Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Conversations with a 4 Year Old

Hurricane: Mommy, do you have a new stomach?

Me: What? No, I still have the same tummy.

Hurricane: If you ex-dercise, you will have a new stomach?

Me: Not exactly. Exercise and not eating too much junk food will make your tummy not have any fat on it, so it kind of looks as good as new.

Hurricane: No. That's not what the wady on TV said. The wady on TV said that if you do her ex-dercise, you will have a new stomach.

Where do I even go from here? Do I argue with the wady on TV, who was actually Jillian Michaels, shamelessly hawking her new colon cleanse or some shit?

Me: How about you do her exercises and tell me if you get a new stomach.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Hurricane, getting out of the shower:

H: Mommy, I washed all my parts.

Me: Good job, buddy! (this is kind of a big deal because usually he just stands in the shower and fools around)

H: I washed my boobs, and my tummy, and my arms, and my back legs, and my front legs, and these parts (points to top of feet) and my peeeenis and my bu-um.

Me: Awesome, Clean Boy!

H: Mom, is my watch waterproof?

Me: No.

H: Oh. Well, it will still work right?

Me (in my mind): Oh SURE it'll still work, heck I musta paid $10 for that cheap-ass Cars watch that is probably made of BPA and painted with lead paint. 

Me (out loud): We'll see tomorrow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm George Hamilton, and I know toasted!

Important Life Lesson #1: Put cream on kid's face before you paint it up like Spider Man's mask.
Important Life Lesson #2: Don't believe the hype.  Red make up is never totally washable!

4 Dozen and 1 Reasons You Should Be My Friend

Got a little motto
Always sees me through -
When you're good to Mama
Mama's good to you..



  
(Mmmm.. sugar cookies, just waiting to be frosted..)

There's a lot of favors
I'm prepared to do -
You do one for Mama
She'll do one for you..



(Decadent Chocolate bundt cake with orange Buttercream icing; frosted sugar cookies for stem.  Don't ask about leaves. Too tired to do leaves; it's 1230am.)

I'm still working on my presentation abilities, but I tasted all of this stuff. Oh. My. God. So good, I need to hire someone to help me enjoy it

Now accepting applications:

Must love food, especially chocolate. Must supply own stretchy elastic-waistband sweat pants.  Napkins and tasting spoons will be provided.  Good opportunity for the right individual to be promoted to Beater Licker or Bowl Scraper.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Baking with Stone

I truly love to bake. I also love to eat what I bake, so.. there's that. It's why I can't seem to get my weight to stay under 160 lbs (145 is my healthy weight). Lately, my ego has taken a bit of a hammering, what with the "mishaps" in the kitchen.

I was making Chocolate M&M Cookies with the Hurricane and the Princess the other day (you know, just re-reading that made me realize why things go so very, very wrong). Here's how they should be made:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

1/2c butter or marg
3/4c packed brown sugar
1/2c white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 c flour
1/2c cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2c M&M's
1/2c chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars together. Add egg and vanilla, mix well. Add flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt, mix well. Add M&M's and chocolate chips, mix well. Spoon onto ungreased cookie sheet, bake for 10 - 12mins.

(This recipe is actually the one on the back of the Chip-its bag, except you bump each of the sugars by 1/4c and add 1/2c cocoa. I don't use a whole cup of M&Ms because that's just a little too sweet for me, so I go half and half with chocolate chips.)

Where Things Went Awry:

I added the extra 1/4c of brown and white sugars, but somewhere in the process of coralling my two wonderful children into staying on task, I forgot to add the cocoa to balance it out. I think I lost track of what I was doing when my FLOUR CANISTER HIT THE FLOOR. AGAIN. AND BROKE. (RIP my friend.. we made some good cookies together..) That is what happens when mama doesn't pay attention to her two small children who are standing on the same chair and one asks the other, "Can you pass me Teddy Bear, Princess? He's behind the flour fing."

I realized that I had forgotten the cocoa when the first batch was already in the oven.. right about the time the whole kitchen started stinking like cookies-on-fire. This was also right around the time I remembered that my oven runs hot and I really don't need to crank the heat right to 375; usually 360 does just fine. I tried to correct the next batch by turning down the oven and adding a handful of flour (why didn't I just add cocoa at this point? I don't know. I think my underwear were on too tight that day) before I scooped out the next sheet.

The second sheet seemed okay, but I still hadn't added enough flour. So they weren't the greatest cookies ever, but they were certainly better than the smoking, gooey piles of sugar the first sheet turned out to be. The kids ate the second batch with no problem. Actually, the Princess loved hers so much that she took it to the bathroom with her when she went pee. Something I never thought I'd say: "Honey, you can't wash cookies with soap." At least I am 100% sure the brown smears on the sink are chocolate this time.

After another half-handful of flour, the third sheet turned out reasonably well, albeit a bit brown; likely due to the fact that I was busy scrubbing "Cajuned" (we don't use the word burnt around here) cookies off of cookie sheet #1 when the timer dinged.

Really, a whole lot of work for 12 measly cookies.

Important Life Lesson: Wrecking two batches of M&M cookies for one good batch while wasting about an hour of time actually is worth the effort.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Attics aren't the only things that need venting

Frankly, I'm feeling pissy. The thing that is between me and Hot Stuff is not yet resolved. I'm not going to go into specifics, suffice to say that it is pretty big and has resulted in me sleeping on the couch. For the last 5 days. I just wish that stubborn man would talk about this. Sometime in the last few days that I have been on the couch, the Princess has figured out how to open doors (and she's just turned two! baby genius!) and has been waking up in the middle of the night and coming into the living room. If I don't let her sleep with me on the couch, she freaks out and cries to wake the dead. If I try to put her back to bed, she carries on even louder; then just comes right back into the living room.

Last night was pretty brutal. I have no idea what time Princess came out of her room, only that it was the dead of night and instead of sleeping with me, she was getting into stuff. Trying to convince her to lay down on the couch with me was minimally successful at best. Nevertheless, I kept trying. All. Freaking. Night. I felt yucky this morning, with a sore throat and a headache. Hot Stuff got up at 8am and threw kibble out for the children while I went back to sleep on the couch. He woke me up at 830 to say he was going out to grab a coffee; he was gone for an hour and a half. He said he was out doing an errand, but really? An hour and a half? That shit makes me really mad. If you know you're going to be out for a while, why not just say that? Why lead me to believe that you'll be gone 10 minutes? The second he got home, I dragged my ass to bed this time to try and get a nap without the children yelling in my ear or climbing all over me. I slept from around 10am till 1pm.

I felt a bit better when I woke up, but I still have a bit of a sore throat and a headache. I don't have any other flu-like symptoms (knock wood), but even a sinus cold or strep throat would really suck.

I am not looking forward to another night on the couch. I just can't go back to bed until things get worked out. During the day, Hot Stuff and I are friendly with each other, and it's genuine. After the kids go to bed, I keep hoping we can talk, but no dice. Every time I bring it up, I am told that there is nothing to discuss. I hate the feeling of being dismissed. Just because he doesn't want to hear it doesn't mean I don't want and need to say it.

I guess I'll keep doing what I'm doing until I think of something better to be doing.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Letters of Intent, Oct 22/09

Letters of Intent


Letters of Intent, by Julie @ Foursons. Who chewed all the pencils? Not me. Ok me.

Dear Life,

At this very moment, I am feeling quite overwhelmed by you. I need you to stop throwing so much at me because as much as I like to "keep busy" this is getting ridiculous.

The baking. You know how much I love to bake. Seriously, though? Two items each for the library Bake Sale and the pre-school Halloween party, and something for the daycare Halloween party? I do not have unlimited amounts of time to stand in the kitchen.

The sewing. (Yeah, I am domesticated like that.) I'll take part of the heat for this one, because I did open my big yap and offer to make a sling for my friend Kim, seeing as how she just had a baby girl. I only offered because my other friend Amber also just had a baby girl and since I can't afford to buy expensive baby gifts.. well.. fleece was on sale, and you get two slings from one piece of fabric. Okay, so that one is on me. But did the zipper in my only winter coat really have to crap out? I had to buy (and will have to sew) not one, but two zippers in order to fix my inner liner/outer shell-style of coat. Why, oh why, does the Hurricane's taekwondo** uniform require hemming of sleeves and leg cuffs? Why couldn't it just magically fit?

The cleaning. I can't stand all the crap that accumulates on the floor; the idea of my Little Dude crawling around in dog hair and slobbery cheerios and other icky detritus is just too much. Daily, I battle the mud and sand that is carried in by the boots of small children. Small daughter, specifically, who does not remove her boots at the door, instead wearing them all the way into the living room where she can jump on the couch. In her boots. So I feel compelled to vacuum every day, because I am disgusted by the state of the floors and carpets in this hovel. I am not even going to get started on the hell-hole that is called the living room, the wreck that is known as the Potty Training In Process bathroom, or the disaster that resembles the kitchen.

The money. We're struggling these days. I hate that we are forced to scrimp and pinch every penny in order for our kids to have some fun stuff. Taekwondo cost $155 today, for: uniform, sparring helmet, training manual, belt, and monthly payment of $40. I wrote another check for $36 for school pictures for the Hurricane. It was the 2nd cheapest option. I paid $20 for pictures at Sears for the Princess and the Little Dude. $20 isn't much, except when you don't really have it to blow on pictures. (I thought I could pay when I picked up the pictures, not at time of ordering. I really wish the woman had explained that to me when she said, "We can have your pictures for you today, but it's an extra $4 charge," and I specifically said, "I have no money today, so I won't be getting them today." Unfortunately, I was running late to pick up the Hurricane and it was just faster to pay the $20 instead of wasting ten minutes I didn't have while she changed my order.) Some days, I really hate being poor.

Myself. I am feeling very left behind, as all my girlfriends have jobs. What a silly thing to whine about, isn't it? We can't afford to pay daycare for me to go back to work. I should feel lucky and grateful to be able to be home with my kids. Well, I don't. I feel pouty. I wish I could work a couple of days a week. Allllll my friends get to wooooorrrrkk!!! I'm feeling kind of melancholy. I feel like I have lost my groove with life, and at the same time, I'm stuck in a rut. I am trying to get so much done in so little time, and it's killing me to do it. I also must give myself some Me time; usually it is reading blogs and writing. All of this adds up to staying up later and not getting enough sleep. Also, I think my hormones are out of whack. I have been keeping a period calendar for the last few months, and my cycle is all over the damn place. I just finished two weeks ago, and again I'm spotting. I have to get to the doctor and have my hormones checked. (Yet another thing to add to the list.)

The marriage. (I am kind of breaking a rule here. It is not a rule that has been discussed between Hot Stuff and myself, but I think on his end, it has been implied that I do not talk about our marriage, unless it's good happy stuff.) You know how they (the All-Knowing They from the Fake Institute) say that marriage is for better/for worse? It's not all for better. We're going through a for worse part right now. It's tough, and crappy, and we're hardly talking. I can't get him to talk to me about the things we need to talk about. He says he "doesn't want to get all upset right now," but seems indifferent to the fact that I have been "all upset" for the last three days.

So, as you can see, Life, there are many irons in the fire right now. I surely could use a bit of a breather. The tank is just about empty. (See? I have almost run out of cliches to express how run down over I feel.) What I could really use is a day off. A day where I don't feel the pressure to get as much done as possible before more shit comes rolling downhill towards me. That? Would be lovely. Please consider it.

Thanks a mill,

Stone

**I smelled Mr. T and he smells great! Still no picture as of yet.

Too much free time

This is hi-larious. Little Dude is going to be a star, for sure.

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Late Slip

Please excuse Stone from posting today as she was at the clinic in town all day with her daughter, who discovered that Ass Over Teakettle is not the best way to travel down the stairs at daycare.

Stone will be handing in her post tomorrow instead.

Thank you.