Random Reflections

I love eggs. I eat them nearly every morning. The kids eat a lot of them, too. I also love my cast iron skillet. It’s the best for cooking eggs in. It’s probably a good thing that village ordinance says we can’t have chickens. I’d probably eat MORE eggs. Besides, next thing you know, I’d want a cow, and maybe a pony…. and our yard is just too small for all of that.

Speaking of a small yard and village ordinances and such, the kids wanted S’mores. We can’t have an actual bon fire on our property. Besides, just think what it would do to our lush green grass. OK. If you’ve seen our yard, you know just how tongue in cheek that was. Anyway, we had a modified bon fire. Modified to be in our charcoal grill. It actually worked perfectly. Ian like the fire. The S’mores, not so much. Just plain old marshmallows and chocolate bars, please and thank you very much.

I’ve always loved celestial bodies. Sunsets, the moon, stars, the Milky Way that I’m sure is still there, even though I can’t see it where I live…. all very fascinating to me and a much loved object of my camera. Last evening, I was out and I saw the sun go behind this cloud. It was an amazing image. Did I mention I was driving? Well, it took me 2-3 minutes to find a place to pull over where the beautiful back lit cloud was visible to me instead of hidden by houses and such. I finally found a park, but parks, naturally, contain trees. That’s ok. I think the tree silhouette adds to the view in this particular image. Unfortunately, you can see that those few precious minutes made the difference between the sun behind the cloud and is sinking below the cloud.  Or maybe not so unfortunate. Seeing that bright, firey sphere is pretty amazing, too.

Yesterday, we dropped Noah off at camp. It’s his first time away, but more on that in another post. The point here is, being on these camp grounds and in his cabin took me back about 18 years or so, to when I was a counselor at Camp Mennoscah. My time spent there was amazing, and some of my most favorite times of my life. The kids, fellow counselors, the singing, card playing, meals, camp fire…. all of it was just…. well, I can’t even think of a word. I want to go back. I want to send my kids there so they can share in this experience that I had. It doesn’t really make sense to send them, of course, since we live in Illinois and camp is in Kansas, but I still day dream about it. Hopefully Noah will be able to form great memories at his camp that he can carry with him for his whole life. But I’m absolutely certain that the magic of Camp Mennoscah just can’t be recreated anywhere else on this planet. Was that magic a result of the camp itself? Was it because of who the directors were that I volunteered for? Was more a matter of who the rest of the staff was and where I was in my life? I really don’t know. I’d guess it was some combination of all three things and probably more. I miss Camp Mennoscah.

Oh. And I can see the Milky Way there.

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Ian’s Haircut {Photopress}

I know I said yesterday that I didn’t want to force him to get a haircut. But, it was just getting so shaggy!! But, I’m still not one for forcing someone to do something where I am holding something sharp, unless it’s a needle and it’s for factor. So, I resorted to bribery. He ate about 3/4 a package of Starburts while I cut. Olivia snuck in there and ate the other 1/4.

This is just before we started. He’s looking pretty forelorn about the whole thing. Really, he was just irritated I was making him wait for the candy while I took his before picture.

The official before picture, since his head was cut off in the other one.

And after. RIGHT after, as you can see, his clippings are still on his shirt. Couldn’t get them brushed off, so just had to change shirts.

After we changed shirts. I wanted him to look at me, but he couldn’t keep his eyes off the package with the last Starbust in it. It was sitting on the counter, right beside where I was standing. Don’t mind the blue on his face. That’s what happens when you shove candy in so fast, you miss.

Now he’s checking himself out in the mirror. He’s not really making a face at himself. He’s chewing. Those Starbursts are chewy and take some effort. Shortly after this, he decided to look at the chewed up Starburst in his mouth. I’ll spare you those pictures.

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Stylish Hannah

Hannah came down for church the Sunday after her birthday, looking all cute in one of her new outfits, so I had to take a few pictures. She’s quite the model.

And just for fun, here’s one I took of Ian. He desperately needs a haircut, but doesn’t feel like letting me, and I’m not that inclined to force him.

Thanks for looking!

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Hannah’s Birthday {Photopress}

Here are pictures from Hannah’s birthday celebration.

Waiting patiently for Jonah to go hunt down Noah, who was off in the neighborhood playing with a friend.

Her pile of loot!

Ian thinks he’s quite the reader already. This is a postcard sent to Hannah from her orthodontist.

This is a very cool gift from Grandma Judy. She put together a photo book that included many of the things she’s saved from Hannah over the years, starting with her birth announcement. There are pictures, cards and other mementos. It’s really just a gorgeous idea. She sent one to Emily last year, too. Just fantastic!

Ian really is quite convinced that any gift opening is his business to be involved in. Thankfully, Hannah was patient and accomodating to his desires.

What’s really funny about this picture is that all she’s seen at this point is a plain, white box. She seems very excited about that box.

That box contained an outfit that looks totally cute on her. I suppose I should take a shot of her wearing it. I’ll try and get to that. Next, she opened at dry erase calendar board. She specifically asked for this. Not sure why, but she asked and G&G Rainer delivered. She also got two books that she’s very excited to read, and some markers to go with her calendar.

This is the bottom part of another very cute outfit. This one from G&G Kramer. They also sent her an emerald ring that she loves.

This may seem a strange gift for an 11 year old girl, but she requested it. Along with the dart board we gave her. When we last visited Aunt Darcy and Uncle Lance, Uncle Lance took her out to play with a bow and arrows. She REALLY enjoyed it, and Uncle Lance was sure to tell us how great she did for her first time out. She’s been talking about archery ever since. So, we located a youth set for her. Now we just need to locate a safe place for her to practice.

Now the cake. My archery lovin’, dart throwin’ daughter chose to have a pink cake. She didn’t ask for pink. She asked for strawberry icing. She got pink. I’ve never made a layer cake before, and was quite happy with how this one turned out. I’m also quite happy to have a lens that gives me such a shallow depth of field, so you can’t really see all the junk on the counter behind the cake.

Hannah with her cake.

This is my favorite picture of the day. Just love it in black and white. I’m also loving all the muscles in her arms. This kid is built for sports.

Pink on the outside, but yummy chocolate on the inside!! Incidentally, pink and brown is my favorite color combination, so I really like the way this cake looks.

After all of the celebrating, she wanted to try out her new dartboard.

Pretty darn good for her first throw!!

Finally, after seeing all we gave to Hannah, I thought I needed to show her what she’s given me. I’ll share with you, too.

I think I’d like to return this gift.

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Happy Birthday, Hannah!

Hannah is 11. Her birthday was actually yesterday, but Thursdays are always very crazy around here. Tom’s birthday was on Thursday, too and he didn’t get to celebrate on the day, either. Hannah was very sweet and was content with waiting until today. I baked cupcakes this morning for her class. Tom took them in this afternoon. When she came home, she told me everyone loved and said they were the best cupcakes. Yeah, Mom & Pillsbury Doughboy!

Before dinner, we let her open her gifts. She’d already waited an extra day. She didn’t need to wait until after dinner and cake. Besides, I wanted time for Tom to take care of the “Some assembly required” item before he had to go to work.

Here are three videos of her opening her gifts. They were taken with Emily’s phone, so they are phone quality, but still get the job done. The first is the gifts from Grandma & Grandpa Rainer.

Here is the package from Grandma and Grandpa Kramer.

Here are her gifts from us.

Pictures to follow in the next post!

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The Maternal Lens

This is a pretty cool photography blog put together by five moms who take amazing pictures. They run contests and are currently running one for a Matilda Jane outfit. I think Olivia would just love it since it’s so girly and she loves to dress girly. So, here’s a post promoting it to get me another entry. Cross your fingers for Olivia!

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Yummy Birthday Dinner

On every birthday that happens in this house, except my own, we have a “Birthday Person’s choice” meal. They can choose whatever they want for me to cook for them. Tom chose stuffed shells and olive cheese bread. I took some pictures while Emily, Hannah and I prepared the meal. Yes, I am aware of a glaring omission. Of course, there should have been a Ceasar salad. I just dropped the ball. I’ve got so many of them in the air, it’s really no surprise when one hits the floor. Anyway….

These are the olives. You can’t have olive cheese bread without olives. The last time I made this, it was too salty. It turned out perfect this time. Not sure what was different.

These are green onions. See? While we didn’t have a salad, we DID have something green. And even something that grows in many gardens. I’m not sure I’d compare the nutritional value to say, broccoli, but, hey, it’s the best I could do tonight. So, now all these olives and the onions get mixed with butter and mayo. There are not calories of fat gram in birthday dinners.

There’s also cheese mixed in. Yes, more fat. But, hey! Calcium, too! Aren’t all the colors pretty? Next we spread it all on healthy sprouted grain bread, because that’s the best kind for you.

Ok. Not really. It’s bad for you, way processed white French bread. Birthday dinner, remember?

While I was making the bread spread, the shells were cooking. Also, Emily was mixing the filling for the shells. I was too busy with my bread and I forgot to take pictures of what she was doing. But that’s ok. I like it when my kitchen work is miraculously done for me. And that’s how it looks in the pictures.

Here’s the bread, all spread and ready to go into the oven. I could almost just eat it like this. But, I didn’t. Except that little bit that fell off the bread. No one really missed it, so it was ok.

It was at this point, once I put the bread in the oven, that I realized I had neglected my girls. So, I grabbed a quick shot of the last step. The shells are already stuffed and in the dish, with marinara sauce dumped all over the top. Emily is putting more mozzarella cheese on top.

Tomato stuff gives me heart burn. I’m sure it’s an age thing. I used to eat spaghetti like twice a week. Now, maybe once a month. It’s just rough on me. So, I prefer alfredo sauce on my Italian dishes. To accommodate my old stomach, I also made a white dish. Stuffed shells covered with alfredo.

While the shells were finishing up in the over, the bread got done. Now the cheese is all melty. The bread is warm and crispy around the edges. Way yummy!

Sausage Marinara Stuffed Shells – because they have sausage in them, and marinara sauce. Obvious, I know. This is how Tom ordered his dinner.

Cheesy Alfredo Stuffed Shells – again, obvious. They aren’t as pretty to look at. Very monochromatic. Not bright like the other ones. These had no meat and used alfredo sauce. Just the way I like it. And Emily. And Olivia. She ate like 5 shells. I was full after 1 1/2. But I had bread. Olivia didn’t.

So that was Tom’s plate up at the top. This is my plate. The lack of salad is even more glaring here. Yes, I know there are 4 shells on my plate. I really did only eat 1 1/2. Olivia just wanted a half to start with. That’s funny. Anyway, I realized I’d gotten too much, so I cut one in half and gave it to her. Then I ate one and ate my bread. I was just as stuffed as the shells, so I put the other two back in the dish. Hey. It’s just family. You can do that when it’s family. As it turned out, those two were very shortly eaten by Olivia, along with a couple of others. So it all worked out.

So that was Tom’s birthday dinner in pictures. Next time, I’ll make salad.

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Happy Birthday, Daddy!

This is what Tom looks like now that he’s 36. SUCH and old man!!! Hm. Maybe I should have made him gray in Photoshop or something. :o)

Once I took a picture of Daddy, Ian insisted I take one of him. It’s only fitting that “picture” be one of the early words that he’s mastered.

I’m not so sure the choice of packaging is appropriate here. Ok. Just kidding. :o) The box doesn’t matter. Just going to recycling. But it is probably the only picture that will ever exist of Tom opening a box marked Dell.

Ian is totally into opening presents. He was very excited to be right there, helping Daddy.

Yeah. More laundry to wash. But that’s ok. Anything for my metroman!

It’s actually a very cool shirt, and amazingly enough, he didn’t have along sleeved navy shirt. I thought he had everything by now. I was wrong.

Yeah!!! They DO have cuffs!!

When you’re a kid, it’s all about the presents. But, when you grow up, you actually READ the cards.

Ian finally getting in on the action. Yes, I know there is marker on his leg. We did it on purpose. It’s to distract you from all the ugly bruises. Really.

Ian is reading the card, too. That’s right. Our 2 year old can read. OK. So maybe not. Maybe he’s just looking at the pictures.

The kids have developed a tradition. See, they don’t actually have jobs where they earn money. So, they will find something of their own, wrap it up and give it to the current birthday person. This one is from Hannah.

Cool snowflake chain. We are glad this is the only kind of snow we are seeing anymore this season.

You can see all around him, the things the kids made for and gave to Daddy. This is an airplane that was delivered by air mail, from Noah. I tried to take a shot of the plane coming in for a landing. Tom had a funny look on his face, and he missed the catch. However, the low light capabilities of my camera are stinky and I refuse to use flash, so it didn’t turn out.

Tonight, we are having stuffed shells, and Pioneer Woman’s Olive Cheese Bread for dinner. He will get his gift from us then, too. I’m not telling!! You’ll have to wait for the pictures sometime this weekend…..I hope.

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Babylegs, take 2

Here’s Olivia again. She put this on for church this morning and I couldn’t resist taking a shot of her. She really loves those things! I guess I need to get her a couple more pair in other colors so she will be able to match whatever she’s wearing instead of just wearing them with pink.

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“Yeah, sure.”

This is Ian. He’s 2 years and 8 months. He’s quite a character. He was a bit slow to talk, but now he talks all the time and we can understand about 95% of what he says. I think he’s well on his way to following in his sibling footsteps – the footsteps of never stop talking, I mean.

And yes, his face is messy. It almost always is, because he’s almost always eating. He really likes food. In fact, it’s not unexpected to find him standing in the kitchen with the fridge door open, looking for his next snack. He was sitting at the table just finishing lunch when I took this. He also needs a hair cut. That’s something we are working up to.

He’s very ornery and does just what he wants to do. But, when he does something he knows he shouldn’t, like coloring on the walls, he will come and find a parent to confess immediately after he does it. What’s up with that? Also, when he’s doing something he shouldn’t, and I correct him and ask him to stop, he very cheerily says, “OK!” Or oo tay, if we are being specific.

One of Ian’s funniest speaking quirks right now is in the title. He almost never just says yes to anything. He always tacks on “sure.” Ian: juice. Me: You want some juice? Ian: Yeah, sure.  Or… Ian: Potty. Me: You need to potty? Ian: Yeah, sure. Like, “gee, now that you mention it, I do have to potty.” I remember Olivia did something similar. She started the answer to every question with “no” even when she wanted to answer in the affirmative.

Ian’s favorite thing right now are his Hot Wheels. And a big, ugly plastic elephant. Hearing him say elephant is the hight light of my day. I can’t even begin to spell how he says it. You’ll just have to trust me that it’s way cute. Or you can call and ask him about his elephant. I’m sure he’d be happy to chat about it. But, the cars? They go everywhere. They go to the store. They go to church. They go everywhere. The cars definitely serve a good purpose. He can name them by color. Tom loves that Ian knows his colors already. I don’t even know if it’s already. I don’t pay much attention to all of that “they should know XX by XXX” stuff. I figure they will know it when they know it. I don’t know of any adults who are unable to name colors as long as they are able to see them. So I don’t worry.

The other thing about Ian, that I often actually forget about, is his hemophilia. When Noah was Ian’s age, we had just gotten rid of the port and were just starting peripheral infusions (sticking into a vein rather than using an artificial access device). Noah required EMLA which is a topical numbing cream (that should be offered to every pediatric patient who is having blood drawn in my opinion, but that’s a whole different story). I was finally able to get Noah to give up the cream about 2 years ago. He’s 8. I really don’t like it because it has to sit for an hour to be fully effective. We did try it with Ian once when he was little. However, he was so traumatized by needles by then, that it did not good. He fought just as hard. So, we decided that if we were going to have to fight anyway, we might as well get him used to the needle stick. We infuse him once a week, and while he doesn’t like it, we are usually able to get him infused with just one stick, and he recovers emotionally, very quickly. It helps if we offer him candy. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, right? Well, I’m very proud of him and how well he handles dealing with his hemophilia at such a tender age.

Ian has definitely made his mark already, and he is well on his way to becoming a very interesting adult.

Edited to add….

He came to me looking so cute and CLEAN,  just after I posted, that I just had to grab another shot and add it, so you can see that he can indeed have a food free face.

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