Oh, Baby!

I am not an aged scholar but if I had to guess, I would say that at the end of my life I will only be able to name 10-15 people who I truly cherish. 10-15 people who changed me and my life for the better. 10-15 people who I will never forget and always look back on fondly. Of course, that number doesn't include family members because I now have two fairly large families that I love with all of my heart, but I do know that Erika T. will be on that list if I had to make it today, tomorrow, or in sixty years.

I first met Erika in tenth grade. We were both new to our high school but she seemed like she had it all figured out on the first day. Calm and cool. I however, was a wreck. I missed the first few weeks of school because I had been in the hospital and on bed rest. Not a fun time. By the time I was able to attend a full day of classes I thought that everyone had figured out who they were going to be friends with and that there wouldn't be room for me. Man, I could not have been more wrong. Within what seemed like hours, Erika, JooJoo, Erica B, Alyssa, and I were inseperable. We had sleepovers, we danced on the side of a busy road in Gulfport, we got sent to the principle's office for a number of things, and on Erika's 16th birthday, we wrecked my first car doing donuts on an abandoned gravel road.

From left: Erika T, Erica B, Alyssa, Joo Joo, and Me years ago.

Our lives changed as lives always do. Erica B moved to Texas with her long time boyfriend, I got married and moved to Chicago, Alyssa married a solider who is stationed in South Carolina, JooJaroo (whose real name is Julianne but we basically call her everything BUT her real name) lives in Indiana, and Erika T works and goes to school full time in Gulfport. Despite our distance Erika and I have remained close, if not become closer as the years have gone by. We were the first of our group to discover how much gas prices affect your life or how your paycheck doesn't last that long and bills just continue to pile up. We bonded over adulthood.. And how overrated it all is :) Kidding... 

Erika is one of the strongest people I know. She doesn't wait on anyone or anything, she is going to do her thing, regardless of what everyone else is doing. She was raised by her grandma and last year when "G-Ma", as Erika affectionately called her, passed away it was the saddest time in Erika's life to date. I cried for days because I was in Chicago and not with her. Did she need me? No, Erika doesn't NEED anyone... But I needed to be there for her.

Erika works a full time job and goes to school full time because she is not the type of person who sits around and feels sorry for herself. She is a go getter and she won't stop until she gets what she wants. Or what is best for her. The most valuable lesson that I have learned from Erika is that it doesn't matter your situation, life it what you make it... And boy, is she making her life a beautiful experience.

So, why am I telling you all of this? Well, if you read the post from earlier this week you know that two of my best friends are pregnant and by this time, you have probably figured out that Erika is one of them. I can't think of anyone more capable or deserving to bring life into this world. Having a child is such a beautiful honor that not everyone gets the chance to do and I know Erika won't take that for granted. She will teach her children everything they need to know to succeed in life and instill her hard work ethic in them, I am sure of it. You may have noticed in that last sentence I said "children"... In case you didn't catch that, allow me to clarify: Erika is pregnant with not one, but TWO healthy babies!

I couldn't be more happy for her and Kevin. They deserve all the happiness this world can afford them and 2 babies may mean 2x the diapers and 2x the bottles but I am sure it will also bring 2x the happiness and joy into their home.

M.I.A Without a Cause

I have been absent for a while now and I really don't have any good reasons for it. I could tell you that the past few months have been extremely draining and challenging emotionally and physically. I could tell you that I haven't felt like myself in a long time. I could even tell you that I haven't baked anything while I have been absent from my blog because the very thought seems exhausting but I won't tell you any of those things because they aren't the kind of things that people want to hear about! Why would they? It is depressing! 

I will tell you that two of my best friends just found out they are pregnant! At the same time! It is so exciting and I am so happy for them but because one of them is keeping it under wraps, I won't go into great detail. However, she is having her first sonogram next week and is announcing it after that.... Yep, you can bet that I have a post planned for that.

I will also tell you that my cat Mally came home two weeks after she ran away...Pregnant. All six of her kittens are three weeks old. :)

Its all about babies in my crowd right now lol. And before anyone asks, no, I am not pregnant, just enjoying the amazing experience that my friends (and cat lol) are going through right now. I am living vicariously through all of them :)

See ya then :)

Mickey Mouse/ Twilight Cake

What a combination, huh? The story behind this cake is... Well, a lot of my friends have birthdays in July. Luckily, Tyler and Jamie have been best friends for YEARS so they wanted to have a joint birthday dinner, which meant a joint birthday cake. The choice for Jamie's side of the cake was simple, we love Twilight. We even went to Forks, Washington once... Yep, I am serious.

Jamie is all the way on the left, I am on the right, and our friend Angel is in the middle.

Tyler's choice was also pretty simple. He loves all things Disney, I promise you he goes to Disney World like, 850 times a year. Okay, maybe a little less than that but he does go a lot. Lol. He also works at a Post Office so when I found this picture on the internet, I knew exactly what to do.

I made a square cake covered in black fondant and used gumpaste to make the chess piece and apple (that looks like a tomato) for Jamie's side of the cake.. I used fondant for the ribbon and the white pieces of the chess board.

Things I learned from this side of the cake:

Gumpaste is heavy. When making bigger pieces I should use half gumpaste and half fondant.

Tyler's side of the cake:

I printed the image to be the right size that I needed. I then rolled out a large white piece of fondant and used the stamp picture as a stencil. I placed the picture directly on top of the fondant and used a toothpick to trace all of the lines of the picture, using enough pressure so that the lines would show on the fondant. I then used food coloring and water to paint inside all of the lines.

Things I learned from this side of the cake:

Start way earlier than the day of the party. Wait, didn't I say I learned that a few cakes ago? Oops..

The "paint" needed time to dry. Unfortunately, that was time that we didn't have. Tyler peeled the stamp off of the cake before we cut it though so, no harm done. At least no one wound up with food coloring stained teeth lol!

Last Wednesday Night

Last Wednesday both Colin and I were off of work and we ran errands and hung out. Around six we went grocery shopping and when we came home and were unloading groceries Mally, our one year old cat, ran out of the door. Colin went to stop her but I told him not to. I told him to let her run around for a little bit and she would come back happier, as she always does. We went inside, cooked dinner, cleaned, and I made sugar cookies. By this time it was around 1:30 in the morning. Right around the time that I was flooding the cookies, I started getting really worried. She had always come back and scratched at the door within a few hours. Colin said it wasn't safe to walk around the apartments so late at night so I just called her quietly from the back door so I wouldn't wake anyone up. She didn't come. I left the cookies on the cooling racks and paced the apartment until around 6:30 waiting for her to come home. I finally fell asleep and woke to a call from my landlord saying that someone had seen her around the complex but she wouldn't let them come near her. I rushed to where they had seen her but she was gone by that time. I walked around and around the apartment calling her and couldn't find her. I looked again the next day and the next.. And the next.I even checked the pound. Nothing. A week has passed, I never finished those cookies, they don't seem important anymore. The first few days I cried and cried all day when I wasn't at work but the truth that she isn't coming home has sunk in and I am dealing with it. People without pets probably think I am silly, it isn't like I lost a person, I know that, but I lost a friend all the same.

I loved her from the moment I saw her at Petland. My friends told me I could get cats for five dollars if I looked in the paper but I didn't care about the money, I wanted her.

I guess this is just to explain my absence. I don't want anyone to think that I am walking around like a zombie here, I am just not in the mood to bake right now. 

Wedding Anniversary- Random Pics

Today is my first wedding anniversary so I decided to share some really random pictures. We had a really small, thrown together in two weeks wedding. And no, I wasn't pregnant :) Planning was really stressful and there was a lot of negativity from several people that wasn't helpful at all. Finally I got fed up and asked Colin if we could just go to the courthouse and get it over with. Great attitude, huh? I was past my breaking point. He said that his parents wanted a wedding but when he mentioned the courthouse idea to them, they understood but suggested that we do it at our church. I wasn't going to wear a wedding dress, we weren't going to have a reception, and it was going to be immediate family only. Somehow in two weeks, I did wear a wedding dress, we had a small reception, and around fifty people were there. The best part about it was one of my best friends from high school was able to marry us. That was really special. Although I had always dreamed of having that "Father of the Bride" type wedding, when it was all said and done, Colin and I both said that we wouldn't do it any differently if we could go back and do it again.

Most embarrassing picture ever. This was the night before the wedding at mine and Colin's favorite mexican restaurant, Los Tres Amigos. Those are two of my best friends and we were dancing. Now you know I am a dork.

All anyone reading this blog cares about, the cake! It fell over about 40 seconds after this picture was taken. True. Story.

One of my sisters. She is honestly the cutest two year old (that wasn't two yet) in existence. She was obsessed with the flowers.

Okay, maybe one picture I don't look horrible in:

Yep, you can barely see my face. See what I am trying to tell you here? I looked bad in all of them. :( I blame it on the lighting :) 

That is my mother-in-law in the picture with me. I know you can't see her face either but trust me, she is gorgeous. 

And just because:

The only picture I have of our first date.

And:

Us getting engaged

Happy Anniversary Colin! Thanks for making this the best year of my life. Looking forward to many more with you :)

Purple Birthday Cake

This cake was for a coworker. His daughter had a birthday coming up so me and Jamie offered to make the cake. However, Jamie's sister went into labor in Florida and she had to rush there, leaving me to make this cake alone... I may still be bitter about that :)

The week that I made this cake was bad. I was tired, stressed, and overworked. I didn't want to do anything but sleep.  My coworker called and said that since Jamie was out of town and I didn't have any help, he would just pick up a cake at Wal-Mart. "Thank God!" I screamed inwardly. I went to bed. I woke up around 1a.m. (as I always do if I let myself fall asleep before midnight), walked into my kitchen, and looked at all of the supplies I had already purchased for the cake. I figured I might as well finish it so that is what I did. I finished the cake. I filled it with chocolate pudding and frosted it with buttercream. You can see that at this point I still had a problem with not using enough buttercream. I used teal fondant accents and piped Happy Birthday with buttercream. 

This was a big cake. It was three layers and it took forever to eat. Luckily Colin's brother was staying with us at the time and he was able to help with that :)

What's Baking?-Vanilla Cupcakes

This is my first month participating in the What's Baking Challenges! The challenges are decided by different members of the group each month and February was chosen by Dunne at With a Cherry On Top. The theme is "Baked With Love" and these cupcakes were baked with plenty of it!

I also really loved eating them. :)

Recipe from: 250 Treasured Country Desserts

Vanilla Cupcakes:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter- Room Temp

1 1/2 cup sugar

4 large egg Whites

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1. Preheat the your oven to 350 degrees and prepare your muffin pans by putting a liner in each cup. You will need two 12-cup pans as this recipe makes 24 cupcakes. You can use the same pan twice, it will just slow you down a little bit. 

2. Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg whites, one at a time, until well combined and light. Beat in the vanilla. Scrape the bowl.

3. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl and add, a little at a time, into the butter mixture. Mix for around two minutes. Add milk gradually and beat at high speed until fluffy and smooth, about 2 minutes. Taste the batter. It is delicious. Don't take my word for it, go ahead, try it for yourself.

4. Spoon half of the mixture into a large pastry bag. Cut off the tip of the bag and twist the top, making sure the air is out of the bag. Use the pastry bag to neatly and uniformly distribute the batter into the paper liners.

5. Bake for about 20 minutes. Oven times vary but mine were done at exactly twenty minutes, exactly like the book said. 

6. Cool the pan on a wire rack for ten minutes. Using a small spatula  or knife, remove the cupcakes from the pan. Finish cooling on wire racks.

7. Frost as desired.

The frosting I used was a simple chocolate frosting recipe from allrecipes.com.

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• Ingredients: 
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• 1/4 cup margarine, melted
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
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• Directions:
• In a large bowl, beat margarine and cocoa together until combined. Add milk and vanilla; beat until smooth. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until desired consistency is achieved. Adjust with more milk or confectioners' sugar if necessary.
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