A Princess and a Frog

I was looking through some of our older pictures the other day, from back before digital cameras.  Yes, these were old fashion prints. I was scanning a bunch of these old prints so I could use them online.  These were from a time when we found a big old frog hopping around outside our back door.

We used to occasionally find frogs in the yard but this one was one of the bigger ones.  It was evening and the little kids were pretty much ready for bed.  I had gone outside for something and seen the frog so I brought it in to show the kids.  I thought it would be interesting to see how they would react.  The only one still up and around was our little girl, Maulbeere.  She was just over two years old.

Her reaction was interesting.  She didn't seem afraid of the frog at all, but did need to work up a little courage to touch it. So her Mom held the frog and let Maulbeere get familiar with it. Then, after a few minutes her Mom offered to let her hold it.  She was willing to do that.  And then it was soooo cool - she was holding it.  "Oooooh, look what I have!"

Little kids are so fun!

a Bit of a Challenge

 Yesterday Stachelbeere and I drove up to where Himbeere has been living the last almost a year because Himbeere had decided he wanted to move back into the area.  He actually will be living with us for a bit while he finds work and gets enough income coming in that he can move into his own place.  He has a friend lined up that he will room with but he needs to get working before he can do that.  So anyway, he didn't have a lot of stuff that needed to be moved but there were a few things. Some of them pretty good sized.  Like his rear-projection big screen TV that he found on eBay for free a while ago.
So they brought most of his little stuff down and threw it in the car and then brought the TV down.  There was a lot of debate about whether or not it was going to fit.  We really wanted it in the van so that it could have the smoothest ride.  If it didn't fit in the van it would have had to go in the bed of his big truck, out in the elements and bouncing around on the trailer as we drove home.  Not our first choice. So we brought it out to the van, set it by the van and stewed about it a bit and then shoved it in.  It was tight but it did fit. Unfortunately, it took up so much space that none of the other stuff we wanted in the van with it would fit. Oh, well.

After we had the TV loaded Himbeere decided he wanted to tackle the next item, his F150 truck.  This truck doesn't run.  It's been parked for months. He had put a charger on it to see if the battery would hold a charge, and it did.  But the truck still has clutch issues so even if fully charged he couldn't have driven it home.  Himeere had borrowed a big trailer from a friend to haul the truck home on.
The challenge was getting this big truck, that didn't run enough to just drive it onto the trailer, up onto the trailer.  Fortunately, the place he's been living at has a nice hill conveniently located where we could use it to help get the truck onto the trailer.  So using a friend's truck, Himbeere pulled his truck out and up the hill above the trailer.  Then he carefully lined it up to the trailer.  That took a couple of tries and some jockeying around to get it just right.
Once they had it in position they unhooked the truck and a bunch of them shoved it up onto the trailer. Because of the hill that wasn't as bad, as much work as it sounds.  It actually didn't need a whole lot of help, in fact, at one point the bunch of them were pulling back, trying to slow it down a little as it rolled up onto the trailer (yes, there was someone inside the truck steering it along the way).
After they got the truck on the trailer they secured it down good and then it was all ready to go.  We threw the rest of his stuff on, some in the back of Himeere's SUV and some in the bed of the truck, up on the trailer.  Fortunately it was a clear day, a little overcast but not raining or snowing.  So the stuff in the truck bed wasn't exposed to any bad weather. He had four big items to move; his truck, a bed, a dresser, and a big, over-stuffed chair. Alas, we ran out of room before the chair made it on anywhere and it got left behind.  Easy come, easy go.  It hadn't cost him anything so he didn't seem to mind leaving it for the others that had been boarding in the same building he's been living in these several months.
The down side to moving was that, while the trailer had followed well and done just fine on the trip up, now that it was fully loaded and much heavier, when Himeere got out on the freeway with it he found that he had to keep it under 45 mph to keep the trailer under control.  That was not good news.  Even after we stopped and brought the tire pressure up to where it belonged for all the trailer tires he still wasn't able to go any faster.  So the trip that had taken only three hours to get there took a little over five to get back.  Between going slower and not wanting to be on the freeway (and therefore taking other roads) it was a long, long drive back. But we made it and the deed is done now.  And the happiest part of the whole deal is that the truck that doesn't run isn't going to be littering my driveway.  He has a friend that is letting him store it at his place while he decides what he's going to do with it.

Aaaaaaannd A Wedding!

Preparation begins in advance.  Sewing, among other things.  Maulbeere was engaged and getting married and we wanted to help pull it off and celebrate with her!  She found a dress she liked but, as often is the case, it needed just a little help to be just right. So her Mom sewed a bolero jacket to wear with it.

 There was also a cake to be made.  Much as she finds it challenging to do the cake, Heidlebeere is good at wedding cakes.  It starts small, with the ingredients coming together.  This time there were pearls and, as usual, lots of frosting. Bring it all together and you have the makings of a pretty nice wedding cake.

 Then you introduce the master.

This was all prepared ahead of time, and at a more convenient location than where the wedding was to take place.  So the cake was frosted up but left unassembled.  Then it was boxed up and hauled 140 miles to the church, along with all the other stuff to make a proper wedding celebration. To do it up right it takes a few things.  But it was all there.

Then you begin putting it all together.  In this case, that involved getting some helpers to blow up balloons for decorations.

Lots of balloons.

 LOTS of balloons.  Some helpers were of more help than others. 

 Once all the balloons were filled then they had to be put in place.

When they were all up the table was readied for the food to be brought out after the ceremony.

 The happy couple had made another "non-traditional" choice for cake toppers.  Hey, they liked them and that was what was important.

 The aisle was prepared for the traditional wedding march. 

 A little last minute preparation, advise and counsel, and confidence building, and things were ready to get moving! 

And then, suddenly, it was done! 

And then the celebrating.  This was one happy wedding couple!

And dancing.  There was dancing.  The groom pushed the bride to learn some new dance steps and she had fun!  All in all, it was a very nice wedding.  A very nice time.  These are the high points of life, when family comes together to celebrate happy things with one another.  And this was one of those.  One of the things that would have made it even better would have been if more of the family could have been there.  But the distance and the timing made that hard. But as it was, there was plenty of people there to celebrate the creation of a new family and wish the happy couple all the best as they start out on their own. Good times!

Merry Christmas!

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.  

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.  And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.  And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. 

And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.  And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

Luke 2:8-18

There was no little drummer boy at Bethlehem that night.

The animals did not know how to talk.

The wise men didn’t make it on time to see that sight.

But shepherds, ah yes,

Were out upon the hill ‘neath starry sky.

To them the angels came with message rare –

Glad Tidings of Great Joy … to shepherds.

A man who tends a flock of sheep by day,

Watching over them all through the night,

Searching for the one that’s gone astray

Until again the lost one’s in his sight;

Who leads his followers to pastures sweet

And keeps them safe from perils they can’t see –

This kind of man, this kind was first to see

The King of Kings. They knew that it was He.

Why shepherds?

Why were they the first to view the babe?

Because, He was a shepherd, too.

Teresa Bateman

A Wedding in Our Family!

As I was sitting down this evening to do a little blogging it occurred to me that I was noting that Maulbeere got engaged, which happened earlier this week, without ever having posted about Schwartzbeere's wedding, which happened last August.  I am remiss. Forthwith let me fix that.

 I like to take pictures.  I like to take pictures a lot.  So I do. As you can well imagine, at an event like a wedding, an event that usually takes up a large portion of the day, a lot of pictures are taken.  The hard part becomes paring them all down to pick a few to post and share.

 This wedding was a little different from any other that has happened in our family in the past.  A few wedding traditions were observed.  So the bride got to take the walk down the aisle. And what's more, she was accompanied not just by her father but by her father and her mother both.  I thought that was nice, a nice recognition of two people who have been important in her life up to that point.

Another fun thing that has developed in our family is that we have a cake expert or two in the group.  So Heidlebeere was in charge of the cake.  She did the engineering, though she did have a bit of help from several people, including her oldest.  What a team.

Schwartzbeere and his bride picked the figurines that went on top of the cake.  Initially the plan had been to not have any figurines on top.  But the day of the wedding they were in a store and saw these and decided they would be perfect.  So that's what ended up on the cake.

 The cake, when it was done, turned out really well.  It looked near perfect.  That was quite the trick considering it was baked and decorated to about 85% done and then packed up and transported 70 miles to where the wedding was held.  Then it was carefully unpacked and assembled.  When the finishing touches had been added it looked real nice.  More on that later.

Lots of family, lots of pictures.  The bride's family welcoming the new groom into his family. The grooms family welcoming the new bride into her new family. Two families coming together to celebrate a new family getting started. Certainly a time for celebration. That's what its all about.  Maybe that's one reason the Lord, in the scriptures, speaks of time passing and life going on as "marrying and giving in marriage."  It is the cycle of life.

Now every wedding has its memorable moment.  Some more humorous, some less so.  Some that take a while to be able to laugh at, some that are instantly hilarious.  I'll let you decide where this one fits into that continuum. After the cake was all decorated and on display, looking absolutely perfect, the room got warm.  Warm room and cake icing don't always play together nicely.  And so it was that the icing warmed up and softened up and something I've never seen happen at a wedding took place. The top two tiers of cake slid off of the bottom tier.  Yup.  It really happened.  And you'll notice in the picture that batman and the princess survived the ride quite nicely.  So what to do you?  You paste it back together as best you can and the wedding went on.  And the nice thing was that, other than Heidlebeere being a bit mortified, everyone took it quite well.  And at the end of the day, it was a good day to be alive and together.

Christmas Cookies!

Yesterday we went over to Blaubeere's house to watch her kids while she and her husband went out to a Christmas play nearby.  We decided a fun way to pass the time would be to do cookies so Brombeere made up some cookie dough before hand and we took it and all the stuff we needed to decorate them with us. We also took a few cookie cutters, Christmas shapes; a star, a Christmas sock, a snowman, a gingerbread man and a Christmas tree. Fun.  Sugar cookies are pretty much my favorite kind of cookie and so far this year I haven't had much opportunity to have any so that's what we decided to make.  

So the grandkids got to help roll out the dough and cut out the cookies.We worked at the kitchen table and everybody got to practice taking turns.  

When the kids saw the few shapes we had brought they decided that wasn't enough to work with so they went and got some of their own cookie cutters.  Never mind that they weren't particularly Christmas shapes.  That was okay.  So we had fish, kangaroos, dolphins, teddy bears, cows, a blue ribbon (which I thought could have passed as the Christmas star if you used a little imagination) and a rhinoceros.

We didn't want to make a whole ton of cookies because, after all, what can you do with cookies but eat them and who needs all those calories?  But we still ended up with probably just over two dozen cookies.  We didn't actually count them.  Ah, well.

We took the stuff to make frosting.  We also took sprinkles put on the cookies. The original plan had been to make several different colors of frosting but when it came time to actually make it we forgot to separate it out before adding the coloring so we ended up with only three colors, red, white and blue.  How patriotic.  But that's a different holiday.

 Brombeere had a real good idea for the frosting.  She put it in squeeze bottles and let the kids put it on that way.  She's smart that way, maybe it was a trick she learned from teaching kindergarten and working with little kids a lot. I have actually never frosted cookies that way but it worked pretty good.  You have to make the frosting just a little thinner to do that but it worked quite well.  We got the blue a little thick at first but once we added a little milk to it to thin it out it was good as the other colors.

 So everybody frosted, sprinkled, frosted, sprinkled and we all ate a few, too.  Some ate more than others, some struggled with the idea that we weren't going to eat them all, some just ate decorations and not much in the way of cookies.  But when we were all done everyone had fun and we ended up with some fun cookies, too!

 This is one I frosted.  Turned out pretty good, I think. It was a fun time.

A Fun Week

This has been Thanksgiving week so we have had some of the kids home to visit for the holidays.  That's always a very nice thing.  We like that. Especially when there's grandbabies involved.

Erdbeere and her family came. They brought their cute little boy. He's so fun right now.  He's getting so he can talk pretty good, We have a big tub of toys we keep for the grandkids when they come.  He was quite taken with the dump trucks.

We got a rousing card game going, that was fun.  We might have to get that one for ourselves for Christmas or something.  The one we're playing with right now is borrowed from a friend.  Its called Spite and Malice and its pretty fun.  Simple enough that even I enjoy playing it.

Maulbeere is still here, she's been staying with us for several months.  Unfortunately she is planning heading back to her sister's place in a few days.  Stachelbeere will drive out with her and fly back. We will sure miss her when she's gone.


Schwartzbeere and his new wife stopped by for an overnight visit, too.  Its always nice to see them.  Our newlyweds.

No slight to the kids but I have to admit the funnest part of having kids visit is the grandkids they bring. And Townsend is at just that perfect age where he can play, interact, express his desires and speak his mind.  He's a sweetie.

Sadness - in a few days the holidays will be over, Erdbeere and her family will have gone home, Maulbeere and Stachelbeere will be gone and it will be just me and Brombeere rattling around in our house alone. Even if only for just a few days until Stachelbeere gets back it will be strangely quite. We'll miss them all.  Happiness - Christmas is coming fast and there will be more visits!