Things you can pack into 1/4 acre...

Well, I have found, you can pack a zoo and a farm into a 1/4 acre. I was pretty happy with one dog and one (mostly) outdoor cat. I was good with that. There was a stray cat, that lived on our porch, but, I held fast to the fact that it was a STRAY. As in NOT ours! Kaila, of course, named it. Her name is Melody, and it adores Kaila, as all creatures do. But, she wasn't ours, right? STRAY kitty!
As pictured below, Flashlight, our (mostly) outdoor kitty, is thinking about jumping. I would tell her not to do it, and things will get better, but, I doubt it. She seriously thinks she deserves a mansion, her own room and a minimum of four servants, but, in reality, she is stuck with us. A 9 year old girl she fights the dog for the privelage of sleeping in her bed, and who always forgets to change her litter box. And now, this.


The stray kitty recently proudly presented us with 4 more stray kitties, she had given birth to several weeks ago under the shed in our back yard. The kids are delighted, the dog is a wreck.

While they are kinda cute, I am still desprately holding onto the belief they are not ours. I keep hoping they move under the next door neighbor's porch or something, but, they haven't. For strays, they seem to understand property lines amazingly well.

And, of course, the kids named them. Lexi happily rattled off "This one is 'Fuzz Balls', this one is 'Fur Balls' and this one is 'Cute Balls' ". OMG. No, Lexi, you gotta rename them, dear.

Meanwhile, in honor of Kaila's birthday on the 5th, and Joe's birthday on the 24th, the next door neighbor was kind enough to gift them with Guinie Pigs. Seriously. Guinie Pigs. The dog literaly wet himself.

We went today, to get all the peraphenilia these particular rodents need; (to the tune of $85.00). While at the pet shop, the shop owner gave a stern lecture on what sorts of fruits and veggies they eat, and that tomatoes are bad for EVERY creature! WE HUMANS should not even eat them! She said this, as she stood in the window display. It was very dramatic, and I nodded solemnly and tried very hard to ignore Jasin's eye rolling, and the fact that he had just seen how much rodent cages cost.
Our neighbor very seriously told me this was a FAVOR, as she usually can sell them for $12.00 a piece, and her gift to the kids had just cost her $24.00. I swear, I was the picture of gratefulness, and did not attempt to choke her at any point. Besides, she is a GENIOUS! I am SO giving kittens to the next 4 children in the neighborhood who have birthdays. Her own child has one in August....

The fact that I love my children enough to give them an entire shelf on my book shelves speaks volumes about my love for them... and please ignore the fact that it's a mess. I seriously cleaned this morning. Evidently we cannot also pack a maid into 1/4 acre...

I have also given up my hanging flower baskets this year, for Topsy Turvy Tomatoe planters. And, while we were at it...


My front garden for pumpkins that grew because we left last fall's pumpkins there over the winter, and they just started to grow here. Kinda cool, actually!

And, why stop there?? My brother was nice enough to dig up the end of the driveway, so we (being me, as the kids certainly did not dirty themselves) could put in a veggie garden...


I am absurdly proud of the fact that my corn, tomoatoes, zucchini and green peppers are doing beautifully! The jury is still out on the cucumbers and carrots... thats why that part of the garden is not weeded. It finally was weeded the other day, after the acquisition of a garden hoe. I walked into the Home Depot looking for one, with my 4 kids in tow. I could not find one, so, spying a clerck, walked up to her and said "If I were a hoe, where would I be?" The look on her face was priceless. Ah well.

No more classes, no more books...

Today was the kid's last day of school. YAY!!! So, because I happen to be home, till I pass State Boards and get my nursing license (Hopefully within the next month or so.), I was able to go to Joe's end of year Pre-K celebration. He was up at the crack of dawn this morning, standing next to my bed, insisting I button his shirt. He had decided he needed to dress for the occassion. And, to impress 'Tiny Girl', the girl he has decided quite matter of factly, that he is going to marry someday. She is the tiny cutie on his left... Mrs. Pollock, the Pre-School teacher pulled me aside, and said that Joe and Little Onsa (That's Tiny Girl's name) are so cute together, that no one had the heart to seperate them. So, they will be in the same Kindergaten class.How cute is that?? The teacher further informed me, that this was the sweetest thing she has ever seen in her class. (After 30 plus years of teaching..). She said that they would be doing circle time, and she would look up, and they would be holding hands. One did not go anywhere without the other. It was just too cute!!

After I sprung them from school, we came home, and we dug out silly string. LOTS of fun!!! They even got me. (But not on film!)

"DO NOT(!!!!) SPRAY ME OR MY TRUCK!!!!" They sprayed him and his truck...

Out of silly string. :(

more silly string...

And, vacation brownies! Because I can be nice occassionaly.

Fun's over kids! Time to go clean your rooms....

Happy Father's Day, Jasin!

For Father's Day, we took Jasin to the Beach, near where my last two weeks of clinical were, on Lake Erie. It was the most perfect day ever, for going to the beach, and the water was really warm, considering it was all covered in ice a few months ago!

Below, Kaila heads in. Shortly before she decided it was disgusting, and headed back out again... Lexi, pictured in the backround, spent most of the day in the water, trying to catch waves....

As pictured below, it was a windy day... Lexi informed me she was a sailboat here.

Daddy and Joe :)

Love this picture! It just seems to capture everything kids are supposed to be! Joe. He spent a lot of time running.

"LEXI COME BACK!!!" She is on her way in again, after going waaaayyyy too far out. Again. She really loved trying to get caught in the waves. I ended up taking her way out, (I was completley dressed, of course. Heaven forbid I think to grab myself a suit...) and we spent a long time in the water, catching all the waves. Some crashed over MY head! It was SO MUCH FUN!!!

Looking for shells





Building the obligatory sand castles

Could it be she is tired out? Nope. This lasted about 30 seconds.

George. Kinda wasn't a fan of the beach. He slept most of the day.

I love this picture of Kaila! We walked way out onto this, well, whatever it was. It goes way out, and ends up kinda nowhere. I think it's a divider between where Cattaraugus Creek meets Lake Erie, actually. Either way, it was a nice walk! I had to wrestle my phone away from Kaila, to even take this picture.

And, the two of us! Happy Father's Day! I think he had fun!

A little bit of everything

This last month or so has been nuts. So, here goes; I am going to try and catch everything up!

George and I finished school classes. Seriously; I carried this baby through what seemed like most of Nursing school. If he decides to go into the medical field, I really feel he has a terrific head start!

I also decided I have the sweetest, calmest, most good natured baby on the planet. He just rolls with whatever is happening. Given the pace we've been going for the last month, this has been a huge blessing! He is a man of many hats...

My older brother, Rick, was in a tractor roll over. He was helping a friend with his haying, and the friend was driving the tractor. Rick was riding on the side, and realized the driver was too close to the edge of a 30 foot drop. Rick jumped off; but it was too late. The tractor rolled over him, and they both went down the drop-off. He was flown to the trauma center in Buffalo, where it was found he had a slightly fractured left arm, and shoulder blade, a cracked rib, and lots of swelling and bruising, but was otherwise okay. He went home that night. What a scare!!! Below, his bruised up face..

Two days after the tractor incident, George ended up in the Olean E.R. I rushed him in, because he had a fever pushing 103, and the worst cough I had ever heard. He had gone to bed just fine Saturday, and woke up with it Sunday. We were in the E.R. for hours, because his fever wouldn't come down, nor would his pulse of 180. Pretty scary. The doctor and nurses were absolutely wonderful though. They brought me an Amish bentwood rocking chair, and the doctor played lullabyes on his I-pod, and the entire staff just kept coming to check on George, whether he was their patient or not.

The fever came down eventually, and we were able to come home. The doctor said, that if I had waited till morning, George would have been admitted with RSV. Huge sigh of relief that it wasn't!!

Two days after THAT, I was at clinical, which was 50 miles, and over an hour away, when Jasin sent me a picture of Joe's face. A large horsefly had bitten him, right below his eye. Which then swelled to enormous proportions. I told him to give Joe some Benadryl, and he should be okay, as this has happened before. I pull in the driveway that afternoon, to find that the poor kid cannot even open his eye. So, I grabbed his hand, and we trotted around the corner to the doctor's. Good lord! These things just kept popping up!!

We also, in the last month, had a pretty nasty storm. A tree came down, and took out all the power, phone and cable (GASP!!! The kids were more worried about the loss of TV, than anything...) lines. It looked like they were going to be down for at least a day. The weather had been 80's for weeks. Now it was 30's, and we had only one heater, in the family room, that did not require electricity to run. The stove is gas, so, we could cook, and the hot water also came from gas, so, we were okay there too. So, I got out all the candles, and told the kids it would be an adventure! This would be fun! How cool was this??? Kaila rolled her eyes, and moaned "I NEED technolegy!!!!!" Sigh. They actually really had a great time, and set up their sleeping bags on the family room floor, and we had one of the best days ever, while the wind howled outside.

Good friends of mine, who have a generator, offered to take all our parishables. So, I loaded them up, and drove them all over. On the way back, the power came back on. The kids were SO disappointed! It really was fun without it.

All set up for a no - electric campout...

This last month, George was baptized. When this was done, everyone came over to our house, where I had made brunch. As soon as everyone was gone, it was off to a classmate/friend's house, to study. The same friends who had our perishables during the storm. Brian, and his awesome wife, Pat. Pat has been a nurse for several years, so she was wonderful to have around during debates (arguments....lol!) over some points!

Kaila turned 9 last week. We took her to a carnival, in Cuba, a town near here, for the day.

Cuba is known for it's cheese factory. Next to the cheese factory, is a fake cow. LEAVE IT TO LEXI... She ran right over to it, and started to "milk" it. This picture was taken a few hours before she got lost, after the last merry-go-round ride of the night. She evidently got off the ride, and in the crowd, became disoriented, and thus, lost. At first I was angry. She had been running off all day, without thinking to see if I was there. Next thing I know, she was just GONE. Then I realized she really was gone. It was like one of those "Eye Spy" pictures, where there are a thousand things, and you have to find one tiny thing. It was the most terrified I have ever been in my life. I finally located a police officer. Someone had found her, and she was in the back of an ambulance. She was not fazed in the least. I took one look at her, and yelled;

"ALEXANDRIA GRACE!!! I DON'T KNOW WHETHER TO BEAT YOU OR HUG YOU!!!"

One of the officers stepped up and said

"Ma'am, we're gonna need your name...."

My last two weeks of clinical was about two minutes from Lake Erie, and Sunset Bay. I love the water, always have. If I could move there tomorrow, I would! This picture below I took the last morning of clinical, at dawn. I ended up arriving way early that day, so I went down to the beach. It would be so nice to start every day like this!

This past Friday, was Joe's field trip, and my graduation day. His field trip was pretty far away, but, Jasin, Geroge and myself went along. It was the first school function I have been able to attend in two years. It took place at Midway park, this tiny place perfect for pre-schoolers. It's right next to Chattauqua Lake. All the rides were nothing, compared to the perfect hill for rolling down, and the lake! One look at that, and he wanted to go fishing.

Me and my boys!!

And FINALLY!!!! GRADUATION!!!! The picture below is dopey looking, but, it's me getting pinned by my teacher. Nursing pins are pretty much what you work for. It used to be caps, but, now it's the pin. HUGE honor, to be pinned! What no one knew, was that my teacher's left arm was fractured. She went the evening without her splint, just so she could pin us!

The candle part of the evening. Florance Nightengale was known as the "Lady of the Lamp", because every night, she would check her patient's, while carrying her lamp. Nurses take the Florence Nightengale pledge, and pledge to always keep the lamp burning. Our pins have the lamp on them. Anyhow, Jasin managed to take this as we were all getting ready to blow the candles out...:)














Brian and Me. My buddy through these last two years. Him and his family are wonderful people. Gonna miss sending texts to him, two rows behind me, in class!!

And, of course, George and me. This picture is special, because he was with me for so much of this! He was a huge part of the end of the first year of school, and all of the second year. I was SOOO sick, when I first was pregnant with him! The last two weeks of clinical last year, were the hardest thing I have ever done. Being pregnant, and working, and doing the clinical thing, and having 3 kids, and the absolute miserable sickness, just about did me in! I had a few close calls during this pregancy, when no one thought he would make it. And when I seriously thought about throwing in the towel and giving up. But, we both made it, and here we are!!!

WHEW!!!! I think that's a general outline of the last month. Hopefully things settle down! Now, I have to pass State Boards, and get my license, and a job!!!!!

Ya'll come back now, Y'hear???