The Big Reveal

We have made room in the closet . . .


. . . and emptied out the spare dresser drawer . . .


. . . and taken up more space in a small room to make more room . . .


. . . because on Friday night at 5:00 pm we go to the airport to pick up Natalia - Nati, for short - a 12 year-old girl from Guatemala who will be living with us for 12 weeks as an exchange student. She is blond-haired and blue-eyed; she speaks limited English but understands much more. She loves animals and basketball. She could be Kathryn's identical twin. They will go to school together and be sisters together for the next 12 weeks. Jon and I will be parents of two pre-teen aged daughters for 12 weeks. We are all insanely crazy excited over this idea. I am just a wee bit nervous.
But my hope is that this experience will give the blog a new lift as it will be a great way for me to keep the memories of the adventure alive! Stick around - see what happens!

Um - Hi!

Sorry. The break went a little bit longer than I anticipated. The blog and I were in a little bit of a disagreement as to which should come first - work or play. Ultimately I won. And while the blog thinks of herself as work (and at times, so do I) last week, it was all work for me. The blog thinks what I do is "volunteer" and thus, should not count as work. She thinks she should come first. It's an age-old battle between the blog and me. It makes me wonder how blog peeps with real jobs manage all this drama.

The blog and I will have to continue this battle as school starts tomorrow; I'm not quite ready for it this year as it's a full week ahead of schedule from years past. And while I realize that I am not going to school it does mean I'm really busy. Jon and I agreed once again chair the parish-wide Oktoberfest fund-raising event for the parish/school. And I continue in my capacity as hepard to the youth of the school in their fall sports endeavors. I love my volunteer jobs - well, you know the rest of that statement.

But I hope you'll stick with me here because there is a big change coming for the family. Some of you know it - don't give it away! The blog will take a slight detour while we undergo a little family detour; it'll be very exciting.

The last few weeks of summer had my family from San Diego here. It was delightful. A house full of girls is just a wonderful way to end your summer. Full of giggles and laughs and squeals. Every moment of it was lived to the fullest . . .

. . . from the beginning . . .

. . . . . to the end.

Time Away

My blue house is now . . .
. . . my brown house. And I'm ok with it because I got . . . . . . a red chair in the deal!

The California cousins (and their parents) return tonight from their 10 day scenic tour of Wisconsin. They paid a special visit to a certain mural (where my brother-in-law's mom was born!!) and I'm guaranteed my own personal slide show tonight! They also had smoothies at a local coffee shop in the same town that were "yummy"! I gotta visit there some time!

So, we're planning big things while they're here for the next 12 days. I'm taking a blog break until August 24 to enjoy the time with my sister and the three girls. It's hot and steamy here finally so we'll probably spend as much time as possible at the pool or inside the house - which is good. Then I won't have to look at the outside!

Party On!

Last Sunday (not yesterday, because it took a week to recover) was the annual "Let's all gather at Deb's to celebrate whatever there is to celebrate" event. Included in the list of celebratory events was Dad's 80th birthday, Mom's semi-retirement, brother Dave and his wife Ann's birthday, twin nephew and niece's 19th birthday, and the summer arrival of my sister Diane and her family from California. For Kathryn - that's reason enough to throw a huge party as this last item includes her cousins, Dana and Andie.


However, the real reason for the gathering was to celebrate an even bigger milestone. The previously mentioned niece and nephew were both graduated from Wayzata High School in June.


Kathryn, being a veteran of one graduation party already, knew the routine and quickly brought her cousins up to speed. And in no time, all six hand, and arms were busy preparing the caps!

In the requisite Blue and Gold! I know this as a 1976 WHS grad. Endy's (my maiden name) graduated from Wayzata in 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 84. And now '09.

Who knows what the next generation will bring?

Congratulations to Maari Elizabeth who will head to DePaul University for winter term after first spending some time in France. She'll enter DePaul with her fall term completed having earned 16 AP credits in high school (I'm her aunt - I can brag!).

Congratulations to Dutch (Daniel Gilbert IV) who leaves for The University of Minnesota (his father's Alma mater) this fall. He also attained college credits through AP courses but because he's a nephew, and doesn't talk much, I can't remember how many. Dude - sorry! I do know that his biggest concern is this : housing on the St. Paul campus. Housing FAIL!

I am enormously proud of my niece and nephew. They are the oldest of the grandchildren and have led the way for the "little kids". They've grown into remarkable young adults who have their whole lives ahead of them. So yeah - proud and jealous.

Dutch and Maari:

Do well, be happy, shine like the sun. I love you more than you know.

Aunt Deb

Mini-Baker

Kathryn has become a fan of a few blogs lately; notably, Chris and Bakerella, cats and cupcakes - the life of a twelve-year old! So when the demand was issued call came to gather at "The Big House" for a family dinner to celebrate* with baby brother and wife of just one year who are in town, we jumped at dessert for our "dish to pass". Nanee asked for a "pan of brownies". "Pan" of brownies you say - that's just not going to work here anymore.
Although we were allowed to use a package mix, mini-brownie bites were what K wanted. With a raspberry plopped right in to the middle. I had to do some serious maths to recalculate the amount of cooking time required for the mini-ness and the raspberri-ness and it took several attempts before we got the proper done-ness.

Because of the proximity to the holiday, the decorating theme was easy. Although we wanted to make flags, the mini-ness sort of took away the space required.

We compromised.

The nieces / cousins didn't really care so much that there were no flags on the brownie bites.

And all of a sudden my hopes that 48 brownie bites might get me through the family dinner AND the two meetings I have at my house on Monday and Tuesday evening this week - were . . .

. . . gone!!

Just vanished!

Not even one little brownie bite left for this guy who was waiting at the end of my parent's driveway as we pulled out. Guess he knows where to go for leftovers!

*Keep your fingers and toes crossed for baby brother Dennis and his beautiful wife Helen; they are expecting a baby early next year; grandchild number 10 in our family! xoxox

Big Sister Graduates

Kathryn's "big sister" Heather graduated from high school this year. While not related to her in any way, Heather served the role of big sister in every way possible, beginning in pre-school when the girls were matched as buddies and they formed an instant bond. What followed is seven year friendship based on that same love shared between sisters. Heather looked after Kathryn during their years at school together, was her babysitter, took her shopping and out to movies. Heather is a skater and and we often went to see her perform; likewise, Heather has been known to sit through a few dance recitals in the past few years. She has stayed in touch with Kathryn even as we moved out of the babysitting years and they have an easy beautiful friendship.

Heather graduated from her high school with the highest honor a young lady can achieve, the Mary Award, which recognizes behaviors and characteristics most in line with the Christian values of the school. She is a bright and vibrant young lady; she moves on this fall to Gustavus Adolphus College where we know she will do great things.

OK - they are under a tent which is why they look so blue!

Congratulations Heather! I can't thank you enough for the positive impact you have had on Kathryn; she thinks the world of you and loves you to pieces. And so do we! We're very proud of you and wish nothing but the best for you - always! Please stay in touch......

Dad and Me

Phmi phmlog! Phmit's phme, phmolli.
Sorry, probably you couldn't understand me with a tire on my mouth. Anyway, this is Holli and I am kind of mad at mom cuz of all the talk about everyone being so happy to be back home together and she forgot to tell you about how happy I am that Dad is home. Mom is fine and everything; we have good "quiet time". But me and Dad have a game that we play every night after dinner.
Just when mom gets up from the dinner table and starts to give special instructions on what to do with the leftovers (which is NEVER "Give them all to Holli cuz of her being such a great dog!") and Dad and Sis start doing the dishes, I go over to my toy box and get ready for the game.When the dishes are done I run right over to Dad with my tug-of-war toy and prance around until he take his end of the toy. Let the fun begin Big Guy!

I can do so many spins it almost takes Dad's arm off. Oh yeah - I'm glad Sis is home too. She take me for walks now that she has a cell phone!
Sunday night, we played so hard, we broke the tire off my tug toy. But Dad said he'd get me a NEW tug toy which he did but I don't like it as much cuz of it not having a very long rope and too big of a tire but Dad needs to play so I will!

When the game is over Dad is SOOO tired that I need to give him a little bit of a rest before we can play "throw the ball". That's the game where Dad throws the tennis ball about 20 times but I only bring it back once or twice. Dad LOVES running and getting the ball, showing it to me, then throwing it again. Huh - funny Dad!

Family Affair

Everybody is home and so happy to be back together. Friday and Saturday were busy with our house guest and graduation parties. Sunday was our first opportunity to spend time together as a team. The day was spent on various errands, hobbies and chores - including the installation of a basketball hoop - so the recently acquired skillz can be kept fresh! She beat her dad in "Horse" "HORSE" to "H". Go Girl!


Dinner was a largely home-grown affair. Starting with cocktail hour:
Vodkitos - sort of like a Mojito but we used vodka instead of rum because - well - we were out of rum. But the mint in the drink was home grown in my new little herb window box!


Dinner was a pasta with tomato pesto and fresh tomatoes on top. The pesto and tomatoes - we grew them! I grew the basil in my new little herb window box, and the tomatoes are from the patio pot I had so little hope for way back here. These little tomatoes were SO good, tasty, juicy and unlike store tomatoes! And the basil .... hmmm!
Dad and daughter bond over dish time. It's so hard to capture "joy" in a picture - especially when the photographer has tears in her eyes. These two - they have a thing that I'll never be a part of, I understand it, I'm not jealous of it, I'm happy to stand by and watch it. It's just that it's so different from "the thing" between a mother and daughter.Good kitchen help needs a reward. We didn't grow any of these ingredients.
Except the dorky grin. And kissable marshmallow lips.

Half Happy

It is now noon. I woke the hoops girls up with breakfast in bed. The one request: "Pleeease mom - nothing healthy!"

Raised chocolate iced doughnut, WITH the patriotic sprinkles! And a few grapes because I couldn't resist.
Jon is en-route from Tokyo and should arrive home in about 4 hours. A jungle lawn awaits him, as well as a stack of mail. But there will also be many smiling, purring, licking faces to greet him too.

Hope you all have a great weekend too!

Alone The Last

Based on the comments from yesterday, I must have forgotten to tell you guys that Jon is in China. He read the blog yesterday and sent the following email:

"Looks like you are getting questions on the blog about China. Here is Hong Kong harbour.

Jon Secrest"

Kathryn finally checked in from basketball camp - much to her mother's relief. She's exhausted and having a blast. They come home today. I'm planning a parade. The Tuesday Morning Knitting group is doing our own little potholder swap - sort of. We're making a few for ourselves and then some for Peggy's daughter who is getting married in October. So while wasting time watching the web cam from basketball camp (and actually tapping on it and trying to wave to my kid - c'mon - you've done it too!) I tweaked around trying to get my hands to remember the "Willow" block. The muscle memory came back but using such a small hook (C) on DK weight yarn is challenging.

The knitting girls came over last night and after a few bottles of wine we had the problems of the world figured out and my perfectly lovely week was over. And it's ok.

Alone Still

Day Two: I'd like to tell you that I've been sleeping alone during Jon's absence. I think that would be the decent thing to do. Usually, one small, black kitty sleeps in a tiny ball by my knees until she gets bored and needs to take yarn for a walk.
However, some sort of kitty truce has been called and they are gonna keep me in this bed no.matter.what!
Holli, who hasn't been allowed on the bed in years, saw nothing wrong with jumping up onto Dad's side when a bit of thunder roiled in the distance - like Montana. She felt as if I'd need protection. Lucky for me she can provide such protection while she sleeps. Equally lucky for Holli, Tig can protect her while he sleeps.

I'd also like to report that I don't sleep with a camera in my bed. These awesome photos were taken with my cell phone, which I have been sleeping with . . expecting a phone call from my daughter. Not so much. I've been glued to the computer watching her on the live web-cam but I can't tell her from all the other blond-haired, baggy short basketball players. And don't get me started on the person in China.

So I had some non-knitting girlfriends over last night and we went through the liqour stash - Hah! Tonight the knitting group girls are coming - better restock.

Buds

I get to take a little road trip this weekend. All by myself. Alone. My niece is celebrating her First Eucharist in Milwaukee and I'm going to go be there with her. I was scheduled to be the "proxy" godparent - something the real godparent didn't even know about - but I've since been asked to relinquish that role. Now, I'm just going for the free booze at the brunch.

While I'm gone, Jon will have to take care of a few things around here. Worst First off, Kate has one of those day long-dance competitions again. He will have to spend the whole day in a dark theatre watching young girls dance. Wonder just how much booze there will be at the brunch?

OK - well he better not let anything happen to these guys because I've been doing a really great job of watching them grow. Everyday. Just staring at them.

What takes them so long to turn into tulips??

Home Again

Spring break 2009, Sanibel Island, Florida.

It was the best of times.


It was the worst of times.

But the prospect of 60 degrees by this weekend is helping just a wee bit. And honestly, a girl can only party for so long before it's time to come home and live in the real world again. And I am - rested and relaxed - ready to live in the real world again.

Papa's Party

Being the chronic over-committer that I am, I willingly agreed to host Jon's dad's birthday dinner on the same day as the school's Spring Basketball Banquet for 200 for which I was also responsible. Granted, a dinner for 5 is much easier but I was still in need of all the help I could muster. Many hands you know ...

Jon grabbed some balloons after the banquet to make our party atmosphere more festive. (It's OK - we donated the balloons so we didn't technically "steal" them!)

I needed a dessert with things I had in the pantry (Thank you, Carole!) We made a few modifications; we don't like nuts so we added Heath Crunch Chips and Butterscotch Chips - um, YUM!

And the assistant was happy to have a function that allowed her to nibble at the fixings. For the record, kitties DO like coconut almost in an Al Pacino / Scarface kinda way! Sorry no photo but I'm sure your imagination is doing just fine.

Jon, pretty much knowing that all the buttons were being pushed this past weekend, came to the rescue on Saturday night by doing all the things that needed to be done for a recipe that requires overnight marinating. Our family favorite, Chicken Marbella, was ready to just pop into the oven and go Sunday afternoon.

Sounds like a lot of fuss for just one guy on his 79th birthday doesn't it. But he's worth it and looks to me like he's pretty darn happy about it too.

Happy Birthday Papa Jim!