Last night was class 2 of my decorating class. This time it wasn't so bad. We brought in our own icing and practiced making stars, lines, dots and writing out Happy Birthday on plastic covered pictures of what we were practing. Sort of like tracing. I made a mean star. Circles were okay, gotta learn how to not get that little tip on the center of it. My writing stinks. Maybe practice makes perfect? Next week we take in already baked cupcakes and we'll be making clowns and roses. Looking forward to learning to make a rose. The instructor still licked her fingers all night long and I can't help but wish she would wax her mustache. There is one girl in the class who came with her mother; very immature, yelling out things, giggling uncontrollably, just really acting strange and I honestly thought she was a mentally challenged teenager. Come to find out, she is 10 yrs old. All along she's just been acting like a 10 yr old girl. But she sure does look older. Another woman, her husband died 18 mths ago. I didnt know this and had no way of knowing ... anyway and when she cut the cake last week, I sang, "The Bride Cuts and Cake"....... oye vey! She then sang, "The Widow Cuts the Cake".......I wanted to crawl into a hole. Well, she wasn't there last night because she was too sad; yesterday would have been her husband's birthday. Another woman who has taken this course before and never went onto Course II. She is the class know-it-all. She's getting on my last nerve I tell ya. The woman next to me, if the instructor touches her things, moves them in any way, she freaks and it messes her up. So now the instructor knows not to touch her things. The woman opened up her Decorating Kit and her spatula wasnt in a plastic bag and her brush didin't have a cap on it, she had the instructor return it and get her one that "someone hadn't already used". I would have switched with her but I had already stuck my spatula into the icing. She was being so anal about everything, more so than me and I couldn't help but cackle when she found a hair in her icing an it was her own. hahahaha! Interesting night~

Just one person's opinion--but the machine should NOT be programmed to give checks to dead people. Her taxes were filed, clearly labeled that she was deceased, and this letter acknowledges that fact. When the check arrives, it will go into the estate account. It's NOT legal for me to do anything but divide this money among the heirs. I cannot--as executor--make the decision to donate this to charity. As executor, I've got the fiduciary responsibility of doing exactly what her will specifies--no more, no less. It's illegal to do otherwise. So looks like we'll each be getting an extra $75 when I make the final distribution. Well, it's a nice dinner out with our spouses--something Mom would approve of. She LOVED going out to eat.

Maybe dumb question but are the fixtures on top of the cake edible? Are they dollhouse miniatures? My mother would have loved this cake being that she was a dollhouse enthusiast who built 6 dollhouses and made miniature furniture and linens. Isn't it amazing how talented people can be!

Mom2, In a way, BM's performance over the weekend might have been the best thing, a "silver lining" event. The skids aren't that thrilled to be with her, she is being so flaky that you don't have to work to hard to accomodate her and my goodness, how many people are at the house? It sounded like upwards of 15 folks conservatively with all of the various kids? Let her come to you and yours. And let her come correct! It sounds like since you cooperated, you can uncooperate now without a confrontation. She needs to fit in with your team, not the other way around. It sounds bad but it might really help you now. ''how you can be a good parent to one set of children and then completely ignore your other kids. how can one do that???" BTW, my skids, SS30 in particular, feel that my DH is being a better father with our son than he was with them. From what I know, they are right. Dh completely ignores his grandkids which of course feeds right in to the hard feelings. Lovehadley is right, often dads look at the 2nd set of children or child as a means to do things over in a better way. DH is not Super involved at the school or extracurriculars but he does show up for meetings, parent teacher conferences, Tae Kwon Do promotions, the occasional kiddie party if he knows the parents and so on. I know he did not do that with his first set of kids, SS in particular. My SS30 is still very angry about this fact. I think it's pretty common but what can I do? Tell him DON'T be a better father to our child because you weren't great with your first? Good luck.