Today's goal: Finish baking Rick'n'Abby's wedding cake. There is cake in my oven right now. There is cake in my refrigerator waiting to go into my oven. There are cake ingredients in my kitchen waiting to be mixed up into the final layer. It is a cake baking day. I baked one layer of the bottom tier on Sunday so today I'm baking all the other tiers and the other bottom layer. The way I see it, if I can finish baking today and make icing and filling tomorrow then assemble the bottom layer on Thursday things will go better on Friday.
Since I am now fairly certain that everything will work, I can now explain why their cake is so stressful to me: We have planned it to have a real working waterfall running from the middle layer to the bottom layer. I don't think I could do this with a cake for ANYONE else. Rick'n'Abby have been so great about sharing their creative talents and built the ponds and waterfall themselves. Branden has been helping me with information about water and pumps and built the stand to go under the cake. Katie has been helping with some of the practical aspects and just letting me bounce ideas off her. There's a good chance that after this cake is completed I will be able to do this again on another cake, but without all the help I've received there's no way I could have been even this close to making something like this work. I am so very excited to see this all come together but, at the same time, I am stressed because no matter how much help I've had, I'm the one who has to pull it all together and make it work.
Now the timer is going off and I need to get back to cake baking. Wish me luck!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
And Now I Can Take A Second To Breathe Before I Start The Next One
This morning I took Jason's cake to his parents' house in Roy. I told his mom that I'd have it there by 11 AM so I packed up my car and was on the road around 9:30. Because of seat-leveling issues, I decided that it'd be best to just put the cake in the front seat where I could keep an eye on it... Which also happened to put it in direct sunlight! I drove all the way from my house to I-80 before I decided that there was just NO way I was going to risk having the cake in sunlight for an hour. So I improvised. I had a couple of icing bags wrapped in a dish towel so I decided to make a shade. It was more complicated than I expected, but I was up to the challenge and held the towel in place with both hands while turning the handle to close the window with my foot... The door was open while I did this. I then used two push pins to secure the bottom of the towel to the trim at the bottom of the window. (Yes, I purposely poked holes in the decorative fake leather on the inside of my door. It's an old car, it's probably ok.)
After that I was able to "relax" for most of the rest of the drive. Anyone who has transported a wedding cake- and cared that it made it to its destination intact- knows that there's no real relaxing until you have safely reached the reception site and the cake is in someone else's hands. So in all actuality, I continued on my way with as little worry as one can have when transporting a three-tier, stacked wedding cake 50-ish miles on sometimes winding/mountainous roads in a car with semi-working air conditioning on a warm morning at the end of May... Until I reached the Mountain Green exit.
For those of you who may not have driven through Weber Canyon in the last month or so, let me give you a heads-up: It's under construction again. What was already a winding, two lane canyon road is now a ONE LANE winding bobsled track with concrete barriers on both sides... NOT exactly the best place to be with a wedding cake in the passenger's seat. I swear to you that I breathed maybe six times in the ten-ish minute drive through the canyon. Thankfully, there was a semi pulling two trailers in front of me so I had an extra excuse to be going 40mph. The cake and I both survived the trip with only a massive headache from lack of oxygen. That is, I had the headache... I'm pretty sure the cake was unfazed.
We arrived on time and everyone was thrilled with the cake. :) What a great feeling! The two bottom layers were fake and only Jason and Ashley got to try the top layer, but they both told me how good it tasted as well. Oh, it's so good to have that stress over and done and have everyone happy with the work I put into it. Their reception was great and I got to talk to lots of people I don't see very often.
Here's the best part of the day, though: I figured out what is wrong with Katie's car. ME! All by myself! See, it's been randomly dying for the last couple months. Katie will drive it to, say, the store and everything is fine but when she comes out of the store the car won't start! She has had it towed to the shop more than once and all tests come back that everything is fine... But it's not. You can start the car with jumper cables- similar to the fiasco we had when leaving the condo but without the fiasco part. So when Katie turned off her car to open the trunk so I could get my stuff out and then the car wouldn't start we thought for sure that we were going to have to jump it. I pushed it out of the middle of the road while she steered and we then proceeded to call people who may be able to come help. (Remember that I no longer have jumper cables as mine melted in the fiasco.) That's when I remembered that my car used to do this sort of thing when it had a short in the positive battery cable. So I had Katie open the hood and, sure enough, after I wiggled just the cables- there was no movement of anything on the terminals- we managed to get her car to start. She has a faulty ground! That's it! Hooray! All in all, a successful and happy day.
After that I was able to "relax" for most of the rest of the drive. Anyone who has transported a wedding cake- and cared that it made it to its destination intact- knows that there's no real relaxing until you have safely reached the reception site and the cake is in someone else's hands. So in all actuality, I continued on my way with as little worry as one can have when transporting a three-tier, stacked wedding cake 50-ish miles on sometimes winding/mountainous roads in a car with semi-working air conditioning on a warm morning at the end of May... Until I reached the Mountain Green exit.
For those of you who may not have driven through Weber Canyon in the last month or so, let me give you a heads-up: It's under construction again. What was already a winding, two lane canyon road is now a ONE LANE winding bobsled track with concrete barriers on both sides... NOT exactly the best place to be with a wedding cake in the passenger's seat. I swear to you that I breathed maybe six times in the ten-ish minute drive through the canyon. Thankfully, there was a semi pulling two trailers in front of me so I had an extra excuse to be going 40mph. The cake and I both survived the trip with only a massive headache from lack of oxygen. That is, I had the headache... I'm pretty sure the cake was unfazed.
We arrived on time and everyone was thrilled with the cake. :) What a great feeling! The two bottom layers were fake and only Jason and Ashley got to try the top layer, but they both told me how good it tasted as well. Oh, it's so good to have that stress over and done and have everyone happy with the work I put into it. Their reception was great and I got to talk to lots of people I don't see very often.
Here's the best part of the day, though: I figured out what is wrong with Katie's car. ME! All by myself! See, it's been randomly dying for the last couple months. Katie will drive it to, say, the store and everything is fine but when she comes out of the store the car won't start! She has had it towed to the shop more than once and all tests come back that everything is fine... But it's not. You can start the car with jumper cables- similar to the fiasco we had when leaving the condo but without the fiasco part. So when Katie turned off her car to open the trunk so I could get my stuff out and then the car wouldn't start we thought for sure that we were going to have to jump it. I pushed it out of the middle of the road while she steered and we then proceeded to call people who may be able to come help. (Remember that I no longer have jumper cables as mine melted in the fiasco.) That's when I remembered that my car used to do this sort of thing when it had a short in the positive battery cable. So I had Katie open the hood and, sure enough, after I wiggled just the cables- there was no movement of anything on the terminals- we managed to get her car to start. She has a faulty ground! That's it! Hooray! All in all, a successful and happy day.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Wedding Cakes and Upcoming Moves
I am about 1/4 of the way finished with the icing and decorating of my cousin Jason's wedding cake. I've been stressed over it, but it's going well so I probably stressed for absolutely no reason. One thing that I never realized in all the years that I've been icing cakes at home is that I only have one base-icing tip. (Ok, I think it has a different name but I don't know what it is and pretty much anyone who's used one knows what I'm talking about- which, of my readers, is probably only Kazia.) Since his cake has two pale green layers and one pale purple one, I really could use two of these tips. Instead, I washed the tip and the bag and am letting them dry as I type this.
We found out this afternoon that we are approved for the apt we wanted in St. Louis. Hooray! It's not really that big of a deal as I'm sure there are lots of other apts we could try for but it's just nice to have something settling into place. I don't know exactly how much we will be paying, but it should be $150-$250 less than we are paying now. No complaints there!
It turns out that my older sister will be moving away from UT as well this summer. She had mentioned that she was offered a really great job back in late April. Now she and her two boys will be leaving to return to Oklahoma the day after Rick'n'Abby's wedding- which means she'll be leaving on the 6th of June. If I understand correctly (and if things haven't changed since I heard about this last) her husband will be staying here until mid- or late July at which time she will come back to get him and the rest of their stuff. My parents will put their house up for rent and move into Bekkie and Joey's house. I don't really understand everything behind why things will happen this way, I just know that it's the only way they can make things work. The real point in telling this is to say that half my family is moving this summer. In a way, this makes things even move complicated because we have a shortage of people who can help others move.
I can't believe it's almost June. It seems like just last week we were tentatively talking about the small possibility of maybe moving to St. Louis someday. Now we're just a few weeks away from the move and those weeks are going to be SO busy! I promised my mom that I would FINALLY do a "cooking class" at her work so this Saturday I'll be making creme brulee for some retirees. Abby's bachelorette party will be this Saturday as well. Rick'n'Abby are getting married next Friday and I'm stressed about their wedding cake- though this time it's probably with good reason. If everything works their cake will be pretty impressive and if it doesn't work it'll be a very large failure. Add in Christina's birthday and Mom's birthday- and Kysa's birthday if we haven't left UT before then- and I've got more than packing to fill my time.
We found out this afternoon that we are approved for the apt we wanted in St. Louis. Hooray! It's not really that big of a deal as I'm sure there are lots of other apts we could try for but it's just nice to have something settling into place. I don't know exactly how much we will be paying, but it should be $150-$250 less than we are paying now. No complaints there!
It turns out that my older sister will be moving away from UT as well this summer. She had mentioned that she was offered a really great job back in late April. Now she and her two boys will be leaving to return to Oklahoma the day after Rick'n'Abby's wedding- which means she'll be leaving on the 6th of June. If I understand correctly (and if things haven't changed since I heard about this last) her husband will be staying here until mid- or late July at which time she will come back to get him and the rest of their stuff. My parents will put their house up for rent and move into Bekkie and Joey's house. I don't really understand everything behind why things will happen this way, I just know that it's the only way they can make things work. The real point in telling this is to say that half my family is moving this summer. In a way, this makes things even move complicated because we have a shortage of people who can help others move.
I can't believe it's almost June. It seems like just last week we were tentatively talking about the small possibility of maybe moving to St. Louis someday. Now we're just a few weeks away from the move and those weeks are going to be SO busy! I promised my mom that I would FINALLY do a "cooking class" at her work so this Saturday I'll be making creme brulee for some retirees. Abby's bachelorette party will be this Saturday as well. Rick'n'Abby are getting married next Friday and I'm stressed about their wedding cake- though this time it's probably with good reason. If everything works their cake will be pretty impressive and if it doesn't work it'll be a very large failure. Add in Christina's birthday and Mom's birthday- and Kysa's birthday if we haven't left UT before then- and I've got more than packing to fill my time.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Memory
Today Branden called me from the store asking for his PIN... HIS, not mine. A couple months ago he asked me where he put his tax documents from last year and before that it was the information about his Worker's Compensation from when he hurt his knee. Everyday he asks where he put his sunglasses, do I know where his lighter is or any number of questions about things that I haven't touched.
Apparently I've become someone else's memory. I'd heard that this would happen but I didn't know it would happen before we were even married. I remember that someone I worked with once told me that the reason mom's get so forgetful is that they have to do all the remembering for their husband and their children and that you lose half your brain the day you get married. Guess I'm losing part of mine prematurely.
Branden likes to claim that I'm just better at keeping track of everything. I'm starting to wonder how he survived without me! I'm not even kidding when I say he wouldn't even remember to eat half the time if I didn't make him food. Oh, I love him... Even when I have to be his brain.
Apparently I've become someone else's memory. I'd heard that this would happen but I didn't know it would happen before we were even married. I remember that someone I worked with once told me that the reason mom's get so forgetful is that they have to do all the remembering for their husband and their children and that you lose half your brain the day you get married. Guess I'm losing part of mine prematurely.
Branden likes to claim that I'm just better at keeping track of everything. I'm starting to wonder how he survived without me! I'm not even kidding when I say he wouldn't even remember to eat half the time if I didn't make him food. Oh, I love him... Even when I have to be his brain.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
I Really Can't Compete Here
So there's a chance that out of all the people I knew in high school, I am one of the biggest losers. I want to pretend that I'm not, but the facts kinda stack up against me.
Just to give you a picture of what my friends have been doing: Well, lots of them are married but at least I'm engaged so I'm not too loser-y in that aspect. Plenty of them have children which I think is a lot of work and pretty much automatically makes you less of a loser... Assuming that you're taking care of them, etc., which my friends are doing. We're gonna wait till after we get married to add that aspect into our lives. Then there are the jobs... This is where I'm a big loser.
One friend is a forensic scientist who does crime scene investigation. Two friends are optometrists and one of them has her own practice while the other travels and works in the military. Another friend is writing a novel. Yet another friend just started a vinyl wall art business from her home and her stuff is super cute. (Check out her Etsy page! I love, love, love her cupcakes wall art.) Then I have another 6 or so friends who also own their own businesses plus some who don't own a business per se, but still work out of their homes doing things like beautifying people's hair- yep, that's you, Stacy. Add to that all the friends who are still in school pursuing masters degrees and PhDs in everything from physical therapy to orthodontics to foreign languages and social sciences... I'm sure there are more that I just don't even know about.
What do I do? Oh, I make cakes and cookies. Honestly, pastry chef is just a nice word for over-educated-baker-who-sometimes-does-cool-stuff. And I'm not really even a pastry chef at the moment! I'm between jobs, preparing for a move. GAAAAH! LOSER! I like what I do but sometimes I realize that I actually do have more potential that I just didn't want to use.
And maybe that's what it really all comes down to. I didn't care to use all my potential so I can't REALLY complain that I know all these people who did. Maybe if I manage to own my own bakery/cake shop I won't be quite as much of a loser. And when I'm married with kids I'll be less of a loser then, too. So there are a few things that I can do to work my way up the loser ladder... But I'll probably always be a few rungs down from being a forensic scientist.
Just to give you a picture of what my friends have been doing: Well, lots of them are married but at least I'm engaged so I'm not too loser-y in that aspect. Plenty of them have children which I think is a lot of work and pretty much automatically makes you less of a loser... Assuming that you're taking care of them, etc., which my friends are doing. We're gonna wait till after we get married to add that aspect into our lives. Then there are the jobs... This is where I'm a big loser.
One friend is a forensic scientist who does crime scene investigation. Two friends are optometrists and one of them has her own practice while the other travels and works in the military. Another friend is writing a novel. Yet another friend just started a vinyl wall art business from her home and her stuff is super cute. (Check out her Etsy page! I love, love, love her cupcakes wall art.) Then I have another 6 or so friends who also own their own businesses plus some who don't own a business per se, but still work out of their homes doing things like beautifying people's hair- yep, that's you, Stacy. Add to that all the friends who are still in school pursuing masters degrees and PhDs in everything from physical therapy to orthodontics to foreign languages and social sciences... I'm sure there are more that I just don't even know about.
What do I do? Oh, I make cakes and cookies. Honestly, pastry chef is just a nice word for over-educated-baker-who-sometimes-does-cool-stuff. And I'm not really even a pastry chef at the moment! I'm between jobs, preparing for a move. GAAAAH! LOSER! I like what I do but sometimes I realize that I actually do have more potential that I just didn't want to use.
And maybe that's what it really all comes down to. I didn't care to use all my potential so I can't REALLY complain that I know all these people who did. Maybe if I manage to own my own bakery/cake shop I won't be quite as much of a loser. And when I'm married with kids I'll be less of a loser then, too. So there are a few things that I can do to work my way up the loser ladder... But I'll probably always be a few rungs down from being a forensic scientist.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Today Is Branden's Brithday
He is 29 years old! Don't believe him when he says he's only 25, it's a big lie.
We're not doing anything particularly special today. I made him spaghetti for dinner- his choice- and gave him the Zippo I purchased almost two months ago. This weekend we have dinner plans. It's not anything big or crazy, just a few friends at a fun restaurant. He doesn't like anyone to make a big deal out of his birthday but I'm not one who can let it go unnoticed. He also doesn't like surprises, so he's been in on all planning except for that of his gift.
Happy Birthday, My Love!
We're not doing anything particularly special today. I made him spaghetti for dinner- his choice- and gave him the Zippo I purchased almost two months ago. This weekend we have dinner plans. It's not anything big or crazy, just a few friends at a fun restaurant. He doesn't like anyone to make a big deal out of his birthday but I'm not one who can let it go unnoticed. He also doesn't like surprises, so he's been in on all planning except for that of his gift.
Happy Birthday, My Love!
Where Have I Been?
I was on vacation! Yes, I realize that I am unemployed but my parents gave Branden and I- along with Katie and Tyler- a week at the condo up here in Park City for Christmas and we chose last week long before I knew I was going to be without job. So on Mother's Day Katie, Tyler, Josh, Branden and I all arrived at the condo with high hopes for a relaxing week. Unfortunately, Branden couldn't actually take any time off work. Since he basically gets paid on commission he had to be there to have any chance at earning the money he will need to pay rent for our last month in this house.
Still, he and Tyler started out the trip by taking Josh exploring up and down all the hallways. Together they discovered the pool, the game room many laundry rooms and many, many closed doors. Katie and I joined them a little later and all together we found the adult relaxation pool and the fitness center. After all that excitement, the last thing Josh wanted to do was go swimming so while everyone else enjoyed the pools, I took Josh back to the room to settle in a bit. We all crawled into bed fairly late that night as noone was quite ready to calm down.
Monday Mom came up and we all spent the day around the pool. She and I played games while everyone else was swimming. Josh saw the others having fun and finally decided that swimming could be ok. From that point on he became a little fish. He loved swimming and Katie was thrilled to take him to the pool every chance she got.
On Tuesday Katie and I took him to Wheeler Historic Farm. It was great! There's no fee for admittance and you are free to wander about the farm and look at animals, old buildings and other exhibits as much as you'd like. For $1.50 each you can ride around the woods in a wagon pulled by a tractor. For another $1.50 you can tour the historic farm house... But we got to go in for free because one of the workers was really awesome. :) For $0.50 you can buy a bag of wheat to feed the ducks and geese. Some of the geese were tame enough to eat right out of our hands. There were also pairs of wild geese with little goslings. They were the most fun to feed because the goslings were so cute. In total, I spent $1.50 and Katie spent $4 for a day that was just as fun as the zoo.
We spent Wednesday relaxing around the resort and then went out to dinner on Park City's Historic Main Street. We got up there too late to look around the shops very much but that was ok. We had a delicious dinner thanks to Tyler's mom Sharon who gave us a gift card. On Thursday, Katie and Tyler were able to pick up his now-fixed car from the body shop in SLC. They spent the afternoon at the Gateway Center. I was more than happy to sit in the condo and read and relax alone. I'm not accustomed to spending so much time around people and needed a little break. That evening Katie and Tyler went out to eat at Szeschwan Kitchen while Branden took me out for the first of three dates... Though at the time I didn't know there'd be three and I was just happy to be on one. We ate at Loco Lizard- one of his favorite restaurants up here- and had a chance to talk about life and our wedding- just over 16 months to go!
On Friday, Tyler watched Josh for a couple hours so Katie and I could go out to a movie. We saw "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" and I actually laughed out loud. After we got back to the condo, Chantelle, Jackie and Jackie's mom Janis arrived for a short visit and dinner. Later that night, Branden took me out on a dessert date to Ruby Tuesday's. Saturday morning Katie and I made breakfast for the boys then we went our seperate ways. Katie and Tyler spent their last full day there wandering around Main Street.
Branden and I met up with Rick and Abby down in SLC to find things for their wedding cake- we live near PC so it wasn't really a big deal to us to spend the last day there. After much discussion and brainstorming we think we've found a way to make their cake really work. I'm not going to divulge our plans right now just in case it doesn't work... but if it does it'll be HANDS DOWN the coolest cake I've ever made. When Rick and Abby headed off to do their own thing, Branden and I went shopping for a little while and then out on our third date: Famous Dave's BBQ. I'm not a huge fan of BBQ so it was a treat for him to get it. That night I went swimming for the first time since our arrival- I bought the suit while shopping- and we stayed up way to late trying to soak the last bits of enjoyment from our trip.
Sunday we packed the cars and said our good-byes... After a minor incident when Katie's car wouldn't start and we nearly melted the electrical systems in both her car and mine by accident. No, Katie and I were not at fault on that one. The boys managed to make both our batteries smoke and melted my jumper cables all by themselves.
All in all, a great week. Everyone but me went swimming at least once a day. Branden and Tyler went to the relaxation pool almost every night. Josh was adorable and he even let me put him to bed one night. I didn't sleep in even one day, but it was worth being up to spend that early-waking-up time with Katie and Josh. We made and ate good food, we laughed together, we watched TV (Josh is totally addicted to cartoons), and most of all we took some time to enjoy life.
Still, he and Tyler started out the trip by taking Josh exploring up and down all the hallways. Together they discovered the pool, the game room many laundry rooms and many, many closed doors. Katie and I joined them a little later and all together we found the adult relaxation pool and the fitness center. After all that excitement, the last thing Josh wanted to do was go swimming so while everyone else enjoyed the pools, I took Josh back to the room to settle in a bit. We all crawled into bed fairly late that night as noone was quite ready to calm down.
Monday Mom came up and we all spent the day around the pool. She and I played games while everyone else was swimming. Josh saw the others having fun and finally decided that swimming could be ok. From that point on he became a little fish. He loved swimming and Katie was thrilled to take him to the pool every chance she got.
On Tuesday Katie and I took him to Wheeler Historic Farm. It was great! There's no fee for admittance and you are free to wander about the farm and look at animals, old buildings and other exhibits as much as you'd like. For $1.50 each you can ride around the woods in a wagon pulled by a tractor. For another $1.50 you can tour the historic farm house... But we got to go in for free because one of the workers was really awesome. :) For $0.50 you can buy a bag of wheat to feed the ducks and geese. Some of the geese were tame enough to eat right out of our hands. There were also pairs of wild geese with little goslings. They were the most fun to feed because the goslings were so cute. In total, I spent $1.50 and Katie spent $4 for a day that was just as fun as the zoo.
We spent Wednesday relaxing around the resort and then went out to dinner on Park City's Historic Main Street. We got up there too late to look around the shops very much but that was ok. We had a delicious dinner thanks to Tyler's mom Sharon who gave us a gift card. On Thursday, Katie and Tyler were able to pick up his now-fixed car from the body shop in SLC. They spent the afternoon at the Gateway Center. I was more than happy to sit in the condo and read and relax alone. I'm not accustomed to spending so much time around people and needed a little break. That evening Katie and Tyler went out to eat at Szeschwan Kitchen while Branden took me out for the first of three dates... Though at the time I didn't know there'd be three and I was just happy to be on one. We ate at Loco Lizard- one of his favorite restaurants up here- and had a chance to talk about life and our wedding- just over 16 months to go!
On Friday, Tyler watched Josh for a couple hours so Katie and I could go out to a movie. We saw "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" and I actually laughed out loud. After we got back to the condo, Chantelle, Jackie and Jackie's mom Janis arrived for a short visit and dinner. Later that night, Branden took me out on a dessert date to Ruby Tuesday's. Saturday morning Katie and I made breakfast for the boys then we went our seperate ways. Katie and Tyler spent their last full day there wandering around Main Street.
Branden and I met up with Rick and Abby down in SLC to find things for their wedding cake- we live near PC so it wasn't really a big deal to us to spend the last day there. After much discussion and brainstorming we think we've found a way to make their cake really work. I'm not going to divulge our plans right now just in case it doesn't work... but if it does it'll be HANDS DOWN the coolest cake I've ever made. When Rick and Abby headed off to do their own thing, Branden and I went shopping for a little while and then out on our third date: Famous Dave's BBQ. I'm not a huge fan of BBQ so it was a treat for him to get it. That night I went swimming for the first time since our arrival- I bought the suit while shopping- and we stayed up way to late trying to soak the last bits of enjoyment from our trip.
Sunday we packed the cars and said our good-byes... After a minor incident when Katie's car wouldn't start and we nearly melted the electrical systems in both her car and mine by accident. No, Katie and I were not at fault on that one. The boys managed to make both our batteries smoke and melted my jumper cables all by themselves.
All in all, a great week. Everyone but me went swimming at least once a day. Branden and Tyler went to the relaxation pool almost every night. Josh was adorable and he even let me put him to bed one night. I didn't sleep in even one day, but it was worth being up to spend that early-waking-up time with Katie and Josh. We made and ate good food, we laughed together, we watched TV (Josh is totally addicted to cartoons), and most of all we took some time to enjoy life.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
James Will Graduate on May 26th
I received James' graduation announcement today. I can't believe that my youngest brother is going to be finished with high school in less than one month. He was getting ready for the summer between third and fourth grade when I graduated from high school.
He's a great kid: An Eagle Scout; Loves his mom; Respects girls; Puts up with his sisters; Entertains his nephews; Holds strongly to his beliefs; Takes responsibility for his actions. Mom and Dad deserved to get a kid like him after all the rest of us... Well, the rest of us before Chantelle. She's a good kid, as well.
Congratulations, James!... Not that I ever expected that you wouldn't make it.
He's a great kid: An Eagle Scout; Loves his mom; Respects girls; Puts up with his sisters; Entertains his nephews; Holds strongly to his beliefs; Takes responsibility for his actions. Mom and Dad deserved to get a kid like him after all the rest of us... Well, the rest of us before Chantelle. She's a good kid, as well.
Congratulations, James!... Not that I ever expected that you wouldn't make it.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Angry Bee In My House
There is a very large, very furry and VERY angry bee in my laundry room right now. It got in through a gap between the window and a board that is normally taped up but isn't right now because there's an extension cord running through it. It's all very complicated and has to do with why my kitchen is still a mess and the laundry room is in disarray.
The real point is that there is a bee in there. And it's angry. And I need to get the quilt out of the washer and hang it to dry but I won't be going back in there till Branden gets the bee out. Which means I won't hang the quilt till tomorrow. I hope it's still nice outside so I can. Thankfully the door to the laundry room closes again so the bee can't get into my kitchen.
Branden has been working at the mechanic shop. Actually working- some of the time at least- and bringing home a little money. Not much. It's kinda like being paid on commission. He gets paid by the working hour. In other words, if work comes in a he can do it he earns a little money and messes with my/his truck in the slow time. He doesn't know how to do a lot right now, but it's cool that they're letting him work and he's learning. This could really help us in the long run. It'll mean that I will rarely have to call a plumber and maybe only have to take my car in to a mechanic for big stuff and really never have to take my computer to someone to get it fixed and he can do basic electrical stuff and sheet-rocking and all sorts of useful things. It's really great that I found such a useful man. :)
Good thing I can cook and bake and sew a little and clean, etc. Those are all the things he can't do. Ok, he probably CAN clean and he claims he can cook, but he'll go without eating most of the time if I don't cook for him and getting him to clean is no easy task. He does take out the garbage, though.
So Branden's still not home from the shop, I've got dinner in the oven and a bee in my laundry room. Honestly, if I weren't allergic to hornets I might try to get the bee out of there myself. But I AM allergic and don't really want to find out if I'm allergic to any other stinging things.
The real point is that there is a bee in there. And it's angry. And I need to get the quilt out of the washer and hang it to dry but I won't be going back in there till Branden gets the bee out. Which means I won't hang the quilt till tomorrow. I hope it's still nice outside so I can. Thankfully the door to the laundry room closes again so the bee can't get into my kitchen.
Branden has been working at the mechanic shop. Actually working- some of the time at least- and bringing home a little money. Not much. It's kinda like being paid on commission. He gets paid by the working hour. In other words, if work comes in a he can do it he earns a little money and messes with my/his truck in the slow time. He doesn't know how to do a lot right now, but it's cool that they're letting him work and he's learning. This could really help us in the long run. It'll mean that I will rarely have to call a plumber and maybe only have to take my car in to a mechanic for big stuff and really never have to take my computer to someone to get it fixed and he can do basic electrical stuff and sheet-rocking and all sorts of useful things. It's really great that I found such a useful man. :)
Good thing I can cook and bake and sew a little and clean, etc. Those are all the things he can't do. Ok, he probably CAN clean and he claims he can cook, but he'll go without eating most of the time if I don't cook for him and getting him to clean is no easy task. He does take out the garbage, though.
So Branden's still not home from the shop, I've got dinner in the oven and a bee in my laundry room. Honestly, if I weren't allergic to hornets I might try to get the bee out of there myself. But I AM allergic and don't really want to find out if I'm allergic to any other stinging things.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
The Only Part Of The Moving Story I Will Tell Now
If my mention of moving away in my last blog confused anyone, don't feel left out of the loop. I haven't mentioned this to a lot of people. In fact, I have pretty much only told my immediate family and Branden/my family has told any others who know. If you didn't know, it's not because I don't care about you.
We're moving to St. Louis, MO at the end of June. There. Now it's out.
I have purposely not told the whole story here on my blog. A few reasons*: 1) It's hard to explain why we're moving all the way out there. 2) I get sick of having people trying to talk me into staying. 3) Not all plans are finalized so there's not a lot to tell.
There are more reasons, but I don't feel like getting into them at this time... Just like I don't feel like telling the whole story here and now, either. I'll write about it later when I can give better details.
*Kazia, I purposely wrote a numbered list just for you! Remember how you guys used to make fun of me for always having multiple answers? Yeah, those were some fun times. I really miss working with you and Danta... Don't miss the other crap that went with the job, but do miss you two.
We're moving to St. Louis, MO at the end of June. There. Now it's out.
I have purposely not told the whole story here on my blog. A few reasons*: 1) It's hard to explain why we're moving all the way out there. 2) I get sick of having people trying to talk me into staying. 3) Not all plans are finalized so there's not a lot to tell.
There are more reasons, but I don't feel like getting into them at this time... Just like I don't feel like telling the whole story here and now, either. I'll write about it later when I can give better details.
*Kazia, I purposely wrote a numbered list just for you! Remember how you guys used to make fun of me for always having multiple answers? Yeah, those were some fun times. I really miss working with you and Danta... Don't miss the other crap that went with the job, but do miss you two.
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