The Mariners!

I'm so excited that baseball season has started! I have missed my Mariner's. Already starting the season off with a win! GO Mariner's! To top that off I get to go to the game tomorrow night! I'm so jazzed cause Felix is pitching! I'm also told they are seats behind home plate about 30 rows back. I've never sat behind home plate before. I'm just happy to be going!

Valium is my friend!

Well I have to say I wish I had discovered the wonders of Valium many, many years ago. It would have spared me some serious misery at the dentist. They prescribed me Valium to take just before my appointment and let me tell you, IT WORKED! My stress level was nonexistent and I was able to make it through the procedure without white knuckling it. Thank you Alice for suggesting it! I was able to get my root canal done and I actually scheduled my second one that I need for next week so I can get it taken care of too! How's that for a miracle! Any other time I would be waiting until the tooth hurt so bad it would force me to go! Now I can actually get preventative work done from now on! YAY!

Root Canals

Today I am getting a root canal done. YUCK! I HATE going to the dentist more than you could possibly imagine. I have such anxiety and fear about the whole thing. It's been so bad that I have actually broken down into tears in the chair! I've been given this wonderful thing for todays appointment though, VALIUM! I'm really hoping it will take the edge off the whole process because I SO need to go through with this root canal. My tooth has been hurting me so very much the last few weeks it's been unbearable. This will be my third try going to the dentist for this same tooth. I am kind of looking forward to being out of pain though so lets all cross our fingers that I can make it through this appointment in one piece!

No class!

Well, I'm bummed. Tonights class was cancelled due to our teacher having a family emergency. I sure hope everything is ok with her family but I was SO looking forward to learning the rose. I attempted to make them myself by reading the directions but it's so much tougher to learn those kind of things from a book instead of seeing the technique up front. So I "played" with the cake I was supposed to decorate in class because I told the folks at work I'd bring in a cake. So here is my little masterpiece. It's cute...I guess. So much perfecting still left to do though. Practice, practice, practice. Someday I might be a pro...

Buster's $240 Pedicure

So I had to take Buster to the vet this morning to get a "bad" toenail fixed. Somehow his nail split into three parts kind of like a banana and the quick was exposed and swollen. OUCH! So the vet had to put him under to repair it and he was kind enough to clip down his other nails too. When they brought him out he was SO pathetic looking.

Poor boy has a cone on his head! He has to wear it until the bandage comes off or he'll pull it off. He also gets to wear a plastic boot to go outside so it doesn't get wet either. Poor, poor, pitiful Buster!

Cake Class Number Three

I just got home from my third class. It was yet another fun filled two hours. I swear it just goes by too quickly. We learned clown bodies (I hate clowns), shells and flowers. I'm very sad as next week is our last class in this series anyway. I am definately signing up for more! These are my cupcakes. Everyone else did cakes.

Cupcakes for Class

Today I'm baking cupcakes for my class. We are learning how to make figures. I'm rather excited. I may even work on a contest my friend Mignon wants to enter on the Rachel Ray show. It should be quite interesting!

My party, finally!

Today we had my family birthday party. It was very nice to finally be able to celebrate it with my parents, sister and brother-in-law and his family which is now a huge part of my family too! We went over early for pizza with my sis and then the family came over and I got my presents! Yay presents! It was very cool! They all know how into baking I am and pretty much everything was baking related with the exception of the purse I got from my dad and stepmom. She knows how much I love purses! I got a gift card to Joann's, a really cool book on different cake decorating tips from Wilton, a new Bundt pan and some really pretty stoneware serving dishes that match my kitchen perfectly! All in all, it was well worth the wait and it was fun spending so much time with my family! Oh on top of that I might have a new gig, donating my time decorating cakes for a local charity. My sis-in-law works at Helping Hand House and they help families in need with celebrating birthdays and are in need of people to donate cakes for the occasions. I think it will be a great way to get my name out there! I'm looking forward to it!

Second Cake Class Done and FUN!

So here are the cakes from my other classmates. Some of them weren't able to quite finish in class tonight but you get the jist.

Just got back from my second Wilton Cake Decorating Class and it was fun, fun, FUN! We all brought in our prefrosted round cakes so we could decorate them using the techniques we learned in class today. There were some great cakes too! I think Ambers was my favorites. I loved her colors.

And here's is a wonderful picture of my finished cake. It's not quite like the picture but it's passable.

Next week we make scary clowns! Man I hate clowns! hehe All in all though it was such a fun class. I look forward to it every Tuesday!

It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want too!

So today is my birthday and I LOVE having my birthdays (all but my 30th so far) usually but today I'm kinda po'd. My stepmother-in-law scheduled a surprise 60th birthday party for my father-in-law in Tonasket, WA which is WAY over in eastern Washington. So since it's so special my husband and boys left me this morning to go over there to celebrate with them leaving me here to go to work today and spend the rest of the weekend without them! I'm very upset because they live over here in Seattle and she very well could have set up the party for last weekend here when I could have attended after work, also eliminating the 5 hour drive over there for both Chris and his brother with gas prices being what they are! I guess it just goes to show you that some people just don't give a crap about how they are affecting other peoples lives. Oh well, I guess I should just get over it eh? Well I can't so THERE!

My first after class cake

So my brother in law, Doug, was hounding me for a cake because he knows I'm taking this class. So Wednesday and Thursday I baked two, two layer 8 inch cakes and decorated them on Thursday. It was my first attempt at making my own chocolate frosting. I guess it turned out ok. Doug's going to judge it for me and I know he'll be honest, as he is usually brutally honest.
The only thing I had issues with was I think I mixed the frosting too long and it got air bubbles in it. It makes it hard to get a smooth surface for the base. OH and I kinda still suck at the cursive! Oh well, you live and learn! Next time it will be better!

Practice makes perfect

So today I'm practicing for my class on Tuesday. We are supposed to frost our cake so it's as smooth as we can get it, so it's ready for us to bring to class. We'll then get to practice printing, cursive writing, stars and zigzags. I'm baking a yellow cake with chocolate pudding for filling which will go to my brother-in-law and a carrot cake with cream cheese filling for my family. I'm excited to try out the new tips I learned. I'll post pictures when I'm done!

My stepmom's 61st!

My stepmom turned 61 on February 17th and I made her a bouquet of cupcakes for her party that we had at my house. It was fun making them and was my first attempt to make flowers out of cupcakes. I'm sure they will look much better after I finish my cake decorating classes!

Cakes, cakes, cakes!

I had my first cake decorating class last night and it was fun and we didn't even get to decorate yet! I'm excited to practice so my cake for next Tuesday's class will be the best! Am I too competitive? Yes but oh well! I guess I have something to prove too, because I have "prior" experience and no one else does really in class. My family and co-workers are going to love me though with all the cake they'll be getting! Stay tuned for pictures documenting my progress!

It might finally be time...

Well it might finally be time for me to get off my butt and get serious about opening my own shop. Things at the post office don't appear to be going well. We are going through a two week mail count which is how they determine the pay for each rural route, and things aren't going very well. The route I work on is being counted by the regular, who is the assistant state steward for our union, so she knows EVERYTHING there is to know about mail count and our route evaluation appears to be losing ground. It seems that we will be losing 5 hours a week which is alot for one route to lose. So if she is as dilligent as she is and we are losing ground I shudder to think at how the other routes are doing. It is quite possible they may end up having to adjust routes which may result in a loss of a route or two in our office! NOT GOOD! So after this madness ends on March 7th, and they calculate everything we have until April 26th when the new evaluations go into effect. That gives me time to work on getting my shit together. I've already signed up for a level one cake decorating class which starts on March 4th. I'm very excited about it too! Now I'll have to get serious about the research portion! Wish me luck!