Friday, April 23, 2010

CAMPING DAY 2



Saturday morning we toasted bagels over the fire for breakfast then were off for an adventure. We went on a wild safari! It was a pretty amazing zoo like park, except you rode in a bus with no windows through a big open range with cups of food to feed the animals. The animals included camels, pigs, sheep, llamas, buffalo, cows, bulls, zebras, giraffes, and probably a few others I can not remember. It was great fun having the animals eat right out of our hands. I tried to capture this on camera, but the bus was moving and the animals ate the food so fast it was hard to get a good picture.







After the safari there was a historical trip to tour FDR's vacation home located in the state park we were camping at. But it cost extra to do that and frankly sounded boring. So we headed back to camp early, packed up and headed home. This time we followed the scout directions. We had no problems getting home. We were even home in time to watch BYU play in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

CAMPING DAY 1

Our Camp Site-If you look closely you can see the tents through the trees.

Last month we went camping with Lenny's school Boy Scout Troop. The Troop had given us directions to the camp site, but I decided to use my own directions. Bad idea. Five miles out from the campsite we ended up a a dirt road, if you can even call it that. If it had rained at all we would have been in big trouble. Our Chevy Malibu was not made for four wheeling. This windy, bumpy 'road' was not on our GPS and there were random forks in the road were we had to just guess which way to go. We eventually made it out back to a real road and were able to find our way to the camp ground. But the weirdest part? There were actually houses on this road/trail through the woods. I'd like to hear one of them trying to give directions to their house and there is no way the mail man goes back there.

Patrick enjoying dinner.

We still made to the campsite with plenty of daylight, but the sight was pretty rustic. No running water, definitely no electricity and a out house for a bathroom. We only stayed one night so we survived!

The 'Bathroom'


Friday night involved setting up camp, exploring the campsite, roasting hot dogs for dinner and s'mores for dessert. It also involved a very long cold night. The weather during the day was beautiful, but I was not prepared for the night. Lenny buried himself in his sleeping bag and pulled his pillow down to block up the hole. According to him, he slept perfectly fine. Leonard, Patrick and I on the other hand spent the night huddled together trying to keep warm. I don't feel like I truly ever feel asleep that night.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Cake Decorating Contest!

For Lenny's church scouts Blue and Gold Banquet they had a cake decorating contest. I did not want to go to the store and buy a bunch of supplies, so I sent Lenny down to the basement to find some props to go on the cake. He came back with some little army men. So I whipped up some powdered sugar icing and we went through our cupboards to see what we could find. We ended up using chocolates baking pieces to build a barricade, turned over peanut butter chips to create stones to line the edges of a blue frosting river, chopped up peanuts to create sand/dirt ground and green frosting to create trees and bushes. Because they were army men Lenny wanted me to write 'GO ARMY" on the side of the cake. I followed Lenny's instructions since he was suppose to be in charge of the design. But I cringed as I did it, knowing that Grandpa Keenan (retired NAVY) would not be happy! ;)

Patrick Turns 6!


Patrick turned 6 in February. We had a small family celebration on his actual birthday and then had a party with friends the following week. The party was Harry Potter themed and I think the kids had a lot of fun. I was doing the party by myself with 6 kids, so no pictures were taken. But here is a quick run down of the activities. Each kid got a wand (painted wooden dowel) that 'chose' them by making the blender turn on when they picked up 'their' wand. Next they got school uniforms(black yard of fabric secured around neck with safety pin). Then we hand Spells class and learned how to turn on and off a light with our wands (with the help off a remote control hidden in my pocket). Next was Magical creatures where we found snake eggs in the forest that we helped hatch (rubber snakes stuffed in balloons with a little liquid soap and water to make them slimy). Finally Potions were we made exploding fizz (coke and mentos) and homemade slime. I had the mixed up jelly belly jelly beans that could either be good or bad, so you did not know if you would get earwax or coconut, toothpaste or berry, vomit or peach, skunk or licorice, boogers or pear, etc. But none of the kids wanted to play the game. A few tried the blue ones that could either be berry or toothpaste. I guess they figured no matter what they got with that one it was not going to be too bad. Sorry, I know this post would have been a lot more exciting with pictures. You will just have to be like the kids and use your imagination.

Friday, January 01, 2010

The Zoo in Flordia











Saturday afternoon we decided to go to Florida the next day. One of the new benefits of living in GA with Leonard's parents in FL. It took close to 9 hours to drive down due to traffic, but only 7 1/2 on the way back. Leonard's brother Silas and wife and 2 yo daughter were visiting as well. We have not seen them in 2 1/2 years, so we decided it was worth the drive down. While there Leonard played golf with his Dad and brother and I went to the beach with his Mom, the boys, sister in law and niece. Monday afternoon the boys took a dip in Grandma and Grandpa's pool. Then on Tuesday we all went to the zoo. The zoo was great. The kids got to feed birds on their arms, feed and pet giraffes, feed and touch sting ray, ride on a camel and pet and groom goats. It was a very fun hands on experience. On Wednesday we returned home.

Pictures of the beach may follow later. Despite the wind and chill the boys still got in the water! It is hard to resist the ocean.

Merry Christmas

For anyone who has been wondering what the inside of our house looks like you are in luck. Below are a few pictures of our decorated house.





The week of Christmas my brother Kyle and his wife Collette flew in from Utah. We spent the week going back and forth from our place and my parents. Tuesday Leonard played golf with my Dad and brothers, Wednesday we spent at home Thursday we played Christmas songs on the bells at my parents then went to a family friends house for a Christmas Eve dinner. Christmas was spent at home with just us and Saturday everyone came our way to bowl and then have dinner at our house. It was a fun week.

Lenny's Award Winning Cookie



For the December Cub Scout Pack meeting they had a cookie contest. The theme was cub scouts and the holidays. Lenny's huge snowman won a ribbon for 'Best Theme' in the Wolf age group. For a sense of it's size -the bottom and mid-section took up one whole cookie sheet.

We are now gearing up for the Pine Wood Derby.

Stone Mountain



Leonard's sister Liz came to visit for Thanksgiving. We had the traditional Thanksgiving at my sister in-law Megan's parent's house on Thursday. Did early morning shopping on Friday. Then went to Stone Mountain on Saturday. None of us had every been before. It was a lot of fun. We played putt-putt, watched a 4-d version of Polar Express (which was amazing-rumbling seats, splashing water, wind and falling snow), rode a train around Stone Mountain at dusk to see all the lights and watched a Christmas laser light show on the side of the mountain.

Halloween


Frankenstein

Zombie

For Halloween we had a church trunk or treat party at a member's house and then came back to the neighborhood to trick or treat. Unfortunately it was rainy that night as well, but just a drizzle. Lenny was a zombie and Patrick was Frankenstein. I did not take these pictures til the end of the evening and Lenny had already started washing his face. But you get the idea.

Pumpkin Patch



When Leonard's parents came out for Lenny's baptism in October we went with them to a local tree farm. They had an apple shooting gun, a hayride, lots of ugly fish to feed, yummy caramel apples and lots of pumpkins to choose from.


Patrick holding the fish food.


The Ugly Fish!

Too bad it was a really cold, drizzly weekend. But we still enjoyed ourselves.

Friday, December 11, 2009

EIGHT IS GREAT



In our religion age 8 is considered the age of accountability, the age at which a child's concept of right and wrong has more fully developed. It is at this age that a child can choose whether to be baptized and become an official member of Christ's church. In October Lenny turned 8 and chose to get baptized.

Lenny's baptism was held on Friday October 16th. His Grandma K. spoke about being baptized. Grandpa J. spoke about the gift of the Holy Ghost. And Lenny's Dad baptized him and confirmed him a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Also, my mom and I played 'Beautiful Savior' on our violin and cello. It has been a long time since that has happened. I was a little rusty, but I think it went over well.



It was great having family so close to be able to attend the baptism and we're thankful for Leonard's parents traveling up from FL.



We are very pleased with Lenny and take joy in having him in our family.

Monday, October 19, 2009

High Dive

Check out the high dive from the show at the Cumming fair. The video is one minute long and the guy does not jump till about 50 seconds in. So be patient. And sorry it is sideways. Not quite sure how to fix that.


Last Tuesday I took the kids to the Cumming Country Fair. It was student night, so all people under 18 got in free. It was a lot of fun. I scared Patrick the last time I took him to a place with amusement rides, so I was not sure how he would do. We would like to take the kids to Disney World sometime in the next year, so I was hoping the fair rides would go over okay. We stuck to the slower rides and Patrick did great. In fact the one ride he went on twice was probably the 'scariest' one of all. Disney World here we come!

OUR HOUSE!


Friday, October 02, 2009

I am coming to the end of another week and happy to report that this one has been a lot less stressful. We still do not have someone scheduled to fix our basement leak, but because of the flooding all the waterproofing/basement people are working overtime. We will just have to wait.

I changed our car insurance to GA insurance. It was not too much of a surprise that it was higher than in OH. (there is more traffic here, I was rear ended and I usually saw an accident a day on my trek back and forth picking the kids up from school) But it was a bit of a shocker that it doubled! :(

But for good news:

All the components that Leonard had ordered for our 'theater room' in the basement have arrived. Now we just need to figure out how to wire it all together.

My washing machine is fixed and I can now wash clothes at home!

I got my GA drivers license because it expired on my birthday and I did not want to end up with a learners permit again like I did in OH by letting my license expire.

Our trash was picked up for the first time yesterday. Was great to get some of the garbage out of the house.

My car repair was completed today, so I now have my car back!

I planted some mums in the front yard to get ready for Fall.

I celebrated Lenny's and my birthday yesterday by going out for ribs, then taking Lenny to his first cub scout meeting at church. And we have plans this Sunday to go to my parents house to have dinner and cake and ice cream with Shane, Megan, Kolayna, Brett and Mom and Dad.

I am looking forward to spending time with my family and relaxing.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Okay, so I never got around to updating. Sorry you are still not going to get any pictures of the house but I will give you a quick run down of what has been keeping me busy lately.

Before closing on our house Leonard was driving the boys a little over an hour to school every morning on his way to work and I was picking them up in the afternoon. Making it about a 3 hour round trip car ride for all of us 6 days a week (that includes church on Sunday).

For those who want the quick version of the rest scroll to the bottom.

The Friday before closing on our house I was rear ended on the way home from picking the kids up from school.

The following Monday we stuck around after school for a final walk thru.

Tuesday
after school we closed and then went back to my parents house to pack as much of our stuff into the car as we could.

Wednesday
we dropped the kids off at school for the last time then went to the house to met the movers. We had tried to line up most of the utilities but things did not go smoothly. We had phone but the power was out when we arrived Wed. After a few phone calls we were told the electricity could be turned on for an extra same day service fee. We paid the fee and had power within an hour. It was a long day of moving in but things went fairly well.

Thursday
the kids ride the bus for the first time and we find water in our basement near water heat and a/c. Clean it up and lay down paper to track it. Check back down a few hours later water is everywhere again. Turn off a/c for the night to stop leakage. Try to get our internet working.

Friday
call A/c guy. He comes out and says it is just a dirty filter causing the water problem. I do not believe him, but he assures me that is it. I then try to hop in the shower to find that water has been shut off. Apparently they did not get our fax to not turn the water off. A long wait on the phone and I finally get some one to come turn the water back on. I then check on the a/c. There is water all over the place again. I call a/c guy back and he says he will return ASAP. While waiting I decide to check the mail. While doing so I lock myself out of my house. I then go to the neighbors to call my mom to get Leonard's phone number off of caller ID b/c I do not have it memorized yet. Then call Leonard to ask him to come home to unlock the house for me. He is suppose to be in a meeting in 10 minute but b/c the a/c guy is coming back he tells his boss he will be a little late and rushes home to let me in. Upon returning from my neighbors I find a business card on my front door letting me know that the a/c guy stopped by while I was in my neighbors house. Leonard gets home, lets me in and I call the a/c guy again and apologize for not being there and ask if he could come back. He comes back and finds that our drainage pipe from the a/c unit is clogged. He unclogs it and problem is fixed.

Meanwhile we have discovered that our washing machine did not survive the move. It was wrapped in plastic when it came off the truck, but when we unwrapped it it was falling apart. It is missing its front legs and the frame is all unscrewed. There is no way the drum will spin properly, the whole thing would fly apart.

Saturday
we return to my parents to pick up extra stuff we could not fit in our first trip and do much needed laundry.

Monday
we have a 100 year flood and about 1/3 of the power in our house goes out, including our a/c, stove, oven and microwave. It comes back on, so all though strange, I think well maybe it had something to do with the storm. Spent hours on the phone trying to get our internet to work.

Tuesday
the kids are out of school because of the flooding in the area and the power in the house goes out again. But it is a gorgeous day. Patrick get bit/stung by something while playing outside and is hysterical. I have no clue what happened because I was not outside with him. There are no signs of anything on his hand where he says he was bit, but he is obviously in pain. Not knowing what to do I call 911. They ask if I want them to send someone out. NO! I just want advice on what is best to do for an unknown insect bite. Being new to GA I wanted to make sure there was not some common poisonous insect I was not aware of.. They gave me a number to a children's health hotline. I was told to soak it in cold water and give hime tylenol and benadryl followed by hydrocrtisone cream. Well I had tylenol and that was it. I finall got Patrick to keep his had in some cold water and he stopped screaming. I gave him the tylenol, then asked our neighbor if they had any benadryl or cream. They did not but knew a friend in the neighborhood who is always prepared, so got some meds for us. Patrick kept his hand in the cup for the rest of the night. But was able to sleep fine. There was never any physical sign of a bite or sting on his hand, so I still have no idea what happened except that Patrick said it looked like a big ant and what ever it was it made Patrick go into a panic, pacing around the kitchen shaking his hand and screaming. Oh, and the power goes out again.

Wednesday
I call out an electrician to get a phone jack installed in the 'office' and have him try to diagnose the electric problem. He said it is a power source problem, so I need to call the electric company. The electric company comes out and uses their equipment to locate the source of the problem and dig a hole in the ground to the cables to discover one of the electric cables to be almost completley disinigrated. I am not sure how our house was getting any power at all. But that was not the only problem. They had to dig 2 more holes and were still not sure if the problem was fixed but it was dark and approaching 9pm, so they hooked up a generator so we could have power for the night. Did I mention that this whole time we were with out any power at all b/c the power had to be off for them to repair the line.

Thursday
morning the electric company comes back out again, resolves the issue and we have power. Finally get the internet working as well. But that afternoon walking thru the house I discover that we have water in our basement. I guess the heavy rain was too much. It was just in one corner, so not too bad, but we are still in the process of trying to get some one out to fix the problem. Also I am finally able to submit a claim for our broken washing machine and drop off my car to get repaired and get us signed up for trash pick up

Friday
I follow up on my claim to find it was never received. I submit an other claim and receive a message later in the day that someone will be contacting me about coming out to take a look at it.

Saturday
I go to the laundry mat to do laundry and go to the Relief Society Broadcast.

Monday
I scheduled the washing machine inspection for Wednesday and tried to schedule someone for the basement leak but no luck yet. And still unpacking.

Recap:
car crash, closing, no electricity, broken washing machine, no water, a/c leak, flood, power outage, bug bite, water in basement.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

I have been busy with moving and trying to find a house. I will try to post tomorrow about how things are going in Ga and to answers Shannon's tag.

Good Night!

Monday, June 22, 2009

Happy Father's Day

Lenny's Piano Recital

Lenny stopped taking piano lessons at the end of May. We hope to convince him to start up again sometime in the future. But because of our pending move and Lenny's waning enthusiasm we decided to talk a break for the summer. His short piano career ended with his first recital debut. I think it it was a note worthy performance. Enjoy.


Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Just an Update

I know posts with no picture are boring, but I don't have any new pictures. Easter and Mother's Day have come and gone. The boys, really Lenny, decided that this year for Easter he wanted to hide the eggs and have us find them. He said that would be his gift too us, so I needed to come up with a gift/surprise for them. So I made a treasure hunt for them to find their baskets with some yummy candy waiting inside.

Mother's Day was nice. I received a coupon book from Lenny that he had made at school. Most of the coupons were things like 'Mom does not have to do the dishes', 'Mom does not have to cook dinner', 'Mom does not have to vacuum', etc. So, I asked him if that meant that he would do those things for me. He said, 'No, it just means you don't have to do that for that day . Maybe Dad can do it for you.' Thanks Lenny for giving me permission to take a break. Patrick filled out a card at school with things like 'My mom is prettiest when on her wedding day, My mom likes to make rice krispee treats, and Mom my is funny when ... my mom is never funny.' I guess Patrick does not think I have a sense of humor. When Lenny was in preschool and did the same kind of card he said, My mom always says 'Hurry up we are going to be late!'. Which is embarrassingly true. We are always running late.

Leonard and I celebrated 10 years of marriage. We got an unexpected gift when our neighbor invited both of our boys to spend the night with her boys on the night of our anniversary. We had already gotten a baby sitter for the following night to go out, but had not made any plans for the actual day. That was the first night I can remember spending alone with Leonard since Lenny was born 7 years ago. There may have been another night in the past 7 years somewhere when we were alone, but it is definitely a rarity.

We are still planning to move to Georgia. Our house in Ohio has currently been on the market for 4 months. We want to be in GA by the end of July, so now is crunch time. We are planning a trip to GA this weekend to look for a house. Pray that everything will work out in a timely manner.