Pad Feb 4

This is a long post. I had a busy day and since I am writing this for my blog book if you dont want to read I understand. There are also a bunch of pictures to follow. I took so many today and couldn't choose just a couple.
Today I went on a photo stroll with Charlie (who buy the way is gonna be my guest blogger as soon as I get caught up with mine) to the Old Sledworks today. It's an old factory building which used to be a factory that made sleds called "Lightning Guiders". I always thought they were called Lightning Gliders, but I was wrong. Sleds were produced for 85 years in this old factory building. Now the building is a very famous (in our area) antique and craft market. I love going to this place. Inside there are antiques, crafts, and an awesome old time working penny arcade and soda fountain. I think the penny arcarde and old soda fountain are my absolute favorites. We spent lots of time and took a gazillion photos in that part of the building. In the rest of the building is old antiques and newer crafts. I found a steal there too. Something that I've been wanting for a long time. I love old scales and I am a child photographer. I want a baby scale really bad. Well today I found one. I was scared to even look at the price. Woo hoo it was regularly $34 and I was lucky that it was on sale for $19. I was so freakin excited I almost was jumping up and down. Anyway, Charlie and I had a wonderfully fun day and it was a lot of fun taking pictures with her. She is so fun to hang around with. If you would like to look at their site check it out here is there address www.sledworks.com










the old soda fountain


there's even an old camper that seats two people. You can actually eat in it. That's Charlie sitting on the steps to the camper.






Here's some of the many games they have. All are working. Amazing.


Remember when video games were simple?


for the guys, ha, ha (I wish life were this innocent now a days)




And these. I love these. When I was a teenager there was a newstand on the corner of the town I grew up in. They roasted fresh peanuts there and it smelled wonderful. In the back room there were a couple pinball machines that were so fun to play with. One of them was messed up and only needed one quarter to play for hours. I don't think the owner knew about it. Barb, Theresa and I would take our one quarter in there and have fun for the day taking turns playing pinball and racking up millions of points. If we tilted it the fun was over though. These photos reminded me of the pinball machines from when I was a teenager although mine were a little newer.




and just because this place sold things, I thought I better add one more picture of something for sale so you didn't think we hung out in the game room most of the time. (We did.)





Later, I drove home to pick up Mikey and his friend to finally take them bowling. The night before we tried and failed. (read previous post). The boys had a great time as you can see here. They aren't the best bowlers, but they had a ball. Afterwards they played some video games. The quality of these photos are horrible. It's pretty dark in the bowling alley and I didn't want to use flash so I guess I just have to embrace the grain.












almost looks like it's gonna be a strike!


aww shucks. It was close though


some video game fun




Total Concentration


Mikey got two free games for getting a good score. Here's his last game. He didn't do so good on the third one. He was done after this one. When we walked out the door we were greeted with some heavy blowing snow. I didn't get any snow pictures. It was too dark outside.



Once home, we had birthday cake. It was a day late because yesterday I didn't have the right kind of icing. Mikey wanted an orange cake with cream cheese icing. He has eleven candles on his cake and one in the corner for good luck.






Look at those cheeks!

PaD Feb 3

Just realized this is a Mikey kind of week. Today was his birthday. He turned 11 years old. I can't believe it. Where did all the time go? I love this boy. He is rotten and sweet at the same time. He's bull headed most of the time but there is just something so cute about him. I love the way he still wants me to tuck him in at night. He can be so mean sometimes and then in the next minute just make me melt. I guess all kids are like that, but this kid is mine and I love him to pieces.
I went overboard with pictures of him this week. Here are just a sample of the many I took.
He got a guitar for Christmas and wants to learn to play it in the worst way. With the economy the way it is right now we can't afford to get him lessons. I hope to be able to soon. He really loves this guitar. He has an older accoustic guitar that my uncle gave him. His dad also gave him an electric guitar that ge got when he was in the Army. He also has three amps. Oh, and you can't forget the two guitars he has from Guitar Hero, ha, ha. I plan on doing a whole series of guitar photos for the boy. I think it would be cool to put some close up shots of his guitars in his room. He would like that.
When Mikey got home from school today I told him to go get his guitar and take it outside. We were gonna do some birthday pictures. He was all into this. He had a birthday sticker on his cheek that he had gotten at school. I had him leave it on for some of the pictures. Here they are:


Can't go without saying "He's so adorable"














Love this one. He was singing "Chicken Fried".




And here are a few of his guitar that he liked:










Later he wanted to go bowling so I said we could. He called a friend to go along. So we drove to the bowling alley and found out that they had league night that night. Then we decided we would come back tomorrow. I asked the boys if they wanted to go get some pizza. We drove over to the next town to Zeiderelli's. They were closed on Tuesday's. What is up with this one horse town? (I love my town - It's slow. Just the way I like it.) So we ended up settling for Subway.

Pad Feb 2

Michael had homework and his assignment was to write about a talent he has. Well let me tell you this boy is a video game junkie. I wish he would do more with his time. He is either outside playing or inside playing video games/watching TV. Granted it is winter time and it's cold outside. He does have an artistic eye when it comes to photography but not enough for him to write about it. He does not like to write at all. It was a tough assignment for him. So I suggested he write about his love of four wheeling or dirt bike riding. This is what he wrote:

My best talent is done outdoors. I love to ride my four wheeler and my dirt bike. I live in the country, so I have a lot of area to ride. I started riding when I was five years old and have been riding ever since.
In order to ride a four wheeler or dirt bike safely you have to become "one" with it, otherwise you run the risk of wrecking it. You also must stay very focused and play close attention to your surrounds. Other things required to drive safely are knowing when to slow down and when to speed up. You must know when to shift gears or else the transmission could get messed up. Never shift going up hill or you will lose your momentum.
And I always wear my helmet when I'm outdoors riding on all fours.



Love his dirty little hands. He is a lefty and it shows with his sloppy handwriting. It isn't too bad here though. He is trying to write legibly. Usually though it looks like a doctor would write.
When his dad was a kid he wrote with his left hand and the school teachers made him switch to his right hand. I think that is awful. God wanted him to be a lefty so let him be a lefty. Kevin's dad is also a lefty I think. So is my brother.

PaD Feb 1

Super Bowl Sunday - Nothing special to this football hatin' Momma. The kids like it though. I use to like the commercials but not much now a days. A lot of them are just too techie if you ask me. Some of them are trashy too. Mikey had a friend over and they watched most of it except for when they went upstairs to play video games. They were for opposing teams which was fun to witness. Mikey was upset in the end since his team didn't win. He was routing for the Cardinals since he is a Steelers hater. He likes the Eagles and was not happy when they didn't make it into the Super Bowl. He could have at least voted for the other Pennsylvania team.

In this picture his team made a touchdown.


And a snack of shrimp

Pad Jan 31

Giant Sticky Hand - Have you ever played with one of these things? They come in a bubble gum machine. Last night we went to the pizza place and Mikey and Kelsey each had fifty cents to spend so of course they each got a sticky hand. Mikey got lucky and got a big one. I have to say I am a kid at heart and love these things. It's amazing to me how quickly they become dirty and then like magic with soap and water they become like brand new again. On the way home the two of them were in the back seat swinging their new sticky hands back and forth at each other. Slap, laugh, Slap, laugh, Slap, laugh. This continued for a good while. Sara and I were in the front seat looking at each other and laughing at the funny noises coming from the back seat. They were having a blast. It was pretty funny sounding but like usual you just had to be there.
The next morning the hands came out again. They ended up on the walls and ceiling along with more uncontrolled laughter. The sticky hands stick really good on ceilings.

close up:

Warning: These fun things like to mark their territory. That's right. You will always know there was a sticky hand in this house. Here's the proof:

PaD Jan 30

Boring, Boring, Boring Food Picture Again!!!!! This was my supper tonight. I have the new fluorescent light bulbs and they are horrible for night time photography. I guess I shouldn't wait until the last minute to take my photo for the day, huh? Anyway here is what I had:

Apee, does this look familiar? It's your favorite pizza from Zeiderelli's Pizza Place. Yum, Yum!!! This picture does not do it any justice at all. Pepperoni, peppers and onions. The peppers are like a sweet pickled pepper.