Blog Trip ~~ Day Four!!

I LOVE shopping, just ask my husband's wallet!! I don't get to shop as much as I used to, most days my shopping is limited to groceries. I go to the grocery store almost everyday. Usually it's just for milk and bread (two staples that rapidly disappear in our house), but more often then not I'm buying things for dinner. It used to be that Rich and I would go grocery shopping together. I loved doing that. He would get the sale items, meat and cereal plus his little cravings. And I would get everything else. Nowadays, he goes and gets stuff and I go and get stuff and we hope we can make a meal out of it. Otherwise, I'm at the store shopping for dinner items.

I do love clothes shopping. I really love buying baby clothes. But I almost never buy anything full price. I always wait and shop the clearance and sale racks. This is where having a big family gets expensive, clothes.

I'll tell you my little secret - I don't buy new clothes for school.

My philosophy on that is simple, the weather is still warm and nice so my kids are going to be wearing all their shorts and tees for the first few months. Then if you buy clothes too early, you have the problem of the children going through a growth spurt (and let's face it - most kids grow in the summer, at least mine do) in which case now the clothes won't fit them. So what I do is buy everyone new shoes and a few new tees to mix in with what they already got.

Then when the weather starts to cool, I take them and buy jeans and pants. A month or two after that, I buy some more shirts. They all get new undies, socks and pajamas at Christmas (I know! But name one parent who doesn't do that). And of course there is the ever present hand me downs.

Now when I shop for my family I usually head somewhere like Old Navy or Steve and Barry's . The clothes are reasonably priced and they have a decent selection for everyone. We will also head to Target and occasionally Walmart. Rich and I take all the kids and get what we need together. I can't stand shopping with all the kids by myself and neither can he. And for us, it's just easier if everyone is there, that way we know we got something for all. It would be too easy to forget someone if we all didn't go.

Our town doesn't have any place to shop for clothes or shoes. We have a few cities to chose from for clothes shopping. But, our newest area is the Tanger Outlets. They just built an outlet center about 30-40 minutes from our house. They have 75 brand name and designer outlet stores including American Eagle Outfitters, Banana Republic Factory Store, Brooks Brothers Factory Store, Children's Place, Coach Factory Store, Gap Outlet, Harry and David, Nine West Outlet, Old Navy, Timberland Factory Store and Wilson's Leather Outlet.

We haven't been there yet, as it just opened last weekend, but I'm excited to check it out. I can't remember the last time I was at an outlet center.

Pictures of the Family Picnic

We recently went to a family reunion picnic at my Aunt Joyce's house. I didn't really take very many pictures and none of my extended family, but I did take some pictures of my children and my brother. Give my kids a ball and they will entertain themselves for hours (baseball, beachball, any kind of ball and they will make a game out of it).

Here they are playing four square (the boy in black is a cousin and the man in light blue is my twin brother). Anthony is in blue, can you see how tall he got?





My twin brother ~ Charlie


My girl, Sarah


Amanda (being shy)


Nathan (getting tired - awwwww!!)

Blog Trip ~~ Day Three!!!

Now that you've met everyone, figured out where they live, and smelled gas fumes all day, I'm sure you are starving.

For being a small town, we have several places in which to eat. We have four pizza places right in town and a few more pizza places in the vicinity. And if Italian food isn't your forte, we also have a Chinese restaurant, Dairy Queen and a Subway. We also have a few local places, the Hartley Inn or the Chuck Wagon Cafe.

About 15 minutes away is KFC, Wendy's, Burger King, McDonald's and Bob Evans. Further along, about 30 minutes in opposite directions you will find Taco Bell, Krispy Kreme, Denny's, Red Robin, Cracker Barrel, Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse, AppleBees and many, many more options.

Of course, you could always come and hang out at my house and eat dinner for free. With my big family, I cook enough food to feed a small army and you would be more than welcome. My children will entertain you while you wait, aren't you lucky! I'll make all my family's favorites; meatballs, lasagna, manicotti, cabbage rolls (or pigs in the blanket depending on where you live), pot roast, along with other hot home cooked meals.

So make your choice and let me know. Just give me a little notice, if you're eating with my family so I can head to store. Oh and just a quick little word of advice, if you want to stop by my place, make sure you have fast hands and feet. There isn't much leftover with my crew around!

Our family can start a band

You know like the Partridge Family. Maybe I'm dating myself here, Oh well.

We now have a drummer (Amanda), a saxophone player (Anthony), a trombone player (Zachary) and a clarinet player (Sarah). Oh Yessss! My house is gonna be rockin'!!

Now, where did I put my earplugs? Cause I'ma gonna need 'em!

This Thursday night is band instrument rental night at the elementary school. Sarah and Zachary are now old enough to join the school band (elementary), they tried out several instruments. Sarah really wanted the clarinet and Zachary the tuba. As an intro to tuba, he will play the trombone.

I only wish I had a video camera, so I could torture you all with the melodic sounds and tones!!! Our poor neighbors!!

Am I the only one who thinks this is funny?!

Nathan trying to dress himself....

Blog Trip ~~ Day Two

If you want to gas up your car, there are two gas stations in my town. One that is directly in town, called Allstar Express, they used to be called Dairy Mart a few years back and that is what my family still calls the store. This little gas station has a convenience store attached to it and they also have fresh food they sell, like burgers, fries, etc.

We also have another gas station/store, it alittle out of town, and its called Sheetz, it has the same concept as the first one, but alittle more well known on the regional circuit. Gas is generally the same at each station. Both are self serve. Our only gas station that had full service (check under the hood, oil and windows) closed a few years ago. We do have another station that still does that to a certain degree, but they are a few towns over in Fayette County.

Right now gas costs about $3.64 a gallon. It was up to almost $4, but it went back down for awhile.



A great way to save on gas here, is at the Giant Eagle Go Station. This is a pretty good deal, the whole premise behind it is that you go grocery shopping at Giant Eagle and for every $50 dollars you spend, you get 10 cents off your gas. This is good for the pharmacy as well. So if you are big grocery shoppers or have a lot of prescriptions, you can add up the savings pretty quickly. There are actually two grocery stores here that do that. They compete with each other. The only bad thing is that participating gas stations for the two stores are out of the way. But it is worth the trip, if you saved enough points.

The good thing about living in a small town is that there are alot of things to do within walking distance. We usually go to the library and the playgrounds. We have a few playgrounds here that (even though we have our own swingset in the backyard) the kids like to go to. We also have a public swimming pool that is in a park down the road. The kids love to ride their bikes while we are walking around. Another big hit is the local Dairy Queen, we all love going for walks to get some ice cream.

I had so much fun today!!

This blog trip has been so much fun. It's exciting to see so much traffic on my blog. And the comments. Ohhh, I *heart* comments!!

Can't wait for tomorrow! I'm so excited!! I have to work in the afternoon, but I will try to visit everyone again at some point during the day. I hope everyone that came today will come back tomorrow and many more show up as well!

Happy blogging everyone!!

Whew, I'm tired!

I have been virtual road tripping it all day. I have been to Singapore, Philippines, Texas, Arkansas, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennesee, Netherlands, Utah, New Jersey, North Carolina, Florida and many many more.

I have been to over fifty blogs!! It has been amazing getting to know all these people and I'm learning so many things by reading their blogs. I'm learning about their area and alot of them are places I would love to visit someday. And the people are people I would love to be friends with in real life.

I seriously need a nap now, I'm so exhausted after all the traveling I've done today! But I think I'm going out to take some pictures of my town and surrounding area to show it off for the rest of the week. I'll be back later and don't worry if I didn't get to your town yet, I will very soon!

Blog Trip ~~ Day One!!

On the first day of the trip, I'm going to give you a brief run down about myself. I'm also going to tell you alittle bit about where I live.

Okay so, I'm Charlene, my husband Rich and I have been married for 16 years. We have six beautiful children ranging in age from 3 to 15. I am mostly a stay at home mom and have been for more than 14 years. I have worked part time jobs here and there, mostly for the spending money. We usually call my money "diaper money". Let's see, through the years I have been an inventory specialist, a toy store clerk (that was a nice discount for Christmas), a freelance writer for a local newspaper, and my current part time job is a certified nursing assistant (or what we generally refer to ourselves as professional butt wipers).

I'm a pretty boring person, I like to hang out at home. I like to watch movies, listen to music, bug my husband, play with my kids and read. I love to read. I will read anything from books to newspapers. I don't have much time to read, what with being a wife and mother. But when there is a quiet moment, like say in the bathroom then I will - yeah right, no sense in deluding myself, there is never any quiet bathroom moments because someone is always barging in or banging on the door. I think kids have mom-dar (they can seek us out like missiles).

My husband is currently home too. He got hurt while working as a corrections officer. He actually got stabbed several times (he only told me about the getting hurt part, not the stabbing part). That day was actually the first day he ever put on the kevlar vest. Thank God he did, or I'd be a widow. We get on each others nerves quite a bit, but we love each other.

We live in a very small town in southwestern Pennsylvania. You know that county in the corner that borders West Virginia? Yep, that's us. Our biggest boast is that we have two stoplights. If you look in the phone book, you would find over a dozen churches, bars, and beauty shops. Our biggest claim to fame would be the Coal Show Festival. Yes, we celebrate coal. We live in a coal area. Coal mining is how alot of folks make a living, so we have parades and car shows. Heck, we even have coal queens.



And a trailer of the movie that was made.



I know that seems so cheesy, but its really a way of life here. The whole summer feels like its built around the coal show. Our high school band practices for hours on end. People come from all over to line our little town's streets. It's pretty awesome.

I'm mostly going to talk about my small town, but on occasion I might include the whole county. It may be a rural area that most people have never heard of, but it's pretty nice place to live, at least I think. We have a college, a water park, a small airport (that reportingly once had Harrison Ford land on briefly), a hospital and several other great places to see. Not to mention the scenary is beautiful too.

Come back and visit with me tomorrow!

Notice

I am temporarily disabling the music at the bottom of my blog. I love it and I will bring it back. But, for now while I'm doing the blog trip thing, it might be alittle distracting or confusing to folks when they play the videos.