Toddler humor

Elena: Knock knock
Me: Who's there?
Elena, looking outside her car window: Car
Me: Car, who?
Elena, after a short pause: Car with a hat on!

Elena: Knock, knock
Me: Who's there?
Elena: Tree
Me: Tree who?
Elena: Tree going camping with another tree!

Jesse: Knock knock
Me: Who's there?
Jesse: Who's there?
Me: No, I say that. You say who's at the door.
Jesse: Who's at the door?
Me: Is it an orange?
Jesse: No, it's a gong gong!

Repeat, ten thousand times, with slight variations.

Happy Birthday, Amy!

IT'S THE BIG 4-0!!

I remember making you a card when you turned 10-- "It's the big 1-0!" it read. Wow, look how far we've gone now!

Adventures in the kitchen

Pasta: 3 parts flour, 2 parts egg. FAIL!
Reducing spread in cookies: add flour, reduce sugar, chill dough, use shortening. Success!

This Christmas, Kevin got me three coveted cookbooks: Ratio, Cookwise, and Bakewise. Ratio (Ruhlman) describes the "simple codes behind the craft of everyday cooking," or the essential ratios needed to make the basic form of pasta, cookies, cakes, sauces, etc. For me, cooking is a very right brained activity-- I feel creative and intuitive when I cook, and usually make something pretty good. A dash of this, a dash of that... it all comes together in the end. Baking, on the other hand, requires exact measurements and ingredients, or you are bound to fail. When I bake, I usually fail! My cookies run together to form one huge cookie, my cakes are dry, and my pudding is curdled. So I was very excited about a book that helped me understand the precise part of baking (ratios behind the chemistry), then allowed me to improvise on the fundementals. So last week, I tried pasta: 3 parts flour, 2 parts egg. That part was simple enough. Then I made a lovely, improvised, mushroom and shallot cream sauce-- easy. Then I attempted to actually form the dough into noodles. Here is where I failed. I have no patience for cooking, either-- if it can't be made in a half an hour, I pretty much won't do it. Making pasta without a pasta maker is torture! It involves kneading a stiff dough, rolling it out till paperthin, then carefully cutting it into slivers of goodness. I gave up an hour in, around step 2, and we ended up with a lovely mushroom sauce.... over leather shoe strings (see display 1). My kids waited so long for dinner and were so hungry they actually ate them! I ended up eating cereal.

Then I thought I'd try to remedy my giant-cookie problem. I followed the directions in my next cookbook: "Bakewise, the hows and why of successful baking" for solving cookie spread. I added flour, reduced sugar, used a bit of shortening along with butter... and voila!! Puffy cookies!! Now I want to adjust a bit more to preserve the sweet chewy goodness of my childhood recipe, but I am definitely making progress. My goal for this next month is to make Elena a birthday cake that she will eat. Wish me luck!

Tim's memorial

The memorial service for Tim was truly heart wrenching.
The Grandbabies and Papa Tim's chair
He'll be keeping an eye on them from above.

The Krentz Family

Kevin and his Uncle Kerry. Kevin is already 6 ft, 2 inches, so you can see that there are some mighty powerful Krentz genes!
Uncle Randy and Amanda
Our nephew, Aiden, is a Krentz through and through. He is the sweetest, most charming little rascal you'll ever meet.
Cousin Madison is such a gem. Both my kids totally fell in love with her loving and spirited personality. Jesse actually was weeping for her when we had to leave.
Kevin's sister, Amanda

This last week has been one of the most challenging for the Krentz Family. On top of the unexpected and painful emotional roller coaster, we had to deal with traveling with two small children, jet lag, and a sense of panic that this would be our last visit to Tim's condo on the ocean, and perhaps our last visit to Florida in a long, long time. While still in rather raw emotional states (of course much more so for Kevin), we had to get a grasp of the complexities of sorting out a lifetime of financial decisions of a man who was not prepared to die, make sure we had collected the vital information needed to carry out Tim's will (or our best guess, anyhow) and for Kevin-- his last chance to take with him mementos of his father to remember him by . After long hours of sorting through things, we ended up with boxes of gadgets, piles and piles of papers, and a few particularly sentimental objects. Luckily, Amanda lives near the condo, so she will be able to wrap up the many, many lose ends in Florida that we could not help with, and can work with Kevin from afar.

I guess this is a sort of coming of age for us as a family-- our first parent lost, our first funeral. I think it will take a while to understand what this all means for us, but I can say that I feel like we are a stronger unit because of it. There is no doubt that getting a chance to see Tim's siblings and friends was hugely important. Jennifer, Kerry, Randy and Amanda-- if you are reading this, please stay in touch!

We will miss you, Papa Tim

Kevin's Dad died this afternoon.

I had just finished listening to President Obama's eulogy to the victims in Tucson and these words were still ringing in my ears when Kevin called me to tell me the news.

“We recognize our own mortality, and we are reminded that in the fleeting time we have on this Earth, what matters is not wealth, or status, or power, or fame -- but rather, how well we have loved and what small part we have played in making the lives of other people better.”

There is no doubt that despite his mistakes and misfortune of his youth, Tim loved so very well, and made so many people's lives better. Words to describe him-- first, Wise. Then, Generous, Lover of the Good Life, Fisherman, and Friend. I see so much of Tim in Kevin-- the street smarts, the sentimentality, the appreciation for the best of everything, the draw to smart technology, and love of all things fast and furious and fun. We will miss you, Papa Tim. I am so sad that our kids will not get to have you as a Grandpa through their lives, and that Kevin and I will no longer have your calm wisdom and unfailing support and love to guide us.