Baby Shower

My sister Kara is having a little boy in December. And I told her I'm throwing the baby shower. Fun thing, I haven't been to a baby shower in around fifteen years. And I was a kid in the background then. (My baby shower(s) didn't happen, not for lack of trying on friends' and family's part - some of them.) So I'm trying to remember what all you do at baby showers, what's cool, what's not. Where the heck to hold the shower if we can't use Kara's ward's Relief Society room. (Boy, Relief Society looks weird when you write it out. I always pronounced it Reeleeephssuh-sigh-eee-tee as a kid. It wasn't two words; it was one nonsensical word smush. It wasn't meant to make sense. So I now that I write it down and look at it as an adult, I think to myself, "Huh? A society for relief? When did that happen?") I don't have oodles of money to spend on some posh banquet room or even enough to pay for everyones drinks and food at a decent restaurant. If I had to hold it at some kind of restaurant, with the cha-ching going in my wallet, we'd be having it in the McDonald's playground, and everyone would be ordering off the dollar menu. "What? They don't have cheese on the double burger here on the dollar menu? Can you add cheese for more?......No." No fun all around, if you include shrieking kids running amok around you.

Soooo....what to do? Any advice? Anything you loved or hated at a baby shower you attended? And yes, you'll be invited, Steph. I run the show this time, so I get to invite who I want. I'm going to make this cake hopefully:

http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/recipe.aspx?recipeID=45539&Source=SearchResultPage

Our friends who are supposed to teach me the fine arts of cake decorating are finally coming over this Friday. And there's even a video to show you how to make the cake. (Kara's theme for little Tristan Nicholas is ducks.) So, I figure if I really want to go cheap, I can buy one or two cake mix boxes to make the cake, make my own frosting sans trans fats. And make the rest of the refreshments or beg a few off on a few other people. I know I want to make a brownie pie. And I'm thinking I'm going to buy a couple cute little ducky ice cube trays, set up a cute punch bowl with little rubber duckies on top, and just serve water or blue Kool-Aid with duckie ice cubes, possibly flavored ones. That way, my budget can go for decorating the room so it won't be quite so blah. (Church rooms always seem so blah at a party, to me at least.) And for the prizes and Kara's gifts. And stamps and invitations. And party favors. Gack. The cheaper I can do stuff, the better. If I have to, I'll send round the hat for donations from family members if the costs build up too much. Or just tell someone to do something. *coughjennifercough*

I found a pretty cool website that's helped me plan so far.

http://www.babyshower101.com/index.html

It has a lot of great games. I've already gone through and picked out some for review by my shower sidekick. I just know, if I don't go through and plan out and do a bunch of this now, things are going to happen in between, and then I'll have an avalance of things to do the week before the party. Which will be mid October.

And Natalee's getting her pink princess glove off on Friday. She got a buckle fracture in her right wrist three weeks ago from falling off the bed. So she's had a pink waterproof cast on since mid July. We call it her princess glove. She hasn't minded it so much - she's gotten lots of attention from it. Kids at the playground come up just to ask about her owie. And adults always seem to have stickers or cookies or candy tucked away somewhere for her and kitty cat since this happened. There's a long story about why she broke her wrist, and I could rant and rave for a while about the evil apartment complex and the new manager. But I won't, and Natalee's been doing okay with the cast.

I have an interview tomorrow. Hopefully it'll go well, and it'll be something I want. And maybe I'll get some more invitations for interviews in the next week or two. We'll see. Wish me luck.

There and Back Again

Our trip to Branson was wonderful. It made us start dreaming about other trips we'll try to take Natalee on, when she's older. The drive was horribly long - 10 hours, but Dad let us borrow his big F-150 extended cab pickup truck and his portable DVD player. So we had a lot more space for both cargo and us, and when Natalee got too restless we could pop Finding Nemo or Elmo's World episodes in for her. Arkansas and Missouri were absolutely breathtaking to drive through, especially after driving through humdrum Texas and Oklahoma. We went through the Mark Twain National Forest on the way in. Matt and I had headaches from the constant earpopping hills, but the views made it worth it. Our friend who got married rented a big two bedroom condo at a resort right on Table Rock Lake. It was so beautiful! We could look out on the lake right off our balcony and through a big picture window in our bathroom. There were ducks and geese that would come up off the water looking for handouts, but Natalee was more interested in throwing rocks into the lake.

Branson itself seemed like a huge tourist trap with horrific traffic, with one lane of traffic each way. But we had fun walking around old town Branson and visiting the candy store and leather shops, etc. We went with all our friends to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede. That was an experience. It's sort of dinner theatre, where you sit around a big arena, watching a rodeo-type show while eating without utensils. There were about a thousand people there for the show, and they divided one half of the arena as the North/Union side, and the other half the South/Confederacy. And so half of the performers (horse riders, trick riders, cattle herders, actors, singers, etc.) were competing for the North's side and the other half for the South. Natalee got a little gray flag she got to wave for the South and try to trip the waiters with. And then while we were eating our meal, one of the waiters came up and asked if Matt and I would like to be in the show, they needed a couple. So Matt and I went down to wait outside the arena with three other couples and were prepped. The performer who prepped us told us we'd be riding horses. We'd go out, line up by a barrel, two couples per side, and when they were told to, the guys would run down to the end of the arena to get a horse. These were special horses that they had just shipped in from Arkansas. And then the ringleader of the show would tell us what to do from there. So, Matt and I go out, and when they gave the signal, Matt and the other guys raced down to the other end of the arena and stood by a horse with a rider. And then the ringleader looked at the guys and said, "These girls have been training these horses for years. There's no way they're going to let some yokels off the street ride their horses. Go back to the barrels." So the guys come back over to line up with us at the barrels. And then they bring out their specially shipped....stick horses....for us to ride. Matt and I climbed onto one, me behind him. The ringleader told us ladies that if the guys started going off course, we were supposed to pull up on the brake, i.e. the stick horse, and smack the guys in the crotch. So we got to race three other couples around the barrels in front of a thousand people on stick horses. I think we came in second. Too bad they didn't let us take pictures. It was definitely an experience.

We also took Natalee to see her first movie, WALL-E. She loved it, and is still talking about robots and "Wa-wee" and "E-ba." But mostly we spent time visiting with all our friends there for the wedding. We hardly ever get to spend much time with them anymore, since we live so far apart now, so we really appreciated the opportunity to visit. The wedding went well. The day stayed nice, and the setting out in a field among the mountains was absolutely beautiful. It was really special. But it did rain. A lot. It leaked through our bathroom ceiling for two nights, the first night so badly that we worried about it spreading across the floor to the bedroom carpet. Thankfully, it didn't keep us from doing anything on our trip, and the resort refunded a portion of the rent to our friend. We're talking about going back again someday, but I think we'll spend more time enjoying the parks and the lake than going through Branson next time.

We've been trying to get back into the swing of things since then. I bought a copy of Potty Train Your Child in Just One Day by Teri Crane. In some ways, the book is great. It forces you to spend the entire day giving your kid the attention they need to make the scary transition to pottying in the potty chair. And it provides you with lots of ideas. But, on the other hand, it's very improbable, nigh to impossible to manage this feat in one day. What they don't mention is how much time you have to spend (weeks, months) preparing your child to get to the point where they can do the whole procedure on their own. And they still probably won't manage to be potty trained in one day. And the second problem with this book is.....to do all the things they tell you to do, you have to have a lot of money to throw the silly party with all their little party favors and treats and books and movies and decorations and potty doll. Plus free time to buy all the things, make all the items and decorations (such as diapers for the dolly, which takes a lot longer than you'd think), and decorate your home, on top of having an entire day free to devote all your attention to your child and their party. I cannot imagine accomplishing this if I had another kid, especially one under the age of six.

But.....Natalee is pottying in her potty chair. She hasn't had an accident in nearly four days. She still wears a diaper during naptime and bedtime, which is when she poops now since she's not comfortable doing it in her potty chair yet. And she's terrified of sitting on the big potty chair, even with a seat adjuster. But Matt and I are very impressed by how much she's progressed in little over a week. She gets to watch an episode of Little Einsteins every time she pees in the potty chair. So we've watched a lot of LE lately, and we're very happy to do so.

We have some friends who are really awesome cake makers and decorators. I mean, Tommy and Kristen make better looking cakes than you'll find at the bakery of your grocery store. So I'm trying to persuade them to come to dinner this weekend and teach me how to frost and decorate cakes. Cuz I stink at it. Horribly. Matt's better at it than I am, honestly. So, I'm going to make my very excellent breaded pork tenderloin with homemade rolls, mashed potatoes, grilled corn, and salad. And hopefully Tommy and Kristen will teach me how to decorate a chocolate cherry cola cake. I've been dying for an excuse to make this thing, it sounds and looks so good. I'm foregoing the frosting decorations for T&K's teachings, but oh, man...I have all the stuff to make this cake now. Don't know how I'm going to last the whole week without making it and eating it. I'll let you know how it comes out, and maybe have some pictures of a prettily decorated cake....

Cross your fingers for me.

Chocolate-Cherry Cola Cake

Try a classic southern cake updated with cake mix and cherry cola. Prep Time:30 min Start to Finish:2 hr 15 min Makes:12 servings

1	jar (10 oz) maraschino cherries, drained, 1/4 cup liquid reserved
1	box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® devil's food cake mix
1	cup cherry cola carbonated beverage
1/2	cup vegetable oil
3	eggs
1	container (12 oz) Betty Crocker® Whipped vanilla frosting
1	cup marshmallow creme
	24 maraschino cherries with stems, well drained, if desired

1.	Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Spray bottom only of 13x9-inch pan with baking spray with flour. Chop cherries; set aside.
2.	In large bowl, beat cake mix, cola beverage, oil, eggs and 1/4 cup reserved cherry liquid with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed beat 2 minutes. Stir in chopped cherries. Pour into pan.
3.	Bake 35 to 43 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
4.	In small bowl, mix frosting and marshmallow creme until smooth. Frost cake. Top each piece with 2 cherries.

From www.bettycrocker.com.

Hmmm...layout changes

I glanced over my blog page today and noticed that the layout was different. It was still the layout I had picked out, but the elements on it were arranged and spaced differently. I had a moment where I worried about my account being hacked. But nothing else seems different, so I'm assuming blogger central changed something to that specific layout that affected mine. I couldn't get it fixed back, and heck, I couldn't remember exactly how it was before. So I just changed the layout.

Busy, busy days are here again. I'm baking today for Kara's wedding, making peanut butter surprise cookies that I'll freeze till the wedding. I'll try to include a link to the recipe at the end. The surprise is the chocolate peanut butter candy melted on top. This time it's a Reese's peanut butter cup, but I liked it better with a peanut butter-filled Hershey's Kiss. Sadly, those were a limited time only thing, so Reese's it is. But the Reese's lose little bits of chocolate on the wrapping, and for some reason, seeing the peanut butter peeking through where the chocolate should be makes me think of plumber's butt and bum cracks on candy pieces. I have maybe two dozen loaves of banana bread frozen in the freezer. God must approve of what I'm doing - I'm assuming He's the reason why I managed to fit all that bread in our tiny freezer and still have okay room for the normal freezer stuff...like an ice maker and frozen meals and garlic bread. I think I'll be able to fit all the cookies in there too. I'm amazed and a little awed. I'll be making cheesecake cookie bites at my grandmother's the day before the wedding. And those I'll definitely try to link the recipe for, because they seem pretty complicated, but they're freakishly easy. And the mess is on the face of the eater, not my kitchen. Hehehe.

I shouldn't be making light of things right now. Or maybe I'm due. Things just seem to be overly complicated right now. Matt's dad had surgery this morning to have one of his hips replaced; he'll have the other replaced in two months time, hopefully. As far as we know right now, he came through the surgery well. We're very grateful that he's finally getting this done. He's been in pain for most of a decade now with his hips - the padding between his bones had worn away and his bones were grinding and scraping each other when he walked. If he had gone much longer without surgery, his femur bone would have broken very badly. Thankfully, that didn't happen. Dad didn't want us to be there for the surgery, but he did ask that we be there when he gets out of the hospital. He's supposed to be in for four or five days. Since we'll be up there for the wedding Thursday night anyways, things work out. Hopefully he'll recuperate well.

But he's just one of the men in my life who are not doing well. My grandfather is possibly dying, my mother's father. He's been an alcoholic for so long that his liver is failing. Failing so bad he's been vomiting blood and can barely reach out of bed for a glass of water. He was in a really awful wreck several years back that he's never been the same from, and with his current condition, they don't think surgery is an option. Maybe that's changed though. Mom has been over there for days at a time, taking care of him, taking him for doctor's visits, changing his sheets and fixing him meals. She's not talking to me much right now, won't tell me really how he's doing. I think she's really afraid and doesn't want to say anything. Mom has been so up and down for the past ten years and more that having her dad's moral support for the past few has given her an anchor. And now she might be losing it. I wish I could help more. We live an hour and a half to two hours apart. And frankly, I don't really know my grandfather that well. I know about him, but I don't know him. Every memory I have of him is with a beer in his hand. We lived five hours away growing up, and an alcoholic grandfather who owns a honkytonk bar and a Mormon granddaughter with her nose usually in a book don't mix too well. But I know he's been the anchor to Mom's family for a long time now, and I wish I could do more to help.

And my dad, who's still reeling a bit from Kara's impending wedding and...situation, is grieving right now. Two of his co-workers, close friends, his hunting and fishing buddies, were murdered earlier this week, by a man with a rap sheet who felt like he was owed more in a deal over a tractor. It's hard to know how Dad's dealing with these sort of things. He's a lot like Matt in that. And Matt and I both know what it's like to lose a friend to the caprice of another human being. Bottom line, I know there's not much I can do for him, but tell him that I'm thinking about him and will do whatever I can for him. If the funeral is held Friday, I'll be going with him for moral support, since Brenda can't get out of leaving town on a business trip tomorrow. I'm glad I can at least do that for him, but it seems small comfort when it's only if the funeral is Friday, when I'll be there already. But not much else to be done.

On the bright side, my grandfather, my father's father, is recovering well from his surgery. I got to see him a few weeks ago. I'm not sure how much my family is talking about it, so I'll stay mum about what it was. I was worried about his mental health (not in serious), since he's not allowed to mow the lawn or do any of his home renovation projects, the things he normally does and enjoys. But it sounded like he's been busy visiting friends and family and enjoying letting Uncle Mark do the yard work. That still brings a grin to my face.

I'm starting to think this is why I've been so eager to bake and give Kara so much for her wedding. Because it's something I can do. There are so many situations regarding our family nowadays for which we can't do anything. I hate that. I hate feeling like I have to sit on my hands to prevent myself from hitting something. I hate feeling so powerless to help my family when I know they need the help. I've been ranting about it a lot. I hope Matt doesn't feel like the target of it. But I'm glad I can do this for Kara right now.

Natalee hasn't peed or pooped in the potty chair since that last post. But she has peed on our bed two or three times, all the way down to the padding covering the feather bed. There has been so much down floating around the apartment lately that my allergies have been going nuts. I think I sneezed at least a dozen times, one right after the other without a pause in between, a few days ago. We have the air purifiers, and the bed's been put back together. But the down gets put right back into the air every time I clean the lint from the dryer. Eurgh...And then it all starts over again whenever she pees on the bed. Needless to say, Natalee's been wearing her diapers a lot the past two weeks.

Matt seems to be doing okay. He's worried about his dad, of course, and working hard every day. But he hasn't had to go in on Saturdays recently. And I think most of the furor about all the people laid off at his work has died down. And I've been cooking bigger meals during the week. He seems to be enjoying having pork tenderloin and homemade biscuits and homemade rolls and tequila lime chicken with sauteed peppers and onions, homemade lasagnas and pasta bakes and focaccia bread...stuff like that. Not boxed macaroni and cheese and frozen chicken nuggets anymore. He's been playing the Conan the Barbarian mmorpg. And we've been playing a little Lego Indiana Jones. I think if the job situation would be resolved, he would be very happy. But he's still applying to jobs up in the Metroplex. And I'm earning a little bit more money, babysitting Samantha, so things are going okay for us right now.

We've still got the wedding to look forward to this weekend. Lots to stress over, but a lot of stuff to be excited about. Wish us and the bride and groom luck!


Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 C creamy peanut butter
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 C packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 C sugar for rolling
• 36 mini peanut butter cups, chilled and unwrapped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream together the peanut butter and butter until smooth. Add brown sugar until combined. Add eggs and vanilla until incorporated. (Note - they come out better if you add the eggs one at a time, letting each egg be mixed mostly in before adding the next.)
2. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to first bowl in three installments. Don't overmix.
   
3. Roll dough into tablespoon size balls. Rolls balls in the sugar until covered. Place on cookie sheets with about 2 inches between each - they puff out.
4. Bake for 5 minutes or until the cookies have started to puff up a little bit, but are not done baking. Pull the sheets out of the oven and add a candy to the top of each, pressing down slightly on the candy so it won't fall off the cookie. Make sure you have all the candy unwrapped ahead of time, or the cookies will be done before you're done unwrapping, or the cookies might fall while waiting for the candy outside of the oven.
5. Let cookies cool on the pan before transferring to wire rack to cool completely. Be careful not to touch the candy - the Reese's I used stay warm and smushy for long after the cookies are out of the oven.

These are supposed to stay good for up to two weeks in an airtight container. I would recommend keeping them somewhere cool, like the fridge, because of the chocolate. And if you find the peanut butter Kisses, try those - I liked them even better.
You can find this recipe at: http://www.pbs.org/everydayfood/baking/recipes/peanut_butter_surprise_cookies.html


Cheesecake Cookie Cups

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg refrigerated pull apart chocolate chip cookie bar dough (like the Nestle Toll House cookies that are shaped like a rectangle in the package, but knockoff stuff works as well)
• 2 8 oz. pkgs cream cheese, room temperature (I used store brand, fat free stuff.)
• 1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk (Make sure you check the date on those buggers!)
• 2 lg eggs
• 2 tsps vanilla extract
• 1 21 oz. can cherry pie filling (You might want more than this, because half of the can is just gel and not cherries, which is what you want.)

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. (Yes, I know, the package might say a different temperature, but you don't want the same temp and time for this because you don't want the cookies completely done, or they'll be slightly overdone when you bake the cheesecake part.) Paper-line 24 muffin cups. (Believe me, you DO need the paper liner cups for this.) Place one piece of cookie dough in each lined cup.
2. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until cookie dough has spread to edge of cup. (They puff up during this, but then they'll sink in when you pull them out. You want that, so you'll have room for the cheesecake and cherries.)
3. Beat cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, and vanilla extract together until smooth. Pour about 3 Tbsp. worth of cream cheese mixture over each cookie in cup. Try to make sure the cookie part is covered.
4. Bake for another 15 to 18 minutes or until set. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Top each with level Tbsp. of pie filling. (This is when you start thinking maybe you should have bought another can of cherry pie filling instead of using lots of cherry-flavored glop.) Refrigerate for one hour before devouring.

This recipe is from: http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=29619
(That's Nestle's recipe web site. They have some good things there, but, like Kraft kitchens, it all involves their products. And their website has problems some days.)

Hurray for Pee Time!

Natalee peed in the potty chair twice today! YAY!!! And she didn't wet her pants or her diaper in between, so we're thinking she really is getting it now. She was so excited about all the attention, she kept going back to the bathroom and sitting down on the potty chair. Then she'd call for me to come see that she was sitting on it. She'd even sit up, clap her hands, and yell "Yay!" for herself. LOL. I'm so proud of her! We bought a little coloring book with a special marker today just for using on the potty chair. It might've helped, having that to encourage her, but I think things finally clicked for her today. We'll have to work on the candy rewards, too, weaning her off of them eventually, but right now, all I can say is, HURRAY! *crossing fingers that she'll still want to pee in the potty chair tomorrow*

Plus we have to get her comfortable with sitting on the big potty chair. She's terrified that she'll fall in when she sits on it. So, it'll be fun getting her adjusted to not peeing in a diaper when we're away from our potty chair. Especially on trips.

Thanks for the baking offer, Steph. I might be calling you for help! We'll see what happens. If I have to, I can bake and freeze the cookies and banana bread without too much of a problem.

.........

...I don't know who's happier tonight, me or Natalee. :p

First comes love, then comes marriage...

...here comes *wink-wink-not-me* with a baby carriage!

So, this is turning out to be the year of weddings. My uncle JM finally married April in March. My mother is remarrying next week, a nice guy named Brian, a Harley-Davidson rider who drives a lumber truck for a living. He has a 19 year old son and a 14 year old son. The 19 year old lives with them and goes to college, and the 14 year old lives with his mom but visits. Mom and Brian have been together for about a year now, I think. He bought her a nice engagement ring, bought her flowers on Mother's Day, takes her out to dinner, etc. I've got my fingers crossed that things will go well for them. He's the only guy she's dated in a while that I don't worry about being around Natalee.

June 14th, my sister Kara is marrying her boyfriend of three years. Trevor's a nice guy. His family is very Mormon, although he's something of a D&D nerd. (I can say that with love, since my own hub was a D&D nerd. And possibly still is.) But Trevor's still in the thick of being a D&D nerd. Which suits Kara fine. If Trevor was completely whitebread Mormon, Kara would've left it at flirting three years ago. So, after long urging, they're getting married. They're holding a small ceremony in Trevor's family's house. Jennifer will be the maid of honor (which is how it should be, since they've been peanut butter and jelly for most of their lives). Kara's friend Danny and I will be her bridesmaids. And Natalee will be her flower girl. And then Trevor's friends will be the groomsmen. They're holding a bigger reception at their ward. I'll be baking banana bread, rolls, and cookies to help cut down food costs. I'll have to negotiate with my grandmother to invade her kitchen with my stand mixer. Hoping I'll be able to turn her head with the idea of fresh breads and cookies and their aromas in her home. I like baking in my kitchen, where I know where everything is, how clean the counters are behind the appliances, if there are bugs, and how much of the ingredients I have on hand. Since I can't bring my kitchen with me, I'll settle with borrowing Gammie's scrupulously clean and spacious kitchen. Plus I know my way around her kitchen since I lived there on breaks during college. So, with a month to go, my mind is full of recipes, where to get Natalee's dress, where are we going to find matching green dresses, has anyone figured out the flowers yet?...etc.

And then, once all the hoopla of Kara's wedding is over, we'll be going to Branson, Missouri the week of July 4th for Pam and Eric's wedding. We've been looking forward to it for a while. We're going to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede! dinner theatre. Eric has reserved a luxury suite for us to share at a nice lake front resort. Daniel will be the best man, Matt and Brent the groomsmen. It's going to be great, all of us being able to get together and hang out for a few days, in Branson, in awesome rooms, and for a fantastic reason. There's an amusement park and specialty shops selling hand-crafted items like hand-woven baskets, blown glass, homemade ice cream, and bakeries. (I think I'll be visiting the bakeries.) Matt's parents are coming, too, so if Matt and I want some time together without the tot, they've already offered to take her. They're really excited about the trip. They used to go on vacations every year, but haven't really traveled anywhere in a long time. Plus Mom is doing well enough now that she can. This is the first big trip she's gone on since she was diagnosed with cancer last year. (She's doing really well, by the way.) We're all really excited about having a vacation somewhere else, but it'll be great no matter what just to be hang out with our friends. We always have a good time together, and we haven't gotten to spend much time together since we moved from College Station.

So, lots of good things happening this summer!

Lately, we've been working on Natalee's potty training still. I know we've been 'working' on it forever, but Natalee is a very smart little girl who knows how to hold it until she has a diaper on or she's far enough out of our sight to wet her panties...and the bed or the couch or the rug. But we know she knows how! Last week, she and I had taken a shower, and she was sitting in the tub after I dried her off while I dried off, when she told me "I go poo poo," and pointed to the potty chair. She's done this before without results, but I went ahead and stuck her on her potty chair. She got a look of intense concentration on her face...and then practically filled the bowl with pee. You could have heard my shrieks of joy throughout the apartment building. We made a huge deal of it, bought her new panties with kitties and puppies on them, and told everyone about it. And she hasn't done it again since. And anyone who calls now asks if she's peed in the potty chair again. Argh. One step forward and about four back. It's hard because, yes, I was around to help with Kara and Jennifer's potty training, but my parents spanked my sisters if they wet their pants. We don't spank Natalee. We've started putting her nose in the corner, but it doesn't seem right to do that about something she doesn't really understand. But we might have to rethink how much she understands peeing in the potty chair since she managed to do it last week. I think I'm going to try something else first - I'll find a special toy she only gets to play with on the potty chair to encourage her to stay on it until she pees. If that doesn't work, we might have to start putting her nose in the corner for wet panties...and floors and beds and couches. (When I say bed, I'm not talking bedtime. I mean her jumping up and down on our bed and peeing while she's doing it. Urgh.) We'll see.

In the meantime, I have some wedding presents to shop for, dresses to find, and a toy to buy to encourage toilet training. Busy days ahead.

You are now a NINJA

I'm feeling pretty butt-kicking happy right now, so I thought I'd share how to become a true warrior in cotton. This is something that a very good long-distance friend in college shared with me, and it just hasn't gotten old.

Went to the cardiologist today. And hurray! It looks like I have nothing worse than a very irregular heartbeat. Huzzah! I have a little valve regurgitation, but that's not un-normal. The irregular heartbeat can cause the problems I've been having, supposedly, and as long as nothing else is going wrong with my heart, I'm fine. (Meaning as long as I stay healthy and take care of myself, I shouldn't have a problem, is how I understand it.) I'll have to have check-ups every four months for now, but my stress tests and echos, etc., all came back fine. I still have to go in for a carotid exam this Friday to make sure there isn't anything going on in my neck that's causing my dizziness and shoulder pains. And I should still wear my monitor if I have a bad day with my heart, since I've already paid for a full month with the monitoring company. But....YAY! I don't have to wear that evil thing all the time any more. And I can stop making myself sick with worry about my heart spazzes. *happy sigh*

We just got back from a four day visit up in Azle. We ran around a lot, visiting family and going out with family, but we had a really good visit. Matt's mom is in pretty good health, considering she just celebrated having her one year anniversary for her cancer surgery. She's back to shopping with friends and seems to be enjoying her retirement again, and her hair is starting to grow back. And Dad/David seems to be doing better now that Mom is.

We got to see Kara's new apartment and take her out to lunch and bought her a new plunger for her bathroom. (What are big sisters and brother-in-laws for?) Natalee and I saw my grandparents for a little while, playing on the floor with toys and picking flowers out of their yard. We went out to eat with Matt's parents and my own two different nights. And we went Easter egg hunting with Brent, his two little boys, Eric, Pam, and their daughter Kaitlyn, and Daniel and Gabby. Natalee conquered the Easter egg field, but Matt and I (and all the other guys) stunk it up practicing golf swings in the backyard. Well, I did more than the others. We had a really good time, we're all sunburned, and Natalee's got a whole bunch of Easter goodies. Plus we had Jennifer over for most of last week, helping me with the Natster and shopping for her prom regalia. All-in-all, it's been a really great week.

So now we should all kick butt like ninjas to celebrate. *strikes an interesting, yet threatening ninja pose*

On a better note...

Check out my bread! I made it two weeks ago or thereabouts, but it kind of got displaced with all the heart stuff. It was my first time to make focacia bread, but I think it came out very well. Next time I'll have to preheat the stone so that the outside crust will be a little crisper. And for some reason, it was a little sweet. I'll have to mess with that some. It made awesome panini sandwiches. Yum! I was so proud, I took pictures of it. The rosemary in it smelled divine, and I daydreamed about having my own little bakery or cafe while it baked. Fat chance though it be. Matt ate a piece every morning for breakfast. We finished off two loaves in less than a week between the three of us.

Natalee has definitely entered the terrible twos. Everything is "MINE!" or "No!" or "I'm stuck!" She rarely eats her meals, vegetables, or fruits nowadays, things that once were her favorites. But she's suddenly liking meat. She was begging for the taco meat that fell out of Matt's tacos at dinner. She used to despise any kind of meat besides McDonald's chicken nuggets, so Matt and I are a little confused. She's learning her colors and still working on her vocabulary. She doesn't speak in her gibberish language so much anymore, thankfully. But oh man, I'm grateful Jennifer's coming to hang out with us next week. Admittedly, Matt's been wrangling the Natster a lot more this week, to help me out. But she's a handful. A much-loved handful. Even when she's her worst, I can still cry with gratitude for her at the end of the day.

I'm making zucchini bread and hopefully whole wheat bread this weekend. Maybe even some chocolate whole wheat waffles. (I made some plain whole wheat ones that came out pretty well a few weeks ago.) I'll try to post up a recipe or two of anything that comes out well.