Day 5...Time with friends

After a few days of go, go, go I was looking forward to a small amount of relaxing. So I got up early that morning, got Scott ready for his big day with grandpa, and went out to visit my grandma. My grandma is the best grandma in the entire world. I remember when I was little being at her house every weekend doing things. In fact that is where I would watch all my "cool" shows. The Hulk, Wonder Woman, League of Justice...those types. I used to always joke with her when she told me that she was old and say "grandma...until your 100 your not old". Of course in the same breath I would ask her what it was like riding dinosaurs to school and if she lived next door to Jesus. Well many years have gone by since I asked her those questions, and now she is getting close to 100, so I guess you could say she is "almost" old! I look forward to the day that I can have her face posted with Willard Scott on the Smuckers birthdays!. Anyway I spent a little time visiting her and my uncle who lives with her to help take care of grandma. Was funny to see Scott next to him. I remember having to stand on a chair for many years to give him a hug (he is about my height), and there Scott stood giving him a good run for his money. I just have to face it...unless something drastic happens, Scott is going to tower over us all.
After spending time at grandma's house I dropped Scott off with his grandpa (my dad) and headed back for home. There we made plans to meet up with my dad at the Captians game (a minor league team to the Cleveland Indians that were established after we left Ohio). The older kids didn't really want to go to the game with us, so we dropped them off at the movie theater and Tim, Michaela, and I all went to the game. I love going to the minor league games. The are so much more interactive and so much less expensive. In fact while we were there we won free ice cream, Arby's fries, and White Castle burgers. (Mom...I'll have to mail you the rest of our coupons...as we can't use them here). Anyways our team won like 6-1 or something like that. I do remember that 3 home runs were hit, which always make for a fun game. After the game was over we said our good-byes to Scott again and headed over to Jerry and Celeste's house. I really enjoy going to their place. They have 3 boys and are such "normal" people. Celeste is also a great host. She put together a great dinner for us in such short time (she had just gotten back from camping a few hours before we showed up). We sat around with them and Leeann out on the porch just enjoying time...and being creeped out by the half naked neighbor that kept walking around his yard. See in Ohio you don't have 8 foot privacy fences in any yards,there might be a chain link one for pets, but that's usually it. Before dinner Jerry took a few moments to show off some of the armor that he has created. They are big into the mid-evil time period and do a big re-enactment every year. So he showed some of his stuff off to the kids (including Tim). They even dressed Eryk (Leighanna's boyfriend) up in a "Knight and Shinning Armor" outfit to pose for some pics. After dinner we were finally able to hurd the kids (Scott had rejoined us by that time) all down to the basement to watch a movie so that we could sit out back and just talk the night away. Leeann's hubby Tom showed up around 10:30 from work, and the gang was complete! Before I knew it, it was almost midnight. I knew that some of the group had to get up for work in the morning, and that some had to deal with kids, so we sadly said our good nights, and good byes. Celeste, thank you so much for a wonderfull night. I wish we could have more of them like we used to always do! Maybe one night we will be able to have our Italian Gangster dinner party again! By the way this photo in the upper left is for you (I'll never forget that moment!!!)!!!!

Flash Back to day 1

In my sleep induced delirum I forgot about one of the most important things to happen to me on the first day in Ohio. My little sister stopped by the house for me to see my new neices, Erica and Abby. They are identical twin girls that are about 6 months old now. They are SO CUTE!! I also had a chance to see my other neice Leah who is almost 5 and getting ready to start kindergarten this year, and my nephew Cory who will be 8 next month and going into 3rd grade. It was so nice of her to drive out of her way to get out to Madison to see me with all the kids! So Sara...Thank you sooooo much for that!

Day 4...The Big Bamboosal!

So the day had finally arrived. The day of the "Surprise" picnic for the In-Laws. Tension was running high with so much stuff to do before our deadline of 1330 hours. I had a cake to finish, and still needed to get to the store. When packing for the trip, the only thing that I couldn't find were my cake pillars. No big deal right? WalMart has a craft center with a wedding section to it, and a cake section to it...it would have to be in there right? WRONG! They don't carry them. I even went over to the bakery department to see if I could buy a set from them. Sure...if I was willing to buy the entire kit, that included the bases for 3 cakes, funny tier things, and 2 sets of pillars. Insert loud groan here. So now not only am I stressing that I'm not going to have enough time to finish the cake, but now I have no way to hold it up! After taking a deep breath and looking around I settled on 4 glass pilliar like containers and filled them with clear and blue glass beads. I had no idea if this would work or not, but I had to come up with something...I was desparate at this point.
Tim then went ahead and dropped me off at the American Legion where we were having the party. These guys there were just the greatest! They let me into their kitchen to work, no questions asked, and then kept checking on my progress every so often. I think they thought I was just going to be doing a basic cake, but as it kept progressing they got more and more interested. I probably spent the next 2 or 3 hours in there getting this all put together. By the time that I was done, Tim had led the kids in re-decorating the picnic area out back. They did a great job putting little touches to the area to make it special. People were already starting to mill around, including my In-Laws. When I talked to Tim's sister Sherry, she said that it was pulled off great! Bill and Dot had NO IDEA at all what we were up to! I went and said hello to people and ran home to change, as I was covered in frosting.
The day was even more perfect then the day before! We had done up these little hand held battery powered fans with the thought that it's Ohio in June which means warm and slightly humid. Not on this day though. The sky was a perfect blue with little white puffy clouds hanging around. A slight breeze to make the weather just perfect. We couldn't have planned it any better (unlike the Wally World trip)! Lots of family was there from all around the state. Tim and I had came in from AZ with all the kids just for this, Tim's sister and her family had come in from GA, so really we had come from all over to be there. Kids were all around playing with their cousins that they hadn't seen in many years.
Finally it was time for the cake. I was pretty nervous that my idea wasn't going to work, so we set it up on site instead of in the kitchen for a grand entrance. I put it all together, and not to my surprise it barley held! I was a nervous wreck as little kids kept trying to climb on the picnic table that it was sitting on. We had Bill and Dot come over qickly to see it and then dismantled it to avoid any possiable disasters! I was suprised because before I knew it the entire thing was gone! Not long after presents were opened. They really got alot of neat things from people.
It was so nice just sitting around with all the family from both sides enjoying the day. A little later in the evening some of our friends dropped by to say hello also.

As things were winding down we made plans to go bowling with Tim's friend Steve and his girlfriend Sam. We left Scott and Michaela at the house as we knew that they would soon be asleep from all the activity of the day. Then Leighanna and Eryk stayed at Steves house to watch a few kids there. Once there we met up with my youngest sister Emily, and her best friend Lindsay. I love hanging out with those two, as they are as crazy as I am...if not more so. Emily and I were joking around about my Bachlorettes party that we did at the bowling alley and how we discovered that a highlighter glows under black light. That night they had me covered in all kinds of designs. As we talked about this, Lindsay digs in her purse and out she pulls a highlighter. Now I don't know how or why we had one before I got married, but I now have to wonder...who carries a highlighter around with them? Before the first game was over we were covered in different markings all that glew an eerie yellow under the light. We were having fun bowling during a "Cosmic" bowl. We had just started our 3rd game when all of a sudden the power was killed to our lane. When we asked about it they said that you get to bowl as many games as you can in 2 hours. Heck if we had known that when we got there we wouldn't have had 5 people to each lane! We would have spread out and taken up half the alley!

Day 3...Friday night BBQ

So to keep my In-Laws off the scent of the party we were planning (see day 4 when posted), we had a cook out for them on Friday night. But before I get ahead of myself let me back track to that morning. As my gift to the best in-laws a gal could ask for I volenteered to make their cake. So the big problem was where to make it. While hanging out at Wally World (Geauga Lake...think to the very first Vacation movie) I asked my sister Sara if I could use her kitchen while she was at work. Details were worked out for a key exchange and everything was set. Well I got to her house with Scott early in the morning and started to set everything out, while I waited for the oven to pre-heat. Scott jumped into the shower (since there were 12 people staying w/mom and dad w/their 1 bathroom house I figured I'd take a bit of the strain off the shower and use Sara's). All of a sudden I started to notice this fowl chemical smell. I opened the oven thinking that there might be pans or something left in there, but nothing. I ended up having to open the windows and re-adjust the fan to get the smell out of the house. Thank goodness my mom lives right next door, so moved all my supplies over to her place to do the baking. This ended up being a few hour project as I only had one of each of the pan sizes I needed and had to do up 2 of each of them. When I talked to Sara later about why I didn't use her place she infomed me that she had never turned the oven on before in the time that they had lived there! My dad was home that morning, so he kidnapped Scott and they went on a search for Wacky Package cards. After all the cakes were cooled and frosting made, I wrapped them all up and headed back to the in-laws house to hide them in the garage fridge.
Tim then took the kids down to "Our Lake" to play for a bit while I just vegged w/Sherry's husband William, watching the 100 best toys ever on VH1. The hula hoop took the number slot in case your wondering. Not long after Tim got back with the kids people started showing up for the BBQ. Tim had made up shirts for his parents in the Disney font saying Sizemore's est 1956. The weather really was perfect for this evening. Sunny, breeze and warm, but not hot. You know those perfect days to just sit around with family or friends and do a lot of nothing! We (as in Tim and I) also had to get a DQ cake to seal the deal. For those that don't know, we don't have a DQ near us, and none of the ones around here sell the cakes, so now everytime we head back home that is one of the first things on our list to do. Get DQ icecream and order a cake for any reason that we can. This just so happened to be a perfect reason to! The kids seemed to have a great time playing as well. It was funny to watch them grab all the toddlers toys and just go to town with them! Funny because a lot of them had been theirs at that age, but hardly got used...now that they are too big for them, they had a blast using them! The only think that would have make this BBQ any better would have been a camp fire to sit around, and maybe a bug zapper!
Stayed tuned for our Suprise party, time with friends, and our Chicken Run!