SHE'S ONE!!

OK that's a smile with sun in eyes! But she made it 1 year old!

Miss Rachel is a happy girl almost all the time and just a joy. Her brother loves her almost too much at times :-) She is always squealing in delight when he enters the room.

Rachel has mastered the stand but just won't take those first steps. She's been able to stand for almost 2 weeks now!

She has 8 teeth, 4 on the top and 4 on the bottom, hope teething is settled down for a while at least.

We've now resorted to a single pony tail to keep that ever growing hair out of her eyes. She is really not thrilled with the process but does manage to leave it in most of the day now.

Poor little Noah has started therapy for what has been diagnosed as Sensory Integration Disorder or SID. He has an extreme need for physical input and this manifests itself with him being extremely rough on us, his sister and himself. We're glad to be getting help with this before he turns into Monk! He has OCD issues already showing up as well. Funny how therapy for kids is so much more fun than for adults, he got to jump on a trampoline and jump into pillows, be squished like a hotdog in a bun, swung in a towel, and all sorts of fun games!

Will keep you all posted of his progress as the weeks progress.

Breathing...Just Breathing!

I had really wanted to do this yesterday... was all excited with my weekend's yard sale finds all photoed and ready to post... was taking photos so I could get all the stuff up on ebay also and kablammy, something misfired in my always faithful Sony Mavica - fear gripped my heart as I took the disc out hoping just hoping the computer would still read it... but I already knew what was coming... yep disk not formatted error message - lost...200+ photos lost.

So after I cried a few tears I decided to set out to find a new camera, ended up with a Canon PowerShot A720 IS, I'm not good with change, not good with learning new software and settings stuff... but as of tonight I got all my photos retaken and edited and stuff ready to list. Sadly I couldn't go back and redo the yard sale finds pictures... but here's a from memory list of some of the great finds...
2 vintage pyrex refrigerator dishes
a signed kokopelli statue
2 pink depression glass plates
3 aquamarine glasses
Artesania Rinconada Unicorn
Funny dragon figurine
neat old box made in India
Dollhouse book
First Ladies book
Coca Cola candle holder
5 Harkerware ashtrays with old cars on them
green transferware plate
Baruether Bavaria roses plate
3 Fitz & Floyd Salmon colored plates
4 Pfaltzgraff plates
a whole box of Pfaltzgraff Grapevine pattern dishes
a box of old porcelain snack set dishes
Pair of Ginori Italy shakers
CLown bell
Ronson Lighter
Elgin Clock
Quarry Critters Polar Bear
Fenton Duck
A signed dragonfly wall pocket
An old Zippo Lighter display case
A shelf for my tv stuff
A Dr Laura boardgame still sealed
Thomas Train ornaments (to put away for Noah)
Thomas Train books and videos for Noah of course!
Lots of clothes for Rachel!

So you can see it was a fun fun weekend!

Spring is here! But where has everyone gone?

Ok so keeping up on this blogging thing is not my forte' ! I am really really going to try and do better. In a week Rachel will be 1 year old, it's almost surreal. She is standing on her own but hasn't quite taken the first steps yet, any minute though!

We had fun at a local antique fair this morning, got some neat things that are going up on ebay tonight... here's a sample.

I've decided my goal needs to be 100 new auctions a week, that will put about 50 new things in the store each week also. I also need to stop procrastinating and get all the nice artwork and glass pieces hanging around here photo'd and in the store. Which by the way, has been pretty quiet lately, where is everyone? Certainly not shopping! I think, I hope people are just waiting til their taxes are done and they can relax for another year on the ol' Uncle Sam thing... then hopefully in May everyone spends their incentive rebates at ebay!

If you have read this could you send me an email and let me know my words are not in vain? I'm wondering if anyone is even lookin' at what I'm a writin' ya know?

Wow how the time flies!

I can't believe I haven't blogged since January! The kids are just keeping me hopping and between them and ebay there simply isn't any free time.

I'm trying very hard not to let the newest ebay changes scare me, I'm trying to stay positive! Yes I can still do this I can I can I can! (As she stares at the overdue electric bill, gas bill and due car payment!)

We are trying to sell our now broke down truck, geez when it rains it pours! Transmission went out, hard to sell a truck with no transmission. So we are down to one vehicle right now which is hard, but doable.

Well we tried to do a family portrait this morning - didn't quite go as planned but here ya go!

Wow How the years go by the older I get!

So not only do I have another birthday whiz by but a new year has begun. I always feel a profound sadness, sad at reflecting back at things that happened or didn't happen, and sadness of all the things I set out to do that didn't get done. Now that I sit here and read what I have typed that's a pretty bad attitude huh? So to get myself out of the douldroms (hmmm did I spell that right?) I am going to list all the good things of 2007!

The most noteworthy even would be the birth of Rachel Lynn Ackerman. She was born April 14th around noontime by emergency c-section. Weighing only 6 pounds 13 oz at birth.

Here she is just 3 days old.

She has grown by leaps and bounds and is now as I write this a thriving at a healthy 21 pounds! She took her first crawling "steps" today!

Ok so that's a pretty darn joyous thing! And then Noah, little Noah turned 2 this year and boy is he 2!! He adores his sister which I am so thankful for, but he has to be watched every minute as he is a bit mischievious (don't know where he got that!)

So to say the two babies have brought immense joy is an understatement. I feel like the luckiest woman alive to have been blessed not once but twice in my "older years".

Ok Christmas was fun. I had a housefull with my oldest daughter, Jennifer here, as well as Jordan. My mom and younger brother were also here for Christmas Eve celebrating.

That's us toasting our candy raisins!

This is mom, one of Noah's most favorite people!OK so this turned into a family photo blog! LOL! I do feel better now.

Ebay was good to me this year. Since hubby went jobless in February it was a little scarey, but we've managed to hang in there and get the bills paid. Oh yeah! I almost forgot! Another cool thing in 2007 was finding and moving into our new home, an amazing house with my gourmet kitchen, huge garden tub and a 3 car garage! An ebayer's dream! I got a new computer for Christmas from Santa, but Santa has to still move all my software over :-)

Well thank you Jacki for kick starting me into getting my first post of the year done. Yes Jacki likes everyone to blog so she too can procrastinate on listing! LOL! But truly, I needed this it's so easy to focus on the bad and the negative and forget how many wonderful things happen in our lives. I have good friends, a good family, good home, good health, and for that I am thankful and prepared to head into 2008!

The Count Down to Christmas

How in the world does almost 3 weeks go by so fast? Funny I don't remember time passing so quickly when I was young, a year seemed like forever didn't it? Well in 10 more days I will be seeing another birthday come and go, funny how you stop really looking forward to them at this point... what point is that you say? Let's just say mature. Or if you want to do the math, my oldest daughter is 23 and I had her when I was 18.

Speaking of older daughter, I just got word she is driving out to Arizona to spend Christmas with me! For the first time in many years I will have all my kids together for the holidays, I'm excited and nervous... could be a very stressful week in the Ackerman household with a 23 year old, 15 year old, 2 year old and 8 month old! Yikes! Hoping to finally get this house put together as we still have boxes everywhere since moving in 3 weeks ago.

Ebay has been steady, keeping us afloat at least! I'm hoping my stuff is the kind of stuff everyone wants to shop for after Christmas. I'm disciplining myself right now and only listing listing listing, no buying buying buying because I discovered during this move I have WAY too much inventory! So I'm working on getting my inventory down to a comfortable amount before buying more.

Oh and did I mention I'm going to be a gramma again? Yep my oldest is expecting, she will be out here to go through my maternity clothes, how crazy is that?!

Here's some of the latest from Noah and Rachel:

A very sad day for us

What do I say about Joe? He was an ornery guy, a tough Navy veteran but a softy at heart. He was the only grampa I had (adopted at that). He was always ready to help with fixing this or that, or always had good advice on stuff. At 86 years old he was still getting up on the roof and fixing stuff, or crawling under the house to do something. So never ever in a million years did I think I would get the call that came today...

That's Joe holding the little Panda Bear halloween 2005.

Trixie, his wife of 34 years, called to tell me Joe had committed suicide. He had multiple strokes over the last year and was very depressed, I had no idea it was that bad. He left her a note saying he was going to see their moms and thank you for 34 wonderful years, she could find him out in the shed... I'm in tears again as I write this, those words won't leave my head for a long time.

Trixie is like my gramma, I am so worried about her now. She said she's staying with friends, I am soooo so sad for her. Joe was her world.

The worst part about all this is I had been having this really strong feeling we needed to go visit them "before anything happened", almost eerie now and of course we didn't get there.

So please go see those loved ones you've put off seeing. Don't have regrets like I now have.

We loved you Joe! I'm sorry you were hurting so bad.