Weather Warnings

I woke up last Friday to a text asking if we were going to be okay, with the wall of water heading our way. I was confused a little. I didn't see anything about a big storm heading our way. Then I checked the news on my phone and saw the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Then I turned on the television to hear about the tsunami warnings in our area.

I wasn't worried about us. There is a line of mountains directly between us and the ocean. There is a bay near us but it would still be hard for the water to get through to the bay and then to here. We're down in the lower bay area.

While I wasn't worried about us, I was still glued to the news throughout the day. Some lower regions along the coast were evacuated and the highways clogged. Some people went out to see what was going on and get pictures. One of those guys was actually knocked over and pulled out to sea. Some of the harbors were destroyed. There was a clip of a distraught woman on the news that sticks with me. She clearly was wealthy and upset about the boats getting destroyed but since some of those boats were homes I can see how is was upsetting.

That of course pales in comparison to the destruction in Japan. I saw a clip last night of people wandering through the wreckage while it was snowing and I just can't imagine what it must be like. There are lots of videos out there, but I thought the six minute clip (that now I can't find) really showed the tsunami best. I figured it would be a huge wave that came in (thanks, Hollywood) but these six minutes show the destruction totally differently.

Today, as we are getting ready for lunch, Full House was interrupted with a tornado warning. This one threw me for a loop for two reasons. First, they have tornadoes here? What? Second, where do we go in this shrinky dink house? I texted Chris and informed him of the warning and that we would be in the coat closet.

I thought that when we moved here our biggest concern would be an earthquake. The Big One is coming and California will float away from the rest of the continental US. Tsunamis should be expected, I just didn't know that. Tornadoes though?

Side note: I really should get an earthquake kit together.

I Lost Chris's Heart

For the Valentine's Day during the time I was pregnant with Xander (2007, for those of you not keeping score), Chris decided he wanted to buy me a special ring. He doesn't buy me jewelry very often and I don't feel the need to have a large collection of expensive baubles. The thought of Chris wanting to get me something nice before the our firstborn arrived appealed to me.

Chris was able to design a ring on a website. He chose a sapphire for the center (my birthstone) and emeralds shaped as hearts on either side (his birthstone). A ring to symbolize how I'm the center of his heart. Squish!

I wasn't able to wear it through the end of the pregnancy. I was scared to wear it while Xander was newborn for fear of scratching him. I was able to wear it when he was a little bigger. Then I was pregnant with Josie and the same order of events occurred.

I've been wearing this ring for a couple months now when tragedy struck Friday morning. I realized one of the green hearts was missing. I have no idea when it fell out and there is no sign of it anywhere in the house (which doesn't mean much).


I'm sad that it is gone. But not as freaked out as when I thought I'd lost my diamond wedding earrings when we moved. Chris said he'll buy me a new ring and at the time I replied "Why, I'll just lose it too" but I wasn't serious. Hint, hint.

Date Night!

Lori and Dave, my friends from Ohio, decided to vacation in California last week and were kind enough to visit us for a couple days. I feel a little bad that we didn't do anything exciting together but they did say they were tired from days of sight seeing. We treated them to sitting in our living room and going to the playground a couple times.

They were kind enough to repay us with babysitting! Whee! Freedom for an entire evening! Date time! And we were specifically told to stay out as late as we wanted.

Chris and I headed for dinner first and, despite Chris subtly asking for a burger and beer, we ended up at a nice Chinese restaurant called Chef Chu's. The kids don't do well with rice or noodles so I figured we should take advantage of it while we could. There are all sorts of celebrity pictures along the wall of the waiting section. Turns out the son of the owner is a movie director. I was especially entralled by the large Justin Bieber (oh, I had to look up how to spell that!) Never Say Never poster.

We debated going to see a movie but settled instead on bowling! It has been forever since I've been bowling. When I was little my family would go a few times a year. At various stages my grandparents and parents have been involved in leagues. I was a gutter ball queen in those early years but too stubborn to allow bumpers to be put in.

Imagine my surprise as I managed to get a couple strikes, several spares and even scored 101 in my second game. If only I had found a better ball, I could have gotten a turkey! (That's three strikes in a row for those who don't remember their grade school bowling lesson.) (What, you didn't have bowling in gym class? Heathen.)

At one point during the evening the little girl a couple lanes over from us was playing with her bowling ball and dropped it. Of course it rolled right over into our lane and down into the gutter. It proceeded to roll most of the way down, stop, start to roll back towards us, then stop completely. We had to ask an employee to get it. He kidded me about not throwing it hard enough when he went to hand the ball back to me at which point I told him it was the little girl's ball. Her mom made her apologize and I yelled at her for ruining my concentration. Just kidding, I wanted to see if you were still paying attention.

After bowling, Chris and I picked up a couple desserts and headed home. It wasn't a late night out, because the kids will still be up at 6 am, but it was so nice just to be out together and not feel rushed, harried or pestered.

Any of you planning on visiting us better be prepared for some serious children time.

Have Computer, Will Tutor

Since having the kids, I have been tutoring in order to make a little extra money. I enjoy teaching and, quite frankly, I like talking to anyone over the age of three during the course of the day.

I advertised when I first started. I made business cards, for lack of a better description, and handed them out at the local schools. The last high school I taught at has me listed as a tutor. I even signed up at on online tutor search site.

Each year I've had about three or four students. Some found me through the high school I taught at, some through the business cards. A couple students are from the school I currently teach at, either to prep to get into my class or after they've gone on to high school.

This past summer I had to let a couple students know that I would be moving away for the year and would be unable to tutor them during that time. The one girl left and called within five minutes (seriously, I thought she called because she left something at my house) and said she'd like to continue working with me. She asked if I could get a webcam and Skype.

I talked it over with Chris and we decided it would be no problem. I talked with the parent of the other student I was going to tutor and they wanted in on that too. I even talked to a couple people who said "Why don't you try teaching your class that way, so you don't have to take a year off from teaching?" I decided against that because I am just too hands on with projects and I didn't want to deal with parent conferences, grading and other nuances from across the country.

So now I have three days a week that I put the kids down for their naps and turn on the computer. It has worked out extremely well, thought it's not as nice as being there. I use a white board to hold up problems and show work and my students do the same. There are little problems like feedback or connection issues but they have been minor.

There are only two little problems. The tutoring needs to be during nap time because otherwise I spend too much time shooing the children away and trying to distract them. "Who are you talking to, Mom? Oh, hi Clare! Look at this!" And there is the time difference of three hours. So even if I wanted to tutor in the evening, it's ten o'clock at night for my students.

I'm still getting requests for tutoring from different places. I received a call from a mom from the high school and she said I had such nice things said about me, it was hard to turn her down. And despite putting up a sign saying "unavailable" on the tutoring website, I am still getting requests from their. Which reminds me, I have to go politely decline someone that just sent an email today.

I've thought about tutoring here in California. However, this house isn't big enough for me to tutor a student while the kids play quietly in the other room. There is no other room. It's a dining room/ living room combo. I'd have to lock the kids in the bedroom and then would find every stitch of clothing, every diaper and every wipe strewn across the floor.

Not Cold Enough

On Friday morning, as we prepared breakfast, we noticed that there was some strange water in the freezer. We figured we'd left the door cracked overnight and went about our day.

After lunch, I noticed that the ice cubes were definitely melting. I had repeatedly checked that the door was closed throughout the morning, so my reaction was "uh-oh."

That night at dinner Chris pointed out that the milk was definitely not as cold as usual. He pulled out the refrigerator to check the coils and vents, but there was a back covering everything. We promptly emailed and texted the landlady to let her know we had a problem. She let us know that she'd come over Saturday to check it out.

Her "checking it out" only involved getting measurements. She didn't bother even opening the doors or pulling it out. Instead she went out and bought a new refrigerator. Which is awesome except that for whatever reason the store couldn't deliver it until Wednesday.

If it were just Chris and I, we'd make do. But having the kids and eating most meals at home presented some problems. So we splurged on a mini-fridge!

Isn't it cute? Reminds me of college. And, oddly enough, it's louder than the old, full-sized refrigerator. We're keeping some basics in it and going to the grocery store daily to pick up meat for dinner.

Meanwhile, Chris rolled the old refrigerator out into the courtyard for the guys to pick up when the new one is dropped off. He tossed most of the food. That created a problem unto itself. They have mini garbage cans here to impose the rules about less waste. The landlady already filled half of it with her garbage and we'd already filled the other half. So, Chris dropped two more garbage bags into the yard waste bin (which is not used) and I transferred them onto the top of the garbage can this morning just before the garbage truck came through.

The new refrigerator should be here tomorrow. I don't expect anything grandiose but I am excited that all of the shelves should work to hold in food and not break and let food fall every time the door is opened.

Fixer Upper

I keep meaning to post things about the house we are staying in. I plan on doing a nice post about the plants that bloom around here. We saw tulips coming up in a neighborhood lawn while out walking this weekend. Tulips, in January! It blows my mind! I'm used to tulips in March and April and worrying about them when they get an inch of snow covering them. Not here though.

However, things aren't looking all that peachy at our place right now. I could show lots of pictures and rant on and on about things that need fixed or that we would change. Then I remind myself that it's not my house and it is perfectly suitable for living in.

However, when you come home to overgrown bushes and mud every day, it can be a downer.

Funny, the owner did trim these bushes yesterday. I don't know for sure what prompted it but I do know that trimmed off chunks of bush are lying in a long pile out there now. I am confident that they will be there for days to come.

I think I've finally broken Josie of the habit of running through the mud, getting in the car and then smearing her shoe all over the car door.

Ah, but better than coming home to overgrown landscaping is coming home to a water heater next to the driveway!

It's not lawn art, I checked. I left a subtle hint that we'd like it gone in the owner's mail. It's a flyer advertising free pick up of large items this week. I highlighted the date and where it listed water heater. See, I told you it was subtle.

We've told everyone about the compost pile in the back yard.

Nothing to fence it in, just grass and leaves added to it every other week. And children trying to climb into it. And the ant trail leading to it. Squirrels digging into it. Nowhere for it to get used.

The best part of the pile is the plywood and wires thrown into one end of it. Totally biodegradable!

I can only hope that the trimmed bushes get added to the compost pile.

Life Gave Me Lemons

One of Chris's coworkers invited our family to get together with his family and we've done so a couple of times. It's nice to go out to breakfast with another couple and their little kid. During the course of the last get together they lamented that their lemon tree had so many lemons that they didn't know what to do with them. My response was "Send some over, I've got a stand mixer." And so it began.


It started out with four lemons. After combing through my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook I decided to make lemon bars. The 'furnished' home we are in even had a zester and old fashioned juicer (you know, where you take half of a lemon and crush it onto the juicer and twist it). I have got to get my own zester and juicer.

The lemon bars turned out pretty tasty. I'm not a huge fan because of the lack of chocolate in lemon bars, but I still went back for seconds. We ended up sending most of them with Chris for work (with some set aside for our friends who sent the lemons). They were such a hit that more were requested.

Which meant that I needed a few more lemons. And somehow a dozen more were sent over. So I made the extra lemon bars and then eyeballed the rest of the lemons, debating what to do with them. I actually wanted to try lemon meringue pie, but the stirring and cooking never seems to coincide with the kids leaving me alone long enough to stir and cook.

After more time spent looking through my cookbook, I decided on lemon sponge cake. I was adventurous and put it in a bundt cake pan, but it didn't come out of the pan easily. So it doesn't look all the pretty and had a chunk missing. I made some lemon glaze and dribbled it over the cake.


Oh, it is so delicious. It's angel food cake with a lemon kick. When Chris found out I made it from scratch, well, he used some foul language to express his delight.

I still have at least six lemons left, so that pie might still be made.

Working Out

As I left the gym on Friday, someone stopped me and said they noticed I'd lost a few inches. Yeah!

We joined a gym when we arrived in California. In Ohio, we have free weights in the basement and we had a treadmill but sold it when we left. I never got into a good workout groove while there, though there were a couple attempts at running and using a Jillian Michaels workout video.

The gym we are at has a kids area where someone will watch the munchkins while I workout. It took a couple weeks for Josie to get acclimated but the kids are now excited to go. It has limited hours (9-1 and 5-8 during the week) and sometimes it is full by the time I get there. And there have been repeated times that the kids have severely runny noses and coughs, so I don't get to bring them in.

Overall, I've really like working out at this gym. I tried the Zumba class a couple times but didn't care for it. I'm not sure if I disliked the class itself or the instructor who wore super tight clothes that displayed enhanced assets. Now I'm taking the Body Pump class. It's weight lifting to music and it's focused on repetitions. It gets my heart rate up and I enjoy being in a class, it's more motivating.

On other days I used the elliptical and have finally worked up to running again. I'm not great at it or fast but I was so thrilled the first time I ran a mile. For Christmas I even received an arm band and ear buds so I can listen to music while I run.

I have to admit, I also like the hot tub in the pool area.

I haven't lost much weight. I've lost a few inches as fat converts to muscle. But I have felt so much better in general. I may have to join a gym when we return to Ohio...

Hugs the Bug Slayer

When we first moved into our humble new abode it was easy to see the spiderwebs in all of the corners of every room. It was also easy to see the giant spiders in all of the spiderwebs in all of the corners of every room. They reminded me of daddy-long-legs, but a smidge smaller. I call them sonny-long-legs.

The first Monday that we were here I declared war. I had a fuzzy duster and I went from room to room getting all of the webs down and whacking the spiders. Seriously, I whacked them with the duster. Usually I make Chicks do all of the spider murdering, but this was war! I suppose, as general of the household, I could have sent Chicks into spider combat but I wanted to intimidate the spiders into surrender.

The next day I found three more sonny-long-legs. The day after that I realized that about 1/3 of the spider webs had returned. So I pulled out the vacuum and extensions and sucked up the spiders and their webs.

I spent about a month killing at least one spider every day. It was hardcore.

They did get some revenge. I woke up one night with something biting my back. I had the welts to prove it. And there are spiders outdoors that make those gorgeous webs you see in pictures. I walked right into one of those webs one day.

The spiders seem to have retreated. They've sent in the troops though, the ant troops. The land lady mentioned that 'when it gets cold, there might be a few ants in the kitchen.' Turns out that she means if it gets below 60 there will be ants everywhere.

It started out with ants outside. The ant line honestly went around half of the property, from the front corner to the back corner. I mentioned this to her, she didn't care and muttered something about ants being good.

As it became colder, there was an ant here or there. I didn't like it, but put out the ant traps she left for us. Then I sprayed the perimeter of the house with spray she left us. I mean, I saw how many ants there were trooping across the driveway to get to the compost pile out back and I didn't want them marching their way in here.

Those ants are resourceful little buggers. As the temperature drops and rain appears, they get inside everywhere. This weekend I found some on the changing table and then realized that an entire line marched along the wall of the kids room. I vacuumed them up and put a trap in there with the door closed. However, there isn't a good place to leave the trap where the kids won't get it.

The next morning we woke to ants streaming out of the utility closet across the dining room. You probably are thinking that they found crumbs, but I've swept (with images of those ants in mind) and we followed them, they weren't getting food. One line meandered into the kitchen but didn't find anything in there even.


Then I walked back into our room and saw the ants on the floor there, wondering where they came from. Well, obviously the ceiling is the perfect place for ants to come in. We actually stuck sticky tack in that hole which helped for a little while.

This morning the ants were tracking from the closet (right past two ant traps) to underneath the couch. Once again, no crumbs so we don't know what they found interesting.

I'm giving a conservative estimate to killing 800+ ants in the past three days.

Since we're renting, we are trying to get help but are hitting a wall. I don't think I can say much more than that right now. Hopefully we can take care of it because I don't like having to clean ants out of the crib before I lay Josie down for a nap.

Give Me a Break

Last year I had a nice, cushy part-time job that required dropping the kids off at the sitter's house for about an hour and a half each day. It was a perfect little break for them to see other kids and for me to teach for forty minutes.

Since moving, I have no job. And I have no sitter. So there is no break and Xander and Josie get to feel my endless love all day long. Which sounds great on paper but comes with a lot more temper tantrums and crying in reality. I'll let you guess who is having the tantrums and crying.

Within two weeks I sat Chris down and told him I needed a night off. It's not for me, it's for the kids! They are getting too attached and needy by being with me all of the time. All. Of. The. Time. Chris quickly saw the sense in my words, and possibly a little crazy in my eyes and agreed to take care of the kids on Thursday nights and I could go about my merry way.

So I get Thursday nights free! I can do what I want! Go where I want! Unless Chris has to work late. Or Chris misses his workout. And what am I going to do, really? Shopping? Nice, but we only have so much money. Sit at Panera and read? Yes, unless I don't have an interesting book. Walk in the park? Except it's really dark out.

Yesterday Chris actually came home a little early, bless him. So I went and saw a movie all by myself. I saw Red, which I really liked. It's been a while since I've seen a good action-comedy movie. Of course, it's been a while since I've been to the movies. Um, maybe a year and a half. I think the last one I saw in theaters was the second Twilight movie. Or was it Marley and Me. Anyway, I enjoyed relaxing and laughing in the company of strangers. Chris did not enjoy his evening quite so much. I can't say I'm sorry not to have been there.

Because One Person Asked

Here it is in all of it's orange-y glory!



So far I've made peanut butter cookies, white bread (which turned out a little flat), pizza dough (so much better than frozen) and oatmeal cookies. I've realized that it's not doing anything I can't do, but, really, I don't have the forearm strength to knead dough or cream butter and sugar well. Therefore I am happy to have this stand mixer.

Xander likes it too. And Josie, she makes me pick her up to watch.


Now the big question is what to pick for the rebate. The current rebate is to get an extra bowl, a food grinder attachment or a shredder/slicer attachment. I'm thinking the extra bowl would be good for when I make and frost a cake. But then I think of the fun I'd have slicing and shredding vegetables. And then I think of how I don't feel like grinding food, so I'm striking that from the list. Should I get the bowl or slicer/shredder?

It's here, it's here!

Some of you may recall that back in July I had The Challenge. Brief refresher - do all of my chores in July and I could get a fancy stand mixer. And, if you couldn't guess by the lack of follow up, the result was Challenge Fail. I blame it on Chris being gone for a week in July and going on vacation for a week in July. I really didn't take that into account when I thought of the whole thing. Hey, I did get more of the house cleaned than usual, so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

In August it occurred to me that my birthday was coming up in September, so I started dropping subtle hints to Chris. Like when he asked me what I wanted for my birthday I would say "A KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer in Tangerine." Yeah, he didn't get the hint.

So after my birthday I asked if we could use his hotel reward points to get the mixer. It didn't come in the color that I wanted, but it would still be free. Much like the Dyson vacuum cleaner I received last year using his hotel reward points. Darn, I miss that vacuum.

Anyway, there were not enough points to get the stand mixer. Argh! But there were enough to get a gift card. And there were enough credit card reward points to cover the rest of the cost. So can you guess what I ordered and arrived earlier this week? Did you guess a KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer in Tangerine? Because, believe me, Majestic Yellow and Green Apple also caught my eye.

Ok, I did get the Tangerine! I'd post a picture, but I figure that would move me from the 'slightly obsessed' side of the line to 'completely lost it' side.

I broke it in earlier with a batch of peanut butter cookies. Some bread and pizza crust will follow this weekend. I will probably take pictures of those.

For Fun

There's this website called Woot! that sells one item a day, usually technology related. It has a related site for shirts called Shirt.Woot! where there is a new shirt everyday. There are also some ongoing contests that artists can submit and possibly get their shirts up for a day.

I'm sure if I spent time I could get lots of shirts from lots of websites that I want. Here are just a few that I found on the Woot site. Instead of showing the entire shirt, I'll just show the design (because that is how I saved them).

Because I do love math:

Order of operations is so important in real-world applications:

This one is called "The Four Little Ponies of the Apocolypse."

I just find this one amusing:

Trying Something New

Anyone who has met Chris knows he loves the band Pearl Jam.

Side story: Our 13 year old babysitter does not know who Pearl Jam is. I told her it was a band and not to tell Chris that she didn't know them. Then I felt old.

Chris has gone to many PJ concerts and gotten a t-shirt at most of them. And every once in a while someone will give him a PJ t-shirt. As time goes by the shirts get worn out or shrink and get retired to my craft closet or my pajama drawer.

Before we left Ohio, I decided that the time was ripe to begin The Project. I would create a quilt out of the Pearl Jam shirts!

First step, talk to my Grandma V about quilting. She has lots of experience at hand quilting and gave me a basic run through. She scoffed at people who use machines to quilt, so that's a little intimidating.

Second step, cut up the t-shirts. I kept looking over my shoulder at this point, waiting for lightning to strike me down. After much deliberation on my part, I decided to cut out 9.5" squares.



Then after more deliberation, I cut the bigger pictures in 9.5" by 15" rectangles.


There is one that will be 15" by 15" when I am done. I think I found all of the shirts that were retired, worn as pajamas or worn for workouts except for two that were shipped off to California.

The third step was to cut out matching shapes of lightweight, woven interfacing. Interfacing is ironed on to things to give it more stability. It will make the squares and rectangles a little thicker than I'd like but they won't pull and bunch as easily when doing the actual knitting.

The next step will be to actually iron the interfacing onto the squares and rectangles. However, the project was left in Ohio and will be put on the back burner until August.

The hardest part is picking what color material to use as border. Chris said black, but he also wants to hang this quilt on the wall and black will probably show cat hair and dust pretty easily. Any thoughts, what color would go well with all of those shirts?

For me? I shouldn't have!

In the house where we are living, the kitchen has these nice greenhouse windows. I'll show them to you sometime when I give you a 'tour'. I considered buying some herbs to grow in the windows and then I'd always have fresh herbs when I cook. Back home I can't do that because of the cats. But if I did that here, would I even use the herbs? And what would I do with them when we move back?

Instead, I decided that I will just always have fresh cut flowers in the window. Chris grabbed a bouquet when we went grocery shopping the first week here. Some of the flowers died after a few days, but the rest lasted nearly three weeks.

While I was out today I decided to pick up some gerber daises. I love these flowers. They are so big and so bold. I tried growing some in flower pots back home but they never flourished.


There is something about having flowers around the house that just always makes me smile. I used to have a hang up about having Chris get me flowers, but I've gotten over that. If I want flowers, then I'll just get them myself. Although, Chris is always welcome to bring home some for me.

MyPhone

In preparation for our big trip, Chris and I decided to get new, fancy phones. iPhones, in fact. Our old phones were fine, but we wanted easier texting and liked all of the features and decided to splurge. It turned out to be an even bigger splurge because the only ones available were the phones with more memory. I actually don't know how I made it through the process without having an anxiety attack.

Chris's has been great. He loves it.

I seem to have troubles though. First, my account was set up wrong and instead of being on a family plan with Chris I was set up individually. This was corrected but we still received a bill for the wrong account. Chris fixed that. Then we received a notice that my service would be discontinued if I didn't pay that bill. Chris fixed it again. I'm waiting to see what happens.

Then there is my bad luck with the phone itself. Less than two weeks after getting the phone I was talking to Chris when the call dropped. (This happens a little too often for me, but we don't have great service in either house.) I waited for him to call back and about ten minutes later I figured I would call him. But my phone was dead. Nothing came on. Nothing turned off. Nothing charged. It was just a nicely assembled pile of parts.

I took it to the store the next day and they agreed. Dead. They replaced it with no charge and no hassle, which was great. It was not great that I lost photos, contacts, calendar information, etc. But I picked myself up and moved on.

Last week I was finally able to hook up my iPhone to my iTunes to sync up the information. It asked me if I wanted to restore. Like a ninny, I agreed. I thought "It will warn me if it deletes anything, all programs give warnings." No, it did not. This time it was hundreds of photos lost. Family and friends pictures I took specifically before leaving Ohio. Pictures of the house in case something happens and so I can plan remodeling. Pictures of the kids. Pictures of the beginning of the Pearl Jam quilt I will make for Chris. Gone! I also lost all of my contacts again.

I may have cried a little. Chris didn't know what to say to make it better.

I called and talked to the help people, they agreed it was gone.

I think I've recovered from that loss. I have my contacts back because I did bring my old phone and was able to get some from Chris's phone. There is nothing to be done about the pictures though. When I see you all next year, I may not recognize you.

Update!

You thought I stopped blogging, didn't you? You can admit it. I know I'm not the best at following through and I've had this blog for a couple of years.

But I didn't stop, I was just unable to blog. This was due to my computer being in a different state from me and having two life forms that formed an alliance to keep me away from any other computers. But now I am in the same state, even the same house, as my computer and can hopefully focus on updating my blog and the kids blog a couple of times a week.

Oh, squirrel!

In case you haven't heard, we moved to California. We are here for a year and will return to Ohio soon after. Although, if you talk to anyone else they think we will end up pregnant and staying here. Seriously, I was going to hit the next person who said 'pregnant' or 'stay in California.' Well, not hit, but at least give a death glare.

There's the black squirrel!

We are renting a house here and it's quite an adjustment. The kids have to share a room, there is less space inside and outside, and it was already furnished so we are using someone else's furniture, cooking utensils, etc. There's also several things that need to be fixed still. And I was told that, by good fortune, the house was baby proofed. It's sad that having half of the outlets with covers is calling a house baby proof. Now I actually have to interact with my children.

Hmm, none of the squirrels are eating the rotten apple Chris put out. Smart little critters.

It is great to have Chris back. He took a week to drive out with our clothes, toys, computer, etc. and then worked for nearly three weeks. It was lonely for him and lonely for me, Xander and Josie. I would have blogged about it, but once again there was no computer for me. I do see that Chris blogged about it. Give him Husband Points!

Hummingbird!

So I will be updating more often and sharing about our adventures here ($30 for a carryout pizza!) and the usual (teaching, crafts, etc.).

The Challenge

For some time I have (irrationally) desired a stand mixer. As time has gone by this has developed very specifically into a Kitchenaid Artisan stand mixer in tangerine orange or buttercup yellow. Not that I plan to redecorate the kitchen to match. That's just insane.

But as you may or may not know, those mixers are a little expensive. It's not something I'm comfortable asking for as a gift. Chris, being awesome, said I could go ahead and get one. My subtle hints that I needed one really made his eyes roll though. However, it's not something I'm just comfortable walking into a store and buying.

So I have issued myself a Challenge. Now, I've never been great at motivating myself. Workouts and diets fall to the wayside after a couple of days. So when I discussed this Challenge with Chris, I'm pretty sure he was chuckling on the inside.

Many of you have seen this cork board at our house in the dining area. It contains little hanging envelopes for coupons, the calendar and, among other things, the CFO list.

(wow, I need to clean that up)

I can't remember if I've told you about my Chief Family officer list or not, but it's a list of chores that I made so I can keep track of what I've done and what I haven't done for a while. In my world I always just dusted, until I check the CFO list and see it's been an embarrassing amount of time. The list is split up into weekly chores (with five columns for the four to five weeks in a month), monthly chores and seasonal chores.



Here's where the Challenge comes in. I have never once completed every chore on a CFO list. You know, things just get prioritized and polishing the silver just doesn't happen four times a year like it should be.

My goal this July is to completely finish my CFO list, even the seasonal items that don't need to be done until the end of August. Then I will claim my prize!

(And I haven't mentioned this to Chris, but maybe each month after July I will have additional challenges that will result in fun mixer attachments like an ice cream maker)

Let them eat butterfly cake

For Josie's first birthday party, I wasn't obsessed with having a theme. I did, however, figure I would use the colors pink, orange and yellow. And I would also use butterflies. And so I began looking for ideas for butterfly cakes.

I thought to possibly just use a cake mold. But that would entail buying a cake mold.

I thought about cutting and carving a cake to look like a butterfly. There is a great suggestion of using a round cake, cut it in half and switch halves, then trim a little to make the two semi-circles into the butterfly. However, I seem to have massive crumb trouble whenever I level or trim a cake.

I thought about making a sheet cake and just drawing and decorating a butterfly on it. Boring!

And it was suggested to me to make a cupcake cake. I've read too much Cake Wrecks to even attempt a cupcake cake.

One of the first suggestions to me was to make chocolate butterflies out of melted chocolate. At first I dismissed that idea as too fancy, but after not liking any of the other ideas, I decided to go for it. I bought some white melting candies and melted them in the microwave. I drew template of a pair of separated wings on a piece of paper. I also drew antenna but decided not to attempt them. I put the paper underneath wax paper. I put the melted candies in a pastry bag and drew over the wax paper using the template for a guide. Once I finished one set I would move the paper template underneath the wax paper and draw another set of wings.

Even with the air conditioner running, it was a hot day. So I stuck each sheet in the refrigerator while I made the next sheet. I think I made 16 sets of wings all together. It was the first time I've done anything like this and it took a little practice. They turned out very fragile and I broke more than one while getting them off of the wax paper. Ok, I broke like six. Then I realized I probably shouldn't use a dinner knife to peel them off. Once I used a spatula, they came up nice and neat.

Next I placed a piece of wax paper with a crease into an open book. I put a small strip of melted candy down for the body, stuck the wings in and globbed more candy on top. Back into the refrigerator until cake decorating time.

I decided to make box cakes, fun-fetti for the sheet cake and chocolate cupcakes. The cupcakes just had frosting swirled onto them and butterflies randomly added.

The cake turned out gorgeous but still home-made looking. I loved it!

Here was the one butterfly that broke one wing. I thought it looked cute sitting on the flower.


Turns out that everyone else liked the cake and cupcakes. All of the cupcakes were gone and only a little corner of cake was leftover. There is no better compliment than that when backing.

He Is Their Father

My Darth Vader imitation is bad enough, so I'm sure having it typed out totally obliterates the reference.

So! For Father's Day I bought Chris something ultra-special. Well, I think it's ultra-special, everyone else may roll their eyes at me. It's Star Wars Pancake Molds! Oh, how I nearly shrieked when I found these. I had stumbled across the cookie presses, but was hesitant because actually decorating Star Wars cookies would be time consuming. Then I found the pancake molds and just bounced in my seat and giggled madly.

They worked surprisingly well even if they don't look as nice as the package. I did buy the fancy 'pancake pen' to squirt the batter into the mold. You can see where the different squirts overlap. I think it just makes Vader look scarier.

The molds don't sit flush against the griddle but didn't leak everywhere, so I'm cool with that.


The best thing is that when you put the pancake on the plate and pour syrup on or slather on the jam, it puddles up in the eyes and mouth and looks really cool and tastes fabulous.


Now every holiday will be celebrated with Yoda. Xander and Josie will find it strange that no one else gets clone pancakes for Flag Day.