Chocolate disaster...

I had an epiphany today...the kind that sneaks up and smacks you on the forehead...you know, a true V-8 kind of moment. I REALLY shouldn't bake when I am sleep deprived.

For some reason, I am very, very tired today. Carly slept OK last night, so I am betting it is just life crashing full force that's causing me to be so exhausted.

I have to make Landon a cake tonight because tomorrow we will celebrate his birthday at my mother's house. Let me list the things I did wrong to this poor, defenseless cake. I forgot to add the vanilla (no biggie, I am guessing); while mixing, I let go of the spoon and it tangled in the beaters , causing massive amounts of chocolate batter to splatter all over me, the counter, the stove, the floor; instead of putting the batter in THREE 8 inch pans, I put it in TWO because that's all I have. So when I smelled burning chocolate and my cake had only been in the over 15 minutes, I knew something was wrong. Yep--the cake was oozing and dripping all over the sides of my pan, and burning on the bottom of the oven.

So not only did I get to clean me, the counter, and the floor, but now I get to clean the oven. And to top it all off, Ryan had yet ANOTHER poop incident and I had to clean the carpet, his toilet seat and his pants. Yay me!

All I can say is this cake better taste pretty darn good!!!

Christmas...ba humbug...

It really irritates me to no end to see Chistmas stuff up already. Come on now, it's not even Thanksgiving yet and everywhere I go, it looks like red and green, Santa and his little elves, and silly old reindeer have exploded all over the place. Can I please enjoy my autumn before Santa and his minions take over??

Add that to all the greed that surrounds us and that I deal with at this time of year from certain people, and you can clearly see why Christmas no longer appeals to me. Not really, but that is how I feel today after a night of Christmas shopping for gifts that nobody is going to appreciate anyway. I want to go back to the good ol' days when Christmas was about family and togetherness, not "here's what you're gonna get me" (yes, I have actually had someone tell me that) and Christmas lists a mile long. This Christmas is going to be a little tight this year, as I have one more kiddo to buy for (although she won't know the difference) and I am still on maternity leave from work. If I am scaling back on my own kids gifts, then why should I spend a bunch of money for other people to have a better Christmas than my own children? Does that even make sense? Sorry I am "scrooging" right now.

I want to go look at lights (closer to the actual day, of course), make cookies and hot chocolate with my kids, decorate our tree while listening to carols, and, most importantly, celebrate and remember the REAL reason for Christmas...Jesus! I want to see the look of joy on my sweet babies faces when experiencing all the good, love, and togetherness that Christmas has to offer. I want to abolish the greed, pettiness and ungrateful attitudes that I know I will be seeing.

*Sigh* I really DO love the Christmas season. I just wish it wasn't so commercialized.