too much cake, my kid sees bruce willis, and memories I never knew existed

Most of you know that I decorate cakes in my not-so-spare time. But I think it's time for a break. I know, I know...who needs a break from cake? But it is starting to affect my children. Rogit sees everything in cake, and he's a cake snob. No, Wamalart sheet cake will never be good enough for him again. And play-doh? Why make anything out of play-doh when you can make it out of fondant and put it on top of the fridge to harden and attract flies? His birthday is in a couple of weeks and he has changed his ideas for his cake, ohhh about 100 times, since January. Yeah that's right, I said JANUARY. The child is obsessed! I thought Dexter was immune to the insanity. He is, afterall, too busy throwing frogs and underwear on the roof, and sliding down the concrete storm shelter in his underwear. But yesterday, as he passed by me on his way to some unknown building project, he pulls from his pocket a key ring with a set of alan wrenches hanging from it and says, "MOM!!! I got it! We could use these for CAKE!!" It was like he had discovered fire. He'll never be the same again. Last night I found them both in my caking room stealing bits of fondant, Rogit making spiders and crabs, Dexter making Bigfoot footprints. My boys are cake nerds. What have I created.

Dexter, while he's not dealing with frogs and underwear and cake, is starting to freak me out a bit. My parents had a neighbor who had a sudden onset of health problems last week. Mom had called to tell me on Tuesday that his organs were failing and they didn't expect him to make it through the night. All of this occurred over the phone so Dexter couldn't have heard her end of the conversation, nor would he even know the man's name or where he lived even if he had heard it. Wednesday came and went, Thursday rolled around, and we still hadn't heard if he had passed yet. We were leaving my parents' house Thursday afternoon and as we drove by the neighbors' house Dexter said, "Someone died at that house today." Mom and I just looked at each other, I can't even pinpoint the emotions and the thoughts that all fired through my head at that moment. We asked why he thought that and his answer was, "Because the bad man came today." Creeped us right.the.heck.out. We tried to brush it off and mom dropped us off at home. She went back home and called an hour later to let me know that the neighbor had indeed passed away Thursday morning. I'm not sure what I believe when it comes to ghosts and such, but we at least know there are angels and demons, the scripture spells that out for us. And I've heard so many times that children see many things that we don't simply because of their innocence. So who knows what my little guy saw. Whatever it was was enough to let him know that someone had died, a concept he had not been able to grasp before that very instant. And apparently someone came for him...terrifying to say the least.

OK, let's lighten this up a bit. When I was little, my Grandpa Mc. was someone who was larger than life to me. He and my dad took me fishing, taught me how to shoot a gun, he showed me how to pour homemade sinker, all those things a Grandpa in Oklahoma should teach you, if you're lucky enough to have one like him. We lost my Grandpa Mc. way back in 1989. Back before every family had 3 cameras and a camcorder, before there were digital cameras that let us snap 200 pics at every family gathering. We have some pictures of him, one of which sits on my mom and dad's hall table, and my boys know who he is from that picture alone. Grandpa is one of those people that I sincerely regret my boys not being able to know and love. Last night, out of the blue, my dad shows up with a DVD of a home movie from a family BBQ with my Grandpa's sister and all of their relatives. I knew he was hoping Grandpa made it on there somewhere. I made a copy and sat down to make sure it worked on my television, and lo and behold, there was Grandpa Mc., talking and smiling, as if I could reach out and touch him. It really hit me kind of hard, I guess because I never knew any video existed of him, so I never thought I'd see him or hear his voice like that again. I will cherish those 2 minutes of video for many years to come.