Dessert Auction Part Two

Our first dessert auction we had for the YW girls' camp was a flop. It was on Easter weekend and the week before was general conference so they forgot all about it. Only the YW and their families showed up. So Friday we had part two and we planned this thing the best we could. We made it a big deal. We had so many desserts brought you wouldn't believe it. We had two big tables full plus one little one. By the time we got done with the first table we already had $500. By the time the whole thing was over we had $1170. That was from a total of 45 desserts and the highest bid being $70 for an ice cream dream cake. I know one couple who spent $350 themselves. It was so amazing. One of the YW said she had tears welling up in her eyes as they were keeping a running total. This is way more than we needed but I know we'll put it to good use. We have enough to send all our girls and a leader or two plus some.
The best thing was just being among the ward members and having a good time though. We had a barbecue with hot dogs and hamburgers along with chips and salads. There was virtually no clean up and hardly any prep work. We all just got to come and enjoy being there without having to run around like crazy. We had a great auctioneer who kept us laughing the whole time. We also had some members who liked to war with one another.
I made monster cookies and fruit pizza. Which I think went for pretty decent prices, but what I brought home was really awesome. I got some ooey gooey brownies, my friends best choc. chip cookies, a homemade cheesecake made by a member who is known for her cheesecakes, a cherry delight dessert which was delicious and a choc. log. The choc. log was made by a great cook in our ward and it was so good I couldn't believe it. Luckily it was huge so I got to enjoy it three days in a row. The brownies and cookies of course are gone too but we still have the cheesecake and some of the cherry delight left. Yummy! I'd say with the money I paid I really got great deals because they were all so good. I was so happy with the way it all turned out and this will be one dessert auction I won't forget.

The Smell of Naked

Today my almost six year old was fighting with my four year old because he smelled naked. The older brother was yelling at him and telling him to go away and pushing him away saying I can't stand that naked smell. I broke it up and told the younger to go put his underwear back on so he wouldn't smell naked anymore. Once the underwear was on the two played together without anymore problems. I have no idea what naked smells like but apparently Eades hates the aroma.

Perfection

Today I perfected my cupcake cone making skills. I love to make these for birthdays and anytime I need to make dessert for kids. Today Koen is having his party in class. Of course we decided to make the cones. Around Mother's Day I was making deviled eggs and my sil Darcy said that she just learned about putting the yolks and stuff in a Ziploc bag and letting the kids squish it up and then it's less messy to pour into the whites because you just cut a whole in the bag. Well this got me thinking about the cones and how it's sometimes difficult to get the batter in them without a little mess. So I mixed it up in the bag. It was awesome. The batter came out so easily and perfectly into cones. I already have the official Joy cooking rack and storage container so now I am in business. I actually think I should order another one because I always take more than what fits in the one container. Anyway, I am so happy that I have finally got these already simple treats even simpler to make. What a triumph.

Graduated to Jelly-filled

This morning I woke up early and picked up some donuts for the family. I usually get my favorites, and Tony's favorites and then some that aren't so messy for all the kids. I decided that Koen and Eades are bigger now and they could probably handle a jelly or cream filled donut. It was fun getting things that I thought they would like. I couldn't wait to get home and surprise them with this new world of a filled donut. Well, they didn't make a mess but they couldn't eat a whole donut. I guess they were too big and too sweet for them. Anyway it reminded me of growing up and only getting the kid stuff. Like Mom would only let us get either a cheeseburger or a hamburger at McDonald's. Then one day she let me order the Big Mac. I knew I was older. Well, maybe my kids aren't quite ready. They each only ate a few bites, drank some o.j. and then went to watch some cartoons. Well, at least there isn't a big mess.

Tonsillitis

My Koen is sick with tonsillitis. I put off taking him to the doctor for a few days but he still felt miserable. I feel bad for not taking him in earlier now. We are still paying mega bills from when Dougan was in the hospital in November. Soon I'll have bills from having the baby. I hope that Koen does not get tonsilitis enough to need surgery. We just couldn't afford that too. So anyway, the boy who has already missed too much school now has to miss a little bit more. The worst part is his class was going to celebrate his birthday on Friday. I hope he can do it another day.
I know that it's contagious but Eades and Dougan seem to be doing fine. Brandis has a cold and the farts. I'm not sure what that's about but he has been tootin up a storm. I don't think that's contagious though. I hope not.
I hope they all get over what they have soon so others can watch them while I'm having the baby. I would hate to have someone else watching the boys when they were sick. Both because it's no fun for the baby-sitter and because sick kids just want their moms. Plus I kind of like pampering them when they're sick.

The Baby Sling

My friend gave me a baby sling that she picked up from somebody else which she never used. This thing is like 12 feet long. I tried to figure out how it goes on but I was at a loss. I went online to see how to put it on. I found a lot of video demonstrations of other slings but not for the one that I have. Gosh, am I really this dense? I mean I kept wrapping it around and around trying to get it to do something. So then I started thinking about the pocket on it. Hey I thought, maybe there's a tag in there. Hallelujah there was. It also had the website right on the tag. A few clicks on the computer and I'm watching how to put this thing on. I even saw the different ways to put the baby in. Now where's that Cookie Monster doll so I can practice? I'm sure I might have been able to figure something out if I would have just kept trying for the next couple of weeks. So now I have a cute little baby sling, which the website called a baby wrap. Maybe that's why I couldn't find a video for this style before.

Lunchmeat or not?

I love a good lunchmeat sandwich. My first year at college I had two cravings for when I got home. One of course was green olives which Dad had waiting for me when I walked through the door, and the other was a bologna sandwich. I lived in the non-cooking dorms, so I didn't have a fridge to house Miracle Whip, lunchmeat, lettuce or cheese. Plus I just never went grocery shopping because I didn't have a car and I ate in the cafeteria. So anyway, all this is just to demonstrate how much I love lunchmeat sandwiches. I never knew how much I liked them until I couldn't just walk into the kitchen and make myself one.
So when I was pregnant with I think my second child I was informed by the doctor's office not to eat lunchmeat sandwiches. I couldn't believe it. It was really really hard. I did it though. Throughout all pregnancies since I've steered clear of the lunchmeat. I can still have a BLT which is close, and I can heat meat to steaming and eat it hot, but it just isn't the same. I have a friend who always seems to be pregnant the same time I am and she does eat lunchmeat. She thinks I'm crazy for following this rule. Last night we talked about it again. She says she doesn't care about the stupid rule.
I started feeling like maybe I'm a chump and lunchmeat really is okay. SO I googled it. The results were that I shouldn't eat lunchmeat while pregnant. Darn. It did say that many pregnant women do with absolutely no effects. The only thing is that the side effects could be preterm labor or stillbirth. These are huge side effects. I just can't justify eating a sandwich and taking that big of a risk. I told my friend I would look it up and tell her how bad it is, but I really don't think she'll care. I guess if you're willing to suffer the consequences whether great or small, than get on with your tasty lunchmeat sandwiches. As for me, I'm too scared to take the risk.

Jury Duty

So now that I'm free to talk about my experience I decided to blog about it. It ended up being a four day trial. We went from 8-5pm the first day, 8:45-5 the next two days, and only from 8:45-around 3pm the last day, which was Monday. It was really hard for me to sit there quietly and not comment to my neighbor about remarks made or to discuss it after I got home. There were so many questions I would have liked to ask the witnesses. So I got to know the other jury members pretty well because we had a lot of breaks where we just had to sit in the deliberation room while we waited and we couldn't talk about the case so we talked about anything else we could think of. This was one part that I enjoyed. We laughed a lot.
We heard from a ton of witnesses and I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep it all straight but I did remember some things that some of the others had missed, so it made me feel good to know I had really paid the best attention that I could. When we finally got to the deliberation part we did a secret vote right away. I was not ready to make a decision so I said undecided. That vote ended with 9 guilty, 2 undecided, and 1 not guilty. Somehow I became the spokeswoman for the ones who did not vote guilty. I gave my reasoning behind it and the other undecided said that I said exactly what she was thinking. Two of the other jurors tried to change my mind. I explained everything honestly how I felt. Eventually I decided that perhaps I was giving her too much the benefit of the doubt and that if I just looked at the evidence presented, in order for her to be not guilty it would take a long series of circumstances to have to be a certain way for her to have told the truth. I didn't say that it was impossible, but it was very highly unlikely. So with that I said that I was okay with saying guilty. The other two women agreed that I made sense and that it was more probable that she was guilty than not, but that there was no way for us to know 100% which is impossible so we ended up being unanimous with guilty.
We went into the courtroom and gave the verdict. We chose a foreperson who was okay with reading a guilty verdict. Then they polled all of us. I was the first to be polled and I again said guilty. I did feel good about the decision so I had no problem being polled. I didn't look at the defendant, her lawyer, or her family though. I guess I knew I would smile if I did, and then that would just be a slap in the face to them. But others did look and they said they felt really guilty. I thought that was interesting because they sure didn't feel guilty in the deliberation room when they chose guilty before even talking it out.
I really wish I could tell the defendant that if she is innocent that she needs a new lawyer and she needs to fill in a lot of gaps that she left opened, and then she should appeal. I think if she is guilty than she'll just accept it and move on. I can expect to hear the sentencing in two-four weeks. I'm really curious what it will be. I don't expect it to be anything too horrible because she was only charged with two counts of forgery or fraud, and one count of intending to steal $1000-20000 on a false pretense, and one count of stealing $1000-20000 on a false pretense.
All in all, I'm glad I got to do it. It caused for a lot of hassle with the kids but I learned from the experience.

Another Game

This morning the boys had their third baseball game. The team they played against was all girls. I thought that was pretty interesting. The boys only have one girl on their team. Eades played third base this time and he was having a hard time concentrating because he kept staring at whichever girl was on third base. He still did a good job though. Koen got his second hit with the pitching machine. This one went out pretty far too. He's doing really well learning the sport. Dougan has improved so much. He has no problem going out there and staying out there anymore. They still need to tell him which way to run and they still need to remind him to put his glove back on when he's board in the infield. It's fun to see them getting better and really enjoying the team. Brandis likes to watch them too and he loves it when somebody says, "ready ready" which is what they say when they need to get in ready position. He claps and cheers when something good happens.
In this rookie league each player gets three chances to hit from the pitching machine and then as many tries as it takes to hit from the Tee. Then they get to run to first and it doesn't matter if they make it there before the ball or not, they are counted as safe. They get to go all the way around to home and all ten players get to bat and make it to home. I really like it that way and so far the boys haven't even asked if they won or not yet. Maybe they realize that nobody really wins. Well that was just a little update on how baseball is doing.