Feeling the holiday time crunch....

I suppose I am not alone in feeling like the days are slipping by and there is still much to be done! I spent most of today shopping, since I am by nature a procrastinator......something I struggle with all the time! I got about halfway through my list and need to go one more day I guess to finish up. It won't be tomorrow though as we are getting SNOW and it is supposed to turn to freezing rain and sleet. So tomorrow will be a good day to stay home......hopefully the kids have school or I won't get much done here either!
Today after I came home from shopping, I finished setting up our 30 gallon aquarium that my neice Lisa was nice enough to get for us. We had a 10 gallon but 2 of our goldfish are about 4 inches long so they were needing more room. Now they'll probably grow to be a foot long!! But I am NOT getting any larger of a tank, they can go swim in the river if they outgrow this one! Anyway, the tank looks so nice now that it is done and it is so relaxing to listen to the water burbling and to watch the fish.
I finally started putting out my winter decorations (did I say that i was a procrastinator?). I have lots of snowmen and keep getting more all the time. I love them!! The more the merrier! I want to finish that stuff tomorrow and then get started cleaning the upstairs a little bit. I think I'll need to start with a scoop shovel! Thomas' 6th birthday is January 2 and we are going to redecorate his bedroom for him. He is still in a toddler bed and it is either time to cut holes in the foot of it or break down and buy him a big bed! So that is on the calendar to do sometime between now and new years! He wants a John Deere room so it shouldn't be too difficult as there are John Deere things everywhere you look. I have ordered the pictures for the walls and his bedspread and curtain. Now I just need to get some decals and the bed and we will be ready to get it done! I can't wait.....it'll be cute!
Sarah participated in a holiday piano recital on Saturday. She played very well and I was so proud of her.....it takes a lot of guts to get up in front of a roomful of strangers and play a piece. How well I remember when I used to have to play in them. There are 170 music students at the center and only 30 were chosen to be in the recital, so I thought that was a nice confidence boost for her.
Our Christmas plans are for the family to get together here at our house for brunch at 10AM. Some have to work 3-11 so it made dinnertime pretty rushed. Hopefully this will work out better. Then later in the day we will go to Jeff's brother, David's, for a sit down meal with all the trimmings. Always lots to eat it seems! We will go Christmas Eve to Jeff's dad's family for a meal.
My folks are planning on coming out over New Years, so we hope the weather holds out for that to happen. Jeff's half-sister, Honesti, is getting married on New Years Eve, so that is on the agenda as well. We will have New Years dinner here at our place for the family. Lots of saurkraut so we will be healthy, wealthy and wise for the coming year! We are looking forward to having Shannon Meyer overnight for our special meeting visit on the 29th. So, as you can see, the schedule is pretty full between now and New Year's! Somehow I'll have to fit work in there as well.

Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday!

Ever been to a paddle party??

Today started out with grocery shopping.......this after my poor, almost 6 year old, son told me yesterday "Mommy, don't you CARE if your children STARVE!!?" after looking for a snack. So I took it that the cupboards were bare......at least in his estimation! Of course, we certainly do not look the part of the "starving Fuller's" by any stretch, but we musn't let the children go hungry, so off I went to fill the shelves. To the tune of.......a lot, lets just put it that way! I wonder how people afford to have a big family because just the 4 of us is expensive....and I shop at the discount stores! But anyway, my children are no longer "starving" and my husband is no longer opening the cupboards and closing them in disappointment.

This evening I went to a "paddle party". I told Thomas I was going to a paddle party and he kind of looked at me funny......didn't sound like much of a party to him!! I could just picture what his little mind was thinking :) Once I told him what it was, well, he wanted to go along of course. So I told him it was a "girls party" to which he told me it "wasn't fair", so I offered to put him in a dress and fix his hair up in clips and ribbons so he could go as a "girl" but he soon decided that he would stay with daddy and do whatever "guy thing" they were doing this evening. So, Sarah and I went off to the party. It is a Princess House party where every guest is given a paper plate paddle with a number on it. They auction off PH items throughout the party for 25 cents to a dollar each and then draw for whoever gets to take it home. I ended up winning a serving platter for 50 cents, so I was happy with that. And we had a lot of laughs so it was a fun evening.

Now it is bedtime. Tomorrow I work 3-11 and in the morning I have to can the venison that Jeff has ready in the basement refrigerator. My jars are ready to go. I would do it tonight but it is about a 4-5 hour project so I think it will have to wait til morning.

Trying to clean the house while there are children in it is like.......

Well, today I am trying to make some sense out of the mess my house has gotten into! It looks like a bomb went off here......literally! I've cleaned out a few of my cupboards and got rid of stuff I don't ever use because I don't have the extra space. Now I need to go and clean my laundry room and do some ironing.......but why am I here instead?? Why is it so easy to do everything else except what we SHOULD be doing??

I have decided that trying to clean your house while your children are at home is like trying to rake leaves on a windy day, or shovel your sidewalks during a blizzard! I feel like I am doing nothing except chasing my tail (if I had one, that is). I have to stop every 10 minutes, or less, and referee between my children who are arguing over who has the most meatballs in their spaghetti-o's, or who gets to be the teacher vs the student, who has the most of the whatever they are playing with at the moment. This is the stuff they never tell you in pre-parenting 101..... And yes, as you can tell, I am having a frustrated mommy day! I love my children, would give my life for them........but there are times when I really question my sanity.........am I alone or are there other mothers out there who relate??

Anyway........breaktime is over and my pile of ironing is calling......"sigh".... as are the kiddo's......wonder what the fight is over this time??

Well, we made it home from Ohio safely, although there were a few times that we were a little nervous about the roads. It's always a comfort to know that you have friends along the way in case you need them, but we were glad this time to not need to call them :) We got home in time for Jeff to get ready to go hunting, so that was the important thing! I had to go in to work 11-5 Sunday night and then again from 3-11 Monday, so it left little time for anything but sleeping. Today I work 3-11 again, so maybe the laundry will get done sometime.......

Jeff didn't get a deer Monday which is always a disappointment, but today is another day! He did see a nice one but couldn't get a good shot at it. Maybe today will be his lucky day.

Ahhh, it feels so good to be home in Ohio. The kids are asleep (or in bed at least) and I can just sit back and enjoy being here and that tomorrow is Thanksgiving. The odors were in the air as soon as I came into the house. The table was even set already!! How organized and prepared is that!! I must have missed that one in the gene pool :)

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving Day tomorrow and that everyone eats too much so I am not miserable all by myself! Because I intend to eat too much....might as well admit it! The pecan pie especially! I wait for the pecan pie every year.....it's my favorite if you can't tell. With lots of cool whip on top :) OK, so my mouth is watering and I have a few hours to wait, so I'd better stop with the food talk.

We had a good trip in......got home about 10:30 tonight. Just a few snow flurries along the way but nothing too bad, so hopefully our trip home on Sunday will be that way.
TTFN (that's ta-ta for now, in Tigger speak)

It's Turkey Time

GOBBLE, GOBBLE!! It's almost time to carve the turkey! We plan to go to Ohio to my folks on Wednesday and stay until Sunday. I am excited as it's always nice to go home. Someone asked me a few weeks ago why I always refer to Ohio as "home" and I said "because it will always be home to me no matter where else I go.' I guess that is something that you can't understand unless you have ever moved a long distance away from your roots! I'm hoping to see some old friends while I am there too if it works out.
Monday, Dec 1 is the first day of Buck Season, so the fever has begun around here!! Jeff has made me promise that we will leave "early" (of course, that is relative), on Sunday so he can get home and "get ready"! I never seen so many preparations made so a person wouldn't be seen, felt, smelled, heard, or in any other way detected! I'm always amazed that I am told to wash the clothes, but put stuff in them to make them smell like dirt......WHAT?? I would not be suprised if he took a sleeping bag (made to smell like dirt, of course) and slept in the woods the night before, or at the very least, put me on the couch so as not to have any human scent on him. Of course, that is the reason for the dirt scented soaps and shampoos, no odor deoderant (huh??), and baking soda as toothpaste before he hit the woods, so maybe it wouldn't matter who he slept next to after all. I do draw a line at the doe urine being kept in the refrigerator though!! I will do a lot of things that make no sense to me, a nonhunter, for my dear husband, but doe pee in my refrigerator.......not so much! So it must be delegated to the basement refrigerator. Talk about hunters perfume....... I much prefer Stetson. But we love our hunters nontheless and we are hoping for a good year for them and for us, the hunters wives, because we have to live with them and its much easier if the freezer is full and the horns are on the wall.
The kids have half days if school Monday and Tuesday and are also off Dec 1. I have parent teacher conferences mon and tues so I am holding my breath that they will make me proud!

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and are reminded of all we have to be thankful for! Our blessings far outweigh our troubles and may we all remember that as we carve the turkeys and eat our fill. I am reminded of the time Sarah and I broke the wishbone and I was explaining to her that whoever got the biggest part got their wish. She asked me if I ever "won" and got my wish and I told her that "yes, I got you didn't I?" and she said "You mean you and daddy broke the wishbone and that's how you got me......you wished for me?" I, of course said, "Yep.......that's what we did...." So, on that note........don't forget to wish on the wish bone! I for one, will NOT be thinking babies this year!

Where did fall go?

It has been suggested to me that I actually add to this blog once in a while, so I'll try to do that now. I find myself looking at my last post and wondering where the fall went.....here it is November and winter is upon us! We've had some illness since I last wrote. Sarah was sick with bronchitis and an ear infection and missed 4 days of school with that. She no sooner got over that and then
she ended up with the stomach bug and missed two more days. I think she is finally on the mend. Thomas missed school one day this week with a stomach ache, but he seems to be okay now. Hopefully we are through with everything for the winter.
We had an apple butter making day in October 25 here at our place. About 40 people came, in spite of it raining all day. We were under roof, so it was still fun and we enjoyed the fellowship over everything else. We ended up with 95 pints and 5 jelly jars of apple butter. Everyone was able to take some home to enjoy.

Thanksgiving will soon be upon us. We plan to go to my folks in Ohio on Wednesday and come home on Sunday. Some of our family from Illinois usually come as well as ones from different parts of Ohio, so we always have a good day and like everyone else, we eat too much. I'm just always glad to go home, for whatever reason!
Until next time, have a great thanksgiving!!

To get started...

Well, I guess I will give this a try. I am new to blogging so you'll have to be patient with me while I figure it all out :)

Most of you who read this will probably already know me, but there may be some that don't, so i will tell you a little about myself to start. And those who do know me may learn something new :) I was born June 15, 1967 in Millersburg, Ohio. Until I was 5 years old, we lived on a farm near Wooster, Ohio and I have only a few memories of those years. I do remember my older brother hanging me from a nail in the corn crib by one of my braids and leaving me there! I managed to get myself free, but left some hair behind......thank you Rodney! When I was 5, actually on my first day of kindergarten, we moved to Orrville, Ohio.....the home of Smucker's Jelly!! In the summertime, we always knew what kind of jelly was being made because the whole town smelled like it. I have two brothers, one older and one younger. My younger brother was injured at birth and has cerebral palsy. He is now 38 years old and my parents care for him at home. He has always been a bright spot in my life and loving him has taught me many things. I learned at a young age to play with someone who couldn't play back, to talk to someone who couldn't talk back, to give love and affection to someone who couldn't return it. I've often wondered, especially since I've left home, if he really knows who I am.....but I am content with the fact that I know who HE is and that is all that really matters. My older brother is Rodney and he has two years on me. I can say that I am glad he went first because I also learned a lot from him! We had a love-hate relationship for most of our growing up years (did I mention the braid thing??). Like most siblings we grew up irritating and annoying each other as much as we possibly could, but loving each other all the same! Today, he lives near my folks and has two daughters, my lovely nieces, Lisa and Amy. They are both grown and married and I was recently notified that Amy is going to make me a great aunt in March and that makes me feel REALLY old! But it is exciting all the same! I graduated from Orrville High School in 1985. I had spent my junior and senior years in a practical nursing program at a career center, so when I graduated I was ready to sit for my boards. I worked for 13 years as an LPN in long term care and then went to Penn College of Technology and graduated in 1998 as an RN. I married Jeff on October 5, 1996 and moved to Pennsylvania.....300 miles from home! That was hard.......I'll just leave it at that! I began working full time at The Williamsport Home and went to part time after we had our daughter, Sarah, in July 1999. She is now 9 years old and in fourth grade. We expanded our family in Jan 2003 with our son, Thomas. He is now 5 and is in kindergarten. So now I am adjusting to not having any children at home during the day. I miss them, but am beginning to appreciate some time to get groceries, clean the house, etc... But they grow up so fast once they go to school, so there is sadness in that reality. But that is life I suppose. Jeff is still working in sheet metal. This week he is working at Geisinger Medical Center. He works through the union hall so he is never bored with his job. He goes a lot of different places and works with a lot of different people. We have recently adopted three kittens and the kids are very happy about that. I was outvoted!! So now they are in our garage and growing like weeds. Jeff found them wandering around his shed and took pity on them. The mother comes around some, but she is pretty much wild. I suppose we'll have them in the basement this winter and wil let them loose outside in the spring. Let's hope they are good mouser's! Other than that, we have 4 goldfish! Sarah tries hard to convince us she needs a horse, but so far she hasn't sold the idea, especially seeing as we live in the woods! So, these are some of the moments thus far in my life. Maybe you've learned something new about me and maybe I've bored you to tears. But there it is :)