Question

Am writing from Arkansas after emerging from a catfish/shrimp po boy/purple-hull-pea/sweet-tea coma to ask my five readers to finish this sentence:

"Life is hard, so you may as well _________."

This is inspired by a conversation with my grandmother as she, my sister and I drove back from the beauty supply in El Dorado--Emily and I like to drive over and take advantage of the product hookup we get from having a friend in the hair business. I got to hear Mamo's take on what you may as well do. I think she's on to something.

TWO!

For Anneke's birthday Daddy made a luscious chocolate cake with approx. $1 million worth of Scharffenberger chocolate.

We celebrated with both sets of grandparents, one set via Skype

Anneke ate lots of cake

And played her first game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey!

Happy Birthday, Anneke! We love you. You are such a blessing.

When the world is puddle-wonderful

Clearly, late February is a little early to get all e.e. cummings on you, ESPECIALLY in Portland, but can you blame us for acting like it's spring? It sure felt like it today (turtleneck and coat notwithstanding).

State of the Toddler

Before she turns two, I think it's high time I gave an update.

Let's see...what is our little Anneke into these days?

Anneke loves cereal and daddy's homemade cheese.

She loves "The Sound of Music" and listens to "Do a Deer" over. and. over.

She pronounces "spoon" as "puh-soon" and "spy" as "puh-sigh" and "penguin" as "gw-pen." I hope she never learns the correct pronunciation.

She can sing her ABCs and counts past twenty. She loves numbers. She recognizes some letters like "A" and "S."

Speaking of love, she proclaims it often, as in "yuv Mommy!" "yuv numbers!" "yuv storytime!" "yuv BOOKS!"

Her cuteness as increased proportionally to her demanding-ness. Waiting is just not an option for her.

When she goes down to sleep she asks for a book. I usually find her clutching it after she has fallen asleep. Lately she's a huge fan of Carl the dog and anything by Mo Willems.

She's become very outgoing lately, but she's still my little observer, especially in a new situation.

Pecan Pie

Despite this being a bona fide mommy blog, I don't typically post recipes. But I have to share this from my Aunt B from Texarkana, Texas. It really is the best pecan pie. Everyone at the play date heartily approved. I'm sure this turns out just as well with pecans from Fred Meyer as it does with pecans from Aunt B's yard, but it won't be as special. And it's much less complicated than the stupid Cook's Illustrated recipe.



The Best Pecan Pie

1 stick butter

1 cup light Karo

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs, beaten

½ teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla

Dash of salt

1 cup chopped pecans

8 or 9 inch unbaked pie shell

Brown butter in saucepan until it is golden brown, do not burn; let cool. In separate bowl add ingredients in order listed; stir. Blend in browned butter well. Pour in unbaked pie shell and bake at 425 degrees for 10 min., then lower to 325 degrees for 40 min.

Resolutions

Here they are, and they don't include stopping procrastinating:
1. eat right and exercise, at least until my jeans fit better. So far, so good.
2. Cake of the month: I'm going to make one cake a month. Life is short. I never make cakes because then you have cake on the counter begging you to grab a hunk every time you walk by. I might make a cake and schedule playdates the next day. My first cake is actually going to be a pecan pie, made with the pecans picked in my aunt and uncle's yard in Texarkana.
3. Mayan cooking: this isn't really a resolution so much as a project. Dave and I have a new Mayan cuisine cookbook, and we're going to cook from it at least once a month. We are becoming regulars at Ysenia's on Powell where they sell fresh tortillas, and when I bought pigs' feet from the butcher counter I learned how to say "pata de puerco," and the butcher sawed them in half for me for maximum flavor. Que bueno! Our new cookbook has all of these recipes for recados, that sound very exciting.

That's about it. It seems do-able. I'm also in charge of maintaining the toys/play area for the family shelter downstairs from the Sunnyside Swap Shop. I'm excited about making that space as inviting as I can, using the stuff available in the swap shop and asking for donations.

Summary

Well, I had this clever idea to do the decade in pictures, but I am not blogger-savvy enough to post ten photos in one post. Let's see if I can write a sentence for each year of my decade in Portland:
1. 2000: I rang in the new year/new decade off the grid in Newton County, Arkansas, and shortly thereafter flew back to Portland to finish my first year of graduate school and find an amazing group of friends with whom I had and continue to have righteous, though increasingly less riotous, adventures.
2. 2001: The the low point of five months of unemployment was sandwiched between a road trip to California/plane trip to Mexico post-graduation with my friend Shauneen and finally being offered my first MSW job right before flying home to AR for my holiday visit!
3. 2002: I started my new job and hooked up with my Just a Friend who wears funny socks and likes to cook and deer hunt. Wonder where this will lead me. (oops, that's two sentences).
4. 2003: I found a better job, kept the same good friends, and took Dave with me to Arkansas where he sampled pickled pigs feet.
5. 2004: Took trips to Thailand and England with Dave! (okay, starting to write sentence fragments).
6. 2005: Attended Kathryn's wedding, celebrated Carolyn's engagement, helped nurse Dave back to health after a gnarly car accident.
7. 2006: A ring! a wedding!
8. 2007: Back to Thailand, and on to a string of prenatal appointments!
9. 2008: Anneke Grace
10. 2009: Anneke, private practice, Brian and Ashleigh move, Mexico, always good friends and wonderful family.

Births: Sidney, Juliette, Anneke, Vaughn

I read over this and get agita over who and what I left out. but that's what you get when you try to sum up a decade in such a fashion.