Too much

It's a good thing Abuela has a camera and a blog, or you would never find out what's happening in these parts.  Fun.  That's what's happening.

Museums, ice cream, eating out with friends, last visits to the beach before winter, and plenty in between.

 The good news is that I did find my camera.   Good news indeed or you would have faced a future of nothing but my deep thoughts.  The horror.  The bad news is that I have been absolutely terrible at taking pictures and then transferring them to a computer.  No time for cameras, we've got plans!  Mom's gonna make me a new skirt and a new cushion for the bench, and bags for toys and games, and clean the art room, and, what's that?  She's not my slave?  Oh, don't worry, we give her breaks.  We let her take us out for dinner.  

  

What's that?  Not good enough?  We also let her take us places for birthday treats, and soon she'll take us out for ice cream at Sherman's on our way to Traverse City.  See?  We do lots for Mom.  We give her our deep and undying gratitude.  And appreciation.  And love.  And thank you's.  Thank you Mom!

   Monkey in the middle, that's what's happening.
That monkey had to work hard to stay in the middle.

 

We visited a wind farm in middle Indiana, which was enlightening.  Our favorite part?  Writing on a turbine blade.  As we left the building after the beginning talk, I glanced over at a blade parked to the right of the building and felt sad that so many people had defaced this giant blade.  As I was thinking this our guide pulled out a handful of sharpies and told the kids to have at it.  And have they did.

These turbines are amazing in person.  At over 200 feet tall, you find yourself almost falling backward as you crane your head back for a view.

The kids were duly impressed.

I will do better at pictures.  Promise.

Until I don't.

Seven Quick Takes - the Saturday edition

When I told you I would be back, you thought it would be more often than once a week didn't you?  Suckas!!

First - I lost my camera.  It's been two weeks since I've seen the thing, where could it be?  I've looked in all the usual places, but no luck.  Has anyone seen my camera?  'Cause the enanos aren't getting any cuter, you know.  In fact, as they grow, they begin growing strange bumps and weird tooth arrangements.  I need a camera to document them before they get into that strange and awkward stage of life that is best left undocumented.  I need that camera!

Second - Last Sunday we had friends over for dinner.  New and Old friends.  We had THIS lady and her family over.  Hi Ruthie!  It was so nice to see her again and to meet her husband and little boy.  The baby had to stay home, she had a cold and needed to get better, so we didn't get to meet sweet Rowan, but we got 3/4 of the family.  We knew Ruthie in highschool, actually, Mike knew her better, and she was friends with my brother.  Interesting side note, she went to prom with my brother.  Crazy, huh?

We had a really nice visit.  Her husband Brian is just as awesome as she says on her blog, and Fletcher is adorable.  Since Ruthie is vegetarian, I made pork loin for dinner.  No joke.  My brain apparently oozed out my ears and I decided the best thing to feed her was pork.  There were vegetables, but really?  Pork?  Stupid, stupid, stupid.  And then I tried to break her little boy by making the pork spicy.  My advice?  When cooking for guests, some of those guests being small children, don't pick the recipe that starts with "Take 8 ancho chilis...."

Next time you come over, Ruthie, we will make sure to serve something not spicy, like roasted baby rabbit, or rack of veal.  Just kidding.  I don't know how to cook veal.



Third -   My camera is gone, but you can still see old pictures.  Today is the second day of autumn, (happy fall everyone!) and we love fall, but I kind of miss these days.

We spent a lot of time on the beach this summer.  And most of it was magical.  I found it entirely possible to forget my grumps, the kids were able to stop whining, we just enjoyed being together.  We spent many happy days at Aunt Barbara's beach (Miller), enjoying the long sandbar and the calm water.

We also spent time with friends at various beaches, I went to Porter beach for the first time in my life.  I know, right?  I've lived here how long and never been to Porter beach?!  Now I have visited, and it was  everything I dreamed it would be.  Our favorite, though, continues to be Aunt Barbara's.  It is quiet and empty and peaceful.  

So now we will need to find new places to paint.  I think there are some apple orchards, corn mazes, and yet more watershed visits in our future.  We may be more bundled, but I hope we can recapture the calm, peaceful happy feeling of the beach.  It's been a busy fall and I'm trying to catch my breath, as are the kids.  We will be off to breathe and be together.  If I could only find the camera, you could see us do it...

  

Fourth -   We have a new mix in the car.  The Papi makes us mix/tapes and we find one or two favorite songs on there and listen to them over and over and over and over and.... you get the picture.  Our first favorite is this:

The girls love to belt along with with Sinead.  Josie especially.  I tried to explain the idea behind the song to them - you don't need to be a man's woman, you need to be God's woman, the Spirit is the one who will never let you down, blah, blah, blah - their eyes glazed over.  Mom leave us alone, we just want to sing the chorus.  Even Mikey loves it, although his version is more fun to listen to: "I don't wanna be no girls woman."  Makes me smile every time.






Fifth - Our second favorite is this:






Deli adores this song.  He sings along, waving his hands around.  We listen to this song a lot.  A LOT. And it's loud.  REALLY LOUD.


Sixth - Abuela arrives on Thursday for a month long visit.  You can go on over here and see what she looks like.  Isn't she pretty and sweet?  The picture was taken in her Moody days, I believe on her way to a banquet with Dad.  He bought her those flowers at my favorite shop in the world, LaSalle Flowers.  Small world, huh?  Doesn't she look happy and in love?  I love that picture.   And you know what, she is just as beautiful today.

Anyway, Abuela flies in and we will hit the ground running.  We have lots of plans for her and she has lots of plans for us.  I don't know how we'll do all the school, playing, shopping, eating out and traveling that we have planned for the month without wearing out, but we will!  Si se puede!  Pray for our stamina, but you don't have to pray for our fun, cause we'll be having lots of that.

And Abuela, we'll find some new mix/tapes to listen to while you are with us.  We might even turn down the volume a little.  Do you like Hank the Cow Dog on audio?


Seventh -  To help us rest and prepare for the marathon of fun to come, Mike's parents took our kiddos last night and will keep them for a couple of days.  They'll return them sometime Sunday - sometime late, I hope!  Just kidding!  Not really.  The kids will have tons of fun, I know, and Mike and I will rest and relax and maybe even go out for a movie.  We get pretty crazy when the kids are gone.  So I am off to hit the resale, an antique store, and maybe even grab a fancy pastry to go with my new book.  Thanks, Mom and Dad L. for this lovely gift of time!

Have a wonderful weekend all of you!

And thanks for Jen for her Quick Takes.

Visit from Abuela

We had quite the visit from Abuela last week! As you all know, she lives in Mexico. She came in for only a few short days, seven to be exact, not nearly enough time. But she had good reason for coming - aside from seeing us of course!

Abuela came up for the 50th anniversary celebration of Art and Marita Mikesell. The Mikesells are some of my parents' nearest and dearest friends. They figure into many, many memories of my growing up years. Uncle Art preaching, Aunt Marita chalk drawing, followed by Dad preaching, the three of them singing while Dad or Marita played accordion are big memories for me. Sometimes they would even manage to convince my mom to get up front and sing! Minor miracle, that. Of course not service, meeting, lunch date, visit, phone call, game night, really, anything, would be complete without Uncle Art presenting the Gospel and doing an altar call. Uncle Art is an old school missionary. And a dear, dear part of my parents' lives.

Of course Mom had to come up for the party!
And we went with her!
I did not take nearly enough pictures of Abuela's whirlwind visit, but she did! You can see all our shenanigans on her blog,
The Ice Cream Grandma.

Here is what I did get.
Crafting!
Crafting!




Abuela helped Elia work on her pom pom scarf, they made good headway!
Abuela also came right at cherry picking time, and she was game, so we headed out for cherries.

We had a lovely time filling buckets of glowing red fruit on a beautiful day. We went to same place we've been going for the last few years, and Lehman's did not disappoint. We picked over 50 pounds of cherries and I'm pretty sure we ate half that amount while picking!




While Abuela was here we traveled, we ate out, we played and swam. We picked blueberries, we made pie, jam and all kinds of other goodies. We packed A LOT into one week. It was a fun time, for sure.

Elia accompanied me to drop Abuela off at the airport, and we were all sad to see her go.
We were sad, but we for sure crashed when she left! We've spent the last two days doing nothing but swimming, eating and watching movies. It helps that it's too terribly hot outside to do much of anything else. So we are resting and recovering, I hope Abuela is doing the same!!

The Watershed

Went out and did a little kite flying,

a little walking, looking at nature, dipping our feet in the creek.


Phew! All that fun makes a midget thirsty!

Mmmmm... Blizzard....

And with Spring came Abuela!

To pick Abuela up, we took a trip to St. Louis. Saw the museum at the Arch... Animals... "you kill them, then you Stuff them!" Thanks Josie..

Went to the top of the Arch.

Elia loved the top of the Arch, can't you tell?

abuela present

Babies

Disclaimer: This method of punishment is not endorsed by the Mami.

Elia walks into the living room carrying her little Moses basket from Abuela and a somewhat lumpy pillowcase.

Mami: What's in your basket, El?
Elia: My good babies.
Mami: What's in the pillowcase?
Elia (with an eyeroll): My bad babies.

New Dresses From Abuela

And we love them.

Gingerbread Cookies

Abuela gave us a Ladybug subscription and this issue talks about Swedish Pepper Cookies (gingerbread). We thought we'd give it a try. It was a finger, knife, and spoon lickin' good time! Three days later my floors and table and kitchen are still sticky... ah, Christmas.