.::still blinking::.

Guess who is learning not to wet in his bed at night and doing a pretty darn good job of it. Go JJ! I mean Gentry. Eight whole days. How does this work you may ask.

35 days + no wet beds = new kitty

We are pretty excited and trying to pay no attention to the fact that I am allergic and have never owned a cat. Hopefully I can handle it. Hopefully. Because we all want one. And G is working hard on his control. He is doing stellar though and big boys don’t pee in the bed.

And moving right along. Lets talk about Holiday food. These topics go splendidly together.

I am making Sweet Potato Casserole, which sounds dull, but is really so delicious you would ask to live with your face in a dish of it for a week. Seriously. There is more sugar here than nutrition.

Sweet Potato Casserole
4 cups mashed cooked sweet potatoes
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup melted butter
1/4 cup honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups sweetened condensed milk
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 cups chopped pecans (optional at my house)
20 large marshmallows

1- Cook your sweet potatoes in the microwave for 10 minutes. Wait for them to cool before continuing or you will burn your fingers off. Remember the game hot potato? It is not a joke. When cool, scoop out the insides into a large bowl.

2- Preheat the oven to 375. Butter a 13 x 9 inch baking dish and set aside.

3- In a large bowl, with a wooden spoon, beat the potatoes, sugar, butter, honey and salt until thoroughly combined. Add the sweetened condensed milk and cinnamon and mix well. Stir in the optional pecans.

4- Spoon the mixture into the prepared baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes.

5- Remove the casserole from the oven and evenly place the marshmallows on the top. Return to the oven and bake for 10 minutes longer, or until the marshmallows are golden brown and slightly melted. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

So I am working my guts out getting ready to hit the road for a bit and what is someone else doing?

Sitting on his butt making sure the lights are programmed to flick on and off while we are gone. This is crucial you know. Because we also have a corrugated man taped to a rotating train and a record player playing “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.” And no one will suspect that we are totally not here.

Aren’t computers the best, best, best.

This post took 2 minutes. So I am totally validated in saying this.

I went to the doctor today. I will spare you the details because they are gross, except that I showed him 1/2 of the goods. And it was totally clinical, I swear. In return he gave me my ever coveted cough medicine.

So in about an hour I am going to go take my 7.5mL (is that right?) and feel the sleep come over me. It is such a lovely feeling. I totally don’t have a drug problem. I can stop at anytime I swear. Also, why would I take it when I can fall asleep on my own, but when I am coughing it takes care of the problem.

My first experience with this elixir of life was the week before I got married the first time. I was sick, because it was December and I worked in the computer labs on campus and students are disgusting. So I went the student doctors office, the doctors were not students. They gave me the medicine and forgot to mention that it was for night only. I took it all day everyday for a week thinking it was going to cure my cough. Which translates to, I slept through the last week of our engagement.

By “the goods” I mean, he looked up my nose holes with his pointy light.

Which has been agitated by intense weights workout the day before (sore muscles) and snorting non-drowsy medicine all day the previous day. I did not know it was non-drowsy, so I tried to fall asleep by taking cough medicine with codeine, which I save for special occasions. Also, I always try to get some cough medicine with codeine from the doctor. Yes, it is just a bladder infection, but this cough (hack hack) is really keeping me up (hack hack). I swear. Promise.

Ended up staying awake to 4AM watching reruns of SuperNanny and Grey’s Anatomy on my laptop. And the Office. And Kath & Kim. And wanting to jj to stop with the snoring already.

Now my bed is covered in partially used kleenex and every superhero in the house.

What!?!

I know I said I was going to post every day, but come on. Sometimes I just don’t have any thoughts rolling around in the old noggin’. Seriously.

Tonight I am going to eat out with a bunch of girl friends and I am sure when I leave Gentry will shed his clothing. He does this every night lately and runs around in his underwear, freezing and pretending he is Tarzan. And being the great parent that I am, I let him. Thank you all for not coming over in the evening unannounced. You would see us having Family Home Evening with one never nude (hi arrested development fans) child.

On my bathroom floor right now:

:: one zebra
:: one camel
:: one giant water spitting toy spider
:: one winter dog, probably similar to the type Todd Palin has
:: one lizard
:: one giraffe
:: two cows
:: one dragonfly ring
:: pee
:: lots of hair that I cannot see but that braids itself around my toes
:: one square of toilet paper
:: one teal bath rug
:: one 50s style makeup case
:: one parenting book
:: one rubber band
:: one gift card to express
:: one book club book
:: two toddler works of art

Now times this by my bedroom and the living room and my carpet that needs to be cleaned but that no one does properly. I am a constant bag of nerves.

This is pretty.

I designed it. It is a holiday card for a corporate client. I hope they choose this one.

I am home alone on Mondays. I have to work and do the laundry, but I cannot tell you how much I love to hang around all day working in my warm jammies and eating food I could not eat if Gentry was here. I can eat garbage, but Gentry MUST eat healthy. If Gentry were home I would totally not put chocolate chips on it, because that is the part that is unhealthy. Obviously. mmmmmmmmmm.

Thanks for trading kid care Tanjie.

Gentry punched me in the arm today. Which is not the worst pain in my life, but it is sharp and intense. I told him if he did it again I was going to do it back. Thankfully he listened and there was no need to commence the beatings or the bleetings.

We had nine sheep when I was in high school. Our favorite was named Paisley, which is a good name for a sheep but not a child. To tired to continue. Perhaps I will continue the tale of the sheep tomorrow.

The time has passed to quickly. I remember thinking 6 months would never come, since than time has flown by. I cannot believe that you are four. We celebrated by throwing your first official birthday party. Since Dad and I love the design elements of the event we didn’t pay much attention to the big details like games and such. But the graphic elements we rocked.

Holy Batcakes, Batman!

T-shirts! We made a shirt for each kid. JJ did most of the work. I ordered the shirts from one of our vendors and I love them. They turned out really cute, JJ did all the screen printing. We are having visions of screen printing other things though. Like mens underwear. And lots and lots of onsies.