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Archive for Family

When Travel Man is out of the Country

Posted on June 23, 2012 by Renee Spindle

This is the first day of a three-week trip for Travel Man. He is on a work assignment that requires travel to Brazil, and will return long after the Fourth of July. The preparation that went on before this trip was so stressful. He was not originally slated to be dispatched for this job. What this meant was that we had to scramble to get a visa for him to travel yesterday. In the normal course of things this would not normally be an issue, but Travel Man had to get this visa on a “rush” order. He had to take all of his paperwork to the passport/visa service office last Tuesday in order to get the visa by Wednesday of this week at the very latest. He was flying out on Thursday.

On Monday afternoon he calls the visa service office, and is told his passport and visa are scheduled in that afternoon, and he will have to drive to their office to pick it up on Tuesday. We call again on Tuesday morning and are told that the Brazilian consulate has gone on strike this morning. They proceeded to find out if Tom’s passport and visa had cleared through the system before they went on strike. After 3 most stressful hours and numerous phone calls by Travel Man we find out that his passport and visa had been released, and he will have it on Wednesday morning. Remember he is leaving on Thursday morning. The major panic subsides for both of us, and Tom tracks the package via FedEx.

Thankfully his passport and visa arrived early Wednesday morning, so we could breathe a sigh of relief. If it had not cleared on Tuesday before the consulate went on strike there’s no telling when he would have gotten his passport back. This was the most stressful pre-trip preparation that Travel Man has had in a long, long time.

For myself, I have not been this stressed out since Travel Man went to Russia last year. My stress level stays right up there until I hear from him that he has made is to his destination, and has cleared customs without incident. My Travel Man has been all over the world, and had some crazy experiences going from country to country. Maybe one day he’ll find time to blog about it or write a book. For the time being this Domestic Goddess is thankful that her hubby is safe and sound and on the ground.

No comments Posted in Family, Travel Man, Travels

Peach Sorbet-reblog from Creative Noshing

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Renee Spindle

A yummy summertime treat. I cannot wait to try this recipe.

No comments Posted in Family

Aggression Cookies

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Renee Spindle

This recipe makes the yummiest little oatmeal cookies. I had forgotten how much I like them, and how fun they are to make. I got this recipe from my Mom many moons ago, and I’m not sure what the original origin of the cookies is. I’m sure my Mom can help me out with that information. For my baking session today, I had my helper with me from Camp Grandma. My grandson, Evan of course. These cookies are made to be mixed by hand. You mix by hand to get rid of your stress and take out all of your “aggressions” on the cookies! Here we go with the recipe.

Ingredients:

1c. brown sugar
2 sticks margarine, softened
1 tsp. baking soda
2c. quick oatmeal
1c. flour

Directions:

That’s all of the ingredients, just a 5 item recipe. This is my kind of cookie. Now, measure and place all ingredients in a large bowl. Get ready, get set, go and mix up all of the ingredients with your hands. Take out your aggressions, and stress, until formed into a big glob of dough, with all of the dry ingredients mixed in.

Spoon dough by teaspoonfuls or with your favorite cookie dough scoop onto a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees on ungreased cookie sheets for 8-10 minutes. These cookies bake fairly quickly so watch them carefully while they are in the oven. Cool and enjoy with a chilled glass of cold milk. This recipe makes 2-3 dozen cookies.

This is a wonderful recipe for a beginning baker. A great recipe to get your kids into the kitchen for the first time. As you can see by the pictures Evan had lots of fun mixing and mushing the ingredients together. And the bonus was when he was done mixing there was no spoon to lick off, just his hands. Of course I had to take over getting the dough onto the cookie sheets to bake while Evan “cleaned” his hands off. A wonderful afternoon of learning and making messes here in the kitchen at Camp Grandma.

No comments Posted in Around the House, Family, Food, Recipes

Angels Baseball with the Boys

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Renee Spindle

Travel Man and I squeezed in some time on Tuesday night to see and Angels game. Yay!! With his crazy travel schedule we have had to learn not to plan our outings too far ahead, as his travel plans can change in a moments notice. So we are learning to be more spontaneous than we normally would. But it’s working. We took our oldest son, Bryan to the game, and grandson, Evan.

The Angels were playing an interleague game with the San Francisco Giants, with CJ Wilson pitching. We love baseball, so it’s always a treat to get to see a game live. And Evan is getting into baseball more and more each year. First inning, Albert Pujols hits a three-run homer. A great at bat, and Evan is on cloud nine because he got to see Pujols hit a homer while he was at the game. He knows who most of the position players are, and gets lots of questions about the game answered by his Uncle Bryan. He’s like a sponge this year soaking in all of the baseball details.

Before the game Evan got a mini bat for a souvenir. He told the employee at the counter that he could only spend $10, because that was Grandma’s budget. When Evan gets back to his seat he tells me, “Grandma, we only spent $5, so we’re in your budget!” Just too funny for me. I was laughing for 5 minutes along with some “Grandma’s” sitting a few rows behind us.

Evan got lots of treats; churros, red vines ( I tried to call these red licorice, but got corrected), peanuts, a soda, a soft pretzel. Not the usual Grandma meals, but hey we were at the ballpark. Funny thing is he told his mother last night that we never fed him dinner!

The first inning was so exciting, 4 runs scored, and 4 runs scored in the 4th inning, more excitement! Right after the seventh inning stretch we get on the jumbotron!! Evan had the funniest delayed reaction. Bryan and I are pointing to the jumbotron telling Evan to look, and he was just in awe. Then he got excited and started jumping up and down. Just too funny because Evan had been dancing all night when they had the “dance cams” going in the stadium trying to get on the jumbotron, and then he did. The 8th inning we score 3 more runs. The Angels won this game 12-5. Lots of offense, and fun times with Evan too.

Evan’s getting lots of lessons in reading the baseball stats from all of us. Bryan is teaching him to read the stats in the newspaper. Great way to teach a little reading, and the numbers and percentages. If you have a sponge like Evan who likes sports this is a wonderful way to soak up some knowledge.

It’s always a treat when we get to spend time with any of the kids and with Evan along too. Bryan is a baseball aficionado, and so knowledgeable about the game it’s always a treat to get to watch a game with him and learn something new.

Travel Man will be back on the road today to South America, so I’m thankful we got to have a trip to the baseball park while he was home. It’s always a treat.

What’s your favorite summertime adventure?

No comments Posted in Family, Sports, Travel Man

Camp Grandma – Week Two

Posted on June 19, 2012 by Renee Spindle

Week two of Camp Grandma encompassed a very busy Thursday. We had lots and lot of fun painting, using tempura paints. I have a roll of art paper that we use for this type of painting. It comes in so handy for painting or coloring. We had paint brushes, a small painting roller, and some cut up sponges to paint with. Evan learned how to mix primary colors, and what colors they made.

Here’s Evan in action painting a blue elephant. It was fun to watch him keep adding things to the painting; birds, clouds, trees. He had a lot of fun making a mess outside.

These are the pictures Evan wanted you all to see of how messy his hands got with this project. He kept going over to the hose to spray them off!

Here is the collection of the finished paintings. He was a very busy camper on this day.

These are the pictures of the circles Evan made from mixing the primary colors. He got very excited when he mixed blue and red because this made my favorite color-purple of course.

Mixing the primary colors.

On Friday of our second week, we had a special guest for the day, Uncle Bryan. Uncle Bryan took Evan to see Madagascar 3, and then we had a great swim after Evan got back. We also went for a Golden Spoon, frozen yogurt. Yum, Yum.

Camp Grandma is keeping me busy on the days Evan is here with me. He will keep on going like a little Energizer bunny, as long as I have plenty of activities for him to get involved in. This week we’ll be trying some tie-dyeing, and hopefully some cookie baking. I think Evan wants to go to the beach. We’ll keep you all posted on our activities later this week. Remember Wednesday is officially the first day of summer!

What’s your favorite summertime activity?