Thankful Thursday

Today I'm thankful to/for/about:

• Antibiotics, which are helping all sorts of nasty stuff go away ;-)
• Family recipes -- in this particular case, Clapper burgers (tonight's entree) and "Buddy's icing." Mmm, mmm, good! I made the mistake, though, in using a boxed spice cake mix (tisk, tisk!) There is a reason that Buddy didn't take a short cut on her raisin spice cake. Her cake is dense enough to hold the icing on the layer cake -- without splitting the top layer into thirds - having some of the icing and the top layer sliding off of the bottom layer. It's not so pretty at the moment, but satisfied my craving for a little trip down memory lane! (I have no idea how my tiny Buddy made this icing! It nearly overheated my Kitchen-Aid mixer whipping the stiff egg whites and the brown sugar syrup for over 25 minutes!) Amazing. Yummy! I could eat this stuff spread on anything -- seriously!
• Good friends who bring good beer -- thanks for the Yuengling, EJ! Delish! (Oh how I do love some of "America's Oldest Beer!")
• Elizabeth -- who has a conversation with me that goes like this: Elizabeth - "I love you, Mommy." Me - "I love you, too." Elizabeth - "I love you seven!" (Which, even by my calculation is greater than to...too...or two!)
• Reid - because he's needing a little lovin' right now. But as of this weekend, West Liberty will no longer be a college, but West Liberty University! Yea!!! We're so proud of all he has done for WLU in such a short period of time - not to mention that his other job, Small College Sports Web is broadcasting the WVIAC baseball and softball tournaments this weekend...and he's soon on his way to Glade Springs for the regional golf tourney as a member of the NCAA DII National Golf Committee. I'm getting worn out just typing about that...

CONGRATULATIONS Perrys!!!

A hearty congratulations to Kristin (Hinrichs) & William Perry on the arrival of their baby girl, Greer Auguste Perry!

Greer was goboren am ("born on" for those of you who don't speak German) April 24, 2009. Geburtszeit ("time") 12:04 PM...Kristin is likely still enjoying her national health care stay in the hospital and not yet able to confirm the time of birth...but that is for another day for yours truly to get on a soap box...in Berlin, Germany.

Greer weighed in at 3650 gramms (just over 8 pounds for those of us not on the metric system!) and is 51 cm (roughly 20").

What a cutie! I can't wait to meet her!!! (And isn't the little stuffed Strudel too adorable???)

Congratulations Chicken Noodle, Sweet William, & (Kennedy's LLBFF) Strudel!!! We ♥ & miss you guys!!! Looking forward to spending some quality time together soon!!!

Big Papi

So Reid, Elizabeth, and I are watching game 3 of the Red Sox vs. Yankees this evening when Big Papi comes up to the plate in the bottom of the 5th. (Yes, sports fans that would be shortly before Jacoby Ellsbury stole home -- first time a Red Sox player straight stole home since 1994...a beautiful sight! But I digress...) so Big Papi comes up to the plate, and Reid and I are telling Elizabeth to watch because Big Papi is at bat.

Then she starts with the questions, "What is Papi (as in my Daddy) doing at the baseball game? What's he got in his hand? Why's he swinging that bat?"

I don't know about you, but I don't really see a resemblance between Big Papi & my Daddy:


Then they show a close up of Big Papi.

Elizabeth says, "That's not my Papi - that's Baseball Papi!"

And Ortiz smacks a double line drive with an RBI...and Elizabeth cheered - gave me a high five (I need to wash the plague off of my hand.) Then when J.D. Drew hit his ground rule double scoring Big Papi...E wasn't too happy. "Where did Baseball Papi go? I want to see him!"

Let's Go Red Sox!!!!!

Recycling love

Anne, Sean, & Alex got me the maroon & white diamond patterned eye glasses case from Kim White as part of my birthday gift. I love it! It is not only recycled and vintage, but just plain cool! (That pattern is Diamond Lane 1975 AMC. Awe-some!
Kim White makes & sells handbags, too... http://www.kimwhitehandbags.com/index.html.

Poor Baby

So Elizabeth is practically a pink-eye diagnosis away from the plague.

It started Thursday afternoon with a high fever followed by the chills. Thursday evening Elizabeth was quite lethargic -- until around the time that I got home at which time she perked up and started cooking like a miniature Martha Stewart (she's quite in control in her own kitchen!) She was on the rebound, or so we thought, so we sent her back to daycare on Friday. Again with the high fever (103 on both Thursday & Friday afternoons)...and a bit of a red bumpy rash (most noticed on her cheeks and hands, but she has it on her legs, arms, and torso as well.) She complained a little bit on Thursday of her ear hurting, but complaints on Friday. So this morning we got her into the pediatrician.

According to the pediatrician, she has "generous" tonsils, which are inflamed -- as well as her adenoids. (Those suckers are HUGE -- it is amazing that she can swallow on any given day, but today they are really, really big!) Infections in both ears -- the right ear being much worse than the left. (Of course when she complained to me of her ear hurting, it was the left ear that she complained about.) She has strep throat. And the rash is scarlatina -- which according to WebMD, is another name for "scarlet fever" which is strep throat with a rash.

Great! That doesn't sound like a bloodletting with some leeches, I don't want to know what does!

In other words -- stay away from our house for the next 48 hours -- maybe more if, God forbid, Reid or I should contract strep throat...

Thankful Thursday

Today I'm thankful to/for/about:

• A sweet sleeping girl next to me -- yes, even if she is cramping my style here in the recliner. (She started running a fever last night -- and it has continued throughout the day. We think it is yet another ear infection, but hope not...have a call into the pediatrician for tomorrow morning, in case she still has the fever and complains about her ears hurting.)
• My faboo hubby -- I'm quite the lucky girl!
  
• Early cheers for West Liberty as they celebrate University Week next week!
• My sweet baby girl, Kennedy, who doesn't even whimper when she gets moved around in the bed every night...and usually never fails to be my foot warmer!
• Photoshop -- just love playing around on Photoshop...currently working on Alex's 2nd birthday party invites (in addition to various stuff for work...)

Funny Elizabeth story from yesterday evening. Reid had a Board of Governor's meeting last night, so I took Elizabeth out to eat. She enjoys getting to go to a restaurant - especially when it is one-on-one. On the drive out to The Highlands (that would be the area with Cabella's for those of you who are only a little bit familiar with Wheeling) Elizabeth started singing. At one point she went into singing one of her favorite Sesame Street songs:

"A firefighter wears a hat
And drives a fire engine
A special coat that's water-proof
A ladder to climb up to the roof
A hose that sprays the water around
We are heroes in your town."

When she was done singing I asked her who she knows that is a firefighter. She thought about my question for a second and proudly exclaimed, "Papi's a firefighter!"

"Right!" I said.

"And Big Bird..." replied Elizabeth.

Sorry to burst your philanthropic bubble, Papi, but Big Bird is yellow...and that is Elizabeth's favorite!!!

Cake Carrier

I have been eying some retro cake carriers on eBay for some time now. When I make a cake for my office or whatever, I don't have a good means for transporting it.

Quite often the kinds that I have liked on eBay the most have been going for $30 + S&H. Not that I've been opposed to the amount, just figured I could find a score of my own by frequenting an antique-type shops that we have a few of in Wheeling.

I was mentioning my quest for a vintage cake carrier to Mom when I was home a couple of weekends ago. She suggested we go into her basement to look for one that might have been Buddy's (my grandmother, Daddy's mom) or Aunt Maple's (my great aunt, Daddy's aunt.)

SCORE! It needed some TLC, but I was in business!

Daddy doesn't remember this, so we're guessing that it was Aunt Maple's.

Here's what I started out with (after it was washed and I took a Brillo pad to it):


I liked the retro chef with his wood-stoked grill, so I wanted to preserve it as best as I could. (From this picture you can see how yucky the inside of the carrier was.)

Finding a paint that wasn't a blindingly bright yellow was nearly impossible (most likely because I have the patience of a gnat and wanted the instant gratification...wasn't willing to shop all over the place for spray paint.) Anyway, I ended up going with an almond color that had a satin finish.

I wanted the bottom and the carrier part to be black to match the knobs and the chef.

Here's the finished product! I love it...and can't wait to make a yummy cake that I need to transport somewhere! (The top is for either a cake server or cookies, I guess.)

Hopefully this will make for more pleasant thoughts of my Great Aunt Maple than the couple of memories that I have. I'm sure she was a fine lady and all, but about all I can remember of her is visiting her in a nursing home when I was maybe grade school age...and random "old people" that I didn't know that would try to grab my hand and thought I was there to see them. In my head, it seems that we went to visit with her every weekend, but I'm sure Mom and Daddy will correct me upon reading this. Quite traumatic for a small child.

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful to/for/about:

• My family! This evening Elizabeth colored Easter eggs with Nana & Papa - after spending a great day with them. Sweetness arrived after a hard day's work looking all dapper in his US Open shirt from Oakmont...and we're scheduled to go to Webster Springs for some quality time with my fam. We love just getting to spend time with our families! We're quite blessed! (You can see the THREE dippers at E's disposal in this pic, yet she is using her hands!)
  
• Good conversation with Kristin! A surprise call last Saturday evening, when one would guess a preggo in Berlin would be fast asleep made my day! I love our chats...and hate that we live so far apart, but am so fortunate to have made a LLBFF (Kennedy feels the same way about Strudel!) Spanks girlfriend! Looking forward to what these next few weeks have in store for you...and I'm soooo looking forward to getting to virtually meet (before the actual meeting) of Sweet Baby Jennie Marie Cunningham Hinrichs Perry....it's not too late -- there's some Scottish in my blood (even if not in thy name!)
  
• Baseball season being underway. I love the sign of spring...Go Sox!!!
  
• Masters weekend. LOVE IT! ♥
  
• Easter eggs. E was quite intense this year coloring eggs here with Nana & Papa. Now if I can only get her to consistently use the dipper so as not to have her hands permanently dyed with the egg coloring.
• Giggles. There is nothing sweeter than the sound of a child, especially Elizabeth, giggling. Reid is currently giving her zerberts and she is giggling away. Pure joy.
• The color YELLOW. Elizabeth has declared over the last two weeks that it is her favorite color. She knows that purple is Grandma's favorite, green is Mommy & Daddy's favorite, and that blue is Nana's favorite. E says, "Yellow is my favorite!"

Easter Party Pooper!

Well...this morning Reid was taking Elizabeth to daycare with her adorable treats and cookies when he got stopped - by one of the administrators at the daycare. Apparently, there was a memo that neither of us got -- we can't bring anything homemade! :-|

The treats will be acceptable, once I bring the box that the crackers came in. The cookies, however, will be consumed by the staff - as the kids are not allowed to have them.

This is not the first time I've made cookies for the kids: pumpkin sugar cookies for Halloween, popcorn balls for Thanksgiving, chocolate chip cookies for Christmas, snowballs for January, Panda bear sugar cookies (that were the cat's meow) in February, green Rice Crispy treats for St. Patrick's Day, and TODAY we get stopped!

So, it will be off to the store for me to BUY crappy-ugly-store-bought-no-good cookies for Elizabeth's party. That's a party pooper!

Elizabeth's Easter Party

So it's another party at Elizabeth's daycare tomorrow. Lots of the parents in Elizabeth's class do some kind of treat for the kids to take home, in addition to making or bringing what we've signed up to bring. Mainly it's junk...more crap that we don't need in our house -- certainly not in Elizabeth's stash of over-flowing toys. So, I try to do things that are more on the consumable side.

I think these little carrots turned out pretty cute. They were really easy to make, too!

I used disposable cake decorating bags. Filled each with some of the chick whole wheat cheddar cheese crackers (Target's knock-off of Goldfish...figured the chicks were more Eastery). Then I cut sheets of green tissue paper into squares. Stuffed the tops of the carrots with the tissue and tied them off with green curling ribbon. I cut out egg-shaped tags and wrote "Happy Easter ♥ Elizabeth" on each of those. Elizabeth colored the backs of the tags and put spring stickers on most of them (she got bored, I put stickers on the ones she didn't.)

For some reason on party sign-up days, Reid is the one that does the signing up. No complaints, though, as he signs me up for cookies. Elizabeth & I typically make the cookies and decorate them together -- a process that usually takes a couple of evenings to complete. Not so much today and it was a one day project - and E wasn't in much of a mood to do anything other than eat cookie dough. (She ate enough cookie dough that Reid told her that he belly was as big as Alex's - and it nearly was!)

I think these turned out pretty cute, too!

By the way, the jelly beans are yummy! They are Sweet Tart jelly beans! (I don't like jelly beans, so was pleased that these are ones I can munch on!)

Funny little ditty on E from this evening. While taking the first batch of cookies out of the oven, I burned the heck out of my thumb. Burned it badly enough that I had to keep ice on it for several hours to keep it from throbbing. When I was getting her ready for her bath I was asking her to please cooperate with me since my thumb was really hurting. About that time Reid came into the bathroom and was able to actually do the bathing duty, which saved my thumb being in warm water (thankyouverymuch, Sweetness!)

Reid asked Elizabeth, "Are you going to cooperate with Mommy, Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth replied, "Nope."

I know, I know...she's only 3. She doesn't know what cooperate means. It was still pretty funny to us, though!

The Good Zoo at Oglebay

Wheeling has so many great things for kids! On Saturday morning, we met Jason, Sarah, Campbell, and Will Koegler and Kristin, Claire, and Max Seibert at Oglebay's Good Zoo.

Claire will be 4 in August, Campbell is nearly a month older than Elizabeth (the two of them are 3), Max is 2, and Will is 19 months. Reid was quite ecstatic that Elizabeth was the tallest in the bunch!

I find it much easier to keep up with just Elizabeth when I take her out shopping or the like than to help 2 other moms keep track of 5 kids in all. Plus Max is fast and has no issues with running away from a poor pregnant Kristin. (Kristin's husband, Justin, was working, so that must have been additionally stressful for her!)

The Good Zoo is really nifty! We started out with the kids playing in the room with the nasty looking mole rats. Actually, we kind of sped past the meerkats as they are pretty stinky before getting to the room with the turtles, mole rats, etc. Elizabeth and Claire especially enjoyed playing veterinarian to the stuffed animals! Too cute!!!

Somewhat surprisingly, Elizabeth was excited about the train ride. (This was the beginning of the end of the fun at the Boo at the Zoo in October. People were dressed in costumes and jumped out of the woods in a couple of places during the Boo at the Zoo...E spent the rest of the time with her eyes closed!) It was a bit chilly for my liking, but the kids all had fun on the train ride. Toot-Toooooot!

We spent quite a bit of time at the playground. I think the kids would have been happy if that is all that we would have done for the day. Then we were off to the lorikeet cage, which was pretty nifty. Only a few seconds after we stepped into the cage both Reid and Sarah had attracted a few of the lorikeets. Fortunately none of the birds landed on the kids, although Campbell did have one on his arm for a brief bit.

Then it was off to the kangaroo enclosure. There were at least 5 kangaroos in the enclosure, and you can get surprisingly close to the animals. There are a few signs that tell the people to stay on the sidewalks. I can only assume that the roos stay in the grass area...but Will, more than any of the other kids, would throw that rope over his head and off he'd go to chase after the kangaroos. Pretty funny!

Then we had lunch. The Seiberts departed for home. The Amoses and Koeglers took the kids to the model train exhibit. Campbell and E would run along side of some of the trains, which was pretty cute. The Koeglers went home and Reid and I took Elizabeth back into the room where she could doctor the puppy a bit to help it feel better. She also needed to show the turtle, who was eating his "salad" that she was wearing a shirt with a turtle on it before we went home.

We had a great time...and Elizabeth is ready to go back to the zoo with her friends!

Who Knew?

I'm in preparation mode for the Masters next week/weekend.

If your house is anything like mine, you get a warm and fuzzy feeling inside the first time you hear CBS promo the Masters...and that music. The Masters is how I know its spring - and I get can get excited for all things that spring brings (like warmer weather!)

In our house, pretty much everything comes to a roaring halt for the Masters. We watch nothing but golf for a week straight. Replays of the day...replays of prior years...just the Golf Channel...it's a little slice of golfers' heaven!

It's too early for me to find out what Trevor Immelman will be serving for his Champions' Dinner for me to make my full preparations for our annual Champions' Dinner. But that doesn't mean that I'm not starting to worry that I won't be able to find certain ingredients...or what I need to do to make an appropriate substitution.

But my search for the 2009 Champions' Dinner menu lead me to this discovery: There are lyrics to the music we hear on CBS!

I have overlooked this is the past of my quest for knowledge of all things related to the Masters. (Wonder if Joe Sengelwalt is aware of this???)

Here is what the Masters website says:

16.	Q.	What is the name of the music that CBS uses during Masters Tournament coverage?
	A.	Dave Loggins wrote the original score for CBS's coverage of the Masters in 1981. It was re-released by Leeds Music/Patchwork Music ASCAP in 1996 by Don Cherry.

The song is called, "Augusta" -- go figure.

Who is Dave Loggins? (Not to be confused with Kenny Loggins...) You're likely familiar with Dave Loggins for "Please Come to Boston."

AND, here are the lyrics:

"Augusta"
by Dave Loggins

Well, it's springtime in the valley on Magnolia Lane
It's the Augusta National and the master of the game
Who'll wear that green coat on Sunday afternoon?
Who'll walk the 18th fairway singing this tune?
Augusta, your dogwoods and pines
They play on my mind like a song
Augusta, it's you that I love
And it's you that I'll miss when I'm gone.
It's Watson, Byron Nelson, Demaret, Player and Snead
It's Amen Corner and it's Hogan's perfect swing
It's Sarazen's double eagle at the 15 in '35
And the spirit of Clifford Roberts that keeps it alive
Augusta, your dogwoods and pines
They play on my mind like a song
Augusta, it's you that I love
And it's you that I miss when I'm gone.
It's the legions of Arnie's Army and the Golden Bear's throngs
And the wooden-shafted legend of Bobby Jones.

Click here to listen to the theme music.

Now...back to focusing on the Champions Dinner because who knows what a South African will serve! (Just wish Masters Week didn't coincide with Easter...that's a bummer!)

Won't Easter Be Fun???

I just got Rose Marie Robinson's recipe for "Red Rooster" drinks from Marra...

"1 and 1/2 quarts of cranberry juice, one 6 once can of frozen orange juice concentrate (non-diluted and thawed), and 2 cups of vodka. Stir and pour in a 9x12 baking dish with cover. Refrigerate overnight and scoop out like italian ice... YUM.."

Guess what the Mortons will be having next weekend ??? But we'll likely need to at least double this...I can't imagine that this would be enough to satisfy our clan!