May 10: Peanut Butter Cookies, Part V

Midnight, May 10

Phone: "Ring, ring!"
Me [after much running around looking for phone in the dark]: "Hello?"
Phone: Silence.
Me: "Huh."

7:21 a.m., May 10

Phone: "Ring, ring!"
Me: "Hello?"
Sam: "Kristy! Did Laura have her baby last night and not tell us and then announce it on Facebook?!"
Me: "Huh?"

Yes, folks. That's how it happened. That's how I learned that my nephew, August Russell, had entered the world, 10 days before expected. My poor sister Laura tried in vain to reach all of us in the hour before and the hours after his arrival. Without telephone success, she went to the next most obvious vehicle of communication: the Web.

Although I visited August the day he was born, I will blame my extended blog silence on my patient wait for photos. No photos, no posts.

Nearly two weeks later, I had to resort to stealing one off Laura's Facebook page.

That makes this my most overdue blog posting to date. I did actually bake peanut butter cookies for my mom the night before Mother's Day. I also took some to Laura in the hospital. But what's a baby post without pictures!?

There are other causes for my long silence. Most notably:

1. The day after Mother's Day I ended up sick with a fever. Normally, I enjoy a good fever. But it was hard to enjoy this one with two kids screaming and fighting and carrying on. Mercifully, I have very little knowledge of what when on during my long day in the guest bed. I will say, however, that James found green jello in our bed that night. I blame Ian.

2. My family will not leave me alone. Any time I sit in front of the computer for more than five minutes, someone is calling for me. It reminds me of when I try to use the bathroom. So, short of updating my blog from the office (which seems unethical even for me), I don't know what to do. Today I'm relying on video games to distract them.

3. The weather has been fabulous. So I've been outside a lot. Those of you who may have been worried about my clematis, I have good news: It's back with a vengeance. And you were worried.

I swear, I'm back too. Back to cookies and back to blogging. Tonight I'm baking a new recipe, so watch for updates tomorrow. I hope it's good. I know the peanut butter cookies were "divine" because even Sam loved them. I know because she texted me to tell me so.