City of Cars by Owen Sensenig

Owen choose to do the schools science fair this year... He was able to choose between a project or a collection. He picked the collection and of course he done Cars.. surprise. I was just that .. surprised when we counted and found out that he has 102! no wonder why i felt like i was seeing them everywhere!
I told Owen that next year he wont be allowed to do this because I felt like I was pulling his teeth on this project.. i had to basically give him the answer on how to do this thing in a question form and hope that he answered correctly! I felt like I was doing most of the work and I didn't want his project to be the one that everyone knew was done by the parent and not the student.. Nope that was Owen.. it was the brothers that he was sandwiched between. I wish i would have taken a picture of their displays.. Amazingly the two looked almost identical but one was on dinosaurs and the other just animals!
anyway, I talked to a mother from Owen's class and found that she had the same problem with her daughter( the pulling teeth part. it was nice to know that I wasn't the only parent going through that!
Owen received a 5$ gift card to DQ and a ribbon of participation!

Callie's revamped room

So after Callie started ripping wallpaper off Jason & I talked about what we wanted to do about it. We first wanted to put bead board on it but the cost wasn't feasible for us.. around $120. So we thought we would just paint it.. but what color? We both said brown at the same time! It cost us around $40.00 to revamp the whole room.. sure beats $120. The paper ripped off nicely and the sticky backing wasn't too difficult either.. a little bit of water and it came right off. I started working on her room last Monday and it was finished completely this Monday... that included a new bow board,redoing her letters, and her lamp shade.
The plaque above her bed reads:: the princess sleeps here

I made her beautiful curtains.. i think they pull the whole room together

her new bow board .. its brown with pink ribbon.. kinda bland but still looks nice!

Her name redone

the veiw from the hallway!

Oh no she didn't!!

Since we moved Callie into her big girl bed she now enjoys being in her room to play more.. which normally would be a good thing, right?? WRONG!! She has discovered the wallpaper and is now tearing it off! She started doing this when she was still in her crib so i just pulled the crib away from the wall during nap & bedtime. But now she has free roam to do as her Lil heart desires!! Doesn't' she know it is going to affect the overall PRINCESS look of her room by tearing off that beautiful paper? Does she even care?? I doubt it!!!!!!
It started off in one spot and then 2.. then 3 .. i think we are now up to 5 different spots. That Lil stinker!

Big Girl Bed

Yesterday, Jason and I decided to put Callie in her big girl bed! She was tickled to have so much bed! She was very entertaining to watch once we got the bed up and put together! She would climb up on it and bounce around... too cute!! I asked her if she likes her new big girl bed and she said uh huh !! I had bought the head & foot board at a yard sale this past summer for $8.00! It was very nasty but with some purple power and the pressure washer it came clean. We still need to paint it but that will have to wait until spring. Jason will use the Wagner and the pale pink that we used in her room.. it is almost white.. just a hint of pink! I found her bedding at Target... the comforter was on clearance for $20.00 and the sheets were $15.00 and they go with her room perfectly!
She went to bed perfectly in it. I was afraid of how she would do.. she was so excited that she barely tolerated letting me put her in jammies. Nap time was a bit different. I knew she was tired but she kept climbing out of her bed and playing. I kept with it and would go in there and tell her it's nap time, not play time. Put her back in her bed and tell her to have a good nap! I guess I done this about 12 times or so.. I waited by her door with it just barely open, enough for me to peek in.. It went fairly well I thought... I hope it gets a bit better each time!

Here is Callie sitting on "her" chair by her new bed!


She got this cute lil vanity for Christmas and LOVES IT!! She is always playing with it!



Callie, Carter, Sadie(the dog) & Lacey(her cousin)


This is the cute lil kitchen that Callie got from "Santa"

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!