special visitors

On Thursday, two of my sisters (and my niece Alicia) came from Michigan to visit me. On Thursday evening, we went to Babushkas Polish restaurant in Clintonville. I love that place. It is just like my mom's Polish cooking. Here are some pictures from the visit with my sissy's.






After our trip to Babushkas, we headed to my favorite thrift store. While waiting in line, Elliott loves to test out all of the silly glasses.






We had fun looking at Scrapbooks of my kiddos. My sister Susan about peed her pants when she came across a scrapbook page of our old guinea pig's funeral. It was so funny to see her expression of Stu in his "casket" the boys made for him. Only I will document such an event, right? Susan, this picture is for you. Download it and save it as your background on your computer...lol

Rest assured, Stu lived a very full and spoiled life.

My "good finds" include an entire Thomas the tank train set for a whopping 3 bucks (not the lead tainted version), a little tykes dollhouse AND furniture (for all of Elliott's girlfriends when they have play dates) for a crazy price of 5 dollars, a KRUPS coffee/machine for 5 bucks (the espresso part was clogged up with a calcium deposit but with a little elbow grease I fixed the problem), and a real black pearl necklace for 2 dollars!!! It is just beautiful. It needs to be restrung, but matches the black pearl earings got for me while he visited Japan a few years back.

And of course, I made plenty of Lattes.

Thanks for the visit ladies!

A neighborhood get together.

I took Pharaoh in tonight. He layed in my arms while the vet administered the sleepy medicine. When we came home I got the boys from their neighborhood friends to bury Pharaoh. Little did I know that the entire group of neighborhood kids were following closely behind to get in on the burial service. Rest in Peace my feline friend. I will miss snuggling with me tonight but will not miss the piles of poop you have left for me all week.

Pharoah

About 1 year ago, our vet told us that Pharaoh (age 13) had a mass in his tummy area. We were given an option to have an ultrasound to find out what exactly it was, but we chose not to have it and let nature take it's course. For the last week, we have been finding piles of poo placed throughout the house. The vet told us this would eventually happen for the mass would grow and push against the bowles or bladder. So, I called the vet today to see if this is the begininning of the end for him. He assured me that I was making the right decision and that it is a good call on my part. I was actually furious with him for pooing on my floor and on the beds prior to this phonecall. Now, I know for sure there is a reason for his behavior. This will be my beloved buddy's last picture.
I am the only one he interacts with, so this is pretty hard for me. We are taking him this evening and will have a burial when I return home. Sad day for me, sad day indeed.

Other posts about Pharaoh...
This one

This one

Curls

This little boy gets away with lots of things. I have a hard time disciplining him, those curls just seem to soften me up.

projects!

I have an ongoing list of projects in my head. Not like you want to know what I am up to, but here is one of them.
I have 3 boxes of empty wine bottles from Craigslist that I plan to make a garden project with. Here are the 2 ideas that I have thought about. I am leaning toward the edging though. What are your thoughts?

Skateboard headboard

Thanks again to Wally at Old Skool Skateshop in Westerville, a headboard for Andrew's skateboard room is in the making! Aaron actually has all of the decks in the back of his car so we couldn't complete the entire project on this beautiful day. Amazing what a couple of pieces of wood with some skateboards screwed onto them will do to tidy up and complete his room. This project cost about $7.00total to make (pieces of wood, I already had the screws, Wally provided the old decks). This entire piece will then be drilled into some studs in the wall behind his bed.

St. Patty's Day

I am menu planning for St. Patty's day. I love this stinkin Holiday! For some odd reason I find great delight in preparing green food (which results in green waste that makes my boys crazy excited) on this day. When the boys were smaller, Larry the leprechaun would come to visit and play tricks on us. I think yal remember the video of Larry sticking the Skateboard up in the tree or when Larry turned the toilet water green. Silly Larry.

This year, this is what I have planned.
Let's start with Dessert

Yeah, totally rad right??

The main attraction...a cheesy fondue! My kids are super picky, so we will most likely have lots of sausage and tortilla chips, and tortillas.


To wash it all down...


Of course, Aaron and I will enjoy some of this later in the evening...

agree to disagree

In the last few weeks, I have had had the opportunity to have 2 girls weekends thanks to my wonderful hubby! The first was a few weeks ago when I went on a scrap booking retreat. This is a time for me to get caught up on all of my scrapbooks for the boys. This particular group of ladies involved one of my closest friends and then about 6 others that I meet up with at scrapbook crops. There were also some new people there that I have never met. This last weekend I went with a group of close friends from our couple's bible study and playgroup. I see these friends on a weekly basis, sometimes 2 times per week.
Of the 2 groups, not one person was the same as me (PHEW...I can be a little messed up sometimes). Our childhoods weren't the same, our family life and the way we approach parenting is so different. In the end, we are all wonderful people that turned out pretty good regardless of the paths we have been down. We love our kids, we love our families, we are all fabulous cooks and most importantly...we love our God!

Over the last 2 months, I have had reservations about contributing to conversations in large groups involving the various social issues that fall in the grey area. First of all, I have an attention span of a pea and secondly I feel when discussing these things we form somewhat harsh feelings to those who don't agree with us or don't see eye to eye. I am not saying that it isn't healthy to have intelligent conversations with one another but most of the time it ended up with me walking away a little bitter towards another person. I know if this happens to me, it must happen to others. I feel as if the second part of the greatest commandment 'Love your neighbor as yourself' is being compromised when I would walk away a little irritated. I have decided for the time being until I can sort out some things that I am happy to listen and to agree to disagree.

On a lighter note, we woke up with 30 baby Molly's in our fish tank! It was a beautiful sight for me and for the boys. Their little hearts just melted when they saw the babies. These little guys are super cute. We wont have to worry about stocking our tank for quite sometime.

What's lurking under the soil?

I quit facebook for Lent so therefore I will be blogging more the next 40 days. I have this unhealthy need to be in front of the computer though. It is strange how I thought something so casual as facebook is more like a habit. It only took me a day to realize it. Forgive me if I write about nonsense.
Anyhow...
Can I just say that I am soooo not thrilled about what will be popping up in our flower beds this year?!?. From what I heard from the neighbors, the previous owners of this house were crazy gardeners and kept the yard pristine. I am not much of a pristine type of person. It came to the point at my old house that I loved to look at the flowers but I hated (yes, hate is a strong word) tending to them. I guess when you have kids and there are so many things to tend to with them, flowers just don't seem that important.
As far as our yard goes, we had an Ash tree cut down this last week. In addition, we had the rest of our trees trimmed. We also had a light pole (that was in the middle of the yard) taken out. Now, we have an open area for the boys to play soccer and run around. I mean, who really needs 9 large trees in their backyard anyway?
Oh, check this out.

We have a plum tree right off our patio (shown above). It is such a nice little tree. In November, we noticed this fungus that looks like each branch is covered in bird poop. I have a feeling we are going to have to cut it down. This makes me sad. sad. sad.

I will soon be starting Owen's bedroom. This is what we have planned so far. He wants electric blue walls with a checker board pattern across the top of his walls. We have been looking everywhere for a bedding set. Over Christmas, I ordered something online and noticed a bedding set that looked like something Owen would choose. Of course, it was at Walmart. I hate going in there but because I love my son so much, I got the set for him. We plan to somehow make this a break dancing room, but I am clueless. Many of my friends have been saving some of their old Cd's to create some kind of wall or piece of furniture. Like I said, I have no clue. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I think once we get all of the techno lights up, it may be just what he has envisioned.

The Arnold

Andrew competed in the skate competition at the Arnold Fest. He ended up placing
3rd in the beginner competition. There were a total of 32 kids at that level. He was one proud 10 year old.

Andrew with Wally Andrew with his prize...a new board! Funny thing is the poor kid just bought a board with his Christmas money
Later that night, I took the boys back to watch the pro-skaters strut their stuff. I could watch this level of skating for hours on end. I just don't get how these big guys can stay on a little board with wheels and do the moves they do. The boys got to see the Blueprint riders again. Blueprint is a skate company for those of you that have no clue what I am talking about. Since last year, the Blueprint riders have gained a major celebrity status with Andrew. When they saw Andrew, they remembered him from last year which made him smile from ear to ear.