10-28-2012 Inventory 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10-28-2012 Inventory 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10-28-2012 Inventory 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10-12-2012 Signing up for Basketball... Whoop, whoop!

The day Lily has been waiting for has finally arrived. She and Charlie left about an hour ago to sign her up for basketball. Charlie is going to volunteer as a parent coach. So exciting! She has been looking forward to this for about a year. I hope she likes it. And doesn't get hurt. Ditto for Charlie.

Luke is having a play date with his friend Tyler. They are building cup castles. And creating Hot Wheels race tracks. And shooting each other with Nerf guns. Boys play dates are full of action.

Tonight is the first night the forecast includes a frost warning. Love it! I am so very ready for fall. Love the cooler weather. Love fall foods including hot tea and cider and roasted veggies and stews. Love fall clothes, especially jeans and sweaters. Love the changing leaves. Lots to love about fall.

9-29-2012

We've been plodding along, putting one foot in front of the other. Work has picked up for Charlie in the past few weeks and it looks like he may have enough lined up to get him to Christmas! This is wonderful new and really cuts down on the stress I know he was feeling there for a while when things were slow and the phone wasn't really ringing.

Lily has settled into 3rd grade and seems to be doing okay. We are going to drop dance class and do deck hockey instead. It turns out, dance class is not her thing. She and I did 'scrapbooking' yesterday morning at the round table in the office/classroom and enjoyed some mother/daughter time. saturday she and I went out for Chinese for lunch, then to the library and SalVal. I think she enjoys the one on one time.

Luke and I are doing cyber school for 4th grade. He is adjusting with some reluctance to the classroom setting. He hasn't been the happiest camper this past week or so. I'm wondering if it had something to do with the Harvest moon we had on Saturday. He has his own channel on YouTube and has posted some videos of cup castles (built out of red plastic cups). He also just got a 10 foot plastic pipe he's been shooting matchbox cars through. He did set off a few fireworks last evening, something he was really into there for a while.

I am very thankful for our continued good health this fall. Charlie felt like he was coming down with something Friday evening. He stayed in bed Saturday and ate 5 different colors fruits and veggies. Yesterday he woke up feeling much better. He brought firewood to the outdoor furnace and took down some little trees around the property that had the potential of taking over.

9-26-2012 Fall decorations

 

9-15-2012 Fall

 

 

 

8-27-2012 1st Day of School

The kids started school today. Lily 3rd grade. Luke 4th. Major difference between the 2 is that Lily went to the traditional classroom, while Luke started cyber school.

Both had good days, which we rehashed at the Jumbo China Buffet after school. Lily was a bit apprehensive about her teacher, but so far, so good. I was worried we wouldn't be able to start cyber school this morning, but we did. Both kids had review of concepts from last year today.

I'm so thankful we are able to do cyber school for Luke. No anxiety about interacting with classmates. A nice, low key day. So much better than previous years.

8-22-2012 OCMD

 

8-21-2012 Life's a Beach

We're at Ocean City, MD for our annual vacation before the kids start back to school. We arrived yesterday around 1130. Our hotel room wasn't ready yet. Luckily, we'd planned ahead and Charlie and the kids wore their swimsuits on the trip down. We walked to the beach and hung out there for a few hours. It was a bit chilly (mid 70's) and spritzed a few drops of rain here and there. Charlie and the kids didn't even notice. I made a trip to the minivan and put on a rain jacket. Of course, by the time I got back down to the beach it had stopped.


Then came back to the hotel pool where Charlie and the kids played while I unpacked.


We all headed back down to the beach in the late afternoon for fun in the sand and surf. Several porpoises swam off shore and I tried to get some pictures of them.



Lily and Charlie went to Grotto Pizza for dinner with Kathy, Sr., Ben, and Adan (they left this morning to go back home). Luke and I had had enough and enjoyed a nice, quiet evening in the hotel room. I puttered on the laptop and read. Luke enjoyed TV.


This morning we headed to Dunkin Donuts for coffee. Then Charlie and the kids went to Jolly Rodger Water and Amusement Park. I've been tidying up the room and fiddling with pictures on the computer. Think I'll do some reading next. It's supposed to reach a high of 77 today, so I may venture down to the beach later.

7-28-2012

We went to Sal Val on Thursday and purchased a big tub filled with Lego's for 9.99. The timing could not have been better as the kids had been banned from screen time for a week, starting the day before. The reason for the punishment was that they repeatedly did not listen, snuck the cat into the house, snuck the cat into the minivan, and saturated the inside of the barn from water balloons after being told no more going in the barn. So, the Lego's have been a life saver for me, giving them something to do.

The garden is doing well with peppers, basil, sage, bee balm, dill, and mint. I've only gotten a few ripe cherry tomatoes here and there, but have lots of flowers, so we'll see.

I did touch base about the nurse educator job I'd applied for July 3rd. They are still in the decision making process. At this point, I'll see if they offer me the position. If they do, I'll see what it pays and then Charlie and I will try to decide what we should do.

The kids and I have been going down on the dock for them to swim in the river quite a bit. This summer has been a hot one and we're fortunate to have swimming in our back yard.

Last Saturday we went to Wegman's and stocked up on a bunch of their groceries we were craving. It's been good eating all week.

We've gone to Root's Produce Auction in Manheim several times this summer. Love the prices we pay for produce. No air conditioning in the auction house and outside vendors have kept us from going weekly. Today we may try out another produce auction, this one in Fleetwood.

7-22-2012 Not Exactly the Catch of the Day!

 

7-18-2012 Dreams of a Perfect Summer Day...

The Enchanted Home: A perfect summer day with Debby of Inspired Design...: Hi, good to be here. Was on the road again...its been non stop! I am looking forward to hopefully taking a breather in August before the ...

7-17-2012 Too Hot Tuesday

Today it is supposed to be too hot to leave the house. We will stay inside and enjoy the AC. Charlie will be working outside, replacing siding and deck boards at a house that was damaged by storms about 2 weeks ago.



Random quote from Lily the other day..."I want to go to a playground, not to the gosh darn back yard."

7-7-2012 Beat the Heat

 

7-4-2012 Happy Independence Day!

I took the kids to Mom and Dad's on Monday for a sleepover. I had an interview for a nurse educator position Tuesday morning at 0800. I don't feel the peer interview went well. I also have very mixed feelings about going to work full-time (and an hour commute each way). So....it's all in God's hands at this point.

Meanwhile, the kids went to Hershey's Chocolate World and Indian Echo Caverns with Mom and Dad. That was a full day for them Tuesday, so they slept over last night. Charlie and I went to pick them up this morning.

Charlie and the kids went down to the dock for some fishing and swimming about an hour ago. I was down for less than 5 minutes and had to come up to the air conditioned house. It's too hot for me outside!

6-29-2012 Breakdown

We ran out of gas today. I've never been in a car when that happened before. Charlie was driving the minivan and knew right away that we were out of gas. He managed to pull to the side of the road and ran to a house aside of the highway and 'borrowed' some gas. So scary to see him pouring it into the minivan as cars, trucks, and tractor trailers whizzed by.

Last night we had a severe thunderstorm that knocked the electricity out until about 9:30 this morning. Luckily Met-Ed fixed it before the major heat of the day. I think we hit a high of about 99 degrees.

6-20-2012 Hot, Hot, Hot

Very hot and muggy today. i think real feel is somewhere around 100 degrees. I got up early (0530) and hung a load of laundry on the clothesline before the heat kicked in. Took Lily to VBS for 0900, then dropped Luke off for a play date with his friend Tyler.

Charlie worked outside all day on a pool house. Sun reflecting off white vinyl. He's cooked.

Tomorrow should be even hotter!

6-17-2012 Father's Day

Charlie was served coffee in bed. Then he and I read the paper. Then we hung out on the riverside porch for a while. Then puttered around the property doing various tasks.

Lunch was a fabulous spinach salad with hot peppers from our garden.

Dinner will be steaks.

Charlie and Lily are presently running errands, Lowes for paint, AC Moore for artist paint brushes. Charlie plans on painting the barn hex signs this week.

Wonderful weather for the past few days. The kids actually slept over at mom and dad's Thursday and Friday. They went to Knoebles both days. Charlie and I went to Landis Valley Museum on Friday and had a wonderful time. We had a picnic lunch. Then stopped at Oregon Dairy on the way home and picked up iced raison bread for a snack. We capped off the day with a stop at Green Dragon where we picked up some basil to plant and herbs mom wanted to plant.

Wish the mild weather could last all summer long!

6-14-2012 Hurray For Sleepovers!

I took the kids to Mom and Dad's this morning for a sleepover. Lily and Mom are going to go to Knoebles and enjoy some rides. Luke and Dad are going to plant some tomatoes, do some fishing, and shoot guns.

Charlie is busy painting the barn with Ryan today. He and I (Charlie, not Ryan), may take a day to ourselves tomorrow and go puttering around some old town. Maybe New Hope or Lititz or Bethlehem. Somewhere local-ish with lots of neat old architecture to enjoy.

We'll pick the kids up either tomorrow evening or Saturday morning. In the meantime, we'll all enjoy some great weather with the temp's in the high 70's and low humidity. I'd take this all summer!

6-10-2012 Blue Marsh for Lily & Me

Lily and I went to Blue Marsh today from 1000-2:00. It was about 90 degrees and quite humid so the cold lake water was quite refreshing.

Charlie stayed home to paint the barn. Luke stayed home as well.

Now hanging out as a family watching DVDs.

6-9-2012 Lily's 8th Birthday Review

Yesterday was Lily's 8th birthday. It was a day packed with action, just like Lily likes it. We started off with a mother-daughter breakfast at Shady Maple while Charlie and Luke stayed home and cleaned up the house. Then we went to Ballocity with 2 of Lily's friends, Lila and Tucker. We came home for hot dogs and cookies and a quick playmate with Lila, then off to the Reading Phillies for a baseball game and fireworks.

I had baked a cake the day before at Lily's insistence and with her help. Unfortunately, after it was decorated, it developed a very large crack in the middle that looked like the after-effects of an earthquake. So we decided that would be the 'practice cake' and we had lemon cookies for her birthday. Bought at Redner's per Lily's request.

We were thinking of going to Knoeble's tomorrow with P&J, but the weather is supposed to be in the low 90's with high humidity, so we changed our minds. We'll stay home and hang out here. Maybe go to Blue Marsh swimming in the late afternoon.

Charlie is working on painting the front of the barn. It def. needs it.

5-20-2012 Unexpected Fun Day

Grandma K. called this morning and asked if the kids wanted to stop in and hang out with Adan. That meant Charlie and I could have a few hours to ourselves. No-brainer!

We dropped them off and went to Shupp's Grove for their outdoor antique market. Spent $5 on a fire billow to blow air into the goblet of fire we got 2 or 3 weeks ago.

Then we headed to Wegman's in Downingtown for a grocery shopping adventure. We bought a cart full of stuff as we always do. But this time we snacked in the parking lot on some rosemary and sea salt bread and hot pepper spread we put on little baguette slices. Charlie loved the hot pepper spread so much we went back inside and bought 6 more jars!

5-19-2012 Back Track to Mother's Day Weekend

I had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend! Saturday Charlie and the kids helped me in the garden all day. It was in the low 80's and sunny, so Charlie set up a canvas tent to give us shade. We'd weed a section then move then tent and weed and move. It worked beautifully.

Sunday we went with Mom and Dad to Knoebles'. We had a picnic lunch then did rides for a few hours. Then we went back to Mom and Dad's and Luke, Charlie, and Dad did some fishing in the dam.

Gorgeous weather and surrounded by my loved ones. Doesn't get any better than that.

We had about 3 inches of rain between Monday and Tuesday and the dock detached from the stairs. We still have it because Charlie tied it fast to some trees. But it is going to need some work.

Today is another gorgeous day. I took Lily to deck hockey this morning while Charlie and Luke worked on the lawn mower. This afternoon we went to Black Creek Greenhouse in East Earl. We stopped at a roadside stand and bought 6 quarts of local strawberries. The small, dark red, delicious kind. We ate 3/4 of a box on the drive home. I made one of the best smoothies ever with another box when we got home.

Lily and Luke are currently in the kiddie pool we've had for a few years. I'm sitting on the river side porch and Charlie is finishing up the mowing.

Not sure what tomorrow holds. Probably planting some of the plants we bought today. And enjoying this great weather.

5-8-2012 A Day in the Life of Us...

 

5-6-2012 The Great Moon View that Wasn't

We were very excited last evening to see the super moon we were supposed to have. Charlie and the kids went to Wal Mart and bought a fire pit. We put the air mattresses on the river-side porch and planned to watch Harry Potter while enjoying the moon. unfortunately, it clouded over and started to rain. We had to come inside. We enjoyed Harry Potter, but didn't really get a good view of the moon.

Today we did some firewood. Lunch was fabulous chicken and pasta. Then we went dockside for the afternoon. Non hanging out watching Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief.

5-5-2012 Drawing Contest

Lily went with Charlie to a dinner at a lumber company. They announced that the drawing contest would begin at 7 pm and Lily insisted they stay for that. She thought it would involve drawing pictures and she was confident she'd win.

4-29-2012 Romantic Weekend...re-do, please?

This was supposed to be our romantic weekend. Mom and Dad take the kids one weekend in the spring for a sleepover and Charlie and I have a romantic weekend all to ourselves. I dropped the kids off Friday with Mom. Charlie and I had dinner and went to the bedroom where he promptly fell asleep. Poor guy. He's been working hard, both on the job sites and in the office to nail down the next big job.

Saturday we woke up and got some necessary work done here. Emptied out the back of his truck. Hauled some firewood for the week. Did a quick clean out of the summer kitchen. Then we got ourselves cleaned up and headed out to Shupp's Grove, an outdoor antique market in Adamstown. We weren't there long when Charlie got a phone call about two potential customers who needed some paper work IMMEDIATELY. It ended up ruining our day because it was nothing that turned into a big brouhaha. When we came home, we had some snacks and took ourselves off to bed to watch a DVD and wind down.

Today we woke today and decided to rearrange some furniture. We got rid of our sofa and love seat by putting it in the driveway for the neighbors to take. We moved our fine Italian leather sectional (a SalVal buy) to the living room. That opened up space in the office/classroom. We moved some of that furniture around to open up the room. Both spaces look much better.

We worked up such an appetite we took ourselves off the Kentucky Fried Chicken to pick up some lunch. We brought it back here and enjoyed a fine dining experience on our river-side porch. The chicken was fabulous and we loved every bite of it! Then we took a nature walk (sluggishly due to the fried chicken) around our property.

The kids are at Knoeble's with Mom and Dad. We're going to leave shortly to go pick them up. Not our ideal weekend, although still not as bad as a year and a half ago when our fall romantic weekend was ruined by the neighbor's hostage crisis.

4-28-2012 How To Use A Sock To Get Beautiful Curly Hair Without Heat | A Spotted Pony

How To Use A Sock To Get Beautiful Curly Hair Without Heat | A Spotted Pony


Can't wait to try!

4-21-2012 Rain is Coming Baby

It has been an absolutely lovely spring thus far. Exceptional in the lack of rain we've had. That's about to change. In the next 48 hours we are supposed to get approximately 3.5 inches of rain. I think it could turn into one of those 'be careful what you wish for' scenarios. We've brought in the chair cushions and tied the dock fast to surrounding trees.

Certainly, some rain will be welcome. The area has had a lot of brush fires and one record setting forest fire. Something we normally hear about in the western parts of the country. Not here.

This morning we ran some errands going to the artifacts bank, dropping off a blueprint, and to our favorite discount stores. Spent a total of $8, which is very good for Charlie. Almost spent $800 at the artifacts bank on some old tongue and groove wood to make a wall partition in the master bedroom. That was a bit too much for old lumber that would take a lot of work before it could be installed.

This past week Ryan and Charlie have been working around the property. they completed the painting of the log cabin section of the barn, as well as the section facing the railroad tracks. They created some smaller doors to the upper level and then moved a lot of the equipment from the lower level to the upper level. lots of purging of items to the dumpster. I tried to peak every now and then to be sure Charlie wasn't getting rid of any of my prized possessions. 

4-9-2012 Oh What a Night!

What a night we had! For reasons that escape me in the clear light of day, we decided to try out the new air mattresses and sleeping bags the Easter Bunny brought the kids. We set up the tent on the new front porch. Everything would have been fine except for two issues. Gale force winds throughout the night and a low of 46, much lower with the windchill, I'm sure.

I would have gladly come into the house in the middle of the night, but I was afraid Charlie and the kids would blow away without me. It was crazy windy. The wind sounded like a freight train as it flew up along the river. It was so incredibly loud!

This morning I took Lily to Shady Maple for breakfast since we were up early enough to beat the crowds and she said she'd really looked forward to it all of Easter break. Now I'm exhausted as is Charlie and Luke. Lily actually slept pretty good in the tent.

Can't wait to sleep in my warm cozy bed tonight.

It's our 10th wedding anniversary. I don't think we're doing anything to celebrate today. We'll celebrate when Mom and Dad have the kids for the weekend. This weekend or in two weeks.

4-8-2012 Easter

 

We had a nice Easter for the most part. No visits with family since we had P&J down last week because J was working this weekend. Kathy is in Utah visiting with George, Denisse, and Baby Brendon.

The kids got candy, juice bags, freeze pops, sleeping bags and air mattresses. Charlie and Luke did some afternoon fishing down at the dock. Caught nothing but enjoyed the sun and mild temperatures. Lily and I had an egg hunt. Lily and Charlie had an egg hunt. Luke wanted nothing to do with egg hunts.

The one thing I wish we would not have done was a sleepover in the tent Easter night. See the next post for the details on that fiasco.

4-6-2012 Cave Exploration on the Eve of Easter

We went to Crystal Cave today. Luke had been there earlier this year on his class field trip and we thought he'd enjoy going back. He seemed to enjoy it, as did the rest of us. I think our favorite parts of the trip were the gift shop and panning for gems afterwards.

On the way home we stopped off in Kutztown for Charlie to check out a hardware store for barn paint. He and I painted the cron crib/log cabin section of the barn yesterday. We're not crazy about the color. It seems a bit too orange to us and we're worried about the side facing the house with the Hex signs on it. We don't want it to fade orange instead of red.

 Lily and I walked a few blocks down and bought a smores donut at 'The Frying Dutchman' Hot out of the oil and quite tasty.

Once home, the kids played outside while I did laundry and lawn watering and Charlie mowed the lawn. We had fabulous steak with peppers and onions for supper.

All in all, a very nice day spent together as a family.

4-5-2012 River Side Porch Pictures

 

 

 

 

4-4-2012 Best EVER Sal Val Buys!

 

4-1-2012 Aprils Fools' Festivus for the Rest of Us

     As has become our tradition, I got Charlie and Lily first thing this morning with an April Fools' joke. I went to the mailbox to get the Sunday paper. I came back into the house all excited and yelled that someone had dropped off a box of kittens in the ditch behind the mailbox. Charlie jumped out of bed to get clothes on and Lily ran down with me to check them out, begging and petitioning the entire way down to please, please, please let her keep them. Oh, I got them good.

     Luke could not be fooled.

     Mom and Dad came down for lunch. We had anti pasta salad, pizza, cheese steak hoagies, and stromboli from Mimo's. All very good. Then hung out for the afternoon. It was our Easter celebration as well as celebrating Dad's 64th birthday which will be April 7th. We did the celebrating today because Mom is working for Dad's birthday and Easter. We're flexible like that.

     Now to do a bit of backtracking. Charlie and our employee Ryan were here last week doing work around the property. They put the dock back on down at the river. Then they built an absolutely lovely riverside porch. They also trimmed branches and chipped those branches into mulch.

     A few weeks ago, Charlie's dad was here for a few days and created a new path from the wood pile to the outdoor furnace. Then the remaining areas which had been ruined by Gradall tracks were graded and planted in grass.

     I'll have to post some pictures of the various projects. we currently have tulips, daffodils, grape hyacinth, forsythia, and primrose in bloom. The flowering cherry trees and Jacob's ladder are just getting ready to bloom. It's cool and rainy today. Hopefully, perfect for all the grass that's planted around the property to grow. I'd much rather let the skies do the watering than me!