Thursday, December 31, 2009
A loss that keep coming back...........
Recently as some of you know, we had a great loss in our family, I was impressed on how our 10 year old daughter, Ysabella, took the whole thing after all this wonderful lady was her best friend, Bella spent most of her first years of her life with this lady and she taught Bell a lot, then; reports started to roll in about how Bella was crying at school, so, Bells Mom took this one and explained, it was ok to be sad and talked about the great memories she had with this woman, again we thought all was good…. Then the rosary came up and bell did good the first half and then she lost it, she really took it hard, we got her a glass of water, we hugged her and got her calmed down and she was good, the next day was the funeral and she did really good….. Last week I walked into Bells room and she was crying again…. Well this hurt me, she was having problems, we hugged the tears away and all is good, Remember you can never be too close to a Grandma or a Great-Grandma, so if you have a Grandma out there no matter what kind she is, regular or great, give her a hug, buy her a plant, these people are the backbones of our families, they have been there and they have seen it………..
Sunday, December 27, 2009
My Inspiration by Kevin J Munster
This is a work in progress, I add to it now and then.... this is a truly amazing figure in my life......
Many, many years ago I was introduced to this lady; I really didn’t get to know her until many years later…. She was older than me and was a great friend. Her skin was soft and wrinkly, she was a little lumpy and she always had a smile on her face, everything we did together was fun and if it wasn’t she would make it fun. This lady lived in the woods, well that’s what she called it. It was the most relaxing place, the air was crisp and the water came out of the tap clean and cold even in the summer, her house had an upstairs and a flood control channel (a gully, is what she told me it was called) in the backyard, this was an exciting place for a young boy, the dir was grey and rocky, like you were on the moon, I have never been to the moon, but I can imagine that’s what it is like. I hiked just about every foot of the thing, always looking for adventure, I built dams in this dirt gully with a little stream at the bottom, sometimes it had water and sometimes it was bone dry. She would even climb down in the gully and help build the dams, she would get plastic bags to help us retain the water, our goals was to make a pool and try to swim in it, sometime successful, sometimes not. Every meal was far out of the ordinary and something experimental she saw on TV. Julia Child was her favorite chef on TV, at the time she was the only chef on TV. When dinner was ready or we had to come home from playing outside, she had a big brass bell that she would ring and we would know it is time to rush home. I spent most Easters, Thanksgivings and Christmas’s with this extraordinary lady; you could say “She was the most Interesting lady in the world”, she would make cookies at Christmas, not just your everyday cookies, she would make cookies that looked like stained glass windows and at Easter she would make chocolate covered Easter eggs made of fudge and on the fourth of July our fireworks were water balloons. The news and Jonny Carson were the dominate shows on the TV that her son bought her. Her son seem to buy her everything, Mixer for baking, Microwave when they weren’t so normal, I remember one year he got her an Ice cream maker that all you had to do is add the ingredients and it did the rest, furthermore, one year he gave her $500.00 cash, all 100 dollar bills, at that time that was allot of money.
My memories are so random and scattered; this woman taught me and my whole family tid bits of wisdom, for instance “If you play with fire, you will wet your bed”. She was a perfect lady, manners were important; “Please”, “Thank you”, “Nice to meet you”, etc. Manners are important; so many people don’t use them on a regular basis anymore. This place she lived in had a little town, she called it “the village”, with one store for groceries, that was tiny, after years went by they built a bigger one, you have to understand this place was a hard place to get things to, so the groceries were expensive, so to save money, she would travel 45 minutes to a regular store “Down Below” is what she would call it and we were called “Flat Landers”. This lady took me fishing at the local lake, named “Jackson Lake”, I caught my first fish there and this lady took it home and packed it in water and froze it for safe keeping, she had that fish for about 10 years, until the freezer gave out and everything was destroyed, even my little fish. Almost every year she would make us Pajamas which was fun. She bought us Lego’s we had tons to play with and create masterpieces. She had an old player piano, you had to thread the paper rolls with holes in it, which would, with the help of a vacuum motor, play music, and my favorite was “Tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree”. My cousins would join me up in the hills for a visit in the summer or at one or more of the holidays. I do remember one time I was playing with my oldest cousin and she asked me to get her a doll, she could not reach it in the attic/closet were we kept the toys, there was a sky light in the attic/closet and sure enough I fell right thru, bouncing out of the sink below and hitting the floor of this very small kitchen. Yep, I got a big Easter egg on my eye. We would all sleep in the “Work Room”; this was a room behind the garage that all crafts were done and the laundry facilities lived, this was a mysterious place with all kinds of cast iron pots and pans hanging from the rafters, the freezer lived here, because, where this was, you had to store stuff for the winter, in case you could not leave due to snow, also to cut down the trips “Down Below” to the “flat lands”.
Who is this lady, she was my hero, my best friend and my Inspiration, she was Doris May Reynolds, my Grandmother, and I called her “MA”……..
Many, many years ago I was introduced to this lady; I really didn’t get to know her until many years later…. She was older than me and was a great friend. Her skin was soft and wrinkly, she was a little lumpy and she always had a smile on her face, everything we did together was fun and if it wasn’t she would make it fun. This lady lived in the woods, well that’s what she called it. It was the most relaxing place, the air was crisp and the water came out of the tap clean and cold even in the summer, her house had an upstairs and a flood control channel (a gully, is what she told me it was called) in the backyard, this was an exciting place for a young boy, the dir was grey and rocky, like you were on the moon, I have never been to the moon, but I can imagine that’s what it is like. I hiked just about every foot of the thing, always looking for adventure, I built dams in this dirt gully with a little stream at the bottom, sometimes it had water and sometimes it was bone dry. She would even climb down in the gully and help build the dams, she would get plastic bags to help us retain the water, our goals was to make a pool and try to swim in it, sometime successful, sometimes not. Every meal was far out of the ordinary and something experimental she saw on TV. Julia Child was her favorite chef on TV, at the time she was the only chef on TV. When dinner was ready or we had to come home from playing outside, she had a big brass bell that she would ring and we would know it is time to rush home. I spent most Easters, Thanksgivings and Christmas’s with this extraordinary lady; you could say “She was the most Interesting lady in the world”, she would make cookies at Christmas, not just your everyday cookies, she would make cookies that looked like stained glass windows and at Easter she would make chocolate covered Easter eggs made of fudge and on the fourth of July our fireworks were water balloons. The news and Jonny Carson were the dominate shows on the TV that her son bought her. Her son seem to buy her everything, Mixer for baking, Microwave when they weren’t so normal, I remember one year he got her an Ice cream maker that all you had to do is add the ingredients and it did the rest, furthermore, one year he gave her $500.00 cash, all 100 dollar bills, at that time that was allot of money.
My memories are so random and scattered; this woman taught me and my whole family tid bits of wisdom, for instance “If you play with fire, you will wet your bed”. She was a perfect lady, manners were important; “Please”, “Thank you”, “Nice to meet you”, etc. Manners are important; so many people don’t use them on a regular basis anymore. This place she lived in had a little town, she called it “the village”, with one store for groceries, that was tiny, after years went by they built a bigger one, you have to understand this place was a hard place to get things to, so the groceries were expensive, so to save money, she would travel 45 minutes to a regular store “Down Below” is what she would call it and we were called “Flat Landers”. This lady took me fishing at the local lake, named “Jackson Lake”, I caught my first fish there and this lady took it home and packed it in water and froze it for safe keeping, she had that fish for about 10 years, until the freezer gave out and everything was destroyed, even my little fish. Almost every year she would make us Pajamas which was fun. She bought us Lego’s we had tons to play with and create masterpieces. She had an old player piano, you had to thread the paper rolls with holes in it, which would, with the help of a vacuum motor, play music, and my favorite was “Tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree”. My cousins would join me up in the hills for a visit in the summer or at one or more of the holidays. I do remember one time I was playing with my oldest cousin and she asked me to get her a doll, she could not reach it in the attic/closet were we kept the toys, there was a sky light in the attic/closet and sure enough I fell right thru, bouncing out of the sink below and hitting the floor of this very small kitchen. Yep, I got a big Easter egg on my eye. We would all sleep in the “Work Room”; this was a room behind the garage that all crafts were done and the laundry facilities lived, this was a mysterious place with all kinds of cast iron pots and pans hanging from the rafters, the freezer lived here, because, where this was, you had to store stuff for the winter, in case you could not leave due to snow, also to cut down the trips “Down Below” to the “flat lands”.
Who is this lady, she was my hero, my best friend and my Inspiration, she was Doris May Reynolds, my Grandmother, and I called her “MA”……..
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Quiet Night
Came home from work Alyssa sittin on the couch playing with the baby, watching TV, not much going on, I played with the baby a bit, then Alyssa went to her boyfriends house, Ysabella went with Censia to the School to watch Savi's Holiday Program, I remember those, my memory is not great, but Robert, Serja and Alyssa, all had Holiday Programs at the School and we went every Year.... Singing, Dancing and Just fun....... Silly Kids...... Well no one is home all is Quiet, haven't heard from my wife all day, just 1 text...... I really am not motivated to cook, it is late, maybe tomorrow.....
Peace........
Peace........
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
NaNa Monteverde...........
What do you say about a strong, PROUD woman, But I am so glad I met her and was a part of her life and she a part of mine. I have a great respect of Grandparents, they have seen so much, like the invention of TV and Freeways to name the biggies, The Computer not really their thing, it is ours..... They saw and lived thru things like The Great Depression and WWII, of course there is wars and depression today, But Nothing like then, Nothing........ I remember Nana telling me about the Japanese family that was taken away because they had a radio under their porch and they were spies or suspected of it.... She must of told me about New Mexico 100 times and I listened every time like it was the first, and endless stories about the cannery.... She made Tamales every year, and we would pig out every Christmas Morning and Menudo on New Years........ mmmmm Yummy..... I will never forget the Christmas her kids bought her a new TV to replace a console TV that was loosing its color and sound, and where would she put this new TV????? on top of the old one, of course... it lived there for a little while, but then it ended up on the proper sort of table...... She could crank out a blanket made of yarn faster than a machine. If you were lucky enough to get on of these blankets, like I was, Cherish it, I sure do..... I just love it........ This lady was my wifes BEST friend, my grand mother was mine as well...... We will miss her so so much, and I know she is in heaven looking down on us, her flock....
I love you Nana.......
Kevin
I love you Nana.......
Kevin
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Cooking with Sam
Blog #1 12-10-09
I saw the movie Julie and Julia or whatever the name is..... This is where I got my inspiration, my grandmother loved Julia Childs, I love Sam the Cooking Guy. Last night I made his Potato Soup, I just generally followed the recipe, I used 1 yam peeled, 5 red potato’s only peeled half of them, I did cut them up into half inch squares so they would cook evenly, Ysabella helped by reading the recipe, while the potatoes were coming to a boil over medium high heat in chicken broth not water, I chopped up 1 large red onion and sauté it in a 1 block of real butter, when the potatoes were done, I added the onion and butter, Italian parsley finely chopped up with 16oz of heavy whipping cream and cyan pepper.... MMMMMMmmmm it turned out pretty good, nice and creamy. I kind of followed the recipe but the yam was my idea and all the measurements were way off.......... I wonder what’s for dinner tonight????.........
More to come.
I saw the movie Julie and Julia or whatever the name is..... This is where I got my inspiration, my grandmother loved Julia Childs, I love Sam the Cooking Guy. Last night I made his Potato Soup, I just generally followed the recipe, I used 1 yam peeled, 5 red potato’s only peeled half of them, I did cut them up into half inch squares so they would cook evenly, Ysabella helped by reading the recipe, while the potatoes were coming to a boil over medium high heat in chicken broth not water, I chopped up 1 large red onion and sauté it in a 1 block of real butter, when the potatoes were done, I added the onion and butter, Italian parsley finely chopped up with 16oz of heavy whipping cream and cyan pepper.... MMMMMMmmmm it turned out pretty good, nice and creamy. I kind of followed the recipe but the yam was my idea and all the measurements were way off.......... I wonder what’s for dinner tonight????.........
More to come.
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