Birthday Surprise

I just wanted to write a little message to my husband and all of my wonderful friends and family who came to the surprise party for me. It was my first surprise birthday party and it was so much fun. I am so proud of Mese for doing such a good job of keeping it secret. We usually cannot keep anything secret from each other. I never suspected a thing. It was almost a week after my actual birthday and I think it was only planned a few days prior, but it was great and I felt so special and so loved and appreciated by my husband. He is so wonderful. He cooked an amazing meal of grilled flatbread sandwiches with yummy salads. Thanks again to everyone and especially to Shawn and Darcy for letting us use their house. I love you all, but especially you, Mese.

Finally, Pictures of the New Baby

Here are some pictures of baby Gwenyth Lynnae Ugapo. Born March 3rd. 7lbs. 5 oz. 20 inches long. Some are from when we were in the hospital, but there are some more recent ones also. We think she is pretty cute. We're gonna keep her.

Molten Chocolate Cake Recipe....Heaven on a Plate

A few of you have asked me to post this recipe so here it is. Good luck trying not to make it once a week. It is soooooo yummy and soooooo easy. Warm gooey chocolate is one of the best things in the world. And please eat it with ice cream. It is way better with ice cream.

Prep: 15 min. / Total: 29 min.

4 squares Baker's semi- sweet baking chocolate ( I just use 4 oz. of good dark chocolate, bittersweet is the best, in my opinion.)
1/2 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
6 Tbsp. flour
1/2 cup whipped topping (or Ice cream)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Butter 4 (3/4 cup) souffle dishes. Place on baking sheet.

Microwave chocolate and butter in large microwavable bowl on HIGH for 1 minute or until butter is melted. Stir with wire whisk until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in sugar until well blended. Whisk in eggs and egg yolks. Stir in flour. Divide batter between prepared souffle cups.
Bake 13-14 minutes or until sides are firm, but centers are soft. Let stand 1 min. Carefully run a small knife around cakes to loosen. Invert cakes onto dessert dishes. Top with 1 tbspn. of whipped topping and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Nothing New

This post is kinda pointless because I really don't have anything new to write about. I just felt like I hadn't posted in a long time. I will hopefully have some fun news of the arrival of our new baby girl in the next couple of weeks. I am so done being pregnant. I just want her to be here already. Oh, I did get my hair done. I am back to blonde. It's pretty fun looking in the mirror and seeing myself as a blonde. I feel younger. Sorry I don't have a picture to put up. We are without a camera, but are looking to get one before the baby comes.

Never Judge a Book By It's Cover.

Look at this man. Yes I said 'MAN'. What do you notice about him? I see sloppy red hair and freckles. Looks like a teen who never quite grew out of the awkward stage. He is the epitome of geekiness. Or maybe that's his allure. He is Brett Dennen.

Having been home taught his whole life by his parents afforded him the opportunity to hone his musical and songwriting skills. The same skills that would one day help him to create such beautiful (and subtly sexy) songs including "Ain't Gonna Lose You", a haunting one - sided tale of a man struggling to hold on to the the ever fraying thread that holds him and his love together. His work has helped him to be considered a musical genius by many including the folks over at Rolling Stone.

Then there's that voice. That voice. It's like the audio equivalent of introducing a new and delicious taste to your tongue that lingers comfortably, well after the meal has ended. There is a soulfulness to it and a confidence in his ability that would make you believe what he's saying. He does dabble in the political realm but manages to get his message across without being overbearing.

One evening a few years back, while playing a local venue, another musical genius happened upon that particular show and after being completely immersed in Brett's music, he invited Brett to join him on tour for a few shows. The new fan's name? John. Last name, Mayer.

I specified the word 'man' earlier because it was difficult for me to believe that this baby faced song wizard is 30 years old. Does he look 30 to you? Honestly he looks like an ugly 16 year old girl, but his music is beautiful which makes him beautiful. He is amazing and pleasantly surprising on many different levels. Anyway I have added a couple of his songs to my music player below (#'s 1 & 2). Enjoy the musical offerings of Brett Dennen.

Potty Training Sucess

I hope I'm not speaking too soon, but we have had three days in a row with very successful potty training with Marlowe. She has had a few accidents, luckily, for me, the one who has to clean up the mess, it's only been #1. Today she actually started telling me that she had to go rather than me taking her every hour or so. She even did #2 on the potty during one of those times when she told me she had to go. This is probably way too much info., but I can't help it. I am so excited. I started training her at 18 months and I so hope she sticks with it this time so I don't have to deal with 3 kids in diapers when baby Gweny comes. I'm sure some of you out there know how I feel.

A special thanks to Daddy, also, who got involved and caused the success we are having.

The most unlikely knitter of all

It has been a while since I last wrote. I guess I feel like I haven't had anything worthy of writing about, until now. I wish I had a picture to go with this post because some of you may not believe what I am about to tell you without proof.

So, we spent Christmas Eve with Mese's family and we were up pretty late. We came home and put the kids to bed and then stayed up even later setting up the toys we had bought for them. Marlowe, despite going to bed late, woke us up at six, as usual. We were very tired. We went to my parents to spend most of Christmas day with my family. We did the usual routine of eating a big breakfast while all the kids played with what Santa Claus brought and then we all opened gifts from eachother. It was a great day. We all loved all our gifts and just spending time with eachother and sharing memories of Christmases in the past. The day was kind of winding down. My kids were very tired. They needed their nap and so did we. All the men in the family decided to go to a movie. My husband was the only one who decided not to go. He said it would be a waste of money because he would just fall asleep in the theater. He stayed home with all us girls. I was sure he was going to want to get going soon. We usually go back to his family's house around 5 p.m. We had talked about leaving soon so I went to go say goodbye to my sisters. I got caught up talking to them for a while and I was wondering why Mese hadn't come to get me going. I went to go see what he was doing and you can imagine my shock, amazement, and my delight when I found him sitting with my sister, Julia, and my nieces, KNITTING.

He has never knit before. Julia, as a gift to all the nieces, decided to teach them how to knit. I guess Mese grabbed the needles and yarn and pretended he was knitting just to be funny and then Julia started to teach him how to do it for real. He sat there and knitted for a while and then took a break. We all sat around visiting some more. So, he picked up the yarn and needles and decided to keep going. This time he didn't stop for an hour and a half. I'm not kidding. All of us girls just kept visiting, but every fifteen minutes or so one of us would stop and say, discretely, "look, he is still knitting!" We were amazed. I have to say that I found it very cute and sexy. My husband is so confident in his manhood that he can knit and not be ashamed. Well, he may have been a little ashamed because the next day when we went to Wal-Mart to buy him his own needles and yarn he kept claiming they were for me any time some one would walk by. We did buy some for me too and that night he taught me how to knit. It is really cool. I have always wanted to learn to knit, but I never thought that the person who would teach me would be my husband. I love it, though. We just sit there and knit together.

He never ceases to amaze me. Some day you'll hopefully get to see the scarfs we are making or even witness the knitting in action. I love you, Mese.