Easter Cake-splosion 2013

Day 6:

Saturday is supposed to be a day off, right?  Apparently, we never got the memo.  Just teasing, it was a day off,  just really busy.  In fact, I did sleep in, and that always makes for a good Saturday.  Doug went to bed sick last night, flu like symptoms. Anyway, this morning he felt some better, but still not great.  But he powered through like a champ.  Our friends, the Fullers were in town to do their visa stuff and wanted to meet us for lunch.  So we met them at 39 baht steak, one of our favorite places.  They have amazing Cha Manao, which is a really sweet red tea with fresh lime in it. 

It's pretty amazing to see little details work themselves out and see how God has such intricate plans for us.  We were going to meet them at 12, we were running somewhat on time, we were gonna be there at 12, but I was going to show up with soaking wet hair and no make-up.  I had just thought to myself, man I wish we'd planned for 12:30, when Dan called and said if we hadn't left yet, they'd rather meet at 12:30. So I got to take my new curling iron out for another spin.  It still heats up, but the indicator light doesn't work and it doesn't fit tightly into the outlet so if it jiggles loose you have no way of knowing that it's not getting power until your hair stops curling.  Yeah, that happened about 3 times.  About 5 minutes after 12, our friend Jam showed up, and I was so thankful we were home.  We had just told his grandma when we had lunch there the other day that we would love to have him over to play at our house any time. He had ridden his bike over and if we'd gone to lunch at 12, we would have missed him!  So we were able to take him with us to lunch and Kees and Kora got to play with him before that.

At lunch, Kees wouldn't smile, so Pi Jam had to make him laugh.

After we ate lunch, I needed to stop by the big plastic shop on the way home because in a fabulous turn of events I ran out of laundry detergent and softener at the same time...how cool is that??? I know it seems like nothing to most of you, but I thought it was great that I had just enough of each to start a load of laundry as we were leaving and then I could just pick up more on my way back home.  The timing was perfect.  I love it when that happens! Laurie said she would like to check out the plastic shop, so Doug and all the kids got ice cream, while Laurie and I shopped. 

At the Plastic Shop

Doug with the kids, they were hyped up after their sugar.  I can totally tell Doug is not feeling well in this picture, poor guy!

 

I found these awesome Panda sleeping masks at the plastic shop, fun!

When we came back home Laurie and I were able to visit all afternoon, her husband Dan and their daughter Hannah went to the mall and she stayed behind. Doug took a nap.  About 5 minutes after Laurie left we loaded up to head to English class.  I was feeling a bit scattered and wouldn't you know more people showed up and it was teenage girls and a woman.  I'm teaching the kids class, so I kind of had a mini panic attack.  I do a lot of very silly things, dancing, singing, jumping, running, exaggerating everything when I teach and there ended up being 3 adult ladies that sat in. Talk about embarrassing, but they didn't roll their eyes or make me feel stupid, so that's good.  I survived and actually had a lot of fun.

Dan, Hannah, and Laurie, coming back to our place. This bike used to be Laurie's like 15 years ago.  It's changed owners a few times and ended up with us!

I love to read, I can't help it.

While I was teaching, Kora was getting the royal treatment.  She got carried around and catered to by 3 different adults, and none of them was Doug. :)  It's funny how, I sometimes wish we had grandparents and babysitters because it's hard to have to take your kids with you EVERYWHERE you go.  But, the nice thing about Thailand is they love kids and they look out for them. 

Kora getting her picture taken by some of the new girls that came to my class. 

The second hour, while Doug was teaching, I went over to the pastor's house that's on the same property and watched this crazy show called, Dance Your Fat Off. It's basically overweight Thai people in a dancing/weight loss competition.  I was cracking up, because the grandma lady that was watching it with us kept asking, "Is that a man or a woman or a cross dresser?"  There are a lot of cross dressers here, so it makes sense that she would wonder.  For some reason it reminded me of the time my own grandma, Moma T, was sitting inside a lake house looking out at the lake and couldn't not tell any of the people apart. She kept saying, "Now is that Randee, no, no, now I believe that's Chris."  (P.S. Randee is female and Chris is male)  We laughed and laughed!

While Doug was doing this...

I was watching this! :)

When Doug's hour was finished, we stayed and ate Pat Gra Paow.  Another funny detail: Doug has been in search of Pat Gra Paow all week.  He had an amazing batch of it at this roadside stand a week or so ago and keeps trying to go back there, but the guy is never open.  And tonight, he got some, and it was good!  It's sort of like scrambled meat, it can either be pork or chicken, and the flavorings are kind of comparable to taco meat, but definitely Thai flavors.  It's usually served over rice and with a fried egg on top.  Yum, yum, in my tum!

Pat Gra Paow

Whew! So that all wrapped up around 7:30 pm.  I still needed to make the cakes for our Easter sunrise service and as far as I could remember I had everything I needed except the coke, for the coca-cola frosting.  We were going to stop by 7-11 for a coke, as we were pulling out from the church I remembered I needed powdered sugar as well, so we had to run to a 24 hour import type store that I KNEW carried powdered sugar. Poor Doug was exhausted, but so nice about the whole thing.  He drove me to the place I bought the powdered sugar and the coke, we were half way home and I realized I had forgotten that I didn't have enough cocoa.  Doug took me right back to the same store, Tops, and they didn't carry cocoa, so we had to drive even further to get the cocoa. Luckily the kids were asleep in the back, so I was just running in and out of all these places and they were virtually unphased by all of it. 

The first store, the one we went to TWICE!

We finally got home around 9, and Doug was D.O.N.E.  Unfortunately the kids had napped quite a bit and wouldn't wind down.  So we ended up sending Daddy to bed and the kids stayed up with me.

And now, for the promised details from Easter cake-splosion 2013.  If you'll recall, not even a week ago, I made and served a cake-tastrophe to the pastors group that Doug goes to on Tuesdays.  Apparently, despite the disastrousness of the cake, which was over done and chewy on the outside and mushy battery on the inside, the worst of both worlds, the cake was requested for our Easter service tomorrow morning.  Can't say I'm overly surprised they enjoyed the cake, because the frosting is highly addictive.  And there's a lot of sugar in cake and in frosting.  Thai people usually eat fruit for dessert, but not too much...cause that'll make you fat.  So of course, after the exorbitant amount of sugar they had just consumed, they weren't thinking properly, they were just wanting another sugar high.  I was so excited, to get it right this time and really show off my baking skills.  Biggest joke of all time.  Worst idea ever.  Why am I such an idiot?  And now the Taylor Swift song pops into my head, "You should have said no, you should stayed home, you should have thought twice for you baked that cake again..." and so on. (Now I'm going to be obsessed with changing the lyrics to the rest of the song and I'll probably be up all night and go straight to the sunrise service with zero sleep.)

Anyway, the issue when I baked the cake last time was that the broiler was on, so the top of the cake cooked way too fast, etc, etc, why am SUCH an idiot? Easy fix, right.  So I made a list of past idiot baking mistakes and checked it twice.  But let me tell ya, this Momma can always come up with new idiot mistakes.  In the past, when I have successfully made this cake, which I'm starting to believe was only in my dreams, I made it in a bundt pan and it was yummy.  But I wanted to make two round cakes and do a filling.  The recipe actually CALLS for you to bake the cake like that.  Well, they overflowed, like in an epically huge volcanic way.  I almost had a break down.  But instead I woke Doug up, gave myself a pep talk and forced him to listen and nod.  My pep talk went a little something like this, "It's fine, right? So the cakes overflowed, it's smoky in the kitchen, it reaks of burnt cake, but the actual cakes are cooking just fine, we'll clean the mess tomorrow, no biggie, right, Doug, right?"  (Keep in mind Doug is sick and tired of being sick and tired, he was a trooper and said, "I love you, I hope it all works out.")

The cake-splosion, in all its glory!

So I re-grouped, I turned on some Easter music on youtube, and danced while licking the frosting pan.  I even let Kees take pictures of me doing it, because why not?  It's a spectacular Easter memory.

The pictures Kees took, they're not too incriminating.

I live in a strange place, my kitchen is strange, so I don't have room on the counter for dirty dishes.  So I put them in a big bucket on the floor.  Kora found the frosting.  She likes frosting, she stuck her whole face in the pan.  I saw as soon as she found it, but I figured, why not?  It's 10, she should be sleeping, why not give her sugar and chocolate. Huge mess? No problem. I'm already gonna have to deal with cake-splosion tomorrow, what's a little frosting.

The best part was when she stuck her whole face in the pan and licked it!

She actually only got her hands and face dirty.  I was a little disappointed that she wasn't dirtier, so I put her in the big bucket with the leftover cake batter...(I made the second cake in the bundt pan with just the bottom burner on, and even though I've made it just like that before, I was still over cautious and left some of the batter out so I didn't get MORE cake batter all over the oven.  As far as I know the second cake turned out fine, but I haven't tried to remove it from the cake pan or frost it yet, so we'll see.) I ended up having Kees push Kora, bucket and all, into the bathroom, and I let them use the cake batter to paint the walls of the bathroom, then I sprayed them both down and got them nice and clean for Easter.

Kees is such a helper!

"My mom is the coolest!"

My little Picasso!

And, since we had to go to that second store to get cocoa, I remembered I needed to get a few things for the Easter bunny.  He'll be making a delivery soon and he even picked up something nice for the sick Daddy in our house.

The Easter Bunny CAME!!! Can't wait till morning...just 3 hours till we leave...I should go to bed now.

I had a nice chat with my friend Laurie today.  We were discussing about how almost all women if not all women, have such negative thoughts about themselves and so many insecurities.  And sometimes, that can even turn into blaming others and taking things out on your family, but the root issue is really self-doubt.  I know I've dealt with this a lot, feeling inadequate and down on myself.  Isn't it ironic that no matter how confident someone may seem, underneath, they often have so many insecurities.  There's a song by Mandisa called, "The Truth About Me" (you can listen to it here or read the lyrics in full here.), that talks about how our skewed view of ourselves holds us back and that when we see ourselves the way God does, we are free to live out our purpose.  My favorite part of the song is towards the end, it says, "...I would sleep better at night, wake up with hope for another day, I would love even if it cost me, take a chance and know I'm gonna be okay, I would dare to give my life away..."  Here's some real honesty for you.  I've had many sleepless nights here and hopeless mornings.  Mornings when I'd cry in the shower and beg God to make it just a little easier or make me stronger and smarter.  I kept trying to convince God that I can't do this. Studying Thai has been one of the most gut-wrenching experiences for me.  It's not just "hard", there's no way to describe getting up every day and doing the same thing over and over and feeling like you are making no progress, you are never going to get it, and eventually everyone will realize that you are a big fat failure.  It's gotten significantly better, but I still have those days, just not nearly as often.  That's why this song means so much to me.  It's like God reminding me that I can face each day boldly, knowing that I can "love even if it costs me", that even if I throw myself out there and take a huge risk, and fall flat on my face..."I know I'm gonna be okay".   Because the truth is, God put us here, he's kept us here, and little by little progress has been made.  I still have a lot of work ahead of me, but my prayer tonight is that I would love without ever considering the cost.  As I pray this for myself, I am reminded of Christ's example on the cross and God's love in putting him there, his extravagant love for me.  What a risk!  God put it all out there, everything on the line, for me. As a parent, my heart aches, to think of how difficult it would be to see your son suffer, for others who may or may not choose to love you back.  That's the risk with loving, not knowing if it will be reciprocated and putting yourself in a position to be vulnerable and hurt by those you are trying desperately to love.  Let's follow God's example, let's recklessly love, let's put it ALL out there with holds barred.  That's how people will see God, through our ability to love them at their worst, because in our flesh it's an impossible task, but with God it's possible.  Love someone today, who doesn't deserve it and can do nothing to pay you back.  Love the way God loves!