You Know You Have Some...

I'm baring my soul for you today...

Back when I was first starting college, I looked in awe at my roommate trying to figure out what she was doing with tweezers and her chin. "Don't you hate chin hairs?!" she said.

I thought "hunh! I don't have any!"

the next day I found one. I'm convinced Jenny cursed me.

I'm obsessive about them. I think they are one of God's punishments to women for what Eve did back in the garden. Yuck.

For the record I'm also obsessive about ear wax. If I'm with you and I see wax in your ear it takes all my strength to not get a Qtip and attack you with it.

No I don't have OCD!

I'd like someone to explain to me how you can diligently search your chin for those horrible little things one day, feel that you have satisfactorily rid yourself of them, and then find one the next day! It is so weird!

Brooke said to me one day "I thought just daddy's had whiskers"... and I said "yeah well I know men who have stretch marks too. These things happen!" Harrumph.

If you are reading this, in at least your 30's, and saying you don't have any chin hairs- I think you're lying. You just haven't found them yet. But they are there. Tweezer wielding mommy's of the world unite!

Why am I writing this? I have no idea, except to say this. When I was in high school I worked in a nursing home. There was this one lady who had chin-hairs-from-hell. White, wiry, stiff, about an inch long. (Thank GOD I haven't found one of those!) Everytime I saw this woman, I thought "for the love of God, why doesn't someone pluck those things?!" So I'm writing this to say, if you visit me in the nursing home someday, or your child ends up working at a nursing home someday, and you see something sticking out of my lethargic, wrinkly chin, PLUCK IT. When I'm too old to see them myself, will you please pluck them?! ACK!

We will now return to our regular programming. I know you're going straight to your bathroom to stick your chin in the mirror. A little tip: it's all about the lighting.

The Big Job

My friend Julia was in charge of an event at a local church. It was the fall kickoff for their Women's ministry programming. She asked if I'd be interested in bidding the gig...600 assorted minis

She'd gotten some quotes that wanted to charge $1.50 per piece. That is insanity. Dear readers, do not pay $1.50 each for minis. Seriously.

So I bid the gig....and I got it... and this is what they got.

I offered to do a cake for them to give away as a door prize. I did a little stacked cake, carrot on the bottom, chocolate on the top. The event was called "Sweet Life" so I put that on the cake;

Their assorted minis included lemon bars:

Some white cupcakes with buttercream:

Some chocolate cupcakes with buttercream, some with chocolate:

Some creme brulee cupcakes, some white cupcakes with strawberry creme... The creme brulee I've done as a cake several times. It took several trial runs to perfect it into a mini cupcake.

Quite possibly my proudest concotion so far- Key Lime Cupcakes with a pina colada icing. I'm a huge chocolate fan, but let me tell you these things have a flavor explosion going on. Also carrot cupcakes..with little carrots made from royal icing:

Whoopie Pies! Some folks call them gobs. Traditionally they are chocolate with a marshmallow creme filling, but I can do them in all sorts of flavor combinations...these are chocolate whoopies with peanut butter creme, and oatmeal whoopies filled with chocolate ganache and coconut creme:

Matt's favorite cookie; peanut butter chocolate chip, and some little decorated sugar cookies:

Loaded up and ready for delivery!


They had cute decorations, look at that big tissue paper cupcake! Each table had two cake trays with an assortment of the goodies on them. There was also mini cinnamon rolls but I forgot to take a pic of them! We all know what cinnamon rolls look like, right? Anyways, here's how my goodies looked on the tables:

It was a great opportunity, and I loved hearing all the girls gushing over the stuff when I delivered it. I wouldn't want to figure out my per-hour wage...but I did make a nice profit over cost which is always good! And it was a good way to get my little name out there! We'll see if it turns into some new customers!

Summing it up

This conversation pretty well sums up life in our world these days.

Hubby: "Don't send H outside with a sucker! She can't run around out there with one of those in her mouth!"

Me: "Tell her not to run!?!"

Hubby: "Yeah right. Telling H not to run is like telling B not to talk!!!!"

To which I later thought (this morning actually, listening to B go on and on and on), 'telling B not to talk is like telling the average human not to breathe!!!"

**********

On that note, I'm off to take some excedrin migraine. However, thought I'd share this pic of little miss H starting this year of Mom's Day Out! She loves "school". Our director is moving (to the UK! Geez!), and we are sad to see her go. Miss Juliet was B's MDO teacher for her first two years, and she was the director for H's first year last year. We will miss her and her funny accent! She has been there for a lot of important moments in the toddler-phase of my girls! OXOX to Miss Juliet!

Quick Update

Hello blog readers!

Quick rundown of the past week and a sneak peek at the one upcoming.
I'm writing this from my laptop.... which means no pictures. Sorry! But I'm sure I'll have some pictures for the next post! :)

First week of school seems to be going well. It's been a lot easier of an adjustment than kg was, that's for sure! My 1st grader is doing great! Friday evening we will celebrate a great first week with carryout from Brooke's favorite restaurant, Olive Garden. We love our teacher, Mrs. Miller. She is so sweet and positive. I hope we have a great year with her! How has your first week of school started out?

First week of school for Brooke also meant seriously starting the potty training gig for Hannah. So far, so good! She's gone several times, has stayed dry whenever she has panties on, she's doing great. (We still obviously throw a diaper on for nap and bed time). First I had to convince her to go try the potty...that was Tuesday. She had several successful attempts. Wednesday, she was doing great and not taking too long to do it! :) Today, she's done fabulous too... except that after she goes potty, we celebrate and flush..she wants to go again. And she wants to sit sit sit. It's not because she's trying to get another sucker, because she wants to "go again" before I even get to the cupboard to get the first reward sucker out. I'm not sure what the deal is, but it was a battle and a half today.

Meal times with Hannah have not been pretty this week either. Hence, the "carry out" option tomorrow night.

Greg update.... still missing him as our bus driver! Nothing against Fred (the kids said he was nicer on Wednesday and didn't really yell)...we just miss him. Today I got ahold of someone at the bus company who is a supervisor and talked her into asking Fred if they could switch routes. Continue praying. I'm hoping Fred will be amenable to that swap. Pray pray pray. We miss Greg!

I've been a baking fool this week! Did a batch of cupcakes and a cake just to practice a few things. Working on a cupcake/cookie order for this weekend. Next week I have to deliver 600 "minis" to an event on Thursday afternoon. The minis will include mini cupcakes, whoopie pies, mini cookies, lemon bars, and mini cinnamon rolls. I've also got 4 dozen PB/Choc chip cookies and a Birthday cake on the table for next week too! It is so fun getting to make a "go" at a little side business doing something that I absolutely love to do. When I'm doing cakes/cookies I actually feel that I inherited at least a little of my mom's artistic ability. I hope I continue to be busy with requests for all sorts of goodies! If you know of anyone needing a cake, (or a trip), send them my way! I told one of my friends that it seems I am "a mommy by morning, a travel agent by afternoon, and a baker by night" (since I do most of my decorating after the kids go to bed, etc).

Hope you all have a great weekend! Keep on praying for us to get our bus driver back!
Off to bed, tomorrow is Friday! Yippeee!

GREG

Blog readers, I need you to say a little prayer.

I know God is busy comforting people, healing people, making it rain, and many number of miracles.

But I need you to pray we can get our old bus driver back.

Last year we had GREG. We L-O-V-E-D Greg. He was fabulous. I missed him all summer long. He's just a treasure, and took such good care of our baby last year.

This year, the bus routes got kinda switched around, and they bid their routes (with the new bus company) based on seniority. Some guy named Fred has seniority on Greg and he picked our route.

Boo.

I thought maybe we might like Fred. And maybe we still will. But to put it simple, he is not Greg.

I picked Brooke up yesterday and was there a few minutes early so I popped on over to the buses to chat with Greg and give the man a hug. I whined a little.

Today I called the bus company. I whined a little. Begged. The lady said that they couldn't ask Fred to switch without a reason but if both drivers were willing to switch they might be able to work it out. Greg needed to talk to Fred.

Saw Greg today (he still has the middle school route through our neighborhood). flagged him down and asked him to see if Fred would switch. He said he'd ask.

Pray that Fred will switch. Pray that the bus company will let them.

we want our Greg back. desperately.

Brooke got off the bus today, not very thrilled. Said Fred yelled at them a lot. Ten minutes later my neighbor called me. Said her kids said he was mean, yelled a lot, and even threatened to go back to the school if they weren't quiet. They said they weren't even loud, they were just whispering. He apparently doesn't want them to be talking at all. Hellllooo they are elementary kids. The neighbor kids don't want to get back on the bus. One of them was nearly in tears. I called another mom to see if their kid had said anything...and their kids also reported that he was mean and yelling a lot.

We want Greg. We want Greg. We want Greg.

Would you toss up a little prayer for me? Cross your fingers and toes? Light a candle? Whatever... the bus was such a difficult adjustment for us last year, and because of Greg it ended up being a wonderful year. I do not want to go backwards or have a crappy bus experience all year.

Fred might do better driving a bus for a nursing home.

First Grader

I am the mommy of a first grader.

Brooke started school today. The PTO had a boohoo/yahoo breakfast...I was neither boo-hooing nor yahooing. I had mixed emotions today, but drop off went well. Tomorrow we will have to jump the bus-hurdle again, and then we should be off and running for the school year. I don't think we have our bus driver from last year, which makes me sad because I thought he was great!

Anyways, Brooke's teacher is super sweet and we are very excited to have her. I'm hoping for a great year for my big girl!

Balloons Balloons Balloons

Things have been so busy around here! We just had a great long weekend in Iowa visiting my family. Why is it we are always so tired after our getaways?

My "took a cake class just because I wanted to" seems like it might be turning into a nice little side-business for me. Worthwhile Moments Sweet Shoppe is keeping busy for the month of August!

Thought I'd share some pictures with you from our first night in Iowa. We went to the National Hot Air Balloon festival...a weeklong event held in Indianola every summer. That's where my mom and stepdad live. Each year an average of 100 balloons/balloonists are in attendance, along with loads of spectators. We went out early, and snagged a place in the shade with our lawn chairs. They had several "fair food" type vendors so we all gnoshed on that. (Yum). Then we hung out until the festivities started.

My mom had been talking for years about how cool it was.... it started out a little slow and I was concerned I was going to be disappointed. Let's just say, I was NOT disappointed! It was awesome! See for yourself:


The kids were so good while we were waiting. Just horsing around and having fun.
Cute pic of my sis in law Megan and sweet nephew Brayton. My brother was working.

Gotta have cotton candy when there is fair food around...even though we have a cotton candy machine.

These three (very large) balloons were blowing up right in front of us. They were the ones available to take rides in... for $150 per person!! For the record, I have zero interest in taking a ride in one of these. I like roller coasters... I hate ferris wheels. The hot air balloon is too close to a ferris wheel for me :) Slow, high, and tippy.

After the 630 pilot's meeting, they took off to a place behind us and launched there.

Then they came right over the top of us....

And landed on the field in front of us. There was also a target they were shooting for to try to land a beanbag on. They had challenges all week.

At one point I counted 48 balloons in the air that I could see!

what a sunset!

It was a great way to spend a summer evening with family. I hope we can do it again sometime!