Canaan Valley, West Virginia

This past weekend we decided to take Friday off and headed to Canaan Valley, West Virginia. After a 1 1/2 hour stop at Cabella's and driving in circles for another hour, we made it there in about 8 hours.
We stayed at the Canaan Valley Ski Resort Lodge. Obviously there was no snow, but we did get a great view of the fall/falling leaves.
We managed to get in some great hiking while we were there. Since so many leaves had fallen, we were never quite sure where we were stepping : rocks, roots, mud etc.... This made for some fancy footwork for the both of us.
The Lodge had a couple really great restaurants which supplied us with a really great breakfast every morning and a Germanfest Buffet on our second night (all of which were definitely not on our diet)
We also got a chance to ride the chair lift up to the top of there ski slopes. A little scary but very beautiful and cold.
Below are some pictures from our quick weekend. Sorry. It seems I have them out of sequence.
The deer in this pic is really this close. All around this park, the deer were not afraid of people. They walked very close to us and then kept on going. Almost like they couldn't see us. There seemed to be 3 that ran together. I started calling them Madge, Matilda and Mable. Hey Girls!!

Some pics of us hiking the really great scenic trails. We were the only hikers that had a map. Oddly, the only ones that looked lost. Go Figure!

Picture taken after we arrived at the Lodge. It was just getting dark and cold. It's hard to see all the color in the leaves.

A pic of all the ski slope options once you get to the top of the slope. We decided to take the lift back down .

A pic of all the wind turbines at the top of the mountains. This was quite a sight from the top of the ski slope..

Heading back down the slopes on the chair lift. At this point we are freezing cold and realizing how under dressed we are.

The Latest Max Pictures

What a little sweetie pie!
Just about to smile.
Happy and content Max
Her comes the sour puss!!

Think Pink!

Last week at work we got a visit from the firefighters with the Pink Ribbon Tour. This is a small group of guys from Arizona, that are traveling the country in a pink fire truck and pink gear to promote Breast Cancer Awareness

Above, are 2 of the firefighters.
OOne of my co-workers kids trying on a helmet. Lion Apparel donated the pink helmets for this tour.
As the group is traveling the country, people get to sign the truck in honor of anyone who has passed or survived Breast Cancer.

Catching up.

I know I know it has been forever since I've blogged. So now I have bunch of catching up to do. A lot has happened since my last entry. Like everyone else, we have been crazy busy for the past several weeks. Between Jonathan working long hours at work and me being overloaded at work and our weekends being crazy, not much time for blogging has been available ( I know, sad excuses). The only thing I've managed to catch this month is a cold!!
First, I managed to drop a glass dish on my foot, now 2 weeks ago. I had a very nice large glass dish that was given to me by my Aunt as a wedding gift. I was trying to put the dish in the refrigerator when the thin delicate glass snapped in my hand and crashed down on my foot. Instantly I start to panic when I see the blood poring from my foot and hand. I hollered for Jonathan. He came running to see the glass dish and the Watergate Salad that was in the dish, all shattered on my foot. He helped me get to the kitchen chair and grabbed some paper towels to help soak up the blood. After we wiped the Glass and salad off my foot, we found about a 1" cut on my foot. It managed to stop bleeding after a few minutes but my finger took a while longer to stop. Jonathan called nurse Geneva (his mother) onto the scene. She arrived and helped bandage up my foot, and we all determined that I probably didn't need stitches. So, my foot was in pain for a few days, mainly because of the bruise from the dish dropping. Last week I noticed that the cut was not healing. So I decided to go to the doctor to get an antibiotic. When I get there, they didn't hesitate to stick me with a tetanus shot (and everyone knows how much I LOVE needles!). The doctor examined my foot by pressing around the wound. She hit one spot to the right and it nearly made me jump off the table. The doctor asks "are you sure you don't have glass in your foot?" I said "uhhhhh, I don't think so". So she let me take the antibiotic for a few days to see if the pain would go away. When I went back on Friday, the pain was still there. So now, I am going to pay a visit to the X-Ray man tomorrow and then pay a visit to the surgeon sometime after to determine if I need surgery. GREAT! I will keep you all posted.

Also, the day after I cut my foot was the day the power went out. We were out of power for only 2 days. We spent one night with Jonathan's parents and then went home to power. I will definitely not complain about this. We were so fortunate compared to others (my parents) that were out of power for 7 days.

Last weekend we headed west for a wedding in Illinois on Saturday. My step brother and his now wife, Lacey, got married in her home town of Summerfield, Illinois. It was a really great time at the wedding and reception. A chance for my family, who rarely gets together, to have a great bonding weekend. On Sunday, we decided to head into St. Louis, which was only about 20 minutes from Summerfield. Since we were so close, we could not pass up the opportunity to go up into the St. Louis Arch. There was nine of us in my family who decided to caravan to the Arch. We had so much fun! It seemed very strange bonding with step-siblings we didn't always get along with as kids, but suddenly as adults we had a really great time.

When we arrived back home from Illinois on Sunday, we were met in the driveway by ANOTHER stray Kitten. It seemed as if we had the dumping corner for stray kittens. I hesitantly began feeding the kitten because I felt sorry for it. But since my cat liked to growl and hiss at it, bringing it into our house was not an option. I posted notes at work to see if anyone would take a free kitten. A lady that I work with decided to take the kitten for her kids. I agreed to get the cat checked out by the vet to make sure she was healthy. Yes, it was a she and I decided to name it Paprika. That's right. Pepper and Paprika! The only issue we had with the cat (actually a big issue) was fleas. The kitten was flea bitten. The vet popped a pill in her mouth to make the fleas fall off her and then recommended we give her a Dawn bath. It was pretty funny to watch Jonathan give a cat a bath. This long haired fuzzy kitten was suddenly reduced to practically nothing. I wish now I had taken a picture of Paprika while she was wet. Instead I have a regular picture at the bottom the post. So, yesterday afternoon, I headed to Dayton to drop Paprika off with her new family. I miss her already. She was a very loving and affectionate kitten, unlike Pepper who likes to terrorize us!
I also forgot to mention that we were finally able to get Pepper the cat fixed and declawed. His days of terrorizing us have come to a screeching halt. It's kinda sad to see him try to climb on things when he doesn't have nails anymore. Our legs and clothes are now very thankful for the claws to be gone. Now we just have to crack the habit of him biting and chewing. Ideas anyone!!




Pepper decided he was gonna hitch a ride with us on our trip tp Illinois. His first night being left home by himself. He was a good boy.
St Louis Arch. Sooooooooooo much bigger standing there then it seemed driving past it
View from the top of the Arch. The stadium is Busch Stadium

Picture of Paprika. She was not in the mood for a picture. She really was a sweet kitten.

Paula Reds Have Arrived!!

If you were reading my blog last year, you already know that I now like to make applesauce. Unfortunately, I was a bit behind last year in getting my apples. We went to Brumbaugh's fruit farm about late September hoping to find my favorite apples to make applesauce with, Paul Red. Me, being unaware, was told that the Paula Red apple is an early apple and were long past gone. I was a bit let down and settled for whatever they had sitting out at the time.
Soooo, this year, I was on it. I decided to take action. I called Brumbaugh's 2 weeks ago to ask when the Paula Red apples would be ready. They told me they didn't have any yet but should have some by that Friday. I politely asked if they "reserve" apples (hey, ya don't know until ya ask, right?) I was told yes. The girl told me they weren't expecting a big crop of Paula Red this year and that they would go fast. I panicked!!! UHHH. UMMMMM. " I''ll take 3!!" I said. Ma'am? 3 apples?? she said. "No. 3 large bags".
So that's what I have. 3 large bags of Paula Red apples. About 70 apples total just waiting to be pealed and turned into my favorite applesauce.
My dilemma. Should I feel guilty for taking so many apples when they didn't have that many this year? I missed out last year because I was uninformed. This year I was educated. So... I guess the early bird gets the worm!

Grandma's first visit

This past Saturday was my moms first time getting to see her new grand baby Max. As you can tell, she already loves him to pieces.
Isn't he the sweetest?? He was so good for Mom when she came to visit.
Mommy Betsy calming Max after his diaper change

Night of Fire!!!!!!!!!!

This past Saturday, Jonathan and I went back to the Muncie Dragway in the middle of nowhere Muncie, Indiana. The event that night was Night of Fire. Where along with the locals that like to bring there cars to the track, but also an exhibition race for anyone with a monster machine. The prime attraction was the semi with jet engines. Unfortunately just as he was at the line about to go, he broke down. Then the thunderstorm came. Luckily we managed to get some pics while walking around behind the scenes. We got to see some of the other exhibition cars go down the track, but I wasn't able to get very many pics since they are obviously going so fast. About 9:15, they called the races and everyone ran for there cars.
Jonathan and I have been to this track many times before, but this was only our second year seeing "Night of Fire". Since we saw the Jet Semi last year, we weren't to hip on waiting around for him to fix the truck. I'm a big fan of the long Dragsters while Jonathan loves all the hot rods loaded with the Nitrous.

Dragster with a really cool paint job.
Exhibition dragster "Blue Ice" loaded with a jet engine. (as if they aren't fast enough)
Awesome Corvette that did really well on the track.
Premier attraction "Shockwave". Jet Semi that broke down on the line.
Yes, this is a quad-runner also loaded with a jet engine. A bit scary to watch shooting down the track

No. This one doesn't have a jet engine. I just thought it was goofy looking
A perty Camaro doing his burnout.
This was really cool. This guy is a local that he and his wife have been building up this truck. It is just a diesel Dodge Ram loaded with 2 sacks, Nitrous and large racing tires. They said they were experimenting with the Nitrous for the first time. I can't recall how fast his time was, but he got a wow and a standing ovation from the crowd.
The only semi-clear picture we could get on the track. Only because he did his burnout all the way up to where we were. We caught this as he was backing up to the line.

Max Nicholas Swigart born: 8-5-2008

Introducing, Max Nicholas Swigart. Max is my new baby nephew born just today @ 4.24pm, weighing in at a healthy 6 lbs. 13 oz and 19" long. His proud parents, Nick and Betsy, are doing very well after the long labor and delivery. We aren't exactly sure yet, but the family suspects the red head gene had been passed down to Max.
Jonathan and I made it to the hospital after work and got to meet him. He wasn't even 3 hours old and they let us hold him.
I am over the moon happy for my brother and his wife!!!!!!!!!! Check out the pictures!!

Look!!! I think he's smiling!!!!!!
Mommy Betsy and Max.
Max's first bottle feeding.
Do I look happy or what?
Uncle Jonathan

Evening in Celina

This past Saturday evening, Jonathan and I decided to head up to Celina to stroll around Grand Lake and to grab some dinner. Got a few pics on the Lake.

We drove one lap around the lake before we decided to eat at Bella's in Celina. A really great Italian restaurant right next to the lake.

After dinner we decided to find where Jonathan's cousin Kenny and Amy live. And wouldn't ya know it, they were out working in there garden when we came up to there house. So we decided to stop in and say hi. We got to check out there REALLY big garden and received some really helpful advice for our garden next year.

With the great weather that day, the evening turned out real nice for us.

Introducing.......PEPPER!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, we now have a new addition to our home. Making his grand debut to the world, is Pepper!!
pepper arrived on our door step exactly 2 weeks ago today. Jonathan and I were up getting ready for work when we heard a cat in the front bushes. We went outside to find a small kitten popping out of the bushes. He seemed to be crying like a baby. I couldn't help but fall in love with him. Jonathan new it was over right then and there.
Jonathan has never wanted animals in the house (country boy) and I have been pondering the thought of a cat for a while now.
Later that day, after Jonathan and I talked, Jonathan said he would let me decide if we were going to keep him. I tossed around the idea for a few days while I was feeding him on the front porch everyday. I knew we couldn't keep him as an outside cat because our road is way too busy. So the only options were to keep him in the house or take him to the animal shelter. I decided to keep him.
That Saturday I took him to the vet. We found out that he is in perfect condition and is 8 weeks old. That was the day we brought him into the house.
He has been so much fun. Although we are literally counting the days until the claws can be removed. Jonathan and I both have battle wounds all over us. Also hoping the furniture can make it another 1 1/2 months.
I know Jonathan was a little leery of having him in the house, but as predicted, they have now become buddies. I have to say, I think he is quite personable. We get the biggest kick out of watching him play. His own tale can entertain him for quite a while. Instead of scratching his scratching pole, he climbs it then spins around and around. I seem to call him Turkey more then anything when he is being ornery.
I guess I could tell a few more stories, but I will just let the pics do the talking.


Here he is!!!!!!! What a turkey.
Pepper thought this would be a good place for his next nap. On the news paper while it's being read.
My two best guys.