Moving Forward

Now that I have finished (kinda), our taxes and filled out the FAFSA form for my daughters, I need to move on to the next big task: Making my daughter Emily's graduation dress. It's a tradition in our family that I sew the girls' graduation dresses. So, far I've done three dresses and this will be the fourth and last. The first two were for their 8th grade graduation. The high school dress is a bit different. It must be a certain shade of white (we call it Xerox paper white), and it also has to conform to certain guidelines. So, rather than brave the bridal shops, I choose to sew.

I actually designed Sara's dress. That was an experience. I made a duct tape dressmaker's dummy of her and literally pinned the dress together on the dummy. I had never sewn anything without a pattern before and let me tell you, it took me months. I won't be auditioning for Project Runway anytime soon. However, I was pleased with how it turned out and so was Sara.

So, for Emily, I have an idea sketched out that can hopefully be assembled from a pattern with me only having to modify the pattern. But I need to get started soon. May 29 will be here before I know it.

The Things I do for my Children

I spent today working on our taxes and filling out the FAFSA application for my two daughters. It's been a totally hellish experience. First was finding out what our tax bite will be this year. Let's just say OUCH!!! On the bright side, at least we are not finding out on April 14 that we owe a huge sum and we have a couple of months to economize big time. Goodbye El Ranchero and your big ass margaritas. I could certainly use one right now. After getting the tax shock, I moved over to the FAFSA website. Or what I thought was the FAFSA website. Turns out Google played a dirty trick on me and put a commercial FAFSA prep site up first. I spent over an hour filling out information on this site, thinking the government had really changed things before finally finishing and discovering that what I thought was free was going to cost me $80. So, back to Google, on to the free (real) FAFSA site and 4 hours later, I'm finally done. (Explorer kept cutting out on me, forcing be to go back in and, in the case of my younger daughter, keep re-entering the information.) So girls, don't tell me I don't love you. Would a woman who didn't love you go through this sort of hell?

Luckily I have a lovely bottle of La Crema chardonney in the fridge. Won't be buying that for some time, but I will treat myself to a glass of it tonight.

The things I do for my children...

Butterflies in my stomach

Tonight I'm singing a solo during a concert. I've done this once or twice before, but I'm still a bit nervous. A week ago, I felt that we should call off the concert. This was after a spectacularly bad rehearsal. But everything has come together and I have hope that the evening will be a success. 

Halloween Treats

I literally baked all weekend for our annual pumpkin carving party. We have a set menu for this event. Spinach dip (classic Knorr recipe), a fabulous cheese spread I found in the Peach Tree Tearoom cookbook, fresh veggies and good old ranch dip, mini pigs in a blanket for the kids (and a few of the adults), massive quantities of salad with my neighbor Sally's homemade vinaigrette, beef pies, apple pie, and sugar cookies cut out in the shape of leaves, acorns, and ghosts. This year I added these black bottom cupcakes which have a filling of cream cheese and chocolate chips.

Overall the party was a success. It was the most organized I've ever been. Usually I'm up to my elbows in flour when my guests arrive, working to get the meat pies in the oven. This year, the pies were assembled in the fridge, the dishes were all clean and put away. It was wonderful! I actually got to enjoy the party and carve my own pumpkin.

I haven't taken a picture of my pumpkin, but here are some of the pumpkins carved by our guests:

Since we've gotten some real cold weather, I'm hoping that these pumpkins won't turn into mush before Halloween. It's a bit of an issue here in Houston. Carved pumpkins don't last long.