The Cupcake Committee

Thank you all so very much for your prayers for Valerie and Caroline’s wisdom teeth surgery and recovery!  They are doing very well, and the worst is definitely behind them!   We are so grateful for all your love, support and prayers!

As our family prepared for this big event on Thursday, we had the best laid plans for covering all the bases in taking care of Valerie and Caroline’s needs as well as filling in for them with their animals and chores. 

Recently, our very dear Pastor’s wife asked the “Bowes Bakers” if we could make some pretty pink cupcakes for a baby shower today.  We were happy to do so.  When we realized that we’d be down by two bakers and decorators this week, Victoria said, “no problem, we got this!” and affectionately gave us (the remaining two Bowes bakers) the endearing title of “Cupcake Committee!”  So, this has become quite the funny little inside joke as the two of us have tried to “hold down the fort” and keep everything running while Valerie and Caroline are out of commission for a while. 

Things were looking pretty good for us going into the surgery on Thursday morning.  Victoria was more than willing to pick up the dog chores since she is out feeding the goats anyway. 

And I’m happy to pick up the laundry and dishes, Valerie and Caroline’s big chores this month. 

But of course, in a house full of kids and animals . . .unexpected things happen, and the best laid plans get rearranged! 

Things went swimmingly with getting Caroline and Valerie home from the surgery.  We even came home to Lydia visiting and helping Victoria in the kitchen and with entertaining Ben and Brielle!  A very wonderful blessing!  Yay for the "Cupcake Committee's" unexpected reinforcements!    Shortly thereafter though, the unexpected things started happening.  We realized Anna, our sweet little indoor dog, rolled again in something very stinky in the horse pasture, which always necessitates a bath.  At this same time, we realized she was limping when she came back in the house. 

So, Thursday evening, we were thinking that we should get Anna to a veterinarian for evaluation.  I also remembered that we’ve had some serious concern about a spot on Joe’s arm that is not healing, and decided that we really needed to have it looked at before the weekend.  So, Friday morning, I called the pediatrician’s office at 8am, and they said they had one appointment . . .at 9am!  Within a few minutes of my call, Victoria called the vet’s office, and they had a 10am appointment.  So, Victoria and I realized that we had to load us all in the van within 15 minutes to pull off this trip to town.  As we were rushing out the door, we had to bring in the “cupcake committee’s” reinforcement . . . .Timmy . . . to feed the dogs and let them out into the yard.   Kyle and Daddy were just returning from their morning Bible study about this time, so Daddy was able to look after Caroline and Valerie, and Kyle jumped in to help Timmy out. 

We made it to the pediatrician’s office right on time!  We were in for a shock though, when the doctor told us she thinks Joe’s red spot on his arm is due to a MRSA infection!  Yikes!  So, she had to puncture it, drain it and culture it.  Ewwwww!!!  Thankfullly, she said there is still a mixture of antibiotics that works on it.  Joe was very brave, so we made it through that just fine, and made it to the vet office right at 10am.  The vet couldn’t find anything, but she gave her an anti-inflammatory/pain medication.

After that, we were off to Walgreens to pick up Joe’s prescription, but it wasn’t ready yet, so we had some time to kill.  At this time we realized that we would probably be late to getting Victoria back home to leave with Kyle for a plan they had to meet some friends that were taking Kyle to a missions conference in Oregon, and Victoria would drive his truck home.   We then realized my tracphone was out of minutes, so we couldn’t call home to tell this to Kyle until I bought more minutes!  So, off to Walmart we went to re-charge my phone. 

Victoria was also concerned about the fact that her 3 bottle baby goat kids didn’t get their morning feeding.  So when we got a hold of Kyle, she asked him if he wouldn’t mind bottle feeding them, and walked him through how to do that!  (He was happy to be the reinforcement for the “cupcake  committee”, as he “owed her one” from her baking him some pumpkin apple bread on Thursday afternoon for a hospitality gift for his host family Friday night. ;-) And thankfully, his meeting time was 2, instead of 1, so we decided to stay out town, and meet Kyle at the designated spot at 2pm.  This all worked well! 

When I got home at 2:30, I checked on the girls, and remembered I had to run over to the rental house I clean for and finish up some cleaning that I had planned to do before Thursday, but the family that owns the rental house had last minute plans to occupy the house through Wednesday night.   But just before heading over to the rental house, I found that Sadie, Victoria’s little puppy had an accident in the back guest room.  : -)

Oh yeah, and Caroline normally does dinner on Friday nights!  What are we gonna do for dinner?   And oh yeah . . . . the CUPCAKES!!!!!

Victoria managed to pull off the baking of the cupcakes, and thankfully, we had lots of leftovers for dinner! 

As long as we remember when everybody needs their medications . . . we’re good right?!!! 

So, this morning, after medicating everyone, and taking care of all the chores and animals, we go to frost all the cupcakes for the baby shower and the power goes out!  Seriously?!  Thankfully, Victoria, being the rescourceful member of the Cupcake Committee that she is, was able to make the frosting we needed without the power of the mixer!  Three cheers for Victoria and all the Cupcake Committee's reinforcements!  :-)