Wow, I've been MIA, haven't I?

It's been a busy summer by my standards. Let me tell you what's been happening!

Let's back up to August:

Last month, I took my lovely niece, Katlyn, her mother and best friend to Erie for our second annual girls' adventure. Last year I took hundreds of photos of the girls at the water park, amusement park and beach, but this year they proved that they learned from experience by hiding each time I got pointed the camera at them.

I was lucky to get a few photos so I could remember the trip:




And the hotel room:
With all the giggling that went on, I'd say they had a great time!

Mark took a few vacation days to head up to the river, relax a bit and work on extending the deck.

He got so much work done! In three days, he took this deck:
With all it's wonkiness...and worked this hard:
With Andy to help him:
And before you could say River Rat, it looked like this...Level, with all the spindles on the rail spaced evenly and all the same length! It looks wonderful and was just the spot for a Labor Day picnic! Hopefully, he'll get a few more days off so that he can get the rest of the roof on before we call it a summer.

We had a great Labor Day picnic this year...tons of food, people and laughter. We didn't let the rain get to us, we just kept having fun. The strangest part is that I spent a long weekend and did not take one single picture!

I know, I know, I assure you I was not sick. I just never thought about getting my camera out until it was over. Maybe I AM getting old!

After he got all but the roof done on the deck, Mark graciously offered to take me on a jet ski ride. I grabbed the point and shoot camera and jumped on! I managed to shap a few photos...

View looking forward...
I held the camera over my head so I could capture the view behind us...But if I leaned waaaaaaaaaaaa to the right, this is what I saw:~sigh~ I never get tired of that river...

BUT...every year, the Sunday after Labor day, our local pool has a doggie swim. Last year we took Bill,and discovered, he was not a swimmer, but he did make lots of friends:
This year Bill decided, when we got out of the van at the pool, that he would rather not go. Winnie, on the other hand, was thrilled...until they got to the water. That's when she started thinking she'd really rather not get into the water with all of THEM...

She's such a daddy's girl...so they sat down to have a little talk...They decided to go for a short jog...
Seems she told Tony that she was frightened of all the strange creatures like this curly haired giant...And thing one and thing two...She seemed to want to go where there was more water, less dogs, so they headed to the other end of the pool where she could practice some of those dives that she had seen on TV...

But even though it LOOKED deep enough...
A girl could still dream, right...So Winnie and her dad just chilled on the side of the pool...Oh Good Grief! Look at the time! Linda is sitting here, waiting for me to get the van loaded. She and I are going to the River for a few days! I'll post from there, though, and tell you about the rest of our month!

Ahhhhhhhhh, family!

I've gotten several email asking to see the finished results of our family photo shoot. Since Kristina was instructed to keep shooting, there were many, many photos taken that day. I thought I'd share the rejects first and our selections another day.

Any objections?

Great! Remember, you can 'biggerize' any of these by clicking on them...but then...why would you want to?

^Michael and his lovely bride, CatherineMichael!
Vicky, Kailyn, Andy
JR, Vicky
Vicky, Jamie
JR, Vicky, Michael
Oh my!
JR, Morgan
Tony, JR, Morgan
My mom...or Jane looking for Tarzan!
Tony, my mom, Andy, Michael
Vicky, JR, Tony, my mom, Michael and behind Michael is Andy
The girls...Leslie, Kailyn, Katlyn, me, Catherine, my mother, Morgan and Vicky
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, family!

Happy birthday Andy!

Yes, we have another birthday to celebrate. Twenty three years ago today, my middle son, Andrew, fulfilled many wishes: To celebrate with Mark the birth of his first child, to give poor Michael a brother, and to have a baby in the middle of the night! Michael and Vicky were both daytime babies...no excitement there.

So at 2:10 AM, weighing in at a respectable 9 pounds, 1 ounce, Baby Andrew appeared and we've celebrated ever since. I love you, Baby Andrew!

So...let the show begin...here are 23 of my most favorite photos of the birthday boy:


Andy's accomplice in the photo above is his cousin, Brian, who got married last Saturday!


651, kiddo!

Another wedding!

It's been rather slow and easy here at the House on the Hill, until Saturday, when my nephew Brian married the lovely Katie. I wish I had tons of photos to show, but I make it a practice not to photograph during the ceremony and at the reception, and then I had a camera meltdown (all operator error...Pentax still rules!)

I did, however, manage to get a few snaps before it decided to take a break:

Our girls...Kailyn and Morgan, who wore the guys out, dancing the night away!

Vicky and Jamie were there too!
But the big news of the night...
Guess who caught the garter and boquet???
Wow!

Happy Birthday, Baby Boy!

It's hard to believe, but 21 years ago today, we welcomed my third son into the world. At 9 pounds, 2 ounces, he was a beautiful addition to our family, well worth waiting for...

I'm speechless...I get all choked up just thinking about all those years...so here's 21 of my favorite photos of Tony, my baby boy!

So...where have I been?

Well, once upon a time, the Red Sock family had a perfectly lovely trailer on a tiny little lot at the river. They were so very happy.

Then one day, along comes...well, let's just call him the Kiski Monster. Now, Kiski Monster is not bad, in fact he's a lovely man who wants everyone to be happy, but seeing his face means you will either spend money or work hard.

The Kiski Monster (or KM) tells the Red Sock family that he knows of a perfectly lovely lot, huge in size, with a lovely trailer, a covered porch and a shed of questionable repute already on it. This lot can be had for the reasonable price of $$$$.00! Of course, when I heard spend, the thrifty gene kicked in and I kicked KM out!

Seven minutes later, we went to look at this palace.

Okay, not great, rather rustic, but it had LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION!

It also had a trailer that was OKAY, but clearly not as nice as the one we had. We just walked back to our happy little home on the river...but then, a voice in our head kept talking about all the fun we could have on the new lot...horse shoes, bad minton, picnics and huge camp fires!

My darling husband offered to begin negotions with the owner who clearly was not interested in enjoying all those family type activities. Within days, we agreed upon a price and formulated a plan.

In one fast and easy fell swoop, we could remove the trailer that was there, sell it and replace it with ours. Easy peasy.

Not so. After we exchanged dollars, and came to our senses, and talked to KM and others, we realized that we had to change things. The old trailer lay east-west on the lot, prohibiting anyone from rushing in, hitching it up and pulling it to higher ground in the event of a flood. We were advised to turn the trailer north south.

"Easy", they told us. "Just get Mr. Backhoe to come and move things around."

We arranged for Mr. Backhoe (Mr. B) to come and work with us the following Saturday.

Surely you remember that Saturday. The one where it rained not only cats and dogs, but cats and Mastiffs? By time I got there, they had not only pulled the old porch into the proper orientation, but had yanked the old trailer away and backed our trailer into aproximate position,but it looked as though they were having a porch party! Actually, they were waiting for the rain to subside...

I jumped out of my van, looking all gorgeous and stepped into the mud that once was a wonderful yard waiting for the arrival of our precious children and their volley ball net...The sight of that evil, lot consuming mud encoraching on my French pedicure caused me to swoon...the whole world started spinning...But a cup of coffee soon put my world right again...or as right as it gets when you are looking for your wonderful yard and this is what you see:
When I see men in rain coats...or worse, men in red plastic ponchos...
I always feel like something wierd is going to happen...like having your husband eaten by a back hoe...


Or your sons looking like this:
Then, finally, things were in place...except for...well, we had to dig trenches for new sewer lines. Hubby, bring the industrious man he is, hires Mr. B to do a little more work:
And of course, we had to employ quality control!
And fill all those supervisory positions!

Finally, everything was in place, all the holes were filled...but look...
at my yard! What to do? What to do?

Of course, by then we were out of weekend, so when the next Saturday proved to be sunny and warm...here comes...
Yes, it's Mark and Andy, along with...
Right! You are so smart, it's a rototiller! Now for those of you who have heard the story about a rented rototiller nearly taking Mark down the street years ago, rest assured...this one was not nearly as big, and we had Andy to keep him under control.

With the rototiller, they were able to make...
You heard of crop circles? We had crop lines! After tilling and raking and planting and tamping...all that needed to be done was...
Watching the grass grow!!

Does that answer your questions?

Take me out to the ball game!

One of the things I got for my birthday were baseball tickets and dinner. I don't love baseball, I don't even really like baseball or understand it, but I love to go to PNC park and watch people, boats on the river and even baseball, if I get a chance.

If you aren't from around here, PNC park was built in 2001 (I think) on the shore of the Allegheny River. It reminds me of a huge little league field (with much better concession stands) and the view of the Pittsburgh skyline is magnificent!

Tony and Morgan went with us...and we decided to eat at the ball park...There were so many things to choose from. Tony got his favorite sandwich from the famous Primanti Brothers (that's coleslaw in there!)...And pickles!

We had great seats! The view was ... well, look at it!
No, that's not an ugly guy, that's a Pirate! Sheesh!

Now, baseball in Pittsburgh comes with many traditions (no, not winning), like the hot dog shoot, where the Pirate Parrot shoots hot dogs at the crowd...


And of course, the perogi race...

Now I'm not really into perogi racing, but I'm thinking it was Patty Perogi that won tonight!As the sun went down...the city looked so pretty and the sky got wierd...And by time the game was over...this is what we saw...
We lost, it was a late night, but I'm thinkin' that birthdays ain't half bad! Now I'm ready to hit the sack!

Come back tomorrow to see just how red necked my guys are...and help me solve the mystery of how Bill gets through the gate!

Sweet dreams,
Love,
Janet