weekend celebration

squeezin mamma

mmm... beets are yummy & messy!

eating my toes... tasty

playing in a box w/grandma

peek-a-boo!

 I have not uploaded photos from this weekend, above are a few randoms from the past month...

We drove to Connecticut to celebrate Caleb's grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. What an incredible story. They married when Henry was 21 and Lucille was 18. Our son Samuel's middle name is Henry after his grandfather and great-grandfather. It was an intimate family celebration at Caleb's uncle's house, and the house deserves a blog post in itself. It was built in 1750 and holds so much history. We got a tour of the "compound". The home was once where Yale students had class when the British invaded New Haven Harbor. If only the walls could talk.
Back to the celebration - Caleb's aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, siblings, nieces and nephew were there for the celebration. We had dinner & dessert together and just had fun hanging out. Caleb's family hasn't seen much of Sam so he was passed from aunt, to uncle, to cousin, and back. Sam was a happy and smiley baby the whole day, until the end when he passed out in Caleb's arms.
It was great to be able to celebrate 60 years as a married couple. That's a feat seldom found these days.
Maybe I can get a few pictures up later.

Sunday we visited Calvary Christian Church, Caleb's former employer. Sam was in such a good mood and enjoyed meeting Caleb's former coworkers and parishioners. Hopefully we can visit again.

Today Sam and I went for a walk with some of my friends, Heather & Robin and with Sam's friends, Owen & Judah. Sam loves his stroller and talked away as we walked around the neighborhood. At the end of the walk I let Sam play on the playground. His favorite part was the swing and sitting in the wood-chips!! He's so fast, as soon as I put him down, he puts his fist to the ground, picks up wood-chips, sticks, leaves, dirt and puts it in his mouth... it was hard to capture on camera b/c I was worried he would choke since most of those items were of choking sizes. Oh well.

Tomorrow we head out on an adventure - Western Mass to stay with my sister-in-law for the night, Malvern, PA to visit with a college friend who had a baby girl one month after Sam was born, Washington DC to visit Shannon and Behr another college friend and her baby boy, Hershey, PA to visit Sadie - we miss her, she just moved from the North Shore, Wyomissing, PA to visit family friends, and then to the Cape to work and finally back home to Hamilton. It's going to be an eventful, whirlwind trip, but I'm looking forward to vacation after a busy work season.

This evening Caleb was working, so I made some baby food for Sam, yeah, exciting I know...
I found a recipe in a magazine, tried it one time and Sam LOVES it. It's called fruit soup.

FRUIT SOUP
approximately 1 ice-cube tray
1 ripe banana
strawberries (maybe 1-2 cupes)
pineapple (1/8-1/4 of cut up pineapple)
1/2 cup water

Put all ingredients into a pot and cook on medium high for 5-6 minutes or until all fruit is soft.
Strain fruit over a bowl, keeping the juice. Pour the fruit into a blender or food processor and add some of the juice. Add as much or little juice as you want. Pour the fruit puree into an ice-cube tray and freeze. Serve 1 or 2 cubes after a meal.
*If you have left over "juice" you can mix it with rice cereal for a delish treat. Sam loved it. Sorry I don't have any pictures of the process...

and a few obligatory pics :)

hanging out on Grandpa's reindeer skin

ooooohh... the mirror is fun!

hi Sam!

kissing the mirror.

I just LOVE this little boy!!

sara's kitchen's faves - numero tres

Here's another kitchen favorite!

Caleb and I registered for a waffle maker at Williams & Sonoma. We didn't receive the one we registered for; we were given an even better waffle-maker from my aunt Susan. (thanks Susan)
It is also a VillaWare and it produces delicious waffles with large squares to be filled with syrup, raspberries, strawberries, whipped cream... I could go on!!

VillaWare has been around for 100 years so I definitely feel as though they're qualified to make waffle-makers.

Anyway, Caleb and I routinely enjoy the waffle-maker; I WOULDN'T want to live without it! It makes Saturday brunch and Sunday morning snow days more delightful. Some weekends Caleb will make me breakfast - always waffles.

This past weekend, Saturday morning I woke up and said "Caleb, do you want waffles for breakfast? It's been a while."

Mind you, the last time we had waffles was probably the end of November.

Caleb obliged and I set about to make the batter. (oh do I have a great waffle recipe?!)

We sat down to waffles with maple syrup and orange juice for brunch. We discussed our weekend plans and we probably discussed something philosophical - such happens on a lazy Saturday morning eating waffles with nothing to do the rest of the day...

Well, Sunday morning rolls around; SNOW day! We woke up to this...

...and still snowing. Church was canceled, I was thrilled. Don't get me wrong, I love church, but some days it's nice to NOT go per a certain snow storm. I mean, no one wants to risk their life driving to church, right?

We got busy... no, get your mind out of the gutter... we set about making waffles, again. Twice in one weekend, two times in two days. Delish!

So you can enjoy homemade waffles - none of that box mix... here's a recipe I will leave with you. (this can also be used to make pancakes - just use a frying pan instead of a waffle iron)

Sara's Waffle Recipe (developed from my mom's fabulous recipe)

2 cups milk

2 cups flour

2 eggs

2 tablespoons oil (preferably olive oil, but any can be used)

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2-1 teaspoon salt

some sugar (I usually use sugar in the raw - 2-4 tablespoons)

some cinnamon (a teaspoon?)

some vanilla (a teaspoon)

(Optional: raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, syrup, whipped cream)

In a medium sized bowl mix the dry ingredients. While stirring, slowly add the milk to the mixture. Add the eggs, oil and vanilla; mix till the batter is smooth.

Heat your waffle iron, spray w/oil to avoid stickage. Spoon batter into the waffle iron, let waffle iron do the rest.

Pull waffle out of waffle iron, put on a plate and serve with syrup, raspberries, etc. ENJOY!

Happy New Year 2006!

Gott Nytt År 2006!

Hopefully the new year finds everyone doing well.

My new year has been wonderful! My mom, dad, brother Phil and I went to Sunday River to enjoy a few days of skiing and snowboarding. It was great to be able to be outside, in the snow, skiing/boarding down the mountain. We met up with some family friends from "the old neighborhood" which made for good times on the mountain.
The bed & breakfast we stayed at, Victoria Inn, turned out to be a "bad egg"... hahaha - check out the link, looks are deceiving, I will say no more! All worked out, the skiing was great for December, the people we hung out with were fun... what more could you ask for? (Besides a luxury mountainside house...)
The first day on the slopes was great. The prediction for rain turned out to be nothing more than that... it was a beautiful day, no lines, and lots of skiing.
The second day, New Year's Eve, was even more fun. Excited to snowboard instead of ski, I jumped out of bed in the morning and hurried to get dressed. After breakfast we headed to the mountain. The whole day was great, and snowboarding was a great diversion from skiing.



Unfortunately, tragedy reigned. My mom was run over by a snowmobile. Well, I was in the ski shop checking out new boots - 10 years after my last pair, it's time, while my mom was being plowed over by the snowmobile. Luckily for me, I found a sweet pair in my favorite color.


What? You want to know about the snowmobile accident?! My mom is the best! She took it all in stride, but her BRAND NEW BOOTS were broken and her BRAND NEW SKIS had a crack. Bummer. End of story.
No, just kidding. Sunday River was AWESOME in handling the situation. They were real kind and my mom ended up with new boots and her skis fixed (the crack wasn't bad). To ensure that we would ski Sunday River once again, they gave us 8 complimentary lift tickets! :) Talk about customer service. Now the standard is set if someone else is run over by a snowmobile.
Honestly, I don't mean to take this lightly. My mom is ok and there were no major injuries despite the fact the 2 men had to physically LIFT the snowmobile off of my mom. All's well, ends well... ;)
New Year's Eve we went to a great Japanese/Korean restaurant on Main Street in Bethel, Maine. A whole group of us went and ate till we could eat no more, the good thing about Japanese and Korean food, unlike Chinese food, is that you don't feel uncomfortable after eating it. You feel satisified, with a feeling that what you ate was healthy, which it is.
New Year's Day.
Cruising the mountain in my skis and NEW boots I felt great. We had lots of people to ski with and challengingly, wonderful, fast runs! The end of the day came too quickly.
All in all, a wonderful weekend and a great new year.











New Year Resolution
Ski more
Snowboard more

Avkoppling = Relaxation

Weekends are great. The feeling that the day-to-day life of the 5 day work week is over and the weekend is yours to enjoy, to do what you please. Weekends can be a way to catch up with what you haven't had time to do during the week, or a way to relax and "koppla av" as they say in Sweden.

Helgerna finns för att ta det lugnt och koppla av. Det känns skönt att kunna väcka när man vill på en lördag morgon och njut av dagen. Jag var ut och gick en promenade med min mamma, bara gå tillsammans, prata lite och ser alla nya hus som blir byggt i vår område. På en lördag är man inte jaktad, man kan kolla in i varje nya hus och undra hur det ska se ut när den är färdig byggt. Senare på dagen är det ärende som gäller. Det som jag ser fram emot efter solnedgång är hockey. Oj vad jag tycker det är kul. Att knytta skridskor, sätt på min hockey jersey, öppna dörren till is och "bara åk". Vilken härliga känsla! Visst är det sent på kvällen, men det är bara dig, din team och den härliga känsla att åka skridskor i en timme så hårt man kan. Efter, blir man helt slut och den kvällen när man ligger i sängen och sover, då sover man BÄST! Sen är det söndag morgon. Jag vaknar och hoppas att jag kan sova längre, men det finns barn som jag är söndag skol lärare till. De vill att jag är där för att sjunga, leka och har det kul med de. Då stiger man ur sängen, duschar, äta frukost och skynda sig till kyrkan innan barnen kommer. Eftermiddag blir det Amerikansk football som gäller, eller en promenade. Söndag eftermiddagar finns för att göra ingenting. Vilken helg! :)

Something to think about:
"Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine." - Anonymous

Saturdays are meant for relaxation. I love Saturdays. It's nice to go for walks feeling the breeze on your face, and the sun shining brightly. As I walked through my neighborhood, there's no sense of hurry. It is just a lazy Saturday morning. I can talk to my mom as we walk and peer in the different houses being built. We go inside the skeleton houses and plan out how it's going to look when it's finished: bedroom here, kitchen here, fireplace there, master suite here.

After a relaxing walk, you can take care of errands that you weren't able to finish during the week. There's no hurry.

Once the sun sets, the highlight of my weekend has arrived. Playing hockey. The feeling you get as you tie your skates, pull your jersey over your head and snap your helmet in place. I grab my stick and head for the ice. I love the sound of the click as the door opens and the scrape of my skate on the ice. A quick warm-up of skating around the rink and shooting on goal. Then, it's time, the sound of the puck hitting the ice. Gametime. It's the rush you get, struggling to get to the puck as it is pushed into the zone. It's the feeling you get when you and a teammate block off the defense behind the net so one of you gets the puck and the defense loses. It's the sensation of making a pass under pressure and watching as your teammate's stick slaps at the puck and the puck hits the back of the net. It's the satisfaction of coming off the ice completely exhausted, knowing you gave the game 100%. That night, the best feeling is pulling the covers over your head and falling asleep, your body completely worn out.

The next morning, you struggle out of bed. Sunday. It's time to teach Sunday School. Some people may think it is silly to spend a "valuable" Sunday morning teaching Sunday School. They would rather sleep-in. Well, pulling my worn-out body out of bed is difficult, I will admit. However, the satisfaction from seeing the 5 year old's face light up when I tell him we're doing an obstacle course, or the sound of the 4 year old's voice when I tell her we're going to sing her favorite song - she starts belting out the tune with a smile on her face before the rest of the class has even comprehended which song we're singing. Teaching Sunday School is such a reward. The children are so fun to teach and they always have funny stories to tell. They want you to think they are special and you leave knowing you've left your footprint on a child's life.

Sunday afternoons are filled with family dinner, football, and just enjoying the laziness of a Sunday. The feeling that you have nothing to do till Monday morning is satisfaction enough.

“Att våga är att förlora fotfästet en liten stund.
Att inte våga är att förlora sig själv.”
- Sören Kierkegaard

This sums up my weekend :)

"I’m looking forward to looking back on all this."
- Sandra Knell