Celebrating 31

The night before my birthday I was exiled to my bedroom while Husband, Daughter and Son worked hard in the kitchen making cupcakes.  Little did I know, they were making Chocolate Cheesecake Cupcakes with Ganache Frosting. (um, I just went up a dress size TYPING the name)

I never got caught up in the cupcake frenzy of late.  I don't watch cupcake television shows.  I don't go to cupcake bakeries and indulge in whatever the newest flavor is.  I just don't.  I'm not a big fan of desserts as a general rule so Husband always has to give a little more effort than I would assume he'd have to if married to a dessert lover.

This year he hit the jackpot and unless he's making a cheesecake, I want him to make these cupcakes for every birthday I have until I'm dead.   Seriously, click the recipe.  Make these cupcakes.  Fall in love too.  They are incredible.

So anyway, I knew they were making a birthday dessert and it was a surprise, but that's all I knew.  Except what I could get Son to tell me when he'd come in to see every once in awhile.  And I'd stand in the doorway of the kitchen and say things like, "What is going on in this room?" and "What smells so good in here."   

Daughter was such a champ.  She'd quickly shoo me away and tell me to go back to my room and read a book or take a rest.  It was pretty stinking cute.  She was a good surprise keeper and did her best to act like there was no reason in particular that she and her brother were wearing their aprons and huddled in the kitchen with Husband for over 2 hours.

Soon it was time to sing and blow out the candles.  and taste.  WOW.  Taste.  Fantastic.  

After eating our cupcake.  Don't be fooled, Daughter was just as messy as Son, but she washed her mouth and hands before the picture.

She's so silly

GARDEN SEASON

About a month ago, I started garden planning.  (BTW, have you tried workflowy.com yet?  It's great for list makers) 

It still blows my mind how excited I get when the seed catalog arrives.  It's pretty much the same excitement I used to feel walking into Express. sigh, a lifetime ago.

This year I decided to keep the Juliet tomatoes, the Marketmore '76 cucumbers, the Early Golden Summer Crookneck squash, and the Black Beauty Zucchini Squash from last year.  And I'm adding Amarillo carrots (a longer thinner carrot than last year), Fledderjohn soybean (an edamame variety that Daughter is ecstatic to grow. Thanks to a dinner with the McEggs, edamame is one of her favorite foods.) AND Grandma Oliver's Green Tomato.  Plus, whatever varieties of red tomatoes I find next week at Marvin's that will be good for canning.

Back to the Grandma Oliver's Green Tomato.  Husband was shocked to learn that there's an actual variety of green tomatoes.  He thought all those times we bought green tomatoes in the grocery store or ate them somewhere we were buying/eating unripe tomatoes.  sigh.  (and he's the country boy and I'm the city girl)  He loves fried green tomatoes and he loves my vegetable hash recipe so if I can grow our own, that's super.

If you've followed my gardening adventures for the past couple of years, you know what trouble I have starting plants from seeds.  Either, I kill them with too much or too little water.  Or I kill them in some other way I have no clue about.  Or the cat digs them up or knocks them over.  Or a kids digs them up.  Something.  every year, something happens that stresses me out about SEEDS.  crazytown.  This year was different.

I got my miracle grow potting mix, my cup with good drainage (yogurt container with holes in the bottom), and I even dug in the flowerbed for a worm for every container.  This year  I actually read the bag of miracle grow that suggests mixing miracle grow with your dirt in a 50/50 mix.  LIGHT BULB, this may have been what killed last year's batch -- too much food, too soon.

It pays to read the directions. 

So, even though my technique had improved, I still doubted whether I could make two seeds survive until they were big enough for the garden.  So, I planted 15 seeds.  yes.  15. hedging my bets.  surely, out of 15, 2 could live!

this is what they looked like about a week after the first one  sprouted.

I did a little pruning between the first picture and the second one.  There were a couple of seedlings that didn't have strong stems so I just plucked them.  And almost felt zero guilt about it.

This is what they looked like last week.  

I think it's safe to say I finally broke my bad luck seedling streak!  ALSO, I have way more Grandma Oliver's Green tomato plants than I need.  I am only planting 2 or maybe 3.  I told my parents I'm giving them 2.  So if anyone relatively local wants a couple, let me know.  Fried green tomatoes all summer.  yum

I'm also excited about basil and mint plants!  Plus our blackberry bushes (even though they are small) have lots of blooms.  It's a good year for the garden.

Daughter, Singer/Songwriter

Daughter loves to make up hilarious songs (that we are very rarely allowed to laugh at because she believes they are very serious in nature).  So as long as she's not with you when you click on the link, feel free to laugh as much as you want.

This is only 1 of about 7 videos that I've recorded that start off with "You're with me, I'm with you, we're a family." They all branch out into different thought processes.  There's one about how she and Son are going to get married because they are best friends and love to play together.  There's one about how she thinks that Story Time at the library is 'fantastic' and there's another about how when she rides her bike she's faster slow things like turtles.

DST or Running Restart

Weeks ago, I decided Sunday, March 11, 2012 would be the day I restarted my running schedule after taking the winter off. (I'm such a wuss when it comes to running in the cold.  I can handle 105 degrees as long as I have lots of water, but man, when it dips below 55, I put those running shoes back in the closet!)

Anyway, March 11 sounds a little arbitrary but it's also the day Daylight Savings Time begins.  With that extra hour of sunlight, Husband can join me (and a stroller full of kids) on a run.  And that's how I like it best.  Even though he's much faster than me(esp when I have the stroller), I still feel like we are doing it together.

Our plan right now is to run Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.

MY plan is to start over the couch25k series that I've had great success with the past two summers.  But instead of just doing the 30ish minute podcast and being done, I am doing a 5k - every time I run.  (when the podcast is over, I restart it and go until I've reached a 5k) I figure that's the best way I can get my body used to running that far is just to DO IT from the start.  In intervals.  So yesterday my 5k was 46:57 because I was doing it to week 1 of couch 25k.  So I actually only ran 14 minutes of that 47 minute time.   (btw, it takes me about an hour to walk 5k)  This is the part of my post where I recommend sports-tracker.com.  I use it on Husband's android phone and really like it.

I have that huge 46:57 written on the calendar and I'm ready for a slightly smaller number each time I run.

I'm excited and optimistic about this approach.  The last two years I could easily manage all the podcasts but even at the end, I wasn't running fast enough to run a 5k in 30 minutes. So when the podcast was over, I was finished but never got the distance.  I'm hoping this will do the trick

After yesterday's run, I'm a little stiff and my left hip is hurting.  But overall, I feel good and I'm excited about doing it again on Tuesday.

I've got a race on the calendar for late April in Oneonta.  And, as of right now, that's the first one I'm planning on doing. I'm excited.

The Baby Gift is in the Mail

Two great friends of ours, that we never get to see enough, are expecting their first child very soon.  And I just mailed our gift to baby ACT.

I made her a quilt, Son and Daughter decorated her a couple of onesies (with a little help from Husband) and then I added some diapers and the rest of the pack of onesies in for good measure.

the quilt front.  I used whirlwind romance collection from connectingthreads.com and the pattern is a slight variation of  one I've used a few times before.  I just love this pattern.  It's so easy and quick to put together and I just think it's great.

The back, with Baby ACT's initials.  Here's hoping that her parents don't change their mind on her name after she's born. or her quilt will be a call to action and service instead of her initials!

Son colored lots of "different colored friendly snakes" and then asked Husband to draw a green airplane.
Snakes on a Plane onesie?

Daughter decorated the front and back.  the front is covered in purple flowers and the back is covered with As and dots and a flower.  She was pretty proud.

We're so excited for Baby ACT's arrival and can't wait to see pictures and meet her!

The Park with Two Kids

We go to the park/a park whenever the weather allows.  We all love it.  Before I post anymore, here's a link to a park post about a year ago.  Wow, those kids have gotten so big.

They are so fun.

T-Shirt Quilt Update

There's really nothing to update on the quilt except my sketch of what I want the back to look like.  

The Front.  Twin Sized.  (huge)

Daughter helped me spread it out in the office

The Back

I did a rather poor job of making sure the binding got scanned onto the image.  But you get the idea.  Black on top, Ivy and Rose on the bottom (if I can find ones I want) And a red binding that coordinates with the rose fabric. And the JC applique.

I've only found one ivy fabric I like and it's on a website in England.  (that has fantastically cheap shipping to the US, BTW) but I've put myself on a spending freeze in anticipation of a pretty huge household expense (there's nothing fun about needing a new furnace AND central heat/air unit)

I haven't found any rose fabric I like enough to say, "that's the one."

So, I've just put this on hold for awhile.  But the good news is, I finally have BBWP's shirts and money for interfacing so I can start her quilt.  It'll be much smaller than mine but I'm excited about the ideas I have for making it fabulous with fewer shirts.

Neither projects are deadline driven.  We're just taking our time and waiting and looking.  But  I'm excited about both.

Valentine's Love Notes in felt envelopes

Yesterday I showed my Husband a little extra love by leaving him 3 short "love notes" around the house in places he would find them before work. And I cooked his favorite meal that I make (Eggplant Parmesan) for dinner.  Nothing big and extravagant, but just a couple of little things to make him feel special.

I found a tutorial to make felt envelopes on Pinterest.  It looked really easy (until I realized the template link was broken.  Making my own adding a little extra time but they are still pretty easy to whip up) so I headed for Hobby Lobby to get 6 sheets of felt and with the help of my 40% off one item coupon, I made the investment in pinking shears. (I actually made 3 envelopes but one was sent to AZ for a wife to surprise her husband with)

Instead of doing the zig zag lines where the address and return address go, I embroidered our initials.  I thought that added a special personalized touch.

I wrote 2 short sweet notes for the envelopes and I left the first envelope in the bathroom by Husband's toothbrush.  The second was left by the coffee pot.  and the third note was funny and envelope-less.  I taped that one to the steering wheel.   

maybe one day the envelopes will get RTS with a note to me in them.  ;-)