~Tis the season....Deer season!

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!!!

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.

~Baby Gracie

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!!

~Michigan Labor Day

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

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?

~This week

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.

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

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........

~My guilty pleasure.....

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

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!

~Finally........

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.............

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

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

~petting zoo

Boo Boo the Bear. She was squealing like a pig LOL!!!
I found out she's got pretty sharp claws already when she was trying to climb up onto my head

look i'm britney!! ha ha
This dude weighed a ton! and right before the pic was taken, he kept turning his head to look at me and I asked if he still had his teeth and the answer was yes---that's why i've got a "oh #%*^" look on my face LOL!!!

~yummy surprise

I looked out on the porch to find this yummy, pretty surprise today. As soon as I saw the package I knew who it was from :-) So THANK YOU Anne & Hunter!!!! :-) Courtney has already adopted the cute boxes to play with and I've eaten all the 'candy crack' and I've got minty fresh breath LOL Miss you guys!!!! xoxo

~Snowman/lady

day 1


Our "big snow" snowman......or maybe it's a lady. Cody tried to make a hat out of snow for it's head, but I think it ended up looking more like a beehive hairdo, so perhaps it's a snowLADY.



day 5

I guess it really is a snow "lady" look at those curves! LOL
but she lost her head :-(

~One of THOSE days...

Ah what a day it's been. I found this at plow & hearth for a $130



So I ran to Home Depot (because the roads were actually clear for once yay!) to see if they had anything similar. Low & behold they had almost the same exact thing YaY! For $100 less Yay! And I liked the tools better YaY! So I pick it up, head for the register and get sidetracked like I always do in fun inspiring places like HD. So I walk around carrying this very heavy box under my right arm for like 20-25 mins making my arm go numb. When I finally headed up to check out I don't see any cashiers so I go to the self check out. Here I was trying to scan the akward box and it's not working, my purse falls off the shelf---still not scanning arrrg! Then I hear a cashier say "I can help you over here ma'am" Thanks goodness a real person. But on the way over I drop the box, then pick it up for her to scan and 'bout drop it again. Darn numb arm. Then I go to scan my card and miss (I know! i was thinking "how the heck!?" too) Then I drop my wallet when I go to put my card back in it, bend over to pick it up and dump my purse. I turn all red and say to the cashier "wow it's one of THOSE days, maybe I shouldn't be driving huh?" Then I turned even redder cuz I realize I just sounded like a drunk!!!! So I get home put the thing together, put it on the hearth, stack logs and newspapers on it ...................

and I don't like it. So it's going back :-(
But maybe I'll have Duane take it back. And I'll shop at Lowe's from now on so I don't run into the Home Depot cashier again.....and I'll use a cart so I keep the blood circulating in my arms LOL

I get by with a lil help from my friends

I seriously didn't need help cleaning out the hamster cage but I guess Gunner & Ozzy thought it would be fun. mwahahaha. Thanks, but no thanks guys, I can handle it own my own.
(and i'm sure the hamster thanks me too!)


Today was one of those days that could go either way, depending on Momma's mood. Lucky for my kids I woke up in a great mood. I so badly wanted to get the camera out to document it. It was one of those mornings that was pure Chaos. All 4 of us were in the kitchen at the same time. Duane making coffee, finding his "stuff" to take with him, putting on his boots, me making lunches and breakfast and snacks for courtneys reward day, and writing checks for lunch $, the kids eating and getting shoes on, brushing hair, finding all their school stuff. 1/2 the drawers and cabinets were hanging open as we all rushed around. The dog saw me get the PB out so he ran to get his ball that you fill with PB and was following me around until I did what he wanted. We were all tripping over the cat as he played with some toy that courtney left lying around and he kept getting it stuck under the stove. And I felt absolutely happiness. I knew as soon as everyone left I would be able to clean up the mess and all would be quite around the house, well after the dog and cat settled down. And right now, the cat is on my lap purring and the dog is by my feet sleeping. Pure bliss! And I still haven't cleaned up the kitchen yet LOL The kids will be home in a few hours and we can start the chaos all over again :-)

If only........

If only I had these..............sigh

Two things I want for my "workout" room. I love a good infomercial and these two items have me hooked. I'm positive that I would be a better person because of them (hahaha). I'm not a 'hit the pavement' kind of girl. Duane says all I need is a pair of sneakers to workout, but a runner I am not. I do however love controlled movements and I'll watch the fluidity infomercial over and over and do the ballet moves while holding onto my treadmill (apparently it's to hold on to, not to run on :-)) I would llllllove to have that, but it's $200.

The Ab coaster looks fun to do :-) The closest thing I have to that is swiveling back and forth in my computer chair and for some reason i'm thinking it's probably more fun on the real thing---but the real thing cost $400!!!! Zoiks!

game of the day..............

Hmmmm noone wants to play with me. The game of the day is......
Chuck the Poo!!!! It was a great day to clean up the dog poo in the yard. The snow is gone but the poo is still very frozen...perfect for picking it up and chucking it into the woods. I don't know why Cody, Courtney & Duane didn't want to play with me, I mean, I had plastic gloves to wear and what's not fun about chucking frozen dookies into the woods? hmm? Oh well More Poo for me :-)