What kind do you use?

I'd like to get a new digital camera sometime. What kind do you use? Do you like it?

Can't sleep

Now it's my turn not to be able to sleep. I'm blaming it on the Exedrin I took earlier today. It was so worth it because I had a migraine...but the caffiene in it always zaps me awake! So here's my list. A little shorter than Martha's.
-watch a Little House On the Prarie episode
-blog
-listen to samples of music on line.
-eat chocolate ice cream.
-do the dishes.

Allen stayed over night at his cousins' house tonight. He's going to Seabreeze with them tomorrow. So I entrusted my son to Dave and Rach (pictured here). He'll have fun and he so needed to hang out with some boys!

Store Wars

click http://www.storewars.org/flash/index.html for a little entertainment.

Digital cameras and water don't mix well

I'm afraid I have some bad news. I think I wrecked the digital camera. The kids and I went on a picnic at a friend's house in Middlesex. They have a wonderful swimming pond. It was great fun! When we packed up to go home, I tossed a bunch of things into a bag...including my waterbottle. My waterbottle leaked. At the bottem of the bag was the digital camera...which I had forgotten about. Now the camera is screwed up. It doesn't do anything right! I can't take any pictures with it. Nada!

The one thing that is bit of a relief is that it was not a terrific camera to begin with. (but it was better than nothing) It was a bit of a dinasaur as digital cameras go. A hand me down that was only 2 mega-pixels. (the camera pictured here is purely for illustrative purposes only and does not represent the camera I own)

Any words of comfort that you could offer me would be sorely welcome at this point.

A surprise visit from a friend...and then off to Martha's

I'm at Martha's house today. I picked some blueberries and some beans out of her garden. Yum! Guess we will be making something with blueberries in it soon! Let's see...there is the classic blueberry muffin and then there are those wonderful blueberry scones I made with Allen a while back.

Right now I am humming the tune to "Germs, My Invisible Dog" because I just read Ruth's blog and her story of Dragon the cat reminded me of it. Do any of you know the song? I can't find the lyrics to it on line...but I have found references mentioning it...and even a kid's CD with the song on it that I could buy. (not interested at this point in my life)

This morning I got a surprise visit from a friend of mine who was in town! Amy and her 4 kids. She and I had a cup of coffee on the front porch together while the kids played. We had to keep getting up to check on Seth...her youngest who has downs. He is so cute and funny. He just loves my dog. I wanted to get a picture of them together so I got my digital out...only to discover the batteries were all used up. Boo Hoo! It would hae been such a nice addition to this post...but it is not to be! Anyway...we had a wonderful visit, but it was all over much too quickly. They could only stay a couple of hours, then had to make a quick visit to someone else and then head back to Jamestown.

We are hoping to meet half way between our homes some day this summer and have a picnic and go hiking. That would probably be somewhere in Allegheny State Park.

Just another post

I've been trying to think of ways to make my blog interesting and I just can't seem to come up with anything lately. I'm running out of ideas.

Here's a picture of my Pop! Isn't he cute?

My summer has been fun...but it has started to get a little lonely. I enjoy my routine of walking the kids to school, Bible Study and what not. I feel a little out of sorts. I guess this week I should work a little harder at coming up with something interesting to do. Perhaps a hike or a visit to one of my sisters or parents. I miss seeing my women friends.

Allen's last soccer game was last night. It was a great game. It is fun to see the progression of the kids' skills over the years. It doesn't seem like that long ago that we were at games watching a bunch of clueless little kids chasing the ball around...picking dandylions on the field. Now there is actually skill involved and the kids play their own positions and some are very good. Allen played really well last night! Afterwards we went to the coach's house for icecream. All the boys from the team and a few extra boys as well gathered in the back yard to play football while the adults stood around and talked. I enjoyed watching them play a good "boy game" of football and tackling. It's good and healthy fun. There are not really any boys for Allen to hang out with in our neighborhood...and his sisters are not too into football and tackling.

One more week and then we send Allen and Audra off to camp for a few days. It will seem very quiet with just Alicia.

Weekend on Long Island

This past weekend Jamie and I went to our nephew's wedding (J's brother's son) on Long Island. The bride's parents are very wealthy and put on one of the biggest, splashiest weddings I have ever seen in my life. It took place at this castle pictured here. There are no words to even describe it for you...so I'm not going to try very hard. Suffice it to say that it seemed like something out of a movie. Just when I thought I had seen it all, there was even more to be oohed and ahhed by.

Our children stayed at my sister Martha's house. When I arrived there tonight to pick them up, my sister and brother-in-law asked, "Well...how was it?" They were curious to find out (who wouldn't be curious about a place that charges $300 a plate?) I tried my best to describe the vast array of fine foods, the floral arrangement, the cake, the wait staff...how our napkins were refolded for us everytime we walked away from our table...about the bathroom attendent who's full time job it seemed was to mop up any water spots on the counter around the sinks...and on and on and on!!! I said, "I've never attended any wedding like it before and probably never will again." This is when my brother-in-law said, "No...but you will someday go to a wedding that's much fancier and nicer." I looked at him curiously...and he said, "The marriage feast of the Lamb!" I gasped! Wow, I had never thought of that!

This is just a totally amazing concept for me now! During the wedding this past weekend, I felt strangely out of place. I knew that I really wasn't dressed appropriately for the wedding...but I wore what I had in my closet. I don't have the money to go out and buy an expensive gown. I knew I would need to make do with what I had. I will say that I was not treated poorly because of how I was dressed. The service was excellent in spite of my obvious lower economical stature. But I got to thinking about this upcoming marriage feast...the one I hope you'll be at too. You will if you know Jesus Christ as your savior. Anyway...I will be clothed with garments of righteousness! Whiter than snow! Even better...I will not be just attending...as part of the church, I will be his bride!

Hope to see you there!

Finished!

I finished the cat milk can this past Friday. Go to my Art Blog to see the finished product. My Art Blog link is to the right.

Dog trouble!

I have this wonderful yellow lab mix named Sherman. He's awesome! He loves everyone and can always be counted on to greet you enthusiastically with wagging tail. However...he has been the cause of a few headaches lately. Last week we went hiking and took the dog along. He spotted a pond and decided to go swimming. The problem was that this just wasn't a pond, mind you. It was more of a swamp. He came out literally covered with black mud and scum. When he got out, he naturally shook...which of course showered all of us with black scum droplets! It was even on my glasses! Jamie took him to a cleaner section of the pond and made him swim again. He looked better...but still was a mess. He shook again which meant a shower of diluted scum droplets! There was an outdoor spigot which helped some. At home came the task of bathing him. What I don't get is why he loves swimming, but resists bathing like the plague! After bathing him, came the job of cleaning the bathroom, which was completely trashed at that point. Because he is quite a large dog, we always end up using atleast 3 towels to dry him and to sop up the water on the floor. These are naturaly covered with hair...which means laundry!

All was well for several days. On Thursday I was with him in the yard and he was tied to his line...which he ended up wrapping around my left leg. Someone came down the street walking another dog and Sherman decided to run and greet him enthusiastically. I was whipped to the ground and had a nasty rope burn behind my leg. I washed it out and hobbled around for a few days. On Monday night, I noticed it looking puffy and red and it was oozing something yellow. I called the doctor the next day to have someone look at it. Sure enough, it is infected! So I am bandaged now and on antibiotics. I also needed a tetnus shot since I hadn't had one in over 12 years. So all was well once again. I am on my way to recovery. What else could possibly go wrong?

Our friend, Mike decided to have a bon fire at his house last night and wondered if we would like to come out. So off we went...along with the dog. Other than pesky mosquitoes, we were having a good time. Sherman had freedom to run and play since it was out in the country. The kids spent time chasing down and catching fire flies. And the dog...had found something to roll in! At least it wasn't something dead...but was pretty bad-wood chuck poop. So I repeated the whole bathing fiasco from last week! I was up until 12:30 am since it wasn't just a matter of bathing him. All of us smelled smokey and had bug spray on. So we all needed showers before bed.

Anyway, do I love my dog? Yes. He's a great companion (except for when he stinks). He is all clean and soft now and sleeping peacefully on his blanket!

Letchworth State Park

Yesterday we met up with Rachel and Dave at Letchworth State Park! We had a wonderful day! The weather was perfect. The company my husband works for created a video that is being shown in the museaum there at the park. Our job was to deliver about 6 boxes of DVD's to make available to the public to buy. Which meant we didn't have to pay the fee to get in the park! One of the perks for Jamie's job! We figured, why not make a day of it? We packed a picnic lunch and headed out!

God's creation is just amazing. If you've never visited this park, I encourage you to do so. I know I have readers from other places. Maybe this will encourage you to visit this state. You can see more pictures at Sister Rachels' blog and also more pictures taken by Tom at Canandaigua Glimpses...both links are to the right. You may have to look at Tom's archives...but it gives an idea of what the park looks like!

We had a wonderful time, and hiked through the gorge, visited Mary Jemison's statue and log cabin, the Seneca Nation Council Meetinghouse and museaum. I love history. We saw quite a number of deer...including a mother and her twin fawns. Jamie and I saw a fox...but everyone else missed it! We ended the day by watching the kids take a dip in the pool at the park.

On the way home, we stopped at Shark's in Bloomfield for icecream! A perfect ending to any day!

39!

Jamie and I decided to try some healthy recipes. The other night he made some low-fat chocolate chip cookes that were awesome! We decided to try again tonight. We made some banana oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. They were horrible!!!! They were the most blah cookies I have ever tasted in my life. We ended up tossing the whole thing. What a waste! I say that there is something to be said for eggs and butter!!! There is an Amish community nearby and their baked goods are to die for! You can be sure that those Amish ladies use all the best stuff! Butter and eggs...straight from the source!

I have this horrible sweet tooth. I am trying to cut back because I can no longer eat the way I did just a few years ago. Yep! I guess I'm getting older. I used to be able to eat anything and I remained skinny. Not anymore. I think I could stand to lose a few pounds. I'm getting discouraged because I am looking like a frumpy old lady. I need a new look!

That's why the profile picture I use is from 2001 when I was 34. I can fool all my cyber friends into thinking I still look like that! (well...now you know the truth!)

Bathing Beauty

Alicia, taking a dip in Keuka Lake.

Tandum Bike

Audra and I try out the tandum bike. It was a lot of fun after I got the hang of it!

Picnic

Here we have James, Jamie and Martha scrutinizing the burger situation. The food was all delicious!











An action packed game. I don't know what this game was...maybe something they made up? I love how Hannah's hair is flying!







Woship music. That's my father on the banjo.



The young guys jammin'. From left to right: my nephew Nathan (age 16), my nephew Jim (24) and my cousin's son, Hayrim(16).

Happy 4th of July!

Little Priscilla with her first sparkler!

Things I want to do

There are a lot of things I hope to do during my lifetime. Here are a few. Some are big things...some are small things. They are not in any particular order.

1. See the rest of my own country. I've never been out west!
2. I'd like to go on a mission trip as a family to a third world country.
3. Finish all construction on our house.
4. Go to faux painting school.
5. Take more painting classes.
6. Learn watercolor.
7. Paint murals in each of my children's rooms.
8. See my children grow up to be fabulous responsible people of God!
9. Build a rock garden with a pond and waterfall. With pretty flowers around it and goldfish in the pond
10. Make curtains for the middle room and also for our bedroom and hallway.
11. Get rid of clutter.
12. Clean out the basement.
13. Get siding on our house so it looks nice.
14. Run a successful business.
15. Have my house tastefully decorated.
16. Visit Europe.
17. Get new cushions for our wicker furniture on the porch.
18. Walk a lot closer to God than I do now!

I know there are more things than this. I'm sure of it. But this is what I thought up quickly. I put the picture of me as a baby because I figure I still have a lifetime ahead of me.

What are some things you want to do?