Preparing for Sandy

Most of the week was spent working on the deck....but more about that in a minute.  This weekend we had to focus on getting the house ready for a hurricane to hit.  We were able to move a lot of things inside and cleaned the floors in the sunroom and garage where we know flooding can occur (predictions of 8 - 10 inches of rain here). 

We were able to get a lot finished on the deck this week.  We put up all the balusters and poured the concrete slab for the stair landing.  Once the storm is finished, we should be able to install the stairs and get our final inspection!

 

We celebrated our third anniversary this week.  We got a joint gift of a new camera (hence the panorama shot of the deck above).  Since the third anniversary is the "leather" anniversary, I got Chris a new briefcase.  Chris got me a wonderful leather gift...Red Wing steel toe work boots.  He really knows the way to this girl's heart!

I was a little crafty this week.  I attended a quilting class at JoAnn Fabrics on Tuesday evening.  I learned how to piece together a quilt block.  I finished quickly so it's not perfect but not bad for a first attempt!

 

I also made Samantha's Halloween costume.  She is an ear of corn and I am a scarecrow.  I didn't have a pattern so I had to keep doing fit checks to see if it was going to work.

I didn't get to finish the costume before Samantha's first Halloween party though.  It was good enough for the short time she was in costume but I will do more before Trick-or-Treating.  All the babies at the party were adorable. 

This weekend, Penn State played Ohio State.  Unfortunately, Chris dressed Samantha that day...

 

Our food basket this week included yogurt, bread, smoked turkey, beef cubes, sausage, eggs, tomatoes, pecans, bok choy, romaine lettuce, spaghetti squash, black beans, and apples.  I made a few good things this week - beef burgundy, turkey salad, and pecan pie (this was a pretty good first attempt!).

 

 Samantha got her fourth and fifth teeth this week (and number six is just under the surface).  Because of this, she always has something in her mouth - the rings are her favorite for this.

 
She was a very good supervisor again - she hung out on the deck while we finished the concrete and installed balusters.  And she ate about a whole box of Cheerios in the process!

Once all the bad weather is through, hopefully we can finish the deck!!

Three Wonderful Years!

Three years ago I married the most wonderful man!  Here's to many more happy years together!

Fall is Fun!

I absolutely love fall…and it is simply not long enough.  It seems that summer always drags on and on and then fall lasts only a few weeks.  We are trying to make the most of it though!

Over the weekend we went to the pumpkin patch with my new mom’s group.  It was great seeing everyone and the babies had fun on the hayride and in the pumpkin patch.  

Earlier in the week I took Samantha to Gymboree for a free class.  She had a great time crawling and climbing around everything.  It is expensive though so that's probably the last time we'll go.

I also took her on a little hike with another mom and her son.  She really liked riding in the backpack!

 We were able to get more finished on the deck this week - all the deck boards are installed and we installed all the rail sides.  This weekend we should be able to finish the railings and install the stairs. 

Our food basket for the week included milk, bread, ham, ground beef, cheddar cheese, cauliflower, beans, cranberries, sweet potatoes, arugula, mushrooms, and apples.  Delicious!

Samantha tried broccoli this week...her first impression was not quite what I was expecting.

And here are some other pictures from the week:

 

We can't wait to have our "deck party!"

Friends and Farm Tour Fun!

We had a great week.  Samantha has been crawling a lot and it seems to be allowing her to sleep longer (*knock on wood*). 

The CSA that we belong to, Friends and Farms, had a farm tour on Saturday.  It turns out that we were the only family that could make it but we had a ton of fun!  It started with breakfast at their warehouse with yummy muffins and a nice goody bag.

 

Our first stop was a cider mill.  The cider is delicious!  We bought 11 gallons so that Chris can make apple wine and hard cider.  Yum!

Next we traveled to a turkey farm.  They are raising the turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  They have a huge fenced area to run around but they are very curious creatures - as soon as we arrived they all ran to the fence to check us out.  There was also a lot of gobbling which made Samantha laugh!

From there we went to a dairy farm that produces all the milk we get.  They are in the process of fencing in a couple more large fields so that the cows have more area to graze.  Samantha thought the cows were great.  We even got to see a few of the new calves - two Jerseys and a Holstein.  I think Samantha wanted to crawl in with them!

Our last stop was the creamery that process all the dairy.  We got a tour of the facility and had a great lunch with a lot of ice cream - delicious!

It was such a beautiful day and great to spend it as a family.  Chris had been working so much that we haven't had much time together lately.  It was much needed!

After church on Sunday we came home and started putting in deck boards.  It went fairly quickly and Samantha was nice enough to take two long naps.  We got all but five feet completed so we should be able to finish it this week. 

Samantha had a nice spot to supervise after we got several of the boards installed.

Our weekly food basket contained yogurt, eggs, bread, bacon, chicken, pork chops, broccoli, green beans, spinach, butternut squash, tomatoes, pears, and a pumpkin. 

Once we emptied the basket, Samantha found a nice place to play.

The pork chops in this weeks basket were over two inches thick - and very delicious!!

 This is the view of Samantha that we get most of the time now...

And of course the weekly pictures:

We should be able to sit on our deck soon!

Three Day Weekend Becomes Nonexistent

We were supposed to have a nice three day weekend and be able to finish a lot more on the deck.  Unfortunately, it turned into a zero day weekend.  That's right, Chris had to work on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

So the only house work we accomplished this week was to install railing posts in the four corners of the deck.  This was done on Friday night after Samantha was asleep.  We were outside, in the dark, with headlamps on, cutting posts, drilling holes, hammering in bolts, and generally making a lot of noise.  I hope Chris is able to take off another day this week so we can get something done!

Our food basket this week contained milk, turkey, ribs, cheese, peanuts, bread, swiss chard, zucchini, apples, green peppers, onions, potatoes, and watercress.

While Chris was working over the weekend, Samantha and I had some fun.  We walked to a festival in our village center, went to JoAnn Fabrics where I signed up for a quilting class and a cake decorating class, went to church, celebrated Baby Scott's first birthday, and played a lot in the house.

Samantha and I also had fun during the week.  At our play date we made a ghost footprint.  The girl hosting it made a comment about how Samantha has such big feet!

A friend invited us to go to Port Discovery - the children's museum in Baltimore.  We had a great time but I think she'll like it a lot more in a couple months. 

Since Saturday was the big Ohio State v. Nebraska game, Chris made me dress Samantha up in her OSU gear.

I bought some things at the neighbor's yard sale.  One of them was a toy dump truck - Samantha was very interested in the way the wheels work.  Do we have a future engineer on our hands?

She is working on a few top teeth so the drool has been getting worse...

The magazines have been a big draw lately - but it's better to have her into those than the power strip that is behind them.

Her eyes are still very blue - we'll see if (or how long) they stay this color.

Let's hope that we get some more deck work done!!