What Kind Of Dog Are You?

How crazy weird is that? I'm a beagle. Now that I'm learning to embed things in the blog AND I'm wide awake at midnight I'm led to finding things such as this and adding to them to the blog. So what kind of dog ARE you?

You Are a Beagle

You are good natured. You enjoy spending time with people and animals. You have a wild, independent streak. If you're left to your own devices, you get in trouble. You love to eat and enjoy food of all kinds. If you don't get enough physical activity, you tend to have a weight problem. You are very stubborn. You don't like authority, and you tend to do your own thing no matter what.

What Breed of Dog Are You?

I Did It!

Thanks to Melodie I figured out how to add a YouTube video to the blog! Thank you Melodie! Note, this is just a random video to try out my new talent!

Just Between Me & The Sen-na-ta!

Hey Uncle Jim! The Philly drought is OVER! Apparently William Penn had something to do with it. Comcast corrected the folly and the Philly drought has been ended. Eagles to the Bowl? Perhaps not this year, but the Penn Curse has been lifted and things are looking up for all Philadelphia fans! Love and miss you, Karen

Grab Your Tissues!

Well, apparently I still haven't figured out how to add videos from YouTube to the blog. So, just grab a box of tissues and click on this link. I saw this featured on Oprah yesterday, trust me you're going to NEED the tissues!

Starbuck's Splash Pick

This afternoon while Ella was at preschool, I went on a Target run. Ella was in desperate need of sneakers, and we were all in need of toothbrushes since Ella decided to place all of them in the trash last evening. SO, after spending only 15 minutes in Target and ONLY getting exactly what we needed, I decided to treat myself to a Starbucks coffee. YUM! This, sadly, doesn't happen often, and I did happen to have just enough cash to purchase one, so it was justifiably meant to be. Anyhow, after ordering and waiting for my drink, I was caught off guard when the barista asked if I wanted a "splash pick". What?! I said no, and thought nothing of it. I had never had a "splash pick" before, so why would I need one now? Well, leave it to a blustery, fall, PA day, complete with wind advisory, to prove why one should ALWAYS take the new "Starbuck's Splash Pick" when offered! Let's just say I wore half and drank half of my much awaited Caramel Macchiato. So, heads up to ya'll, when offered the splash pick, TAKE THE SPLASH PICK! It's a good thing!

Check Fraud

So, last evening Hayden approaches me with the above piece of paper and says, "I watched you write a check and now I am writing checks to get money." I had to laugh at the accuracy of his homemade check and his "reason" on the memo line. However, I replied by saying, "Yeah, Daddy and I will drive you to the bank, drop you off, allow you to walk inside and attempt to cash your "grocery list made check" and then laugh our butts off as police swarm the place and haul you away. THEN we'll quickly leave the bank, go home and not answer the phones when you get your one chance at a prison phone call." Thinking I've scared him into NEVER creating false checks or attempting to forge my signature, I was shocked when he started to laugh. His reply, "Would you really do that?" "What?" "Not answer the phone." OH MY DEAR FATHER IN HEAVEN! The boy doesn't fear police or being arrested, he fears Mama not answering the phone when he tries to call. Touching yet terrifying!

Tootsie Pops

On Friday the boys had their "Fall Festival" at school. Their elementary school has a western-style, all day theme party. All of their classes center around things country/western/fall. The whole school ends the day with a concert, by a local folk singer, and a party in their classrooms. The kids LOVE it! Well, at least they love it until they come home and have their little sister dig through all of their "goodies". Now granted I try to restrain her and have them rush their stuff off to their rooms before she can get a hold of anything "important". The only thing they are NOT allowed to whisk off to their rooms is anything candy or sugar filled. Take the pencils, erasers, spider rings, fangs, notepads etc., but I'm not having them think it's ok to be sucking on a pixie stick at 2am, simply because I told them to take it to their room! So, the Friday "pile of sugar in the kitchen" caused chaos for Ella and Hayden. Ella was determined to have Hayden's "big pop" aka Tootsie Pop. Hayden, being the awesome big brother he is, allowed her to have it. As a result I told him I would make sure he got a new "big pop." Which led us on a trip to the Dollar Store today to pick up a pack of pops. Only after bringing the pops home did I notice the bag's printing read, "New Flavor Inside!" OH! I'm suddenly so excited! (Ok, so it was a slow day. I honestly was excited!) What could possibly compete with chocolate, orange, grape and cherry for the convented honor of being allowed to cuddle the delicious tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop?! POMEGRANATE! (Insert sound of needle sliding across record here.) What?! Pomegranate?! I'm honestly sucking on one now and tasting only watered down cherry. Eeeww and yuck. Let's just hope this is what led the package to be sold at the Dollar Store, forget about this little hiccup in the Tootsie Pop people's thinking, and never discuss this again! Ok, fire the person who sat at the board meeting, suggested Pomegranate as a cool new flavor, and all the people in the room who agreed with that person and THEN we'll never speak about this little lapse in logical thinking again!

Welcome To New Maryland

Hello from Southern Pennsylvania, oops!, I mean New Maryland! For those of you who aren't from the area, let me explain. Several years ago people who live and work in Maryland began buying homes in lower PA. A lower cost of living, suburban lifestyles, good school districts all seemed like attractive PA qualities to the migrant Marylander. I was understanding and empathetic when the migration began. It was of course the boarder of two states. A fluid, transparent boundary existing only on paper and theory. Honestly, when one travels across the Mason-Dixon line, even on 83, not much changes. Now obviously there are many differences between rural PA and Baltimore. However, very few differences, if any at all, exist between the southern most points of PA and the northern most points of MD. However, over the past 15 years the migration has continued 35 miles into PA. So, there you have it, New Maryland! First we had New Mexico on the map, well now we can add "NEW MARYLAND!" I believe I've been tolerant of all the MD license plates driving around 30 miles over the boarder, but then it was the invasion of "busy Maryland Moms" taking over, and micro-managing the soccer team. Now today as I dropped my children off at school, a Maryland mom drove down the side of the drop-off line, cut off the line, pushed her kid out the door, allowed him to cross a lane of traffic (a huge blind spot exists in this area) and then WAITED for him to enter the building! Now, don't get me wrong, I always wait for my kids to enter the building. However, I don't cut off the entire line AND then sit and wait for my kids to get through the door! Even on a slow day the back of the drop off line is only 4 min. to the door. Oh, but MD mom, I KNOW you are so busy, because your job is so IMPORTANT, and you have a 45 min. commute, and you are a woman trying to balance a career and family from 50 miles away! Well, that might seem like that was the topper to my morning, but NO! As my kids were approaching the school door, 2 police cars came flying down the lane and cornered a car. Two teens (the driver and passenger) were quickly removed from the vehicle, and placed in the back of the one cruiser car. As I was pulling away from the school, I spotted the cars license plate. Would you like to guess what state the car was from? OMG! How did you guess? Maryland! So, there you have it folks, welcome to New Maryland! I'm grateful to live in a state where so many WANT to live. I mean come to think of it, an acquaintance of mine just recently married an MD cop, who happens to live 25 miles inside PA. Apparently MD has become such a horrible place to live, even the law enforcement officers can't take it! Wow! To think all this time we've been traveling to MD for the Inner Harbor, dinner, museums, etc. I suppose the culture what is driving the MD residence away.

Mr. Aloe

Mr. Aloe's side view was bugging me. Sadly I don't know how to easily rotate it. Here is a fresh picture after he was cleaned up and repotted. Isn't he handsome! I know...I HAVE ISSUES!

This Is Love

Many would think this picture (yes, it's sideways,sorry) looks like a giant weed in the middle of my mud room. Many more of you may wonder why I would include "Love" in the title of a post containing this picture. And many more of you may be wondering why this post isn't titled "Get That Damn Thing Out Of My House!" Well, let me introduce you to Mr. Aloe. Five or six years ago I found Mr. Aloe at Target. He was on a shelf in the middle of the store, in a wee tiny pot, dying. I had wanted an aloe plant and figured I would purchase the wee tiny plant and nurse it back to health. Well, that I did. Since then Mr. Aloe has gone from a wee tiny plant to, well, somewhat of a giant. Each year when the weather gets cold we move him into the mudroom. Each spring we dump him out of his pot, place him in a larger pot to accommodate his new growth, pull off any new "babies" (yes, we pot the babies and also realize that Mr. Aloe is actually a Ms. Aloe), and then repeat the same process again in the fall. This year Mr. Aloe even flowered twice. I never knew aloes flowered, but alas they do! This year also brought the first, "Are we going to keep Mr. Aloe?" conversation. As you can see, Mr. Aloe takes up a HUGE portion of our mudroom. We need to keep him off the ground to prevent eye injuries to the dogs and kids. James thought this might be the year to keep Mr. Aloe's babies and say good-bye to Mr. Aloe. I was crushed. He's become a member of the family. The kids are fascinated by him, he heals my babies cuts, scrapes and burns, and well, he's grown on us. (Pun intended) I can't bear the thought of letting him die! I called my parents and asked if he could spend the winter in their heated basement. My Mom agreed, but weeks flew by and we never got around to repotting, separating, etc. So, it seemed with frost in the forecast we were going to have to say our final good-byes. I already prepared myself for seeing his limp, wilted, frost-bitten limbs laid out across the lawn. Sunday night, brought frost, I felt horrible about him being outside, but knew he had grown too large for our home and too heavy for James to easily carry. I woke Monday morning and went to let the dogs out, praying the frost had spared Mr. Aloe. As I opened the mudroom door, I witnessed the above sight. James had hauled Mr. Aloe inside late Sunday night, before the frost. Now THAT is LOVE!

Where Have I Been?

Where have I been? Well,on the porch. I've been on the porch and at Lowe's. I've been on the porch sanding, sanding, sanding and sanding some more. Then, after sanding (on the porch) I was at Lowe's. Purchasing stain, polyurethane, sponges, rags, sand paper and drawer pulls. And now after a week of hard work (and lots of inhaled fumes),we now have two awesome dressers and lots more storage. The dressers were originally covered in a peeling, nasty, reddish-brown stain. Now (as you can see in the above picture) they look awesome! Usually James and I take our time on projects, however, with this one we wanted to hurry and finish before the weather got too cool to stain/polyurethane outside. After weeks of warm weather, PA chose to find fall the same week James and I found a new project! Isn't that the way things usually work out! Ha-ha! Well, our work was well worth it. As was the trip to pick up the dressers out of my girlfriends, mom's shed. Lets just say it involved 2 kids, 1 Ford van, no "stow & go" seating, an ancient 4ft. long bungee cord, a decaying spool of twine, a small, sweet and helpful hardware store owner, and finally Gorilla glue tape applied directly to the van's paint. OH! And a drive (including the above items/issues) through an entire county! Yeah, yeah! I know, had to be there! But funny it was!

This Is Hilarious!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=IsvWK_EedLU


I found this video at Growin With It. I couldn't help but post it here too! Too true and too funny!

Mr. John's Mountain Party

We had a fantastic time yesterday at Mr. John's Annual Mountain Party. For those who may not know, Mr. John is our bachelor neighbor. He has been our neighbor for 6 years and during that time has become like an uncle to our kids. They LOVE their "Mr. John". Each October Mr. John's family has a party at their cabin in the mountains. Last year we had the honor of being invited and had an awesome time. This year we were re-invited and, again, had a great time full of music, great food, smores, Uncle Sonny's fantastic french fries, and "Redneck horseshoes". Thanks for a great time Mr. John!

Why I Am Married

In moments like these, I realize why I am a married woman. My man can dispose of a 3 pound opossum carcass, but I am unable to remove a moth from the dishwasher. How the moth actually got there is beyond me. Fact is, it's there. I tried plucking it out with a fork.... it fluttered! EEEWWWW! The dishes in the sink are piling up, I don't (well won't) hand wash. Just ask my kids. In the mornings when all of our spoons are dirty, I could open the dishwasher and wash a few for use, but NO we simply enjoy "Funky Spoon Day!" We open the kitchen drawers and grab any item that resembles a spoon and use it to eat our cereal. Measuring spoon, melon baller, avocado pitter...etc. So, now I have a sink full of dirty dishes, a dirty dishwasher AND a resident moth! At this rate it looks like we'll have to initiate "Funk Fork Day" for dinner! Hurry home James!!!!!!!!