There might be cake

There is this comedian, Greg Behrendt,  I saw on Comedy Central. Part of his routine is a bit about how much he likes cake. He says you can get him to go anywhere if you say 4 little words - There MIGHT be cake. It doesn't even have to be a sure thing. Just the possibility of cake.  Yeah. That's me. I love cake.

We had a early retirement thing go on at work one year, and people were retiring left and right. I was in heaven. They kept having parties with cake everywhere. I would ask around until I found someone that I knew who knew the person that was retiring and then I'd go with him/her to the retiree's party to get some cake. Shameless. Then people got tired of all the cake and switched to cookies. Cookies are my second favorite. Someone I know is retiring next week. I hope he has cake.

The best kind of cake is the classic. White cake with buttercreme icing. I don't know what is up with the whole whipped icing thing! It's not cake without real icing. (Although I will still eat it. ummm... cake) Walmart (evil bastards) makes good cakes. I bought one to bring with me the day I returned to work after maternity leave. I had them decorate it with the words "Because Katie likes cake". I hadn't had cake in 2 months because I hadn't been at work. You can't just eat cake at home all the time. Your kids will want some too, and you can't allow that. It's not good for them.

We have a sign-in sheet at work now. I've worked in this area for 2 years, and we never had to sign in and out. I forget all the time. My boss comes by and reminds me when I forget. The other day he said "Maybe I should leave some cake by the sign-in sheet. Then you won't forget" He knows me too well. (Maybe I can keep "forgetting" and he'll try it. Oohh. That's a good idea)

I went to a wedding shower the other week. I can't remember the last wedding shower I went to. I know baby showers always have cake, so I was hoping wedding showers would too. I was disappointed. But it was a brunch with lots of good food and the wedding was the next week, so I got over it and just stuffed myself on the other food. The next week, we went to the wedding. The cake was made by a donut place. It even tasted a little like donuts. My husband doesn't think so. But we agreed that it kinda tasted like Dunkin Sticks (which he doesn't believe qualify as donuts and I'm willing to take his word on it, because he really likes donuts) My step-MIL was having trouble getting hold of the people to make the cake when she was planning the wedding, so she asked us for the number of the lady that made our wedding cake. (ummm... our wedding cake... the best part of getting married... *wipes drool from the keyboard*) I got all excited, but it wasn't to be.

Our wedding cake was the best cake I've ever tasted. We picked out a pretty design which make oodles more cake than we actually needed, but was really pretty, so we didn't care. Then we tasted it. I was so glad we got extra. We cut it up and froze it in ziplocs. If you took it out of the freezer when you started cooking supper, it was nice and soft for dessert. We had cake for a long time after the wedding. I even had the same lady make Rob a cake for his A.S. graduation party. 

To sum up: I went to a wedding where I thought I was going to get cake from the lady that made my wedding cake. Different cake was had. Was good, but not the same. Someone is retiring. I may get cake.

Also, weirdgirl went to a baby shower last week and talked about the food there. Got me thinking about cake.  Last Friday was my anti-versary. Bad things happen to Rob and I on Friday October 13th. I know that we've broken up on at least 2 Fri the 13th's (although not October). Got me thinking about being married - thus, cake. The universe is conspiring to make me hungry.  In honor of all the cake talk and our anti-versary, I thought I'd post some pictures of my wedding. beautiful cake, no?

curious

I have a question for you internet people. When you go to someone's house do you knock or ring the bell first?

I've always been under the impression that people don't especially like to hear the doorbell ('cause I don't and I consider myself normal. Stop laughing.) so I always knock. Then I knock again. I wait and only ring the doorbell as a last resort if I don't think anyone heard the knocks. So are any of you people abnormal (with me as the standard, of course) and ring the doorbell first? If you are, stop it. Especially at naptime on a Sunday afternoon, because that would just be annoying. Hypothetically, of course.

food UPDATED

Ally ate tacos last night!!! Well, not real tacos, but they were close to tacos, and they are new food that she's never eaten before. And she at eat least 2 of them (It's hard to tell exactly how many, because she took various bites out of many and only ate one whole one, and only that because we told her she couldn't have any more grapes until she ate a whole one. Otherwise, she would have been happy randomly picking a taco to chew on. And, you know, we're anal like that.)  I love mini-tacos!

UPDATE: I can't believe I forgot the hambuger she ate Saturday. Rob and I were having various leftovers frmo the fridge for lunch and Ally said she didn't want any of them. She asked Rob to open the fridge so she could find something and she pulled out one of those kid's freezer meals with a hamburger and fries. We bought about 6 different kinds that she picked out, and she never ate a single one. This was the last one. Rob told her that since she picked it out if she didn't eat it, we weren't going to buy her any more. Then he cooked it and she tried to eat the fries. We both enforced 1 bite of hamburger = 1 french fry. She ate the whole thing! Granted, it was kid-sized, but the whole thing!! A couple times she even took 2 bites in a row, and eventually we didn't have to police her, she just did it on her own. I think that's the most meat, that wasn't in chicken nugget form, she's ever eaten in a single sitting. Yay Ally.

Santa Daddy

Rob has been taking Ally to the store occasionally and they browse the toy aisles for Christmas/birthday ideas. The last 5 or 6 times she has always gone straight to a certain kind of princess Barbie doll. Last night at the store, I went to pick something up and came back to find them perusing the hot wheels sets. He wanted a track so she could drive her cars. He couldn't wait 1 month when we have to buy her presents for her birthday anyway. Nope. He bought it last night. Then he took me down the Barbie asisle to show me what one she liked. She picked it out and Rob looked at me and said "Why don't we just get it for her now? Then we'll see if she likes to play with it and maybe get her another one for Christmas" Ally threw it in the cart and climbed on. The decision was made.

What am I going to get this kid for Christmas?

again with the sickness

Okay, I'm sick of this sickliness running through our house. The kids have been running snot everywhere for the past couple weeks. Ally isn't too bad, but Anya is really feeling miserable most of the time. She hates getting her nose wiped, and don't even think about letting her see you with the nose sucker (aka bulb syringe). I left her for 40 minutes the other day to go to Walgreens and get a vaporizer for her room. When I got home I could here her screaming her freakin head off. Rob says she did it the whole time I was gone. Ear infection? We've dealt with enough of them that we have our own otoscope. Rob thought maybe one ear was infected, so I loaded her up and we went to PromptCare. Anya spend much of the day wimpering laying against my chest (or atatched to it).

I was hoping she hadn't inherited Rob's ears. Crap!

Ally got her first infection at almost the exact same age. Turns out Anya doesn't have one... yet. One ear has fluid built up but isn't infected. It probably would have been by tomorrow, but the doc went ahead and gave me an antibiotic. Anya's cold has lasted long enough already, and hopefully we can kill whatever germs have taken up residence. Anya actually likes the taste of the antibiotics, oddly. Ally hated them (to start with. She now loves medicine. I got some out for Anya and Ally said "Is that Anya's Tylen? I want some"). The bad thing is that it's amoxicillin. Everytime Ally was on it, she got a yeast infection.  We'll see.

The one thing that distracted her from her wimpering was very strange. Someone left an Avon book on our doorstep. Rob was thumbing through it and Anya lurched up and stole it from him. The pages were crinkly, so she wadded them up and slobbered on them and just generally had fun. It was about the time her Tylenol had kicked in. Plus, we went to Wlamart and she had an entire hour or more with no screaming. It was a nice break.

playing around with design
I'm playing with a couple things in the design of this place. I'm tired of posting entries about new scrapbook pages, so I put a handy little note up there by the tickers at the top. I'm working on my profile, since I actually have some people reading that are new friends rather than family (Hello, new friends. I'm happy to see you) It's a lot harder than it seems. Who am I? I haven't a clue.

best commercial EVER

Okay, I like commercials. There are some good ones out there, but I just found the video on YouTube of my favorite commercial of all time!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTRg4ovd2-c

sausage stars

Gosh, I'm turning into Martha Stewart around here.** Here's some more yummy food I made. Rob's step-mom's sister had these at the wedding shower she hosted a couple weeks ago and I loved them.

Sausage stars

1 package wonton wrappers (found in the produce section)
1 pound browned sausage
3 cups shredded co-jack cheese
1 cup Ranch dressing

Preheat oven to 350. Shape wonton wrappers in mini-muffin pans, making sure the edges are open so you can fill them later. Heat for 5 minutes. Mix sausage, cheese and dresssing. Spoon into wontons. Heat additional 5 minutes or until wontons are light brown.

*wontons can be cooked the night before, filled and refrigerated, so prep time is short the next morning.

**only without the pristine house, fame, and money, and you know, talent for design and stuff. Okay, maybe I'm more like a cheap slob, but at least I'm eating well lately

inspired

I did some more scrapbook pages -->

Ok, fine. If you're too lazy to find the link yourself:

http://ktjrdn.photosite.com/scrapbook2006/I_hope_you_dance.html

http://ktjrdn.photosite.com/scrapbook2006/Jump.html

the sweetest sound I've ever heard
My kids were laughing together last night. I love it. Ally was hiding under the blanket and poking her head out every so often, and Anya thought she was hilarious. She even took her thumb out of her mouth long enough to laugh real deep. Then when Ally stayed hidden for too long, Anya leaned over and grabbed Ally's feet. So out popped Ally, laughing like crazy and set Anya off laughing again. I don't know how long it lasted. It probably wasn't really very long, but it seemed like time stopped. I was just sitting there with my 2 girls having a good time. I wish it could be like that all the time

And now for something completely different...

Shew, that was depressing. Let's move on, shall we?

We decided that we once again need to clean out our cabinets. Anything that hasn't been used in a while needs used up. So we made some um, well, it doesn't have a name, so let's just call it cheesy veggies, pasta and chicken, because it's descriptive. It's even better than I remembered it. I just had soe leftovers for lunch. Yum. Here's how you make it:

Brown some cubed chicken pieces. (Do you call it browning when it's chicken?)

Cook some rotini noodles

Steam some frozen broccoli and cauliflower

Melt some Velveeta (maybe a third of a box?) with some milk and a can of Campbell's broccoli cheese soup.

Mix the soup with the pasta. Add the chicken and veggies. Warm it up until it tastes good.

Rob eats his over honey cornbread. I eat mine over Golden Wheat Pilsbury biscuits. Yummy.

If men are frmom Mars, can we send them back?

We had to schedule our new truck for it's 15,000 maintenance. Not a big deal, but since it's 4WD, it's gong to cost a couple hundred. When we dropped it off this morning, Rob explained what they were going to do and why it would be that expensive.

I've been kind of down lately. Money is VERY tight. We've almost got our refrigerator paid off. We got it on 6 months no interest, but only if it's paid off in that time. 6 months is almost up, but that extra $200 a month is relaly hurting us. Stupid old refrigerator picked a crappy time to die. Cause we needed a new car too. The old Regal just didn't have room for Anya's  non-pumpkin rear-facing car seat. The other car has no air-conditioning. It just wasn't working out. We could have bought a cheaper vehicle, but comeday we might have more kids, so we don't want to have a vehicle that isn't prepared for that. Which means our car payment doubled. We spent a lot of money this summer on various things for the house and most of our progress on our debt when bye-bye. All our credit card debt is at 0% interest, so all the money we pay every month is strictly paying down the total, but it's just not happening fast enough. At this rate, it'll be 30 years before we make enough money to move to a bigger house. (sigh)

So when he told me it would be a couple hundred I got a little depressed and said "Goddammit. Why can't we ever get ahead? We keep having all these little necesary expenses and we never have any money" He proceeded to make me cry. He says there is no point in talking about it when there's nothing we can do about it. We decided to take the truck in, so why waste his time bitching about it. We made a decision (to spend the money) so I should quit unloading all of this carp on him. Don't I know he's already worrying about it? Why should he have to listen to me bitch and whine about it when there's nothing he can do? If I want to have a constructive discussino that's okay, but he doesn't want to listen to me whine.

I hate men! Sometimes, I just need to talk. To vent some of my frustration. Normally I know better than to try to do it with him, but I was feeling particularly crappy this morning. I don't want him to solve my problems, although that would be nice. I just want him to listen and acknowledge that it's bothering me. Maybe even tell me it's okay and that we'll get through it together. And not to add to my frustration by telling me he doesn't want to listen to me. I know that already. That's part of my frustration! ArrrrrgggggggggGGGGG!!!!!!!!

I wish I could get him to understand. No, that's not true. I think he does understand. He just thinks it's irrational and a waste of time to talk about things that you're not going to/can't do anything about, so he wants me to accept it and not bother him. I wish I had some friends around here...

I don't usually discuss my occasional issues with my husband here, since so much of our families read this, but I need to bitch to someone, and this is what I've got. Sorry.

sitting pretty

I didn't say anything, because I wasn't sure I actually believed it, but Anya can push herself up to sitting by herself now. Thursday, the daycare teahcers told me that she was laying in her crib asleep on her belly, and the next time they looked at her she was sitting up. The next time they looked, she was laying on her back, but they say she sat up and was stable for a while. She has shown no indication of trying to do this before. That was Thursday. I saw her do it myself last night. She was very proud of herself. I'm proud of her too.

The first time is an accident. The second time is luck. The third time it's a new skill. We're almost there.

I hope you dance...

Last night was my step-SIL's wedding. Ally did NOT want to sit through it, but got through it just fine. Rob slid down the aisle with her and sat off to the side of everything and kept her mostly quiet. He's so good at that. I'm very impatient in that kind of situation. I really like weddings, and wanted her to be quiet, so I could look around. Anya was very tired, and about half-way through started fussing enough that I thought I had to go outside, but the church was big enough that I could walk around the back and keep her quiet and put her to sleep and then just go back to my seat. Right about the time I sat back down, someone started singing, and the speakers were quite loud, so I had to get back up because they woke Anya up. But, it was almost over so it wasn't that bad.

When we got to the reception, there were appetizers set up ("They're what you eat to make you hungry" ~ Cartman to the Ethernopian kid) Ally got to sit and eat crackers, watermelon, grapes, cantelope, honeydew, and more crackers. She was happy. When it was mealtime, she didn't really like any of it, but she had more fruit and a roll or two. Fruit? check. grains? check. Veggies and meat? ehh, not so much.

When she had enough to eat, she got up and went to the dance floor. No one was dancing yet. The wedding party kept going to the bar for a smoke, so things were running behind. But that didn't stop Ally. She twilred and kicked her feet and ran around like she was having the time of her life. She was in this pretty little (formerly) white dress with a big skirt (She told Meghan - the SIL - that they were wearing the same dress. They matched), so when she twirled or ran, the dress just fanned around her legs. She ran over to Rob's grandpa (who walks with a cane. He has diabetes, and his legs aren't so reliable anymore) and pulled on his arm and said "Grandpa, dance with me!" Rob's dad went out to dance with her for a while, and he just stood still and Ally ran in circles around him and crawled through his legs.

She was so un-inhibited. She was so beautiful. She was so happy. At one point I looked up and caught my breath. I told Rob "She's so gorgeous" She was running back to our table, skirt twirling, face shining, smiling so big, so confident and , oh I don't know. I'm not a writer. I can't find the words. All I know is that it made me so happy, I almost teared up. I hope she can retain that joy. The un-selfconsciousness. The ability to enjoy herself so thoroughly.

Rob's sister, Jenn, helped out by helping hold Anya off and on so that Rob and I coud corral Ally or eat or stand in line. All in all, it was a great time. Ally got to bed over an hour late last night, bu tof course, she didn't sleep in much this morning, and is currently wound up upstairs with Rob. She woke up this morning and I took her upstairs, turned the TV on, and she let me sleep another 45 minutes. Yay. Hooray for the TV as a babysitter.  uh-oh, here they come downstairs

Not alone
I just found a new internet friend (Hi, Jenny). And do you know why I love her? She also uses sheets and fabric to make her own photo studio at home! I'm not the only one. I bought a couple big pieces of fabric before Anya was born, because I had always wanted to and had never gotten around to it yet. My problem is that I have nowhere really good to set up for a photo shoot except my living room. And there's nowhere to arrange a backdrop there. But, i found the solution. I'm getting this for Christmas. Whether I get it as a gift from someone (hint, hint) or buy it for myself remains to be seen. But, I did it anyway last night. What do you think?

Free gift with purchase - Sibling Rivalry

Remeber how Ally wanted to be a green monster for Halloween? Hahaha... i outsmarted her. I tried. I really did. I don't know how many costume places we loked, but we found nothing that passed her inspection. Nothing that matched her vision of a green monster. The only detials she ever gave us were that green monsters had eyes on top of their heads and said Rar!  Not much to go on. Add to that the fact that costume makers expect little girls to want to dress up like princesses and witches and I was SOL.

BUT... She wanted to be a green monster AND a pumpkin. So I went out and bought Anya a pumpkin costume. it's so very cute. It has padding around the belly and it's going to make her so squeezably round and cute. Plus, it has pumpkin slippers with it. Soooo cute. Anyway. It came with the added bonus of Sibling Rivalry. Yay. Ally wants to be a pumpkin.

So we went looking for a pumpkin costume and I had a panicky momnet where I didn't think we were gonig to find one in the right size, but the "One size fits up to 24 months" fit her wonderfully. I have serious doubts it would fit anyone under the age of 18 months though. Yippee. I'm going to have 2 almost matching pumpkins for Halloween. i can't wait.

Why I'm an idiot...
Reson # 18,408: Unilt yesterday, I thought that those simple white men's underpants were called "tidy whiteys". It was pointed out to me that tidy makes no sense, and that they are actually "tighty". Makes much more sense, huh? Doh!

too beautiful

The weather has been so weird here lately. Thursday, it was freakin' cold! Then Saturday, I was pretty nice. Sunday it was kinda warm, and today? Supposed to be 87. WTF!?!?

Anyway, I took Anya and Ally out to get some pictures Thursday, and they were just beautiful. Ally didn't cooperate though. Saturday we all went out again, and didn't even need coats. The pictures are just gorgeous. I'm doing something with them soon, so check back at the scrapbook link over there  -->

various body parts

Anya has found her toes. Most often you can see her sucking her thumb with the toes of one sock either in her mouth too, or in her fist of the thumb she's sucking. The daycare said they found her the other day with both socks soaking wet. She doesn't put her toes in her mouth when she's not wearing socks though. She just holds them.

She's an equal oppurtunity thumb sucker. We went to Meghan's (step-sister-in-law) wedding shower this weekend (left Ally with her dad at home) and Anya was starting to get a little hungry and sleepy. She sucked her thumb and everyone thought it was just the cutest thing. Then she pulled it out and sucked the other one. This is a sign for me. When one thumb just isn't doing the job, and she has to switch back and forth, she is getting tired. The other ladies she thought it was adorable. Everyone asks me if she's teething, since she drools so much. But, no... she just drools. Ally was like that to a lesser extent. We thought she was teething for the longest time, but  - no teeth. Anya just is  avery oral kid. She even chews on her blankets. The cutest thing is when I see her sleeping with a corner of a wet blanket wadded up in her tiny little fist. She has these little infant soft books. You know, the ones with the crinkly pages? ally never cared a bit for them. Anya loves them. But after she's had one for a while, you don't want to touch it. very wet. yuck

No ear infections yet it seems. I was just looking through the past posts and discovered Ally's first one was about this age. I'm going to keep watching for one though. I don't expect to be lucky enough that Anya got my ears instead of Rob's. The pediatrician WILL refer us to an ENT faster this time.

I have a sickness

I can't help myself. Every time I do it I tell myself it will be the last time. That I won't do it ever again. I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it. I am weak. I bought to more cards this weekend - just in case.

I have a collection belated birthday cards sitting in my file cabinet. I love birthday cards. I could spend hours in a good card store. You would think that by having cards on hand, I wouldn't have need of belated ones. I could look at my calendar (of which I have an entire one devoted solely to birthday os various people in my family) and wa-la I have a birthday card in my file I can send them. on time and everything. It doesn't work like that though. Usually I think "hmm blank's birthday is coming up, I should get them a card." And then I promptly forget about it. Until the day before. Then it's too late to send it on time. So I have a constant need of belated birthday cards. So I stock up on them.

But, I have a weird sense of humor. My stock of cards just doesn't fit most of the people that I would need to send them to (One of them has a picture of a dead rat on it - It's funny, believe me). So they sit in the cabinet gathering dust. Besides, I don't ever have stamps anyway. I do all my bill paying on the internet. Who needs snail mail? Except that the cards are just too funny to resist. So now I have a bunch of cards that I can send to a select group of people. But, I'm just too lazy.

Someday, I'll stop buying them. Until then, did I forget any of your birthdays? And don't be surprised if you get a birthday card from me a couple months after your birthday. I didn't forget it, I just had this great card I wanted to send late.