Get On Da Bus!

Monday was Alexander's day of many "firsts". It was the preschool's annual apple orchard field trip. He was so excited!

* His First School Bus Ride

* His First Field Trip

For two weeks before the big day, he talked about how he was going to ride the bus. Bus, bus, bus, bus, bus. After watching school buses travel around town, watching his cousins get on the bus, and countless kid books about school bus rides -- he thought that this was his pathway to paradise!

Lucky me, I got to chaperon. So I got to sit with him on the ride to and from the orchard. He was mostly mesmerized. We were the "cool kids" riding in the last few rows of the bus. I tried to explain to these 4 year olds that when they were older this seat location was a symbol of their "coolness" and the top of the class system of bus riders. Perhaps a bit to early to introduce the concept; just a nugget to file away for later. ;-)

Along the way, I turned to Alexander and asked: "Do you like your first bus ride?"

A: "Yes, but why are the grown ups sitting?"

Me: " What do you mean? We all have to sit on the bus."

A: "But in all the books, the grown ups are standing and holding on to loop things."

Ahhh... I see a public transport day in my near future.

Ripley runs

Ever since I took Ripley biking with me, I swear she has been bugging me to go back out. Every time I put on sneakers or otherwise dress in anything other than business attire, she jumps up and down and chases me around like she's going into the forest. On Sunday, I tried to take a quick nap to recover from the late Saturday game, and as I am laying in bed, Ripley sits down on the floor next to me and proceeds to whine. Eventually, I got up and took her for a short run, which ended up being a run in the pouring rain. Nothing like it!

So yesterday, I took the day off to hang with CJ and relax a little. Went for another mountain bike ride in the afternoon near Bear Meadows. A little shorter this time, but I felt a whole lot better climbing that mountain than I did last time. Does that mean my legs are getting into shape?

The weather was great, and the view was beautiful. The leaves in Central PA are starting to change!

And this time, I remembered to take a picture of Ripley.

WE ARE...

Saturday night, the Nittany Lions of Penn State hosted the Fighting Illini of Illinois at Beaver Stadium in University Park, PA. That's the official word. The unofficial word is that 109,000 fans all wore the same color, drank all day, and then screamed their heads off for 4 hours in support of a bunch of 18-22 year olds. It was freaking awesome!

This was our first real test of the season, and Penn State passed with flying colors. Following a back and forth first quarter, Penn State took control and won by 14 points, vaulting us to #6 in the nation.

But the real story of this game was the atmosphere. There really isn't a better scene in college football...and there may not be a better scene in all of sports than a White Out, primetime, nationally-televised game in Happy Valley. And for me, it was so super cool that I was able to get onto the field during the pre-game warmups. Check out my cell phone pics!






And here is a better shot of the entire stadium, not taken by me...



Pretty cool, huh?

Duck or Tiger

Zack and I predict that when the kids grow up, that Alexander will be a lawyer and CJ will be a lobbyist. The basis for this is that Alexander will negotiate tirelessly until he gets what he wants and CJ simply does not take "NO" for an answer. Really. Never.


Case in point:
CJ approached me and informed me that she was going to draw a picture for me and then for daddy. Then she looked up at me with those little doe, brown eyes and said, "Mommy, you want a duck or a tiger?"

Me: "Duck, please"

CJ: "Ummm. Duck or tiger?

Me: "Duck, sweetie"

CJ: "Duck or TIGER?"

Me: "Tiger?"

CJ: "Okay, Mommy. Good idea."


See? Not only did she get her way, but she made me think it was my idea. She truly is brilliant!

It's Good to Be a Kid

My effort to find mommy-n-son activites during CJ's nap time seems to revolve around some sort of cooking/baking. Today the item on the menu was brownies! Trying to be educational with the activites, I picked this because at school he is learning the letter "B". He was, of course, TOTALLY into this ... as you can see in the following photos.




He had it in his hair and down on his shirt -- and loving it! Don't think that I didn't consider jumping head first into the bowl too. It looked like alot of fun!

Monday Night Football: All in Jest

Again, the American Football fans are showing how truly inept they can be. If you liked last week's post about the two guys missing the high-five, then you should appreciate this one too.

While Zack and I were watching the game, this crowd shot appeared on screen:

Not sure what is funnier...

1) New Yorkers that can't spell their team name, or

2) That I didn't initially get it. I turned to Zack and said, "Is that some code for something?"

Buzz! BuZZZZZ!

With the growing season winding down, we did some lawn/garden maintenance this past weekend. Well, as Zack was cleaning up the "surprise" pumpkin patch in the compost bin, he was stung twice by some really angry yellow jackets. The stings were quite gross -- puffed up immediately and stayed puffy for days.

So with Alexander none too happy with this next in the backyard (he was keeping everyone at a 20 yard perimeter), what were we going to do?

Well, when you live in Happy Valley, you call Benny the Bee Man. Seriously. He runs a weekly ad in the CDT (the local paper for those outside Centre County).


He arrived today and ran a hose into the compost bin hole (the bee nest's foyer, if you will) that was duct taped (another amazing use for that product) to a plastic juice/drink bottle that had a tube running to a dust buster. Totally hi-tech. The result was what he called a "decent" amount of yellow jackets.


The group he works with collects the bees and turns the venom into medicine for those who are allergic to the stings. Pretty cool, huh?

Just another run-of-the-mill day in the country.

I love the internets

So, Jean and I were hanging out last night watching Monday Night Football, actually enjoying two teams we hate in a pretty enjoyable game, when the camera turned to the crowd to catch Cowboys fans celebrating. When we saw these two guys completely miss a high five, I had to rewind the DVR to watch again. Laughter ensued.

So this morning while wasting 30 seconds or so at work (no more than 30 seconds boss, I swear!), I stumbled upon this video. See for yourselves why the internets are so great...

Emergency 911

This weekend the local fire and police departments had a "fair" in the parking lot of the Target. Do we live in SmallTown, USA or what? It was a great get-out-of-the-house activity for the kids.

They had a bunch of tents set up with police or fire hats, coloring books, loads of lollipops and activities. As you can see they had some face painting too. Alexander picked a dalamation and CJ a cat. Pretty funny that the artist chose to make the circle around the eye that Alexander always squints with -- it made me laugh everytime I looked at him.


We took a ride up in the bucket of the hook and ladder truck (pretty cool) and sat in a bunch of police vehicles.

The fire department was the big winner, though. With the ladder ride and letting the kids squirt the fire hose -- all of their tents had lines of kids waiting their turn.

Not wanting to bias the kids, I did take them over to the police tents. However, all my pleading to get the kids a chance to shoot a police gun didn't persuaded the local cops to do so.

As a last resort, one of the officers gave the kids rape-whistles. I guess this was a better option, but they are now driving me crazy whistling all the time! Oh well, just another day in Happy Valley!

Finally!

I've been an Aspirational Mountain Biker most of my adult life...there, I said it... I've been into it and out of it since graduating college, but other than a few small adventure races with friends (which were a blast!), mountain biking has been mostly something I think about more than I do.

But, with the move to State College, I was convinced that I would mountain bike more often. I mean, how could I not? Serious trails less than 15 minutes from home...some that I could actually ride my bike to and not have to load up the bike rack and drive to...and more time to get out now that I don't work 75 hours a week?

But alas, I really haven't gotten over the Aspirational hurdle. In an attempt to get over that hurdle, I spent way too much money on a serious bike earlier this year, but I've only gotten it dirty a couple of times. (I have ridden to work more than a few times, which must count for something...) Finally, this weekend, I drove deep into Rothrock State Forest with Ripley and set off on a small adventure.

After a couple of hikes with the family in the general vicinity, I knew about where I wanted to go, but brought along my trusty Purple Lizard map to navigate my way. Bear Meadows is basically a swamp or bog nestled between mountain ridges in the Rothrock State Forest. It's a really cool site to come upon when you're driving through mountains and forests. The family hikes here frequently because it's relatively flat, although we always have to reassure Alexander that there aren't any bears in Bear Meadows (we hope!).

Anyway, I got in about an 8 mile ride, which doesn't seem very long, except that there were two major climbs, and I'm not used to climbing for 30 minutes straight...

Here are a couple of pictures I snapped on my cell phone camera during a snack and water break overlooking Bear Meadows. Not great photos, but at least I can prove that I climbed a mountain (I parked on the same level as the Meadows in the background). Next time I'll take a real camera. And unfortunately, I didn't think to take any pics of Ripley loving life.





I did stop several times along the way, mostly to make sure Ripley didn't pass out. Funny thing is that she probably liked the uphills more than the downhills. On the uphills, I am pedaling my ass off (slowly) and she gets to explore. On the downhills, I am hanging out enjoying the break and she is on an all out sprint trying to keep up. I don't think she has ever sprinted for 15 minutes straight like that.

Needless to say, Ripley was exhausted, and my legs were dog tired when we finished the loop (see what I did there?).

Wow Whatta Wednesday

Today was HUGE!
It was CJ's first day of preschool. My little 2.5 yr old is starting her scholastic journey. She was so flipping cute and excited for today. She picked out her dress ("for Mrs. Leslie") and was packing her bag at 7:30am this morning.

She was sooo ready for school. We dropped Alexander off at his school at 9, bolted 3 blocks down the road to CJ's school, which starts at 9:15. We got there about 5 minutes early and had to wait. You would have thought she was waiting to get into the gates of Walt Disney World. Total ants in her pants.

When Mrs. Leslie opened the door, she sprinted over and jumped across the threshold. Not a look back at me or a care as to where I was. I am SO PROUD. I still have Alexander clinging to me everyday at drop off, so this is a hoot to me. As you can tell from the pictures -- she was a great deal happier today then she was on Alexander's first day!

Then I RACED to the car, across town to take my FIRST RIDING LESSON! HA! My friend, Sara, and I are taking lessons at a local stable. Sara is an experienced rider who just wants to get back on a schedule of riding and hone her skills. I am a city slicker looking to mount a great steed. HA! I had a ball. Dude, I had no idea what it was going to be like -- but it exceeded my expectations.

Upon arrival this is what we got to do:
1. Brush horse
2. Saddle and bridal horse (give treats!)
3. walk to ring
4. mount and walk/ride around ring
5. then we took turns with our trainer (Savannah -- a PSU college student). I learned how to sit on the English saddle. This was my first time ever on this kind of saddle. Then it was a series of posture corrections while Savannah made the horse go in circles. This is called something, but I forget.
6. individually go around the ring and walk, stop, walk, trot (SO MUCH FUN!!!)
7. Then back to the barn, remove saddle, bridal, foot guards, brush, comb, treat and then off to the pasture.

All of this was so super cool and I am already walking bowlegged. The coolest finish was when Savannah had me "jump" over the fence in a trot before leaving the ring. Sure the posts were on the ground -- but I still got in the jumping stance!!! :-D

Then I rushed back to pick up CJ (5 minutes late) and then over to Alexander's school. Whoosh, I am tried, starting to get sore, but have a grin from ear to ear!

Dawg Gone It

What is with dogs and thunderstorms? Seriously, I need to know.

When I was growing up, our family dog was a nut case when thunder was rumbling. She was one big fat fluff of a dog -- probably weighed 55lbs but only came up to your knee. For some reason still a mystery to most of us, my mom discovered that our dog LOVED to eat frozen hot dogs. Crazy, I know... but it was just one of those things. Anyway, I digress. Our dog (aptly named Candy), would freak out when thunder was miles away (humans didn't even know it was approaching) and run for the interior hall bathroom to leap into the bath tub for safety. There she would stay, panting her little heart out and shedding mounds of hair until the lightning and thunder had past.

Flash foward to this morning at exactly 4:43am. BOOM! Okay, another thunderstorm rolling through the valley of State College. I wake up, realize what is going on and go into the kids rooms to close the windows. This stirs Ripley to walk around with me to ensure that all is safe in the house. Not really a normal occurance for the brown dog, but since Zack is out of town -- she does seem to be on alert. So I crawl back into bed and hope that the storm doesn't keep me up too long.

Then Ripley starts to pace the room. Then she is jumping up on the window sill to check out the storm. Then the yawning and panting start at the foot of my bed. It is freaking 5:30am and the dog is keeping me up! I start to consider just getting up and doing a yoga tape or reading and realize that is not something I would do and try to roll over. When... BOOM! CRACK! Whoosh! Yes, a nice strike of lightning and thunder boom sends Ripley jumping onto my bed (SUPER NO NO. We got a new bed back in February and she is never allowed up on it) and then she proceeds to stuff her muzzle into my armpit for safe keeping. Kinda cute, but not at 5:30 in the morning. Needless to say, I let her stay there. We both fell asleep for 45 minutes until CJ woke us both up by louding announcing:

"MOMMY! I hear a sound!!" (It was the thunder.)

Alexander's back to Preschool

So today was the big first day back to preschool for Alexander. Not much fanfare from the little guy, though he was really excited to start a class that had his best buddy, Luke, in it too. Things were going well, for the most part. He slept in a little late (good and rested for school), then ate a hearty breakfast (brain cells rolling) and then dressed and ready to go. Oh, except for the moment we were getting in the car and he discovered he needed to go... hmmm... "see a man about a horse." (If you know what I mean). So, okay we were running about 5 minutes late to drop-off, but all was well.

UNTIL... we got in the parking lot. As you can see by the picture above, CJ was none-to-happy about Alexander going to school and she was not. In fact, she was down right PISSED OFF. And if you have never had the luxury of dealing with a 2 year old, sassy little diva who is upset consider yourself lucky.



I still got the obligitory "First Day Photo" outside the school and the first project that he sat down to do when we left. Then CJ cried and cried because it wasn't her school day. So Dad and Mom quickly began bribing her with lollipops upon our return home and donuts at the grocery store later that morning --- all to no avail. So here it is 9:10 am and my day which should be utterly joyous with one kid in school for 3 hours, has turned sour. What else would the day bring?

How about a kamakazi squirrel jumping into the road and diving under the back tire of MY NEW CAR?????!!!!!!! Yup! Not sure what awful aura Zack has surrounding him as a driver -- but world beware. The squirrel tried to cross the road in just as we did (perhaps it was a blind squirrel and didn't realize that the Prius is such a quiet car) and had the misfortune of examining the tread of our tire. Zack then informs me that this is not the first animal that has jumped in front of him while driving. Apparently there is a list of birds, squirrels and chipmunks leaping into harms way when Zack is at the wheel.

Anatomy 101

This must be the month of body awareness in this household. Alexander came up to me while doing the dishes this morning, which seems to be his prime thinking-time (see "All in the line of Duty" posted 8/6) with another real dandy of a question. Here's how it went down:

Alexander walks out of the bathroom and yells, "Hey Mom. What is this crinkle under my penis?" This question is volleyed to me while simultaneously dropping his drawers to the floor.

Me: "What? Show me." Of course I am thinking he has some crazy disease or growth that needs a quick run to the ER.

Alexander: "this thing, it is all squishy and wrinkly"

Me: "Well, that is what is called your testicles. Some people call them balls."

A: "What do they do?"

M: "Hmmm.... (should I go into the whole semen thing at age 4? No, no.) Well, they help you grow big and strong."

A: "So I don't have to eat my vegetables?"

M: "Oh, no honey. You still need your veggies, cause they will help those grow too."

All part of another day in paradise! :-)

Snake Attack

My sister, Mary, has the house my children dream about. Not only does she have a bunch of land to run around and play, but with her three kids and basement stuffed with toys -- it is Alexander and CJ's dreams come true.

So this past weekend when we decided last minute to jump into the Prius and go there (averaged 44 mpg highway), the kids were in the car and buckled up before we even packed our PJs.

The kids were happily playing in the basement in the morning when Alexander ran up the stairs, heart pounding, shrieking about a snake. Of course, all of us adults thought it was just some rubber snake that tricked the kids. Reluctantly, Zack went down to investigate. Sure enough, it was real and striped. ALARM BELLS!!! It wasn't just a black garden snake... but what was it? Us city-folks instantly thought: COPPERHEAD. Get the children away! Mary started to freak out! If you don't know, Mary is horribly averse to all rodents and reptiles. Seriously, to the point of nausea. She really hates them. Sir Zack the Brave to the rescue!

After retrieval of a bucket and a poking stick, he pushed the snake out from its lair and captured it! So what to do now? Google, of course. What did people do to answer life threating questions before Google?

A quick search and review of snake images revealed it was a milk snake. Now a harmless creature, the kids all lined up to play with it -- much to Mary's dismay. Here are some pics of the ordeal:


See it's a hatchling. We had so much fun speculating how it got into the house and where the mommy snake (up to 5 ft in size says Google) was hiding in the basement. Hee hee!

Note Mary in the background. The face says it all.
Luke the first to hold it.
Jack doing tricks with it.
Alexander trying not to squeeze it.

Mike showing its length.

Eventually it was relocated to the back fields. Can't wait to hear when they find the momma or if it returns to the warmth of the basement again! Stay tuned.

Monster Crop

Plant it, and it shall grow and grow and grow and grow.

After returning from a week away, this was the insane crop that we kept. Imagine the full bucket of rotten tomatos and squash that was thrown into the compost as being just as much as this picture. Don't know what they have in the soil up here in Nittany Valley, but I am sure enjoying it!

Going Green

Everyone is doing it now, right? Well, as true AMERICANS, we stood up to Obama's call last night to reduce our dependency on foreign oil. Look what we got today:

Yes, it's a Prius. 48 city mpg. I am so excite and I couldn't believe that it only had one mile on the ODO (see bottom right of dashboard pic).

Next we need to get some bumper stickers... like:

"Off shore drilling NOW"

"Alaska has more oil, let's go get it"

"When gas goes back to $2/gallon, we're driving our SUV again"

Suggestions welcome!

Ready for Some Football?

Just so everyone knows where my head is at this week...

Day on the Boat

This may conclude the posts on the lake vaca... I'm running out of topics!

As I previously explained, Alexander is not a huge fan of waves. Earlier this year in the Outer Banks, he almost had a stroke when sitting on the beach and a wave came within 6 feet of our chairs. Before I even realized that the wave was pushing in a little closer than previously, he was up and sprinting to the dunes -- screaming his head off. Get the picture?

Being the conscientious parents that we are, we made sure to rent a boat for some trolling around the lake and tubing fun! As you can imagine, Alexander "wasn't too sure about this" idea. But with much handholding and reassurance, he finally hopped on the pontoon boat and off we went.

Everyone had a great time cruising around the lakes inlets, fishing in quiet coves, consuming tons of pretzels/chips/soda, boys peeing off the side of the boat, tubing at an amazingly slow pace (which really, can you call it tubing if you are just 'sitting' in the water? next year -- need more horsepower!), and off course swimming (hopefully not right after a pee of the port bow sequence).


Alexander helping to steer away from any and all waves. Zack showing off his guns. Oooh, baby!









This is probably my best self-portrait ever. At the time, I didn't even know I would get Zack and CJ in the background. I just love this one!

Marshmallow Crisis 2008

Okay, do you know that you should not tell kids (at least those under age 7) that we are going to have a campfire after dinner with roasted marshmallows until it is time to start the fire? Big mistake. We told them around lunchtime and heard the incessant cries of "are we going to do the fire now? fire now? fire now?" all flipping afternoon. It was like a bad version of Bart and Lisa Simpson nagging Homer to go to the monster truck show.

Well 5 hours later we all gathered at the dock and started collecting sticks, wood and anything else deemed flammable. That was a good project for about 10 minutes. Then the litany of requests for marshmallows started. So the good moms that we are, Laura and I headed up to the house to get libations for the adults and the marshmallows for the kids. That's when we realized that this was the beginning of the Marshmallow Crisis of 2008. We riped apart every cabinet, shelf, and drawer of the kitchen searching for the bag. We checked the car. We checked the bedrooms (who knows why, we were in a panic)... all to no avail. What the hell were we going to do with 4 anxious kids and no marshmallows?

See Nate and Laura had hit the store earlier in the week to get a few things including the mallows. Unfortunately Nate wasn't taking his ADD meds and seemed to have forgotten to grab the last bag off the walmart bag trolley before leaving. Which also led to the Saffron Crisis of 2008, but that's another post all together. So what to do?

Thankfully, there were mini marshmallows in the house. You know, the ones smaller than a pencil eraser top? They were previously designated for the marshmallows gun/shooters, but we went "MacGyver" and brought them to the fire. We struggled at first to get the little suckers on the ends of sticks. Plus once you did, they roast in no time at all and the simple movement of bringing the stick up to your mouth usually made them fall to the sand immediately. However, it truly is amazing how sugar and process chemicals can easily be smashed together in your palm to make "big" marshmallows. With the crisis managed we went back to Def Con 1.

Wow, this was a long story just to show some fun campfire photos. But, hey, this is the only time I get to tell a story to adults during the day! ;-)




FYI, her mouth is full of MARSHMALLOWS and she was just playing with her milk at the time of the photo.