this side

So I've been working out at a new gym since Monday. It is called FitZone Nation and it is in Bountiful. They were running a special, where the whole month of December is free. No strings attached. None. Yesterday I sneezed and it almost made me cry. Okay, that was an exaggeration, but really - this gym is intense. They offer classes where you come for a 20 minute workout and your work your whole body every day. The trainers are incredible there. It is almost like having a personal trainer the whole time. I went on Monday morning at 6:30, but I was a few minutes late, and the trainer had already started talking, and since I was new and didn't know how to enter (except through the door directly behind which the trainer was standing), I cut my losses and got back in the car to go home. It was SO cold outside! I thought I wasn't going to make it to the car.

***Side Note***

Did anyone else get a brain freeze this morning from just standing outside waiting to cross the street? I felt like I shoved 10 gallons of ice cream in my mouth. I seriously got a brain freeze on my way into work today. :( Boo!


Anywho...this gym...

I went back at 6:30 p.m. on Monday for a class, and was in time to hear the whole explanation and everything. Meg, the trainer, was super sweet and helped me (and Chantelle) figure out what to do.  We were actually feeling pretty good after the workout. For me, it was about an hour later that I started to feel the full effects of what I had just done to myself. We went back at 5:45 the next morning, and have been back everyday, but we've also been stiff everyday. Does that mean it's working?

They told us to only do half of the workout (1/2 the reps, 1/2 the weight, etc.) if it was our first week. They said they take no pride in getting us so sore that we can't brush our teeth the next day. Ha. Fat chance. I bet they love it. I think they chuckle inside when they see us walk into the gym looking like we just fell off a horse after a 4 hour ride. I'm pretty sure they laugh about all the new people after class while they do 500 squats with 80 pounds on their shoulders all while smiling.

"Did you see that newbie with the pink shirt? She looked green!" .
"Yeah that was so funny! I told the newbie in the orange shirt to do 24 lunge walks and she cried!"
"ha ha ha. That's great! Let's tell them to do 300 single jump ropes tomorrow"
"oooohhh...yeah, and then 5 strict chinups followed by 5 minutes of full situps"
"This is going to be great!"

;) I'm totally kidding. They really are super nice there. Lucky for me (and everyone I come in contact with) I can still brush my teeth, but blowing my nose, crossing my legs, reaching for anything - it all hurts. If I keep myself moving, I don't have time to get stiff, but once I stop for more than 5 minutes - I'm toast. Dead. Zapped. Nothing left. I'm not sure I've asked for death more times this week alone, than I ever have in my life.

BUT - all my fat parts hurt, so that is FANTASTIC! I'm really excited about this gym, and I'm giving a shout out to miss Alison for sending me there. I think my favorite part of the gym is the sign on the wall that says, "I fear no man, but I fear my workouts. If I don't fear my workout, I'm not working hard enough". Or something like that.

Also - I may not have lost any weight, but I haven't gained any yet. :) No Pain = No Gain is no longer true. :) Pain = No Gain for me.

If you are interested in wishing death upon yourself every hour of the day, or just want to get fit, let me know. I'd love to bring you along. :)

I ♥ pain.

JOKING!!! LOL!

Oops, I just dropped my pen, do you think you could grab that for me? I can't bend over at the moment.

xoxoxo

So I had big plans for November. They involved posting every day, and lots of eating. The results are manifested in my waistline, and on this blog. :(  I thought it would be great to write a post every day about something that I'm grateful for. I'm going to start now.

November 1st - I was thankful that it was finally November so I could be at least a little justified in watching Elf. Favorite movie ever made. :)

November 2nd - I was thankful that I decided to make dinner on the 1st, because I ate it all week long.

November 3rd - I was probably thankful that I had the night off of work. I went to book club - where I was thankful for cinnamon rolls.

Novemebr 4th - I was thankful for Chantelle who helped me run (waddle, walk, run, jog - it's all the same here, right?) off the cinnamon roll from the night before. Oh who am I kidding, she helped me run off BOTH of the cinnamon rolls I ate the night before.

November 5th - Thankful I wasn't called in to work at the Roof. I love not working on Wednesdays.

November 6th - I was thankful I didn't have to work late - I had a 9:30 a.m. meeting on the 7th.

November 7th - I was thankful for a great committee meeting. Really awesome women who made some great decisions and shared a lot of ideas.

November 8th - I was thankful it was Sunday. Sunday naps are the bomb!

November 9th - I was thankful for my home warranty. I'm pretty sure that this was the day I discovered my oven was broken, despite the fact that it malfunctioned the week before. I wasn't convinced it was broken until the 9th.

November 10th - Hmmm, a Tuesday. I was probably thankful I work with the best people on earth on Tuesdays. I ♥ Tuesdays at the Roof.

November 11th - I was thankful for your comments. No really, I was.

November 12th - I was thankful to only have one violin student that night!

November 13th - Ooh...Friday the 13th. I was glad I didn't die, or mortally wound myself. I'm already clumsy, and Friday the 13th could have been worse - even if there was a bit of a mix up at work, and I got lectured.

November 14th - I was thankful for Megan. She drove to and from our work meeting, so I wouldn't have to. (There was a car/badge/hangtag mix up at my house that morning). Also - I was thankful for a lazy day where I didn't have to get out of bed until noon. :) Oh, and snow. It snowed that Saturday and it was lovely.

November 15th - I was thankful for the fun Lewis side of the family that got together for dinner at Brian and Amy's house. I was thankful that Brian and Amy let us all come to their house so we wouldn't have to eat in the snow at my parents' house. That would have been cold to say the least. *brrrrrrr*

November 16th - Thankful for lovely Gayle. She cuts (and colors) my hair, and always does a fabulous job and I love her dearly. Did you know she used to do hair for the Donny and Marie show? Yeah, she's that awesome. And, she teaches Aesthetics at the DATC. AND - she fit me in on Monday night so I wouldn't have to get up at 4:00 a.m. on Tuesday!!

November 17th - I was thankful for my shorter, sassier haircut.

November 18th - I was SO grateful to Craig for picking up my shift at The Roof. I would have had to work, and it would have been disasterous. I needed that Wednesday off.

November 19th - I was grateful to an awesome committe, and to Liz McConkie for making our Relief Society dinner a success, and so much fun!

November 20th - I was thankful the Relief Society dinner was over. :)

November 21st - I was so happy that my cold weather running pants I ordered came early! They were on clearance for a LOT less than they cost originally, and the shipping was supposed to take 8 days. I got them in 3! woo hoo!!!

November 22nd - I was so happy about the snowfall. I was thankful for the beauty of the snow, without having icky roads! It was fantastic!!!

November 23rd - I was thankful to get my new oven. But oh so sad to see my old oven go. :(

November 24th - I was thankful that I made a good choice when we took a co-worker to the Olive Garden for lunch. I could have left thousands of calories chubbier - but I didn't. I picked a lunch that was only 310 calories, and stuck with it.

November 25th - Today I'm thankful for a day off of ALL jobs tomorrow.

In all seriousness, I'm thankful for great families, and wonderful friends. I love that you people read this silly blog, and contribute with your comments. May you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and/or friends!

xoxoxo

Thanks to everyone for entering my little giveaway, and thanks to CJane for hosting such a fun giveaway!

Yesterday was one of those perfect days!! Luckily, we didn't stay out too late on Saturday night, so I didn't waste my entire day in bed on Sunday. Of course, it helps that we finished Daylight Savings and got to "fall back" an hour.

I love those days when even after it's over, you still feel the warmth of it. I am feeling refreshed, renewed, and ready for another week. I feel like I was able to regroup and get my life ready for another week of adventures.

We welcomed in the "Holiday Season" by watching (or sleeping through...) Elf. My favorite movie in the whole world! It makes me so happy!! I made dinner, and while we thought it was cooking (turns out our oven is on the fritz - makes sense though - it's from the 1970's - or close to it) we drove around and clocked how far I ran on Saturday. 3 miles exactly. Which makes a total of 23.5 miles last week. :) That makes me feel good. I'm going to see if I can do even more this week.


In other news, I'm still accepting entries for the giveaway in the previous post. All you have to do is leave a comment - before midnight tonight. I'll announce the winners tomorrow morning, and get everything mailed (hopefully) this week.

One more reason I love CJane...

The colors were magnificent! I loved the intense green right next to the reds!

Where did everyone go? It's been awfully quiet around here...

I LOVE buttons. I like big round buttons, short thick buttons, flashy buttons. I like buttons on my boots, on my pants, on my hats. I also like the buttons I have on this blog. There right over there---------> (and then down a little). If you click on any of those buttons over there, it will take you to the corresponding website. Let me introduce you to my buttons:



This is Nie Nie. stephaNIE NIElson. She writes about her life as a Mother and Wife. She loves her family, and she loves being a Mom. She romanticizes the daily grind. It's beautiful. So is she. In August 2008, she was in a private plane crash where she and her husband were burned extensively. She has returned to blogging and her story is pretty incredible. If you haven't heard of her yet, check it out.



This is also a Nie Nie button, but it's for Cuisine Nie. She shares recipes and those that I have tried are quite tasty! Check it out if you're interested.  She is updating this blog again as well (as of last week).



This is Nie Nie's sister CJane. She has a totally different writing style, but is fun to read as well. She started her blog to write about how she was determined to Enjoy It [Life] in the throes of infertility. When Nie Nie was in the accident, Courtney (C Jane) kept the world updated. She is witty, and fun.



Your Heart Out is a website that gives you information about the cool things in Utah. They seem to be feature mostly Provo and Salt Lake establishments, but often highlight stores in Davis County, or even St. George. They review restaurants, advertise locals that have shops on etsy, and point you in the direction of some fun places to shop. Check them out!



Sometimes I think about taking this button off, because I don't read it often, only because I don't have children. I saw this website on Good Things Utah one day and it looked pretty neat. SMMART stands for Science, Math, Music, Art, and Reading. She has come up with activities designed to take some of the harder subjects for kids to learn, and enhance their skills in that subject through simple learning activities. Some of the things on her site are pretty creative, and look fun.




This is the most recent addition. Mindy Gledhill is a recording artist who I believe was affiliated with Deseret Book for a time. If you have the "Trek: A Nashville Tribute to the Pioneers" she performs two songs on that album. She performs "Emma" from the album "Joseph: A Nashville Tribute to Joseph Smith". She has also sung on the album "Baby Mine" produced by Scott Wiley full of lullabye and bedtime songs for children. Her two solo albums are "The Sum of All Grace" and "Feather In the Wind". I really like Mindy Gledhill, and while I enjoyed her second album, "The Sum of All Grace" happens to be my favorite, and I listen to it often. She blogs about her life, her kids, her music, everything. It's a fairly new blog.

I hope you feel confident to click now, and enjoy some other fun (and pretty well known) blogs. Now, back to blog stalking and time wasting.


What are some of your favorite blogs to read?

(Other than this one, of course!)

xoxo

Yesterday, my house was really messy. It looked like a tornado whipped through my kitchen cupboards and scattered the contents all over. My front room was given a good shake upside down, and the dining room too. Normally, this would throw me into fits, but yesterday was different. I got home from work and looked at the mess, and smiled. I didn't spend my weekend cleaning up the house, because I spent it doing other things that were far more worthwhile.

Saturday morning, I went to a baby shower for Jessie, so I was up early baking and decorating cupcakes. I finished just in time. Then I went down South to go to Nordstrom (new mascara please! and some lip gloss while you're at it...!). After braving the Nordstrom crowds, I took Josh's Mom to the hospital to see her Mother. I stayed for a little while, then came home to get ready for Stake Conference. We were extra early, for reasons I won't discuss. It was great, I had such a good time, and felt recharged and ready for more. It seems that whenever we go to Stake Conference with Josh's parents (we went a few times before it was actually our Stake) we end up at The Olive Garden for dinner after. So, to continue the tradition, we went to dinner at The Olive Garden. It was fun to be out with Josh and be "all dressed up". When we hang out on the weekends, we usually go places in jeans and t-shirts rather than in skirts and ties. It felt like a real date!

Sunday was more of the same. We got up, got dressed and ready for another spiritual feast in Stake Conference. Again, it was great. After the spiritual feast, we went home to eat our leftovers from the night before and then headed up to the hospital to visit Josh's Grandma. We spent a good amount of time there, and then came home before heading to dinner at my parents' house. I was desperate for a nap! The family dinner was fun. I played with my cousin's baby Evan, and I had him giggling. It was a lot of fun for me! Yay! We stayed and hung out with my parents and watched the Mormon Messages on YouTube. My Dad started itching for a snack, so he blended every fruit in their kitchen (he even thought about adding a tomato) and made smoothies for us to share. We sipped our smoothies and watched some more YouTube before it was time to drag ourselves home and fall into bed.

So you see, all that fun I had left no time for cleaning. I don't know what I would have wanted to skip in order to have a clean house. So I quickly turned the Living Room back to my liking, and cleared up the dishes (okay, MOST of the dishes - they didn't all fit in the dishwasher) in the kitchen before my students came. I even got a little face time with Jane and Kristen via Skype.

I think I'm finally understanding more about the things that are important in life, and I'm finally seeing a little more beauty in my everyday life. I'm not all the way there yet, but I'm working on it.


It feels so good to know just how beautiful the world is.



How was your life beautiful this weekend?

I know I told you all about my birthday bashing, but I have more to tell.

and then some more.

But we'll start with just the "more to tell" for now.

Rewind to about a month ago. It was my birthday, and I was being spoiled by my Mother (thanks Madre) and my husband. I told you about the present from my husband, a new mattress. I must tell you more.

R.C. Willey, blah blah blah, salesmen, blah blah blah, avoid delivery fee blah blah blah stop. We make our way out to the R.C. Willey Warehouse to pick up my our mattress. The whole ride out we were back and forth: "It will totally fit in the back!" "Well, I think it will totally fit in the back!" "It might not fit in the back" "We can tie it to the top if we need to" "It will totally fit in the back".

We sat and waited in the lobby (nice couches, HUGE t.v.) and watched the family across from us. My assumptions (based on conversation) were that the group consisted of a Grandma, Father, Mother, Little Sister, Twin Sisters. I don't know that they were really twins, but I would guess they were. The Grandma had the hairiest legs in the Nation, and even had a little facial hair, and the rest of the bunch looked a little grungy (is that rude? not supposed to be...). Anyhow, they were talking about this and that and the other. They talked about moving the couch into the new basement the girls (twins?) were moving into. Blah blah blah. I think the "twins" were starting college. One of the twins said her phone was a piece of crap and all but demanded her parents buy her an iPhone. The Dad seemed almost agreeable to that idea, which I thought was strange. The Little Sister protested that she wanted an iPhone too (the other twin snickered in support), but then the (original) twin said the Little Sister didn't deserve an iPhone because she broke her iPod. Or something. blah blah blah.

What was I talking about??

Oh yeah, the mattress. After the entertainment, our names were finally called and we attempted to load our mattress - and box springs.Is it box spring? or box springS? Not really sure. Totally forgot about the box spring(s). and the frame rails. Oh boy. We successfully stuffed our mattress in the back, though it looked like a pringle chip. Dented in the middle. We shoved the rails on top and shut the door. Next, we attempted to tie the box springs to the top of the car. Problem was, we'd never tied anything to the top of this car. It was proving to be a bit of a puzzle. A kindly stranger gave us some tips, and pretty soon we were on our way. I was scolded for moving my finger too early while Josh was tying the knot, and now the box spring(s) was tied too loosely on one side. To be fair though, I was afraid parts of my finger would be smashed in the twine knot forever if I didn't act quickly.

I digress.

Box Spring(s) successfully loaded, we were on our way. As we pulled out of the parking lot, our debate evolved. Instead of "will it fit in the back or not" it was now "can we possibly take the freeway at 35 mph or not". I argued the point that it was in a construction zone so everyone had to go more slowly, so we would be fine driving 35 mph on the freeway. My husband thought otherwise, and truthfully, I was glad later. We hit 30 mph and we felt the box springs start to lift. So, Josh opened the Sun Roof (or is it a Moon Roof? What's the difference anyway?) and we grabbed the plastic covering to pull it down and keep it from lifting the entire car into flight. I tried to get clever and just shut the plastic in the Sun Roof but then I was scolded because I was "burning the motor". So I stopped.

It was after about 45 seconds that my hand started to cramp up and I had to switch hands. Not to mention my arm was starting to tingle. I kicked off my shoes and tucked my legs underneath me to get me higher so I could reach it better and hopefully relive some of the tingling. Then my legs also began to get numb.

As I sat there with a numb leg, numb arm, and numb hands, all I could do was burst out laughing. I laughed and laughed and laughed and Josh thought I was nuts. I told him we must have looked crazy hauling that box spring on the top of our car trying ever so desperately to keep it from flying off into oblivion. Pretty soon we were both laughing. Josh driving with one hand and holding the mattress through the Sun Roof with the other hand. I never did find out if his arms got numb. He was also trying to recap a Seinfeld act about men who think they can hold down a mattress with one arm out the window clamping it to the roof. I laughed and laughed and laughed until we got home.

Once home, we had to remove the old mattress and box springs, and replace it with the new. My arms were jelly. I could no longer lift anything, not even my new mattress. I had lifted weights that morning, so my arms were still sore from that too. Josh called me a woss, and then we eventually got the mattress in our room and all set up.

Then we realized we only have King size sheets and we bought a Queen size mattress.

We laughed, and went to dinner.

Do you like to read? Probably do if you are spending time reading this useless blog. My cousin, Mikaroni at fifty thousand pages is having a giveaway! You could win a FREE book! The book is Sabriel by Garth Nix. I wasn't going to actually post about this, because like it says up there - I'm totally selfish. Head on over and enter the contest by leaving a comment with the title of  your favorite book. There are a few other ways you can enter. Check out the post to see those. I've linked her blog directly to the page with the scoop on the giveaway (click on "fifty thousand pages" up there)

Browse around there and you can see a picture of her most adorable child!!! Proof here and here. And here. Also, she is one of the 3 people that said they were going to start a 101 in 1001 goal list, you can check that out here.

Off you go! Enter away!

About 4 years ago, I found myself at Arctic Circle with some friends. I didn't order anything, but after tasting Josh's Lime Rickey, I was wishing I had gotten my own, and I'm sure he did too. This new refreshing drink was something I never knew I was missing out on! That was the last time I'd ever had one.

On Wednesday, my memory served up a fresh, delicious, Lime Rickey, and I found myself dying to have one. I thought I would be smart, and make up my own. I stopped by Smith's and picked up a bottle of Sprite Zero, and a carton of Grape Juice. Thinking this was all I needed for a refreshing treat, I began to mix the two. Unfortunately, it wasn't even close and I dumped it. It was terrible. Think I should have added some Lime Juice? The Sprite flavor wasn't as strong as I thought it would be, and the grape juice didn't add the punch I expected.

I guess I'll just have to try again with a little more creativity.

Last weekend my siblings (minus 1) and parents got together for a family reunion. Since 3 of the 5 siblings now live in California, we all got together in Southern California. Josh and I stayed with my sister in Laguna Hills. Our reunion started on Friday night. My brothers' families came to my sister's house for dinner and we ate, and ate, and ate, and ate, and even played a little Rock Band. It was a lot of fun. Ashley and Megan spent the evening as puppies woofing and panting.

Now on to the birthday festivities. I started the morning by teaching my violin lessons (and only one student showed up - again - and she was 45 minutes late). After lessons, and after Josh got home from golfing, (and really, after I got over Josh going golfing on my birthday), Josh's parents came over to bring me a card and birthday wishes. Then, my Mom came over and brought some presents and an awesome lemon bundt cake, with awesome lemon icing/frosting. I have never had icing that delicious in my life!!! Of course, the cake was star shaped, because my Mom knows how much I love stars. She decided she was going to give me the cake pan as well as the cake so when I picked it up, I had to ask her why on Earth she bought a Star of David cake pan, you know, since we're not Jewish. We had a good laugh at the fact that the label covered the indents on the bottom of the bundt cake pan, and she just thought it was a really cool star-shaped bundt cake pan. I was given the option to keep it, or exchange it for something else. I decided to keep the pan. I also decided to celebrate Hannukah this year. As well as Christmas. She gave me a few more gifts, including a gift certificate to go to Ikea and buy curtains/shades for my bedroom windows. After a few (large) bites of cake, we headed out to Ikea. We picked out my birthday present, and then my Mom treated us to Swedish Meatballs (or in Josh's case - Alfredo Pasta) before heading home. We got home, I plopped on the couch, and proceeded to harrass Josh into telling me what my present was. As soon as he said I had to go pick it out, I was off the couch and ready to go.


Some of you may know, when Josh and I got married my in-laws graciously provided us with their bed so we wouldn't have to buy one when we got married. They were replacing it, and we accepted the offer. Josh has had some back trouble the last little while, and I've been convinced it's from sleeping on a 35 year old, king size bed. I have wanted a bed of my own for quite some time now, and Josh decided now would be a good time to fulfill my wish. For my birthday, we went to R.C. Willey and plunked ourselves down on probably 15 different mattresses before choosing the one we wanted. We wiggled and bounced and collapsed on the beds, trying to see if the other person could feel it. I took great care not to put my head on the pillows. I have this thing about germs, and I wasn't really interested in sharing a pillow with hundreds of strangers. We were wandering around helping ourselves for about 30 minutes before anyone approached us. Normally, this is how I like to shop. I don't really like it when Salesmen approach me. It only took us about 15 minutes to narrow it down to 2 beds. So we just sat, and waited. The salesmen was not my favorite. I didn't care for him very much, if at all. Neither of us could really tell a difference among the beds, so we chose one that was suitable, and fairly inexpensive. We decided to buy a Queen because we felt we didn't need all the extra room the King provides. I was thoroughly convinced I would survive on a Queen, and after Josh's elbow ended up in my throat twice, and my eyeball once, I'm not so thoroughly convinced. That's before I even mention all the times I've had to kick his bony knees back to his side of the Queen; which I realized this morning, is actually much closer to my side of the bed than it ever has been before. Talk about a rude awakening. :) I still love my new bed, and really am glad we got the Queen size. It makes my room feel bigger, and a heckuva lot easier to navigate the dressers now. Did I mention we saved the $70 delivery fee by hauling it home ourselves? That was interesting. That is its own story I'll share another time.


After we got home and got the bed set up, we decided to go to dinner. We invited Trent and Heidi to come to dinner with us, because it really wouldn't have been as much of a party without them. Wanting to try something new, I decided to go to Trio Cafe near Westminster. We ordered an appetizer that I really liked. Rosemary focaccia bread with sun-dried tomatoes, balsamic reduction, and goat cheese. It was pretty tasty. For my meal, I ordered the three cheese ravioli with butternut squash sauce. It tasted just fine, but it wasn't anything special. It was a bit bland, but I guess that's what you're asking for when you order squash and cheese and pasta, right? I'd like to go back and try something else. It was good food, it just wasn't anything that stood out from other restaurants. Heidi liked the guys in their muscle shirts. They did all look like they were male models, or training for UFC (sans tattoos).


We made our way down to the "French Bakery" for dessert. I got a piece of heaven marzipan cake, and enjoyed every single bite!! Trent didn't order dessert, but he should have. Then maybe he wouldn't have eaten 70% of my birthday cake (kidding Trent!) He liked it so much, my Mom made a second birthday cake on Sunday so he could have more when they came over for dinner. 

Well folks, it's official. I'm finished with my Cake Decorating class. I received my certificate and everything. I think my teacher wasn't really sure if she wanted to give it to me or not, especially after this last cake. You just wait...you would hesitate too! So I was most nervous about learning how to make a rose out of frosting, and rightfully so folks, rightfully so! You learn the first step, and then they expect you to practice that before you learn the second step, and then they expect you to practice that before learning the final step. I'm sure if I practiced (and had perfect frosting) I would have been just fine. I would have deserved a GOLDEN certificate of completion. Unfortunately, that's not the case. I neither practiced, nor deserved a golden certificate of completion.

It seems as the weeks went on with cake decorating, I just got lazier and lazier. Once again, I shirked my duties and did not make a cake on Sunday night, which would have been ideal. Technically, we ate the rest of the eggs for breakfast (I totally forgot eggs are a necessity for baking) so I wasn't able to make the cake even if I wanted to. Unless I borrowed eggs, but that was WAY more effort than I was willing to make. Even if we didn't have church on Sunday. See what I mean? Lazy, Lazy, Lazy! So, Monday I needed eggs to make a cake. Normally I would have puckered up, batted my long eyelashes and done some version of the "puppy dog face" until Josh consented to go to the store, buy some eggs, and come home and make my cake. No such luck! He started school on Monday and was up about the same time I was and off to school. Bummer. I also had much to do at work, and wasn't able to really come home early (especially if I want to go to California in 6 days - and I definitely want to go to California in 6 days!) So, I came home as early as I could (which is pretty much just normal time) and stopped at the store on the way home for eggs (and bread - but that wasn't for the cake :D ). Mix, mix, mix; pour, pour; bake. Student comes, teach the lesson, take out the cakes, teach another lesson, pack my bags.

I mentioned lazy. Here it is. Once again, I didn't make new frosting. I just pulled out all 7 containers of frosting out of my fridge before I left in the morning. When I looked in my fridge, I realized we really don't have any food in our fridge. It's all frosting!! Crisco frosting at that, so it's not my favorite. If it were cream cheese frosting, problem solved. Who needs food when you can have 7 containers of colored cream cheese frosting? Put it on pancakes, graham crackers (my favorite), your finger...anything. You could probably eat it on old meat and never know the meat was old (until the next day anyway...)

I digress.

The frosting: I didn't want to make any more, so I just decided to use what I had. I had a little bit of thin white frosting left, so I mixed in some medium and thinned it down to make barely, BARELY enough to cover my whole cake (and there were a few gaps on the sides, but at that point, I didn't care. Once again, I settled for crappy with character, rather than perfect. For class that evening, I needed a lot of stiff frosting for the roses and I had plain white stiff frosting. I also had yellow medium frosting. I decided I wanted to do orange roses, but I didn't have any orange coloring. So I took some Burgundy and mixed it with my yellow (medium frosting) and white (stiff) frosting. Somehow a few wires got crossed in my brain and I thought I needed that much medium frosting. I eventually ended with a peachy looking color that was much better when I was mixing it and looks oddly "human skin colored" now. yikes! I packed the other million and a half containers in my bag and headed off.

I run out the door, and get to my class, only to realize I forgot my spatula (not the rubber scraper spatulas, the frosting smoothing kind of spatula). How convenient that my class is located in Michaels, and how fortunate I was to have a coupon for 40% off any item. I think I paid $2 for the sucker. I ran back into class and had a good laugh or two with the girl next to me who always brings a store-bought cake. Pre-frosted by the store. With designs on the sides. She laughs at my crappy burned (again) cake with holes in the side where the frosting didn't quite cover, and I laugh at her perfectly frosted and baked store-bought cake. It's a jealous kind of laugh.

Class begins. At this point, I have now realized what I've done with the "peach" colored frosting. It's medium, and I needed stiff. Needless to say, that combined with the fact that I didn't practice my roses, made for some crappy roses. I tried. and tried. and tried. My hand was shaking from all the squeezing and all I had to show for it was ONE crappy, bowing, slumped over frosting rose. Seriously, it was on its knees, begging for mercy! That was all we had time for, and we had to move on to putting the message on our cakes. I thought for a moment what I wanted to write, and seeing how much I struggled with the rose up to that point, I chose a message that would be appropriate for the rest of class. I'll explain more as I get down to the pictures. My message was short, and I thought of it fairly quickly which left me with a little more time to try again on my roses. I tried again and created a slightly better rose. It was at least not pleading with me to try again. Most people had 9 or 10 roses that actually looked like roses, and I had one, that looked like a dying, skin-colored rose at the end of Summer that was jammed half way into a paper shredder and pulled back out. I was so thrilled! It was so beautiful compared to the other one. I ditched the first rose, and decided to use the newer creation. Lesser of two evils sort of thing going on there. Then we learned how to make sweet peas, and vines, and leaves. Soon enough, we were finished with our cakes, and class was over. Please see the up close version of my "Bouquet of Roses" cake. My final project:




The message works for so many things. A few are listed below:

"Good Luck! Katie! I hope you pass this class!!!"
"Good Luck! Josh! I hope you have a great semester!! (First day of school)"
"Good Luck! Gran W! I hope your treatments make you feel better!!!"
"Good Luck! Cliff/Dad H.!! I hope you get your stuff back from Josh!!" ***

As soon as I got my message on my cake, the girl next to me laughed so hard, I thought she was going to turn purple and pass out. She laughed about it the whole rest of the night.


***Josh's parents came over just as I was getting ready to leave. They delivered a birthday card to me, and asked if we still had their picture-hanging stuff. I couldn't find it fast enough. Also, this includes other things Josh has of his Dads like: shoes, ties, tools, etc.