Band concert

This was Sarah's first band concert playing the bass clarinet. Here are some pictures of her and her friends.

Christmas Cheer performance

Sarah's cheerleading

We finally got a better video of Sarah cheering at the last BB game. She loves to cheer. This week has been very busy for her. She has 3 games, 2 horseback shows, 3 tests, clarinet lesson, and 2 papers to start on. Whew!! All this plus the holidays, Wow.

The tree is Up

We decided to put up our Christmas tree and decorate the house last weekend. It was enjoyable to work together but it was a ton of work. Brian and I both have backaches from lifting all those heavy boxes, but the house looks awesome. Hopefully we can decorate outside before Christmas.

cheerleading

Sarah had her first basketball game that she cheered at. I think all the girls were exhausted when they were done. They cheer for the girls team then the boys team. All in all they cheered for at least 2 hours. The girls did really well. unfortunately our teams both lost. Her are some pix and video. I hope to get better video when the game is at home.

Cat Fight

The cats are definetely enjoying each other. They love to wrestle and fight. It is fun to watch and they sure do get going. They run all over the house stalking each other and attacking each other.

new fireplace

Brian and the girls decided to finish the fireplace in style. The fireplace usually is just open and we had to keep a screen in front of it so the cats didn't play in there. We bought a set of glass doors that looks great especially when the fire is on. Here are some pix.

We are now working on re-doing the half bath. Pictures will be coming soon.

Trick or Treat

The girls had a great time trick or treating. We decide to go to our friend's home, the Duncans, for beggars night. The girls got their usual stash of candy which is way too much but I am sure they can find a few helpers to eat it up. After the trick or treating, we had a fire and roasted marshmallows and hung out for a while. It was fun. Here are some pictures.

Pumpkin Carving

We finally carved our pumpkins. Usually the whole ordeal takes about 2-3 hours but we actually finished in an hour and a half. I think this was becasue the girls can do most of the carving on their own and also because Brian decided not to do an intricate ohio state design on his pumpkin this year. Sometimes I wonder who is having more fun, Brian or the girls. He brought out the hand tools this year which created a bit more of a mess but it was fun. Emily's design was artistic as expected with her pumpkin eating a piece of itself, Sarah's says Trick or Treat, Brian's and mine are both just faces. Here are some pictures of the carving process and the finished products.

cheerleading

Well, I never thought I would see the day that one of my girls was doing cheerleading but Sarah has made the cheer squad at Cypress. Now this team does not do the big stunts and all but they are good. There are 12 girls on the squad and try-outs were last week. Sarah had to work very hard to learn a new cheer and a dance routine. As soon as she gets her uniform I will post pictures. Congrats to Sarah!!!

Belpre Horseback Show

Today, Sarah and I woke up at 5 am to travel down to Belpre, Ohio for a horseshow. As most of her shows go, we waited until around 2:30 in the afternoon for her to ride. This time she drew a wonderful horse named shifty. He behaved beautifully. After all the riders in her class performed the requirements the girls were asked to line up facing away from the judge so she could see the number on their back. There were 9 riders lined up. The announcer calls Sarah's number and asks her to walk forward. This has never happened before. We didn't know what to think. Sarah thought she was disqualified for some reason. Next the announcer requested all riders to Sarah's left start walking along the fence rail with Sarah. Suddenly all 9 riders started to go. These poor girls were so nervous they couldn't tell their right from their left. The coaches were yelling for them to stop and halt. It was quite amusing. The judge wanted to watch smaller groups so she could better assess their skills. I loved this idea. Anyway, when it was all said and done Sarah got a second place out of nine riders. Yeah!!!
We had a rather exciting day. One of her temamates (who seems to have a ton of bad luck) was going to jump over 2 foot fences. This girl had a great horse and they both looked great on the practice fences, but when she started over the first fence in competition the horse stutter stepped and she leaned to the left and couldn't recover. The stir-up on her left broke free as it is supposed to do and she fell. She landed very hard on the ground and hit the back of her head pretty hard. She wanted to re-ride because she thought it was an equipment malfunction but the judge said no. She was upset but it was for the better considering she hit her head. Thankfully there were 2 physicians to check on her. About an hour later she started to feel weird and lethargic so a squad was called to pick her up. We haven't heard the what the findings were.
Here are some videos from the show.

Computers are Cool!

Had a few extra minutes after lunch today so I thought I would look into how they do those cool photos where everything is black & white except for a few things. Thought it was pretty good for my first attempt even if the computer did do all the work.

(Click on image for larger version)

Cross Country Invitational

Sarah had her first cross country meet last night. We had been questioning whether or not she should run because she has been healing an injured foot. Her heel started to hurt last week again so we put her back into her walking boot and kept her out of cross country practice. Before the meet she was in minimal pain, but after she was in tears from the pain. She ran hard and finished the race but unfortunately this is her last meet for this year because of her heel. She didn't finish as well as she wanted and we didn't get a chance to check her final time. We need to keep her healthy for horseback riding because she has a HB compettion in 2 weeks. Here are some pictures.

New Patio

Well, we finally got our new front patio put in. So far we love it. A few months ago the basement started leaking and we had to rip out one of the walls. We thought it would be just a simple problem of basement waterproofing when in fact it was a soil grading issue outside. Anyway, after many recommendations, we decided that a cement patio would solve all the problems and give me the front porch I have always wanted. Now we have to decide how we are going to decorate our new outdoor space. The last thing to do is to put the basement back together which will be a good winter project. Brian and I have already decided that a condo after retirement is looking fabulous; no home projects. Here are some pictures of our new patio.

Horseback Show

This past Sunday Sarah had her first horseback show of the year. Once again we are faced with much frustration about the season. This is probably the only sport that we can think of where you pay a huge amount to participate and you get little return. Anyway, at the draw (which is a lottery to see what horse you will be riding in the show) Sarah randomly selected "Peter" and her good friend selected "Joey" who just happens to be one of our coaches horses. Sounds fair so far, huh? Sarah and her friend both know Joey very well. Sarah's group had 9 riders in it. That is to say one judge is evaluating all 9 riders at the same time. Sarah's horse was very spirited and difficult to keep under control. She had some difficulty but did a great job at controlling him. By the time Sarah showed it was 3 pm and all the horses were tired and irritated. BTW, we had been thre since 9:30am. We video taped Sarah and she looked great. Both Sarah and her friend made the same mistake and let their horses change gait. It just so happens that the judge only saw Sarah's mistake. When the results came up, we were bewildered. She placed 6th out of nine. Her friend placed first. Sarah was disappointed but happy for her friend. We are all frustrated with the system and chaos of the shows, however Sarah loves her horses so I think we are in it for a while. Here are some pictures of Sarah from the show.

Emily's Birthday

Wow, Emily is 9 years old. I can hardly believe that I have a third grader. Actually she is going on 21. She had some of her friends over on Saturday for a Webkinz party. We made clothes, hats, collars and beds for each webkin. The girls had a blast.

Labor Day Spontaneity

My husband never ceases to surprise me. He is so spontaneous that I have to be on my toes all the time just to keep up. Today is no exception. I sent him to the store for 2 items and what happened next should not have been a surprise to me. He came home with a disposable charcoal grill. How he found this and why our large new gas grill is not sufficient, I do not know. So off we went to Battelle-Darby creek park for a "cook-out". The park was very crowded but we found a little spot for our stuff. Brian lit up the little charcoal grill and got to cooking. About 45 minutes later our hamburgers were finished and we finally got to eat. The girls will remember this experience forever. They enjoyed all the bugs and dirt, not to mention the heat. Thankfully, we had no out of control fires and everyone returned home safely after we did a bit of creeking in the big darby. These pictures should tell it all.

Game Day

Parking - $10

ATM Fee - $3
OSU Earrings - $8
OSU Sunglasses - $10
2 Tickets from scalper - $110
Hotdogs, nachos and drinks @ The Shoe - $27
Spending the day with your daughter at her first Buckeye game......

PRICELESS!!

Go Bucks!! OSU 43 - Youngstown St. 0

Post Game Carmen Ohio - Video

Water We Gonna Do?

Before:

After:

No, I do not have the before and after pictures reversed. This is what my basement looks like after some water found its way in. Actually the after picture is on the opposite wall so all the home entertainment stuff and my drums are still safe and sound on the other side.

Clogged gutters, foundation graded poorly whatever the cause, it resulted in my tearing the entire wall down to see what was going on. Evidently the buffoon who lived here prior had some water issues with this wall based on his attempt to paint over some cracks. Also had some W's and D's written on the walls between the studs. Liz figured the W = Wet and the D = Dry, which made sense since all of the W's were on the patched (right) side.

I have cleared the gutters and will be installing some gutter guards followed by some back breaking digging to fix the grading (slope) at the foundation. After I finish the outside I can move back inside to fix all the drywall, drop ceiling, carpet padding,... I tore out. All this just in time for football season!

I did get some more drywalling experience last weekend when I drywalled the garage.
Still have some sanding and painting to do.....

Maybe someday I can get my own 'This Old House' tv show and show people how to fix things with the wrong or borrowed tools and 8 trips to the Home Depot.

School Begins

Today is the first day of school. The girls are excited to see there friends but much less excited to have any homework. Sarah is starting 7th grade and will have a tough year with pre-algebra and advanced math along with all her other classes. Emily is starting 3rd grade and is a bit nervous about getting older and having more responsibilities. Here they are:

Art Project?

Well, I had the idea of allowing the girls to paint a large piece of fabric outside. Perhaps they would make a mural or other picture. The girls had other ideas. They decided to splatter paint. Not only is the fabric a brillant masterpiece, our fence and and the girls were painted as well. Here are some pictures.

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What will the neighbors think!?

Since I hate to mow I thought I might as well add something to the yard to make it more interesting. The 90+ degree heat may be getting to me (adopting a new cat and now a trampoline in the yard). Actually the girls have been wanting a trampoline for a long time and even saved up their allowance and did a few extra chores to help pay for it. It arrived on Monday and only took 2.5 hours in 90 degree heat and 80% humidity to assemble.

Gone swimming

The girls and I decided to try a new park that we had heard about. We were excited because we had heard that there was a waterfall and a place to swim in the pond and do some creeking. We were surprised to find such a wonderful place in columbus. We had a great time. Next time we plan on taking dad.

New Haircut

Emily decided to get a new look for the upcoming school year. I was certainly afraid that she was going to hate it, but thankfully she loves it!

Another Meowth to Feed

Yesterday we saved a cat from the Capital Area Humane Society so that he can enjoy the rest of his life getting squirted with water bottles, sprayed by SSSCat , lovingly called "Cat!", chased and prodded by visiting children and fighting for his place with Elliot (our other "mostly" lovable feline). Ever place a piece of tape on the back paw of a cat? The girls tell me that is why the cat(s) don't like me, but it is fun to watch :)

Anyway, the new member of the family is named Spencer and we hope he and Elliot can become friends (otherwise I spent $70 to hear screeching and hissing all hours of the day and night). So far they have done pretty well. Both cats are pretty mellow so they are just slowly checking each other out and getting acquainted.

Here are a couple of photos of Spencer: He is about 3 years old and front de-clawed.

(hope that green pupil thing isn't contageous)

Summer Fun!!

This summer has been busy and very fun. The girls were saying this is the best summer they have ever had. Some of the highlights for us have been going to Cedar Point with our best friends, trying out a drive-in movie, our pool party,berry picking in Urbana with friends and our fourth of July party. We have enjoyed spending alot of time with all our friends this summer. Here are a few pictures from our adventures.

Cedar Point

4th of July



Berry Picking


Swim Party/Sleepover