Lightening Strike Repair - 181/365

Today, we began the process of repairing all that was lost in the lightening strike. 

Nana, Reagan and I headed home from Ed and Pam's (bummer) first thing and got home around one. 

Just as we got home, Ohio Edison, Dickey Electric and Armstrong rolled in to start their jobs. 

Ohio Edison opened up the electrical box on the house and found that a couple of the wires were actually SMOKING! Nice, when Jim was alone in the house all night long! YIKES! 

After they were done, Nana and I hit the Walmart to get some new phones, wireless router, new surge protectors and a new DVD player. 

By the end of the day we were up and running as best we could be. We still had no big screen televisions or cable, but we did have internet! We pulled an old spare TV that wasn't damaged into the living room and watched Netflix. It was pretty funny! 

What a day! 

Here are all the service trucks in the driveway!

Our pile of new equipment from Walmart!

Our fancy TV setup for awhile!

Golf, Darius and a Lightening Strike - 180/365

Today, Jim and Greg headed off to Pittsburgh to see the Constellation Senior Players Golf Tournament that was held at Fox Chapel Golf Course. They left early in the morning and didn't get back until late evening. They love going to this tournament and seeing all their old time favorite players. Bernhard Langer ended up winning the tournament in a playoff over Jeff Sluman. They had a great afternoon!

While he was doing that, Nana, Reagan and I headed down to Piqua to visit with Ed and Pam. We were also going to take in a Darius Rucker concert! Woo hoo! 

We left first thing and got down there around 12:00. When we got there, Pam had a HUGE spread of food for us. She made awesome subs, had a cheese plate, and all kinds of other goodies. We were stuffed! 

Zach came over with Gina, so we were excited to meet her! She is such a sweetie and we are so happy for both of them. We had a lovely time chatting with them and sitting outside!

It was finally time to get going to the concert! We put Reagan in her little cowgirl outfit and were off. She looked so stinking cute! We loved it! We stopped to have a couple drinks and appetizers at "The Pub". It was a great little place, but a little slow. 

The concert was fantastic! Reagan was so good during the whole thing and was totally into it! Darius gave her two picks and kept smiling at her. It was adorable! We were in the second row, but for Wagon Wheel, the people in the first row put Reagan up there, so she could be front row for her favorite song. It was a hoot and she sang every word! It was awesome! 

At the end of the show, the drummer came over and gave Reagan a drumstick. She made out like a bandit! We had a blast!

During the show though, Jim texted with some bad news from home. When Jim got home from the golf tournament, he was flagged down by our neighbors who said we may have had a lightening strike. Our sprinkler system rain gauge on the side of the house, was in a million pieces all over their driveway. When he went around the corner, he couldn't get the garage door to go up. Inside, some things were working and others weren't. It was official, we had a lightening strike! UGH! He checked around the house to realize we lost three TV's, all DirectTV boxes, DVD player, wifi router, a stereo, phones, security system, both garage door lifts, sprinkler system, and a nightlight. What a mess! Poor Jim ended up spending the night in the house with no television or anything. We will start the replacement process tomorrow. UGH!

The first photo is Jim and Greg at the golf tournament.

Next, the yummy food Aunt Pam prepared!

Reagan ready to go!

Next, the girls at the show!

Reagan front row for Wagon Wheel!

Reagan's picks and drum sticks.

Boardman Rotary President's Party - 179/365

Tonight was the Boardman Rotary President's Party, honoring outgoing President Jay Summer. It was held at Antone's in Boardman. It was fun for Jim and I to be back there, since we hadn't been since our wedding. The president's parties are always so fun! They always have a theme that relates to the president's favorite things. Jay's them was Duck Dynasty since he loves the outdoors. They brought him in a boat and they all wore Duck Dynasty beards. It was hilarious. The hall was decorated with taxidermy animals and the centerpieces were little glass globes with plants in them. At one point, they actually shaved Jay's head to raise money for the club! He was a great sport and didn't even complain! It was a great night honoring another one of Boardman Rotary's fabulous presidents! Jim will take over as president next week. We couldn't be more proud of him. We know he's going to do FABULOUS! 

Jay (outgoing) and Jim (incoming) presidents.

Jay having his head shaved.

 

Garden Friday, Gymnastics and Porch Party - 178/365

Today was a busy day! 

We started at Gymnastics for Reagan. She did great! She was thrilled at the end, because they gave them Popsicles after class. She picked blue of course, since it's her favorite color!

After Gymnastics, we headed over to Family Garden Friday at Fellow's Riverside Garden.  

Today's theme was rain. They spent a lot of time watering flowers and we even went on a mushroom hunt, since mushrooms pop up after a lot of rain. Reagan was the best mushroom hunter. For the craft, they made a rain guage out of a plastic water bottle. Reagan ended up using her's as a mushroom collector during class. LOL!

As we were leaving the garden, Lori asked if we would like to pick any lettuce to take home since it was ready to harvest. Reagan jumped at the chance and picked a whole bag "for her daddy." Too cute!

This evening, Ron, Rachel and the kids came down for a porch party. It was a beautiful day, so I set up the pool for the kids. They had a blast jumping in and out! 

Rachel did the main dish this time, she did sloppy joes! YUM, one of our favorites!

We had a great evening!

Reagan picking lettuce for her daddy!

Popsicle at Gymnastics!

Cleveland Zoo - 177/365

Today, Nana, Reagan and I met Nikki, Ally and Andrew at the Cleveland Zoo. 

It was going to be a gorgeous day, so we were excited!

We got there, and it was a total madhouse, there were people everywhere! Once we got in, it was much better. Thankfully the Cleveland Zoo is so big that it swallows the crowds pretty well. 

We made our way over to the giraffes. Reagan loves to feed them the lettuce! They come right over and gobble it right up! 

Next, we headed up to the bears. We got there right as the grizzly bears were playing. They were standing up on two legs and wrestling away. They looked like they were hugging! It was too funny!

After the zoo, we were going to head over to Champps, to have some lunch. We got there to find that they were closed down. BOO! We loved it there.
We ended up going over to a new place called the Oak Barrel. The place was gorgeous, but there was no one in there. We got seated right away and the menu looked great. They had a little bit of everything. 

We got a few burgers and some buttered noodles for the kids. We were waiting and waiting and waiting. It took us nearly an hour to get our food! Once it finally came, it really was fantastic! 

This evening, Jim headed off to Doc Group for work. He said it went really well!

The kiddos at the zoo.

Reagan feeding the giraffe.

Bear HUGS!

LAZY day - 176/365

Today was a lazy day. 

Jim and I were both pooped from our Buffett night. He went off to work though. 

I hung around the house and did a few chores and worked on some back logged pictures. 

Reagan had spent the night with Nana and Papa last night, so she just stayed over there today. Her and Nana had a fun day. They watered flowers, fed the birds and Reagan even had a little BBQ for her. 

This evening, Reagan, Nana and I went up to Inner Circle for dinner. Papa had a late meeting and Jim just wanted to chill out. We had a nice little dinner. 

This evening in the bath tub Reagan was loving making beards with her bubbles!

Bubble face....

Root Canal, Cousin Day & Buffett Bus - 175/365

Today, Jim started his day with a Root Canal. He had an appointment this morning to have his tooth checked out in preparation for a root canal, but first thing this morning he called and told them how bad the pain was and asked to just have it done today. They sent him over to the Warren office to have it done. 

He said the guy was great and by the time they were halfway done, he had no pain. 

He's doing great and so relieved it's over!

This afternoon, Jim's mom had Reagan for their play day. Adrienne ended up coming down with Jillian and Evan for a visit. They played for a little while, at Jim's mom's. They had a great time playing with some megaphones she had. They were pretending they were peg-leg pirates. What a hoot!

After awhile, they decided to go up to Chuck E Cheese for a little bit! They had a great time playing games and especially love the big climbing area! 

It was a fun afternoon for them. 

This evening, we were heading to the Buffett Concert on a limo bus! We were going with Ron, Rachel, Laura, Matt, Eddie, Mike and a couple of their friends. We had a great time. The ride up was fun. We had drinks, snacks and listened to some good tunes Eddie had on his ipod. 

The concert itself was great! We had pavilion seats, which worked out since it rained the most of the evening. 

The ride home was a hoot, we had a regular old dance party going on! 

Super fun night!

Reagan spent the evening with Nana and Papa. They had dinner at Tippy and then went back to Nana's to play. Nana and Papa were so sweet and got Brinkley some doggie ice cream, since he was spending the night, too! Reagan loves holding it for him while he eats! 

The first pic is Jim ready for his root canal. 

Next, the kids and their pirate legs...

Finally, our crew on the limo bus!

Reagan and Brinkley with the doggie ice cream.

Strawberry Picking and Two Funerals - 174/365

Today Boardman Rotary had to say goodbye to one of their members. Jim and I attended calling hours for this evening for Nik Amstutz, who passed away after a brief illness. He was a great man, who loved to give back to the community. He will be greatly missed by all that knew him.

 This afternoon, Reagan, Jim and I had to say goodbye to another good friend. Our butterfly Crumbles passed away this afternoon. We are all extremely sad to see him go. We will miss our orange eating friend. We loved keeping an eye on him and taking him outside to the Butterfly Bush. He would immediately start nectaring. He loved it! 

Reagan was sad, but did great at his funeral. We painted him a little rock with his name on it and buried him next to his favorite Butterfly Bush. She waved goodbye to him. It was so precious. I think she did better than Jim and I. She was so brave. 

We will miss you crumbles. 

This morning Reagan Nana and I, headed out to White House Fruit Farm to do our annual strawberry picking! We wait all Spring for it to finally be time! Reagan just loves picking. She splits her time filling my basket and Nana's, she's an awesome helper! 

The strawberry's were perfect as usual! They had a great crowd, too!

One more funny thing....after the calling hours, Reagan and I went to dinner with Nana at the Phoenix. When we got home, Reagan jumped out of Nana's car and ran up to Jim's and hugged the back and and screamed, "Daddy's HOME!" It was too precious! 

Cleaning, Mowing, OH Wow! - 173/365

Today, I was going to try to get a bunch of cleaning done and get some much needed yard work done. With all the rain, the grass was like an amazon forest. It was nuts. All our bushes had some crazy sprouts coming out of them, so I wanted to get them reshaped again, too!

I got everything I wanted to get done, done, so it was great!

While I was doing all the chores, Reagan and daddy decided to have a daddy/daughter date down at OH Wow. We hadn't been in awhile, so she she was pretty stoked! 

She absolutely loves the water table and especially the scarf wind tunnels.  They had the place to themselves, so they had a great time. Jim said there was a birthday party, but they were mostly eating and doing presents while they were there. Plus, there was only eight or so kids, it was nice.

Reagan loves spending time with her daddy.

Hanging Around the House - 172/365

Today, we did absolutely NOTHING! It was AWESOME! We haven't had a day where we could all just veg around in pajamas, (or princess gowns) for a long time. 

We hung around the house, watched TV, played, and basically enjoyed being super lazy! 

I caught this really precious moment of Reagan and Brinkley for the photo of the day. 

Spilled Milk and Brewery Dinner - 171/365

Today, Reagan and I had a lazy day around the house. I tried to get caught up on some blogging and we played. It was a nice afternoon, until, I went to do something in the kitchen. Reagan was standing backwards on the love seat, facing me in the kitchen and I had just given her a cup of chocolate milk. It did have a lid, and she was holding the spout in her mouth, waving it back and forth with her teeth. Before I could tell her to sit down and hold it with her hands, there was a giant waterfall of chocolate milk down my tan microfiber love seat. Ack! I rushed to get some rags and soaked up as much as I could. I got our Little Green Machine and ran it over it for a couple minutes. The water started coming back clear, so hopefully I got it all! Oh well. Knock on wood, it was Reagan's first major spill.... Not bad for three.

This evening, Mike and Jamie invited us over to have dinner with them in Slippery Rock. There is a really cool brewery there, that they've been wanting us to check out for a LONG time. We just hadn't got there. By miracle, we were both free tonight! 

It was called North Country Brewery and it was SO COOL! It was an old morgue, so they believe it's haunted! It even received a certificate of haunting from the Butler Paranormal Society. 

It had all these neat little quirks and cool signs and statues. The sink in the bathroom was a little watering can hanging from a wooden pipe. It was so neat!

It was such a nice night that we were able to have dinner out on the back patio. The food was excellent and the beers were yummy, too! We had a really fun time! The kids were great, too! They colored and did all the activities on their placemats, you didn't even know they were there!

We had such a nice night and hope to visit the brewery again, soon!

The first picture is Reagan, Camryn and Leighton at dinner.

The cool sink in the bathroom

Finally, our Reagan's milk spill. It did come out and the couch looks good as new. 

Dinner Date - 170/365

Not much going on today. 

Reagan was staying with Nana for the day, while I got some stuff done around the house. They ran some errands and of course played cupcakes. 

This evening, Jim had a rotary board meeting, so Reagan and I decided to go have dinner with Nana and Papa. Jenny came along, too, since Raymond was playing golf! We went to Rachel's in Austintown and had a great time! 

Jim said his meeting was good and had nothing major to report. He's just getting geared up to become the president in two weeks! Woohoo!

Nice little evening...

Botanical Gardens, Scrappy and a Night Out - 169/365

Today, Nana and I decided to head up to the Cleveland Botanical Garden to check out the Nature Connects Exhibit. We stopped first to check out the new Janie and Jack line and to have some lunch at Brio! YUM!

We got to the garden and as soon as you walked in, you saw legos! They had a huge bee right over where you enter, it was so cool! 

The rest of the exhibits were scattered all over the garden. It was kind of like a treasure hunt. FUN! They had a huge rose, lawn mower, finch feeder, hummingbirds, bison, fox, fish, gardener and many more. The sculptures were just fascinating how someone could put it all together. It was such a fun afternoon wandering around the garden. I think all our favorite was the hummingbird.

Later this evening, Jim, Reagan and I were going to meet Grandma and Papa Greg at the Scrappers game. Reagan was going to spend the night with Nana and Papa. 

They were calling for late afternoon storms and the sky kept getting blacker as we were on our way. Luckily, a kid was giving away free tickets while we were walking through the parking lot, so we gladly took those. We went in and wandered around waiting to see if the game would start. It started to downpour and the radar had no signs of stopping. Greg and Nikki went over to Firebirds at the mall to get an appetizer while they waited out the storm. Jim and I asked if we could head over there and come back in, should the game go on and they said, under the circumstances, it wouldn't be a problem.

We went over there and chatted with them for awhile and had a nice time. Soon enough, we heard the the game was cancelled. 

Since the game was cancelled, we decided to go downtown and meet a couple of Jim's college buddies at Suzies' Dogs and Drafts. We met, Joe John and Ryan and had a fun night catching up!

We had a few drinks at Suzies, then headed down the street to Martini Brothers to have a couple sandwiches. We were all pretty hungry. The food was excellent!

We ended up having a pretty fun evening! 

Reagan had a fun night with Nana and Papa! They played around the house and made an animal hospital our of her doll house and even watched Frozen! They had a great time! 

The first picture is Reagan and the rose lego!

Jim and I with Scrappy!

Reagan playing at Nana's..