Boo....and I mean it!

Halloween is here and in case you haven't looked out your windows in the past 72 hrs - our Halloween is a white one this year! tooooooo strange Fall leaves hanging on the trees with snow covering them is just absurd.
Around our house we   We went to the Shippensburg Halloween Parade last Saturday (a nice parade that has expanded from 20 mins the last time I went a few years ago to 1 1/2 hrs!) Maddy of course marched in the parade as an 80s chick while twirling her flag

Did trunk-or-treat at our church on Wednesday (decorate your car trunk, park it in the church parking lot, pass out candy to the kids as they walk from car to car)

No trick or treating for us tonight - maybe just a bag of popcorn and the three of us curled up on the couch watching a scary movie!!

I leave you with an excerpt I am reading to my kindergarteners from a Junie B. Jones book called Boo.....and I mean it! (Junie B. is one of the funniest kids I know so even if you aren't familiar with her books I know you will get a chuckle out of the 5 secrets of Halloween)

5 Scary Secrets that Paulie Allen Puffer told me by Junie B. Jones

1. Real monsters and witches go trick or treating on Halloween. Only they don't even wear costumes. On account of everybody thinks they are already dressed up. BUT THEY'RE NOT! THEY ARE WEARING THEIR REAL ACTUAL FACE AND CLOTHES!

2. Do not carve pointy, sharp teeth into your pumpkin. Or else it will roll into your room while you are sleeping and eat your feet.

3. Bats like to land on your head and live in your hair.

4. Black witch cats can claw you into shreddle

5. Candy corn isn't really corn.

1. 
   
2. 
   

A walk in the woods

A couple of weekends ago, our family along with my brotha Chad and our friends TJ, Devon, Hayleigh, & Hayden went for a hike over at Tumbling Run (part of Caledonia on Rt 233) It was so much fun but there were many challenging parts also. Due to all the rain, there was water laying and running through many parts of the path and where there usually in water it was much higher. The menfolk had to construct a bigger and sturdier bridge to even begin our hike up the mountain to the waterfall

course Hayden took the easy way across Chad's back (I took that route on the way back! haha)

We also brought Rocca along for some good ol' exercise and she loved it all :-)

Once we got up to the top of the water fall, the girls took their shoes & socks off and played - I can only imagine how cold their feet and the water was!

It was a great day hanging out with friends, exercising, enjoying a gorgeous fall day from God, and we even got non-outdoorsy girl Devon to like hiking ;-) cannot wait to do it again!

House Face Lift

During the hail damage storm, our house (like many) took a hit. An insurance appraiser confirmed the fact that our siding was covered with hundreds of little hits along with the window screens. A quick inspection of the roof showed no damage (darn, we could use the money to fix up our roof too!) A check was dispensed, deposited in our account, and there it sat. "What should we do with the insurance money? How can we get the most 'bang for our buck'?"
The rain storms of the late summer/early fall made up our minds for us because our roof had a leak in it on top of our dining room section of the house. No new siding - a roof had now become mandatory. Now, the fun began: we knew that when it was time to replace our roof, we were going with metal. The benefits? 50 yr guarantee, no maintenance, looks new and good always, no rusting, and the superficial reason: it looks cool & pretty! haha
Color? dark blue, avocado green, brick red, battleship gray, ooh the color choices
Our final decision - avocado green :-)
Our contractor (Jason Gamble, BTW here is my little sales pitch for him: AMAZING! He was committed to finishing our job the BEST way possible, efficient, friendly, honest, cost effective, took personal time to finish the job....we would recommend him to anyone & plan on hiring him again to help with other household projects we want to check off our "honey do" list)
No job is complete without a few roadblocks though. Ours? the rain! Jason estimated our roof would take 3 days from start to finish. Our roof took a lil over a week. He came on a Tuesday (with clear skies and a sunny forecast in the future) and the following day there was rain in the forecast for the next four days. Ooh, what a pain.
The finished product: SO worth it!

before

after

RIP Bay Leigh

It is hard to believe that less than 24 hrs ago I was writing about one dog's birthday and now I am writing about the other dog's death. This morning Bay Leigh (our chocolate lab) was hit and killed by a car.
Right now all our family feels is a hole in our hearts. We took off the day from school & work to grieve and bury her. Rocca has spent the day pacing back and forth trying to figure out where she is hiding I think.
Thank you to everyone who has sent their condolences and prayers. They mean the world :-) We lost one of the BEST dogs in the world today.

RIP Bay Leigh Dorito Eckenrode

10.20.09 to 10.04.11

(just shy of her 2nd birthday)

I am borrowing this from Jody's blog

(thanks girl)

The Rainbow Bridge
inspired by a Norse legend
By the edge of a woods, at the foot of a hill,
Is a lush, green meadow where time stands still.
Where the friends of man and woman do run,
When their time on earth is over and done.
For here, between this world and the next,
Is a place where each beloved creature finds rest.
On this golden land, they wait and they play,
Till the Rainbow Bridge they cross over one day.
No more do they suffer, in pain or in sadness,
For here they are whole, their lives filled with gladness.
Their limbs are restored, their health renewed,
Their bodies have healed, with strength imbued.
They romp through the grass, without even a care,
Until one day they start, and sniff at the air.
All ears prick forward, eyes dart front and back,
Then all of a sudden, one breaks from the pack.
For just at that instant, their eyes have met;
Together again, both person and pet.
So they run to each other, these friends from long past,
The time of their parting is over at last.
The sadness they felt while they were apart,
Has turned into joy once more in each heart.
They embrace with a love that will last forever,
And then, side-by-side, they cross over… together.

Happy Birthday Rocca

Today, our German Shepherd, Rocca Mocha Noelle Eckenrode turns 3 (that's 21 to her by the way). It is also her golden birthday (a lot of people actually does not know what this means. Your golden birthday is the year that your age matches the date on the calendar - i.e. today is the 3rd and Rocca is turning 3.)

It seems like just yesterday  we went to a childhood friend of Dan's to pick Rocca out from her litter mates and bring her home (techinally yesterday means the Tuesday before Thanksgiving of 2008). She came from a big litter (don't quote me but it was either 6 or 7 siblings) and picking her out was all on Dan's shoulders. It is one of his christmas presents for the year. We fell in love with her laid back nature, loving personality, and gorgeous coloring & markings (her mother has the normal coloring of a shepherd, but her father is pure black). Off to PetSmart we went to buy her dog food, a kennel, and any other puppy paraphernalia that we thought she would need.

Those first couple of days were crazy. Maddy and I were off for Thanksgiving break and my house turned into a hotel with my parents and siblings coming down to stay for the holiday.

Rocca soaked up the attention and love she could get and from the very beginning we knew she would live up to her breed of being one smart lil dog :-) She was housebroken within a few weeks and graduated "puppy kindergarten"

She has brought so much joy, love, and comfort to our home through the past 3 yrs. She is a lovey dovey, a guard dog, "the boss" and annoying big sister to our chocolate lab

I have no idea what we would do without her.