We had a busy Memorial Day weekend. It seems like it was the four of us for most of it. It's nice when we get to spend lots of time together. I had to get out for a little on my own Saturday evening just to get a breather. I went to Barnes and Noble to buy a guidebook for Barcelona. I'm getting so excited thinking about it. I'm even starting to try to think of words in Spanish. Yay!

But, back to the weekend.

Saturday was spent hiking with the family a bit up on Penn State's land near us. We headed over to a pond and Lilly was swimming and swimming. Pete and the kids were trying to catch gnutes--not sure how to spell this. Later on that day, we went out for an early dinner to Cozy Thai.

I was feeling a little sad at the first of the weekend because we are so far from family. Pete had plans to keep us busy by taking us over to a little farm to buy some veggie plants for our garden. Our good friends live near this farm so we decided to drop by and see them. One thing led to another, and we invited ourselves over for dinner. So after planning the menu for the evening, we headed to the grocery store and then to the wine store. They defrosted some steaks (part of the same cow we bought) and we supplied the sides. They threw in the lettuce since they had a lot in the garden. It turned out to be one tasty, fantastic meal. The kids swam in their pool while the adults sat by the pool and enjoyed a nice Rose from France. We had steaks, roasted rosemary potatoes, salad with blue cheese, toasted walnuts, sliced pear and raspberry vinaigrette. We had a nice Malbec from Argentina with the meal. There were also some grilled shrimp. For dessert, we had ice cream of various flavors and some sweetened, sliced strawberries.

After dinner, the kids played on the Wii. I tried my hand at boxing and tennis. We are supposed to get one for Christmas, but I may have to buy one before that.

This morning I went for a run. I ran for 36 minutes without stopping. It felt so good but afterward, I was so tired. We had gorgeous weather yesterday and today. We took advantage of it today and took the kids, with a neighbor and her kids, to a State Park just a few minutes from our house.

Warning...grumpy post.

It's Memorial Day weekend here. So far, we don't have a lot of plans. It's on long weekends that I wished we live closer to family for cooking out and going to the lake. Oh well. I get to go see family in a couple of weeks.

Clayton was supposed to have his birthday party on Thursday. We had to reschedule because the little guy broke out in hives all over his body Thursday afternoon. It was horrible. On Friday I took him to the doctor and he was prescribed some prednisone for a couple of days. There is marked improvement this morning. I have to say he's been so good these last few days. Not really complaining or anything. "I'm so itchy!" is all he would say. After we left the doctor he said, "When your not sick, it's a lot funner." Yes, it is Clayton.

I spoke with my sister last night and she is considering a career change. She'll still practice medicine but in a different capacity if it all works out. Family Practice doctors get the shaft in the U. S. They don't make a lot of money and work like a dogs. Shame, really, since FPs tend to use a lot of common sense while diagnosing things. And we wonder why health care is so screwed up in the U.S.? We think we need to see a specialist for every little thing and then we sue over ever little thing and expect too much. We don't exercise and eat tons of crap and wonder why we're fat. Yep, greedy and lazy. I'll stop here, but as you can see, I'm very opinionated on this subject. And the insurance companies are crooks. (I just had to get that one in.)

I hope everyone has a nice weekend. I think we're going to have some good weather around here. Yay!

You'll Shoot your eye out!

I had a busy weekend. It started Friday afternoon with me taking a Dairy Queen ice cream cake into Clayton's kindergarten class. I think most of the kids enjoyed it. Then after school, there was a birthday party for one of Clayton's classmates. It wasn't her birthday, though. Oh well, we will have a party for the class next week. By the time I got home Friday night, I was wiped out.

But as you can see from the picture above, Clayton got some presents before his party. Yep, Pete gave Clayton a Red Rider BB gun. You know the one from the Christmas movie with the kid (was it Ralph?), who wanted a BB gun for Christmas. And all the mom could say was, "You'll shoot your eye out." This was not my idea for Clayton, no, Pete came up with this all by himself.
It's OK, though. Saturday morning the two of them spent quite a while shooting the gun at a target. Pete went over gun safety and how to carry it, etc. It's even locked up with the real guns. So, don't worry, it won't by lying around the house.

The rest of Saturday was spent watching Kendall's soccer and grocery shopping. We went to some friends house for dinner.

Today, Kendall and I made it to church while the men were slouchers. I think Clayton has some congestion in his ear. He did make it to soccer, however, and actually made a goal. I was a proud momma.

We've started planting flowers around the yard. I say "we" but it's really Pete that does that kind of stuff. I took some pictures of our Clematis that we planted last year.




In case you are wondering, I still haven't found anyone to travel with me in September. I'm now considering Barcelona instead of Seville. I might fly into Nice and rent a car and drive to Barcelona. Or I may not do any of it. It's still early. And I haven't ruled out traveling solo. :)

Today my son turns 6. I can't believe it. And he was born on a Friday, too. We will have his birthday party next week at a place called Fun Unleashed. That's all he wanted. We finally decided to have one and I was going to do it on his birthday, but then we got an invitation from a classmate for a Fun Unleashed party for today. Ugh! And her birthday isn't even in May-it's in August. Clayton's been taking it well. He woke up to presents and will get some more next week at his party.

I went out for a bike ride yesterday. It's been at least 9 years since I've ridden. I had my bike tuned up last week and yesterday was the first nice day that we've had with nice weather so I took advantage of it. I must admit, I feel so vulnerable out there on the road on a bicycle. I think I'll ride on a bike path next time. And I can't believe how sore I am today. I'm so out of shape.

I'm so tired today. Last night was Bunco and I stayed up too late. And then this morning I volunteered and the free medical clinic. I'm looking forward to sleeping tonight.

I recently decided that I must go to Spain this year. Yep, Spain. You see, I took Spanish in high school and college, and I'm rapidly forgetting it. I need to refresh my memory. The part of Spain I want to visit is Seville, Grenada, and the southern part near there. I'm hoping to make this journey in early September. I need to get my sister or some friends to join me. Any takers? Pete will stay back with the kids. It needs to be early September because he is going to China towards the end of September for a conference. I even bought a Frommer's guide book today to start reading about that part of Spain. Anyway, if I don't start planning, I won't go for sure.

We had a fun-filled, busy weekend. The weekend started out a little blah with us losing power. Friday night we took the kids and a friend of Kendall's to a 3D movie. It was "How to train your dragon." The special effects were good. The movie was just OK. I'm afraid I compare all animated movies to "Finding Nemo" so most come up flat. But, we got home a little after 9 pm and our house was dark. I guess there had been some high winds and some power lines were down. When we woke on Saturday, the power was still out. We got ready and headed out to the Waffle Shop for breakfast. We got there around 8 am so the wait was about 5 minutes. After stuffing our faces at breakfast, we headed out to Wal-mart to get a bike for Clayton. Both kids have new bikes now and I can't wait for them to learn to ride the bikes without training wheels.
Kendall then had soccer and in the evening we had friends over for dinner. We made Kir Royals for apertifs. I really love those!

Sunday we headed to church. And the sun was out today. It felt good to see the sun. Clayton had soccer this afternoon and then we went to the Pennsylania Military Museum. There were helecopters and some big vehicles on display. We stopped off for a while while the kids explored. Kendall had a friend with her.

We stuck around until the helicopters started to take off. It was very exciting. After this, we took Kendall's friend home. It was a lame play date for them! Ha! It was so nice to be outside.

After we got home we took the dog out for a walk at the Ag Progress Days land and the kids rode their bikes around out there. One has to take advantage of a day with sun in central PA. I hear rain is going to be back tomorrow. Sigh.

I think Tuesdays are becoming my new favorite day of the week. I do my volunteering gig at Centre Volunteers in Medicine in the morning and then run errands in the afternoon. And then end the night with some American Idol.

Specifically today I had to go to the laundry mat to wash a comforter. I've been carrying that thing in the trunk of my car for weeks. I think the dog may have pee-peed on it but I wasn't sure. I was better safe than sorry in this case. Of course, I picked the rainiest day in a long time to do it. Duh.

But, I have to say, next to the airport, the laundry mat is a good place to watch (observe) people. Today, a woman came in by wheelchair with her daughter, son and son's girlfriend/wife. They loaded about 4 washers while the old woman was giving them orders. "Hot water, cold water, etc." Her son, who was no little guy, had walked over to the Easter European grocery store next door and bought some chocolate. The chocolates were filled with a rum liquor. The older woman was adamant that the store could not sell that candy if it had alcohol in it. I couldn't quite figure out what the big deal was. But, it piqued my interest and I may have to see if by law, one can by chocolate with alcohol in it in Pennsylvania. My comforter was soon dry and I finally got out of there.

I then went to Target to get just shampoo and stuff. I hadn't been there in a long time. It's so dangerous and I always spend more money than I should. I checked to see if they had the Wii

So, I soon need to pick up the kids from school. Another reason I like Tuesdays? We have no where to go after school. Yes, we can come home and stay home. No soccer. Hooray! And soon, I'll plop myself on the couch and get to watch American Idol. And is a new episode of Glee on tonight after Idol? Ahhhhhh.....life is good! and they did. Only $199! What a bargain. Just kidding. My husband has promised the kids they can get one for Christmas. I think we should by it now so that we have it to give to them at Christmas.

Old friends, good times

We had company this past weekend. They are old friends who used to live in State College. Julie and the kids arrived Friday night around 7 pm. I think Rich had ridden with someone else earlier on Friday for a meeting at Penn State. It was nice to catch up. The kids had a blast. I think it was 10:45 pm before the rug rats hit the hay.

On Saturday, the menfolk went turkey hunting with no luck while Julie and I got to chit chat a little. Then Clayton was off to a birthday party for a couple of hours. Kendall skipped soccer because she was so tired (see above). We all came together Saturday evening for some yummy pizza on the grill courtesy of Pete. We had another couple over with their daughter, too. We three families used to do this a bunch when Rich and Julie lived in town.

It's hard to find friends whom you can just hang out with and not have to impress. It takes a long time to cultivate friendships. I'm glad we could get together and have a good time. The kids were in the other room watching a movie and one of the boys kept coming into the kitchen to tell us to be quiet. Role reversal!

On Sunday we had to be at church early. The second grade Sunday School class got Bibles in front of the church. Kendall was so excited and spent a lot of time reading Bible stories Sunday afternoon. Clayton had soccer and I got out of it since it was so cold. It was Mother's day so I guess that was my gift. (Pete did get me some red roses as an afterthought).

So, it was an event-filled weekend and we had a lot of fun. I'll admit, I'm a little tired today from the lack of down time. Oh well, it was worth it.

I'm alive! I think I'm almost done with this cold. Just the leftover congestion and cough, but I don't feel so miserable anymore. I'm actually going to go for a run this morning. The bad news: my husband is coming down with it now.

On the work front I'm getting all my background checks done so I can apply to the school district to be a sub. There are a lot of hoops to go through but I certainly understand the reasons why. This summer I will be working at the hospital for two weeks in July. The down side is I have to pay a baby sitter, but fortunately, Nuclear Medicine pays well so I'll take some money home. I'm so lucky to have an awesome baby sitter. She's going to be in town the weekend before the week I work so she said she would stay the next week and help me out. And there are two days that week when I have to be there by 7:30. She said she could get them ready and take them to Art camp in the mornings. The Nuc Med department is trying to make it difficult on me, but I'll show them! Actually, they were shocked (I could hear it in their voices) when I told them I would do both weeks. Their new rules totally favor the new PRN girl, who doesn't have children,
but I'm showing them I can do it (at least these two weeks!).

I have a cold. It's a beautiful day outside and I don't feel like going out. Why is it something so small can cause so much discomfort? At least, I know I won't feel horrible more than a day or two.

Earlier this week I was informed that if a technologist takes off a week then I have to be able to work the whole week to get the hours. I used to be able to work two days or three, or whatever worked for me. Now, they don't want to have to think about who's coming in on what day and what time. I took it personally. And it's hard not too considering the other per diem tech doesn't have kids, isn't married, etc. So, the new policy definitely works in her favor. Every time I want to work, I have to make sure Pete will be around to take or pick up the kids. It's hard to make plans and set up child care when you work sporadically.

Last night our kids had an Extravaganza show. It was a show for the parents so we could see what they do when they stay for after school clubs. My kids like to stay so I let them stay three days out of five. But, after the show, we got to eat dinner. I took a curried chicken salad and deviled eggs. There was enough food for everyone this time. And it was all delicious.

There is nothing else going on around here. Maybe if my head wasn't filled with snot I could write something entertaining and funny....... doubtful.