Wordless Wednesday: I'm in love

hrrrmm

Since I've had le bebe, it's been a little hectic (shocking, I know)..Actually I digress - I LITERALLY thought that after the baby was born while I was home on maternity leave, I'd be able to do things. Things like clean out the garage, bake cookies, go on lunches with my other friends with babies, go on walks at the beach, etc etc. I barely made it to the shower every OTHER day. I didn't know how much of a blessing it would be to have my mom come stay with me for a few days. Even when you don't always get along with your mom like the other siblings do, no one does it like your own mom. She waited on me hand and foot. Did my laundry. Made me breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. She practically had an iv of water going in my arm. She went grocery shopping for me, bought me diapers, made a Target run.. Geez... it was the good life!

Anyhoooooooo.... mom and sister and the tanker (stepdad) were back out for a few days and I was ready to get my bake on. I was going to try my hand (for a 2nd time) at cupcake pops, but the oven suddenly went on the fritz. It turned off and started flashing an F3 error. The oven is I'm sure circa 1972 but if you ask mom and tanker it's practically brand new. First words out of sister's mouth? "How OLD is that thing???" Well, the magic fingers of Tank made the oven turn back on and supposedly heat up to the proper temp. The cake looked ummmmmmmm......less than normal. We kept wondering if that thing was done (which I've never had to 'wonder' about before)so eventually we just took it out. It was really crispy on the edges. Not as a cake should be. But I forged ahead and completed the steps I followed on Bakerella http://www.bakerella.com/make-your-cupcakes-pop/ but I made a few adjustments to the baking instructions thanks to Sara over at Sweet Somethings http://skeddy.blogspot.com/

My cupcake pops did not turn out like they did on Bakerella. Here is a picture of sister and me and our disappointment.


I went on to try and make chocolate chip cookies for the hubby since it was his birthday. Tanker thought the CAKE was for the hubby's birthday, but noooooooo why would I make a CAKE for him? doy - my brain is seriously failing these days post bebe. The cookies turned out fine. They weren't delicious like the last time I made them and ate the whole batch though. Hopefully I can get the magical Sears man out to fix the oven so I can get back to being a baking fool.

Soldier's letter

After my grandpa passed away, we all went through his things... letters, photos, memories...While going through some of those letters this weekend, I found this poem from his mom - our great grandma, Clarice. She was married to a preacher, so she was pretty religious and after going through all of her writings, I've discovered she wrote largely in poetry.... May be this is where sissy gets that from? There was some other cool stuff about her trip to Germany just before WWII started and she wrote about Hitler and Mussolini!! Those were cool, but this letter written to my grandpa while off serving in the military made me cry and stuff because I'm all emotional - I can't tell if this is something that would make me cry anyway, or if this is just Stromboli striking again!


A Mother's Council to her son in service
~Clarice Cowart

My son, since boys of your tender age
Fight in air, on sea and on land,
I pray God will give you courage
To do what is at hand.

Some tasks are not exciting
Such as daily menial cares,
But soon you may be fighting
If the enemy come unaware.

Whatever the job you are called to do
Be courageous and do your best;
Uncle Sam has tried to train you
Now prove you can pass the test

But physical courage is not enough
In this awful global strife
We need deep faith when times are tough
Deep faith in the Lord of life.

Some nations teach their men to hate
Their enemies far and near
But we are taught to fight for love
Of all that we hold dear

Never indulge in hate, my son
Even in battles of war.
But fill your heart with the love of God
And the ones you are fighting for.

Be proud, my son, to be Christian
Never let your light grow dim;
For God will bless those who are His
So keep your faith in Him

And if when the battle is raging
And of life you almost despair,
Remember our God is an all God
Who governs earth, sea and air.

Mom pants

Has anyone had the pleasure of watching this SNL clip?



Well, today, I feel like I'm wearing mom pants. They are maternity capri jeans and they're still a little big on me. But that maternity stretchy part that goes all the way up to the boobies makes it feel even more like mom pants. That and the fact that there's no zipper or button doesn't help either. So the main problem today is that the butt pockets FEEL like they've migrated to the outer limits of my butt and my butt feels all wide and flat. BEEEP BEEEEP BEEEEP wide load coming through! I did a quick ass check in the bathroom and it doesn't APPEAR to be any larger than usual, but I can pull the pockets on the stretchy jeans closer together which gives me the illusion of having a teenier booty. Which I like - not flat, not wide, but perky and small! It's making me want to run to the gym and do a bunch of butt exercises. I keep getting up off of my chair and lifting my leg behind me like a mini butt exercise. WTF? I'm obsessed today. I'm not sure these pants will make it out of the closet to see another day.

It's a.......

So before I almost passed out on the ultrasound table, we found out that Stromboli is a BOY! Everyone is pretty excited - especially JJ - he just KNEW it was a boy he said. Some people I've spoken with were surprised and even shocked that it wasn't a girl. I did have one person give CLEAR disappointment that it was not a girl, but she'll get over it.

Shortly after we found out what it was, I almost passed out. It didn't seem to phase the ultrasound lady - she just told me to roll over onto my left side and breathe and she kept on ultrasounding! I don't know if it was laying on my back a long time, the INCREDIBLE need to pee, or finding out there's a little weewee in my belly that set me off. May be a combo of the 3.

Good thing I had the parents in town to calm my nerves with a delish Italian dinner immediately following.

Baby Baby Baby

It's the only thing on my mind! I'm trying to think of other things, but it's hard. I spent the whole weekend doing baby things. Getting maternity clothes (thanks mom) getting walked through strollers, bottles, passifiers, hearing diaper talk, and now today is D-Day - we find out if Stromboli is a boy or a girl. Can anyone remind me of why I scheduled this appointment for the very end of the day?

I'm so nervous and I don't even know why!!!!!!!! It's not SCARY to find out! JJDVV is all excited......why was I having nightmares? They didn't even have anything to do with finding out the sex. My mom was trying to sabotage my pregnancy and she took me off to a foreign country and drugged me up and sissy was there, but she was all brainwashed so I had to kidnap her once my drugs wore off and I got us on a city bus (wtf?!) and mom was chasing us. It was such a mess and when I woke up, I couldn't fall back to sleep.

I finally fell back to sleep, the alarm went off once and I didn't hear it. It went off again and it was time to get up. I didn't hear the alarm again, so JJ woke me up all nicey-pants style rubbing my arm and back and saying "it's time to get up baby". and I threw a mini tantrum about not wanting to get up, but I did anyway and now I'm sleepy.

But I get to find out what Stromboli is and I get to go to a yummy, fancy dinner

Blondes have more fun!

Ever since highschool... I dunno.. 10th grade? I've been adjusting my hair. It began innocently enough with just a few highlights... then a few more and more and more and by the time I moved (back) to California, I decided I might as well go full tilt boogie (as MV says) as a blonde. Go big or go home. Ever since then, I become slightly depressed and a little irritable when those pesky roots show themselves. I used to waste my time coloring my brows too, but bah - who needs that?! I even went through this fantastic phase where I colored the tips of my hair purple! It was fabulous, people! FABU!!!!!! Notsomuch according to plain Jane mommy, but she colors her hairs too so I don't care that she didn't love it like I did.

Ahhhhhhhh those were the days - I wish I still had a job where I could do crazy things with my hair..or may be I just wish I still had a little crazy left in me that WANTED to get crazy with my hair. Now I just want to be glamerous. A glamerous bounty hunter. Anywayyyyyy

It never ceases to stun me when someone points out that I'm a "bottle blonde"! My cousin who spend the night with her 3 lovely daughters (2 of which are sickeningly perfect little toeheads) decided to point out to me that I PAY for my hair color! DUH you biatch!!! I can't WAIT for the days that I get to go in and have the feeling of self assurance and glamour squirted onto my head, put under the dryer, and blown dry. So what if I feel like I might be going bald from too much bleach - just a pesky little side effect that my favorite hair girl (who better never quit her job) assures me is NOTHING!!!!! Why do people point that shit out!? My mom does it - mostly in front of other people - like they can't tell or something. I don't give a shit if people know I'm not a natural blonde. I used to be when I was young. I was tan and blond and a perfect little beach baby. So everyone who likes to point out that I'm not "naturally blond" anymore can SUCK IT!

May be sister can find a picture of me in my youth to prove that I was blonde for real at one point. What's meant to be is meant to be. I'm just helping out what should have been natural in the first place. *cue brother and sissy making some joke right now about how I ACT blonde so I might as well have blond hair to match.