So after a cold and windy day here in Ohio I am longing for the warm sunny weather of Texas again! Oh so sad that I can only revisit the memory with pictures. I thought I'd share a few that I took on the last trip for my fellow cold weather firends who are preparing for a cold shift in the weather. Enjoy the sunny pictures of Elijah at the Alamo!
So I figured that I was long past due time for me ot update what we've been up to. As I mentioned before this Fall is just swamped with activities so my free time is stretched pretty thin and well...I just forget to post what we've been up to. The first week in November we visited San Antonio with just huby, Elijah, and I/. My dear in=;laws kept the girls for us (yes I have amazing in-laws who are willing to take my children for a week at a time to let hubby and I spend some much needed time together, aren't you jealous??) San Antonio was just goregous and of course warm. I was so nice to break the capris back out and ont have to bundle up Elijah everytime we went out. I did lots of shopping both trying ot get the kids outiftted for Winter and to find outfits for Jeremiah's wedding this week. We of course also went and visited the Alamo which even though I'm not a big Wild West fan..I thought it was pretty inspiring and was surprised at the sense of awe and respect there was at the exibit. Elijah couldn't leave without a coonskin cap...at daddy's insiting of course. He left it on just long enough for pictures and that was it.
We returned home last Saturday and life quickly began again. I had to start getting things together for my craft show with my hair bows. I had been working on them for some time but it was crunch time which menat tryign to get all the bows that I ahd been working on in stages finished and ready to go as quickly as possible. My show ended up going really well and I was so greatful to have my grandmother-in-law help for the day. It made it somuch easier to have a helper along, besides chatting makes the day go so much faster!
Friday Miss Maddelyn had her tonsils and adnoids taken out. She had endured 4 cases of Strep Throat this Summer/Fall so it was time to get them out. She was kinda nervous about it but she did really well. She of course was just miserable after coming out of surgery. we did find out though that Maddelyn is especially sensitive to the pills they give kids to relax before a procedure. She had the same meds before her filling in her tooth and had the same results. The kid is hilarious after the meds kick in. She is giggly, asking dad why he has 4 eyes, seeing things that aren't there, trying to blow up her blood pressure cuff with her mouth, and just plain goofy! She sure was a totally different child coming out of surgery though. Poor kid! She has done pretty well the last couple of days but today her steroid they gave he during surgery wore off and she was feeling pretty bad. She's been living of a diet of pudding, jello, popsicles, and such but today she just wanted to snack on them all day. that's a good sign that her appetite is coming back and she must be getting a bit better.
Some good news is that while we were in Texas, our carpet was installed into our master suite on the 3rd floor! Besides the little bits of trim needed and the touch up paint we are able to move in! Now if I could only find the time to get all of our bedroom stuff up there I would finally be in my master bedroom suit and Elijah in his nursery. Hey if we waited this long...another week won't kill us.
We are trying to get our house ready for company this week since we will be hosting at least 11 students form Lee University's Campus Choir this weekend. The choir is coming to sing at our church and the students needed housing for the night. Unfortunately we will be out of state for Jeremiah and Emily's wedding but my aunt volunteer to house sit for us the the students could stay here. We have always said that we wanted to use this house for ministry and we knew that us getting this house in the way that we did, this house was meant to be used for Him. With the house being so large we have plenty of extra room to put up several students. The last I had heard there were at least 11 and maybe more staying at the house while we are gone.
We leave on Wednesday for Pennsylvania for the wedding. Thursday are the Bachelor and Bachlorette parties, Friday is the rehearsal and dinner, and Saturday is the actual wedding. Nathan is the best man and Maddelyn and Emma are the flower girls in the wedding. The girls are all so excited about it and have been counting down the days since they were asked early in the Summer. It should be a really nice time this weekend and we are excited to be able to see family from out of state as well coming in from Texas and Missouri. And hey...I had a reason to buy a new little black dress!
The next week we will be hosting Thanksgiving in our house for all sides of our family. We will have close to 40 people in our house for the day and a few staying overnight. It will be nice to host our first big family event in our new house. We certainly do have the room for it ...and since we are partially to blame for the growing family that is getting snug in our old locations....I guess it's only right of us to offer to have it here! I just hope our Thanksgiving guests don't mind eating their turkey and stuffing by the Christmas Tree???
I can't believe that our little man is already 10 months old! He is changing so quickly nowadays and becoming my little toddler instead of that tiny (okay never tiny) bundle of joy. He has finally gotten the full crawl down instead of his normal army crawl. For the longest time he could do both, but he knew if he wanted to get somewhere fast he could do it much faster on his elbows with an army crawl. It seems that the very same day he got the crawling down he began to pull up to his knees around the coffee table. He also had realized that crawling means freedoms and discovering his world. He has also began being our mini "vaccum cleaner" by picking up and eating whatever he can get his hands on form the floor or such. I would hate to know how much he really swallows with me having no idea. Oh well, the other 3 lived doing it. Little Man has also began eating a more normal diet this month with trying lots of new gluten free foods. Becasue he has 2 sisters with gluten problems, we have decided to keep him gluten free as well for at least the first 12 months to see how he reacts when we slowly introduce it. Some recent new foods were: pancakes, scrambled eggs, gluten free bread, frozen peas, spaghetti with homemade sauce, dry cereal, and thanks to Uncle Carl a bit of coffe on his lid. He also learned to FINALLY say Mom! Yeah! Each of the kids has learned to say "Dad" first, but he has been the slowest at saying that second word of "Mom." He also is becoming so much more playful and wanting to interact with other people. The girls just love playing with their baby brother and he and Dad have begun playing catch with a rubber baseball. He can't throw it yet but he will hand it back to you. It's way too cute! I just can't believe that we will soon be planning a 1st birthday party for him. How does the 1st year always go by sooooo fast....but then that the 2nd-3rd years with potty training go so much slower??? Or maybe the potty training jsut makes it seem to drag on??
We have crazy busy this Fall and I'm not really sure how it happened to end up that way but it did. We literally have some event every weekend and most of them are pretty big items. So here's a brief look for all those out there who's like where on Earth is Mandi and why is she majorly slacking on posts lately??
Oct 10 - Emma's Tea and Family coming in to say for the weekend
Oct15-19 Annual Family Campout (froze our pattoties off!)
Oct 23-25 Penn to host Emily's Bridal Shower
Oct 26-Nov 1 Getting ready for Craft show and Nathan TN for part of that
Nov 2-7 San Antonio
Nov 13 Maddelyn's tonsils out
Nov 14 Lexington Craft Show
Nov 18-22 Jeremiah and Emily's wedding
Nov 26 Hosting Thanksgiving in our house for close to 40 people
Dec 5 Ontario Craft Show
Dec 6 Elijah's 1st b-day party??
Whew...can I take a breath yet???? Just typing all of that makes my feel tired! So basically every week has to be assigned to a certain topic and I have to focus on that topic ONLY that week. This upcoming week is BOWS BOWS BOWS for the upcoming craft shows and packing Eli and I for TX (girls will be in PA.) Of course this is on top of the normal homeschool lessons, dr appts (since there seems to be at least 1 sick person in our hose from mid Sept to mid April), unpacking from the previous weeks events and trying to get it washed and hung back up before it gets packed in another suitcase for the next week, and the day to day running of living with 4 small kids. Oh and did I mention Nathan is r-e-a-l-l-y wanting a puppy???? Yep just sign the papers now and go ahead and commit me to the funny farm. I know it's only a matter of time! HA! Just thought you all might get a good laugh out of our calendar for the next couple of months. I'm just glad I am a organized/planner kinda person. See...God knew my life would be a tornado of chaos so He made me a super planner/list maker/clean freak! HAHA! I'm not OCD....I'm equipped. That's my quote of the week. I'll be back tomorrow night with more pics of camping, Elijah's 10 months, and the bridal shower but that's it for tonight.
So this past weekend at the Twin Sale in Columbus I picked up this Johnny Jumper for Elijah. We had always wanted one for the girls but never lived in a house that had door frames that could support one. Well now with this big old Victorian we have plenty of wood work to hold a Johnny Jumper. I wasn't sure if he would like it or was on the edge of being too old for it, but he has taken right to it. The first couple of times he was in it he kinda just acted like he was in a walker or seat of some kind. I'm not sure how he figured out he can bounce with it, but now he is a bouncing machine. The past couple of days we have literally just sat in the floor watching him and laughing (yeah the entertainment of parents) because he really gets into it. He is Tigger-type bouncing in it and gets way down before he pounces again and of course giggles. I'm really thinking now that I totally missed out on this for the first three!
This past weekend the girls and I did a bit of projects in the kitchen for school. Okay those who know me are know picking themselves back up off the floor at Mandi doing anything semi creative in the kitchen. Don't worry the house stayed intact...they were both box kits with EASY directions. I had wanted to do caramel apples with the girls this fall so we picked up these neat caramel sheets that you simply wrap around the apples and then back for a few minutes to get them to melt. When we picked up the caramel sheets in the produce aisle Maddelyn saw the chocolate banana kits thought they just had to try them out so we did. They too were simple by just warming the bag of chocolate in a bowl of water and then pouring it into a cup and dipping the bananas. We decided they needed a bit more so we added some sprinkles. I was frustrated thought at how long they were taking to dry to they got wrapped in plastic wrap and went into the freezer before being totally dry to they don't look quite as nice as the ice cream shop ones do. 
I also wanted to share our latest Muffin Tin Monday lunch. We didn't do a theme lunch this week since we are working on our Little House in the Big Woods unit and I want to wait to do a Muffin Tin Monday when we can have the girls try out some of the Little House recipes and include some of those in the tins. this week was just too crazy to try any of them. In these tins we have: Honey rice cakes covered in peanut butter, cheese cubes, out frozen bananas, apple slices, some gluten free snack?, and grapes. I guess it was good because all the trays were empty when they came back from the table.
So Emma got her first present today from my parents and grandparents. My mom had picked up for her the prized "Fancy Nancy Doll" as well as a few outfits and she figured since Emma is having her Fancy Nancy Tea Party this weekend that it would be nice to let her have it early. Emma while opening it said...I hope it's a doll, an American Girl. Well by the time the box was open there were no thoughts of any 18 inch $95.00 dolls. You can see by the light in her eyes that this was exactly what she wanted. You can also tell by the fact that it is sitting in her nightstand now as she sleeps...of course in her Fancy Nancy Bath Robe! Silly me forgot to get a picture of the actual doll so here it is at Target. What's hilarious is that my mom had purchased both the doll and one outfit even though I was like $55 for a doll and one outfit is silly for a 5 year old. Well she said she knows what it's like to be a 2nd child and wanted her to have something special of her own so she got it. So this weekend at the twin sale I am digging through the toys on a hunt for a second Dumbo for Caroline (always nice to have a back-up of a lovey just in case one needs a spin in the washer) and stumbled upon a like new Fancy Nancy doll with 3 outfits for only $20.00. I was like uh.... she's 5 and will have no clue it's from a garage sale if it's in a pretty wrapped box! This frugal momma is not ashamed! So as I had thought pulling her out of a shiny wrapped box today left her no second thoughts on if she had a previous owner or not and now it left room for more Fancy Nancy accessories in the budget! I'm so excited to see what she does with all the other Fancy Nancy items that I've heard other family memebers are picking up for her as well. 
I can't believe our little man is already 9 months old? he's just growing up way too fast! It seems like just a few weeks ago he was that tiny...okay not so tiny at 10 lbs...baby we brought home from the hospital! Why do babies have to grow so fast?? He now is gotten his little army crawl down to a tee and so much so that the little booger can fly across the floor on just his elbows and belly. He has also mastered getting up to his knees around the furniture. It seems that our little man has decided that he's going to take his own spin on the crawling method! The other day we walked into the bedroom to see his standing by himself in his crib! It won't be long now until he is pulling all the way up to his feet and then he'll be off! Little Man is also weighing in this month at just over 21 lbs, making him just in the 50th percentile. Kinda funny for a baby who started off at 10lbs at birth?? He is still just as much of a joy to be around as ever. He is just a peach and everywhere we go people are noticing how happy he is. We are truly blessed to have our sweet baby in our lives and can't wait to see what next month brings!!
We had a pretty busy week last week with Em's appointment and then spending the weekend. Em's appointment went really well at the dermatologist. We found out that we are being referred to a plastic surgeon for the birthmark on her head. The doctor also treated the warts on her hands and said that when she has the surgery on her head that they will also take care of the little red spot on her cheek. It really dawned on us that day just how sensitive her skin really is! After our appointment in Columbus of course I had to run by my friend Amy's scrap store! She really does have the cutest store so if you're headed to Columbus email me and I will give you directions. I am hoping all the new scrap stuff will inspire me to get back into scrapbooking again. I feel like it is almost this long lost friend.
We then headed to Pennsylvania for the weekend to help celebrate my mother-in-laws birthday. We had a nice lunch together at an Amish restaurant. After the meal the guys all went to a sports bar to watch the Nebraska game (you can't get it on the local channels). Too sad that they got to watch their team lose in the last few seconds of the game. Nathan's sister and I went shopping with Emily for her bridal shower while the guys were watching the game. I think we've decided to go with a black and white theme with lime green accents. I'm so used to doing kid parties that it's hard to switch out of that pattern. Somehow I'm thinking pull string pinatas and goddie bags are not a norm for bridal showers??? Just kidding! Hopefully this will be a more grown up affair.
Nathan and I were able to sneak away for the night Saturday night without any kids. (HUGE thanks to the in-laws for kids sitting overnight!) We spent the night in Akron and the next morning went to the Yankee Peddler Festival in Canal Fulton. This is our third year going to the festival and we will definitely be back next year! It's a great time away for just the two of us and we also find some great items for the house. this year I picked some dried flower bundles to hang over our kitchen sink, in front of the window instead of a valance. I also picked up a tea pot cookie cutter for Em's tea party in a few weeks, a military family sign, and a few Christmas gifts. It was a very nice time away just remembering that we were best friends before we had children. It's amazing how easily we just get in the blur of raising kids and keeping life going that we forget why we even have this house and family to begin with. Sometimes it's just nice to be able to enjoy time with each other catching up on life. When your main conversations of the day are "The doctor said", "I've started noticing such and such with the kids," "So and so called", "When you're out can you stop and pick up whatever", you tend to kinda lose sight of the person you married and all the qualities about them that made you fall in love with them to begin with. We are truly blessed to have family to help out in watching the kids sometimes so we can take a few moments away by ourselves. We love our kids dearly but sometimes Mom and Dad just need time alone together.
We had a very nice day today just hanging out with the kids and doing things on the I-would-love-to-do-but-never-have-enough-time-to list. We made brownies (Gluten Free of course), played with daddy;s huge plastic tote of Lego's from his childhood, ate carmel apples, watched Dora, researched ideas for Emma's 5th Birthday Tea Party, (huge event in our house), made pizza on corn tortillas for dinner, and basically just had a good day. The girls seems really relaxed, I was pretty stress free and able to deal with things quite a bit easier, and I was able to get some things done that were beyond just the day to day necessities of life. I've been working on planning Emma's party as well as a bridal shower for Nathan's brother's fiance (Emily), and I even got some things made up/planned for my Fall craft shows!
While doing planning for the party I asked Emma what she thought of a Fancy Nancy Tea Party? Fancy Nancy is all the rage in our house right now. She is a character from a series of children's books who thinks life is better when you live it fancy. She calls everything by a fancier name and dresses to the nines in tutus, boas, and sunglasses. Basically the perfect book series for three little girls. Well I thought Emma would be beyond words excited when I mentioned it but instead she started crying? I was like Emma why are you crying about planning your birthday party? She said because I have to get a shot at my party! Well that is called being a younger sister. For the past year Maddelyn has been telling Emma that when she turns 5 and goes to kindergarten she will have to get shots. So you can only imagine how often Maddelyn reminds her sister that she had to and so will Emma. Yeah such a sweet big sister. So Emma is now correlating turning five means getting shots and not having the HUGE tea party?? In our family we have started with the girls that truning 5 means that you are no longer a little girl but you are growing into a big girl and we celebrate that with a real ladies tea with real tea cups, finger foods, and such. So Maddelyn being the wonderful big sister that she is has turned being 5 form the day of your 5 year old tea part yo the day you get shots. Thanks Maddelyn!
We were once again busy this weekend....but of course I really can't remember what kept us so busy?? Nathan had guard this weekend so it was just the kids and I keeping the fort down. There was a crop at our church this weekend that I was really wanting to go to but since it was just me and the kids I had a sitter come for the day. It was the first time with this new sitter but I think my children had more fun at the house than I did at my crop? They walked to the park, painted nails (with patterns and 3-D stars), played outside, watched a movie, just to mention a few things they did! They had a blast that day. Sunday after church and naps we went to Willard. There was a festival in town and the county's smoke trailer was there for children to learn about how to escape from a burning building. I took all three girls though and they really seemed to enjoy it. Maddelyn knew more about fire safety than I knew she did. Emma however didn't know that much. I guess Maddelyn picked it up somewhere...so sad that someone who's entire family is involved in some way with the local fire department and spent a large amount of her childhood at the fire station now has children who are out of the loop on fire safety. What a slacker mom! I guess we will be doing a fire safety lapbook during fire prevention week in October.
This week we have yet another busy week...now that I think about have I EVER had a week as a stay at home mom that wasn't busy??? We started working on our "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" lapbook today with Maddelyn. We were excited to find out that after we picked this lapbook to find out that the movie of the book comes to theaters this week as well! What a great way to end our study! We will be flying solo this week since Nathan is on a trip this week, which just makes each tiny errand and event so much more chaotic. 4 to 1 ration is quite a bit different from the normal 4 to 2 ratio. We are also scheduled to have Emma visit with her dermatologist at Children's Hospital in Columbus to look at the birth mark on her head. I think that we are ready to have it removed so we are going back in to see the doctor to get her opinion. the last time we were there she said that she would suggest we have it removed at some point to avoid any abnormal cell growth as well as her being self conscious about it later on and we could just let her know when we were ready. This past Summer Emma has been mentioning it quite a bit so I think it's time to go in and see about it.
So even thought it's not a major even week I'm sure it will fill up rather quickly. Even if it doesn't I'm positive the 4 little ones will beyond fill my extra time! They are really good at that?
So today by our surprise we all stayed home sick from church. I can't remember the last time we all missed Sunday service? I should have seen it coming though because Elijah has had some stomach bug all week and Emma said her tummy hurt last night. So this morning it hit Nathan and I and then in combination with the "after camping allergies" I was done in. So we all stayed in our PJ's today...yes sad to admit... and the girls played and watched some movies. Dad and I napped a bit and then did some work on our computers.
I was able to get some homeschool lesson planning done. Week one went rather well, besides our little no-focusing bit earlier in the week so on with week 2. I have done lots of research this past Summer on different methods and curriculum and I have decided to order Five in a Row (FIAR), which is also a theme/literature based program but it is pretty laid out for you. I will still have to do the "3 R's" on the side but everything I've read/seen on the program seems to be wonderful. I also have a friend who is using FIAR and she was so sweet to have a chat with me a while back about the benefits of the program. Another great thing is that we will be able to teach Maddie and Emma both with the same FIAR volume and just do their individual 3 R's. We still will be doing certain lapbooks here and there on themes we want to cover but FIAR will be our main program. We are also able to do our labooking with these FIAR stories as well. I'm pretty excited about it and now just have to wait for it to arrive in the mail. Until it arrives we have the "Grocery Store" lapbook to work on this week with the girls. It covers things such as the food groups, money, how different foods help you, categorizing, and such. Emma and Caroline will also be working on a "Color Yellow" mini lapbook. On top of these they have their regular phonics, math, and such lessons. It should be a fun week.
So now that the new school year is here I am getting back to blogging on a regular schedule. I really do miss my regular posts and the whole reason I was bloggin was to keep a nice little online journal for the kids some day as well as to keep out of town friends and family updated with our lives. Well both of the reasons are why I need to get back at this again.
I'm writing this from the Great Wolf Hotel in Cincinnati as we are going to the Freedom Concerts for Nathan's work tomorrow. It should be absolutely amazing and full of Patriotic pride. I'm pretty excited to not only see all these true patriots who are helping out with the benefit for soldiers and their families but also to spend an evening listening to some great Country and Christian artists play for a crowd full of Patriots.
We dropped off the 4 (yes I said 4) kids to my mother-in-law on Thursday so we could come down to the concert this weekend kid-free. Even though I hated the thought of sending little Elijah to Pennsylvania, Nathan is still working this weekend. The worst part is that not only do I feel awful for sending him, then I find out today that Maddelyn is sick. She's got a fever, sore throat, and throwing up. Poor thing and all when she's so excited to be at Grandpa and Grandma's, now she's feeling awful and not enjoying her time there. We will be picking up Elijah from them on Saturday night and then the rest of the kids will be staying until next Friday so I can have some time to work on homeschool lessons for them uninterrupted. I've got lots of planning and cutting/sorting/prep work to do before we start school next Monday. I'm really getting excited about the upcoming year. The more research online I do the more excited I get about all the neat activities and topics I want to cover with them. I have decided to do the lapbooking still but I will also be pulling Math and Language Arts for sure from a few other sources and perhaps throwing in a few lessons here and there for the other topics. Basically we will be doing as much as possible from Ohio's Grade Indicators using the lapbooks we do and then filling in where ever we need to with supplements.
I told Nathan there was no way we were coming to Cincinnati without coming to Ikea as well. Four hours later I left the store with tons of stuff for our homeschool room as well as our Mater Bath and even a few Christmas items for the kids. Man I love that store! I've come pretty far with the room already but I just needed those final items for organization as well as some bookshelves, the boxes and shelve for my workbook system, and I still need a good table for the girls. We had desks last year but I like the idea of sitting with them at a table to do their school work. I of course will be posting pictures of my room when it is done, but here are a few others online that I really liked.
Loving the words under each letter. I think I might just do that same idea under our alphabet train.
We bought these today for both the school room and the master bath. Mine are a tiny bit different but I loved these! The rails were only $2.99 and the baskets were only $1.99 each! Yeah LOVE Ikea!! ------>
So this week has been nothing but getting ready for our next year homeschooling the kids. As I mentioned in a previous post I've been getting ready to order the girls school books for the year and not until the day that I was going to place the order did I finally give in to the doubts in the back of my mind. For the past several months the thought of continuing on with the current curriculum was pretty worry some with Emma. Here are a few thoughts I had written out about it in an email to a fellow homeschooling friend. "I'm not sure if you know but we've done Abeka with Maddelyn for the past 2 years and really liked it for it's organized lessons ( I know she's learning everything needed) and for how well she's done with it. However we now have Emma entering kindergarten who is a total hands on learner and I'm realizing Abeka is just not the best for her. I've been researching lots of different hands on styles of homeschooling for her and possibly even Maddelyn. I'm REALLY interested in lapbooking and had remembered you were working on some of that stuff in TN in March. Nathan and I love to read and I want to share that passion with the girls as well, Lapbooking seems to really focus their lapbooks around children's literature as well. I have realized that it is time to leave Abeka for something more hands on for Emma's sake and I think Maddelyn would really enjoy it as well." So needless to say as much as we have enjoyed using Abeka these past 2 years I believe that for the sake of my hands on learner coming up, we are going to be leaving a traditional program for a more hands on "unit/theme" approach. The lapbooking that I mentioned above is basically a theme unit based on either a theme (oceans) or a children's literature book ( Little House in the Big Woods.) This theme is then carried out in each subject (language arts/math/science/history/etc.) For example our first lapbook we will make will be on Johnny Appleseed so we will be doing early fractions by cutting apples in halves, thirds and such for math. We will also be doing her history but learning about how this area of Ohio was visited on John Chapman on his apple planting trips. We will include cooking with apple recipes, cutting apples in half to dip and paint and stamp on paper for art and such. Basically we will be weaving that theme through out our lessons. The whole time we are working our way through this unit the girls will be also making lapbooks (kinda like a mini scrapbook made of file folders) showing each of the new concepts they have learned. It is a great way to both connect all the items learned and for them to look back through later to refresh the lessons learned. I really think this will be a much better way to teach Em than a strict curriculum filled with worksheets. So, with like less than 2 weeks until school should start I decided to not only ditch our old curriculum to write my own but to switch our playroom out with our homeschool room to give us more room. I'm pretty excited at how nice the new school room is coming along. I decided to do a aqua and lime green color theme to go with my brown walls. I had to spruce it up a bit making it more kid friendly but seeing how we just painted, Nathan said no to a new paint color. I found the cutest containers and buckets at the Dollar Tree of all places and then more matching milk crates, lime green folding chairs, and an adorable monkey prize jar from Target. It's amazing how much fun and cute homeschool stuff I had in storage that I've picked up here and there but never really found a way to include it into Maddelyn's previous curriculum. Well now I've got it all pulled out and am so excited about how nice the room is turning out. It actually is starting to look like an actual elementary school room with the chalk board, alphabet train across the top of the walls, calendars, posters, and such. My parents have even offer their goldfish as class pets...not too sure about that. I have visions of me walking into the room to see Caroline letting her Barbie "swim" in the fish bowl and the poor fish flopping around on the floor. We'll have to see about that.
I'm so excited to FINALLY announce that we completed the total re-design on our hair bow boutique's website http://www.sugarsweetbowtique.com/ !!! It took a bit of time to re-do but the new site was totally worth it! We are able to offer our customers so much more as well as a smoother check out with the new design. We also have cute new features such as a guest book, coupon codes, and gift registries! We also have added LOTS of new products! A few of my favorites are the Birthday Girl Shirts, Felt Clippies, and Layered Boutique Bows. 
While in Pa, Nathan's brother's fiance Emily died and cut my hair as well as gave Elijah his 2nd hair cut and straightened Emma's hair. Emma just thought it was the best to be all done up like that. Doesn't she look like another child?
So obviously by the lack of posts lately you can tell we've been super busy. Not only is life crazy with 4 small children, a major remodel, and a hair bow business, but every spare moment is going into working on the new hair bow website. It will be wonderful when it gets done....and wonderful that it is done...but until then my evening when I normally blog are kinda busy. It's pretty much impossible to get any work on it during the day with the kids, so Nathan and I start on it every evening when the kids go to bed. We are getting pretty close but not quite there yet. On top of everything else I decided that now was the very best time to have another garage sale...yeah. Basically this was the only time available in our calendars before school starts for everyone and garage sale season ends. My friend Jenn and I both wanted to give it one more try with all the stuff since it was all labeled and all before packing it all back up. Hopefully this will pay for homeschool materials and flower girl dresses!
Today after swim lessons we took the kids to play at the park by the swimming pool. We had been promising them all week and between apointments right after swimlessons an drain, we had not yet been able to let them play. It was a perfectly sunny but not too hot day to play outside. So sad that before long it will start getting cold again!
So my little peanut is 7 months old now! Wow! That's hard to believe. It's so weird to me that we're over 1/2 way to his 1st birthday party! He has grown up so much this past month with sitting up, cereal and baby food, babbling, scooting/rolling on the floor and so much more. We are really starting to learn his little personality much more as well. He sure is a HAPPY baby. Everywhere we go people say "Man he's sure happy" As he grins one of those makes your cheeks hurt kinda grins at them just because they spoke in his direction. He isn't just a content, easy going baby, he's a happy baby! He lives to smile! The last picture with him and Daddy just about makes me want to cry! He's just not old enough to look that big! Now of course I couldn't get his to sit for me to take his 7 month pictures. He was determined to wiggle all around so he kept throwing himself backwards. When I would lay him on his back to get a shot of the number on his shirt, he would immediately flip over. Needless to say the days of easy baby photo shoots with Elijah have passed! Oh how frustrating the next 2-3 years will be with taking pictures. I love how when they are tiny you just aim, focus, and click the camera. there is not trying to get them to stand semi still in your viewfinder while getting the to remotely smile or at least look semi in the direction of the camera! Yeah...not easy. All I can say is that all of my children have had more than their share of camera lens caps in the pictures with them. I learned long ago that it is better to give them something tiny that might show up in a picture just to get them to sit still for a moment while you click a picture. This works really well on hair bow pictures when I don't really need to see their faces anyways. 
So I finally am getting time to post today...How is it that I spend hours in the car riding but never seem to remember or get the time to post on my blog?? The girls just loved Yellowstone National Park with all the animals. It was beyond beautiful there and so not what I had envisioned it would look like. There were so many different types of landscapes including: geysers with boiling pools and steam vents, forests, plains with buffalo grazing, and crystal clear lakes with ice capped mountains in the distance. What a variety, but all amazing. There were tons of animals to be seen as well. We saw the most of bison and antelopes, but we also saw elk, mule deer, and pronghorns, mountain sheep, grizzly bears, and black bears! The girls favorites were the bears by far! The grizzly bear was literally 5 foot from the car...not on purpose! Yep, I was like Girls DO NOT ROLL DOWN YOUR WINDOWS!!
Mount Rushmore is just as beautiful and majestic as you think it will be. Unfortunately the sun was at an awful angle for pictures but it was still just breath taking. The girls thought it was neat for about .... oh 2.5 minutes until the wow-ness of heads carved into rock wore off. After that running around all the tourists and climbing on the park benches was much more entertaining. 
So I had this huge blog post wrote out and then I realized that Ihad posted it on the wrong blog! Uhhh! I'm sure my coupon blog followers could care less about us visiting Yellowstone. How frustrating. So I guess I will be re-posting tomorrow while we are on the road. Here are a couple of pictures though to tide you over!!
I fianlly had a few moments to post the pictures I took for a friend from church of her 4 day old little lady. Oh how I love doing newborn pictures! Poor little Hannah was not too happy with me when I stripped the tiny 5 lb sweetie down for some diaper pics. Yep...she screamed but we still were able to get a few good ones.
So for all you Ohio Family and friends....this is what the west is like...BEAUTIFUL! Now don't get me wrong Ohio is great and all but how do you compare a cow pasture to this? Don't worry Mom. It's Beautiful but not quite enough to get me to put our house on the market (after all the hurdles we've jumped in remodeling??) and pack our bags to move out here.
I don't have too many pictures to share with you since most of the past few days has been traveling. We did leave Salt Lake to head on to Boise for the night where we just chilled in the hotel that evening and let the kids swim. After that we left for Spokane Washington where we stopped by the White Elephant Store. My father in law said that he and his family had visited there many times while he was growing up in nearby Idaho. This store has contracts with certain manufactures for their "seconds" or basically their non sellable items. These items all looked to be in perfect condition but for some reason the manufacture couldn't sell them. For example perhaps there was a warehouse fire or maybe a semi accident...whatever but the items all looked like any other items you would find in a regular store but discounted. The store was mostly camping supplies and toys but the best was the clearance room. It was like a walk down memory lane with almost all toys from the 80's and 90's still in the packages! Nathan and I were having so much fun and I'm sure the girls were like what's up with them??? They had an original Baby Alive (I had one of those!!), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Nickelodeon Gack, 90's Barbie clothes, and so much more! You know that stuff had to worth something on ebay!!
Last night we took the kids down tot he kiddie pool. This was Elijah's 3rd time in a swimming pool and he seemed to love it. I just hate him getting in and getting all wet with that nasty pool water (with kids with swim diapers on) and then sucking his thumb....blah!!!
We arrived just outside of Yellowstone National Park this evening and took the kids into the park for just a quick peek before dark. In just the short time that we saw Elk, Bison, Pronghorns, and Mule Deer. Maddelyn didn't understand why we couldn't see them closer and where the fences were? I think she thinks it's just a REALLY big Zoo of some sorts? Ok....remember we live in Ohio, all of our animals (cows, sheep, goats, horses, pigs) are fenced in but you can still pet them. We will be spending the day tomorrow back int he parks looking for more animals and visiting the natural springs and Old Faithful.
I really can't believe that our little man is 6 months old now! He has grown up so much in the past couple of weeks. He is now grabbing at everything with in his arm's reach and putting everything in his mouth. He coos and tries to mimic you when you speak to him. He still is the most happy smiling baby that any one could ask for! I did take a few "6 months pictures" on the road but I will need to take a few more when we get home to match the others on the black backdrop with my lights. That little booger is getting harder and harder to get his picture. You have to hold his finders out of his mouth with one hand and then snap the camera with the other hand all while trying to get him to laugh. I guess I get spoiled when Maddelyn just hears a camera cap come off and she is striking a pose for you. Elijah also must have decided that now that he's 6 months old...it's time to knock out a couple of milestones today...he sat up on his own and got his first solid food!! He was all about the cereal at first and was even grabbing the bowl and spoon but after a few bites he was done. Hopefully tomorrow night will go better? He did love it at first, he just was not in the mood. I think the combination of his stuffy nose and then eating thick cereal made swallowing it frustrating for him. I also thew in a few photos of the views on our way to Salt Lake City last night. The photos are mostly of Wyoming.
I am finally getting a chance to post today. We had our longest hours on the road today (supposed to be 8 hours but with kids and mommy stopping it was 12!) Yeah and of course being in the middle of no where Wyoming you don't really get great Internet connection on the blackberry?? No surprising though when all you see for about 100 miles at a time are a few Prairie Dogs playing Double-Dog-Dare-Ya with semi's. Yep, LOADS of kid friendly entertainment! No in all reality the kids were great with the DVD player, Odyssey, the BEAUTIFUL views, and of course a super long nap.
These are pictures of the girls in their adorable "Name Shirts" that I ordered off a lady on etsy. Too cute! She did wonderful work and had pretty reasonable pricing on all the items in her store. VERY cute and unique birthday gifts!
Yesterday we took the kids to Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, Co. They do have a nice visitor's center, tour, and bookstore but all the fun is downstairs in their remake of Odyssey! For those not familiar it is Christian Kids radio program that has been around forever. Basically it was the "Veggie Tales" for the kids in the 80's and 90's! I think Nathan had more fun than even the girls did yesterday! The had fun playing puppets, climbing through the many neat places in Odyssey, ridding the slide A-Bend-We-Go, eating ice cream at Whit's End, and even being in their own radio recording. Nathan got to read a script and Maddelyn got to do sound effects and then we got a copy of them in the episode before we left that day. What a neat souvenir.
After Focus on the Family we took the kids up to Denver to eat at Casa Bonita's. It's a Mexican restaurant that has lots of live entrainment. There is a cliff diving show, live mariachi band, arcade, old time photos, caricaturist, haunted house, people walking around selling glow in the dark necklaces/toys, a treasure room, and all in this HUGE restaurant. 
I just had to share a few landscape pictures from Colorado.
Yesterday we took the kids to Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo. We had a great time but learned one fact to share with future zoo go-ers.....NEVER go to the zoo on the opening day of the College World Series games, right next door to the Zoo, who also share the same parking lot. Yep....even though the zoo's website said they would be "directing parking??" we still drove around like and hour looking for a spot to park. Not fun! But we did get to see some nice tailgaters! The girls loved all the animals and even got mommy to see (well walk by quickly while looking at the ground) the snakes. Yep...no reptile house they were just mixed in with their continent's animals. REAL tricky! Thanks! I seriously have a snake phobia. Caroline was over joyed at seeing the real elephants! While visiting Disney last year she bought a stuffed baby Dumbo as her souvenir and sleeps with it every night. So needless to say she's into elephants (none to the delight of her very much republican/conservative father.) Caroline I don't think has ever seen a real elephant and since we left she has been making elephant sounds...kinda like she's blowing her nose without a Kleenex???) and pretending to shoot water at you with her trunk. She saw one of the elephants at the zoo taking water up into his trunk and then drinking it back out with his mouth. Highlight of her week! Of course she decide to spend her chips on a mini elephant in a purse at the gift shop. Oh the chips is a little reward incentive that we are doing with the girls on the trip. Nathan's parents used to do it with their kids when they took long trips. Basically they earn poker chips for good behavior and lose them for bad behaviour. They can then turn in chips for special things such as taking something form the prize bag, getting ice cream, choosing where they want to sleep that night, choosing where they want to ride in the car, buying a souvenir, etc.
We did swing by Lincoln after leaving the zoo so we could video tape the outside of the Nebraska Cornhusker's stadium...per Nathan's request. He was able to tour the building a couple of days ago on behalf of his job...seeing behind the scenes but he wanted the girls to see it to. I don't think they were too impressed (6, 4, and 2 looking at a place where they play football meant nothing to them) but Daddy wanted them to share in the excitement with him. It's really funny to see Husker shirts at the stores and big red "N"s on the back of car bumpers. It's kinda like there really is a Nebraska fan group larger than my husband, his dad, and his grandpa? Wow! All these years it's kinda been like the die-hard fans on a team that exsits some where out there??? I mean come on when you grow up in Ohio State Buckeye territory it's hard to understand the one...no three people you've ever met in your lifetime that roots for some team that are called Cornhuskers?? I mean a Buckeye is a Nut, but what's a Husker??? It's just wierd seeing that my husband isn't as alone as I thought he was! In all fairness though we are on the hunt for Elijah's first Husker team items.
That night we drove about three hours before getting a hotel just so we could get down the road some. Unfortunately I ended up feeling very sick to my stomach so we did make it to the town we were trying to get to, but the rest of that night was shot and we took our time leaving the hotel this morning. We then traveled another 6 hours to Colorado Springs, Co where we will go to Focus on the Family tomorrow and then drive into Denver tomorrow night to eat at Casa Bonitas, a Mexican Restaurant with live entertainment.
So here are a few Zoo pictures to share....
So today we took a break from the road/hotels and the girls and I ventured out to Omaha's Children's Museum while Nathan was in meetings. This was definitely a stretch for mommy and her sanity but I really thought the kids would enjoy it. The girls loved the pretend/imagination room the best where all the dress up, puppets, mini grocery store, water table, fire station, and mini house all were. I couldn't get Caroline away form the fire station and play trucks. She was in full coat/hat/boots driving a pretend firetruck saying "Me firetruck!" Grandpa's firetruck!" How cute! Anytime I couldn't see where she had wandered off to, I'd find her at the wheel of that firetruck. Maddelyn and Emma had a blast playing in the make believe miniature house with some other children. Emma told me she wanted to go with a group of older school children on their bus back to school. Um??? Ok? Maddelyn couldn't leave her OCD tendencies at the hotel. She was having fun playing in the little grocery store where you "shop" for items, check out with them and then put them all back on the shelves so other children can shop as well. Well, I found Maddelyn not just shopping with her little cart like all the other children, but putting everyone else's items away. Yes, she was cleaning/organizing the mini grocery store! It half makes me proud and half freaks me out just a tad! This evening we spent with a family here in Nebraska that used to be Nathan's youth pastors! He also used to babysit their oldest boys when they were both still in diapers and not... 17 and 15. Yep that makes us feel old! Tomorrow we are heading to the Omaha zoo so it should be a great picture taking day.
So the lack of posts the past weeks show how crazy it's been around our house getting ready for our 27 day ROAD TRIP. Yes, you read that right 27 days on the road with 4 kids 6 and under! No we're not trying to get ourselves committed to the insane Asylum...honest! Nathan has to make an extended business trip out west and we are allowed to travel with him since he will be driving! So, over the next 27 days we will be on the road, driving to Washington state and back! 
We got on the road yesterday only 3 hours late! We had reserved a Suburban rental car and of course when we went to pick it up they had an Expedition waiting for us. Needless to say they are NOT the same size! After packing, repacking, loading, reloading, and trying our best to get everything we as a family of 6 would need for the next 27 days ready we FINALLY got on the road! We traveled just east of Chicago the first night, spent the night and then traveled on to Iowa yesterday. Nathan of course has been stopping all long the way for business meetings. We had lunch with a political friend of Nathan's and then after Supper last night we took the girls to a baseball game. Nathan had to go for work but the kids and I tagged along. They actually had a blast since our seats were right behind home base. We left just in time to come back to the hotel to swim but, the water had to be the absolute coldest swimming pool water that I have felt in a very long time! So obviously the swimming was cut short! 
So we do have a winner of the Hair Bow Give-a-Way! According to Random.com's random number selection, the winner is #12.......
"Amanda said...
I love the gerber headbands! Too cute! I also love the little clippies.. great for everyday use. What great stuff you have!"
Congratulations Amanda! I will be emailing you shortly for your mailing address to get these bows sent out to you! Thank you so very much for all of you who participated and of course to all of our wonderful customers at Sugar Sweet Bowtique!
Did you know that Crayola's poster makers are NOT washable! Neither did I! Well let's just say that while Mommy was packing for camping last Friday, Caroline climbed a chair to reach the art supplies shelf in the homeschool room. I think she was thinking Sour Grapes Lady (Strawberry Shortcakes Arch Nemesis) when she when with the purple marker??? So needless to say that the child got spanked and then we tried to scrub her down, only getting the first layer off. It was awful funny that she had a white pull-up line under the pull-up! That is definitely a perfectly white panty line! So after Daddy comes home Caroline says" Emma color my belly!" What????? So I call her down and she denies it all. Daddy then looks at her hand and see's a tiny bit of purple eon her coloring hand. He just looks at her and she starts sobbing crying GUILTY! So let's just say that she was in HOT water for not only coloring on Caroline (yes even the inside of her belly button was perfectly purple) but for lying and telling me Caroline had done it and then Caroline got disciplined for it. Funny part is that we had almost the exact same thing happen with a green marker with Maddelyn and Emma when Maddelyn was about three. That's how we knew to check the guilty party's right hand for evidence. Maddelyn was green only on the underside of her right fist. Guilty! It took all weekend for the purple-people-eater to finally fade away!
I can't believe my little man is 5 months old aready! Why is it that this time always seems to F-L-Y by but the last 5 months of my pregnancy didn't? Hmm??? So what's new this month? Elijah has really grown attached to his thumb. We tried to push the binki but once he found his thumb that was it. Elijah is such a wonderful baby, smiling all the time! He is such a joy! He definitely loves to cuddle and is a Mommy's Boy....well don't tell Daddy! All of my kids are Mommy's kids until they stop nursing! HA! He has also really been trying his hardest to talk. He is cooing a lot and blowing rasberries. I thought boys weren't supposed to be chatterboxes like girls are??? He is also trying his best to sit up. Obviously he's too young to sit up by himself but he sure is exercising those little tummy muscles by pulling himself up. His hair is also lightening up quite a bit and has thinned out a bit as well. Sad to say that after his 1st hair cut a couple of weeks ago, his hair is already past his ears again on the sides! So here are his 5 month pictures. It's amazing to see how he has changes each month.
Okay...I know that it's been a week and a half since I last updated. We've been super busy with our annual garage sale. We are so blessed that we sold over $1000 in just 2 days, and the first day it was raining! How good is our God! We've also had a pretty sick little girl. Maddelyn had a bad cold that then turned into a high fever and an ear infection. Poor little thing has been miserable. Now that she has an antibiotic in her she should start feeling better. Tomorrow I am going to a used homeschool curriculum sale at the local Christian school. It is hard to believe that our baby is going to be in first grade. Man that seems so weird. On on hand it seems like Maddelyn has been here forever and on the other it seems like it's impossible that she could be starting first grade?? Man does that make me feel old!
Since we live in Ohio, Mininite and Amish families are quite frequent at our garage sales. Well my little Emma is will say anything to anyone did it again yesterday. An Amish boy was in the garage and Emma says to her grandmother..."I've never seen a REAL cowboy before!" Now mind you he did have a straw hat on and all so I can see where she got it. Thank goodness he didn't hear her!
So I once again got a tiny peak into how the mind of a 4 year old works, while getting the girls dressed the other morning....
Emma: "Mommy when is this house going to be old?"
Me: "What do you mean? Why?"
Emma: "I mean when is it going to be old so we can move back to Grandma Bobbie's house again?"
Me: "Emma we aren't going to be moving again. This is our house forever now. We just stayed at Grandma's house while we were getting ready to move in here."
Emma: "Well when is that other guy coming back."
Me: "What other guy?"
Emma: "The one who lives here?"
Me: "You mean the one who used to live here? He isn't coming back. He sold it to us so we could live here and then he moved to a new house too."
Emma: "Oh".....(with a frown on her face)
So all of this time she thought we were just house sitting for the other man and soon we would be moving back in with Grandma and Grandpa??? I guess when you spent your first year of life at their house while Daddy was in Iraq, and then another 2 months while waiting on the new house......it could start to look like when you're not sure about things the default is just move back in with Grandma and Grandpa! Oh my!
Can you tell by the lack of posts that I've had lots of hair bow orders to fill the ast couple of weeks? Good for us...bad for blogging! So this week re-cap: Monday we took all 4 kids to get their hair cut. Yep...Caroline and Elijah got their first hair cuts on the SAME day! Sad when at 2 1/2, your 4 month old brother has more hair than you! Caroline looks like a true 2 year old in her little bob now!
Wednesday I took all 4 kids by myself to the library! It was the first time sinc Eli was born that we tried the library and the first time we visited the library here in town. The kids were of course so excited to pick their own books. Even little Caroline carefully chose what 2 board books she wanted to bring home. Maddelyn and Emma were surprised to find out that both of them were able to get their own library card to take out books on. My little kids are growning up! 
So we've been busy little bees around here the past several days! We finally have gotten all the yard work done. Well....as much as we can do until after the weather FINALLY breaks here in Ohio! Just as we think it might finally be Spring here, after a lovely weekend, it is sleeting today...yes and forcasted for snow tonight! UHHHH! My capris are itching to make their appearance! We ended up hauling away 3 trailer loads of brush and tree limbs form the backyard! Yeah! Let's just say it needed "a little bit" of trimming!
I just realized that I never posted any pictures of the amazing project table that my husband made me! Ignore the weird glare that showed up on some of the glossy black paint here in my picture?? I had my eye on a table that sells for well way to much from Target and Pottery Barn. My husband said that he would try his hand at making me one instead of forking up all that cash! I am guessing that we saved about 90% by making it! Well, here is what he made for me! Pretty nice huh? We also have on order actual counter top laminate to coat the top of it in as well to make it look more like a store bought piece of furniture. He did such a nice job that he thinks he now should go into the furniture business!
I also thought I would share a few pictures I took while my friend Alicia was visiting with her daughter Emma-lee. These adorable matching dresses were a gift form her mom. THANKS Joye!!! It amazes me how I always forget how hard it is to get that many kids to take a picture...until I actually try and do it! Not too bad though for 5 kids, 6 and under who would NOT cooperate! Let's just say the pictures that we did get were the result of being bribed with candy and a little stuff bunny on my head!
So what is Tax Day without a little TEA?? Of course we took the kids and went to our local Tax Day TEA PARTY! The girls stood there proudly carrying their signs in the yucky, cold mist and even cried when it was finally time to leave. Maddelyn said she didn't want to go! What a proud parent am I! When we asked them later on what we were doing there they said the goverment is taking too much of our money! Yep, so sad that they really have no clue how much in debt they are already at ages 4 and 6! So here are a few pics from our local Tea Paty. I believe the local news channel said there were close to 1000 there in our small town of about 50,000 people.
So since I've been on the couponing band wagon for a few weeks now I have decided to do a coupon blog as well to help other people find some of the amazing deals that others have helped me find! The way I look at it is that why pay full price for the brands I "normally use" when I can get a competitor's product for sometimes 90% less or even for free? Our family believes that it also is our Christian responsibility to make the most out of what we have been given by God. The more we save/have available, the more we are able to use that to bless His Kingdom. So I invite you to join this stay-at-home-mommy as I find and share some of the best money saving deals out there to help you do the most with what you have been given as well!
Now it still is in the works and needs lots of tweeking...but here is the link. Mark it in your favorites and check back to see it as I continue to develop it and add new deals! I'll be both adding great deals I stumble upon as well as sharing how I use my coupons with the sale adds to show you the math on how to make your money stretch the farthest!
As many of you know I've entered the world of coupons and frugal living! Not only is it a challenge and a lot of fun for me but it is obviously helping our checking account and as many other coupon moms say....the more you are able to save the more resources you will have availale to use for the Kingdom!
So one new deal that I stumbled upon is for a free princess DVD from Fisher Price. Thanks to Bargain Briana for the deal! The movie is totally free (even shipping) and all you need to do is click on the link and enter it into your shopping cart and check out. It says it will arrive in 12-14 weeks but everyone is saying it will get there much sooner. Just thought I'd share!
http://www.fisher-price.com/pages/v6/default/preciousplaces/landing.asp
I am seriously considering starting my own deal saving blog but until then I will be adding some of my favorites that I follow to the side bar. That way you can check out their amazing deals as well. If I find some more great ones like the steal I got on diapers a few weeks backc I will be sure to pass them along!
So obviously we've had a pretty busy last 2 weeks getting ready for my best friend Alicia and her daughter Emma Lee to arrive as well as getting ready for Maddelyn's big 6th birthday slumber party. Alicia and I have been having so much fun this past week that well frankly blogging has not been on my mind at all. We spent the first few days getting ready for the big slumber party bash and then since then have been scrapbooking like mad! We went to Columbus yesterday and visited my friend Amy's store...love it! We also ran into a couple of other stores including Trader Joes (found some great CHEAP gluten free foods there!) We've really gotten some good use out of the project table that my dear hubby made for me for my birthday (pictures to upload soon) Lets just say that both of us are scrapping on it with p-l-e-n-t-y of room! Now if I can just convince hubby to put a flat screen TV on the wall in my scrap room we'll be set!
Nathan entertained the girls for a bit with a funny sing-a-long. The kids love when he plays for the, It was cute with all 14 girls singing along.
Here is a shot of the girls' dress up room (off their bedroom) that finally has the hooks hung in it. the little vanity set was from Santa (Target) and then we just hang boards and coat hooks around the room. We still need more hooks as well as curtains at the door way that can be tied back when they don't need them closed.
Because my best friend Alicia is coming from Virginia this next week I thought I would post this ...getting used to Ohio... post. I think all my Ohio friends and family will get a good chuckle out of it as well!
You Know You’re from Ohio When...
You've never met any celebrities.
Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor on the highway. I hate that!
"Vacation" means driving through Hocking Hills or going to King's Island. or the State Fair in Columbus!
You've seen all the biggest bands ten years after they were popular.
You measure distance in minutes. Yep
Down south to you means Kentucky. Yep
You know several people who have hit a deer. my brother hit one this year
Your school classes were canceled because of cold. yep
Your school classes were canceled because of heat. I wish!
You've ridden the school bus for an hour each way. 45 minutes and we were like 5 miles from the school
You've ever had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day. yep
You think ethanol makes your truck "run a lot better."
You know what's knee-high by the Fourth of July. CORN!
Stores don't have bags; they have sacks.
You see people wear bib overalls at funerals. Sadly yes, but that is all they ever wear
You see a car running in the parking lot at the store with no one in it no matter what time of the year. um....yep
You end your sentences with an unnecessary preposition. Example:"Where's my coat at?" or "If you go to the mall I wanna go with." Sad to admit as a teacher I've said the first one
All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable, or grain. melon, bratwurst, corn
You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked. yep, not us anymore though after the break in!
You think of the major four food groups as beef, pork, beer, and Jell-O salad with marshmallows. Grandma makes the whipped jell-o salad with marshmallows
You carry jumper cables in your car. most people do
You know what "cow tipping" or "Possum Kicking" is. Been cow tipping with my teacher! Long story
You only own 3 spices: salt, pepper, and ketchup. Haha! Yep and Season Salt!
You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit. Every year!
Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow. yep
You think everyone from a bigger city has an accent.
You think sexy lingerie is tube socks and a flannel nightie. not sexy...necessity!
The local paper covers national and international headlines on one page but requires 6 pages for sports. so true!
You think that deer season is a national holiday. Some schools get the day off!
You know which leaves make good toilet paper.
You find -20 degrees F "a little chilly".
You know all 4 seasons: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Construction. Funnier than you know! So our construction is a "season" now?? Oh my!
You know what a real buckeye is, and have a recipe for candy ones. Grandma makes them
You know if another Ohioian is from southern, middle or northern Ohio as soon as they open their mouth.
You can spell words like Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas. yep
You know that Serpent Mound was not made by snakes. yep
You know what pop is.
You don't think of Flordia first when someone says Miami.
You snicker when someone is from Tiffin because you think of the State Hospital. HaHa!
Schools close down for the State Basketball Tournaments. Um...yep
You're proud of your state fair, but would rather go to Cedar Point. Both??
You live less than 30 miles from some college or university.
"Toward the lake" means "north" and "toward the river" means "south."
You root for a college team though you've never taken a class there.
You know the proper way to say Lima (Lyma), Berlin (BUHRlin), Bucyrus (Bew-sy-rus) and Rio Grande (Rhyo Grand). Haha!
It’s Interstate, or Highway - NOT Freeway or Expressway.
You know every exit on I-71 And what is at each exit!
You actually get these jokes and forward them to all your Ohio friends.
Isn't it sad? You just said "yup" and "uh-huh" or aint that the truth" to most of these!!!
WE FOUND THE B-A-T!!!! And you know where??? My Bedroom! Ahhhhh! So a week and a half after my first sighting I was getting ready for bed (why is it always me? Do they just like me or know I'm a wimp?) and turning on the box fan we sleep with. Well while turning it on I was fooling around with it adjusting the speed and such and as I was walking away I was like "what on earth? Oh my gosh its the bat!" So I then yell and run (Nathan said more like pranced like a deer) across the bedroom floor to get Nathan up. I am yelling "Nathan! Nathan! The B-A-T is on the F-A-N!!!!!" Yes I spelled it? No clue why but I did? Nathan said at least we know you can spell in a time of crisis (even though I can't on my blog! HeHe!) So he jumps up to get it and I dive onto the bed with Elijah and cover us both head to toe in the blankets. Nathan is trying to figure out a game plan of getting it without spooking it when he realized that since we turn the fan backwards so we can just hear it but not feel it the bat was actually stuck to the sucking in air part of the fan. The bat was stuck and could not move! So, he just grabbed up a Children's Place bag and plucked it off the fan. He said it went wild biting like crazy trying ot get out. He then...cough....cough...disposed of it......cough....cough (for all those animal rights activist!) I love all God's creations as well, but NOT in my house!!! So we are just praying that God will direct his creatures to remain out of our living spaces! LOL! The spiders that we come across as we are cleaning up from our huge remodel really don't seem quite as scary as they did pre-bat!!
The other night Maddelyn went to her cousins' Hannah Montana sleepover. We found out that she went up to my brother's fiance that night and while all the other girls were singing karaoke she wanted to know if she could clean the girls' room??? Yeah weird? So Beth said ok and Maddelyn not only picked up in there but she had it cleaned to perfection so everything was in it's own place. She then walked past my brother's room and said "Boy it's messy in there! Someone should clean it up!" (They had moved all the house furniture and such in there to make room for the sleeping bags) She then said "Do you want me to clean it? Yeah I am a clean freak and that still psycho! I am soooo not brain washing her!
Great news....... we are finally in our kitchen! YEAH! We've been living with a college fridge, freezer, and microwave in our formal dinning room since we moved in in January. Yeah frustrating to say the least! So they are still working on some of the decorative trim (getting new trim cut to match the antique original trim), doing 2 more small sections of counter tops, and Nathan has to paint a few more cabinets for me to be able to have the complete kitchen done. We also are waiting to put our new wood laminate (well actually a recycled rubber product from Lowes that looks like laminate but cheaper and much more durable) down until after the 3rd floor master suite is done since the construction workers get up there through the butler stairs in our kitchen. Even though I don't love cooking it has been exciting cooking in our new kitchen with all our new appliances.
I need to run though. I am "trying" to gain control today of the constant construction dust monster that lives in this house. I WILL eventually win this never ending battle!!!!
