Very Far behind....Ben's birthday

Way back in April we celebrated Ben's fourth birthday.  We began our celebrations early by taking Ben to our local bike store where we have purchased several bikes for the family and let Ben pick out a new "big boy bike."  He had a glide bike for the several months before and had learned to balance very well.  We decided to go with the logic that to learn to ride a bike you need to learn balance rather than how to pedal and asked the guys at the bike shop to assemble his new bike without the training wheels.  A couple days after ordering it we got a phone call that the bike was ready to be picked up.  Unfortunately, the day the bike was ready we were experiencing a spring snow storm so when we brought the bike home in the morning we had to park it in the garage and wait for the driveway to melt off.  By the afternoon all was well and we bundled up and went out to try the bike....success!  Ben needed a little help getting settled on the seat but as soon as I let go he was off!!!  Riding a two-wheeled bike before his 4th birthday was such a big deal for Ben!!

Ben's actual birthday, April 28th, was a Wednesday so Ben got to be the birthday boy at preschool and share blueberry muffins with his class for snack.  We also were lucky to have our neighbors in town from southern California so we all went out to dinner at Ben's favorite pizzeria here in town.  He asked to have a vanilla-strawberry cake so we whipped one up for him.  Though it was late April it is Tahoe afterall and when we emerged after dinner we found our cars buried under at least 8 inches of fresh snow. 

A few days later we had four of his buddies over for a Lego-themed birthday party.  My only comment to that is that six little boys ages 2 to 4 in our condo was a challenge!  They were all very well-behaved but it was just SO MUCH ENERGY!!!  I made another cake for Ben and experienced some slight issues upon icing it when the waxed paper I had put under the edges of the cake on my cake stand stuck and pulled out a huge chunk of cake.  A little extra frosting and everything was patched up.  And as Brian put it, they're four-year old boys....it's cake, they won't notice.  Everyone had a great time and Ben was thrilled with all of the fun.

Blood Brothers

This time of year has always been busy for me.  It used to be the wrap-up of a long year of teaching, now it's the big push for fund-raising in my non-profit work.  This week alone I have three meetings in three days (all focused on a charity golf tournament which I am helping to head), tennis lessons for Ben, my summer softball league is kicking off with our first game, I am preparing for a large catering job through my business, and we are planning for Grandma and Grandpa to come visit for a week.

Last night I had my first of the three meetings so after dinner Brian and the boys walked me over to TCF where I was meeting the rest of the board to take care of business.  I kissed the boys goodnight as I wouldn't be home in time to tuck them in and went on my way.  Their plan was to check the mail then take an evening walk before going home for bedtime.

When my meeting wrapped up I headed home and was careful not to make any unneccessary noise and disturb the boys.  After I closed the front door I noticed that Brian had a rather sheepish look on his face.  I asked him how everything went with bedtime.  He motioned toward a pile of dirty clothes on the floor and I saw it....Ben's t-shirt covered in blood.  I gasped and asked what had happened.  Brian assured me that everyone was okay but it was Sam not Ben who was hurt. 

The basic story is that Brian and the boys took their walk in the quiet neighborhoods near us and were crossing the street to the much-traveled path on Lakeshore Blvd. when Sam apparently tripped.  He hit his nose squarely on the ground and when he stood up he was crying and the blood began to flow.  There was so much blood that Brian's hand was filling with blood as he tried to pinch off Sam's nose to slow the flow.  Brian said he literally had handfuls of blood that he was flinging on the ground.  There was so much blood that Brian couldn't tell where it was all coming from, just Sam's nose or his mouth too.  Brian frantically looked around for anything to use to sop up the blood and calmly told Ben that he needed his shirt.  Ben obediently took off his outer sweatshirt and offered it to Brian asking, "This, Dad?"  Brian replied, "No, your t-shirt," which Ben removed and handed to Brian who then put it over Sam's nose and mouth.  Ben put his sweatshirt back on and had to hold it closed around his naked belly as the zipper was broken.  Brian said they were quite a scene walking home....Ben clutching his sweatshirt around his body, Brian carrying Sam who had a bloody shirt over his face.

Brian said everyone actually stayed very calm.  Sam didn't cry for long, Ben didn't get upset, and they were all able to get home and get Sam put back together.  The one thing that I find irksome is that Brian said as many as four people passed them on the walk home and none inquired into the bloody scene.  Ben wasn't even upset when Brian told him his shirt, "May not make it."

Once Brian and the boys were home Brian could see that in addition to the bloody nose Sam also has a scrape below his nose and had a cut inside his lip, presumably from his teeth. When I checked on him later on I could see the scrape and could see that his top lip was swollen. When he woke up this morning he and Ben both told me the whole story and Sam assured me that he was okay.

The aftermath.

Sam no worse for wear.

Catching Up

It has been quite a while since I've taken the time to sit down and fill the world in on the Browder family happenings.  This will most likely be the first of several posts to catch up.  I am also not going to promise to tell about events in chronological order so bear with me.  Here it goes....

Back in early May we were happy to welcome Brian's parents, Dave and Sarah (Teddy and Nan) for a long weekend in Tahoe.  It also happened to be Mother's Day weekend.  From the moment Sarah arrived at the Reno Airport on Thursday, May 6th, the fun began.  Because it was a Thursday I was in the Meals By Maggie kitchen making my weekly dinner so we had our amazing sitter, Mary, drive over the mountain with the boys to pick up Nan.  As soon as they arrived back in Incline the boys had Nan playing...riding bikes, digging the the dirt, reading books, and just wearing her out in general.  By the time Brian and I arrived home from work the boys were bubbling over with excitement after playing with Nan and Mary and taking a bath at the Hyatt where Nan was staying.

The next day Nan and I left Sam with one of our other favorite sitters, Jen, so Mommy and Nan could attend the Mother's Day Tea at Ben's preschool.  At the tea we were entertained by twenty little voices singing songs.  Later that afternoon we welcomed Dave after his brief visit in Modesto with Great-Grandpa before driving up the mountain for the rest of the weekend.  Later on in the day we were joined by Roger and Janet and all headed out to a great dinner at a local Italian restaurant owned by some of our friends.  We were joined at dinner by more friends, George and Irma, who own the home in Belize where we all stayed back in March.  It was the first meeting for Dave, Sarah, Janet and Roger with George and Irma.  We had a great time telling all of our stories about Belize and hearing more of George and Irma's, including how they met while George was in the Peace Corps in Belize.  After amazing food and good wine we parted ways for the evening with promises to George and Irma that we would be going to their home in Yo Creek again.

The rest of the weekend was fairly low key but included a lovely Mother's Day Bruch at Garwoods on the lake, all of us hanging out, cooking, eating, and reading the many new books Nan brought for the boys.  One book in particular called Moonshot tells the story of Apollo 11's first lunar landing.  What many adults would consider less than entertaining our boys found captivating!  In the weeks following Nan and Teddy's visit the boys have built their own space ships and have appropriately named them "Columbia" and "Eagle".

Ben's classroom decorated for the Mother's Day Tea.

Ben and Nan

Ben showing us his sunflower.

Ben Michael Collins piloting "Columbia"

Sam Neil Armstrong piloting "Eagle"

"Houston," Armstrong says, "Tranquility Base here.  The Eagle has landed."

Orbiting the moon.

Star Struck

John, Sue, Joanne Weir and I after our great class!

Pineapple Carpaccio with Prawn and Pepper Salad

Gaining inspiration from Joanne Weir.

Crunchy Cormeal and Tomato Galette

Syrian Bread Salad with Mint, Peppers and Tomatoes

A new use for Dad's smoked trout....Smoked Trout and Tequila Quesadillas with Summer Tomato Salsa

Chorizo Handpies

Risotto Croquettes with Mozzarella

Coco Loco Tequila Cupcakes

Cheers, Sue!

It doesn't often happen that a home cook/caterer gets a chance to mix it up in the kitchen with a REAL chef. And it is even more rare for that chef to be a James Beard Award-winning cookbook author too. But I did it!!!! I got to cook, talk, and have my cookbooks signed by Joanne Weir! I even have photos to prove it! Joanne (yes, I feel like I can call her by her first name) has written 17 cookbooks including the companion cookbook to her "Cooking Class" series, Wine Country Cooking, and her newest book Tequila.

On Friday, June 4th, Joanne was the guest chef at the Nothing To It Culinary Center in Reno where I attended her "Small Bites for Summer" class with my two friends, Sue and John. The evening was filled with Joanne's witty teaching style, great recipes, amazing food, good wine, and great company. The night was also sponsored by Le Creuset and each class member walked away with a new chef's pan. I took along one of Joanne's cookbooks I already had called From Tapas to Meze to have her sign and purchased another called You Say Tomato to use this summer for all of the wonderful tomatoes I expect to be receiving soon in our CSA Harvest boxes.
I have attended several classes at Nothing To It (www.nothingtoit.com) including classes on Crepes, Thai Cooking, and Crockpot Cooking, and I have always walked away with tons of enthusiasm about trying new recipes but the evening with Joanne Weir topped them all so far!

Epilogue

Brian and I boarded a flight from Cancun to Los Angeles on the afternoon of March 15th and arrived in Los Angeles with no difficulties.  There was a brief roar of complaints at the immigration and customs area in LA when the officials moved people from one line to another, resulting in the people at the back getting through the process before the people who were originally at the front of the line.  It was nothing compared to our immigration experience when arriving in Cancun ten days prior.  We took a shuttle from LAX to our hotel and had a decent night's sleep before returning to the airport on the 16th to fly back to Redding.

Again, no problems with the flight and we arrived in Redding, picked up our car at my sister's home then headed north to Yreka where we were to meet my parents and the boys at my grandparents' home.

When we walked through Gram and Pop's door Sam was bouncing on my mom's knees and Ben was playing in one of the bedrooms.  It wasn't until Sam turned, looked at me for a moment, then exclaimed, "Mommy!" that I realized how much I really missed the boys.  He ran into my arms and it was all I could do not to crush him in my embrace.  When tears sprang to my eyes I just squeezed harder.  Ben was happy to see us too and was talking a mile-a-minute about his adventures at Grandma and Grandpa's.  Both boys looked so different to me, older, bigger, and somehow more independent.

We celebrated Gram's birthday by going to a nearby Mexican restaurant for dinner (what irony) with Uncle Ray and Aunt Annie then spent the night at Gram and Pop's before continuing on to Tahoe on the 17th.

Once we were home we learned that Dave and Sarah's flights were as uneventful as our own. 

It took several days to get back into the swing of everyday life.  Brian had been at work less than one full day and came home nauseous and sick.  It took the entire weekend to really get him feeling better.  All we can guess is that the shock to his system of multiple immunizations, malaria pills, probiotics, etc. was finally catching up with him.

We had dinner with George and Irma in the couple weeks following our trip to "debrief" and learned that the people of Yo Creek enjoyed us visiting and said that they thought we had fun.  They were concerned most with what we thought of all of them.  Our answer to George and Irma was that we have rarely met so many people who are all so friendly and helpful and are anxious to go visit again.

Parte Once (11) - Retorno a Mexico

We left Yo Creek on March 14th with bittersweet feelings.  Obviously Brian and I were missing our boys, Ben and Sam,  but we were also not quite ready to say goodbye to the new family we had in Belize.  I was ready to say goodbye to the dry, dusty roads of the village and say hello to the white sand beaches in Playa del Carmen.  But leaving Belize meant one big thing....reality.  And that wasn't somewhere any of us were quite ready to visit  inhabit. 

After a final breakfast from Lorena and plates of leftover barbecue chicken packed for lunch we loaded up the rest of our things, said goodbye to Gordo (the baby gecko in the shower), hugged Lorena, Aldomere, Lily, and Pedro and set off north to Mexico. 

With only four of us in the van on the way back it seemed like things really were coming to an end.  The hour and a half to the Belize-Mexico border seemed to take no time at all and we got through immigration with no issues.  The remaining drive to Playa del Carmen and the Playa Palms Beachfront Hotel was uneventful.  By this point we all felt like old pros crossing borders, driving in foreign countries, and navigating the one-way streets in Playa.  We were all happy to return to the lovely little hotel where we had started our trip and we kicked off our afternoon of relaxing with the last of Lorena's food on our balcony overlooking the sea.

We spent the rest of the afternoon beachcombing, swimming, reading and resting.  We then headed out to Quinta Avenida (5th Avenue) which is known for all of its shops, restaurants, and nightclubs.  We did a little window shopping and sat in an open-air restaurant for drinks and appetizers then wandered a little farther for some tacos for dinner.  Another day came to an end and again the weight of reality began to press on us.

We spent the next morning relaxing a bit more before driving the rest of the way north to the airport in Cancun. Brian and my flight back to the states was scheduled for the afternoon of the 15th and Dave and Sarah were checking into one of the Cancun resort hotels for the night before their own flight back to the states on the 16th. 

We arrived in Cancun with enough time to go to the hotel and drop off Dave and Sarah's bags with the idea that then they could simply return our rental van and be free of that duty the next day before their own flight.  When we arrived at the Cancun hotel it felt like we had been transported into an entirely different world!  From thatched roofs, dusty roads and mosquitos to pure opulence....it was hard to take in.  After seeing so many people in the lesser-populated areas of the Yucatan and in the villages of Belize who have so little compared to most Americans and then being surrounded by the grandeur of the Cancun hotel zone... it was unsettling.  I realized that so many people who travel to Mexico never really visit the true Mexico.  The resorts provide a vacation that lacks the culture that we experienced and all I could think looking down that the throngs of people on the beaches below was, "Look at all they're missing by staying here."  At that moment I knew that not only was our trip amazing, unbelievable, memorable, and magical it was so much more. So many other people will never get to or choose to experience what we experienced.  And in that moment I knew that I would return to Belize and the Yucatan as soon as possible.

Part 10, Birthday in Belize

I count myself incredibly lucky to have been able to celebrate my 33rd birthday on March 13th in Belize surrounded by some of the nicest people in the world.  The one low point of the day was having to say goodbye to Roger and Janet as they took a shuttle from Orange Walk Town to Cancun to catch an evening flight back to the states and back to life in Cedarville.  Before they left we were able to take one last photo of all of us at George and Irma's house in Yo Creek.

In addition to the unforgettable gift from Brian of our trip to Belize I was also given a very heart-felt gift from Dave and Sarah, a new chef's jacket (complete with my name embroidered on it) to use for my catering business.

Once we had said goodbye to Janet and Roger we had little planned for the day but were looking forward to watching a local cultural group perform traditional Mayan dances for us later in the evening.  We did agree that we would like to see more of the village so Lorena's son Aldomere set out to find enough bikes for the four of us to tour with him.  He was quite a determined kid and in about an hour had gathered five bikes for himself and the remaining Browders.  We set out toward the village of San Antonio just a few miles from Yo Creek.  Aldo was going to show us the river where he and his friends often go swimming.  He had told us before about crocodiles in the rivers and warned us not to swim on our own.  Aldo was also quite worried about Sarah biking so far.  She chuckled and assured him she would be okay but he didn't seem certain until I told him that everyone but me had done bike rides of at least 70 miles and as many as 100 miles.  The person Aldo should have been concerned about more was Dave who was riding Lorena's bike.  Every half mile or so if Dave hit a bump or accelerated too quickly the bike's chain would come off and he'd have to stop and fix it.  Or maybe Aldo should have been more concerned about Brian who had only the peg for the pedal but no actual pedal.  Or maybe Aldo should have been more concerned about me since I was the one who managed to get my front tire too close to the side of the gravelly road and sent the bike skidding into the nearby ditch while I somehow managed to leap free of the spill.  Despite our biking challenges, we all had a great time and we could see that Aldo loved pointing out things to us in and around the villages.

When we arrived back to the house from our bike ride we were treated to a wonderful lunch of Belizean tamales which are very different from Mexican tamales.  These tamales were the typical masa wrapped in leaves and steamed but they were also filled with meat and veggies and were quite moist.  Kevin joined us for lunch and planned to join us later in the day to watch the dancers and enjoy more of Lorena's cooking.  After lunch Brian, Dave and Sarah took a walk with Kevin to the school where he does his Peace Corps volunteer work to check out the computer lab he works in.  We really don't know how lucky we are to have the technology that we do in the U.S.  Internet service in Belize is quite expensive and the only reason there is any kind of lab at all in the school is because of funding from the South Korean government.  Though there is internet access at the school, Kevin said that if more than four students log on at once, the entire network will go down.  Brian thought that maybe some of the extra computer stuff lying around his office and here in our house might be useful to Kevin. 

While the others headed out I opted to stay home and read my book and get a shower.  I ended up hanging out with Aldo for quite a while and when everyone came home I was ready to party! 

We had another of Lorena's amazing dinners this time it was Belizean barbecue chicken - chicken marinated overnight in red recado and lime juice then grilled.  Delicious!  Irma's sister Lily even made some red recado for all of us to take home and use in our own kitchens.

After dinner we retired to the veranda and watched the sunset with Belikins in hand then the local cultural group performed some Mayan dances for us.  Two of the dancers were Lorena's teenaged daughters and they were both as sweet as their mother.  Lorena also told the group that it was my birthday and I was serenaded with Belize's very long birthday song that goes something like this....

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Maggie, happy birthday to you.

May God bless you today, may God bless you today, May God bless you dear Maggie, may God bless you today.

How old are you now? How old are you now? How old are you now? Happy birthday to you!

At this point you are expected to give your age then the entire crowd begins clapping and chanting the years until they reach your age.

Apparently after this there is often the chant, Y ya queremos pastel, y ya queremos pastel, aunque sea un pedacito pero queremos pastel. (And we want some cake, and we want some cake, even if it's a small piece, but we want some cake).   As everyone stands around the one to have just completed another year of life, they all chant Mordida, Mordida, Mordida! (Bite! Bite! Bite!) The birthday person is expected to take their first bite of the cake without any utensils with their hands at their back. Then of course customarily one of their best friends or family is sure to push their face into the cake or lift it up into their face for the same affect. All of this is done in great fun but other than the singing I was left without cake on my face.  I did have a beautiful sweet potato cake with cream cheese frosting made by Lorena but maybe it was because the villagers didn't really know me and didn't feel comfortable introducing me to this custom or because I was too busy talking to people that I didn't even cut into the cake until everyone had left I'm not sure.  Regardless, it as an absolutely perfect last night in Belize!

We learned later on that Roger and Janet's shuttle had a flat tire just south of Playa del Carmen which caused them to arrive to the Cancun airport after their flight was scheduled to depart.  Lucky for them, the flight was delayed anyway so they were able to catch it, but....by the time they arrived in San Francisco, their connecting flight to Reno was long gone so they spent the night in San Francisco and left for Reno the next morning.  Eventually they made it home to Cedarville.

Brian, Maggie, Roger, Janet, Dave and Sarah in the courtyard of the Lebard's home in Yo Creek Village.

My new chef's jacket from Dave and Sarah.

Lorena and Aldomere - they both took great care of us!

A bike ride to the village of San Antonio.

 

Next to the river in San Antonio.

Brian and Kevin on the veranda at sunset.

The birthday girl.

Brian on the veranda.

 

Sunset over Yo Creek.

The Mayan cultural group.

One of several dances.

The two youngest performers of the group who also happened to be cousins.

Three generations passing on the Mayan culture.

 

Lorena with her two daughters.

Looking on during the birthday song.