Gobble Gobble..Forced to waddle!!

Jeff and I went to my sister, Malana's house today to join in on the Thanksgiving festivities. It was soooooo good. Everything was cooked to perfection. The turkey was moist and delicious, 2 kinds of stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy with yummy baked yams, roasted carrits, dinner rolls, cherry fluff fruit salad, amd a green bean casserole. Oh yeah and my brother in law made the most divine homemade cranberry sauce. Let me tell you, I really love all the before mentioned items, but I don't ever eat cranberry sauce. His was truly the best I have ever had.

I guess to sum it up, it was good food, good company and I do believe a good time was had by all. It is always a treat going to one of their gatherings as they always go all out. Larry even had all his Christmas decorations done on the outside of the house. Unfortunately we had to leave before it was dark, so we didn't get to see the "Winter Wonderland" all lit up. I am sure we will see it soon enough.

On this Thanksgiving I can honestly say that I am grateful for my whole family and the extended ones too. Larry's family was all there and it really was a grand celebration. The fact that I got to be around two of my favorite babies in the world didn't hurt much either. I am in love with my little nephew Joe and his cousin Elsa is adorable too. What can I say? I am truly a blessed woman. Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!!

Cake Decorating

Just thought I would share with you the second and third cakes that I have decorated. I really love doing this. It is so much fun. I can't wait for next week when we decorate the rose cakes. No worries, I will post a picture upon completion.

Crazy Monday

Today is Monday, November 23rd. This is a bad day for me. It is the third anniversary of my young son's passing. All in all, I seem to have gotten over the deepest part of my grief, but today is a rough one. It seems to hit a little harder today. I decided over the weekend to go ahead and work today to take on some of the overflow from the Thanksgiving holiday. For me personally, the best option for a heavy heart is to stay busy. It just didn't seem to work for me so well today. Everyone kept calling on my cell to let me know they were thinking of me today. This is kindness, I know. Still...kind of hard to try and put it out of your mind when you are constantly being reminded. I sound very ungrateful, I don't mean to. It is just that for me, my grief has taken on a very personal tone. I choose to lapse into it alone. It doesn't happen nearly as often, but when it does, I prefer to be alone. I don't like to shed tears at work. I lapsed into tears at least 3 times today. I think that next year I will just stay home.

You know, I consider myself a fairly intelligent woman. I know that today is just another day. I also know that I shouldn't let this day be any different than any other. I just wish that someone could tell all that to my heart. Oh well, what is one to do?

I have cake decorating class tonight, and up until writing this blog, I really felt I would cancel. I have now changed my mind and I am going to go. What better medicine for a broken heart than a bunch of giggling women making clown cakes? Again I must say thanks to my sister for inviting me to join this class. It is a savior today.

Cake Crazy!!

Well...I got a little gung-ho with excitement about the cake decorating! Me being a little over zealous, and yes, not yet taught, decided to attempt to bake a cake for my little friend Marissa's 17th birthday today. It only took me four hours to bake, cool, level, make the double batch of buttercream, then ice and decorate the cake. It is a noble attempt in my book. Needless to say, nothing is as easy as I thought. But this is my first finished and decorated cake. Can't wait for our first attempt next monday at actually being taught how to decorate, Ha Ha!!

Cake Decorating Class - Girls Night Out!!

Malana invited me to join her for a 4 week cake decorating class. Our first class was last night. We learned some pretty cool stuff and it was fun. I can't wait to dive in and start decorating. We will decorate 3 cakes in the first course. I am so excited. Our classes are being held every Monday night from 6:30 until 8:30. There are a total of 4 courses that you can take. We have week one of the first course under our belt, and I now know how to make a rocking buttercream. Next week we decorate our first cake. I can hardly wait.

I will be sure to keep you posted and take photo's so you can see our work. No laughing at us now, keep in mind, we are novices. Maybe there can be a new job in my future!! Jumping the gun just a little maybe, but one can dream!!

I think the best part of this class is getting to spend some fun time with my sister. She is always great to be with. Her friends are pretty cool too. Those Mommies from her "Mommy and Me" group are a vivacious group of ladies. It is a great adventure to step out of the box of normalcy for me. Thank you Malana for thinking of me. I am having a ball in this cake walk!!

It has been a good day!

Do you ever have one of those days that just goes down in the books as a great day, but there really was nothing inspiring about it? That was my day today. I cant honestly say that it was anything special, just spending the day with my hubby doing all of his favorite things. Turns out, they are now some of my favorite things too.

W e started the day with some very nice marital cuddling and chatting. It has been awhile for that to happen with us due to the swine flu, vacations, moving and just life in general. From there we went out to breakfast and had some awesome waffles. Then we began our endeavor to search for a twin bed. We also went to several thrift shops and I found some really nifty buys for under $10.00 total. We didn't purchase a bed today, but we have some fairly good prospects for next week. I had so much fun with him. We just felt like newlyweds today. Not planned, it just happened. I love it when that happens. 15 years and still going strong!!

Then we came home and Jeff did his presentation for me on the importance of tree's in the community that he is planning to give at a meeting on Tuesday. He has worked very hard on this. I was ever so proud of him. This is definitely out of his comfort zone and he did a bang up job. He never ceases to amaze me.

At about 4:00, I went in and took a nap. This is one luxury I never indulge in, due to the fact that I am an insomniac. What a great rest it was. I will probably be up most of the night, but it was so worth it. Jeff woke me at 6:00 and told me we had better get up if we were still going to go to dinner. We ended up nixing going out to dinner and instead he made us a delicious dinner of canned chili while I went after dessert of Snickers Ice Cream bars. Oh go ahead and laugh if you must, but I am here to say it was the exclamation point on an already wonderful day.

My sweet hubby has just kissed me goodnight and I am sitting here with a huge smile on my face, counting my blessings and tapping the keys to tell of my amazing day that was so insignificant, but will be remembered and treasured in my heart and my memory. I hope all who read this had a day as lovely as mine.

Pup Woes

Well my sweet girl, Midnight, turned 14 on Halloween. It is so hard for me to believe that this is even a remote possibility. It seems like only yesterday she was just a precocious little puppy. Her given name is Midnight Star, but my Mom in law, Sharon renamed her Nightmare during a short stay she had with them. She truly was a rotten little pup. She was always into everything. She was very destructive back then. Then I started her off on crate training and she has just been the world's greatest dog ever since.

She hasn't been feeling too well of late. I must admit, I am worried about her. I am hoping this is just something like a puppy flu bug, but I fear that is wishful thinking on my part. I am prepared for the worst, but really don't want this to happen. I would love to have her for another 14 years.

She really is turning into a grumpy old woman. She has been snapping at our little Lhasa, Nick. He is so ridiculously naive that he thinks he can take her on. She would literally hurt him. They tangled yesterday so badly that I had to pull them apart. This worries me. I don't want anything to happen to either one of them. I just hope it all works out for the best.