Cupcake Fiasco

After the visits with Hermano this past weekend, I wanted to be sure I understood where things stand for him in regards to spending time with us. It seems like he is allowed to visit as often as he likes and over-nights were approved for Christmas and New Year’s. It’s a little odd feeling to be working around this without CHOR, simply because I’ve never done that before. But, I felt like the baton was passed from our county case worker (who is still our case worker for the little ones) for me to interact solely with Hermano’s case worker and foster family with no intermediaries policing our side of things. It’s good to have everyone on the same page, especially regarding his girlfriend, because sometimes Hermano tries to get away with things he knows are not permitted. Like last year’s Christmas fiasco (here). Esperanza shared a rumor with me regarding Hermano’s girlfriend but swore me to secrecy. I hope it’s inaccurate information, but wouldn’t be surprised if it’s true. The county blames the girlfriend for Hermano running away over the summer, but I don’t think she’s to blame. I think it was more his mom than anything else. The girlfriend did make being on the run easier, since she has a car and would take him places, but I don’t think he ran for her. Hermano is a ladies man, but, just like a little butterfly flitting from flower to flower, he doesn’t take any relationship seriously. It’s sad, really. I was actually thinking this girlfriend was better than previous girls, but it seems like she’s cut from the same cloth, only she’s better at hiding her crazy.

 

Today is Chica Marie’s birthday. In my traditional over-extending myself fashion, I promised to make cupcakes for her to take to daycare. And of course, they had to be Frozen-themed cupcakes. I wanted to make chocolate and vanilla with fluffy blue cream cheese icing. But, we had a busy weekend and so things, like the dishes (a LOT of dishes) didn’t get cleaned up and so before I could make the kids dinner, I had to find the kitchen table and wash the dishes. Love Bug was in a particularly needy mood and spent the entire night whining, crying and clinging to my leg before he passed out on my bedroom floor around 7:30. Since I wasn’t busy enough, I decided to do laundry in addition to making dinner, washing dishes, cleaning up the weekend mess and preparing dinner for tonight. And, wasn’t I making cupcakes for some reason? Just as dinner is simmering and some dishes are drying, there was a knock at the front door that sent the dogs into a tizzy, which of course made Love Bug cry and Chica Marie dash around the house for inexplicable reasons. Oh good, the last minute Christmas gifts I ordered online arrived. We ate dinner and I washed some more dishes and put fabric softener in the second load of laundry, after putting away a basket of folded clothes and hiding the tantalizing boxes from Chica Marie. After Love Bug fell asleep I text Primero and asked if his friend could bring him home while I gave Chica Marie a bath and made sure the vanilla cupcakes didn’t burn to a crisp, while mixing the chocolate batter. Primero arrived home as I was getting Chica Marie out of the tub and putting the first chocolate cupcakes into the oven to bake. It was only after I took them out of the oven that I realized I forgot to add baking soda and so the chocolate cupcakes were more like fluffy fudge than anything resembling a cake. I tucked Chica Marie into bed, washed more dishes and began mixing the frosting, enlisting Primero as the mixer operator. I added more confectioners’ sugar, hoping the icing would get thicker and beat it some more until I added all the confectioners’ sugar I owned and still the icing was runny. I dumped it into a freezer bag and hoped it would thicken when chilled. No such luck. As Primero described it, it looked like Elsa “let it go” all over the cupcakes. The icing was blue, but it was not fluffy. Sigh. At least the cupcakes were tasty!