Saturday

I woke up this morning to Cora pounding on my bedroom door.  I ignored her, hoping she would go away and let me sleep a little longer.  That child must have her picture in the dictionary next to the word "tenacious."  When the knocking alone wasn't sufficient, she began yowling, "Aunt Cheryl?  Aunt Cheryl!  Aunt Cheryl?  Aunt Cheeeerrrryllllll."   Finally I responded since it was obvious she was not going to give up. 

She waltzed in, saying, "Why are you still sleeping?  It's in the nines." 

I told her I was tired and I would get up in an hour or so.  Not the answer she wanted, so she continued to bug me until I told her I would get up if she would go and get me a diet coke.  Then I tried to get her to go bother Grandma for a while and give me fifteen minutes to get my teeth brushed and get dressed. 

No way.  She followed me to the bathroom, jabbering away the whole while, and stood in the doorway watching me pee and then brush my teeth.  I said, "Why don't you go ask Grandma what we should bake, and I will get dressed while you are gone."  The reason she was pestering me so vigorously is that she and I have baked every Saturday for the last three weeks, and she wanted to bake again today.

"I've seen my mom naked before," she said as I gathered up clothes to put on.  "Naked people are gross," she went on to say.  Yet, her big blue eyes remained solemnly fixed on me as she talked on and on about my cats, her cats, how diet coke is bad for you, especially if you drink it right away in the morning (I had demanded a can of diet coke if I was going to get up), football (and how it sucks), school (and how it doesn't suck), bacon (how delicious it is), and so on and so on. 

At some point, Mom came in, and I had an audience of two while I got dressed.  I felt like a goldfish in a bowl.  LOL.  A naked goldfish (although I was never actually naked). 

So, anyhow.

I told Cora we had to finish Grandma's race car first.  (Mom's church is having some sort of thing where everyone in the congregation has to decorate these little wooden cars and then they are going to have a pot luck and race them.  Mom thinks it is a kind of dumb idea--so does Jack.  I think it isn't a very churchy thing.  It's more like something someone would do at some sort of a club, like boy scouts or something.

Anyhow, Cora painted the car blue last night, and today I made two tiny little license plates for the front and back of the car which say "ANGEL."  I used clear red push pins for tail lights and tiny yellow buttons (the ones I use for my doll clothes) as head lights.  I painted the windshield and the rear window on the car with white paint tinted slightly with blue.  Finally, I glued a wing on each side of the car and a beautiful cross down the back where the "trunk" would be.  When Jack came to pick up Cora last night, he put the tires on.  I was afraid to do it, since Mom was told the wheels were very easily  broken.

I am hoping I can get a picture of it before mom goes to church.  I am quite please withthe way it turned out.

Cora wanted to go to the Ellendale Cafe for lunch, but it is closed on Saturday.  She wanted bacon, so I said we would go to Perkins if Grandma wanted to.  We then called Kim and asked her if she would like to join us, and she was very happy to do so.  After we had already made arrangements with Kim, Cora decided she would rather go to McDonalds.  Well, I had already called Kim.  So we discussed it and decided that Cora could eat some bacon at Perkins with the rest of us, and on the way home we would stop at McDonalds and get her a happy meal. 

Mom and Kim had burgers, and I had eggs and bacon because I planned to let Cora have my bacon.  I had my eggs over easy and got toast instead of pancakes because I like to dip the toast in the soft eggs.  Cora, the little booger, only ate three pieces of her bacon because she didn't want to be too full to eat her McDonalds.  Kim bought a french silk pie to take home to her and Lucas.  Yum.  One of these days I am going to buy a slice of pie again. 

We had fun there, laughing and talking.  The food was good and hot.  Kim wants to make a day of it next Saturday and everyone get their toes done then go to lunch or something.  Cora was really excited about that because she LOVES to have her toes done.

After that, we went through the drive through at McDonalds.  What a crazy order we gave the guy!  One girl's happy meal with just a hamburger on a bun--no condiments of any kind, two twist cones (for me and mom), one plain cone (for Cora) and one sweet tea (for Kim).  LOL. 

Cora was then content and sat in the back seat happily chowing down her fries as we dropped off Kimbies and headed home. 

Mom and I were really tired when we got home, and Cora was raring  to go and bake something.  I told her I needed to rest a bit and spend some time with my kitties.  So, I went to the Lair and snuggled the kitties.  Mom fell asleep in her recliner upstairs, and Cora put together her puzzles.  I suppose she allowed me about an hour of rest before she was down here bugging me to bake.  I didn't really feel like baking, but that child is relentless.

So, I found a recipe for apple cookies on line and we baked them.  At first I was disappointed, but after I put the powdered sugar glaze on them, I found them okay.  The apple cake we made last week was much better with its caramel glaze.

Jack called and said he was coming to pick up Cora, but Cora resisted, saying she was not ready to come home yet.  So, he gave her until 7:30, which she still protested, saying she wanted to stay overnight.  LOL.  I think she would move in if she could.

She seems very happy and content here.  And she is fun to have around.  She chatters incessantly and makes all  sorts of interesting observations about everything.

Jack took the time to put the wheels on mom's little car for her. 

Mom and I watched a little TV and then went to our separate floors and cashed in our chips for the night.

Sunday

Well, Sunday has not been one of the best days of my week--but it could have been worse.

I did not wake up in time to take a picture of Mom's little car.  In fact, I only got out of bed to pee a couple of times until after 4 pm.  Mom went to her church pot luck at about 4:30--then I went upstairs and ate some of the hotdish she had left for me and took a bath.  I feel so much better now that I am clean! 

When I came back downstairs, I sorted my laundry, stripped my bed, and started my wash.  My sheets and mattress pad are clean and dry.  The comforter and pillow shams are in the dryer, and my dark clothes are in the washer.  I will have red and white loads to do tomorrow, and I may wash my blanket and afghan as well, just to have a completely clean place to sleep.

I did some rearranging of fabric containers and picked up some doll accessories that have been laying around for a while.  I emptied out a shoe-box sized tote that has a top with a handle on it for the Ideal family (Tammy & Co.).  I tossed in some fabric I thought would make nice shirts for the male dolls.  I haven't put the dolls in there yet.  They are all nekkid except for Pepper at the moment.

When Mom got home, she came down for a while and told me about the pot luck.  It sounds like they had fun and that the car we made was given many admiring glances, even though it did not win.

There was not much to watch on TV.  We ended up watching CSI:Miami.  I worked on the doll dress I had cut from the Halloween hankie I bought at Walmart in Rochester.  It isn't the nicest fabric--it is pretty thin, but the skeleton and candy corn design is so danged cute I can't stand it.  I think it will make a very very cute little dress.  The other Halloween hankie is also cute and much more ornate.  I am going to have to think carefully about how I want to cut it out.

I have the skirt half sewn onto the bodice.  I will finish that tomorrow.  Then all I will have to do is sew it up the back, put snaps on it, and try it on the doll. 

That's all I accomplished today.  I was feeling a little sick to my stomach and had a headache today, so I spent a lot of time just sleeping or messing around with my computer.

Tomorrow I will do better.