How's YOUR morning going?

I need to start this post by saying, "Happy Birthday, Miss O!!!!"

Thank heavens you are now 2 and still have NO expectations about birthdays, because this one has sure started out in an interesting way.

That being said, I wish I believed that there would only be five or six...maybe seven...tests that we had to pass to gain life experience and then we could be through and we could enjoy the beaches and sunsets of the world. Wouldn't that be nice? I mean, I'm a really good test taker, especially when I know how many to expect and what kinds of tests are coming at me. There's a reason I loved school so much.

But then there are other tests that you just aren't prepared for, when you are often literally standing in the crap that life throws at you.

Do you know where I am going with this? No?

One of our toilets overflowed this morning. And I am the Parent at Home.

When I realized what had happened, I kinda had a stupor of thought along the lines of...what on earth do I do next? Where was the magic Sanitation Patrol, who'd come and take care of this. Ohhhhh, wait. That would be ME. I had COMPLETELY forgotten that toilet overflow clean-up was in my job description. Man, it's a good thing I am completely hooked on the emotional buzz of this job, because I am NOT getting paid enough to deal with this! The silver lining? At least it's not the sewer backing up in the basement (please knock on whatever wood is near you right now. Thank you).

And furthermore, like I said, I'm a pretty good test taker and after the initial shock, I set about working to get it cleared up, literally and figuratively. I also am still having a prayer in my heart that the magical bottle of Lemon Cleaning Liquid really does kill 99.9% of bacteria. PLEASE let that be right. UGh.

I'm comforting myself that soon, I shall be doused in so much chlorine at swim lessons that anything that I happened to have missed will be killed on contact.

In the meantime, hope your morning is going, if nothing else, a little better than mine. :)

Happy BIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRTHHday dear Super J

...Happy Birthday to you!

Today is Super J's big day and we have celebrated with a delightful array of church, food, friends and family. The best kind of gluttony, if you ask me. :)

And, can I just say, we got a GREAT new recipe for this great bean salsa which I will post tomorrow because, trust me, you'll want it.

OHHHHH! I made the lime coconut cake just for Super J. And OHHOLYCOW, it's a KEEPER! Yummo...I mean, really. Yummo. AND, thanks to Cryptic Jennifer, we have PICTURES! I know. Recipes and pictures. Can you even imagine?????

So, tomorrow I will be adding all sorts of great recipes and pictures, but for now, Happy Birthday, Sweet Super J. You are the best. :) And as always, thanks for asking. :)

And we have lift-off!!!!!!!

The Astronaut Party is over! WHEW!

I had amazing help, which was unplanned but definitely appreciated, with some of the moms staying and helping (we even had a dad stay and help and I think Super J was pleased as punch to have someone go to Costco to get pizza with him). It turned out much better than anticipated, but I was SURPRISED to find that my little angels were the most monstrous of them all--actually, pretty much the ONLY monsters at the party. What the heck is that all about???? Seriously, I had to send Miss A to her room because she was practically attacking other adults with the cheap Chinese rocket toys and such we'd gotten as party favors. And Miss E???? The most pouty child until the pizza showed up. So annoying. And, frankly, so embarrassing.

But other than a few mishaps like that (and why oh why did I (a) not get enough "space" helmets and (b) get everyone the same kind??????), things went well. We had enough food, the cake turned out (pictures to be posted later) and was edible (last night around 11:30, I had my doubts), and best of all, Miss E was ECSTATIC about her gifts (this was after the pizza and she'd eaten. She was definitely a different child). Seriously. I kid not. I have never seen a child with such enthusiastic reactions to each and every present. It literally brought tears to my eyes (it didn't help that I was a wee bit on the fatigued side, I'm sure, but still!). I made a joke during the party that it was like we never got her anything, she was sooooo effusive about her gifts, but I think it made everyone feel good. AND, we got it on "tape." Yep. We got the gambit of emotions at this particular Astronaut Party: snotty kid, annoying kid, super excited kid and super sweet kid. It'll be so fun to show her when she has a four year old of her own.

All in all, a good party: good friends, good food (well...pizza and cake...how bad can that be?) and cheap Chinese party favors resembling space ships and such. What's not to like?

Ooooooo Miss O and Miss Grumpy Pants

I gotta say with lots of love, Miss O is at that age where sometimes, honestly, she is a very trying little girl.

We have been up since about 8:00. So far, "we" have dumped water not once, not twice, but THREE times. Gosh! Maybe even four times, because at one point, she was pouring water from one cup to another...so I lose count. But it's definitely more than once. All while I am trying to get Miss E's cake done for her birthday. GRRRRRR. She's also gotten into all the wipes, and then found all the empty boxes of wipes and brought them all out (don't ask why I haven't pitched these empty containers. I'm sure I read about some fabulous storage idea in "Real Simple" magazine). She's currently carrying the boxes from one room to the next and trying to sit on them.

I am 100% sure that if I wasn't trying to get stuff done, none of this would bother me. Okay. I lie. All the water dumping would and does bother me. But the wipe thing...I'm kinda used to that by now, as it seems to be a rite of passage when you are in your (near) two's. But right now, I'm so dang grumpy it's not even funny.

Hmmmmm...did I mention I just got back from a great getaway with Super J? Yes. It only took 24 hours for me to snap like a crazed thing at my kids yesterday...around 5:47ish. I know because I looked at the clock, having realized I'd just done it. How sad is that?

UPDATE 1: Just had to put Miss O in time out because she was pitching a fit concerning moving chairs and touching the computer's on/off button. She keeps telling me "NO! NO! NO!" and I keep telling her, "I know! That's what I'm saying, too." So, to the step she went and I sat by her and waxed eloquent to my 22 month old about how frustrating it is not to get our own way, etc. etc. She is continuing to cry during my little sermon. Then all of a sudden, she stops. She looks at me and I swear, she says, "I feel better, Momma." We hug and she gets up, fit over. Bizarre.

UPDATE 2: 10 minutes later. Keep in mind, I'm still in my pajama's and didn't bother with a bath yesterday. Thus, I look pretty darn scary. There is a knock at the door. I make a mad dash to put something more appropriate on (pants verses pj shorts) and answer it. Two sweet Jehovah's Witnesses are there. They ask how I feel about the current state of the world, bringing up the scary things that are going on, including how terrible gas prices are, and I tell them that I am LDS and that we need to be wise, not panic, but realize that there is hope and that all this is part of a plan. They share a scripture out of Revelations and agree that there is hope. They leave a pamphlet (it will refer me to scriptures from my own Bible...loved that) and I ask if they need water or anything. Nope. They've just started out and are doing well. I wish them luck and share that I did this when I was 21 and know it's not the easiest thing sharing messages of hope, and they depart with smiles and waves from the girls.

And guess who doesn't feel quite so grumpy. :)

My Nemesis...

Gentle Reader...I vainly fancy myself a decent cook. That is, unless I am faced with my greatest nemisis. I can't quite say an enemy, as it has no hard feelings towards me. Ha! It has no feelings at all...or should I say, THEY have no feelings at all. If they did, perhaps they'd take pity on me. But NO! Their creation is one of my greatest weaknesses.

Yes.

I speak of the cupcake.

"What???" I can hear you, Gentle Reader. I hear you saying, "Miss L. ANYONE can make a cupcake." Perhaps. But not everyone can make a GOOD cupcake. And I want to make a good cupcake because, as stated above, I am VAIN about my cooking skills. And cupcake mastery eludes me. Normal regular cupcakes ELUDE me. Cupcakes you try to make in a cute ice cream cone...disaster! And now this. GRRRRRRR.

Today I attempted to make "Full Moon Cupcakes" for Miss E's preschool snack tomorrow. As it is her birthday, it is the tradition of the birthday's honoree to bring the snack and most mom's do something special for said occassion.

As we know of Miss E's strange and consistant love of things Space and Astronautical (hmmmmm. Is that a word? It is now, I guess), I searched for something fun to make. And I found full moon cupcakes. These are also known as "Black Bottom Cupcakes" because you have a chocolate bottom and then a cream cheese top that has chocolate chips in them. If done correctly, the cream cheese spreads over the top of the chocolate bottom and the chips look like little moon craters. How cute would that be. Also, they qualify for snack because there's not oodles of frosting, which the teachers have told us they hate giving to the children because of a) the mess and b) most kids wipe off much of the frosting (or just eat the frosting) which then causes a) the mess to occur.

I began about 4:00pm because technically, the cupcakes only need 20 minutes to bake. So. I got the batter done. I got the cream cheese stuff done. I piped the cream cheese into the center of the batter. I put them in the oven. Things seemed to be going well. I was excited. And then, I started thinking of dinner.

Frozen chicken breasts, to be exact, and then the phone rang. My friend from St Louis! Hello Miss P! We are busy chatting away and what do I do? Yes. With about 6 or so minutes left, I start to "preheat" the oven...to 425.

But wait, I hear you say, Gentle Reader. You are already baking those great cupcakes! Ahhhhhhh, yes. Yes. You speak truth. And I know that now.

425 degrees for 6 minutes is, well, quite a long time if you are trying to go for moist wonderful Black Bottom Full Moon Chocolate Cupcakes. It tends to...dry them out, shall we say? AND, on top of that...who knows what I did, but the cream cheese has become more of a center filling than the top of the cupcake, as the chocolate cake part has basically tried to SWALLOW it's little cream cheese center.

Thus, the cupcakes are more of a dry Black Hole Cupcake than anything else.

CURSES!!!!!

Super J (super as always) says they look cool and that the little preschoolers won't care. And he's probably right. We will try out the spare ones for dessert for F.H.E. tonight and see what the reaction is. If it's good, I will go ahead and send them with my cheeks flushed.

If it's bad...maybe it's not too late to make the old stand-by: chocolate chip cookies. I make a mean chocolate chip cookie.

sigh.

Aldi's and the Inevitable Accident?

This is pretty long, so feel free to hit the bathroom and then grab a snack/beverage from the kitchen before you settle in....

Sooooooo, A has been invited to a birthday party this weekend. It sounds so fun...it's a pajama party with other 5 year old friends from church/school and it's during the glorious hours of 5:30-8:00 p.m. and all invitees are supposed to wear pajama's and have hot dogs and other fun treats and then, close to 8:00 they get a bedtime story and a snack. How great is that??? I must remember this fun themed idea, especially since we have put the Big Nix on any sleepovers (but that's for another blog entry).

Happily, this also means that we got to go gift shopping today.

Now, for those of you who don't know, I'm on the Aldi's Plan. That is, I shop every week at Aldi's for groceries and then I have either one trip to Wal-mart or one trip to Costco (every other month) to get stuff that they don't carry at Aldi's but that we use on a normal basis (read: diapers and wipes and stuff like that). This sadly is a necessity for us as we are saving for our crazy high deductible insurance plan/baby. While I'd love to claim that I am naturally thrifty and have overcome my financial indiscretions of my youth, I must confess: I love shopping (I have written that phrase at least 5 times and deleted it like it's some dirty little secret. But there, I have left it!), and I love to shop at stores like Target and Wal-mart where they have almost EVERYTHING I want (notice the word) and/or need.

ANYWAY! The Aldi's plan has really helped curb my random spending (for example, I used to go into Wal-mart with the kids and while there, I'd be like, Oh, I/we need this and this and this and chuck it into the cart before the baby pitched a fit and before you know it, I'd gone over the budget by 50%). With the Aldi's plan, I've actually really been able to save and learn that this is a wonderful feeling in and of itself. So, I've been doing this since January and it is, indeed, very satisfying actually coming in UNDER budget. Yay me!

That said, Aldi's is somewhat limited in their toy selection, so I was hoping for the best as far as gift giving and boy howdy! For whatever reason, they had Princess Barbies and Mariposa Barbies for a SMOKIN' deal. A and O were with me (E was at preschool) and we scored three Barbies...two for friends who are having birthdays this very week, and one for O. We also got these cute pajama sets for A and for E (though the latter will later reveal through wet crocodile tears she'd rather have had a doll...ugh. Will I ever get this right????). All this at Aldi's!!!! I was very pleased.

Of course, A could not keep her hands off the Barbies and she asked if she could hold the various boxes at the store, which I was fine with. Once home, though, the holding of the boxes continued for a while until I decided we were getting a little overzealous with the packaging and told her she could only hold O's Princess Box. After I got the baby down for a nap, I went downstairs to the basement to walk the treadmill for my 12 minutes and when I came up, A was sitting on the floor with the Mariposa Barbie's box and the tape. Yes. She'd broken off a piece of the box (a butterfly thing that stuck out) and was trying to figure out how to tape it back. Keep in mind, Mariposa Barbie is one of the GIFT Barbies. You see where this is going...

Now, Gentle Readers, I'd love to say that I saw her panic and calmed her down, telling her in soft dulcet tones that it was going to be all right. But you realize I'm pregnant, right, and excessively hormonal right now (another blog entry for another time: Loathing and the pregnant woman...coming soon)? You realize that I have about 23 seconds worth of patience. And with that frame of reference:

As I had yet to really assess the situation and, honestly, I was miffed that she hadn't listen to me, I instead growl at her, "What are you doing? Were you playing with that? Did you have permission to play with that? Get up to your room--and don't wake up the baby!!!!!"

With tears starting to flow, A streaks up the stairs to her room. E steps up the plate for her, as always, "Mom, don't be mad at A."

"Honey, I'm not mad. I'm just super disappointed," I say as I'm trying to simultaneously figure out how to repair the packaging with the least amount of unsightliness, decide if I need to go buy a different doll, decide what to do about A, decide what to do about my reaction to the situation. So, I place a call to J at work. He can't talk at that moment but says will call me ASAP (which he has yet been able to do). I'm on my parenting own.

A deep breath later, I call my red-eyed girl down from her room and with tears in eyes, we talk about the importance of not touching/playing with someone else's present, as well as the distinction of buying something for our friends verses ourselves. We revisit, amidst E's own fresh tears, the sadness of the pajama's and no doll, as well as E's desire to also attend the party she wasn't invited to. We talk about what we can do to make it better, and decide the tape will probably do just fine, because it is, after all, just the box that is somewhat damaged and will inevitably be discarded anyway, and that E and J can probably go on a Daddy/Daughter date during the party hours and will have a great time.

In the end, it all worked out. But this is assessment time, Gentle Reader, when I go back and try to figure out what the heck I could have done differently to have avoided this whole mess. Ugh. I am emotionally spent and tired now. So, here's the thing: the dolls were such a good deal at Aldi's, I could have just gotten everyone one, but then I would not have felt great getting the cute pajamas...which quite frankly will be a big hit come Saturday when they can wear them AND use the wand that comes with 'em. And all of this was sort of a splurge anyway...I mean, we went for the gift after all (see what I mean about liking to buy things?). I could have put the dolls up sooner and not allowed any more touching. I could have not freaked out when I saw A on the ground.

Oh well. It is what it is. I'm sure I will have a pearl of wisdom later about this...I just don't know what it will be. :)