I love being an Aunt…

When you are an aunt and you babysit once a week for free you get certain liberties…
They aren’t great and huge but they are things like
“I hear the ice cream man let’s go get something before dinner”
OR
“Ohhhh Alicia you want taquitos, and Stefy you want BBQ chicken, and Danielle you want meataballs and Tyler you want cheese? Okay! We can do that!”
OR
“If we don’t look at the clock it’s not 8:00 yet girlies and we can paint our nails”
Or any # of other silly little things that moms can’t do because they need to grow up good responsible humans – I only have to be the cool aunt, and that is a great thing.

Ummm yes all of things happened last night as I watched the kids, ummm yes I really did let Tyler eat a Sponge Bob ice cream before “dinner” and then let him eat a bowl full of shredded cheese for dinner.
Ummmm yeah I did try to get Stefy out of trouble for getting another detention (one away from either being kept back or put in summer school for behavior)
Well yeah I did let a 7 year old stay up until 9:00 on a school night (but she was being good…)

BUT on a side note (and only because I am super excited about this) Today is Corey’s 31st birthday and the girls and I wanted to make him cupcakes and AGAIN there were no eggs (what does Christy have against eggs) so I did a quick websearch and came up with this (after looking up “cake mix low fat recipe”) http://www.calorie-count.com/forums/post/1832.html
BUT we didn’t have any diet coke so I thought of the MOST brilliant idea I have ever come up with… They had Sunkist and we had our choice chocolate or vanilla cake mix… Isn’t the “in” flavor right now chocolate and orange (bet you can see where this is going)
I followed the directions then let each girl pour batter into 4 cupcakes and let me tell you they rose beautifully and the girls (who ate one) said it was AMAZINGLY delicious and per the birthday boy (who had one for breakfast today) they are wonderful… So here is a great in a pinch low fat recipe.

Chocolate orange cake
1 Betty Crocker Devil’s Food cake
1 ½ cups Sunkist
½ cup chocolate chips
Vanilla and Chocolate frosting

Mix cake and Sunkist until combined. Add in chocolate chips and stir briefly. Portion into 12 cupcake tins lined with pretty cupcake liners bake @ 350 for 20 minutes (probably would have been less if I had pre-heated the oven) allow to cool and frost. ENJOY.

And lastly a picture of Tyler AFTER I let his sisters use him as a dolly…


Okay I lied and lastly check out my watermelon


Yup I love the new Centro - best phone ever!

A rambling thinking type of post...

AGAIN WITH NO PICTURES!

But peek back tomorrow and you ought to be pleasantly surprised!

So I have two things I wanted to tell you and neither of them is really worth a post but together maybe they will be...

First off I just finished a book called "one shenandoah winter" and it really struck home with me. It was about a woman who was taking care of her uncle who they find out was dying of cancer. All in all the book depressed me BUT there was one paragraph that struck a chord. I am not sure it was a good chord but it was at least one I recognized. It said something to the fact of caring for poppa Joe had sapped Carrie of her anger, that quick wit that had hung with her all of her days was now gone - gone with the caring words and looks and touches she gave poppa Joe as she helped him journey into the end of his days. I FEEL THAT! I don't seem to be angry anymore - no more road rage, no more hurt feelings pretty much none of that. Even the energy that I used to have is gone. I can sit now I don't NEED to be doing something at every minute of the day, rest is something and it is now something I relish. I am still working out but more because I ought to than I want to... I hope that that changes someday!

Secondly a little story about my sister. For the first year that I can remember I am going to give her a birthday present on her birthday. You might wonder if she lives far away but that isn't the case, she lives right in town. It is simply that she is a Jehovah's Witness and she doesn't celebrate birthdays... This year however is a big birthday for her and Kat (an angel on earth) has explained to her that it is important for those of us who love her to bits and pieces to show her on the day we celebrate her life. And for this one year she has agreed! So next month I will be giving a gift and some strawberry shortcake to one of my all time favorite people. One of the very few people who can talk me off the ledge, I am beyond excited - mostly because it's okay with her! Another quick story about my sister she is the only one (other than my mom) who never forgets my birthday NEVER every single year she calls me up and leaves a message on my machine that says she is so glad that I am alive and that God brought me into her family. It makes me smile every year, every year I look forward to that call to me that means birthday! The only year she didn't do that was the year my grandmother died right before my birthday and she was afraid that we both would cry to hard so that year she sent me a plant saying just that!

Ooopsy I have a third thing I want to mention. The other night I ended up having to go out to dinner by myself (long story) and was sat next to a table of young 20 year olds. The young man excused himself to go have a cigarette and when he came back the ladies gave him shit about it. Well his reply kicked me (and probably anyone else with an IQ) in the chest. He said "Oh cigarettes don't really cause cancer, it's like everything else - Eggs cause cancer so you better not eat eggs, microwaves cause cancer so don't eat anything in the microwave, charcoal causes cancer so no barbeques, alcohol causes cancer so you better not drink, and the only thing that doesn't cause cancer is carrots but if we wait a few weeks that will cause it too."

I realize that we live in a time where they are discovering things rapidly but has ANY science or medicine ACTUALLY SAID cigarettes don't cause cancer? Nope not at all... I wanted to grab this man and let him know how much cancer sucks the life out of a family and if he can do anything to ensure that his odds are a little better he ought to do it!

Well I better leave this happy so:

Knock knock

Who's there

Just Wanda

Just Wanda who?

Just Wanda wish you a happy day!