Making the Bed

I may not do anything all day, but one thing I do is make my bed.  Every day.  And when I make the bed, it is almost as if I do it from the mattress pad up.

Why, you might ask?

Because every night, when my husband comes to bed, the first thing he does is pull out the top sheet from the ever so carefully made hospital corners my mother taught me to make to keep the sheets neat and tidy instead of hanging out beneath the quilt.

Every night.

I'm fairly positive this is a male trait although my random sampling of two (my dad and husband) might be a little skewed.

While I am "airing out our sheets", so to speak, I should also say that I only own one set of sheets for each bed in the house.  Washing sheets involves making sure I leave enough time in the day to remake the bed with the same sheets I washed.  Woe be unto me if there should be some kind of "accident" during the night.  But that's what sleeping bags are for, right?

I have friends who actually iron their sheets and I am of the belief that they need professional help.  Seriously.  OH, I GET that it's WONDERFUL to slide into a freshly made, crisp sheet bed.  But in my oh so humble opinion, that type of behavior sets up some unrealistic expectations.  So, what do you do the second night?  Remove the sheets and iron again? And heaven forbid that one of my children labor under the misguided expectation that their future spouse will, for them, iron their sheets, because mommy did. 

My future S/DILs will thank me one day.

You Too Can Have One

I HATE school fundraisers.  Yes.  I had to start out with that because, well, I thought it important for you to know.

Today is the day our elementary school fundraiser was due.  Now, I DO have to give Beanie credit because the first day of the fundraiser she hit the streets and came home with 16 items purchased and over $200 in "stuff".  So you think...good for her right?  Well, yes and no.  She's 9 and she has been completely fished in by the "crap" they offer up for hitting certain levels (or selling a certain number of items).  She needed 25 items for this:

Beanie's uncle added 2 more items this weekend.  Which means what?  It means that I now had 7 items I needed to buy (at 9pm last night) so she could get her prize.  OH...and this is only ONE of the awesomeness prizes that she'll be getting.  Since she hit 15 items, she'll bring home a box of Chocolate chunk cookie dough, because, you know, I don't EVER make chocolate chip cookies.  So, we're looking at a limo ride, a box of cookie dough AND (yes, it keeps getting better) her choice of a skinit (for a cell phone which she doesn't have), giggling key chains (in 5 fun animal shapes that, NO, she won't get her choice, they'll pick one for her and she will undoubtedly trigger the giggle incessantly until it mysteriously vanishes), a voice changer (like I need to hear her voice and it NOT be her voice) or an apple shaped speaker with light (???).  Ohhhh...which will she choose.

Last year's prize, which currently resides in a closet because I can't bring myself to actually throw it away, given how much I had to pay in crappy merchandise so she could get her prize, was one of these:

Jealous?

How I wish they would just do what the JrHS is doing.  Given that these kids have fundraisers for drama, sports, choir, etc, the JrHS has just asked the parents to chip in $20/kid.  I couldn't get my checkbook out fast enough.

I'm just hoping that this year, I actually GET my Real Simple magazine.  The one I ordered (and PAID for) last year and never got.  That, and I'm looking forward to the "gourmet" pretzels I bought at Beanie's request.  And paid over $3/pretzel for.  Yes, I AM nuts.

When Bananas Go Bad...

DUH...you make banana bread.

I had (note...past tense) 4 pretty brown bananas that were whispering in my shell like ear...banana bread...make me into banana bread...or I WILL attract every fruit fly within a 2 mile radius to your kitchen.

Never one to ignore voices I hear (well, unless they're my children's), I complied.

Now, what was at issue was which recipe would I use?  Would I use the recipe that my husband's family has passed down from person to person (that bugs me because who exactly has a 2/3 tsp measurement?).  Or do I use the Cooks Illustrated version, which I used once before but doubled it (yes, I had that many bananas that needed using) and found it VERY dry .  However, I was not willing to give up on this recipe so I went with the CI recipe but making as per the instructions (ie...not double).  AGAIN, I found that the end result was too dry looking.  So this time, I made an addition of  1/4 cup buttermilk.  Had I been thinking, I would have thrown in that 4th banana instead.

It's out of the oven and of course, I couldn't take the time to let it cool completely:

So far, so good.  But the proof is in the puddin':

Moist, tender crumb (albeit a bit on the warm side, that is me lacking self control).

I think...it needed that 4th banana vs the buttermilk.  I think it needed just a tad more banana flavor.  Still, all things considering, I believe I have hit on the recipe.

Enterprising Teens

My oldest daughter has a friend who, with her sister, are making tu-tus.  So, to encourage these enterprising teens, I'm going to give them a plug:

Tu-Tu Couture

This weekend the girls did a little modeling of the tu-tus and from the looks of it had a ball.  Here's my daughter:

 And her crazy friends:

The beauty on the left is one of the designers.  Note the "editorial" stance of my baby.  Girl's been watching WAY too much America's Next Top Model.

Now...I'm off to find a lock and key, cause I gotta feeling I am in some serious trouble here.

Captain Jacks

Swingin' at the bar.

Fall Day on the Boat

Not a cloud in the sky

Birthdaypalooza for 2010 is Officially OVER

I'm fairly lucky that my family's birthdays all  fall within a 6 month time frame, with only mine and Chrisapalooza  on top of one another.  But I am OK with him receiving all the accolades without calling attention to yet another year having marched (by now Father Time is wearing football cleats) across my face, thankyouverymuch.

Last night was my middle daughter's 12th birthday party.  She had it planned out pretty much how she wanted it:  6 of her closest friends were invited over for an afternoon of yard games (bocci, polish horseshoes, ladder golf), followed by pizza, a possible bonfire, then cake and ice cream followed by a sleepover.  Two girls were unable to stay the night and were picked up by 11.  The others made it their mission to either stay awake all night OR make sure WE stayed awake all night.  I'm still a little fuzzy on the goal there.  And luckily the party went off pretty much as expected with a few "left turns" thrown in.

Games...check.  All were laid out and ready for use.  I think they played one game of polish horseshoes, choosing instead to play all those games that one would think at 12 they would be beyond...hide and seek...tag...loading music into the ipod onto speakers and playing as loud as the speakers will take and dancing.  I kept a cursory supervisory eye on them but for the most part let it go.  We had friends drop by after pizza and decided to move the party to their house for the bonfire and added s'more making to their house.  It was a skeeter issue.  They spray, we don't.  So, your daughter will have less bites than if we had done it here.

You're welcome.

Back to our house for cake and ice cream.  The cake...well, she wanted german chocolate cake but I recognize that many people simply do not like pecans and coconut frosting that accompanies german chocolate cake so she compromised on german chocolate cupcakes with half frosted with coconut pecan and the other half with cream cheese frosting.  Now, here's the funny part.  As we're lighting the candles (my high potential daughter...who does not think to light them from the center so as not to burn herself), is blowing out the match and manages to blow out 3/4 of the candles she has just lit.  Ever the helpful mom* I took the one remaining lighted candle and lit the remaining 11.  We sang, she blew...and was she able to get even 3/4 out TRYING to blow them out?  No.  Don't believe me?

4 of 12 candles still lit.  Yes, she does have the lung capacity.  At 230am she proved it.  Ahem.

Oh, presents.  I forgot presents.  First let me ask...when did I miss the memo that it is imperative that a portion of the birthday gift consist of massive quantities of candy?  Seriously.  I'll be sending all you moms my dental bills (see here... and here for precedence).

The candy haul:

The candy was of course accompanied by gift cards, itunes, scarf, nerf gun (for which I had received fair warning).  Loved all the gifts...the candy, she could do without.

So, the girls had a good time.  They are an imaginative bunch though, believing, at 12 as one does, that bigger IS better:

Or more IS better:

Breakfast this morning was homemade pancakes with fresh strawberries and fresh whipped cream.  They were some T-I-R-E-D girls though.

Might I suggest a nap?

*Ever the helpful mom=can we just get this done mom (but ever the helpful mom sounds so much nicer)