Archive for July, 2007
I’m absolutely *loving* Kraft’s light three-cheese ranch salad dressing right now. My mom recently got me hooked on it. (And that’s a miracle, considering that I usually can’t *stand* light or fat-free salad dressings ~ especially ranch!) But it’s delicious. I wanna use some as a veggie dip. By the way, my husband’s current favorite salad dressing is Newman’s Own Lite Raspberry-Walnut Vinaigrette.
Meredith isn’t nine months old yet. That happens at 10:55 p.m. this evening! :) But she had her nine-month pediatrician checkup this morning, and the doctor gave her a clean bill of health. Our little girl is doing just great! She now weighs 16 pounds, 15 ounces (and I’m sure that when we got home and I fed her, she cleared that 17-pound mark!). LOL! :) She now measures 28 inches in length with a head circumference of 45.5 cm. The only part of her appointment that she didn’t like was when the nurse pricked her tiny finger for a hemoglobin check (the results came back just fine). She cried quite a bit but was brave and did OK. She fell asleep briefly after her checkup (Lucas always used to do that, too!), and now she’s down for a nap. I haven’t taken a single picture of her yet today ~ must do that! Oh, and I actually finished two 12″x12″ scrapbook pages today. I need to add a few more embellishments (any suggestions?), but … they’re simple layouts, for the most part. (And hey, I managed to get a pretty good digital shot of the pages this time. How do people do that?) Nine months old has always seemed like such a strange milestone to me. Meredith has now been on the outside for longer than she was inside my tummy! And … that just reminds me that time is flying by *so* very quickly. Three more months and we’ll be having a first birthday party! Incredible! I am *so* in love with this little girl and want to cherish every moment of her “babyhood” as much as I possibly can. I think that some cuddling and snuggling is in order this evening! :)
I didn’t get to meet fellow blogger Cady and her husband, Joe, last night while they were staying in Albany. :( It was completely my fault, too, and I feel absolutely *horrible* about the situation. I did get to speak with them on the phone, though, which was fun! Cady seems like such a sweet and kind person. Hopefully we’ll be able to connect in person down the road, although I’m not sure when. Ironically, my husband is flying to Atlanta, GA next month for a business trip! I *so* wish that we all could go, but unfortunately that would be way too expensive.
How is it possible that the month of July is almost over? Time is flying by *so* very fast. (I find myself repeating that phrase quite often.) What’s happening to our summer? And I can’t *believe* that our little girl turns nine months old on Tuesday! She has a checkup at the pediatrician’s office that day, and it’ll be interesting to see how much she weighs now. (I’ll blog about her appointment, of course!) This weekend, I snapped some nine-month pictures of our little Merry Bear by the Hudson River, not too far from our house. She squinted a lot because the sun was *so* bright ~ plus, I tried to hurry so that she wouldn’t get overheated by the hot and humid weather. But I’m very pleased with how the pictures turned out … especially this one. She seems to have a fascination with yellow duckies!
Made for tomorrow’s “bake sale” at our local post office: banana zucchini raisin muffins (with whole-wheat flour) and mini berry cornmeal cakes with fresh basil! They both turned out great!
I took the above photo when I was driving through Stuyvesant Falls, NY this morning. (That’s the next town over from where we live.) I was driving around trying to find their volunteer fire station so that I could snap a picture to accompany the feature story that I’m writing. Anyway, I’ve seen St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church several times from the road, but today … the little shrine behind the church kind of caught my eye. I stopped to take a look. Wow. As I ascended the steps to get closer, I felt like I was walking on something sacred. The statues were magnificent. And I loved the way that the sunlight was streaming through the trees just over the right shoulder of the main statue. It felt inspiring. And I felt like staying there for a while and even saying a little prayer ~ it was just that serene and peaceful. But I was afraid to leave Lucas and Meredith in the car for too long, so I basically just captured some shots and left. I didn’t do a thing to this photo ~ no PhotoShop, nothing. I *love* how it turned out. Wouldn’t it be gorgeous to hold a wedding ceremony in front of those statues? It’s *amazing* what beautiful things I’ve found in our area just by keeping my eyes open.
I think that I’ve blogged before about how much Lucas *loves* cars. (And trucks, and construction equipment, and vehicles of any type, pretty much.) Well, his thoughtful Uncle Vince made a special blog page just for him ~ displaying all of the different vehicle emblems. He has *so* much fun looking at everything. Just yesterday, he picked up my latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine, saw a truck advertisement, and said, “GMC!” But wait ~ there’s more! Lucas *loves* to count, and yesterday he started saying, “16.” We haven’t taught him that number yet, so I’m not sure where he picked it up. But … age 16 is also when you can get your driver’s license. Coincidence? I think not. Seriously, our little guy is going to be a racecar driver someday … or maybe own his own car dealership. :)
And here’s a little story about our Merry Bear. Last night, when my husband placed her onto the floor to play, she noticed that there were two ESDs in front of her. (That’s our word for pacifier ~ “Evil Sucking Device.”) And what did she do? Picked up the purple one, which matched her outfit. Good girl! It’s never too early to accessorize! :)
That brings me to the conversation that my husband and I had yesterday. (Wow ~ I have funny stories about *everyone* tonight!) We were talking about … poop. (Which has become a common topic of conversation for the past few years!)
Editorgirl challenged me to list eight random things about myself, so … here goes! :)
1] I started taking piano lessons in fifth grade and continued through my senior year of high school. (Actually, I also took a piano course at Indiana University.) I enjoyed piano, but I didn’t practice nearly as much as I should have. For the most part, I got to choose the songs that I wanted to learn. (Mom and Dad, how many times did I play “Fur Elise”???) I played in recitals every year, and my senior year, I was one of the featured soloists. I often wonder what happened to my piano teacher and how she’s doing. I feel proud of the fact that now, even though I haven’t touched a piano in many years, I could probably sit down and read a piece of music decently well.
2] I ranked 26th out of 412 students in my high school graduating class. Not bad, really! I was shooting for the top 10, but I feel proud of what I achieved.
3] My parents first heard the name “Lisanne” when they met the owner of a restaurant in Nashville, IN. They frequented that restaurant when they were dating/first married (they used to live in Brown County, IN). They’d considered the name “Lydia Abigail” for me at first, but when they heard “Lisanne,” they absolutely fell in love with it and *knew* that was the right name. The owner of that restaurant now lives in North Carolina, I believe, and I actually received an e-mail from her several years ago! I love how unique my name is.
Back on July 13th (a Friday the 13th, mind you!) ~ when we were staying at Spencer and Brandee’s house ~ I struck up a conversation with one of their neighbors while I was pushing Lucas and our nephew, Tyson, on the swingset in their backyard. I noticed that he was redoing his fence, and I mentioned something about how *beautiful* the weather was that day. He wondered about what it’s like to live in New York; I asked him about his neighborhood. He seemed like a really nice and friendly guy.
That’s when I casually mentioned his pretty garden. I’d been admiring it for a few days; I thought about how wonderful it would be to have the time to grow all kinds of produce in our backyard like that. (But I *think* that would require actually watering and fertilizing things.) He talked about how Indiana *desperately* needs rain, but then he said that his zucchini crop kind of went overboard this year. “Would you like to have some zucchini to take home with you?” he asked. How sweet was that? “Oh, we’d love some! Zucchini is great!” I replied. So he disappeared for a minute or two, and I went back to pushing the kids on the swings.
After a while, I saw him out of the corner of my eye. I turned around to meet him by their fence, and that’s when my jaw completely dropped to the ground. In his arms was the most *ginormous* zucchini that I’d ever seen in my entire life! Here’s the photo to prove it (with my cell phone included to show the “scale”):
I enjoyed some “Mommy and Meredith time” this morning. We headed over to the Kinderhook, NY farmer’s market and found a bunch of neat stuff. Can you believe how *gorgeous* those sour cherries are? Absolutely picture-perfect! I’ll probably make cherry crisp (or cherry chocolate chip muffins ~ wouldn’t those be good?). I also bought some gooseberries, which I don’t think that I’d ever tried before. They have great flavor but are kind of seedy. I have *no* clue what to do with them. (Any ideas?) I also couldn’t resist buying some new herbs to plant in our garden. On the left is chocolate mint, and on the right is “tutti-frutti mint.” Unusual! The guy who sold them to me said that he likes to chop the leaves and add some to a summer fruit salad. Yum! I also found some purple potatoes (although the sign called them “blue”). I’m thinking about either mashing them or making a purple potato salad with some of the herbs from our garden. And … last but *certainly* not least … “squares” are extremely popular at our farmer’s markets out here. Today, I purchased some pumpkin squares (kind of cake-like, almost like a dense pumpkin-spice cake with cream cheese frosting) and some butter squares (in the back). Paula Deen would *adore* those. They’re similar to shortbread but *much* more dense and chewy, and the flavor is … well, like a stick of butter. LOL! :) I can pretty much only eat one (*maybe* two) at a time. They’re *deliciously* rich and sinful.
I took the kids to our town’s farmer’s market last night, too. Lucas got to enjoy his very first black-and-white cookie (also extremely popular in bakeries and farmer’s markets where we live). I’d never had one of these ~ or even heard of them ~ out in Indiana. They’re basically a giant sugar cookie with one half chocolate-frosted and the other half vanilla-frosted. I always eat the vanilla part first. :)
