When you work by yourself, there's no one to talk to

I really enjoying working by myself -- most of the time. But sometimes I miss that camaraderie that comes with working in office. You know, the 'water cooler' chit chat.

Today, I need to vent because I'm having one of those days where nothing is going my way. So, since I don't have a water cooler to chat by, my blog is going to be my next best thing.

So this morning started out with a screaming fight with my 7-year-old over his inability to listen. He wanted to be in his sister's room. She wanted him out. He didn't wan't to get out. I yelled at him to get out and start listening. He started crying. Stupid stuff really, but not exactly a good start to the first hour of my day. Although he did hug and kiss me goodbye when he got out of the car at school so I guess all was forgiven.

After dropping Austin at school, Alex and I drove to her school to drop her off. And what does she do? Start telling me that she doesn't want to go to school today because it's too long and she misses me. I suck up the heartbreak I feel for that statement and encourage her to go on because school is fun. No sooner does the bell ring that she runs out of line bawling and clinging to me, refusing to go in. She hasn't done that since September.

When I finally detangle myself from her and get her through the doors while tears are still streaming down her face, I drive my car over to the repair shop to get it looked at. The brakes started acting funny yesterday, and I figured that's probably not a good thing. After a quick look, they tell me I need new ABS sensors and it'll take a few hours. I go home to wait. Now they call me and tell me that it turns out the part they had delivered wasn't as advertised and it doesn't fit my car. So, the right part will cost several hundred dollars more and, oh yeah, it won't be ready until tomorrow at noon. So now I have no car to drive my kids to school with tomorrow.

There. I vented. And I actually feel a bit better. But I think I need to add a little something-something to my afternoon coffee to really feel better. At least that'll make anything else that comes my way today easier to deal with!

May the force be with you

After two years of Cars birthday cakes, this year my Star Wars-obsessed son decided that he wanted a Star Wars cake to celebrate his big day.

After a little research, I found this great idea for doing a light saber cake.

First, I baked a simple, 9x13 chocolate cake and iced it blue (which was a colour that was more-or-less chosen at random). Then, I iced three Vachon chocolate swiss rolls with green icing and placed them on the cake and then I iced three more swiss rolls in red. Finally,I used a little bit of black icing to ice two more swiss rolls, and placed them on the cake as light saber handles.

And for the finishing touches, a couple of LEGO Star Wars guys.

I must admit, I was pretty happy with the way the cake turned out. But more importantly, Austin loved it. And so did his friends at the party -- for a few short minutes before it was cut up and devoured, I was the cool mom who made a cool cake.