Tip-Toe through the Tulips (1)

It's April in Washington...and that means tulip time!! We were going to go last Thursday, but of course it poured rain all day Wednesday (and most of the night) so late Wednesday evening we canceled the trip. Which was good, because Auntie Greta wasn't able to go on Thursday.

Typical of Washington State, the sun shone brightly Thursday! Figures. We rescheduled for Monday and determined to go, rain or shine. It was brilliant all weekend. And typical of Washington State, it poured rain on Monday! LOL

But true to our word, we hopped in our various cars and took off toward the tulip fields! James, Danielle and Dante drove over from Whidbey; Greta met us up there as well; Tiffany and Teagan came with Mom and I in our car and we had the added surprise bonus of having our friend Donna join us!

Off we go!!!!!!!!!

Along the way we could see fields of bright yellow in the distance.... 

We met at the Waterfront Cafe in La Conner for lunch.... 

Teagan asked Donna if she would be her cousin

(a big honor--Teagan loves her cousins!)

so I guess that makes Dante & Donna cousins too!

Despite the fact that Donna wants to take him home with her,

Dante immediately felt safe enough upon meeting to snuggle with her!

Silly boy! ;-)

We had a delightful lunch before driving off through the back roads looking for fields of tulips and daffodils. Dante, however, would have been happy to have stayed on the water front because it was absolutely fascinating: it had parked bicycles! And those, as you know, have wheels, and gears, and spokes, and other interesting things!!!

What are those marvelous things I see over there?!?!

And when he was distracted from the bikes, there were wonderful boats to stare at!

But off to the fields we did go! On our way to the tulips we passed more daffodil fields:

And now for the tulips!!!!!!!!!

But as I'm tired, that will have to wait! Tune back in later this week for more--which of course will include incredibly stunning pictures taken by moi!

Oh fine, here's a preview:

Disgusting!!

I recently read an article written by Heather Spohr, whose blog I follow, on how some doctors are now helping brides-to-be quickly lose weight by inserting a nasogastric tube (a feeding tube that goes through the nose into the stomach) that provides the bride a liquid diet of only 800 carb-free calories.

Please read the article! It will blow you away!!!!  Why the Feeding Tube Diet Disgusts Me!

This truly sickens me! These doctors should be brought up before the AMA and reprimanded--they shouldn't be having flattering articles written about them nor be proud of what they are doing.

The women and brides doing this shouldn't be going to to these doctors but to a psychiatrist as they have severe body issues. They should tour NICU and PICU facilities and see the children fighting for their lives who are on gastrotube diets.
There is something wrong with any woman or man or doctor who thinks that this "diet" is a reasonable weight-loss remedy! I would rather be a fat, over-weight bride (or woman~no need to be a bride, I suppose to find some doctor who will put you on this "diet") than do this!

Also, I loved in particular what Heather says of brides-to-be: "Women need to remember why they are getting married – not to have everyone tell her she is a beautiful bride (which she would be anyway), but because it is a beautiful, sacred event in one’s life. A union between two people, who vow to love and respect each other forever."

Thank you to Heather for reliving what she went through with her precious daughter, Maddie, in order to bring this to a wider audience!

Melancholy Memories

Somewhere, some random place, I have a tape recording of my grandparents from when I interviewed them. I think I was perhaps a senior in high school doing a paper on one of them. Or perhaps I was a bit older and was interviewing them in order to write about them for a creative writing class in junior college. It can't have been as late as senior college as my parents had moved by then to a different house in a different state and distinctly remember the interview taking place around the dining room table in our Santa Cruz Mountain house.

And, really, "interview" is too structured a word. I'd ask a question and get the stories flowing. Stories of their childhoods. Their early memories. The depression years. The war years. The post-war years. Slowly working our way up to when they met...my mom in her early 20s living with my grandmother, a single woman again, by choice. Living in a crazy apartment complex...with the crazy party girl next door (who would later become my aunt when her brother came home from Nam and stayed with her for a time) and the man upstairs who knew how to throw a grand party and make a mean martini and romance a woman who had struck out on her own...who would one day be my grandpa.

Some where is that tape...that should be found and should be transfered to a digital recording, before it and its stories are lost to our family...just as its story-tellers already are.

Thank you to my friend Vivian for posting Roger Egbert's link to his journal posting I Remember You. Maybe I will remember where I put that tape so that my niece and nephew can hear their great-grandparents' voices and hear them tell old family stories before the time comes that no one is left to remember.

A Happy Easter

We had a very happy Easter on a glorious spring day! All the little cousins were together (the 3 "big boy" cousins were absent, as was Ava, but only because she lives in CA).

I love how much the cousins love each other! They are so joyous when they are reunited! Whooping, and laughing, and running, and playing, and not wasting a second of their time together. It's wonderful. Teagan watched them departing at the end of the day with tears in her eyes says, "I don't want the cousins to go! I want them to stay! Why are they all leaving at the same time?" Heart break.

How cute are these two?!?

These beautiful girls can hold their own against all those boy cousins!

Along came Peter Cottontail!

Hello Cousin!

But in between the arrivals and departures, there was the joy! And not just for the cousins, but for all the siblings. And spouses. Another thing I love is that all the "in-laws" get along so well. I glanced up during the meal prayer to see all the guys holding hands or having their arms slung about each other's shoulders. They aren't just "in-laws"--they're friends.

We had a fabulous day full of  warm sunshine, fine food, laughter, and fun...and eggs!

A basket of eggs!!! Cool!!!

Sooo...what do I with them??

Hunt them of course!!!

First you fill a couple hundred eggs...

Then you hide them anywhere you can...and set the kids lose:

Did anyone besides Dante find any eggs you ask? Well, just a few....

Lately when you tell Teag to smile, you get a smile like this. :-)

Then the carnage begins: cracking open those eggs~finding toys, candy, money! Fun, fun, fun!

Teagan, who has no idea what money is, got the one and only $5 egg.

Did the kids have a good time? If Cooper is any proof, then, yes, I think they did:

This was under the vest:

As for Teagan, she ate nothing but bacon and chocolate all day! That's a great day, in any book! After cracking open the eggs, it was time to hang out some more, eat some more fabulous food, watch the kids play, and maybe do some playing ourselves...or just kick back and enjoy the sun!

A good nap and a cuddle with Papa Tom or Gramma Sue was how Teagan spent part of the afternoon...despite cousins running about and grown ups laughing and talking all around her. Those must have been good snuggles!!

I feel so very blessed to be part of this large, happy group of family and friends! Hope everyone was blessed to have even a fraction as happy a holiday as we did!

And in the midst of it all, may we always remember the true reason behind the joy and celebration of this:

Three Crosses on a Hill...

And One Gloriously Empty Tomb...

For Our Lord is Risen!

The Food List Challenge

So, I guess this has been going around Facebook for several months now but I just heard about it today. I didn't want to use the app on FB and was grateful to find the list on another blog. Apparently, the initial prediction says that of the 100 foods on this list, most people would have only tried about 20 (or less) of them before they die.

So, here is the list:

(click on the list to see it enlarged)

I was happy learn that I've tried 66 of them! But does this mean I'm going to die soon or just that those other people that have 20 or less on their lists lead slightly more boring lives than I?


Here is my list:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
And there you have it!