I see the end of summer comming

Yes this week is all in high 70's low 80's which is better than the 90's that we have seen more this summer than most other summers here in western Pa. School starts in one week and I see the calendar starting to feel p very fast. Kevin just finished band camp..felt bad..many band directors from all the local schools said they never remember band camps being that hot and hardly no rain...on Friday they marched at Kennywood and we took all the kids(thanks to my sister for giving me her extra tickets) but man was it packed. I am actually in the process of ordering season tickets for next summer. Kennywood just started that this year and coming up with over $600 at one time was not easy so we didn't do that this year. But while I was there the other day I asked if they were doing it again and they said yeah and if you buy it today you can apply your admission from today to the price and get to use it the rest of the season...hhhmmm.

So on the phone I went...called my mom and explained to her(that would cost me $68 instead of $89) how great of a deal...I mean my sister did give the tix for free so that was a bonus and with Kennywood being 10 minutes from my house I could take them on weekends in Sept for a few hours then I have all next year. So my mom is going to charge them(I have no charge cards...sometimes its a good thing sometimes its a bad thing) and I will pay her a little every month. So blessed to have her do that for me! Kids don't know yet...I was going to give it to them for Christmas but if I could use it this season then might as well...its usually not busy in Sept..just the locals since vacations are over.

So look out Kennywood next summer...the Grahams will be there alot! ANd if anybody ever visits this area and goes to Kennywood next summer let us know...we will surely stop by! :)

its how you live!

I came across a blog today of a mother of 4 who almost lost her life in a plane crash and was in a coma for a few months and now because of her faith is doing exactly what she wanted to do..be a mother, wife and a daughter of Christ even though she does not look the same as she did before the accident..I watched her video for the Mormon church she did and it was very touching.

And because I am labeled a "creeper" by my kids I was creeping in her old archives and looked at her posts before the accident...even like a few days before and in my mind I just thought.. wow only if her and her husband knew that in a few days this tragic accident would happen and change their life's forever.

This shows that you never know what is going to happen..live for today likes its your last..leave a legacy..live the life that our God wants you to live. Also Faith and a good relationship with our heavenly Father can get us through even the most tragic events in our lives and sometimes can even make you become stronger.

Svac Family Reunion 2010

This was the first family reunion in about 15 years. Our family has grown so big that we don't see each other too often..even years. It was so nice to see some of the family I have not seen in over 20 years and one cousin I met for the first time. there were 4 generations there me being in the second.

Try to make a long story short....

My Grandparents came over from Slovakia and they had 6 kids..my mom being the youngest and the age span was like 15-20 years between her and her oldest sister. Now I am the youngest of my moms 3 with 18 years between me and oldest brother. What does this mean? Well out of the 20 grandchildren I am the youngest with the next being like 8 years oldest and my oldest cousin is maybe like 60 so there is a big age gap. I have cousins that have kids the are older than me.

So it was nice to see everyone who came out and there was still alot that could not make it but we did mention everybody I am sure and had a great time!

this is my Mom and uncle Mike 2 0f the 6 siblings. Two of the other passed away and I have one aunt down in FL and One in NC ina nursing home.



Here are 10 of the 20 grandchildren(2nd generation)



Here is some from the next generation(3rd)


And now the 4th generation



We also did some groups of each sibling and the people who were there from the family.

This is mine..My brother was the only one missing, he has been the hospital for over a week and was released at 3pm and made it tot he reunion but missed the picture.



I have more pics on my FB if anybody want to see them

Guilty for being excited for Back to School!

I am secretly excited about my kids going back to school. See I dislike my kids being in school all day, I would rather them home with me. Also I am not a big fan of the school system but I am not at a point in my life where I can homeschool(which I would love to do)

This year will be my first in 15 years I will have all the kids at school for all day..yes all day! As you know I work at night so I do alot of my mommy/wife/housekeeper stuff during the day. I manage it as good as I can and my husband does an excellent job picking up where I left off..we work good together. But now I can clean with no interupption and it mighrt even stay cleaned for more than an hour! WOOHOO!

I will be able to run to do errands without dragging the kids along I will be able to make phone calls without kids screaming in the background and I Might even be able to read a book or catch up on some TV!

Now of course with my kids being in school all day I am not going to like not seeing them all day so instead of working all nights I am going to be able to start to throw some daylight shifts in and we can have family time in the evenings which we rearely had before, so all and all it is working in all directions for me!

Foto Friday!

New dressers forthe girls= lots of moving and sorting

My BIL's Girlfriend got new bedroom furniture and gave my girls her old stuff and it goes perfect in their bedroom and we needed them casue we were running out of places to put clothes. Now the fun begins. There were 2 dressers in their room, one is going to Kevin and the other to Brandon. Now Kevins old one I am giving to Ryan casue his is bareley still standing so now I get to to the joys of taking all these clothes and moving them all around...fun times!

Last night we started in the girls room...and lets just say wow...not to self..check under the girls beds when you ask them to clean their room(they are just as bad as the 5 and 6 year old boys)

Hopefully I can get this all down by the end of the week...its hard when I start work at 3 everyday and other things need done too..got to sat off that darn FaceBook!

Have a Blessed Day!

Summer Water fun!

My whole family was invited over to a girl from Alyssa's class and my girl scout troop for a day in the pool and her water slides. Her Aunt is also my co-leader and very brave to invite the whole family!



The pool was a perfect size for my kids



Ryan going on the littles of three slides but this one has a tunnel!



Alyssa and her friend





It was so awesome to have Alyssa and her friends teacher stop by and join in the fun! How cool is that!



Thank You Ms (aunt) Terri for having us over!

Enjoyed a day off with nothing to do

well nothing to do is an understatement...I just had no school for the kids/no work/ no activities/and no apts. I did clean the bathrooms today and did laundry but I do that sometimes by 2pm and off to work I go so I did all this in a slower pace. I might even get to bed at a decent time tonight if I ever get off the computer.

I took all 5 kids to the playground today along with Crosby. It was so nice to see all of them playing nicely together for a change, I guess they needed to let of some winter energy. Even Kevin who is 15 now played with the other four and they were all laughing and having a good time. Moments like that you know how blessed you are.

Now Monday its back to the chaos. Kids still are in school and I have to work 3-11 with lots to do in the morning. Another goal of mine for Monday is to find my CAMERA! It is MIA again!

Hope everyone had a blessed weekend!

Dance Recital

Alyssa decided to dance again this year after both my girls took a year off, Brittney did not want to dance this year but of course after going to the dance recital to watch Alyssa that all changed. Now beginning in the fall they will both dance and I am seriously thinking of putting Brandon in Gymnastics...of course with lots of protest from hubby. lol

Alyssa you did an awesome job and I am happy you are going to dance again next fall! I truly love watching my girls dance!









Cant wait to see you next recital and you too Brittney!

Happy 6th Birthday Brandon! You are such an amazing little big guy! We love you!

Keeping up the Jones'

So here It is school is almost out and gotta keep the kids amused. That means I will hear all so often "Mom can so and so come over, and can they sleep over" Then I get this uneasy knot in my stomach cause part of me is like sure you can have them over and the other half is like ugh no I do not want no kids over.

Well let me say the reason why I am like sure they can come over is because my kids have some great friends..they are not bad and very respectful to me and I have to let my kids have a social life...ya know. And I cant always have my kids go to their houses and sleep-over and not return the favor. I am the parent who always goes on the rule of equal-ness when it comes to that.

On the other hand the reason for me not wanting kids over is a page long but let me sum it up. My house is small for just the 7 of us how could I possibly have more room for more kids. So that means when my 10 or 15 year old brings someone over then the three little monsters like to be right there with them and they get no privacy which leads to much arguing between everybody. Now in the summertime I can send them outside but here at the Graham house we have no pool, we have no trampoline or do we really even have a swing set. They I get the mom I am bored..there is nothing for me and my friend to do.

So now they want to venture into my house...well guess what kids...there is nothing fun in there either. We have no big screen tv with surround system. We have 1 computer and have no family/game room. My kids hardly have toys..cause what little they have is broke or lost they don't get replaced until Santa gets here.LOL Our living room is not even big enough for all 7 of us to sit in there at one time so not a good place to want to bring your friends. Now they think they can venture to the bedroom...well for one..the rooms are a mess. Partly my fault..cant let the kids take all the blame. See we don't have alot of closet space to fit all the clothes so there is usually a pile of clothes on a dresser or somewhere if I am on a roll with laundry.

We are the minority family it seems like..I hear all the time from the kids wow you should see their bedroom, wow mom they have a huge pool, mom her TV is as big as her wall and yatta yatta yatta!

Now don't get me wrong I would love to have these things for my kids but it takes time and patience. Now the good thing is my kids can entertain themselves without all that and they all play together as some siblings do not these days. See the things my kids miss seeing or hearing from their friends is how they don't even talk to their other siblings...lucky if they even say hi..but all 5 of my kids can run and have lots of fun together in the backyard with just trees and grass.

going to try this blogging this again

Here I am again trying to blog...I know I keep saying this and never follow through....the very few people reading it probably forgot all about me but I am going to try this again. I really want to do this do have for years to come to look back on. Since my last post we have been pretty busy. We went to Disney World the week before Easter and doing all the end of the year things for school and activities. We also had a new family member added to the bunch..not a baby..(which I wouldn't mind having)






This is Crosby...he is about 4 months old and is a Red coon-hound/lab mix. Yeah nobody really explained to me how big he will get...I wanted a lapdog but I think I am supposed to get a monster here. But I am attached.

School is over in two more weeks...we are the only school district going that long...I hate it. I love having my kids home and I hate the hustle and bustle of getting them ready. We also have a dance recital next weekend and our Kennywood Picnic the following Weds.

I am looking forward to a nice relaxing summer with the family!

My kids had all week off from school and mom went crazy!

Yes, My kids had all last week off from school because of the wonderful snowstorm and I went crazy! Yes, I am the one who wanted my kids at home at all times, hated the fact that I had to send them out to school everyday and thought of homeschooling at some point or another. But it is me who went crazy with having them home all last week with no place to go!

Well I am sure one reason why I went crazy is that we were stuck in the house with no where to go, in nice weather we go out more, ya know, to break up the day. Even to play in this snow is too much of a hassle, way to deep and too cold. Even to take them to the movies or such would have been a pain, you couldn't even park in most lots because all the snow was dumped there and parking is horrible everywhere. Even the Pgh Zoo was closed all last week and this week too.

My husband always pointed out as I was "whining" and you wanted to home school! LOL Yes I did...and my reply to that is it would have been different, more structure(but I do lack that too). See I had no routine last week, our normal routine was broken, not just one day but 5 in a row. And we even lost power one of those days for about 10 hours...yeah...that was a fun filled day.

This week my kids are back in school(2 hour delays but Love those) and our routine is back to normal and now I wish my kids were at home again because I do miss them. Now getting my mind set for Spring!

I have some Extra time!

Yes..I am finding some time to blog....and the reason...Snowed in! We got hit with a snowstorm Friday into Sat. The local weather was calling for 4-8 inches....which is kind of alot for us....we usually get 2-4 4-6 if lucky..but that could be every other day....well this storm ended up dumping 24 inches....(weather people failed). Brittney was supposed to have her B-day party at Chuckie Cheese on Fri night and had to cancel that. Friday night our power kept flickering and my husband had to shovel at 9 at night because we already had 5 inches and no signs of stopping.

My husband woke up at 3:30 to go to work..he called to tell me trees were down and so were alot of wires. Around 7am our power went off. the power also went off at the Grocery Store me and hubby works at so they had to close(don't even know why they opened). Around 2:00 and about 50 degrees in our house we decided to go to in-laws. Then finally our power came on about 5:00pm. Our cable was still out along with telephone and Internet. Also we were under a water conservation.

So today there are alot of homes still without power..ours actually went out twice again...maybe for about 10 minutes each time. Schools are closed already for Monday and the best thing(well bittersweet) I got the weekend off from work but I lost 16 hours of pay!

I have pics but they are on my phone...a little boy in this house broke my camera...if I can figure out how to post them I will!

Have a blessed week and anybody in the snow zone be careful and stay warm!

little post from me

So I wanted to post some pictures and cant find my cameras....I had things on my mind I wanted to blog but cant remember! Story of my life.

Kids are off today because of the greatness of snow....I usually love having my kids home but today...yeah they were bouncing off walls....2 hour delays are nice but the whole day...IDK.

Its been a pretty emotional week for me for some reason...just so much I am thinking of from my kids to my husband and family to God to my past and to my future....I just am daydreaming way to much....and my house is showing that....and of course I work tonight and here I am on the computer. But all the thinking makes me grateful to the man upstairs for he does everything for a reason and it works out if you put your trust in him!

Now I need to focus to our trip planned around Easter and a few things I have to straighten out with 14 year olds' dad...and that will take alot up of my time....but its all about my son and what he wants so I have to do my part!

Have a great Blessed day!

WELCOME 2010 THIS IS MY YEAR FOR BLOGGING!

Out with 2009 and in with 2010 and I am hoping this is going to be our year! I believe 2009 was a challenge to our family to make us stronger for 2010 and years to follow. I am still going to be working my 2 jobs for now but learning how to juggle it now so its getting alot easier..not easy but easier. I look at 2009 and sigh because it was a challenging year for us financially but then again alot of families had it worst than us and that I am thankful....health is way more important than money and we were pretty good with that.

Its hard to believe that 2010 will bring me a 15, 10, 8, 6 and 5 year old and married for 9 years and no more new babies yet. I am hoping to try to set alot of goals for this year and stick to them...one being blogging more often, loosing some weight, and maybe even finding another church family. I also have alot of, well as my husband would say, loose ends around the house that need focused on....nothing bad...just was getting a little lazy with things and time to straighten up. I could blame Facebook but I know that is not the reason....yes I am tired alot and just feel like sitting around more than doing other stuff....now I am one who gets a sort of depression in the winter months...the cold/snow and all it does play a role on my attitude...so I am starting out slowly....any little step I take will be a huge one for me.

So here's to a Happy and Healthy New year to all of you!