So the kids have had a big break from school this week.  It's been cancelled every day, and they're off again tomorrow.  They're hoping to be off on Friday, too.  I've spent the past few days enjoying my new Wii game, The Price Is Right:

Our electric has been off all day, so we've been over here at my parents' house.   Here's what everyone's been doing.

My dad, eating his cobbler:

The kids watching Rata-tooty....well, that's what Roxie calls it anyway:

Here's what I was looking at. haha:

I tried to sneak a pic of Mamaw, but she caught me. haha:

Jamie, with his laptop:

Roxie, eating her "ice sandwich":

And she's running around the house with her "magnifying glasses" haha:

We took the kids to see a movie last weekend.  When we got to the theater, Roxie kept saying, "I want to see Mow The Grass Hard."  Hmmmmm.....okay.  Whatever that is.  Well, earlier last week, Kaleb and Lexie got to go on a field trip with their school to see a movie.  They get to do that every few months as a reward for good behavior.  The movie that they took them to see was Madagascar which, I guess, sounded to Roxie like "mow the grass hard." lol  So that's why she kept saying that was the movie she wanted to see. Crazy kid.  Here's Kaleb at the movie:

And then he wanted to take our picture, but he got a little too far away. haha:

I finished another cake class this week.  I subbed for another teacher at Hobby Lobby.  Here's one of my students:

And finally, here are a few cakes I made last week:

Thursday Thirteen

I'm doing a "Lori" inspired TT today.  Randomness.  Or random-ocity.  What she said.

1.  Roxie and I spent all day Tuesday watching all the inaugural festivities.  What else was there to do?  It was all that was on ......ALL DAY LONG.  Thankfully, Tuesday night's episode of The Biggest Loser was still shown.  I was so worried they wouldn't show it.  What a tragedy that would have been.  Anyway, as we were watching the inauguration Tuesday morning, Roxie pointed at the TV and said, "Look mommy, it's Rocco Bama!"  lol  She learned his name during the election and has never forgotten it.  She points him out in every newspaper and magazine.  She talked all day about Rocco Bama's noggy-ray-shun.  As she was listening to the reporters talking about the new "President of the United States, " Roxie said, "Mommy, they said President of the United States!  He's on Corey in the House!"  lol  If you don't have kids, and you don't watch the Disney Channel, you won't have a clue what she was talking about.  But it was hilarious to me that she thinks that the President of the United States is just a character on Corey in the House.  lol

2.  I took some pictures of Roxie and Reagan at church last night.  They were both dressed in red, black and white, so they matched.  They both smiled and posed for the camera.  It was so cute:

3.  Then later I found Roxie watching Kaleb and Joseph play the DS:

4.  Then we went to Triple H after church:

5.  The kids (mainly the girls) brewed up some nasty concoctions and insisted that I video them.  I'm not sure what they were doing:

7.  I've been trying to get my supply list ready for my cake class.  It's a two-day class.  The first day is taught by one lady.  She's going to teach us how to do a five-panel box top lid and a bunch of other stuff....like this:

And the 2nd day, the class is taught by a different lady who will teach us how to make some flowers out of gumpaste, like the poinsettia and peony:

Anyway, we have a supply list of stuff a mile long that we're supposed to bring.  So I've been working on that.  I finally just emailed one of the instructors and asked her to bring everything I needed for her part of the class, and I would purchase them from her, rather than trying to scramble around and order it all online.  That made it much easier.   I did have to order some dummy cakes to decorate (since we obviously can't work with real cake).  But that is a good thing, because I can keep the dummies forever once they're decorated, and use them as displays or whatever, or just to sit around and collect dust.  haha

8.  Roxie's birthday is on February 13th.  It will be here before I know it, and I have nothing planned.  Her birthday falls on a Friday, so I guess I should have her party that day.  I have no clue what to do.  Sometimes she tells me she wants a Handy Manny party, and sometimes she says she wants Minnie Mouse.  The bad thing is, her birthday is the weekend right after my cake class in KY.  I have a feeling that I'll be all pooped out, as far as doing cakes is concerned.  It would be a tragedy if I made her just a plain ole' sheet cake instead of something really cool.  Let's hope I get some motivation.

9.  I'm so glad the weekend is almost here.  I'm really tired for some reason.  Thankfully, I have only one cake to do for Saturday.  Basketball themed.  I should really be downstairs baking that puppy right now.  Bleh.

10.  I had something typed in here for #10, but I decided I'd rather not discuss it. lol

11.  I've mentioned on here before the 'Reading Counts' program that they do at the kids' school.  It's where they read a book, and then they take a test on it....and based on the level of difficulty, they are awarded a certain number of points if they pass the test.  The kids with the most points at the end of the year are the winners.  They have a winner in each classroom, and then one overall winner for the whole grade.  Remember Kaleb was all excited about it when he was in 1st grade, and he got really competitive about it, and ended up winning for his whole grade.  Then in 2nd grade, he won for his classroom, but not the whole grade.  (He gets less motivated about it every year...but he's still in the front in his class again this year.)

Anyway, this is Lexie's first year to do the Reading Counts.  They started doing it right before the holiday break.  When I was in her classroom for the Christmas party, Lexie's teacher was talking to one of the other mothers about the Reading Counts, and telling her that her son was doing so well and was in the lead.  He had 12 points already, which was a lot, considering they had just started.  Well, the mother told her that he was very competitive, and as soon as she had told him that there was a trophy involved, he was determined that he would win.  So that whole conversation made me curious, and I went over to see how many points Lexie had.  She had zero.  haha  I asked Lexie after we left why she didn't have any points yet.  She said she didn't know how to take the tests....no one had shown her....and the only reason the little boy knew how was because the teacher let him sit at the computer when she was showing the class how to take the tests....blah blah blah....Well I told Lexie that she needed to learn how to do the tests and get busy!  I said, "You get that boy to show you how to do the tests, so you can beat him!"  lol  I knew she could do it.  She reads all the time and is probably the best reader in her class.  She whined around and acted like she didn't want to compete.  She's funny like that...she doesn't have the competitive spirit that Kaleb (and I) have.  But I bribed her.  lol  And last week the teacher printed off a new list of points and announced "We have a new leader....It's Lexie!"  hahahaha   Yes, my child has 29 points, and the boy who was leading has like 23.  Looks like Lexie is gonna swipe his trophy.  Eat our dust. lol

12.  I really like Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips.  They are so much better than Nestle's chocolate chips.  I saw them for sale at Walmart over the holidays and decided to try them.  Then I was hooked.  So after the holidays were over, I saw them on clearance at Michael's for $1.99 a bag.  They had been $3.99 there, but cheaper at Walmart.  But $1.99 was cheaper than I get them at Walmart, so I bought a bunch of bags to stock up.  That was a couple of weeks ago.  Today I was at Michael's, and they still had them on clearance.  Only now, they are on sale for the low, low price of $3.59.  Hmmmmmmm....what a deal!  Don'tcha just love a sale where they RAISE the price by $1.50???  haha  Kaleb and I decided to make use of my newly purchased stock of chocolate chips to make some cookies:

Notice the spiked hair.  lol  He's been begging me to spike up his hair for school everyday.  What is up with that?

13.  It's official.  I have now seen Twilight 5 times.  And so has Jamie.  This time, we let Lexie go too.  She really wanted to go, so we took her, and she loved it:

Thursday Thirteen

First, 9 things Roxie has said in the past few days, and then a few random things...

1.  "Mommy, you're sweat.  I can't love you right now."

2.  "I don't want to be beautiful.  I want to be nasty."

3.  "That's impressive."

4.  "Lexie is a wild woman, and Bubby is Superman."

5.  "Oh bummer."

6.  "I can't kiss Uncle Bart, 'cause I don't love him right now."

7.  Roxie:  "I want Papaw to take me to Disney World."  My mom:  "When do you want Papaw to take you?"  Roxie:  "At 3:48."

8.  Apparently Roxie was guilty of spilling a bunch of Kaleb's nachos in the floor yesterday.  She denied it.  Kaleb kept taunting her about it.  And so they came in my room fighting about it.  I didn't catch the initial confrontation on film, but I did tape them when I asked them to repeat what happened:

9.  I had to run in to Sam's yesterday to get a few things.  I had Roxie with me.  She said, 'Mommy, why are we here?'  I said, 'I have to get a couple of things really quick, because we have to go get Kaleb and Lexie at school.'  And she said, "Mommy, are we here to get me some samples?' lol  She thinks the only reason we go to Sam's is so she can stop and get samples of all the food and stuff.  I said, 'well we don't really have time to get samples.' haha  As soon as we got back to the food section, there was a lady there giving samples of orange juice.  She asked me if I wanted some.  I looked at Roxie and said, 'do you want to try some orange juice?'  She said, "NO.  I don't want orange juice.  I want a sample!"  I tried to just chuckle and be polite and take the sample of juice.  When we walked off, I told Roxie that she wasn't very nice....the lady was just trying to give her some orange juice.  So I drank the juice myself.  Two seconds later, Roxie says, "I want some orange juice!"  I said, "too bad, you had your chance.  Now there's no more samples."  Then she said, "I want a sample!  I want a cracker with cheese!"  (That is one of the samples she got the last time she was there, which was like 3 months ago, so I have no idea how she remembered that.)  I said, "they don't have crackers with cheese today."  So then a few minutes later she says, "I want a sample of cereal!"  (That's something else they were giving samples of last time.)  I said, "Too bad.  They don't have samples of cereal today."  Finally, some lady yelled at me across the aisle and said, "would you like to try a sample of our delicious mandarin oranges?"  I said, "Roxie, do you want to try some oranges?"  She said, "NO!"  Oh great.  Well, I wheeled over there anyway and took the oranges, which the lady was most excited to sell.  She kept telling me how nutritious they were for the entire family. haha  I ate one of the oranges myself, and then Roxie decided that that was the only sample she was going to get, so she finally ate every last drop of the oranges.  Then she asked if we could go back for another sample of orange juice, because now she was thirsty.  Crazy kid.

10.  That's all the Roxie-isms I can think of right now.....

Anyway, it looks like I'll be doing a lot of traveling the next few months.  I signed up for a cake class in IN next month.  It's taught by two women who are famous in the cake decorating world.  That's probably not exciting to anyone else, but it is to me.  One of the teachers is a lady that makes all the DVDs that I have, so it will be cool to meet her in person.

11.  Then in March, Jamie has his conference in Las Vegas.  I hadn't really made up my mind if I wanted to go with him or not.  I'd have to leave Kaleb and Lexie here, so I wasn't sure I wanted to go.  But then Jamie went ahead and booked it before I knew it, so I guess there's no turning back now.  The exciting part of it is that while we're gone, we're going to drive to LA and spend a day in Disneyland.  Yippppppppeeeeeee!  (Thanks to Julia for finding us a place to stay in DL!  If you're ever planning to go somewhere, give her a call.  She will hook you up!)

12.  And then in April, during the kids' spring break, is when we're heading to Chicago to go to the American Girl store.  We're also planning on visiting Lincoln's tomb or home or birthplace or something like that....whatever it is that's in Illinois.  My dad is wanting to go there.

13.  While Jamie and I were in line to return something at Walmart today, I tried to subtly take a picture of the guy in front of us.  I thought that was an unfortunate place for a dirt stain.  At least, I hope it was dirt.

Bonus:  Finally, here's a pic of Emma at church on Wednesday night:

She said I only take her picture because I think her clothes are funny.  I said, 'no, I think it's cool.'  And she said, 'well, you think they're different.'  And I told her yes, but there's nothing wrong with being different.  She just has a creative sense of fashion.  haha  You can dress however you want when you're 7, and it's okay if it doesn't quite match.  But if you do it when you're 33, it's just not the same. haha  Well at least she's not boring.

Okay, I'm going to try and do a post even though I'm really not feeling very peppy today, and I have a big ole' headache that just doesn't seem to want to go away....but anyway, I'll give it a try...

Let's see if I can find some cheery things to report:

1.  Kaleb's basketball season is over.  That is cheery (to me, anyway. lol)  They played in the championship game last night.  It was a close game.  They were ahead by 8 at one point, but ended up losing by 2, I think.  But they got trophies for 2nd place:

Roxie played with some other little girls at the game and also ate some yucky sticky candy:

Roxie, her cousin, Paige, and Kassidy, a girl in Lexie's class:

Kaleb did make the all-star team, but he's not going to be playing on it.  We found out that the all-star games last for 8 weeks.  Can you believe that??  That's as long or longer than the regular season.  Anyway, that would run into his baseball season, so we decided against that.  Whew. 

2.  The Miami Dolphins lost their playoff game.  How sad.

3.  For Lexie's birthday, my parents are taking her to the American Girl cafe and store in Chicago.  Actually, they are taking all of us, except Jamie, over the kids' spring break.  So I called yesterday and made reservations for brunch at the American Girl cafe.  Lexie is all excited about that.  She gets to take her AG doll, and they bring the doll its own chair and place setting.  We've been teasing Kaleb because he's going to be having brunch at the American Girl cafe too. lol  He does not think it's funny....but if Papaw is going to go, then he'll suffer through it.  I told him we could get a chair for his baby doll too. lol  He's not seeing the humor.

4.  I had to do a Lightning McQueen cake this weekend for my cousin's little boy.  He is obsessed with the Cars movie.  He loved the cake.  He kept saying, "thith ith awethum!" lol:

Sammy with his cake:

5.  I've been getting on facebook some lately.  I've had a facebook account for a long time, but I've never really done anything with it.  It's kinda fun.  I'm still trying to figure it all out.  If you're on there too, send me a friend request, so I can add you to my list.

6.  Roxie thought she was hot stuff at church this morning.  She and Lexie wore their matching dresses, and she wanted me to do her hair like Lexie's too.  I had done Lexie's hair in a bun, which is easy to do, since her hair is so long.  Trying to get Roxie's hair in a bun is not an easy task. lol  But somehow, I managed to do it.  She was absolutely thrilled when I got it done.  She showed Lexie, and then Jamie, and then Kaleb.  And then she called my mom and dad on the phone and told both of them that she had a bun in her hair.  And then on the way to church she said she was going to show her friend, Bill, her bun.  So as soon as we got in the door, she showed her bun to Bill. haha  Then she proceeded to show anyone else at church who would pay attention.  Then tonight during church, she walked over to Amanda (Amanda and David sit in the same pew as us) and looked at her and said, "Do you love my bun?" lol  Here she is with her bun:

Both girls with their buns:

Oh, I forgot to mention that she also had some of that sparkly spray-on glitter in her hair, too.  She loved that.  She thought she was soooo big with a sparkly bun hair-do.  lol  I have a feeling she's going to be wanting her hair in a bun everyday. lol  (Aren't buns the official hair-do of the COC anyway?  lol  Or is that the poof?)

7.  The kids are praying for a big snow this week.  It's supposed to be extremely cold here, and Kaleb's teacher sent home a bunch of homework, just in case school is called off.  Don't you hate it when they do that? lol  We probably won't even get any snow.  I'd like to get a blizzard.  We haven't had one of those in a while. 

8.  I've got one cake this weekend, but it's only a sheet cake....Dora and Boots for a 2 year old.  That's easy enough.

9.  Did I mention that I stepped in a 5-gallon bucket of icing with my socks on?  Yeah, that wasn't pretty.  It was 3:30 a.m.  Enough said.

10.  Roxie likes to point out that George "Washingtom" is on the one dollar bill.  (She used to say it was Bob...still not sure about that. lol)  So the other day, Jamie was pointing out to her that Alexander Hamilton was on the ten dollar bill (at least I think it was a ten...haha)  Anyway, when he showed her a ten dollar bill later and asked her who it was, she said it was "Lexie."  lol  Lexie's real name is Alexandra...so she assumed that Jamie was saying it was "Alexandra" Hamilton on the ten. lol

11.  And now for some photos of the kids at church....

Emma dresses herself again:

Lexie, Cloe, and Emma at Pizza Hut last Wednesday night:

Cameron and Lexie at church last Sunday night:

12.  Does anyone else enjoy the Biggest Loser as much as I do?  I love Tuesday nights.  At least there's one thing to look forward to.

13.  Speaking of shows I like....I have now seen Twilight four times.  I'm thinking it's time to see it again.  Maybe this weekend.  I will be so sad when it's out of the theaters.  I wonder how long it will take for the DVD to come out?

After three Advil, my headache is slightly improved.  Although, I believe it will come right back as soon as the drugs wear off.  I have a feeling this one will be around for a while.  It's gonna be one of those weeks...........

We got back from Oklahoma last night around 8:00.  It was a long trip, but we had a good time.  Here's some of what we did in pictures.

Jamie, Lexie, Roxie, and I went to the mall on Monday with Tammy, Andy, Hope, Gabby and Bryce.  The girls played mini-golf:

And they posed:

And Bryce watched (and smiled):

Lexie, Hope, Gabby and Roxie in the food court:

Lexie loved getting to see Hope and Gabby.  I think that was her favorite part of the whole trip.  They are so cute.

On Tuesday, Shannon and I met Pam and Jennifer for some food and fun:

Hmmm, I wonder what's in Jenny's bag?

There was no one to take our picture, so I had to do it myself....that explains my two chins. lol:

Pam, holding Damian's sad, melted little cookies. lol:

Lexie before church Tuesday night:

Kaleb before church Tuesday night:

Roxie had to undress to eat her donut when we got home after church:

Jamie decided to experiment with the automatic setting on my camera:

Lexie met Ainsley Wood at church on Wednesday night.  I didn't get a picture of me and Rebecca with my camera, but she got one of me, her and Pam, so maybe she'll post it:

Then Jamie decided to show off some of his awesome photography skills to Pam, so I have about 500 lovely pictures of us on Wednesday night.  Here are a few:

We look kind of normal in this one:

What am I looking at?

She looks like she can't breathe in this picture.  I must've picked up Shannon's hugging technique. lol (Eww, is that gum in my mouth?):

Fun times. haha

Notice Shannon is not in any pictures from Wednesday night.  Yeah, she skipped out on us.  Thanks a lot.

Then we left Thursday morning.  The kids didn't want to get out of bed:

We ate at Mimi's for breakfast on the way out of town:

I got to stop at a cake decorating supply store in St. Louis on the way home, so that was good.  I tried to stop at a cake store in Evansville, IN on the way to OK.  It's a really REALLY big place that I've been wanting to go to forever, so I decided to stop on our way to OK.  It's about 30 minutes off the interstate.  We got there, and they had a sign in the door that said they were closed for the holidays until January 5th.  I was so mad.  We went an hour out of our way for nothing.  Oh well.

Kaleb had his last regular season basketball game today.  The last game will be the tournament next Saturday.  I was so glad the season is almost done, and then we got a call today saying he made the all-star team.  Oh. Great.  You've got to be kidding me.  Is this somebody's idea of a cruel joke?!?!?  Because I am not seeing the humor.