Wednesday, September 8, 2010

I've been a little busy

Hi again! I know, not the best way to start a blog, but I promise I have good reasons ;) Life has been pretty crazy here lately, but mostly for good reasons. The day of my last post I was offered a new part time job. While I love my retail job I just wasn't able to get enough hours to help us get by. I had decided about a month ago to see if I could find something that I could work along with my current job. I really lucked up when I found out about this one. I am working in the catering department of my local university. The pay is great and I'm getting enough hours that we will be able to breathe at the end of each month after paying all the bills. I am still working the retail job, so that has made things a little crazy. The first week and weekend I worked was freshman move-in. It was also floor set at the other job. From Friday morning until Sunday afernoon I worked a total of 31 hours and got about 5 hours of sleep. Fun times let me tell you! Luckily that craziness is over and things are starting to settle down a bit and I'm getting used to the new routine. That means I should be able to give more time to my little blog.
Now let's back up just a bit and let me tell you about all the fun stuff going on at home during all the work madness.
Lindsey's birthday was August 20. My princess turned 5, and was treated as royalty all day. She had requested a chocolate cake just like Gabe's except she wanted it to have pink frosting, sprinkles and Tinkerbell. The night before her birthday I baked her cake. I, of course, didn't start baking until about 10:30 at night (most projects around here are like that!) and by the time the cake came out of the oven it was almost midnight. As I was taking it out I noticed it hadn't risen very well. Then I noticed it seemed kind of heavy and the texture wasn't very cakey. When I got them onto the cooling rack I realized something had gone really, really wrong.

Um, cakes aren't supposed to look like that, right?


That, my friends, is what happens when you forget to put the 1/2 tsp. of baking soda into your cake mix. Who would have ever thought that 1/2 tsp. of baking soda could make such a difference. Before this I sure wouldn't have! By the time I had figured out what went wrong it was after midnight, I knew if I started another cake that I would be up half the night baking and cooling and icing and decorating and just the thought of doing all that in the middle of the night almost made me cry. Thank goodness that Harris Teeter is open 24 hours and has a pretty good bakery. I ran there, praying the whole way, hoping they had a chocolate cake with chocolate icing that would be plain enough for me to decorate. I was extremely lucky and found exactly what I needed.

An hour later I had this beauty, with all the requirements:

Chocolate with chocolate icing - check

Pink icing - check

Sprinkles - check

Tinkerbell - check


Not bad for a middle of the night scramble, right?


The best part was that she loved it and never knew I hadn't done it all myself. You won't tell her will you?



Five days after that was the first day of school. It was a big year around here. Lindsey started Kindergarten and Gabe started High School. I can't believe that I have a child in high school! How did that happen? Didn't he just start school like 2 years ago?

So far it's going really well for both of them. Gabe made the Varsity (!) Soccer team (more time now being used for practices and games 2-3 times a week) and likes his classes. He is having to get used to having more homework, but so far I haven't had to nag too much. Lindsey is loving school. She was very dissappointed this past weekend that it was a long weekend and a short school week. She wakes up every morning ready to eat breakfast and go to school. I am so happy that she is like that. I just pray it stays that way.


She was so excited that this was the best picture I could get of both of them. I couldn't keep her still!



Don't you just love the pink shoes? She ended up with two pairs of pink school shoes. I guess it's a good thing she loves all things pink.

So I'm going to try to post more now that things are starting to settle down a bit and I'm getting into a routine.

Hope you have a great week!