Call It What You Want...

We had our last (probably) round of Christmas-present festivities today with Grandma AJ and Grandma Marv (no, they're really a traditional couple, but for some reason Mark keeps forgetting to call him "Grandpa"). Mark had to wait and wait and wait to open the presents that appeared under the tree during his nap; finally I could take it no longer and he helped me gather them into a basket so he didn't have to keep staring at them. Only then could he start playing with his cars and toys and such instead of worrying when Daddy and Grandma would be home from the store and we could open them.

Adam sat happily with Grandma for a while, and then with Grandpa, sucking on tags, his fist, his bib, other people's fingers... whatever he could get into his mouth. He missed his second afternoon nap, so intent he was on the goings-on.

I failed to keep a decent list of which of Grandma's friends which gift came from (bad me), but suffice it to say, cute CDs, cute coloring books, cute outfits for Adam... Tim's aunt Estee supplied a bear for the baby that's about as big as he is... Mark wanted to read every book as he got it and color with every crayon before moving on to the next item.

Then I was off to the kitchen for my first foray into The Best 30-minute Recipe from America's Test Kitchen: Quick Maple-Glazed Pork Chops. Yes, it took 30 minutes, and yes, it was reallllly yummy. I also really went all-out and opened a bagged salad, complete with sliced almonds and cranberries and its own dressing. But the focus was truly the pork. The glaze was sweet and tangy with just a hint of heat (1/8 tsp. cayenne), and the pork was cooked just the way it oughta be. Well, it should be; they've tested it so I don't have to, isn't that what they say???

Dessert was a berry pie that I made this afternoon. To bed early so I can look alert and happy and well-rested for Adam's big day tomorrow. (I also have two more recipes to try from the book while Grandpa and Grandma are here. More on those later...)

It's the time when I go to my parents' house and go through some boxes from their attic and whittle away at the masses of things I have stored there for another time...

When I arrived, I had 10 boxes in the attic. The parents have a system of filing cards that number each box and tell roughly what's in it. There's also a clever map of the attic. Dad agreed to bring down the six specified boxes. [Thanks Dad ("If it weren't for you, I'd still be scraping skid marks off the Prickly Heat World Ministries Waterslide...").]

I came home with two, one rather solidly full of like-sized things that fit well, and one rather jumbled. Dad acquired another box of "goodies" for ebay or Goodwill. Three empty cartons remained behind. Nothing went back into the attic. Oh yeah, and three garbage bags were waiting for Mr. Phelps (the garbage hauler) to take away.

Yes there were some goodies to be found. A selection of fine items that may be familiar to some of my blog readers is below. Do you recognize anything? Test yourself before enjoying the tales below...

Clockwise from top left:

Headband from camp at Rainbow Christian Camp, circa 1989; Lieutenant Legg, a food fighter, Christmas in the 1980s; t-shirt, Prom 1990; Scrimshaw, fall semester 1988; nametag, Cedar Campus SLT, 1993; friendship pins, ca 1981; Ribbon from Haynes Apperson Festival Big Wheel Rally, 1978; Quilt block, ca. 1980

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is Lieutenant Legg, one of the Food Fighters action figures. My brothers pitched in together to buy this for me one year for Christmas. This. Not this and something else. This. They were the finest examples of generosity ever imagined. (I don't recall having gotten them -- either of them -- anything stellar that year. But still. And yet I still have it...)

Lt. Legg is standing on a t-shirt that was given to me by my smokin' hot prom date, 1990. You can't see the mullet from here. Or that his dad was wearing his best clothes for the picture. It wasn't like it is now, putting images on t-shirts. This was kinda crazy and new and surprising... Hey Brenda, show this one to "Little Bobby G."...

Here's my SLT nametag. I know I have at least one fellow SLT-er checking in here from time to time (Hi Howard). Everyone else's driftwood was flat. Mine was rounded, scruffy and full of character. A lot like me. SLT was an amazing month at one of the most beautiful places ever.

See, I had friends in fourth grade. (I'm not telling you how many of that collection I made myself...)

And the quilt block. No, that's not keystoning (an effect caused by taking pictures of square things at an angle, or projecting a square image on a wall from below, making the image a trapezoid instead of a square) -- that quilt really is that uneven.
Third grade teacher Mrs. Fewell had us quilting during recess. My sewing skills really shine in this closeup of the center of the quilt:
Who knew I would grow up to do better???

There's a lot more in there, and many more stories, but I'll have to save those for another day. And another time when I dig further into those boxes I brought home.

P.S. Hey Thief, is that your Big Wheel Rally ribbon? And how did I end up with it? I don't recall participating in the event except as a fan. Or maybe it's the Dunce's?

Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays!

That I love my boys???

I haven't written for a while so I just thought I would include some funny stories on what the boys are up to.

Adam turned four months on Friday. His favorite person is Mark. Yes, Mark is more favored than Mommy, but that's okay. Sunday he chose to skip his morning church nap; he was being passed between two of our good friends, Kristen and Brianna, and their friend during service and was far too excited to nap.

Mark has done it again with cars. A couple months ago we were walking past a driveway in our neighborhood and he pointed at the car there and announced "Grampa car". Turns out, yes, Grandpa Larry drives a Chevy Lumina, just the car that was in that drive (though I should add that the next time we saw it, after Mark had seen Grandpa's car with its dashboard alligators, Mark was a little upset that this car didn't have "lizards" too). 
Last week we walked past a truck in the same driveway and he called it "Shawn truck." I was pretty sure the truck our friend Shawn drives is a Dodge Ram, but, okay, I'm sure a Ford F-150 is similar. So when we got home I called Linda and asked her what kind of truck Shawn has. Don't you know, it's a Ford F-150. Sort of pitiful when the 2-year-old knows better than mommy what sort of vehicles people have...

And -- this one's for Grandma Sarah (get out yer Kleenex, Ma)...

I was putting Mark to bed Friday night and he pointed up at the candle from his baptism. "Can'le. Church."
"Yes, Mark," I said, "that's from church. That's from--"
He interrupted me. "Ba-tized. Water. Head."
How do you know this stuff?!?! I had to tell Pastor Wade this story. His jaw just dropped. "He gets it. He's only two, but he gets it." It just amazes me what he gets.
I told him about how Pastor Doug made the sign of the Cross on his head and on his heart, and so now Mark points to his head and says "Cross," then then points to his chest and says "Heart." I so love that little boy.

(The candle in Pastor Doug's hand is the candle in question.)

On that note, Adam will be baptized at our church, Bethel Lutheran, at 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 31. If you're in the area, you're more than welcome! If you don't have a church and would like to check ours out, you're welcome for that, too. Pastor Heather and Pastor Wade will be officiating in this baptism.

It's only a week old. Notampering has been done with this photo. The hair is as it naturally falls. Really.

Did I get an even haircut?

I was at the local antique shop a couple weeks ago, looking for something that spoke my sister-in-law's name but wasn't too large or fragile to take back to her country. I didn't find it. What I did find, I thought was pretty cool.

(This is not the actual item; more on why later.)

I'd been flipping through a pile of "old" photos. What caught my eye first was the woman's nice 1880s dress; this is why I picked it up. Then at the bottom of the image (not here, the actual one) was the name of the photographer's studio, Arnold, and the location, Watertown, Dakota. Watertown, Dakota! I know that! It's Tim's hometown. Of course, since 1889 and the statehood for the two states made from the Dakota Territory, it's been a part of South Dakota, but never mind that. I shelled out the $2 for the picture as a neat item from Tim's hometown.

Yesterday good friend and fellow living history and historical clothing nerd Mel was over for a visit after our museum's holiday breakfast (she needed a Mark and Adam fix, and we needed a good visit), and I showed her the picture. We spent a good many minutes enjoying the lady's dress, pointing out that she's slumping (even in her corset, an art an experienced corset-wearer masters), checking out the frizzes at the top of her head (either side of the part, and you have to look closely), and, of course, speculating on which of the boys was the rebel and who was the solid, trustworthy one. We decided that the father was a Civil War veteran.

This naturally led to wondering about the family. Who were they? How did this picture end up in an antique shop in Noblesville? Whatever happened to them?... And on. Yeah. Dead a long time. Who knows... But I thought, "Golly, that would give me something interesting to do the next time we make the trip out to Watertown. I could take this to the Mellette House or the local historical society and do a little research."

Later in the evening, Tim speculated that there could be a "Mellette connection" -- Governor Arthur C. Mellette, the first governor of South Dakota, was originally from Muncie, Indiana (not that far from here). So he went online to read up a little on the illustrious fellow. "Find a picture!" I demanded. "Find a picture!"

The very first picture of the governor answered my first question.

Who were these people? Why, it's the governor and his family: his wife Maggie and their sons (left to right) Wylie, Dick, Anton and Charles.

And the photo I pasted in my blog -- the same one I picked up in the antique shop? That comes from the page about the Mellette family on the Mellette House's website. The Mellette House was his home in Watertown, at the top of the bluff, a mere eight blocks from Tim's family's home.

I still wonder how it got to my little antique shop, and it does make me curious about the people in the picture. The next time we're in Watertown, we will visit the Mellette House, and perhaps learn a little more about the family than we could find on the internet.

It was a fun little trip through history.