Michigan Vacation, Part 1

Here we are in Michigan! We've been visiting Grammy and Papa at their cottage. As an added bonus, there are cousins here too! The girls had a great time making friendship bracelets, tubing:



paddle boating:



Bedazzling, and I think even riding on the jet ski. I am not a fan of water sports so I tried not to watch, and I'm not sure about the jet ski - but I did hear it on the lake so I'm guessing everyone had a ride. The Snort really liked the water, too! Daddy helped him walk in the water:



And then he was happy to sit and splash.



He had fun playing with everyone, especially Grammy. She got out blocks:



and a really fun phone:



If you said "Say hello!" he would put it up to his ear like that. So cute!

And, Jeff & Leigh's dog Baxter is such a sweet, long-suffering soul. Isaac really liked him! He was good for climbing:



and for building with blocks, too:



Baxter was a rescue lab, and he came from a puppy mill. He had a hard life before he came to Jeff and Leigh, but he's come such a long way! He is the very picture of why labs are such outstanding dogs to have with children. (Our poor dog, Toby, really does not care for itty bits and moves as quickly away from Isaac as he can, whenever there is the slightest possibility of contact.)

The Snort was teething during these few days, and hasn't slept much, but now that we're ready to leave (of course) he seems to be doing better. Tomorrow afternoon, we head up to the U.P!

I was going to whine, but.....

I have to say, this has been "a week," if you know what I mean. Todd left for the week on Monday so I've been single parenting this week. Actually, it's not all that bad; since we homeschool I'm with the kids all the time anyway, and the girls can feed themselves if need be and can be pretty independent. I hadn't realized how much I depend on our few minutes of adult conversation in the evenings.

Sunday the Snort came down with some kind of bug. He started throwing up on Sunday, and then got a fever that went as high as 103 F. We ended up taking him to the doctor today, because his fever had gone away but now it seems to be creeping back, and he's still throwing up.

I am SO tired of being puked on.

And today, he had some lovely diarrhea. I went to swim team practice with baby poo on my shirt, which I happily discovered while I was sitting there. Ick.

You know what, though? He's fine, just has a virus - no pneumonia or anything else dire. He was not the baby being put into the ambulance we saw when we arrived at our pediatrician's office today. I am not permanently a single parent - Todd will be home tomorrow. We are fed, clothed, and sheltered.

I'm still a little crabby about all the yakking going on at my house, but I am mostly thankful that my family is safe and whole.

WIP Wednesday

I started knitting my first pair of socks! I'm so excited. The yarn is Touché by Berroco, in Iris (cw 7933), and I love it! It's not only purple, it's very soft. I'm using the Beginner Socks #9728 pattern from Knitting Pure and Simple. What's nice about it is that it uses worsted weight yarn and larger needles, which makes my first pair of socks go much more quickly than regular socks on those tiny needles. Heh. I am definitely an "instant gratification" knitter, so I'm delighted to see how quickly my first sock is knitting up. The very nice woman at Loops and Links in DePere, WI showed me this pattern and said that it's great for beginners. I'm particularly pleased at how easy it is to follow, because I'm pretty much teaching myself how to knit socks!



And, here is a picture of Schmooey's sweater!




I found the free pattern on Lion Brand's website, except when I saw originally looked at it, it showed "boy colors" in the picture and showed a baby on his tummy. When I went back to find it again, it showed "girly colors" and a baby sitting up. Weird, eh? I was a bit confused and wasn't sure I had the same pattern. Anyway, I'm using Cotton Fleece yarn by Brown Sheep Company in Putty (cw 105), Teddy Bear (cw 025), and Wild Sage (cw 029). It's a cotton/wool yarn, and has a really nice texture. I started it on needles that are a little too large, so I'm going to re-start it on the right size. (I made a swatch and everything. It's a long story.) I really like the colors though, and I think it will be a wonderful sweater for most of the year in NC.

I had originally chosen a gray color instead of the green, but when I got back to Jessie's house and looked at it, I didn't care for it. The gray was a discontinued color and was a great price, hence my reason for choosing it, but it just wasn't working for me. I do love the green though.

Perhaps next week I will have made more progress on my cross-stitch piece for Schmooey's room. I will try to remember to put a picture of that on here.

Ponies, Trotting and Crops

Tonight, I had the privilege of taking the girls to their pony class. Todd left this afternoon for Boxboro, MA for the week, so I am the only transportation available.

The girls told me earlier today that they needed riding gloves. Emma needed them in case she rode Vogue, a pony with a knack for pulling on the reins. Apparently, it's not good to have slippery hands when your pony is trying to pull the reins away from you. Also, Abbie was "told by her instructor that she has slippery hands." They were also quite sure that they needed crops, too, but I envisioned large amounts of money for those so we weren't planning on getting them.

We headed off early so that we could get to the M&M Tack Shop before they closed. We found some lovely riding gloves in an attractive shade of pink. Emma had hoped for the purple ones, but they were out of her size, so she settled for pink. Lo and behold, they had crops - pink and purple, no less - for under $10, so I let them each get a crop too. They were delighted! The Snort got a hold of one of them and said that they make good chew toys, too, so they are multi-functional! (We did have to discuss once we got home that the crops are NOT meant to be used on people or dogs. I'm sure you can figure out why we needed to have that discussion, so I won't elaborate.)

Tonight, Abbie rode Vogue, who is a pretty little pony. See? (This picture is from a previous lesson. My camera informed me that its batteries were dead when I tried to use it at pony lessons tonight.)



She needed her crop for Vogue, as the pony did not feel inclined to trot without a fair amount of encouragement. The instructor asked if she could use Emma's crop, since Emma didn't need it and hers was in the ring already, but Emma was adamant that she did NOT want Abbie to use her crop. So, the instructor came over to me and got Abbie's. Also, I noticed that although Abbie was riding Vogue, the pulling pony, she was not wearing her new riding gloves. You can see that I was feeling pleased that we'd made the extra effort to get to the tack shop, can't you?

Emma rode Bobby, who we thought was an Appaloosa, but in fact, turned out to be an Indian pony. I don't know what that means, exactly, but there you go. Here is a picture of her on Bobby, from a previous lesson:



Can you tell these pictures were not taken in July in North Carolina? They'd have been dead from heat exhaustion!

Bobby was in fine form tonight, and trotted both willingly and speedily. As a result, Emma did not get to use her brand new (purple!) crop, and she was quite disappointed. She was sniffling and sad through the whole lesson, but she kept going, and did very well with the riding. Their instructor (whose name escapes me because it was not their normal person) said that she was sorry to make Emma sad, and would have liked to give her the crop, but that Bobby would have run away with her. I am of the "get over it" variety of parent, so I assured her that it was all good.

Anyhoo, it was a pretty cool lesson, I thought, because the instructor laid out three poles for the girls to lead their ponies over. They also had to steer around orange cones before and after the series of poles. I'm sure there is a word for this type of activity, but I don't know what it is. They tried it first at a walk, and then at a trot, and then switched directions and did it again at a trot. I was impressed with how well they did! This was the first time I've seen them do anything like this, and it required them to pay close attention to their steering. They are not known for paying close attention to their steering, and often you will see a "pony party" in the middle of the ring when they need to turn around or ride a circle for spacing or what have you. They did well with the exercise, though, and only once did I see Emma veer off in the wrong direction a little bit.

They've certainly come a long way since last fall when they started pony lessons! Miss Laura, their regular instructor, said that if the class does a good job with their lessons, they may be cantering by the end of the summer block. Big stuff, that!

Scmooeyful Updates

My (not so) tiny boy has been busy this week! He's officially 10 months old. He's now pulled himself up to stand at least 3 times all on his own. Check it out - he's very proud of himself!



Yesterday afternoon, for the first time, he pushed himself up to sit from his tummy. Today, Emma found him sitting up in his crib after his nap, and asked me if I'd laid him down when I put him to bed. She found him sitting up. I'm not sure how she thought he'd slept for two hours like that. Hee.

While he is not officially crawling, he does seem to be able to levitate. He can move himself several feet across a room without seeming to do so at all. I can be right next to him and not see him move. It's bizarre.

Last week, the girls went to Vacation Bible School at Peace Presbyterian Church, at the invitation of our very good friends, the Huffstedtlers. That's where Abbie went to preschool when she was 4, and we LOVED it. We will send the Snort there if we're still living here when he's old enough to go. I don't have any indication that we won't be living here, you know, I'm just hopeful that someday we will be living closer to family. But I digress. The reason I brought up Bible school is that I have the cutest picture of the Snort with his good friend Jack (of Huffstedtler fame), discovering grass together. Neither of them were particularly sure they liked it.



And really, for cuteness' sake, you must check out these pictures of the Snort and his fabulous 'do:





A couple of nights, he got these wacky curls going and they were just adorable! I think it fluffs up like that when I use hooded towels. I'm hopeful that his hair will come in curly. There are definitely waves happening! Isn't he just the cutest?

Back From The Land Of Cheese

I got to spend last weekend in Wisconsin with my sister and her family, celebrating my niece Norah's birthday, my brother-in-law Kevin's birthday, my sister-in-law Jennifer's birthday, and most importantly, the baptism of Jessica & Kevin's twins, Joshua and Ashlyn. I flew up last Saturday morning, bright and early. Actually, it was so early that it wasn't even bright yet, but hey, it got me to Green Bay with most of the day left to play!

I have to tell you, if you must travel with a baby, the Snort is the one to take. He was an angel. He slept on all our flights, and entertained himself in the airport with:



A firewire cable, courtesy of his daddy! His favorite thing to do is get it behind his teeth and slide it back and forth. It's pretty funny.



We had a birthday party that was mostly for Norah, who turned 2, but there were presents and cake for Kevin and Jen, too. Norah liked the vacuum cleaner (with dust buster, even!) that we sent to her.



The Snort ate his first Dorito at the birthday party. I am not sure he liked it.



My mom and I did not let him eat a Dorito on purpose, by the way. We'd watched him try to grab one, and thought we'd moved far enough over that he couldn't reach the bowl. We were wrong.

The baptism was lovely. It was a special day! Kevin's parents, his brother, my parents, my grandmother, my brother and his family, and the Snort and I were all able to come. I didn't think much of it, because I wouldn't have missed it, but we had people come in from Florida, North Carolina, Illinois and Michigan - just goes to show that there are lots of people who love my sister and her beautiful family. Here is a picture of the whole gang:



Both twins were very good, and no one cried. I liked that the pastors carried the babies through the congregation so that everyone could see them. Here is Kevin with Joshy:



And here is Jessie with Ashlyn:


These pictures are not from the baptism. They were all dressed up so nicely - Kevin even wore a tie! These are candid, tired parent shots. Somehow I don't have any of the babies in their baptism finery.

Sunday afternoon we had a baptism party, which was lovely. Kevin's parents and brother left on Sunday. My parents stayed until Monday afternoon, so that Jessie and I could sneak out to a yarn shop. I got yarn for socks for me and a sweater for Schmooey, so I'm excited about that. The socks are going pretty well so far!

I did get the twins' afghans done, at 11pm the night before I left, of course. Here they are:



No close-up of the knitting, because it's not very pretty, but the afghans are soft and cuddly and will hopefully be useful. I know I love the afghan like these that our dear friend, Mary Robertson, made for the Snort. It's warm, yet it breathes, so it keeps him warm but he doesn't get too hot. And it's washable!

After everyone else left, I got to hang out with my wonderful sister and her four beautiful children (who, by the way, are all under the age of 4). She is amazing. I don't know how she maintains her sanity. I realized that it had been a long time since I'd been around toddler drama! I wouldn't have missed it, though. I hadn't seen Faithy and Norah since last summer, and it was my first time meeting the twins.

It was hard to come back to North Carolina, knowing that there would be no sister waiting for me, and also knowing that summer has hit full on here and it would be HOT. Actually, though, I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of humidity when I got home. Yesterday and today have been beautiful!

Fond Memories

When the girlies were little, probably 2 and 3 or 3 and 4, they would say to me, "You're my best Mommy!" and give me a hug. I would say to them, "You're my best Emma!" or "You're my best Abbie!" and we would know that something precious had passed between us.

Yesterday, I said to Abbie, "You're my best Abbie!" as I kissed the top of her sweet head. And do you know what she said to me? "I'm the only Abbie you have."

Sigh.

Quick Update

This week, the Snort has decided that playing Patty Cake is the coolest thing EVER. He will clap his hands at you, and then your job is to say the Patty Cake rhyme, roll his hands over each other when you get to that part, and make a big deal out of the "Throw it in the pan!" line. He giggles like a fool when we do that. It's great.

He can also blow a mean spit bubble. You know the kind, when a child says mmmmmwaaaaa and there is a bubble in their mouth? Very attractive, I must say. I had forgotten about this stage. It's pretty funny.

Still no crawling here, but boy, is he trying to pull up on things! I have informed him that I will in no way be encouraging his plan to skip crawling, but with little effect. He is a determined child.

Today, I was messing around with ring tones for my cell phone, not having been able to come up with anything better to do while driving, and decided that I should use the National Anthem for this week and next in honor of Independence Day. I told my girls that it was the National Anthem, and they said, "What, you mean the song they sing at hockey and baseball games?" Ahem. Yes. I even sang it for them, having been inspired by my new ring tone. Emma said I should be the one to sing it at the ball games because I sing better than most of the people she's heard there. Isn't she sweet? She earned some major cool points with that one.

Isaac Has Been Busy!

At 9 months old, my boy is still not crawling - not that I'm complaining, mind you! He has certainly been learning new things, though.

On Friday night at our small group, he went from sitting to his hands and knees - getting ready to go somewhere, for sure! - for the first time. Woo hoo! The girls have been putting him on his hands and knees for quite a while, and he loves to rock, but he's been "fixing to get started thinking about" crawling for quite a while. I don't remember when Abbie started to crawl, but I know Emma was crawling by 9 months. We are, however, on Isaac time here, and that's quite a different thing.

If you ask him to say "uh oh!" he says "ah ah!" It's terribly cute.

At the doctor's office last Tuesday, they asked me if he was playing patty cake yet. I had to answer honestly that no, he was not, but I had not asked him to, either. Heh. Yet another thing I don't remember about babies.... but, I digress. Abbie taught him that afternoon how to clap his hands. Go, Abbie-sister! It is just adorable when a baby learns to clap their hands, isn't it? Now, of course, it's old hat, and he won't do it on demand anymore. I'm hoping to get it on video.

Busy Weekend!

We had quite a busy couple of days. On Saturday, the girls had their end-of-year horse show at Macnair's Country Acres, where they've been taking riding lessons since last fall. WOW, was it hot. Miss Tonna came to cheer the girls on (and she did a fabulous job entertaining the Snort, too):



The girls got to give their instructor 3 ponies or horses that they wanted to ride, so that they had their best chance at doing well in the show. The girls normally ride ponies, but Emma did ride Babe, a horse, once, and that's who she got to ride. She placed first in her class! Here she is with Babe and her first place ribbon:



Abbie rode Vogue, a lovely chestnut pony. She was in the last class of the day, and those ponies were DONE being cooperative. I don't blame them a bit. Vogue was not of a mindset to do anything without a great deal of persuasion, but Abbie did an excellent job of using her voice and her leg (and finally a crop) to get Vogue to do what she was supposed to do. Abbie placed second in her class, but *I* thought she deserved the blue ribbon. Here she is on Vogue:



And here are the girls with their instructor, Miss Laura:



We had to wait about an hour in between the girls' show classes, and it was. just. so. HOT! The Snort was exceptionally well-behaved for a tiny boy who really probably didn't need to be out in the heat for so long. Emma helped keep him happy too. She's such a good big sister!



On Sunday morning, we went to church, and then had to hustle to make it to the girls' gymnastics show. We got to see them perform small routines on the bar, beam and floor, and "vault" - really a large piece of foam that they jumped onto, not an actual vault. Emma opted not to do the bars. Here is Abbie on the bars, her favorite:



Here is Emma on the beam:



Apparently the people at the gym had opted not to turn the air conditioning on - it was quite warm in there. They did turn it on about 2/3 of the way through the program, but still:



Phew!



The girls both got medals for participation. Here's Abbie:



And here's Emma:



For next year, Todd and I have decided that the girls need to limit their activities to horses and one other thing. It's clear to us that Emma should stick with dance, and Abbie should continue with gymnastics. Emma, of course, wants to do it all, but she's afraid of the uneven parallel bars, so unless we decide to let her do a "tramp & tumble" class, she won't do gymnastics anymore. I asked one of the coaches how many times per week Abbie should take gymnastics to give it a good shot to see if she'd be good at it. She told me that Abbie had caught her eye, and we could have her evaluated to see if she's ready to participate in a more advanced class! I'm so proud!

This has been a fun year, watching them improve in their dance, gymnastics and horses. I know if we limited them to one thing, they would choose horses hands down, so I'm really grateful that we're able to afford dance and gymnastics as well, thanks to the girls' very generous Grammy and Papa.

For the summer, the girls will continue with their pony lessons, and they've decided to try the Scotts Mill Swim Team - the Sea Dragons. They seem to enjoy it so far. It's great exercise for them, and I'm delighted that they're really learning to swim. Swimming was Todd's sport, so it's fun for him to watch them, too. So far Abbie is best at backstroke, and Emma looks like a freestyler. Their first meet is in 10 days or so - gotta go find those swimsuits!

Guess what I learned?

Camy from the Well-Trained Mind forums posted the following recipe:

Directions on how to have a great lunch that is healthy, delicious, fairly simple, and inexpensive:

1. Place pinto beans in a crock pot w/ enough water to cover by 3 inches. I normally use about 5 cups of beans. Soak overnight.
2. When you get up in the morning, turn the crock pot on high (check to see if you need to add more water. Sometimes the beans absorb much of the water). Cook for about 3 hours. Check for doneness w/ a knife by breaking a bean in half. If tender, they're done.
3. Warm your tortillas. We do this by either wrapping a stack of tortillas in foil and placing in the oven on 375 degrees until warm (about 15 minutes), warming them one at a time on a hot cast iron skillet, or popping them in the toaster one by one for a more crisp tortilla. Make sure to watch them carefully in the toaster. They can burn quickly if you are not careful.
4. While tortillas are warming, drain cooked beans in a large strainer. Put beans in a bowl or back in the crock pot (turn on low). Mash the beans and add a shake of onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, & a dash of salt. You could also add a small can of chopped green chillies for more flavor. Take note to add more of the spices if you use more beans. Keep taste-testing to get flavorful results.
5. Prepare any desired toppings (i.e. lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, onions, peppers, sour cream, guacamole, salsa, etc.) . We stay very simple.
6. Serve mashed beans in tortillas and top w/ your choice of the above.

Sounds good, right? And fairly simple? Yes, well, here's where the learning part comes in.

I learned:
1. Five pounds of pinto beans doesn't look like that much when you put it in your slow cooker.
2. Five pounds of pinto beans comes dangerously close to overflowing said slow cooker, once they've absorbed the water you put in to soak them.
3. You can't keep enough water in the slow cooker to cook all five pounds of beans, beacuse the beans expand past the top edge of the basin.
4. The ones on top stay crunchy. This seems to hold true even if you stir the beans several times.
5. Five pounds of beans will NOT be ready for lunch time.
6. This many beans fits - barely - into my Tupperware Thatsa Bowl. I still managed to make quite a mess while squishing them up. I quickly gave up on the potato masher and got out my hand mixer, which worked much better.
7. This many beans makes approximately enough to feed lunch to our entire church, with leftovers.

The moral of the story is, if you find a bag of pinto beans in the back of your cupboard, it's probably not the best plan to try to cook them all at once.

Anyone know if you can freeze squished pinto beans?

Wordless Wednesday

The Snort is 9 Months Old!

He officially hit the 9 month mark on Saturday, May 31, but we had his 9 month checkup today. He weighed in at 25 lbs 4 oz, and measured 30.5 inches long. That's a pretty big boy!

He has 4 teeth now, and likes to grind them (*shudder*). He is sitting up really well, and would very much like to be crawling! He can scoot backwards, and he rolls around to get anywhere he might like to go.

He's recently started getting upset when I leave the room, so I don't think crawling is far off - he has some motivation! Until the last couple of weeks, he's been a happy lump, content to stay where I put him and play. Now, though, he does not take kindly to being left out.

He's recently started some cute things - he will shake his head at you, and thinks it's quite funny when you shake your head back at him. He will play the head-shaking game for quite a while. He will also do it (less frequently) with lip smacking and tongue clicking.

Here he is lounging in the bath:



And here he is watching laundry spin in the washer:




Front loading washing machines: baby TV! Who knew?

Note that he's only wearing one sock. He LOVES to pull his socks off. He cracks me up.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

There were no market visits, unless you count Webkinz Extravaganza, and I am not sure we even ate any pork, but that rhyme has been in my head so there you go.

We had a great trip to Michigan. It's the first time I've been to the lower peninsula in about 3 years, I think. If I recall correctly, I was there last for my sister-in-law's baby shower. We've been to the Upper Peninsula, where my parents live, and Todd and the girls have been to Glennie, where Todd's parents have their cottage, but since my folks moved away from the Lansing area, we just haven't been back that way.

It was so good to be there, and so hard, too. I didn't realize how much I missed it, and how very strange it is to go home but have no home to visit. Since my parents moved, and sold their house, there isn't any place for us to go, you know?

We were able to spend a night at my grandmother's farm. Well, it's really my Uncle Jerry and Aunt BJ's farm now, but you know what I mean. It was fun to stay there and have the girls spend a little time where I grew up. They were not very happy with my for taking them away from Grammy and Papa in Dearborn, but I really needed to go up there. Unfortunately, Aunt BJ was out of town, but we got to hang out with Uncle Jerry, and saw my Uncle John, too, and my cousin Mike. You just never know who will turn up at the farm!

Here is a picture of Uncle Jerry holding the Snort, who is wearing the outfit Aunt BJ got for him:



Here is a picture of Grandma's multi-colored cabinets. The peanut clusters always lived over on the left. Aunt BJ very kindly still keeps some there.



See?



Here's the dining room, with the farm table. I can't tell you how many hours I spent there, talking with my grandparents, my aunts and uncles, cousins, and various other relatives who might have been there at any given time. The farm was, and still is, a central gathering place for us.



Here is my grandmother's bird feeder. My aunt and uncle keep the birds fed. We've seen some pretty cool birds at the farm, including sandhill cranes in the corn fields.



Here are some of grandma's grape hyacinths. Does anything say "Grandma Rosen" like the smell of grape hyacinths?



Well, maybe the red tulips. :-)



Here is an aerial picture of the farm, taken in 1999, the year my grandmother passed away.



My aunt and uncle keep my grandparents' coffee cups in the kitchen window. For some reason, the sight of them made me cry.



Here is the pond, also affectionately known as the Tractor Wash. My family loves to have hot dog cookouts by the pond with a bonfire. A small, impromptu gathering of whoever can show up is often around 40 people, so it's good to have an outdoor venue.



Look! Science! Anyone know what kind of critter made this mound?



And here are the girlies, talking to the cows.



Believe it or not, I used to go up in the haymow and stack hay bales! We had to wear long sleeves and jeans because hay is quite prickly. I remember sneezing hay gunk for a week after a day in the mow. Ah, good times.



Once we left the farm, I cried, and we drove to Aunt Donna's house for lunch. She works from home, so we were able to hang out with her for a little while. After that, we went over to the LeBarons' house. They have been friends of my family since we moved to Laingsburg when I was getting ready to go into 2nd grade. Jim & Luann are my parents' best friends. Their daughter, Camille, was staying with them while her husband was in Iraq. Her daughter, Alia, is just beautiful. She was born a couple of months after Isaac. I made sure to get pictures of the babies together (you know, for their wedding reception someday - ha).

We had a lovely visit with the LeBarons, and then we headed back to Ann Arbor for dinner with Todd's family. ON our way, we drove down our old road to see our first house. Here it is:



Beautiful, isn't it? Well, as beautiful as a brick ranch built in the 60's with wonky windows can be. We loved living there. Every year, we've driven by our old house, thinking that if it were ever up for sale, that would be our sign to buy it and move back home. It's never happened, and I'm pretty sure it has new owners again. I guess we missed our window. Drat.

The rest of the weekend was spent doing Hollmann things. We had a family picture taken, which was fun, and went to Webkinz Extravaganza in Ann Arbor on Saturday. Here are all the cousins together:



And here is a picture of Emma, the Snort and me in the airport, waiting to go home:



Here's Abbie, hanging upside down in a chair at the airport. No clue why she's doing that.



I know I should have more pictures of the rest of the weekend, but I don't have them ready right now. Really, I just wanted to reminisce about the farm. I posted a lot of pictures, eh? Let me just tell you - not NEARLY as many as I was going to post. Consider yourself fortunate. And thanks for remembering with me.