The camping family

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We had the best time camping a couple of weekends ago.

I grew up going camping at Volga River. There wasn’t any running water or electricity there, but we used grandma and grandpa’s fifth wheel for sleeping in semi-comfort. We cooked a little over the fire, but mostly on a grill or inside the RVs.

Rafa’s version of camping was a tad different. He had visions of his boy scout treks into the mountains of El Salvador with nothing but the knife in his pocket. He slept under the stars and ate…well, I’m not sure what he ate. Berries? Anyway, it was a very different idea of what “camping” should be.

Rafa found a remote site that required a mile hike with gear. I told him that I needed to have a drive-in site, within 1-2 miles of civilization.  (And we would need to sleep in a tent, at minimum, that included a pack and play for Giana and an air mattress for me.) Rafa did some research and found a park that looked like it might fit the bill – Interstate Park near Dresser, WI.

It was amazing! He reserved us an awesome site that was totally secluded and right next to the beautiful St. Croix River. We loved the hiking trails and the amazing views.

We hung out around the fire and enjoyed our family time. The family that camps together stays together (and has fun while doing it!).

On Marrying Well

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If you haven’t yet found the person you are going to marry, may I offer a bit of advice? Marry someone who is an incredible photographer and art director. That way, even the mundane things in your daily life will look awesome in prints.

For example, this was yesterday. I grabbed the laundry line and brought it inside because it had started to sprinkle (but Giana still needed fresh diapers). Giana was playing with a ball and it rolled over, so she followed it and did her best to stand up too. Rafa caught the scene. I love having a picture of this moment.

I also love that Rafa uses his skills to bless our friends. He captured some awesome images of our friend, S.W.’s boys. Love these special little guys!

Nothing like Iowa

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There’s nothing to make you want to re-connect with the place you’re from like having a baby. Ever since Giana was born, I have urges for extended trips to my homeland, the great state of Iowa. I want Giana to experience it. I love when we have time for her to bask in the attention of her grandparents. Instead of just dropping by for the weekend, I want to make sure I have enough time to really slow down and be present.

We had a great trip a couple of weeks ago. Not only did Giana get lots of grandma and grandpa time, but she got lots of cousin time too! Levi showed her how to play with bubbles and Lily gave her some good cuddles.

We went to the playland at McDonald’s. I won’t let her eat the food, but I did let her climb up all the stairs to the slide!

We enjoyed some mounted cowboy shooting with Grandpa Max. (He could have done it with his eyes closed.)

We really enjoyed watching Michael ride the horse…until he got bucked off and fractured his wrist. He’s now the proud owner of a plate and two pins. We tried to make some lame bionic man jokes, but he wasn’t ready yet. I snapped a couple of pictures on the beautiful day, pre-accident.

And finally, a bit of Iowa wisdom for you. My favorite? “Never be angry at the same time.”

Happens in threes?

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I’ve always heard that bad things happen in threes. Seems a little superstitious to me, but it usually seems to be true if you look hard enough.

The worst set of three lately is the health of my three siblings. They are all infirm in some way – in fact, two of them are having surgery this very week! I was fortunate enough to be able to hug and kiss them during my visit last weekend. Who would have thought this old lady would be the healthiest out of the lot?

Stuff started breaking around here next. First, it was the car, which nearly stranded Rafa on his way home from fishing in Wisconsin. Then, it was the garage door. The coil snapped and the door fell, twisting the rails as it crashed down. To round out this trifect, the handle on the sink popped off.

The fun thing about all these is that broken things = home improvements! We started with the sink. (The smallest project seemed most manageable.) We searched the hardware store high and low for the right faucet. We almost settled with the traditional when we spotted the perfect piece at the end of the aisle. Rafa installed it as soon as we got home and I love it!

Next: New garage door!

Another diaper post!

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So…Giana is on another pack of diapers. She’s now on the newborn size. And it’s a good photo of her this time!

Now this was the picture I expected to see after our photo shoot all those months ago. When this photo came out on the Size 1 diapers, it wasn’t as cute as I know my little girl is.

This is what we think happened: They used the original photo (above) for the newborn sized diapers, now in a Target store near you. Then they edited and changed the colors (and possibly put her head on a different baby’s body) to make her look different for the Size 1 diaper package.

Anyway, I’m so excited to see Giana on the newborn package! I love this photo of her and I’m so excited everyone else gets to see it too.

 

 

Adventures in eating

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Question: How do you know when your baby is eating enough to grow well?

Answer: When she grows out of her pajamas!

Yup, that’s her big toe, pushing right out of the jammies. At her nine month appointment, Giana was in the 90th percentile for height and 50th for weight. I love that she’s so healthy!

I can’t take all the credit for her good diet anymore. I’m sure all of her new adventures in food have helped her get the nutrients she needs. She refuses purees now and she likes to feed herself. I’ll get all the baby-with-food-on-her-face pictures out of my system now:

Here she is eating some sweet potatoes and a homemade oatmeal biscuit.

Here’s sweet potatoes and spaghetti squash.

And last, but not least, bananas and tofu. Yum!

Hello, dear Grandpa

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Hello! I was so glad to hear that your hernia surgery went well! It’s hard to believe that a 91 year old man can be in such great shape as you are. I’m sure you impressed all your doctors and charmed all your nurses in the way that you always do!

Anyway, I know I don’t write you letters very often. It’s just that Grandma was the one who was my pen pal. She started writing me letters when I moved out of mom and dad’s house. She was so diligent with her check-ins, so constant with her support. She would tell me all about what was going on in Fredericksburg and what happened at her Circle meeting. She always told me about what you were up to – what you were fixing, or growing, or working on. Sometimes she signed off saying, “Well, I better finish up now because Grandpa wants to run this out to the mailbox,” and I could always imagine you sprinting down the driveway on the farm, shirt off, Duke on your heels, getting the letter out to the gravel road in no time. The she always wrote “God’s blessings always, Love, Grandma and Grandpa.” After I received a few of these letters, I started writing back and we didn’t stop our exchange until she died. It’s hard to believe it has been a year.

I looked through sympathy cards and searched for memorial trinkets. None of them seemed like something I could send to you. Those words don’t do justice to my grandma. My words are the only tribute I have and I wanted to share them with you.

I was pregnant when Grandma died. It was a lot to comprehend, being so excited for the new life inside me while being sad for the end of a life so important to me. It all ended up being such a blur. It wasn’t until three months later, when Giana was born, that I found myself grieving again. I wanted Grandma to meet Giana so badly. She loved holding babies so much. I can hear Grandma in my head, telling me about myself when I was a baby. “You were so pink…and ROUND! Just the prettiest pink baby!” Grandma was so patient and supportive of me through too many relationships…I wanted her to hold the best thing I have done with my life and tell me how wonderful little Giana is.

When I think about the things that made my childhood so wonderful, you and grandma are a part of so many of those beautiful memories. So even though Giana will not get to meet Grandma, I can make sure I share the things from Grandma with her. Mom and Beth reminded me of all the words to the Chocolate Ice Cream Cone song and “Playmates.” Every time I sing “Do dee do dee do” or “Good Night Ladies,” Giana’s face erupts into a huge smile and she claps. Those songs are the first thing Grandma taught me that I am able to pass on, and I’m sure they won’t be the last.

We had so many happy times. I loved all the shopping trips to Waterloo we took together. The games at your house. The trips in the back of the pick-up. Camping. Sitting on the stools, watching her cook. Working at the Methodist church. Christmases in you basement and chuckwagon races in the summer (she was always so nervous for the riders, I don’t think she actually watched much).

I know I was very young, but I remember when Grandma broke her hip, too. I remember the terror on everyone’s faces as she stepped back into that hole and crumpled on the ground. I’m told I was crying hard when they loaded her into the ambulance and I yelled, “Don’t take my Grandma!” I feel like that little girl again sometimes when I miss her. Don’t take her, why did You take her?

But I know in my heart it is only for a short time. Grandma loved the Lord and she is with Jesus now. She doesn’t get to meet Giana yet, but I smile at the thought of her taking care of my angel babies and all the other great-grandbabies that went to heaven before we got to meet them. God gave me a verse the other day – John 14:2-3, when Jesus tells his diciples not to be troubled. “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” I am so thankful that there are rooms for all of us there if we put our faith in Jesus Christ. I like to imagine Grandma helping to prepare a place for us. I’m sure it has tight hospital corners on every bed and hopefully cinnamon rolls with maple frosting every morning.

But I don’t know…I’m no Biblical scholar – just getting wrapped up in my imagination!

I hope you will be able to remember some of those happy memories yourself today. Please know how much you are loved, especially today. I love you so very much.

.

Well, after all that, I realized I can’t actually send this letter to him. He has enough with his own pain. I sent him a quick thinking-of-you note instead.

Please join me in praying for everyone whose hearts are aching today.

Best Pizza Ever

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Now that I spend my days at home, I occasionally indulge in a little daytime TV. I like to have the Today show on while I’m getting really for the day. (Confession! I lurve me some Kathie Lee and Hoda too!) Usually, I don’t pay attention to the recipes because they seem too pretentious, or complicated, or simple, or weird…you know. But the other day, I saw a recipe for pizza carbonara that I had to try:

Recipe: Pizza carbonara

Ingredients
  • 1/2 pound Applewood bacon slices, cut into 1/2 inch strips
  • 1/4 cup Pecorino Romano, freshly grated
  • salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 fresh 10 oz. dough ball, rolled out into a circle 12-14 inches wide
  • 11/2 cups (about 8 ounces) fresh mozzarella, cut in 1/4 inch slices and grated
  • 1 cup heavy cream, reduced to half a cup
  • 2 scallions, sliced
Preparation

Allow the dough to rest out of the refrigerator for up to two hours so the glutens can relax. Preheat an oven to 425 degrees F. On a well-floured work service, lightly roll out the dough, rotating until about ¼ inch thick. Lightly brush a cookie sheet with olive oil. Place dough onto cookie sheet and pinch into the corners. Trim the tray of any excess dough that drapes over the edges.

Lay the grated mozzarella on top of the dough. Drizzle the reduced cream evenly over the cheese. Add the bacon and grated Pecorino-Romano cheese. Bake the pizza for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the dough begins to pull away from the edges. Remove from the oven and using the back of a spoon, indent two shallow wells towards the center of the pizza, being careful not to apply too much pressure. Crack two eggs into a shallow bowl. Pour an egg into each “well” separately making sure the eggs stay put while cooking.

Return the pizza to the oven for an additional 3 to 4 minutes, or until the cheese and bacon become golden brown. Remove the pizza from the oven again and allow to cool for one minute. Just before serving, drag a knife through the yolks so they break and ooze all over the surface of the pie. Season liberally with freshly cracked black pepper. Add chopped scallions to serve.

 

Sounds good, right? Except for what I actually made was quite a bit different….

My version of pizza carbonara

1. Buy a Jiffy pizza crust and prepare according to package directions.

2. Cover the pizza crust with 3/4 of a bag of Market Pantry parmesan/mozzarella shredded cheese mix. Drizzle with a pint of half and half.

3. Fry up a pound of regular bacon. Chop up whatever you can before your husband eats it and add to the pizza.

4. Chop up some green onions (those are kind of like scallions, right?) and add to the pizza. Put a few dashes of salt and pepper on there too.

5. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese.

6. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes.

7. Separate two egg yolks. (Try with approximately four eggs before getting it right. These broken yolk eggs can be saved for tomorrow’s scrambled egg breakfast.) Make a little pool in the pizza for each egg yolk and VERY CAREFULLY spoon them in.

8. Bake pizza another four minutes.

9. Break the yolks with a knife and spread around pizza. Enjoy!

Celebrating Papa’s Birthday!

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We had an awesome time celebrating Rafa’s 30’s birthday earlier this month. I am so glad he joined me in the third decade!

Giana loved helping Papa open gifts:

We had a super amazing time inviting all our friends over to our house to celebrate! We opened our home for food, drinks and fun. The highlight of the bash was a PINATA! Rafa and Ricardo taught the gringos what was up. Check it out!

Rafa\’s 30th Birthday Pinata

A Father’s Love

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A mother’s love is a necessity for a child to thrive. It has to be a constant, ever-present factor for a healthy upbringing.

A father’s love, however, has the potential to be so much more. While a child can be raised on a mother’s love, a father’s love has the potential to shape who she becomes.

The love of a father will either help her understand her future relationships, or cause her to question her identity in them. She will see the fullness of herself in his love, or she will wonder why she wasn’t enough to earn it all.

Most importantly, the love of her father will help her more easily understand the love of her Heavenly Father. She is secure in the everlasting love of the father she knows on earth, so it won’t be a stretch for her to learn about and accept the boundless, consuming, and abiding love of God.

I wanted to write this post last weekend, as an ode to Rafael on his first Father’s Day. However, he had to go into Super-Dad overdrive. I spent most of the weekend in bed with a tooth and sinus infection that knocked me out. He not only took care of his girl on Father’s Day (which I know he loved), but he also had to take care of me. I couldn’t ask for a better father to my children and partner in life. Giana and I love you, Rafael Soriano. Very, very, very much.