Sunny With a High of 80 Degrees

One of the benefits to living in Texas is the nearly-guaranteed beautiful weather on Halloween and Easter, two holidays that are always up-for-grabs in the Midwest. My guess, based on 30 years of experience, is that the weather on these days is sunny and warm less than 50% of the time; the other 50% of the time trick-or-treaters and Easter-egg-hunters contend with pouring rain, bitter cold, or snowstorms. I recall reapplying my face paint midway through trick-or-treating because of the rain, wearing long underwear with my princess costumes (kind of ruins the princess look) because of the cold, and finding my Easter eggs much more quickly than usual because they were so visible in the snow.

Last Easter the weather here was sunny and the high temperature was around 80 degrees. Last Halloween the weather here was sunny and the high temperature was around 80 degrees. This Easter the weather here was sunny and the high temperature was around 80 degrees. Sensing a trend?

My sister, Sara, and her family were visiting the week before Easter, so they were able to participate in some of the kids' Easter festivities at school. Baby Lily - who insisted on carrying around Sara's wallet all morning - hunted for eggs on her own while we waited for Will's class to come outside.

Will's class wasn't at all challenged by our hiding skills. (In our defense, there aren't a whole lot of places to hide Easter eggs in an expansive, grassy lawn.) They had fun though, and looked adorable in their bunny hats.

The following day Sara and I (without Lily, this time) were back at school, in charge of hiding Easter eggs for Hallie's class's egg hunt. Our work, prior to the kids' release, can be seen below - clearly we're expert egg hiders.

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to complain about the heat less, and along with less complaining, I'm also trying to focus on the positive more. So here you have it: Halloween was beautiful, Easter was beautiful.

New Year's Resolution accomplished, at least for today.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from the four Ferri!  To celebrate this special holiday we're heading to church this morning (after hunting for Easter eggs and enjoying our treats from the Easter Bunny, of course), and then my plans for the afternoon are to clean the house, wash and vacuum out my car, and learn how to scan pictures.  Exciting stuff!

To celebrate Easter on the blog I've decided to take a virtual walk down Easter Memory Lane:

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

Happy day to you and yours!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Leap Year!

Did you know (before today) that this year was a Leap Year? I'd heard rumors, but let's be honest, I pay considerably more attention to the weather, the class schedule at the gym, and the preschool "upcoming events" emails than I do the actual date on the calendar.

Leap Day, or Leap Year Day, is an extra day added to the calendar every four years in order to synchronize our calendar and seasonal years. Without Leap Day, in 136 years we'd be ice skating in July and sunbathing in January. Well, WE wouldn't be ice skating or sunbathing, but our great, great, great grandchildren could be ice skating and sunbathing. (And don't repeat that "136 years" statistic...I just made that up. 136 years seemed like the amount of time it would take for the seasons to swap ends of the calendar.)

While performing my Leap Year "research" I came across a few interesting folk traditions associated with Leap Day/Year (thank you, Wikipedia):

- In the British Isles, women could only propose marriage during a leap year. If the man refused the proposal, he was required to compensate the woman with a payment ranging from a kiss to a silk gown. I hardly think a silk gown would improve my mood after being rejected by the love of my life.

- In Denmark, women could propose marriage on the bissextile leap day - February 24th - and refusal of the proposal required the man to give the woman 12 pairs of gloves. Well, that seems fair. 12 pairs of gloves is better than one gown, right?

- In Greece, marriage during a leap year is considered unlucky and even today, one in five couples will wait until the following year to tie the knot in order to avoid the leap year. I just realized that Tom and I were married during a leap year...

But the real reason that I wanted to write a Leap Day post is to wish my Grandma - a Leap Day baby - a happy birthday. Today she turns 20. :)

Happy birthday, Grandma!

Oh Fall, How I Miss You So...

Everyone has a favorite season. Most people I've asked enjoy summer above all others, but spring came in a close second. Finishing a distant third was fall, and an even more distant fourth/last was winter. (My informal poll involved questioning those I see on a regular basis why they live in this sauna of a state...I'm willing to admit my results MAY be a bit biased.)

My favorite season, without question, is fall, for a whole slew of reasons:

- College and professional football and tailgating. Especially when my teams are winning. (Which my Green Bay Packers are, and my Hawkeyes are not, at least not enough to satisfy me.)

- New and old-but-returning-with-new-episodes television shows. From the moment season finales wrap in May I start counting down the days until my "friends" return in the fall. Unfortunately I have pretty bad taste in television shows and many I come to enjoy one year don't return the next. Flash Forward and The Event are recent examples - I lie awake at night wondering how these shows would have ended.

- Caramel Apple Spices. Starbucks actually makes this drink year-round (though it used to be a fall-only special), but I only allow myself to indulge in its thick, rich deliciousness in October, November, and December. And sometimes January.

- Pumpkins. I love decorating with and carving pumpkins, but I love devouring all things made with pumpkin - bread, muffins, cake, Dairy Queen Blizzards - even more. The pumpkin shortage of 2010 (what's that you say? You didn't know there was a pumpkin shortage last year? I assure you, there was - not a can could be found in grocery stores across the country) was rough on me, and I plan to make up for the lack of pumpkin baked goods in 2010 by baking up a pumpkin storm this holiday season.

- Apple picking. Our favorite apple orchard in Michigan was a bit of a cliche, but in a good way. It offered everything you'd expect and hope to find at an apple orchard: apple trees of course, but also a pumpkin patch, berry patches, and warm apple cider and (the most amazing) donuts for sale. The orchard wasn't commercialized like so many these days, but was instead simple and organic.

- The colors. Recent trips to Iowa and Illinois reminded me what Texas is missing, at least color-wise, during the fall season. The fiery red, brilliant orange, and warm, golden yellow leaves that define fall in the Midwest were everywhere I looked, and their beauty brought tears to my eyes.


- Will's birthday. Will's birthday marks another year of life for him, but it also marks the anniversary of when I became a mother.

- Halloween. If I didn't already love Halloween for its cupcakes, candy, and costumes, I'd certainly love it now, after trick-or-treating with my kids and listening to Will yell, "THIS IS JUST SO MUCH FUN!!!!!" over and over and over again for nearly an hour.


- Chicago. Every fall for the last 10 years my mom, sister, and I have met in Chicago for a girls' weekend of shopping, sight-seeing, and shows. I look forward to this weekend away all year, and I always return home feeling more connected to my mom and sister and rejuvenated as a wife and mother.

- Thanksgiving. When I was younger I wasn't a big fan of Thanksgiving. Every seven or so years my birthday and Thanksgiving fall on the same day, and as a child I couldn't stand having to share my special day with everyone else. Now I love when Thanksgiving and my birthday overlap - Tom and I don't have to work and the kids don't have school so we're all on vacation, and we usually spend the weekend with one side of our extended families. Not to mention the football games and pumpkin baked-good eating that goes on.


- My birthday. I'm approaching my mid-30's (when do the "mid" 30's officially begin? Will I be in my mid-30's at 33 or 34? Please weigh in) though, so I expect to look forward to my birthday less and less in the years to come.

- Christmas festivities. Some people find the red and green twinkly lights and sparkly decorations; continuously-streaming Christmas music; and frantic, last-minute shoppers a little on the annoying side. I, however, love the excitement and anticipation leading up to Christmas. I'm cheesy like that; I truly believe that Disney World is the "Happiest Place on Earth" and the Christmas season is the "Most Wonderful Time of the Year".

- And last but not least, the cool, crisp fall weather. Oh how I miss you, sweaters and jeans. I long to slide Smart Wool socks on over my cold feet and cuddle on the couch in my fuzzy bathrobe. I wish we could play outside all afternoon (without sweating), and then enjoy a cup of hot apple cider in front of a roaring fire while a cool-turned-cold night wind rattles the windows. But alas, these things are not to be. As I type I'm wearing shorts and a tank top, having spent the morning sweating at the park with Tom and the kids. Our air conditioning is running, and will have to run through the night. Oh, and I gave most of my sweaters to my sister, who lives in Illinois; packed up my Smart Wool socks for our next garage sale; and traded in my fuzzy bathrobe for a lightweight one.

Even though it's technically fall - and we're watching football; enjoying new television shows; decorating and baking with pumpkins; celebrating Will's birthday, Halloween, my birthday, and Thanksgiving; and getting ready for Christmas - it just doesn't FEEL like fall without the cool weather and changing scenery. Those of you who've transplanted from the Midwest (or anywhere that has an actual fall season) to a warmer location, does it ever get easier?

Honoring Our Veterans

This week's Red Cross blog post recognizes the tremendous contributions of our country's veterans. Please stop on over to read about how you can honor those who bravely and generously served our country through membership in the Armed Forces beyond just saying "thank you". (Saying "thank you" is of course important, but there's more we can do!)

Happy Halloween (or Cakes, Cakes, and More Cakes)

My mom is a very good cake decorator (while cake decorating is just a hobby for her - she's a nurse by profession - she's placed cakes and gingerbread houses in Madison competitions), so starting with our very first gingerbread houses and her famous Halloween cupcakes she began teaching my sister and I how to turn decorator frosting into art.

Despite my mom's hard work showing me the ropes, I'm not very good at cake decorating. I don't have a very steady hand, and while I can follow a pattern (organized control-freak that I am), I'm not particularly creative or artistic. Additionally, I don't really enjoy the cake decorating process. I'm not very patient (cake decorating takes quite a while as there are usually a lot of steps), there are far too many opportunities for catastrophic error, and the clean-up is insane.

All that being said, I love the feeling of accomplishment that comes with a completely decorated cake (that other people can correctly identify/recognize), and I love creating things that members of my family will appreciate and enjoy.

So while I won't be entering any cake decorating Food Network Challenges any time soon, I will continue to create these mediocre but well-loved cakes and cupcakes for my kids (and maybe my husband, if we can discover a kind of cake he actually likes) until they ask me not to.

In honor of Halloween, here's a pic of my Halloween cupcakes (of which I made six dozen this year) and a trip down my kids' birthday cake memory lane.

Will's 1st Birthday (we hadn't discovered a dairy-free frosting that Will could eat yet, nor could Will eat any candy decorations, so the cake was just train shaped)

Will's 2nd Birthday (Will wanted a train cake again, so we went with the same cake shape and added candy for decoration)

Will's 3rd Birthday (by this point we'd finally figured out which frostings Will could eat and therefore could finally use it on his cakes)

Hallie's 1st Birthday (we chose a cupcake cake for her, but she was afraid of the cake and wouldn't pose with it - enter Will-the-photo-bomber)

Will's 4th Birthday (I nearly had a meltdown during the decorating of this cake, but my mom helped me through)

Hallie's 2nd Birthday (she LOVED this Minnie Mouse cake, which I was particularly proud of because I used a Mickey Mouse cake pan and turned the cake into Minnie on my own)

Will's 5th Birthday (my most recent - and well-received, likely due to the fact that Will's getting older - project)

I'm glad I have a few months until Hallie's 3rd birthday - after Batman and six dozen Halloween cupcakes my Carpel Tunnel Syndrome needs time to recover.

Happy Halloween!

Red Cross Post: An American Red Cross Halloween

Looking for a way to tie together Halloween and the American Red Cross? Look no further than today's Red Cross blog post!

Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream

Freshman at the University of Iowa were required to take a rhetoric course in order to eventually earn a bachelors degree. I enrolled, perhaps in error, in an advanced rhetoric class during my first semester in college and immediately found myself overwhelmed. Under the direction of a formal, inflexible, and well, odd, professor, readings were abstract, writing assignments were ambiguous, and classroom discussions were ridiculously philosophical. While I was then and continue to be many things, abstract, ambiguous, and/or philosophical are not any of them. I feared I’d fail the class.

One of our assignments was to prepare and deliver a speech. Because my professor emphasized the importance of an attention-grabbing opener with regard to our overall grade, I knew I had to come up with something spectacular in order to save my grade. And so as I stepped up to the podium that fall day, I took a deep breath, wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans, and began to...sing.

Last night I had the strangest dream, I’d ever dreamed before.
I dreamed the world had all agreed to put an end to war.

And the people in the streets below were dancing ‘round and ‘round.
And guns and swords and uniforms were scattered on the ground.

Now, 14 years later, though I can't remember the topic on which I spoke, I can't forget that song. Though I certainly don't sing it every day, "Last Night" remains an occasional but regular song on the soundtrack of my life. I hear it playing quietly in the back of my mind when I see our flag raised, when I see a service member leave or reunite with his/her family, and when I look at my children and dream of their futures.

And I hear it today, the 10th anniversary of September 11th. As we remember those who lost their lives, recognize those whose heroic actions saved the lives of others, and raise up the family members and friends left behind, I also hope for a more peaceful tomorrow and dream about the day our world agrees to put an end to war.

Labor Day

Tomorrow our country celebrates Labor Day in honor of the economic and social contributions of workers. Here are a few of the Labor Day-related thoughts swirling around in my head this Labor Day Eve...

First, like Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of summer, Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer. I'm not sure summer can be over - officially or unofficially - if the temperatures outside are still in the upper nineties during the day and the upper seventies at night.

Second, despite the fact that Labor Day is both a Federal Holiday and a State Holiday in all 50 states, Labor Day is not recognized by Texas A&M University. Faculty and staff are expected to report to work and students are expected to attend classes. This is a bummer on many levels. Our Labor Day weekend travels had to be cut short, because even though the kids don't have school on Monday, Tom has to work. I also feel badly for students, who will be out late tonight (Sunday) for TAMU's evening football game but will be expected to rise and shine for 8am classes tomorrow (Monday) morning.

I have a theory as to why TAMU chooses not to recognize Labor Day, but since my theory has to do with politics and I promised myself I'd avoid political topics as much as possible on this blog (let's just say that the city in which I was raised and the city in which I live are about as politically opposite as two cities can be), I won't go into great detail here. I will say, however, that while universities have every right to honor and recognize whatever (societal, economic, military) contributions they deem worthy, in my opinion, choosing to blatantly neglect others has the potential to promote ignorance and intolerance.

Third, I'm giddy with excitement over the return of NCAA football. The Iowa Hawkeyes (where Tom and I went to undergrad), Wisconsin Badgers (where I grew up), Nebraska Huskers (where Tom grew up), and the Michigan Wolverines (where Tom went to grad school and we lived for six years) all won. We're watching the TAMU Aggies play SMU as I type, and if they can pull out a victory our teams will be five for five on the first football weekend of the year. Ah, football - you make my Labor Day weekend complete.

Now if only it were a three-day weekend...

Happy Belated 4th of July!

"The winds that blow through the wide sky in these mounts, the winds that sweep from Canada to Mexico, from the Pacific to the Atlantic - have always blown on free men."

~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Happy belated 4th of July!

Freedom Is Not Free

"Let future generations understand the burden and the blessings of freedom. Let them say we stood where duty required us to stand."

~ President George Bush, January 1991

To all the men and women who have served in the United States Armed Forces, and to all of the military families who have sacrificed, thank you.