Trials and Tribulations

5 hours roundtrip

2010-10-18T19:55:00.001-04:00

Yep that’s what we drove to go surprise Rhino’s girlfriend that we are going to call Sassie. I wish we would of videotaped Christian surprising Sassie because I know we would of won the $100,000.00 grand prize. She was speechless, about hyperventilating, and then just threw herself in his arms. It was GREAT! Awww young love…. I don’t want to post a pic of Sassie until I talk to her mom, but yep here is Rhino with Sassie.

Teary eyed

2010-08-30T17:14:00.001-04:00

This baby right here is starting his Junior year of high school tomorrow!!! Where the heck did the time go? And why can’t I just have my Rescue Hero lovin’, Tonka truck playing, “nake” disliking, dirt playing boy back?!?

*sniff, sniff* I’m just going to wallow a little in the passenger seat as my little boy drives himself to work then maybe I’ll get ice cream to help me deal with Rhino being a JUNIOR!!

Busy growing up

2010-07-24T14:46:00.001-04:00

What has Rhino been up to these days:

working crazy hours, soccer practice, Civil War re-enactment, driving lessons, hanging with friends, bonfires, going to a baseball game with great-grandpa, word working with PD, scoping out girls, looking into colleges and SATs, going to the zoo with his momma, Aunt Mischie, DT, and Nick, AND trying to get some sleep in That’s what our growing boy has been doing!!!

A little play time

2010-06-30T07:08:00.000-04:00

Rhino has recovered nicely from his wisdom teeth surgery and has been working up a storm. We decided to head to town on Monday night down to the Cruise in at the Bay for some down/fun time.

It was great to get out and spend some time together, my dad {or better known as P.D.} came along too!

All 3 of us had a great time, looking, awing, drooling, and fantasying about all the wonderful vehicles there!

As you can tell there was a whole variety of vehicles. And of course there was quite a few of mine and Rhino’s favorites…….MUSTANGS!!

Chipmunk Phase

2010-06-29T18:42:00.001-04:00

Rhino was going thru a chipmunk phase last week. Really, Rhino just had all 4 of his wisdom teeth extracted last Monday! I promised I wouldn’t take any pictures of him at all, but what kind of mother would I have been to keep that promise……. ssshhhhh….Christian has NO clue that I got this one and only picture of him. Doesn’t he look all cute with those puffed up cheeks and the bunny ear ice packs?

And can I say, our oral surgeon Dr. Basile was astounding!! Not only did he keep apologizing to me when he was going over the instructions for the aftercare “because it is so much to handle all at once” and kept stating everything was written down and to feel free to call with any questions, but he personally called to check up on Christian the same night!! You just don’t get that kind of service anymore. Cudos to Dr. Basile, his entire office, and to Village Surgery Center too!

In the money!

2010-06-18T18:49:00.001-04:00

Hello everyone! Sorry for the long time no post but the Rhino household has been busy with the beginning of summer, end of Rhino’s Sophomore year of high school {which the grades weren’t as stellar as previous years}, beginning of Civil War re-enactment and *drum roll please* Rhino getting his first J-O-B!!

Yes Rhino has gotten a job with our local

Today was his actual first day on the job and he really didn’t do anything but sit and watch videos BUT hey he does that at home and doesn’t get paid for it so…….

Needless to say Rhino is learning to adjust his schedule for work time now. He’s going to be one busy child between working, soccer practice, still getting driving time in on his driver’s permit, Civil War, and just being a teenager. Choices are being made and sometimes it’s not the choices he would like BUT they choices that have to be…..guess he truly is growing up!

Spring Fun

2010-05-20T20:35:00.001-04:00

The weather is finally breaking around these parts so we headed out to the beach for some fun. As you can see “the boys” are at their usual best behavior.

We’ve had a few questions on how Rhino has been doing, post ankle surgery…..does this answer your questions?

Rhino is doing GREAT! and ready to get into soccer season {which starts June 16th}.

Embarrassing your teenage son 101

2010-05-18T20:33:00.001-04:00

We’ve always told Rhino that if he didn’t need at least 5 good years of psychological help when he grows up, we failed him as parents!!

Tonight has been one of the funniest nights in the Rhino household and it all boils down to….mom embarrassing kid *insert evil laugh here*

If you happen to see the Rhino, ask him about the Sweet 16 party, Facebook, cell phone numbers, and Juniors.

Yep this child is in for soo much psychological help the psychiatrist will be weeping with joy over the dollar amounts he’ll receive. Luckily for Rhino, I do medical billing for psychiatric patients….I’ll give him a few hints on what to say! *insert evil laugh again*

Because He asked!

2010-04-03T11:00:00.000-04:00

Yes dear family/friends, Rhino asked for me to take some photos of him. So I seized the moment like it was a gold ring and jumped right to it.

This is one of my favorites and a typical “rhino” pose

Looks like he’s getting ready to charge

No he doesn’t smile much….I think it’s genetic because this is what I do and what my dad does too!

a smirk, I love it!

riding the rapids, LOL

Update on the Rhino

2010-04-02T16:31:00.001-04:00

Rhino is doing wonderfully. We saw Dr. G today for the last time and had an appointment with PT Bob 2 days ago and they both have given him the go ahead to do full activity. WOOOOO HOOOOOO! And Christian seized that opportunity to start back into soccer. He’s helping out with training/conditioning the 7th/8th grade team. I don’t know who has the biggest smile on their face me when I see him come off the soccer field or Christian when he’s playing.

Other news, report card time is right around the corner {oh the joys in all the evil things that I can think of doing for bad grades…..now it can be…NO DRIVING…MUHAHAHHA!} and Rhino was sweating his Trig grade but at the last minute he pulled a 98% on his Trig test which boosted his grade tremendously. Very proud of him for that one!

Speaking of driving, Rhino is also getting his time driving behind the wheel in. He’s still nervous in traffic and won’t get on the thru way yet but heck he’s only had his permit for 2 weeks. At least he hasn’t run onto any sidewalks yet, LOL!

Birthday Boy!

2010-03-19T21:27:00.001-04:00

Well our little boy has turned 16! Rhino had a great multiple fun filled birthday days. His actual birthday was last Thursday. He had a 1/2 day of school so I picked him up from school and we headed in to town so Rhino could take is driver’s license permit. He was so nervous {heck I was nervous for him} but guess what…. yea! he passed and with flying colors too!

Rhino also had Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday off of school to so the partying continued! Friday night Christian spent it with friends having a bonfire and getting his driving hours in. Saturday we spent most of the day/evening with the group from Civil War Re-enactment playing putt-putt and having dinner. Sunday was filled with family! We haven’t had a family birthday party for Christian since he was 1! It was great spending time with the family and the greatest thing….everyone that was in the room when Rhino was born was there also to help him celebrate his 16th!

I can’t believe that my baby boy is 16 and is driving. Who would of ever thought all those years ago during the multiple sleepless nights I would pray to have those back.

Let March begin!!

2010-02-28T20:19:00.001-05:00

March is going to hold quite a few exciting moments in Rhino’s life this year!

Of course the first being he turns SIXTEEN!!!! The day that Rhino has been dreaming of since he hit the big two digits {ya know 10}. This is when he will be also getting a job {flipping burgers here he comes!}, being able to go out on dates without the parents around {I don’t want to know…..really I don’t want to know!}, having more freedom, and on the slippery slide to adulthood {why can’t he just be 3 forever??}.

I know we say time and time again that we are truly blessed to have such a wonderful teenage Rhino but I sat back the other day to think about who all has been gifted into Rhino’s life and I can NOT believe the variety of people that Rhino has come to know. And every time I meet one of them, whether it’s a teenager to an elderly adult, each one has nothing but praise for Rhino. I ~~hope~~ pray Rhino realizes how gifted he is to have such an array of friends and to be seen for a great ~~child~~ almost adult.

Now if I can only make it thru the driving permit exam I think I will be able to ~~survive~~ ~~manage~~ pout my way thru the rest of his high school years!

16 before Sixteen!!!

2010-02-22T19:14:00.001-05:00

Yes ladies and gentlemen there is only sixteen days left before Rhino turns the big 1-6!!

How am I surviving, to be honest with you, it’s a bunch of up/down moments. I minute I’m completely fine, dreaming of all the errands I’ll be able to send Rhino on and then the next minute….WHAM!!…I could ball my eyes out because my baby is turning 16. The hubby, of course, just keeps telling me to cut the apron strings, LOL! {maybe it’ll effect him once Rhino asks for the motorcycle keys…MUAHAHAHA!}

Stay tuned to hear all about “the big” day, well actually it’ll be a 4 day event around here with time off of school {yes they have a mini-vacation the weekend of Rhino’s bday}, a party with the Civil War re-enactment gang, a dinner out, and to top everything off a big party with the family {we haven’t had a family party since Rhino’s 1st bday!}. Of course pictures are to be bountiful and hopefully embarrassing too!

{here’s a picture of Rhino, the eldest great-grandchild, with his great-grandparents and the other 3 great-grandchildren. Yes, there is a big age gap between the eldest to the youngest almost 15 1/2 years!}

So in the words of a mother who’s baby is about to turn 16…..”someone please pass me the bottle of wine!!!”.

How do you spell Ham?

2010-02-12T15:07:00.001-05:00

Yes dear people how do you spell Ham, like the food you eat that comes from a piggie?

Well our growing, almost 16 year old, honor sophomore student, ankle healing nicely, starting to run and exercise, right now out sled riding Rhino son spells it…..

HAMB!

Crazy child was reading the “options for supper” list the other night and on it was written “hamb” short for hamburgers and as I have my head in the chest freezer this is the conversation that ensued:

R: “mom, ham sounds good for dinner”

M: “Bud we don’t have any ham”

R: “it’s on the list”

M: “must of been from weeks ago and I forgot to cross it off *then brain starts to activate*. Christian we haven’t had ham in forever!”

R: “i’m telling you it’s on the list”

M: *now I’m getting frustrated and the light dings* “Christian are you reading h-a-m-b?”

R: “yea ham!”

M: *laughing now hysterically* “Bud that’s short for hamburgers! How the heck to you spell ham?”

R: “H-A-M”

M: *giving one of those looks “DUH!!!! Oh boy my honor student can really spell”

R: “i’m not going to live this down am I?” *now he’s laughing too*

M: “no boy you’re not. This is a story to be blogged about and to be told to your children and wife someday!” MUAHAHAHA!

So yes people the education is not what it’s cracked up to be now-a-days and ham is now spelled H-A-M-B!!

Remember CHD

2010-02-02T20:47:00.001-05:00

Please remember that February is CHD awareness month! Pass the word around and for information feel free to go here.

We’ve been blessed with Christian’s VSD and we know that we are one of the lucky families, some are not so lucky!

Thanks again for all your love and support

Pictures by Rhino

2010-01-10T14:53:00.001-05:00

The Rhino household has been trying to keep warm in the frozen, snow covered NW PA area. It’s been snowing almost continuously since right before Christmas….UGH!!

There’s not much news to report other than Christian had a follow-up appointment with the famous Dr. G on Friday. The drive down was quite interesting as another snow storm was coming in! The normal drive takes about 45 minutes each way, on Friday it took as almost an hour and half!! to just get down to Dr. G’s office. It was worth it though, as Dr. G has released Christian to go back to sports “as tolerated”. She still doesn’t want him jumping or any high impact onto his ankle but it looks like we are in the home stretch here!!

Also Christian has been counting down the days till his 16th birthday in March {I think he started counting the day after his 15th birthday to be realistic..LOL}. We’ve been trying to think of e~~mbarrassing~~ thrilling ways to celebrate the Rhino’s birthday….oh forget it you KNOW there will be some embarrassing parts in there too!! Any and all suggestions are welcomed.

I’m proud to say Christian is also looking into some colleges and we’ll be going to see a few locally in the next couple of months too. He’s getting into a lot of different things now and one of them is photography {I might of had a little bit of influence on that..LOL!}. Rhino took these pictures during our Friday snowy trip. It’s great to see your child develop interests in all matters of things! Maybe someday “Robo Rhino” will be known throughout the world!…HEHE!

A year in review, Rhino style

2010-01-01T11:43:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year 2010 to everyone! We hope that 2010 brings lots of joy, good health and memorable times for you all.

I always take a minute on New Years day to reflect on the last 365 {maybe because I’m busy putting all the new year “stuff” on the calendar}. Anyhoodle, 2009 was an interesting one to say the least. Rhino started it off rocking away! Goofing off as a teenage Rhino should be doing and dreaming about turning 16 {which is only 69 days away….YIKES!!!)

We also as parents had the privilege to pull some pranks and surprise on our amazing 15 year old son. Remember this…. Surprising Rhino with tickets to go see his favorite MLS soccer team! Christian also got involved with Civil War Re-enactment in 2009 and spent almost the entire summer away from his ~~wonderful~~, ~~loving~~, annoying parents {this gave us a good glimpse of how things will be when he heads off to college…ugh!}. Which lead to a trip down to Penn State Main campus and seeing Rhino walk around the campus dreaming of being a PSUer, eating at Baby’s, and enjoying spending mom and dad’s money on anything that is PSU {hmmm Creamery}!

Rhino also started his Sophomore year of High School. With lots of friends, a few girlfriends, and hopefully grades that will continue to shine! Soccer season started out with a bang! New coach, new beginnings and well ended up with a new ankle, LOL! Who could forget having a lame Rhino around, his right ankle operated on by the wonderful Dr. G, the extra bone removed and physical therapy {which Christian still continues at this time} with PT Bob. 2009 ended up with a trip to Gettysburg during Thanksgiving with the Eggie Family {the first time that Rhino was away from home during a holiday} and time spent with family and friends, a few cousins, lots of Aunts and Uncles and Rhino being the first born Great Grandchild to our family being blessed with the newest Great Grandchild being born the day before Thanksgiving. That would give Nana and Papa a total of 7 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren {and I expect a few more to come!!}

Who knows what 2010 has to hold for the Rhino, but I do know one thing. We’ve been blessed with a wonderful, caring, loving, understanding, co-operate boy turning into a man son that anyone would love to call their own!

A Rhino Household Christmas

2009-12-26T21:25:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas to all! We hope that Santa and his elves blessed you all with family time, love and warmth and a few gifts thrown it wouldn’t of hurt either, lol.

The Rhino household had a merry Christmas this year, being blessed with a healthy son and family galore {a few friends thrown in too!}.

This year with Christian was another one for the books. As he has gotten older, we as parents are finding it harder to shop for the Rhino {of course no Rescue Heroes again this year or Tonka trucks!!}. This year his list consisted of CDs {about 20 in all} and really nothing else. So yep you guess it, Rhino was blessed with some music this year. Christian was also blessed with some very precious memories passed down by his Great Grandpa Frank {or Papa as we call him!}. Christian received 2 books from Papa regarding Papa’s time served in the Army during WWII.

And last but not least, we were all blessed with some family time! Gathering with both of the families is always a good time to be had and we are truly grateful for all the love, cheer, and laughter that we can experience with them because you never know when it will be the last. And that we did, cherish our family gatherings, as you can see here.

Run, Run as Fast You Can!

2009-12-22T21:56:00.001-05:00

Yes that’s right the Rhino has been given official RUNNING notice tonight. We just got home about an hour ago from a session with PT Bob and he gave Christian the go ahead to start running. YEA!!!! Rhino can even do the elliptical, treadmill, and the stair stepper. In words of Rhino “I can finally get my legs back”. So hopefully he’ll be doing more of this…..

and less and less of this………

In fact it’s a bet to see if Rhino will go running tomorrow and on his first day of Christmas break even…hmmm….my guess is NOT!

That’s ok, because little does he know that mom is going to start some boot camp PT of her own here in the house. Maybe I’ll give Rhino a RUN FOR ~~HIS~~ MY MONEY once spring hits {and then maybe not, lol!}.

Are you ready?

2009-12-20T15:22:00.001-05:00

Well the tree is up, cookies have been baked {and eaten I might add}, Christmas shopping is DONE and the presents are wrapped….all is in the holiday groove in the Rhino household.

Rhino still has PT 2 times a week. Some have been asking why Christian is still in PT….well simple answer is, he had major surgery on his ankle {a bone removed and LOTS of nerves re-routed} and literally has to learn to re-balance himself and in a way walk all over again. His foot moves now in ways that it never did before so hence his whole body has to learn to adjust to the movement. He’s just now getting to the point that he can put some impact on it, like jogging. Running is still out of the question and so is jumping but his ankle is getting stronger and his demeanor is great. The biggest fear right now, since we have been blessed with snow is that he takes a tumble on the slippery ice and does damage or breaks something BUT that is not going to happen so……

In other news Rhino made a trip to Gettysburg for Thanksgiving with the Eggie Family. It was an opportunity that presented itself and literally couldn’t of been passed up so, Christian left Thanksgiving day and returned the following Monday. Our first Holiday without the kid and boy it just didn’t seem right but I guess it’s a preparation for when he moves up and onward huh?

Really other than the holiday parties, school winding down for Christmas break, and preparing for Rhino’s up and coming 16th birthday {um that’s all I hear about now is how many more days till the big 1-6!}, the Rhino household has been running as normal {and the running part isn’t an exaggeration!}

We hope you all have a blessed Christmas {or whatever holiday you may celebrate!} and a healthy, fun filled 2010!!

Robo Rhino to the…..

2009-11-22T20:44:00.001-05:00

Extinction! Yes Robo Rhino no longer exists!! WOOT WOOT!

Christian had another follow up appointment with Dr. G on Friday and he decided to walk in with out his boot on since PT Bob has been doing wonders with him. Dr. G was impressed with the improvement and the status of Rhino’s ankle so NO MORE BOOT! Robo Rhino has now grown up like a big little boy and gets to wear sneakers…hehehe!

I can’t say enough about the wonders that PT Bob has done with Christian. Rhino is bicycling, doing leg presses and a pretty good weight, and even got to get on the treadmill on Thursday…not at a run or even a fast walk but none-the-less the treadmill!

It’s going so well infact that today Rhino was able to do this for the first time in months!!!!!

Yes that’s with his RT ankle, the ankle that only 6 weeks ago had surgery on! Afterwards Christian had a HUGE smile on his face and stated “Oh mom that felt so good!”. Now he didn’t go all out and yes he did feel some pain afterwards but it was wonderful to see him smiling and loving life again! Wait till PT Bob hears about this.

Exhausted, triumphant, and just a little wacky!

2009-11-22T20:30:00.001-05:00

Well life in the Rhino household is hectic as always, hence the reason for being M.I.A. recently.

As most of you know Rhino has been going to physical therapy 2 to 3 times a week. Each time is a minimum of a 1 1/2 hour long session, sometimes almost 2 hours {this is not to mention the 1/2 hour drive in and the 1/2 hour drive back}. This makes for a very long day for the Rhino and his mom too! Normal day around here is like this {well 6 of the 7 that is}:

6 am wake-up shower and get ready for work/school
7:15 am drop Rhino off to school, I head to work
2:30 p.m. pick Rhino up from school, drop him off at the house and I head back to work to finish out my day {Rhino would normally be a walker and well since the surgery….}
4:15 p.m. done with work day head home to change clothes a fast as possible and either A) head off to the second job or B) grab the Rhino and head off for PT
Either running into town to do PT for the next two hours plus or work until 9:30 p.m.
End back up at home anywhere from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. and finish up what I didn’t get done the rest of day
11:00 p.m. fall into bed into a stupor and get up and do it all over again the next day

Needless to say blogging has not been high on my priority of list of things to do BUT I can add some major accomplishments by the Rhino has been seen in the PT area which makes all of the above worth every crazy, hectic, pulling my hair out, there’s not enough hair dye in the world moment. Now if only someone could invent a coffee implant….I’d be buying stock in that!!

Rehabilitating the Rhino

2009-11-22T20:15:00.001-05:00

**side note this was suppose to post November 10th**

I am sitting in rehab blogging away while Rhino is getting worked on. This is our third rehab appointment and what a phenomenal difference PT Bob has made in Christian’s ankle. Christian was able to finally get a sock on his foot yesterday for the first time..WOOT WOOT! He’s not limping as bad and just moments ago actually got a sneaker on his foot to go get on the bicycle to go do some more PT {Rhino just walked in and stated “a mile under five minutes!”}. What a difference the PT has even made in Christian’s morale too! Oh I see good things for Christian’s ankle, his soccer future, heck his future period end!

On the Mend and the End

2009-10-28T20:58:00.001-04:00

I know nasty right? Well Rhino is on the mend. The appointment with Dr. G went well on Tuesday. Steri strips came off, and the stitches are starting to dissolve. Rhino is still in the boot, still on crutches but is now allowed to apply some weight to his ankle which makes some things easier. {yea for being able to stand up in the shower now and for not having to bag his foot for mentioned shower!} So hence he still is Robo Rhino just not in full force! Christian has his first rehab appointment on Tuesday…we’ll see how much pain he is in after that. Dr. G’s plans of action is to get him completely off the crutches in one month and hopefully into a real {big boy} shoe in that time frame too.

On another side note, tonight was the last soccer game of the season! It was cold {high 40 degrees} and rainy and very heart wrenching to watch. I love all the players like they were my own and this year was the greatest. The new coach really made a difference with the team, they’ve grown tremendously and we are all very proud of them!!! I will miss the 6 seniors and wish them luck {hopefully they will come back to see us in the stands sometime and for pizza too!}. Godspeed and only 8 months till practice begins again WOOT WOOT!

Robo Rhino

2009-10-25T20:45:00.001-04:00

Thank you Suzie for inspiring us with Christian’s new nickname….ROBO RHINO!

Christian is doing O.K. at this point. As you can see he got his walking boot on but is still non weight bearing. He now has become a master at the crutches and has even demonstrated that he can dance with them {ask him to moon walk for you sometime on the crutches!!}. His days are long and he’s quite tired by the time he gets home from school. He’s having trouble sleeping due to the fact that he can’t get comfortable and once he does he rolls over and *strike* *gasp* hurts his ankle {he sleeps without the boot on, we tried with the boot on and that was even worse!}. We are coping!! Tuesday we go back to see Dr. G and if the plan still is in tact Christian should continue with the boot but be on off the crutches {glory be!!} and also start rehab for the next 4 months.

Stay tuned to see if the invincible Robo Rhino saves the world of the grasps of the evil Doctor Anklebiter or if RR will be forever reduced to just a bunch of bolts and nuts…MUAHAHAHA! {ok yes I have completely lost it….no sleep does that to a person!!}

One legged Rhino

2009-10-12T21:33:00.001-04:00

Yes the Rhino is down to one leg and doing quite well on his crutches if I do say so myself. He’s even mastered a way of going up and down our stairs on his own (we live in a two story house!) but he does technically sit on his arse for most of it..hehehe!

Christian is doing great, so great in fact that we let him go to the soccer game tonight and be with the team {this really boosted his spirits and it was a joy to watch all the team mates come across the field yelling at him!}.

The nerve block did wonders for the pain (as to be expected!) and completely worn off on Saturday {even though Christian started to wiggle his toes on Friday} and he’s only had to take a couple pain pills so far. We go back to see Dr G. tomorrow to get the splint off and see how things look, at this time it’s expect that Christian will get his walking boot on but to still be non weight bearing for 2 more weeks, then he will start rehab for 3 to 4 months. I’ll be happy when he can just put some weight on it and I’m not popping up every two seconds to get something or “hey mom can you?” or “mom do you mind?” or “MOOOOOOM?” but you know what….as long as Christian is health I’ll take all those “MOOOOMS!” forever!

He’ll be heading back to school on Wednesday too {WOOT WOOT!}. I think our couch could you the break and I know my laptop is screaming from all the teenage activity on it {I profusely apologized to it tonight!! and I apologize if I randomly start typing dude, sweet, cool, IDK, huh….I think those words on stuck on here…UGH!}

Thanks again for all your wonderful thoughts and prayers! You all are amazing!

And Dude, I’ll try to keep you update but ya know I’m like busy and IDK with everything going on with my sweet life and all, well ya get my drift….oh sorry see it’s that dang teenage lingo taking over the laptop, LOL!

Just a little bone removal

2009-10-08T14:40:00.001-04:00

Today was the day of Christian’s surgery! Everything went well, it’s been a long day already and it’s only 2:30 p.m. Christian right now is resting on the couch, feeling a little restless and out of sorts but I’ll take that {ask me in another day or two and I’ll probably have changed my mind}. Thanks again to all of our wonderful family and friends for the continuous thoughts and prayers.

Last game

2009-10-04T22:26:00.001-04:00

Well Christian’s surgery will happen on Thursday *deep breathe in and exhale*!

This past week, Christian had his last two soccer games of the season that he would be able to play in. It was very nostalgic for me and for Rhino. Monday’s game was played in 40 mph winds, low 50 degree temps and pouring down rain (gotta LOVE being a soccer mom!), Rhino only saw about 5 minutes of playing time that night {the coaches have been pretty caution with Christian’s ankle} and Wednesday’s game, well the wind was better, we had no rain but let’s just say the temperature around these parts is heading downward…UGH! Christian got to see lots more playing time on Wednesday and played his little heart out BUT paid for it in the end with lots of pain!

Let’s just say even though you’re really never prepared for surgery…..we’re ready for surgery at this point.

Thanks to all of our family that has come out to watch Rhino play this short season and to see him do his re-enactment too (yes, he is now done with that also because of the surgery and will miss a major event at the end of this month that he was desperately wanting to go to!). I ask that you keep Christian in your thoughts and prayers over the next four months as he endures a new adventure in his life…..a new ankle, learning to walk again with rehabilitation, and the struggles of missing school during his sophomore year

Hopefully next soccer season he’ll be doing less of this…..

What has the Rhino been up to you ask?

2009-09-20T18:22:00.001-04:00

Well the answer would be….what hasn’t he been up to!

Of course school is back into full swing and Rhino has a full class load this semester so that’s been keeping him busy. We’re learning French together…hahaha. It’s comical in the household with Christian learning French and trying to teach his old mother, needless to say he hasn’t asked the teacher how to say some of the words that I REALLY want to know how to say (guess maybe he’s afraid to get kicked out of the class?).

Second, soccer season is full blown! Unfortunately with Rhino’s ankle he’s not seeing to much field time…alot of riding the pine time…not too much play action. But that’s ok, hopefully the upcoming surgery will make him stronger for next season and an added bonus to the team!

Third he’s still doing the Civil War Reenactment, infact as I type Rhino is on his way back from a weekend long event (which will be his last again due to his ankle surgery). He had a living history day locally last weekend that I had the absolute pleasure in sticking around for. One of the best days of my life and it was great to see Rhino smiling, enjoying himself, joking with the Pirates and all around having a good time!!

And fourth but of course not least Rhino is just being a teenager. Driving us nuts with some attitude at times, texting away like crazy, counting down the days till he’s 16 (a lot of his friends have been turning the big 1-6 the last couple weeks!) and enjoying LIFE as he knows it!! We continue to be amazed at all the wonderful things in life Christian has brought to us (even though there are times you just really want to sell him to the highest bidder or ship him off to a boot camp!!), we know we are truly blessed with our teenage rhino!!!

Will the REAL rhino please stand up!

2009-09-07T14:45:00.001-04:00

Just thought we’d show you truly the REAL rhino.

Not to be confused with the “fake” Rhino.

But I can truly see where you can be confused! The similarities are quite stunning, aren’t they? I mean they both have a face only a mother could love!

And well this mother loves her teenage Rhino beyond words.

October is the date

2009-09-04T12:54:00.001-04:00

Moments ago I got off the phone with Dr. G’s office. Rhino’s ankle surgery has been moved up to Thursday, October 8th.

Guess he can go trick-or-treating this year as a Rhino that got him by a safari truck…lol!

Thanks to everyone for all your positive thoughts and prayers…keep them coming if you don’t mind. The next 4 months will be a long road ahead!

Part Duo!

2009-09-02T22:15:00.001-04:00

Just when I ~~thought~~ dreamed that we had everything under control health/medical wise in the Rhino household….whammo!

Let me back up a minute, as previously mentioned Christian and I headed off to see the sub ortho specialists about his ankle, Dr. G this past Friday. She’s WONDERFUL! Rhino feels sooo comfortable with her and sure enough he needs surgery. We scheduled everything that day for November 30th, so Rhino could continue to play thru soccer season and re-enactment etc, etc (this was per request of Rhino!).

Now today I pick the beast up from soccer practice to see him limping off the field, he crawls up into the vehicle to kindly state…”mom could we please move my surgery up because I’m in so much pain that I can’t play, so it’s either I’m in so much pain that I can’t play or have surgery and not be able to play. Either way I’m not playing!”. I could just see the pain in his eyes and the disappointment. So needless to say, I’ll be on the phone with Dr. G’s office tomorrow to see what can be done!

In other Rhino news…….there’s a Rhinoette (we’ll call her J) roaming around the savannah these days! Yes, Christian has a girlfriend. And I believe this one is his first real puppy love…the words “this means alot to me” was spoken and he has a different demeanor about him with Rhinoette. I’ve yet to meet J, and she lives in another school district, actually another state away but is only about 1/2 hour drive. We’ll see how this pans out, specially with everything else going on in Rhino’s life. But I guess if she can handle being thrown into a pond by Rhino and dished it back out at him, J’s gotten one point from me already!

Big Heart

2009-08-27T20:39:00.001-04:00

Well the results are in from all of Christian’s cardiology testing. I came home from work yesterday to a message on the answering machine from Dr. B’s office stating he wanted to see us ASAP, my heart dropped, I got on the phone right away but the office was closed…UGH! I called first thing this morning and got an appointment for noon time (Rhino was at soccer practice all morning long!).

The news is…..no news! Yep, really no news, which is good right? All the tests came back great, no damage to Christian’s heart, all blood flow is flowing, no blockages, the only thing that Dr. B did find was that Rhino’s main chamber of his heart is SLIGHTLY enlarged, only slightly he kept emphasizing. And really this is to be expected due to his heart working harder due to Christian having the hole, yada, yada, yada (this would not cause any of the problems that Rhino has been experiencing either!). So where does that leave us? Right where we are today….watching everything, taking life with each breathe at a time, day by day.

So we keep plugging along down the great path of Rhino’s life.

Enjoy your life Christian with each and every breathe that you take! Don’t take anything for granted for you blink and it could all disappear! Stay strong, play hard, live harder!

I love you with everything that I am ~mom

New Beginnings

2009-08-25T21:01:00.001-04:00

“A New Beginning” that’s what the back of Rhino’s warm up soccer shirt says. And yeppers, that’s what this year has in store for Rhino a bunch of new beginnings.

First, tonight we got our new soccer sign for our front yard. New design, all new sign, and Rhino’s full name! Second, tonight was his first Sophomore season soccer game. He got to start on the JV squad….hoping this is a trend that continues!

Rhino also went thru his nuclear stress test today at our cardiologist office (he’s been having some issues with his heart lately that he’s never incurred). Everything went well as can be…he didn’t pass out, didn’t run into any unusual SVT (really high heart rate), etc, etc, etc. It’s now a wait and see for the rest of the test results….UGH! Could this lead to another new beginning? A beginning that we have been blessed enough not to have to endure….surgery, medications, and/or both. It’s been discussed also, with the cardiologists about pulling Rhino from sports again. At this point in the game (no pun intended there!) Rhino’s cardiologist feels that he is still safe enough to continue to play soccer. Rhino’s coaches have been informed of the situation and they monitor him as well. I sit in the stands at every game and monitor my son too. We’ve discussed as a family the probabilities of Rhino “crashing” on the soccer field and well…..we’re not going to stop him from something that he loves, that he finds joy in and quite frankly it’s like anything else in life….if we’d sit here and dwell on Rhino’s VSD and put him in a bubble he wouldn’t have a very productive life! That bubble would burst some day anyways and he would of missed out on a life……..

“What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

So it’s a new beginning all around in the Teenage Rhino household, one that is leading us down paths of unknown but sometimes those paths take you to the greatest adventures you’ll ever encounter!

Testing to the Limit

2009-08-23T13:48:00.001-04:00

All this week Rhino has some kind of medical testing to go thru.

To begin with, he’s been having some minor complications with his heart. At our annual EKG and Echo everything looked the same and we continue to say how blessed we are compared to other heart families, so maybe this is why it’s scarier, because we have been so blessed! (Now I’m not trying to take away from anyone else and I’m not trying to say that our situation is worse etc, etc so please don’t take it like that.) The cardiologist feels that there might be some underlying problems that aren’t showing up on the “normal” testing so off we go for some extensive testing BUT then again this just might be “growing pains”.

Secondly, as previously mentioned, we head off at the end of the week to see the sub specialists for Rhino’s ankle. She will be the one that will definitely tell us if/when surgery will ensue. Rhino and I had a nice long talk about impending surgery, what he would like, what I would like and technically what is. I’m ~~thinking~~ praying we are as prepared as can be. I even went to the high school the other day to speak with them as to what mayhems would incur there…..oh this could be a long winter. But as long as Christian remains as healthy as possible that’s what matters in the long run!! (and may I have a bottle of wine to get me through the long winter, lol!)

A Future Penn Stater

2009-08-14T09:24:00.001-04:00

If you see us walking around, walk into our ~~humbly~~ ~~hectic~~ messy household, or heck even speak to us, you know our family is Penn State fans ALL THE WAY! Christian has been wondering around Happy Valley (for those of you that don’t know that’s Main Campus, State College, PA) since the ripe old age of 2! We’d push him around in his stroller, bouncing him down the steps…his biggest thrill…feeding the squirrels the unshelled peanuts. They literally come right up and take them out of your hand because they are so use to people and they would run up one side of Christian’s stroller take the nut out of Christian’s chubby little hand and run right back down the other side of the stroller…I can still hear Christian’s childish laughter, unfortunately we were such young struggling parents…no camera to prove it!

(Christian’s old favorite PSU hat!)

(Christian’s new favorite PSU hat!)

Christian has grown up with no pressure from us (other than stating you CAN NOT go to Ohio State!!!!) wanting to go to Penn State. I’d love to see this happen. We try every year (recently most haven’t been successful) to go back for a visit and did just that yesterday. Memories flood back every time BUT this time it was so different. Christian is bigger, he’s the size of a college kid, he’s closer to BEING a college kid.

I stopped and watched my little boy walk those steps that we used to stroll him in and I started to cry, right there and then. Yep, the mom broke down like the biggest dork ever but it also made me realize thankful for what a wonderful child that I have!

Christian for whatever the future holds (again as long as it is NOT Ohio State, LOL) you’ve made us proud of who you are and who you maintain to be. Keep walking that right path down that narrow slippery road. And oh yea maybe there will always be some Creamery at the end for ya!

Only a mother could love this..

2009-08-13T22:01:00.001-04:00

Yes, that is my 15 year old son with HIS new FAVORITE Penn State Nittany Lion hat. We just got home from our trip down to PSU and we’re all exhausted, happily exhausted though but I ~~thought~~ knew I had to share this we you all first. More photos and the story to come later.

Not Lost Just Playing Opossum

2009-08-11T22:33:00.001-04:00

I know it’s been a long time since we’ve posted but as things here as normal as possible. Christian has been doing his civil war re-enactment about every other weekend plus having soccer practice 2 to 3 times a week. Soccer season doesn’t official start until next week and re-enactment will die down then so it’s all washing out. I don’t know if Christian is as excited for soccer season as I am…..I just can’t wait to get back on those fields and root for our boys!!!

In other words, soccer season just might not happen either. We just found out the Christian’s ankle that he previously injured isn’t “right” and we are more than likely (the orthopedic specialist is saying 100%) that he will be having surgery on it. We go see a sub-specialist that just specializes in foot and ankle orthopedics the end of this month and see if she confirms this! I’m hoping that we can talk her into letting him play out the season and then just to the surgery in October/November. At this point he can’t do any more harm to his ankle so…….

Well stay tuned to see if the Rhino gets to charge the field…….or just gets to play opossum (or ride the pine) like here during a recent re-enactment.

A Weekend with the Rhino…finally!

2009-07-19T15:29:00.001-04:00

We finally got to spend a whole weekend with Christian and not having anything that we HAD to do. We started our weekend on Thursday night with going down town for Roar on the Shore. Christian seemed to really enjoy himself and was talking about how he’d like to get his motorcycle license. Friday, after soccer practice, Christian and I just hung out for a while and did a little shopping for some soccer items that he needs for season and we just enjoyed being together. Off to work I went and the Rhino had the night time to spend with the dad and Papa Glen (they had a men’s night!).

Saturday we went off as a family to the annual Cherry Festival in North East and to the longest VFD parade in PA! Sorry to say this was the first year that Rhino wasn’t out there fighting for candy (or getting candy thrown at him!) like the rest of the kids…..guess this really does mean the kiddo has grown up…ugh!

The weekend was one for the books and even Rhino mentioned that it was nice to finally have time together. Guess being away from the parents so much lately made this weekend extra special for Rhino too!

Shackled by Pirates?

2009-07-14T20:12:00.001-04:00

Rhino had an interesting weekend to say the least. He got whipped by pirates for supposedly stealing their flag.

So being a thief he was shackled (the sign around his neck reads “Tic Tac Thief”)

and led among the crowd for over an hour for display and harassment then only to be SHOT to death (I’m being told he died well too!)

and of course then his comrades steal his shoes and socks and pick pocket him. But they did leave him with his pants on……lol!

and the best part of it all……………….he gets to do it again in two more weeks!

And if you get the opportunity to see the Lake Erie Pirates grab it by the horn and run with it. These group of individuals are GREAT!

Fireworks

2009-07-12T20:44:00.001-04:00

The Rhino had another Civil War Re-enactment this weekend closer to home (only a 45 minute drive this time!) and the bonus on top of it all was the Battery got to start the firework show on Friday night! WOOT WOOT!

You can see here the fireworks and the civil war era tents the guys use! So it was double bonus for the hubby and I to go and see the kiddo in action plus to see a firework show!

Rhino is home now, stuffing his face full of food and off to use the world of modern technology….for how long he will stay home well that’s a wonder unto its own. I’m thinking these days are preparing us for when Rhino leaves the nest for college. Yes I know we have 3 more years till then but I KNOW I will need those years to nicely ease myself into knowing my son won’t just be gone for a weekend, or a night at a friends house but for months on end….Argh.

Why’s this person calling me Mom?

2009-07-05T21:26:00.001-04:00

The Rhino has been an illusive beast this summer (as previously mentioned!).

Other than our family trip to Columbus we’ve hardly seen the lad for more than 24 hours here and there!

Now I know the feeling my parents must of went through when I hit my teenage years and was constantly on the go (or wanted to be constantly on the go!). Christian was invited to spend the weekend with Eggie and family at their camp over the 4th of July weekend and again he’ll be off for re-enactment on Thursday!

So truly who is this beast that walked into my house with a duffle bag FULL of dirty laundry….calling me mom ….demanding what was for dinner….and then marching off to the great wonders of modern technology?

Because my sweet little boy is still in the back yard playing with his Tonka trucks and Rescue Heroes while I’m drawing his bath water and getting ready to tuck him in for the night…….aw the memories!

A weekend at the Crew

2009-06-28T20:10:00.001-04:00

We’re back from our weekend in Columbus and one word describes it AWESOME! Christian and his buddy Matt had a blast and even learned quite a bit too in the process. Talk has begun about doing it again next year, maybe at a totally different stadium, who knows we might just travel to all the MLS stadiums!

I was completely amazed at the speed at which they play. It’s like watching lightening. In fact I had a hard time initially taking pictures and wasn’t quite sure if I could even get any good shots off….needless to say 150+ shots later I got a few good ones, lol!

It was great to sit in the stands (which we had great seats btw) and listen to Christian yell at the players and tell them what to do. I’m thinking the parents chalked up a major hit with this one and it’s a memory Christian will carry with him for a lifetime!

~danine

We’re packed…..

2009-06-26T21:36:00.001-04:00

Ok we’re all packed and ready to head out for the big trip to Columbus for the MLS (Major League Soccer) game tomorrow, Columbus Crew against New York Red Bulls. These are the tickets that we surprised Christian with for his birthday, remember this….

Well as I ~~speak~~ type Christian and his buddy Matt are out side practicing their ~~moves~~ skills and talking all about this trip.

I don’t know if I can handle 2 teenage boys, plus Ben for over a four hour road trip, I’m ~~thinking~~ knowing I’m going to need alot of chocolate!!

It’ll be nice though to finally spend some time with the Rhino. Since the beginning of May, we’ve hardly have seen the illusive beast. Between Civil War re-enactment, soccer, hanging out with friends, and he did a couple days stint house sitting with my mom for my aunt, we were beginning to wonder if we truly did have a child, lol. Awww the wonders of being a parent to a teenager, well at least he shows up every now and then AND we can always track him down by the little device that NEVER leaves a teenagers hand…….cell phone….LOL!!

Grease on the face never hurt anyone

2009-06-16T19:53:00.001-04:00

As promised, here are some pictures of Christian getting initiated into the Battery by getting his face swabbed. Good times, good times!

By the smile on his face, I’m thinking he didn’t mind it at all either, lol!

Thanks Capt Doug for doing the honors and thanks to the entire Battery for making our son feel right at home!

Fire at Night

2009-06-09T18:29:00.001-04:00

We received a picture from the battery with Christian (you can’t see him in the picture but hey the picture is AWESOME!) firing off the cannon at night (as mentioned in the post below). I’m ~~thinking~~ know I really missed something great! Just look at the blast….well it’s not really a blast but, you get what I mean!

Get to it Private!

2009-06-07T21:07:00.001-04:00

Christian just returned from his weekend long re-enactment event at John Brown’s Farm. Ben, my father and I made the trip down to see the kiddo in action on Saturday. It was neat to see the whole set-up of living in the Civil War era. Needless to say, Christian came back with lots of stories to tell…..including setting a tree on fire Saturday night due to the fact of shooting of the cannon at night and shooting steel wool at of it (the owner of the farm thought it was hilarious!), was sorry that I missed that!

Christian was also officially initiated into the Battery too! He got to shoot the cannon off two times today and got his face swabbed by the jamming stick (the rod they jam the shot down the cannon barrel). I’m being told pictures were taken so hopefully I can share them at some point.

Well Christian’s off on his own now a lot of the times and I think we’ve prepared him quite well for the big bad life ahead BUT no one has prepared me for life without my son around ~~~~ oh this is going to be sooooo much harder than I thought/dreamed!

~danine

Memorial Day Parade Civil War Style

2009-05-25T20:18:00.001-04:00

Today Christian had his official first duty with the Cushing’s/Taylor’s Battery. They marched in the Memorial Day Parade here in our local town. They marched through town to the cemetery to where they then honored all the soldiers by firing off their cannon 3 times!

It was AMAZING!! And Christian had the time of his life. He can’t wait again for their next event which is in two weeks, which will actually be a weekend long event for them.

Our boys is growing up….from playing with Tonka trucks to shooting off cannons…awwww making the parents proud!!!

Mother's Day

2009-05-10T19:19:00.002-04:00

Thank you Christian for being the best son a mother could ask for! Thank you for ALWAYS being there to help out (even when you were just a wee lad!). Thank you for cruising along with your old mother on shopping trips and giving your opinion on how something looks, even though I really know you extremely hate it (remember this is good practice for the girlfriend times and for when you get a wife someday, lol!). Thank you for allowing me to be your mother (even though I know it's tough at times to admit I am your mother!). Thank you for staying true to how you've been raised and the values set upon you, especially this day in age. Lastly......thank you Christian for listening. I love with you every being of myself. 143 always and forever!

Mom

Civil War anyone?

2009-05-02T08:15:00.006-04:00

Confederate or Union anyone?

Well just when I ~~thought~~ hoped that we would have more time freed up Christian came home the other weekend from spending time with a friend Eggie (no that's not his real name but that's what we like to call him) and ~~asked~~ begged if he could join in with Eggie and Eggie's family in doing Civil War reinacting.

See he'd been down at Eggie's house that weekend helping them getting the cannon ready for the season, shooting it off for the first time and they were nice enough to let C join in on the activities, so now C has the fever! Needless to say mom is ~~being nice enough~~ a sucker and just went down on Thursday to sign all the paper work and dish out the

registerstration fees. So C is now officially a member of Cushings'/Taylors' Battery!

At least we know how the Civil War turned out and now everyone will have some other pictures than soccer to look at, LOL!

~danine

Rhino Teeth

2009-04-23T19:02:00.004-04:00

***drum roll please****

A momentious day in the life of Christian today. He got his braces off, WOOT WOOT! No more metal mouth for him, no siree. (I tried getting pictures but Rhino becomes agitated when the camera appears, LOL!)

Yes he will have to wear a retainer for about a year but heck that sucker can come out (like when you're eating and playing soccer and when you want to smooch with a girl......ewwww I didn't just say that!).

Seriously though, C is enjoying freedom of the teeth tonight for the first time in about of year...tomorrow though I pick up the retainer and it's back to the grind but for tonight, I'll leave you in the words of the Rhino....

"I'm soooo going to enjoy eating cheese again!"

Psssst a little something is happening

2009-04-22T21:20:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow will be a big day for Rhino! Just a teaser to keep you all in suspense. Check back and see what lays ahead for big mouthed teenager.

Scheduling for tacos

2009-04-15T20:40:00.002-04:00

Christian came home with his schedule picks for his sophomore year in high school the other day. Of course, the parents have to approve and sign off of all the picks. Boy, high school isn't what it was back in my day (as the hubby would say they do write with pencils now and not on rocks!). Anywho, after much deliberation and talking with Christian, he's saw the light in working the booty off in the early years in high school so that senior year can be more relaxed (again that is if he's already been accepted to a college!).

The only thing that is still plaguing Christian's mind is what extra language to take. He has either Spanish or French to choose from or in his own words "it's either oui oui or *insert long pause here* taco". Yes people this is my honor student, LOL!

Racier side of Rhino

2009-04-05T16:03:00.006-04:00

Believe it or not there are other things than soccer that C loves to do (I know *gasp* right?, lol). My dad got him into slot car racing a few years back, since this was something that my dad enjoyed as a child. Needless to say they are now enjoying it together and it's actually peaked C's interest in another career, other than architecture......car design.

Bonus of all this is he loves to put the models together and re-design them, figure out how to piece the motor together and to paint the car too and without his knowledge he's using all those wonderful tools that's being taught to him in school (shssss, please don't tell it'll really spoil it)! Bonus 2, my dad and him get to spend some quality time together and about every Sunday during the winter season they pack up their gear and off they go to do their drag racing for the day. Bonus 3, I love to see the excitement in his eyes when he walks in the door after the day of racing and hear about their day!

Their racing season ended last Sunday and both my dad and C came home winners (but we already knew that!). Needless to say their pesky little brains are already planning for next season!

~danine

It's getting close to that time again

2009-03-27T08:52:00.002-04:00

Yes it's almost soccer season in the rhino household again *exhales deeply* (and I know you are all waiting on baited breathe for all the soccer pictures to come, LOL!). C is helping out the coach with the 7th and 8th grade team now so we're already back to running around, stinky soccer clothes, sore muscles and muddy cleats but it's not as demanding as his season when that starts in June. Which brings up another whole issue....Coach has put in his resignation sooooo this year will be a totally different story. So far 3 people have put in their applications and 2 out of the 3 would be wonderful, the third...ummm lets just say there"ll probably won't be a team if he gets the position. Keeping our fingers crossed!

This year we also have a new addition to the soccer season, which will hopefully help us all out in making it a smoothier season. *drum rolll please* We bought ourselves a SUV...yea! Now I'm an official soccer mom, even put the soccer clings on the window already and am loving every minute of it!!

~danine

A Wii of a 15th!

2009-03-11T21:19:00.005-04:00

First and foremost I want to thank all of our wonderful family, friends and bloggy friends that dropped a line to Christian and wished him a happy birthday. He was truly surprised by how many comments he received and well wishes. Thank you, thank you, thank you for making his birthday extra special!!

C had a wonderful day. I believe that birthday's should be national holidays and I've always tried to treat his as such (doesn't mean you have to spend a fortune, it's just the things that you do!).

We started his day off with a birthday breakfast and a couple small gifts. Off to school he went where he was showered with well wishes at school by friends and such. Next after school I treated him to "no chores for the day" (I'm thinking this was the biggest hit and could of saved me some cash but that was a lessoned learned for the ol' mom) and he just "chilled" till both myself and Ben got home from work. We then all went to C's choice of a local tavern for dinner with both sets of grandparents to come along for the ride and dinner. Dinner, a couple embarrassing moments, a couple more gifts and a ice cream cake topped with a number "5" candle (hey I keep saying I miss those Tonka days and C truly enjoyed it and stated "better than blowing out 15 of those suckers") later, the rhino household is winding down for a wonderful day. We got to surprise C with two great gifts this year (as you see by his expressions in the pictures!). One is for tickets to go see his favorite professional U.S. soccer team play in June and the other is actually a family gift but is the Wii. We've already created our players and have been Wiiing it up tonight!

Excuse us now as I still try to comprehend the my baby is 15 and kicking my butt at Wii boxing but I did prevail in the shooting game so maybe that's a lesson he should take to bed with him!!

~danine

Happy 15th Birthday!!

2009-03-11T07:38:00.003-04:00

Christian is 15 today!! It's soo hard to imagine that 15 years ago he came into our lives. He's brought us alot of joy (alot of sleepless nights too!!) and we are completely amazed at what a wonderful young man he is turning into. We are so proud of you C!

Here's just a couple quick shots of the birthday boys breakfast! Stay tuned for all the other surprises that entail today! And please leave your comments today and/or memories for "the rhino".

~danine

It's happening!

2009-03-06T15:20:00.002-05:00

I'm no longer the number one, uno numero, big cheese, head hauncho female in C's life. It's official..*drum roll please*...C's got his first girlfriend, *sigh*.

Her name is Becca. She's 15 and goes to a neighboring school (which in itself is becoming a complication. thank goodness for unlimited texting!). I've yet to meet the young lady, which whom shall never hurt my little boy's heart if she knows what's good for her, lol!! But I have seen pictures on her and have asked questions and I can say for the most part I do approve.

Now it's time to start devising all the incredible ways that I can embarrass my son to no end, for what else is a good mother for right?

~danine

10 more days till 15!

2009-03-01T18:41:00.004-05:00

Yikes! The countdown has begun in the rhino household till Rhino's 15th birthday! The shopping has begun (and ended), of course we can't disclose any information on what goodies we have instore for the Rhino since he just might stumble upon here himself (ahhh the parents are still sneakier than the child!). I can say that the ONLY gift Rhino has asked for was a new soccer key chain and he's already received that and is infact using that as we speak (yes, Mom can be an ol' softie).

It's hard to believe that our baby is turning 15, when we are selves can remember our own 15th birthdays. Stay tuned for what surprises we have entailed for the Rhino and muuuahhh what embarrassing acts we can create for him during school (oh I can see the psychiatric bill just racking up for him in his adulthood years, LOL!)

~danine

We're still here!

2009-02-23T18:31:00.002-05:00

Just a quick note. No we didn't fall off the face of blog. C has been down and out for the last two weeks with pneumonia and I was trying to just keep up with everyday life with taking care of him, worrying abou him and lack of sleep.

Thanks to everyone for asking and also worry about him too! This week is the first week that he's finally back to normal (well as normal as he's going to get having Ben and myself as parents, lol!). Infact him and Ben just did alittle tussling in the kitchen here a couple minutes ago, *sigh* ah all is right in the rhino household.

I promise to update more of the weekend as more time allows and more interesting news entails!

P.S. the countdown to the Rhino's 15th birthday has begun!

~danine

CHD

2009-02-06T12:36:00.002-05:00

Take a minute and check out this blog I stumbled upon. It'll put some prespective into the heart defect that C was diagnosised with at 6 months of age (VSD). Again we've ALWAYS said we're BLESSED beyond belief and if you want a hole in your heart you want it like C's.

National CHD awareness week is next starts Saturday, February 7th through February 14th.

C has blessed me by coming into my life, this next week, I'll take his presence in my life with even more extra blessing.

~danine

Driving days....sooner than we think

2009-02-01T20:33:00.004-05:00

Ben, C and myself headed out to the autoshow on Saturday to take a look at what they had to offer and for just something to get out and do. All 3 of us enjoy cars so it wasn't much of a chore, lol. It was mostly newer vehicles but there were some sweet looking old cars there too, to our delight!

As any almost 15 year old, C is anxiously awaiting for the time that he can get his permit and driver's license. He's also (like his mother) dreaming of owning and driving a Mustang. We both dearly love the 60's style and our dream car is the first year made of the Mustangs....64 1/2..oh baby!! But we wouldn't turn down a nice 65, 66, 67, or 68 either, lol!

It's great to see that the car manufactures are getting back to the "old" style also (ie: the Mustang and Charger). As we were walking around, C came across a newer Mustang..price on the windshield...$18,999.00. Conversation entails:

C: "*some grumbling, wining, going into convulsions* Sweet, mom look"

Me: "Yes, I see. Go stand there and I'll take your picture with it"

C: "Mom it's only $18,000.00. Come on mom, it gets great gas mileage and drives great (now we just got dump on AGAIN with snow!!)"

Me: "C if you go find one of the Ford dealer guys and make a deal with them for $12,000.00 flat, with taxes, title, fees out the door and mom will buy that for you" (now C's eyes are about bugging out of his head and then *ding light bulb goes off*)

C: "Mom your killing me here, just killing me! Can't a boy dream mom, seriously?"

Me: "Yes C a boy can dream but there's no way in heck that my son is going to own a brand new Mustang before his momma is!"

Throughout the Years

2009-01-30T13:45:00.000-05:00

I've been working on a project for my grandparents 60+ wedding anniversary and I've been coming across alot of older pictures of Christian. Oh the memories, tears, smiles, and laughter have been flooding back this last week!

To how the nurses kept calling him "so small" when he was born (7 lbs 12 oz didn't seem small to be me!) because all the other babies in the nursery were 10 lbs plus, infact the baby boy right next to C was a 13 lber...yikes! To how my dad had named him "Mr. Magnet" because everyone was always coming up to him and stating how cute he was. His imagination was endless (guess that's from being an only child, growing up in the country around nothing but adults), always playing with imaginary friends, Matt. To wanting to be an Architect and go to Penn State from the time he was 3 years old and it's still holding true at the age of 14 and the facination with trucks and cars! From dump trucks, to backhoes, to yes even the garbage truck. And yet even into the teenage years, as parents, we've always commented to anyone who's asked that we've been blessed with a wonderful son, that we keep waiting for the roof to fall in on our heads...the wild times...it doesn't mean that Christian hasn't had his "Wilbur" moments, from the only time he ever wrote on anything but paper (and it was close to Christmas time and Santa got a picture of this!) to yes the "teenage rhino" moments where I truly wonder if I will make it out alive!

These next 3 1/2 years of high school will bring so many more memories let alone *sigh* marriage, grandkids (let's hope that's along time coming yet!!!!) and I'm so excited to have the opportunity to have these memories!

~danine

Rhino Wrestling

2009-01-17T16:26:00.005-05:00

I do have to say the time has come that Ben can no longer take C down. Infact, it's quite evident that C is learning to wrestle his way around Ben and do some damage of his own now and even to push Ben around (let's just face hon, you've gotten old like me...hehe!!).

As evidence entails, the ritual male bonding took place this morning in our kitchen as I was trying to herd the crew out the door for their haircuts and low and behold my boys (can you see I didn't say men...I said B-O-Y-S) get into a rumbling match. Needless to say a couple punches and "ouch's" in, I grabbed my trusty camera and started to document that C was getting some licks in on Ben....whoooo hooooo!!

I was so enthralled that C's day had FINALLY come (we all warned you Ben!) that I could of cared less if we were an hour late *gasp..what horror* to their appointment.

What's even funnier is all these years of Ben rough housing with C, C ended up turning the tables and learning all those tricks and using them right back at his 'ol dad today. As you can tell here........they're both going for the "grab the hood and pull over the face deal"....neither one succeeded though.

Since it seems like they got their wrestling moves down, now I'll see if I can get both of them to cook a meal, do laundry, clean the house AND bake me an apple pie.....I'd be in heaven! ~danine

Two Minor Miracles This Week

2009-01-11T21:46:00.003-05:00

Ok, so in our comfy little world two minor miracles took place this week. First C and I both signed up for a gym and personal trainer. I can't explain how excited I am. First that I am financially able to do this for C and myself and second that we are going to get in shape together. I'd set a goal last year to loose my weight before C graduated from high school, thinking that I wouldn't push myself and allow myself time to loose the allotted (ok huge) amount of weight that I want to do and maintain the weight loss (that's the kicker there...maintain!). C got into shape was soccer kicked his arse but unfortunately he put some of his weight back on after soccer season ended. Now, he can train for soccer season and hopefully this will help him in his goal to get his varsity letter this next year as a sophmore. I'll keep everyone update on our progress!

Second I am now a proud owner of my first pair of Nike sneakers! And to top even that my first new pair of sneakers in over 11 years...yes 11 years. As you can see even Cole the cat was into them. Mom's know, you spend money on everyone else but yourself, well I figured that with going to the gym, I REALLY needed a good pair of sneakers and since C's feet are now twice the size of mine I can't use any of his multiple pair. I'm so excited...you'd think I got diamonds!

~danine

I've been tagged....did I tag you?

2009-01-06T19:06:00.002-05:00

Well my lovely friend Suzie photo tagged me so here it is.

It's a picture of my grandfather (Papa), Rhino, and my dad (PD) at Christmas time at Papa's house. It's the three generations of men in my life that mean so much to me. I'm blessed to have them all still with me.

Now it's your turn, Lisa and Kelly and Ros to all be tagged. The rules are you go to your fourth picture folder and choose the fourth picture in that folder and post in with an explanation as to what it's about. Then you can tag someone else.

Have fun!

~danine

Ringing in the New Year

2009-01-01T20:34:00.005-05:00

The Rhino and I took some candid shots prior to him taking off to go ring in the New Year at a friends house. I couldn't resist being a goof ball here and you can absolutely tell that C LOVES his mother to death (actually I'm thinking he's wondering how fast he can book me into the psych ward at the local nursing home) This was the first time that C took off to spend the New Year away from us and just hang with friends (again reality check that our boy is growing up, *sigh, sniff, sniff*). Thank goodness for modern technology and we got to get out happy New Year wishes into each other via texting.

Ben and I, meanwhile stayed home and had a bunch of friends of for some poker, grown up drinks, and the ultimate....Rock Band time. All in tale, we all had a good time bringing in 2009!

Now only to wait and see what 2009 beholds!

~danine

Family Time at Christmas

2008-12-27T18:01:00.007-05:00

We all hope everyone had some special time with their family and friends during Christmas. Our last couple of days, certainly have been packed. Christmas Eve day both Ben and I had to work. Luckily enough both our jobs let us out earlier than our normal departing times (Ben got out earlier than me though...*phewy*).

Christmas Eve we headed over to Ben's parents house to have Christmas with them and his sister and her family. It's always a fun occassion at the in-laws and I'm truly blessed with wonderful in-laws. I've always said that I couldn't of married Ben if I didn't love his parents as much as I do.

Then Christmas day, the morning is spent here at the house with just Ben, myself and C (oh can't forget the kitties too!) opening gifts and having fun. By mid afternoon we are off to my parents house to have Christmas with them. And then early evening it's just a jaunt across my parents drive-way to my grandparents house to have Christmas with my whole family. It's always HECTIC there, but the kind of hectic that you love! Everyone jumbled around coming, going, talking all at once. Drinks being poured, food being consumed waaaay tooo much and laughter....always laughter. And my aunt Jo always making her faces or stuffing some kind of BIG spoon into her mouth....see for yourself here. Gotta love it when you can catch them in the act!!

Back to work on Friday for me at the second job....retail hell on the day after Christmas...everyone returning, using the gift cards, and complaining they didn't get what they wanted! Ben wonders why I can't get into the Holiday spirit like I used to. Working retail just sucks it right out of you....I thought it was just me but when you talk to everyone else they have the same exact thoughts. It's amazing how RUDE human beings have become, and how it's "all about me, me, me" anymore. Oh well, as long as I can still stay true to my values and we can raise C to good morals and values.....

Today ended the Christmas rounds of family at Ben's aunt and uncle's house for the annual post Christmas/New Years celebration. Lots of people (aunts, uncles, cousins...new babies this year too!) and again lots of food and the Christmas yankee gift swap that's always a good time (and maybe even a little payback time or two...hehe!).

~danine

Surprising a Rhino for Christmas

2008-12-27T17:17:00.009-05:00

We hope everyone had a blessed Christmas! Santa surely made his stop here quite wonderfully!

So two years ago we sent forth on trying to build a computer for C that would hopefully last him until his high school graduation (we got the computer free put had to pay for some upgrades etc...), well that poor little computer tried it's hardest but couldn't keep up with the technology and the growing that C did...hehe! So this year we pulled our resources together, got the grandparents involved and got C a new Dell computer (thank you Dell!!). It was so hard not to spill the beans as the weeks prior to Christmas C's computer kept giving him problems and you'd hear him working on a school project and say "dang it...stupid computer". Needless to say, now he's just been drooling!

The funniest thing and this backs up how appreciative C is, the new computer came with a new key board and C has been needing a new one of those too. Ben's also picking on C that he has "clacky fingers" because the keyboard is so loud and some of the keys don't work unless you really pound on them.

Well we wrapped the keyboard seperately and just gave that to him with all his gifts first (we really played it up and gave him all his gifts, opened all of ours gifts and made it seem like we were done before we pulled out the big guns....oh we are soooo dementing him) and he was more than appreciative of just a new keyboard. Not even expecting a whole new computer to go with it......makes a mom proud!!!

danine

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T09:38:00.003-05:00

Merry Christmas everyone! A little early wishes from us to all of you. We all hope Santa spreads his cheer (not the reindeer poop!).

with much love,
Ben, Danine, and Christian a.k.a. "the teenage rhino"

Don't forget......

2008-12-20T17:15:00.003-05:00

to check out my photography blog at

backtodanine.blogspot.com

OLD versus Young

2008-12-20T15:44:00.003-05:00

I've come to realize how OLD I really am compared to how young and tough C has become!

It was never a problem for me to wrestle with him and we've always truely wrestled, rough housed and I was able to toss C around. Well last night I started to rough house with C and to my dismay.....*gasp*...I couldn't budge the rhino! I can't pick him up anymore! I can't throw him off the coach! I can't bundle him up in a blanket like a pig! Now the rolls are reversed and he's kicking my arse, *sigh*.

The only advantage I have.....he's still severly ticklish everywhere and heck yea I'm going to use that every chance I get!

~danine

Ralph Waldo Emerson was dead on

2008-12-16T19:51:00.002-05:00

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Remember C, to be you. You've made us proud from 1st grade when you stuck up for Jenny by telling the other nasty little girls how mean they were to today spending time shopping for homeless children. Yes, you've had some "Wilbur" moments along the path but I'm very proud of you and my heart overflows.

143

Mom

What does Rhino do when it's cold outside?

2008-12-14T20:37:00.004-05:00

what else play video games!

(i like how both C and Ben are kicked back, feet propped up on the coffee table, the jar of candy between them.....aw what the life of the men in my household....spoiled rotten!!)

~danine

Season might be over but......

2008-12-12T16:27:00.002-05:00

that doesn't stop us!

Don't worry NASA it's only our house!

2008-12-12T16:10:00.014-05:00

Ben was at it again last night! Adding Frosty the inflatable (not a fake frosty but the "real" frosty) to the yard and MY NEW GIRAFFE!!!!!

I came home from work and was totally shocked to see a jolly jingle giraffe sitting at my back door all plugged in waiting for me to love him. I screamed like a little school girl went bouncing into the house to quiz C on it (I already knew him and my mother were up to being the little elves!) the second thought immediately was "oh crap Ben is going to kill me and we have NO where to store this after Christmas". Oh well, I love giraffes and have never seen a Christmas giraffe before, maybe the little elf who delivered it will also allow for storage????

I can say our house this year isn't as bad as it normally is. I'm thinking as the hubby gets older NASA is safe from seeing that from the international space station...hehe!

~danine

The Christmas tree has sprung

2008-12-06T21:16:00.012-05:00

Well our Christmas tree has made it's arrival today. Ben and C dug it out of the shed and carried into the house and assembled it. Yes we have an artificial pre-lit tree.

Ben grew up with an artifical tree and I grew up with always have a real tree but since I'm allergic to evergreens and the allergy keeps getting worse as I get older, our household has an artificial tree (I must admit, I really like not having to climb under the tree to water it and not have to pick needles out of the carpeting for weeks on end!).

As you can tell, C got into his usual spirit and decorated himself up too! I can't even say he got into too much eggnog all I can say is.....that's my boy, lol!

Friday night Santa arrived in town here. This year, our little boro decided to start a kinda of winter festival. They had a little parade and tried to get the local business owners in on it. One of C's best buddies' mom owns a shop right down town and she got C and her son (we call him Eggie) to dress up in a snowman costume she designed and made herself. The boys had a blast! They ran around main street for about 3 hours entertaining the traffic and the kids, adults too (and by C's accounts I think him and Eggie had as much fun has the kiddies!!).

Unfortunately I had to work that night but I asked Ben to go down and take pictures. Here's one of C in the snowmen costume with Eggie and another one of his buddies. Rumor has it that C and Eggie have requested to do it again next year and have asked Eggie's mom to make a penguin or a gingerbread man costume also so they can both go at it together. God help the town next year!!

~danine

Hoping the roots stick!

2008-12-05T13:22:00.002-05:00

The world is a great mirror.

It reflects back to you what you are.

If you are loving,

If you are friendly,

If you are helpful,

The world will prove loving and friendly and helpful to you.

The world is what you are.

A wonderful co-worker and friend (thanks again Lisa, boy it's seems like you've been saving the day alot lately!) posted this on her blog and it really touched home. We've tried from day one to teach C to treat others how you'd want them to treat you, not judge the book by the cover, and all those wonderful things BUT as we all know no one is perfect and WE ALL have our down times. Again another lesson for C (and this one he's come to realize fully!) Karma comes around. I pray in the years to come that C can reflect back on these words, in tough times and in difficult times and keep to who he truly is, not who society, friends, family, his job, etc..want him to be.

Keep being you C, remember our talks and the promises made. Remember your roots and alot of times the bum on the street has more in life than the millionaire in the mansion. 143, mom.

~danine

Catching up

2008-12-03T20:15:00.003-05:00

Things in the household have calmed down in a sense. We're not running around as much since soccer season is done and 6 of the 7 days of the week are not taken up with soccer. I think C and I are both lost sometimes with having time to do whatever! Ben on the other hand, I think is happy that the home cooked meals are back and we're not scrambling for left overs and take out so much. I'm also thinking he's glad to have his wife back in the house hold (and the house back under control again) more often than not!

I'm still working the second job (note to remind myself to take a break during soccer season next year so my house doesn't explode!) and with the holiday season in full swing the mall hours are longer so hence my hours are longer but just think of all the male bonding time that C and Ben get to have (yea right, it's more along the lines of who can stink who out of the computer room with the farts!).

Snow and cold weather has settled in upon us, making me wonder why I still live here (I hate, hate snow). But I'm trying to get through it with getting back to photography and I also have a photo buddy too (thanks Lisa!). C has been over to a couple friends houses to hang out and sled ride, etc. Hopefully we all can make it up to Aunt JoJo's house for our annual sledding competition to see who can make it the furthest and to see if anyone can finally make it out into the horse pasture (I'll promise to take pictures!!).

School is still going well for C. The girlfriend is still illusive for him but there are some prospects in the future. He's become more confident and "adult like". I'm loving our conversations that we have. He's always been my best friend but now he's really my best friend!! You all might think it's funny but I'm trying to brace myself for the upcoming college days when he's not going to be around so much. It's not that I haven't cut the apron strings, it's that I truly LOVE spending time and talking about life, social, music, history, reality, THINGS with C. I love to hear his perspective on issues. I guess all I can say is thank goodness for unlimited "in calling" and free nights and weekends!!

~danine

Soccer Banquet

2008-11-24T20:09:00.013-05:00

Last night we attended our first soccer banquet. I can say I can't wait for next years and truly had a good time reminiscing about the season and watching the video they had put together. I'm already scheming in my little beady brain of the most embarrassing pictures I can given the soccer boosters for Christian's senior year....aww to be a parent, what joy!

Anywho, the kids enjoyed themselves and it was great to see all them together again!

~danine

Winter wonderland or in my case winter yuck!

2008-11-24T19:29:00.022-05:00

Well father winter has hit us here in lovely NW PA and hit us hard he did! Now our little town didn't get hit as hard as some others but being one that does not like the winter a 1/2 inch of snow makes my skin crawl. Yes, I know I live here (born and raised here too so I know what to expect) so suck it up and quit whining.

Well last Monday in the hopes of trying to find some winter spirit (and I have to say it was really lovely outside with all the heavy wet snow and it wasn't the normal bitter cold) I ventured out with camera in tow to take pictures. Here's some I thought I'd share.

This is usually how I feel about winter.....someone just shoot me, shoot me now!

One of the trees in our yard never looses it's leaves until the last minute! As you can tell, it's being weighted down heavily by the snow!

Here's one I couldn't resist trying to shoot. The church cross and clock through the snow covered tree limbs. I think it turned out pretty cool.

~danine

Veteran's Day...THANK YOU!

2008-11-11T11:45:00.004-05:00

From our family to every single veteran out there we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts everything that you've sacraficed to give us our freedom.

I grew up watching my Papa walk out every day to the flag pole in his yard, hang the American flag, host it up the flag pole and give it a salute. This from a man that fought hard in WWII, and doesn't talk at all about it (we've gotten a snippit from him in all of the 50+ years!). When we bought our house, we made sure that the flag that Papa and Nana bought for us was hung out everyday and every since one still hangs there!

I grew up with the deepest respect for our Veterans and the American flag, still have it, and my son was taught that same respect. So again THANK YOU for allowing me and my family to live!

~danine

A house full of teenagers...YIKES!

2008-11-09T15:44:00.006-05:00

I think I need a day at the spa...oh wait let me rephrase that....I need a day at the spa, any spa, I'm not going to be picky!

Seriously, C and a bunch of his friends have been hanging out on Saturday nights, doing the normal "teenager things", eating pizza, watching movies, etc. Well last Saturday after picking him up from one of the girls house, I mentioned to C that he could have everyone over here......WHAT WAS I THINKING??

I did really enjoy the night. They were a great group of teenagers...a little loud at times but hey there's worse things they can be than loud! It was a mix of boys and girls and they just all hung out, devoured pizza, watched 2 movies, played some cards and Guitar Hero.

I think our cats have recovered and Ben is grateful for is lack of hearing but I on the other hand have realized how SMALL our house really is....we definitely need a good 1,000 square feet added on or a sound proof room, lol.

~danine

Local History Burnt

2008-11-09T15:22:00.004-05:00

A local historic covered bridge was sent upon fire late Friday night/early Saturday morning due to arson. C got a text message from one of his friends with a picture of the Gudgeonville Bridge and letting us know. All I can say is we all were astounded and in shock!

Years ago another covered bridge, Carmen's bridge, was thought to have been set on fire by arson but after investigations, it was found out to be a lightening strike. It doesn't make it any easier but you can handle it better. Knowing that the Gudgeonville Bridge was done by arson is beyond words! Lets just hope that justice will be served.

The Gudgeonville Bridge is a piece of everyone that lives around here. As a teenager you grow up with hearing all the ghost stories, waiting your turn to be able to hang out there on Halloween night, and yes even put your name on the bridge. It's always been known to have been spray painted with kids names on the inside but no one ever touched the outside or wrote nasty comments while I was growing up but in the last couple years....unfortunately things have changed. Needless to say the Gudgeonville Bridge may no longer be structurally a bridge but it will always be in our hearts!

Here's a link to the local newspaper story, if your interested also.

~danine

Support for Friends

2008-11-07T13:16:00.002-05:00

A co-worker just lost her 24 year old son on Sunday unexpectedly. Needless to say it's a tragedy to all. I'm hearing there is a benefit being planned at our local comedy club Jr's Last Laugh on Thursday, November 13th to help Kay and her family pay for the funeral expenses.

If you can, please join us on Thursday. I can guarantee you'll have a good time and big bonus of helping out a very gracious family in the time being!

Thanks!!
~Danine

Where's Rhino?

2008-11-07T13:00:00.007-05:00

How can you hide a teenage rhino? By a huge pile of leaves!!

Ben and I were out raking the leaves in our yard last night for the billionth time (well Ben and C's done more than I have this year, I'll be truthful here!) and C decided to come and to come out and chat with us. Well about 3 minutes of being out with us, C states "I can't take it anymore I gotta jump into them". Glad to know that I haven't completely lost my little boy yet!

But then again it was tempting I couldn't resist either so............

Who say's you have to grow up?

~Danine

What do we do on a nice weekend?

2008-11-02T17:21:00.011-05:00

We couldn't of asked for a better weekend for the end of October/beginning of November here in Northwestern Pennsylvania. The last week as been bitter cold with snow (I hate, hate, hate SNOW!!) but by Friday the weather had warmed up for all the trick-or-treaters and the weekend was just beautiful. Yes, this is the usual array of the up's and down's of fall weather in NW PA, one minute your shoveling your driveway and the next your sunbathing.

Anyhoo, I talked the boys into go for a walk in the woods at our local boro park on Saturday. I grew up going there to swim in the creek, see baseball games, have taken C there from the time he was little to swim in the creek but I've never taken the time to walk the paths through the woods. Let alone I never knew most of them existed. We had a great time in our little jaunt, which we actually set out for to take more pictures of just C and I for my mother for Christmas because she will not like the ones of us in our PSU shirts (she's very hard to please so hopefully this will do the trick). I think we accomplished our goal as you can tell by these pictures!

C actually spotted this little waterfall from the path that we were walking on. We had make our way through the woods and prickers to get to this but way worth it! I'm thinking you'll be seeing more pictures from this spot!

As usual, the boys had a great time egging each other on and then ganging up on me the whole time we were in the woods too! We can't go anywhere anymore without being a "normal" family. But then again, I love every minute of it (well maybe not when C and Ben decided they want to see who can punch who the most in the stores.....argh!!) Speaking of normal, I talked Ben into posing for a few too at the waterfall BUT of course it had to be in our "normal" hubby and wifey way, lol, only us I swear!

On Sunday, C was off to do his slot car racing with P.D. (Papa Dan) for the day and Ben decided it was time to play Clark Griswald! You see, Ben LOVES Christmas and decorating for Christmas. He starts looking in September in the stores for the Christmas lights, decorations, etc. We finally had to set rules as to when officially the Christmas lights could come on (the day after Thanksgiving) because again living in NW PA, we decorate the outside with lights when hopefully it's a nicer day outside and our fingers aren't frozen together!! So hence today Ben became spidey and did the roof line to the house. I'm telling you, my electric bill goes up by at least $15.00 a month during Christmas season and I swear the international space station can see my house when it's all lit up. Ben actually admitted today (when he was buying more lights!) that he'd cover the entire house with lights if he knew he wouldn't blow the breakers and/or need to add another line of service (nothing of this was never mentioned in the whole "till death do you part" deal *sigh*)! So I apologize to anyone that's partially blinded while driving by our house during the holiday season but DO NOT take on the responsibility.....it's all due to the hubby getting elbowed in the head to many times while playing basketball...yea that's it!

~Danine

Penn State.......ROOOAAR!

2008-10-27T19:57:00.004-04:00

Penn State kicked some O'crap State arse this weekend!! (Go Joe Pa, Go Joe Pa, Go Joe Pa!) In the meantime, I think our cats got alittle bit into the action, lol. Here's some candid shots I thought I'd pass along for fun.
The Nittany Lion (yes that's his name but we call him Nitters!). Hey when you're a PSU fan nothing is beyond being named Nittany!! C is lucky we didn't name him Nittany.Cole (the black cat) and Sundae girl going at it. For some unknown reason these two decided they wanted to spar. Don't get me wrong, our cats have their moments but never anything like this so I just had to grab the camera and get in on the action!
Why is it that I'm always doing laundry? (other than living with a teenage boy who was active in sports!) Cole has gotten into a habit now of jumping into the nice warm basket of freshly washed/dried clothes. This basked I just pulled from the dryer and was so full of clothes he was trying to wedge himself into the corner as much as possible....argh!!

Celebrating 1st!

2008-10-27T19:46:00.004-04:00

We got the pleasure to help our little cousin Madi Kay celebrate her 1st birthday this weekend! (her actual birthday is on Tuesday). She's the cutest little thing and looks soooo much like her mommy Kari, Aunt Nik (mommy's sister) and has her daddy's beautiful blue eyes, I'm thinking that Wil and Kar better start stock piling up the ammunition now!

Here's a picture of Papa (the eldest in our family) with his little great-granddaughter birthday girl Madi Kay (one of the youngest in our family)

Madi's gotten the squish the cake part all down! Her great-grandmother grammie Millie baked Madi her own 1st birthday cake so she could destroy one all by herself!

Here's Madi doing her impression of Pooh's "think, think, think". Frosting in the hair mom, makes the hair softer!

Soccer season has come to a close :(

2008-10-27T19:18:00.010-04:00

It's official soccer season has come to an end, boo! I can't begin to say how immensely I enjoyed being a soccer mom and traveling all over this year to all the games, even sitting through the sun, rain, and yes I'm going to say the 30 degree weather at the end was a bit much but hey I just kept adding those layers of clothes!

I can't wait for next year (and I know you all are sitting on pins and needles waiting for the next round of pics...hehe!). It's like each one of those boys becomes your own and even though Thursday was our last game, I already miss everyone of them!

(all 6 of the Senior boys Varsity soccer players at Senior night receiving their jackets!)

Senior night came and went and as posted before, C was excited for senior night for the chance to start because the announce the JV starters names BUT there was a hitch this year! The JV game never got played during Senior night. The girls soccer team needed that time slot to make up a game that had previously gotten cancelled. We were all bummed. I know C was quite disappointed, but we all know there's next year!

I can say though, that on our last game of the season C got to start (pictured here)! I was excited for him and loved to see that all his hard work had paid off. He got to play for almost all of this game.

We are so proud of you C by the dedication, hard work, sportsmanship and all around great team player you displayed during the year!! We couldn't of asked for a better teenagerhino soccer player! We love you!!

~ Mom and Dad

Fall Ball (with pics)

2008-10-27T19:00:00.003-04:00

Well the infamous Fall Ball has come and gone and we still DO NOT know who the mysterious two girls where/are that like C. Oh well, their loss because look at how deviously handsome he cleans up to be (do wish I could of gotten him in for a haircut before hand but hey......)

C had a good time as much reporting as I got out of him and by the sounds of things nothing "major" happened. There's talks in the works of a winter formal, yes formal, which means he would be wearing a tux!! I haven't seen him in a tux since our wedding day over 7 years ago. This one will definitely bring on the tears!! Guess I need to be stocking up on the Ben & Jerry's as we speak!

~Danine

Busy, busy little bees!

2008-10-22T21:04:00.002-04:00

The last two weeks have been even more busy than usual (yes that's humanly possible), but oh so much fun at the same time.

First off, Ben and I got to head down to Pittsburgh due to Ben doctors appointment early on a Monday morning. We decided just to head down on Sunday night and spend the night but, being as brilliant as we are (not really but hey it's wishful thinking at this age!) we decided to try and hook up with some old friends Ken and Jess, that we haven't seen in 7 years! Ben and Ken were housemates at PSU and Jess was friends with them all (actually Ken and Jess grew up together in Pittsburgh area). It was so wonderful to see Ken and Jess, and it was like old times again! We got to see their house, Eddie (their huge cat), we all went to the Pittsburgh Zoo, out to dinner at Chili's (which neither Ben or I have been there since PSU days!) and then the kicker....Jess took us all to a haunted house, that she has helped in the creation and knows the owners, and volunteers some of her time (it's a long complicated story, I don't have the time to go into it but just know that Jess is an amazing person!). Scarehouse is ranked the 5th best haunted house in America and I can tell you, I personally HATE haunted house but can't wait to go back to Scarehouse!! I do highly recommended buying advance tickets or even paying for the R.I.P. treatment (what we were lucky enough to be treated to!) once you get there! We got the honor of meeting the owners and some of the actors too and I can only say they are all AMAZING, kind, gracious and simply wonderful!!

We also got our family pictures taken FINALLY (another thing that hasn't been done in 8 years!) by a local photographer, Katie Mihalak (I'm not going to mention we went to high school together Katie or how old we are!). She was gracious enough to put up with my boys and I don't think we detered her from photography. If you know anyone looking for some pictures to be taken, give Katie a call, couldn't recommended anyone with more of a vision, God given talent, delightfulness, and over all great human being (let alone her prices are great!).

Plus being parents of the mighty teenage rhino, we've been running him around to miscellaneous events like the Fall Ball (more on that to come w/pictures!) and other sporting events. I did realize a new appreciation for my parents durning the Fall Ball though. The dance didn't end until 11 p.m. and as I was struggling to keep awake (any other night it wouldn't of been a problem you know) to make that 5 minute drive to the school to pick up the kiddo, light dawns upon me *ping*. My father used to have to keep his patootie up till all hours of night (and that was the only way I could go too because that was always the deal breaker "if your dad will pick you up"), drive 15 - 20 minutes over to the school (my high school with in a whole different town) to come and get my arse from whatever I asked my parents to let me do that night (ie: football game, dances, etc...). Needless to say, I just said a big thank you to my dad yesterday for all those miles and long nights he logged (I'm still not admitting the gray hair on his head or lack of hair is my fault though...I'm standing strong on that one..hehe!).

Lesson learned: you really are old because the music your teenager plays is too loud and you ask him to turn it down or your so old YOU have to blare it so YOU can hear it!

Soccer Pictures

2008-10-10T11:52:00.003-04:00

Just sharing some soccer picture of C from the last couple of games. Showing you all his improved skills, yo! (ok, I'm not kool enough for that lingo but I tried!) Hope you enjoy!

back pedaling to go after the opponent!

taking the ball down the field

not sure if he's trapping, juggling, or passing here

helping defend the goal (this was the game we traveled near Pittsburgh for!)

keeping the ball in play, trying to send it off

A VERY important lesson learned tonight

2008-10-09T21:44:00.003-04:00

Tonight, we as parents just moments ago taught C one of his most important life lessons..............how to toilet paper someone's house correctly!

Yeppers, we took C tonight to t.p. his grandparents (my in-laws) house. My father-in-laws 50th birthday is tomorrow (Happy Birthday Dad!!) and we had to make it as special as possible, and of course let the neighborhood know. Well actually he asked for it, when my in-laws did the same thing to our house months ago for the hubby's birthday so.......yea, karma sucks!

Needless to say, it was great to see C, running around tping the shrubs, running it through the door handle to the front door, and throwing the rolls up into the tree. I was quite impressed with his skills! Of course, when the first car came into sight he was ready to run for cover, but we had to explain to him that this t.p. mission was different, no duck and cover. We did ended up getting busted though by the neighbors when they arrived home (luckily they've lived next door to my in-laws forever so they understood!).

What a memorable night!! How many kids can say their parents took them on their first toilet papering experience? Gotta love it!

~Danine

It's all in the heart (even if there's a whole in it!)

2008-10-04T21:39:00.004-04:00

9th grade seems, so far, to be going wonderfully for C. He's enjoying all his classes, and for the most part he's taking all honors courses.

He finally made a break through on finding the key on helping him relax on his math tests......chewing gum! Yes, something as simple as chewing gum has made such a difference in his outlook on math tests and his grade!! If you all didn't know, since 5th grade, we've struggled with C freezing up on math tests (no other classes did he do this with, just math, and math is his best subject and has been in honors math!).

Other good news...C got to start in two JV games! We are soooo proud of him!! I can't express how far he has come. He knows he still has a way to go and to still keep working at earning a starting spot for each and every game. Right now a goal of his is to start for the last home game of the season because the JV starters get their names announced (they announce the starters for the Varsity team every game but not the JV team).

Who would of ever thought 14 years ago when he was diagnosised with his VSD, that C would be at this place in his life. It shows that even with a heart that was made imperfect, you can accomplish anything you strive for. As this is what I've tried telling C from day one, while he endured the testing (which will last the rest of his life), the annual doctor's appointments, the extra precautions to sickness, etc..., I explained to him that someday, somehow, all this that he's going through he will be able to help someone else. Whether it's to explain to someone what it's like to get an EKG. We know we've been blessed to this point in our lives and don't take it for granted. Now, C is blessing us with what a wonderful man he is growing into. Because no longer do I have my little boy, but I have a young teenage son on the brink of his adulthood and OH BOY, I can't wait for these next 3 years!

~Danine

Not forgotten....just waterlogged!

2008-10-03T11:45:00.002-04:00

I haven't forgotten my promise to keep up on the posting. Just the usual excuse. Monday, we traveled near Pittsburgh for a soccer game (it ended up being a 1 1/2 trip for us) so Tuesday we were suppose to get our family pictures done (muchly anticipated since it's been 8 years!!) but the weather didn't cooperate.

Last night was soccer (and rain, rain, rain!) again. I promise Sunday I will give you some interesting news and some more pictures! So on that account........I'm off to try and learn how to snorkle I'm thinking of inventing a new sport. Snorkling Soccer.

~Danine

Remembering the good 'ol days

2008-09-25T20:34:00.004-04:00

After dinner conversation lead to us talking, picking on each other as usual and this post......taking time to reflect and remember some of the good times (and ammunition/embarrassment for the girlfriend/wife times) from C's youth.

1. Playing in the mud constantly to the point of we strip him down to his skivies and hose him off outside before even putting him in the bathtub (ask us about naked baby boy beer sometime). I think the kid thought there was always a "pre-bath" until he reached the age of 6 - 7.

2. Playing blow the stop lights from red to green. Especially at the intersections of any street and Pennisula Drive. You locals all know how long those lights can be, poor kid would be light headed by the time he would finally blow it green and be soooo proud of himself. (oh we should be put in jail just for that child abuse right there!)

3. Ben telling the stories of the Lake Erie Monster. What is the LEM you ask? Well C was (still is) always interested in construction and at this particular time PennDOT was working on I-79. It was all torn up and C was chattering away about the different trucks (backhoes, dumpers, diggers, carla compactors and chewers....remember this is a 3 year old child describing the construction equipment) and Ben preceeds to tell C that LEM is the one that tears up the road not the chewer that C sees. Ben describes LEM as a dragon type animal (who can fly) with big teeth that comes and tears up the road at night only when we are all sleeping and C can't see him and LEM sleeps during the day in Lake Erie. But wait it gets better! Of all the questions that C kept battering Ben with..."Dad what does the LEM do with all the concrete he chews up?" (because of course no one else is working and the dump trucks are all sleeping!) Ben doesn't bat an eye and says "Well C, you know all those rocks out in the lake (jetties), those are the LEM poop". I about died from trying not to laugh and C well he thought it was all logical. So keep your eye open for the Lake Erie Monster and in our family he lives on!

4. "Nakes mom, nakes!" Running toward me as fast as his little legs could take him, partially covered in his precious mud and I'm thinking "oh crap, how can I be brave enough to deal with snakes and get them out of his mud pit". As I take my little boy's hand and he walks me to his mud pit so he can show me where the "nakes" are, to my great relief I find.........worms! I try to explain to C, that these little wiggly things are not snakes but worms but to no avail. Mom is dead wrong....they are "nakes". So I was supermom, got those bad "nakes" out of his precious mud pit and all was right is C's world again that day. To this day when I see a worm, those words echo in my head....."nakes, mom, nakes".

5. One of C's nicknames is Bear. His great-grandparents gave it too him but he also got it because as we were purchasing a car one day and finalizing the paperwork we had C with us. He wasn't much older than 7 months and the car salesmen were astonished by the size of his hands. Everyone in the whole place had to come and see him and the GM came over, picked his hand up and stated "look at the paws on this guy". So yeah, Bear fits and he's blessed to have gotten his hands from his great-grandfather S. and his great, great grandfather H, whom are both outstanding men.

6. We bought him from Wal-Mart and could exchange/return him anytime! Yes he believed this for a long time, till probably about the age of 7 - 8. One day as we were checking out at Wal-Mart I was joking around with C and stated that I could return him and get my money back. He was bright enough to state he didn't have a price tag on him, but I was quick enough to tell him that his bar code was behind his ear so he couldn't see it. Well with the help of a wonderful Wal-Mart employee that saw that laughter in all this, she held the hand scanner behind his ear and scanned something at the same time so he heard the "beep" sound and saw "his price" show up. The look on his face....priceless!

7. Rescue Heroes. These small sized plastic action figure heroes from Fischer Price (check out their website...but I warn you now they are addicting!) changed our world all because one Christmas, Ben and I picked up a truck that we had no clue what it was. Low and behold it was one of the Rescue Heroes truck, which led us to getting the action figures, which led traveling the tri-state area (yes I did just say that) looking for those precious action figures that our son loves to this day. Infact as we were doing spring cleaning and *gasp* I suggest that we donate the 4 HUGE tubs of Rescue Heroes to the children's ward of a local hospital or C's old pre-school, I got the look that I just killed his best friend, with the drop down jaw! I seriously thought C was going to break down and cry. How can a mom live with that.....so needless to say we came to an understanding that I store them until C gets his own apartment/house at which time all 4 HUGE tubs go with him (even if he has to sleep on top of them!).

8. Ben telling C he was born with a monkey tail! (oh this is still on going to this day!) One of those times when Ben and C are going at (just a couple years ago, infact), picking on each other and Ben pipes out that C was born with a monkey tail but we had it surgical removed when he was a baby because it was hard to put diapers on him with his tail. C being the smart one that he is, is bantering back with "well I don't have a stub". Ben "they took it completely off at your butt". C "I don't have a scar". Ben "Can you see your butt?". You see the look on C's face like "I really want to look at my butt now, but I can't, I know I can't see my butt, do I really have a scar, Oh my God I was born with a money tail!" The poor kid looks at me with this desperate, sad look on his face with one word echoing out of his mouth "Mom?".......I lost it, could not keep from laughing any longer, infact I'm surprised I didn't pee my pants. C takes one NASTY look at Ben, calls him a butthead and walks out of the room, while Ben and I continue to laugh our monkey tails off! (I'm assured C will need at least 5 years of psychological help for that one alone!)

~Danine

Oh the dreaded time has come.......

2008-09-24T11:15:00.003-04:00

As much as I am torn about this post, I'm excited too. My little boy is turning into a grown man...argh *sigh, sniff, sniff*.

He came home the other day talking about the Fall Ball (a dance at the high school in October) and how two mysterious (yes TWO!!) girls want him to go to the Ball because they like him yada, yada, yada. Oh I listened, I questioned, I even tried helping him find out who these two mysterious girls where (a mother needs to know which girls to beat down don't they?) but deep in my heart I truly thought C would blow this dance off like all the other ones. Oh no....he's truly looking forward to going to this dance (and yes he likes to dance and does a good job of it too!). Also girls are always asking to borrow his clothes now. Now being a female, I KNOW where that one comes from and where that leads......

Now I have to prepare myself for the inevitable....GIRLFRIEND! Even more I know I won't be C's number 1 female in his life anymore.

I'm thinking I need to get some advice from my mother-in-law on this one. How did she deal with me "taking away her son" and not kick me in my arse? (Now don't get me wrong I love my mother-in-law and she's great!) Better yet, my solution, me and C are going to play with his Tonka trucks and Rescue Heroes in the mud and go to the zoo and never think about girls AGAIN!

~Danine

Pictures as Promised

2008-09-21T21:01:00.001-04:00

Well as promised here are some pictures from the North East game that C did so well in.

He's No. 24 this year due to the fact that a Junior player already had his much convented No. 11 and of course wouldn't give it up (even though I told C to offer him some money....hey sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do). So instead on the day that uniforms are handed out I get a phone call at night at work from C to tell my what his number was (we'd all be talking about it, like doubling 11 to 22 or tripling it to 33). He preceeds to tell me it's 24. I was dumbfounded, why 24? That number was never brought up. When I asked him why, "Mom, it's your birthday". Needless to say, I teared up, spend the rest of the night on cloud nine at work and the girls at work think I have the most thoughtful son. I couldn't agree with them more!

Taking the ball down the field (some pretty cool red shoes too!).

Doing some fancy footworking to stop the opponent from taking the ball further.

You can see here that the NE player is grabbing C by the shoulder to try and take him down. Didn't happen!

Well the shoulder grab didn't work so we resort to the knee into the stomach. Sorry to say that didn't work either. Shocked that kid too, though C's response "Mom, it hurts more to get punched in the stomach when you've lost 25 lbs!".

~Danine

Soccer Season Buzz!

2008-09-18T08:24:00.004-04:00

Well we're fully into the soccer season now (hence the reason for such the lateness of the post). C has yet to start a JV game but he does start the second half, major improvement from last year!

There are some teams that don't even have a JV squad for some reasons or other and our coaches let our JV players chose if they want to go to the all Varsity games or not (home or away). Can I say, I'm so proud that C has chosen to be a part of the T-E-A-M no matter what and go (even sitting through down pouring rain!) just to be there, to learn, and most importantly to cheer on his team mates! Makes me proud to know that maybe we did instill some morals in him?

On another note....Tuesday game against North East (which has always been a great team and a difficult team to beat!) C did an amazing job! He blocked, saved the ball from going out of bounds a couple times and took the ball down the field. I know this doesn't sound like a lot, but he was a complete different player. The look in his eyes, his demeanor....it was THRILLING to watch. I barely got shots off of him because I was in awe of my son and smiling, shouting, and cheering. (pictures to come shortly). After the game, the coach called C in to his office and told C he was impressed with him and coach saw a major improvement in C. I asked C what changed, he's comment "Mom, I really wanted to win this one". The score you ask..... 1 - 1, we tied!

Well we're off again tonight for another round of soccer. I don't think the house knows who I am, the cats barely remember me, BUT Erie County soccer fields cringe from my cheering for our team, and I'm completely loving my life as a teenage rhino's soccer mom!

~Danine