Raffle Win

About a month ago at our church St Joseph's Table fund raiser, Drew bought a bunch of raffle tickets, dropped them into the various gift basket drawings, and didn't give them a second thought. A week later, a friend stopped me to say, "Congratulations! I heard you won the baby gift basket... Did you know?" I didn't. The next week, a week in which we'd gone elsewhere for mass, my "name" (as Virginia) appeared in the church bulletin, asking me to contact the parish office for pick up of my prize. (About half a dozen people told me about it.) On the third week, Father even reminded me that my basket was waiting for me, but it didn't take. Last week, when Sr Damiana pointed out that the name on the ticket stub was Vivian and not Virginia did they finally track me down at home, in which I felt cornered enough to make a special midweek trip to the parish office.

What did my gift basket contain? A mini spa-pampering kit for me; two industrial sized bottles of baby powder; two purse-sized totes; a sock monkey; a stuffed Winnie the Pooh; a small stuffed bear; a hand sewn calico doll; two fabric books; a hard cover book of animal rhymes; a set of stacking cups; three boxes of wet wipes; two flannel receiving blankets; and a quilted blanket. It's funny, as I was leaving, the secretary said to me, "Now you just have to find someone who'll use all this stuff." Ha!

Barber

This year's highly anticipated opera night (and Drew's birthday present): Barber of Seville at the new Kauffman Center.

We started off with an earlier dinner at the Rieger Hotel, we didn't have to rush at all (unlike last year). And our happy group now includes Emily's fiancée Chris. My steak was cooked to medium-rare perfection, and Drew's soft shell crab was excellent. Enjoyed the pate appetizer too.

We had seats down on the floor and off to the side, behind the orchestra section, which weren't too bad considering the stage was tilted so everything could be seen.

See those teeny-tiny people in the top middle box? Those were Elizabeth & Co's seats. Reported that their view wasn't perfect, but the drink-waitress was a definite plus. Next year, I vote for the Mikado.

In Bloom

My pale pink orchids finally finished opening all its blooms. Though I lost one in the process – I think it got crowded by its neighbors –, I still have ten to show.

New to the garden are these peach colored roses that Emily and Chris gave to Drew for his birthday. He had to trim it up when it went into the ground, so unfortunately there's only the one right now.

Some pretty dahlias, they do really well in containers: we had some red ones a couple years back. Hopefully they're deer proof because I put them right out there for all to see.

Sighted

A hummingbird at the neighbor's feeder. Rushed to put mine out – again.

Several weeks ago, G said she saw one at the window, and the internet confirmed that there'd already been first-sightings in our area that week, so I put our feeder out – and let it grow over with mold. Then we had that cold spell. This week marks the more traditional return of hummingbirds, I'm excited to see them at the window again.

Happy to You

We burned some of our larger fallen tree branches in the fireplace last night. When Drew lit the match, M got all excited, "Happy to you! Happy to you!" As the fire was raging, she kept repeating, "Happy to you. Happy to you." It's funny that she associates fire with birthdays. Z thought the same thing, and said it in exactly the same way.

Yarn Wrapped

Wish I had more yarn scraps lying around. This bit is leftover from Z's Halloween wig: love the color.

Found

Was cleaning out my email box, and found these pictures from one of BB and Z's Taiwan art classes (at the end of December).

They were supposed to be practicing making circles as pieces of candy in a candy jar.

The Last of Them

We did some yard work on Saturday. These are the new flowers at my front door, aren't they lovely? The rich color! Drew picked them out for me.

If I ever entertained any thoughts of seeing the remainder of my little oranges ripen on the tree, forgive my foolishness. In a moment of suspicious quiet, while Drew and I were in back spreading compost, M handily stripped the tree and tried to bury the evidence in a hole. (Drew came upon her as she was attempting the latter.)

See that remorseless look? See my poor little oranges *on the ground*?

Didn't really have a plan for my little oranges because there were so few of them, so I'm preserving them in salt. (If ever I got a bigger crop, I've got marmalade in mind.)

Froggy

BB singing an impromptu rendition of a Tangled/Rapunzel song:

And at last I see the light. And it's like the frog has lifted...

Climbing In

Parents are usually concerned with children climbing out of their cribs: the danger of falling, the general nuisance at nap/bed times, etc. Mine has become proficient at climbing IN – with the help of a step stool. Which suits her purposes perfectly.

M is our most self-aware child in that when she needs a nap, she'll come asking to go take one. Or upon our return from errands on Friday morning, I found she had put herself (and her doll) to bed, all bundled up in her "bay", and fast asleep.

Easter Sunday

Peach Skirts

Despite the deer having ravaged some of the lower branches of a our peach tree, there are a number of peach "buds" forming.

The leftover flowers at their bases remind me of frilly little skirts.

Homestretch?

Met with Z's neurologist a couple weeks ago for a checkup. He was very pleased to hear that we haven't seen any seizures in all this time, a very promising sign. Naturally, I'm thinking ahead to when we can start to wean her from meds in either June or July. When I asked him about the chances of recurrence post-medication, I was startled to hear that it's 50-50: docs just don't know what enables some kids to beat Doose. Good news is, unless we see or suspect she's having seizures again, she won't have to endure another EEG.

We discussed some of her continuing developmental delays, our disappointment in the city's early education program. Towards the end of the visit, I told him about our recent visit to Taiwan and how Z seems to have forgotten most of her English, though she seems to understand when someone speaks it. In passing, Dr LePichon mentioned that her meds are known for disrupting the language part of the brain (whereas comparable meds typically cause behavioral problems), it was a total ah-ha moment for me because this little informational tidbit is certainly not mentioned on the medication literature, or listed as a side effect, I think it would have been very helpful to know throughout these last couple of years.

Stay in Class

Drew and I made our Christmas escape the weekend before Easter – to Rocheport, which is just off the interstate along the Missouri River and one of the stops on the Katy Trail.

We had dinner at the little Les Bourgeois bistro overlooking the river. We shared a plate of very excellent white truffle potato pierogies and the spinach salad, which was memorable for the Brazil nuts and a side of roasted pear. Drew had a really tasty salmon entree; I was a little disappointed by mine, the duck breast and meatballs. One, there was too much of it; two, I guess I was expecting something more Peking duck with the crispy skin; and three, I thought the sweet potato wontons were all wrong. Not so much in concept, since I'm a fan of sweet potato, but in the execution: the wonton skins were all gummy and dried out in places.

Stayed the night at a bed and breakfast called the Schoolhouse – we had the Schoolmaster room. We watched Sense and Sensibility after dinner; went for an early morning stroll about town (not much to see); helped put together a jigsaw puzzle over tea/coffee; enjoyed a leisurely breakfast; and then home to the kids, who were being subdued by Elizabeth.

Mini in Fuchsia

Took the girls on a little field trip to see Birds Botanicals, which specializes in orchids. (It's located in a cave warehouse, which was immensely interesting to the girls, until they got out of the car and realized how cold it was in there. Might have made a better impression on a blazing hot day in August.) Was interested in getting a different easy-to-grow orchid with fragrance, but after speaking with one of the employees, who encouraged me to take the informational class offered by the owner (to answer such of my burning questions like, "How do I get more than one flower spike?" or "Why does my orchid do that branching thing?"), I ended up buying another of the same as I already have, a moth orchid – mini!

It's funny, the employee looked at me rather disapprovingly when I told her my white orchid was originally an ice orchid, in which the sales gimmick is to water your orchid weekly with three ice cubes, but I'm pretty sure I redeemed myself in her eyes when I told her I'd gotten it to re-bloom three years in a row. (I no longer water with ice cubes.)

It's maybe a quarter the size of my white one. Don't know if it'll get any bigger, which was one of the first things that BB asked me. In hindsight, I think I would have gone with a different color, maybe a yellow/orange/pink, but a lot of the minis were just sending up their spikes and this was one of the few with flower blooms already: I wanted instant gratification. That and the girls were impatient to leave, so I didn't have time to look at all the labels.

Did you know fragrant orchids will change their scent throughout the day in order to attract different bugs? Agh, I want one!

After just three days! I think once Drew moves his strawberry seedlings, I'm going to go back and get another orchid. Wouldn't a window full of blooming orchids be such a happy sight? As we were leaving, BB asked me, "Why do they call it that [Birds Botanicals], I didn't see any birds in there?" Bird is the proprietor's last name.

Pancake Cake

Had a little gathering for Drew's birthday, the family brought Mexican-esque food.

I made this pancake cake (couldn't find our box of birthday candles!). Drew's been on a pancake kick lately, I thought, couldn't I just stack them into a cake (a la Martha Stewart's crepe cake)? And what do you know, the internet is so helpful: recipe.

It was such a beautiful day out, we ended up moving the entire party out onto the patio. A charming, sometimes annoying little consequence of going outdoors: the pollen things that our oak trees kept showering on us and our food.

Steamboat Arabia

Our homeschooling group had a field trip to the Steamboat Arabia museum last Friday: fascinating stuff.

The paddlewheel in the background was part of the original Arabia, reconstructed. They also have part of the stern housed in the museum. When it was first excavated (from the farm field), they didn't have anywhere to put it, but rather than let it dry out (and shrink), one of the excavators dug a big hole in his backyard, buried it there, and left his garden hose on it for two years to keep the wood moist. (Other smaller findings they froze in blocks of ice and kept in large refrigerators.) Later, they discovered they could use a preservative called polyethylene glycol (see the second to last paragraph of this article page), which they sprayed on the stern every night for 12 hours for several years.

The bottom parts of the boat, where the cargo was stowed, were made of oak and such sturdy woods, while the upper decks were made of a lighter wood like pine so the boat wouldn't be top heavy. The upper decks would have been the first to be washed away by the river after the boat sank. The cargo, one of the last supply shipments to the region before winter set in, however, was all intact: barrels of Wedgewood china; bottles of perfume, used by both men and women, since it was likely people bathed only once or twice a year; bolts of fabric; pickled vegetables, which were still edible; woodworking tools and all the various woodworking accoutrements; ink wells; all manner of glass bottles and pitchers; beautiful calico buttons (below); thousands of pairs of shoes – all on display at the museum as they preserve and restore it. One of the excavators came out and spoke to us after a short film saying how it's taken them 20 years to preserve two-thirds of their findings, and it'll take another 10 years to finish the remaining third.

Similar to the wood of the boat's stern, the shoes and boots found have to go through a slow process of dehydrating the water molecules from the leather and replacing the water with polyethylene glycol (PEG) molecules. Then the fabric insoles have to recreated and hand sewn. Another example of this dehydrating/preservative process was a rolling pin, which took 9 months to complete. There were also barrels of nails, which were mud-rusted together into one mass. The mud-rust would first have to be chipped away and then each nail scraped with dental tools, and finally dipped in some PEG.

The older students in our group got to take another tour in which they got to help preserve some of the artifacts from the boat. How awesome would that be? I wish I could have gone on that tour.

Wacky

Upon completion of this movie:

BB: Daddy, I didn't really like that movie, none of the girls got married at the end.

Snot Revisited

Found a partial box of borax under the kitchen sink, just enough to revisit the library's failed snot experiment (per these instructions). Added too much of the borax mixture, but managed to get some definite snot consistency for G and BB's bags. Then they wanted to know what would happen if we added more glue: you get a white snot-clump. What would happen if we added more color? It doesn't color the white snot-clump, that's for sure. What would happen if we added more borax mixture? The overwhelming borax mixture causes the glue-snot (but not the white snot-clump) to breakdown entirely. Made up another baggie for Z, and though you can't see the snot consistency, it definitely has a mucus-y feel to it, which she enjoyed squeezing in her hands.

Bonafide

Look what Drew got in the mail (for his birthday): his George Washington diploma!