Portraits, Donuts and the Ft. Bragg Fair

     It's Friday.  That means I end up with a split personality at work.  One side of me wants to screw around and not do anything productive until 5PM, while the other side wants to get as much as possible done so I can start fresh on Monday.  I'm blogging right now.  Guess which side won.
     I have the cutest family portrait hanging up on the corkboard right next to my computer.  Spawn #2 drew it during a frenzy of artistic inspiration.  I totally adore the curly leg she gave James.

 I finally hauled myself to the doctor's office today for the long dreaded CT scan.  He wanted it done.  Obviously, I didn't.  He seems to think there's something up with the constant migraines + mood swings + concentration problems.  It won't come as a surprise if he diagnoses me as an overworked-stressed-moody-inattentive-bitch.  What did come as a surprise was to see how much weight I've gained.  These darn things must have been the culprit:

Okay, so I only eat Krispy Kremes about three times a year.  Three times a year, I will devour almost an entire box in a short amount of time.  Three times a year, I will gain an incredible amount of weight and puzzle the crap out of my doctor.  It's a little game I like to play called "You're-making-a-buttload-of-money-so-now figure-out-the-sudden-weight-gain-without-me-revealing-that I have-sporadic-donut-binge-attacks."  I have a bad feeling I may end up on the losing end of the game when I develop diabetes.  But for now, my cheerful East Indian doc tells me all my "levels" are fine.  Cholesterol and blood sugar = good.  Good.  That means there's still room for more donuts in my future.

Yesterday, James and I took Spawns 1 and 2 to the Fort Bragg Fair.  Oh, what fun.  Spawn #1 went down the zipline.  What a brave girl.

I was trying to encourage Spawn #2 to go down the zipline just like her sis.  She turned towards me with a somber look on her face and announced that she will go down the zipline when she is big enough, when she turns 5.  Not a bad excuse for a three year old.  The girls had tons of fun riding rides and bouncing on giant pods while harnessed to these pole things:

We didn't get home until.... well, let me just say it was waaaay past their bedtime on a school night.  Bad Mommy!  But hey, we have to live a little!  Besides, even though it was 10:30 at night and I had sore and achy feet and I was exhausted from working all day, I somehow felt refreshed.  Why?? Because I stopped and looked at their dirty, sticky faces and their twinkling, happy eyes:

.... and I got to eat a funnel cake :)

Shoe Racks

Funny how time flies by especially when you have kids. Yesterday, when I was tidying up the living room....Yes, I was, IN FACT, tidying up the living room (Fine, it didn't last very long), I very sweetly (or was it bossily?) asked the girls to pick up shoes of the floor. I instructed them to put the shoes in the shoe rack. This is the predicament I found them in:

I guess my household would not be my household if there were no dramatic antics abound. Besides, who am I to criticize? I HATE cleaning. And I don't mean I hate cleaning just the toilets, or the kitchen, or particular rooms in the house. I mean, I hate cleaning, PERIOD. Of course, for fear that my kids would catch some form of incurable bacterial disease, or be devoured by giant dust bunnies, I do it. Very reluctantly. Knowing I have to clean fills me with dread and I always try to pawn it off on... you guessed it right.... James!

There's just an itsy bitsy minor problem... he's not exactly the cleaning king either. I contemplated this dilemma thoroughly, all the while guiltily glancing down at the two legs I have intact. But then again, the man played football for four years hopping across the field and tackling... ummm, what are they called? Offensive line men? I'm still trying to learn football semantics. I just know he played defense and he had to tackle people.

The good thing about my beautiful man is, he can take a hint. Didn't take him long to realize how much I abhor the domesticality of cleaning and so, he does most of it. Funny, coz it's routine for us now. I do the cooking, he does most of the cleaning. I make the mess in the kitchen, he cleans up after me. I become engulfed in the aromas of cooked food and baked goods, he gets high on cleaning chemicals. We share the responsibilities of doing laundry. The kids make their mess and clean it up to the best of their abilities. James, once again, cleans up after them. What a good man. I'm a lucky ducky.

I know where all of this is coming from : The memories of having domestic help back home in the Philippines while living with my mom. Imagine never having to do dishes, or clean or even cook a meal of your own if you didn't want to... being a kid and having a nanny, having a maid specifically to do laundry and a separate household cook, even a chauffer. Bless my stepmom and dad who I lived with for a few years in South Africa and here in the States. They made sure I wasn't completely useless when it came to doing chores around the house. And thanks to my adamant choice of not being with any man for wealth and comfort, all of my relationships have led me to very humbling experiences (some of which, I really could have done without). But seriously, I couldn't ever imagine myself being arm candy for some old geezer.

The cooking and the baking.... I have no inkling how I became such an enthusiast. I guess I just have a knack for it. I am the queen of my own kitchen and woe befall those who try to dethrone me. Note that I only lord over my own kitchen and not anyone else's, in fear that woe should befall me instead. Well, I take that back. I do have a tendency to take over my father-in-law-ishes kitchen ("father-in-law-ish" = James and I aren't married but I do consider his family mine too. ..hence, the term "ish". The term "future" would only be appropriate if a ring should one day appear). But that's because I have this irrational fear that if I don't feed Matthew, who is a bachelor, he will start eating canned vegetables out of a can. He actually does that!

Needless to say, the baking frenzy hit me only a few years ago when I realized I could make these gorgeous creations and eat them too! Most of my kitchen triumphs AND disasters will probably find their way into this blog. Sometimes the disasters outweigh the triumphs... but, that's what makes it one heck of a ride!