almost time for splish splash

Looky what was put up today! The water is a freezing 54 degrees, but with the heat it should be nice and warm by this weekend. Just in time for 3 days off! Can not wait to float in it! The cats are fearing for their lives - it looks like a giant bath tub and guess who needs a bath? It's not the humans! LOL!

p.s. Don't worry they will not be swimming in the pool! Can you imagine if some cat nut found this?

Cherry Pickin'

Cherry season is almost over, which we did not realize and I totally missed sour cherry season somehow, so no chance of making a cherry pie for me. Boo - I really want one. Mark did offer to go buy one last night, but I settled for something else. We did get a few white and red cherries, but the pickings were few because of the rain last weekend. Lots of splits and moldy berries. Bummer. I felt like I was in Japan - we were the only non-Japanese on the wagon ride up the orchard. I have a feeling many of our fellow pickers drove a long ways to get their cherries and I felt bad for them. For every 20 good cherries you might find one good one. So much waste! And they were very ripe! So whatever you picked you must eat in the next few days. I did try to make cherry muffins using a blueberry muffin recipe. Not sure yet if they are good? Still too hot to make that call. Next up are apricots. I've only had dried ones so I might so go pick a few for the fun of it. They also said early peaches are ready next weekend. Where did summer go?

157 days to go!

Sounds like a long time, but we are halfway to 32 weeks so that means before we know it we will be in the homestretch right? ha. I've been practicing with the cats. They are in for a huge shock. They do not like the fact they can't punch on the belly anymore. Fussy things. Wait till the belly moves - that is sure to freak Mani out. They are also being trained to keep off the pillows at night and to not start begging for food as soon as the birds are up. This is at 4:30 am in case you were wondering. They are learning that if they starting prancing and whining I put them out of the bedroom and put a pillow and something heavy next to the door to prevent the pawing noise from bugging us. Did you know cats are trainable? ha. Who am I kidding? They sort of learn. Like when I get up at 4:30 to put them out the door that the safest place is under the bed. Smart things. Too bad that I toss a few morsels out the door and then shut it.
The must awaited pool is being installed tomorrow. I'll post some pictures of the mess soon. We had him dig a trench for the electrical and it's a huge trench for only being 22 inches deep. Rather than grow grass I will be planting some perenials. Lilies and hydrangas? Still deciding. Maybe some high growing decorative grass? I'm just excited we won't have to dig the holes to put them in! Mark is probably the excited one as I would be asking him to dig them and I swear there are more rocks than dirt.

Kohl's Score

First off I am not normally impressed with Kohl's ladies clothing. I can usually find a shirt, but so much of it just doesn't do the job. Looks cute, but fits funny. The maternity section is another matter. While it is small it makes shopping quick and easy. Do you want the t-shirt in green or pink? Jean shorts or khaki shorts? Styles? Forget it. Really it doesn't matter at this point.
I will say that I did score huge tonight. Two pairs of shorts, three t-shirts and tank top for $35 and one pair of shorts was $15! They won't get any cheaper for while. I really just wanted a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, but can you pass by a t-shirt with bling-blings on it for $2.50? Not me so I bought two of them. So I'm all set for summer after less than 15 minutes of shopping and I didn't even need to try anything on. No point really because the odds of it not fitting over the belly are small and the stretchy panel takes care of that issue. Jeans can wait till fall.

U/S Shots

I'll spare you any more belly shots for a while! These are way more fun - a couple ultrasound photos from early June. Since I am no expert those who are can jump in and correct me. I can't remember what she said and I she showed us a lot. Of course the pictures on the screen made it way cooler in person. The print outs are so-so. I'll take them though!

My guess is a side shot with hand in the chin area.

This one I am guessing is a back shot from the measurement she took from head to tailbone.

All measures on target and even a few days ahead. Next ultrasound is late July where they will confirm the gender if we get some cooperation from the baby. Sort of hoping they do 3D for part of it and the odds are good as he likes to send him patients to a specialist for the anatomy scan. I also saw that they do 4D there, but doubt we'll get one of those. A guess has already been taken so either the tech was really good or there was a lot to see? Just a hint... a receipt for any specific gender clothing is greatly appreciated just in case they are wrong in the end! Not sure if that request falls in the princess status or not? Probably. Oh well. Who wants to put a boy in pink?

Cousin time... and a surprise!

Something we don't get much. A weekend with the cousins (minus Sarah who we hope to see sometime soon!). For the most part we were running on little sleep so that always makes for lots of laughs. We started out Saturday morning with breakfast at Flour City Cafe in Rochester and did you know that a friatata includes eggs? Yep... The three lucky ones who ordered it got it with no eggs. Just a glop of goop - good goop none the less. After much giggling Mark spoke up and the poor waitress must have thought we were goofs. Next came the chef to check it out and sure enough he forgot them. Happens sometimes was his comment. This guy has a cooking show on TV! Way too funny! So out came a round of scrambled eggs. I much enjoyed my pancakes and I can tell they were made with eggs as they were fluffy.

Sunday was an adventure...

Garbage Plate Virgin #1 (it was split with Shannon!)

Garbage Plate Virgin #2 (check out that pile of food!)

Sunday we met up for lunch. Rochester is well known for their garbage plates. Trust me it doesn't taste like garbage - Jeff may disagree? But he did eat quite a bit of it. The more I think about it the more I want another. (see surprise below to understand why) I split mine with Shannon - it's a LOT of food and we had the fries, macaroni salad, hots dogs and hamburgers. It was topped with chili meat (not red and runny, but different than anything I've ever had), chopped onions, ketchup and mustard. Surely not something I should be eating much of! It was also a first for Jeff - he was in town from Seattle. I should also mention this is something most people get after a night at the bar. At 2:00 am. We showed up at 11 am and waited for them to open. Complete nuts or just soaking up the culture. I opt for soaking up the culture.

Lindsay wimped out and got a chicken tender sub. It did look tasty.

And finally... hidden deep in the post... baby S. enjoyed it very much thank you very much. No complaints or side effects after! I was warned of heartburn and other fun stuff and I felt great all day. We are 16 weeks and counting! More pictures to come later and other stuff. This is partially tummy and partially me making the shirt look full by pushing out what I do have. Might be room and time for another garbage plate before December!

90th Birthday Celebration!

The gift Mark and I got for Grandma... notice the smile.

This was from Mark's mom -Helen. It's a mocked up dryer vent.
They paid for the repair for her.

Helen is all smiles - it was a good idea in my mind too.

Can you tell Grandma is confused or something?

Sandy, Grandma, Jeanne and Helen - the Stapleton Girls

So what do you get for a 90th birthday? Something practical right? Mark's mom thought so and well as you can see Grandma must have wanted something different or didn't get it? I thought it was a nice gift. I'll just leave the gift giving up to Mark as he seems to hit the spot with them when it involves Grandma. We got her some stamps that benefit pets and gift cards to local restuarants.

Baseball Adventures!

Our trip to Michigan a couple weeks ago started out at the perfect game - literally a perfect game. If only Joyce had made the right call it would be credited in that way, but no an error was made. It was a fun game to be at and to watch history being made. And who would have thunk that our $10 tickets (as in we paid $10 total) would sell for $65 on ebay? Yep. We have the memories so why keep the ticket stubs? I'd probably wonder what they were in 3 years anyway. And truth be known we didn't get into the game until the 5th inning.


We were hoping for a repeat this weekend at the Yankee game. Ha... not happening. We are not that lucky! It was military appreciation day and they did a jumpers exhibition. Always neat to see. I still like it way more at the West Point games, but that's just me. Our seats were in the fourth deck, but still it didn't look as high up as this picture looks.

Mark with Tiffany and Eddie at their first game in the new stadium. As you can see we are close to the top! Notice Eddie is without any Yankee gear - he sucked it up for this game - he's a Met's fan. Next time it's a Met's game. And next time we will take the train.

We had a nice little detour on the way home through the projects and with two blondes in the backseat it was pretty funny. In a scary sort of way. Kind of good we had on hats. The trip home took 2 hours+ with no stops! Mark was very patient and I was happy to have passengers to help navigate along with me (read... get lost with us). Forget the garmin - it was useless. When the call was made to go right or left much debate went on and many other drivers were cut off. We did make it home finally. But the moral of the story... the train is faster.

yes I am a copy cat

If you haven't noticed blogger has some new designs and templates - kind of fun to play with, but I think Julie took the best one!
Off to a busy weekend! Yankee Game on Saturday and Cocktail Party at Buttermilk Falls Inn on Sunday. Making cold veggie pizza and attempting fruit pizza - I think I figure out a light and fluffy recipe! Stay tuned for something yummy or a complete disaster!

mamma to the rescue!

Day #1 at the lake...
Julia and Charlie have no fear - Julia more so as she was the first rescue fully clothed by Aunt Katie. Both her and I got quite wet. She just took off for the water full run toddler style. No pictures for that one. I did catch pictures of Andrea (mamma) making the second rescue and she got way wetter than me! By this time both kids were in swim suits and had on life jackets. I did propose just tying a rope to the top loop on the jacket so when they go too deep and flip on to their backs you can just haul them in. No word on if that will be tried....


Day #2 Charlie returned the rescue favor by pulling in grandpa and sister Julia. He learned his lesson maybe???

call me Martha

Some little kids on the bridge did the other day so this is only going off of that head rush. Ha. I'm no Martha, but this sure beats any type of garden she might propose I put in. So much easier.

Step #1.... beg Mark to drag the boxes up to the deck.

Step #2... plant them in the boxes....

Step #3... Hire a guard cat to keep away the birds.

Step #4 ... watch them grow!

a new reason to come visit...

take a guess???

Prepping the area....

Not quite the right length, but close to the spot...

The view from our deck of the neighbors new pool. Looks like fun right?
We thought so too. Perfect for the hot, long, muggy New York summers.

And it beats the river by a long shot!!!!