Pre-Road Trip Scramble

The kids and I will be making the day-long trip to Portland, OR tomorrow. I am doing my best to organize, pack, prepare and basically remember everything that the kids and I will need for the next 10 days. My plan is to leave as close to 7 am as possible so we can make it to my mom's house around 9 pm or so. My kids are good car travellers as long as they have a steady dose of movies on the portable DVD player. There are only a few circumstances where I allow them to watch movies to their heart's content and being the only adult, driving in a car for 700 miles, fits the requirements. We have made this trip the last two summers and as long as the kids have movies, snacks, books and something to draw on, we do alright. I, on the other hand get to indulge in too many Cokes, fun snacks I wouldn't normally eat and lots of my favorite music. I will be bleary eyed by the time I reach my final destination tomorrow, but I think I will be prepared in time tonight to enjoy some quality time with Todd and get to bed at a reasonable time. I will miss Todd very much until he flies up to Portland on the 30th to spend the final weekend with us and to join in the drive-home party. It will be so nice to have his company, even if I have to suffer through some of his favorite music. I will have fun pictures and stories to share while we are on our trip.

To The One I Love

Todd and Angela in the beginning

Todd and Angela now

Our Wedding Day

Dear Todd,

Today is our ninth wedding anniversary and I wanted to tell you, and anyone else who reads this blog, how lucky I feel to be your wife. We have been on a great adventure together during the past twelve years that we have been a couple. Together, we endured a long-distance romance where we only saw each other on the weekends, faced the roller-coaster of parenthood early on when our firecracker daughter came into our lives, took the chance to move away from Windy City of Chicago to the small Santa Cruz beach communities to begin your dream of owning a civil engineering firm. We have bought a house together, added our amazing little boy to our family and have delved deep into the venture of business ownership. Those are some of the big milestones we have accomplished together, and there are thousands of smaller ones that make my days as your partner so wonderful. Here are some that have a lasting memory. I remember my first Mother's Day, when Edie was a fussy, 7 month old. The two of you left me alone at home to take a nap and returned with a new pillow for me. You endured one hour of crying Edie two evenings a week so that I could go to an exercise class. You always make a big deal of birthdays and Christmas and surprise me with amazing gifts that I would never buy for myself. You came home from work in the middle of the day to bring some food and movies to Edie and me when we were both so sick with the flu, we couldn't move. I loved it when you would drop by and surprise me at work and when you didn't come by, had dinner ready for me when I got home. It is thoughtful when you buy me a new CD and leave it in my car for a surprise. Your have creatively come up with scavenger hunt dates that were so fun (and made some of my friends jealous!). You secretly had the living room painted while I was gone to make me happy when I got back, and worked really hard on the patio to make it look beautiful. I could fill a book with happy memories of our time together.

I know that I can always count on you to take the garbage out, to make sure my car goes in for an oil change, to do the handy-work around the house and make sure the chill is gone from the sheets at bed time. I am so lucky to have found a man who works so hard to support his family and who loves his family so deeply.

Thank you Todd for our life together. I look forward to many, many more years together.

Love always,

Angela

Catch Up

Todd at Pebble Beach & Spyglass

Isaac and his best buddy Ben at Vacation Bible Camp
Edie and her friend Emily at Vacation Bible Camp
Isaac on the Boardwalk merry-go-round

I have some catching up to do here. I can't believe that Summer is half way over for Edie , who starts her new school on August 25th. The days have been slow paced and filled with lots of friends. I wish I could say that they have all been filled with sunshine, but really, I live in Santa Cruz. Here is the short list of our activities the last few weeks.

1. Edie and Isaac both spent a fun-filled week at Vacation Bible Camp which managed to pack enough activities into a four hour morning to completely exhaust both kids every day.

2. We enjoyed a fun evening at the Boardwalk with friends. We took advantage of local night which boasts 75 cent hot dogs and drinks. Hot dogs really only taste good when you are either surrounded by carnival rides or baseball fans. Isaac rode the Pirate Ship for his first time and quickly let us know that he wasn't going to go on it again. He also got to accompany our friend's 15 month old son on his first ride. It was Isaac's moment to shine as a big boy.

3. We had a fun 4th of July at a friend's house where we ate an assortment of BBQ'd fish. The kids were in bed and asleep by 8:00 pm which was before the illegal booms of fireworks could wake them up.

4. Todd got to golf Pebble Beach and Spyglass for the first time and had a great rounds at each course. Todd's said Splyglass was much much tougher than Pebble Beach....

5. I have made three more batches of yummy jam. I couldn't just stop at strawberry, so I made strawberry-fig, ollallie berry-strawberry and plum. The figs and plums came from the trees of two friends and the strawberries and ollallie berries were picked very close to my house. I think I'll have to do some peach or apricot next. I will have reminders of Summer all year long.

6. Edie has had several play dates and sleep-overs which have all been great. I really like spending time with her and her friends.

7. A family BBQ with my Supper Club. We all contributed delicious dishes and enjoyed spending time with each other and our families on a relaxed Sunday afternoon.

I hope that the second half of the Summer is as great as the first. I'll let you know!

I Need Some New Reads!

To those of you who read this blog:
I have been spending some luxurious time with the written word in the days since school let out and my days are less scheduled. I have reacquainted myself with the "grown-up" section of the library and am racking up some frequent-flyer points on my library card. The problem is that there are just too many choices and not enough time, so I am asking my friends if you would throw a book suggestion or many my way, so I can narrow down the selection and enjoy some more curl up on the couch, beach, grass time with a good piece of lit.

Thanks!

PS-I'm not into sci-fi.

A series of (unfortunate) Events.

We had a very strange day on Saturday, along with the majority of Santa Cruz County residents. It started out like any other Saturday. The kids were up at the crack of dawn because they are only allowed to watch morning TV on the weekends. They storm into my room at about 6:45 (they are supposed to stay in their room until 7:00, but they just can't wait) and ask if they can go downstairs to watch cartoons. Either Todd or I roll over our sleepy-head enough to tell them "yes", and away they go thumping down the stairs into TV-land. Todd and I get up around 8:00 when they start wanting breakfast and off we go on our day. This Saturday was normal enough until about 10:30, considering we were checking out the area in the near distance for remains of smoke that was consumed by fire on Friday and still hearing helicopters and sirens to remind us of the fire-zone we live in this summer. The predicted temperature for Saturday was another sweltering day, so our plan was to escape to the beach with a friend of Edie's. We planned to meet at the beach after lunch. We ate lunch and started noticing clouds blocking the blue sky we planned to enjoy at the beach. We then got a call from Edie's friend telling us that it was raining at their house in Santa Cruz. We all thought it would pass soon and packed our car up to go. As we were getting in the car, our friend calls again and tells us that they saw lightening. We still count on a quickly passing storm and head off. Rain drops start falling on our car as we drive about 10 minutes to the beach. The sky is looking really dark too. We pull into Manresa beach parking lot and see lots of people in the parking lot and many cars leaving. Weird, but no rain drops here. The temperature is barely above 60 degrees compared with the predicted 90, but we start down the stairs to the beach anyway. As soon as we got down to the bottom, the lifeguard shouts on her megaphone that everyone needs to get off of the beach because lightening just struck 1/4 mile off shore. So, we go up, call our friends and let them know the status and we feel the rain starting again and see bolts of lightening. Time for plan B. There are no appropriate movies showing. Plan C. Let's go to mini-golf at the Boardwalk. We hear that there is hail just a few miles from us. There is more lightening and some loud thunder. We pick up Edie's friend and her dad and head to the Boardwalk. The traffic going to the Boardwalk is a nightmare. The only parking within many, many blocks is $20 in a motel parking lot. The temperature is up to 79 degrees by now. There are hoards of people going to the Boardwalk, but we notice that none of the rides are in use. Is it a power outage? Closure due to lightening? All we know is that mini-golf isn't going to happen and we better go onto plan D. Plan D- ice cream and tattoos. The traffic is too bad to go to into Santa Cruz for plan D, so we resort to plan E which is go back to almost where we started from and get some ice cream at Dairy Queen. Our day was more successful from that point because we decided to just have a simple BBQ at our friends house and not try to plan anything else that could go haywire! It was a memorable day, but not for anything we did, but all the events that led up to a really fun, but completely unplanned evening with our friends

Just Like Papa

Do you shave your legs too Papa?

Eastern Delight

I love to try new types of food especially foods and recipes from India, Thailand and parts of Africa. I love the combination of the aromatic spices that make the food smell as good as it tastes. My mouth waters for curries, cilantro and coconut and cashews. My family does not share in this passion, at least not yet. I made an Indian dinner tonight and SURPRISE!, everyone liked it. The kids had compliments and Todd went back for seconds. I am sharing the family-friendly menu that made us all happy tonight and gave me hopes of meals to come that the whole family enjoys.

I wanted to use the veggies from my CSA share this week. This recipe was included in the weekly newsletter. (Click on recipe title for link)


Indian Spiced Roasted Cauliflower and Potatoes
I omitted the jalapeno to make it milder.

I think this recipe is from Parents magazine. I tore it out years ago and have it in my recipe binder.

Tandoori-Spiced Chicken served with yogurt-cucumber dip
serves 4

2 Tbs light soy sauce
1 Tbs orange juice
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp grated orange rind
1/4 tsp red-pepper flakes
8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs ( I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts)
2 tsp olive oil
2 red bell peppers, cut into strips

Yogurt-Cucumber dip
1 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1/2 cup shredded cucumber
1 Tbs chopped mint
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt

1) In a large bowl (or large Ziplock bag) combine soy sauce thru red-pepper flakes. Add chicken and allow to marinate. (I left the chicken marinating for about 6 hours)
2) Heat oil in large skillet over med-high heat. Add chicken and brown on both sides. Add pepper strips and cook until veggies are softened and chicken is cooked through.
3)Combine all ingredients for cucumber dip.

Serve chicken with bell peppers and yogurt-cucumber dip

I served these dishes with cantaloupe, but mango would be really great.