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Disappointing Weekend

Posted by Kathy Torrence on Oct 9, 2007 in Family Stuff

I’d love to show you photos of all the fun we had camping this weekend.  We planned on going to the corn maze, the New Holland fair, on a buggy ride, back to Shupp’s Grove, yardsaling, swimming in the pool and visiting with family while camping on this long holiday weekend…but then I got the flu and spent most of the weekend in bed IN THE CAMPER! 

I did manage to go out to the Rubberbuggy Art Stamps and Supply store in Strasburg, PA on Saturday afternoon for a bit.  I met my friends Denise and Marie there for dinner and some shopping.  I bought some cool unmounted rubber stamp sheets and some Cuttlebug embossing folders – I’ll try some projects with them later this week when I feel better.  The store also had some great demonstrations going on, but I felt so bad that I left early and went back to the campground – you KNOW I’m sick when I leave a stamp store early!

 
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Fall Camping in Pennsylvania

Posted by Kathy Torrence on Oct 1, 2007 in Family Stuff

We had a great time camping this weekend at Lake-in-Wood campground in Navron, Pa. We are camping there again for the next two weekends as well – a fall ‘no-tow’ package where we leave the camper during the week and camp only on the weekends.

I love fall camping – probably even more than summer camping! The weather was beautiful, sunny and cool – perfect for outdoor activities.

While we were there, we went to the Ephrata street fair, but didn’t stay long. Even though the fair is outside on the street, apparently, dogs are not allowed (although apparently not all the vendors were aware of this – several stopped us just to ask what kind of dogs they were and one even offered us free water and ice for the dogs).

After leaving the fair (and paying $4 for parking!), we went to the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area for a hike. Here we are, taking a break on the trail:

Hiking at Middle Creek-3

It was such a gorgeous day! The dogs did great (this was Geddy’s first camping trip) – Geddy led the trail but kept turning around to make sure that Daisy was still behind him. He would take ten steps, then turn around, take ten more steps, then turn around – it was really cute.

 
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First Day of School

Posted by Kathy Torrence on Sep 7, 2007 in Family Stuff

This week was the first day of school for both the kids AND me.

First day of school

You can see in the photo that Emily is in motion trying to protect herself from her big brother who is in the process of tickling her…sigh…but doesn’t she look cute in her little outfit?  Although, looking at this photo again, they are quite the colorless-khaki-kids on the first day of school, aren’t they?

Emily is just starting kindergarten, Andrew is going into eighth grade and Matt is going into third grade.

Emily was more than willing to start her first day of school. I kissed her goodbye, then she pushed herself to the front of the kindergarten line to be the first one inside and as she went in, she wiped off my kiss. So much for my little baby! She knows several of the kids in her class already and is very familiar with the school after ‘helping’ me with so many school events, so she feels totally comfortable, obviously!

Matt was excited to see his friends again and says he’s looking forward to third grade. Grade 3 is always a tough year for kids – a transition from being a little kid to being a big kid with more responsibilities and independence. Poor thing wasn’t feeling good this morning – he has a cold and has been having some issues with his asthma as a result. But he made it through the day with no major problems and seems to be feeling a bit better this morning.

Andrew actually started school yesterday, but I made him take this picture today anyway (very much against his will, as you can tell by him aggravating his little sister). This is his last year in elementary school before heading off to high school next year. Yikes! Can I really be the parent of a kid in HIGH SCHOOL?!?! Not ready for that…

I mentioned that it was also my first week of school – I began teaching my Computers and Society class on Tuesday. Now, I need to be careful what I say about my lovely class since I’m sure some of them have already Googled me and have found my blog… 😉

Unfortunately, the secretary did not order the books for the class until very late in August, so only one of the students actually has the book. I’m trying to wing it until the books come in…

I have eighteen students in the class, the majority of whom are Computer Science majors. And they are all young men – there is not ONE girl in the class! What has happened to all the women in Computer Science? When I graduated, our class had mostly men, it’s true, but there were at least SOME women…maybe about 10-20% or so.

The students tell me that as far as they know, there is only one female currently majoring in Computer Science at Rowan…that’s a real shame. Working in software is a great career – the work is interesting, pays well, jobs are readily available and…do the girls not realize that’s where all the MEN are?!?! That’s where I met MY wonderful husband… 😉

Next week my schedule starts to become REALLY crazy as all our activities begin. I have a church meeting on Monday night, my book club meets at my house on Tuesday night (Tuesday night Bible study classes also begin this week, but I’m going to have to miss the first week), Emily starts her hip-hop dance class and ‘Back to School Night’ is at the elementary school on Wednesday, Daisy starts her advanced puppy class on Thursday (fortunately, choir practice on Thursdays doesn’t start until the following week) and my stamp club meeting is at my house on Friday night. Then Saturday is the Stampin’ Up! Regional Seminar at the Philadelphia Convention Center where I’m working as a make-and-take helper…not to mention teaching my class on Tuesday and Thursday, preparing for my Scrapbooking Ministry, Sarah’s Circle, an upcoming scrapbooking workshop and dealing with training our new puppy, Geddy…no wonder my house is a wreck – no time to clean!!!

 
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Camping at Frontier Town

Posted by Kathy Torrence on Aug 21, 2007 in Family Stuff, Our Goldendoodle Puppies

We spent a few days last week camping in Ocean City, Maryland at our favorite campground, Frontier Town. We just love it there – it’s right on the bay, has its own western theme park, golf course, restaurant, ice cream parlor and even a waterpark that’s free for campers! Do you think Emily is enjoying herself at the waterpark?

 

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Since the campground is right on the bay, there is a nice breeze that keeps it cool and keeps the bugs away. Of course, sometimes the breeze is a little too strong as you can tell by Daisy’s fur…

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I can’t help but laugh out loud every time I see those photos!

The kids also did a little bit of fishing at the campground…

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And we took some time to just enjoy the scenery too…

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Daisy also did a little exploring in the water.

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It looks SO funny when just the bottoms of her paws get wet! It looks almost like Chinese footbinding…

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We also took a ride to the beach at Assateague Island, just five minutes away from the campground. It’s home to the famous wild ponies that roam the island.

Here’s one we saw on the way in to the park:

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We were in the car and Daisy was barking like crazy at that pony!

And when we left the beach, there was another pony by our truck in the parking lot:

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How would you explain THAT to your car insurance company?

We had a wonderful time on the beach – we stayed for almost five hours! It was so nice – the entire beach was practically empty and we let Daisy run in the surf off of her leash. Well…once she got used to the water, that is. She wasn’t so sure at first…

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Eventually, she got used to it and had a great time! We also met a nice couple who had a golden retriever puppy about the same age as Daisy. The dogs played together for a LONG time – until they were both exhausted!

It was another great trip – in fact, before we left the campground, we made reservations again for next year!

 
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Summer Visitors

Posted by Kathy Torrence on Aug 20, 2007 in Family Stuff

We were lucky enough to have some wonderful visitors last week – my dear friend Linda and her children Zachary and Kylee came from Melbourne, Florida to stay with us for a few days.  We had so much fun while they were here!

We went to Lake Kandle and enjoyed two sunny days there.  Her children had never swam in a lake before and the one at Lake Kandle is wonderful!

One day, a bunch of kids worked together to create a small canal that ran the entire length of the sandy beach by the lake:

The canal

What fun – it gave us a chance to relax and the kids were occupied all afternoon!

The kids also managed to get in some fishing time:

Fishing at Lake Kandle

Emily and Zach fishing 

Speaking of the kids, ours all got along so well!  Here’s a cute shot of all the children on my front porch:

All the kids and Daisy on the porch

You can see who’s worming their way into that photo – Daisy Doodle!  Linda has been considering a new puppy for her family and after she met Daisy, she wants a doodle too!  In fact, I think if she could have, she would have slipped Daisy into her suitcase and taken Daisy back to Florida with her – but I made sure to check Linda’s luggage before she left. 🙂

Our friend Kim also stopped by during the week.  We managed to get a nice photo of the three of us:

Linda, Kathy and Kim

That’s Linda on the left, me in the middle and Kim on the right.  We’ve known each other for SO long – it’s great to have friends that are with you through all the different seasons of your life.

Speaking of which, it was Kim’s birthday and we visited her at her home “down the shore” while Linda was in town.  We also visited a beach near the Atlantic City casinos and had some fun in the surf and sand – the kids took advantage of the sunny weather to get in some serious tanning on the beach:

Sunning in Brigantine

And here we are enjoying the sun ourselves:

The girls on the beach

Yes, that’s right ladies – I posted a shot of us in our swimsuits on my blog!!!!  And Linda, I love how you managed to crop your own legs out of the photo before you sent it to me… 🙂 

I hope they’re STILL my friends after I posted that photo – but hey – I’m in it too!

Anyway…during her visit, we also managed to tour our little town of Pitman.  Linda was amazed that how no matter where we went in town, we ran into someone I knew.  Such is life in a small town!

By Pitman Grove Sign

Downtown Pitman

At the library

Water Ice

We were so sad to see Linda and her children go home.  We had such a nice time – I hope they’ll come to visit us every year!

 
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Camping at Knoebels With "Daisy The Wonderdog"

Posted by Kathy Torrence on Aug 5, 2007 in Family Stuff, Our Goldendoodle Puppies

We just returned from our latest camping adventure at Knoebels, a wonderful, family amusement park in Elysburg, PA. 

 

At Knoebels-2

 

It’s not like other amusement parks such as Six Flags, Busch Gardens or Disneyworld – there is no admission price for the park.  Instead of paying one price, you pay per ride – and the prices are SO reasonable!  Mike insisted that we purchase $100 worth of tickets (they discounted them 15%) and at the end of three days at the park, we had only used a little less than half that amount of the tickets – that’s with all five of us riding for three days! We also ate dinner at the park for $14 – again, for all FIVE of us!  It’s so nice to feel like you got your money’s worth on a trip.

 

Emily on a ride

 

Knoebels also has two campgrounds associated with it – we stayed at Lake Glory.  It was a nice campground, but it didn’t have activities, a pool or swimming lake like others at which we’ve stayed.  The real attraction is just Knoebels itself.

But the amusement park does have a large pool and play area where we swam for most of the days we were there (it was SO hot!).  There was also a small kids water area where Emily spent most of her time.  I was content to just hang out by the pool and read my latest book (more about that in my Books I’m Reading category).

And the best part about Knoebels was that they allow dogs inside the amusement park (not the pool, but anywhere in the rest of the park) – how great is that?  You don’t have to leave your dog inside your camper while the rest of your family is having fun! 

 

Andrew and Daisy in the camper

 

Mike and Daisy

 

Now of course, Daisy took full advantage of this fact and quickly built her own following.  It was like traveling with a rock star or…Tom Cruise!  EVERYONE had to stop and pet her – and she just ate it up.  By the end of the trip, my kids were reciting the answers to all the questions we would get…it always went something like this…

“Your dog is SO cute!  Can I pet her?”

Sure.

“What kind of dog IS she?”

A goldendoodle.

“A golden-WHAT?  What is a goldendoodle?”

A mix between a golden retriever and standard poodle.

“How old is she?”

Six months old.

“Wow!  She’s just a puppy!  How big will she get?”

About 60-65 pounds.

“Does she shed?”

No.

“Is she easy to train?”

Yes, very.

At this point, the conversation would continue between Daisy and her admirer (as if we were no longer there at all).

Here she is, getting ready to work a crowd by one of the roller coasters:

Daisy looking for admirers at Knoebels

And waiting for Mike and Emily on the log flume ride:

 

Daisy, Andrew and Matt waiting by the flume

 

She LOVED getting so much attention…but after a while, it was difficult to get around or even just to leave the park!  Now I can understand how celebrities feel!  Well…sort of, anyway.

We had several people take Daisy’s photo and one woman walked up to us in a crowd and said loudly, “Is this DAISY?!?!”.  Apparently, she had heard all the hype from the campground and was searching for her in the park.

Hmmm…maybe we should start charging for personal appearances.  Or get Daisy her OWN blog…

Knoebels

 
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A REAL Job?!?!?

Posted by Kathy Torrence on Jul 23, 2007 in Family Stuff

I knew the day would come. That’s right – I may have to get a ‘real job’ to help pay the bills. Selling Stampin’ Up! stuff brings in some extra money, but it seems that I am my own best customer some months and we need an additional source of steady income.

I am not the only one to fall prey to the ‘real job’ syndrome lately. Several of my friends are also looking at re-entering the world of work. It seems that once your children are all in school (Emily enters kindergarten this fall), it’s time to start bringing in some income again.

Some women sell real estate, some work in the school district as substitute teachers or teacher’s aides, some go to work for the family business…

I may be teaching a computer science class at Rowan University as an adjunct professor.

Does that surprise you? Those who know me may vaguely remember that once-upon-a-time, I had not just a ‘real job’, but a ‘real career’ where I made ‘real money‘.

I graduated from college way-back-when with a dual major in Mathematics and Computer Science (NO – I was NOT a geek!!!!).

When I graduated college, I started working with the FAA and soon began studying for a Master’s Degree in Software Engineering. I finished graduate school right before I became pregnant with Andrew.

I worked for over eleven years as a software engineer, working in many different programming languages and heading up several large software projects.

I continued to work full-time after Andrew was born (my mother watched him while I worked). I also taught part-time at night as an adjunct professor at Rowan University (my alma mater) for about two years. While I was there, I also conducted some software engineering seminars and helped them develop additional software engineering courses for computer science students to help prepare them for careers in software development.

Then when Matthew was born (he’s now 8 years old), I stopped teaching, cut back to a part-time position at work and kept that schedule for about a year.

But working part-time, I didn’t feel like I wasn’t doing a good job either at work or at home, so I decided to stop working altogether and become a stay-at-home mom. We had to make a few sacrifices and downsize quite a bit, but we made it work and I enjoyed my years at home.

I always kept myself VERY busy (as you can probably tell by reading my blog!) with volunteer positions at church, school and in my community. I am certainly not one to just sit around and do nothing, that’s for sure!

In fact, Mike thinks that I’m more busy now than I ever was when I was working – but as a volunteer, I’m not getting paid for any of the work I do.

Except for the stamping. And that’s really more ‘play’ than ‘work’. 😉

So…I decided to send my resume to Rowan and see if they needed any adjunct professors for the fall. They responded this morning and said that they may have a ‘Computers and Society’ class available in the fall. A philosophical/ethical look at the impact computers have had on society.

A ‘Computers and Society’ class like that is right up my alley! And it only meets twice a week for 1 hour and 15 minutes each class. That doesn’t include all the time preparing for class and marking papers and exams, but still…if I have to do something to bring in extra money, this is a pretty good alternative.

They need to double-check and make sure that the class hasn’t been staffed yet and then they’ll get back to me.

But – yes, my friends- it looks like my unemployed days may be coming to an end really soon…

 
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Matt’s Birthday Party

Posted by Kathy Torrence on Jul 21, 2007 in Family Stuff

We had a GREAT day yesterday – it was Matthew’s 8th birthday party! We celebrated at Lake Kandle where the kids could come and swim and play all day. I just love it there – between the lake, the pool, the playground, the arcade, the volleyball and basketball courts, the snack bar…there’s just so much for the kids to do.

Plus, we had a GORGEOUS day – it was supposed to rain, but the skies cleared and it was nice and breezy all day with a bright blue sky and puffy white clouds. It felt almost like a fall day – cool in the shade, but still warm in the sun.

I think everyone had a great time – here are some of the kids at the lake:

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And at the pool:

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And Matt with his cake:

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I made the cake with a beach theme using blue icing, graham cracker crumbs for sand, gummy sharks, Swedish fish and a few beach candles I found at Target. You can see how uncomfortable Matthew is being the center of attention.  He’s such a shy kid.

I also gave the kids buckets filled with beach goodies – a beach mat, sunglasses, a visor, squirt gun, shovel…the usual play stuff.  Here they are trying to get their mats to lay flat in the breeze:

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Matt said it was the best birthday party ever!

 
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Where have I been?!?!

Posted by Kathy Torrence on Jul 16, 2007 in Family Stuff, Our Goldendoodle Puppies

Okay – I know that it’s been a while since I’ve posted…a LONG while, I just realized!

So…where have I been? Out in the sun, enjoying the beautiful warm weather – it’s summer, for goodness sakes! 😉

My family and I have a membership to Lake Kandle – a nice, old fashioned lake and swim club. My kids took swim lessons every day for two weeks, and since we were already there, we just stayed for the day. Every day. For two weeks. THAT’S why I haven’t posted. But I am getting very tan, if I do say so myself.

We had an odd July 4th – the weather was not the best, so we decided to just stick around home for the day. Mike and the kids went to the Pitman parade and I volunteered for our church’s Open House in the afternoon. We just completed a new church building and opened it up so that the community could come and see what we’ve done. We had a great turnout – several hundred people came through. You can see our new building at the Pitman United Methodist Church website. Then we watched the 4th of July fireworks right from our front yard. Every year, our little town (Pitman, NJ) has a fireworks display at Alcyon Lake – which happens to be at the end of our street. So we set up chairs out front and watch them in comfort – we don’t have to deal with traffic, finding a parking spot or whining kids (well…the kids still whine, but we can just send them inside) – it’s a nice tradition that we enjoy every year.

We also were away all last week on a camping trip at Big Timber Lake Camping Resort in Cape May Court House, NJ. We reserved our site last year so that we would be right next to the swimming lake – here’s the view from our campsite:

View from our campsite

Btl - view from our campsite

It was WONDERFUL to be so close to the lake!!! At night, after it closed, it was like we had our own private beach. And the kids took advantage of that to play in the sand and look up at the stars.

Unfortunately, Mike had to work all week, so it wasn’t much of a vacation for him. But the kids and I had a great time.

So did Daisy Doodle. She was QUITE the center of attention! In addition to being close to the lake, we were also right on a path where people walked by all day long. Here’s a shot of her and Emily watching the people go by….

Emily and Daisy

So…Daisy’s MO was to sit there looking all cute and everything until people stopped to pet her. How could you resist this face?

Daisy

Well…let me tell you – no one could resist her charms! By the time we left, Daisy practically had her own fan club. Other campers were coming up and having their pictures taken with OUR DOG! One man took a photo on his cell phone and mailed it to his fiance. When she saw it, she drove all the way out to the campground to see Daisy in person. And there was one French-Canadian family that came by every single day and spoke to her in French. They said that they never saw a dog that made them so happy (let me just say that if Daisy went missing, the first place I was going to look would be Quebec – she had several French admirers during the week!).

As for me, I managed to finish several books – I started reading novels again this summer. Why did I stop reading them in the first place? Well…the problem is that I love reading SO much (and always have) that I tend to become so involved with the book – reading every minute I get – that I let everything else fall apart around me. But now that the kids are older, I find that I have more time to dedicate to reading – they don’t need all of my attention. As a matter of fact…I think I’ll start a new blog category about the books I’m reading this summer and my thoughts on them…

Anyway…I do have several craft projects to share with you, too…I’ll post them under the appropriate category…

 
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Final Weekend at Otter Lake

Posted by Kathy Torrence on Jun 18, 2007 in Family Stuff

This was the last of our three weekends at Otter Lake Camping Resort in the Poconos – and it was wonderful once again!  The weather was actually a little chilly and we had a few thunderstorms pop up out of nowhere (we had some crazy hail with one of the storms), but we still had a great time.

Emily and I went on a fire truck ride, then we rented a boat again (just Mike and the kids this time):

Isn’t that a pretty lake?  I was on the shore with Daisy who was finally brave enough to go in the water – resulting in a very wet doodle…

She was quite the center of attention at the campground this weekend – even more than normal.  SO many people stopped us and asked what kind of dog she is.  And I guess she was just ASKING for attention when she stood at the edge of our campsite wagging her tail at everyone who walked by. 

Matt and Emily brought their scooters and had fun riding up and down the hills (and speedbumps) in the campground.  There was only one minor injury (a skinned knee on Matt) which is remarkable for as fast as they were going! 

We also had a great lunch at a Mexican restaurant nearby and I managed to load up on some Vacation Bible School supplies at the local Odd Lot Outlet.

In fact, we enjoyed the campground so much that we tossed around the idea of perhaps getting a seasonal spot there someday.  Certainly not this season, but maybe in a few years.

As soon as we got home, it was so HOT that we broke down and put our window air conditioners in – this is the longest we’ve lasted without them.

Now we’re home for a few weeks until we camp again at Big Timber Lake for a whole week in July…

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