i'm an astronaut

liar.



saw this way back when, it's hilarious and should be shared more.

- m

live blogging ... nothing

ok, so with this post is a monumental day in mine and Sarah's lives. our oldest kid is now officially a teenager. dang. 13 years old.

how'd this happen so fast. i guess all the running around, wishing for things to get here, making sure everything gets done, causes time to fly by.

this also marks the fact that abigail is now 6. that's our youngest! she's growing up so fast.

so we had the combined b-day party today, so that was excitement beyond all belief. the kids had a great time as usual. we just need to have all the cousins move back to erie to make every day a party day :P

as usual - click on a picture to get a boatload more of them - and in this case - 19 of them.

- m

So... It's about time to

So... It's about time to start a 2 mile trek to our spot. Let the games begin!

-m

So, here I am riding

So, here I am riding shotgun, entering an update on my motorola q looking at the site on wes's blackberry... Love tech!

-m

Just a technology test.

Just a technology test. This is how updates will appear on here.

-m

live blogging the 2C1C 2008

it'll be dorky, but you know what - we've got the technology to bring you my defeat of wes on the streams of the mighty Salmon River in NY. if you don't know what the Salmon River is - feel free to check the archives see what it's all about.

rawr.

so, it's a monday morning, recovering from wine fest 2008 and i've got to drive to PGH in about 25 minutes or so. but i came in this morning and found this little guy on my desk

monday's ok. :)

- m

RIP Big Sweetie.

Today is a day that stinks.

Almost 11 years ago, we went to the humane society to get a dog. Just a dog. Never did we imagine that we'd be getting such an integral part of our family. But they turn out that way.

He was an old dog, a great dog. A dog that everyone would want. Plain and simple.

I'll write more when I get some moxie.

RIP Big Sweetie - we're going to miss you.

- m

project365

it's an idea I got from a newsletter - taking your camera with you where ever you go (like I don't already) to capture 1 image a day that you upload to a photo service and document 1 year of your life.

sounds like a good plan. here's a link to my project365 image page.

let me know what you think.

- m

FSOD!

That's the First Day of School, as opposed to the BSOD - Blue Screen of Death. One's enjoyable, the other, the kids don't like :P



Teenage Angst!

Fashionista Diva Emma.



Varsity starting center Abigail with Bella who, believe it or not, is the same age. This is it - this is the last of our children starting up kindergarten. Kinda sad in a way. Funny thing is that with work, a lot of people that are my age or older are having their first go into kindergarten. Guess we are ahead of the curve in that aspect.

A big thing this year is that now, I don't have to pay for my kids to participate in sports. It's a strange feeling. I mean I still have to buy equipment, and now Bailey is traveling around the county to various schools playing basketball - but that all had to be done for the most part before.

So, here she is with her jersey - first game is on Tuesday - wish her luck!

Well, it's the Labor Dabor so I'm gonna go look at doing some labor in the sun room. Sarah's idea.

- m

curse you, Fay!

as you can see - Fay's making for some wet weather and in actuality, we're going to be getting out of here in about 1/2 hour or so.

enjoy this montage of various pictures:





blog later!

- m

which way to the beach...

so, we did manage to make it down here....you may have caught the webcam and all...

hit up the beach on the first day



if Jerry had these waves instead of the monsters from OBX, things may have turned out differently!





We think this may have been one of the last pictures of Toothy.

more later!

- m

webcam rockin

It will be on and off at times, but for now, it's up....

Free video chat by Ustream

please leave a comment if you are watching...

- m

going to beach 10:15 AM

i'll guarantee some action tomorrow morning, when all you guys are starting up the work day.

going out to dinner.....

sorry to walk over the new guys posts...

but it has to be done.

seems that last years trip to HHI was all just a fluke, with the bike rack, the trucker stares, and general shenanigans that happened.

a prime example. the bike rack.



see - this is in Galax and it hasn't been touched in over 24 hours and it hasn't moved off the vehicle in over 24 hours.

life is good - to quote a local saying.

the alligator didn't take long to rear his big fat head now did he.



back to the beginning - nothing bad happened either in this trip - no dead batteries to jump, no kids that were grump.



all in all, makes me wanna jump jump....

beach tomorrow

- m

going the distance....

though not for speed....

we made it down to HHI today about 2:30 or so. no real issues to think of this time around.

i'll post some more this evening after we get back from dinner.

pictures and all...

later!

- m

when animals attack!

In keeping with the wildlife theme, we made a trip to the zoo today to check out some of the "new arrivals". Two of the elephants at the zoo had babies within the last 2 months so we decided to see what all the hub-bub was about...All we saw was this zookeeper get mauled by one of the baby elephants.

Every time we've gone to the zoo since the new polar bear exhibit has opened neither of them have been in the water, they just pace back and forth...it's kinda creepy...Well, our luck finally changed today. There's a tunnel that runs underneath the exhibit.

by the edge of the ocean....

we can start over again. but not for a couple of days.

so, first, i want to welcome one of the two new bloggers to the site. wes. congratulations on making your first post invasive, if nothing else :P

we're heading out tomorrow morning @ 8:00 for our HHI trip. we're going to live-blog the event to the best of my ability. the thing that will make it possible this year is the fact that our time share now has internet! the masses that own it have spoken!

i'm thinking web cam. and oh yes, it's packed up already.

look for the post from Galax tomorrow night. you *know* we're going back there for 2nds.

- m

INVASION!!

We've been noticing quite a few empty cicada shells on one of our trees lately and I noticed this guy was still in his shell when I came outside tonight. I paid careful attention to him and these pictures were about 20 minutes later.

wet & wild at waldameer...

Well, we missed last year for whatever reason there was - time, time or maybe time. I'll go with number 3. Only problem was, this was shaping up to be missed again with Sarah starting a new job, vacation #2 coming up in 2 weeks, and everything in between. Well, Sarah got home from training in a reasonable time frame and we managed to put together that whole time thing to get out to visit the Ravine Flyer 2.

First things first, we had to beat the kids and put them in shackles to get them to want to ride the rides this year



They weren't too thrilled with that idea though. Whatever. We thought it was funny and made them suffer.

Next it was on to the oh so ominous spider. What a scary and sickening ride. Um, actually, it was for someone, though we won't say exactly who.



(Emma, obviously)

In reality, we haven't ridden many rides due to kids - it kinda takes our ability to have fun out of the equation when one of us is usually sitting. This was one of the first times in recent years that we have been able to ride rides all together, if that makes sense.

Then we moved on to such gems as Thunder Canyon(?)



the Wacky Shack



the Comet



(Bailey & Emma on the way up)



(Abby & Sarah on the way up)



(Abby thoroughly enjoying the Comet)

It goes to note that after this, we did hit up the Ravine Flyer II.

Abby included.

This would be the only ride that she did not like - at all. This ride is fast, hilly, and is awesome in every aspect. For someone 7 or older. Abby's WNBA like height has managed to get her on rides before she may be ready, and this was one of them. She was white when I turned around to see her. Afterward, she said she wasn't going on it for a couple more years, and that she wanted to go back to the Comet. A real amusement park trooper!

After this, we decided to repeat some of the rides that we hit up already, Emma decided to help the park out and hold up one of the supports. Inside joke.

So, Abby then decided to take things down a notch and hit up some kiddie rides...



Wait! That's not Abby and that's not a pix that I took! (Nice one Sarah)



There she is chilling in the Helicopter - at the end of this one she was practically asleep on it. Bored with kiddie land from now on! (Yippe!)

So, now we get to go up... up.... up....





Emma's trying to see how high we are going up.



afterwards. this was definitely fun, to say the least. free fall for maybe 1.5 - 2 seconds max.....

finally, we had to call it a day. the kids were tired(not really - we needed an excuse to get home) and it was almost 10:00 - poor Dockers & Sammy were inside all day! Hope it wasn't too bad there!



All in all, we rode a ton of rides, ate way too much park food, and had a great time. As always, click on a picture to see the whole album.

- m

santa...

so, we did go to OBX.

but this is much much funnier.

seriously.



i will blog about OBX within the next 2 days. promise.

- m

feeling hot, hot, hot....

something with cornhole....



can't quite put my finger on it....



abby's mad skills?



emma's exquisite form?



hmmmm....

- m

hello mother, hello father.....

here I am at, Camp Granada....

well, today, we shipped out Boo to Lake Chautauqua Lutheran Center over on Lake Erie - just kidding - on Lake Chautauqua. she's there for Confirmation Camps...she's going to have a great time, she just doesn't realize it.



that's her excited look, but like I said - she doesn't know how fun it will be.

7 hours before this image, the red spots were right over the camp. it was nasty. but, i think at this point tonight, the weather is finally clearing out.



on the way to the cabin, though, we still had rain and puddles, as Abigail was pointing out.

being first allows you to pick the top bunk. though I don't know when you've got 6 girls crammed into a room, if that is a good idea.



there is a fabulous view from the front deck of their cabin. we were jealous.



and then think, Boo goes all the way to camp to hang out with someone...from... north east?

w/e

- m