WOOOOO!! (Part Deux)

My last Penn State game I attended this year was Penn State vs. Temple.

Normally I go to Penn State's stadium to see the games, but the game was in Philly, so we went. I'm so used to being at a stadium which holds over 110,000 people (6th largest stadium in the world). When I arrived at the Eagle's stadium, it looked like a baby in comparison.

In any case, I was in the 16th row, and had a great view of JoePa and a blowup doll..... that is, when the obnoxious lady sitting in front of me would actually sit down.

Every single play looked like this:

By the end of the game, I had removed her limbs from her torso, tied the arms of her jacket behind her seat, and stuffed her hat in her mouth. That'll teach her......

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After all the ruckus in the last episode, there's nothing quite like a nice quiet game of collegiate American football between two calm, non-rivalry schools to really keep me cool....

That's right- I went to the Penn State vs. Ohio State game in State College. I didn't even mind that we (Penn State) lost to the number one team.


Hey, even ESPN Game Day was there! This is in front of where they were broadcasting. Three points of interest in this picture: 1. My hair attempting to escape from the likes of my hat; 2. The fact that I was not in the least bit intoxicated, but certainly look the part; 3. The girl behind me who looks truly terrified for her life.


Oh, the reason why my hair is escaping? I'm such a rock star now. I had a part of it dyed pink in exchange for a donation to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Organization. Hey, at least Dylan thinks it's cool. We'll have to see what Nana has to say though....



Haha, after posting this- you all can see how deceptive my profile picture is at the top of my blog. I look so behaved there. I'll have to update that.

Vino

Mark and I went on a bus trip (through a very gracious Christmas gift from his aunt) to the Finger Lakes in New York this past weekend for their Mardi Gras celebration. On the first day (Saturday), we hit ten (TEN!) wineries. Later that night, I believe I drunk-dialed my sister and went to sleep soon after... er, that's what I think happened.

The second day, due to incoming inclement weather, our bus driver wanted to head home earlier than originally planned. So, after stopping at three wineries, we headed home.

Noteworthy moment: After coming out of one of the wineries on Saturday, my little eye spotted a great picture that I wanted to take. It was across the dirt road. All I had to do was walk across a little bit of snowy ground, and I would be there in a flash. That snowy ground, I soon found out, was a ditch on the side of the road, filled to the brim with all of the snow that NY had just gotten. Tricky. My first step- fine. The second sucked me ass-deep into snow. Of course it wasn't bad enough that I was ass-deep in snow, I also had an audience of about 30 on the tour bus pointing and laughing at my expense. I had a choice- turn around and forget the picture, or take three more ass-chilling steps and get to the shot I was desperate for. The wine, thankfully, erased all logic from my brain, and persuaded me on to the picture. I took it, and came back the same way I came in. Halfway back, I was truly stuck in the snow. One of my fellow passengers saw that I may need some assistance (ha ha, get it? ASSistance...ar ar ar), and came to my rescue. He soon became engulfed in the exact snowy death trap as I was. At that point, I was laughing so hard I was nervous that I would pee my pants and make a real spectacle out of the ordeal. After much pulling and laughter, we somehow escaped, only to have a standing encore as I entered the bus. (And yes, I think it was worth it. The picture below was "the" shot.)


Overall, we had an awesome time. We had a glorious 37 and 1/2 hours away from the kids (but who's counting), and we brought home six bottles of New York's finest.

It's Just the Old Lady Smell, Honey.

On foggy days, I use the magic of the rear defroster to get the dew off the back window. I just like a nice, clean window, okay? On said rear window is a sticker that was applied by my Great Aunt Ethel, about 5 years ago, when she owned the car. This sweet old (99 years old) woman, who wore tailored jackets and lived in a small neighborhood for most of her life, apparently belonged to the NRA. She placed the token NRA sticker on the back window to show her enduing support. I am not too sure that she even knew what the NRA is. Probably not.

I bought the car from Ethel's estate when she died last year, and got a giggle thinking about her driving around in the car with the sticker, so I left it on in her memory. Plus, I think it gives me some street cred in my parts.

As we made our trip to the store, I turned on my rear defroster to rid of the morning dew. When we arrived at the store, Dylan informs me that my car smells. Whatever, I have three air fresheners, but the Chicken McNugget smell takes a while to come out, you know?

However, while I was unbuckling Jordan from his cage, excuse me-car seat, I looked up to see the NRA sticker fully engulfed. The sticker caught fire from the defroster, probably because the sticker was so old and dried out. I did get the sticker fire out, but can you just imagine what a glory it looked like-- a shiny, sleek, white car, blazing down the street-kids wiggling around, waving to each car- everyone inside oblivious to the small camp fire in the back window. Insert theme song from Dukes of Hazzard.

Git R Done!

We took Dylan to a huge country fair not too far away, which each year becomes a focal point for many people around here for one week. We chose Tuesday because that was when the truck and tractor pull contests took place. Mark and his brother seemed amped up about it. I really haven't even heard about it until this year.

We got our seats early (they fill up quickly) and waited, watching entrants climb the stage to enter their vehicle of choice into the contest. I loved how one woman ate her popcorn and watched the contestants line up, all while her grandchild slept on her lap. It doesn't get much more country than that. Well, I guess if she threw a dip of chew in...

We watched as modified trucks took turns pulling a huge weight-transferring sled down a dirt track to see who could get farthest before their trucks stopped. After that, the modified tractor races took place, followed by tractor trailers, and finally, diesels.

This seemed like a strange thing to want to do, but compared to what I watched last year, this looked fairly normal. Last year, we arrived at the fair just in time for lawnmower races. I swear, they went about 30mph. Big guys on them too. All of them were wearing helmets, and expertly navigated through the courses turns with skill that was obviously practiced. I remember watching for about a half an hour, laughing so hard that tears ran down my face, all while being surrounded by people who couldn't figure out why I found any of it funny.

Anyway, as we watched countless manly men hook their trucks up, only to break a rear axle at 150 ft, I realized that we knew three of the entrants. One was my girlfriend's dad who didn't get very far at all, another was a high school friend of mine, and lastly, was a friend of Mark's- however, he let his girlfriend drive his rig. Sweet.

None of them did well, but we were just happy that the idiots didn't break anything. In case any of you wonder what a nationally ranked tractor with jet engines attached to it looks and sounds like as it pulls a sled down a 300ft dirt tract....well, you're in luck.

TURN DOWN YOUR VOLUME (seriously- it's loud.)

It was so loud at the track that the stands we sat in actually shook. Thankfully, Mark's brother, Josh, was the smart one who packed a set of earphones for Dylan. Throughout the whole show, Dylan yelled things like: "Git er done!" and "Let er eat!" It's like the spirit of Larry the Cable Guy morphed into my sweet child for a few hours. I believe he may have been coached about what to say at these things prior to us going. Needless to say, he fit right in. Granted, he had more teeth than 90% of the people there, but he fit right in.

**You can click on any picture in this entry to enlarge it..in case you need more country**

Are We There Yet?

Flash Slideshow

It was forecasted to be a hot day today. So, instead of being hot at home, I thought it would be better to take a trip to the zoo. The trees in the zoo cover the majority of the paths, making it feel at least ten degrees cooler there than at home. The only bummer? My AC doesn't work in the car. We can deal with it though. It's a two hour trip, but with the DVD player, the kids barely notice.

One hour into the trip, I realized that I have not packed the correct DVD equipment. The kids started to squirm. I panicked and started handing out pretzels. The salt makes them thirsty. We hit traffic, and were stuck in it for over an hour. It was 97 and humid.

Once we got to the zoo, the mood did not lift. None of the animals were moving around because of the heat. We stopped at an eating area to revive the troops. Dylan happily munched on his orange, while Jordan grew oddly scared of his beloved birds while eating his pretzels, so insisted on keeping an eye on them at all times.

We had been there for a half an hour, and I wanted to go home already. We let Dylan look through one of those huge binocular things, and was pissed when he pulled his face away to find some chick before him had left glitter on the eye piece from her face painting.

Now that Dylan was thoroughly upset, isn't that a perfect time for take a family picture to document such a wonderous day? Yep. Some guy graciously offered to take our picture which ended up looking like me, the kids, and the floating head of Mark.

After a couple more miscellaneous pictures, we got some blue Icees, and called it a day. The drive home was quiet, as the kids were roasted into a good nap.

A total of five hours of driving for an hour of hot, smelly animal, walking. I did get a token photo of Dylan (in the top photoshow.) While he passed the polar bear exhibit, I got a good shot of him.

A Hundred Million

Mark and I love to camp, and we camped a few times when Dylan was a baby. We stuffed his travel crib into one of the side "rooms" of our fairly large tent, and were able to enjoy a bit of a vacation. As one may guess, since Jordan's arrival, we haven't been able to go camping at all. Mark was afraid that if he didn't start taking him while he is still young, Dylan might grow to not like camping. So, the two of them went on a trial run in our back yard this weekend. (Just in case)

Storms threatened to ruin their plans on Friday night, but stayed far enough away to continue with their excursion. (The thunder scares Dylan since our lightning strike) Dylan threw some odd combination of pajamas on. They packed up the red wagon with pillows, woobies, books, bug spray, and two way radios, and headed for the hill. As the sun set, I was able to see their silhouettes on the top of the hill. The lantern cast a faint glow, while Dylan's sparklers bounced around until finally burning out.

While I had strict orders to stay away from the boy's camp, I was given the second half of the two way radios. This came in handy for their emergency:

"Uh, Mama? Um, well... we really need some snacks up here."

Luckily for them, I had popcorn and blueberry muffins. I was able to snap a couple pictures before being completely banished to the house.

Mark told me that Dylan read each of his books, and then said that it was time to sleep.

Apparently it was a success. The next morning, Dylan proudly announced that they would be camping again that night, and "a hundred million more times."

Hot cha cha

To ensure the children wouldn't kill eachother in the heat yesterday, I took them to the playground first thing in the morning. The water mixed with the sand made for a perfect mess.

The water shooting from the colorful mat pops up in random order and intensity, startling Dylan every time without fail.

I let them run wild as we were the only ones there. When I felt that they were tired, thirsty, and dirty enough, we went for lunch.

Last night the kids were able to swim in the pool with Mark's mom while we bailed hay. We did about 300 bails in two hours. Not too bad seeing that the inside of the barn was easily 20 degrees hotter than outside.

Needless to say, all four of us crashed not too long after we got home. I won't complain too much, because I do realize there are people who live with this temperature much, much longer than we do. We are also going to have some cooler weather tomorrow.

Happiness = pruney fingers and toes

Dylan and I went to the beach on Sunday. It was the first time he had ever seen it. He could barely contain his excitement as he ran down to the ocean's edge. Although he was tenative at first, he squealed with delight when the first wave of water ran over his toes. He told me that he loved playing in "the sea."

Here are the very first moments of Dylan stepping into his sea where he remained for the rest of the day. (You may have to click on the pictures to enlarge them to see his face well)




There are a few more of the pictures in the photoshow above.

Bean people

Flash Slideshow

We took my sister back to Boston when her too-short trip came to an end. The weekend in a nut shell:

We left Saturday morning. It rained all day. I ate an egg sandwich, M&M’s, Doritos, Chinese food, Tiramisu, one cannoli, some pizza, and drank many, many beers.

Lauren apparently slept in her roommate’s bed. I woke up in Lauren’s bed at six o’clock Sunday morning- hungry.

We did a bunch of walking, site-seeing, and unfortunately on Sunday, more driving. We got home Sunday night.

I caught a cold (as Mark said I would with flip flops and a skirt in the rain) and miss my sister dearly, but I did manage to get some pictures. I had to be choosy because I never printed the previous pictures (211 of them in all) and my 256 MB card was screaming full.

Well, go ahead- poke him

I bet you'll never guess where we went today.

It was a spur of the moment trip to the zoo. We have a year-round pass- free parking, free admission, two guests admission, and all the pony, camel, swan boat, and balloon rides you can handle. We plan on wearing it right out this summer.

Dylan really had a good time, but seemed to go through the park like he was on a mission. "Monkeys, check. Now, lets' go see the polar bears." At the end of the day, he commented, "Okay, so we saw the flamingos. Next we go on the balloon, and we are done. I saw every animal."

Jordan was quite taken with the birds, roosters, chickens, peacocks, and pigeons which were roaming around freely. They didn't seem to be afraid of anyone, so they would walk right up to us. You can tell we aren't in the city much when Dylan sees a pigeon in the eating area, and asks, "Mama, what is that called?!" (Like it's another exhibit from the zoo) When I told him it was a pigeon, he replied, "A PIGEON?! Oh my Gosh! I LOVE pigeons! Hey little buddy." (Please take a moment to envision the expressions on people surrounding us)And it only got better when he saw one go into the garbage can, obviously looking for food. You could've heard him laugh a mile away.

So, let me explain some of the pictures.

Mark and Dylan took a ride on the huge balloon. I was certain that Dylan would throw up, or become terrified once he got up high enough. To my surprise, and delight, he loved every second of the ride.

For some reason, Jordan thought it was funny to walk around and look at birds with a piece of a granola bar hanging from the corner of his mouth. Maybe he was trying to lure one in, and keep it in his pocket until he got in the car for the long ride home. Obviously, it was funny.

Dylan's pose in front of the beautiful flowering bush- he's so bad ass with his sign language "I love you" pose. It's his biggest thing now.

All the other pictures are pretty well explanatory, except for the dead donkey. (My favorite) No, he's not really dead. But, all the kids at the zoo thought he was....

"Oh no, Daddy! That big dog is deaded!"
"Mommy, what's wrong with the horsey?"
"Poke him, dad"

70 and Sunny

We spent the entire day outside. After feeding lunch to the kids, we hopped into the truck, drove a few miles, and spent the afternoon at the park.

We found that Dylan is a natural at soccer. (Which is a good thing, seeing that we have signed him up for soccer in the fall)

After dinner, we went fishing at the pond behind our house. It's an easy walk (about 3/4 of a mile), and the kids love to look at the mountains and fields as we make our way there. Tonight Dylan caught his first fish. It was, this big! Ironically, the batteries in the camera died before I could take a picture.

Another note: Some family members have been asking for pictures. Instead of me making a trillion copies for everyone, click on any picture in the photoshow above. You may then click on "open photo in new window." Once you are on the photo page in Flickr, you may choose to "order prints," or (easier and free) click on "all sizes" to choose the size picture you like, download, and print them out on your computer. Ta-da! (Two pictures were added to the photoshow above from today.)

I'll have one pound of Liverwurst, and your finest hairspray, please.

Mark and I took the kids for a ride yesterday. We drove about 45 minutes to a town which has an incredible German deli around to pick up venison for a friend.

What really struck me by the place was the cleanliness of everything. There were two older Polish women working in the deli. They had their hair in bouffants. Not one hair was out of place. Their nails were perfectly manicured, and their lipstick- flawless.

I wish I had a camera, as I can show much better than I can tell. Bologna, bratwurst, kielbasa, knockwurst, sausage, and hams filled the deli cases. Two men walked in from the back carrying pans of freshly baked hams with pineapples covering the top. Both were clean shaven, wearing white aprons (not a speck of food) and white hats, sealing my confidence in their cleanliness.

I purchased three kielbasas before leaving. I watched as the woman carefully wrapped all of them separately in white butchers paper. As the woman rang me out, I watched the other woman slice bologna. The woman slicing did not have gloves on. This, shockingly, did not bother me. There were wooden figures for sale on a shelf behind the register, all whittled by hand. On the shelf to its right- pigs ears, I would never eat them, but the packaging was beautiful for pigs ears. Underneath that shelf held an entire collection of hair care products by Nivea, most notably- hairspray. Apparently, Nivea is a German product.

I really wish I had my camera. This doesn't do it any justice. I cooked the double smoked kielbasa when we got home. We were surprised to realize the house's biggest fan of kielbasa was Jordan.

Good Clean Fun

What a perfect day. Sure, the weather was horrible, but Mark and I thought we would take the kids to the park Sunday morning.

First we had to stop at the bank for some cash for our coffees. Next, we went to Starbucks. Do I really need to mention that anymore. How about you just assume that I go everyday unless otherwise noted. It'll save on the monotany. Anyway, we had to stop at the Donut Connection for Mark's fix as he doesn't like Starbucks. After all of the preparation, we finally made it to the park.

Turns out it wasn't such a great idea. Dylan went down the slide once and his entire backside was wet because of the light, misty rain. So, we all loaded back into the truck and got that blueberry muffin that Dylan had refused before because he didn't have time for it.

Once we were back on the road, we didn't feel like stopping. So, we didn't...not for a while anyway. We drove straight to New York. We didn't take the highway, so we were able to take in all of the beautiful fall colors. The boys were so well behaved.

We had lunch at TGIFridays when we got to New York, and later to a Barnes & Noble because we don't have one in our area.

Guess what is inside of the store....

Starbucks.

At Barnes & Noble's (I hope I'm spelling it right) I picked up my 2006 calendar for the house. Mark got a kick out of it because it's an old school pin up girl calendar. You know, when showing your ankles could get you arrested for indecency. Dylan got a few new books after pointing out the hairy guy in flip flops.

After we were thouroughly worn out, we jumped into the truck and headed home, stoppping a few times to take some odd pictures of places we passed in New York. (hence the Tasty Donut and laundromat)

Hey, Hay!

I know they're blurry, but I did the best I could- given the circumstances. Dylan's school had a field trip today to the pumpkin patch. It would have been great, but parents were required to stay with their kids, and I just could not have taken Jordan on a field trip with me. Instead, I cleaned my house all day while Dylan induldged in a little Cinderella watching. After watching a mouse run through my house yesterday, it threw me into full obsessive compulsive disorder. I scrubbed my kitchen floor for three hours. I have the carpal tunnel and chemical burns to prove it.

Anyway, to make up for the lost field trip, we took the boys on a hay ride with the tractor tonight. What a beautiful fall night for it as well. Both of the boys loved it, as expected. Dylan even became brave enough to join his father in driving the tractor.

We made it home just after watching the sunset, but with enough time to wash the diesel fuel smell from my hair so that I may be able to watch Martha with no distractions.