The Best Parts of Summer

Last Friday we loaded up the double stroller and headed over to St. Aloysius' picnic. We didn't stay long due to the ominous dark clouds hovering over the picnic (we left just before it stormed!) but we made the most of our quick trip. Casey enjoyed the inflatable bouncers, and we enjoyed running into some folks we didn't expect to see, including Monnica's sisters and baby Adeline (Monnica - I hope you are feeling better - I wish we had run into you too!). We treated Casey to his first taste of cotton candy, and I think Rob & I enjoyed watching him as much as he enjoyed eating the treat! It made us both think about being a kid and the best parts about summer - staying up late, having special treats, and going someplace fun with your family in the warm nighttime air.

First, he eyed it suspiciously:

Then he jumped in for the first bite:

And found that he liked it very, very much:

Drink Your Ovaltine

Imagine my delight and excitement when checking the mail this afternoon and discovering that after 4 and a half months of waiting, my free Rachel Ray cookbook from Nabisco had finally arrived! My Mom had actually teased me a few months back that when I finally received the cookbook it would say nothing inside but "Drink Your Ovaltine" (remember the kid from "A Christmas Story"?), but nothing could dampen my anticipation about the free cookbook.

See, around the holidays last year Nabisco had this promotion for a free cookbook from Rachel Ray, and all you had to do to get one was send in 6 proofs of purchase coupons from boxes of Wheat Thins and $4.95 for shipping & handling. And that was really easy for me since I consume about 3 boxes of Wheat Thins a week. OK, that might be a slight exageration. But I could certainly plow through one in a single sitting if I didn't exercise restraint. I don't know what's in those things, but I suspect some combination of sugar, wheat, and crack, but I digress. So I saved up the cracker points, sent in my check, and began my long wait. I understand that this might seem a little pathetic, seeing as how I could just go over to Barnes & Noble at any point, plunk down $18.95 and just buy the damn cookbook, but that's not the point. There is just something about sending away for something for "free", and then the joy of receiving it in the mail. I don't know how to describe it. But I know this - if you make fun of me for getting so worked up over a free cookbook, I will not cook for you. You'll have Ovaltine for dinner instead.

This is Indiana

Hmmm, somehow I thought it would be bigger. OK, so this isn't really Indiana, but that was the announcement Casey made as he was putting these blocks together this morning. As he was playing he looked up and exclaimed, "Mommy! This is Indiana, and I am moving to my new house in Indiana." It was a bit of a relief to hear that he has some understanding of everything going on around here, and that he seems to be OK with all the "newness". Things are progressing as we cross more and more details of moving off our list, and the closer we get the harder it becomes to think about the reality of leaving this house, this city.

Equally hard to leave will be our neighbors, who we have developed a genuine friendship with, not to mention Casey LOVES playing with them all. He's become sorta' like Norm from "Cheers" - when he walks outside they all shout "Casey!". Saturday night the kids got to stay up late and play in their inflatable pool. It was one of those great summer nights - a spontaneous gathering of friends where the kids chased each other and caught fireflies. We will miss these occasions immensely.

We celebrated Father's Day on Sunday, and Casey & Rob celebrated the Card's win in the College World Series by playing a little T-ball in the backyard. Connor watched from the sidelines with that look in his eye that said, "If I could walk I'd go over there and knock one out of the yard.", and no doubt he will be before too long.

Eight's the Magic Number

On Monday we celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary by working on the 5th & 6th counter-offers on the new house in Carmel (more on that later), eating leftovers for dinner, and doing the boys' laundry. I know, I know, the romance is almost sickening around here. Actually, Rob did surprise me with the beautiful bouquet pictured above, which was very sweet and very unexpected. He knows how much I like purple and he thought this would be different than your typical arrangement of roses, and I love that he put some thought into what to order. I find it hard to believe it has been EIGHT years, and yet I find it hard to believe it has ONLY been eight years.

On the homefront, we put a contract on a house in Carmel Saturday evening, and 8 (yes, count 'em folks, 8!) counter-offers later we finally reached an agreement. Whew! I thought buying a house would be the easy part. Our inspection was last Friday, and the buyer's realtor said it was the cleanest inspection report she had ever seen (which convinced us even further that our first inspector was a complete whack-job). So we finally have a rough date penciled in for our closings, July 13 (which is also a Friday - HA,HA,HA,HA,CHE,CHE,CHE,CHE) and now we're down to the dreaded details of packing all our belongings and moving them 130 miles north. Ugh, I can't even think about that right now. I'd much prefer to think about these 2 boys who couldn't possibly be any cuter playing in their $8 Wal-Mart baby pool. I'm starting to think maybe I should go buy a lottery ticket using only the number 8 since this seems to be the magic number this week.

Don't Stop

Or actually I should have titled this post "Can't Stop". After watching the series finale of "The Sopranos" Sunday night, I can't seem to stop singing that damn Journey song they used at the end. I can't stop thinking about the ending, or the episode as a whole. I can't stop believing that it truly was the perfect ending for this unique show. Sure, at first I was irritated along with the majority of other fans for the abrupt ending leaving us all hanging (not to mention momentarily thinking that our DVR was broken). But the more time I've had to reflect on the entire series, (and watch it over again) and although I can think of a few more satisfying endings, I cannot imagine a more perfect one. Not to mention that we watched the final episode with Christa & John after enjoying Carmella's Ziti made from the recipe in The Soprano Family Cookbook. I also made cannolis in honor of poor Bobby Bacalieri and in homage to "The Godfather" ("Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.")

My theory is that David Chase finally proved the point he's been trying to make for 8 years. We are who we are, and no amount of money, power, family, or therapy can change that. If you were raised by a mother who withheld love and a violent mob-boss father, chances are you are going to be pretty screwed up. And if you are raised by a pampering, passive mother and a violent mob-boss father, again, chances are you are going to spend a good chunk of adulthood paying for some shrink's new Lexus. And the words of Livia Soprano rang true, "You are all alone in this world". Tony was left with more widows than earners on his payroll, and although his family is intact, are they still together because of love and loyalty, or because of the individual benefits each is receiving? Do I agree with Chase's take on family? Not necessarily. But did I enjoy the heck out of watching it all play out? You betcha. Not to mention that the finale was full of the hilarious little moments that only this can provide, such as:

*Our last image of Paulie, sunning himself with a reflector in front of Satriales, after being teased by Tony for admitting that he once saw the Virgin Mary at The Bing.

*Meadow: "What I said was, the state can crush the individual"

Tony: "New Jersey?"

*Agent Harris slapping his desk and exclaiming "We're gonna' win this thing!" after hearing of Phil's death

*The look Carmela gave Tony as he began to "go on and pity about" himself with AJ's shrink

*When Janice told Uncle Junior that Bobby was dead, his response was "Ambassador Hotel"

Anyway, it was a great ride, and I don't think we'll ever see anything quite like it again.

A Real Deal

We finally got the call on Friday, and after a bit of negotiating we agreed to a contract on the house Saturday night! We're very pleased with how things have progressed so far, and are keeping our fingers crossed that we sail through the inspection, etc. It seems to be one of those rare situations where everyone involved is happy with the outcome. We'll be heading back to Indy this weekend to look at another round of houses with the hopes of this being the last trip. Our neighbors threw us an impromptu celebration in the driveway last night. We all sat around in tailgate chairs drinking cold Coronas while the kids chased each other and lamented that we really didn't want to leave this place. And in the midst of all this house craziness, Connor started crawling. He's been scooting around for the past few weeks, but as of Friday he's in full-on crawl mode, and as expected into EVERYTHING!