Monday, October 31, 2011

Cookie House Fail

    So a few nights ago we decided to make haunted houses with the boys.  We'd come across this little kit at the grocery store. 
Doesn't it look like fun!  I couldn't wait to sit down with the boys and see what masterpieces we could create.  I pictured us sitting around the table laughing and letting our creative juices flow.  Brian and I would sit back in awe of the little Picasso's that God had given us.  The kids would be so thankful for the fun night with mom and dad. This was definitely something easy enough for the kids to help with.  How hard could it be to squirt icing out of a bag and push candy pieces into a blob of icing?  I knew it would be messy, but it's worth it when you have adorable little cookie houses at the end.  I had envisioned taking pictures of our creations and posting a blog to brag about how artistic and smart my kids are. I was so excited!  I am so stupid.
    Those suckers were hard!  The icing was super messy, runny, and didn't taste very good.  The boys were bored almost immediately.  Wesley kept begging to eat it.  Ian just pointed and told his daddy where to put what.  (He's not a fan of getting his hands dirty.)  We decided to call it quits after about half an hour.  Here's the results.  Ian's cookie house....
His is the flattened one.  It collapsed almost immediately. He started to cry, but then he realized he could go ahead and eat it, and he didn't have to continue with the messy icing.  He was cool with that.  Here's Wesley's.....
I told you he kept begging to eat it!  Here's mine....
Pathetic?  I know.  It was crying over it's own appearance.  There's even a little snot dribbling from its nose.  I feel for you ugly cookie house.  Moving on to Mr. Fancy Pants' house.......

Cute, huh?  What you can't see is that it took him like, hmmm....I don't know.....FOREVER!  He had big plans for this thing but was worn out and called it quits after the roof.
    So, would you like to see the beautiful picture I had planned for all of our creations.  The one that was gonna make everyone envious of my wonderfully talented family.  Drum roll please! 
Yeah......who am I kidding?  My kids aren't artsy fartsy.  They have little to no attention span and they're DESTRUCTIVE!  So I guess this picture is a lot more accurate than anything I had dreamed up.  Made a memory though, and that's what counts!

Happy Halloween Everyone!
Rachel

P.S.  Missy, could you resuscitate our mother?


   

Monday, October 17, 2011

Susie's Got Nothing On This Homemaker

A couple of days ago I decided to make cookies.  Not just any cookies, but fancy shmancy sugar cookies.  I went all Martha Stewart on those babies.  Check these out....
I meticulously hand crafted each little pumpkin with tender love and care.  Okay not really.  I used a little machine that squirted them out in a pumpkin shape.  I did, however, make the cookies and the icing from scratch.  I know!  I can't believe it either!  And guess what.  They were really good!  Cute little punkins!
I also painstakingly iced each and every one.  No joke.  It took FOR-EV-ER!  I must apologize to the last plate of cookies.
As usual, my enthusiasm ran out.  I even broke one while slapping the icing on.  Sorry last plate of cookies!  You were just as yummy as the cute ones!  Which is why I've already eaten every last one of you.

Sincerely Yours,
A 5lbs Heavier Rachel

Thursday, October 13, 2011

I Love You, Craig, and Your Wonderful List!

    Since moving to Loveland, I have become a craigslist fanatic!  It's right up there on my list with garage sales and thrift stores and clearance aisles.  I check it almost daily to see if there's anything posted that I can't live without.  I'm sure my husband wishes I wouldn't, but I wish he wouldn't watch the bank account like a hawk, so we're even.  I decided to list all of my craigslist purchases over the last 8 months.  I took a picture of everything except the treadmill.  I didn't feel like walking down one flight of stairs into the basement.  Lazy.  I know.  But who really wants to see a picture of a treadmill anyways.  So, let's begin!  First was the guest bedroom furniture...
 We really wanted log furniture for our guest room, but thought it would be way too expensive.  Then I found this!  A queen bed, two night stands, and a small desk (not pictured).  They were asking $400 and I grabbed it!  I like it so much that it might end up in my room, eventually.  Next was the fish tank....

Ian won a fish at the fair this year.  He actually won a gold fish, but some random guy came up and gave us four more winners tickets, which was enough to upgrade to exactly what he wanted.  A beta!  Instead of spending $30 on a brand new setup.  This lady gave me the tank with an air pump, a brand new bottle of food, chlorine drops, a net, and the decorative rocks for $5!  Woo Hoo!  After that came the TV cabinet....
I was perusing through the garage sale section one Friday night.  One post had pictures, and I spotted this.  It's the exact same style of furniture we have in our living room.  I wanted it for the TV in the living room, but it was a few inches too small.  I bought it anyway, not knowing what I would do with it, but for $20 I couldn't let it go.  My neighbor, Marja, and I went that night after 10pm and squeezed it into the back of Brian's ride.  There was about 1 centimeter to spare on all four sides.  I took that as a sign that it was meant to be!  It now resides in the boys room, because I forgot until I got home that it matches their furniture, too.  Now, the ice cream maker....
Brian and I decided one night, after spending $7 a pop at DQ, that we should make our own ice cream.  The $50 machines weren't so appealing though.  Then I found this beauty!  It's an older model, but it works like a charm.  Truth is, it'll probably run forever since the older stuff is usually made better.  It makes enough ice cream to last us almost two weeks, and I paid $5 for it.  Oh yeah!  Moving on to the next piece of furniture....
I had a bare spot between the kitchen and dining room, and I really wanted a piece of furniture there for extra storage.  I didn't want anything too big to have to walk around, though.  One Sunday morning I spotted this.  It's the perfect size!  The lady had recently bought it from Pier 1 and then decided she wanted the black one.  It retailed for $239.99.  I bought it for $75!  I was so happy!  Last, but certainly not least, we found the newest member of our family on craigslist.  Meet Smidget....
Isn't him so chute!  Wook at his tiny wittle wegs!  I've been wanting a male Munchkin kitten for a while, but they come with a hefty price tag.  I almost decided to just get a free kitten when Brian reminded me to be patient and wait until I could find what I wanted.  The very next day I found Smidget (named so because he's a siamese midget)!  Someone had recently bought him from a breeder, and then almost immediately realized a kitten was too much to handle with two very small kids.  Her loss was our gain!  She slapped a clearance price on him and posted the ad.  Luckily I was the first person to inquire, and a few hours later he was mine.  She even threw in the barely used box of litter, a huge bag of kitten food, and a few cat toys.  We love da Smidge!
     So if you've never used craigslist before, you should really take a look at it.  There are so many more things I would have loved to purchase, but Scrooge has a hard time letting go of his moolah!  Well, he has a harder time than I do.  Probably for the best though.  I love you, Scrooge! 

Rachel
Honorary Member of the Craigslist Fan Club Since March of 2011

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Topper, Tote, & Snuffles

    I just finished a lovely nap with my three amigos.....

Topper Proper (Copper),
Tote Tote (Rotor),
& Snuffle Gus (Toegus).

Topper flipped over on his back and shared my pillow with me.  He blew his dragon breath directly into my face the entire time.  Tote leaned over on my legs and slid down until he hit the mattress.  He wants to be as close to me as possible.  Snuffles found a nice little dip in my side that he could snuggle into.  Brian says  every morning when he wakes up the cat is on top of me. We didn't move for over an hour.  Then the door bell rang.  The four of us rose out of bed and went in four different directions.  I rushed to the door just in time to see the UPS man driving off.  Darn UPS guy.  He woke us up with the doorbell and had no intentions of even coming in for a visit.  Bah!  Back to my brothers from other mothers.
    I love these guys, and they adore me.  Though, I'm not sure why.  I sometimes forget their breakfast until noon.  I yell at them everyday to get out of my way.  I've stepped on them more than once when they're under my feet.  And sometimes it takes me about an hour to notice them sitting by the back door with their legs crossed.  Despite all of this, they can't seem to get enough of me.  And I can't get enough of them. 

Sincerely,
The Crazy Dog & Cat Lady

A Tale of Tossed Cookies

    Remember that innocent little post I made a couple of days ago.  The post about how nothing had happened in a while.  Well God decided to throw a little excitement my way.  In the form of a stomach virus.  For my two year old.  Of course he gave it to the one person in our family who has no concept of aiming for a toilet.  Or even a bucket!  Oh no.  He simply walks around until he can find the nearest sprawl of carpet.  Then he empties the entire contents of his stomach through means of projectile vomit.  THEN he calls out to tell me his "beh-wee hoatz."  Bless his heart.  I know he can't help it.
    So last night I sat down to start reading a new book I had just bought a few hours earlier.  I had fed the kids,  gave them a little ice cream for dessert, I got them ready for bed, and then turned on a movie for them to fall asleep to.  (Don't judge.  You've done it too.  You're just not brave enough to tell anybody.)  Finally it was me time.  I haven't read a book in ages and I was very excited about getting lost in its pages.  I was on page four when I heard a loud thump followed by a pitiful wale/shriek.  I immediately dropped the book and sprinted upstairs.  As I was heading into the boys room I noticed an odd goo on the floor in front of the bathroom door.  "Eew!  One of the dogs must have thrown up.  I guess I'll be cleaning that up next," I thought.  I entered the boys room and immediately noticed Wesley was not in his bed.  I spun around and hopped over the odd goo and into the bathroom.  There was Wesley, sprawled all over the bathroom floor where he'd fell off of the stool in front of the sink.  And EEK!  He had dog puke on his face!  Oh wait....that's not dog puke.  That's Wesley puke!  He pitifully told me, "My beh-wee hoatz, and I fay-aw down adain."  That poor baby is always falling down or off of something.  I yelled for Brian to come help me, and a moment later he was standing in the doorway gagging and coughing and trying not to breathe.  "Oh my goodness it's EVERYWHERE!," he screeched.   Everywhere?  I didn't see it everywhere.  Oh my goodness....it WAS everywhere.
    He had tossed his cookies by his bed, down the hall, and in front of the bathroom door.  About .37% of it had landed on the hard floor of the bathroom.  The other 99.63% had graced my carpet with its presence.   Since my gagging husband was of little help to me, I threw my sobbing Wesley in the tub.  "It's in my nose!," he cried.  "I know baby, Momma's gonna clean you up,"  I said.  "With no help from Daddy,"  I mumbled.  I then proceeded to scrub the floor over and over and over again.  Ian was shrieking, "Eew!  What's that smell?  Wesley you stink."  Wesley was screaming back, "No, I not stink, Iah!"  "Yes, you do."  "No, I not!"  It went on and on.  Finally everyone was clean and settled back to bed.  I got a bucket and explained to Wesley that next time he felt bad he should scream for momma and then aim for the bucket.  Who was I kidding?  About two hours later I heard another thump.  You guessed it.  More regurgitation, and no where near the bucket.  He'd honed in on the carpet and let it fly.  The previous scenario began all over again.
    Fast forward to today.  Wesley bounced around the house all day like nothing was wrong.  Except for the fact that he refused to eat, you would have never guessed anything was wrong with him.  Around 5:00 when we began to eat dinner, he decided he was hungry.  I gave him a bowl full of saltine crackers and some  water, and he filled his belly.  I thought we were in the clear.  I thought wrong.  Shortly after getting up from the table I found a trail of "cracker mash" down the hall, through the kitchen, and into the dining room.  Immediately I commanded him to "Sit!"  Like an obedient dog, he sat.  And then he barfed again.  And then he barfed yet again.  Baaaaaaaaa!  At least this time he managed to keep it all on hard floor.  Easy to clean!  And wouldn't you know Brian just happened to be at the bookstore.  He managed to come in right as I was finishing the clean up job.  He casually asked, "So, you need my help or you got it?"  He sooooo knew the answer.  I have no idea how he timed that so perfectly. 

My apologies to anyone who ate before they read this!

Rachel

P.S.  Does anyone have a carpet shampooer I can borrow?

Saturday, October 8, 2011

A Lot of Nothing & Two Cute Little Girls

    What a boring day!  I did absolutely nothing except surf the internet for two breeds of kittens for sale (even though I can't have one), mindlessly browse through craigslist, watch "The Office", occasionally glance at the LSU game, and play umpteen games of mahjong, spider solitaire, and minesweeper.  Oh yeah, and I fed my kids, loaded the dishwasher, and put Wesley's underwear back on at least 12 times.  Most of this I did while my rump was planted firmly on the couch.  I've been sick all week, so I really didn't have a lot of energy to begin with, but I'm looking at the clock right now and thinking, "Wow.  What a wasted day."  Maybe some of my laziness was due to the horrible weather outside.  I'm not used to cold weather in October.  In Louisiana we spend Thanksgiving in short sleeves.  I'm guessing that won't be the case here.  Today, on the eighth day of October, it was in the 40's and windy and raining.  Yuck.  We actually had to turn on the fireplace. 
    So why am I telling you this, you ask?  I feel bad that I haven't posted anything in a while.  Actually I'm missing it terribly, but I've had absolutely nothing to write about!  At least nothing witty or thrifty.  Curse you blog title!!  I knew I should have been more general! 

Hopefully the next one will be better!
Rachel

P.S.
 My new nieces, Eden and Emma.  I would say "Aren't they cute?", but I don't think I even need to ask.  :)