A few days ago, I thought I'd make a cake for a friend of mine who's been going through some extraordinarily rough stuff lately.  I had a beautiful cake in mind, and thought I'd gussy it up with some whipped cream and strawberries.

Well, I learned almost immediately that whipped cream out of a can disintegrates upon contact with fresh strawberries.  Within five minutes of completion, the cake was a melty, watery-whipped creamed mess with strawberries sliding all over.  There was nothing about this disaster that would make my friend feel any better, so I put the cake in my fridge for my family to eat and took her some flowers instead.

Four days later, look what's still in my fridge:

Somehow, the cake has evolved into something crusty, yet slimy.  Yum.

 

But, notice the fork.  That's been there for three days, too.

Texas knows how to bring on the hail.  Holy schneikies!

Two nights ago, our dog-owning world was rocked.

Somehow, Joey got out and was hit by our neighbors' car as they were pulling into their driveway.  After a very stressful night with a whimpering dog, we got up early the next morning and took him to the animal ER, where we learned the bones connecting his tail to his pelvis are broken.

Now, poor Joey is confined to a kennel until the bones fuse back together.  The most heartbreaking thing is that even with the pain meds the vet gave us, it hurts too much for him to lie down.  So, he's been standing--in pain--for almost two days.  And of course not sleeping.

 Today, one of Brad's co-workers got Joey a doggie cake from a local pet bakery (apparently, there is such a thing). This cake is made of peanut butter and some other unidentifiable stuff that is OK for dogs to eat.  Everyone in the department also signed a card for him.

Clearly, people have noticed how upset we are by our baby's distress.  We are now That Family.

 

We had a freezing rain storm last night, so school was cancelled today.

Around 3:00, the thrill of a day at home had worn thin.  I was in the other room, trying to catch a little Steve Time, when I heard Luke yell, "Adam!  Come find me!"  

This went on for about ten minutes--long enough to really get on my nerves--so I went into the living room to see what was going on.

This is what I found.  Apparently, Adam and Luke were "playing" Hide-and-Seek.  Only, Adam was in the den, calmly dinking around on the computer. 

 This was his solution to an annoying little brother who'd been following him around all day.  He's a little bit brilliant.

 

Today, my sweet Bubba-la turned 13.

We celebrated as a family with dinner at Costa Vida, followed by presents and cake (which he didn't even eat because he was too full of Costa Vida nachos).  

It was all pretty low-key, but Adam thought it was awesome.  He kept spontaneously hugging me or Brad and thanking us for making his birthday so great.  All his hugging reminded me of when he was a baby--Adam was my only snuggler, and he would burrow his little face into anybody who'd pick him up.  I mentioned that to him, and he got all teary-eyed and hugged me again.  I'm so glad some character traits survive the Entrance Into Teenagerhood.

So, it was Fast Sunday today, and I knew my family would be hungry when dinner time came around. Thinking ahead, I made a TON of Chicken Roll-ups, believing they would all get gobbled up by my ravenous crew.  (Chicken Roll-ups at our house are crescent rolls wrapped around a chicken/mushroom/cream cheese filling--and they are a real favorite)

I may have over-Chicken-Roll-upped.  After we ate, there were fourteen beautiful, crispy, golden-brown roll-ups left over, but I wasn't too worried about it.  They make good left-overs.

Then, after the kids had done the dishes, I found this in the fridge:

Apparently, Lukie was in charge of putting the left-over food into containers.  As you can see, he is unparalleled in space conservation.

This weekend, we had a HUGE treat at our house!

Anthony, Mary, and Allie Mercado, some great friends of ours from Michigan, passed through here on their way to move to San Antonio.  They arrived late last night, after braving blizzard conditions through Michigan and Indiana, and we had a wonderful visit with them, catching up on all the happenings from our favorite corner of MI.