Erie Beach

We took a much needed mini-vacation to Erie this week. We met Amy and Lisa and their families, and much fun was had by all at Waldameer Park and Presque Isle. 'Nuf said. I'll let the pics tell the rest of the story.

Now I Can Die Happy

Last Sunday, there was a very nice article in the Observer about the Jacktown Fair. http://www.observer-reporter.com/OR/Story/07-13-jacktown-fair Sounded great. I'm thinking.....smaller....not real crowded....the kids are free to ride....it'll be a blast. So on Wednesday, Lisa and I packed up the kiddos and went. We started making fun of the fair almost immediately. Here's why:

1. The parking area was at the bottom of a really steep hill. The entrance was at the top of this very steep hill. Unfortunately, this was not incredibly obvious. We started walking on the main path, only to be turned around AT THE END OF THE PATH because the entrance was up on top. Like the lady in the official neon orange vest sitting at the beginning of this path couldn't have told us when we first walked past.
2. We paid at the admissions booth, where the nice lady handed us our tickets. Not 18" away from her stood another guy who TOOK THE TICKETS. He wasn't even through the gate. He was standing RIGHT NEXT TO THE WINDOW. She could have handed him the tickets herself, but no. It took two. Must have been municipal employees.
3. We were in Greene County, where the people are just downright scary. (For those of you in WI, I can't even think of a good comparison for you. Maybe like how you've always imagined West Virginia to be? This is really close to that.) Makes WashPA seem like a teeming metropolis.
4. The kids couldn't ride the same ride twice in a row even though there was NO ONE ELSE waiting for a turn. And they were the only four on the ride in the first place. It could've held about 30 kids.
5. The rides were homemade. Seriously. Someone took those plastic kiddie chairs from school, detached the legs, and used rusty chain and duct tape to make a ride. The guy had to give the thing a push to get it going. And the fence around it was held together with string. And the fence wasn't far enough away from the ride, because the girls kept banging their feet against it as they twirled around.
6. The bathroom was the best thing this fair had going for it. It was beautiful. Immaculate, even. (And Lisa didn't even have to steam clean it.)
7. We were too scared to eat at the fair, so we went back to civilization (Waynesburg) for supper.

And, according to the powers that be who run the Jacktown Fair, NOW I can die happy. Amen.

Trauma Update

I left off that last post rather hastily, sorry about that .... B was formally diagnosed with a grade 2 concussion. She never lost consciousness, but was severely disoriented for 7 hours.


B was discharged Thursday morning, about 6 hours earlier than anyone expected, so we packed up and got the heck out of Dodge. She's doing SO much better. She had a doctor's appoinment on Friday just to follow up, and the only advice was to have her play quietly for a week or so, and no hockey for a couple weeks. Oh, and to get a new bath mat. Since, in case you haven't heard the whole story yet, was why B slipped in the first place. I scrubbed the heck out of the tub on Tuesday, and it was clean. Not a speck of scum anywhere to hold you upright. And I had thrown out the old bathmat because it was grossly disgusting.


Normally keeping B quiet wouldn't be too much of an issue, because she's quite a couch potato (just like her mom). She's usually content to watch tv, interspersed with a computer game or two. No way. Not this time. She wanted to go swimming, and to Little Gym, and have a dance show with the neighbor girls. She seems totally better.

And I must send out a ginormous THANK YOU to everyone who called, stopped by, sent cards, and prayed that B would be okay. Especially Jefferson; you are an amazing friend to my whole family. Thank you.

B's Big Adventure

B gave us quite a scare yesterday. She was in the shower getting cleaned up for Daddy's birthday party when she slipped and clunked her head on the floor of the tub. She complained that she couldn't see, and she was really out of it. I'd ask her to look at something, and it was like I was speaking Chinese...she just didn't get it. Then she said she just wanted to sleep, and it was getting harder and harder to keep her awake. We took J over to Gay's house, and took B to the ER. Curt took her in, and was trying to get her seen quickly, to no avail. B took charge and started vomiting. She got right in.

She was taken for a CT scan, and everything was normal. Since she was continuing to vomit and be confused, she was admitted overnight for observation. The nurses came in every hour to check her vitals and lucidity, which meant they had to wake her up first. Now this is no small feat on a good day. B is very much like me....a reluctant morning person. It took painful stimulation to get her to wake up, and even then she didn't want to answer questions. "That's enough questions. I just want to sleep." When she was sleeping, it wasn't soundly, and she was mumbling something about how she couldn't sleep with a piano on her head.

After the 1:00 am nurse check, B was AWAKE. And lucid. It was like a fever had broken; the worst was over, and our B was back. Thank God. We were awake until almost 3:00, and then we finally slept. The 7:00 shift woke us up and B's been exploring the buttons on her bed, and having a good ole time. She had a scrambled egg and toast for breakfast, washed up, changed her gown, brushed her teeth, and is now saying she's bored.

Knee High by the 4th of July

For all you non-farm types out there....the corn should be knee high by today. And ours is....if we use B's knee. I've thinned it out once already, and should probably do it again, but it would be just my luck to pull out all the female plants and then we'd get no corn. All our veggies are growing like crazy....carrots, cukes, zucchini, peas, and beans. It's been raining and raining and raining and raining here. We'd like it to stop for a couple days....so we can go swimming or play in the sprinkler. Speaking of sprinklers: yesterday B and I made a made dash for the truck at Sam's Club in the middle of a downpour. We went left, but our truck was right, and B lost a flip-flop and it went floating down a channel in the parking lot and we had to retrieve it. We got soaked. J stayed dry with the cart. Good thinking.

And I can't forget to mention the flamingos. We have missed the Ellises like CRAZY this week, so as a big welcome home, the girls and I flamingoed their house. That'll teach 'em. NEVER leave home again.