Appeasement

I recognize the Bowcut Bulletin has been rather quiet lately. I’ve been informed that our (limited) fan club is beginning to get restless. We don’t want to upset our following, so I will present to you a recap of our past week.

1. Inauguration Festivities
After much sweet talking, I convinced Brian to go downtown on inauguration day. I was glad, because that way we could make use of his office rather than me wandering aimlessly in 20 degree weather. Although I would have loved to be at the inauguration itself, waiting for 4+ hours in frigid temps (or even without) two little kids didn’t seem appealing. Fortunately, Brian’s office overlooks a section of the parade route. I have fond memories of spending the day downtown in my stepdad’s office for the Bush senior and 1 or 2 of the Clinton parades and hoped that this would create a memory for Ella. So…we packed up and prepared for the worst in terms of transportation. And actually the worst part was steps from our house as we waited for the bus. We strapped Samantha into the Kelty backpack, which she absolutely hated. We waited in the freezing cold for a bus that never came and Samantha screaming bloody murder. Since we had parked our van at the metro the night before in order to have a smooth trip home, the only way to the metro was to squeeze the 4 of us in our two-passenger pick-up (with no car seats) to the metro. Ella kept talking about what a special treat it was to not have to wear a seat belt. I told her that’s because we’re awesome parents… and we’re never doing that again. But other than that, the metro was a breeze down and back.

Keeping two young children entertained in Brian’s office for 5 hours also proved to be challenging. It wasn’t exactly baby-proofed and a parade only holds a 5-year old’s interest for so long. But with lots of treats, long hallways to run/crawl in and friendly co-workers to give office chair rides to our kids, we did okay.

As for the parade itself, it was an interesting spectacle to watch from above. It started an hour and a half late because the Congressional lunch after the inauguration ran over. Again, I was grateful to not be one of the people waiting outside.

As far as Obama himself, he hid out in his car while passing us. Way disappointing. That's his car below with the secret service flanking it on each corner.

We did, however, get to see Biden and his wife, Jill. You'll have to blow this picture up, but there is a small group of people, one of which is a woman in a red coat. They woman is Jill and Biden is the one in that group, closest to us with the white hair. He is so charasmatic--as he's walking down the street he's striking up conversations with people along the way, and pumping them up.

And once they passed, everyone along the street left. Granted they had been out there for awhile and were tired and cold, but I felt bad for the many bands, floats and people who had traveled so far to be there.

It was great to be downtown and to feel the energy and excitement. As Brian and I discussed, to see the transfer of power done so peacefully is foreign to so much of the world. Our presidents simply hand over the reins when their time runs out or the people vote them out. On our way down to the “mall”, Samantha struck up a friendship with a couple sitting behind me. I chatted with them, and asked if they were on their way down to the festivities. The man, who happened to be African American, responded yes, and that he sat at home earlier to watch the inauguration on TV, cried his eyes out, and was coming down for the parade to “hoot and holler his heart out”. It was a moving experience to see so many people celebrate and be so hopeful during such a precarious time in our nation’s history.

2. A lengthy doctor’s appointment. Despite no symptoms, blood work suggests I may have an overactive thyroid. I did not want to go to this appointment—waste of time. (I’m finding that the more doctors I go to, the more they find wrong with me.) But Brian insisted and away I went. So lucky me gets to have a thyroid scan this coming week, which involves ingesting a radioactive pill 6 hours before the scan. I think it’s weird that I’m going to be radioactive. I’m going to be walking around for 6+ hours with a radioactive neck. It seems alarming to me, but I gather they know what they're doing. Perhaps they'll stamp my forehead with:

I’m watching a friend’s kids Thursday afternoon—and I did give full disclosure that I will be radioactive. Which brings to mind the following Kiss lyrics (not that I've ever been a Kiss fan):

She's radioactive (radioactive), she's very selective (radioactive)She's what I need, she's so pretty indeed, I've gotta make her mine.

Funny.

3. I’ve been slowly painting the kitchen while (not so) patiently waiting for our new table and chairs to be delivered (Original delivery date: December 10.) I’m really just showing you these pictures to show off my $20 Vidal Sassoon haircut from earlier that day (what a deal, eh?). I’ve been patiently growing my hair out after my last very sad haircut and I think it’s been salvaged.

4. I rediscovered a chocolate cake recipe that I’ve had since our year in Philadelphia.

We attended a small, inner city branch (church congregation) that was composed of mostly Cambodians. An older couple from the suburbs was asked to come help out in the branch and she brought this cake to almost every social activity. Along with the egg rolls and other ethnic food, it was inhaled. It’s super fast because it uses a cake mix, but it’s so moist and yummy. Next time you need a fast dessert, this is the one. She used to melt some frosting to drip over the top, but I opted for just some powdered sugar. It’s probably not a component of your new year’s diet, but some days are just better with chocolate cake.

Ella agrees.

Chocolate, Chocolate Chip Cake

1 chocolate cake mix

1 small box chocolate pudding mix

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

½ cup oil

½ cup water

1 heaping cup chocolate chips

Mix together. Put in bundt cake pan and bake @ 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Take out even if cake looks under done. Sprinkle with powdered sugar or dribble with frosting if desired.

5. Our TV "broke". I came home one afternoon and my husband informed me that the picture on our beloved family room TV no longer worked.

Given that said husband has been pining after a considerably-sized flat screen to mount in there, I am suspicious of the sudden death of the TV while I happened to be out shopping. Coincidence? Hmmmm.

I hope this will satisfy the masses for now. :) Good night.

A Rambling Report

Warning: This is an uncharacteristically long post for me, along with high picture content. It's just that when you haven't done a substantive post for two weeks, there is a lot to report. I do not promise cohesiveness or clarity. Just musing. Read at your own risk.

I don't really know what to say about my long lapse in blogging. I think it's my post-Christmas blues. The first week after the holidays is always the pits. It's hard to climb out of the holiday joys of staying in your jammies till lunchtime, indulging in way too many chocolates, going on fun outings, feeling a sense of accomplishment on house projects, and having your spouse around full-time. Fortunately the new year does bring about some momentum, I'm just experiencing a longer warm-up time this year.

And actually one consuming aspect of our lives has been that my 90-year old Grandmother's health has been quite poor. We have been quite concerned about her. She has spent the last week and a half in the hospital, but returned home on Thursday, for which we are very grateful. We're getting to know the hospital staff way too well. For someone who has such get-up and go and has always been so independent, it has been difficult to see her so burdened by the realities and discomforts of being 90 years old.

Despite the concern with my Grandma, we had a great week with my sister, Jen and her family, visiting from Portland, Oregon. Before I recap the time we had with them, I have to show off the DARLING dresses I spoke of previously, made by my Mom and Grandma. Ella and her cousin Lauren have deemed them their "princess" dresses.


They danced and danced together in them, and when Jen and I sensed the disapproving glares from the head women in the family that these were NOT to be used for dress-up, we quickly set a dancing time limit. For Ella, this has been the dress of choice for the past two Sundays and I suspect we'll hit number three tomorrow. Am I setting a bad fashion precedence for my daughter by allowing her to wear the same dress three Sundays in a row?

During our week with the Wards, we boarded the metro several times to hit various sites in DC. I love taking Ella downtown. I need to do it more. (On a day with less people.) It reminds me how much I like living here and what wonderful resources we have at our disposal. (I'm still charting out my strategy for getting downtown on Inauguration Day, which promises to exceed the mall's capacity. Could be interesting.) This picture of Ella and Lauren made me smile.

It brought back fun memories of me exploring DC as a pre-teen with my best friend Annee and her sister, Sarah. We'd take the bus to the metro and spend entire days at museums. It still seems crazy that we were allowed to roam around the city without an adult. Did our mothers even notice where we were all day?

Our first stop of the week downtown was to Arlington Cemetery--both to visit my Dad's grave and to do some sightseeing.

I love this picture of Ella and Lauren playing hide-and-seek in the cemetery (you might need to enlarge it). My first thought was I should stop them--it seemed so irreverent. But then I realized there wasn't a better gift to my Dad than to have his grandchildren playing around him.

Oh, how it saddens me when I think about what he's missing.

As Brian and I have observed many times in DC, if you think a particularly outing is a good idea, chances are so does everyone else. As expected, the mall was mobbed. The museums were slow going, but we HAD to see the new Ocean Hall and Bug exhibit in the Natural History Museum

(This is a Madagascar hissing cockroach. Ella is like me in that bugs/rodents in a controlled environment are perfectly fine. However, if they surprise me in my own house, I can't deal.)

and we HAD to see the newly renovated American History Museum. The First Ladies' gowns are indeed lovely, but they don't display as many as they used to--they've decided to do more rotating. Not a fan of the rotation schedule.

Other parts of our week consisted of random activities to keep the kids occupied and the parents sane. (I warned you there were a lot of pictures.)

A visit to the temple and lights at the Visitor's Center:

A rousing New Year's Eve Celebration that consisted of games and this puzzle. Those pictured here, minus my husband, finished the puzzle at 2:45am. Now that's dedication.

Bowling. I was the champ. The bumpers are a life-saver.

Partaking of our neighbor's trampoline.

Ella attending her weekly birthday party (or so it seems). There was face painting at this one, and I thought it was way cool. She has mentioned daily, since this party that she got to wear real lipstick and eyeshadow. She begged to keep it on for church. I did put my foot down on that one.

So long holiday season. We look forward to your return next year.

World's Tackiest Christmas Decoration

This lovely collection sits in the front yard of a house along our street. I have never seen who lives there. I can only wonder. This is truly a gem.

Christmas Magic

It was a sweet Christmas.

I still have reservations about the whole Santa issue, and I will always strive to downplay it as best I can, but I was reminded about the sweetness of Ella’s anticipating his arrival: the cookies and milk, the letter she carefully wrote him, the trying to stay awake to hear him come, the noises she heard outside that she was pretty certain were Santa’s reindeer. And of course her sheer delight when she walked down the stairs and saw the missing cookies and milk, return letter from Santa and gifts under the tree.

It really was a magical day for her. (Aren't the girls' matching Christmas gingerbread jammies so cute?)

The highlight for Ella was “Felicity”, her new American Girl doll who now accompanies Ella wherever she goes. Samantha's big Santa gift was her new slide. Learning to walk more than 2 steps on her own is priority #1. Climbing the slide by herself is priority #2.

In addition, we now own more baby dolls, doll clothes, Barbie stuff, walky talkies, books, clothes and talking toys than ever before.

Santa was very good to me this year. While I was adorned with all of my favorite things, the best gift of all was in an envelope in my stocking. It was neatly labeled, "Mother Medallion Level Member-- Congratulations, You've Arrived!" Santa apparently read my earlier blog post lamenting the fact that us moms have to do without any job perks. And what was inside? A Marriott Rewards certificate for a free night's stay! But where shall I go? And whom shall I take? Oh, the choices! Thank you, Santa.

Brian, the kids and I squeezed in a visit to our friends, the Kebbies who we try to visit with every Christmas. Adama had been cooking for two days straight and tried to stuff us full of food. We enjoy our tradition of being with them and now that we live a little bit further from them, this was the first time since we moved that we've seen them. It’s hard to believe how quickly their kids are growing up. We’ve known them for over 5 years, when Adama and the kids arrived from Gambia to join Brima here. Their kids, Tity, Joe and Fatimatah are kind, entertaining, smart kids. We're so glad they're our friends.

Brian assisting Joe with his new transformer toy:

We spent the remainder of Christmas at my parents' home. My sister, Jen and her family, and my brother, Drew and his fiancé (yes, we were informed that morning that they will be getting married! We are delighted that Chloe will be joining the family and we are of course looking forward to traveling to Hawaii for their wedding in 2010.) had flown in on Christmas Eve. We had a lovely afternoon with everyone, exchanged gifts and took naps. Conveniently, my sister has girls who are very close in age to Ella and Samantha, which makes playing with Christmas toys much more fun.

Ella and Lauren posing in front of the tree prior to gift unwrapping:

Feasting on my Mom's fabulous Christmas cooking. Her Christmas morning orange rolls did not disappoint. Heaven forbid I ever have to make those myself one year--I don't think I could do them justice.

Samantha and Sarah--nine months apart in age, which is a big difference now, but will become less significant as they get older.

And for those of you who know my Mom, you'll know that she is a woman who does not sit still. She does not know the meaning of relaxation or putting her feet up. When she's not being principal of her high school, she is engaged in something productive. So if you know my Mom, it wouldn't surprise you that there were 4 handmade quilts under the tree (3 queen-size and 1 King), and she and my Grandma made 6 DARLING dresses for Ella and her 5 cousins who are the same age (I will post pictures once I can get them off my camera...they are lovely). She really outdid herself this year.

Family, friends, traditions and good food are my criteria for a fabulous Christmas, so I guess you could say it was a success! The day after Christmas always seems like such a let-down after all the excitement is over. But with my sister's family here through New Year's, and cousins to play with, we're still celebrating and getting lots of fun outings in. A full report shall follow!

A Drill

Yesterday when we awoke, we discovered that our water was yellow. Perplexed, I called my neighbor, Molly to see if hers was yellow, too. “Yeah”, she says, “I just did a load of laundry and the water was brown. If you turn on the TV you’ll see there was a major water main break on River Road (in Bethesda).” Oh right, the TV. It rarely serves as my source for news these days. We soon found that all of the major local news stations were showing River Road was living up to its name. 150,000 gallons of water were pouring out of a major water pipe every minute. About a dozen cars had been driving along the road when the break happened; the tremendous flood flushed them back down the road crashing into each other. Helicopters came and rescued the stranded, uninjured passengers.

People throughout the county were impacted by the break. County schools closed 2 hours early and people on the opposite side of the county reported decreased water pressure at home.

Our immediate concern at home was if and when our water would be suitable for drinking and would we lose water while the repairs on the water main break were done. Being practicing Mormons, we hear a lot about preparedness. Preparedness for personal catastrophe (loss or decrease in income) and widespread catastrophe (natural disaster, economic downturn, end of the world, etc.) are both stressed often. And given national and world events over just the past five years alone, I believe strongly that it is sound, inspired advice. Our church devotes a lot of resources to aiding its members in being prepared, which I am grateful for.

Wouldn’t this be such a great story if I reported that Brian and I smiled and put our feet up yesterday morning because our large water supply was safely nestled in our basement? That would have been great. But alas our water supply consisted of 4 gallon jugs in our basement that I think may be approximately 8 years old. I’m guessing the water tastes more like plastic than water by now. We used to have a somewhat more extensive water supply, but I used it up in anticipation of us moving, because the movers wouldn’t move it and I wasn’t going to move it. So slightly concerned about the prospect of not having drinking water over perhaps the next week, we went into action. And we learned a few things amid the scurry, particularly about human behavior.

Many people will be superficially helpful, but aren’t really because their number one priority is taking care of themselves. At approximately 9:30am Brian (having taken the day off) headed for the nearest grocery store to stock up on water. He found utter chaos with people loading up their grocery carts with as much bottled water as they could fit. By the time he got there all of the gallon jugs were gone, but he was able to get a handful of liter and half liter bottles. Waiting in line, he happened to strike up a conversation with a woman who had a grocery cart chock full of gallon jugs. She told him that she was pretty sure she saw store clerks unload more gallon jugs elsewhere in the store and that he should go look. By the time Brian got there, all the jugs were gone and so Brian returned to his place in line and mentioned to the woman that they were already gone. “Well, I tried to help you” she replied. That was as far as she was willing to go to help. Her jugs were her jugs.

Unless you have a heart of stone, your own supply is actually a communal supply. As I was helping Brian unload the van of the 30 gallons he picked up, several neighbors were out discussing the break. Some said they had been to the grocery store and it was cleaned out. Seeing us unload our water, some said “we may come by to borrow some if it looks like we won’t have water for awhile.” I asked the sweet, elderly lady across the street if she had enough drinking water on hand. “Oh yes, I have a bottle in the fridge”, which would clearly not be enough to sustain her for a substantial period of time. Our church leaders have often said that our personal supplies will be used to aid others. In other words, amid a great catastrophe, those prepared Mormons won’t be dining well while their neighbor starves. Today’s event was merely a blip on the disaster scale, and already I could see how true that was.

There’s nothing like a disaster to knock some sense into you. After enduring the mobs at the nearby store, at 10:45am Brian called me and said he couldn’t get much there--he was heading out of ground zero to search for more water. Fortunately, he only had to get as far as Silver Spring to find stocked shelves of water. So he loaded up. We now have a somewhat respectable supply in our basement.

We probably would have gotten around to improving our water supply eventually. And two days before Christmas is not the day we would have chosen to do it. But today’s events helped to light a fire under us. And I’m glad. I’ll sleep a little better tonight.

Ingredients for Christmas

Between having Brian gone the last week, preparing for Christmas and coming down with the stomach flu, there hasn’t been much chance to update the blog. Although I had a slow start getting into the Christmas spirit, we are in full swing and anticipating the arrival of my sister Jen and her family and my brother Drew next week.

Here is a glimpse of some of the usual Bowcut preparations:

THE TREE.
We drove to an orchard north of us to cut ours down. Selecting the perfect tree is no easy feat.

Brian and Samantha on the lookout: (I had to laugh as I saw Sam’s little head move along the trees.)

If you look closely, you'll see Brian's “WILL YOU STOP TAKING PICTURES AND START LOOKING FOR A TREE?” look:

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS.

One of the unexpected things that has emerged in my spouse over our 8 years of marriage, is Brian’s passion for hanging lights. And I’m glad. I enjoy them, but have never wanted to exert the effort or time it takes in hanging them. And it suits Brian’s competitive and perfectionist sides well. While Brian had to work hard to “keep up” in our prior neighborhood, we have found we don’t have a whole lot of competition in our new one. Although not comical at the time, Brian worked for a couple of hours to hang the strand going along the top of our house—it was bitterly cold and involved the use of the extension ladder. He climbed down, plugged them in and this was the result (even though he had tested them before).

Even the neighbors felt bad for him. However, he persisted and our house looks great—the neighbors keep commenting how we’ve raised the bar for festiveness in the neighborhood. Brian is already talking about how he can expand next year’s display.

CHOCOLATES.

This has become a family art, which is taken with a great deal of seriousness. Seriously. It generally involves 1-2 weekends of sheer dedication, women in the family often fly in for the occasion, and we work tirelessly to produce about 30 pounds of chocolates. It also requires the use of “The Machine” which tempers the chocolate and keeps it at perfect dipping temperature so that your chocolates don’t turn white. (We’ve tried to do it without the machine in the past, and it is almost impossible.) And although it doesn't do much good for our hips (or anyone else's), I love that this tradition now transcends four generations. Assuming I inherit "the machine" I plan to do this with my daughters and their daugthers.

This year, was a little interesting. My sister-in-law Janene flew in from Atlanta to join me, my Mom and Grandma for a chocolate making weekend. However, the morning we were to begin dipping, it was apparent my Grandma needed to go to the hospital for her breathing. So while my Mom and Grandma spent the day at the hospital, Janene and I did most of the dipping (my Mom hit some at the end). And believe me. It was stressful. Not only did we have a lot to do, but we knew my mother, our biggest critic, would inspect each one. Each chocolate must be evenly coated, and no skirts (extra chocolate that collects along the base).

We succeeded, and my Grandma who is the original chocolate maker, said that our chocolates “look professional”. Flavors this year included: pecan turtles, double-dipped mints, dipped toffee, fudge, caramels and nuts, and chocolate creams. I think they look beautiful. My mother, on the other hand, is conjuring up ways to make them look more uniform next year.

BAKING.

With all those chocolates, you’d think we’d have no need for baking. I still have more to do, but Ella (and friends) and I spent the week chipping away at it. I only wish I had a bigger freezer.

WARD CHRISTMAS PARTY.
The girls and I ventured over to the Christmas dinner/party on our own. Although it was very nicely done, it didn't prove to be terribly kid-friendly, except for Santa at the end. This was by far the highlight of the day for Ella, while Samantha had a violent reaction to him. Still, every kid needs a screaming picture with Santa in their childhood photo library, right?

FRIENDS.

Living in DC often brings friends to town for the holidays. Tuesday, I had an Obie day where my best-friend from college, Sara came by for a visit with her son, Mason. (He is darling and truly a Filipino version of her husband, Grant.) Sara, originally from Baltimore, is currently living in South Bend, Indiana where her husband is completing law school. She coaches high school lacrosse and watches after Mason. I keep hoping they'll move back to Maryland after school, but having married a mid-western guy, I'm afraid his roots will keep them there.

And then that evening Pam, who actually doesn't live out of town, but whom I see so rarely, came by to hang out. She brought me yummy treats and handmade earrings. I spared her from having a picture taken.

With all there is to do before Christmas, it's a wonder we have any energy left for the day itself.