Tag Archives: metroparks

Visiting Squire’s Castle

Posted on May 30, 2009 by sheila| 4 Comments

This is the Castle of Fergus B. Squire. He was born in England in 1850 and came to America at 10 years old. He started working at the Standard Oil Company when he was just a boy & eventually built and operated his own refinery.

By 1885 he joined Standard Oil of Ohio as a co-manager with Frank Rockefeller (brother of John D.) Among one of Squire’s biggest accomplishments was creating the first tank wagon to ship oil via land. Continue reading →

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Posted in cleveland, Ghosts, Orbs & such

Tagged metroparks, north chagrin reservation, squire's castle

Sunshine, Volcanos, Spiffy Old Dudes & Tippy Hedren.

Posted on May 28, 2009 by sheila| 8 Comments

So. We ventured for the day to North Chagrin Reservation, part of the Cleveland Metropark system. I’ll tell ya…Ohio has some of the most beautiful parks! We were all set for a day of family bonding and fun (Water: Check. Munchies: Check. Bug Spray: Check. Cameras: Check) and it went really well…well, until we got out of the Jeep at the first stop.

Evidently….there’s some type of toxic hormonal mixture that builds when you coop up teenagers in a car for 40 minutes and it’s a recipe for a monumental eruption. As I was left holding tight of what was left of my sanity…. wondering….WHY?????? Why can’t we have just oneouting without an argument???? Just one?

Then it ended. There was sunshine & singing birds. The rest of the day was joyous & pleasant.

: The kids on the the edge of a cliff all in shoes with no treads. (Right after I said, “Don’t go near the edge…your shoes have no tread!”

: One
tall
tree!

: If you enlarge, you’ll see a redwinged blackbird on the cattail.

: A very cool old dude
that we don’t know.
But what a snappy dresser!

: Pretending to dive. (a minute later, Shane pretended to push)

: OMG! It’s stuffed!

: Me & Shane

: Alan and Middle Child
on a fallen tree

: Tree with a very weird knot on it

: Mama and babies waiting for little brother

: Tiny turtle

: Big ass tadpole. Lots of bullfogs here, btw

: See that white egg in front of the big log?

: Tippy Hedren? Oh no!

: What volcanic eruption?

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Posted in cleveland, Nature stuff, Raising Teenagers

Tagged Alan, Kaylee, metroparks, Middle Child, north chagrin reservation

The Rise and Fall of Our American Dream.

Posted on October 14, 2008 by sheila| 9 Comments

Everyone is brought up with the fantastic, whimsical notion of achieving the American Dream. Work hard and you can have it all. Well, almost.

Our story is probably not unlike yours. Or at the very least, not unlike someone you know. Won’t you please take a few minutes and read this post? It’s a little long, but it’s worth the read. Visit our sponsors if you would, they provide me the space to share my voice. Please share your comments. If you have a blog, please put it directly into my comment section and I will visit. We’ll be miserable together.

So. just when we thought we were at a good place in life, perched on the edge of success, now we are going back to square one. The American Dream was right there, in our hip pocket. But the pocket had a hole, and we…we are out of thread. Just the other day Shane and I were sitting here saying, “Wow, we were SO close!….We were so close to making it” (Reminds me of that Whitney Houston song: Didn’t we almost have it all?)

So here is our story in a sad little nutshell:

We started our window cleaning business 12 years ago. (Shane had been in that field for 10 yrs) He worked two more years for his boss while getting our business up and running. In 1998, two years after starting All Star Window Cleaning, we took a blind leap and went completely on our own.

We did well, until 2002, and we started to feel the effects of 911 trickling down upon us. All the hotels and some restaurants began to cancel, longtime customers we held.

Not only that, but little money we had managed to sock away in a college fund for the kids had been more than cut in half when 911 hit and mutual funds tanked. We also learned that for the 12 years Shane worked for ‘the man’, his boss failed to keep up with his pension! Continue reading →