HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We are excited about tonight! Lots of pumpkins to carve and candy to beg for!

Remember any of these Halloween pics?

Blustery days...

Brrrrrrr! The wind has been blowing -- leaves are swirling. In fact, it was so windy that a section of our new fence blew out, and I had to go outside several times to put it back together. Keith is out there now with the drill trying to keep the problematic section in place. So how windy is it? I looked up at the sky at one point and swore I saw the Wicked Witch on her broom cackling, "And your little dog, too!"

But yet I made the kids go up to Rocky Ridge yesterday to take some photos. It was gorgeous there! (A little scary though because apparently some hunting is allowed there too.) The kids smiled pretty, and I let them play for a while...it wasn't long though before they had enough of the cold and we piled back into the van, just three frozen bean burritos!



My girlie on the slide! Found another awesome Thumper shirt! It says, "Hip Hop, and ya don't stop!" (Can't live without Thumper!!)


and me and my Super David...


Halloween is coming!!!!! Be on the lookout for the usual pumpkin pictures and munchkins in costumes. I'll post them as soon as I can! Happy Halloween!

10-24 Random Acts of Cuteness

Just one today...

Samantha, confused about her holidays, is singing:

"Jingle Bells, smell my feet! Jingle! Jingle! Smell my feet! Jingle Bells!"

Let's try that again!

Well for some reason Rock You didn't like the slide show I tried to make last week to show what a nice day out we had. That's okay though because I sat down and created a REAL slide show with music and everything. Please scroll down to the original post to view it through You Tube. This meant I could use more pictures too!

Hope you like it, and I apologize to anyone who got locked up over
the last fiasco! GRRRR!!!!

Autumn is here!

Sunday found us with friends to the west. We scooped up Jennifer, Paden, and her friend Emily and headed out to the Land of Little Horses in Gettysburg. We weren't going there for the little horses this time, but for their pumpkin patch. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, but they did have beautiful bright orange pumpkins! From there we headed to the north a little for the Apple Harvest Festival in Arendtsville. That's always a fun time of crafts and apple food twists. We like the apple pizza the best. They also have apple sausage, apple pancakes, tons of apple cider of course, and naturally caramel apples. Paden lost his very first tooth while eating an apple on a stick...unfortunately we think he spit it out with the peel. We tried to search for it, but couldn't find it. The day finished up in Hanover eating pizza and playing games. It was a nice fall day, and we really enjoyed the "foliage"! (Inside joke!)

ROFLMAO!

Sorry... I usually just chuckle to myself after browsing Stuff on My Cat, but this one had me cracking up! Just had to share it.

Autumn perspective...

It's not too apparent down here in York, but up in Elysburg -- the hills around Knoebels -- Autumn is radiating and dancing in the sunlight...



As the sun was setting, you couldn't help but look up and be taken by the dappled light as it danced through the golden yellow and fire red leaves. It gave me such a warm, peaceful feeling as the day was coming to an end.

This morning I drove far into territory I had never been. Had the events of last week and the Amish tragedy not occurred, today's drive would not have been that remarkable. Somehow though the cosmos put a deposition in my lap that took me to Oxford, PA today. As I printed out my driving directions, I felt a strange tingle. They had me driving right through Bart and Nickel Mines...the little town where the shooting occurred. I passed by many buggies and Amish working with their horses, walking in their fields, even some older children were playing a game that kind of looked like tag. Many sign boards of businesses and churches spelled out sweet messages to the community such as, "Thank you for praying for our neighbors," and the like. It was a little surreal. What impacted me the most was this... all the wash lines were full of freshly laundered Amish clothes...and as I would gaze over at the farms, somehow seeing the little Amish girl dresses flapping in the breeze struck me. They were wonderful little pink, magenta, green, and blue little dress in between black pants, black socks, black aprons... with each house I passed I wondered to myself, "Does this house have one less girl to wash for, or is this house glad that it still has many little dresses flapping on the clothesline?" Then near the end of this town I passed a little house whose laundry was closer to the side of the road... but there were no colorful little dresses hanging... just adult-sized jet black women's dresses next to black pants and black socks. To me it just kind of pinched me inside. Life carries on there... a strength I doubt I would ever have if I were in their shoes. My world would stop turning if I ever had less little items of clothing to wash.

Culinary Adventure...

Mack's Ice Cream has dreamt up another one!

Discover your family.

My cousin Sara has been living in Virginia Beach this past year, a sudden move all the way from Monterey, California. The weather was nice and schedules finally aligned so that we could visit with her! She drove five long hours to come up and say hello...and what did we do? We drug her another two hours north to go to Knoebels! Poor thing! We did have a lovely time though, and the kids really love her. (Wouldn't stay still for this picture though!!!ARRGH!)

Did you know...

That Columbas was a pirate?

Not a dumb question at all...

Satrina posed a good question... Why do people with heart defects need to take antibiotic pre-medication before visiting the dentist? The reason is bacterial endocarditis. I took this quote from The American Heart Association's website that could put it more eloquently than I can:

"Bacterial endocarditis is an infection of the heart's inner lining (endocardium) or the heart valves. This can damage or even destroy your heart valves.

How does it occur?

Bacterial endocarditis occurs when bacteria in the bloodstream (bacteremia) lodge on abnormal heart valves or other damaged heart tissue. Certain bacteria normally live on parts of your body, such as the mouth and upper respiratory system, the intestinal and urinary tracts, and the skin. Some surgical and dental procedures cause a brief bacteremia. Bacteremia is common after many invasive procedures, but only certain bacteria commonly cause endocarditis.

Who is at risk?

Endocarditis rarely occurs in people with normal hearts. However, if you have certain preexisting heart conditions, you're at risk when a bacteremia occurs. Some of these conditions include having...

an artificial (prosthetic) heart valve
a history of previous endocarditis
heart valves damaged (scarred) by conditions such as rheumatic fever
congenital heart or heart valve defects
hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (hi"per-TRO'fik kar"de-o-mi-OP'ah-the)

Some congenital heart defects, including a ventricular septal defect, an atrial septal defect, or a patent ductus arteriosus, can be successfully repaired surgically. After this you'll no longer be at increased risk for endocarditis. "

Just for the record, David had an atrial septal defect, which was successfully repaired, thus he no longer needs meds for the dentist. Samantha has a ventricular septal defect..well, actully she has two holes there, but not too large...where David had one big one that was making his right ventricle dangerously enlarged.

Thanks for asking! It was not a dumb question at all!

Samantha's Boo-boo heart

Samantha visited her cardiologist this week! She was so good at remaining nice and still for her echo and her EKG. She is doing very well. One of the two holes is getting smaller! The other hole does not seem to be causing any issues, so she will remain on conservative watch. Her only restriction is pre-medication before visiting the dentist! This is great! She doesn't even need to go back for two years!

There is still innocence...

And wonder...and excitement... in they eyes of my child. He is curious and thrilled to be learning new things and making new friends.




His school has begun a program called "Kid Writing". It is a method of getting kids to write on their own without piling old conventions onto them that are difficult to understand. They emphasize phonetics. First the kids think of what they want to depict and draw their picture. Next an assistant helps them create the sentence they want to write. The child then puts down the letters they believe make up the words they want to write! The assistant will then put the "adult writing" underneath the kid writing to show them how an adult would write the sentence. It is not a session where the kid is told they haven't done it right...they are encouraged about anything they can put down on the paper and reassured that it is a step towards adult writing. I think the results are amazing!

Here is David's kid writing from 10-5. I know I'm prone to be amazed by my own child...but really, I am very impressed with him. He is fascinating to me.

Send healing thoughts...

For our Amish neighbors and the terrible tragedy in their community today... especially for the girls that are in critical condition and being treated in hospitals right now.

No matter how many times you hear about it on television all over the world...you still feel that numb shock inside of you whenever you hear about someone disturbed enough to take the lives of innocent little children. It's impossible to digest, and I am deeply saddened by it.

I wish you all peace this evening.

For the story click here.