A Boy Scout and His Mom

OK, so yesterday afternoon Adam and I went to an Eagle Scout ceremony for one of the guys in his troop. Each of the boys in the troop were participating in the ceremony in one way or another; Adam was in charge of sound and lighting. Minutes before we were ready to leave he comes downstairs with his scout shirt on and a pair of jean shorts. Now, in case you don't know anything about a Court of Honor for Eagle Scout, it's a big thing! Family and friends attend, one or two dignitaries might be there...it's nothing to wear jeans for. (Or so I thought...)

I try not to be too picky with the clothes that he wears. I was told a long time ago that you should learn to pick your battles, and in my mind, most times, that's not a battle worth fighting. There are times, however, when I expect him to dress appropriately. And this was one of those times. I told him that I felt shorts nor jeans were appropriate for this official ceremony and that he needed to change.

He came down a few minutes later with a pair of washed out jeans, that have small holes in the knees (which were actually purchased that way). I was so upset I couldn't even talk. I just walked out the door counting to 10....

As we were coming up the hill towards church, I was still fuming. I proceeded to tell him that he better hope there were other boys with jeans on, because if there weren't, he was going to be punished.

We pulled into the parking lot, the boys were all standing at the top of the steps and every single one of them had jeans on! And to top it off, Jane, one of the scoutmasters, had jeans on!! Arrggghhhh.....

Adam was quick to point this all out to me! In addition, he went up to Jane and thanked her for wearing jeans and told her the whole story, too!! I thanked her, as well....but not for wearing jeans...LOL!!

So Julie Harhart, PA State Representative, saw our boys all dressed up in their Sunday finest....NOT!!

Kind of Depressing

After having seen the four part series in the Morning Call
this week,
I have to wonder if my new
pillows from Lancaster were
even made there....

The Amish

Here's a good site to learn more about the Amish. It's an easy read and pretty much covers everything....

Mmmmm good......

For those of you who might like any nutrition information on any of Rita's products, go to their web site. It also gives information regarding what their products contain.

My latest kick has been having a misto for my lunch accompanied by a soft pretzel. I just learned that a large misto with vanilla custard has 10 gms of fat. That's more than what I thought, but I guess it's better than an extra value meal from McDonald's!!

P.S.- I did it Jamie!!

All By Ourselves

Well, Alyssa is in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on the Sr. High Band Trip and Adam is in Lenhartsville (PA) on a Boy Scout camping trip working on a merit badge. She left on Thursday (see previous entry...LOL!!) and he left Friday evening. Man, is it quiet here! I don't think I like it!

Kurt has been out in the garage for the last few hours, I didn't get up 'til almost 11 and proceeded to take a cat nap this afternoon. The cats are out like a light on the love seat and I'm sitting here being lazy. Yeah, there's definitely stuff I could find here to do...but I just don't feel like doing a blessed thing!

We are going out to eat; we have reservations at the Cafe del Mar at 7 p.m. My mom gave us a gift certificate to this mediterranean restaurant for our anniversary last fall and we never used it. I was prepared to make dinner tonight, but Kurt suggested we use the gift certificate. Works for me....LOL!!

According to Alyssa, the weather wasn't the greatest today in Myrtle Beach; they had several thunderstorms, which took them off the beach and out of the hotel pool. Unfortunately, today was really their only free day without travel or competition. Due to the rain, their plans changed. They had planned on being on the beach or in the pool all day, but instead went to an Imax theater to see a movie and then were off to Dixie Stampede (no, I don't know what that is; Alyssa thinks it might be similar to Medieval Times). Tonight is their awards ceremony from the band competition they had yesterday, then it's off to bed for their 14 hour bus ride back home tomorrow.

Adam probably should not have gone camping this weekend. When I had him to the doctor earlier this week and he was put on an antibiotic for a sinus infection, the doc strongly suggested that he stay home. Well, by the end of the week, I gave in and let him go, and I am still regretting my decision. Kurt let it up to me, which to me basically meant he was letting me be the bad guy. When I got home, and saw that Adam had forgotten his antibiotic, I was really upset!!

I knew they were working on their camping merit badge and planned on climbing up a mountain and then hiking four miles. I also knew that it was supposed to rain all day. Part of the reason I gave in was because I knew it would be difficult for him to meet the requirements on his own; his other options were to take a 15 mile bike ride or rappel down a mountain (yeah, right....). Hopefully, he'll be fine after spending the day in the rain and tomorrow he'll get back on his antibiotics. Warning Adam: Next time I will be the bad guy!!

Zzzzzzzz.......

OK, it's 2:40 in the morning and I am trying desperately to stay awake! Alyssa leaves on her band trip at 4 a.m. and she needs to be at the high school by 3:15. For some reason, I was afraid if I went to bed, I wouldn't hear my alarm/radio and we wouldn't get there on time, so I have been trying to stay awake. I was doing fairly well until about forty minutes ago. It's been downhill since then...LOL!!

I decided to turn on the computer and put an entry in my blog to help stay awake. Well, my computer is so gosh darn slow starting up, that I closed my eyes for about five minutes. Big mistake!! Fortunately, something woke me....or I'd still be sleeping! Now I'm just waiting for Alyssa to come down so we can leave.

Do you know how many infomercials are on in the middle of the night?!?!?!?

My Lancaster purchases

Here are pictures of my purchases from yesterday. The pillows look great on my sofa. The best find was the Amish limited edition figurine. I have six other figurines that I have collected over the years. They stopped making them about five years ago...and you can't find them anywhere. Yesterday, as we were standing at the register, and I was paying for the pillows, I looked up and there on a shelf was this figurine. I felt as though I had won the lottery!! I was a little afraid that I might have to fight Miget for it; she has a few pieces as well and loves the collection almost as much as I do. The mennonite girl who was checking us out proceeded to tell me that she was sure they had more figurines. It was my lucky day! They did indeed have one additional one, but I held back and only bought one! Each one is a limited edition; several of them have a quilt block as a back-drop, as this one has.

If I go back to this same quilt shop the next time I am in Lancaster, and if that other figurine is still there, that'll surely mean I was meant to have it, and then I'll have to buy it....LOL!!

Girls Day Out

Kurt and Adam went to New York City today to spend the day at the New York Auto Show. That left Alyssa and me at home to do whatever we wanted. One of my favorite day trips is driving to Lancaster county. I love driving through the back roads seeing all the Amish with their horses and buggies, watching them work in the fields, seeing the little boys and girls playing in their yards...you get the picture! I have two quilted pillows that I got many years ago at a quilt shop in Intercourse, PA and they are pretty much shot. It was a beautiful day, so we hopped in the car and drove down to the Lancaster area so I could get another set of pillows. On our way, we drove through Fogelsville, which is where Kurt's family lives. My sister-in-law, Miget, is a huge fan, too, of Lancaster county. We called her on our way and asked her if she wanted to come along and she did! We had a wonderful day! We had a nice lunch at Shady Maple Smorgasbord...although, we were all pretty miserable after we were done....we were stuffed!! Then we drove quite a few back roads just enjoying the Amish and the scenery. Miget noticed that none of the Amish men were working in the fields and that there were quite a few families in their best clothing riding in their horse and buggies. We wondered if today was a holiday for them; Miget asked a Mennonite gentleman at one of the gift shops we were at. He confirmed that it was indeed a holiday. We couldn't go to my favorite quilt shops, which are actually just rooms in Amish homes, as they were closed due to the holiday. I did find two beautiful quilted pillows at a shop in Intercourse.

On a sad note, however, we passed the house in Leola where that teen boy murdered six members of his family last week. We didn't realize what it was at first, but while driving by, we saw a police officer parked in his cruiser by the house, crime scene tape around the property and hundreds of stuffed animals, balloons, flowers and cards by the front porch. It gave us chills to think what had happened in that house. It was quite sad.

We had a very enjoyable day. It was wonderful having a girls day out! I wish we could have driven around another three hours, but it was time to come back to reality...

Note: The picture of the house above is just a generic Amish farm; it is NOT the picture of the house in Leola.

Also, as most of you know, the Amish do not like to be photographed. We tried to be respectful of those wishes as we took pictures earlier today.

Success!!

I am proud to announce that Alyssa passed her driver's test earlier today! Many of you know it was her second attempt at it. Two weeks ago when we were there, she bumped the curb as she was parallel parking, which was a no-no! We spent another two weeks working at perfecting the art of parallel parking. Today she did fine! We were both a nervous wreck ahead of time....although, I don't think either of us wanted to admit it!

Looking back on it, that was the easy part (the six months of driving time and taking the test). Now we just have to worry about every time she is going somewhere....to dance, to school, to church, etc. We were home an hour today before she needed to drive to Nazareth. It was really tough for me to let her pull out of the driveway all by herself. A few tears streamed down my face as I watched her car go around the bend...

I guess it's time to face the fact that my little baby is growing up and this is only the beginning....

And soon it'll be Adam's turn.....ohhhhh, my nerves.....LOL!!

Grrrrr.....

I just saw the end of a story on the local news that just one month ago a gallon of gas was $2.28. Today the average for a gallon of gas is $2.66. What's that all about?!?!?!? This is ridiculous! I also heard they anticipate gas to be up to $3/gallon by summer. Today in our travels we saw anything from $2.65 to $2.75 per gallon. I never thought I would say this, but I almost regret driving a gas guzzler Trailblazer! It gets a whopping 14-15 miles/gallon. Fortunately, when Alyssa and I go anywhere together, she drives her car, which is a 24-25 miles/gallon Malibu. Today we went from Northampton to Allentown to Bethlehem, back to Northampton, and finally up to Snydersville...we put on close to 100 miles!

Get up on the Wrong Side of the Bed

I came across a book this evening called Dictionary of Idioms. If I recall, Adam bought it at one of the school book fairs when he was in elementary school.

Idioms appear in every language, and English has thousands of them. They are often confusing because the meaning of the whole group of words taken together has little, often nothing, to do with the meanings of the words taken one by one.

For instance, to let the cat out of the bag means to reveal a secret. Today the phrase has nothing to do with a cat or a bag, but hundreds of years ago, it actually did. The origin of this idiom goes back many centuries in England, where you might have bought a costly pig at a farmer's market. If the merchant was dishonest and put a worthless cat into the bag instead of a piglet, you might not find out about it until you got home and let the cat out of the bag!

To get up on the wrong side of the bed means to awake in a bad mood, feeling cross or grouchy. The origin of this goes back to ancient Rome, when the left side of anything was considered evil or menacing. The word sinister comes from the Latin word for left. The ancient Romans thought bad luck would come to anyone who put his or her left foot down first when getting out of bed. The superstition that left was bad continued for centuries and gave birth to today's expression get up on the wrong side of the bed.

If anyone is interested in the origin of any idioms, feel free to post a request in the comment section and I'll gladly look it up for you.

I Know it's Silly, But....

This drives me nuts!! Today as I was driving to work, I came across some road work on one of the 2 lane highways that I take to get to work. There were the warning signs that there was road work and a flagman ahead....that's fine. I get to the flagman, who is holding his sign with the word STOP on side and SLOW on the other side. The traffic is coming from the opposite direction, thus I am stopped....that's fine. Soon all the traffic has passed from the other direction, and the flag man has turned his sign from STOP to SLOW and motions for me to go...that's fine, too.

Here's where I go nuts:

There's big equipment in the right lane where I would have normally been driving...there's a big hole in the road where I would have normally been driving...there's all kinds of men in the lane where I would have normally been driving....you get the point! What does the flag man do as he's turning his little sign to SLOW??? He motions me to go in the other lane! NO....really????? I can't stay in my own lane?!?!?!? There's only equipment, holes, workers in that lane....what do they think we are IDIOTS???? OF COURSE, WE HAVE TO MOVE OVER INTO THE OTHER LANE!

Whew....I feel better already, now that I have gotten that off my chest...LOL!!

Umm, Umm Good!

We had yummy wraps for supper tonite. I thought I would share the ingredients that we put in them:

2 chicken fingers (I bought the chicken fingers at Giant near their deli...they were loose, and right by the buffalo wings that you can buy loose)
Store bought cole slaw (I bought a one lb. container from the deli section at Giant)
One packet of Lipton's Chicken Fried Rice, prepared (We actually had it leftover from supper last night)
Ken's honey BBQ sauce

We (Alyssa) put two chicken fingers, about three tablespoons cole slaw, about three tablespoons fried rice and BBQ sauce to taste in each wrap. We bought the biggest wraps we could find, so everything fit inside. One wrap per person was more than enough. Boy was it good!!

Totally Frustrated

I am soooo glad that America Online increased their prices. I have had nothing but problems since they went up about three bucks a month. I'll be in the middle of a game or adding an entry to my blog and get kicked off AOL. Just today, I had to sign back on three different times. And, of course, I hadn't saved any of the blog entry, so each time I lost everything I had just added. Now I've learned to save after almost every sentence!

Unfortunately, with us living out in the boonies, we don't have DSL available to us. We are patiently (or impatiently) waiting for someone to make it available in our area. As soon as that happens, we will kiss AOL goodbye! Maybe someone from AOL will read this entry and make the $25 we pay per month WORTH IT!!

Frodo........is a dodo!!

**Disclaimer: This entry is about cats. For those of you who find cats disgusting, please don't read. You may find some parts of this entry offensive!

I wrote about Macy a few weeks ago. I decided it was time to say a few words about Frodo, who has been affectionately nicknamed "Frodo the dodo","Pedro" and sometimes "Beaners"....don't ask!! We got him for Adam on his 5th birthday, which makes him nine years old. And interestingly, he is least tolerant of Adam! He is definitely the most vocal of all our cats. For many years, he was very aloof and didn't want to have a thing to do with the human race. Over the past year or so, he has become quite the affectionate cat....on his terms, however. It's not unusual for him to jump up on our laps as we sit on the sofa and make himself comfortable. If we pick him up, though, he immediately jumps down!

His favorite position is laying on his back (see above picture)...now that would make one think that he likes having his belly rubbed. HA!! Wrong!! He bites anyone who tries to rub his belly.

Mornings in the Geiger household are the most interesting with Frodo around. Somewhere along the line, someone shared their leftover milk from their cereal with him. Now every morning whenever someone opens a cereal box or Tupperware container, Frodo is right there, yelling at us until he gets our milk. If we're sitting at the table, all of a sudden, there is a paw reaching up at us. Sometimes if the kids sit in the living room to eat their breakfast, he is on their lap and practically in the bowl! It gets a little frustrating at times....

His other favorite thing to do is help me with my cross stitch! As soon as he sees me working on it, he jumps onto my lap. The main reason for this is to play with my floss. I'll be holding onto my hoop, pulling the thread through the material and all of a sudden the thread is gone from the needle. Frodo has it in his mouth! I think cross stitch is one of his favorite hobbies!!

Finally, Frodo has decided that he is too good to use the litter box for certain bodily functions. The good thing about this is that he is totally consistent in using a small rug in the laundry room, which is right by the litter box. The bad thing is that it is absolutely disgusting! I'm just glad, however, that he hasn't picked any other rugs in the house to use as his litter box.

Despite his faults, we still love him! After all, don't we all have our faults?!?!!?