, I thought it was so cool that they were mixing the 2 different shows. yes, I'm a dork :-) I'm not ashamed to admit that I've seen every episode, probably more than once (in the beginning anyways) and I'm not ashamed to admit it......Ok yes I am!!!

~LOL

2008-04-18T14:27:00.005-04:00

I just can't help laughing when I see these signs. The roads are horrible right now, no, make that Hideous! I feel like I'm in some video game when I'm driving down the road, and the goal is to avoid the pot holes and try to make it home with the car in one piece. Don't shake the bumper off and you get bonus points! I think that by putting these signs up they think it'll somehow make it ok--take the sting off a little. Like we'll say "well, there were signs warning us, so it's ok" HA funny thing is, you can tell exactly where the county line is, because there is literally a line across the road where the OTHER county DOES maintain their roads and it becomes very smooth.

That's the downside to living in the sticks, but with the bad, comes the good. And I will never get over the views we have........... This is my amish neighbors string of gourd birdhouses that they put up and I'm seriously coveting them.....think they'll notice if I steal just one??? :-) One of my other neighbors has a red one, but it's only one and it doesn't have the same impact as a whole slew of them. The neighbors across from these guys also have a dozen or more that are unpainted. They're so pretty!

~Who needs World Market, I've got the Country store :-)

2008-04-17T10:25:00.009-04:00

I had fun at the nearby country store yesterday :-) I was going for a German theme but a few of the things were from Croatia, Switzerland and Greece. The coconut chocolate bar was amazzzzing! I even got a Mothers Day card that's in German. My MIL will like that because she can read it. I had the old german lady that works there translate it for me just to be sure it was in fact a Mothers Day card. It sounded like it had the right amount of sappiness in it so I got it :-) The mustard in a tube is good and the kids think it's funny cuz it looks like a toothpaste. The coffee, the crackers (& swiss cheese), the forest berry jam + the chocolate are all very good. I haven't opened the pickles yet (i'm pretty sure that's what they are even tho I can't read it LOL) I'm so glad the snow is gone so I can get out and explore again and visit some of my favortie places with my MIL

HEINIS http://www.heinis.com/ where you can try all the different cheeses
LEHMANS http://www.lehmans.com/ where it's just fun to shop
AMISH DOOR http://www.amishdoormarketplace.com/category.sc?categoryId=17

and of course Das Dutch Kitchen where they make awesome HUGE creme sticks
and Duane's Uncle Melvins (amish) General Store in Maysville where we (duane's cousins & I) pick on my MIL and buy our meat and cheese, No other state I've lived in has swiss cheese like here :-) I always have a blast there. His cousins are onery. There are lots of fun little places to go that are off the beaten path and not in the tourist brochures. Those places are always the best.

~Finally........

2008-04-16T22:52:00.002-04:00

I FINALLY got a dining room rug. It took quite a few returns and one wrong delivery and lots lots lots of trying to make a final decision, but I've finally got a rug. I called the company to make sure that "midnight" meant black and NOT blue before I ordered it, and they assured me that it was black and even in this pic it DOES look kinda sorta black, but IT'S NOT!!!! If you stare at the "black" long enough you can tell it's navy. But you know, after 5 months of trying to get 'the perfect rug' I just don't care anymore. Just a simple braided rug is fine with me. It's not anything like the one I had ordered from overstock, but sometimes simpler is better. Cuz you know I'm gonna change my mind in 5 month anyways :-) I'm off to go sew something.............

~I just can't help myself!!!

2008-04-10T21:27:00.011-04:00

......... cuz I think they're cute!!! :-)

Don't worry, I'm just kidding-Ozzy was just eating food, not mickey. I'm smart enough to take the hamster out of the food bowl before giving it to the cat. We took the pic of the 3 amigos just now, look how nice they're being!!! Sheesh Mickey looks as big as a guinea pig!!!

~In case of Emergency.......

2008-04-10T19:05:00.003-04:00

Eat this in case of Emergency............( It's all gone, I've needed a bite here and there often the past few days )

Being the brilliant lass that I am, I only buy DARK chocolate so that the kiddos don't get into my emergency stash

~This weeks goodies

2008-04-10T18:58:00.004-04:00

Started a new collection of things on my pie-safe. I found this moonshine jug and brown crock at a vintage shop this weekend. The other crock is from my mom and the brown bowl belonged to my Grandma Marshall. I'm eventually going to have Duane put the brackets on the wall with a board for a shelf. They used to be in a doorway at my old house but they just don't seem to work anywhere here. Then I'll HAVE to buy more goodies to go on the shelf :-) hee hee

~A sure sign it's Spring!

2008-04-10T13:36:00.008-04:00

A sure sign it's spring.....

Blue skies!!!!! That's a big fat clue :-) That and the amish kiddos have been walking to school barefoot. Most of the amish schools are just about done for the year because it's planting time, which also doesn't require shoes.....

Another sign it's spring.....
The sap is running, there are sap buckets and bags (they keep the sap cleaner) all over the woods which look sooooo pretty when it's sunny out because they sparkle! (sorry bout the glare on my windshield) The picture doesn't do the buckets justice at all. There are so many that I can only get a bit of them in the pic at a time. I would pull in and take a 'good' pic but it's too muddy and then I'd have to find some amish dude and his horses to pull my car out. Which reminds me.... I was at the dollar general the other day (seriously, quit laughing, it's the only thing closeby) and this young amish fella was totally checking me out!!! :-) I still got it!!!.... that or he was checking me out cuz I had my hair pulled up in a bun. OK Quit laughing!!!

It must be spring because I've busted my springy green purse out of storage. Yay for color!!!!

~Groundhog Squirrel

2008-04-10T13:24:00.007-04:00

This is our Squirrel, Hammy. He was sooo fat last fall I thought he was a groundhog at first, until I saw him run up a tree! Winter has taken it's tole on him (that or he's been hitting the gym and dieting) as he's slimmed down a bit. But I'm sure he'll plump back up cuz he was eating corn off our porch today. The cat and dog sat by the glass door staring at him, I think they were trying to figure out what he was :-) There were a couple deer out there today too. Good thing Duane wasn't home! I love that it's spring and all the critters are coming out. I found a lil white snake when I was raking but he was too fast for me to catch. I didn't even mind the spider that crawled by my foot when we were fishing the other day. A sure sign that I've been stuck inside too long and winter has made me go pure nutso.

~Gunners weakness

2008-04-10T13:17:00.006-04:00

Be careful if you ever eat pizza at my house. My dog is Coo coo for the crust and he will stare at you like this..... until you give it to him. No manners I tell ya!

~Prayers

2008-04-09T16:02:00.004-04:00

My friend Todd Lockyers baby, Gracie is in the hospital & is in need of our prayers. Her story can be found at http://caringbridge.org/visit/graciejeanlockyer This breaks my heart, Courtney had to have heart surgery when she was 3, putting my trust in the Dr's hands is one of the hardest things I've ever done. I don't even have words to express how I feel for them when I think of this lil 1 month old fighting for her life. My prayers are definately with Todd and his family right now.

~So Creative

2008-03-31T08:43:00.005-04:00

I wondered where all the Pringles cans were disappearing to---now I know. Found these in Courtney's room the other day while cleaning. They seem to be a place for her to keep her littlest pet shop animals :) I didn't realize animals are sorted by season!

The Banana one is funny--she had a little stage and he was singing on it.

The Potato head pic is Cora. Cody's buddy was over and jokingly said he loved Mrs Potato Head so Cora was chasing him around doing kissy lips. The girls had a friend over too and apparently she has a crush on Shane cuz when he arrived she was screaming and hiding and pestering him like 10 year old girls do to 13 year old boys that they think are cute. See why I need those BOYS & GIRLS signs from the last post?!?!?!?!