POA

Last night (or very early this morning, depending on how you look at it), at 2:28 am, I was awakened by 3, no, make that 5 things:

Our burgler alarm going off,
a loud crashing sound,
the house shaking,
Sarah screaming,
and Mike jumping out of the bed.

(Did you see the first one? Our alarm going off? Probably the most disturbing of them all.)

I was so groggy and confused, I didn't know what to do first! Which brings me to my blog title... Now, I may be crazy, but I have a 'game plan' for if my alarm goes off. I have layed awake at night (especially nights when Mike is out of town) perfecting my Plan of Action, or POA, if you will. I am going to share it with you.

If the alarm is to go off in the middle of the night, I will leave it going, check to see which 'area' triggered it (the alarm shows this on it's face) grab a knife, and proceed to discover what is causing the alarm, if there is nothing there (please bless), procede to girl's rooms. Once I know they are secure, I will turn off the alarm and check every nook and cranny of the house. (In my 'plan', I leave the alarm going just in case there IS an intruder and then the police will come. Brilliant, right?)

Which brings me back to last night. So, the alarm is chiming, Sarah is screaming, our house is shaking, and a large crash brought Mike jumping out of the bed.
My whole POA went flying out the window.
I lept out of bed, turned off the alarm (before I even looked to see what had triggered it), ran across the house (ignoring the knife) to Sarah's room, picked her up, checked on Rachel, and during that time I happened to walk by the garage door, which was wide open. In my groggy state I wonder why it is open, and THEN I remember the alarm. Oh yeah!! So, I peeked into the garage and I heard the wooooosh of rain coming down in sheets. I walked back across the house as it shook from one loud thunderclap after another. The pressure from the storm must have made the door (which we left unlocked) fly open.

I felt better knowing this, but I did not ignore my precious POA completely. I proceded to check every corner of our house. All was well!!

So, what is your POA???

Something to be aware of...

I just wanted to follow up with some comments about THIS POST. I made a new batch, and this time I used unsweetened applesauce, which was maybe even better than when I used sweetened. They turned out moist and delicious, like little tubs of fudgy-ness. So good. And even less calories than the first time around! I just measured 15.5 ounces of the unsweetened applesauce and mixed it with a Devil's food mix. That's it. Anyway, the thing is....this time I didn't freeze them. And what do you know, they are already half gone. And I made them....yesterday. Portion control, people!! I have no self control. Freezer is definitely the way to go!!

Could You Hear It??

...the pitter-pat of all the tween girls' hearts in the world? Yeah, Camp Rock premiered tonight. Rachel was soooooooooo (could go on forever) excited about it. They had a commercial for it every 5 minutes during all the Hannah Montana episodes for the past, um, year??
They played this movie up so much, and tonight when we were at Target BEFORE it even premiered, we noticed that they were fully stocked with Camp Rock paraphernalia...shirts, barbies, CD's, etc. Talk about counting your chickens.... They were smart to do it, though, because some of it was already SOLD OUT!!
So. I admit it. I watched it. Okay, I watched about 20 minutes of it. I did get to see Joe Jonas and Demi Lovato sing together at the end, the song I have been jamming to on Radio Disney for the past month, This is Me. I must say that I was into it.

I am going to go ahead and write another post above this one so it gets buried. Don't tease me for long.

YUM

Okay, I must share this for any dieter out there.

1 Duncan Hines devil's food cake mix
1 can applesauce (15.5 ounces, you can find at walmart)

Mix them together, pour into cupcake pan, and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. Do not overbake, check frequently.

These are delicious. They have no 'diet' taste. No yucky aftertaste. Just gooey chocolate wonderful tastiness.

In order to keep myself from eating the whole pan, I put them in individual sandwich bags, pile them in a large freezer bag, and then freeze them. Every night I take ONE out to thaw overnight so I have a treat the next day. It works really well!

I added the calories in the mix and applesauce and it is about 180 calories per cupcake. (yields 13) Not awful, especially compaired to a regular cupcake's 280 calories!!!

Can you top this?

White trash alert: Can you top it?
Today I was at my friend's pool (Greentree, for all you Tbirds) and there were two couples who were on the, uh, large side of the scale, who were swimming, too. The girls were wearing small bikinis, so they were hanging out all over the place. One of the guys went up to the girl in the white plaid bikini, put his face in her chest and did the 'motorboat'. Bbbbbbbbbb.
He repeated the motion a few times and then the resumed their swimming. W.O.W.

The Rich Man's Tuna

Mike and I have discovered a wonderful treat. Salmon, made up like tuna fish. We have been grilling salmon for awhile now, and Mike puts the perfect spices on it, lets it marinate and....YUM. Well, the other night we had some left over in the fridge, so Mike put some mayo in and and we put it on crackers, like tuna. It was scrumptious. Not a cheap treat, but worth the splurge! I bought some canned salmon tonight, but I doubt it will compair to Mike's delicious grilled version.

So. Let me share another story. We were at Mike's cousin's graduation party this weekend. Mike's little sister came into town for it, as well. Well, us girls (yes I still consider myself one of the young girls) decided to take off for a bit and go try on swimwear at Target. Okay, I KNOW that was a bad decision for me to make in the first place, being that I am still carrying around a little (read: all) baby fat. But I really didn't know how poisonous the environment would actually be. I somehow endured watching them and their perfect, untouched by children, bodies try on bikini after bikini and look fantastic...while I basically hid in the dressing room. So, due to this very traumatic experience...Mike and I joined a gym today. HOORAY! I am going to take naked before and after pictures of us, and post them on the blog. Haha, you wish. :)

Simple Pleasures

Okay, my friend, Anne Marie, had a 'Simple Pleasures' tag a little while ago, and I LOVED it. Here is my response to her tag.

The Sleepmate. It is a tiny noise machine that I can take anywhere I go, and it produces the yummiest white noise EVER. Love it.



Sun Blocking Eye Patches. I am addicted to these and my earplugs. Grouped with my noisemaker....talk about a fab night of sleep.

Lavender Vanilla Pillow Spray. Ahhhhh Relaxing. Down Filled Mattress Cover. Wait a minute. All of my simple pleasures have to do with sleep. Bwahahah!! Okay, onto something different.

My Home Alarm System. Is this allowed? Talk about Piece of Mind. Whenever Mike leaves town this allows me to feel totally safe and to sleep like a baby. (Here we go with the sleep again).

Bubble Bath. Currently I am using White Cherry Blossom from Bath and Body Works. I l-o-v-e my bath. Can't get enough soaking in piping hot water. In scrumptious bubbles.
Okay, I really adore this lotion. It's Johnson's Nourishing Renewal Lotion. Mike brought home a sample home from NSHIMBA last year, when we were in school and very poor. I used it to the last drop, and counted down the days for Mike to get a job so that I could make this my first purchase!!
Body By Victoria. I love this shower care line. The gel, scrub, and lotion. It's divine! It smells delicious and feels oh so pampering.
If you really want to turn heads, use this hairspray. It's 'So Sexy' but it smells like the Body by Victoria line. And it lingers all day. YUM.
Okay, I will leave it at that! :)

Now YOU are tagged. What are your simple pleasures???

P.S. Sarah Update. She is still really sick. BUT I think things are looking up. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, please!! PLEASE!