Laundry

It follows me!





I can't escape it even on my mini-vacays!


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Sicko

The last 24 hours have been plain craziness. Here's a little recap for ya....

1. Woke up at three am with a borderline migrane
2. Checked on Princess Newbie while I was up and noticed that she was burning hot. Burning hot. But it was warm in the house and she was really bundled up so I undressed her and turned on the fan to cool the room down. I covered her with the light sheet only and attempted to go back to sleep.
3. Woke up many times during the night to discover she was still hot but had cooled down enough for me not to be as worried.
4. Sometime in the night while I was up I decided to check on the older princesses only to discover one of them had an accident.
5. Banged head on wall.
6. Finally got up with Princess Newbie around 7 when I heard my dad up ( we are staying with him) and borrowed his thermometer. Her fever was almost 103! He went to the store to get her Tylenol and we both started looking for a doctor that would see her since she is so little and we are from out of town.
7. Finally found one 20 minutes away that would see her but they say it will be a very very long wait. And it was.
8. His Royal Highness texts me to inform me that he had lost his wallet somewhere between the bus and work but that he is going to try and catch the bus to look for it. He is supposed to fly up here tomorrow to join us but won't be able to get on the plane without his licensce which is in his wallet. But since he is out running after buses, I can't get ahold of him on the phone.
9. After a long wait, tests that make princess newbie scream and a shot that made her hate this world, we finally left with an ear infection diagnosis.
10. I get another text saying he found his wallet. Yeah!! All is right with the world, well except that I'm a conservative in a liberal controlled country.
11. Our insurance had all the princesses birthdays mixed up, which made getting newbie's prescriptions a nightmare! They tried to tell me that she was not born on august 1st. Hello! I'm pretty sure I was there!
12. We finally got it all worked out and had a nice dinner tonight to top off the rough day. You should always end a rough day with a beautiful dinner.

So the good news is that this day is almost over and tomorrow I pick up His Royal Highness at the airport. I miss him. Next week we celebrate 6 years and I think I love him more than I did 6 years ago.

Princess Newbie is sleeping peacefully. Let's hope that is a trend that continues!


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Texas Blizzard

We are here. DFW area. I love it. No intense humidity and heat. I actually saw people bundled up in coats and shivering when they were pumping gas tonight. I love that! Mind you that it was only 50 degrees out which my family in Chicago would call a heat wave but it was definitely a Texas blizzard.

Unbelievably we made it from Houston to fort worth with no stops and princess newbie slept the entire way! I am blessed! I have two kids with bladders the size of peanuts and I never had to stop. It was great. I had planned to take pictures at all the red lights and bathroom breaks to show you my journey across Texas but I never stopped at even one red light, they were all green.

Tomorrow we are going to see my sisters new house. I have heard from two different people tonight that she has done an amazing job of decorating it. I can't wait to see it. She's the stylish one and I'm the artsy one. Artsy, by the way, stands for unmatching, stained with various baby fluids, and 99% kooky. It's really just an excuse for those of us that can't comprehend style.

The best news of all is that the same stylish sister also just became engaged to the fisherman. I'm sure her wedding will be gorgeous and stylish. I gotta start testing out some new cake flavors for the wedding cake. Any taste testers out there?




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In the Beginning.....

In the beginning there were cakes, and cakes were goooood!

In honor of the fact that I am having a horrible sinus attack and the fact that I am busy packing for a little trip tomorrow, I'm just going to post a few photos of old cakes. El Cakes are viejo y modelo. "The cakes are old and moldy." That line from the movie, Encino Man, was the first spanish sentence that I ever learned except they said that the cheese is old and moldy. Cakes taste much better, so I went with cake on this one.

These are a few pictures from the first year that I started decorating cakes. I look back now and can see how far I've come and it makes me kinda proud. I still have a lot further to go to live up to some of my cake idols like Ruth Rickey and Bronwen Webber.  Although the learning process has been fustrating at times, it is so fun to decorate a cake that people love. Most people won't notice all the flaws that I notice but I still need to do my best.

So here's a little walk down memory lane, also known as icing overdose.....

my first baby shower cake. Really cute but do you realize that you eat a baby?

I love this christmas cake. It is really easy for beginners. I might do one again this christmas and post a tutorial.

My first two tiered cake. The icing was literally melting off the cake. Yes, buttercream icing can melt in high temps and high humidity. Welcome to Houston, we have both those qualifications on a daily basis.

Another Dora cake. This was the first time trying to make my own fondant. Dora looked like she had just run a marathon and hadn't showered in weeks. Everything had a greasy sheen to it. I never tried that fondant again!

The first birthday cake that someone paid me to do. So many flaws on this one! Can you see the cake peeking through on the bottom left of the cake? You can't spot all the flaws, but trust me... I know they are there.

Apple Spice Cake with Caramel frosting and royal icing snow flakes. Yum-o. We couldn't even wait to take a picture before we carved that sucker up.

Another baby shower cake. I really liked this cake. I can see some beginner flaws but I had a lot of fun with it and that's what counts!

I'm sure there will be more cake triumphs and some more disasters but at least I love doing it!

Tomorrow I leave for DFW area to visit friends and family. I'll be gone a week. I'm planning on taking my laptop but chances are it will still be sitting under my bed when I pull out of the driveway. So if you don't see me for a week, I don't have the swine flu, I'm just having technical difficulties.

Family Pictures

We went to a local park on saturday night so a gorgeous amateur photographer could take family portraits of our family. Of course nothing went right since the mosquitos thought their wedding feast had arrived and Princess Goofy was against all pictures and had to be bribed.

Here's a few of the pictures from the evening:

And Finally.... Princess Goofy in all her tempermental, three year old glory holding the anti picture protest:

Exhausted, Busy, Tired, Exhausted

ugh... I've been busy which has made me tired and exhausted. I'm going back to the gym everyday to loose this baby weight and all the other weight that has found me over the years. So that is making me sore and tired. To top it all off, thursday we had to empty out all of our cabinets in the kitchen so that the bug guy could come spray inside our cabinets on friday.

Well, being the genius that I am.... I decided that I would just go ahead and give all the cabinets a quick coat of paint while they were empty. I'm laughing on the inside, or is that pain?

Friday morning after our bug guy left, I took the girls to the gym and pushed myself  to the max. I'm going out of town next week and I want the weight that I've lost to be really noticeable to the people that don't see me daily. Hint, Hint.... comment if you see me. Just kidding. No, I'm not.  I walked on the treadmill for two miles and then decided that it would be a good day to start lifting weights.

We got home and I immediately started sanding the cabinets and painting while the girls took a nap. I seriously thought that I would be done by early evening. What I did not know is that I had picked the worst paint possible. Our cabinets were off white when we bought our house and after six years of use and abuse, they have become a lovely stained off white. I was painting them off white again, not much difference. The paint I bought was so bad that it required 4 coats of paint on most of the cabinets. Again let me say, I was covering off white paint with off white paint. It took 4 coats. Are you getting me? It was horrible! Every streak showed through. I finally finished painting the cabinets at 1am last night. All together it took me 10 hours to paint the cabinets in our teeny tiny kitchen. Your momma's closet probably has more cabinets than my kitchen.

This is the kitchen before we started. The handles have already been removed and the cabinets are empty.

I had no idea that we had this much stuff in our kitchen! Notice the box under the table stuff to the brim. Also, the best part happens to be the adorable baby laying on the mat. What a cutie!

I don't have any pictures of the finished project because that would require me to walk downstairs and up again. After my genius decision to start lifting weights on friday mixed with the painting motions that I did for ten hours straight, I can no longer move my upper body. I guess the fact that I am moving like frankenstein works out well for this time of year.

I do have hints for anyone that wants to paint their cabinets

1. Don't. just buy new ones.

2. Paint the backs of the cabinets first and then the front, if you do it the other way around, you might get paint in your hair.  Don't ask me how I know, just trust me.

3. Don't buy Olympia 15 year paint from Lowes unless you like large amounts of mood altering drugs. I kid, I kid.

4. Really though, just give up now and buy new cabinets. They are going to fall off the wall soon enough.

The saddest part of painting the cabinets is that I had to paint over my pet roach. No more scaring people when they open my cabinet. I might just paint my current pant size on the inside of the cabinet and scare myself everytime that I open the cabinet.

The Love Pie

The Princesses made their first apple pie the other day. It was a lot of fun but of course, with kids everything gets a little bit messier.

Princess Goofy ate the apple peels straight off the table without the use of hands.

Princess Girly Girl is really growing up and becoming a huge helper.

They both took turns pressing the edges of the pie with a fork but Princess Goofy was choosing to go the clothing optional route so all you get to see is Princess Girly Girl.

Taa-Daa! The love pie that we made for His Royal Highness, ready to go into the oven.

We didn't get any pictures of the pie after it was baked but it was yummy! The princesses actually just ate the ice cream that I served with the pie but sometimes it's just the experience that counts...

Homemade Goodness

This is my favorite drink of all time. Sweet Leaf Mint and Honey Green Tea. wow. It's so refreshing and great for hot and humid texas. His Royal Highness will often bring them to me when he comes home from work. In some ways, they are better than flowers or chocolates except flowers last longer around here.

I was so happy the last time he came home with four of them! Not only that but one of them was in a new style bottle that I am absolutely giddy about. The one on the left is the old bottle, the right is the new bottle. I love the shape. At the very top the words, "Homemade Goodness" is in the glass! As soon as I saw this bottle my head started spinning with all the ideas that I could do with this bottle. Definately my favorite idea is to put a baking mix in one of the bottles with a personalized label and give it to my neighbors as christmas gifts! Wouldn't that be fabulous! I am really excited about this. It's alright, laugh if you want too.

I love the Mint and Honey Green Tea but the Mango Green Tea is also to die for.

The date printed on the bottle can quickly be wiped off with steel wool.

So run out and buy lots of this tea, pour it in a pitcher, bring the pitcher to my house, and then craft all you want with these bottles! I would love to see it!

Too Cute For Tuesday

Da' Bomb

I made Sopapillas tonight to go with our taco dinner. They were Da' Bomb. Seriously. The grease from frying the sopapillas exploded and sounded like a bomb going off in the kitchen. Hot oil splattered all over the kitchen and myself. I have a burn on my hand that is still stinging hours later.

Everything turned out alright except the poor sopapillas. They were horrible! Princess Girly Girl was the only one that would eat them and that's just because they had cinnamon and sugar all over them.

House and Home

I've reached that point where I'm tired of the current decorations in our house. Some of them are still from the struggling newlywed/ cheap as possible or free days. Alright, all of them are from those days. My good decorations have been put up to keep them from being broken by little tiny sticky fingers. I really don't want to put money into new decorations since 1) I'm cheap 2) they will just be broken by little tiny sticky fingers or His Royal Highness.

So the other day I made a new flower arrangement by things I had and I love it.

I took this pretty vase that has just been sitting under my sink since one of the girls was born. I don't remember which one but the ribbon was faded and had seen better days so I'm guessing it's been there for awhile. I cut off the ribbon, filled the vase with whole coffee beans, stuck a clump of fake flower/ weed things that I already had in it and added a new velvet ribbon. Well, it's not really a ribbon. I cut an old curtain into strips and just pinned it on the vase. It's not even sewed.

This took me a total of five minutes to make and the best part was His Royal Highnesses reaction when he walked in the door. All I heard was, "oh no... mommy's been crafting again." He is my biggest supporter.

Letter to My Sewing Machine

Dearest Crap Shoot,

I know it's the month of Halloween and since you're pure evil, you probably want to do a little celebrating. Sure, playing mind tricks on the crafty one around here seems like just plain fun but you will pay. Oh you will pay. Go ahead and have your evil month of Hallow's Eve fun. Be my guest.

Next month is thanksgiving where we stuff turkeys like you and put them in the oven at high heats. Oh I can't wait until the day I can bake your butt. Or take you to the renaissance festival and have them catapult you into the next century. Either way, I will be happy and you will be gone.

Love,

The Queen

Ode to my Hubby

EMBED-MC Hammer Vader Busts a Move - Watch more free videos

This is hilarious! It takes me back to the day of MC Hammer pants and scrunchies..... But the real reason I posted this is because it made me think of my yummy yumkins, His Royal Highness. The King. The Darth Vader wanna be. The Force be with you sweetie.

Newest Cake

Tuesday was a crazy day. I was rushing Princess Goofy to the Doctor because she was sick and her breathing was horrible. They did a flu test and a strep throat test that both came back negative. They went ahead and started her on some medicine and gave her a breathing treatment. We were there for two hours in one small room with a baby, a sick princess and a hyper princess. Finally they told me that she had pneumonia and I needed to take her to the hospital to get a chest xray. agh!

We got to the hospital and the hyper princess just couldn't stay still any longer. She was standing on chairs in the waiting room and laying on the tables. oh well. I had enough on my plate already, I was not going to worry about her standing on the chairs.

To make a long story short, Princess Goofy's chest xray came back negative for pneumonia. The doctors are not sure why she was so sick and her breathing was so bad. She's still on some major antibiotics and lots of breathing treatments everyday. Her cough is horrible sounding but coughs can sometimes be good for your body if they are productive. I tell myself that being productive is good for my body everyday. Then I lay on the couch and eat bon bons.

So in the midst of all this, I got a call asking me to make a cake for thursday for our friend, Robyn. Anyone else and I would have said no. But this was Robyn..... She is our preacher's wife but friend first. She LOVES children and especially our children. (I knew she was smart). She has held all our children while they were being dedicated, prayed for a major healing over Princess Girly Girl, opened her house to us after hurricane Ike, and always been there for me. So I said yes. The church wanted a cake in the shape of a heart with children on it.

I had a lot of fun with this cake. I love black and green color combinations and I found out from Robyn's facebook page that green is her favorite color. Thanks facebook! See, facebook is for friends and stalkers alike. Drawing the stick figures was a lot of fun but I did get a lot of questionable characters on one side.

In the end, this cake was a ton of fun to do and given to someone with the world's largest heart. And the best thing is that princess goofy is pretty much back to normal except for the cough. She even fell out of her chair and landed on some strange man tonight when we were out to dinner. That is totally normal for her.

Tired

I am worn out.

tired.

I was an over achiever today.

Yesterday was crazy.

tell you more about it tomorrow.

I still have more to do before bed.

Princess Goofy - 11 months old

Princess Girly Girl at almost 2

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Have you tried these? They definately rank in the top of my list of favorite things. Chocolate covered sunflower seeds. I'm not sure what draws me to them, they're not bursting with flavor but they are always gorgeous! They come in bright colors with a slight sheen to their candy shell. When I saw these at the store, I knew I had to have them. I was sold on colors alone.

See what I mean?

My plans were to come home and make sugar cookies with the princesses, ice them and then let the girls decorate the tops of the iced cookies with the sunflower seeds.  I have visions of brightly colored candy floating on a bed of fluffy white icing. It was perfect in my mind, except that I lacked the powdered sugar for the frosting. I actually buy powdered sugar in bulk from Sam's, 7lbs at a time! But there was none to be found in my kitchen.

I was already mixing the sugar cookie dough so I decided to go ahead and just let them press the seeds into the cookie dough. The good thing about kids is that they just want the experience, missing ingredients or not, they don't care.

Here's my first attempt at design

now it's their turn

Princess Girly Girl's                         Princess Goofy's

My ode to Martha Stewart, she would be so proud.

Ready for the oven

Voila! Beautiful cookies!

Yes, the colors did run and melt a little as the cookies baked but they are still beautiful. In true clumsy fashion though I did serve my children semi-raw cookies. I pulled them out of the oven and let them cool for awhile and then served each princess a cookie and kept doing what I was doing. Five minutes later I tried a cookie only to find out that the middles were raw! Oops.

Don't worry, next time I'll actually finish baking the cookies. And I might even buy powdered sugar.