So, I was talking to the Ladies over at one of my favorite charities about an upcoming event. I was holding Dubs’ and noticed he needed a diaper change. We finished our conversation, I said my good-byes and headed to the truck to change his diaper.
Since my mommy has done zero about my blog debut, I decided to do it myself.
Now that I am days away from being 6 months old, I thought I would share some fun facts about me otherwise it may never happen.
I’m just saying.
A couple of weeks before Christmas break, I got a call from Georgia Peach’s preschool…
The Office Lady: Hello. This is The Office Lady from “The Best Preschool In Town” (well, it is). Your daughter, GP has been complaining that her head hurts and she wants to come home.
Me: Her head hurts? Did she fall? Was she hit in the head? What happened?
The Office Lady: Her Teacher says she has mentioned that her head hurt a couple of times so, she thought she should just come home.
Me: Okay, I am on my way.
Now, from the time I ended the call until I got to the school (a 10 minute ride from our house), I had self diagnosed GP with everything from an aneurysm to a tumor! My mind was in overdrive so, I needed to get there quickly.
As I arrived at the school and readied myself to get out of the truck, I noticed my attire. And it did. not. look. good!
After I dropped off GP at school earlier that day, I decided to sort clothes to donate to Goodwill. Naturally, if I came across something I was on the fence about putting in the bag, I would try it on to ensure I wanted to give it up. I know…such a charitable heart.
When I received the call, I was trying on a maxi dress that I would normally wear with a tank top underneath because of the plunging neckline. I had been home alone all morning, so didn’t pay much attention to my clothes or what was “exposed”. I never thought to change clothes, I just grabbed my keys and left. Thankfully, I am obsessed with cardigans and had one in the truck with me. Whew! Unfortunately…it was a v-neck and didn’t help. Boo! Now, I was in a “make it work” situation a la Project Runway and felt Tim Gunn would be somewhat displeased with how I fashioned the top of the v-neck sweater together with my child’s hair accessories.
Sorry, Tim.
I dashed into the school clutching my sweater top and checked in with the security guard. He instructed me to head to the office. I rushed into the office and noticed my baby laying in the chair. I picked her up and began asking what was wrong.
Me: Hey, Sweet Pea. Are you okay?
GP: Mommy, my head hurts.
Me: Where does it hurt? Did you hit your head?
Interrupting our one-on-one…
The Office Lady: You will need to sign her out.
I throw her a look.
Relax, Lady. This is my first sick call and I don’t see a line forming behind me.
As I leaned down to put GP back in the chair, the hair accessories holding my sweater top closed start to shift in unflattering ways. Luckily, the verbally observant GP doesn’t notice I am coming undone. I grabbed the top of the sweater, turned around and leaned down to sign her out. By the time I picked GP back up, the sweater was open and “situations” were in jeopardy of being exposed. I positioned her in front to cover me and carried her through the church lobby (yep, her preschool is in a church) to get to the parking lot.
Once we got home, I gave GP some Children’s Tylenol and we cuddled on the couch until she fell asleep. A few hours later she was all better and that dress ended up in the “toss pile”:-)
After I spoke to GP’s Teacher, it all made sense. For the past 3 days, GP and I had been picking up her BFF, Carolina Belle from her preschool to play until her mother picked her up from our house. So GP had been skipping her much-needed daily nap to play.
Side Note: Anyone that has spent more than 10 minutes with GP knows that Carolina Belle is her BFF. Recently, GP convinced a friend at school that Carolina Belle (who attends a different school in a neighboring town) was also their BF. GP was so convincing that the little girl’s Mother asked me about their new friend, Carolina Belle! GP will do anything to spend as much time with Carolina Belle as possible.
Turns out she was simply an exhausted preschooler, too much play and not enough rest. Seriously, when will I learn? Truly some of our finest work as a Mother/Daughter team.
Until the next adventure…:-)
Happy New Year! I am starting off this year with a recap post of last week… 
Back To School: Georgia Peach and the Coach headed back to school! I was happy to finally answer, “Yes!” to GP’s morning question, “Is it a school day?”. She asked us the same question almost daily during her break. She was excited to reunite with her teachers and friends!
We hope her enthusiasm for school and learning continues for years to come. Or at least for the remainder of the school year. 🙂
Back To Work: I started a new position and could not be happier! I am so excited to work with this group and really looking forward to the work I get to do with them. My last position allowed me to work from home, so naturally I had to make some adjustments to working in an office….with other people. Outside of the most obvious adjustment, the dress code, I had a little hiccup with my usual music routine. I enjoy listening to music while I work and I noticed that the majority of my co-workers did too. So when the battery on my iPad Mini needed to be recharged, I decided to listen to music on my phone.
I unplugged my headphones from my iPad and tapped the Pandora music app on my phone.Unfortunately, the app started immediately and this song began to play loudly from my phone! Imagine quietly working at your desk and all of a sudden you hear…”Dirty South! Can y’all really feel me?” from the newbie’s desk! I frantically tried to silence my phone by swiping and fumbling with the screen. I had no idea what lyrics were next! Side note: Plugging my headphones into the phone never crossed my mind!
Luckily, only one person turned around to see what was happening. Everyone else…had on their headphones! Whew.
Back To The Drawing Board: After finding a temporary Nanny for GP for my recent jury duty, we were thrilled when we were able to land her as our full-time Nanny. Two days into my new position, Fit Nanny calls to tell me that she is quitting to take a job at her boyfriend’s company. Honestly, I wasn’t as upset about it as I would have been in the past (I know, who am I?). Maybe it was all the Nanny drama we had been through in the past that has left me numb? I don’t know. But, she explained that she had been a Nanny since moving to the US and wanted to try something new. Without experience, she was having a hard time making the transition. So, while I have no idea how I am going to tell GP she is getting a new Nanny (she LOVES her), I am happy Fit Nanny will be doing something she really wants to do. I know how that feels! 🙂
Back to the Blog: December is a difficult month for me so, I was mostly silent as the end of the year approached. My mom’s birthday, her favorite holiday, the anniversary of her death and funeral all fall in December. This year she would have celebrated her 65th birthday and for whatever reason that fact alone put me in a mini tailspin at the beginning of the month. Which I know is okay. But it was difficult balancing my joy of the season and the pain of not being with my favorite lady. Unfortunately, I know many of you share similar journeys of personal loss and together we take it on, one day at a time. Writing always makes me feel more connected to my mother so, I’m back! I will not only write here but, I will be branching out to other publications this year.
See you in a few days! I have a couple of posts I never published chilling in draft mode, so more is on the way. Thanks for reading!
Photo Credit: ImageChef.com
This year, I decided to celebrate my Mother’s birthday by doing something to honor her memory! My Cousin Unfiltered (she has this name for obvious reasons) pointed out to me on our beloved Grandma’s birthday this year, “Birthdays are to be celebrated.” And with that simple yet, poignant statement a fresh perspective and new tradition was born. On my Grandma’s birthday this September, I did a little something in honor of her and I thought on my Mom’s birthday (December 2) it would be cool if I learned how to make a cake from scratch. 🙂
Here’s why…
My Mom made some things from scratch + she was a great Mother = I will instantly become a great Mother upon making this cake. 😉
Baking is not a bad skill to have, right?
I will be able to teach Georgia Peach (GP) how to bake from scratch too!
All good reasons in my book so, I set out to make it happen.
First, I looked through the cookbooks and recipes my Mom and Uncle gave me to see if I could find a simple white cake recipe. Couldn’t find one. So, I took to the internet and came across a recipe. Red Velvet Cake. Yes! I thought, ‘if I can make this cake, my baking status in the family would most definitely elevate PLUS it requires fancy red food coloring…sweet!’
Now, I’m excited! I printed off my list for the grocery store and headed out to gather my ingredients. Since I am known to glance over recipe instructions when I should be paying attention to the details this time I actually noticed that I needed to sift the flour. Umm excuse me, sift you say? I don’t have a sifter, maybe I should have registered for one of those when we got married? Looks like I am getting one of those as well. Vamonos!
While at the store with GP, we weaved in and out of the 3 aisles dedicated to baking, like we are braiding hair. First the aisle with flour, then the aisle with the baking tins and next the one with the cocoa then back to the flour aisle…mainly because I was obsessed with getting the exact ingredients, I am not ready nor equipped to substitute things yet. We paid for the groceries and headed back home…without a sifter.
Now, I’m not sure who occupied my body earlier in the day but, I had dinner ready for The Coach (with two options) by the time he hit the door at 5 p.m. This allowed me to dedicate the majority of my evening to my cake project so, I was able to run to another store solely to locate and purchase a sifter. After feeding, bathing and putting GP to bed I began to prepare my work space for my latest masterpiece. I pulled all of my ingredients out and placed them on the counter. When I reached for the vegetable oil, I discovered we didn’t have enough for the recipe.
Focused and determined…I headed back to the store!
I returned home and jumped in, only to realize the eggs needed to be room temperature! I took 2 eggs out and laid them on the stove that had been pre-heating for about an hour now to help speed up the process. In the meantime, I decided to start measuring out my dry ingredients. I packed them ALL at once into the sifter measuring cup and tried to sift it. This was my first time using a sifter aka the devil’s kitchen instrument, I had no clue what I was doing outside of making a mess! Finally, I figured it out and saw why it was needed, those dry ingredients combined were as smooth as box cake mix. Nice!
Now, we are getting somewhere or so I thought.
As I moved to the wet ingredients, the recipe as clear as day, said the buttermilk should be at room temperature too! SERIOUSLY? I took it out of the refrigerator and put it in a warm bowl of water when my phone rang. It was my sweet Aunt J, checking on my progress and reassuring me that the cake would turn out fine. 🙂 I gave up on the room temperature buttermilk, the eggs were the appropriate temperature now, so in my mind it would all balance out. Ha! I combined the wet and dry ingredients with my mixer and poured the batter into 2 round tins and put them in the oven.
26 minutes later…my first cakes from scratch were finished! Once the cakes were cool, I flipped, frosted and presented my masterpiece to my Husband who at this point had been asleep for nearly 2.5 hours. It was now midnight. The only way to determine if it was all worth it was to get Mikey er the Coach to “try it”.
The Coach: This is good. Can I get a glass of water?
Me: I thought you said it was good and moist, why do you need something to drink?
The Coach: Because you just woke me up to eat cake, I’m thirsty.
Me: Hmmm…
I tried it for myself and it was pretty decent for the first go around. For a project that had a targeted total (prep and bake) time of 1 hour, I finished in about 4. Whaaatttt?
There is definitely room for improvement. 🙂
What have you done or do to celebrate/honor the memory of your loved ones?
Seriously, I Didn't Know 