A weekend with friends

This past Friday, my friend Angie graduated from Covenant. (She is going into counseling just like Tyler.) I spent most of the day with the kids and made a graduation cake for her party (see pic). She had these really fun Hawaiian graduation plates and napkins that I tried to match. This was one of the hardest days I have had in a long time. We started the day by going to WalMart and S. kept throwing fits because she didn't want to ride in the cart. When I let her down to walk, she didn't walk (if you know what I mean). So I ended up putting her back in the cart with more thrashing, screaming, and kicking. It was a lovely time. When we got home, I was feeding P. and S. got into the frig for her drink. Well, I guess the new gallon of milk I just bought was in front of her sippy because she pretty much pushed it onto the floor. It endured a 4 inch crack along the side resulting in the milk pouring out onto the floor. I got there in time to save about 6 tablespoons of it; the rest went under the stove. After sitting on the floor crying for 5 minutes because I wanted to strangle my daughter, I pulled out the stove and began cleaning up the milk. Oddly, it didn't seem like a whole gallon.

When Tyler came home from work he noticed something dripping downstairs into the common area from the duct work. He told the maintenance guys and one of them checked it out. The maintenance guy then came upstairs and said, "Did you guys have a spill? It looks like milk." Doh! So, that is where it all went!

I ended up finishing the cake around 1 am. That had some disasters of its own due to extremely high humidity that day. But, despite being the perfectionist that I am, I stuck it out and finished the cake. This was actually quite a big deal because numerous times I almost gave up and opted for a Sam’s cake instead. If anything, I have a new respect for cake makers and now know how not to flip a 12 x 18 inch sheet cake over.

Getaway
After the graduation party on Saturday, we left straight for Branson with friends. It was a really fun trip. We stayed in a cabin for the weekend with 18 other people. Our friends Paul and Rebecca organized the trip and they did an awesome job! It was really relaxing and fun to hang out with everyone. And since there were tons of kids too—13 in all—our kids had a blast. E. spent the majority of his time either racing friends up and down the big hill outside or playing Wii. S. followed (minus the Wii part). And little P., well she stuck with me! The cabin backed to woods and the last night there the adults ate dinner outside on the deck. A wolf was howling so loudly, it was almost freaky. We were joking that he must have just caught a bear ... or the bear caught him! The next morning buzzards were flying over the woods so something must have went down.

I have to give a shout out to our friend David. He totally served us by taking care of Chester while we were gone. Thanks, David! We so appreciated your help!