Donna's back in town!

Donna and I have known each other since about 1979. She is one of my dearest friends, if not THE dearest. She lives in San Luis Obispo, California, and was back in Michigan for two weeks on vacation. We were lucky that she could take time out of her busy schedule to visit with us. Richard told me that he loves when Donna visits because I'm so happy. "You guys giggle a lot when she's here and you don't even need alcohol to do that!" I told him that's a sign of a good, true friend.

While she was here we went to see a performance of "Gypsy" starring another really good friend of mine, Rose Randall Warner after having dinner with the family (minus Chelsea :-(( ). Here are some pictures before dinner. Chelsea WAS able to join us before dinner and it just happened to be her birthday.
Above picture, from left: Donna, Chelsea, Sarah, Hannah, Courtney, and moi!!
On Sunday evening we fired up the brick oven for home-made pizza. Yum! Here's Jonah putting together his creation and firing it, minus any hint of a 'wiggle.'

And Donna concocting something vegan.Donna was a good sport and agreed to learn a new game, Settlers of Catan.

My beautiful orchid as it charms us on my dining room table. It has an incredible amount of blooms.

Fun on Mother's Day, May 11, 2008

What a wonderful Mother's Day! Thank you to all my children for making it special. Thanks to Richard for all the hard work he put into the pizza making. And thanks to Patti, Steve, Michael, and Clare for bringing my mom, the gem of the family, to our house.
These are all my favorites that I received on Mother's day: Clematis, my favorite climbing vine; cupcakes from Pronto (where Chelsea works); patchouli soap; dark chocolate truffles; a jar of dark chocolate peanut butter; whoopi bars; a beautiful glass sea urchin vase; and the best cheese in the world, French Chaource. Richard gave me the fun solar lantern to hang either from the table umbrella or in our weeping cherry tree in the back yard when we entertain. It has small LCD lights inside that charge with the sun. I can't wait to see it glow!

We had a small houseful over for brick oven pizza and yummy desserts. The process of pizza-making is shown here for all of you who have not been over to witness it firsthand. Richard makes the pizza crust dough ahead of time from scratch. He has a pretty dog-gone good recipe figured out. We start by rolling out enough dough for a small pizza, transferring it over to a wooden pizza peel covered in corn meal. The corn meal prevents it from sticking to the peel and allows a smooth transfer over to the metal, long-handled peel used to place the pizza in the oven.
The oven is nice and hot, ready for cooking.
First, Richard must make way for the pizza by brushing out the ashes.

In goes the pizza!


The pizza must be turned half-way through the quick, 2-minute cooking process. Today the temperature of the oven averaged 750 degrees.
Checking to see if it is done...
...nope, needs a minute longer with a turn.
A view of the inside.
Voila! It's done and ready for hungry, anticipating bellies and salivating mouths! Good job, Richard. It's not burnt; Sarah will be happy.

As if pigging out on pizza wasn't enough, everyone finished with dessert. Hannah's homemade brownies were a big hit; the whole pan was gobbled up (thanks to Jonah!).
From the left: My mom, Elsie; my sister-in-law, Patti; my brother, Steve; Jonah; Steve's and Patti's oldest son, Michael; and his girlfriend, Clare.Ha! I caught Chelsea with a real smile on her face instead of a silly face. Oh, and Hannah helped out with the brownies, too.

Jonah trying to hide his second brownie by shoving it in his mouth.
A very sweet shot of Sarah and Courtney.
Just for fun I am including this time-release movie of Richard making a pizza. I thought I was making a video; I didn't know the camera was set on time-lapse. It's fun if you keep clicking on the pause button.