Halloween + toddler = Mom & Dad on a sugar rush

I asked Dink, today, if I could have a piece of his Halloween candy tonight. I was informed I get a single solitary sucker, of his choosing. (insert frowny face here) I don't like suckers, I like chocolate...and Reese's...and Smarties....and Sweet tarts, and even those dumb cheap little black/orange peanut butter chewy things that, more than likely, haven't been made since 1962, but somehow make it in your bag every year. But alas, I get a sucker. Fine with me. You have to sleep sometime! Granted, it probably won't be in the next 3 days or so, considering how much candy we will let you ingest tonight...

I'm also just now thinking about dinner tonight, which will more than likely be candy, because I'm an awesome (lazy) mom like that!

I am literally getting off work, picking him up from the In-Law's. Taking him home, throwing on his fire man costume. Taking him to the neighbor's to trick-or-treat because they spoil him, picking up daddy, driving back to the in-law's, so they can see him in his costume, then driving 20 minutes south to my parent's neighborhood. It's a smallish neighborhood out in the county, I lived there for about 14 years. All the neighbors know me and saw me grow up, and now they are watching my kid grow up. Quaint, nice. We have been going here for all of his Halloween's. Plus, this way I know I don't have to watch out for razor blades and needles or whatever other sadistic, freak things people do now-a-days. This also lets us 'snack' while we walk. (which makes all calories ingested balanced out.....because we walk faster....because of all the sugar...well you understand)

We will finally get home and somehow convince Dink to go to sleep (this is the plan anyway) and then we will dump out and sort his candy into 'Mommy's pile' and 'Daddy's pile' and whatever is left is 'Dink's pile' We are pretty fair, we do give him the candies he likes....like suckers...he gets all the suckers... (also, you may have noticed, I'm not a fan, but whatever, it works out) Especially, because suckers 1.) make everything better (boo boos, owies, etc) and 2.) they give Mommy & Daddy a few minutes of sweet, heavenly silence, excluding strange slurpy sounds from the aforementioned 2 year old.

I may blog later, provided I'm not on a sugar rush, on a ladder cleaning all the windows outside, or mopping the floors by hand....

Until later my ghostie ghouls!

Today was a good day...Pretty much...

Woke up before the kid. Good start. I laid in bed playing Whirly Word and Words With Friends until I heard the ever so sweet words coming over the monitor, "Mommy, I have to pee!!" I sat up, pulled back my hair into the Sunday ponytail, no brush necessary because 1.) i don't care & 2.) screw it, I don't care! I fully intend on not leaving the house today. I was a woman on a mission. Went up and Dink was dry!!! Woo Hoo moment! So he went in and pottied. (TMI I know, but if you are a parent, you understand.) Then I started dinner in the crock pot. Beef stew. Honestly, best stew I ever made! mmm...

Anyway, like the insane person that I am, I decided last week that I would bring in cupcakes (home made-ish) for our Chili Cook Off at work tomorrow....which happens to be Halloween. So as soon as I got dinner going in the crock pot, I found out we only had 2 eggs left...so threw on a bra (you're welcome) and ran to the gas station, picked up a carton of eggs and a 12 pack of Mountain Dew...because I had a feeling it would be needed (I was right btw).

Got home, made 2 batches of vanilla, chocolate chip pancakes for Dink and Hubby. Hubby can eat between 7-10 a sitting...hence the two batches. Since we have eggs, I decided I wanted scrambled eggs and toast. Sat down for 10 minutes to eat. Then made 2 batches of cupcakes (that's 48 for those who don't know) dyed & piped on two different colors of icing. Black & green with orange and black sprinkles. They turned out super cute. Also, a quick FYI plain black gel foodcoloring tastes like buttholes covered in ass (don't know that from experiance,(the ass) but it's probably a safe bet) after washing my mouth out, thoroughly, with a spoonfull of icing, I learned a good lesson *smile* & my tongue is still a little black...

Ok, so, dinner, check. Pancakes, check. Cupcakes, check. Bra, check. This was all before 10:30am.

Then I get a bug up my butt and decided today would be a great day to clean out the clusterfuck of a hall closet. Again refering back to my little ol' house, this closet has several purposes, it's a sliding door closet which holds all our towels (bathroom, kitchen, and beach) our medicine cabinet, our pantry, my cake supplies, all the clean bedsheets, dog supplies, cleaning supplies (vacuum, brooms, furniture polish, toilet bowl cleaner etc) Dink's outdoor toys (sidewalk chalk, bubbles...so many bubbles) and also all our Sam's club toilet paper bricks and paper towel bricks...

In order for me to clean this out I decide a trip to Target is necessary, I need a LARGE rubbermaid tub to hold all of my cake stuff because the 2 little ones I have aren't doing it anymore. I guess it's a good thing I already put a bra on, or this would really suck. So I traipse off to Target (which has been freshly remodeled) it took a minute to find the tubs, but I finally found a big ol' pink one. $10 score!! Enter the fun part...finding a lid that isn't cracked, broken, or otherwise maimed in some freak swordfight or something. Finally find one...not pink....blue....whatever it fits, I have an agenda. Then into line, they have 500 people in line and 3 cashiers. Awesome....so I get in line...daydreams, bacon, starfish, bandaids, la la la....oh...old lady in front of me FINALLY figured out the 'library card isn't my Visa..." problem. Got home, hubby is downstairs letting Dink rock out on his drums (yes he's 2, yes he has drums, yes I should be medicated) So I get started attacking the closet when I hear the drumming stop and hubby yell for me...I run over to the stairs and he hands me a sopping wet two year old. Fantastic. Well it's only 1 accident, not too bad...not completely unexpected. I get him all cleaned up and send him to play in his room. Oblivious that this will not be the last oops today.

I start pulling EVERYTHING out of the closet and fill my hallway and most of my kitchen. Dink is scared I'm going to start vacuuming, that's a WHOLE other can of worms I will open in a different blog day. I assure him I'm not and continue plucking away at the closet. Towels all folded uniformly, fitted sheets all...well...balled up to roughly the same size and stomped flat, cleaners all moved to the top shelf so Dink doesn't think they are juice....etc... throw away a 50 gal trashbag full of crap. Bonus, found my Partylite candles!! Got it all put back together, it's almost like playing Tetris. Whatever, it's done. I don't have to do that again for at least another few months!

Then dinner is ready!! Best stew ever!! Unfortunately I had to eat 1/2 of mine cold. Dink decided he had to pee...in his pants....again...he also decided to take his usual 20 minute time...in which I've already explained what he does...finished a cold dinner...mmmm, kinda. I then remember Halloween is tomorrow & start climbing in the few other closets making sure his costume fits (no time like the day before huh?) it fits! he's going to be the most handsome little firefighter ever. Didn't think about the fact that I would have to convince him to take his costume back off...reasoning + 2 year old = mommy wanting a daquri the size of the coffee table. Convinced him that we still need to carve his 'punkin' and he can't get his costume dirty (WIN!) So we (I) drew the face on his pumpkin and we (I) cut the top off and we (I) pulled out all the 'punkin guts' and we (I) cut out all the pieces and made a 'Fooky Punkin.' He LOVES it and asks me to let him sleep with it....um...no. Then I have the brilliant idea that I want to make pumpkin seeds, not thinking that the seeds are actually attached to the pumpkin....duh. FINALLY got them all seperated, coated in butter and salt & baked. I think I overcooked them a teeny bit, but they were still good. Finally convinced Dink it was time to go to bed, sans pumpkin.

So, sleeping kid = chance to update my bloggy thingy.

Until next time.....

Playoffs, Pachyderms, and Postal Workers

As many of you know, the World Series, game 6, between the Cardinals and Rangers was played last night. Any of you that watched the whole thing will also know, it was one of the best (and worst) games ever played. The first half of the game I watched while muttering streams of expletives under my breath & growing profoundly louder. Example, "son of a bi.....you stupid mother... what the name of sweet baby jesus was that?! IF YOU CALL THE BALL, AT LEAST ATTEMPT TO CATCH IT, INSTEAD OF PLAYING BUMPER PEOPLE WITH YOUR TEAM MATES!!!!" Something along those lines...

The second half was much better, well it was at least a ball game! The guys I assume were told how much they get paid to do what they do, and if they would like to continue seeing those (rediculous) figures, they may want to play like grown men and not like little leaguers at their very first practice.

Don't get me wrong, I am a HUGE fan of the Cardinals, but last night almost made me question what was left of my sanity. So back to the second half of the game. It was, in one word....amazing!!!! I thought I would have to locate my husbands emergency inhaler a few times....down to our final strike TWICE and came back to win in 10-9 in the bottom of the 11th. Just amazing! I am hoping that winning it in the 11th was a sign of things to come tonight....Our 11th world series title in 2011.....I don't think it's a coincidence!

GO CARDS!!!!

on to topic # 2 Pachyderms

This morning I woke Dink up and had to coax him out of bed, as usual. There were promises made that I fully intend to keep. He wanted to watch the Cardinals, not that I blame him. That was easy enough, I fully intend on being in my jammies, on my couch, with a fist full of chips and dip at 7:05 (start time for game 7) tonight. Told him, no problem! I also told him that tomorrow we will go see Miss Mary at the barn where Dink's Maw Maw volunteers (www.rideonstl.org) I reccomend checking it out; beautiful land & sweet horses! He was all for that telling me how he will feed the horses carrots (I don't reccomend doing that without permission from the people that run the place) and told him we could.

Now....the fun part. There is a little, tiny, blip of a town south of St. Louis called Kimmswick. I would say it's a one horse town, but as I previously mentioned, there are multiple horses. Every year Kimmswick has two major festivals; The Strawberry festival in the spring, and the Apple Butter festival in the fall. The entire town is transformed into a GIANT craft fair with booths from everything from gourmet dog treats, to hand made purses, soaps, candles to men with chainsaws making custom artwork for your home! There are also some food vendors that I literally wait all year for! One is the pork chop on a stick. It is totally worth the $5. huge drippy wonderful mess. I also saved the best for last, and I'm sure you will agree; Chocolate covered cheesecake on a stick. (Sticks = portable food). uiahOjpahajioj' vmopgj ae[aeior <~~~me wiping drool off my keyboard. Sorry :)

ANYWAY...they also have inflatable slides and a petting zoo, but what Dink really wanted to see was the train. There is a smallish train that drives around the whole lower half of the village (it's too small to be described as a town) and every year Dink has been a little too small to ride it. Well this year I promised him he could ride it...now return to his bedroom where I'm making all the promises...I reminded him that he could go on the train tomorrow (I swear, he loved trains about 8 seconds ago) he looks me dead in the face and says 'NO'....(at this point I'm wondering where the aliens put my real child) I stammer " 'No', what sweetheart?" thinking my plan to get him out of bed and dressed is unfolding rapidly. He said " I don't want to ride the train....How about......." then stares at me...."How about what baby?" he replies, totally confidant that mommy can make this happen..."How about an ELEPHANT!!!"

Ok, I don't know if you know much about St. Louis...or Missouri....or the United States....but there aren't very many elephants available for wonderous two year old's to go trapsing around on. Well, not legally anyway. And from what I know, the zoo frowns upon such things. I am keeping quiet about the elephant, praying he will forget about it by the time I pick him up today...and hopes he will be happy with the train tomorrow! If not I'll just give him a porkchop (sans stick for safety reasons) to gnaw on so he doesn't whine :)

and if you are still here....#3 postal workers....

Short and sweet....at least I'll try to make it so.

My job requires me to get mail from the post office daily. I love doing it, it gets me out into the fresh air for exactly 2 1/2 minutes each day, but it's nice either way, the ladies at the post office have seen me from pre-pregnancy through now...and they ask about Dink on an almost daily basis. There are very nice people there (except one guy who is a total douche waffle, he gets his own special post one day....) anywho...nice people, but some of the people/machines/elves/hampsters of steriods...behind the scenes worry me. I have recieved the same letter 2 days in a row, after giving it to a different post office than the one that gets our mail, and have received it back....now, don't think I'm new at this, I know to scratch off the barcodes/and zip codes etc, that the machine deemed worty to this annoying chunk of mail. There also wasn't any excess of glue, or ripped seams for it to get caught on. The address on there is 1.) no where near where we are, and 2.) looks nothing like anything we usually get. oh and has NOTHING on it that looks like it could even be mistaken for this place. So finally, I just wrote on the front "Try this address!!!" followed by a small arrow to the intended recipiants address. Hopefully I don't see it Monday. But you will, naturally, be told if I do.

Now go rest your eyes weary followers & pray for a Cardinal's victory tonight!

Curse of the 20 minute pooper...

We live in a modest small home in the city. It has a living room, a kitchen, two bedrooms, and a hall leading to our single, solitary bathroom (provided you don't count the storm drain in the basement). Today we will focus our attention on the bathroom....

I get up this morning, as every morning and quietly dart up the stairs to pee...Mommy Ninja style, so noone else wakes up and decides they have to pee first. As soon as I'm done, I go wake up my little 'Dink' (that's what I call my kid...) and since we are only about 1/2 way through the potty training stage, the very first thing we do, is get him up and make him....(try to make him) pee pee in the potty.

Which USUALLY works...until this week. The child has insisted on complete privacy. Mommy don't play that....you get privacy when I do-or until 'aiming' becomes a priority. My darling Dink has now figured out that in order for poop to go in the potty & not on the floor, you have to sit on the seat provided. There is only one problem when trying to potty train a boy...when he sits, he pees on the floor....

Husband's & my mantra for the morning (said at LEAST 100 times in 5 minutes) was "Point your pee pee down!!!" meanwhile Dink just decided peeing on the floor was somewhat more funny. (>_<) <~~my face when he did this. He had only been sitting on the potty for about 6 minutes at this point, swearing up and down that he had to poop, meanwhile I'm thinking about how many people I'm going to get 'the bird' from when attempting to make it to work on time. Dink has now turned this into a game called something along the lines of "Squirt, mom cleans, mutters obscinities to herself, repeat."

The whole time he is telling me to "go in da libing woom" and "don't wook at me!" so I surrender, thinking maybe, MAYBE if I leave him alone for a minute he'll poop then I can dress him & be out the door...5 minutes goes by, so I make my lunch, and check on him, still sitting on the potty, still swearing he has to poop, still doesn't want me in there. I concede, go put my shoes on & get his clothes laid out. 3 more minutes pass, I go check, still sitting on the potty, he's grunting now, which I'll take as a good sign, I close the door, and assure my husband that Dink will be out soon & he can have the bathroom all to himself so he can stop bouncing. 5 minutes later I hear the wonderful words shouted from the bathroom "MOOOOM, I'M DOOOONE." I wipe him off and clean him up and he points to the potty in the cutest voice ever and says "Look, I poo'd HURRAY!" and then claps. I love my life & I couldn't be more proud to see the little 'plunk' at the bottom of the potty (but kinda ew)!

I then precede to literally throw clothes on him, and dash out the door. Made it to work with 5 minutes to spare. I think there is a good chance I'm getting up earlier tomorrow...and also may have to teach Hubby my super ninja moves so he can get in there before Dink.

I'll post more later....this is fun!

Here we go...

As this is my inaugural blog post, I will tell you a little bit about me.

My name is Christine.
I am 29 years old.
I have an almost 3 year old son.
I am happily married.
My ambition in life is to make beautiful cakes & be a great mom & wife. Cheesy but true!

Today it's cakes....

I started making cakes about 2 years ago, shortly after my son, known as Dink was born.
My original choice of decoration was fondant, pre-packaged, store bought fondant. It worked out well, although it was pretty expensive! I have since moved on to cheaper and better things. I now make my own fondant quite inexpensively out of marshmallows and powdered sugar. I have also learned that using both fondant and butter cream icing on the same cake works out much better and is slightly easier! It also gives you 1,000,000's more possibilities! Lunch break is almost over....more to come tomorrow....provided I remember I started a blog....