Baby B's First Masterpiece

This is Baby B's first framed work of art:





Over the last month, he has started enjoying doing art more, so we try to do one art project a day. Mostly crayons on a white sheet of paper, but sometimes we color ia coloring book page. He's also experimented with watercolor and a "Paint with Water" book. This was his first attempt at watercolor. Although its nothing but splashes of color, I thought it was so beautiful that I asked Cici to pick up a frame for me while they were in Columbia. It is the PERFECT addition to the new look in our kitchen and everytime I look at it, I think of Baby B.


Maybe Baby B will take after Pamela and her girl's, loving art like we do. He may not draw clothes like SanFran S and scenery like me, but he could enjoy drawing airplanes, cars and figurines one day. :)


Maybe we can work on an art project with him while Pamela's girls are here!


Love,

~Mommy M

13.1 Miles Through San Francisco!

I did it, ran 13.1 miles in the San Francisco Half Marathon! I couldn't have done it with out all the support and encouragement I had from Pamela's Girls! I can't wait to see you guys next week and tell you the details. For now, I have some pictures to share with more to come later.

First, Cici sent me a picture of her running and a bible verse that helped motivate her to run. She, along with S.S., is my biggest supporter with all that I do. So I laminated the picture of her running and the bible verse she shared to my bib during the race. Some of the times during the run I felt too tired to keep going, I'd look down at my picture of Cici. I know she doesn't like pictures of herself, so I hope she won't mind this too much. :)

Thanks for your support! See you next week!

Love you,

SanFran S

Encouragement for SanFran S!!!

Even though I was going to try to wait to show Pamela's girls our new kitchen/dining room in person, I can't resist giving a little sneak peak. We are almost finished with the entire project, except for the cabinet doors. Daddy L is going to help me spray them this weekend.

Even though painting a kitchen doesn't really compare with running a 13 mile race, it was a very overwhelming project when I looked at ALL of that wood paneling. But I put my mind to it and didn't stop until I accomplished my goal. It was also more fun and took less time than I anticipated, and I feel pleased with the outcome... appreciating all of the work that went into it and LOVING the new look. Even though they are two very different situations, I know SanFran S will have the same success with her goal.

SanFran S - we'll be thinking about you during your run Sunday morning. You have set a very impressive goal for yourself and I am very proud of you! We know you're going to do great!

Before:


After:


Happy running and happy weekend Pamela's Girls!

Love,

~Mommy M

Paletas Time In Nashville

As soon as the weather starts to get warm each year, Uncle R and I start thinking about paletas – the taste-tempting Mexican popsicles based on traditional Michoacán frozen treats and produced for almost a decade by sisters Norma Paz and Irma Paz Bernstein in their unobtrusive little 12th Avenue South store.

The sisters – including lovely Alma - are sweet, smiling and always friendly, dark-haired beauties who once surprised Uncle R with a spicy hot pepper-laden paleta that was almost too spicy even for him. They had heard him talking about his love for hot peppers and thought they’d gift him with a treat. Their lovely personalities are part of the enjoyment of visiting their store and we love finding out what their current favorite restaurants are and what they have tried recently that they found interesting food-wise.

Once in awhile Uncle R will slip into Las Paletas during his workday – maybe after dropping off or picking up work from one of his clients – and get a little pick-me-up-paleta. One day as he stood munching happily on one of the smooth, cool treats he noticed one of the sisters walking in with an armful of roses. He asked what the occasion was and she laughingly explained that they were to make “rose paletas”. Yes – you have all of the typical popsicle flavors like strawberry and chocolate and grape but you have a hundred other flavors that drift on and off of the large blackboard with each day’s choices and it all depends on what the sisters find fresh and appealing at the Nashville Farmer’s market. Evidently that is the nature of true Mexican paletas – they abound in a variety of interesting and seasonal ingredients. Uncle R has been more adventurous in his tastings than I have. I have the fault of wanting to fall back on my favorites – chocolate with banana or crisp, tartly sweet grapefruit, but he has tried many flavors such as cucumber with pepper, hibiscus, mango, rice and avocado. The rose paletas taste just like a bouquet smells – soft, delicate and fragrant.

The sisters have offerings that are usually divided into two columns on the board – creamy paletas and fruit paletas. Creamy paletas may include Mexican caramel, strawberries and cream, coffee or corn and the fruit paletas are light & sweet with as little sugar added as possible – just enough to help everything freeze smoothly. You never know what will be up there when you walk in – but whatever it is, you know it will be good.

These treats are healthy. Really. We like to think of them as a juicy, frozen serving of fresh fruit because that is what they primarily are – perfectly fresh fruit. The raspberry paleta is pretty much solid raspberries frozen together with a barest minimum of sugar. If you tried to buy that many raspberries in the store, you’d spend twice as much and not get as much perfect taste as in a paleta.

If the Pamela’s Girls watch the Food Network very often, you may have seen world-renowned chef, Bobby Flay surprise the sisters with a throwdown – making his own paleta to be judged along side theirs - they won! Naturally. Recently Uncle R and I dropped by for a paleta on a hot Saturday afternoon and found Food Network personality, Adam Gertler, interviewing paleta customers outside the store and plying the sisters with questions back inside their kitchen area for his new show, Kid In A Candy Store, which features Adam traveling around the country for more behind-the-scenes food discoveries, this time focusing on desserts. I believe that there might be a chance you’d see familiar faces - but just in the background - if you watch the Brain Freeze episode this coming Sunday

I think that Mommy M had a paleta when she was in Nashville last – back before she married Daddy L. And I have a feeling that there is a little boy named Baby B who would LOVE to get taken for a paleta – when he comes for a Nashville visit sometime!

Love to the Pamela’s Girls,

Auntie J

A Work in Progress

Hello to all my Pamela's Girls - hope you are all having a good week.

I wanted to show a little of what SS and I have been doing lately. On May 23rd, we prepared our living room and hall to have hardwood floors put in. We cleared out the living room except for the couch and 2 recliners, including our much beloved television.

That Monday morning, the contractor called, was sick and in the hospital, but hoped to get out that day. He was in the hospital all that week, and the next. Finally, he was going to start the week we were at Hilton Head, June 14. That day he called and said his doctor said he just wasn't ready, so SS called around and found someone else - more expensive but much more qualified - to do it, but he couldn't start until June 29. He was able to come and get the floors in that week.

In the meantime, the couch and old comfy recliner looked mighty dowdy to be sitting on pretty new floors. So we thought it might be time to purchase a new sofa. After looking at several places, SS saw one he really liked so we got that, as well as a new leather recliner to match his.

Then our blue wing-back recliner didn't match the sofa, so we decided to have it reupholstered. This of course also necessitated new window treatments, as well as an area rug.

Finally, the old carpet going up the stairs looked pretty shabby next to those pretty wood floors, so we are going to have those re-carpetted the middle of August. Whew, talk about one thing leading to another! This is the new look so far:

Once it is all complete and everything is back in place. I know we will be able to sit back and enjoy it - and maybe not make any more changes for another 15 years!

Love to all, CiCi

Barkley's Summer Cut

Baby B and I dropped Barkley off at the groomers this morning for a cool, summer cut. I asked her to cut him a bit shorter because he has been getting so hot lately with all of that thick fur. I was a little worried about asking her to cut him shorter because of the disasterous cut he got in Blythewood before Baby B was born, but he REALLY needed it a bit shorter for the summer.

As I was pulling back into the driveway of the groomers to pick up Barkley, I panicked as I saw her carrying out a scalped white dog with really long ears. Then, I noticed Mrs. Ward was standing there waiting for her poodle Sophie... whew! Sophie had a short, poodle cut with bright pink bows on her ears and hot pink nail polish... hilarious!!! SS always gives Mr. Ward a hard time because he often gets the job of walking Sophie on a leash. It is funny to see our former mayor waiting for this prissy little poodle to go to the bathroom.

Anyways, next she brought Barkley out and he has an adorably cute summer cut. I think this photo is funny because you can see his teeth really good:)

The painting project is coming along... We're about half-way finished and the difference is already unbelievable. I can't wait to show the Pamela's girls in person in a few weeks.

Happy Monday Pamela's Girls!

Poor Passy!!!!

Can you tell Baby B is cutting teeth? After I put him down at 8:30 last night, he was still awake an hour later. When I went in to check on him I noticed he was chomping down on his passy like CRAZY. I figured he was teething, so I took his passy out to give him some Tylenol, when I discovered it had been destroyed!!! Lucky the missing bite was in the crib, not in his tummy:) I think Baby B will finally have his two bottom teeth soon!

Happy Friday Pamela's Girls!

Love,

~Mommy M

Lunch on Bastille Day 2010

I have somehow started a new yearly tradition for myself. On July 14th – Bastille Day – I head down to Nashville’s quaint & slightly funky little area of Hillsboro Village to have lunch at Provence Bread & Café. Hillsboro Village is a closely positioned collection of some tasty restaurants, cafés, specialty shops, a good coffee dive, one proud & crumbling theatre and one of my favorite used book stores. It’s the kind of area that has managed to update buildings to house thriving little businesses but everything still has a rough, painted-up charm with little nooks and crannies still to be found in stores and even a crafty incorporation of old building fixtures into the new design - like the Fido’s coffee shop that still has the Jones Pet Shop sign attached. I can remember liking that pet store because I could plunge big metal scoops into several kinds of birdseed and make a special mix with my cockatiel’s preferences in mind. Toby was partial to sunflower seeds.

There are several shops that draw me to Hillsboro Village now along with the old Theatre into which I often wander alone to see French films that I somehow can’t wheedle anyone into attending with me. I love the 1000 Faces store where Uncle R finds special jewelry to surprise me with at Christmas and birthdays. It’s also been a great place to find things that we have given Mommy M and SanFran S for special birthdays. And I always unearth unusual and creative presents and treasures at the Pangaea shop among the fans, handkerchiefs, unique jewelry, stationery, pungent foreign soaps and odd little novelty gifts. The used bookstore is a veritable Aladdin’s cave of double-stacked books that bulge from shelves, are piled in windows and peek winsomely from freshly unloaded boxes from estate sales. Uncle R’s eyes slightly glaze over as he watches me disappear into the front door of Bookman and underneath their tinkling bell because he knows that he will have a bit of a wait before he can pry me back out into the bustling sidewalks along the traffic-heavy 21st Avenue South that slices through the middle of the Village.

Dangerously close to Bookman is Provence Breads and Café which is just about the closest thing that Nashville has to a place that produces “almost French” food. Since I am sadly not a big bread eater these days and limit what I let myself have of sweets, I don’t permit myself to venture into Provence very often, but it’s a nice place to grab a bite before a movie, sit with a cup of coffee and a newly purchased – or traded for – book from Bookman or join in the Bastille Day celebrations each year on July 14th.

Bastille Day is the French national holiday, which is celebrated on 14 July each year. In France, it is formally called La Fête Nationale (The National Celebration) or more commonly Le Quatorze Juillet (the fourteenth of July). On 14 July, France celebrates this national holiday in commemoration of the storming of the Bastille prison, which took place in 1789 and marked the beginning of the French Revolution.

Provence Breads and Café really gets into the celebration, which I love. Last year I ate a salad and an Eiffel Tower cookie while sipping Orangina. This year I had a “French country” plate with little cornichon pickles, a couple of modest slices of pork pate, leafy green salad & two little rounds of baguette with some creamy brie cheese. I shouldn’t have, but I polished it off with a yummy freshly baked lemon cookie.

Sometimes there is a French flag waving saucily out front but today it held pride of place in their front window. As I sat beneath it reading Jane Eyre, nibbling the tasty food and smelling freshly-baked bread I found that I could almost hum the Marseillaise without anyone noticing.

Joyeux Quatorze Juillet to the Pamela’s Girls!

Auntie J.

New thoughts on our housing situations...

Since Daddy L accepted his job as the Building Official, our plan has been to sell our house that we have been renting out in Forest Acres, and use the money we make to purchase a house in Darlington. Since our tenant's lease expires August 1st, we have been praying that the house would sell quickly since we can't afford to pay the steep mortgage since I'm not working.

I started talking to an agent around the beginning of June about listing it the first of July, so maybe it would sell by the time the tenant moved out. The agent said she would mail us the contract to sign so it could be listed by July 1st. While we were waiting for the paperwork to arrive, we starting getting nervous about how we would manage financially if the house sat on the market for 6 to 9 months, which is the average selling time in Columbia with the economy. There are also numerous houses for sell in our old neighborhood. Why would someone want our house when there are so many others for sell? I kept telling myself that God would answer our prayers, but I couldn't help but to worry a bit. I started thinking that I might need to scramble around and try to find a job teaching, even though many schools are not hiring.

The contract did not arrive for a week or so. Then finally, last Wednesday, our anniversary, the agent called and said that it had been returned to her in the mail. She said that she didn't know why, because the address was correct, but she would send it back to us immediately. When Daddy L and I went out to dinner for our anniversary that night, we discussed our situation the entire meal. The waitor even said that he didn't bother us much because he could tell we were in deep conversation. Through much discussion, we decided that our safest option would be to try to find another tenant to rent for a year, but raise the rent to give us enough money to manage the house from Darlington. I posted our house on Craigslist for rent that night when we got home. By Friday morning, I received an email from a 2nd Lt. in the airforce who was interested in renting while attending gradschool at USC. Baby B and I showed her the house yesterday and she agreed to sign a 18 month contract. It was a true answer to prayers.

As I read the bible over the last few weeks, scripture kept reminding me that God would provide, but things seemed so hopeless. If the contract hadn't have gotten "lost" in the mail, we would not have had time to think about the situation, and probably would currently be locked into a 6 month contract. It is amazing how God shows us the way and guides our steps in his direction.

I guess this means that we are stuck in a wonderful neighborhood, right behind the best grandparents in the world, for a little while longer than we anticipated. :) For that reason, I'm thinking that I may attempt to paint the outdated, wood paneled kitchen all white. If the owners agree, I'm hoping to have it completing by the time Pamela's Girls are reunited in a few weeks.
These are some pictures of the before and I'm hoping afterwards it will look more like our kitchen in Forest Acres.

This was yesterdays reading from the Bible in a Year program... It was just like God was speaking to me.

2 Chronicles

15 The Lord will stay with you as long as you stay with him! Whenever you look for him, he will find you... Whenever they have turned to the Lord God of Israel in their distress, and searched for him, he has helped them.

16For the eyes of the Lord search back and forth across the whole earth, looking for people whose hearts are perfect toward him, so that he can show his great power in helping them.

Love to all my Pamela's Girls!

~Mommy M

A Visit From Auntie J’s French Sister

This morning Uncle R and I sadly waved goodbye to our French friends, the La Famille H, but will be looking forward to seeing them at the end of August when they will swing back through Nashville on their return to France. It is always too short a time with my friend, French Sis, and too few chances to sit and chat over a cup of coffee while they are with us - but I am always thankful for whatever time is given to me to enjoy fellowship with this sweet friend.

“French Sis”… I don’t remember when we started signing our notes to each other this way – whether it was during the “write a letter and wait for its two-week trip from one continent to the next” or whether it was when we acquired e-mail that could reach the other at the blink of an eye – but somewhere along the way we started signing our notes “love from your American Sis” or “love from your French Sister”.

I met French Sis when my friend, Kt, and I traveled through Paris back in 1987. Through the missionary organization that she had been working with that summer, Kt set up places for us to stay first in Amsterdam, then in Paris, the city of Lausanne in Switzerland and finally in a white schloss tucked away in the small German town of Hurlach in Bavaria. Our first night in Paris we stayed with French Sis. She was apartment sitting for some fellow missionaries and we were offered a place to stay for a night. We didn’t have too much time to talk that first night, but began writing back and forth across the Atlantic and were even able to spend some time face to face again when French sis came for a week’s visit the Autumn before Uncle R and I were married.

There followed other visits after French Sis married a fellow missionary who happened to be from Kentucky. He has been so kind to always make a way for French Sis and me to see each other when they are in the States visiting family and I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting the three sweet La Famille H daughters as they came along.

I had quite a shock this trip. When Uncle R and I picked up French Sis and her two oldest daughters, I gasped to see that they had grown into young ladies now and very lovely young ladies at that. The cute little girls that had curled up in my lap a couple of visits ago were now towering over their petite mother!

This visit we knew that it was important to allow time with other people that might like to see the La Famille H. For one, my friend, Carmencita, who passed through their Provençal town and stayed with La Famille H for a few days back in 2008. She quickly became attached to Les Belles Filles H and loved the beautiful Southern France region where they live. As soon as Les Filles H got settled at our house the evening that they arrived this trip, they asked about Carmencita and when we might be able to see her.

Also, through making arrangements for the daughter of a colleague to come to Nashville on an exchange program this Fall, French Sis enjoyed a long distance meeting with a mother in my church and we really wanted to make a way for them to meet in person. That in addition to the desire to spend time with Carmencita, led us to plan a Thursday afternoon Tearoom lunch. Even Uncle R jumped in on it!

We ate wonderful Tearoom food, drank sweet, fragrant teas, watched the girls model some hats for Carmencita’s talented camera lens and shared in some great fellowship.

The Lord shows us such kindness in the people that He brings into our lives. Our paths somehow cross those of people who become important in our lives and we look back at the unlikely possibility of meeting that person randomly on our own and smile to think that His loving hand brought us together to enjoy fellowship in Him. That is the way I see my now twenty-three year friendship with ma sœur française and I am thankful for the many good things He gives.

(French Sis is on the right in the bottom photo)

With love to the Pamela's Girls,

Auntie J

July 4th Weekend

We went to Blythewood this weekend to celebrate the 4th with Daddy L's family. Daddy L also loaded up his 1974 Landcruiser, his first car, which is filled with lots of memories. His plan is to fix it over the next few months so he can drive it around town. While we were at our old house in Blythewood loading up the Landcruiser, I took lots of cute photos of Baby B running around the spacious backyard. He has a newly found love for trees these days, so he cannot pass a tree without touching it, hugging it and yes, licking it. The weather was so beautiful that it was a perfect day for Baby B to enjoy the outdoors.

Sunday night we came back to Darlington just in time for the firework show at the Country Club. It wasn't the same without Auntie J and Uncle R there, but Baby B sure did enjoy running up and down the golf course before the show started. He never even flinched at the sound of the fireworks. He just stared at the lights as they flashed in the sky above us.

Last night, Baby B decided he wanted to help Daddy L as he was tinkering under the hood of the Landcruiser. He is definitely ALL boy! We laugh at Daddy L's grandmother because she always says that Baby B is going to be a plumber or a heating and air repairman because he's always trying to figure things out... Well, I guess now we can add mechanic to the list:)

Happy Late July 4th Pamela's Girls!

Love,

~Mommy M

In Remembrance

Auntie J writes about food and the senses bringing us back to places and times in our memories. The other night I was having dinner at a new restaurant we haven't been to before. Here's a link to the photos on yelp. Every now and then I'll have a craving to get a dessert. Most of the time I'll look at the dessert menu and unless something really yummy pops out, then I'll pass.
My other grandmother, Vivian, had a big sweet tooth. Ever since I was a kid she couldn't pass up a dessert, ever. One time we were having our favorite, coffee ice cream, for a mid day snack on a late summer afternoon. Then she said "Let's make hot coffee and pour it on top of the coffee ice cream. Wouldn't that be good?!" So we did. And it was SO good!
At this restaurant for dessert they offered ice cream with hot espresso poured on top, just like Vivian invented. This time, I couldn't pass up dessert and I got it just for her. For the fun time we had together and how she always knew how to add a little something to a dish to make it fun and delicious. To the left is the ice cream with espresso and whipped cream.For years now I've had these same 2 pictures in a frame next to each other- from one apartment to the next apartment; from the west coast to the east coast and back; from the north to the south. I also keep this candle next to them. I used to keep it just next to my granddad, but now it's for both of them. While I was in college in Myrtle Beach, I had a friend that is from Israel. As a gift he gave me this Jewish candle that is a memorial candle that you light every year in remembrance of loved ones that have gone on and are in heaven. I have never lit it so it will always last and I remember them everyday that passes.
Cici put it so well the other day: "You have to always remember to appreciate all the time you have with those you love, cause 'today' is 'tomorrow's' 'old days.'"
I'm so thankful I have these memories, that food and smells can bring them back to life for a moment, and that I have all of you in my life today!
See you all in a few weeks, yay!
Love to the Pamela's Girls,
SanFran S

Auntie J’s Thoughts on the Fourth Of July

Many of my current day feelings about how to celebrate the 4th of July come from my wonderful South Carolina family traditions. As families generally do, ours had a basic plan in place for that holiday each year and I can still feel my instincts shift into a “barbecue mode” when the first of July rolls around each year.

Most often, we would have Maurice Bessinger’s delicious offerings of smoky pit-cooked barbeque pork with their delicious mustard-based BBQ sauce, baked beans, slaw and some of their tasty signature hash & rice. I really don’t – to this day – know EXACTLY what is in that hash…. and in this case I truly feel that ignorance is bliss. It’s somewhat the same case with the ceviche that Uncle R and I love to buy on weekends from a small but thriving nearby Mexican grocery store… the fewer questions asked, the better. Crazy tasty… but slightly mysterious.

There were some years that we used another barbeque restaurant, Ray Levers Barbeque, out in Blythewood. I used to love to drive out North Main Street through rolling farmlands and tall pines to pick up our meal at this barbeque spot because I was out in the “horse country” where I kept Shawnee. I would turn up the radio, roll down the windows and push Pamela’s little gold & white Chevy Nova in a speed-appreciating way that it never experienced under Pamela’s quiet, firm and careful control.

Then at home Mommas and Pamela would have garnered samplings of summer South Carolina fruits and vegetables… plump, burnished red tomatoes, crisp cucumbers to add to some slices of onion & sprinkles of pepper & sugar in some vinegar, curling yellow summer squash, fresh and tender green beans and usually your nose would lead you to a big basket of newly-picked SC peaches from the Columbia farmer’s market. Their smell sifting through the gently fan-stirred air made your mind skip from one peach possibility to the next… Cobbler? Homemade ice cream? Or just sliced into a bowl drenched in their own sweet juices. I find myself holding peaches & their yellow & pink fuzziness up to my nose in grocery stores here in Nashville hoping to smell that oh so familiar and lovely perfume that immediately takes me back to a hot, lazy South Carolina summer day…. And I usually don’t get it… unless they are South Carolina peaches, that is.

Uncle R has always remembered that I gravitate towards barbeque on the 4th because of my upbringing and we have spent many Independence Days with me dousing a dry Tennessee-style BBQ sandwich with sauce from a treasured bottle of Maurice Bessingers. But last July 4th Uncle R and I had the wonderful treat of traveling down to SC to see CeCe, SS, Mommy M, Daddy L and meet Baby B for the very first time!



We loved seeing Baby B eat his breakfast as we spent that first morning with him! (Oh, NO, Mommy M… I said…I am NOT taking your picture.. don’t worry… Gulp). Then in Darlington we went to a fun July 4th celebration at the Darlington Country Club and got to see Baby B eat his first ice-cream sandwich. Afterward we sat back in lawn chairs and watched a fireworks display together. It was a perfect holiday together.



I will miss not being with my SC Pamela’s Girls this July 4th, but will look forward to seeing ALL the Pamela’s Girls during the first week in August!


And yes! Happy Birthday to Mommas!

Love you all!
Auntie J.

Happy Birthday, Mommas!

Every July 2, I remember Mommas, the sweetest, kindest, most gentle soul ever ! She was born in 1898, so would be 102 today. Since she passed away in 1984, Mommy M and San Fran S never really got to know her, but she ADORED them! After Mommy M was born in 1979, Mommas started sending her a check for $25 every month, for me to use to buy little things she needed. Since we were on a tight budget, this meant the world to me - especially since Mommas only had Social Security of about $345 a month. It gradually went up when San Fran S came along.

A couple of my favorite memories of her include how she always let me win at games, from everything from Go Fish to Old Maid. Although they say not to do this with children, I always loved being able to beat an adult in a game.

Also, Mommas subscribed to a number of magazines her whole life and for probably at least the last 10 years, she only did it to give them to me. As soon as they came in, they would be waiting with my little stack of goodies from her, which usually included a little basket with my favorite food, covered in a starched dish towel or cloth.

So to all the Pamela's Girls, "Sug" or "Nookie" (Mommas' names of endearment for us) have a good day today and strive to be like this wonderful grandmother and great-grandmother of ours.

Love, CiCi