A Pepsi and Ice Cream Run....

My husband often tells me that I just want to use him as my personal chauffeur...but he is wrong, I will use anyone to drive me around, not just him! (-:

My 17 year old, newly driving neighbor, Seth, was talking to me on the computer when he mentioned that he had just came back from the custard stand. I immediately started in on him as to why he didn't bring me anything back.

After bantering with him for a few minutes, I convinced him to take me to the custard stand so I could have some ice cream. He was bored anyway so this gave him something to do, and this way I could make sure his driving skills were up to par. I mean ice cream is ICE CREAM...and Seth is a budding photographer so we had a lot to talk about.

Here he comes....I really didn't think he would. (-:

Seth's mother should be proud! I tried to distract Seth while driving by taking a 100 pictures of him, and he was VERY focused. Way to go Seth! (-:

And not only did he take me for ice cream, but he also ran me to the convenience store for another necessity. PEPSI.

IT DOESN'T GET MUCH BETTER THAN PEPSI AND ICE CREAM!

Seth was an excellent driver, and we had a great time catching up.

Seth, I'll let you take me to the custard stand anytime.

Easter Sunday

Bear with me while I try to update my blog with some back stories. I enjoy blogging life events because my eventual goal is to have this blog printed into a book for the kids documenting their lives....

Easter Sunday, we went to my Aunt Donna and Uncle Bruce's house for Easter with my dad's side of the family, so here are some photos from our day.

This year, the Easter Bunny went to his girlfriend's house so he didn't make an appearance as he had in the previous years. That didn't stop the kids from asking a zillion times if he was coming....

Here is the Easter Bunny during his appearance from last year....

Here's Meeper and I giving him some lovin'....

which is probably why he wouldn't come back this year....(-:

Anyway, we did the Easter Egg hunt without the Easter Bunny, and the kids made out just fine. Plenty of candy for the parents kids.

Michael looking so grown up in his suit...I can't believe he is going to be 13 this year!

But he still acts like a child most of the time. (-:


Here is my brother holding my nephew, Baby James. Obviously James wasn't too interested in his first Easter.

Here is my grandmom all dressed up in Ally's finery. A nice hat and her best pocketbook.

Then for laughs, we got my cousin Justin to get into his Easter best.

This year was a hard Easter for us being it was the first Easter without my grandfather. We all managed to get through it, and have a good time, but he was definately missed terribly. As the afternoon began to wind down, my dad, mom, my grandmom and I went to my grandfather's grave to plant a flower.

Here's my grandparents on Easter 2008.

But we know my grandfather was definately with us in spirit, and he left us with lots and lots of great Easter memories.

As Michael just told me tonight, "his great grandfather was one smart guy".

I couldn't agree more. (-;

GIRLS NIGHT OUT!

I am really LOVING getting out of the house on a semi regular basis for a Girls Night Out. Our last get together was just my cousin Meeper, her cousin Wendy and I, but we had a blast!! We went to an Italian Restaurant called DiPaolo's. My husband and I love this restaurant, but typically only get there once a year because it can be pricey.

So who knew of Friday nights that they serve a FREE buffet, and have 1/2 off drinks?! Making this a very AFFORDABLE Girls Night out! I keep telling my husband that this would be a nice cheap date, but I don't think he is getting the hints. )-:

Surprisingly the buffet was quite plentiful. I had expected it to be skimpy since it was free, but it actually had quite the variety of food. I have to say I was impressed, and it was really good.

We had a great time catching up with Wendy. She is a barrel of laughs! We even made some prank calls to keep the entertainment going afterwards....okay, we didn't, but Wendy did!

We have had a lot of interest in others wanting to join us so we are hoping to have a huge Girls Night Out in the next month or two. Stay tuned...Mamma needs a break!

A Grandfather's gift to his Grandson. (-:

Sometimes I think the best gift you can give a child is your time....

For the past year, my dad decided to take my 12 year old, Michael, under his wing and teach him things he thought he should know. They have worked on many projects together, from mechanical things, a bicycle rebuild, to woodworking....a little bit of everything.

Their latest project was a bat house for bats to live in during the day while they are sleeping.

So here is my son, the woodworker, making the bat house.

Pictures are courtesy of my dad (and probably my mom).

Michael's been very proud of this project as well as the others. He always comes home excited to tell me the progress that they have made on what they are working on.

I think that the time they have been spending together is one of the best gifts Michael has ever recieved, and I am sure that he will always remember and appreciate it. (-:

Easter Saturday

We tend to celebrate holidays for a whole weekend since both my mom and dad's families have large family gatherings. My mom's side typically does their celebrating on the Saturday nearest the holiday, while my dad's side always does the day of the holiday.

So to celebrate Easter with my mom's family, we had a delicious dinner at my grandparents farm. My Aunt and Uncle made a surprise appearance...we didn't think they would make it, but it was a GREAT surprise. It's always nice to have a good turnout!

Here is my daughter sucking up to my grandparents because they are allowing her to eat all the cheese she can stuff in her mouth. Aren't grandparents suppose to spoil their grandkids? They spoiled me so I can't complain!

(My grandma always let me and my brother have chocolate ice cream for breakfast with lots and lots of chocolate sprinkles whenever we spent the night...sssshhh, don't tell my parents!)

We did all the fun things that we usually do at my grandparent's farm like climb trees, and take walks. Okay, I didn't climb any trees this year...and I walked half of the "family" walk cause the wind was whipping.

My nephew, Colt, climbed a tree-like bush.

Ally walked the whole walk...or I should say, Ally made sure her daddy walked the whole walk so she could ride his shoulders if need be. As you can see the wind was getting to her too, but she was all about staying the course while her mom bolted away back to the refuge of the house.

Here is a picture of my sister in law with my youngest nephew James.

Sadly I got no pictures of Collin and his girlfriend as she didn't get there until late. Michael also dodged getting his picture taken, but I made up for that on Easter Day.

I also didn't get a picture of the "evil" sheep that Colt was talking about to his mom last night! Something he learned about at our get together! Hope he isn't having nightmares! (-:

We are all so thankful....

Many of you are aware of this, but I know some of you might not have heard, and we have been starting to hear rumors of what happened that aren't true.

My stepson, Collin, was in a minor "fender bender" on Wednesday in his car. If you live around here, you know that the weather on Wednesday was horrible....tons of rain. It was a very dreary day.

Collin had stayed after school for a study group for an upcoming AP test. Because of a power outage in the area, including the school, the group had to disperse earlier than expected. One of the girls, a friend of his, needed a ride home so Collin agreed to take her home.

When Collin went to make a turn at an intersection, his car hydroplaned into an electrical box (not a telephone pole as we have been hearing) that controls the traffic light, pretty much destroying this box, and therefore the light no longer worked. Collin called us immediately unsure of what to do, and I told him to call 911. I had my husband rush up there as soon as I could get ahold of him since I was babysitting and he was closer since he was at work.

Thankfully neither Collin nor the passenger was hurt badly. The passenger has complained of a sore back, but she is feeling better as of today. Collin was really shook up...but he seems better, and we have been getting him back out driving before his fear increases...working him back into it slowly, but surely.

I spoke to the police officer first at the scene, and he feels this was definately related to the road conditions (the road was just repaved and slick plus we had a lot of rain that day on top of that).

His car was damaged, and the jury is out on just how bad that is....Collin is shaken, but physically fine.

Thanks to everyone who has shown concern! We appreciate your good thoughts and well wishes! (-:

We are all so thankful that no one was seriously injured....

Once Upon a Time....

Once Upon a time, there lived a beautiful little princess in a somewhat humble dwelling. Her mommy told her that today was a very special day...her daddy was born this day so it was his 39th Birthday. Princess Ally was very excited and asked if she might be able to bake her daddy a delicious cake?

"Sure", said her mommy, "He would love that!" Princess Ally picked out a chocolate cake just for him. "Chocolate is my daddy's favorite!!!" , she exclaimed. (it's actually not)

The princess and her mommy added all the ingredients and even stirred in an extra helping of love to make the cake as tasty as possible. It was put in the oven, and the princess went outside with a little prince that was visiting that day and her daddy. They played and played and played outside in the gorgeous weather working up an appetite...meanwhile the mommy took the cakes out of the oven and left them on the stove so they could cool.

Awhile later, Daddy brought in the two young royals, but he proceeded past the kitchen to find the mommy while the two starving children marveled over the cake as it sat there looking so scrumptious. As soon as Daddy was out of view, the princess and her little prince friend decided it wouldn't hurt to dig out some of the middle of the cake....who would notice? After all, Ally did make the cake herself so it was technically her cake.

After more and more digging, the princess with her tummy full could no longer contain herself. She overheard her dad talking about pies, and ran out to join the conversation blurting out..."I just stuck my finger in the pie" obviously meaning the chocolate cake that was smeared across her face.

The little princess and her accomplice were banished from the kitchen kingdom forever and sent to reflect on how delicious that cake was what they did wrong!

Clearly it is better to beg forgiveness with full bellies than it is to ask permission!

(A motto the author of this story has been known to use frequently!)

And that extra special daddy was left without a birthday cake because the palace refrigerator was empty no more eggs.

So Daddy maybe you'll get a birthday cake made by your wife tomorrow because obviously today's cake was made for a

beautiful princess (who loves chocolate) and her handsome prince friend!

TGIF - Friday Fill In's

And...here we go!
1. Join me in a little joke.
2. Put a little thankfulness in your day!
3. Happiness is being with my family.
4. Anxious and confused.
5. I'm waiting for us to be debt free...and waiting and waiting.
6. Reese peanut butter eggs, Pepsi and Ice Cream is are hard to resist.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to some down time while my hubby works on his 39th birthday )-: , tomorrow my plans include going to breakfast with JoAnn and Shani (long overdue!) then spending the day with my family to celebrate Fred's birthday and Sunday, I want to play it by ear!

Have a great weekend!

The FINAL CAKE DECORATING CLASS

The Monday before Easter, we had our very last cake decorating class. We were all sad to see it come to an end...I'll miss our Monday nights out.

So here is the teachers finished example....

Since it was the week before Easter, our teacher was kind enough to teach us the basketweave technique. Here is my cake after performing the technique, its quite easy with pretty dramatic results. Finally something I can do...(-:

Here is Meeper getting advice from the expert....

So I was off to a really great start, I was feeling confident that this Bunny cake was going to be a "piece of cake". And that is when it happened....Diaster!

Thanks Meeper for the doofus picture of me licking my fingers because my "bunny" suffered from some major issues and sometimes you just have to make the most of them...like be thankful for the icing.....umm let's just say he was very sick.

Cause he wasn't suppose to look like this....

So Meeper had a good laugh over my bunny....and she laughed and she laughed.....

And then she had to drive us home...

and I someone had to hold her "bunny" cake..

And we chatted all the way to my house and while we talked, we both heard a large 'PLOP"

And suddenly a messed up cake wasn't so funny anymore...

or maybe it was FREAKIN HILARIOUS!!!

And what made it even better....

I got to walk away from the diaster

while almost peeing my pants, I was laughing so hard!

Here's a picture of my classmates, and I miss them already. (-:

Happy 3rd Birthday Colt!

My little BIG nephew Colt turned 3 last Thursday....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLT!!!

Aunt Tonie LOVES ya! (-;