I caught a mouse!

Sunday EARLY morning I heard the infamous squeek of a mouse in distress. How do I know that sound you ask? Because I have FOUR cats!! (yes 4) The cats have a "cat" door to come and go as they please, and thankfully for the parents, we can control which way that door can swing, or even at all.
This winter they lost the privilege of being able to have free range of their coming and going and were only allowed to go as they pleased. If they wanted to come in the house they had to wait for a human to open the door.
We took away their freedom when someone kept bringing in "play toys" and "presents", i.e. mice and snakes! Our little boogers would usually bring these gifts inside at night after I had gone to bed and usually when Christian was still up. Christian had to deal with the poor scared play toys (usually still alive). But every-once in a while  I would be home alone with my hunters and their catch.
If this were ever the case, Christian would get a phone call to "come home immediately" because my life was in danger!!
One time I was brave enough to put a bucket over the mouse so Christian had a surprise when he came home. It was this that sparked my incentive to catch a mouse by myself.
Christian tried bribing me with a new pair of shoes if I ever caught a mouse by myself.
This was in December....    I tried. I really did!!  But  I just knew that stinking little mouse was going to eat me if I tried to catch it.

Yesterday I got a new pair of shoes!!!! :)

When it really started getting HOT we put the door back on two-way entry. All was fine until last week, when we had out first summer present.
My hero of a husband fearlessly took care of the problem. Do not worry the little mouse was fine, even after C had to spray BC with water to make her drop him..
And then Sunday morning happened...
 I woke up to the pitiful squeaks, and nudged Christian to get up, urging him "it's a mouse! it's a mouse!" but after a late, fun night with the boys he was not budging! So I jump out of bed and headed for the door, armed with my squirt bottle. I VERY cautiously open the door, knowing that as soon as I did, that HUGE mouse was going to run at me. But he didn't. I flip on the lights and sneak down the hall and hear our couch guest (R) moan, "oh sorry, but they have a MOUSE!" he just moaned again and offered me no assistance! UGH these boys are cut off from now on!!
I see THREE cats huddled around our DVD stand and my hunters wives instincts kick in (JK). So I squirt the cats and they run off, and then I SEE HIM! His huge head sticking out from behind the cabinet, and I yell again "it's a mouse" but no heros this time.  I quickly run to the kitchen to arm myself with mouse catching supplies, a leather glove and a huge measuring cup. Ok I'm ready.  A couple of huge sighs later and I start to slowly move the cabinet forward. And there he sits. As fast as I can I move the cup down by him, but he's not running... Between screams, I nudge him into the cup. All 3inches if him are in. "Don't worry little guy I've got you now" Aww he is actually kinda cute. My new little friend was wiped out from being a play toy for three cats, but he was ok. I took him outside to our wood pile and he scampered and squeaked away.
I hope I never see him again.

Baking with my neighbor:)

Say Hello to Amee, the best neighbor EVER!

Today Amee and I decided to become a TEAM in my cupcake baking adventures. We made a plan to get together once a week and try out a new recipe. I couldn't be more excited to have a friend to encourage me and be an enabler to my new addiction! (I guess it helps that she loves baking too....)

Our first masterpiece together = Butterfly Devil's Food cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Frosting

TA-DAH!

These turned out AMAZING!

Meet my New Best Friend

This is "Mica" the Micro-fiber dust mop.

 I LOVE her! She picks up all the cat hair and dust off my floors. I can use her dry and then mop with her too! 

In the recent addition of our wood floors;

 I have been COMPLETELY grossed out my the amount of dirt and hair being tracked into our house daily. With carpet I felt like I was doing good running our RoboVac every other day, but now that I can see how dirty it really was, I don't think I will ever have carpet again! 

Before Mica I was "sweeping" 5 times a day to pick up all the cat hair from 3 indoor cats, in reality all I was doing was pushing around cat hair NOT picking it up. 

Enter Mica- I now only sweep 1-2 times a day, and she actually picks up the hair!! 

AHHHH clean floors= love......

Missing my husbnd

With Christian gone on a fishing trip for 10 days and NO phone service :( I have realized how much I have gotten used to having him around, even as much as he works (which is A LOT). I've always been cautious to feel dependent on anyone else, and I don't see this as dependancy, because he is my Best Friend and I just love having him around and doing things with him.
SO I needed to find something to distract my time. 
hanging out with mom-check
workout= BLAH no one to workout with
cleaned the house = like 10 times
all laundry done- check
all the kittens have a new home

AND so my new obsession started~~~~CUPCAKES~~~~~
I began my research online, read TONS of recipes and reviews and then began my baking adventure.......

• My first attempt was Red Velvet cake with cream cheese frosting 

These turned out pretty good, my favorite so far. The icing was the best part!! I will defiantly keep both of these recipes to use again.

• Second trial= "Reeces Peanut Putter Cupcakes"         Chocolate cupcake filled with peanut butter with a fluffy chocolate icing (I had some cream cheese icing left over and used it on some)

Sadly these were a flop :( The filling and icing were yummy, BUT the cake was to dense and was more like a really tough brownie.

I defiantly want to try another recipe for this kind of cupcake because who doesn't LOVE Reeces! 

• Third flavor= Chocolate chip cupcakes with chocolate chip icing, and in my "creative kitchen brain" I added mint to some of the icing so we had Mint Chocolate Chip icing too! 

Overall these were pretty good, a simple white cake recipe with choc chips added, and a buttercream frosting. The only part that didn't work out as planned is for some reason my chocolate chips all settled to the bottom...Strange!! 

• And my last attempt for the week was Lemon Cake with lemon buttercream frosting 

I love lemon so I might be bias to these, but they were lovely :)

I really want to run with my new obsession, so  I went out and purchased a book on 1001 cupcake recipes. And I can't wait to try more, but I ran out of time this week. Stay tuned and I will keep u updated on 1001 cupcakes. 

Well probably not all 1001 but some...