Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Have you ever seen something and wanted to make it so much that you loaded up all the pajama-clad kiddos in the van and went to get supplies without even taking the time to brush your own hair?  Okay, me either.  But I came pretty darn close, when I saw these this morning.  There I was, just surfing the blogosphere and I happened to see these tiny pieces of Heaven.  Do you think there will be chocolate or cookie dough in Heaven?  Has to be.

Anyway, I've been in a MAJOR cooking rut.  I'm pretty sure last night's supper was the worst I've ever cooked.  Hubs came home and I didn't greet him with a kiss or a "Hi honey, how was your day" I greeted him with, "sorry, dinner sucks".  (excuse the expletive, we don't usually use that word around here).  But it was kinda bad.

Anyway, these will get me into the kitchen and hopefully make up for dinner last night. My man does LOVE him some cookie dough anyway he can get it....raw, cooked, with a glob of buttercream sandwiched between two cookies.  So I know he's going to love these.

Source and recipe

I don't know how I missed these.  I am constantly stalking  visiting Bridget at Bake at 350. But somehow, I'm just seeing these.  I can't wait to devour them.

Summer Bedtime?

Source

It's 8am and all four of my kiddos are still sleeping.  I've had 2 hours of quiet time and I have savored every second of it.  But the downfall of them sleeping so late is that they give us such a hard time going to sleep at night.  Last night it was so tough getting them all to bed.  This frustrates C because, while I am a morning person and I like my quiet time in the morning, he is a night person and he prefers quiet time at night.  And when the kids are up, it ain't quiet. During the school year, we start bedtime at 8pm (and I usually follow not too far behind) I don't want the summer to be a time of strict bedtimes and waking times, but we do need some semblance of routine.

Oh, I hear Ava coming now.  She peeked around my door and said, "I been coming for you".  Nothing makes me smile bigger than that freshly woken up face.  So Sweet.

Okay, now I just got finished cleaning David after a nosebleed.  Guess quiet time is over, let's get this day started.

What do your kids' bedtimes/routines look like during the summer??

Whole New Bloggy World

Lately I've been visiting a few style blogs. I never set out searching for style blogs, I just stumbled across some on accident and realized that I really enjoy reading them. I've always enjoyed getting dressed and putting outfits together and accessorizing. But never really gave it all much thought. I just threw on whatever was in my closet, whatever I had time for, whatever was clean (or had one more wear in it before I HAD to wash it) and was out the door. Who would have thought that there was an entire bloggy world out there dedicated to normal everyday people and the clothes they wear. I'm loving it! Like my husband said this morning, "There are blogs out there for everyone, baby". I think he's right. Yes, we chat about blogs and he acts like he cares because he's so awesome like that! I also chat about LOTRO and act like I care listen very intently, hanging on every word. Love ya, honey!

And because I want all two of you to find happiness and fulfillment like I have, I'm sharing two blogs that I love right now:

La Vie Petite was, I think, the first one I stumbled across. Isn't she so stinkin cute!

Then I ran into Kendi Everyday. I love her pictures! Maybe one day, I'll venture out of my bathroom for some shots. But it does help that her photographer husband takes all her pictures. All I have is my tripod. Oh Well :(

What's so great about both of these girls is that neither of them spend a lot of money on their clothes and they frequent thrift stores where they pick up lots of great finds.

Which is one reason that I'm so proud of this outfit. The whole thing was thrifted! Does it look like it?? I don't think so, either.

I know, I seriously need to do something about the

floors and wall color in my bathroom.

I'm working on it!....read: I have been working

on it for years one tiny step at a time!

Shirt: Goodwill, Jacket: Goodwill, Pants: Goodwill, Shoes: Passed to me by my sister-in-law. Jewelry: not thrifted but I did purchase it all with my 50% jeweler discount from Premier Designs. I used to sell Premier and racked up on some great pieces.

I went in to Goodwill to look for two specific shirts (both of which I found). But I found so much more and I just couldn't stop. A lot of what I found was name brand and looked fairly new. The jacket above is Ann Taylor. I also scored some Gap pieces and some stuff from The Limited.

We are seriously deficient in thrift stores around here, unless there are some I don't know about. But there is one other one that I want to try. One day when I can go sans kiddos!>

Happy blogging everyone!

as a side note: I was so excited to learn to strikethrough text. but that clever little LOTRO comment just wasted 30 minutes of my life because I somehow "struckthrough" the entire post. There were like 50 of those marks dispersed though out my post that I had to delete. since i really know nothing about html, i have no idea how or why it happened but SHEESH! AHHH! there they are again! I give up!

If I'm Completely Honest

I scheduled David's yearly check-up with the cardiologist the other day. It's on the 28th of this month and I can't wait to see how my little man's heart is doing. (For any new readers, David was born with only one ventricle. He was also born with Transposition of the Great Ateries and Situs Inversus.) You can read about his journey here, here, and here, and here. I very much look forward to these visits. I really wish he was going more often. But they also make me a little nervous, if I'm completely honest.

Okay, if I'm completely honest, I'll tell you that it's always at this time that I reflect on everything that he has been through in amazement at God's handiwork. The words "I am so thankful" are such a profound understatement.

If I'm completely honest, I'll tell you that I'm afraid of the what-ifs, and the unknowns. When we first found out about David's heart defect, I researched for hours a day trying to understand what was going on, what to expect when he came into this world, wishing I could just keep him in there where my body was keeping him safe and healthy. Then before each surgery I would spend time reading and researching what was to come, what to expect, to try and prepare myself.

I haven't let myself do any of that since after his last surgery. But today, I did and it brought back a flood of emotions. The truth is that the procedure that he had done is relatively new (the first being done in 1968) and they don't know for certain the long term prognosis. I've read that some speculate that a post-Fontan heart would last 30-40 years. I googled to try and find adults who have been through the Fontan and happened across a girl who is 32 and completed the Fontan 28 years ago. She says she is doing fine with just a few arrythmias. There doesn't appear to be a lot of information on the long-term prognosis. But I do know that the surgical procedures and subsequent care has improved over the years. And David has always fared waaayy on the better side of potential outcomes. He has amazed even his doctors in his recovery after all his surgeries. And he is doing absolutely fabulous right now. And we are so grateful for that!

With that said, I ran across some posts from other moms who also say that they are afraid. Wondering whether their child will make it to the teenage years, or whether they'll get married or hold their babies. I won't say that those thoughts constantly occupy my mind, I don't dwell on it. But I'd be lying if I said that I never shed tears thinking about it.

So I just pray. I know that David has a purpose here, and I pray that God lets me keep him until that purpose is fulfilled...whenever that may be.

In a Nutshell

Hi There!
I thought for sure once the summer came around, I'd be able to blog more. but as you can see, that hasn't happened. But I don't stress about it, because I don't want my blog to be one more thing on my to-do list that I feel pressured to do. So anyway, here's what's been going on.

The husband is out of town...again. We all miss him. I hate when he's gone, especially when it's the first two weeks of summer vacation.

I always feel like a lump the first week or so after school is out. I don't feel like doing anything. The house is always in need of major rehab because the last two weeks of school really stress me out and I don't get much done around here. But now all is good. The house is clean and orderly and things are going so smoothly. I wish Cecil was here to enjoy it with us...

My van is in the shop...has been for nearly a week. The air conditioner was/is broken. We held off until the school year was over to put it in the shop and lemme tell you it was misery riding without an A/C.

I'm currently driving a small Mitsubishi Lancer that my parents have. I have a new appreciation for the distance that my van provides between all the kiddos. All I've been hearing all week is, "Mom, he won't get his arm off of me" or "Mom, I don't have enough room". I am immensely grateful for the car that I was able to borrow and the money that I didn't have to spend on a rental, and the a/c that is in the car...but I will be so thankful to get my van back, hopefully, today.

I will be painting my bedroom in the next couple of days. I'm really excited about the vision that I have in my head of what I want my room to be. I hope I'm just as excited about what my room will actually be. It's going to be a lot of work. But if it works it will be well worth it.

Oh, and today I have four weeks left in my twenties.

Well, that's it in a rather large nutshell. We are off to go bowling with out Kids Bowl Free coupons with a great friend and her kids.

Summer Ambitions

I'm working on my list of things I want to get done over the summer. I'm trying to be very realistic and trying to include things that have been needing to be done for a very long time. So, I quickly had to remove tasks like planting a garden and refinishing my kitchen cabinets because they just weren't priority.



1. Paint my bedroom (has been pending for about 7 years)


2. Paint my bathroom(see above)


3. Get floors put down in my bedroom and bathroom.


4. Get garage cleaned out (its a total disaster)


5. Get wisdom teeth removed (pending for about 12 years)


6. Get Invisalign, or at least get started with getting Invisalign.


7. Sew myself a dress


8. Lose 10 pounds.


9. Read at least one fiction book, a book purely for fun. I never do this.


10. Camp outside with my kids.


11. Go to the beach for at least a long weekend.


12. Host a mini summer camp with the cousins.


13. Have fun with my kids!


I love this list pulled together by Crystal. We'll try and complete a few of these activities as a family this summer as well!

Inspiration

Lots of inspiration going on this weekend. I am on a mission to redecorate my house. Well, not completely, there's just too much here already that I love and can't get rid of. My mission started out with me telling the hubby that I wanted to redecorate in a cottage chic look. He looked at me like I was insane, knowing that that is totally, totally not me. But he went along with it and even humored me with looking at some pictures and ideas on the internet. As I searched the same decor caught my eye over and over, the same decor that I have loved since we got married and got our own place. I just CANNOT get enough of Tuscan style decor. I LOVE IT! I love the natural stone and wood, the plastered walls, the earthy colors, the wrought iron, the archways. It all just literally makes me giddy. Source

My dream home has always been a Tuscan villa-type home. Something like this actually:

Source

But unless we win the lottery, we won't be getting that house anytime soon. And since I don't play the lottery, there's not a good chance we will win.

So I just decided to fill my house with old world treasures, paint my walls, redo my bedroom floors (we currently have none). A lot of the colors, accessories and light fixtures that I already have go perfectly so I'm just going to be adding to what I already have. Cecil made me promise that I would buy a little at a time, 'cause he knows how I am. When I see something I love, I have to have it right then, because, you know, it's the only one like it in the whole world and I'm sure it won't be there much longer. Yep, that's me.

Okay so my other bit of inspiration came from this cute little lady at La Vie Petite. Isn't she just adorable! Anyway, she made this dress. And I love it. It's actually a skirt and top, but it looks like a dress.

I have sewn for my kids and for my home and for others. But the thought NEVER crossed my mind to sew for myself. I guess I could never see myself in a pillowcase dress so I never entertained the thought. But there are some really great patterns for women out there.

My goal for this summer is to make myself a stylish outfit that I will actually wear. Thank goodness for summer vacation.

Last night I picked up a cute dress pattern and some blue and white summery fabric that is so super classy-looking. And I can't wait to get started. I will post pics when it is done.

Have a great day everyone!

Angry Birds Cake

One thing I really enjoy doing is making and decorating cakes. But it's so time consuming for me. Plus, I make such a mess that my husband just kind of rolls his eyes when I start to make one. But when a friend asked me to make an Angry Birds cake for her son's birthday, I couldn't turn it down. We love Angry Birds in our house, so I was so excited to make it.

I made each of the birds and pigs from fondant. I used to make my own fondant but I have recently found Duff fondant and its soooo much better. I just wish it wasn't so stinkin' expensive.

I have never made a cake for anyone but my family so I had nooo idea what to charge. I stressed about it all morning before I delivered the cake. Yes, next time I will establish that little detail before I make the cake. But when I delivered it, they loved it and made the whole payment thing easy for me.

Two lessons were learned:

1. Always spend as much time as needed to ensure that the cake is perfectly level.

2. There is always a backside to the cake.

I didn't level it perfectly, which would have been fine had I not stacked the brown blocks. But when I did, it just looked completely wonky. So I had to do some reconstruction. All in all I was pleased with it and I think the family was too.

Chasity checked in at.....

That is something you will likely never see on my facebook status. I. Just.Don't.Get.It. No offense to anyone who does it. But I do have to admit that I roll my eyes and give a sarcastic chuckle when I see that someone has checked in somewhere.

Notice that people only "check in" at cool, trendy places. Starbucks, posh boutiques, unique eateries, etc.
As a joke, my husband and I have considered driving around town to "check in" at some of the most unglamorous, uncharacteristic places. Can you just see it? Chasity checked in at Goodwill, or the local bar, or the local "adult" store... Except that maybe my church family and Christian school parents may look down on that, joke or not. I think it's funny nonetheless.

*Not that there is anything wrong with Goodwill, just not so glamorous*

And then there are those who check in and tag every one that they are there with as if they all wanted the world of Facebook to know where they are. Yep, I roll my eyes and chuckle.

And don't even get me started on those who check in "at home".

I have considered deleting my Facebook account because it's a huge distraction and also just for the silliness of it all. As if the world cares about every event of my day.

Facebook....It's a strange, strange creature.

So What did You do Today?

Here's what I did.