Contract Pending

After almost 6 months on the market, we have finally found a blessed soul who wants to purchase our first home. Over the weekend, our realator phoned with the good news. He had in his hands a very nice offer for our charming house. We joyfully signed all the necessary paperwork on Sunday and this sign went up in the front lawn today. We are expecting to go to settlement on October 31st.

The eight years we spent on Prince Street were excellent and served us very well. This house was a fantastic starter home. It provided everything we needed and asked for very little in return. It was an affordable home that allowed us to grow as a family. We moved in as husband and wife with only a few pieces of furniture and some personal belongings. We moved out with several truck loads of furniture and two additional family members that belonged to us.

This was the only home that each of our daughters had ever known. The house holds many memories. First words were spoken, first steps were taken. Snowmen were built in the front yard, a tree swing entertained for hours in the back. There were backyard birthday parties and many walks around the block. Most importantly, there were neighbors who have become cherished friends.

We are fortunate to have only moved a short distance across town so we will still see the neighbors. We can still drive past the house and see the beautiful deep purple lilac trees when they are in bloom. We will be around to get to know the new owner. I only hope she finds the house as darling as we did. I hope that it provides for her as well as it did for us.

As we say good-bye to our first piece of the American dream, I am thankful that this house was the stepping stone that led us to our new dream home. Now that this one is sold, we can move forward with the plans we have to turn our next home into all we wish it to be.

Bye-Bye to #416

Business Woman of the Year!

And the award goes to Marley Bradner!

My seven year old announces to me the other morning that she is a business woman now. I was busy putting away some newly folded laundry when she made this announcement and at first I didn't give it a lot of attention.

"Oh yeah, " I said, what makes you a business woman?"
She then goes into this long detailed explanation about how a friend at school forgot her snack and she asked Marley if she would share. (After all, Marley's mom packs the best snacks in second grade. She was awarded Coolest Mom of the Year, three years in a row.) The day before I had packed Marley S'mores in a bag which consist of Teddy Grahams, chocolate chips and mini marshmallows mixed together in a ziplock. Clever! I know!

Seems Marley's hungry friend was so desperate for a taste that she offered her some money. My kid is not dumb. She took the deal. She started making little tiny s'mores by taking 2 teddy grahams, a marshmallow and a chocolate chip, stacking them together sandwich style and selling them to this kid. She started out asking for a penny each. Other kids quickly got in on the action. Now we all know that basic economics is supply and demand. The supply was limited and the demand was high so the price went up. Some how, Marley made $2 the first day. Yes! I said $2!!!! She turned about 30 cents worth of snacks into $2! Now she had my full attention.

In the next few minutes I interrogated my child:
"Where did the kids get the money?"
"Are you allowed to share your food?"
"Does the teacher know you are doing this?"
"You didn't take any one's lunch money, did you?"
"Did you get to eat any of the food?"
"Can you get into trouble for this?"

Marley confessed:
She did not take any one's lunch money. Kids had extra money for the book fair. They are not allowed to share food, but she sneaked it when the teacher wasn't looking. She did eat some of the s'mores herself, but she really isn't hungry at snack time. The kids wait until they are in the coat closet to pay her, so the teach can't see.

This was a well thought out plan. I have to admit, I was highly impressed.

So, on the morning of this announcement, she was also asking if I was willing to pack her a few extra snack bags in the event she had some hungry friends again. I couldn't help myself. I started an assembly line. We filled her pencil box with several snack bags and I sent my little business woman off to work. She had strict instructions to not take any one's luch money. She proudly came home and announced she made $3 that day.

You should have seen the smile fade when I asked her for my share. After all, if we were going to continue this business, we would need more supplies. A box of Teddy Grahams is at least $2. She seemed to understand what I was talking about. She agreed to keep the money in her wallet and she will go with me to the store and buy some more supplies. That's fine I said, but I don't work for free either. If I am going to be making the snack bags, I need to be paid. She thinks she's just going to make them herself. After all, they are easy to make. I suppose it is okay with me. I don't have a pattent on the things.

I just couldn't help but be proud of her. She is on top of her game. Marley is going places in life and I see now that she is well on her way to making that first million!

While she is off counting her newly earned pennies, I have been practicing the speech I will be giving to her principal in the event that this venture lands her in the office. It goes something like this; "Sir, her father and I had no idea she was doing this. I do understand why this behavior can not be tolerated in school. I'm thinking she deservess some extra credit here. This is pretty darn ingenious?"

What do you think? I am open to suggestions.

Toxic Scare

My heart is still not beating quite right. I am having what I would describe as palpitations. Tonight we had a toxic scare in our home. Anyone who knows our family, even just slightly, could guess that this story involves our youngest child, Ella.

With the addition of Ella to our household, Ray and I learned to be more relaxed parents. We no longer get excited over little scraps and bruises. We don't jump out of our seats when someone starts crying. We respond much more slowly to crashes in other rooms, even when it sounds like the house is falling down. With Ella around, something out of the ordinary is always taking place. She just continues to do surprising things, so we have become immune to the art of surprise.

The day seemed to be going well. Nothing too out of the ordinary had taken place. We had a busy day. First we had soccer games, then a birthday party, stopped by the store to get a few necessities for the week, then off to a church youth event. We returned home late and it was time to put the girls in bed. I was looking forward to finally getting time to sit down and relax. I had Ella all tucked into bed and was reading her a book in her dimly lit room. I was all wrapped up in one of my favorite books, Goodnight Moon, when I was suddenly horrified to look over at my daughter's face and see it was glowing PURPLE! "OH MY GOD!" I screamed.

Here is where I have to back up and fill you in on a few details. Seems when we left the birthday party this afternoon, Ella received a goody bag from her friend. It contained one of those plastic necklaces that you snap and then it glows in the dark. Well, it was dark when we were leaving the church after the youth event. Ella seized a great opportunity and put the necklace on. She was still wearing it when she went to bed.

Now, just for the record, I did give some thought as to whether or not this was acceptable. Originally, my thinking was this was not a dangerous toy and it might be fun to play with until she fell off to sleep Also, just for the record, my husband disagrees and feels I never should have allowed her to take this toy to bed. She should not have had anything around her neck. On hind sight, I have to agree.

Apparently, while I was engrossed in the book, my favorite five year old put the innocent toy in her mouth and BIT IT! The sight of her mouth glowing and the fluid running down her throat TOTALLY FREAKED ME OUT! I literally grabbed her in my arms (all 47.5 lbs of her) and jumped from the top bunk where we were laying side by side. We rushed to the bathroom with me yelling, "SPIT IT OUT! SPIT IT OUT!" I quickly drew her a glass of water. Of course, my complete over reaction sent Ella into hysterics. So did the sight of the glowing purple fluid all over the sink when she did finally spit the water out.

I yelled for Ray who was downstairs watching the Penn State/Notre Dame game. I guess he heard the fear in my voice, because he did jump right up from his seat and come running......while the game was in action!!! I am telling you, this was serious. While I cleaned the chemicals from Ella's mouth, I explained to Ray that I had no idea what these chemicals were. He was able to swiftly locate the necklace wrapper and to my delight read the words, "non-toxic!" There would be no trip to the emergency room tonight. We shared some laughs while cleaning out thte sink. Turning out the light to look for more glowing spots and then cleaning the sink some more.

Upon returning to the scene of the accident, we found Ella's top sheets to be glowing in many spots. It reminded me of when forensic investigators use the black lights to detect blood splatter in murder investigations. I thought it was really cool. Ella found it to be a little frightening. She was not willing to sleep in those sheets. I couldn't blame her. We removed her bedding and I was putting new ones on, when Marley, the best big sister in the world, offered to let Ella sleep with her. I tucked them both in. We read a chapter of Marley's book and everyone seemed fine. I went on downstairs, but haven't really been able to relax. Remember, I am still having heart palpitations.

On hind sight, I know that this type of toy has to be safe or it wouldn't be so popular. I mean, they hand these things out at the schools at Halloween time for safety. With all the crap in the news about Made in China products, it just sent a wave of fear through me. I am certain she will survive this dramatic event. It's not like she hasn't survived greater dangers in her days.

Life is always interesting around here. However, I do think this has been our first head glowing /mind blowing experience. I just hope this child doesn't give me a heart attack!

Dance With The Sunflower

Ella brought home a Mother's Day gift from preschool way back in May. It was a small seedling in a plastic cup. We watched it grow in the little cup until it was too tall to stand up. Then we planted it in the front yard of our old house. We didn't want to leave it there, but it was clear it was not going to live in the cup until we moved to the new house in late June. Lucky for the little seed, we did not sell our old house and we go back on occasion to check on things. Ella waters the flower each time we are there. It has slowly gotten taller and taller as the summer has passed by. Last week, it finally bloomed! Here is Ella dancing with my Mother's Day Gift. What a joy this photo shoot was for me. Thank you Miss Wanda, our Stepping Stones teacher, who set Ella out on this project.

Labor Day Weekend

I hope you all enjoyed your holiday weekend. I am a little worn out from mine. We were very busy, but had a ton of fun. Saturday we ate CRABS! Marley has been asking to try them all summer and we finally did it. She LOVES them. Here is Ray showing her how to pick them. Oh yeah! It was also opening day for the Penn State football team. Notice the entire family wearing PSU shirts. WE ARE PENN STATE! And we won! 59-0 over Florida International....whoever they are. We had to listen to the game on the radio. Our cable isn't carrying the Big 10 Network and Ray could not find a suitable place to watch it......but that is a story for another blog.

We got together with my parents and our friends Paul & Betsy and their children for this feast. The crabs were good. Though we gave it our best try we could not possibly eat them all. Wish I could have sent some to my BFF in North Carolina. Steamed Crabs is the thing Dottie misses the most about moving away from Maryland. We picked meat from as many as we could and made crab cakes the next night. They were good too.
Here is Xander threatening me with a claw. I think he had more fun playing with the crabs then eating them. The kids quickly lost interest in eating, but had a great time together in the sandbox. It was great to enjoy our new patio. What a gorgeous late summer evening. Perfect for a picnic.

Sunday morning Marley and I headed to Smithsburg for my nephew Adam's baptism. Ray had to stay behind with a sick Ella. She had been running a fever and throwing up the evening before. I was up with her most of the night. But we didn't want to miss out on Adam's big day.

Here he is getting some lovin' from Abby and Marley. Adam must get used to this kind of attention. He has girls falling all over him. He is incredibly handsome. And since he is the only boy in his age group at day care, he definitely gets noticed.
Adam is almost 7 months old now. He is very big, very strong and very active. Quite a handful for Marley. But she just loves babies. Here she is sharing some words of wisdom with her attentive cousin.
Adam with his Mommy and Daddy. See the resemblance to his father. He looks exactly like Tod! He was the perfect baby during church. He didn't make a sound. He was awake the entire time. We passed him around from one relative to the next. He is always a good baby.

Upon returning home, we found Ella feeling much better. So we were all excited to be able to head out for the 12th Annual Hanover Chili Cookoff. Ray and I look forward to this event every year. We have only ever missed one. I am not sure why we enjoy it so much. It is always crowded and hot. We eat some really fowl and offensive chili and live to regret it. But every year we go back for more. There is plenty of fun for the kids and we always bump into people we haven't seen in awhile. Paul and Betsy joined us this year... as they have several times before. They feel the same way about the event. Paul and Ray have even contemplated entering the contest, but it seems like a lot of work that would require at team effort.

Here is Kali with the Oriole Bird. Kali will be three later this month. The poor bird was getting boo-ed all day long. I felt bad for him. Those Oriole fans are having a hard time lately.
New to this years event was the worlds best balloon artist! This guy amazed us. We have never before seen someone make a Ninja turtle. He was GREAT.
Marley asked for a lady bug. He made it into a bracelet.
Ella got the Pink Flamingo hat. What a hoot! What a pain to carry around all day. Here she is eating Rita's Ice to make her feel better. She rode in the stroller most of the day and was very bothered by the heat. But she made it until the end.

Kali got a yellow monkey and Xander had to have a Ninja Turtle.

The Kelly Bell Band, a phat blues band from Baltimore, has played at the Chili Cook Off for the past three years. They put on a great show. This year we even bought a CD. Kelly was autographing them. He is a big Bob Marley fan and often will play tributes to him. Kelly was glad to meet this Marley during the autograph session.
Ella loves live music, just like her Mom and Dad. Here she is rocking out to the show right down front. Marley and I were hanging out way in the back where the music isn't as loud. Marley spent most of this time pouting because apparently we arrived too late and missed the hollering contest and the jalapeno eating contest. She had been practicing for the hollering contest. She had entered last year and the competition was tough. She felt certain she had a better chance this year since she is older now and can holler louder.
Oh! Yeah. And there was chili. Lots of chili. It was so crowded this year, we couldn't even get near some of the stands. Ray did manage to find one he really liked. He likes the ones that are so hot they make you breathe fire and require at least three sips of beer per spoonful of chili. I say, "No, thank you." I took one taste of this one and threw it away.
Here is Ray going back for more of the same chili. I think he ended up going back four times. This one got his vote for the People's Choice Award. But I owe my cousin Chuck an apology. I should have warned him not to listen to Ray when he insisted Chuck try this one. We last saw Chuck running for water. If any one sees Chck, tell him I am sorry.

A final parting picture for this post of the Lyon's family. We enjoyed spending our weekend with our good friends. The chili cookoff has become a family tradition for us. The Lyon's are Marley's godparents. We feel fortunate to have them in our lives.