Easter at Bass Pro

April 23, 2011

It is Easter weekend and there are so many family friendly activities to do in Columbia.  We made our way over to The Bass Pro Shop for their Easter egg hunt.  They hid the eggs throughout the store amongst the merchandise.  They had employees/volunteers everywhere re-hiding the eggs as you walked by!  They kept an eye out for the little guys who just couldn't find an egg.  You could find 5 eggs, then go to the back of the store to trade them in for 5 pieces of candy.  For the older child, this kind of Easter Egg hunt might be depressing, but for the younger child, this was perfect.

After the cash in on candy, they had a cute craft foam project the kids could each do.  Then we went out onto their dock and devoured our candy.  The day was perfect.

April 21, 2011

Each year around Easter, Derek likes to do the Passover meal as a family.  Mostly, he wants to teach our children about other religions and to be respectful, but there is so much symbolism and history in this meal that it is really an interesting experience.

I'll outline the meal here in as basic a form as possible.  My reference source is Judaism 101

To start, the Jewish people rid their homes of anything Chametz.

"Chametz includes anything made from the five major grains (wheat, rye, barley, oats and spelt) that has not been completely cooked within 18 minutes after first coming into contact with water. Orthodox Jews of Ashkenazic background also avoid rice, corn, peanuts, legumes (beans) and some other foods as if they were chametz. All of these items are commonly used to make bread, or are grown and processed near chametz, thus use of them was prohibited to avoid any confusion or cross-contamination.

The process of cleaning the home of all chametz in preparation for Pesach is an enormous task. To do it right, you must prepare for several weeks and spend several days scrubbing everything down, going over the edges of your stove and fridge with a toothpick and a Q-Tip, covering all surfaces that come in contact with food with foil or shelf-liner, etc., etc., etc. After the cleaning is completed, the morning before the seder, a formal search of the house for chametz is undertaken, and any remaining chametz is burned." 

While I LOVE the idea of "spring cleaning", sometimes it just doesn't happen!  It did happen this year since we had already done a big number on it for selling purposes.  Though, I don't think I rid our home of everything Chametz!

"Pesach lasts for eight days (seven days in Israel). The first two days and last two days of the holiday (first and last in Israel) are days on which no work is permitted."

"The grain product [eaten] during Pesach is called matzah. Matzah is unleavened bread, made simply from flour and water and cooked very quickly. This is the bread that the Jews made for their flight from Egypt. We have come up with many inventive ways to use matzah; it is available in a variety of textures for cooking: matzah flour (finely ground for cakes and cookies), matzah meal (coarsely ground, used as a bread crumb substitute), matzah farfel (little chunks, a noodle or crouton substitute), and full-sized matzah (sheets about 8 inch square, a bread substitute).

On the first night of Pesach (first two nights for traditional Jews outside Israel), we have a special family meal filled with ritual to remind us of the significance of the holiday. This meal is called a seder, from a Hebrew root word meaning "order," because there is a specific set of information that must be discussed in a specific order."

Since we had little ones at the table, we didn't follow this meal exactly.  It would have taken too long.  We also made some alterations, like the wine we did a berry juice instead, etc. I was extreemly nervous we were going to loose the attention spans of our little ones while Derek was in the heart of his special dinner.  The meal is broken up into so many parts and pieces and there is a little game (see below) that the kids were well entertained.  We had a fun time with it!

Here's the order of the Seder:

1. Kaddesh: Sanctification

A blessing over wine in honor of the holiday. The wine is drunk, and a second cup is poured.

  2. Urechatz: Washing

A washing of the hands without a blessing, in preparation for eating the Karpas.

  3. Karpas: Vegetable

A vegetable (usually parsley) is dipped in salt water and eaten. The vegetable symbolizes the lowly origins of the Jewish people; the salt water symbolizes the tears shed as a result of our slavery. Parsley is a good vegetable to use for this purpose, because when you shake off the salt water, it looks like tears.

  4. Yachatz: Breaking

One of the three matzahs on the table is broken. Part is returned to the pile, the other part is set aside for the afikomen (see below).

  5. Maggid: The Story

A retelling of the story of the Exodus from Egypt and the first Pesach. This begins with the youngest person asking The Four Questions, a set of questions about the proceedings designed to encourage participation in the seder. The Four Questions are also known as Mah Nishtanah (Why is it different?), which are the first words of the Four Questions. This is often sung. 

 

The maggid is designed to satisfy the needs of four different types of people: the wise one, who wants to know the technical details; the wicked one, who excludes himself (and learns the penalty for doing so); the simple one, who needs to know the basics; and the one who is unable to ask, who doesn't even know enough to know what he needs to know.

 

At the end of the maggid, a blessing is recited over the second cup of wine and it is drunk.

  6. Rachtzah: Washing

A second washing of the hands, this time with a blessing, in preparation for eating the matzah

  7. Motzi: Blessing over Grain Products

The ha-motzi blessing, a generic blessing for bread or grain products used as a meal, is recited over the matzah.

8. Matzah: Blessing over Matzah

A blessing specific to matzah is recited, and a bit of matzah is eaten.

9. Maror: Bitter Herbs

A blessing is recited over a bitter vegetable (usually raw horseradish; sometimes romaine lettuce), and it is eaten. This symbolizes the bitterness of slavery. The maror is dipped in charoset, a mixture of apples, nuts, cinnamon and wine, which symbolizes the mortar used by the Jews in building during their slavery. (I highly recommend it -- it's the best tasting thing on the holiday, and goes surprisingly well with horseradish! My recipe is included below.)

 

Note that there are two bitter herbs on the seder plate: one labeled Maror and one labeled Chazeret. The one labeled Maror should be used for Maror and the one labeled Chazeret should be used in the Korekh, below. 

 (Jello with quinoa and fruit.)

 

10. Korekh: The Sandwich

Rabbi Hillel was of the opinion that the maror should be eaten together with matzah and the paschal offering in a sandwich. In his honor, we eat some maror on a piece of matzah, with some charoset (we don't do animal sacrifice anymore, so there is no paschal offering to eat).

 

11. Shulchan Orekh: Dinner

A festive meal is eaten. There is no particular requirement regarding what to eat at this meal (except, of course, that chametz cannot be eaten). Among Ashkenazic Jews, gefilte fish and matzah ball soup are traditionally eaten at the beginning of the meal. Roast chicken or turkey are common as a main course, as is beef brisket. 

12. Tzafun: The Afikomen

The piece of matzah set aside earlier is eaten as "dessert," the last food of the meal. Different families have different traditions relating to the afikomen. Some have the children hide it, while the parents have to either find it or ransom it back. Others have the parents hide it. The idea is to keep the children awake and attentive throughout the pre-meal proceedings, waiting for this part.

( This was fun for us! We passed some matzah under the table back and forth and tried to keep it away from dad.)

13. Barekh: Grace after Meals

The third cup of wine is poured, and birkat ha-mazon (grace after meals) is recited. This is similar to the grace that would be said on any Shabbat. At the end, a blessing is said over the third cup and it is drunk. The fourth cup is poured, including a cup set aside for the prophet Elijah, who is supposed to herald the Messiah, and is supposed to come on Pesach to do this. The door is opened for a while at this point (supposedly for Elijah, but historically because Jews were accused of nonsense like putting the blood of Christian babies in matzah, and we wanted to show our Christian neighbors that we weren't doing anything unseemly). 

 

14. Hallel: Praises

Several psalms are recited. A blessing is recited over the last cup of wine and it is drunk.

 

15. Nirtzah: Closing

A simple statement that the seder has been completed, with a wish that next year, we may celebrate Pesach in Jerusalem (i.e., that the Messiah will come within the next year). This is followed by various hymns and stories.

 

Moving

March 2011

Our house story.

About 3 years ago I was hosting a small church meeting in my home.  Our Relief Society President, Tracie arrived first and we were sitting in the living room visiting before the others arrived.  She is married to a wonderful guy who has some physical challenges with his hips and knees.  She mentioned that she was beginning the process of making some changes on her home so she could put it on the market to sell, but was hoping to take a couple of years to do so. The house they live in is a split level and the stairs are causing some pain and difficulty for her husband. Our house is a ranch-style layout without a single stair and was actually built for an elderly couple where the wife was in a wheel chair.  So I replied, "Well,  our house will be on the market in 3 years."  What a far fetched idea! THREE whole years.  So many things can happen in that amount of time. And how many of us really keep to our goals?  Tracie replied to my comment with a "humm".  And that was all that was ever said.  For three years.

Around two years later, I was asked to serve with Tracie in her Presidency as one of the counselors. In the course of a year, we had a lot more meetings at our house.  On our very last meeting together, Tracie and I had gone to see a handicapped teenage girl from our church.  We were sitting in my car in front of her house as I was dropping her off at the end of the visit and Tracie told me they wanted to buy our house.  This was in the late fall.  Tracie knew that we had a time deadline: June.  The Air Force would be requiring us to move and we would need to sell.  Tracie felt that they must have their house sold before they could buy ours.  So we put together a bit of a game plan, or at least we communicated dates and courses of actions enough to understand where we each were coming from and be on the same page. 

Of course nothing ever works the way you want it to and the odds felt so very out of our favor, but both sets of couples were doing an awful lot of praying that somehow it would all work out.   We ended up putting our house on the market the first of February.  We got 22 inches of snow the next day and then snow storm after snow storm over the course of several weeks.  I high balled our price (on purpose) and then cleaned and cleaned and cleaned.  There was one showing where they called last minute to come an hour and a half early, so I put 6 loads of clean laundry in my van and drove off.  Another showing where they just showed up early and we hadn't left yet, so we sat in the van in our garage while they looked around.  Ugg.  My favorite was when Derek left some sourdough starter fermenting in the Kitchen Aid mixer. (Nasty smell!)  I threw some flour in it and tossed it in the oven.  It finished cooking while the prospective buyers were walking through.  Needless to say, the house smelled amazing.   They came back for a second look around and narrowed it down to our house and one other.

At the end of 8 weeks of blood, sweat and tears trying to show our house, Tracie put her house on the market. EIGHT days and THREE showings later, it sold. I physically felt the burden fall off my shoulders when she sent me the text.  Derek and I just about cried.  Instead we thanked the Lord.  Somehow, a miracle occurred and our wonderful Breezewood home was soon going to belong to our dear friends!  

Reflecting back on those eight weeks of house showings, there have only been perhaps two other times equally as stressful in my life. The following three and a half weeks were stressful too, but they were a bittersweet stress.  The people who bought Tracie's house asked for a very short closing period, which didn't give us a whole lot of time, but with the help of the Air Force movers, and our realtor, it all worked out.  (ps: we were smart and put Tracie's name on our contract with our realtor. Since we "found" her prior to putting the house on the market we could do this.  Because we ended up selling to Tracie, we asked our realtor to handle the paperwork and she walked away with a 1% commission.)

Because we were moving some 6 week earlier than expected, we had two housing problems. Where was Derek going to live while he finished out residency in Missouri?  And were was i going to live with the kids?  In the end, Tracie and her husband put Derek up rent free in Lexie's old bedroom for the 6 weeks.  They asked him to cook dinner once in a while just as a special treat, which he LOVED.  My mom flew out and helped me take the kids out to Utah.  i moved into my sister's basement across from the Jordan River Temple for 7 weeks.  It was very difficult being apart for such a long period of time, but it was also a blessing in disguise.  Over  the course of the first 5 weeks that Derek was in Missouri and I was in Utah, Derek was studying and preparing for boards. He needed this solitary time to just eat, sleep, and breath PATHOLOGY.

We have friends who still have not sold their homes.  I know our house was meant for Tracie and her husband.  Just as it was meant for us for the time we were there. I really believe that God places us where we need to be . I don't know why He gives us or allows us the trials of something like not being able to sell a house. I do know there is much to be learned from these difficulties.  Somehow in the end, it all works out though and we must acquire the patience and love to enjoy the journey.

Trains and Two year olds

March 19, 2011

We took the kids to see the train show in town.  Lexie found one to ride.

We saw micro trains.  These little guys were about the size of a match box car.  It was fun to see how everything in the set is built to scale.

Next we saw the medium sized trains. They even let you run the controller here.

Finally we saw the big model trains.  The display for these trains was amazing.  All these fellas are volunteers and definitely train lovers! They have their own train club where they get together once a week just to play trains.  I can see Colin doing this someday!

Lexie and Tanner loved watching the trains too, but Colin won the award for "most fascinated".

 I can't believe I got a shot of him looking away from the trains.  You can tell by the look on his face, he's trying to get Dad's attention to tell him all about this train.

Forgive the multiple shots here, but it's Colin's face you must see. I didn't have a problem getting everyone else to smile, but Colin was in his element.  i don't have time for a photo mom!  These are TRAINS!

We did, indeed, have to console him a great deal in the walk back to our car.  He cried for loss of sight of these beloved trains. 

Alan and Rosa visit!

March 12, 2011

Derek's brother Alan brought his wife and came for a long weekend!  We were so excited to have them come.  Alan came two years earlier for Thanksgiving and while he was here he helped Derek build this fire pit.  If only he knew how much we've used and LOVED this little nook in our yard.  Only wonderful memories are ever made while sitting around a campfire!

Meet our Pathologist!  This is a side of Derek we rarely get to see.  Though we think of him often and wish his vocational world and our "raising children" world would somehow mesh more often.  Derek choose this profession because it offered a great family lifestyle.  He was wise.

We thought it would be fun to introduce Alan and Rosa to Derek's work.  He pulled out some of his favorite slides.  These show everything from cases of rare diseases and cancers to your trouble shooting challengers.  Each resident begins with an empty box and spends the next 4 years filling it along with a handful of others.  These slides are his to keep when he leaves residency.  There are whole bookshelves filled to the brim with these in the resident's office.  They are all there as resource materials for the residents.  Derek worked hard during the 4 years he was there to try and get them scanned in and used in a digital format. 

In the resident's office they have a SIX-headed microscope.  You can see, we all fit!  It was amazing to have Derek walk us through each slide and explain how he was seeing the human body through individual cells.

Daddy Daughter Date

February 12, 2011

This was a special day for Lexie!  She had a date with her dad!  They both got all dressed up and went to the church for some refreshments, games, and dancing.  Lexie was aglow with it all and soaked in every minute of her date with dad.  She seemed to be on cloud nine for several days afterwards too.  Mom was only a tad bit jealous!  

Missouri snow

February 1, 2011

When Derek came to Columbia, Missouri back in 2007 to interview for the residency position here he happened to arrive just after they had received 18 inches of snow. I remember talking with him on the phone and hearing about how beautiful it was there with all the snow.

Our first three winters have been nowhere close to that amount. Not even cumulative! I remember last winter well. We got 4 dustings of about 1/4 of an inch. Not even enough to make a snowball.  We just kept hoping though since we knew of those 18 inches. Finally, our 4th and last winter in Missouri we got snow! And boy did we get snow!

February 2, 2011

The next day, we went out to work and play in the snow.  We have several widows on our street, so  Tanner and Derek had some good fun shoveling their driveways.  It happened also that we aquired one more widow this day. Our dear neighbor, Steve passed away in the middle of our snow storm.  All the neighbors gathered together to shovel her walks and driveway so that an ambulance could get in to take his body to the morgue.

In all, we received 22 inches of snow from this storm.

Sledding

December 30, 2010

Another FIRST for our family was to go sledding! We did it up right and took the kids to Sugar House Park. That's the best hill in town for sledding! Mom, of course was nervous about all this since we were rather unexperienced and the kids are little, so we staked out a bunny hill off the end of the BIG sledding hill. There weren't as many people there and it looked manageable for little ones.

Special thanks to our Salt Lake friends the Nelsons for lending us their sleds!

Tanner was fascinated with how FAST you can go on a sled.  He's pretty sure he has Miles Per Hour figured out and was telling us exactly how fast he was going down the hill.  5 miles per hour seemed like freeway speeds to him, it was pretty cute.

We of course got a little competitive and did some racing down the hill.  Those little disks are speedy!

This was definitely some family fun!  A memory I'll never forget.

Ice Skating Adventure

December 28, 2010

Columbia, Missouri does not have a single ice rink. There's one down in Jefferson City, but that is a 40+ min drive. While we were in Utah, we took advantage of the cute one they have in downtown Salt Lake City. We also took advantage of Grandma and Aunt Rosa. With four kids, we needed four adults to make this happen! I was terribly nervous about how we were going to pull this off. It was, after all, our FIRST time ice skating as a family!

When we got to the rink and started to put on our skates, we put the kid's skates on first. Soon they were done and we adults still needed to put ours on.  I was pretty impressed how they just hopped off the bench and started to walk on their skates.  I thought they would be falling all over their feet, but they didn't. 

They must have been so excited about ice skating because while we were all in the middle of trying to get our skates on, and Tanner and Lexie were just standing there with theirs already on, he asked one of the adults in our group what he needed to do next. (He did not ask this of me because I would never have given this answer, but it was awesome nonetheless.)  The reply was, "go get on the ice!"  So they did!  They didn't wait for someone to hold their hand or anything, they just jumped right in and went for it.  The over protective mom in me was shocked and super impressed. My kids are definitely tougher than I give them credit for. 

Grandma, bless her heart spent most of her time holding Porter while Derek, Rosa and I tag teamed Tanner, Lexie and Colin. 

Rosa's positive attitude really came in handy with this activity!

Colin didn't last long on the ice.  He was just too small, but he still went around a few times then jointed grandma on the sidelines.

Derek was the hero of the day for Lexie.  She kind of cried her way around the rink the first two times.  Then Derek took a look at her skates and decided to switch them out.  As soon as he got her situated with different skates, she was a happy camper.  She went right out, grabbed the railing, found a friend and went around and around the rink.  She had a great time!

Once the kids were all tuckered out, we left them with grandma and some hot chocolate (which you can see all over Colin's face!). Derek and I went out for a mini "date" on the ice. The last time we went ice skating was when we were dating, so this brought back some fond memories.

In all, it was a grand time.  The kids loved it.  I wish we had more opportunities to ice skate. I can see the kids really picking up on it if they had the exposure.  I'm so grateful we took the time to create this memory! Thank you Grandma and Aunt Rosa for helping us!  You made the memory all the more sweet!