My heart is broken

One of the great losses of living in Texas as a displaced Midwestern girl is the absence of one of my favorite foods - sweet corn. Having grown up in Illinois with the majority of my relatives being farmers, I was able to enjoy sweet corn in many forms for several months of the year. In fact, we would eat it until we were sick of it ... and then eat it just to get rid of it.

Since I left, my awesome aunts now go to the effort of shaving it off the cob, freezing it, and then pulling it out at Christmas time for me since it is the one time of year they know I will be home to enjoy it. It has become one of the things I look most forward to at Christmas dinner!

I like sweet corn best right off the cob. I enjoy the process of husking it, preparing it, and then buttering and salting it to perfection. Ask Jonathan; I'm a pro. He even has me doctor up his ears (corn that is) :)

Now I know you Texans will try to tell me I can get corn at HEB. And let me tell you NO; it is not the same. NOTHING can replace the perfect sweetness and juiciness of Midwestern corn. Yes, that's right, NOT everything is better in Texas (contrary to your indoctrination).

So here's my great sorrow ... it seems my beloved daughter does not share my passion for the most wonderful of all vegetables. I have twice now tried to feed her a baby food called Sweet Corn Casserole, and both times she has acted like I am forcing her to eat nails. Granted it doesn't look too good and I sure as heck am not going to taste it to see if it resembles the sweet corn I love. But really? I guess that's what I get for birthing a daughter who is a true Texan. I can only pray she will some day see the error of her ways. (Sigh)

We are Family

This past weekend JD, Morgan, and I ventured up to the Ozarks for the first "full" Walsh family meeting. Steph and I were finally able to meet each other's kids. It was an incredible feeling to have all nine of us together - sharing meals, conversation, and life. We didn't do anything special but just enjoy each other.

My niece Maddie is SOOO cute! She's blond-haired, blue-eyed, and fair-skinned, taking after her dad Matt (or my sister/her aunt Kelly :). It really is crazy how much she and Morgan look like their dads! But while the girls may not look alike, their cries sound amazingly similar - to the point where Steph and I each would double-take to see whose child was crying.

At one point during the trip, Steph observed how our playing together with the girls was reminiscent of our days as young girls playing with our dolls ... it was so true! Maddie and Morgan seemed to enjoy being together (as much as babies can). They will definitely be more fun to watch as they grow.

Here are a few photos so you can share in my reminiscence of a truly memorable weekend:

Grandpa and Maddie

Steph, I, and our "dolls"

"Trust me Maddie, I'm four months older; I know these things."

The girls checking each other out

Morgan smiling at Aunt Steph

Enjoying the spring blossoms with Grandpa & Grandma

Feeding Aunt Kelly the spring blossoms

With two babies involved, this was the best picture
with Grandpa & Grandma we could get.

Bluebonnet Memories...

... though maybe not all good ones :) My friend Kristi and I decided that our Texas babies should have bluebonnet pictures for their first spring. However, the lack of rain has made bluebonnets hard to find in our area. So after much searching, we were assured that the Wildseed Farm in Fredericksburg both had bluebonnets and would allow us to take pictures of our girls with them. So we packed up the Jeep and took a quick afternoon trek up to the Hill Country.

However, once we arrived we were told by several employees at the Farm that the bluebonnet fields were inaccessible to the public. After some pleading and finagling, we were allowed to go back "for five minutes" - which is not nearly enough for two babies who required coercion to look at the camera and smile. Ironically, some of the better pictures we got came from a small patch of bluebonnets found out in the parking lot!

After leaving the Farm, we also found a few small patches in front of the Frederickburg sheriff's office. Audrey (Kristi's daughter) thought it would be fun to try to pick the bluebonnets ... which made Kristi hope wouldn't land us in jail :) So 115 pictures later, we packed it up and headed up - a little frustrated with our experience and with fingers crossed that we had at least one good picture of each girl.

However, Morgan decided our experience was not yet "memorable" enough. She decided to SCREAM (not cry) the entire trip home to San Antonio - yes, that's right, for a hour and fifteen minutes! My friend Kristi is a saint for putting up with it. Audrey seemed to be in the best spirits of us all - she just laughed at Morgan's fit :)

So enjoy the fruits of our labor...

Audrey curiously inspecting the bluebonnets

Kristi & Audrey

This was just the beginning of the crying...

I [Heart] Grass

...particularly my grass right now because it is green! In San Antonio, you have to enjoy your lawn when it actually looks like a lawn and not a barren desert wasteland of brittle straw. What makes it even more spectacular is that it's freshly mowed. That was done for the first time this season yesterday afternoon (and was LONG overdue; I had to bag the grass after just one pass around the backyard!).

I have to admit, I really do enjoy mowing my lawn. I did it as a job while I was a pre-teen for some elderly neighbor ladies and wasn't a huge fan then (imagine that...), but it has developed into something I actually had to fight this year to do. Last summer we had a neighborhood college student and a lawn service taking care of that duty while I was big and pregnant. So Jonathan actually had to tell both of them that we don't need them this year. Bottom line: I'd better live up to my claim to "want" to cut the lawn or else I am going to be the one groveling for them to come back :)

I seized the opportunity today after church to snap a few pics of Morgan (on her seven-month birthday) on our beautiful lawn. It's not Masters quality grass like I'm seeing on TV right now, but I will enjoy it nonetheless! As you can see, M likes the grass too :)

We're One Fruity Couple

...better than a flowery, silky or nylon-y couple (the other traditional gifts for four years of marriage).

Four years ago today I made the best decision of my life - I married Jonathan and made "my" life into "our" life. And in that time our lives have grown, developed, and intertwined in such a fashion that I can now hardly imagine what life would be like without Jonathan. Truly God knew he would be a perfect match for me. He is a wonderfully caring, thoughtful and protective husband!

I love memories of our wedding day as much as memories of our dating. March 27, 2004 was a dreary, cold day up in Illinois where we were married. However, the excitement of uniting our lives and sharing that excitement with all our family and wonderful friends was sufficient to brighten our attitudes.

Our ceremony was a little backwards ... in that we had Jonathan's Uncle Tom who married us stand at the bottom of the altar with his back to the congregation. This resulted in us looking down at him and the audience as the ceremony was preformed. We also had both sets of our parents pronounce a blessing over us. This was meaningful and significant to us because we so value our parents' loving guidance and example and intercession to the Heavenly Father on our behalf.

The reception was a whirlwind of faces - all offering their congratulations and well-wishes. On the way up to Chicago afterwards, I began to cry (probably from exhaustion) and commented how many of our wonderful friends had gone to such effort to attend our wedding and how little time we were able to spend with each of them. Jonathan still teases me saying I was crying because it had set in that I had married him!

We then honeymooned in Maui and had a fabulous time. It was my first time in Hawaii, and we've gone back twice since. I guess you could say I/we like it!

Thanks for letting me reminisce! And thank you Babe for being the best husband I could ever ask for and giving me the best four years of my life!

The New Michael Jackson

Yeah, so David Cook is my choice for the next American Idol. He totally changed and yet rocked Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean." It's not on YouTube yet, but I'm sure it will be as soon as some tech nerd can get it done. Totally worth checking out ... as well as his last few weeks' performances.

Kristi Lee Cook has to go! She's sneaky though in that she sang "I'm Proud To Be An American." I mean really you'd have to be a terrorist to vote someone off who sings that song, right? Also on my "blah" list are SaYESha and Ramiele. The Aggie and the Aussie aren't doing it for me either. I'd trade any of them to have Rocker Chick back.

Oh yeah, and David Cook looks like my friend Brian Jones so maybe that's another reason I'm rooting for him. I'll see if I can get a good comparison photo. Brian's wife, my good friend Kristi, thinks I'm on crack though she admits a slight resemblance. Just imagine David Cook as a lawyer who grew up in Waco, Texas.....

3/26 Postscript: Tech Nerds unite! Here's the YouTube video:



I'd like to say he's the "white" Michael Jackson, but well ... you know the problem there.

The Easter Effect

It's funny how Easter and Christmas bring non-church-going people into church. Is it to please family, maintain some sort of tradition, because they understand that but-for Jesus neither holiday would exist or because they somehow feel guilty or convicted into going? Regardless the rationale, I'm glad they go. I just hope that whether or not they believe the stories about Jesus' birth, death and resurrection they see the hope and peace that those around them who do believe experience and desire that for themselves.

I was reading the newspaper yesterday and came across an editorial by Garrison Keillor. In case you don't know who he is, Keillor is best known for his radio show "A Prairie Home Companion" in which he tells very down-home, folksy tales of fictitious Midwestern town Lake Wobegon. You may be more familiar with the movie knock-off of his radio show that came out a few years ago. Anyway, I can't say I'm a Keillor fan, but the editorial's title, "Keillor: A pagan's thoughts on Easter", intrigued me. However, the title was not nearly so intriguing as Keillor's statements within the article. Here are some I found insightful and thought-provoking:

Holy Week is a good time to face up to the question: Do we really believe in that story or do we just like to hang out with nice people and listen to organ music? There are advantages, after all, to being in the neighborhood of people who love their neighbors. If your car won't start on a cold morning, you've got friends. (So true. Ask anyone in my small group...)

I don't doubt God's existence - there He is - but I doubt His interest in us right now and I haven't the faintest idea what He wants from me.
(I think A LOT of people feel this way - that God is real, but far off and uninvolved in "my" life.)

[Peter] repented. I would too, but not quite yet.

Skepticism is a stimulant, not to be repressed. It is an antidote to smugness and the great glow of satisfaction one gains from being right. You know the self-righteous - I've been one myself - the little extra topspin they put on the truth, their ostentatious modesty, the pleasure they take in being beautifully modulated and cool and correct when others are falling apart. Jesus was rougher on those people than He was on the adulterers and prostitutes.
(I'm still not sure where he was going with this chain of logic though I feel like he's trying to justify his unbelief.)

So I will sit in the doubter's chair for a while and see what is to be learned back there.

And that dismal statement is the tenor which Keillor's article ends on. I find this sad because it means Keillor has not understood or experienced what life in Christ is truly like. However, while he is a self-proclaimed "doubter", I find it encouraging that he isn't sitting still in his doubt. For example, in this same article, he talks about reading the Gospels in order to better understand the whole God thing. I pray he and all who truly seek find what they are looking for.

Any thoughts - either way?

Here are a few pics from our Easter weekend spent at the ranch with JD's parents and grandparents:

Our sweet bunny

Morgan loved the steering wheel of the big John Deere tractor

That's right, we're all wearing John Deere hats on a John Deere tractor :)

Morgan's first ride on the tractor