Welcome back! Hope everything is well with your mother-in law.

Hysterical as usual...




More! (please!)

poor jack but i love emma
I can just see it so

Brought a smile to my face seeing that you'd posted again, Jill!! I can see this so clearly, and it's such a hoot!

Your back with a....splash.... I love determined-to-see-the-mission-through-to-the-end-no-matter-at-what-peril-to-the-kitchen Jack...though Sue might not see it that way!

kav

fabulous and me thinks daddy should go away and uncle bobby should take over

Another fabulous post, Jill. I just knew what was going to happen when Jack flipped the switch on the mixer. I think we need to keep Jack away from switches!



Oh, I can't help it! I'm consumed with laughter and my dad is looking at me very strangely!

Perfect ending to this post. I don't think I'll ever watch another episode of ST that I don't think about this scene!

Oh, and Emma is just precious too! And loved the way Bobby just left Jack alone. There are sometimes in a friendship when you just have to butt out and this was one of those times!

Lynn

Jill, you have me falling out of my chair!! I don't know why I find Jack-using-agent-mode-in-the-kitchen so adorable, but I do!! Of course, I can say that knowing that I won't have to clean up the mess!!!

Bobby is priceless, the way he is protecting Emma from her messy determined father!! Emma is like a little Sue in minature!! And, the cherubs............I love them!!!

Joy

"Mmmmm. Dis is dewicious." Grace closed her eyes in pure pixie pleasure, savoring the sensation of the chocolate batter-covered silver spoon sliding against her tiny tongue, tantalizing her tastebuds with the creamy conglomeration.

Marene nodded, reclining in a tall thuderhead. "Too bad Pammie took her easy to bake with oven with her. Batter is good, but I prefer my cake to be cooked."

"Hah," Trecey snorted. "We're lucky we didn't get our gooses cooked. Gotta give it to good ol' Bobbycakes. He saved the day." She scraped the last full fingerful of chocolate from her guilded quiver, waiting for a typical Marene response. When none was forthcoming, she caught Grace's eye and silently sent her a signal of concern.

"You feeling okay, Marene?" Grace fluttered over to her friend and felt her forehead. "Still feeling punky from that fan ride?"

"I'm not a punk. I'm fine."

"But you didn't gasp....and/or tell Trecey that we don't have any gooses ...geese...and/or anything." She began to search for a thermometer, the pacifying silver spoon once again dangling from her mouth.

"Good grief. Do you think that I am that gulli..gulli..full of gulls? I learned a long time ago that we don't have any gooses...and that Bobbycakes is Bobby and not a kind of cake. And speaking of cake, I want my cake cooked. And since Pammie and/or her oven aren't/isn't here, I say we go back down and see if Jack managed to make something more than a magnormous mess." Pushing her glasses firmly into place, Marene stood and shook out her wings. "I'm heading for the Hudson's Bay. You with me?" Without waiting for an answer, she dove through the cloud and headed toward earth.

"That's 'the Hudson's'...not 'Hudson's Bay'" Grace shouted, gathering her quiver and a fistful of tiny arrows. "If she types that into her GPS.....Aargh! She's never gone there by herself before! She's gonna get lost and end up in the Hudson River!" A panicked look plastered itself across her face. "Or Hudson's Hope! That's in the middle of nowhere in that French-speaking frozen..."

"Take a chill pill, Grace." With an authoritative air, Trecey stood to her full height and inhaled deeply, blowing her cherub chum back at least a fairy foot when she exhaled. She then grabbed a clean quiver, slung it over her shoulder and pointed to the golden guidance gift from Gabby that still hung on the outside of the cloud cupboard. "She'll use something better."

The look of confusion on Grace's pert pixie face disappeared as the smell of baking chocolate finally reached her fairly finely tuned nostrils. "CPS!" she laughed, the lightbulb going on above her short-cropped head. "What are we waiting for? Let's go!"

******************************************************************************

"It smells done." Jack peered through the glass window on the oven door, red-checkered mitten in one hand, recipie card in another. "It says 30 minutes, but it smells done."

"As I see it, you've got five minutes left, mate. Better stick to what it says."

Emma nodded in agreement, shoving another spoonful of oatmeal into her mouth. "Mamwa ahways says i' 'll be goowey if ..."

"Mama says don't talk with your mouth full," Jack interrupted, stepping back from the oven, wondering if there was anything domestic he would ever be able to do without being compared to his wonderful wife.

"Sorry, Daddy," Emma murmured, pushing her empty bowl away from herself. She wriggled down from the stool and rushed over to give her father a hug. "I love you, Daddy."

Jack returned the hug, heart melting the moment she latched herself around him. She was just like her mother, able to diffuse him in an instant. His hug turned bearish and he growled his love back to her, adding a tickle for good measure, which earned an ear-shattering shriek in response.

"Was that the timer?" Bobby grabbed the mitten from the tusseling two and headed for the oven. He reached in, then thought better of attempting to grab the one inch high pan with only one hand. Spying a matching potholder, he slid the cake out and carried it over to the counter, setting it out of Emma's reach to cool.

"Filling! Filling!" Emma chanted, pulling on her father's sleeve. "Let's make the twinkle filling!"

Jack stared at the stack of mixing bowls already cluttering the counter and spilling over into the sink. "What if we just eat it like it is?"

"Pfftt." Marene crossly crossed her arms across her chest, disgust written across her face.

"Get a load of that." Trecey pulled up quickly, plucking a passing Grace and plopping her down on the windowsill. Emma and Bobby stood facing Jack, mirror images of Marene.

"Me thinks he's not gonna win this one, either," Grace whispered, stiffling a giggle. "Come on. Let's get a good seat. With any luck, we'll have two quivers full by the time he's done."

Hudon's Bay! See Marene got there fine, though. And now they're all waiting for the twinkle filling? I have no idea what that might me...I have a vision of a cake with twinkling Christmas lights stuck in it! And I love the way Emma has Jack wrapped around her little finger. She's obviously been taking lessons from her mummy!

kav

Wonderful!




Now, that's my kind of navigation system!

Lovely - more please!

that was wonderful I love emma she has A great sense
of humour poor jacks
skills need work more soon please Jill
Lin

I love this story!

Em

I knew reading that while eating my bowl of cereal was a bad idea When will I ever learn???

Hudson's Bay! You're having fun with that Canada map, aren't you?

Emma is just so cute. Twinkle filling? I am not even going to try guessing what THAT is though my imagination is running wild on that one.

Are we going to get a taste of that cake???

Both post had me laughing

You are amazing Jill!!!!!!

Twinkle filling - that conjures up all kinds of possibilities!!!

Joy

"Shhh! They'll hear you! And what kind of lady burps like that?"

"One with a full stomach," Grace quipped, wiping a smidgen of fluffy creme from the corner of her smile. "Besides, it was your idea to come back. We can't help it if Jackson got carried away and whipped up a storm."

"A veritable white tornado. Mr. Clean would be proud." Trecey patted her bulging belly and let another one rip, her second belch even louder than the first.

Marene shook her head at her cherub chums, their red quivers spotted a pastey shade of pink where splatters of white filling had dried. "Trecey, maybe you're lactose intelligent. All of that milk and butter, that might be making you unflatter yourself."

Feeling another bout of pressure building inside, the tall, quiver-toting tease turned toward her companions, ready to give a certain celestial being an earful of air, just as three humans returned to the kitchen. The cherub pair leaped, covering Trecey's mouth with doubled sets of wings, successfully muffling the eructation.

"Phew. That was close," breathed Grace, releasing her hold on a rather rumpled seraph.

"I'll say. Too close for comfortable," Marene added, inspecting her wings for any damage. "No harm done. I'm all in one pieces."

"For now," Trecey murmured, readjusting her sash and shouldering her dented quiver. "The way they're laughing, no one would have heard me, y'know."

The tallest of the three was right. Between Jack's defending himself, his daughter's teasing sing-song voice, and Bobby's boisterous booming, all three cupids could have cut loose and no one would have been the wiser.

"Well, if you had flipped it faster..." Jack argued, pleased to pass the blame to someone other than himself.

"I did flip it fast. You didn't warn me that the filling was slicker than an eelpout...."

"Eels pout? I didn't know that." Marene flew past the ceiling fan and settled on the curtain rod. "Do tell."

"It's okay, Daddy. The first time Mommy made it, it slip-ded, too. It still tasteses the same, even if it has a big crack in it. 'Sides, the frosting covers it up."

"You're right, sweetheart. And with Bobby here, there won't be any left by the time your Mom gets home, anyway."

"True, true," the Aussie agreed, pulling a stack of plates from the cupboard. "Who cares what it looks like as long as it tastes good."

The three paused, then burst into laughter as they looked at the lopsided layers of chocolate and creme, frosted with a thin layer of chocolate glaze. The white filling, now sandwiched between two layers of dark cake, oozed out the sides, the dessert reminiscent of an oversized half-melted ice-cream treat.

"A masterpiece, it isn't, but get on with the cutting. All that belching made room for more." Trecey hovered next to Marene, eyes still glued to the cake while presenting the curly-haired cupid with an expertly extracted feather. "One of yours?"

It was the distraction she needed. As Marene preened, searching for where the plucked plummage belonged, Trecey swooped, intent on swiping a giant crumble of chocolate cake from the pink plastic platter, even before the cutting had begun. With lightening speed, she lifted a pixie-sized piece, stuffing it in her quiver before landing on the opposite side of the room. Smiling triumphantly, she toasted her two comrades and took a huge bite of the delectable dessert, feigning a faint of heavenly proportions over the morsel melting in her mouth.

"Show off," Grace grumbled, mouth watering, waiting her turn to swoop in. Jack had turned back around, serrated knife in hand while discussing the strategy for cutting the cake.

"It's not brain surgery. Go for slices....and make mine about this thick." Bobby held his thumb and finger up in a three inch span.

"Pammie does squares," Emma offered, using her finger to draw an imaginary line down the center of the stacked cake. "See...one line here and then across like this." She pulled her finger back, suddenly realizing she had "cherub talked" to her dad on a Saturday. "Oops," she whispered, wondering if her father had picked up on her mistake.

"And how does Mommy do it?" he asked sternly, unable to conceal the smile dancing behind his eyes.

"Like Paaa....squares."

"Squares it is," Jack pronounced, sawing into the top layer. "If it holds together!" He cut a little faster, attempting to keep everything from falling apart.

"Don't press so hard," Bobby laughed, catching a giant glob of "Twinkle filling" on his finger. "You're squishing it all out!"

"Don't worry about that on our account." Licking her lips in eager anticipation, Grace hefted her quiver, ready to dive, dip, and disappear.

"Geranium!" yelled Marene, leaping headlong towards the kitchen table, humans barely out of the room with their loaded plates. Wings plastered flat against her back, she plummeted toward the brown and white target.

"Pull up! PULL UP!" Grace screamed, too horrified to look. Slapping splayed fingers across her eyes, she dared a peek at the last second, only to witness her best friend belly-smacking dead center into the rich dessert. She held her breath, frozen in a horrified hover until chocolate muffled words that sounded vaguely like "I'm okay" reached her ears.

"That's one way to have your cake and eat it too," chuckled Trecey, licking the last of the dark sweetness from her fingertips as she fluttered over to Grace.

"One way to put it," agreed the chestnut-haired cherub, "although 'splainin' that angel imprint might be a might bit tricky. Come on. Let's get her out of there."

Each one of your posts leaves me in fits of laughter! This is great!

Jill, I cannot even start to imagine how you're coming up with those ideas. You're certifiable




That just got me cracking!


Poor Sue when she comes home and sees her kitchen

Jack settled on the floor next to the tub, smiling contentedly at his daughter playing with the bubbles billowing out from under the gushing water. She scooped a handful, then carefully stacked them into floating mounds, sending them to the opposite end where they drifted lazily out of the wake. His mind drifted to the previous evening, unconsciously knitting his brow over the mystery of the ruptured rubber duck. He cleared his throat, and with finger trailing in the warm water, he posed a question. "Emma.....do you know what happened to your duck?"

She paused in her playing, scrunching up her face in concentration for just a moment. "Is it still Saturday?"

That brought a deep chuckle from her father, who lightly splashed water at her in response.

"Yes, it's still Saturday. Why?" From the look of sadness that washed over her face, he knew the answer the minute she heard his reply. Taking a tactical turn, he softened his voice. "You can cherub talk, if you need to."

"Well, all I know is that Trecey saved Grace from the duck. Did she take it, too?"

"No. I...errr...Uncle Bobby has the duck. It had a hole in it and it sunk. We were trying to figure out how it got there."

"Prolly one of Trecey's arrows. She's a very good shot, you know."

"No. I didn't know," he answered quietly. "Tell me more."

Wow! Is Jack turning into a believer?

So cute!

************************************************************************
He poured himself a cup of coffee and glanced at the clock. As if on cue, he heard the slam of a car door and a shout of "See you later." A weekend had never seemed so long and yet gone so fast. He hated to be away from his wife, and hated it even more when she was away from him. Yet, this time, he had learned something that he would treasure forever, and had he not had an entire weekend alone with his daughter, he doubted any of it ever would have happened. He would have sailed through life, bull-headed and set in his ways. Now? Now a new way of looking at the world existed, and though he really didn't understand it, he no longer questioned it.

"Hi! You're still up?" She met him half-way, wrapping her arms around his neck in a warm embrace, melting into the strong arms that spoke volumes about how much she had been missed. The vibration in his chest answered her question. Easing back, she studied the chocolate eyes that twinkled at hers. "I take it that everything went fine?"

Jack kissed her lightly and then motioned to a nearby chair. "Coffee?"

"Sure. Have anything to go with it?" Sue shrugged her coat off and laid it across the back of the chair, taking the steaming ceramic cup with a smile of thanks.

"As a matter of fact, I do." He went to the refrigerator and pulled out a plate. "It took some doing to keep this for you, but I wanted proof that it actually happened. Had to run Bobby off....and make Emma promise to not eat it."

Sue grinned at the sight, recognizing the chocolate cake for what it should have been, amazed that he had gotten it together as well as he had. "You baked!"

"Yes, I...I mean we did. Chocolate Twinkle Cake. Yours...and Pammie's favorite." He uncovered the cake and slid the platter towards her. "Care to try some?"

She eyed him curiously, knowing he was up to something. "Jack..."

He ignored her and handed her a knife. "I'll let you cut it yourself..."

With lips pursed, she squinted up at him, and then took the knife. "Okay." She pulled the plastic plate closer, knife poised over the center of the cake. "Jack..." She brushed back her golden locks and stared down at the leftover portion. "That looks like...."

"Emma says it's Grace, but my money is on Marene."

Sue's mouth fell open, then slammed shut. She stared at the imprint, opened her mouth to say something, and then closed it again. Then she did the only thing she could think to do. Cutting carefully, she sliced off around the chocolate snow angel shape and scooped the pieces of confection onto a dessert plate, licking her fingers when she was done. "Delicious! And I love twinkle filling." She took a bite, sighing her pleasure at the rich mixture of creaminess and cake. "Maybe I should go away more often. I've got a few more recipies in there that you could try."

"If you'd seen the kitchen when we were through...." He laughed and signed, BIG MESS."Recipie for diaster," he added, picking up the knife. Ignoring the imprint, he cut himself a huge slice. "Although," he mused, "it certainly turned out just right."

FIN

Chocolate Twinkle Cake, as my family calls it, is a recipie that I got from Pam. It is delicious! I took some to a pot luck and it disappeared immediately and got rave revues. She calls it Chocolate Twinkie Cake....since the creme filling is much like that in a Twinkie, only better. I'm not a Twinkie fan. We do, however, have a dog named Twinkle, who does get called Twinkie every now and then. And since the potluck where I took the cake was at a stockdog herding event, in which Twinkle was entered, I renamed it for her. Anyway, here is the recipie as Pam sent it.


You can also make them as cupcakes and squirt the filling inside, using a condiment bottle or large syringe. Yummy!

Jack, I'm impressed!

Jill, you made my day. Thank you!!!

Very nicely done Jill!

Jill, that was great!

Kim

Brilliant! Sorry I missed a couple of posts, earlier - was trying to finish my own story.

Loved the 'angel imprint', and loved the fact that Jack now knows about the cherubs

Too many favourite lines to quote - so all I can say is

and for a wonderful read!

Jill:

This story made me laugh hysterically!

I love it...absolutely loved it!!!!

Thank you for making me laugh!!!!!!

Wonderful job Jill!

caught 3 wonderful post and I loved emma she was a darling
had me it was just great loved it
Lin

*feebly points to above post from position on floor, where I still am suffering from laughter!*

Well done, and the cake, too! The cherubs, as usual, were a riot, and the boys a hoot. Emma was as sweet as the cake. You rock, Jill! Trecey gives you two arrow thru the bull's eye...

Really fun and cute story.
I enjoyed it very much.
thanks,
Terie

Jill, this is absolutely delightful from start to finish!!!

I can just picture the cake - Jack and Emma should be proud!! It sounds so delicious that I wish I had been there with the cherubs so I could get some twinkle filling and crumbs!! Marene landing in the cake - what more proof does one need that cherubs do exist???

I think the magic of this whole story is the love between Jack and Emma!! You know Emma is well loved and her personality just sparkles like her mother's!! And, she managed to make Jack believe in cherubs!! That can be called a miracle!!!

I miss the cherubs already!! I wish I had a few around my house to liven things up a little!! Or, maybe I do???

Thanks for sharing your incredible story with us, Jill!! I can't wait until the cherubs make their next appearance!!!

Joy

Next thing you know he'll be seeing gnomes in the flower garden! And just think -- they could probably plasctize the angel imprint and sell it on ebay!!!! Great story, Jill, I loved how you tied it all together and that Jack learned was the one who learned something from the experience.

kav

Yup, they'll be right up there with the toasted cheese witht eh face of dumbledore on it.

Jill, I've had a marvelous time catching up. Knowing that Jack isn't as close-minded as he seemed at first is a great relief. After all, there had to have been an explanation for the spontaneous popping of the rubber duck, though it doesn't have to mean it's a logical one.

I hope you continue with the cherubs. You really bring them to life and they are a laugh riot!

I loved it Jill!!! You are planning on writing more soon, right?

Em

Jill

Catching up on your last 4 posts.

Thunderhead CPS Hudson’s Bay Hudson’s Hope" Loved this…the chatter between the cherubs. They are so funny. Your writing is amazing!

**********

I love it when Jack’s heart simply melts at Emma’s actions. There’s something about little girls wrapping their papas around their little finger anyway; but, Emma has that plus Sue’s ability and that shines thru here"

**********

More favorites: A veritable white tornado. Mr. Clean would be proud.". lactose intelligent. unflatter yourself.



More favs: eelpout....pink plastic platter,

"although 'splainin' that angel imprint might be a might bit tricky.

Your play on words is amazing, Jill…You kept me in stitches thoughout this whole story!

**********

I love this Jack! He’s going to finally believe?

**********

Perfect ending! I will never look at a chocolate cake again, but what I look in the center for an angel imprint! Fantastic Jill! As with the others, I was

I plan to go read your others as soon as I can and will look forward to the next antics of the cutie crazy chuckling cake-loving cherubs!

Lynn

Jill, LOVED this story! So glad to have another cherub story! And, I love the recipe!

My sides hurt from laughing so much. This was the funnies thing ever.



Hope ~