The old gray mare aint what she used to be

Want to know a secret???? If I could get the secret to staying young I would be sooooo rich and famous!

Yes, today is my birthday...I have about 20min. more left to it then it's March. My Mother always calls me and asks me the same question that she has asked me on my birthday for as long as I can remember...."Well, do you feel any older? " and then she always says:"Today is a day just like the day I delivered you." She then will relate the events of my birth day, that she had dinner at my Uncle George and Aunt Gail's house and ate some very garlicie salad dressing, then threw it up in the delivery room and all the nurses were grossed out and kept whispering "what the heck did she eat?" Of course it was Feb. and too cold to open the windows. Oh well, I'm not super fond of OB nurses so thanks Mom for puking on them! And thanks for the money and good wishes. I'll spend it wisely and I will always treasure your birthday calls and realize how lucky I am to have you still here to give me good wishes! I'm blessed with loving family that send cute e-cards, beautiful bouquets of spring flowers, pretty flowers arranged in beautiful planters, good books to read, and funny cards. Good friends that come to work on their day off to bring me a birthday cake, a cute Easter decoration (thanks Donna!), thanks to Peg for my new Andrea Boccelli CD that I listened to today all the way to Akron for my Stake Primary leadership meeting.

So maybe I do know the secret to staying young. It's always being grateful that you're surrounded by loving family and friends. That you should enjoy every birthday that happens because life is too short and it's great to have a day when you can have your cake and eat it too! I realized today that my driver's license expired...I can't lie about my age on it, but thank heavens I can lie about my weight because according to my license I've stayed the same weight for a long,long,long time and that alone makes me feel very young!!!

Fireman's Cabin

Every Feb. the scouts, leaders and some scout Dads go for a night at the fireman's cabin. It's a night of fun, food and....well, fun and food about sums it up I think...(I wouldn't really know what they do because us girls aren't allowed...thank goodness!) They play cards, video games, and they go outside and play night games in the woods from what Jack tells me. It looks like they had a fun time! Here's a few scouts playing Old Maid I'm sure. I thought Bro. Jeffery was showing Cody some computer tech thingy, but no, they were looking up places to order pizzas!

Derek and Kyle are very busy here actually ordering the pizzas.

Ahhh....they did not starve! Here are the lovely pizzas. No scout skills needed here, just big mouths!

Being a scout leader is hard and nourishment is needed to keep up with the youth. Kyle is on his phone again...now what is he ordering?

Yes, the youth sure do know how to work up an appetite...here they are just chowing down and playing video games...

The next morning breakfast is prepared by the leaders. Jack always does his wonderful french toast with his secret recipe...I did feel like crashing the party the next morning.

Just relax Bro. Jeffery, you have a whole year to get ready for next Feb. fireman's cabin fun! Oh, by the way, it's called the fireman's cabin because the Ashland fire dept. owns it and I shudder to think what they actually do out there! I do know that in October it's turned into the haunted woods that I took Driana to last year...fun times!

Jam packed Saturday

This weekend started out busy and full for sure! Friday night I had Phil and Amanda's girls overnight while they took off for a fun weekend in Winsor Canada...I guess they just wanted some really cold and snowy days! Jack had a scout outing at the fireman's cabin so I had all the fun to myself... I enlisted Summer to come and help me out! Thanks Summer for entertaining little Alexis while I took care of Addy. After the little ones went to bed Summer and I watched the movie "The Secret Life of Bees" . Good movie, better book! Here's little Addy the next morning all happy and ready for some action...I love her fuzzy crazy hair! Alexis was so good to put up with Eddy...but he was really good with her, no jumping on her and he let her play with his toys too! His head is as big as her whole body!

After we dropped the girls off at their other Grandma's, we went to watch Anthony play basketball in his little league. So cute! They have special little baskets and they even have little cheerleaders... then I headed off to a baby shower for our friend Christina...she got alot of fun and cute little girlie things for baby Stella....It was good to see them again. We saw them a few weeks ago when we were in South Carolina for Sophia's blessing...

After the shower it was off to Jack and Steph's for Anthony's birthday party. He turned 7 yesterday, I just can't believe how fast these rug rats are growing! Here's his special plate with his special request meal :Lasagna, salad, asparagus, garlic bread and chocolate cake...Yummo!

Anthony blew out his candles and made his wish...don't know what that was, but he was a happy boy yesterday.

Here's a little video of his game...you just have to smile when watching them play...I love the way he dribbled the ball down the little court...Wasn't his Dad just doing that not long ago? Man, I'm getting old!

LOV..."E"

The images of Valentines Day are different for everyone...is yours flowers, or candy? Some jewelry perhaps or a plate of yummy heart shaped cookies? Maybe it's a sweet little something for your kiddos or your grandkiddos to let them know you love them. Perhaps you're like my little friend here who has lost his "E" in LOVE...I hate when that happens! Don't ask me where the "E" went, I'm sure it's around here somewhere. Well, whatever your day brought you I hope it was nice. Don't forget to tell those whom you love, that...well, that you love them of course! Love to all on this day...

Now this pic has nothing to do with Valentines Day but I thought I would show you the lovely lake we live near...we're so lucky to live near a lake.......except we don't live near a lake. This is actually a farmer's field that floods every year atleast 3 or 4 times until Summer when it's full of some crop, usually corn. Middle Rowsburg rd runs right next to it and across the road is another field that looks just like this one when it floods....feels like you're driving on a causeway between two bodies of water! Well, this bottom pic is what the field looked like today. Water receded and back to normal...until spring wet weather comes!

I like the look of "Lake Middle Rowsburg" better!

The big meltdown

The forecast said it would be warmer....at least 50 degrees on Sat. and we weren't disappointed...It was so warm that the tulips in my garden came up and bloomed so I could have a nice bouquet...Ok, I'm just kidding. Jack was sweet enough to get me these so I can pretend spring is just around the corner...Lilacs are my fav but tulips are sure a close 2nd! About 9am I took this pic of the snow on the deck before I would shovel it off...underneath the snow was at least 2in. of ice. I just hoped the warmer temps would melt it all off.

And it did! This was the deck at 5pm on Sat. Sunday was even better because alot, not all, of the snow in the yard had melted. Eddy found some of his toys that were buried under the snow.

Eddy loves to eat ice...don't ask me why, but he tried to help me clean off the deck. At least he had a good time. I really wanted to have a video of our annual "cheap good nite out" chili cookoff that the branch has each Feb. A video of the men in the branch singing "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree", with hand jesters and everything. Of course the camera batteries died just as they started to perform. Dang! It was funny. So Jack is spared, and his loyal fans will just have to wait until next year when maybe something even more embarrassing will happen there. So I threw in this little didi of Eddy on the deck. My life is so boring that a dog eating ice is the best I can do. I just love the weekends, don't you?

Little snipets of Life

Pictures can speak a thousand words...sometimes more than that if you look close. Here is Katie coming home from school on Friday. I went with Craig to meet the bus and take a pic of her arrival. If you look close, in the background there are two kids by the bus. They are a brother and sister that are about to embark in a "to the death" battle. I was oblivious to that because I was taking pics and greeting Katie, who I hadn't seen in almost a year. Craig however did notice and went over to help break them up. He finally asked me to stop with the camera and come help him! It was funny but a little scary too. Those kids were nut cases! Anyway... I wish I had caught their fight on camera but that might have been against the law or something...filming other people's kids. Oh well, here are two videos that caught a grown man having a sword fight with a 3yr old in penguin jammies...and Katie bringing Taylor back to life and losing. Just little snipets of everyday life...it's what makes everyday life worth every minute...

South Carolina Fun

We embarked on an adventure this weekend. We headed to the warmer clime of South Carolina to see our little Sophia get a name and a blessing on Sunday. First we had to get out of snow bound Ohio. We decided to head out on Thursday night and go half way, stop at some dive in West Virginia, then head out early to finish our trip. Ok, I'm just kidding about the "dive" thing. We actually had a nice room and the drive was good. Not too much bad weather anyway. We arrived at Craig and Amy's around 11:30 Friday. The weather was great! The best part was not seeing a drop of snow anywhere. I was a bit embarrassed because our car was so dirty from the drive. Everyone's car was sparkling clean...no white crud from snow and salt. Sat. we went to the Greenville Zoo. It's a cute little zoo and park. Then we stopped for lunch at the Mellow Mushroom for some pizza...hence the pic of the food below! MMMM...Sunday was a lovely day and we enjoyed going to their Ward . Afterward we went back to the house for lunch and Christina and Casey joined us. The weather so great that Ames and I even took a nice walk around the neighborhood later...all in all a great time! Thanks guys for the fun, nice weather, and wonderful family memories...Here are some pics that are different from the ones Amy posted on their blog. Sophia is a doll baby....so good. Of course Katie and Taylor are great and we had alot of fun with them. I will post some videos tomorrow of some of the antics that took place.

Taylor and friend...

Whew, tired from the zoo fun....

Awww Katie, you're so sweet...

Sophia with her first backpack! Cute little monkey!

I loved Katie's dress for Church...

What can we say, Taylor is just tooooo cooool!!.......

Sophia in her blessing dress. It was so pretty!

I liked her "Amish " bonnet...

Practicing holding her for her blessing?

A happy Mom with her new baby! Ames is looking like she didn't even have a baby! Hey, I'm ready to go back and we sure do miss them all!