Monkey Bread is the Devil

Bookworm turns 11 tomorrow.  After a lengthy discussion we decided she would NOT have a slumber party...She would only invite one friend over in order to avoid the "girl drama" that sometimes comes with such things as sleepovers.  Plus, after Popcorn's last slumber party, I had vowed I was never doing another slumber party again.  So I may have tried to manipulate my oldest into believing slumber parties aren't all they're cracked up to be...

Only we had to invite two friends.  Oh, and she hadn't seen Morgan since last summer's party, so we really needed to see if she could come.  Oh, and what about the girl next door, we don't want her to feel left out.

And OF COURSE Popcorn should invite a friend for her to play with, so she wouldn't be hogging the scene from her sister.

So, five invitations later we had a non-slumber party birthday party that somehow did involve seven little girls at my house.

But again, this was not a slumber party. Those are too much stress and work.  I hate stress.  I'm not a big fan of work.  Unless it's making my kids work, and I'm all about that.  They have to learn a work ethic somewhere, right?

I have some great tips on how to have a stress free NONslumber party.  I know you are all just dying to learn them, so here goes.  Complete with picture tutorials.

1.  Go to the store to buy a present from her sister and a yellow cake mix for chocolate/vanilla swirl cupcakes. Run by Braum's for ice and milk for homemade ice cream.  Homemade ice cream may sound hard for those who've never made it.  But it's not.  It is divine.  You will love it.  Your kids will love it.  You will be lauded hero of the day simply for serving it.  I recommend it.  Truly, I do.

2.  While you are at the store have the birthday girl clean the bathroom and dust.  If she happens to finish before you return you can have her dig decorations out from previous parties and decorate.  I would even recommend she plan any activities they are going to do.  After all, it's her party right?  If she wants them to be entertained, she should make sure it happens!  This time the birthday girl drew treasure maps for each girl to find her goodie bag.  She dipped the paper in coffee and let it dry in the sun, then waded it up so it appeared old.  This year's goodie was a $5 gift card to Sonic.  I decided nobody really keeps the junk from goodie bags anyway, so at least this was something useful!  Again, we've removed some stress.  Not making pointless goodie bags, and making the kid clean for her own party!  Woohoo! 

3.  Keep it simple.  Don't stress with cleaning.  The kids will trash the house anyway.  Any cleaning that needs to be done should be done by the children in the house.  It will keep them occupied so they aren't constantly nipping at your heels wondering when everyone is going to show up for the NONslumber party.

4.  Stock up on party supplies with coupons leading up to the party.  Have a designated, "don't touch this, it's for the party that is not a party next week."  Sure, it made the hutch area junky.  To be honest my hutch area is ALWAYS cluttered, and this just gave me an excuse to leave it that way.  It's a good thing.  I'm sure Martha Stewart would agree...

5.  I recommend grilling hot dogs and providing chips.  You can crumble and make homemade Butterfinger ice cream along with the cupcakes.  But only if you are feeling generous.  Resist making fruit salad and cute little watermelon baskets.  Yes, they will look cute and the kids will admire them.  Your daughter will probably even feel extra loved if you do this.  However, if you DON'T do it, will she even realize she missed out?  Nope.  She will be too busy chasing kittens and splashing in the pool and running around yelling for no apparent reason.  So, save yourself the headache and keep it simple.

Plus, if you have hot dogs you have an excuse to use these super cute plastic hot dog holders you got for a hole dollar at Dollar General!  Fun!

6.  Have your husband help out as much as possible.  Mine helped with the ice for the ice cream maker, grilled the hot dogs and carted stuff outside so the kids weren't dripping all over the floor.  But, then again, my husband is the best, so you may not have this step up and take action sort of man.  But I do.  Sorry about your luck.

7.  As I mentioned, carry everything outside.  I love this big red plastic wash tub I got several years ago.  Again, at Dollar General.  Dollar General is also to thank for that cute orange wire picnic organizer.  Too handy!  Throw the two liters in the ice chest along with the ice and carry it all outside in three little trips.  Again, simple, simple, simple.  Notice there is no fancy table cloth that will have to be washed off and put back away.  There aren't even cute little lawn chairs arranged  in convenient circles.  Just let them fill their plates and park where they may.  Simple, simple, simple!!!

8.  Save old party decorations.  We have had these parasol picks for three parties now.  I bought them in a package of 100, I think they turned out pretty slick with the cute twisty candles.  Oh, and see that tray?  That is also from Dollar General.  I love Dollar General in the summer.  I just can't resist their patriotic summer ware!  Please excuse my over exposed hand.  This was the only picture Studmuffin took that didn't include me bent over lighting candles in my swimsuit and I wasn't even holding in my stomach!  Seriously.  The man should know to prompt me that I'm in a photo, so I can at least attempt to hide my post partum pudge!  Please, no comments about the age of my children.  Thank you.

9.  Be sure to provide plenty of entertainment.  Scratch that.  I planned nothing.  They seemed to find plenty to keep them occupied.  Here they are sumo wrestling.  At 11pm.  I had pointed out that Studmuffin had been up since 3am, and he might like them to play quietly.  "You can stay up, but please no screaming."  I can assure you that I did NOT have to come in at 1:07am with one eye open, staggering down the hall, curls sticking up all over to say, "STOP SCREAMING.  It is after 1am.  I am trying to sleep."  Total silence descended.  I did not hear another peep out of them.  Strangely, my darling husband never uttered one word of complaint.  He was happily sleeping away.  Of course he is never the bad guy.  Hmpf. 

The thing to remember about this step is you just go to bed.  Ignore what they are doing.  Do NOT go check if they are spilling or fighting or sleeping, or whatever.  Go to bed.  I have found that there is less drama and spillage when I'm not around.  Either that, or I just don't know about it.  Either way, I'm less stressed, so I really don't care, so there ya go.  Mission accomplished.

The next morning one girl had to be picked up by 8:30am to get ready for family pictures.  This was the sight that greeted me as I got up.  Apparently, they eventually crashed.  Hard.

10.  So, my final tip to you is this delicious monkey bread.  It's easy to make and super yummy.

Of course, you will find yourself going and snitching a little bite every time you walk by.  Regardless of the dimples in your thighs, or the bloated feeling in your tummy from two big bowls of Butterfinger ice cream the night before.  It's kind of like having the devil sitting on your kitchen counter.  Tempting you to just have one more nibble.

But, it will be a delicious nibble!  And it will have been simple to make!  Ten minutes prep time, I kid you not.  So here you go.  A new recipe for your edification and added dimples.  Everyone loves dimples, right?

Monkey Bread
1/3 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 sticks butter
4 cans biscuits (I use the cheap small biscuits over the Grands.)
Mix together: 
2/3 c sugar
1 1/2  tsp cinnamon

Place the first three in a saucepan.  Bring to boil and stir for two minutes. 
Confession:  I always ignore this step and just melt it in the microwave for two minutes.  But, I'm lazy like that.
Cut the biscuits into four pieces each and toss pieces in the cinnamon and sugar mixture. 
Place coated biscuits in a greased bundt pan. Pour butter mixture over top and bake at 350 for thirty minutes.  Let set a few minutes to set up caramelized sauce.  Dump over onto a cute platter that you may have confiscated from a relative's attic and enjoy!

Now how easy was that?

Delirium

It has been an exciting week around here.

Monday I returned to work after 2 weeks off, between Thanksgiving and measles.

I worked a 10 hour day and came home to find supper started and my niece Sarah, who was staying with us for a few weeks, had ran and emptied the dishwasher! Little things make me happy.

Tuesday I worked another 10 hour day, and returned home to find supper made again.

Amen.

Wednesday was my day off, and I told you all about that roller coaster ride of emotions.

Thursday was a "work" day. However, my hospital has 2 days of employee appreciation every year. They rent a theater in the Harkins downtown, give us breakfast in the form of snack bars and nasty coffee that they fool us into thinking will be great by handing it out in Starbucks cups, and hand out tons of awards. They show a video telling us how awesome Saint Anthony is, (click to view one of our commercials about believing in the power of prayer) and have a motivational speaker that is very entertaining.

Then they give us a ten dollar gift certificate to eat anywhere downtown we want. And we get an hour and a half to eat. After working most shifts with only 10 minutes to scarf down something quick, I love this part. We walked along the river, and had a great Mexican food lunch.

In the afternoon they give out more awards, hand out soda and candy, and show a movie. This year we got to see "Morning Glory." I highly recommend it. I laughed, got teary, and left totally relaxed.

And, get this. I got paid for an 8 hour shift to do all of that!

AND IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY!!!

Side note: It is a bit touchy for a slightly hyperactive person to be offered free coffee and sodas, and sit still in a movie theater for 6 hours. It was not very pretty at times.

Friday I went to work, and the staff who had been unable to attend Spirit Day on Thursday went. This left us with a whopping 2 nurses and 2 techs and our supervisor to do what we normally do with 4 to 5 additional staff.

Good times. Good times. I got to work at 6:45 am, and clocked out at 6:45 pm. The group that had covered for us the day before had finished up by 1pm. And they got lunch. I had a banana, two tablespoons of peanut butter, a package of crackers, and a half cup of black coffee to get me through the day. At about 5pm, I was delirious and hungry. I was standing at the desk filling out paperwork, and listening to my patient and his family chat. I got so tickled at something he said, that I collapsed against the counter, head in my arms laughing hysterically.

And I couldn't even say why, or what was funny. But tears were streaming down my face and I was absolutely rolling.

Don't you wish I was your nurse in that state?

I went and brewed a strong cup of coffee, and came to my senses enough to sedate my patient and not endanger any lives.

As I pulled out of the parking garage to come home, I called my hubby to tell him I was finally getting off of work. "What's for dinner?"

"I didn't know what you would want. I figured after such a long day you would be hungry and vicious, so I thought I'd see what you want."

Wow. He knows me well. However, he was skating on thin ice, since he had no idea or plans on what to feed the ravenous beast...

"At this point I'm so hungry, I would eat whatever you put in front of me. And, I'm punchy instead of cranky. However, I will definitely be ready for food when I walk in the door."

He had an egg sandwich ready for me when I walked in and collapsed onto a bar stool.

I finished my evening off with my new Christmas treat:

Eggnog with a dash of ground allspice and a very generous splash of spiced rum.

It is almost certain to make everything right with my world.

Oh, and just to share my good news, I got a Nook for my birthday. I'm loving it, and so is my husband. He is reading the first book he's read since we got married. He is reading "Dracula." This has always been his favorite book, and it seems he is inspired to read now, and I fear we may come to blows over who's turn it is to use the Nook.

Not really.

But we may definitely exchange some words.

Just bein' real here.

Now, I shall end this long, boring post. Thank you for bearing with me.

Ice Skating

Popcorn turned 8 last Wednesday! Happy belated birthday, Popcorn!

Of course, I didn't forget her birthday, I just haven't had the chance to blog about our adventures! we started the day with a birthday wish on OK43 from the news crew there. Yes, I am fabulous. I will not mention the fact that I kept submitting it wrong, and I finally got it in at 8:55 am, and the very last thing they mentioned as they went off the air at 9am was "Happy 8th birthday Mindy." But, hey! It was said, and she heard it!


We met Studmuffin at CiCi's for lunch. I was so excited when she picked an all you can eat pizza, pasta, salad, and DESSERT buffet. I just love it when my kids are practical...And cheap. It brings a tear of joy to a mama's eye, I'm tellin' ya.



We invited a little friend to go skating with us. My girls had ice skated once before, but now that they have roller blades, they seemed to pick up the ice skating pretty quick. They each claim to have hardly fallen at all. If that is the case, I ask you to please disregard the wet spots on their jeans.


Have you ever noticed that kids will tramp through the snow even if there is a perfectly cleared sidewalk right next to them?


Also, this little birthday girl is practically incapable of walking right next to me anywhere. However, she is VERY capable of posing prettily at the sight of a camera.

We finished the day with her favorite supper: Spaghetti. We had store bought cupcakes since we were having a party for her on January first. She was just as happy with them as homemade... But I wasn't.


Oh! I'm sure you're wondering how I did ice skating. I did pretty well over all. I only had one big fall. But that was enough. When I hit the ice on my knees, my stomach rolled, and I seriously thought I was going to puke. But I didn't. I got up as quickly as I could so as not to draw attention to myself, and "skated it off." Of course, I didn't stop. I'm just not much of a spectator. Now, I fell a few other times. Once just to my hands because I hadn't realized my skate had come untied. I quickly remedied that. Another time I fell on my bottom. Popcorn had stopped to talk with me. As she skated off, she cut behind me. She lost her balance and grabbed my by the back of my coat. My skates flew out from under me, and I landed on my bottom. Of course, the only evidence of my scrapes is my knees.



Now it's a lovely shade of yellowish-green and purple. It was originally a 2nd knee cap on the inside of my knee. It looks a lot worse now, but it feels much better.

By the way, for any of you who may be wondering. It sure did hurt a lot worse to fall as an adult than I remember.

My Birthday

Well, yesterday I turned the big Three-Four. Woo. Hoo.... Yes, that was sarcasm. You know, I have not cried that much on any given day in years. Much less on my BIRTHDAY!!!

The truth is, I am S-T-R-E-S-S-E-D. The dogs had a HUGE fight the other day. They have never fought before, and the vet said they are probably trying to reestablish who is dominant now that one dog is weaker. I am trying to let Kelsey finish healing before I let them alone again. Holly is growling at her every time they are together, and she raises her hackles. However, I don't know who started the fight, she may just be so scared that she wants to be bigger and tougher every time they are together.

I'm stressing about the dollhouse. I'll post an update on that later today. I looked for dollhouse dolls at Hobby Lobby yesterday, and they were the ugliest things I've ever seen, especially for $28. The doll pram Popcorn wanted is out of stock, so now I'm trying to find one similar online somewhere else for a reasonable price.

I'm functioning on very little sleep because when I try to sleep I start worrying about the dogs, or money, or if the girls will like their Christmas. I wake up every time he repositions or makes a noise in his sleep. When I do fall asleep, Studmuffin wakes up and I have to help him get his ice machine disconnected and give him pain pills or whatever. Then, it takes me forever to fall back asleep. I think I've averaged about 4 hours of sleep per night since his surgery last Thursday.

But enough whining, this is about my birthday!

The birthday that Studmuffin failed to acknowledge, because he didn't have time to go get me anything because of his surgery, and he's been too busy before that. Let's not mention the hunting and fishing trips he took every weekend for the last 2 months. Apparently, my birthday is a very rare occasion, and it doesn't come every year at the same time, so he has no idea when to expect it.

Last night he felt guilty and decided to go get his prescription filled by himself. He ran into Walmart and grabbed a cake. Red velvet, to be exact. I acted excited and pretended to love it. However, if you were to list my favorite desserts from most to least, red velvet would be at the bottom right next to lemon cakes. I will eat it when offered it, but would never choose it for myself. But, seriously, don't tell him that. He rarely reads this blog, so he will probably never see this paragraph...

But, on the upside of the whole deal, my brother called me. Yep. My selfish, spoiled brat brother called me on my birthday.

My sisters didn't call, but my brother did.

I think I fell into some parallel universe or something. Granted, I have forgotten to call my sisters many times. I'm just inconsiderate that way. However, the fact that my BROTHER called is shocking, especially next to my sisters not calling. How strange is that? Here's a glimpse of our conversation...

David: Happy birthday Sis!

Me: Thanks!

David: How are you?

Me: Great!

D: What did you get?

Me: Nothing. I guess I've been "nuttin' but bad." (I let out a weak laugh.)

*Crickets chirping*


D: Gee, I'm sorry.

Me: That's okay. I guess Kelsey's doctor bills were my birthday present. (Trying to laugh in an upbeat, I have no worries way.)

D: (very relieved at the topic change) So, how is Kelsey? Is she stupid now?


So, there you go.

My brother called me. We had a conversation typical of him.

But not my sisters.

My husband forgot my birthday, but ran to the store to get a cake and cards, that he didn't bother to sign.

My grandmama meant to call, but got busy and forgot.

My youngest daughter thought my birthday was today, and when she realized she was off a day, cheerfully sang me "Happy Birthday" with all the enthusiasm a 7 year old can muster and played a game of charades with me as a present, plus I got to be President of The Day in her club. A very high honor indeed!

Bookworm said she was going to make me a present because homemade presents are the best...Then she started playing and forgot to finish it.

It seems that I'm surrounded by people who are as inconsiderate as I am. I'm guessing they learned it from me, who forgets just about everyone's birthday but my own...

But, seriously keep your eyes open for an update on the Non-Crafters dollouse!

Woe is Me: Part 2

So..... are you sick and tired of me whining and complaining, and moaning?

Too bad...I'm not done yet.

Today is my birthday, and I think I'm sick. I've been blowing my nose every 10 seconds all day long. I actually had a great day at work...The kind where I only sat down to eat, but I was never actually behind, just nonstop busy. I like being busy. That's why I'm a nurse. It kinda goes with the territory. However, how do you feel as the patient when your nurse is CONTINUOUSLY blowing her shnoz? *I have no idea how to spell that word.* I'm sure it invokes all sorts of warm fuzzy feelings...of dread.

I rushed home from work to Bookworm's Christmas program. By the time it was over, I hurt all over, and I could barely stay awake. I came home, put a pot of water on to boil, with spaghetti and a can of sauce next to it, (Studmuffin was picking Popcorn up from basketball practice. I figured he'd take the hint.) and went to the tub. And SOAKED. It was great. But, my body aches all over now. I'm not sure...am I sick or this the result of standing for about 2 hours in a lead apron today, and then being on my feet the rest of the day? I don't know.

What I do know is the two nurses that worked interventions with me today left early. On my birthday. When my kids had a Christmas program that we'd been discussing I'd barely have time to get to. Because their patients had all left. And mine was still recovering. So they left. On my birthday. Because they could. I'm not bitter. I'm not dwelling....Nope, I'm not. I'm TOTALLY over it. Yessirreeeee.....

Moving on.....


I GOT A NEW DRYER! At Sears. For $330. It was originally $498. Since it's near the end of the year, they're replacing all '08 models with '09. So, I got it for a steal. Yeah!!!

Dear Reader, I'm not dwelling on the fact that a lady in my Devotional Divas group offered me her old dryer for FREE last night after I bought a new one. I'm telling you, I don't ask for free stuff. People just offer it to me!

Yes, I could have returned it. But mine is new. And it's quiet. And. It's. huge. YEAH FOR ME!

Dear Reader, I'm also not dwelling on the ohsohelpful lady Sunday morning who told me, ohsohelpfully, that I could have gotten my appliances half off on Black Friday. Gee, silly me, I didn't realize my dryer would quit on Black Friiday.

And, last, but most certainly not least, dear reader, I'm not dwelling on the fact that a guy I work with guessed my age correctly. Isn't it depressing when people realize how old you are, so therefore you must look your age? (sigh) I remember when my patients used to think I was too young to be a nurse.....sigh


Oh! One last thing, and then I'm done...I promise! I have this amazing new remedy for a plugged up nose. Put on a surgical mask. It's pretty amazing. The humidity from your breath loosens up the sinus pressure. And your nose begins to run. And boy does it ever run. I don't recommend this tactic in a surgical environment. "Ummmm, no Dr. Stokes, I'm not crying. What's that sir? Yes, I have a runny nose. No, sir, the mask doesn't seem to help. Yes sir, I hear you all laughing at me even though my ears are a little plugged up. I'm glad I can provide some amusement for your day." How the heck do you blow your nose in such a situation? I don't know. And none of my beloved coworkers seemed to know, or at least they didn't feel the desire to end my suffering and thus end their amusement!