What's in a Name?

Not only do I drop off the face of the blogging world, but when I return it's to ask for help!

A few posts ago I mentioned that I had a small catering job. I did light breakfast and full lunches for a group that was using our church building for a training session that met five times, three times each week. It was definitely a good experience and something I've been looking to get started in for a long time now.

It started a few years back when I was doing some occasional part time work with a caterer/party planner. I would just work the events, most of which were high end, fancy schmancy ordeals, which provided me with a window into the catering world and some money to help pay for things like vacation and Christmas. Somewhere along the line the woman realized that I was "into food" and at one point she was talking to me about having me do the baking for her events. This would have definitely been a big deal and a great opportunity had it worked out!

For the last year or two I have been wanting to start selling homemade baked items, specializing in cupcakes and cakes, all sorts of varieties, focusing on quality ingredients and taste rather than your basic grocery store purchase. I even made up some lists of different options and looked into pricing.

The main thing holding me back was a name. I knew I couldn't do something like this if I didn't have a name for my little endeavor, whatever it may be. Something that would convey what I was doing, perhaps something that sounded a bit old fashioned, a bit clever and not too cutsie.

Piece of cake (hahaha!) right?! Not really since that was over a year ago and I haven't really come up with anything.

Since then I have been floundering, unsure whether or not I was going to move forward at all. Then this whole catering gig happened and that involved more than just baking. After doing that I realized that I really did enjoy planning and cooking the whole meal, not just the dessert! I could see myself doing more stuff like this in the future, small corporate functions, baby and wedding showers, dinner parties, etc.

In fact while one of the ladies at the training session asked me for a business card (ugh) and talked about possibly having me cater a First Communion party.

Now I have another chance to work with this group coming up next month and I'm determined that I will have business cards with me, which means I need a name!!!

Help me! I need some ideas and people to brainstorm with me. Make as many suggestions as you like....I don't care if you think they might sound silly, I really need all the help I can get!

I don't think Megan deMontaigne Catering really sounds that great. Also, catering might suggest a much larger scale operation, when I really want to focus on smaller events.

Ok....I am counting on the few blog readers I have out there to give me some guidance and suggestions. If you do suggest the name that I end up picking I will send you in the mail a thank you package of homemade goodies!!!

Catherine stories

I've been sitting up in bed hoping that my kids eventually fall asleep. I didn't mind getting to sleep in this morning since they didn't know the time had changed, but it backfired tonight when 8 o'clock rolled around and they were nowhere near being tired enough to fall asleep when to them it felt like 7 o'clock!

Since I have the computer and I'm stuck up in my bedroom (so much easier than going up and down when the girls venture out of their rooms for one reason or another...so far we have, "I'm thirsty", "I'm scared", "My shoulder hurts" and "I need to be tucked in") I figure nows a good time to jot down a few little stories I've been collecting that I don't want to forget.

Catherine says and does so many things that crack me up and I know I'll regret it if I don't record some of them to look back on. Here are a few of the recent ones...

I was driving the girls home from somewhere a few weeks ago when I heard Catherine ask me a question from the back seat.

"Mom, why are we poor?"

What?! Oh no, did I give her the impression I think we're poor? I asked her to repeat the question and once again she asked "mom, why are we poor?"

Oh man, I was sweating it because I can't imagine she would have gotten that impression from anyone other than me. I know our house is smaller than most in the area and if we could afford something bigger, we would jump on it, but that's definitely a choice we made with Matt's occupation and wanting me to be able to stay at home with the kids. But that doesn't mean we're poor. Did she hear me complaining about wanting more space or a bigger house? Have I ever actually said something like that in front of them?

My mind was racing.

I gathered my thoughts and began to explain to her that we weren't poor, that we had a house, a car, plenty of food and clothes, stuff that many people don't have and we should be thankful and grateful for all that we do have.

I was met with silence from the back seat, until Ella spoke up and said "mom, she asked "why are we small"

Oh.....because of course Catherine can't do her "sp" sound so small can across as pall which I somehow heard as poor.

I really didn't know whether to be happy that I hadn't given my daughter the impression we were poor or disappointed that my little impromptu speech had probably fallen on very confused ears!

These next two little ditties are similar, but again, cracked me up enough that I had to get them written down.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One night last week we were at friend's house for dinner and afterwards Catherine and Nolan were playing a game that involved throwing balls at plates trying to knock them over. Apparently this was only a two person game and they told Ella she couldn't play with them. Naturally Ella was very upset by this and we talked to the kids and told them that Ella needed to be included.

Catherine came into the kitchen to tell Ella with great enthusiasm that she figured out how Ella could play with them...."hey Ella, when we throw the ball and it misses and rolls away, YOU can go get the ball for us!!!!!" Seriously, you would have thought she was offering her the role of quarterback or pitcher and not ball girl! There may have been some bursts of laughter from the adults! It was doubly funny to me because I could tell how earnest she was and not trying to manipulate things at all.

Today the same type of thing happened excepted I was the one given the role of "ball girl". Somehow we were talking about clubs and they were trying to think what their club would be and I suggested sister's club. They were excited about that and I said, what about mom's too? Can I be in the club? Catherine immediately responded with "of course mom, you can be our server. You can serve us food when we're hungry!"

So basically this is just an imitation of everyday life club!

Catherine is just such a funny girl. Tonight Matt was trying to get her to wind down for bed and had already read books and sang her a song, but she was still super chatty. I guess he was getting ready to leave and she said "dad, I still have LOTS of questions for you!"

Just like both girls love listening to me read blog posts about them as babies, I know how much they'll enjoy reminiscing about their antics as preschoolers. Definitely a good incentive for me to keep blogging, whether once a week or more!

Checking out

I have much much much to update on and I promise that it will be coming soon! We just got home from a nice weekend away with friends and I am getting all settled in to watch the Oscars, but I feel like the Winter Olympics are just so last month and I figured it would be nice to get a new post up for the start of the week.

Also, this was just one of those things I had to share....

Last week I headed to my favorite money saving grocery store, Aldi's, to do my weekly shopping. I had taken Ella to school so I was getting my shopping started early and I was looking forward to a productive day and was actually calculating how much I would get done before Ella got home from school at noon (crazy, cannot remember where Catherine was...somewhere with Matt I know).

I got to the register, all my food was rung up and I slid my debit card only to have my card denied. Gulp! The cash register worker told me that it was expired, so I immediately checked the date to see the expirations being February 2010 and of course it was the very first day of March! Aldi's doesn't take credit cards so I had no other way to pay. They pulled my cart aside and I said I'd be back. I ran over to Wal-Mart and grabbed the stuff I hadn't found at Aldi's (just slightly tempted to reshop, but it's just too much cheaper at Aldi's!), ran (ok, drove) back home, brought the few bags I had in to the house, grabbed my new debit card (It's coming back to me, I remember calling Matt saying that I my card was expired and he reminded me that it had been sitting there on our computer desk for months just waiting to be activated....I have no idea where he was and what Catherine and him were doing.)

Headed back to Aldi's with my new card, not sure if they still had my cart of groceries waiting for me. Thankfully it was still there and the cash register worker was very kind in quickly scanning my receipt and having me pay without waiting in line and had pulled aside some of the perishables allowing me to go grab fresh ones.

Overall, not too bad, but it cut into my productive morning and was basically a realization of a fear I have everytime I go to check out at a store, that I won't be able to pay.

Skip one week forward to tonight. I was tired after being away all weekend, up too late, and up too early, but I have a catering job this week (more on that coming soon) and I knew I had to get shopping so I could focus on cooking tomorrow morning.

I zoomed through the store, grabbed a take-n-bake pizza for dinner and headed to check out. All the groceries were scanned and reloaded into my cart when I reached in my purse for my wallet only to realize it didn't appear to be there. I set it down and proceeded to rummage through it, because I have so much junk in there that often it only appears that my wallet was missing, but no it was just hiding behind that bag of goldfish.

I found my cut up, expired debit card (I can't even take credit for that, I tried to use it again at Wegman's a few days later and that time the register worker cut it up for me. Apparently this is a lesson I am having a hard time learning.) but no wallet. It truly wasn't in there.

I said something like "oh my gosh, I can't believe this happened again, " and the lady working said "oh yeah, like the last time with your card."

That's right, same employee as last week. Two times in one week she got to be a part of my forgetfulness and actually remembered! I wonder if I have a reputation?

Thankfully my wallet was in my car and I didn't have to go home. Not sure if I would have had the energy to come back!

Now it's time to watch the Oscars and lay on the couch until I fall asleep, perfect ending to the weekend! I hope to have time to update on what's been going on this past month besides the Olympics and my inability to pay for groceries :)