Celebrate Erie and family fun...

It was a beautiful weekend here in Erie and we squeezed in as much fun as we possibly could!

Doug had to work Saturday morning, so Danika and I picked up our good friend Elizabeth and headed up to the "Celebrate Erie" festival going on downtown. The best part is always the "chalk walk" and we took a picture of Danika with this really cool one sponsored by Erie Insurance.

Celebrate Erie really is a cool festival and I will look forward to enjoying it more as Danika gets older.

We came home, picked up Daddy, and headed back out to enjoy some more sunshine at the Erie Zoo. Danika LOVES the animals...but it is so funny because she is just as entertained by the chipmunk who scurried in front of her stroller as she is the giant giraffe who is walking and eating behind the fence. :) She is so fun to watch!

We also worked on getting some 18mos pictures printed for family....so those will be coming shortly!

Sunday we had church and we were thrilled to get to share our church with Doug's sister Kristen and her husband Dave (as well as all three kiddos). It was fun to have them come visit...and as always it was great to get to hang out together. Julie and Alayna got to help me film a video for church while we were there as well. What fun. ;)

Kristen, Dave and family will be heading home today, so we all got together for dinner one last time for this visit on Sunday night. I'll leave you with a cute image of Danika and Julie pounding away on Mimi's piano. They were really enjoying themselves. :)

Danika Photo Session

Danika and I were hanging out in the yard the other day and I just sat with my camera and took pictures of her playing. It was really so much fun....she is just such a happy little kiddo most of the time. I can't quite describe the joy she brings to our little home.
Just thought I'd share some of the pics. :)

My stupid skin...

As most of you know, I have excessively tempermental skin. My dermatologist likes to say I have skin that is looking for a reason to freak out (that is a direct quote). So...I have been breaking out in little quarter-sized blotches of rash since Sunday night. Now there are somewhere around 12-15 patches of "rash" that are itching like mad and blistered. I finally went to see the dermatologist about it. First I hear him say in the hallway, "Andrea's here? Good Lord, what does she have wrong with her now?" Did I mention I am at his office a lot? Did I mention that he thinks I have some of the weirdest skin problems around? Yes...I am special.

So....after inspecting all my blotches on my arms, legs, hip, neck, shoulder, toes and ankle...the verdict is.....poison ivy. That's right...just normal, plain old, poison ivy. And why do new patches show up every day? Well...that's because I'm special. My immune system is getting more upset by the day about this little invasion and is becoming more sensitive and reacting to places that received much less exposure. How did I get it since I never went out into the woods? Well...probably from touching a cat or dog, maybe from touching fire wood, maybe from touching one of the guys or kids who went into the wooods....who knows. But most likely I touched something and then all the places that broke out are places I touched on my own body after getting it on my hands. Isn't that lovely?

The itching continues and I have all sorts of special creams to try and beat it now. Did I tell you that I would really like to have NORMAL skin? Let's pray Danika got Doug's skin and not mine!

Hunting Camp Vacation

Last week we went on a mini-vacation down to the hunting camp with Doug's family.

Can I just say that I LOVE my in-laws? And I am NOT just saying that because they all read this blog. :) I truly am blessed beyond anything I can even describe to have the incredible mother-, father-, and sister -in-law that I have. They treat me like I was born into this family instead of married into it, and they never cease to make me laugh and smile the entire time I am with them. It was awesome to be together as a family...I love spending time with all of them. Dana & Susan (Doug's parents), Kristen & Dave (Doug's sister and her husband), Julie, Alayna & Joel (Kristen's kids, ages 5, almost 2, and 9 weeks) were all there and Doug, Danika and myself all joined them on Wednesday. We stayed until Saturday night and we laughed a lot.

The trip was entertaining. :) Just to give you a mental image...we were at the hunting camp. Just for the record, I don't hunt. I don't fish. I don't really like trees...well let's be honest, I don't really like the outdoors all that much. Oh....and I do like civilization...of which it seems like there is none for miles and miles. :) We were in a 3 bedroom hunting camp wwaaaayyy back in the trees with 4 children, 1 cat, no sunshine, and rain for 4 days. :) It was an adventure. Did I mention we had 4 kids, a small space, no real "yard" to play in and bad weather????....it made for a challenge finding things to do and keep the kids busy. :) I stopped crying on Friday and I had to start wearing Susan's wig because I pulled all my hair out....but really it was great fun! :)

All joking aside, we really did have lots of fun eating, telling stories, and hanging out. Wednesday night we went to the Warren County Fair. I grew up in rural Ohio...I actually LOVE fairs, so I thought it was a blast. We ate dinner there and took the kids through the animal barns. Danika was hilarious...she LOVED it! She pointed at all the animals and made "moo" and "oink" and "nay" sounds...it was so stinking cute. Julie got to go on a "ride" & eat ice-cream, so she had fun, too. :) And all the kids got to sit on various farm equipment and see some horse riding...it was quite the entertaining trip. And of course...Dana knew almost everyone he saw. :)

Thursday the boys went fishing and the girls kind of just hung out at the cabin. Some friends of the family came over for dinner Thursday night and the kids all played together. Friday was "girls" day. Susan, Kristen and I all went into "town" and had lunch and visited with people in Tidioute while the boys kept the kids. It was a big day in the "big city". :) Saturday, the boys went fishing in the morning and Doug caught this big fish. It was still alive when they brought it home and Danika got to pet it...she was scared at first but then got all excited and thought it was pretty cool.

So that was our week....and other than Danika taking a nose-dive into a pile of firewood and scraping her head all up, nobody really came home any worse for wear. Good times had by all! :)

Susan update...

Sorry for those that I left hanging about Susan's treatment. Things went well...her numbers are only down slightly, but they are at least going in the right direction. Treatment went fine and she had her usual days of feeling sick and exhausted following the chemo. As usual, she looks great, you would have no idea she is going through any of this, and she was back in action to go on a mini-"vacation" on Tuesday last week. I'll write more about that later. Anyway...thanks for those that were praying.

Susan @ Pittsburgh

Doug's Mom Susan is in Pittsburgh today getting chemo. We are praying that it goes well and that it is working very effectively.

Thanks to those of you who have been praying with us. I will keep you posted when I know more.

~Andrea

Joanie's Surgery

As I mentioned before, my sister Joan fell and broke her ankle while we were on vacation. The doctor was trying to let it heal on it's own, but it started to rotate and he decided that surgery was necessary. The surgery was yesterday and they placed a plate and several screws into her ankle. It's going to be a long road to recovery, but Joanie is doing well. I spoke to her on the phone this morning and she sounded great. She should be discharged and sent home this afternoon. She will be living with my parents for a few weeks and then moving in with Cory's parents until Cory returns from Officer's Candidate School for the Coast Guard.

Here is a picture of Joan two days after she broke it:

Love you Joanie!