Good night, John Boy!

Where have TV theme songs gone?

You take the good, you take the bad...

Here's a story, about a lovely lady...

So no one told you life was going to be this way...

Thank you for being a friend...

Sunday, Monday, happy days...

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, Sclemeel, schlemazel, hasenfeffer incorporated...

 

Come 'n listen to my story 'bout a man named Jed...

 

They're creepy and they're kooky...

 

Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got...

 

Just the good ol' boys, never meanin' no harm...

 

Hey baby, I hear the blues a-callin', tossed salad and scrambled eggs...

 

Now, this is the story all about how my life got flipped-turned upside down...

 

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip...

 

Look at what's happened to me, I can't believe it myself...

 

Green acres is the place for me...

 

Welcome back, your dreams were your ticket out...

 

Now, how many of you can still sing the rest of the lyrics to each song?  Go ahead, admit it.  You LOVE singing them, don't you?  Or what about the distinctive tunes of The Waltons, Dallas, Knots Landing, I Love Lucy, Bonanza, The Big Valley, Batman, Bewitched, CHiPs, Knight Rider, Charlie's Angels, Gunsmoke, The Lone Ranger, Good Times, or M*A*S*H?  Or the original Mickey Mouse Club?  The old black and whites are the best!  I love TV Theme songs and I find modern selections to be a bit lacking.  When I was 2 or 3 years old I would jump up and down every Friday night at 8pm when Dallas came on.  We would crank it up!  It was my favorite song!  Well, second only to Juice Newton's Queen of Hearts.  Every time I hear a theme song from when I was growing up, it evokes an individual memory or sometimes it's just a feeling; the feeling of being 5 years old and believing with true innocence that everything will be okay.  Mommy and Daddy love you, you've got a full tummy, a little brother you're forced to take baths with every night, some hand-me-down clothes from cousin Joyce, a doll named Honey that Grandma Betty gave you that now goes everywhere with you, and a big ol' sand box to let your Barbies play in.  Truth be told, when I was 5, everything was certainly not okay.  That was the year Dad was diagnosed with cancer, which turned out to just be the first shock in a 2 year wave of bad news.  But, somehow, a little boob tube reprieve helped me cope.

 

While I love all of these old shows, the one that affects me the most is The Waltons.  I watch reruns in the afternoons when I'm off during the week and I hum the song to Rocco and he smiles the biggest smile.  And it almost makes me cry; it evokes such powerful memories that I almost can't bear it.  I think about watching it at Grandma and Grandpa's house, sitting on their old sofa, drinking some sweet tea and oh, how I miss them!  And when the theme song (from the later years) is playing and the "old pictures" scroll through, it makes my heart hurt at the loss of simpler times.  The last picture is of Elizabeth, played by Kami Cotler.  She was very young at the time, in her little dress and bare feet, with her hair in braids, carrying a stick and her school books wrapped in a belt.  It reminds me of summer days at Grandma and Grandpa's, gathering eggs, picking tomatoes and cucumbers, playing with Rocky and our cousins in the corrals and then getting whipped with a flyswatter by Aunt Debbie because we were gone too long and she didn't know where we were, the smell of a horse that spends it's days in a pasture (they have a different smell than show horses who are kept in stalls, FYI), walking out to the pond to fish, playing in the stacks of hay, helping Grandpa work on his semi, the same semi where we would play and pretend we were out on the Mother Road in our very own Big Rig, working cattle, shucking corn and snapping beans for hours on end, all of the women-folk buzzing around the kitchen as we prepared to can everything from tomatoes to corn and it was as hot as the dickens from all of the steaming pots, the smell of fresh apple butter and the warmth of it when you snuck a bite from the pot, grandkids taking turns cranking the handle on the ice cream maker while we listened to the adults talk in the living room, watching Hee Haw, playing Wahoo (who remembers that game?!),playing with Grandma's old adding machine that always had a funky smell to it, her green lipstick that turned red when she put it on, Grandpa's large, strong hands (the testament of a man who worked with his hands his entire life), the corner closet with all of our toys in it (the same toys Mom and her siblings played with), standing in front of the air conditioner with our shirts raised up to cool us off, eating at the "kids table" in the living room every Sunday, spending hours looking through Grandma's photo albums, her Aquanet hairspray, Grandpa's lunchbox and thermos that he took to work with him every day, going out to the chilly well house to get jelly or other foods that Grandma had canned, and sitting in their front porch swing as the south wind cooled me off.  Or sometimes I would sit in a seat Grandpa made out of an old metal tractor seat and he and Grandma would sit in the swing and hold hands.

 

Sorry about the run-on sentence.  I'm having trouble with those this week.

 

Some days I worry about what I will teach Rocco.  Will he have memories like these?  Will he know the value of a simple life or will he only know the fast paced world we live in today?  Will he know the joy of spending an afternoon lazing away with a fishing pole in his hand or sitting on the porch swing and watching a beautiful sunset?  I look around and I see so many kids that are overscheduled and struggling.  We've become so programmed to go faster and farther and bigger that we forget the power of simplicity.  I plan on raising Rocco on The Waltons and old Disney movies; D can resist if he wants, but I'm going to do my darnedest!  If the Hallmark Channel, TV Land and others stop airing reruns, I'm in trouble.

Just for fun, I might make him watch Jaws.  Just kidding.

Good night, John Boy!

Good night, Mary Ellen!



 

In case you couldn't place all of the songs, here's the shows they came from and a link to the lyrics and intros:

 

The Facts of Life

The Brady Bunch

Friends

The Golden Girls

Happy Days

Lavern & Shirley

The Beverly Hillbillies

The Addams Family

Cheers

The Dukes of Hazzard

Frasier

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Gilligan's Island

The Greatest American Hero

Green Acres

Welcome Back, Kotter

 

 

 

 

 

 

Making a memory

Have you ever thought, "I want to remember every little thing about my child - every whimper, every smile, every grunt, every giggle, every wail, every little contented sigh, every drop of drool, his first fuzzy piece of toe jam, his big, bright blue eyes, the way he gets excited and will immediately stop fussing when I carry him into the bathroom for a bath, the way his whole body gets red when he's mad, the way his hands lay when he's asleep, the way his hair stands up in the morning and curls when it's wet, the way he snuggles up against my neck when he's sleepy and holds his head up like a turtle when he wants to see what's going on, the way he squeezes my arm, the way he holds my fingers when he drinks a bottle, the way he wiggles and smiles and laughs when he wakes up, the way he laughs in his sleep, the way he smells like baby lotion, the way he tries to sing along when I make up silly songs to entertain him, and the way he flails his arms and legs when he lays on his back as he learns to control his extremities. I never want to forget these things!"

Wow, there were a lot of every's and the way's in that big ol' run-on sentence! But, you get my point, right? Remember the original "Parent Trap" movie when Suzan, acting as Sharon, is sniffing her Grandfather's jacket and when he asks her what she's doing, she says, "I'm making a memory. Years from now when I'm all grown up, I'll remember my Grandfather and how he always smelled of tobacco and peppermint." That's how I feel about Rocco; I'm constantly making memories.

He's so precious and so sweet and I am so in love with him that I do not EVER want to lose a memory. And, sadly, I know that I will. Age will catch up to me and time will rob me of many of the tiny details I want to preserve. He will only be this teensy weensy size once and I will only be able to protect him for so long. He will grow up and I can only pray that God's plan for my little man keeps him close to me without me smothering him. In the meantime, I've taken somewhere close to a bazillion pictures and videos of him, so when I'm old and gray and my faculties aren't what they are today, I can still see this baby boy and maybe the pictures will bring forth a memory and I will be able to come back to this day, to this moment in time, when I was his first love. And it will make my heart smile. 

Corn and Tomato Salad

After umpteen hundred friends shared this recipe, I decided to give it a try for a little change-up on a Monday night.  I shared this recipe on Facebook from a page called Easy Recipes, Your Guide to Simple Recipes.  We gave it a few tweaks for our palate.  Here's the recipe as it was given (I halved it for the two of us and had plenty left over):

Corn and Tomato Salad

• 6 ears of corn
• 3 large fresh tomatoes
• 1/2 large onion or about 1 cup chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
• two to three sprigs fresh oregano (optional)
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• fresh ground pepper

Boil corn in large pot of water for about 7 minutes.  Drain and plunge corn into cool water. Cut corn off cob and set aside to cool completely.  Chunk tomatoes and onion.  Coarsely chop basil and strip the oregano off stems.  Place cooled corn, chopped vegetable and herbs into large bowl.  Toss with vinegar and olive oil. Season to taste. Serve chilled or room temperature.

 

Here's what I did differently:

 

1.  I didn't plunge the corn into cool water.  I didn't even let it cool completely.

2.  I omitted the oregano.

 

3.  I added a few dashes of Louisiana Hot Sauce

 

4.  I added a small dash of salt.

 

I think a little bit of garlic would have been good in this, too.  It was light tasting and next time, I will use more basil because, you know, more basil is always better.  I was afraid that the olive oil might make it a little slimy, or make me feel like I had oil all over my face (the same way I feel after eating Chinese food) but it wasn't and it didn't.  The amount of oil is so small that it's really just more of a binder.  It was a different flavor for corn and tomatoes, not a flavor we're accustomed to having, but it was really good!  I also discovered that I like the salad better when the corn is still a little warm as opposed to chilled.  Give it a try and funk up your Monday night!

BLT Salad

Guess what?  The baby is napping and I'm taking the opportunity to get a blog post in.  It's been a while!

Who doesn't like a BLT sandwich?  Bacon.  Yum!  Tomatoes.  Yum!  Lettuce.  Yum!  Mayo.  Yum!  But, I'm on a salad kick, so with the inspiration of a BLT, I'm changing it up a little bit and adding a few funky flavors!  Don't go overboard with the dressing, you really only need a couple of tablespoons.  And believe it or not, on that huge salad in the picture (and to give you a concept of it's size, it is on a salad plate, not a dinner plate), there's less than 3 Tbsp of dressing, even though it looks like it's drowning in dressing.  Here's what you need:

BLT Salad

• 1-2 C Mixed greens (I buy the organic 50/50 Mix)
• 1 medium sized tomato, chopped
• Red onion, chopped, as much as you like
• Cucumber, about 6 slices, or more if you want
• Avocado, cubed (I used half of an avocado on the salad, but feel free to use less)
• 3-4 Banana or Anaheim Peppers, cored and sliced
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 3-6 slices of Center Cut Bacon (less fat and fewer calories than regular bacon)
• 2-3 Tbsp Dressing

1.  Brown, drain and pat dry the bacon (1 serving is 3 slices) then chop it all up.

2.  While the bacon is cooking, melt the butter in a small nonstick pan, then throw in the peppers and stir occasionally until they're soft.  Or, if you're like me, burn them a little; it tastes better, and I'm not being sarcastic.  D and I love a little burn on the pepper!

3.  Place your mixed greens on a plate and drizzle half of the dressing over the top.  Pile on the tomatoes, onion, cucumber, avocado and the rest of the dressing.

4.  Finish it off with the chopped up bacon and banana peppers.

5.  EAT THAT STUFF UP!!  IT IS DELICIOUS!!  The bold flavors of the lettuce, the sweetness of the tomatoes, the bite of the onion, the crisp lightness of the cucumber, the reminiscent-of-guacamole taste of the avocado, the saltiness of the bacon and the kick of the peppers ..... mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm!
 

47 pounds

This is our dog food storage bin.

This is the 47 pound bag of dog food.

Yum!

So, when you're almost nine months pregnant and you aren't supposed to lift anything heavy and your husband isn't home and you're too impatient to wait for him - how do you get the 47 pounds of dog food into the storage bin?

 

One cup at a time, my friends.  One cup at a time.

 

By the way, 47 pounds is less weight than what I gained during my pregnancy.  *sigh*

 

 

Some assembly required

I bought this Fisher Price Zen Swing in April and it was unbelievably easy to put together.  I love the colors and that it doesn't look too baby-ish; it looks like it can just fit right in with the decor of a home.  The seat turns so baby can swing side to side or front to back and the seat detaches completely and can be taken to any room where you might be.  The music is decent and it plays nature sounds, too.  However, the one downside I've noticed is that the swing motor is a little louder than I expected and the mobile doesn't turn on its own.  Boo.

This is the Safety 1st playard/bassinet/changing table I bought for our bedroom - I absolutely love this thing but it was a COMPLETE ROYAL PAIN IN THE PATOOTIE TO ASSEMBLE! It took Jakob and I almost two hours to assemble and it was definitely a two person job. First, there were no instructions whatsoever.  ????  (I will add this note, a month after assembling this I found the instructions completely hidden in a pocket on the backside of the mattress.  I discovered the pocket by complete accident.)  And getting some of the pieces to fit together was like getting a 500 pound person to lift their leg behind their head; it just wasn't happening.  Then, we couldn't get two of the sides to lock into position.  Did I mention I was over 8 months pregnant when we were doing this? I was huffing and puffing and sweating and if I hadn't been cussing so much, Jakob probably would have thought I was going to pass out from all of the stress this little contraption was causing me.  As you can see we did finally get it put together and he went off to take a shower and escape the verbal garbage that was still free flowing from my frustrated mouth. I wheeled it over to our bedroom door and guess what?  IT WAS HALF AN INCH TOO WIDE TO FIT THROUGH!  My head spun around about 4 times and I'm sure I looked possessed as I spent the next 10 minutes cursing and yelling and slamming this thing on the ground until finally one of the sides gave way and I was able to get it through the door.  The next day Jakob asked me what all of the noise was about the night before and I had to explain my meltdown.  Shame on me, I know.  I told D after he got home from work that this contraption was never leaving our room.  EVER.  NEVER EVER.  NOT IN A MILLION YEARS.  I couldn't believe how stiff the locks were once you got them into place.  I so wanted to use this when we travel, but unless the Good Lord provides a divine intervention and fixes those locks, I don't see it happening.  However, it works awesomely in our room!  The storage on the side and the changing table are so convenient!  Side note: the music it plays sucks.

Goodbye, Jakob

Today is a bittersweet day.

Jakob and his family are leaving.

It's a day we thought we were prepared for, but saying goodbye is always hard to do. On one hand we're excited and looking forward to the new chapter of life we're about to embark on and on the other hand we're going to miss having Jakob around. He's essentially been our son for the last 8 1/2 months and we've enjoyed having him here. There was an adjustment period for him and for us, but we definitely had a good experience as host parents. He's a good kid and I hope that his year in the United States was all that he hoped it would be. And hopefully he doesn't take home any of my cuss words.

His parents and sister arrived last week and it's easy to see where Jakob's good manners and spirit come from. They are an amazing family and it's obvious how close-knit they are and how much they love each other. I can't imagine sending my child halfway around the world to live abroad for a year. I know it must have been very difficult for all of them and his sister said that Berlin without Jakob wasn't any fun. She also said that if he comes back to the United States for college, she's coming with him. :)

We will miss you Jakob!