Happy Independance Day!

We had our annual 4th of July picnic/mini family reunion at a park in Penn Yan today. It was an absolutely perfect day with lots of bright sunshine, and temperatures around 80 degrees. My Uncle Chuck has put together several rather challenging bicycles to ride.Here is Dave trying one out. The frame is upside down so the pedals and seat are much higher.

This is Ben (Martha's son) trying another.

This is one that I hope to see at next years picnic. Doesn't it look fun?

Water Balloon War!

Tonight we had some friends over that we have known for many years. Michael found some water balloons, and the kids decided to have a water balloon war. What fun they had! It was a refreshing end to a muggy day.

Dave was the official water balloon knot tier.

The kids filling their water balloons. Michael and Jonathan fight for the next spot in line.

Michael laughing after he was blasted with a water balloon.

Cherries and cool air...ahhhh!

This morning Dave and I went sweet cherry picking. Yummy! When we returned home there was Adam (Bethany's hubby) hooking up our central air. Thanks Adam!

The Dog Whisperer

Koty LOVES to watch The Dog Whisperer, but Dave and I have decided that maybe it isn't the best show for him to be watching. After all, the dogs on there have some pretty serious issues. Last night we pulled him out from in front of the TV and put him in his crate to go night night. Are we meanies for not letting him watch his favorite TV show?

Happy Birthday Dave!

Today Dave turned 40! It's hard to believe that he's 40 already. Time sure does fly!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there!

The Pool is Open!

Dave had to repair some leaks in our solar panels. No matter how well we try to drain the water from them at the end of the summer, we must not get it all because there's always a leak to repair. I hate it when he has to go up on the roof like that.
The boys had fun rough housing on the tube. They were so happy to get in the pool today after 2 very hot, humid days. Tomorrow and Monday are also supposed to be hot. (in the 90's)
Koty decided that he was tired of being hot too, and he went for a ride on the tube and then for a swim. He seemed very relaxed about it, and is quite the good little swimmer! I wish I could've gotten a good picture of him swimming, but he was so fast and I didn't have my camera ready.

Koty goes to the beach again...

"I think this is close enough to the water"

"No way, I'm NOT going in there!"

"Oh, I don't know if I like this...it sure is cold."

Koty decides that he likes to walk in the water

Koty is pooped after his trip to the beach

Help Me Rhonda!

This morning I decided to work my abs to a dvd I have (I used to do this all the time...now not so much, but I am determined to do better!). A couple of months ago we got a new plasma tv, now things aren't quite as simple as they once were. I sat there for 15 minutes trying to figure out how to play my dvd. Finally I called Dave at work and he walked me through it. When I finished my workout and went to turn off the equipment, I couldn't even turn it off. I called Dave again and he tried to walk me through it, but I still couldn't turn it off. Technology is so frustrating! I liked things when they were much simpler.

I think I'm getting old

On Friday Dave, Steven, and I were in the car driving to an appointment, and Steven looks at me and tells me that my teeth are yellow. Today someone tells me I have sun damaged skin on my face...OUCH! I need to tell my boss what Steven said so that she gives me a free power whitening, after all I am a Dental Hygienist and I shouldn't be modeling yellow teeth to our patients. There's really nothing I can do about all those years that I abused my skin by tanning....wahhhhh, I'm getting old! Okay, I'm done now, thanks for listening. By the way, I know that my eyebrows need plucking in a really bad way in this picture so NO ONE better comment about that, and the nose hairs either...okay?!

A New Do

Recently I decided that I really need to change my hairdo, so I found a website where I can try different hairstyles on to see what looks best.



Dave likes the longer hairstyle. I think the shorter ones look surprisingly good. How about dreadlocks? (jk) What do you think looks best? I am definitely going to grow my bangs much longer so that I can push them to one side.

Cookies!

My taste buds are very happy right now. After reading Martha's blog today, I decided to try making cake cookies too. I put mini chocolate chips and some chopped walnuts in mine. Mmmm yummy!

Durand Eastman

Today it was so beautiful that I decided to take Koty for a walk along the bike path at Durand Eastman Park.
The bike path goes along Lake Ontario for quite a ways. Of course there was plenty of sand, which Koty had never seen before. He was very curious about it at first...sniffing it, tasting a little, sniffing some more, and then sneezing. It was very cute to watch him. I thought he would love to get his feet wet, but the waves were splashing so he was a little nervous to get too close.


Part of the path crosses a marshy area and goes off into the woods. It's very pretty, but I was nervous to go into the woods with just my little doggie by my side, so we turned around.

Happy Mother's Day

Today was a beautiful day to celebrate the day with our moms. We had another wonderful and treasured family picnic. I think our moms really enjoyed the day, and there was PLENTY of food to be eaten. I am very blessed to have a wonderful mom and a wonderful mother in law. Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!
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A baby in a bucket

Since my niece, Bethany, is posting babies in buckets, I will post this picture of Mikey in a bucket. He fell into this bucket at my mother in laws and couldn't get out. She quickly snapped this photo before helping him.

My dog eats everything he can get his little mouth on! 13 things my dog eats for Thursday 13...
1. sticks
2. leaves
3. dried worms off the driveway
4. cement pieces off of our unfinished fireplace
5. blankets (he will actually chew it like it's gum and swallow it if I'm not paying attention)
6. dirt balls
7. grass
8. money (Dave took a penny out of his mouth yesterday)
9. plant material that has blown off trees in the yard
10. paper
11. strings off his tug toy (there are none left on it)
12. stuffing out of his cushie pillow that goes in his crate (he can't have this anymore)
13. more sticks

This dog acts like he's starving, but we feed him plenty...honest!

Baptism

Yesterday I was very happy to get to witness the baptisms of Dave , Michael, and Steven!! It was so awesome to see not only my husband make this public statement that he has given his life to Christ (23 yrs ago, but never baptized after) and is committed to follow him, but also my children. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures because they wouldn't have turned out good due to the distance I would've had to take them from.

Are these MY kids...wiiieeerd!

Tonight Steven and Michael wanted to show us something they learned at Wyldlife. Wyldlife is a group of Middle School kids that get together at someones house to sing crazy songs, do silly skits, listen to a life application Bible lesson...and of course eat. Dave's mother just happened to have a box of rubber gloves she uses for cleaning. The boys saw the gloves, each brought one home, and just had to do this. They put a glove on their head and blow through their nose until the glove pops. It's quite a sight, don't ya think?

"Hello, I'm Home!"

Today when I got home from work (around 4:30pm) this is what our dinette table looked like. It looked nothing like this when I left this morning. The table was clear and the boys were eating their hot bran muffins here when I left. Lets see if I can count 13 things there, after all it IS Thursday thirteen...
1. The newspaper
2. Michael's homework
3. A box of popsicle sticks for crafts
4. Some plastic bags from Petco that have been emptied.
5. Koty's frizbee
6. A box of colored pencils
7. Another container of colored pencils
8. The packaging to a dog toy
9. A design book
10. Steven's mechanical pencil
11. A package of Teddy Grahams
12. A choke collar
13. Michael's package of ortho bands
14. The lap top
15. and a heel sander from Dave to me. He says that he got an abrasion on his leg last night while he was sleeping next to me. He's such a funny guy, isn't he?
The table got unburied right after I took this photo, and it was set for dinner. I wish that I had my kids (and husband) trained to pick up really quick when they hear the garage door go up when I get home (jk), although Dave was busy cleaning the garage. (which I'm sure looks great by now!)

Scut Farkus?

Have any of you seen the movie, "A Christmas Story"? Doesn't Michael resemble Scut Farkus here? I think we should beat him up! Lol!

Raining Cats and Dogs

We just had a big thunderstorm. The rain came off the roof so hard that it washed the dirt from our front garden, right onto our sidewalk.

Dare I show you this?

Wouldn't it give you a headache if you opened your refrigerator and it looked like the one on the left below? Today I have tackled one of my least favorite jobs. I don't know why I let this happen to my refrigerator in the first place. I think the one on the right looks much better, don't you?
Now I am going to go out in the 83 degree weather and ride bikes with my kids!!
By the way, that's not ketchup on the top shelf. That is Dave's famous homemade BBQ sauce. It's his very own recipe, and it's delicious!

Home from Amish Country

This weekend we went to visit Dave's brother and his wife, and their 2 kids in Lancaster County, PA. It was a beautiful weekend. We went to see the movie, "Expelled" with them on Friday night. It was a very good movie, and I would highly recommend it! Shopping in Amish Country is always very fun for me too. I could spend days touring the pottery shops, quilting shops, and looking at the country furniture and accessories. My sister in law is wonderful and patient to take me shopping, especially since that kind of stuff isn't her taste. Just hanging out with the family is nice and relaxing. Koty enjoyed playing with their new rescue dog, Emi. Here he is playfully biting her ear. It didn't hurt her...really! Look at her smile! They really did very well together which was nice for both of them. Now he's walking around the house trying to figure out what to do. Poor Koty. Maybe Emi will come for a visit soon!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today is my dad's 76th birthday, I can hardly believe it! Tonight we brought an ice cream cake and visited for a while. Here are a few things about my dad:
1. He has done volunteer work in several different nursing homes for about 28 yrs or so.
2. He is very practical. He and my mom never even owned a microwave until just the last year or two ago, and still don't own a dishwasher.
3. He is very kind.
4. He never spanked me, but I still feared him. (a healthy fear)
5. I loved the way he read to us when we were kids...he used lots of expression.
6. I can remember hearing him pray before his devotions. I always felt very secure.
7. I always knew he loved us.
8. He had polio when he was 6 yrs. old so he has one leg that's quite a bit shorter then the other.
9. He wears a lift on one shoe.
10. He loves to tell (and I love to hear) some of the funny stories from his childhood years.
11. He only had one sibling, and he died of cancer in his 30's.
12. His favorite ice cream flavor is vanilla.
13. He loves my mom!

I love you dad!

Happy Birthday Mikey!

Today my littlest boy is 13 years old. I can hardly believe it. Here are 13 things about Mikey...

1. He has always been a little on the shy side.
2. He was always hugging my leg or tugging on my pants pockets when he was little.
3. He can be pretty noisy at times now, but he used to be so quiet.
4. He loves to be waited on.
5. His best friends are Steven and Kaleb.
6. He's does a beautiful job on all of his school projects. I'm always so impressed.
7. He LOVES NASCAR, and his favorite driver is Jeff Gordon
8. He is sometimes a procrastinator.
9. He likes to play games, and he likes to win.
10. He loves corn muffins.
11. He's not a big lunch eater...sometimes he'll just take some sliced peppers and a cheese stick.
12. He LOVES junk food.
13. He constantly tells us how blessed he is to have us as parents, which makes me feel very loved.

Finished

Steven finished his afghan tonight, and I must say, he did a beautiful job! It is nice and big. I keep thanking him for making me such a nice blanket (he didn't really make it for me).

Spring

I think Koty is just as happy as we are that the temperature is warming up. It means more time outside off the leash, being played with. He is definitely part Golden Retriever...even though he looks more similar to a Cocker Spaniel. He always has to have a stick in his mouth, it's so cute!

An April Fool

Poor Koty, he was neutered yesterday and he wasn't a happy camper last night. He was hungry (we could only feed him small amounts at a time because of the anesthesia he had), he was sore, and he couldn't lick his incision because he had a collar on to prevent that. On top of that he was running into everything with it. I feel like such a meanie.