Thursday, December 31, 2009

no. 280 borrowing from *e*...

our year through the eyes of a blog.

2009, what a year you were, my oh my!

january
we ushered you in with fondu-apolooza!

and a new year bretzel which we all pulled from when the clock struck 12

crackers, kisses, champagne wishes welcomed 2009




we sat 6000 miles away and watched as our newly elected President was inaugurated.
local papers ran headlines of hope and excitememt for our nation, and the world.


february
was full of skiing skiing skiing and more moments that took our breath away






march
we celebrated 16 years of marriage, a month long visit from Gaia, and a surprise visit from Wisconsin family!






april
ahhh sweet springtime, how we love thee, turning 41-not so much!
taking the frost off of the birthday cake, was easter, and passover, and the trip of all vomitocious trips (thanks to a sick little 9 year old) Gaia, DoodleBug, Mr. Ben and Momma ran to the border for a weekend in Holland at the Keukenhoff Tulip Festival

"this must be flower heaven" said mr. ben, as gaia walked the first hour completely speechless...blog world, i have to say that this flower-pa-looza is a MUST SEE for your lifetime, and we will return every spring that we live in europe.

simply beautiful















my most favorite bday gift of all...the sparkly red coffee maker a la Tchibo!!


and then there came may
national junior honor society, soccer, softball, dog walks, and the beginning of the worst PCS season our harrison hearts could bear










june
will follow next year...

no. 279 ramblings of a mean old lady in apartment D

heh
kind of funny...
team leader and i do chuckle at the thought of being the oldies in the stairwell-we're actually old enough to be the parents of 3 of the 5 other families IN our stairwell, and last time i counted the candles on MY birthday cake, i wasn't exactly pushing fire-extinguisher status!

but
seriously-

loving littles as much as i do (seeing as i spend 180 days a year with people under the age of 7)
is it too much to ask your children to settle down?
(i mean, i find myself jumping on the collective bigger kiddo a**es of numbers 1, 2and 3 here at our house when i think they are too much...)

so i ask:
what happened to actual parenting?

i mean, i know it's a tough job
(ask me about landing on number 1 last night for blowing off an assignment that is due in 2 weeks and is 30% of his grade FOR THE SEMESTER...not one of my finer moments however he has to "knuckle down" and walk AWAY from the xBox and clearly he isn;t going to do that without a kick in the pants from his momma)
but it's still a job worthy of DOING.

parenting is work
loving work
crying work
happy work
screaming hard work

when we had number 1, my mom sent a letter with a newsprint cutout.
apparently, as the story read, a couple had after repeated calls to their local police station, driven to the station to report their son missing...he had been gone for 2 weeks, they were frantic with worry.
when they walked in the door, the officer had to sit down.
turned out the daddy, was 94 and his bride, 90.
their missing son...70

after the dust had settled, the air cleared and sonnyboy was found, the story developed like this:
he had been at the retirement home of a good friend whom he had stopped to visit on his way back home.
he liked the look of the place so much that he decided to stay awhile and had forgotten to check in with his folks!

at the bottom of my letter, mom had written: "you're in this for the long haul...get ready!:

bringing me fuuuuuulllll circle to the ramblings of the mean old lady in apartment D who has a few more years of parenting experience under her mean old lady belt:
wake up when your kids wake up
make them breakfast
watch a silly cartoon
take the flippen dog out for a family walk TOGETHER instead of walking your bullmastif by chasing it UP and DOWN the hallway (particularly if you live on the top floor!!!)
TALK TO THEM
they are people-living breathing loving creatures
who only want a moment of your time.
(and your neighbors underneath you, want only a few more precious minutes of s.l.e.e.p.)

before you know it, you'll be the parents of the "big kids" who are hairy, and smelly, and eat everything in the house, parents of little ones...your kiddos will become the big ones.

(and big kids,for the record, aren't so bad...they stay up later, yes, BUT, sleep longer-yay!)

this has been a public service annoucement by the mean old lady in apartment D
umarmen und lieben
essie
ps the cutie patootie upstairs who woke me up, from sickie induced baad night of sleep,by running the long distance marathon in his hallway with his BIG BIG dog, calls number 1 "the BIG hairy boy!!" literally. "Hi, Big Hairy Boy!" :o)

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

no. 278 perfect

coffee DOES make even the snuffiest of mornings better~

it is so delish that i actually slurped it from the top of my mug before i picked it up off the counter...that yummy!
such yum has to make up for all the sniffles and the ringing in my head, right?

so today is the day that i PICK a photo card for our new year's greeting.
no appropriate clothed photos of casa h so far this year, and seeing as the year is over in "t minus 48 hours" i kind of need to get crack-a-lackin in the snaps department!

we had a great photo from the canary islands, but we're all in swimsuits...
we had a great photo from "o-dark-thirty" on mr. ben's birthday, but we're in jammies with horrifying hair...
we had a great photo from christmas morning, but again with the jammies and the hair.

leaving today, and, tomorrow, to take the photo to represent "casa h 2009"
talk about pressure!!

back to slurping up the coffee, restore my faith in the day, and get centered-ready for
perfect.

umarmen und lieben
essie

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

no. 277 curious

has facebook taken over blogging?
what about twitter?

i started this blog to reconnect with friends far away, and, to keep family current on the daily crazy at casa h-worked for me!
lately, with the quiet and coooold days of break,
i've been lurking on other blogs, scrolling down the blog rolls of my friends to find that most folks aren't blogging anymore...
just not doing it.
which makes me wonder-why did they start?

part of my morning routine is making that cup of precious coffee and sitting down at the computer.
friends and parents from work are often online, we send each other good morning messages, and laugh about who woke up first when we see each other later in the day.
it's nice
maybe a little too routinized, but
it's nice.

i suppose it makes me settle into the rest of my day
and now, i'm thinking that my days must be alright compared to the days of others.
no complaints
just going to keep on writing.

3 days until 2010,
4 years of blogging.

umarmen und lieben
essie

Sunday, December 27, 2009

no.276 the essie/ina project

oh dear.

whatever got into me, i'll ever know!
team leader told me last night that there would be NO meltdowns ala Julie in the Julie/Julia movie-
the love that he is, he crawled into our big bed and, watched the movie from start to stop with me last night.
start
to
stop
cooking, and france, and two couples who loved each other through some crazy defining lifetime moments.

bringing me to ina
and her cookbook "back to the basics"
where i found a beautiful foodie photo of a turkey roulande with cranberry, celery, sausage stuffing rolled perfectly through the middle.

y.u.m.

determined i asked miz ral how she thought one would "butterfly a turkey breast"
and went to work.
um
butterflying a turkey breast isn't for the feight-hearted!!
BUT
i did it!!!
(yay me)
the pounding of the turkey breast to flatten it for better rolling
can't take credit for that, all team leader's idea
the embroidery floss instead of kitchen twine...that's a little bridget jones
(white tho-not blue!)
heart pounding, i rolled those puppies up and tied them off, calling miz ral to tell her:
"meltdown avoided!"

ready to cook


hot from the oven



voila!


umarmen und lieben
essie

Friday, December 25, 2009

no. 275 family

is sometimes what you make...
we love you Gilb Fam, and are thankful for the special moments this holiday season has brought our big W'ton family!
so happy-
so lucky-
so blessed!

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!

umarmen und lieben
essie