Birthday Bashing

Did you know that it was my birthday on Saturday? I'm 24 now.

Guess who did know it was my birthday? My visiting teacher! Look at these big, beautiful flowers she brought me!

See that flower right above the rose, but below the carnation? Anybody know what that's called? I adore it!

Notice the vase is a pitcher. I have a vase. I do. Just not one that would hold the bounty properly.

The birthday celebrating began Thursday night, when my visiting teacher came over and brought with her these gorgeous flowers. I was so thrilled! I promptly displayed them on my kitchen table and enjoyed them all week long. I LOVED having fresh flowers in my house, and I plan to have them around more often. I plan to have a garden full of lots of flowers that I can cut and put in my house weekly. I can't wait until that happens!

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).

Look, here we are!

We tried about 9,845,782,349,348 times to get a good picture, but it wasn't easy. Cheese!

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. 

Thanks to everyone for birthday wishes!! I had a great day! Hugs and Kisses!!!

Cake Decorating: The Final Installment

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.

Arise

This morning was pretty good. First of all, I have to say, I LOVE my mattress. I love that it's mine. That only Josh and I have ever slept on it, and it's only 3 days old. I love that it's a Queen, and I no longer have to turn sideways to get to my clothes in my dresser. I love that Josh thought of it all by himself, and that we finally made it happen. I love that since I got my mattress, I got to put another $2 in my vacation account. I love that I have a vacation account.

I love that I went to bed early enough last night that it wasn't too painful to get up this morning. Especially when I smelled Fall on the breath of Summer. It's coming, and I'm excited. I've loved Summer. The warm, bright Sun that burns my skin and kisses me good morning. However, this morning, the Sun was not itself. It hid behind the clouds a little longer than it usually does, and I loved it. I love the overcast mornings when the Sun lazily makes its way up into its usual spot. The warm Summery afternoons, when it's still hot enough to wear sandals. I love to get up before the Sun. There is a secret, a mystery to it. Still, I'm torn. I love to have the Sun wake me up as it pours through my bedroom window, tickling my toes and prodding me out of bed.

I can tell Fall is coming, and I'm happy. I can tell Summer is going, and I'm sad.

I can also tell another post is coming, something about my final cake decorating class... check back later!

Wedding Receptions With Style

A friend of mine, Sarah, (from work) got married on Friday night. She is from Washington and her husband is from SLC. Sarah's FIL is one of our HR assistants, and Sarah is working in my former position. Sarah and her husband Corey met on their mission in Vanuatu (Fiji). So, I decided I would drive to Saratoga Springs (whuh??) for the reception. I had no directions. Just the invitation with the address. Apparently, the people doing the invitations told her that nobody sends out maps anymore because everyone has GPS. Ummm, hello? By raise of hands, how many of you have GPS? That's what I thought. Back to my story.

So Friday after work, I picked up the two paintings we bought her (everyone in her two depts. went in on a painting of Christ for her, since she said that was something they would like), went home, changed my clothes, stuffed a cheese quesadilla down my gullet, and rushed out the door. I got on I-15 South and started on my way. Then it occurred to me, I don't actually know where Saratoga Springs is. But it's down there by Provo, right? Right. So I called a friend whom I thought lived in Saratoga Springs, only to realize, she lives in Springville. I'm sorry, but I don't think Brother Brigham would have put two cities with "Spring" in their names so close to each other. I mean, he came up with the grid system, so what are we doing to the fantastic system that Brother Brigham set up for us? Anywho...moving on. I called my Dad next, because I thought one of his friends lived in Saratoga Springs. Wrong again - he lives in Spring City, or was it Santaquin? All these "S" Cities have my brain tangled. So I asked my Dad if he knew where Saratoga Springs was. Once again, no luck, except he said he thought it was South and West of Lehi. Okay, now I was set. I could totally find Lehi.

I started rounding point of the mountain and there was a little storm. It last about 10 seconds of driving, and then it stopped - which I was thankful for. Raindrops were crashing down on my windshield so hard and so fast, it was a little difficult to see anything besides puddles on my windshield. So,I found the Lehi exit, and off I went into the little town named after a goodly parent. I headed South until I thought I was about as South as I dared go in Lehi, so I decided to take a major street and head West for awhile. So I found "Main St. " and off I went. I curved around a roundabout wannabe and kept heading West. Thinking I was about to get lost, I turned on Saratoga Road. That has to get me to Saratoga Springs, right?? Right! I just didn't realize how wrong that assumption was. I passed a few housing developments, but none were "Mirror Lake", so I kept on driving. One cow. Two cows. 4 cows... Hay. Hay. More hay. I was starting to get worried - until - I drove right into Saratoga Springs. I was so happy! I'd found it. Just as my Supervisor (my "work Mom") picked up the phone I drove over the yellow speed bumps in the Saratoga Springs Private Community. Thank heavens! I'd found Saratoga Springs, and all I had to do now, was find Mirror Lake Circle. Uh-huh.

I drove past a swimming pool and a party, and stopped to ask someone if he knew where Mirror Lake Circle was. He's not from here, so he has no idea. Drive, drive, drive...find another person and ask them. I asked a teenager who just finished slobbering on his girlfriends face in time for her to drive away, if he knew where Mirror Lake Circle was. He had no idea, but he had a Mom. I handed him the wedding invitation, and next thing I know, the Mom comes out to help me. She had NO idea where it was. Turns out, Saratoga Springs is more than just a private community. There is a LOT more to it than that little subdivision I found. Bummer. So she says to me, "I'm sorry, I don't know where this is. Do you have a GPS?" I tell her no. She then continues, "Well I have a GPS in my hummer. You could just take that and drop it off when you're finished?" I gasped, choked, coughed, and got a little dizzy all while vehemently saying "Absolutely NOT!". Seriously, I would have crashed that car. It was a HUMMER! Who offers a total stranger a HUMMER???? Sheesh!! So she points me in the direction to Redwood Road. "Go back out the way you came. Go straight until you see a road where you can turn left. It will curve around and it will look like you are in the middle of nowhere. Follow that road, and at the 'Stop' sign, turn left. That will be Redwood Road".

As soon as I got turned around, I called my Supervisor again. I happened to glance down and notice that my cell phone was running on empty. I found my way to Redwood Road and headed South, as directed. I drove, and drove, and drove. I found another private community, a couple of schools, a LOT of hay, a few cows, and then I realized I was now on Main St. Wait, what? I was just on Redwood Road! My gas gauge was getting a little low, and I was getting worried. I'm pretty sure I would have run out of gas miles before I found civilization again. I panicked and called my Supervisor a 3rd time. She told me to stay on Redwood Road and there would be an intersection where a Wal-Mart intimidated a Smith's. Drive, drive, drive. Lost, lost, lost. I call again. I turn around, and head the other direction. I find Redwood Road and drive North until I find the golden intersection. I've NEVER been happier to see a Wal-Mart. My supervisor instructs me to wait in the Smith's parking lot, and she and her husband will pick me up, and take me the rest of the way. Best news I heard all day!

They picked me up just as it started to sprinkle again, and right before my cell phone completely died. We headed South. Suddenly, it all looked familiar. I passed the same fields, the same cows, the same schools, and ended up on the same Main St. I was on the same road again! We kept driving. About 7 miles from the Wal-Mart, we finally found our destination. It turns out, another co-worker had also called my Supervisor a few times. When Sarah told our Supervisor it was 'just past the Wal-Mart/Smith's intersection', we all failed to realize that her "just past" is like our "way down there".

We eventually found it, and it wasn't raining when we got there. It was a beautiful house with a really pretty view. It overlooks Utah Lake with a Mountain backdrop. As the Sun dropped further and further, the lake began to sparkle, and it was very pretty. Pretty soon, the mosquitoes came out. We didn't spend a whole lot of time out there. By the time we noticed the mosquitoes, we made a quick exit. They were viscious! They attacked our faces, went straight for the eyes! Dirty bugs! We jetted back to the car, and I started counting my battle wounds. 8 bites on my legs, and 1 on my arm. They dropped me back off at my car, where luckily, there was a gas station a hop, a skip, and a jump, away from where I parked. I itched and scratched until finally, with a full tank of gas, a bottle of water, and some bluegrass tunes blasting, I was finally on my way. I started to make my way down the street they told me would lead to I-15. It started to look familiar too. Oh! There was Saratoga Road! Once again, I found myself on Main St. in Lehi, rounding a roundabout wannabe. It was 1 hour and 15 minutes from the time I left the freeway until the time I pulled into the wedding reception. It was about 15 minutes from the time I left the Smith's until I was once again on the freeway. Huh. Go figure.

Feeling a little groggy, I was glad I guzzled my water. My bladder took the responsibility of keeping me awake the whole way home. I got home, and immediately collapsed on the couch, kicked off my shoes, and finished my chocolate cake. As soon as the last bite slid down my throat, I slipped off into dreamland. A place where you never need directions, and mosquitoes bring you ice cream instead of suck your blood.

Faustina's

We acknowledge birthdays in our office with 2 celebrations. During a person's birth month, we take them to lunch (our treat), as well as "birthday treats" complete with signed birthday cards for the birthday people and many interpretations of the word "treat". The former is done just as a department, the latter is done with the Actuary Department (The International and Actuary Departments have been on the same floor for many years now, and we all know each other quite well now).

Since my birthday is this month (4.5 days and don't you forget it!), I got to choose where to go, and they bought lunch for me. Tired of the same old haunts at The Gateway mixed with the occasional though somewhat frequent visits to The Garden (yes, my former place of employment), I asked for input. I got some excellent recommendations, one of which was Faustina's. It is on 454 East 300 South in Salt Lake City. Any item on the lunch menu is $10 and includes ice cream and berries for dessert. The dinner menu is $25 (and doesn't include dessert, but if it's your birthday - they will give you FREE dessert!) and I'm guessing larger portions of the same items on the lunch menu, as well as a few extra items.

I looked at the menu online and was immediately taken with the House-made Acorn Squash Ravioli with sweet orange browned butter sauce and butternut squash. Then I looked at the Chicken Cordon Bleu Panini which sounded fantastic. The Turkey Burger also caught my eye, served with cranberry sauce. I even saw that they had Sweet Potato Chips. Okay, those were really good! I finally decided to try the Chicken Cordon Bleu Panini and upgrade to the Smoked Sonoma Chicken Salad (for an extra $2) instead of the regular house salad. Wow. It was good. Our server Frederik recommended the Smoked Sonoma Chicken Salad. It had arugula, spring greens, apples, dried blueberries, goat cheese, toasted almond slices, smoked Chicken, and a balsamic reduction type dressing. It was really delicious. (It is also served as an entree). The fact that it came with dessert made the price seem not so bad. I'm still thinking about the ravioli...

Not only was the food delicious enough to keep me thinking about it today, but the surroundings were fun as well. The brightly colored paintings and metal "leaves" in the middle of the restaurant made it feel fresh and modern. They also have quite a bit of seating outside on the patio, which was lovely.

All around, it was a lovely experience, and it allowed me to tick one more new place off of my list. That was equally exciting. Okay, not equally, the food was pretty good. I think I'll have to drag Josh there on a Saturday afternoon sometime.

Cake Decorating Part Deux

Josh and I went piano shopping a few weeks ago, and just as we were nearing our destination, Josh got pulled over. The policeman pulled us over for "expired registration". Oh yeah, we're supposed to do that in June, huh. Josh gives him his license and our registration and the policeman says, "You know this is expired, right?". Lucky for us, that fit-as-a-fiddle policeman only gave us 2 warnings. Nag that I am, I've been trying to convince Josh to get it registered since then. Fast forward.

Saturday I realize I will need to bake a cake and make some frosting for Monday. Sunday comes, and I realize, hey! I have no crisco, so no frosting. Luckily, my Mom was kind and gave me 2 cups of Crisco so I could make my frosting and be prepared for my class. Monday morning strolls around, and I remember I haven't made cakes, and I haven't made frosting. Uh oh. Lucky for me, Josh hasn't started school yet, so he was kind enough to bake my cakes for me. They said we could take 8 cupcakes or an 8-inch round cake. So I took a 9-inch round cake. 1/2 of one. :) I'm not sure how he did it, but Josh managed to bake a couple of beauties. Well, they were beauties until he popped them out of the pan. He burned them. Once again, I was headed to class with a burnt cake. He made a white cake, so it was much more noticeable than the chocolate. Eh, who cares. I think we're pretty much sick of cake at our house anyway.

Josh texted me at work and said he needed to switch cars with me, because he had to take his Dad to drop his car off at the shop. That means, he didn't register the car. So I came home for lunch to switch cars. While I was home, I whipped up a batch of frosting. I started by digging out the biggest bowl we own. Since it was so big, I had to clear a little space on the counter. So I chucked the other half of last Monday's cake. I wiped down the counters and got to mixing. Ya know, Crisco is disgusting. It looks creamy and delcious, but really it's just gross. I was in a bit of a hurry so I didn't have time to add a tiny bit of powdered sugar, then mix; add, mix; add, mix; add, mix; add, mix; etc. So I added, mixed; added, mixed; added mixed. I think I almost burned out the motor on my hand mixer! (Have I ever mentioned how much I want a KitchenAid Mixer?? Have I mentioned my birthday is in 2 days? ;) ). That lard mixed with powdered sugar was not exactly interested in mixing.

I finally got it all mixed in, and seeing how I still had (have...) 4 containers of colored frosting in my fridge, I decided I didn't need to color the frosting. Let me just say, that icing was stiffer than a dead body! I had to add SO much water. I got it to the point where I figured if I thinned it out anymore, it wouldn't qualify as "stiff" and my roses (stiff consistency is a must for those beauties) would look like they had been in the Sun for 7 straight years with no water. Droopy and dead.

I took a chunk of frosting, and thinned it down to "medium". This consistency I actually got down pretty well. Then I took another chunk, and thinned it down to "thin". I iced my cake, and it was SO much easier than last week. I say it's the frosting, but Josh would probably say it was the perfectly round cakes he made. I have to be honest, I've never baked a cake that looked anywhere close to perfect. I think that's the first time he's ever baked a round cake and he nailed it! Anyway... I took the frosting from last week out of the fridge to soften, shoved a leftover taco/burrito thing down my gullet, and ran out the door back to work. Of course, I had to stop at the bank first. I think I prayed the entire 16 minute drive, that I wouldn't get pulled over.

On the way home from work, I realized I was lucky to not have been pulled over in the unregistered car yet, so I stopped at Jiffy Lube, hoping they could register it in a "jiffy". They did pretty well, I'll be honest. There were two cars in line ahead of me, so I asked if they could get me out by 4:50. They agreed, I agreed, so I waited (kinda) patiently and zipped out of there so I could get back to teach my 5:00 p.m. lesson. I was home right at 5:00, but had asked my student to come five minutes late so I could clean up the front room. I didn't tell them that was why though. :D I was getting nervous. It was 5:12 before we started the lesson, and I was super nervous that I wouldn't finish in time to pack the rest of my stuff up before heading out. Lucky for me, it all worked out perfectly, and I was early to my class. I was set up and ran out to buy a tip I didn't have, but needed, for that evening's class.

I sit down. I work up my courage and say to my teacher, "So Rhea, do you live in Rose Park?" She lives on a Street just North of me. She hands me the roll, then looks at my name. "Oh, so are you related to Cliff and Lee?". Yup. I knew it. I can't go anywhere without someone knowing my Dad, or my FIL. I chuckled. She was much nicer to me during class this week. She helped me when I ripped my disposable bag trying to screw the tip to the coupler, she used my bag of icing for demonstrations, she helped me correct my mistakes. I'm pretty sure last week, she had given up all hope for me, so this was a welcome change! Thanks Cliff and Lee!! :D

I filled bags of white icing, practiced the drop flower, piping figures, and shell borders, and I hummed to myself as others complimented me on all my pretty frosting colors and how organized I was. Lol. If only they knew! I sat by the girl who has her professional cake decorator friend bake and ice her cakes. I laughed as she put too much color in her frosting and was constantly licking stuff until it turned her tongue (and braces) a vivid purple. I laughed as Rhea perused the "Wilton" aisle in Michael's finding more stuff that was "extremely useful" for this, that, or the other, and also cost an arm, leg, and half my torso.

Then, we practiced our roses. Oops. That's what I was supposed to practice at home...Since I never mastered (or even correctly accomplished) Step 1 of the rose, Step 2 was nigh unto impossible. You need stiff icing for it to stand up, so I whipped out my fresh batch of stark white stiff frosting. Ummm, yeah. A little too cadaver-like. I couldn't get it to work. Then she told me I had my tip upside down. Okay, I thought that would fix my problem. Then, I wasn't turning my flower nail enough. Then I started it too far back in my hand. Then I turned it too much. Then my icing was so stiff it wouldn't turn as I tried to wrap the second layer of frosting around the "base" of the flower. It cracked and popped, and pretty soon, we were moving on. Then she told us to "practice your roses while you're watching a television show". Ummm??? No. I prefer to read, and you can't read and frost at the same time. It's now Thursday and I still haven't practiced... By the time I finish 2 hours of feeling like a cake-baking/frosting fool, I don't have the energy to try again. I don't want to see crisco frosting again for another 6 days. So I don't practice, and I continue to be a cake-baking/frosting fool in every sense of the phrase.

Having been somewhat successful, or at least extremely awed by "drop flowers", that was what I decided to put on my cake. She told us if we twist the tip, they look more like "plumeria's than stars". So I practiced. First, I twisted too much, then I didn't twist enough, and finally, I twisted JUST RIGHT, and then we moved on. So I scattered cornflower blue drop flower one after the other until my cake was sprinkled with them. Then I remembered that she told us if we put a bunch of drop flowers together, they look like hydrangeas. So I tried that. Until I realized, 1/2 a cake's worth of drop flowers does NOT equal hydrangeas. I tried to fix it by NOT filling in the bottom, just leaving them scattered. Thinking it needed something else, I used my Moss Green frosting (yes, from the week before) to make "vines/leaves/stems/pistons" connecting my drop flowers. Umm, it looked pretty bad, so I picked off about half of the green squiggly hastily made lines.

Knowing I could do a lot more to make it worse, but nothing to make it better (besides eat it all before the teacher could see), I decided to clean up for the night. Rhea came over and stood over top of my cake for about 5 minutes. I think she was trying to figure out what the crap I did to my cake. I sheepishly focused on packing my bag while she stood, brow furrowed, hands behind her back, lips persed, trying to decipher the Picasso-esque drop flower hydrangea disaster.

I said "thank you" and rushed out the door, trying to convince myself I might actually have to practice this week. Wish me luck for next week! So, with nothing left to say, here are the pictures:

Drop Flower Disaster

Close Ups

P.S. The best thing I ever did, was buy those extra 8 couplers. Made my life SO much better! Now if I can only learn how to put a coupler and a tip on the bag without ripping it so piping bursts out the side of the bag.

Main St. and Memory Lane

Today I took a trip. My first stop was the Vienna Bistro on Main St. My destination was my Dad's new office just next door, but I ended up somewhere completely different. I haven't seen my Dad's office since he moved in, and since the ZCMI/Crossroads malls have been demolished, I don't find myself stopping by his office anymore. So today, we met for lunch at the Vienna Bistro (I only work about a block away). I've been there before, but today I ordered something new! I tried the Chicken Roladen with spatzle and blaukraut. It was delicious!!!

My Dad offered me a chocolate peppermint pattie, and I munched on it while I looked around his new office. Though not everything is unpacked yet, a few treasures sparked my memory. I sat down at my Dad's desk to look at his (AWESOME) computer screens, and he gently pulled open the top drawer on the left side. There was a little cardboard box of little toy cars. I was suddenly transported to Memory Lane and sat there pushing those cars along the cabinets, the windowsills, the carpet, bookshelves, anything I could find. My mouth was the motor as these cars drove throughout the office. I chuckled as I pulled out the silver car. The doors open. I had forgotten about it, and was so thrilled when I pulled open the tiny doors and peered inside at the red interior of that little car. It was a quick trip to Memory Lane, but as I walked back up Main St. toward my own office, I glanced at my watch thinking a couple of hours had passed, I was shocked to see it had only been one hour. I returned to my desk with a little bounce in my step, a lighter attitude, and a more genuine smile.

Cake Decorating Numero Uno

On my 101 list of things to do, you'll find "Take a Cake Decorating Class". I've been wanting to take a class for a long time now, but haven't done much about it. I got an email from Michael's (the craft store) announcing that Cake Decorating Classes were 40% off during the month of August. That made them only $27 for 4 weeks. I thought that was a reasonable price, and it was a night of the week that I could make it work. So, Mondays from 6:30-8:30 p.m. I try my hand at decorating.

How's it going? Let me put it this way. I burned my cake (2 9-inch round chocolate cakes), and they were uneven. They had little peaks and valleys. :( So I tried to cut off the top to level out the cake and make it a flat surface all the way across. Did I ever mention I failed kindergarten? That lesson about cutting straight lines?? Big fat F. So, my cake was still lopsided - though not so many peaks and valleys. More like a slope. Mudslide would even be accurate.

Then to the frosting. I should have used a bigger bowl to start out. By the time I got the 2 pounds of powdered sugar in the bowl, I looked like a ghost. Powdered sugar everywhere. I definitely should have used a bigger bowl. Now I know...

Since I made stiff frosting, I need to water some parts of it down to make medium and thin frosting for different decorating techniques. Hint: if you pour water in the bowl and just start mixing - you get wet. Try stirring it around a little first. Then to the coloring of the frosting. I used my gel colors and got some pretty neat colors. I used a little too much "lemon yellow" and ended up with a very bright-and-almost-blinding yellow for my cake. I also mixed "royal blue", "cornflower blue", and "moss green". I planned wholeheartedly to use each of these colors on my cake.

Cake iced, frosting mixed and colored, bag packed, I was ready. I headed off to class and got there just in time. Everyone else was already set up (my student stayed and chatted awhile after lesson, so I left a little later than usual) when I got there, so I already felt behind. Then I had to go buy my practice board. (I was going to just make one, but that didn't happen.) I felt behind all class. I forgot my scissors, and since I had colored my frosting, I had to switch bags everytime I wanted a different consistency of frosting. That was awful. I thought I only brought one coupler, so it took me forever to wipe it off, clean it out, get a new bag, fill it, etc. Not to mention the first bag I filled - I forgot the coupler all together. I just had a very "off" night. When i was putting everything away, I found a second coupler in the bottom of my bag. Excellent. I had already resolved that the second class was over and I was cleaned up, I would buy extra couplers. At 50 cents a pop, I felt I could spring for 8. Yes, 8. Never again will I spend half the class switching couplers and colored frosting. We practiced using our star tip, writing, curved border lines with the star tip, and dots. Surprisingly enough, the dots take skill. Oh, and we learned the bottom of the flower. By the way - my flower nail? Too small. I have the wrong size. I plan to be prepared and my frosting in the bags already by the time I get there next week.

So after we learned and practiced everything, we had 30 minutes to decorate our cakes. I looked at my plain white cracked-icing cake and decided with my trusty bag of yellow frosting, I would make a star. Switching tips wasn't as time-consuming as switching colors or consistencies, because I didn't have to switch the coupler. So...I outlined a star (free hand of course) picked off half of it because it was crooked, and tried again. Knowing I didn't want to waste the whole 30 minutes trying to outline a dang star, I settled with 'crooked with character' instead of perfection, and started to fill it in with my star tips. I can definitely tell where my first few stars were, because I could see improvement by the time I filled the whole thing in. Then I tried the curvy border. Failed miserably, but once again - no time to care. Josh would have the cake eaten before I could point out the lines were crooked, so I didn't worry about it. Move on Katie! Then I tried my hand at dots. Some look like tiny yellow hershey's 'Kissables' candies. They have that swoopy part on top. Some, were more successful. After about 5 minutes, my hand got really shaky, and the yellow started to blind. Whew!

So, without further introduction, here is my first cake from cake decorating class.






P.S. For my cake board I took the bottom of a box of bottled water and covered it with foil. Unfortunately, the box had been bendy and opposite corners of it were curling. Perhaps that's why my icing didn't go so well...

Stay tuned for more adventures in Cake Decorating. I'm sure I'll do something else stupid next week. :)

Choose You Own Adventure

Remember those books called Choose Your Own Adventure? You make the choices for the characters? If you choose option a, go to page 45; If you choose option b, go to page 65, etc. I liked those books. I got to choose for the characters. Unfortunately, I don't enjoy choosing for my own character. Instead of just a few options, I often find myself presented with a million different options and possibilities for things.

I've struggled a lot with comparing my life to others, or to what it could have been if only I'd done _______ or if only I hadn't done _______. I realize this is dangerous, and am therefore trying very hard to love the choices I've made.

I wonder how different my life would be now if I had finished my Music degree at WSU. Would I have completed a Masters Degree by now? Would I still have a passion for music? or would I still foster negative feelings perpetuated by the pieces of my heart that broke during my 3 years there.

What if I had gone on a mission? Would I be married now? Would I be a better person? Would I be better at doing some of the daily necessities, like sincere prayer, scripture study (not just "reading"). Would I understand gospel principles better? Would I know a super cool foreign language?

I've wondered how my life would be different if I had gone to a different college, if I had known what I wanted to major in before even starting college (or high school).

I used to wish that I hadn't been born so much later than my brothers and sisters. I used to wish I was closer to my sister, to my Mom. How different would my life be if I were actually 5 years older than I am?

As I've thought about all the decisions I've made, and could have made, I feel content with (most) of the decisions I've made. Not to say that I regret anything necessarily, but there are some choices that may have been better than others. All I can do from this point, is learn from the choices I've made, and do the best I can to make the best choices from now on. I'm happy with my life. I'm happy with my marriage, with the person I married. With our personal decisions regarding school, finances, homes, etc. Yes, there is always room for improvement, and I'm striving to improve. But, as I was driving last night, left alone to my thoughts, I decided I'm happy. Sometimes I wish I could go back and read the Adventure book again and manipulate it to have a different path, but not necessarily the ending.

I'm having an adventure with Josh, and I'm happy he's my adventuresome companion. Together we are exploring uncharted waters, and figuring out the path that is best for both of us. We are learning and growing together, and I couldn't be happier. I'm so afraid that people judge me because I haven't finished school, but the only person I know is judging me -- is me. So really, I'm responsible for the fear that is holding me back. Make sense? I am the creator of the fear that often paralyzes me, and causes me to shut down.

So here's to many more adventures with my best buddy, and no judgements. Just laughter.

New Things

Saturday night, we tried 2 new restaurants. We went to dinner with friends (Trent and Heidi) and enjoyed Asian Cuisine at Cafe Trang. We settled on restaurants none of us had ever been to before, and were quite pleased with our choices. Josh tried the Caramel Pork and I tried the General Tsao's chicken. We were all feeling adventurous, and decided to continue the adventure at The Happy Sumo. We wanted to try sushi, and none of us had been to Happy Sumo before. It was quite the experience...I really wish I would have grabbed the camera on the way out, because we ate some crazy stuff!! We ordered the Montoc Roll and the Rock'n'Roll roll. The Montoc was: Yellowtail & tempura asparagus, topped with avocado, tuna sashimi, wasabi tobiko & eel sauce. The Rock'n Roll: Salmon, cream cheese, crab & avocado rolled in tempura crunchies topped with baked dynamite, Sumo sauce, and green onions.

Any guesses what tobiko is?? Flying fish eggs. Yep. You read that correctly. Flying fish eggs. I tried both rolls. The four of us shared the rolls, because we had already eaten, and just wanted to be a little adventurous. I would say we were successful...agreed? I'm still alive, and haven't been poisoned by all the raw fish - bonus! Trent and Josh tried the tobiko plain, so I wanted in on the bravery, and did the same. Once I crunched down on them, it was like a mouthful of ocean water. It was a little weird...but I really liked the booths at the restaurant. They had curtains that were pulled back. It was super chic and tons of fun. We split 2 mochi balls for dessert. Mmm...I like mochi - even if it feels like eating a wrinkly old person. :D

It was a fantastic weekend! I forgot what it was like to spend time with the husband. Love him! Sunday we had my Dad over for dinner since my Mom is visiting my brother in Texas. We had chicken tacos. Later we made a cake and had Mika and Jarom over to visit. Oh - and Evan. He's a cute little bug. Can't believe the babe is already crawling! And he's super smiley!

Tonight, I start a 4 week Cake Decorating class at Michael's. I'm so excited! Mika is going to come up and go to the classes with me, so I'm extra excited! One more piece of news - I'm SO CLOSE to being all the way caught up on laundry. Seriously! Oh, and we have just one more room with boxes in it still.

That should just about bring you up to speed!