New Cakes!

A friend from work gave me the great pleasure of doing a few cakes for her baby shower. I decided to try out a few recipes that I had been wanting to try, specifically a recipe for a better tasting fondant. I was pretty happy with how the cakes turned out especially since I made three different flavors including one I had never tried. However, the better tasting fondant was way too hard to work with and still did not taste as good as I would like. Oh, well back to the drawing board on that one. Anyways, here are the pictures:

This one was a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing.
The "M" is for Madeleine, the soon to be baby's name.

This cake is lemon-raspberry, a new flavor suggested by Matt.
Matt is now my flavor connoisseur/taste tester.

This is my almond flavored cake that I do all the time
since it is easy and most people like the taste.

An Inspiring Story

As I was blog stalking the other night, I came across the blog of a girl I went to high school with. She was a couple of years younger than me so I didn't really know her that well. Now, thanks to the world of the blog I feel like I know LOTS about her. Hey name is Amy and she runs a girls' ministry that provides after school programs for girls in elementary, middle, and high school.

I hadn't been on her blog in several months so I was surprised that the first entry was entitled "Fetus Friday:a blog carnival where new moms ask and smart moms answer" Amy often jokes about "Imaginary Boyfriend" and I thought for sure if she were pregnant she would have put some status up on Facebook to announce her impending joy. So I went stalking, er I mean searching, for the story.

Basically, a friend (I don't know the age or any info on the girl) came to Amy and revealed that she was pregnant. Roomie (as Amy calls her on the blog) was in a heartbreaking situation. Amy decided to find a place where the two of them could live and help with the baby. For the full story in Amy's words, click here.

Amy is 23. She is a very mature and together 23 year old, but I find it I-N-C-R-E-D-I-B-L-E that she is willing to go so far to help this girl. Most people would just say "let me know if you need anything" and then secretly hope the person never calls. One of the things that impressed me the most:
"I guess it all comes down to this: I spend quite a bit of time talking about how we shouldn't judge others when they make mistakes and how we need to love each other as Christ loves us and so forth. Those had better not just be statements I’m making on a stage while the spotlight is on me; they better ring very loudly in my private life, too."

WOW.

Amy and her Roomie live in Tennessee and I know most of you who read the blog live in Texas, but if you want to help here is an entry by Amy detailing their needs. More than anything, I am sure Amy and Roomie would both appreciate your prayers in the next several months.

My favorite time of the year

Today, I leave for our student ministry's camp. We are taking 240+ students so I am happy with that I guess. I was hoping to hit 250, but I think we have a good group going. Our church will be meeting up with another group and together will have 450+ students so it should be an AMAZING week.

While I am sad to leave Clay, I really can't wait for camp! It is my first time in 5 years to go to one...I can't believe it had been that long.

Most of my work is done on the front end and in just a few hours we will find out how good my organization skills really. I have a few things to print this morning, but finished all of my pre-camp work at 11:59 last night. Yay for being done the day before!!! okay, so it was 1 minute before the day of, I am still counting it.

I have been working a lot of long nights trying to get everything done and was a little worried I would oversleep this morning. But, like a kid on Christmas, I woke up early. In fact, I dreamt that I was at the office, printing out my files for check-in. Andy (my boss) came in and was saying something about excellence, value and quality work. Then, Stephanie came in and said "You better hurry. Kids will be here in 15 minutes." Finally, Greg said something about how I really needed to get going. Then, I woke up. I half expected the dream to meant I had overslept, but it was still 30 minutes before I ever intended to wake up!

Sorry for such a boring post, but I had to find something to do with that extra thirty minutes. Please be praying this week (thru Wednesday) for the students going. Pray that they will be opening to hearing the message God has intended for them. Also, please pray for our adults going. While camp is always a lot of fun, it can be exhausting for those of us who aren't quite as good at functioning on a few hours of sleep as we used to be. Please pray that our adults would be well rested and that God would truly pour into them this week.

Talk to you when I get back.

ps- sorry for any spelling errors...it is kinda early for me!

Sick Dog, Part 2 and 3

Short and sweet: He got sick again.

After hours.

$460.

Seems fine...time will tell.

Just when I think I have hit my max out of pocket expense for our pets for a week (or year...):

Scout won't walk and is showing other signs of being ill.

$100 later: She too is fine.

Maybe I really should buy pet insurance???

One Sick Puppy....

Literally. So anyone who knows my husband knows that his one true love on this earth is not me; it is Siler. For those who do not know my husband, Siler is our dog. That's right I am secure enough to say it out loud as well as write it on my blog: I come in second to a dog. But I am kinda okay with it since the dog is as close to being a person as a dog can get.

Today, when Clay arrived home from work and went to let the big dogs out of their crate, he found the crate a complete mess. And by mess, well hopefully you don't need a graphic description because I think that would make me sick. Once out of the cage, Siler immediately threw up...which paled in comparison to what was in the crate. It is times like these that I feel bad that our two big dogs share a giant crate.

Once I arrived home, I made the decision to go ahead and go to the vet. We have been down this road before. Siler eats all kinds of things (socks, towels, the packaging that sheet sets come in, zipper and all) and then he gets sick. This time we couldn't figure out what on earth he had eaten so I though we might as well go to the vet to be on the safe side. Plus, I didn't want to risk him getting sicker and us having to go to the super expensive emergency vet.

Our super cheap vet closes early on Wednesday. As does our friends super cheap vet. Lucky us. So we ended up at the brand new vet in our neighborhood. The office is nicer than any doctor's office I have ever been in. One shot and $60 later, we were on our way home. Add this to the growing list of healthcare costs we have incurred with Siler. Apparently, he just has an upset stomach and we need to give him Pepcid AC. You know, the human medicine.

Once home, Siler played with Bear (whose name is really Sasha for those who were confused by the last post) for a little bit and seemed to be feeling somewhat better. Currently, he is sleeping. In a straight line. In the bed. In between my husband and I. With the covers pulled up to just underneath his arms. Just like I did as a small child in my parents bed after a nightmare.

Oh, and the vet told us Siler has a cataract. In each eye. I will start saving now. And maybe, go ahead and pick up pet insurance on him.

Little Meets the Bigs

I kinda think they were trying to figure out if she was a moving snack.

This one kinda looks like a dead rabbit, but I promise there were only a few attempts on her life.

Recent Cakes

As promised, here are pictures of two cakes I recently made. This first one was made for my friend Matt's 30th birthday party:

This one I made for my friend Greg's birthday and was my first attempt at a 3-D "shaped" cake. I need to work on writing on a curved surface but I was pretty happy with how it turned out: