Black Widow Cake

I made this black widow spider cake for Levi's birthday. He hasn't seen it yet and I think he's going to love it. He loves this sort of thing. I looked on line for a long time to find a picture of a black widow cake and I couldn't find one so I just made it up as I went along. She's upside down so you can see her red spot. I wanted her legs to be sticking up in the air but that didn't work out. Oh I almost forgot, I had no idea there were so many different kinds of black widow spiders and they aren't all black either, some are brown or white with stripes. Pretty cool! I decided to stick to what I'm familiar with.

I wanted the big back end to be up higher than the rest so I put most of the chocolate cake mix into the round cake pan.

Bake the cakes at 350º, the rectangle portion took 25 min. and the round took about 35 min.

While the cake cooked I mixed black food coloring with chocolate frosting.

I took quite a bit of black food coloring to get it all black.

 After I had it black I decided to put the black licorice in the freezer so the legs would stick up the way I wanted them to. So, I folded them together to make them look like spider legs and put them in.

 
I sliced the edge off of the round cake to make it curved instead of straight. Then I started trimming the body and head. 

I put the part I trimmed off underneath the round cake so it would be higher up in the middle to make it look more rounded and real.

After I had the body and head the shape I wanted I sliced some cake off the bottom so it would be even shorter.

The cake formed a pretty big crack down the center so I filled that with some trimmings too.

After I frosted the cake with the black frosting I took this ready to decorate icing and to make the red spot on her back.

I just basically made 2 triangles. 

Then I took a popcicle stick and smoothed it out.

I used lemon heads for the eyes. Although I have no idea what color their eyes are, probably black.

Here are the frozen black licorice legs. They freeze really fast and they thaw really fast. So, they didn't work out like I planned. I wanted it to seem like the spider was on her back with her legs moving in the air trying to turn over. They still worked as legs but not exactly how I imagined. I wonder if they would have stayed frozen better if I had gotten them wet first. Hmmm, I'll have to try that in the morning and see what happens.

I have to say though, I'm not disappointed with how she turned out. I think it turned out really good. 

Don't worry though, I won't be quitting my day job!!

 

Kinda creepy!

I like it! 

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Morphine & Fentanyl Overdose

 

On Monday my 2 year old nephew Landon had his tonsils and adenoids removed. Here he is getting wheeled away in the wagon. They had him blow on the balloon to put him under.

This is after he was done. Landon was crying and screaming so the nurse gave him morphine and fentanyl.  Shortly after he fell asleep. His oxygen started dropping a little so they gave him oxygen.

 Then his oxygen started dropping more, 

here they are checking him.

 His oxygen was dropping so much they had to put an adult mask on him and put it as high as it would go. Well, his oxygen was still dropping too fast. A couple nurses came in and his oxygen was at 74. One nurse hit a button and a code blue was called overhead. Immediately about 15 people came rushing in. It dropped to 70 and they started doing all sorts of things to him. They gave him medicine called Narcan that's supposed to reverse what medicines have been given. Then a doctor comes in and starts asking what he'd been given. Then he told the nurses he wanted more coverage on him. The Narcan worked and he was breathing better. He had just gotten too relaxed by the morphine and fentanyl. When Tina told me this I thought it was crazy that he had that kind of reaction because Skylar had been given morphine too and didn't even fall asleep till hours later. Landon slept all day.

Well later that day someone came in and told them they felt they needed to tell them that while Landon was under anesthesia the Anesthesiologist gave him morphine and fentanyl. Well, then up on the floor the nurse who also gave him morphine and fentanyl asked a different anesthesiologist if she could give him morphine. Instead of either of them looking at his chart they just gave him more morphine and fentanyl! So, they overdosed him on morphine and fentanyl! 

 Here he is 9 pm hours later still loopy from the morphine.

Feeling a little better and loving his orange socks!

To make things better that night a new nurse was asking Tina if her baby (2 months old and nursing) was spending the night. Tina said that he was and the nurse said that he wasn't allowed, that no one under 18 is allowed to spend the night. Tina said, "well I'm not leaving him (pointing to Landon) and he (pointing to Mason...her baby) has to stay with me." The nurse said, "I'm sorry but that's policy, no one under 18 is allowed." Tina again said that she was staying with Landon and the baby had to stay with her. The nurse again said that that wasn't allowed and what was she going to do. Tina told her she wasn't leaving Landon after what happened to him and the baby was staying here so she'll have to make it happen. Then the nurse said, "you'll have to fill out some paper work then!" Tina said, "then bring out the paper work!" That night his oxygen would drop a little sometimes and not one nurse came in to check on him. During the day as soon as the monitor beeped someone was in there. She loved the day staff. He spent the night and went home the next morning.

So glad that wasn't my experience! SCARY!

Ice Balloon Crystals

The other day I saw this really cute idea here and wanted to try it! So, here is my fun experience. First of all the balloons she used were much bigger and I think that's why her food coloring had time to separate, or maybe that's just because of the type of food coloring she had. I don't know but they didn't separate for me. Maybe I should get some big balloons and try at least one and see what it does. Anyways I think it was really fun and the kids thought it was too, afterward they wanted to eat them and throw them which sounded too dangerous to me!
I do think I'll have them draw in the snow with them next time it snows though. Oh I guess we still have snow in the back yard.

Put 2 or 3 drops of food coloring into the balloon, then fill with water and tie. I'll be honest here, it was messy at times. Especially when the balloon broke when it had red food coloring in it, I should have taken a picture because my walls, sink, hands and counter were all red. One of the kids came in after hearing me give a loud squeak because of it popping and they thought it was blood.

Balloons all filled!

I put them on plastic bags too so they'd be on something a little soft and maybe roll less.

In our back yard on top of the pretty snow.
 

The next morning I stuck them in the freezer because they weren't even attempting to freeze after being out all night. Too warm. :( Also the dark purple one had a leak in it so I tossed it. Didn't want it popping in my freezer.

WAHOO!
They froze! The next morning I checked and they were frozen.

This is so cool to peel them. Sometimes when you'd scrape it half the thing would automatically slide off just by making a tiny hole. A little messy though because the ice is melting quickly in your hands.

Kadin takes a 
turn, he says "it's really weird."

 Levi says, "that's AWESOME!"

 

Fisher asks, "can I eat it?" I said, "no, they're not sweet." He says, "why didn't you pour sugar in them?"

Skylar says, "YAY! Popcicles. Ooh ooh ooh it's too cold." 

I guess I could make popcicles like this but I don't think they'd taste that great, especially at first with the balloon flavor on the outside. Who knows that might even be throughout all of it. All I'd have to do is add Kool-Aid. Still sounds gross!

Here's a little video of me peeling one, kinda fun!

Kind of a fun decoration outside. Too bad it's like Spring around here and too warm.

I  think they're

really neat and pretty!

I think they'd make fun centerpieces for some parties. A bowl full wold be really pretty.

All together.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Melting!

 

The only clear one I did. See how small they are, I think the other lady did a lot bigger balloons which would be fun too. Can you imagine one of those popping if you were filling it in your bathroom or kitchen sink? YIKES!

So pretty!
And now they're sitting back inside my freezer so they don't melt. Hopefully we'll have a few cold days and nights soon. Wow, I never thought I'd wish for that!!!!!!!

D.A.R.E

Kadin had his D.A.R.E graduation today. I've never been to one before and I have to admit there were a few times where I got teary eyed. Ok, I know that's not a surprise to anyone. Kadin was so excited to graduate from this wonderful program and I am very proud of him that he chose to join it and that he completed it. Way to go Kadin! I hope and pray that when the time comes and someone asks him to smoke, drink or do drugs or anything else bad that he'll have the courage to just say NO! He's made his mind up already that he will so I believe he'll follow through.

Officer Kris Johnson was the officer who came in I think weekly and taught them how and why to say no to drugs. Kadin learned a lot from him and I think he was a great influence on Kadin.

The Graduation Ceremony. We were asked not to clap until the end of each class, otherwise Kadin would have had lots of cheers.

Skylar Says

Skylar was playing with her little pony just barely and said to the pony, "don't say no to me." She sits for a few moments and says, "don't say no to me, you say....you say....umm you say, mommy what does it say, it not say no so what does it say?" HUGE eye opener for me. I tell her and she hears me tell the boys not to say no to me but she has no idea why and what she should say instead. Guess I learned something important and need to teach it to her next time I tell one of them not to say no to me.

Lodge Skillet

Today I finally tried out the 12 in. Lodge Skillet Kerby's parents gave us for Christmas. Kerby had sat it clear up on top of our cupboards and said we'd need to season it, so I left it up there and would glance at it once in a while and think to myself that I should just do it. Today, I decided to actually do it so we could finally use it. Well, when I pulled it down to do it it said it was seasoned and ready to use. Well, then I decided to just use it. First of all these pans are like dutch ovens. The non-stick coating can't come off and the more you use it the better it gets. This should last me forever, and then my kids can fight over who gets it when I die. ;)

 So nice and new looking, I love new things. If I take care of it though it can always look really good.

Mmmm. I finally get to use the handle hot pad she bought me from Hawaii years ago. The food cooked in it very nicely and it says it will get better the more it's used.

 To clean it and keep it seasoned you just heat vegetable oil in it and wipe it down, if needed you can even scour it with a scouring pad! I can even use metal utensils in it if I want. I don't own any because I've never had anything I could use them on, now I do!

Thanks Kerry and Nancy for the great gift! I'm pretty sure I'll use it daily now!!