Beauty

Tony and his new great granddaughter Sydney! She is truly a beautiful baby.

A rose from my yard. My yard is a bit of a disaster, but I have a small rose garden and, when the roses bloom, it is really pretty.

Homage to Home in MS

As many of you know, my parents home was destroyed in hurricane Katrina. The last big gathering that we had there as a family was for my parents 50th wedding anniversary. My Mom and Dad had spent years remodeling the kitchen, redoing floors, etc, and they were just about done by then. I'm just posting some photos from that last fun gathering. We tried to make it a surprise, but they found out. I then just proceeded to pretend they didn't know, and they didn't talk about it. It was that kind of surprise. It was a wonderful time. Joel's niece Karen created a picture collage for them that made it through the hurricane, and we had old reel to reel films put on DVD that also made it through. I'm sure that their new remodeled home will be just as beautiful as the last!

How Much Candy Can You Eat?

We had a grand Easter with numerous celebrations. Lydia colored eggs with Aunt/Grandma Marguerite and Little Tony. That was 1 1/2 dozen. Ryan colored eggs with the Thomas (my friend Joanna's family) clan. Another dozen. Then Lydia, who was sick that evening, colored a dozen on her own. We had 3 1/2 dozen. A nice amount of eggs. Now, this is nothing like the Ruemke crew used to color. We had a minimum of 10 dozen eggs, it seems. You might think that I am exaggerating, but let me tell you that some years there were even more. Imagine hiding that many eggs. Imagine eating that many eggs. And we did.




Easter started with basket finding and candy.Then we went to breakfast at Marietta's Mexican Restaurant with the Huebner Family. The kids got treats and candy from Linda and the beautiful new baby Sidney who was already giving gifts. It was very nice and we all went to Ted and Jeanie's house afterward for an egg hunt. Lots of eggs and candy. Then back to our house for another egg hunt and linner dunch with Cousin Karen and friend Jeremy. Now, all this time, Ryan has been enjoying his candy. Everywhere he turned, it was within his reach. Everytime I turned around, he had a mouthful from somewhere. I kept waiting for him to get ill, but he must have a high threshold. Lydia also had a fair share, but she generally asked first, so I had an idea of how much went in. Ryan...no clue...but I can say, more than one person should eat in a day or probably a week.

When Ryan would find an egg, he would THROW it in his basket and then also accidentally dumped his eggs many times, so they were shattered and soft shell. It was quite the gross basket of eggs.

We had a wonderful time and enjoyed our time with family and friends!

More Later

Oh, so much to write about and so little time. I have 3 class assignments I need to do. I did complete our taxes, at least. So, instead of updating on Easter and all sorts of fun. I'll just post a few favorite pictures from Christmas. Let's hope Madelaine and Heather don't get too upset for posting pictures in their PJ's. They are pretty in any state!

Acting Schmacting

Joel and I worked together on Veronica Mars today! They called to ask us to work when we were with Marguerite and Tony (Marguerite is my Mom's sister), and they kindly said that they would take our two wild children for the day. They say that they are not a problem, but I know that it is not always true. Ryan's favorite word is still "No". I was excited, because, as Joel pointed out to me, I might get through a day without watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which is Ryan's favorite movie and all he wants to watch. We don't always watch the whole thing, but usually selections daily.


Marguerite spent the night, and we got up at 4:30 to leave by 5:15. Because I was going with Joel, we left on time and got to Montgomery Air Field. We ended up eating oatmeal for breakfast and watching Steve Guttenburg get arrested with Enrico (Veronica's Dad) somehow involved. I might add that Steve always plays an Everyman sort of character, but he arrived looking very metro and polished. Please note that the word metro has replaced what I used to call maybe "euro", and please inform me if I have used this incorrectly. He also said that, "It's a good day to die today", but he didn't die while we were there. I hope I haven't spoiled your Veronica Mars viewing.

Then we all drove to Cuyamaca State Park, where I believe my brothers and sister Linda camped as children. There I was given a microphone that they attached to some other guys camera and we were one. Joel just got a boring badge. My cameraman and I also had a news van. When rehearsing, they just gave us vague directions and the cameraman and I had a nice scene all worked out, but I guess we positioned ourselves directly behind Steve and Enrico talking, because they stopped to move us. Alas, moved from our key star positions. We are still there, though, as well as Joel detecting. It was lots of fun, and especially nice with Joel because he is an old pro and I appreciated his assistance in telling me who was who and what was going on. He also gave me his jacket. It was cold. I might also add that I wore shoes and a suit type coat/blazer from 1995. I must get a new reporter wardrobe. Tony and Marguerite still seemed happy when we got home and the kids had a fun time, so all in all a great day!

Joel's Birthday

What a day! These kids are so excited by birthdays. We just had a quiet birthday party at home because it was on a Tuesday and we were going to gather with more family on the weekend. Lydia was sad that all of Daddy's friends weren't going to come over to the party, but thought everyone should at least call him to wish him "Happy Birthday". He did get lots of calls, cards, and e-cards which he and Lydia both appreciated.


I was feeling a little under the weather (some cold) and being me, left everything to the last minute. So, Ryan, Lydia and I set off to the grocery store to buy the ingredients for fried chicken, mashed potatoes, greens, and marble cake. I only cook this meal once a year, for Joel's birthday. We run home and put the groceries away, although the 3 of us take a while to do things. Then we head off to Lydia's dance class followed by playing in the park for a bit, which is her reward for following directions in class. She loves her dance class, but likes to do her own thing, and would kind of like the other kids to do her own thing, too...Thus needs some motivation to do what the teacher asks her to do. Note photo of Lydia and Ryan ready to dance, she has recruited him, too.

Then we have to go shopping for presents. Why, you may ask, since you had A WHOLE YEAR to buy presents are you doing it on the day?! Well, I can't really answer that, but I might work on it this year. I was hoping to be able to shop without kids in the previous weeks, but somehow that didn't happen. Ryan had to be in his stroller or he is uncontrollable and Lydia enjoys hiding in the clothes racks. Fun. I had the make and model of jeans for Joel written down, but the sales guy had no clue. So many jeans and designers to chose from. Lydia was finding lots of nice pink shirts for Daddy. She had to go to the bathroom, which was on the 3rd floor. Ryan wanted to go too, but bad potty training Mommy knew it was only a ploy to get out of the stroller. We finally left with a pair of classic Levis. It was pouring rain when we left. It never rains here. After strapping 2 kids in and getting the stroller in the trunk, we were all wet.

We get home to and Joel nicely says that he knows I am sick, so he would enjoy Pick-UP-Stix for dinner. Lydia was so sad that he wouldn't get his special birthday dinner AND not have friends over. She said, "Oh Mommy, take some Advil and some deep breaths and you can do it. You have me, your wonderful helper to help." I thought why not make dinner, as I had everything we needed. Luckily, Ryan fell asleep, so I only had one "helper".

We make the cake first, and then begin the chicken. My niece, Marie, called from Guam and I hadn't talked to her in so long that I attempted to cook and talk. I'm not really a talented chef, so in the meantime, I salted the greens two, maybe three times. I also did the chicken in olive oil thinking I was being healthy, but then I read in Nutrition Action that corn oil is actually pretty good for you as oils go. For those of you that cook more than once a month (not just pull together dinner, like me), is the olive oil a poor choice? Anyway, the potatoes and cake turned out well, the chicken OK. And then the normally delicious greens a la Aunt Connie were instead more like seaweed. They were good if you ate them with a bite of potato. I also made a bit of a mess. Now, I highly recommend the clean as you go method, but that was difficult with the fried chicken and helper.



Most importantly, Joel seemed happy. The jeans seemed to fit and thanks to Mom and sisters who also sent gifts because my shopping patience ran out after the pair of jeans. You may have noticed that I forgot the candles, too, but Aunt Judy sent a big special birthday candle for the kids that I now use as my all-purpose birthday candle.

Bedtime

Lydia brought in a handful of snails this afternoon saying, "Look, Mommy, I saved them. These poor babies were out in the rain." Now, I hate snails, but I withheld the scream and found a container to put them out on the back porch. I'm hoping they have all escaped by now.

Grandma sent Ryan a truck today. One of the huge metal dump trucks. He pushed it around all day and is now sleeping with it. We were all stuffed in his little toddler bed for stories, Ryan, the truck, and I.

Testing...

I like cake. It can be a problem.