House Maintenance, Car Maintenance, Mom Maintenance

I've heard the saying, "When it rains, it pours" referring to many different things. But, this week in particular I am having a hard time trying not to get discouraged. But, here is a brief recap of maintenace opportunities ...
House - Downstairs walk out basement doors ... doors not 100% installed correctly from builder; therefore, we have water damage coming through to the moldings and carpet. Builder supposedly "fixed" this back when we originally moved in, ha ha ha;
Solutions: First Contractor - replace the entire door, get it sealed correctly, etc. approx. $2K + the cost of fixing whatever damage they find along the way.
Second Contractor - Replace water damaged moldings, clean carpet, rehang original door, do a little concrete work outside to have water drain away from door - approx. $400 - $600.
Cars - Inspection for Honda ... replace two back tires, windshield and then the man told me the horn was not working - to which I said, let me show you how it is working ... and layed on the horn! Uggh - windshield has passed for years with the single crack, why not now? Two new tires $150; horn - who knows ....Inspection for truck ... we'll see tomorrow. My heart can only take so much in one week.
Mom - Maintenance on mom should probably be characterized as an on-going project! Stress from the economy and a hiring freeze at Freeman (therefore, no work) coupled with house and car expenses, along with our standard on-going life experiences should lend me to some sort of "time-out for Mom" don't you think? Did I mention that I had a little "run-in" with Max last Saturday while putting my contacts in ... therefore I now have no contacts? Thankfully after having one doctors office visit that was completely disorganized and disfunctional and raised my blood pressure, I was able to get in to see a competent doctor who did take our insurance! This was my miracle for the week - as I despise wearing glasses.

I realize we are not the only ones going through "maintenance" problems as anyone who owns a home and a car have opportunities such as these to "grow" and become "stronger". I'm hoping that my cup is full and we can start to work on solutions for draining our cup.

Love the Fall

Fall really is my favorite time of the year. There is something that I really love about the crisp air, changing and falling of the leaves, apples, pumpkins, wearing of a favorite sweater, watching football, drinking apple cider and of course going on a hay ride. Simple pleasures of this time of year make me very happy.
This picture is along skyline drive here in the Shenandoah Valley. I have not taken the time to drive this entire valley but, I have seen parts of it from time to time. I'm hoping that Mark and I can take advantage of this drive within the next week or so. While Westerners would argue about these Virginia "mountains" and not classifying them as mountains I still love that they are completely covered in all sorts of trees and evergreens. Doesn't this picture make you want to catch a flight and come on out? If you come ... we would serve you apple cider and of course give you a warm bed! Come see our beautiful valley!!

Happy Birthday Mark!

Today we are celebrating Mark's birthday. The number of years is undisclosed as he is convinced he his still 21! But women with great wisdom like his mother and I can vouch that he is much older than this. This past weekend we celebrated with our friends and had some delicious london broil with all the fixin's. We followed up with some tasty birthday cake and a few competitive rounds of Phase 10! We had a great time and it was fun for everyone.

Happy Birthday Mark, we love you!

Hill High Farm Pictures

Here are some highlights from last weekend. It was a beautiful fall day!

Halloween Faces

Max loved to see the cows, horses, bunnies, chickens, sheep and goats!

Getting three men to smile and look at the camera! What a challenge!

Does anyone know that mom is trying to take a picture?


Max has been driving for years now.

Look how big that tire is!

While I miss my digital camera, I'm glad this disposable was able to capture some of our weekend. Hopefully the great pumpkin king, will deliver us a new digital before Halloween comes!

It's a Miracle!

I have been trying to figure out how to add a different background to our blog and at last ... I have finally been able to figure it out! I think I'm the last one in the world to do it but, at 11:30 at night - I can finally sleep! Enjoy the pumpkins ... they are staying for a while!!

My First Dandelion Bouquet

Today Max and I went for a walk with Avery down on the trail close to our house. Max stopped to pick sticks, dandelions, grass and just about any thing that looked remotely like a flower and presented them to me, "Here you go mommie ... and thanks for wiping my nose!" I'm so glad that his dad has taught him to remember his mom with flowers!

We are also in a new stage ... the "let me jump off of ANYTHING and throw my toys stage". I'm just waiting for the ottoman to give out when he goes to jump or for me to see the ball go through the window just as he is throwing it. Oh boy, really never a dull moment.

And, just in case you were wondering if "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is still being viewed at our house on a daily basis... yes! I try to limit it to twice a day. He LOVES this movie and it still holds his attention. I would say he has watched the movie somewhere between 50 and 60 times. Please know that I do read to him, help him build towers, play race cars, color, work on the alphabet letters, etc. too. He is not a complete movie junkie. But he definitely loves his "new movie".

Week Update

We had a fun weekend! I need to get the pictures developed and posted but, we made our annual trip to Hill High Farms! This was our third year of going out to take a hay ride which includes picking a small pumpkin and an apple of our choice. The owner of the farm comes riding up to the hay ride on his horse "Bo" and of course the kids get even more excited to see the horse. Max was no exception. We got to see the farm animals and do a haystack maze. Max also had his first porta-potty experience with dad .... thank goodness Mark endured that one with him!

Max has a new playmate, Avery who is 6 months old. I started watching her this past Friday and will watch her three times a week while her mom is working. Things went pretty good on Friday and Max was quite helpful. If she started crying, Max would say, "Don't cry Avery, have this toy!" I was impressed with how helpful he was with her. I hope things will continue to go well with this new adventure.

I was working at our Freeman office in Maryland this past week for a couple of days. While commuting I was listening to the local news stations which I would not normally hear during the day here in the house. But, once again I was amazed at several of the headlines. One that I thought I would share ... "The roads are closed between streets ?? and ?? due to the hand grinade found in Rock Creek Parkway along the fence line. We have found that the pin is still in tact on the grinade. We are waiting for the bomb squad to come and investigate. We'll keep you posted on any new updates." And, the traffic continued on as another day in Washington!

So, this week I am grateful that the hand grinade did not go off, the apples in Winchester are in full bloom and ripe for picking, we had the chance to watch General Conference on tv, have a playdate with 4 of Max's friends and have our annual hay ride adventure. What a great fall week in Washington and in the Shenandoah Valley.

PS - The Bronco's won today so once again our house is VERY happy!