Weekend Update

The boys had pink eye over the weekend.  Jeff had to work all weekend.  I was feeling a bit overwhelmed.  That's it for today.

Here's how I hope we'll be in a few days!

My Own Cake Wars

I recently purchased my 2014 wall calendar.  By recently, I mean I bought it towards the end of January.  I actually got it for a pretty cheap price.  The calendar I picked out for myself is a "Martha Stewart cake for each month Calendar".  It has a picture on each month, but even more fun is the recipe cards for how to make each one of these cakes.  I decided to challenge myself this year and make each one of these cakes.  Unfortunately I'm starting a little behind because I bought this calendar so late in January.  So I just made January's cake last week, on Valentine's Day in fact.  (I will need to hurry up and make February's cake).  January's cake is a chocolate beet cake with chocolate frosting and beet chips.  Although I am nowhere near Martha Stewart's abilities in cooking or baking, I thought this cake turned out pretty well.  It was fun to try.  Check back for more cakes, as I attempt to make them all (at some point) this year.

My Cake

Martha Stewart's Cake

Snowstorm Shuts Down Portland

For the past 4 days we've been stuck here at home because a big snowstorm hit Portland.  What I find hard to believe is that this city can't function because some snow falls out of the sky.  This city is just not equipped to handle this kind of snow.  Growing up, we had snow like this all winter long.  We were still able to leave the house, go to school or work, etc.  But here, we were all told to not leave the house unless we had to.  For starters, our local roads do not get plowed or sanded.  So that is a big difference.  They need to have more plows!  Also, we live on a hill, so to get off our street would be difficult because we wouldn't be able to get any traction going up hill.  Today it is starting to melt, so hopefully this mess will all be behind us soon.

Since we were stuck at home, we decided to make the best of it.  The boys got outside a couple of times and enjoyed sledding down our hill and playing in the snow.  Fortunately we had plenty of food so we didn't have to make a quick run to the grocery store.  We played games.  We watched TV.  It was nice to relax, but I'm ready to have things go back to normal and resume our routine.  I hope you had a good weekend!

The boys sledding on Friday

Snow falling Friday Evening

Simon in the snow on Saturday

Sam in the snow on Saturday

My view from the treadmill Sunday

What Not To Say

I was in Nordstrom last week, browsing.  I typically like this store which has many great qualities that I appreciate like nice customer service, great return policy, free alterations for items purchased from the store, things like that.  But as I was looking at some jewelry last week, looking for a possible birthday present for someone, I was surprised at how things turned out when a sales woman came up to me and asked if she could help.  What surprised me was that she stood about 2 inches away from me, like she was blocking me from something.  I thought this was odd.  I had Simon with me, so I was also trying to keep an eye on him as he was walking around, and I had to look around her to watch him.  I was pushing my stroller.  She looked in it and almost seemed shocked to see nothing in it.  "Where is your baby?" she asked, as if I had left it somewhere.  I said, "He's right there" and pointed to him.  "Oh, he's not a baby."  She continued.  I wasn't sure if she was trying to be friendly or was trying to get me to leave because then she said, "Shopping with a boy is so hard."  I didn't even respond.  I just turned around, took Simon by the hand, and led us out of that department.  How does she know whether or not shopping with Simon is hard?  I didn't like that she jumped to some hasty conclusion about him.  Simon is great!  I love shopping with him.  I don't mind that he likes to look at things in a store.  Looking back, I wish I could have said to her face that it wasn't appropriate to say and certainly not a way to win over customers.  Oh well, I'll try to not let it taint my like for Nordstrom.

Simon, feeling rather comfortable with one of the displays at Nordstrom

On another note...I wanted to announce that I have signed up to run the Portland Marathon.  I'm so nervous about this...nervous and excited.  I'm dreading the long runs of training, but I know when I cross the finish line, it will all be worth it.