Cousin Time!

Chrissy went and saw Jon at the office yesterday while I was on kid duty. We did all kinds of fun stuff: had snacks, jumped on the bean bag, ate popsicles, colored hand picked pictures from the internet, colored our names from stencils, read books, built a fort, played with trains and so on. Okay, so I didn't do quite all of that, but most of it. Here are some fun pictures for you to enjoy. A close up of the kids inside their fort.
A better picture of the fort. Ivy was very creative in getting it to work.
The babes.
The damage. (See our blog)

Montréal est MERVEILLEUSE!

Simple Summer Stew

Last night we had a "Simple Summer Stew" for dinner from "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone." It was quite delicious-and filling. I had my doubts as to whether a meal consistly only of vegetables would be enough and it was (served with bread). What was in it? Squash, green beans, tomato, bell pepper, and corn. And the reason for posting? I quote Jon, "This is a meal my mom would go bananas over. And actually, Katie would love it too." And I bet that you would like it too Laurie. And Peter and Chrissy, you have all the ingredients in your backyard! Except for the corn. I don't know if anyone besides Mom owns the cookbook (and we only have it checked out from the library) so let me know if you want me to type it up for you. We have leftovers, anyone want some? Come and get it!

And the bar is upon us! Glen and his beard have been working hard to prepare for the big test this week. We're taking votes for how he should shave his beard off. Checkerboard pattern? Mutton Chops? Moustachio only?









I've had a few friends to keep me company while glen is so busy:

Both are a little green and round, but very very cute.

Offered...and Accepted (finally)!

This is our beaut of a house. There is lots of room for visitors. Come soon! Well, at least after we buy the place and move in, hopefully in the next month or so.

Check Me Out Sassy G

Am I the only one who thinks that Grant makes faces like this? Especially for pictures?

Hello everyone

First of all, I don't remember who the moderator for this blog is. Was it Katie? Whoever it is, Laurie has a new gmail account that she can use to post as herself rather than both of us sharing an account. This way you'll know right away who posted what. Her gmail screen name is just her first name middle initial and last name all as one word (I don't want to post it to prevent spam bots from harvesting it off this blog). Please invite her. Thanks!

The latest word is that our buyers got approval from the VA and now we're just waiting for the HUD forms to be finished. We should have a date here really soon...

Just in case you didn't notice . . .

David set up a link to our new family blog in his last post here. You can see a picture of our new house there. We move out this Saturday and move in sometime next week, probably. Our house looks like a war zone but Carol is happy as a clam. So many kind people have offered their help. We just ask them to play with Carol and keep her happy while we work. It is difficult to have people help you pack. How do you let them know what sorts of things ought to go together so you can find them again- but without getting on their nerves? Anyway, we're almost finished and Carol has had more playdates this week than in the last couple of months put together! Love you guys!

Laurie

Philly Pics

We sure do enjoy our traditional Memorial Day trips to Philadelphia. The dual wedding attempt on Saturday was crazy. We were at both ceremonies but no meals that we RSVP'ed for (I'm hoping that we didn't create bitter feelings with one of the brides) or wedding cake. The highlight of the weekend, even above running on Forbidden Drive and eating Rita's, was spending time with Katie and Glen.

Jonathan and Jackson on the recently re-Astroturfed patio

YUM! Shish kabobs for dinner on the patio. So good. Katie and Glen sure know how to treat guests, as do Laurie and Dave. They pull out all the good stuff.

The Big Sitter (aka Jackson) with his aunt and uncle, just waiting for a cousin to play with.

Next time.

We're moving

See details...

Swedish meatballs

There are some things that just don't seem to go together very well, and yet some people like the combination, anyway. Take Swedish meatballs, for example. This is the classic dish to be made fun of in our household. Laurie likes it, but I just can't get over the thought of mixing ketchup, orange juice, and molasses in a meal. That's just wrong. So there you have it--things that shouldn't go together that someone put together, anyway, and someone else agrees that it isn't so bad together. But this mixing conundrum isn't confined to just food. Oh, no--you can mix all kinds of things that don't belong together. Like, say for example... oh, a cello quartet, and a heavy metal concert. Enter the Finnish bad, "Apocalyptica." This time Laurie thinks that the combination is absurd and that I shouldn't even let Mom know about it because she'd probably puke. I'm the one who likes it. Well, sorta'--I like the original songs and I think it's fun to hear them in cello, but watching the visuals is a bit too much to handle; it just reminds me of ketchup and orange juice. Still, I'd like to share, if for no other reason, I find the juxtaposition amusing. I think I'll make 2 posts, though: one for Mom and one for everyone else. The first one is for Mom. It illustrates the odd combination, but it's not anything as dramatic as post number two...




OK, did you like that one? Now try this one. If you're pressed for time, start 1/2 way through...



Laurie's theory (and I think she might be on to something here) is that these poor chaps were constantly picked on as kids because they played the cello. They continued playing because they were good at it and they enjoyed it, but one can only take so much abuse. They decided to try and prove that they could be as cool with a cello as all the guitar-playing bullies. And what better way to do this than to play their own music and beat them at their own game? ... the rest is history.

Rodrigo y Gabriela

We love those pictures below. Especially the first one of Ivy and May. Ivy looks so happy with her new treasure.

Recently Katie and I have been enjoying a guitar group that I think a few of you might appreciate. Rodrigo y Gabriela were originally members of a thrash metal band in Mexico City. They switched to acoustic guitar and moved to Ireland where their albums have gone #1. They are slowly gaining steam in the states. Hope you like them.

Here She Is!

Ivy holding May for the first time
All the ladies (man, does Chrissy know how to have babies or what? I think that she looks fantastic for having a baby less than 12 hours before this picture was taken)
Peter trying to entertain Rex in a small hospital room.
Ivy's last hold before we left.
Beautiful Baby May.

(Sorry if I pre-empted you on posting Peter and Chrissy)

Pajama Party

The Roanoke cousins had a pajama party last week while Peter and Chrissy went to the hospital early in the morning to have the baby flipped out of a double breech position. The baby had already flipped herself into position and so they didn't stay long. But I sure enjoyed getting morning cuddles from this trio. Jon treated us to pancakes before he left for work.

So I realize that with three (soon to be four) kids in a picture, someone is always going to look bad. This is Jackson's turn for not looking his cutest. Next time, one of Peter and Chrissy's offspring! Speaking of Peter and Chrissy's offspring, I got this cute picture when they came over this afternoon.

Oh, and the ice cream recipe that we used was from the ATK Family Cookbook. I can email the recipe to you Laurie (or Dave) if you don't have that book yet.

A tribute to Nestor

In order to really appreciate my post, you'll need to enlarge my picture by clicking on it.


If you don't get it, let me explain. If you do get it, there's no need to read on...
Shortly after we moved in, we used to park a mere 30 feet (give or take) from our door. It was very convenient. Then our beloved traffic engineer, Nestor Gallo, thought it would be a good idea to put no parking signs up so that we couldn't do it any more. There are so many reasons why this shouldn't have happened and don't get me started--I could go on for pages. Suffice it to say, that I wasn't happy. I called. I emailed. I got a petition and went to the city board to get rid of the signs, or at least to change it to something like "2 hr parking only" or something like that. I've been totally ignored ("for the people, of the people and by the people"? Bah!) and so naturally I'm all the more annoyed, esp. when I get home late and all the good parking spots are gone and I find myself parking a few buildings away.

Vanilla Beans

So the vanilla beans that Mom and Dad sent us have also been sitting dormant for many moons. Jon used the first one last week and made some super delicious homemade ice cream. Definitely worth repeating with the remaining vanilla beans but I think that there is another recipe that I wanted to try with a vanilla bean. We will keep you posted on our delicious conquest of using whole vanilla beans.

And I have to attach this picture of Grant and Jackson because it's just awesome.

Vanilla Pear

Laurie and I managed to procure some ultra-high quality vanilla beans from Mom and Dad a while back. We have been trying to decide what the perfect application of said beans would be. Today we finally used one of them for a scrumptious vanilla pear dish inspired by Alton Brown. I say "inspired by" because his recipe calls for 750 ml of white wine and I guess we were just fresh out of it . His recipe can be found at the link below. I thought perhaps white grape juice would do and then I noticed that there was a similar recipe that called for almost exactly that (see the other link, below) so we used 4 1/4 cups of grape juice instead of the wine/water combination Alton uses. It was fabulous! Mint leaves or something like that for garnish would have been nice to make the presentation a little prettier, but the flavor didn't need any enhancements. At first you just tasted the sweetness from the grape juice/sugar syrup, but as it warmed up in your mouth (it is a refrigerated dessert) the other flavors jumped to the foreground: pear, grape, and a very subtle, yet delicious vanilla. The amount of vanilla was perfect--you knew it was there, but it didn't overwhelm the other flavors. Yum. If you can get a hold of some vanilla pods, I'd suggest this as a use for them. I think I would suggest not stopping at 4 pears, though, as the recipe calls for. You could easily double or triple that number with the same amount of syrup and feed a bunch of guests and let me tell you there will be some wow factor there! Next time I might try adding a 1/2 a peach (an idea from the similar recipe) and/or some vanilla ice cream along with some mint (I think that's what Alton used in his final shot) or other green to try and enhance the presentation--a lone pear doesn't look all that great by itself. Speaking of presentation, please admire my Photoshop enhancements of this picture. I've been reading a book about Photoshop and honing my skills. This was a fun little project that I was able to do with my new skills. I ought to show you the original, but then I'd have to point out everything I did, and that'd be a lot of typing and I don't think most of you readers would want to go through it all. Let's just say, other than the obvious black and white back ground vs. color foreground, I also enhanced the colors in the foreground and digitally polished a smear off the glass from when the pear first went in. OK, thanks for taking a second look :)

Alton's recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_32758,00.html
Similar recipe
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_18275,00.html

Genghis Honkytonk Rottweiler Fewkes

15 weeks. I guess it looks like every other ultrasound pic of a baby this age ... but much cuter.

We find out the sex on May 9.

new pictures

www.carolandsuch.shutterfly.com

Thank You Alton Brown

I would just like to thank Alton Brown for introducing Laurie and Dave to steel-cut oats, who introduced Mom to steel-cut oats who introduced me to steel-cut oats. I think that they are the greatest thing ever. I have had them every week (normally four times a week since one batch makes four servings) since Mom was here to help when Jackson was born. YUM! And with some brown sugar and raisins, it's the best breakfast on the block as far as I'm concerned. And it's only four points on Weight Watchers! I also like the fact that the cheapest brand at our store is from Bob's Red Mill which is a company in Oregon that my parents have used for years for all kinds of grains. I remember going to the mill many times when I was a little girl.

Carol in the snow

This is Carol's biggest snow storm (by far) to date. Hopefully my first go at a video post works the way I'm hoping...

Chubby Cheeks and a Double Chin

On Jackson-not Jon!

Lee Jackson Day

For those of you who don't know, here in Virginia we honor the Confederate war heroes Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. It seems a little bit odd to me. In fact the first time I heard about it was from a student last year and I laughed. Seriously? This came from one of my less illustrious (but spunky) students. I didn't know if I should believe him. But turns out that he was right. Lee Jackson Day is always the Friday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Hmm, celebrate the people who wanted to keep slavery on one side of the weekend and the man who brought about the civil rights movement on the other side. There must be something that I don't get. Enlighten me if you can.

School isn't cancelled on Lee Jackson Day but the courts are. Which means that Peter (as a commonwealth attorney) has a four day weekend! Hooray for Peter! He told us a cute story this morning at church. When he was home on Friday, he explained to Ivy that he didn't have to go to work because it was Lee Jackson Day. Ivy accepted this and went on with her day. Later in the afternoon, she was taking on bath and wanted to know when we were coming over. As we hadn't made any plans to do so, Peter told her that we weren't coming over. With a confused look on her face, Ivy replied, "We don't get to see Jackson on Lee Jackson Day?"

Pictures (from David)

Katie and Glen-I like your pictures. Light painting, as I understand it to be called, is one of my new tricks, but your application is much more artistic than I've ever done (as may be expected since you are both pretty artsy ). I first saw it in a picture that someone took of a skeleton. They did 2 pictures and then used photoshop to merge them. The first was a normal exposure with a person sitting by the skeleton and the second had the bones "painted" with a warm incandescent flash light. The result looked like the skeleton was glowing, but the rest of the picture looked normal. I used light painting in the picture of the pumpkin that I took (the stem doesn't show up unless it has a little help). I'm excited to try doing some of the stuff that you did in your pictures.
Speaking of pictures....


Carol's first snow man. Right now she LOVE'S the Frosty the Snowman song/book.



Carol's new bed. The Finding Nemo sheets were necessary to get her to like the new bed enough to not be sad the old crib was disappearing.



Making biscuits for Mommy. Note the recipe specifically says to put the butter into the flour and use your hands to cut it in. Also, just for the record, we both washed our hands before doing so ;)

Light Show

Katie and I have been having fun with a tripod, an LED flashlight, and an extended shutter time on our camera. We didn't digitally alter these at all. You just draw in the air with the flashlight.