Heaven...

...If only for a few moments.

Aaron took Piper up to bed and I actually have a few moments to my self, at night, my favorite.  Ahhhh.  I feel good, I found my groove, but, I really should go to bed too.  Last night was a rough one for Piper.  She's still not feeling well, and it looks like she is now getting a rash so off we go to the doctors tomorrow.

Well, the count down to the River, will now be know as the count down to the Condo by the Pond.  So,  here we go.

The count down to the Condo by the Pond is:  12 days. Yay.  It has a very small, fenced back yard with a Japanese Garden.  OOOOhhhhhhhh. A pond behind our building. Three stories (you come in on the middle level) and over 2400 square feet.  I am starting to feel a lot better about the move.

 Here is a sneak peak of what I was working on this evening.

What could these bee for?

I Hate Snot!

I believe that snot is the source of all evil, snot and monkeys, but I'll save monkeys for another day.

Poor Piper still has this nasty bug.  For days, she has been overflowing with snot.  I hate it, she hates, damn, we all hate it.  She is so snotty that I have snail tracks all over my shirts, Aaron does too.  I feel so bad, but for the most part she is pretty happy, as long as she's being held or sleeping.  And now there's the fever.  Highest was 102.6 now we linger just under 100 to just over 101.  She is nursing, again issues with snot, and she's had a little Gator-aid, a bit of fruit baby food and half of a Triscuit.  Really hope she gets to feeling better soon.

I decided to have Piper's first birthday  before we move. The thought of her not having a first birthday party made me want to cry.  Actually, I did cry, you can ask my Mom.  But my great friends Denise and Meara encouraged me to do it. I know it's more for me than her, she won't know or remember what's happened.  But, I also figured it was a great excuse to see all our friends together before we moved.  I'm hoping it turns out cute, it should bee great for her bee day.  Hint, hint, wink, wink!

The count down to the River is now 32 days.    Which I will  officially adjust to the day we are moving, starting NOW!  The adjusted countdown to What Ever River There Is In Alexandria, VA is now, hold on, let me figure it out.... 13 days.  Holy crap!  I gotta go throw up.

...And she just coughed in my mouth. Great!

Wahoo, the River is in sight!

Count down to the River: 35 days

35 days till Aaron retires.  13 days till the movers start packing us out. And, 16 days left in our current house, and we still have not found a new place to live.  We have decided to pick a River in Alexandria, VA.  I've never been but I heard it's nice.  Hopefully we will find something soon.  Aaron wants a short commute time, Parker wants to be near the skate park, I want a nicer, newer home with A/C, two garages, 4 bedrooms, and an ice maker.  Yeah, I said it, and ice maker, so?!? Oh, and a Starbuck's near by.  Yeah, you read that too!

Aside from getting the house ready to move and purging we are catching up on all our appointments. It has been crazy:

Monday: Parker dentist - 3 cavities
Tuesday: Me and Parker at eye doc - I need bifocals, the lenses alone are over $250
Wednesday - Parker has follow up for collar done
Thursday - Parker back to dentist

And on top of it all my poor baby still has this yucky, boogie funk.  She is pretty happy just wants all our attention and for us to not wipe her nose.  She started with a cough today that has me a little worried.  Just going to keep a close eye on her.  And my stress induced hand eczema is back.  Not a clue why that would happen!

Oh, and last night, I saw my first Vajazzle on Pinterest.  I love Pinterest, it's my happy, cooking, crafting, pretty place.  But lately the creeps are coming on and posting their porn, and the stupid teens posting their emo boy friends with more makeup and holes than a whore, pictures of their feet, and group pictures where they all have duck lips.  Get off Pinterest you pervs and emo brats!  Whew, I feel better.

Now, I think I am going to just take it easy today, the past few days have kicked my hiney!  At least my house is nice and super clean.  My favorite!

Holy Crap!

Piper started not feeling well yesterday.  Runny nose.  Sneezing. A bit cranky.  Only wanted to sleep if she was being held.  But, all in all, not too miserable.

Until 3:00 a.m.  She woke up crying.  The crying quickly escalated to a full on freak out.  Crying hysterically and shreaking!  I was terrified.  I stripped her and checked every inch of her body.  I tried nursing her.  I moved her arms and legs.  Nothing worked.  Nothing helped.  I even started crying.  After about a half hour of this I woke Aaron (he could sleep through a train wreck, while he was on the train) and said we need to go to the hospital.  He woke Parker to let him know we were going.

Thankfully, the car ride helped sooth her.  I rode in the back with her, and had to climb over the front seat to get there because the damn door was frozen shut.  Picture that!

And of course by the time we were admitted and saw the PA she was calm.  Nothing wrong.  Not her belly, ears, nothing.  Thank God!  They think she may have just been feeling really crappy because of the virus she has or maybe a bad dream, which is not normal for this age.  We then saw the doctor, who was amazing, it was the same Doc I saw when my gall bladder went ape 2 years ago. Either way she is feeling better, and I am thankful nothing is terribly wrong.  I was so scared!

My poor baby at the ER.

Aaron at the ER.

By the time we left, it was almost 6:00 a.m. and the snow had started.  We were tired (I had not slept) and hungry and thirsty.  Hello Mc'D's.  I have not had a breakfast sandwich in years, it was pretty yummy.  That is how hungry I was.  I was so thankful Piper fell asleep on the way home and went right to bed when we got home.  So did Aaron and I . Aaron got up with Piper and let me sleep a bit longer.  And, he went out in this snow to get me a latte this morning (he loves an excuse to drive in the snow like a teenager).  So we're hunkered down and chilling today.  I think I see naps in our future.

Piper Has Her Seventh Tooth

So yesterday I woke up to a surprise.  Well, not really a surprise but, Piper FINALLY got her seventh tooth.  The bottom one to the left right of her front two teeth. (If you are looking at her it's your left, but her right, whatever.) She has been a bit happier since it came in and sleeping better too. Yay me.

I tried getting some pictures of her pretty little toofers, she is such a ham.  As soon as she see's the camera she crawls towards me as fast as she can.

You can see her tooth poking through a bit there on the bottom left.  Finally.

I also got a video of her making "brrrrmmmm" noises when she was playing with her tug boat.  She pushes it around and makes motor noises.  Not sure where she learned that, must have been from her Daddy.  I love that she sits and plays with her toys by herself.  Such a silly girl.

Count down to the River is now 42 days.  Ugh, makes my stomach sick.  Aaron's last day on the boat is this Friday.  CAN. NOT. WAIT!

Me - A Random Post

So the past two days my Mom has sent me a couple of pictures.

This first one is of me as a baby.  At first, when the picture was loading, I thought it was Piper.  I found it funny because I always think she looks more like Parker and therefore Aaron.

The photo on the top is me, the photo on the bottom is Piper.  Now I don't see it. Oh well.  I give up.  I tried looking at a bunch of photos, nothing.  But I swear, I thought it was her at first.  Pretty sure I'm loosing my mind. Also, the lovely photo of Piper was taken by the amazing Des'ola!  Find her at Des'ola Photography, she is absolutely amazing and the nicest person!

And here is the other picture my Mom sent.  Me baking as a toddler, maybe this is where my love of baking started.  Well, that's what she said anyway.  I think it looks like I'm just licking the spoon and making a mess.  Love the herringbone dishcloth/bib/poncho, whatever it is I have on.  Of course, in olive green.  Got to love the 70's.

And, the count down to the River is now 46 days.  We have got to decide where to live in Maryland.  I am getting very anxious, nervous and finally excited about this next stage in our lives.  Stay tuned and have a great weekend everyone.

How I Lost My Groove

...Or "Flying Monkeys on crack were shooting out of my body!"


It happened.  After all these years.  I got the FLU!  I wanted to die.  I got the Flu Mist. And it's true, Flying Monkeys on crack were shooting out of my body, both ends, same time.  Again, I wanted to die.  Monday night, after I made cookies, I started feeling a little, funny.  Well, within a few hours it was soooo not funny.  It was hell.

Even worse, I had eaten some Triscuit's.  Heads up, if you throw these up, they are like wheat plugs, sorry, but I'm just saying.  *By the way, if you ever want to piss my husband off say "I'm just saying".  Makes him nuts.  Anyway, back to me and my misery.  So in between being sick and wanting to die, I am up nursing Piper and did not sleep until 8 am and slept off and on until noon.  Aaron came home from work around the same time because, yup, you guessed it, he had the flu.  Luckily he never threw up.

All in all it was horrible.  We were both so tired and achy I felt so bad for my poor baby, no one had the energy to get down and play with her.  But all in all she was a trooper and thank God we are all feeling better.  Now if her teeth would just come through I think we would be in the clear.  Luckily Parker has avoided this misery and was a big help too.  I hope he's in the clear.

And the other casualty of the flu.  The cinnamon chip cookies, I threw those bad boys out.  I was afraid they were tainted by flu cooties.

They count down to the River is now 47 days.  Pretty confident now that we will not be down by the river, but in Maryland.  During all this sickness Aaron was able to find a temporary replacement and will hopefully go on terminal leave on Monday.  Huge sigh of relief.  So now we are deciding when and where to move.  Hopefully this weekend we get is narrowed down, find a house, and set a date to move.  Wish me luck.

Oh, and before I go.  Piper is asleep in her crib this morning.  Wahoo!

Doughnuts and Cookies

I love to bake.  It's therapeutic and an escape.  I get to whip up something yummy, and use my fun kitchen tools to make pretty treats for my family and friends.  I like to try new recipes and use my old favorites.  One of my favorites is my chocolate chip cookie recipe, I've tweaked it to make it my own, everyone raves about them.  Maybe one day I'll share my recipe.

The problem is that I have very little time to bake and/or decorate. A certain little girl gets all my time.  So I try to sneak it in.

Last night I was feeling to urge to bake.  I wanted to try something new maybe for Valentines Day.  I made Baked Strawberry Doughnuts, using a quick recipe I found on another blog (forgive me for not remembering which, if you know please let me know so I can give credit where it is due).   Here is the recipe:

2 cups cake mix (I used DH Strawberry)
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup melted butter
1 egg

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix all ingredients well by hand till well mixed.  I put the mixture into a gallon zip lock bag and snipped the corner about 1/3 of an inch in.  Now, this is very important, SPRAY YOUR DOUGHNUT PAN WITH NON STICK SPRAY, I forgot on the first batch, big mistake, very hard to get out of the pan.  I used the  Wilton 6 cavity doughnut pan.  Pipe the mixture into the pan.  It is thick and I just pipe an "O" following each cavity.  Bake 10 - 12 minutes until cooked though and slightly golden, I test it like a cake.  Remove from pan.

Now you can glaze them while still warm for thin glaze or when cool for a thicker glaze, I did both.  I cheated and put tub icing into a microwave safe bowl and melted 30 seconds and stirred then repeated (may vary with your microvave) till the icing was thin like glaze. Dip each doughnut into the glaze, I just lay it on top and twist as I pick it up.

Now you can see the the doughnuts on the left were the first batch and were not smooth and pretty due to the lack of non-stick spray.  So I let them cool then glazed them (don't you love the mini heart sprinkles?  I have a sprinkle fetish, I'll get into that another time too).   They came out with a thick frosting. The one on the right I glazed while warm.  It is translucent almost and the pink blended with the white.  Still tasty.  Both of the glazed dry completely and you can stack them.  The magic of tub frosting?

Honestly next time, I think I need to use just chocolate or vanilla cake mix. Strawberry was okay, the kids liked them though and that's who they were for.  I think the scratch ones I made months ago were better.  But with "Baby Brain" I don't remember.   Maybe from  KAF.

So tonight, I felt the need to bake again.  Just really in the mood.  Have you seen these?

Hershey's Cinnamon Chips.  AMAZING!  GO BUY SOME! Just follow the Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Cookie recipe on the back (I added 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt) .  They are amazing, yummy, delicious goodness.  And, they are oatmeal so they must be good for you right?!?  Enjoy!

I received no compensation from anything or one mentioned.  Just stuff I like and/or love and wanted to share.

Next....

My poor baby.  First she gets a cold for Christmas.  Then, this weekend she got a stomach bug.  Not fun, for her, or for me.  I awoke Saturday morning to her throwing up in my bed, all over both of us. Not spit up,  throw up! We got up, showered, and headed down stairs.  Where I nursed her and she once again threw up all over me.  It was horrible, thank goodness I was sitting in the leather chair, easy clean up.  Like my friend Talana, I had to strip downstairs, it was horrible! Thank God Aaron was home to help me.

She was miserable all day and slept a lot as long as she was being held.  And on top of it all we are still waiting on teeth 7 and 8 to break through.  Luckily she only threw up once more late at night and it was just a tiny bit.  She did continue to nurse and seemed much better the next day.  I felt so bad that she got this, just looking at her eyes you could tell she felt horrible.  She never cried, just looked confused and spit a lot afterwards.  And a huge THANK YOU to Meara for bringing me a coffee and a fabulous dinner.  We are so blessed with great friends.

She is back to normal now and her eyes are happy and bright again.  This was during her bath last night.

The count down to the River is now 51 days.  But, it does look like there will be no need to live in the van.  Aaron has been interviewing with a company in Suitland, Maryland. We most definitely will NOT be living there.  I have been looking at surrounding areas outside the 495 belt.  Very scary since I know nothing about those areas but am thankful for good friends offering help.  Now if he can just go on terminal leave, otherwise he'll have to go out to sea until just before he retires, this would be very bad.  Especially if he doesn't have a job.  Go Navy!

Parker finally agreed to a hair cut.  It looks really nice and it tamed his fro.  Doesn't he look pleased to have his picture taken.

Well, I'm off to make dinner.  Wahoo! 

This just in!

Piper has discovered the entertainment center!

Great!

I told her "NO". She laughed and just went back to what she was doing.

...Boots with the fur...

OK, it's a vest with the fur.  But, I am always singing this to Piper so I thought it appropriate for the outfit she's wearing.  It was one of her Christmas gifts from Grandma.  It is too cute, and her skinny little legs crack me up!  So does her "You lookin' at me?" gaze!

I wanted to get a picture of P2 and P3 together.  As you can see, no one was interested!

Piper is finally getting over her cold, but her sleep schedule is still screwy.  Therefore, so is mine.  I am exhausted and it doesn't help the Dude has duty.  I cant wait to never use that word again!  Oh yeah, "Count Down to the River: 56 days.

Now I need to go make dinner.  I don't want to.  Most the time I love to cook, tonight, not so much!  Parker wants KFC, Pizza Hut, Chinese, I keep saying no.  So sandwiches and apples it is.  Sounds good to me.

Have you seen this commercial?  Love it !

http://www.values.com/inspirational-stories-tv-spots/112-Purse

Happy New Year

Countdown to the "River" - 58 Days

Let the purging begin.

With the upcoming move and the motivation of a new year, I am really trying to go through everything, and I do mean everything.  We have got to downsize.  I am sick of stuff.  We have a lot of stuff.  I always say to Aaron "Who buys all this CRAP?"  ME THAT'S WHO!

So after the Christmas shit stuff came down, I started with the coat closet.  Seems innocent enough.  Yes it would appear so, until you are mortified that you have a bakers dozen of Yankee Candles in there.  Uh, do you know how much money that is?  I do, don't speak it aloud or lightening may strike me dead.  I don't care that I bought them on sale, it is shameful.  I also found assorted purses, Dooney, Coach, Vera, yup, more shame.  And of course dust bunnies with huge fangs.

I've since moved on to the lined closet, which is also where we store games.  I have 25 games to get rid of, only saving about 5 and a few decks of cards.  Again, shame, most are not played.

So, I have learned that I buy too much shit stuff.  I haven't even gotten to my yarn or craft stuff yet.  UGH, I am going to go hang my head and rest a few minutes till Piper gets up.  Happy New Year.

Happy New Year to all our family and friends.  Piper, Aaron and I had a quiet evening at home watching movies and giving Piper a late night bath after she gagged and spit up all over herself.  Now that's a party.

Silly baby loves her bath!

 Piper's new jammies from Trisha.  Now

we have a "Little China Doll".

We hope everyone has a happy and healthy new year.