Is It Naptime Yet

We went away this weekend for my cousin’s wedding.

We left Friday and got back today. I’m so tired of driving and so happy to be home. Now we can spend a weeks worth of money on  groceries rather than on one family dinner at a restaurant.

My sister Carolyn came with us because her husband was not allowed to take the time off. I’m so happy she was able to come and I know the girls had fun with her.

I was also able to share a bed with Jon while Carolyn shared a  bed with one of the girls and the other got the adventure of sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag.  (The two of them in one bed probably wouldn’t have worked too well.)

I’ll post a few pictures later and give you more details. I just wanted to let you know we’re alive and safe.

Today was my second week to teach Lilah’s class. Thankfully I’ll have the next four weeks off and hopefully I”ll be able to finish my drapes.

One of the girls in Lilah’s class is small and her pants never really fit her. It’s pretty typical to remind her to pull them up because you see a little bum crack.

Today was no different.

Her little bum kept peeking out and we constantly reminded her to pull up her pants. At one point the mom assisting me, who is not her mom, went to pull up her pants and underwear, since they seemed to be riding low, and she discovered the little girl was not wearing any underwear!!

It was too funny.

Later in the class they were crawling around being caterpillars for charades and she was full on mooning us. Luckily none of the other kids were behind her.

Then later in the class I had the kids playing with scarves for a butterfly song. They first just have the scarf on there back while they crawl around and then they jump up and run around flapping the scarf like wings later.

After one of the crawling session I noticed that the girls pants were just above her knees and the only thing keeping her descent was the scarf that hid her nakedness. She didn’t seem to notice too much either.

It really was too funny.

So I finished my last batch of truffles last night. I made around 350, but I learned that there will be couple from each batch that crack or don’t turn out so they have 330.

I am so relieved.

Here are some close ups of the truffles though, I plan on taking some nice pictures of them individually packaged also.

But first I have to explain that the silver accent was so frustrating and on accident I found a way to use it and like it completely. I just wasn’t feeling what I thought would look nice. So I say if you want a silver accent beware that it’s frustrating unless you have time to figure out the design. I should have tried it a couple different designs but I didn’t have time, and the two ways I did the silver look OK but I found the way I loved it on the last batch on the tenth from the last truffle and completely on accident.

The first design. I think it looks better in the picture than it did in real light. I also did lighter silver accents which you see in the one with lots of truffles.

What my counter looked liked for four nights, with a brief pause for Sunday.

The accidental truffle is on the left, the second design is on the right. (I also want to say these are also examples of the largest truffles I would make an the smallest. Most of my truffles were in between these two sizes. )

I was going for contrast so I never thought to have the silver in line with the Z. It looks so obvious now that it would look better, but I’m not a creative person.

I made three batches the first day and then four batches for the other three days , or around 80- 100 truffles depending on the size. I got pretty good at getting exactly 25 per batch by the third day. I was going for slow and steady since I had other things to do in the mornings and couldn’t devote the my whole day to truffle making.

In fact I had other things to do like grocery shopping, but I didn’t have time to put the groceries away, except the frozen and cold items.

My house while making truffles. It was only like this one day though.

I wasn’t sure if I enjoyed making these truffles at first.

To tell the truth I think the fact that they’re weren’t turning out as nice as I liked made the task harder and less rewarding. To see one truffle that I was completely happy with was a big relief and actually made me say ‘I wonder if I could market these’. The one problem being is they are so time intensive and I’d have to sell them for at least $1 a truffle and to me that’s a little steep if you’re wanting to buy 300 for a wedding and I’m not sure I want to do small orders, like boxes of truffles.

Sunday Jon was scanning pictures from his mother’s photo album. We’re trying to get them copied so we can distribute Cd’s throughout the family and have a copy of them.

Lilah’s looked through the album with Grandma  before and just last week we went through them before we brought them home.

Lilah noticed the picture of Jonathan’s uncle who was accidentally killed because of a fight while only in his 20’s. She asked if he was the one who was dead and then how he died. Jon told her about the fight and how alcohol was involved, though he couldn’t remember what party was drunk or if both of the men were. Lilah asked about alcohol and Jon described it as something that causes a person to make less rational choices, not bad, but not always good.

A few minutes later Eden starts singing alcohol, alcohol, alcohol. Then Lilah chimes in, partially because I told Eden she shouldn’t say it and Jon responded that it was just a funny word to her.

So then I had two girls singing alcohol, alcohol to the tune of Jingle Bells. (It’s what Elmo does at the end of Elmo’s world. Sing the word they were learning about to the tune of Jingle Bells.)

It was a little funny.

I just hope they don’t start singing that tune while at a friends house.

Eden told Jon he looks like Uncle Rawlin.

Then yesterday Eden told me I looked like Aunt Kristi.

I know that most of you only know who one of the two people are so I’ll see if I can find a couple pictures to post, but I find it funny that she’s making associations with us and who we look like.

I’ve always gotten that I look like Kristi.

Rawlin is 20 years older than Jon, and why I have a niece who’s five years older than me and why I thinks it’s too funny that she calls me Aunt Lacey,  so I find that connection funny. But I have joked that  Rawlin and my FIL give me examples of what Jon might look like 20 years from now and then 46.

It’s my own little look into the future.

1. It’s easier to shape them when the truffle centers are harder, or more set. If they’re too soft they’re even more lopsided, but it hurts your hand to scope the harder center over and over and over and over again.

2. Chocolate that has had coloring added looks funny after it’s hardened and been remelted, but not funny enough to not keep the chocolates that had it drizzled on them from being used.

3. Adding a silver accent is so hard and frustrating. It runs second time melted colored chocolate, though not enough to still not use the chocolates. (It’s not too noticeable but to me it’s annoying.) (My silver accent is silver dust for fondant frosting applied with clear vanilla, opposed to the also recommended lemon juice or vodka.)

4. Making truffles for nearly 4 days straight is tiring even when you take Sunday to rest and have only done it for three of the four days.

5. Bagging each truffle individually and tying small bows is very tiring and adds like 2 hours to every 100 truffles, if not more time

6. To get a nice looking base trim the chocolate off by turning the truffle while you hold the knife stationary. That way you’re not doing chops or straight lines because you’re trying not to touch the navy blue drizzles.

7. Drizzled colored chocolate melts when touched with anything that has warm blood and then leaves colored spots on your white truffles when you touch them.

8. Trim the excess chocolate when they are plain truffles.

9. Truffles are fun to make and go all out on one day, maybe twice a year.

10. I don’t want to make truffles on a large scale to sell. It’s too much work.

I’ll post pictures later. I’m just to tired. On an up note I bought a new outfit today and it makes me happy.

Also we got caterpillars last Monday and four out of the five went into the pupa stage today, or made their chrysalis’ and it is so cool to watch. I think the 5th caterpillar is about 2 days behind in growth and will soon join the crowd. I’m also planning on posting pictures of that later.

Yesterday we added some curb appeal to our house. Well, I don’t know if it will make it any more appealing since my car parks right in front of it, but we hope to make it look a little nicer by our front door.

We had this lovely dirt spot.

Isn’t it beautiful.

The cats also loved to poop in it and not only in it but right by the front door, which was always such a nice welcome gift for our few guests that came by. (I admit we weren’t on top of cleaning the cat poop out either.)
So last night we planted some stuff in it to make it more appealing.

We hope they grow and cover the dirt. One is an ivy one is a jasmine (I think.) both are for ground coverings, two are dwarf orange trees and one is a bush that is only suppose to grow 1 foot high and two feet wide. (We wanted things that would cover the ground but not grow high so an intruder couldn’t hide behind them since we have a window right there. ) It was pretty rocky in the dirt, so we’ll have to see how they grow.

It started out as a family project, but after the first bush I was needing to watch the neighbor girls that were playing in our backyard, so Jon did most of the work.

OK, this photo didn’t need to be posted because I have the next one, but I looked skinnier in this one…

…and in this one I look like I’m working hard, though I’m sure I’m not using that shovel correctly, and I probably shouldn’t be wearing sandals.

Lilah putting the special dirt in.

Lilah mixing the dirt and water.

Our first bush is planted. Notice the neighbor girls. After this they we’re playing and Jon was left to plant alone.

Hard working husband.

He’s a great Daddy and husband.

I swept and mopped my floors on Monday so they would be nice as I do a ton of things this week.

Well, it’s Thursday and they’re dirty!

I don’t understand why things can’t just stay clean for like a week before getting dirty again.

So, before I start making the center mixture for the 350 truffles I’m making, it sounds like a lot to everyone except my friend Amber who catered and made the cake for her sisters wedding recently, I have to do dishes, though I’ve done them at least three times this week, wipe off counters and sweep, though I think it was Monday that I last swept.

Then tonight I think we’re going to plant some plants in our front dirt spot. (You’ll understand why I call it a spot when I post pictures later.) We bought the plants Monday for FHE and I was so grumpy. Little girls running around playing in water fountains is not my idea of fun when in a public store. Plus I was tired and hadn’t had a nap.

I’m gonna try to be more laid back as they plant and get dirty tonight.

For now I’m gonna go clean, again, and cause myself some trouble as I begin my truffle making experiment on a large scale.

This past Saturday we had to ourselves, meaning no prior engagements and we could hang around the house letting the other parent take care of girls, which means Jon took care of the girls so they planted seeds and got really dirty, then ran in the ‘fireworks’ sprinkler as Lilah calls it.

It was fun, but we didn’t do much of anything, which is sometimes nice, especially since I’m gonna be busy with Lilah’s class and making truffles for the next couple weeks. (I teach for the following two weeks.)

Sunday we decided to visit Jon’s parents. We haven’t seen his dad in forever, we’ve seen his mom while we’ve been at Rawlin’s but he always stays home because he’d be more trouble there than help.
Their church gets out at 2:30 and ours gets out at noon, so we came home for lunch and to hang around. We decided to skip Eden’s nap and go over in the afternoon.

We barely saw Jason before his bus came, but all he cares is that he saw us.
At one point Jon, Grandma, and the girls went outside to look at the tulips. It was a windy day with a slight chill in the air, though I’m sure 60 degrees would be warm to those in colder climates, but I’m wimp once it hits 75 here. I stayed inside to stay warm, but they lingered outside and soon my FIL wandered outside also. I was able to talk to Dara, who mostly spoke about death. I think she’s a little obsessed right now. I followed later and the girls were having a blast with the rope swing. They eventually wandered back inside and then Dara’s bus came.
We took the family photo albums so we can scan the photo’s and put them on disk for family, and when I say we I mean Jon.

We got home around 6:30 and Eden fell asleep on the couch while I was cooking some dinner. I guess she still needs naps, which makes me happy ’cause that means she’s not too big just yet. Lilah ate with us and then starting falling asleep on the couch around 8 while watching a movie she borrowed from Grandma Blake.

Lazy weekends are great.

So after some deliberation Jon and I have decided to have another baby.

I’m not quite sure how we’re gonna fit another child into our house, though we do have bunk beds. It’s more the space of more clothes, diapers, and another human being that I’m worried about.

I’m about 6 weeks today or due November 25.