The Smileys

Matilda’s Birth Story

2012-01-01T23:14:00.001-05:00

I can’t believe that it has been over five months since Matilda was born. I wanted to put it all down in writing so that the memories would not leave us.
Even though it was my second time around, I was a bit anxious while we headed to the hospital. We took a minute before we headed out the door to take a few last belly shots.   Since my experience with Eliza’s birth was so great, I worried that it couldn’t go that well again. This time around I had been having contractions for three weeks and was still only one centimeter and 50% effaced.   My doctor said that some women just don’t go into full labor on their own and I might be one of them.   So, Thursday evening, July 21st, Kirk and I checked into the hospital and after all the paper work, getting an IV, and getting hooked up to the monitor, we saw that I was having contractions about every 7 minutes. The cirvadil was placed at 5:45pm, and at this stage with Eliza I went into labor on my own within two hours. I was hoping that this would happen again once I got some dinner! They wanted to monitor me for two hours before I could eat and I was really hungry after only being able to have a light lunch. Two hours later I was still at the same place with the contractions not getting closer or stronger so I called room service and ate.
After a night of little sleep (and in a bed that has countless positions you would think that I could find one that was comfortable) I was getting frustrated with the lack of progress. I was checked again at 5:40 AM on Friday the 22nd, and I was 3 centimeters and 75% effaced. At 6:40 AM I was given pitocin to get contractions that were closer together, stronger, and in a more regular pattern. Nothing really changed though, and since the pitocin was through a drip they upped it a few times. Around 8:00 AM we talked with the nurse about Kirk leaving for a while to go home and take Otis outside. The nurse said that nothing would be happening and that would be fine. I remember being in the room alone and feeling some strong contractions start. I paged the nurse during the second round, and within two minutes they were really painful and there nurse still wasn’t there. I started crying at some point because everyone had left! Right about then the nurses came in and checked me again. I was somewhere around 5 centimeters and they decided to call my doctor to get the epidural started. The next twenty minutes were long, and I was having the most painful contractions. Some of them were back-to-back but then there would be a long break in between.   I asked the nurse to call Kirk so he could get back as soon as possible. She was kind enough to talk to him since I knew that I would just start crying and he wouldn’t be able to understand me anyway.
By 9:00 AM the epidural was placed and Kirk walked in near the end of it. I was able to hug one of the nurses until he got there and I was so thankful for her. The epidural helped but I continued to feel pain (beyond normal discomfort). At 10 AM while watching the Today show my water broke. I was checked at 10:10 AM and I was 8 centimeters. My contractions were still uncomfortable and they never got into a pattern until the very end. The nurse said that some women don’t have consistent contractions but the body still knows what it is doing, and I was still making progress. By 10:50 AM my contractions were getting very uncomfortable. My doctor was there and she asked if I would like to push or sit in an upright position for a while since the baby was still a bit high and needed to come down. The same thing happened with Eliza and I sat for 30 minutes and let her drop, but this time around we all thought that pushing gave me something to do through the pain. The anesthesiologist came back in at some point and upped my epidural because the pain was still really bad on my right side. With Eliza I couldn’t feel anything, but this time around some areas were completely numb and others not very numb at all! Pushing was much more painful then it had been previously as well. Kirk said my face got redder and I don’t think I opened my eyes much. After nine long pushing cycles Matilda was born at 11:33 AM!   She was perfect and weighed 6 lbs. 13 oz. and was 20.25 inches long.

The pain was definitely worse this time around but I feel like since her birth most things have been easier than with Eliza. My recovery was much less painful, and at the hospital I didn’t need as much medication and that made a huge difference in being able to feel more like myself. I brought two of my own hospital gowns with me, and that helped me not feel so sick (and if you had seen the nasty hospital gown that was provided for me you would have felt the same way)! It was just so much more comforting knowing what to expect your second time around. We also felt like we had a date night at the hospital the night of my induction, since we were able to watch a bunch of movies for my entire stay. A friend told me right before we checked in that she always loved her time at the hospital and I remember thinking that it was an odd statement, but now I totally agree! I loved just being with Kirk and Matilda and not feeling guilty to start splitting my time between two kids immediately. I knew that once we got home things would change.
Eliza came to visit us the evening after Matilda was born. We had some other friends in the room when she got there with Papa and Gram. I could hear her outside the room calling “Mommy,” but as soon as she walked into the room she said, “Where is my baby sister?” It was so cute but unfortunately everything happened so fast that we didn’t get the video camera out in time. Eliza loved Matilda immediately and those moments will be a sweet memory. It made coming home exciting for Kirk and I. I wanted nothing more then to get back into our own schedule with our new little addition! In the end Matilda has her own birth story that is different from Eliza but I feel so blessed to have had two healthy deliveries, my doctor to be able to be at both, and for Kirk and his support through it all.

For a family picture I had packed outfits that were coordinating for Matilda and Eliza, but I didn’t end up using what I had packed because we all matched anyway! My mom dressed Eliza and the nursery had to dress Matilda after she spit up during her hearing test in one of their gowns. Kirk was on his own, so it was kind of crazy that we all matched!

Matilda in the puffy hat that Eliza wore home from the hospital. There is a big difference between April and July temperatures in Indiana. Matilda had 100 degree weather for the first few weeks of her life so this hat only stayed on for a minute.

Going home…splendid!

Still Around

2011-11-13T23:39:00.001-05:00

We are still here and doing well. I can keep food on the table, the house clean, and laundry put away, but that doesn’t leave much time for blogging. I’ve kept up pretty well on pictures of the girls (I’m trying not to let Matilda feel like the second child), so we have a lot of catching up to do with new posts. Hang in there with us!

Having Fun at Work

2011-09-19T00:25:00.002-04:00

My most recent trip to New York turned out to be a bit disappointing. Sure, I had a fantastic time with my colleagues, ate great food, and (most importantly) got some important work done to provide support for high poverty schools across the nation. But the let down was all weather-related. I had planned to attend the US Open with friends from work one night, but for both full days I was in NYC, rain caused all matches to be completely cancelled. No Federer, Nadal, or Djokovic for me (heck, I would have been happy just for a Roddick or Fish!), so hopefully I’ll get another chance next year to see my second of the four major tournaments (remember my post about the French Open last summer?).

The previous week I was in Dallas for a satellite media tour kicking off our Limeades for Learning partnership with SONIC Drive-In. The tour included filming 25 (mostly live) TV and radio interviews in a 6 hour span for news stations across the country. I wasn't a big fan of the 4:30am call time, but it was a great experience (no, I'm not linking to any video footage, but if you Google hard enough you can find it). The extra perks of being in Dallas meant seeing one of my former colleagues and hanging out, an amazing dinner at Tom Colicchio's Craft (sorry, their main site is down), and delicious lunch at the Meddlesome Moth.

To top it all off, two of my colleagues were in town last week for a conference and invited me out on the town for their festivities. It’s nice to see an Indianapolis company put on a great show to impress its attendees and clients (mostly coming from the coasts). The first night was a fantastic gala at the Eiteljorg Museum, complete with delicious food and drink. The second night featured special VIP passes to the Katy Perry concert and a post-concert private midnight concert by Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears.

Not being a big fan of pop music, I honestly didn’t know too much about Katy Perry other than she’s married to hilarious comedian/actor. I definitely recognized a handful of her songs and expected a show with high production value and lots of young screaming girls. Both were definitely in full effect, and fortunately the conference had prepared a great pre-concert setup on the Pacer’s practice court (complete with twenty-foot elevated DJ) so that we could hang out somewhere a little more “our age” before the show started (no idea who the opening act was, but I doubt we missed much). For a 30-year-old, the concert was hilarious – I seriously had so much fun being ridiculous and sporting the light-up sunglasses they gave us to wear. What bothered me was how inappropriate Perry’s songs were for such a young audience. There were lots of pre-teens/tweens there (accompanied by a begrudging parent, of course), and the song lyrics, gesturing, and even spoken audience banter were far too mature. Just chalk up another reason to lock Eliza and Matilda in the house once they turn 14 (or sooner? :).

The after-concert concert (confusing, yes) was at the Indiana Roof Ballroom (my first time there), and was an even better show. If you’ve never heard of Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears, go check them out right now. I’ll wait. … Awesome, right? A great rock/blues/jam band complete with a baritone and tenor saxophone and trumpet. It was a lot more fun to be right in front of the band, too, and later that night between sets I snuck backstage to meet them all, and they were happy to chat.

Thanks to my awesome colleagues for setting me up with passes to these events. We had a lot of fun, and it was great to see them enjoy Indianapolis!

Welcome Home

2011-08-14T23:59:00.001-04:00

After a fantastic two week paternity leave, it was time to head to New York for the first time since Matilda was born. Lynne handled both kids like a champ, and I was so excited to get home to see my girls. I was only gone 3 1/2 days, but the garden also welcomed me back with lots of surprises.

Not pictured – more and more raspberries (yum!) as well as a few cantaloupes growing from seeds that were in our compost!)

In New York, I was able to spend some great time with my team, have productive meetings, and enjoy good eats:

Momofuku Noodle Bar – decent ramen, but amazing pork and shrimp buns
Red Hook Lobster Truck – not cheap, but the most delicious thing I ate on the trip were their lobster rolls (both the Maine and Connecticut style)
Asiadog – hot dogs with a variety of tasty Asian toppings, the Sidney was the best (I hit up a lot of food trucks this trip)
Bon Chon Chicken – still the best wings and fried chicken I’ve ever had (as well as scallion pancakes, zucchini fries, and fried tofu
Kickball in Central Park! – we lost (DC.org went winless this summer), but it was so much fun and made me feel like a local
Great New York beers, including
- Brooklyn Brewery’s Highline Elevated Wheat (made exclusively for The Lot)
- Captain Lawrence Liquid Gold
- Ommegang Rare Vos
- Southern Tier Crème Brûlée Imperial Stout

Sisters

2011-08-10T23:09:00.001-04:00

Introducing Matilda Edith Smiley!

2011-07-31T13:12:00.001-04:00

On Friday, July 22, Matilda Edith Smiley was born at 11:33am. She weighed 6 pounds, 13 ounces (the same size as Eliza) and was 20.25 inches long. It has been so wonderful finally getting to meet her and having her home with us. Eliza’s thrilled to be a big sister, and we love our two little girls.

Time to Cook

2011-07-31T10:10:00.001-04:00

As Lynne shared previously, she was able to spend some time before the baby’s arrival making a bunch of meals we could freeze. Having two weeks of paternity leave also freed up my time to watch Eliza, work in the basement, and get back in the kitchen, too. Below are some fun dishes I was able to make this week using up some of our vegetables from the garden. If you don’t keep up with the high yields, you end up wasting produce, and no one likes that!

Lamb pitas with Greek salad

Since we had a lot of cucumbers and cherry tomatoes ready to eat in the garden so I found this great recipe for a Greek salad (I love recipes that have a “100% would make again” score!). Of course, some delicious veggies in a pita weren’t going to make a filling meal, so I thought it would be nice to add some lamb. I found this recipe for some lamb patties to add to the pitas, using a bunch of spices my parents brought us from Turkey. We tweaked the recipe using Turkish coriander, cumin, and oregano, as well as mint from the garden (and nixed some things like the allspice and the sauce), and the patties turned out delicious and crispy (ala falafel).

This may be one of my favorite meals I’ve had at home recently, since it’s definitely something I’d order at the local Mediterranean sandwich shop. I was also really excited to use the cherry tomatoes, since they are growing so well and I didn’t even plant them this year. Last year I had tried planting some cherry tomatoes from seed (and two years ago I had tried planting some Roma tomatoes from seed), and neither ever took until this year they all started growing randomly in different areas of my garden!

Tilapia with mango salsa and roasted beet salad with oranges

As I mentioned before, Lynne asked me to grow beets in the garden this year. She enjoys them but I have bad childhood memories of disgusting sickly-smelling canned beets. Well, they grew very easily and now we have lots of beets to eat! I knew I had to find a recipe that got me excited, or else I wouldn’t want to try them again. I found a roasted beet salad that featured oranges and made use of the beet greens (they’re kind of like chard).

Overall, I was pretty happy with it. The oil and vinegar took away some of that “beet smell” that I didn’t find appetizing and left them a bit sweet and sour, and the oranges were a very nice touch.

My parents’ neighbors brought them some large mangoes from Miami, which they were kind enough to share with us, so why not make some mango salsa? These were hands down the best mangoes I’ve ever eaten in this country (almost as good as Thailand!). I also added some mint to the salsa, which I think made it even better. If you like your sweets spicy, you could also add some minced jalapenos or cayenne. The salsa went great with some simple grilled tilapia.

Homemade quiche with kale, onions, and toasted garlic

We’ve eaten a lot of Lynne’s delicious homemade quiche (the best crust in the world! Just ask Eliza), and since we have a plethora of kale in the garden (that didn’t make it into the quiche), I figured the two would go well together. I simply sautéed the kale with some onions, but the fancy touch (and bit of a mistake-turned-awesome) is the toasted garlic.

Corn – Raw(r)!

This one definitely doesn’t qualify as a recipe or anything I cooked. The garden is full of corn, and on a whim I decided to pick a smaller ear for Eliza, since she loves eating corn on the cob. Since the kernels were a bit smaller, we both enjoyed it raw about 30 seconds after it had been picked. This was amazing! I had never eaten corn on the cob that wasn’t boiled, grilled, or microwaved, but it was even better fresh and raw. I’m not sure if store-bought corn would taste the same uncooked, but now it’s the only way we’ve been eating it, big and little ears alike – talk about easy!

The Day is Here!

2011-07-20T08:51:00.001-04:00

The due date is here, that is. We will be induced Thursday at 4:30pm and my doctor, who has been on maternity leave, is coming in early to do the delivery! I am really excited about having my normal doctor there, and it has made it easier to wait this long. I have a few more things to clean and some laundry to put away but we’ve had plenty of extra time to prepare.

On Sunday Kirk took some pictures of Eliza and me. I haven’t been too keen to jump in front of the camera, but I figured it was time to document the last days of the pregnancy. As I look back I will recall my cravings of Mexican food, fruit, and canned green beans (and when I say Mexican food I mean the authentic stuff, which I would have eaten every night if Kirk had let me). It has also been different mentally preparing for a second child. There is not as much time to dream and think on the newest addition because I’m plenty busy with Eliza. I have a joy-filled heart and am excited to meet Eliza’s baby sister.

I hope she’s ready for what’s coming!

Garden Update

2011-07-18T11:15:00.001-04:00

I’ve been remiss in blogging about the garden this summer. Spending most of my free time working on the basement doesn’t mean that we’re still not enjoying a bountiful harvest!

So far this year we’ve enjoyed the following produce (and so have many of our friends, family, and coworkers since we’re constantly giving our overabundance away!):

Spinach – always the first thing to go once the summer heat arrives, we used in a variety of salads and then harvested the remainder for a large batch of creamed spinach

Radishes – hundreds of radishes have been devoured plain, dipped in ranch, on salads, or pickled (with rice wine vinegar, coriander seed, and black peppercorns – try it!). Some are still pickling now!

Green beans – we had a lot and enjoyed them with a homemade Thai curry, a great recipe my Aunt introduced us to, and pickled

Kale – sautéed and simple, but there’s so much left and it would be great in some potato or miso soup I think

Peas – We had a lot of peas, and Eliza ate almost all of them – raw. I don’t know what she liked more, eating them or opening the pea pods and trying to get them out. Just wait until she meets her first crab leg!

Cucumbers – it took them a lot longer this year, but the cucumbers are finally ripe. We’ve been dipping them in ranch and pickling them in the same concoction used for the radishes, and maybe we’ll try this simple recipe.

Chard – three different types, all just as delicious, sautéed with onions or garlic, and for one batch I added some leftover ground breakfast sausage – the perfect one bowl meal

Lettuce – we went overboard again and have been eating about 9 different kinds of lettuce (including Bibb, one of Lynne’s favorites) and spicy arugula

Green onion – last year’s remainders made it through the winter and got more than four times the size of your store-bought green onions, went to seed, and still taste great!

Herbs – cilantro galore (planted via last year’s seeds), dill, basil, parsley, mint (one of my coworkers even made awesome mint-iced brownies when I took some of the harvest to our New York office)

Raspberries – the best fruit in the world, and it’s nice having a couple handfuls of berries every two or three days – although Eliza will eat them as fast as Kobayashi if you let her

Things that are almost ready to pick/eat:

Cabbage – we have lots of loose green cabbage to pick, but I still have no idea what to do with it – recommendations?

Carrots – guessing from how long my other plants develop their root systems, and the fact that these bad boys still aren’t ready, I’m guessing they are going to be ridiculously long carrots

Beets – we picked one and have a dozen more ready to go. I’m not a fan, but Lynne is, and she says that fresh homegrown beets will convert me…we’ll see!

Tomatoes – we planted three different kinds this year (yellow, pink, colorful heirloom), and they’re doing well, but not quite ready yet. To my surprise I also had dozens of new plants spring up from some red tomato seeds I planted last year that never took

Peppers – also way behind this year, I think only two plants made it :(

Things that need a bit longer:

Corn – growing well though!

Okra – I won’t be experiencing any record yields like last year. The wet June really slowed down the growth, and I’d just be happy to get any okra by August this year

Fennel – year two of the experiment, only one plant grew (just like last year) and it’s not looking very full

Leeks – my wild tomatoes overtook them, so it’s hard to see if they’re even there at all

While this picture only showcases a section of the garden in the background, it’s way more entertaining than staring at vegetables and leaves!

Stocking Up

2011-07-11T15:54:00.001-04:00

I wanted to stock up the freezer with some meals to reheat once the baby arrives. After the false alarm on the 4th it got me antsy to get this checked off my to-do-list! This project would not have been possible without the help of my mom. We spent all day (literally 10 hours!) getting all this cooked up. We doubled and sometimes tripled the recipes so that my mom and I could split up what we prepared. It was so much more fun doing this with someone else. We talked about maybe doing this once a month so that our freezer could always be stocked with some quick meals so that there would be less of a need to go to the store or pick up other food. Eliza was also amazing all day and kept herself occupied while we cooked, which was such a big help.

Throughout the day the phrase “I have never cooked/cut this much before!” was said quite often. The large amounts were a bit crazy especially the four packs of bacon that we had to cook up! In all we made 6 quiches (with bacon, mushrooms, spinach, etc.), 2 sausage/egg casseroles, 3 lasagnas, 12 twice baked potatoes, and one batch of Rice Krispies treats.

Freeze Rice Krispies treats you say? No, these were just made for us to eat now and they are almost gone already.

Fourth of July with a Bang

2011-07-11T15:30:00.001-04:00

Since I was 38 weeks pregnant we stayed in town this 4th of July. We headed over to Kevin and Tammy’s for their annual firework extravaganza. Kirk and Papa had been setting off some smaller fireworks for Eliza over the previous weeks so that she was somewhat prepared for what was to come. There are so many fireworks to set off that our family can’t even wait for it to get dark.

I have had contractions (ugh) for the past few weeks. I normally have about three an hour, but it can vary a lot. While enjoying the fireworks I noticed that they were coming more and getting a bit more uncomfortable. After waiting a while they didn’t seem to be changing so I timed them to be about 5 minutes apart. After getting Eliza home with Gram we headed to the hospital to see if anything was going on. They watched the contractions for a while and saw them start to taper off so we were sent home and told it would be “soon.” Seven days later we are still waiting.

Eliza loved the fireworks that dropped the “parachute men”

The infamous Value Jet, an annual tradition of strapping fireworks to a glider for repeated launches until it breaks/melts

Hot Enough to Boil Shrimp

2011-07-10T23:27:00.001-04:00

Last weekend our friends hosted their second annual shrimp boil. It was a warm night with hot food, but it was oh so delicious! Eliza spent the night with her Gram and Papa so Kirk and I enjoyed a night out together (which may be our last for a while). Shrimp, corn, Andouille sausage, potatoes, onions, lots of Old Bay, and Bell’s Oberon – hard to top!

There’s nothing like eating off of paper with only your fingers!

Grilled peaches and ice cream for dessert.

Tony found some paper lanterns at a fireworks store and we sent one off. It was beautiful to see it go up at night, and amazing how far away you can see the flame.

We took a picture of our house church before the two new members arrive. Laura went into labor four days after this was taken with their son Riley. We hope that we can join the club in the next few days! We were also excited to celebrate Tony and Meredith getting engaged!

Daddy’s Oldest Daughter

2011-07-10T22:32:00.001-04:00

They look alike don’t you think?

Photos taken during our 4th of July festivities.

Hoping that Daddy’s youngest daughter makes her appearance soon!

Trying to Get Things Done

2011-06-27T16:22:00.001-04:00

Here is what happened when I was trying to get the house under control for baby sister to come!

My jewelry box was invaded!

Father’s Day

2011-06-27T13:56:00.001-04:00

Kirk spent Father’s Day working down in the basement, but he took a few days off this last week and we had one day playing all together. We called this his Father’s Day. Normally Kirk doesn’t get to go to the Children’s Museum with us so we packed up and went for a few hours. Eliza loved showing daddy all that she has found in her exploration at the museum in the past few months. There were also some things that Eliza hasn’t been able to do because of my belly like crawl through a cave, so we put those on the to-see-list for the day as well! Later in the day there was a nap involved for the whole family and then we finished it all off with Waffle Cone Wednesday at TCBY. Thank you for all you do for us! We love you and Happy Father’s Day, everyday!

We loved the new exhibit Treasures of the Earth which is were all these pictures were taken.

A Van with a Plan

2011-06-24T22:37:00.001-04:00

We are now officially minivan owners. Bring on the baby!

Eliza calls it “Eliza’s new van” and wants to play in it everyday. Thankfully she doesn’t know it has a DVD player yet, but she gets plenty of entertainment out of pushing the button to open and close the side doors and pretending to drive. We’re pretty excited about the extra space, clean interior, low miles, and four stow-and-go seats (which have already come in handy hauling flooring).

Anyone want to buy a 2000 Buick Century? It’ll be a bit sad to see her go.

Outdoor Fun

2011-06-24T22:15:00.002-04:00

This summer has been great fun with Eliza. She wants to go outside all the time and play no matter the heat or rain. It may not bother her right now but it is killing me! I may not always love soaking up the sun, but I have been trying to soak up all the one-on-one time with Eliza this last month that I can. I remember asking my parents for years for a baby brother or sister, so I find that I have more excitement about giving Eliza a sister then I have guilt about taking something (me!) away from her. Eliza says that she wants baby sister to come out and seems very excited (as are we)! She picked out a little blanket that is similar to her “lambie” to give to baby sister at the hospital. I pray that the transition will go well and that Eliza (and we) are prepared for the changes that are quickly to come!

It has been hard to get Eliza to look at the camera and smile, but I found that if I ask her to count to ten for me I can get a long look.

A few things that Eliza loves to do outside right now are water the flowers and garden, pick food from the garden, play with the hose, and play with bubbles. This week I got a few pictures of our bubble time. She has more fun pushing the button on the bubble machine than she does with the bubbles.

Eliza was very helpful when I planted the flowers this summer, and that was handy as it’s been harder and harder to bend down!

We’ve been playing with Jack and Brody from across the street a lot. Last week we went to a local city park that has a water area. Once Eliza warmed up to getting wet she had a blast!

Jack wanted to get a photo of himself jumping.

Getting Ready for Baby Sister

2011-06-10T23:47:00.002-04:00

Eliza talks all day long about her baby sister. She has even shared her opinion on what we should name her. We’re deciding between two names, so we’ll she if she wins!
We also got our double stroller last week and Eliza loves to talk about holding little sister’s hand and sharing snacks while on future walks. So far we’ve had to put her baby doll or Otis in the empty seat on our walks – it certainly confuses Otis.

Another Trip to the Children’s Museum

2011-06-10T23:31:00.001-04:00

We hadn’t been to the Children’s Museum for a few weeks and everyday Eliza would ask to go. Last week we took a few hours to go play.

We spent some time in the story room singing songs and reading books. This was something that we hadn't done before, and Eliza loved it.

She’s getting good at taking care of pretend babies – here’s hoping she’s as good with the real thing!

Memorial Day

2011-06-10T23:27:00.001-04:00

Our neighbors got together for a little evening grill-out on Memorial Day. It was so terribly hot that the water guns and sprinkler were a necessity for the kids. Eliza had so much fun playing that she wouldn’t eat dinner. It was a great way to kick off summer but we’re rooting for the temperatures to drop a little.

Locked and loaded

What a straight shooter

It’s like nineteen squirt guns at once!

You’ve got to ask yourself one question: “Do I feel lucky?” Well, do ya, punk?

Weeeeeeeeeeeeee

Mother’s Day in NYC

2011-06-10T23:09:00.001-04:00

For Mother’s Day this year, Kirk surprised me with a trip to New York for three days. He was going to be out there for work and I was lucky enough to tag along. I spent the days by myself (a mother’s dream!) and at night we had three date nights in a row! It was glorious and the weather was perfect. Our friend, Mallory, was also in NYC visiting her sister, and we were fortunate that our trips overlapped a bit so I got to hang out with her for a day of much needed girl time. It was also great fun to browse shops and just sit and read in Central Park.

Kirk and I had some fantastic food in the evenings, including the original Shake Shack, Nirvana (Indian), Kin Shop (Thai, which Kirk raved about when it opened last Fall), and Le Parisien (French, of course, which I was craving to commemorate our trip to Paris last summer). At Kin Shop, we enjoyed a feast featuring a fried pork belly and crispy oyster salad, soft shell crab, short ribs and noodles, pad see ew, and Thai chocolate coffee and Thai iced tea ice creams.

We also got to see a Broadway show – Anything Goes! The show was sold out, but thanks to a generous local high school assistant principal (and a couple of his students that were no-shows), we got to see it for free the only night it was showing during our trip. I really enjoy Cole Porter, and the show was phenomenal with spectacular singing, dancing, and comedy. It’s currently nominated for nine Tony awards, including best revival, best actress, and best choreography.

It was also fun to see Kirk’s office after their latest move (last summer), and his co-workers through him a little baby shower while we were there, too! I love being a mom but it always nice to get away and just be with Kirk!

Potty Success

2011-06-06T21:19:00.000-04:00

Eliza pooped on the potty for the first time and we are so proud of her!

Easter 2011

2011-04-27T23:00:00.001-04:00

For over a month Eliza would get excited whenever she saw Easter eggs, begging her daddy to hide them outside. But Easter turned out to be quite rainy, so we had to celebrate (and let Eliza hunt for eggs) inside. At church we celebrated our friend Tony’s baptism (perfect day for it, right?) and Eliza went to the 2 and 3 year old room for the second time. She gets a little overwhelmed by all the kids running around, but after a few minutes of playing with the toy kitchen she really seems to settle in and interact with some of the less rowdy boys and girls. Her favorite activity at Sunday school is sitting at the children’s table to eat a snack and drink out of a Dixie cup. Last Sunday she had to take the cup home with her, it was so exciting.

Of course the real joy of Easter was not overlooked as we praised the risen Lord. This year it has been great sharing our faith with Eliza, and over the last month we’ve began to pray together. She thanks God for her food, her water, and her ice. If we leave one of those three out we will have to pray again. There have been times where we pray five or more times during a meal. We’re working on praying for other things, like our family and friends.

After church we headed home to open a few Easter gifts and hunt for eggs around the house. Eliza loved the search and finding nickels inside the eggs for her piggy bank. Then we headed to Gram and Papa’s house for lunch with Cece (Cindy) and Steve. We don’t get to see Cindy and Steve very often (and sadly they’ll be moving to South Carolina soon) but Eliza talks about Cece all the time – it’s hard to resist her smile and curly hair!

Kiss Z Cook

2011-04-27T00:20:00.001-04:00

Thanks to a perk from Kirk’s company, we had the opportunity for an “inspiring” activity, so we decided to sign-up for a cooking class. There aren’t many places in town where you get to actually do the cooking and not just watch a demonstration, but we discovered Kiss Z Cook in Carmel which has a variety of weekly classes, including Friday couples “date nights.” The theme we registered for was Brazilian and we were excited to learn about this country’s cuisine having never previously thought about it.

The setup: two couples work together in one kitchen to prepare the meal. We were making seafood stew, duck and tomatillo salsa tacos, and coconut soufflé. Having four hands was a great help in getting all the prep work done. We enjoyed working with another husband and wife team and then shared a delicious meal together.

The chef in charge was Dwight Simmons, a really fun guy (you can see him making a scene behind Lynne in the photo above) who had been the head chef at local seafood star Kona Jack’s and the former Keystone Grill. Chef first walked us through some prep skills and knife techniques, emphasizing the mise en place. It was helpful to watch a professional do things in a different way, and we learned a few pointers. I would say that the class is mostly designed for people who are beginning to average cooks. We both thought that it would be a bit more advanced, but it did help us correct some bad habits and get inspired by a new cuisine. Maybe there’s a good place in Indy for advanced classes?

So how was the food? First, there was a really great tomatillo, chile, and avocado salsa that we made for the duck tacos that we will definitely make again this summer!

We marinated the duck breasts in a mixture of chipotle chiles, red wine vinegar, garlic, and coriander. It was a great marinade for grilling, but next time we’ll add more chipotles to spice it up a notch.

After the duck was cooked on the indoor grill the chef showed us how to cut and prepare it for the plate. Kirk couldn’t believe that he said to cut the fat off before slicing it for the tacos. I thought that it was a great idea! Kirk cut his own meat up leaving on the fat and all that “flavor,” and he even ate the grilled duck fat from the other pieces. He’s a huge fan of duck, so this really wasn’t a surprise.

The Brazilian seafood stew was great and very flavorful! Again, this is something that we will definitely make at home in the future as it combined some of our favorite flavors. The dish included shrimp, white fish, peppers, onion, lots of garlic and cilantro, coconut milk, green onions, and tomatoes.

By the time we got all the food done we were so hungry to eat it that we forgot to take pictures of dessert. The coconut “soufflé” (calling it that because that’s the closest comparison I have), was pretty good, and quite heavy on the shredded coconut. I don’t know if we’ll make it again at home since we rarely cook a dessert with our meal, but served with some lime sorbet, it would have been even better.

The only criticism, other than the class not being as advanced as we expected, was that the “Brazilian” theme was never explained, so it might as well have just been a “tropical” cooking class. What makes this food typical of Brazil and why did the chef choose it? Regardless, we had a fun time, learned a little bit, and ate some great food. The chef was a lot of fun to work with and we got to know him more while we chatted and ate (and were the last to leave as Kirk continued to eat everyone’s leftovers).

Our Cookie is Two

2011-04-25T23:49:00.001-04:00

To celebrate Eliza’s second birthday, we had a “milk and cookies” themed party. This included twelve types of cookies (two courtesy of her grandparents) and a cookie sandwich cake. Of course, I had to make a lot of decorations and utilize my mom’s expert sewing skills!

We had three different kinds of milk available (2%, whole, and homemade chocolate – Kirk refused to serve skim), and we served them out of traditional glass jugs into glass Ball canning jars.

Eliza’s favorite cookie of the day was the chocolate spritz. It was my favorite cookie growing up, and I’d always ask my grandmother to make them. We aren’t sure how many Eliza grabbed throughout the party. If I had known I wouldn’t have placed them so close to the edge of the table.

Eliza loved seeing some of her friends and family. Thanks for celebrating with us!

It’s become difficult to get a picture together where Eliza isn’t saying “cheese” with a funny face. These were also taken after all those cookies and cake, so she was easily distracted!

Eliza Turned Two!

2011-04-23T21:22:00.001-04:00

Celebrating Eliza’s birthday this year was quite fun for us. Eliza knew what was coming as the day approached, and she loved asking us to sing the “Happy Birthday” song to her. Kirk was able to take a long lunch with us and we had a great family day. It was perfect and we had a lot of fun together and some great laughs.

When I was around Eliza’s age my grandfather made me a doll house. I loved it and played with it for many years. It hadn’t been touched for almost twenty-five years (I can’t believe I’m so old!) and needed a good cleaning and “renovation.” I didn’t realize how much time it would take to “flip” a doll house, and a few weeks before her birthday my dad helped me get the project started. After a lot of sanding and delicate painting, it was done…at least for now. I even added some pink shutters to the outside that I think my grandfather would have liked. However, he’d probably be mad that I painted the wooden trim white, although I left the stairs as-is under strict family orders.

Eliza got new furniture for the doll house thanks to her grandparents. This was definitely needed since some of the older furniture is thinner and easily broken. She loves moving the dolls throughout the house, changing the baby on the changing table, and having them all cook in the kitchen. Of course she has to put them all to bed, too.

We went to Patachou for lunch since it’s one of Eliza’s favorites. She loves their French toast – and this time she had it with poached pears.

Eliza’s Gram came over to see her, too, and they read some new birthday books together.

We ended the day with a special dinner outside (after some quality playtime outside, too). Now she wants to eat dinner outside every day!

MSG and Eataly

2011-03-27T01:55:00.001-04:00

My last two work trips to New York have been fun and productive, so I thought I’d blog about a few highlights.

First, last week during my visit I decided to attend a Knicks game. I had never been to Madison Square Garden despite staying in a hotel right across the street on most of my visits, but I wasn’t too thrilled about the cost of admission. Since acquiring Carmelo Anthony last month (and signing Amar’e Stoudemire earlier this year), the Knicks are finally becoming a team of interest again (after stinking for the last few years), so ticket prices are rising, and I figured now would be a good time to cross the Garden off the list of places to see.

My mission was to buy a “cheap” ticket from the scalpers outside the arena, and I knew I had some leverage since I was willing to wait until the game had started (and a single ticket is sometimes hard to unload). It was a cold night with a heavy mix of sleet and small hail, but fortunately I had an umbrella (unlike most of the scalpers). I spent a good 40 minutes talking with at least 25 different scalpers who were trying to sell tickets for $150-200. They’d laugh at me when I told them I wasn’t willing to pay more than $40 for a ticket, and I’d tell them where they could find me when they were stuck with a ticket they couldn’t sell after the game started. Most got the message that I was a stubborn customer, but eventually, about 10 minutes after the game’s scheduled start time, I was able to get a ticket for $25! That was actual face value, and while it was in the upper deck, I didn’t care. I had won this round, New York!

Inside MSG, it was amazing! The atmosphere was electric, and walking around the concourse, it seemed like every seat (even in the upper deck) was a great view. I only ended up missing 6 minutes of the first quarter by waiting for a cheaper ticket (and Bernie Williams playing the national anthem on the guitar – unexpected!), and I still got to watch an exciting game featuring the all-stars mentioned above. The Knicks were playing the Orlando Magic, so I also got to see an outstanding performance by Dwight Howard and his teammates Jameer Nelson, Gilbert Arenas, and Jason Richardson.

Being a single at an event has its advantages, and I used it to find a much better seat in the second half. I snuck my way down to the lower level and had a fantastic seat to enjoy the game. The Knicks ended up blowing a lead in the fourth quarter and losing, and the New York fans booed mercilessly. It was kind of funny.

Second, during my February visit I had an amazing pizza dinner at Eataly, Mario Batali’s restaurant/food emporium. It was great, and due to a team retreat last week, I got to have even more of their pizza for lunch. Eataly is a bit overwhelming with so many amazing food products and small areas to eat. You literally dine among the shoppers, and everything you eat is made from products sold in the store. The cheese counter alone made me wish I had a free shopping spree there, like you used to be able to win at Toys R Us when you were a kid. The meat counter was a thing of beauty, and I was most surprised by the availability of a whole butchered rabbit for sale. The fresh pasta, gelato, produce, bread, I could go on and on…it’s all so amazing.

Sorry for the photo quality - camera phones can't do anything justice, so I've stolen a couple from other sites.

In all, I’ve had the privilege of tasting six different pizzas they serve!

1. San Marzano – their margherita pizza (on left of photo) – nice, but usually I need toppings for oomph

2. Casandrinella – ricotta, mozzarella, ham, and parmigiano reggiano (on right of photo) – nice, but not a huge ricotta fan

3. Ventura – mozzarella, parma ham, shaved parm, and arugula (middle of photo) – would definitely eat again

4. La Verace TSG – buffalo mozzarella, parm, sorrento evoo, and basil – similar to the San Marzano, but far superior

5. Scisciana – gorgonzola, parm, mozzarella, and parma ham – the gorgonzola makes it, so very good

6. Massese – Mozzarella, basil, and neapolitan spicy salami – the salami was some of the best I’ve ever eaten!

I highly recommend everyone visit Eataly for the full experience. Other highlights included a fun meal at a Korean place that a coworker showed me. The only signs were in Korean, and it was located on the second floor behind an unmarked door. I felt like quite the insider. We had some great fried chicken, pork kimchi, pickled radish cubes, and soju.

Another fun thing I did back in February was meet up with the Purdue Alumni Club of NYC to watch the Purdue/IU game. I hope to hang out with that group more often, and definitely during basketball season next year when I’m in town!

Update on Eliza

2011-03-21T21:38:00.002-04:00

Over the last few weeks Eliza has grown up a lot. She is talking all day long and repeating new words over and over. At her last doctor’s appointment in January, Eliza was 32” long and 24 pounds. She is pretty small for her age but has always steadily grown (and has a healthy belly to boot). Her hair has been growing as well and we may actually need to cut it soon. She loves wearing pigtails and her daddy loves them too.
We’ve started working on discipline more since Eliza has been quite opinionated and a bit whiny. A couple weeks ago she had to go into “timeout” for the first time, but it worked! She’s usually a very happy and easy going little girl but every few days she can really wear me out with defiance, especially if she doesn’t feel good.
Potty training isn’t going very well, and it’s mostly my fault (not hers) since I haven’t been regularly diligent with it. Eliza still can’t really sense the “gotta go” feeling until it is too late, but sometimes we get lucky and happen to sit her down at the right time. She’s had a few “liquid” successes but never anything consistent.
Eating is hit or miss since she’s bin a bit sick lately. Some days she just wants carbs, and other days she’s a bigger fan of cheese. I say “good bite” to her when she puts a big spoonful of something in her mouth. Now she informs me when she has a good bite or when it is a “bad bite.” Bad bites come falling out of her mouth, then she often hands them to me and says “trash.”
Her favorite game lately has been “hide seek.” She started hiding in the middle of rooms until Kirk showed her some better hiding spots. She will now hide for long periods of time and be silent waiting for us to find her, but sometimes we don’t even know the game is afoot until we realize we haven’t heard her in a while. We need to teach Eliza how to inform people when the game has begun! Her favorite spots to hide are behind doors and underneath the kitchen table.
For Christmas we got a family membership to the Children’s Museum. Eliza would go there everyday if she could. I try to take her weekly, but when she’s sick, she doesn’t get to go. Eliza has had two bad colds and pink eye in the last two months, and there were some long nights with poor sleep. She is now quick to tell you that her nose is “stuffy,” but I’m sick of her wiping snot all over her sleeves.

The Chihuly exhibit

Playing with her new friend, Abe

She loves the plane at the museum that flies her to Egypt. It goes “rumble rumble.”

She’s a big fan of the dinosaur exhibit

Eliza has started doing what mommy and daddy do like "working" at her desk, having meetings with boys, and shopping at the store with her purse.

Taking a business call and using her writing utensil , just like daddy

Time Off in Florida

2011-03-04T10:53:00.002-05:00

We had a great time in Florida this January, and even though the weather was cooler than normal, we loved getting out of the snow! Two weeks was an amazing length of time off, and Eliza loved having her daddy and grandparents’ attention the whole time.

We spent three days at the beach. Eliza was not a fan the first day. She was very worried about her toes getting dirty and the waves were pretty cold and scary. The second day she was much more excited to find shells and even started playing in the sand, but her shoes were not allowed to come off because she had to stay clean. She loved seeing the birds and found it funny that they wanted her snacks.

13 weeks along

Eliza talks about the beach all the time but still has no interest in getting in the water. She says it is “too cold!” Maybe next time.

See more photos on flickr.

Half Way There

2011-03-04T10:51:00.001-05:00

It’s been a while since I blogged, but hopefully you all know our most recent big news – we will be having another GIRL! Kirk and I are very excited to see two sisters grow up together. We have been reading books and talking to Eliza a lot about being a big sister. When asked, “Where’s the baby,” she’ll point at my growing belly, but she also thinks that she has a baby in hers, too!

This pregnancy has not been what we expected. At our 8 week ultrasound the tech found a build-up of blood in my uterus. I was put on a weight limit of 8 lbs with no exercising. It made for some difficult weeks especially when Kirk was traveling. I felt helpless in obeying what the doctor ordered since even Otis is over 8 lbs!

When we went back 4 weeks later it was frustrating to find out that the mass doubled in size. With this kind of build-up the body could reabsorb it or we were told it could stay there the whole pregnancy. It was really getting me down to think of having this for 30+ weeks. If the mass were to burst I would go into labor, so again I was reminded of the restrictions and tried to figure out how to be a mom and care for this unborn baby at the same time.

Timing couldn’t have been better, since right after this second ultrasound we had a two week vacation planned in Florida. It was a huge blessing and answer to prayer to have not only Kirk there but my in-laws as well to do all the lifting. I did nothing but lay around, play with Kirk and Eliza, eat, and read for two weeks.

When I returned home I went in for another ultra-sound at 14 weeks. I had been praying that the mass had gone down in size. I didn’t even think of praying that it would be gone. Thankfully, the nurse couldn’t find any sign of it! I was shocked and kept asking for her to check again. Such a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders that I couldn’t stop smiling. We were also able to find that we were having a girl and that she was looking perfect! Over the last month I have been able to clean the house, lift Eliza when she asked me to hold her, and be excited about being pregnant.

This last week I went in for another ultrasound and my 20 week check. Unfortunately, they found the blood build-up again. This could be the same one or a new one, the doctor wasn’t sure. I was put back on restrictions, but since I am out of the first trimester and the mass is not as big as it once was, my doctor is not as worried as she was previously. I am trying not to get too stressed about it this time around and continue enjoying this pregnancy. This little girl loves to move and I feel her all day long. She also loves oranges and Mexican food!

Image from flickr.

Store Closing

2011-03-03T10:24:00.001-05:00

Around the start of 2011 Williams Sonoma Home closed at the Keystone mall. I have been blessed to be able to have worked there for the last three years, and I will miss it greatly. They closed all but two locations nationwide as they focus more on website sales. I am staying in the corporate family and have transferred to the Cuisine store. I’ll miss having my hands in the design field, and the people that were on our small team will be irreplaceable, but I have enjoyed sharpening my cooking skills and getting inspired in the kitchen so far!

Ringing in 2011

2011-01-14T00:08:00.001-05:00

Whenever we are in Michigan with my dad and Marilyn it always seems to be about relaxation, food, beer, and wine! Our New Years trip was no different. We indulged in a delicious rack of lamb Kirk made, oysters, and dark chocolate gelato from Zingerman’s. Kirk also was able to find some limited production Michigan beers he was thirsting to try.

Eliza got some fun new toys as well, including her first trip to a giant toy store. Watching her dart for the first toy she saw, then trying to carry it to grab the next toy, and then the next, was quite hilarious. She was so excited to play that she only took one twenty minute nap the entire visit…that NEVER happens at home. She was exhausted by the end of the day and slept until grandma or grandpa would come in and rescue her in the morning. She loved it as much as Otis, who can’t wait to see Wesley and gets excited as soon as we get in the car to head north.

Eliza loved cooking in her new kitchen from grandma and grandpa! She made lots of soup and cake and washed dishes in her sink.

Wesley was sad that we took his bed away from him. Sorry boy – the owner’s name is clear as day!

B is for…

2011-01-09T22:38:00.004-05:00

Eliza’s getting really good at recognizing most letters of the alphabet. If you were to ask her what the letter B is for she would be quick to tell you…

BABY!

Coming this July – a new Smiley!

We can’t wait to be a family of four! Eliza and I had fun surprising Kirk with the news at the airport.

Merry Christmas

2011-01-09T22:33:00.001-05:00

Christmas Eve was spent at my mom’s house. It was a great afternoon and Eliza learned how to open gifts and tear wrapping paper. Her favorite present was a princess tent that her Papa (Jerry) gave her. It had to go up as soon as we got home, and it was very hard to get her to go to bed that night since she didn’t want to get out!

Christmas morning was very relaxing since Eliza’s still too young to get too crazy or excited, although she did start to catch on pretty quickly. As soon as she got out of bed she had to go play in her new tent. Soon after waking up our friend Mallory came over to celebrate Christmas morning with us. She wasn’t able to go home for the holidays and we love spending time with her. We were able to relax, hang out, open presents, have cinnamon rolls, listen to Christmas music, and watch Eliza play - a perfect morning!

Hanging out with Mallory before opening presents. We were all in our pajamas just as Christmas morning should be. Eliza had a horrible case of bed head!

For lunch we headed up to West Lafayette to celebrate with the Smileys. Eliza had a great time and by then was an expert at opening presents. In the picture below she’s holding a new dress from Kirk’s aunt and uncle that she loved. She calls all dresses tutus! Kirk’s parents gave her a nice wooden train set and that has been a huge hit (and has taken over our living room along with her princess tent)!

Eliza had to go down for a nap so we took an adults-only photo of the Smiley family.

Christmas night was beautiful in Indianapolis. There was a light snow so Kirk went out and got some photos of our peaceful street.

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

Isaiah 9:6

Santa Claus Came to Town

2011-01-09T21:36:00.001-05:00

Our neighbors have a “Santa Party” every year, and last year Eliza had no clue what was going on, but this time around she got excited to see her good friends. The party is held a couple weeks before Christmas, so when Santa comes the kids have to hide and not let Santa see them (“hiding” is a very loose term for a toddler). Santa comes in and brings one gift for each of the kids and gives a reason for each gift like, “This is for Eliza for sharing with her friends” or “learning to use the potty.” Then there is a Christmas blessing and Santa departs since he is a busy man! Eliza has fallen in love with Elmo from a book that we have and she says his name all the time. She still hasn’t figured out that he also has a TV show (thankfully!). We got her an Elmo doll and she really enjoys it but we learned that toys that make noise and move are much more exciting for a party atmosphere!

Waiting for Santa is hard to do!It was way past bedtime, and we were not in the mood to take a picture.

Thanksgiving 2010

2011-01-09T14:34:00.001-05:00

We spent Thanksgiving this year at McCormick’s Creek State Park with the my mom’s side of the family. It rained on Thanksgiving day here then the following day was below freezing so Eliza and I didn’t really get to hike. My mom and Jerry brought their camper so that we could have an easier time with a toddler and a dog, and we were very thankful for it. It’s always so great to spend a few days with extended family who we don’t get to see too often. Thanksgiving at a state park has been a tradition for over ten years on this side of the family and next year we’ll visit Pokagon State Park. They have a toboggan run which should be a blast (for Eliza and the adults, too)!

Eliza had fun seeing her Gram as well as the other family members.

Eliza’s first real Thanksgiving meal (since last year she wasn’t eating many solids yet).

The whole family (minus me) during our Thanksgiving meal.

We play games at night and dominos is a common favorite. Eliza helped her Aunt Brittney play this year.

Most of the family braved the cold weather and took a few hikes. Eliza and I stayed at the inn and played in the common room. Really, Eliza just watched other kids that were also at the inn as they ran around and made a lot of noise.

Notice anything interesting about the picture below?

Eliza loved running up and down the lodge’s hallways, including a little gradual incline that was hard for her to perceive with the monotone walls and carpet. She’d start to run, realize it was suddenly harder to run due to the steepness, and the confused look on her face made us laugh. Here she is playing “chase” with Uncle Wyatt.

Every year we play “The Present Game” thanks to Jerry. When your name is called you get to pick a present from the table or steal one from someone else. We don’t open the gifts until all the presents are gone. Each year a few presents become the most popular based on their size, shape, or weight, and they get stolen over and over again, even though you’re not really sure what they are!

Eliza even got into it the action this year. She was a great “present stealer” for her mom and dad. Who could say no to such a cute little beggar?!

We are so thankful for all that God has blessed us with this year!

Fall Getaway 2010

2011-01-07T10:32:00.001-05:00

This year marked our third fall getaway with our house church/small group. We headed up to the Fort Wayne area and spent the weekend at Alex’s mom’s house out in the country. Eliza and I had just gotten back from D.C. the day before and Kirk had literally just walked off a plane from New York right before the car trip up, so we were definitely a bit tired but looking forward to a relaxing time with friends. The weather was still warm and beautiful so we were able to take a long walk.

That evening we took a trip to a local grain elevator. Kirk and I didn’t know what to expect and were able to learn a great deal about what goes on when a farmer tries to sell their grain. For those in a similar less-rural boat, grain elevators are storage facilities that house grain and prepare it for eventual shipment. Sometimes this means sending it to a manufacturer, but sometimes it just means selling it to another larger grain storage facility. A grain elevator can be a single building or an interconnected series of buildings (which look like a bunch of silos). The storage units control the environment around the grain, too, to help it not to rot. It was really cool seeing the different conveyors and elevators used to get so much seed from one place to another.

Eliza loved to play with the kernels of corn and once she learned that she could put her hand in the bucket it was even better!

Check out Josh going up in the one-man elevator. He's a professional elevator installer, so we knew he could handle it by himself even if it got stuck. Manlift indeed!

Eliza would tell you that the best part of the weekend was getting to see Eli for 36 hours! Every morning she woke up looking for him.

Huge thanks to Alex’s family for hosting us!

Washington, D.C.

2011-01-07T00:04:00.003-05:00

Eliza and I took a trip out to D.C. to visit my Dad and Marilyn in November. We flew out there just the two of us, and I prayed for weeks that the flights would go smoothly. It wasn’t Eliza that I was worried about, but rather that I wouldn’t have enough hands along the way. I traveled with a large rolling suitcase, three shoulder carry-ons, a car seat, and a large stroller…and a walking child! My prayers were answered in so many ways, but the greatest was that for each flight there was an empty seat next to me so Eliza didn’t have to be a lap baby! It went better than I could have hoped for, and Eliza had fun reading on the plane. Marilyn had to work while we were there but dad, Eliza, and I went out each day to see the sights. I love being with my dad and it was great to see Eliza take in new things and play with her grandparents!

We took the subway everyday and really got the hang of it with a stroller. It’s not always easy when you don’t know if you’ll find an escalator.

Ford’s Theater

Marilyn and I saw a ballet, Romeo and Juliet, at the Kennedy Center. I had been to the Kennedy Center before but this was the first time that I got to see an actual performance. The ballet was well done and I enjoyed watching it with Marilyn who studied ballet in NYC when she was younger.

Eliza loved having a dance party at the townhouse each night. She learned how to spin and bounce on her knees, and she would point at the floor and tell us exactly where we should be dancing with her.

The Lincoln Memorial is probably my favorite monument in the city. The week brought AMAZING weather. I certainly didn’t expect it to get in the upper 50’s in November! Eliza did great with simply her coat, hat, and bundle-me blanket!

I had never seen the Korean War Memorial before and it was really powerful. I loved the faces that they engraved on the wall and that you could see the reflection of the statues as well.

Eliza loved seeing the dog at the Roosevelt Memorial. This was one of my Dad’s favorite memorials of the trip.

One night Dad and I took a few hours to walk around the city after Eliza went to sleep. Kirk’s a big fan of this picture (and a bit jealous he wasn’t there).

The last few days of the trip we spent at the Smithsonian, which was quite new to me since the last time I was there, I was an 8th grader and didn’t have as much interest in history. We were able to see Julia Child’s kitchen, the first American flag, the Hope Diamond, and so much more. The picture below is of Julia Child’s cookbook shelf from her kitchen. As you can see, a majority are her own cookbooks but on the top shelf is one of the Davis/Smiley favorites! The Victory Garden Cookbook is hard to find now that it is no longer in print but we highly recommend it if you ever come across a copy. Dad gave me a copy a few years back ,and now that Kirk has become a gardener it has been very informative…and as you can see I think Julia would agree!

We had heard great things about the cafe at the American Indian Museum. “The Mitsitam Café (Mitsitam means "Let's eat!" in the native language of the Delaware and Piscataway tribes) offers various foods found throughout the Western Hemisphere, including the Northern Woodlands, South America, the Northwest Coast, Mesoamerica, and the Great Plains. Each food station features cooking techniques, ingredients, and flavors found in both traditional and contemporary dishes." Dad loved that you could sample so many different regions of food, some more obscure than others. I would highly recommend it for a lunch while at the Smithsonian.

I really loved the Presidential Portrait Museum and since we only spent an hour there I will definitely go back on my next visit. This sculpture of George Bush (the elder) playing horseshoes continues to make me laugh.

Eliza still talks about our time in D.C. She loved the subway and playing with ice every night in her grandpa’s travel cooler. It’s amazing what kids find entertaining and interesting! I have always loved the city, and this trip only added to that feeling.
More pictures can be seen on our flickr site.

The Davises

2011-01-06T22:46:00.001-05:00

Kirk has been the only one posting to the blog for the past few months, and I have been slacking a bit so now I’m playing catch up! I promise that none of these posts will be about football, basketball, New York, or man crushes, but they will be filled with plenty of Eliza!

Speaking of how behind I am, think back to what you were doing over Halloween weekend. Our friends Josh and Kelley were busy getting married (sans costumes)! It was a beautiful day, ceremony, and couple and a rocking fun reception to boot. I was excited to be their wedding planner for the ceremony at our church, and it was an honor to support them and help make sure things went smoothly. Many blessings for their new life together! (I know they’re already two-months into it…I’m so behind!)

I Think I Won the Heisman!

2010-12-17T01:28:00.001-05:00

The title is a lie. I’m not often mistaken for Cam Newton, this year’s winner of the Heisman Trophy, awarded to the best college football player in the nation. However, I sure felt like someone special since I had the amazing opportunity to attend the 2010 Heisman Memorial Trophy Dinner in New York this week.

First, some background is necessary. No, I didn’t shell out $500 for a ticket or win one on a sports radio call-in show. I just work for the coolest non-profit around. Thanks to some sweet connections, for the last few years everyone who attends the event has received a $100 DonorsChoose.org gift card in their gift bag. This year, along with my teammate Dan, I represented our organization. It’s a rough job, I know!

The event was held at the Marriott Marquis and the Heisman staff did an impeccable job running it. The evening started with a cocktail reception with some amazing food and an open bar. There was a silent auction (a bit out of my price range) and the opportunity to get your picture taken with the trophy.

During the reception I had the opportunity to meet some of the former Heisman winners that graced us with their appearance (not all attendees were at the reception). I was able to meet football legends Tim Brown (‘87), Archie Griffin (‘74 and ‘75), Ty Detmer (‘90), Ron Dayne (‘99), Mike Rozier (‘83), Pete Dawkins (‘58), and Jim Plunkett (‘70). I wish I had our DSLR camera to take better pictures, but its size would have been too cumbersome for this trip.

Tim Brown, despite being a Notre Dame alum, is still awesome.

I joked with Archie Griffin that I was a Purdue fan and enjoyed rooting against Ohio State during Big Ten play, and he laughed really hard at my honesty. He was probably the most friendly and gracious former winner making the rounds.

I think Ty Detmer (BYU) would have blended into the crowd without his nametag.

I also chatted with Ron Dayne (Wisconsin) and told him how much he drove me crazy my freshman year when he ran for 222 yards against us, leading Wisconsin to a 7 point victory on his way to setting the collegiate record for most career rushing yards. He laughed and said, “At least you got to cheer for Drew Brees!” to which I responded, “You bet, but I wish he had won the Heisman.” Dayne’s retort: “Oh, he’s won a much better prize now!” referring to his Super Bowl MVP with the Saints last season (or maybe he meant the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year?)

After the cocktail reception, everyone headed into a large ballroom for the dinner. Unfortunately, the former winners were seated up on stage and were roped off so that we couldn’t interact with them. Once they were all introduced, I was surprised to see so many in attendance who hadn’t been at the reception earlier, including Doug Flutie, Steve Spurrier, Charlie Ward, Eric Crouch, Howard Cassady, Pat Sullivan, and Tony Dorsett. Also in attendance (who we knew in advance would be there) were the Heisman winners celebrating a 10/25/50 year anniversary: Chris Weinke (‘00), Bo Jackson (‘85), and Joe Bellino (‘60). Dan and I were most excited to meet Bo, but there was sadly never an opportunity, but we definitely can’t complain.

ESPN’s Rece Davis emceed the dinner, and I had the opportunity to meet him later (read on). Rece did a fantastic job and provided some good humor as well as giving DonorsChoose.org a tremendous shout out from the stage. They showed a video honoring the charitable partners of the Heisman Trust, and Rece made sure to inform everyone about their gift card so they would be sure to redeem it after the event.

These three pictures are courtesy of the event photographer

Flutie and Bo. Bo’s speech was really humorous, and this was the first time he had been back to the event since he won the award 25 years ago.

Also in attendance was Warrick Dunn, who was being honored as the 2010 Heisman Humanitarian for all of his charitable work. After the dinner I tried to get him to come down from the stage to say “hi” but all I got was a wave. He gave a lot of credit to Tony Dungy, who coached him in Tampa, for inspiring him to give back to the community.

After everyone had spoken, including the Auburn athletic director and head coach (it was an Auburn love-fest with all of them there, as well as Newton and Bo), the head of the Heisman Trust, Bill Dockery, began to introduce the final speaker of the night, Cam Newton. Before doing so he gave another great spiel about DonorsChoose.org and again reminded everyone to redeem their gift card. I was blushing at all the love we were getting. Cam spoke (we never had a chance to meet him either, since the only photo session with him was for VIP sponsors only (Nissan, Wendy’s, etc.) earlier in the evening), and then the dinner was over. We approached the stage to thank Bill for his kind words, and afterwards we tried to get the attention of the stars on the stage, but to little avail. We did, however, see Bo point upwards as though he was going to some sort of after party. We didn’t know what was really going on, and our tickets didn’t have additional information, but we thought it was worth a shot to wander around the hotel and see if there was a way to meet more of these guys.

Dan and I kept taking the escalator up until we came to the ninth floor where some over-caffeinated event staff were asking for tickets. Apparently there was an after party, but it was only for guests of honor and VIP sponsors, and you had to have a separate ticket. Dejected, we walked to the other side of the escalators to go back down, but then I saw an opening and told Dan to walk slowly and follow me. While the bouncers were busy checking tickets, I realized we could walk around the hotel’s interior concourse and go the long way to reach the after party. Employing my “bring out the smart phone, act like your conducting business, don’t look up and just keep walking like you know what you’re doing” method from my experience sneaking backstage at the Final Four, we made it into the party.

There was tons more food (but we were stuffed by this point), a great jazz band, open bar, about 30 people mingling, but no sign of Bo, Cam, or Warrick. Eventually the room began to get more crowded and we realized we were sitting a few seats down from Tony Dorsett (‘76)! We chatted a bit and I had him sign the Heisman mini-helmet from our gift bag. We also were able to say hello to Rece Davis later on and thank him for the kind words he said earlier (while slipping him my card, of course!). By the end of the night I found myself lingering in hopes that Bo would arrive, and I got pulled into a discussion with some tipsy gentlemen, including Mr. Dorsett, Let’s just say my evening at the Marquis ended with a slap on the butt and a “good game” from a former Heisman Trophy winner.

The rest of my trip to NYC was fantastic, since I love spending time with my colleagues at our headquarters. I spent my free time checking out the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center (I’d never seen it in person), walking the windy snow-swept streets, shopping at the Union Square Holiday Market, and having a fantastic dinner at Ippudo (thanks to the recommendation of my wonderful new manager).

Ippudo has received some good reviews as one of the best Japanese ramen restaurants in the city. And when you think “ramen,” don’t think 25 cent bags of stale thin noodles you ate in your college dorm room, but think flavorful fresh noodles with amazing broth and toppings. The worst thing about the restaurant is the wait. They don’t take reservations, and when I arrived, the small bar and waiting area were packed with people. The couple before me were told their wait would be 90 minutes, and for a party of four, the wait was over two hours. As a solo diner, however, I only had to wait ten minutes, so I highly recommend it as a place to check out when travelling alone.

I sat at the interior bar and was able to watch the cooks prepare the food as they hollered back and forth in the loud but playful environment. I started with a Hirata bun, steamed and filled with pork belly and spicy sauce. I’m not normally a huge fan of steamed buns, but this was delicious, and even more fun watching them cook it and assemble it right in front of me. For my ramen dish, I had Kogashi miso ramen, which had a delicious charred miso broth, pork belly, salt boiled egg, bamboo shoots, cabbage, spinach, and naruto. I loved it, and I took advantage of the Kae-dama option, which gives you a generous second-serving of noodles halfway through the meal for only two dollars.

Meeting Elmore Leonard

2010-12-06T23:15:00.001-05:00

Tonight I had the extreme privilege to meet legendary author Elmore Leonard, and I’m still buzzing. A couple months ago I saw a flyer advertising that he would be doing a reading at Butler University (a few short blocks from our house), and I had been eagerly anticipating the day. Fewer than 1,000 people were in attendance (the event wasn’t that highly advertised in Indy since it was primarily for Butler students but free to the public), and Mr. Leonard read some excerpts from a couple books, talked about the projects he is currently working on, and took lots of questions from the audience.

It was thrilling to meet him at the book signing after the event and have a short chat. I own almost every book or short story he’s ever written, so I’m definitely a big fan, and the fact he is still writing at his age is admirable. As he spoke he admitted that as he gets older he forgets names and old characters, and it takes twice as long to right two pages of a book, but he still has tons of fun writing and seeing where his characters take him.

Some fun facts that he shared (many of which fans already knew):

He still writes every word by hand (on yellow unlined paper), then types it on word processor, then gives it to his daughter to type on the computer and fix any grammatical errors.
He doesn’t use the computer at all, and even his official website is run by someone else
He doesn’t get edited much by his editor (who hated him titling his latest book Djibouti because foreign words don’t sell
When he starts writing, he has no ending our outline in mind, just characters, and around page 300 he’ll start to think of how the book will end, so it’s fun along the way for him to write
He never laughs at his own humor or dialogue when writing, but he’ll laugh when he reads it many years later (often forgetting he wrote it in the first place)
He thinks most best-selling authors write boring garbage
His favorite film adaptation of one of his novels was Jackie Brown (the book is Rum Punch) by Quentin Tarantino (and there have been lots of good ones and lots of horrible ones, such is Hollywood)
He talked a lot about Justified, the hit show on FX that starts its second season in February and is based off his short story “Fire in the Hole".” When he first saw Timothy Olyphant as the protagonist Raylan Givens, he was so happy because it was a perfect match. He’s written three separate books based on that character and sends them to the show’s writers to give them new material, but he’s not actively involved in the show. He’s still working on the third book which centers around a gambling Butler student who gets arrested, skips out, starts robbing banks, and has Raylan hot on her trail.
When he’s writing a book he doesn’t read anything else so that it doesn’t influence him. He once was reading William Goldman’s Marathon Man and found that he began writing with more complex sentences than his normal style.
He is frequently asked (and he got asked it again tonight) if he’s ever been in prison since he writes convict dialogue so well. His response is the type you’d expect from a law-abiding 85 year old - “Are you crazy? No!”

I’d encourage you to go check out one of his many books from the library (it’s tough for me to recommend one, I love them all, although I haven’t read Djibouti yet, and he was honest that it got mixed reviews and he probably could have done some things better in it). And if you’re looking for a good film adaptation, try Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Jackie Brown, or the first season of Justified (out on DVD in January).

The best Thai in New York?

2010-11-23T01:09:00.001-05:00

With my new role at work I’ll be making more frequent trips to New York to collaborate with my colleagues out there. Rough life – I know! My most recent time in the city a couple weeks ago was filled with lots of productive meetings, fun with coworkers, and, of course, fantastic food.

The culinary highlight of the trip was a visit to Kin Shop, a new Thai restaurant opened in October by Harold Dieterle, the winner of Top Chef – Season One. I’m a huge Top Chef fan, so this was very exciting, and the fact that it was Thai, moderately priced, and had garnered some fantastic reviews by critics and the general public made this a no-brainer. The dinner was a fun time with friends, we got to see Harold expediting from the kitchen, and famed food critic Jeffrey Steingarten was seated two tables away from us! I still haven’t read a review, but I hope he enjoyed his meal as much as I did.

I cannot recommend this restaurant enough, and if you have the chance to go, take a lot of people so you can try as many of the dishes as possible. We feasted on the following items:

spicy duck laab salad – the spiciest thing I’ve eaten outside of Thailand, authentic flavors, delicious
fried pork and crispy oyster salad – so good, pork belly, oysters, you can’t really go wrong
grilled “Phuket style” river prawns – cooked perfectly with a sweet peanut pepper sauce that I could have drank straight
hand cut beef tartar – tasty chili jam, this was nice, but not extraordinary
red curry roasted duck breast –served on roti, I could eat this all day, they do duck well!
green curry steamed red snapper – this was cooked perfectly and was light but with a very complimentary sauce
pan fried crab noodles – thin noodles with tons of flavor, were a nice complement to the curry-flavored dishes
massaman braised goat – you have to work at this one since it’s served on the bone, but that just makes for some great marrow (thanks Orchid for sharing!)
lychee sorbet – perfect, refreshing, could eat a quart
calamansi sorbet – ditto
kaffir lime ice cream – I had my eye on this as soon as the reservation was set, nothing is quite like makrut (kaffir) lime, and it’s one of my favorite flavors ever. This ice cream was perfect, flavorful yet not too strong, and I can’t wait to try to make it at home

Check out the full menu, and for an even better review, check out my friend Orchid’s post on Yelp.

Other highlights of the trip included an amazing lamb burger and some hard-to-find (at least in Indy) top-notch beers at Amity Hall. Delirium Tremens, Bluepoint Sour Cherry Imperial Stout, Brooklyn Brewmaster Cuvee Noire, and Bluepoint Toasted Lager all were outstanding (and on tap!).

The final highlight – meeting the co-founder of reddit at our office (they like us!). Yep, I’m a Thai-loving, sometimes foodie, geeky beer snob who works for an awesome nonprofit! Cheers!

Potty Time, Excellent!

2010-11-18T22:26:00.001-05:00

This week Eliza had her first successful experience on her little training toilet. But as you can tell from the photograph, she doesn’t like to be disturbed when she’s doing her business.

I’m sure she’ll make us remove this photo when she gets older, so enjoy it while you can!

Eliza's First Camping Trip

2010-11-18T16:10:00.001-05:00

Back in October we spent a weekend with Lynne’s family at Land Between the Lakes, a national recreation area in Kentucky. It was a lot fun with great weather, hiking, kayaking, campfires, and playing with Eliza. She loved spending so much time outdoors!

Playing with Leaves

2010-11-18T00:47:00.001-05:00

Eliza had so much fun playing in the piles of leaves Kirk raked earlier this month. Despite only one small tree, we always seem to get the bulk of the leaves from our neighbors’ giant trees. The pile was so much fun that even Preston had to come over and get in on the action.

Paris – Day 9

2010-11-08T23:57:00.000-05:00

It makes us a little sad to write about our last full day in Paris. We woke up surprised to hear the sound of piano coming through our open window. Someone below us was playing amazingly well, and it was a wonderful way to start the day.

We had saved a visit to the Louvre for our last day since it was our backup plan if it had rained a lot any other day. On our way to the Louvre we stopped by Le Duree for some breakfast pastries and macarons. Earlier we wrote about the amazing macarons at Pierre Herme that we enjoyed on our first day, which many claim are the best in the city, so we figured on our last day we had to try the other highest-rated macarons in Paris.

They didn’t disappoint and we’re actually a bit cheaper than those at Pierre Herme, but overall we felt they were a little milder in flavor and less creative in their flavor combination. We’d rate Le Duree a close second to Pierre, but we really enjoyed their pastries, too! I still miss such decadent breakfasts.

We arrived at the Louvre and were so pleased that it was such a beautiful day. We we’re a little bummed to spend so much of it indoors, but it made for some great pictures outside.

Once inside, it was honestly a bit overwhelming. Many of the main galleries were filled with so many people, and the paintings (at least in the Italian painter rooms leading to the Mona Lisa) were hung three or four high on the walls, so it was difficult to give each one the appropriate attention. Lynne’s art history training wasn’t used to processing so much at one time. We enjoyed the audio tour and would rotate with one of us listening and filling the other in while the other took photos.

Winged Victory, my favorite

We had a lot more peace viewing the Middle East and ancient items since it wasn't as crowded, and we found that the galleries on the upper levels had some breathtaking paintings and weren’t nearly as crowded.

We also enjoyed seeing the Napoleon III apartments, which ended our day (we literally got kicked out at 5:45pm), and the two areas that used to be courtyards of the palace which housed some amazing sculptures. This visit made me realize how little I actually saw on my short three hour tour ten years ago.

Where’s Kirk?

On the way home we stopped by St. Germain church, a grocery store for some last minute gifts and snacks for the plane, and then we tried to find a final dinner place that was just right. We were being really picky, and unexpectedly ended up back at Vins et Terroirs, since we loved it so much the first time. We indulged in some great wine, salmon tartar, lobster bisque, beef bourguignon, steak au poivre, and, of course, tons of delicious bread and butter.

When we got back to the apartment, the pianist was at it again. It was so beautiful, and we’d yell “bravo!” out our window and hear her laugh below. It was the perfect soundtrack for our last night in Paris as we enjoyed a dessert of French cheese and chocolates in our little apartment.

Paris – Day 8

2010-11-06T01:04:00.001-04:00

Sunday morning in Paris began with a lot of rain. It was Lynne’s birthday, so we slept in and then had a slightly less scripted day. Fortunately the weather cleared up and stayed dry and sunny for the rest of the day. On our way out we spent some time checking out cool French antiques at a neighborhood antique fair on our block. Then we got on the metro and headed to Montmartre, since we heard Sunday was definitely the day to visit for the art and to see Sacre Coeur. The interior wasn’t terribly impressive, but the exterior was beautiful. We enjoyed the stairs and climbs of Montmartre, but it was crowded on the south side, so we climbed up and found a quaint cafe for lunch. As we ate we enjoyed music from accordion players.

A lot or artists (Picasso, Van Gogh, Utrillo) used to live and work in this area, which used to be a bit seedier and poorer. We were able to see some houses where they lived and worked, but one place I (Kirk) had to visit was the Lapin Agile. While we weren’t really interested in a cabaret show at this bar/cabaret, I mostly wanted to visit it ever since reading/seeing (and loving) Steve Martin’s play “Picasso at the Lapin Agile” back in the mid 90’s.

Sunday was a great time to see all the local artists out on the square painting and drawing. We saw some fantastic work, and I really enjoyed just standing around and watching them create.

This is a shot of Rue Norvins that is a popular angle for artists

After spending more time wandering around Montmartre we headed southeast to the Marais district, one of the oldest in the city. There we saw the Place des Vosges (pictured below), Victor Hugo’s house, the Musee Carnavalet, a street fair/parade, a restaurant/bar named “Indiana,” the Bastille, and the new opera.

After walking all over the city and seeing so many things, Lynne wanted to just sit and read, so we sat on the bench in this picture, in a quiet little garden amid the bustling city. It was really nice and peaceful.

For dinner we walked a few blocks to try L’As Du Fallafel, a place that is all the rage. It didn’t disappoint and the falafel and chicken were both excellent! You can see the long line below, just to get take-out, but it actually moves quite quickly as they have some good operations management practices implemented.

After dinner we walked back to the Ile Saint-Louis because we had yet to try the highly acclaimed Berthillon ice cream. It was as good as any I’ve ever had. Our next stop was the Arch. Yes, we were there just the night before, but this time we wanted to get some pictures of the city and Eiffel Tower at night, and thanks to our museum pass, it was free to go up it as often as we liked.

The eventually kicked us out and we were the last two people to leave the Arch. For some reason it felt like our last night in Paris, but fortunately we had one more full day left to enjoy the city and continue to fall in love with it.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Okra

2010-11-05T15:30:00.001-04:00

We had a big nasty frost this week, and it slaughtered some of my remaining crops. Poor guys. All the okra, green beans, basil, and peppers are now dead, so I thought I’d share the final results. My “jolly green giant” okra plant ended up measuring 14 ft. 11 inches, which included 2 full feet of root. The other okra plants averaged about 8 feet. Also, much to my amazement, I ate two ripe raspberries off my bush last night, and there are two more ripening right now! When will it stop? I’m hoping never!

Sorry for the subpar photo, the good camera is on vacation in Washington, D.C.

Paris – Day 7

2010-11-02T23:21:00.001-04:00

Saturday morning (about 6 months ago now!), we got up really early to head to the train station, Gare St. Lazare, to catch the 8:20am train to Vernon. We enjoyed cheese and snacks for breakfast on the train ride as well as a nice view of the French countryside (or at least as much as you can get from the train). Once we arrived in Vernon, we hopped on a shuttle bus to Giverny to visit Monet’s house.

Giverny was amazing, a quaint picturesque village dotted with flowers, gardens, and houses that seem to cute for people to actually live in.

At Monet’s house we took a tour of the interior (no pictures allowed, and I even got glared at when I pretended to sneak a shot!), the gardens, and the water lily pond that inspired his Nympheas (which we saw two days earlier).

We spent a couple hours walking around the village, seeing the church where Monet was buried, strolling down the streets, and visiting the town’s impressionist museum.

We headed back to Vernon to catch our train and had a couple hours to kill, so we walked around the city, shopped at a street fair, found a cool painting we bought at a little antique shop, and tried some pastries we hadn’t seen in the Parisian shops. We enjoyed seeing a more typical small French city and definitely enjoyed the lower prices away from tourists.

The train was incredibly crowded for the ride back to Paris, so we had to sit separately. I (Kirk) sat next to a posh middle-aged French woman, and we had a great conversation and she recommended some good places for us to visit. When we got back to Paris we went straight to the Arc de Triomphe.

I thought Lynne would enjoy walking the Champs-Elysees to see the shops and people watch, but neither of us enjoyed how crowded, dirty, loud, and overpriced it was. We couldn’t find anyplace we wanted to eat, so we headed home.

We found a Thai restaurant near our house and figured it was worth shot to see how Parisians did Thai food. It was a bad decision. While we had amazing Vietnamese food earlier in the week, the Thai was quite inauthentic, bland, and over-priced. Maybe if we had never had real Thai food, we wouldn’t have noticed, since it wasn’t like it was inedible, but it definitely left us wanting. We walked home, still hungry, and enjoyed wine and cheese, cookies, and chocolate Madeleines.

Halloween

2010-11-01T22:55:00.001-04:00

This year Eliza loved Halloween and was really able to tell what was going on. We got to do many of her favorite things like go outside, see her neighborhood friends, and put things in a basket – it’s those simple pleasures, right? She doesn't know what she collected but she still said "please" and "thank you" to all the neighbors on our block who greeted her at their doors. We also headed over to our friends’ house for a bit, and Eliza loved playing the piano and having her first taste of rice crispy treats. It was such a fun night. It makes me excited for Christmas!

Checking out her loot

Eliza and the neighborhood pirates (Nicholas, Jack, and Brodie the tiger)Eliza and Frankenstein (Preston)Can’t leave any candy behind! Eek, a swarm of bees! (Elle and Wrigley)Eliza had to take everything out of her basket (and then put it all back in again). Eliza has fun getting the candy, and daddy has fun eating it!We went to our friends’ place for a costume party, and at the last minute, Kirk came up with a good costume idea. He went as our garden, covered in okra plants that he pulled that evening with giant leaves of Swiss chard all over his head. Eliza had fun calling daddy “Okra!” all night.Eliza had so much fun playing Sonja’s piano and singing. I think she was working on a little “Flight of the Bumblebee,” ha!

Eliza’s First Football Game

2010-10-21T00:22:00.001-04:00

Last weekend was Homecoming at Purdue, so we headed north and spent the weekend in West Lafayette. We were especially excited to take Eliza to her first football game, and she was such a trooper and made it through the entire game despite it being her normal nap time. We were lucky to have seats in the first row with lots of space for her to move around and play while also being able to see the band and cheerleaders, which she enjoyed. She can already say “football!” and it’s definitely her favorite sport to watch.

The weekend was also a great chance to see my family, see some of our great friends, visit the fraternity, and wax nostalgic at Kokoro in downtown Lafayette as we walked around our old neighborhood. Purdue also won the game which always guarantees a good Homecoming!

Drew Brees – Bobblehead Big Ten Icon

We got into the stadium really early so that Eliza could take it all in

Eliza loved yelling into the megaphone!

Eliza loved being in the front row where she could see the action

Cool ladies in their cool sunglasses

I think she’s trying to read the banner upside down

Eliza made a few friends during the game and had fun clapping

Eliza loved the world’s largest drum

We definitely had great seats to watch Rob Henry (quarterback) and Dan Dierking (running back) dominate the game

Fake the hand-off and get a huge block from a little guy…

…and that’s a touchdown Boilers!

The extra point is good (even though this picture totally makes it look like the Minnesota player got a hand on it

Kawann Short with the monster sack

Boiler Up!

Extreme Makeover – Garage Edition

2010-10-20T16:09:00.001-04:00

We are so excited to have our garage back and looking better than ever. It took over two months for the demolition, tree removal, construction, and door installation. It also took some time reinstalling all the tools and equipment I had strategically hung in the garage, but it gave me a great opportunity to build some overhead shelves for seasonal storage. Here are the pictures of the process and what we had to look at for the last few months.

Demolition

Keeping it dry

Framing

Protect that wood

Shingles!

Gutters

The final product. We love the look of our new fancier garage doors.

This can also be a little illustration on the impact different times of day/positions of the sun have on your photographs. :)

Paris – Day 6

2010-10-20T14:21:00.001-04:00

Our Friday in Paris began with a short half-block walk to St. Sulpice, an amazing church that we were fortunate to live near. We were awestruck by the morning light beaming in and the great organ. St. Sulpice is the second-largest church in Paris, only slightly smaller than Notre Dame. It’s also a more functional church that is kept in regular use (and less for gawking tourists like us), so it isn’t as well kept as Notre Dame but rather represents a more realistic French cathedral.

Next, we headed to the Musée Rodin, which is located near the Hotel des Invalides and not far from the Eiffel Tower. This may have been one of our favorite museums on the entire trip. It was interesting to learn about Rodin, his sculpting process, and the controversy surrounding some of his works and then to see so many of them on display in the museums beautiful gardens and grounds.

We love this photo of “The Thinker” with the Eiffel Tower in the background

The famous “Mask of the Man with the Broken Nose”

This sculpture is one I did not previously know but loved learning about, “The Burghers of Calais.” That’s some sacrificial leadership!

The “Gates of Hell,” which depicts scenes from Dante’s Inferno. I could study this for hours and still notice cool new things.

After the museum, we walked through a cool antique street market. It sure puts the term “antique” in a different context when you are in Europe and looking at pieces from the middle ages and renaissance. Also, it was a bit surreal to see such valuable treasures for sale under a tent on the side of the street.

We then headed to Rue Cler, a quaint street that we had read a lot about, for lunch and shops. I had read amazing reviews of the Cafe du Marche online and in travel guides for a delicious and authentic Parisian lunch experience, so we had to find it. It lived up to expectations as being really affordable, too. I enjoyed the duck confit, and when I say “enjoyed,” I really mean I could have eaten four plates of it and had it again for dinner. It was perfect, and the people-watching was fantastic, too.

Our next stop was the Hotel des Invalides which houses the Musée de l’Armée, Musée des Plans-Reliefs, Musée d’Histoire Contemporaine, as well as Napoleon’s tomb.

Napoleon’s tomb is ridiculously large and made of red porphyry on a green granite base

After all of the museums, it was time to be just like every other tourist and visit the Eiffel Tower. It was fun for me to watch Lynne marvel at it, since it was her first time there. When I visited in 2000, I literally ran up the stairs to the second platform (as high as you can go on foot), which was a lot of fun. Lynne definitely impressed me with her willingness to bypass the elevators and make the long walk, even after being on her feet all day.

It’s such a beautiful view from the top, and this was only at the first platform!

I can see my house from here! (behind les Invalides, where you see the crane – that’s our street at St. Sulpice). The other building the juts out is the Pantheon.

I get a little dizzy just looking at this picture

Montmartre and Sacré Coeur in the background

We really enjoyed being there at sunset

Champs de Mars gardens, where hundreds of people had set up for picnic dinners, locals and tourists alike

After the tower, we went to a local grocery store to get cheese, snacks, wine, and beer both for our trip to Giverny the next day and to keep at the apartment for late night snacking. The store was completely sold out of baguettes, and while there were great French and Belgian beers still on the shelves, almost all of the beer that were normal to me (Heineken, etc.) were sold out, likely purchased by picnickers we had just passed.

We returned home and ate dinner at a great relaxing place near our house, including risotto with mushrooms and some other pastas. Our feet were sore, but we were really looking forward to a train ride and seeing a different part of France the next day. Overall, the day was a great way to celebrate my birthday in Paris!

Paris – Day 5

2010-10-15T01:13:00.001-04:00

Our fifth day in Paris started out the way that every good day should start – amazing breakfast pastries at Gerard Mulot. We were so fortunate to live one block from this high end boutique – a fabulous patisserie, boulangerie, and chocolatier. Every morning should include a pain au chocolat of such caliber.

After breakfast we walked along the Seine and returned to the Cathedral Notre Dame to get in line for the tower tour, such a popular attraction that lines can be over 2 hours long later in the day. There wasn’t so much a “tour” as much as a self-guided experience going up the tower, seeing the giant bell, and getting an amazing view of Paris. This was our first aerial since we hadn’t yet visited the Eiffel Tower or Arch de Triomphe. It was a beautiful morning and a perfect view of the city.

So many amazing things are contained in those streets below. If you look to the left, the large church steeples with the crane are on the street where we lived.

This is Kirk having fun with his gargoyles in Photoshop

After the tower tour, we went into the Notre Dame Crypt, which honestly sounds much cooler than the actual experience. It was interesting, however, to see the original structures, despite it being underwhelming. For lunch, we picked up some gigantic quiches and a la religieuse pastry (delicious!), ate in the park, and then slowly made our way to our next planned museum stop. On the way, we visited the Palais Royal, where we enjoyed the modern art installation, garden, and shops.

Next, we walked over to see the Louvre and get some pictures, in case it was rainy for our official visit later in the trip. Lynne was amazed by its size, and it really was a perfect day for pictures, but we’re saving some for a later post. Just past the museum is the Jardin des Tuileries, which was beautiful, and we enjoyed sitting by the fountain (even though we already had a lot of sun from watching tennis the previous day).

Our next stop was the Musee de l’Orangerie, which is located right along the Jardin. When I (Kirk) was in Paris in the summer of 2000, the museum was closed (from 1999 through 2006!), so we were both quite excited to see it. The museum’s main claim to fame is its collection of Monet’s large water lily paintings (Nympheas). It also has a lot of other impressionist paintings, including those by Monet, Picasso, Renoir, Cezanne, and Matisse.

One reason for the lengthy remodel was to present the paintings in the way Monet intended. When you first enter the water lily gallery you find yourself in a completely silent white chamber with the intention to deprive all your senses prior to viewing his paintings. Inside, there are two rooms with an enormous canvas on each wall. The paintings are all viewed under direct diffused light, another nuance that Monet desired for his works. I can’t really do the art justice in mere words, so enjoy the pictures below. We highly recommend everyone visit this museum at some point in their life (and the other works on the lower level are fantastic as well)!

After the museum, we walked further past the gardens to see the Petit and Grand Palais. We had heard the Petit Palais was free to enter and worth a look inside, but due to a Yves Saint Laurent exhibit, it was a bit too costly for us. At least we got some cool external pictures.

Then we walked along the banks of the Seine, looking at all the colorful boats, crossed a bridge and decided it was a good time for a snack (or early dinner). We finally did the “customary” Paris thing by sitting outside at a cafe facing the street (instead of each other). We enjoyed some delicious onion soup, a fantastic goat cheese and bacon tartine, wine, and some French beer (Kronenbourg 1664).

After we ate, we walked a couple blocks to the Musee d’Orsay which was open late into the evening on this particular day of the week. unfortunately, photographs are not allowed inside (they were back in 2000 when I visited, so that was quite a bummer). The museum is housed in a former train station, and it’s really a breathtaking site. There is a ton of art to see, including major impressionist paintings, post-impressionist works, and lots of sculpture. It was nice going in the evening hours because it wasn’t terribly crowded. The only disappointing aspect of the visit was the fact that the impressionist wings were being remodeled, so hallways were turned into galleries, and since there was limited room, some of the collection (including some key pieces) were travelling and currently located in San Francisco.

After the museum kicked us out (literally, we were the last handful of people to reluctantly leave), we decided to walk home and see more of the city. We ended up getting a bit lost, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. By the time we found our neighborhood, it was 11pm and we were really hungry. We passed by a small side street just two blocks from our apartment, and it was bustling with tons of people and many quaint little bars and eateries. Little did we know this all existed so close to our place (and though it was pretty loud, you couldn’t hear any of the noise from our apartment). We found a great little place that had some amazing calamari and stuffed grape leaves and enjoyed those with some house wine. Every time we ordered wine at a restaurant we went with the house wine – it was pretty inexpensive and delicious every time. It was a short walk home, and we were ready for sleep after a fun-filled day.

Midnight in the Garden

2010-10-06T23:00:00.001-04:00

This may be my last post this year about our garden. We had the driest August in Indiana history and the hottest since 1974, so the crops have been a bit confused. Coupled with our 40-degree weather in early October, it’s made for a strange growing season, and it may be getting back into the 80’s again this week. Poor confused vegetables!

Right now we still have some traditionally early summer crops that are ripe, like cucumbers and raspberries (which Eliza continues to devour). My late summer planting of green beans is about ready to harvest, and our Swiss chard and herbs continue to grow strong. We’ve harvested about half our leeks and green onions for various dishes (including some excellent potato leek soup). Our tomato plants, after a slow start, went crazy. Our yellow tomatoes have been the best, and after only one pink heirloom tomato, we now have had many, and they continue to grow (although I’m a bit worried since none have turned from green to pink in about a week). Poblano, jalapeno, and other bell-type peppers are growing great now too after a slow start.

The real star of the show is the okra. I have about 20 plants which have all been providing regular pods for months. We’ve had to give some away to family and neighbors since we have so much, and that’s even with Eliza eating a bunch every other day and us eating it daily throughout July and August. While growth has slowed, I’m still harvesting daily. One over-achieving okra plant has now grown over 11 feet tall! Maybe I should let Guinness know?

Otherwise, I eagerly await my fall crops – radishes, lettuces of many types, peas, and more green beans!

Bourdain & Ripert

2010-10-05T00:36:00.001-04:00

Last week we had the opportunity to attend “an evening with Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert,” and it was fantastic. For those who don’t know of them, Anthony Bourdain is chef/author/television host that is most famous for his books, including Kitchen Confidential which describes the behind-the-scenes lifestyle of a New York City chef (at Les Halles, where we ate on our first NYC trip (pardon the pre-DSLR pictures)) and as host of No Reservations on the Travel Channel (and previously A Cook’s Tour). You can also catch him guest judging on Bravo’s Top Chef, and pretty much being his blunt, outspoken self whenever food culture and chefs are being discussed. We are huge fans and definitely jealous of his current lifestyle travelling the world an eating amazing things.

Over the last few years we’ve also enjoyed learning more about Eric Ripert, the chef at Le Bernardin in New York. While we haven’t had the pleasure of eating at his restaurant (or the budget for it), we enjoy his PBS show Avec Eric, his critiques on Top Chef, and his overall French expertise and general pleasantness. Far from the snooty gourmet chef types, he’s actually down to earth (evidenced by his friendship with Bourdain), and someone that would be amazing to have a drink with.

At the event, just a few blocks from our house on Butler’s campus, Bourdain and Ripert grilled each other over various questions including their pasts, current culinary trends, public school lunches, celebrity chefs, genetic engineering, and general likes and dislikes. Then they took a lot of questions from the audience, and throughout it all they made it hilarious and educational. We left even bigger fans of each chef.

In honor of our night, Kirk decided to cook up a recipe from Ripert’s show a couple days later when my parents were in town – Chicken Paillard with Tomatoes, Fennel, and Olives. This was a pretty simple dish to prepare and featured some of our favorite ingredients (olives, shallots, pine nuts, capers, raisins, and garlic), including a few from our garden (fresh fennel, tomatoes, basil, parsley, and thyme). We paired it with a great sauvignon blanc, some Swiss chard from the garden, and it made for a great night. For the vegetarians out there, I recommend using this topping on anything you like, including pasta!

Birthday Boys

2010-10-03T22:22:00.001-04:00

We celebrated Eli's birthday a few weeks ago. It has been fun to see Eli and Eliza grow together and it is hard to believe that a year has gone by since he was born. A few months back Eli passed Eliza in weight and height – he’s off the charts.

Eliza likes to wear her cake dress for birthday parties!

Last week we also celebrated Preston’s 2nd birthday. Eliza had fun at his Elmo-themed spaghetti dinner party. She loves living across the street from Preston and being able to wave and say “hi” whenever he is at his front door. They have a lot of fun on Mondays and Fridays playing together. Preston is much bigger than Eliza but is very gentle and a pretty good sharer. Why is it that all of her friends are big boys?

Paris – Day 4 (Kirk’s Favorite Day)

2010-09-25T17:58:00.001-04:00

After bombarding you a few weeks ago with daily posts from our Paris trip in June, accept our apologies for the hiatus…we’re busy, OK? Actually, a big reason for this lag time between posts is due to the fact that I (Kirk) can’t adequately put Day 4 into words. You see, this was the best day of the trip for me, but I’m pretty sure that to nearly everyone else it may be one of the least exciting. So I’m warning you in advance: I may type a lot and I may geek out a bit, but please read on, because for me, a day in Paris (on a tight budget) couldn’t be better than this!

We started the day by visiting some sites within walking distance of our apartment, since we had big plans for the afternoon and didn’t want to miss them. One great thing about the museum passes we bought on our first day in Paris is that it exposes you to some smaller museums that you may otherwise overlook (or decide not to pay for). With passes in hand we visited the apartment and studio (now museum) of Eugene Delacroix. It was really cool to see the space where he lived and worked as well as some beautiful paintings. After that we headed to the Pantheon, which was incredibly impressive, as you can see from the pictures below. My favorite aspects were seeing Foucault’s pendulum (go get your geek on) and the tombs of French “national heroes” like Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Marie and Pierre Curie, and Louis Pasteur.

After exploring the Pantheon, we strolled along Rue Mouffetard, a quaint street with lovely shops and cafes. It may sound strange, but Lynne was craving warm soup, and I was craving Asian food, and by chance we found a great little Vietnamese place. If the food hadn’t been so terrific, it probably wouldn’t have been worth mentioning, but in a small room that could fit only 13 people, I had the best pho of my life. After that lunch, with my belly sloshing, we hopped the metro to head just west of the city to the destination I was most looking forward to visiting on this trip…

Roland Garros!

What a sight it was to see the brilliant red clay in person!

To best explain our experience at the French Open, I need to start from the beginning, and I do mean the very beginning (remember I warned this could be a high word count – if you don’t have the time to read, just page down to look at the pretty pictures from the matches and my encounter with the number one player in world). I was born in June of 1981…ok, not that beginning – rather the beginning of our plans to go to Paris. Early into parenthood, I realized that leaving Eliza behind to go on a trip was going to be very difficult, especially for Lynne. Thanks to the advice of some friends of mine who were young fathers, I learned that the best way to get your wife to agree to a long trip away from the baby is to let her pick anywhere in the world she wanted to go. Being an adventurous traveler, that didn’t seem like too tall a proposition.

After giving it a lot of thought, Lynne picked Paris, but that didn’t mean we could plan our trip just yet. Certain conditions had to be met before we could handle 11 days away from Eliza. It had to be after Eliza’s first birthday, breast feeding had to conclude, it had to make sense with my work schedule, and we had to take a practice getaway to test being away from Eliza. Eventually all of those conditions were met, and the trip could be booked. We had anticipated going some time in the early summer since it would be nice to time it with either our 5th anniversary (May 22) or birthdays (June 4 and 6), but to make it happen I had to organize the trip in about three weeks. Not an easy thing to do when you are as price conscious and detail oriented as I am when making large purchases or planning large events (and Lynne is too, which I’m sure you could tell if you were at our wedding in 2005).

Once we set the trip to be in late May/early June, which included our birthdays, I got to work figuring out where we’d stay, how we’d travel, and what we’d make sure not to miss in Paris. It didn’t even sink in right away that we had scheduled our trip to coincide with the French Open. This was probably a blessing in disguise because if I had realized it sooner, I may have pressured Lynne into scheduling the trip to accommodate me, instead of the other way around. Once I did realize we’d be in the city during the tennis major, I was giddy (yes, literally) with excitement.

For those who don’t know, I became a big tennis fan in junior high when I finally picked up the sport, played throughout high school, did my best to dominate intramurals at Purdue, and still enjoy it a lot today (both watching and playing). Growing up I was never able to attend a major tournament, and once I moved to Indianapolis, the (former) RCA Championships had fizzled down to a less than star-studded affair (and now it’s moved to Atlanta). While I was able to watch the Davis Cup in Birmingham, Alabama right before Eliza was born for my first major tennis event, it has been a goal of mine to attend all four majors (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open) sometime in my lifetime. I was thrilled that I was going to officially start tackling that to-do list.

Of course, wanting to go to the French Open while in Paris and actually finding tickets to attend are two very different things. Since we were planning the trip last minute, I knew I had to act fast, but I also had no clue about the best way to acquire tickets for an international sporting event. Here in the states, if I wanted last minute tickets to a Cubs game, I’d check prices on StubHub or one of the dozens of other ticket resale sites, Craigslist postings, EBay auctions, or even message boards on Cubs fan blogs. I found that on all these sites, French Open tickets were offered generically for sale (for ridiculously high prices), but with little detail. It looked fishy, so I spent hours scouring the French Open site (in English, thankfully) and reading through their online tournament program and guide. What I learned changed how I viewed sporting events in America.

To get French Open tickets on the secondary market, there was only one legitimate site to use, and it partnered with the French Tennis Federation. When an individual originally purchases tickets when they first go on sale earlier in the year, their name is printed on the ticket. The admission process to the event includes showing your ticket and a photo ID to match the name. This keeps people from selling tickets through any avenue other than the official sanctioned site, so you cannot buy legitimate tickets from a street hawker. While this is interesting, it isn’t too unique – it’s basically just an exclusivity arrangement with a site like StubHub. Here’s the catch though – if you are selling your French Open tickets, you can only sell them for face value!

I was shocked! I had expected to have to shell out a lot of cash to attend one day of the Open (which would still have been worth it since more likely than not it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity), but the system was set up so that tickets were consistently affordable. I thought this was not only novel, but a huge breath of fresh air in a sporting event landscape that has gotten more and more expensive every year in the states. This way, no one would snatch up tickets right away to turn a profit, instead only buying as many as they’d like to personally use or share with family and friends. I wish we could be that noble here, and it would make it a lot easier for families and kids to attend amazing sporting events.

So while I was thrilled to learn about this site and the face value tickets, that didn’t really solve my problem. Given that there wasn’t an incentive for people to buy tickets with the sole intent to resell them for profit, the secondary market for tickets should remain very limited, composed mostly of people who can’t attend an event they were planning to and also didn’t have any friends or family who wanted to go in their stead. The first two days I checked the tickets site, there wasn’t a single ticket for sale, including all 14 days of the tournament and tickets for all the featured stadium courts and general grounds. I was quickly disheartened, but I knew I had to do all I could to make this experience happen.

On my third day of looking, at about 2am (I wasn’t getting much sleep putting this trip together, especially trying to find a good apartment rental), I finally saw a listing for two tickets, and it just so happened that they were for a day we’d be in the city (the Open lasts two weeks, and we’d only be in town for the second week). I quickly clicked through the links to purchase them and then discovered that you could only purchase one at a time. Oh no! What if I bought one and the other was sold during that interim time confirming my credit card information? Oh well, I had to risk it, and as the confirmation website loaded I was already coming up with a back up plan if I was only able to get one (“Hey Lynne, you can go shopping while I watch tennis, is that OK?”). Fortunately, I was able to get both and I jumped up and did a silent victory celebration. Each ticket cost less than $20. Combined that was cheaper than an official French Open t-shirt!

The two tickets I purchased were for admission to the general grounds. At the major tennis events there are usually three featured courts that are housed inside stadiums, and then about 20 courts that are considered general admission. During the first week of any major, there are so many matches to be played that you can usually see players seeded worse than 5 on the side courts throughout the day. Check out the photo below to see how small the bleachers are on these side courts.

Ridiculously close! Unfortunately, we weren’t in Paris during that time, so we were attending on a Wednesday of the second week. In some ways, this was probably beneficial for my mental well being, as I likely would have experienced paralysis by analysis – not knowing which court to go watch when there were so many amazing options. During the second week of a major, the “grounds” tickets aren’t quite as desirable because the side courts feature mostly doubles and mixed doubles. As the field narrows, there simply isn’t a need to play on the outer courts, since there are three stadium courts for the remaining matches. When I purchased the tickets, I knew this, but I didn’t care. I didn’t mind watching wheelchair or mixed doubles as long as I could be at Roland Garros. One additional consolation was the fact that the smallest of the three stadium courts (Court 1) was covered with my ticket starting that day, so there might be more opportunities to see featured matches. Also, I was savvy enough to realize that if there was any rain earlier in the week, it could change the schedule and cause high profile matches to be played on the side courts for the sake of time.

OK, that’s enough back story. The day was upon us. We headed to the gate, and I was a man on a missions. There had, in fact, been a little bit of rain earlier in the week which meant the women’s doubles semi-finals were happening on Court 1, so we had tickets for them. Upon arrival, my expectation was to see a long line of people (all with “grounds” tickets like us) waiting to get into Court 1 to see these featured matches, especially since the matches on the side courts were mixed doubles (without any big stars), wheel chair tennis, or juniors singles and doubles. Clearly, if you hard “grounds” tickets, Court 1 was the only place you’d want to be. Lynne and I jogged over to Court 1 to discover no lines and hundreds of empty seats. I was giddy. The first women’s doubles semi-final was in progress, and we could sit as close as we wanted. The pictures below can put it a little into perspective. You can see the size of Court 1 and where we were sitting.

Many of you reading may wonder why I was so surprised to see so many open seats for women’s doubles. Here were my reasons:

1. It’s the semi-finals! That means you’ll see eight of the best doubles players in the world, with a chance to win a major tournament.

2. With “grounds” tickets, the only other matches to watch in person were lesser-knowns playing mixed doubles, juniors, or exhibition wheelchair tennis (which I did get to watch, and it’s pretty cool).

3. Did I mention what women were playing? Sure, six of them were doubles specialists that the average tennis fan has never heard of, but in the second semi-final match we got to see Venus and Serena Williams play! Check out all of our photos below. We were so close it was surreal.

The sisters are discussing strategy…or are they?

Venus: “Did you see that guy with the cool camera? I’m kind of worried he’s going to jump out on the court and try to give us a hug.”

Serena: “It’s ok, his wife will stop him. He knows I’d beat him up anyway.”

Have I mentioned how much I love our camera?!

As a man, it’s humbling to watch the power with which the Williams sisters play. Their second serves are still faster than most of my first serves.

Serena: “That dude’s still taking pictures of us. I think he must have 500 pictures already!”

Venus: “Maybe I should flash him some leg then.”

You can see their mom sitting right behind them. After watching your kids win and lose hundreds of “big” matches, it must be pretty dang mundane.

Do you look so graceful when you play tennis?

The match was pretty interesting. About 30 minutes before the match began, Serena was walking off the main court where she had lost her singles match in the quarterfinals. She was justifiably upset. Serena was the top seed and (at the time) best player in the sport (Kim Clijsters is giving her a run for her money now). It must be hard to have to collect yourself after a tough loss and then immediately go play another important (albeit slightly less so) match. It also had to be hard for Venus. What do you say to your sister? “Sorry you lost, but snap out of it, we have work to do.”

The first set was tragic for the Williams sisters. It seemed that every shot Serena hit was full of such anger, while Venus simply tried to ignore her sister’s mistakes while playing too conservative trying not to make her own. Serena’s shots were hit so hard but with little focus, and they kept smashing into the net or sailing long. Of course, they weren’t playing against your average intramural team; they were facing one of the best doubles teams in the world. After losing a disappointing first set, the girls got it together and won the next two sets to win the match (3-6, 6-2, 6-4). When they are playing good tennis, I don’t think any women’s doubles team in history could get a set off of them. It’s really cool that, unlike most of the top singles players, the Williams sisters play doubles (and they used to play some mixed doubles), which just proves how dominate they are.

The other semi-final match was also a highly contested three set battle that had some amazing points and rallies. Later in the week, the Williams sisters would win handedly in the finals.

It’s always fun to see an argument with the chair umpire!

In between matches we were able to walk around the grounds. On reason for the low turnout at Court 1 was the fact that Rafael Nadal was playing his quarterfinal match at the same time on the main court. Most people with grounds tickets chose to watch that match on the big screen right outside Court 1 instead of walking up the stairs to watch live tennis. Kind of odd, but the French do love them some Rafa! As we took in all the sights around Roland Garros I got to see some juniors play, tennis legend Goran Ivanisevic, wheel chair tennis, mixed doubles, and lots of finely dressed rich Parisians. The place is beautiful, with lots of greenery, helpful staff, and incredibly clean facilities.

The final match of the night was a “legends” match, which features former stars playing some friendly doubles. It’s really just an extra treat for the paying customers, and since a lot of these legends are in town as broadcasters, commentators, coaches, and fans, it’s pretty easy to get them on the court playing the sport they used to dominate. I was really excited to see Martina Navratilova, possibly the best female tennis player of all time. She teamed up with Jana Novotna to face Mary Jo Fernandez and Conchita Martinez, all of whom were stars when I first started getting into tennis. Even though the quality of play was pretty poor, it was still exciting to see them all play and just to be there.

Once the exhibition match was over, the day at Roland Garros was complete. Fans quickly left, but Lynne and I decided to continue to stroll around the grounds. Our only plans for the rest of the evening were to grab dinner, so we were in no hurry, and I honestly didn’t want to leave. Eventually, we saw almost all of the staff leaving, walked alongside some mixed doubles players who were chatting after their match, took a lot of pictures, and realized we should probably head to the exit before getting thrown out. I’d estimate there were probably less than 30 fans there when we finally left. It turns out that waiting around had some added benefits.

As we walked back to the entrance, we came across a group of 6 or 7 kids standing around a security guard. They were all speaking French, but it seemed as though there was someone eating at the club restaurant and the kids were clamoring for the guard to let them see him/her. Of course the guard was having none of it, but I figured (as did the kids) that if we waited around, we might see who it was. We waited around somewhat awkwardly for about 10 minutes. There were a few parents, but really just some young kids and one big kid (me). Eventually a yell rang out and we saw who everyone had been waiting for, cleverly escorted through a different exit. We ran over and there I was, standing a few feet from Rafael Nadal.

It’s pretty cool that I had to actually move farther away to get a good picture. The kids were screaming “Rafa!” and clamoring for autographs, and I was just running around snapping as many photos as I could with a huge grin on my face. I was pretty sure that if I got too close to him, I’d get pounced on by the security guards, since I was the only one over the age of 14 and the only viable security threat. Eh, it would have been worth it to give Rafa a hug, but he either would have crushed me with those guns (seriously, for his smaller frame, the guy is built!) or I would have injured him and gotten in the way of him winning the whole dang tournament! Nadal simply owns Roland Garros, and the fans all know it.

That was the perfect end to our day at the French Open. I was beaming as we walked back to the subway. One tennis major down, three to go!

Shrimp Boil

2010-09-23T11:41:00.001-04:00

The other weekend we had the opportunity to get together with our small group from church and enjoy a huge feast, the outdoors, and good fellowship. Meredith and Tony invited all of us over to Tony’s place, which is a large lodge (say that 10 times fast!) up in Westfield where his sister and brother-in-law live. The grounds were about 100 acres, half farm land and half the former site of some huge bluegrass festival. There are even old faucets and camp hookups to prove it, as well as a big barn, outhouse, chicken coop, and pond. It sure didn’t feel like we were less than 20 minutes from Indianapolis!

So how about that food? Wow, was it good. We enjoyed an old school shrimp boil, cooked in a giant pot over a pit of hot coals (due to dryness we couldn’t have an open fire). Large shrimp, andouille sausage, potatoes, corn on the cob, onions, spices…all good things graced the pot and were poured out on the table. Everyone sure got their fill, including Kirk who helped guarantee that there weren’t any undesired leftovers.

Another fun fact – Kirk was thrilled to learn that the house was actually owned by Purdue alum and current NBA star (ok, benchwarmer, but who cares?!) Brian Cardinal.

Traveling the World in Food

2010-09-13T11:15:00.002-04:00

This weekend we hosted Alex and Sonja for one of our back-and-forth dinners. The goal this time was to try to keep things simple, vegetarian, and delicious, while utilizing things in season, from the garden, and appropriate for a late summer/early fall meal. Lynne had two family dishes she wanted us to make (one from her mom, one from her dad), and then we found other great ideas online to complete a somewhat “traditional dishes from around the world” menu. The menu also honors our beloved Anthony Bourdain and his world-travelling cook’s tour, who we look forward to seeing in Indy in a couple weeks!

We started in Central America with a Calabaza, Corn, and Coconut Soup. This was excellent, and the corn, lime, and cilantro relish simply made the dish. This may be the first non-Asian dish I ever cooked with coconut milk, and it was a more subdued flavor than southeast Asian coconut milk soups. This was so good that I had to stop myself from eating it for breakfast the next day.

Next, we hopped in our private jet (imaginary, so what!) and headed west to Japan for Tofu Dengaku. This is a traditional Japanese dish featuring grilled tofu skewers in a vey flavorful miso paste. This was the first time I had cooked tofu in years, and I was pretty happy with how it turned out. The miso paste (disclaimer – I LOVE MISO) was spectacular, and I’m glad some was left over to put on future dishes (it was really good on my eggs the next day).

Hopping back in our jet, we continued further west to the Middle East where we sampled some amazing Tabbouleh. This was a dish we had made once before and enjoyed first thanks to Lynne’s dad. It is so refreshing and a great way to utilize herbs and vegetables from the garden. So far we have only harvested two huge tomatoes from our pink heirloom plant, but it was worth using them on this dish (along with some of our smaller yellow tomatoes).

We gassed the jet up again for another flight, this time to Italy to enjoy Mozzarella-Stuffed Grilled Portobellos with Balsamic Marinade. These were fantastic (and it helped eating two per person – FYI for your future meal planning purposes!). I found that some of the breading didn’t brown as quickly on the grill, which required me to flip them over. This was risky, but I found that I didn’t lose much topping by that point. We decided that these were basically deconstructed pizzas – bread crumbs on top instead of crust on bottom, cheese and herbs in the middle, balsamic as the “sauce,” and mushrooms on the bottom.

We finished our trip by heading back to the U.S. and enjoying apple dumplings and vanilla ice cream. These treats were a favorite of Lynne’s growing up and a recipe from her grandma. We used a better dough recipe though, and Lynne’s mom was quite impressed. The crust was top-notch, and this was quite a filling dessert!

It was a fantastic night with friends, playing with cameras and tripods, and eating!

Paris - Day 3

2010-09-13T00:56:00.001-04:00

For our third day in Paris, we got out of the city and took the train to Versailles. It was great to see the countryside, even though it was quite overcast. The walk from the train station to the chateau was nice as we got to see a bit of the village and some of the cool buildings that used to house other government official. Overall, it’s difficult to describe Versailles to someone who has never been. The tremendous scale of the buildings, rooms, decor, gardens, and overall estate are quite overwhelming, and most of the time it is hard to wrap your mind around the fact that someone actually lived this way (and at what expense to the common folk?)

The gilding was amazing and after looking at my dad’s (Lynne) photos from 2005 it looks very different. They did a renovation of the exterior and the Louis XIV statue was even moved forward hundreds of feet to reside farther from the entrance gate.

The hall of mirrors was incredible to see but we also loved the hall with all the war paintings that document French military history. It felt very similar to the grand hall in The Louvre (which we visited later in the week).

During the first half of the trip the weather was cool and then it really heated up. As we entered the garden it started to mist and continued to rain on and off while we walk around. The gardens are typically free unless they are having a fountain show. The word “show” should be used very loosely as it really just means that they turn the fountains on! Since everyone had paid for the show, hundreds of people sat around the fountains and waited. The fountains turned on and it was impressive but we all kept looking at each other and waiting for something else to happen. There had to be some lights or maybe even fountains synchronized with music, right? No, but in the end, I am glad to say that we at least saw the fountains in their full glory.

This was an interesting aspect of the chateau. There were many rooms that had small doors near the ceiling where musicians could play for the evenings entertainment, especially when the king and queen had apartment parties (the meaning being very different from what we consider “apartments” and “parties,” of course!). It would have been amazing to see all the inner-workings of the chateau, with the numerous passageways and hidden doors…maybe after our coronation, right?

A couple miles walk from the chateau, through the beautiful gardens, and you arrive at some of the other buildings utilized by the king and his family. The Grand Trianon and Petit Trianon basically served as little vacation palaces that were apparently far enough away from the chateau for some peace and quite. This is also where Marie Antoinette had her little getaway village built (Hameau de la reine), which surprised us by being the highlight of the day. By the time we made it this deep into the grounds it was raining pretty hard. We were the farthest from the main house we had been and soaking wet, but we were determined to see this area before everything closed for the evening. Fortunately we were able to find shelter under some parts of these picturesque buildings, and Kirk braved the rain with our amazing camera. With his jacket (drenched, of course) draped over his head and a couple feet in front of his body (leaving his back exposed to the weather), he was able to protect the camera while running around in the mud to get some great photos of the buildings. Of course, our camera is so awesome that you can’t even tell it’s raining hard! But if you look at the pond in the last picture you can see the splashing drops. I think he rattled off about fifty good pictures in five minutes, and then we waited for the rain to let up a little before making the long walk back to the chateau.

After we got back to Paris, we went for a walk just north of St. Germain on some cute little streets were there were a lot of restaurant options. Tired, and a bit wet from the rain, we were looking for a quiet place to relax. We stumbled upon Vins et Terroirs on Rue St. Andre des Arts, and we couldn’t have been happier. We enjoyed some fantastic house wine, a Roquefort ravioli that was so rich and delicious, and a pork dish with apples. I could eat the ravioli everyday, and such a fantastic meal was the perfect end to the night.

Paris – Day 2

2010-09-07T10:18:00.001-04:00

Our first full day in Paris was just about perfect (like every day we had there). We visited museums, ate pastries, went to cathedrals and ate dinner on the Seine. The first stop for the day was at Stohrer on Rue Montorgueil in the Les Halles district, for the best éclair in Paris. After sharing one, we agree completely. Can someone please tell me why Americans do not fill there éclairs with chocolate filling?! Rue Montorgueil was such a fun street, with so many wonderful shops, fresh markets, and locals sitting at cafes. Kirk discovered this street early on our first day when he had to venture out on his own (leaving me at the metro station) to find the apartment agency offices to get our key. It was a lot busier on a Monday morning, but still quite quaint.

After a stroll around Les Halles we headed to the nearby Centre Pompidou but were disappointed that it wasn’t open for another hour. Not wanting to waste any time, we kept walking and marveled at the Hotel de Ville. On the grounds around the Hotel they had set up a fan zone to watch the French Open on a jumbotron and for kids to play on mini-clay courts. This got Kirk very excited for our French Open plans later in the week. We then walked across the river to Cathedral Notre Dame. It was truly an amazing thing to see this in person. Every inch is a beautifully sculpted masterpiece. The interior was not at all what I expected it to be, and I can’t even say why. I think that it was darker then I imagined and so I didn’t feel like I could see all the detail well.

After Notre Dame we went to Sainte-Chapelle and this was hands down the most spectacular cathedral we saw on the trip. Where Notre Dame let me down a bit with its interior, Sainte-Chapelle is a true wonder inside. The cathedral is located in the courtyard of the former royal palace. Each wall is decorated in elaborate stained glass that depict Biblical scenes. They were doing some construction on one end wall so that was a bit of a bummer but the entire effect was still amazing. It was also interesting to see the lower level, with its low ceilings and lack of comparative grandeur (don’t get me wrong, it was still quite fancy), where the lesser nobles had access, since only the royal family was able to worship in the main chapel.

After that, thanks to our sweet museum passes (basically, for a flat fee we were able to go into nearly any museum as often as we liked and skip some of the lines) we visited the Conciergerie next door. This was used as a prison during the French Revolution, and Marie Antoinette was kept there for awhile.

Next we headed back to Les Halles for a relaxing lunch (humongous quiche and cafe creme) and then returned to Pompidou. To some, this modern building is an eyesore, but we felt it was really intriguing amid the historic Parisian buildings. It houses a modern art museum, movie theater, shops, and restaurants. The tube on the outside is a series of escalators that are the only way to move between levels. The idea behind the building was to expose all these necessary wires, vents and so forth as something beautiful and not just functional.

Inside the museum there was a lot to take in. Kirk isn’t a huge fan of modern art, but we found lots of pieces we really enjoyed – as well as many that left us perplexed, disgusted, or amused. Kirk’s “favorite” example of modern art is a piece he first experienced at the Art Institute of Chicago many years ago called Red Plank. At first, he scoffed at the fact that a simple red board leaning against a wall would be worthy of an art museum, but now it’s become the art by which he measures all other modern art, and a bit of a running joke. You should have seen his face when we walked into a room with dozens of “red planks.” Paris art for the win.

Another cool thing at Pompidou was art that allowed you to participate. In one small room there were a few exhibits that allowed the viewer to sit/lay/stand on. A security guard only allowed three people in the room at a time, so that you could have a personal experience with the art. We thought it was fun!

Pompidou also had a floor devoted to modern art from earlier in the 20th century, including works by Picasso, Kandinsky, Matisse, Chagall, Mondrian, Klee, Dali, Giacometti (one of Kirk’s favorites), and many more. After the museum we headed to the Ile St. Louis for shopping and dinner. There were so many great shops and very few people around, so it was quite a little retreat from the rest of the city. There was one store that was very unique – a retailer for a duck farm in the French countryside that sold foie gras and other duck goodies. We got a free (large) sample along with some wine they make just to pair perfectly with the foie. It was great, and Kirk bought some duck confit to take home and cook up. This made us hungry, so we bought some dinner to go and ate down by the river which was quite beautiful and romantic (despite the wind). For dessert we found a fantastic little creperie and shared a crepe with honey and another with homemade vanilla ice cream, chocolate and almonds.

Man Trip

2010-09-06T14:35:00.002-04:00

Last weekend the guys from our small group went on a man trip to Great Smoky Mountain National Park for three days of hiking and camping. You can read a ton about the trip here, thanks to Alex (and his brother’s hiking blog). It was a fantastic trip, and personally, I really fell in love with the entire camping/hiking experience. Despite being dirty, tired, sore, and sleeping on the ground, the views, the fresh air, the exercise, and the time together with friends were invigorating.

We were able to hike a portion of the Appalachian Trail (hey, three miles still counts!) and enjoy the views from Gregory’s Bald. I finally got to put my big backpack to use after purchasing it in China in 2006 (North Face knock-off for about $15), as well as camping pots and pans Lynne’s family had given us. It was fun to see all the gear we were able to piece together from friends, family, garage sales (since only one of us had much experience), and some new stuff of course, but it’s hard not to get swept up in all the amazing backpacking gear that is out there.

Other highlights included a trip on the Tail of the Dragon (quite the winding road), some fantastic camp food thanks to Alex, close encounters with deer, and a black bear sighting! The trail we were planning to hike was closed down this season due to high bear activity, so it’s been an abnormal year for them. We met one couple that had hiked the Smokies for 20 years and never seen one, so we definitely lucked out. I can’t wait to do another trip like this – maybe for an entire week next time!. I learned a lot on this trip that I think I could handle it.

All photos courtesy of Alex (who braved the terrain with his DSLR)

Day 1 – don’t we look like a tough crew?

This was our first camp on the trail, near the top of the mountain. Those deer sure got close!

Tuna pesto pitas for dinner! Really good stuff, especially after a long hike uphill. We were fortunate to find this nice grate at the campsite.

At the top of Gregory‘s Bald (4949 feet).

Gregory’s Bald – what a nice view!

Six men walk into the woods…

The App Trail sign alone made us feel manly.

There’re bears in them thar hills!

Second night in the woods. Thanks to Josh and Josh we always had great fires. This is where we saw the bear.

I was the only one that wanted to go swimming, go figure!

The end of the trip – can you smell us in this picture? And yes, I rocked the sweatband since my hat got quite disgusting. Aren’t I a hipster.

Best. Flank. Ever.

2010-09-06T13:20:00.001-04:00

We’re definitely fans of flank steak, and Sunday night we had one to grill up. Looking through my fridge, I didn’t have a marinade I wanted to use, so I checked my standard default cooking idea site – epicurious.com. Little did I know that a simple search would result in the BEST FLANK EVER!

I didn’t have that many ingredients on hand, so I was planning a simple marinade with soy sauce and lemon, since we always seem to have those. Typing in “lemon soy sauce marinade” brought me to only a few options, and I clicked on steak in lettuce rolls. I wasn’t planning on serving anything in a lettuce roll (seems more like an appetizer to me), but I thought it would give me a nice marinade plan. Of course, the recipe immediately looked like a winner in every way: it was specifically for flank steak, it was from David Chang at Momofuku, and it included a scallion salad. I have so many scallions growing in the garden that I can’t find enough things to do with them. The salad also called for chiles, and since I have a multitude of jalapenos in the garden, it seemed like a quick and easy substitution.

The marinade included slices of onion with instructions to remove them from the marinade once the steak was on the grill and then cook them on the stove to add to the steak later. Instead, I thought it would be interesting to reduce the entire marinade, onions and all, to make a sweet sauce. And what to serve with the steak, salad, and sauce? Since I was out in the garden, Swiss chard, which we still have tons of, seemed like the obvious choice.

The results? The steak was cooked perfectly and the marinade was excellent. The chard was as delicious as ever. But what really made the dish was the scallion salad and the marinade sauce. The sauce was sweet and the salad (which we ate like a sauce) was the perfect salt/vinegar combination. In fact, the scallion salad was so delicious I made a double batch of it again today and had it on my eggs for breakfast (happy Labor Day!). Click the link above for the entire recipe, but here’s the salad:

Scallion Salad

1 large bunch scallions, finely chopped
2 red chiles, seeded and thinly sliced
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoons dark (toasted) sesame oil

I know this picture isn’t as good as the pro-food-bloggers out there, but I think it’s close. It’s hard to spend time photographing food when you want to eat it so badly! (And I don’t know how to edit photos like Lynne, so this isn’t touched up)

Paris – Day 1

2010-09-06T00:32:00.001-04:00

It is never easy to travel overseas, and I never seem to remember that until it hits me like a brick wall. I think this collision occurred somewhere in the Amsterdam airport. I am sure that it is a fine airport, but at 6am after flying all night from Indianapolis, it wasn’t so enjoyable. After an hour flight to Paris, lost luggage, a long train ride from the airport, metro trips to get our apartment key, Kirk’s first adventure on the street’s of Paris, and arrival at our less-than-anticipated apartment, I was hurting and hungry. We took quick showers and headed out to find something to eat. We found out quickly how amazing our neighborhood was, which we will talk more about later. One of the things we loved was the large assortment of great restaurants and for our first meal we picked something simple and quick - Italian. I know it is a bit boring to eat something so pedestrian for your first meal in Paris, but our stomachs were a bit confused, we were tired, and we wanted to play it safe. It was also a Sunday morning, so not everything was open. Kirk had a delicious pizza and I had pasta – nothing too fantastic, but still very tasty. After our stomachs were filled I needed a few hours sleep in order to function. Since our luggage didn’t make the Amsterdam connection, we had to hang around the apartment to wait for a call informing us of when the bags would arrive. At least we didn’t have to lug them around the metro (especially since our stop didn’t have an escalator). After a good nap my eyes were finally able to take in this amazing city!

And that is when the trip really began…

Our apartment was located just south of Boulevard Saint Germain on the Left Bank, near the Latin Quarter, and one block from Saint Sulpice and Le Marche Saint Germain. Saint Sulpice is such an amazing church, but we’ll post more about our visit there later. It was near a few different metro lines, which was quite convenient. Just south of the apartment was the Jardin du Luxembourg, which we were able to visit later in the day.

Only a few blocks from our apartment was one of the most famous macaron shops in the city – Pierre Herme. They actually do not call them shops but boutiques and that sure helps you develop the mental image of a dessert patisserie. This was an amazing intro into Paris’s delectable shops! Check out what other bloggers had to say about these macarons here. Enjoying these treats has been described as “eating money” due to their small size and high cost, but they were totally worth it for such a special occasion.

I didn’t take any pictures inside the boutique (didn’t want to be that big of a tourist!) so I found the picture above here.

With our macarons in toe we headed off to Jardin du Luxembourg. I wanted to eat a macaroon or two on the way but Kirk would have nothing of it! Instead, we sat in the green chairs and slowly savored sweet sugar heaven!

We then took a short walk to the Cluny Museum of the Middle Ages. We really liked it. Kirk is a big geek of that time period, having focused his literature and philosophy degree studies on that era. It was a great smaller museum that had a lot to see and learn but was not overwhelming for our jetlagged minds.

Our favorite room in the museum was one that had a variety of statues from Notre Dame and other cathedrals that had been damaged during the revolution. Most of the saints had their heads removed and were severely defaced, and the original heads weren’t discovered until a nearby excavation in 1977! How would you like to find those in your backyard? It was amazing how large the sculptures were, too.

That evening, after receiving our luggage and finally getting out of our travel clothes, we went to a classic brasserie in our neighborhood for a delicious three course meal. Over a three-hour dinner, we enjoyed beef carpaccio, lamb, the best bouillabaisse I have ever had (we’re talking white fish, salmon, clams, at least 50 mussels, and a broth Kirk could drink by the liter), dessert, and loads of fresh baguette and butter. By the end of the trip we affirmed that this was the best tasting butter we had the entire stay.

So despite a bit of a rough first day, we went to bed happy with full bellies and high expectations for the rest of the trip.

Forget Paris?

2010-09-05T23:01:00.001-04:00

Three months ago we were in Paris. I know a lot of people have been waiting anxiously to read more about the trip, so we’re excited to finally be blogging about it. It took a while to process our 3,000+ photos, and even though the trip seems like a long time ago, we have a lot of memories to share! Day 1 coming soon…

It’s All Greek to Her

2010-08-31T09:38:00.001-04:00

We have been trying to get Eliza to use her words more and not just point or grunt. I taught her “up” last week and it is now her favorite word, but it comes out as “uhhhhPuh!” It is never said softly either. She has loved finding her voice and being heard, so it’s no surprise that “up” is so loudly stated. She loves saying it so much that it is now also used for “down,” “on,” “in,” and “out”…we have a little work to do on those.

While Kirk was gone she also mastered “Hi Dada” on the phone. Now she wants to say it whenever you hand her any phone, usually shouting it before she hears who is actually on the line.

Ladies Who Brunch

2010-08-29T23:52:00.002-04:00

While the men were all off hiking and doing manly things (you will hear more about that soon) we ladies got together for a refined brunch. It was great hanging out and sharing a beautiful Saturday together. We even got some shopping in, and I hope that we can do it all again soon. Such fun!

One Day it Will End

2010-08-29T23:46:00.002-04:00

Don’t tell Eliza that the raspberries can’t grow all year round. This week I (or Kirk) have gone out and picked them everyday for breakfast. She isn’t going to know what hit her come fall…

Friday Night Next Door

2010-08-29T23:42:00.002-04:00

When Kirk is gone we often go next door and have dinner with Meg and Nick on the patio. This night was a lot of fun and a lot of mess! Eliza decided to drop and break a glass dish of ours, Nick let us all tug on his tooth until we finally got it out, and then Eliza decided to play in the sprinkler puddles. There was a bit of ice cream thrown in there as well. If you couldn’t guess, we came right home for a bath. She loved playing with big kids and learning the ins and outs of outdoor fun.

Nick was such a champ! I love the bloody chin and teary eyes, but I don’t think he ever stopped smiling.

The Zoo

2010-08-29T23:16:00.002-04:00

We went to the zoo this week with our neighbors. Eliza had so much fun. She squealed and pointed at all the animals. All the “characters” in her picture books came to life, and she couldn’t contain her joy. She now points to their pictures with a new found excitement!

Sorry for all the pictures of the back of her head. Let’s just say that she didn’t have eyes for the camera.

Picture Books

2010-08-26T23:21:00.002-04:00

Over the past week Eliza has loved her picture books even more. They are the only books that we are allowed to read her right now. She loves to look at all the pictures and point out what she knows. The Best Word Book Ever is her favorite. It has two pages full of trucks, cars, semis, and motorcycles! Thanks Grandma Debby for getting it for her. She also loves The Baby's Catalogue. This was my favorite book as a kid too. I hope that she continues to love to read (and look at pictures)!

Time to Eat Again???

2010-08-25T23:50:00.001-04:00

It can often be a stress for me to figure out what Eliza is going to eat next. She is not a picky eater but everything must have flavor! Like any parent, our goal is to give her the best diet that we can. I have found that it is all about setting a rotation and getting the right foods in front of her at the right time. There are a few things that she will eat anytime of day…okra, raspberries, and crackers. Fortunately, Kirk is growing lots of okra and raspberries in the garden (crackers not so much). Her Papa has nicknamed her Polly because “Polly wants a cracker.” Like many kids, green veggies are sometimes the most difficult to get her to eat. She loves quesadillas, corn on the cob, English muffin pizzas, mac and cheese, oatmeal, pears, peaches, oranges, broccoli, polenta, peas, grilled cheese, and tortellini to name a few (or a bunch). This next week I am going to try to cook up something new. She is always up for that.

She spotted them and is diving in.

What is Your Name?

2010-08-25T12:09:00.001-04:00

L-I-Z-A

Eliza loves to tell you her name. She can’t get the first “E” in there yet but one day!