Baby Bouncies

On Memorial Day our family got the idea to play a game of Kickball. The full feeling of nostalgia did not come over me until I heard Spencer call this out on the first serve of the game: "Ollie, do you want baby bouncies?" Then, of course, I could not stop laughing the rest of the game. How is it that I once found that phrase so normal and commonplace?!

Apparently kickball has made a comeback with those of us who once enjoyed it so thoroughly on the playground. Check out this great article on kickball and other sports of yore (dodgeball, whiffle ball, four square).

Next I need to Google the bars, because I would like to know if kids are still doing these tricks: Cherry Drop, Lemon Drop, and Dead Man's Drop. I was so good at those. I'll never forget mastering the Dead Man's Drop from the high bar! What a feeling!

Ch. Baby bouncies! That is just too cute.

My 15 Minutes of Fame

I am happy to say that at this point in my life I don't have many regrets. I mean, heck, I do a lot of things wrong, but as far as the major things I've done in my life, I'm pretty happy about it.

Except one thing. I regret being SO SHY in my youth. My shyness held me back from doing a lot of things.

While watching the pilot show "Glee" last week, I got to thinking...and wishing I had done more in high school, specifically in trying to be in plays and/or musicals and other similar types of things. It just seems so fun to me. Thanks to Celia, who talked me into trying out to be in the high school choir, I do have the choir experience and joy under my belt. Did anyone else watch "Glee" and think this too--that you wished you had been in the Glee Club?

How funny that only eight days later my Big Chance came along. My friends, Ed and Norma, gave me some spare tickets to the Off Broadway musical "Putnam County Spelling Bee", and so three friends and I went last night.

Let me say first off that if there was a such a thing as a rating for a musical, this one would have been an 'R'. Just a word to the wise. And boy were there agendas and sub-agendas written into the script of this show! Whoah. But I digress. Back to my fame.

So when we entered in the lobby there was a booth that said something about "Do you like to spell?" and "Be a part of the show!" Well--both applied naturally, so I went and inquired. After talking to the girl I decided it probably wasn't for me.

After our group meandered about a bit, we were heading to our seats when this guy came up to us and asked us if we wouldn't like to be a part of the show, as guest spellers in the spelling bee? We all declined, but I think the guy could read the semi-longingness in my eyes for a bit of spelling and stage time, so he pushed it. He also made it seem like he really needed people. (Later I found out that they had about 20 interested applicants!) In the end, I relented, signed up, and was chosen (and notified, before the show began) to be one of the four guest participants. It's weird how I knew they were going to pick me and wasn't surprised at all when my name was called. My time had come.

They took the four of us to this room and coached us on what was going to happen and what we were supposed to do (go up when they called us, follow the cue of the actors, ask for a definition of the word we were to spell, ask them to use it in a sentence, have fun--basically be an audience member and contestant, but up on the stage).

It was at that point that I began to feel some alarm, wondering what had I done, and how was I going to get through it?? After she flew through the instructions, I asked our acquainter that if we happened to spell our words correctly, then we might possibly be on stage for the entire performance? "Yes. And don't intentionally misspell a simple word like 'dog'. We've seen that and its not funny!" Gulp. Then they sent us to our seats to wait for the show to begin. About five minutes into it they were going to call us up from the audience.

When I walked into the center, I was relieved to see that it was only about half full. But there were still A LOT of people in there. I just Googled it and the Morrison Center has a seating capacity of 2000. So that means I was on stage last night in front of about a thousand people. And let me tell you, I just was not prepared for it at all. Wanting to do something like that while you're watching someone on TV is a whole lot different than the real thing, I learned.

They called our four names from the audience (one of us was an eight year-old girl) and we all went up there and got mixed in with the six actors that were fellow Bee participants. And then we spent some time up there. They called up some of the actors to the microphone to spell, then some of us, and so on. I was placed, of course, on the front row of bleachers between two actors, and sat there wishing I had chosen to shave my legs that morning!

So then they called my name, and my one slip-on shoe sort of fell off my foot as I approached the microphone, due to the fact that even my feet were sweating. Oh geez. I recovered it pretty well though. So then he asked me to spell "jihad". I did my part, spelled it correctly and was sent back to my seat on the bleachers. I just felt so awkward the whole time.

At one point the actors were singing a song and they had the three of us remaining audience-member-contestants hold hands and jump up and down while the actors spun around us in a circle! After that they had us sit back down on the bleachers and whispered to us to hold on because they were going to spin the bleachers around.

I tried to smile, enjoy myself, and look natural the whole time, but I was dying to get off that stage. The next time they called me up to spell the word "zuzu" (I actually don't know the correct spelling--or if that's even a real word), which I intentionally spelled "zoozoo" figuring that HAD to be wrong. They dinged me and sent me off the stage with a juice box in hand, and my time was up. I went back to my seat in the audience.

I still can't believe I did it. My friends said it made the show a whole lot more enjoyable for them, having someone they knew up there, so that was something to feel good about. But the moral of the story is this: I have no desire, interest, or ability to be on stage or perform in front of people in any way. And if I ever get that Bee in my bonnet again (pun intended), I hope and pray that I will remember this post. And that's what my 15 minutes of fame taught me. Thank you very much.

"Happy Two You"

The title to this post is Madeline's version of the Happy Birthday song. We have a lot of spring birthdays among our friends and family, so she has really gotten to know this song and sings it all the time around the house. Today, finally, it was sung for her.

As one of her gifts, I decided that I would allow her to do every she possibly wanted today (within reason). Maddie always wants to do so much that on an average day we really just can't fit it all in. Well, today we did a lot, and we had fun.

This was the first birthday we got to celebrate with Maddie as her parents, and it felt good. We will see her birth mother this weekend, and we had a big family celebration on Sunday (see video clips at the end), but today it was just the three of us.

When Ray got home from work we decided to pick up some food and picnic at a park.


And here she waits in anticipation for the balloons we then went and got for her at the dollar store.

I opted for the cute green balloon with flowers, so of course Ray had to get her a second one of his choosing! I think so far she has played with them equally!

Chillin like a villian once we got back home. It was a fun and low-key day, which I loved!


Maddie blowing out her candles.


Just some of her 38?ish cousins celebrating with her.

Happy

36 years ago. Age 2.

Now. Age 38.

I had a happy birthday yesterday. (This picture is actually from my mom's birthday a few weeks previous, but I couldn't be looking happier, so I used it. Leave it to me to explain everything.) Anyway, though it is difficult to be only two years away from the big 4-0, I'm trying to look at the bright side. I mean, hey, look at all the wisdom that comes with age!! (Yeah.)

Anyway, I was happy because of all the well-wishers. If you want to feel popular and loved, join Facebook and enter your birthday. I don't know how many Happy Birthdays I got via fb, but I felt remembered and loved! I don't think I've wished one person Happy Birthday on fb yet, so I need to get on that!
I was happy when my friend, Tracy, called me up the night before and asked if she could watch Maddie for me on my birthday for as long as I wanted. (Tracy really gets it.) Incidentally, I was sad when Maddie woke up with a runny nose because, a) she was sick :( and b) I could no longer take her to Tracy's, lest her baby get our germs! But in the end, we ended having a lot of fun playing of course. As always!


I was happy when my beloved came home early from work (a rare occurence) and brought me this beautiful bouquet.

I was happy when Melissa (top middle) still wanted to watch Maddie in the afternoon, even with the runny nose.

I was happy again when Ray took me to see a movie. I wasn't happy when my choice of films turned out not-so-great. Ray had predicted it (how does he always know??), but it was my birthday after all...my (lousy) choice.

I was so happy when we went to try this new Brazilian restaurant, Tucanos. It was so good. It actually made up for the movie and then some. It's fun and different, you've got CHOICES, and it's just plain tasty.


And now a word about tulips. They make me so happy. How fortunate I am that I was born right around the time that they bloom every year. It's like nature's birthday gift to me every April. They are such a beautiful, noble and still flower. Clean, simple lines. Short-living, but while they live they really pack a punch to my soul. They are a gift from God to the world, these flowers.

Rustic Artisan Bread

It's time to post about one of my most favorite things in the world, aside from Ray and Madeline, and that is BREAD. Do you ever buy the Pugliese Bread from the Costco bakery and other stores? I do, and its the best. It's large crumbed and crusty, and makes fabulous toast.

Anyway, about six months ago I was given a recipe for this bread, and here's the best part: there is absolutely NO KNEADING INVOLVED! Nor a bread machine. Simply a bowl, a wooden spoon, and a heavy, lidded pot (dutch oven, casserole dish, etc.) That and four ingredients. That's right--I said FOUR INGREDIENTS, as opposed to about 10 ingredients in the Costco bread.

Lo and behold, the recipe. And trust me, the first time you make and try this bread, you'll wonder where it's been all your life! And if you're alarmed about all the words and photos, don't be. It's me, not the bread.


Put the following in a bowl (I heard that taller bowls work better for yeast doughs, so you can see I use a 6" tall bowl. I'm sure any will work though):

•3 Cups Flour
•1/2 Teaspoon Instant Yeast (I use bread machine yeast and it works fine. DO NOT USE Active Dry Yeast. My friend tried it and it didn’t work.)
•1 1/4 Teaspoons Salt

Whisk ingredients together.


•Add 1 1/2 Cups Water (Does not need to be warm. I use cool tap water.)


Mix together with wooden spoon, then if you wish (I can be obsessive) use rubber spatula to pull remaining dough bits off sides of bowl.


Cover with plastic wrap and let rise. You can choose how long you want your bread to rise--anywhere from 11-16 hours. It's very flexible, this bread, but I usually do 12-14 hours.

Here is the dough after 12 hours. Risen up the bowl halfway-ish. Very bubbly and sticky. Just as it should be.

Turn the dough out onto a floured board and briefly bring it together to form a ball shape. It will be wet and loose.

Cover the dough and let rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. After about 1 1/2 hours, preheat oven to 450 degrees with covered pot inside.

Once oven is ready, uncover your dough. Should like like this.

Carefully pull out hot, empty pan, uncover and flip loaf into hot pan, cover and return to oven. No need to grease pan.

My pan is a round, covered, pyrex pan that measures 9.5" across the top, is about 4 inches tall with the lid on, and the loaf fits perfectly. But just use whatever you've got--it'll probably work. Just make sure the top of the pan lip does not curve inward, or you will have a tough time removing the baked loaf from the pan. Learned this by sad experience!

Bake for 30 minutes and then remove lid.

Continue baking bread for another 15 minutes, uncovered, then remove from oven.

Remove loaf from the pan and cool on a wire rack. Don't try to cut it too quickly. It smells so good that you'll want to, and then you'll get a mushed slice of bread. I force myself to wait at least 30 minutes. It will still be warm.

Its great with butter and honey or homemade raspberry jam.

And here's all that usually remains after a meal.

Enjoy!

***One last thing. You may be thinking what a great way this is to use wheat you might have stored. Its true. This bread works with whole wheat flour, cause I've tried it. The problem is, once you've tried it with all white flour, its just not quite as good with any percentage of whole wheat flour. A real bummer. So I would recommend trying it first with whole wheat flour. That way you'll remain unbiased.

The way I've tried to make this bread a little healthier (at times) is by adding wheat germ. Makes it just a bit chewier, but the good taste is still there. Let me know if you come up with any other good healthy variations.***

Cute

Maddie has been doing such cute things lately. I wanted to share two of them.

Whenever she wants something and I oblige, she happily says "Weccome!", to which I always respond with a "Thank You!" Hey, the girl's got manners--doesn't really matter the order, right?

A few weeks ago she started simple sentences. She started with "Hold. Baby." (referring to herself--this is when she wants to be picked up.) A few days later she progressed to "Hold da baby." which is all said quite quickly and blends together.

So fun.

Great Book

Have you read this?? In case this pic is too small, its called The Peacegiver, written by James L. Ferrell. If you haven't read it, you should. I've been told by numerous people over the last few years to read it and that I would like it. Its the best book I've read in a long time.

Its a quick read (I think I read it in about two sittings). The author brings up some new ways of looking at familiar concepts. I think the subtitle on the cover sums the book up the best: 'How Christ offers to heal our hearts and homes'. I also like how its a story--not a reference book. Check it out.