The Cupcake Debacle

I love cupcakes.  They make me happy.  This is something my friend over at "little bitty bites" and I have in common, other than high school...

I had six beautiful cupcakes just like this.

I had a wonderful six-pack of yellow cupcakes with butter cream frosting starting on Saturday night.  By Sunday afternoon, I had three left.  And by Sunday night, I had NONE.  ZERO.  They were gone.  I miss my cupcakes.  I'd like to say I am ashamed to have eaten six cupcakes in 24 hours.  It's happened.  I am a little ashamed to say I ate three cupcakes in 12 hours, and I am sad to say I didn't get the other three...

What happened, you ask?  Stryker.  Stryker happened.

I've been such a proud puppy mommy for the last week, and then last night - The Cupcake Debacle.  Stryker has been so well-behaved that we've given him some privileges over the last week.  The first few days, he had the basement to himself.  Then, we started leaving him to wander in the house with the doors closed to rooms we didn't want him in.  Last night we let Stryker have the run of the house while we went to a concert.  He had eaten his dinner, and he had been walked and let out, so we felt safe.  I inadvertently left our bedroom door open...that was MY mistake. 

I own that.

When we finally arrived home from the concert sometime around midnight, all seemed well.  Stryker was a little sleepy, but he still met us at the door.  I let him out, and we played with him for a bit.  I looked around, and everything seemed to be in place.  When I went upstairs to the bedroom to change into jammies I turned on the light, pulled out my clothes, spun around to turn on the television, and shrieked, "Ahhhhh! Stryker!"  My  husband immediately yelled, "What did he do!?!?!?"  My response:

"HE.    ATE.    MY.    CUPCAKES. 

ALL.    OF.    THEM."

On top of completely obliterating my hair pick (luckily, I had two), he had taken the plastic container of my treasured snacks and destroyed it.  He ate all the remaining cupcakes, all six wrappers, licked up all traces of butter cream frosting and sprinkles, and shredded the plastic container.

I wish this was what was left of my cupcakes...

The packaging he ate through.

So today Stryker will be in the basement, having lost his house-roaming privileges...I will have to be more careful about where I store my precious cupcakes going forward...perhaps I will keep them in the guest room (the door is always closed to that room) so that I can enjoy the cupcakes without worry. 

The Measurement of Success

With less than 24 hours to go before our first big party in our new house, I walked in the door at 6:30pm Friday night to see that I still had a lot of work to do before a party could be had. A. LOT.

I dug in, and by 1:30am, I was ready for bed. After a shower. The great room (with all the boxes still piled up) was completely unpacked, organized, and decorated. The bedrooms were clean. The basement was clean, and the kitchen was getting there...

I woke up Saturday morning at 7:30 and sprayed some weeds to get my blood pumping. After an awesome bad-for-me breakfast supplied by my sweet husband, we started up again...Made the bed, cleaned up the clothes, scrubbed down the kitchen, vacuumed the basement, sanitized the bathrooms, and swept and Swiffer-wet-jetted the floors.

With one hour till the party, JR was finishing up the shopping and I was jumping into the shower...the first guests arrived promptly at 2:00pm while JR was showering.

People came and went all night - lots of great food, great drinks, great conversation, and many compliments on the house. We feel very lucky to have such great friends and family who could come share the fun of a new house with us.

The success of our housewarming party was measured in the smiles on faces, the hugs and laughter, the conversation always moving, and the completely relaxed feeling I have today as I clean up from all the fun...

For TGJ: I DID do it! Thanks for the motivation, as always!

Woot! When can we have another party???

Deadlines

I work with deadlines every day in my job...in my personal life, I tend to let things slide a bit. My husband knows this, and he sets deadlines for me to get things done. He sets these deadlines by planning things which require a specific action by me - usually to do with cleaning, packing, etc.

We have been in the house since the end of February. I still do not have everything unpacked. Two rooms in the house are still utter disasters with unpacked boxes and clutter...it is driving me nuts.

I thought that a scheduled visit from my brother and niece would get it done. Nope.
Then I was sure that a visit from my sister, brother-in-law, and 2 nieces would motivate me to finish. Negative.
Surely a visit from my PARENTS was just what I needed to get it all done. Not even close.

My husband decided on a date for a housewarming party...he is certain we can get the last two rooms done and do a good cleaning on the rest of the house before then. Uh-huh, sure. I hope so, since the party is THIS Saturday!

Keep in mind, he made the decision about a week and a half ago...right before my parents came to visit. So, last weekend was out for getting all the unpacking done because we had a full weekend of plans with the folks.

Monday night, I had a work dinner. We did some more cleaning last night (and got quite a bit done, really), but it is not finished. I am leaving this afternoon for Milwaukee for a meeting...I will not be home until Friday NIGHT. I have until about 1:00pm on Saturday to get the house ready...get some caffeine ready! I will definitely need it!

I attempted to do yard work this morning...

...mother nature had a different plan.

After a very sweaty Wii workout with my husband this morning, I decided to use all that energy to get the yard work out of the way. It is Saturday morning, after all. I walked out to the garage, pulled out the weed-eater/edger, and made my way up the driveway to the front yard. I started by checking the mulch around the trees and picking up rocks and sticks when it started to sprinkle.

*sigh*

I tromped back to the garage, equipment in hand, and tromped back into the house to close windows. Then the bottom fell out. It's pouring outside.

So, I am inside typing instead of outside enjoying being a home owner with a yard! Oh, well.

A Homeowner's Weekend

My weekends have been very full for the last few months. I hear that is what happens when you buy a house. JR and I have spent more time in Home Depot than the movies lately, and that is saying something. We finally (I hope) have all the lawn equipment we need, the house is mostly unpacked, and we are settled in.

We've had some challenges...the plumbing is a recurring issue now. After 5 hours and hundreds of dollars, a plumber cleaned out some tree roots almost two months ago. Well last weekend, after all the rain, we started experiencing the clogging and backing up again. *sigh* I tried Liquid Plumber yesterday, to no avail. We may have to bring the plumber back out. There is a clog somewhere...I just have to find it. It's not in the tubs...I'll try all the sinks next.

So, here is an average weekend for us now:
Friday night - try to watch a movie or catch up on DVR from the week while chatting about how our days at work were.
Saturday morning - as soon as we wake up, start the yard work (mowing, edging, trimming, etc.).
Saturday mid-day - a trip to Home Depot or Target or Ikea to find more things we didn't realize we needed for the house.
Saturday afternoon - projects! Past projects have included changing the door knobs/locks, installing new door bells, assembling the grill, assembling the patio table, and putting up shelves.
Saturday night - catch a movie or more DVR, food on the grill (love it!).
Sunday morning - roll out of bed, sore from Saturday's work, and make time for God.
Sunday afternoon - finish up whatever cleaning inside needs to be done and then pass out from the exhaustion!

I feel more productive over the last few months than I have in several years!