The Gibson Gazette:

Project 365+1 first 2 weeks or so...

2012-01-19T18:49:00.002-05:00

I started doing project 365 in 2007. If you do not know what project 365 is, it is a photo for every day of the year. You take 1 photo every day for 365 days (this year it is 366 because of the leap year, thus the "project 365+1 title) and each photo is suppose to tell the story of your day that day. Then at the end of the year you have a years story in pictures. Pretty cool I think. I never finished due to some photos getting accidentally deleted. Every year since I have decided not to do it because I thought, it's too much work to do it and then be devastated if something happened to them before the year was up. Then 2 years ago I tried doing Project 52 which is one photo a week for the entire year. I did not keep up with that either. I am such a slacker!

Anyway I decided this year I better stop being lazy and just get back on the horse and do it because it is a special year since it is a leap year. Good a year as any to start again right? So every week or two I will post my photos for you all to see. I PLAN to scrap them at some point but I doubt that will ever finish that but I will at least try. I have also decided to give it a try again this year because I am hoping that it will help my memory. Because of my memory problems though, there will be days I forget to take a picture. I am just hoping as I get farther into the year, I will forget less and less.

I have already forgotten a few days so when I forget a day I will just skip it and you will know by the dates. Here we go.

1-1-12 I didn't think I had a photo for this day and I was pretty upset because the first day and I already forgot. Then a few days later I was looking at my photos and found this one that I had taken on the 1st! We got Rebekah an XBox 360 with Kinect for Christmas and this game. It's a cute game but she couldn't get it to work because you need to straighten your arms in the game. So I took a picture of it thinking we could sell it online. I wrote to the company first but figured if they didn't reply (which they did and told me to contact a different department about it, way to pass the buck) we could just sell it.

1-2-12 We have the most annoying squirrels! We thought that maybe they would be less of a problem after we had one of our trees taken down (it was dieing) but they are still up to their old tricks. This is the second trash can they have destroyed.

1-3-12 Rebekah's first day back to home school after Christmas break. I thought I would see if she could spell a few simple words since she was starting to sound things out over the break. So I said "spell cat" and she wrote each letter while saying their sound. She did cat, dog, log, pig and I think pot. It's hard to see because it's a dark paper and she used a pencil.

1-4-12 Forgot this day

1-5-12 First snow! Or at least the first snow of the new year since I think we did get another dusting before this one.

1-6-12 Isaiah is a climber. John built a stand for the TV and Wii so it was tall and sturdy and he couldn't climb it or pull it over but then Isaiah started stacking pillows and getting high enough that he could reach the Wii and DVD player and John had to come up with a new solution especially since we had added the XBox and Kinect to the mix. This is what he came up with and it has worked GREAT!

1-7-12 The kids and I have been sick and this day was my worst day. Isaiah stayed in his jammies all day. These were actually a fresh pair I put on him after he woke up.

1-8-12 Second Sunday sick. Last week I slept instead of watching church on TV but this week John had it all set up for me and I watched church on TV with the kids while John went to church. I love that our new church has their services live online so we can watch when we are sick.

1-9-12 I got a picture for this day but I am not going to post it online. It's something personal for just us. It was a thank you we got in the mail.

1-10-12 This was the first time Isaiah has ever eaten a peanut butter sandwich whole instead of opening it and licking out all the peanut butter.

1-11-12 We got our Christmas card from my parents in the mail today! Isn't this card super cute! It's 3-D.

1-12-12 I swore I took a picture this day but I can not find it ANYWHERE so maybe I didn't.

1-13-12 Rebekah doesn't usually let Isaiah have her DS, in fact she freaks out if he gets his hands on it, but today she actually let him play it and even tried to teach him how to use it. He just liked moving a glowing ball around the screen with his finger. Little bugger has figured out that he can unlock my iphone by sliding the bar and since I have a password on my phone he can get into the emergency call option much easier. Anyway back to them playing DS together. It was cute!

1-14-12 I made my first crochet heart. I have been wanting to make one and I finally did. I decided to make one for Rebekah to wear in her hair for Valentine's day. It's actually darker red than this picture. You will see in a couple more pictures.

1-15-12 Rebekah likes to make cards. She draws on paper and then folds it in half and says that it's a card. Today she made one for John and she spelled Dad all by herself! When she gave it to him we saw it said DAD and asked her what it said and she said "dad". Then we asked her how she knew how to spell that and she said "I sounded it out." and then she sounded it out for us.

1-16-12 John had the day off and we decided to run some errands. One of them was to pick some clips up from Brandie so I could make some barrettes. I kicked myself after we left and I realized my photo of the day SHOULD have been of Lilianna! Instead I took a picture of the barrettes that I made that day from the clips she got for me. Now you can see how dark the red heart really is.

1-17-12 I really do not like stink bugs! I looked up at the ceiling while sitting at my computer and found this guy. I got up to get his picture and he looked like he was about to pounce on me! I went into the other room to get something and when I came back, he was gone. That freaked me out. about an hour later I found him crawling on my keyboard! UGH! After that he found himself in the trash can.

1-18-12 Isaiah is a funny sleeper. That's all I have to say about this one.

1-19-12 Today after we did school, Bekah wanted me to draw a picture with her. She drew most of it. I only drew the lightning bolts because she didn't know how. Not my best work lol.

Now I am all caught up. Not a single one of these photos was taken with my SLR. All of them were taken with my cell phone or one of our point a shoot cameras. My goal is to break out my SLR more often. Not sure when that will happen though because like I said, I am lazy.

Are you doing Project 366 or 52 this year? I think some people even do project 12. You guessed it! It's one photo a month lol.

A Tribute to the coolest small town I have ever lived in!

2012-01-19T11:14:00.000-05:00

Budget Travel is having a vote to see what small town is the coolest. A small town called Hammondsport in New York is on the list! So is Cape May, NJ, but Hammondsport is way smaller and is actually in the lead!

"Readers nominated a record 647 towns this year – and now we’ve narrowed that list down to just 10 standout communities across the country. Read all about them, and then vote for your favorite! You can vote once daily, so be sure to get all your votes in before the contest closes on January 31st."

You can vote HERE. Hammondsport is the 5th one down. Cape May is the 2nd one down. They even have a video you can watch. The video shows off some parts of Hammondsport and talks about Keuka Lake (a lake I used to swim in when we lived in Hammondsport, within walking distance from our house.) and the Curtiss Museum. I remember that museum from when I was a kid. Very cool. It shows a few views from the Bully Hill Winery, a great winery in Hammondsport. They make excellent wine.

We didn't live in Hammondsport very long, only about a year, but I do have some very fond memories from living there. It is a tourist town so the summers are filled with strangers but the up side of that is all the quaint shops down town. I love small quaint shops and Hammondsport was filled with them. I also remember the craft shows in the town square. I used to love to walk around and look at all the artistic craft booths.

So please help Hammondsport win by voting for them everyday! I have been voting everyday. I watched as Hammondsport pulled ahead of Weaverville, CA and take the lead! Right now Weaverville is at 23.1% and Hammondsport is at 23.9% so Hammondsport is just squeaking by! Please help push them further ahead and help this town become America's Coolest small town! I am sure the small business owners will appreciate the extra business that this publicity will bring them if they win! Voting ends Jan 31st!

A Gibson family Christmas

2012-01-05T16:28:00.002-05:00

This year for Christmas we stayed in New Jersey and we spent it with John's side of the family.

Christmas eve after the children went to bed John and I got to work putting the tree and presents that were behind the locked gate in the kitchen in the living room so the kids would see it when they woke up.

I went into the kids room to wake them up and send them out. I woke Rebekah up first and told her it was Christmas. She said "I know" and I pointed to the bedroom wall and said that on the other side of that wall was the tree and all the Christmas presents. I told her to smile because daddy was going to take her picture when she walked out the door and I sent her off. This is how she came out.

She didn't even look at the tree or notice the presents lol. She went straight to the couch and curled up there. I moved on to Isaiah. I woke him up, changed his diaper and sent him out. This is how he came out.

We had a yule log going on the TV.

Then we let the kids open their stockings. They loved opening each thing. It was very exciting and they hadn't even gotten to the big presents yet lol.

We let them open a few presents but not all of them because we were going out to eat with some of John's family.

Both of those gifts were actually from John's sister Carol and her family. She sent the kids each 2 gifts. All 4 gifts were a huge hit. Isaiah got a animal car ramp and a Sid the Science kid doll. He is really into cars and he adored that Sid doll. Rebekah got 2 Pet Shop toys, this one and one that had 3 babies in a pod. She adores Pet Shop and was thrilled to add more to her collection. We got her a bunch of Pet Shops for Christmas too but Aunt Carol's were better lol.

Then we got the kids dressed and ready for breakfast with some of John's family. A few of John's cousins, their children and John's dad were all there. We took up 4 huge tables and had at least 2 waiters.

Hi Ronald! hehe. This picture was taken with either a point and shoot or John's cell. I can't remember. We took up that booth over to the left there, the table with Ronald, that middle table that was filled with all John's cousin's children, The table behind Ronald and then the far table where you can see me peeking around in the back right corner there. It was a very nice breakfast with family.

After breakfast we came back home and the kids opened the rest of their presents. They played with their new toys for a while and then it was nap time while I started dinner and desserts.

Isaiah wanted to open all the presents even Rebekah's. She was nice enough to let him "help" her open some of hers. It was pretty cute.

This was Rebekah's big gift this year. It was going to be her 5th birthday present and her home made kitchen set was suppose to be her big Christmas present but we decided hiding that big thing from her till Christmas would be too hard so we swapped the gifts and gave her the kitchen set for her birthday and the XBox 360 and Kinect for Christmas. We also got her Once Upon a Monster but due to her handicaps she can't do much in the game. I wrote to the company but they have not gotten back to me.

This was Isaiah's big gift this year. He LOVES cars and has a ton so we thought this was appropriate. Rebekah loves it too.

My mom got the kids these cute hats. Rebekah LOVES her Angry Birds hat and wants to wear it every time we leave the house.

Isaiah with his Sid doll. It was his favorite gift. He was fascinated with it. They got tons more things but way too many to mention.

After Isaiah woke up from his nap, John's dad came over for dinner, dessert and one of the movies the kids got for Christmas, Cars 2.

The kids were really blessed this year with lots of presents from family and friends. Thank you everyone for a great Christmas! We hope that you had a blessed Christmas as well.

Our Christmas Newsletter

2011-12-20T10:55:00.000-05:00

My friend Laura posted her fun Christmas Newsletter on her family blog and I thought it was a great idea since I have always wanted to write one but never end up doing it. I never even end up sending Christmas cards. The amount of Christmas cards we get in the mail has dropped over the years, probably due to me never sending one back. So this is me trying to make up for that. I hope that more of my family reads this than actually comments because this is my family blog meant for family to read.

We have had a very full and busy year this year! We started out the New Year with my family in NC. We had visited for Christmas and stayed into the New Year. It was nice being able to stay for 2 weeks instead of our usual 1 week. January 2nd while we were in NC we dedicated Isaiah to the Lord.

John replaced my engagement ring and wedding ring which I lost when I was pregnant with Rebekah, and several months later, Isaiah lost my replacement rings. I am almost positive that they fell behind my new desk. It is very big and heavy but one day when it is moved I am sure it will reveal my replacement rings.

I had hernia surgery. Not much to say about that.

Our very dear friends Brandie and Ralph found out they were having a girl! They found out in a very cool way. They had a gender reveal party and nobody but the baker knew the sex of the baby until we all bit into the cupcakes and saw pink. It was a very amazing moment.

Isaiah turned 1 and Rebekah turned 5!

We went to the aquarium as many times as we could to finish up our season passes and then we bought season passes to the discovery museum. The children love both places so it will be hard deciding which season passes we will be renewing this coming year.

Isaiah celebrated his first Easter and although the morning weather wasn't that great we still managed to have an Easter egg hunt in the house. It seemed like Isaiah knew exactly what to do as he went straight for his eggs. Rebekah found all her eggs (which were hidden a little better than Isaiah's) and they both enjoyed their Easter baskets. We took the kids to a playground to play and John took Rebekah to the Easter play at a local church.

Isaiah went to his first Shriners appointment and Dr. Kozin explained the x-rays to us. He explained how Rebekah and Isaiah were different. I am still a little confused as to how. I won't get into all that though, just that we went to Shriners and Isaiah had x-rays.

I started to teach myself how to crochet. I have learned alot in the short amount of time that I have been learning it and was able to make a few Christmas gifts! I still struggle with some patterns and I still make many mistakes but I am learning and I am pretty proud of all that I have learned in such a short amount of time.

John and I celebrated 10 years of marriage together! We decided that it was a big one and we should celebrate in a big way. We couldn't decide if we would go on a family cruise or spend a few days kid free. We decided on the kid free one. We drove up to NY and spent a couple days with John's sister Carol and her family and then she graciously watched the kids while we went by ourselves to Lake George! One of those kid free days was our actual anniversary and we went on a lunch cruise (minus the lunch part) up the lake and back. It was beautiful. After our few days in Lake George we went back to Carol's and stayed another night before heading home right when Irene was hitting NY but was finished in NJ. We were thankful to come home to a house that was still standing. This is what started our decision process of having the tree out front taken down. So glad that we did because it was rotting.

Our dear friends Brandie and Ralph had their precious baby girl Lilianna! She is such a cutie and oh so loved!

Most of our summer was spent at playgrounds, the Cape May Zoo, the Discovery Museum, and playing outside. One of John's co workers even gave us free passes to a local amusement park so we took the kids there one day. Then in the fall we decided to do something about our degrading gravel driveway. We got it asphalted and have been very happy with the result. The kids love playing out on it. I can't wait till summer so they can enjoy it more. It will make shoveling this winter much easier too!

Sadly we had to give up Fantasia. We realized that Rebekah's eczema was allergy related and her biggest allergy was Fantasia. Although Maltese's are suppose to be hypo allergenic, they are not. They are only LESS allergenic than regular dogs because they shed less which makes for less dander, which is what people are actually allergic to. They still have it, just less of it. I started looking for a rescue that would take her because I did not want to take her to a shelter. We knew with her health issues (Addison's) and her age, she would have been put down right away. So I started calling Maltese rescues. None were taking on new dogs so I had to branch out and look for other rescues that would take her. I really did not want to give her up so I wasn't in a rush to find her a new home. Honestly I was taking my time and stalling over the whole thing because it was breaking my heart. Then one of the rescues gave me the phone number of a rescue in North Jersey. I called and she talked so fast she hardly gave me a chance to talk. I felt so rushed. She asked if we thought about putting her down and I broke down and cried on the phone. She said ok and gave me an address to meet her in North Jersey the very next day! WOW talk about FAST! So We got Fantasia bathed and got her things around, took pictures of us together with her and the next day we drove to North Jersey to meet the woman who was going to take her. It was a very hard day for us all.

John has been reconnecting with his family via Facebook. I love Facebook! It's such a great way to reconnect and keep in touch with family, friends and loved ones!

Sadly John has lost a couple people dear to him. First he lost someone from his past who was a big influence on him when he was growing up. Then even more recently he lost one of his uncles.

Our search for a new church is finally over! I can't even remember how long we have been looking for a home church. We have been visiting churches over the past few years but none really clicked. Then one of John's cousins recommended his church to us but I was hesitant because we have driven by this church many, many, many, times and it looked so small and their tiny parking lot was always PACKED! We drove by this church every Sunday on our way to our old church and every Sunday that church always seemed so crowded. John's cousin works in their sound booth and told us that they stream the morning service online so we checked it out. It clicked right away! We were so in love. We continued to watch online for many weeks because the kids were usually sick or something or other would prevent us from physically going. We finally went and it was even more amazing than just watching online. It is such a great church filled with great people. I love that we can still do church even when we are sick because we can watch online and not really miss a week.

We are looking forward to Christmas with the children this year. We are going out to breakfast with some of John's cousins and his dad so I will get to meet more of John's family. We had to get a small Christmas tree this year because Isaiah is a little too destructive to have a normal size tree in the living room. So we have a small tree up on some boxes in the kitchen and it is already packed with the kids gifts under and around it. I am looking forward to another wonderful year with my family.

Things I would have added ...

John is now working on another part of a book - his final revision is due by the end of the month.

We purchased all sorts of furniture this year, that our son has made us replace. So many of our remodeling efforts have been halted at time by a creative and strong boy. (1 bunk bed broke, molding on the door frames, and more I just can't recall them all lol)

John had a lot of new things he learned how to do this year like replacing an EGR valve, upgrading a van's stereo system with a custom kit, and building my first crude entertainment center.

Books

2011-12-16T11:26:00.003-05:00

Isaiah is a destroyer of books. I had to put them all away after he destroyed a number of them. I brought some of them out recently and he LOVES them. He is always reading or asking me to read to him. It's great but now I don't know what to do with them. He still rips them apart but not as much as he used to. I think he has only broken 2 books since I brought them out last month.

Today while cleaning I found the perfect place for them! Isaiah saw me putting them there and decided to help. He went and got all the books he could find and neatly placed them how I was placing them. It was so sweet and I was so happy. Then I walked away to see what Rebekah was doing in the kitchen (she was making loud noises) and I came back to this.

You can also see that he has ripped part of the counter top as well. And ignore the messy carpet I was cleaning so I could vacuum in there.

Spider monkey

2011-12-05T11:14:00.001-05:00

We saw Isaiah taking stuff from the top of the dresser that we wanted to hide from him:

So we cleared off the top dresser and he still wanted to go up...

...

We purchased proper locks, he broke them, we ended up using duct tape to keep the dresser closed, frustrated, he decided to climb them instead... now we have to disable the dresser completely to keep him from climbing the front face of it... I fear we have the making of a spider monkey. :) When the kids get a little bit older our house can start looking normal again I hope. :)

Almost done!

2011-11-29T19:32:00.001-05:00

Rebekah's play kitchen is almost done! Well done enough to say it's finished for her birthday anyway lol. I made some mod podge and put on the printed burners and I laminated a picture from Flicker and added it to the frame. John screwed the frame into place for the window and added the laminate for the "wallpaper" on the back wall. After the mod podge dries I will use clear laminate to make sure the burners stay in place since Isaiah likes to sit there. Then we have to attach the oven rack shelf and add some hooks that John bought. Oh and we added a light above the sink and one inside the fridge yesterday. Rebekah was thrilled with the lights. The fridge light already broke so we will have to replace it.

At a later date I will be adding better burners. These will do for now.

We bought some wooden play food items during the Sears Essentials closing sale and I will be wrapping those for her to open on her birthday. One of her Christmas gifts came in the mail today as well and it's a toaster. She was just asking me today if she could have a toaster for her kitchen set so I am glad we bought it for her. We got it during the Black Friday sale on the Toys R Us webpage. It was half price! She will be waiting till Christmas to open that one though.

The play kitchen

2011-11-28T20:54:00.001-05:00

We decided to switch Rebekah's big birthday present with her big Christmas present so that she can get her play kitchen set sooner. We had to bring it into the house due to the chance of rain tomorrow. Her birthday is December 1st so that gives me a few days to finish her kitchen set. She and Isaiah have been playing with it ever since we brought it into the house even though it's not finished yet. Here are some updated pictures.

If I had to do it over I would not have used "hammered chrome" for the fridge and stove/oven.

The inside of the fridge.

Stove knobs and inside of the oven.

I am going to put peel and stick laminate across the back wall behind the sink and stove and we are adding an oven rack inside the oven. John is going to add a hide a panel below the sink. Then I am going to mod podge pictures of stove burners to the top of the stove and then I am going to cover it with clear laminate.

It's not the best looking play kitchen out there but we made it ourselves and the kids love it so I am happy with it. I can't wait till she opens her play food for her birthday! She has been asking for food to cook on her new kitchen set lol. So far all she has is a pot and little wooden salt and pepper shakers. Oh and that small cutting board Isaiah is sitting on.

We are also adding tap lights above the sink and in the top of the fridge and some hooks for her to hang things from. Plus a picture frame and a picture as a "window".

Progress of the play kitchen

2011-11-27T19:29:00.001-05:00

The play kitchen is looking so cute! I need to paint the fridge door and touch up the chrome paint. Then John just has to put the door handles on and I have to mod podge some stove burners onto the stove top and print a picture to put into a picture frame and add it as a "window". Then I need to have John attach the "window" somehow. Anyway the pictures don't show the back put on or the fridge door on or the little pulls John added for the stove knobs. I will take more pictures tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last nice day before the rain comes. We need to bring it into the house tomorrow before it gets dark so I will mod podge the oven door and stove burners after it's in the house. I will just finish up the painting outside.

These pictures were all taken from our living room window so they aren't the best quality. I will bring the camera outside tomorrow to get better pictures and some from the front. I can't take anymore pictures from the window since the back is on now.

Here's a picture of John painting it.

And here's a picture of the sink! My favorite part so far.

Rebekah's big Christmas gift

2011-11-25T19:52:00.001-05:00

A while ago I saw these super cool play kitchens made from old entertainment centers on Pinterest. I knew that I wanted to make one for Rebekah if I ever saw an old entertainment center that I could use. I decided it could be Rebekah's Christmas gift, so I decided to search Craigslist and Freecycle for an entertainment center. I didn't really have much luck for a while because the entertainment centers were either way too big, too heavy because they were made of solid oak, or the person was asking WAY too much money for it. I finally found one that I thought would be PERFECT! The only problem was my budget for the entire project would have been almost completely taken up at the price she was asking for the unit. So I emailed her and offered her $15 less than she was asking. I did not get a reply for a couple days so I emailed again telling her what I wanted to do with it and offering only $10 less than she was asking. Again no reply. So I asked my dear friends Brandie and Ralph if they could email her and offer her the same amount I was offering $10 less than what she was asking. They got no reply either. Then I found a different one. It wasn't 100% what I wanted like the other one but it was only $25! Only problem was this one was a much farther drive so we decided to pass and keep looking. Well the guy who wanted to sell it emailed me and told me we could meet at his parents house which was closer to us than he was. So we said yes! Then Ralph called us and told us that the woman got back to him and accepted his offer and said someone else was interested so whoever could pick it up first could have it. Except she never emailed me back. I decided to not take hers though because although it was closer and it was only $5 more than the one we arranged to get and it was actually closer to the type I wanted, I had already promised the other person I was going to buy theirs. Besides, I would have had to do all arrangements through Brandie and Ralph because she NEVER EMAILED ME BACK! Still upset about that.

Anyway we have arranged to pick up the entertainment center tomorrow morning! I am SO EXCITED!! Here is a picture of the one we are getting.

And here is a link to a blog post of a kitchen set made with this type of entertainment center.

PB & Joy Entertainment Center to Play Kitchen

The other Entertainment center looked more like the one in this blog post

Giggleberry Creations!

I wanted the other entertainment center because I could have made a full fridge and freezer as opposed to just a fridge on the upper part of the piece. Rebekah won't mind though and she won't even know the difference lol. She will just be thrilled to have a play kitchen.

We decided this type will be better because all the store bought ones we looked at Isaiah would have knocked over in no time at all and it would have just become dangerous. An entertainment center will be bigger and heavier and harder to knock over. John is afraid he will climb into the sink area and he might, but I am hoping he decides it more fun to PLAY with it than climb it. haha wishful thinking maybe.

So keep your eye out for more blog posts about this because I am sure I will be blogging about it more. I need to keep motivated so I will get it done in time for Christmas!

Pink Fluffy Unicorns

2011-11-21T19:44:00.001-05:00

There is a video on You Tube called Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing on Rainbows and it is pretty lame lol, but my kids LOVE it! Rebekah asks if she can watch it over and over and over and over till you are so sick of it you want to stuff cotton in your ears.

Our friend Vib showed it to John and John showed it to me, in front of Rebekah.

If you want to view it I warn you to watch it when your children are not around, especially if you have little girls who are obsessed with unicorns!

Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing on Rainbows

Rebekah will actually answer the questions in the video every. single. time. It's actually pretty funny.

Here are a few pictures of my kids enjoying this video for about the 10th time in a row today.

Are there any You Tube videos that your kids are obsessed with?

Updates on Fantasia?

2011-11-18T12:09:00.001-05:00

Can somebody please go to this page and ask about Fantasia? Someone asked and they didn't get an answer. At least not a public one. I would ask but I don't have the guts to. Since I am the big bad meanie owner who gave her up in the first place I feel like they wouldn't feel the need to update me.

We haven't gotten any updates on her and it's killing me. Even though we gave her up, it still breaks my heart not having her here with us. I miss her so much. You might have to "like" the page first in order to comment. I am unsure though.

Fantasia

That should take you directly to her photo on the animal rescue's facebook page. Thank you!

Big boy Isaiah

2011-11-16T13:50:00.001-05:00

Isaiah is growing up so fast! I can't believe how big he has gotten and what a big boy he is. He is all boy and he loves to push himself to his limits, which pushes me to my limits lol.

He wants to do everything himself. He loves to brush his teeth but as soon as I brush his teeth he throws an all out fit until I am done and give him back the toothbrush.

He likes to help with the yard work.

He likes to dress himself although he can not do this all on his own yet he still likes to try. He can take off his pants and he can almost put on a new pair. Or in this case, put a pair on over top of his current pair.

He is a climber. He climbs my computer chair and desk, he climbs boxes, he tries to climb the gate that keeps him out of the kitchen, he climbs the dressers and he even climbs his toys. He will use whatever he can as a step to give him enough height to climb whatever he is trying to climb at that moment. He has used toys, stuffed animals, a package of diapers, an empty diaper wipe box, his chair, my computer chair, and even his sippy cups!

He can now climb the dressers with no step for assistance. See that empty diaper wipe box? That's what he used this time but after I took it away from him he learned to climb the dresser with no step. He can now make it up to the second drawer which gives him enough height to get his belly up onto the top of the dresser. I need to empty the top of the dresser so he can't pull stuff down. Oh and I forgot to mention that he climbs the windows. I need to look into getting window guards as I am afraid he will break one and go tumbling out one of these days.

He even climbed our wheelbarrow yesterday when I took them outside to play. That didn't last long though, I don't think it was challenging enough for him so he decided to play somewhere else. This picture is blurry but it's the best one I got from him climbing the wheelbarrow.

Have I mentioned how strong he is? He can flip my computer chair (and it's a pretty big one), and then he pushes it to wherever he wants it and then climbs it to get to something higher like a dresser or my desk, or the TV table. He ripped the molding off of his bedroom door and a door at his aunt Carol's house, sorry again Carol! He picks up big toys and tosses them like they were nothing and he can pick up both of John's shoes at the same time and toss them over the kitchen gate. He can over power his big sister when she is coming or going from the bathroom so he can get in there. We keep the bathroom door shut so he won't fall in the tub or toilet and hurt himself.

That is my boy and I love him! I am pretty sure I will have to start reading lots of books on how to raise a strong willed and stubborn boy though because I do not think that I am doing a very good job at the moment.

here is a picture of him carrying around a huge stick he found in the yard. We were out blowing bubbles and he just wanted to explore the yard. He did enjoy chasing some bubbles but he mostly just wanted to get dirty.

Halloween

2011-11-02T15:52:00.000-04:00

Last year Rebekah said she wanted to be a flying rainbow unicorn for Halloween. By the time we were picking out costumes she changed her mind and wanted to be a ladybug. So last year Rebekah was a Ladybug.

This year I asked her what she wanted to be and she spouted off a ton of things and when it was time to pick out the costume she said she wanted to be Tinkerbell so we bought her a Tink costume. When she was at the dentist they asked her what she was going to be for Halloween and she said "A rainbow unicorn!" ummm no! So I corrected her and said, remember you said you wanted to be Tinkerbell? And she quickly changed it to Tinkerbell.

I think next year I will just find a rainbow unicorn costume and show it to her and tell her that's what she is going to be lol. She wanted to be it 2 years in a row and then changed her mind last minute.

We like to hand out candy as well and we try to do full size candy bars. The first year we handed out full size air heads and tracts. Every year since we have just handed out candy or full size candy bars minus the tracts because I usually forget to order them in time. This year I saw on Pinterest, full size Hershey bars wrapped in crepe paper with google eyes to look like mummies and I thought that was a super cool idea! John said they would make great Lazarus candy bars! So that's what we called them! I used orange and green crepe paper because that's what we had laying around the house (plus they are Halloween colors) and Rebekah helped me draw eyes so we didn't have to waste all her google eyes on candy that the kids would probably tear into that night anyway lol. I drew the eyes and she colored them white and we both added the black dots to them using a pen and a pencil. She did a great job coloring them in.

John said we should have put the scripture John 11:43-44

But he did not mention this till Halloween day (the day after I had made them all) and I didn't even see that part of the email until he had gotten home and trick or treating had already started. Maybe next year lol. Maybe next year I will use white crepe paper too.

Alright, now for the kids! I decided that I wanted Isaiah to be a monster this year! He is our little monster and I thought it would be cute. Online I found a super cute costume that I just had to have, but it was too expensive. So we decided to check out the consignment store since we were consigning a few things anyway. I found a monster costume, not nearly as cute but cute enough. Here's our little monster!

Isaiah was napping when I decided to get Rebekah ready. I wanted to do a bun in her hair like Tink has so I decided on a sock bun. Something else I saw on Pinterest. I found one her her socks that is pretty new but that she doesn't like and I cut it to make the sock bun. It was too big. So I found one of Isaiah's socks that he had outgrown and I cut that and it was perfect! I used a little hair spray and a few bobby pins to keep in in place because her hair is so super fine that it was starting to come out right when I finished it. I also hair sprayed her bangs to the side a little, like Tink. See how cute!

Then I put on her costume and noticed that her wings were too heavy and her costume was a little too big (sizes 4-6) so her wings were sagging! I found some double sided white duct tape and taped them to her under shirt. I had to put a long sleve shirt under her costume because it was cold out. I also put white stockings and her capri leggings on her. Then we waited for Isaiah to wake up and she played the DSi for a while.

I went outside to get the wagon set up and just as I got it out and ready both the kids were at the screen door waiting for me. So I dressed Isaiah and then I noticed that Rebekah's duct tape wasn't sticking very well so I got some extra bobby pins and pinned her wings down to the neck of her under shirt. There was also a big safety pin inside holding the wings in place. With her costume secure I got their goodie buckets and got some pictures of the two of them together before I loaded them into the wagon.

Then it was into the wagon for some more pictures!

Isaiah kept dropping his bucket out of the wagon and making me get it. I think he just wanted to get going. So off we went!

John was still at work so I took them around to a few houses. Not everyone was home. Here's a picture of her at a house with no one home.

In NY you can tell which houses are giving out candy by their outside lights being on. NJ isn't like that. Since they do trick or treating so early in the day in NJ there is no need for outside lights. I still figured we should only go to the houses with their lights on because I saw a few that had them on and a few that we had gone to with no lights weren't home, but this was flawed too as some of the houses with their lights on were not home either. She even tried a few houses withe decorations outside and they weren't home either. We did get a few houses though and then we headed home because it was almost 4 and John would be home. As we pulled into the driveway there were a few kids and their moms walking by and I told them that I had full size candy bars if they would just wait for me to get into the house, they followed me to the porch lol. They loved them.

As soon as we got into the house John pulled in! YAY!

We were trying to get Isaiah to look at the camera so John told me to hold a piece of candy up, so I took a lollipop from Rebekah and held it up. It got Isaiah to look and smile but Rebekah was so sad that I took her candy lol. I gave it back to her and we loaded them back into the wagon to hit some more houses.

After we did a few more blocks we headed home to hand out candy. John and Isaiah stayed inside and watched Bob the Builder and Rebekah and I sat on the porch to hand out candy. On top of the full size candy bars we also had a big bowl of assorted candy if they didn't want a big candy bar or for when we ran out of the big ones.

Rebekah had a blast handing out candy! I think she enjoyed handing it out more than getting it.

As we were sitting on the porch we saw a van drive by, stop about 2 houses down and then back all the way up to our house where a bunch of kids piled out saying "Trick or treat!" They all loved the Lazarus bars and said that they were a great idea and then they said thank you and piled back into the van. I think they saw me holding the candy bowl and decided it was worth the stop lol.

When the kids started to be less and less we went into the house to make dinner. We only had a few kids during dinner (even though I turned off our light, see NJ doesn't follow the light rule!) and then only one more group after dinner. It was a good day.

Our Driveway

2011-10-16T15:46:00.001-04:00

Before I go into the driveway, I found a picture that I wanted to share that has to do with my last blog posting. It's a squirrel that clung for dear life to our tree during a really really bad storm. It was actually a hurricane (tropical storm by the time it hit us really). Poor terrified Squirrel.

Now I see these guys running around our yard like they are lost without that tree.

Here's one that was running back and forth on our neighbor's fence. They do that all the time and since my computer faces that window I see them run past every now and then.

I know what you are thinking, great view right? haha. Ok on to the driveway!

When we bought this house, it had a gravel driveway. We didn't really mind it until we had lived here for a while. Ok well almost right off since we moved in at the end of December and shortly after we had to shovel it. And when I say we, I mean John lol. It's not very fun shoveling a gravel driveway. I know because last year John threw out his back shoveling and I had to finish up. Not easy.

I didn't really get any before shots of the drive way so I went through old pictures to try to find some to show before and after shots. When we first moved in it wasn't too too bad. I think this picture was taken after we had lived here for a few years (maybe 4 years).

This next picture is just the end of the driveway, you have to look past the two super cute kids. You can see that it's had alot of wear over the years. We debated on getting more gravel, paving or asphalting it for years. Then recently we decided to just get the asphalt. This way it's in our budget and the kids still get to have a surface to ride their bikes and roller skate! Plus we have a place to color with sidewalk chalk now! We don't have a sidewalk in front of our house and I won't let the kids play in front of the neighbor's because I don't think that's right. Anyway now the picture I mentioned.

So we called around to price check having it asphalted and after all the calls between John and I we got two replies about coming out for a quote. The first guy that came measured and everything and then John asked him about the asphalt and the guy looked at him like he was crazy and said he only did concrete. Umm yeah I specifically said over the phone that I wanted an estimate on getting my driveway ASPHALTED! He just wanted to talk us into something more expensive. Next guy came and quoted a good price so we went with him. Only other guy that called us back! Can you believe it?! We must have called like 10 companies. Crazy.

They came out within a week to do the job so we were happy that they did it so quickly. They also said it would take a couple hours and they were done within an hour and a half. The kids had fun watching them out the living room window. Bekah even had me put Isaiah's chair in front of the window after a while so they could sit and still watch lol. Isaiah was so fascinated with the whole thing that he was practically glued to that window. I didn't get any pictures of them looking out the window at the workers though. And no pictures of the work being done but I do have some after pictures for you and some pictures of the kids enjoying it! We had to park on the street for a couple of days but it was worth it! After it was all dry and ready we let the kids play on it.

The first guy that came out to give us the quote said that the quote would cover up to the fence. When they got there to do the work I went out to talk to the guy (I believe his son but definitely a different guy, I think it's a father son business) he was telling me about how it was going to go and he showed me to where it would go. He said right to where you see the green down spout there. Then he said we would have to raise the gate up. I asked him why and he said we wouldn't be able to open it if the driveway was back that far. I asked him why that would matter if it wasn't going that far. HAHA then he said he could go that far if I wanted him to. I told him to just go as far as we were quoted because that's as much as we had for him. Anyway, as you can see, they went farther than that and we only paid what we were quoted so I am happy that it was farther yet not far enough that we have to raise our gate either! Win, win!

There is a nice gap in between the driveway and the fence and in order to save John from mowing that small space we have decided to fill it with river rocks. Yes I realize that our fence needs cleaning.

Like these ones our neighbor put in her side yard.

They even left our plants alone. But as you all know by now, my black thumb will kill them off eventually anyway lol. These guys are very resilient, it doesn't matter how badly I care for them, they always come back year after year. We have bigger ones in the back yard and we actually tried to get rid of one of them and it grew back. These are my kind of plants. We are going to fill that in with mulch in the Spring.

I love that they didn't just go from the smallest width of our driveway and that they actually asphalted the area where we put our trash cans and recycle can! Even our gravel didn't go in that far and some of that was dirt and mulch.

They said that they would give us a day's notice before coming out for the job but really they only gave us a few hours nitice as they called us the morning of and said they would be there around noon! So I rushed out there to clear the driveway of everything since John was at work. I threw the shovels and rakes and trash cans and recycle can into the back yard and even some cement blocks that we had laying around. And that ladder. It was hard work but took me less than a half hour and most of that time I had the kids play in the back yard. I didn't move the hose though as I couldn't get it off the spigot. After he told me where they were going to asphalt to I realized that it wouldn't have been in there way anyway. But since they went farther than they said, they ended up moving it for us. I think they used it to hose down the driveway to cool it off because it was unwrapped a bit. Rebekah said that they were hosing down the window as well lol. She also laughed about everything, like the found a glove buried in the dirt and they were wearing metal shoes.

When I was talking to the guy I told him I tried to clear everything but I didn't get up the leaves and he said that they do all that anyway. Go figure lol.

When the kids want to play in the driveway John just parks at the end so they have room to play but they are blocked from going out into the street.

There you have it. Our new driveway! I love it! John loves it and the kids love it too! I can't believe we didn't do this sooner.

A tribute to an old tree

2011-10-06T19:18:00.002-04:00

The old pine tree in front of our house is no more. Sniff, sniff. I loved that tree. I don't really know why but I did. John has wanted to have it cut down for a few years now and I kept saying no. Finally this summer it started to show signs of disease and we agreed it had to go. I was still reluctant because I am no tree doctor. I know nothing about trees so how would I know if it was healthy or not.
John pointed out the mushrooms that were popping up around it's base and I noticed that it was dropping needles by the bucket load. That can't be healthy right? Turns out it wasn't. The poor old tree was diseased.

Did I mention that I have a black thumb? Well I do. I don't go out of my way to kill these plants but I am pretty sure that the dead tree in the front yard proves that I have the blackest, deadliest thumb in the world. A friend gave me a plant for Christmas one year, it was dead only a few days later. Not sure how I killed it, I tried to keep it alive. I guess it didn't like me. Then we bought this house and slowly the plants and bushes started to die. Yes I said bushes! I killed shrubbery! I even asked our neighbor if the previous owner had planted them in order to sell the house. Nope, they had been there for years. First one started to die over by our fence past our driveway leading into our back yard. John wanted to cut it down and I said no and I started watering it trying to bring it back to life. Gradually the brown crept over the bush till all the green was gone. I finally relented and let John cut it down. Next went the bush next to it on the other side of the gate to our back yard. Then one by one the bushes in front of our house leading up our walkway died off as well. One by one they were cut down and put to the curb. There are about 4 left in front of our front windows. I am sure these guys are next.

Back to the tree. I used to take Rebekah out front to play with her and take her picture and one of my favorite places to take pictures was next to this tree. I found some pictures that I have taken over the years or the kids and the tree.

See the bushes behind her? Dead and gone now.

Those bushes against the house are still there though. Not sure how much longer they have.

Those leaves were dropped by our neighbor's tree that is still alive and kicking.

So this one doesn't have any children in it but you can see that it survived alot of snow. A few bad winters of it too, at least since we have lived here. We have lived in this house for almost 6 years (6 years this December).

The dead tree.

This is our walkway. It's a stone path but you can hardly tell because it's covered in pine needles. This was my first realization that there was something wrong with the tree. One day the walkway was clean and clear and the next it was covered in needles.

The mushrooms. John pointed them out to me but our back yard had them in the past so I didn't think anything of it. Turns out we had them in our back yard when our neighbor had a tree cut down that sat between our property line and a the roots died the mushrooms grew.

The night before the guy was suppose to cut down the tree I went out to get pictures. My SLR Camera's battery was dead so I had to use a point and shoot. Sorry about how dark the picture is. Turns out I could have taken the picture the next day in the day light since he never showed up the day he said he was going to. We are finding this a common thing. A contractor did the same to us and so did a guy we called about having our driveway done. Moving on. See how much bigger it is than our house? How it towers above the telephone pole? Well it keeps going.

See? I told you it kept going. On and on. It was a TALL tree! Now so thick but very tall.

Here are some of the dead branches that lost their needles.

This poor tree.

The cutting of the tree.

I took this picture with my cell phone after the tree was down and only 1 guy was left behind. They had to take the truck filled with chips away to dump it because it was full. I took it through a crack in the curtain that I had pulled back to sneak a peek. I didn't want them thinking I was checking in on them lol. I had never seen pink inside a tree before and it concerned me that we had cut down a healthy tree.

After it was all the way down I let Isaiah in the room. I was keeping them out of that room just in case the tree fell on the house as they were cutting it down. They were very good about not breaking our house lol. He had fun watching them chip the wood.

After they left John went out to take pictures with the point and shoot. Then I got the SLR and took some more pictures.

The pink still had me concerned so I Googled it and couldn't find any pictures of pink tree trunks and any mention of pink trees. I still don't know what is up with the pink color.

The next day it rained and John said he saw some bugs on the stump so I went out with the camera thinking I would find termites. I did not but I noticed a hole so I found a nearby stick and started poking the hole, this is what I found. The tree was rotted. I dug more and more into the tree finding more and more rot. It was very sad.

The next day after that they came out to grind the stump. The poor guy did it in the rain. I thought for sure they wouldn't come because of the rain but they did. He even got down on the wet ground and mixed the chippings in with the dirt. They didn't tell us how long to leave it like this so it still looks like this. I looked it up online and most people were saying to spread it around your yard where you need mulch but if this tree was diseased I don't want it spreading. I gotta keep the last few bushes alive! haha. Anyone have any idea of when we can remove the chippings? I don't think we will be able to seed till after the winter. Not sure seeds would have a chance to grow before the cold weather moves in.

So goodby old friend. You will be missed. And I am sorry that I killed you.

Hurricane Irene

2011-09-14T12:52:00.000-04:00

WOW, I didn't get this posted as soon as I wanted.
While we were on vacation we heard that hurricane Irene was going to directly hit New Jersey. It was going to hit the day that we were suppose to go home, so we decided to stay at Carol's an extra day or two. I am so glad that we decided to only stay an extra day because Irene hit NY just after we left. John packed up the car in the rain and as we were getting ready to pull out, a large tree branch fell off a big tree across the street and a couple houses down. Later Carol told us that that tree split in half and fell apart in the road. We drove in the rain for part of the trip but not the entire trip. We missed Irene in NJ and narrowly missed her in NY. It was God. After we left Carol lost her power and NY started getting flooded. If we didn't leave when we did, we probably would have been stuck there a few more days and John would have missed more work.
As we were driving through PA we looked down at a town that was flooded very badly. I didn't get any pictures of the flooded town but I wish that I had because I had never seen anything like it besides on TV.
We also saw uprooted trees. We got this picture at a rest stop.

In NJ we saw uprooted trees, flooding, and branches and leaves all over the ground. I only really got pictures of the flooding.

We were relieved to get home to an intact house and no flooding. Our basement was a little wet but it usually is after a rain anyway. The tree in our front yard was still standing. We were very fortunate.

A couple days after we returned from vacation we decided to go to a park and take the kids for a walk. There is one place we really like to go that has a fenced in dog park and behind that is a nice walkway that is nice because there are trees and some water. We couldn't though because some trees were uprooted and after we got past them the path was flooded so there was no way to pass.

See the tiny guy behind the tree to the left in the picture below? Right around that bend behind him is where the path is flooded. We didn't see it until we were around the tree. We had gotten out the stroller and the kids and our water and we were ready to go. We were upset that after all that work we couldn't go that far because of the flooding.

We were actually surprised to hear on the news that NY and PA got more damage from Irene than we did. We thought for sure NJ would have gotten hit harder than NY and PA. NJ did get hit pretty hard, just not our area.

Please pray for my (John's) sister Patty.

2011-09-02T12:39:00.002-04:00

Hello I just wanted to ask everyone if you can pray for my sister Patty and her children today. Patty goes to court today to speak against the wrongful charges placed against her. She has won in court once, but today she will have to defend her parent skills and prove to a judge that she deserves the custody of her children.

Thanks everyone!

Our Vacation Part 2!

2011-09-01T15:26:00.000-04:00

The whole reason for our NY vacation was to celebrate our 10 year anniversary! 10 seems like a big deal so we wanted to do something special. The Spiaks watched the kids so John and I could have 4 days and 3 nights to ourselves in Lake George. On the way there we passed through Saratoga Springs. At first I didn't know where we were and I really wanted to know because it was such a great town! I took pictures out the window as we drove by. Then we noticed it was Saratoga and decided we wanted to spend a little time there on the way back to Dolgeville to pick up the kids. Here are a few pictures I took on the way through Saratoga.
Sorry in advance, I took them with my cell phone or point and shoot as we were driving so some are blurry. There were these cool horse statues on just about every corner.

This guy walking around the the giant bird on his shoulder was pretty cool.

The horse races.

Then it was on to Lake George!

The hotel's main office

The view from our door of the hotel. That fence there is the fenced in pool.

The view from our back window of our room.

We were a few hours early for check in so we went into Lake George. I got a picture of the ship that we were going to be on for our anniversary. Another drive by cell or point and shoot shot.

We found a parking lot that was $5 for the entire day! That is behind this suit of armor. So we parked and walked around the shops and then to the lake.

We got awesome ice cream cones from Ben & Jerry's. I LOVED their tipping jar! So creative!

After a little shopping we went to the park and then down by the lake.

After check in time we went back to the hotel to check in and get our things into the room. A quick shower for me and then back into town. We parked in the same place so we didn't have to pay again. That was nice.
We had dinner at one of the many restaurants on the main strip, hung out more by the lake and went to check out Fort Fort William Henry, then back to the park for a concert. They have a concert every night in the park.

Fort William Henry. Inside it was a small museum and a gift shop. To get into the actual fort you had to pay about $14 per person. We decided that was too expensive and settled for the museum and gift shop part.

John wanted me to sit on the wall but I was too scared so I took his picture instead. I thought it was cool that the Mini Ha Ha was right behind him.

Later he talked me into sitting on the wall to get a picture.

The concert. We had a nice bench because we got there early.

Us on the bench at the concert.

The next day was our anniversary. It was a little rainy but we didn't let that stop us. We had a nice breakfast, went on our cruise, and went through Glens Falls and into Queensbury to the mall for lunch and a movie. Then back to Lake George for dinner on the lake and then fireworks. They do fireworks every Tuesday and Thursday. It was a nice coincidence that our anniversary was on a Thursday this year. We decided not to take pictures of the fireworks and just enjoy them so sorry no photos of that.

The Sagamore Hotel

Dome Island, a Protected Island.

The only picture taken at dinner just had to be one of me. I wanted to post it anyway so you could see the balcony. Over where those pillars are, that overlooks the lake. We also had a nice spider friend in our view. I blew on him and he ran back up his web. Dinner was nice.

The day after our anniversary we did the last of our souvenir shopping, drove up Prospect Mountain, went on a horse drawn carriage ride, saw another movie at the mall, hung out a little more by the lake and went back to the hotel early because we were so tired from all the walking we did the past few days.
The drive up Prospect Mountain. There were 3 look out spots on the way up the mountain. We stopped at all 3 of them for pictures.

I talked John into going out over the wall on that rock to get a better picture. He took some pictures and then turned around to take a picture of me lol. Then I set up the SLR for the shot to take a picture of both of us and I went out where he was and he went back to set the timer. No way I would make it over the wall and back there in 10 seconds lol.

His biggest complaint about the picture is that I set it up too high and you can't see what a dangerous shot it was. I disagree. We get the background in the picture and you can still see where we were from the previous pictures. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

These were at the top of the mountain.

We may have driven up the mountain instead of hiking (it's a 3 mile hike) but we did hike down the trail to the parking lot! haha. We took a "trolly" to the top of the mountain from our parking space.

The trail up to the top of the mountain from our parking space. We opted to take the trolly (that ended up being a van) to the top instead.

The top of the mountain from our parking space.

Looking down at our parking space from the top of the mountain.

We walked down the trail to the parking lot instead of taking the trolly.

Bill the horse resting before taking us on our ride!

When I lived in Glens Falls I worked at the Painted Pony. I washed the dishes at the restaurant there. This guy was towed all around Lake George everyday that we were there. I kept seeing him but never could get a picture of him. Then on the way to the mall he was behind us most of the way!

Then on our last day there we saw him sitting at a red light which gave us enough time to get out our cell phones and take a few shots. Pretty cool advertising if you ask me!

The two movies that we saw while we were kid free were The Rise of the Planet of he Apes and Smurfs! I loved both movies. We don't usually get to go to the movies by ourselves so it was nice.

Our last day we got up early and got ready. We decided to leave early and stop in Saratoga for breakfast on our way back to reality.

Here's where we had breakfast.

We didn't notice this sign till we left because we came in from the other side, but on our way back from walking down the street we saw it.

We had the breakfast sandwiches made from farm fresh eggs.

Another Horse that was just a little ways down the street from where we ate.

It was called "Horse of a Different Color"

This post ended up being WAY longer than I had expected so I will probably do another post at a later date about Hurricane Irene.

Our Vacation!

2011-08-31T20:47:00.004-04:00

Is everyone ready for a super long blog post today? I am going to jam an entire weeks vacation into one blog post! Well maybe I will break it up into 2 posts, one for the family part of the vacation and one for our 10 year kid free anniversary trip. Yeah that's what I am going to do, so this will be the intro and the family part of the trip. Tomorrow I will post about our anniversary part of the trip.

John and I decided to go all out for our 10 year anniversary. We couldn't decide if we wanted to go on a kid friendly cruise with the entire family or just a little getaway with just the two of us. We finally decided on Lake George because it isn't too far from John's sister Carol and it also has mini cruises on the lake. We called up Carol and asked her if she would watch the kids for us while we were in Lake George and she jumped at the opportunity. She LOVES kids and we hardly ever get to see her. The Spiak's really are a huge blessing!

So we started saving and planning our trip. We needed to get a hotel early because August is Race season in Saratoga and all the hotels in that area fill up quick. We found a great deal on a hotel right in Lake George and put down our deposit.

After months of saving and waiting the day finally arrived! We packed up and headed to Dolgeville to see the Spiak's and drop the kids off before going the rest of the way to Lake George.

The trip was not too too bad because we had movies for the kids to watch, snacks and we stopped often to let the kids stretch their legs. We brought the doggy back pack leash so Isaiah could run around at rest stops.

I made Rebekah a friendship bracelet and thought it would be nice to make the girls ones too. I cut the strings for them but forgot I had to fold them in half to make the bracelet so made them too short. I made one before we left and the other I made in the car ride there. Both ended up going to Mercy because they were too short for Hannah, they were actually too short for Mercy too but she improvised lol. She loved them and it made me happy.

Mercy and Rebekah are 1 year and 2 days apart. They love each other and are inseparable when they are together. They were constantly hugging and playing together. So cute I couldn't resist taking their pictures all the time.

Not sure why Rebekah was acting cranky here but I told her to smile and this is what I got next.

Too cute for words!

We went to the zoo, glow in the dark mini golfing, and checked out the windmills on the way back. Of course I forgot my camera so I had to use my cell phone for all the pictures, but you get the idea.

Bubby, Hannah, Rebekah and Mercy.

Carol offered to take a picture of us in front of this super huge watering can. It dumps out into a turtle pond.

A 4 headed tiger! These guys are just too much for words!

Isaiah and John at glow in the dark mini golf. It was his first time mini golfing and he didn't understand what was going on and just wanted to chase the ball around lol. He finished pretty quick because we skipped over most of it and basically let him throw the ball into the hole each time lol.

Rebekah playing glow in the dark mini golf.

The windmills! Very cool.

We also wen to the Covered Bridge. We haven't been there in years and it was nice. We were worried Isaiah would want to jump in the water so we were hesitant to go but we went anyway and he fell asleep on the drive there and didn't wake up till we put him back into the car to leave. Carol held him most of the time we were there.

Such a beautiful place to take pictures! After the covered bridge we walked through Dolgeville past Daniel Green where my grandma used to work. It's all empty now and very sad walking by it. We went to Stewarts for ice cream and then went back to Carol's. It was a good day.

My dad was in the hospital having surgery an hour and a half away when we got there so we saw him on the way back from Lake George.

It was Andrea's 21st birthday party! Happy Birthday again! The kids were being restless though so we couldn't stay long. I wish we had gotten better pictures. Here's one of my dad and Isaiah.

And the kids playing in Kim's living room. They had fun playing with Kim's grand kids toys. Isaiah as always was up to no good though. Always trying to get to the things he's not suppose to have.

Tomorrow I will try to post about our anniversary in Lake George! It took me all day to write this one up so no promises since we did so many fun things! I also want to blog about Hurricane Irene that came through while we were on Vacation and how God kept us and our house safe. Another day though.

Vacation!!

2011-08-19T10:50:00.000-04:00

Today is John's last day of work before our vacation! I am so excited I can't even contain it! We are going to New York for our 10 year anniversary! 10 years! We figured 10 years was a big one and we wanted to celebrate with a real vacation. Usually when we go on vacation we go to see family and that's it. That's nice and all but we haven't been on a real vacation since our honeymoon. We are seeing family as John's sister Carol and her family and my dad and aunts all live on the way to where we are going but we are actually going to Lake George! We haven't been there in years and I just can't wait.

We couldn't decide if we wanted to go on a cruise or Lake George and since Lake George has day cruises we figured we would get the best of both worlds. We will be doing a dinner cruise on our anniversary. We are staying at a hotel in downtown Lake George, a short walk or trolly ride away from all the action of Lake George.

He has a couple days off before we leave and a couple days off after we get back so that will be nice as well.

The case of the missing sandals

2011-08-17T13:07:00.000-04:00

Wednesday August 3rd I took the kids out back to play in the yard. Rebekah had on her sandals. I have pictures of her wearing them to prove it lol.

Then Thursday August 4th we had to go to the store but I could not find her sandals! I looked everywhere that her shoes normally are and they were not there. She ended up wearing a pair that were a little too big for her. Friday she wore her socks and sneakers. It's too hot to be wearing socks! But we had no choice as all her other summery shoes are too big for her. She is between sizes right now and it's hard to find half sizes. Ryan's first birthday party she had to wear her sneakers as well. Poor Bekah!

Ever since she has been wearing her sneakers or her rain boots (when it rains). We decided to go buy her a new pair before our vacation. We went to the store that we had bought her original sandals from but they didn't have any because they are switching over to fall and back to school shoes. Really? Summer isn't over yet!! Then we checked Walmart and Target, same thing! We did get her measured at the first place and she was right at the 8 1/2 mark and the woman said she would do better in a 9 because she was right at the 81/2 mark. I am pretty sure she said that because finding half sizes is practically impossible.

We decided to look for her sandals again since no one was selling them right now. We checked the van, we checked the yard, we checked boxes, we checked the bedrooms, under beds, between beds and walls, under entertainment centers, tables, desks, drawers, toys, the shoe box again and again and again, the laundry pile in the laundry room, the bathroom, the kitchen, you name it, we checked it. NOTHING! We tore the whole house apart! It was a crazy mad dash like a tornado tearing through our house. Then we gave up.

John was at the store the other day by himself and I asked him to grab her something, anything! He brought home 2 pair of shoes, both size 9. One pair of Mary Janes and one Croc style clog. The Croc type clogs were way too big. She will fit them next year. The Mary Janes were also too big, even with socks but we figured they were a better fit than the clogs, we kept both pair.

Then today Rebekah decided to shove toys and stuffed animals into her tote for her roller skates. She had so much fun she decided to find all her bags and fill them up too. She found her medical bag (used to have all her doctor toys in it) and then her backpack. She was in her bedroom with her back pack when I hear her screech, "I found them!" I asked her what she found and she said, "My sandals!" and she pulled out one sandal. I had her bring the back pack to me and show me. Look what she found!

I didn't even think to check her backpack. I didn't think to check inside her things. She must have put them there because Isaiah doesn't know how to work zippers yet. I asked her a hundred times where her sandals were and she always said she didn't know. She even helped us look. She is way, way, way too young to be losing her memory! lol. I am a happy mommy now that we have her sandals back before our vacation. A very happy mommy!

John's 33nd birthday

2011-08-11T20:47:00.001-04:00

It's hard trying to think of something to do in the summer when the weather is suppose to be 91 and a chance of rain. Poor John had a hard time trying to decide what he wanted to do for his birthday this year. He finally decided on a few different things and ran them by me the morning of his birthday. I narrowed it down to 2 things and then we decided on the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia because we had season passes and hadn't been to the one in Phila yet. So we got the kids ready and we headed out. Bridge toll increase kinda stinks and then we had to pay for parking but at least parking was less than it is at the aquarium. Then we paid for Bekah to ride the carousel which made our day out to be only $16.

I brought our Kodak point and shoot camera so I didn't have to bring the SLR but the pictures didn't come out that great and it makes me wish I had brought the SLR. Then again I had Isaiah the whole time and he would not have made it possible to take any pictures with that monster. It was hard enough getting pictures with the small point and shoot with him pulling on my arm the whole time. Some of the pictures were taken with John's cell phone as some times we would separate and he would take Bekah to the bigger kids exhibits and I would take Isaiah to the little kids sections.

I am so tired and this took me all day to do, I accadently posted this just now before I was done. So I am just going to throw up all the pictures and no commentary. Enjoy.

KIR - Hair

2011-08-09T12:59:00.002-04:00

Isaiah has beautiful curls! Well at least he had beautiful curls. I finally cut his hair. Not because everyone kept calling him a girl but because his hair was getting so long it was starting to go into his face. It needed to be done but now that his curls are gone, I am sad.

Here is the back of his head the day before I cut it.

His back curls were very nice. Full, thick, tight curls. I loved them! But the top of his head is a different story. Check out this adorable picture of him hugging Elmo.

See how it gets flat and the curls pull out? If you wet it, it will spring right back up, but as soon as it dries it goes flat again. See how they curled right up after he dunked his face into the water table at Ryan's birthday party? I can't keep his hair wet 24/ though and I refuse to put product in his hair at such a young age lol.

I thought about just cutting his bangs but decided if I kept doing that he would end up looking like he had a mullet and no one wants that! So I decided on just a trim. I am no good at cutting squirmy kids hair though and the trim turned into a full cut. In fact I believe one side of his head is longer than the other as he was throwing a bigger fit on the shorter side I ended up taking more than I wanted :( so now I have to go in and fix the side that's too long to make it match. The good thing about curly hair is that it's harder to notice mistakes lol.

Well this is the best picture I could get. This is the tad bit longer side. He sure does like to move around and run away from the camera!

He's still cute but now he looks different and it's hard to adjust, for me anyway. I think he misses his long hair too because he will try to pull his hair and then talk to me in baby talk as if to say, "where did my hair go?" haha. I can't wait for it to grow back.

At least now people won't be calling him a girl. Everyone would say things like "She's so cute", "She has beautiful eyes", "Love her curls!" No matter how I dress him. I have had him head to toe in blue and monsters and people still think he's a girl. I had the opposite problem with Rebekah lol. People always called her a boy because of her short hair. Why did I have a little girl with straight, thin, wispy hair and a little boy with thick curly locks?

If you want to keep it real with me today, head on over to Julie's blog and join in!

New craft supplies

2011-08-03T11:50:00.000-04:00

We went and bought some more googly eyes. We found an assorted pack with different sizes, colors and even some with cute eyelashes. Of course Rebekah wanted to use the eyelash ones right away on her caterpillar because she was a girl and she needed girl eyes.

Then we made the butterfly snack pack clip!
You can find it in this magazine.

She wanted to put more girl eyes on the butterfly but I told her we should use a different pair, she picked blue.

I also got some yarn so I could start to crochet but as I started my first chain I realized that my hook was too small even though I was using the biggest one that I had. My friend Laura from Life Happens told me how to check the yarn's label to see what size hook they recommend and it said an 8. My biggest was a 7. Although it was sorta working, it was messing up my yarn. So now I need to buy a bigger hook. Anyway here is the tiny bit that I did get done before realizing it wasn't working.

Anyway, that's what we have been crafting.

KIR - Scrapbooking

2011-08-02T13:38:00.002-04:00

I always wanted to get into scrapbooking so when Rebekah was a baby I decided to do a 1 year scrapbook for her. I started it and got about 3 or 4 pages done. I had a bunch of pictures picked out for the scrapbook and had them in a folder waiting to print them so I could finish the book. Then most of my pictures got deleted. John restored them but the ones I had set aside were of course all mixed in with the rest and I got lazy and didn't go fishing them out to print them. So her scrapbook still sits, unfinished. I really should finish it, and do one for Isaiah as well.

Then I discovered the wonderful world of digital scrapbooking! I made many pages. I learned new things and got better in my digital scrapping. Then I decided I wanted to start designing these digital scrap kits and I did! The only problem was that I devoted all my free time (and sometimes not free time) to making kits and didn't have any more time for scrapping my pictures! I guess that's the down side of being a designer as I hear all the other designers complain about the same problem. No time to scrap. I have been taking a design break for the summer and have gotten a few new pages done. They seem to take longer to construct now that I am a bit more picky about how they look haha. Anyway I wanted to show you my progression through these past few years.

One of my first ones using a scrapbooking program.

Same program but using a free digital scrabooking kit I downloaded.

Then I learned that most of the digital scrapbookers used the 12x12 format and I started making them that way instead.

I thought this one was just so amazing when I made it. I loved it! What was I thinking!? It's pretty bad.

Here's one using a kit that I made!

I realized there weren't any potty training kits out there (now there are a ton) so I made one so I could use it to scrap potty training pictures of Rebekah!

Here is an old one that I did. I sorta liked it so I decided to redo it.

Before:

After:

Here's one using a kit that I collaborated on. So there are some things that I made and some things that other designers made.

Actually I only made the bird. I find it hard to scrap with the things that I have made and I enjoy using the kits that other people have made more than I enjoy using the kits that I have made. Don't know why. Maybe because I am so critical of my own work.

Here's one using a kit from one of my fellow designers over at Ginger Scraps. It's discontinued now.

It was the only dedication page that I made that I actually liked.

Another one made with a kit that I collaborated on. I am pretty sure that I didn't use much, if any, of the elements that I made for this kit. Again, the not liking to use my own stuff.

I also used a template made by a fellow designer at Ginger Scraps where I sell my work. I loved how this one turned out. I already loved those pictures of Rebekah and the soft colors of this kit just made it all the more beautiful.

Every year I do a thing called The Amazing Digi Scrap Race and it's basically like The Amazing Race where they give you a challenge and you do it. Each challenge hosted by a different digital scrapbooking store/forum online. You win prizes as you complete the challenges. I love doing it because it forces me to make layouts that I normally wouldn't. Here are some of the ones I made this year.

Now here's the two most recent ones I have done.

This one I used a kit that I had purchased with a Gift Card to a store called Brownie Scraps, from my boss for Christmas. I finally got to use it! Then I posted it in their gallery and found that the kit was discontinued lol. Oh well I still like it.

This last one I used a kit I collabed on, some of the things in this layout I did make! Mostly the tooth related things. This kit hasn't even been released yet.

So there you have it. My progression in digital scrapbooking. I think I have gotten better over the years. I wish I had more time to scrap though so I could get even better. I see some layouts and I think, man I suck! haha.

And on a side note, our new blog background was made using a school kit that I made a few years ago.

A fun filled day and a lesson on manners

2011-07-30T23:08:00.002-04:00

Today was a full day for us. John set up the pool and me and the kids went out for a dip. I got a picture of Rebekah before letting Isaiah into the pool and then never got a chance to get a picture of him because I had to have my hands on him the whole time. He kept doing a face dive into the water just like he does in the bath tub.

Then we went inside for lunch and Isaiah's nap. When he woke up we decided to go to the park. We stopped for dinner and then headed to the park. It was nice, not many kids on the smaller kids side but the bigger kid's side had a few kids on it and there were some boys kicking around a ball in the grass by the basketball court.

Bekah and John played with the basketball that we brought on the basketball court while Isaiah and I played on the playground. Not long after playing John and Rebekah came over to play with us. She got hot and the playground was in the shade.

Isaiah started playing with the basketball and it rolled under the playground bridge and a couple of girls grabbed it before I got to it. I fumbled over my words and said "umm, sweetie, that's..." and she said "Oh is this yours?" I told her yes and then asked if she wanted to play with it with Isaiah. She said no and said something about wanting to play with it somewhere else. Sorry kid but you can't just take our ball. I didn't say that though lol. I gave the ball back to Isaiah and the girls went off to play on the playground.

Bekah decided she wanted to play with them and nicely asked the girls if they wanted to play. They said no. Bekah was determined though and started playing with them anyway. After a while I noticed them up by the slide and I heard Rebekah ask one of the girls to move so she could go down the slide.

See that girl hiding in the slide? She was blocking the slide. The only big slide on the little kid's playground. The other slide is a smaller double slide.

The little girl said no. Then I heard Rebekah sound shocked and then she said, I was taught that when someone asks nicely then you should do what they ask. Or something along those lines. The girl again said no. Rebekah tried to go past the little girl.

We had had enough and told Rebekah that it was time to go and that we were going to another playground. As we walked to the van I told Rebekah that I was proud of her for trying to teach those girls some manners and how sorry I was that they didn't want to be nice and they wanted to be mean instead. I told her that it isn't worth trying to be friends with mean people. When we were in the van Rebekah told me that the girls were pushing her too. I didn't realize this. Then she said it was ok because she liked them pushing her because it was fun. Poor Bekah wants to be liked so much that she will put up with bullying. I told her that being pushed isn't nice and she shouldn't have let them push her. The girls parents (the mom at least) was over in the grass watching the boys kick around a ball. These boys were much older and didn't need supervision. The girls did. It makes me so mad that their parents weren't watching them.

We decided to go to a bigger park this time. More things to do and a bigger selection of kids to play with lol.

The kids had a blast. I took Isaiah and John took Bekah. John tells me that Bekah made friends with 2 kids, a boy and a girl. The little boy was so nice to her even offering to hold her hand over a bridge she was scared of. How sweet!

We had lots of fun but it was so hot that we decided to go and get some ice cream. We stopped for ice cream and ate it at home. Bekah's favorite is vanilla with rainbow sprinkles. Sometimes it's chocolate but always rainbow sprinkles lol. Today she wanted vanilla.

All in all we had a good day.

Keeping it Real - Crafts

2011-07-26T17:25:00.001-04:00

Rebekah LOVES crafts! If I don't do them with her she will ask if she can do them herself. Her idea of doing a craft herself involves paper, scissors, and basically anything else she can find. So We try to do crafts together. I found a kids craft book for $7.19 at Borders going out of business sale and it's huge and packed full of kid friendly crafts. We are about to go do one now actually so this post will be quick.

I found a bunch of cute crafts on Pinterest and we have done a few already.

Here are a couple that we did from Pinterest.

A caterpillar on a clothespin to hold Bekah's art. We need to get more googly eyes because I seem to have misplaced (or used up) all the ones we had.

An Airplane, also on a clothespin to hold her art work. It called for a small popsicle stick but we didn't have any so I just cut the ends off. It's very hard to cut a popsicle stick lol.

And from the craft book we found this cool butterfly and decided to modify it to be another clothespin magnet! Also modify it to better fit our supplies. Here's the part of the book we used.

And our take on it. I still have to glue it to the clothespin but am waiting for it to dry so I don't knock off any of the things Bekah glued on.

We used foam for the green and red wings (I cut those out), a cut up doily (Bekah did that with her scissors), sequins, plastic beads, pom pom balls, a pipe cleaner for antenna and a Popsicle stick for a body. It's pretty big but I think it will make a nice addition to our fridge magnets.

Once I clean up the fridge and put all these on I will take a picture and you can see just how tacky our fridge really is lol. It's covered in magnets, pictures, papers, artwork, recipes, doctor appointment reminders and so on. It's a big mess.

If you want to Keep it real with me, hop on over to Julie's blog and join us! But not till next week because she forgot this week.

Sibling Love

2011-07-22T11:50:00.001-04:00

Yesterday Isaiah grabbed Rebekah's hand and started walking her around the house. She thought it was so cute and said that he must want to play with her so she stayed to play with him. Just before he did this she had asked to go into the kitchen so she could color. After they were playing she started whining that he didn't like her anymore because he wasn't holding her hand anymore. Haha. I told her that since she was doing what he wanted and playing with him, that he didn't need to lead her around anymore so that's why he wasn't holding her hand. After they played for a while she went into the kitchen to color. She said she wanted to color a picture for Isaiah because she loved him.

Here is what she drew. It's Isaiah next to a tree standing on grass with a flower and a leaf on the flower stem. A bird up in the upper left and below that is a butterfly and then the cloud in the sky. She ripped a piece off the paper before she started to color and asked me how to spell Isaiah. I put them together so I could scan them in together.

Today he was leading her around the house again. It's so cute watching them together! They love each other so much!

And now they are fighting as I type this up. Ha! They joys of having a sibling.

Pinterest is addicting

2011-07-21T10:59:00.001-04:00

I am addicted. At first I didn't get it. I saw people using it and I thought it was pretty dumb to be honest. But then someone sent me an invite. I didn't want it connected to my Facebook account so I made a bogus twitter account and signed up! I wish they had a way to sign up without Facebook or Twitter but I tried and they don't. Boo! Anyway, now I am addicted! I am pretty sure that it is going to be a lifesaver for me because it keeps everything in one place for me, with pictures! No more trying to remember a web site because I can just pin it, add a picture (they give you a selection from the web page you are pinning) and a title and Select a board for it to go to.

So say I find an awesome recipe online that I want to try. I go up to my tool bar in Firefox that says "pin it" and I "pin it". Then I get a pop up box that asks me what board I want it to go on, what I want to name it, and what picture I want to use for it. I do all that and bam! It's pinned onto my Pinterest wall! I LOVE it!

Here is where you can get the "pin it" button for your browser. You can also find the Pinterest App for your iphone there as well! I have that too and now I can pin things on the go! I don't need to be at my computer to save things. Good thing too because if I had to wait till I got home to my computer to pin something, I would forget and it would defeat the purpose of having Pinterest lol.

You want to see what I have found on Pinterest?

A cool craft for Bekah! She loves airplane an she loves to play with magnets, plus she loves to hang her artwork on the fridge. This will give her something to do and give her something new to use to hang her art.

http://www.parents.com/fun/arts-crafts/kid/simple-wood-crafts/?page=4

I purchased some of these flowers extracted for my digi designing because I LOVE them! Then I found how to make them on Pinterest! Score! So I made one and have plans to make more! Then I am going to photograph them, extract them and sell them myself! Score again!

http://charlottesfancy.com/2009/09/21/crafty-monday-wedding-flowers/

Here's mine.

Keeping it Real - Eczema

2011-07-19T13:22:00.001-04:00

Rebekah has eczema. It all started when she was about 4-5 months old and started eating solids. I didn't know what it was and didn't get worried about it until one day she woke up with her face covered with it. I took her to her pediatrician and they told me it was eczema. I told him that I noticed that she gets that way after eating orange baby food. Carrots, sweet potato's, and peaches. I told him I thought she might be allergic to orange foods but that sounded crazy so maybe it was just my imagination. He told me that it might be an allergy to beta carotene. He basically said that she was too young to do anything about it and sent us on our way.

She gradually got worse. She would have her good days and her bad days but her bad days started to become more than her good days so I asked her new pediatrician about it and they prescribed her some steroids, told me to bath her less often and suggested we use Dove body wash on her. All these things combined seemed to work for a while but after a while they stopped working. We went back and got a stronger prescription steroid for her. She HATED this new kind and would scream when I applied it and run away from me when it was time to put it on, even though it was only once a week. She told me that it burned her and one day I noticed that her eczema got more red when I applied the steroid. This did not make me happy so we went back to the pediatrician. I had been asking over and over again for a referral to a dermatologist but they wouldn't give me one. They kept saying she would grow out of it. Finally I demanded a referral and they gave me one. FINALLY! Actually what pushed me to demand the referral was a comment her dentist made about her legs.

I was hoping that the dermatologist would tell us what was causing her eczema and give us treatment options. Boy was I wrong! All she did was prescribe Rebekah a new steroid, have us put it on more often, gave us lotions to try and told me I could bath her as often as I wanted from now on. After 4 weeks we went back and Bekah was not getting much better. She told me to keep at it and come back in another 4 weeks. Yeah that didn't happen. I did not reschedule with her and decided to try all natural remedies. We started out by trying out different lotions and creams. All of these irritated her skin more and made her worse, some made her cry. Then we tried oatmeal baths and oatmeal creams. Didn't work. Then we started trying different samples of my mom's all natural soaps. The calendula soap worked the best! But only when the petals were gone. For some reason the petals irritated her skin as well.

Then John suggested tar. It worked for his dad but I hated the stuff and didn't want to use it on her so we looked online and found pine tar soap! I was ok with just using it on her in the tub. We went to an all natural store and found the soap. Then I asked what else they would recommend for eczema and one of the women had a daughter with bad eczema like Bekah so she showed us what she used. A body wash, a lotion and a fish oil.

While all this was going on we also realized that Rebekah was allergic to Fantasia (our dog) and every time she would touch anything that the dog had touched she would break out. If she slept in the bed with Fantasia, she would wake up with a face covered in eczema. Like this.

If she played with the dog, her arms would get covered. It was crazy! So we started separating the two and keeping Fantasia off Rebekah's bed and Rebekah off our bed (where Fantasia sleeps). Fantasia spent most of her time in the kitchen, our room and outside. She hardly ever came into the living room and never in the kids room. This seemed to help but Rebekah would still break out because we can't keep her out of the kitchen and that's where Fantasia spent most of her time.

As you all know, we finally gave up the dog. The rescue posted a picture of her! It makes me sad though.

Ok now for some before and after pictures of Bekah's legs and arms.

BEFORE

AFTER

The after pictures were taken today when she first woke up. This the messy hair and PJ's lol. The scabby areas in the after picture of her legs are from her scratching. I keep telling her not to scratch and I try to keep her nails short but she scratches in her sleep! I can't wait till she is all healed over and she won't scratch. I hope that once it's cleared up she will not get anymore flair ups because Fantasia isn't here anymore and we cut beta carotene out of her diet.

Sorry for the super long KIR post today! I had alot to say. It's been a 4 year battle and I hope we are coming to an end with it. If you would like to join in on the Keeping It Real posts, please head on over to Julie's blog and link up with us! Thanks for reading!

Helping out.

2011-07-18T21:56:00.002-04:00

<<<<< Today I wanted to talk about helping others. (This is John not Jodi.) >>>>

In life we do many things, we buy lots of stuff, and we waste time figuring out ways to waste time. It really is easy to get wrapped up in life and not take a step out or chance to help others. I find myself guilty of this sometimes and wanted to just get it out there that we are missing a real opportunity to be blessed in giving. I try whenever possible to use my talent with technology to help people, but in reality that's just my God given ability to use as I am suppose to, I get no pleasure out of it and I do it out of obligation and because I care for others. However, I know that when we leave our comfort zone and do things that require more from our God given character we grow. A few years ago a couple of friends and I was driving back from Ocean City, Maryland. It was a fun long weekend and we were really just tired and wanted to get home. I should stop for a second and chime in that we were celebrating the last weekend my friend would be a bachelor (Christian style of course) and on the way back on a big long road in the middle of no where we saw a sketchy looking dude and a run down car. We all see this a lot in life, and most of the time we keep on driving. Many times that is the right thing to do, but this time we all felt like we should "help" or at least stop to see the issue. Keep in mind we aren't stupid people and there were enough of us to make the decision. So we did.

There were 4 or 5 of us guys, I can't really remember at this point, but our group asked the guy if he needed help. Not only was it inconvenient to stop, but it was also hot out, really hot, and the large SUV we were in didn't have A.C. After walking up to the guy we knew we made a really good decision. The man had a young girl of about 4 years old in the back seat. He was trying to keep her out of the direct heat of the sun and was hoping someone, anyone would stop. No one did. When they first broke down his wife jumped out of the car and started to wave down someone to get a ride... when she did that a motorcycle pulled over about 30 feet in front of the man and his daughter and she just got on and drove away, waving as she left. This man was not having a good day, and was not happy with it, but that we stopped, he was blessed (it took about an hour to for all of us to push his car to a gas station where he could get gas and help to fix the car) by our time to help him and his child. Obviously he didn't feel comfortable leaving the car, his, daughter etc so we made do. We don't know the circumstances with the wife afterwards, but what we did was small to us, and big to him and his child.

Sometimes we have to go out of our way to help, be a blessing, and to love others first. We have to look pass the judgement we feel of others we suspect and look to the heart of the matter. The ironic thing about that weekend is that we did a lot of fun stuff, but the the thing that made all of us happy the most is that we made a difference to just 1, perhaps 2, people that day.

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

Galatians 6:2 (NIV)

Keeping it Real - Coping with a loss

2011-07-12T11:17:00.001-04:00

The very few readers I have are probably going to get sick of me boo hooing about my recent loss but it has been so hard for me and it's been the only thing on my mind so my KIR post for today is about coping with my loss.

When I was a pre-teen my parents bought my older brother a Lab puppy. His name was Houston and he was the best dog EVER! Such a sweet dog, well mannered, easy to train, good with us kids, and gentle with my baby sister. I had already been married when Houston had to be put down due to his age and ailing health. I know if I still lived there when he died I would have taken it harder, but I didn't so I didn't take it that bad. I mean I was sad but it didn't effect me the way Fantasia has been effecting me.

Then when I was a teenager I fell in love with a Dachshund puppy that my aunt had. His name was Doctor Tobias, Toby for short. He was meant for my younger brother but he attached to me. He was my dog and I loved him. He loved me too, slept in my bed and protected me from my mean siblings who woke me up lol. When I was away out of state he passed away. Again I took that death pretty well. I was sad and cried and wrote poems about him but it wasn't too bad. I think it's because I was away when he actually died.

Fantasia is so much harder for me. Maybe because she was truly mine. I took care of her everyday since she was 6 weeks old. I cared for her everyday for 2 years when she was diagnosed with Addison's. Gave her daily medication and stuck her every month with a needle. I fed her, groomed her, bathed her, and loved her for 9 years. She was my first child. Although she is not dead (that I know of), she is no longer here and it is killing me. I keep thinking I need to let her out to go potty, feed her, medicate her, make sure she doesn't bark and wake the kids up. I don't have to do those things anymore and it makes me sad. It has only been a couple days but it feels like a lifetime. My mind is playing tricks on me. I keep thinking I hear her or see her, but it's never her. It can't be, she's gone.

I find myself thinking, I wonder if she is missing us? I wonder if she is eating? I wonder if she is getting along with the people around her? I wonder if she is coping well with her new surroundings? I wonder if they are remembering to give her her medication everyday? I wonder if they gave her her injection? She was due Monday. I keep checking their Facebook fan page hoping for an update and feeling my heart sink when I don't see one. I cry when I talk about her, write about her, and think about her. Which means I cry alot

I know it was the right decision, for my daughter's sake, but I still can't help feeling crummy about it.

How do you deal with a loss? If you want to keep it real with me, head on over to Julie's blog and link up!
I just called the rescue and their voice mail box is full. I will have to try to call back later and hope it's been emptied or I get her. I can't stand not knowing how she is doing.

I lost a piece of my heart

2011-07-09T23:11:00.001-04:00

I don't know if you all have been keeping up with Rebekah's eczema issues or not, but we found out that eczema is caused by allergies, Bekah's were because of our dog, Fantasia.

We have had Fantasia since she was 6 weeks old. She is 9 1/2 now. She was like a child to us, another member of the family. We all loved her dearly. When she almost died 2 years ago we spared no expense to make her better and keep her well by giving her daily medications and monthly injections that she would need for the rest of her life.

So when we realized that we couldn't keep her anymore due to Rebekah's worsening allergies I started trying to find her a new home. Well honestly I procrastinated because I didn't want to give her up. I was being selfish. Rebekah got worse and worse and finally I couldn't look at her without crying. I decided I had to suck it up and seriously start looking for a place for Fantasia.

I started with a local small dog rescue who basically said it would be impossible to re-home a 9 year old with Addison's disease and she gave me other rescues to contact. I contacted 2 more rescues about her and got a reply from one that they could take her. Then a minute later they changed their minds and said due to her medications they could not take her and they gave me the number of another rescue to contact. I called them and after talking with her a bit about Fantasia she asked me if we had discussed with our vet about possibly putting her down. I broke down crying and she said she would see what she could do and told us to meet her in North Jersey the next day. It all happened so fast that I was taken a bit by surprise. I almost didn't want to show up. I gave Fantasia a bath and we started packing up her things. Sad how her 9 years all fit into a tote bag.

When we got there, the rescue was all set up outside with the dogs they were trying to get adopted. Fantasia already had a few people saying how cute she was and someone even said "Who could ever give you up?" and made me feel 2 inches tall! I went over her medications with Mercedes (the rescue worker who I had spoken with over the phone) and gave everything that was Fantasia's. She had me sign her over and she gave me a hug and I cried on her shoulder. There was more conversation of course and we gave a donation to the rescue but all that is a blur. All I remember is that she said she was taking Fantasia home with her and if she couldn't find her a home, she would stay with her to live out the rest of her life. That made me happy that no matter what, she has a home. She told me to friend them on Facebook and they would keep me updated with her adoption process and share photos of her on there. So I wait for updates.

I wanted to share some pictures of Fantasia with you. This is no where near 9 years worth, more like 4 years worth. I might do other posts about her in the coming weeks. I already miss her.

I have not gotten used to her not being here and I keep thinking I see her in the corner of my eye and then it just turns out to be a bag or a stuffed animal. I feel sad when we come home to an empty house and I am sad when I go into the kitchen and she isn't at my feet. Ok enough sob story, enjoy the photos.

She was out in the lawn while John was mowing. She loves to roll in the grass.

These next photos are from the day she almost died and we had to rush her to the vet.

After we found out it was Addison's. See the bandage on her leg from where they drew blood?

And finally, pictures from our last day with her. You will be missed Fantasia! We love you!

See Bekah's pout? That's because she wanted Fantasia to be next to her but Fantasia wanted to be on my side so she was sad we weren't forcing Fantasia over there haha. Fantasia ended up going over to Bekah but none of those shots came out well. I love this picture because it shows how much Rebekah loves Fantasia. She cries about not having Fantasia anymore but not too often. She also keeps talking about when she gets older and isn't allergic anymore that she wants a new dog because she likes dogs. She broke my heart today when she said that she wanted Fantasia back when she wasn't allergic to her anymore. I had to tell her we would never see Fantasia again and she cried and asked if we could go visit grandma to see Fantasia some day and I told her grandma didn't have Fantasia and that the nice lady that she met today had her. She asked if we could visit Fantasia and I told her that it was better if we didn't because we didn't want to make Fantasia think we were back to take her home and then just upset her again when we left her again and didn't take her home with us.

I wonder how she is doing. I wonder if she is wondering if we will be back. I wonder if she is wondering why we left her. I should stop wondering and get to bed. Goodnight Fantasia, I hope you are well.

Oh and I should add the pictures of Rebekah and the reason we had to find Fantasia a new home.

Alyssa and Lyme Disease

2011-07-07T18:08:00.003-04:00

Alyssa is in Asheville Mission Hospital and will be there for a few days. They are running all sorts of tests on her.

She was bitten by a tick a couple months ago and has been being treated for Lyme disease. There was a bulls eye and the blood work came back positive for Lyme. She was on antibiotics but wasn't getting better. She was swelling up and her joints were hurting and she could hardly walk.

My mom told me to watch a movie called Under Our Skin that is an instant queue on Netflix. Click the link to see. I watched it and everything going on with Alyssa is sounding like the movie! It is ridiculous!

Some of the tests they are running on Alyssa while she is in the hospital, muscle disorders, meningitis, syphilis, herpes, leukemia, lymphoma, M.S., Lyme and more. Alyssa is not sexually active so the sexually transmitted diseases they are testing for seems like overkill.

The Dr is now saying that he doesn't think it's Lyme disease. I still think that it is Lyme because she hasn't gotten better since she was bitten by the tick and tested positive for the disease. I really feel like we need to be praying that if it IS Lyme, that they find it so that they will stop saying it's not Lyme. If it is NOT Lyme then we need to pray that they figure out what it is so she can start getting treated.

I made a sign up sheet for a 24 hour prayer chain for 3 days for Alyssa. If you would like to join please let me know when you can pray and I will fill you in.

https://spreadsheets0.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=tAS4ciFsZKQw9hvWtW411sw#gid=0

I posted it on my mother's Facebook page as well. Here is what my sister-in-law Carol set up for us.

“And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

Matthew 21:22

DAY 1 Rebuke this sickness and curse this disease

DAY 2 Thank the Lord for health and strength for Alyssa

DAY 3 ask the Lord to close all the attacks from the enemy coming to this family

Alyssa Mansell

24 Hour Prayer Chain for 3 Days against Lyme Disease

Spiritual warfare to me means taking the scripture about this situation and simply repeating them over and over again..not based on what we feel but just because His Word is sure…get some scriptures and declare them. “LORD YOU SAID….(now speak the scripture)” The Lord hears a righteous fervent prayer.. pray like this as if it is your family member or your child..

whichever way pray ..watch how the Lord can use your prayer!

Psalm 91:16

With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.

Psalm 103:3

Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits--who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.

Psalm 107:20

He sent forth his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave.

Psalm 118:17

I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the LORD has done.

Proverbs 4:20-23

My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to a man's whole body.

Isaiah 41:10

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Isaiah 53:4-5

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Jeremiah 1:12

The LORD said to me, "You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled."

Jeremiah 30:17

But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,' declares the LORD, `because you are called an outcast, Zion for whom no one cares.'

Joel 3:10

Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weakling say, `I am strong!`

Nahum 1:9

Whatever they plot against the LORD he will bring to an end; trouble will not come a second time.

Matthew 8:2-3

A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.

Matthew 8:17

This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: "He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases."

Matthew 18:18-19

"I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.

Matthew 21:21

Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, `Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done.

Mark 11:23-24

"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, `Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Mark 16:17-18

And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."

John 10:10

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Romans 4:17-21

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be." Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead--since he was about a hundred years old--and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

Romans 8:11

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

Keeping it Real - My DSLR camera

2011-07-05T21:02:00.000-04:00

For my 30th birthday John got me the DSLR camera I wanted so so badly! Then for Christmas my sister bought me a book on how to use my specific camera. Sadly, although it was what I wanted, I am not a reader. I am so bad at reading books, any books, even if I really really want to read them. So the book sat. I have had both my camera and the book for over 2 and a half years now and only cracked the book a couple times and only read a little each time. I still do not know how to use my camera as it should be used.
John told me to get out the book and look up how to take pictures of fireworks since we were going to be bringing the camera with us to take pictures on the 3rd. He suggested this on the 2nd. So I got out the book and dusted it off. Sadly there was only about 2 lines on the subject I was looking for. So I read a few other things about the camera and then looked up online what settings were good to use while photographing fireworks. I actually looked up the online info on my iPhone in the van on the way to the fireworks. Yay for procrastination! When we got there I told John that he could be the photographer. I don't normally like giving him control of my camera so this was a big step for me haha. He set up the tripod and then set the camera settings. We moved it around a little when they set off their practice shots until it was perfect. He did such an amazing job! First time photographing fireworks with my DSLR.

I went through and found a bunch I liked and then cropped them and got them shrunk down for the blog and I just counted them. 47! I might have to narrow it down some more! Get ready for firework overload! If you didn't get to see fireworks this weekend, this will make up for it lol. I still had a hard time narrowing it down.

Here is the camera set up on the tripod.

I love the squiggly lines of this one.

Doesn't this one look like a flower? I thought it was cool how the ends bent up like that.

I love how this one captures one that is fading and one that is just starting to take shape.

I love this one because it looks like the trees are on fire!

So if I didn't do a good job of fitting my "keeping it real" in with my fireworks shots I am sorry lol. I guess my point of making this my KIR post is that I have an awesome DSLR camera and I don't even know how to use it even after having it for almost 3 years haha. So I need to start reading my book, playing with my camera in manual more instead of just leaving it in auto all the time, and just learning how to take better photographs. I really don't want to be a professional or anything, I just want to be able to take better pictures of my family.
Do you have a really expensive toy that you don't know how to work?

Maple Shade 4th of July parade

2011-07-02T23:01:00.005-04:00

We have been trying to plan something different each day for the 4th of July weekend. Today we went to the Maple Shade 4th of July parade. It was about an hour, which was a perfect time for us as Isaiah started getting antsy toward the end. There were a ton of cars in this parade. I think I took pictures of them all. I have a huge line up of photos for this blog post so get ready for sensory overload! It's not even half of the pictures that I took.
When we first got there we found a nice big tree to plant ourselves under and were all settled in when we were told that the parade stopped a block before where we were sitting. They had excess road blocked off for safety. So we packed up and moved down a block and a half. The first pictures are from the first spot we were at.

I love my family! Rebekah is kissing her brother's hand. So sweet.

And now she is hugging him. Sometimes she loves on him a little too much.

Now we are at the new spot. We found a nice shady spot below an overhang of a business on the street. It wasn't much shade though and it was too far from the curb so we ended up sharing a tree with another family and sat on the curb to watch.

While we waited, Isaiah decided that he wanted to sit in Rebekah's seat on the stroller. It was cute watching him climb up and then seeing the look on his face. Pure joy! He felt like such a big boy in her seat.

The kids and I. Waiting for the parade to start.

First we saw a guy selling balloons. I figured Rebekah would ask for a dolphin since she was so obsessed with the dolphin on the merry go round at the zoo, but she didn't ask and he went to the other side of the street before getting to us and didn't get to us until the parade was almost over and he was coming back through. I asked how much and the cheapest one was $5! I tried to stop him there but then he threw in another price of $8, probably for the bigger ones like the dolphins. Rebekah really wanted a balloon at this point but I only had $2 cash on me. We don't usually carry cash on us. I don't even want to know how much the bigger ones are like that princess castle.

The parade started with some vets and the American flag! Good start.

Then some motorcycles.

The rest of the parade all kinda runs together so I am just going to post in groups.

Maple Shade high school marching band! Oh how I miss marching band!
And why do they get to wear nice cool clothes and we had to wear a heavy marching uniform complete with a silly hat even in the dead of summer? I might have to dig out some old marching band pictures to show you the awful uniforms we were forced to wear.

Flags. Are they Color guard? I think that's what they were called when I was in school. Anyway I always thought they were cool.

Now for the more unique bands! Now these guys must have been HOT! But well worth it if you ask me. Amazing outfits! The kids loved them anyway.

I probably have all these out of order but it's late and I am tired. So...moving on.
The kids really enjoyed the parade. Isaiah kept pointing at things. In this picture there was a break in the parade so who knows what he is actually pointing at but he did alot of pointing and it was cute.

He clapped alot too. We encouraged clapping because it was just so cute. He even enjoyed waiving at everyone. I didn't get any pictures of him waiving though. Trust me it was adorable!

Wearing daddy's sunglasses. Cool kid.

I know I got more pictures of Isaiah than Rebekah but she was either on my lap, sitting right next to me or moving around so much I couldn't get many pictures of her. Isaiah is an easier target haha.

During the parade they handed out flags and threw candy and necklaces! Rebekah had fun getting the candy and a necklace that came her way. She even shared with the girls that were sitting next to us. There was a greedy boy to the other side of us that ended up grabbing 3 necklaces and the 2 girls next to us only got 1. Every time I would look at Rebekah she was waiving that flag. So cute!

Isaiah was so good! He was very tired though since he didn't get a very long nap before we headed off to the parade. He slept on the way home.

Back to the parade!

Here is Senator Rob Andrews. He must have seen my camera and decided to not look in my direction because he didn't look our way till he was past us. See who he's giving a thumbs up to? A lady and a little girl who aren't even looking at him haha. There weren't many people across from us but there were a bunch of people next to us, so I wonder.

Got ya! Well sorta. Good enough right? haha.

There were a bunch of kids riding bikes all decked out. They were cute.

Now for the cars!

What. That's a car! Haha, probably my favorite out of the bunch! Check out their hair! That little boy has the coolest 4th of July hair ever! Haha I bet he had a blast with his daddy.

Then I took Isaiah off John's hands and he took over taking pictures.

At the end of the parade were all the fire trucks and ambulances. I think they were Isaiah's favorite! He waived like crazy at everyone. I hope there weren't any fires or emergencies during the parade because I am pretty sure all emergency vehicles were in the parade haha.

Isaiah's first time coloring

2011-06-30T15:45:00.002-04:00

Isaiah is very different than Rebekah in every way. Rebekah stopped putting non edible things into her mouth before she was a year old, Isaiah eats everything in his path. So naturally I have been reluctant to start him on crayons. Well yesterday I decided to try him out with them since he looked so cute sitting in Rebekah's school desk. Unfortunately my SLR''s battery was dead and all the other cameras were in the other room. So I took quick shots with my cell phone. I got a piece of paper and a fat crayon and put it in his hand. He didn't seem to know what to do so I took his hand and scribbled a little. Then he figured it out and got to work.

I got him a few other fat crayons and let him have some fun.

Rebekah decided she wanted to color with Isaiah so she grabbed a smaller crayon and started to color on one side of his paper.

Isaiah decided he wanted that crayon too lol.

He kept trying to stand in the desk so I took the crayons away from him and he had a fit and sat down so I gave them back and he stood up again. we did this back and forth quite a few times before I gave up and just put him into his high chair with his paper and crayons. Probably not the best idea since I guess he got confused and thought it was time to eat and started eating the crayons. See the black spots on his lip? He bit into a black crayon.

Silly boy! I am not sure when we will play with crayons again.

Friends who are a blessing

2011-06-29T20:58:00.000-04:00

My friend Laura from Life Happens saw the pictures I posted in my blog post "Bubbles!" and commented on the first picture of Rebekah in that post. You can see her comment below the blog post. I emailed her back about how Rebekah won't let me cut her bangs because she wants to grow them out, but she won't let me put rubber bands or head bands in her hair to keep them out of her eyes. Well Laura makes these beautiful flower barrettes and asked for my address so she could send Rebekah some!

They came in the mail today!! I let Rebekah open the package and told her they were a special gift from Liza's mommy. She was excited to see the pretty flowers and after I told her what they were she wanted me to put one on her right away. Se modeled 2 of them for me. She likes to pose and make silly faces for the camera lol. I also showed her pictures of Liza wearing them and she thought they were so cute.

Thank you so much Laura! Here's hoping that these will help in the battle of the hair.

Moon Sand the horror!

2011-06-29T08:47:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we went to the thrift store just to get out of the house because Isaiah was having a bad day and crying/screaming all day long. It worked, he had fun. I got a purse for $3 and I got Bekah 2 things of Moon Sand for 99 cents. Not 99 cents each, it was 2 for 99 cents. Great deal I thought!

Oh boy was I wrong! This stuff is a nightmare! Nothing like the commercials make it out to be. I was so disappointed! They were brand new never opened, in original packaging. The sand was in bags. My purse was brand new still had the silica pack inside and the original tags on it! Anyway back to the moon sand. It's basically wet sand. So messy! I thought it would be better than play dough, less messy and easier to play with. The commercials show the stuff staying together, compacting well and even the kids can play with it easily. Nope!

The lids each have different molds in them. This blue one had a dolphin, and the other one we got had a fish. We have not opened the other one yet. I packed in the sand, it was not so easy.

And this is what I ended up with. UGH, nothing like the commercials. This stuff just doesn't stick together. It's like playing in light fluffy snow, not the heavy snow that's easy to make snowballs. No, the snow that when you start making snowballs and it all falls through your fingers. No fun!

Bekah still liked it and wouldn't let me talk her into tossing it. See that pile there that she's playing with? She said she was making the best sand castle ever. Oh my poor delusional child.

The moral of this story? Research a product before buying it even if it's only $1. It's going to be hard to talk her into giving these up and I just don't want to keep cleaning it up after she plays with it.

Oh my goodness! I just realized that Moon Sand isn't what I thought it was! UGH! I was thinking Moon Dough. Well shoot! So has anyone used Moon Dough? How is it? Please tell me that it's better than stupid Moon Sand!

Soon I will write a blog post about my memory issues! Maybe everyone can get a little laugh about that nightmare.

Keeping it Real - Fun shopping carts

2011-06-28T14:35:00.003-04:00

Today is Tuesday! Time for Keeping It Real with Julie! Honestly I completely forgot and did this post before I realized what day it was. So I edited it to fit with Keeping it Real lol.
So let's talk shopping carts! Do you pick where you go shopping just for their shopping carts? Honestly we don't really but occasionally it's nice to go to a place that has nice shopping carts.

Now that Isaiah is older he can ride in the more fun shopping carts with Rebekah. Our local grocery store has a double car. It's always hard to find and I think they are down to just 1 left. We had to get some milk and a couple other things yesterday and decided to go to this store just for this shopping cart. The kids were loving it and we finished our small shopping trip with no major melt downs. They did fight a little when Isaiah decided he would rather play with Bekah's horn than his own but they worked it out.

When Isaiah was a baby we had his infant car seat carrier and it is capable of snapping into the tops of some shopping carts. Our local Target decided about this time to get all new shopping carts. They were great! Who doesn't love new shopping carts? They were all plastic and shiny and new and I LOVED them! I hate old rusty metal shopping carts. I loved them that is until I tried to put Isaiah's infant carrier into the top. They made it so these seats would not fit! I was so mad! How could they alienate such a huge amount of customers by making their shopping carts impossible to shop with babies? We had to put the carrier inside the cart and get another cart for what we were buying. Good think John is always with me when I shop. Not everyone has this luxury though. Isaiah wasn't in his carrier for long though as he outgrew it by the time he was 8 months old. That was still 8 months of a pain in the bottom when it came to shopping at Target.

Grocery Shopping Nightmare

2011-06-25T19:38:00.000-04:00

John went to get groceries at Walmart while I stayed home with the kids. He got a full cart of food and then went to check out. He emptied his entire cart onto the conveyor belt (which took him about 6 minutes) and after the person in front of him paid and left the cashier told him that she was closed and he need to go to another isle. Her light was on, she had no closed sign at the end of her line, she was open when he emptied his cart. He was not happy about her attitude and told her he was going to leave everything on the counter and she just shrugged at him, turned off her light and walked away. So did he. I don't blame him. So today we had to go grocery shopping and because he felt so upset over the whole thing, we didn't get nearly as much stuff. We will not be shopping there for a while. I think we will file a complaint too. I am sure she was having a bad day but that was just uncalled for. She could have turned off her light BEFORE he emptied his cart or turned off her light after she saw him putting things on the belt, checked him out, and then taken her break.
What would you have done?

Bubbles!

2011-06-24T21:14:00.000-04:00

Our kids LOVE bubbles! Our friend Caroline gave Isaiah a really cool bubble blower for his first birthday and the kids love chasing them in the yard. I try to balance blowing bubbles and taking pictures and our other bubble blower makes this practically impossible, but this bubble blower works great! The carrying handle has a trigger on it that makes the bubbles blow so it's a one handed job! Today we went outside to play while John put a bed rail on the bottom bunk. The kids had a blast. It was hot, oh so very hot, but the kids still had fun.

I love my kids! They are so much fun.

Our little monkey

2011-06-23T09:34:00.002-04:00

Isaiah is a climber. He is very daring and doesn't take no for an answer. If he is determined to do something, he will do it even if you tell him no or try to stop him. He keeps trying till he succeeds. Yesterday I caught him climbing the bunk bed over the head board by climbing into his toy box.

I kept telling him no the entire time he was doing it but he didn't listen. I figured if I pulled him down he would just keep going back and trying again till he did it so I decided to document it instead. He was pretty proud of himself.

He climbs other things as well. This was just the biggest thing so far. He stands on all of his toys. He tries to climb the bookcase in their room and that's why I had to remove the middle shelf. It's anchored to the wall so even though he pulls on it, it's not going anywhere.

It's just a whole new world for us with Isaiah. We never had to baby proof as much with Rebekah. Isaiah requires a whole new level of baby proofing.

Father's Day

2011-06-22T07:58:00.000-04:00

For Father's Day we went to the Cape May zoo. We decided that the Philadelphia zoo is always too crowded and since it was father's day it would be more so. Besides, we like the Cape May zoo. They have been doing renovations inside and out and it's looking amazing! They now have a little train ride and a carousal. We asked Bekah which she would rather do and she picked the carousal, so we promised her a ride on the way out.

Photos of our day.

In the car on the way there. It's a long drive so we put on a Gigi movie for them to watch.

Riding the wagon into the zoo.

Practically the first thing when you go into the zoo is the goats. John got some feed to feed the goats and helped Bekah feed them. As he was trying to give Bekah some food and show her how to feed the goats, one head butted John. It was pretty funny and everyone around us was laughing. I was happy I caught it on camera!

Since I don't recall what animals we saw in what order, let's start with the itchy animals. There were plenty that day.

There was a llama too but I guess I forgot to re-size that picture.

I brought Rebekah's new camera along so she could take some pictures too. She didn't take many but the few she did take she was excited about.

I held her up to take the flamingo picture and the zebras.

This is my favorite part of the zoo. I was a little sad this day though as most of the animals were hiding or too far away. I had my zoom lens but they were even too far away for that. So I cropped some pictures to make them bigger.

These guys were just so cute! Oh to be a lemur!

The tortoise's were getting hosed down! I bet they were hot, even though it was an overcast and breezy day, it was still warm. Perfect day for the zoo if you ask me though. Not too hot and not too cold.

Albino alligator they have on loan.

The birds. I love the Eagles.

This flamingo was the brightest of the bunch.

Inside the bird house these bright birds were all over the place.

I loved this bird with the feathers on his head. Very pretty.

This beautiful bird was squawking up a storm!

The snow leopard had babies! 2 cubs. Every time we go to the zoo since she had the babies, the babies are always hiding. It seemed to be that way today too except just as I was getting ready to leave the exhibit John pointed out that one of the babies was poking out of the little house!

The lion was pretty vocal while we were there. Roaring at something. Every time I would get my camera focused he would move. It was frustrating. The tigers were hiding.

The red fox was pretty

The Coati was very active and he had a big crowd around him so I couldn't get a clear shot of him.

And just so you know what I was actually there lol. Here's a horrible and cropped picture of me.

A good Father's Day photo. I only brought the zoom lens so I had to stand all the way across the walkway against the fence.

Then after we were done John took the kids on the carousel. Rebekah wanted to be on the dolphin.

On the way back to the car.

On the way home. They were pretty tired.

How was your Father's Day?

Keeping it real...Toys!

2011-06-21T11:56:00.002-04:00

My friend Julie of My Crazy Life as Mom and Wife does a weekly blog post called "keeping it real". A few weeks ago I played along. You can see that post at my designer blog Statements by Jodi. This week since I have my new family blog, I will be posting it here. Last time I did Shoes, this time I am doing toys!

My kids have alot of toys. Not as many as I have seen other kids with but we have a small house so what may not seem like alot to some is more than enough for us. We have tried many systems for storing these toys. The best was when we had a nice storage rack with canvas totes to hold the toys. It worked great! Bekah knew what groups of toys were where and everything usually got put away. I say usually because kids will be kids lol.

We had to do away with this system once Isaiah started pulling up onto things. He would pull down all the toys and it started to get dangerous.

It started out looking like this, the tub was filled with stuffed animals and toys too big for the bins.

Then Isaiah started messing with the lower level of bins and they had to be removed.

Then he got to the point where he was pulling down the middle bins and finally the top bins which had accumulated all the toys from the lower bins so it got dangerous real fast.

We took down the whole system and got bins for under the bed!

But that didn't last long because Isaiah figured out how to pull them out, open them and play inside of them. Which Bekah thought was a good idea too so she joined him. So we taped the lid down on one of them that had small toys that Isaiah wasn't allowed to play with and the other box we removed the lid and pushed it out into the living room.

This was not working for me though because the living room was always a huge mess so I brought it back into their room. The other day John came home with a big tub and right away I got to work putting the toys in it! I left a few of the big toys in the under the bed box and taped it shut and shoved it back under the bed. Now when they want a big toy I will have to help them get them out. But it's better this way. Or is it...lol Isaiah has already tipped the big tub of toys over several times. Oh well.

Don't let this fool you. There are still 2 under the bed boxes, 1 big tub filled with toys in the closet AND a top bunk full of stuffed animals and dolls. Plus Isaiah's big toys are in the living room. His toy table, his stride to ride dino, and his push toy that he uses as a stroller/shopping cart/step stool lol. All in the living room. Rebekah likes to go through her toys every once in a while and give toys to children who don't have any. We do this once every few months and we usually get rid of 1-2 trash bags full. So yeah they have a steady stream of toys so don't worry lol.

I even had the book case organized at one point. Now there are books all over the floor and none inside the shelves! This is what it looked like on most days, but sometimes it was all nice a neat, for at least an hour. Now I can't even keep the books in place for 5 minutes! Isaiah sees it as a game I think.

This is what the book case looks like today. This is after I organized it and put them in there so tight I didn't think he could possibly get them out. Boy was I wrong!

How big is your children's toy collection and how do you organize and tame it?

I finally started a family blog!

2011-06-20T19:45:00.000-04:00

I finally decided to stop thinking about it and just do it! So now I have a family blog. Let's hope I keep up with this better than I keep up with my scrap booking blog.
I hope that my family and friends will enjoy being able to keep up with what's going on with my family.