what a day!

So you know those days where once you finish something and you have a great sense of accomplishment and you feel like you are on top of things and then you are handed/remember you have a million other things to do...that was my day on Thursday AND Friday!

Noon on Thursday looked like this 

the end of one very hectic day on Thursday

My to do piles for Friday

The to do list...almost a whole page! 

The end of the day Friday....mostly done

It was nice having all my piles turn into piles to file because they were done! 

All of this does not include answering the phone, sorting the mail, invoicing customers, responding to emails, doing at least 3 different projects for my boss, and doing anything else my boss deems as "urgent".  Oh, and did I mention, my coworker was gone Friday so I had to do all my stuff as well as all her stuff...

Thank goodness for weekends where I relax.  My Saturday consisted of spending an hour cleaning the church, an hour of yoga, several hours of video games (no Ryan was not playing with me, I was playing all by myself), reading blogs for a few hours, surfing the Internet for a few hours, and now blogging.  So very unproductive but some much needed relaxation.

I think I am getting better....

So I was looking at all the cakes I have made during and since my cake deocrating class and I think I am getting better! 

Here are some of my cakes....I can't wait to make more and keep getting better!

One of my first cakes - Summer Semester 2010 (white cake)  

 in class - Summer 2010

This was just a fun cake so see how to use rice paper to print pictures and color them and have the whole cake be edible....Cinderella is orange because I had no other color to use hahaha - Summer 2010 (chocolate)

Summer Semester 2010 (cherry chip)

Last cake in cake decorating - Summer Semester 2010 (white cake)

My wedding cake!  - November 20, 2010

Meriah's birthday cake - March 3, 2011 (white cake)

Kate's birthday cake - April 21, 2011 (white cake)

Ignore the bottom tier in the middle - the cake really settled and the fondant was too thin, I have since learned my lesson (or rather, remembered that lesson from class).

Cake for the UPS guy at work (hey paid me $20!!) May 2011  ( almond poppy seed)

A wedding cake for the first person other than me! July 2011 (dark chocolate)

The perfect date

The other week I was telling Ryan that I wanted to go on a real date but we never can because we have no car and no money.  But guess what?!?! He totally listened to me and took me on a date! He made sure he got home from work before I did, he bbq'd steaks, made corn on the cob and mashed potatoes, bought me flowers, cleaned the house, light candles everywhere, and we had a candle light dinner just the two of us! Then he had set up our tv to watch whatever movie I wanted to and laid pillows and blankets on the floor so that we could lay and cuddle (which is my fav! if I could I would have a big screen tv i my room right now so that I could watch TV in bed). He kind of hates to lay and watch tv for any extended period of time so that fact that he would just be with me and do that because it is what I wanted to do is so sweet. He took me on the best date and we didn't even go anywhere! 

The table call clean, set, and ready to eat! The food was FANTASTIC!

Gerber daises are my fav! 

All the dishes were done too! 

Not the best picture of either of us but I had to capture the moment!

10 years ago today...

I had gotten up for family prayers and scriptures at 5:30am just like every morning. I didn't g0 back to bed that morning like I normally did, instead I went down stairs to eat my cereal. Mom and Dad were in London on business so I turned on the TV since the babysitters did not know that we were not allowed to have the TV on before school. I just wanted to watch some cartoons but all that was on was some breaking new and I was annoyed that it was on every channel. I just sat and watched and I didn't understand what was happening. I remember not really thinking of it but watching every minute of it and I went up stairs after I ate and found the babysitters sitting watching and as I walked into the room I watched the second plane fly in the towers. I still didn't know what was happening all I knew was that this was bad. I was scared, my parents were across the ocean in a different county and I wanted to stay home from school but I wasn't allowed to. The feeling at the school that day was one I had never felt and I have never felt since. There was no laughing, no joking, no running around and being silly that you would expect from several hundred 7th and 8th graders. It was quiet, somber, and very still; eerie even. None of my teachers let us watch the TV so the whole day I was just sitting there wishing I new what was happening. I just wanted my parents to be home, I wanted them to be safe, and I wanted them to keep me safe. I remember getting into a fight with the babysitters and running and hiding in a closet and writing in my journal. I remember getting lots of phone calls out our house because a lot of people knew my parents were out of town and everyone wanted to make sure my parents were ok. I remember seeing all the new footage and being so confused. And what I remember the most is how sad and heartbroken I felt for everyone in New York on that fateful day who had lost their dad, mom, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, son, or daughter die. My brother is still fighting that war that started because of that day. I am so grateful for him and for all that he and his friends do and sacrifice to fight for our freedoms that we so selfishly tend to forget except on days like this. I remember saying a pray to my Father in Heaven asking for his peace and safety to be with my and family that day. I am so grateful to know that I am a child of God, that loves each and everyone of us, and most importantly that he has a plan for all of us. He helps us get back up when we are down, he will be our strength. In the weeks and months following 9.11.01 our country stood together, we were all proud to be Americans, we all trusted in God, and we all boasted that. I hope that we never forget, that we always stand together and trust in God.

Going Steady

So my parents have these leather bracelets from Disneyland that have each other's names on them. Mom wears on that says Jeff and Daddy wears one that says Barbara. They call them their going steady bracelets. Some times mom will wear hers and dad don't won't or vice versa but when we see one of them wearing them we always ask if they are going steady. Well, while we were in Disneyland a few weeks ago we walked by the shop where they bought them and I told Ryan that we should get going steady bracelets too. He said that he didn't want them but Sam heard me mention it and told Kate that he would totally get one so than immediately Ryan wanted one hahaha I guess there is some friendly competition going on. Thank goodness Sam wanted them because I love it! I think it is so cute and since Sam wanted it Ryan wanted it, it worked out great for me! So Kate and Sam and Ryan and I got going steady bracelets. Well, we told mom and dad that we wanted them and Dad was so excited! He is so cute! Mom said that he loved that we wanted them and got them because it was his idea for them to get the bracelets in the first place. Well, it is official, we are going to steady!

I feel like my life is not interesting enough to blog about on a regular basis and I write in my journal fairly regularly so anything I would have written here I have already written once so I don't rewrite it.....it is quite the dilemma. But, the month of July was a fairly busy and exciting month for us, well at the least the first half!

It all started on the first. Ryan's parents drove down from Canada to come spend time with us. I was so nice to see them! We have not seen them since our wedding so a visit was long over due and since Ryan can't leave the country they had to come to us. Since the 4th was Monday and I got the day off they chose that weekend to come. While they were here we bbq'd a lot (they even bought us the BBQ!), watched stadium of fire from our garage roof, (heard the concert too), played games, relaxed, watched movies, went to the Zoo, went to This is the Place monument, still managed to donate plasma and got a free shirt for going on the 4th, went to the Parade in Provo, spent the 4th having a picnic and BBQ up by Bridal veils falls up the canyon, chatted lots and lots, and genuinely had a good time. They were going to leave on Tuesday but then they surprised Ryan by picking him up after work that night and they ended up staying until Thursday morning so that they could drive us to the airport so that we could catch our 6:30am flight to LA. I just love them! and it was so cute to see Ryan with his parents. I have really only been with them 3 times before this so it was nice to get to know them better and see more about the people who raised my darling husband.

Thursday morning we arrived in Long Beach and my family picked us up (with SAM!) and we went straight to Disneyland. I was so nervous to go that day because I had literally only slept for 5 hours the night before and then woke up at 4am that morning to get ready and make our flight so I thought I would be too tired but it was the BEST DAY at Disneyland that I have had in years and years, maybe even the best I can remember. Everyone got along great, we all stuck together for the whole day (except for about an hour at the end of the night), Meriah came and joined us after she got off work, we ate at the Blue Bayou, we went on SO MANY RIDES, I got to see the new show in California Adventure and it was AMAZING, we played in both parks, we got to go all the rides that we deem as the essentials (Sam had never been and Ryan had not been since we was 10 or something like that), and the best part was that Mom was in a motorized wheel chair so cut all the lines, got the best seats at the show in DCA, and since she has a cast on and you can visually see why she is a wheel chair everyone was so nice to us. Wheelchairs are definitely the best way to do Disneyland!

Waiting for the NEW Star Tours. It was AMAZING! I LOVED it!

We got completely soaked on Splash Mountain and Kate and Sam got away with pracitally nothing!

The swings in DCA are my fav, they are must for me every time.

Kate and Sam took this cute picture and Ryan loved it so he wanted to take one too.

Friday while we were home we got to go to The Tonight Show and see them tape it! It was so much fun!! It was just me, Ryan, Kate, and Sam, what a cute little double date! And then, we got to have a backstage tour! My parents dear friends gave us the tickets because we works on the show and he showed us all around. It was so much fun!

The rest of our time in California included say good bye to Sam for a while, trying to comfort Kate, taking care of mom because her leg is in a cast, spending time with William, and just relaxing. It was a much needed vacation.

We came back to real life and it was so hard to adjust to going back to work. But I am back in the swing of things....and I am looking for the next big trips in November/December.

My future home

I have a current obession with wanting to redo our whole house so I can't wait to have my OWN home one day. I want to paint the kitchen yellow! I have always LOVED yellow and most of my baking dishes and things are yellow. My mom even just bought me a new apron that is yellow (I can't wait to get it!) I want to do our room in gray and yellow! (What can I say, I just love yellow, it is so happy).

In our bedroom I want the walls in our room to be a very light gray and I want to use these amazing fabrics to make a quilt

with coordinating pillows but in order to do that I will need to have a sewing machine.

I want to paint our family/living room a cream color with one wall maroon with touches of blue and green through out the room. I promise it will be gorgeous!

I also want to have a fabulous kitchen. Lets face, we all know I love to BAKE! Lately I have been making a new cake every other weekend. It is so fun but I need an awesome kitchen like this!

And I have decided that I NEED a big bathroom. Our bathroom right now is just too small for the both of us to even stand in there at the same time. We need two sinks and lots of storage. This would be PERFECT!!

Of course we have to get rich and famous first......