Category: Family (Page 23 of 24)

Adventures at the Baltimore Orioles Game

May 18, 2009 / Katie L. Carroll

Highlights from my first day in Baltimore include catching up with my sister, watching my nephew (the 9-year-old) chase after cars that potentially held Yankee players, getting a ball signed by Andy Pettitte, seeing A-Rod whack a home run off the first ball pitched to him in 2009, and listening to a couple of old ladies chatter away while paying very little attention to the baseball game.

So these ladies were at the game with their husbands. I’m not sure if they had ever been to a baseball game, but they did have some astute observations. For one, they noticed that some of the K’s that were posted on the scoreboard were forwards and some were backwards. They didn’t know what the K’s meant (one of their husbands explained that a K was posted for each strikeout the home team’s picture recorded), but they thought it was nice that some were backwards so the scoreboard didn’t ever show three forward K’s.

(Not that I disagreed about it being nice that there was never three forward K’s in a row, but that’s not the real reason why some of the K’s were backwards. A forward K indicates the batter struck out swinging, and a backward K indicates the batter struck out looking.)

They also noticed how cute some of the baseball players are (hello, Derek Jeter!!!). No arguments there. At one point they asked me if my nephew was my brother, which my nephew found pretty hilarious. I wanted to say to them, “Didn’t you notice my nephew calling my sister ‘Mom’? If I was his sister that would make her my mom as well…not really feasible!”

Then towards the end of the game, they called my husband “the best looking fella” in the stadium, and they also said that they “may be old, but they can still look.” My nephew again found all of this pretty hilarious, so the ladies turned their attention to him. “But you’ll give him a run for his money in a few years. You have beautiful eyes.”

I guess it’s not so bad having the same taste in men as a couple of old ladies. They’ve seen a lot, so they probably have good taste, right? (Let’s hope so for my husband’s sake.)

On a Power Trip with my Snow Village

January 21, 2009 / Katie L. Carroll

While I was originally—as an eight-year-old—attracted to the bright colors and shiny finish of the Snow Village, I find—as an adult—there is another appeal to having it: control. I have all the power in my village. I decide where all the buildings go, where the people go…I’m in charge of everything. Bwahaha!!! (That’s evil laughter in case you couldn’t tell!)

This doesn’t really surprise me. As a kid, I used to play with the vintage Fisher Price Little People. Remember how the people had no hands or legs. We had a school, a castle, houses, a barn, cars, all kinds of things. (By the way, my mom still has all these toys, and looking over these pictures and prices, I think she could make a bundle selling them!) I always loved setting them up and figuring out all the backgrounds for all the people, and then once that was over, I would hardly play with them. The fun was in the back story, and it was all mine to control.

I get that same sense of power from setting up my Snow Village. When all else in the world is out of whack, I have my quiet, peaceful, twinkling village. It’s as beautiful and perfect as I want it to be. So, here’s some pictures and commentary on this year’s Village.

I decided that this year the Tudor-style log cabin is my home. I imagine it’s next to a big snow mountain, but within walking distance to the center of town. (That is the Town Hall behind it.)

That’s me in the wagon…the little blond girl holding the present. In previous years I have lived in the lighthouse (it’s kind of small living quarters, though).

That’s my nine-year-old nephew and his dog, Cashew. (My nephew gave me that piece.) He’s in front of the Center for the Arts because he has my sense of creativity.

The clown always goes near the Hospital…in case there’s any sick kids stuck there for the holidays. Notice the Library and Church in the background. Also, that’s my dad (sorry I cut him off a bit) leading his horse, Beau.

My brother decided he wanted to be the kid in the party hat (he thought the kid was a wizard). It’s more likely that my brother is actually the kid throwing the snowball! The lady with the balloons reminded me of my grandmother (and she is the one who started this whole Village, so I guess she should be in it!)

I decided that my husband is the delivery man this year. We met at Harrison’s Hardware when we were in high school and the Gift Shop reminds me of that. (He wanted to be the fireman, but my brother-in-law is a fireman in real life, so he got that designation this year…maybe next year the hubby can be the fireman.) I love how the proportions of the people are way off compared to the buildings, doors, and vehicles.

This picture came out kind of psychedelic, which I thought was cool…and below is what this part of the Village (there’s more than just this table!) looks like in the dark.

All those who stop by the house while my Village is still up are welcome and encouraged to find themselves in it.

Finding Winter Warmth in a Village Display

January 15, 2009 / Katie L. Carroll

More snow fell this morning. Worse than that, we’re experiencing an extreme cold snap here in New England. My outdoor thermometer is reading 7.7 degrees right now (yes, that’s Fahrenheit!). Winter is getting a bit old…and there’s still over two months left of it.

A spot of winter brightness comes from a little collection of mine. My grandmother started a collection for each of my sisters and me on our eighth birthday. My two older sisters both collected Madame Alexander dolls. My younger sister ended up with a porcelain animal collection (I think made by Lennox).

When my turn came about, my grandmother took me to a store called Happy House in the mall. It was just the two of us, which made me feel very special (when you grow up in a family of seven getting one-on-one attention from an adult is a nice treat). And she was letting me pick out my collection all by myself.

Something caught my eye when I first walked into the store. It was a winter village with buildings that were bright colors and shiny. They were so pretty, and they lit up! I didn’t want to be hasty, so I made sure to walk all around the store to see what else they had to offer. My eyes kept wandering back to that village, though, and that’s what I picked.

Years later, my grandmother told me she tried her hardest to get me to pick almost anything else in the store. There were pewter figurines, Precious Moments figurines, and a bunch of other small collectibles to choose from. Apparently, my grandmother thought it would be better for me to pick something smaller than a village, seeing as there was seven of us living in a tiny two-bedroom house.

But I was eight and didn’t care about practical matters like space, and besides my collection was starting with just one building. I may have been small myself (and I was even small for my age…I always said if my siblings and I had been a litter of dogs, I would’ve been the runt that got drowned), but I certainly wasn’t thinking small. I now have over twenty buildings and countless accessories in my Snow Village. It’s still growing too, although not as rapidly as when my grandmother used to add to it twice a year (once on my birthday and again on Christmas).

I currently have it displayed in two different rooms on a total of three different surfaces. I’m a bit more discriminate when I add a large piece to it these days because I don’t want to have to buy a second house just to accommodate the village. There’s just something about the yellow lights radiating from all the windows and all the smiling people bustling around town that projects a warmth…even though it’s the Snow Village.

Stay tuned for pictures!

The Cool Aunt Makes Cookies with the Kids

December 22, 2008 / Katie L. Carroll

One of the blessings I have been able to count on this holiday season is that my nine-year-old nephew still thinks hanging out with his old aunt is fun. We have movie nights, we cook together, we talk books. It’s all good, but I know it won’t last. He’ll be a teenager soon (too soon!), and teenagers don’t think their aunts—even not-so-old ones—are cool.

We recently got together at my sister’s house to make Christmas cookies. Surprisingly, my three-year-old niece and two-year-old nephew abandoned their Christmas video to come help us.

My little nephew got a bit anxious as we were cooking and decorating the cookies. A gingerbread woman and a gingerbread man were the only raw cookies left on the table. While I helped my niece with the sprinkles and my sister helped my older nephew with the frosting, my little nephew helped himself to the gingerbread lady.

He boldly proclaimed, “I’m gonna lick the lady!”

Now, my little nephew speaks very clearly, and my sister and I both heard him and understood him. At any given time in my sister’s house, one of the kids is bound to be making some noise. Usually it’s quiet singing or talking to no one in particular, but this time my little nephew was actually making an announcement. My sister and I made the mistake of not taking his announcement seriously. So, sure enough, he licked the gingerbread lady.

Then he said, “I’m gonna lick the man!”

Before my sister or I could stop him, he leaned over the table and licked the gingerbread man. Well, there’s no sense in wasting licked cookies, so we cooked them up and wrote his name on them with edible gel.

Here’s a few of our creations:

Seeing An Upside-Down Frown Face in the Sky

December 13, 2008 / Katie L. Carroll

Lately the evening sky has been offering up many spectacular views. On December 1st, the world was treated with the sight of the crescent moon, Venus, and Jupiter in close conjunction. My pictures didn’t really come out, so I will refer you to this link (clearly this Brian Combs is way better at taking night pictures than I am!). His pictures show about what it looked like from my neck of the woods, but here’s a great gallery of what people all over the world saw.

As you may remember from my Rainbow Connection post, I enjoy watching the sky for natural phenomena. Not everyone cares about this, but my circle of friends/relatives also seem to enjoy these wonders. I know because my mom called me to tell me about the celestial conjunction (my dad had told her about it) to make sure I didn’t miss it. I did have to kind of coax my husband off the coach to head to the beach with me, but he was a good sport about it and he did thank me for showing him the unique sight.

A few days later, I hung out with my nine-year-old nephew. I asked him if he had seen the conjunction. He said he had seen it and that it looked like an “upside-down frown face” (again check out Brian Combs’s photos to see what he means). I laughed because that was exactly what I had said. My husband was like, “You mean a happy face.” And I was like, “No, I mean an upside-down frown face.”

I was actually quite pleased to learn my nine-year-old nephew and I are on the same wavelength when it comes to looking at the world. After all, much of my writing is geared towards kids exactly his age. (And, in my defense, he is quite bright!) He also showed his perceptiveness and dry wit when he asked me to guess what “grandma” (my mom—don’t be mad, mom, I write this with great affection) said about the conjunction. He told me, “She said, ‘I’ll be dead the next time that happens!'” That’s such a thing that my mom would say—probably half serious, but with a bit of humor as well—that my nephew and I just cracked up about it.

And last night, I was treated to an awesome sight while driving down I-95. Amidst a scene of black asphalt and cold steel, I sensed a light peaking out of the clouds. Only the light was on the opposite side of the setting sun. As I stared at the clouds, a humongous full moon emerged from. It was so low in the sky, I swear if I had kept going straight, I would’ve driven right onto it.

I called my husband to tell him to check it out. He was also on the road and saw it too. He was (pretended to be?) as impressed as I was…he really is a good sport! When I got home, I grabbed my camera and headed to the beach. The moon wasn’t quite as low and huge anymore, but I still got some decent pictures of it emerging from the clouds. It was very cool, despite the fact that a full moon on a Friday night is something we should all be wary of.