At least I can laugh!

The boys got up on their own this morning, plenty early to get dressed and even eat breakfast at home! They were ready to go about 10 minutes before it was time to head to the bus stop, so I told them they could watch a little tv.

15 minutes later, I look up at the clock and realize they will miss the bus if they don't leave RIGHT NOW! They grabbed their coats, and we opened the door. Nobody was at the bus stop. Ooops! I guessed it had come earlier than usual. I had been planning on going into Rexburg anyway, Oren's prescription was out and I needed to see his doctor for a refill. So I hurried and got the 2 younger boys dressed, and we ran out the door to take the older boys to school.

When we pulled into the parking lot, there were only 3 cars there! What on earth? Then I see the sign that says there is no school today. Oh. (I'm fairly certain I never saw anything about no school today, or I would have remembered.) Is it funny that they were both really bummed about not having school? :-)

So I ended up taking all 4 kids with me to the doctor's office for Oren's prescription; then to the pharmacy in Rigby (who only took about 2 minutes, bless them!) ; then all the way to Idaho Falls to Winco; Joann's to see what I could find a good deal on (since they are closing the old store and moving across town and every thing is 50% off or more... and I wanted to see what sort of fabric I could find for some new skirts and dresses for me.) ; and then to a place I had heard about called Prepared Pantry, that was supposed to have good quality cocoa and a sale on good gel food colors.

All these places were on my list of errands that needed run, I didn't downsize just because all the kids were with me. But it certainly made for a longer day! They did great, plied with promises of Smarties candy.


And a little update for anyone who read my facebook posts about our crib and playpen mishaps! Just for kicks, and just in case it worked, I took down the crib and through it and the playpen out. Then we got out our toddler bed and set it up. He enjoyed crawling around on it, and jumping a little. But we knew bedtime was going to be an issue. William had a lot of trouble when we moved him to a bed but we let him cry it out and he did great, and we are frankly tired of catering to Daniel and his "high maintenance" sleeping. So we tucked Daniel into his new big boy bed, gave him kisses, and shut the door. Every 15 minutes we'd go back in and re-tuck him in. After an hour of screaming and banging on the door, he finally got quiet. We carefully opened the door to find him asleep on the floor behind the door, which we expected, and moved him. He slept on his own bed all night, suprisingly.

Tonight, I made sure he was tired. Tucked him in with a "friend", a little stuffed animal since he is used to touching something when he sleeps. And in a flash of inspiration, we (I) said a little bedtime prayer. Gave kisses and shut the door. He fussed, not screamed, for a minute or two, and now it's quiet. I haven't checked to see if he's on his bed or on the floor, but it didn't take an hour! We may be able to bypass the crib! Which would save us quite a bit of money.

Sugar!!!!!!!

There's about 10 pounds of powdered sugar on my counter, just waiting to be turned into frosting and fondant. Another 3 pounds of marshmallows waiting for the same thing. And a big batch of fondant waiting to be formed into pineapples, palm trees, and flowers!

Yesterday and this morning I crafted a royal icing tiara, and painted it silver. I'll be putting on teal/blue isomalt gems tomorrow morning before delivering the princess cake. And yes, I'll be taking pictures!

I've also finalized my idea for our Blue and Gold banquet cake. We're wanting it to feed 50-60 people, so I'm doing tiers. I'm thinking the bottom tier will have a fondant grass skirt. A "lei" of blue and gold fondant flowers will go around the top of the grass skirt. Chocolate fondant coconuts will sit between the two tiers, like they dropped off the palm trees that will be around the sides of the top tier. A big "29" will be sort of a topper, for our pack number, and I'll have some pineapples formed from rice krispy treats and covered in fondant and buttercream sitting around the numbers.

Mark and I talked about it, and decided to hold off on the gum paste class. This isn't the only series she'll be doing this year, and there are other things right now that need the money that class would cost. But it's definitely on the list of things I want to do at some point, and until then I will just teach myself what I can!

Yawn.....

Because I am tired! But as late as it is, a little break from cleaning to update my blog won't hurt.

Let's see....

Oren came home a couple weeks ago with a letter from his teacher that the science fair was coming up, and that he had 2 weeks. Then, the next week, there was another reminder letter. Finally, 2 days prior to turning it in, she tracks me down while picking the boys up for an appointment to ask if I ever got the booklet on how to do the projects! Which I hadn't! Procrastination has unfortunately been a problem for me as of late, but how did those 2 weeks fly by so fast?

So the night before they were due, Oren and I scrambled up a quick experiment on "What Yeast Eats!" He basically labeled a whole bunch of cups, poured in some warm water, dissolved a bunch of different things in them, and then added yeast. We checked every few minutes to see which ones were doing well and which ones were sitting there.

Did you know that potato flakes and sugar produced the best results? While molasses did nothing at all? Fascinating!

And this was between scouts and Relief Society Choco-Rama night, where I was helping provide chocolate goodies. We came home, and he drew some charts and pictures, and we got his wording worked out, and I sent him to bed. Then Mommy was up until an unearthly hour pasting and positioning and making things look nice.

Oren ended up in a 3-way tie for 1st place in the 3rd grade catagory for his school! He got a chocolate bar prize, which he shared with all of his classmates, and a medal. Then his teacher sent home a note to inform me that his project needed to be brought to the district offices to the district science fair! And to think his project almost ended up in the trash a couple days ago, except that we figured Grandma W would want to see it at some point! He didn't win at District, but I was very proud that his slap-together rushed project had done well at all. And he was so happy about it, that boy loves anything science!


I, myself, have been in love with some new cake stuff lately. There is a sugar art supply store close by, and I went by the other day. They had isomalt, a sugar substitute used in sugar gems, pulled sugar, molded sugar.... This stuff is awesome! And dangerous too, since it has to be heated to about 340 degrees, and you work with it at around 275 (I believe?). Very hot stuff. But if poured into the right molds, it can create very real-looking edible jewels!

And I now have the opportunity to try this for myself. While talking with the lady at the eye doctor's, choosing my new glasses, we got talking about cakes and this sugar jewel thing came up. I mentioned how it would be so much fun to make an edible tiara and have little jewels on it, to put on a small cake or cupcakes. She ordered a small cake, in blue, with a jeweled tiara for her daughter's birthday next week! Sweet! (And I'm getting some cute glasses to boot. :-P) My first job since moving here. I've been trying to get the word out, and finally a bite!

So hopefully they turn out well, and I don't sustain any serious burns while using this stuff. This will be a naptime/bedtime enterprise, for sure. I've been researching what sort of equipment to use for pouring the molten stuff, and what sort of precautions to take. The supply store owner also does decorating classes, and so I will be signing up tomorrow for a series of gum paste classes, to learn about flowers and pearls and all sorts of other edible decorations. This is better stuff than just what Wilton teaches, and I can't wait!

It's the little things...

that make me happy.

The snowboots that I bought the older boys at the beginning of the winter season have fallen apart. Very dissapointing! The back seams cracked open and there are now huge gaping holes in both pairs. I had the boys put on their shoes this morning, just to find that both pairs of their shoes have holes where the sole meets the leather!

Enter Shopko. They have a Payless in the store, so I took Daniel and William with me in the morning. I jotted down the size from Oren and Nathan's shoes at home and figured they'd work still. Payless had two different colors of waterproof boots, the kind that look like men's workboots or hiking boots. Good and sturdy, and should last! Plus, there was a sale. Payless's usual Buy One Get One half off.

When the boys got home I had them try on their boots. A little snug of a fit. *oh man!* Their feet had grown just enough that the boots wouldn't last the rest of the winter up here. So I had to pack all the boys back into the van and head back into town. New shoes really couldn't wait until tomorrow, with holes in everything they had to wear their feet were getting wet every day. With this being the second trip into town, I was pretty much worn out and just hoping that Shopko had what I needed.

We got there, measured the boys' feet and figured that we just needed to go the next 1/2 size, as a full size would be far too big. They only had 1 pair of boots in that size, and I needed 2! That's right, they wear the same size! But you know what made my day? The sales lady called over to another Payless store to check if they what I needed in stock. They did. To make it even better, they said that the other store would not only honor the 1/2 off my second pair, but I'd get an additional $3 off coupon since I had to drive to another store for the shoes! That's right!

So I paid the full price on the pair at Shopko, drove to the other Payless, and got 1/2 off the boots I got there. Plus extra off from my coupon. That, right there, is a little thing that made me very happy. Thanks to the sales lady that went the extra mile for me, since I didn't even know there was a Payless somewhere else!

Pinewood Derby

Oren had his first Pinewood Derby last night! And, as I've already posted on Facebook, he won! This car was his design, I had him draw lots of ideas on paper and decide what shape he wanted it. He chose the colors, and requested the flames. I just did the cutting and painting for him since our evenings were busy.




We tried to have Daniel in the nursery while the weigh-in was going on. Oren's car was nowhere near the 5 oz weight limit, so the men taped a bunch of change on top. Grandma closed the nursery door and walked off for a minute, and someone let Daniel out. I heard him laughing and turned around, there he was! Since the derby was at 7, it just made sense to have him in pajamas...

Nathan tried to contain Daniel for me. It didn't work so well. :-) That face is priceless!

It was really nice having Grandma and Grandpa there. Grandma took over Daniel again, and William just chilled by Grandpa. Since Mark had to work until 7pm, I definitely appreciated the helping hands.

The guy that we had come to the derby for us had a really nice electronic track, complete with computers to start the race, track the speed, and configure the races. The computer added sounds: engines reving, the starting shot, cars racing, and the screech of brakes at the end. Way cool! Oren's is the blue-green blur on the right, winning. He only lost 2 races, one by 1,oooth of a second, and the other because he decided to race his car backwards. That was funny. :-)

They started the awards with the miscellaneous ones: Best themed, best paint job, heaviest car. Then we did the 3rd, , and 1st place awards. When Oren didn't win the best paint job, he was a little upset. His flames were really cool, and he thought it was better than the black and yellow striped car that won it. I just wanted to laugh, since I was the one that filled out the names on the awards and knew he'd won 1st place. At the end, when they announced 2nd place, one of the scouts figured out Oren was the only one left and told him "You won!" Oren didn't believe it, which did have me laughing.

The cubmaster was talking about the winner being a "dark horse", because his wheels were crooked, and we had to add a lot of weight. His axles had to be glued in place with purple nail polish because they wouldn't stay in very well. Nobody expected him to do well, which made it all the more fun!

And, our yummy refreshments at the end. Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream Cheese frosting, and Chocolate Cupcakes with Fudgy Buttercream frosting. The cars on top are white chocolate. I traced the design on wax paper, filled in the details like the tires and small circle first, then the color car, and then piped white chocolate over the whole thing so it would be sturdy. They turned out really yummy, and everyone loved the chocolate cars. I only had about 6 cupcakes left out of around 50!

The cakes are completely from scratch, and that vanilla recipe is going to be my standard vanilla cake recipe. They were moist without being too heavy or too crumby. Perfect! Also not too sweet, so the cream cheese frosting was perfect with it. I will be posting the recipes at some point on my recipe blog, if anyone is interested. The vanilla used both vanilla extract and vanilla bean, where you split it open and scrape the seeds out so you have little vanilla bean specks in the cupcake and the frosting. Yum! (But a little pricey... so I think the vanilla bean would be optional.)

Laughing at myself!

Okay, other than the fact that "everyone" diets in the new year, I was hesitant about posting my plan for another reason. This awful bipolar thing that raises it's head occasionally can really put a damper on stuff. And unfortunately, it did.

I have a lot of cupcakes, 50, to make for our pinewood derby this Thursday. And I will not serve a new cake recipe in that large of an amount if I haven't done a trial run. So I did a batch, and ate one.

3 cupcakes later.....

Well, they work! I can successfully serve them! Of course there were the 3 the next day too.

And after that.....

Who cares. I can't afford new clothes if I get skinny anyway. Dratted manic phase that had me all hyped. And double dratted depression phase that flips me a 180. (Not a good train of thought, but it is what it is.)

Please, no "You can do it! Just get back on the horse! Don't give up!" I know all this. It's not me choosing to feel this way. It's simply a chemical imbalance or something. I rarely call it this, but it is a mental disorder. You don't tell a schizo to quit being other people, right? This will pass, and I'll see what energy I have left, and will just try to eat somewhat healthy in the meantime. And if I do get back on a weight loss horse, I don't know if I will post it. We'll see. Because as stable as I try to be, sometimes you can't control having an episode, especially if stress is a big trigger. Because that is something that is going to be a battle for the next several years...

Getting nowhere...

With the house. I'll spend 4 hours cleaning, putting things from their random spots into where they are supposed to go, folding and putting away laundry, doing dishes. And the boys are right behind me making messes! Having accidents in their britches, finding featherdusters and making it snow white pulled-apart feathers everywhere, dumping rice all over the floor, giving Daniel butter...

I was trying to help myself feel better about all the cleaning yesterday by reminding myself that it was burning calories. :-) But even with all the work, you could barely tell I did anything. Thank you, Mom, for letting me know that it is actually harder to keep a small house clean. Somehow I thought that it would be easier. I forgot to calculate the fact that we downsized and therefore have more stuff than most families these apartments are intended for. It's not a 6-person house, unless those people moved from a lot smaller place.

I guess a positive thing is that the more weight I lose, the more energy I have and the easier it is to move around. I'm just making a dent in both, but a dent is still a dent, right? It can just be overwhelming at times though.

By the way, remind me to never complain about the size of my kitchen again. Because I'm fairly certain I won't live in a place with a smaller kitchen than this one!