Time...

Where does it go? We have been all so busy that I am having a hard time trying to sneak posts in.
We spent a lovely weekend in Olean with Tim's dad and new mom. It was an action packed weekend of going from one event to another. Laurie graciously offered her home to us again and I'm looking forward to going back over and start working with her on a garden. I have to do some research on her growing zone. It's much wetter and grayer there than it is here.

Speaking of weather. Spring, hello? Where did you go? Waking up to 18 degrees this morning got me to grumbling again about our weather. The sun has been beautiful and the skies so blue, but it's been so flipping cold. We had to go out and get Tim a sweatshirt this weekend because I stole his jacket.

 The cold doesn't seem to be stopping the crocuses from popping up. It's just keeping me from putting any of my plants out. All of my peas have officially died now. Note for next year, don't start them in January. Nancy did clean up one of the garden plots over the weekend and if the temps break 50 in the next couple of days I'm going to go plant a row of seeds. I know that they can go out while it's still cool out. Thankfully my tomatoes seem to be doing great on my dining room table. I'll be glad when I can reclaim my dining room table though and the grow lights can go back down into the basement.

Ok, back to the weekend. After a long ride over to Olean we took advantage of an empty lot across the street from Laurie's and had a baseball game. It was great fun, even though it was chilly out. The kids got to burn a lot of energy that had accumulated in the drive over. Patchy played first base for us and Aidan pretty much made up the rest of the bases. Grampa had to do a lot of running around to herd him back into the "field". Both Connor and Aidan are pretty good at the bat. Connor has a very good pitching arm on him, but needs to get over his fear of getting hit with the ball when he's catching. It's kind of funny to watch. That and his running. We laugh every time we see him run. He puts his head down and kind of shakes his head when he's running. I don't know where he's learned to do this, but we are going to have to put him on a track and show him how it's done. 

Perfect pitch.

Keep your eyes open!

After that we went to a couple of fund raising functions. We enjoyed some most delicious Lebanese food at one of them. It makes me want to try my hand at some of that cooking.

Sunday was a fun day. We went to a maple farm. We were lucky enough to be there on a special weekend. There were a couple of different demonstrations going on. It was fun to walk through the woods and see all of the trees tapped and the sap running like water on some of them. We went into a barn like structure where they were boiling the sap down. The place was filled with smoke/steam that smelled so delicious. I know they were talking about how they produce it but between me trying to keep Patchy behaving and Connor from wolfing down little cider donuts I missed a lot of it. Then there was a demonstration about how the Native Americans happened to find out that the trees had a sweet sap in them and it showed how they harvested the sap from the trees and used rocks that had been heated in fire to boil the sugar. I think my favorite part of that demonstration (besides the warm fire that was burning) was tasting the maple wine. We asked where we could buy some but apparently the guy makes it in his basement and he wouldn't cough up an address. I immediately came home and googled it though and have found a couple of recipes. Me thinks I'll be trying my hand at that.

Connor checking out one of the taps.

Aidan waiting for the tractor ride up the hill.

Enjoying the view from the wagon being pulled by a tractor up the hill.

Maple smoke/steam made this tin punch lamp look really neat.

The color changes in sap from one season of tapping.

My new favorite coffee mug that I got at the farm.  It doesn't have a handle.  It has a hand cozy and when you hold the cup, you cup it in your hands to keep your hands cozy.  LOVE it!

After that we went back to the house and had an amazing dinner cooked by Laurie. This is the person who says she doesn't cook. She did a pretty good job. =) We got home late on Sunday night and yesterday was spent running around town. I had to run to the dentist to get some paperwork filled out for the kids. I had to go to the dairy to get some milk and cream. I think we are going to do an experiment and try to make our own butter. Then I had to go find out where I'm taking Connor tomorrow for his PSSA testing. Then, last but not least, was food shopping. Oh, and a couple of loads of laundry, make dinner, clean the kitchen. Yeah, I went to bed beat last night. I feel pretty good today. Today we Connor and I are going to do some last minute studying for his tests and then I have to get a backpack ready with snacks and a book. If he finishes his test early he has to sit quietly while everyone else finishes. This should prove interesting. At least the Warrior book set from Nana and Papa showed up yesterday. Thank you Nana and Papa for the books for the kids. They were thrilled with them. We read Aidan's book last night at bed time.

I have a bunch of pictures to post and I'm trying to how to link them from my Flickr account. I've done it twice and I don't see the pics in the post. I'm going to have to play with it some more. If I can't figure it out, I'll have to go back to the laptop and just load them directly from there.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic week!  Thank you dad and Laurie for hosting our little family and providing a weekend of fun.  Can't wait to do it again!

My Day in Pictures.

My Day in Pictures.
Originally uploaded by busybeebiz

This will be a short and sweet post. This is my day in pictures. I was up super early and Tim dragged me outside to see how pretty the moon was in the early morning light. Of course, I had to run in and grab my tripod and camera and try to get a decent picture. Someday I'll have my nice camera where I'll be able to get really closeup shot. Then it was a full day of school. In our classroom my desk faces a big window into the back yard. Connor and Aidan stood at this window for 20 minutes watching two cats hunt down squirrels. They were so into it. They were hoping to see a cat score a squirrel. There were two cats out there. The orange cat was on the ground hiding behind their wagon and the black cat was up on top of their fort watching and waiting. Once in a while the squirrels would get complacent and come back into the yard. One of the squirrels almost met his maker. The orange cat would have gotten him if I hadn't screamed in horror as the cat jumped out at the squirrel.

After the drama in the back yard, Connor had his final junior great books live lesson where he presented his powerpoint on Ethiopia. He did a really good job. He read it a little too fast, but he did good research and put together a nice presentation.

Aidan did some math work and then went and played with his legos while Connor and I discussed matter, mass, volume and elements. He made something and asked that I would take a picture of it to put on my blog. I had to take a couple of pictures because he didn't like the perspective on some of them. He is so my child.

Then the kids and I wandered out into the yard for a bit to enjoy 60 degree weather. While I was out there, I found this weird looking thing growing up out of the ground. I couldn't figure out what it was. I thought maybe it was one of my carrots from last year that wasn't pulled and that it just started to grow. I don't think they can do that. I then remembered that I had planted rhubarb there last year. I was happy to see it come up again. I hope I didn't hurt it by digging around at it while I was trying to figure it out.

The only other thing major I did today was make another batch of granola. It is so tasty. It has oatmeal, flax seed, pumpkin seeds, honey, cinnamon and walnuts in it. The kids love it.

So that about sums up my day. I'm ready for bed. I got three new books today so I think I'm going to curl up in bed and read until I fall asleep, which is usually only about 5 minutes.

I hope everyone is enjoying the lovely spring weather!

Busy day!

So yesterday after I finished posting about my garage sale finds Nancy called and asked me if I had made an offer on the living room set that I loved.  I had not. I didn't even ask how much it was because I assumed that it would be too rich for my blood.  She told me that she had stopped back by the house again and asked about it.  He had one offer on it but was willing to take another offer.  The offer was low low low.  I called Tim to find out if I should run over and make him an offer.  Tim had not seen the set, he had only heard me rave about it.  He said sure.  I hooked Patchy up and we walked two blocks over and caught the guy just as he was leaving. I asked him if he had sold the set.  He had not.  He told me to make an offer. I offered him 50 more than his previous offer had been (thanks Nancy for finding out what it was) and he took it.  I wrote him a check and made plans to pick it up today.  Tim came home and called his friend to see if he could help us pick it up with his truck.  Unfortunately, he was sick and not able to help us. 

That brings us to today.  I let Tim sleep in until 10 and then we walked over to survey what we could do.  We were pondering renting a uhaul truck for an hour and moving it.  It ended up that we carried the pieces home. I think I can safely say I got my weight lifting done today.  We got it home and set up and I'm so happy with the set.  Tim loves it too.  It's something that we would have picked up in a furniture store, just a couple thousand dollars cheaper.  Yay to garage sale finds!!

Our new living room set.  Not a great picture but it shows the couch and love seat.  I'll try and get a better picture later.  

After grabbing a quick lunch we head out the door again.  We walked into downtown and watched the St Patrick's day parade.  It was so beautiful out today.  We had such a nice time.  It was nice to feel the sun on my skin again.  Of course, I had planned on working in the garden but we opted to go to the parade instead.  The boys had fun and came home with so much candy that had been flung at them.

I love kilts!

Impressive!

Waiting for more candy and picking up what they could.

Patchy was not impressed.  He fell asleep on Tim's boots.  He was anxious at first because there were a lot of people, but he settled right down and got comfy (and dirty).  He did excited when the SPCA went by with some of their dogs.  he was happy to see some other dogs.

After the parade we came home and then went to the Hillside Dairy farm.  We had decided that we wanted to have some ice cream.  Apparently everyone else had the same idea.  That place was packed and the poor girls behind the counter were frazzled.  We love going to the Hillside and think we will make a monthly trek over there for an ice cream cone.

The kids checking out the chickens at the farm.

I did get my tomatoes outside for a little bit today.  It's supposed to be in the 50's all week so I'm going to start putting them out during the day to get them used to being outdoors.  I think I  can take down my grow lights soon.  I have to replant Tim's haberneros again.  I had three jalapenos come up but the ancho and haberneros didn't sprout.  Boo.  I hope I have enough time to sprout them and get them outside.  If not, I may be buying some at our local nursery.  

Well, I better go get stuff ready for school tomorrow.  Connor has a report to write about Ethiopia and he has to tie it to his Junior Great Books story he read last week.  That will take him a while tomorrow.  I better look at his schedule and do some shuffling.

Today's treasures.

I went on my first adventure going to tag sales.  Nancy and I mapped out four places we wanted to hit and were on the road at an ungodly hour (7:45 am).  I had 32 dollars in my pocket.  The first place we went to was packed.  It was inside the person's home and there were so many people inside it was hard to move around.  There was a ton of stuff for sale but nothing I really wanted/needed.  I did spend 25 cents on a big bag of crafting sticks, you know the ones that look like popsicle sticks. I figure I can use them for the garden to mark what I put where.  I did also spend 1 dollar on this set of three metal bowls.  Pretty good score.

my new bowls

The next house we went to was interesting.  Again, everything was inside their home.  This time though, everyone who was living there was smoking.  It smelled terrible.  I would think that if you are wanting to sell your stuff, you shouldn't be smoking around it.  It was awful.  The people were kind of creepy too.  The third house was just a couple of streets over and there wasn't anything special.  The last house was another score for me.

The last house was actually right around the corner from my house.  They had a gorgeous sofa and love seat.  In the past I have always said that I could never buy a sofa second hand (basically because of the smoking house situation), but this set was gorgeous.  It was well taken care of and looked really pretty.  I didn't even ask how much it was though.  I'm guessing they probably wanted a couple thousand dollars...which is a great price for a sofa/loveseat, but we are trying to save money right now.  This is what I did pick up:

A very large, very well maintained area rug.  How much you ask?  TWELVE DOLLARS!  It was funny because Nancy and I were both looking at it and she actually paid for it at the garage sale.  When we got home I told her that if she hadn't bought it, I was going to and she sold it to me.  Thankfully we didn't have to drive very far with this on the roof of our car.  It was pretty funny.  I love the rug.  It looks so nice in our living room and Patchy loves it too.  He now has something he can grip into when he's running around here instead of sliding around like he usually does.  

All in all, I had fun on my first adventure out into tag sales/estate sales.  I'm not really used to looking through other peoples' stuff but it's a feeling I'm sure I'll get used to.  I'm also happy that I came home with 20 dollars still in my pocket.

When I got home the mail was delivered and I got my little measuring cups that I had ordered of off Etsy the other day.  They are sooo cute.  I'm trying to figure out where to put them so the kids don't break them.

How cute are these?  Oh yeah, they are cute!

So that sums up my day thus far.  The sun is shining today and the temps are slowly creeping up.  I think sometime this weekend we are going to prep one of the garden plots and plant some pea seeds and hopefully transplant the few plants that I have growing.

Tim just head out the door with the kids to take them to the toy store.  Aidan has a gift card burning a hole in his pocket.  I'm going to go enjoy the peace and quiet.  Have a great weekend!

Sluggy Sluggerton.

That is how I'm feeling today.  I don't know if I'm flirting with another stomach flu or what, but I just don't feel like doing anything today.  I will eventually but for now I'm just going to play with my Photoshop. 

I've decided which camera I'm going to get and I'm bummed because it's going to take FOREVER to save for it.  I'm going with the Canon EOS 40D.  I have two lenses picked out and now I just need to wait.  Those of you who know me, know that I am not the most patient person.  Thankfully I will have gardening to distract me.  Interestingly enough Nancy told me yesterday that one of the local nurseries that we shopped at last year asked if she or I wanted to work part time through the spring.  Hmmm, maybe that would help in my camera savings...although knowing me I would be spending my paychecks on plants.  I'll have to ponder that a bit more.

I'm kind of excited about tomorrow.  I'm going with Nancy to some garage sales and an estate sale.  I've never really been one for going to them, but I'm going to consider it a treasure hunt and have fun.  I am limiting myself to 30 dollars cash.  I'm looking for some vintage dishes and bowls.  It's supposed to be nice out tomorrow too.  Maybe when I'm done treasure hunting I'll work out in the garden beds and clean them up a bit.  I think we are a couple of weeks from putting things out, but I'm dying to get outside.

Not much else going on over here.  School is running smoothly.  Connor is taking his PSSA tests in a couple of weeks and I think he's ready for them.  We are planning a quick trip next weekend.  The birds are back and singing.  I know, that was random, but I really enjoy hearing the birds at 4:30 in the morning.  They always sound so happy.  The kids had a lot of fun last weekend on our fossil hunt and are asking when we can go again.  Actually, I think Tim found a crystal cave that we are going to venture to soon.  Pretty soon we'll be able to  hit the hiking trails full force again.  We were going to go last weekend after the fossil pit, but it was so muddy and we were all covered in mud from just digging for fossils.  I can't even imagine how bad it would have been if we had hit the ten mile trail.  It was really wet.  

So, yeah, this is  a pretty boring, random post.  I think I'm going to go make a cup of tea and work on some knitting.  I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of impending Spring.

Tulips starting to peek through the surface.

My new shamrock.  I had to get Martin a little buddy. I actually got two new ones.  One of them has red leaves.  I love Shamrocks!

I hope everyone is having a great day/week/month.  Oh, and yes Brian...you should start your tomato seeds NOW.  =)

Daily show TONIGHT!

Cramer is going to be on The Daily Show tonight. It should prove to be entertaining after this. Have I mentioned that I love Jon Stewart? Yeah, I think I have.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

In Cramer We Trust

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Economic Crisis

Camera question.

For those of you out there in the blogging world, I have a question. I am finally going to get myself a digital slr camera. I'm saving money for it and hope to be able to purchase it in a couple of months. My last two digital cameras have been Canon Powershots and I can safely say that I will be purchasing another Canon. I really like the ease of use and the quality of the pictures. The question is which model should I be shooting for?

The Canon Rebel XSi? or the Canon EOS 50D? I've been doing some research and I'm leaning towards the EOS because it seems to be a higher grade camera. I don't want to "settle" for the Rebel and then want the EOS in another year. I don't want to be dropping down that kind of money.

Is there anyone out there that could maybe lend some support into my decision making? Of course, I know that I'm going to be researching various lenses as well. Like I don't have anything else to do, right?