Celebrate good times, come on!

Posted by Melissa Baumgart
Like Kool & the Gang reminds us, when we find ourselves singing their hit song over and over again in our heads on a random Monday morning...oh, is that just me?  Well, not anymore, right? Sometimes life is full of reasons to celebrate, as has been the case here at the Baumgarts!
(I suggest clicking that link above in a new window and playing the song while you read the rest of this post.)

This past Friday, we had a small celebratory dinner to commemorate my acceptance into midwifery school!  Yes, I finally received my acceptance letter from Bastyr University into their Master's of Science in Midwifery program.  I will be starting the three year program this September.  I am looking forward to a life changing, self transformative experience throughout this next journey of my life.

Jamie's cheezy goodness.

The aforementioned dinner was a husband cooked success! Jamie found a recipe on line for enchiladas, I walked with him through his shopping expeience getting ingredients, and then he cooked them all by himself.  And they we so delicious!  Everyone loved them, even the kids!

Tallulah turned seven this past weekend!  We had a small birthday dinner for her on Saturday where we sang happy birthday and opened a few gifts.  It is the first time I have not got together a bigger party for one of my kids...no school friends, no theme, nothing.  I think we'll take in a matinee one day coming up, and invite a few friends.  And to be honest, Tallulah doesn't seem to mind, or have noticed.

Happy Birthday lunch at Gameworks!

 Lily played in her very first tournament with the select soccer team that she was recently invited to join. They won second place!!  In the finals, they played a team two levels above them, and almost won!  Congratulations girls!  Well done!

getting their silver medals!

In other Baumgart news...we have some new blogs that sprouted up:
Lili's (she is Lily's BFF and like a part of the family) Fashion blog, The World of Fashion.
Lily's blog on her love of the trapeze, A Beginner in the Circus.
Levi's blog modeled after a certain other blog that I guess he was inspired by, mini good luck with that.

Please check them out and let them know what you think!

Everyone around the world, come on...it's a celebration!  Wa-hoo!

Birthday Bowling Bash

By Amy Baranski

I grabbed a game before the guests arrived.

Ah birthdays. What to do? Who to invite? Why do I suddenly feel like I have no friends? Will my friends like each other? Why do I still have zits at this age? Do I really have to go out in public looking like this? What’s the meaning of life? What the fuck am I doing anyway?



Birthdays, if you’re lucky, are a bottle of expectations and reflections, chased down with a group of well meaning, and hopefully equally tipsy friends. 



Sorry dudes, not here to  make friends.

So, this year I took a different approach to beating my birthday blues. I grabbed the reigns and decided to host my own birthday party. I decided to throw a Birthday Bowling Bash at the Garage bowling alley. Who knows when I’ll be able to treat my friends to a good time again? Besides, it was going to be my way or the highway. I’m a little type A if you didn’t already know that.

You will have fun damn it!

In all seriousness, treating my friends to beer, pizza, and bowling put the pressure off me to have fun. Instead I got to see everyone else in merriment which then rippled back to me.

Inga checking out the prizes.

My friend Jason was SUPER skeptical of this approach. “That’s insane!” was his response when I handed him a drink ticket. “You’re insane, Baranski!” But after I laid out the fact that three prizes were at stake for the highest bowling scores of the night he just looked real serious and yelled to the room: “I’m not here to make friends, people.”

Of course, this was the perfect hook for Melissa, who was gunning for prizes before the party even started—maybe a hangover from Poker month? Wouldn’t you know they were head-to-head on lane 20. The rivalry ensued. Jason bowled a freak 141 and eventually walked away with the grand prize which included a vintage bowling bag; sixer of Miller High Life; pretzel rods; and $20 to the Garage.

Inga Muscio made my cake!!

I was so happy that the bowling made for a great icebreaker between my friends from different worlds, or different parts of my world. Of course, I have to thank Melissa who is, after all, the Party Doula.





I did not bowl well, but it was refreshingly distracting with so many people. The rest of the prizes included:

• Second Place: A copy of the Big Lebowski – this went to Dan.
• Third Place: American Apparel t-shirt with bowling pins silk-screened on it – this went to K-Dogg.



 Note the right leg.



The group was in favor of a last place prize, which would have gone to Jaga, my Polish friend who may have only bowled one game in her life. Her wind-up (and yes it was a wind-up) and release was one for the ages. The pictures don’t do it justice.

Special party thanks goes to my husband for driving me there, Inga Muscio who MADE ME A CAKE!!!, Tom for keeping diligent score, everyone for partying hard, and of course Melissa for choosing bowling month. Looking forward to many more frame with you all.

how do you slow down?

posted by Melissa


Take a deep breath.

That what I needed to do several, no hundreds of times, in the past few days.  And after all that getting worked up, it wasn't as bad as I had imagined it would be in my head.  Looking back to when I sat here writing my last post, I feel like I was a little Tasmanian devil whirling around typing furiously.  I can't believe how much we can stress about things that haven't even happened yet.  It's no wonder I was having a bad yoga class that day.

Tallulah June, fashion show 3/25/11

Lily's party was so fun....we did hair and makeup and had a music filled fashion show with the runway right down the middle of our dining room.  Lily loved it all...and so did I.  I would post a picture of her, except her idea of high fashion involved some hot pants that I just do not want seen in a picture of her out on the Internet.  Seriously.  I can't believe how grown up 11 years old is.  Here is one of Tallulah though, way more appropriate.  Very 5 years old.

Tai chi.  I know this month is about tai chi, not birthday parties or yoga.  Even though that is what has been consuming me this week.  I really wish I could have gone to that class on Thursday, that is what I need to learn tai chi.  A teacher, a class, and clear step by step instruction.  Repeat.  Repeat again.  And again.  Then it begins to sink in.

Currently, tai chi looks like this for me: I get out my tai chi books and try to follow along as I have the book sitting on the table in front of me.  I get to the third step, just after the part where you step your feet apart and raise your arms up and down...and that is about it.  I am able to do the "slow walking" that Saul taught us, as painfully slow as that is.  It is amazing how much my thighs hurt and how wobbly my balance gets just shifting weight from one foot to another, and moving forward very slowly.  
And this is before I have a glass of wine, or have shotgunned a PBR!

Even if slow walking is all I learned from tai chi month, it can still be meaningful.  If, and I stress that word if...If I use it in my life.  I think that taking a deep breath could have helped me through this week when I reached my frazzled, whiny states.  Slow walking would have also helped.  Just realizing I have 5 minutes to be slow would have sent a message to my charged endocrine system to also slow down.  That everything is ok, and we don't need to be in flight or fright mode 24/7.

So, for the next 5 days, that is my commitment for the blog.  I will spend at least 5 minutes slow walking.  Anyone else up for the challenge?  It's just 5 days.  I can see it now, people across the US and Switzerland (I know where my audience is) slow walking in their homes, in the park, to the grocery store.  It will be a phenomenon, the new "it" thing to do.   This is a link to a walking meditation instruction, which is the closest thing I have found to what we learned that day in class.  Check it out and give it a try.

So much in life tells us to be faster, keep moving, onto the next thing.  I feel like it could be so useful to have more stimuli to the brain and body letting it know it is ok to slow down.  That is why savasana is so hard sometimes, it can be easier to sweat and work your muscles til they burn, than to lie still and rest.  At least when we are moving we are "doing" something...and that's the American way.

What ways do you slow down?  OR do you feel like going, going, going is it for you...that it works?  If so, why does it work?  Leave me a comment, let me know your thoughts on being slow....

peace,
Melissa