201 Oregano

WELCOME to 201 OREGANO

Under RE-construction.

 

 

 

Old Weapons, New Uses

Old Weapons, New Uses.

The Frog Pond

Madeleine's new blog, called The Frog Pond, will chronicle the life of a bull frog from tadpole to adult frog.  Enjoy her blog and don't hesitate to comment and ask her questions, especially ones that she can do a little research on and report back.  

And... the Madison House Chef has not given up cooking, but has been slammed at work and with home responsibilities and thus MHC hasn't had any attention recently.  Honestly, today is the first day in weeks and weeks that none of us has had a appointment or a place to be at a specific time.  It's kind of nice not to be running somewhere this morning.  As a matter of fact, we even had coffee on the back porch this morning where we enjoyed the cool (64 degrees) and not too humid weather. 

Enjoy Madeleine's blog.

Going out for Italian Food

Tomorrow, Ken and I embark on a week long journey that takes us abroad for a conference on Church Authority.  It’s exciting to be going to the conference, especially because it’s an area of interest and study where our two professional worlds intersect.  Originally when we made plans for the trip we hoped to travel across the Gulf of Finland and spend a day or two in St. Petersburg and spend time at the Hermitage Museum.  Having now encountered Rembrandt’s Return of the Prodigal Son during Lent in two separate communities, I feel a certain kinship to the painting and am eager to see it in person. However, it wasn’t to be.  The process for being granted a visa was more complicated and costly than expected and finally we agreed that it was better to wait until another time to go there. I was understandably disappointed. We still had these days marked off on the calendar and tried to decide what to do in the ‘bonus’ 36+ hours before flying home. Ken said he would take me on a date wherever I wanted to go.   Where do you go when you feel like the whole world (okay, the continent) is open to you?  Athens was a close second, our lovely Munich was in the running, but airfare to Rome made almost no monetary change to our budget for the open jaw flight.  Ken said, “Why don’t I take you out for Italian food.”  Done.  Thus, we’re off to Helsinki and then to Rome for Italian food and then back to the US before the weekend.  It will be a quick trip, but well worth it.  Likewise, I am in serious need of updating my baptismal font photos.  My luck in Spain and England this summer for new fonts was poor – oddly, sadly, strangely, many of the fonts in the churches/cathedrals were missing.  In one local parish church I spoke with a vicar about it he told me that most churches have just gone to a ‘portable’ fonts that they can bring out when there are baptisms.  Really?  What happened to the centrality of the sacraments… but that’s for another blog.  Nevertheless, it will be nice to be in Italy to take some photos – and update my Vatican “slides” which have not only faded, but for which we no longer own a machine to show.  I’m excited: church history and authority conference and steeple chasing (font chasing), and a date for Italian food.  

My mom and dad are staying with the kids while we are away – they came down to the Valley a couple of weeks early.  Thanks, guys!  They arrived last night after a uneventful trip south.  

Since this is a working trip we’ll both want to stay in touch with Texas while we’re away so we’ll be taking the little notebook computer.  Watch Ken’s Facebook site for photos.

That’s it from 201 Oregano today.

Yes, We Have Milk and Peanut Butter

 
Looks like we could be in for some rain and wind this evening around sunset. Fortunately we already went to the store and shouldn’t have to go out again this evening.

First Day of School 2010

High School?
Moving from the ‘kids’ building out to the upper elementary buildings?
Two giant leaps for the Grant family this year.

Here are some photos from this morning.

The traditional front porch shot.

 
Even more “grown up” than last year.

The new messenger bag she bought in the UK.  I wish you could see her pink, black, and white Vans.

He’s a full brick taller than last year…

Miss smiley…

More school news later today or tomorrow.

Two Weeks ‘til School Begins

Above is a photo of Gregory at the train station in York, UK.

Life in the valley is pretty usual right now.  It’s hot. Very hot.  The temperature is 95 degrees with a heat index of 108 degrees.  Needless to say, there are heat advisories and we are staying put midday.

It’s hard to believe that the summer is winding down and that the kids have only 2 weeks before they return to school.  At breakfast this morning we were talking about our new daily schedule.  Looks like we’ll need to be out of the house between 7:00 and 7:05 in order to get Gregory to the bus (he picks up the bus at BETA, the high school portion of where he attended last year) bound for the Science Academy.  He’s very excited about the new school. Is it possible that he’s a Freshman?

Madeleine will return to St. Matthew’s again and will be in Mrs. Miller’s 3rd grade class. This summer her desire to read has blossomed.  She’s picked up and has been reading two different series: Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Cat Warriors. It’s thrilling to see her excited about books and reading.

Ken has an extra week before he returns to class on August 30th.  He’ll start the beginning of a new 3 year contract.  His Fall classes are all freshmen level, core curriculum offerings, but that’s alright in that it leaves him more time/energy for a whole host of other writing and researching projects in Medieval History.

Church life is good and I’m back into the regular routine. First is only two weeks from Blessing of the Backpacks and three weeks from Rally Day when the energy level will really pick up again. On days off and free evenings I’ve been cooking, planning menus, trying out some new recipes that can be made ahead and put in lunchboxes (all 4 of us will be taking lunch every day this year), blogging and laundry (LOL). I’m also still working on assembling our Europe trip photos to make into a photo book.

That’s it from 201 Oregano for today – catch our other blogable happenings on Madison House Chef and Letting It Breathe or on Facebook.

Box Tops for Education

Madeleine’s school (St. Matthew’s Episcopal School) will be saving Box Tops for Education again this year. Perhaps you have seen them on cereal, Ziploc products, Kleenex boxes, Bisquick, cake mixes, butter, yogurt and a whole host of other food and paper good products.  If you come across any box tops as you are discarding or recycling packaging, Madeleine would be very happy to receive them from you and to take them to school again this year as the school collects them to be redeemed for educational supplies, school equipment, supplies, and playground equipment. Thanks!

A New Blog

  
Ken has officially retired his old blog and has begun anew with “Letting It Breathe.” I hope you’ll stop by and read his new offering of thoughtful reflections which begins with a post reminiscing on our meal at Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago on the night he defended (for PhD) and an explanation of the title.

Enjoy!

Another Tooth Gone

 
After a day of wiggling a very loose top tooth, Madeleine, exhausted finally gave up and went to bed.  Oh, she tried and tried to get it out, even enduring a little pain by twisting it sideways.  But to no avail, it would not budge and as you can clearly see below, it’s holding on by a tiny corner.  Heavens, you can even see the adult tooth right behind that baby tooth, pushing and pushing, but nope… 

 
it wouldn’t budge and she went to bed with the tooth just hanging.

 
What a surprise to wake up this morning with an empty space in her mouth.  The tooth had fallen out in the middle of the night.  At first, she couldn’t find it and feared that she may have swallowed it.  But with Daddy’s help she found it tucked up in the dena.

Here’s a closer look…make that a MUCH closer look at the adult tooth that’s already descending.  From the looks of it she has other top teeth ready to go.

Hmmmm, I wonder if the tooth fairy will stop in the valley tonight?

The Art of Paris

Madeleine had a 4 day class at a local art studio in which they painted ‘Paris.’  Here finished works are below. 

The Eiffel Tower

Paris landscape

 
Cafe au lait

You can see she had a fabulous time.  They are now hanging in her bedroom.

Armadillos Finish the Year with a 5-0 Win

 
During the last game of the season, Madeleine’s team cleaned house with a 5-0 win.  The kids played a great game with much hard work, and a good team effort.  Madeleine had some super kicks herself, and assisted on one of the goals.  She also played ‘striker’ in the second half.

The team also received their trophies today for which Madeleine was very excited.

 

“Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for coming to all my games,” says Madeleine.

 
The Champions League U-7 trophy.

Gregory’s Confirmation 05 23 10

I remember the day that Gregory was baptized.  We lived in Midland, Michigan and Gregory, who was then 4 months old, was baptized by Bishop Hanson on April 14, 1996.  We had a beautiful morning and then a nice dinner at home afterward with close family and friends.  Fourteen years later, here we are in Edinburg and I was the one who led the liturgy for his confirmation (which was kinda’ neat – though my most important role is Mom). We had a lovely, worshipful Pentecost liturgy and Gregory and his two classmates (Cody and Albert) affirmed their faith.  After a reception at church (that grandma put together so nicely… thanks!) we had a dinner of family and friends at our house. 

We are very proud of our son!  He’s a great kid, a neat person to talk to, an intelligent and caring individual.  We look forward to all that is ahead for him.