And We Danced

Sometimes my fiance does the most amazingly romantic things unexpectedly that make me so very happy.

Like tonight, for example.

He sends me back to my place to get sneakers rather than flipflops (which I never changed out of, just for the record) and I drive back into his place and there's a fire going outside in a pit. This isn't uncommon for him, he's a big bonfire person and would be named plays with fire if he ever stepped on an Indian reservation. But it was just the two of us. So we sat there for an hour just talking, which was kind of nice and I was kind of like..okay, that's...nice.

And then he turns on the speakers.

Unforgettable starts playing.

Followed by an entire playlist of love songs.

We danced by firelight and it was amazing :)

My B, my life, my love!

Oh Snap!

I have one thing to say...






...I now officially own a webcam.

Affordable Tumors!

Now you can buy plastic tumors for a "low" price!

Cupcake Crazi!

I just felt like "crazy" needed an 'i' on the end. Don't judge.

But here's is my latest baking project: Hamburger Cupcakes!



The "bun" is yellow cake cupcakes, the "burger" is fudgey brownies, and the "ketchup" "mustard" and "lettuce" is all icing...well, half icing half food coloring (at least for the ketchup!). Good tip though, if you decide to make them, cake them the day you plan on eating them. When you take cupcakes out of their "cup" they get hard realllly fast.



I don't have any idea if they actually taste good, because I don't eat the things I bake 99% of the time (too much time with the ingredients!) but they are cute!

The recipe can be found here at Bakerella, and I found it through The Jetplane's Blog.

Because I'm all about the Creative Cupcake (see previous endeavors here and here). In the past, the real kickoff to the cupcake madness, I also made these:



and these:


Because I hate cooking. But I adore baking!

I Like that He's Back in Town :)

For the last week B has been in Myrtle Beach with his family. It was something planned before we were planned, so it was okay that I didn't go (...even though I will torment him with it for a good long while). But we always bring each other things back from vacations or trips, no matter where it is, and he was having a hard time finding something he thought I'd like until the last day there:

B: "And then it hit me. There was this store right in front of me called Out of Africa. I mean, this store should have been called The "Shit for Via" Store."

I must say I love the wooden elephant with removable tusks that he brought me home. Plus? Made in Kenya. Oh yes, I'm doing good work with this man! ;)

But we were also talking about other things he bought while he was there last night after the movies (by the way, The Proposal is a FANTASTIC film...hilarious!) with my best friend on an ice cream run. And I must say, I miss his retarded comments and awkward funniness the most when he's not here. We laugh together all the time--I don't think we'd know who we were without laughing.

B: "I bought this shot glass that has a pirate flag on it and underneath it says "surrender the booty."
insert long pause here where my best friend and I try to figure out why only men find that funny as we stare blankly at him
B: "...like butt."

HA. Now it's funny! Only because of the way to came out. We got it before, it just wasn't funny. Oh geez.

But anyway. I'm going to attempt my hand at hamburger cupcakes today. Happy Father's Day to those dad's out there. I'm not much for father's day and you'll never hear me dote on my real father like I do my mom.

But, my Dad? He's a fantastic guy and my brothers and I all got together and bought him the grill mentioned in my last post. He came into my life when I was 7, spent 10 years saying two words to me per week, and then suddenly decided he'd be a dad with me and I'm really glad he did. I know he'd do anything for me, and my mom and I are very lucky to have him in our lives.

So here's to you, Dad! May you have a fantastic day full of manly things and good friends! And thanks for being the dad you didn't have to be:

When 'Hicktown' Just Doesn't Cover It

The reason I was late to work today. You know, after I finally got out of my one and a half lane road currently blocked by a trailer.


Then at work (when I finally got there) the new girl, who's been there for all of two days, managed to piss pretty much everyone off by tattling things that aren't even true, being generally bitchy, telling other teachers what to do, and doing it all with one boob hanging out. Including the boss. I bet she doesn't stay long.

And when I finally got off work I went on a search for this...


Found it on the Sears website. Found that it's not available in stores. Found out how to order it online. Found that it's not available for delivery.

Here's a fun question: what is it available for? Just to look pretty and silently chant "ha ha, you can't have me, ha ha"? Is there some secret Kenmore clan I have to join to obtain this damn grill?

So I came home with a Charmglow table top instead for my dad for fathers day. The same price and actually findable.


...not entirely sure how he'll feel about cooking on something called "Charmglow," however.

I'll be keeping the receipt.

Such a ..erm...lovely friday.

Life Jacket Failure

This is from Brady's infant life jacket. Something tells me the proofreaders in whatever foreign country this thing was made in are not being paid enough.


1. west = vest
2. loss = less
3. unindpected = uninspected (which, by the way, is still not a word)
4. weter = water

Gotta love that the things that are supposed to keep your child safe from drowning aren't even proofed! Ha!

Lakes and Bathing Suits

The weekend was...interesting...to say the least. Friday I went into work early and then we headed to the lake again, this time with Little Man (E) in tow. I love the dude, I do--I had him with me every day for five years, I changed his diapers, I fed him in the middle of the night...I love the little dude. But, these last couple years where he's (finally) been with his mom the majority of the time has pretty much turned him into a prissy brat and I've had him since Thursday so it was rather challenging. Does it make me a bad aunt if I say my nephew is a prissy brat? I have a niece who I also think is a brat, just a super spoiled one. I love them both, and being the (sometimes stupidly) honest person I am I'm willing to admit that they are brats, even if that does make me a bad aunt. (...does it? ha!)

But, anyway, Saturday we went out on the boat and Cabbage got her first taste of the lake life in Brady's life jacket from last year pictured here with her fabulous self:


Cabbage sported it a bit differently, seeing as how Brady was in the top 80% for height and weight and Cabbage just got on the bottom of the scale at her last checkup. It basically swallowed her whole:


She was not happy about it. She also sported Brady's float from last year--she was better with that. And on the way in Little Man got to drive the boat (shh!):


Saturday night I took all 7 (potty trained) kids, aged 12, 12, 9, 8 ,7, 6, and 4 to play putt putt on the sorriest course you've ever seen in your life with just a cousin of mine who, bless her heart, has zero authoritative power with children because she's really still in the stage where she'd like to "outsmart" or argue with them rather than the "because I said so" stage. So it was me and all seven kids basically, which wasn't actually bad but I was ready to go back to the campground by the time that was over.

Sunday we hit the cliffs. The Cliffs is an area of the lake where there are, surprise!, cliffs. It isn't an advertised tourist attraction or anything, you just have to know about it. And I'm very, very surprised they haven't shut it down yet. You basically have to jump over trees. They range from 5 feet to 40 feet in height, and higher when the water level is low. We kept the boat kind of far from the cliffs to be safer with the kids around so the shots I got were pretty bad, but here's the best one, as blurry as it is:

That's the highest one. And I know what you are thinking, and yes I did jump off of it. Once. Once every two years is about my quota for that jump. My 6 year old cousin jumped off the second highest one last year (at 5). My 8 year old Little Man? Wouldn't even jump off the boat.

We got home at 1030 sunday night, I had a load of laundry to do so I went to bed around 1215 and got up at 530 this morning and then worked 730am-6pm today. I'll be sure not to volunteer for that too often from now on :)

BUT. My bestie is back in town for the summer, and we went bathing suit shopping tonight. Total failure. However, I did get a $4 ballcap for the water and I put it on when I got home and said hi to my puppy. Chase HATES this hat. The first thing he did was bite the bill and rip it off my head. I thought maybe he just didn't want it on me, but I had to pull it out of his mouth. He hates it so much he'd really like to rip it to shreds. I mean, it's just a ballcap!

It's a Xavier hat, though...I guess my dog's a U of Cincinnati fan!

Le Bebe

Sorry for the lack of posts, my internet company decided none of it's customers needed access to the net for the past couple days. But I'm back! With a project I've been working on :) (No, I have not been working on a baby).

I few weeks ago I had a wall hanging cut for Baby B.

And before we go any farther, I'm tired of all this Baby B, Baby A, Baby K crap--they have names, you know! But, I'm not comfortable using their real names on here, and fortunately for you I can never call anyone by their given name and their given name only, so I'll take their nicknames and change them into that. So:

Baby B = Brady
Baby A = Boo
Baby K = Cabbage (...she looks like a cabbage patch doll)

Anyway, moving on...I ordered this thing for Brady. It's basically two thick foam boards and her name is cut out of the top one to be able to replace it with pictures. And I did the pictures on Sunday. Please witness three of the letters:

Those were the younger months--2 days old, 3 months old, 4 months old. It's, obviously, chronological. I put the pins in the corners (NOT as easy as it sounds) and will get a ribbon to hang it from here shortly.

My child will be ridiculously spoiled, and will wear those stupid crocheted hats with the huge flowers on them and the pretty Etsy bowclips and all of that jazz. It's inevitable. And his/her room will be awesome. Sorry, kid. I always said my kid will be the best dressed geek in the neighborhood, and it's so true.

You have to understand that my obsession love of babies started very young. You know how most kids have imaginary friends? No no, I had an imaginary baby, and her name was Jenny. From 18 months on, I had a love for babies:

Baby goes with me on Halloween at 22 months.

What I did on Christmas at 24 months.

What I should not have been doing with a real baby at 5 years.

And it goes on...

And on..


..see the problem? I do. It's no different now, except now they are real babies and I have to change their diapers.

My kids already have names (and I warn you, I like uncommon kids names such as Chandler for a girl, July, December or Deci, Leena, Lyric, Irelyn, for girls but more common ones for boys like Lucas and Liam), I already know exactly how the nursery will be set up, and they already have 8 pairs of shoes. That's right...eight pairs of shoes.

And yes, I can count, and I know that's only 7 pairs, but the only pair is in another box with a matching blanket and I was too lazy to dig it out.

However, I'm currently trying very hard to develop a love of 4-7 year olds. So far, no dice.

Mystery Movie Memories

Today (and the past few months, to be quite honest) I've had some fun with movies that I used to love as a kid. Quite often, I revisit these movies and don't even slightly understand why I liked them as a kid. I mean, seriously...how can a four year old just sit down and watch the word-less Fantastia over and over again? I can't even stand it as an adult. But, when I was very young, the only movie rental joint we had around here was a little rinkydink stand alone that never carried the newest movies. Even after that one closed, it was several years before we got a chain rental. So I ended up watching really old movies multiple times.

A few months ago, I invested in Babes in Toyland--the 1961, Annette Funicello version. I must have watched this movie, this version, a million times. I put it in last year, and couldn't stand it. And I'm pretty sure all the other version ever made of it were just as bad.


I bought Captain January (1936) a few months back, as well. It's still just as cute as it was back then.


And, the other day, B and I (not kidding at all) went to Hollywood Video to rent The Brave Little Toaster. Guess what! They don't have it...so, I'm going to purchase it on Amazon...probably tomorrow. I have a thing for owning my childhood favorites, bad or not.


We went and saw UP yesterday, as well, and saw a commercial for the new disney classic The Frog Princess. So, naturally, it got me thinking about my old time favorite The Frog Prince. It was even more exciting when I found out that you can watch the whole thing on YouTube (it is in English, I just couldn't find the english cover!)


And that brings us to The Three Lives of Thomasina (1964). I'm pretty sure no one has actually seen this movie besides me and my mother....eight billion times. I think I initially picked it up at the movie place when I was 3 because the cat on the cover looked like the cat we had, and it was all downhill from there. It's the same two kids from Mary Poppins, and imagine my excitement when I saw that you can also watch this entire film on YouTube!



Are there films from your childhood that you've tried to relive as an adult and thought um.....no? Or have you seen any of these so that I feel less...erm...unique?

Adoption Came Through!

I can't believe I forgot to tell you this on the post about why I was hopelessly in love with the lake this weekend!

Remember this post where I discussed the situation with the hurricane and the orphaned daughter of my friends, Abby, and custody? We got the phone call while ON the boat on Saturday that J & L won custody!! AMAZING. That means that, in 14 days (if no one appeals the decision), the judge will sign off on the agreement and Abby will be off to New England to start life with her forever mommy and daddy (and real aunt and uncle!). 9 months later, 16 month old Abby finally has a home!

Of the three people who applied for custody, only two of them really had a shot, and the other one isn't exactly...sane. We've heard that the other one who actually had a chance at getting custody will not be appealing the decision, but the one who did not probably will--if she can manage to afford it. We have full confidence that the decision will not be overturned (assuming only the crazy one appeals), but the real issue is that if she appeals it then it could be September before Abby finally gets to go home with J&L due to courts and judges and that stuff.

But, for now, we are rejoicing! :D

The Importance of Pants Wearing

...while base sliding doing.

Especially when the base sliding doing was completely unnecessary and you can't figure out why in the world you thought that would be a good idea.

Yup. Ankle to Knee. Ouch.

But, at least we won??