Vindauga

Catch Up

• Rosie and her daughter came to visit for the long weekend. It's been very fun. They drove here. Now when we talk of road trips, instead of discussing what kind of time we made, we talk about what kind of mileage we got.

• We went on a mini-vacation ourselves last week. Two and a half days in a nearby city. One day was spent at an amusement park, the next was window shopping. It's tough to sometimes accommodate the desires of the teenagers and the younger kids.

• Note to self, always check the expiration dates on Dramamine. Mallory has motion sickness problems, but she is able to ride roller coasters with Dramamine, unless it's four years old. Poor kid.

• Late night conversations combined with early rising children equal my ass is dragging.

• Bert and Mason went to Seattle to a Tigers-Mariners game with Mason's first father, R. A good time seemed to be had by all. Mason also experienced the first plane ride he remembers.

• Rory and Rosie's daughter have been sleeping on the trampoline for the last three nights. They claim it's comfy.

• Mallory started summer school this morning. Three weeks and she gets health class out of the way and gets to free up her schedule for statistics. Yippee (said with total sarcasm).

• Noelle's daughter Ana is here visiting her grandparents. She spent the 4th of July (Noelle's birthday) with not only her traditional grandparents, but Noelle's birthmom too. I'm telling you, our family tree requires a tour guide.

• I'm already dreading the start of school in the fall. What the hell?

• To dissuade you that everything about open adoption is easy for us, we are currently doing some emotional gymnastics about Mallory's first father. He hasn't seen her in several years  (mutual decision, initiated by him) and he has recently indicated he would like to start contact again. We have some reservations, and are trying to figure out how to best work it all out for Mallory. We are talking to her about it, but have made no decisions.

How's your summer shaking out so far?

Happy Birthday Noelle

It's so great everyone lights fireworks in your honor!

Open House

Mrs. G is leading everyone on an open house tour. Come on in. 

First we will stop in the newly landscaped front yard. This really deserves its own post and better pictures. Maybe this weekend. 

Next, the front door. Bert and my dad built this porch. The twigs are from my uncle's, the little lava bowl is from Africa and left buy a previous owner. The stained glass window is from a local artist bought at an Art for AIDS auction.

If you walk into the living room and look to the left, this is your view. You get a nice view here of my daughters' first communion portraits. They are all the fifth generation to wear the same first communion dress, so I had formal portraits taken.  Mason's will be next year. The dress is a little big though. 

I think you can guess I'm not a minimalist, right? Nope, I'm pretty influenced by the hippie, country 70's that surrounded me growing up. Lots of thrift store stuff, inexpensive stuff and family heirlooms. The rug is probably the most expensive, but we bought it when a rug store was going out of business and got a great deal.  The rocking chair was bought in a hardware store on vacation. It rode back in my lap. The rocking horse is from dad's collection and salvaged from his retirement auction. The suitcases were mostly my grandmother's. 

Straight on view from the entry way. Those two big windows looking out onto the backyard sold the house to us. It was the first thing we saw walking in the door. Our realtor said, "If you don't buy this house, I will."

The right side of the room. Teenager did not come with the house. Our house is a derivative of Frank Lloyd Wright. It's a tri-level, the room you see above is sitting room for the kitchen. 

This table pretty much is our house. Books and magazines for everyone, an iPod, my reading glasses, the bowl Bert gave me for our 20th anniversary. 

This is my great-grandmother's rocking chair. Her portrait (taken in the rocking chair) hangs above it.  When I was four, I asked my grandmother if I could have it when she died. Everyone thinks I was greedy, but the truth is, I wanted to sit in it and wasn't allowed. I figured if I owned it, I could sit whenever I wanted. Wrong.

Thanks for stopping by. Time to show you the door, literally. 

 

Calling all bread makers, pizza dough makers, cooks, etc.

I am making gorgonzola and grape pizza for a dinner on Saturday night. I did a dry run today and have some kinks to work out with the crust.

It's a focaccia pizza crust, and while it tasted great, I had problems rolling it out. It was way too thin in the middle and about the right thickness around the ends. You know, the pizza bones part? By the way the bones were great.

So I would appreciate any tips on rolling it out, making focaccia in general or how much wine would a guest have to consume to not notice the middle was thin and soggy?

Help me out here, kids.

The Definition of Middle-Aged

No better way to show you still have one foot in the first half of your life, while the other inches into the second.

I got my PMS zit on my nose, right where my reading glasses sit.

It's such a good look.