Slight setback

After a day and a half of torrential downours, our driveway project is at a temporary standstill. PapPap is still breaking up old asphalt in the rain, but the Bobcat scheduled for Saturday will have to wait- this won't be dried out by then. :( Now I've seen complete homes on Extreme Makeover built in weather condidions like this- come-on guys, are you going to let a little rain stop you??? Let's keep the momentum going-- just kidding!!! It's only a couple of more days :)

Boy oh boy could the children have fun in that- if only I'd let them out :)

BUSY Weekend!!!!!

Wow- I don't think we could have packed any more into the weekend!

Happy belated Anniversary to us! Our night's stay at the Seven Sisters Bed and Breakfast was wonderful!! It's a beautiful B&B, with gorgeous falls and mature woods surrounding the home. Check them out at http://www.sevensistersbandb.com We were served a 3 course delicious breakfast in their sunroom, over-looking the woods. You would never guess there is a 20 foot waterfall behind the home. There is some really neat history behind the home- very inspiring to us, as some day we'd LOVE to run a B&B.

I'm a flower lover, and they had plenty of beautiful arrangements!

We stayed in the room with a jacuzzi- for some reason my picts of it didn't come out- they are all fuzzy :(, but as you can see the room was beautiful! And girls-- the bath products are spa quality and the bed sheets- fine quality super-HIGH thread-count luxury!!! You can even purchase the skin-care products from the hostess. Hey Carrie- now that's my idea of roughing it - ha ha!!!

We had a very relaxing Anniversary- thanks Mom and Tony, and our hosts Gene and Jayne!! It was awesome!!

When we returned to Grandma and Tony's, the neighbor girls made the children's day~ They brought over their miniature horses and Elizabeth and Jacob went crazy! NO Tony, There's NO room at the INN!!!

Can't have all work and no play- had to squeeze in some time for more toys.

And for our return home-- drum roll please...... this was awaiting us- it's a mess, but it's progress!!!! (I'm the kind that has to have VISUAL progress :) How's this for a start, Lauri????

And my garden is growing!!!! It's NEVER looked like this- I'm quite proud! The bobcat driver - (I won't mention any names Dave) did have a slight mishap and caved the corner in, but we'll accept that. ;) So many things happening!! Have to get back to work~ Have a great week!

Over the Hills We Go To Grandma's House

Having a great 'work' weekend at Grandma's house- if you could call it work. OK- Mark has been working like crazy, and we girls have been... relaxing :) There has been many breaks for 4-wheelers...

And ice-cream... Jacob DOVE, literally, into Tony's bowl-repeatedly. Now that was a funny sight!

Elizabeth snuggled right up with Grandma- we finally saw High School Musical- I was beginning to feel like the only American who had no idea what that was. Another hit with the girls.

Even Jacob and Elizabeth got right into the action- what big helpers!!!

It's a little small for you Mark :)

Even Jacob has to have his own toy~ what's scary is he can drive it already~

There's just something about sleeping children at night- so peaceful!

Mark and I are off to celebrate our Anniversary- 12 years- yikes, time flies!! Grandma and Tony are sending us to a Bed and Breakfast -we're going to leave VERY quickly in case they change their minds. ;)

And... I have word from home that the driveway is pretty much nonexistent, thanks to some heavy machinery- CAN'T wait to see that when we arrive home- I'll definitely be posting those picts!!!

It has begun!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go Elisha!!! He has removed the first brick of a mini- mini- mini- step in our 'possible' remodel/addition project! It brough tears to my ears to finally see some progress being made in that direction yesterday! This is the beginning of 'mini-phase 1' as I've been informed many times by Mark and his Dad -mini being the key word here. They think I'm going to get too excited or ahead of myself or something. I wouldn't do that!!! :) I just happen to know that when they start something they go all out and one thing leads to another .... and another ...... and ....... :) !

If I could just get him this excited over math or piano practice!

Only one day later and there you have it- wall gone! See guys, that wasn't too bad-- now let's move all of that effort to the back of the house - dig, dig, dig! Step by step ......... I'd make a great foreman- I think I'll just go ahead and appoint myself that title :)

When your tent springs a leak...

Build your own Bridge To Terabithia!

The children's tent date and movie night with Daddy had to be moved indoors do to inclement weather. Actually, they were going to brave the weather and go out anyway, but the tent decided it has had enough of staying up all summer, and protested by making things a bit wet -on the inside. Guess it decided to give up against the storm dumping buckets of rain earlier in the night ~seriously - I'm talking the 'I ran from the car to the house and would have been dryer if I had just stepped out of the shower' kind of rain! -and that really happened >:I ! Anyway, the night's feature - Bridge to Terabithia is now the children's new favorite movie. Only Daddy could turn a ruined outdoor tent night into magic by transforming the office into the children's own Terabithia indoor tent.

Daddy made them promise not to look~

And awaiting them was their forest of blanket enchantment.

Complete with old Christmas lights and light sticks!

Daddy to the rescue- he saves the night!

Swimming Lessons

Elisha and the girls LOVE swimming lessons and have been waiting for months until today finally arrived. Even amidst the chaos of our wonderful local Community Center (that could be an entire blog in itself), they still managed to have a great morning. The pool is not heated so they got a bit chilled, but kept on going anyway~

Princess Swimmers

I'm not sure if you could really call Elizabeth's time swimming lessons- she spent the morning being pulled around by a young man, and then carried around by the girl instructors. Talk about wrapping people around your finger- she's the best with that one!!

8 Things About Me

8 Things about Me My friend Carrie tagged me for this several days ago ~ thanks soooo much ;) I've been trying to think of 8 things for days now ~I'm just not that exciting of a person! :)

The rules: Each player lists 8 facts or habits about themselves; the rules of the game are to be posted first; at the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and goes to their blogs to leave a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged. So here goes:

1. I'm a bit of a perfectionist. In high school I would have rather failed a test than to receive a 99%.

2. I was NEVER an athlete- had NO athletic bone in my body- that's why the karate training is COMPLETELY out of my world and really working of my confidence.

3. Always thought I would end up old and alone- never finding that 'soul mate' ~guess the 4 children and family of 7 members in our house rules that one out :)

4. I'm scared to death of being alone when it's storming, especially at night. So much so, I'm pretty much paralyzed with fear and still known to hide under the covers if no one is around. Maybe I'll have to go see a professional to figure that one out.

5. When I met Mark at USAirways, he called me and said he just didn't have time for me. I said 'OK'. We were married 7 months later.

6. My favorite TV shows growing up were the A-Team and MacGyver. "I love it when a plan comes together!"

7. I LOVE to travel- warm places preferred. Just say the word and I'm there- in a world of no money worries, no children issues, or responsibilites to tend to of course. Now, as for tent camping- not too sure of that- ha ha Carrie! I just like a warm bed. :)

8. It drives me absolutely NUTS when people chomp gum and chew food with their mouths open.

OK- there you have it- that wasn't too painful and I hope I didn't bore you all too much! The only problem with this game is I only know of a few blogs, and they've already been tagged, except for Chuck. So if you're reading this~ consider yourself tagged!! And Chuck,"TAG, You're It!!"

question of the day

We've been talking and talking about where we would move if we could go anywhere we wanted to (don't worry Mom- this is purely hypothetical.) I love the heat (moderate) beaches and palm trees, Mark the mountains. We've heard Florida can be really 'buggy' (but we'd love to work at Disney), and I'm not much of a winter snow person. As we sit totally undecided on our hypothetical question, we're passing it to you- if you had no job concerns, no money concerns, no family concerns, and could go anywhere you wanted to- Where would you live in the US?

5 kids and the Chocolate Factory- what a week!

We've had quite a week here visiting with our family from the west!! The children had a blast and are quite sad today because their playmate is gone :( (So is Mommy) One of the week's highlights:

The Chocolate Factory!

Mark is blessed to work with one of the family members owning Anderson's Candy in Baden, PA -(the best chocolate around I must say!) and she was so gracious to give us a tour complete with making our own chocolate lollypops and krispie treats- YUM! YUM! Thank you Mary- it was a super-fun tour!!!

Oh man ~I could take a bath in that! Elizabeth could disappear in there- and LOVE every minute :)

It doesn't get any fresher than this! Before:

And After: This look sums it up- 5 kids in a chocolate factory full of goodies in their belly- makes for one WOUND UP afternoon! Second big highlight for the guys (other than rides in the Mustang - including taking an hour to get one pie crust for mom at a store that is 5 minutes away-a little detour eh Mark?):

Catching Fireflies! Took quite a while, but finally they got one~

Boys and their treaures! Thanks for the great week guys! Come back SOON!!

Good Old Backyard Family Fun

Water Balloon Fight Time!

There is nothing like a good old water balloon toss-today's game included Daddy firing the water bombs from the front yard, over the house to the kids waiting in the back yard. The children are having a great time with their cousin from the West. We aren't sure if we're going to let them go back home!!!!!! Hope you are all having a great weekend~ the weather here is absolutely beautiful- a PERFECT weekend!!!

Dear Friends and Dearly Departed Monty

What a gorgeous day to relax with great friends and enjoy a picnic! We all had a fun day playing under the shade of the oak tree and feasting on pb & j.

We also had a ceremony of sorts.

Dearly Departed Monty ~the pet that never was~ has left us. It's official: the praying mantis people said if he hasn't hatched yet, he will not. We must now wait until December to try again (but don't worry, that sack will be free of charge). I had to see what was inside the sack- so we had to crack him open-

The inside was just pretty much dried out eggs.

Had to make a makeshift cross from pretzel sticks for his grave.

Mark then burried the pretzel cross, so had to make anther one from sticks.

Monty

2007 - 2007

R.I.P

You Will Be Missed! ~thanks Bennet's for just being there for us and for Monty~ ;)

Here are some more picts from our fun day!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Wow! I blinked and the week is more than half over- been a busy one for sure!

Thought I'd show you my beautiful work of art- for now that is. (Yes- we must give Mark credit for prepping the work of art with the tiller.) After attempting this garden thing for 4 years now, and having NO luck yet, the following is this year's attempt. So far, so good- but we'll see what happens as there are some little critters that have figured out how to get inside the fence. Hopefully they will save some goods for me! I'll keep ya posted!

Hey- maybe Monty can view this from his pod, and maybe he'll want to come out and play too-in his own environment- that STUPID praying mantis- doesn't he know what he's missing???? Maybe he's afraid of me now and knows that I could end his helpless, pathetic life with one squeeze of my thumb- nah--- I wouldn't do that--- IF YOU WOULD JUST HATCH ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;)