Color and Cookies

I've struggled with color issues in my photos for quite a while now. To make a long story short, a simple white piece of paper for custom white balance doesn't work anymore. Neither does a grey card, or other tools that I have tried. I was much happier with my photos before I calibrated my monitor, both on screen and in print. I shouldn't have messed with a good thing :) I'm also struggling with my photos in photoshop looking COMPLETELY DIFFERENT in any other program outside of photoshop,including blogger, and I can't figure that issue out.
Anyway, since I spent so much time trying to research a solution to my color problems, I didn't get my photos edited for sharing. And they're pretty cute too - Callie learning to hike a football! We had a busy weekend, as usual, but at the end of it I'm left feeling like I didn't get anything done. Except make some awesome Halloween cookies! I found a great recipe for icing - it dried nice and shiny and hard. Not like a rock but nice enough to stack Makes for a very pretty cookie. However, having 3 little 'helpers' makes it a very long process from start to finish. They want to help at every step, and wind up getting flour all over the counter, cookie dough all over their arms, and sprinkles all over the floor. Some of the cookies are misshapen (I had to explain to Gwen what that meant as she held a very skinny bat in the air), and others are broken. But as Gwen told me as I bit my tongue watching her get more icing on her hand than on the cookie, "I'm learning how to do it mom."
Yes, she was. They all were. But now I have quite a mess to clean up, and I'm pretty sure I have sprinkles stuck to my socks.