Bad Hair Day

Okay not really...this is my hair in it's all natural state...yikes is all I can say. Isn't my hubby a saint for loving me & even dare I say thinking that I am sexy?? Wow...

Well thank GOD for straighteners, hair products & makeup :-) 

The big party...a recap :-)

It's taken me a while to do this, because we've all been sick & busy. No matter, I have time now, so here goes. 

So, as a reminder of what I'm talking about I threw my hubby, Aaron, a big surprise 30th birthday bash. It was fabulous and a LOT of work. We had a big mongolian hot pot sit down dinner with rented table settings ta boot! I got Aaron out the door at around noon, off to his dad's to watch sports all day. Before he leaves though, he declares that he'll probably just stay for a little while & come home because he's just not 'feeling it'. I stopped in my tracks, and tried to come up with something to say without spilling the beans, but under NO circumstances can he come home early damn it! My response was 'NO, you know you'll have a great time once you get there...guy time, no kids, sports, laying - what's not to love?!' As he stepped out the door, I gave a call to his dad to warn him about Aaron's attitude in hopes that he could be really convincing. MY cover was that I was going to be cleaning carpets all day (hence the couch that I needed help moving before he left). 

So, Aaron left & I began to set up...first cleaning up a little bit. I couldn't be too obvious after all. Earlier I had done some cleaning, but normal cleaning is usually a few rooms at a time, where as party clean is everything at the same time. My mother in law came by to help & we got started with the actual party set up. We had 3 big tables to set, and 6 big hot pots to prepare. It took us all afternoon, but by 6, we were ready...with a few power outages under our belts too. (6 hot pots all plugged in at the same time, is a lot! We played around with it though & finally found enough plugs that were spread out enough that we made it work.)

Wine - check, food - check...now we just waited for people, and I changed my clothes (thank god). I didn't look great, but I was clean so I thought that was pretty good. ;-)

People started to arrive & finally I got to call Aaron home.

Aaron came home, we all shouted surprise & the party began. He said he wondered if something was up, by the time 4pm rolled around & he called to check in & I emphatically encouraged him to stay. Though, under NO circumstances did he have ANY clue that I was doing a huge hot pot thing with so many friends at our house.

We all ate and ate and ate. It was super yummy & so fun to see everyone enjoying it. Hours later, we had cake too, with wine all along the way. It was fantastic and a great success. I looked like total crap by the end because I was sweating so much running around trying to keep everything working (with a few more power outages scattered throughout the evening) - my bangs were all kinky & matted, but oh well. People didn't really start to head home til 10:30pm, and a few stayed til 2:30am. 

Here are the only pictures I got from the evening, but sadly the birthday boy wasn't in any of them: 

 

A rant for women everywhere (or at least in the USA)

My daughter is 4 years old. She is beautiful & not overweight or obese or inactive. She is a healthy, active little girl that loves to dress up and play in the dirt...preferably at the same time! And, I am having the HARDEST time finding jeans that fit her. She has a butt - it runs in the family. It's more than that though - I can't find any jeans for her that actually cover her butt. Since when should little girls be wearing low cut jeans? Since when should they have no other options? On top of that...said low cut jeans are also quite tight in the legs...so what little girl can actually play comfortably on the playsets - climbing, crawling and having a great time? And at the very same time, her fanny is hanging out & getting cold. Good lord! This is NOT okay. And we wonder why the women in America have such bad body images/issues. They are made to feel bad about their bodies from practically birth by the clothing industry. It is so frustrating! I am going out in a desperate attempt to find suitable jeans for her today. She shouldn't have to buy jeans 3 sizes too big just to be able to move in them - to still have her fanny hanging out! Grrr...

The saddest example of the inequality is that my youngest son is at least 1 or 2 sizes smaller than her, and his jeans fit her just fine (fanny covering & room to bend, crawl & play hard) ...with the exception of them being too short. If that doesn't say something, I don't know what does! 

It's a new day

Well, I worked out last night and feel a lot better about the cake eating incident. ;-) Now, onto the rest of life...

Confessions

I feel like I could throw up right now...not because I have caught some sickness that is going around. I ate too much cake this whole weekend & this morning.

Sunday morning I let my kids eat a piece of cake right after breakfast. We then continued to eat cake on & off all day long. Damn those Costco cakes - they are super good & friggin' huge. Half of the cake was eaten at the party, but the other half has been eaten by our family alone...ugh! Today I decided to throw the rest away (which in the end wasn't very much at all, because we all ate cake like it was oxygen). I woke up to see that the 2 youngest had eaten all of the frosting off of the top of the remaining cake in the wee hours of the morning. I then took one last bite, folded the cake in on itself with the box & threw it away. Sadly, I reevaluated that decision about a half an hour later & pulled it out of the garbage to eat a few more bites. Only to find that the chocolate cake part had separated from the last bits of frosting, so I ate my favorite part - the cake...only to then stop to realize that I had eated about 2 larger sized pieces of cake out of the garbage. I am disgusted with myself & now am so gorged with cake that I feel like I could throw up. Ugh! What the hell happened to me? In my defense - the garbage was not the typical gross garbage & the cake was all wrapped up & on the very top...but still. I am totally disgusted with myself and my stomach hurts. Serves me right...I am SO going to the gym tonight. 

Today is the day

Today is the day of the big party...yay! Aaron is sick...ugh! We are having the party anyways. He's not throw up sick - he's just tired & regular old cold sick. He came home last night at like 4pm and went to bed...he's been resting & holed up in our room since then. I think that he should be fine & all ready for a celebration by tonight - whether he knows it yet or not :-) 

I have told more lies than I can count to make this whole thing happen. I have had to be a little pushy even to get him out of the house this afternoon. My last resort will be to just tell him that we are doing something special and that he needs to just do what I'm asking him to do. I hope it doesn't come to that, but we shall see. Ya never know with my stubborn hubby :-) 

Well, I better go straighten my hair now, before I run out of time. Eek!  

a secret surprise

My hubby is turning 30 in one week. I am having a surprise party for him this Saturday. As far as I can tell, he has no idea...yahoo! I am currently super excited & totally freaking out right now. I am pretty sure I bit off more than I can chew, and have no idea how I am going to pull this off. The party is actually a sit down dinner for 30 people! Dear GOD help me! Aaron's very favorite meal of the entire YEAR is our Christmas Eve Hot Pot (a fondue-type meal), and that is what we are having for his big surprise birthday celebration. I am not exaggerating - he is a freak for this meal! Every year, someone brings up the idea of doing something different for Christmas Eve & he declares to everyone that if it's changed that he won't be coming. Now, if it was changed, he would still go (of course), but that is how much he loves this meal & this tradition. I am secretly thrilled that he feels that strongly about it, because so do I, but I couldn't be as bull-headed about it, as he is. All of that to say...I hope we can shock his socks off! More than that, I hope I can pull it off! I am a little worried that it will be a huge disaster...or that it will bankrupt us. Dear god, it's not cheap to feed that many people. It's worth it. :-)