here I sit...

..waiting to go for MRI. I have so many mixed feelings about this appointment. I want it show that the rip (or tear) is bad enough to send me to the specialist just so I don't have this terrible pain in my knee. I can hardly walk up or down stairs. Squatting is damn near impossible. Not to mention the fact that if I need to be on my knees for anything and any of you out there that is a mom of small children know that this is almost a given (Multiple times a day)!!
On the other had I really don't want to have surgery!! I am terrified inside! I have never been in the hospital for anything other than being sick as a child(and I don't recall that) and for the birth of our 3 children. I have never had surgery in my 31 yrs of life. Who wouldn't be scared. All I can do is pray, tell God my fears and he gently quites my fears!!
Well it's time for me to wrangle my herd and drop them off at my mom's...

Tid Bits.....

Ok so I have 2 sick kiddos.. no fun what so ever.. I had Carter at the Dr. on Friday for an ear infection and a nasty cold.. he gave him antibiotics.. 2x a day for 10 days.. something else I need to remember with my mommy brain! While I was there I stated that Callie looks like she is catching what Carter has.. He said let's watch her before I put her on antibiotics. So guess what?? We were back yesterday(Monday)!! Now he said it looks like teething or sinus infection or a combo of both so now she is on the same thing as Carter 2x a day for 10 days.. let's do the math here...that is 40 doses of medicine.. how many will i forget to give?? Oh I don't want to forget to mention on miserable Callie is... It's getting quite unbearable!!

Now my turn... I have an sinus infection(just like clock work for this time of the year!) so now I am on antibiotics.. Oh what fun!! however I think mine is 3x a day for 10 days.. now who is keeping track here .. that is 70 doses of medicine.. oh my mommy brain is gonna fail!! Now the fun part.. I almost fell down my stairs about 3 months ago and have been suffering with knee pain ever since so I asked my Dr. about it yesterday... I have ripped my cartilage in my knee..He is sending me MRI & X-ray of that knee.. I just had a MRI(well in the last 3 months or so) If this shows what he thinks it is, I will be heading off to the Orthopedic DR. and will be having surgery on my right knee.. oh what fun!!
Well it's time for me to perform my motherly duties and go whip somebodies butt.. there has been nothing but chaos in the living room while I am typing this out

Christmas has come & gone

The kids got a lot of practical things this year but Carter says it was "The Best Christmas Ever!!" They also got a few choice toys.. like a kitchen for Callie , a Leapster for Carter & a gamecube for Owen (yes I know it's not an up to date system, but he loves it anyway!!) of Course we had Christmas at my mom & dad's where they got loaded up on the goods there.. Then there was Christmas with Jason's family.. more goodies all the way around!! we still have 1 more Christmas shin-dig to go to but that isn't until the 10th of Jan.

Jason surprised me with a willow tree, the mother & daughter. I had already got my Christmas the new T.V. and my new camera but I guess I made it pretty clear that I would still like to have a lil something under the tree to unwrap. He done good!!

Cookies

We devoted yesterday to baking cookies... Chocolate chip, M&M, Reese's Pieces, and of course Sugar cookies..mmmmm

I stopped counting after 18 dozen.. yep! that's a whole lot of cookies! We made most to give away as gifts! The boys & Callie helped.. Well Callie liked eating the dough!

Happy year and half Callie Alyssa

Today is Callie's 18mth birthday! I can't believe she is a year and half already!! Where o where did my baby go?? Today we celebrated by doing errands.. oh JOY!! I left the house this morning at 8 came back around 1ish for Callie to nap and then off again.. we came back in for the night around 4ish.. What a long day

and of course I had to have a "photo shoot"

5 weeks of sewer misery!!!!

Where should I begin with this novel... the part where Owen flushed part of the toilet brush down the toilet about 8 wks. ago or where Jason hit a sewer cap with the mower about 6 wks. ago??

How about I fast forward to only 5 wks. ago, It was a Saturday and I was scheduled to be at an all day conference for church when the girl who staying in our basement comes up and says her toilet is bubbling... OH BOY!! There went my Saturday and Jason was heading to the local rental center to rent a plumbing snake... he thinks he gets it after several hours and we return the snake...

The following Friday night Jason noticed it was bubbling up outside when he pulled up from work.. so off to the rental store first thing Saturday morning.. Ah he gets it.. so he thinks!

The 3rd week I notice it when leaving for a hair appointment.. So not a way to start a beautiful Tues. morning... this time we call in the experts and Ray's Plumbing comes out for 10 min. max and says that should do it flowing nicely.. What??!!

The 4th week I noticed it again... this time while taking Carter out to the bus.. it was pouring out of the vent pipe near the street...So I called Ray's again and they came out and this time he told me it was more than what he could do and said I needed to contact my local sewer authority.. Now we are talking! Someone else is liable for all this mess.

The 5th week... Mon Morning (12.8)E.Cocalico water & sewer Auth. came out and ran a camera through the pipes. they were here looking for quite sometime but never came to the door to let me know anything and then they left.. no news is good news right?? WRONG!!!
Tues. Morning(12.10) The Water & Sewer dude calls me to explain that something of a circular shape with a bolt or screw is lodged in our piping 4 ft. away from the vent pipe( which puts it right under our sidewalk)... and he tells me that we are probably going to have to excavate to correct the problem.. my heart sank and all I could think of is "How are we gonna pay for this" . After he said excavate I zoned out. although I did hear him say that he has to give me the official notice, which will be mailed today or early morning, stating that I will be held responsible in getting this problem corrected and I have 30 days to do so.... I just wept!!!

Then this afternoon I called Ray,they seem to think they can push it out to a larger pipe and we will be OK without excavating.So someone came out, done their work and left in close to an hour. He said he feels confident that he pushed it through as the 1st time he went in he was met with resistance and the 2nd time he was not.. I still requested that someone come out with another one of those cameras and check... the Township is requiring that we submit what we done to resolve the problem!! I am praying that Shannon (the guy from Ray's) got out the LID FROM THE SEWER PIPE!!!! yes the object in question seems to be that dang thing that Jason knocked in!!!

Here's to unclogged pipes!

Hurray!!

We scored today!! we got a big T.V... 42" can't wait to see it up! I got a new camera(Merry Christmas to me), a new vacuum(how boring) the kids toys, slippers, a thermos for Jason, a flashlight for my dad, towels for a niece, uuugggggg what else.. With today's shopping I am just about complete with my Christmas list.. YAY!!

shopping here we come!!

Tomorrow morning Jason and I are battling the crowds and going black friday shopping! Are we nuts?? ABSOLUTELY!! Jason plans on waking me up at 4 in the freakin morning and leaving here shortly there after.. I will report back after our affair...

A time for Thanks giving

It's not only a holiday but something we should do every single day! Give thanks to our Lord God for everything great that He does for us!! AMEN! It's so important to remember where the good stuff comes from... as a family we sit down every night and talk of the blessings that we have received from God that day.. I will admit that some days(the stressful ones) is hard to find a blessing but there is always, always a blessing to be found!

So today we celebrated with my family(no drama) and gave thanks for all the wonderful blessings in our lives.. stable work in a crappy economy, family, health, love, wonderful parents(thanks Owen)good food(thanks Jason for pulling everything together) and most important we give thanks to God because without Him where would we be???

Christmas before Thanksgiving?? What!

So I stepped out of my norm and took Callie to see Santa before Thanksgiving.. I just couldn't resist.. although Callie could have done without sitting on his lap! But she did make a really cute pouty face..

Then to make is seem closer to Christmas that it really is... mother nature teased up with some snow! The boys were very excited by this.. Jason was not(he has to work in it).. and of course I just had to bundle the kids up to play in the light dusting that we got..

I've been tagged....

Becky got me so here is my photo...
Callie Alyssa in her "little house on the prairie" dress


Here is the rules:::

1. Look in your "My Pictures" file on your computer.
2. Find the fourth picture in the fourth album/folder.
3. Post the picture and tag 4 others.

I tag.......
Angel & Summer (sadly I do not have 2 other blogger friends to tag)

Trick or Treat

Lastnight was Halloween and we went door to door in a near by development. There was a lot of kids out and about... I wish would have had more time but we had a late start and we had to scoot to the church party!! The kids got lots of candy and had a great time with everyone!

...:::Me & Callie:::...


...:::Peggy & Callie:::...


...:::Callie & Scotty:::...
((He wanted her nuk))


...:::Me, Callie, Be, Peggy, Lacey, Cailan, Scotty, Carter & Owen:::...


...:::My 3 ghouls:::...
Spiderman...Carter ::: Witch... Callie ::: Ninjaboy... Owen

just a trim

I have been noticing that Callie's bangs are getting long wispy ends that are starting to get in her eyes. I try to side sweep her hair to keep it out but her hair is so silky that it doesn't stay over. So I try bows.. HA!! You would think that she would leave those things in since she has had something in her hair since birth.. PLEASE.. The moment I'm not looking she yanks it out.. hair and all!!
So I decided that she needed just a tiny trim of her bangs.. Good Grief what am I about to do, I asked myself.. Was it not just this week that I messed up Owen's hair due to wormy pants and now I am actually gonna attempt to trim ms.antsy pantsy's bangs!!
I started with a good bath! Let her play a Lil and then my plan was to cut them just before I got her out so I wouldn't have Lil red hairs everywhere. Oh my gosh!! that slippery Lil worm would barely let me comb her hair. So after I was done with her bath I wrapped her up in the towel and sat her down on my bathroom counter.. where she had way too much stuff to get at!
Luckily enough when I got her hair combed just right(after she was done trying to comb it) she held really still while I snipped every so gently.. maybe she was hold still because I was squeezing her cheeks. Well whatever the reason she held still!!

this one really isn't a good BEFORE pic but I adore it...




AFTER..

Jack-o-Latern time....

Well I had the biggest plans this year to go do something fun at pumpkin patch on a Saturday afternoon but that never happened.. thanks to all the weekend rain we have had this month. Luckily enough Owen won a big ole pumpkin at his school's fall festival last Friday night. Yay Owen!! Last year everyone had their own pumpkin to carve but Owen's pumpkin has now been dubbed the family pumpkin.
So tonight we carved it.. Owen picked out the design after me telling him many times.. NO, that's too hard! this one seemed easy enough for all the lil hands
involved!

Owen & Callie cleaning out the guts



Owen Carving on the pumpkin


Carter's turn.. lil sissy is watching you!!


the finished product

dreams are coming true!

When Jason and I purchased our home 3 short years ago, we never thought we would start seeing some of our dreams come true so soon... like our lil fire pit area.. That was a dream of mine when we 1st came to the open house. I remember walking the property with Jason and saying how awesome it would be to have a patio way up here (the back corner of the property). Somewhere I can come and sit, drink my coffee and watch the children play.. Well We have it already! It was one of my must be done summer jobs!
Our newest dream come true was a privacy hedge along RT.272 side of the yard. There was a long span of yard (I think Jason said it was around 85ft.) that opened up to a yard that borders RT.272.. not a real big problem but we were thinking about our future.The land is owned by and elderly woman and it wouldn't surprise us if once she passed away if her property wouldn't be sold and developed,not a lot can go on the land but I still wanted to be able to know that I had our privacy if that would be the case years down the road. Anyway on the 19th we were heading to my sisters for a birthday party(Happy 1st B-day Scottie)and I happened to spot a bunch of Arborvitae shrubs at a discount grocer. On the way back I made Jason stop so we could check the price.. ONLY $12.49 EACH.. these arbs were 6-8ft tall.. what a bargain!! we scarfed them up that week.I went back on Monday with my dad in his truck and trailer to pick up some. Jason got them planted and we decided we needed more to finish the hedge up. We went back on Sat. to get more but they only had a different breed of them. We got them anyway hoping once they grow and fill in it won't be noticeable. I called a local nursery on Saturday and for the size and quantity that we got our hedge would have cost us $1400.00 We paid a small fraction of that cost!

Our trip to Hershey, Pa!

Today the boys had off of school for a teacher in-service day and I used that to my advantage! We went to Zoo America and Hershey's Chocolate Factory Tour! All Free for me thanks to our membership for Baltimore Zoo!
Anyway I asked Jason's sisters(Ruth Ann & Esther Mae and niece(Katelyn)) to go along. We had lots of fun. Esther Mae hadn't been there before and it had been years for Ruth Ann.. they changed a lot!

Zoo America isn't a "normal" zoo.. they don't have monkeys, lions, elephants and animals that you find in BIG zoos. They have wolves, eagles, otters, owls... all the animals in zoo America are animals that you will see in the wild in the Americas.
Carter's favorite part was the Elk.. they were huge

Owen said he liked everything! But I think he really liked the animals of the dessert exhibit the best. They had a part that was for the nocturnal animals.. that was really neat.. In it were skunks, bats, snakes of all types, foxes(those were one of Callie's faves), and a few more animals that I can't think of right now!
The river Otters were my favorite of all. They have such cute lil noses

The Wolves were really neat to watch.. there were 4 total: a black one(Dakota), a grey one(an illegal pet rescue)and a brother & sister pair that are still young(16 mths). They trotted around the exhibit for us. Callie loves dogs so this was a favorite spot for her.

After we were done, we ate a packed lunch at the zoo and then walked through a couple of favorite exhibits again and left for the Chocolate Factory tour.. a 5 min. drive which Callie fell asleep!!
Hershey Chocolate Factory was very fun! It took you on a ride through a "factory" and showed you how the chocolate was made.. from harvesting to the candy bar!! It smelled really yummy! At the end of the tour they gave a free CHOCOLATE!!!
Owen & Carter with the Super Sized bottle of Chocolate syrup!!

Aunt Ruth Ann with Callie & Katelyn & their cute lil bears she bought them!

Picture Time!!

one more tree.. PLEASE!!!

So after we cut down the 2 pine trees out front it still wasn't what I was hoping for. Don't get me wrong, I loved how it opened up the front of the house and how you could now see it from the street.. BUT there was 1 more tree in my way.. the cute lil maple! It was hardly noticeable when the pines where there because half of it was growing into the big pine. After much convincing, Jason agreed to cut it down. So that is what we did yesterday! We worked all day long on the front yard... We got out close to 8 or 8:30 and didn't come in until dark.. which is around 7ish! After Jason got the tree cut, all of us helped clear it away. Callie even tried helping. Once that was done it was noon and time to go rent the stump grinder. Oh what fun that was!Jason rolled the dang thing! I came back from taking load of debris out back to Jason motioning me to hurry with the tractor because he rolled it.. He made one bad move and that is what happened. When I got out front smoke was billowing down the street from where it laid over and all the oil and gas ran out onto the hot engine. We used the tractor to pull it back up right and started again...
I used some of the grindings around the kids swing set up back. It made really nice mulch.
After Jason was done grinding we put some seed and straw down hoping to get a nice green, lush front lawn.. that will be totally awesome. Jason isn't too happy right now with it looking so barren out there but he said once the grass comes in nice and lush he will be happy and it will look much better. He said today as we were driving to church.. well you got what you wanted once again!!!!
I'll put up a picture when I take one from the same spot as the other ones

Sleep.. that is surely not something a mother needs!!

Something seems to be going on with our sweet lil princess.. Callie. It all started 2 nights ago. She went to bed at her usual 8 o'clock bedtime but was back up at 9:30. She wasn't up to play, she was up to fuss!! Nothing worse or at least not to me..LOL!! She tossed and turned, moaned and groaned all night long. Yesterday she was a bit of a hand full, one might say. She was into EVERYTHING! and would throw a full blown tantrum when scolded or told no! Last night's sleep wasn't any better. She was up about every hour SCREAMING! I am not sure if she had a belly ache or is she is cutting teeth... she still only has 6 (4 on top, 2 on bottom)! She is by far my worst out of the 3 to cut teeth.. she takes 4EVER & is miserable the whole time! Today sadly enough didn't get any better.. she was a bear all day long. I put her down for 2 naps instead of her usual 1.. I put her down around 1:30 for her second... she didn't go to sleep on her own like normal.. she screamed and cried for a good half hour or so. I went to her and here she had a stinky diaper(poor baby) and she had thrown all her things out of her crib..(her pillow, teddy & her dinky) .. not only did she throw her things out but she bit a chunk out of her dinky.. WHAT??! Now I have to mend it. She would be lost without that and her nipper, which I should start weaning her off of it.. but it really helps on days like today! I am praying(for the past 2 nights) that she sleeps much better tonight and we at least make it to 2 a.m. before she wakes to join us in our bed.
On a brighter note we (I really mean "I") have broken Callie of her bottle. She is now only allowed to have a cup.. Yay for Callie.. now if I could get her to go on the potty and lose her nipper...
HA! I really am tired!!

Silly Face

Callie makes ridiculously cute silly faces when I whip out the camera.. half the time I miss them cuz she is just so quick. here are a few that i did capture

TIMBER

After close to 2 years of talking about cutting down our 2 big pine trees in the front yard we finally did it this weekend.. Oh what a JOB they were....
The big blue spruce wasn't any trouble at all. Jason climbed up the tree as far as he could go and cut the 1st 5ft. off.. it was a perfect Christmas tree! After that top he cut smaller chunks off.. he cut, I cleaned up, Carter supervised!! After we got the BIG one all finished up, Jason was ready to take on the smaller one.. It was pretty tall but very lean. All in all it was probably 1/2 the size of the Blue Spruce. Jason convinced himself that there was no need to scale this tree and cut chunks off like the other one cuz the base of the tree was leaning a particular way and that would redirect the tree away from the power lines.. that and the guide wire in our yard... TIMBER!!! The tree fell right into the power lines.. Luckily enough the telephone pole stopped it from crashing the wires... Jason was then in a mad rush to figure something out ... he got on the skid loader and tied chains to the tree and pulled it away.. My heart felt really funny... I was SCARED!! VERY SCARED!! He pulled it away into a safe zone. Man that could have been costly!! So now the pine trees are gone.. well mostly. The stumps are there until we can rent a grinder and plant some grass seed. We are hoping we can do that this weekend as we are running out of planting time.

"BEFORE"



"AFTER"

good bye Oreo

When we took the boys to the fair they each won a fish... Carter named his Oreo. This past week Oreo died... sniff sniff!! So Carter had a lil ceremony for him.. ... I said a short prayer as Carter flushed him down the toilet!! Carter was sad after it all took place and whimpered for him all evening.. so sad. So I did as any mother would do and told him that once Owen's dies we will buy new ones from Wal*Mart. That made him instantly feel better.. I thought I would share Oreo's service

The boys school pictures...

Here is this years school pictures of the boys.. I thought they got "goot"