Countdown to TWO!

Emma's birthday is coming up fast and I can't believe I haven't really planned much yet. I bought fabric to create her birthday party outfit yesterday. Jon is working on the invitations and they are awesome. I ordered the cake pan on Monday.

I need to do a trial run of the 3-D Wilton cake next week so I'll be ready for the real thing on June 14th. We are doing a giant cupcake decorated with red & white sprinkles topped with an Elmo pop and two crayon candles. I am thinking of using red, white and pink Necco candies as the sprinkles or Hot Tamales and white Neccos. To go along with the red & white gingham tablecloths and the Elmo theme we are going with. Emma picked him. She is a BIG fan of the red monster.

I am planning on using a fish bowl full of gold fish and her Elmo TMX as table decorations. A fellow Gymbofriend has offered her extra Elmo decorations to me for the cost of shipping and she has an inflated 4' tall Elmo! I am excited for that as I was hoping to maybe rent an Elmo costume and have someone dress up at her party but it is like $90 to rent one and the closest place is an hour away. Oh well - I think it is going to be a cute and fun party for Miss Emma*Cakes! I can't believe my baby is going to be TWO!

Here are a few samples of the giant cupcake that I've found online:

Laundry

I admit that laundry is not my favorite thing. I am very good at the gathering dirty clothes, loading the washing machine and then the dryer. Jon is supposed to be the one that folds and puts the clothing away. I love to smell the detergents and fabric softener in the grocery aisle. I am such a clean smell girl. We are usually a Tide Free and Bounce Free family because of Emma's sensitive skin. It is mostly just during the winter months though, I switched back to Gain last summer and she was fine. As I posted the other day, I found Crunchy Clean Detergent that is good for sensitive skin and she adds custom scents to it. The best of both worlds!

I have now done about five loads of laundry, uh, we were a little behind. lol Anyways, Emma has not broken out or acted itchy at all with this detergent. It leaves a faint, airy scent behind on the clothing and in the laundry room. I love it! I have tried the lemon, vanilla and lavender chamomile. The lavender chamomile is my favorite. We were using the Downy Simple Pleasures fabric softener in the same scent before Emma's sensitive skin issues and it was heavenly too. I haven't been putting Emma in the Happy Heiny trainers lately so I haven't been able to try the Cloth Diaper detergent yet. I did use a little bit of it to make a paste on Emma's white tee to get out a spaghetti stain and it worked great! Jon came home to his shirts hanging in the laundry room neatly and said he'd buy more of this detergent if it meant this would happen more often. lol I don't know if it's the lovely detergent or the fact I am a temporary SAHM.

Anyways, I am looking forward to ordering a full size of the Lavender Chamomile and a sample of the Baby Bee soon. I found a container that looks similar to the jar she sells on her Etsy site at Target so I need to get one of those first. :)

GREEN...

I have been trying to slowly do things that are more "green" around our house. I know it is better for the environment and now Emma too. She has diaper rash quite often even though we use the "sensitive" wipes, lotions, detergent, everything. I recently bought some cloth wipes, all natural wipes solution and a wetbag to use on her. The wipes are by Small Wonders and they are so soft! Emma loves them and we also got her the bigger size to use as washcloths in the bathtub too. I have also changed to the Method cleaning products and I no longer have my wrists breaking out after I scrub the tub and toilets. The eucalyptus mint scent smells great too! Oh yeah, the wipes solution I went with was Punkin Booty Bits. It was a sampler pack of baby powder, unscented, monkey farts and snuggles. They smell so good, especially snuggles but I am a BIG time clean smell girl! We have only used the cloth wipes solution a handful of times so far but I'll let you know how it goes. The wetbag was from Lemon Squeezy and I love the fabric.

My most recent find arrived today, Crunchy Clean Detergent. I have a load of laundry in the washer now and there is a hint of lavender chamomile in the air. I love it. I ordered a sample pack of cloth diaper clean, vanilla, lemon and lavender chamomile about a week and a half ago. I think I am definitely going to order more of this detergent as it is all natural and $8 (plus shipping) for 68 loads. I am usually a liquid Tide or Gain girl but this powder dissolved great and it smells so good! I definitely want to try her new Baby Bee scent and I like that I am supporting WAHM's too.

We ordered some reusable grocery bags on a co-op through Diaper Swappers a few weeks ago so we are making the switch. I get so tired of bringing home the groceries in 10 plastic bags with like two items in each one. It just seems like such a waste. These bags, Chicobags, are made like the plastic bags but are nylon. I have heard good things about them and they can be balled up into one bag and thrown in your purse of the trunk of the car. It seems like a great idea and Jon went along with me.

Here's one of Emma in the shopping cart on Mother's Day. By the way, I love her Kozy Pal cart cover. I am getting good at links! lol

Parents Magazine Cover Model Contest

I entered Emma in their photo contest on Wednesday evening. The site is not without glitches though so the first photo I entered has managed to disappear and it won't let me re-upload it. Oh well - Emma is adorable in the other photos as well. :) She is such a ham and has decided she likes the camera again, at least about 50% of the time!

Here is the link to her gallery on the Parents site.
http://www.parents.com/app/sharemy/photoDetails.jsp?photoId=167600227

Above her photos are stars. Please highlight them to say "I love it" and then click on recommend. The votes can get her on the front page and in their newsletter! Thanks - we really appreciate it if you can vote for Emma*Cakes!

Life

It has been a long and trying week or so and I keep trying to look for the positive and enjoy each day. Especially with my Emma*cakes.

Last Thursday, Jon came out of work and noticed his tire looked very worn in one place so he decided to stop by Wal-Mart on the way home to get a new one. It ended up being Wal-Mart, Sam's and finally Sears to get it done but he was able to get it done. Thank goodness that he noticed it as they told him it probably would not have got him home safely.

The next day they let me know that they no longer needed me at the job I'd been at for a year. I have enjoyed spending the first part of the week at home with Emma and then took a two-day position with the temp agency so I can hopefully still earn my 40 hour vacation since I am only lacking 25 hours! I was at work reading Lovelyn's blog about Trisha Hessee, the girlfriend of one of our high school classmates. She is nearly 14 weeks pregnant and is fighting brain cancer, two tumors in her brain that do not seem to be reacting to the radiation. John posted an update this morning that she is doing a little better yesterday, opening her eyes and responding to them with hand squeezes. I have been thinking about her and praying for her every chance I have since I read her blog. I just cannot shake the feeling of imagining everything she is going through. I cannot do anything but pray so I am going to keep praying for her every chance I have. The website is www.trishahesseefund.info if you want to find out more about her story.

I called Jon after I had picked up Emma from the sitter and he didn't sound like himself. I asked him what was wrong and he responded with "I'm just shaken up..." I begin to really worry, something I am good at, when he tells me that Jason just died. A guy he works with quite closely at his job had been feeling a little lightheaded and itchy at work that morning. He assumed his wife had changed their detergent or something and decided to head on home. His wife wanted to take him to the ER because he just wasn't feeling right and on the way out of their house, he collapsed. He was gone. He was only 33 and they think it was a heart attack or an aneurysm. I couldn't hug Jon tight enough when he got home. I keep imagining what his wife must be going through and I know it must be unbearable. I also keep thinking about how blessed we were a few months ago when Jon collapsed at work that it was nothing more than fatigue and a bad decision to skip a few meals.

I have been stressed and uptight about so many little things lately with the job thing, Emma's upcoming birthday and even this morning I got super-upset because Emma spilled a drink all over herself and her car seat. Jon was telling me to calm down and Emma was smiling at me, even giggling, just to make me happy again and she was the one who was soaked. I realized that it is only clothing, it launders well, and life just needs to be lived and enjoyed to the absolute fullest each day. I am going to make a point to not sweat the small stuff and even some of the not-so-small stuff anymore.

I am so blessed.