Exploding Soccer Ball

Autumn left her soccer ball here, I found it this morning. So, I decided to take it with us to church and give it to her after church. I put it in the back seat and left it there during service. We come back out and we found it like this!!


Never in my life have I seen a ball explode like this. I wonder if the car was too hot? I have no idea, but I feel so bad that I was in possession of the ball when this happened!!! LOL!!!! I wonder what it sounded like when this happened? LOL! Was quiet a surprise when we all got into the car!

Surprise Picnic

Had a picnic last night and of course with fireworks. This was our 6th fireworks show this year. I think this was the best one of all. I didn't even know about the picnic until noon. Brenda text'ed me and asked me what time to be there and I said, "Oh, about 8:30 or so, it's just fireworks." She then said Chuck told her there was a picnic and to come around 5pm!! I went out and asked him and he forgot to tell me!! He told everyone BUT me!! Here it is noon and people are coming at 5pm for hamburgers and hot dogs and such! Of course I had NOTHING in the house to feed all these people. So, I had to run to the store and get everything, come home and made macaroni salad, a pineapple cake, and 2 loaves of bread. So, we had plenty of food but by the time 5pm came I was so tired! I actually feel asleep around 5:15 and Brenda got here at 6pm. Everyone is always late.

We had lawn games and Autumn brought her soccer ball and we had a football.. I got nailed by the football in the leg and I was sitting on the deck! My MIL almost got it in the head but she ducked so I got it in the leg LOL! Better me then her.

After the fireworks we had cake and people finally left at 10pm. I was laying in bed at 9:30 LOL!! We've had Dave over to play with the boys all weekend long. He just went home today after church. It's nice to have a quiet house again.

BrushHoggin'

Chuck rented a tracker and brushhog for the weekend so we can knock down some of this really tall grass. We bought the 25 acres next to us and it has a big field. It hasn't been done in a couple of years and small trees are starting to grow up in there. Chuck also did around the house out back where the ruts are so bad from the skidder pulling out logs years ago that I can't mow back there. It looks so much better now and it looks like our yard is huge now!

Those are the ear muffs I'm thinking about wearing to my next dentist appoitment LOL!!

Baby Peter

I just thought I'd share a picture of "Baby Peter" our youngest cat. He was sleeping against my leg and I just had to get a picture of him, he is just SO cute!!!

And here he is again, I took this the other day. He is sleeping the the crook of Joe's arm.

He's just SO CUTE!!!!

Chuck's 39th Birthday

Yesterday was Chuck's 39th birthday. Was a normal day. Kids went to school, I ran around getting everything for dinner and then cooking ALL morning. Ran and got Joe from school, then went back and got CJ after practice and ran him to K-Mart to get his dad a card. Got home had dinner which of course was lasagna! What else would one have on a birthday! We were all so full we decided to have cake later. He opened his cards. Joe got him one that sang about how he was born so very long ago LOL! I got him one that made kissing noises and CJ got him one with a football on it LOL! Then he opened his present. We got him a new pair of work boots that are water proof and have steel toes. The pair he has are falling apart, the soles are coming off and the toes are all ripped up. So, he was quiet happy with the new boots and he wore them to the game.

We all showered and then off to the local high school football game. I hate sitting in bleachers watching games but at least I had my phone with Internet access!! I was IM'ing my friends and reading blogs to pass the time LOL!! We won so that was good. Neal, Chuck's business partner, has three boys in high school and two were in the game and the middle boy was part of the marching band.

This is our dorky mascot. I think one of the cheerleaders is in there. Maybe the one that just didn't quiet make the squad so she's the mascot LOL!!!! We all agree that it's a very creepy mascot! By the way, we are the Patriots, so this must be a Patriot!

We finally got home around 10pm and we did Chuck's cake. You know the one, it's called birthday cake around here, LOL!!

Dentist

Well, I finally went to a dentist last night. I haven't been to one in 5 years. We don't have insurance and have to pay out of pocket. The ladies I workout with and have lunch with on Tuesday's, well one, Sue, her husband is a dentist. His name is Mike. Mike ordered firewood from Chuck and got 4 cords. Chuck told me to take that money and get my teeth fixed. I have many that hurt, most all the ones in the back.

I got there at 5:45 and he worked on one tooth till 7:30!! Needless to say it was pretty bad. He had to drill behind it, in front of it and on top of it!! It had a pretty deep cavity. I the other two teeth in front of that one had cavities too but that will be another day. I go back on the 4th to have more done. I will get X-Rays and really see how many teeth need done. My guess is, all of them! My teeth are so bad!!! Mike said next time I come we need to talk about sugar LOL!! Okay, I drink to much soda and all that sugar sitting on my teeth isn't good!

He numbed the area where he gave the shot but I still cried, SIGH!! Big baby. Not bad, but I had tears running down my cheeks. He asked if I wanted a tissue and I'm like, "No, I'm fine." LOL!!

No, before I went in, I flossed and brushed my teeth really good. Half way through drilling that tooth he said, "What's this?" OH MY GOD!! I was so embarrassed!! He pulled out a rather big piece of pork!!! I could have just died!!! He said chicken? I said no, pork. I said I was so sorry and that I flossed and brushed really good after dinner but he said it wouldn't have matter I would have never gotten it. I guess I had a whole back there it got shoved into. I have to see this man almost every day at the gym and I will keep thinking of the pork he pulled out of my teeth LOL!!

Ever since I had my wisdom teeth out, keeping my mouth wide open even for 5 minutes hurts my jaw pretty bad. This is the first dentist that let me keep my mouth partway closed so I didn't have to keep my mouth wide open the whole time. I would have never made it for an hour an a half of that. Even now my jaw hurts but not as bad as it would have. Other dentists have made me keep my mouth wide open and if I couldn't they would put something in there to make it stay open. :(

The noise of the drill really bothered me though. Noise bothers me and this one was awful. I gripped the chair and curled my toes. My whole body hurt from that high pitched whine!! So, I'm wondering if Mike won't mind if next time I come if I wear Chuck's ear muffs he wears in the woods, you know that orange kind? LOL!! I would look funny but I wouldn't be so uncomfortable LOL!! I bet I would be the only patient he's had that wears ear muffs in the chair LOL!! Chuck said to just bring them back to the job when I was done.

Well, just having that tooth done with an X-Ray was $198.00. I don't think the money the pay us for firewood will fix my whole mouth. I told Mike we were using his firewood money to pay for my teeth and he said "Oh no, how many years worth do I have to buy?" LOL!! I'll get what I can done and get the worst ones taken care of. He could tell I had braces because of the way my back teeth are just awful. That and sugar LOL!

When I finally got home, I was telling Chuck how Mike said we would talk about sugar next time I went it and I walked into the bedroom and found a single red rose and a HUGE chocolate bar on the bed LOL!!!!!!!!! I laughed and said I'll have to keep the chocolate a secret from Mike! Chuck said he knew how I didn't like dentists and was usually in pain when I came home and he thought that would cheer me up!! So sweet!!!! I ate half the bar today :).

Jury Duty

Well, went out to the mail box and guess what!!! I have Jury Duty on Sept. 9th and 16th which SUCKS cuz on Tuesday's I do lunch with the girls that day. Any other day would have been just fine! ARG!! I have been meeting a group of ladies every Tuesday for about 6 months now. We all worked out together in the mornings when Curves was open. Now, I just work out with 2 every morning. I HATE missing those lunches. I have only missed one and it sucked LOL!

We'll see how it goes. I hope it doesn't take too long, Joe has swim team try-outs on the 9th at 6:30pm. I want to be there for that!! Ever since we watched the Olympics he has wanted to join a swim team so at the Y in Ashtabula they are having try-outs for their swim team. He can't wait and is very excited about it.

Man, once school starts my life gets very chaotic and drama filled LOL!!!

Rough Second Day

Joe had a rough day yesterday because he hasn't done locks before and it took him over 30 tries to get into his locker and was late for 2 classes. At the end of the day he couldn't open it for over ½ an hour poor guy!! I had no idea, I couldn't find him and thought that he took the bus home anyway. I told him not to since we have music lessons. He was crying when I finally found him. I was parked out back and he was out front. So, I went over some stuff with him about how locks work and how to clear them to start again. How to go really slow and make sure it's right on the number, stuff like that. His teacher said she would help him today with it. I hope it all goes well but I told him if he misses his bus, no big deal!! Just call me I'm only 10 minutes away. I don't want him to leave his homework in his locker just to make the bus.

CJ got really frustrated and wanted to quit football. Seems some of the guys on the team don't like him cuz last year they were all on opposite teams (they played for the local park here in town) and CJ hit them really hard and they want pay backs!! GOOD GRIEF!!! Chuck talked to him, thank God I kept my mouth shut on the whole thing. CJ is okay today and back to football. He is going to let those boys have it at practice and let them know who's boss LOL!!

They both aren't used to homework. You don't really have homework at South Ridge unless you didn't get your goals done. Which is a certain number of pages in each booklet. So, they are a little overwhelmed but I think once they are used to it and have some sort of grove go'n on they will be okay.

Joe likes his Math class. He is in Math 3 and CJ is in Math 2. Chuck had to help him with the math homework, I just don't get it. So, Chuck said he'll be sure to get home in time to help him out with that in the evenings. Thank goodness! CJ's favorite class is Science and Joe's is Math. Joe is also taking Band and is playing the Saxophone. He is worried because the other kids are much better than he is. They have been playing their instruments since 5th grade he is just starting. Knowing Joe and music though, he'll be fine in a couple of months LOL!

I'm really hoping today goes much better then yesterday!!!!

First Day of School

Well, today was another First Day of School for us LOL!! We had to get up at 6am!! The bus goes by here in the morning at 6:25am but I take the boys into school in the morning since I exercise every morning at SNAP Fitness. They were both excited. Joe said he LOVES school and doesn't understand why kids say they hate it. CJ didn't say much but I didn't see him much. Joe rode the bus home, his first bus ride ever! And I picked CJ and Danny up at school and dropped them off at my MIL's house so they could walk up to the football field for their game later. I went back home to wait for Joe and he got home at 3:35 and school lets out at 2:20 LOL!! He said it was fun. I was going to get a picture but I didn't know when the bus was going to get here. I waited outside with my camera for over half an hour and went in for 2 minutes and missed the bus LOL!! So, maybe I'll grab one on Friday.

Tomorrow is music lessons so I pick them up and Thursday is Joe's last Speech Therapy so I pick him up for that. So, Friday he'll be on the bus again. Crazy to want to ride one for an hour every afternoon LOL!! I couldn't wait to never see one again!

Anyway, since CJ signed up late to football, by a week, he couldn't play the first game. Danny also signed up late so they were water boys the first game!

Needless to say, I have to go up to Wal*Mart tomorrow and buy more school stuff that they need. Not too much but enough to make me have to run out and get it LOL!!

Picnic

Today I went to a picnic at my friend, Chris's house. She has three girls ages 10, 8, and 7. My other friend, Debbie, her husband and son Jimmy (6) where there too. Chuck stayed home because he came in at 9:30 this morning with his brother and 2 boys. They were on the road non-stop since Friday night! So, here are some pictures from today.

Kids playing volleyball

Here is Joe in the pool

Here is Chris's youngest daughter after Joe threw her up in the air.

Here is Chris cleaning up after all of us

Here is her husband David And here is David learning how to fly fish CJ was just about non-exsistant all day. He has become very anti-social since turning 13. He just stayed away from everyone most of the day texting his friends LOL! I think he might have been texting a girl, because I asked him who he was talking to and he said a friend and I said what friend and he goes why do you have to know LOL!! Makes me think it's a girl from church. Am I ready for teenagers??

I didn't get any pictures of Debbie and her husband. I was so dang tired at the picnic. I have no idea why. I didn't do much except sit around trying to stay awake. I'm still getting used to taking pictures to blog with LOL!

Debbie gave me a container full of Snickerdoodles for my birthday!! YUM!! Those are my favorite. That was just so sweet of her!!

I finally had to leave by 7:15 so I could make it home without falling asleep. Here it is 9:20 and I still haven't gone to bed yet. I think all the stress this week is catching up with me.

D-Day

Today was D-Day here in Conneaut. We all love D-Day and have been going since they first started it 8 years ago. Today's show was really good!!! Here are some pictures I took.

So, had a pretty good day. My friend, Elizabeth, from lower Ohio always comes up to see the show. Sometimes, it's the only time I see her all year, sad to say. I enjoyed being able to talk with her face to face instead of on a computer screen. I met her online 10 years ago and we are still friends today!

Chuck was in Missouri when I left D-Day. He flew out on Thursday night to AZ to help his brother drive back to OH. I hope to see him in the morning. Man, what a long haul to do straight!!

School Stresses

Okay, boys first day of school at South Ridge was Tuesday and they both went. Chuck picked up CJ from school early because they had a meeting with the superintendent of schools for the middle school. CJ wants to play football really bad and we found out that the only way he can play is to go to the public middle school.

So, CJ thought he would go to the middle school for 9 weeks and quit and go back to South Ridge and still work on his PACE's for South Ridge while going to the public school. So, he didn't' go to South Ridge the next day, Chuck in-rolled him in the public school. Then I went to un-inroll him at South Ridge and found out you can't be in two schools at once. So, he can't homeschool through South Ridge and go to the public school. I think that would have been to hard on him. So, if he does quit middle school at 9 weeks he has to pick up where he left off at South Ridge which is already ½ a year behind. So, I think he should stick it out the whole year, but he is giving us a really hard time right now saying he is still quitting. But, if he does he can't play football next year because he'll be even FURTHER behind. Chuck said to leave it alone till he has been going a while maybe he'll like it and want to stay on his own and not to make a big deal about it yet.

So, since CJ and their cousin Danny are both going to the public school and the times are so different Joe wants to go. All three of them are in the 7th grade. Joe wanted to make sure that they would put him in the 7th grade at age 11. Because South Ridge has him down as a 7th grader they will, thank goodness. Also, Joe wants to wrestle and play tennis.

So, Joe went to school 2 days and we pulled him out and CJ went 1! LOL!! Their teacher at South Ridge said that they were the shortest students he ever had. LOL!! So, now both boys go to the public middle school and they have to be at school at 7:10. At South Ridge I had them there at 8am. They are done at 2:20pm. They can take a bus home, I will still drop them off because I work out at SNAP Fitness in the mornings.

So, this week has been very stressful for me to the point of not eating, major headache for three straight days, and having the nervous pooh-ies. LOL!! I'm not so bad today, though when CJ has a fit over quitting school in 9 weeks I tend to get stressed out but I will just leave that one up to Chuck to deal with.

So, I had a false start on the first day of school thing LOL!! Had them gone for one day and they are both back home for one more week of summer vacation. Their first day of school is the 26th. It will be the first time Joe has ever ridden a school bus!! CJ won't because he has football after school EVERY day. I will have to run out there and get him, but at least I'm not running out there twice. Once to get Joe and then another to get CJ.

Gas Leak

Okay, we have had a gas leak in our front yard for almost 2 years. We even called the fire department on it thinking that would get their butts in gear to fix it. Yeah, that was back in Jan. 08. We called again a few months ago and they said they would come out soon. Then Chuck went into the office and told them about it AGAIN and they said within a week (that was a month ago). Chuck called AGAIN yesterday and told them our water STINKS and that all this gas is going into our well!!! Once you heat our water it smells of sulfur. In the shower is smells like someone let one go!! YUCK!! We heard that if they contaminate our water supply they have to drill us a new well. Could be why their butts finally got moving!!

Okay, this morning I heard a ruckus and opened the front door to find:

Yeah, they are tearing up my front lawn LOL!! I went back into the house and then got thinking, they are going to tear up the driveway too, YIKES! I better run out there and get my truck out of the driveway. I had to take CJ into town to do some shopping and get his physical done. So, I run out there and moved it just in time. Wouldn't you know, they were never going to tell me that I wouldn't be able to get out ALL DAY LONG!!!! ARG!!!

So, I left, did all my running and got home around 3pm. This is what I came home too!!

So, that is what it is like so far. I will update more on this as they finish up. I do hope my yard gets re-seeded and made nice again. My driveway was fixed by the time I got home and was driveable, so that was good anyway.

Joe's Haircut

Well, we had to cut off the mohawk as the next day was the first day of school.

Here is the before, he looks so funny!!

And here is the after, he's ready for the Army!

LOL!! Joe takes weird pictures!!!

Blackberry Picking

I took Joe over to a friend of ours property to pick blackberries. The season is just about done so we really didn't get much. Here is their blackberry fields.

They have some really beautiful property. This is across the street from their house. Just a big huge empty field but it's just beautiful. These bushes are just massive and I didn't realize it so I of course wore a T-Shirt and shorts, MISTAKE!! I came home all scratch up and bleeding for just a bit of berries ARG!!!

Here we are picking:

So, Joe and I decided that next year we would go at the beginning of the season and we would wear long sleeves and long pants!! I'm sure we will get more berries at the beginning of the season. I also told him when we plant some bushes of our own here on the property we will make sure there is lots of room between all the bushes so we don't have to delve into the bushes and come out sliced into pieces LOL!!!

So, here is what we got.

It's hard to believe but I took all these pictures with my phone! Really not bad. So, now I know my phone takes really good pictures so I won't have to lug around my huge camera all the time. And then maybe next time I see an Amish boy hanging on to the back of the buggy on roller blades I can get the picture!! LOL!! On Sunday I saw two Amish boys really cooking down the road on roller blades. Thought they were just out having fun but a little further up the road I saw a buggy coming. The buggy was packed with kids and then I saw the boys hanging onto the back. I guess these were the older boys and there was no room in the buggy for them so they had to roller blade to Church and the one of the back was just hanging on for the ride! LOL!! Wish I took a picture of that.

Day at Kitty's

Went over to my sister Kitty's house today. She needed help with her soffit on her house because she didn't own a ladder tall enought to reach, so Chuck, the boys and I went out there today to lend a hand. Well, the boys just played video games and I sat on the grass, so I guess Chuck was there to help out LOL!!

Here is is starting the job:

As he was taking off the old soffit Chuck would whip them into the wind and they would fly into the yard. Ryan, my nephew, would run after them and pick them up and throw them away. Just too cute!!

Kitty was cutting all the soffit pieces he needed and running them up the ladder to him.

When Chuck took some of the pieces off, straw just dumped out. I guess some birds had made this there home. This is what the deck looked like when we were done.

Just when Chuck was about done my other sister, Candy, showed up with DOUGHNUTS!! Yeah!!! So, we all took a doughnut break. I stole this picture off Kitty's Blog, which is why I'm in it! LOL!!

So, he was finally able to finish after about 2 doughnuts. All in all, this job took maybe an hour. Go Chuck!!

After Chuck was all done, we took a walk around my sister's property. I got to see her garden, and Ryan's pumpkin plants and the woods and trails and such. I was having such a good time I never took any pictures but my sister Candy did so if you would like to see those click on "Bead Goodies" under the blogs I read and check it out.

I had a really good time over there and it was so nice to visit with both of them. Here is the three of us. I stole this off Candy's blog.

Tonsillitis

CJ woke up Wed morning around 1am throwing up with a really bad headache. He never really felt good all day Wed. and didn't even go to Piano/Violin lessons and he never misses those. He just lay on the couch all day really not feeling so well. Then come Thursday morning he said his throat hurt and when I looked at it with the flash light I saw white spots, so here we go again!! He just had tonsillitis at the beginning of July. SIGH!! So, had to take him to the ER because I don't have the $75 to shell out right this moment and the ER you can pay much later. The medicine was only $17 so that way good. He didn't get to go to Gymnastics this morning either. Hopefully, he'll be fine in a couple days.

School starts on Tuesday and we got them everything they needed this week. New shirts, because they have to wear button down shirts since they are JR. High (7th) now. Last year they wore collar Polo shirts. They only have to wear ties on special occasions. They are excited because they put the JR High in the Senior High room this year. Joe will be the youngest as he will start the school year off at 11 LOL!

Joe had speech therapy today. This makes his second one. He is doing very well and just has to really practice and think about his S's when he says them. He goes again in 2 weeks and I'm really hoping we get his S problem fixed permanently. I watch adults with that problem and they sound like 2 year old and it's horrible. I told Chuck we HAVE to fix this problem NOW!! So, let's hope it doesn't take too long. Each 30 minutes is $40. Worth it if we can fix it. She said he is doing very well and knows how, just takes practice.

PS Tomorrow is my BIRTHDAY!! Go Me!!!
and thanks Mom, I got your gift today!! I LOVE the shirt, you always do so well in picking out stuff for me!! Thanks for the card too, love all those kitties! I know the first thing I'm getting at the book store, my huge calendar I love so much, after that I'll have to think about it. Thanks again, LOVE YOU!!!

Family Reunion

Went to Chuck's Mom's family reunion on Saturday down at Albion Park. It was a tad on the boring side. I ate to many hot dogs and ended up sick the rest of the night. I usually try to stay away from hot dogs for this reason but these were really good. We stayed for about 3 hours. I mostly just sat in the gazebo and played with my phone! LOL!

We have had the Olympics on non stop since the 8th. Kids are enjoying all the events. I think I will be Olympic'ed out by the time they are over. I know that the Chinese are trying to pass off 12 year old girls as 16 in the gymnastics events! PLEASE, there is no way they are 16!! What can you do.

Chuck will be flying out to AZ on the 21st to help his brother Dave and his son David move back here to OH. Chuck will be helping Dave drive back. He is FINALLY leaving his wife Karen but she won't let the little one, Matthew, leave too even though he wants to very much. He is 8 I think. Brandy doesn't want to move back with Dave she is 14 and likes her "crowd". She now drinks and gets into tons of trouble. David was starting to turn bad too so Dave just wants to get him out of there. We are hoping that Karen will let Matthew come after a while. They have been married almost as long and Chuck and I but there marriage has been really bad.

Cedar Point

We left on Friday the 1st and spent an entire weekend at the park. We didn't get home till 1:30am on Monday, which to me was still Sunday night, LOL!!

I actually rode some scary roller coasters, one was a standing up one that went upside down a few times! We had a really good time. We went into the water park both days too. One water ride was a huge tube that fit about 6 people and we all rode on that one and I screamed the whole time. I was deathly scared of flipping off LOL!! The boys and Chuck said just that was worth the almost 45 minute wait to get on LOL!!






I bought this since we all rode it together. Joe looks terrified, I look like I can't decided what to feel and Chuck and CJ are having a blast. Chuck went with CJ on TONS of scary rides. I hung out with Joe on the less scary rides.



I did manage to go to one Saloon Show that was really good. Had lunch while we watched. We saw another show with BMX bikes and such. That was pretty good too.



CJ and Chuck rode the "Dragster" twice. That thing is fast and supper scary!! You shoot off at about 122MPH up this thing and SOMETIMES it doesn't make it and just at the top it stops and goes back down, YIKES!! This was one of CJ's favorite rides.




All in all we had a really good time. I am still nauseated though and it's Wed.! I hope to start feeling better soon. If I eat anything I have to lay down a good hour to try and not throw it up!