Tag Archives: fun

Friday. Yay, but I’m so confused

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Joining in @ Conversion Diary (you should go see what everyone’s up to…..) AND Hallie Lord for a fun song link up today (check ’em out!).

1.  It’s Friday.  We had a day off on Wednesday to celebrate the 4th.  Work 2 days.  Off 1.  Work 2 days.  Off 2.  Is the next pattern work 2 days, off 3???  I’m so confused….and happy to have 2 days off to contemplate this.

2.  Our 4th was a ridicuLOUSly full day.  And fun.  Beach all morning until about 2.  And then over to join my step-dad and siblings for pool and slide fun and BBQ.  I’ll just go ahead and say it.  We didn’t make the fireworks.

3.  I highly recommend hitting Canaveral National Seashore if you every get the chance. It’s awesome!!

4.  I made this delish little number for the 4th.  ‘Twas a hit.  My mom used to make it for us.  Now don’t go ragging on my authenticity of the flag…the fresh strawberries were eaten during the week, so I was working with frozen and wasn’t putting 50 strawberries on the cake!!  In one corner!!  Afterward, I realized I should have used the blueberries for the stars and the strawberries for the stripes! DURH!!!  Whatev…no one eating it complained..

5.  Summer is in full swing.  We’ve got summer camp for the girls.  Lawn mowing and skating and Xbox for the boys.  Ice cream in the freezer and our beach bag in regular use.  Life is good!

6.  Gym day 3 today.  Next week will be my last at this boot camp.  The workout is phenomenal (if you like near-vomit and passing out), but the time (7:30p.m.) just doesn’t do it for me.  So, time to revamp my schedule…keep my muscles guessing 🙂

7.  Finally wrapping up the week and Quick Takes with Hubby and I’s “Song” for the lovesong link up @ Hallie Lord’s fashionable blog….Robert Plant….”Sea of Love”…what’s yours???

Happy Weekend Y’all!!

Morning time=Quiet time

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Morning time is my favorite time of the day.  Yes, it’s full of promise, fresh start, good intentions and all that jazz, but it’s truly the QUIET TIME of the day for me.  Which is why it’s worth it to me to get up a good hour (or more) before my offspring.  I want my coffee in peace.  I want to read the daily Readings.  I want to think and process through the day or yesterday.  I pray in peace.  There is no speaking (something Hubby has finally realized!).  And at some point, when Hubby has moved on to getting ready for the day or has left for work our little cat settles for Lap#2 (me).  His first choice is Daddy.  A fact that perplexes and infuriates our daughters to no end.  Either way, when it’s MY turn for some kitty cuddles, he’s all up in my business, paws on keyboard, nose on coffee mug, head butting my petting hand.  It’s his quiet time, too.

And…..since today is July 4th and we will be celebrating America’s birthday with my sister and her family in town for the night, I am enjoying the only QUIET I’ll see all day 😉  It will be beach in the morning and then pool and BBQ in the afternoon and a certainty of fireworks tonight which will be going off despite the fact that I will be getting up in the morning to work.   It’s all good though!  There’s something to be said for having a day off mid-week!

Celebrating life

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Last night I went out to meet old friends for a few hours.  A very old friend, Stef,  (since middle school!) was setting up a celebration for another friend, Shannon, who was coming into town.  However, the celebration was celebrating LIFE!  This friend coming into town was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer 8 months ago.  She just finished her chemo and 2 weeks ago her energy returned.  She’s sporting a fancy wig and some apprehension of her upcoming tests to assess the efficacy of her chemo, but for these two weeks she is celebrating with friends and family.  Stef had set up a beautiful slide show for Shannon of old and new pics, including treatment pics and a few from a 5K Shannon did right at the end of her treatment for her birthday.  To say the tears were flowing, is an understatement.  Life is short.  Unfortunately, the older we get the more we realize how precious each day is.

My face hurt from laughing and smiling so much (these people are Facebook posting picture crazAY!!) and catching up with friends I haven’t seen in months and some in years.

Camera hams. Every last one of them!

Another friend that was there is on the backside of her breast cancer treatment is in reconstruction stage.  My mom used to work for her dad (an orthopedic surgeon…now 87 and working and patenting new forms of electricity and power for the love!!  how cool is that!??!?), she is the sweetest thing.  She found her cancer because a friend of hers was diagnosed, so she went for a baseline mammogram @ age 38, no symptoms.  They found cancer.  3 young children and a husband.  She’s doing wonderful, because they caught her cancer early.  Moral of the story:  LADIES.  GET.  YOUR.  ANNUAL.  MAMMOGRAM.

It was a fun night overall.  I left to pick up our son from roller skating so I missed destination #2 (and that’s a good thing!).  However, the hilarious finale was when someone discovered the restaurant had a GIANT camera in the billiards area and you could post straight to Facebook from this wall camera….OH.  LOOK.  OUT!!!  **all of these pics are from that camera.  Enjoy.

Happy Weekend!

Martha, your enterprise is safe. For now….

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Our youngest turned 9 last week and since I had the day off for her birthday, I agreed to make the cake she requested:  Red velvet with cream cheese icing AND chocolate with chocolate icing….layered up.  OK.  No prob.  I am sure her vision was something like this:

OK, maybe we watch too much Cake Boss….besides she knows me too well. I don’t even have a tiny square pan like the top layer!!

**image by yumsugar.com

More likely, her visions were of this type of cake…(just imagine some chocolate layers between the red velvet….)

I actually HAVE made a few layered numbers sorta, kinda similar to this. Really. I just can’t find the pictures right now…..
Image by southernliving.com

Off to Publix I went.  And lo and freaking behold, there was not ONE red velvet cake mix.  WTHeck!??!  So, I went on my phone, pulled up a recipe (which took FOREVAH–the signal is lousy in that store!) and procured the ingredients.  Confident of my preparations and time frame, back home I went.

Turns out, between the two cake batters I had enough for cupcakes, too!  BONUS!  This was going to be a spectacular cake.

When I began to smell burning cake (8 minutes before the timer went off) I quickly removed the pans and checked for done-ness.  With the exception of one pan, everything was ready.

The problem was that the red velvet layer cooked too quickly on the bottom.  So I brought out my serrated knife to cut off that portion.  The cake itself was moist and lovely, hence…the darn thing began to crumble as I cut off the burnt portion.

Crumble-palooza, Summer 2012!!

The issues continued as the second pan didn’t QUITE come out intact (apparently I missed a spot with the spray…)

I decided on making the best of it.  I cut the red velvet layer in two, turned it upside down and began to frost.  Then layering with the chocolate layer and “gluing” it together with frosting–there is no such thing as too much frosting, by the way.  Topped it with the red velvet layer and then used cupcakes to hold the darn thing together and up (as for some reason it was now leaning to the side…).

As I surveyed the damage final result, I pondered running back to Publix and purchasing one of their ready-to-go FANCY SCHMANCY cakes, but my husband said, “it will still taste OK.”

As our daughter arrived home from VBS, I Happy birthday-ed her to death, oohed and ahhed over her 9-year-old self and buttered her up for the sell.  She paused as she took in the confectionary conundrum, listened to her sister as she assisted in the sell (God LOVE that girl!!!) and turned with the biggest smile ever, “That is so COOL!!!”.  Phew.  Crisis averted.

**on a side note, my girlfriend recently revealed to me that she often enjoys “Cake in a bag”, the result of an ALMOST  thrown away iced cake (can you even IMAGINE such a travesty!?!?!) and that yes, indeed, even if it looks awful, it DOES still taste good.  I was clinging to that hope.

So. For now.  Martha Stewart has nothing to fear.  Give me time and perhaps a little patience, attention to detail and a concern about what other people think…..and look out.  So, until then….VOILA!

ZEE Masterpiece, non?

Throw a bunch of candles on it and there you go! Smiles!!

The leftover carnage….and yes, it was AWESOME! (especially the red velvet part)

To recreate this baking WONDER, I pulled the Red Velvet recipe from HERE.  As for the rest.  Any chocolate cake mix.  And throw all your cares out the window and let ‘er rip!  Bon Appetit!!

Galations 5:22 -23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Mayhem, chaos and sore glutes…

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It’s the last day of school.  Give a little idea of why no blogging lately?

  • Soccer tryouts (for FALL) were Wednesday night….2 hours long…little girl and Mama enjoyed supper at 8 p.m.   OY!  Need to plan better!!!
  • Dunkin’ donuts stop yesterday morning for Munchkins since I didn’t make any “Birthday snack” for my summer birthday girl who asked (so sweetly I couldn’t say no) if we could bring something to share.  After soccer.  Good times.  The Munchkins were a hit though!
  • Made a quick batch of “Deliciousness:  melted butter and brown sugar poured over saltines with melted chocolate chips spread on top and then frozen” for my other daughter’s class.  EVERY.  ounce.  of.  willpower.  NOT to eat a huge piece myself!!!
  • We celebrated 18 years of marriage this week! (actually we have dinner plans in another week, but we celebrated with PB&J tea sandwiches and watermelon dinner since our band kiddo opted out of Awards at the last-minute and we were unprepared for dinner home!)
  • A childhood friend got great news on his post chemo lab work for his Leukemia:  ALL CLEAR!  Such awesome news!!!
  • Seriously hard boot camp/Cross Fit class last night.  Big mistake:  dinner prior to class.  Thankfully.  Only an hour-long.  Sitting may be optional later….I’ll be back Saturday morning!!

I’m the “Early girl” and need to get those kids moving!  Happy Summer Y’all!!!  Did I mention our garden is going nutso!!!  Tomatoes!!!