I Am Wanna-Be Baker...

... I will have a full, be-photo'ed post of my baking extravaganza, but for now, I'll leave you with this:

Conventional (baking) wisdom states that in order for fondant to appear perfectly smooth, it must be placed over a cake with perfectly smooth icing.

People, unless it is heavily laden with the utmost bitterness and sarcasm, the word "perfect" and any of its silly derivatives like "perfection" or "perfectly" is entirely absent from my vocabulary.

So we're shooting here for approximately smooth fondant over essentially smoothish icing.

Work with me, here.

Luck Favors Those Who Screw Up LOTS

I mean... it's a probability thing.  When you screw up as frequently as I do, you get lucky more than people who never screw up.

I need to go "accidentally" play lotto...

Oh, if only it worked like that. 

So here's my idiocy.  And I'm posting this because I need to purge and I realize that my hubby will be very angry with me when I tell him what happened.  But I'm banking on my cute smile and fluttery eyelashes to pull me out of hot water.  If you don't hear from me for awhile, you'll know I need a better tactic.

Justin gave me a gorgeous set of gold and diamond earrings some 6.5 or 7 years ago.  When we were in college.  That was a big purchase for him.  And I cherish those earrings - they match the necklace he gave me for my birthday in 2002 and the wedding set he bought me a bit later.  Sweet right? 

Well I stuffed the earrings in my jeans pocket before we left for our trip to get them off the table they were on.  I didn't want to leave them out for a robber or take them with me and take a chance on losing them.

HAH!

I ran a ton of laundry the other day when we got home and opened up the dryer door and saw one of these precious earrings in the lint trap.

And then my innards plunged out my butt and onto the floor when I saw the jeans.  In the dryer.  Pocket inside-out.

Oh was I pissed.

I dug through the laundry fervently.  Nothing.  Checked the washer.  Nothing.  Checked the other pockets of the jeans.  Nothing.

Crying at this point.

So I shut the door and played it cool when Justin asked me if I was okay.  Thinking, "I will take a saw to this POS dryer if I need to."

My day consisted of getting up at 7 am and immediately taking the thing apart, piece by piece, screw by screw.  It was brutal.  I was beginning to give up hope but then I saw it hung up on one of the pieces of metal that holds one something to another something inside the something.

BOOYAH.

After I whacked my elbow on the door frame doing my celebratory dance, I hastily put the earrings in and started the arduous process of reassembling the dryer.

Boy oh boy, did I learn a big lesson today.

I got really lucky.

Traveling With The Zoo

Okay, okay, okay, Kate!  I know you've been itching for me to get back into the blogging world...  Believe me, I wanted to post!  I even went so far as to purchase a laptop so that I could travel AND blog, but Mother Nature had other ideas. 

Okay, allow me to back up. 

We took our Zoo to New York to visit family last week.  You know, just in time to participate in ANOTHER record-breaking snowfall. 

Goody.

I mean, it was a total blast to have Jack play in snow that was nearly as deep as he is tall. 

But internet was uh, MIA to say the least. 

And when we did find a hotspot, we were pretty busy visiting with family and celebrating Big Man's birthday.  We had a really good time with everyone, even though it was bittersweet in some regards.  Daddy ended up being the hero of the trip when he pulled together an awesome surprise for Jack: a ride on the Metro North train.  Now, for your average New Yorker, a 40-minute round-trip on a commuter train is mundane if not even annoying.  For a passionate 3-year-old, though, it was magical.  And I love my husband even more for giving our son that gift.

So... it has been a bit.  Don't worry.  I've got my feet up and my Snickers and a DVR'ed episode of Grey's so I'll be working on some posts to regale you (Kate) with tales of my antics.

3.

My little boy is three years old.

I cannot believe how quickly it has passed.

I love you beyond all rational comprehension, Jack... I have no words, Bud... just love.

Three.

Three.

Wow.

A Bit of Sunshine and Some Bloggy Awards

I've recently discovered a new friend in Sonora at Twinfinity!... I started reading her blog and got totally sucked into it.  I didn't think I needed a whole lot of "specialized" support in the twin-realm... that is, I thought I was doing just fine with the support structure I had in place and didn't recognize that there are things that are specific to a twin mom and life with twins that it takes another twin mom to get.  Not that my other mom or even non-mom friends can't help me or wouldn't understand... it's just that sometimes there are feelings and issues that don't take a ton of explaining to convey when you're talking to another twin mommy.  Sonora gets it.  I get it for her... Our "Mother of Multiples"ness doesn't define us... but we can't ignore that it makes up a big part of who we are as mothers.  And it's really, really, really great to have that camaradarie when I need it.  Or even when I don't know I need it.

She passed a couple of awards on to me...

The Sunshine Award

 

and the Beautiful Blogger Award.

 It means a ton to me to get these from someone I've come to think of as a friend.  So thank you, Sonora!

Well, as with all blogging awards, these come with rules and stipulations and blah bitty blah blah blah.  I'm just going to do one of those "tidbits of info on Melis" posts and then, in turn, pass these bad boys on to some of my favorite blogs - old and new (to me).  Got your coffee and your mouse handy?  You're going to want to check these out:

Mu's Nus

I'm Not Sure What I Want To Be When I Grow Up

Memories By Christine

Defining Moments

Ain't She Crazy

Addicted to Peanuts

Little Bit of Love

Artistically Amy

Hangin' With the Hagans

Kate's Life

The (Un)Experienced Mom

The Long Road to China

My Room 

Cop Mama

These are the blogs that make my cup of coffee a little sweeter every day... They give me something to laugh about and something to think about, and they've got an awful lot to share.


NOW, I'll to a list of 14 random tidbits of stuff you might find interesting - one for each of the blogs I nominated...

1) I love greasy, fried, salty bar food.
2) I hail from Colorado but have never once gone skiing or snowboarding.
3) I love to write poems.  I've even published a couple.  But I'm even more bashful about those than I am about photos of myself.
4) I despise all things oral hygiene. (I mean, I do it, but I don't like it.)
5) I hoard glass jars.  I don't know why, but I'm sure that I will find something to do with them.  It's the only thing I obsessively collect... and it annoys even me.
6) I will never understand how my husband puts up with my snarky, sarcastic, never-ever-serious demeanor.
7) My new-found love for CSI: fillintheblank on Spike during the day is killing my productivity like having twins couldn't DREAM of.
8) I will never (Sorry, Kate!) shop in a Wal-Mart store again as long as I live. 
9) My favorite author is Dean Koontz.
10) I am a social liberal and fiscal conservative.  Wow, figure that one out...
11) The idea of raw eggs in anything really grosses me out so I prefer Caesar dressing from a jar or bottle.
12) If the school day gets extended by a single minute per the Government, I will home-school my children.
13) I have so my admiration for trendy, fashionable ladies like my sister, but I just can't seem to pull it off...
14) I haven't purchased new undies for myself in years.  YEARS. 

That's what I've got for ya!  If you want to check out the other awards I've received, you can find them under the "Awards" page at the top... Now, get clickin'!

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge - "Hands On"

I'm a newbie photographer.  Okay.  I'm going to be more honest.  I'm not a "photographer" any more than I'm a "chef".  I'm a Mom with a camera and a Mom with a kitchen.  So... Yeah, I'm not really a photographer in the cool sense of the term... I'm just someone who takes pictures.

You know... cause I have kids and I want to remember stuff.  It's like a hobby to the extent that I can HAVE hobbies with the 3 littles running around.  But I love me some picture-taking.  Good, bad, or ugly, it makes me happy.  And I like to edit the photos because there's a whole new level of beauty that can be uncovered with a simple tweaking of contrast or layer of color.

And you've probably seen me participating in "Black and White Wednesdays" at The Long Road to China ... Which is awesome.  Well, I stumbled upon I Heart Faces Photography a few months ago and fell in love with their weekly contests.  It's so much fun to see how other people interpret a challenge and how they execute their photographs... I was totally itching to join in.  I just always forgot.  I'd think for days about which photo I could use to enter a contest and then just get busy and forget.

Well.  I remembered this week!

The theme was "Hands On" and I instantly knew that I'd be posting a picture I took back in November of Jordan's wee little hand nestled in her great-grandmother's hand.  I captured the moment when Nonni was here visiting us for Thanksgiving.  It was an incredibly sweet moment where generations came together and age and experience meant nothing... there was just love.  Jordan gave her Nonni's hand a squeeze as if to say, "I know you love me. I feel it. I love you too," and I snagged the photo at that exact moment.  I just melt when I look at it and my heart swells when I recall the two of them snuggling contentedly in the sunshine streaming through my living room windows.  Thanks to our Naval career so far, we haven't had many opportunities to spend time with our extended families, let alone holidays.   So this past Thanksgiving was really, really special to us.

So after all of that, I present you with my entry for this week's challenge:

 

It's a picture that means the world to me.  I hope you enjoy it!

Twilight...

... and all the associated stuff - the people, movies, vampire-obsessed teens...

I don't get it.

It just baffles me.