Panhandle Cookie Company update!

Wow kiddo, things are really picking up quickly!


In the scant amount of time since I even mentioned my cookie business (your college fund), I've received two large orders for major events, shipped my first batch of test cookies, and been approached by a friend of mine about building a website to receive orders/payments!  Things look like they may get big pretty quickly, which means mama has to figure out how to balance all parts of her life so she doesn't overbook herself!


Here's the thing... I want this cookie endeavor to be successful because I want all of the things for you that I mentioned in my other post.  BUT!!  I don't want to spend too much time away from you and your daddy doing this business because I cannot overlook how important my time is with you NOW while trying to plan for your future.  Knowing this, I know that there is a certain finite amount of time that I can devote to this project without losing track of the other important things in my life.  Right now, I have NO idea where this fine line resides.  It will probably take me getting in at least slightly over my head a couple of times before I figure out what I can logically handle.


Until then, I am giddy with excitement that things are going so well so far!  I will be opening your savings account soon with your first deposit to get things going!  After that, I will deposit the previous month's worth of earnings at the end of each month.  Your dad and I are also collecting all of our pocket change to deposit into your account, too.  That may not seem like much, but it all adds up over time and right now, with you being just 15 months old, we have a lot of time on our side to do this right!


By the time you get around to reading this you will probably be so darned tired of this cookie thing you'll maybe never want to see another cookie again!  You'll be like, "mom... quit bringing cookies and business cards to all of my parties!  It's sooooo embarrassing!"  Or, maybe you'll understand the implications of everything being done and you'll don your adorable Hello Kitty apron (that I'm going to commission for you from my talented friend Bethany) and hand out samples and cards with me!  I hope it is the latter as I want to share all of this experience with you and also help you feel like you're earning your own way in life, too.  


More to come!


Cookie ticker!

A month of constant changes!

Not only do we chronicle your life here in this blog, but your daddy and I also have a Facebook page set up for you to alert anyone who wants in on all of the "up-to-date Baby G news" on the day to day happenings of one very active baby!  How active is this baby, you may ask?  Well, below are all of the status updates written by your dad and I... for one month's time.  ONE MONTH!  You're changing so quickly that we practically have a new thing to talk about to your adoring masses each and every day!  Enjoy!


*Baby G had her 15 month appointment a couple of weeks ago. Shots were had and not enjoyed by anyone. The big news? Baby G is in the 95% for height and the 92% for weight! Dang, girl! You're going to tower over your mom!


*Baby G is ramping up her chatter! Lots of trying to repeat words and names and sounds! Still trying to get her to differentiate between "wa-wa" for water/drink and "wa-wa" for her snack cup. Snack or puffs or food is apparently a little more difficult than "wa-wa", but she'll get there. :)


*Baby G tried her first merry-go-rounds this weekend and LOVED them. Having to get off of them at the end? That caused crying on a major level, unfortunately.


*Baby G is now sleeping with a blanket! It's a Yo Gabba blanket and, no, she doesn't really need it during Summer...but so far, so good!


*Baby G can find kitties on any picture or show or surface or cloud. It's a world of "nyah-nyahs" (as she calls them) for her!


*Every night Baby G tells her dolls goodnight with daddy. She has Mayor, Sir Didymus, Snorlax, Gizmo, Rainbow Brite, Hello Kitty, Stitch, Lenore, Fone Bone, Domo-kun, FizzGig, Batman, Wonder Woman, Wolfman, Spider-Man, Alf, Catbus and more she wishes off to dreamland. Oh, and the cat on her calendar. Whatever month that might be. By "tells her dolls goodnight", we mean her daddy does it for her...so she can learn these important figures in World History!


*Baby G said "Jayhawk" for the first time today. She's been pointing out all Jayhawks for months now...but now she can say it.


*Not sure what "up-tee" or "go-gay" means...but Baby G sez those things allll the time!


*Baby G now taking her first at-home nap without any bottle-related assistance. So far...so good. :)


*Baby G calls watermelons "ball". :D


*Baby G likes to help with laundry and picking up trash!


*Too many developments at 15 months! Getting shots! Finding out Baby G is in the 90th-ish percentile of height! Making roaring sounds when you say "lion"! Starting to bring books to Mommy when she asks for them by name! Walking hand-in-hand downtown with Daddy! Trying mushrooms and liking them! Trying watermelon and not liking it! Baby G mimics the dances on Yo Gabba! Baby G sings along with songs in the car sometimes, too! So much going on, development-wise! :)


*Baby G really wants to drink like a big girl these days, insisting on drinking from Mom/Dad's cup or glass, regardless of how wet everything gets...since only about 5% of the water makes it into her mouth.


*Baby G has started feeding the older, slower, dumber of the two dogs by hand. Gross and cute at the same time. Dogspit.


*Baby G is totally hand-feeding our dumber/slower/older/gentler dog as often as possible. Two days in a row!


*Baby G has discovered toast...and she likes it! Daddy now shares ALL his breakfast items now!


*Baby G is all about mimicry right now, at 15 months! Mimics cellphone using, shushing, and lion/bear/gator sounds! :)


*This morning Baby G used her fork completely by herself for the first time ever! Banana on plate, then fork, then in mouth! Success!


*Thursday downtown with Baby G was fun! We shopped for Mother's Day gifts and she ended up picking out two kitty-related items for her Mommy! Yay, shopping local! :)


*A day in the life of Baby G: Wake up. Say "Hi" to someone within earshot. Do it about a million more times throughout the day. Go to sleep. Rinse and repeat!


*Oh goodie! It's Mommy-Baby Day! Every Tuesday!


*Baby G will dance at the drop of a hat. All she has to do is hear a little beat or music and she's off! She's got the rhythm!


*Baby G is really into being chased around the house by Daddy right now! It's giving him quite a workout!


*Baby G has discovered car/truck toys! In fact, her cousin's "lost" monster truck is now part of the mix! :)


*Favorite things? Pretending everything is a cellphone & babbling into it. Also, giving baby kisses, open-mouthed like a fish! :)


*Baby G is into saying "No" in response to everything right now instead of "Yah". Trying out our words, eh?


If you're capable of doing all of these things in one month, I can't wait to see what next month brings!

Panhandle Cookie Company (aka: Your savings account)

So, I mentioned that your mama started a venture recently...

Sadly, I don't make enough money to set aside as much money every month for your college fund as I would like.  We have bills to pay and truth be told, I'm nowhere near as frugal as I should be considering how much I don't make.  So, knowing these things about our situation, I decided to mix a dash of something I need (money for your college fund) with a sprinkle of something I love to do (baking cookies).  The result: Panhandle Cookie Company!  Your mama is bakin' some cookies to give you the sweetest start in life possible!

The name Panhandle Cookie Company results from the English translation of our last name from it's original language.  Yep, we're panhandles!  I've known for years that I have a very decent cookie-baking skill.  Your great grandma, whom you were named for, had this AMAZING sugar cookie recipe all through my childhood. I would salivate uncontrollably when she would whip up a batch and at a very early age I was in the kitchen making the cookies with her.  Someday soon, you'll be my little sous-baker, too!  I've made these cookies for YEARS for special events and always received gushing compliments.  A couple of years ago I found an amazing peanut butter cookie recipe that garnered the same attention as the sugar cookies.  I started getting REALLY interested in the little intricacies of what makes a cookie recipe the BEST COOKIE RECIPE EVER!  Little tweaks here and there, some science, some creativity... all have led to your mama being pretty savvy in the kitchen when it comes to baking.

Being on my MRC diet the first time around meant that I couldn't really do my craft because who on earth bakes cookies and doesn't eat half of the batch herself in one sitting???  Right??  (Yeah, never do that.)  When I got off of my MRC diet b/c I was pregnant, I started baking again and remembered how much I loved doing it!  Now that I'm back on the diet, I've come up with a genius plan!  I'm going to bake cookies and sell them to raise money for your college fund!  I get to do what I love, but the cookies don't sit around tempting me with their chewy deliciousness.  Win-win!

I already have the talent, the delicious recipes, the drive, and the captive audience (the people who shop at your dad's business downtown), all I needed to do was start!  I started selling a couple of batches at an event held at your dad's business.  They were wildly popular and gone within a few days!  I made another batch, they sold out within the week.  And another... they sold out, too!  Each week since then the cookies have sold within the week, meaning I'm making a new batch about every Thursday night now.

In the roughly 4 weeks I've been baking cookies as Panhandle Cookie Company, I've made about 10 dozen cookies and sold through nearly all of them!  Your savings account will be opened very soon!  Now, I'm not going to lie... you WILL be spending this money on college and not booze.  Mama doesn't plan on scooping a million cookies by the time you're 18 years old just for you to blow it on something stupid!  These cookies have a purpose.  Their purpose is for you to pay for as much of your college as I possibly can so you can start your life out in the real world with little to no debt.  If you can get scholarships for being an awesome student throughout high school, any extra money left over after paying the difference for college can be used to put a down payment on a home.

You see, I didn't have these things.  I've been out of college for 9 years now and I will still be paying for my college education 11 years from now.  20 years of my life will be spent paying for something that I did for four years.  Do I regret it?  Of course not!  Do I wish I could have had another way to do it so I didn't have all of this debt?  You betcha.  This is what I want for you.  I will do whatever I can to make your education as accessible to you as possible even if it means I'll never want to bake or eat another cookie again in my entire life!

My only regret is that I didn't start sooner!

I will update on how Panhandle Cookie Company is doing from time to time.  Until then, let's get that savings account open and let it start drawing some awesome interest, yes?  Woo hoo!

100 things: Numbers 90-81

So, I took a bit of a blogging break as life has been more than a little hectic recently!  Mama started a new venture and it has taken up a bit more of the already small amount of free-time we have.  I'll talk about it a bit more in the next post. Until then, I would like to continue on the "100 things" list I began on the last post.  


Numbers 90-81:


90. Deal with rejection and disappointment:  Oy.  This is a hard one.  The truth is, we as humans are programmed to fear rejection and disappointment from an early age.  We learn pretty quickly how yucky it feels to fail at something and how quickly something can go from exciting to disappointing if all of the things we've been working for fail to fall into place the exact way we'd hoped.  I'm not saying that you shouldn't feel rejected or disappointed when the situation calls for it.  I am saying that dealing with those feelings in a mature and rational way is a good sign that you're on your way in life.  Learn from your mistakes, pick yourself up and dust yourself off... start all over again.  Keep your good attitude even when things seem at their worst.  Be an inspiration to others.


89. Use chopsticks:  Both your mom and dad know how to use chopsticks.  You will learn, too!  Not only is it a nice way to experience things in a different way from the typical "American Culture" but you also learn to eat more slowly than you would if you were shoveling your food in your mouth with a fork.  Just think, you'll impress all of your friends with your chopstick ninja moves and they'll beg you to teach them how to do it, too! You're so lucky that you have cool parents who want you to know how to do cool things. Hee hee...


88. Celebrate and congratulate: When you accomplish awesome things in your life you SHOULD celebrate those achievements!  Even if no one else is patting you on your back, learn to pat yourself on the back when you deserve it!  If someone helped you get to that achievement along the way, congratulate them on a job well done, too!  Never walk on someone else or steal someone else's ingenuity to get to the top.  Always acknowledge the input of others, recognize the work they did to help you get to your goals, and share in the success!


87. Open a bottle of champagne:  Okay, you won't be doing this for a while.  BUT, when we do show you how to do it the most important rule of opening a bottle that is under pressure in ANY WAY... NEVER point it at something/someone you care about.  Bad things, man.  Bad things.

86. Build a campfire (and put it out): Despite what your dad might tell you, you don't NEED a full can of lighter fluid to build a campfire.  If you like your eyebrows and your arm hair NOT singed, you may want to learn how to build a good smaller fire.  We'll go over this when we go camping, but the general rule of thumb is you want a couple of solid larger logs, a lot of kindling (smaller sticks), and some fire starter materials.  Don't pack it all too tightly, you also need good air flow to keep your fire stoked!  As far as putting it out goes, always be sure your fire is COMPLETELY EXTINGUISHED before you leave your camp site.  Even small embers can re-spark a fire that can burn out of control if left unattended.


85. Deal with tragedy: I never want you to experience anything tragic in your life, but it is unavoidable.  I can't tell you how to feel about tragedies or how you will react when something happens that takes the wind out of your lungs, literally and metaphorically.  I can say that the best thing you can do for yourself is to talk about it with someone you trust.  Keeping your sorrows pent up inside of you is like caging an angry lion.  If you keep it confined to a small space (just yourself), over time it will slowly grow more and more out of control.  If you let it out, let it roam free in a larger more controlled area (a few people you trust), it can still be a dangerous thing, but much less likely to get out of control.  


84. Get along with people you may not like that much: Oh girl... there will be so many of these people in your life.  Sadly, we do not often get to choose the people we work with, who live near us, who are assigned to help us do certain tasks... we just have to grin and bear these people.  Don't be rude, but you don't have to give up your life's story to these people either.  You don't have to get along with everyone, but you don't have the right to be mean or condescending to them either.  


83. Add, subtract, multiply, and divide without using a calculator: I'm not talking about HUGE numbers, but you do need to have a general idea of how to do math mentally or you'll wind up paying too much for something, not have enough money with you, not get all of the materials you need to finish your project... the list goes on and on.  Always have a general idea of the "numbers" surrounding what you're doing and you won't find yourself unprepared in any situation.

82. Take a taxi home (or call mom) when you’re not fit to drive: There will come a time when you may find yourself impaired to the point you are unable to operate a vehicle.  Mama's not going to fault you for having a good time, but I will string your ass up if you don't do the responsible thing by calling a cab or calling someone you trust to come and get you.  You had a good time, you drank too much... fine.  Your good time doesn't give you the right to put your life or anyone else's life in danger.  You may feel fine to drive, but you need to remember that your liver takes about an hour to break down the alcohol content of one "drink" and that "drink" is different amounts of liquid depending on what you're drinking at the time.  If you've had two drinks in 30 minutes and have to leave... you shouldn't drive.  Be smart, know your limits, don't take chances. 


81. Write an essay:  You'll do a lot of this in school, but it doesn't hurt to do it in your spare time, either.  This entire blog is just a series of essays I've written to you on my own, in my spare time.  Essay writing is a great way to exercise your brain, practice your writing skills, and get your point across.  We live in a glorious era where ANYONE can be a writer!  Not only can you be a writer for yourself, but you can write things for other people to read, too! (Hello out there GGD readers!)  I hope your little brain spills itself out into the world via your writings because I can already tell you're smart and opinionated.  You should share that with the world!


I'm going to break from the "100 things" posts in the next blog entry because I want to talk about my new pet project and many of the new and exciting things you're doing as you work your way into toddler-hood!  Look for a new post by the end of the week!