"It's Christmastime In The City"

It's that time of year again!

Thanksgiving has come and gone. I spent the day cleaning, cooking and getting Matt and Christine's wedding cake iced, etc. Branden helped me clean, brought the Christmas stuff up from our little storage space and relaxed a bit before making mashed potatoes and carving turkey. We probably still have 12-15 lbs of turkey. :P We're going to cut everything up tonight and freeze it. (Have I mentioned that I LOVE my chest freezer? Yeah, it's still awesome.)

Branden got his first paycheck the day after Thanksgiving so we did a little bit of shopping that evening. I was surprised at how many cars were still in the parking lot at the mall! Since there are so many of us, my family draws names and we each give to just one person. This year I give to my brother-in-law Joey so Branden and I went to Sears and found something that I hope he likes. We also found a gift for Dad so my Christmas shopping has (finally) begun! I actually hope to be done next week or maybe the week after.

Last night was Matt and Christine's reception. I stacked and finished the cake most of the way yesterday afternoon then transported it to the reception site for the finishing touches. Everyone loved the cake and I was just glad to be finished with it. :) We forgot to bring our camera but we've been promised pictures so I'll post some when we get them.

Today we opened up the giant tote that contains our Christmas stuff so I could get out my Christmas socks... I LOVE my Christmas socks. :) I discovered that I forgot I purchased NINE rolls of wrapping paper last year after Christmas. Looks like we're not going to need to buy any of that! We will be decorating our tree in the next couple days and I will write about that because our tree is a blog in and of itself. :P I always plan on taking pictures of our little tree but maybe I can manage this year.

One Year And Still Blogging

Yesterday was my blog-iversary. Thinking back over the past year a lot has changed.

The most obvious change is location. I know I've said this over and over but it's still true that I love St. Louis. I may not love my boss, I may not love my neighbors but I love the city. We live in an apartment that is far larger than that tiny rented house. Summer was muggy and a little hard to adjust to but autumn has been lovely and so far there has been NO SNOW! :) And although it has been getting chillier- is that a word?- I have yet to wear a jacket to work and haven't turned on the heater. Quite the opposite, actually. We've been opening windows to let the heat out!

Obviously both of our jobs have changed.

I am driving a different car. (Thankfully this one has lasted this long. I'm hoping for a little longer.) I committed deerslaughter... Yes, it's a word... Now.

I made goals. I forgot some of them and decided to let others go. I am working toward some of them still and have recently made new ones. One of my new goals is to dress a little more like a woman and less like a person who doesn't care. Don't expect any drastic changes the next time you see me. I still have T-shirts and only jeans but I decided to get some shirts that are a little more than just T-shirts. You know, some polos and shirts with 3/4 sleeves or different necklines or small decorative touches on them.

Another change: Both Rick and Chantelle are married. I knew a year ago that Rick was getting married in June but Chantelle's wedding didn't seem to be in the works last November. Little did we know that Jeremy was out there looking for her. This means, of course, that even though I am the fourth of nine, I will be the seventh child to get married.

I have also lost a couple friends in this past year. (And not because I moved away and haven't kept in touch.) I am not sad, though. It was time for those relationships to die. In some cases, it was well past time but I tried to hold on anyway.

I gained, and re-discovered, some friends as well. FaceBook has allowed me to re-bond with some people I never meant to let slip away but was too lazy/busy to do what needed to be done. What's more, this and other blogs have helped me feel like I am a part of the lives of some really great people. :)

It's been a wonderful year on here and I can't wait to keep it up and see what another year will bring. By my second blog-iversary Branden and I will be married. Look forward to some wedding posts- both planning and the actual day. :) I hope to still have my five awesome readers because even though I ultimately do this for me, it's great sharing my life with you. Who knows? Maybe by next year I'll have six or (Dare I hope it?) seven readers!

Today I Realized How Shallow I Can Be

Just a quick post and then off to bed.

I am going to burn for a very long time. I am a horrible person.

There is a lady/girl/woman who is probably about my age who comes into my work all the time. I do not know her name but she and her three-year-old son, Issac, come and watch me decorate cakes at least once a week. She likes to talk to me but I am often too busy to really give her much attention. Also... She is strange. Yes, I am strange, but... I can't. I can't tell you how strange she is other than to say that she'll literally stand there and talk to me for an hour and all I have to do is give cursory responses. Sometimes I will give real responses and she can be enjoyable to talk to but she always seems to come in when I am rushing to finish my work.

One of the last times she was there she said that she hopes that I don't mind her coming in, talking to me and watching me decorate. I took a bit of a risk and told her that I don't mind- I mostly don't- so long as she doesn't mind if I ignore her sometimes- that was a little rude of me and not very good customer service. Thankfully, she took it well and told me that she understands that I'm at work and that I will need to do whatever I have to do while she's there.

So here's the part that means I'm going to burn. She has... A mustache. Not just a mustache, the whole mustache-goatee combo. She shaves it but she has very dark hair and pale skin and you know how that goes. I am sure, no, I KNOW she cannot control it and it is probably something about which she is self-conscious. We call her the mustache lady and we talk about how strange she is and I've been told that the last cake decorator used to hide every time she showed up because she just wants to talk all the time.

And I am a horrible person for not seeing that she is lonely and desperate for a friend. Today she told me that I'm the best friend she has in St. Louis.

I am scum. I am lower than low. I am the worst kind of person for tearing down someone- albeit in a way that they will never know- who just wants to be accepted and loved.

You know, sometimes those "annoying," "clingy" people are just looking for someone to listen and smile at them. I could be that person... She thinks I am that person. I will be that person for her from now on.

Yes, Twenty Pounds

Today was my last day off before Thanksgiving. I spent most of the day baking and grocery shopping.

I am making Branden's friend's wedding cake the weekend after Thanksgiving. Since I will most likely be decorating the cake on Thanksgiving, I baked the layers today. I am SO glad I insisted on keeping my chest freezer! I now have two 6", two 10" and two 14" cakes freezing neatly in my spare room. I also baked our pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving and that's in there, too.

Someday I will write my feelings about grocery shopping... I am addicted to it. I went today to get the rest of our Thanksgiving dinner... Mostly the turkey which weighs 20.50 lb. Yes, I bought a 20 lb bird for two people! The thing is, a certain store- which will remain unnamed- has turkey on sale for $0.40/lb. Unfortunately, all the turkeys were 20 lb or larger. So I could get a very large bird for under $10 OR I could get a smaller bird for over $10. I just cannot pay the same amount for half the turkey. So, even though it's major overkill for our dinner, we'll have lots of leftovers and I can freeze shredded turkey when we feel a bit sick of it. Once again happy to have my chest freezer. :)

Branden Is Working Again :)

Yesterday was Branden's first day at work. Some of his working thoughts so far:

-"I am very disappointed in the IT students in my class. One lady will be graduating in December and can pretty much only create PowerPoint presentations. She ROCKS the PowerPoint presentations, though... Yeah, not good enough."

-"This job will be easier than I thought."

I got a bit more out of him, but not much. :P I think we are both feeling a bit better about life now that he's working again. As it turns out, he'll get paid 27th which is quite a bit earlier than I expected. I don't want to jinx us but... Things seem to be on the way to potentially, possibly looking up.

Book Report: Round Robin by Jack Kent

I am pretty sure that this book is out of print and you may not be able to find it at the library. If you do find it and borrow it, don't lose it since the only one I found on Amazon is selling for $79.99!!!

Anyway, Round Robin is the story of a bird who eats and eats and eats until he's round. When the time comes to fly South for the winter, Round Robin is too heavy to fly. So everyone goes off and leaves him and he begins to hop South alone. As winter comes in, he has a harder and harder time finding food and slowly begins to lose weight. One day a fox sees him hopping along and decides that Round Robin will be a tasty snack. Without thinking, Round Robin flaps his wings and FLIES! He's lost so much weight from hopping and eating less that he is able to fly South and join his friends.

Unfortunately, Round Robin didn't learn any lessons and he eats and eats and eats until he cannot fly once again. When all the birds fly off to their homes in the North, Round Robin must, once again, hop along all by himself.

I think the moral of this story is either: "There's no point in starving yourself and exercising all the time because you'll just gain it all back anyway." OR: "If you weigh too much, everyone will go off and leave you lonely."

Whatever the moral, I read this book quite a bit as a child. Interestingly enough, I discovered that the book was published the year I was born so we are the same age!

Do Good Things Come In Threes As Well?

So, more good news! I got a raise! HUZZAH!!!

I worked at that *insert your own personal string of swear words here* catering company for 18 months and no matter how hard I tried I could NOT get a raise. Instead I was told that if I worked 15-18 hour days that I'd get more money. REALLY?!?! I never would have guessed that! Oddly enough, I wanted to work the SAME amount of time and get more money.

I have worked for this company for three and a half months and, without having to even ask, I received an eighty cent raise! EIGHTY CENTS! That may not seem like a ton of money, but that's an extra $32 a week... $128 a month! After taxes I bring home about $80 more per month. And, let me reiterate, I didn't have to beg, plead, haggle or work extra hours to get it. All I had to do was show up and work my regular shift. That feels AMAZING!

Even more amazing, I heard today that someone in the store has said to other people in the store that they are lucky to have me. I may not be the very best at what I do, I may not be the most perfect cake decorator ever and I most certainly am not the most creative, but someone out there appreciates what I do.

"Wonderful, WONDERFUL Day!"

First off, if you automatically know where my title comes from then you may have a mother like mine who loves to watch musicals. Or maybe you like musicals yourself. If you don't know, don't feel bad.

Also, I should apologize about the length of my last post. It covers, in a pretty general way, four days of a trip during which I didn't pick up my computer once. If you don't want to read it, I won't be offended. I mostly wrote it for my own remembering.

Now for the wonderful part: Branden just got off the phone with Charter and he is officially employed! 100% hired!! He'll start work on Monday and our financial situation will begin to improve in approximately one month. (I figure I can't count on him getting paid before mid-December, but I could be wrong.) We will no longer HAVE to buy bread from the bread store or get our groceries from the cheapest place we can find... But we probably will anyway as I'm a little crazy about saving money when we have it and we DO need to pay for a wedding.

I might have more good news tomorrow but I'm a little hesitant to say I do right now. If I do, then this week will be one of the best news weeks I've had for a long time. :)

Home Safe and Sound

I'm back in St. Louis now. I had a good time in UT even though I missed Branden the entire time. I was actually surprised at how much he missed me. I received many texts telling me how much I was missed... Including a few in the middle of the night which, while sweet, interrupted my sleep.

I cried intermittently on the plane while flying out to UT. I knew I would. Branden lent me his iPod Touch in an effort to distract me from such things. Yep, I cried while watching Wall-E and while listening to music and playing solitaire. I think the lady across the isle from me thought I was a little mentally unstable. Oh, well. Rick picked me up from the airport and I almost didn't recognize him- his hair was kinda longish and bleached blonde! He took me to Mom and Dad's house where I watched TV and took a nap. Around 1 PM I decided that I should get started on the frosting for the cake.

I was making American buttercream which requires shortening. I opened the can and found that it was grainy. I've never seen that before and I don't know what caused it, all I know was that it was unusable. Thankfully Mom left me keys to Dad's truck so I jumped in and headed to the store with the Can of Grossness. The lady at the service desk felt my pain and sent me back to get a new can. Unfortunately, all of the cans of that shortening had the same expiration date. Sure enough, when we opened the can I chose off the shelf it was also grainy. Ms. Service Desk was kind enough to let me exchange my shortening for one that was a little pricier since they couldn't do a straight across trade. And, yes, she also let me check it before I left the store.

I managed to make all the frosting and still get to James' work in time to give him a ride home. He had to create Chantelle's wedding video so I sat on the couch and talked to him while he worked. Amy was able to come up to Ogden and hang out with me. James was a total sweetheart- he normally is a pretty nice guy- and made us hamburgers for dinner. After Amy left, James and I waited for Mom and Dad to get home from St. George. Mom and I played a couple games of Rumikub and I lost both... In my defense, it was 2 AM my time and I wasn't exactly the most wakeful person. When Mom went to bed, Dad and James and I sat up and talked for another hour and some. I finally crawled into Chantelle's empty bed and was almost instantly asleep.

I awoke in a near-pitch-black room at 9:30 Friday morning. Turns out that Chantelle's old room is pretty much always pitch-black. Mom was upstairs waiting at the kitchen table and as soon as I changed she took me out to breakfast. We had a good time talking and then shopping at JoAnn's. We chose out the ribbon for Chantelle's cake and looked at some of the fall decor while I had nightmares... I mean DREAMS of my own upcoming wedding. We picked up the wedding flowers and headed back to my parents' house so I could decorate the cake.

Things went pretty smoothly on that front. The cake was baked by a very nice woman who knows my family and it was great to work with. I froze it and, aside from a small mishap when I dropped the partially-iced, still-frozen bottom layer on the table and nearly gave Stacy a heart attack, I had a fairly easy time of things. I will say that I wished they hadn't chosen to have the middle and top layers red velvet. It stayed together just fine but it also showed through the buttercream if it was less than 1/2" thick. Once the cake was iced, wrapped with ribbon and stowed in my parents' outside fridge, I was able to help out with a few other things before taking a shower and getting ready to go.

Skipping the part where Chantelle was freaking out about being late and I had to shake some sense back into her, the reception seemed to go quite well. The video James made was quite nice, I heard good things about the looks of the cake, the muffins that the caterer served were quite tasty- though I suspect they came from Sam's Club- Chantelle was a pretty little bride and Jeremy was all smiles and I got to see some people I was looking forward to seeing. Katie's son Josh didn't really remember me at first but after I picked him up and tossed/spun him around a little he remembered... And wanted me to toss him around some more. I was a dork and forgot to bring the camera but thankfully Christina took a bunch of pictures and James was kind enough to email some to me. I will post a few later, but probably not tonight.

I did get a little sad, though, because by the time I get married next year, all of this will be old news for my family. I'm the seventh child out of nine to marry even though I'm the fourth oldest. I try not to mind that two of my little sisters and one of my little brothers managed to get married before me. After all, I am engaged and I am happy with the man I will be marrying. If I'd gotten married before all of them, I wouldn't be with him or where I am today. I don't know where I'd be, but I don't really believe that I'd be a lot happier. Branden and I love each other and we're generally happy. What's more, he's my best friend... The other part of my box set. Yes, we are fine separately, but we're so much better together.

Back to my trip: I spent Friday night at Katie's house and once again stayed up past my bedtime talking. Saturday morning Katie had to go practice a dance so I cuddled with Josh while watching Nightmare Before Christmas- his choice, I swear!- and chatted with Sharon. My mom picked me up for lunch and we played a few more games of Rumikub- this time I won a couple! Afterward, I spent FOREVER helping my mom sort, delete and generally clean up the pictures on her computer. As a reward, my mom fed me brownies, YUM!

Amy picked me up and we went shopping to find a dress for her and Katie to wear at my wedding. Katie met us at Dillard's where we gave up on the mall and headed over to Target. We found a fun dress on clearance for $6.24! So now we have a place to start for them. They'll need some sort of jackets or shrugs as it's a summery dress and Amy's will need to be hemmed, but at least we have something! I was concerned about finding a dress for them that would be inexpensive but also have potential to be something they'd wear again. I let them pick it themselves so... I HOPE they weren't both lying when they said they liked it.

Saturday night was pizza night with the family. We had just the kind of conversation Mom likes to discourage us from having at the table- full of stories about poo and vomit. :) I spent the night at Katie's again and got a little bit more sleep this time, though not much more. Joshie woke me Sunday morning and was SO cute I had to take a couple pictures. Katie made us biscuits for breakfast then she and I went shopping for my Christmas present.

I should state that Katie is an awesome shopper and loves to do it. The only shopping that I like is grocery shopping- which I LOVE but that's another post entirely. All of my clothes are wearing out, though, and I'm 27 and only wear t-shirts so I told her it was time for a change. Nothing drastic, but maybe some polos or some shirts that were more than t-shirts but less than nice shirts. She helped me pick out some things to try on and we managed to find four new shirts that are just the sort of thing I was looking for. She sent one home with me and will wrap the others and mail them to me for Christmas.

One more trip back to my parents' house to say good-bye to everyone and get a ride to Amy's house in Bountiful and my trip was nearly over. Amy and I ate lunch together at Dee's in Sugarhouse. I love Dee's and they have a great special for November: a ham and cheese melt with fries and a GIANT piece of pumpkin pie for less than the normal price of the sandwich and fries. All too soon it was time for me to be at the airport. What I didn't realize was that Amy can use her Delta badge to get through airport security and she came with me all the way to the gate!

Once on the plane, I only cried a little. If home is where the heart is, then my home is about 85% in St. Louis with Branden and about 15% with my family and friends. I love them, I miss them, but I was always going to have to leave them in some form or other. As the holidays commence, I know I will miss being in UT immensely. I will be sad to miss seeing extended family at Thanksgiving and/or Christmas. I will miss opening presents, decorating and baking with my family. Christmas won't be the same without the excitement of children or the lights on Temple Square or in Downtown Ogden. BUT, this is home now. I had a good time in UT but it's still good to be home.

Going To UT Thursday

I fly out to UT Thursday morning. This afternoon I had a bit of a panicky moment when Amy, who was supposed to be picking me up from the airport, informed me that her work is now telling her she cannot be off at that time. Normally, this isn't a big deal EXCEPT that almost all of my immediate family is going to be down in St. George for Chantelle's wedding. For a few minutes I contemplated figuring out which UTA bus would take me to the Trax train that will take me from Salt Lake to Ogden and then walking from Union Station in Ogden to... Rick'n'Abby's probably. Thankfully, my amazing younger brother has decided that he will sacrifice some of his sleep to come and get me. I didn't want to ask as Rick works graves and really needs to sleep but as soon as I told him what was going on he was ready and willing. I'm so lucky to have such a great brother!

Now that Branden has a job on the horizon, I feel a little better about taking time off work. I am looking forward to spending time with my family. This is very likely the last time I will see James for the next two and a half to three years as he plans on going on a mission in March.

Unfortunately, I don't travel well. Yep, I wrinkle. :P Ok, my clothes get a little rumpled, but that's not what I mean. Almost every time I fly, I cry. I try not to but it seems like I am always leaving someone behind and I have these crazy fear-thoughts that something will happen while I'm away. I know it's not sensible but I will worry that Branden might get hurt or something while I'm gone and, not only will I not be there, I won't even KNOW! And I will miss him the whole time I'm gone. However, when the time comes to return to him, I will cry because I will miss my family.

Today I got an early dose of those feelings while I was packing- first, it's a miracle that I started packing today. I was putting my knee socks in my suitcase and it just hit me that I'm not going to see Branden for four days. I really needed a hug... He thinks I'm crazy. I'll be ok once I'm there but right now- and Thursday morning- I will have to deal with a few fear-thoughts.

Not Too Early After All

Good day! Branden made awesome CrockPot roast, and I mean AWESOME! The kind of awesome that makes you want to keep eating until all the roast is gone and then lick up whatever juices you can find even though you were stuffed full long before that point.

That isn't actually what made today good, though. BRANDEN GOT A JOB OFFER TODAY!!!!!! I saw the letter extending the offer and I just about started happy-dancing around OfficeMax. True, he doesn't start until the 16th but, still, it's a job! I should say that it's contingent on him passing the drug test (no problem), the criminal background check (not really worried), and the employment history check (yep, he's worked all those places.) I'm being a little clingy and crazy now but... How can I express the relief that is the prospect of Branden having a job. I just want to hug him over and over and over and tell him how proud and happy I am and how I knew he could do this... And babble on and on and on in a happy fashion.

*happy sigh* Oh, it's a good day.

Halloween 2009

Well, Halloween has come and passed and I have to admit it was a little disappointing this year. First off, the people at my work made it sound like we were going to be CRAZY for a couple days before and the day of Halloween. So I was expecting some Macey's-style madness: thousands of people, what seems like tens of thousands of glazed donuts sold, hundreds of orders, shelves that empty as fast as they can be filled, and so on. NOT AT ALL WHAT WE HAD!

I had maybe half a dozen Halloween cake orders in the last week and orders totaling maybe 10 dozen cupcakes... Did I mention that this was in the WHOLE week before Halloween? My boss made a REALLY big deal about us making over a hundred Halloween themed 12" message cookies and we still had about 30 in the freezer when I left yesterday with no place to put them and the ones on the shelf not moving at all. We got somewhat close to selling all the cupcakes off the shelves but still... Not the kind of sales I was expecting. Donut sales were normal for a Saturday and there was no overabundance of orders. In fact, I had fewer than usual.

Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, out here sells bread soup bowls. ("Wait, WHAT?! No bread soup bowls?!! How can that be?" *sighs* That's how I feel, too.) So there were no orders for 25-150 soup bowls for Halloween parties and, if you hadn't guessed, there were no requests for pumpkin-shaped soup bowls. I tell you, this WHOLE city is missing out!

I made sure that Branden and I bought candy for the inevitable trick-or-treaters who would make the rounds at our apartment complex... We didn't see ONE kid! I figured that, if nothing else, The Nasties from downstairs would bring their kids by. It's not that I WANT to give those people candy, but their kids are just kids and probably deserve to have a little sweetness given to them after having to deal with their awful parents. (Truly, nothing I told you about these people would illustrate how bad they are. Nasty isn't really a good enough desciption for them.)

Last night was also our Engagiversary! Thankfully, we will only get one as we will be married by next Halloween. What did we do to celebrate? We sat at home, waiting for trick-or-treaters and watching Halloween movies- Of COURSE we watched Nightmare Before Christmas! We also had our very own little spread of party foods for dinner. Then, around midnight, I fell asleep on the couch and Branden took me to bed at 1 AM. Yep, we are CRAZY party people!

We need some friends who like to go out and do stuff!... And we need money to go out and do stuff! Maybe next Halloween will be more exciting but somehow, I think we'll be this boring until we have kids. :P