Let there be practice cake...

This is the practice cake for the birthday party this weekend. Dylan turns 5 on Saturday. He'd been asking for a Lightning McQueen cake for over a month. I really did not think I could pull it off. I had talked him into a race track with Lightning and some of the other race cars. Believe me, the little runt let me know which cars did not belong on the race track. (In other words, no Doc on the race track!)

Anyway, very long story short, I went out and found a cake pan last night. I avoided work today and produced the cake. It took me over 2 hours to decorate it; yes, I'm very slow. Now, I'm off to see if it "meets approval" before I make one for the party.

Who knew I could do this?

Let it be YELLOW

Ok, so a few weeks ago, we yanked the wall paper in the entry way. It was around the time the house was going to get knocked down next door. Well, after completely wasting away last weekend, I vowed, this weekend would not be a waste. It hasn't been. Yesterday we cleaned the entire house, cut the yard, and went to pick out a color for the entry way. (Seems like house cleaing and yard work are minor chores, I'm not sure why it takes us so long to get them done.) We selected several shades of brown, grey, and silver. One of the books has a lovely yellow shade. But the little card did not look like the color in the book. This morning we decided to look into that yellow color at the store. (Big mistake by the way...) Anyway, after much debate and at least another hour looking at colors at the local Home Crap-o store, we selected a light yellow color.

A few hours later, a few gripes later, and it's done. Well, it's almost done. It's painted. We try to switch out the hardware in the rooms when we paint them. So we were thoughtful enough to purchase a new face plate and switch for the lights and electrical outlet. We never thought about the door handles. So for now, we're sticking with what was in there. After all the door handles match the light fixture, which we don't like, but it works, and well, we haven't found something perfect enough for us.

So, the room is not completely done, but we're just about done for today. Our lesson from this...pick some paint colors, bring them home (or take the paint samples out of the box labeled "painting supplies" because I honestly think we have just about every possible one we may like), pick a color. DO NOT FALTER ON THE COLOR CHOICE WHEN RETURNING TO PURCHASE THE PAINT. This was a critical mistake, and made me start the project quite crabby. HIS OCD kicked in big time today wen we went to purchase paint. So, my patience was zapped from the get go of the project. But, I do like the color and I am glad that we did it! Yeah!

It's still early, so I'm sure the pups get walked today, and even a car or truck will get washed. GO PRODUCTIVITY!!

Laughter

My dear husband laughs all the time. He laughs at jokes, at other's blunders, at the dogs, at things we cannot believe. Often it's his laughter that wakes me up in the morning, and sometimes it wakes me up from sleeping at night. (Seinfeld comes on at 12:30 AM and if he's not asleep, he's watching Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer.)

I'm simply just not as amused at life as he is. I'm just not as happy of a person, I guess. He LOVES to make people laugh, so it's disappointing to him that I do not laugh at his little one liners more often. He's not one to repeat jokes, but he's always looking for that quick little laugh. I think a portion of our cable bill is worth the 4-6 PM TBS showing of Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends, etc. Those little 30 minute shows do wonders for a crappy day at work.

Laughter is going to be at the bottom of my '08 resolutions -- it's never to late to add resolutions if the year isn't up right? It's going to be at the top of '09. It really does make you feel better. I've just missed Jerry tonight, hopefully he's found another 30 minute sitcom for our bedtime story tonight!

Good news, bad news

I never know what should come first - the good or the bad. I wish there were a way to spit out both, so they could each smack you!

Good News -- Daisy has all her teeth! They look great, teeth cleaning went well.
Bad News -- I had to take her. It's a good thing I don't have kids, I don't know how I could handle the ups and downs. HE usually does these hard things, today, it couldn't be helped that it was me to go.

Good News -- They don't what is wrong. I guess that's the good news???
Bad News -- Today, my mom got all of the paperwork in the mail from the cancer center. Maybe it's not bad news, maybe they will figure out what is wrong, maybe they won't find anything wrong. But the unknown is difficult for me to deal with.

Good News -- A lifelong pal of mine is finally pregnant! Yeah!! Even better, twins! She's not far along, and is probably high risk, but I certainly hope her life long dream is to be a mom is six weeks closer to becoming a reality.
Bad News -- Some other lifelong friends of mine have been dealing with Syndenham Corea. They have a little boy who this has hit rather quickly over the last eight weeks or so. It's a terrible condition affecting the nervous system. It is treatable, but could likely take two years to fully recover. His parents have made the difficult decision to home school him. I know they are strong and can handle it, I cannot imagine how hard it is for them to see their otherwise healthy child go through this.

Good News -- I think I can almost explain why people want to have children. I've given it so much thought lately. I've asked several friends why they wanted to have kids. They have been great parents, some have one child, some have two. Believe it or not, there's even a few who do not have any kids, but know that they want them. Only one person has given me anything to consider. After months of trying to investigate the topic, I think I'm beginning to understand exactly what it is that drives people to parenthood.
Bad News -- I'm still not sure I'm ready to ride that train. Selfish mostly. I just don't know if I'm ready to deal with the bad that may or may not even happen with the ride. I don't know if that reason is worth giving up the good that goes with it.

Well, now that I have a lot of that off my chest, the world will feel lighter right?

This week of August...

Last week we were successful in having the car break down for the mechanic. So, after a very expensive bill, I have wheels again. Which is a good thing considering I'm planning a road trip this month! Hopefully I will keep my road trip plans without renting a car.

Well, tomorrow, Daisy goes under for her teeth to be cleaned. Of course, they have to put her, which I think is terrible. In normal vet practices, normal people would drop off their normal dog, and the normal vet would perform the procedure. In our crazy little world, the vet gives us a special time, HE takes the dog, and HE watches the procedure. HE will be there when they put her under, clean her teeth and when they wake her up. Thank goodness for our vet, he understands how not-normal we are! Anyway, that's the event for the week in our household.

In other news, we're staying on the positive. My cousin has left the state to embark on his college career. I'm so excited for him! He is the fourth of our little group of cousins -- there's only 5 of us! We have each completed college; but, we were all IN STATE! My oldest cousin left, but not until after he graduated. So, at 18, I think it's a bid deal to go so far away from home -- Texas to DC. I'm wishing him lots of luck!