This weekend was my annual Spring beach trip. We try to go at least twice a year. Once in the spring and once in the fall. It is a lot of fun and often times my face hurts from laughing soo much. I do wish i had a few more friends that don't smoke as I really was feeling the effects from hanging with a half a dozen smokers this weekend. I think this is because I had pnemonia this fall, but I can't be certain.

1. My therapist will likely want me to talk about any unresolved issues I have with my mother. My girlfriends already know them.
2. My therapist might frown on going away on Mother's Day weekend...my friends couldn't wait.
3. My therapist only offers water to drink and I like wine.
4. My therapist has a windowless office and the beach house has, well, the ocean.
5. My therapist likes carpeting and I like sand.
6. My therapist has never made anyone laugh but my sister makes everyone laugh.
7. My therapist never plays good music, only dry office music. Nothing like "All I want to do is make love to you"...and "Does he love you.
8. My therapist never lets me vacumme the bugs off the ceiling.
9. My therapist has no appreciation for the royal wedding, unlike the fondness my girlfriends share.
10. My therapist has never offers me ice cream cake.

It's time to start baseball.  Son is playing t-ball again this year.  It's his last season and then next year he will move up to C ball.  Friday was his first practice and it was 38 degrees.  Needless to say, we didn't really practice.  We just forked over fundraiser money and agreed to meet the following week.

Looks like Little G might be the oldest on the team.  Seems like there may be a lot of newbies.  The sad part about that is we are practicing in a field.  Not a baseball field.  Just a field.  It's kind of hard to teach little kids how to run to to first base and stay in the baseline when there is no first base or baseline. 

I'm excited that we are on the Pittsburgh Pirates this year but am confused as to why the coach thinks that they wear yellow shirts.  I'm that's my neck of the words and I'm certain that they don't wear yellow.




Of course, we already own gray pants and white pants and his coach wants him to wear black pants.  I suppose I could have guessed that one.

Here's hoping the weather warms up a little this week so baseball becomes a little less painful.

Saturday and Sunday were low key days which is great because next week they both look crazy busy.  I finished the first major edit on my book.  Still not sure what, if anything, I'm going to do with it.  I've taken to reading a lot of teen fiction lately and a lot of times I find myself wondering how did this person get their book published.  I mean, let's be honest, unless you have an in, it's hard to get even a look.

Knowing that is a bit depressing.

Here's hoping you had a fantastic weekend.

I had a lot of trouble with patience this weekend.   For multiple reason, I was short-tempered and irritated.  Since making a list always makes me feel better, I thought I'd compile in list format what had me irked this weekend.

• Germs. Although I realize it is unreasonable to be mad at a virus, I was particularly irritated with the one that made my oldest daughter sick on her birthday.
• Fans.  Daughter cheered at a basketball tournament this weekend and some of the parents of the 5th and 6th grade boys should be ashamed of themselves.  Their behavior was so appalling that I may have to save the details for a blog post of its own.
• Hormones.  I know, its kind of a chick cop-out, but I'm telling you I think I had a legal defense this weekend.
• Banquets.  It was my son's first boy scout banquet this weekend.  He's 7.  I figured it would be about 1 1/2 hours.  3 1/2 hours later
• Cakes.  My son needed to make a cake for the banquet.  It would either be auctioned off or put in a cake walk.  Really?  He's 7.  Why does he have to make a cake the same weekend I have to make a cake for oldest?
• Silent auctions.  My MIL thought it was just a donation sheet and she put down the winning bid on the cake that my son brought.  Seriously?  Did we just buy the cake, make the cake and then buy the cake back?  I have another cake at home!
• Sighing.  People who sigh loudly rather than tell you that you are irritating them irritate me.  We went to our school musical this weekend.  We paid just as much for our seats as the little old bat behind us.  The fact that my husband is 6'2 and my son is a squirmy little boy who loves to sing along is no reason to sigh. 
• Volunteers.  Why is it that my husband had to set up for the boy scout banquet, provide multiple dishes for the pot luck and help tear down from the banquet?  I mean there were over 100 people there.
• Cake walks.  Do you know what this is?  It's musical chairs more or less and if you "win" guess what you get?  A cake.  Guess who was one of the winners?  Middle daughter.

Does anyone want to come over for cake?

Oldest G turns 12 on Thursday.  Just typing that makes me feel a little old.  For her birthday, we decided to go to a not-to-far-away indoor water park and spend the night.  She was allowed to bring a friend but unfortunately her friend got sick and wasn't able to join us.  Big G was only bummed a short while and quickly made a friend at the park.



Here is middle G crossing these crazy monkey bar things the had.  You could tramp on the floating alligator pieces, but they actually made it harder.  It was fun to watch the kids try this but I was too chicken to give it a go.  No upper body strength.




Here's middle G on the dolphin in the middle of the pool.  We had a good time.  The sign out front was advertising 84 degrees in our indoor water park...I beg to differ.  Maybe the air temp was but the water wasn't even close! 

Which explains why I spent most of my time in the jacuzzi. 

Speaking of the weather I may have to write another open letter to Mother Nature.  On Friday it was 71 degrees here and I was thinking about sending her some fan mail.  Today...it's 27 and we are expecting 8-10 inches of snow. 

If we don't have school tomorrow then we have to tack this snow day onto the end of the year and I'm not happy about that.  Tacking days on means less days at the pool for me and quite frankly that's gonna annoy me.

Sweet Mother Nature...what's the problem?  The groundhog said early spring.  Can't we all just get along?

We watched our beloved Steelers come from behind to beat the Baltimore Ravens....my least favorite NFL team of all times.  That was my Superbowl so I don't even care if we lose next week.  The Ravens aren't in the Superbowl and quite frankly that is all the matters.





We celebrated my niece's 7th birthday at a bowling alley.  Noisy party but a lot of fun.  I am a much better bowler on the Wii than I am in real life. 

As promised, here's my hippie picture. I think I may have missed my calling.
After our soccer game we drove about two hours for a family wedding. My husband's cousin got married in the mountains near this beautiful lake. The setting was gorgeous.

Dear Weekend,

Thank you for the beautiful fall weather.  I so enjoyed the crisp morning air and the gentle afternoon breeze. The fam and I had fun at the Ren Fair though I'm still not sure this is a family event.  Every time we go, I feel like I can no longer be surprised by people but then alas I am surprised.

We had a harried weekend filled with soccer, musicals and football.

On Friday, hubby and I went to see the high school game.  It started off pretty well, but then ended in a pounding.  We lost 40-13.

Saturday was a whirlwind.  I had to take Middle G to the doctors office to have some weird mouth sore of hers looked at. 

Then we had to leave shortly after lunch to get to her soccer game which was in BFE.  In case you were wondering we lost....AGAIN.  This time 8-0.

After that, the in-laws, the kids and hubby and I went to a sight-and-sound theatre to see a performance of Joseph.  It was really good, but a little long for the younger two kids.  Oldest really enjoyed it.

It started at 4:15 but wasn't over to close to 7 and we were all starving.  I don't know about you but I don't do well when I'm hungry.  I'm easily annoyed and quick to snap.

That evening we watched Penn State lose to Iowa.  Not a great football weekend.

Sunday I scrap booked a little and finished making Little Gs birthday invites.  I'll post a picture of them later this week.  He is having a dog birthday party.

We watched the Steelers gift wrap the football game and hand it over to the Ravens.  I HATE the Ravens.

Here's hoping you had a great weekend.

~Kisa

After a week of questionable weather, coupled with the start of school, the kids and I were looking forward to spending a few days at the pool.

Our pool days are numbered with the closing set for next weekend.

Saturday hubby had to put in some hours at work so we went over after lunch.  The water was very cold.  I have to admit that I didn't get in very far before I decided I was significantly cooled.

The kids swam for a while.  Little G has an ugly rash.  I called the doctor and they said it sounds like a "contact dermatitis".  In other words, poison oak, poison sumac, poison ivy....you pick.

The doctor wasn't interested in seeing him because I guess they can't see everyone with a contact dermatitis but still you kind of want them to make an exception for your kid.  He told me if it hadn't improved by Monday to bring him in.

It's kind of ironic that the word for the day in the cafeteria on Friday was allergic reaction and then my kid ended up having one, but other than being itchy and looking a little rough he seems fine.

I'm hoping that it's completely gone by tomorrow morning, however I have my doubts.

Sunday we headed to church and then back to the pool.  My friend B and her husband invited us down for a crab feast and it was delicious.  Unfortunately, Copper the dog hurt his paw on something (possibly a crab shell) and is now quite gimpy.

Here's hoping that he doesn't have to go to the vets later this week.

I really wanted to post some pictures with this post. I accomplished all the items I wanted to accomplish over the weekend but managed to check off my list and even bigger accomplishment!

We got a new van!

I can't begin to tell you how relieved and happy I am about this. Our van has been on life support for more than a month. The alternator and the battery went and the transmission was clinging to life.

I can't wait to show you the awesome red Kia Sedona that we got over the weekend.

I'll also post some pictures of my nephew blowing out the candles on his 3rd birthday cake. I have to say he's pretty cute...

I'm signing off now. After spending nearly 7 hours at the school today and then attending a school board meeting for the newspaper tonight I'm pretty spent. The fact that I have to attend lunch lady training tomorrow with two other districts full of lunch ladies ought to really be a hoot.

All I can say is I can't wait to hear the hour long seminar on diversity. For the life of me, I just can't figure out how you can diversify lunch more than we already do.

I promise to post a What I learned at Lunch Lady training later this week.

Tomorrow pop back over for pics of the van and my cute little nephew. You know you want to so stop pretending that you wish I would have talked less and pictured more.

See ya tomorrow....

8/9/10 isn't today's date so cool.

Okay...enough about that. Here's the weekend update.

We traveled west for the ALS walk. It was a beautiful day. We raised some money in honor of my Aunt who passed away from this terrible disease and we got to visit with each other for a little while.

I think my Aunt Lee would have been happy about that.

I was disappointed that my mother couldn't come but she had to work. Hey mom, if you are reading this, it's always the first Saturday in August and has been for the last five years. Request off for it next year.

This is a picture of me (in the middle) my grandma and my aunt. Of course, two of my kiddos who just can't resist the camera are also in the picture. Don't we look cool in our tye dye?

Here we are at the start of the walk. All of the people in tye dye walked with our team. I think we had about 50.

We had a very busy weekend. Our surprise company arrived around 4 p.m. on Friday. It was nice to see them even if it was only for a short while. They left to visit with their son and DIL around 10:30 a.m.

There DIL can be a real treat so I am hoping and praying that they are having a decent visit. She is one of those people who is extremely intelligent but lacks a lot of common sense.

I was trying to think of how to sum up my weekend, but it's really was neither here nor there so I thought I would post it as some random thoughts.

• I didn't let the car breaking down ruin my evening. My MIL and FIL returned my children home safely. We dropped FIL off with the hubby and the car and MIL and I took all the kids to the pool for the moonlight swim.
• The moon was full and the evening was wonderful.
• The kids fell right to sleep once we got home.
• It was 104 degrees here on Saturday.
• Air conditioning is awesome.
• We went to dinner with hubby's sister and her family and the in-laws for my father-in-law's birthday.
• He turned 65 and he retired earlier this month.
• He seems very happy.
• We came home and had a bowling tournament on the Wii.
• I never laughed so hard.
• My MIL was cracking me up. She kept moving to the side she was throwing the ball on like she was really in an bowling alley.
• Sunday was filled with church activities and a little cookout.
• The in-laws left and I took oldest to camp.
• The van did not break down which is quite note worthy since it was a 3 hour round trip. And as you know I haven't been having much luck with cars or vans lately.
• My mom and my grandma arrived for a visit before I returned home from camp.
• We should open a bed and breakfast.
• and charge extra for the Wii.

Surviving my onslaught of company and actually enjoying myself,

~KISA~

We traveled this weekend back to our hometown to hang with the in laws and to be tortured by a bridal shower.

Am I the only person who doesn't like showers.

I didn't even like my own.

Surely there are more of you out there that aren't fans. Maybe i should start a Facebook group. Anyway, there is a lot of family drama over a lot of these upcoming weddings. Hubby's family will have three this year.

Some of which are for my husband's second cousins, whom we are not close with. Therefore it is not really surprising to us that we aren't invited, however it appears to be somewhat hurtful to hubby's mom that we aren't included.

I don't really know how to convey to her that we really don't mind not having to come.

Plus there seems to be a trend to not invite children. I'm all for a child-free weekend, but if you think I'm going to drive 5 hours for your wedding, get you a gift and pay for child-care (most likely over night childcare) on top of everything else you better be a lot closer to me than just my Facebook friend.

Thoughts?

We are back from a very HOT five days at camp. Seems I may have prayed a little too hard for no rain. Be careful what you ask for.



I did pretty well with accomplishing most of my camping goals. Here's my family picture. It's not awesome, but I like it. We were hiking in a state forest with giant hemlock trees. It was very pretty.

I had a wonderful visit with my sister, H, and our friend G. We had seven kids in the house for four nights and five days and surprisingly everyone got along really well.

Even at Hershey we had a lot of fun and minimal whining. You can't ask for anything more than that.

Above is a picture of me and H with Peppermint Patty!

Believe it or not--Middle G and Aunt H rode this ride. It looked like a big platter of vomit to me but Middle G was all about it. She got off the ride and said "Am I still alive?"

Here's Aunt H, Big G, B, Middle G and C with the Twizzlers character. We just happened to be in the area of the park that all the characters came out to dance in. It was perfect timing and we couldn't of planned it better if we were actually trying to?

The drowned rats in the front row our Oldest, Middle and cousin C.! They rode this ride three times. Unfortunately, I rode it once with them and ended up drenched and not in a swimsuit. I wasn't expecting to get quite that wet so I ended up with a new shirt and some board shorts.

Little G and cousin H with my favorite character and candy! Gotta love the Reese's guy. Beside from seeing Hershey Park and riding all those rides we also went swimming and to Chuck E Cheeses while the cousins were visiting.

My van broke down at Chuck E's which was the day after the Hershey adventure so I feel very blessed that it made to and from Hershey without a problem.

The lady at the Chuck E. Cheeses wasn't very fond of her job, but I think I'll save that adventure for tomorrow's post.

The Great American Scrapbook Convention was a lot of fun. Even my friend, B, who doesn't scrapbook had a good time. Best of all is that there were lots of stamps with turtles on them! I got quite a few of them and can't wait to show you some of my creations. These are some from the show.






My mom, who is a beginning card maker, was enthralled by the creations on display. She joked about how she should get started on her Christmas cards on Saturday for the 2011 holiday.

Especially, if she wants to make this one.

T-ball went out on a HOT note. Yesterday's game was a warm one, but it was a lot of fun. The Coach handed out trophies at the end and the boys were all smiles. Here's little G on first base. He had two hits and used the T once. I was really proud of how well he did this year.