It Snowed!!

Just thought I'd share a picture of my back deck. It snowed today big fat flakes. I loved it!! I dug through my CD's and put on "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow" LOL!!!! The dog thought I was nuts! I even went out and shoveled the walkway!

Wooden Nickel Buffalo Farm

We went to the wooden nickel today and man we were all VERY disappointed!! I spent about $60 on all of us there and it just makes me sick to think about it!! It's a buffalo farm that has a gift shop/restaurant/ and corn maze. We were all very excited about going and eating real buffalo. We all order cheeseburgers and then come to find out fries are only on the platter so we all go with a platter. It was $3 more for a "bit" of fries!! UGH!! Chuck wanted Cider, nope, they were all out. The platter comes with fries OR soup and CJ and Chuck ordered the pepper souWe get our drinks and sit down for a VERY LONG time!! I have a TV blaring in my ears cuz it's 2 feet behind me. The place was rather full and only men where cooking and serving. They messed up just about everyones order and had to re-fill quiet a few. There was a dog roaming around begging for food from everyone. Nudging them and being quiet annoying! Then the guy comes out to tell Chuck and CJ that they were out of soup. They were both upset but went with fries. When our food FINALLY came out the cheeseburgers where served on HOT DOG BUNS!!!!! He said they ran out of hamburger buns. Probably on all those orders they had to re-do!!! ARG!!!! Non of us got full, I've had better burgers at a fast food joint for a buck. The fries were home made and actually quiet good, but I make the same at home all the time, LOL! So, I said maybe it will be better once we get out to the corn maze.

This is our first corn maze ever! We have always wanted to go to one and so this was our first one. BOO HISS!! The corn was about waist high or smaller. There were a few that might have been as tall as me. It was very thin and you could see the whole field by just standing there!! So, we made the best of it by finding boxes with stickers to fill our paper so we knew we went through the whole thing. I told CJ while we were in the maze, thank God we are going to WalMart when we are done, at least we know we'll have fun there! LOL!

Here is the amazing corn maze!

Here is Joe getting the stickers out of the little house to put on our paper. There are 16 of them in all.

Here is CJ getting another sticker for the paper. Notice how you CAN NOT get lost in this field of corn!

Here are the bison in the field.

Dinner Out

Last night we took the boys out to eat at Texas Roadhouse. They have big barrels of peanuts where you walk in and also small buckets at your table. We all sit around and eat a bunch of peanuts before our dinner gets there. The boys eat got a 24oz steak and CJ ate ALL of his and Joe ate about half because he had a swim meet the following day. He told the waiter that he could eat the whole thing, and usually he can, but we remembered he had a meet half way through the meal so I hid the other half under the table so the waiter thought he ate the whole thing and shook his hand and everything! It was so funny!

On the way out CJ stops at the big barrel of peanuts out by the front door where there are at least 20 people waiting for a table and opens his pockets wide on his hoody and starts shoveling in the peanuts!! OH MY GOSH!!!! He did this with BOTH pockets!! Then just walks out!! I was DYING!!! He didn't realize that everyone was watching him. In the truck he told us that he forgot to put some in his pockets at the table and saw the big barrel and just thought he'd fill up on the way out!!! He didn't realize that people were watching him till he turned around to leave, LOL!!!

And they think us parents are embarrassing!!!

Full Size Violins

Yesterday we went to see a guy that collects violins. He has well over 36 of them in his house. Mr. Lyon (the boys violin teacher) sent us to him because they are all in wonderful shape and for good prices. Here is the table he had set up for the boys to choose from. They started with the cheapest and went around the table to the most expensive.

Were you see Joe standing back there is where it started at the cheapest. See the two at the end of the table on the right? Those are the two they choose. I told them to choose from that side of the table as the ones on the other side are $2K and up.

They have needed full size violins for a year probably. I just never had the money to upgrade. I didn't want to get them student violins again. They have been playing long enough that I wanted really good sounding violins for them. Now, since they are used and from a collector they don't come with bows or cases. So, I still need to get those. He said that what ever your violin costs you want your bow to cost half that much. YIKES!! I may not get that good of bows for them yet. But I won't get the $30 ones either. Some where in the middle I think will be fine for now.

What was really nice is Lance (the violin guy) gave us the violins to try out and see if we really want them for a couple of weeks! He even gave us cases to use and gave Joe a bow. CJ has a full size bow already that I bought him some time ago since his died. We'll have Mr. Lyon look them over and have the boys play on them for a while and then we will decide. Can't do that with any music store or catalog!

Joe feel in love with his violin as soon as he walked up to the table! LOL!! It has a dude on the scroll and Joe just thinks that is so cool. He also loved the way it sounds. Here is the scroll.

Dentist

I went to the dentist again today. I got two more fillings done so only 5 more to go! Get this though, after Mike drilled out the cavities, a lady came in to fill them up. I fell asleep!!!! I must have been really tired. I woke myself up by snoring!! LOL!!! I wonder how long I was out and snoring? I have NEVER fell asleep in the dentist chair with my mouth wide open and all before. Now that I'm back home all I want to do is lay in bed and watch a movie. I feel like doing nothing today!!

Good news is gas is $2.59 a gallon bad news is this morning it was 25 degrees out!! LOL!!

Pulled Over

We were late leaving the house this morning, so I was in a rush. Right by the school I guess I was doing 42 in a school zone of 20. Oops! I saw the cop there in the parking lot. First one I saw there this year, and of course I was speeding. He let me drop the boys off and then I guess he thought I was going to turn right but I went left so I saw him turn around and come for me so I just pulled over. I gave him all my info and he said, running a little late today? I laughed and said, "Yeah, a little." When he came back he told me my plates expired yesterday!!!! GOOD GRIEF!!! He said, "Can you get them renew today or tomorrow?" I said, "Sure, no problem." He said, "Good, thanks." and walked away?!?!?!?! Okay, I guess I wasn't getting a ticket for anything??? YEAH!!!!! I could have gotten slammed! I wonder if he knew the last name? I have gotten off before because the cops all seem to know the family. Well, what ever the reason, I'm glad I didn't get a ticket! Yes, I will be slowing down from now on.

I did get my plates renewed and I got them renewed for 2 years! I had no idea you could do that. My friend Elizabeth told me about that while I was there waiting for them to call my number. So, I'm good till 2010! Thanks Elizabeth!!!

Lawyer for Sandy

Well, I met with the lawyer today about Sandy and how she had all her parts even though she was "Spayed". I also saw while I was there that they did the "surgery" at 9:32am of 1-28-08. I picked her up at 10am of the same day!!!!! How can they do surgery on these puppies and then just hand them over like that??? The lawyer wasn't happy about that one either. He wanted to take them right to court but I asked him to send a letter and see if they will respond to him.

I sent a certified letter and they signed it on the 6th and I have heard NOTHING from them. I also emailed the newspaper and let them know all about it, LOL!! We'll see if I hear anything back! If Bret doesn't hear back from them, then it's off to court for us and we'll sue them for court costs, the surgery and some other stuff he wanted to throw in, LOL! He was shocked at my story to say the least. Now, I'm not mentioning the part that she had a hernia taken care of during the surgery. If that isn't listed anywhere then it just looks really bad about them opening her up for nothing. LOL!

I'll let you know how it goes!

Private School Woes

Yesterday I got a bill from the private school we had the boys enrolled in. CJ went for half a day and Joe went for 2 days. They are saying that we have to pay the FULL YEARS tuition anyway. It states, and they highlighted this part, that any student that withdraws during the academic year will still be liable for the full years tuition!!! Good Grief!!!! We did everything we could to keep the boys there. Chuck was talking with the public school system over a week before school started and the only time the super could meet with him was the day the private school started. What a crock!! I am NOT paying it!! They can take their $15 a month late charge and shove it up their butts! I'm not paying ANY OF IT!! We will go talk with them but I bet they don't give a hoot and they'll say we owe it. Tough crap, they aren't seeing a dime! ARG!!!!!! It was stressful enough to have to put them in public school. I was a mess that week and now to throw this on top of it! NICE!!

Strep Throat

Well, Joe woke up really sick today. I had to run him into the ER so we could get him on medicine today. Doctor said he could go to school tomorrow but for today he isn't going anywhere. We had a full day planned too. We might have to run into Erie tomorrow afternoon right after school. Not sure as Joe has swim practice but he still might not feel very well. I was looking forward too eating lunch out, taking in a movie, shopping, LOL!!

The boys need new boots and warm coats. There is also a guy in Erie that Howard Lyon, the boys violin teacher, told us about that collects violins and we could probably get a really nice full size ones for cheap, at least cheaper than buying new. We were going to this guys house at 2pm today, but I had to reschedule that too. Joe really was looking forward to that. They have needed a bigger violin for about a year now, just haven't had the funds to get them. We'll see if we have enough time tomorrow to stop by and see him.

So, here is to our day stuck at home and watching football on TV all day, yee haw!

Finland Juicer

I took CJ over to his friends house last night and his friends mom had me come in and check out the juicer she had for doing grapes. It was the coolest thing I have ever seen!! Here is a picture of it.

You put the grapes in the middle part and a little bit of water at the bottom and just place it on the stove and they cook down and the juice comes out the tube!! She has one she borrowed from a friend and of course she tells me about this the day I finish up my grapes!! ARG!! LOL!! I wanted to get one and she said her friend got it for $20 off the Internet so I check and can only find them for $200. Just my luck! I will keep my eyes open for one for next year.

My friend Sue has grapes on her property and she said that in March she will give me cuttings off hers so I can plant them here and I'll have my own grapes. That will be cool!

My jelly set up really good and it turned out awesome! I could have made more but I stopped at 3 batches. Next year I will probably do more as I don't think what I have will last a year but I don't want to run out and buy more grapes.

Joe's Band Instrument

Joe has an Alto Sax which is small in size. His band teacher wanted him to switch to the Beri Sax and the thing is HUGE!!! The fingering is the same so I don't mind that he plays it. We paid $400 for his alto sax about 4 years ago. Glad he is finally playing the saxophone. He brought it home for the long weekend (no school tomorrow) to show us how it sounds and what it looks like. I can't imagine walking around the football field with that thing! I'm not sure it's a marching band instrument but he stays after school for pep/jazz band and he plays this saxophone for those.

He really loves Band class. That boys loves music, just wish he wasn't so lazy, he complains about practicing ALL THE TIME!! But, he's so good!!

Grapes!

Ah, it's fall, the first frost has come and grapes are in full swing! I bought 2 baskets of grapes this year because for the first time I am going to try my hand at grape jelly! I never did before because who really wants to cook down grapes and put them through cheese cloth, and all that jazz. But the other day I realized that I had a juicer, have had it for YEARS, and that I could just send the grapes through that and be done with it. Well, nothing is really ever that easy! I did put the grapes through the juicer and MAN what a mess!!! Juice everywhere, on the ceiling, in between my toes, and every where else! But, it did work. I had to send the pulp through again as there was still tons of juice in there.

You need 5 cups of juice per batch of jelly. I did up one whole basket last night and today I did up 2 batches of jelly. I still have about 2 or 3 cups of juice left so I will juice up enough to make 5 and then eat the rest of the grapes.

Here is one basket of grapes.

And here is what I got out of this basket. You get 8 jelly jars per batch.

Casino

We decided to held up to the new casino and check it out. We got $5 each of playing money and $5 off lunch from the hotel. So, we tried it out. Stayed about an hour, eat at the buffet and then left. LOL! We played 2 cent slots with our free $5. I won $9.16 and quit playing with that. Chuck didn't make any on the slots so he tried some other stuff and ended up leaving up $3.50, LOL!!

Here we are playing the slot machines.

Here I am with my big winnings a big 9 bucks! BTW, Mom, this is the shirt you gave me for my birthday. I love it!!

Here is Chuck with his $3.50!

Our hotel room

We always stay at the same hotel when we are in Erie, because they are just really awesome. The best room in hotel was taken so we just got a regular suite. The only thing missing from this room is the dinning room, LOL! Thought I would take some pictures of it. We are getting kicked out around noon because they are booked solid for tonight so we have to find someplace to stay. We usually book the hotel room weeks in advanced but we were sure if we were going out for anniversary or not this year so we didn't book a room till last week. This hotel is connected to Splash Lagoon so they fill up fast on the weekends.

Here is our kitchen

Here is the living room and bedroom. I love the fireplace!

Here is the most awesome Jacuzzi hot tub for two!! Other hotel rooms have much smaller ones that we both really don't fit in, LOL!

Dinner Theater

Chuck and I left this morning for a nice weekend getaway. We didn't get away to far, we are in Erie LOL!! But, I found this dinner theater on Peach Street (The Station Dinner Theater) that I never even knew was there. Last week I googled "dinner Theater, Erie PA" and found it. So glad I did. I wanted to find something different that we have never done before and we haven't been to a dinner theater before. It was AWESOME!!!

Tonight we saw the Medieval Murder Mystery. It was a riot!! Here are some pics.

Chuck got called up front, he was the "tong" man for our table. He was in charge of the tongs to serve out the chickens, LOL!!! He is just so proud!!

Now, come to find out there is NO silverware you eat EVERYTHING with your hands. Kind of hard to eat chunky soup but I had two bowls! Chuck had salad but I choose not to as I don't like the dressing. Here is the what the salad looked like. We all had to eat on these wooden boards.

Everyone had to dig there hands into the same bowl for their salads. EEWW!! Here is what our chicken looked like. Notice the tongs next to Chuck, LOL!! He's the "Tong Man"!!!

Here we are eating our food.

I tried to take some of the actors but they were blurry and didn't come out. I should have taken my camera, I even brought it with me but left it at the hotel so I had to use my phone. We had a wonderful time. The food was awesome and the company was good. We sat with three other ladies and we all just had a wonderful time. I would do this again!!

Joe's Tooth

On Tuesday night Joe showed me his gum line under a baby molar and it was blistered and gross. Great, another absess. But, Mike is out of the office on Wed. so I took him in there today after school. Yup, it's infected and he asked Joe do you want a shot or do you want me to just pull it out? He said, just pull it out. The tooth wasn't even lose! Mike took some plyers and twisted and jurked and out it came. I heard Joe scream but I didn't run up there cuz then I heard him then start laughing. I guess the tooth flew out and hit Mike in the stomach. LOL! So, he got rid of that nasty tooth and the infection should clear right up. This is the tooth that he cracked some time ago and we had it fixed but he thinks part of the filling pulled out. It was sharp and would cut his tounge. He now has a nice hole in his mouth.

I love electronic gagets!

The UPS man was just here and he delivered my Sony Electronic Ebook Reader!!! YA!! LOL!!! I just love gagets, it's awesome. I have TONS of ebooks on my computer and I wish I could read them when I'm out and about. Can't lug around a computer everywhere! I never even knew this type of thing exsisted until about a month ago when I saw one on amazon on their front page. I ordered one less than 48 hours ago and I have it in my hands! COOL!! The cords and case are being shipped seperate but I looked and realized that my cell phone cord would fit and it does so I have it charged up and all my ebooks on it! I'm so excited LOL!! It fits in my purse so I can take it anywhere. Here is a picture of what it looks like.

Heart Walk

On Sunday, I participated in the American Heart Association Heart Walk with the girls I have lunch with on Tuesday's and I work out with two of them every morning. It was freezing!! Here is a picture of me that Donna took.

Here is a picture of all of us.

We walked as a team. That is why our shirts are all the same. Donna, who is taking the picture, with her husband, owns the restaurant, Crazy Dave's Sugar Bowl, where we eat every Tuesday. We walked as part of the restaurant and we all got Crazy Dave shirts. You see me in the back the two ladies next to me, on my left but the right of the picture, are Sue and Sue and those are the girls I work out with.Wasn't much of a walk, it was mostly to raise money. We walked one mile around the block and went home, LOL! I walk more on the treadmill every morning!

Donna said we, as a group, we raised $1,400.00. Not bad!

Laptop Stresses

So, bought laptops on Friday night I was SO tired that I just left all the laptops in their boxes till the next day. I also bought a wireless router box so that I could send out a wireless signal for the laptops. So, Chuck and the boys left for the day to work on Firewood and I got all the laptops out to set up and hooked up the wireless router box and bam, nothing but problems and stress ALL DAY LONG!!

I could NOT get the Internet to work on the laptop. Thought I bought them without wireless cards so I went and bought these USB things to get the Internet. Went to Wal*Mart and saw that every single laptop there came with a wireless card, even the cheap-o's! So, I called the geek squad and yes mine has them built in too so I bought those things for nothing so I had to take them back. Got back home and tried again with no luck. So, I called the geek squad and was on the phone with him for over an hour to find out that the router box I JUST bought is no good!! ARG!!

So, I have an old wireless router box in storage in town that works when it wants too and is very if'y but thought I'd try it. So, drove into town for it and hooked it up and yes, every thing works and everyone is online. It is now 7pm at night! So, we are all online the rest of the evening.

Got up on Sunday to find that I had NO Internet at ALL!! Not even just through my DSL box hooked right up to my desk top. Nothing I did worked so no Internet all day Sunday!! ARG!!!

Come today I took the DSL box into the phone company and they had to reformat the thing. I tried and nothing I did worked. This was free, thank goodness! Took the DSL box home and it worked great, Internet up and running on my desktop. I am throwing away the old wireless router box, it's just plain no good!

So, I run into Ashtabula this morning and got a new, different brand name, wireless router box at Wal*Mart. I also did a lot of other shopping since we are low on food and stuff. So, met Chuck for lunch and then rushed home to drop off my stuff so that I could run back out and get Joe from school. When I unload my truck I notice that I have two bags missing!! Of course the router box was in one of them and 5 new bras and a bag of jerky! ARG!!!!! So, I call Wal*Mart and the lady said she doesn't see anything like that and got my info so they can check the video tapes. I get Joe and we are on our way to Ashtabula for swim team practice and Wal*Mart calls me back saying they found my stuff on the floor under some other stuff, okay what ever!!

So, I shop a little more at Wal*Mart, LOL, I should stay out of that store and I get my stuff get Joe and go home. I make dinner and then get to work on setting up the wireless Internet. I follow the directions to the T and do it really slow so that I know I'm doing it right. I had Internet on all 5 computers in less then 5 minutes and I'm typing this from my new laptop!!

I HATE computer problems, they stress me out and give me a stomachache!

I installed NetNanny on both the boys computers PRONTO!! LOL!! So, I feel better about them having the Internet in their rooms. I will also check up on their computers to make sure they aren't doing something they shouldn't be. Don't need that!

Jon Reep

Went to see Jon Reep last Friday night and he was really good!! We loved him on last comic standing and he was even better in person. Was a great show but no pictures I took really came out, bummer!

Went to Best Buy before the show and bought everyone in the family a new laptop!!! I promised everyone one and it was a blast shopping for them! Because of that I got Mom's birthday gift, a new awesome printer, for only $49!! It was $99. I got refills of ink and a cord for it too. Dang things don't come with cords any more, go figure! I also got 2 reams of paper but I kept those, who wants to pay shipping on paper, LOL!!

Life as I know it

Okay, my life is boring right now as all I have to talk about is the dog!! Her stitches got infected so I had to take her into the vet yesterday at 3:30 and she has a bladder infection too so they gave me 10 days worth of medicine to give her and get this, there was no cost for the visit or the med's. I thought that was really nice. I got both cats some flea stuff for the month while I was there.

Tonight Chuck and I are going out because Jon Reep is at the comedy club!!! He's awesome. He won Last Comic Standing last year and is from Hickory NC. Nothing like a red-neck comic!! LOL!! Can't wait to see him!! Chuck and I haven't been out, just the two of us, in months so this should be nice.

Well, I see I have 2 followers of this blog, LOL!! Maybe it's just too boring for most folks!

Had a BAN meeting last night and that went well. I had 2 other women besides me. Usually I have mostly all men so it was nice to have it just us girls. Most I ever had was 4 besides myself. I have done everything I can think of to try and get more people but alas, they want to stay in hiding.

Well, nothing else to chat about. Maybe I'll take pictures of Jon tonight and post them LOL!!