Day 9930

                 Sorry it has been so long since my last post, my laptop charger just up and died on we randomly. I ordered a new one but when I received it, it didn't work either. So after contacting the company I am awaiting my new new charger and hopefully it will work right. Currently at this exact moment I am borrowing a charger for a little bit to charge my battery and make this post. I have been busy, I have made a few aprons for my nieces, which I think turned out stinking cute. I am in the middle of making a baby blanket for my friend, who's baby shower is the 21st, so I really need to finish it. It is such a pretty green. I have a house guest, a friend who I became friends with in Kindergarten. She is moving back to the area and her and her kids are staying in our guest room for at least the rest of this week. So the house is crazy hectic but that's okay. It does make it harder to stay on top of the cleaning so tonight I will have to really get on it. Along with finishing my dress.  What dress you may ask.

                  Well, I am making a dress for a murder mystery dinner party this weekend, this Saturday at 4 to be exact. The time is 1928 and I am a reporter. DH's outfit is all ready to go. In fact I made sure he had a couple options to chose from. The main part of my dress is complete but I have a sheer overlay I want to put on the top part down to the drop waist but not covering the handkerchief skit. It would be much easier if I had a pattern but I am kind of making it up as I go along. So if for some reason I don't complete this overlay, I am sure I could just wear it as is. Along with my t-strap shoes, cloche hat, my 3 "pearl" necklaces (2 I made, 1 that is a real pearl necklace I inherited) and be good to go.Well and I need to go pick up some stockings to wear. Since I am growing my hair out it's longer then really appropriate for the time period, I considered getting a wig but decided pin curls and the cloche hat should be fine.
                      Last weekend I went out to 80's night locally, had a blast dancing to 80's music all night. Though if I ever go again it will not be in stiletto heels, my feet were sore after 4 1/2 hrs of dancing in high heels. Like my friend said it is kind of scary I had so much clothes on hand to dress 80's. I found out about an hour before we left and I wore stilettos, leggings, legwarmers, a short petticoat under a short black skirt, a tank top with another shirt over it that hung off from one shoulder, giant hoops, long multiple layered chain and cross necklace and big hair. It was lots of fun and it is looking like a pattern here last Saturday the 1980's and this Saturday 1920's what about next Saturday?? Hmmm maybe I can find something to do that would involve dressing the 1940's or the 1950's... Probably not.
                 I will leave you with Happy Cinco De Mayo! That is right I'm not above using obscure Mexican battles to bake and celebrate.

Day 9920

           I hope you all had an enjoyable Easter and weekend. Saturdays and Sundays are my normal days off (except for having to go into work a few hours on some Sundays that is, like this Sunday). We had a crazy hectic weekend crammed full of stuff, I feel like I didn't get any rest but DS1 and DS2 had a blast so it was all worth it. Friday night DH and I took DS1 & DS2 to the flashlight Easter egg hunt that our town puts on. They separate the kids into age groups to make it more "fair". DS1 got one egg since he would give/let the little girls have all the other eggs he found. DS2 got two eggs and lost a shoe (which we found later) but he got ran over by some other kids (he was the youngest in this age group and it was the group with the widest age span); luckily he wasn't hurt. So the boys got candy in their little plastic eggs and a pool pass. They insisted they had fun but I am not sure we will be doing it again next year. 
          Saturday we spent the day cleaning the cars and the house, dying the eggs that were hard boiled (plastic tablecloth and all on the table), having dinner at a friend's house and the regular Saturday stuff like laundry. Of course I was up late making the cake for Easter dinner with the in-laws. Sunday was even more crammed full of stuff, DH had to work so it was just DS1 & DS2 and I until 4. We got up early, had breakfast, got ready for church, went to the church's Easter egg hunt (which was an hour before church service and lasted maybe 10 minutes) then the boys went to their Sunday school class room to play with the other kids. I socialized with some friends who go to the Church and then we enjoyed a nice church service. After that it was home to make lunch and change and then off to a family friend's house to socialize and find plastic Easter eggs. After we were there for a few hours I had to go by work for a little bit then we had to drive to the in laws for Easter dinner and the family Easter celebration. Also to hide eggs over and over again for the boys to find. If you ask the boys what Easter is about they say Jesus which I am glad to hear instead of egg hunting or something. After that we came home got ready for bed and helped the boys say their nightly prayers. All and all it was a good weekend, even if it was a busy one. I will leave you with a picture of the boys bounty of plastic eggs from the Easter egg hunt at a family friends. Have a great week everybody!

Happy Easter!

              That's right I have been lazy on my blogging. Busy in life though. Enjoyed a lovely two week vacation the first two weeks of April. Went to Sunny California for two weeks. Visited Disneyland, California Adventure, Universal Studios, Sea World and the San Diego Zoo. Stay at a couple resorts and had a blast. Maybe I will blog more about that another time. Now onto the rest of my post.
              Where I leave it's not officially Easter Sunday for like 8 minutes but I will just steadily ignore that detail. The only reason I am up is I finished making the cake for Easter dinner with my in-laws. I was assigned the dessert. I was shocked. Not because I can't bake, I think I bake rather well and J'adore baking. It's my understanding other people like my baking too. The thing is DH Aunt is a baker, an amazing baker and she always makes the desserts. Do to a sad twist of fate in the form of an illness said Aunt is cooking most of the rest of Easter dinner. So Aunt asked DH is I could make the dessert. (So I wasn't really assigned it but its not like DH asked me before he said yes) I am thrilled to make the dessert like I said I LOVE baking. So I made this chocolate buttermilk cake, yum with these amazing chocolate cream cheese frosting double yum. So so amazing. I got the frosting recipe from the Cupcake Project's blog. If you have the time you should check it out and if you don't have the time check it out later.  So the cake well let me tell you about it then so you a completed picture. Yes there's more details!

                 So, I contemplated making a cake in the shape of a lamb or a chick and just couldn't talk myself into it. So I went easy. I thought it turned out cute. It's a peeps sunflower cake I saw it on some website (don't remember which one) and decided to make it. I think they used a white or yellow cake or something.  But not me I went chocolate all the way.

                    I think it turned out pretty well. I was going to set the chips all nice and neat but I am getting tired so I just tossed them on. The peeps seem to be bailing off the cake but I still think it's cute. Once again HAPPY EASTER!

          

One Week

         Last Tuesday was the last day I had coffee. Oh how I miss it. Today will mark a week in which I have been coffee less. I know it is self inflicted for Lent but still oh how I miss it. It's not just the caffeine of it all because I can have caffeine in other forms but it is the taste and since I drink it breve (with half and half) it is nice and smooth (not to mention fattening). I will move on past my thoughts of coffee now or I will just wax on about it's wonderfulness and miss all that much more. Sigh.
        DH got his new shift bid today, they change something like every six months, boo. He will be moving from swing shift Thursday Friday off to day shift Monday Tuesday off, yay! More family time as a family unit. Yay! Kind of causing chaos for a vacation plans, boo. It will be okay, we will figure it out and make it work. I hope all of you are have a decent week thus far. I bid you adieu and leave you with a picture of what our sunrises here look like (because I think it's pretty).

Happy Fat Tuesday!



                             It's Fat Tuesday!! Laissez le Bon temp rouler!! (lay-zay lay bon ton role-ay)

Let the good times roll!! Happy Mardi Gras everybody! I hope you enjoy your last day of the Festival of Carnival. As I am sure you all know the Festival of Carnival celebrates the ending of winter and the coming of spring and that Mardi Gras is only one day of the Festival of Carnival; that's right Fat Tuesday; today. Unfortunately I am still sick with the flu or something (no fun) so I haven't done any feasting this Carnival and I don't see that changing tonight.
 

                        Tomorrow as any catholic out there know is Ash Wednesday and therefore the first day of Lent. For anybody who might not know Lent is a time of sacrifice for Jesus. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial. Lent last for about 46 days from Ash Wednesday (tomorrow) until the Holy Saturday (also known as the Saturday before Easter).
 

                      While I am not a strong catholic by any stretch or the imagination I do celebrate (can I call it celebrating???) Lent every year. I do not go all vegetarian for Lent. Nor am I giving up chocolate or something I don't really eat anyways. This year I am giving up coffee for Lent. Scary? Yes I know it is. I have a strong relationship with my coffee I love my coffee but in the true spirit of self-denial I will be giving up coffee for 46 days this year. Wish me luck and strength in this endeavor. One more look at the lovely wonderful thing I will be giving up.



                              On another note I believe I might make benyas for tomorrow if I am feeling better. My coworker suggested I make some, she said it was too much of a fuss for her to make some. So I if I am feeling better tonight I will mix up some benyas and put them into the fridge to chill over night and be fried up and drenched in powder sugar in the morning.. Yummy yummy benyas. If you haven't ever had some benyas I really do recommend them. And I disagree that they are a fuss to make.

Day 9869

                I have be officially told to stay out of the laundry room and the family room until it is finished. No I didn't do anything to mess anything up. DH decided he didn't need or want my help. Which I am not going to complain about. All the new drywall is up and taped (yay!) or so I am told since I haven't ventured back there (see I can follow directions). So I am guessing but next he will mud sand and all that fun stuff. Then spray texture, primer and paint. After that he will tile (because I refuse to let him tile then paint) and put in the cabinets. Originally this was all going to be completed by the end of this weekend but DH and DS1 woke up sick this morning. Hopefully it is only a 24hr bug but I guess we will see tomorrow. This does mean the two rooms won't be done until next weekend. DH has Thursdays and Fridays off. Since he doesn't want my help it will just sit there until he feels well enough to finish it. Don't worry DH isn't doing it all alone, my FIL will help him if he needs/wants it. I think he wants me me to be amazed by how great it looks completed. I am just looking forward to decorating it. :)
                I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and that nobody in your homes are ill.

Today makes day 9865

      I haven't posted in awhile but I don't really have any readers so no harm no foul I guess. What has happened lately, we had to redo all of our plumbing in the laundry room. Shame on whomever did the plumbing to start with it for doing it WRONG. Sigh. Thanks to all the water being there it means replacing the floor and the drywall and insulation (which wasn't much there to start with. But it does have all new correctly done plumbing now. While most of our house has real oak floors our bathroom, kitchen and dining room are tile. This whole house has become a complete gut job, unfortunately we didn't gut it and redo it all before moving in ( which I now really wish we would have, and any future remodel job if we will live there it will be after the gut job). Of course we didn't realize at the time that everything would have to be redone, including plumbing and electrical. DH has been doing most of the work, but he is kind of sick of it and the mess it causes while remodeling stresses him out. He is one of those people who is happiest in a clean orderly house with everything in its space. Preferable with somebody else doing that cleaning and putting things in place. So this is turning into a long and stressful process for everybody except maybe the kids. They seen unfazed by it all.  Which is a good thing.
        We went away for a long weekend. Stayed at a resort in the mountains, it was nice and peaceful. We had a lot of fun and came back uninjured. Which is always a plus. My birthday came and passed, I am now another year older and I am pretty sure being 27 makes me officially in my late twenties. Which doesn't seem much different then my mid twenties. I need to unload a lot of baby stuff we accumulated after having two kids. I am not sure if I should sale some of it on craigslist or have a yard sale or just take it all to goodwill. We already gave away the crib and the bassinet. We still have the stroller, car seats (which I am not sure if we can really do anything with them), jumper, excersaucers (yes we have like two of them), infant and toddler toys, high chairs and not to mention clothes and shoes galore. I have tried giving stuff away but it seems that most of my friends want to buy new stuff. Which to me seems crazy. We did buy a decent chunk of our stuff new. And a few things I wouldn't even consider getting used. Baby stuff can be very spendy.
          I hope that life is treating all of you well. Life is going decently for us here, even if it is a bit stressful at times.