Big Top Mess

Theirs

Mine

Brooke has been fascinated by infomercials for a while now. She knows just about every product and their specific uses. If for example she sees me digging around in my purse looking for my keys she will tell me "You know if you had buxton cell phone wallet you would know where everything was"....one time while I was hanging clothes in the closet she told me "You know if you had wonder hanger you would have much more room"...she has also tried to convince me and her dad that she needs a tempurpedic bed because "those springs in her mattress are REALLY hurting her back." She once told me that I needed perfect brownie pan because "I ALWAYS ruin her brownies." So imagine my "surprise" when she told me the ONLY thing she wanted for Christmas was Big Top Cupcake.....for those that have not seen that infomercial it is pretty much just a silicone cake pan in the shape of a HUGE cupcake. Well I searched and searched for that stupid thing and finally found one at big lots. I had cake mix and frosting all ready to go and I watched in amazement as she opened her Big Top Cupcake. You would have thought I bought her the moon. So I have been promising her for three days now that we would make a "cupcake".....this evening I get all of the ingredients out....let her mix it up....pour the batter into the molds and bake that sucker as directed. After an hour or so I pull it out of the oven and (like they show in the video) pop it out of the mold....only mine didn't quite "pop out" like they show on tv so instead of looking like a cupcake it looked a little more like.....well, a mess. I tried to put it together hoping she would just put the icing on and not say anything. That theory was quickly proven wrong when she told me "you are the worst cook in the world AND you are really bad at making Big Top Cupcake." I of course can not compete with the infomercials that make PERFECT "colossal cupcakes" with all different perfect and wonderful decorations...that is after all how they suck in five year olds and convince them to have their mothers buy these stupid products in the first place. Maybe in this situation practice makes perfect?? Well in any case....bad or not....she still ate it and in the end I am certain that is all that matters after all it may not have looked like a cupcake, but at least it was edible. :-)

Our Little Accident

My husband calls me on his way home from work yesterday and tells me that when he gets home there is something he needs me to "take care of"....coming from him there really was no telling...."What is it"...I say....."Well I may have accidentally just bought a rabbit (YOU DID WHAT???) and I need you to get it a water bottle." (At this point I sure was hoping that this was some strange man that had the wrong number.) Brooke's science teacher at school has a rabbit and she is constantly talking about the thing so he decided that she needed to have her own rabbit. So about 10 minutes later in walks my husband carrying this little bitty thing....guess it wasn't a joke after all. So I of course had to go to pets mart because while he "accidentally" bought a rabbit he did not "accidentally" buy a cage, food or anything else that this little guy needed. We then spent the rest of the night attempting to teach Paige how to be easy with this thing (if you have met Paige you know this is next to impossible) and trying to keep the cat away from it. My husband tells me "Oh, that cat is not going to do anything"...."Ummm maybe you missed my whole the cat pinned down a mouse story because I am pretty sure that YES he will do something" and sure enough the cat was VERY interested in figuring out what it was and what he was supposed to do with it. If I am being completely honest the little guy is kind of cute....he is black and white and looks like he has on a tuxedo....he is very soft and sweet....BUT he is also one more thing for this mama to take care of and I still don't know how I feel about that.

When The Husband Is Away

This past weekend my husband went out of town to go hunting and I was semi excited to be able to spend some time with just the girls...we ordered pizza, put on our pjs, got ice cream and watched a movie.....and then it happened....the sun set and it was night time. I don't know what it is about being alone at night time that increases my freak out factor, but any noise I hear or every time the dogs even think about moving I go into FULL FREAK OUT mode!! The one thing I was really looking forward to while he was gone was having the bed to myself....no snoring....no cover stealing....no bed hogging....just SLEEP....and then it happened....I was so freaked out that not one but both girls were sleeping in my bed....with me in the middle (who is the parent in this situation!) Now let me just tell you that I do not live in a bad neighborhood and as a matter of fact the police station is literally in my backyard...I have no real reason behind the freak outs....they just happen uncontrollably. I was finally able to fall asleep sandwiched between my children and then it happened...the craziest...loudest....most unusual noise woke me up...as I lay there paralyzed in bed trying to figure out what the heck was going down at my house it dawned on me finally what the noise was....two....or maybe an army....of squirrels were playing tag on the roof....why do things like that happen when I am by myself??? It's like those stupid squirrels saw that my husband was gone and began plotting against me or something. I was able to go back to sleep and when the sun came up I was so relieved I made it through the night. (like I was stuck on an episode of "I shouldn't be alive" or something) Okay so I made it though the first night, but I still had one more night to go. Saturday night I had two Christmas parties to go to and my mom was coming over to watch the girls...she had agreed to stay the night....whew, I thought....I wasn't going to be alone. Well when I finally got home from my Christmas parties she tells me that she decided she was just going to go on home. As she was leaving she tells me that my cat had been staring at the refrigerator all night. So she leaves and I go to bed....just as I am getting ready to fall asleep my dog JUMPS up and begins to bark.....there goes my freak out session...so I open my bedroom door and let her out to see where she is going to go and what she is going to do before I even so much as think about stepping out of that room. She goes into the kitchen and is just barking so I go in there and discover that she is barking at the cat....but she never barks at the cat....so upon further investigation I discover she in fact is not barking at the cat....she is barking at the MOUSE that the cat has pinned down...that was probably behind the refrigerator and the reason he was staring at it all night. At this point I am literally standing on a chair in the middle of my hallway....calling my mom and then my husband like either one of them was going to fix the situation over the phone. Our house backs straight up to a field of nothingness and apparently this little fellow decided that it was warmer in my house then it was in his field....this was so not okay by me. I am not afraid of mice...so to speak...but they do tend to not so slightly freak me out....and as I learned Saturday night they are quick little suckers. So as I am standing on a chair trying to figure out what to do my cat chases the mouse somewhere....and BELIEVE me I was NOT going to go look for it....so what I did do was get both of my girls in my bed...shut and locked the door (like the mouse knew how to turn the door knob) put a towel under the door (just in case) and vowed I was not stepping foot out of that bed until my husband (the squirrel keeper awayer, noise detector and mouse destroyer) came home. I have NEVER been so happy to see the man that I married as when he walked in that door yesterday. I am so glad that weekend is over and I do not know why all the crazy things wait to happen until I am by myself....but if it was some sort of test or something I know one thing....I failed miserably.

The Last Four Days

We are finally (for the most part anyway) settled into the new house. This past weekend was our first time to have overnight company....our good friends (may as well be family) Emily and Josh live about two and half hours away...they drove up with their kids on Friday night and stayed the weekend with us. We had a BLAST....the kids played together so well...matter of fact Brooke and their son Grayden decided they were married about half way through the visit and spent the rest of the time calling each other honey...it was rather amusing! Paige spent the weekend being Paige and sometimes they didn't want to play with her because she was being mean (imagine that!) but all in all they played well. Saturday Emily, her daughter and myself left all of the kids with the guys and went shopping for Christmas presents....(just for the record I could spend at least one full day in Tuesday Morning) and then we went and had lunch. It was nice to get away and believe it or not the house was still standing and not to terribly destroyed when we got home. Saturday night we stayed up so late that I actually started to fall asleep in my chair. Well I for one had a wonderful time having them here (always do!) and just love them so much! Sunday they had to hit the road to get back home...me and the girls got up and went to church then came home and Will took Brooke to a birthday party (I know I couldn't believe it either :-) and Paige took a nap so I had a little quite time all to myself....sometimes (okay...ALL the time when you are a mom) that is the best thing in the whole entire world! Then yesterday....my favorite thing of all time...Carissa came over and we painted during nap time...well technically the nap never really occurred...but anyway we still painted. Every once in a while we get together to oil paint and if we are being honest (sorry Carissa) neither one of us has any real talent...we are not artistic...but we LOVE it and we have so much fun just sitting at the kitchen table painting away. Our pictures always turn out good to us and we always have fun.... I suppose that is all that matters. I could not have asked or imagined a better weekend...and to think I don't even really like the weekends.

Little Miss Independent

Since we have settled into a new routine we have been having dinner at about 5:30 and then after dinner I give the girls baths. Bathing and getting two GIRLS ready for bed tends to take a big chunk out of my evening. Well yesterday I was starting dinner when I hear my two year old yelling from another part of the house "Mommy, mommy I need your help".....there is something about this statement coming from a two year old that makes me want to run the other way...or at the very least pretend I didn't hear her at all...but I instead I went looking for her and I found her standing in my shower with no clothes on pointing up to the water faucets. So of course I say.... "What are you doing Paige"..... to which she so matter of fact replies "I taking shower". So thinking it would scare her out of the shower I turned on the water....shut the glass door and waited for her to bolt out of there suddenly having a change of heart....but that did not happen at all....instead she stood there and she ACTUALLY took a shower. I stood back where she could not see me and watched her in the mirror as she took a wash rag and washed her little body and half way washed her hair. It was quite amusing for me to watch this short little bitty thing act in such a grown up independent way. About 10 minutes later she called me in there to tell me she was done and I had one clean happy kid and one less bath for the night. Now I can't help but think how grand it would be and how much of my nights I could get back if I could only get my five year old on board with this whole bathe yourself idea!!