Conversations on Cupcakes

We stopped at Hey Cupcake, our first time, to give it a try. I'm not saying they were bad, but I'm not sure they were worth 2.75 and I know I could make better icing.

So K gets her red velvet with cream cheese icing, and takes a big lick of the icing. "Mommy this doesn't taste like yours."

Aw... "It's better." Bummer. She makes it about half way through and then promptly deposits it on her dresser. Why I have no idea, but that is where I found it.

"Do you want me to save this for you?"

"Yeah, that would be fine. I liked it." My mother-in-law gave K these great little cupcake savers that are plastic replicas of cupcakes for storing a single cupcake each. I stuck her half eaten cake in one and put it in the fridge.

Rewind to B. "Here's your cupcake B."

"Thanks Mom." She takes a bite and quips. "Oh, wow they're chocolate chips in here. You should put chocolate chips in your chocolate cake."

Ok they say this stuff like I bake often and don't know what I'm doing. Seriously.

The Husband Unit didn't want his, being full from dinner and I put it in the other cupcake holder. A couple hours later he pulled it out and the top half had stuck in the top of the holder. I laughed, he grumped, I laughed some more. He ate his cupcake with a fork.

I eat baked goods in a certain way and this disturbs most of those around me. Cupcakes are eaten from the top down, icing first, then the part above the paper then the part in the paper. In pinched off chunks. This is a very messy way to eat cupcakes, but is my favorite.

I make 007 envious.

I know this because of the sheer number of hidey holes, compartments and storage places in my car. Recently I detailed my car and cleaned up the mess my children had made in the back seat, in the process of this I cleaned out the hidey holes.

I found:

A packet of caramel dipping sauce
6 crayons, melted and paper less
4 pennies
A nickle
7 Pencils
A packet of tissues
A CD jewel case
4 napkins
3 used flossers and
A straw


I wondered what McGyver would be able to make with all of that stuff. But mostly I was glad that the clorox wipes pulled the melted crayons off the plastic of the car door. I also wondered how my kids had been closing the car door with all that crap in the little rectangles they were supposed to be using.

Also, how in the world did that much popcorn get in the car?

The Woosh Woosh Machine

K came to wake me up this morning. Not an unusual occurrence in and of itself, because I happen to like to sleep and since my kids are old enough to handle the first hour or two in the morning alone. I let them. However, the conversation we had upon my waking still has me chuckling.

I have black out curtains in my bedroom, because out windows face east and the sun is really bright in Texas, so it's fairly dark in my bedroom all of the time. So K comes in, and stands at the side of my bed. I have no idea how long she stood there, and usually just a body standing and staring at me will wake me up, but it didn't this morning.

"Mom...mom." This is whispered and I wrinkled my nose and opened sleepy eyes at her.

"What is it honey?"

"Um, do you know how to turn off the thing?"

I turned my head a little and gave her a look. "What thing?"

"The thing in the living room making the noise."

I sit up a little and listen, perplexed. I hear the fan, the tv and someone outside. "Honey, what noise?"

"That woooooosh wooooooosh noise. Can't you hear it?"

"No, baby, I don't hear anything unusual."

"But Mommy, it's really bothering me and I can't figure out how to turn it off."

At this point I'm thinking good grief what has this child turned on that she can't get off and why can't I hear it. I'm torn, I want to just go shut it off for her, but I also want to know what it is she's talking about. And since I'm still half asleep, I really don't want to get out of bed quite yet.

"K describe for me what thing is making the noise."

"I did! It's all wooooooosh woooooosh."

"Yes, yes I know what it sounds like, but what does the noisemaker look like?"

"Oh, um...hang on." She runs out of the room, and then runs back in.

"It's this tall." She holds her hand to about mid chest. "And white and has buttons on top and goes wooooooooosh wooooooosh."

Okay there is only one thing in our living room that fits that description, but it doesn't woosh woosh it just has a soft steady hum. "Baby, are you talking about the air filter?"

"Yes! How do you turn it off?"

"Well, -you- don't, but why is it going woosh woosh."

"Oh! I was putting my ear to it and moving away over and over and I was trying to get it to make a different noise so I pushed a button on top and then it got louder and now it hurts my ear when I push it against it."

I clamped my teeth together and just looked at her. Took a deep breath and said. "Little girl, don't put your ear to the air filter. I'll come turn it down when I get out there."

She left and I lost it. Man I love that kid.

Tummy Troubles

Disclaimer: The stuff that follows deals with my digestive system and might be a bit TMI for some.

So around about the 8th I got a chest cold, which I still have the cough from, and shortly after that, I started burping, like all day long, it even woke me up at night a couple times. After three days of the constant burping, I called to get an appointment, which they didn't have anything available until today.

Between then and now, I developed a stomach ache that was constant, just a 2 or 3 on the pain scale, but enough that it was bothersome since it was non-stop, and along with the ache, came nausea, fatigue and bloating.

So the tummy doc did the usual ask ninety billion questions, then mashed on my tummy, listened to my heart and breathing, and then prescribed an increase in the medication I already take, a anti-nausea medication, and the removal of soda, tea and dairy from my diet for the next month.

I can only hope it works. I'm tired.

She also ordered blood work, to check liver and endocrine function, hemoglobin, and they're going to do some kind of smear test thing where they put a bit of my plasma in several different trays and a bit of the red blood cells in other trays and then let them hang out in different environments to see if anything grows. I'm kind of worried about those particular tests. They also made me pee in a cup...so not my favorite.

For those interested, a year ago I had a endoscopy in which they repaired an esphogial hernia, and inflated a little balloon thing in the upper portion of my esophogaus in order to make it easier to swallow, and did something with a tiny little ulcer just above the top of where my stomach acid stops, that I've had for like ever. They also did a colonoscopy and removed a polyp. So I'm no stranger to tummy troubles, but I've been free of them for almost a year now and it's annoying for them to be back.

She Said What?

For those of you that have spent any time with my husband and I then you know that our relationship revolves around good natured teasing, pestering and the occasional insult. For my part of this, I spend a lot of time fending off the tickle monster, screaming, and smacking him upside the head.

From time to time, this disturbs K. We've talked about it and it seems she thinks Daddy is hurting me and I need rescuing. I've assured her that he in fact not hurting me and I don't need rescuing. to which she promptly replies.

"I could hurt him, if you let me."

Then a bit of pouting and "No really I could. I'm strong, and it would hurt. I know you can't hurt him cause you hit like a girl, but Mommy, I could cause I don't hit like a girl."

"You don't? What do you hit like."

Her brow crinkled a bit. "Well, not a boy, cause I'm not a boy, but defintitely not like a girl. But I am a girl. Hmm, I know! I hit like an awesome girl. Yeah, and awesome girl."

"So, I'm not awesome?"

"Not really, but Mommy that's because you hit like a regular girl, all weak."

"I do?"

"Yeah, but only cause you've never been a Vampire Spider Queen, a Pirate Princess, and a Ninja Warrior Girl."

"Yeah you're right."

She pat me on the shoulder. "But you know I could hurt him if you let me."

I nodded and then held my chuckle until she walked away. Honestly, what do you say to that?

A Most Elegant Tea Party

K and I had a wonderful Tea Party last week. This was our table after K set it. We had chocolate chip cookies, rice crispy treats, white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, croissant rolls with butter and jam, oranges and bananas.

We dressed in fun dresses and wore boas, it was so much fun pretending to be so sophisticated!

K had the best table manners! Please pass the cream, dear.

Yummy tea! K had orange spice, and I stuck with chamomile.

After our tea we had a dance party with stuffed animals, much silliness ensued.

This was a lot of fun, we spent over an hour drinking tea and asking each other questions we could give outrageous answers to. My favorite question of the day:

K: What are you most afraid of?

Me: Oh, triangles. I don't like triangles.

K, with a truly puzzled look on her face: How can you be afraid of triangles, they're just triangles.

Me: Yes, but they only have three sides...that's just not right.

K: Mommy, I think you went a little overboard there.

The Worry Monster

I find it interesting that I spend so much of my time worrying. A devotion that I read recently talked about worry, and how it comes between us and God's plans for us. I was worrying again this morning about a financial situation that in the grand scheme of things won't hurt us. As I stopped, took a deep breath and *gasp* prayed. A particular bit of scripture came to mind.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." It is a verse I've clung to from time to time when things are dark, and it doesn't look like the light is ever going to switch on again. I know that those are usually the times I'm not trusting in God enough and so I turn to him in prayer and he has a way of nudging me with truths.

I calmed down, took the verse to heart, and went on. As I walked into the jumping place (our name for the indoor inflatables playground) today, there sitting on their counter is a lovely little plaque with that verse. I looked up and went "Okay, Okay, don't hit me over the head with it!"

So as I'm sitting here in the jumping place, slightly bored out of my mind I decided to look up the verse. Oh, how much I have missed not reading this entire thing! It goes onto read:

"Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile." Jeremiah 29:11-14

Aren't those some of the most encouraging words you could read? I know He's talking to the elders, priests and prophets in exhile in Babylon with Nebuchadnezzar, but I think that God in His infinite wisdom directed men to write the words and stories so that we can read them today and know that God loves his people, watches out for them, and keeps his promises.

I know that I'm going to be okay, and when I close my eyes and say, "Take this from me, it's just bigger than me." He'll take it and help me find my way through the mire.

What I learned today: I have -got- to stop worrying.

Tea Party Shopping

K and I had so much fun shopping for tea party things yesterday! We started on Saturday at Target, and found absolutely nothing that we liked, so we tried Kohl's and once more there was a big fat zero. So we had dinner and went home.

Yesterday I drove all the way out to Bed Bath and Beyond at 360 and 183 and we found a white porcelin tea pot for a whopping $16.23 with tax. As we're leaving I remembered one of my friends talking about the tea party she was throwing for her little girl's fourth birthday and how she'd gone to thrift stores to get every child their own fancy tea cup. So I thought, well there is a Goodwill on the way back home, let's stop there.

Oh my goodness, there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to the stacks of stuff on those shelves other than, "dishes," "glasses," "kitchen ware." etc... So K and I spent the better part of half and hour scouring the shelves in that section. We laughed, and joked and found three fancy tea cup and saucer sets, three little plates, three little bowls, a serving plate, a cream and sugar set, a butter dish, a fancy little decorative tea pot and joy of all joys a white porcelin tea pot. We made it to the register and paid $17.36 including tax for all of it.

As we drove back to Bed Bath and Beyond to return the first tea pot, K and I had a great conversation about recycling, buying things used, and finding ways to save money and still get exactly what you want.

I can't wait for Thursday when I get to wear my blue feather boa, and drink tea out of my floweredy tea cup.


What I learned: I often forget to go look at places like Goodwill, the Salvation Army and the church based thrift stores in our area. We have a lot of those kinds of stores, and I hope I can remember that for the next time I need something and buying it used makes so much more sense.

The Newest Food Issue.

K, my 8 year old, is currently medicated to help her control the symptoms of bi-polar disorder. One of these medications is a stimulant for the ADHD component of this. One of the sad side effects is that it suppresses her appetite. As a result of this, is she has lost sixteen and a half pounds over the last ten months. If you've done the math that's 1.65 pounds a month, and when you're barely 50 inches tall that's a whole lot of weight to lose.

She's just a few pounds away from being considered underweight and thus being taken off her medication. So now we have to increase her caloric intake in a way that is healthy and does not make an issue out of food. She already has a strained relationship with the stuff, and this is sadly only making things worse.

With the Sensory Processing Disorder she was diagnosed with at a four, she has a difficult time with food smells and textures, that limits her dietary options, and on top of all that we have her on a mostly GFCF diet. It seems to me the odds are stacked against the poor kid.

So then we have to figure out how to increase the calories in the small amounts of food we can get her to eat. I am open to any suggestions any of you might have. We did change her yogurt from regular to greek style, and we have relented on the rice milk and give her whole cow's milk. She drinks a protein shake every day, and I try to give her calorie dense foods at each meal.

But she is still losing weight. Any help any of you might have would be awesome.

~S