Home repairs, lost teeth, & squeezing in time to myself

Of course, it wouldn't be my life if we didn't have some fire to put out. And naturally, it would have to happen when I'm at my busiest time of year at work. But, I'm pretty proud of us and how we took this one in stride. What crisis, you ask?

Apparently, a pipe has been leaking inside of our master bathroom wall, and proceeded to rot out all the wood, as well as start growing some mold. Ahhh, the joys of home-ownership, no? We realized something was amiss when our towel bar fell out of that wall. Aaron began to investigate, and it only took a minute before he went to push on the wall, and his hand went right through. Yikes? Over the course of last week, he began the tedious process of ripping the entire wall down, killing the mold, replacing the leaky pipe, and redoing the drywall - all including a dozen (or so) trips up to our neighborhood Lowe's.

After tearing it down & spraying for mold.

The culprit, on the right.

Comes with the territory.

Stuff was everywhere.

Days later - success!

Kudos to Aaron for kicking this problem's ass!

Needless to say, we transplanted rooms, and bunked up in our spare bedroom. The most fun part of all was three of us sharing Zach's bathroom. Oy. I don't know how people did it in the old days. But, we made the best of it, and kind of had fun living in a room we've never lived in during the whole nine years we've been here. It was kind of like staying in a hotel and being on vacation, just minus the room service, the crisp hotel sheets, the comfy & oversized pillows, that hotel smell ... ok, maybe it wasn't like staying at a hotel at all.

Towards the end of the home improvement week, Elyssa surprised us with a visit from Dallas. Love friends who come visit! We were able to transplant ourselves back into our bedroom the day she came in, so she stayed with us overnight on Sunday. We realized we hadn't seen each other in person since last November, and we agreed it had been entirely too long. Her birthday was the Friday before she arrived, so I wanted to surprise her with a sweet treat of some kind. Her Mom and I are friends on Facebook & after picking her brain, I decided on a personal-sized, gluten-free chocolate cake with dark chocolate glaze. Now, keep in mind, I've never baked anything gluten-free before, and I was slightly intimidated. And I've eaten gluten-free desserts in the past, but always been disappointed with the grit factor. If you've never had one, it's a lot like rolling your dessert item around in sand before taking a bite. Because I was trying to avoid the beachy essence in my cake, I searched for a flour-less recipe. Thanks to Whole Foods, I found one and it was spectacular!

The recipe itself.

My ingredients included eggs, sugar, butter, and:

So far, so good, right?

DISCLAIMER: I guess I always assumed eating gluten-free would also mean eating healthier. Well, I suppose that's true if you stick with fruits & veggies. But venture into dessert-land, and it'll make your ass just as big as eating gluten. This recipe was delicious, but far from healthy. Just thought I should throw that out there, so no one was mislead.

I documented the process in photos - big shocker, I know. Here's how it went down:

Started out with personal-sized springform pans.

Melting the dark chocolate chips & butter. [swooning]

If this alone isn't sexy to you, we can no longer be friends.

All melted and delicious.

After adding eggs, which thickened things up.

Now, the cocoa powder.

Um, lots of cocoa powder.

Amazing! How did it get so thick without flour?

I'm guessing the proteins from the eggs?

Voila!

As the little babies (yes, I made more than one, in case of a mistake) cooled, I started to make the dark chocolate glaze. It was really, really tough not to jump in the bowl of glaze and just roll around. It was extremely sexy.

After the first coat, then I decided it needed more.

That's more like it.

What's a glaze if it's not dripping down the sides?

Earlier in the day, I had made a trip to Hobby Lobby and picked up decor for the cake (pink dusting sugar), and something cute to put it in.

Cupcake boxes.

What they look like, put together.

The dusting sugar, obviously.

Dusting it with a heart I cut out of parchment paper.

I had a coronary at this very moment, because Z decided

to pretend to touch it at the last minute. Grrrrrr.

The finished product, minus the coronary.

An artsy picture Elyssa took of the cake.

All boxed up.

We had lots of laughs and got to catch up, which is always a good thing. I hope she moves back to Austin one day, but I know that's a way's off, if it ever happens at all. Keep coming to see me, Ill-E! I love our visits!

Fast forward a few more days, and we are finally at present-day. I got a call this morning at work from Aaron & Z, that Z's tooth was out! Hooray! Daddy was off from work today, and Z asked him to pull his tooth out, because it was really loose & bothering him. Daddy obliged, and it only took one small tug.

Uncle Ken got him a card with five bucks in it

for the momentous occasion. Now the "tooth fairy"

has to up the anty tonight. Thanks a lot, Ken. ;-)

What makes it even more exciting is the other bottom tooth right next to the hole is now loose, just as his dentist predicted. I guess once it starts, they all follow soon behind, huh? We have a big dental appointment scheduled for him on August 10, so I guess we'll find out more that day.

That's really all I have to report this time around. I won't bore everyone by droning on about how work sucks (it does), how I'm starting to feel a little overwhelmed (I am), and how I can't wait for this all to be over (I really can't!). I will just silently continue to long for September, when my life becomes incredibly boring and mundane again at work.

Things I'm grateful for today:

1. Getting enough time to myself to blog. It's cathartic.

2. My son's excitement about his tooth. Reminded me of the

simple things in life.

3. My recent $187.00 electric bill. Holy crap, that's cheap!

I wish nothing but peace & pastries to every one of you. Until next time ...