Denver...

So we're hanging out in the Qwest Business Center in Denver. Can't beat the free internet! I'm starting to get hungry. I think I'll have some Auntie Anne's. MMMmmm...pretzel sticks!

A Song for the Day...

I was singing a song this morning, with moves and everything!

"I'm a little teapot
Short and stout.
Here is my handle
Here is my spout.
When I get all steamed up
Then I shout!
Tip me over
And pour me out!"

I figure it works for me since I'm short, stout and I get steamed up. When I say handle and spout, I put my hand on my hip (handle) and spout (other hand curved up like a spout). When I shout, the spout becomes the little dictator first, and then I "tip" myself when pouring out. I'm sure you all know these moves from elementary school, well, except for the LD move.

How much clothing can you fit in three suitcases...

Hopefully enough for two people to go on vacation!

Yes, more cake bon bons...

This is the final batch of cake balls. They're made with the leftover lemon cake from the final cake, and were mixed with coconut cream coffee creamer and dusted with powdered sugar. I took some to friends and the rest are living in our freezer.

Ta Da...

Here it is everyone! This is the final cake of my final cake class! I love cherries and swirls, so the cake has cherries and swirls (rosettes) on it! It was really easy to decorate, but scary to stack! On the way home, it slid a little bit and the top layer shifted and the icing cracked on the bottom layer! But, cakes are hard to transport and I'm not an expert! The top layers is raspberry cake with Nutella filling and the bottom layer is lemon cake with canned lemon icing as filling. Both layers are covered with almond buttercream. The cherries and the stems are made from chocolate icing (chocolate icing colored red for the cherry). The top layer is going to Fisher's work and the bottom layer to my work. His boss loves raspberry cake! I hope he likes it! I'm glad cake class is over, but I'm definitely going to continue baking.

Almost vacation time...

Woohoo!

Fantasy Football...

It began again today! I had my first draft today for my team called "Buttercream Dream." This was in honor of all my cake decorating.

These are the Dreamers: Addai, McGahee, Gates, Driver, R. Moss, Kitna, Ward, Denver, Peterson, Favre, Gould, Miller, Norwood, Henderson and Brown.

Not bad team, but not stellar. We'll see how they do!

Cake Bon Bons The Sequel...

This is my second batch of cake bon bons. Orange cake, french vanilla coffee creamer rolled in powdered sugar. I think I like these better than the first ones.

Introducing Emily...

New family, Linnea moved!


Beautiful baby...


Mom admiring baby...

Mom and Emily...

Emily is the new daughter of our friends Chad and Alison. She was born today, and I got to hold her when she was only six hours old! She's such a sweet girl! Mom and baby are doing great, and dad, well, he's going to be busy!

Sweet Husband...

I came home tonight to a home cooked meal, beautiful flowers, a box of Cap n' Crunch and Great Divide ice cream as a surprise in the freezer!

Magazine...

So, I'm reading a fashion magazine...I'm on page 49 and this is the Table of Contents. Which means, I flipped through 48 pages of ads to get here. You would think I'd be more tolerant of advertising...since it's is my chose profession! LOL

More Cake...

I made Dreamsicle (orange cupcakes with vanilla ice cream frosting) for a "belated" cake for a friend's birthday. I also made cake bonbons from the cake scraps of the coconut fondant cake below. Yum! Cake bonbons were very very rich.

My First Fancy Cupcakes...

This is the first batch of cupcakes I made to serve to other people, and the first ones I made in the nut and party cups. They were for the 4th of July in Arkansas. They're vanilla cupcakes with almond flavoring. I dyed them red and blue and then layered each color. I topped them with almond flavored buttercream piped in star swirls and "spikes" to resemble fireworks! Thanks to my uncle Gary for the awesome picture!

Tapas...

I ate so many tapas tonight...and then I had big dessert! Yum!

Things...

1. Welcome "TheDad" to the blog! :-D
2. I'm in Atlanta right now for work
3. I'm baking more cupcakes this weekend
4. I'm about to go to bed...I keep thinking it's earlier than what it is because my computer clock is still set to central time
5. Jesus loves you and me!

Who is the comment deleter?

First fondant foray...

This is my first fondant cake! It was really cute until that awful pink bow was put on top! My classmates wanted me to use pink, I wanted all white!

**Edited to add: the cake was coconut with Nutella (chocolate/hazelnut) filling, a buttercream "crumb coat" and Marshmallow fondant. And, I didn't eat a piece of it! LOL :-)

My head hurts...

I need caffiene.

Baking baking baking...

I made two batches of cupcakes this week. Peanut butter cake with chocolate icing and Nutella/peanut butter filling for Mike and Jen; and Strawberry Lemonade cake with lemon cream cheese icing for Life Group.

Max...

This Max. He's a coworker's dachsund. He came to see me at work on Friday. He flipped his ears forward just before I took this picture! Isn't he cute!

Look at this heap of junk that was parked outside of my office building yesterday...

I've eaten almost a whole bag of these this morning...

At least it's not cookies...

Just thinking...

I'm sitting at my desk looking at the pictures I have up on my wall. The one that stands out most to me right now is the picture taken in St. Louis. This is the same day that I broke my foot last year. It made me think back to how well Fisher took care of me after this happened, and how well he exemplified the very essence of a Godly marriage with selflessness and unconditional love.

It surely wasn't fun for him to do everything for two people for two months with little to no help from me. I couldn't bear weight and doing dishes or cooking on crutches was not safe or really doable. He walked with me down the stairs every morning and carried me up/helped me up them every evening for two months. He went to all my doctor's appointments. He would take me to Wal-Mart and get the motorized cart for me or push me in the wheelchair, and take it back. He was patient while I drove up and down almost every aisle. Since I couldn't do much, an outing to Wal-Mart or Target was fun for me, but torture for him because he hates to shop. He located a separate wheelchair for me to have at work and one at home. I remember apologizing for the "worse" and "sickness" parts of marriage coming so soon (only six weeks into our marriage when I broke my foot). He stayed up for 15 hours in the ER in St. Louis while I slept because of the painkillers. Which totalled at least 24 hours without sleep. He watched them try to reset my foot three times while we were there, and one time, it wasn't pretty, or so I'm told, because I don't remember. He brought me his Bible to hold when I was terrified that I wouldn't wake up from the anesthesia before my surgery back home in Dallas.

I'm just so blessed by God and thankful to have a husband like him. :-D

Pop Tarts...

Yesterday, we had late dinner with friends and I was starving, so I checked the vending machine. Lo and behold, strawberry pop tarts for 85 cents! I haven't had a pop tart in ages! I prefered the cherry ones as a kid, but I was sure their strawberry goodness would hit the spot! Boy did it ever, so I'm having another pack today!

Diet Coke or Diet Dr. Pepper...

This is a dilemma I just faced at the vending machine. Since I would be happy with either, I pushed both buttons at the same time...I ended up with the Diet Coke.

Boardshorts...

I tried to find boardshorts for our trip while I was running errands this weekend. First, I bought a pair of men's boardshorts, thinking they would work. Well, boardshorts aren't made for people with curves. Fisher decided he liked them and would keep them for himself. Then I went to several other stores in search of girl's/women's board shorts, no luck. Most retailers seem to have all the summer swim suit inventory on clearance or hidden from me! So, I resorted to finding a men's pair that would work. I finally decided on a pair of red ones from Target. I'd passed these many times (at least on two occasions at different Targets) on my adventure this weekend, but I didn't want solid red. It was either the red shorts or other pairs with skulls or Corona logos on them! At least red is a girl color!

Buttercream frosting...

I made two kinds of buttercream last night...my standard almond flavor and this killer chocolate buttercream! First time to make chocolate and it is tasty delicious! Can't wait to have it with cake!

Funny picture...

I took this photo on our anniversary trip to San Antonio. We were going to play Payday, but all the pieces weren't there. I was sorting the pieces and came across the diamond ring card. I thought it was especially interesting since this was our anniversary, rings cost money and we were trying to play the game. So, I put my piece of celebration cake on the gameboard and took a picture.

Chores...

Who wants to help clean house today? :-)

Productive Saturday...

So far, we've had a really productive day! Fisher and Kevin removed the pool heater from the backyard at the rental house, dropped it off at the dump, power washed the backyard decking and returned the rented power washer. Our power washer broke the other day! We haven't had very good luck with lawn/home care items here lately! I returned a lot of items to stores that we didn't know. I went to Home Depot, Lowe's and Wal-Mart. I must say that Home Depot has the most efficient return policy when you have multiple receipts. Today is, hopefully, the final day of improvements for the rental house!

It's the weekend...

And time to finally relax! Although there are several errands to run, it's better than working at the rental house!

Cloud creature...

I saw this cloud shaped like a super hero on my way home from work yesterday...This is what rainy Dallas tollway traffic looks like.

First Anniversary Fruit Salad...

We had this yummy fruit salad the morning of our anniversary:

1-2 medium bananas, sliced
4 medium kiwis, diced
1 can pinapple tidbits (15 ounces), fresh works too

Mix all fruits together and dig in!