I will miss sitting outside in my fabulous backyard with my kids at night watching them chase fireflies!
our backyard garden
and the beautiful drive to Lancaster
and being in a small town with big town amenities and close to so much
the schools
the school summer enrichment programs that watch your kids for 3 hours a day & they have FUN!
the seasons
fourth of July at the hospital
chocolate world
having an amusement park right up the road
Cocoa Castle
bike riding to Gelder Park
Bullfrog valley park "creek"
all the history around here
day trips
our pediatrician and SAm's doctors
a few people our Home teachers B &C, my visiting teacher A, quilt lady C, canning lady S, candle gal L, the lady I used to visit teach G, pto K, running CH, good thing BFF C already left or I would be too sad!

I won't be sad to leave
my smallish house (just the backyard is Great!)
not so friendly people
going to church and feeling like I am in high school not quite fitting in
however I LOVE the primary here and went in on Sunday with Maggie b/c she was fussing...that is where I cried, my heart is there. I love those kids and can certainly feel the spirit.
being far away from family
Chris missing his roots
the residency way of life, aka being Dirt poor
sometimes the crowds and rushing around

only 6 more days :(

tide

Who knows anything about Washers & Dryers??
we are looking to buy new ones next week
opinions anyone?
also how about the detergent for front loaders?

Happy birthday to Jakob!! When we found out you were a boy, Chris was thrilled !! I was less than thrilled, did not know whatever would I do with a little baby boy.

out of all the babies I have had, Jakob's was the hardest. It wasn't really long, a little over two hours, but I had the pitocin and it was my first labor without an epidural. ouch!

I did not even get to hold him for hours and hours because they took him right off to the NICU because he wasn't breathing as they thought he should. (I cannot imagine the pain a mother who truly goes through something that serious feels).

all my worries were for nothing because of course I feel in love with Jake immediately.

He struggled to grow big the first year, but has made up for it almost catching up with his older sister.

Being the only boy with the sister's has helped him be sensitive and caring, and I love to watch him take care of his younger siblings. I feel bad that he has to play Barbies and Pollys a lot since Sam is a bit too young to really play well with him, but it just aids in making him a diverse person.

he is totally crazy boy though with SO MUCH energy.

so Happy SEVEN to the sweetest little guy ever!!

I love you Jakob Riley Painter!!

summer

Now it is Summer. We made my SIL Regan's tomato basil pasta last night. I LOVE tomatoes. and ona grilled cheese with basil too YUMMY! We have only one plant this year...though it is probably better because we have had TOO many to handle the last few years, those and the crazy zucchini. we have no luck with corn though.

it is also summer because it is H O T!! outside. A preview of coming attractions to get me properly acclamated. Big Joe's lucky number SEVEN birthday tomorrow and headed to Hershey Park. I am trying to get a party together for him, last year he had a lame birthday too as we were away. as a matter of fact he has only had ONE friend party. I am ashamed because his sister's pretty much always have one. His was a cool pretend camping party, guess I just don't want to diminish how great that one was.

today, we said good bye to one of the nicest people I have ever met, the best piano teacher ever Miss Julie. We will miss her, such a wonderful example of kindness.

in other news...my house is still pretty messy, a bunch of junk still thrown in the garage. still need to return about a million things to various stores (I have a little bit of an issue with that, small steps C. Just be patient with me). I tried really hard not to be annoyed by my kids bickering and stuff..was not in the cards today though. but when I buy some produce from the side of the road, it makes me feel very happy and really I am pathetic because I am having a hard time finding anything that makes me smile a lot lately. WAAHH!!

so excited about new family pictures!

this is one of my favorites.

to see more of this lady's work

http://anniereynoldsphotography.blogspot.com/

My whole life, this is how I deal with stress and things I need to do...ignore them. Trash!! I am moving in a little over a week with odds and ends to take care of, and I am sitting here on hold with a company to cancel services. I am sad to leave. I am sad for my kids because I was the new kid many times (okay I still feel that way) and it isn't always great. I am bitter about my house not selling, annoyed about almost everything. too much worry to deal with so I just try to ignore it, but it is NOT going away!!

I feel like my life is full of chaos pretty much all of the time. my kids are crazy, Chris and I fuss at one another more than usual, and I just want to be happy and at peace with things. I want my kids to be happy and confident, and well my wish list is too long. why so many struggles...or is it just how I deal (or don't) with them.

anyway finally not on hold!

here is Anna's Strawberry Shortcake (from our beloved Williams Sonoma cookbooks) and her real whipped cream. She is planning to move to NYC when she is older and open a little bakery/pastry shop TODAY (it may change to a lawyer, fashion designer, famous person). a mother's right to brag on her child, annoying...one on my huge list of pet peeves... however, she is pretty spectacular.

okay, most blogs can be braggy-ish, here I am talking about myself and my kids and what we do, all about ME! but you know those types of mothers. Their child is the best at EVERYTHING.
I know I am proud and pleased with my kids lots of times, and other times ARGH I could just pull my hair out.
whatever, Anna is the greatest eleven year old I hang out with on a regular basis.

right after I put this up I am thinking MISTAKE, it looked happy when it was a small thumbnail but I don't know how to delete it and there are too many I just put up so just move on...

the little lady was trying to escape so we had to lower her mattress,

photo shoot after her day on set at the Gladiator

pay back Sammy Lewis!

just a boy and his baby boy horse, Bruno and his new chaps his daddy brought him. I did get that horse at a yard sale with a buzz lightyear for ONE dollar! I never went to yard sales until I moved here and do enjoy them. I do not hold yard sales because I feel weird about asking people to give me money for my old stuff. I prefer to give it away. I do not have a problem going to them and using USed stuff though?

my brother JOhn with Moo, it was GREAT having him here. My kids LOVED him, he played with them and I got so much done with him entertaining the crazies! yes he is nice and tan and I am white like a ghost, too bad I cannot put up the pic of my other brother Peter (over 6 feet and blonde) b/c my sis Jessica is in it and she doesn't like when people post photos of her. we all look a lot different

sam talking to his ladies

I sure had to wash the sheets after these monsters were eating in my bed UNDER the covers! I have an issue with clean sheets and need a shower before I go to bed so everything is tidy. I wish some person I share a bed with would adopt this habit or atleast wash their feet.

last day of school, emma's class had crazy hair day

she keeps climbing into everything and getting stuck
stuck under the crib, was glad that when I went to get her out I did not find anything that made me frown like chewed up gum I keep finding in other places!

trying to hide from me, she still doesn't like me taking her pictures

here are my kids with Sean, Alexis, and Haley (my nieces and nephew) at Chocolate World, it was so nice having them around for the wknd because the two monsters loved them and I did not have to chase N & S all around. and they are really great nice kids too. My neice Alexis graduated from High school a few days later down in MD. I graduated high school the year she was born, that makes me feel old (but not as old as if she were my own kid;)

here are some cute cupcakes that the ladies made for one of the end of the year parties, I signed up for a bunch near the end of the year because I thought (but not enough) better than the winter when Maggie was a newborn. it was a busy few weeks.

looks like Maggie Moo is enjoying some cupcake, I wonder who gave it to her???

no surprise, he is such a great sharer!

here is Jake at his end of the year Cocoa Cafe poetry reading, if I hadn't packed them up I'd put up his poems. First graders write really cute ones, they were pretty funny.

since Emma and Sam are outside in their winter coats playing with the hose and Anna is busy making some snickerdoodles i will post some pictures, this was supposed to be at the top of the post.... and now the chaos because I cannot ignore my kids for this long with out possible blood loss.

not feeling like putting up a bunch of pictures...I did finally get them off the camera though. maybe I will do it when C is taking his last call at HMC this week!! YEAH! hard to believe we are moving in a few weeks and I have had my head in the sand long enough and need to pack. I do have a garage full of junk, no stuff that is waiting for me to give away or probably beg salvation army to come pick it up. If I weren't still trying to sell my house I would put it all in the front yard and hope people would take it away. We have had A LOT of lookers and I think some more serious people, and I am happy about that but really tired of cleaning it, because it can get messy SO fast. and I am having trouble finding things to do with my kids for the showings besides going to the park. Cute MOOLICIOUS Maggie at Chocolate World when my sister and her kids were visiting.

after watching the movie Samantha, Anna decided to cut herself some bangslife seemed so simple when we only had three kids and they were small, but the chaos we enjoy now is good and makes me real tired at night!

the George W. Bush rally on a weird HOT day in Erie, PA cute even though she is a sassy pants

today was the last day of school. my kids are pretty sad because we are moving. I cried too. I am really going to miss this place a lot, the seasons, that it is close to so much to do, the small cute town, my kids being so happy here. I am not leaving a ton of super great friends so that makes it easier-ish, but my kids are. When I moved away from Germany and all the family friends came to see us on the train I cried so much I threw up all over my mom. I can understand all the crazy emotions when it comes to moving. Things always get better once you get to the new place and get settled...I am trying to encourage a good balance between letting out the sad emotions but getting excited about our new adventures in life.

I have some pretty great kids, I am pretty lucky. 3 of my 5 siblings have been here this last week and it has been fun getting to know them better as adults and talking about childhood memories. thanks to my super genius brother Peter,...he got some pictures off of our old computer (he really is so smart and did not pay me to say that). Cute 4 year old Emma with baked potato feet. I cannot believe that my kids are growing up so fast, which I say over and over and over. it is true. I think sometimes kids are expected to do a lot and be involved in so much and can get stressed or run down and do not get the time to be kids. so usually every summer we do absolutely nothing aside from playing and crafting and fun since all year long the schedule is so hectic with activites and school things. nothing better than laying outside and looking at clouds and making flower necklaces, maybe with some lemonade (but not red kool-aid). It makes me remember how to have a good time and not to worry so much.