Adela's First Christmas

Adela's first Christmas--a momentous milestone in her life that was filled with everything I would want for her--family, love, good food (okay, for me not her!), and lots of joy. The only thing missing, and it's debatable whether or not this was a good thing--snow. It was a brown Christmas alas. But that didn't stop us from enjoying all of our time home! Here's just a bit of what we did:

The day before we left for MN, Jake, Adela, and I checked out the winter flower show at Phipps. This year's theme was "The Nutcracker," and I had been doing some education programming there with the Ballet. It was Adela's first trip to the Conservatory, and I'd say she enjoyed it (probably because of all the fun, lighted Christmas trees and shiny ornaments!). 

Smelling--and trying to grab--an orchid.

Adela and Mama in front of the "Waltz of the Flowers" tree.

She's so happy it made me feel like I was Santa Claus.

Adela...Mouse Soldier...which is which?

We made it safely home to MN bright and early on Christmas Eve. Adela was such a trooper on the plane and the ride out to the Melby farm--hardly a peep out of her! That night we went to Church (at least for a little while before the kids had meltdowns) and found out some fantastic news from Ben and Britt--Jake and I will have a new niece or nephew in June! After getting her exhausted little tush to bed, she woke up refreshed the following morning for her very first Christmas!!

Adela opening some awesome pajamas from Grandma Mary and Grandpa Curt.

Adela snuggling with her Great-Grandma Roth.

Cousin Isla wearing ALL the dress up clothes she got from her Aunt Alyssa.

"So much excitement...I'm ready for a nap!"

"Ah Roxie! You're squishing me!"

The cousins having fun during bathtime.

We had a lovely time out on the farm and were so fortunate to have seen so many of Jake's family while we were out there, particularly Ben, Britt, and Isla since it may be another year or more before we see them again. On our way from the Farm to Grandma Karen's house, we made a quick day-stop in New Ulm where most of my family lives. 

Adela and my godmother, Auntie Barb.

I don't know who's expression is bigger--Adela's or her Great-Grandma Marion's!

"Giggle, giggle, giggle!"

After seeing many of my family in New Ulm, which was such a treat (and I'm not just talking about the Taco Pizza from Happy Joe's), we made it to my Mom's house in Montgomery. Adela seized the moment and mastered her new favorite skill: finding her feet!

"Almost, almost..."

"I gotcha sock!"

Tummy time!

Grandma Karen cuddling with her favorite granddaughter :-)

Jake and I also got to hang with many of our friends back home. Jake went pheasant hunting and smoked cigars with Justin and Devin while I got to meet Justin and Kacie's little gal, Nikayda. We got coffee with Chelsea by her new apartment in St. Paul, then hopped down the road to see my Morris gals, Sara, Laurel, and Megan at my new favorite restaurant, Chatterbox Pub (why you might ask? One word: games!). And of course, Jake and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary with a night out on the town with my cousin Derek, his fiance Molly, and two of D's friends from high school. I hadn't played darts nor danced on a club floor in years, so it was a night well spent :-)

All in all, baby girl came back with quite the toy and book collection, but you won't hear her complaining (only her Mama and Daddy who have to find somewhere to put it all! Just kidding--we're very grateful!). And while there was no snow or sugar cookies for her, she lit up every room she went in. Her smiles and first giggles were the best Christmas present we could ever ask for.

We love you, Adela! Merry First Christmas!

A month...and a day or two...

I've been waiting to write in the blog for a while now.  It seemed fitting that I would update it exactly one month since my last post back home...and then I missed that.  Surprise, surprise.  But anyways--here's been my life during that last month...and a day or two:

4 Jobs: Education Director for Prime Stage Theatre, Dramaturg for Young Playwrights Festival at City Theatre, Teaching Artist with Gateway to the Arts, and Teacher Workshop Coordinator for Shakespeare-in-the-Schools.  I have been to observe classrooms, taught in classrooms, and gotten lost several times on my way to said classrooms.  And I haven't even begun drinking more than one cup of coffee a day (Mom, be proud!).

3 Steelers Games: And they've won them all.  Rothlisberger, who?  All spent with lovely company, delicious food, and lots of beer.

2 Season Premieres: House (who's now happy?  It's a shock to the system) and Glee.

One of the following: wedding (Tiff and Ryan's), baby shower (Meredith and Ryan's), 1st Birthday party (Grace's), Pens game (first pre-season and inaugural game in the new Consol Energy Center in suite seats), trip to Moraine State Park replete with bicycles and grilled food on Labor Day, Gala for Prime Stage Theatre aboard the lovely Gateway Clipper Empress on a beautiful autumnal evening along Pittsburgh's 3 Rivers, Professional Development workshop for my Adopt-A-School teachers with Prime Stage, job interview for a full time job that would have been great on the pocketbooks but potentially detrimental on my much-needed family time, demonstration of my mad wacky theatre skills (at Tbogen's Creative Drama in the Classroom class), pep talk to incoming Literacy*AmeriCorps members, finally successful experience changing my name on my driver's license to "Alyssa Herzog Melby," and homemade yogurt (it's really not that hard!)

Too many to count: coffee dates, lunch dates,volunteering at the East End Food Co-op, loads of laundry, tomato jars canned, and  meetings, meetings, and more meetings.

And always: a wonderful husband, a "Beau"dacious dog, and a helluva lot to be thankful :-)

Up next: deep breaths. tea. sleep.  And attempting to relish every second of the madness!

The Greatest Generation

Yesterday Jake and I visited his grandparents, Rollie and Lorraine.  We're back home in MN visiting family and gearing up for my cousin's wedding this weekend.  We knew that we'd make it up to Madison at some point to see them, and the visit gave me a lot to ponder about marriage and what I value in my life. 

I first met his grandparents in the summer of 2006 after we started dating.  I remember the first time walking into their house, getting blasted back to past from the smell of it.  Strangely enough, their basement smelled exactly like my own Grandma Lorraine's house, who passed away in 2003.  Even then, I knew it was a good sign that Jake and I were meant to be!  At this point, Rollie was already diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, but he was still living at home being cared for by Lorraine. Jake used to tell me all sorts of stories about things he would do with his Grandpa, the bottling company Rollie ran for many years and that Jake worked for as a teenager, and all the work around his grandparents' house that he would help with.  Jake used to say "I wish you could have met my Grandpa before he got sick," but even now I can still see the twinkling in his eye of the perpetual joker that everyone tells me he used to be, and that's all I need to see to love him dearly!  Eventually the disease's progression became too overwhelming, and Rollie was moved into the nursing home a block away from their home. Lorraine hasn't slowed down one bit, though, since I met her.  She visits Rollie numerous times each day, still does his laundry, and even just washed her car by hand this past week!  She's going to be 89 this year, but with the way she still moves around and how sharp her mind still is you'd never know it! 

Lorraine met Jake and I at the nursing home yesterday afternoon around 4 o'clock.  Rollie was listening to some oldies on his Ipod, and besides being a little tired, seemed to be in good spirits.  We sat down with them both, chatted about what was new, and showed them pictures of our garden and from our honeymoon in Jamaica.  Jake and his Grandpa shared a beer together, and we took some pictures.  They were just amazed at the technology of the digital camera, being able to see the picture right away!

Jake and Rollie sharing a Hub City Brown Ale.

Two hours flew by, and by then Rollie was ready to head off to supper.  Lorraine said, "Goodbye honey," and leaned in and gave her husband of 60+ years a big smooch on the lips.  It took everything in my power not to start crying from the bittersweet moment, and even thinking back on it now brings tears to my eyes.  How hard it must be for her to say goodbye to him every day, for both of them to be alone at night, when for so long they had always been together.  But also how wonderfully sweet it is to see such love, dedication, and devotion after so many years, especially when no one seems to take marriage vows all that seriously anymore.  I'm sure that they have had their bad times just like anyone in any marriage, but to witness the love that years have built up was something quite special.  Both Jake and I remarked upon later that it's at this point in someone's life--when adults become children again and need to be taken care of--that it suddenly becomes so clear why having a partner, children, and family are so important.  I don't think anyone ever wants to be alone, but when you start to think forward to your later years, the need to keep your family close and strong becomes so much more apparent. 

Tom Brokaw rightly called their generation "The Greatest Generation" for their sense of duty, love, and practicality.  I lament that my own generation doesn't have more of those three things, three things still so evident in his grandparents today.  We talked with his grandparents about all the hard work they had to do, raising their families, working without technology, through the Great Depression and numerous wars.  But it was that kiss between two people who had made it through tough times and good that spoke volumes.  I hope that someday Jake and I can live up to their standards of duty, love, and practicality.  Because if it ends with a kiss like that, it'll all have been worth it. 

(Home)Sick

Anyone see a theme??  Still physically ill, so it should come to know surprise that my spirits are also feeling a bit dampened these days, brought on by my equally unwise decision to accompany my summer camp kids on their field trip to Moraine State Park yesterday.  3 hours outside in 90 degree heat left me feeling exhausted and slightly more tan, which is to say it did nothing to help my cough.  But it wasn't just that.  It's that the ride there, while we were there, and especially on the sad tired trip back into the city--it just all reminded me of home, Minnesota.  From the trees to corn to the pastures to the farms that we saw, from the disproportionate number of vehicles heading out of Pittsburgh with campers and rooftop carriers attached who were headed on vacation "up north" to the way the air tasted crisper and fresher, besides the hills, it all felt like home.

I miss Minnesota for many reasons.  Number one being family, two being friends, and three being the scenery.  When I was at Arts High (Perpich Center for Arts Education), my chemistry teacher gave me a book about Minnesota's ecological systems and history.  A dry read, I'll admit, yet I devoured it.  What other state could you find such a diversity of ecosystems, from prairie to wetlands to lakes to forests and with three different watersheds?  I was amazed.  And still am.

I count myself lucky that I now have family living in three different areas: my mom in south-southeastern MN, my dad "up north" in lake country, and my husband's family in southwestern MN.  While driving in between all three places--a triangulation of 3 hours to each place--is a nightmare, I love seeing how quickly the earth changes in those three small hours.

We're going home in four weeks, and I can't even begin to tell people how excited I am.  While we've been home for the holidays, this will be our first time back in MN during the summer since 2007.  I have some favorite spots that I can't wait to visit.  There's this gravel country road less than a half-mile from my mom's house that I love to go walking on.  It has a small hill that when you reach the top you can see all around you.  Some of it is corn, some of it is grassland, blowing in the wind, and when you reach the bottom of the hill, there's this cool little wetland amidst one of the pastures.  If I'm lucky enough to borrow my mom's bike during the trip, I might take it down this road and even further past Richter's Woods, a county park.  I remember how the temperature immediately drops 5 degrees once you reach the tree cover and can still see the sign for maple syrup sold by my childhood friend Andy's grandparents who live on that road.

And my other favorite spot?  The Melby Farm.  I never grew up on a farm, but I fell in love with my husband's farm when I first visited.  I can't wait to see all that Mary has done with her rock gardens...

Picture taken before we moved to PA in the summer 2007

to take a walk out in the pastures and see what treasures can be found...

Picture taken Summer 2007

to take the pontoon out on the lake (and oh how we miss the lakes! You can't throw a stone without hitting a lake in MN), and to enjoy the gusting wind off of Buffalo Ridge.  

Then when we get to New Ulm for my cousin's wedding, I can't wait to take our dog for a walk and look at all the beautiful old homes on Minnesota St. and Broadway.  I can't wait to sit in my Auntie Barb's amazing garden (something I hope to aspire to someday).  I can't wait to visit my grandparents in their home, a home that has always made me feel at peace and safe.  

My friend Chelsea recently posted a wonderfully poetic post on her blog about the small things making a home.  And she's right.  Not just about the home in which you lay your head each night, the home whose numbers and street are listed on your driver's license.  But home in the larger sense, too.  I can't wait!

Picture taken Summer 2007

...is new again!

I have always been a lover of old things, my grandmother notwithstanding (and especially her cinnamon rolls).  I was given my first cup and saucer of the depression glass collection, "Cameo, or Ballerina Girl," when I was 8 years old by my Auntie Barb.  I was hooked.  I visited antique stores with a zeal and relish that made store owners leery until they discovered I wasn't in the store just to wreak havoc and break something.  I read all the "American Girl" books, particularly Felicity and Kirsten, and you got it: Laura Ingalls Wilder topped my list to.  I became entranced by the PBS series, Frontier House, Colonial House, and Manor House. I insisted on learning my genealogical past from the ripe young age of 9, dragging my bewildered parents to the Brown County Historical Society in New Ulm, MN.  I now have two 3'' binders filled with old family photos, letters, and of course the family trees.  I have both of my grandmother's wedding dresses and was just recently given at my wedding shower a vest that was worn by my great-great grandmother on the boat from Germany. I was a sobbing mess.

And the list could go on and on and on about my fascination with "old things."  But in particular, what has perhaps fascinated me most, was simply how they did it.  How did they churn butter in those things?  What did they do when they had a raging headache and couldn't pop an ibuprofen from a plastic bottle?  You mean they had to wash laundry BY HAND?  Then there's everything that I can't even begin to pronounce on the back of a commercial shampoo bottle that has often left me standing in a pool of water in my bathtub as I struggle to pronounce the number-number-polysyllabic-number word.  What did they do before the advent of petrochemicals, I ask myself?  Not to mention what is in our food and water supply.  Frankly, I don't trust the FDA.  I remember when the campaign was all for margarine, but now they're saying the trans-fats are oh so bad.  Get your story straight, please.  I'm sticking with food I know hasn't been tampered with and has been grown/developed/processed in a way that would make our forefathers happy, like the vegetables from our garden.

 

So  it's most definitely the independent person in me who says, "Well if they can do it, so can I!" I'm giving it a shot, this whole "what is old is new again" thing.

The mere fact that I proceed to document my journey towards a simpler life via a blog seems an instantaneous oxymoron.  Yet with all the other "simple life" blogs out there, and with my mother more likely to be able to check the blog at work and thus stay more informed of our activities, I figured why not?  Plus, let's face it: friends have been urging me for a while now to do it, so to you dear ones--your wish has been granted.

It'll take every ounce of power not to post a gazillion things right away.  One bit at a time...

But if anyone has something they'd like to know about right away, let me know!