Due June 30, Stephanie surprised us by arriving mid-May, before we’d exhausted the baby-name books searching for the perfect description. But the official hospital person arrived to record the legal information and we named her. Her middle name is for the beautiful, delightful spring month in which this bassinet-full-of-joy came to us, turning life upside down in happiness. {Perfect.}
Stormie Dae
Stormie in Taiwan
Very long story, the shortened version of which is, “Stormie” was a done-deal, but Stormie also happened to arrive during a freak ice-storm/snow- blizzard in Iowa following such sunny and lovely days, her siblings had already been splashing in their wading pool. Dae seemed a natural variation to the stormie day she was born. A {Dae} to remember.
They now blog.
Stephanie and Stormie are known for being very creative, intuitive, resourceful and savvy. Today they have the launched MayDae the blog, with more exciting pursuits to follow. You will L O V E it!!!! Happiness.
1982 when I was pregnant with Stephanie. I’d never had more than a cheeseburger and small fry at a fast food, but Dave insisted I try it and I LOVED it! I actually got addicted to them. Now I just get Whopper Juniors, but, mmmm…charbroiled!
First Big Mac
NEVER! Two-all-beef-patties-special-sauce-lettuce-cheese-pickles-onions-on-a-sesame-seed-bun? It’s the onions. I cannot take them, plus McDonalds? Ick. And-I consider this the one thing that makes me unique in any way. I have never had a Big Mac. And I never shall.
First full sentence
“I’m gonna go to church!”
I don’t say that nearly as much now – to the great concern of my grandchildren who have asked their parents, “Why doesn’t Nonna go to church?” And to the amusement of Rocky and Tristan who said to me a few weeks ago when I arrived on a Sunday morning, “Good to see you here. This is the result of a lot of people praying.” Yuk-it-up, boys.
Once a church girl, always a church girl. No worries, people.
First plane trip.
I was a senior in high school. I went back to Louisiana after our family had moved to Gary, Indiana because my HS credits didn’t transfer correctly and they were going to make me go all year long. So I finished up back in Hammond. I hung out with Cheryl Bardwell. And Ginger. I met a guy I almost ended up marrying (breaking it off 3 weeks before the wedding is “almost” right?) and I had my first taste of living far away from Ross-the-Boss, Mrs-Moss and the-rest-of-the-Little-Landers. I worked at The Sonic Drive-In for 1 day and finished high school.
First poem I ever wrote
I love my daddy
I want my daddy
I go to see my daddy
He picks me up to love.
~by me at barely 4. It was my first and probably my best. Ever.
First shoes with heels
3rd grade. I started young. They were 1 1/4″ high, navy blue with a cute bow. The first of many. I do not love all shoes like some women, but when I love them, when I have formed the strong emotional connection, they will forever remain in my heart. I will know where I was was when I got them, what the occasion was for looking and the special places they carried me. Oh, yes, I will.
First…(you may not want to know)
Ok, disclaimer. If you are easily embarrassed, don’t read this girly fact. My first period (as in menstrual, not high school schedule) started on David Cassidy’s21st birthday.
First speeding ticket
2 1/2 years ago. I said to him, “Seriously? I am 47 years old and I have never had a ticket!” very decidedly implying he was not going to get away with giving me one because of my very clean record.
The officer very coolly replied, “Only Jesus was perfect.” How did he know that was the one thing I wouldn’t argue with? I still totally disagree that I was going 32 mph over the speed limit. Totally. Disagree.
First job
Working at the church day care center watching pre-schoolers. Unless you count babysitting church people’s kids as a young teen. Which really wasn’t much more money than I’d made gathering sparkly rocks from a shared alley and selling them to my neighbors for candy money when I was 7. So that was it, I guess. Selling rocks.
First movie in a theater
“Gone With the Wind.” I got in so much trouble. It was a school trip tied in with our Civil War series in Social Studies. And I wasn’t allowed to attend movies (church rules, you know), but I did and doggone it if a man from church didn’t see me and tell my dad. Big trouble. But I don’t regret going now. I so appreciate the accuracy with which the Civil War was depicted, the raw and realistic portrayals of Rhett and Scarlet and how I still look at nice drapes for the amazing outfit I might be able to get out of them. Yes, I attribute my above-average resourcefulness to “Gone with the Wind.”
First kiss
Jimmy Green behind the North Pine Church of God in Davenport, Iowa. 1972. And for you inquiring minds? I kissed him. He didn’t know what hit him.
First time in the mountains
I was 11. My parents, my 4 siblings, my aunt and uncle and my 6 cousins and I drove from eastern Iowa to Colorado and camped in the cold Rocky Mountains. There were flower children and hippies everywhere and I loved it. The flower children and hippies are still here getting their Rocky Mountain high, but they are very old now.
First time in the ocean
Spring 1977. My dad let us skip school and we drove to Gulfport, Mississippi (Let your love flow…was playing on the radio) where I remember beautiful white sandy beaches and an ape that spat on my sister in some gas station animal viewing place. Good times. And yes, the Gulf counts – it is still part of the Atlantic.
The First Time Ever I Saw His Face
August 1978 when I first went to Northwest Bible College. I met him by the fountain and he was very shy and I liked to tease him about the girls he liked so I could see his dimples. Though we wrote friendly letters for a couple of years, he didn’t officially ask me out until May 26, 1981. It took him awhile. But we got married less than 2 months after the first date, following the Biblical admonition that it is better to marry than to burn.
First blog post
November 29, 2006. It was so scary. I was afraid to hit the post button. I was afraid to say anything because some one might actually see it. But after about 4 or 5 months, the graphomaniacal tiger in me had been released, never to be recaptured. And on it goes. Everything and waaaaaaay more than you can possibly believe is Mod-Podged onto the collage that is my thought collection.
“It’s a cake day” definitely does NOT have the same meaning for me as it does for most people. “Cake day” for me means I am doing a special-events-celebratory-by-request-decorated cake. Each one of these has the potential for great disaster. Never more than this one I will be attempting today and tomorrow. I have researched similiar cakes to this (diaper-cake) design, requested by my beautiful Jovan. I have found 57 photos. 3 are cute. ONLY THREE! The rest are hilarious disasters. {shaking my head} We shall see…But for Jovanie (who once talked me into a Barbie cake!!??…see below)? Anything!
I am playing my Three Dog Night’s Greatest Hits on the turntable – yes! NOT an MP3, an actual old-fashioned LP record – VINYL, people! Good times! The slight scratchiness adds to the experience.
Did Paul Williams (who had sort of a froggy-puppet look) write good lyrics or what?
Just an old-fashioned love song playin’ on the radio
And wrapped around the music is the sound
Of someone promising they’ll never go
You swear you’ve heard it before
As it slowly rambles on and on
No need in bringin’ `em back,
`Cause they’re never really gone
Just an old-fashioned love song
One I’m sure they wrote for you and me
Just an old-fashioned love song
Comin’ down in 3-part harmony
To weave our dreams upon and listen to each evening
When the lights are low
To underscore our love affair
With tenderness and feeling that we’ve come to know
You swear you’ve heard it before
As it slowly rambles on and on and
No need in bringin’ `em back,
`Cause they’re never really gone
It is a brilliantly sunny day and just as I was about to toss some onions from the produce drawer (the last of 2009’s onion bounty from my own garden) because they are starting to sprout, I realized it is not too early to go push them into the garden soil where they will grow for this year! Happy! Happy! Happy! Almost made me forget I can’t breathe and my throat hurts and (after 2 weeks of this) I have to go to the doctor’s office later.
It is quite the spread! Dave did an interview last week with Blade feature-writer, Christine Hollister, and said they visited extensively about our kids and family, but still, the article is quite a surprise. Especially the fact that the reporter actually read several of my blog posts and QUOTED me – yes from this very blog you are reading! Ha! I am smiling a little! Very fun day!
sneak peek on the front page and an up-close mentioning this blog, o yea!
More performances of Annie this weekend: Friday night, Saturday matinee and Saturday night. $7 at the door. You can find out all the details at www.prairieplayhouse.com
page 4 and the finish on page 16
The article is just so nice and depicts Dave and all of us, really, in such a flattering light. They even mentioned the “Heavenfest concerts.” {smile} We are so honored.
Even the dog gets a write-up and a WHOLE PAGE – wow!
Do I love the scents I love because they all smell simply and divinely wonderful? Well, I think they do. But I am also open to the idea that maybe I am associating them with pleasant emotions or people and places that dance in my brain, remembrances in my heart of good times, sacred moments and my best life. The things that smell good and take you back or cause a strong emotional response are worth investigating. And seeking out.
Lists.
I decided to just let mine out in whatever order they chose to emerge. And I have turned it into a LIST. Because I L-O-V-E lists! And so I not only made this list, I started a new blog category of lists. There will be more. Meanwhile, in compiling this one, I think I have made some discovery about why I love certain smells that not everyone would agree with. What are your best smells, aromas and scents and where did they come from? What do they make you feel or remember? Here are mine…
Mmmm…39 things that smell so good
a cleansing rain
Johnson’s Baby Oil – Remember the 1970s, when we used to fry our skin with Baby Oil under the bright sun? Good times.
a honeysuckle vine
wild heirloom roses (before they sucked all the scent out by propagating roses to bloom at command and look perfect at all times)
roast beef slow cooking in the oven with garlic and onions and carrots and potatoes
fresh ground coffee brewing
homemade cinnamon rolls (my grandpa owned a bakery you know…I can bake, if I have to)
fall leaves rustling on a crisp autumn day
Bibles
paste, the kind that also seemed tasty in 1st grade
Rubber Cement
new car tires (it all started in Western Auto when I was 4…I have never gotten enough of this)
a freshly fertilized farm field
a wet bale of straw in my suburban backyard so I can pretend I am on a farm
black, rich soil on a hot day
onions being sauteed
that moment, those few seconds right after a smoker lights up – before it actually turns into disgusting cigarette smoke
grass in the morning or freshly cut in late afternoon
lemons (a bowl of lemons to me is like a bouquet of flowers to most women)
toast
clean sheets
a newborn baby
a newborn puppy
a new car interior
a fruiting tomato plant
almond extract (the secret to my amazing buttercream)
gasoline…LOVE inhaling at the pump
a brand new box of 64 Crayola Crayons
freshly sharpened No. 2 pencils
popcorn-just popped!
steak on the grill
Love Spell from Victoria’s Secret
leather – like if some one is wearing a really nice leather coat, don’t you just want to touch it to help release the scent? And if it is soft leather, are you not tempted to bury your face in it, social norms be darned??
cedar fence planks at a home improvement store in the spring
really any lumber at the home improvement stores
lilacs, oh lilacs…I had a home surrounded by many lilac bushes and would fill the house with 10 or 12 huge bouquets and the lace curtains would blow in the same breeze that fanned the perfume of the lavendar flora…intoxicating…lilacs, how I miss you…
a campfire – burning wood is so earthy, so sensual
a handful of cilantro leaves, or basil leaves…or rosemary needles, crushed between my fingers (I bury my nose in this!)
Candi is this graceful, elegant, highly intellectual, runs-marathons kind-of-woman She is an extremely organized, highly-respected and amazing early-thirty-something woman. She can crunch numbers and run a business, plus has 2 totally cute and caring children. I mean she is grace. She is poised and thoughtful and admirable on so many levels I can’t even tell you. But she is also a major prankster who gets away with it because it is so unexpected of her. And really, when a camera comes out? She is never straight. She is always being silly.
That is why I am giggling nervously here and my tongue is hanging out. Because I am expecting Candi to do something outrageous any second and make me look ridiculous. {TRICKED AGAIN!} She didn’t. But I am always wary around her – that sly Candi!
See? Here is proof. She can be ornery!
Pictured: Mexi-can or Mexi-can’t? Mexi-CAN! Candi’s {first} plate of food at the HF Leadership Mexican Food Extravaganza Sunday night! This is what you are missing if you are not joining the Heaven Fest leadership team. You know resistance is futile, don’t you?
We hug and eat and laugh and eat and pray and hear what God is doing and eat some more and visit and get caught up and our vision is renewed and we get ready to run with the plans and the Heaven Fest people? This is family! Wanna join?? Let me know!
The Martin Luther quote? Yikes. This could not be worse news.
Hair cut this week. Actually left the shop pretty OK with it. Unusual… Ready to color, early before meetings. Reeeeeally didn’t feel like going to Sally’s to buy the dye. Look under the sink and find a red I hadn’t used in some time. What a happy surprise. I don’t even remember having this! L’Oreal’s Mega-Reds, Intense Copper Red. It is almost, but not quite full.
Bingo! There’s enough. I’ll use it. No muss, no fuss.
While mixing with the developer, it seems odd. But I proceed. I plaster, cover, go about my business.
Time to rinse. The water runs off looking reddish enough, but not all that intense. I pay no attention. I wrap my head in a towel and gather things I’ll need for the office.
Time to blow dry. Hmmm…does look intense, after all…dark. I am humming, not bothering to look into a mirror as I dry, until the end. Suddenly, my very own Brady-bunch-type-hair-dye-crazy-disaster-sit-com-moment.
What the…?? It is reddish brown in spots, grayish brown in others, dark brown in some and almost black in parts. It is NOT. what. I. was. expecting. Not at all.
Should have looked like this, all over:
Instead:
It really is worse than you can tell here. Hard-to-believe, but true.
As I shrieked, “What on earth?!?” Guini assurred me: “It’s OK, Nonna. It’s gonna be alright.” And it will…unless I am seen in broad daylight. In a dark room, sure. Fine.
Dave says he likes it, shrugs it off and tells me this is what happens with so many daughters running a hair chemistry lab around here all the time (and they all claim total innocence and say it was probably expired and my own fault).
{sigh} I will have to find a way to fix it so all of my “richest ornament” does not fall out. Or I can become very nocturnal.
The scraggly family mutt who was abandoned at the landfill years ago to run wild and fear her own shadow, the trembling pile of fur we drug home, intent on saving whether she wanted us or not, and named “Sandy” after the dog from the Broadway play and the 1982 movie, “Annie,” has come full circle.
Yes. Sandy-the-Dog played Sandy-the-Dog in Prairie Playhouse’s production of “Annie,” at tonight’s OPENING NIGHT!!! What frolic or mayhem could have occurred did not. Though I feared the worst, Sandy’s performance was flawless. She did it! She stayed close to “Annie,” she obeyed the commands to “sit” and “stay” until beckoned by Annie. Sandy was amazing.
Dave was, too! It is a GREAT show!
I wonder if my two stage stars will be hard to live with now?
Brighton’s own Broadway {off, off, off, off, off, off Broadway, anyway…}
It starts tonight! 10 performances over the next month where Dave will play Daddy Warbucks and Sandy-the-family-dog will play her actual Annie-inspired namesake, Sandy-the-dog, onstage. Dave auditioned in October for this role and it has finally arrived. It is going to be so cool! I can’t wait! Besdies my husband and my dog, my antique desk and chair will be onstage, my Christmas tree, a certain piece of illegal weaponry and various other props will make an appearance, compliments of our house. Yet, I still have to pay to get in. {shaking my head} I mean, who do you have to sleep with to get a free ticket around here???
Rhoades Family Trivia~
Q: How many times did the Rhoades kids watch the “Annie” movie during their growing up years?
A: 8362 times. Minimum. Every cassette or videotaped recording of our kids at anytime between 1984 and 2007 include, at some point, some rendition of some song or another from the musical “Annie.” True story.
Note to the Rhoades-kids originals:
Watch the first scene with little orphan Annie. Hear her words and feel her heart and you will understand a little something more about your own dad’s story as a kid who was adopted.
Steph with special effects by Stormie
Stormie in Taiwan
