Deadlines- My First Video and Cookbook

Last week we had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the Garrett family up in Atlanta. It was great to see everyone, including the newest addition to the family, Kim and John's son Asher. Davis had a blast playing with his cousins and I can already tell that Davis and Caleb are really going to be tearing it up when they get older. Davis is 8 months younger than Caleb (Kim's older son) and Rebekkah (Heather's youngest daughter). Davis is about 9 months older than Asher, so when everyone gets a little older they should be great playmates. Unfortunately, I don't have lots of pictures from the trip- it was really crazy with that many babies around and I just didn't get the photos I would have liked.



The Thanksgiving holiday fell right in the middle of some big deadlines for me. You might be wondering why I would have ANY deadlines as a stay at home mom, but I find a way to make things stressful. I needed to get a video made of my Miracle on Main Street Event- that was the big toy giveaway that I chaired for the Junior League of Gainesville this year. It was a great event and we have lots of ideas to make it even better next year. Well I wrapped up the video just before we left town for Turkey Day and I have posted a copy of the video here.

Taste of the U...

Recipes from "Siste...

By Jenn Lane Scott G...

Book Preview

When we got back in town, I had two big deadlines- finish the cookbook I was making on Blurb for my great Aunt ("Sister") and get our Christmas card designed so that I have a shot at getting it to people before the holiday is over. I really buckled down this week and got some help from Mom (watch Davis) and everything is ordered now! I have included the link to Blurb for the cookbook- I love that Blurb because anyone from the Lane/Scott clan that wants a copy can order it right there. Of course, I don't make a profit from the book, I just wanted a way to make it easy for everyone to order without me having to print a bunch of copies. I'm pleased with the way it turned out, but I already see some changes that I have to make for the next "edition". Sister doesn't really use any recipes, so when I asked her how she made her cornbread, she told me the ingredients and how she mixes them , but she didn't have any amounts. Well I meant to go back and add what i thought the amounts were based on my own experience making the recipe- I just perfected my cornbread this year after 7 years of trying. Well I forgot, so if you look at the cornbread page, there are no amounts. Maybe that was a subconscious way of not making it too easy for anyone else to perfect their cornbread- the staple of country cooking????

Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season and look for our Christmas card in the mail!

jenn

Halloween- new tricks, no treats (for Davis, except for sweet potato)

This posting will be mainly pictures because we have so many cute shots of Davis in his Peanut costume. Davis recovered from his first cold just in time for all the Halloween festivities. We started the day with a visit with Granny, then we headed home for a nap. After his brief morning nap, Davis made a great/horrible discovery: THE DOGGIE DOOR. Tim and I had worried he would find it eventually, but I didn't think it would be this soon. I left him in his room for a second to grab an outfit for him that was in the dryer. His room is baby proofed so i thought he would be fine. What I didn't know is that Napoleon popped in the doggie door right as I left, and Davis saw him. Apparently, Davis scurried right over to the door and Napoleon hopped back out it- which Davis thought was hilarious. I heard the laughing and caught a glance at the two of them playing with the door through the courtyard (the house is U shaped so I can still see Davis through the patio doors even when I'm at the front of the house). I grabbed the video camera to catch him on tape for Tim.

So after I pulled Davis away from the thrill of the doggie door, we headed over to Amanda and Grey's house for a playgroup Halloween party. It was great- Amanda's new house is gorgeous and the back room is baby proof. Davis and Grey are really starting to play together, even without Amanda and I parking them next to each other. Davis scurried right over to Grey's mock four wheeler and helped him tip it over. This may be a sign of things to come and I think those two are really going to get each other in trouble in a few years.

After Amanda's party, the hubby's joined us for some Trick or Treating in Katie's neighborhood, Mentone. We had a great time just parading the babies around and Davis seemed to like seeing the older kids in their costumes. As it got dark, we headed to Gigi and Pop's house so they could have a visit with Mr. Peanut. It was a great day- one of those days that was so fun you wish you could live it over again.

This is my last posting until my Miracle on Main Street Event this Satuday! That's also Tim's bday so hopefully I can muster up some high energy between now and then.

jenn

First Time Away- part 2

Sorry for the delay- Its been crazy getting back to normal. So back to vacation highlights....

On Friday, Tim came into San Fran and we spent most of the day at Golden Gate Park. They have a wonderful botanical gardens where we picked up lots of ideas for our yard and our pond. Every time we come out to Cali I get some great gardening ideas, but I have to try not to get too excited because the extreme heat and humidity of Gainesville means that we can't always have the same kinds of plants as Northern California. That was my biggest frustration with Sunset magazine- I would see amazing California gardens in there, and then everyone here would tell me how you just can't grow things like that here. But we try anyway.

We also checked out the De Young museum, where they were installing a new Maya Lin sculpture. If you aren't an artist, but the name sounds familiar, it is because her design won the competition for the Vietnam Memorial while she was a Harvard Architecture student. So it was a treat to see her new work be installed at the museum. I thought for a second that one of the installers might be Maya- this would have been my version of seeing some mega sports star in person. But unfortunately, a guard told me it wasn't her and when I got a little closer to her I realized that Maya would have been much older than the girl I saw.

To wrap up Friday we had drinks with Em and Ben at this great place called the Orbit Room (I lifted the photo from the Examiner- a bartender and his creation). They make tropical drinks with hand crushed ice and lots of fruit. Tim had the best bloddy mary of his life there I had a great Mai Thai. The drinks were wonderful (well worth the stomach pangs- I'm not supposed to drink hard alchohol) and the setting was a fabulous art deco building- enjoying good, fruity drinks and good architecture- I was in heaven. Tim and I spent the night at the Parc 55 hotel. It was nice and right on Union Square, but not historic or anything.

The next morning I trekked over to CB2 (http://www.cb2.com/). That's right- there IS a CB2 brick and mortar store and I was there. Actually it is store #3 in the US, the other two being in NY and somewhere else that is cold and urban. Tim and I tried out all their sofas and chairs so that I would be able to make decisions about potential dining chairs and sofas. Unfortunately, some of the chairs I liked the best visually were the least comfortable, so the search is back on for dining chairs. While we were in Union Square we went to H&M (http://www.hm.com/), a HUGE shopping fav of mine and I bought an absolutely enormous scarf. Seriously- its the biggest I have ever seen.

Then we headed over to Fisherman's Wharf to get on Em's party boat and watch the Blue Angels overhead. We nearly missed the boat, no pun, because of some crazy San Fran parking, but it was great once we were aboard. After the cruise we had bday cake and drinks on the lawn in front of the Ghiredelli building. Natalie (Em's sis who made a surprise visit) and I ran into one of the Blue Angels while sneaking into a nearby hotel lobby to use their ladies room. speaking of, thats my best traveling tip. If you are ever traveling in a big city and you need to use the restroom, but you are terrified of a public bathroom, your best bet is to walk in confidently to a hotel lobby. Walk in as if you are staying there and head for the ladies room. If you walk in a dont immediately see it, head for the hotel bar to give you time to figure out where it is. That can also throw off any suspicious bellmen. Of course, it helps if you are dressed up a little bit- I wouldn't try this if you are backpacking across Europe sporting some dreads and 50 pound pack.

So after we celebrated thouroughly, Tim and I headed to Windsor in Napa Valley to stay with a good family friend, Bill Sloan. We arrived around 9pm and went to bed soon after, completely exausted.

The next morning we enjoyed an awesome omelet with Sloan and his girlfriend Gail at Omelet Express in Windsor, then we headed for the Vino!!! We went to Sterling, of course, and took the Tram up the side of the hill to the winery at the top. It pretty touristy, but at only $20 a person, I recommend it. We also went to Clos Pegaus, a winery that features a great outdoor sculpture garden and it just happens to be my parent's favorite. We also zipped down to St. Helena to see the historic buildings at Beringer, then we enjoyed a nice picnic dinner at a little park there. We decided to skip Schramsberg because of their exorbitant tasting fee of $35 a person, plus we would have to wait until the next day, but they would charge our card that day. Um, no thanks, Schram- We'll just pick up a bottle at the Jonesville bottle shop and sip it by the pool when we get home. The Schramsberg is actually cheaper in G'ville than it is at the winery.

And finally, on Monday, Tim and I went up to Healdsburg, had lunch at a great French cafe and went back to St. Helena to meet up with Em and Natalie. We enjoyed a bottle of bubbly with them at Mumm, a gastronomic tasting at Robert Sinskey, a quick taste at Pine Ridge and then back to San Fran for dinner at Straights. At 11:30pm we boarded the red eye flight to ATL and on to Gville. We missed Davis so so much. It was heaven when we finally saw him. Jenn

First Trip Away

Davis is now 7 1/2 months old and Tim and I have gone on a little California vacation without him. Davis is chilling at mom and dad's (Pops and Grams/Gigi) while we are away. I know I am incredibly lucky to have mom and dad right there in Gainesville to care for him. He LOVES going over to their house and we have spent the night there a couple of times so he is used to sleeping there. Even though I miss him terribly, I know he is having a great time with them. I do fear that he will not remember us when we get home- he is so cute when Tim comes home or when we see mom and dad. We were in the grocery store over by mom and dad's the day before I left and we saw mom in the store. I had Davis in his new push car that he can't get enough of. I rolled him up beside her and when he saw that it was mom he shrieked with joy and raised his arms over his head. It was so adorable and I was so happy that he would recognize her even when we were in a public place. So I felt great about leaving him with them, but I still cried a little when I left.

So even though this is supposed to be a little get away for Tim and I, it is day 2 and I have yet to meet up with Tim. He is out at the Nerdery in San Jose packing up an instrument. I call it the Nerdery, but its actually a great company that Tim does a lot of collaborations with in mass spec. He is really excited about getting this instrument and I'm happy that we could tag on this bonus trip at the end of it. So I spent yesterday hanging with my good friend Emily who lives in San Fran.

Yesterday we did the informal "So I Married an Ax Murderer" movie tour. We ate lunch at Fog City Diner and took the ferry over to Alcatraz. Alcatraz was creepy, but I loved the history of the building and the island. And the self guided audio tour was really great. They rented you headsets like they have in many museums- it was included in the tour price. I would really like to see more historic sites and museums post these tours online so that people could download them to their own ipods and maybe look a little less nerdy. I also wish that I could have produced a few of these while working at my last job in place of HABS/HAER documentation, but we were never able to convince our clients that it would be as valuable as 4x5 photography. I hate doing 4x5's and the photos just end up sitting in a drawer in Tallahassee. I love how these audio tours add a human perspective to the historic structures and they can really do a wonderful job of explaining the value of the historic site to the lay person. So I highly recommend the Alcatraz tour even if you aren't an old building junkie. It was full of great scary stories and the views on the boat and on the island were incredible.

While we were in the island, the Blue Angels just happened to be practicing for the air show this weekend. It was great to see the San Francisco skyline with jets flying by and the boats on the water. It was great, except for the restrooms. Maybe they were going for the whole "prison" experience, but the restrooms outside the prison cell could have been cleaner. So as I left the restroom- the on that is located at the top of Alcatraz island- I stepped out into the beautiful California Sun and all of the sudden, this Blue Angel jet flew right behind my head. It was crazy loud and I swear I could see the whites of the pilot's eyes. Of course, I was already a little jumpy after hearing the audio tour about an Alcatraz break out attempt and the Marines coming in to stop it, so when a giant jet screamed by my head, I was a little shaken.

After taking the ferry back to the harbor, Emily and I headed for the Ghiradelli building. This is a really touristy area of San Fran, but it was fun to see it. That's when I had my second big scare of the day. I was leisurely strolling along enjoying my usual afternoon diet coke with splash of regular, and this crazy, dreadlock homeless guy (or so I thought) waving giant branches jumped out of a bush behind a trash can right next to me. I screamed out loud in front of the hordes of tourists. People, including Emily, were laughing hysterically. Emily gave the dude a buck and I realized I had been set up. That guy is a regular down there and we watched as he wedged himself behind the trash can to set up his next victim. As I wrote this posting, I have found out that this "Bushman of Fisherman's Warf" is not homeless, he is a street performer and he claimed over $60k last year in income. Only in San Francisco, but hey, I admite it was really funny. I was exhausted after my second big scare so we headed to the Buena Vista for their world famous, and much needed, Irish Coffee.

Feeling relaxed and wide awake, we decided to take the trolley home. There was a little bit of a wait, but we were able to see the sun set as we stood in line nest to the harbor. When the trolley came, Emily knew just were to sit so that we could hang off the running board in front seat of the trolley. It was a blast! By the time we made it home, we were completely exhausted so we ordered some Thai food and called it a night. I did have a chance to meet Ben, Em's new boyfriend, who was great. He is planning an awesome boat party for her 30's birthday on Saturday. So we will stay in San Fran until then, to celebrate with Em and watch the Blue Angels from the water.

I'm looking forward to seeing Tim today (Friday) and I miss Davis so much. I have a few things in mind for today, but I'll wait to see what Tim wants to do.

Jenn

He's Crawling!

Or kind of. It really looks like he is trying to do the worm, but I say it as a crawl. Guess we'll be baby proofing this weekend.
Davis reached another big milestone this week- graduation from swim class. He has now rescued himself in both summer and summer clothing so if he ever falls in, he knows just hoe to roll over and float. It was amazing- I will post the video once I learn how to scale the size down.

Jenn

Thank Heavens- He's Baptised

Well it has certainly been awhile since I posted last. These swimming lessons have really cut into my blogtime. I am posting our most recent celebration- Davis's Baptism. It took place on Sunday September 21- and Davis was exactly 7 months old. You know how we do everything in sevens at our house- although we never realize it till after the fact. We were married on 7/7 at 7 pm. Davis was born on 2/21 at 2:21 measuring 21 inches- seems like a break from the sevens, but its not. He makes 3 of us, and seven times 3 is 21. So I guess his number is 21. I don't think that means anything- I'm just a number nerd. So he was baptised at 7 months on the 21st.

Tim's parents, my parents, and my bro were able to make it to the event. I bought a super cute baptism outfit. Its kinda girlie, but its not a dress like some of the "Christening gowns" I've seen. I don't have anything against them if that's your family tradition, but since we didn't have one to use, I figured I'd let him be a bit more manly. I set up a little reception that morning in our Sunday School classroom. When I returned to the house to pick up Tim and Davis and his parents, I asked Tim if he would go ahead and put D in his outfit. We waited until the last minute because the outfit was super white- the perfect blank canvas for Davis's array of stain opportunities. When Tim returned I realized that I forgot to tell him that he needn't put on the little Dutch hat (see photo). I laughed so hard I think Davis might have known that he looked goofy. I quickly took the hat off, much to his relief.

So we got to church just in time, meeting my parents on the front row. My dad held Davis during the beginning of the service, which is what he usually does. Except Davis usually "sings" himself to sleep- especially when Dad is holding him. I will usually have to head back to the cry room with him (soundproof room at back of the church where you can hear and see the service, but the babes can wail and no one hears them. We spend a lot of time in there). But luckily, Davis just nodded off to sleep, in silence. Before you know it, it was time to get baptised. Tim held Davis, still fast asleep (a SUPER rare occurrence that he would be so sounds asleep) as reverend Dan blessed him. He used the water that I got from the spring on our family farm in Sulphur Well, KY. Davis slept right through it. Then Dan asked if he would wake up upset if he held Davis up for the congregation to see. I nervously said he would be fine, knowing that Davis might very well let out a blood curdling scream. But I wanted everyone to see him, so Dan lifted him up and everyone clapped. Well that woke him up! but he didn't scream- he didn't even look that surprised, so I guess I owe him one. I guess he is used to waking up in weird places? He wakes up in the Baby Bjorn on the go all the time.

So Davis was baptised, we walked him around the congregation as they sang Jesus Loves Me- it was very nice. Then we had a lovely reception with our friends at church. It was great and I was so thankful that Tim's parents and my family could be there. Davis won't remember the day he was baptised, but he will grow up in a church surrounded by people that love him. Davis is seen here with our friend Cindy- he loves her!

Davis is scheduled for ISR swim graduation this week! Video and pictures to follow.

Jenn

Cultural Exchange

For one week in July, Tim and I hosted two girls from Kazakhstan ages 11 and 12. The girls were here as part of their English class and our church helped to find places for them to stay while they were in Florida. The girls who stayed with us were Kristina and Kamilia and they were really lots of fun. We picked them up on a Monday evening after they drove here with their group from a stay in Atlanta. I was so excited to meet them, but I think Tim was a little nervous about what to expect. In the car ride home from the church we identified some cultural common ground that made things easier.

1. Beyonce- Yes, they just love Beyonce and they were thrilled that I had put a couple of Beyonce songs on Tim’s ipod. This was bad news for Tim, as he isn’t really a fan. In fact, every time we got in the car it was nothing but Beyonce, Fergie, Jonas Brothers, JT, and other bands that make Tim cringe. But most of the time I was carting them around Tim was at work, so it wasn’t too horrible for his ears.

2. Russian My Space- I quickly found out that Kazak has its own version of My Space and the girls were on it every night. I showed them that we have Facebook and I looked to see if there was a Russian Facebook, but I guess there isn’t. They get all their email and everything from this Russian MySpace page. Tim did enjoy altering our laptop so that it would write Russian characters. He put some kind of tab at the top of the screen that they could tap on that would change it to Russian.

3. Apple Cider and Honey Bunches of Oats- The girls couldn’t get enough hot apple cider at breakfast. We discovered this on day 4 or 5 after they didn’t like any of our tea selections and we had run out of orange juice. We sent them home with all the Instant Apple Cider packets that Tim’s mom had left at our house (we had many boxes of that stuff). We showed them a big country biscuit breakfast one morning and then I took them to the store to pick out what they liked. It was all about the Honey Bunches of Oats.

4. Limited Too and Old Navy- I kept telling them that they should have gotten their shopping done in Atlanta because Gainesville just doesn’t have too many clothing stores. They really wanted us to have this store Justice that they had been to in Atlanta, which we definitely do not have. I did get a lesson in how much girl’s clothing costs when I took them to the Limited Too. When we entered the store we were surrounded by the back to school crowd in a sea of sparkly pink everything. And I mean everything- the floor was a crazy pink terrazzo with sparkles and some kind of acrylic coating that allowed for maximum shine. I ended up waiting outside the dressing room for about 40 minutes so I had plenty of time to inspect the floor and try to think of how I could find out show did that floor finish for them and how to maintain it. I’ve been looking for a way to shine up our floors at home- minus the glitter, of course.

5. Domino’s Pizza and Pimp My Ride- We went over to Mom and Dads one night to chill by the pool and I ordered pizza for the girls. I ordered one pepperoni and one onion pizza- onion isa favorite of mom and me. The girls went for the pepperoni at first but tried the onion for round two. They were pleasantly surprised by the onion and I could tell that the pizza dinner was their favorite. Since we were already experiencing the stereotypical unhealthy American dinner, I thought I’d make the evening complete and flip on the TV. (Remember, mom is addicted to TV and they have one in every room, including outside in the lanai where we were dining). I knew that they liked the Hanna Montana show on Disney, but that wasn’t on at that time. Then I remembered- when Tim and I made that crazy trip to Czech and Austria we were surprised to see that everyone under the age of 30 was watching Pimp My Ride. It was like it was on 24 hours a day. So I flipped over to MTV2 and there it was. The girls loved it and were surprised to hear it in English. Apparently in Kazak, they dub over it, which is also what we found in Austria and Czech. The episode we watched featured a 1991 Ford Festiva that was rehabbed to have leather seats with Tattoo details, nitro for increased speed and a deluxe flame paint job. It horrifies me to think that this show, Pimp My Ride, has become a widespread example of American culture, yet I have to admit I like watching it. And the girls had a blast watching it. I’m sure their comprehension of American slang such has Xzibit, tricked out, and dog as term of endearment has increased tenfold.
The girls did get a chance to go over to Disney with their group on Friday and Saturday, which worked out great because our friends Jessica and Wade came into town for a last visit before their move to LA (Louisiana, NOT Los Angeles). The girls left on the following Monday for a day at the beach, another day in Atlanta and then back to Kazak via Moscow.

The next week went by super quick as my sister Kathy and Allie and Weston came down for an end of summer hoorah before Allie starts high school and Weston starts Middle School. How could my little flower girl Allie already be in high school? And Weston is a big time skateboarding punk! How did they already group up so much? We all piled up in the Family Truckster (my wagon) on Thursday and headed to Universal and Islands of Adventure. That’s right, we jammed 6 people and one baby into a single vehicle (he Truckster has a rear facing third row seat and I put the stroller on the roof rack Thule) and I am the bad, white trash mom who dared to drag her 5 month old to the Amusement park. Davis did amazingly well and I know lot of it had to do with Pops and Gigi’s help, plus the fact that he finds Allie and Weston to be hysterical. Kathy even tried on the ol’ Baby Bjorn while Allie and I rode Dueling Dragons, but it proved to be a little too much for her back. Davis even rode on one ride – the Seuss Carousel. We rode in a Seuss-mobile with Pops while Gigi (mom is trying to change her grandma name from Gramms to Gigi) rode the pink flying elephant in front of us. We all had a great time, but I ended up spending most of Friday in the bed recovering. Tim decided to take Friday off to spend a little family time with us, which was wonderful.

We are looking forward to next week and the start of Infant Swim Resource (ISR) swim lessons for Davis. In the mean time, I am doing lots of "Gator Mountains" at the stadium to fight off this belly. Its not so fun, but we still swim almost everyday and thats lots of fun. I will include swim pics in the next post. I think I have more pics of the Seuss Carosell, but I can't find them now. Will post when I find them.

Jenn