Shady Maple Company Picnic

Today was Shady Maple's annual company picnic held at Terre Hill Park. It was perfect weather, warm and sunny. It was a combined smorg and farm market people, which was kind've a bummer as it made for a lot of people you didn't know.

We started out with eating around 2pm. The famous shady bbq chicken, pulled pork and steamed shrimp were the main highlights for food. There were kids games, a merry-go-round, bounce maze, guessing games for adults, candy scramble, bingo, etc. Lots to do! The pictures above highlight the kids riding a homemade "train"....all 5 of my kids are in the first 4 carts. Also shown above are the older 4 playing a tossing game. And yes, that other blurry pic is me racing my kids through the bounce maze (that was SO much fun!!!)

There was also an apple pie contest which Kevin signed me up for. I never did anything like this before, so I researched some recipes. I knew in order to potentionally place, I had to come up with something unique. Therefore I came up with a carmel apple pie crunch recipe with a homemade flaky crust. To my surprise, I placed 2nd!!! Got a ribbon and $20 gift card, woo-hoo!!!

Blue Ball Days

Today was Blue Ball yard sale day. The girls and I headed out early morning and hit the sales and the guys and puppy joined us later on. Got a few deals on some clothes and a double stroller.

Afterwards, we headed down to Goods Store where a bunch of the local fire companies were displaying their trucks. Of course since I am involved in EMS, I had to go down and show my support to my fellow guys! ;) The kids toured a few engines and I took their pic on Engine 322, aka Blue Ball.

It was a nice day overall. Beautiful weather, picked more tomatoes to turn into salsa and spaghetti sauce. Hard to believe August is coming to an end!

Migraines, Bones & Shopping

I know, an odd title, but just figured I'd include it all! Sarah has been experiancing migraines pretty frequently. So much so that we are being sent to Hershey Medical Center for her to see a pediatric nuerologist. She woke yet again early morning with a migraine. Got sick several times from the pain. I wasn't sure if we would have to cancel Susans ST appt, but we were able to go. I had planned on taking the kids to Park City but wasn't sure if Sarah was up to it. She said she was.

So we spent almost 3hrs walking around Park City. We got some great deals, ate lunch downstairs, played in the play area, etc. They had a great time!

Came home and shortly thereafter, UPS stopped by and delivered my saxophone, woo-hoo!!! So we ran out and picked up reeds so I could play it a bit. I am going to enjoy getting back into it again. My next step is to get a new neck strap and pick up a Kenny G music book/sheet music.

I am including some pics of our puppy, Captain Jack. We bought him a 2ft raw hide bone this weekend that he is just in LOVE with! We gave it to him Saturday afternoon, and shortly after snapping these photos, he managed to chew it in half already. Oh, Jack just turned 9 months old and he is as big as a horse!! (the other picture is of him and Erik "cuddling", yeah the odd dog is SUPER affectionate and has to cuddle with us all the time!)

Happy hump day to ya'll!!! :)

Happy Birthday Kaleb Michael!!!! (his brief story)

This is earliest picture I have of Michael. He is over 4 months old (this is about the time he would've been due). Sadly, his birth mom won't give me any of his NICU pics.
This is Michael today, 8-10-08, his 2nd birthday!

Today is a special day. Exactly 2yrs ago today, a miracle child was born at only 23wks gestation, weighing 1lb 2oz and 12". He wasn't expected to live, much less reach the goals he has today. We were blessed to receive a call in July '07 about a medically fragile baby boy as a preadoptive placement. Not knowing what we were getting into, we gladly took him into our home and our hearts.

Kaleb Michael came to us at 12 months old, not able to sit up on his own, nor crawl. He needed daily nebulizer treatments as well as a lot of other special treatment. Within a month of him being with us, he was not only sitting up on his own, but crawling and pulling himself up on furniture!

He is in Occupational therapy, Physical therapy, Speech therapy and Special Instruction. He wears glass, hand splints and special ankle/feet orthodics. His main diagnosis is Cerebral Palsy. He has retinopathy from prematurity as well as astigamatisms, paralyzed vocal cord, nephrocalinosis, Chronic Lung Disease, just to name a few. It is looking like he may have trouble speaking due to low muscle tone in his mouth. Kaleb does quite a bit of sign language and is learning more every day. Since we don't know how he will be able to communicate, we need to continue to persue sign language.

He has come much farther than anyone ever thought he would. God has a purpose for his life, that is for certain. Look how far he has brought Kaleb Michael and how much he has overcome in his short life. And the progress he continues to make day by day.

So today, even though he has no clue what it is, we celebrate the miracle that his life has been. May God continue to bless you Kaleb, and use you for whatever His purpose may be! We love you!!!!

A beautiful Saturday!

The weather has been amazing the last 2 days! I was able to turn off the a/c and open up the windows!

After a nice time of hanging out with friends last night (ya'll are a crazy bunch!), I was up early this morning to do an ambulance stand by for a 5k race. Thankfully no one collapsed and the race ended with Santa Claus bringing up the rear. (I'm serious, I wish I would've had my camera!)

Came home and we ran a bunch of errands as a family for a few hours. It eneded with Kevin knocking the mirror off the van (ask him about it, thankfully it was an easy fix!) We took the kids to Friendlys as we had a gift card and were out that way. They loved getting their own sundae!

I picked a HUGE pile of tomatoes out of the garden! Of course, everyday lately I have been. I can hardly keep up. We have been very blessed this year with a wonderful turnout from the garden. Look above at the picture, I have double the tomatoes sitting on my table right now!!!

Today is 8-9-08...which happens to be the birthday of a special friend of mine! I wish him all the best and hope he had a great day! Happy Birthday Paul!!!

The brief history of my life

Where to start?? Well, I guess I could go all the way back to my begining, but that would take a lot of time! ha



A quick summary, I was the oldest of 6 kids. My parents divorced when I was young and they both later remarried. I had some rough years growing up because they didn't get along and put us kids in the middle. I was in public school till 8th grade then my parents put us in a private school where I made some life long friends and had some great experiances! Once I graduated high school, I moved a few weeks later to Peru, South America to teach K & 1st grade. What an experiance!



When I finally came back to the states, I wasn't sure what I was to do next with my life. So I started working at Shady Maple Farm Market while I tried to figure things out, doesn't everyone work there at some part in their life?? At the same time, my siblings and I started hanging out with another sibling group from church, going bowling, to each other's house, etc. Well, this other sibling group had an older sibling that tagged along with us. I knew him because he graduated years before me from the same school and he also worked at Shady. I couldn't figure out why he would hang out with us since he was much older. Long story short, I ended up marrying the guy! Yeah, guess you could say I finally figured out why Kevin was hanging out with us so much!





5 months after we were married, we found out we were expecting our first child. We also bought our first house shortly there after. The pregnancy went well and we were planning on a home birth. At 36wks my midwife became concerned because she couldn't determine the position of the baby and I was measuring just a few centimeters bigger than I should be (I am a small person so she just chalked it up to extra amniotic fluid). So I was sent for an ultrasound to see what was going on. Of course, as first time parents, we were scared since she indicated something could be wrong.





We'll never forget it. We were getting hit with hurricane Floyd and had to drive to Reading for the u/s (my first one as the midwife doesn't order them unless there is an issue). Well, lo and behold we found out we were having TWINS!!! What a shock since I was due in only a few weeks. Long story short, I was induced 2 days before my due date and gave birth to perfectly healthy twin girls, Sarah Elizabeth 5lb 6oz and Susan Esther 6lb 2oz, both 19" and a headfull of black hair.





Obviously having twins didn't deter us from having more kids! Right before the twins first birthday, we found out we were expecting baby #3. Hannah Faith was born 3wks late weighing 7lb 1oz, 19". She looked a lot like her bigger sisters.


When Hannah was close to a year old, I started taking 2 night classes a week for half a year to become an EMT. I've been volunteering as an EMT with New Holland Ambulance for over 6yrs now. I enjoy getting out and helping the public, but boy, I sure have seen and done more than most ever have.



And because we were simply so in love with our kids and wanted more, we found out right when Hannah turned 1, that we were expecting baby #4!! During this time, we knew we needed a bigger house. So we sold our first and moved into our current home only 2 days after Christmas with 6" of snow on the ground.





Erik Matthew made his entrance into the world 2wks late (but on his own, finally mommy didn't have to be induced). It was such a surprise to finally have a boy (we didn't know what we were having with any of them). He weighed 7lb 1oz, 19".





Off and on since Erik has been born Kevin has dealt with his auto-immune disorder, Crohns Disease, which has left him very sick and hospitalized at times. He was in remission prior to us getting married.





Our kids thrived and time passed before we knew it, Sarah & Susan were reaching school age. We felt very strongly that we wanted to homeschool and that's what I've been doing since day 1. I enjoy having the kids with me and seeing their eyes light up when they learn something new.





We've had a few bumps along the way as anyone does. Sarah and Susan were diagnosised with severe bilateral Conductive Hearing Loss and both girls wear hearing aides. (which ironically daddy has this condition and HE needs hearing aides also). Susan also has some growth issues we haven't been able to get a diagnosis for yet. She has seen many different pediatric specialists at Hershey Medical Center and is currently with the world renowed geneticst Dr. Holmes Morton.





Several years ago, we decided to get involved with fostering/adopting in hopes of helping other kids out and maybe expanding our family some more. It has definitely been a roller coaster, both rewarding and challenging at the same time. We got our first placement of a 2 month old boy named Hayden. He was supposed to go back to his birth mom, was up to 2 overnight visits with her after a year in care, but when he was 15 months old, that changed abruptly. His birth mom back slid and she lost her rights to him.





During this time, we received a preadoptive placement of a 12 month old medically fragile special needs boy named Michael (which I will talk about his story another day).





We started the process of adopting both boys, but unfortunately, Hayden continued to go down hill. His Dr and therapists stated he needed special mental and behaviorial help. He was one damaged little boy because of his birth mom and there was nothing we could do for him. He was becoming a threat to the others. We were given a day and a half notice and then he was gone. He had been here almost 2yrs.





As of today, our adoption of Kaleb Michael is almost done. We do plan to continue to foster and are anxiously awaiting another call.





We are celebrating our 10th anniversary in September and our oldest are in 3rd grade already. So much has happened in the last 10yrs it's hard to summarize when writing like this. Kevin is going on 17+ yrs at Shady Maple. Where does the time go???





The only way I can end this is that we have truly been blessed. Yes we have had our fair share of hardships (sometimes more than most people), but that has only made us stronger and more determined to keep pushing on.