Pink Puke Cake...

We finally had our last fondant/gum paste class tonight. We haven't learned that much & I often think it was a waste of time but it did get me out of the house & do something that I enjoy. Deb & I decided just to make one cake tonight for class instead each of us bringing in a cake. There was less stress on both of us & a bit more fun. I tend to ask Deb a lot of questions & be a bit anal with how my cake looks but tonight Deb did most of the work & I wasn't anal at all.

The funny thing about tonight is that I wasn't going to go but Deb convinced me that I should. I had a much better time than I thought I would. After awhile I found out that I was having trouble speaking. Not literally mind you. For example, at one point I said do you think this looks pretty...but I didn't finish the sentence. I wasn't talking about the cake either but the way I said it sounded like I wanted praise for the cake. Another time I was looking for toothpicks so I could color the fondant but what I asked Deb was do you have any rubberbands? The last thing I looked at was a rubberband in my case so that's what came out. Deb thought I was serious to. I don't know if you'll understand the humor of these things but we were dying laughing on the way home talking about how I wasn't able to speak tonight.

Perkins Wedding

On Friday, Tim, Schane, & I drove to Flagstaff for Tim's brother's wedding. Schane' just happened to be the flower girl, that's why we all went together. We made it to the hotel just in time for Liz to call & say this is where you need to be & you should probably leave now. Good thing we did because Tim gave me wrong directions & we ended up somewhere different. We stopped to ask someone but he just happened to be from out of town & didn't know Flagstaff at all. He did look up the directions on his gps but Tim didn't write anything down so we were still in the dark. Luckily we backtracked & had no further problems.

We had the wedding rehearsal, went to the rehearsal dinner, & then went back to the hotel. We decided not to go out with the gang and took Schane' swimming instead, meaning I took Schane' swimming because Tim won't go swimming. I really wish I hadn't because the water was freezing! I was chilled to the bone for most of the night.

Saturday morning we got up, had breakfast & then Schane' & Tim went back to bed, for 2 hrs. None of us slept well at all. I was going to take a nap but I wanted to paint my nails & have them dry before I had to do Schane's.

At 1:00 we went to the hair salon so Schane' could get her hair done & at 2:00 the limo showed up to take all the girls up to the lodge for the wedding. At this time the weather had not been cooperating. It started to rain when we arrived at the salon and finally quit when we arrived at the lodge, just in time to change for pictures.

At 4:00 we had a beautiful outside wedding. Somebody timed it at 18 mins. We then had appetizers while family pics were being taken & then we had a scrumptious dinner. The whole evening was special.

The next blog is just random photos that I took from the wedding rehearsal, the wedding, & a few scenic pics along the way. Enjoy!

Wedding Slide Show

So Far Behind...

I have been told twice now that I am behind on my blogging. As my mom just stated to me today it's funny how people just expect you to keep on writing about your day & then when you don't it's like come on, what's up? Well, I have been a little busy but the main thing is our lovely surver doesn't always work. It can even be 10pm & we have no connection.

Monday I was recovering from a migraine from the night before so I stayed in bed for most of the day. I would have stayed in my pj's all day except we had cheer Mon. night so I had to leave the house.

Tuesday I registered Schane' at her new school. I brought in the required paperwork, filled out the required paperwork, & then was asked what kind of teacher would I prefer. Didn't have to think twice about that one, somebody that has tough love. She was like O...K... Schane' tends to get distracted, maybe talks to much, you know, typical girl stuff. Well at least it's typical Schane' stuff. She's much better if someone pushes her & doesn't always talk fluff to her. Schane' is not excited about her new school. It's only two blocks from home where as we were driving 15 mins to school. The school is older so it looks more run down where as the other school is much newer. I like to think of it as don't judge a book by it's cover. The new school has received more positive reviews than her previous school. I'm thinking it's going to be a great change!

After that we went home to change & then went swimming. I had Matt & Abbey with me the whole day & we met up with other friends at the pool. Matt introduced Schane' to the diving board. She never would get on before but somehow he convinced her that she was going to be alright if she would just try jumping. For the next hour she was glued to the diving board, not only jumping but doing some great cannonballs. She said that she was going to stay on the diving board the whole time when we go back. That will make it easy looking for her at least.

After swimming we came home to change & then we were off to the bowling alley. I figure when you have extra kids at home it's always good if you can get out of the house & stay busy. While at the bowling alley, Schane' lost a tooth. She wasn't to happy about it but she survived & I just happened to have my camera on hand. That didn't make her happy either because I'm like just smile or just show me your upper teeth so I can take a picture. Nicole went & got some salt water for her swish around in her mouth & we were all better after that. Schane' doesn't do well when she sees blood so when it stopped bleeding everything was all better. After we got home she started asking me a few questions about the tooth fairy. I guess she didn't like my answers because she decided to write her a note. I thought it was great so I took a picture of it so you could all read it.

A Masterpiece!!

Wow, three beautiful cakes made, decorated, & delivered. We didn't get much sleep this weekend & we had some trying times with the kids but all went well in the end. It really is funny when people ask us if we can do a cake. They think that we don't have a life sometimes & should just be able to do these with no problem, wrong. I mean there was a lot going on this weekend, mainly on Deb's side, that we had to work around. We figured that two cakes we can work with but three is pushing it. If we don't have anything else to do & if we're getting paid then fine we'll squeeze in another one, but in reality three was a bit much.

This cake we started yesterday. It was for Douglas' 9th birthday, which happens to be today. He wanted a Pokemon, so we did Pikachu. We did one of these in May which turned out really good but the frosting kept falling off the sides so this time we frosted the whole cake instead of using our star tip for the whole thing. I don't know what it was about this cake but I kept sticking my arm into it. This morning I was doing something & I ended up putting my pants into it too. I know it sounds weird & I'm not sure how I did it but it did happen.

We baked Matt's cake yesterday & decorated it today. Deb did most of it & then I finished it off while she was at a meeting. Schane' comes in & looks at the cake & said "wow mom, you're doing a great job without Deb". I almost wanted to scream. I couldn't believe she said that to me. She's seen my cakes & my flowers that I have made without Deb & here she tells me that. Luckily she's only 8 so I just smile & say thanks. Everybody else that I have told got a great laugh out of it though, including me, now.

So Matt's cake is Wall-E. I highly recommend this movie if you haven't seen it. While we were at Michael's the other day Matt said that he wants a Spongebob cake for next year. Deb & I said that we would add that to the list that is going to change about a million times between now & then. I told Deb yesterday that I actually do have a Spongebob cake pan so at least we wouldn't have to buy one. And yes, we made cupcakes too, in all our spare time.

I saved the best for last. We are so proud of our masterpiece. We call it that because we haven't done anything like it before. We didn't even read the directions, just went totally off of a picture.

We found the picture off of the Wilton website & knew that this is what we wanted to attempt. I am going to post the pics that lead up to the final outcome. It's called A Planter's Paradise.

Deb working on the seed packet.

Seed packet & flowers all into place.

The shovel, clay pot, & seed packet all in place. The leaves are lined up on the bottom.

Our masterpiece, A Planter's Paradise.

These are two close ups that I thought that you might like. You probably have a zillion questions so let me answer a few for you. Practically

everything is edible. The only thing you can't eat is the wire that is holding the flowers & clay pot up. Yup, that's right, it's all edible. Everything is made out of fondant. We had to start this Friday night because there was so much to do & we needed it to get hard. The "dirt" in the pot & on the shovel is a cupcake. The creative genius behind the whole thing, Deb. The look, PRICELESS.

I crack myself up. I can just hear Deb telling me what a dork I am. Ah, who cares. This last cake is for my roommate, Joan. Tomorrow or it might be today already is her birthday. She is the big "60". HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOAN!!!

Another Late Night...

Deb & I have three b-day cakes to make this weekend. Two are pretty easy but the third one is for my roommate. She deserves a cake with a little more effort put into it because she is so good to us. Our evening started out with Schane' having swimming lessons, eating dinner, & then going to go see Mama Mia' at 8:00. We didn't get back to Deb's til after 10. We spent the next 2 1/2 hrs preparing the decorations for Joan's cake. I really would love to tell you what it is going to be, but I can't. You see, there's a chance that she might read my blog between now & Monday, highly doubt it, but you never know. So I am just posting the pics for you to use your imagination with & see if you come up with the right idea. By looking at the pics I wouldn't have a clue either. You'll be pretty suprised with the final result.

We actually got home at 1am but I spent a bit of time on facebook. For those of you that have it you know how addicting it can be. I knew I shouldn't have done it but I did & now it's 1:45 & I have to be up at 7am, yuck. Until tomorrow...

Wasn't going to but...

Deb just had to go & take a picture of me so I could blog about our evening. I even told her I wasn't blogging tonight but the picture was taken & sent to me so what could I do. Yes, I could write tomorrow but since I don't sleep well I might as well just do it now.

First we had to go into Michael's to get things for our cake class tomorrow. Then we decided to go into Ross since we didn't take much time in Michael's, plus we were kidless. We went over to the shoe area first because Deb is on a mission to find the "perfect" pair of black flip flops. She found them once at PayLess but she didn't get them & hasn't seen them again, figures. We didn't find anything so we went over to the shirt area next. We weren't looking for anything in particular, just browsing. Deb started pulling out shirts for me to put on, some decent & some that I can't believe were actually made into something. We were just having fun. Then she comes across this "beautiful" jacket. If anybody actually loves this thing let me know & I'll buy it for ya. We were rolling around in laughter. I had to hide at one point because there was a lady staring at me & smiling. She probably thought we were gay huh Deb? Sorry, inside joke everybody.

It's not helping matters that I keep leaving my purse & camera at Deb's because she has a camera phone & is getting just as bad as me with taking pics. She's continuously saying, here's a new one for you to blog about. But for all you out there who are keeping up with my days I'm sure you're loving it.

Cheer Video!

I finally uploaded a video & it's from my camera, not you tube. I feel like I am moving up in the world. It might be hard to find Schane' but if you look at the main girl in the front & then look directly behind her, that's Schane'. Basically she's off from everybody else. The girls only started the routine on Sat & Sun was the performance. She didn't learn as fast as most of the girls but I am very proud of her for getting up there in front of a ton of people & showing off her stuff.

Monday we slept in, like usual, & hung around the house. She had her regular cheer leading class that night & she was in great spirits, for once. Usually she's tired, grumpy, etc. but last night she was in rare form. The cheer camp helped her get more excited she said, we'll see if the happiness continues on through other Mondays.

Today we went & saw "Journey To The Center Of The Earth", in 3D. The movie reminded me of National Treasure but a lot less action. The kids will enjoy it. I talked to one of my friends & she was disappointed in it but her kids liked it. To each is own. Isn't it that way with most movies anyway?

After that we went & roamed around Cabella's. I have never been there before & Schane' has been dying to show me all the animals inside. Doesnt' it look like the polar bear is taking a chunk out of her head? We got caught up in the aquarium area. I took some pics of the fish but they didn't turn out very well. I'm going to post one just because I couldn't find a posting to go with it so I'm not sur

e what kind it is, except it's some kind of catfish.

Here are a couple more pics from the cheer boot camp on Sun. The boot part means bringing out our talent. The girls really enjoyed the hair & make up part. Abbey loves to play with hair & make up all the time at home. She's constantly giving "makeovers" to any willing individual who sits in front of her. I could really tell you some interesting stories on how Deb & I have looked with our new but not necessarily improved makeovers. Thank goodness I don't have any pictures!

I wasn't going to take a picture of the back of their heads but Schane' wanted this one so I took it. She said she felt really pretty with a little make up on & her hair done when she went on stage. I often will ask her if she wants me to put her hair up or if she wants it in a braid but the answer is always no. It's always when somebody else offers to do her hair that it's ok. But not with Deb, she doesn't like Deb touching her hair. Deb says she used to wear her hear like Schane's, it was exactly how Blair wore it from the tv sitcom _____. I can't remember the name, it's escaping my brain right now.

I need to start blogging earlier, this is getting to be to late for me. Hope you enjoyed the video & could pick out Schane'.

Waiting For The Day....

My phone alarm was set for 7:00 this morning, I woke up at 7:50 & yelled to the girls Holy Crap we need to get up! This is two days in a row my alarm did not go off. Thank goodness though I am pretty organized & had everything ready last night. We just had to grab the water bottles out of the freezer, drinks out of the fridge, & put their lunches in bags. Abbey looked like a zombie & was just standing around. I couldn't give her a list of things to do, I had to tell her after each step what to do next. It was pretty funny & hectic around here.

We get to the school & I tell the girls, see, we're late, the parents are leaving. But some were just arriving too so that made it ok in my book. I go get the girls in the assigned areas, double knot their shoes, give them hugs & kisses & told them that I would be back to watch their performance later. Another round of hugs & kisses & I was off. I'm half way across the gym & I look back to see if Schane' is looking at me, just to see if she was going to blow me kisses. She wasn't so I look at her a second longer & wonder when she's going to think she's to cool to stop blowing me kisses when all of a sudden I hear mom. I look back because I am the only parent left of course & there she is standing up on the bleachers blowing me a kiss & doing our secret sign language goodbye. I blow her a kiss back & do our secret sign language in return to let her know I love her back.

I walk out of the gym wondering again when is she going to stop doing our secret goodbye. She is going into the third grade you know. Pretty soon I'm going to be chopped liver & I'll be teary eyed because it will no longer matter. For right now though I feel proud that she yells my name in the gym, stands up, & blows me kisses. How cool is that?!

Latest pics

This was the girls after I picked them up this afternoon after cheer camp. This weekend was called Operation Boot Camp. I'm surprised they're still smiling or just smiling at all. It's only a two day operation but they fill a lot of stuff in. During orientation this morning the announcer introduced two ladies that were professional cheerleaders. One was with the Phoenix Cardinals (gag). If you don't know who they are then don't worry about it, you're not missing a thing, only the cheerleaders because I suppose they're nice to look at, & the other one was on another sports team but I don't remember which one. You could obviously tell which one was on the P.C. team, she was very polished, had that glued on pretty smile on her face, & just looked real professional. The girls had a great time & can't wait to go next year. Tomorow they go back for more fun & then there will be a performance from each team for the parents. Since Deb can't make it I borrowed her video camera so I could tape it. Maybe I'll even try to post it, or not.

Last week I was having trouble downloading pics off my camera. I finally figured out why. I had video taped the fireworks we were at & when trying to save my photos it wouldn't go past the video tape part. I finally just deleted the video so now I have some new pics to show you.

I realized I didn't tell you the story of our eating out adventure last week. Tim & decided to go to Johnny Rockets for a late lunch before taking Nae' to the movies. We walked around this plaza that has really developed this last year because Tim didn't know any of it was there. We finally walk into J.R. & get seated when we realize it's a little warm in the restaurant. We ask the waiter about it & he said that the air was broken. What??? In Arizona you don't have air in a restaurant & you're open?! What's even crazier is that we stayed. Yes, that's right, we stayed. You know it's bad when you even see the waiter sweating. After a few minutes we ordered & got our drinks, guzzled our drinks down & ordered another round, when Nae' goes & dumps her water all over the place. What else is new, except who in their right mind gives an eight yr old an adult size "glass" of water. After that episode we had to switch tables & then ask for a child size water with a lid, should have done that in the first place.

This was all of us at Chili's Monday night. I know I already talked about it but I didn't have the pic. Did I mention how crazy our kids were? I don't know how we do it sometimes when they're all together. Maybe we should start calling them "Charlie's Little Devils" except they wouldn't get it.

On Wednesday I took Nae' to the bowling alley so she could meet up with one of her friends from school. Nae' won the first round & her friend, Gianna, won the second round. The parents didn't play of course, we wanted the kids to shine by themselves.

Once again it's 10:30 & Schane' won't go to sleep. Abbey is already asleep, hopefully she'll stay asleep tonight, that's another story though. The girls have to be at the high school by 8:30 so she desperately needs to go nighty night.

Rainy Night

Oh ya, it was just mildly raining tonight. Deb & I walked out of Michael's, put our cake stuff in her van, & then I asked if we should walk over to the Dress Barn. She said no, I feel lazy, let's drive. After going into the Dress Barn she said let's go into whatever shoe store was close by, so we did. Approx 15 mins went by & Deb said is it raining outside? We look outside & it wasn't just raining but pouring. We walked about 10ft to the van & we were drenched. We were all laughing in the van when all of a sudden Abbey says I can't dry off my glasses because I'm all wet. I'm laughing right now just thinking about it.





So, our cake class really felt like a waist of time. Like I said before it was going to be a review but I thought at least I would learn something new, that's what I get for thinking. The one thing that we did get to experiment with is a new mat to roll out the fondant on. There are two kinds but our instructor, Tricia, only had the flower mat with her. Deb & I noticed these the other day at Michael's & thought that they were cool so when she had one we were all giddy. Then we experimented with shimmer dust. It makes the cakes all sparkly. At one point one of the other ladies said to Deb, wow you really rolled the fondant out fast. Even with my two bad hands & one in a brace, I still beat the other ladies in rolling out the fondant. We don't mess around ladies!



Abbey is spending the night tonight & tomorrow night & the next night & on & on & on. Just kidding. She'll be picked up Monday morning. Schane' & Abbey have cheer camp Sat & Sun & tomorrow Deb leaves for Texas for a seminar so I was the chosen one to watch her daughter. Deb had bought Schane' & Abbey new pajamas for them to wear while they were together & when we were at Claire's last night she bought them matching sleep eye patches to go with their pajamas. It really was funny because the one's they had on at the store matched their pajamas. AREN'T THEY ADORABLE?!!!!!

Blackmail Photos

Ok, so now I lied to Schane'. I told her that I was getting on the computer "real quick" & that I wasn't going to blog. But then Deb went ahead & sent me these photos of Matt that she took tonight while we were shopping. I of course left my camera in my car which was at her house. I just thought that everybody would get a kick out of her son playing dress up in PayLess & Claire's, I know we did.

I Made It Through...

Yeah, I finally made it. Yesterday I went & got my stitiches out. A much bigger incision than my first. Today I went & got my hand brace. The doctor who did my surgery reminded me to wear it all the time at least for awhile, maybe that's why I'm having more problems with my right, I didn't follow the doctor's orders. I've had it on all day today & man do I want to take it off. I'll sleep with it tonight & then give it some air tomorrow.

Thursday I start my new cake class. I talked to the instructor tonight & basically it's just going to be a review of our final third cake class. Next week we'll start something new. She said don't worry about bringing a cake in this week, I can just work with Deb. Most of the stuff she said that we'd be doing we've been doing already, mainly because we didn't stop after the cake classes, that helped a lot. Kelly had told me that this class is pretty easy but what she probably didn't know is that my carpal was so bad that I couldn't even work the fondant out to spread it out. My instructor helped a lot, Deb helped, Joan helped, & Nicol, my neighbor helped out. Fondant is fun to work with but it comes in a big package that looks like clay & probably feels as hard as clay. It takes quite a bit of time to work it through where you can roll it out.

Tonight I made dinner for Tim, Deb & the kids, & us. We were all getting together to watch the final of Hell's Kitchen. But first we had to watch Wipeout. Have any of you seen that show? If you want something stupid but funny to watch try it out. We all get a kick out of it. It only started 3wks ago & every week the obstacles are a little bit different. The announcers are pretty funny too. They give each of the contestants a nickname & say some pretty funny stuff as they are all wiping out.

Hell's Kitchen is another story. Schane' keeps asking why it's called Hell's Kitchen. I keep telling her would you like to cook under somebody who yells in your face all the time? She keeps saying no but every week she keeps asking the same story. Deb never watched it until she came over to my house one night for dinner & I got her hooked on it. Tim got me hooked on it so it was my turn to get somebody else hooked. We all figured the 42 yr old male would take it because he had more experience but Chef Ramsey chose the 24 yr old female, a culinary student. The show is really kind of funny to watch. There are a lot of bleeps but there are some funny moments too. You also question the producers on where they find some of these cooks. There were two on this season that nobody could stand & they just proved it tonight that they don't belong anywhere near a kitchen.

It's 10:30 & Schane' has been in the computer room at least 4 times wanting me to come watch the final part of a movie she's watching before going to bed. So I will leave it at that. Good night!

Past couple a days...

Since I've had my surgery done I really haven't felt like blogging. This last time really took a toll on both hands & it really has affected me emotionally. Deb told me at one point that I was slacking on my blogging because she was having withdrawls on commenting. Maybe that's why I've slowed down.

Anyway, we haven't done much for awhile. One day we came home & I told Schane' to go get her kite to see if we could get it up in the air. Zach came over & helped for a little bit & then he left so I told Nae' to try it herself. Finally after quite a few try's she got the kite in the air. It wasn't the windiest day but what does that matter unless you're having fun.

We also had another Jr. High swim night. Schane' was caught up in this game that they were playing, she tried her best but they all could outswim her. Give her a few yrs & she'll be passing them all up. The house we were at also had a trampoline. Here April is having fun holding onto Schane' while jumping. Most of the Jr. High are really great with her. Some ignore hr completely while others include her in their games. Schane' is such a softy that I think it's great if they're rough with her a little & vice versa.

I know you can't tell what Schane' is holding but she said it was the best part of the night. That black thing in her lap is a bunny. For quite awhile now she has been begging her dad & I to get a bunny & the answer is always NO. Thank goodness our roommate doesn't want pets because that backs up our plan. Then she goes on & on saying that it can stay at dad's house, who will take care of it, we ask. Dad of course. Wrong! So when we came to this house for the swim party she was just a tad exstatic that there was a bunny in the house. When it came time for her to hold it she was forwarned that it could pee on her, quite a bit I might add. She didn't care, she wanted to hold it no matter what. You'd think she'd have a bigger smile on her face!

July 4th came & with it Joan came home. Scared the crap out of Schane' & I. We didn't expect her til next week & all of a sudden the door opens & I fly off the couch. Schane' thought a burglar was coming in. It took awhile for my heartbeat to go down.

We went to the Peoria stadium where the Mariner's have their Spring Training to see the fireworks. We got there about 5:30 & about 7:30 everything got shut down due to wind & lightening. I wore my sunglasses all eve so I wouldn't get dust in my eyes. We thought for sure they were going to cancel the program but about 9:00 an announcer came on saying they were waiting to get the ok from the fire dept. Approx. 10 mins later the show came on. After the show the kids kept asking us if we could go to one of our houses to play, we looked at the time & it was 10:00. No I don't think so, it's too late. But we're not tired. Ya, ok, wait til your head hits the pillow & then we'll talk. The funny thing about that is that Schane' & I couldn't sleep, we were to wound up.