Once upon a time...

A well meaning man started a blog. That blog was called WHATEVER... all went well for a while, then the blogger became evil (or preoccupied or didn't do anything worth mentioning) and he deserted his blog for months. O'er the months, the blog became stagnant and very boring. The MILLIONS of faithful readers, fearing that the "nothingness" of the blog would bore them to death, slowly, one by one, stopped visiting. BUT!... with the return of Spring came new and exciting (?) things for the blogger to write about! In his mind, he hoped that if he sent out a call to the MILLIONS of those that were once faithful they would return.... we'll see............

So anyway...

Finally, Spring has sprung and we're going outside and breathing fresh, WARM air. I HATE winter. And yes, my plan is once again to be a lot more regular with the blog.

Last Fall, we decided that we would like to fence in part of the back yard. When Spring rolled around we put our plan into action. After getting an estimate to have it done, I said "No way!.. we can do it ourselves for wayyyy less." So we did. I made calls and did my shopping. When I was satisfied that I'd been as cheap as possible and got all the stuff I needed, a handful of "Fence Experts" were called in :).. I had many offers to help, but knew I only needed a few guys. Thanks to all that offered tho! (don't worry, there is still a large garage that needs to come down!) and thanks to the "Fence Experts" that helped! We rented an auger and to make a long story short... spent a Saturday building a fence! We picked a split rail with wire fencing for a couple reasons. Mainly, Cheryl and I both like the way it looks, also it's inexpensive and pretty easy to put up.

So now we have a fenced in backyard! It's great! Maddy (our Jack Russell) can run til she drops, Loki (our old, delirious dog) can't wander off, and we feel a little safer with Ryan playing in the yard. AND we did it for around HALF the price of the estimate we got and it looks great.

THANKS AGAIN EVERYBODY!!

Star Wars at Franklin Institute

I got tix to go to the Franklin Institute's showing of "Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination" for my Birthday. I took a ton of pics and I wanted to show them all, but not here... So I made a new blog just for the exhibit... check it out!

http://starwarsratt.blogspot.com/

My Humps

OK.. had to do this... I heard this cover by Alanis Morissette today... The original song by The Black Eyed Peas was ridiculus. Alanis' making fun is actually much better! Enjoy!



original if youre interested...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXKxs8Ge_9g&feature=related

The news

Once again... not doing too good keeping up here, but not much going on in Winter I guess...

We had a good Christmas. Had visitors and did our visiting. Then New Years.. we went to Uncle Steven and Aunt Tracey's. Again Uncle Steven out did himself. The whole basement looked like a little city, lights and everything. The kids have little cars there that they ride around and they had a blast.

My 40th Bday is Feb. 5 and Cheryl had a surprise party for me on Jan 26. I was clueless and she was putting it together right in front of me lol. Her parents came first and they had a good excuse for being here, then Jeff, Molly and Jeffery showed up, but I thought they were coming for dinner. Then the Wrays stopped to drop off Ryan... I'm still oblivious. Then I saw Steven and Tracey pull in the drive and I started wondering what was goin on. At that point Cheryl knew I knew something was up so she sent Ryan out with my "over the hill' b-day hat. I said, "Is this a party?".. duh.... It was awesome... the rest of the people made their way in here and there. I got lots of joke, "Old" presents and some good stuff too!

Lastly, about a week ago, during one of our little snow/ice storms, I had an accident at work. I hit the bed of my dump truck on an overpass... Long story, which I'll skip, but it was my fault for forgetting the bed was raised and I felt like a dumba$$. I didn't get hurt and no one else was involved, but I did knock the canopy off the front of the truck bed. Now I'm driving the "spare" truck which actually is worse than any punishment they could give me. No Am/FM, barely heat, and it bounces around like mad. I'm still waiting for my "discipline" at work... prob get a day or so off.... I'm not sure that I consider that "punishment" tho .. shhh, dont tell them .. lol

winter

BLEAGH!!! Winter is back .. I hate it .. worked 3 nights last week and Sat 6pm til Mon 4pm... yeah 3days. The check will be nice but is it worth it??? nah.. I'd rather be home with my family.

If you dont kno.. i work for PA Dept of Trans.... this is pretty close to the type truck and plows I have ... cept i drive a Mack.. not a Sterling.

Ryan's B-day 07

Ryan's 5th Birthday party was Sat.. Most of his Aunts, Uncles and cousins are away on vacation, but we still had a full house. Cheryl made a ton of food (meatballs and pulled pork and stuff...) and it was all good! Thanx everyone for everything! Ryan had a blast and loves all the gifts!

Tonight we decorated gingerbread men... and then we ATE THEIR HEADS OFF!!! and the rest of them too.. heh heh...

Maddy...

Maddy, the Jack Russell puppy we got over the summer, is growing fast. When I pick her up it's hard to believe that it's the same little thing I could scoop up in one hand. She's doing pretty good with the house breaking... as long as we listen when she's trying to tell us she needs to go out. She loves to play and she does great with Ryan. She would lick his face for hours if we let her but it gets a little gross after a while! We were worried how she would get along with our cat, Santa, but they are like wrestlemania buddies. Maddy tackles Santa and Santa fires back with some paw pummelling to Maddy's head and they roll around on the floor. Right now the big, new thing is drinking out of the Christmas tree stand!

then...

now

Thanksgiving 07

Thanksgiving... It started out just Cheryl, Ryan and myself, but by Turkey Day, Chris, Andrew, Robin, Nana and my nephew Jake were all on the guest list. It turned out really nice. Cheryl did an awesome job with the food and the kids had alot of fun together.

I know....

Yeah, I know... It's been over a month since my last post. Sorry Mom (I think you're the only one who reads this LOL).

Oct. is gone. We had a Halloween Party at the house. Wasn't quite as big as we expected but everybody that did show up had a good time I think and I think pretty much everybody did come in costume. Cheryl was Dolly Parton (pretty funny).

I was a werewolf...
Chris was an undead warrior...

These are some cookies that Ryan and I made... and then ate heh heh.. they didnt last long ! :)

Apple Picking 07

This past Sat. we did our annual "apple and pumpkin picking" with all the cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents and whoever wants to go. It was a beautiful day and, as always, I think everybody had a pretty good time. After the picking everybody went back to Jim and Petz's for pizza and the kids had a blast playing together.

Moving on...

Its been amazing watching Ryan the past couple of months. I don't know if kids get to certain points where they just take off or what, but if that's true, then he must've hit one of them...

In the past month at the beach he learned to go under water and before he didn't want a thing to do with it. Now he even puts his head under in the bath tub!... Yes, we sit with him when he's in the tub :).

This week he started Kindergarten. He doesn't make the age cut at most schools. They want the kids to be 5 by Sept. and his Birthday is in Dec., but Cheryl found a school that would take him and he can go right on to 1st grade next year! He was dead set against the school change, but he was willing to try it (with a little bribing) and now he really likes it and the teacher says he is doing great.

His drawings have turned from pictures where ALOT was left to the imagination to pictures where you can see what they are meant to be with out an explanation.

Yesterday, we took the training wheels off his bike. They hadn't touched the ground in months and he didn't even realize it. After I helped him get started once or twice he was cruising like he'd been doing it forever.

We also found out that we have another Steelers fan in the family.. YEAH!!!

yeah .. we had it on backwards.. heh

Diver down

We were down the cottage this past weekend. Ryan stays in the water as long as we will let him. He has started going under and were so proud. He does "dives", "flips" and "roll overs". The dives are hilarious. He puts his hands out in front like a diver and throws his body under water.

In other news... Maddy, the puppy is doing good. I can see that she is learning. She's best with me I think because I'm the hardest on her. Not that she does these all the time, but she knows "Drop it" for the ball. She definatly knows what "No!" is and she hides if she gets caught having an accident in the house. She's doing pretty good with the peeing part and 'ok' with the poops but we are still cleaning up a good many "presents".