Life in a Small Town

The Shark Navgator. It Really Sucks!

You know how when you go to a funeral and you're sitting there at the post service meal and everybody is just about done crying and they are doing the whole trying not to cry thing?  And then inevitably somebody starts the round of "remember when _______ did this . . . " stories and they are usually incredibly ridiculous and hilarious?  This is that story that you can use at my funeral.  Now I have no intentions of departing this world anytime soon, but one never knows when "the role will be called up yonder" for them, so I thought I'd better share this story now instead of you having to hear it first hand from my hubby at the dinner.

I got this cute little vacuum about a year ago.  It is such a cute little vacuum, how much trouble could this cute little thing be?  Well let me tell you . . . . as those of you who know me well know, I am a tad OCD when it comes to cleaning and what have you.  Wednesday I was cleaning our living room and trying desperately to get all the beloved pets' fur off of our couch, this is a neverending task.  Things were going along well until somehow my hair and the "Pet Hair Turbo Power Brush" met.  For those of you who have never seen this handy little attachment in action I can assure you it has a power like none other!  It's crazy how this thing works.  It is awesome . . . on furniture.  For hairstyling, not so much.  Well, it went right ahead and sucked my hair quite effectively into it's super high speed beater brush there by just about giving me one huge bald spot as well as slamming against my forehead.  I turned off the super cute purple vacuum and called for backup.  "Backup" wanted to know if he should get the camera!  Luckily before he even arrived to "help" I had already removed my hair from the death grip of the Pet Hair Turbo Power Brush.  So, there is not photographic evidence that this happened.  I did a quick check of my head to make sure I didn't have a bald spot and resumed cleaning because I am a trooper.  I thought all was well until later that night when my forehead began to hurt.  I felt my forehead and sure enough, there was a bump on it and it hurt like mad.  It is now Friday and my forehead still is hurting from the above incident.  And my "backup"?  How is he doing?  Oh just great, he is researching articles on the computer and telling me I may have a case to sue just like this person he found on-line.  (he is kidding). 

Compassion runs shallow at our home.  

So, there's my story.  You can all sit around and say "Remember the time Melanie's head got sucked into the vacuum?"

Here's hoping your weekend doesn't suck.

There's the lady who had her picture taken with Kyle Brady

This was one of those weekends that you wish would not end, but sadly here I sit at 10:09 pm blogging about the fun coming to an end :( 

Friday night started was spent chaperoning the Middle School Valentine's dance.  Oh let me tell you . . . I was never so glad to NOT be back in school as I was while chaperoning that dance.  Whew . . . what an awkward social time in one's life Middle School is.  Yikes.  Had a good time, though.  I am sure I'll be chaperoning again soon.

Saturday we headed to the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show with our good friends, John and Lynn.  We had a great time.  Laughed a lot.  Walked a lot.  Ate a lot.  We were sitting at the Comcast area just chillin' and relaxing and Jason saw somebody that he thought was famous because "look at those shoes".  No joke.  The men and Lynn figured it out to be Kyle Brady.  I am not a Jets fan, but since I work for PSU, I am a big PSU fan.  Soooo, Lynn dared me to ask him for a photo.  Never one to miss a potential chance of making a fool of myself, I walked up to him and asked to have a picture taken with him.  I know how all famous people LOVE to be bugged.  He agreed and his manager/PR dude asked if why I didn't ask for his picture.  I told him he could join us in the picture, but he just laughed.  Well, I did not get my picture with Kyle or his PR guy, but Lynn did.  My PR person, aka hubby, did not get the photo because when I wanted to get my photo Kyle's PR guy said, "We are at booth #____ (can't remember), so please stop by for a photo and autographed items."  In other words saying, "Look, we aren't doing this for free any longer."  Since, as stated previously, I am not a Jets fan, I passed.  First of all I had NO coupon (and I am the coupon queen) to get that deal cheaper and second, he didn't play for the Eagles.  So, we moved on to our next fun thing at the Sport Show.  :)

Our next fun thing was Hannah not feeling well and wanting to go to the truck to rest.  We made it as far as the Small Arena where we stopped to enjoy the dog training show.  It was quite brief, but long enough for her to miraculously feel a bit better.  On our way to the truck, before we got sidetracked to the Small Arena, I passed a guy and he said, "There's the lady that got her picture taken with Kyle Brady."  I was busting up.  I find it odd that anybody would remember me at all and even odder that it was tied to that picture with Kyle Brady that never happened!  So, clearly they had me confused with Lynn who is way more famous than me because she got her picture taken with Kyle and Michael Waddell.  Clearly she is the person to hang with if you want to meet a famous person!

Grandpa, check out my massive quantity of cotton candy!!!
Lynn's BFF, Kyle Brady.



This appears to be a trap to catch Big Foot.  This would make a great gift for John.  John and J would not pose for a picture with this enormous trap.

Had a great day.  Hated to see it end.

Sunday, we chilled out for most of the day.  Didn't go to Sunday School or Church because Hannah wasn't feeling well the evening before and so we all slept in.  Had a great Valentine's meal with a fabulous dessert.  Had a nice visit with MIL.  Visited with J's brother, SIL and kids.  Then took Jack with us on a walk with the dogs.  And finally got to meet dear, sweet Mischief :)

It was a great weekend.  Unfortunately, tomorrow is Monday.  Blah . . . Here's hoping everybody has a great week. 

The Bible According to Hannah

Tonight during Hannah's devotion time we were reviewing the 10 Commandments.  We get to the 10th Commandment and I said, "Hannah, what do you think it means to not covet your neighbor's house?"

"You mean with toilet paper?"

"Um, no honey.  It's 'covet' not 'cover'."

Never a dull moment, even during devotions when it comes to Hannah.

Business Professionals Day

Today is Business Professionals Day at school.  Ooops, I mean picture day.  I just think Hannah looks so darn cute today.  Like she is going for a job interview or something.  She hates her new haircut so we had to curl, curl, curl to acheive some sort of look that was minimally acceptable by 8 year old standards.  Here's hoping the pics at school turn out better than our quick photo shoot before school.

 
 
 
 
 

All Access Pass to Fun!

Yesterday I neglected to securely close this cutie pie's crate door:

Let me tell you, he took full advantage of being home alone.  It appears he had the most fun in Katie's room:

YARN!  Oh what fun.  Let's see how many rooms this yearn can go through. (not sure why the picture won't upload in the correct format)

I hope she didn't want to finish this scarf.

So much yarn, so little time.

My boot began beside his crate, which is in our office/laundry room/multipurpose room which is in the back of the house and downstairs.  Katie's room is in the front of the house, upstairs.  So, let's follow the red yarn trail now, shall we?

From Katie's room, through the spare room.  Oh and look, there's the toilet paper. 

Took this off the hope chest in the spare room.

Yarn running down the stairs . . .

. . . through the kitchen.  Yep, that's more toilet paper and a throw rug.  And a hole in our floor that's been there forever, but usually strategically covered by that rug :)

From the kitchen into the dining room and . . .

around the dining room table a few times just for more fun!

This is our room.  My coat belongs downstairs.  Not sure how he got it off the coat tree.  That TV belongs in the attic with the yard sale crap treasures.  Those snow pants need to go to the attic too.  He did not move that stuff, I  just need to clean up our room.

There is our garbage can and it had a garbage bag in it, but he had fun with that too.  There is our remote to our TV.  But he didn't destroy the charger to the laptop, so he's not so bad!

"Let me out.  I am not done having fun!"

Jason was the first to find this mess when he got home from work.  He called me and honestly I expected worse.  I couldn't stop laughing as I walked through the house and saw mess upon mess.  Truth is, it could have been a lot and I do mean A LOT worse.  No furniture was destroyed.  Nothing expensive was ruined.  He ruined a pair of Jason's "mandals" (as J's brother refers to them as), which were on a shelf with 2 pairs of Columbia hiking shoes and 2 pairs of Nike sneakers.  So, at least he picked the least expensive footwear to destroy.  And, Hannah's bedroom door was shut so he didn't have access to that room or this would have been way worse! 

He did also have a full diet of cat poop from the litter box.  That is super gross.  Plus there was dog pee on the kitchen floor, but we think that was from Dakota because that dog is a nervous nelly and I am sure he was peeing out of sheer fear that they'd all be deported to some desserted island when we got home. I can only imagine Dakota watching Cooper thinking, "Stop it you moron!"

That's our life with pets . . . you never know what's going to happen when you leave the house.  When Jason called to tell me about this mess I was trying not to laugh and then when we hung up the song "1999" by Prince came on the radio and I just busted up because I had visions of Cooper ransacking the house and now those images were set to, "So tonight we're going to party like it's 1999" . . . too much not to laugh.

On a more positive note the kitchen and bathroom floors got scrubbed last night and both dogs got baths.  Now this weekend I'll deep clean the carpets because the thought of them running through the house after peeing in the kitchen grosses me out.  So, this has forced me to clean more than I wanted to this weekend, but it's all good and all clean.

 

 

Snow Day #2

We had another snow day on Wednesday.  For some reason the excitement wears off a bit after day one.  Hmmm . . . could it be there is little to do or could it be that I was greeted with a very wet basement that needed my immediate attention?  What a joy it is to wet vac the basement for an hour and a half and haul the world's heaviest vacuum up the basement stairs about a million times to empty the water.  Yep, it was super fun.  Why on earth could I not have discovered the flooded basement BEFORE I completed my "30 Day Shred" workout for the day?  I would not have needed it because the "Flooded Basement Shred" is quite an effective workout.

The really ironic thing is that on Sunday while I was in Sunday School I found this verse and thought it would be perfect to hang on the fridge to encourage the kids to not complain when they have chores.  You know, because only the kids need this kind of encouragement.  I am always a wealth of positive, encouraging energy when I am washing dishes.  Folding laundry.  Cleaning up dog poop.  Yeah, that's me.  Miss Ray-of-Sunshine 24/7.  Just ask my parents.  Or not.  Ok, you can ask my best friend, Bobbi.  No, maybe not.  Okay, just take my word for it.  At any rate, here is the verse:

Do everything without complaining or arguing.  Philippians 2:14

So, while I was in the basement sucking up gallons of water and feeling not so very positive, this verse came to mind and I had to smile.  Yes, I firmly believe that when we try to make a positive change there is one who will test us at every corner, even if it is in the form of a flooded basement.

But, oh isn't the ice storm lovely?

 
 

Snow Day!!!!

We had a snow day on Tuesday and what better way to spend the snow day then, well, in the snow!  So, we headed to PePa and MeMa's for some sledding excitement.

First there was the realization that the car may not accomodate the large tube, but where there is a will there is a way and hey, she is probably the safest person in the car at this point:

 

Then there was the need to ham it up for the camera:

 
We finally arrived at our destination.  We got off to a rough start:

 

But once we got rolling, there was no stopping the fun:

 

 
 
Unfortunately the walk back to the top is not nearly as fun as the slide down the hill:

 

But, if the walk makes you tired, you can always take a brief rest.  In the snow.  Face first:

 
And if at the end of a snow day your child looks like this:

 
You must seek medical attention quickly because clearly at this point, the cabin fever is in it's advanced stages and may be terminal!

All in all, it was a great time and we really enjoyed our visit with PePa, MeMa, Aunt Cheryl and puppy Bella. 

The Clarinet Lesson

 

Last night Katie had County Band try-outs.  She was so nervous.  As many of you know, this young lady is a perfectionist.  It has to be done right and perfectly and if it is not, well, then it's not good enough.  So, she had it in her mind and on her heart that she had to get the coveted first clarinet, first chair. 

While she was at try-outs she noticed a young 7th grade man in the corner and he appeared nervous.  She put aside her own nervousness and her own concentration on the try-outs and approached the young man.  In so doing she discovered that he had practiced and had in hand the wrong music.  So she quickly briefed him on the correct music and helped him learn it the best he could in an abbreviated time frame.  In addition, to the incorrect music, she also discovered that  a portion of his Clarinet was broken.  Did she walk away and say, "Too bad for you, dude."?  Nope, in true Katelin fashion she let him borrow the portion of her Clarinet to remedy the problem.

So, how did Katelin do at the try-outs?  She made second Clarinet (I think) and she does not remember what chair.  She was so dissappointed in what she deemed a " bad night".  I couldn't have been more proud of her.  To me, it truly doesn't matter if she was declared "the best Clarinetist of all time", she was a bigger winner to me because she saw beyond herself and helped out a person in need.  And I am sure that young man will remember that moment for years to come.  It makes me step back and examine my own life and see if I am looking beyond msyelf to others who may be in need with a broken clarinet, playing the wrong music.  The lessons we learn from our kids can be invaluable.  

I love you, Katie!  You are young lady of GREAT character!!!!

Kaden's 5th Birthday Party

Last night the girls and I attended Kaden's 5th birthday party!  (Jason was still hunting when we left for the party.  He did not get a deer.)  I can hardly believe my oldest nephew is FIVE!  Whew . . . time sure flies.

Mom made this super cute cake.

Kaden blowing out the candles.  The first time around Ethan blew them out for Kaden and that did not go over well with the birthday boy.  So, on take two it took Kaden quite a few attempts to blow out the candles.  It was pretty entertaining.

All the kids.  This is pretty much the best pic I could get.

And this is what happens when you leave your camera on the back seat with Hannah on the drive home.  She takes pictures of your iPhone.  Too funny.

We had a great time celebrating Kaden's birthday.  Happy Birthday, Kaden.  We love you very much.

 

Tomorrow morning, 10:00 AM Santa arrives. SANTA!!!!!

So today we had breakfast with Santa at 9:00 a.m.  It was a fun event that the Middle School Student Council organized.  And since Katie is the Student Council president, Hannah and I attended the breakfast.  There was face painting, games, prizes and of course Santa himself made an appearance.

Katie and Hannah deciding on the design to be painted on Hannah's hand.

Hmmm, what did they decide upon?

It's a beautiful Christmas tree.

Michaelann applying a snowman tattoo to Hannah's hand.  While this was happening Hannah's raffle ticket number was called. 

Oh the excitement.  She got ubuild Sorry!  We are very excited to play this game.

Socializing with a friend.

Santa arriving.

Hannah visiting Santa.  The only thing she said she wanted for Christmas was an iPod!  Santa said, "Is that it?"  She said, "Yep."  He said, "Well that's a great idea."  Thanks Santa!  LOL :)

We had a fun time having breakfast with Santa.  Now we are resting before we go to Kaden's FIFTH birthday party.  FIVE!  How on earth can this boy be 5 already? 

Hope you're enjoying your Saturday.