Saturday, October 18, 2008

Seeing Stars

For the girls birthdays this year I made each a cake for their at-home soiree. Sadie got Pooh, and Katie chose Tinkerbell. Both involved thousands of little icing stars, which are fun at first, but torturous after about 1:00 a.m.

Katie's cake, though, was more fun to make than I'd anticipated. It was so much fun, in fact, that it has encouraged me to simply buy a cake at Ukrops next year. Here's how it went:

1. Cake came out of the oven PERFECTLY. Sat it on the counter to cool, went to take care of something, and Sadie got by me and into the kitchen. Five minutes of an unattended toddler led to this...


2. Made another cake. It fell. Face came off when coming out of pan. It was about midnight by then. It came out looking like this. In case you're unsure, yes. It is about 1/2" deep (compared to the previous cake's light and fluffy 4 or so inches).


3. Improvisation. Cake 1 plus Cake 2 equals something similar to what it should look like.


4. Final product. See? You can't even tell. Unless you ate it. Half of it tasted like lead poo, the other was light and fluffy.

Sarah Palin Fun

I can't help it... this is too funny not to pass on. Click on anything in the picture and she'll tell you what it is. http://www.palinaspresident.us/

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Random Stuff falling from my Brain onto the Computer Screen

Warning - there is no cohesion to this entry whatsoever. This is what happens when one is overworked, sleep deprived and exhausted to top it off.

So, what did you think of the final presidential debate? All in all I thought McCain looked like the guy I actually would have voted for last election cycle. I was happy to see him back at his best. And tonight reconfirmed how much fun it is to be an independent. Although I had pretty much made up my mind months ago, I am able to see pros and cons of each candidate. At the end of the debate, I've finally made up my mind for sure ,though I'd been leaning that way quite a while. I'm going with the guy that I can see making educated, sound decisions that consider the population at large, that I believe will be the best leader both abroad and at home. Guess who that is? There, I did it. I spilled my political beans. I'm voting Obama.
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The school is finally open. Ms. Amy, our school teacher, is awesome - Sadie has thoroughly enjoyed her first two days of "skooooohl." She's learning (though she doesn't know it) about spacial relationships, simple math skills and language. Plus she's doing fun crafts and such. She's taking some nice naps, eating like a little piggy and generally a happy camper. She just needed a constant availability of new things to see and do, apparently, to forgo the tantrums. She does miss her Grandma, though!

So yeah, the school is done. A few pickity pics are included for your viewing pleasure. Pretty, no?! Sadie's favorite area thus far seems to be practical life and botany/animal science/geography. Katie's loving math and language, and has been having fun doing phonetic excercises with the movable alphabet. I need to get out and get more photos of the sensorial area and practical life - tres cool!


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Though I seem to be the only human truly affected, my fluffy feline best friend has gone missing. It's been over a week and two trips to the pound, but still no Buster. The people at the pound told me yesterday that there's been a rash of rabid racoons in our area, which has me fearing the worst. Especially since the day before he disappeared I noted racoon prints on my car hood. I miss his furry highness knocking me over in the mornings as he begged for breakfast, purring his loud, uneven purr and licking my toes with his sandpaper tounge. Well, I don't miss the toe licking, but I'd take it every day for hours on end if he'd just come home. There I go getting all teary about it again. I miss my kitty!!! He is (I refuse to think he's otherwise) the best cat ever. Ask anyone who's met him.

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Check out Sadie's latest trick:



Endless dinner time fun. That's "burp" in case you didn't figure it out. A mother couldn't be more proud.

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And, to conclude this random mess of a blog entry, some long overdue pics of pretties!

Monday, October 06, 2008

Who's disorganized?!

My newest employee suggested to me today that I contract out to someone to "organize" my life. Umm, yeah. It's gotten that bad.

I haven't kept up with blogging here because I haven't kept up at home. I haven't kept up at home because I can't surface from the consulting business. I can't surface from the consulting business because I'm so far behind on the new school stuff. And I can't catch up on that because I don't have 48 hour work days.

The remedy? I took off for the weekend on a trip to Blacksburg. I turned off the email on my iPhone, left the laptop at home and imbibed in nothing but fun from Friday night through Sunday afternoon. Man, I needed that. I came home feeling like a new woman - prepared to take on the world.

Then I realized that piles of laundry awaited. Katie's homework wasn't finished as of 7 am this morning (what is WITH the Kindergarten homework, anyway?!). The house looks like the Tasmanian Devil resides here. I'm further behind on work now. I'm even more desperately behind on the school. And one of my client's is on a war path heading straight toward me. I'm sure of it.

Maybe I should get the "professional organizer's" number. Or maybe I could just throw the towel in and head back to Blacksburg. Avoidance sounds wonderful at the moment.

(Side note - For my friends who read and keep up with the CHD world, there are a few really interesting entries on the CHD Blog of late regarding long-term care of CHD patients.)