Of Kids and Kittens

This afternoon, Mandy, the kids and I took a drive down to a store in Moshannon that often carries items that other stores regard as "discontinued" stuff and one of the things Mandy wanted -and has been able to find there before -was a new head for our mop. So, away we went and ended up making quite a trip out of it all.

Moshannon is a little village about 8 miles from here but by the time we got back home, we'd logged in probably close to 100 miles on the odometer!

After leaving the store, we headed off to Snow Shoe and Mandy realized after she'd passed this one place that they were having a yard sale there -and she remembered too that last year, she'd stopped at that particular place and had come home with oodles of items for Maya in the way of "back-to-school" clothes and all for about $12.00 total! Today, we made out very well there again. I got Maya 3 or 4 really cute little shirts (the knit type, ya know) along with a snowsuit for Kurtis that is like new! Really nice, very heavy and only $3.50 for the jacket and snowpants plus it is a "Weather-Tamer" brand, so very well made. Mandy also got Kurtis a jacket that is fantastic. It is a winter jacket by Oshkosh but is two jackets -actually more like three -in one! The inside jacket is nice and heavy-weight and it can be turned inside out and worn with the fleece side to the outside if you wish. The outer most part of the jacket, if you remove the inner one, can be worn more as a "slicker" type but it also has a nice lighter weight lining in it too. The cost for that coat? A mere $2.50! I also got a bunch of place mats too - all in Christmas designs -for about $2.25 -for 9 place mats, cloth, very, very pretty and well taken care of too!

After the yard sale, we went on down the mountain to Milesburg where we stopped at the Travel America Truckstop where I used to work and had supper there. The lady who usually worked the Saturday dayshift as assistant manager when I was there -and who I was hoping to see today as I haven't seen her in about six years now, wouldn't you just know it, but she has changed her work days and is now off on Saturday! Dang! But I did get to see one of my favorite characters who worked there when I was assistant manager and that was the prep cook, Donnie! He's a piece of work and one heck of a strong and good worker too. I always liked him very much when I worked there and also, his son, who was only about 18 or 19 years old then and was our dayshift dishwasher. Heck of a good worker he was too -just like his dad! But getting the son -nicknamed "Red" -to talk was like pulling teeth unlike his dad who can match up to me in the conversation department. I hadn't seen Donnie but maybe one time since I left that place and it was nice to see him, get to talk to him again. And, judging by his reaction when he realized it was me, there was no phony-baloney about whether he was happy to stop and chat a bit -as that's something Donnie doesn't do very well! If he likes you, considers you a friend, the smile tells it all and yep, it was really good to see his big wide grin again!

After leaving the Plaza, we took the long way home -driving down Route 220 towards Altoona to pick up one of the back roads to home that took us up through Black Moshannon State Park and then, through the forest where the real boony road winds around and comes out about 5 miles from home! Just a nice "Sunday" type drive on a Saturday afternoon!

Tonight, my older daughter called around 8 p.m. to tell me she'd had a little incident when leaving her house to go to work this evening. As she went out the door, there was a yellow jacket bee there and it stung her on her arm. She's been extremely fortunate in that this is only the second bee sting she's ever received as the first one, when she was around four years old was how we realized she is allergic to bee sting! Initially, she figured it was no big deal but by the time her fiance got her to work, her arm had swollen up, plus it was itching like crazy she said. So it was decided then that she needed to go to the emergency room to have this all checked out. She said she came very close to passing out at work until one of the other aides there got her a cold, wet rag to put on the sting and her forehead too. Anyway, the doctor gave her some kind of prescription to get filled and carry with her now too in the event something like this ever happens again. She's just lucky that she didn't have a much more severe reaction to this sting and it was enough to scare her pretty darned good too, I think.

This evening, Mandy found something that really entertained both the kids for several hours. She stuck a dvd in of "Dora, the Explorer" and both of them were totally mesmerized by it for about two hours! Ah, peace!
The "wardrobe" choice was Maya's. Quite the stylish little girl isn't she? And that ring of chocolate around her mouth too really does wonders for making her look super cool! I have no idea why she insisted on wearing this hat though because the other day, when Mandy wanted her to wear it to school, she wouldn't have anything to do with it and told us then she didn't like it! Go figure.

Now -here's some pictures I took tonight of the kittens. Kind of hard to get them to stop crawling all around -or to look at me too -although two of them do have their eyes open pretty well now. They were 10 days old today.
This is actually all four of them -the best shot I could manage while all four of them were squirming around.
Here's three of them - the grey one here is the smaller of the two grey kittens. This one and the darker colored kitten beside it are the only ones that have their eyes open already.
Here's the two little grey kittens and I think you can see the one on the bottom has its eyes open. The other grey kitten is much fatter than the other three kittens -apparently she's a bit of a little piggy!
This one, with its eyes open, was the smallest kitten and the last to be born. It is also the one that cries the most although, I have to say that all four of them are actually relatively quiet babies.
Here's a shot of the "Tubster" kitten! She's so darned cute; so soft and cuddly too!

And there you have it - a Saturday's events and some shots of our cute little kittens.