Green Glorious Green

First things first, if you're a regular around here then you've probably noticed that I've changed my blog up.  I'm on this kick right now in my life where I'm trying to simplify and streamline things, and that includes my blog seeing as it's the number one source of where I collect my thoughts.  It was too busy for me before.  Oh Mandie is getting back to basics.

Yesterday, St Patrick's Day, was the very first nice day that we've had here this year in Western Pennsylvania.  The sun was shinning high, the sky was some varied shade of blue, and our jackets stayed hung in the closet as we frolicked around the farm. 

Dare I say, Spring is on the horizon? (chances are no, but a girl can dream)

Together we all donned our greenest apparel and posed for a few windy family shots in front of the tree in our front yard.

I'm flashing back to two St. Patty's Days ago, where a then 6 year old Brayden and I took a silly detour in Wal-Mart that Mike managed to capture on his cell phone. (hence the terrible quality)

It's the small moments like there, stolen bits of silliness and laughter, that make the world go around.

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16 in 2000

At Age 16:

Got my first ever job which meant my first ever steady income of money. I bought the shirt that I was wearing in this picture from the clearance rack at the Gap. I remember thinking that I was so cool because I could finally afford to shop there, even if it was only a $7.00 tank top. I wore it at least once a week.

Blue eye shadow was awesome.

My very first venture into the art of hair dye. I got a box of bright red dye and dyed my hair not realizing the obviously red doesn't really show up over top of super dark brown. The result was the auburn bob you see. As cute as I can see that it was now, it wasn't at all what I wanted. A week later I bleached out the front two sections of my hair and made them fire engine red.

Wire necklaces that you could just snap around your neck were great. At least they were up until they slid off to the side ten seconds later making you look like you don't own a mirror.

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Our Story - Part Two

If you're by chance new to my lil ol' blog or maybe you clicked over from Flashback Friday, or heck, maybe you just plain old missed it, please click to go back and read Part One of Our Story or else I'm afraid this post won't make very much sense.

Way back then there was no such thing as keeping your information private on the Internet. If you put it out there, it was available for all the world to see. Maybe that's why I don't see a problem with blogging, but anyways. Mike found me with a simple search of local profiles because he was bored one evening and looking for someone to talk to. At the bottom of my html tricked out page (complete with purple background and turquoise letters thank you very much) I had a lyric from one of my favorite songs at the time in the "Favorite Quotation" section. And it was because of that lyric that he chose to IM me, thinking that we might have the same taste in music.

(ten points if you actually know the song)

At first I blatantly ignored the binging box on my computer screen. I was always getting creepers who liked to instant message me. It was a common thing way back then. But he was persistent, and so I moved on to vague one word answers, hoping that he'd get the point. Obviously he didn't. But once we made the Burger King connection, that changed and we sat up all night long talking and exchanging emails. It turned out that we had a few friends in common as well as interests and that we'd actually went on a small school band trip together that our schools merged together on just months prior. (Yes, we were both band nerds, don't knock it!)

February 26th

We made plans for Mike to pick me up from work for our first official date together. Needless to say, I was flying. Our plans included meeting up with some of Mikes friends to go and sit in a dark basement and watch movies. I was hoping for a cuddle and thinking that if we watched a scary movie I could pretend to be frightened...

But plans change. I ended up getting sent home from work early that night thanks to a missed break and something about child labor laws saying I could only work so long without one. So home I went, my evening plans with the cute green eyed boy uncertain. We hadn't yet exchanged phone numbers, mostly because unlike today, not everyone on the planet had a cell phone. So I emailed him that I was home and left my number for him to call me if he wanted to pick me up at my house instead so that we could get together.

If you would ask Mike about that night, he'd tell you that I stood him up for our very first date. Apparently Mike didn't get the email I had sent him hours earlier. Also it was apparent that I was the only one sitting at my computer staring at my inbox pining over this boy. He went to pick me up from my work at Burger King as scheduled. He waited in the parking lot, just like I told him to in case I was running a few minutes behind. 45 minutes later and no sign of me he finally went in and asked if I was there only to be told that I had went home hours ago. A very dejected Mike went on to his friends house without me while they consoled the poor guy who got stood up by some random chick from the Internet.

February 27th

Mike finally got my email and together we shared a laugh over the missed connections of the previous night. This time he did pick me up from work. Together we went to Denny's for dessert.

He ordered a slice of Peanut Butter Pie.
I ordered a bowl of plain vanilla ice cream.
He thought I was crazy for ordering such an odd thing.
He thought I was even crazier when I told him that I don't like chocolate.
Luckily he stuck around.

February 28th

I had the evening off from my clown duties, so we, like normal teenagers, hung out together at the mall. We ended up back at his house, where sitting on the his mom's kitchen floor leaning up against the refrigerator, the beautiful green eyed boy asked me to be his girlfriend.

Obviously I said yes.
And the rest is history.

To be continued again (somewhere on down the line) with the boys' birth stories.

And for your viewing pleasure, a few (horribly scanned) pictures from my senior prom.

Yes my hair was in cornrows and yes the front of it was dyed turquoise to match my dress. And it was permanent. My mother wasn't extremely pleased with that.

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Hidden Treasure

I remember when taking a picture was like a guessing game and you were completely unsure of the quality of the shot until you got your pictures back from the developer, only after you sealed away your 35mm roll into an envelope and trusted someone else with your memories.

Digital cameras killed that, the excitement of tearing into a photo package and seeing what you got. I suppose it also killed the all too ofter finger in front of the lens pictures too. But still, the production that we make as photographers is astounding compared to what it used to be.

When I was a kid my parents had a Polaroid and that was it. And then when Polaroid film got too expensive for my working class family, my mom would occasionally pick up a disposable camera for special occasions like Christmas or Easter. Needless to say there aren't a whole lot of pictures floating around of my childhood, which sometimes baffles me when compared to the tens of thousands that I've seemed to encompass of Brayden and Gage during their short lives.

So to uncover a gem like the one below of my mother and I is a treasure.

This was taken on Christmas Eve at my Nana's house. I think I was 7 maybe. I wish I could remember this moment, I really do. I remember that my mom absolutely hated to have her picture taken, so while there is very few of me there is even less of her, and to have one of the two of us together is amazing. About 4 months before this picture (I think, I'm a bit fuzzy on the timeline) I was made to get my waist length curly brown hair cut off thanks to my knack for chewing on it, resulting in that awesome brown helmet head.

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I Was Made For This

I used to be a dreamer. A really big dreamer. There were things that I wanted out of life, and although I had no plan on how to actually achieve any of them, they were firm in my imagination all the same. I made lists, wrote out goals, and pictured everything about how my future would be.

I was so naive.
But really, aren't we all just a little bit when we're teenagers just on the brink of being let out into the big bad world?

I grew up in a working class family who just happened to live in an upper middle class neighborhood. Granted we lived in a townhouse (that my parents and brothers still live in to this day), but certain assumptions were always made about me based on where I lived and the school that I went to. And certain expectations were forced on me, confusing the (pardon my french) hell out of me.

My dreams, at the time, were sensible, rational dreams. Go to a good college and get a degree in Creative Writing/Poetry with a teaching certificate. Eventually get my Masters. Find a great apartment, get a fabulous job, meet a good and steadily employed man, get married and have 2.5 babies. It was the American Dream. It took me awhile of being confused and saturated with outside influences until I realized that it wasn't my dream. Not one single aspect of it.

A lot of the people in the picture below probably see me as a failure, that girl who took the Honors and the AP classes to fast track her future only to end up in the next town over from where I grew up stuck at home with no career and two kids.

But you see, I was made for this.

And I don't have to tell you other moms just how in love with my family I am. I am so happy in the choices that I've made.

So I look on that senior picture of mine at that seventeen year old girl and I smile. I wish I could go back in time to save her the confusion and heartache of finding her place in the world. Because she's going to be ok. She's going to be more than ok. She'll be happy, and loved, and depended upon.

And don't be afraid to plant those roots down deep.

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Daisies in Her Hair

Yesterday was a long day. It was the kind of day that should come with a do-over, but sadly life doesn't work that way. So I hitched up my skirt and trudged on, because I am a wife and a mom and that's what I do.

Yesterday was day two of Brayden being home thanks to our little town shutting down because of the snow. Normally that wouldn't be so bad, but the little bugger hasn't had a full week of school since before Christmas vacation because of the holidays and Greek Orthodox Christmas last Friday. I love you little boy, but go back to school already! I have things that I need to do. There are rooms to clean, laundry to wash, and dishes to be done. But with two boys who seem to do nothing other than butt heads, this mama is finding her to do list getting longer and longer as my sanity goes further and further away. Add to that another three day weekend (thanks MLK Jr!) and I'm ready to go absolutely insane. It's 5:26am right now ... Brayden had better have school today!

On top of my nerves wearing thin and trudging through a horribly messy house, I've seemed to catch another sinus infection. Let me just say that I am so over sinus infections. I get at least one a month, January proving to be no different. Without fail, though, I always seem to get them right when I need to sing for choir. Oh, and did I mention that I'm starting professional voice lessons on Monday? Yeah..., expensive professional voice lessons with a guy coming all the way in from Pittsburgh. And I'll sound like a frog. Great.

It's days like yesterday where I lose myself. I spent the majority of my time curled up in my living room chair nursing a cup a chai tea and adding to an already large mountain of snotty tissues. I didn't change out of my pajamas until 4:00pm and even then I opted to forgo brushing my hair for a messy ponytail. And the most productive thing I did all day was tell my kids to put their plates in the sink for me, and not to argue while doing it.

Days like that plain old suck. I don't know about you all, but when I get sick I get mopey and whiny. As I sat there in my stinky pj's, all hopped up on Alka Seltzer, all I could think about was, "Is this what I've become?".

But then the night wears on and I start to feel a bit better.
And I get over myself.

Because, bright and early, this morning, around 5am to be exact, as I was in my bedroom rooting through a box of old hair things looking for a headband to push my still dirty, tangled hair out of my face with after a night filled with more nose blowing and headaches than sleep, I came across a gem.

This gem to be exact!

I got my licence when I was 17 years old, about 2 months shy of my 18th birthday. Boy was I upset that I didn't just wait the two stinking months so I didn't have to have that big old ugly Junior Licence sign written there on the left side. Back then I was skinny (so so skinny... *sigh*) and had short cropped hair that was always pushed back with my favorite two blue daisy barrettes. Oh, and even though you can't tell in this totally crappy picture (thanks in part to the enormous amounts of hair gel I used to wear) I was also the girl who dyed the front strips of her hair a different color every month (pretty sure they were turquoise here). Back then I was free.

But then I think about all of the things that the picture doesn't tell, the things that I lived through and that only I know. Back then I didn't have any direction or any sort of morals. I was free, but I was also naive and young and stupid. I was really really stupid.

And on days like yesterday (and probably today too if I'm being honest here) when I'm stuck in a rut, I'll always know that the girl who I used to be is still inside of there somewhere, she's just got her priorities straight now. (Number one being: take a shower and brush your hair!)

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Ketchup on the Ceiling

Often times I get caught up thinking about when my boys were small. When Gage ate dinner, or heck any meal really, he always ended up with more of it plastered to the floor, high chair, and his lap then he actually got into his little mouth. Brayden would leave a trail of toys all through the house as he went from one thing holding his interest to another, always finding something exciting and new at every turn.

Truth is, not much has changed. I still find myself scraping food from all sorts of surfaces in the house and my floors are littered with every toy imaginable (with the exception of anything that's pink, because this is a boys house after all).

Where did the time go, and when did my babies stop being babies? Slow down little boys. Give mama a chance to catch up to you!

That slobber faced baby Gage was roughly about 18 months in this picture, and big brown eyed Brayden was 4 1/2 (which is just a few months older than Gage is now).

After a year and a half of adjusting to being a mom of two at the time, I still didn't have it all together. And now, after 4+ years of it, I'm not sure I ever will.

And I'm ok with that.

Sometimes ketchup gets on the ceiling, and I don't know how. Sometimes in my "it's waaaay to early to be awake but the kids are up so I'm up" morning daze I step on a lego and want nothing more than the hex the inventor of such tortuous devices when left on the floor. Life is messy. Rather than grin and bare it, I grin and enjoy it. Legos and all.

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Jax, Florida

In 2008 we drove to Florida. (Yes, I'm flashing back to a vacation gone by. The cold weather, and the fact that there were snow flurries in the air last night are getting me down. Can you tell?) We were all in the Jeep for something like 16 long hours. It was pretty much the worst drive ever what with a screaming Gage who was only a baby at the time, and a cranky cooped up Brayden. And it was all because I refuse to set foot on an airplane. (Sort of ironic seeing as my husband works at an airport.)

We spent a wonderful week in the warm Florida sunshine visiting our family and exploring Jacksonville. The car trips aside, it was one of the best vacations that we've taken.

It's quite flat down in Florida. Seeing nothing in the background except for more expanse of sky was a bit overwhelming for this mountain girl. I think maybe that alone made the last legs of our drive down seem longer than normal, since there is no real vision in the background of where you are going. But the big beautiful palm trees everywhere more than made up for it. That's my favorite thing about traveling, exploring the new landscapes and scenery.

Anyways, here are a few pictures from our trip, including Mike and I at Friendship Fountain with the Jacksonville skyline behind us, Mike and Gage playing on the slide at our cousins parent's lake house, Gage and Mike walking on St. Augustine Beach, and Mike and Brayden rinsing off and playing at the Vilano Beach fountains.

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You know the drill by now, right? Feel like reliving some fond old memories of your own? Then click on the picture below to head on over to Christopher and Tia for a Friday Flashback all your own. And if you're not feeling nostalgic go ahead and click on over there anyways, it's a pretty fantastic blog.

Before He Grew Up

It would seem that Brayden's glasses are a monumental event .... to me. He thinks that they're cool and all and is happy to see clearly, where as I've been going on and on about the things for over a week now. All it took was just one minute for his little boy face to vanish behind those frames though. He looks so grown up with them on, and looking at him is throwing me for a loop.

I'm flashing back to a few of my favorite Brayden pictures. One's where he was younger and that sweet round face with those big cheeks were perfect for big slobbery smooches. One where he was still young enough to let his mom give him kisses without whining about it.

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You know the drill by now, right? Feel like reliving some fond old memories of your own? Then click on the picture below to head on over to Christopher and Tia for a Friday Flashback all your own. And if you're not feeling nostalgic go ahead and click on over there anyways, it's a pretty fantastic blog.

Baby Gage

Recently I've been having many of those moments that only a mother knows. The ones where she looks at her children and wonders where exactly the time went. Next year Gage will be in Pre-K. In early December he will be 4. So why is it that I often still see the baby of the family as exactly that, a baby? I'm blaming it on being a mom thing.

I thought today I'd flashback to a few of Gage's early pictures. This is how I see him, as a happy go lucky 18 month old who likes to be adventurous and get into absolutely anything and everything possible. To me, even as he grows, he'll always be this little boy.

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You know the drill by now, right? Feel like reliving some fond old memories of your own? Then click on the picture below to head on over to Christopher and Tia for a Friday Flashback all your own. And if you're not feeling nostalgic go ahead and click on over there anyways, it's a pretty fantastic blog.

A Bit of Autumn

With the leaves on the trees slowly changing and the chill in the air slowly getting more and more crisp I thought that perhaps an Autumn Friday Flashback would be in order. We're breaking out the sweaters and scarves here and eating and drinking all things pumpkin, so I'd say that it's time.

I'm not going too far back this week though, just to last year. Mostly because I love these pictures of my boys and wanted an excuse to re-post them.

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You know the drill by now, right? Feel like reliving some fond old memories of your own? Then click on the picture below to head on over to Christopher and Tia for a Friday Flashback all your own. And if you're not feeling nostalgic go ahead and click on over there anyways, it's a pretty fantastic blog.

A Brother Like No Other

Sometimes the days around here are hard. The boys fight. They argue. They don't always share. And their age difference makes for a large gap in terms of loved activities and playing together.

Here Brayden is 4 years old and Gage is only 3 months old. You can just see the innocence of little Brayden's face and the then still new thrill of being a new big brother. Gage, a happy baby, was always one to ham it up for the camera, just excited to be in the spotlight.

Most of the time my boys don't mesh well. Brayden is coming into his own as a young man and is influenced by a lot of outside sources at school and at church. Gage is struggling with still wanting to be the baby of the family and wanting to have all of the attention on him all of the time while he learns to do things in his own way. But there are still those times, as fleeting as they may be, where I see that sweet, happy four year old and that bubbly, smiling 3 month old, who are enamoured to just be in each others company.

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You know the drill by now, right? Feel like reliving some fond old memories of your own? Then click on the picture below to head on over to Christopher and Tia for a Friday Flashback all your own. And if you're not feeling nostalgic go ahead and click on over there anyways, it's a pretty fantastic blog.

Life on the Farm

It just occurred to me late last night as I was making an attempt as falling asleep (I think about the most random things at bed time. My brain has a hard time shutting down for the night.) that we have been living here on the farm for just over a year now.

What better time to do a Flashback Friday on our home and land than now?

We live on 42 acres, which is really more of a ranch than a farm, seeing as we don't have any animals. We always had the intention of maybe getting some animals, like a horse or two, but we just haven't gotten there quite yet. A stable would have to be built and all of that jazz, and while it is something that I could see us maybe doing down the road, for right now I think we're content for it to be just us here. The yard work alone is more than enough to keep Mike busy, that's for certain.


Most of our land is made up of fields, with scatterings of trees in between each one. It's a stunning piece of property, and we're quite blessed with the most amazing view out of any of our doors or windows.


There is a decent sized pond where a few ducks live in the back and also a creek where fun little wooden bridges cross over it at different parts of the land. That's where the boys play at the most and catch tiny crayfish with their daddy. We have a fire pit for the most amazing outdoor fires filled with s'mores and roasted hot dogs with friends and family.


The big gigantic barn is where all of the farm equipment is kept, and the big ol' tractor. There's a quad tucked inside of there too for afternoon 4-wheeling trips around the farm, through the woods, and up the


Living where we do, our children have the opportunity to do things that not everyone gets to do when they walk into their back yards. My boys can run, climb trees, splash in the creek, hike through the woods, ride on the quad and tractor, and just be little boys.

(A few of these pictures were taken last fall, after the leaves have turned, making it quite magical here 'round the farm.)

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You know the drill by now, right? Feel like reliving some fond old memories of your own? Then click on the picture below to head on over to Christopher and Tia for a Friday Flashback all your own. And if you're not feeling nostalgic go ahead and click on over there anyways, it's a pretty fantastic blog.