Uh Oh :-(

A classic, great night gone totally bad!
Somewhere between the hours of 1:30 to 9:30 (Dan thinks it happened more around 6-7) the humidity of our house combined with the cold water in our toilet tank caused a dramatic effect that my stepfather says he has only seen happen 3 times in the span of his 45 years of experience in plumbing!

the entire side of the tank CRACKED :-(

We came home to the sound of water spraying out somewhere. We run downstairs and see our ceiling "raining".....we run back up to the hallway and I almost fall over at the sight! Our hallway carpet is so soaked that when you walk on it, the water squishes up in between your toes, and there is about an inch of water on our bathroom floor :-( Dan took the car shammy to the hallway carpet while Maddy took a sponge to the bathroom floor til I ran down the road to Giant to rent a carpet shampooer to soak up the water out of the hallway carpet.

The next morning, we were at Lowes bright and early (in case you were wondering, they open up at 8 am on a Sunday morning) to get a brand new toilet (which was an adventure and a half! Dan made me sit on the floor model toilet to see how comfortable it was! hehe) I love my husband to pieces and am SO GRATEFUL that he was able to fix our toilet that very same day

But......the story doesnt stop there. Monday afternoon he comes home from the Memorial day parade in Ship to realize that he truly cannot stand the stinky smell of the hallway carpet so he rips it up!

(it is definitely a good thing that our house was built back in the 50s: an era where you put hardwood floors down then quickly covered them up with carpet to keep them looking nice. Our living room, hallway, and all three bedrooms have gorgeous hardwood floors)

But wait there's MORE....(haha)

Wednesdays my hubby currently has off of work (the shop is too slow and so office management has gone down to 4 day work weeks!) and so yesterday I come home from work to see two rolls of carpet laying on the garage floor. LOL He couldnt take it (only hardwood floors in the hallway) so he ripped out the carpet in the living room

Oh, I am SO in love!!

Maddy says "Now I don't know where Rocca is in the house when I am laying in bed!" (haha before you knew she was in the living room if you didn't hear her nails clicking on the hardwood of the bedroom floors)

What else did Dan have time to install last night while Maddy and I were @ youth group?

Our new ceiling fan from my Dad :-)



A great Friday evening

Last Friday, we got to have a sleepover with Gabe & Benny (Dan & my nephews) and we knew without a doubt that we were going to light up our firepit (like we had done the previous Friday night, when we had a BLAST with the Bolich family!) We are going to turn it into a Friday night tradition in our house this summer :-)
With dinner in our bellies, we head out to the background: Gabe and Ben are gun-hoe and ready to help Uncle Danny find small sticks in the yard to use as kindling to start the fire. Watching those three work together just warms my heart! It totally reminded me of this one time at the Eckenrode family cabin in West Virginia (Ben was prolly only like 3 or 4), and we were going to make a fire for s'mores. Ben asked in all seriousness says "Are womens allowed to make fire?" LMAO
The fire is ready for s'mores, Dan announces

 Gabe & Benny

 Benny & Maddy (she was suppose to be helping him hold the roasting stick cause he kept letting the marshmallow touch the wood and then lighting it on fire)

 Dan & Rocca

Maddy was like "Oh, Mom, quick, take my picture!"

 "Here Ben, try mine" (the marshmallow had been burnt)

this picture is seriously too cute and extremely accurate at displaying their personalities LOL

Then after the s'mores were roasted and eaten, it was time to play. The fire was forgotten for the time being and our backyard turned into a gymnasium of sorts

twirling Ben around with the greatest of ease

oops, forgot that Gabe weighs just a little bit more than Ben

I described this one as a FAIL! haha

he was walking up her legs then flipping over

After Maddy's arms felt like they were gonna fall out, they played this zombie game. Don't know the entire story, but the jist was Ben died of cancer, Maddy tried to bring him back to life but  it didn't work, so Gabe bit him and turned him into a zombie haha I simply adore their imaginations :-) Oh, and somehow Rocca was Maddy's secretary (I guarantee Maddy never got any of her phone messages! LOL)

The evening ended with a episode of Mythbusters, brushing teeth, and crawling into Maddy's bed for a good night's sleep :-)

Saturday morning, Ben and I made cookie bar brownies that had reese's peanut butter cups in the inside (thank you Pampered Chef for your brownie pan!) and Ben even cracked all the eggs we needed for the recipe! I was SUPER impressed :-)

I suppose the only down side to the entire adventure was now all three kids have poison from one of the trees in the backyard while playing Friday night even though they got showers immediately once they came inside. Ironically, Maddy told the two boys not to touch the pine trees cause their was poison on the trunks and yet, she has posion the worst out of the three of them! Go figure :-P

Leigh Valley wine tour

Yesterday was

• #1 a simply gorgeous day (weather wise)
• #2 a super fun day to spend with family and friends
• #3 the perfect setting to sip on some delicious wine that could only be found from a Leigh Valley vineyard

Here are the pictures that can be produced from 20 some people riding around in a school bus (yep, you read that right!) visiting four local wineries (Galen Glen, Vynecrest, Clover Hill, and Blair)

Mom & Tom at Galen Glen

 
 Chad's eyeball (through a wood knot)
 photography by Dan

 Kim, Aunt Debbie, & Joanie getting ready for our taste testing @ Vynecrest

(this place seriously has the most gorgeous ambience ever. The basement is used for live music on Saturday nights)

 Gregg, Uncle Mike, Pap, and Gram @ Vynecrest

 Chad and Dan (oh, the trouble these two get into! haha)

 Uncle Wayne & Aunt DelAnn, Aunt Kathy & Gregg, Uncle Mike & Aunt Susan
While we were @ Clover Hill, they set us up in a private taste testing room
We learned the 5 S's of wine tasting: Do you know them?

1. See
2. Sniff
3. Swirl
4. Sniff (again)
5. Sip

Jess & I could totally rock these wine bottle carriers as regular purses
haha
We would always be prepared, now wouldnt we? LOL



Let's take a ride

Home again in Tamaqua and it is a Friday night with time to kill. What shall we do? Well ride the Kubato of course!
Bless Tom & Mom for getting the Kubato and having the property to be able to let loose and ride around :-)

our faces are truly priceless

don't know why she is grabbing the "holy shit" bar! haha

testing out the head lights for a stroll around the yard with Chad