Category Archives: Life in general

Five Question Friday

Posted on August 19, 2011 | 7 comments

How about a little five question Friday at the end of the day? I’m game if you are!

1. Do you close the bathroom door when you are home alone?
Nope. I don’t even close the bathroom door when my immediate family is home, unless I need to take a book (if you know what I mean). Well, I guess I shouldn’t say that, sometimes I go in there and lock the door just to have a moment of peace, otherwise I’m likely to end up entertaining the children while I’m there. There’s the glamorous side of motherhood no one tells you about: potty breaks = peace (unless there’s a child pounding on the door or laying down outside of it, trying to get a look at you). Also, I should note, Simon HATES that I don’t shut the door but there are a bunch of things he does that bugs me and I realize it’s my own hang-up so I deal with them and therefore, he can deal with my one imperfection (ahem).

2. You have to walk around with a word on your forehead. That word describes you. One word. What is it?
That is a hard one… anyone have an immediate answer? Initially I thought to be sassy and picked fabulous. Then I thought, self-helpy and thought: trying. Then I thought literal and went with: Michelle (not technically a word, I know). And then I drew a blank…

3. What store do you refuse to shop at and why?
Despite my love of their cologne when I was in college, I now refuse to shop at Abercrombie. I find the whole store ridiculous (same with Hollister). I could say Coach but I totally buy one of their purses in a heartbeat if I could justify the expense (I like finding bargains at Target for $6).

4. If you participated in arranged marriages for your child(ren), who would you choose for your child(ren)?
My friend Tracey’s daughters, Keila and Ellery. Liam is seven weeks older than Keila and Jack is 10 weeks younger than Ellery so they are basically the same ages. We joke all the time about them ending up together but really we do just hope they (at least) remain friends forever. Plus with those two girls, we’d only have one set of in-laws to vie with for our boys’ time and we already love their parents so we’d just all have great family holidays. See, perfect.

5. If you could pick how and when you would die, would you?
Yes, most definitely because I’d much rather die in my sleep at a very, very old age than say, next week in a car accident or in another decade from cancer. It would most definitely be nice to pick how to die. Though given the choice, I don’t think I’d want to know when exactly I was going to die. I’d hate living, just knowing how many days I had left.

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Posted in Five Question Friday, Life in general

Things I Love Thursday: Cake

Posted on August 18, 2011 | 10 comments

Today I share with you cake. Two* cakes, actually. Two cakes I made to celebrate Liam’s birthday and my niece, Quinn’s birthday. I love cake. But I especially love good, out-of-the-ordinary cake. Something more interesting that your usual boxed cake (mostly because I like to make life harder on myself). Last year, inspired by my friend, Keri, I used the frozen buttercream transfer method to make a Lightning McQueen cake for Liam’s 4th birthday. While not perfect, I was still thrilled with how it turned out and so was a certain 4-year-old.

Liam asked for another Lightning cake this year and I had to divert him to something else, specifically a rainbow cake (because I wanted to make one). And for Quinn I thought something chocolaty was in order. Because Quinn’s little one can’t eat eggs, I found two recipes with nary an egg in them.

The first for the rainbow cake is easy-peasy (aside from the whole complication of dividing the batter into six bowls and mixing with food coloring). You buy a bow of white cake mix and add a can of lemon-lime soda (a.k.a., Sprite). And bake. For the rainbow, that’s another story – I followed the directions on this website. I will tell you that the cake took FOREVER to bake. But it was so pretty:

Quinn’s cake was from this recipe. But I baked it in a bundt pan (I cannot say bundt without thinking of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” anyone else?). And then I topped it with chocolate ganache. Hello there, handsome. (The rainbow cake had a chocolate ganache and oreo filling to make it yummier and the instant pudding/whipped topping frosting from the original recipe – only with the full sugar pudding and only reduced fat store-brand whipped topping.)

Are you hungry yet? (she asked with a wicked grin)

*I realize I actually talked about five cakes but when I started this post, I was only going to show you the two recent cakes but then I remembered I could download pictures from FB to show you the others and then I didn’t want to go back and redo the beginning. Instead I spent my time typing up this paragraph. You’re welcome.

This post is linked up with Jill at Diaper Diaries.

10 Comments

Posted in Food, Life in general, Things I Love Thursday

Total Brain Dump

Posted on August 17, 2011 | 3 comments

I have nearly 500 unread blog posts in my feed reader. I don’t want to mark them all as read so they will just have to wait and probably grow to a larger, more laughable number.
Work is a bit crazy at the moment and I feel so behind that I can’t even start a to-do list – it’s not my fault, I keep having to go to meetings and attend to client conference calls that I can’t actually do the work that needs to be done.
This causes me stress.
I find that often work is either feast or famine and right now it’s feast but I’ve gotten used to the famine part (well, not famine so much as steady, non-increasing workload that pays the bills) that the feast part seems like too much.
It kind of is too much.
It is not helped by volunteer commitments that I made when things were slower and quieter at work.
It is also not helped by the side job I picked up to earn extra cash to pay for things like trips to Australia to see family and friends or downpayments on houses we can’t afford because our house won’t sell for anywhere close to what I paid for it 8 years ago. You know, the little things.
I know this is a season of busyness that won’t last forever, which is why I have no trouble continuing on and not just stopping dead in my tracks.
But I find busyness breeds busyness. I certainly didn’t have to choose this week to go through the boys’ rooms and cull a box and a half worth of toys. Though I did have to make those snickerdoodle rice krispie treats (they’re for the children) and thank you to my SIL, Joan, for the inspiration.
I will always make time for friends, always, no matter how busy because it helps me maintain my happiness (my love language is most definitely doing things for others; see also, hanging out) and my work doesn’t suffer because of it, it probably thrives that much more because despite the stress I feel related to it, I can handle it because I’m happy from the rest of my full life.
This doesn’t mean I don’t dream of retirement or independent wealth because I do, vividly.
Sarah’s little Wesley is going to be the rockstar of the NICU and before we know it, he’ll be up and running with the big boys! Prayers still very welcome!
I read a good book this week for my book club and then we postponed book club and that was a bummer because I actually read the book. But it was a good book so it was worth it, perhaps I’ll tell you about it someday when I can sort my thoughts out to write something more in-depth than a list of rambling bullet points.
I also take the time to blog in the evenings so wind down and get things out of my head – it’s my own mental health break, just like hanging out with friends and because it’s my blog, I don’t feel guilty if I monopolize the conversation.
We finally had it confirmed today that Liam will be in M/W/F(a.m.) kindergarten – school starts in just over two weeks. Freak out.
I’m reading the third book in the Game of Thrones series and two of the main characters died in a very shocking manner and I still can’t believe that it happened even though I read it a week ago. I think that’s the sign of a good book.
Liam’s signed up to play soccer this fall with his bestie, Keila (Tracey’s daughter), it should be interesting to say the least.
Liam keeps complaining of his head feeling “embarrassed” and I have no idea what this means. He’s also having bouts of weepiness so perhaps it’s a growth spurt. What does one do for an embarrassed head?
Yesterday, when Jack was supposed to be napping, I heard his door knob rattling and when I opened the door, there was the little imp standing on the floor in front of me – decidedly NOT in his crib. “I miss out” is what he told me with a grin. Stinko.
Liam discovered a new part of his anatomy yesterday, one he needs to discuss with his father. That’s all I have to say about that; though if you ask me in person, I’ll tell you what he called it (it’s funny, but I’m quite certain it would make his whole person feel embarassed if I posted it on my blog).
And now I’m sorry that I sound so complainy/venty in this post because really, I just wanted to unload but I don’t want pity or anything, just a big hug and perhaps a Diet Coke.

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Posted in Life in general

The last of the summer ‘o concerts tour

Posted on August 17, 2011 | 7 comments

Tracey, myself and Kara at Sara Bareielles last week –
sorry for cutting off your face, Kara, but this was the only shot where
I didn’t have multiple chins and I worked to hard to make those go away. And it is my blog.

My summer ‘o concerts rounded itself out with the Sara Bareilles concert at Meijer Gardens – the most beautiful setting for an outdoor concert if ever there was one. I’ve got one more concert to go this fall – Boyce Avenue (who I linked to here) with my kindred-spirit-music-loving friend, Stef. And with that one I think I’ll have hit the BINGO of concert experiences (though I am missing a coffeehouse performance): stadium tour, outdoor festival, intimate(ish) amphitheater and small indie venue. I should make it a goal to make the rounds each year, though I don’t know that the budget will allow for that too often. But I have missed going to concerts so I’m glad that was added back into my social outings.

But speaking of Meijer Gardens, has anyone else noticed that the volunteer staff/security there seems overly militant? The average age of attendees at the summer concert series is probably a generous 45, mainly middle to upper class and yet I saw more security there than I did at the DMB Caravan, where the age and class of people were significantly lowered. In fact, aside from the people working in the parking lot and at the gate, I saw maybe a handful of security the entire day we were in Chicago with nearly 100,000 other people. Apparently wine-drinking yuppies are way more untrustworthy and riotous than pot-smoking gen Xers. Though both sets are equally entertaining to watch – I was partial to the woman who sat in front of us last week who would just buy three glasses of chardonnay at a time (all for herself) so as not to be bothered by numerous trips to the drink tent. You know how I appreciate buying in bulk.

I can only wonder what the Boyce Avenue concert will bring – likely plenty of college students since it’s in Ann Arbor. Hopefully we won’t feel too old, but then, that might be inevitable. At the concert last week, I was talking to Tracey about another female and she asked if she was older and I said, “No, not really, I mean, she was like 35 or so, so not too young.” Big pause… I’m only 2 years away from 35. Apparently I don’t think of myself as old but also not too young. Sigh.

7 Comments

Posted in Life in general, Music

Low-key weekends are lovely…

Posted on August 15, 2011 | 2 comments

Pardon the cell phone photos – I didn’t pull out the real camera this weekend…

Saturday was a day spent doing a whole lot of nothing and it was glorious. We managed to leave the house once to take the boys to get donuts (the original plan was the farmer’s market but it was raining like crazy so we traded fresh produce for fried dough – a delicious treat).

Sunday morning I got the supreme pleasure of meeting Wesley Levi, who arrived into this world at 4:35 Saturday morning 8 weeks early but weighing a ginormous (relatively speaking) 5 pounds, 14 ounces. He’s spending some time in the NICU but everyone is praying for a brief stay. [Side note: I’m not sure what this says about me, but I kind of love being at the hospital. Perhaps I should think about a health-care related career, one that doesn’t involve endless years of school and residency.]

Sunday afternoon we headed to Lansing for some quality family time. Lunch and card playing with grandpa and grandma and then dinner and more birthday celebrations with the rest of the fam at my brother and sister-in-law’s house. I love my family.

My niece and my great-nephew (ha, I can’t write that and not laugh because it seems I should be really old to have a great-nephew).

Jack entertained himself by hiding in the ottoman, I can only imagine how much fun he’d have at Art Van.

I love unamused/uninterested Andy (my un-great-but-still-awesome nephew) is trying to appear in the photo on the left but right after singing, he got a big kiss on the cheek from his dad and his grandpa and the illusion of cool is gone.