Results tagged “family” from Only in York County

Have you missed me? I took this week off to celebrate my daughter's first week of fourth grade. Boy, I'd love to be a stay-at-home mom; this week has just been awesome.

Tonight's adventure in domesticity was a particularly good one. Lest you think that all I do is eat at the various dining establishments of York County, no, I do make food at home too, and here's proof - a photo of Sarah making homemade ice cream tonight.

It's not quite done chilling yet, but it soon will be. It's cookies and cream, and we're really looking forward to trying it!

So what are your favorite ice cream flavors? I need suggestions for the next time we make it!

We've been spending a good bit of our summer bowling. It's a sport I've liked since high school (I even bowled in leagues way back then), and that my daughter likes pretty well, too.

Hubby is... well, he tries. He's a really good sport. (Sorry, Hubby!)

So when I heard about the Kids Bowl Free program, I thought it might be worth checking out. With no catch whatsoever, your child (18 and younger) can bowl two games every single day at no charge. (You do still need to pay for shoe rental, though.)

We also sprung for an upgrade (cost: $23.95) that allows up to four adults to bowl two games each per day, also at no charge. Since I have my own bowling shoes, Sarah and I can bowl two games together for a grand total of about $3 for her shoes. Not bad at all.

In York County, four alleys are participating: Colony Park Lanes North, Colony Park East, and Suburban Bowlerama in York, and the Hanover Bowling Centre in Hanover.

If you still want to sign up, you can do so at KidsBowlFree.com. If you do - let me know. I'd be interested in doing a bowling meet-up with any of my readers with kids, definitely!

The "adults package" we bought gave us a chance for something else: To let my mom experiment with bowling for the first time in decades! That might sound weird, but she broke her rotator cuff back in the winter of 1993, and she still has limited motion in her right arm - and she's right-handed. She used to love to bowl, but she knew she'd have to do it left-handed. So we convinced her to come along, and she did great. (Well, except for trying to pick up the ball with her right hand a few times!)

Here she is:

Now, here's today's POP QUIZ. If you know where this picture was taken and have been there in the last week, you'll be able to answer. What has dramatically changed since this picture was taken?

Answer to come...

The Concilio relatives have gone, I'm back at work, and we're almost ready to resume our normally scheduled programming here on the blog.

But first, you have to put up a quick wrapup of the weekend's festivities; a bunch of us went to the Phillies game on Sunday, in which we beat the Pirates 5-1.

My uncle Lenny was really in the spirit before we left:

And we had great seats:

If you happen to like baseball, check out the YDR's MLB section and The Southpaw, written by one of my friends and employees, Pat Abdalla, about all things Major League Baseball.

If you're NOT a baseball fan, thanks for sticking with me. And speaking of "sticky" things, don't forget to vote in my poll about grilled/toasted cheese! Grilled is winning by a landslide, but there's still plenty of time to cast your vote.

I'm out of town today at the Phillies game (part of the big family reunion extravaganza) but I wanted to show off something really cool that my sister Linda made yesterday for the big reunion get-together: Concilio brownies!

You're jealous, aren't you? You've never had family-personalized brownies! Hahaha. It does make me think, though - what's the best "family gathering" food you've ever had? Leave me a comment!

Did you see today's Living cover about National Hot Dog Month this month?

We celebrated that month in BIG style last night. We're having a family reunion this weekend, with all my dad's brothers descending on our house. It's been crazy! To feed them all (30+ people) on Friday evening, we have been buying hot dogs as they've been on buy-one-get-one-free sales at Giant and Weis for a couple of months, and we grilled them all up.

Here's the "prep" for all those dogs:

And here they are after Hubby worked his grilling magic:

Amazingly, we still have dogs left over. I'll be eating them (and some other leftovers) for weeks to come, and I don't mind a bit!

This morning, over breakfast, we started talking about hot dog toppings; apparently, I'm VERY unpopular for putting ketchup on mine. You guys don't mind ketchup on dogs, do you??

Yesterday evening, Hubby, Sarah and I took Coby the dog for a LONG walk on the rail trail.

We parked at Brillhart Station and headed two miles to the Howard Tunnel to find our next letterbox (this was No. 6), then hiked back.

What a walk! Even the dog was beat by the end. Here are Coby and Sarah at the tunnel (halfway point).

The good news is, while walking, we ran into my doctor and a friend, also walking. So next time he says I should exercise more... Hahaha!

I pick on Hubby all the time on the blog - you know, referencing his purchase of "special" meat for lunch and his unusual marshmallow-grilling technique.

But Chris is a great guy, and if I'm going to tell all of York County about him, I think it's only fair that I share this GOOD story that sums up why I'm so lucky to have him.

Last Wednesday was a busy day - Sarah had tennis lessons in the morning, we needed to buy some books from a woman in Dover Township in the morning, we in turn had people coming over to buy some books from us in the afternoon and evening, and we wanted to go to the Women of Today fun fest in Dover.

Sarah, a day or so before, ended up with a killer ding on her nose. I say bug bite, because it's either that or a world-record-sized pimple, which I doubt, but either way, it was a mess. She had scratched at it in her sleep, it looked kind of infected, and it was just huge. So, being a good mom, I took a tissue and tried to get off the ickiness. Yes, I know that's gross. But bear with me.

She cried. She said it hurt, and since I hadn't TOLD her what I was going to do, I wasn't surprised. I offered to get a Bandaid, but she was a little dubious about letting me near her again. So, I said, that's OK, "Daddy can put it on for you!" So he did, and that was fine, but then she started to wonder about how it looked, you know, with a big ol' Bandaid on her face.

Hubby is a genius. And a very loving person. "Hey, Sarah!" he said. "Do you think I should put a Bandaid on my nose too?" She looked at him kind of funny. "I have special nose Bandaids upstairs!" he added. Well, of course, this made her giggle, and she says, yeah, go get one!

So he did, and came back with his "nose Bandaid" on. I didn't think much of it - until later, when I realized that he'd worn it to sell books to people at our house, worn it to the Women of Today carnival, and worn it to Palasta for dinner.

There they are: Sarah with a Bandaid, and Chris with his "nose Bandaid" - one of the Breathe-Right strips he wears at night sometimes to help him not snore.

They named themselves the "Bandaid twins." They were even glad to pose for a picture.

Now isn't that a good dad? LOVE YOU, HUBBY!

Of course, if you've been following the ol' blog here for a while, you'll remember our family's quest last summer for all 30 "letterboxes" in the "Catch the Activity Bug" summer library program.

Yes, we found all 30, and WOW, was it a great way to spend the summer.

This year, the program continues again, with the kids being asked to make rubbings from 30 "creativity stations" instead of collecting ink stamps. (If you've got kids in your life - I really encourage you to take part; visit goyork.org and your library for details.)

So far, we've found our first three - one Wednesday at Farquhar Park in York, where we also found tons of ducks and geese, a beautiful heron and what we think might have been a baby hawk or vulture - and two Saturday at our favorite place, Pinchot State Park.

Here's a shot that Hubby took of Sarah and I on "Pinchot's Rocks," a formation along one of the trails.

And here's Hubby's own blog post about our adventures so far. I was so happy; I think it was the first time I made HIS blog!

We're looking forward to many more hikes this summer. In fact, by the time you read this, we might have found even more!

One place our family likes to eat is the Cracker Barrel in York Township, near York County Tech.

In our opinion, the best day to eat there is Sunday, because of their great specials. That's where we went last Sunday after church, because Mom and I wanted to get the Sunday special of "Homestyle Chicken."

From Cracker Barrel's Web site:
"Starting at 11:00 a.m. every Sunday, enjoy two boneless chicken breasts hand-dipped in fresh buttermilk, breaded and deep fried to a golden brown in our kitchen. Served with choice of two vegetables."

While we waited, Chris and Sarah made an alien out of paper napkin rings, and we played the peg-jumping game (which Sarah is better out than I am.)

Once dinner came, we were glad to dig in.

My dinner: Homestyle chicken with fries and dumplins

(Read on for the rest of the family's choices.)

These library books show just a few of the things the library can help you do - beat debt, kill clutter, get in shape, and more.

Today's post will be one of the notable exceptions.

At the meeting of the Southern York County Business Association I went to earlier in the month, I had the privilege of chatting with Demi Fair, library director at the Paul Smith Library in Shrewsbury. At the time, she mentioned that certain proposals at the state level stood to cut library funding significantly, and I heard similar news at my last visit to my own library in Dover.

Today, I received an e-mail from the library system, asking me to write to my legislators to ask them to reconsider cuts to library funding. As I'm not normally an "activist" of any sort, I almost passed it by. Then I started reading. The e-mail, from York Libraries President Trish Calvani, says:

Blog readers who've been around since last summer probably know what made my finger stop before hitting the delete key - the possible cuts to summer programming. You might remember that we spent all last summer finding 30 "letterboxes" as part of a partnership between the libraries and Keystone Activity Zone. It was free - and educational - and essentially comprised most of our family time last summer. If funding for activities like that were cut, we'd all be heartbroken.

I'm no political genius, but I do know that if library funding does come, it will be at a cost elsewhere. While I realize that, I also know how much the library has brought to my family, and I'm willing to explore other cuts in order to keep this valuable resource around. You're welcome to disagree, and if so, thanks for reading this far and for respecting my opinion. If, however, you happen to agree, I'm sure the libraries would appreciate your support in their letter campaign.

You won't see me or the family out and about in York County today, but for VERY good reason.

My sister Carol is getting married today in New Jersey. I couldn't be happier for her and her (well, at this point, soon-to-be) husband, John.

I love you guys!!

I got another cat. But I do have an argument to make in my defense.

If YOU saw the picture above, and you got an e-mail about poor Mitts, who is 7 or 8 years old and whose owners left and abandoned him, leaving him outside, wouldn't you want to give him a home? He was very lonely, and he'd run up to almost anyone who came near, hoping for some attention.

On top of it all, he is mitten-toed, a congenital deformity that gives him extra toes on some of his feet. On his front feet, they come out sort of like thumbs, and look like mittens. Hence the name Mitts, I guess.

But he's a very nice boy and he seems to be settling into the house. What's great is that we have family visiting this weekend, and in about an hour, 12 people will take part in a big dinner. Twelve people... four cats... a dog... can't forget the goldfish... what a house!

(If you have a soft spot for sad cats or dogs, you should check out our featured pets listing of those that need homes. Please!)

So, as a result of spring cleaning, it's like we live in a different house. Seriously.

Some of the changes:

1. We now make our bed each day. And you CAN make the bed, because you can get to the bed!

2. My daughter can actually find everything in her room and playroom. Oh, and there is enough room for her to PLAY in the "playroom." How about that? Before, the hideous pink carpet wasn't even visible. Which I guess is a good thing AND a bad thing.

3. I can find my books on my bookshelves. (Click this picture to get a very dorky detailed view with stuff labeled.)

4. We got rid of A LOT. Tons. This was just one part of it. We also got rid of some large items, like a treadmill, two totes full of stuff from my part-time job that I no longer needed to keep at the house, a bunch of food for the food bank...

5. And, finally, the part I'm proudest of... my closet! I got rid of things I no longer wear, and I got everything sorted out by color (pants/skirts at left, shirts by color at right.) Shoes on the shelf.

In doing this, I got rid of about a third of my clothes. I'm someone who hangs almost all my clothes, so what you see here is just about the entirety of my wardrobe, unmentionables aside.

Before doing this cleanout, I had more than 100 shirts. 100!!! Who needs 100 shirts? How wasteful. I still probably have more than I should, but at least it's better. (And doing my closet qualified me to enter Organizing Junkie's closet cleanup roundup, so that's good too. I needed that extra motivation!)

Anyone else have any spring cleaning accomplishments to report? We're still finishing everything up, but the hardest part is definitely over!

Last Thursday, my daughter's school had its "science, art and curriculum fair," where you got to go see the kids' best work displayed all around the school.

Sarah really loves anything creative, and she had a lot of great projects, but this was my favorite, so I thought I'd post it as a tribute to spring ... and to creative writing! Hope you enjoy.

Yesterday was my daughter Sarah's birthday... and today is my mom's! I had tried to wait and make Sarah a birthday gift to my mom back in 2000, but it didn't work out.

Last night, we went out to Daddy-O's Pizza on Market Street in Springettsbury Township and then to Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream, in honor of Sarah. We had wanted to go to Maggie Moo's, but it has closed. (Anyone want to buy an ice-cream shop? It's for sale!)

Well, tonight, we'll be going to Moonlight Cafe in Dover in honor of Mom's birthday. The photo here is of Sarah hugging Mom to thank her for her birthday gifts. I think Sarah is so lucky to have her Mommom living here... you can see how much they love each other.

Yay for birthdays and families!

My little girl is 9 years old today. Happy birthday, Sarah! I love you!

Chris took this picture last night as she was getting into bed. It was her last night being "8." She's hugging Mr. Bill, and both of them were so happy. You can see Sarah's interesting taste in bedroom decor - her room is decorated with a "Van Gogh Paintings" theme, at her choice!

One of the other great happenings of the past two weeks: The addition of two new felines to our household.

As a review, our pets as of the end of February were:
Coby (big, fluffy, black Goldendoodle)
Salem (fat tuxedo cat)
Huggles (small, all-black cat)
Zack (fat goldfish)

Things our pets have in common: For the most part, they're large. For another, they're basically black.

So if we had to adopt more pets, wouldn't you think we'd mix it up a little?

Nah.

To make a long story short, the plan was to adopt Stormy, an all-black female cat, from the SPCA. She'd been on display at PetSmart, and we loved her. My mom took Sarah to look at her, they filled out an application on a whim, they took it to the SPCA, where they approved us immediately since we'd adopted Huggles from them in the not-too-distant past.

However. In earshot of my daughter, one of the workers piped up, "Did you know that if you buy one, you get one free?" Hence the coming of not one, but two cats, the second affectionately dubbed our Clearance Cat.

Guess what? He's black too. His name is Mr. Bill, and he's THE BEST cat ever. Very sweet; very friendly; very social. (Stormy has been a bit timid so far, but she seems nice too.)

Mr. Bill, though, is bad. Here he is:

On the counter...

Mr. Bill and Stormy on the sofa:

Stormy:

A collection of hard-to-tell-apart cats:

And that's the biggest problem. We can't tell half of them apart! You have to do process of elimination... well, it's too skinny to be Salem. It's too chummy to be Stormy... And so on.

But, two fewer cats at the SPCA, which is good, right? (And, they gave my mom a senior citizen discount, so we got two cats for $30. Total bargain cat acquisition.)

We got a new home computer, and today's been spent moving a bunch of files from the old one to this one.

So far I like it pretty well - it's Windows Vista, which is fine except it doesn't read my picture CDs, which I understand to be a universal problem - but one I can work around.

It's sooo much faster now, though. Our old computer was powered by a thundering herd of turtles! :)

This is it in the picture - an HP Pavilion Slimline. Wish us luck. We're pretty excited.

Do kids write letters to sports stars any more, asking for their autographs? Our daughter, Sarah, has autographs from Chase Utley and Ryan Howard of the Phillies, and in the past couple of weeks, she wrote to Shane Victorino.

Here's her masterpiece:

What do you think? Pretty good, right?!

While Hubby and I both had some time off in the past couple of weeks, we went to dinner with my sister-in-law's family one night.

We had a great time - even though they only live in Warrington Township, we don't get together very often. The highlight of the evening, though, was the chicken we had for dinner...

Adriane and her husband, Jason, had cooked two whole chickens. And what comes with whole chickens?

Chicken innards! You know, all that fun stuff like liver and gizzard and all that.

Well, I can tell you right now I'd never eat that, but Jason likes it, so they cooked it up.

Here are our various meat extra parts:

Now here's the funniest part. Guess who Jason got to eat a little bite of liver?

My daughter, Sarah - the world's pickiest eater!! We couldn't believe it.

What do you think? Any liver-eaters out there (from any kind of animal?)