Cake

Here is a pic of the first cake I made this past weekend.   It was a five tier Fancy Nancy inspired cake.  French vanilla flavored cake with white chocolate buttercream frosting.  It was delicious (from the scraps I taste tested while decorating).  It was a ton of fun to make and from what I hear, everyone loved it!

Yes please!

Doesnt this picture make you want to dress up like Scarlett O'Hara and sip tea on the porch!  I love it!

Moon me

As I was driving home tonight from the grocery store, I found myself mesmerized by the moon.  I mean it was gorgeous!  Almost full or maybe even full, pale yellow, big, low in the sky...breathtaking!  As I pulled it together and tried to ignore the moon and drive home safely I started thinking about my fascination with the moon.   I clearly remember being in the car as a child and driving home with my parents and wondering why the moon always followed us and how it knew where we lived.  There was always something comforting about the moon..always the same always beautiful always peacefully doing its job always quietly powerful...comforting.   When I was in high school my bed was next to the window.  I used to change how I slept on my bed so that I could sleep with the mon shining on me.  It was like it was watching over me while I slept.  Now don't mistake me...i believe in God and not in the divinity of the moon or sun or any hippy crap.  I guess in the same way that some find the beauty and power of God in nature, I see it in the moon.  Ok now you all officially know I am crazy. 

Changes...

So I have been thinking a lot lately about making some changes.  I am notoriously bad at it.  So, I don't know.  Let's discuss...
1) To become a morning person (or as much of one as I can train myself to be).  Oh...this is always  the one that gets me.  I am, by nature a Night Owl.  I love to stay up late...I am more productive after the kids go to bed.  I enjoy relaxing in the quietness of the evening.  Problem:  Necessity has dictated that I need to be a morning person.  I have kids...they get up early.  School starts early.  Work starts early.  Everything starts early.  I am a Night Owl in a world made for Early Birds.  So, what do I do.  I have been doing both, which usually results in me going to bed somewhere between midnight and 2am (Don't judge) and getting up most mornings by 630 at the latest.  This is not ideal.  So, I am thinking it is time to set down some nighttime boundaries for myself and train myself to go to bed early and get up early. 
2)To work out more.  I have been making excuses for a LONG time.  Some of them are legit.  I am busy.  I work two jobs.  I stay home with my kids.  My husband is in school.  My husband works 40 hours a week an hour away from our house.  It is really hard to prioritize going to work out.  REALLY HARD.  I need to get over it.  I am currently mulling through this and have come to a couple solutions that hopefully I can enact. A-Use the elliptical machine in my living room.  Excuse in the past is that I am too tired at the end of the day (cue change number 1-hopefully that will help that one).  This also will require rearranging the living room a bit which will probably happen tonight (SHH...don't tell my husband...he always gives me a hard time whenever I rearrange furniture).
B-I have been thinking about trying out the couch to 5k program.  I just downloaded an app for it on my phone.  I am not a runner.  Never have been.  And the thought of this makes me want to gouge my eyes out, but I know it is good exercise and a part of me wants to be able to run a 5k.  So yeah, most of that is because I am a competitive person and not because I want to run, but still.  I dont' know, still working on this one.  Also, when do i run?  first thing in the morning, 530?  I would have to do it outside because I don't have a treadmill.  Oh, I think too much.  Ok, this one is still officially being thought about. 
C-There is a gym by my house that offers classes and membership.  I don't think we can afford to join right now, but I could possibly afford to pay for some classes.  I think the price is like $40 for 10 zumba classes.  Don't know if it is specific to zumba or any class, but it is worth looking into.   If Mike was ordained already we could get a membership for both of us for $38 per month.  Can you believe it?  that is super affordable...can't wait to get those clergy discounts someday :P
3) To have my house completely organized and have a systematic plan for what to do on what days to keep it organized and clean.  I have always kept up with my house, maybe not as spotless as some, but for the most part it is clean.  But I don't have a system, and clutter is our downfall.   I want to be better organized.  I think this one is going to take some time. 

Ok, The hubs needs his laptop to go to work so I gotta let it go.  Maybe more on changes later.  Feedback...suggestions...

Me time...what's that?

Tonight was Valentine's Day.  In true romantic fashion, the hubs has Greek class.  Boo... Not that he is big on Valentine's Day anyways, but at least we could have taken advantage of the parents night out at our church together.  So I figured I would just chill at home with the girls.  Well, our Assistant Children's Minister found out and wanted me to bring the girls.  They do a big sock hop program and she knew the girls would have fun and that I could use the night alone :)  So....I dropped off the kids and I swear I must have looked like a lost puppy the rest of the night.  I didn't know what to do and didn't exactly have the money to do much, so I decided to go to the mall and walk around.  Get some exercise and window shop.  What else am I going to do.  So, I perused the stores at the mall to get an idea of what is out there for Easter Dresses for the girls.  Do you know what is out there?  Do you?  A big Fat Load of nothing!  Can you believe it?  It is two months out from Easter and nothing.  There were a few dresses at Sears, but nothign that coordinated between big girls and toddlers.  Childrens Place, Justice, Crazy8, Everywhere I looked, there was nothign.  I asked the sales associates that were bored out of their mind because not many people were out shopping tonight and they said they hadn't recieved any yet.  I can't believe it still.  They put Christmas stuff out in August.  4 MONTHS before Christmas...but nothing for Easter.  Crazy!  Oh well, I have heard that Target has theirs out and I will wait a bit and see what shows up in the other stores.  I guess I still do have 2 months.  Happy shopping!  And I did enjoy having some quiet time to myself.  It doesn't happen very often and I almost didn't recognize what it felt like to not have to cater to someone else  needs.  On a plus side, The hubs and I are having a date night tomorrow night (tuesday)...Can't wait...Toscana's here we come...I love me some good Italian food!

Take the Cake!

So, one of my "hobby" or maybe more accurately "interests" is making cakes.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!  I don't actually consider myself very artistic, but something about fondant just brings out every artistic bone in my body!  Usually I just make them for my girls' birthdays and if a friend asks.  Lately I have had the opportunity to make a couple cakes for people as a side business.  It has been really exciting.  About a month ago I made a pregnant belly cake for an old coworker and this coming weekend I will be making a 5 tier Fancy Nancy inspired 1st birthday cake for a sweet little 1 year old girl and the same day I will be making a Super Mario Brothers inspired birthday cake for a 4 year old boy.  I am super excited!  And I will post pictures next week.  I am going to leave you with a couple of pictures of some cakes I have made over the past 2 years!  Enjoy!

My first fondant cake ever...a princess cake for my oldest princess!

Made this one for a friend of a friend for her 30th birthday.

Surprise birthday cake for one of my best friends

Swimming Lessons

The RAC at the Seminary offers swimming lessons for kids age 4 and up.  I have been meaning to sign up MK for about a year and a half, but haven't yet.  Call it laziness, call it frugality, call it busy...whatever the reason was, it hadn't happened.  Well, we finally signed her up.  It is a pretty good deal.  She has lessons twice a week for a half an hour for then next 8 weeks.  And all for $30.  We recently moved to a house and there is a pool in the neighborhood that we will have access to all summer long.  So I figured it would be wise to sign her up and get her swimming like a fish so that she can adequately enjoy the pool this summer!  She had a blast at her first lesson yesterday.  One of her favorite parts of the lessons is that three of her best friends from church are in her class!  Ryan and Benjamin are twins and they are 15 and 18 minutes younger than MK! That's right, I said minutes...They could literally almost be triplets!  Their younger sister Madisyn is 11 months younger and hangs right with all of them.  They could almost be quadruplets :)  Almost.  Anyways, here is a pic of the 4 of them playing in the pool!

Snow Days

A couple of weeks ago I was overcome with envy.  I wanted snow just like my friends and family back in Massachusetts.  Not only did I want snow, I wanted a snow day.  Snow days in Massachusetts are truly the most peaceful days.  Lounge around, drink coffee, spend the day together as a family, the to do list out the window-all unexpectedly!  It is amazingly relaxing because when you get a snow day there it is because you have at least a foot of snow on the ground and literally can't go anywhere.  So, I was envious and started praying and hoping for a snow day.  I knew it was a long shot, but you never know.  ONE snow day might be possible in warm old Texas.  Afterall, winter is bipolar here.  80*F one day and 30*F the next.  Little did I know, my wish would be granted.  Last week we got ONE snow day on Tuesday.  Then we got snow day number TWO, followed by THREE and FOUR!!! IN A ROW!!  Where it was a nice little vacation for all of us, I am over it.  Well, guess what!!!!  The weather forcaster tonight said that he would be surprised if the kids went to school on wednesday...2-4 inches of snow and ice predicted.  INSANE!!!  I am so over it.  I am officially done praying for snow days!  I am grateful for the ones I got and now I would quite enjoy getting back to our normal mid 50s weather for the rest of the winter! 

Hypocrite!

I am so bad about blogging.  I always check other blogs I read through my blog page and I always think 'man, I should post something, anything..I am a horrible blogger', but I rarely do.  However I notice myself getting antsy to see what others are posting on their blogs.  I even start to wonder if everything is ok when someone that I know blogs a lot hasn't blogged in a while.  Sometimes I almost get annoyed that I have nothing new to read.  I realized I am a blogger hypocrite!  I have to admit it...I hate to admit it!  So here it is... I apologize for being hypocritical.  I am sorry for expecting you (any of you, all of you) to blog consistently while not doing it myself.  I apologize for justifying my hypocriticalness by saying 'you are more consistent bloggers', or 'you are a better writer' or 'you have a more interesting life than me'.  Finally, I will try to be better about blogging.  I don't actually believe that anyone out there actually is reading this, which should make it easier for me to write.  However, I will attempt to do it more consistently if only to alleviate my feelings of hypocrisy :)