Chistmas Greetings

I know I haven't posted in a while. I went out and got our Christmas tree on Friday before the snow storm. I brought it in the house and put it up in the stand by myself. I thought this was going to be a bigger feat than it was. It actually wasn't that heavy, and I figured it would be better to get it up without Art's help. He doesn't handle these things well sometimes. Well, here is a pic anyway. And a link to a special Christmas greeting. Pam http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1443699341

Visit to Pittsburgh for Steeler game

Well, I thought I'd finally blog about our trip to see the Steeler game back in October. The trip there was uneventful, however we spent a lot of time driving in the Pittsburgh area finding our way in and around the city. It had been many years since Art had to drive to the Stadium or find his way to area attractions, so we had a little trouble. Actually, I should start from the beginning. We arrived at the hotel where we met some friends from Philly, Bill and Barb. We worked with Barb at Access before we moved. They were meeting us there to go to the game together the next day. It was much hotter than expected for October, so shorts were in order for stay. This was a surprise for Bill for his birthday, thought he knew about the game about a week before, he didn't know there was anyone else involved in attending the game. So, needless to say he was a little surprised to see us in the lobby of the hotel, thought he said he kind of had a clue he was meeting someone there. But all went well, and we all had a good time. It was great meeting Bill and spending time with the two of them.

We went into the city to sight see a little. We rode the Duquesne Incline, the views on top of the mountain were great, we got some awsome pictures. We had dinner at Jerome Bettis' restaurant, "Bettis Grill 36". The food was great and of course the decor was Steeler all the way.

The game the next day was fun, though a little bit too hot. We did survive thankfully, the sun wasn't on us the whole time so it wasn't unbearable. The game was great to watch, and sharing it with fellow Steeler fans made it all the better.

We said our goodbyes on Sunday night since we were leaving separately the next day. It was had to know we weren't going to see them for a while, except we have already made plans to make this a yearly event. Hopefully I won't make it so long before the next blog. Pam

Visit from my sister!

This all happened very quickly. My sister, Denise visited us from Rochester, NY a couple of weeks ago. She stayed for a week so we were able to spend some real quality time together. For the first few days it was too hot and humid to do much of anything. So, we mostly shopped and hung out together, which we enjoyed a lot.

We did go to the Clifton Grist Mill on Tuesday for breakfast. A long drive just to eat breakfast, but it was a working grist mill. And they use their own flour and grains in the restaurant they have on the site. The pancakes were the biggest we've ever seen. The waitress warned us about them, but we didn't believe they could be that big. We were wrong. We could only eat about 1/4 of them. We brought the rest home for later consumption. We also took a walk in Clifton Gorge Park, just down the road. Very pretty and good exercise after those mammoth pancakes.

We did get a chance to get to the zoo, something Denise wanted to see. We also went into Kentucky, by way of the Anderson Ferry. I didn't know about this mode of travel until Katie went to Kentucky a couple of weeks before to pick up a changing table for us. It sounded like an interesting way to get there, so we went on Saturday morning at about 7:45am to get the ferry. There was a lot of fog on the river so we couldn't see the water or the Kentucky side until we were about half way across. The fog was lifting off the water in a very eerie but interesting way.

We went to Big Bone Lick State Park in Northern Kentucky, right after we went to Covington to check out a church with very beautiful architecture. We arrived at Big Bone Lick with very few traveling problems, not so in the return trip. More later on that. We were surprised to find out they had a Bison herd in the park, a pleasant surprise. We took a bunch of pictures and then headed into the park more to check out the Lewis and Clark reenactment they had scheduled that day. Another pleasant surprise. Apparently Lewis and Clark were sent to Big Bone Lick by Thomas Jefferson to bring back dinosaur bones. Clark's great, great, great, great grandson was supposed to be there as one of the reenactors. But we waited for more than an hour and it still hadn't started. So we gave up and just took a picture of one of the other reenactors, I think he was supposed to be Lewis.

We had directions back from the park we had printed out from Mapquest. But between errors on the directions, and poor sign posting, we got lost a couple of times. What should have taken us an hour, ended up taking at least two. We finally got back around 2:30-3:00pm. We were going to Meet Art to go over to Newport for dinner, but when I talked to him on the phone he informed me he had just been offered a job. Apparently, he went to a hiring fair. I had no idea he was attending one. They hired him on the spot, so that was a prayer answered.

We did finally make it to Newport. We went to the Irish Pub and celebrated his new job. The food, as always, was delicious. That was a long day though, and we were all exhausted. Denise drove back to Rochester the next day, a long, long trip with more than one traffic problem. But she is home safe and sound. Pam

Toby Keith concert

Well, Art loved the Toby Keith concert Thursday evening. He sang all his best songs and was on almost 2 hours straight. I wouldn't however recommend the place we went for dinner. We went to Newport on the Levee and ate at Johnny Rockets. We thought the food you got for the price was skimpy. My sandwich didn't come with french fries or chips, not even a pickle. Now this is a diner, and you would expect there to be ketchup and mustard on the table. But there was only ketchup, and he also brought a squeeze bottle of ketchup so he could draw a smiley face on the serving plate. I wanted mustard, so Art went up to our waiter and asked for some mustard. The guy said, sure and proceeded to spoon about a 1/2 cup of mustard into a little serving dish. When we went to pay, we discovered they had charged 50 cents for the mustard. I couldn't believe it, and they even called it a "side of mustard" on the bill. Have you ever heard of a side of mustard. Who orders a side of mustard? It's not as if I was going to take out a spoon and start eating mustard. No, we will never go to Johnny Rockets again.
Pam

Finally it's here!

Well, we finally got our frame today. The picture with the blue flowered comforter is our new queen size bed, and the one with the red and black comforter is the spare room where we slept last night. The guys who delivered it were very nice and helpful. They even attached the headboard which we were told yesterday they don't do. I think they were told to be extra nice to us because of the blowups yesterday. Let's just say they could tell we were a little miffed. To celebrate we are going to a Toby Keith concert tonight. Art has been looking forward to this night for a couple of months. I have been looking forward to hearing a little less about it, but I doubt that will happen. LOL. After tonight he will be talking about how great the concert was and how he can't wait to go see him again.

Believe it or not!

Well, here we go again. They delivered the split box springs today, but did not have the queen frame they were supposed to bring to exchange for the full one. I almost blew a gasket! I know it wasn't the delivery people's fault, but it was hard not to be upset. Apparently, Sears never put the order in for the frame, just the box spring. Even though when they called to confirm delivery last week they said it was for the box spring and the frame. Everything else is here and in place......EXCEPT FOR THE FRAME! So we still don't have a bed upstairs. Art called Sears and let them have a piece of his mind, which anyone who knows Art, knows that can be a fun time. After all is said and done, we are supposed to have the frame delivered tomorrow. They actually wanted to set up a delivery for next week, until I sort of suggested they do something sooner. We are waiting to see what else can go wrong. Hopefully, tomorrow we will have the new bed to sleep in. We are going to be sleeping on the bed in the spare room tonight. I think we are going to have a party when all this finally is sorted out. Pam

A day at the zoo

Here is a picture of us at the Cincinnati Zoo yesterday. We had a FRG meeting and lunch at the zoo. We had a lot of fun, Art was a little creeped out at the sight of quite a few bats on display. Casey was very good, though he didn't get much in the way of naps. Warm and very sauna-like, Art and I received a few mosquito bites in the rainforest area of the zoo. Actually,they were pretty much all over the zoo. We had a little rain at first, so the bugs were all out looking for water. The soda machine was particularly challenging due to the great amount of yellowjackets hovering around. But we all managed to get out without a bite from them. All in all a really nice time, we'll have to go again soon. Pam

The Saga Continues

Ok, they delivered the mattress and split box springs. I figured, now we'll have a nice new bed to sleep on tonight. I mean, what could happen, we have the split box springs, we know the mattress will fit, what else could possibly go wrong. Well, they brought them in and laid one of them on the bed and it didn't fit lenghwise. They were too long! Unbelievable, all I could think of was this can't be happening. I discovered, much to my surprise that a queen size mattress is longer as well as wider. I never had one before, I didn't know this information. The bed we have is supposed to be adjustable for a full or queen bed. Not! So, needless to say we had to send the split box springs back, since we thought we would never be able to have a queen mattress. Now, we still have the original queen mattress and box springs they attempted to get upstairs two weeks ago, in the spare room. I call Sears again, and explain the same old story along with the new addition. To make a long story short, I was on the phone off and on all day Friday trying to get this straightened out. We finally figured that if they deliver the split box springs again along with a queen bed frame, they can take the original box springs and full frame back in exchange. I know, everyone is confused, especially Art. He doesn't even want to know any more about it. I have explained this whole situation at least a half a dozen times on the phone to different people in the last day and a half. I am now waiting to hear again about a final (hopefully) delivery.

To top things off, after the delivery men left I noticed a problem with the bed frame on our current bed. I guess after taking the bed apart and putting it back together 2 times, along with numerous moves we've made the bed just couldn't take any more. Part of the bed that the frame attaches to at the foot board separated from the rest of the foot board. Thus, making the bed inoperable for sleeping on until I was able to do something to stabilize it. Unfortunately, I was not going to be able to do anything until much later in the evening, or should I say morning. I was scheduled to go over and babysit so Katie and her mom could go to the Bengals game. By the time I got back and finished all I could on the bed it was 1:00AM. And I had a blister on each hand to show for it. So, I guess you could say it wasn't on of my better days. I am looking forward to more enjoyable days in the future, hopefully with a new mattress and box springs in it. I'll let you know the next installment whenever they deliver again. Pam

It's about time

It's been a while since the last blog. A few new things have happened since then. We decided to go ahead and buy a new bed with mattress and boxsprings and all. I had tried to get a headboard at Craigs list, but to no avail. So we went to Sears and after some time looking and trying out different mattresses, we finally decided on the right one. We figured on getting the new mattress for us, and the new bed for company, putting our mattress on the new bed. So, we wanted a queen size mattress and box springs, but a full size bed for the spare room, since that's the size of our current bed. We told the salesman what we wanted and found out 20 minutes later that they didn't carry the bed we wanted in a full size, even though the tag on the bed said it did. After some frustrating deliberation, we decided on buying the mattress and boxspring anyway since it was on sale 50% off.

On our way home we saw a Furniture Fair store, so we decided to stop in and see what we could find. They were actually have a big sale at the time and we were able to find a bed similar to the one at Sears. So, we went ahead and bought it. The interesting part is after a couple of days I started thinking about the queen size box spring, and wondering if it would fit up the stairs to our bedroom. Well, after talking to Katie I decided to call Sears and try to change our order to a split box spring. The salesman thought I was overreacting, and assured me it would fit up the stairs. Needless to say when it arrived the delivery men tried with all their might and, as I (and Katie) thought it wouldn't go. So, our only recourse was to call Sears and have them put in an order for split box spring and when they deliver them, they will take back the original one they delivered last week.

So far, not a great experience, I will let you know how it all goes and when everything is set, I will include some pics of the house as we have it now.

In the mean time, I am including a few new pictures of Casey. I am also including a picture of the front of the house with the new yellow ribbon on the light post. I had one when Matt went to Iraq the last time, but I never thought I was going to have to put one out again. He is out of the country at this time, and we don't know when he will exactly be in Iraq, but it goes without saying we are praying for his safe travel and for the time he is serving there.

Pam

A going away party for Matt

We had a going away party for Matt on Saturday at Matt and Katie's house. It turned out well, and everyone seemed to have a good time. Casey enjoyed all the attention, someone new was holding him every time you turned around. Family from both sides was there, and a bunch of motorcycle friends of Matt's were also able to make it. It was great having Matt home for the weekend. It was also good to see them back together as a family, but hard to say goodbye. Matt went back to the base on Monday and Katie is on her way back from Wisconsin as I am writing this. We will all be praying for Matt's safe return from Iraq. Pam

Starting to feel at home

Well, It's been almost three weeks since we moved in and we still have some boxes to empty. But that's not bad, they are mostly stashed in the spare bedroom. Art is really happy with his "Steeler Room" in the basement. I will put pictures on here when we are totally finished with it, it's getting close.
Art is still dealing with the gout problem. He thought it had gone away, but when all his medicine was gone it started to return. He got some more meds and things are better again. This is a good thing for many reasons, since he isn't a very good patient when something is bothering him.
Babysitting is going well with Casey. Art and I are loving all the time we get to spend with him. We are looking forward to seeing Matt next weekend before he heads over to Iraq. We already can't wait until next year when he comes back.
Here are a couple of pictures of Casey and us. He's got a great smile, but we couldn't get one for the pictures this time. Pam

What can happen in a week!

Well, we arrived in Cincinnati on Sunday at about 1:30pm. We did decide to drive part way on Saturday. They finished packing the truck about 6:00pm, and we left for Cincinnati at 6:15-6:30. We drove until we reached New Stanton, Pa. It was 11:00 when we arrived at the "Budget Motel", (aka, "The Bates Motel"). It really wasn't that bad though, except there was a group of men sitting on the tailgate of a truck drinking, and our next door neighbor was hanging out on the sidewalk smoking with the door to his room open. The room was ok, a little old and beat up. We had brought a cooler with some things from the freezer and fridge in it with just a little ice. I wanted to add some ice when we stopped for the night, but upon entering the office (which was situated in the middle of the parking lot, I guess they didn't want to stay at their hotel either), I discovered it would cost us twenty five cents for each bucket of ice. I just shook my head and left the ice chest alone for the night. The next day their seemed to be enough ice left in the ice chest to make it the rest of the trip, so we just moved on.
We arrived in Cincinnati on a fairly hot day, with Monday promising to be hot as well as good and humid. We check to see where we wanted all the furniture to be placed, we also needed to clean out the fridge and bathrooms. Katie helped cleaning out the fridge and the next day we were expecting to be moved in by mid afternoon. Well, we shouldn't have been so naive. We were never really given a time for the movers to arrive, but figured they would be moving us in sometime in the morning. We waited and called a couple of times, the best we could get was the driver would call us when they were getting close. It was 5pm before they arrived! They had to unload someone else's belongings before bringing ours in. That took a half hour and by the time they got all our stuff in and loaded the other person's back in the truck it was 11:00pm. It was so hot and humid, we thought we were going to melt away. The guys moving our stuff must have been much worse. Suffice it to say, we were dead tired from our day long ordeal, and showers were definitely in order.
There is much more to report, but I will hold out for now and write more later. It's been a very long week at our new digs.
Pam

We finally took the plunge!

Ok, here goes. Everyone else is blogging, so we thought it was time for us to get started. Here is a picture of us on our last day of work for Access. My name is Pam, my husband is Art. We currently live in Philadelphia, Pa. We are moving to Cincinnati, Ohio to live near family (namely our daughter-in-law and new grandson, eventually our son as well). We are really looking forward to this new chapter in our lives. Art and I hope to keep this updated as much as possible.
We will be leaving on Sunday July 8th from Philly, heading for Cincinnati. Unless the movers are quick getting the truck packed. We may drive half way on Saturday and finish up on Sunday morning. We will be playing that part by ear.
I have parents and a sister and brother in law in Rochester, NY. I wish I could live near them as well, but that's not possible.
We want to say hello to Katie and Casey. We're coming, can't wait to get there and start living in the great city of Cincinnati. We don't know very much about it yet, but we plan to find out all we can.
Pam