Mother's Day..

This Mother's Day we decided to help my Mom out by mulching her flower beds. The girls had a great time helping and playing in the water. Later, my Dad took the whole family out to our family favorite.. you named it.. OUTBACK!! What a great Mother's Day gift!

Dutch Wonderland




Papoo and YiaYia have made it a ritual to take the grandkids to Dutch Wonderland a few times a year. Not only do the kids absolutely love their outing, but we love our day alone as well. One of the kiddos most favorite activities was riding in the carriage and each riding on the horse individually. FUN!

Virginia Beach

Every year we hit the beach for our annual BLT Family Reunion. This year we actually stayed at a house directly on the beach which made for quite a bit of fun for the kiddos. They were on the beach all day and well all day. Brad takes family pictures every year so above are some of the pictures taken. You should have seen us all trying to line up the kids. It was quite a job!

Having a house directly on the beach was a lot of fun for kids, however it created tons more work for the adults. It became the ritual to scrub the kids down as much as possible before they entered the house, dip their hands & feet in buckets of water, throw them directly in the tub/ shower, clean up the path of sand they still managed to create, try to clean out all of the sand from the tubs, and then wash their clothes. As you could tell, this got old when on an average day i'd say we did this about 7x! I especially liked the picture of Alexandra, Isabel and Zane waiting for their scrub-down on the porch after a few hrs of playing.

We also all look forward to our yearly haircut at the reunion. Amy is an amazing hair stylist and she graciously brings all of her supplies to take care of the family haircuts.

This is a picture of our huge beach house.. I think it consisted of about 12 rooms, and 12 bathrooms, an indoor pool, ping-pong table, pool table, 2 family rooms, and gigantic kitchen! It was pretty amazing. The first day we arrived, the guys came up with this crazy idea to all jump in the ocean.. maybe it was to mark their territory?? We don't know but the temperature was only in the 60s and the water i'm sure was much much colder. It was pretty entertaining to watch. Our trip was filled with our annual basketball tournament, sand soccer, sun bathing, swimming, watching movies, and scrapbooking. Isabel felt really special to be able to sit w/ Aunt Brenda and scrapbook!

Morgan comes to PA..

Fun at the Park..

The Art Show..

The girls were thrilled to take us to their school for their art show this evening. They showed us all of the spectacular art projects that they've done throughout the course of this year. I absolutely love art but have not had much time to work on projects so I really enjoyed seeing the girls be able to develop their talents!

I'm In Business..

Hey All! Many of you have been inquiring about my new position at Countrywide and how to reach me here! I am planning on sending out an intro letter along with business cards however school and work together are keeping me very busy. Hopefully you will be receiving them shortly. Until then, my information is such:

~

Sarah E. Meraklis

2510 Eastern Blvd

York, PA 17402

717.840.0663

717.577.7233 cell

Sarah_E_Meraklis@Countrywide.com

Anyways, I am really enjoying my new position. I loves sales and am very excited to finally be able to use my college education as well as gain experience for future endeavors. In case you're wondering, I am using my maiden name so that people don't think Andy and I are married or are brother/ sister. Anyways, hopefully you'll get my letter soon but until then, if you or a friend need a loan, feel free to call/ e-mail me! I would love to be of service! And yes, I am certified to process loans in MD as well!

Evening of Elegance

Every year, our church sponsors a huge dance for both the adults and for the teenagers. The decorations are always out of this world! This years' theme was Asian and was awesome.. especially since we didn't have to put in as many hrs helping with it! Michael and I really look forward to this event. It gives us the chance to dress up, dance, enjoy live music, and mingle w/ friends and family.

Easter

This year we decided that we were sick of trying to run to both sides of our family's house for Easter and other holidays. We plan on swapping years from now on. This year we celebrated Easter with my family the day before. Things were so much easier. We sat around and were able to take our time eating and enjoying each other's company. We had an inside egg-hunt and watched one of my favorite movies.. Pursuit of Happiness.

The next day, we awoke to the girls screaming, "the Easter Bunny came"! The girls enoyed their goodies and then we headed to church. Following church, we came home to a huge box from Aunt Kathy.. so the girls thought Easter Bunny came again! And finally we went over Andy & Jamie's house to enjoy another home cooked meal and another egg-hunt! We had a great time enjoying one another's company on Easter and are grateful for our Savior and the sacrafice he made for each and every one of us!

Grandparents Day

Some of my fondest memories growing up were times that I spent with my grandparents. My Papoo lived right across the street from our Elementary School so we saw him and my YiaYia every day. And I remember my Grandma coming to school with me on Grandparents day, a crabfeast at school that I won, and both my elementary and middle school graduations. Papoo accompanied me to a baseball game in honor of perfect attendance. I was very lucky to have them so involved in my life and still look forward to every chance that I get to see them. And what's even better is to see how excited my kids get to see their grandparents and even great grandparents!

Alexandra and Isabel took YiaYia along with them to school on Friday for Grandparents Day.. unfortunately she's the only one that had off that day :( But both girls were very proud to have their grandma with them. They introduced her as their "YiaYia". My mom helped them make a family tree and met their teachers and classmates!

Our New Hood!

Obviously these pictures are already outdated. The weekend we moved it snowed! Hopefully we don't have a repeat of that this weekend. We are really really ready for Spring.

We were definately deprived when it came to not living in a development. The girls can ride their bikes w/ less stress of a busy street and we can take walks every day to the park! And we have so many relatives living in the same neighborhood. We really are spoiled here!

First Day of School

Alexandra and Isabel were absolutely thrilled about starting school. I registered the girls last Friday where we received a tour and met their teachers at a Christian School which is highly recommended in our area. We decided to enroll them one week early since Michael and I were both home for the week packingng and to allow for more time to drop them off if necessary. We had to do some school shopping to get some essential supplies: sleeping bags and pillows for naps, scissors, pencils, etc. The girls thought they were soo cool! That first day of school, we dropped the girls off with no problems whatsoever. They were actually very excited for me to leave. When I arrived to pick the girls up, they did not want to leave.. in fact, Alexandra tried convincing me to come back in a little while. On the way home, they told me all about the things they learned. They knew a parable Jesus had taught, worked on memorizing a scripture (which they do every morning.. sort of like seminary huh?), were learning some sign-language, letters, and numbers. I was amazed at how productive they had been in just one day. They even took a field trip to the local park since the weather had been very nice. There first week at school went better than I could have ever hoped.. definately making it easier for me to go to work. Isabel has even mastered potty so that she could go to school! The school goes up to first grade so we are actually considering possibly keeping them there rather than enrolling them in the public schools next year!

BACK TO LIFE - BACK TO REALITY

Reality struck all too quick. The night before I left for home, I found out that our basement had gotten a little bit of water in it after the last large snow fall! This wouldn't be too bad except for the fact that our house is under contract and we are to be settling March 30th!! Out of the 3 yrs we've been there, we never had problems and then we have one a few weeks before settlement! Our buyers, to say the least, were not thrilled to hear about this. We had waterproofers come to the house for recommendations. It was suggested that we put a whole drainage system in our basement and sub-pump to prevent water from ever making it in the basement again. We got the go ahead from the buyers..and well, there went a few thousand dollars!! blah! S0o just as we think everything is fine and dandy.. we moved most od our stuff from our house to stay with my Uncle Ed temporarily. Friday, we got a call from our buyers. They sound up in the air about the transaction! I am so frustrated with this situation! I don't think I would ever recommend FSBO. We gave our buyers 6 months to find buyers, we are letting them move into our house a week early w/out reimbursement, we've let them come into the house atleast a dozen times with family, maintenance personnel, etc, put in a 20 yr backed drainage system.. and now it may all fall through! Talk about wanting this situation to come to an end!! Not to mention, we had a settlement which fell through last month due to their buyers backing out!! So needless to say, we are playing the waiting game to see what happens in the end.

Along with our house being sold, Michael had surgery last week to have a fistula removed and he is doing well with recovery. I have accepted a job working at Countrywide with Andy, my brother-in-law. One day Andy called me up and said that his boss wanted to sit down and talk to me about a position. I typed up a new resume and eventually sat down with the boss where I was offered a position. After much talking, Michael and I came to the conclusion that I should accept the position. . knowing we would be enrolling Alexandra in pre-k this year and Isabel next year, that I could use the experience on my resume if I would be finishing my degree to be in pharm. sales in the near future, and that they help pay for school! We enrolled the girls in a school that was highly recommended in the area. I started my job Friday where we left early due to the snow!! So, if anyone needs a loan.. i'm your man.. or woman!! lol!

Anyways, we'll keep you updated on the house and i'll e-mail our new address, phone #, etc.

Devil's Island aka Alcatraz

Sorry this has taken me so long to post.. I spent my last day with Jolene in San Francisco where we stayed in Fisherman's Wharf and went on an awesome tour of Alcatraz! Jolene has a much more detailed account of our adventure here but just a synopsis.. We stayed in a hotel walking distance from everything. In the morning we ran down to the ferry at Fisherman's Wharf and took it to the island. To my surprise, Alcatraz was not just a huge prison but also a military base, made home to Indians for a short time, and a wildlife sanctuary. Military families actually lived on the island making up quite a large community. The children would take the ferry to school each and every day! After a brief video, we took a tour of the jail.. it was pretty amazing.

Some highlights: The cooks outlined their knives with marker so that they knew if any knives were taken by the prisoners.. they said knives went missing all the time! When prisoners did something wrong they would be locked up in a pitch-black jail cell for days at a time. In order to stay sane, the prisoners would rip a button off of their clothing, throw it, and spend the day crawling around on their hands and knees trying to find it. No prisoner was ever thought to have escaped Devil's Island!!

After our amazing tour we ate at Hard Rock Cafe, did a bit of shopping, and danced with the mimes. We had the most amazing time!

A DAY AT THE AQUARIUM..




Yesterday, we took a trip to the Canery Row Aquarium. It was much more artsy than the Baltimore Aquarium with lg diving tanks where you could watch divers work and even ask them questions as they were doing so. They had a whole floor totally devoted to kids with slides, puppet shows, touch and feel stations, etc. It was a bit smaller but more kid friendly.

I bet you're wondering what this critter is?! I put this pic on just for you Brenda! I thought you would get a kick out of it. Why it was at the aquarium, we had no idea.

Along with the aquarium, we stopped to get a haircut, ate at Chipotle, and grabbed ice cream. That night/ morning I had Jolene take to the emergency room due to my ongoing stomach issues. If anyone has any recommendations.. I would appreciate them. We were there from 12-4am to see if I was having a gall bladder attack. My tests came back clear for that and there were no clear problems w/ my blood levels. The best they could do was send me home w/ a heavy duty pain killer to try and control my stomach cramps and said to see a specialist when I make it back to PA. Anyways, we're headed to San Francisco tomorrow!