Alabama Tracks

Pure Daddy

Home Sweet Home

Look Familar?

Don’t we look like we’re working hard?

Cake II Graduation Cake

Up Close

This week has been incredibly busy.  Good, bad, and indifferent.  Filled with blessings. 

 Last week we went to Jacksonville and stayed w/ Jan.  It was wonderful to be able to stay together as a family in a house and not have to travel to see one another elsewhere.  It wasn’t our home but it was good second.  Her house was beautiful and very relaxing.  Between working out on the land, having absolutely beautiful weather, and being in church where I could belt out the hymns was great.  The sermon was by Jimmy Scroggins (one of my junior high training teachers) and it was fabulous.

Monday and Tuesday proved to be very difficult days at work.  I had my eye appointment that afternoon and found that insurance was only leaving me with about $12 to pay out of pocket.  Furthermore I received a huge thank you from one of my bosses, so I went shopping.  The shopping bug bit and it bit hard.  I found a linen skirt, top, and pants set.  My husband even said that I just needed some “smart looking” heels and some jewelry and it would look great.  He’s coming around !:)

Tuesday night I had a make up cake class.  It was flower night and I was a visitor to another class which meant different class dynamics.  There was plenty of room for me and I seemed to fly through most of the flowers to be made.  6 different flowers in all.  I got home at 9:00.  I’m so glad that I could make the class up but I don’t want to take a night class like that again if I can help it. 

Wednesday night we finally went grocery shopping as we didn’t have choir.  I needed a night at home and I think the girls enjoyed us being there.  Joel treated me to Brusters.  Yum :p

Thursday I wore a new suit jacket I bought on clearance with some black dress pants and pull my hair back in a new style.  I walked into work and was bombared with compliments both on my hair and my outfit.  My boss even said that he thought it reflected my weight loss and he just liked it.  In fact, he decided that this was what he wanted me to wear for the Farm-City program we would be conducting next month where I’ll be in front of a couple hundred people. 

I finish my cake 2 class this week.  I’ll have pictures shortly.  It’s going to be pretty but challenging.  I’ll spend most of my weekend in the kitchen between cooking for us, the cake, and breakfast for church.  We plan on cutting the grass and doing some spring cleaning here and there.  I’m ready to get my house in order and open some windows even though it will be cool outside.  The girls will love sitting in the windows with noses twitching. 

So I guess this concludes the week. It has been a full week of every emotion known to man.  I’ve been hopping mad to incredibly in awe and thankful.  Maybe we can sleep in this weekend and veg.  Sounds great to me.

Wow!  This week has been a whirlwind of a week.  Monday while I was at work, Joel asked if I was ready to bake my first cake.  Not sure of what to say, I started asking questions about what he had in mind.  Before I knew it, I was on speaker phone talking w/ his bosses wife about specifics.  I was in.  I couldn’t back out at that point.  They requested a chocolate cake, white frosting w/ an Auburn theme and the words “Touch Down, Emily, Happy Birthday.”  This is what I came up with -

I really didn’t have a good idea regarding the time that I would put into this cake.  Monday night Joel and I went to Michaels to buy a new cake pan, food colors, and a few new decorating bags.  I made my pattern and got my plan together for the week.  Once we got home, I started to make frosting.  I wanted to make an all butter buttercream for the base and then use a standard buttercream for the decorating.  So out came my cookbooks and put some butter out to soften.  I started sewing for mom - yet another thing that had to be done this week.  Around 8:45 that night I realized that the recipe that I had found required whipping cream.  So out to the store I went.  Back home around 9:10 and in the kitchen right away.  As I whipped said frosting, it turned into “grits”.  Not good.  I gave up for the night.

Tuesday night, I made the cake.  The pan said to use 11 cups of batter for this pan.  As I was making a scratch cake, I had to make it twice to get enough batter.  Then I made my standard buttercream.  Joel said it was really sweet.  Paranoid about the overall sweetness of the cake, I found a new recipe online for a French buttercream.  It was fabulous.  I put everything in the fridge for the night and headed to bed.

Wednesday night I had choir.  I really wasn’t up to go as I had so much to get done but I hadn’t gone to choir for a few weeks due to my cold so I went.  I was glad that I did as my friend Rebecca (the one that just had twins) came back.  Home again around 8:30 and back into the kitchen.  First thing was to frost the cake.  I didn’t have enough frosting.  So I whipped up a half batch of the french buttercream.  Decorated as I watched American Idol and Project Runway.  Around 10:30 I had the dishes done, cake in the fridge, and found myself crashed on the couch for a few minutes of quiet time with my husband.  Midnight finally brought some shut eye.

Joel brought the cake with him to work on Thursday.  Everyone said that they liked it and that it looked like a professional did it.  I really don’t think that was the case but I’ll take the compliment.  The day ended with his boss asking how much I charged for cakes.  Apparently the overall taste of the cake won them over above and beyond the overall look.  A lady at work who has decorated cakes for years said that she would give me a “B” grade overall and a “A” for effort.  The mistakes that I made would be things that I would learn over time.

I’m so glad that the first cake is over.  Now I just have to come up with some kind of dollar figure for the future.  I plan on talking to some grocery stores prices into consideration as I don’t know what my overall cost is at this point.  We’ll see how far this goes. I plan on getting my instructors thoughts on the cake as well.

On a different note, my back is healing rather nicely.  It really itches so I know it’s healing.  I’ll get the stitches out on Wednesday.  Joel takes his certification test for his programming language that day as well.  This week proves to be a busy week but I sure hope it isn’t what this week was.  I do hope to get back into the gym next week if only for a day or two.  I’ve got an itch to go clothes shopping now - something that I’ve not had lately.  I have to buy some pants though before my kakhis split in the inseam while I’m at work and totally embarass me.  It’s time for something to be done.  Maybe the cake order will help in that arena.  We’ll see how it goes.

I did it again.  Somehow I’m like a moth drawn to the flame.  Only for me, the flame is voluntary pain.  Sounds wierd doesn’t it? 

Well this time I requested that the doctor remove a small sebaceous cyst off my back as it was starting to get a little large and a little bit painful.  I left the doctor’s office w/ about an inch and a half cut w/ 6 internal stitches and 1 long running stictch externally.  The cavity was about 1/2 inch deep so needless to say, some of my tissue has been bothered.  Long around 7:30 last night the numbness started to wear off and the pain set in for the night.  After washing my hair one handed (something I have learned to perfect over the years w/ shoulder issues) I was ready to hit the sack.

 Amazingly, I slept the entire night.  This morning I was met with the constant twinge of pain with greater pain as I move in different positions.  I’m at work though hoping the day will pass quickly.  I’ll not work out tonight as I think the constant movement will bother me even more.  I think I’ll lie low again tonight.  Maybe tomorrow I won’t just be a body in a chair that is mentally checked out.