Presenting the Great C-ini

My magician son performed magic tonight. I don't know if it was a success or an epic fail. When I arrived home from my book club meeting, he informed me that he had done something really bad and was afraid I would be mad at him. He said he tried to do a magic trick with a penny, but he accidentally swallowed it. Oops. I still can't figure out how a 9YO boy can accidentally swallow a penny. The nurse said that since he was able to swallow, the penny probably was already in his stomach and would pass through his intestines in the next few days. Super D suggested that C inspect his poops to see if it has a "cent". I told C that it was a fantastic trick because he made the penny disappear!

FREE Holiday Fun

Tonight I surprised the family and took them into the city for a ride on a riverboat. They are giving FREE water taxi rides every evening through Christmas. We have always wanted to take this tour, and tonight, the price was just right. It was cold, but we had a great time. As a special surprise to all of us, they served cookies and hot chocolate at the end of the tour!

The walk along the river is beautifully decorated.

Super D and me

A and C

Best. Carrot cake. EVER!

No points for presentation, but a 10 for flavor!

Every year, I make Super D's favorite cake for his birthday. I only make it once a year so it is hard to perfect it. Almost every year the cake sticks to the pan, and I have to scrape the cake out in pieces. The first layer was so bad this year that Super D joked about just scooping it into a large bowl and covering it with frosting. Fortunately, the second layer made it out almost intact, so I pieced together the bottom layer and held it together with frosting. Although it looked hideous on the plate, it was indeed the best carrot cake I have ever made. Light! Moist! Creamy! De-licious!

Birthday suggestions

When I gave no hints as to what I want for my 40th birthday (Wow, it seems so old when I type it!) Super D began making suggestions.

"Clothing? Accessories? Something monogrammed? A purse? Underwear?"

And A jumped in with, "Monogrammed underwear?"

Dr. Mom

I may be a worrier, but I'm not when it comes to my children being sick. I assess the symptoms and deal with illness efficiently. Well, that's what I think anyway. I'm sure that I must have let it go to my head when our pediatrician told me I should study nursing because I knew so much already. (Big head alert!)

Super D is my nemesis in situations of childhood illness. Either of our children gets the slightest sniffle, and he wants to rush them to the doctor. He thinks I don't worry enough.

So today, I channeled my inner Super D and took our son to the doctor. He had gone to the school office, complaining of being able to taste blood in the back of his throat, and he said his chin itched. He had no other symptoms, but the look on his face told me all I needed to know. Because of multiple cases of strep throat at our school, I called the doctor and scheduled an appointment. I mean, tasting blood in the back of his throat didn't sound so normal to me.

The 5-minute test was negative, but the doc said his throat was really red with lots of pus. (Pus. Eww.) She said she didn't believe the test. Apparently, they get lots of false negatives - in 20% of the test results, she said. We could wait around two days to send it off to a lab for further testing, but with the pus and all (Eww.) she called it strep and prescribed an antibiotic.

So, in a way, Super D saved the day in this case.

A Super Date with Super D

Super D and I bought our family two season tickets to the Broadway season at our local theater. I went to the first show, Peter Pan, with A. Tonight it was my turn to go to the theater with my honey. It was his suggestion that we dress for the theater, so he looked pretty spiffy in his suit. The show was Memphis. We knew absolutely nothing about the musical, but we were excited nonetheless.

Super D was shocked by how bad our seats are, but when you buy the cheapest tickets, you get the seats in the very back. And I mean VERY back. There are only two rows behind us. I don't mind - I am so excited that we have season tickets, I don't even care. It's not any worse than the seats we had when we went to the circus. (The pooper-scooper barrels were on the floor below our seats!)

It was me. I let the dogs out.

This is my new favorite internet photo. Love it! It makes me giggle!

Epic Fail

Ever since a friend introduced me to the concept of laundry nirvana, I have been obsessed with it. If only every bit of fabric in my house was clean at the same time! I finally had a long weekend, due to a day off from school because of parent teacher conferences, and I determined to attempt it. I figure I completed approximately 22 loads of laundry throughout the weekend. I washed, dried, and folded inbetween spending time with my family, watching movies, doing schoolwork, and watching TV. We even ventured out of the house several times; all the while my laundry was spinning back at home.

At 11:00 p.m. Sunday evening, my excitement began to grow as I took the last load from the washer and placed it in the dryer. Had I finally done it? Everything was finally clean! But, no, I had forgotten to throw 3 tea towels in with the final load.

One trend I'll never do

I'm not a fan of the hair bump. I couldn't tell you why - until today.

I bumped my hair as a joke for Super D. He thinks the hair bump is silly, too.

Once bumped, my hair reminded me of something, but I couldn't figure out what.

David figured it out:

I think I may have my Halloween costume for next year!

You know you're getting old when . . .

. . . you crank up the car radio to sing "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" at the top of your lungs, comment that the song is from Top Gun, and your teenage daughter says, "What's Top Gun?"