She's Up, She's Down

Unrelated photo. The alternative is not pretty.

The Snapsister that is not my sister, Wendi and her husband Jack had a beautiful baby boy last Sunday. I wonder how they are doing with the night feedings? Wait a minute! I have a pretty good idea... The past two nights I have been awakened and then trying to go back to sleep the entire night. Let's just take last night for an example. Thursday night was similar, I just don't want to repeat myself. Or bore anyone to sleep.
10:30-I go to bed, read and doze off for a good night's sleep.
11:00- startled awake, I think I hear someone walking around. This stems from me reading two random things before bed that lead me to believe I should get a gun of my own. Do any of my readers pack heat? Just asking.
Back to Sleep *BTS
12:00- Hubby comes home from swing shift, I wake up, decide I am too tired to say hello, I stay in bed.
*BTS
1:ish-Hubby comes to bed.
*BTS
2:19- Max returns from playing football in Friday Harbor. He scored! Yay! This is the only game I didn't go to, and he scored! Boo! I stew about that for a bit. We should have gone, Melinda.
*BTS
3:30 ish-Sam is in the shower getting ready to go to work at Costco.
*BTS
4:20-Phone Rings! Sam is half way to Bellingham and he has car trouble. Hubby and I throw on our clothes, grab flashlights and tools and race to his aid. Give him the van, I hold flashlight for hubby, he fixes car, he races back to Lynden in Sam's car and I in Element. We get to Lynden, Sam's car dies again, push it off the street, jump in the Element and fly home, and jump into bed.
*BTS-This takes a long time because it was real cold last night on the side of the road holding a flashlight and I just can't warm up.
*7:00- the alarm goes off. I am supposed to help at our church this morning. Make a hasty decision to forget that and reset alarm.
*8:30- the alarm goes off, I get up, for the last time. I look in the mirror. Oh my! Nights like that are not kind. Luckily, I went to Macys yesterday and bought new eye concealer, may need the whole tube in one application. The Clinique clerk gave me some tips, she made me feel it was hopeless though. She should see me this morning. I need a miracle.

I am sure my Hubby will be up soon and ask me, "Did you get the license plate number?" He means of the truck that hit me.
It's not pretty.
Had planned on posting a recipe this morning but I am in no shape to proof read a recipe. Next week...

A Gain of 54

For the past several months my Hubby has been borrowing the boys' '54 Chev or my grocery-getter to drive to work. He has been so busy that there was no time to shop for a vehicle. Today there was time.
This is his first brand new car, it is his favorite colors, WSU Cougar's red with grey pinstripes. He is really happy. And generous. He let me have it tonight. Love that guy!

Pretty Barn-Final Party Recap

I am renaming the Party Barn to Pretty Barn. Shelly has a cool spot at her farm. And the thing is, she built the bar, refinished everything you see, painted everything herself, and beyond the huge French doors she put in an in-ground swimming pool herself! For her birthday she got a cement mixer and was thrilled. Shelly's blog is featuring our party's signature drink recipe today.
My sister, that is a Snapsister, Jodi came and took some photos before the party, I had to share, they are so pretty.




This is the final recap of Karen's 50th birthday. We are having another party on Saturday evening and I have been invited to a special birthday party on Saturday afternoon. Party on, people! More party posts coming...

Driving Me Crazy

A Father & Son Moment-Nice.
Max is fifteen and enrolled in driver's education classes, and we all know what that means. It's driver's permit time. His Dad is taking him this morning since Max doesn't have school today.

Wait! Before this all sounds easy, exciting and fun, let me clue you in on this rite of passage. Max's brothers, Dan and Sam also went for important licensing and tests with their Dad to the DMV. After Hubby asked them repeatedly if they had all their paperwork, if they had studied adequately etc., both boys messed up. Hey, they are kids. Hey, Hubby is right in that he did ask them repeatedly if they were ready. There were some forgotten pieces of paper and some dogging of tests. Both had very tense, crabby rides back home with their Dad. Minor mess-ups unless you are the parent that has driven 20+ minutes, taken a number and waited, and waited and waited to be called to the counter. The DMV is not a fun place, so their Dad prefers to keep the visits to a minimum.

Sadly for Sam, he had a doozey, actually two, one was his bust, he gamed instead of studying. The second one was not Sam's fault. It involved a cranky employee, a refusal to license, a tense ride home, me on the phone to Olympia for an hour where the officials agreed Sam should have his license, a drive back to the DMV later that afternoon and Sam missing an entire day of school. Hubby was a tad miffed with the DMV employee who was rude and unreasonable. Rightly so. But at this point Hubby and Mr. Tuna (fictional name) aren't exactly BFF. This time I went in with Sam and told Hubby to wait in the van. Not to show his face after the morning incident with our favorite guy at the DVM, Mr. Tuna, but to sTaY in the car! Sam and I went in, Mr Tuna challenged me and I urged him to try the computer. I was saccharine sweet. Sam got the license, end of story.

At this point I decided when the time came for Max to get his license I would take him to the DMV. To spare him the experience of 'Dad and the DVM'. Max is my BaBy, so I try to shelter him a bit.

But NOooooo. Dan and Sam had no use for me trying to spare everyone anguish, Max MUST have the experience. The rite of passage. The screw up, the tense ride home, the whole uncomfortable thing. So, off they go today. While looking for a pic for this post I came across this one, Hubby and Max are oblivious and happy, but That Sam I Am in the background is probably looking ahead to this very day.

I'm bettin' Max won't mess up...
***Edited to Add: Max has successfully obtained the permit, he did well and they had a fun time, even had lunch out at Coconut Kenny's. YAY!

Cupcakes, Baby!

To celebrate Karen's birthday, Shelly and I decided on cupcakes. We had 50 candles on the buffet table so we weren't tied to a cake with candles. With cupcakes no one has to cut the cake, they are easy to grab, less chance of fire damage. Cupcakes are cute and we could have three flavors. I'm not sure why I am rationalizing this to you but anyway there was a method to our madness. Speaking of rationalizing...I felt like a priest at the party with guests coming up to me all evening saying, "I had three, I had every size and flavor, I'm sorry I ate all your cupcakes", yadda, yadda. No one needed to confess to me! They. were. addicting.

My niece Hana makes frosting and has her own cake decorating tips. I asked her to help us out with the frosting. She came to my place Saturday armed with her Mom's Kitchen Aid mixer.
I am going to share her recipe with a little disclaimer. She made it, she eye-balled measurements and I was merely in the way.

Gram's Butter Cream Frosting
1/2 c. Crisco-scant
1/2 c. butter soft
1 tsp. vanilla
4 c. powdered sugar
2 T. milk
After Hana mixed the butter and Crisco she added the powdered sugar, about a cup at a time. It needs to be whipped a long time. It is almost like whipped cream in that toward the end Hana was really careful not to over whip but to whip enough. Occassionally she'd stop the mixer and drag a fork through the frosting and see how it hung on to the fork. It was science people and I am just sharing what I watched Hana do to make the frosting. We made three batches!
I had baked strawberry, dark chocolate and traditional white cupcakes in two different sizes. We used pink and white frosting. Some were swirled and some were pink frosting with white 'k's. Towers of cupcakes, cupcakes under domes, cupcakes, cupcakes everywhere!

Last pics were taken by the Snapsister, that is my sister, Jodi, in the Party Barn.
Oh and I want a Kitchen Aid mixer for my big birthday so I can make buckets of this frosting. I'll just roll through the next decade!

What Makes a Good Party?

In no particular order...
Good Food

A Pretty Drink

Cute Guys

Special Friends

The Setting