Ace of Cookies?

First of all, I want to give a shout-out to my MSU bulldogs, who gave a valiant effort against the #1 ranked Gators. Progress, people...I'm seeing lots of progress from those guys.

We've got a busy week at the Sherman house, so get ready for a lot of posts and pictures over the next few days. I'm sure you're sitting on the edge of your seat.

Anyway, earlier this year, I attended a super-fun Viking Cooking Class with mis amigas. We ate, we drank, we conquered--pasta.

Monday I had the pleasure of attending another class, but this time I was solo. The goal? Decorating cookies in honor of Halloween. I had a blast. I love crafty stuff, so this was right up my alley. (No pun intended.) We worked with rolled fondant and royal icing, and my work turned out pretty darn cute if I do say so myself.

Deciding on a plan of attack--this was before I figured out that I needed to pull my hair back.

Hair taken care of--working with some fondant

My witch--isn't she sweet?

Pumpkinhead

The finished product

I have a feeling that my Christmas cookies will be a little more sophisticated this year. My next goal is to round up my husband and some friends for a group cooking class. I can only imagine how that will go.

This weekend...

I went to the fair for the first time since I was 17. There is a reason for this; the fair kind of gives me the creeps. I guess it's not the fair itself...or even the people who run it. I'm mainly wigged out by the humanity that pays to get into the fair. (Yes, I know that includes me.) I was greatly reminded of why Mississippi is one of the fattest states in the nation. This fact did not stop Anthony from eating a chicken-on-a-stick...

a fried snickers...

and a fried twinkie.

I tasted the twinkie, and it was worth the heart attack it will cause later.

Sam couldn't do a whole lot, but he loved checking out the lights.

Saturday Anthony and I headed to New Orleans for a night out and the Saints game. We had a great time, and the game was fabulous. What wasn't fabulous was having obnoxious Giants fans sitting right behind us. I'm pretty sure I heard some of the most colorful language of my life. And that's saying something. I don't have pictures yet, which is probably a good thing since it was a trip to New Orleans.

On a completely different subject, today was pajama day at Sam's "school." He was pretty pleased to be in his sleeping duds. I, of course, thought he looked ridiculously cute.

My Friday Night Part II...

The discovery of 2 week old milk wasn't enough excitement for us this weekend. (See previous post.) Sam decided to throw us a real monkey wrench and get sick. Hooray.

While most young people (a category I no longer belong to) were out at 11:45 on Friday night, I was cleaning up vomit. Awesome. No one likes vomit, right? I know I don't, and I became close friends with Captain Puke during the 40 wks. of my pregnancy. I was one of those lucky people who physically threw up the entire 9 months. I've been fortunate to avoid dealing with this oh-so-fun brand of stomach upset since Sam's arrival, but he happily reintroduced me Friday night. I can't complain too much...Anthony had to take a second shower at midnight.

Poor baby Sam was confused, frightened, vomiting, and running fever, and his parents were just trying to hold it together. Now that Sam's nausea free, I can only think about what we must have looked like--Sam in a diaper with puke everywhere, Anthony with upchuck running down his chest, me trying not to slip in it.

Parenthood.

My Friday night...

Tonight we picked up hamburgers and kicked it at home. It should have been a fairly normal night...until the smell.

Anthony sat down in our living room, and sniffed. "What smells so bad?" I responded, 'I don't know--I smelled it earlier, but I never could find anything." We decided that while we were out getting burgers one of our pets decided to use our house as a toilet. We got down on all fours and tried to figure out where the cat/dog had done the deed, but then we found the source of the odor, and it wasn't a pile of poo.

Sam's sippy cups have been disappearing, you see. So much so that I went this week and bought four new ones because I couldn't find the other cups. Well, we found them. One in particular that I haven't seen in weeks. And it still had milk in it. Spoiled milk. That smelled more like rotten cheese. Or cat/dog poo. Disgusting.

Yes, we fought over who would wash it out. I won.

Right now...

My child is as happy as a pig in slop. He is currently sitting on top of my dining room table, and he is DESTROYING my cute, festive, Halloween centerpiece. (Proof is below.) Right now, he could run around naked while screaming obscenities, and I wouldn't care. The beginning stages of a sinus infection do not equal happiness, so we're just trying to make it until the end of the day.

On a side note, I'm not sure what happened in the last month or so, but the kid has developed a TEMPER. If you walked by our house at certain times, I feel sure you would call the police. When he gets mad, (because I won't let him stick his finger in sockets, for example) he acts as if I'm beating him with a garden hose. It's not pretty. All I know is we're about to implement some discipline tactics, which ought to be hilarious. If anyone has suggestions, feel free to bestow your veteran advice.

P.S. There was a question about safety plugs...We do have them, but Sam still wants to pull out anything that is plugged in-- then he tries to stick his fingers in there. I've also had to stop him from attempting to remove safety plugs. He'll either be a mechanical engineer or a criminal. We're keeping our fingers crossed.