Don't Challenge me!

That's right!
You heard me!
Don't propose a possible challenge and then step away!


Short story.
Tom tweeted this morning about wondering why in the south there is nothing made with Slim Jims.
A follower/friend added and why not Cheerwine.
Tom replied with a "quick, get on that" in regards to a Cheerwine gravy.
I was intrigued and joked about it but more thought I could totally do that.
If I had time I was totally gonna try to make something.
Then I checked my twitter feed and saw that a guy had responded that owns a series of highly successful restaurants. He said he'd love to see the final product.


CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!


I am currently looking for an appropriate hashtag for this challenge.


My brain is bouncing all around. I have a few ideas of what would make a good dish with each ingredient but bringing the 2 together is more the issue... I have 1 idea that would do just that. If it goes as planned in my head, I'll be a happy cat. :)


I will keep you posted!

Thankful Wall 2011

If anyone reading this remembers, we do a thankful wall each year. I cover a small wall in my house with super large paper and each day we add what we are thankful for. After Thanksgiving, I fold it up and save it for future perusal.


Well, this year's wall is well underway. I dont so the big reveal until it's complete but here's a sneak peek:

TV can be good....

We watch TV as a family. My kids are curious kids and ask a lot of questions and we end up looking up a lot of stuff to learn more info. That's just how we do it - Tom & I are just those type of people who always needs to know more.

I cant remember what we were watching this past weekend with the kids but they mentioned heterochromia. Heterochromia is when one has 2 different colored eyes. You know what I'm talking about. You've all seen some dog with one blue eye and one green or brown eye. HT asked if people could have it. I said yes but had to look it up to prove it (it's just something we do).

So, I wiki'd "Heterochromia". It proved people can have 2 different colored eyes but I learned something else very interesting. There is a form called Central Heterochromia (in addition to complete and partial heterochromia). Central Heterochromia is where there are 2 different colors in the same iris with one of the colors encircling the pupil. I saw a picture of it and was semi-floored. These were my eyes! I have Central Heterochromia. So does my mom. So does HT. Obviously, we have the genetic form since all of us have it for at least 3 generations. It happens due to low melanin levels. Just very interesting.

Again, here's my eye again now knowing my "color" has a name. :)

It's 9:30 am

What have I accomplished this morning?

Got 1 kid bathed the other 2 showered.
All kids fed, packed lunches & book bags for school.
Gave out meds.
Wrote teacher a note.
Picked up niece.
Dropped 3 of 4 kids off at 1 school.
Brought last one to preschool.
Spoke to office staff about billing.
Spoke to Pastor about missing sweatshirt.
Dropped off Upward form for niece with front office staff.
Got coffee.
Went to pediatrician to make appointment for Tom to see Dr. Jim.
Have them (pedi) figuring out what to do with CT since he's head-to-toe covered in hives again this morning.
Spoke to them about the billing issue and how they coded it wrong.
Now back home for 2 hours.....

Any wonder why I seemingly drop off the face of the earth at times?

My son the robot

Nothing new.
Same old CT as he always was.
I guess I hoped with age he'd grasp certain concepts and change.


Well, after 7-`1/2 years, my son is still a robot.
Albeit a whiny, nasty robot, but still just a robot.


He has no feelings.
He has no regard for other people's feelings.
He doesn't know boundaries, so he's beyond trying to test them.
He does NOT learn from his mistakes.


He is SUPER smart.
He taught himself to read at 2-1/2.
He can spell words he's never seen before or are totally not age-appropriate (ie doxycycline).
He can figure out other languages when he sees them on paper.
He's a remarkably smart kid.


He's just so.... UGH!
How can a kid who woke up at 7 already have me past my daily pissed-off limit by 8?
I have a high I-can-take-a-lot-of-bleep threshold but he gets me right to mine so quickly!


I am just at a loss of what to do with this kid.
Talk about feeling like a complete and total failure!

Are there things you can't tell your spouse?

I married my best friend.

Literally.

We didn't really ever date; I dated other people.

We were best friends.

Being best friends, we were open with each other.

Coming from my last 2 relationships, I learned a lot.

I learned what was important to me was:
not losing who I truly am for anyone, not having to hide anything, and listening to my heart.

I never kept anything from Tommy.

There was never a reason to.

He loved me for who I was underneath... and preferred me that way:
no make-up, comfy clothes, sneakers, glasses, hair left curly.

There was nothing I could tell him that would change anything between us.

I remember going to Vegas (which happened to be a turning point in our relationship for me) with him for his close friend's wedding. I dont remember it all, but I remember finding out  he lost some serious cash (I'm talking over a grand) gambling. He didn't tell me. I found out from some of the other guys who were out with him at the time. Anyway, he hid it from me and I was soooooo mad that he did. Not that he lost the money (I mean it annoyed me to lose money but it wasn't mine so how could I be mad), but that he felt he had to hide it from me. I hated that feeling. I made a big deal of it right there on the casino floor. I expressed how he never has to hide things from me and I hope he hasnt' since. But that day, really showed me how open I wanted us to be (and how much I cared about him which is a whole different story).

Years have gone by.... almost 14 since we met and 11 since that Vegas trip.

We got married.

Struggled with life challenges.

Had 3 precious boys.

Life happens.

No one can deny that no matter what we plan, life happens.

Stress happens no matter how much you try to not let it happen.

Stress changes people and things.

Stress changes who we are... snapping at kids, letting words that shouldn't hurt, hurt.

So, for the sake of not adding more stress, I keep things to myself.
Nothing major, of course, just little things.
I don't need him to feel bad about himself or about where we are in life because of me.
So I keep them to myself and cry to myself.

Stupid, petty, material things!

So what prompted this question?

A family friend celebrated their 20th anniversary! yay!
her usually clueless husband bought her a ring that has 20 small/tiny diamonds around the band for the 20-years they've been married.
I cried when I saw it (online).
I was so happy for her, and for them... but I cried for me because while I dont need something like that to know he loves me, I stupidly want something like that!

We'll be married 10 years next month!
We always talked about getting remarried in Vegas for our 10-year anniversary.
It still seemed possible until about 6-years in as we had more and more kids :)
Then I still hoped we could but knew we'd have to scale down.
I kept trying to justify doing something  special/important to us but getting cheaper and cheaper.
Here it is, a month before our anniversary and we can't do anything but be together (which I know is all that matters, I know it is all that matters ultimately and i wish I didnt feel this way, like ever).

My mom's group decided to do an adult Halloween party and it is our anniversary night.
I was backing off from it, but figured that we wouldn't be doing anything else so why not.
Then, I got the idea of going as a bride & groom since it's our wedding anniversary... we'd be dressed like we were 10 years prior but this time the zombie versions of us! :)
Now the challenge of finding a CHEAP wedding dress that will actually fit me comes in - should be interesting.

Anyway, My heart secretly dreams that I get something special or he has some plans he's been hiding, but my brain knows there is no way that either of those could happen.
I can't tell him I cry - everyday - over things  not just that but things.
I cant rell him because he gets mad and then we fight, and then he feels like crap and I hate him hurting.

So ultimately, it comes down to this:
I never thought I'd hide anything from Tommy but I have to.

Do YOU hide ANYTHING from your significant other?

It's been HOW long?

You can always tell when I get slammed with work: paid, pro bono, and real life "stuff"

I know it's no excuse, but I thought maybe I can "show" you a little of why I have been busy. Being able to actually see something, makes it seem more real and not just an excuse.

 

made a "save the date" card for a non-profit event

Not only did I make the flyer for the MOW kick-off event, I am running the event.
Keep in mind there were about 6000 fliers printed out that had to be delivered!
Also, designed our new logo and re-designed the whole webpage at momwofwakefield.com

Of course an invite or 2 has been thrown in. I've done Audrey's for the last bunch of years. They family keeps coming back because they love how custom the work is and how it really represents their children. Notice kid sister barbie and how she looks like the girl in the picture? :) 

I made cakes and cupcakes a decent amount as well.
My 2 bigger cakes were a Spongebob Squarepants themed 2-tiered cake and a ballerina cake.

The ballerina cake was about 8" high and 8" across.
marble cake with vanilla buttercream and vanilla marshmallow fondant.
It has edible peals all around it and ribbon-work covered with pearl dust.
Back of cake made it lok like it was ribbon corsetted.
It was complete with a tutu cake board I made for the client. 

(please note - cake is straight and level, picture makes it look as if it's not - picture provided by party guest)

So just a taste of Why I haven't blogged.
I know I posted Day 1 of my trip and stopped there. 

Hoping to get the rest up and such but it was a long, not-so-bumpy ride!

Road Trip: Day 3

Day 3 we spent as a family (well, George worked during the day and Lisa had to sleep because she works at night and needed to sleep at least a little bit).
We went to a local park that has a small zoo and a bunch of playgrounds. Got some great pictures there and spent some great time with most all of my nieces (the oldest is 16 and getting too cool for that sort of thing - so 3 out of 4 is still a big win for me)!
We had pizza & wings for dinner (thanks Dad!).
Kids got Uncle George to play guitar for them and sing and they think he's is just way too cool!

I just loved this one.
Elisabeth & Brianna helping OC with mulch in his shoes.

 

Hunter said, "Take a picture of me. I'm being God."
Not sure if that's cute or sacrilegious. I took it as cute.

A great shot of the kids - if only McKayla were in it....

Another sweet shot!

Baking Tip: Keep the scraps

After your level off a cake or carve it, keep the scraps. Put them in a plastic baggie, get as much air out as you can, and freeze. When you need a quick treat, use the cake scraps to make cake balls or cake pops! Great place to use leftover buttercream you dont know what to do with (I get left with colored buttercream I may not know what to do with otherwise so cake balls/pops are a great way to use scraps & leftover buttercream).

So how do you make cake balls/pops?
Crumble room-temperature cake.
mix with frosting (canned or homemade)
Roll mix into 1" balls & lay on cookie sheet.
chill for several hours (you can freeze if you're in a hurry)
melt chocolate (or other flavor bark)
roll balls in bark and lay on waxed paper. If doing pops place sticks and balls and dip into bark and lay on wax paper.

Road Trip: Day 2

back posting these so they are in order :)


We all had so much fun at my friend Melissa's house.
It was so great to see her and the girls (and her hubby too). It's nice to catch up and I wish we could do it more often!


We left her area at about 9am. Headed up through the rest of Maryland, through Delaware, up through Jersey., pointing out everything I remembered along the way. When we got close to NY, I pointed out the Jets/Giants complex to CT (the only one awake at this point). Then started being able to see more "city" stuff.
I woke up HT as we were getting ready to go over the GWB (George Washington Bridge). Again, I pointed out the NY skyline best I could while driving alone through NY.
I should add that it was a piece of cake driving over there. I think it's just in my blood. I actually enjoyed it.
We hit no traffic, like at all!
We stopped at a rest stop in Connecticut to get dinner. They dont' get McDonald's very much at all, so McD's it was! I set a 15-minute limit on the bathroom break and eating. I just wanted to get to my brother's!
We arrive in North Attleboro just before 5:00 (with less than 1/16th tank of gas).


It was so great to see everyone! Lisa made pasta, sauce & meatballs. There was salad and bread, too! yum! We just hung out and talked... and then went to bed.