Flash from the Past

Yesterday was Mari's family reunion. (I guess it's also my family reunion, now, but I'm still adjusting to that!) It was a good day...hot, but good.

Besides the food (I took my almond cake) and the company, there was an added attraction this year: the 1950 Ford tractor.

The ol' Ford has recently been rebuilt and restored. It had been in disrepair for a long time. Mari's Dad (in the hat) and his brother grew up working on their family farm running up and down the fields on this tractor.

All the siblings have been very excited about getting it all spruced up again this summer, and it was the highlight of the day when everyone took turns driving it up and down the road!

Mari's Dad, of course, knocked it into 4th gear and just flew down the road (this was his favorite thing to do as a kid). We watched the fun from the shade of some large trees in the front yard, with our lawn chairs, lemonade, and cameras! (This is one of my favorite activities.) ^_^

To see more pictures, including Mari driving the tractor, visit my photoblog.

Mixed Berry Almond Cake

aka "Yummy"!!! -Mari

This recipie I found in the newspaper. (Yeah, I know, I'm sounding repetitive, but when you don't have TV, then you find other ways of entertaining yourself...) Every Wednesday there are at least 4 recipies that I dream of trying. Well, every now & then I do, although they're usually the more healthy sounding ones. ;) But this one I just couldn't resist...

Mixed Berry Almond Cake
(Preparation 20 minutes, baking 50 to 55 minutes)

Ingredients:
7-ounce package almond paste, grated
1 cup sugar
10 tablespoons (1 stick and 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups mixed blueberries and raspberries
3 tablespoons sliced almonds
1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar

--------

1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 9-inch springform pan.

2 Add almond paste, sugar and butter to a mixing bowl. Beat on medium speed until smooth.

Note: Be sure to know that "almond paste" does not refer to "almond pastry filling". The grocery store has both kinds, and the Pure Almond Paste is really what you're looking for.

I didn't actually grate it, but it is a very hard substance to use in a mixer! I would suggest at least chopping it up into smaller bits, it'll help a lot when using the mixer. "Smooth" here is a relative term...just mix until paste is more smooth than chunky, it'll be fine. (And mixture is very thick, definately a job for the more sturdy beaters.)

3 Add eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Beat on high for 3 minutes.

4 Sift flour with baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture to almond mixture and beat until just combined. Pour 2 1/4 cups of batter into prepared pan, gently smoothing to edges.

5 Evenly sprinkle berries across batter. Top with remaining batter. Sprinkle with almonds.

Note: I used blueberries and strawberries because I didn't want to spend the extra money on the rasberries. I'm sure it turned out a bit differently than intended, but what can I say? We really like strawberries! Even without the extra almonds, there is plenty of almond flavor. So if you don't want to spend the extra dough (ha, ha) or time on almond slivers, I understand!

6 Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

7 Cool cake in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes. Gently slide a knife around inside edge of pan and release springform circle. Lightly dust with confectioners' sugar. Finish cooling on rack or serve slightly warm. This cake is equally delicious served cold.

Makes one 9-inch cake.
Recipe from Andre Prost Inc., Odense Almond Paste.

I hope you like it! (Mari just raves about it!)

Miller-Showers Park

Click on any picture to see a larger image.

To follow more closely to yesterday's (and Sunday's) topic, here are pictures of a "lake" here in Bloomington.

I did promise to show you pictures of this park in my post on Sunday. On this page are a few of the shots I liked best. If you want to see more, go look at the other webpage I created.

Claudia, Maurenis, and I went walking around the park one afternoon this past week...and I've been trying to figure out what pictures I liked best to display.

This picture is of the observation deck. The waterfall is also functional: the movement keeps the water from becoming stagnant and a breeding ground for lots of nasty insects!






This is much farther down the park. There are several different "ponds" on different elevations to help filter the water before it joins a local creek.

And it's full of waterlillies. (No, sorry, they weren't in bloom.)









I love this tree. It is planted close to the waterfall at the top of the park. Between the waterfall and the water gently reaching up the slope, it's a very peaceful spot.

This tree is supposedly native to Indiana, but I don't know what it is. Anyone?




A lot of people I know aren't particularly fond of this statue. I myself have never thought much about it while driving down Walnut. In fact, I wouldn't have even gone this far down the park if it hadn't been for a very cute little *natural* waterfall right beside where this monstrostiy has been built.

But after gettin close I thought it would be fun to take a few pictures of it. They all turned out rather well, I'd say, but you'll just have to see them for yourself. ;)



I'm not much of a photographer, but I do enjoy it. So be sure to tell me what you think of these photos, because I need feedback in order to improve what little technique I have!

Of...men?

This is an update on the post "Of Fish & Men".

A follow-up article was printed in the H-T this morning. Since most of you don't get this paper, I've decided to copy the article on another webpage.

In case you don't feel like exploring the realms of the internet (and my sad webpublishing skills), the jist of it is that the proposed 60 mile pipeline is no more. Poof!! Mari & I were totally surprised to see the headline this morning, but not at all unhappy...

But, seriously, follow the link...this is one story you have got to read for yourself!!

Monroe Co. Fair

It's that time of year again! The cows are mooing, the sheep are baaaing, and the rabbits are doing all they can to stay cool. Last night was our annual visit to the fair. (It's just not the same when you're a visitor and not a participant, but it's still fun.) Mari, his dad, and I met up with my sister and two of her friends to see what we could see and see what we could eat!
Corn on the cob, lemon shake-ups, and (of course).....

TACO SALAD!!

Most of you probably wouldn't think of tacos as part of a fair tradition, but they are for us Bloomintonites. No kidding. The meat is really juicy (probably a lot of fat) with lots of taco seasoning, tons of lettuce, tomatos, cheese...and of course the buttermilk ranch salad dressing.

Hey! Don't knock it until you try it. Honest, it's good!! I didn't think it would be when I first heard about it, either. Think about it, though. You put sour cream on your tacos, and that's a milk product, so it's not as far fetched as you thought! :)

Anyway, if your fair hasn't come yet, hope your corn on the cob is as good as mine was...and eat a tenderloin for me!! (I was too full after my taco salad...) :(

P.S. I'm sorry I couldn't add a link for you to learn more about our fair. It was sad, really, b/c the best one I could find was here. We really do have a great fair (here's directions), with an outstanding 4-H program. If you want to learn more about 4-H, check out their homepage. (It's my understanding that this program for kids & teens isn't nearly as popular in other states, which is really too bad.) :(

Of Fish & Men

It never ceases to amaze me what can be accomplished by mankind. Today's edition of the Herald-Times here in Bloomington just made me laugh. Read on...

Recent news here in Indiana is all about a proposed pipeline from the Monroe Resevoir (located just south of Bloomington) to Indianapolis in order to secure their water supply in severe cases such as drought. There has been much ado over this, especially since this lake is the only source of water for Bloomington as well as much, if not most, of the surrounding communities. What is amusing is what I read in the Hearld-Times today (search "Pipe dreams?" and "Pipeline plan"): this proposal is not the only option...just the only one that's been formally submitted.

I love what a representative of the Indy Dept of Waterworks says: "We don't need any water from Monroe for daily needs as long as the rains come and the rivers flow." Um...duh. But we're not so far from Indy (~50 miles), and so one has to reason that if they are experiencing drought conditions...wouldn't we also? It is true that it is a very large resevoir, but no one seems to know how much capacity it has for a daily water supply (never-you-mind that it's been around since the 60's). But apparently it is also a fragile resource, especially economically. Lake Monroe attracts a lot of tourists (I know that may sound wierd, but we're way inland with no real oceans around...we'll take what we can get!) and if the lake drops even a few feet in depth, then parts of the lake are totally unaccessable to the public who love to sail, fish, swim, and just go boating. Even at the conservative estimation of 90 million gallons of water pumped a day, it is suspected that the lake would, indeed, shrink.

Mitch Daniels (our governor) was also interviewed by the H-T. His main concern seems to agree highly with my own thoughts: if we start shipping this very high-demand resource elsewhere, what effect may that have on the efforts to grow the economy of Southern Indiana? Bloomington alone has been growing at an enormous rate in the last 10 years (trust me, this place looks nothing like it did 10 years ago, and there are at least 8 new housing editions going up at the moment). And it's been a high priority of our governor's to improve the economies of the small towns in our region during his term. Many Bloomington residents may indeed find themselves surprised, and perhaps pleasantly so, to be in agreement with Mr. Daniels on this new issue.

For more information on this topic (especially if you can't get logged onto the H-T website), you can visit: Indianapolis Star (19th), Fort Wayne's News-Sentinel (17th) (23rd), and Martinsville's Reporter-Times (it's like Q#3). If I find more interesting articles, I'll let you know.

"Now what about the fish?" you ask? Ah, well, besides the fact that fish could lose their homes to a shrinking resevoir, one of my betas has been a bit under the weather this past week. A trip to the pet store, several questions, and some good antibiotics seem to have him feeling much more like himself: his activity and eating habits returned to normal in just a few days. :) Unfortunately, though, the swelling has not decreased quite as much as I had hoped...but my informant at Delilah's said it may take 7-10 days until that is reduced. Poor fish. :(


FYI: This post is all because of the exploration Mari & I took of "Lake Fernandez" (aka Miller-Showers Park) on Saturday afternoon after visiting the pet store. It was interesting and got me thinking about water drainage, supply, quality, effect on other wildlife, etc, etc. Then of course I read a few articles in the paper this afternoon and just had to comment...or rather, inform you non-Hoosiers about our current little broo-ha-ha. Hope you enjoyed!

I think I'll try to get some good pics of the park to show you this week. It really is a neat idea they had.

100 VISITS!

I just had to do this cause I'm really excited! I've only had this blog one month and I've had 100 hits already (and my 1st international hit yesterday)!

Thanks to all!


p.s. Please be sure to tell me what you like about this blog and what you would like to see more. This is my way of keeping in touch with you, but I need feedback to prevent redundancy!

The RED Couch

Ta da!!

Here it is. So, what do you think??
I know some of you were starting to wonder if it actually existed. Never fear. It is now happily installed in our living room. I just had to put one pic up. There are more pictures of the couch elsewhere, if you're interested. If you wanna come see it, just give me a ring!

*Warning*: Mari is taking pictures of any and all who come to visit the couch.

In other news, I have been spending the majority of the last 3 days cleaning house. The downstairs of my house is now presentable to the public, and I'm about caught up on laundry. When something big comes up (y'know VBS, for example), the usual kinda things just get pushed aside. I think the rest of the week, and probaby most of next, will be dedicated to cleaning the upstairs. *sigh* Does it ever end!?!?!

Gwyn is returning on Friday to her far-off land to teach English again for another year. *sniff* Andy is moving to Kokomo tomorrow morning. *sniff* It's hard to say goodbye to friends. At least it's not the last goodbye. That does make it easier...but I will miss seeing them on a regular kinda basis. Well, I'm not gonna cry yet. There's dancing at Tutto Bène tonight, so we're going to have one last hurrah for Andy, and Gwyn's promised to come by again tomorrow.

At least I know I'm loved! ^_^

Sunday Rest

Ahhh...Sunday. VBS is over. Thursday and Friday went well, and since this was Tim & my first real go at something like this, I feel pretty good with the results. (And we've learned a lot, too!) The kids all had a blast, and so did the adults (we're just worn out from it more so than the kids!). It feels like I deserve a rest, but I know that this next week will be very busy with all the things I have to do to either catch up or follow up after this week.

But I'll worry about that more tomorrow. ^_^

Today, after church, the lady who leads the college/young adult SS class invited us all over for lunch. It was sooo nice to be able to talk to those my own age!! I of course love all the time I spend with the teens (I don't think I'll ever regret it), but often they need me more as a mother figure/leader than just someone to hang out with. But after spending every evening with them all week, it was great to be able to have adult conversations with people. The other girls (Audrey & Annette especially) who had worked VBS as well were just as chatty as I was! lol (So glad I'm not the only one!!)

I'm home now with Mari. We're going to relax a bit, watch a movie, have dinner...don't know if we'll really get anything accomplished, but that's ok with me!! :)

One last thing: I finally got to see Gwyn! She came over Saturday for lunch, and we chatted and visited for several hours. Good times...and I hope I get to see her again before she takes off for China again for the next year! :(

Bastille Day

Salut à tous mes ami(e)s français(es)! Je veux vous dire joyeuse Fête Nationale! Je ne peux pas poster une de mes images de mon séjour en France, comme je voulais. Elles ne sont pas digitale! (C'était avant notre époque téchnologique en 1999.) Désolée. :(

Mais, au lieu d'une photo nul par moi, ici c'est un de mes peintres favoris: Claude Monet. Je ne peux pas voir ce tableau sans voulant retourner en France. Elle me manque.

For more on Bastille Day, for you non-Francophones, check out what Wikipedia has to say about it.

VBS Update: Wednesday

This week has been as busy as I promised...and I'm tired! lol

So far, so good. We had 17 teens last night, which is just awsome, and 5 of them are kids I've not seen before. (There's a chance one may have come to Wed night before, and I don't make it there very often, but I think they're all new.) Tim F. & I are team teaching, which makes things kinda crazy getting ready, but lots of fun when doing it.

Mike Fultz has been helping out, runnig around with us, playing games, sitting in the back of the room keeping an eye on the sillier ones... He's great with kids in general, but I think he's really got a talent for working with the older ones. He taught Monday night when Tim was on shift and I had to go teach Swing at IU (I hate being overbooked). He did a great job: he has a natural sense of what he needs to say to get their attention. I wonder if he'd consider working with us more often...

Anyway. Last night was fun. There was this big thunderstorm threatening us all evening...and it finally broke around 8:15. We were outside with the kids, had to get them into the fellowship hall quick. That was fine, 'cause there's room for them all in there to keep up the activity, but there was one problem: all their things (Bibles, study guides, purses, etc) were still in the youth trailer. Oops. Jeff C. and Tim F. took them by umbrella two at a time to get their things so that they wouldn't have to get soaked. (Some of them did, anyway, just 'cause they felt like running back to the building...silly kids.) It was a madhouse (you wouldn't believe how worried they were about getting their things: you'd think we were just going to send t hem home without them!! lol)...but it was hilarious.

I've got lots of pics. I'll try to pic one or two to post...have to be careful about that, though.

Two more nights to go. I'm teaching solo tonight, and Larry will be there just to help out. Should be fun. Friday is the big Family Fun Night. No lessons, but it's a time to invite the parents to come, see what their kids have been doing, eat food, play games, and maybe be introduced to Jesus themselves for the first time. It's been very sucessful in the past, but pray anyway!!

VBS and more...

This week is VBS, and tonight was the first night. I'm up too late already, so this won't be very long.

Just wanted to tell everyone to pray for me, for the other workers, the teens, the kids, etc ('cause there's a lot of work/people involved). Things went well tonight, but every night is a new challenge! :) And, of course, since I'll be even busier than normal, don't expect an update every day this week: I promise I'll try to catch you up on everything important when all's said & done!

Two last things:
#1: Do you like my Hello Kitty? ^_^ (That's what Claudia brought to me from Japan, in case you missed that.)

#2: There's been some people visiting my blog...thanks! But I'd love to know who it is (my "visits" counter is going up, and it can't be all Shawn & Beth!) So if you'd like to leave me comments, I'd love to read 'em! Tell me anything at all: what you think, if you want to know more about something, or updates about you!

ttfn!

Bits & pieces...

No, I'm not talking about the new milkshakes at Steak 'n Shake (Mari will be highly disappointed), although they are good. There's just been a few very interesting factoids I've found and events happeing recently that haven't been mentioned yet, and I thought they would go well in one odd post.

Factoids-
#1: Mari has recently been on the search for different grocery items that are lacking in high fructose corn syrup. Oddly enough, this is a more difficult task than it may seem. (Mari has decided that this is more of a challege than a curiosity...he may even be taking it a bit personally...and believe me, it makes for some very funny grocery runs!)

That said, I visited my fav food blog today, and much to my happiness, there was an article about afore-mentioned dietary issue: The Fanatic Cook on HFCS.

If you liked that, check out...
#2: this post of hers: Sleep & Your Weight. The arguments are compelling for us younger ones with years (not to mention health worries) ahead of them. It may also help to explain why people just tend to get softer 'round the middle as they get older. I mean, we've all heard it said that the older you get "you just need less sleep". Maybe they don't need less sleep, but they get used to having less. *shrug* Any thoughts?

#3: Our red couch has finally come in. Mari & I are going to the store tomorrow to hopefully figure something out. For those of you not eagerly awaiting the arrival of the couch, it's been almost 3 full months: 4/13-7/7. Needless to say, we're a little irked. (yes, Maurenis, that means you can come see it soon!)

Other News:
Claudia is back from Japan. She brought me a kimono, some bamboo «chaussons» (I know that's French, but "house shoes" just doesn't sound as cool). I also got this really cool cell phone decoration: it's Hello Kitty in kimono! ^_^ The pièce de résistance: Mari has Mario & Luigi key-chains! If that wasn't funny enough, he also got 3 which make Mario noises: one jumps, one swims, and the other makes that noise that happens when you go down a pipe. They're hilarious!
(I'm sure some of you were confused by that, but that's ok. :) Amuse me!)

Interview Update

Well. I went to Edgewood to interview this morning at 9am. Had to wait for the principal for an hour b/c his meeting with the superintendent was running late. He and I then talked for over an hour (with two interruptions). I really enjoyed talking to him. I thought that everything went really well. Maybe could have done a bit better, but I had to be myself or I would have been very nervous.

Got home. Mari was just happy as can be when I told him about it. It's nice to know that my husband supports me so much and has such confidence in me. ^_^

However, around 2:30 today I received a phone call. Luckily, I was getting my hair cut, so I didn't know it rang. The principal called saying that he was going to recommend another canidate to the school board, and he would let me know if anything changed. *sigh*

So now I'm left wondering what I didn't do right, what I didn't say right. Was I too something? Was I not something enough? If so, what?? And finally: what did the other person have that I didn't? I'm invested in the community, I'm passionate about my subject matter, I love what I do, and I know the area and this school already. What do I need to do to get a job??

Happy 4th of July!

Now, I know that it's a year ending in 6, so this has to be some sort of anniversary year, but I haven't heard anything about it. I guess most people just don't notice, and the media just promotes the biggies. But I just thought I'd mention that our country is 230 years old!! Hooray!!

I'm about to leave an go watch fireworks at the IU stadium. Should be fun. Meeting sis', Mari's dad, and a few friends there. We're taking pizza. :) Silly, but fun. We had a good time. Some of the most entertainment came from the Kettle Corn and watching children and their sparklers. I took the camera along, which has a "fireworks" setting on it. Works pretty well, but you kinda have to hold still to get good shots. Claudia and Mari did their best. (The pics you see here are two of those they took.) They even had fun with the video setting, which did pretty well. It actually takes more than 15 sec at a time!
Wah hoo! Good times. :)

Also, check out Pais Daily Photo and London Daily Photo for more 4th of July fun!

Go light some Sparklers!