Love Family

I may have maxed out this time.  I have attempted to make a treat that I saw pictures of and started fantasizing about the other day.  I KNEW I had to make this treat.  I made 2 HUGE mistakes though.

1.  I failed to completely read the recipe

2.  I DOUBLED the recipe

Dumb, dumb, dumb!

All the parts separate taste great (and are things I shouldn’t have of course.  I just took a taste) but I don’t think mine is going to turn out as pretty.  It will taste fabulous though. 

Still…nights like this…where a recipe ends up taking 3 + hours to assemble, that I wasn’t expecting.  Where my recently spotless kitchen is suddenly coated in sticky messes and I am washing every large mixing bowl I own…makes me think I must be not too distantly related to this guy:

Stay tuned, I will post what I made—once it’s done. 

In Barbados we got off the boat, walked about 5 minutes to the port, and then another 5 or so minutes into town. It really is a TEENY town.  As it was getting sunny and hot we sat for a few minutes, drank some water and reapplied sunblock.  At this point I was REALLY terrified of frying anymore.  As we sat we noticed 2 Elders walking into the Immigration Authority building.  We sat for a few minutes—I could tell Jeff really wanted to follow them in so we could chat with them—but it wasn’t to be.  On we went.

A couple of blocks away was the Parliament building.  One thing that just amazes me is that these little islands are their own country!  That’s like Firestone being a country.  Weird.  We paid to walk through their little interactive museum—I felt it was well worth the $ spent as I have a much better understanding of Barbados now. 

When we came out from Parliament we were approached by a cab driver who offered to take us all around the island, show us spectacular spots, etc—for a reasonable price.  His name was Mr. Nice. 

Mr. Nice had a big taxi-van with a sunroof that Jeff would open and I would stand up in to take pictures as we toured town a bit and the countryside.  Here’s a shot of Jeff from the sunroof:

At one point I started to feel sick because of all the up and down & round and round—these are mountainous islands.  Still, it was a great tour.  We saw lots of sugar cane fields, banana trees (they only produce 1 bunch then the tree dies), a sugar factory. 

This is an old theater.

We went to Bathsheba—the Atlantic side of Barbados. 

This had a huge surf—great for surfing, but NOT for swimming.

If you look close enough you can see how the rocks have been eroded at the base.

There’s even this rock with a little shack on top—wonder what it looked like originally. 

We were standing on the foundation of what used to be a house, Mr. Nice said it was blown away and then the remains of the wood frame just rotted.  I could’ve stayed at Bathsheba forever—just loved it!

We saw several old churches, and got out and toured the beautiful old cathedral St. John’s Church.  There was this fabulous headstone:

It reads:  here lyeth ye body of ferdinando paleolocus

descended from  ye imperial lyne of ye last christian

emperors of greece

churchwarden of this parish

1655-1656

vestryman twentye years

died october 3 1678

Cool Olde English huh?   After our little break there we got back into the van and drove up to the signal tower which was a lighthouse of sorts, you could easily see the cruise ship from here:

Mr. Nice had great stories about pirates and politicians, he spoke so fast it was a bit hard to follow at times.  It was the perfect tour of Barbados!

This is how Thursday night ended up—with Ryan happily riding on dad’s shoulders, racing me to the car.  Ryan had just made it through his 1st grade showcase—and did FABULOUS—and we were on our way to get a milkshake from Good Times.  We have made this a standard thing for each of the kids this year.  After Nathan’s concert we went to DQ, after Gold Cup Festival I took Colin to DQ.  Katie opted to stay at school after her showcase and have cookies in the gym.  It has been nice to have 1:1 time with each of them.  LOVE having babysitter-age kids!

The 1st grade does the same program every year, so we have seen this one before.  One new item was that Ryan was “Frog 1” for the 5 Speckled Frogs song.  It was pretty cute—that’s why we opted to put him in his green polo rather than a shirt and tie. 

5 GREEN & SPECKLED FROGS—Here’s Ryan jumping into the pool—“where it was nice and cool”

He just cracks me up!

Here is Mrs. Z taking them through “Green Eggs & Ham”

“I would not like them HERE or THERE!”

Too dang cute!

and I can’t say enough about the great 1st grade teaching team.  Ryan has been so blessed this year with his teacher Ms. Schilz (right)—she is patient but firm, understands that 1st graders often have wiggles and noises exploding out of them, and encourages them to do their best work.  She has been assisted this year with an awesome student teacher Mrs. Vance (left).  I love how they suddenly appeared on the risers with the kids while the climbing demonstration was going on.  They put so much of themselves into the class! 

This morning I had a free moment to read one of the magazines that I found myself subscribed to after the middle school fundraiser last year.  This one was “Country Living”—generally I think it is an enjoyable magazine.  Pretty pictures of pretty houses, voluptuous gardens, delectable recipes…similar to a lot of dwelling, décor, & lifestyle magazines.  The featured homeowners are always American-Dream stories about leaving big faceless corporations to follow their dreams.  I applaud these individuals for being true and honest with themselves.  But rarely do I see features about a husband & wife that are making improvements on their home little by little because they are on a budget.  Their budget is limited due to orthodontic bills, buying new shoes for ever-growing kids, paying for a mortgage for a house that will fit said kids, and of course feeding a family!  That is at the point that I realized that I don’t see anything about real life in these magazines.  I mean—WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND—has velvet-papered dining room walls?  I don’t care if the velvet is dark green—it will still be crud-encrusted within a week!  Where in “Traditional Home” magazine are TRADITIONAL FAMILY VALUES embraced?  Where in “Country Living” does it show the houses that haven’t been ‘updated’ and are used as farmhouses still?  Who ever said “Better Homes & Gardens” is the authority on what is better? 

Things I am looking for in a magazine:

1.  Real Traditional Families:  Husband & Wife (hetero) and their children—who go to church (denominationally open here—just want to see people trying)

2.  Real Homes:  where families live and grow and have movie nights and popcorn fights.

3.  Tips & Tricks of LIFE:  stuff from getting your kids to sit reverently in a pew (not beating them) to organizing homework papers

4.  Ideas for a meaningful life:  ways to involve your family in service—whether local or abroad, opportunities for volunteerism, meditation prompts, favorite quotes, etc.

5.  “Normal” recipes—pita-bread taco boats, lasagna roll-ups, freezer meals.  Stuff busy families can actually use daily—instead of recipes that mom pulls out hoping that she will someday use it.

6.  Active Life:  achievable active life ideas. 

7.  Pat on the Back:  an acknowledgement that yes, the traditional family is the BACKBONE of society.  That what we do in our homes is important. 

Am I asking too much? 

In Dominica there are 9 (What??) volcanoes—yes, 9!!

That would probably be why it was so lush and green.  Jeff and I decided it was our favorite stop this trip.

Jeff had ‘met’ some people on the forums of a site for cruise-obsessed-fanatics like himself.  I say that in a loving  way, not a mean way.  Anyhoo…they got together and booked an excursion (cheaper than going via the cruise company) and I have to say we had a GREAT time!  First stop was Champagne Reef.  It is called that because of all the bubbles of CO2 that float up from the bedrock. Turns out there was an underwater volcano about 50 yards from where we were. 

I will NOT be posting the pictures Jeff took of me from the Aft—I don’t know why, but when we go on cruises Jeff goes picture crazy.  When we are at home he could care less.

There were some great coral formations:  fan, brain, tube… We also saw anemones, sea urchins, and some cool fish!  This guy was my favorite. 

Of course I managed to get stung by something behind my knee while we were out—it happens just about EVERY time!  Don’t know why.  Jeff says the jellies must be attracted to me because I’m so white I am almost transparent and so they think I am a big jelly too.  Thanks dear. I also turned down his ever helpful offer to pee on my leg. 

Will we EVER forget that episode of Friends? Not likely.  The little gear hut had a vinegar spray bottle which worked pretty well.

From there we went to Titou Gorge, presumably where Johnny Depp did some filming in PoC2.  The water was frigid refreshing (according to our guide Donaldson).  We got into this pool,

then had to swim through this dark gorge back to a small but powerful waterfall.

The gorge was DARK!  Kinda creepy too.  But when you look up you get this beautiful view. 

Jeff of course HAD to jump off the waterfall.  He is starting to be somewhat of an adrenaline junkie. 

It was fun really.  I mean, how many times in your life do you get to do things like this? 

Only 1/2 of our van-group decided to do this.  The other van in our group boycotted this altogether. 

Ok—he’s been taking dorky pictures of me for a week—so turnabout if fair play, right?  Yes, it was a rainy, cool day.

Last stop was Trafalgar Falls—and the hot pools. 

You can still see the remnants of my sunburn in this photo pretty well.  Turns out sunburn and hot mineral springs really don’t go well together.  I was able to ‘situate’ myself so I could enjoy them as much as possible, but I wasn’t with the rest of the group. 

It was a fun day in Dominica.  Can’t wait to visit again.