Big and not-so-big happenings in BC

I was taking Stella to the doctor in Kalamazoo on Thursday, and I noticed it was taking a particularly long time to get to the westbound I-94 ramp.

Turns out, I-94 was closed in Battle Creek!

The reason is because the Riverside Street bridge, which is very near to where we live – kind of in "our neighborhood" (but a couple miles south) – is under construction and during the process of the construction, it "shifted," i.e. moved and became too unstable to allow traffic through.

As a result, Battle Creek is flooded with interstate traffic, and it's weird to see bumper-to-bumper traffic.

This was a big story in our west Michigan news region, the top story for two nights on both Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids TV stations...we felt kind of important here in our little town.

But this doesn't surprise us. This bridge is in awful shape. It's over 50 years old and gets 58,000 cars/semi trucks across it everyday. I have strong opinions about the way our infrastructure has been allowed to crumble while strip malls and big box stores have come to characterize the urban Michigan landscape...but I'll spare those.

Before the construction started, John took some pictures of it. You'll see what I mean:


It gets tons of semi traffic, we actually hate driving on I-94.


One of the posts:


Another of the posts, bare steel:


They're working right now to get it reopened so traffic can go across. I'm sure many a driver are hating to be in Battle Creek!

Today was a lazy, cool Sunday, and we didn't have any plans (so nice, I like our slow-paced life a lot!). I visited both farm markets this morning, and there isn't much in season yet except for rhubarb, so I decided to make pie. The lady who is the director of AJ's daycare told me that all-rhubarb pie is possible, so I decided to try it. I combined two recipes, using The Fannie Farmer Cookbook (the best most basic cookbook in the world) and a book I got from the library called Pie to make it. The "Pie" book says to use rhubarb with bright red stalks. Well, I haven't seen much bright red rhubarb around here.



While I was working on this, John took Stella for a stroll downtown. AJ was content to stay home and help me. Here is a photo account of this experience:


Just hanging out to the side was okay....

Then he got more involved:



I had to get him away before the started destroying the dough.

Here's the result:

I always forget to add air vents to the pie so the juice seeps out.

And how does it taste? I don't know. We're letting it set up overnight. I hope it tastes okay, even if we didn't have bright red rhubarb. Somehow I have a feeling AJ will still eat it. I think "pie" was among his first 10 words!

Still here.

Well, there hasn't been much news coming from the Puzzuoli house. Plus I've been busy juggling life at home, work and my church volunteering...I somehow managed to get more committed than I planned on.

The school year is winding down for Stella, and I need to plan some activities for her this summer. She'll probably do horseback riding again, and maybe some extra speech therapy. Her summer school program has been shortened to 3 days a week. Hopefully we'll get a good groove going.

She's still working hard in school and comes home pretty tired. I found her in her room one day after school, and I thought her sleeping position was pretty funny.



Yesterday, for Mother's Day, I took Stella for a walk downtown and along the Battle Creek River. I wanted to spend some time with just her, and she really likes that. It was she who made me a mom, after all, so she's very special to me. She really enjoys being out in the world, going to the store. We're still working on some behavior issues in public places, though.

I also need to figure out what to do with A.J. His swimming class ends today, and there won't be one over the summer. I'm thinking of looking into a tumbling/gymnastics class for toddlers. He has so much energy and he's so rough. Honestly, John and I were talking yesterday, asking, "Could he be any rougher?"

He likes to sit out in the car and "drive" so sometimes, just to keep him busy, I put him in the van in the garage.



Other times, he has to be in the middle of things...like helping make brownies or pancakes. He loves to "cook." The trouble has come when he feels like he can push a chair to the counter any time, and start playing with knives (or like that one time with Stella's medicine). He's definitely challenging us the way any strong-willed 2-year-old would.



Mother's Day was a little rough. The night before, we went out to dinner with John's cousin Cathy and her husband Scott, at a nice little restaurant in Kalamazoo. Two bottles of wine...to bed after midnight. And the kids were up at 6 a.m. I think John and I both struggled through the day.

But here is my Mother's Day loot.
A pink and a blue hydrangea and four boxes of Whole Foods Woven Wheats (they're like Triscuits with no fat, love them).


Oh, and when we went out to eat, Cathy gave me and John a painting. It's actually a print of her painting called "Wet Stones," which she previously donated for our Blue Tie Event silent auction. John did much of the bidding on it, but didn't win it. We're delighted that she gave us a print of it.