Well, tonight was my last Wilton class. I finally feel good about how I am doing. I am discovering that most of the techniques just take a lot of practice, and you can't really get it in the 2-hour class. The next class is a fondant/tiered cakes class that starts next Tuesday. I am going tomorrow to sign up for it. Anyway, here is a cake I did a couple weeks ago. I ended up giving it to Dionne for her birthday.
The next cake, which I don't have a picture of, was a white chocolate cake with raspberry filling and chocolate buttercream frosting. It was yummy. I will have to put the cake recipe on here. Here is tonight's cake.

I think my hand is going to fall off from all the roses. The icing is really stiff and you have to squeeze hard to get the petals out. Obviously not perfect, but better than I thought it would be!

Here is Spencer in his BBQ get up.


Anyone who has a 15-month-old knows that you can't possibly do dishes while he is awake or out of his high chair. So I had this brilliant idea.



He usually gets crayons taken away as soon as he gets them, so he was thrilled that I actually handed him one. I tried it again today, but it didn't work so well.

And here is Spencer's new favorite pastime.


Last but not least I have to describe my awesome girls night in Park City with Dionne. There is nothing like it! And I have to give my husband props. The house was cleaner than I left it when I got home. The kids ALL had baths the night before, and they were all dressed for church when I got home. Anyway, Dionne and I met at a nail salon in Holiday (SL) for a pedicure. It was so relaxing, and we just sat there in our chairs talking the whole time. Then we went to Wendy's for a quick value-menu lunch, where we waited probably 20 minutes just to order our food, and at least another 20 before we actually got the food. We laughed about it, and were glad we only spend three bucks each on lunch. Then we got in our separate cars and drove to Park City. Di missed the exit and ended up driving in circles for a while. I'm sure she loves me putting that on here! We finally made it to the outlets, where I learned the meaning of 'shop til you drop'. We didn't leave for the hotel until about 4 p.m. When we got there we crashed on the bed and rested our sore feet and backs before finally settling on a place for dinner. We decided on Ruby Tuesday's, since we already knew where it was and didn't fancy getting lost again. After dinner we went back to the hotel and changed into our suits and went to the hot tub. We wondered if everyone staring at us thought we were lesbians or something. An old man who was in our hot tub started flirting with us, and bragging about his granddaughter who was 5, and her IQ of 192. I have no idea what that means, but she spit water in my face later, and I figured she couldn't be THAT smart. After the hot tub we went back to the room and got comfy in our PJs and settled in to watch Becoming Jane. Or, we thought we were going to watch it. First we couldn't change the channel on the t.v. because we thought it was out of batteries. Called the front desk. Asian maintenance man comes and gives us a new remote, which looks exactly like the other one. We thank him. He leaves. It doesn't work. We call the front desk again. Maintenance man comes back and tells us we don't have the right remote. He comes back and brings us the right remote. We thank him, he leaves. We sit down to watch, and discover that we still can't find the right channel. We can hear the music of the menu, but can't see the picture. We call the front desk again. Maintenance man comes back and fiddles with the t.v., ends up pulling some cord from behind and plugging it into a different hole. Finally the movie starts. About 20 minutes in the movie freezes and we can't get the remote to work. Upon closer inspection we discover that the batteries are rattling around in the remote and some part must be missing. By this time we were both crying with laughter. We call front desk again, maintenance man comes, looking extremely annoyed. Without a word he hands me a new remote and turns away. By the time we finished the movie it was midnight. We stayed awake talking until 1 a.m., and then finally tuckered out. It was so fun and relaxing!

Life

This will be short, but I had to put it on here before I forget. This morning the girls and I took Dodger out to go potty. Emma came around the side of the house to the stairs where I was sitting, in my heavy winter coat, waiting. She announced that "Dodger wented one AND two". Without a word I slid our newspaper out of its bag and handed the bag to her for cleanup. She sighed heavily, as if the whole planet was sitting on her shoulders. I said "Emma, this is just life." She said, "I know, mom. I don't want life...." (walking away to scoop)"...it's so HARD." Amen, sista. Just wait.

Let me ask all of you - if you had the stomach flu, thinking it was a 24-hour thing, and then three weeks later it recurred and you went through the rest of that week feeling queasy after every meal, would you think some hybrid virus had been born inside of you, or would you consider some kind of digestive tumor? I had the stomach flu again last friday night, and even though I haven't thrown up again, every time I look at food I feel the churning start again. Especially the lovely cake I made (pictured on this blog); that was the last thing I ate before I started feeling yucky. I never thought I'd be repulsed by cake, it is one of my favorite things. Too bad about that. So, here is a cute picture of the girls in the dresses G & G Pulsipher gave them for Easter. Grandma made the little jacket things to match since the dresses are sleeveless. Here is the baby bird Spencer - he adores black olives now. Of course, he wouldn't be a true Pulsipher if he did not.
He has finally started saying 'mama' all the time, and usually throws it out when I am busy doing something else, to get my attention. He entertained himself for like an hour today playing with his dinosaurs. This was before he threw each and every one of them onto the floor and then licked the box up and down that holds them.



For anyone who is interested, I tried a new recipe today - chicken pot pie. It is pretty easy, at least the filling. The rest is just pie crust from scratch, or a refrigerated pie crust.

Filling:
1 pkg frozen mixed veggies
2 chicken breasts, cooked & cubed
1 can cream chicken soup, undilluted
garlic salt, onion salt, pepper

Bake @ 350 for one hour, checking often to make sure it doesn't burn!

GREETINGS FROM WHOVILLE

Yes, I am a dork. I put my hair up to take a bath the other day and found Misty-Lou-Who looking back at me from the mirror. Here are some silly pictures of the kids:
Kenna in the dress Aunt Amy gave her for her birthday


Here is Spencer at the window

And in my room on my cozy-comfy chair

Here is the charity picture I took of Emma so she wouldn't feel bad.


In more recent news, for my birthday my in-laws gave me Wilton cake decorating classes at Hobby Lobby (THEE coolest craft store ever). I have been craving cake ever since my first class on Wednesday, when our instructor made a luscious butter pecan cake with butter rum frosting.....and gave it ALL to the Hobby Lobby staff after class. Yup, we didn't get a single crumb. I am bitter. But I made my own today, and got creative with some of my new cake decorating supplies (also courtesy of Mom & Dad "P").

It was so refreshing and invigorating to be learning something new, and doing something for two hours that was completely about me. Sure, my kids will profit from it, but I still felt like I was a real person for a change!

Super Duper Antibacteriality

Okay, so that's not actually a word. But here is how the last two weeks have gone at our house: Saturday, March 22nd - Misty up all night sicker than a dog (stomach flu). No one else sick until Monday, March 31st - Kenna wakes up (on her bday) saying her tummy hurt, before emptying its contents in toilet. She throws up twice. No one else sick until last Saturday night when Emma is up throwing up 4 times. We now jump to last night, when I was abruptly awoken by an ear-piercing scream from Mackenna along with "I PUKED, MOMMY!" She threw up twice, and all day I have been washing towels and blankets. I scrubbed/disinfected our bathrooms and bedrooms. WILL IT EVER END? What is it, some new hybrid flu bug that is resistant to antibacterial wipes? PLEASE tell me it's over.

Light and Dark

I feel so conflicted today. The day started out great. After General Conference yesterday I felt like I could have another go at being a good mom. I felt so good yesterday, after hearing Elder Ballard's talk. I'm sure you all felt the same way about it. I started laughing hysterically when he was describing his 'back row' experience at church with their 6 children while his wife was up front for a change. Then when he said that the joy of motherhood comes in glimpses and moments, I felt totally validated. I always feel bad, like I am not enjoying it enough. It helped to hear that my rare glimpses of joy and contentment aren't so unusual after all. I also liked how he said to take time to enjoy the doing and not just getting it done. I really need to do that, and I want to try. So I got up this morning, said a more meaningful prayer, and hugged each of my kids tight, telling them I loved them. This is a new goal for me. Normally I am so irritated with my kids for getting up before first light that I am already in a fairly bad mood by about 7:00 a.m. I am also guilty of being so 'get-it-done-minded' that I don't often take time to show my kids affection. We took Kenna to school and to prove how good I was going to be, I even took all 3 kids into the school, instead of leaving Emma in the car with Spencer. (I mean, I am in and out in under 5 minutes, the car is locked, and I have tinted windows, right?) I just hate hauling all the kids in and out. I know what you are all thinking, but at least I am being honest. When we got back from taking Kenna I put Spencer down for his nap and then made Emma a new reading chart on the computer while she did her 20 minutes of reading. As if that wasn't enough, I then read to her for 20 minutes too. Then I let her help me make tomato soup, actually pouring all the stuff in, doing all the stirring, etc. She was so elated. I hardly ever have the patience to let the kids do more than dump a couple teaspoons of something in. So, it will come as no surprise that by now (it is about 4:30 p.m.) I am totally out of gas for the day. It is like running a marathon and not pacing yourself, I guess. Somewhere in the middle of feeling bad about spending too much at Walmart for groceries earlier, being irritated that Spencer wouldn't take his 2nd nap, listening to Kenna whine that she wanted to watch another episode of Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears, and actually trying to sit down myself and watch part 2 of Sense & Sensibility, I lost it. Now I am yelling at the kids, feeling like I am reaching that boiling point. My only salvation today was the 3/4 bag of Chocolate Turtle Chex Mix I ate while I fed Spencer a snack.

It is addictive. It has chocolate covered & caramel covered chex, caramel corn, mini M&M's, honey-roasted peanuts, regular peanuts, and mini pretzels. I take the pretzels out and let Spencer have them. Anyway, it is a real pick-me-up, and apparently it has 50% less fat that potato chips, although I had some of those too. I feel like I should go for a walk with the kids now that the snow has stopped, but I dread the feeling that washes over me when we walk back in the house and the whining starts. Sorry, this was a long one, but I do feel a little better.

"THE LITTLE PRINCESS"

Did you ever see such a beautiful girl? It made me think of Shirley Temple. The girls asked for curlers in their hair last night and this was the result.

Here is Kenna with her marble jar (full!) wearing her reward.

Let me ask you something. How many dress-ups do two little girls need? I think we have every Disney princess dress and now we are on to collecting the Barbie ones. I think when they grow out of them I will sell them on ebay or something. Maybe by then they will be worth a small fortune. As for Spencer, he must be getting teeth again. He slept in until 9:00 this morning, and I was starting to get worried. He woke up and has been grumpy ever since. Here is a picture of him in his high chair - lately he has taken to going on binky hunts around the house and plopping it in his mouth. He was looking grumpy and then I pulled out the camera and he smiled instantly. Maybe I need to walk around with the camera all day?

His new favorite hobby is jumping on the trampoline and going down the slide in our backyard. It has been so nice and sunny the last two days, and I heard it is supposed to be yucky weather tomorrow again. ICK!
My salvation is shown below. I have been to Walmart a million times this week. Every time I have wandered over to the bakery to see if they have my old fashioned cake doughnuts, and today they FINALLY had them! I know it is stupid, but it made my day. NOT my waistline, however.