Antsiness, Anxiety, and Ice Cream for Dinner

Dave and I are very different when it comes to the weekends. He likes to bum around the house, play video games, watch TV, etc. I go one of two ways. Either I am the same way, and prefer to stay close to home. Or I get restless. My mind starts thinking about ALL the things we need to do. Like the mountains of laundry that is threatening to take over our closet. Or the fact that we are maybe 1/3 of the way finished with our packing. And we move on the 1st. Or that the floor needs to be mopped. See what I mean? So, today was a combination of the two.

Sutton woke up around 7:30 this morning. I got up with him, and brought him downstairs where we snuggled on the couch until about 8:45. Then I started making breakfast. I said to Sutton "Should we go wake up your dad?" Next thing I know, he's headed up the stairs by himself, yelling, "DAD! DAD!" I go upstairs where Dave is slowly waking up, and corral Sutton back downstairs.
For breakfast, I made Cinnamon Bun Pancakes, from the Tasty Kitchen blog. Oh my yum. I added a powdered sugar icing/syrup that another reader had recommended. So made the difference. Really made it taste like a cinnamon bun.
The recipe is listed below.

• 1-½ cup All-purpose Flour
• 3 Tablespoons White Sugar
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 4 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
• 2 whole Eggs Beaten
• 1 cup Milk
• 2 Tablespoons Corn Syrup
• ¼ cups Butter, Melted
• 1 Tablespoon Vanilla

In medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and cinnamon with a whisk. Whisk well to make sure everything is combined.

In separate large bowl, beat together eggs, milk, corn syurp, butter and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture.

Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium/low heat. Pour about 1/4 cup batter onto griddle. Brown on both sides.

Serve warm with icing drizzled over the top.

Here is the recipe for the icing.
3/4 cup powdered sugar, 2 tbsp melted butter, 2 tbsp milk and mix together.

Really, really good. Sutton ate FOUR of them. And I mean adult sized pancakes.

After our carb-fest, Sutton wanted to go watch a movie. He's obsessed with watching "movies" in our bed. He likes to be snuggled under the covers with us.

So last night, we started watching "The Princess and the Frog." We finished it this morning. While we were watching it, Sutton kept saying "Supai. Supai." And we couldn't understand what he was saying. Then Dave figured it out. PBS has a show called "SuperWhy" and it's all about reading and books. Sutton hadn't watched it that many times, so I didn't think he liked it all that much. We were wrong. Everytime the characters say their little catch phrases, he tries to say them along with them. So cute.
When movie time was over, I started tackling the mountains of laundry. Since we currently live in a two-story house, I throw the laundry over the railing, and collect it downstairs, where the washing machine is. Sutton decided that he wanted to help.

At around noon, Sutton was tired, so I put him down for a nap. Then I got dressed, and went down to the full-line Nordstrom, to pick up some makeup. When I got back, Sutton was still napping. He woke up around two-thirty, and we had a quick lunch of pizza.
After lunch, we all went outside to play. Well, Dave didn't play. He pulled weeds instead.
Sutton "helped" by watering the plants. He ended up watering the one pot that didn't have a plant in it.

That should have been enough, but my head kept telling me that we needed to be making the most of the beautiful weather. So I suggested going to the park by our house. Turns out that the park was extremely underwhelming. Kind of boring, actually. Got this cute picture of Dave and Sutton, though.
In the best suggestion of the day, Dave came up with the idea of going for ice cream. So we drove to Culver's for some soft serve. Sutton got his own cup, and boy, did he enjoy it.
Since it was about four-thirty at this point, I decided that this would be dinner. Yay for cool Mommy! We came home to more laundry, packing, a meltdown at bathtime, and two stories before bed. And we're exhausted.
That was our day. How was yours?

Yet Another Blog Change and Fashion Musings

Welcome, everyone, to yet another background on ye olde MacDonald website. I don't know why, but the previous blog backgrounds wouldn't let some people post. So I've made more changes. Hopefully, they work.

Lately, Sarah, Jamie, Gina, and others have started a mom-style blog. And I thought this was a great idea. Since I work for a major retailer (Starts with "N" and rhymes with "ordstrom") I'm curious how moms interpret the new trends. Or do they simply dress in what works for them. And until they ask me to contribute a post (hint, hint!!) I'll talk about my own fashion choices.

Since I work in retail, I am surrounded by fashion, and trends. So, on the weekends, I am all about the jeans and T-shirts. I am a big jeans lover. At one point in my retail career, I was the manager of the contemporary denim department, and I LOVED it. So many choices, and I got to wear jeans to work!! And we were required to try them all on, to see how each brand fit us. My favorite brands were Paige Premium Denim, Citizens of Humanity, and Joe's Jeans. I loved how Paige Denim was made for a woman's body. The creator of the brand used to be the fit model for Seven for All Mankind, before she branched out and created her own label. I used to tell my customers, "They are made for women with hips and a butt." Citizens of Humanity was a great, stylish jean (and it didn't hurt that I got a pair for free!) What I loved about Joe's Jeans was that they offered a petite style. As a woman of 5'3'' (5'4'' on a big hair day) these jeans didn't need to be altered. You could just buy them off the rack and boom! You're good to go!

Then, later down the road, I had a baby. And all those jeans, the brands that I used to love, didn't fit me so well anymore. They rode a little too low, and my post-baby belly used to pooch out in a way that I hated. So, thus began the quest to find stylish, reasonable rise jeans.

I still wear my Joe's Jeans. But, if they stretch a little too much, they start riding low. Then came the skinny jeans trend. At first, I was hesitant to try it. I didn't want super tight jeans; I was trying to get away from that. But I gave it a shot. The first pair that I tried was the Old Navy skinny jeans. Sarah mentioned in her blog that she thought they were too baggy in the legs. I totally agree with that. So the search continued.
I ended up finding a pair that I liked in the most unlikely of places...Chico's. Yes, I know. Chico's-the mecca of most middle-aged women. The brand that; as my regional manager calls it "covers the masses of asses." But there I found a pair of skinny jeans with a comfortable rise. AND a short length, so I didn't need to get them altered. SOLD! They're actually really nice, and super comfy. I wear them all the time.

That gets me to my next point. Breaking outside of my comfort zone. It's a theme with many women. We find a trend or a style that works for us, and we work it to death. For me, it's the work-pants-and-flats look. More specifically the flats. I don't wear heels much anymore. I'm standing on my feet for 8 or sometimes 9 hours a day; mostly on hard concrete floors. My poor feet are beat up after years of wearing heels for speech. So I stick to flats. I have three or four pairs that I constantly rotate. Today, I tried something new. A skirt, and strappy nude sandals. Of course, I was much too tired to take a picture when I got home. But the outfit was cute, and I got a lot of compliments on it. And the shoes weren't TOO bad. They were good until about hour 7.5. Then they started hurting.

Off to bed. I'm off work tomorrow, so much cleaning and packing will be done. Night!!

Blog Problems

Is anyone having trouble posting comments on here? I'm wondering if changing the blog background messed with the posting section.

Return of Super Happy Family Fun Day!!

Or, as we like to call it, "Super Happy Family Fun Day Strikes Again!"

Today was the open house, take two. And just like the previous open house, it poured down rain for most of the day. We called the realtor like five times in the days before, asking "Are you still going to hold the open house?" Because we DID NOT want a repeat of last time. But she swore that she was going to hold the open house. But true to our form, the day did not go super smoothly.

On Friday, our dog got into a bag of chocolate candy. Now, let me be clear. We did not leave said candy lying around. It was up on a shelf and must have gotten knocked down somehow. Nevertheless, the dog inhaled about two-thirds of the bag. And proceeded to get violently sick ALL OVER THE HOUSE. Fun, let me tell you. And he is still suffering the consequences of eating something he shouldn't.

So, Saturday night, I went to sleep around 11:45. For some reason, Dave was up. I guess he was keeping an eye on the dog to see if he was doing OK. But around 3:15 this morning, I wake up to the sound of Dave swearing. The dog was throwing up right outside Sutton's room. And the combination of the noise, Dave's swearing, and his turning on the light woke Sutton up. And he immediately started crying, "Daddy! My Daddy!" Wanting to help Dave, I went in instead. Big mistake. I shouldn't have gone in. Sutton has a bad track record of waking up. Once he's up, he's up. Will. Not. Go. Back. To. Sleep.

So, for the next three hours or so, I tried rocking him, letting him cry it out, bringing him into our bed, before finally throwing in the towel and taking him downstairs. In fact, Sutton asked for it. He told me, "want go downstairs." Where he knew the TV was. And I was too tired to argue. So I brought him downstairs, turned on Nick Jr. and covered us both with a blanket. I dozed off and on, to be woken up by little hands patting my face. At 8:30, I finally tagged Dave in, and slept for an hour. Then I had to get up, shower, and finish cleaning the house.

At around 11 or so, we packed everyone up and headed for my mom's house. The whole way there, we kept promising Sutton that he could have pancakes at Denny's. Or as we call them, "cake-cakes." After dropping the dog off at my mom's, we head to Denny's. By this time, Sutton is hungry and crashing. He needed food and a nap. The wait at Denny's was too long, so we headed to McDonald's, thinking we could get breakfast there. Oh yeah, they stop serving breakfast at 10:30. Sorry about those pancakes, Sutton; have some chicken nuggets instead. But he ate, and was somewhat happy. Then he passed the f*@k out in the car.

We toured some rental properties, looking for a new house to rent. And we found some, so keep your fingers crossed. Then we came home, crawled into our bed, and watched movies. All three of us. We ordered pizza for dinner and ate it in our bed. At one point, Dave looked at me over the top of Sutton's head and said, "THIS is what Super Happy Family Fun Day is about." Amen to that!