Heat Wave!

Officially, it was 66 degrees in Englewood yesterday! Very nice! That's a record-breaker for the end of December, so obviously we had to get everyone outside to blow the stink off.

We took a walk, John rode his trike, we took the outside Christmas decorations down, and we even managed to enlist the help of our kids to clean up the NEVER ENDING seed thingies that our nasty locust tree keeps dropping.

Just look at those things...they look like little snakes all over our yard! GROSS!

We raked up EIGHT trash bags full and the girls were convinced that we were breaking some child labor laws.

Christmas 2008

We went to Grandma & Grandpa Baker's on Christmas Eve, enjoyed Christmas morning at home, and then headed up to Ansonia to spend Christmas Day with the Trittschuh's. It's was a blur of activity. The kids were in overload with the fantastic gifts and I was about sick from scarfing too much food. Apparently I was too caught up in the activity to remember to get my camera out regularly - I have just a few random pictures from each gathering. However, I did manage to capture a few money shots of Beth opening the "home run" gifts from her grandparents, so that's a plus.

Christmas 08

Hello little face...

Gavin Cain Deaton, finally arrived today at 3:55PM after a week of contractions, but only 10 minutes of pushing! (Apparently my sister is what you could call a power-pusher...geesh!) Gavin weighed in at 8 lbs. 10 oz. and was 22 inches long. He's got a head full of light brown hair and even sounds like a boy with a deep little cry. He's just beautiful and had us all bawling from the start.

Happy birthday Gavin! It's nice to finally meet you.

For more "Gavin related" pictures, click here.

Gavin Cain Deaton

2008 Christmas Card Photo

I was amazed that I could get all three kids in front of the tree without fighting - even more so that I could snap a shot of them all smiling. They almost look like they like each other. Shhh, don't tell anyone...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

What an exhausting, but wonderful time of the year! The outside lights are up; the tree is decorated with ornaments that bring a smile or a memory with the hanging of each one; the Christmas movies have been brought up from the basement (I seriously could watch Polar Express over and over and never get tired of it); and the excitement of the kids is contagious.

Last weekend we celebrated a yearly ritual here at the Trittschuh house. Cookie night! My sister & niece, my friend and her kids, and me and my brood all get together, eat pizza and make cookies. This year, Grandma and Grandpa Baker even stopped by to help out for a bit.

By the end of the night every single child and adult in the house was covered in flour and/or dried icing - and I'm still finding sprinkles in the oddest areas of my house. But it is really something that I've come to look forward too. I think the kids do too.

Sugar cookies...made with flour, sugar, love, and maybe even a little bit of slobber. That's the absolute best!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday. You get all of the great food and family togetherness, without the pressure of presents. It sort of makes me sad that it is the one holiday with very little recognition. If you go to a store, you'll see the back to school stuff replaced by Halloween decorations; then Halloween gets replaced by Christmas. I know that Thanksgiving doesn't have much to commercialize, but it just doesn't seem right to just skip it.

Anyhoo, we had a lovely day. We went to Grandma & Grandpa Trittschuh's for a nice lunch with the entire family. What a spread they had there! Just when we had digested enough to finally be able to breathe, we packed up and headed to my Mom's house for a feast with the other side. I don't want to even think about the calories consumed that day, but really, I am just very thankful that we have family close by to be able to do that with. There are many people out there that spend Thanksgiving alone and I was lucky enough to spend time with almost every single person in my family in one day. That certainly is special. So, now is the time where I will reflect and will make a list for what I am thankful for:

First and foremost, my children. They are the light of my life.

My husband. Even after 13 years of marriage he is still my best friend.

My family. My loud, wonderful, loving, and even at times disfunctional family. I love you.

My friends. You laugh with me, listen to me bitch, and understand when I sometimes don't say anything at all. You are wonderful.

On top of all of this, I have a home, a job, a vehicle that gets me where I need to go (most of the time), we have food in the cupboard, and we have our health...everything else seems immaterial, now doesn't it? Even so, I still can't help but to be thankful for Diet Coke, flannel sheets, Zumba, high heeled boots, my TiVo, chocolate, and beer. For those are the litle perks that make everyday life so very wonderful. Happy Holidays all!

What a week!

I know that I've really dropped the ball in blogging this week, but I've been CRAZY busy.

We have had a good week though. Saturday, we went to Grandma Trittschuh's to make homemade noodles, so that was a lot of fun. We kneaded and cranked and were covered in flour - it was perfect. Well, except for the nasty habit Aunt Di has passed along to my girls on a noodle day many years ago...who eats raw noodle dough?! Ick, that's gross!! That's raw egg my kids now love to eat! I tell you what, if my kids come down with intestinal worms they can go stay with Aunt Di and let her love on them while she's cleaning up their puke! (Sorry for the lovely visual there gang.)

Aunt Kim used to tease the girls by telling them that kneading the dough is how you get big boobs. I'm guessing we worked hard enough for at least a cup size that day Aunt Kim! We ended up with A BUNCH of noodles.

Oh Mary....

Here's a little recreation from our house Tuesday night...

Setting: My eight year old, Mary, is working on homework, sitting at the bar in our kitchen. She has a packet of papers that is due on Friday that she works on a little every day. She's been working for a bit at this point...

Mary, growing weary of doing homework, throws herself back in her chair and says, "Mom, can I be done?"

"Let me see...good job, but can you do just one more page?"

She picks herself back up to the bar, gives a deep sigh and says under her breath....."damn."

She didn't say it to get a rise out of me. She was just disappointed and that's what came out of her mouth. As much as I hate to admit it, my daughter is a casual swearer. Lovely. Even worse; I'm not that upset over it. There are worse things right?! Heck, Matt thinks it's hilarious. I told him that if I EVER get a phone call from the school telling me that they have Mary in the office that HE is going to be the one to go talk to the principal - not me. In the meantime, I guess I'll try to keep my little pottymouth away from the other kids.....

Happy birthday Matt!

The kids and I want to give a big shout out to one of the coolest dads ever...and who just happens to be celebrating his birthday tomorrow. :-) Happy birthday honey! We sure do love you.

I was searching our computer files for some good pictures of him to post tonight when I ran across an old band photo from either the late 80's or early 90's. It was too funny not to share.

I'm so glad that as he's aged, that his fashion sense has matured as well.

Yep folks...that is Matt wearing the gold spandex shorts and cowboy boots! YOWZA!

Happy birthday ya big stud-muffin!

Jeff's Bucket List

Last night, Matt and I went to a benefit fish fry for a "friend of a friend of a friend."

Jeff was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer six months ago. After this summer's surgery, doctors informed him that they are no longer able to fight the disease, but would now focus on prolonging his life. Jeff just celebrated his 40th birthday last month and has been given 6 months to a year, but in all honesty, no one really knows when he'll be called home.

Jeff made a promise to his wife back when they got married almost 5 years ago that they would go to Europe some day. Well that some day is now so Jeff's friends put together a benefit to raise the money to help Jeff fulfill his "bucket list." It was truly inspiring to see all of the people there last night - it was packed! There was food, beer, gambling, silect auctions, and the like. I overheard one of the "bucket heads" (Jeff's friends that were working the event last night all sported bright purple Bucket-head shirts) tell another that they had hit the $10,000 mark at 10:30PM. That's fantastic! The event ran til midnight so I'm hoping that Jeff and his wife will be able to take that trip right now and not have to worry about money.

My heart breaks when I think about his situation. But last night was such a wonderful celebration of a life that until recently, I had no idea even existed. It's amazing what a handful of people can do.

Bon voyage Jeff....I hope you have the trip of a lifetime!

Rockin' at Stocks w/ the Dogs...

Friday night was the first annual Halloween Bash at Stocks in Versailles (of course featuring entertainment by the RocketDogs), so Matt and I got all dressed up and headed north. What a freakin' blast that was!!

My little brother (and official RocketDog Roadie) Rich, came along for a night of fun. He helped the guys set up, tear down, and took pictures all night long. I think he just does it to say he's "with the band"...free drinks, chics dig it, etc. But in all honesty, he did a great job catching the all of the hysterical costumes throughout the night.

Anyway, Rich brought over his camera so I downloaded all of his pictures. Click the link below to view his handywork.

Halloween Bash

Trick-or-Treat!

Here's my brood...the hippie, the baby, and the bat.

Beth, being such a big girl, went off to trick-or-treat with her friends this year. :-( But I took Mary and John out. Of course I was quite proud that my perfect children remembered their manners. At every house there was a "trick-or-treat" and a "thank you!" before we'd hit the next home. Although I have to be careful with John...that kid will take politeness to the point of beligerance. At one house, he did his normal "thank you" at the end. The guy was fairly oblivious and ignored his cute little comment, so of course John said it again...this time a little louder. When it still went unrecognized, he yelled "THANK YOU!" I finally chimed in and said, "Okay, John let's go" when he yelled back to me in a honked off reply "But that guy didn't say you're welcome!!" I tried not to laugh, but the other parents around me just lost it...

Pumpkin Night

We held our annual family pumpkin carving night earlier this week. We got a good laugh out of the differences between each child's reaction to scooping out "the guts."

Mary, my normal gagger on all things gross, dug in there to scoop the guts out with her bare hands! She hooped and hollered about it feeling cold & squishy, but she had so much fun.

Beth, obviously disgusted with her sister's lack of self control, decided to be a lady and use a spoon to scrape her pumpkin out. She was not about to put her hands in there...gross!

John, well we have no pictures of him scraping out the guts because the minute he saw (and smelled) the inside of his pumpkin he ran off screaming. Dad had to pitch in to do his dirty work.

We kept coaxing John to come back out and join us. I lit my pumpkin spice Yankee candle to help him with the yucky smell and we kept our jokes at bay. We just about lost him for good when he came back out just as Matt was dumping the slimy innards of John's pumpkin onto the table - of course he wretched and gagged. So I went running to him with my own slimy hands, keep in mind he's trying to stifle a puke, to take him into the kitchen while the yucky stuff on the table was disposed of.

Once the gross stuff was removed, John was happy to come back out and join the family for the drawing and subsequent carving of the jack-o-lantern faces.

It all ended well and the kids were proud of their finished products. :-)

Halloween - round 1

This weekend started the with the first of our Halloween plans...well, at least Beth & Matt's Halloween plans. Beth went to the 2nd annual Fiedler Bash on Friday night dressed to the nines in her fluorescent hippie attire.

The party rocked with a DJ, smoke machine, tables of munchies, scary decorations everywhere, and co-ed's (50 kids in attendance clearly divided with an imaginary line - girls danced on the chairs on one side, the much older boys, very cool 7th graders, all hung out at the food tables probably discussing football and who can fart on cue.)

My hippie was there to spread the word of peace and love... Matt and the rest of his band played a Halloween party at the VFW in Greenville Saturday night. All of the guys were good sports and decided to go in costume. Matt went purchased a latex head cover to be able to go as one of the Coneheads. Yeah, we all got a good chuckle out of the fact that he PURCHASED something to give him the appearance of a bald guy with a big head. What a stretch that one is!

The RocketDogs were good sports though. Here's my rockin' guys - the nun, the nerd, the pirate and the conehead.

A Day at the Farm

This year's outting to Brumbaugh's had me sweating at first...Beth was in the typical pre-teen mood and John was tired and whiney. I thought our "family day" was doomed for sure. But there's just something about cool air, sunshine and the smell of apples and cinnamon coming from the bakery to make a person, or even an entire family, forget their troubles and be "in the moment." Ah, we are never disappointed with a day at the farm.

We played in the dirt, the straw, & the corn; mastered every playset; pet the goats; walked the enchanted trail; snacked on apples we picked fresh from the tree (although I'm not so sure we were supposed to do that one!) conquered monster mountain....repeatedly; rode the zip line and topped off the day with scarfing fresh apple fritters from the bakery. Ah, life is good!

We even captured Beth on the zip line.

To check out more pictures, click the link below.

Brumbaugh's Oct08

Mary takes on Shockers...

My kids have never been too keen on sour candies. In fact, I think Beth's the only one that has even eaten them before.

Mary gets to pick a treat out of the prize box when she gets 100% on her spelling tests. Normally there's a jolly rancher or piece of taffy in her bag, but this time she brought home a little bag of Shockers. They are horribly sour for the first several seconds and then they get sweeter as you continue to suck on them. Mary had me in tears from laughing so hard when she popped the first one in her mouth. I couldn't find my camera so I started snapping pictures with my phone...

Was it mean of me to laugh at her suffering? Maybe. But she chose to eat every single one of those suckers because she was not about to admit defeat. By the time she was done, my stomach hurt from laughing so hard.

It's Spirit Week!

Ah, with the cool air of October comes homecoming...and the week of fun that leads up to the big game. This year's theme was "Neon Lights. Northmont Goes Neon." Can you tell from the picture above? It was taken after the homecoming parade Thursday night. Seriously though, these pictures almost do not even do those shirts justice. You should have seen our wagon coming down the street with the cheer squad, coaching staff and even a few of the parents sporting these things! We posed for more pictures than the homecoming court...

Here's a quick breakdown of how spirit week went.

They started with hat/stuffed animal day...

And then came "Crazy" Day...with mismatched, inside out clothes, and wildly spraypainted hair.

And there was neon day...

And finally, they celebrated with sporting attire to show their Green & White "Bolt Pride."

We had a lot of fun dressing according to the daily themes. The girls are going to be so bored when they have to resume the normal routine next week...

Happy Birthday!!

I counted down a lot of days for "Atember twenty" to get here, but finally it was my birthday! WOO HOO!

I'm very excited to be 4 years old. I just wish that I could go to school, but Mom says that I have to wait until next year. I'll just keep practicing doing homework with Beth and Mary and reading with Mom & Dad so I'm ready when the time comes. I'm pretty certain that I'm destined to be the cutest kid in the class. I just need to keep my skills sharp so I'm one of the smartest too. :-)

I had a really good day on my birthday yesterday. I picked pancakes, sausage & grapes for my birthday breakfast; Mom and Dad let me open my presents right after we were done eating (sweet!); and then I got to control the TV programming all morning. So, not only did I get to watch what I wanted, but it also drove my sisters crazy so DOUBLE BONUS! The only bummer was Mom was driving ME crazy wanting to take my picture all of the time. I had to hide behind the couch to make her stop!

Later, I got to play outside with my friends instead of taking a nap which was very cool. At suppertime, Grandma Ronda, Grandpa Joe, Aunt Corinne, Uncle Sebastian and Gabby all came over to eat pizza and have cake and ice cream...and of course, there were presents!

Today I went to Grandma & Grandpa Trittschuh's for another birthday party - but this one was for me and my cousins Ben & Pete. We had to sing to Pete over the phone because he was at home, but Ben and I were there and had to get our picture taken with the cake that had our ages on it. Ugh...pictures again!

Other than everyone taking pictures, I had a really good time today. I got cake & ice cream, opened presents, picked tomatoes in Grandpa's garden, played with my cousins, we all took turns riding Grandpa's tractor, and we even found a toad!!

Since I'm bigger now, I thought I'd give everyone my current stats...

Name: John Richard Trittschuh

Birthdate: September 20, 2004

Age: I’m 4 years old.

Height: Tall enough to wash my hands at the sink all by myself without the box. I’m big.

Weight: 38 pounds

Interests: Monster trucks, cars, playing outside, riding my bike, playing with Troy, playing playstation with my Dad, playing baseball, and driving my tractor

Favorite foods: chicken nuggets (with Ranch), Mom’s spaghetti, carrots and dip, peanut butter and jelly sandwich; apples, lots of stuff…

Dislikes: Cheese on my sandwiches (YUCK!); except I think the cheeseburgers in my Happy Meal are pretty yummy.

Favorite toy: my humongous collection of cars and monster trucks! See, here are just a few of them...

Favorite movie: Cars, of course!

Favorite TV show(s): Spongebob Squarepants and Meteor & his Monster Truck Friends

Things that annoy me: my sisters bossing me around, losing at games (others call it throwing a fit, I call it being competitive), Mom & Dad telling me no

Things I’ve come to realize:

Farts are funny. Ranch and ketchup are good on EVERYTHING. It's not a good idea to catch a race car with your face - your tooth can fall out! Girls have long hairs and boys have short hairs….except my Dad, he’s a circle-head.

Awww crap!

We had some serious wind blow through the area today. Check it out!

You know, if the tree was going to fall on my truck, it would have been great if it would have just totalled the dang thing out! No....it just scratched it up, broke the bug guard, and cracked my windshield! That's just enough to be an inconvenience.

Go Bolts Go!

It's football season! Check out this year's picture of the cutest darn cheerleader in the Northmont school system...

And here's the rest of the team... My little divas in training are 5th graders this year. I can hardly believe it! (I've coached the majority of the girls for 4 years now.) It's been fun and so far, they are all still great kids. Although each year brings new trials that's for sure.

Lordy, you would not believe how seriously the folks in this area take Pee Wee sports! It blows my mind some times...crazy!