I've Been Crazy Busy... Here's What I've Been Up To Lately:

Cleaned house in preparation of leaving the family for the weekend

Flew to Ohio to photograph a friend's wedding

Made it a 'get away weekend for Mom!'

Got a much needed massage in Ohio!

Visited with a great friend while there

Had a quiet hotel room, where no one said, "Mom... Mom... Mom..."

Turbulence on the plane (on the flight home) spilled my soda all over my lap - soaked!

Flights canceled on the way home, I ended up a night in North Carolina for a night, which wasn't part of the plan!

All my clothes were in my checked luggage, which didn't help me at all!

Left my cell phone in my rental car - grrrr!

Came home and cleaned the house :)

Sophia started speech therapy (for articulation) twice a week

Noah is taking karate twice a week

Dentist appointment

Eye doctor appointment

Secret Shop at Lenscrafters got me $140 - towards an awesome pair of Prada glasses!

Kid's last day of school was the 19th

Noah is taking swim lessons

Sophia had her Pre-K screening, and passed with flying colors (except articulation, which she's in speech for)

Taking care of baby guinea keets

Editing wedding pictures

Mowing 3 acres of lawn every 4-5 days with a not so large riding mower

Got a dump truck full of sand dropped off for the kiddo's sand pile

Took the kids to Lowe's for wood crafts, pics to come

Trucking Paige to Starbucks and friend's houses for sleepovers

Don't forget cooking, cleaning etc.

See why I haven't had time to post? Phew! Trying to load pics for a few things, but camera needs charging.

Calgon, take me away!

Daddy & Daughter Dance

So, Ted calls me on the cellphone tonight...

and tells me to come outside with my camera. This is what I find:

Yes. She's REALLY driving the skid steer. This isn't a 'stop and make it look like she's running the controls' picture. I had to keep jumping out of her way so not to get run over! When driving forward she would say, "dumping the dirt..."

And backing up... Ted watches to make sure she's not going to hit anything.
She'd say, "Backing up, beep, beep, beep!"

Look at that grin when she stops and I make a big deal about her driving! Don't mind her 'dirt mustache'... she was playing in the dirt before moving it around with the skid steer!

Guinea Keets - OH MY!

Ted brought these home last night.

No, that's not a mirror, that's his brother (or sister!)

Cute little things, aren't they?

If you remember, last year we got 7 guinea keets. They eat lots of ticks, and we have lots for them to eat around here. We live in the woods, and have lots of deer and wild turkeys running around, and they're loaded with ticks.

Well, over the past year, we've lost a few guineas. One got chased into the woods by Maggie, and never came back (it was a cold night). Another (or two) got eaten by a fox. The last one... well something got into the shed and got it, possibly even the dogs. :(

We've had a few adventures with our guineas. Like THIS ONE, when the fox chased them into a tree, and remember THIS ONE, when they wouldn't get off the roof in the snowstorm! Then recently they were PEEPING GUINEAS!

So, we've been down to three for awhile. We've named them Kevin, Nick & Joe, and if you have a teen or tween, you know those are the names of the Jonas Brothers. (Paige is their number one fan, you know.)

Well, 'Nick' has been sitting on 6 eggs for 3 + weeks now, and today for the first time Ted saw one baby keet in the pen with mom. Wow! I checked later, and there are now TWO KEETS! That may be it out of six eggs, we'll know in a few more days.

Here's Mom w/her two new keets. She was off her eggs when I went to check on her, but quickly got back on them. She was just walking to the eggs, and her keets were following right behind her. She got settled on the eggs, and the keets went right under her too, she'll keep them warm. We've got to keep the keets in the cage at between 80-90 degrees at all times or they could die. Mom's taking good care of these keets, I'm impressed! We're going to leave them with Mom, and let her continue to take care of them. We'll care for the other six in the cage inside the mudroom for now, and hope they'll all get along when we mix them together!

Earlier today Ted was putting some fresh shavings around her. We haven't been able to clean out the pen for three weeks, so we wouldn't upset the hen sitting on the eggs, (we didn't want her to get off them, and leave them). Well, Mama Hen was sitting on her eggs, and Ted got too close for her comfort. She hissed at him, and when he didn't move she bit him on the hand! He said it hurt, too! Good Mama, protecting her keets!

Oh Yeah, Be Jealous.

Update: Got a stereo/cd/ipod ready stereo put in, and we've got some awesome tunes! It's all good now! :)


I got it. The car I wanted. A 1991 Volvo 240 Wagon, they just don't make 'em like this anymore! See THIS POST.

I thought I'd wanted a 1993 (the last year they made them), but after talking to our local Volvo 'guru', he said his customers were the happiest with the 88's - 91's.

Paige is horrified. But, she can hardly be seen riding with me through the tinted windows! Lucky for her! Sophia likes it, and whenever we go out to the parking lot from a store she says, "Mom, there's your VOLVO 240 WAGON!" Very cute. Noah's a bit undecided. It's a dark shade of blue, and I love the tinted windows.

This car came with a few bumper stickers, that I immediately removed. One was TREEHUGGER (no surprise there!), and MILK DRINKERS MAKE BETTER LOVERS. I was tempted to leave that one. Another was CAN'T FEED EM, DON'T BREED EM.

The biggest problem with the car? The radio doesn't work. I've tried for 3 days to get an after market stereo put in, but they either can't figure out how to get the current radio out (bracket on the back they don't know about), or they don't have the dash kit for it, or the installation guy didn't show up for work... Frustrating! I'll call tomorrow, and take it two towns away to the 'experts', who will charge about double as the other guys, but it will be DONE.

The mileage? 279,000. Yeah. It's just getting broken in, those Volvo's last forever! Ted's still looking for that 'perfect one' - that is a 5-speed manual, with low, low miles. He can keep looking, but...

I'm happy as a clam with this one. (Unlike a lobster, who feels pain when you cook it.)

You know you're envious of my sweet ride...

Boiling Lobster and PETA - WOW.

The text below was just posted online, from our local newspaper (not the picture, I found that one myself).

How ridiculous is this:

"SKOWHEGAN, Maine — Hold the drawn butter, please.

A national animal rights group says it is cruel and unusual to boil and eat Maine lobster and they want to draw attention to the suffering of Maine’s trademark crustacean.

So, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have an idea for the century-old Somerset County Jail — turn it into a “lobster empathy center”.

The county jail is up for sale, as the sheriff, staff and inmates prepare for a move to a new, modern facility in East Madison this summer.

“No building would be more appropriate than a jail to set up an interactive display about how these intriguing animals suffer when they are trapped off the coast of Maine and housed in filthy grocery-store tanks before they are boiled alive,” Lindsay Rajt, manager of PETA Vegan Campaigns writes in a June 2 letter to the Somerset County commissioners."

Whacha Looking At?

The other day I was sitting at my computer, in the office upstairs. (Hard to imagine, isn't it?)

I got the feeling that someone... someTHING was watching me.

Ugly things, aren't they?

They had flown up on the porch roof, and were watching me through the second story window. It was a rainy day, and maybe the fox had tried to get them, so they flew to safety.
No, it wasn't Diesel, he was inside with me. :)

Wondering where the third guinea fowl was? Sitting on 6 eggs in the shed! She's been sitting there for 20 days so far. They take 26-28 days to hatch, so hopefully she's sitting on the real deal, or everyone's going to be disappointed! I'll keep you posted!