The holiday season has begun

It seems to get increasingly hard to find the energy to blog as we roll into the holiday season. I say energy because I can find the time, but as I sit down with my laptop perched in my lap, the next thing I remember is my head hitting the downside of a bob and ssssssssssssssssssssssss running across the screen. I love the holiday season but it is hard to believe that it is already here. Hard to believe that a turkey is cooking as I speak. This year I'm responsible for three things including a dessert which I have now made twice. Not twice in my life. Twice this morning. I had gotten inspired and decided to shoot for Paula Dean. The instructions were simple enough, but the not noticing the vanilla had expired in 2007 was not. I knew I remembered us having vanilla extract but that is probably because I must have seen it in the cabinet for the last 4 years. I thought it smelled funny and yet poured it anyway. Sometimes I wish I could go back and tell myself "THINK!". So, with bad vanilla mixed in my bowl and not enough corn syrup for another batch, I call to John who jumps out of the bath and makes a scurried Walmart run. I had gone myself the night before to pick up ingredients and upon reflection, I should have thought in advance about the certain pecan shortage. I literally got the last bag in the store, though not enough for the recipe. John comes back with syrup, vanilla and corn flakes for the hash brown casserole. The casserole that just came out in time for the pre-cooked turkey from the local rib joint to go in. Perhaps buying your turkey isn't in the spirit of Thanksgiving but it is in the spirit of reducing the cooking time from 8 hours to 1 and it tasting tender and flavored and not at all like the last turkey I tried to cook in a bag. The memories of being awake at two in the morning, trying to pull a bag of frozen gizzards out of a half thawed turkey are still crystal clear. Somehow my gravy turned yellow and the potatoes soggy but I had a platter in the shape of a turkey and the common sense to know that I would never repeat that again. To add insult to injury, my mother has decided to take her Christmas card pictures today. A wonderful idea as a day full of cooking always affords time for attention to appearance. Perhaps I will go in my current unshowered state and just hold the dessert as proof as to why. Yes, my hair is sticking up on one side but do you see the homemade caramel and toasted pecans?? So, your holiday greetings include me looking a little greasy. Just chock it up to a commitment to cooking and serving desserts with no expired ingredients.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cinnamon Rolls...yum

This morning, John made mini-cinnamon rolls for breakfast and gave each of the boys 2 to eat. He had taken to work on some things while the boys were eating and the next thing he knew, he walked into the kitchen to find the stool next to the counter and the cinnamon roll plate empty. The boys had eaten their two and then the remaining six. As I type, Joshy is going to the bathroom singing "What's gonna work...teamwork" as loud as humanly possible while Ben repeats "eeeevvvaa" over and over while driving a car up and down the side of the door jam. This was preceded by them running circles on my bed, singing the monkey song bookended by their questions of "What are you doing?, What are you doing?, What are you doing?". Good thing for us our children aren't affected by sugar...

Sadee Schilling Studio

My dear friend Sarah has created some artwork that I am so proud of and want to share with you. During all the time I had spent with her in college, I never knew there was an artist buried inside the girl that ran for fun and studied English by choice.

http://sadeeschillingstudio.etsy.com/

The hand and the imaging center

I have been having some hand pain over the course of the past couple months. The dull burning sensation is manageable but if you compress the hand, as in a handshake, the pain is acute. I have been terrified of handshakes since a bank representative shook my hand and I, in the classiest way imaginable, yelled out loud in pain. Yelling at someone for shaking your hand always does make for a good first impression. After another month of navigating my way around meetings cunningly avoiding handshakes, I decided it was time to visit the doctor. I went to the clinic at my work which is handily a block from my building but, while staffed with qualified doctors, is not outfitted with radiology. So, I was sent to an Imaging Center where I was told to just walk in. As I entered and handed my form to the receptionist, I was told that they were short handed and therefore not doing x-rays. Okay, so let's back up. You are an Imaging Center. A center whose only purpose is to image. And you are so shorthanded, you don't have a single person to perform an x-ray. Right. She asks if it would be alright if I come back the next day. I pause and then decide to pass on my general annoyance and sarcasm dolled to those who ask questions that are not really questions. Would it be alright? No. So, what now? So, I leave. Two days later I am able to slip out early from work and drive back over to the center where, upon entering, I am told "Ewwwww...we don't do x-rays after 4:00". Okay, I was here two days ago and was sent away because apparently the receptionist was the only one who had made it to work that day and I specifically remember no mention of the 4:00pm deadline. She decides to call back and see if they can make an exception. Good idea. Fortunately they can. Good for both her and me, as she wants to live and I don't look good in orange. After being escorted to the room, my hand is placed on a cartridge next to a piece of tape with a big "R". She contorts my hand into all sorts of positions. You know, the kind you generally avoid with an injured hand. When finished, she tells me it will take her two days to develop the film. Now, I know we are circling around, but I would again like to point out that you are an Imaging Center. This is what you do. You are paid for nothing but taking images. Please tell me why you would not have any investment put into the equipment you are using. The hospital in Norfolk took the x-rays of Joshy and they appeared on the computer screen. You won't have them for two days because you have to first build the darkroom and then develop them. In Norfolk, it took 5 minutes. Here is took 30 because we had to make it to and from 1980. From now on, I will pass on your Imaging Center in lieu of finding my own radiation source and shooting it at my unprotected self, as you did, seeing no reason to cover any part of me as clearly the radiation hits nothing other than the spot where the light shines...which is why you have to make a point to take the previously used cartridge out of the room and you stand behind a protective barrier. Better safe than sorry.

Pumpkin Patch

For the second year, we visited a pumpkin farm south of the city to select our pumpkins. Of course, I use pumpkin farm liberally. I am pretty sure they are shipped in pumpkins scattered amongst some vines. Still, they have corn mazes, hay mazes, goats to feed, horse swings made of tires and tube slides propped up on hay bales. You know, the safe way all slides should be propped up.

Looking at pictures from last year, it is amazing how much the boys have grown and how much worse the weather. Last year this time, it was a perfect day. This year, walking through the patch meant choosing the from the two dry paths and not those with ankle deep mud. Last year Ben could only sit where we sat him. This year, he was climbing up hay bales to slide down slides.

2008

Now

Jessi and Nana came along with us and as the last hoorah before leaving, Jess agreed to take Joshy through the corn maze. We had walked through it earlier and it seemed like just a big circle so, 15 minutes later, I was mostly just annoyed that they were still playing while we waited, hungry, feeling the water drops at increasing intervals. Finally, I sent John in to get them because patient and starving are concepts that I cannot reconcile easily. Soon, they were filing out of the maze, Jess and Joshy cheering that they were saved. Apparently, the maze is more of a maze than I realized and they had been legitimately lost. As Jess tells it, they were turning left and then right and then back where they started, running into others who asked if they had seen the exit to which they replied, "No. Have you?". Finally, as they, too, felt the raindrops Jessi turned to Joshy, gripping him by the arms, saying "Jessi is going to get us out of here", all the while certain she was hearing animals rustling around in the corn stalks. It was then that John turned the corner, as she tells it, to her and Joshy cheering at the sight of him. Seems like, for the first time ever, my instantaneous anger when hungry actually made something better.

And when I see him...I'm going to punch him...

Joshy and Ben love when my dad is in town. All they can think about is getting to rough house around with him. Probably because he gets down on their level and is happy to roll around in the dirt if the battle demands it. Every time I tell Joshy that Papa is coming, he jumps up and down and Ben points him out in every picture he sees him in. He also points Ross out as Papa but we are working on that.

(I love that they are already versed in the concept of "kick 'em while they're down"....)

These two little boys love their Papa.

Happy Halloween

This year Joshy fully understood the concept of Halloween and requested in September that he be Wolverine. He has been talking about it since and how Jess would be the Hulk and they would fight.

The night of, everyone came over to our house and dad and mom handed out candy while we ran the neighborhood in search of treats. Across the street from us there is a little boy Joshy's age named Chris, who he has become fast friends with. Well, we happened to set off the same time he did and the rest of the night, we were at the mercy of Chris and where he felt like going because Joshy's only concern was "going where Chris goes". We didn't mind. It was just so wonderful to see him enjoying himself so much.

Ben was getting into the spirit too. He would say "Happy Halloween" before the treat, "Thank you" after wards and then complete it with a "you're welcome". He loves to repeat people, so if someone said "so cute", out would come "so cute" in a sing song voice. He loves hats, so I had put on his striped beanie with his costume and he did, in fact, look like Super Waldo. Not intended, but entirely adorable.

Tina dressed up in her yearly inflatable costume and even Lexie had a costume to wear. Who is Lexie? She is the dog I don't clearly remember saying could come over but apparently was overruled by some conversation she and John allegedly had. Being outside, in the perfect weather, surrounded by families and kids...I am just continually so thankful for the neighborhood I get to live in. It is like when I was young, walking around the neighborhood with my pillowcase because those little pumpkins couldn't cover near enough territory. Or John, walking through his neighborhood, smashing pumpkins and terrorizing anything he could get his hands on. Yep...he was that kid.

It's a race!

Or...at least a run with the word "fun" in front of it that came with matching t-shirts. Tina, Jess and I drove up to Tulsa this morning for the Tulsa Run. It was Tina's first run and I was so proud of her. We ran and then walked according to the timer in my hand and when in run mode, had the added fun of trying to zoom in and around the other walkers who clearly didn't understand the "stand to the left, walk to the right" concept promoted on people movers world wide. We had left that morning at 6:30 to get there on time and while not quite able to find our exit, we finally found our way to a parking lot with other numbered people wandering out of it. That said, it was a bit further from the start line than I had realized. Strangely enough, they did not seem to want to jog to the start line to ensure we weren't late. I believe the exact words, as I was shuffling along, was "and B is out...".

Jess, was...well, Jess. She is the one standing in the crowd at the start and performing over exaggerated stretches and waving to the people on high risers and cheering as we ran across the finish line. She makes me smile. The best of all was just getting to spend the morning with both my sisters. It is not often that we get to spend time just the three of us, driving down the turnpike, jamming to "1985".