hearts, strawberries and buttercream

I originally was planning on just posting these pics yesterday for Wordless Wednesday... but I left my camera at my dad's and that idea went right out the window.  So I'll have to come up with a witty narrative to go along with them.

My dad's wife decided that she wanted to throw my dad a surprise birthday party on saturday because his birthday is on the 16th and on a tuesday (who does that??).  So she enlisted my "help" because since I'm home all day and she doesn't drive we make a great pair.  Ok, I like to do party planning stuff... and for some unknown reason I volunteered to make the birthday cake.  I think since I was fresh on the heels of a successful spiderman cake, I was feeling very confident. 

WHAT???  I'm making the birthday cake? two tiered (which I had never done before), filled with strawberry jam, in heart shapes, and oh you want fresh berries on it too... Ok.  I can do that.   WHAT, WHAT, WHAT???  I think I was sniffing too much glue or something  (I DO NOT SNIFF GLUE!!! Its just a saying), but since I had already volunteered I had to go all or nothing.

So I bought the heart shaped cake pans, and pulled a receipe for butter cake with a touch of almond flavoring- which is yummilicious!, and decided screw it... I'll make it and if it comes out inedible or ugly, there's always the Dutch Kitchen down the street and we can pick up a cake on saturday morning.

Oh, and did I mention that I also volunteered to make the food!  Now apparently I'm a catering service as well.  I must have been hitting the glue jar hard that day!   Any hoo... I decided on making chicken breasts stuffed with spinach, mozzarella and ricotta cheese with tomatoe sauce and shredded cheese, as well as a coleslaw that is to die for!

So, I began with the cake on friday night... I made my batter, greased my pans, and filled them with batter and popped them into the oven.  Then about 40 minutes later my house was filled with that wonderful aroma of fresh baked cake.

So I first cut off the pouffy middle piece so that my cake would sit flat, and let the cake cool in the pan.

Then I popped the cake out of the pan and let it cool on a wire rack.

Now came the fun part... since I have never made a two-tiered cake, I read a bit online at the Wilton's website and figured, its easy enough, I can do it.  So I put the tiers on, and frosted the cakes... not the BEST frosting job, but could be worse.

 

Then I decided on this rope frosting border around the bottoms of the cakes, to add some pizzaz.

Then I added the strawberries around the border of the cakes to add color and outline the heart shapes.

Looking good...

I want to eat it everytime I look at it!!!

Taa - Daaaaaaahhh!!!! The finished cake!

Soooooo...... what do you think???

Let me tell you that it tastes as good as it looks.  I used strawberry jam to fill the middle of both tiers.  I looked at it and could hardly believe that I, ME... had made this cake!

Now, being my own worse critic, this is pretty good props.  BUT I still had to see what everyone else thought.  I always worry that others will not like my cooking or baking.

WELL, let me tell you... my dad saw the cake and asked me why I had bought a cake for his birthday when he knows I could have made it myself!?  What? Really?  I was sooo happy.  I couldn't believe he actually thought that I had bought him the cake!  Well... everyone was impressed with the cake and they couldn't say enough about how yummy it was.

Then when everyone ate, they raved about the stuffed chicken breasts and coleslaw!  I was so happy and proud of myself.  And yes, I am tooting my own horn... this is MY blog after all...and if I can't brag a little here then WHERE is one expected to be able to brag????  ;o)

So, we had a great time, my dad was surprised, and everyone ate and loved the food, and we celebrated my dad's birthday as well as Valentine's Day.  All in all it was fun.

Oh and we also celebrated my cousin's birthday which conveniently is shared with my dad's!!!

This was supposed to be a pic of just me, Carlos Sebastian and my dad... when the camera flashed ALL these jokers were in the picture!  That would be my cousin Juancho, my sister Mitzi (right behind me), my cousin Ferno, birthday boy Rob, my aunt Carmen, and my dad looking like he's had one to many glasses of champagne!

This one I'm putting here because I love this pic... aren't they handsome???

Ok, so I tried to get this picture about 5 times!  In each one, either Sebastian or Tyler weren't looking!  So this is as good as it gets!

Oh, and this is Sebastian sitting up alone for the first time!  He can now sit alone for upwards of a half hour! My baby is getting sooo big!

Ok... so other than that... this week has been occupied with Tyler having the stomach bug since SUNDAY!!!  Yes he is on day 5 of this stupid virus, and just when I think he is feeling better he gets sick again!  Like last night... ALL over the bathroom!  Now let me tell you if there are things in life that I do not like the top two are 1. cleaning up vomit and 2. cleaning the bathroom.  Can you tell me what I did wrong to deserve to have to clean a pukey bathroom last night????  But after cleaning up the bathroom and cleaning up Tyler, he went to bed, and is once again claiming to be feeling well.  I'm not buying it today!  I have him on a strick toast, chicken soup and flat coca cola diet!  We are getting rid of this stomach flu TODAY!

So that's everything.  Now I'm off to tend to my sleepy Sebastian that is about seconds from falling asleep in his jumpy! 

;o)

germy germy germs....

We are officially a germy sick household!  I thought I was in the clear because Tyler had gotten over his ear infection and is getting better on the pneumonia, but ooh did I under estimate the power of the sick germ!  Sebastian came down with the cold on thursday night... needless to say he is not the best of patients!  The poor thing has been all congested, bugger bubbles and all!  NOT FUN!  Apparently five month old babies do not understand the need to blow one's nose or in their case the removal of said buggers with the dreaded bulb suction syrienge thingy. 

It has become a two man job to get the gook out of poor Sebastian's nose... I feel awful, but its for his own good!  He's not buying into it and has decided he will fight me at all costs to keep his boogeys right where they are!

This is how he looked on friday morning... not THAT bad... a little LOT drooley, breathing mostly through his mouth due to the horrendous collection of snot accumulating in his sinuses... but still cute and happy for the most part...

Friday night... was a WHOLE 'nother story!  My poor baby grew progressively sicker as the day went on, and by Saturday he was barely awake.  At least just long enough to cough, cry, gag then puke all the snot onto me that was clogging his nose.  Yes, I know... not the prettiest of pictures but its the truth man!

So this has been my poor baby since saturday... Oh, and the nights are even better because I'm afraid to lay him in his crib to sleep because the phlegm is sooo thick... I'm afraid he'll vomit and not be able to turn his head or get it out of his mouth! So I've had a new bed partner... I'll admit the cutest one I could ask for... but come on now... who wants to sleep with a baby coughing and crying on top of them ALL night?

I love sleeping with him on my chest, but I hate to see him soo miserable!  Off to the pedi's office we went today, and like I already knew... he has a really bad cold!  No, really??? but, that's the verdict... although I will admit that today the stupid swine flu crawled into my mind... and kinda scared me a bit.  So I am glad I went and confirmed it is just a cold.

Oh, and for those of you (as if anyone actually reads my blog) that don't have children... You KNOW I came down with a cold too!  There is only so much coughing and sneezing a person's immune system can take before you get it too!  So I'm trying to keep my germs to myself, as Isabel is the ONLY person in our house to still be healthy!

So.. sniff, sniff... I will leave you with that... that is how I have spent the last two days... hence the lack in blogging!

But do not fear, I have stuff from middle and end of last week, some pics and stuff...I will post tomorrow... really I will...

:o)

Update.... sick, sick, sick

Ok... so my sick child with pneumonia and an ear infection is up and playing Wii fit!!!  I think he's feeling better!!!

At least he's not moping and whimpering like he was the rest of the week!!!!  I'll take it.

;o)

Sick, sick, sick

I finally have a moment to sit and type up this little post to update you all, (all two of you!) on our actions of the last few weeks.  I've wanted to post since last month, but life has not motivated me nor given me reason to!

So let's start with monday... I woke up to find Tyler burning up with a fever of 104.1!! What the...  granted he seemed sniffley on sunday and he spent about 90% of the day napping, which is not normal for him.  But it was freezing and snowy out, so I just figured he didn't feel good and since there was nothing else to do why not nap?! Right... WRONG!  My poor baby was burning up, coughing something awful and look like death warmed over!  So I got on the phone and got an appointment to bring him in to get checked.  Well, let me tell you, good thing I did... poor Tyler has an ear infection and the beginning of pneumonia in his left lung!  Where the hell did that come from! 


Since his fever was so high, he had that rapid breathing that no mother likes to see... nor the doctor apparently, because Dr. Cruise decided that she wanted his pulse/ox taken to see what his oxygen levels were.  Not good!  I was told that normal for a 5 year old is 95-100% saturation, Tyler was at 92%... low!  So she gave him a nebulizer treatment and afterwards his levels went up to 93%.  Still not good, but a little better.  So she wrote a prescription for ammoxicilan and told me to come back tomorrow for her to check his O2 levels again.


So on tuesday I hiked over to the clinic again, with Tyler and Sebastian, and again his O2 levels were at 92! Not good!!!  But he still had a fever of 102 and was coughing a lot!  So another nebulizer treatment, and his level was at 93 again... this time the doctor told me to give him an inhaler treatment 3 times a day to help his lungs open up and get the junk out. 

Off to bed with the sick boy, and lots of TLC... I prayed a little, because it just breaks my heart to see any of my babies sick and there is nothing I can do other than give medicine. My poor baby just lay in bed all day monday, all day tuesday.... Thankfully last night though, I heard him cough a lot less then he had the other two nights.


AND... lo and behold this morning, no fever, well 99.3, and a much healthier looking boy telling me "mami, I feel sooo much better today!"   Thank you Lord!!!  Tyler has been playing and moving around... no naps today! 

We went to the clinic for another check of his O2 today at 1pm.... his temp was still at 99.1 and his O2 level was up to 95%!!!! Yea team!  I was sooo happy, and the doctor also noted that he looked so much better!  So she told me to finish the antibiotic and give him the inhaler three times a day for the next two days, then after that only if he seemed tight in the chest.   She would follow up with him at his physical on the 28th!




So right now, Ty's in the living room watching Sponge Bob... woo freaking hoo!!!  but he's not lethargic and he is actually up and about, requesting food... I love it when my baby feels better!


So taking care of my sick boy and running around to the doctor's has taken up the last three days of my life.


and with that... I will leave you for now.  I need to get dinner started, I just realized its 5pm and I'm HUNGRY!!!!  I'm thinking maybe grilled chicken breasts with mashed cauliflower with cheese and garlic!  oooh.... I'm running to the kitchen right now!!!!


More soon, I promise!


;o)

still not caught up...

I STILL feel like I haven't caught up on my sleep yet! For starters, this baby is draining all the energy from me, and it usually begins somewhere around 2pm! I start to get sleepy and want to just lay down under my desk and take a nap.

Then of course there was sunday night when poor Isabel was up throwing up every 45 minutes from 2am until almost 7am! Poor thing, but luckily it was a 24 hour bug and she was fine come monday night... but not being able to sleep all night killed me! I have been completely run down since then.

I'm hoping I can recoop this weekend and try to catch some extra zzzzz's over the weekend.

I do have to mention though that I am soooo done with being a troop leader for Girl Scouts. Now don't get me wrong, I really enjoy doing this with Isabel. Especially since she loves the fact that it is something we do together with out Tyler or anyone else from the family. Its definitely fun, but seriously I have no energy to make it through the work day nevermind trying to put together something fun and educational for a group of 9-10 year old girls.

THEN there is the fact that of my original troop of 6 girls, I am down to 3 AGAIN! And one of them can't commit to save her life! She keeps signing up for other activities on the nights we meet. Seriously I am of the belief that if you commit to being in a group, on a team, in anything in which you are not the sole participant, you need to COMMIT! There are no excuses. I am trying to instill this in Isabel and Tyler so that they don't become the kids that are constantly joining things only to decide they don't like it or its not convenient and then they drop out and leave the rest of the people hanging. I dont' like that.

So I have been seriously debating on whether to do the same... suck it up and deal with my troop that seems to be dwindling by the minute, or just say F'that... and walk away.

I casually mentioned it to Isabel, and right away she got all upset and reminded me that I this is something we do together. So.. here I am... still trying to figure out what I should do. Any suggestions?

So now I'm off to the gym, even though I really want to go home and just throw myself on the couch, I'm not gonna do it. I'm gonna go sweat a little and feel better for it after... at least that's the game plan!

:0)

M I A

I'm baaaaccckkk! whew... illness has made its evil way through my home over the last two weeks, and let me tell you... it has not been fun!

First my poor Tyler woke up last monday with a fever of 103.8 and it stayed that way until at least 9:00am before I was actually able to speak to a person at his doctor's office. But as many of you may know, the typical response from the triage nurse is "oh there's a flu going around, and it sounds like he has it. Just give him lots of liquids and he'll be fine." Ummm, ok. From what I know the flu does not give temps of 103.8, but ok. So I go to my poor limp baby and tell him to blow his nose and right away... OUCH! Mommy my ear hurts! AAAAHHHAAAAA!!!! So I call the nurse back... yeah, its me again, you know I think I'm gonna bring him in. Yeah I'm almost positive he has an ear infection. And wouldn't you know... I was right! So I spent the ENTIRE day with my poor sick and sniffly, ear infected son laying on me all day. And when he wasn't laying on me he was following me around like a lost soul, telling me "mommy, I love you! Are you gonna come sit with me?" poor thing...

Well he got better in a day or two, but then my hubby came down with the real flu. AND as many of you may know a sick husband is often time WORSE than a sick child! So from Friday to Monday I nursed a sick hubby that whined more than my son, and its officially his fault I am sick!

Yup, I woke up on monday with a stupid cough and awful chest pain that only gt increasingly worse as I sat at my desk on monday. GRRRRRR, and since I am only 9 weeks pregnant, I can't take a damn thing for my cough. Oh, but I can take cough drops, and we all know how those help for chest pains associated with my cough. Well a couple of calls to my primary care dr, and it seems I was probably getting bronchitis again! So a few antibiotics later, the chest pain is gone and the cough is pretty much under control, but now I this stupid runny nose and some post-nasal drip to go along with that. So I'm better... just not great!

Ok, so now that I have whined to you about my sorry sorry life for the last week. I'm done. Thanks!

So in between all this illness, I have made some progress on my first knit baby sweater. You wanna see?????

Well come back a little later and I'll post my pics!

:0)

barely awake

Ok, today has been a semi-productive day. I barely slept a wink as my hubby has a cold and kept me awake with his marathon coughing last night. Once I convinced him at 3am to take some cough medicine, and he actually stopped coughing, I was awaken by Isabel telling me that Tyler was in bed crying and she had tried to calm him down but it didn't work. So I go on in to see what the problem is... and my poor baby is burning up with a fever! 103.7 to be exact! This poor child was on fire. So I laid with him for a while until he fell back to sleep and lo and behold.. its time to get anyways and get Isabel off to school.

So I am pretty much exhausted... more so than normal now! So even though I have all kinds of witty things I was planning on blogging about today... I'm am gonna crash on my couch for about 30 minutes until I have to go down for my laundry.... AGAIN!

Hopefully I'll catch my second wind in an hour or so and I'll put together my witty blog. But for now... this is it.

:) bye