First Words

The other day Pat had a very memorable dream. Realistic? perhaps! But I sure hope NOT!

Pat and I were sitting in our living room, watching Kateri. She was almost a year old by this point (hard to believe that will ever happen!) and was walking ALL over the place, so in order to contain her we used the ottomans to block her in the TV room.

Kateri was not bothered a bit. She kept walking and playing, babbling away. Then she looked at Pat, and pointedly said something. Pat suddenly realized he understood EXACTLY what Kateri said! He jumped up incredulously and translated for me,

"Kateri just asked me for a MILLER LITE! She said, "PASS ME THE MILLER! I can hardly believe it but it is TRUE"

I was skeptical that she said anything let alone ask for a beer. Pat then continued to ask Kbear to repeat herself until she finally was saying emphatically and quite clearly,

"PASS ME A MILLER!!!!!"

Football Season

Yes. We have passed Labor Day, which means only one thing! Football season is upon is! Today was the long-awaited first Bears football game. I had a previous engagement with Wrigley monster, and so it was time for a daddy-daughter date. Thanks to uncle Mike, Kateri even has a Bears jersey, AND it is the same one that Pat has: Devon Hester.

Look at those happy smiling faces! Any guesses as to who won today?

Kateri also got to try a new drink, first drink ever, in fact: apple juice. Per all reports: she loved it! She had a great time with aunt Mimi, uncle Johnny and unclebuncle Peter, Nanny, Mac and Mr Adam. All in all, this has been a week of joy, Bears, Broncos and Seahawks all win, time will tell how the Redskins do tomorrow evening.

This photo cracks me up . . . something about the way Pat is holding Kateri . . . Sack of potatoes, anyone?

Crunchy?

I have so much respect for those crunchy granola type moms who cook all their bread from non gmo flour, eat only grass fed beef, drink only fresh milk, eat only free range eggs, use cloth diapers and do baby led weaning. They have lots of neat ideas and some that I'd love to emulate. And there was a time when I considered myself to be of the crunchy leaning wannabe type . . .

Until . . . .

We were out in beautiful West Virginia, in the little town of Thomas, which basically consists of one-half of a street. There is only one side with store fronts because the other side is riverfront, so it is really quite picturesque. We found a little pizza place complete with a real brick oven. After we ordered our pizza from the two hippie brothers with half their heads cut short and part long in a funny little pony tail, Pat asked what sorts of drinks they served.

Well. They served water. But they didn't serve it. Guests went and filled up their water from a little plastic water dispenser. Pat asked if they had any beer on tap. The brother said, "Right now we are just a BYOB place. Still working on the alcohol license." Say What?! is that even legal? Either way, we did take advantage of it.

Meanwhile Pat enjoyed some delicious pizza . . .

And double fisting his BYOB beer . . .

And I greatly enjoyed the pizza as well.

Kateri followed every bit of food as I ate. She could tell the good stuff was there! And she knew she wanted some! So I couldn't deny my dear darling daughter her hearts desire . . . and boy was it EVER her desire . . .

She would not let go and would not stop chewing it. Oh Boy! Did it hit the spot!

So Kateri's first food: pizza.

Not long after, Pat and I decided to use a gift card (LOVE those) and we headed to a nearby ice cream place. We bought all too much ice cream. But someone was ready to help us eat it!

Oh boy! yum yum yummy!!!

\
And yes she absolutely loved every bite!


So, the other day, while considering my crunchiness (or complete lack thereof), I realized my daughters first two foods were pizza and ice-cream. She loved them! And I love them too. So, while we will at least occasionally eat super de duper healthy, I am going to just kiss my crunchiness goodbye for now. We all need some scrumptious unhealthy splurges every now and then, right?

Wednesday Picnic

Lucky for me, I have a very game sister and a very fun-loving adventurer niece! This makes for an exciting time whenever we get together. Today we decided that the weather was so gorgeous and perfect we must just immerse ourselves in it and enjoy every moment. So we threw together some healthy picnic food (sandwich, hint-of-lime tortilla chips, mint oreos (best most dangerous invention ever)) and headed up to Frying Pan Park.

The day was already perfect to a T, but the perfection continued and despite leaving separate houses and separate times with separate children, we pulled into the park right at the same time! Miracle indeed! Though perhaps it would be more accurate to say 2.3 seconds apart . . . no collisions.

And of course, being so ideal already, the day couldn't help but become MORE ideal. There is a farmers market that comes to Frying Pan Park every Wednesday. Imagine that! And we didn't even know! There were moms and kiddos galore, picnicking, walking, riding in strollers, crawling in grass, riding the carousal, checking out the wares. And the great thing is, there is so much space that it really wasn't one bit crowded. We laid down the quilt and set up a picnic. It was quite nice!

I was the extra special recipient of some lovely flowers hand-picked and carefully chosen by the beneficent Charlotte.

 

 

Look at that sweet precious girl!

 

 

 

I am the lucky one indeed! Kateri loved lolling around on the quilt, and once we were finished eating we headed over to check out the animals. We knew the pigs were nearby when a brick wall of stench hit us square in the nose. We walked into the small dark barn (no electricity) and as I leaned over each stall to give Kateri a good look, she started whimpering and crying. "No, mama, I don't want to get too close to these fearsome creatures today." Oh Kateri! It is just a little goat! Baby pigs! yada yada! Poor baby K, entering the fearful stage is not much fun but is a hurdle that must be jumped.

 

Next week: shall we carousal? or ride the tractor-pull? or milk a cow at 4 pm?

 



Afternoon Meanderings

Of late, Kateri is just starting to sit up at will. Perhaps I should specify . . . she can sit up at my will, with careful setting, spotting, and supporting, not quite at her own will at this point, but come on guys! She is only 6 months!

We recently discovered, to our great joy, that Kateri is big enough at last to ride in Charlotte's big red wagon! This is oh-so-exciting and oh-so-fun!

We talk about all sorts of things as we wander thru Lu's beautiful neighborhood streets. But mostly we admire the beauty and cleverness and adorableness of our offspring . . .

They are just so cute! There is no denying it ;)

Hiking and canyons and bears, Oh my!

Holy cannoli cakes! Where did this summer go? It just slipped past without me realizing it was nearly gone and BAM, labor day hit. Labor day is such a lovely holiday! Luckily neither Pat nor I had to do any laboring (though I must say if babies were involved, I really wouldn't have minded the laboring part! but alas no babies . . . yet . . .) So we threw together a delicious picnic, a puppy and a cute baby (FYI=recipe for happiness when mixed with sunshine, mountains and butterflies) and headed up to Shenandoah!

The picnic was made even more special by two things: one: the enticing aroma of grilling hots and hams going on around us (it did make me contemplate pillaging, but only for the first 15 minutes), and two: we ended up picnicking near a GERMAN family! And the German family was speaking real live German! I am not ashamed to say I did eavesdrop (and on purpose) the entire time . . .  though the only word I really understood was entschuldigung. . . Please don't tell Frau Schueller.

The strangest thing  we saw was a couple who brought only one thing for their entire picnic lunch: A big ol' carry out box of pizza. Maybe they forgot there were no microwave ovens up there.

And then we headed to the White Oak Canyon trail. It is a gorgeous trail and one of our favorites! Kateri probably thought there was something eerily familiar about the whole trip because she had hiked it before, in utero.

You can see Kateri does love the whole hiking experience . . . not sure about Wrigley . . . We hiked on a little ways past the halfway point (which I am inordinately proud about . . . it meant we went OVER five miles altogether, and the way back is 99.9% up hill, which means: great leg workout!).

We found this rock cliff that had ice-cold water pouring over it. Pat couldn't resist the temptation to stick his head under the water.

 

Yes. He said next time he will stick his whole body under (but he will take of his shoes and socks first. This is a wise hiker-man).

 

 

And because we are still in our happy honeymoon stage, we have to take lots of the selfies . . . together . . .

 

 

Oh man. You gotta love that face!

 

 

Oh the way back we saw another unusual sight . . . Can you tell what was lurking above us??

 

 

 

Pat was not enthused. He hustled us all out asap. There is apparently some story you can find online involving a certain aggressive carnivore's  affinity for a special delicacy (read: breastmilk). I have yet to look it up because there are some things I'd just really rather not know. Speaking of which, Pat and I were talking about hiking, which led to Mount Everest and what is involved in hiking it and what the chances are of dying. That brought us to the question of, "How many people die attempting to climb Everest every year?". So of course I looked it up on the way home. Did you know that 15 to 20 people die EVERY YEAR??!! This is considered "good odds" because it is a 'huge improvement' to what it used to be. Apparently, roughly 2000 people hike it yearly. There are some really morbid fascinating stories of people who have died, Green Boots is probably the most well known. The altitudes are so high they often cannot retrieve the bodies, and they remain as landmarks in shockingly good condition, thus hikers would notice as they walked by Green Boots. Creepy. However, there a lots of tragic sad stories that I read out loud to Pat, and eventually he just nicely asked me to shut-up already because this is horrible subject matter and really depressing(and he was right) so we turned to more lighthearted matters (how deep is the Grand Canyon). Do you have any idea how deep it is? I was shocked when I learned its average depth. This world is full of wonders!





Birthday with Nanny and Mac

On Wednesday evening, my parents in law Nanny and Mac came over to celebrate my birthday! They brought delicious mouthwatering barbecue for dinner. And they brought a birthday balloon! Kateri was very intrigued . . .

But not quite sure what she thought about it!

They even brought one of the most delicious desserts known to man: CHEESECAKE!!!!

 

Yummy!!!

(by the way, six candles meant I got to have six slices!!!)

Blowing out candles is always so much fun, even when you're turning 22 ;) 

Thank you for such a fun, relaxing evening Nanny and Mac! You made me feel so loved. I am so thankful to have you two in my life.

And the Garden Now . . .

What a huge difference a couple of weeks makes!!!

The blueberries have ripened and are gone and so I won't picture them . . . 

But despite the Japanese beetle invasion (see rasberry leaves) the rasberries are almost ready!

The zucchini has gotten much larger and is obliterating the pepper plant behind it.

And the pumpkins are huge, overtaking everything!

Here is our first baby pumpkin:

No roses blooming at this time, but hopefully soon . . . 

The squash is very healthy . . . and will be ripe soon!

And the cantaloupe is taking over the adjacent straw bales:

We have been so thankful for all the rain we have had . . . Clearly the rain makes corn (!!!), and we all know what corn makes!

Garden Update

Growing things are just splendid!

At the bottom of the picture you can see the corn and the cantaloupe growing . . . and just above it in the hay bales are the tomatoes. In the center hay bales are the herbs.

 

Some blueberries growing in front of our deck.

Rasberries growing strong and healthy!

The zucchini and the peppers behind.

Pumpkins growing tall and strong.

Our new roses.

Kateri's First Gig

Recently, Pat enlisted Kateri's expertise in determining which songs to spin.

Kateri took this job very seriously (see above, that is concentration!), and already shows that she has her daddy's knack for picking good music!

Pat and Mr Grenier provided music for our courageous men and women who have fought selflessly for our country, the wounded warriors. Kateri was very happy to be able to help out as well.

If you look closely, you can see Kateri is STILL concentrating on the job at hand, no photographer is going to distract HER!

But her lovely Nanny might :)

We are so thankful for all those who have served in our military, the enormous sacrifices they have made will never be forgotten! May God bless them always!

A Summer of Friends

Earlier this year, we were greatly blessed that the lovely and intrepid Laura Shaw came back to visit! It was absolutely wonderful to spend some time with here, and we were blessed yet again by being able to spend some time with Mary and Grant as well. After Mass at All Saints, we went over to a little diner and enjoyed some wonderful company and delicious food.

Pat graciously took this shot! (Mary, love the necklace :)

And Grant took this one. It was such a blessing to spend time with Laura, Mary and Grant!!

Motherhood

We recently had a lovely mothers day, we were triply blessed because we were able to spend it with my mother, Pat's mother, and Kateri's mother. Oh. Yes. You are right, that is me (why didn't anyone tell me post partum brain was worse then pregnancy brain?). 

Anyway, it made me start thinking about motherhood, all of the joys and sorrows, stress and worry, work and laughter that I have experienced over the past 3 months and will experience for many years to come. It also made me realize that while having a day laid aside to celebrate our mothers is wonderful, we need to celebrate them more often! I am so so thankful for everything my mom, my mother-in-law, my dear Grandma and dear Nonie have all done for me! The prayers, help, food, emotional support and conversations have been lifesavers!! I am so blessed by each of you!

K has yet to master looking at the camera at the right time!

What a blessed day!

Hope Springs Eternal

Or maybe it would be more accurate to say:

WEEDS spring eternal.

I am fairly certain that gardeners in any climate feel that that maxim is true, especially in mid spring.

While I was out weeding and planting in the garden, I went over to our Hill. The Hill has oak, ash, thorny wild pear, and multiple other trees growing on it in wild abandon. As my husband has decreed, it is the "Survival of the Fittest" Hill, and so everything is allowed to grow at will. We also use that space to store wood for the fire pit, and I was in search for small sticks I could use to demarcate rows of plants in the garden . . .

When to my wondering eyes, I noticed that Pat's beloved weed tree (the Y shaped branch) was WICK! Pat had sadly chopped down this tree last FALL, it had grown to be at least 10 feet taller than our house, and was less than a foot from the foundation. But the Weed Tree was Pat's pride and joy, he loved showing it to all his friends, and cut it down ONLY with the promise of finding another weed tree that could be transplanted to our Survival of the Fittest Hill. This transplantation had not yet happened (I am the guilty one).

BUT the leftover branch, laid down on the ground was ALIVE!! It was even sprouting LEAVES!

Wonder of wonders! Miracle of miracles!! I immediately ran to get Pat to share the good news with him. And if he shed a tear of joy, I will not be the one to record it.

However, I know it meant a lot to Pat. He ran and gave me a flower for my hair!

So pretty!!

So of course I had to use it . . .

We are still in awe that the Weed Tree has survived, what a fighter! Soon we will plant the whole branch and give it a little bit of help. And that is the end . . .