Irish Festival

Last Saturday Lizzy and I donned our green and headed out to St. Charles for the Missouri River Irish Festival. I love being Irish! Strangely the Irish fest was held at the same time in the same vicinity as the Mosaic festival. I was a little confused. We finally found the right place and it was lots of fun. The vendors were not expecting people to show up for another 2 hrs even though the fest started at 10. So we were able to peruse at our leisure. Lizzy liked the dancers, but wanted to go on stage and show off her stuff too. I have to say that I am spoiled. I have been to many an Irish fest in the past, and this one was mediocre at best. But we had a good time. The best part was the Irish civil war reenactors. I love reenactors, they make history come to life. I learned about their division that was based here in St. Louis and about the Sanitation commission in St. Louis. They were amazing.

From 2010-09-18 Irish fest

Pumpkin Famine

Since the Great Pumpkin Famine of 2009, my diet has been sorely lacking of the glorious orange squash. I have often wandered the empty baking aisle of Schnuks in hopes of a can of pureed goodness. I have asked the workers over and over again, "When will there be more pumpkin?" to no avail. The most distressing part of this whole saga is the fact that the rest of the country was unaware of the Great Pumpkin Famine. Why in other states you could enter a shopping center and purchase canned pumpkin... of the shelf...in say, July if you wanted. But no, I live next to the pumpkin capital of the USA: Illinois. So we are unjustly plagued by the lack of pumpkin, while no one else suffers. Is this fair, I ask you? But I digress. This week the Famine was called off. The pumpkin is back on the shelves, and more importantly, in my kitchen, I nearly bought out the store in my excitement. I went home and promptly made Pumpkin Cheesecake, which I sampled hot in my haste to consume the decadent dessert. Ahh sweet pumpkin! Nectar of the Gods I tell you! I went to bed with a burned tongue and a contented heart. What shall I make tomorrow? Hmmm.

Diaper deals

So yesterday as I was getting everything laid out to change Lizzy suddenly she exclaims that she can not be changed until her cuddle bear is changed first. I agree to change her bear. Then she lays down for me and allows me to change her diaper. Success! So I think. Not two minutes later she tells me that her bear has "pooped" and needs a new diaper. OK, I think, not a problem. She removes the Bear's diaper and proceeds to crumple it and head to the trash. I stop her midway after asking what she was doing, her reply: "it stinky, go trash." Like duh. What were you thinking Mom. So I rescue the diaper and fold it back up and hand it to her as a "new" diaper for her bear. No way was that going to fly with Lizzy! It isn't clean! So I get a fresh diaper and put the used one back in the pile of diapers determined to put it on her as soon as she needs a change. So calm and order is restored for another three minutes when suddenly the bear has gone "poop" again! I'm thinking, "how can she tell? and what is she feeding that bear?" So the ritual is repeated once more. As you can probably guess this is now a thing with her. This morning she was shocked to discover her bear without a diaper and had to remedy the problem before anything else. Deep Breath. It's going to be a long day.

From 2010-09-02 diaper bear

Click to view. Isn't it glorious?

Going to the zoo, zoo, zoo

We got to go to the zoo last week with some friends, it was hot, but lots of fun. Lizzy had great fun watching the Hippos check out this video:

From 2010-08-19 Zoo

Just click on the picture to play. We went on the merry go round and Lizzy was a little unsure about that at first, but once she realized they go up and down, her favorite thing to do, she loved it. And this time she was awake for the train ride!

THE GOOD NEWS

So after one botched ultrasound, we returned yesterday in high hopes. This time we were rewarded almost imediately! And drum roll please....... It's a boy! We are stoked! More to follow. Stay tuned. Same bat time, same bat channel....

Leather

We have been dabbling in leather working and Lizzy is a wonderful student!

A Capital Idea

Last Saturday we went to St. Charles to see the first state capital in MO. We have had three. The day was warm, but I prayed hard that I would be able to go with out fainting and the Lord heard me! The capital building is actually just the tops floor of three shops. The one with the flag. We walked right by it without knowing it was indeed the place we came to find. Missouri has an interesting past. It petitioned for statehood in 1820, but was denied due to it being a slave state. The government wanted a free state to even things out. They re petitioned in 1821 and were brought into the US. They were still a slave state, the majority of the slaves were Native American. Northern MO was anti slavery and this caused quite a rift.

From St. Charles

this back view was originally the front, the street that runs behind it was where the river was in 1820. The building is quite clever because it had passage through to the street in front of the building from the back. They were covered so goods could be kept dry during unloading. The senate had the best room. All the Senators were literate and there were only a few of them; conversely the House had several Reps, but most were illiterate. The rooms were also used as a court room and for other meetings. They used ink made of black walnut shell and water and it took a half hour to dry on its own so they used sand to quick dry documents. There were sand boxes around the room which doubled as spittoons, but the rule was once a session started you could not get up until it ended. So the men in the middle rows spat on the floor. I can't imagine how gross it was.
The Governor had his office on the other end and he didn't have quite the authority that he does today. As many of these Representatives were quite rough men fights often broke out during the sessions. one such fight brought the Governor out from his office to quell the anger and he was promptly shut in his office for interfering!
It was a most enjoyable tour, and thankfully not too long. We ended in a room that was a typical house of the time. It was bigger then most houses and everyone lived in one common room which served as kitchen, bedroom, parlor, etc. As there were various taxes on luxuries, but not on art, the people became quite creative. Painting on a mirror or clock saved them from a tax. Turning a table into a chair was also a tax dodge. Also many single men, trappers and traders would stay in Mo. so there was a Bachelor tax as well to encourage them to move on! They found out that by boiling down horns it would unravel and become translucent, this was then used instead of glass in lamps. There was even a fold-out couch bed. They used to have it unfolded, but someone jumped on it and tore the hundred year old fabric. Ouch! Lizzy loved the little rocking horse.
There is a garden out back that has native plants, the hops were particularly pointed out since most of the water was unsafe to drink and so beer and wine were the beverages of choice. I guess it was the lesser of two evils? In the dry goods store on the bottom they told us about how a beaver top hat cost $40 which would buy a house in those days. The Hatters used Mercury to bind the hats together which made them go mad. Hence the phrase: "Mad as a Hatter." The skunk pelts were not thought highly of, but they are and were quite abundant in Mo. so they were sold as Alaskan Sable instead for a higher price.