Cute Owl Cupcakes

I worked all day today and decided that I would at least blog tonight about something, so I remembered that I had forgotten (lol) that I never blogged about the cutest little owl cupcakes EVER.

I don't know about you, but I know several people that just love owls. Owls have recently become quite popular and it is becoming easier and easier to find owl-themed things. Now that they are popular, I find them even cuter than I did before, but most of my friends were die hard owl fans WAY before the hype and are now pretty unhappy that the rest of the world has caught on to their "thing." I completely understand where they are coming from because I used to LOVE LOVE LOVE black and white milk cows. (Ok, used to is not the correct thing to say as I do still love them dearly and I wish to squeeze them until their little heads pop off, but I don't quite obsess over them the way I used to!)

Anyway, I digress. One of the people that I know that loves owls is Evelyn's teacher. In fact, her entire classroom is owl-themed. Even their nameplates are little owls in the room. Well, it just so happens that this certain teacher's birthday came up recently. It was, in fact, on Monday. The kids were, as I've mentioned, on fall break last week, so they were not going to have the opportunity to celebrate her birthday on the day. So, I decided to make her some cupcakes a week early.

I started with a dark chocolate Duncan Hines mix. My oven runs a little hot and lately my baked goodies have been, in my opinion, a little dry due to that, so I decreased the cooking time. I think they came out moist and fluffy. I let them sit for most of a day and then frosted them with a homemade chocolate buttercream frosting. Next, I piped the frosting using an open, round tip. Lastly, the finishing touches are the cream side of an Oreo cookie (times 2), with a brown M&M in the middle and the beak is an orange M&M. I used the Autumn mix M&Ms to ensure I would have enough of the colors I needed, but I think a regular bag would do the trick. Here is the final result:

I gave them all twenty four, so I didn't get to try one, but  I hear that they were quite tasty and her teacher loved them, so it was all worth while! I also painted an Ikea plain, white picture frame for her which is decorated with owls made from Evelyn's thumbprints. 

Insomnia and a Run

Insomnia. Difficulty or the inability to fall asleep. Yeah, that's been me all week. Even as I type this post, I should be asleep. Last night, it may have had something to do with the half of a pot of kick-ass coffee I made and drank at work around 8pm. I really need to get back on schedule before Monday morning rolls around and I'm not able to function, let alone prepare lunches and drive around since Fall Break will be over. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before how hectic my Mondays are with school and martial arts AND dance class, so I need all the rest I can get!

My insomnia could also stem from stress. I know, me...stressed? Get outta here! Seriously, though, I have a ton of things going on (as usual) and I usually worry about every single detail. I also have some work stress that I could really do without, but that doesn't seem to ever go away and it won't until the problem is addressed and, since I know that isn't likely, I'll just have to learn to deal. I know, vague, right? Sometimes vague is good when you have a public blog!


Speaking of work, this is my weekend to work at my job. We rotate weekends on a cycle and it's my turn. Not only that, but on my work weekends (weather permitting) I go for a run with friends. It was especially important  today since it was the last time we practiced the route for our next race. It's a very hilly course over near where I work. I hope I can PR, but I haven't in practice yet. I'll just hope that the inevitable race day adrenaline helps propel me up those hills! We'll see in just a little under 3 weeks!

Sorry for the short, picture-less post, but I actually started composing this one last night during my bout of insomnia and I plan on going to sleep in a little while so I can be well rested (for once) tomorrow.

Finished The Night Circus

I have seriously been horrible at posting lately. Sorry!!! I did, however, finally finish The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern last night and I loved it! I was not completely thrilled with the ending, but it fit the book very well. If you've ever considered reading it, go on ahead and pick it up. My main issues with the book were that the timing boomerangs around alot and there are a TON of characters to keep track of. All in all, the story was good and the writing was AMAZING!! I mean, not only the author but the editor of the book went above and beyond with the writing and the flow of the story. It had the potential to be a hot mess, but the disheveled nature of the story actually works for it.

Naturally, credit goes to Disney/Pixar for the source :)

Today, I had the day off, my kids are still on fall break and the hubs was off from work as well. This is generally a rare occurrence, so we made it into a sort of "family fun day." First, we took the kids to the library to return some books and movies we had borrowed last week and to borrow more. Then, we went to a local burger joint and had lunch followed by a trip to the movie theater to see Finding Nemo in 3D. Although we have the movie at home, I thought that letting them see it in 3D would be a fun experience for us all. I really enjoyed it and I think the kids did, too. I had a hard time getting Evelyn to keep her glasses on through the entire movie, but she still liked it. We also stopped for froyo and groceries from the grocery store.

I have to admit that I don't have a bucket list. I generally try to avoid thinking of my own mortality, so I would rather not have one. However, if I did have one, I could scratch something off of it today. Our grass had been growing out of hand for weeks now (as usual!), so once we got home from the grocery store and put away the food, we all headed outside so that I could mow the lawn. Gabriel wanted to "help" me, so I let him ride through the more level part of our lawn on the riding mower. Since I had him with me, I drove slower than I usually do, so I ran out of daylight pretty quickly. Luckily, there are headlights on our John Deere!! So, I mowed half of the yard at 8pm by the light of headlights!! I can now say that I have mowed the grass in the dark! Shane laughed at me and said that we'll see how it looks in the morning. Pfft! It looks freakin great!

Shane has requested that I mention that he made really tasty sub-style sandwiches for dinner. They were on "take and bake" baguettes and each one was custom. We had a PB&J, a ham and cheese, an Italian sub and I had a roast chicken breast cordon bleu type sandwich. Sadly, only Shane and I ate them. (as usual)

Ahhh, Fall

It is officially fall. My favorite season! It also hosts my favorite holiday, Halloween. I love everything about this time of year...the coolness in the air, the leaves changing colors, apple cider, the smell of fire in a fireplace. Yep, I love it all. All except for the inevitable change of the season allergy attack!
My kids have been sneezing. One of them has green goo coming from her nose and a hacking cough. I thought I was OK, until I started coughing yesterday and it is steadily getting worse! I absolutely hate buying medicine, especially for allergies. (Kinda odd, given my profession) I'll probably breakdown soon and buy some Claritin D knockoff.  Hopefully, we'll all get past this soon. The kids are on fall break this week, which should give them time to get well before school starts back up. Not to mention, I have plans on taking them to see Finding Nemo in 3D this week.
Sorry this post is so short. I didn't want to seem like I've fallen off the planet, I've just had a lot going on. I will post more details of the past few days, soon!

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.9

A Pint Low

Today was even more exhausting than my Mondays usually are! We started out with the usual, plus Shane, who usually goes to bed after I leave for school with the kids. I overslept this morning, so we kinda rushed around getting everything ready to go for school. Shane took a power nap in the car on the way.

Once we dumped dropped off the kids, we had some time to kill, so we went to Bojangle's for breakfast. I had a steak biscuit combo and Shane had a couple of biscuits. Then, we went to the Dollar Tree so I could pick up one of those drawstring bags to hold clothes after martial arts when we go to dance or other activities post martial arts (the uniform is white!). Then, we went to Target because Shane wanted to see if they had some of the toys Santa will bring the kids cheaper than Walmart and Amazon. They did and more!! We'll probably go back sometime before October and just go ahead and buy the stuff to beat the rush. I loathe detest really dislike Christmas shopping!

After we left Target it was finally time to head over to the local Chamber of Commerce. The Red Cross had set up a blood drive there today and we are LONG overdue on donations. I actually haven't donated since before my last pregnancy, nearly 4 years ago! I was worried about donating because my iron is generally low, but it was a whopping 14 today!!! We both donated and, of course, had juice and cookies (and a T-Shirt)!!

I literally had enough time to drop Shane by the house and turn around to pick up the kids. When I got to school, I found two of the filthiest children EVER!! I generally allow them to play on the playground for about 45 minutes to an hour after pick up time while I talk to the teachers and other parents. I know, social of me...right?

Once we left the school, I had to come home and get the children into the tub. They have martial arts and dance on Mondays and we can't have filthy martial artists and ballerinas, now can we? So, they were both bathed and I made them a snack and me lunch (FINALLY) and I went about gathering up the things we would need once we left again. Come to find out, the Kindergartner had a book to read and some fire safety homework, so I packed it up for something to do.

I'm really not going into all of the details of the 30 minutes of martial arts plus a drive and an hour of dance. At this point, I am dead on my feet! I brought the kids home, started the final preparations for dinner (beef tips in the crockpot) and began homework assistance. We all had dinner and then story time and now they are in bed. Shane is at work and I am S-L-E-E-P-Y!!! So, I'm off to bed!

The Weekend Review

Now that we've moved on past my still going on pity party, I will post about my weekend doings, or not doings, whichever the case may be!

Friday, after martial arts, the family and I had some much-needed social time with my best friend and her husband for his birthday. We ate at Mellow Mushroom, which was yummy! I will say that portion control is quite simple when you split a large pizza between four people! I also had the Caesar salad, although the dressing was a little too "fishy" for my taste. We followed up by going next door to Yogli Mogli's, which is a fro-yo place. I had a cup of peanut butter mixed with cookies and cream, topped with Heath crumbles and white chocolate chips! Yummy!!! We also went grocery shopping, but I'll spare you the details!

Saturday was an important day for my boy child! He got to test for his very first Tae Kwon Do belt, the yellow stripe belt! First, all of the candidates did forms and drills as a group and then each child was asked questions individually. They were also evaluated by their parents on a "report card" and it was reviewed with them in front of the group. We had given him pretty good grades, the lowest being a "C" and that was for listening and following instructions at home. When the instructor asked him why he wasn't behaving at home, he said, "because my parents love me very much!" Talk about not understanding the question. At least he knows we love him!! Either way, he was promoted to a yellow stripe belt and we let him choose a place to have lunch. He chose Stevi B's (because he hasn't had pizza in SO long). I definitely ate WAY too much. (On a side note, if you have a Stevi B's near you, their new Steak and Potato pizza is really good!) We also went to Walmart to pick up some odds and ends.

Today, we lounged around the house. Shane had to work last night, so he was asleep and I spent most of the day catching up on Facebook and meeting my daily Swagbuck goal. We had sauteed chicken, baked potatoes and green beans for dinner. Yumm!!

I read a little more of The Night Circus last night. The story is a little confusing because it isn't entirely linear and I'm starting to get some of the characters confused, but it is still a good read. I think I will read some more after I finish with this post.

I had planned on going for a run tomorrow morning, but there is a blood drive near us and I haven't given blood for over three years. I am long overdue. Also, Shane wants to give blood and since he's working again tonight, he doesn't trust himself to drive around, especially a pint low. Tomorrow should be interesting since it is my hectic day with the errands and the kid's activities! I will leave you with a picture of the new yellow stripe belts!

Still Adjusting

I think I have appropriately titled this post because that is what I am doing right now, adjusting. I am adjusting to being the mother of 2 children in school PLUS activities. I am adjusting to having a husband that works a funky shift on not-normal days, thus throwing off my entire schedule. I am adjusting to having both not enough and too much "me" time at the same time! Essentially, I have gone from someone with a steady routine to someone with a much more chaotic one. I'm sure most of you know exactly what I mean!

Up until my Mr started this job, I was used to having a lot of time to fit in the things I wanted to do for me. I could run anytime I wanted. I could schedule races and vacations around my own work schedule. Now, that has all changed. I am actually finding a hard time fitting running into this schedule. It seems that Monday and Tuesday mornings and every third Saturday afternoon is all that I can swing these days. Granted, I could run indoors, but if you have ever had the pleasure experience of running outside with changing scenery, it is so hard to go back to staring at the same room, even with the TV on. It is certainly NOT an excuse to stop exercising, but it is a hurdle that I am having a hard time getting over right now.

I also feel like I am constantly on the go. Mondays are especially hard for me because my kids both have activities after school that keep us going until dinner time and then with baths and bedtime stories, I find either not winding down for hours or practically passing out at 10pm! Again, I think activities are very important for them and I'm not complaining, just feeling a little overwhelmed.

Eating. I have had the HARDEST time getting my eating back on track. It should be really easy. I use MFP and it's just a matter of making wise choices and plugging in the food. Don't go over my daily calories...should be easy, but it's not. I find myself with poor choices and no willpower. This one is bugging me the most. A little over a year ago, I had this! I was a machine!! I looked and felt SO much better!! Why am I having a hard time with this?

I think a lot of my problems are due to stress. We are hanging on by a thread until May of next year when we won't have to pay school tuition. I know that one little thing can screw our whole world up and I think that my worrying is causing me to lose control of myself because it is the one thing that I truly have control over! I want SO badly to be able to pull myself back together. I keep reminding myself that as long as I don't take a huge step backwards, I can stay steady until I am able to move forward again. Let's hope I can keep that up!

OK, pity party has ended. Thanks for listening! I am still reading The Night Circus. I haven't made any real progress due to the busy schedule. Also, we've been doing a lot of house cleaning lately. Since I haven't posted a picture in a while, I will leave you with a project I painted today. It's a picture frame for my daughter's teacher's birthday. The owls are made out of fingerprints!

This is a plain Ikea frame with acrylic paint decoration.

The Night Circus

Today, after work, I walked the course for my next race, The Spooktacular Chase 5K. It definitely has rolling hills, but it was a breeze compared to the lengthy runs of the past! I think it will be a great run even if I do have to go to work immediately after it. I'm even thinking of having the kids and the Mr come to watch! (The kids have really been wanting to see me run).

Sorry I've been away for a little while. Life, as usual, has been really hectic lately. We seem to have sprung a leak in our water heater closet. We called out a plumber who immediately diagnosed it as a cracked water heater. We ended up having it replaced (700 dollars later), but we are still having water issues and cannot think of where they could be coming from. So, Shane is calling the plumbers out again on Monday to take another look at the issue.

Source

On the reading front, I have started to read, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  Since it is a one-book read, I will tell a little about the plot (well, as far as I have read). It starts out with a very talented magician and a circus that is only open from dusk to dawn. The magician is actually not a trickster, but appears to be truly magical. One evening, a little girl is sent to him with a note attached to her. Apparently, it is his daughter and the mother has committed suicide. The little girl seems to be talented like her father, so he begins to train her.

In the meantime, he calls a friend and fellow magician and makes a bet that his daughter can beat whomever the other guy picks at random as a pupil. We get the impression that it will be a duel to the death. The other man ends up picking up a hopeful pupil at an orphanage and begins training him until he reaches adulthood.

Unbeknownst to anyone involved, the girl and boy meet each other and end up spending a lot of time together. I am pretty sure (because this is as far as I've gotten) that they are falling in love with each other and have no idea that one will have to kill the other because of a stupid wager between two grown men in an essential pissing contest.

I did end up baking Tres Leches cupcakes about a week ago. I did like the way they turned out, but in the future, I think I will actually inject the milk mixture into the cupcake to get a more moist cake. It was a very easy recipe and one that I will definitely repeat and perfect. The only problem with them is that tres leches is traditionally not very sweet. So, if you are looking for a regular-type cupcake, this is not the cupcake for you! Also, I made my first batch of homemade whipped cream to use on top as the "frosting". It turned out really well, I think!

Things I Haven't Done

Here is a list of the things I haven't done lately:

1) I haven't run since the last blog post about it. Partly because of the weather being icky on the days that I could run outside. I really have no excuses for not running indoor, considering that I have a treadmill!

2) I haven't started reading another book yet. Every now and then I just don't read. It's not that I don't feel like reading or I have too much to do, I just don't really get around to it. It's probably a good thing, though. Usually when I feel like reading, I read like my life depends on it!

3) I haven't baked a single thing since those cheesecake brownies I made back in July. I did, however, copy down a recipe for Tres Leches Cupcakes and I will buy the ingredients and make them this weekend!

4) I haven't visited with any of my friends outside of my co-workers. I don't know if it's because we all lead such different lives and/or our schedules don't mesh, or maybe something else entirely. It kinda sucks, too, because I really miss just hanging out sometimes.

Oh, I also haven't uploaded (or really taken) any pictures lately. I promise I will rectify that soon. I would upload one tonight, but the battery on my camera is, as usual, dead.

I feel like my blog posts are usually so full of the mundane stuff I do from day to day that I would shake things up a bit and talk about the things I don't do!!