You may be wondering

why I have those boats on my new header. I forgot to mention this in an earlier blog. But those boats are actually Skip Jacks, a boat used for oystering in Maryland. My father loves them and so do I, we worked really hard together on a report about them for my 5th grade social studies class. Still one of my greatest papers to date ;) We even attended the annual Skip Jack races as research! And we have gone on numerous Skip Jack cruises together with Capt. Jackie Russell. The fall always reminds me of Skip Jacks and my father. It's a little piece of Maryland and of dad, I miss so much.

Gator Country Round 2

Joe with the owner of Gator Country holding a big snake

My brother-in-law John, the alligator hunter!

Allie saying "What in the hell"

She LOVED swinging at the playgound there!

Biggest snake I had ever seen!

Joe and Julie feeling the snake

He is so nuts!

Joe in heaven!

Julie, she refused to hold it last week, she has made progress!

Me, taking a turn!

RenaNONSENSE!

So we went to the Renaissance Festival today and well we weren't to impressed! I had went to the one in Maryland numerous times and let's just say the one in Maryland is more "proper". This was a skankier form of the Renaissance Festival I remember. We didn't see much Renaissance, we saw alot of goth, fairies, elves, monsters...literally, thongs bikinis (not making this up) and witches but not much Renaissance. It was more along the lines of a freak fest but there is some fun in that also! We spent most of the day in awe of what we were seeing and laughing. We were among great company though (my sister and her family are in town) so that did brighten the day! Oh and the fried shrimp (and food in general) there was FABULOUS!!! That alone was worth the $21 a person admission fee! And that's another grip, you pay $21 per person and once you get in the door you have to pay for everything (and everything is way overpriced)! The only thing the admission covered was the shows...B.S. if you ask me! If I'm paying that much, the kids rides should at least be included! I'll probably go back next year and give it another try...maybe we just went on a bad day.

On the way home I got pulled over by a cop (probably the most exciting event of the day)! It was dusk and I didn't have my lights on...he was super nice and just gave me a friendly reminder but it gave us a good scare for a minute.

As I said above we are really enjoying my sisters visit! Mikayla fits right in with our kids, they seriously have the same dispositions and Mikayla and Allie have the exact same cries! I can ALWAYS tell my kids cries from other kids cries (if your a mom you know what I mean) but they sound EXACTLY alike...it's crazy! I'll have to take a video of them crying at the same time so you can see what I mean. Posting some pics., didn't take to many, can you believe that? There was so much craziness I didn't know what to take a picture of! I have never had that problem before!!! Be back tomorrow! I'm 8 for 8 the month of November, I hope I can keep it up!

Kristy and Julianna

The Coliseum, Jousting took place inside

Belly Dancers

Miki, Allie, Julie and Joe


Cindy, Me and Kristy!

Short & Sweet

So...KRISTY, JOHN and MIKAYLA are here! I am sooo glad to see her and meet her family! We are having so much fun just gabbing. We went to a late night Wal-Mart trip and seriously laughed most of the time. It's just so good to catch up. Tomorrow we are heading to the Renaissance Festival, a bigger update tomorrow night.

Today

has been no-stop! I swear I have not had five minutes to myself. So my plan for this morning was to take Joe to the bus stop and rush back to get the girls ready to go to my meeting. Well sitting at the bus stop I get a call from the school and the bus had a flat tire so I don't have time to take Joe all the way to school and get back in time to get the girls ready and get to my meeting on time. So...I take Joey back home, get the girls and myself ready, bags packed and rush to drop Joe off to school . I do manage to make it to my meeting right as it's starting. Now, Allie and Julie were supposed to go with sitters they provided. Oh let me back up, my meeting was a training seminar for policy council at Joe's school, I was on policy council last year and this was my second training seminar. So back to the sitters. Julianna was great, went right with the sitters, played and had a wonderful morning. Allie, screamed...screamed so much I heard it down the hall. I went and got her from the sitters and fought her for 5 hours trying to keep her silent and happy while people are trying to learn (I thought about leaving numerous times, but the seminar was mandatory so I didn't have much choice). Thank God, I had bought snacks or she would have been impossible! Most of the meeting I was shuffling in and out trying to get Allie calmed down or asleep (I didn't have to really pay to much attention since I had been through it before...thank GOD!). So lunch time came and they bought Julianna in to eat with me. As soon as she saw me she RAN up to me full speed across a crowded conference room screaming MOMMY, THERE YOU ARE! I MISSED YOU and bear hugged my leg. Everybody bust out laughing, it was really cute! And to my surprise she had used the potty TWICE! She will NOT use the potty for me so I was impressed (now that I know she will do it potty training will be in full swing!). After we ate Julianna went back with the sitters and I sat through 2 more hours of seminar, fighting Allie the entire time! Toward the end I had Allie laying down in my lap and I got a good look in her mouth, her two front teeth are breaking through...so that is probably the meaning of all her screaming and discomfort. After the seminar ended I went and picked Joe up from school and went to Wal-Mart. In case you didn't know, 3 kids (2 who insist on walking) is never much fun in a crowded store! It's exhausting just getting them all in and out the car! Oh and Joey's news today..."My Grandpa is Jim Lloyd". We are on week 4 with no mommy news, I don't saying anything to him I'm just keeping a mental note and harping on the fact that I must be a horrible mom if I'm never worth mentioning in his news. Why are mothers are always taken for granted?!?! Now we are home and I'm doing laundry...tons of laundry that has been stacking up because I'm never home anymore to do it! But the good news is...MY SISTER FLIES IN TOMORROW! Yes, Kristy her husband and my niece (who I've never met!!!) are flying in tomorrow afternoon! I CAN NOT wait! So I know I've been neglecting pictures but there will be plenty tomorrow! Oh but before I get to see my sister I have a 9:00 meeting and Julianna has an 11:00 therapy session...see what I mean? And Christina I know I didn't get to call you today...I'm sorry :( I'll try to get a hold of you tomorrow!

Do you ChaCha?

So ChaCha is this cool useful new service! What it is you ask? You can text -242242 (spells ChaCha) or call 1.800.2.ChaCha and ask any question that comes to mind (really ANYTHING!). And within about 5 minutes a REAL PERSON (not a computer) will send you your answer, all for free! ChaCha doesn't charge you anything but if you will still get charged for you texts like you normally do. I've tested it myself by asking where the cheapest gas in Cleveland was and low and behold they gave me the correct answer within 3 minutes and they were right...it's awesome!

I think it's so awesome that I am now a ChaCha guide! In my spare time (usually late at night) I get online from the comfort of my own house (usually on the laptop with CNN in the background) and answer random questions with the help of ChaCha's own search engine, and get paid by the answer! It's a dream job for me. I've been working for about 2 weeks now and love it! There are no set hours (you just get on when you have time) and I get paid on a debit card from the company. They also have cool promotions during busy times and holidays where you get paid more per answer. The reason I'm "selling" the company is because they are hiring! http://becomeaguide.chacha.com/ is the link! If you do decide to give it a try please use me as a referral pilkertone@gmail.com, I get extra money for every person I refer! If anyone has questions feel free to ask away!

And the Next President of the United States is....

Barack Obama! I just finished watching his speech and I'm going to cut this short because my eyes are shutting (I'm exhausted) but was that not an inspirational speech? I don't care if you love him or hate him he has ignited the idea of hope and change. And for those of you who are still not sold...it can't get much worse than the last four years...really it can't. Republicans have had 8 years (I voted for Bush twice, we gave him more than enough chances) to get things right or at least going in the right direction, he didn't. Now as a country we have voted overwhelmingly to do things the Democrats way. Will it be the right way? Nobody really knows, but it's a different way and we don't have any choice now but to support Barack Obama in his efforts. Change is not always a bad thing! Some of our greatest presidents have come when America was desperate for change...Abraham Lincoln, Lyndon Johnson, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagen to name a few. You can't "write" Obama off when he hasn't even stepped foot in the White House yet. Hatred is such a wasted emotion. If you don't like this vote, in 4 years we vote again, it's the beauty of a democracy! I was amazed at the humility and grace John McCain showed tonight. He is an admirable and amazing man. We should be proud as a country to have such an honorable man on our side. I've heard a lot of opinions on both sides. This was a tough election season and many people feel passionately on both sides. But I'm asking those with atomicity who are reading this blog to please put your hatred and indifference to the side and support our President, it's the American way and why we are the greatest nation on earth...