All Cooped Up

I promise we're not white trash!  However, we have had a near-white-trash experience the past couple weeks.

The other day, Mitzi was itching like crazy...after half a day of this, we flipped her over and saw fleas all over her belly.  Gross!  She had been at the Doggy Hotel during our wedding so we assumed she must have picked them up there--but she was still getting a flea bath right away!

About a week later, she was itching again.  She has very sensitive skin to begin with but I'm sure that bathing her in insecticide probably didn't help it any.  I kinda brushed it off but Justin flipped her over and the fleas were back...grrrrrrrrr!

At this point, we decided that Malcolm must have had them as well (even though he didn't show any signs)and they jumped off of him and back on to her.  We spent a Saturday evening giving Mitzy her second flea dip and Malcolm his first one.  First of all, giving a cat a bath sucks...it takes the both of us to keep him in the tub.  But then he has this way of wailing that sounds like a small child being tortured.  It's horrible on our ears and I'm sure people think we're doing awful things inside our house!

Finally, both animals had been "treated" and we were so glad to have the fleas behind us.

Or so we thought.

A few days later we found them on Mitzi for a third time!  I was beyond fed up with the situation.  She was absolutely miserable and keeping us up at night from all the itching.  We had just given both animals another dose of Frontline and all the flea dips weren't doing anything.  I called the vet and our only other choice was giving her a daily pill...at $7 a pop!  I didn't like the cost or the fact that she would be putting that kind of stuff INSIDE her body.

I called out to Horticultural Services and they had an insecticide that we could apply to the yard...for $12 :-)  I went out there after work and we applied it to the yard that evening.  The lady at Hort Services said this has been a horrendous year for fleas...guess we weren't white trash after all!  The next day we had a large rain and the insecticide was good to go!

It's been about 10 days since we treated the yard and we haven't found any more fleas on Mitzi.  However, we have kept Malcolm inside this entire time and he is driving us nuts--especially during the weekends when we're home with him.  He's used to going out first thing in the morning, coming in at lunch to eat his food, going back out for the day and by bedtime he's waiting at the back door. But his new routine is a different story--once the sun comes up, he starts crying the most god awful cry nonstop...when that doesn't work, he starts flipping up the edges of the rugs, jumping all over the furniture to get in the windows, pawing on the backdoor and trying to push open the storm door.  After a couple hours, he gives up and finds a sunny spot to sleep in.

All chilled out!

I know he's all cooped up and just wants to be outside, but until we have a few nights of below-freezing temps, he's staying indoors.

We have no idea if our yard already had fleas in it from the previous owner, if they were jumping off other dogs walking down our sidewalk or if Malcolm was bringing them in from roaming the neighborhood.  But regardless of the cause, it was not a fun experience at all!

Blueberry Brew

I'm starting to feel a bit like Oprah...not because I'm filthy rich and rule the world (I wish!) but I'm blogging more and more about my "favorite things"...when I find something good, I just naturally feel the need to share it with other people!

I was cleaning out the cupboard this evening and in the midst of all my Tulsi tea boxes, I found this...

I bought it earlier this summer and obviously forgot I even had it!  I'm a sucker for iced tea--I am particularly fond of Dara's and Sonic's ice tea...even when I was little, I loved the Lipton's instant tea.  Yes, instant...it was so gross but so good!  When Dad would come in from the field during the summer, I would make him a glass of instant tea and myself a glass of instant tea and then we'd drink it together...it always seemed that I looked forward to chugging the cold frothy tea but in hindsight, I think it was because we got to see Dad during the daytime--which in the farming world, rarely happened--AND it kinda made me feel special :-)

Anyhow, back to my story--I "brewed" some of the tea this evening and it's super yummy!  I love blueberry anything--in fact, that reminds me that it's been forever since I've had any chocolate covered blueberries from Mr. Bulky's...those are heaven!  But I also like the fact that this tea is a cold brew--by the time I heat up regular tea bags and the water actually cools down, I've given up on making iced tea and am headed to Sonic.  However, with this stuff I just pour cold water over the tea bags and it's ready in 5 minutes!

On a random note, we have been revisiting our household budget and looking for easy things to cut...in the past 2.5 weeks, we have only eaten out once and we used a gift card that had been given to us!  It's amazing how quickly a few stops here and there for a drink or small snack really adds up...but now that I have found my super yummy blueberry brew, I have no more excuses for Sonic Happy Hour and that should "earn" me a few extra bucks in my wallet!

Cold Blooded

I absolutely love this time of year...the humidity is gone, the leaves are changing and the holidays are right around the corner.

And for the most part I don't mind the cooler temperatures...until this year!

I've always been "cold blooded" and it's kinda fun to dress in layers and bundle up.  We haven't had our AC on at the house for several weeks now and we haven't had to turn the heater on yet.  But it's a different story when I head to the school!

A few weeks ago, I was absolutely freezing in my office--I looked forward to my lunch breaks just so I could crank the heater in my car.  I figured it had something to do with my cold and week-long fever...I would alternate between goosebumps and sweating bullets.  My desk is made out of metal and I was too scared to bump it because that even gave me the chills!  I've pretty much given up on wearing crops or dresses because bumping exposed skin against my desk just gets old.  We have already adjusted the room's thermostat to 73 degrees so I figure I'll just suck it up for awhile.  I've been wearing my fleece most days and if I have to I'll start bringing a blanket with me!

Yesterday, I was leaving the building and noticed that all the other thermostats were set to 65 degrees.  No wonder I'm always freezing while I'm there!!!

What I can't figure out, though, is this...they're always looking for ways to save money within the district.  Have they ever done an audit on what they might save if they adjust the building temps a bit?!  The normal comfort zone temperature is 72-73 degrees and they have it at 65.  Especially with the cooler weather, it doesn't make sense...is it unreasonable to turn the AC off already and have fans move the air around instead???  But all I know for sure is this--it wasn't my fever making me cold and I'm counting down the days until they turn the heat on!

An Oozy..Goey..Cheesy..Greasy Treat!

Tomorrow night I'm trying my hand at bunco--last time I was supposed to play, I wound up sick...looking back, it was probably my silent GERD so I'll be sure to take my Prilosec (and some Tums for good measure) before I head out the door.  Man, do I sound like an old lady or what?!

I was looking up recipes earlier today as we're all supposed to bring a treat...I found a recipe that seemed intriguing but it required a deep fryer...and I'm not going to stink up someone's house with a hot greasy mess!  Upon further inspection, the recipe was lacking something.  It was for "Mexican Rangoons" and only called for the wonton wrappers and shredded cheese.  Blah!!!

Justin is ALWAYS hungry when he gets home from work...he's like a little kid coming home from school!  I decided to shake up the recipe a bit and the results turned out great!  Like--I could eat all of the mixture and still crave more.  Something tells me I better get back in my gym routine before my pants stop fitting!

Unfortunately, I will not be taking them tomorrow night but I ultimately decided to take some tortilla pinwheels.  I've never made them before!  They're so easy and yummy--and if there ARE leftovers, I know we would devour them on our own :-)

MY Mexican Rangoon
1 Tub Chive & Onion cream cheese, softened (we used the 1/3 less fat kind)
1 small can diced green chiles
4 oz. any Mexican cheese (I found some habernero cheese at Dillons), crumbled
Cilantro, however much you like
Cumin, dash
Salt, dash
Wonton wrappers

Mix the first 6 ingredients together while the oil heats up...dab the edges of each wonton wrapper with water or egg.  I used water and it held really well.  Place 1 teaspoon or so of the mixture in the center of the wrapper and fold the wrapper however you wish.  Tranfer to the oil and fry until the rangoon begins to float!  Drain on paper towels.

I'm still trying to figure out a good dipping sauce for these...maybe some type of refried bean/bean dip???   The habernero cheese made the ragoons quite spicy which was fine for us--but I'm sure some Colby or Pepperjack would also make a cheesy, greasy delight!

Slowly but Surely...

Our living room is starting to come together...We still need to get another armchair and console table, plus some wall hanging and knick-knacks.  But it's starting to look a bit more cozy :-)  Hopefully people will stop asking if we're moving out!

We finally hung curtains this summer...however, we have plaster walls and that makes me super nervous.  I tend to make a few "mistakes" when trying to hang rods and that doesn't work so well with plaster.  We ended up hanging the rods in the window frames where the previous owner had already drilled holes for their curtains.  I love the look of floor-to-ceiling window treatments for the added flair but guess it won't be happening in this house!

Personally, I can't wait to hang stockings over the fireplace for Christmas!  I know the exact stocking hooks and stockings that I want to buy--thank you Hobby Lobby for adding more stuff to my "Wish List." 

The color of the living & dining rooms on Closing Day

Our living room after Mom and I painted it!

The "final" fireplace color...it looks different in person & I'm not completely sold on it, but after painting it several different colors I'm done with it for awhile!

The living room so far...at eye level

The living room...looking up

On a final note--I think I may have to charge up my camera.  I've been taking all these pics on my phone and grrrrrrr, the lighting turns out horrible and everything is so dark!  Someday I'll get around to it... ;-)

Mixin' It Up

A few weekends ago, I made some Pumpkin Cookies for Justin...he loves anything pumpkin!  Last year, I made some pumpkin bread out of the Libby's kit and he took it to work--he was bragging to everyone that it was homemade.  Dumb me, as he's telling me this, I revealed that they were made out of a kit!  Apparently, his whole world fell apart for about the next two hours and then he was over it.

But this year, I decided to make some cookies from scratch...I got out my old handmixer that I've had since Freshman year of college.  As soon as I turned it on, it sounded like a squaking bird was being torchured to death...the sound was absolutely god awful and got worse as I tried increasing the speed.  Even the dog ran out of the kitchen!

I'm guessing I paid around $10 for my little Magic Chef when I first moved to Omaha...I rarely use it and now I remember why!

Thankfully, we had a new handmixer on order from Williams-Sonoma and I knew I wouldn't have to listen to squeals of death for very much longer.  Our friends Jill, Joe & Joe Joe--or was it mostly Jill's doing?--gave us a super generous gift card to the store and I was over the moon!  Justin isn't familiar with Williams-Sonoma, but he was still excited because that meant I would be buying something that would have to deal with cooking and him eating the end result...

The mixer arrived yesterday and it's AWESOME!  It's a gorgeous stainless steel Cuisinart that has a built-in timer...so no more trying to watch the clock and still forgetting how long it's been!  The mixer also has an automatic sensor in it so it knows what speed it needs to mix at.  I'm beyond thrilled with it and *hopefully* I can find time to make some goodies and try it out :-) 

Another Recipe for the Books

We're almost two months into the school year and I'm still on my slow cooker kick.  I've think we've only cooked 2 or 3 meals either on the stove or in the oven this entire time...it's so easy to come home over lunch to let the dog out and bring the cat in to eat, throw some stuff into the crockpot and come home to find supper waiting on us!

For the most part, we've been able to avoid rotating recipes.  There's so many sites on the Internet that we could probably have a different meal every night for several months.

Justin and I tend to like our food on the spicy side...in his world, that also means salty.  I'm not sure how he equates salty to mean spicy, but to me--spicy is just that, spicy!

I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com while preparing our weekly grocery list.  As we've both been fighting colds and our heads are full of congestion, I figured a little chipotle pepper might clear out our sinuses!  The recipe called for about 3 peppers--I put in 7 or 8...it had some heat but unfortunately it did not solve our head problems ;-) 

CREAMY CHIPOTLE CHICKEN

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/4 cup melted butter
salt and ground black pepper to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced

1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup (we used the light version)

1/2 cup chicken broth

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese (once again, the light kind) cut into cubes

3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, minced

1 tablespoon adobo sauce from chipotle peppers

Directions

Place the chicken breasts into a slow cooker, brush with butter, and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and minced garlic. Pour in the cream of chicken soup and chicken broth, and add the cream cheese, peppers, and adobo sauce. Stir the mixture gently. Cover, set the cooker to Low, and cook for 6 hours...I just put some butter straight from the fridge into the crockpot and it didn't make any difference--I didn't cube the cream cheese either.  A good stirring at the end combined everything very well!  Also, I chunked the chicken before serving...slow cooked chicken breasts just aren't visually appealing to me :-)

WHAT A DAY!!!

Is it Friday???  Because it really feels like a Monday...

*Earlier this morning at school, one of our Special Needs students was walking down the hallway and upon seeing me, shouted "Oh my God!!!" and took off running in the other direction.  Ummmm, I'm not sure what I did but apparently I freaked her out.  They called the Vice Principal in case she was having a bad day but once again, I seemed to be the problem!

*Justin went to meet with the Bubble Wash owner b/c their machines scratched the CRAP out of his truck last weekend...I mean 15" long, down-to-the-primer scratches all over his truck and it even took out chunks of paint on the roof.  They're claiming their machines had nothing to do with it.  Really???  B/c it wasn't scratched before we entered the carwash and it threw us off the tracks with the components rubbing his truck...guess we won't be doing business there anymore.

*Today we talked about Alcohol in Life Skills...one of the teacher's brought up the recent case of Brad Murray.  We had just hung out with Brad a few weeks ago so it was devastating to hear the news last Friday...and even more gut-wrenching when we lost him Tuesday evening.  If you're not familiar with the case, check out http://www.themercury.com/news/ and watch the video.  Anyhow, I realize I did some very, very, VERY stupid things during my partying days--but why did this have to happen to Brad?  Please say a prayer for Brad's soul, his family, girlfriend and friends as they go through such a difficult time...Since the teacher brought it up, I used it as an opportunity to discuss what happens to a person's Blood Alcohol Content and the various physical affects of each stage.  Granted, I didn't like thinking about the situation that led us to the conversation but the students were completely engaged with the information.

*My Friday afternoon has me in a classroom that is a bit "rambuctious," to put it lightly.  The teacher gave me a heads' up that ALL three classes at this school had been out of control ALL week long.  Sweet, just what I wanted to hear!  But surprisingly enough, they were on the best behavior of the entire semester :-)

*Since it's nice out, I walked to Ray's for a few supper items.  I came out and couldn't find my car in the parking lot--for Pete's sake, it's a small parking lot!  And then I realized I walked there--yes, it has been one of those days.

*While walking home, I had somebody pull up in their car to tell me they thought I was really pretty....and that they just wanted me to know.  Talk about weird and creepy...But not as creepy when 1/2 a block later I had someone ask to touch my hair.  I totally had an Uncle Jesse from "Full House" moment and really, really did not want them touching it!

*Finally, I came home and had an attorney call to say they're sending me a subpoena for a Nov 5. court hearing...And I totally groaned into the phone.  Might not have been the most professional response but all of our families are pulling me into court!  I hate testifying because I continue to see them around town after court is finished.  Yes, they're the ones who messed up but in their opinions, I'm just trying to make them look bad.  I could spend all day talking about accountability but that can wait for a different blog!  Anyhow, I now have three families with court on Oct 28, Nov 5 and Nov 12--should be a fun two weeks!

With all of that said, it's time to make some jumbalaya for supper!!!  Like they say, "Tomorrow is a new day" and I hope that's true :-)

It's Getting Hot in Herrrrrrrrrrrrrrre

When we moved into our last rental, our landlord was this super sweet 80-something man.  He lived on the other side which was fine with us--he was super sweet, easy to get along with and took great pride in his property.  3 weeks into our lease, he died.  And all hell broke lose.

The landlord's only child--his daughter--took over ownership and soon moved in her ex-husband to join herself & her teenage daughter.  The family was friendly enough and minded their own business...but to put it nicely, they weren't too eager about property maintenance.

We lived there just 1 month shy of two years...when we were house-hunting, something came up about furnace maintenance.  Maybe it was during the house tour where the owner had written, "Dante's InFURNACE" in black magic marker along the side of their heater!  Hahahahhahahahah!  Anyhow, we learned that you're supposed to have your furnace/AC inspected annually and furnace filters are changed every few months.

I'm not kidding, but days later, the ex-husband came over with a furnace filter--it was the first time it had been changed since before we moved in!!!  And nobody had ever come to look at the heating or air units. Way to ruin a good furnace, buddy.  We were so annoyed by this that we promised ourselves to never do this ourselves!

This past weekend, we crawled into the attic to see who installed our furnace...even thought it's only 1 year old, we figured we better stick with tradition and getter the baby inspected. After all, we've been trying really hard to remember it for the past 7 months!  The Heating & AC guy came by this afternoon and everything is working properly...he tested the furnace and within seconds the house was blazing hot.

He also got us signed up with the company's Priority Customer program...there was no additional cost, but they'll call us to schedule each bi-annual maintenance appointment (totally awesome, b/c I'd never remember to!), they guarantee same day response for any repairs, no overtime fees are charged if something happens after hours and we receive 10% off all repairs and supplies.  The 10% isn't a whole lot but it pretty much covers your sales tax--every little bit helps :-)

The Happy House

I think our house might have sucked before we bought it.

The maintenance on the house itself was superb--but we knew it needed some interior cosmetic work and attention to the yard...



Our house last October, when it went on the market the 1st time



After buying our house, we found out it had been painted just before it went on the market.  It went from being all white to its current khaki color.

But what's wrong with an all white house???  Nothing that we can think of!



In the past few weeks, we have gotten TONS of compliments on our house.  The neighbors have all said, "We really like what you've done--the house looks happy--it's like someone lives there now."

Justin has been spending lots of time outdoors and complete strangers have stopped to tell him our house looks "happy."

This weekend we were standing out front looking at the house when our photographer stopped by.  He asked why we were standing in the yard and well, we didn't know what to say.  Why do you just stand in your yard???  Turns out, he thought we lived on the other side of the alley and when we told him we owned THIS house he was floored.  He said, "Wow, this house looks happy.  It looks like someone actually cares."

Our house, October 2010--somewhat decorated for Fall!



Granted, he works caddy-corner to our house so he has seen this house on a daily basis for MANY years.  But we haven't done much of anything to the exterior of the house so far...next Spring the fence will be painted white, landscaping put in and the new stairs & retaining wall will be installed.  We've only really planted new grass, trimmed back some trees, put some hostas out front and decorated the porch.  Randomly enough, we found the original triple-sectioned window that goes in the top of the house--I'm hoping, hoping, hoping the Heating & Air guy says we can put it back in because that would bring so much charm to the house!

All these comments lead me to believe that our house must have been pretty pathetic in it's previous life.  When we looked at the house, it was back in January...everything was frozen and grey--we expected it to look worn. 



However, the resounding comment is "happy."  Don't get me wrong--I'm glad our house is bringing some cheer to the neighborhood...and secretly, I'm trying to compete with the stone historic Runyon House two doors down at 5th & Osage.  In fact, the house across the street is under new ownership and is experiencing a major facelift...and the bungalow behind us is also getting a new roof and siding after many years of neglect.  It appears that our neighborhood is experiencing a surge of TLC and I can't wait to see the results...as long as those results don't include me scooping smashed pumpkins off the sidewalk!

The Neat Freak

I am more than happy admitting that I am a neat freak...if any of you remember Danny Tanner from the tv show "Full House," then you will have an idea of what I'm like!

When I first started dating Justin, I realized just how much of a neat freak that I was...and how messy he was!  Don't get me wrong here--I'm not trying to throw him under the bus!  However, he will admit that he leaves things laying around for days (and even weeks) at a time and it doesn't bother him at all.

Clutter is my enemy.  I can't handle it.  It's like my brain literally breaks down upon the first sight of it.  In college, I always had to pick up my apartment and put all the day's stuff away in its proper place before I could even focus on homework.  My neatness might be a bit much, but at least I always know where everything is and even a stranger could find something if they had to!  But after combining households with Justin, my preferred level of neatness no longer exists...however, I'm USUALLY able to find what I need to!

Last spring, I was in The Clay Gourmet and saw these great little containers.  They're made by OXO and even though they're designed for food storage, they can be used for anything :-)  We have acquired a few of them in a variety of sizes since first seeing them...I would love to have more but they're not the cheapest thing.  A 10-piece set at Bed, Bath & Beyond runs about $100!  Target and Dillons both carry them but unfortunately there is no price difference between retailers.

We have mainly used them for storing coffee, rice and Justin's Cinnamon Toast Crunch...because of the way they seal, it's nearly impossible for the contents to go stale.  My coffee is just as fresh two weeks later as it was the day I opened it!

Ideally, I would love to have my entire pantry done in these OXO containers.  One, it would be such a nice sight everytime I open the door but most importantly, everything would be super organized and easy to identify!  But then I could almost guarantee that Justin would come along and undo any order I had established ;-)  Gotta love husbands!

One Year Ago

I look forward to the annual Pumpkin Patch craft show that is held at CiCo Park each fall...I didn't make it there this year, but last year I went with my friend Jenny and her two boys.  And what an ordeal that reminds me of!

Last year we went to the Pumpkin Patch on a Saturday.  I had done a quick 30 minute circuit work-out the day before and my arms were kinda sore...and by Sunday, they were super sore and not really wanting to bend at the elbow.  It was something I hadn't really experienced before but I hadn't had any weights in a couple of weeks so I figured my arms were just really out of shape.

Come Monday, my arms were still extremely sore and I was drained.  Mom was in town and we ran some wedding errands.  But all I wanted to do was sleep and drink 7-Up.  I really don't like soda--unless it has vodka in it--so I should have known something was wrong.

Later that night, I took my sweatshirt off to get in the shower and my arms were swollen.  I decided to ice them while I slept in hopes that the inflamation would go down...but as luck had it, the oncall phone rang all night long and I didn't have a chance to stay on the ice.

I woke up on Tuesday morning and my arms were huge.  Like Popeye the Sailor Man huge.  And they wouldn't extend straight--they were stuck in a 90 degree angle.  I felt like John McCain.  They hurt and tingled like they had fallen sleep and weren't able to "wake up".  It was the most uncomfortable feeling in the world.  I gave in, called my doctor's office and they worked me in to see the PA.  I went to my appointment and the PA was completely dumbfounded, especially since I couldn't even flex my muscles--it was like any muscle I had was completely gone.  She got my regular doctor into the exam room and right away Dr. Morin started throwing around all these words that I had never heard before--she had me go to the lab for some bloodwork and said they'd call me with the results in a few hours...but she advised me to call them if I started to feel worse.

I returned home--the drive was an experience of its own considering I could only move my shoulders--and barely, at that--but I survived without going off the road.  The pain was getting worse, my arms were now hot and the tingling was out of control.  I picked up the phone to call my Doctor again just to find they were calling me.  My lab results had just come back and they were admitting me to the hospital in 20 minutes.

What?!  Just because my arms are hot, swollen and immobile I have to go to the hospital?!  I was not a fan of this idea AT ALL but I went ahead and called Mom and Justin in tears to let them know what was going on while I packed my overnight bag of pajamas, hair products, make-up and a fresh change of clothes.

Boy, was I surprised when I got to the hospital.  The admissions clerk took me up the elevator and we walked past the regular rooms and I was a bit confused, but assumed maybe we were headed for x-rays or more lab work. We approached the ICU Ward and she took me into "my room."  My nurse, Sheila, explained that I would be here for at least several days and because there's three levels of intensive care, I would be admitted at the middle level.  All I could think was how I felt fine--and looked fine--and they're sticking me in ICU?!  Within minutes Mom arrived, then Justin and we were buzzing with questions.

We found out that my diagnosis was rhabdomyloysis with compartment syndrome.  Rhabdo is the breakdown of muscle fibers resulting in the release of muscle fiber contents (myoglobin) into the bloodstream.   Compartment syndrome is defined as "a painful condition that occurs when pressure within the muscles builds to dangerous levels. This pressure can decrease blood flow, which prevents nourishment and oxygen from reaching nerve and muscle cells."  No wonder my arms were tingly and immobile!

Upon my admission, my creatine levels were 40,00+ and they should not exceed 100.  My levels had been 20,000 just a few hours before so things were becoming very bad, very quickly...they were fully expecting the CPK to hit my kidneys and result in renal failure but THANK GOD--for whatever unknown reason--my kidneys survived the attack.  Later that night, I was told an orthopaedic surgeon would be coming by to assess my arms as they would have to cut incisions into my biceps to relieve the pressure and swelling.  Once again--THANK GOD--my levels platued at around the 40-thousand peak and they called off the surgeon! 

I stayed in ICU for several days with them pushing IVs through me like crazy in order to bring my CPK levels down--the worst part was crippling back and forth from the toilet every 5 minutes from all the fluids!  By the time I was moved to a regular room I was completely wiped out...but on the upside, Mercy has really good chocolate chip cookies :-)  They finally let me go when my levels were down around 13,000 and by the next day I had dropped to 4,000!   I was never able to do my make-up, or my hair or put on my street clothes while I was there but the IVs had worked--I was on my way back to normal!

Dr. Morin and 5 different specialists have no idea why I ended up with rhabdo--or if I'll ever end up dealing with it again.  Considering I was in good physical shape, it made no sense for it to happen after a work-out.  There's times I become paranoid following a trip to the gym, especially a tough one...but I can't live my life in fear of my body freaking out on me.  It's crazy to think that the whole ordeal was one year ago but it's even crazier that I didn't make it to the Pumpkin Patch this year!  Guess I'll have to wait 11 more months :-)

A Hidden Blessing

This evening, I wrapped up a slice of our wedding cake and a slice of Justin's groom's cake so that it could go into the freezer until our 1 year anniversary.

I didn't freeze the entire cutting cake as our cake lady actually makes each couple a replica of their cake for their anniversary.  But I still wanted to have some of the original cake for nostalgia's sake!

After I removed the cake from the board, this is what I found...

I have no idea why the picture is upside down...or how to flip it the correct direction.  So consider this a good time to practice your up-side down reading skills.  We all have some grade school teacher in us!

Karen was such a pleasure to work with and she was very caring.  I was completely shocked to find a handwritten message from her blessing us on our big day!

When it came time to find a cake lady, I became very worried.  I had heard horror stories about a local baker and the other ones I was not impressed with.  Some of their cakes looked like cakes I would have decorated back in my 4-H days.  I did a Google search and found http://www.creativecakesandcookies.org/ out of Wamego and emailed the gal...she responded right away and I set-up our first consultation.

Karen exceeded all of our expectations.  She was very professional, even keeled but her creativity and skill level was beyond anything you could imagine.  Her specialty is fondant and at first I was hesitant--I've never tasted a fondant that I liked. 

Until I tasted her's.  She uses white chocolate and marshmallow creme for the base...it's heavenly :-)  I'm not a cake person at all but it's a different story when it comes to her cake.  She even went so far as to make a Caramel cake for Justin's cake--it's his favorite cake from his childhood.  Karen had never had it before but agreed to try it and it turned out GREAT!

Justin was not expecting a groom's cake at all...1) He didn't even know they existed until someone asked him if he had picked out his cake yet and 2) I consequently told him he wasn't having one b/c the regular cake was going to cost so much.  Wasn't that nice of me?!

Most groom's cakes revolve around a  hobby and frankly, Justin doesn't have time for hobbies because he works non-stop.  His days of KSU Basketball mean the world to him, so I sent Karen some pictures of his framed jersey.  When we got to the reception and saw how his cake turned out, I was beyond impressed!  And Justin was beyond surprised!!!

A "replica" of his Away-Game jersey



Our best close-up...the photographer has an awesome one showing all the details!  The cutting cake has a border of peacock feathers and each cupcake has a feather as well--she formed each feather, colored in the eye and then sprayed them with edible glitter!



Plenty of cupcakes but we were all too full to eat them!