Happy New Year!

We hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year's Eve!
Our plans......
Rachel & Brandon are going to be with their Mom.
Bob will be joining Heidi, Tanner & Makayla for LOTS of snacks!
This is one of the last nights for Bob & Heidi to eat like pigs......
This weekend we are going to start eating healthier and exercising more!

Happy New Year!

Bob's Christmas Tree

Here is Bob's beautiful Christmas Tree for this year!
It's looks AWESOME!

Christmas funny

REMEMBER
THIS AT CHRISTMAS TIME

According
to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while both male and female
reindeers grow antlers in the summer each year, male reindeer drop their
antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December.
Female reindeers retain their antlers till after they give birth in
the spring.
Therefore , according to EVERY historical rendition depicting
Santa's reindeer, EVERY single one of them, from Rudolph to Blitzen, had to
be a girl.
We should've known... ONLY women would be able to drag a
fat-ass man in a red velvet suit all around the world in one night and not
get
lost.

Sad news

I have some sad news to report today......

Tanner's surgeons wife passed away today.
I'm sure many of you have heard me talk about my friend Laurie Pask.
I meet Laurie the first time Tanner had surgery. I will NEVER forget it.
She came out to the main lobby at Strong where I was sitting (around 10pm) and told me about Tanner's disease. She was Dr. Hengerer's RN at the time. I had NO idea it was his wife.
I was soooooooooooo angry at her. I thought 'listen lady - you can just go away. My son is having some quick surgery and then we are out of here'. She knew better and she was trying sooooooooo hard to make me understand that this was a life long disease and that we would be seeing ALOT of each other. I obviously just didn't want to hear it and was in total denial.

Well..... we did start to see ALOT of each other and she had a very special soft spot for Tanner in her heart. I think it was his beautiful blue eyes that won her over. :-)
It was a few years in when I realized that she and Art (Dr. Hengerer) were married. Too funny!

Over time we developed a friendship. We talked on the phone and after she was diagnosed, for the 3rd time with Breast Cancer ( and had stopped working) she would come to my office and take me out for lunch. She had a positive attitude and alway had a smile. Her first question was always "how is your family doing?" We shared alot with each other for many years.

She didn't have any children herself but she treated Tanner and Makayla with so much love. She bought them Christmas presents and on her trip to Africa, she bought them goodies home as well. They were both so happy to get a gift from Africa. I think they enjoyed seeing her pictures the most!

On this past Friday, before Tanner's surgery, Tanner made Laurie a loaf of banana bread. He also made her a card. The card and bread were for both Laurie and Art but - he made them with Laurie in mind. He gave them to Dr. Hengerer and said - "please give Laurie a hug for me". I knew then that Laurie didn't have much time left. Art was having a hard time talking to me about it and expressed that this was the most difficult thing he had ever witnessed - watching a loved one suffer.

My thoughts and prayers go out to her family. She will be truly missed by anyone and everyone who knew and loved her.

Wow.....

Wow....
It's been about 2 weeks since I've added a new post to this Happy Moose Family blog!

Here's an update about a few things for everyone!

Bob has his snowmobile put back together and has been able to use it this week because of all the new white fluffy snow. :-)
It's running good and Bob is having a blast!

I (Heidi) took a quick trip to Albany on Tuesday, Nov. 18th to lobby for library funding. We aren't asking the state to NOT cut our funding. We are just being asked to be cut equally. In other words, don't cut libraries 25% and someone else 20%. Make it fair for everyone! It's a 3 1/2 hour drive to Albany on the Thruway so we were in the car for 7 hours and in Albany for 2 hours. Let's hope our efforts pay off.

Bob now has a nasty head cold. :-(
Sneezing like crazy, headache, and just feeling like pooooo.
Poor honey!

Bob is taking Rachel and Brandon tomorrow night to see 'Twilight'. They have both read the book and can't wait to see the movie.

And last but not least -
Tanner has surgery tomorrow.
I'll update the blog as to how he makes out tomorrow night.

There is the quick family update!

Halloween update

I'm alittle late with this but I just wanted to share Halloween with everyone.
Friday night - Halloween night, my kiddies went with their father for trick or treating ( it was his weekend). Since I had no kids, I asked Bob if I could come over to his house to hand out candy. He thought that would be good. I was very excited to do this because I NEVER get more than 2 trick or treaters at my house. I was looking forward to lots and lots of little cuties.
Brandon & Rachel were home when I arrived. They were getting into their costumes. Brandon was a 'super hero' and Rachel was a 'hobo'.

I arrived at Bob's around 5:30pm with a big bowl full of candy and a bottle of white cat wine. :-)
Bob cooked us dinner while I passed out candy and had a few glasses of wine. One of the little girls that came to the door was cute as a button. She was a pretty princess. So, I handed her two packages of smarties and 1 small box of Nerds. She looked at me and said "I can't have those (she was pointed to the Nerds)". I said that's fine, I'll give you something else. She then said "My mom says I'll probably stick them up my nose again'"
I laughed sooooooooooooooo hard! She was about 3 years old. Her Mom couldn't hear her but if she did I'm sure she would have just died. hee hee hee

After an awesome dinner of Bob's famous super yummy goulash, Tanner and Makayla stopped over ticker or treating. Tanner was a bloody mess and Makayla was a witch.

It was a fun evening!

New picture

Here is a new picture of Bob & I.
This was taken by Bob's sister ~ Tracy.
We were attending Emily's (Bob's niece) 5th birthday party.

Don't forget!

Today is the day..............

Don't forget to VOTE!

Thank you

Thank you everyone who came to the Fall Party this year.
It was a very cold & wet year for a party.

We had LOTS of people cancel and we totally understood why.

Let's hope next year the weather is alittle better. Ok ok...ALOT better!

Bike ride

Today (Sunday, October 19th)
Bob & I went on a beautiful bike ride. We rode from Penn Yan to Dresden on the Keuka Lake outlet trail. It was 7 miles one way. 14 miles total.

Along the way we saw waterfalls, remains of old mills, gorgeous scenery. We also came across many people hiking, fellow bikers, two people on horseback and some Amish families enjoying a picnic. I'm adding some pictures of our journey.
After our ride, Bob treated us to lunch at the Keuka Restaurant in downtown Penn Yan.
If you ever get a chance to ride this trail - do it! It's awesome.

Here is alittle info. about the trail taken from the Keuka Lake Outlet Trail website:

In the heart of the beautiful Finger Lakes Region of New York State, between the villages of Penn Yan on Keuka Lake and Dresden on Seneca Lake, lies the Keuka Outlet Trail.
The trail is built on the track bed of the old Fall Brook Railroad (1884-1974), which, in turn, follows the towpath of the historic Crooked Lake Canal (1833-1877) that once connected the lakes by dropping 270 feet over 8 miles through the ravine created by the Keuka Outlet Creek. The canal was kept separate from the creek by its towpath, and so today's trail runs between the old canal bed and the creek, except at Seneca Mills Falls where the trail drops into the canal bed and passes through Lock #17.

The Outlet Trail is currently 7.0 miles long. The trail's descent from Keuka Lake to Seneca Lake is gradual, and so the trail can be traveled in either direction with relative ease. From the Elm Street (Rt. 54A) ball fields to Cherry Street in Penn Yan, the trail has been paved with asphalt. This 1.3-mile section of trail is owned and managed by the Village of Penn Yan. From Cherry Street east to the western outskirts of Dresden, the trail surface is a combination of dirt, gravel, and ballast from the railroad bed; these 5.7 miles of trail are owned and maintained by the Friends of the Outlet, Inc., a not-for-profit organization dedicated to preserving the lands and waters of the Keuka Lake Outlet Preservation Area.

Family dog

I have some sad news to report tonight.....
My brother Dan's family have now lost 2 family dogs in 3 weeks time.
There lab/husky mix named Tucker was hit by a car the last week in September. This was my nephew Derek's dog. He was beside himself. He loved that dog. Tucker sleep with him every night. Tucker had gotten out and ran all night long - someone found him dead and brought him back to the house in the morning.
Tonight their yellow lab named Bailey was hit by a car. This was my niece Kasey's dog. Kasey is a 14 yr. old girl and she watched her dog, who was less than a year old, die tonight. The driver never stopped. Bailey was beautiful dog.
Both times my brother was at work and someone had to call him to let him know. My sister in-law has had to take care of it both times!

My heart goes out to my brother's family. It's very hard to loss a family dog - but it's even harder to loss 2 in less than a month.

Please say an extra prayer for Kasey, Derek, Dan and Lisa tonight. Thanks

Sleep over adventure

Another fun filled adventure at Heidi's house this weekend!
Friday night, Makayla had 4 of her girlfriends over to spend the night.
5 girls under that age of 10! What was I thinking??????
Loud, yelling, screaming, laughing, goofy........... These are just some of the words I can now use to describe them to everyone! They all seemed to have a good time. They had pizza, cake, and watched 2 movies~ Spiderwick and Elf. They were all sleeping by 11pm. Not bad is what I have to say about that! :-) Young girls can really be funny to watch interact with either other.

Because Tanner was feeling left out - I allowed him to have a friend over to spend the night on Friday as well. His friend RJ came over with his bike. The plan was to ride their bikes until dark (7 pmish) and then watch a movie in his bedroom (away from the girls!). Well.....things did not go as planned! About 6:30 is when the fun began.

Tanner was jumping his BMX bike and landed hard. His chin hit the handlebar and was cut wide open. Tanner came in the house (not crying) and said - Mom I need to see you.. NOW! I was calm and said ok - and noticed the blood running down his chin. Hmmmmmm - that would be stitch worthy. Tanner keep saying.... 'Are you sure?" A mom always knows. I've seen this type of thing before with him so YES.....it was in need of stitches.

Grandma to the rescue. I called my Mom and told her what had happened. I asked for her help and then gave her the choice of staying home with the girls or taking Tanner to the ER. Smart woman - she choose to take Tanner to the ER. It was the easier of the two choices for sure.
RJ went along for the ride but is NOT going to be in the medical field when he grows up. NO chance! LOL RJ doesn't like blood nor does he even like the thought of anything along those lines.

The girls were only semi concerned about Tanner - They were more concerned about who was sleeping where on the floor, who made it into Student Council and who liked or didn't like band. LOL. They did all talk about how many stitches Tanner would get. My guess. along with 1 other girls, was 2 -3. Everyone else guessed 3 - 4.
Tanner & RJ got back home around 9:45pm. Tanner had 4 stitches to show the girls! LOL
I felt bad - My Mom was heading out the door to go and watch Derek's soccer game when I called her to the rescue. She never did make it to the game.

Saturday morning the girls went home, Makayla went to soccer practice and Tanner, RJ and I went for a quick bike ride. By Noonish - it was just Tanner, Makayla and I. RJ was picked up by his parents and life returned to normal. Well...... as normal as it can be at my house! :-)

Upcoming event

Makayla's 9th birthday weekend is coming up.
I say weekend because........
Friday night she is having girlfriends over to spend the night. (What was I thinking???)
They are going to have pizza, cake, icecream and then watch a movie.

On Sunday afternoon, we will have a family late lunch to celebrate her birthday.
Makayla's actual birthday is on Tuesday, October 14th.

Thought for the day

Courage is resistance to fear,
mastery of fear ~ not absence of fear!
(Mark Twain)

Becky & Eric's wedding

Last Saturday, Bob & I went to his cousin Becky's wedding.
The wedding itself was very beautiful. Bob's Aunt Marilyn played the piano and sang (she has a beautiful voice!) The bride wore a strapless gown while the bridesmaids wore deep wine color dresses. It was a Catholic ceremony however, it went pretty fast. The wedding was held in Phelps, NY.
The reception was held at the Mendon Country Club. Everyone had assigned seating. Bob & I sat at the 'Plum wine' table. Everything about the wedding was a 'wine' theme. Each table had a wine bottle with lights inside of it - this was the center piece. The wedding cake was decorated with grapes.
Dinner was a buffet, which can be fun trying to figure things out. One of the things on the buffet was potato chips (yes you did just read that right! - LOL). It also had chicken, Veggie lasagna, Roast beef, rolls, salad and so on. Oh yes.... it also had smashed potatoes. The smashed potatoes were to die for!!! I've never tasted such yummmmmmy smashed potatoes.
After dinner, I did (everyone cheer!) get Bob to dance with me. We danced slow and fast dances! I know dancing is NOT Bob's thing but.......he did an excellent job! I was sooooooooo thankful that he would dance with me. To even have the courage to dance with me is just one of the reason I love him so.
The wedding was suppose to be 'Adult only'. So, Bob didn't bring his kids (I wasn't going to either way). However........there were ALOT of children there. They were 'playing' in the lobby. The lobby was a disaster. Bob & I keep referring to them as the 'unaccompanied minors'. They were totally out of control. All the furniture had been moved. Toilet paper was used to tie children and furniture together. WOW! that's the last I'm going to say about that! LOL
It was great/meet some of Bob's family.
We were all VERY sad that Tracy & John (Bob's sister and brother-in-law) couldn't make it. They had sick children and they couldn't get away. :-(
I look forward to more family adventures with Bob - as well as my own! :-)

Fall Party

It's fall again!
I just came home from the Bloomsburg Fair and now it's time to think- Fall Party!

The annual Fall party is Saturday, October 25th.
Party starts at 3pm - Dinner is at 5:30pm.

If it rains...please call first, I'm not renting a tent this year. My neighbor Tim is borrowing a small tent but we aren't going to try and host a party in the pouring down rain.

I'm sending email and snailmail invites soon so if you don't get one, please let me know.

This year I'm going to post on the blog (right hand side) a list of dishes that I know people are bringing. Each year people call me to see what everyone else is bringing. This should help with that.

Hope to see you in October!

camera

I know this is a bad excuse but......
My Father has had my camera in Idaho hunting for Elk. I guess I feel like without pictures my blogs are alittle sad. LOL
Honestly, I have Tanner's camera in my purse but I can't find the cable to upload the pictures.

Ok ok....so that is a BAD BAD excuse but I was trying to justify my lack of posting. :-)

My Dad took some beautiful pictures while he was out west. He even took a picture of a mounted Moose head for me to see. :-)

I'll start being better this week.
Thanks!

Updates

Sorry.....it's been a whole week since I've added anything to the Happy Moose Family Blog.

On Sept. 6th, my Great Aunt Beryl (My grandma's sister) passed away. She was 95 years old. She was a wonderful person who I tried to visit every time I was in Bloomsburg. The funeral was Friday, Sept. 12th. So - on Thursday, Sept. 11th, Tanner, Makayla and I drove to PA after I got out of work. We returned to NY on Friday around 6:30pm.

We (the 6 of us) were planning on camping at Ontario County Park for the GROC (Greater Rochester Offroad Cyclist) event but since it was raining we didn't go Friday night. Instead we spent the day there on Saturday and then returned to the Ledgerwood house to spend the night.

Moose playing with basketball

I don't like B-ball but this is cute!!

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa_0-O8WSOU

First day of school

Well.....The summer is finally over school has started again!!!

Tanner & Makayla started school on Wednesday, Sept. 3rd
Tanner is now in 5th grade
Makayla is now in 4th grade

Rachel & Brandon started school on Thursday, Sept. 4th
Rachel is now in 8th grade
Brandon is now in 7th grade

Bob & I are both hoping for a good school year from all 4 kiddies!!

Farmall Hill Racing

Tuesday - August 19th was the last of the 3 races for the Summer Farmall Hill racing series.
The second race was held on Tuesday, August 12th.
Bob did not race this race. He was very busy trying to get things ready for our camping trip to Allegany.
Tanner did race that evening. He was alittle disappointed (Ok... ALOT!!) about how he finished. Someone beat him by half a tire - 1/100th of a second to be exact.
As I told Tanner - NO WORRIES! He finished - he didn't fall - so...be happy with what you did AND if someone beats you by that much - You need to improve for the next time and beat that person.

On Tuesday- August 19th - He did just that!
For the series - Tanner won 2nd place for his age group and class (Junior 9 & 10 yrs olds)

I was proud of him for just riding this course. It's not an easy course to ride (atleast that's what I'm told! - I haven't done it myself. )

Spring of 2009 - he can try again!

Allegany State Park Camping - Last part

Our camping adventure came to an end on Tuesday, August 19th.










We were all very tired!
We enjoyed our time together very much but it was time to go home.

We all look forward to doing it again soon!

Allegany State Park Camping - Part 6

More camping .......

Tanner & Brandon found some 'Jumps' in the woods behind some of the camp sites.
Every time we couldn't find the boys- Makayla would say - 'They're in the woods jumping again'.

One afternoon, Bob decided to go and check out the jumps -
He decided to show them all how it was done - LOL

Allegany State Park Camping - Part 5

Sunday at camp was another fun filled day!
The kids played 4 square and/or 2 square everyday we were camping.
On Sunday we went to Bradford, PA and got dinner supplies - along with chalk so the kid could draw lines for playing 4 square.
Ok..now we know - they play MUCH better without the lines! With chalk lines major arguing happened all the time!
I'm happy to report - it rained Sunday night..... and the lines were washed away. Hooray!

On our way to Bradford, we stopped at Tornado Alley. This was a spot in 1996 that a F1 tornado went thru Allegany State Park. It's been 18 years so you can no longer see where the tornado went thru but we didn't know that so we might the hike up in the woods.

Our first stop in Bradford was at the Dairy Queen for the famous Blizzards.
After that we headed to Tops grocery store for dinner supplies.
We had Chicken, salt potatoes, corn, rice and deviled eggs. Again...YUMMY!

We ended our day by having S'more's.
Rachel burned her hand on the metal S'more stick - It blistered right away. Poor honey!!!

Allegany State Park Camping - Part 4

On Saturday night - we had pie iron pizza's for dinner.
Bob makes his out of bread - I make mine out of pizza dough.
I must confess and say that I was alittle leery about the bread. I thought it would taste funny.
But....it was VERY yummy! Both ways of cooking pie iron pizzas were different but good in their own right.

After dinner - Bob took the kids up to the Stone Tower to look at the stars with Rachel's telescope.
I stayed behind and relaxed by the fire.
Thank you Bob for giving me that down time!

Allegany State Park Camping - Part 3

Saturday late morning -
After the kids hung their bags to dry a request was made by one of the kids for a trip to Thunder Rocks.
Thunder Rocks is always a fun place to visit so we all piled into Bob's car and headed for the hills.
Everyone had a good time climbing as many rocks as they could.


Rachel & Makayla did much better than I thought they would. I had little doubt the Brandon and Tanner would be climbing like monkeys. They didn't prove me wrong! :-)

Everone was very brave to climb as high as they did.
Even Bob & I climbed some rocks.
On the way home in the car -
The girls sang 'Fall Out Boys' songs to us! LOL
Brandon did join them on a song or two as well.

Allegany State Park Camping - Part 2

Camping -Part 2

On Saturday Bob prepared us an excellent breakfast. We had eggs, bacon and homefries. Makayla had cereal of course, but the rest of us enjoyed a yummy meal.
After breakfast the 4 kids painted on nylon backpacks.
After lots of painting the bags were hung on the line to dry.
Some were very creative - others (Tanner) not so much! LOL

Allegany State Park Camping - Part 1

Bob & I with our children headed to Allegany State Park for a long weekend camping.
Bob, Rachel and Brandon left on Friday, August 15th around 10:30am. Tanner, Makayla, and I left on Friday around 2:45pm. This worked great for me - Bob had both tents set up and everything of his unloaded before we got there! :-)
We had two tents set up - One for all the kids to sleep together and a small tent for Bob & I to sleep in.
Soon after we arrived, Bob & I set up the screenhouse tent and unloaded my car and started to prepare dinner. Dinner was Hamburger, hotdogs, Pasta salad and salt potatoes.
After dinner we (Bob & I) sat and relaxed alittle while the kids rode their bikes.

This is a picture of our 'home away from home' for 5 days.

Rochester Crit

Bob & I had another busy weekend - It is summer you know! :-)

Friday night Bob cooked us dinner - Pizza made on the grill - WOW - They were awesome!
I've never had a grilled pizza before but now I can't wait to have another one!

Saturday night Bob took me to the Rochester Crit.
It's a road bike race in Rochester - downtown. Bob has been to the other Rochester Crit's but I hadn't. We drove into the city and parked someplace close to the event. We then took our bikes and rode to where the race was. It was alot of fun riding my bike on the streets of Rochester - which were closed due to the race!
The pro's finished about 10:45pm and after that we rode our bikes (in the rain) to the Dinosaur BBQ. Again...another first for me! LOL
Great food - good drinks and many laughs!
I can't wait to go again next year. :-)

Farmall Hill Racing

Last night was the 1st of 3 racing scheduled for this August at Farmall Hill.

This was Tanner's first MTB race - other than the Fat Tire Festival. He was sooooooooo excited and couldn't wait to start.
And
It was Bob's first night racing on the new VOODOO frame.

The night started off very cloudy and gray but the officials decided to start the race anyway.
About 30 minutes into the race.....the skies opened up!
It rained so hard that you could barely see.
Needless to say - they stopped the race but not before we were ALL completely soaked! LOL

Hopefully next week will be better weather!

Bob and his bikes

Bob had alittle mishap with his Bianchi MUSS single speed bike frame a month or so ago.....
Because of that, he had to buy a new frame. His new frame is a VOODOO frame.
Bob's Kona bike -King Kikpua is now getting older. 'The King' is starting to make noises and it's time to upgrade. So......
Bob spent most of Sunday taking 2 bikes (Kona and Bianchi) and creating 1 new one (Voodoo).
I'm attaching pictures of the MANY bike parts and of the newly created single speed MTB - Voodoo.

Ledgerwood and Seabreeze

On Saturday, August 2nd - Bob, Rachel, Brandon and their neighbors Jake and Alyssa went to Seabreeze for the day. This is a yearly tradition that Bob does for Rachel & Brandon's birthday.
This year the day started off alittle rainy and cloudy but ended very warm and sunny.
Everyone had a good time! Amusement parks can be sooooo much fun!

While they were gone.....

While my children were at their Dad's house for two weeks, I decided to CLEAN their bedrooms.
Their rooms were a complete disaster, to say the very least.
I couldn't see Makayla floor and I knew that I was going to break an ankle some night checking on her if I didn't get it fixed.
Tanner's room....his closet was full of stuff and the organizer I bought for him 8 months ago was still sitting in the middle of his bedroom floor.
Soooo..........after many hours - their rooms were done enough for my liking.
Tanner & Makayla came home on Saturday morning and were VERY excited!
Now if they can only keep them this nice!