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Saturday, July 21, 2012

I was so disappointed:(

We walked into one of those cheapo beach stores on main street and ocean blvd the other night in search of a water shirt for Miriam. When we had found the one at the cheapest price thanks to the store clerk, my heart dropped and my blood boiled. J instructed me to put the shirt back and get out of the store immediately because we had recognized who the man was.
See, a few nights before he and I went to live a few hours as kids again at the OD pavilion just a few blocks down from our hotel.when we decided to ride a ride or two (oh graviton make me barf!), we had to purchase tickets. When we walked up to the ticket booth there was a tall built man standing with his daughter (about 6 or so) at the front counter asking for a "locals" discount at 11pm (they closed at midnight). The lady informed they guy that they didn't do that and he pressed the issue again. Unfortunately the lady's next response still didn't make him happy so he proceeded to cuss her out using every word in the book (and even some new ones!) and dropped the f-bomb a handful of times, right in front of his poor young daughter who just wanted to ride some rides! I was so disheartened by the scene that I even said out loud enough do he could hear me "really? In front of your daughter? ". Thankfully he didn't turn around and come after me but j and I hated seeing that guy be such a jerk to the ticket lady and to his daughter. And he smelled something awful of alcohol!! then we spent our fortune on tickets, rode the gravitron twice and returned home thinking of how rude that man was.
So while standing at the water shirts, it dawned on us: the clerk was that man. I have never felt so much passion as to not support a business as I did in that moment and we high tailed it out of there-without the cheapest water shirt in NMB:(

Monday, July 9, 2012

Birthdays, Cupcakes, and Cookies-OH MY!

I can't believe my little sugar bag (well, my first one at least) will be 2 tomorrow.  I think I've got a big ol' blur in memory when I think of the last 2 years - can I get a rewind and slo-mo replay??  She is so stinking cute, incredibly clever, outrageously curious, spastically energetic, and absolutely fearless.  She has brought joy, laughter, excitement, and gray hairs to our lives.  She certainly keeps us on our toes, and now serves as a super big sister, learning how to do everything mommy and daddy do to help baby.  She's singing her ABCs and counting, singing songs, praying without prompting, and of course still eating well, if you couldn't tell.  Happy Birthday Doodle Bug!

I've quickly learned that a summer birthday is a hard thing. There's no "birthday table" at school to sit at and it seems everyone is always so busy in the summer to host a worthwhile party.  We decided this year to not throw a "friend party" for Miriam for a few reasons (schedule, money, and we didn't have a theme....), but instead to do a small family gathering for lunch and cake/presents after Lydia's baptism (since all of the family would already be together).  Even with that, things came up and folks were busy, so it turned out to be a small party, but fun was had none the less.  Here is M filled with excitement to play with her toys she just opened...or maybe she's just wanting us to go ahead and stop singing so she can eat the beautiful cupcake sitting in front of her...
 And since she is going to preschool a few days this week, I thought she could be the coolest kid by bringing a homemade snack to help them celebrate her. The preschool doesn't like cupcakes because of the mess (what mess?? aren't they consumed in just one bite so there isn't any mess??), and since I've been making them for a living these days, I was distressed as to what to bring. Then I had a perfect idea - cupcake COOKIES! So I spent a few quiet moments looking on pinterest for ideas, recipes, etc and came across this SUPER recipe that is quick, good, and easy!
I made the dough on Saturday at 4 pm, then put it in the fridge until Sunday morning. Then M and I cut out the shapes with the less than .50c cutter I got at HL.  We baked them, went to church, got Lydia baptized, ate lunch, opened presents, ate cupcakes, then came back home to naked boring cookies. While I still churned ideas for decorating I finally took the plunge with this icing recipe (but used vanilla instead of almond extract).
naked, but yummy, from scratch sugar cookies

Topped the cupcake with white frosting and some jimmies - my new favorite go to cupcake item!

Thought I grabbed the pink food coloring but got purple instead.  So, purple cupcake liners it is!

The finished product! Fancy, eh?
They dried over night and the icing hardened and didn't look half bad this morning.   They certainly didn't look store bought either.  Ha. I'm pretty sure her friends still enjoyed them!! Maybe I'll keep making cookies too - but I'll definitely need some practice and mercy with the decorating!

Friday, July 6, 2012

Our Friday adventures

Today I was interviewed by our local newspaper for an article they are doing about breast feeding and the new initiative that our local hospital is joining. PMC is 1of 90 hospitals in the nation working together over the next 22 months to improve maternity care and encourage exclusive breast feeding among mothers. Obviously I'm a big EBF advocate so I was thrilled to do the interview. And I'll also be serving on the board for the initiative at the hospital.
Although it was quite the adventure just to make it out the door on time we finally made it to the hospital for the interview. I had to take both girls with me which I knew would be interesting too! They both did great, the interview was fun and our friends in the marketing dept helped with the girls while I was talking to the reporter. They were awesome treating her to stickers (post it notes) and all! I can't wait to see how the article turns out!

Thursday, July 5, 2012

It's an exciting life we lead (photo bomb)

It's so exciting that apparently I don't have time to get on the computer much these days. And with the invention of the iPhone, I rarely have a need to open up my dinosaur of a laptop.  With that said, I'll fill you in on what's been going on with the since I finished my last painting...
- we visited with my dear friend, Kimberly, and her son Anderson and Weeze went with us.  We spent the weekend in Atlanta, got a 2 bedroom suite for 3 adults and 3 children and had a ball. oddly enough, things must have been crazy because there isn't a single picture of the two of us. I got tons of A, M, and L, but hardly any together. this is my favorite - friends forever!

 - we've been to the lake for the first time this summer. J's family owns some property in a quiet little cove and a ski boat we can use for fun! M learned to swim with her floaties the weekend before, so it was a fun time for her to practice her skills. Yes, she is in the water completely alone. And as you can see, Lydia had a blast.

- I had an amazing idea for an orange dreamsicle cupcake.  and it was amazing! I'll be making a few dozen of these for a birthday party next week!

- then we had a rough weekend.  I had an order for watermelon cupcakes (cute idea!) I had made a batch the weekend before that turned out great! But then I switched the recipe for the real order, had a massive stroke to get the cupcake liners, ran out of ingredients and lost some sleep.  Here was the first batch of them: That stinks. Red vanilla cupcakes with a few chocolate chips at the bottom.  Not going to work! 
The second batch was perfect!  Here they are right out of the oven and here's the final look at them.
- We took a trip to the zoo with BB (Miriam's Birthday Buddy, Elizabeth).  She LOVED seeing all of the animals but was so terrified of them, even the bronze statue ones! It was a fun and hot day!



trying to show Miriam that they were fake by tickling it





- We've been back to the lake several times since our first trip.  We went with our neighbors over the weekend, and here's a pick of M really celebrating 4th of July style!  She is the next family river rat!

In between all of that fun, we've had a lot of play dates, a call to poison control, a day killing an entire ant colony in our kitchen, the need to replace our van battery (right after getting new brakes - ouch!), lots of nights with good sleep, time spent with our friends Weeze, Ere and Margaret, new teeth to pop through, many conversations with our vocal L, and two poopies in the potty (glad I don't have a picture for that one!).

Excited for the month of July for we have TONS to look forward to: Lydia's baptism, Miriam's 2nd birthday, a week at the beach, a week at the mountains, more potty training, more learning, more baking, and more fun!!