Antics of Ellie

Ellie was the big entertainment at work. For some reason she likes the second hand on the big ugly clock we have on the wall. She will sit there for what seems like hours and just watch it go "tick" "tick" "tick". What a crazy, nutty doggie I have.

In the background you can see my laptop (and diet snapple on the desk)~ where most of my blogging takes place!!

are you ready for some FOOTBALL!?!

We are having a superbowl party Sunday night. Personally, I just want to have a party to celebrate my new kitchen floor (haha). Todd likes to make chili in the crockpot. I am going to make lasagna and garlic-cheese bread. My friends are bringing gnocci and a salad. (Gnocci is a potato/pasta italian dish ~ and it is so yummy!) Since none of us or our friends care who win the superbowl, we decided to have little bets; such as, who wins the toss, who scores the first touchdown, etc. $20 buy in. And each question will be worth a certain number of points. The person at the end of the night with the most points wins the pot!
What is everyone else doing Superbowl Sunday? Kathy, can you get the game in Germany?

It's a hard knock life...

Last night Zachary was trying to be a good son and mop the new tile kitchen floor. It still has a lot of dust on it from the grouting process. I walked in on him dancing and singing, kicking his feet up in the air - all while holding onto the mop. He was singing at the top of his lungs "its a hard knock life". OMG! It was sooo funny! I wanted to video tape, but he stopped singing as soon as he saw me. We must have giggled for a half an hour. A nice bonding moment with my silly 13 year old son.

Todays weather has brought us an icky day ~ and I had to go into work ~ blah! It snowed, but then it rained on top of it and now everything is a big slushy mess.
I got up this morning, drank a hot cup of tea and read a little. Bless my son ~ Zach asked me if I had to work and I said "yes, but Dad has to clear the snow out of the driveway first". He took it upon himself to shovel the driveway and sidewalks, in addition to clearing off my van (which was covered in snow and ice). He is such a sweet boy, turning into a wonderful man. (Someday his future wife better thank me!! haha!)

Where O Where has Ellie gone?

Ahren found a sticky hand toy in the office. (I have no idea where it came from). Ellie was scared of it and was hiding under my legs while I was typing on the blog!! (Shhh! I was supposed to be working!) See if you can find her!

Ellie barks a big bark, but when it comes down to it she is scared of her own shadow.

Jesus ~ he shoots, he scores!

We have a coach on Brandon's hockey team who is known for yelling out "SHOOT!" and "JESUS!". It's a big joke with the parents. They now count how many time the coach yells "JESUS". When Todd mentioned to the coach they were counting, the coach responded by saying "I'm jewish, Jesus is just a name to me." (Please note: It was all in fun. No one was trying to put down anyones religion.) Today, Todd found this t-shirt online and bought it for the coach. I can't wait until it comes in so we can present it to him!

I'm getting a new KITCHEN!

Well, not quite an entirely new kitchen. We are having a new floor installed. But ~ hey! ~ it will make a world of difference. Tile is so much prettier than the ugly linoleum that I had. Anthony (who is the brother of my friend Joette) is installing it for us. Yesterday he put in the hardibacker and today he is working on the tiles.

YIPEE! I'm so excited!

We took out the island and one cabinet, which makes the kitchen look so much bigger. Todd and I are going to look for a newer island, possibly this weekend, depending on our hockey and lacrosse schedule.

We couldn't walk on the tile last night because it needed to dry. ~great excuse to go out for dinner~ The floor is almost done. Should be by the weekend! YEAH!

Snowboarding at Bear Mt.

The kids didn't have school yesterday because of MLK day. I had to work (ug!). Todd took Brandon with friend John and his son Jack snowboarding on Bear Mountain. It is about 45 minutes from our home. It was cold outside but not as bitter as it has been the past few days. This was Brandon and Jack's first time snowboarding. They had a quick lesson in the morning and then snowboarded all day. They didn't get home until 8pm. Brandon was tired but couldn't stop talking about his day and complaining that his butt hurt! He had a great time!

Golden Gophers

Brandon and I were flipping through the channels Saturday night looking for a hockey game. We came across the Minnesota Gophers against St.Cloud. It was fun to watch hockey at the college level. Brandon sounded like a commentator making remarks "Wow, look at that check!" or "That should have been a penalty!"

You may get a chuckle out of knowing that Zachary's nickname from his 5th grade classmates is "gopher". When he was in 5th grade his teacher would send him to the office to "go for" this or "go for" that. So the kids picked up on it quickly and "gopher" stuck!

By the way: football update - Eagles lost against the Cardinals. We only saw part of the game because of Zach's lacrosse schedule. Not too much a big deal in our house, because no one is an Eagles fan. Although we have a lot of friends who are bummed out!

TGIF

This weekend is going to be filled with hockey practice, two hockey games (Brandon), two lacrosse games (Zachary) and the Eagles Playoff Football game. I'm not into football that much, but Todd LOVES football. His favorite team is the Dallas Cowboys. So I was confused when he said he couldn't wait for the Eagles game. I asked him why he would even want to watch the Eagles after they beat the Cowboys!?! He just simply said "It's football". Okay honey, whatever! Now if he wanted to watch hockey - I would be there in a heart beat!!! :)

Have a good weekend!!

Todd the Teacher

Todd started teaching at Radnor High School in 2000. He teaches history and economics. He is also the yearbook advisor. Before that he taught at Haverford High School. I do not say it enough, but I am very proud of my husband! He is very caring, intelligent, witty and loving. I was blessed the day I married him! (I love you honey).

Hockey Recap

This weekend was filled with hockey games. Saturday we played the Quakers and won! Yipee! A dad from the Quakers team sat behind me and some other hockey moms because he said he can't stand one of the fathers from his own team. He said he yells at his son and is very rude. He was right! We heard this dad - from the opposite side of the rink - yelling the entire game. I felt sorry for his son.

Sunday we had to make a 2 1/2 hour drive to the poconos for a game against the Pirates. We won 4 to 2! Let me tell you about the opponets parents... they were brutal and horrible. Shouting out mean things to the kids and us (the parents). I do not understand why people have to be that way. Especially when it's kids playing! Brandon got a penalty for slashing. I personally did not see a slash and thought it was a good check (but I'm his mom and I have to say that). Anyway, the pirate parents went nuts because our coach was contesting the call. I'm glad we don't play them again for the remainder of the season! WOW!

Here are some silly shots of Jack and Brandon before the pirates game. They aren't the greatest because I took them with my camera phone.

Oh! Brandon's coach said he was going to cut his hair if he didn't keep it out of his face! YAHOO!

Doggie Day at Work

I am lucky to be able to take my doggies work with me. Here are pictures of my 3 dogs and my dad's dog (Major). Major and Teddy are springer spaniels. Ellie is a fox hound (and part something else). Riley is a mixture of a whole bunch of stuff (not quite sure). We have a huge yard fenced in behind the office for the dogs to run around. They chase bunnies, squirrels and even a ground hog. Ellie has already caught a squirrel and laid it at my feet while I was typing on the computer! EEK!
Riley was named after my great-grandmothers maiden name. Teddy and Ellie are named after Theodore and Eleanore Roosevelt. (Todd is a history teacher).

Ellie

Major and Ellie

Teddy

Riley

HOLY ICE STORM BATMAN!

We were expected to get a huge ice storm two days ago. We woke up to "black ice" on the roads and the kids had a two hour delay from school. By the time nine o'clock came around, our driveway was still coated in a sheet of ice and I almost fell on my butt! I could hardly scrape the ice off the windshield. When I did drive the boys to the bus stop, however, I couldn't even tell there had been ice on the roads. The salt trucks must have been out and about early in the morning.

This is a picture of a tree in our front yard with the ice dripping off the berries.

Amity Fire Company

Last evening Ahren went to the Amity Fire Company to find out how to become a firefighter and EMT. Friday he is going to fill out the application and begin a 90 day training program. The fire company is literally 2 minutes from our home, located outside of our development. They host a lot of community activities, including a circus, a fair for children, fire prevention week and Santa on the fire truck! The guy on the right with the white hat is the fire chief that we met last night to talk about the program.

lazy me

I was done work at 1:30pm. So I went home and decided to be lazy. No other perfect way to be lazy than sitting in front of the TV and watch a movie. I routed through our stack of movie selection and nothing really sparked an interest. So, off I went to the local Blockbuster. They had a sale: buy 3 movies for $20. I bought The Happening, Underworld and Underworld Evolution. They were listed under horror movies, but quite honestly they are not scary at all. On the way home I stopped at Arbys and bought a vanilla milk shake. Another sign of my lazy emotions.

****Here is where the story has a twist to it!

I actually stopped by the gym and signed up for a membership: as my milkshake is waiting for me in the car!!

I arrive at home with my movies, my milkshake and my new gym membership. I'm not completely lazy, because I do start a load of wash before I begin watching Underworld. It is a vampire / werewolf movie. I watch it while I cuddle on the couch with a blanket, a fire going ,and my milkshake.

2 hours later, I get up to begin dinner. I made spaghetti because it was easy. When I start the 2nd Underworld movie, I fold laundry while I watch it. This is about the time Todd comes home from work. I had to pause it to finish dinner. I would feel guilty if I didn't feed my hubby and kids! After cleaning up I finished watching the rest of the movie.

Todd announces that he is going to the gym. This should have been a hint for me to go to, but like I said, I was feeling lazy!! So I finish watching the 2nd movie. It is now about 8pm. I help the boys with their homework. And then about 8:45pm I put in the last movie. The Happening really wasn't worth staying up so late, but I did love my lazy day!!

Hockey, hockey, hockey

Brandon's team won against the Reading Royals even though they were missing three players (2 to injury and 1 was away). The Royals had at least three times the amount of players the Colonials did. Also, (sad to say) the Royals played dirty and had a bunch of illegal hits. One of our players (Liam) had to leave the ice because of a hit from behind that knocked him into the boards. We were worried because he just got over a concussion. Thankfully Liam is okay. Great job boys!!!

AppleBees

After the hockey game on Saturday (which the boys won) we went to lunch with the Orendorffs and Feltenbergers. John O is the manager of an AppleBees in Havertown, PA. It was nice of him to treat us all to lunch! We had such a nice and relaxing afternoon with friends. I had to show the silly picture of the boys (Brandon, Jack and Zak)!!

Happy New Years

For New Years Eve we went to Heather and Chad's house. We played Apples to Apples with the boys, watched Dick Clarks New Years Eve and counted down the new years by watching the ball drop at times square. Brandon took a bottle of champagne, shook it up and let it explode. Most of it went all over him!

New Years Resolution

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

• I wish for a happy, healthy 2009, for my family and for my friends.
• I plan to spend more time doing what I really enjoy. Scrapbooking, my family, hockey and lacrosse games, gardening in the spring, etc.
• Letting go of the "small stuff" - putting an end to stressing about things I can't control, and working on concentrating on the things I can. I will try not to let things bother me. (I worry to much about what other people think).
• I will try my best to listen more, and be there for friends who need me.
• I look forward to making new friendships, and nurturing the ones I have.

How about you? What is your new year resolution?