Two words: I ROCK!!

Ok - the nursery is DONE!!! For all you visitors who have no idea what I am talking about, I'll do a quick recap: My brother (T) and sister-in-law (Chris) had their 3rd child, Tyler, about 4 months ago. They are moving the 2 girls into a room together and giving Tyler the other room. Obviously it was decorated very pretty...for a girl. Not so good for a boy. I decided, thanks to a very vivid dream I had a while back, to redo the room as a surprise. Thankfully Chris spends long stretches down the shore, so I knew I would have about 2 weeks to get it all done. I got the OK from my brother, who was oh-so-grateful not to have to do it himself. The rest was up to me, my husband (who graciously came over one afternoon and helped me by rolling the walls - that's usually his job at our house - I cut in, he rolls - it's a system that works well for us), and my children (who were bored out of their minds for 2-3 hours everyday for 2 weeks!!!) T and Chris already had the bedding - Penn State. Honestly, I didn't even know they made college bedding for babies, but since T and Chris are both PSU grads, if anyone could find it - they could! :) Anyway - since I knew the theme, I just had to go from there. I went with collegiate strips, and then decided to take the Nittany Lion on a "walk" around the whole room. Then I scavenged through their house for final touches. The results: FANTASTIC!!! She should be home in less than an hour and I CAN'T wait!! Hopefully she likes it, because I'm off the clock!! :)

Gone Fishin'

Well, it's my first blog post!! Bear with me as I try and figure out the whole text/photo layout thing - I'm a newbie here!! :)

Since I'm posting for the first time, I thought it would only be appropriate to share with you another first for the day: We took the kids fishing!! Really, honestly - they are 7 and 5 and they have NEVER been fishing! Much of that might have to do with the fact that I hate to get wet (always a risk factor when fishing), I'm terrified of fish (remind me to tell you stories of me water skiing on the Delaware River back when I was as blind as a bat), and I'm not a huge fan of bugs or worms (both of which are pretty unavoidable). Anyhoo - I suppose the children were pretty tired of casting their Spongebob Fishing Rods in the middle of the backyard, so we figured we might as well give it a try. (Not to mention the fact that trying to entertain the kids for the day at the movies or bowling or miniature golf costs no less than $40.00, but a tub of worms is $2.50 at the 7-11!! :)

On our way we tried to warn the kids that there was a pretty good chance that we would not see any fish. I didn't want to discourage them, but I also didn't want them to be too disappointed if the day was a bust. Oh, how terribly wrong I was!!! My little anglers caught 9 fish!!! Their favorite part, however, was not catching them, but throwing them back in the water and watching them swim away! Actually, I think Ethan's favorite part was digging through the tub of dirt and pulling out the "perfect" worm whenever bait was needed. :)

With the exception of the time that I tried to cast Kathryn's rod and I accidentally let go of it and threw it about 15 feet up river into a mess of weeds and whatnot (sorry Brett!), it was a perfect day. Not only that, but I actually touched both worms and fish today!!! We did, however, have to call it quits when the number of ticks we found outnumbered us. I mean, really, I had already dealt with my dislike of water, fish and worms - it was a bit excessive to ask me to handle bugs as well! :)