Fun with Ella

Ok, I meant to post this a few days ago but better late than never. We got to see Sara and Ella briefly a weekend ago. Here are some pictures of Ella playing with some of the toys we still have around.

Birthday greetings heading to Charlottesville

Just giving a HAPPY BIRTHDAY shoutout today to my longtime friend Karen. Have a great day... LYLAS!!!!

So far, so good

The kids have all settled in the new school year and so far, all is well. Matthew is off to a good start in his first taste of high school. An A in math and B in English is a nice change of pace indeed. I warned Matthew that if he kept it up, he might end up on honor roll, and then would he do? Matthew just grinned at that. (if only he was that way at home) He's even made a couple friends at lunch and in class, and his resource teacher is really great. I talked to him for quite a while during open house and he's definitely going to have Matthew's back for the next 4 years. The guy grew up in Ogdensburg, so we got to chat about the north country. Kristen has made a ton of friends since we got here, so she's doing well in the middle school. Alice did have to change schools since our base school was different than when we were in the apartment, but so far, she is doing well and she likes it there. We definitely ended up with a good school situation.

We got to be adults again!

Thanks to St. Maria (my awesome sister)and Robert, Chris and I got to take a weekend trip that didn't involve kids or relatives for the first time ever. Alice called it our honeymoon... :-)(I suppose you could call it that since we chose to buy our first house instead of taking one right after we got married) We drove to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, which was about 3 1/2 hours from home for us. It was really fun. I'd been able to score cheap accomodations so that freed up more money for fun. It was not fancy like the hotel we stayed at in the Chicago area when Diana got married, but the rooms were clean and we slept well, and the beds didn't have coin slots attached to them. :-)

We also scored what for right now, counted as cheap gas.

We ate lunch one of the days at a tavern in the town. The food was pretty good and everyone who works in town, dresses up like the 1700's. It was a fun atmosphere.

I like this photo in particular


It was a cool place and I hadn't been there since I was 8 or 9. There is a lot of history in Virginia and I could very easily become a history junkie. It is a great place to take kids (even though we didn't!) and a great "living" history lesson.

The second day we went into town a while more, then headed to the local winery for a tour. There was a tavern on site so we ate lunch there, then headed in for the tour. It was pretty interesting and we learned some stuff about winemaking. We got to taste 7 different wines (good thing I ate, but even still I was buzzed after the first 6 tastes!). We bought a few bottles to take home with us.

It was a really fun weekend and it let us forget all the trouble at home. I care about Maria too much, so we did opt to return home, :-) but hopefully we won't have to wait another 15 years to get adult time again.

Oh Happy Day!!!! I got paroled!!

Today was the first day of school!!! Matthew started high school today and so far, so good. He got to take the bus this morning for being snotty and disrespectful, which for him was a very uncivilized 6:30 am. I've never known anyone who can sleep through almost 10 minutes of a buzzer alarm clock, but Matthew sure can! It took me a while to wake him up. Kristen got her bus at 7:30 and Alice around 8. Now that I know the timing, I can safely be nice to Matthew and drive him in the mornings, which will mean him waking up at 6 instead of 5:40. I reserve the right to make him catch the bus in the future, though.

Now, I can use my countdown for other important matters, like a certain football game in Pittsburgh the Sunday before Halloween!!!

Boston/Styx

I'm a little late posting this, but Maria and I drove to Roanoke Rapids, NC, for the Boston/Styx concert. I have some of Boston's music, but the real reason for us going is Tommy Shaw, Maria's other "true love". She scored 3rd row seats, which is the closest I've ever sat for any concert, so that was really cool. Note to Carolina Crossroads, you could streamline the process if you'd combine the wrist bracelets that mark which section a ticketholder belongs in with the security/ticket taking. That would have been the efficient way to do it. But, no, they did the wristbands at the gated sections, which backed us up in lines long enough that we weren't yet in our seats when Styx came on.

I have to say, Styx put on an excellent show. I know very few of their songs, but by the time they were done, they'd found themselves a new fan, so I will be looking to score a CD soon. Maria got her Tommy fix and I took lots of pictures and a few short video clips. Here are a couple photos. Maria, these are for you...




Boston came on second and it was interesting to find out if they'd sound really different, since their lead singer died last year. They did sound a little different, but one of their newer members sounded very much like the guy. He was a guy that Boston found from watching a video clip on YouTube. This guy grew up listening and singing to their music and is taking a leave of absence from Home Depot to tour with the band. Very interesting backstory. Boston also has a chick guitarist, which I never knew, and she was really good. Anyway, they sounded good, but I actually thought Styx had a better show overall.




It was a great night and a lot of fun. Dare I say that I might be getting a concertgoing itch now? Although, Maria could make even a trip to Home Depot entertaining. She's definitely my fun buddy!

another great ending to a day, more gifts!

I got another fabulous present this evening when Will was able to stop by our house between work duties. My car is now classied up with some Steelers fuzzy dice, which are so festive hanging from my rear view mirror. (I'll have to add a picture of those tomorrow) Thanks, Will! You are the best!



.....and here we are with the dice....so cool!!!

Happy birthday, to me..(yesterday, that is)

This is how I had to earn my birthday present extraordinaire...

...then came the cake....



.....and the gift extraordinaire...



...out on the town that night...

Happy Birthday, Kristen!!!

My lovely daughter turned 12 today! Kristen had a couple friends over for dinner and tonight are at the roller skating rink, the favorite destination for preteens around here. Earlier in the day, my dad took her out to lunch and a little shopping for her gift.

Since Kristen already got her gift from us last week, in the form of the concert, today was more low key. But she is happy today, which is a gift in of itself (to me, anyway).

Kristen's early birthday gift

A couple days ago, I took Kristen to her first concert for her birthday. It was Avril Lavigne and the Jonas Brothers. We got there really early, which was a good thing, because it was packed and we were surrounded by screaming,rabid teens and preteens, all swooning over the Jonas Brothers. (they are 3 teenaged brothers, for those who don't know who they are, and if you don't ever watch Disney channel, you might not). I saw countless handmade shirts professing their love for one brother or another. I figured they will have to live in Utah or Montana or whereever it is that allows multiple wives, because from the shirts I saw, and various text messages that were displayed on the big screens before the show, these boys probably have almost 100 'wives' each. :-)

The opening act was by another girl who Disney is pimping out for exposure since she starred in a Disney movie recently on tv, Demi Lovato. She sang 6 songs, only one of which I could actually understand what she was singing. Not so impressive but I feel compelled to cut her some slack since she's starting out and therefore doesn't have much material. Either way, that was about 20 minutes, followed by another 15 to 20 minutes of changing up the set.

Avril came on next and she was a drastic improvement. I knew most of her songs that she sang since Kristen has all her CD's, so I've heard them before. She did a good job and the crowd was much more into her. That was a little over an hour, I believe.

There was a longer wait while they broke down her set. As I mentioned before, there were big screens and they kept flashing various text messages that people sent in to whatever number. Many were shoutouts to friends, but there were also many that suggested "scream if you love (insert jonas brother name here)". And people did scream. I was rather amused by it, thinking lab rats responding to commands. There were about 3 that stuck in my mind. One was "scream if you love cheese." huh? Then there was "oink like a pig if Nick's the one you dig". I didn't hear many takers for that particular display of affection. My personal favorite was "scream if you think your mom is hot". Um, yeah. I highly doubt that there were going to be any kids out there who thought "yeah, my mom is really hot!" not so much...

I have to say, the Jonas brothers put on a really good show. Their special effects were really good, with the lights and pyrotechnics and moving platforms. They had a good interaction with the audience. I'm not likely to run out and buy their music, but I did like a few of their songs and whether you're a fan of their music or not, they put on a good performance. They also let the fans sign the outside of their tour bus. Kristen did not sign it since I didn't have a sharpie in my purse, but I got a picture of her standing in front of the bus. (taken on the cell phone so I don't know how to post it here). At any rate, I enjoyed the concert more than I figured I would and Kristen had a great time, so it was a win win situation.

And the new seeker is.....

That would be me. I have spent considerable time today vacuuming up fruit flies. They are too fast to smush with a napkin and I found them hanging out on surfaces that you wouldn't expect. Like my bathroom, for example. You would think that I use ripe fruit to polish the mirrors and doors. So I stood there with the vacuum hose in my hand, carefully stalking these pesky, tiny bugs. Tracking them visually when they fly around. Perhaps I should lend my talents to Gryffindor as Harry Potter's backup, except for the fact that I can't fly on a broomstick. Although, with the mood that my kids put me in, me on a broomstick might not be too big of a stretch. I have not yet figured out where they are reproducing, but in the meantime, I am armed, will vacuum........

feeling more at home

I've been finally hanging up more photos on the walls and it really has made more of the house feel like home. I especially like the one of Grandma's quilt and the Davies pictures I hung around it. I'm very proud of my family tree.