Lily's first day of school

Well, one of life's milestones arrived at my doorstep on Wednesday. Lily had her first day of school. It went pretty well. There were no tears. No tantrums. No problems with enrollment.

I don't really think I'm an emotional person in public. But maybe with age I'm turning into one because when I saw her standing in line I thought about how this was the first day of many many to come. And in thinking that I, in turn, thought that someday would be her 'last day of school' and how I would look back on this 'first day' and be moved. Then I actually was sad. Almost to the point of tears. How embarrassing. I didn't want to be one of those mothers.

After school, Lily came home and was her usual stoic self. She briefly described her day in the 60 second drive to our house. They played on the playground, sat in a circle and someone introduced themselves to her. Despite her shyness, she was so very excited for the next day. Let's hope that enthusiasm keeps for another twelve years:)

Wednesday Thrift Store Find

I think I've mentioned how much I LOVE thrift store shopping. Here's my recent morning find. Brian's parents have a wooden marble chute from when they were kids. Lily and Molly love to play with it when we go to visit. So I wanted to get one for our house too. Living so close to Lancaster County you can find many for about $40 - $50. I had hoped to get one for Christmas or their birthday. Then today, I saw this at the Salvation Army. For....$1.99! No lie. I immediately put it in my cart and congratulated myself on another fine find!

Not too long ago I found this (below) toy at the Salvation Army for $1.99 as well! I don't know how much they go for brand new but it's heavy so I imagine A LOT! This toy is used almost everyday at our home. DEFINITELY worth the 2 bucks!

The sad, sad state of my ipod

For one reason or another I've been neglecting the upkeep of my ipod. About two years ago, someone broke into my car and stole my 30G. More valuable than the cost of the ipod was the cost of the thousands of songs which were irreplaceable simply because I could never have remembered each and every one. I was devastated.

Ever since then I haven't been so good at upkeeping my library. All my will power was lost (along with my wallet and XM radio). I don't think I've added a song since The Fray came up with their last album. But today I took a bath while listening to Snow Patrol's "Lightning Strikes" for the gazillionth time and decided it was time to climb back on the horse to better my ipod.

But I think I need your help. Here are a few songs I've had on my to do list:

Show Me What I'm Looking For- Carolina Liar
9 crimes- Damien Rice
Bitter Heart- Zee Avi
Falling Slowly- Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova
All We Are- Matt Nathanson
Can't Go Back Now- The Weepies
Light as a Feather- Jesse Harris
A Dustland Fairytale- The Killers
Funny the Way It Is- Dave Matthews Band
Falling Apart- Matt Nathanson
You Don't Know Me- Ben Folds Featuring Regina Spektor
You Never Get What You Deserve- Starsailor
Non Dairy Creamer- Third Eye Blind
Bruises- Chairlift

Judging from my previously mentioned favorites, does anyone have any suggestions that they think might make my ipod sing again?

Monday night is True Blood.

A while back we discovered that we were getting HBO and Cinemax for free. So for months the only channels we watched were 400-500. Then all of a sudden for no apparent reason (other than the fact that we weren't paying for them:) they were blocked. Ahhh! It was almost worse than if we never had them at all. The damage had already been done.

No. Thankfully we didn't immediately call the cable company and ask to start a subscription (which I suspect had been their plan all along) but I had gotten a taste of how good Sunday nights with HBO were. And a new vampire series "True Blood" had got me hooked. There aren't that many sci-fi shows that Brian will willingly watch without some added incentive. But True Blood had "sucked" him in too. So now, although we no longer get all day airings of Tropic Thunder, come Monday night (a full day after it airs) I put all the kids to bed, download True Blood off the internet and enjoy. Take that cable company!

Forget the pool.

Ever since we visited Maui I've had a love of waterfalls and natural swimming holes. As you might have guessed, Pennsylvania just doesn't compare. But if you look hard enough you can find pieces of Hawaii anywhere.

I wanted to go here this summer. I've been looking up swimming holes in the Pennsylvania region. Around Harrisburg we have about two or three lakes that I like to go to. But nothing like this:They're the natural waterslides at Ohiopyle state park in Western PA. So amazing!

If you know of any good ones in the PA, Maryland, NJ region let me know! The stranger the better.

I can't believe it's almost over.

If you've checked my other site you'll see I've come back after some time off. I can't explain now but in the meantime I thought I'd share some snippets of our soon-to-be-over summer that I wanted to share. (top to bottom) picking strawberries at Strites Orchard, Molly's second birthday, swimming at Lake Gretna, Lily's 5th birthday cake, mini golfing and riding the train at Knobels. See ya soon!