firetrucks, cookies and bonnets

This past week and next few days is full of lots of planning.  Planning for a firetruck birthday party, planning for making cookies,  planning to fix/get a new oven,  rush,  bunco at my house this month, etc.  It's been a little crazy, but I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy chaos just a little.  It seems the more I have going on, the better I do.  I thrive on it, really. 

The birthday party is definitely the biggest time eater lately, that, and the Olympics.  My dining room looks like the colors red and teal threw up.  Seriously.  I even stole a teal lamp from the baby's room to complete the color combo make-over.  Ashamed?  Not really.  As long as he has his frog eyeball book in his crib he won't notice much of anything else.  So far I've got 12 fire hats for little kiddos, 12 die-cast fire trucks, a cardboard fire truck cut out to go on the mail box, a fire truck yarn wreath, fondant fire truck cupcake toppers I made from scratch, and just a whole bunch of other randomness.  Also I made a lot of tissue paper pom-poms and warm fuzzies.  Chances are, if you don't know what tissue paper pom-poms are, or warm fuzzies, you won't really care anyway.  It's probably not your thing.  I'll have a post next week showcasing his party overall, but until then, you'll have a few teaser photos to hold you over. 

 Enough with fire trucks though, I'm already a little sick of them and it hasn't even happened yet.  All this week begins the lovely world of sorority RUSH recruitment!  I was in a sorority while at State, and upon moving back, was "lucky" enough to be asked to be one of the advisers!  That's actually pretty hilarious to anyone who was in my sorority with me.  Don't get me wrong, I was crazy involved as a student, but by no means was I anyone who ever even wanted to be on Exec, yet here I am...haha, funny how things work out.  Any-who, this week is pre-rush recruitment so the house is preparing.  I offered to bring the girls some snacks during their breaks because for anyone who has done this before, you know it's slightly hellish to be locked in a house full of 200 girls for 10 hours a day, singing, chapping, and snapping fingers in unison.  My chocolate chip cookies (from scratch!!  I'm kind of a big deal...) are pretty gosh darn amazing so I figured I'd make a few batches of those.  Too bad my oven decided to be a 20 year old jerk and stop working. 

As bummed as I was about the oven not working, it got me excited, that maaaaybe the oven would not be able to be repaired, or be crazy expensive, ergo (there ya go George, I'm cool like you) Laura gets to pick out a new shiny beautiful oven from Lowes.  But, to my "disappointment" our amazing appliance guy came out at 8pm at night (he really is amazing) and fixed it for the low cost of $150.  That doesn't constitute a new oven for me.  So as happy as I was to have a fully functioning (almost antique) oven, I was bummed I wasn't forced to shell out a grand for a new one.  Crazy, I know. 

Back to the cookies.  So I now have an oven and cookies for girls.  I ruined an entire batch, but that's only because I was silly and rushed myself.  *note to anyone making cookies from scratch, never rush letting the butter cool down after you melt it.  It ruined my evening*  But I will say for the cookies that did turn out, they're friggin awesome as usual.  Like, yum-tastic.  But since it's only one batch maybe it'll start a fight at the house, might be funny enough to stick around and watch....

Oh, and in case you were wondering, our cat Gumbo is getting much better.  His lovely bandage was finally removed and they gave him a cone of shame.  He hates it, but is at least used to it now.  The worst part is he's still mostly quarantined to the master bed/bath as to not move around too much and re-injure his paw.  While I don't mind shelling out a grand for an oven, I do mind shelling out a grand for a careless cat, or my car AC, but that's another story for another day. 

Bad picture, I know.  But you get the idea of his general grumpy mood.  Grumpy needy cats aren't much fun.  But the cone is starting to look strangely cute now.  There's a little bow they have tied to keep in around his neck, and to me it looks kind of like a bonnet.  I don't have a little girl to put a bonnet on, and my husband would never let me subject my boys to that, so instead, I have gumbo.  Look at the cute little bonnet kitty cat....

Ok, enough rambling for me.  That's what's been going on this week so far.  This weekend is gonna be cray cray though.  Loads of family and friends coming over and lots of great food!  Get excited about that update.  It's gonna be aaaaaamazing. 

I'm bad at this

I win.  Worst blogger ever.  It’s been almost a year since my last blog.  Ridicerous, I know (no, that is not a typo, thanks Seinfeld) .  So let’s do a quick re-cap of the past year.  Since August 2011:  Got a cat.  Named him Gumbo.  Started traveling season.  Made a lot of taco soup and jambalaya.  Made cream cheese stuffed French bread for breakfast.  Gained some weight (I was pregnant, at least, that’s my excuse).  Broke the garage.  George fixed the garage.  Went to a conference.  Went to some football games.  Turned 26.  George took me to see Young Frankenstein.  Went to pumpkin-palooza.  Aidan was Yoda.  Re-finished a bed.  Had the entire family over to our house for Thanksgiving.  George starts his new job with Honors College.  Watched Aidan have a nervous breakdown at his Christmas performance.  Aidan goes to daycare.  Aidan gets sick at daycare.  The day Aidan gets sick at daycare I go into labor.  My family has bad timing.  I have a baby boy.  His name is Jude.  Jude looks like Mama C.  Merry Christmas.  Jude doesn’t sleep.  Jude doesn’t nap.  Jude is colicky.  At least Jude is cute and we love him.  Aidan loves being a big brother.  Gumbo likes Jude too.  I eat some sushi.  I eat a medium rare steak.  Mardi Gras.  Aidan is getting increasingly good at baseball.  Jude still doesn’t sleep.  Aidan hit the camera with a baseball.  Went to watch Thor.  Baseball season starts.  Dunn family loves baseball season.  Aidan gets a ball at every single game.  Aidan sings the fight song for the baseball team.  Aidan’s new best friend is Ronald.  Look to the cookie. I fit back into my skinny jeans.  Mother’s Day.  Parents bought a house in Ocean Springs.  Parents move to Ocean Springs.  Jude still doesn’t sleep.  Meeting the team after they got home from winning the SEC championship.  Stopped to say hi to Lightning and Mater.  Got into grad school.  Orientation.  Spent a lot of money on baby-sitting.  Went to Panama City Beach.  Went to see family for 4^th of July.  Aidan got to see cows.  Went to Perdido.  Got a new boss man.  Went to Chattanooga.  It rained a lot in Chattanooga.  Attended some send-off parties.  Gumbo got lost.  Gumbo is found.  Gumbo is costing us lots of money.   Planning a fire truck birthday party for Aidan’s third birthday.  

Whew!!  That wasn’t so bad.  Oh, p.s. Jude still isn’t sleeping.  7 months and counting.  I vow to get better about blogging.  But seriously, who has time?!  Must be that lack of sleep getting to me.  Here are some fun photos from the past year in case you missed it.  I am also trying to get better about taking those too, at least, with things other than my phone.  If I could just grow another arm my life would be much easier.