Question: To ride or Not to ride

So, about two months ago or so I stumbled across an ad for a 10, 25, and 50 mile bike ride which will take place this weekend.  I was really excited and tried to get a bunch of people to go with me.   One by one, other engagements have claimed them and now I wonder:  do I do it on my own, or not?  It'll be fun and actie and I'll get a coveted t-shirt....but really, am I just being silly?  And....will I get wet and cold?  And/or bored without someone to chat with the whole way.  So....what do you think??

Gratuitous Brag #2, or....

How to Undo the Health Benefits of a Triathlon in Five Easy Hours

Every year for Missi's birthday (and now for Mandy's too!), we hang out all day and I make petit pain au chocolate -- chocolate filled croissants for the less snobbish among us. Sometimes they go well, and sometimes they don't, and every year I fiddle a little bit with the recipe trying to get that perfect combination of light, fluffy, buttery deliciousness. This year I failed...and I totally succeeded! Good thing I decided to make two batches at the same time, because the Croissant Muses are fickle, fickle chicks. Here are the results:

Batch Number 1 -- old timey mostly perfected recipe which just did NOT pan out (no pun intended) today. Who knows why?!?
There's nothing really wrong with them, but there's nothing really special about them either. Actually we were fairly pleased with them til the next batch came out. But in comparison, they are just somewhat rich bread with some chocolate bunged inside.

And here's the lovely new recipe I decided to try after reading about it last night and thinking it sounded like it might work well. Perfection (almost)! Look at those fluffy layers. So light and yummy!!! But I did them one better with.....


Good ol' regular beautiful crescent-y croissants. I never thought I would turn away form something filled with a delicious mix of dark and semi-sweet chocolate, but somehow the basic version is just better. Without the flashy chocolate, you can really appreciate the smooth, silky, buttery texture and flavor. Mmmmmm!! It's worth the extra 17 pounds I'll have packed on by tomorrow!!

Tri for Hope

Well, I suppose it's about time to kick the ol' blog back into business. I guess for a while I just wanted to forget about a place where you talk about what's going on in your life -- because what I really really wanted had just not happened. But time heals all wounds, and now life feels pretty darn good again. So maybe I'll have some interesting things to say. But probably not....:)

So, a few months ago my friend Missi decided to sign up for a triathlon. We did one a couple of years ago, and because we a) really like each other b) are competitive as, well, I don't know what -- we've always talked about doing another one together. But, since I thought I'd be having a newborn, I opted to sit this one out. Then, when Miss Baby did not actually come, I thought I'd better save my pennies for when - hopefully - the next little one comes down the pike. Unable to turn down a good workout, though, I've been biking with the girls who signed up for this triathlon for the last couple of months. Last week, Missi succeeded in talking me into signing up to run this one with them. Soooooo..that left me with 11 or so days to get my run and my swim in order. Bwah!! So it was with a little trepidation and a whole lot of bravado that I showed up for the race yesterday, with my training buds - Me, Missi, Amy, and Katja. (You can tell I must be feeling pretty good about myself, cause I'm posting a picture of my thighs on the internet. Ah!!!).


This tri was both tiny and only for women. I love these type of events, because they take a lot of pressure and scariness out of the idea of doing a triathlon, and consequently you get ALL SORTS of people signing up and competing. I think it's really inspiring to see all these womanly bodies in all different sorts of sizes and shapes, and all doing something really awesome. I wish our society somehow would celebrate this -- instead of the constant parade of stick-insect "role models" that parade across the magazines in the grocery check out aisle.


For some reason -- I guess so they can identify us, although for 2/3rds of the thing we have numbers on us as well -- they write our ages on us in sharpie. It sort of feels like a badge of honor and I don't know anyone who isn't just a wee bit pleased when the number is still showing the next day. :) It's really inspirational too, because as the race goes on, you can tell when you are passing people younger than you (YEAH!!!!) or being passed by people older than you (a good kick-in-the-rear when your will is flagging.)


Believe it or not, those smiles are AFTER we've finished the race. If that's not proof of the ol' "runner's high" I don't know what is. The race, by the way, was a sprint -- 1/4 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 2 mile run. (And yeah, think about that for a minute. In other disciplines, sprint is like 50 yards, 100 meters......triathlon is just, well, nuts.) I was quite pleased with my aging old bones -- finished it in just over 1 hour 15 and was ninth in my age group, 32nd over all. It's not stellar, but I'm still happy! :) Of course, half of that happiness might be just having the blasted thing over!

Actually, it really was enjoyable until time came to run. We started on the beach, in age group waves, so we got to run into the water (trying to ignore the jiggling thighs) and then swim straight down the beach, trying to avoid being kicked. That's harder than one might imagine, because this being a lake, you really couldn't see people around you until about a nano second before their feet impacted your nose. Between the nerves of the start, the run, and the sudden activity, it was probably half way through the swim before I felt like my lungs might not burst. Then you hit the last bouy and turn into the beach, and it's a quick run up the beach and along some grass to the transition area, where you've left bike, helmet, shoes, and whatever additional clothing you plan on finishing the race with. So now you find yourself out of breath, dizzy from having just run up a hill, and now you've got to put your shoes and socks on -- without sitting down (or passing out) and then jump on your bike and head out onto the roads. We had a really pretty ride around the reservoir which somehow appeared to supply a brisk headwind the entire way around. This part was pretty fun because, thanks to my fleet road bike (thanks fam!!) I got to spend the whole time reeling in slower bikers and flying past them. At the end of the ride we got our first and only major hill -- and right at the bottom of it I got stuck behind a huge truck pulling one of those wood-chipper things, and it was afraid to go around the slow pokes headed up the hill. Between the competition and the oxygen deprivation, I lost my mind and decided to pass the truck. On a hill. On the yellow line. With traffic coming the other way. Thank goodness I'd said my prayers that morning and the Lord didn't feel like teaching me a lesson about consequences, because I came through just fine. The hill pretty much killed the last of my quads, but luckily I was close to the end and got to head downhill. Riding back into transition, it's time to RUN! Now......running after biking hard for 40 minutes, well, there's no other word for it -- it SUCKS. Hugely. Said competitive nature left in a hurry and I found I just really didn't care anymore. My legs agreed. In fact, my legs threatened mutiny continuously. But two miles and twenty minutes of walking and running and walking and running and I crossed the finish line, very very happy to be done.

And then I went back to run the last hundred yards with Missi. It was WAY more fun the second time! But Missi's only words to me pretty much sum up the end-of-tri experience: muttered sideways, under her breath, in a very pained voice, "Where IS IT????" (spoken of the blasted finish line.) :)

Friends who finish together, stay together! :)

Thanks for a great memory, Missi, and Amy and Katja!!

Then again, maybe not....

So, yesterday the months of hoping and planning and thinking and trying NOT to think came to an end. We got the call that Crista had had her baby and had decided to keep her. I've been worrying about this moment since before we even found out that Crista had chosen us (for then) to be the parents of her baby. I was terrified of how bad it would feel, of completely falling to pieces, of not being able to handle it. And you know what -- now that it's here, it's not so bad. Here's the view from here:

Mostly, I just feel normal. So does Mike. I guess that makes sense -- nothing has actually changed in our life. We were a family of three, we are a family of three. We still love each other, we still have fun together, our home is still a happy place. The world didn't end. It just didn't expand.

I thought I would feel this incredible sense of loss. I don't feel any. I realize now that's because I didn't lose a baby -- not in any real way. With each of our fertility tries, especially the ones where we say pictures of the embryos or had positive pregnancy tests, the sense of loss and failure was overhwelming. Now, the only loss I feel is the loss of a timeframe. We thought she was coming this week. We feel now that she's still coming (unless she's a he -- and then we have some painting to do!!), now we're just back to not knowing when. That's pretty familiar territory for us. It sucks, I hate it, I wish it were still going to be next week, I still sometimes find myself thinking I won't be able to do this or that thing next month because I'll have a baby. It hurts, but it's bearable.

I feel myself periodically wanting to get angry. But then, who is there to get angry at? Crista? How can I be angry at her for keeping the baby that she loves -- especially since I wanted her too, and I never met her! The situation? We spent a lot of time and energy and effort (and money) getting to know Crista, getting the room ready and all the requisite stuff, rearranging our lives. But, that's what you do, right? No one was acting in bad faith, no one did this on purpose....it just happens. Adoption is hard. Becoming a parent is hard. People who do it the normal way face backaches and labor pains and swollen ankles -- and sometimes much, much worse outcomes. We adoptive parents face trials and pains of a different nature. But you risk the pain because the result, when you get there, is worth it a million times over. In the past I've always had a fallback of getting mad at God, but how can I do that when his tender mercies have been with me every moment?

Prayer can move mountains and bring to pass miracles. Sadly, it wasn't the miracle I really wanted, but there was a miracle wrought in my life nonetheless and it is this: we are all ok. We have been ensconced all weekend in a mantle of peace and reassurance. I have felt so much love from so many different corners, knowing people were praying and hoping for us. I have not fallen to pieces and my heart is not broken. I am able to see and be grateful for the immense good that is in my life. I am so grateful that this time, I haven't been washed away by this huge tidal wave of despair, floudering and unable to see any good in life. I am ok. Life is good. Life goes on. And our life is full of blessings, even in the midst of the storm. We were here in Ohio, and hadn't gone yet to Texas for the birth. We didn't have to disrupt our lives and Jack's. We didn't have to meet the baby and then loose her. We were able to just carry on with our lives. I am here, surrounded by my gorgeous friends, who came to spend the first night with me and remind me that life is pretty darn sweet just as it is. (And the friends who texted, chatted, called, sent emails, and were present in my life in so many other ways.) For that matter, I'm blessed to live in this age of incredible technology where we are all connected no matter how far away we move (or are moved from.)

So, what next? We move on into a new week, and hope soon to have another phone call from Texas saying someone else thinks we would be the perfect parents for their little one.

Just add baby.....

Where ya been, Miss Sophie?

Well, I've been just a wee bit snowed under with my life at the moment. To whit: crazy thick-with-data anatomy class eating up most of Tues and Thurs and untold hours of studying, crazy rampant subbing on the other days in order to offset not working at all for the next five or six years, the requisite workouts and teaching at the Y and housework, and then the complete revamping of two bedrooms in our home and other preparations for our brand new gorgeous awesome family member.

Here's the fun output:

First up, we could hardly start painting for a new baby without taking care of the original one. We'd been promising Jack an updated room (he's just a WEE bit old for Koala Brothers) -- so we moved him into the spare room (he apparently thought he was gonna get to keep the computer that had been in there before. Nope!!) and got down to painting it his favorite color. Now the only trouble is, how to find the kid??

I just really love this room. It makes me smile.

Next, it was on to the new room. After this long out number by males, I went full-bore girly. It was a little hard to paint over the masterpiece that Jenn and I worked on together....but once I got into it, it just got funny. Look at those legs just dangling out!!


Then a little white on the bottom. Stay tuned to see why there's still a stripe of cartoon-character limbs.

It will eventually be a chair rail. We were going to go with beadboard, but given that time is advancing RAPIDLY, we figured we'd better go with somethign a little quicker. Mike got the rails painted this weekend, and they'll go up in a couple days when we can lift Josh's nail gun!
Tonight -- he's working on putting together the, gulp!!!, crib. You know, it's sorta difficult to stay in denial when there's a crib hanging out in the room across the hall. It's not like we haven't been waiting for ever and ever, and wishing and hoping and praying....but somehow is just seems really surreal that we are going to be (hopefully!!!) parents again. And of a girl!! Schweeeee!!!





Jack is doing his part to get ready for his baby sister. I walked into our room the other evening and saw he'd taken a moment to make sure she was properly armed!!

Some places just stay in your heart....

Almost eight years ago Jack, Mike, and I left Texas. We were excited to be getting home close to family and our fabulous friends. But we didn't realize how much we had fallen in love with our new home of San Antonio. I miss it SO much -- and this week, we get to go back!!!! I can't wait, so I had to post a few of my favorite things that I'm so excited to get to visit again!

The Bluebonnets. Who can resist a field full of these gorgeous peppy spring flowers. I just hope they haven't all gone by the time we get down there.

The Alamo! No Texan, whether native born or just wishing they were, can't resist the birthplace of Texas Independence. Mike and I used to sometimes just hop in the car and drive down to see it. It just has that kind of spirit to it.

The Riverwalk, especially at night. (Just don't eat and Cafe Rio.)

Instead, definitely eat at Taco Cabana. Freshly cut cilantro in the salsa bar -- yum!!!

And then there's the wildlife.....

Longhorns. So cool!

The beautiful live oaks in all their amazing shapes.

Coyotes! They used to serenade us from the park behind our apartment every evening in the summer. And then there's the one that seemed to commute at the same time I did -- he'd cross my path on my way to school.

And the cowboys in their pickup trucks!

And our favorite favorite hiking places --

Hill Country SNA

Lost Maples

Pedernales Falls -- also home to the worlds most fabulous beef jerky

And the Frio River

Oh, man, there is just NO WAY I am ever going to be able to leave again. I love this place!!!

Midnight Visitor Revisited

Jack has lately gotten into the Wimpy Kid series. We read it together most nights before he goes to sleep. So he's really excited that the new movie is coming out, and we said we'd read like crazy this week so we'd be ready to see it. I jetted home from the gym after class tonight so we could get on it -- only to find him already fast asleep in his bed. Well, he just wandered out, still half asleep, squinted through his sleepy eyes and said, "Wimpy Kid?" I think he must have thought it was still evening or something. So....we have a date for tomorrow. We're going to get snacks, snuggle up on the couch, and read until we are done. Or fall asleep. I guess they better be sugary snacks!

Oh Hail!!

Springtime in Ohio -- you never know what your gonna get. The day started off grey, then major rain, then super bright sunshine and 60 degree temps, then -- BLAMMO -- hail.



Best moment of the day -- Jack and his friend Clay yelling insults at the sky. "Oh, yeah, is that the best you got??" and then CRACK, huge lightning/thunder and the lights went out. I didn't realize Clay's eyes could open that wide. I'm still laughing!!

Sweet Silence

Last night I just wanted to cry. My poor little guy, doubled over and screaming in pain, me not knowing why or how to make it better. Tonight I'm smiling ear to ear because he's sleeping peacefully and happily and with no pain at all. Makes me think of a quote I heard somewhere: Having children is like allowing your heart to walk around outside your body. I'm just so grateful that he's feeling better!

What are they teaching our children??

Jack's reading homework today started out innocently enough:


Oh, sweet little garden snails! I wonder what they will get up to?







GAAAH!! What is this? That's TERRIBLE! Poor little garden snails getting eaten!! First the wren, and then the hedgehog and then the toads -- down they go, two by two, gulp GULP! Ah. At least there are two left at the end.....







Ummmmm. Ok. Happy snails. Perhaps we should give them some privacy?





Yup! And there you have it, kids. The grand ol' circle of life!

Like the snuggles, but not the reason for them!!

Poor bug! He's feeling awful today. Actually, has been on and off for more than a week. He gets these awful stomach pains that have him double over and cry out. And then he'll be fine for a while. Or even for a good half a day. And then they come back. At first I thought maybe it was constipation or gas pains, so we treated him for that and it seemed to go away. Then it came back right before school and I thought, yeah, right. No way am I falling for that -- and off to school he went with a stern warning that he better really be sick if he called me to pick him up. Gets off the bus holding his belly that afternoon and says, I felt bad but I didn't call you because I knew you wanted me to be tough. (Cue cracking of mommy's heart until crushing weight of guilt.) Headed off to doctor who couldn't determine that anything was wrong and told us to go on with the gas/constipation ideas. The pains have been better through the week, but still troubling him. Still in the back of my mind I'm wondering if he's just playing us. This is not jsut cause I'm hard-hearted -- the pains seemed to show up at the most convenient times. As in, he was totally fine playing outside with his buddies all day, but then at bedtime was in dreadful pain and needed to stay up and watch Johnny Test to make him feel better. Or.....he was having a great time all Saturday but, ow ow owwww, could not POSSIBLY get up out of bed to go to church. Well, I went off to work today and emailed Mike when I got there to let him know that Jack had left his backpack in my car. I find out from Mike that the pains have hit again and he's keeping Jack home from school. You know Mom's always know better than Dads, right? And so I figured, ha! Sucker, he's pulling one over on you. Only to get home and find that the poor little guy has been falling asleep all day and hasn't really moved. We haul him back in for doc visit number two and there's still nothing conclusive -- but the normally rambunctious, no-attention-span boy is lying listless on the exam table, not moving or really talking. Clearly something is not right. We take him off for an xray of his belly and some basic bloodwork and just as I'm starting to imagine all the seriously dreadful things that this could be.....something clicks in the boy and he's all lively and chatty and wanting to go to the park. What?!?! Then shortly after getting home (we did NOT go to the park) he's back to tired and --- here's the only good bit -- wanting to cuddle and snuggle and have his mommy around. This is particularly welcome because Mr. Socially Aware was so concerned about keeping his Cool First Grader image that he would not let me touch him through all of the waiting for the doctor. Every gentle stroke of the hair was angrily tossed off; if my arm grazed his shoulder I was struck with a glare of such malice as would cause the most hardened criminal to back away. I'm hoping someone will gently remind him that he is still only 8 and is allowed under statute to still love his mommy for some years to come??

Given the Cool Dude routine, I took it as a sign of how cruddy he felt that crossing the parking lots at both doctors offices today he quietly and willingly slipped his little hand into mine. Is it terrible of me to be a little grateful for sickness??

I was pretty proud of him when he could his blood drawn. A) He was totally brave about it. A little nervous, but he kept it together. B) He was really really curious and closely watching everyhting the guy did and asking lots of questions. What does an eight year old boy with broad imagination ask in these circumstances? In order, here we go:

1) I thought if you take blood out of someone then they will die. (Keep in mind, it was a finger prick and at this point the guy had taken about three drops off Jack's index finger!) We told him how many pints an adult has and you could see him trying to mentally work out how many chocolate milks from lunch that would be.

2) He wanted to see the thing that had pricked him and when the nurse told him it had retracted so you couldn't see it Jack told the guy that was because blood had germs in it and he needed to be careful not to get them.

He was a little horrified by the XRAY tech who sort of immediately told him he needed to take his pants off. Considering we had just this weekend had one of "those" talks about how some bad people like to do bad things to little kids, you can't quite tell what might have beens swirling around his little mind!! His eyes swivelled round and locked right on mine and I told him I'd stay right there. Still, he was VERY careful maneuvering around under the little plastic sheet. Such a cute little grown up boy! Still so fun to see the world through his eyes!!

Mike wanted me to tell you....

A sign of the times?


Jack got a lego catalog and was paging through it telling us all the things he wanted and what he would do with them. Then he found this. I want this one mommy! What would you do with it, I asked? He said, I would build it and then I would build a lego man out of all black legoes......

My Week

Hmmm, so much for updating my blog whenever anything interesting happens. The problem is, well, besides being busy and tired, I refuse to do this on anything but Mike's laptop...because my laptop and our home computer are old and slow (like me!!) and I am impatient and can't take it. But considering that MIke's laptop goes to work, and I am at the gym most of the evening, and he actually does like to do some freelancing and farkling at night, well, it's hard to carve out some time. Except on Sunday. So here's the update.....


Jack's birthday was on the 3rd, and lucky him, a card from his Auntie Jean came with a whoppingly big check just for him. Our little guy has always been just a wee bit materialistic, and this windfall was almost too much for him, as you can see in the photos:





So, there's really only one thing Jack likes more than money and random stuff and that's guns. So off he went with Mike to the military store and came home with what might be the loudest cap gun ever made. At least I like the smell of gunpowder.

Thank goodness, and just in time to save what's left of my sanity, the weather turned gloriously springy this week. Sunshine, breeze, temps in the sixties. Ahhhhhh. I got done subbing early one day and headed out to the reservoir and got in an awesome workout of running and doing the stairs. It felt SO good to be outside and warm and in the sun that I just kept going and going. 'Course, could barely move the next day, but it was SO worth it. Then I got to pick Jack up from school and we headed out to the park. It was sweet -- we were there early enough that the only other kids there were little toddlers with their mommies. Jack and I have been regulars at this park since he was that age, and there was something really nice about remembering all those times.

Of course, MY boy is NOT a toddler, so he climbed up to a good sniping spot and watched over all of us make sure no bad guys snuck up on our position.

Anybody remember the myth about Zeus and whichever one of his children sprung whole from his forehead? I went him one better:

Mine is already armed!!!! :)



Jack snatched my phone so he could take pictures from his perch. Here's teh world as he sees it:
It was St Patrick's day, so he told me to act like I was pinching somebody. He was REALLY into the pinching this year. His poor friend Angel got it good, from what I hear.


Phew! Ohio comes alive, finally!! Please please stay warm now. Of course, it always always snows during Spring Break, but a girl can hope, right?

And speaking of Spring Break: I'm officially on mine! Had my Physics final on Saturday and after decades of running scared from Physics....I GOT A HUNDRED!! On a final. Ooh, am I pleased with myself. Of course, it was just a community college and the course was totally skewed in order to make it really really hard to do badly, but I'm still so pleased. Particularly with having made it through the last question about the bullet that fires from the gun and hits the wooden block attached to a string....how high will the block swing? I did it!! (Not the shooting, just to be clear. LOL!)

And finally...as I was sliding into bed at midnight last night, guess who came to visit me, all bright eyed and bushy tailed and saying he wasn't sleepy:
Surprise surprise, he was no longer bright eyed and bushy tailed when we got him up for church this morning.

Spring Crafts

Dunno if it's old age or spending too much time with Jenn, Bonnie, and Mandy over the years, but I've been bitten by the crafting bug. Part of it is Jack -- he DID spend too much time with Mandy, who decorates her house SO cute for every holiday. Jack started coming home and asking why OUR house wasn't decorated, and that triggered my "you're kid is missing out" gene, and the I had to respond, right? So...it's getting on for Spring and in addition to the whole decorating thing, the spring fever is hitting and I want to redecorate everything. (EVERYTHING!!!) Luckily for my bank account, I limited it to doing some flowery cute things to make it feel a little more like spring even when it's grey and yucky outside.

First off, I saw some little flower pots in Meijer and thought.....I can do that. I can do that BETTER. So I took myself off to JoAnns and got some paint, some flower pots, and some flowers, and eventually turned them into:


We used to have a huge forsythia bush on the side of our driveway when we lived in Yellow Springs, and I have always loved the crazy yellow sprigs that shoot everywhere. It feels like the personification (flower-sification??) of the way I feel in spring.

Then it was time for the bathroom to get a little sprucing up. I borrowed Mandy's cricut (THANKS!) and got some cute paper and some flowers and used an old basket and frame and, voila!


Is it kinda pathetic that I'm so proud of myself? Or that it makes me happy everytime I see it?

Great Date!

Mike, resident Apple-addict, made a date (not with me, thankfully!) to go stand in line for the new ipad and go to a movie. So Jack and I made a date of our own. It's swim night at the Y, so Jack went with me, hung out in KidsTime with his best buds while I taught my cycling and pilates classes, and then we met up at the pool. After we'd had our fill of splashing (and, turns out, he'd had his fill of pool water), we got changed and headed out for pizza, then back home to eat it (in the living room!! A rare treat -- I hate to eat in the living room. Left over lessons from my mum: avoid eating in the living room and never buy sugary cereals!) We had planned to play the Wii together while eating our pizza and later watch a movie and have popcorn. Well, believe it or not, a full day of school followed by an hour or two in the pool will wear a boy out. He played one race with me on the Wii, and then we snuggled up together to watch Planet 51. About 1/2 an hour in his little head snuggled down onto my shoulder and he was out a few minutes later. I got to carry him off to bed -- which I haven't gotten to do for a year or so since he decided he was a big boy and had outgrown all that stuff.

I just love those times when life finally slows down, there's nowhere to get to and no rules to enforce, no homework to be done, and we just get to chill and hang out together. I used to hold him as a baby and think, I can't bear for him to grow up! Holding that tiny little warm body and rocking, I thought there could be nothing as wonderful as that feeling. And here he is, growing up and changing and turning into a person in front of me, and while I miss that tiny baby to snuggle, dang, I just really really like my boy. Not just love him, I mean, that goes without saying in the mama-grizzly-bear kinda way that you don't know you have in you til you have a kid -- but I just really like him. What a cool kid! I'm glad he's my bud.

Had to add this photo, because it's my favorite.

Curse you, Boy Scouts!

(I like to be an equal opportunity hater)

Just spent a ridiculous amount of time sewing little patches on to little tiny arms. Seriously, have we not heard of iron-ons? The worst of it is: just looked at my finished product and realized, Dang! The numbers aren't aligned. Want to take bets which will win out -- my OCD or my laziness?

(Stay tuned for pics of Jack's first trip to Cub Scouts. He's only been talking about it for a year and a half!)

Curse you, Girl Scouts!!

How is a girl supposed to keep her girlish figure when you put out more-addictive-than-crack things like Thin Mints. I have single-handedly demolished almost an entire sleeve. Hear that popping sound? Yeah, that was the button on my waistband. Thanks a LOT!!!

It's Mardis Gras, y'all!!!

Mardis Gras has big sentimental value in our family. Jack was born on the Monday before Mardis Gras, and as we were waiting to hear news of him coming into the world, we were invited to our good friend's for a Mardis Gras FHE. And before that, we'd lucked into Mardis Gras on Galveston Island when we celebrated our fifth anniversary. So now, to recognize our Southern roots and Jack's status as a gen-you-ine Texan, we make King Cakes every year.

King Cakes are ridiculous looking....

but very very yummy. They are essentially great big cinnamon rolls in a circle. With lots of frosting. And necklaces!! What more could you ask for??


And better yet...there's a little surprise waiting inside:


Why, oh why, you may ask, is there a plastic baby lurking in the cake? Because it's epiphany, baby, and that is the baby Jesus. Ok, set aside for a minute the fact that I've just wrapped baby Jesus up in dough (can he breathe in there, even??) and shoved him in an oven for 20 minutes or so.....and then will attack his little hiding place with a knife and potentially EAT him -- we are totally honoring him here. Really. (And besides, with as many Catholics as there are in the world, he must be used to getting eaten by now.) Here's the deal -- if you get the baby in your slice of cake, you have good luck this year AND you have to make the King Cake the next year. We must not have stressed that last bit enough in years past, because we have yet to EVER get a King Cake made for us. But hey, maybe next year!!

Lassez Les Bon Temps Roulez.....or whatever! Happy Fat Tuesday!! And to help with the giggles and the fatness, here's one last photo, one of a series taken amidst massive giggles by my darling son. Should I be offended...or worried?