Isn't she lovely?!

She really thinks she's something special when she has "pig tails". I think she's something specail no matter what!

Whoops, Did I say that?

Dorea and I were watching the "My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding" movie the other night and I was reminded of something that happened to me. When I was in high school, I had a part time evening job at a local Pizza restaurant. My manager was from Iran and of course was bilingual. His cousin, Navid, also worked with us and was a little deviant. My manager told me one evening that his family was in the U.S. and would be stopping by the restaurant to eat dinner. His family included his mother, father, cousins, grandparents, and several others. None of his family who were visiting spoke any English. I asked my manager's cousin, Navid how to say "Welcome to our restaurant. Please, make yourself at home." in their language. I was going to surprise the family with my newly learned words to help them feel welcome. So finally they arrived and I ran to the front of the restaurant with my hands in the air loudly proclaiming what I thought was "welcome". They looked really surprised once I shouted this phrase in their language, a little too surprised. Their reaction was not what I expected. It was more of a mouth open, silent stare at me. At the same time my manager runs to the front and says to me, with a scouring tone, "what are you saying that for?" My manager says, "why are you telling my family that we have rats and you like to wear ladies underwear?" I looked in the corner to see Navid laughing hysterically. I, too, thought it was pretty funny. I am still friends with that manager. His family just thought I was some fool.

6 months in pics continued

Luke decorated DeWayne's birthday cake. He did such a great job. DeWayne turned 39 on March 7th this year. One more year until the BIG 4-0!!!!!


Miranda loves her babies.



No real reason, just too cute not to post! Every day, she makes me laugh. She's the best.



On this particular Saturday, I was doing laundry, unloading and re-loading the dishwasher, cleaning the house, etc, etc, etc. This is what the rest of my family was doing!!! Yes, DeWayne moved a TV to the deck so he could watch the game from the hot tub.


DeWayne and Luke worked together making the Pinewood Derby car for Luke's first Pinewood Derby race. You'd be amazed at some of the work people put into their car to win! Luke had fun.


After 3 1/2 years since moving to the "house on the hill", we FINALLY had snow! Atleast enough to sled on. Of course, by about 1:00pm the snow had melted and that was that. We did have a blast for a little while!!!


DeWayne & Miranda about to take off.


March 2008 - We has some friends over to decorate and color easter eggs. It was lots of fun.


Miranda and Sarah going for a little drive.


Easter Morning - AHH - What goodies did the Easter Bunny leave for us this year?


It was quite cold out, but Luke did not want to take time putting on clothes. So the bath robe would have to do. Crazy child! How many eggs can you find?


Easter Morning - on our way to worship. Don't they look sweet?


The Cub Scouts have a Blue & Gold Banquet each year. To provide desserts, there is a cake decorating contest for the boys to compete in. This is the cake Luke decorated. I did the base icing and gave direction for decorating, but he did all the deco work and writing. Really, he did! And.....he won the contest!


Most recently, Luke has started this years Little League. He is on the Farm Bureau Indians team. They won the Spirit Parade at opening ceremonies and have won their first 2 games!! Go Indians!!

6 months in pics

Well, it has been a really long time since I have contributed to this blog. You know how Time Magazine does a "Year in Pictures"? I figured I would do "The last 6 months in pictures". So here we go:

October 2007 - Halloween. I decided last Halloween ('06) that I wanted Luke to be Darth Vader in '07. Obviously, Miranda needed to be Yoda. They even got their light sabers for Christmas '06. That's how sure I was they were going to be Yoda and Darth in '07. Sick, I know, I need help. The whole reason was that I was Darth for Halloween when I was in first grade so I made Luke follow suit. His therapy is going to cost me big in the future!



















Fortunately, when we got to "Trunk-or-Treat" at church, the whole Star Wars clan was there! So fun!

This cute little Ferry was not for Halloween, but just because she can!




















Next we have Luke. He is a proud member of the Cub Scouts. It truly is a "Boys Club". War paint around a bon fire - can I get a big manly grunt please?!!


















December 2007
Leiper's Fork Christmas Parade 2007. Need I say more?














Cookies for Santa! We make cookies every Christmas Eve. Everyone gets in on the decorating. Miranda basically spent her "decorating" time eating the icing.



Christmas 2007! Luke really wanted a guitar for Christmas. I really want him to have some lessons now. Who knows, maybe he'll be the next "Nashville Star". Miranda was excited but still sleepy. There is no sleeping late on Christmas morning!





Strike a Pose!
Note the single mitten on Miranda's hand - this is one of the Starbucks gift card holders, so she had just one.


Well, I have had the most dificult time putting the pics where I want them in this post, so I am going to stop for now. I would love any advice regarding layout for pics in the blog. I will work on the next 3 1/2 months in my next post.
Love to all, Dorea

Back to Normal.......Yeah, right.

Finally, the water bill is back to normal. It was only 40 bucks this month. What a relief. Paid off the debt on Thursday then on Friday... the A.C. went out on the minivan! How lovely, just before summer time. Estimated cost...1,000 to 1,200. Somehow though, it's really no big deal. We're all healthy, we still eat too much, and everytime I lie down on the living room floor the kids attack me like I'm some beached whale. Life is good.

Water is Expensive

Our water bill for January was 900. I thought that may be a problem since it should be around 40 bucks per month. There is about 1800 feet of water line from the road meter to the house. That's around a third of a mile. It's a challange finding a water leak when your water line is buried but I unsuccessfully did. I had no choice but to start looking, (digging). I really didn't want to start a winter water project but we couldn't go without water. I did find a leak and fixed it in Jan. however, I found a leak but not "the" leak. Febuary's water bill was 600. OK. great. I have spent mega bucks on backhoes and used several days vacation only to be left with 1500+ for a water bill and still a leak. Not good. I had two choices left. One, was to dig a new water line through my neighbors yard. That would cost about 1500 bucks. It didn't seem too unreasonable since that's equivelant to around two month's of water bills but it wasn't my first choice. Second, I could gamble with possibly using water line number two. That's right, when my house was built the original owner put two pipes in the same ditch. One was my water and the other was a spare in case another house was built close to mine. The only issue I had was its' dependability. It could be as bad as my original. So I spent all weekend without water and made the change to the spare water line. It's been two weeks and so far all is well. No leaks and good water pressure. I hope my next months water bill is a little more like 50 dollars. The water dept. now knows me on a first name basis. We may not have water again but it's only because I can't pay the bill. They did tell me I can pay it over time. So even though my water bill may be normal, my payment for the next year will continue to be over 100 per month. There will be no water pool parties this summer.

gone fishing

I went fishing with an old friend a few years back and had another one of my, let's say "lack of thinking" incidents. We were on a state park lake that didn't allow boat motors and could fish as far as our trolling motor could take us. We were fishing close to the shore and noticed an old, small builing on the land not too far from the water. There was a wooden sign posted on the front. I read it and was a bit confused so I asked my friend, "what does that sign say"? He read it too and we were both baffled. Why would the sign read "Pain Shelter"? We caught several fish in that location and by the end of the day had decided to fish in the same spot the next day. When we returned to the boat dock, a couple of dock workers asked how we did fishing? We pointed in the direction and told them about the great spot out by the "Pain Shelter". They looked at us and said, "You mean "Rain Shelter" don't you"? My friend and I looked at each other stupidly and replied, "Yeah". The "R" on the sign had lost the piece that can easily change an "R" to a "P". We just couldn't put it together while fishing. We still laugh about it and probably all ways will.