Dear Holly: The $2.99 Chocolate Puppy Cake from Kroger

1 year, 11 months.

Dear Holly,

Last week, our family managed to make it through all of the 1st season of Nailed It! on Netflix. I had suggested your brother check out the show, after I had spent the week before watching both seasons of Master of None, where the main character who is an aspiring actor, has to settle for being the host of a show called Clash of the Cupcakes.

And yes, Nailed It! was every bit as silly as I imagined it to be, based on the fictional concept of Clash of the Cupcakes and the Internet meme. And yes, your brother genuinely loved the cake competition show as much as I knew he would.

Last weekend, your brother announced to me in the car, as I was taking him hiking while you were home with Mommy:

“Hey Daddy… Mommy said we could look at cakes at Kroger and maybe get one.”

So after our hike, I let Jack look at cakes. To my amazement, there was a chocolate puppy cake for only $2.99. I had no issues paying so little money for a cake so cool; a cake I knew that both you and your brother would enjoy.

As we walked in the door, Jack and I both announced to you,

“Holly, we brought home a puppy cake!”

Your response: “Puppy? Puppy. Puppy!

So after we ate our veggie soup that Mommy had cooking on the crock pot, Mommy cut the puppy cake for dessert for you and your brother.

Jack immediately dived in, as if it were his birthday. (In reality, it’s your birthday and mine that are coming up.)

To my surprise though, you didn’t really care about eating the cake. You just wanted to play with the plastic cover the cake came in.

You had a great time walking around the kitchen and living room with it on your face like a mask. Then you enjoyed stomping on it in the likeness of Justin Timberlake smashing the disco ball on one of his album covers.

Your brother loved the cake. You loved the container it came in. Classic.

Love,

Daddy

Dear Jack: You Lost Your 2nd Tooth by Eating a Croissant?!

6 years, 9 months.

Dear Jack,

Saturday morning your breakfast mostly consisted of your favorite croissants from Kroger. I was on the carpet, playing with Holly, when you proclaimed from the kitchen table, “Hey, I think this croissant is going to make me lose my tooth.”

Obviously, I immediately thought that was a strange statement. However, I did recall brushing your teeth earlier that week and you pointing out that your other bottom middle tooth was getting pretty loose.

To my surprise, when I walked over to the kitchen table and took a close look at your tooth, it was undeniable. I explained to Mommy, “Yeah, actually… it’s sticking out like a drawbridge.”

From there, I was assigned to helping you try to pull the tooth. Mommy wet a paper towel for me and I brought it over to you. “Don’t pull it too hard, Daddy…” you warned.

I assured you all I would do was just barely tug at it.

And that’s all I did. I pulled no harder I would pull a Kleenex from the box.

But the tooth immediately popped out with just that easy, tame, and thoughtless little tug.

“What?! It’s already out!” I yelled over to Mommy, who was holding your sister at the kitchen counter.

So that’s how it happened. I can truly say that was the easiest tooth that I have ever seen pulled.

A croissant! Not an apple. Not anything crunchy.

But instead, one of the softest textured foods a person can eat; maybe only second to cotton candy.

That tooth must have been really loose before you ever ate that croissant… obviously. But still, there wasn’t an ongoing conversation about your tooth being loose, like there was for your first tooth you lost back in April.

Still such a strange surprise.

Oh well, at least you also made a quick 3 bucks off the deal too.

Love,

Daddy

House for Sale

In the name of family planning, my wife and I are selling our town house to someone lucky and deserving. Someone who is looking for a place in Nashville, TN. We’ve done our research to know that our price is competitive to the others, yet our place comes with some cool bonuses:
Free Refrigerator and other standard kitchen appliances

TO SEE PICTURES OF THE PLACE, SIMPLY CLICK ON “BUY MY HOUSE” AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE

Here are some other advantages:

We have been the only owners. We don’t smoke. We don’t have pets. We haven’t even painted the walls since their original “egg shell white” that came standard. We have kept this place immaculate. It’s a clean slate.

When we bought our townhouse 2 years ago brand new, we chose to get the optional Venetian blinds (we paid $550 extra for these) and ceiling fans in the bed rooms which also did not come standard.

Vaulted ceilings in the bedrooms. Quiet neighbors on both sides of us.

The development, Barnes Crossing, is a great “walkable” area. I run my 3 mile trek around the neighborhood.

Great location. We are near the corner of Old Hickory and Nolensville, less than a mile from the up-and-coming cool neighborhood of Lenox Village. Which means we are from 5 minutes from the following:

A new Super Wal-Mart
Publix (the best place in the world to buy groceries)
Kroger (a good place to get cheap gas)
Starbucks
Blue Coast Burrito (an addicting burrito place)
Pie in the Sky (pizza/Italian)
Bricks (a trendy Nashville original restaurant)
South Side Grill (another one)

We are less than 15 minutes from I-65 and less than 10 minutes from I-24; easy access to downtown Nashville. About 20 minutes from downtown Nashville, so it’s close enough to be cool and far enough so that it’s still a quiet, friendly neighborhood.

1309 square feet

2 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms

Price: $132, 500

You may even be lucky enough to qualify for our government’s First Time Home Buyers Program and get up to $8,000 tax credit. The deadline for that is coming up. Here’s a link to more about that:

http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/

If you have more questions or are interested in seeing the place, call me:

256-996-6689

You can also e-mail me:

nickshell1983@hotmail.com

TO SEE PICTURES OF THE PLACE, SIMPLY CLICK ON “BUY MY HOUSE” AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE