More on the baptism

As I stated in a previous post, I left my memory card at home for the twin's baptism. Thank you to DJ's mom who captured these shots. Left to right: Michelle Misterka (Cawood's Godmother); Aunt Mary Ann (Eva's Godmother); Cathy holding Eva (mommy to 2-year-old Faith, Eva, & Cawood); DJ holding Cawood (husband to Cathy & father to the same three kids); Ray (longtime family friend and Cawood's Godfather); Matthew Misterka (brother to Cathy and me [and husband to Michelle], Godfather to Eva):

Wasn't that a lovely photo? And then Faith started to do her job... because she's 2! Is Faith acting up or are Uncle Matt & Ray encouraging her? Knowing those two men, it's hard to tell!In her left hand, Faith is holding princesses. She had them take a swim in the baptismal fountain/pool and I was told that she was thinking seriously of taking a dip herself.

Closest thing to a beach

We don't live on a coast, and we don't want to. However, we do have many lakes and reservoirs in our area. On Sunday we went to Salamonie Reservoir. From our family, it was only Todd, Emma, and me. Pher was in Columbus,OH at an art festival with Zeke and Zeke's mom. Cameron was at home, on the couch, with an earache.

Todd inherited a jet ski when Carole passed away. We don't take it out as often as we would like, but we always have a good time when it hits the water. Todd had kids on the jet ski while he pulled people on the tube. Emma in front of Todd and our friend's daughter Lexy behind him:

The picture above is Shelane catching some air on the tube. She knew she was gonna hurt when all was said and done. I wonder how she feel the day after?

For me it was a major accomplishment. I went to the beach, and I wore a swimsuit. Shelane is my surgeon's rounding nurse, and she commented that she had a hard time seeing the colostomy appliance. She and Todd both said that the swimsuit looked nice, and that was a boost to my confidence.

A slice of Heaven in Angola, IN

Todd's brother Scott, and his wife Rebecca, opened their bakery (Heavenly Breads & Sweets) in Angola, IN. This is a dream come true for them. Scott has been a baker since he joined the Marine Corps in 1982(ish). He worked in a couple of bakeries after leaving the Corps. He finally owns his very own bakery. Rebecca has been in Sales & Marketing positions throughout her career. It's the perfect match. He makes the breads & sweets and she sells them. Oh yeah, and Dad hangs out at the bakery as the official greeter and chief volunteer.

After we picked Cameron up from confirmation camp, we stopped at the bakery. Todd and Emma have already made a visit. First visit for Cameron and me. The shop is soooooo cool. I am a carb addict, so this is just my kind of place. I walked in to see racks of bread. This is only one of them...

... and then I turned to the left to see the cookies and pastries under glass...

We got lessons on how dinner rolls, hot dog buns, and kaiser rolls are formed:
Dinner rolls:
Put the dough on the plate and slide the plate into this cutter machine:

Ta-Da! Dinner rolls(top picture) and hot dog buns (bottom picture) ready to be proofed and then baked:

After the hot dog buns are cut, they go through a very cool forming machine. Silly me me thought Scott and Rebecca rolled them out by hand like playing with Play-Dough!

Kaiser rolls get their name because of their shape. That's it, nothing else. Scott & Rebecca are already getting requests to make these for local Mom & Pop restaurants.

At this point I started losing interest in the breads, because Emma was learning about decorating with icing. Anyone who has watched me eat a piece of cake knows that for me eating cake is a science. I eat the cake first (by cutting it away from the icing), and then the icing with minimal amout of cake to enjoy. Oh, and I want the roses... ALL OF THEM! How cool would it be to have an Aunt and Uncle that own a bakery and let you play with frosting? Our kids have it so good.

Emma practicing on the stainless steel counter, just like the professional behind her:

I don't know how she resisted putting that tip in her mouth and squeezing the frosting as hard as she could. I wanted to.

Decorating with determination and persistence:

Before we left, I decided to take a picture of the last bag of Pumpernickel Onion rolls on the rack. These rolls are affectionately knows as Doberman Turds in the Meyers family. They are large, oblong pumpernickel rolls with soft onions in the center. The nickname came from Dad Meyers. During Thanksgiving dinner many years ago, he proclaimed that they look like Doberman turds. The family laughed, and the name stuck. Yes, they look like Doberman turds. They are big and dark brown. They taste nothing like their loving name. They are best warm with either butter or cream cheese. They are listed on the 'menu' as D.T. Rolls:

Here is a link to their website http://www.heavenlybreads.com/ Maybe someday they will start accepting online orders. Right now, they are too busy for that with all of the local business they have.

A perfect blessing

All who know and love Cameron Adam know how much he LOVES, LOVES, LOVES sweets. (See the first post to this blog and read about his sweet related injuries. In that post I neglected to mention that he came up AWOL at a family reunion in Pittsburgh when he was 3. Uncle Scooter found him in an ice cream shop, sitting on the counter, with two very cute teenage employees who gave him an HUGE ice cream cone. Sorry about the digression, but as memories return, I want to document them!)

This past week Cameron has been at confirmation camp. He left on Father's Day (6/21) and we picked him up on Friday (6/26). We got to see Grandma & Grandpa Misterka at Cathy's house on Father's Day and Grandma gave me a cross necklace to give to Cameron at the end of camp.

After we picked him up at camp, we stopped at Uncle Scooter & Aunt Rebecca's bakery. This was the first visit to this shop for both Cameron and me. Grandpa Meyers is the greeter at the bakery. As soon as greetings ended, Cameron asked Grandpa Meyers (a.k.a. Reverend Donald E. Meyers) to bless the cross Grandma Misterka gave him. Grandpa leaned over the case of sweet treats and had Cameron lean to bring the necklace closer to him. Right there over the display of pastries, danishes, and cookies, Cameron had his cross blessed. A bakery was the perfect place for the blessing! Cameron, the cross, and God in Heavenly Breads & Sweets. A perfect combination.

Motorbike resurrection

I will relive the story so that those who don't know can learn about it. Six or seven years later, it is funny and I can laugh about it. At the time, it was not so funny, and I was a very angry mommy and wife.

Here's how it went... Christopher came home from school and asked his (sleeping) father if he could bid on a motorbike on e-bay. Todd (being sound asleep and e-bay challenged) said, "Sure." Christopher won the auction. The motorbike arrived at our house on a FedEx Freight truck. I did not talk to them for a good four days. I was mad. I was mad that Christopher asked his sleeping father a question, and I was mad that the sleeping father gave his consent. I know how e-bay works, and I was angry.

The motorbike has sat idle for a couple of years. Now Christopher has no car and a desire to go places. He's been given two choices: He can ride a bike or ride the bus. He created a third option: He could ride the infamous motorbike. He pulled it out the other day and got it running.
He took it for a spin to test it out while his sister waited patiently.
He took Emma for a very relaxed ride. I was yelling, "SMILE" and he looked back at me with this odd smile and a look like, "What the hell do you mean, SMILE? I'm taking my sister for a ride."
A little later, his girlfriend (Sam) came over. She took it for a relaxed spin down the street. She was almost afraid of it.

You work for a company that makes what?

Yeah, I've heard this before. "You work for a company that makes, what?" It's kind of like working for a company that makes screw on tops and pumps (my previous employer). Everyone knows they exist, but no one really thinks of how they get to the consumer. I work for Terex Corporation, and my facility manufactures concrete mixers. This is probably pretty boring to most, but not to me.

This post is not about the manufacture of concrete mixers, it's about a customer with causes. We have a customer that usually has NASCAR, IRL, or other sports colors and team members car/jersey numbers painted on their concrete mixers. This time they went a different route. They went for "causes." They painted their two most recent concrete mixers to stand for things they believe in supporting. Let me tell ya, it took longer than normal for both of these truck to go through the paint process and (I'm not privvy to the information, and don't really want to be) I bet these trucks cost more than the standard paint job



We previously had one other Breast Cancer Awareness truck. It was painted pink and had the Breast Cancer Awareness ribbon painted on the barrel. I had to hire a driver to take that truck from Fort Wayne, IN to Arizona. He later told me that when he stopped, people offered to buy him coffee and/or lunch. He also said that people were hanging out their windows driving down he highway to get pictures of the truck. He was proud to be driving this truck. I'm sure these drivers will be equally as proud. To show your support, if you see one of these mixers, give a toot, a wave, or a thumbs up to the driver.

Father's Day Baptism

My dad- Joseph Misterka:

Happy Father's Day to all Father's, Grandfather's, and Godfather's. Today our niece & nephew (Eva Marie & Joseph Cawood - Cathy & DJ's twins) were baptized. It was a beautiful day. It was a beautiful baptism. I left the camera's memory card at home, so we have no ceremony pictures. I hope I can get some from DJ's mom. If I can get my hands on some, I'll post them. I ran to Target after the baptism to pick up a memory card so I did not miss out on the entire day's pictures.

After the ceremony, we all went to Cathy & DJ's house for a celebratory lunch and family time. Photo below (l-r: Ray (Cawood's godfather & wonderful family friend); DJ (Daddy to Faith, Eva, & Cawood); Matt (my brother & daddy to Mackenzie & Madeline); Joe (my extraordinary dad)

Aunt Judy & Aunt Mary Ann came in from Utica, NY for the baptism. Here are the two ladies with Aunt Mary Ann holding Cawood:

The picture above is Aunt Mary Ann holding Eva Marie. Aunt Mary Ann is my godmother and as of today, she is also Eva's godmother. Picture below is Pher holding his youngest cousin, Cawood.

Madeline & Ray's dog Bella: Madeline's big sister Mackenzie:

Me holding Cawood in the "fussy baby hold."

By 3:00 in the afternoon, the twin's big sister Faith was ready for a nap. She is wearing her beautiful Princess Belle costume.

2009's first visit to the pool

Tonight was Mommy's first visit to the neighborhood pool. Emma has already been a couple of times. When I came home from work tonight, Emma was asking an exhausted daddy to take her to the pool. I told her that I would take her (we then added her friend Landin), and then sent Daddy back to bed. Here are pictures on Emma and Landin. I also took pictures of a little girl having a ball with her daddy. This pool was one of the reasons we chose to build in our neighborhood! We have the luxury of being able to swim all summer without having the hassle and expense of pool maintenance.

Missing Pher & Cameron

Both of my boys have been gone most of the week. Mommy has been missing them. Cameron has been at Boy Scout camp. He is earning merit badges to climb his way towards Eagle Scout. I believe he is earning Eagle required Citizenship in the Nation, Citizenship in the World, and Emergency Preparedness. He is earning one or two others that are not Eagle required, but I don't remember what they are.

Wednesday night was family night. We visited Camp Chief Little Turtle. As I stated in a previous post, Cameron is a guest of Troop 2. He is behaving himself, and we expected nothing less from him. One of the requirements of Boys Scout camp is for the Troop to design and build a 'gateway' to their campsite. Here is Troop 2's gateway:
Troop 2 traditionally makes cobbler in cast iron dutch ovens for family night. They made at least a dozen cobblers. They had strawberry, blueberry, pineapple/cherry, apple, fruit cocktail, and black forest. They put the first dutch oven directly on the coals, then put hot coals on top of each lid, and then continued to stack them 4 or 5 high. The coals generate enough heat to warm the cast iron which in turn cooks the cobbler.
Cameron and his patrol sat around their empty fire ring and Cameron let Emma sit on his lap. They love each other but won't admit it!

Where's Christopher? He's been hanging out at Zeke's this week. He came home last night.