The Good and the Not-as-Good

Troy got home late last night from a trip to New York. As usual when he is away, it was a mixture of good and not-as-good around here.

The good:

• I brought up the Christmas Tree box from the basement for the boys to play with. It was colored, painted, and transformed into a pirate ship, a car, a time machine, Neverland, and a "scary" closet.
• We rented a Redbox movie & picked out candy from the gas station; our tradition for whenever Troy is away.
• A sitter came over on Saturday so I could sneak away and attend one of my best friend's baby shower. It was adorable and my head is spinning with ideas for the next shower I throw.
• I got a lot of work done, despite the fact that I had cords running across the family room because Troy took my laptop with him.
• A couple of friends came over to watch a show that shall remain nameless and we stayed up talking till the wee hours of the morning.
• It's Cadbury mini-egg season.
• We had one nice day before it snowed again. I may have been over-ambitious, but we biked to the park and had a picnic lunch. It was still a tad chilly for that. 

The not-as-good:

• Blake may or may not have been electrocuted. A nightlight, a quarter with two big burn marks, and a blown fuse were involved. He came downstairs crying but said that he didn't remember getting hurt.
• I endured some not-so-fun side effects from the antibiotic I was on for my sinus infection.
• Our furnace broke down for the umpteenth time.
• My cell phone fell out of my back pocket into the toilet. I'm crossing my fingers that it will still work after disassembling, vacuuming, and soaking in rice for 24 hours.
• I freaked out a bit about J-walking while Blake was on his bike. Where we live, the crosswalk is just too far away to backtrack to the park. Blake's little feet peddled as fast as they could and we made it across the street safely, but talk about stressful. I think he has outgrown his tricycle.

I'm always glad when Troy comes home so I can both laugh and commiserate with him.

All About Mom

Blake answered some questions about me in a questionnaire they worked on in Primary. I thought his responses were pretty funny.

How do I show my mom I love her?

Give her kisses and hugs and make cookies.

My favorite thing to do with my mom is:

Play toys and watch movies.

How old is my mom?

15

Her favorite food is:

Toast and peaches.

If she has extra time, she likes to:

Play in the sandbox.

When my mom grows up, she wants to be a:

When is she gonna grow up?

What my mom loves most is:

The lawn mower.

He's got me nailed. I always play in the sandbox in my free time and I really love our lawn mower more than anything. Apparently I'm not grown-up yet, which makes sense since he thinks I am 15. I wouldn't say that toast and peaches are my favorite foods, but at least he didn't say Cadbury Eggs. That means that I have been sneaking them well enough for him not to notice.

I love three year olds. Blake showered me with a sweet handmade card along with the humorous connotations.

Happy Mother's Day!

Salty and Sweet

One of my favorite salty and sweet combinations is popcorn and M&M's.

It is a standard for every girls night.

The M&M's become slightly melted when piping hot popcorn is poured over them. I feel only joy as I alternate nibbling between the too salty, fake-butter tasting popcorn and the softened candy coated chocolatey treats. 

As if that combination isn't heaven on earth, I have discovered an even more delicious concoction.

I'm talking about popcorn and Cadbury Chocolates mixed to delectable perfection.

The best time of the year is when Cadbury Mini-Eggs come out in stores around Easter (as previously mentioned here and here), but a very close second is when Cadbury Holiday Chocolates appear in the Christmas candy aisles. They taste exactly like the mini-eggs only they come in an ornament shape instead of an egg shape. 

The holiday eggs show up in stores immediately after Halloween ends. Therefore, November and December become very dangerous candy eating months for me in addition to March and April. 

And those slightly melted morsels of sweet chocolately goodness mixed with salty popcorn are simply irresistible. An upgrade from M&M's by a long shot.

I found a partner in crime that enjoys this savory snack as much as I do.

We'll squeeze in those fruits and vegetables...next week.

Mmmmmmmm.

My Vice

If it weren't for these:

...maybe I'd be able to fit back into my pre-pregnancy jeans. Once a bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs is opened, I finish it off. I think that they lace those crunchy shells with something; they should be called Crackbury Eggs. We're headed south for a few weeks, where I'm hoping to incorporate lots of outdoor walks and yoga classes to help with my waistline. But, if the Easter Bunny brings me more chocolate goodness in sweet crunchy shells, my jeans may have to wait until May June.

All I wanted today...

...was a clean house and a bag of Cadbury mini-eggs. It's only 2pm but I think it's pretty safe to say that neither of these things are going to happen. I came down with this awful cold (passed along from the dear husband) this week and it has been a struggle to have energy to do anything productive. I have had the most restless insomniac nights and coupled with being uncomfortable and having to use the bathroom all night long, I have not made any progress towards recovery. (For the record, I'd still take this over the three miserable nauseated/throwing up months!) We haven't left the house for a few days and when I walked out to the mailbox this morning and realized that the freezing 30mph windchill had knocked over both of our trash cans, the last thing I wanted to do was venture outside. I wanted to stay indoors and vacuum and clean the bathrooms and kitchen because I always feel better when the house is clean. However, we literally had no food in the house, so after weighing the options, I decided that it would be a better use of my time to try to allocate some food for my family. I gathered all the energy I had to shower and bathe the toddler so that we could go to my least favorite grocery store (which shall remain nameless). Then I thought; maybe I can find my favorite candy of all time, Cadbury mini-eggs, and then this awful venture out of the house won't be so bad! Maybe it's still a little too early on January 22nd for Easter candy to stock the shelves, but once the Valentine's day candy is out, there is typically a fair shot of spotting Cadbury mini-eggs as well. My mom and friends and I have been known to call each other the moment we first spot them during the season, and I thought that today just might be my lucky day!

Unfortunately, sweet goodness in a bag was not found on the shelves of the worthless store. I settled for another comfort food, a package of cookie dough, which was lame-o in comparison (my toddler even echoed "lame-o" from his seat in the cart). Now, I have a million grocery bags to unload from my car, no mini-eggs to show for the trip, my head hurts more and the congestion is worse than when I first left the house, Blake went down for his nap an hour late due to our lengthy trip to the lousy store, and the last thing I have energy for is cleaning and vacuuming. I think I'm going to listen to my body for once and take a nap. I just feel so unsatisfied when I don't accomplish what I have set out to do for the day.

On a more positive note, this is what made me laugh today:

Blake decided that George needed to go potty. He feeds George and puts him to bed all the time, so of course in his eyes it was only natural that George would have to use the bathroom as well. Blake fished out his potty seat (which he has no desire use himself) from the cupboard under the sink, and put George into position. When he showed me the scene of the crime, he was so proud of his creativity that I just had to laugh instead of cringe at George's dripping wet toilet-water feet. George is now taking a trip through the washing machine.

On another positive note, I have exactly one month until my due date!