Leo Visits Missouri

On Saturday, December 8th I went to Missouri with Sarah and Leo. it was Leo’s first big trip and Sarah didn’t want to do it  all by herself. I was only too happy to help, of course! Lee drove me to Sarah and Erik’s that morning and then Erik took us to the airport. We were bringing the car seat that Lee and I use, because its light and inexpensive so if something happened to it it wouldn’t be a big deal. We checked it so we didn’t have to haul it through the airport either. 

When we got to our gate Leo needed a change before we got on the plane so Sarah took him to the restroom. They started calling our flight for boarding, but where were Sarah and Leo? Finally they reappeared. Leo had to undergo a full outfit change because he had managed to pee all over himself. Ah babies!

We got on the flight without any further mishaps. Leo was ready for a nap, but takeoff hurt his ears and he screamed until he finally fell asleep in Sarah’s arms, and stayed that way for the entire flight.

We arrived in St. Louis, picked up our rental car and drove straight to Michael and Jim’s house, our base for cousin and friend meeting in St. Louis. Soon my aunt and uncle, Ray and Al arrived, as did my dear friend Sarah Moore. Leo had a lot of fun exploring their rec room. He is very good at finding the very thing we don’t want him to find! My cousin Lisa dropped by too, in-between children’s hockey games. She said her daughter Olivia army crawled just like Leo and went straight from that to walking at 16 months. Good to know! Ray and Al brought Leo a musical book that plays a little song when you press a button. It took Leo no time at all to figure it out, and of course he thought it was amazing!

All too soon it was time to say goodbye and head to Columbia. Leo had no trouble taking a second nap in the car on the way, although it wasn’t long enough and we had to stop for a minute so Sarah could get in the back and provide a little entertainment (and snacks) for the rest of the ride. We stayed at Mark and Mary’s house while in Columbia. They are such good hosts, and Mary is an amazing cook. We had a delicious lentil soup for dinner that night, and really great food all weekend. 

Sunday morning I take Sarah and Leo to Maice’s house for breakfast. They live in the Grasslands, a nice neighborhood close to the University. I can run from their house right to the rail trail, my old stomping grounds, where I first really started running, almost 26 years ago. It was cold but not Minnesota cold. I just zoomed along, well zoomed for me anyway. Then I ran back to their house to eat donuts and visit with Maice and John. 

Later in the afternoon, Joanne, Elsa, Sam and Blake all come over to Mark and Mary’s house. Leo continues to explore, as much as we will let him. He is intrigued by Rosie the cat, who lets him get only so close and then slips away. The boxers desperately want to lick him, but their tongues are almost as big as Leo’s face and he doesn’t want any part of that! He is pretty fearless when it comes to animals, considering them just another part of the big wide interesting world that is opening to him more and more as he scoots about.

Monday we drive to Fayette and have lunch with Dot. Sarah comments on the way there that it has been a very long time since she has visited this small town outside Columbia where many of Lee’s relatives once lived. We pick up Dot at her house and drive to Emmett’s, a very good restaurant on the square. Emmett’s in itself is worth the 45 minute drive! Leo loves Emmett’s. There are twinkling Christmas lights throughout the restaurant and lots of people to flirt with too. He also loves Dot, who is dressed beautifully in a red blouse and a bright scarf. She looks great and is doing very well. It was so very nice to see her. 

As we leave the restaurant I see a policeman eyeing my rental car and beginning to write a ticket because we parked in a handicap space. “Wait!” I shout. “We are with Dot Schnell! She just forgot her hanging tag!” He looks at me speculatively. “You know I even called the rental car agency,” he replied. “Oh well, I was pretty bored. Nice to see you Mrs. Schnell!” And that is how you dodge a ticket in a small town!

That evening Sarah goes out with Maice to help celebrate her birthday. Mary makes an amazing frittata for dinner, chocked full of mushrooms, cheese and potatoes. I make a pig of myself, until Mark says disapprovingly,  “Leave some for your daughter!” I have got to stop eating like I’m still training for a marathon. Well I did leave Sarah a slice. One.

Tuesday it is time to head back to St. Louis. It snows lightly all the way there. Fortunately the roads are not slick and I can see just fine. We stop at Kohn’s and pick up some corned beef for Sarah and Erik, some pastrami for Lynn and Lee, a couple of pickles and rye bread for sandwiches, and some ruglach to snack upon on the plane. Then we head over to Nancy’s for lunch. She is doing good, staying busy of course. She always has lots of friends looking out for her. Seeing her makes me miss mom; they were always hanging out together.

Leo falls asleep for about 5 minutes on the way to the airport. Then our return flight is a bit delayed because of the weather. The airplane had to be de-iced before it left Minneapolis and then de-iced again before we can leave St. Louis. Leo flirts with people behind us on the flight, then screams until he finally falls asleep. Poor thing. I worry that the people around us will hate us. Sarah has become a true mom, not worried about the others, just her baby that is struggling to get comfortable.

It was a great trip. I’m so glad we went. But I was really tired once I got home. I guess that’s why young people are the ones that have babies! But when Lee and I pick Leo up from daycare on Thursday I get a smile of total delight when he sees me. That’s what it’s all about.

A Charming Country Wedding

We had been hearing rumors about our niece’s upcoming wedding for some time. She didn’t want a traditional wedding. She didn’t want to spend a lot of money. She didn’t want a wedding dress, fancy invitations, catered food. What would this wedding be like?

My sister-in-law and brother-in-law live out in the country, near Fayette, Missouri. Their house is situated high on a hill, overlooking rolling fields and green trees. This is where the wedding would be held.

The weather in the week leading up to the wedding was wet and miserable. Day after day it rained and drizzled, thundered and stormed. Gloomy clouds hung over Mid-Missouri. But Saturday dawned sunny, breezy and warm. It was perfect weather for an outdoor wedding.

The ceremony was held in their front yard. Chairs for the guests faced the view, and the wedding party came out the front door and down the front walk to a small clearing. The bridesmaids wore green flowered sun dresses. The groom and his twin brother wore simple shirts and jackets, no ties. The bride wore a simple white sundress. The mother of the bride had on a long simple blue dress. She was glowing; the bride was smiling. A friendly beagle wandered among the wedding party. Babies gurgled and the guests beamed as the bride and groom said their vows. As usual I felt tears come to my eyes. My little niece! How could this be?

After the ceremony we walked into the backyard, where tables and chairs had been set up under tents. We enjoyed refreshments while waiting for dinner to be served. Music played from a computer hooked up to large speakers, a combination of country and rock and roll from the past 4 decades. Lemonade, water and iced tea were served in ball jars and jelly jars. They had bought the perforated tin lids for the jars that are normally used for potpourri, but are actually perfect for sticking a straw in and sipping lemonade.

The mother of the bride confided in me that you couldn’t really have a wedding like this unless you had an old barn filled with stuff. They hauled an old claw-footed bathtub out of said barn, painted the outside of it blue and turned it into a perfect container for beer. There was wine, both red and white, out of boxes but not bad at all.

The tables were set with clear colored glass plates in a variety of colors. The tablecloths were white. The centerpieces were pink and white peonies, set in large white and blue vases. The napkins were yellow and green and handmade (my mother in law was very proud of the 25 napkins that she had made). Each place setting had a tin can next to it. The cans were painted a variety of colors – pink, yellow, green and purple, with a ribbon tied around each. Each can contained little herb plants – basil, thyme, rosemary, chives. Those that traveled locally to the wedding could take a can home with them. We had a lot of fun smelling the different plants and figuring out what they were. In addition, each place setting had a packet of seeds, either flowers or vegetables. I managed to trade for a couple of packets that I wanted, so I ended up with broccoli, pumpkin and poppies to add to my garden when I get home!

Dinner was barbeque – both pulled pork and brisket from their own cows. There were roasted potatoes and a wonderful salad that included fresh strawberries. It was really delicious! For dessert there was no wedding cake (maybe my only disappointment; I do love a good wedding cake), but one of the bridesmaids had made two amazing cakes. One was carrot and one was lemon. Of course I had to try them both! There were also a variety of cookies and the fixings for ice cream sundaes.

After dinner they set up games. There was a bean bag toss, which was rather hypnotizing to watch. There was badminton and a zip line for the little kids. There was croquet, and a trampoline. Soon the dance floor was cleared off and music was playing once again. The bride and groom danced together, as did my sister and brother in law and the groom’s parents. Soon the bride danced with her father and the groom with his mother. Eventually the dance floor was taken over by crawling babies, puppies and sleeping dogs.

We left around 9:30pm, but heard that later there was line dancing and that the fun continued late into the night.

I just loved this wedding. The bride got the wedding she wanted at the price she could afford and I am a firm believer in weddings that make people happy and fulfill at least some of their dreams without breaking their budget.

We have had two weddings now among my nieces and nephews. Both of these marriages were from the country cousins; the city cousins may take a bit longer to decide to settle down. There are seven more cousins to go; I wonder who will be next?

Babies!

Like the title? Haha, gotcha…no, no humans that I am related to are pregnant, thank goodness…this entry is about deer…

Okay anyone that has known me for any length of time already knows this – I HATE DEER. Hate them hate them hate them…O WHY? Do you ask? They are so cute, they are pretty, how can you hate Bambi? What’s wrong with you woman???

Well, here’s the thing, I’ve be “blessed” to live in areas with a surplus of deer for most of my home-owning life. Deer are destructive, and dangerous. They eat plants. In Missouri they ate our tomatoes, our strawberries, our daylilies…heck, they came right up on the patio and ate my hostas! And they wandered out onto roads willy-nilly, leaving damaged cars and sometimes injured drivers and passengers in their wake.

And if you get up close to them, they really aren’t that pretty. The deer in Missouri were fearless and came right up to our bird-feeder, peering in the kitchen window curiously, so we could see their mangy, parasite-ridden coats.

Our neighborhood in the hill country of Texas is absolutely jam-packed with deer. They don’t seem to bother to wander out on to the highways that much; they’ve got it way too good off in the secluded hills and valleys where subdivisions have flourished around Austin in the past 30 years. Many of our neighbors have tall, spiked wrought-iron fences, the better to be able to grow a flower or two, and maybe keep the deer from falling into their swimming pools, who knows. But we don’t have a fence, at least not yet. They’re expensive, and since we don’t know what the future holds…but I digress.

A couple of weeks ago, we discovered a mama deer and her new-born baby hanging out under our trees. I mean, a brand new baby fawn, barely able to walk. Now, even I thought this was pretty cool. So, we’ve been following the progress of the baby deer. This mama actually has a pair, twins I guess. I’ve been dying to get a photo of them. The other day I was coming back very early in the morning from taking Lee to the airport and I saw them, right around the corner from the house. I quickly put the car in the garage, grabbed the camera and walked back up the street. They were still there and I began snapping away, but dang it, it was too dark for my little camera. This morning I was on my way to run and saw one of them crossing the street. But alas, I didn’t have my camera with me.

You can see the deer eyeballs in this picture, but not much else!

I tried a different setting, so you can see a blurry picture of a baby crossing the street, but there still wasn't enough light.

I’m conflicted. I want them to walk across our yard so that I can go out on the deck and get a picture of them. But yesterday I went out to see how our plants were doing, and discovered that the deer have been eating some of our new bushes! Rats! So I got out the Liquid Fence (a repellent) and sprayed it along the perimeter of our yard. That will keep them out for a couple of days, hopefully. But last night I thought I heard something creeping through the yard behind our house. What’s a matter with those animals? I thought…don’t they know that stuff stinks?

So, no good pictures of the baby deer yet. I’m going to try to be more diligent about bringing my camera with me and maybe I’ll capture them before they turn into completely annoying grownups.