This has been such a F-U-N day! Guess who I met?

Here are a few hints: Gingerbread houses....26 years....pasteries....The White House....

cell phone pic

Hhmmmm......mysterious, huh? Any guesses?

I guess you'll have to wait until I download the pics from my camera (soon)!

 I know you've been waiting to see an update on my baby birdies, haven't you?  HAVEN'T YOU!?!? Lie to me, ok? I'll cry if you say NO. 

My sister likes to remind me that the birds have their OWN mother and that I'm simply a crazy stalker lady to the little babies.....whatever.....I already named one of them Josh, Jr. so they're stuck with me now.

Hello little babies! Rise and shine! This is DAY 4. They're getting floofier.

 

Mohawk Josh, Jr. is throwing his head back and saying, "Oh God! You again?!? UGH!"

 He's just like my boy. It's all about the drama, drama, drama.... 

This is DAY 5 (today) and Josh says they've gone from "Pretty damned ugly" to "Still sorta ugly."

I think that's progress.

 

And this?...Well, it's my poopy door. Yup. The pooping has officially begun.

Those little squirts. Haha, punny!

I just like to share  :o)

 

Speaking of poopy birdies....haha. I'm cracking myself up today.

Must be the poop fumes, sorry.

I think Josh curses the day cell phones came equipped with cameras.

 

Dump Cake

In our home, we have been dealing with slowly saying goodbye to one of the most special people in our lives, our Gram. I know for certain that she is the sweetest, kindest and most loving person that I have ever met in my life time and.....well, if I continue to type about Gram I will lose my mind today so I have to stop for now. Except to say that yesterday I got to hear her sweet little voice on a cell phone and it was like a ray of sunshine shot directly into my heart. (Thank you, Jack. It meant the world to me.)

I wrote a little bit about Gram  here  so feel free to catch up.....

So, yesterday my Johnny needed to smile. I cannot bear to see my husband sad so I knew exaclty what I could do to make things just a teensy bit better for him, if even just for an hour.

The way to my husbands soul is....you guessed it....FOOD. And the simpler the meal, the better he loves it. Lucky for him he married someone who loves to cook simple food!

How does FOUR INGREDIENTS sound to you?

How does DUMP CAKE sound to you? Not so good?

Well let me bust that myth right now.

These four little ingredients will make you thank all of the angels in heaven: 1 undrained can of pineapple, 1 can cherry pie filling, 1 yellow cake mix of your choice, and 1 stick of unsalted butter (margarine if you are vegan). Preheat your oven to 350*.

Dump the undrained pineapple in a 9x13 casserole dish sprayed with nonstick spray

Spread evenly

Spoon the cherry pie filling evenly over the pineapple 

-- I missed a photo here so pretend you spread the cake mix evenly over the cherry and pineapple layers. -- I hate when I do knucklehead things, oh well. Chalk it up to food blogger 101 mistakes --

 Easy so far right? Told you! Dump, dump and dump. That's the 3 steps we've done. Easy peasy. 

Slice the stick of butter (or margarine) evenly


Spread the butter slices evenly over the cake mix that we pretended we had a picture of.  Sorry!

The original recipe called for two sticks of butter, but I can't do it. I think that's a rediculous amound of butter and we're trying to cut back so I put a few dallops of Smart Balance in between the butter as this is the only moisture on the top of the cake. It works very well and the top browns just fine and the taste is not compromised. Trust me.

So this took about 4 minutes tops. Still with me? Good.

Now throw this casserole dish into the oven at 350* for 55 mins-1 hour, until browned and crisp on top. The house will start smelling like a chocolate chip cookie factory in about 20 minutes and your dogs will begin circling the kitchen wondering when they are getting their share of heaven. Mine did  :o)

The cherry pie filling will bubble to the top and the surface will be golden brown and crunchy.

 Mmmm.....


It's more like a cobbler without any of the work. Now I just waited for my husband to come home and see his simple little surprise.


Johnny had the right idea!


A cold glass of milk.....oh and might I suggest some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream?
 Johnny loved it  :o) xoxo And I got the smile I wanted, that's all that mattered to me xoxo



Dump Cake, enjoy! It's as easy as 1, 2, 3, 4....Literally!

By the end of the evening this is all that was left, thanks to the help of Josh & Carey, haha.

Just a hunch, but I'm guessing that Dump Cake is something I need to make again in the near future. Next time I'm going to add some chopped nuts on top of the cake mix (under the butter). That will add some nice texture and crunch.

Let me know what you think, I love feedback!

Dear Brenda,

      Are we going to have to see 562 pictures every stinking day of the birds that hatched in your wreath before they finally, Finally, FINALLY fly off already?
               Love,
                   The 4 people who read your blog

Dear 4 people,
      Yes, dammit, you will. Now get over it.
               Love,
                    Brenda

We don't use our front door anymore, we come and go from the garage entry. We do this for the love of these little peeps who live in my winter wreath. 

Sorry little buddy, you can stop yelling at me now. I promise I will never fire a flash at you again. My bad. It was an accident.  **Feeling very guilty**

I sneak up on them from the front steps with my Ove Gloves on to make sure no one has fallen out of the nest. Can you see the little beak up there sticking out of the nest?

With a mouth that size I wish I could give my mohawk baby some of my pizza or a bite of my Chipotle. He's the hell raiser of the bunch. There's one in every crowd....

I think I'll name mohawk baby "Joshie, Jr."

Guess what Johnny & I went to see at the Warner Theater in D.C. yesterday?

(Thanks to my sister for saving the day with her....achem....iphone. We've been having an iphone/blackberry battle for a year and....I concede: "iphones rule, blackberry's drool." She was able to look up our show date & ticket time dates when we thought we'd missed the performance ~ all on her iphone from another state!)

Watch this 4 1/2 minute video ~ you will NOT be sorry!

Turn your speakers way up and be sure to tap your feel like we did for 2 hours until our chins hurt.

Oh, and clap too. That's what we did for 2 hours until our hands bled. Or at least felt like they were bleeding.

Go ahead, watch it. I'll wait..........................

I can be bossy at times. But only when it comes to Irish Dancing.

My sweetheart earned major husband points by taking me in to D.C. to see Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance. He was excited. See the excitement on his face? So excited. Really.

Heck no! Johnny didn't want to spend the day in his workshop making stuff out of wood and acrylic. Nope, he wanted to see men in tights running around the stage tapping out an irish jig. Uh-huh.

The whole street is star studded, I found Tyler Perry's handprint.

Melissa Ethridge's star....and many more.

Michael Flatley (creator, director & producer) is performing in his other show "Feet of Flames" now in Europe so the male lead was performed by Bobby Hodges. He was amazing, and dare I say...I liked him even more than I enjoy Michael Flatley. Ooops. But it's true. He brought the crowds to our feet, he was a truly gifted and athletic dancer. And he wore tight pants. Bonus.  ;o)

At every turn the staff made it clear to us that there was NO PHOTOGRAPHY allowed in the Warner Theater. Ok, ladies, gosh, calm down. We heard you loud and clear. Geeze.

So here's the inside of the theater. It was gorgeous! The pics don't do it justice since I didn't use a flash (I may live on the edge, but I'm not stupid). Everything was gold and red inside. Our view of the stage in the center pic. 

And I couldn't forget to snap a pic of the most handsome man in the building! The smile? It was just after I promised him that cute girls in tiny outfits would also be running around the stage dancing a jig. He was fully awake now.

This is after the show....yes, Johnny's happy. There was a particular scene in which a singer was strolling the stage in a dress that had a slit cut up to her thigh bone. I whispered to him, "Look at her shoes!" He replied, "Uuuuhhh....yeah, that's what I was looking at." I just burst out laughing. Riiiiiiiiiiiight, Johnny. Right.

I don't know why this was his favorite dance ~ when the girls tear off their dresses and dance in their tights and bras.....4 minute video:

Johnny paid attention to the whole performance and now he's wanting me to take up Irish Dancing.

Uuhhhh......I will if you will tootsie!  

I had a wonderful date with my hubby last night! We enjoyed happy hour at Chevy's where the Mexican food is deeeeeee-lish! I had some quiet time reading on my Kindle for a little while and catching up with my sister with texts before Johnny showed up.

This has been such a fun week. We got the outside of our house painted and it looks great, especially the garage door that looked like it was on its last leg. I went on a fun garden club tour with girlfriends, Josh passed his PFT, I had a date night with my sweetheart hubby, my baby birdies were born, Gram is doing better; it's a miracle!

Thank you to those of you who called and kept Gram in your prayers, you know how much she means to us. Johnny & I are excited at the thought of another chance to see her again, fingers crossed!....There is just SO much to smile about. I love it!

I saw this card today at Wegman's and immediately sent it to my sister to make her laugh. I sure giggle out loud, especially since I have 3 tiny Chihuahuas and if I don't stop eating Mexican food this may be ME pretty soon.

The inside said, "Birthdays can be a big pain in the butt...."  Haha!

Hahahaha!

Thank you Alexandra Stoddard, you're a smart cookie  :o)

Have a great weekend everyone, I know I will! My Johnny just called and said he'd be home in 30 mins and to crank up the blender ~ it's Margarita time! 

See ya Monday or Tuesday......CHEERS!

Day 2 ~ YES! All 5 eggs hatched, thank God {{xoxoxo}} I was so worried over night.

I have 5 sweet little baby birdies. (That still look like shrimp).

Five little sweethearts that grace my front door and will soon turn it into one big poopy mess.

I wasn't quite sure what to think of them until I saw this....  And this.... 
That's it. I'm in LOVE. I'm a goner.  How can you not love a bird with a mohawk?

THEY READ MY NOTE!! THEY READ MY NOTE!!
 

I have been soooo impatient (who...me?) for my baby birdies to hatch.....so yesterday I posted that photo telling them to HURRY UP already!

 And guess what??..... {{{big smiles & even clapping a little}}} 

On my way out the door to meet Johnny for dinner, I peeked into the nest to see how my 5 little eggs were doing, for the 367th time this week....but this time something looked....off....it actually startled me for a second. I froze in my tracks and nearly screamed.

 This time I saw fuzz! Two eggs had hatched were replaced with the cutest fuzz you've ever seen in your life.

I wasn't exactly "in love" yet because they look a little bit like shrimp and I really, REALLY dislike shrimp. And when Josh came home we both stared into the nest while Mama birdie was off getting food and all he could say was, "Wow, they're pretty damned ugly." I have the most sensitive child.

I'm not sure which end is which, but seriously ~ I know it's a bird, but tell me you don't see an arm and a leg and the tiniest bald head.

Alright, all of my Mommy defenses are up now. I have 2 babies and 3 eggs, no one had better mess with our front door. I will cause some serious pain to anyone who threatens my babies, Josh included. This is one thing I know for certain.

I just hope they get a little bit cuter, it's hard having ugly babies...but that's okay. Maybe they are just a pile of fuzz that only a mother can love, but they're MY pile of fuzz.

Come on you other three!! We're waiting anxiously for you!!