Owl Be Damned: Hootness and Cuteness

Don’t listen to what they say about Valentines, we know it’s ALL ABOUT THE CANDY anyway!

The Princess recently announced that we should hand make all twenty three of her Valentines this year.  Aw, doesn’t that sound nice?

What do you mean “WE”, little girl?

Seriously, I was really on board.  Making your own Valentines saves money, right?  Therefore it’s totally worth it.  Yes, we were going to totally rock the homemade Valentine world this year!

After perusing online for awhile and finding out that my child pretty much wants everything on the internet, she settled upon making 23 of the paper owls in the picture below for her classmates.  Because they were “soooooo cuuuuuuuute”! (her words)

http://KidsActivitiesBlog has great step by step instructions on how to make these cute little owls. So simple and cute, right????

Before we proceed, keep in mind that this little girl always has her very own ideas of how she wants things…

After said conversation I visited the dollar spot  at Target and purchased a $1 package of scrapbook paper and some glue sticks.  Her plan also included not putting holes in the bottom for straws or suckers. We planned to make feet for our little owls.  Because we can’t give candy, we must give FRUIT SNACKS!  FRUIT SNACKS that are shaped like hearts!

(We totally CAN give candy, she just doesn’t want to).

The instructions said to make circles on the paper, and the blogger had simply used a cup to trace the circles.  So I grabbed the first cup I saw, which was The Princess’s heart cup, and hurriedly made circles, and then cut them out. Doing this used up about half of the scrapbook paper.

This was when I realized that these were going to be teeny tiny little owls.  Normal people would trace around an adult cup.  ADD people trace around the first cup they find that isn’t dirty.  The cup I grabbed happened to be her favorite.  And small, very small.

She also set her heart on using google eyes instead of making the eyes out of paper.  I guess maybe I should have bought some more eyes!  It became apparently quite quickly that the eyes we had were either gigantic or teeny.  Nothing in between that wasn’t completely goofy.  The Princess was very disappointed in this. Instead I showed her how to make the eyes out of paper circles like in the picture.  She was not very impressed.

And why write your own cute little sayings when you managed to pick up a bunch of conversation heart stickers last year in the Valentine Clearance?  So now instead of an owl with a note that says “I think you’re a HOOT!” or -insert owl reference here-, we have an owl with a heart emblazoned with the word “Kisses” on its tummy, holding on to a bag of heart shaped fruit snacks for dear life.

So after an extended period of cutting and folding, and making eyes, the Princess decided she was done. Or rather, I was done.  How many had we made?  One.  I had made just one little owl for her as an example.  She snatched it and fled to her room to make it a place to sleep.  She is going to keep it and name it “Kisses”.

Here is our poor “Kisses” the owl, rescued from the Princess’s bedroom while she slept.  I’m not sure how Kisses got so darn dirty.

So, will the Princess actually start making her owls for her friends?  Will we have future episodes where The Princess decides to keep going forward with Operation Valentine’s Owls?  Or perhaps a post about me running frantically to the store to grab one of the two boxes of Valentines that are left on the 11th hour of Vday?

It would have been so much simpler if I had just showed her all of the character Valentines there were while we were at Target.  But no, I had to encourage her creativity!  What is WRONG with me?

The Professor, on the other hand, was perfectly happy with whatever.  I brought him home a box of Skylanders Valentines and he was set.

So, several days after the fact,  just how IS our little owl project going?

Guess what?  She told me to go to Wal-Mart and pick her up a box of My Little Pony Equestria Girl Valentines… Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Some of our perusing for ideas resulted in seeing some ridiculously cute stuff.  Just hook me up with this site, I’ll order all of my Valentines’ gifts and be on my merry little way…

http://www.personalcreations.com/

Aren’t these just the cutest things ever?  And I’m the mean mom who gave my kids weird names.  What’s wrong with that? You can’t just walk into a store and find personalized stuff for them.  Damn me.  http://www.personalcreations.com/valentines-gifts-kids-PVALKID

I thought it wise to mention that I did not receive any sort of compensation for plugging Personal Creations and Kids Activities Blog, other than a nice virtual high five.  That and the reaffirmation that my daughter wants everything cute that was ever made.

Celebrating #14: The Clean Anniversary

The 14th anniversary is the Ivory anniversary.  Cool.  This means we get a bar of soap?  The clean anniversary!  Or perhaps that means that we have to travel to Africa in search of an elephant’s tusk?  Or give the gift of pianos.

In case you haven’t figured it out, my husband and I have been married 14 years today.  Yeah that anniversary thing.  We had one of those last year too.

These.kick.butt.

Our geekdom unites us.  Or perhaps it’s our weirdness.

Recently Evil Genius turned towards me and I saw something on his back.  It was just a sticker, but I got the giggles.
“HA HA.  When did you get a tattoo?”
EG:  “Friday night.”
EG:  “I really should do that sometime.”
Me:  “No.”
EG:  “Well then, I guess I’ll have to because nobody tells me what to do.”
Me:  “Ok fine, then no tattoos on your face.  Like a moustache tattoo.”
EG:  “Yeah… that would be bad.  I’d have to grow a moustache the rest of my life to hide my tattoo of a moustache.”
I barely heard him, because the mental image of someone with a handlebar moustache tattooed on their face was too much for my little brain to handle.  I almost hurt myself laughing.

Yep, some people are just meant to find each other.

I’m not saying it’s all fun all the time.  There are days when he is tired and grumpy and I am oversensitive about it.  I’m sure that he gets sick of my lack of housekeeping skills on a regular basis.  He understands my writing obsession about as much as I understand his gaming.

Hey look, he’s Iron Man!

But somehow we just make it work.  We got some pretty darn cute kids out of the deal too.

We’re not big on the mushy stuff, though I do tell him every night I love him.  We’re not extravagant people either.  This year I’d be happy with dinner, a couple of drinks, and some sort of acknowledgement that he feels I’m worth keeping around all this time.

In honor of our special day, and Evil Genius’s twentieth class reunion, we’ll be taking some time off and leaving town this weekend.  We’ll have some time to be adults even.  Whaaaaat?  Yes this one we’re actually going to attend.  No sitting home and watching Ghost Rider 2 in my pajamas this year!  Because we are such awesome people, we’ll be killing the proverbial two birds with one stone.  Two celebrations at the same time.  Word.

This means me actually having to take some time away from the computer.  So starting tomorrow, instead of my randomness, you will be treated to a parade of insanely talented bloggers for a WHOLE WEEK!  Every weekday from Thursday through the following Friday a different person that I think is the bee’s knees will have a little something to share.  I picked each and every one of these bloggers because they are special to me in some way.

Grab some energy drinks!

So get your beverage of choice and settle in to read some fabulousness the next few days!  Thursday leads off with Marcia from Menopausal Mother blogging about SQUIRRELS!

So now if you’ll excuse me, I have an anniversary to think about…

This Mom’s Birthday List

On May 1st I will turn the ripe old age of 39.  I know, don’t I look young for my age?

I’ve been thinking a lot about it, and I believe I will go the extra mile and think really hard about what I want for my birthday.  I know it’s not about the gifts, but I’ve been extra good this year.  I have even kept my house clean for almost a week straight.  I am kind beyond belief, even when I want to strangle other people that I live with.  I bathe the dog.  I spend hours planning out and then executing my plan of attack for grocery shopping to maximize what we get for the money.  I make lunch AND coffee every morning for my husband.  I send him thoughtful messages.  Although I am not a fabulous cook, I don’t let my family starve.  Did I mention I have two children???

1) Permission To Be An Adult  A night out where we have a sitter and my husband is not on the verge of falling asleep, where there is a movie on that we actually WANT to see and enough funds to catch dinner somewhere beforehand (a place where we could make *gasp* reservations??  Do they DO that in Iowa?) Not having to rush home, and maybe even some grown up fun when we GET home.  Hmmmm…I don’t ask for much, do I?

2)  BOOKS.  Not just any books.  Books by my favorite people.

I told a huge lie.  I didn’t mean to.  I told Amber Dusick that I had just bought her book. Technically I had.  It was sitting in my cart on Amazon. I was GOING to buy it.  Twice.  I wanted the free bookplate, because she’s my hero. And I said ‘penis’ on her blog comments.  Therefore it was the least I could do, right?  But then real life intervened and decided that groceries and gasoline were more important than me getting to read her book.  Sigh… For those of you living under a rock, I’m talking about the Parenting, Illustrated With Crappy Pictures book.  I’d also take any of the books from the Life Well Blogged series, because I like to support other fellow bloggers!

3)  Complaint Free Shopping. A shopping day alone or with a willing companion (who is not four years old).  I’m no shop-a-holic.  I do, however, like to have time to actually browse in stores that don’t have a toy or a dollar section.

It’s fun to go to stores without an eight year old declaring that it is the worst day of his life because I made him put the DS down and get out of the car.  To leave the house just once without Evil Genius declaring “Let’s get this over with before I vomit!” To go eat at a place that doesn’t have fries or chicken nuggets on the menu.  To be able to try on clothes without a child licking the mirror.  To go to a scrapbook store without a time limit or a little one dismembering a whole rack of stickers.  To not have to scramble to get back home to make supper.  To go to any place that sells anything without a little voice begging “Can I have that, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease????”  (For the record, Evil Genius does that too-he still won’t forgive me for telling him he couldn’t have a Lego Death Star). To have a highly caffeinated beverage without someone pouting.

Evil Genius at the Lego Store at the Mall of America. He dreams of a Lego Death Star. His mean wife keeps telling him no.

(Truth:  I love my family, but sometimes I just need a day away.)

4)  Recharge  A massage or something relaxing…HA HA HA!  I DID actually get a certificate for a massage once.  It was very, very nice.

For the record, my husband has informed me multiple times that he does NOT do subtle.  I have to flat out tell him or smack him.  So honey, here’s my list…  I want to see Iron Man 3 and Star Trek: Into Darkness, for when you take me out.  Maybe we can even hold hands in public or something.  Ooooooooooooooo…

I’d be happy with a bottle of wine and a nice homecooked dinner, but let’s pretend for a minute that I could have those other things I want, k?

Today I also dumped my purse out for Kelley’s Breakroom on her Facebook page.  My husband thought that was really weird, but I thought it was kind of fun!  So come over and check it out!  Tomorrow catch me over at When Crazy Meets Exhaustion, where I’ll be rambling about that special place where people understand me.  Also, don’t forget if you have a crazy question for Evil Genius, send it to me at thesadderbutwisergirlisme at gmail dot com with “Dear Dr Genius” in the subject line. 

Theme Thursday: SHOW ME THE CANDY!

Welcome to Theme Thursday!  This week’s theme is Valentines Day!

Valentines Day kids

Valentine’s Day.  Not my favorite day.  I’ve never been a big fan.  It’s ok.  But sometimes there are other days that are way better.  Halloween, Independence Day, Arbor Day…

It’s not that I don’t LIKE Valentines Day.  I like being spoiled a little.  I like being thought about.  I like doing things for other people.  But these days Valentines Day is hyped up way beyond what it should be.  Sometimes it ends up being somewhat disappointing.  Other years it’s been just downright awesome.  I just wish it fell a little later in the year, like AFTER we get our income tax return.  After Christmas and The Professor’s birthday, we usually have to play catch up with the $$.  Who decided that Valentine’s Day should fall in February anyway?

When you have cute kids, it’s much more fun, especially when they make me Valentines.

I’m not one of those every kiss begins with Kay women.  I don’t like jewelry. As a matter of fact, I often quote Ron White when I see those commercials “Diamonds, that’ll shut her up.”  I’d much rather get an Itunes card.  I do like getting flowers, but I’m not one of those dozen red roses girls.  I must say husband has excellent taste when it comes to selecting such things.  I also like a nice dinner out sans kids-which doesn’t happen too frequently.  But honestly I’d take homemade Valentines and a thoughtful note over any of those things.

Kids, however, know that Valentines Day is really about one thing:  THE CANDY!  When I was a kid we would exchange paper valentines-that was it.  Now it’s candy and pencils and other stuff that is expected to be swapped. Princess Tantrum is excited about going to preschool for one major reason-she got Valentines and she gets to give them to people.  This means that she will get some in return.  Many of these most likely will contain some sort of candy, which to her is the whole reason for the valentines.  She loves candy.  I think she loves candy more than all other things that she loves combined.  I’m worried that some day she is going to try to trade me for a box of chocolates.

Remember:  It’s all about the CANDY!

I guess Forrest Gump said it best, life really is a box of chocolates, or at least is more fun when you have some to eat.

Now that you’ve read what I feel about Valentine’s Day, come on over to The Epistolarians and read my thoughts on love.  And of course, don’t forget to vote!

Be sure to check out all of the Theme Thursday posts about V-Day at Something Clever 2.0!

I Am “Loded”

This post brought to you late by HP.  The Printers that forget stuff.

I am loved.  Every day I am lavished with gifts.  Not just any gifts, handmade gifts.  Like this one:

It’s a vase of flowers.  Sparkly pipe cleaners with tiny little flower paper punches that she punched out of construction paper.  I should have been suspicious when she asked me punch holes in the middle of the flower punches.  She then snuck away and returned with this mug that she stole from me.  First she asked me to close me eyes, and then she yelled “SURPRISE!”  Then she told me where I needed to display it.  The whole world needs to see her art, you know.

My daughter could probably open her own Etsy shop.  The kid’s got skills.  At the rate I’m going, she may have to open one to help support us.

She creates non stop many days.  She does art from the time she is done cuddling with me on the couch until I tell her “That’s enough art for the day!”

This one cracks me up.  It makes me think of a Radiohead performance on SNL.  The band is playing and there’s a guy sticking wires in a little box.  Similar?  I think so.  And it’s all mine, sitting right next to my spot on the couch.

She reminds me all the time of why she makes these things for me.  She sings the song from Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood “Making something is one way to say… I love you.”  She also tells me-all the time, and constantly asks for hugs and kisses.

And there are pictures.  I wrote awhile back about how there is no more room in my house for all of the things that she makes.  She used to draw two tiny pictures on a piece of paper and present it to me.  “Oh I love it, but can’t you add more?”  She would get mad at me and stomp off.  Apparently I was messing with her creativity.  It must have gotten through, because she’s drawing much more on her pictures now.  I would display some, but as usual, my printer thinks it’s missing something.  Today is the scanner.  Who knows what tomorrow?

The dry erase board helped a little with the art pile up, but we’re never allowed to erase it.  I take pictures from time to time.  This particular one is an oldie but a goodie from this past summer.

For Christmas Grandma presented both kids with a big box of stuff.  The Professor received a box of science stuff so he can get to work on solving our world energy crisis.  She received an art box full of art products in addition to a big bag of recycled materials to use it with.  She was thrilled.  She’s a funny girl.

One of her recent creations was made partly with stickers from the box, partly from a picture frame kit that I had picked up at Goodwill.  Oh, and scotch tape.  She was giddy when she presented this to me along with two others.

Me:  “You ‘lode’ me?”
Princess Artistic:  “No I LOVE you.  I don’t have any ‘v’s.”

Alright, I’ll take it.  That way in a few years when she starts to loathe me I have this among many other reminders of that sweet messy haired girl who used to “lode” me.

Captain’s Log Stardate -309967.53450025356 The Week in Review

I concur. *pop* *pop*

Disclaimer:  This post may contain the following words-boob, poop, naked, zombie.  Discontinue reading if these offend you.   Hey, ever notice that boob is poop upside down?

Monday  The ADD Kitchen Chapter 3:  Why Duff Goldman Will Never Hire Me  I reminisce about boob cakes, and display batman cake fails and sort of wins.

Tuesday  Printer Purgatory  I resist the urge to kick the crap out of my printer.

Wednesday  Zoinks!  Kids Cartoon Fears and the Container Mystery  My kids are afraid of Scooby Doo, and my tupperware is MIA.

Thursday  Cats and Dogs, Disliking Each Other In My Home Since 2012 If it were seriously my cat vs my dog, I’m pretty sure the cat would win.

Friday  January Secret Subject Swap:  Like Mother Like Daughter, Except When We’re Not  The second time I’ve participated in the Secret Subject Swap!  How my Mom and I are alike, and how I wish I could be more like her.

Saturday  Reblog:  Have Fun Storming the Castle!  I explore the other affliction in our household besides the recessive gene.

Other Good things this week (besides my posts):

The boob cake may be famous.  I’m not holding my breath, but it may be featured in Craft Fail’s  book.  It’s ok if it’s not, but I thought it was cool that they would even consider it.  As I looked at more pictures of it, I about died laughing at how funny it looks…

Take THAT Madonna!

And check out Craft Fail sometime.  I love it. They even quoted me on it and stuff.  They also have a Twitter page.

I had a job interview.  A group job interview.  No it’s not as fun as it sounds.  They pretty much took anyone who got on their website.  Do I have a chance?  Maybe.  My advice to anyone who does one is to NOT go right home and google how the company is to work for.  DO NOT DO THIS!

I finally got to work on my personal website.  Don’t everyone get all excited, it’s still a long way from being done, but it’s called Serendipitous Sarah and is supposed to help promote my writing.  Maybe even *gasp* help me land a paid writing job someday.  I’ll let y’all know when it’s “live” or whatever you kids are calling it these days…

AND I’m finally on the mend.  At least I think I am. Unless this is disease’s sucky way of tricking me.  Now my husband has it.

Best post of the week by a blogger way more famous than me:

Hey kids, don’t stick your tongue in there, m’kay?  The Bearded Iris.  I think I broke something laughing.  If you don’t have a “licker” in the house, you may not find this funny.

Odd things of the week:

I’m not sure if I’m flattered or just plain weirded out that Ore Ida follows me on Twitter…
I’ve got escort services commenting on my blog.  I’m used to the sex spam, but really?  Thank goodness for Askimet.

Weird and Disturbing Search Engine Terms this week:

Beautiful girls pooping-yes we all poop, even the beautiful people-do you really wanna see that?

Missing my zombie-I miss my zombie too when he’s missing.  I’m referring to my husband who doesn’t sleep much, what are you referring to?

The family water bra-How exactly is this a family bra?  Does the family all fit in it?  Or do they take turns wearing it?

“Jill Taylor” Ironman-???????

Snowmen Doing Yoga-I kind of want to see that too

So afraid I wet my knickers-People still wear knickers?

Purses with cats on them-In them, perhaps, but not on.

Girl you make me wanna get you pregnant-How the holy heck did this find my blog?  Inquiring minds want to know.

Big furry girl-Mmm-hmmm.  I DID skip a day shaving my legs this week.

Naked Grandpa-I could almost understand it if this picture was used in one of my blog posts:

HA HA HA! I love this picture.

For the record, I don’t know where this photo originally came from.  But if you follow DeBie Hive on Facebook, you can see truly funny stuff like this all the freakin time!  OK, a lot of the time.  I love this lady-check her out!    https://www.facebook.com/debie.hive  http://debiehive.blogspot.com/

That’s all I’ve got.  I’m posting and moving on.  I have a webpage to work on.

The ADD Kitchen Chapter 3: Why Duff Goldman Will Never Hire Me

It all began with a picture on Facebook.  A well known kids celebrity in these parts has three children, and his son recently celebrated a birthday.  His wife was stricken with a bug, so he made the cake.  A batman cake.  A pretty darn good cake if you ask me, with yellow frosting and black icing for the bat symbol.  He posted the finished results on Facebook, and my son spied the picture.

“That’s what I want, a batman cake for my birthday, ” he announced.

The Professor has never asked for any kind of character cake before.  Every year he wants the same thing-a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  So this was a bit of a surprise.  He even continued to talk about the cake long after he saw it.  I figured he would have forgotten about it by now.  So I was on the hook for a batman cake and two dozen batman cupcakes for school. Easy feat you say?  Perhaps for you, but not for me, the ADD Chef.  Let me introduce you to the last cake I made:

Here lies Madonna…

It’s supposed to be a princess castle cake, but it really looks like Madonna with her cone boobs lying down.  I always thought it but never said it.  When I posted it for the blogging world to see on Facebook and Twitter, people said what I was thinking.  Oh thank goodness it’s not just me.  However, I must point out that my daughter thought it was absolutely wonderful.  And I did take away a valuable lesson from this:  don’t use storebought frosting if you want to do anything remotely fancy!

SO back to the whole batman thing: I spent quite some time on Pinterest and online ahead of time, trying to find some inspiration to proceed.  All I wanted was a cake with REGULAR FROSTING.  I don’t do fondant, and I don’t do fancy cakes, because I can’t.  As I kept searching, I really started to feel pretty lousy about myself, because, well, have you BEEN on Pinterest???  My past cakes consist of the above cake and a bunch of cakes with storebought frosting tinted with food coloring and covered with sprinkles.

A typical cake by me. Don’t laugh, I can’t take it.

It was a comedy of errors, only I wasn’t laughing much.  Mainly because I have been kicked in the kadoomus by some mysterious ailment (bronchitis) and was ready to cry at the drop of a hat because I felt so crappy.  I had several people tell me to just give in and go buy a cake at the HyVee bakery.  I would rather drag my body into the kitchen and make cupcakes while lying on the floor than go to the bakery for those sugary things.

I found a great template online ahead of time.  My plan was to make the cupcakes and cake, make the frosting, and then print out the template to make little bitty batman symbols and a big one.  When it was time to retrieve the template, the printer quit working.  I mean, the printer works, but my computer forgot it had a program.  Stupid HP.  My Kodak is still without a working anything, since they think I need to buy a brand new printer to replace one that isn’t even two years old.  Talk about planned obsolescence!  The other printer is an HP, and HP printers are the Dorys of the printer world.  Then I couldn’t find the cd-rom for that printer, of course, because it’s the ADD person’s law.  If I knew where the ADD handbook was, I’d happily show you the page with the rules.

Meanwhile back at the batcave: I made the cupcakes and froze them so they would be easier to frost.  I being the wonderfully organized (and sick) person I am I screwed around with the computer so much trying to get the printer to work that I started making the frosting at 10:30 at night.  I had found the Wilton food coloring paste at Hobby Lobby on clearance to tint the stuff, which was the only thing that actually worked out for me.  Surprisingly the homemade buttercream frosting turned out pretty yummy-not wonderful looking (other than the color), but good enough to use to frost.  I still didn’t have bat symbols, however, and I was running out of time.  The 11th hour desperate attempt involved me putting a piece of paper up to the screen and tracing the symbol with a dry-erase marker.  I figured I could just bypass the missing program and resize the image on the scanner.  Apparently you can’t do that.  At that point I marched back into the kitchen and started drawing on bat symbols with the sparkly black writing icing.  This was going to have to be good enough.

What does it look like to you? Batman? Or weird little crowns on smooshed egg yolks?

As someone who doesn’t really like cake, but is a big fan of Ace of Cakes purely for the geek factor going on there, I’m sad.  Yes I know the show was cancelled a while ago, but I know the bakery is still going.

And I still hadn’t made the other cake yet…  Actually I had, but I used the wrong kind of pan, and it literally sunk in the middle.  I even tried to flip it over to frost it, and the middle FELL OUT!  I was out of cake mix and had to go get more.  Since I bought it at the local grocery store instead of driving to town, it was like an $8 box of cake mix.  I ended up making the cake at 8:30 the next morning, but then had to leave again to go get powdered sugar for frosting, because I was out.  It takes a lot of powdered sugar to make frosting, but in the end it’s not only cheaper, but also better tasting and easier to use!

I ended up decorating the cake in the afternoon.  My batman symbol that I had hastily drawn became the visual inspiration for the big cake.  As I’ve said before, I’m not real good at free hand.  I drew the symbol on with the black icing, and then filled it in with *gasp* chocolate sprinkles.  Due to my aversion to them, we had quite a few.  While a bit crooked and not symmetrical, given my past attempts at just normal cake, this was definitely passable.

Not too bad. I was even complimented on my use of sprinkles by said local celebrity.

In the end, it all worked out.  My son came home from school and was absolutely thrilled with it.  We had a nice visit with grandma, and he got to open presents and all that fun stuff.  His sister even refrained from blowing out the candles for him this year…

I may not be able to get a job at a cake place (or anywhere else for that matter), but at least I have made the little people on the homefront happy!

My Life This Week: Not Very Interesting

So far, has anyone messed up and written ’12 instead of ’13 on their checks?  Does anyone still write checks?  I was actually told it was cheaper to write a check to pay a bill yesterday.  So I wrote one, and sent it snail mail.  Weird-I thought they were moving away from paper and ink!

Anyhoo, here is the life I led this week:

Yes.

MONDAY-I just plain ran out of time and ambition to finish my post.  It was New Years’ Eve after all.  I did celebrate New Years Eve like a boss though.  Well, that is if celebrating like a boss involves making homemade pizza rolls and watching Mystery Science Theater…

TUESDAY–2012 Is Done: The Year In Review So We Can Just Move On  My year and how it went, up and down…

He’s mostly dead, all thanks to Google.

WEDNESDAY–My Glands, My Glands, My Lovely Swollen Glands  What happens when you use Google to figure out what’s wrong with you.  Hint:  Never, ever google your symptoms.  Ever. You WILL think you are mostly dead.  Also, Wordless Wednesday: Coffee  Self explanatory.

THURSDAY–Wintertime Where The Sleddin Is Easy (If You Have Hills)  I participate in my second Theme Thursday on Something Clever 2.0.  The theme was Winter.  It was probably the easiest post I’ve written in awhile!

FRIDAY–Sheldon Cooper Lives At My House, And Today He Turns Eight  My oldest had a birthday, and tried to convince us that we were supposed to throw him a surprise party.

The only thing I will ever have in common with Rachel Green is that I am also trained for nothing.

SATURDAY–REBLOG:  What I Think Prospective Employers Are REALLY Saying About Me  I started applying for jobs again after a couple of week hiatus and this still rings true.  What the heck are they looking for out there?  Am I really like Rachel on Friends, and trained for nothing?

This next week:  we’ll revisit the ADD Kitchen for a new chapter, cats versus dogs, and the latest in Baking In A Tornado’s brainchild-The Secret Subject Swap, among other things!

Sheldon Cooper Lives At My House, And Today He Turns Eight

There is mischeviousness and collaboration going on in the backseat… Walmart has nothing to do with it.

As we were leaving the post office the other day I notice that there is a lot of whispering going on in the backseat between the Princess and the Professor.

Finally my son pipes up and asks me the following:  “Mom did you hear about the surprise party?”

Huh?  “What surprise party?”  I inquire.

“You know, MY surprise party.”  He responds.

He must be confused, I think.  I’m speechless for a minute, not really sure how to respond.  We’re not throwing a surprise party…  I don’t want him to think that we wouldn’t WANT to throw him a party.

“Honey, grandma is coming up for our little family party.  That’s not really a surprise because you knew about that.”

“THAT’S not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the surprise party that you are throwing for me.”

Um… “But honey, we’re not throwing a surprise party.  Just a regular one.  Not to mention that the idea of surprise is that you wouldn’t know about it.”

“But I’m ok with it.  I’ve told (The Princess) all about it.”

Ahhh… so The Princess is in charge?  This could be very interesting.

This was the point where I just gave up.  Why do I feel like this could very well be an episode of “The Big Bang Theory”?  Sheldon wants a surprise party and makes someone plan one for him but he’s actually in charge?  This could so happen.

My son in a few years. He is much like Sheldon…

Anyway, my point being is that today is The Professor’s eighth birthday.  It’s hard to believe that he’s eight!  It seems like just yesterday that he was educating his teachers on the finer points of NASCAR-stats, cars, the drivers, and even the owners.  He was two and a half at the time, and had literally just started talking.

His requests for his birthday ranged from getting every superhero action figure ever made to driving to Minneapolis and eating at the Rainforest Cafe.  We chose the middle of the road request-he wanted to go to the Science Center and see the IMAX movie and go to the exhibits.  He and his father will be going sans his sister and me-the last time we went with her she tried to run the show.  Imagine that.

The cake?  He requested a batman cake.  He is obsessed with superheroes.  Especially batman.  He and his sister are in love with the original batman tv series.  You know, the one with Adam West, and the theme song that gets stuck in your head?  You can hear both of them going around the house singing “Batman, na na na na na na na na na na na na na BATMAN!”  I am so, so very proud of this.  My kids are cool.

Come on, you’d be singing it too…

However cool my children are, however, unless the princess has some connections I’m not aware of, there will be no surprise parties.  Just a nice quiet celebration with his family.  Batman cupcakes and presents.

Happy eighth birthday Mr Professor.  You’ll probably be famous by your ninth birthday.

Sheldon Cooper would kill to have jammies as cool as these!  I just wish the picture had turned out better.  This is from the postponed pajama day due to “Draco”.

Last Call: The Final Week in a Nutshell of 2012

I’ll be the first to admit I’m way, way behind on my reading.  I haven’t been reading other folk’s blogs like I usually do, because this is such a busy time!  Today is my Dad’s birthday and tomorrow is New Years Eve.  So I promise, I’ll be brief.  Because I’ve got stuff to do and places to go.  Well maybe nowhere to go but I certainly have things to do!

Sooo…just in case you were extremely busy like many of us were this past week, here is the week in review.

Sunday  I took a good hard look (er, listen) at holiday music and picked my favorite versions and the songs that make me want to run for the hills.  Holiday Music:  The Great Ones and the Really Annoying (In My Unprofessional Opinion)

 

Monday I take a moment to remember why we celebrate Christmas.  The Hokey Pokey Is NOT What It’s All About

Wednesday A summary of my Christmas.  Elvis was there.  Wrapping Up Christmas

 

 

 

 

Thursday I tried out a new prompt-Theme Thursday over at Something Clever 2.0.  The theme was New Years Resolutions, which I actually don’t make. New Years Resolutions or Lack Thereof.

 

 

Friday I looked back over some of the stuff I actually learned this year.  After I published this, I found the original list I made.  Much better than what I actually wrote down.  What I Learned in 2012:  An Introvert’s Introspective Retrospective

 

 

Saturday was a reblog.  Shockingly, I didn’t seem to lose any followers over it.  Read here to find out why I don’t eat chocolate sprinkles.  The Scoop on the Poop:  Why I Don’t Eat Chocolate Sprinkles and Other Revelations.

 

 

 

I don’t have a list of favorite blog posts this week, though I assure you there were MANY great ones this week.  I’m just waaaaay behind on my reading.  Please refer to my little list here in the right hand column of all the great blogs I follow.  Each one of them is special to me for a good reason. Which reminds me, I really need to add a few blogs to it!

Coming tomorrow, the best of 2012.  If you made my list, you could be the recipient of a beautiful handmade award!  My daughter, however, does not take requests, she just creates.  Future independent artist, she is.

Her creations will be much better than the “Geller Cup”.