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?
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!
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!!
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
The first week of school went rather well, I think. The kids have gotten into a routine and made some new friends. Sarah and Zachary have adjusted to being separated. The first day was kind of rough, but after that, they were fine. I think it was just nerves. They all love their teachers. Here are a few things that stuck out this week.
Remember how they all took apples to school the first day, well Zachary said every day that week somebody brought his teacher an apple. The teacher was over run with apples. LOL! Who would of ever thought Zachary would be a trendsetter.
Amanda is taking driver's education this year. I can't believe I'm old enough to have a kid that is taking driver's ed. How scary!! I hope Rich realizes that he's going to be teaching these kids how to drive when the time comes. Cause, I'm not! Hey, if I have to have THE TALK with them, than he can very well teach them how to drive, right?
Nicholas got to take his first trip to the school library. He was so excited when he got to take a book home. And of course it was a Scooby Doo book, that we had to read over and over for a week straight.
All in all, I think they had a great week. I only hope that the rest of the year goes this well!
