Well, what do you know: oreos and peanut butter!

Paul was such a good sport when I was making this pie for his Daddy today.

25 oreos went into the food processor and became like dirt.  You can see Paul in the background there, trapped in his pack and play.  All he really wanted to do was crawl and climb and walk but the making of this pie took all but 10 minutes at most!  It’s that easy!

This is not of the low fat, low cal deal as you can see.  (Be not afraid of the butter there, I only used half of the stick.)

Crumbly-chocolatey oreo crust with rich decadent creamy filling of peanut butter, whipped cream, cream cheese, and confectioner’s sugar.  I know my man will be so pleased he’s getting this for his birthday.  I know because he’s been asking for it since I made this the first time I saw the recipe, which was probably two months ago.  It’s that rich I decided to make it only on special occassions such as today when all stops are pulled.

To celebrate his birthday, we went to Outback.

Paul, being snobbish. Can't blame him...there were a lot more interesting things to look at than the camera.

We originally planned to grill steak from Sam’s at home and make all the fixins for the sides ourselves but we decided to head out to Outback and enjoy being waited on.  It had been ages since we last ate out – nothing like a little boy to keep us homebound, not to mention our resolve to eat in, not out, and spend less, not more.  We figured that the cost of buying a pack of steak at Sam’s would cost about the same as a dinner at Outback.  (The steak they sell there are really good, though!  We tried it at our family reunion in the Smokies in July.)

When we got to Outback, we were seated on a booth with a TV overhead and Paul was just intently watching closely the goings on on the screen.

He hasn’t seen a moving screen for awhile since our No-TV-Month commenced on August 13th.  Pre-season football was on tonight and it sure spiked both Steve and my football fever another notch.  Believe it or not, I am looking forward to football in the Fall!  *Gasp*

Anyway, Paul was a good boy through it all.  He randomly waved at people and I think he just discovered that people do respond when he does that.  He loved the attention at times and at other times was not so sure what to make of it.

We feasted on their delicious bread and that delightful grease-laden thing called bloomin’ onion.

Meanwhile, Paul chewed on at least three coasters and they each ended up looking somewhat like this:

For whatever reason, he shook his head side to side, quite indignantly, each time I brought the spoon of butternut squash to his mouth.  Must be the coasters filled him up good.  Ha!  He did eat a few cheerios off his tray.

Right as we were about done with dinner, he was ready to get out of his chair and he ended up seating next to his Daddy while I finished off my plate.

He is so stinkin cute, isn’t he?

Boy!  He really fancied those coasters!

Steve got to enjoy a piece of his chocolate peanut butter pie when we got home.  Unfortunately for me and this post, my camera’s battery ran out of juice so I don’t have anymore photos to add.  But I can tell you that he was grateful and delighted that his wife made him a pie with both oreos and peanut butter in it.

Let me share one oreo-related birthday story before I close.  It was year 2007 when Steve’s folks were back in the country for their summer furlough from the Philippines.  They came to visit us in Chicago and spent Steve’s birthday with us.  In January of 2006, Steve and I brought a team of worship leaders from the church in Chicago to the church in Baguio, Philippines where his parents are involved in for a short-term missions trip.  That team made wonderful connections with my in-laws and they looked forward to seeing them again.  That happend in August of 2007.

Around the same time, our good friend, Ingmari, was going through a hard time in that her husband, Rick, had just been hospitalized unexpectedly and he was fighting for his life.  She and my mother-in-law really connected during the short stay we had in the Philippines.  Ingmari was so excited to see them that she graciously offered her house as a gathering place for Steve’s birthday.  I don’t remember much of the food but what I do remember was an evening of non-stop laughter, it was almost painful.  I kid you not; we laughed our guts out ’til tears came out the eyes for probably a good four hours.  Four hours.  It was a madhouse.

One of the highlights of the night was Steve’s gifts: he got what seemed like a lifetime supply of oreo cookies.  Not really, but close.  Our friends, by this time, knew that he LOVES oreos.  One of the packs/gifts given him was from Shirley, our crazy wicked friend; wicked in that her sense of humor is…well, wicked.  Practical jokers they’re called and she’s one of them.

Steve got two packs of oreo cookies from Shirley that night.  He’s that special, he got two packs!  He opened the first one which bared what looked like licked pieces of cookies.  None of the pieces were together, they were all taken apart with very little cream filling left on them!  Shirley really did a good job “licking” them.  She went on to say that her husband saw her scraping the cream filling out of each piece of oreos and he thought her crazy.  Well, she is, and I love her dearly!  Needless to say, the second pack of oreos weren’t lick, they were in pristine cookie sandwich form as they should be.  The “licked” oreos?  They were much more fun to eat…and we ate it all.  I should say, Stephen ate them all.

That was one fine night…even Steve said tonight as we were reminiscing that it definitely is one of the more memorable birthdays he’s had.  Laughter does something to the soul.  That night, it made me appreciate the beauty in the friendships formed with each one in that room.

So…to my wonderful husband of seven years and best friend of eight years and counting, happy birthday!  Here’s to many many many more years of making memories.  I love you!  I’m sure if the little tyke can talk he’d say he loves you too.  But you know that he does, just by the bright sweet smile on his face when he sees you walking in the door when you come home from work.  We love you, Stephen Paul Ballast!

I am not an environmentalist junkie; however, I am all for saving money where possible.

A month ago, Paul and I were visiting with a friend at her house when the subject of line drying and laundry came up.  Apparently, summer time is when most households in their neighborhood pay up to $300 in electricty!  I believe it!  Air conditioning a house is a huge expense in the Summer.  Add to that the use of the dryer for every load of laundry and anything else that plugs into electrical outlets and you have yourself a hefty electric bill at the end of the month.

My friend went on to say that to help keep the electric cost a little lower than most, she uses a good old line dryer in her backyard.  She showed the contraption that she uses and it sure is a good sized one.

I don’t have one like it because it would cost money to purchase one.  But, Steve and I, just today, have come up with a plan to “create” a “collapsible” kind of line dry in our deck.  See, there is a line in our homeowners’ association that says, in effect, that line drying is not allowed.  But my common sense tells me to use the sun’s power to dry clothes!  I always thought, since moving down here, that Knoxville sun is strong, man.  It burns!  It’s such a waste (and a shame) to not use it.

Well, since we don’t have the line dry plan in place yet, I got a little creative in the meantime and came up with this today (I’ve actually been doing this all week already but just to show you my creative genius, ha!):

towels on a laundry basket and on a picnic chair

some more towels hanging over another picnic chair

the inside of our utility room on laundry day

trusty handy clothespins

My towels dried in no time!  Seriously, this week I did not have to use the dryer for four loads of laundry.  Each time I went out to collect my sun-dried laundry, I felt all happy inside.  Ya, I’m not that hard to please!  I can’t wait to show you our soon-to-be-in-place Ballast line dry.  And I do hope we won’t get in trouble for trying to use the free energy of the sun to dry our laundry!

How about you…do you use a line dry?  How long?  Tell me about your ways of saving electricity.  Drop a comment in the comment section.

I was all nerves.  There must have been literally 10,000 people swarming O’Hare that day.  I was sooooo excited to meet my new husband!  It had only been a week since we last saw each other, parting from the Peninsula Hotel in Makati, each on our way to our respective transportation lines without any idea when we were going to see each other again.  We had just been together all week for our honeymoon after our wedding celebrations on June 15 in Baguio.  He was headed back to the States and I was headed back to Baguio.  I remember that day as a sad sad day!

Not knowing when my visa was coming in the mail, I quickly decided to go home to Bontoc for a couple days with my family.  Three days into my stay there, I received a call from my mother-in-law saying that my visa arrived in their mail that day and that she had been talking with Steve about procuring a ticket for me for a Friday flight, June 28.  As Providence had planned, my in-laws were scheduled for a flight that same day to the States for their furlough.  My MIL suggested that I immediately hop on the next bus to Baguio because I will be traveling to Manila with them that Thursday.  Wow!  Talk about a God-thing ha?

Friday afternoon, exactly one week from the day Steve and I said goodbye, I was at O’Hare about to see him again!  And there he was at the waiting area with a big boquet of flowers in his hands and the biggest smile I have ever seen on his face!  It was a beautiful day, that day.  June 28, 2002.

In our excitement, neither one of us remembered to take pictures at the airport.  But that’s okay.  Because I will always carry that day, June 28, 2002, as a photo memory in itself.

Daddy's having a serious talk with the little one and look how attentive Paul is!

We hiked a trail at Cades Cove in the Smokies sometime in May.  Here are the two boys taking a break: breathing in the mountain air and taking in the sights.

Paul's first hike

Did I say these are the two most beautiful people I’ve ever taken pictures of?

You're both so handsome!

Here’s an experiment on lighting:

Blue...subdued...

They were hanging out on the bar…

yellow...warm...

…watching me cook…

contrast...my fave...

…and take pictures of the two most beautiful people I have ever taken pictures of!

Dad at Burnham Park

Paul Robert at 5 months

One of the things I miss most about my Dad was him at the guitar.  When he gets his hand on one, he could spend a whole day playing and singing John Denver, Beatles, Jim Croce, Peter Paul and Mary, and anything rock folksy.  As the night falls and he pops open a San Miguel Beer or Gin, and he gets a little tipsy, the guitar playing gets better.  As the night deepens and he’s all out drunk, his guitar playing is even much better but his singing is terrible!  I only wish I recorded some of his singing!

Dad and his guitar

Happy Father’s Day to you, Dad, the best a girl like me could ever have!  I love you!

Dad, me, and Steve (December 2001)

Dad and I (1995)

How about you?  Can you name one special moment, among many, that you have with your Dad?

Man: So, do you have an email address?

Woman: Nyaaaa…

Man: How often do you use it?

Woman: Well, I mainly use it to communicate with my Mom.  About once a week.

Man: Can I have it?

Woman: Sure!

*****************
Date: July 25, 2001

Hello Maricel,
Its 3:00am here and I can’t sleep anymore because of Jet-lag, so I decided to do something instead just lay in bed awake.  My flights were ok, but very long as usual…

*****************
Date: July 27, 2001

Hello,
How was your recording?…
My jetlag is doing much better…

******************
Date: August 1, 2001
(Thought of the Day was a quote from Erma Bombeck)

******************
Date: August 3, 2001

Hey Mariciel,
Here are some more pictures of me at my apartment.
Later,
Stephen

******************
Date: August 5, 2001

Hi Ciel,
I also had a very refreshing Sunday.  Our pastor had a sermon from Hebrews…

**********************
Date: September 2, 200

Hello Honey…

**********************

Whoaa!!  Was that fast or what??!!  My man knew what, or more appropriately, who he wanted.

Steve flew back to the Philippines for two weeks at the end of August and we had spent every single day together, even for just an hour.  I was still going to school at the time but my mind was elsewhere.  Oh, and I felt like I was walking two feet above the ground all the time!  I flunked my Algebra at the end of this term.  For the second time.  So you can’t entirely fault our two-week dating for that. harharhar!!

I would add my side of the emails too, if I could, but unfortunately, Steve’s hotmail account, which had all my emails, was shut down by hotmail for some reason and it was unretrievable.  He did not have any back-up of them.  I sobbed when I heard this!  No, not really, but I was sad.

So…how about a once-a-week email checker to an almost daily client at the internet cafe?  In Steve’s own words:

“I knew she was interested in me when she wasn’t just emailing me once a week but almost every other day.”

Yea, I’ve heard him joke about this many many times and each time I relish our sweet and tender night at Cafe by the Ruins. Oh, and I also thank the person(s) who invented the internet.

Happy 7th Anniversary, Babe!  I’ve loved every single day of our life together so far and I’m looking forward to more years…and more children.  (Did I just say more children?!!  Hmm…I must be getting better sleep at night these days!)

June 15, 2002

p.s. Can you guess who wrote the first email?

Somewhere in the service, Brian, Steve and my boss who is also the Worship Pastor, called us onstage to pray for us.  Literally, my whole body was shaking and the floodgates of tears opened even Noah’s ark would not have survived it.  He prayed from Psalm 20:1-5.  I heard long pauses and a quiver in his voice.  I felt Steve’s clasp on my hand get tighter and tighter.  It was a moment frozen in my mind as touching, beautiful, bittersweet, and sad all at once.  Once in a while, my baby would kick me in the gut.  He brought smiles in my heart that morning amidst my heavy feelings of sadness.

Psalm 20:1-5
A Prayer of Blessing for the family of Stephen & Mariciel Ballast
September 28, 2008

We pray that the Lord will listen when you are in trouble, and that the God of Jacob will keep you safe.  May the Lord send help from his temple and come to your rescue from Mt. Zion.  May He remember your gifts, and be pleased with what you bring.  May God do what you want most, and let all go well with you.  Then you will win victories, and we will celebrate, while raising our banners in the name of our God.  May the LORD answer all of your prayers!

That night, I reflected on the day.  Some say that leaving is easier than being left behind.  This was an exception.  I had the hardest time saying goodbye, though I know there will be visits and emails and phone calls and facebook.  The hardest part, I thought, was leaving behind our “family,” our support system, in a time when we are about to receive our newest little member of our family.  Paul has been so loved from the very beginning and we won’t even be there when he debuts into this world to meet the wonderful aunts and uncles and grannies who had been praying for him from since he was in his mommy’s womb.  But God had other plans and that night, as reluctant as I was, I surrended.  Not with a sense of resignation but rather as with the words of Matt Redman’s song, “Lord, You give and take away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.”  There was no dramatic sudden peace in me but at least I had a better sleep.  Steve and I had a good cry that night.  We both knew that new adventures await us and the overwhelming sadness we felt will pass.

Thanks, Ingmari, for letting us stay in your house while we were waiting to take off.  We love you and Rick!  Looking forward to sharing sushi with you again sometime!

photo by arrbarneydotcom

September came fast.  My body, especially my swelling feet, was feeling the weight of our move.  Each night I would roll in bed and feel like I had been through the wringer.  I was supposed to be on light bed rest but there was work to be done.

Finally it was moving day!  Yeay!  We wouldn’t have done it without these guys:

Brian and Karen
Michael
Florin
Galen and Carol
Nancy and her two boys
Lisa
Brian K.
Shirley
Ingmari

Salasalasalamat kasin!  (Again, thank you very very much!)

Living room full of packed stuff

Lunch break courtesy of Shirley and Ingmari's delicious cooking

On our loading day, I was feeling rather energetic.  The little boy inside of me was such a trooper.  Steve and our company that day made sure I did not even lift a finger.  Boy!  They were good at letting me not do anything!  And I was ever grateful for their concern.

Believe it or not, after that day’s grueling work, Steve and I and a few others from our company that morning went to see a movie and had dinner that night.  What were we thinking?!!  I don’t remember the movie now but I do remember having a great time.  Sadly, with each minute that night, my mind cannot escape the fact that that was our last movie together, at least for awhile.  By the way, we all had to wake up early the next day for church!  My little bun kept kicking me that night.  And I didn’t even have peppermint mocha!  (Side note: this Starbucks concoction keeps me up until early mornings even if I was in bed with closed eyes pretending to sleep…I’ve given it up since getting pregnant and I’ve only had it once since Paul was born.)  I think the little bun inside was elated that the hard work was over.  For now anyways…

there goes all our material possession (just half of that truck, actually!)

(to be continued…)

photo by arrbarneydotcom

Wow!  Do I have a lot of people to thank or what!?  On Saturday, Paul will turn six months.  Six.  Months.  Just like that…a quick snap of a finger.  Here’s a look back at his journey so far.

Paul at 16 weeks

Paul was conceived in the land of Lincoln.  I will spare you the details…I’m sure you’re not the least bit interested in that.  But I will tell you this – it was Springtime when we found out we were pregnant.  Spring – when all the blooms are just coming out, the buds just breaking out.  It’s a beautiful time of the year, always bringing hope for warmth in wintry Chicago  I remember thinking that I will never look at a bud the same way again for in that season, a bud, a very special bud, a new life, was being formed in me.

Real life sets in.  In July we knew we were moving to Knoxville.  I was not barfing a lot, in fact, I only thew up twice my whole pregnancy, but I was very tired.  I mean, V-E-R-Y tired.  Thankfully, I had the best boss in the world who was so understanding when I would take a 2-hour break and nap on the couch in the tech office.  Mind you, I worked hard too.  I didn’t particularly like mornings when I’ve just arrived at the parking lot, ready to face the day, when all of a sudden, I had to bolt to the tech office and sleep all morning until noon.  I did say I worked hard, right?

October was coming too soon…we had boxes to pack, countless doctor’s visits to go to, phone calls to make.  And we had to tie up loose ends at work.  In the midst of this unbelievable frenzy, our friends and colleagues had planned baby showers and farewell parties for us.  Each one was fun…and bittersweet.  We will always remember your generous hearts.  Thank you North Suburban Staff and Worship & Arts Ministry leaders and volunteers!!  We felt loved, cared for, prayed for, and loved, loved, loved.

(to be continued…)