"Crappy" Baking Tutorial

Tuesday night Brian informs me that he signed up to bring dessert for their pot luck Friday.

Thanks for the notice.

He wants to take my Keebler Cookie Salad; of course he wants to take the one dish I have absolutely NOTHING in the house to make.

How about some cupcakes? I have everything I need to make those. (uh huh, sure you do!)

I decided to make salted caramel cupcakes and devil's food cupcakes topped with cookie dough frosting. You can find links for the recipes for both here.

This is where the fun began.

I begin making the salted caramel cupcakes. I always cream the butter, add brown sugar, then all of the liquid ingredients, then all of the dry.  I get to the bottom of my liquid list... CRAP! I don't have buttermilk!

Quickly look up buttermilk substitutes and congratulate myself on having plain vanilla yogurt and milk to make an acceptable substitute.

Complete recipe, dig out pans... CRAP! Do I have enough cupcake papers?

Wheew- 1 (and only 1) package in the cabinet.

Load up two pans and throw them in the oven. Start the chocolate cupcakes. Measure, dump, mix... "this looks really dark, and smells really rich... what did I do?"

CRAP!- I neglected the prime ingredient in any good devil's food recipe- sour cream!

Dig out the sour cream and add it to the bowl... much better!

Prep & load pans, finish just as the timer for the caramel batch sounds.

Switch out pans and let caramel cupcakes cool as I start mixing the frosting.  As the butter is creaming, I dig out my container of powdered sugar. 

Wait, how much does it say I need? CRAP- there is NOT 8 cups of powdered sugar in here!

Frantically rummage and find a new bag of powdered sugar.  Woo-hoo, 32 oz!

Simultaneously realize I just used the last of the brown sugar in the container for the cupcakes and I need more for the cookie dough frosting. CRAP!

Rummage round 2. Find 2 new packages of brown sugar- score!

Caramel frosting is made, cupcakes are cool. Time to frost!

CRAP- I don't have any pastry bags!

Attempt to make a bag out of waxed paper, which is a flop. CRAP!

Try using a sandwich baggie with the corner cut, seam busts. Double CRAP!

It's at this point I realize the frosting is holding whatever shape I dump it out of... 

Begin rolling frosting into balls and press onto cupcakes- genius!

Complete caramel cupcakes and take picture just before timer for chocolate cupcakes goes off.

As the chocolate cupcakes cool, I mix the cookie dough frosting.

Remember a second time that I have no pastry bags- CRAP!

Decide to use the "dollop" method. Finish chocolate cupcakes and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Take picture.

Realize I have 24 cupcakes that look nice and professional and 24 cupcakes that look like my almost 3-year old decorated them.

Oh well. It's just for the hubby and the 10 people at their branch... I think these'll do. 

So there you have it: the 9 "CRAP" method of baking.

The HCHC

What's HCHC you ask? It's quite simple really.

"Holy Crap Holiday Clean-up"

Every year at this time we look around and say "boy do we need to go through things".  This thought results in a massive clean-out and organization of practically every square inch of our house. This year's progression into the HCHC was more subconscious than ever before... here's how it happened:

1. Pinterest. Need I say more? Ok, I might, just a bit. I came across a post that gave a daily breakdown for each week of things to do to keep your house clean- super simple and easy to complete- will easily become habits.  I added one or two things to the list and printed it.

You can find the original at the Gaddis Family Adventure blog

  2. This morning I got up and decided that everyone who says they're going to "start it Monday" never does... so I decided to the plunge!  

3. Completed my three morning tasks. Yay!

4. Felt a sudden spur of excitement thinking "since we've been tossing the idea around... how excited would Brian be if he got home & I had the kids dressers switched?!"

5. Needless to say, the boy had yet to perform disaster recovery from the tornado that had clearly struck his room. He was charged with getting all of the "stuff" out from in front of the dresser and out of the path I would need to get it to the door and emptying the drawers.

6. After much pushing, shoving and groaning, I single-handedly had the dressers switched. 

Woo-hoo!

But it didn't stop there...

7. Seeing an opportunity to give the boy even more space to play, I suggested we move his bed before repositioning his toy box back into his room. Motion approved!

8. Now that the bed was moved, we still had that pile of clothes he had taken out of his drawers. *Light bulb clicks on above my head*

9. Taught the boy how to check sizes and had him try on questionable items. 

About halfway through his fashion show I realized it had happened. I had officially initiated our family's "Holy Crap Holiday Clean-up". 

Mental cheer for motivation!

10. "Good" clothes folded and put away in their new home, the boy continued his work on the disaster that was his closet.

11. Lather, rinse, repeat in the baby's room, adding to the donation pile that was steadily growing in the loft.

12. Discovered I had an audience...

 

13. The boy shows off the immaculate work he did in his room. I'm impressed!

14. Vacuum his room.

 

15. Eat lunch.

16. Loaded the kids' "Sacrament Keepsake" boxes with the baptismal and hospital items previously hidden in the "hidden drawer" on each of their dressers.

17. Here's about where we lost steam for the day... with both kids' dressers full, the loft teeming with donation items, and a feeling of accomplishment... the baby decides it's time for her daily "potty training marathon"- meaning we end up "sitting on the potty" 6 times in an hour. *sigh* 

2pm - momentum officially lost.

3pm - after a good long snuggle, the  baby crashes and finally goes down for a nap.

After the baby goes down, I start a load of laundry and empty, reload and run the dishwasher.

4pm - answer emails, check Facebook and peruse Pinterest (it's an addiction, I admit it.)

Brian is "rewarding" us (well, more like the boy for the awesome work he did in his room) with McD's for dinner.

On the docket for tomorrow:

Family room, living room, finishing touches on the kitchen and dining room.

Our reward: dinner at a friend's house.

We can't wait!

 

My Summer Bucket

I'm new at this... the whole "being home instead of working" thing.  And lets face it, this takes some getting use to and adjustment to make it work properly.  So I've come up with a short "summer bucket list" to help keep my sanity and the kids entertained.  Let's see how much of this is accomplished at the end of summer.

1.) Get out of the house with the kids at least once a week. (Brookfield Zoo, Phillips Park, Naperville Riverwalk, downtown Yorkville, the pool, etc)

2.) Work with Morgan on becoming better acquainted with her potty seat.

3.) Get some "adult" time.  (Monday evenings at Suzy's watching Amanda's sand volleyball team will be a good start!, but I want to get a "Moms night" once every few weeks for us neighborhood moms to get together & have some wine.)

and, last but certainly not least

4.) WORK ON MY NOVEL!  My goal is to have it 90-100% complete before fall semester begins.  Considering I've written 2 chapters in the last 2 days and come up with a great twist, I have no excuse not to meet this goal, unless (God forbid) I hit writers block- in which case someone will need to come kick me square in the derriere!

Cheers!

The New "Me" part 1

Yes, I know it has been a long time since my last blog and so much has happened.
Since today is the first day of a new year, I'll share with you that I've made only 2 resolutions for myself:  1.) Blog more often; 2.) Be better to myself.
I'm starting resolution #1 by sharing resolution #2.

As happens when you have kids, you devote most (or if you're like me, all) of your time to them.  I've come to realize I really don't do anything for myself and I certainly don't treat or take care of myself like I should.  Since leaving my job, I've come to realize that I really do have some worth and really should take better care of "me" than I have in the past because, darn it, I deserve to feel good about myself!  I've done a little shopping for clothes- not the "off the rack cookie cutter" stuff I use to buy at Wal-Mart, I'm talking shopping at stores designed for those of us that are full-figured.  My favorite of these by far has been Torrid (owned by Hot Topic).  I've worked on taking control of my appearance by doing more with my hair and trying to put on make-up more often, especially if I'm going out somewhere.  Trying to kick this never ending acne has been a pain in the behind, but it's a work in progress.

The biggest challenge I'm facing is my weight; yes, pun intended. 

This problem began when I was in high school.  Most girls are overly self-conscious at that age and I fell into this category.  I wasn't really fast or super smart or very pretty, and frankly, I believe that whole statement still applies.  But what made it much worse for me was being put on a medication for epilepsy that, years later, another specialist determined I did not need.  The diagnosis wasn't as bad as the amount of weight I gained from the medication I was put on.  Not being a small girl in the first place, soaring to 145 then 160 in high school was torture.  Throughout college I worked a fast-paced, physical, "on your feet" job which helped to keep my weight in check, until I moved to Illinois in 2004 and started a desk job at the bank.  By the time I became pregnant with our son in 2006, I had ballooned to 194.  After he was born in 2007 I lost the mere 18 pounds I gained during pregnancy and felt good about it.  I dieted and exercised and when I became pregnant with our daughter in 2010... I was right at 194.  I gained more weight with her than her brother but was still able to get myself down to 205 post-delivery.  So here I was, almost 2 years later sitting at 214 and wondering why I'm unable to lose the weight.

Throughout the years I've exercised, dieted, starved, done the trend diet and more to try to lose this excess. Weight Watchers, IsaGenix, Alli, Atkins.. all of it failing or worse, making me GAIN more weight.  No matter what diets I tried or how much I exercised, nothing seemed to work or it caused me side effects that were annoying, inconvenient or just plain gross!  (If you've tried Alli and had "leakage" you know exactly what I'm talking about!)

So at the beginning of December 2012 I decided enough was enough.  Being on the go with college, a Kindergartner to run to & from school and a toddler to chase around wasn't enough to do anything but maintain the status quo.  I saw an episode of Dr. Oz talking about green coffee bean extract. (You can see the segment here or read the article here.)  I said to myself "heck, nothing else has worked, I may as well give this a try."  Dr. Oz recommends a green coffee bean extract that is 100% pure, and this is what I found:

The ONLY ingredients in this are: Green Coffee Bean Extract and Vegetarian Capsule.  You can find this at Wal-Mart (30 capsules for about $10) or I got this 90 capsule bottle at Sam's Club for around $20.

I began my little experiment by logging on to MyPlate at www.livestrong.com .
In order to make this as unbiased as possible, I set my goal to "maintain my current weight" which at 214 pounds gave me a total of about 2400 calories allowed each day starting off (as you track your weight progress it adjusts your calorie allotment accordingly.)  And no, I'm not ashamed to admit I was that high because if I can't be honest about it, nothing is ever going to change- I have to face it in order to fix it.  Yes, that sounds like a lot of calories and I have only been over on my calories 5 days of the 23 total, and each of those was either going to a movie or eating dinner/lunch out, most days I don't even come close (most days I have between 400 and 800 calories remaining, a few days I had 1200-1600 remaining).  I started a journal but about halfway through my entries were few and far between just because of school finals, finishing up for Christmas, etc... I just didn't make the time for them.  I will try to be better about that during part 2.

Starting December 8th, I began taking 2 capsules 30 minutes before lunch and dinner with a whole bunch of water.  There have been several days that I have forgotten the pills at lunch, but that's how it goes sometimes.  I was not going to the gym like I had been in previous weeks and will be beginning in the next couple weeks because my fitness class had ended and I just didn't have time to go- so no, I have not been doing any additional exercise during part 1 of this experiment. The only thing I've done is paid closer attention to my portions because of tracking on MyPlate... let's face it, a bowl of GetBalance Crunch for me is 2 servings, not the skimpy 1 cup that's listed on the box.  I haven't necessarily been eating "better" just more controlled and a touch "smarter".

The results?  In 23 days I have lost 9 pounds, have been able to hold to portion sized much better and have not experienced any negative side effects.  Being back to 205 feels good, but my short term goal is to be under 200 again... once I hit that I'll re-assess and set a new goal.  Little bits at a time, that's how I'll defeat this demon.

During part 2 I will be changing my MyPlate goal to losing 1 or 2 pounds a week (undecided which at this moment) and will be more physical in weeks to come as I hit the fitness center more and start my personal defense class.  Then we'll really see what I can do with a little bit of determination and green coffee extract!
 
See you in a few weeks!...

New Chapter: Announcement

How time has flown- Liam will be starting half-day Kindergarten this fall. It’s hard to believe our “Little Guy” is going to be old enough for Kindergarten! It seems like just yesterday we were rocking him to sleep and changing his diapers, now he’s an independent five year old that is extremely excited about going to school. As he became more and more excited about starting school, I got excited about returning to my education.


In January, I started back to college to pursue my dream of becoming a nurse. In the past six and a half months I’ve crammed more information into my brain than I ever thought possible and look forward to continuing the trend for the next few years. I found that I really enjoyed being in the classroom again! And with my new found internal motivation, it was easier than I anticipated stepping back into the role of student and a “want” of knowledge burst forth that I didn’t realize I had.

Along the way I’ve had a plethora of "events": 2 full semesters- 1 regular spring, 1 accelerated summer; 1 broken nose courtesy of a snuggly 9 month old which brought about a 10 day unplanned vacation as I underwent surgery & recovery; a double birthday party to plan & throw for the kids; saying “good –bye” to a chunk of money to have air conditioning installed (which we did just in time for several weeks of 100 degree weather) in addition to filling the roles of employee, student, mother and wife. It hasn’t always been easy, but we’ve survived- we always do.

As time marched ever so speedily toward July we quickly realized that our lives were becoming out of balance, and fast! In addition to me now being in college along with working full time, Liam would be starting school AND Brian wants to take some classes through the community college to earn a web-design certificate which will nicely round out his Bachelors in software engineering. How would we continue to give the kids the individualized time and attention they need and deserve? How would we make sure everyone was where they needed to be at the appropriate time? Could we afford the extra expenses involved with our long commute coupled with driving multiple cars daily? I know these sound like fairly stupid questions, but when you consider that we put over 100 miles on our car in a single day between dropping off & picking up the kids from the sitters on top of getting ourselves to the office & back- we spend between 1.5 hrs and 3.5 hrs in the car each day! (Variations depend on whether Brian works on the weekend [which means he has a day off during the week so the kids stay home with him so I can drive directly to & from w/o having to go into town- Forshee-lead-foot can get me 45 minutes each way] & who’s driving each day [again, Forshee-lead-foot says it all, while other people who shall not be named specifically, have a bit more…” reserved” driving habits than I do- which added to driving into town & back out again to drop the kids off equals about 1-1.5 hrs each way].) Now you talk doubling these times (driving 2 separate cars), tripling gasoline expenses (the van uses 2x the gas as the car), and spending more & more time running around rather than with each other- this was fast becoming a problem.

We deliberated, discussed, agonized over and stressed about what we would do. Do I give up my dream and a future that would be far more beneficial for us as a family in favor of a short-term solution? Does Brian? Do we strain our family bonds in order to try to feel more “financially comfortable” as we complete our fields of study? We spent months exploring options, crunching numbers and praying for guidance. And after many months of worry, stress and self-doubt, we’ve made a decision…

Today I issued my 2 week notice of resignation to SBT.

Yes, our income will be cut almost in half. Yes, we’ll have to cut back on luxuries that we’ve taken for granted until now. Yes, paying back student loans will suck. Yes, it will be hard and, at times, stressful and will take a lot of careful planning and coordinating, communication and understanding to make sure we’re on top of things. But the long-term payoffs far outweigh these short-term setbacks. I’ll be able to continue to pursue my dream of becoming a nurse. I’ll be able to get Liam to & from school without inconveniencing other people to get it done. I’ll have more time to study and more time with Morgan. Brian will be able to continue working AND take a couple of night classes to work toward his goal certificate. And while there may be some minor setbacks along the way, as a family we will be far better off in the long run once both Brian & myself have completed schooling and are in our chosen careers.

We want to thank all of our family and friends who have been so supportive through this whole process. You’ve given us “food for thought”, encouragement, support and prayers- and we are grateful!

College lesson learned...

I'm pleased to announce- I survived my first semester back to college after being out of that environment for about 10 years.  Not only did I meet my goal of earning a "B" in all of my class- I exceeded that by earning straight "As" and a 4.0 GPA over 14 semester credit hours!  This was achieved all while working full time & tending to the hubby & 2 kids at home.  Talk about coming back full force!

Over the past 4 months, I've learned a lot of things about college the second time around that you never really "get" fresh out of high school.  It has also been interesting discussing my points of view with a friend of mine who happens to be a professor at the same college I'm going to (no, I did not & will not have him for a class- he teaches English classes outside of what I need as graduating requirements, which we are both thankful for) and he shared some interesting views from a teacher's standpoint.  I'd like to share some of these lessons with you.  

For those of you who, like me, have already gone down this road: you'll get a kick out of this & it make take you back to a time where you think "I hope I didn't act like that!".

For those of you getting ready to graduate H.S. in the next few years & head off to college: 

PAY ATTENTION!  

For anyone fresh out of H.S. and already in your first year of college: 

TAKE A HINT!

#1:  College can be fun!    Yes, it takes a lot of work to succeed, but just keep in mind that everything you work on in each class puts you one step closer to your ultimate goal- a degree in a career field you want.

#2:  If you are struggling or having problems, ask the teacher for help.  You are adults and it is YOUR responsibility to ask for help if you need it.  Your success all up to you & is good practice for the real world- get use to it.  (This one is for all those who whined like babies because a class or teacher wasn't as easy or lenient/buddy-buddy they felt every single class/teacher should be.  You are an adult, not everyone is your friend: deal with it.)  You get what you put into it; which brings me to...

#3:  For every credit hour you register for, plan to spend 2 outside of the classroom on that course work.  For example- I took 14 semester hours this term, so I had to expect the teachers to dish out 28+hrs of outside work each week. 80% of teachers/professors will give you "homework" as if their class is the only one you're taking (this is where the + comes into play).   I can not tell you how many reviews or complaints I heard about how "we had so much work outside of the lecture period", whah, whah, whah!  (Again, for those who didn't want to have to do anything but show up for class- you are lazy, try actually putting some effort in for a change.)

#4:  Yes, you will find a new social group at college.  No, you are not the center of everyone's world.  Unless a bunch of your friends all have the same class schedule as you, no one will care that you were popular in H.S. , that you were prom queen or the star quarterback, or that you think you are sexy as hell.  Except for the people of your social group & likely a few people of the opposite sex, people are there to learn and for themselves, not to worship you.  So those delusions of grandeur you may have about how "cool" everyone will think you are in college: get over yourself.  Everyone is there for their own reasons, not for you. (This goes with my next point.)

#5:  The following things are distracting not only to your fellow students, but can be to the teacher as well & should never be worn to class: 

*body glitter (especially if you sit next to a window & it's sunny)

*super low cleavage showing tops/dresses 

*super short skirts/dresses  

*any top/pant set showing your mid-rift  

*high-heels & toe-less shoes (namely to a laboratory class; seriously, some girls thought this was a good idea- can we say "dumb"?)  

*pants/skirts that are so tight or short that you show muffin-top or crack (lets face it, both of those are nasty & no one in their right mind would think it's sexy)

*anything you would consider wearing to a club

#6: To go with #5- if you are dressing to impress someone in class, you're going to that class for the wrong reason & you need to re-prioritize & re-focus.

#7:  Let's face it, not all teachers/professors & classes are the same & you will not be able to study/prepare in the exact same way for each & every one.  Pay attention to the teacher/professor's instruction & 1st tests- this gives you a good idea of what you need to do to succeed in that class.

Work hard & use your common sense & you will succeed-  Good luck!

Back to work omen?

Well- my first week back at work has proven to be an interesting one.
Info you should know: 1) All hell ALWAYS breaks loose when the boss is on vacation; 2) Brian "opens" each morning- so he has to be to the branch by a certain time- if he were to drop me off 1st, he'd never make it on time- so I drop him off & pick him up; 3) you know what they say about the best laid plans...

Friday:
The boss calls to double check that I'm returning Monday & to tell me to send pics (oops- had been forgetting to do that). Says she's going to send me an email with "stuff". OK
Send photos to my girls & contemplate blogging about how I feel about returning to work & leaving the kids after 3 mo home- laptop screen dies before blogging had commenced- guess I won't be blogging tonight.

Saturday / Sunday:
Spent the day kicking myself for having to leave my kids. We all have done this, so no big surprise here.
Contemplated trying on my work clothes as I'm not sure what everything will fit like- I'd been wearing maternity clothes into April and been able to wear lounge pants & t-shirts for the past 3 months. Decide it's too hot to play dress up & pick Monday's outfit on a whim.
Write out list of things I need to make sure I have together for Monday, prepare breakfast & lunch, put together & pack diapers & extra inserts for the sitter, get together the baby's bottles & formula (in case she pigs out on the milk I'll be leaving for her) for the sitter.
Take a shower, set the alarm clock and go to bed.

Monday:
Hear on the news that major storms are moving in- GREAT! What a way to start the week! But wait, they are suppose to hit the suburbs around 8:30a- if they don't speed up, I might make it in the building before getting drenched- yea!
Drop of the kids, give extra kisses (especially to the baby) and mentally prepare myself to cry my eyes out all day on the drive in.
Drop Brian off.
Arrive at my branch, go inside (downstairs for those who don't know- this is important, you'll see why in a minute) & am grateful that I got inside before those nasty looking clouds got any closer.
Eat breakfast & halfway though realize I need to ask one of the girls upstairs if there is an extra chair they can put in the back restroom so I can pump in privacy.
Go back upstairs where there are actually windows & it is pitch black outside- dark as night, down pouring rain... restate my relief at entering the building before it hit.
Make arrangements for the chair & head back downstairs (with no windows) to finish breakfast & continue the task at hand. The "stuff" email was letting me know that I'm not going to do my job, I'm going to re-train on ATM stuff & train on the coordinator's other tasks. Although I had the day mapped out in my head on where I would be with my stuff, I like the coordinator & enjoy learning new things, so I'm cool with sitting with her until further notice- we'll have fun (hehehe). Of course, the boss is on vacation, so the ATM gal has to do the boss' stuff first before we can get to refreshing my training, but we'll get it done eventually.
Less than 10 minutes later- we lose power. Of course, our branch has a massive generator outside, so power is restored in a matter of seconds, but having to re-do all of our computer start up procedures makes most of us grumpy.
Brian emails, his branch is without power- that sucks- they are our call center branch- without power they can't help customers... customers will not be happy.
1 hr later Brian calls- no power equals no work getting done- I need to pick him up & bring him to my branch so he can actually work... woo-hoo- road trip! (At this point an estimated 864,000 people were without power.)
Pick up Brian & find Park Ave closed- what? Apparently a water main busted Saturday & they decided not to fix it, so what happens? The road collapsed- DUH!
Return to the branch via alternate route.
Discuss with Brian & my girls how well I was doing for being the 1st day back (or away, depending on how you look at it)- Had a blast with my girls, power flickers a couple more times, wrapped up the day, headed home.
Drop Brian off at home (it was hot & he wanted to check on Sparky since he was in the laundry room all day [with water, food & a fan mind you])... the boy's slide is in the front yard- CRAP! We didn't have a chance to put his mini-playground in the garage- guess Brian will be dragging it back while I pick up the kids... hehehe.
Pick up kids & give lots of hugs & kisses- go home.
Arrive home to the slide in the garage but the rest of the playground no-where to be seen- uh-oh. Yep, sure enough, Brian can't find it & none of the neighbors have seen it... grrr.
Brian takes van to case the neighborhood for the playground while I get the kids settled. Brian returns empty-handed.
Later discuss possibility that playground was stolen & that thief, believing they would be caught, took off before finishing loading the slide. This is one of those large plastic sets- 3 upright sides, a deck (to make it 2 levels), foot supports (to help keep it stable) and slide- you're telling me that the wind was strong enough to blow away 90% of this in 1 piece but the lightest piece didn't go any farther than our front yard- hmmm.... doesn't add up to me.

Tuesday:
On the drive in Brian receives a call- his branch is still without power (it should be restored by noon), he'll be working at my branch again- cool... can go straight from my branch home & don't have to stop off the beaten path to pick him up on the way. Score! (368,000 still without power) Power should be restored by 4:30a Wed.
Sit with ATM gal & train.
Brian finishes out day at our branch & we head home.
Watch Masterchef, get set up for tomorrow, go to bed.

Wednesday:
Try to drop Brian off, but guess what? Still no power! He comes with me to my branch. (199,000 still without power) Manager calls Brian to let him know power should be restored by noon Saturday- uffdah!
In-branch training to be held Thursday, Brian tells mgr he'll take it at our branch since he'll likely be here anyway.
Discuss new dress code with the girls- all are excited to wear open-toe shoes! Lots of dresses now being worn!
Late afternoon- Brian gets a call- power has been restored. grrr, now I'll have to drop him off then go back & pick him up later so he can make his afternoon meeting at my branch.

Thursday:
Arrive at work to learn the person who was going to do the training quit yesterday- training will be rescheduled. How weird... at least I don't have to leave to pick up Brian mid-day.
Main bank program down most of the day resulting in very little work able to be done but lots of complaints. Should have brought something with me to combat the headache.

Friday:
Most of the day was normal- until I realize my phone is not ringing & is just kicking everyone straight to my voice-mail after it rings once on their end. Contact IT to have E troubleshoot & set up for him to pick up my laptop at Brian's branch after work so he can retrieve my files & hard drive.
Spent 20 min talking with E & Brian about the laptop- T tells us "GO HOME!" lol!
Talk Radio says all toll & express roads are bad- suck! Take back roads to Eola Rs then catch I88... late picking up kids, but our sitter is way cool about that, especially since we called to tell her we were running late.

If this week was any sort of sign of things to come, I don't know what to think!

What the....?

I had this post mostly completed before we left on vacation, but didn't get a chance to finish it or post it- so now I've had a chance to add to and update it... so here it is.

Wednesday, June 22:
In all honesty, I'm not as tired today as I thought I would be after being up for half of the night.
Let me run you through a normal night- eat supper, play with the kids, go to bed. If I wake up thirsty, unless it's that "I'm so parched I'm going to choke" dry mouth/throat, I don't get up- I just go back to sleep & get a drink in the morning.
Now let me tell you how last night really went- eat supper, turn on news & weather because it was looking nasty outside, grab kids & run for the basement when the sirens went off, spend 1+hrs downstairs, came upstairs, got kids in bed & got to bed ourselves.
Somewhere between 1 and 1:15am I wake up thirsty. It's not the "important" thirsty that would cause me to take action, it's just that normal thirsty that happens occasionally. But this time I can't ignore it & I'm not sure why.
I get up & go downstairs to get a drink & immediately am anticipating someone grabbing me in the dark. Someone was there watching me. Obviously this was ridiculous- the doors were all locked & if someone was going to grab me I would have already seen them & they would have already done it before I got my glass & poured myself some O.J. (which is about the time my brain was actually having this thought.)
I turn around & face the sink chug-a-lugging my OJ & behind me the microwave starts running. WHAT THE....? And it's not like someone pushed the button & the button beeped & then it started running for 60 seconds- NO! It just put itself on 60 sec & starts going- double WHAT THE....?!
So here I am, pushing the clear/off button trying to get the stupid thing to stop fearing it would wake the kids (which was a stupid thought anyway- our microwave is not that loud, but I was still 1/2 asleep & probably more worried about the "cook end" beeps than anything) and this thing isn't stopping! I open the door thinking I've been pushing the wrong button & again try pushing the clear/off button multiple times with no result.
"Ok" I say to myself, "I'll just restart this, let it run & complete the cycle & it will be done." right? NOPE! Now it won't restart. (Yes, I closed the door first.)
Suddenly BEEP-BEEP-BEEP "KEYPAD SHORTAGE- MAY NEED REPAIR" scrolls across the screen. WONDERFUL! Finally the thing stops beeping after a minute & I go upstairs not entirely sure what I just experienced. "Brian, are you awake?" "uh" "No, I need you fully awake because I need to know you understand what I'm telling you." As he says "was something beeping" the microwave starts beeping again! So we both go downstairs with the same results as before. We even tried unplugging it & plugging it back in with no better resolution- so he just unplugged it. Luckily we kept the counter-top microwave from the apartment- so I cleared a space on the counter & he brought it up from the basement.
Tonight my FIL came over to take a look & since we couldn't find the book for it at the time we were looking the microwave up online & were shocked to find a number of complaints about these "blowing up", starting on fire or smoking! WHAT THE...!!!

Monday, July 4:
Happy 4th to all my readers! Not that there's that many of you, but hey- you deserve some credit if you're reading my boring blog.
Needless to say- we left the GE mounted & the counter-top microwaves unplugged while we were gone.
After regaling my Mom, MIL & SIL with this adventure I am convinced that someone was looking out for us. Someone made me get out of bed & be in the kitchen when it started running so we would know it was happening before we left. I have no doubt that had we not known & left for vacation with it plugged in, we may have come home to a pile of ashes where our house once stood.
I feel blessed that someone is watching over my family!