October's First Adventure

Let me start by saying the first time I ever went camping was in 2007...in December...in the SNOW.  I really had no idea what I was about to be doing.

Am I going to be cold?

What will we eat?

Are there going to be bears?

and of course...I'm a girl so I asked...

 please don't laugh

Where/How do I pee?

My family growing up never went camping. My husband on the other hand was in boy scouts. He camped lots more than me. So I was asked a few days ago if I wanted to go camping again. Sure, why not. I survived in winter, I can do the fall. 

This time was MUCH different. How?? Well where do I start.

Weather: Snowy, icy vs. clear sky, dry

Temperature: 20's/Teens vs. 40s/50s

Experience: First Time vs. Second Time

Others: Me & 2 guys vs. Me, 2 guys & my SIL

I will leave you with these pictures.

It was a BEAUTIFUL day/night to be outdoors sitting by a fire. (Even though I remember being awake a lot during the night, I must have slept enough that I'm not crazy tired right now)

Round 2...on a Friday

This mornings post was unexpected, so I thought it would only be fair to finally and fully fill you in on what the true big announcement is.

Sadly, and I'm sorry to disappoint but it is no baby. No pea in a pod...yet.

My big news is nothing that we are purchasing...it's more or less as opportunity that God has provided for us. A family in our church is moving and was unable to sell their house. Knowing that we would be interested in moving out, they offered to rent their house to us.

Sadly though, we couldn't afford it. [insert much sadness here] With no real jobs on the horizon, it doesn't lend very well to paying rent along with other bills. 

Despite this my official announcement is....

we are still moving! :)

In order to help them and help ourselves, it's been decided that we will split the house and the rent with Greg's younger brother and his new wife (they are getting married a week before we move). [this is where you will kindly keep all rude and un-nice comments to yourself please]. We all know this isn't an ideal or normal situation. We know it's bound to have some issues. BUT we have had enough of living in an attic with 95% of our belongings in a storage unit 2 miles away. 

We are moving to this house:

and yes...this house has an awesome garden, full of growing zucchinis, cucumbers, tomatoes of all sizes, mint, raspberries, dill, parsley, rhubarb, green beans, etc.

We are house sitting while the owners are on vacation, so I am already benefiting from the oh-so-plentiful garden.

I'm sorry this has taken so long, lots of stuff has been going on around here. Like how on earth we are going to replace this car when our money is already going to that house up there.

**Us trying to unload all of my hubby's "stuff" from his car to mine

We are praying that God led us to this position because He has bigger plans for us than we can see. While he hope and think we are making the right decisions, there is no way to be sure. The next month or two could be great, bad, or a little bit of each. I guess we'll see what happens...

10 days later...

bad blogger I am...I know. But so much has happened in the past weeks I don't even know where to start. Some things I'm definitely not up for sharing right now as I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. But here's your super fast fly by of the past month--with pictures of course.

A month ago I did my first wedding. In fact it was so long ago I don't even remember if I posted anything about it. I finally finished editing their pictures in between everything else in my life. Here's a teeny tiny peek!

So what took so long to edit these pictures? Well first of all I gave one of my future sister in laws a shower and you can read and see all about that HERE. But then 2 days later, another brother came home with his fiancee. Soo that meant I had 2 future sister in laws to hang out with. This was the first time I was meeting her, and honestly I was a little worried. You know, would we get along? would she be easy to talk to? Let me tell you I LOVE this girl. In fact, I'm quite sad that the next time I might see her won't be until the wedding...in September. Then after that Christmas.

While they were in town for a week, there was lots of fun to be had. Lots of laughter and talking. The main reason they were home was for a cousin's wedding. I got to have LOTS of baby holding time. :)

Hopefully this is what our future holds...

That would make me soo happy.

Anyway, that was part of Saturday. Our house quickly filled to 8 people, plus 2 extra guests (but we didn't have enough rooms, so they had to sleep elsewhere). Sunday morning was spent at church, followed by a big family & friends lunch compliments of Wawa.

After lunch the hubs and I went on a day trip to Philly with my brother in law & future sister in law #2 (Steve & Holly). Our first stop was in Valley Forge Park where the boys charged a hill with their bayonets (I think). 

Then we headed into Old City, Philly to view the sights. We had a slight detour because of a closed road, so we didn't have time to get everywhere Steve was planning, but it was still well worth the trip! We had dinner with my nieces, their parents, and my in-laws. It was an awesomely fun day.

On Steve and Holly's last night in PA (they were here for a very short week), we took the California girls mini-golfing.

I might add that it was much more fun than that picture might show ;)

So we said goodbye to Steve and Holly, and tomorrow we say goodbye to Eryn. Then the house will be back to its quiet self and life will really return to normal. 

At least for a little while ;) ... I'll save that announcement for tomorrow.

Fast forward...please.

This week seems to be moving so slow. Seriously like sloth-speed. But I am very excited that tomorrow is round 2 of What is it Wednesday! I've already got my picture picked out...and I can't wait to share it. It leads very nicely into Thursday...and then Friday is after that. 

I've had a rough couple of days/nights just trying to wrap my head around this week and what I thought would have been happening by now. Anyway, I think I'm coming out on the other side-Wahoo! 

Last night, one of my brother-in-laws proposed to his girlfriend--and she said YES!! So I'm very excited to announce that I'm going to have ANOTHER sister. Sadly, she lives in California so I probably won't be seeing her too much, but they are coming out to PA to visit in 3 weeks so I'll get to meet her for the first time.

Not too much else is going on right now, except I just started the 4th class in my Masters program and I'm doing major research on this bridal shower. (can you guess which one gets more attention??..ha!) Soo much more than I probably need to, but it may be the only one I every throw, so I want it to rock. But seriously, how cute are these:

via

via

via

wowsers...I've got some decisions to make!

She's Here!

Since Friday/Saturday I had high hopes..grand expectations if you will for this blog post.  I thought I could show you this way cool video of my brother-in-law playing his bagpipes in honor of his last day in PA. But I didn't have my camera (can't believe that!) and I can't even seem to track down a single video of him. So I will keep working on that....


BUT in other very exciting family news, our family welcomed my new niece into the world at 1:29pm on December 28, 2009...Danica Ruth. And simply because I am not totally sold on plastering pictures of children all over the internet, I shall give you just 1...or 2 because I'm in love with this little lady.

[Top: The Proud Papa, Grandpa, Nana & baby Danica)

[Bottom: Nana holding her 2nd granddaughter]

[Below: The hubs and I getting some practice in :) ...and lovin on our new niece]

Okay, Okay...I know it was 4, but what do you expect. Could you only put 1 picture up? 

Yea, I didn't think so. Being an aunt is awesome!

5 Day Christmas Extravaganza--with pictures

We knew very early on that this year was going to be like no other...at least we can hope. I say that because we were BUSY. Everyday, we were going somewhere else. Let me explain.


Day 1: Christmas Eve- 4 out of 5 brother were home today. Which meant lots of catching up and a lunch with Granddad..yum. :) Followed by a Christmas Eve service at church. Once the family was settled after the service (all comfy again) with good food from a late dinner in our bellies, we played a family game of charades. Let's just say the "wedded" team lost even though we had 4 players. A combination of pushing the button at the wrong time and just plain hard words like "gas giant"--try picturing your mother in law doing that one--led to our demise.


Day 2: Christmas! The alarm---ohh yes, alarm--went off at 7:45 so that we could shower, pack, and be on the road by 9 to visit my family in Woolrich (the town where the store started/has the mill where things were made). It's a 2.5-3 hour drive.

We arrived during the present opening. Normally this happens after the food, but they were trying to wait for us to eat. I was very thankful. 

So we opened, we ate, we chatted and of course there was the opportunity to test out some of the gifts.

 This is one of my gram's cats that she saved from a shelter..Miss Daisy.

Day 3: A Clark Christmas Our time there was short lived because on Saturday the alarm sounded at 7:45am again to head back to Shillington for the Clark family Christmas gathering. I'm glad we were able to work it into our schedule because the WHOLE family was there. Even my sister in law who is scheduled for a c-section tomorrow [more on this later]

Here is the Clark Family Run-down. 

4 generations.1 Great-Grandfather who has 3 children w/ 3 spouses.

Those 3 parental units have a combined total of 13 kids--who now have 7 spouses.

And there are 4 great grandchildren (and 2 on the way)

If you lost count there are 30 people in this picture (but 1 spouse & 1 fiance are missing)

[it's a good thing they had stairs big enough]

Day 4: Zelinske Christmas Today ended up rather full as well. Church, V&S lunch [courtesy of Granddad & Pete], Eagles game, & gifts with my parents & grandmother.

Day 5: The finale I've dubbed this day the finale because I have nothing on my mental calendar after this day. Monday is Shady Maple with my Zelinske cousins to stuff more food into my stomach. But even more exciting is the birth of my 2nd niece. This is very exciting to me. The last time a baby came into the Linsky family, I was not even engaged yet. Wow--maybe we'll be next ;).

Now we have unpacking, organizing, and I'm sure some relaxing to do during this final week of vacation. The only present that I'm still hoping to get is a JOB. hahah 

Hopefully I have some awesome news to write about...meeting the next little baby girl. Otherwise, you may just hear some more about this year's extravaganza.

Merry Christmas!

Not sure how much I'll be posting the next couple days, because we STILL don't know how our traveling is going to work out due to weather. 

So I'll leave you with this...Our Christmas card that was NEVER printed or sent out because I wanted a winter picture of us. hahah. ohhh well.

Christmas is here

Really, I can't believe that Christmas is this week. Even though I put up a tree after eating Thanksgiving dinner, and even though I put up our "tree", and even though I've been listening to Christmas music for quite awhile, it still does not feel like Christmas is on Friday!

Why?? I think it's because I have had little to worry about in the way of buying gifts. Because of our current situation, it was pretty obvious that we would not be buying gifts for anyone. I have however, spent a good deal of time making gifts for people. [it's much cheaper that way..usually]


Here is one project...or at least part of a project. [I can't show the final project yet...since it is a Christmas present for someone] I used a cricut machine and it was lots of fun. I experimented with printing numbers, letters, and shapes of all kinds and sizes. (this was taken in the midst of experimentation)

I'm happy to say that all gifts are finished, so I have some wrapping to do. Maybe tomorrow it will feel like Christmas when Greg is done with school.

T-minus 2 days until another brother comes home.
T-minus 4 days until Christmas.

T-mines 7 days until another niece is born!

...now to think of some more projects.

Snowy Puppy Patrol

If you didn't already know (all 4 of you readers out there) we have 2 labradoodles. You also might just be asking...what on earth is a labradoodle?? Well, it is a cross between a labrador retriever and a poodle. Yes we have 2, yes we must be crazy, and YES we love having them both. Although the one is bigger than we were expecting...they are both about 55lbs...they are tons of fun. Greg and I have finally worked out an AWESOME 'puppy patrol' or 'puppy duty' schedule as we so lovingly call it-also known as taking the dogs out. Anyway, it took enough times of disagreeing about who's turn it is to determine that it is best if every day we take a 'double turn'. Meaning that out of the 3 times the pups go out (morning, afternoon, evening) if it's your day, you do 2 shifts. I HATE going out too late at night, so it's nice when I know it's my turn I don't have to wait until 10 or 11 to take them. Anyway, today was my 'double day' and I did the morning shift and the late-afternoon shift. One would think that it should be easier and faster to take both dogs outside to go to the bathroom at the same time. However it is not usually the case. Take a look at the video below. Since it was snowing today-which to me makes the cold weather worth it-I thought I would give them extra time in the snow TOGETHER. This is what they do...

I guess it's a good thing they are the same size...otherwise, one just might get eaten. hahah P.S. Check back tomorrow (if I can wait that long) for a Linsky production---a video clip of our Christmas lights display.

A Zelinske Tradition

Ever since I can remember, my grandfather, Bum as we called him [maybe more on that name later] always made cut out cookies. Since they were soo tasty, my parents got the recipe and it was the one cookie that we made and ate EVERY year. Well, Bum passed away September of 2008 and I the cookies took on a whole knew meaning. Now they aren't just a cookie but they remind me of him.

So in honor of him, I took my first crack at it. My directions more or less were to cream butter & sugar, add the egg, vanilla, baking powder, and flour. Roll out, cut out, bake for 6 minutes (depending on your oven). GREAT this should be a piece of cake.

But no...then came the exceptions. 

"Well," my mom said, "I'm never sure how thick to roll them. 

If you roll them too thick they won't cook (aka raw egg), 

and if you roll them too thin they will burn." 

My response....

"How on earth am I supposed to know how thick or thin to roll them."

My mom's response...

"Roll one set and bake them. If they come out okay, you did it right.

If they burn or don't cook, you did it wrong."

Ohhh of course! Why didn't I think of that. Without a real clear answer (and by the way I left out the conversation about whether it should be butter or shortening) off I went with the recipe with no intention to make them this weekend due to other plans. We tried going to church this morning, but we have to use a windy and hilly road to get there. We got about 85% there when we hit a stoppage of cars on a hill that we classified as a "sheet of ice". So no church today, we turned around and came back home. 

Which leads me to my cookies. The first batch was thick--they were in the oven for quite awhile, and although they were checked frequently they got a little brown...really only a little. So I rolled the next 2 batches better (at least in my opinion). And here they are in all their sprinkled glory (next time I will be using colored sugar...sooo much better than sprinkles). They are a little crunchy..not burnt...crunchy. They look pretty, but someday I'll have to try again to do them justice.

 

 

**Now for my grandfather's name, Bum. The story is that he would always tell the first Zelinske grandchild (not me, I'm the 3rd) "You're a bum." and eventually my cousin responded..."No, your a bum". So the name was born, Bum...or Bum-Bum because we repeated cool names like that.

Saturday happenings

I borrowed my mom's cricut machine to work on a couple projects. One of which was updating the Linsky stockings (so that I could be included on the stocking) as well as make one for my niece, no nieces sorry (16 days and counting). Anyways I found a cute bride and groom that I decided to cut out in honor of Ben & Eryn. And poor Eryn was on Skype at the time, so this is what we did. We put the bride in front of her face...because she is engaged! (Clearly I was lacking enthusiasm/momentum in the project I was working on at the time)

While I was playing around, my mother in law was hard at work. There is an old slate hearth in the living room that after 30-40 years of life it was turning green from the yellowing of the "protective coating" that was on it. She got the motivation to strip the old coating off and it looks soo much better now! (Even though there is still some left.) Here is an "ALMOST DONE" shot. The left side is the yucky side and the right BEAUTIFUL side is the uncoated/stripped slate. She did good work...no GREAT work.

And while the ladies were busy with these things, the boys tried to gather some wood for the fireplace. But the chainsaw did not cooperate, so no woodpile yet. We'll stick with the duraflame for awhile.

Ohhh, memories

Today I went with my mother in law to watch my 3 year old niece while my sister in law (who is going to have a baby girl in 18 days) had a dr. appt.
3 year olds are:

• full.of.energy
• imaginative
• particular
• opinionated
• and ohh so cute.

Playing with her reminded me of:

• pigtails
• dancing
• watching Blue's Clues with my brother
  
• dress up
• dolls
• playing house

It's the little things that count

There are days in everyone's life that you just walk through with blinders on. Now I'm not saying that you are purposely ignoring everything around you, but things are going smoothly and there aren't any major bumps, turns, or other catastrophe's that make you look around.


Then there are those other days that just make you stop and question. Those are the days that you get a true perspective on your life and you have two choices:
         1. Focus on the things that are going wrong
         2. Focus on the things that are good


I'll admit, it is easy to look first to the things that are wrong, the things that could be better, or the things you aren't happy with. But why? Where does it get you. You worry, you lose sleep, you get angry or frustrated because it all boils down to the fact that you have no control over what is going on. And that's when I am so thankful I can turn to my God and realize I don't have to be in control.


Today, nothing happened to me directly. But hearing some recent events that happened to a dear friend (whom I'm praying for) and having a lovely night with my in-laws it really got me thinking. I am so thankful and glad that I have a loving and caring husband (even when he is preoccupied with sports...after all I knew what I was marrying), an awesome mom (who I've gotten to work with--not just visit at school), father, and alright I'll even say my BIG-little brother...

..who is quite a lot taller than me, and just generally and overall BIGGER than me.  And who am I kidding my in-laws are a wonderful group of people. I've got a few close friends who I would consider my "support circle"...if I need to talk to a girl, they've got my back (among other things..haha)


But the funny thing I realized in trying to offer some words of encouragement and support to this dear girl is that I was told that the people you were friends with in high school wouldn't always be your friends--some would go to different colleges and some would move away and you would make new friends. Then I went to college...and no one told me this. That you really possibly end up living farther away from the people you met in college. I realized that two of the girls who I adore and met in college both live over an hour away and I follow their lives on facebook and their blogs: (here and here). I saw one over the summer because she had a BABY and the other one I haven't seen for almost 2 years!!  But on the upside, I'm super happy that we have the wonderful ways of technology to interact and share about what is going on in our lives. 


Well there was your random thought(s) for the day (if they even made sense). :)


...maybe going to visit my niece and sister (who is going to have a baby in 19 days!)

Settlers

In August, I had the opportunity of meeting an awesome lady and congratulating her as a future Mrs. Linsky. Aka my sister-in-law to be. From her home in California she brought a game called The Settlers of Catan. We spent a night playing it (without my hubster, as he is not really into board games) and it was a blast!! Lots of laughs and a great time.

We tried playing it tonight (the hubs, one of the BIL's, and me) and it was soo incredibly boring. Don't get me wrong, it's a great game and I would highly recommend it. But it was one of those games where one player completely dominated and the other 2 players were left..well with nothing to work with.  Ohhh well, if nothing else it was still fun to do something different tonight. Thanks to Ben for the idea tonight and to Eryn for bringing the game to the Linsky family, I had a little escape from sports (which every wife of a sports-aholic husband needs once and awhile)

Turkey here, turkey there, turkey turkey everywhere

I can officially say Thanksgiving is over. It wasn't just the eating of one meal and visiting with family on Thursday. No, no--as a married couple, our Thanksgiving last 3 or 4 days interspersed with Christmas preparation. Normally we would go to State College for a pre-Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday night, but because Greg was golfing (in the rain nonetheless!) we were unable to make it to dinner this year. So we packed up the car, dogs and all, and off we went to start the 3 hour drive to Woolrich, PA (it's about an hour from Williamsport).

Thanksgiving day was filled with a plethora of food that included turkey of course, ham, stuffing, sweet potatoes, corn, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, extra large rolls, gravy, limas, and I'm sure other things I'm forgetting right now. But then came desserts--3 or 4 different kinds of pies and 3 different kinds of cookies. Not to mention a very wonderful Keurig machine to make hot chocolate or coffee instantly---mmmm. It isn't a holiday or family gathering with a game of Scrabble (which my hubby and I clearly won)

To fight the post-meal nap, we put up my grandmother's Christmas tree. Not to rush the holiday or anything--it was a lovely gesture that turned out to be quite fun with the other ladies in my family. The final product...

And no Thanksgiving is complete without an almost completely pointless trip to Walmart for Black Friday shopping. 3 years we've been going and this is the first year we actually bought something that was on sale---DVD's. (Benjamin Button & Dark Knight--$5) I've been sad the last couple of days thinking that we wouldn't be able to have our own tree here on the 3rd floor due to space. In comes Walmart to the rescue with an adorable Norfolk Island Pine that I am ecstatic to decorate with miniature ornaments and star that I also found at Walmart. Stay tuned for the before and after pictures

Our Thanksgiving was made complete and final with a trip to the Clark family Thanksgiving. With the annual BFL (backyard football league) kickoff at 1pm and dinner at 4:30, we concluded Thanksgiving with a potentially cracked & bruised ribs, some speed scrabble, great time with family and of course pumpkin pie.

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving (whoever you who are reading this is). And I hope you stop to think who you are thanking. My mother in law so graciously reminded me that people think of what they are thankful for but often times don't remember who they are thanking for it all.

Plus---here's a little flashback of last Thanksgiving. A walk down memory lane: