Here’s to #weak excuses!

Every day people come up with excuses, some of them may be fairly well thought out, some may not have been but lucky they are able to get it to work out and others are just plain #weak!

My daughter is probably the biggest culprit of the last category of #weak excuses. While I know she is only 3 years old, that just gives me the right to pick on her a tad.

The most common #weak excuse I get is when I ask or even tell her to do something. She’ll claim “she doesn’t know how”. I don’t fall for it. Most of the stuff I have seen her do on several occasions, like putting her socks and shoes on, brushing her teeth, picking up cards off the floor and the latest one (the one that prompted me to blog) would be that she didn’t know how to shut her eyes to go to sleep. Every now and then she’ll switch it up and say that it is “too hard”. But like I said previously, she only does it when it comes down to the things she really doesn’t feel like doing.

The past few times that I have asked her to help me get laundry together she has told me, “You can do it all yourself.” I guess I expected a few years of her helping me, not less than one year. So, now I have gotten into giving her money when she helps me clean. When she is done, she puts the money in her piggy bank. I have a limit of a dollar a day, and most days she doesn’t really help me clean because the majority of what she assists with would be laundry or other things that aren’t a daily task.

On a completely separate note, a few weeks ago as I was walking out to my car to leave to go to work, I noticed that my daughter’s car seat was on its back in the car – I immediately thought that maybe my fiancé had to get into it and for whatever reason disgruntled the car seat. The closer I got I noticed more things about my car that was off. The most shocking part was that the passenger door’s window was smashed and my car had been ransacked. I was quite upset about this (who wouldn’t be?). Oddly enough the only things that they took were my proof of insurance, car registration and my gym bag, which it’s only contents were a change of clothes. Everything else was just thrown around the car.

My car is now fixed and I have replacements (aside from the gym bag and clothes).  I thought it was very random that someone decided to steal those two pieces of papers out of my car. I found it odd too because it looked like that was what they were looking for – first the glove box was completely emptied out and then the center console was emptied out and tipped back. I notified the insurance company and the secretary of state that they were taken, but I think I am still in shock that it happened and why they just took that?

That was all for now – be kind to your mothers! Tomorrow, after-all, is mother’s day!

Halloween

Halloween. My definition of this holiday is where children dress up and go to neighbor’s homes and say, “Trick or Treat” and receive candy. The kid happily goes to the next house and does this until they are tired of getting candy.

I strongly believe that adults should not go trick or treating. I spent Halloween at my mother’s house and helped pass out candy when my daughter had finished receiving it. Some older guy stepped up to receive candy (he wasn’t even dressed up) with 5 bags! He wanted a piece of candy for each bag because his “children” which were nowhere to be found wanted candy.

I believe that if a child wants candy that they will get candy. If they are too little to go trick or treating…well, then maybe they are too little to get candy. If they are too cold – then, I guess they didn’t want candy all that bad. Or maybe I’m just being too picky, but when one person comes up with 5 bags of candy and no children around, it is ridiculous.

Aside from that, we had a great Halloween! My daughter was hooked on dressing up as a robot. I love homemade costumes so I insisted that we make her costume.

 

She has gone a little overboard with candy since we went trick or treating. Go figure. When we tell her no more candy and she stills grabs another piece, she freaks out when we take it away. Her voice changes and gets really deep and she yells. Plus, she gets really emotional and cries at things I don’t understand. I guess I don’t undersand everything she cries about but a few times this week she has starting crying really hard and I can’t help but laugh because I’m so confused. I’m sure it happens to others….right?

Simple Cake Design

I have now attended my second cake decorating class at Joann’s and this class was so much better than the last. We were taught how to take a design and transfer it to a cake. So, the whole class used the cupcake design.

Step 1: Take the design you wish to use and use parchment paper to trace along that design.
Step 2: Use piping gel (preferably tinted with a color because it comes clear when you buy it) and pipe the gel on the opposite side that you traced.
Step 3: Put the parchment paper on the cake (Gel side down of course)
Step 4: Using a small paintbrush, outline the design you wish to use. (This ensures that the gel will stick to the cake)
Step 5: Remove the parchment paper from the cake and VOILA you should have that design on the cake.
Step 6: Fill in the design you wish to use with frosting (try to cover up the piping gel).

A helpful piece of advice when it comes to using the piping gel, when you add the tint try to pick a color that you will be frosting it with. It makes it less noticeable if you don’t cover it up all the way.

If you go to http://www.wilton.com you can find lots of these design templates!

Here is my final product:

No! Not THAT cereal.

Every time we go to the grocery store we avoid that one aisle. I’m unsure if everyone else is in the same boat as me, but for us it is the cereal aisle. When we go and have to unfortunately walk down the shelves filled with several – or what seems like millions – of different cereals. I try to include Hailey in our grocery trips by letting her pick out different vegetables or getting a say on certain things. She’s your typical three year old, so she can be a bit of a pain to take anywhere you would like to be productive. Anyway, back to the cereal aisle…

So, we get to this cereal aisle and I tell Hailey to pick out a cereal she wants. We typically like to stick with whole grain cereals and cereals that are high in fiber. Well, Hailey does not have this preference because she clearly goes for the flashiest item on the shelf. It is a pink box and has pink Cheerio-shaped pieces of cereal and it has to have the pink marshmallows also. So, every time she picks that cereal out and every time I reject by saying, “Oh…not this time…pick a different one.” I always offer two different cereals that I have approved and she goes with one of those two.

Well, let’s flashforward a tad. I went to my mother’s house the other day. Above my sister’s mini fridge, what do I find? That darn cereal Hailey always points to when we are at the store. I should correct myself, not just one box of that cereal, but two boxes of that cereal on her fridge. Then I am telling my mom about this and what does she do? She sends home that cereal with us because my sister didn’t like it. So, here I am with two boxes of this cereal sitting on my kitchen counter.

Not your birthday? Oh well…SURPRISE!

Apparently with the recent events of Hailey’s birthday and my own birthday, Hailey is on a birthday kick. I get home from work today and there is one candle lit, a Father’s Day card, a Happy Birthday sign and a cookie that I previously decorated on the dining room table. Also, Nick, my fiance, and Hailey have the lights off and are hiding on the other side of the couch, which is immediately followed by them jumping out and yelling, ”SURPRISE!” Hailey then forced me to blow out the candle. We then had to relight the candle and then do the whole surprise shindig again for Hailey and then again for Nick. I’m afraid that we have started something that she is going to want to do every day.

At least we have gotten the money’s worth on that Father’s Day card.

You want me to pee in what?

My daughter, Hailey, just turned three on Tuesday, September the 28th. Her doctor appointment was on Wednesday. Well, the nurse came in and asked the routine question, “Is she potty trained?” So, I proudly said, “Yes, she is!” Then the nurse handed me a cup. Yes, a specimen cup. So, I had to take Hailey into the bathroom to try to get her to pee in this cup. Hailey does several strange things and for me to get a “what are you doing, mom? look” must definitely mean that this really is strange. So, after many attempts of her peeing in this cup (down to me asking her to play a game where she pees and I catch it) she still does not go.

Well, the nurse said that was fine and we continued on with our doctor’s appointment and it went well. Later on that night when I was at work, I get a message stating that Hailey peed in a cup. Well, not a specimen cup, but a yellow disposable cup.  Thankfully it was in a disposable cup because it had to be thrown away. I would throw my glasses away because even after cleaning it, I would continue to remember that her pee went in that cup. I don’t want to hear, “Well, pee is actually sterile.” I do not care. Let me pee in your cup and you continue to use it.

So, my mother tried to talk to Hailey and told her not to pee in a cup. Hailey, “Yeah, my mama told me to pee in a cup.” I have a feeling that this is going to be an ongoing effort to get her to stop peeing in my dishes.

Actually, I really hate my plates, maybe I can teach her to pee on those so I can have a reason to buy new ones.

Birthday Cakes, Cupcakes and Frosting! OH MY!

Today is the day we are celebrating my daughter’s 3rd birthday. I decided instead of spending money on buying a cake from a local grocery store that I would just make it myself. (I’ve been in a bit of baking mood since June when I took an Intermediate recipe for Blueberry Pie that came out wonderfully.) So, I’ve been preparing for this day quite a bit. We made everything from scratch, even the frosting. I’m not a professional and get tired of looking up recipes and especially hate when the recipes are vague.

Anyway, the point of the story is I have a few tips for people that are just starting out baking.

1. Take your time. When doing a recipe from scratch, it will take longer than the prep time says it will.
2. If you plan on making your frosting from scratch and it happens to be buttercream, use stick butter. (I made the mistake of using just butter I use from the tub…way too soft)
3. If you are writing on your cake and mess up – scrape it off and try again. That’s the fantastic thing about frosting, you can do it again.
4. Always put the timer on the least amount of time and check on your baked goods. Use the old toothpick method (insert the toothpick straight down into the baked good and pull it straight back up, if there is stuff on it, then it needs to bake longer – if not, then they are good to come out.)

Since, I am no professional, I decided to take cake decorating classes. I have not started them yet – they begin October 3rd. If you are interested in taking a cake decorating class JoAnn’s does do them. You can check out their classes and times online at http://joann.com.  Until then, I will post my amatuer pictures.

Oh and final tip – make sure the cake is center before you frost it in a cake carrying case!

Your dress is HOW short?

Recently I went to a dress shop with my friend and her little sister. Her sister was looking for the perfect homecoming dress. It has been awhile since I have been in highschool or really to find the need to buy a dress.  These dresses are really short. I would think that they would cover something, but really all they are covering is their panty line and calling it good. If the dress isn’t really short they were skin tight. Not just that they were too tight, but that was how the dress was made. You can see way too much and every girl (or I like to believe every girl) has flaws. I was just shocked that a 15 year old girl is buying such a sleezy dress and this is okay with society. What happened to feeling like a princess or being all frilly? Where was the transition from frilly to sleezy?

Maybe I’m just being too judgy – very possible. However, personally to see a teenage girl wear that type of clothing makes me sick. Maybe I just have better hopes for my daughter and that I will follow through and be strict with her clothing when she gets to that age.

Txt Talk

I understand the use of text talk, but I also think that there should be a time and place for it to be used. For starters, it should only be used when you have limited space to type or even when you are texting. It should not be used at work, unless your job specifies so, or to strangers. Every day there are new words created and every day there are more people confused by what the heck you are trying to say.

I have a coworker that talks to customers perfectly fine but as soon as she talks to myself or anyone else in management she just does text talking and abbreviates everything. It takes us longer to understand what she was saying than it would have taken her to actually type it out – even at that point we may not accurately understand what she is trying to explain.

As much as I enjoy reading misspelled words, I just become frustrated when I see a sentence made up of these new words. I have recently been informed of http://lamebook.com and greatly enjoy seeing the simple misspelled words, but when I see the ones that are strictly text talk, I cringe.

Anyway, clean it up, talk in complete words and sentences unless you are texting on your phone or in a space that has limited characters.

People losing their simple math skills…

I went to Subway yesterday to try the breakfast food. Yeah, it was delicious. However, my experience with the cashier was not the best. Although she was very nice, her math skills were not up to par. My total came to $1.80 (I used an old gift card) and I handed her $5. Not bad, right? Well, we are wrong. She entered it incorrectly into her cash register and put that I gave her $1.80. So, now she has to figure out what $5 minus $1.80 is…she just stood there. After about 30 seconds she calls her coworker over and explains the situation. Her coworker did not really give any thought to it and said she didn’t know. I blurted out, “$3.20!” Then the first worker said she knew that, of course, after the fact. I was surprised. I shouldn’t have been because people rely so much on calculators that they lose those skills we all were once taught a LONG time ago.

After that experience, I called my mother and told her about this, she immediately told me how she saw someone at McDonalds doing that too. Now, I know it isn’t just these fastfood places but it quickly made me realize how big of an issue this is becoming. It is either they need to work on their math skills or they really need to correctly punch in the amount of money into the register.