where we live in the winter months we get gale force winds pretty much daily, 30-40 mile per hour gusts on an average day from oct. till may is totally normal. however, on hot summer days, when you NEED that breeze, there is NONE to be seen. blah. so, it's hot and humid and our back yard has ZLICH for shade until the sun passes noon, then it's shaded in our backyard for the most part. the garden gets sun from sun up to about 830pm. good for the garden, bad for the mom who wants her kids to play outside :).
we got a pool, that is above ground, 8 ft by 30 in tall. perfect for the kids. it has a filter and a cover. so, the idea is you fill it up once and leave it like that all summer long. you run the filter at night, measure ph levels and chlorine levels too. we use a HUGE umbrella to cover it as much as we can, we have 3 microscopic trees near our fence that do squat for shade LOL. we were spoiled by our last two backyards, large mature trees that shaded the yards real nicely.
steve is supposed to fly tomorrow and this whole flying -without- enough- fuel thing is freaking me out/ making me mad.
gotta go to sleep!
nighty night.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
yeah i stink
but at least i admit it! hey, my life is not that exciting. who the heck wants to read about a stay home mom to 4???? :)
um, we went to the farm today and got attacked by ticks, that was fun. i am still itching and freaking out because i'm sure there are a million that have followed us home. they are BIG buggers and i'm pretty sure they were all deer ticks. none of the ones i found today had buried their heads yet. but last wed i found one on my thigh and it had buried it's head. last nov we found one on b's head and it was DEEP. i'll tell ya, i'd take termites over ticks any day of the week, month, year, decade, etc! ticks are just evil little nasty gross unkillable buggers!
we picked blackberries today :) and ate farm grown peaches and apricots for dinner! we also picked beans and tomatoes from our garden, yum yum!
i'm tired. i'm going to bed!
peace.
um, we went to the farm today and got attacked by ticks, that was fun. i am still itching and freaking out because i'm sure there are a million that have followed us home. they are BIG buggers and i'm pretty sure they were all deer ticks. none of the ones i found today had buried their heads yet. but last wed i found one on my thigh and it had buried it's head. last nov we found one on b's head and it was DEEP. i'll tell ya, i'd take termites over ticks any day of the week, month, year, decade, etc! ticks are just evil little nasty gross unkillable buggers!
we picked blackberries today :) and ate farm grown peaches and apricots for dinner! we also picked beans and tomatoes from our garden, yum yum!
i'm tired. i'm going to bed!
peace.
Monday, June 9, 2008
guess i'm not doing very well??
i never feel like anything in our lives is all the interesting, so i don't bother typing anything!
so, let's see. what happened this week? well, sunday- tues were rather boring. just same stuff different day type stuff. then wednesday happened. we started the day with friends doing a playschool outing. the girls had a great time, and got to talk about animals, make no bake cookies, and play with their friends. a friend called and asked if could get his son from school because she had a doctors appt.
so, at 215p i loaded the girls in the car and we left to pick up the kids from school. as i was about to leave steve mentioned that there was a tornado warning for our county. not a watch, a warning. so, i thought ok. i'll just get the kids, drop off my friend's son and head home. no biggie. heck, we live in a valley of the blue ridge mountains after all. LOL.
so, 230p, i got the kids in the car and told them we were going to hurry because of the tornado warning. we talked some about thunder and lightening and at one point we slowed down to look at the horizon which was literally cut in half, dark on top and light on the bottom. there was a perfect LINE in the sky. so, we get into town and we're watching the sky again. to our right the clouds are rolling to the left FAST. the clouds were actually dipping down behind the houses and then back up again. they were moving really fast and the sky was getting darker and darker by the second. the sky to our left was bright and sunny. the winds were picking up a lot.
we made a left onto main street and drove a touch faster. we made a left into our friends subdivision and the sky opened up on us. it was a DOWN POUR instantly. we got to their driveway, and i honked the horn, hoping she'd open her garage door. instead, she pokes her head out the front door and screams " the tornado is coming" as loud as she could. of course, the wind is howling and the rain is coming down in buckets. i freaked! my friend opened her garage door and again screamed, " the tornado is coming." i have a car full of kids and all i could think was that the tornado was coming THEN and was going to suck us up. i literally pulled all of the kids out of the car. the girls were freaking because they didn't want to get wet, oy vey.
we threw all of the kids in her basement bathtub and sat there as the power went out. her kids were supposed to ride the bus home and we had no idea if the school had released them or not. when i had left the school the kids were ON the buses getting ready to leave. we prayed that the kids at school were safe. i called steve and told him to get the baby and get to the basement. his response was, "I'm already down here. i've been trying to get in touch with you for 20 min. your cell phone is at home!" so, we were all tucked in checking for the bus from time to time.
my friend called the school to ask about the buses and the kids that hadn't left with a parent. the school said they had pulled all of the kids off the buses and brought them back into the school and put them in the hallways in the tornado position, they were all safe and the school buses would leave after the threat was over.
about 20 min later the sky was light again and the rain was slowing. so, i decided to put the girls in the car and drive home. we were only one subdivision away from home. like a 2 min drive. i prayed that the tornado had already past and we weren't in the eye of the storm. we got home safely, and ran inside. our neighbor's tree had split in two, away from their house, but that was it for our street.
needless to say, it was quite an exciting afternoon. one we won't soon forget about. the tornado did indeed pass our town. the storm traveled east unti it hit the ocean, causing flooding and deaths, trees down, and loss of electricity, and major damage in a community called Cheasapeake beach, MD. they had a lot of damage as a community. we just lost power for 10 hrs.
saturday got HOT, and in the evening another fast moving storm ran through our town this time littering us with HAIL! and BIG hail at that. i have dents all over my van. :(
now we're back to normal, it's just hot here. the baby has been sleeping through the night which is nice. she was sick last weekend and then A was sick this past weekend, blah. but so far everyone else seems good. we've been going to the farm on fridays which is a ton of fun. last week we picked 7 lbs plus 2 pints of strawberries and made 2 batches of freezer jam. then this past friday we picked 9 lbs plus 3 pint of strawberries and canned preserves as well as jam. a dozen half pints in total. we are set now for a while. we also joined the CSA ( community support agriculture) so, we picked up our share of veggies as well. we froze a bunch of strawberries too. i replanted the basil today. and the girls i spent family home evening planting our sweet potatoes that arrived on saturday.
i washed our slipcovers for our new sofas for the first time today. i was scared because i didn't want them to shrink. but, so far so good. we bought a soda maker. the girls and i have been having fun making soda water LOL. it's just water with carbonation added but it's soda enough for them :). and i love seltzer water! so, it's great for me too.
umm, i guess that's about it. check out my store if you want to shop at all :)
thanks!
www.thecushietushie.com
so, let's see. what happened this week? well, sunday- tues were rather boring. just same stuff different day type stuff. then wednesday happened. we started the day with friends doing a playschool outing. the girls had a great time, and got to talk about animals, make no bake cookies, and play with their friends. a friend called and asked if could get his son from school because she had a doctors appt.
so, at 215p i loaded the girls in the car and we left to pick up the kids from school. as i was about to leave steve mentioned that there was a tornado warning for our county. not a watch, a warning. so, i thought ok. i'll just get the kids, drop off my friend's son and head home. no biggie. heck, we live in a valley of the blue ridge mountains after all. LOL.
so, 230p, i got the kids in the car and told them we were going to hurry because of the tornado warning. we talked some about thunder and lightening and at one point we slowed down to look at the horizon which was literally cut in half, dark on top and light on the bottom. there was a perfect LINE in the sky. so, we get into town and we're watching the sky again. to our right the clouds are rolling to the left FAST. the clouds were actually dipping down behind the houses and then back up again. they were moving really fast and the sky was getting darker and darker by the second. the sky to our left was bright and sunny. the winds were picking up a lot.
we made a left onto main street and drove a touch faster. we made a left into our friends subdivision and the sky opened up on us. it was a DOWN POUR instantly. we got to their driveway, and i honked the horn, hoping she'd open her garage door. instead, she pokes her head out the front door and screams " the tornado is coming" as loud as she could. of course, the wind is howling and the rain is coming down in buckets. i freaked! my friend opened her garage door and again screamed, " the tornado is coming." i have a car full of kids and all i could think was that the tornado was coming THEN and was going to suck us up. i literally pulled all of the kids out of the car. the girls were freaking because they didn't want to get wet, oy vey.
we threw all of the kids in her basement bathtub and sat there as the power went out. her kids were supposed to ride the bus home and we had no idea if the school had released them or not. when i had left the school the kids were ON the buses getting ready to leave. we prayed that the kids at school were safe. i called steve and told him to get the baby and get to the basement. his response was, "I'm already down here. i've been trying to get in touch with you for 20 min. your cell phone is at home!" so, we were all tucked in checking for the bus from time to time.
my friend called the school to ask about the buses and the kids that hadn't left with a parent. the school said they had pulled all of the kids off the buses and brought them back into the school and put them in the hallways in the tornado position, they were all safe and the school buses would leave after the threat was over.
about 20 min later the sky was light again and the rain was slowing. so, i decided to put the girls in the car and drive home. we were only one subdivision away from home. like a 2 min drive. i prayed that the tornado had already past and we weren't in the eye of the storm. we got home safely, and ran inside. our neighbor's tree had split in two, away from their house, but that was it for our street.
needless to say, it was quite an exciting afternoon. one we won't soon forget about. the tornado did indeed pass our town. the storm traveled east unti it hit the ocean, causing flooding and deaths, trees down, and loss of electricity, and major damage in a community called Cheasapeake beach, MD. they had a lot of damage as a community. we just lost power for 10 hrs.
saturday got HOT, and in the evening another fast moving storm ran through our town this time littering us with HAIL! and BIG hail at that. i have dents all over my van. :(
now we're back to normal, it's just hot here. the baby has been sleeping through the night which is nice. she was sick last weekend and then A was sick this past weekend, blah. but so far everyone else seems good. we've been going to the farm on fridays which is a ton of fun. last week we picked 7 lbs plus 2 pints of strawberries and made 2 batches of freezer jam. then this past friday we picked 9 lbs plus 3 pint of strawberries and canned preserves as well as jam. a dozen half pints in total. we are set now for a while. we also joined the CSA ( community support agriculture) so, we picked up our share of veggies as well. we froze a bunch of strawberries too. i replanted the basil today. and the girls i spent family home evening planting our sweet potatoes that arrived on saturday.
i washed our slipcovers for our new sofas for the first time today. i was scared because i didn't want them to shrink. but, so far so good. we bought a soda maker. the girls and i have been having fun making soda water LOL. it's just water with carbonation added but it's soda enough for them :). and i love seltzer water! so, it's great for me too.
umm, i guess that's about it. check out my store if you want to shop at all :)
thanks!
www.thecushietushie.com
Monday, May 12, 2008
when it rains it pours!
we are not affected by the rain as parts of MD were, but we have sustained water damage to our home :( it is NOT in our basement either. blah. we have water damage on the ceiling in our kitchen and family room :( in the kitchen it's pretty extensive. we'll have to have the entire kitchen ceiling torn down and replaced, blah. the family room has two large areas in two separate areas of the ceiling that are water stained now.
in the kitchen there is a HUGE area where the ceiling is bubbling, and cracking, and stained. all over the ceiling in there are big water stains. steve thinks it's from the shoddy construction of this house. it seems to be where ever the lower roof is attached to the house. so, probably coming in through the wall and following beams. NOT something we want to deal with at all. heck, we want to sell this house! not invest in new ceilings. double blah.
then tonight, at about 9p my father in law called and told us that our tenant fell and is in the hospital. he is an older man and they are trying to get him into a veteran home. he needs to be in an assisted living type situation, but we are currently out 2 mo rent from him. and on top of the damage to our house it's not great timing to hear about him being injured. my FIL said that the state will more than likely pull our tenants drivers license as well. he is an old man and has slowly deteriorated over the past couple of months. he's become very very forgetful amongst other things.
apparently we had about 8 in. of rain fall in the past 5 days, 5 inches falling between sun and mon. yikes!!!!!
i know our issues are small, very small. we are dry and safe and together as a family and for that i am eternally grateful. Heavenly Father is watching over us, and i know that. we will be ok!
good night!!
in the kitchen there is a HUGE area where the ceiling is bubbling, and cracking, and stained. all over the ceiling in there are big water stains. steve thinks it's from the shoddy construction of this house. it seems to be where ever the lower roof is attached to the house. so, probably coming in through the wall and following beams. NOT something we want to deal with at all. heck, we want to sell this house! not invest in new ceilings. double blah.
then tonight, at about 9p my father in law called and told us that our tenant fell and is in the hospital. he is an older man and they are trying to get him into a veteran home. he needs to be in an assisted living type situation, but we are currently out 2 mo rent from him. and on top of the damage to our house it's not great timing to hear about him being injured. my FIL said that the state will more than likely pull our tenants drivers license as well. he is an old man and has slowly deteriorated over the past couple of months. he's become very very forgetful amongst other things.
apparently we had about 8 in. of rain fall in the past 5 days, 5 inches falling between sun and mon. yikes!!!!!
i know our issues are small, very small. we are dry and safe and together as a family and for that i am eternally grateful. Heavenly Father is watching over us, and i know that. we will be ok!
good night!!
Sunday, May 4, 2008
If you can spare some prayers, please!
There is a little boy named Samuel who was diagnosed with luekemia back in 2004. I don't know Samuel or his family, but learned about the situation online because his mom is a WAHM, and we hung out in the same circles. I followed his situation until he was in remission and hoped for the best for Samuel. Well, I was linked to his updates yesterday and he is not doing well at all :(
If you can spare some prayers, please pray for Samuel and his family during this incredibly difficult time.
If anyone would like to do something for his family, I'd be happy to knit something for you, or dye something and I'll send the payment from you straight to Samuel's family.
http://www.samuelbackus.com/SamuelsUpdates.html
May God bless Samuel and his family.
If you can spare some prayers, please pray for Samuel and his family during this incredibly difficult time.
If anyone would like to do something for his family, I'd be happy to knit something for you, or dye something and I'll send the payment from you straight to Samuel's family.
http://www.samuelbackus.com/SamuelsUpdates.html
May God bless Samuel and his family.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
happy spring!
things here have been busy. we've had birthdays, garden planting, business auctions, visits from papa bruce, trips to DE. and more!
end of march J turned 3 :) such a big girl! we spent the weekend in DE and went to 2 birthday parties. we visited with old college friends and had a really nice time. it made me want to move back. :)
easter weekend we were at home. it was very low key. church and that was about it.
this past weekend my dad has been here. we went to the air and space museum, and then spent saturday shopping. we need a new fridge and we needed a new mailbox. so, we bought a new mailbox at lowes and a new fridge/ freezer at best buy. a scratch and dent for 500.00 off the reg price. it has a scratch, but EH, we have kids it's going to get scratches i'm sure LOL.
my dad leaves tomorrow. B turns 5 tomorrow :) i can't believe she will be 5. time sure does fly. we have friends coming over in the morning and then again in the afternoon. there is a dragon cake in our fridge, but i am not sure if it's any good. i bought it a couple of days ago, thinking we'd eat it with my dad this weekend. that never ended up happening though.
my biz, The Cushie Tushie, participated in the Fluff Factory Auctions again this year. www.flufffactory.com we raised money for St. Jude's Research Hospital. the totals are not in yet, but we raised a great deal of money i'm sure. i won some really cool stuff for the kids. i can't wait to get it to them. the baby got some cool diapering/ clothing items also.
B got an ant farm and bug book for her birthday, from daddy! and harold and the purple crayon movie and book from gma and gpa. the movie mariposa from mom mom, and a scooter and ball from papa. we got her a scooter, cause the other one is cheap and J can take it apart all on her own. and i'll take the girls to target so they can shop for her on tuesday, while she is in school.
the cherry blossoms are in bloom, and we are trying to get the house ready to sell. would you expect anything less :) we don't need to move, but we're going to see if we can. we are painting, and having the front yard fixed up. today we bought a pallet of flagstone to place around the trees in our front yard. we are having a guy come pour stained concrete and having it stamped for the front walk, and stair. we're getting stuff ready to go into the garden. so, if we do sell this summer someone will get an entire veggies garden for free basically.
we have to clean up our two store rooms in the basement too. one has food storage and goodwill donations. the other is more of an office, but still is full of boxes that have been opened but never unpacked. all of my TCT biz is in there and i really do need to organize it. ALL of steve's stuff is in there and it's mostly all in boxes still. we have to organize our garage work area too. i really would love to get the house on the market by june, we want to do a beach visit and i'd love to have the house for sale by then. so, lots going on.
we're keeping busy! wishing for constant warm weather. trying to decide where we would go IF we did sell LOL.
till later!
end of march J turned 3 :) such a big girl! we spent the weekend in DE and went to 2 birthday parties. we visited with old college friends and had a really nice time. it made me want to move back. :)
easter weekend we were at home. it was very low key. church and that was about it.
this past weekend my dad has been here. we went to the air and space museum, and then spent saturday shopping. we need a new fridge and we needed a new mailbox. so, we bought a new mailbox at lowes and a new fridge/ freezer at best buy. a scratch and dent for 500.00 off the reg price. it has a scratch, but EH, we have kids it's going to get scratches i'm sure LOL.
my dad leaves tomorrow. B turns 5 tomorrow :) i can't believe she will be 5. time sure does fly. we have friends coming over in the morning and then again in the afternoon. there is a dragon cake in our fridge, but i am not sure if it's any good. i bought it a couple of days ago, thinking we'd eat it with my dad this weekend. that never ended up happening though.
my biz, The Cushie Tushie, participated in the Fluff Factory Auctions again this year. www.flufffactory.com we raised money for St. Jude's Research Hospital. the totals are not in yet, but we raised a great deal of money i'm sure. i won some really cool stuff for the kids. i can't wait to get it to them. the baby got some cool diapering/ clothing items also.
B got an ant farm and bug book for her birthday, from daddy! and harold and the purple crayon movie and book from gma and gpa. the movie mariposa from mom mom, and a scooter and ball from papa. we got her a scooter, cause the other one is cheap and J can take it apart all on her own. and i'll take the girls to target so they can shop for her on tuesday, while she is in school.
the cherry blossoms are in bloom, and we are trying to get the house ready to sell. would you expect anything less :) we don't need to move, but we're going to see if we can. we are painting, and having the front yard fixed up. today we bought a pallet of flagstone to place around the trees in our front yard. we are having a guy come pour stained concrete and having it stamped for the front walk, and stair. we're getting stuff ready to go into the garden. so, if we do sell this summer someone will get an entire veggies garden for free basically.
we have to clean up our two store rooms in the basement too. one has food storage and goodwill donations. the other is more of an office, but still is full of boxes that have been opened but never unpacked. all of my TCT biz is in there and i really do need to organize it. ALL of steve's stuff is in there and it's mostly all in boxes still. we have to organize our garage work area too. i really would love to get the house on the market by june, we want to do a beach visit and i'd love to have the house for sale by then. so, lots going on.
we're keeping busy! wishing for constant warm weather. trying to decide where we would go IF we did sell LOL.
till later!
Saturday, March 15, 2008
one thing i miss about the midwest
while i do not miss the snow and cold weather, i miss the fact that you can ski really easily there.
i was reminded today, via this blog http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/ about the ease of going skiing in the state of IL. when i was growing up my parents enrolled me in a program called Trolls. for about 10+ weeks during the winter, every saturday from dec - feb basically, you would meet a coach bus with all of your ski gear, while it was still dark outside, and you'd be driven up to Wilmot Mt. in WI. a lot of kids i went to school with were in the program with me. it was soooo much fun!
you'd ski all day long, have lunch, hang out, make friends and more. if you were good you were on your own, if you weren't you had lessons. it really was the best way to spend saturdays during the winter. fun and great exercise too!!!
while i LOVE the north shore and would love to raise my family in glenview or wilmette the winters are too cold, too snowy and too long for me. i can barely stand our VA winters ( and i mean barely). but i really do wish i could move back to chicago JUST to raise my kids with skiing. i would love to be able to take them to the scandinavian ski shop https://www.scanskishop.com/ ( next to the pancake house, YUM!!!! http://www.walkerbrosoph.com/ ) to buy their boots and poles and skis, and all of the special coats and pants and socks :) and then drop them off while it was still dark, so that they could learn how to ski down black diamonds without fear, manage mogels, and do jumps :).
skiing was a huge part of my life till i had an accident my freshman year of high school. i never really went back after that. tried once, but it was really hard on the knee that i injured. i wish it could be a part of our lives now. sigh :)
dawn, thanks for the memories. :)
i was reminded today, via this blog http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/ about the ease of going skiing in the state of IL. when i was growing up my parents enrolled me in a program called Trolls. for about 10+ weeks during the winter, every saturday from dec - feb basically, you would meet a coach bus with all of your ski gear, while it was still dark outside, and you'd be driven up to Wilmot Mt. in WI. a lot of kids i went to school with were in the program with me. it was soooo much fun!
you'd ski all day long, have lunch, hang out, make friends and more. if you were good you were on your own, if you weren't you had lessons. it really was the best way to spend saturdays during the winter. fun and great exercise too!!!
while i LOVE the north shore and would love to raise my family in glenview or wilmette the winters are too cold, too snowy and too long for me. i can barely stand our VA winters ( and i mean barely). but i really do wish i could move back to chicago JUST to raise my kids with skiing. i would love to be able to take them to the scandinavian ski shop https://www.scanskishop.com/ ( next to the pancake house, YUM!!!! http://www.walkerbrosoph.com/ ) to buy their boots and poles and skis, and all of the special coats and pants and socks :) and then drop them off while it was still dark, so that they could learn how to ski down black diamonds without fear, manage mogels, and do jumps :).
skiing was a huge part of my life till i had an accident my freshman year of high school. i never really went back after that. tried once, but it was really hard on the knee that i injured. i wish it could be a part of our lives now. sigh :)
dawn, thanks for the memories. :)
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