Sweet signs

You know how when sometimes you start down a new path and you think it feels right (or conversely, very wrong) but there are no guarantees? And you think, if someone could just give me a sign...tell me whether I am doing the right thing or not?

Well, things have been going quite swimmingly with my new job so far in that I've really been enjoying the work, the people, the big furry kitty cats outside my office door (who they tell me I can't pet), the fact that it's five minutes from my house (well, plus the 25 extra minutes the daycare drop off and/or pick up takes)... Still - it's always nice to get a "sign" that lets you know in no uncertain terms that you have made a good move. Well, today I got that "sign." It came in the form of a cupcake. But not just any cupcake...this was a special cupcake. Let me explain.

You see, once a month we have an all-staff meeting where birthdays of the month are always celebrated...with treats. The one for January was this afternoon. I had heard rumblings of sugar around the office, but of course I'm thinking the usual cake thing or something like that. Well, I walk into the conference room to this cute little tray of fancy-looking cupcakes. My first thought: "Cupcakes...yummy!" My second thought: "Where are those from?" Because I didn't recognize them and there are only two fancy cupcake shops in town and let's just say we are very familiar with both of them. Then, they get passed around and I hear something about Cold Stone. Cold Stone? Huh? What? I'm sorry, but are these....ICE CREAM CUPCAKES??? No way! Well, yes way!!

After much debate, I chose the one with an Oreo neatly placed on top, but here were all the choices. And please, don't even ask if it was good. Of course it was good - it was a COLD STONE CUPCAKE! This, I had never heard of. And it was super cute, which of course did not stop me from eating it. Even the cupcake "wrapper" was edible - a dark chocolate hard shell. So clever.

So, in the end, I ask, could there have been a better sign that I'm in the right place than a group who brings in ice cream cupcakes for birthday celebrations? I think not.

Until I write again.

I'm tumbling for the Tumble Bus!

Which, given the status of my back these days is saying a lot. First, let me

back up a bit. On January 10 my first little baby, Ian, turned five. Wow! It was like, just yesterday that I was pregnant, severely wine deprived and thinking I was crazy for ever deciding to become a parent and bam (!), I've got a five year old who will be getting ready to head off to Kindergarten soon. (Deep breath, deep breath...we'll save that topic for another post.)

So, for the first four years of Ian's life we never really had a birthday "party" for him. All were more like VERY small family gatherings. And that was just fine with us. And, it was just fine with him, too, until the past couple of years when we started getting to know more people in Portland and he started getting a clue that many of his friends got actual parties for their birthdays. By age 4.5(ish), our cover was blown...it was clear this kid deserved a real party for his fifth birthday. Fine. Okay, so it happens to fall at the tail end of the holiday season when we are already exhausted from Thanksgiving, Christmas...and did I mention that child #2 decided that she needed her birthday squeezed in there too? No biggie. I can handle one more "event," right?

By early December I was brainstorming location options. One thing we definitely knew is that we were absolutely, positively not having it at home. Somewhere I heard that fire stations gave free tours to kids AND had community rooms they rented out. And there it was...my big idea. We'd have a fire station bday party! The kids would tour the station and then have cake and ice cream in the community room. Done deal. Until the nice fire people told me they didn't like little kids shoving cake into the carpet in their community rooms and preferred that the party portion be held "elsewhere." Geez, touchy, touchy. I mean, really, how busy are they with all that time they sit around the firehouse waiting for calls that they couldn't afford to clean up a little cake? Anyway, so, for about 10 minutes I brainstormed how I could pull off a two-location bday party and then did what I always do...posted a message on DCUM for advice. Well, those lovely ladies on the east coast who never mince words told me it was a stupid idea that would never work.

Then, someone responds and says, "You know, Johnny went to a bday party recently where they had a bus come to their house that had been gutted and the kids played inside the bus and it was a huge hit. The kids played in the bus for a while, went in and had cake and then we all left. And it was brilliant because half the party everyone was out of the house!" Hmm....that sounds strangely similar to that bus that comes to Ian's preschool every now and then that has been gutted and the kids play inside the bus and it's a huge hit...called the Tumble Bus! Let me just see if they have a website...yep, yep, there it is...and if they do birthday parties...yep, yep they do! Well, faster than you can say gymnastics I was on the phone to Isaac ("Ike" as I later learned the kids call him) who was kinder than kind and more relaxed than I could ever imagine being...taking my reservation to show up at our house on Sat, Jan 8 for Ian's fifth birthday.

And there it was - the bones of a real birthday party. Invites went out. (Thanks Tiny Prints - you rock!) and at 3pm on Jan. 8th, several small children showed up on our doorstep. (About 10, to be exact.) Five minutes after 3pm, right when things were starting to get out of control inside, Isaac showed up in his big, yellow gutted Tumble Bus. Oh shoot, time to head outside! I attempted to act like I knew how to control a whole group of small children by asking them to form a line so we could all walk outside to the bus. Um yeah, let's just say that thankfully they all made it safely to the bus parked on the side of the house. Once inside, it became immediately clear that "Ike" was no amateur. He actually knew what h

e was doing, and he did it well. And judging by the amount of smiles and level of giggling, the kids appeared the LOVE him, his partner and his gutted yellow bus. They did stretches, they played silly games and they they ran around the bus and jumped on a trampoline, swung from rings and climbed ladders for 45 minutes before it was time to come back inside. Ike made a point of quickly learning the name of every child and using it often...he was really awesome.

After they were all wiped out, (actually, who am I kidding? They are five year olds...they weren't wiped out at all.) they came inside for cake and then a book exchange where I once again attempted to create order among a group where no order seemed possible. (And they pay teachers what for this kind of job???) In the end, everyone got their cake, their book and then spent a little time at the very end doing their best to tear apart our living room. Just kidding. In reality, they were quite good.

All in all, I do believe that Ian's party was a success (it was reported that when I was out of earshot he had declared it "the best birthday ever!"...which sounds amazingly similar to when he declared this Christmas "the best Christmas ever!") and no small animals at all were harmed during the party...though that might have been because we learned from Elena's small gathering in November that it was best to lock Zach up downstairs in the mud room. Poor thing.

Three cheers for the Tumble Bus! (And for the ladies of DCUM who still manage to often come through for me in a pinch.)

Until I write again.

Pantry...or work of art?

I knew my destiny when I went to bed at about 1am New Year's Eve and woke up a few hours later thinking about my pantry. Yes, my pantry. The one I had reached in a few days earlier to grab a bag of rice (because what else would I be eating?) and the whole thing dumped open all over the place. If you've never had the pleasure of cleaning up rice from the back an overcrowded pantry - consider yourself lucky.

By 4am I had decided exactly what I'd be doing at least half of my New Year's Day: cleaning and reorganizing my pantry! After that I was going to clean out all the papers in my office and create a new filing system, and then fill all those photo albums with the pictures I had ordered months ago. Oh, and do just a minor reorg to the storage closet in the den/my office as well. (In case you haven't figured it out, "nesting" isn't just for people having babies...it's also for people who are about to return to work after a 2.5 year hiatus.)

By 8:30(ish) the next morning, I was hard at work. I recruited Jeff to sit with me and go through everything that was in there and vote whether to keep or toss. For instance, anything that was branded "Harris Teeter," which was our store in Virginia - we decided was probably worth tossing at this point. By 10am, with the entire room in complete disarray, it was time to make trip #1 to Target (hooray for stores who don't let their employees take holidays off!). No comment on how long I spent there sorting through storage options. Armed with what I believed would certainly be way too many things, I arrived back home and began the task of putting everything back together. By about 1pm, with Ian halfway through his second movie and still in his jammies (whoops) and Elena taking marathon naps, it was clear I still had a long journey ahead of me...and not enough storage items. Enter trip #2 to Target. Still, I was not ready to call "uncle" on my other planned projects for the day. After all, it was only about 3:30pm by this point. There was still time!

By 6pm as Jeff was opening the wine, finishing the mashed potatoes and pulling our New Years prime rib out of the oven - I was strategically placing the last containers of cereal into our newly organized area. Needless to say, I was exhausted and had to give up my dream of finishing the other projects for the day (but fear not - I got some done today!). But let me tell you, it is a beauty. Of course here is where it would seem natural that you'd look below this paragraph and see a picture of the finished product - but this is where I see that it's nearing 10pm and rather than go get my camera, take a pic and download it to the blog, I must be off to bed. After all, I do have a job to get to in the morning, you know.

Until I write again.