Freddy's Birthday

Freddy was officially 18 on March 25, which is oddly enough only one day different from our first exchange son, Felipe's, whose is on the 24th.  Eighteen for a Finnish kid, doesn't mean a whole lot here in the US, but when he gets back to Finland he will be able to drink alcohol.... legally.  It was a busy weekend but we squeezed in lots of birthday activities.  The morning of his birthday we had American breakfast, pancakes & sausage, before school.

That night Freddy had a birthday party with friends.  Saturday we went to Birch Run for some birthday shopping and a birthday lunch.  We finally went to Tony's.  It's famous for HUGE portions.  Freddy got the BLT (bacon lettuce tomato sandwich) with 1 full pound of bacon!  He ate much of it but could not finish it.

That night we had a family birthday dinner.  Freddy chose and we had steaks, frites and salad.  Huge sirloin steaks of which Freddy ate the entirety of.  Mike and I split one.  The frites were sweet potato and I made a smoked paprika butter for the steaks. Very delicious meal.

Sunday we had birthday cake.  When we asked Freddy what kind he wanted, he stated that he wanted an American cake.  Isn't cake American period??  No?  Oh okay.  Epicurious was a big helper and I found a decidely American cake, Devils Food Cake.  We topped the three layers with a caramel frosting and it was mouth watering.

 The final part of the celebration was the following Wednesday.  We bought Red Wings tickets for Freddy's birthday present.  We had a great time even though the Wings got slaughtered.  Not a bad replacement for the drinking birthday that he would have had in Finland.

Adventures in Finnish Cookery

I really love to cook and my husband might let you know that with recipes I have the attention span of a gnat.  I hardly ever make the same thing twice, I'm awful at following recipes (I'm always improvising due to pantry supplies or food allergies) and I always like to try something new.  I'll make/try anything once.  So, it is no wonder that along with our exchange students come new cooking adventures for me.  I wonder if my sons ever get tired of me asking how things taste, if they've had anything similar before and what kind of recipes are close to it in their country.  I'm so curious about food and I love to eat!

So, below are some of my adventures in Finnish cookery this year.  I haven't done a ton of Finnish cooking, because one of Freddy's goals is to try EVERYTHING American.  But, it has been really nice to try some special things at Christmas and recently for Fat Tuesday (Shrove Tuesday).

New Apron and Oven Mitt from Finland for Christmas.

Christmas I made something that was a wide step outside of my comfort zone, Gravlax.  For a very long portion of my life I never liked fish.  Sounds ridiculous now, but I think I only did fish sticks a couple times as a youngster and I decided that fish and I would not be friends.  My Dad wasn't a fan either, so I never thought it was a weird thing to pass on food with scales.  When I got food allergies, I realized how fortunate I was to be able to eat any food, so I took a new position in my food life...  try everything that I'm not allergic to at least once.  That philosophy has had a hand in leading me to the land of fishes and while I like most of them, salmon is just not one that I'm a fan of.  Gravlax is cured or marinated salmon.  I'm currently wrinkling my nose thinking about salmon.

But, fortunately for me, once finished Gravlax doesn't taste very salmon-y.  I liked it quite a bit.  At Christmas time we also made the traditional gingerbread, rutabaga casserole and Christmas pudding.  Pictures coming....

Freddy's parents sent me a note telling me of a Fat Tuesday pastry that they normally have and how much Freddy liked them.  They offered to send me the recipe if I wanted to try to make them.  Really... did they have to even ask?  Below are pictures of making the fastlagsbulle.  Freddy said they were great and Mike rather liked them too.

 Then on Sunday after our drive back from Columbus we told Freddy that he had to cook dinner for us because he has not cooked a thing here in the US (really we were just feeling lazy!).  The closest he's gotten to cooking is stirring something for me on the stove and putting together peanut butter & jelly sandwiches.  He said he had the recipe for Macaroni Casserole that he hadn't made.  We of course all went into the kitchen and made it together.  Quite tasty.

Freddy even made his own "head chef" hat.

Doing dishes while Freddy was watching the stove.

The finished product!

Happy Holi-daze!

The holidays were amazing, but all too quick.  Unfortunately just before Christmas, I had a big project (that I'm still drowning in) come up and it zapped a lot of my time and energy right at holiday time.  It was stressful, but in the end it all worked out and we still had a great couple of weeks.  

Finnish Christmas Dinner

For Christmas, I wanted to make sure that I did something special for Freddy.  So, I sought out advice from his Finnish parents (Erik & Anki) about what Christmas is like in Finland.  It was very easy for me to get in touch with them because they are so very helpful and communicative.  They were quite pleased to help me with traditions, recipes and all other things Finnish.  Mike and I planned to have a three day Christmas celebration.  

We began on Christmas Eve, with our first trip snowboarding/skiing for the winter season.  We all had a great time.  Freddy showed me a few tips (this is only my second year snowboarding) and I did very well for the first trip of the season.  I even did one of the steepest hills with Freddy by my side.  Freddy really is an exceptionally great snowboarding partner.  He always stayed behind me or slowed down to make sure I was all right.  And, of course, when I hit the ground he'd make sure I was all right.  We all had so much fun and it was a great start to the holiday.  That night when we got home I began putting together all of the "top secret" Finnish food I had been working on.  We had told Freddy that we were going to have Finnish Christmas on the 24th, but I left many things out.  I warmed up the glögg, ham and put the rutabaga casserole into bake.  I also made up a bit of a smorgasbord for us with multiple other things (salmon, especially for Freddy).  It went great.  We also got online to skype with Finland after all of their festivities were over.  It was very nice to chat with Erik, Anki, Mimmi and Oskar.  After chatting and dinner we opened presents from Finland.  We got some amazing gifts and we're so thankful for a little piece of Finland!  The best gifts I received were cookbooks!  Freddy brought me a book from Greece and the rest of the Boijers sent me a beautiful Finnish cookbook.  I am so excited to make something out of both.  Although, technically, I've already made rutabaga casserole that is in the Finnish book.

We continued with American Christmas the next morning.  Freddy had his first American stocking and we had nice relaxing day at home.  I got an AWESOME present from my husband.

A mazel t-shirt!  So fantastic along with my immersion blender.  Freddy became a normal American teenager with a new iPod.  iTunes was tough for him to learn, but he's clearly got the hang of it now.  

That evening after a couple of skyping sessions Mom, Dad and Dana came over for dinner.  We had leftover Finnish Christmas dinner with some American added in.  Eggnog, etc.  We played a couple of good natured games of Scene It and then we were off to bed for day 3 of the festivities.

Day 3 was Christmas with the family at my Mom & Dad's house.  It's always a long fun day of food presents and games.  We did stockings as always and then a little breakfast before the big presents and opening of gifts to/from each other.  My Mom apparently needed kitchen supplies this year because she got 2 waffle makers and 2 food processors!!  We finished the day with Freddy's first time playing Pit.  Sooooo much fun!  I'm pretty sure he thought we were lunatics when we all began shouting at the top of our lungs, but it took him only one game to be shouting louder than all of us.  That game is definitely a favorite!  Misc pictures below.

December Gone & January Going... Going...

December and January have flown by.  Wedding, hockey, holidays, work and training have gulped up the days and I just finally got my act back together this week.  Hopefully I can keep it together for the next two months and then the pace shall slow down a bit.  (Only a bit, mind you.  Too slow and I'd be restless.)  Hockey is quite a commitment for all of us and it has been taking over the majority of our time besides work.  Yes, work, don't forget that!  It is my busy season and my desk is drowning in paperwork.  This week began with an attack of misfortunes and phone call after phone call of unpleasant things in the office.  I've pulled some very long days and today I am reaping a bit of reward from them.  I'm sure my relief will not last long, as I can now still only see 33% of my desk.  But, I must savor it while it lasts.

Well, December started off in spectacular style with, my brother, Ben's wedding.  It was a big homestead affair and went wonderfully.  The ceremony was cold but incredibly romantic and the reception of around 400 people was a great party!  Freddy had his first taste of a big American farm wedding and even found a couple of girls to dance with.  Although, I will say that he could use a few dance lessons.  He needs some more groove.  Unfortunately though, our camera quit working after one unfocused photo at the wedding.  Not sure what's wrong with it because I haven't had time to find out!  So, we've been getting by with Freddy's camera... When he remembers it!  Hopefully I'll be able to look at the warranty information tomorrow and get it sent in to be fixed up.  We'll never have enough pictures if we're relying on Freddy's picture taking skills.

December then disappeared into a whoosh of hockey games and holiday celebrations.  The hockey games went well and Freddy shared time with Alex, the other Senior goalie.  As some of the teams they've played weren't too challenging, Freddy kept saying that we hadn't really seen him play yet.  We finally got that pleasure when we watched DSJ play East Grand Rapids.  Whenever the puck heads down towards Freddy I get all tense and say things like, "Watch out Freddy!"  or "Heads up Freddy!", which of course Freddy can't hear but it makes me feel better saying.  Freddy blocked so many goals this game I was practically talking to myself the entire game.  Luckily for us and them, Mike's parents happened to be visiting that weekend and we all got to root Freddy on through a terrific game for him.  They ended up losing in overtime, but they would have never made it to overtime without Freddy.  Good fun and certainly the upside to driving all over Michigan for hockey games!

To be continued...   

Football, Golf, Hockey, Football, Parties and Some More Football

It's obvious that my absence from the blog-isphere is palpable every time I get too busy, but fear not I will always return eventually.  (My attempts at wit are quite palpable as well and I hope they don't wound you.)  Freddy has been keeping us hopping but it has been a fun few months.  Football and all kinds of other things made the time fly by.  I'm so used to being busy on weeknights that I have a very sad tale for you.  My mind has become slightly addled by it.  Tuesday evening this week I was driving home from work and I realized this very fact.  

The only way I can give you an accurate picture of what happened in my mind that night is to re-create my internal thoughts.  Stop reading now if my too-long stories bore you to tears, because I can assure that this will most likely drag on a bit too long for most sane people.  I had a pretty normal long day at work and left the office about 6pm.  I was headed north and flipping through the radio stations looking for tunes because NPR wasn't too interesting at that moment.  I was thinking about the creamy leek dish that I had gotten the ingredients for that day and what else I was going to make with it for dinner.  I then realized that Freddy was at practice until 9:30pm and that I had nothing else scheduled for the evening.  For some reason in my brain this was not okay.  I was thinking up errands to run, people to see and things to do...  When realistically I was all caught up on my social calendar, errands and most of the chores about the house.  I began to think that it was going to be such a boring night to be home with nothing to do!  I almost tweeted how boring Tuesday was, when I finally snapped out of it.  I'd been commenting for weeks that I needed more time at home because I'm so busy all the time, blah blah blah.  I finally got it and what did I do?  I regretted it!!  I thought, "What is wrong with me?"  You are supposed to enjoy down time.  I actually had to talk myself into thinking that one night... with 3 hours of nothing at home was okay.  I had to convince myself?!?  If I had remained in the earlier mind frame, I just might have gotten the riot act from my husband when I got home.  Instead of that unappealing sounding option, I thankfully got my wits back together, went home and warmed up leftovers with my hubby and relaxed on the couch.  Whew.

Now back to what has made me slightly addled.  September held the DALMAC, Mike's annual golf vacation with college buddies, a cooking divas trip to meet Tyler Florence,  exciting football games and two bridal showers.  October held more football, a 5k, Mike's first bow kill, homecoming, a MSU hockey game, a MSU football game, making apple cider and a birthday trip to the islands of Puerto Rico and Vieques.  November is almost half way though and we've already had the end of football, the beginning of hockey, a visit from Hilary and Lego Robotics.  And, really these are just the major events.

The great news is that we've really been enjoying every bit of it and especially having Freddy making us busy and having him enjoying our already busy lives.  We have really become a well oiled little family unit in the last month or so.  Freddy makes me laugh more than I laughed all year, and I laugh a lot!  He always knows when to cheer me up and it has been really fun to be a football mom for 3 months.  On to conquer hockey Mom-dom.

Day 4

Despite many bumps and bruises we all made it to the last day.  We got up early and had a yummy pancake breakfast thanks to Mom, Nan and Suzzy.  Freddy couldn't stop eating.  My Mom watched in amazement as he ate pancake after pancake after pancake.  He ate so many that she ran out of pancake batter and switched to making french toast!  I tried to warn her, but she couldn't understand until she saw it herself.  

The weather was much nicer on the final day though a little chilly yet.  With the sun shining on us we were all excited to ride to the bridge.  We headed up to Pellston for our start and we would have about a 22 mile ride into Mackinaw City.  I can't even describe how hard it was to plop my rear down on my cold, wet hard seat that morning, but it was time to finish up our trip.  The ride in to Mackinaw was rather uneventful except for the crazy people driving down the road.  I've never seen people so angry at people who were just riding their bikes.  One car should have been arrested.  They charged Samone and Scott and squealed to a stop just short of hitting them.  Then proceeded to swerve dangerously close o them while cursing them out for riding bikes.  There are weird and awful people in this world.

The SAG crew met us at the bridge and we all had a quick snack before we rode across.  I was very nervous.  The main reason I was nervous was an incident that happened when I was a child.  In 1989 a Yugo was blown off the bridge.  Since I am much smaller and lighter than a car and it was a breezy day... I was a bit nervous.  No one else seemed to be and I still don't understand why.  Despite my worries I got on my bike with everyone and we headed across.  It was truly one of the most exhilarating things that I have ever done.  It was so big and high and long, simply amazing.  I got up enough courage to get my camera out for a few crossing picks.

It was a miserable trip in so many respects, but this made it all worth it.  Ride on.

Auntie-Niece 2010!!

Day 3

Well... to date we had seen some wind, some rain, some wind and rain and some chilly weather.  Unfortunately Saturday, Day 3, was a combination of all of those bad things.  The morning started with a MacGyver-style suiting up session to try to keep as warm and dry as possible.  Trying to configure clothes into being warm, dry and comfortable for a 70 mile day was an important task.  We were not too successful, but Freddy's socks converted into leg warmers were pretty funny.  We started out in the cold blowing rain all together and we were on our first leg around Houghton Lake and then Higgins Lake.  The breeze was stiff off of the water and we were all rather down about another nasty day.  We didn't have too long to commiserate however, because after only a couple of miles on the road we had another crash.  This time it was Stephen, my brother-in-law's nephew.  While winding around the lake a strong gust hit Stephen and blew him sideways a bit causing him to hit Samone's tire and sent him crashing to the road.  Luckily, he didn't take Samone or Freddy down as they were all very close together, but I certainly wish that he hadn't gone down.  When I turned to see what was happening behind me, I just caught the image of him as he hit his head quite hard on the pavement.  I once again slammed on my brakes, tossed my bike off the road and ran back to help.  I'm not sure if Freddy grabbed his bike or I did, but he had stood back up.  I grabbed him and his eyes were rolling around eerily in his head.  I made him sit down and instructed him to lay back as a large cut on his chin began to gush blood.  His mom, Cheryl was right there and had pulled out a first aid kit.  The only other place he had took a hit was on his knee and I bandaged that up quickly while Cheryl held his chin wound closed and Mike, once again, called Joel with SAG.  Joel arrived and we butterflied Stephen's chin closed and covered it with a band-aid.  Then we loaded Cheryl and Stephen into the van along with their bikes so that they could go up to the hospital for some stitches.  Then, as the song goes, we were on the road again.

Despite the rain, cold and wind we kept up our spirits.  Cheryl and Stephen had met up with their private SAG (Cheryl's husband and daughter) shortly after we took back off and they took Stephen up to the hospital while SAG brought Cheryl back to ride with us.  Freddy, Mike, Samone and I pulled away from Scott and Cheryl and we were in two groups again.  We took a break off of Higgins Lake and then continued on in the rain.  I-75 has always been bad luck for Mike and I and it was no different here.  Before we crossed the highway, Mike took a spill.  Nothing too bad we thought.  He hadn't tore his rain jacket and there were no scratches on his legs.  It was actually quite bad we later found out.  He had to have part of it butterflied up and he is sporting an interestingly shaped scar on his elbow now.  Then right when we crossed I-75 the rain started coming down with a vengeance.  You could barely even see where you were with all the rain streaming down your face.  I could have used some glasses with windshield wipers!  Mike had planned on us taking a break when crossing I-75, but instead of an underpass it was an overpass.  That was strike 3 of the day and we thought we were out.  No refuge from the rain there and so we continued on a bit farther until I heard Samone start to make small noises of discomfort.  If I learned one thing riding with Samone, if you push her too far without a break, she won't have energy back again for the rest of the day.  Sensing a downward spiral I pulled us off for a break on a trail in the woods.

It wasn't all that covered from the rain, but at least we weren't riding and we all had a snack and some anti-inflammatories.  We headed back out and the rain eventually let up past our lunch stop at Camp Grayling, where thankfully, Mom and Nan were awaiting us.  We ate quickly and I sat in the car with the heater blowing on me for some time.  I also traded socks with my Mom.  They were dry when I traded her, but then I had to put them into my wet shoes.  I figured, they were at least warmer than the ones I had on and a little less wet.  Stephen was out of the hospital and apparently ready to ride again, so he rode with us the remainder of the day.  Back on the road and we ran straight into big hills.  It was tough and we were all pushing through, somewhat together.  The next thing you knew, of course, we needed SAG again.  This time it was Mike.  His derailer bracket broke clean off and it was un-fixable roadside.  SAG came to the rescue and loaded up Mike and his bike to head to that night's stop where the repairman was.  I was the lone adult left with 3 teenagers, Freddy, Samone and Stephen.  We trudged through the end of the hills and we all really had to push hard to make it into Gaylord.  Mike got his derailer fixed and was headed out to find us, just as we were finishing up.  We all showered up and ate yummy chili.  Mom and Nan made just what we needed after such a long cold wet day.  We were all glad to have Suzzy, Joey and Colby were there to greet us as well as being warm, dry and sedentary.

Then we had a big decision to make.  We had to decide if we were going to ride across the Mackinaw Bridge the next day or not.  For Samone, Mike and I it was an easy one, but not so easy for Scott and Freddy.  The last day you have two options, you can ride the last 60 or 70 miles into Mackinaw City to complete the entire route or you can skip part or all of the ride and ride across the Mackinaw Bridge.  There is a very small time frame that you can go over, so it is impossible to do both the route and the bridge.  Last year Samone, Mike and I rode over 320 miles and didn't even barely get to see the bridge.  It was our goal the entire trip and then to not get to see it or ride over it at the end was a slight disappointment to us in spite of our major accomplishment.  So for us, it was an easy choice... OVER THE BRIDGE!!  Scott had a harder choice to make because it was his first year.  But ultimately we all were together in deciding.  We headed up the road to Wolverine for the night and planned our departure from Pellston the next morning.

DALMAC - Year 2

Well, we started September out with an exciting bike trip.  We rode the DALMAC for the second year.  (Do you like how I just pretended like it's still the beginning of September and didn't mention the fact that I'm a month behind in blogging??  Pretty sneaky right?)  This year Samone selected a new route for us to ride, the 4 day East Route.  Last year, you may remember, we did the 4 day West Route and we rode about 323 miles.  It was an amazing experience and it made us want to do it again this year.  This year on the 4 day East we were scheduled for approximately 260 miles.  We didn't train nearly as hard this year, but seriously, I'm not sure that it would have made any difference whatsoever.  It was a rough ride all around.  We got all prepped in the weeks before.  We rode, gathered equipment, tweaked equipment and generally tried to get everyone organized.  I bought a new pretty road bike, a Dawes Shelia.  We borrowed an older bike for Freddy to ride and we got new tires and all kinds of other miscellaneous things.  Last year it was only Samone, Mike and I riding.  This year it was a large cast including, Samone, my brother-in-law, Scott, Mike, Freddy, Cheryl (Scott's sister), Steven (Scott's nephew) and of course, me.  A much bigger group to wrangle!  We finally got everything together though and Freddy, Mike and I headed over Wednesday evening to pick up our registration information.  Registration was interestingly different for me in comparison to last year.  Last year I was so nervous and worried about the whole thing and this year I barely wondered about our route.

The next morning, Thursday morning, was Day 1!  Freddy had his second football game on Thursday, so he was out for the first day.  Mike and I got up about 5am and got ready to go.  We left much earlier than necessary because we were meeting Hilary and Ricardo in East Lansing for breakfast before we began.  They were in town for the weekend for Hilary's brother's wedding and this would be the only chance we would have to see them.  You know me, always trying to do everything!  So we had a very nice breakfast at O'Neils and then headed towards the MSU Pavilion, where we would begin our journey.  We arrived and the rest of our rag-tag crew was there and ready to ride.  We kissed our supporters goodbye and we hit the road.  We had a nice ride down through the MSU campus and headed north out of town on Park Lake Road.  Mike and I especially enjoyed the ride through campus... just like the old days.  About 30 minutes into our ride, just north of town we ran into our first few problems.  Namely, Samone had something wrong with her tire and it was beginning to rain.  We all pulled off together and Mike fixed Samone's tire by trading it out with his own (foreshadowing).  Off we headed again and Scott and Cheryl were treated to a few small hills.  I'm pretty sure that they were wondering what they had gotten themselves into!!  This first day, we decided to all ride together in the morning to our lunch stop at my Mom's and then we would ride our own speeds and meet up at the stopping point for the night.  We made it all the way to Ovid when the tire that Mike had traded out from Samone's bike went down and I mean way down (See how effective foreshadowing is?).  We waited as Mike then proceeded to change a flat tube.  With the new tube in place, we were up and riding again all the way to lunch at Mom's house.  We had some delicious homemade pizza for lunch.  Pizza on the first day has become our tradition and I plan to keep it on every multi-day ride from here to eternity!  Sooo good!  Mike spent much of our lunch break tweaking bikes with everything from changing tires to adjusting seats and handlebars.  I, on the other hand, spent my break looking over my last minute purchases that were delivered to my Mom's place and eating way too much pizza.  In particular I was excited to see some energy gels in my package.  One that I bought was the brand GU and was Chocolate Outrage in flavor.  I was really looking forward to trying it out.

After lunch we had a nice flat land ride all the way to Midland... in the pouring rain.  It was pretty disappointing to ride in the wind and rain, but as we would discover in the days to come, this was the easy day.  Once we all arrived at the Bullock Creek Middle School, we commenced with showering and eating, two of the most important things to you when you ride over 50 miles in a day.  

Then Samone and I decided that we would be the two elected to drive one hour back to St. Johns to watch Freddy's football game and then take Freddy back to Midland with us.  Samone and I were feeling the days ride on our drive to the game, but we both perked up once we got there.  We had pretty good weather, no more rain and not too chilly.  The team played great and killed Jackson Northwest 34-7.  Then Samone drove us back to Midland while I tried to stay awake to monitor her driving.  It was tough for me to stay awake!  Freddy helped by chatting from the back seat.  Once back, we had a snack and headed to bed.  Mike and I elected to take the tent with the huge queen size air mattress, which was incredibly comfortable.  But it also turned out to be extremely noisy. A huge thunderstorm came through that knocked down tents and trees throughout the night.  We luckily only had to deal with a few drips and the crazy noise.  So to sum up Day 1, late start, crappy weather, lots of delays and a restless night.  You can imagine how much we were hoping that Friday would be a better day...  to be continued.