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We started our three country tour in Ohio this past weekend. (ha ha). Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! We love you and thank you for sharing your wonderful marriage with us! We were at the playground yesterday (back in MI for a short recovery before heading off to Canada) and Frankie ran into her friend Liam at the playground. She told him all about “the 14th floor of the skyscraper”. He kept saying, “wow frankie that is cool!” It was really funny! Here are a pic of Frankie at the Rose Garden in honor the rose petal festival!

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Friday was Bee’s last day of Kindergarten. She is now a big first grader! Her school had “walk to school day.” Bee actually walks to school (or at least home from school) most days we only live 0.8 miles from her school. But friday her she and her school mates were to meet at the hannah center and make the 1.3 to school together. Sparty led the way! It was a beautiful sunny day, so I think the sun was in Bee’e eye when i took the picture. Frankie wanted Sparty to lead the way to her school too, but she has to wait till kindergarten i guess.

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have i not posted since april 29th? What an amazingly crazy last few weeks! Well, here is a picture of Cho-Cho with her mama and brothers and sisters!!!

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Here are the girls with the tulips before school. How cute!

In an effort to diversify what we eat, I will report that on Monday i made salmon with a roasted red pepper sauce with apricot couscous and broccoli on the side. The couscous was good but the salmon seemed a little bland to me. I baked the salmon for about 20 minutes at 475, and while that was baking, I toasted some almonds (about 1/3 cup), i also chopped up some red peppers i had roasted, crushed some garlic, and also chopped up about 1/2 cup small grape tomatoes. Then I blended it all in the blender with a pinch of salt and pepper and put it on top of the salmon. Now doesnt that sound like it would taste good. But it was bland. Now what i did for the couscous was to cut up about 1/2 dried apricots, grated about 1 table spoon of fresh ginger and cut up 3 scallions, and some garlic and I sauteed it all lightly in olive oil for about 3 minutes, then i added 2 cups of water, waited for it boil and added the couscous and let it sit covered, just like you would normally cook couscous. that was tasty. the broccoli we did like we usually do – “popped broccoli”. So, last night we had San Su …yum! Tonight we are making pizza at home tonight so that should be fun!

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The girls were talking about wanting a puppy and Scott told them that he thought the puppy (if we get one, or should i say when we get one) would probably love to sleep on their bed with them. Bee looked at Scott and said “dogs cant go up the stairs!” I guess those are the conceptions you get when you’ve only lived with old gals. So, we had to dig out this photo to show the girls what puppies can do! That was Koomps way back in williamston!

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Here are bee and frankie working out on the stairs!!! Bee invented this activity!

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The tulips all bloomed yesterday and today, and we all think our yard looks beautiful! The leaves on our trees all started to sprout open too! I am always amazed at how quickly springs comes once it finally decides to arrive! But its really weird hanging out in the yard with the girls but no dogs! Also weird is having to vacuum under the table after we eat everyday. I dont think I ever realized how much food the girls spilled and thus how much the dogs really ate! Its been quite surprising! I hope you enjoy our tulips as much as we do! These were tulips that the girls and I planted Fall 2007, and that scott had gotten for us when we has in Holland. This is their second year popping up and they are just so enjoyable. I have half a mind to plant about 200 this fall because I love them so much!

And now I realize we’ve been lame bloggers and lame eaters so I am resurrecting the report of what we cook and eat tradition. Starts tonight. We’re having the age old pasta y fagioli with some yummy bread and “popped” broccoli on the side. So, we’re in a rut but at least we’re admitting it here! Stayed tuned…

For those who are interested here is how I make pasta y fagioli.

1 small onion
a few cloves of garlic
olive oil
salt to taste
cannellini beans (1 or 2 cans depending on how bean-y you like it!)
ditalini pasta (about 1 cup uncooked)
Rosemary
about 4 roma tomatoes

Put olive oil (a table spoon or two) in a pan over medium heat and cut up onion and sautee. Chop up your garlic and add that. Let sautee for a couple of minutes. Add a pinch or two of salt. then add your beans. If you are like me, you get them in the can, so drain them first. then chop up tomatoes and add those. Then add about 1 cup of water. if you have some white wine throw in about a half of a cup, if not, no worries. then crush up some rosemary and add it. Then let this simmer for a long time. a few hours maybe. then cook up the ditilini and then throw that in. I like to let this sit for a few hours, or overnight to get all of the flavors to their fullest. Then serve with yummy bread. This makes about 3 or 4 servings. I know not so precise, but that is how we do it here!

>Koompa died this evening from old age. She almost made it to her 16th birthday. She had a good day, too. She ate a feast of low sodium turkey breast and spent time sniffing and sleeping in the sun in the back yard. It was a really lovely afternoon- perfectly sunny and in the 50s. Someone down the street was playing bagpipes – “Scotland the Brave” and “Amazing Grace”. It’s odd because we hadn’t heard the bagpipes before. It was beautiful and soothing and Koompa seemed to enjoy the sun and music. In fact she was trying for one last sniffing tour of the yard when her heart gave out.

For the record, Koompa’s official name, which was not nearly as long as Marky’s, was Koompa Benjunji Joy Calabrese Barton. Im not sure exactly how we got the name Koompa other than too many sugary desserts made us pick a silly name. We added the middle name Joy because Koompa was always happy. She found joy in everything! That dog knew how to make a good time. She was really the lazarus of dogs having survived hemorragic gastroenteritis twice in NYC after eating to many chicken bones in the park and possibly a little rat poison.

We have lots of really wonderful memories of Koompa, including chasing her in Williamston, swimming in the red cedar river, running the bun run 5K in Austin and having her win the canine trophy (twice!), her love of running and rolling in the grass, and lets not forget her love of chocolate (especially M&M’s from Kevin’s suitcase).

One favorite memory of Koomps is her sitting in the A/C cage in NYC, hanging over the sidewalk. She knew more people than we did, and loved the attention.

We love you Koompa!!! Have fun with Marky and Schmelly.

We’ve got to say its really hard to lose both dogs this semester. They were both 15 so its a blessing we had them that long. But it doesnt make it any easier.  

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So Koompa’s cardiac output may be close to nil, but that girl loves to eat. Here she is chowing down on some left over pasta.

Ah, now its time for rest…

>Koompa seems to be doing OK despite her mini seizures. For example, Frankie was eating noodles on the couch and Koompa tried to jump up onto the couch to grab them. Or, when I took her outside to pee yesterday she saw a squirrel and pounced forward to get it until she ended up face first in the snow. I know, snow. Snow. Its April 7th and we have snow. At least the forsythia are still in bloom. Anyhow at the veterinarians today, they said that koompa had some fluid in her lungs and her heart murmer sounded a bit worse, both indicative of congestive heart failure. I guess the Koompster is nearly 16 (over 100 in human years) so that was not totally surprising. There are two kinds of chf — one caused by leaky valves and the other caused by enlarged heart. Koompa has the leaky valve kind, which is supposed to be the lesser of the two evils. I was relieved to know it wasnt some sort of cancer that had gone to her brain. I caved in and got an x-ray which showed no tumors but some fluid on the lungs. So, the vet gave us some meds to take the fluid down and to reduce the effort the heart has to give and said that if all things go well, Koomps could have another year in her. But then again he also said these things are unpredictable and she could have 2 weeks. Really all depends in the medicine works or not. I guess that is my report for the day. Im hoping the meds kick in. In other news? Poor Sparty.