Patron Saint Cake

I may have to name all of my children after saints who also have their own brand of liquor. Al Capone* is being Christened this weekend and we are having a party. Every good party needs desert. Enter St. Brendan's Irish Creme Cake. We discussed using the bottle as a baloon weight, but decided that might be a little much.

Our first child will grow up with a Patron Saint Cake.

1 (18.255 ounce) box butter cake mix

1 (3.4 ounce) box instant vanilla pudding mix.

4 eggs

½ c. vegetable oil

¾ c. Saint Brendan's® Irish Cream Liqueur

1 (18.255 ounce) box chocolate cake mix

1 (3.4 ounce) box instant chocolate pudding mix.

4 eggs

½ c. vegetable oil

¾ c. Saint Brendan's® Irish Cream Liqueur

Frosting:

2 cans cream cheese frosting.

4 Tbs. St. Brendan's Irish Cream

Combine with electric mixer

Preheat oven to 350˚.

NOTE: Prepare each cake mix recipe sepatately

In a large bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs and oil. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed. Add Saint Brendan’s®. Spoon into 9 inch round cake pans. Bake 25-30 minutes or until top is golden and sides pull away. Cool on wire rack.

Alternate layers of chocolate and butter cake mixes and frost with cream cheese frosting.

*To learn more about Al Capone click here. I promise I didn't really name my child Al Capone.

Not my Hero...

Last night was our last childbirth class, and the last hour was supposed to be devoted to teaching relaxation techniques. I'm actually a fan of relaxation, but last night wasn't exactly what I would call relaxing. Here's why...

Having very pregnant women lay on a concrete floor (okay, I realize this can't exactly be helped) is never really the pinnacle of relaxation. To make it a little more awkward, the substance abuse meeting across the hall decided that watching childbirth class through the door was more entertaining than anything else they could do on their break. I'll admit that by this point I was seriously questioning my ability to pretend that I was completely relaxed and lying on a beach somewhere.

The true deal breaker, however, was not the floor or the rehab audience, but when the instructor talked about music and then turned on Mariah Carey's Hero, I was done. It didn't help that we'd just finished a cheesy 80s Lamaze video that featured the dad changing into a muscle shirt for the delivery, but I'm pretty sure if their had been a exam, Greg and I would have failed. Here's to hoping that Michael J. Fox (circa 1980s with lots of hair gel and a muscle shirt), Mariah Carey, and local substance abuse support groups stay far far away from my hospital room.

Banned for Doping

According to Google, I am currently ineligible to participate in the Olympics (or any other professional sport) because of doping.

I'd admittedly really bad at "staying off my feet" and since I don't watch soap operas, I tend to only manage to follow these instructions if I can surf the internet.* Yesterday, I got put on Terbutaline to stop my contractions and when I was googling this drug, I was amused that articles about the this substance being banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency** routinely include the factoid that it is used to stop labor as well.

Given that Terbutaline isn't even usually prescribed until the third trimester of pregnancy, I'm wondering if this is a case of Wikipedia providing a little too many random bits of information for newspaper reporters or if there is a large number of women who are 7 and 8 months pregnant and also competing in professional supports. Clearly this news means that my plans of becoming an Olympic gymnast must be put on hold until I receive my Theraputic Use Exception.


*In December I had to stay on my left side for about a week which was extremely inconvenient for web surfing even on a laptop.
**It's primarily an asthma drug that increases your lung capacity by relaxing the smooth muscles in the lungs.

Earth Hour Paradox

We try to be ecologically conscious, so while I applaud the idea of Earth Hour, I'm also a little frustrated by the whole "turn off the lights for an hour and save the world" message. Really I'd rather people try something (for more than an hour) that they can incorporate into their everyday lives (recycling for example).

Anyway, all that said, we (unconsciously) participated in an Earth Hour paradox at our house. I totally forgot that Earth Hour was tonight. Most of our lights (out of habit) were turned off, but all evening I was doing laundry in hot water and drying it on high heat. Why might I be doing such an environmentally unfriendly activity you might ask, because I was prepping cloth diapers (unbleached cotton has to be stripped of its oils in 6 prewashes before it becomes absorbent). We aren't only using cloth diapers because of environmental reasons, but I do have to admit that when I realized that I'd spent all of Earth Hour running our washer and dryer at maximum carbon output, I felt a little guilty. Not guilty enough to abandon cloth diapers and throw a disposable diaper in a landfill for 500+ years, but still a little guilty. At least I was consuming large quantities of electricity during the ultimate off peak time.

Keys

I'm really glad that no one measures fitness to be a parent by the ability to keep track of one's car keys and/or not lock one's self out of the house/car/office/all of the above.*

This morning I lost my car keys, then found my car keys, then 15 minutes later walked out the back door and shut the door (which was locked) with my keys in their new "safe" spot. B was on her way to come get me, when I remembered that I had been messing with the egress window that morning and likely did not lock it back. So I broke in my house, got the keys, and hurried to school.

Both of my classes were working on activities today that didn't require me to provide any materials, so I decided to leave everything in my office while I taught 170. Um, my office door locks automatically. Repeat above situation, this time with college secretary.

Is it wrong that while I was walking through Meijer this afternoon, I saw one of those pacifier attachers and instantly thought that maybe next fall, I will leave my keys attached to the baby? I mean, theoretically, I shouldn't lose my keys and the baby.


*Actually, there is a really good reason this story is appearing on this blog and not elsewhere. :)

Baby Disrupts Student Learning

I get lots of weird student email that I find amusing, but I may have to print this one out for the baby book.

Dear Mrs. XXX,
I wanted to know if it would be okay if I switched seats in your Eng XXX class. I know it's really late in the semester and everyone sits in the same place every day, but I'm having trouble paying attention. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that your baby really moves around alot and sometimes it makes it hard for me to pay attention to the class. I hope this isn't a problem and I'm sorry I called your baby it I don't know what to call a baby when you don't know the gender.

Thanks,
XXXX

For the record, I don't have assigned seats in my classes. I probably wouldn't have even thought that much about it if she had switched seats. Clearly it's not texting during class that is disrupting student learning, it's kicking babies.