i'm back...

sorry its been so long since last post. no good excuse, really. but thanks beck, for reminding me to blog!
i've started yoga classes. to say that i love it is an understatement. my instructor is awesome, and i always leave feeling like someone gave me a happy pill. i think i have found my niche.
apparently my oldest has been learning yoga at school, and she is able to practice the poses right along with me. fun!
we got to go see my hubbys new office building, very art deco, and almost straight out of the brady bunch episodes. everything is orange and avocado. sounds weird and tacky, but it isn't .
i want to work there just to hang out with all the cool furniture. they also have their own cafeteria there too, which looks an awful lot like a wolfgang puck restaraunt. i want to work there too! they are a very health concious company, so when they built the restaraunt, there were no fryers allowed at all. and they even prepare take home meals so the employees can take home meals if they don't want to cook dinner. they have an outside area to eat, with tons of outdoor furniture. the whole place is wireless, so you don't have to work in your office, you can go sit outside (and it is encouraged). there are walking trails too......
so needless to say, i guess i don't feel so bad when he has to work late anymore, this place is awesome!
i've been planting several container gardens, some gerber daisies and some cool pink flowers i forget what they're called. then some bradley tomatoes and basil (yum). the kiddos started their container gardens from seed and i can't believe how well they are doing. they've got butter lettuce, cukes and carrotts. very cool to watch grow. i "rescued" a hibiscus plant that is now on my front porch, with lots of blooms ready to open soon! i love going to the reduced rack at lowes to see what i can rescue. so far i've gotten the hibuscus plant/tree and some petunias and another yellow flower i forget what it is, and they are all thriving. i feel like it is a challenge to see if i can get them going. not that they are in too sad a shape when i buy them, most of the time i can't figure out why they were on the reduced rack. you can't beat the prices!!
my latest baking success has been this buttermilk coconut chocolate chip pie. its a recipe from coastal living, and super easy! it got rave reviews from everyone who tried it. i think this will be my new signature dessert. besides cupcakes, of course! speaking of coconut, of which i am a big fan, i had this coconut cake at this place called henpeck market in franklin, and i was just blown away. it was so good! now i am on a mission to make cupcakes that are similar.....we'll see how that goes.
well, that's all i've got for now! talk at you soon!

funny............

funny from john deere boy...........
i was standing at the stove cooking dinner when john deere boy (bless his 4 year old heart)
asks "momma, do you have 2 babies in your tummy?" so i said no, and asked why, to which he replies "because i see their 2 heads"...........as he is pointing to my chest.....................
to which hello kitty girl says, "those aren't baby heads, those are momma's private parts!!!"
i was laughing so hard tears were streaming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
y'all have a great day!!!!!!!

pto?

so now i think i am being roped into being on the board of the pto (parent teacher association).
one of my best friends is thinking of running for president (unopposed, actually). the weird thing is that they cannot get anyone to volunteer at all this year for the pto. and if there wasn't a pto, we'd lose a lot of cool programs for the kids. so after much pleading from the soon to be former pto, a group of us is thinking of stepping up to help out. i think i'd actually be doing the secretary bit. we'll see! i'm not sure if i'm excited or nervous, probably more along the lines of what the hell am i getting myself into. but i have always wanted to get more involved at the school, guess here's one way to do it!

sneaking candy...

i dropped john deere boy at school today and came home to clean up a bit. i was walking by the front door and spied something shiny behind the curtain near the door.....it was a nice little pile of easter hershey kiss wrappers. i'm guessing he was hiding there eating candy this morning while i was in the shower! i only wish i could have seen him, it would've been hilarious!
i treated myself to a massage today at the chiropractor. i've been having trouble w/my asthma and its been stressing me out. so after waking up with a tense neck and a kink in my back, i decided i'd better do something. it was wonderful! the only bad part is it was 10 in the morning and i felt like it was bedtime all day. very relaxing, almost too relaxing........
easter was good, ate too much and am really tempted to throw away most of this candy. which is weird b/c most of it is chocolate, and i HATE to waste chocolate! i think with all of the holidays so close together, i just am kind of over all of that. no more holidays til mothers day for me! hooray!
now that the weather is warming up, i'm trying to focus on eating a bit healthier. its good to see some decent looking veggies and fruits starting to pop up at the grocery. i'm a big salad person, just give me a big old salad and i'm a happy camper. especially with feta cheese and kalatma olives......mmm...
we are going to try some small container gardens this year, the kiddos are excited about it. the easter bunny gave them some garden gloves and some flower seeds and peat pots. they are growing mini sunflowers and zinnias and snapdragons in my dining room window right now, very exciting! we've tried larger gardens in the past and they end up full of weeds before i can even blink!
plus, with the drought we had last year, i don't want to have to sneak water to my plants.
megan, do you have any suggestions for veggies (or flowers)that grow good in small areas?
it is supposed to be in the mid 70's here tomorrow, woohooo! i'm so happy spring is here. it'll be hotter than anything before we know it, so i'm trying to savor the mild weather.

i've been tagged!!!!!!

okay, i've never done this before, but here goes 10 random things about me (sorry if they're not very interesting!!)
1. i really love cupcakes. all things cupcakes. mecky, remember those pj's i bought in denver with cupcakes on them?
2. i drive a minivan and am proud of it. although if someone wanted to give me a bmw suv thing, i'd be a happy camper........
3. i was not even of legal drinking age when i married my sweet hubby!
4. i have a birthmark on my boob. (sorry)
5. i like tim mcgraw, he's my secret country star crush. and he lives not too far from here!
6. i love to check out pioneerwoman.com all the time. makes me wish i lived in the country instead of here in subdivision land.
7. i hate to exercise. but i do it anyway to keep me sane. and so i can eat what i like.
8. i have the cutest kiddos in the world (just a little biased here).
9. i absolutely love to yard sale. in fact i think i go through a bit of withdrawl when its not yard sale season.
10. for a yankee girl, i sure can make a mean sweet potato casserole. i heart southern food! (but i do miss good pizza!!!!!)

spring is near, i can feel it!!!!!!!

what an awesome day, it was in the low 70's here today. got lots done outside, we washed and de-crusted the cars (my car is always a project, you never know what you find when you have kiddos!) nothing too scary in there today, some old popcorn kernels (love target, a dollar for a popcorn and a drink keep john deere boy happy, we could shop all day as long as his bag is full!).
put the kiddos to bed and got lots cleaned inside. I'm done w/spring cleaning now. good thing too, b/c tomorrow evening we're supposed to get more storms and it'll cool down too. only gonna be in the 40's on tuesday! welcome to tornado season in tennessee!!! you know if we get an unseasonably nice day, there's always a price to pay.
we grilled out today, i picked up some nice new york strip steaks from publix today, and they turned out great! yum yum!!! i so can't wait til grill out season. i have this awesome marinade that i love on everything, its called papa demos. its a greek marinade that i can't get here at the store, i have to order it online by the case. if you ever run across it, you've gotta try it!
(mecky, i know you've had it here before, in fact i think we first tried it when you lived here the first time!)
well, i survived the first major pto thing i helped out with at the school, i was actually on the auction committee as the volunteer coordinator. which actually translates to do anything and everything you can b/c no one else shows up to volunteer. i was slopping chili, serving water logged hot dogs (eewwwwwww!)helping w/the auction and stuff like that. it was lots of fun! til they asked if a friend and i were interested in running for president of the pto. ummmm, NOOOOOOO!! fun to help, not fun to be in charge.
not much else exciting going on here, hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!!!

happy heart day!!

i started the day off on the treadmill, good for my heart, right? well it was til hello kitty girl decided to walk by the treadmill and wasn't paying attention and walked into the back end of it as i was going full speed. so she trips and falls and starts screaming and grabbing her knee. so i fly off the treadmill (while its going full speed) to see if she's okay. turns out she just whacked her knee (probably will leave a good bruise) but nothing broken. meanwhile my heart is beating out of my chest from being in the middle of a good workout, and from being terrified that she broke something. took me a while to calm down this morning. trying to find my happy place....
its off to valentine parties for me today, one for each kiddo. i made the cutest mini cupcakes for hello kitty girls class and some cute frosted sugar cookies for john deere boys class. oh the sugar is in the air today!!!!!
i went to publix this morning to pick up our steaks for dinner, and its just kinda cute seeing all the guys in there (who obviously don't regularly shop) picking up flowers and such for their honeys. being such a foodie, i think i'd rather something food related, particularly baking or cupcake related..... but i do love flowers, they are beautiful. (you just can't eat them!!)
hope you all have a wonderful valentines day!!!!

the approaching holiday....

so valentines day is rapidly approaching. what's everyone up to for that day? us old married folk (still can't believe its been 13 years....) will be staying in. most likely we'll grill some steaks, have some good wine and i'm still working out the dessert part. i'll probably go pick up something from this new place (well, not new, but new discovery for me) called the puffy muffin. its a very southern girly-girl luncheon/bakery place. i was there last week with my foodie friend, and their bakery section had us swooning. so i figured i'd break down and treat us to a few decadent bakery treats for the night. i'll let you know what i got and how it was. i have a feeling it'll be hard to decide.
i'm in charge of baking cupcakes for hello kitty girl's class for their valentines party (it pays to be pals w/ the room mom, i always get first dibs on what i bring for the parties. i don't want to be stuck bringing paper plates or chips (although that would be easier, but it gives me an excuse to bake!). i'm thinking vanilla cupcakes with pink icing and i've got these cool sprinkles with red hearts. i've gotten into making mini cupcakes for the kiddos, they just want the frosting anyway, and i don't get my feelings hurt when they throw away the rest of it that way.
for john deere's class, they don't allow cupcakes (too messy, so they say..) so it'll probably be frosted sugar cookies. yum.
so i've got some baking to do!!!

embarrasing things..

i was just reading one of my favorite blogs, the pioneerwoman.com. she had a thing on most embarrasing moments. hilarious to read what people wrote in. so here are a few of mine, i challenge you to reply with some of your own!!!
1. i had just gotten my license and was driving down main street, looking soooo cool, waving to people as i was going. thought i was hot stuff b/c everyone was staring at me. turns out they were staring b/c i was driving down the WRONG side of the street.
2. i was working in a small grocery store in high school, and was helping out in the meat department. i had the lovely job of taking frozen chicken wings and putting 10 or so into a bag and sealing it. i did it in record time, was very proud. til i went to wash my hands and realized my band-aid was gone. why the big deal? i had recently had a wart frozen off and was waiting for it to fall of. so gone was my band-aid AND my wart. no one called to complain that they got something extra in their pack of chicken!!!! EWWWW!
i could go on, i do lots of strange things, but let's see what you guys have.

tornadoes, or what makes me nervous about living here!!

so we are under a tornado warning. meaning one could drop out of the sky anytime now. been watching the weather, the worst is up to the northwest of us, just missing it by a little bit. i guess that's the price we pay for a really warm day (70)!!
this crap is supposed to continue for most of the night. so that translates into not much sleep. that does not make me a happy camper.
i had my 1 month checkup after lasik today, i passed with flying colors. it is still so amazing to me to not have to put on glasses. kinda miss those buggers every once in a while, but i'm getting over that!
i'm having a valentines party here on friday for playgroup. just trying to decide what to make is driving me nuts. it'll probably be cupcakes, but i am really thinking about some cute heart shaped sugar cookies (with frosting and sprinkles!). i just love sugaring up those kids and sending them home!! although us moms eat more sugar than they do- scary!!
i'm also needing to bring dinner thursday to a friend who just got out of the hospital today, she had pulmonary embollisms (spelling, meck?) in both lungs. scary. she's only 40. apparently they have linked it to birth control pills (the whole blood clot risk scares me!)but she's doing better now.
well, off to watch my new favorite stupid (and i mean stupid) show, the family guy. makes me laugh, not sure why!

withdrawl!!

so our internet got knocked out after a storm a few nights ago. hubby said something about a router. i'm so not computer savvy, i just wanted it fixed. so its fixed but now not hooked up to the printer. oh well, i'll take what i can get. our weather has been freakish, very cold, then very warm. so that's when we get these storms. the one the other night had winds up to 70mph. so we lost power for an hour, kinda neat but glad it went back on so quickly.
weather like this also brings on the sniffles and well, seems like we're all snotted up. fun. i think my red chapped nose makes me look sexy.........
not doing much for superbowl tomorrow, the in-laws are coming over to watch and we'll eat some stuff and drink some stuff......my favorite part is the commercials! i'm hoping for some good ones. trying to decide what to make for dessert, i think i have settled on tiny brownie sundaes.
i'll make brownies in mini muffin tins, serve them warm topped with vanilla bean ice cream, and of course hot fudge. (and sprinkles!)
its been warm today, so i've grilled some steaks, i'm letting them rest right now (its always hard to wait the 15 minutes, but it makes such a difference). add some olive oil and rosemary potatoes and green beans, and voila, yummy dinner. (mac'n cheese for kiddos - that stuff in the blue box is so nasty but they love it.....)

snow day??!!

so only here in the great state of tennessee do the kiddos get a snow day for a day with absolutely no snow. i was woken up this morning at 5:45 to the automated school call, and it was a 2 hr. delay b/c snow MIGHT be coming. oh boy. they called again about 2 hrs later saying they had now decided to close schools b/c the western part of the county MAY be getting freezing rain. it did sleet here for 2 minutes, and last i checked it was already around 40. oh well. the kiddos are enjoying a free day, and hello kitty girl told me that i was the best mom ever b/c there was no school today. so i'll take what i can get!!
on a decluttering note, i finally hauled several bags of stuff to goodwill today. yeah!
i have had the bags here for a while, and even though goodwill is so close by, it still took me a while. that's the procrastinator in me!!
nothing else noteworthy at the moment!

rainy day, good day to eat cookies!!!!!!

okay, so i'll probably mention food all the time. sorry, i'm kind of a foodie. heard a word the other day, not sure whether or not to be grossed out, but it's food porn. not porn where people are eating, just a term to describe really decadent food. understandable, i guess. weird phrase, though.
so yesterday i am sitting in my house looking out at the house that had caught fire earlier in the day, and watching the owners board up the windows and doing stuff like that. my heart was just breaking for them, and i wanted to do something (other than dog sit for 30 mins, which wasn't long enough, i was having fun with the pup). so i baked my special homemade chocolate chip cookies. it's a new recipe i found, and now i think i'll never make another kind again. so anyway, i go to put the first batch in the oven, and look out the window, and there drive away every last car that was there. so now here i sit with an entire batch. crap. i have controlled myself, but i certainly do NOT need a batch of yummy cookies staring at me. and its raining, so good comfort food day. i think i will send them to work w/hubby tomorrow.
went to the dr. today about this damn headache, mind you its been 10 days. ughhh. he wants me to try antibiotics, hoping its just a sinus infection. if that doesn't help, then i'm looking at going for a catscan(probably not how its spelled, isn't it ct scan?)anyway. here's to hoping the meds work.
john deere boy had pj day at school, loser mom forgot and had him all dressed (we were finally going to be on time for the first time EVER today)and a friend called to remind me about pj day. crap. oh well! changed him and sent him off. he had a ball, they do a bear hunt using flashlights. very fun stuff.
hello kitty girl has homework to do, and is stalling in her favorite room - you guessed it - the potty. she sits there with a notebook and markers and wonders later why the ring around the hiney. funny kid. i guess i should go, time to be the homework police. have i mentioned that 1st grade homework is a lot more involved than i could have imagined? i'm screwed when we hit middle school!!!!

starting a blog.....

so i finally decided to start a blog. i've been checking out lots of blogs about food lately, and most of them about cupcakes. oh, and one about running, but SOMEONE doesn't update it often. this means you, mecky!! i like reading my friends blogs, its kinda nice to know whats going on in their lives when i'm not able to talk to them on as regular of a basis as i'd like to.
most of you know that i REALLY like all things cupcakes, thus the name cupcake mom. i like to make them, look at them , decorate them, and most of all, eat them. i also have a small obsession with sprinkles to top them, i seem to have a rather large collection of them. no shortage of sugar in this house, i must say!!! my family and friends are my test subjects, but usually i get no objections, after all, who in their right mind turns down a cupcake?!!
i have to brag, i finally made actual cake from scratch the other day, i used a paula deen recipe for 1234 cake, and wow, what a difference it makes. i may never want to use boxed cake mix again. well, except for the part where you have to mix it for 6 minutes with an electric blender. my arm was a little sore! and six minutes kind of drags on (do not look at the clock when you do this, it will take longer!!!)
so anyway, here's to my new venture. happy blogging to me!!
hugs and chocolate kisses to all!!