If You Give a Mom a Tuesday

If you give a Mom a Tuesday, she will think it is a good day to clean
So she will start in her room, where there is a pile of kids' schoolwork
This will remind her that she bought a tote to put kids' schoolwork in,
So she sorts through 3 years of kids schoolwork.

Picking up the schoolwork from the dresser will reveal a big pile of dust,
So she will really dust this time.
Dusting reminds her that she should also mop the floors, because it has been about as long since she mopped, too.

Before she can mop in the bathroom, she will clean out the bathtub
And while in the bathtub cleaning out dust and hair, she will randomly think about a stock they own
She remembers her Dad has the same stock, so she will call him to see if he knew about the stock split.
Good thing she can multitask and still clean toilets while talking on the phone.

After she is off the phone and finally mops in the bathroom, she decides she should mop the entryway, too
Before mopping the entryway, she will vacuum the rugs.
While vacuuming, she will notice a musty smell coming from the vacuum that she last used to vacuum wet pull-up insides from the washing machine
She will take the vacuum apart and try to clean the moldy pull-up insides from the hose with a screwdriver, a paper towel, a Clorox wipe and a kabob stick

Thinking about the vacuum reminds her that she got the vacuum for Mother's Day one year
She starts to think about Mother's Day and how lame it would be to ask for a steam mop
But she really wants one so she won't have to mop with a bucket of water anymore.

Thinking of mopping will remind her that she needs to clean the toilets because she put cleaner in there then mopped in the bathrooms so the floors were too wet
While working through housework ADHD she will think that this may make a funny blog post

And not wanting to forget a blog post idea, she will go downstairs to the computer
While typing out her blog post she will remember that she really wanted to get the house cleaned on Tuesday because the rest of the week is busy

And if you give a Mom a Tuesday she will think it is a great day to clean . . .

Happy Heart Day

Even though hubby isn't too keen on yesterday's "holiday", I tried to make it special for everyone. The girls gave hubby a heart-shaped box full of locally made chocolate truffles. We gave the girls each a new Lil' Kinz and some clothes for their Webkinz. The girls wrote me beautiful sentiments on paper, which is all I need. ;) I make heart-shaped French toast and served pink milk for brunch. I even tried to shape pieces of bacon into hearts . . . well, at least it still tastes the same. The girls got to go see "The Princess and the Frog" and we topped the evening off with one of these, only heart-shaped--a Valentine's Day tradition that dates back at least 15 years. There isn't pizza like this around for miles and I'm so glad we live close again!

For those poor souls who haven't ever been able to enjoy a hot piece of Great Plains Pizza (with enough cheese to cause a coronary), you are missing out. The little honey bear is a tradition--once you get down to the thick crust at the edge, you drown it in honey. Voila, dessert!

Hope you got to spend the day with someone you love. And remember, you can say "I love you" 356 days a year.

4 1/2

See that? That is the face of a girl who is four and a HALF today. We don't tend to make a big deal out of half-birthdays, but when you have a summer birthday the one way to get a celebration in school is to do it on your half birthday. Yesterday I brought in treats for her class, she got a birthday hat and they sang to her, and she got a little goodie bag from the teachers. Even Emma made her a construction paper cake at school and a friend of Emma's (named Emma, imagine that) made Leah a picture with four and a half hearts on it. They wrapped them up so Leah would have a present to open.

This morning she comes into my room and declares proudly, "I'm taller now!" (Looking at herself in the mirror) "See?! I'm taller now! And I'm never going to cry ever again! I'm a big girl!" We'll see how long that lasts. I give it to 4 1/2 and a few days. ;) On the agenda for her half-birthday: Watch "Horton Hears a Who" and about 3 other movies she wants to watch, play with the play dough she got in her goodie bag, and play Webkinz because one of her pets is Pet of the Month.

Today is a crazy baking day for me. After doing mini cupcakes for Leah's half-birthday treats earlier this week, today I get to make 2 dozen cupcakes (an order from a friend), 3 dozen rice crispy treat hearts on a stick, and a dozen or so ginger heart-shaped cookies for teacher gifts. What the heck am I doing on the computer?!

Oh, and happy 34 11/12th + one week birthday to me. ;)

Groundhog Day

This winter seriously feels like a bad Bill Murray movie on repeat. We have now had 7 snow days (I think, I seriously don't keep track) and multiple early release/late starts. Just this week it was Monday--dismiss at 11am (apparently the back end of Emma's bus slid into a "ditch" somewhere in town and they had to move everyone to the back of the bus to put weight back there), Tuesday--no school, although it never did get as bad as predicted and they probably could've gone for at least a few hours, Wednesday--2 hr late start. And it is just Wednesday.

It is a problem with all the local schools, and they are trying to decide how to make-up those days. We will now be going until Tuesday, June 8th. We were sent a survey to see if parents would want to do a few weeks of an extra 30 min or 1 hr tacked onto the school day. It takes about 5.5 student hours to make one day, so we could maybe make up one or two days that way. I'm not really all for the extra hour because as it is Emma gets on the bus at 7:20am and gets home at 3:50pm. An extra hour would put her home at 5pm--that is a long day for a 6 year old. They've already said they won't take Spring Break days (we get the whole week off) since families and teachers have already made plans.

The kicker is we potentially have the snowiest month ahead of us--we've gotten 26 inches of snow in late Feb to March before so who says there aren't more snow days to come. In a typical winter we have about 20 inches of snow to this point. Right now were over 50 inches. Guess what is predicted for Saturday? Yup, another 4-6" of snow. Repeat ad nauseum.

What's in a name

So after hearing multiple times, "You should go into business!" and having a nice FB chat with a friend last night, I'm trying to come up with potential business names should I get serious about selling baked goods. How the heck do I come up with a name that isn't taken/used/copyrighted/etc.

Recently someone in my town started a similar business (cupcakes made from organic ingredients, cookies, sweet breads) and the business is called "Sweetness", so I wouldn't really want anything with sweet in the name.

Yes, my name starts with a "K" and would lend itself to all sorts of alliteration and miss-spellings of words like kake, kookie, kupcake, konfection, but I'm not too keen on that idea. I don't want it to have cake, cookie, or cupcake alone in the name since I do all three plus more. Some of my ideas have bakery in the name, but I'm not really a bakery--just a woman with an oven.

Here are a few things that were floating around my head. I need more input, people! That means I need some actual comments!! ;)

• Sugar Rush (although when I said that to hubby, he was like "What is that supposed to mean?"
• Polka Dot Bakery (just because I like polka dots)
• KM Bakery (I see a logo for this like a monogram--my initials used to be KMB. Both my middle and last names start with M)
• C3 (like C "cubed" for cookies, cakes, cupcakes)
• For the Love of Sweets (like "For the love of Pete!")

Of course hubby's helpful input was "Overpriced Baked Goods" to which I modified to "Rolling in the Dough". Get it? Ha ha. I don't think I'd get much business that way. Right now it is all still a pipe dream, but if you can dream it you can believe it, right?

Quiet House

We had to make the hard decision yesterday to put the cat to sleep. After he was diagnosed with renal failure, he seemed to improve a little with extra fluids everyday but he still didn't eat. We tried everything we could to try and get him to eat, but he just had no interest. By the last day or so he was moving very slowly and also was having labored breathing. It was the best thing we could do for him, although it wasn't easy. Of course I was the one who got to take him in the last time.

The girls have done very well with all of it. Once we knew he was sick and that he may not get better, I had checked some books out at the library about having a pet die. Emma knew when she went to school yesterday that we would be taking him in to be put to sleep. Leah was with me (she stayed in the van) but I'm not sure how much she really understood about what was going on. One of the things the vet offers is to have a clay pot with his paw print in it, so I did have them do that so the girls had something to remember him by. Although I'm sure we will remember him everytime we find cat hair (which would probably be everywhere), find a lost whisker, or see the lovely spot on the steps where he thought it was his personal scratching post.

Now the house is very quiet. Rest in peace, Elway, you are missed.

El Sickerino

Remember this furry friend that I usually speak so lovingly about?

Damn Cat (aka Elway)

He hadn't been acting himself last week so we finally took him into the vet to find out he is Sick with a capital S. Poor thing is in renal failure and I now get to add kitty dialysis to my "list of things I never knew I could do but have to do". His condition is chronic so I will get to do it for the rest of his live, however long that may be.

Elway is about 9.5 years old. We got him when we lived in Minnesota and had moved into a house. We had wanted a bengal cat (which are in no way related to wild bengal tigers), but purebreds can be very spendy. We found a gal who was selling "mixed" bengals, meaning the female she wanted to breed got some outside lovin' from a stray cat. For $50 Elway was ours.

Yes, he can be a pain in the ass especially when he "sprays" all over 1/2 our belongings in storage, making them stink to high-heaven and rendering them useless. The puking thing is also very annoying. He is loud and doesn't like company to invade his space (just ask guests who try to use the downstairs bathroom when he is visiting--he will give you an earfull). The last time we had someone take care of him while we were gone, she had to send her husband over because he wouldn't let her in the door. He has broken a few things which include but are not limited to: a lamp, a toilet tank cover, a large shelf, and has ruined parts of the carpet with his scratching. He takes up more than than his share of the bed at night and insists on drinking out of the faucet.

But he is a member of the family and everyone (mostly) loves him. The girls adore him and hubby would be lost without him. He comes from a family of cat lovers. If I had a scanner, I could share one of hubby's senior pictures with the cat. I only know of one other person who is married to a cat-holding senior. Even my sister-in-law who has known hubby for a good 20 years didn't know that about him.

It is hard to see him sick, but hubby doesn't think he is in pain. The poor thing hasn't eaten much of anything in over a week. He is making it down to his litter box, but isn't quite making it in these days. He has perked up some from when we brought him in, but he has definitely slowed down and lost some of his personality. The girls know he is sick and that he may not live much longer.

I don't know what we'll do when he's gone. The house was eerily quiet the day he was gone to the vet. The girls see this as an opportunity for a potential new pet. I'm not so sure about that. ;)

Ideas, ideas

I always seem to have ideas, sometimes it is the follow-through that lacks. ;) I recently checked out the book Hello, Cupcake again from the library because I wanted the "doctored up" cupcake recipe they use. I need to just buy my own copy of the book. Anyway, when the girls got an invitation to a movie night at a friend's house, I offered to make these:

They are just mini cupcakes with marshmallows on top that look like popcorn pieces. I can even make them so Leah can have them (she can't have milk/eggs)--we are all excited for the party next weekend.

This is another project I would love to do sometime, as seen on Bakerella's site. The candy box is actually a red velvet heart-shaped cake covered in red fondant, then the chocolate candies are red velvet cakeballs all decorated. Doesn't it look amazing? Although here in my house we would rather have the chocolates themselves than cake posing as chocolate. ;)

I have also been asked to donate a cake to as part of a birthday party package that will be auctioned off at our local education foundation's annual fundraiser. The package includes a "cheer" themed birthday party you can buy that will be held in the elementary school gym with a few of our high school cheerleaders. Our school colors are red and black, so I'm thinking of doing a 2-layer round cake covered in white fondant with red/white polka dots or paw prints since the mascot is a tiger. I have to make a cake in a few weeks to take a picture so people will know what they are bidding on.

I'm sure most of you have heard of the book and movie called "Julie and Julia". The basic premise is this gal, Julie, set a goal to make every item in Julia Child's cookbook "The Art of French Cooking" (or something like that, it has been awhile since I read the book). Well after receiving Martha Stewart's "Cookies" cookbook and making a couple recipes, maybe I should do the same thing--like "Kristyn and Cookies and Cupcakes, ala Martha" and blog about it. My sister even offered to help. Good thing her name starts with a K, too--it would flow with the title. ;) Just another one of those ideas that will probably never happen . . . .

No shit, Sherlock

This favorite saying came to mind when I saw this on the weather page for our town:

Golf
Tomorrow's Golf Index
Conditions:Very Poor (0)
Golf Conditions Scale
The Golf index is based on a scale of 0 - 10 with 10 being an excellent golfing day

Really? That is so surprising for the middle of Iowa on Jan 22nd. Ha!

Ice, ice baby

Because the winter hasn't been bad enough, Mother Nature thought we needed a good ice storm. Yesterday there was no school (yet AGAIN) and hubby stayed home and worked from here. Thankfully we never lost power like a lot of people in other towns did.

The one good thing about living in a new development with small trees is there is little/no trees falling onto houses. ;) Big, old trees are nice--the shade, the look, but in the fall with all the leaves and then in the winter when 1/2 inch of ice covers and topples them over they are not so nice.

The town where we used to live was the "bullseye" of this storm--up to 1 inch of ice coating everything over there. Yuck.

School was 2 hrs late today. I had to take the cat into the vet this am (whole other post, but he is sick) and the girls had to come with me. I drove fairly cautiously there and back and turning into our development the turn lane was still ice and I did a lovely 180. Thankfully there weren't any cars close and we were going slow to begin with.

The driveway that is the bus stop was all ice. Yes, the kids think it is great fun to slide on the driveway but we warn Emma every time not to play around. For one, she has already broken her collarbone (in an unrelated, non-ice accident a few years ago) and don't want any more broken bones. And secondly, when we lived in Minnesota a neighbor girl was killed in a bus accident. She thought she had missed her bus leaving school (she hadn't) and ran after the bus. She slipped on snow/ice and fell under a moving bus. :( I may have looked like an over cautious mother standing outside for 10 min this morning waiting with the kids for the bus and telling them "don't slide down the driveway" or "don't hang onto each other--if one falls, all of you will fall" but accidents do happen. I'd rather be the mean, no-fun mom telling the kids to stop playing around than be a witness to someone falling and getting hurt.

Take Three

For my niece's 1st birthday party in October, I made this smash cake and cupcakes:






A friend saw them on facebook and asked if I would make the same thing for her daughter's birthday party. Sure! It was something I had already done, so I knew how it would turn out. And I got paid to make cakes for the first time. Earlier this month a friend of hers asked if I would make the cake/cupcakes again for a baby shower she was hosting for her sister. Again, I said sure. The small cake was bigger each of the last two times--I didn't take pictures this last time since it was bascically the same thing.

I do like making cakes, cupcakes and cookies for others, but I am my own worst critic. I don't like to ask people to pay for something if I don't think it looks "perfect". They probably don't see the small cracks and bubbles that I see. I also don't know what to charge--I've never bought cakes from a bakery so I don't know what to compare it to. The supplies themselves aren't too expensive, but it is time consuming.

Once I start googling cake images, I start to feel very inadequate. I know it is good enough for my kids and my neices/nephews, but when I see some of the things other amatuer cake makers can do--wow. Right now I just want to do it once in awhile so it remains fun. I have so many ideas I'd like to try, but not enough occasions!

Christmas Hit

Sometimes Christmas gifts I think are going to be big hits end up being the duds. This year I Santa got one right:




Barbie and all her camping glory with the Barbie Glamour Camper. Yes, it is pink. Yes, it has GPS, a large screen tv, back of the seat DVD player, ipod, and chandelier. What camper doesn't come equipped with those basic necessities?


Santa brought the camper and the Kelly and Stacie dolls. I had looked for the "Camping Barbie" and almost bought her, but I knew Leah was getting a different Barbie for Christmas. The Barbie she has now has three outfit options for camping--a denim mini-skirt, a short, pink one shoulder dress, and a purple, form-fitting dress. Because there might be a formal event in the forest.


The camper also comes with its own shower and toilet that flushes. We also have a Ken doll who gets to go camping (you need someone to start the camp fire) and it is funny to watch them with Ken. The other day I caught Ken going to the bathroom just like a guy should standing up. At least he flushed and put the lid down. Ken, however, doesn't drive the camper--darn legs that don't bend.

I can see that we will be adding to Barbie's extreme lifestyle throughout the year. Right now it is the toy of choice and keeps both the girls entertained for long periods of time. Maybe she needs a small home to live in when she isn't out camping:

Word of the Day

Today's word is:

agnoying -- a combination of annoying and ignoring.

Leah sitting next to hubby at the table to eat her snack. Hubby is sort of trying to work from home while sitting at the table. Leah wanted him to pay attention to something she was saying/doing. Hubby was obviously annoying and ignoring her (maybe not so much the latter, he likes to tease her)

"Daddy, quit agnoying me!"

About right!

It is beyond cold, and it is just going to get colder. Seriously? A HIGH temperature of -2 on Friday? And we're sending our kids out in this. Builds character, right?

Yay, Vacation is Over!!

The girls are going to school tomorrow--happy dance! :)

It has been a pretty good vacation and they have done very well playing together, but this Mom needs everyone out of the house again!

From the funny farm

Yesterday I was in our master bathroom to dry my hair. Leah comes running in and asks if I can help her go to the bathroom downstairs. Umm, yeah no. Why? Because she had to run upstairs into a bathroom to ask me. You are here, why not take advantage. She did.

She then proceeded to tell me she was having a bad hair day. A headband fixed her right up.

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Emma made her own "low-tech" Fasebook (her spelling). She drew a profile picture in a box on the chalkboard. Her status was "I wishe it whas sumre bcose I like popsiks very much. :)" She then drew a box/profile pic of her good friend and his reply to her status was "Me too!" Considering it was -18 degrees this morning, I would have to agree.

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Yesterday the girls were playing in Leah's room. One time I went to tell them to be quiet, they had their shirts off. The next time I came in to tell them to quiet down, they were down to their underwear, rolling around on the floor. I didn't ask. Then before bed last night Emma showed me a sign on the door that I apparently missed:

Emma v.s Leah

Wresling mach

today starting

now

I think being cooped up in the snow and cold is taking its toll on us. ;)