The bandages are off!!

And James is upset that his outtie is now an innie!

He wailed "They STOLE my Belly Button!!!!"




lol!

It looks good. No infection and beyond being upset over his altered appearance, he seems to be doing well.

It's only been 3.5 yrs...

And I FINALLY got my foyer decorated! lol

I have decorating ADD (ooooo look.... something shiney!!) and very specific ideas about what I want in my house. Most often I can find something that is *almost* right, but not quite, lol. And if it's not right, I don't buy it, you know? It still needs *something* cool, but I have to be conscious of little hands that can't seem to leave Mommy's stuff alone, even though he should know better.

It's been painted for over a year, lol. I've had the vinyl expression for about as long (but couldn't find the "right" sized frame for what I was willing to pay). I've had the picture frame for even LONGER. My MIL gave it to me, what, 2? yrs ago??

It just took me this long to find the exact table I like, the pics I want in the frame, and stuff for the table. Once the Christmas season is over, I'm in trouble again, because I'll have to put away the little trees I made (Which I love!! Styrofoam is awesome!) Suggestions are welcome!

Any way... here are the pics! (It's a REALLY tight area, so it's hard to get a good picture of any of it, sorry)






Close up of the Uppercase Living expression (anyone who likes UL and wants some, let me know, I have a good friend who is a rep)








Now.... only 1300 sq ft to go!! lol

Though as my friend, Jamie, said "Now that you got that done, when will you be moving??" LOL!!! I figure we'll get orders in about a week! lol

Surgery Day!

I'll be updating throughout the day, so watch this space!!

7:00 am: In the waiting room, waiting for james's name to be called. He seems remarkably calm for someone who is going under the knife! Lol. But we have really down played this too. He's watching Jungle Junction and playing with a bead toy.

7:30: the nurse has checked all his vitals (perfect) and we have spoken to the surgeon. Now we are just waiting for the Ana. to show up

8:30 am: we are in the waiting room, waiting....
James is on his way to surgery. It was tough on Mom and Dad to leave him. He was too busy jabbering at the nurse to even notice, lol!  The child does NOT know a stranger

So now, we wait. His surgery should take about an hour. Then he has to go to recovery to wake up. That takes about 45 mins to an hour or so. THEN we get to see him and take him home. 

Daddy is having a really tough time with this. He doesn't like needles or hospitals or doctors, lol.. And then to abandon his little guy to them??


9:30 am: Just talked to the surgeon... Every thing went fine. Apparently the hole was bigger than they thought, about the size of the surgeon's thumb!  They gave him an incision on the underside of his belly button, lifted it up, gave him 6 stitches on the inside, laid the belly button down and then gave him 8 on the outside. 

He should be waking up soon and then we'll be able to go see him in about 1/2 hour. 

The doc wants us to try to keep him still for a week. 

Hahahahahahaha. ~wipes tears from eyes~

Wednesday Random Tidbits

We are watching Frosty the Snowman, and Frosty said something to the effect fo "Why didn't I think of that?"

To which James replies to the TV, "Because you have a brain made out of snow!"


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James told me he has decided that we are taking Curious George goes to the Hospital, Madeline and The Belly Button Book to the hospital tomorrow.

I like that kid's style! Lol


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I was looking for a new treat to make this year, so a friend of mine gave me the recipe to Puppy Chow this evening and I made a big double batch.

Hubby came in and started snarfing down the puppy chow. He was like "Awesome!! Puppy chow!! I LOVE this stuff!!"

9.5 years of marriage and I never knew this! lol

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Mom sent Hubby something packed in dry ice and he and James spent quite a few minutes playing with it in the kitchen, lol! It was like getting 2 presents in one! lol The rest of the dry ice is residing in the freezer for future fun.




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James played Santa at school for his friends on Friday.




I made Candy Christmas lights.




Added just a little trim and a ribbon..... And Voila!!! Adorable little gifts!!




There are 20 kids in his class (including him) and I made 40 pops so he could have some too. He took all of them to school and instead of eating his, he gave them to the assistant teacher, not knowing that I already had a gift for her. With his high energy and impulse issues, I sometimes forget that he has such a huge heart and can be really sweet. I do love that kid!

Christmas Funny

I love Christmas. I love everything about it. Our Christmases are a mix of Religious and Secular, with a dash of irreverence mixed in for spice.

But I'll admit that some years (especially this year!) I don't just don't feel it. And I need something to make me laugh to put me in the mood.

Boy did I find it!!

THIS IS SOME FUNNY STUFF!!

Seriously, I laughed until I cried. I posted it to a friend and then had flashbacks that reduced me to helpless giggles when she posted back about how much she loved it (Hi Tracy!!)

Now I want to go out and put on my own Christmas play.... with a soundtrack by Kenny Loggins, of course! lol

Another Holiday..... Another Hospital!

As I sit here composing this post in my head I realize that I never blogged about Thanksgiving.

Part of our Thanksgiving was spent at the emergency room. James face-planted into the concrete outside of the movie theater after we went to see Tangled. There was lots of blood. His face was pretty banged up and he had a fat lip and a goose egg, but nothing was broken and he didn't seem to have a concussion. Thank goodness he'd already lost that front tooth, or it may have been knocked out. It was pretty epic as far as face-plants go, but I'd rather not have a repeat of it! lol

Fast forward to yesterday. A little background, James has had an umbilical hernia (a hole behind his belly-button) since he was born. We had an appointment at Children's Mercy Hospital to have the surgeon look at it and schedule a time to have it fixed. Imagine my surprise when he came back in and said "Does Thursday morning work for you?".

Well, um, yeah, I guess! lol

So James will be going under the knife this Thursday morning! It's outpatient surgery, so he'll be home in the afternoon. It will probably be harder on Mom and Dad than it will be on James. The hardest part is going to be keeping James still and quiet long enough to recover. I'm not looking forward to the whining, mine or James!! lol

If you pray, please keep us in your prayers, and if you think, keep us in your thoughts ;) lol!!

When did this become a cake blog??

lol I don't know! But here you go.... ANOTHER cake post!

Hubby's department needed cake for some dealy-o at work where some high octane muckety-mucks are coming through and he asked me last Saturday if I'd be willing to volunteer to make it. For Today.... or Friday morning by 10 am to be specific.

And like the moron that I am, I said "Sure! Why not! It won't be too hard to whip up a cake! What do you need?"

This cake has been the BANE of my existence! It went from one big cake, to seven small cakes, to seven large cakes, and back down to 2 cakes.... one huge and one pretty big. I was ready to kill myself before I even broke out the kitchen aide! But you know me... I'm game for anything (or insane... the votes are still out and it could go either way.)

So I went to the store for the supplies for White Almond Sour Cream Cake (my "go to" cake when I have to do some carving and when I'm covering with fondant), buttercream and fondant. Yes.... I MADE my own fondant and buttercream (which way are you gonna vote now? lol) and baked three 12 x 18 sheet cakes... that ended up being 11x17 after I carved and leveled them. My stupid oven bakes crooked so I have to put the wet wraps on the pan and spin the cakes 3 times while baking. I still end up with cake that is 1 in tall in one corner and almost 3 in the other. I end up with more cake in the carvings bowl than I do on the board! lol

Carving, covering, crying, stripping, re-covering, lying in the fetal position on the floor of the closet vibrating in a sugar induced seizure, panicked calls to Cake Guru friend after a fondant emergency (MANY thanks Anna Mae!!), several sleepless nights, fast food and tons of hand painting later, I have 2 beautiful cakes to present at the event. My kitchen looks like the opening scene in NCIS and if you didn't know I was working with an insane amount of powdered sugar, you'd think it was a drug bust gone bad! lol

I think they came out Totally Awesome! (If I do say so myself) The theme is "Poker", so I made a "Hand" of cards and a deck of cards. The hand of cards ended up being 24 z 20 and the deck ended up being 11 x 17! From now on, I will only make cute, small botique cakes. If I need to feed a large amount of people, I'll make a plain sheet cake to hide in the back and serve, lol!















I have come to the conclusion that I like the decorating and eating of the cake. I need Minions



to bake, make the fondant, buttercream and bring me already baked/covered cakes to be painted or decorated. Then they need to clean up and set my kitchen to rights.

Oh.... and cook dinner and parent my child while I'm doing the cakes! lol

Any volunteers??






Eta: I guess all that money Mom and Dad spent on my Graphic Design degree didn't go to waste after all, lol!!

REAL Vampires DON'T Sparkle!!

Tonight was Trick or Treating on post. Yeah, yeah... I KNOW!! It's not Halloween... blah... blah... blah. lol! The Powers That Be here on post decided that Trick or Treat was to be tonight instead of Sunday, so Trick or Treating we did go!

Or... Trick or Treating Hubby and James did go! lol. I hung out at home and passed out candy. It was only fair, since Hubby has only gotten to take James out twice (counting tonight) due to work or deployments.

This year James decided he was going to be a vampire. (Actually, he wanted to be a vampire last year, but I wanted to get ONE more year of "cute" costumes out of him before we went the scary/gross out route... hence last year's Imagination Mover... did I post about that?? Damn.... I can't remember if I did. It was super cute too, lol. I sucked last year, sorry)




And wow.... I do ramble on sometimes, don't I? lol



ANYway... lol... I couldn't help but put my own stamp on his costume, hence the hair and makeup. I wanted him to reference the cool, suave "Old School" vamps and not the newer, more recent teenybopper version.... Although... if I had been walking with him, I would have worn a t-shirt that said "Team James" on the front and "Real Vampires don't Sparkle" on the back.... but I didn't because it wouldn't have made sense if I wore it to pass out candy! lol

ANYway.... AGAIN.... lol Pictures Now!!


I Vant to Suck Your Bluuuuuuuuuuhd!!!!









"Grrrrrrrr...... Scary!!"






I SAID.... "GRRRRRRRRRR..... SCARY!!!!!"




James REALLY enjoyed helping me give out candy when they were done Trick or Treating




ALMOST as much as he loved playing with the fog machine! lol

Nothing tops off an evening of pumpkin carving....

Like cleaning puke out of the carpet.....


Multiple times.



And rewashing a laundry basket of clothes and 2 sets of linens from your child's bed....




And dealing with the ensuing tears and hysterics...




In your underwear....





While your dearest hubby is *asleep* in the nice warm, comfy bed.





Just Sayin'

Pumpkin Carving!

It's almost that time again!!! (<-----wow I say that a lot!!) Halloween!!! And all the Ghosties and Ghoulies at our house are pulling out (some) of the stops this year, lol.

James has been bugging us to carve pumpkins..... and he DESPERATELY wanted to do his OWN pumpkin this year. Hubby and I had (quite a few) reservations, but thinking back, I remembered that I was carving my own pumpkin at 6 (I was a prize winning pumpkin carver as a kid), so we decided that as long as he would scoop the guts, he could carve his own.

So... not only did he gut his pumpkin (mostly, lol) he designed it (I drew the design on the pumpkin for him... ironically, he is better with a saw than a sharpie! lol) and (mostly) carved it!! And it was all done with a shocking lack of blood loss! I'm such a proud (and amazed)Mama right now.


So without further ado...... Pumpkin carving!


Ack!!! Somebody let James loose with a knife!!






Pumpkin Nose!!




Click HERE to watch him carve! I loled when I watched this and listened to what the tv was saying in the background!


Daddy's a good teacher






Curves are HARD!!




All done!






Lit up!








Hee Hee.... Pumpkin!




What's in there?? lol







eta: pumpkin carving trivia! All my pumpkins have always had ears. James loves that idea, so he incorporated it into his. *sniff* ~insert watery smile here~ Love that kid!

That time of year again! Part 2: The Birthday Party!!

I know I usually flake when I say that I'm going to blog something "later".... so I'm sure you all are SHOCKED that I'm actually following through this time! lol

As you know, we had an Airplane themed Birthday Party... and where better to have an airplane themed birthday party.... but at a hangar at an airfield?!? We were very lucky that the General Aviation Airfield here on post allowed us to rent their main hangar for the party, as I was scrambling for a space large enough for the party I was planning (my teeny tiny house and postage stamp back yard would NOT handle 16 kids AND their parents!)

I designed the invitations to look like Boarding passes that you would print out after purchasing plane tickets. Several people (for whom I didn't have b&m addresses) actually got them emailed to them with this email:

You Are Invited for Some High Flying Fun!

Dear LASTNAME/FIRSTNAME,

Thank you for choosing G Airlines! We are looking forward to you joining us for Cap'n James's 6th Birthday, Saturday September 18th! Check in is at 2pm at the General Avation Airfield on post. The flight, E-Ticket details, and a map for your reservation are attached and printer-ready. Please contact a ticket agent (aka: Sharon, James's Mom) to confirm or cancel your reservation.

We are looking forward to flying with you!

Sharon G
Head Ticket Agent/Birthday Flight Attendant




At the party every child was given a passport with their name on it when they "checked in" with me and dropped their presents off at Baggage Check.








They then had the opportunity to do several activities. They could go dress up in a pilot hat/jacket/mirrored sunglasses/aviator scarf and get their passport picture taken at the Passport Picture Station....




OR They could go directly to the Paper Airplane Making Station with their "carry on parents" (up to 2 were allowed! lol), where there were plenty of paper, markers, stickers, ect and directions for them to make whatever kinds of airplanes their little hearts desired.




James was very proud of his!




When they were done making airplanes they could fly them around in the large center of the hangar or they could test their skills on the Landing Strip.




After the kids got tired of flying planes, we played several games.... Musical Clouds (just like musical chairs, except using cloud cutouts and the kids had to pretend to be airplanes and "fly" around... we played "Leaving on a Jet Plane" for the music of course!), Plane, Plane, Helicopter (Duck, duck, goose), and The Pilot Says. We were supposed to get a plane for all the kids to sit in/climb on, but that was cancelled at the last minute, so we got to play a few more games than planned, lol!


We then adjourned to the tables for refreshments. I decorated the main table with a black "runway" that had a toy hangar at one end and a flight tower at the other. Along the runway were several toy planes, 3 of which were used as weights for the balloon "clouds" over head. Plane cutouts hung from the clouds and with fishing line to look like they were flying.






Every child got an "in flight meal" and a juice box or water and of course... CAKE and individual cups of ice cream.






I think he liked his cake!!





There were snacks avaiable for the adults on the Cake table. The banner on that table was supposed to be in the air, supported by 5 clusters of balloon clouds, but I ran out of time and opted for using it on the table instead.




After Cake, presents and more playing, our guests stopped at Baggage Claim before departing.






A MILLION thanks to my BF Leah, my dearest Hubby and my ever-patient Mother-in-Law Cheryl, without whom this party would have crashed and burned at several junctions. And many thanks to everyone one who came! It was such a great time!!