These little videos make me smile

Team-work

How do you solve a problem like a game piece being stuck in a very high tree during a family picnic?

It takes team-work and...
a very brave soul.
Quick update on my life: My summer job is going great. I find teenagers to be very amusing...although they can be frustrating at times. Still looking for a job. Keep me in your prayers, especially seeing that I have an interview on Thursday.

Rolling!

Here are my children rolling down Bunker Hill in Boston!

The man with the beer?

So this morning I had a group of preschoolers all sitting down listening to me reading The Teddy Bear by David M. McPhail. The story mentions a "man with a beard." When I read this line a little boy said, "Man with a beer? Where's the beer? I don't see it."

That got a chuckle from several of the adults in the room.

Just Because

This one's for you, Martha!

Has Calvin and Hobbes been in my backyard?

Teenagers playing in the snow...in a collaborative effort to create an army in my backyard! I love it! Audra and Jacob work on soldiers.
Allen creates another soldier base.
Jacob working on the army general's horse.
The finished army. Only one has a helmet! I wish I could hear the conversations of our neighbors!

Its snow fun!

I couldn't find a good picture for my post today. I googled around and found beautiful ones taken around our town in the snow...but I couldn't take them. They aren't mine. So today I bring back an oldy, but a goody. This was taken two years ago. Alicia was 7 and she sure was having fun with her daddy going down that hill!
See? Winter can bring joy!

Tagged

I was tagged by Rachel.

So here are the instructions:

* Go to your sixth picture folder in your picture file on your computer, then pick your sixth picture.
* Pray that you remember the details.
* Post it on your blog.
* Tag 5 others, leave a comment to let them know they’ve been tagged.This is the 6th picture in the 6th folder in my picture directory.
I did not take this photo. I think Allen did when he was staying over night at Aunt Rachel's house. I was home. I trusted him with the camera. This is a pretty entertaining picture of my sisters, nephew, and daughter. Everone but Alicia seems pretty mesmerized by the computer. Probably looking at a blog!

I tag Jenny, Jim the 3rd, Josiah, Nixter and Dunja .

The Three Sisters-Authentically American

Here we are...the three sisters. Corn, Squash and Beans. What I am refering to here of course is something everyone who grew up in NY State and studied the Iroquios Indians should know about. The rest of you will be naturally confused...but that's ok. I'll give you a hint. Anyway...we had fun at Martha's house. We saw Jim, who was home from Minnesota and we ate lots of food...and just generally enjoyed one another's company. And even though Rachel's "German Potato Salad" is not really authentically German(see Rachel's post and comments), I like it anyway. I had two helpings. What American Labor Day picnic would be complete without hot dogs and hamburgers....and corn on the cob? Baked beans are always welcome too...and squash. Like Zuchini. Not all of it was there...but it was authentically American. We are American and we like it that way. LOL! I'm just having fun with this post.
I hope all of my friends reading here had a wonderful Labor Day...even if you are not authentically American. Love to you all!

More Beautiful Baby Feet

This is Kaidin. He is such a beautiful baby....which doesn't surprise me. When Jamie and I got married, Kaidin's mother, Kelly was just a little girl. I remember thinking that she was beautiful. Kaidin's grandma, Nancy adopted Kelly from Korea. Now Kelly is 21, married, and has a baby of her own.

Nancy was babysitting her grandson while Kelly and Kaidin's Daddy went on a tour of the local wineries. I wanted to take pictures of Kaidin's feet because I think baby feet are just so precious. Kaidin thought I was a little weird, but Nancy didn't.

You Never Know Who Might Show Up Around Here

Yesterday, we found out that "Extreme Makeover Home Edition" is demolishing and building a new home in Geneva, NY. Today my husband happened to have the day off, so we hopped in the car and traveled the 17 miles to Geneva to check it out. We joined the crowd of onlookers behind the fences across the street. It was kind of fun and interesting. The white house in the back ground will be demolished tomorrow. The family has been sent to Cancun for the week. Today the crew was demolishing a barn on the premises.

Ty and the rest of the Design Team were not on sight. (Just all the people who actually do most of the work.) Today they were emptying the house. I'm sure that Ty will be here on sight tomorow with his bull horn and video camera.

Jamie got a chance to talk with one of the sight managers for the show who told him that quite often the show is working on 2 houses at the same time. Ty is actually on sight down in Arkansas today for another house and will fly in to upstate NY tonight. We also learned that Extreme Makeover does free cosmetic work on surrounding houses just so they all look nice on camera...and also to make it up to them for the inconvenience of crowds of people trampling their lawns, closing down their street, construction workers all night, etc. They will even put a new roof on the neighbor's house if they think it necessary.

From what I understand, this show will focus on a family that helps kids stay off the streets. (Geneva can be a rough town) The man is a guidance counselor at the high school, but also runs a school for boxing. The show is supposed to air some time in November.

A Little Baby

Look at this little baby! He is only 10 weeks old. His name is Pickles and he is a pure-bred pug who belongs to Jamie's cousin's son and daughter-in-law.

Here he is cuddling with Allen.

Fun and Games

"Don't take my picture, Mommy!"

"I will have to tickle you, if you don't cooperate, Alicia."

............

"Ok, you have forced my hand."

*giggles*

Come on down, Brendan!

Check it out. This is Monday's show. Brendan is my niece's husband.
the price is right You can see my niece, Danielle holding up 2 fingers to advise Brendan to guess on item #2 during one of the games.

The New Layout...

I like it. There is only one minor problem. You see the corners of each section? There is a little section that rounds off the corners. It is navy blue....which is the original color of the background that I changed. I would like these corners turned to a redish-purple or a wine color so that it blends with the new background. I haven't figured out how to do that. I know how to remove them entirely so that I have the sharp right angles for corners, but I really like the rounded look. Maybe I can figure it out, but maybe not.

I changed the overall look of my blog with the help of a tutorial on Jenny's blog. You can check that out here . Yesterday I played with another template that I found on this site. They had some interesting templates...but when I tried to work with one, it ended up having a foreign language on the side bar that I couldn't get rid of. It was very frustrating, so I ended up ditching it in favor of one of the templates that you can find here on blogger with that "pick new" tab when you go to layout.

So overall, it is a simple change and not as fancy and personal as some I've seen, but I like it. Sorry Bethany, but this is the one I like. LOL! I needed just a little more pizzaz.

Just playing

I have been trying to figure out how people have the coolest blog templates. So I am playing and learning. When you come here for the next several days...you never know what to expect. You will be surprised every time...until I settle on one thing.

This particular design is a bit loud and brash for me, but I also kind of like it. In any case, it is fun to play around and see what I come up with. After I figure it all out, maybe I'll share my newfound knowledge with you. Who knows?

I am becoming bloggly savvy!

Anyone for a piece of cake?

I found this interesting picture on the web. This is actually a cake. So what do you think? Does this cake look appetizing? Audra says she'll take a piece with the tail. Which part do you want?

Egads!!!!!

We are all anxiously awaiting the "7 strange or weird things about Dave" on Rachel's blog. Am I on the "list" now?

Tagged....

7 weird or strange things about moi? I'm not going to be very good with this. My husband could probably help you better. He is always saying I'm weird...but he must be too because he picked me.

1. I talk in strange voices to my dog.
2. I make up silly rhymes and songs and sing them to my kids.
3. I sometimes set a timer while I clean the house to make it more fun. (kind of like a game)
4. Grocery shopping gives me anxiety.
5. I play strange games with my dog that only he and I understand. (I inherited this trait from my father)
6. Pistachios make my mouth and throat itch...so I never eat them.
7. I hate having peanut butter in my ice cream.

This is a rather dull list. It is the sort of thing that I will lay awake in bed thinking about and will come up with many more that are far better and much more amusing. Ones that will make me laugh out loud and cause my husband to really wonder about me. And in the morning I will not be able to recall a single one!

Grey Day

It's a grey day here. Freezing rain and grey skies. The kind of day where you don't want to leave your house. Instead...it would be preferable to wrap up in a blanket, sip a cup of hot coffee and read a novel. But...I must venture out to the bank and to the grocery store. We are out of milk and other things.

My neighbors are in Italy. (this is not their house...they live down the street in the opposite direction) I'm thinking that they are pretty warm right now. They are a 60-70 year old couple who immigrated here in the 1960's. They own 2 houses. One here and one in Italy. I used to sell Pampered Chef products. She bought two of each of the items she chose...one for each house. There were a lot of items. It was one of my biggest sales ever during my short career as a Pampered Chef representative. (I'm no longer pampered) Anyways...every year they go to Italy for most of the winter. Sometimes during the summer, I walk by their house and they are out in the yard talking with(or quite often yelling at) eachother. Of course I can't understand anything they say since it is all in Italian. Maybe that's a good thing. It's not always an advantage to know another language. LOL! In any case...I'm thinking that they are much warmer than I am right now.

Just rambling.