The Big Catch

Well, Kyle did it again. He insisted I get the camera to capture his BIG CATCH. Joshua was so proud of him. Shhhhhh, don't tell them, but I think that's the same fish Joshua caught in the same pond two weeks ago.

Teeter Totter....Whoa!!!

Doesn't this look like it hurts?






Joshua and Kyle found this absolutely thrilling. Kyle would bounce the teeter totter so hard at the bottom that Joshua would go flying up in the air! Joshua was giggling and laughing the entire time. Too bad my camera battery was low from taking all the pictures at Gene's company Fishing Derby or I would have gotten a small video clip of them. It looked brutal to me.....but they both sure were having fun!

More fishing pics to come! Joshua and Kyle had two fishing derbies this weekend! One was Gene's company derby and the other was our lake association kid's derby...a full weekend event! Both the boys are in contention for a trophy from yesterday. They are out on the lake right now!

Kyle's 15 1/2" Walleye...this puts him in first place as it stands on the board right now!




Both the boys were on the board for their catfish caught yesterday in their age groups, but shortly after this pic was taken....they were both knocked out of third place.


Josh is on the board with his 8 1/2" perch!

Jello Cupcake Treats

Happy Independance Day everyone! I have a great snack for all your get togethers for this upcoming weekend. These are sure to be a hit! I always requested this for my birthday cake as a child.



Jello Cupcake Treats
1 Pkg. French Vanilla Cake Mix (I used Duncan Hines)
Water
Oil
3 Eggs
1 3 oz. Red Jello
1 3 oz. Berry Blue Jello
2 Cups Boiling Water
Cool Whip
Sprinkles to garnish

Mix & bake cake according to directions on the package. I made these into cupcakes but this is great as a 9x13 cake also and a bit easier to prepare. Cool cake for a few minutes. Boil water. Boil water while the cake is cooling. Mix 1 cup of boiling water with one pkg. jello. Poke holes into the top of the cake. I used a fork, but you can also use a toothpick. The deeper you poke the holes into the cake the further the jello will set. Pour jello over the top of the cake. (This was the hardest part for the cupcakes. It was a bit messy and sticky. But it's super easy as a regular cake) Refrigerate cake approx. an hour. Mix 1 cup boiling water with remaining jello. Once cooled, poke more holes into cake. Pour remaining jello over cake. Refrigerate until set (approx. 1 hour). Top with cool whip and garnish with sprinkles.

Birthday Rainbow

Alright, I'll admit it....I cried on my birthday. Gene came home and told me that he had to go back into work at 8PM. Being that he just got home at 8:30 AM and needed sleep...that meant not alot of time to celebrate. I had to take Joshua to a friend's birthday party at noon. So I was bummed.

Gene did get up and took the boys to get me a birthday dinner (aka, pizza and steak subs) and a birthday cake. That was the extent of celebrating my 35th birthday. Gene left for work just as a really nasty thunderstorm was rolling in and all I could think was, "Great....now we'll lose power and I won't even be able to scrap tonight!"

Gene called from work around 8:30 to tell me that there was a phoned in report of a tornado touch down near the plant...he works in a flat glass production. Tornado=disaster. But luckily, it wasn't confirmed and there was no touchdown.

But the highlight of my birthday was this!






God knew I needed some cheering up!

Sassy Hair

In celebration of my 35 years here on Earth....I decided to get a trendy haircut. I've really been liking the whole short in the back and longer in front trend and have seen some really cute hair on some of the other moms at baseball and school. So here it is....straight from the stylist. She straightened it for me. But I can wear this style curly also and she said I could flip the underside to make it a bit different.
So, what do you think?



After getting home and Gene's initial shock (I didn't tell him that I was going today to get it done) I think it's a keeper. We were sitting on the couch watching cartoons and Joshua came over and started "petting" the back of my hair. He was smiling. I think he really likes it....he just came up to me while I was typing and said, "Hey mom, I still like your hair." He's a keeper too!

Now that baseball season is winding down....I have so much to share and hope to be blogging regularly again.

Easter 2008

I realized that I needed to post some of our Easter pics. We colored eggs the night before with an Aunt and two cousins.

This mess....


Produced these beautiful eggs...

That's Aunt Gina's beautiful artwork with Joshua's name....I couldn't find Kyle's for the picture.

Here are the boys with their baskets. They found them rather quickly even though the Easter Bunny thought he hid them cleverly.

They were so excited about their new boots and so was I! Joshua shouted, "Look! I got puddle boots!" These will definetely save me this coming muddy spring!

Before breakfast, the boys relaxed on the couch. I just loved how Joshua was clutching his new stuffed bunny friend he got in his basket. Kyle was playing the new Transformers game he got for his DS while Joshua watched over his shoulder. They were so peaceful and quiet....a Mom's dream!


I was pretty upset that we wouldn't make it to our family dinner this year. But Gene made a beautiful meal for us.


Gene was very thoughtful and brought home this wonderfully yummy Carrot Cake. I had mentioned a few weeks ago that a carrot cake for Easter would be nice. He's such a great husband!


After Gene went to work, the boys and I bundled up and headed out for our first GeoCache hunt. We didn't find the cache, but we did enjoy a beautiful Easter day out in God's Creation.
We seen these deer.


And visited a local tourist spot on the search for the clue to the cache.

New Tooth

Early this morning, Joshua woke and was trying to tell me that he had a big hole in his mouth. At first thought, I was thinking that his first wiggly had fallen out while he was sleeping. But then when he opened his mouth and I got a closer look.

Here is what I saw:

Yup! His tooth is growing in behind his baby wiggler!

Spring Has Sprung!

And to celebrate.....I created a new blog header!

Here is what we woke up to this morning. Not too spring-like, huh?

So....I just loved those tulips in the window and started to take a few shots of them. They were just gorgeous all fully opened. And I thought, what the heck! I'm sure someone could use these for something. Why not give them away on my blog?


So....Happy First Day of Spring to YOU!

*Link Removed*

I'll leave these up until Sunday, so snag them if you think you can use them! I'd love to see what you do with these, so please feel free to send me a link to your work. My contact info can be found within the zip file!

Happy Spring!!!!!

I Scrap!

Yes, really I do! Look at the header up there....this is a scrap blog right? LOL!

I have started to consider myself a collector rather than a scrapper. Sad, really if you think about it. I picked up this sweet collection from Gina Miller & Amanda Rockwell called Shabby Papier.

Gorgeous isn't it? It looks a bit girly, but I assure you there is plenty in there to create "boy" pages as well.

So they have this scrap the stash contest going on right now and I couldn't justify getting that whole collection and not using it, could I?

So here is my first finished layout.

{Full Credits Here}

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I also wanted to share my new March Desktop. Rarely do I put up anything other than the Shabby Princess Desktops shared on her Blog. They are always beautiful and have photo inserts for the kids pics.

But I came across this Rockin' one at a very Funky place and had to d/l it right away. Because it doesn't have photo inserts, I was able to use this at work as well. It just screams S-P-R-I-N-G! I smile everytime I sit down to my desk now!

You can pick this up for yourself HERE and be sure to leave them a little comment when you d/l!

Since I spent the morning scrapping, I better get something done around the house and get out of these comfy clothes. Gene will be home in less than 2 hours. LOL!

Have a great day and I hope the sun is shining where you are.

Spring is near....I can feel it!

It was a gorgeous day here in NW Pennsylvania! Well, as beautiful as you can get in early March. The 12 inches of snow melted almost overnight and the temperatures....well I'll just let you see for yourself.

See that on the lower left hand corner. Yup...that's right 60 degrees at 7PM. That's a very big change from our 0 degree temps last week.

I had to work all day, but was able to get out of the office at lunch to enjoy the warmth. I even left my coat in the car. It felt kind of weird gathering my belongings to leave and not having to lug on my boots and zip up my coat.

Spring is right around the corner! Well....right after we have this winter storm tonight that is. LOL! Oh well....it was beautiful while it lasted. I'll take freezing cold as long as the sun is shining.

A Day of Remembrance

Sorry there's no photos to go with this post today. I would have loved to get a picture of the beautiful bouquet and the roses and also the balloons we sent up to heaven with papa. But Gene specifically stated that this was not something to scrap. So I respected his feelings and didn't take the camera with us.

We planned to go to Papa's grave today and leave flowers with the boys. The florist gave me the idea to release a balloon with a note attached for each of the boys. We could tell them that the God will take the balloon and letter up to heaven to Papa. I loved the idea! Especially for Joshua, Papa has really been on his mind this past month. It's almost as if he instinctively knew that it's been almost a year.

Everything went wrong on the way to Papa's grave. I ordered flowers from my usual florist. She just recently opened up a second location and this new location was on the way to where we had to go, so I had her have the order there instead. Well, apparently she has employed a man who used to have a very successful floral shop in our area but since retired. I think he's lost his touch because nothing was ready when we got there to pick it up.

I ordered on Tuesday. It was supposed to be two red roses (one for each of the boys to place at the grave), two helium balloons and a small bouquet of flowers(for Gene and I to place at the grave).

He headed back to the cooler and asked me if they were going on a grave, then do I need greens. I thought he meant for the two rosebuds. I said no, it's just for the boys to have something to put there. He came out with a pink carnation, a sprig of yellow daisies, a bright red carnation, a sprig of burgandy flowers and put them all on top of each other. He then asked me, "This is going on a guy's grave, right?" I said yes. He got a wide long green ribbon and a thinner orange ribbon. Then tied them around the bunch and presented it to me. No bow, no baby's breath, no greens, no ribbon curling. Nothing. It was horrible looking. I don't usually complain, and I didn't want to hurt his feelings either, so I paid, left and got in the car.

Gene asked me how much they charged and I told him $10.70. He said, we could have done that ourselves for three bucks! I told him that we would put the roses on the grave and release the balloons with the boys letters to papa, but we were going to the other location where the owner was to show her and have her do something else. I mean it was that ugly. Gene didn't want to, since we were already late (he had to work this afternoon) I told him that this wasn't Shelly's work (the floral shop owner) and she needed to know what they were doing at this other location because it was her reputation.

Then we released the balloons. Kyle's went up free and clear. Joshua's brushed past the top of the ONLY tree branch in the area, popped, and hung there at the top of the tree. He started bawling and saying that, now papa wouldn't know that he loves him. Josh had written, LOVE and drew a heart on all four sides of the paper. Gene tried to reassure him that papa knew how much he loved him and started crying himself.

Of course it had to be Joshua's balloon that popped, not Kyle's. Kyle would have shrugged his shoulders and said, oh well....papa knows I love him. But it had to be Joshua's blue balloon.

So we went to grammy's house and I insisted on running over to the florist. I called her first and let her know that I wasn't happy with the flowers I was given. That it was just something I couldn't leave at the grave and we were pressed for time and I also needed another balloon because one had hit a tree and popped. It's a 10 min drive from where I was to the shop.

When I got there, she had a beautiful bouquet with three tulips, pink carnations, purple iris (I think), white and yellow daisies, a single red rose at the top and baby's breath and greens and a beautiful pale green ribbon bow with the ends curled slightly ready to go. It was gorgeous!

I handed her the flowers I was given at the other location and she said, "I can see why you wouldn't leave that at the grave. That's just WRONG! He should know better and we'll have a long talk." She thanked me for bringing it to her attention and wouldn't accept anymore money for the bouquet she made up and the third balloon.

The second trip to the grave went much better. We released Joshua's balloon in the field in front of grammy's house and watched it for a good 5 minutes. Josh had his hands up to his eyes and after a few seconds said, "It's going up to papa!"

Gene and I had a few minutes at the grave alone with the kids in the car. We placed the new bouquet at the headstone and just hugged. It was then that the tears hit me. I wasn't emotional at all until then. I guess when there is so much preparation it's hard to really be still and think about things.

So to sum things up. Be still and know that He is God. It's in those quiet, still moments that He is able to touch your heart. This is something that I've never understood fully. I'm just now beginning to understand the importance of taking quiet moments amist all the chaos and flurry of day to day life.

~Perspective~

I've been nasty lately. Not nice, sometimes downright mean to others. AND I felt "justified" by circumstances. Anyone ever feel like that?

I've been less than understanding with a co-worker, impatient with the kids and Gene (DH), snapped at my mom on the phone (Sorry Mom!), and this morning was the climax of it all....I was horrible to someone I didn't even know WITH the kids in the car.

You see...I have to park my car near the building where I work because the parking lot slants toward the road. My blazer has a crazy little thing it does when you park on a downhill....it won't start with anything below a half a tank of gas. So, I pull into the parking lot this morning WITH the kids in the car because there was another two hour delay at school. Gene plows our lot at work....so I bring the kids in and he'll take them to school when the lot is plowed.

When I realize that off to the side where I usually park....another employee from the business next door has parked her blue car sideways taking up two parking spaces. There was another car parked behind her (the correct way). SO, being in a mean, grumpy mood I parked in the space next to it....directly in FRONT of her car. Good....I'm thinking to myself....now she'll have to get her co-worker to move so she can get out. That'll teach her. I "justified" it by saying it's rude of HER to park that way and this will teach her a lesson.

I proceeded to take the kids into the office and start the day. After Gene left with the kids, I told Dr. that I needed to go move my car because it wasn't very nice of me to leave it where I parked. But apparently she had gotten out and her blue car is parked next to mine correctly this time. So, I go back into the office and tell Dr. that apparently she moved already.

Then Gene calls and he mentions that HE moved the blazer (because he didn't think it was nice of me). When he opened the blazer door to get in....the lady with the blue car from the other office came out and he said he got a "look to kill" glare from her.

So....it doesn't hit me until lunchtime.....that maybe she parked that way because she got here early and didn't want to be in the way while Gene was plowing the parking lot.

I want to thank Kimberly Geswein for THIS (go ahead....click the link, it's well worth the time to read!) entry on her blog, who put this whole thing into perspective for me. Not only this incident, but the way I've been dealing with things over the past few weeks. It's all about "circumstantial joy". Thank you Kimberly, so much for your service to Him and sharing with us. I am humbled and off to go find the lady in the blue car to apologize.

Our View...

from our front window. Totally amazing!

Kyle opened up the curtains when we heard the wind just howling outside like a freight train. This was his view.

He said, "Wow!!! I can't see anything!" It's pretty much a whiteout right now. Visibility is just a few feet in front of you. Here's another pic of our front yard looking out the window.

So, I guess I'll snuggle by the fire.....or maybe just stay in my jammies and scrap today. A new layout is L-O-N-G overdue!

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Poor Kyle
Just a bit after the snowstorm pics...He broke out in HIVES!


After playing downstairs in the family room with the dog, I brought them up because it's just a bit too cold down there. I thought at first it was due to him and the dog playing around. His whole eye was red and started to look rough. As I looked closer, little bumps were forming at the corners of his eye and down his face. Then he showed me his arms....they were full of hives. Poor thing! I gave him benadryl and bathed him....just in case it came from the weeds outside while walking the dog this morning. He'll probably soon be a bit groggy. So he's in his jammies too!

Happy Birthday NANA!!!

Happy Birthday to YOU!!!

Here's some artwork straight from Joshua's pencil to you!
Front

Back


Front

Back


Don't mind the sghetti faces!

We love you NANA!

I hope you had a wonderful fun filled and PAIN FREE day!

SnowTubing

We all headed up to our local snow tubing park and had a blast Thursday night! The boys loved riding down the hill. Even though my tailbone was still quite a bit sore from my fall last Friday, Gene convinced me to ride down twice....on my tummy! Lord, I was praying I didn't roll off the tube on down the hill on my back! LOL!

Funny thing was the tubing park was the ONLY place in our entire county with snow! They had two feet of the beautiful white stuff. And all of it was "made" by the snow guns. We've had some unusually high temps this past week all the way up to 65 degrees, but it dipped back down on Wednsday and they were able to create the snow hill for us to have fun on Thursday.

Here's the hill. You'll notice just beyond the lights.....all green grass! LOL!


Gene


Kyle


Joshua


And there's nothing like a good game of Air Hockey to complete the night! Joshua won!


No there's no pics of me! Gene didn't have the chance to pry the camera out of my hands!

Bad Blogger!!!

I know I should come visit here more often! I promised mom that I'd drop by and share some photos of the boys. It's been awhile since I've shared anywhere. Mom asked if I was sharing my pictures somewhere else than my spot at DST. No mom.....I'm not hiding from you, ok? LOL!

Here's the boys when we put up our tree. They jumped right in the tree box and posed for the camera.


I promised I would share these little photo frames that I made up for decorating this year. I loved these and found them at Wal-mart for only $1.50 a piece!


Here's a few pics from Kyle's school concert. Always the comedian and Drama King he is. He kept hiding from the camera so the video didn't turn out so well. So much for telling him I was taping so Nana and daddy could see later.



Here is our tree on Christmas night. (Just after Santa visited)


I'm ashamed to say that I got absolutely NO photos of the boys dressed in their Christmas outfits or opening presents. But I'm going to take a different approach to scrapping the holidays 2007. I plan to take pics of each of us with our top presents "in use" and showcasing them on a "Year In Review" page. My own take on using a template like that. That's the plan anyway.

And with that.....Happy New Year everyone!!!


I'll be back soon to share some recent snow pics and Kyle's birthday pics. Just as soon as this poor tailbone will let me sit at the computer for a bit.