I can't wait for the Royal Wedding!

Friday, 2am Pacific time.


My parents will be visiting and Mom and I will be awake and giddy by wedding time! Hhhmmm... I might have to make something wedding-ish to snack on.


Let's see... I could go the simple route and buy a simple packet of McVitie's biscuits. Yum-o!

Prince William asked the McVitie's biscuit company to create a chocolate biscuit cake for the wedding. It won't be the only cake, of course. That honor went to Leicestershire-based cake designer Fiona Cairns. There isn't a photo of the prototype (natch), but if you feel like checking out the royal frosting flowers you can go here...  http://www.officialroyalwedding2011.org/


And Kate's dress... closely guarded secret! I've read much speculation--some say it will have similarities to Diana's dress (gorgeous in the '80s, not so much now). Others say it won't be anything like it, but she might wear the tiara that Diana wore. Most agree that jewelry will be minimal.


Oooohhhh... this is so exciting!

I just had a marketing thought for the grocery stores/bakeries... wouldn't it be a great idea for them to bake super-mini wedding cakes? How many of us romantic women would splurge? I would, totally!

Happy, hoppy Easter!

What a beautiful day to count our blessings! Here's what I'm thankful for today...

** Delicious caveat: That I'm grateful for food, shelter, health and family goes without saying.**

1. I spent the day yesterday driving up to LA and seeing wonderful friends. I came back safe and sound around 10pm and filled eggs and baskets with my hubby.

2. Our daughters were well behaved for Daddy all day yesterday.

3. Also all day yesterday, Hayley felt well. That's saying something these days. (We haven't yet figured out what's going on with her, poor angel.)

4. I just put Orange Rolls in the oven, so Emma will have a good morning regardless of the fact that we have to actually leave the house at quarter to six this morning. (Hayley's Confirmation group is leading the Sunrise service.)

There's plenty more to be grateful for, but now it's time to pull the rolls out of the oven, wake the girls and bunny hop into the shower. Let's pray I don't fall asleep doing any of that. LOL

Have a blessed day!

Just The Right Dress

You'd think it was Prom or something. But it's not. I've still got some time to save up both the money and my "over-my-dead-body" comments regarding prom dresses.

Instead, it's graduation dresses. For both daughters.

Hayley's grad dress will double as a Confirmation dress. Given that it's Confirmation and all, I wanted it to be white. Do you have any idea the challenges in finding a modest white dress these days?

Holy cow.

I saw sexy. And very, very, short. Sleeveless. Backless. Practically boob-less in some cases. I saw floor-length. Wedding appropriate. Skin-tight and hideously accessorized. And with price tags that I'd need to sell the silver for.

Sheesh.

My patient computer and I spent hours looking at dresses. I couldn't imagine why it had to be so hard.

Now you might be wondering where Hayley is in all this. She didn't seem to care all that much. I tried to involve her, even tried to take her shopping last Saturday. But she didn't feel like it. Hhhmmm... a teenage girl who doesn't feel like shopping..... Hhhmmm...

On Tuesday night, I stumbled upon *insert gasp of surprise* an appropriate white dress that Hayley might actually like!! And it was in my budget! After making sure she approved, I ordered it immediately. Here's a pic...

In case you can't see it too well, here's the link where you can magnify it: http://www.ae.com/web/browse/product.jspcatId=cat1320034&productId=1396_9528&showId=1396_9528_106


One girl down and one to go.

Emma can't wait to get a special dress for her fifth grade promotion. All the girls are getting something extra fancy. Or so says Emma. I'm taking that with a grain of salt, but I am willing to get her a new dress for the occasion.

She browsed around at jcpenney.com and fell in love with this one:

It is gorgeous. But not quite right, don't you agree? First communion if you're Catholic? Definitely. 5th grade graduation? Definitely not.

Now here's the one Hayley and I voted for, but Emma instantly nixed. Bummer.

No worries, though. She and I are going to the mall tomorrow to look around. Maybe we'll find something we both love. (Besides Auntie Anne's pretzels, that is. LOL)

What a crummy weekend.

I was about to say I want either a do-over or to erase it from my memory completely. But then I thought that if I got a do-over, I'd have to actually do it over again. There's one unavoidable part that would have to be done again and it was sucky enough the first time.

I hurt someone deeply yesterday. I didn't want to; of course not. The situation had to happen, but it ripped my heart out. Trust me, I agonized for weeks over this and it physically hurt me to say what I had to say.

Sometimes, there are no alternatives. And that makes me sad.

And before all that bad bologna (thank goodness for Oscar Meyer and their theme song--otherwise no one would ever know how to spell bologna, right?) went down, my youngest provided Scott and I with a preview of the netherworld.

For a full hour.

And within that hour... we grounded her for a full week. And she lost all computer privileges. And we couldn't go to the aquarium as we'd planned. And... well... you can imagine from there.

Then comes today. Started out with some bummer, hurt-my-feelings news. But......... it got better at church and when we had lunch at Chili's (my fave!) with friends.

Then the day totally tanked.

Scott and I took the girls to this amazing place with acres and acres and acres and acres of runnunculous in full bloom. I've been looking forward to this since we moved back to San Diego. And what happened?

The girls fought.

And whined.

And fought.

And fought.

And fought.

Now mind you, that was in the first 20 minutes. Minute 21? We left. We packed them in the car and drove straight home.

And Scott yelled.

And I scolded. Severely. And sent them to their rooms. And then went to the grocery store.

No fun.

NO FUN AT ALL!!!!

Tomorrow better be better, that's all I have to say. Well, no that's not true. I have lots to say; otherwise I wouldn't have a blog, right? LOL

In which Kate returns her official Mama badge and runs away screaming expletives

.

Seriously.

Seriously.

F*&^*&*()()*^&^%$$###@$%^^&**(()(*&^%$#@@$%^&*

Seriously.

I am SO done with my 10 year old.

In fact, maybe I won't return my official Mama badge. I'll just return Emma.

If any one of my four blog readers can explain the ten year-old mind and provide me with an in-depth manual on how to handle her, I might reconsider.

MIGHT being the operative word.

So here's what I'm up against...

1. She's a tornado. She whirls around the house, active and busy. And in her wake? Trash. Shoes. Paper. Lunch box. Chapstick. Jewelry. Blankets. A stupid blue rollie chair I wish I'd never bought. Bathing suit. You get the picture.

And it never occurs to her to pick anything up. I truly believe that it's not that she's being lazy, but this is just her personality. Her room is a wreck. She leaves clothes on the bathroom floor. Even her seat in the car is generally trashed.

I know this sounds completely typical. And generally I can handle it. But when you consider that Hayley likes everything in it's place, Emma is just the polar opposite.

2. Her handwriting is scribble scrabble. It's horrible. And she just doesn't care. Not in the least. She can write very nicely if she tries. But she can't be bothered. Why? Why? Quite frankly, I'm embarrassed by her handwriting and she is going to be spending a lot of time this summer learning how to write all over again. 'Cause I'm sick of the chicken scratches.

3. If someone slowly pulled my fingernails out one by one with a strong pair of pliers, it would be preferable to getting Em to do her homework. Again, it's not that she can't do it. It's that she can't stay focused. Then she whines that she wants to be like the girls at school that get everything done in class and have no homework. If she would just focus, she'd have so much more time to play!!!


I've recently instated a 60 minute homework rule. If it's not done in 60 minutes, it doesn't get done. And she has to turn it in unfinished. Oh, she doesn't like that one bit. I'm not seeing any repercussions at school, though, so I don't know that it's making a difference. But my sanity is benefiting. I cannot continue to sit there next to her and say, "Emma, focus" "Emma, work" "Emma, math"...

ARGH I'm getting upset just thinking about this!

4. Why can't the kid just spend 20 minutes a day practicing her violin? Huh? Why? How is it so hard to stand there and play a few songs, go over a few of the rough parts, and replay the songs? But again, she can't focus. Apparently the air is too fascinating and she must play with it. I spend between $120 and $150 every single month for her lessons and I feel like it's all wasted. I've talked to her music teacher and she has very little to say about it. I don't know what to do.


I was talking to Scott on the phone earlier and expressing my frustration over Emma's non-existent violin efforts. I was not sugar-coating it. Of course, she heard me talking. And I didn't care. She was pissed. She ran upstairs saying, "I don't want to be around someone who treats me like crap!"

Yup, she really said that. Needless to say, there were consequences.

Maybe she just needs a healthy dose of reality instead of mollycoddling. I admit, I praise her way too much. And as I told Scott, I'm done doing that. Praising her is fine, but I'm not going to applaud her half-hearted attempts at... music, homework, whatever. She wants to use the "c" word? Fine. Crap is crap and I'm done trying to find things in the crap to praise.

So, Delicious Readers... advice? Please? Pretty please with sugar on top?

Look what I did!

I actually finished a knitting project that's not a prayer shawl! I've advanced in my knitting acumen! Yay!

This is a baby afgan for an itty-bitty named Rori Rae, born just last week. I'll have to mail it out soon, but in the meantime, I just keep oogling it. I can't believe I actually created something so beautiful!

Fun photos!

The San Diego Historical Museum is hosting a super cool exhibit about costumes from a local theater. I took Emma there yesterday and what fun!

I had no idea the detail that went into theater costumes. These amazing dresses must costs hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to make. And the hours to design, sew, fit, sew, piece, refit, redesign, sew some more... wowwee wow wow.

Here's an example of a wedding dress made for a Shakespeare play (I think).

First mock-up

Second try

The final version used in the play.

Several costumes were tucked into dressing rooms for people to try on. A miniature stage offered a chance to become a star!

The dress Emma tried on was waaaaaay too big on her. And we couldn't figure out how to put all the pieces together. LOL

But here are some photos anyway of Queen Emma...

After her dramatic debut, Emma and I sat down at a table filled with paper and colored pencils to become costume designers in our own right. *Forehead slap* I should have taken photos of our drawings so I could show you. Oh well. Emma and I are very talented, if I do say so. :)

Ready to share my life again...

I fell off the Earth for the past week or so. I thought about blogging, but couldn't. I also thought about a lot of things, but couldn't do those things either.

And I finally figured out why. And why I've been sleeping so much. And why I've been just... just numb lately.

My happy meds stopped working.

Well, technically, I took myself off one of two happy scripts when I ran out last December. Our insurance was still wonky and I didn't want to pay out of pocket. I did refill the script come January, but I'd already been off them for a couple weeks and was (seemingly) doing fine.

Not so much, as it turned out.

The med I was taking was such a low dose that it basically did nothing. Aaaahhhh... Now it all makes sense.

So as of yesterday, I popped *both* happy pills and you know what? I feel better already. I really do.

I know it's supposed to take at least two weeks for the medicine to kick in, but I feel more energetic and there's actually some depth of emotion in this confused body of mine. Hooray!

Now to get you all caught up in the life of the Delicious household.... and these are in no particular order...

1. Scott received a surprise in the mail... a tin of GIANT cookies. I weighed them and they're approximately half a pound each!! They are absolutely heavenly, but seriously? One quarter of a single cookie is too much. The sugar cookie is my favorite and I'm not generally a fan of them, so that's saying something. There's also snickerdoodle, chocolate chip (with and without walnuts), toffee crunch and white chocolate macadamia. YUM!! (Most of them are now in the freezer. LOL)

2. Emma lost another molar. I didn't take any photos 'cause that would just be gross.

3. It's Spring Break! Which, most importantly, means that I don't have to make lunches at 7am for a whole week! Don't ask me why, but I get so sick of making sandwiches every morning when my eyes are barely even open and the OJ has yet to hit my blood stream.

4. Hayley, who has flatly refused to wear a dress for over FOUR years now, tried one on. And bought it. And a bolero. And shoes. And then wore the ensemble to church. Woohhoo! Mama's jumping and down!

She's so gorgeous!

I tried really hard not to make a big deal out of it, but it was a big deal. I secretly Facebooked about it when she wasn't looking. Heehee.

5. And perhaps the biggest news of all... our Hayley-Girl left for her 8th grade trip to DC, NYC and Philly! We put her on the bus Friday night with 97 other 13 & 14 year-olds. God bless the chaperones. ROTFLOL!
She was so excited and couldn't wait to leave... Every 10 minutes all afternoon long, she'd ask, "What time is it?"

Before Hayley even got on the bus, Emma started to cry. Not just cry, but sob. Desperately. She didn't want to her Big Sissy to go. She leaned against me and soaked my shirt with tears. For 25 minutes. The teachers noticed her and kept telling her they'd bring her sister back safe and sound.

Here's a couple of the absolutely precious comments from my dramatic girl... "Can't the buses just leave already so we can stop this pain?" And on the way home... "There's a Florida license plate. That's on the other side of the state, too!" (and dissolving into tears again).

Anyway.... we only heard from Hayley once for about three seconds on Saturday and she was having a blast. We got an actual phone call about an hour ago and though exhausted, she rattled off the many places she's been. Her favorite so far is Mt. Vernon and the bazillions of cherry blossoms everywhere.

Heading towards her bus

Almost time to board!

Mommy's being so brave, letting her daughter fly far, far away.

Loading her luggage

Hayley and Natasha

On the bus!

Good bye! Good bye!