What you need to bake a cake

What you need to bake a cake.....according to Maya and Max and Ruby....

FFF: Looks of Love

For Favorite Foto Friday pics from other bloggers, go to www.kissthefrog4me.blogspot.com.

Edit Note

Snackville Junction

In looking for that, I also ran across

Plush Horse

and Purple Cow.

Ahhhh, the memories!

Tyler's Tenders

Did you go a restaurant as a kid where there was a train that brought you your food? It's one of my earlier memories......the restaurant was on Cicero Avenue......I'll have to ask my Mom for more details. If I think about it for awhile, I might be able to remember the name, something Junction....

This will be Maya's train memory, Tyler's Tender! We've been there a few times and not only are there fun things for her to do, but the food is good. Waiting for the train to bring our food..... Reuben for Grandma, Burgers for Mommy and Grandpa, Hot Dog for Maya - homemade chips and ice cream for Maya.

Time to ride the train, Maya got to ride in the Engineer's seat and ring the bell :)

ANOTHER train ride -

Even a model train -

Let Freedom Ring and Hope Fill the Land

Maya and I watched the Inauguration today. So many things to celebrate! There will be disagreements with the views of every candidate, but today was a day to celebrate the amazing historical moment of our new President taking the oath of office. There are many messages of courage that this moment spoke to our children. (I'm inspired by a blog called The Simple Dollar.)

You can do anything if you follow your dream and work to achieve it. Our dreams of tomorrow do not have to be limited by the conditions of today. I am five years older than President Obama and when I consider the option of an African American or a woman becoming President, it was an unlikely dream in my youth. When I was very young, people would laugh at the idea of a female attending Notre Dame. But the circumstances changed, and by the time I was old enough, it was a reality. Thankfully, my parents did not consider the limitations of the current time when they dreamed of my future.

There are other means to success than those of people before you, there are many ways. Just because the way to achieve your dream was by a certain way in the past, doesn't mean that you must follow that same path. Don't give up a dream because it appears impossible today.

We live in a great country. To think of the way that power changes hands in our country, versus that of many others in inspiring. Our democratic systems and beliefs make our country rare and great.

And to not be too serious.....here's a picture of Maya watching the election, yes that is a bowl on her head :) Even though I dream of a wonderful future for the adult-Maya, today, she IS three years old :)

FFF: Eyes

Beauty Doubt
Delight

Superhero

Giggles

Caught!

Happiness

Peace

The theme this week of Favorite Foto Friday is Eyes......to see more bloggers' Favorite Foto's go to www.kissthefrog4me.blogspot.com

Surprised by Gran Torino

Last night, we braved the blizzard (I didn't know it was so bad. It wasn't snowing in Chesterton or Valpo when we dropped off Maya, but when we got close to the theatre in Portage, wow!), to have dinner with Bill and Dianne and see Gran Torino. Has anyone else seen it? What did you think? I was very surprised. I kind of expected a typical Clint Eastwood "shoot-em-up" with chase scenes and lots of blood. I don't want to ruin the plot surprises, but it wasn't as violent as I expected. Kind of a "kindler, gentler" Clint. I had a vague feeling of being old, if you would prefer to remember Clint as the Dirty Harry guy, this may not be the movie for you. It wasn't exactly a chick flick, but it's not a totally-guys-only movie either. I give it a thumbs up.

We originally planned to go to Cappo's, but when we got there it was closed because of the weather! We went to Buffalo Wild Wings instead - yummmmmm!

Maya had big, big fun at Grandpa and Grandma's. She's telling us all about it and how much she loves Grandma and Grandpa, awwwww. Spaghetti, her favorite dinner. Playdoh, her favorite craft. Grandma and Grandpa, her favorite favorite and her best!

more, More, MORE SNOW, you say?

This is a picture of another Guat-cutie. When I saw it as a FFF post, it reminded me of what my mom has been saying about all the cold and snowy weather we've been having.

Oprah Alert - Mark Your Calendars

Oprah Alert - Mark Your Calendars - Exercise Those Redial Fingers

The reservation line will reopen on January 14 with February dates. The reservation line will be open from 10am - 4pm CT and the phone number is 312-591-9222.

You can reserve four seats.....if you can call and have "openings", please add me and my mom! Janet Carpenter and Elizabeth Sherman.

We want to go to Oprah! We want to go to Oprah! We want to go to Oprah! We want to go to Oprah! We want to go to Oprah! We want to go to Oprah! We want to go to Oprah!

UPDATE: The date was changed to the 21st. More time to find an auto-dialer phone.

Favorite Foto Friday - COLD

Today's FFF theme is "Cold". It sure was cold today! But those awesome kid's snowsuits seem to protect them from cold, wind, wet, even provide padding if they fall down :) besides being adorable.

To see other families' FFF posts go to www.kissthefrog4me.blogspot.com ; put your feet up; sip a cup of hot chocolate with mini-marshmallows; and follow the links!


Cousin Pat is here visiting from Arizona. YES, she is very brave :) Yesterday, we went to the Christian Women's Club luncheon in Valpo - the theme was, There's No Place Like Home. The table decorations were so clever, a red shoe (new, of course, LOL), with a cute little topiary. We didn't get it at first, then someone called it a ruby slipper....ah, click Dorothy, click your heels.


Pat is originally from Northwest Indiana but hasn't been here to visit in the winter for twenty years. She's enjoying the cold weather and we're enjoying her company! Pat retired from teaching six days ago, and we're looking forward to more visits now that she won't have a busy work schedule. Congratulations on retirement, we hope you love it Pat!


We were watching old, old movies (my parent's wedding sixty years ago) and it's motivating me to finally get around to having the video tapes transferred to dvd. I just hope I won't be too late to save some film of special memories.


Speaking of special memories, UGH, I think I deleted tons and tons of videos I had taken of baby Maya. UGH!!! Picture me banging my head on the wall. I had moved my videos from my laptop to an external drive to make room on the laptop. I forgot, thought the files on the external drive were just an old backup and deleted them. UGH!!! I bought a restore program but so far it hasn't worked on the video files. I'm going to take it to a shop - I haven't lost hope but it's getting dim. UGH!!!


I finally joined Facebook. Kristin convinced me. I've heard lots of people comment on how much they love it, so I joined. It's already put me back in touch with someone I had lost contact with. How cool! If you are on Facebook, look me up, or let me know.

Vanenture Day

Being silly, pretending to be a duck (those are rubber gloves on her feet!)






Another chapter in Grandma and Grandpa Vanenture (adventure) Day!

We started at "Locks of Fun". Maya drove a Barbie Jeep, played on the playset, ate popcorn, drank a juice box, watched a little Einstein movie, got sparkles in her hair and oh, yeah, got her haircut :)

Then we stopped at home to open the (drumroll please) Harry and David COLOSSAL TOWER OF TREATS. In my crazy bargain hunting of late, I got an unbelievable deal on this and split it with Mom and Dad....oh, the yummy, yummy treats!!

On to Sears Portrait Studio for Maya's debut as a supermodel :) She did SO well (unlike our previous photography attempts). She followed the instructions of the photographer like a pro. Mommy did well too, usually I go crazy, but I was good this time and stuck to my coupon offer of 35 photos for $4.99. The photographer was so nice, she even threw in a 10 x 13 to make it 36 photos. Even with tax, it was less than six dollars.

Last stop, lunch at Applebees. Maya made a new friend, a little girl named April. They had a blast.

Zzzzzzzzz, Maya napping in the car, Zzzzzzzzzz, Grandpa napping in the car. Another successful Vanenture Day came to a close.

Meghan and Maya

We had such a nice time with Joel, Lori and Meghan on Sunday!

Good Dog, Brickie, Good Buddy

We had to say goodbye to Brickie today. Even though we knew this day was coming, it was still so hard.

Memories of our dog - our puppy - our buddy:

Brickie was born on Oct 15th 1993. He had a good long life, 15 years is a long time for a lhasa apso to live.

Wayne and I had lost two of our pets, fairly close together, my cat Kecia and his dog Muffin. We still had little Fred left, but we were pretty devasted. We called our good friend Mary Ann, who played volleyball with us for years, and is an amazing veterinarian. She referred us to a breeder. As with many of the things in our life, Brickie was "as is", we used to joke. He was born to be a show dog but had a physical defect that prohibited him from being shown. His breeder had kept him for six months hoping that it would correct itself but it didn't so she had to sell him "on sale" :) Actually, I always thought God had him waiting for us to be ready for him. The breeder told us that we had to immediately establish that we were "the boss" with a lhasa or he would rule our lives. LOL You know how that ended up :)

His name was Jelly Bean, but we changed it to "Brickie". Wayne's high school mascot is a "Brickie", they chant, "All my life I wanted to be a Brickie, etc". That's where the name came from.

It was love at first sight for us. When we first got Brickie, Wayne carried him everywhere! I thought Brickie might forget how to walk.

I would tell my Mom that we were making this accomodation or that, for Brickie and she would say "You are the master, he is the dog." Well, eventually she came to understand, years later when Brickie became her dog. He was pretty pursuasive.

Brickie loved to go camping. We took him on all our camping trips and he was a great camping buddy. He would go for early morning walks with me to see the deer at dawn. He would sit around the campfire with Wayne. Just a good dog, our Brickie.

When Maya came home, we had a dilemma. He was a bit grumpy and we didn't want him around the baby. I remember he would be very jealous when we had company, especially children. Grandma and Grandpa agreed to come to our rescue! They took Brickie to live with them.

Brickie and Grandma bonded immediately. She gave him toast in the morning. Shared her banana. She gave him his beloved "chewies". Took him for SO many walks. He followed her everywhere and loved her dearly. We were afraid at first that he would be sad to leave Wayne and I but nope, he knew what paradise was like at grandma's house.

Goodbye, Brickie, we hope you are healthy and running in heaven with all the treats and chewies you can eat - we will see you again one day.

Beauty of Nature

We never tire of seeing the deer in our backyard.