Miscellaneous Day

L and C are visiting, so we've been out and about. Here are a few shots from yesterdays doings.

Coffee at Coffee Klatch in Rancho

Bumper sticker seen while returning old modem to Time Warner

Looking at the photo from CHS class of 2003 at Patty's

Purging

It's been interesting with L here and going through stuff, trying to clean out ever more stuff. I seem to be the one in my family (both my current family and family of origin) that is the most interested in family history. So I have kept all kinds of letters, school projects (the flat kind). I just knew that my daughters would be so glad to have all those special items to remind them of their school days.

I guess not. After pulling out some postcards and a few other things, they declared that I could throw the rest of the paper items into the recycling. Bolstered by their actions, I became brave and looked through a box of their baby clothes, showed them to the girls, put them back in the box and added them to the Goodwill pile. 

The question is: if/when we move, would I take this with me? If the answer is no, then why am I hanging on to it now?

Birthday Dinner

How to choose where to celebrate C's birthday dinner.

1. Ask C where she wants to go.

2. C says, "I'll tell you when I wake up in the morning."

3. Keep asking throughout the day. Still no decision.

4. Walk downtown.

5. Try to have hoppy hour at Eureka! Burger, but bar is full.

6. Walk back into the Village and head towards Back Abbey.

7. Find a nice table and enjoy dinner outside.

Gifts for Travel

Daughter L is visiting for the week for a bachelorette party, so she brought my birthday gift with her to keep the celebration going. Both daughters thought to give me something useful to take to Switzerland. C found this adorable purse for me and L brought at moleskine notebook - one that has all kinds of information about Zurich (including maps) as well as places to write. I feel as though I am ready to jump on a tram right now!

Beach Birthday

Second year in a row that my birthday fell on a weekend. A lovely June weekend. With temps promised in the low 100s (which never materialized), I thought that an escape to the beach would be the best way to relax with H, C and B. These days we tend to head toward Laguna and try out any beach where we can find parking.

While on the road, we decided to stop off at 85C for sea salt coffee and then yelped where we could find Mexican take-out in Laguna. Papa's Tacos came highly recommended, and that's where we ended up. The proprietor/chef/server was very friendly and when I told him it was my birthday, he threw in a bag of chips with some salsa. We took our food and ended up at Aliso Beach. The parking lot was full when we drove through, but I spotted a street space across the busy PCH which was still there after we rounded back. Luckily there is a tunnel under the highway for pedestrians.

We enjoyed people-watching while we ate our burritos, which we ranked very highly. Then we read a little, chatted and near the end of our stay we watched a pod of dolphins frolicking in the waves. That was certainly a highlight. 

Back home, after showers and a little phone chat with L, C treated us to a homemade peach and almond cake with vanilla ice cream. 

A most excellent way to celebrate.

Ordering at Papa's Tacos.

Memorial Day Weekend with the Folks

Last year on Memorial Day weekend, I was with my family of origin (my folks and my sister) on our pilgrimage to Pawnee Rock, Kansas. This year my parents came to Claremont from Colorado for the holiday weekend. 

We enjoyed a variety of activities from touring the new building at HMC, eating some of C and B's excellent food, wandering the Farmer's Market, as well as the folks seeing some of their friends who live here.

We had thought about going to the LA County Arboretum on Monday, but with temps in the 90s, we opted for the air-conditioning of the Laemmle. We chose the movie Chef, and I thought it was a great movie for just fun. It's the story of Roy Choi, the guy who owns the Kogi BBQ trucks (of which I have blogged on numerous occasions). So, for me, it had lots to recommend it. I like stories which feature something I know about firsthand. I like movies with good music. And the food looked great and made me hungry.

So after the movie we had to go out to eat. Of course. We tried to go to Cafe Allegro in La Verne, but it was closed, so we called Pasta Cucina Rustica on Foothill and they were open. Not only were they open, we were the only people there for a long time. Perhaps we were the only people who did not grill out on Memorial Day.

I had some penne pasta from the Over 60 menu. That meant a smaller portion. I thought the sauce was very good. H thought his eggplant not as good as the Thai eggplant from Saturday's lunch at Thai Family. We may or may not go back sometime. 

The Ages and Stages of Mothering and Mother's Day

Back in the day when my daughters were very young, the bulk of my time was spent doing for others.  What I really wanted for Mother's Day was for someone to clean my house and for, perhaps, some time for me.

Now that my children are grown, and I spend my day doing pretty much what I want to, I have a completely different idea of the perfect Mother's Day. I just want to spend time with my children. For the past several years I have been most fortunate to have one daughter close by, and we've had some lovely times together. This year was no exception. 

She brought over breakfast and coffee, went shopping with me, and then we and our guys watched the Dodgers on tv. I had a lovely chat with my other daughter, too. Even though the Dodgers did not pull through with a win, we did enjoy this sweetness, baked by C.

 ** After I posted this, I went back to read last year's entry on Mother's Day. Seems as though I have had the same thoughts for the past several years!

Easter 2014

This Easter we were fortunate enough to have my sister and brother-in-law in town to help us celebrate. She is in So Cal for two weeks taking a class at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, and he has come out for a long weekend. 

After church this morning, we were joined by C and B who helped us put on a group-effort meal. H grilled the salmon, I made my favorite kale and brussels sprouts salad, C made the asparagus, B made scalloped potatoes, C also made a lemon tart for dessert, and A Kline made the dark chocolate truffles. 

Daughter Date

Today was a shopping date with daughter C. Once in awhile we look at each other and say, "we need to go shopping!" For us, that means Ontario Mills. Today we realized that we are getting this down to a science. First we head to Coffee Klatch in Ontario which opens up before the mall. Then we know the secret route to the mall from there and can find the entrance closest to the Gap. After I'm done with the Gap and C needs to continue, I head off to the Banana Republic factory store and we meet up when we are finished.

Next we have to decide whether we want to go to Victoria Gardens, but whether or not we go there, we must stop for lunch. Usually it's Gandolfo's, but today I had a hankering for a hamburger, and I had not yet been to Five Guys, so that's where we ended up. I have to say, it was a delicious burger, and I was glad I took the advice to get the small one (regular-person-sized) with everything. Also, a small fries is good for two people.

A plus was that there was a Target in the same center, so we didn't have to maneuver through the parking lot to get to the Target at the Colonies in Upland to pick up just a few small necessities.

Alle Meine Kleider

During our family time on Christmas, my daughters reminded me of a German song that I had forgotten. They must have learned it from the children's choir director at church when they were in elementary school.


Grün grün grün sind alle meine Kleider,
Grün grün grün ist alles was ich hab
Darum lieb ich alles was so grün ist
Weil mein Schatz ein Jager, Jager ist.

It basically means, all my clothes are green because my love is a hunter.

You can go through other colors then. Blue for sailor, white for baker, black for chimney sweep, and then all the colors for a painter.

I found this funny video on youtube so you can hear the song. 

Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

Christmas has been particularly wonderful this year. As many know, when children grow up, and create their own families, it becomes rarer to have everyone in one place at one time, especially for Christmas. We feel so blessed this year to have one of those years.

Some of our highlights of this year's holiday (to add to the trip to the Natural History Museum):

1) watching The Apartment, one of B's favorite movies (1960 with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLain)

2) remembering lots of old songs and singing all the lyrics we could remember

3) looking at old family photos and home movies from the 1960s and 70s

4) eating really, really good food (and spending lots of time preparing it - thanks C and B!)

5) (and this is a lowlight, not highlight) not going to see The Hobbit, nor hiking in the foothills, both which were on our to-do list

6) playing Legos, Carcassonne, and some wii u, although we didn't get to Citadel

7) watching people get just what they wanted (headlamps, indoor/outdoor thermometer, Legos, Danskos, yoga mat, shaver, cookbooks, dino slippers, and a vacuum cleaner, among other things, including donations to favorite charities)

8) just being together - the best part of all!

H and C (C Mc, to be precise, since it is hard to discern from the context here), assembled H's birthday present - a Lego version of the UN Building. See post from last year….

LA Natural History Museum

What I learned at the LA Natural History Museum today:

California teachers get in free. Not advertised... Students still have to pay. 

The plesiosaurus, a large sea reptile, had one baby at a time and it was a live birth. The baby was 40% of the mom's size at birth. This skeleton, found in Kansas, is complete with fetus. I already knew that Kansas was under water at one point. This skeleton was nearly complete, only the head and the top of the neck are fabricated.

The T rex grew rapidly and did not live particularly long. These two skeletons show a two-year-old and a juvenile, about 13-14-years old. Huge size difference.

The museum has a very cool miniature replica of downtown LA, a WPA project built between 1939 and 1940. 

We had not been to the museum for many, many years, and I enjoyed seeing how more open and bright the dinosaur exhibits are. Unfortunately, C was not feeling well, so she and B did not accompany us on this trip. However we did make a stop in Arcadia to pick up a friend of L and C's (a student at the U of O) who is home on vacation.

Together Again

All the chickies are back in the nest! L and C arrived from Oregon by train last night to join us with C and B for some family time. Hooray!

Thanksgiving

What a delightful Thanksgiving 2013! We had some of the very best Thanksgiving food ever. Not many of our traditional recipes (except for the zwiebach), but rather new versions of old favorites. I think I mentioned earlier that C had a board on Pinterest devoted to recipes to try, and this is basically what we had. 

Instead of a roasted turkey, we had a turkey breast that was rolled and filled with stuffing. The mashed potatoes had crispy shallots and some amazingly delicious mushroom gravy (B had made the stock from scratch). We found a recipe from Real Simple magazine for cheesy sweet potatoes, and the pumpkin pie had a praline topping which was, in turn, topping with fresh whipped cream (and a little brown sugar and bourbon).

It's a good thing we went to the gym this morning and then had a nice 30-minute walk through the colleges after dark. I may not need to eat tomorrow....

Fall Break

Every once in awhile I get a hankering to get out of town, and although the CUSD does not have a fall break, the Claremont Colleges do. We took advantage of the weekend to take a very quick trip up to Oregon to visit our daughter and son-in-law. She has a one-year position teaching biology at Pacific University in Forest Grove, and we didn't know if we would have a chance to see them in their new surroundings. So we made the opportunity happen. 

This photo shows the blue, blue, blue of the Pacific near Tillamook, but the colors we mostly saw were the lovely fall leaves. We lucked out with fabulous weather - sunny and warm. We kid around that the weather is always perfect in Oregon since we always experience it that way. That's much easier to do when we can choose the time to visit.

Bridges to Prosperity

In May, my nephew graduated with a his masters in engineering from the University of Colorado and almost immediately left the country. The travel bug is pretty darn strong in him, and this excursion took him for a month to Bolivia with a group called Bridges to Prosperity. My sister says it's kind of like an "engineers without borders".

B2P "provides isolated communities with access to essential health care, education and economic opportunities by building footbridges over impassible rivers."

I took this picture from my nephew's Facebook page and he is the handsome guy in the middle!

Iowa

We landed at LAX last night to the hottest temps in So Cal for the year (so far). When we left for Des Moines on Wednesday I expected to land in a sauna there, but, instead, we were treated to lovely temps, changing clouds (along with some winds and bugs). Our daughters had not seen their grandfather in 5-6 years, our son-in-law had not met the grandfather, so we knew it was time for a family reunion. The sister and brother-in-law drove up from Texas, and along with grandmother, sister, and Anne, all eleven of us were together.

Apparently, no trip to Iowa is complete without a stop at the Heart of Iowa Store in Historic Valley Junction. H feels compelled to bring his summer research students a bit of Iowa, and this year he had hoped that he could find the little pig that, when squeezed, would bulge out its eyes and poop out some jelly beans. Such a fine item was not to be had this year, so he settled for cow pens with eyes that light up and moo sounds.

Lest you think that there are only such silly items in the store, rest assured that you can also purchase such lovely pottery items as seen above, and a variety of food items.

Also on the docket for Thursday was a visit to West End Architectural Salvage in downtown Des Moines. I had seen one of the shows on HGTV about this place and was curious to check it out. I am sure that most in our group were just humoring me, but when we entered, we were immediately hooked with the variety of antiques - some beautiful, some not so much, some already repurposed, some waiting for love. I don't know how much time we spent wandering and taking photos, pointing and laughing, but it ended with coffee drinks at the little cafe on the first floor.

I was taken with these typewriter bracelets, but not with their price tag. A quick view through Etsy proved that West End is not the only place, by far, that makes jewelry from old typewriter keys.

One's Adult Children

I had the opportunity this weekend, once again, to watch one of my daughters in her adult life. This time I saw my younger daughter as one of the lead teachers, along with two of her very favorite own teachers, as they led over 100 dancers in their annual recital. I do not generally get to watch her with her students, although we talk about teaching quite a bit when we are together. This year I arrived early and watched her run through a few pieces with her dancers and enjoyed watching how she works with the girls, and how at home she is in her own skin. When she was two, I knew she would dance, but I could not picture her as a grown-up at that time. Now I am so happy to see who she has become!

Bergthal Mennonite Church - Pawnee Rock, Kansas

The primary reason for my trip to Kansas over Memorial Day weekend was to attend the Memorial Celebration Sunday at Bergthal Mennonite Church in Pawnee Rock. In the 1950s, my maternal grandfather pastored this church, and my mother graduated from high school during this time. At its height, the congregation boasted about 250 members in this rural community, but today only about 15 people make up the church. Couple this with the fact that the building has a black mold problem that is cost prohibitive to take care of, and after several years and heart-breaking discussions, the congregation has decided to tear down the building later this summer. 

Street Sign Kitty-Corner to the Church

In preparation for this sad event, the people decided to hold one final big church service and invite people who have a connection to the church to return. My parents planned on going and asked if I wanted to attend with them. Since I had never seen the church (except as an infant), and I am interested in my mom's heritage, I jumped at the chance to visit Kansas in May. It seemed that I was not the only one who wanted to come. The sanctuary was overflowing with about 350 people, including descendants of the founding families and a handful who had never even been to the church, but had some kind of reason to travel there.

We were in for an entire day of activities starting with breakfast. After the worship service and the noon potluck we had the chance to bid on a silent auction of various items from the church building. People shared memories of their time at the church during an afternoon service and the official day ended with more food - dessert and coffee.

On the dedication day of the church building (the third building for this congregation), people stood outside in front of the church for a group photo. (You can see this photo on a blog post about Bergthal on another blog post here.) On Sunday we all came outside for a final group photo with the photographer on the top of a tall, tall ladder on the other side of the street with four people holding the legs so it would not blow over in the wind.

Table decoration in the basement

Breakfast buffet

Gathering for church

Rules for the silent auction

Offering Plate up for auction

Taking a group photo can be dangerous

But this is the end result!

Faith Alive

Last night I returned home from a whirlwind weekend trip to Kansas (with literal winds out on the prairie and thankfully no tornadoes) for a family-intensive visit.

On Saturday my sister spoke to a group of our relatives about her recently-published book Faith Alive: Stories of Hope and Healing From an African Doctor and His Hospital. Lately I have been thinking about how important stories are for us, as human beings. (Excuse the quick detour here.) One of my guilty pleasures is watching Project Runway, and this season when I saw one of the final episodes where we take a peek into the lives of the finalists where Tim Gunn visits each person in their home and meets their families, my attitude about each designer changes. Their stories make them real and complete, three-dimensional. They are no longer just a designer under heaps of pressure to produce an outfit, but a person with a past and hopes and dreams.

Faith Alive is a collection of connected stories of many people who come together in the Faith Alive Hospital in Jos, Nigeria. These people are courageous, fallible, funny, kind, and, in short, human. I finished the book before I landed in California, and I would recommend it to you if 1) you like to be inspired 2) you have a connection with HIV/AIDS 3) you like to read.

You can order the book on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. As the photo indicated, all proceeds from the sale of the book benefit the hospital. You can also visit the website here.