A House For An Imaginary Friend

My son Benjamin has had an imaginary friend for the past couple of years. Can you guess who it may be? Sometimes I find him playing alone with "Jerry." They even play boardgames together! His friend Jerry is from the cartoon "Tom & Jerry!" I have no idea why Jerry has all of a sudden become his friend, but he has and I'm totally fine with that. Someone I know suggested that I don't play into this imaginary friend thing. But I find it harmless and have read that it probably means he's creative and imaginative.

 For awhile now I haven't heard anything about Jerry. But the other day while driving in the car, I noticed that Ben was very sad. Since I had just picked him up from school, I thought that something may have occurred there. So I asked him what was wrong. He said: "Jerry moved away with his family." And he said it with this sad sigh as he put his head against the seat. I asked him why Jerry couldn't move back in with us, and he said because Tom would probably chase him! lol I thought about it for awhile and then I came up with a solution.

I have a bin full of unfinished birdhouses in storage that I have never gotten around to painting. So I let Ben choose which house would be suitable for his friend and he came up with this one.

I really wanted to paint this myself with big funky polka dots and bright colors, but he only let me paint just a little bit. I guess I'll need to make my own mouse house! lol

 He was really drawn to the glittery paint.

 Here is his finished "mouse house." He was soo proud! According to Ben, Jerry's last name is "Mouse"...so I painted that on the doormat! Hopefully this house is big enough because Ben said there are 200 mice in Jerry's family! lol

 This photo cracks me up! lol He has that look on his face like he is thinking: "Come let me lure you into this mouse house with a trap...Muahahahahahaha!"

 Here is Ben's mouse house with a little plant that we added on the porch! It sits beside his bed so Jerry and his family of 200 can move back in with us! And all is well again! :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Hope everyone had a great Halloween! We sure did! This year's Halloween theme was "Star Wars!" I of course had to be "Princess Leia!" Since I'm still not feeling well, I didn't feel like wearing her signature white dress. Instead I opted for a long sleeve white t-shirt with a winter vest over top! It's quite chilly here!
Alex dressed as Darth Vader, and Ben was a Storm Trooper! We got dressed a little early, so we went outside for a little photo shoot! Here we are ready to trick or treat!

Princess Leia was captured by Darth Vader and his Storm Trooper! The storm trooper (Ben) told me that if I escaped while he was trick or treating that he'd shoot me with his gun!

Every princess has to have some gas station coffee! lol I LOVE gas station coffee! And I drink at least 2 if not 3 of these a day!

Hope everyone had a safe and Happy Halloween! I love Halloween and I will greatly miss it! I guess I'll start planning for Halloween 2011!

Jump for Joy!

Today is a double post. So if you're coming to my blog for the movie review, look for the post below this one. I had soo much on my mind today that I am blogging twice! ;)

I am finally starting to feel somewhat better! I have been sick for over a week, and yesterday was the first day that I didn't have a fever! :) So far I have been on two different antibiotics, an inhaler, and now steroids! lol

But that is not why I am jumping up and down in this photo! lol Last night in bed I had an "Aha" moment or an epiphany of sorts!

Last night someone told me that I am no longer the fun person that I use to be. I was also told that I am miserable and anti-social! lol I am laughing so hard now because that is so far from the truth, so unwarranted, so random, and totally out of left field!

Laying in bed last night I was self-reflecting when I had this epiphany moment and I instantly wanted to jump up and down on my bed with joy! I actually wanted to start jumping up and down singing the song: "I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart, YEAH, down in my heart to stay!" LOL Obviously I couldn't jump up in down last night because Chris was sleeping next to me. I did however want to capture this moment in a self portrait. I've always wanted to do a jumping photo, so here is my first try! I had such a permanent smile on my face today!

I am so thankful that I was confronted by this person! I know it seems odd to be thankful for someone who is being negative, but it really made me look deep within myself! I have always had low self-esteem in the past, so normally something like this would really upset me. But this totally had the opposite effect on me!

This person is right, I have changed. I got married, had kids and I grew up! I use to be a miserable person. I was a very jealous person, and that all equaled to living an unhappy life at that time. I made fun of people at their expense, and I didn't think about anyone but myself. But that has all changed and they are right, I'm not that way anymore. I am not proud of who I am, but I am very proud of who I've become!

I told this person that I am abundantly blessed! And I am very lucky to live the life that I have! My life dramatically changed once I met my husband. He and I are such a perfect fit and he is my total support and we really balance each other! After we were married I became more spiritual and have discovered that life is too short to worry about the little petty things.

I focused on my family and helping others, and that alone truly transformed my life! I am the type of person who would go without just to help someone in need. And seeing the bigger picture of life has made me truly happy in my heart! :)

Anyway I have come to the conclusion that if someone has the opportunity to be my friend and passes on that chance, it's their loss! I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I'm one cool chick! :) lol

Some great quotes of wisdom from the Dalai Lama:

"It is the enemy who can truly teach us to practice the virtues of compassion and tolerance."

"I have found that the greatest degree of inner tranquility comes from the development of love and compassion. The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being. Cultivating a close, warm-hearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease. It is the ultimate source of success in life."

"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions."

Side note: Ben saw this photo tonight as I was blogging and when Chris came home he said: "Daddy, mommy was jumping on your bed today!" lol Apparently he thinks that because he can't jump on the bed, I guess I can't either! lol

Scripture Rocks

On our camping trip we stopped by "Scripture Rocks" in Brookville, PA. I have been camping in this area for 32 years and never knew this place existed until I read about it on an online blog! lol
That is the wonder of the internet! You can find almost anything on here! I'm going to give you a little background on Scripture Rocks before I share the photos with you.

In the 1890's a young school teacher by the name of Douglas Stahlman got in a fight with a man behind a local tavern in Brookville, Pennsylvania. The fight left him with part of his skull crushed.

In a medical procedure that was quite risky back in the late 1800's, doctors patched Douglas' skull with a metal plate. Whether it was the plate pushing on his skull or his near death experience, Douglas became obsessed with the scriptures that he read.

He took to the woods in the Brookville area and carved 500 individual scriptures among the rocks! Which is about 15,000 individual letters! It is truly amazing!

In the 1920's he was placed in a mental institution in Pittsburgh, PA. He remained in there until he died in 1937.

Thankfully the owner of the blog I read gave me detailed directions and the gps coordinates to find these rocks! If it wasn't for his help, we never would have found them!

We had to park on a back road, walk up the road a little, up a hill, and onto the remains of these railroad tracks.
We walked the tracks for several yards and came across the "Death Rock."

Here is a photo of the boys standing next to the rock, it gives you a little comparison to it's size. Ben was a little scared at first...he said "I think this place is booby trapped!" lol I think he plays way too many Indiana Jones Lego games on Wii! ;)

The moss covered rock is my favorite! I love how the moss grows in the letters! Sorry that this image and the next are sideways. They were not like that originally when I uploaded these. I'll have to leave them like this, because it's too hard to re-upload here on blogger.

Here is a close up of the rock with moss.

Locals have weeded the area to make it more accessible to visitors. Well sort of. It was really grown up in places when we went. We actually had to walk through weeds that were above our knees! I was a little nervous, especially since I was warned that the place was crawling with snakes! Luckily, we didn't run into any on our hike!

Here was a cross that someone made and erected among the rocks. It's a dedication to the man that hand carved all of these rocks!

This was a huge rock that my boys climbed. Can you believe that they actually climbed this all by themselves? I was a nervous wreck, because it was nearly a straight up slope! You can't really tell from this photo, but there were several verses carved on many different angles on this huge rock. And it's amazing how uniformed each of the letters are!

This rock is dated by Douglas. At the top it says: "July 30, 1913." If you glance at the lower left hand corner of the rock it is numbered on a yellow splotch of paint. Each piece that he carved is either numbered on the rock itself, or on the tree that is right next to the rock. They are all numbered and I would have loved to have went and found every single one, but I was soo sick that day. It was 90 some degrees, I had bronchitis, I couldn't breathe, and it was sooo humid in the thick woods. We stayed for about an hour and I just couldn't handle it anymore, so we left. I would have loved to have gotten better photos and stayed much much longer, but I just couldn't take it!

This photo I made black and white and increased the contrast, so you could see the different angles of scriptures. I would like to go back in the Fall when it is much cooler and take some paper and charcoal and do some stone rubbings!

We found a heart shaped stone on our hike! I had to keep it, I LOVE heart shaped stones!

Lastly, I had to include a photo of my happy little hiker Alex. Both boys did so well on this hike, and it wasn't easy! They walked through weeds almost as tall as they were, and climbed rocks and a steep hillside in 90 degree weather! And they never complained at all!

I also had to include this photo because my parents bought the boys these t-shirts with these funny sayings on them. Alex's says: "Don't look at me, that smell is coming from grandpa!" lol

We really enjoyed our trip to Scripture Rocks, we just wish we had more time to explore. It was so peaceful there and truly amazing, I hope to go back soon!

Camping- Part 1

Mother's Day weekend we went on our first camping trip with our new camper! It was so exciting, and sooo cold! It got down to the 30's Saturday night! Thank goodness the heater worked well! I'm going to blog about our trip in two parts.

I'm going to give you the warning as I did when I shared these photos on Facebook. Warning: Proceed with extreme caution. I am not wearing any makeup and my hair is a mess! I'm camping people! :)

Here is our first official camping photo as a family! I bought a special frame, and plan to frame it in our camper!
Here I am cooking on the new grill! I never grilled before and this little baby worked so well! I made scrambled eggs with peppers, potatoes, and onions! It was very yummy!

The boys got to participate in crafts, despite the cold temp and extreme wind! They made me Mother's Day cards and little fans. Ben's fan says "Mom" and Alex's fan says "Alex!" lol Gotta love it!

This is the best two dollars that I ever spent. I purchased these foam swords at Target's Dollar Depot! They played with them all weekend long and had a great time! However I had to yell at them when I saw one of them beating another kid at the playground when they were playing pirates! lol

Here I am wearing my crown holding the "Queen For The Day" placemat. I can't actually say that I was "Queen for the Day" because Chris treats me like that at home everyday! I'm very lucky! ;)

Here Alex is giving the queen a kiss! He told me he wants me to wear that crown when he marries me someday! lol

Here is me and my sister-in-law Judy. She is awesome and I am so thankful that her and my brother spent the weekend camping with us! We had so much fun!

Here Chris was attempting to make Jiffy Pop! It didn't seem to be working well when he realized that he was supposed to shake it back and forth in the fire! Thank goodness we had a second pack!
Here's Alex patiently waiting for the popcorn to pop! He thought he'd wear the bowl as a hat!
This is the result of Chris' first attempt to make popcorn over the fire! Looks yummy doesn't it?! lol
Here is our group photo! We've decided to make camping on Mother's Day weekend a yearly tradition! Despite the cold and wind, we had a blast!

Bird Nest-Day 4

Today is Day 4 of the bird nest! It was in the thirties here last night, so hopefully the lone egg survived. I'm hoping that she sat on the nest during the night to keep it warm. From the research I've been doing on Robins, the mama usually sits on them once there are at least two in the nest.

I've also come to learn that if she didn't mate with a male the eggs won't hatch. I never realized that they can lay eggs that are not fertilized! Hopefully for the sake of the preschool class that I'm going to teach about this process, the eggs will hatch! I don't want a class of 24 disappointed kids! lol

A robin's temperature is about 104 degrees F. The mama has a "brood patch" where here feathers are missing. This is what keeps the eggs warm! It's her motherly instinct to stop laying eggs once her brood patch is fully covered by her eggs! From what I've been reading, if you remove one or a couple of her eggs, she'll keep laying them until she reaches four! I think it's mean that someone had to do that for the sake of research! To read about this miraculous process you can go HERE. I've really learned ALOT over the past couple of days!

Here is the mama bird on the railing of the playset on the right. She likes to sit on here during the day to watch her nest. She really does watch it! She'll look around and then glance down at it! It's like she's soo proud! :) Sorry that I couldn't get a closeup. Hopefully I'll get my new lense in the next couple of weeks so I could get a better closeup shot of her near the nest! Oh and don't mind the fencing along the back right of the photo...we burned it down by accident! lol ;)
Robins tend to lay their eggs in the mid morning after they have a full meal. This is what I discovered this afternoon...a second egg! I just love it!
If she lays four, the boys have decided to name them Batman, Riddler, Penguin, & Mr. Freeze!
Oh and they've decided that her name is "Robin"...not because she's a robin, but because of Batman! lol

Can't wait to see if there's a third egg tomorrow!

Bird Versus Toddler

What would possess a bird to build a nest right on top of a child's play set? Do they not understand that toddlers (especially boys) are rough and destructive?! As you can see from the photo, this is where a robin decided to build her nest. Right on the platform of the boys play set! Tucked right in the corner above the stairs! At least she was courteous enough to leave room for the boys to get by on the ladder! lol
The other day Alex was playing outside and he said that the bird wasn't letting him go down the slide! I had seen that there was a bird trying to build a nest, but I didn't think she was actually building on there! I thought he was just making up a story! He likes to chase birds around the yard and try to pet them! He gets so upset when they fly away, he says: "I'm only trying to pet them!"

I don't understand why wildlife always picks our yard to raise their family? Our yard is the most unwelcoming for animals! lol Rabbits always have nests in our yard. I don't know how many rabbits our Golden Retrievers would get a hold of each year when they were alive!

Allie my little chihuahua mix hates any type of animals. She despises the squirrel that has a nest in the tree in our backyard. She will stand at that tree and bark forever! And it almost seems that the squirrel taunts her because it knows she can't get it!

A couple summers ago she was running in the backyard and she had something in her mouth. I called her over to see what she had and there were these little bitty legs just flopping around as she ran...she got an entire chipmunk. She didn't do anything with it, she just ran around with it in her mouth! Gross! I had to yell for her to drop it, and get a shovel and a pair of gloves to remove it because I didn't want her tearing it apart! lol

Back to the rabbits..one summer I heard this high pitch squealing coming from the backyard. I don't know if you ever heard a baby bunny squeal, but the dogs got into the nest and were playing with it. They never ate the bunnies, they would just toss them around, chase them, and in the end the baby bunny would die. That particular bunny was spared that day, when I made the dog drop it!

I hate the fact that the dogs would get into these things. And it would really bother me when an animal would die! But my husband tries to convince me that it's an unpleasant part of "nature!" It's just a sad part that I do not like! I wish that all the animals could just live in harmony! lol

But I just can't figure out why my yard?

Which brings me back to the robin's nest. I went out tonight and photographed the nest. Isn't it just beautiful? And perfect! Notice the white type of plastic string to the left of her nest? That's part of the house wrap that is from our house! lol We're close to getting siding, so part of our house still has some house wrap on it. Some of it is tattered, and she must have pulled it off of our house for her nest! lol At least she's resourceful! :)
She went to a lot of trouble building this wonderful nest! A nest that she feels is safe. My question is: Should I remove it? I know what it's like and how protective they get once they lay the eggs. One summer there was a baby bird nearby that left a nest and the mother would swoop down and peck at Allie whenever she went outside! I don't want that happening to my kids. I don't want them to grow up with these bad memories of mean birds! lol Remember that Alfred Hitchcock bird movie?! I remember being terrified of that movie when I was a little girl!

I've been researching robin's, and it only takes a few weeks for the eggs to hatch and not long after that the birds will vacate. I really want to keep this nest, because I think it'll be an educational experience! I want to photograph the entire process. I just figure I'll wear my hockey helmet with a caged mask outside whenever I get close! lol

So what would you do? Would you keep the nest? Chris has been trying to talk me out of it, because of birds being dirty and pooping all over the play set, but I'll go out and clean it! I just want to experience first hand this wonderful miracle!

Fairies Gather Here

A few years ago I was inspired by this website that talked about Fairy Doors in the town of Ann Arbor. I thought it was so creative and cool, and I just knew I wanted to get one for my boys! About a year or two ago when Value City Department Store went out of business, I found this Fairy Door and immediately bought it!

Back then our house was being remodeled and was a complete mess! I stored it away and remembered about it today when I was in a craft store! I was in the miniature section of the store, and I thought the little potted plants would look so cute outside of the Fairy Door that I had stored away. I bought the plants, the little red chair, and the mailbox. Don't they look cute outside? Please ignore the grout in the photo along the bottom of the wall. We don't have the oak trim up yet in this part of the room, the little door will sit above the trim.
Alex was so excited when I told him about the Fairy Door. He wanted to leave a little treat for the "fairy" inside the mailbox. He thought the fairy would love a Hershey Kiss in pink foil....and I love it...I mean the FAIRY loves it! ;)

Ben on the other hand is one smart little cookie for being 4-years-old! He asked: "Won't the fairy get squished?" And I asked "why?" He said: "It'll get squished because there is a wall behind the door, and there is nowhere for the fairy to go!"

I figured the mailbox would be a cool tool for leaving the boys little notes of encouragement and such!

Here is the front stoop of the Fairy Door. Don't the little plants add such a cute welcoming touch? I can't wait to make some Easter decorations for this little door! The problem is is that I will have to make everything by hand since it's such a small little door!

I'll add more photos in a few days when I get it all decorated for Easter! Our next little project is making Fairy Garden! I can't wait for that! Hopefully in the next couple of months I will dust off the scroll saw and add some Fairy Doors or Gnome Doors to my Etsy site!

Curious George & Dorothy the Dinosaur Get Married!

My three-year-old Ben comes off with the funniest things sometimes! I thought I would share with you his latest!

Tonight he came to me with his two stuffed animals and he handed me Curious George. He said: "You be Curious George and I'll be Dorothy the Dinosaur." I said: "For what?" And he said: "They're going to marry."

My neice Jenn, who Ben absolutely adores, is getting married in a couple weeks- and Ben must have been hearing all of the wedding talk. So I explained to him a little about the wedding and what to expect. And at the end I took the two stuffed animals and I said: "Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Curious George!" I then made the two animals kiss. Ben thought this was funny and he said: "They're going to get married and all kinds of stuff!" And I asked: "What do you mean- all kinds of stuff?"

And he said: "They're going to have tea parties!"LOL

So I guess in a three-year-olds mind marriage is about tea parties! lol I wish it were that fun and simple!

On another note, Ben is fully potty trained! As you know from my previous post he was only doing #1 in the potty. Well a few days after Easter he got the hang of doing #2! Finally! Wooohoooo!

It makes life a lot easier! He's 38 pounds, and that's a little heavy to be lifting on the changing table several times a day!

One down- one to go!

Have a great night!
-Ruth Ann