Just Marching Along

This has been the strangest year of my life.  Two people very close to me have passed away, and I feel like time has slowed down.  I have no idea how I've gotten through, but the days keep coming . . . slowly.  I used to pray at night and thank God for how lucky I am - for my family, and Eb's family and our friends.  I really didn't know just how lucky I was until two of the people I prayed for at night passed away.  I am still very lucky but I miss them.

School is marching along, I can't believe it's almost spring.  Two months until April and then only a year until the wedding!  It seems so silly - the wedding, the planning, the excitement . . . none of it matters when you've lost people that you love.  You start to realize how frivolous it is when people you love won't be there to experience it with you.  I love Eb, I love his family and I love that our families will be the same in just over a year . . . but that means more to me than a ceremony or party.  It just puts everything in perspective.

I was thinking today about how my mom's family lost the head of the family, my grandpa, and it was sad.  And then, I was thinking how my dad lost the love of his life and that was sad too.  I know that they empathize with each other, my two families, but for me it is sad because I am part of them both.  Two people in my life that were very important in different ways, on different sides of my family.  I feel a lot of responsibility lately and I don't know if I can handle it.  I am ready and I am trucking along, but it gets hard sometimes because I am sad too.

Eb and I are still making cakes and everything is great at our house.  We hung up our new fans we got for Christmas, and our house is a mess because - who wants to clean after winter break?  Cleaning and spraying weeds will be this weekend, but there is lots to do.  Liz's bachelorette party is tomorrow, and we made the most amazing cake!  Leslee's celebration of life is sunday and we will be there putting on our grown-up faces and standing by my dad making sure everyone is alright.

This weekend will be busy but fun and we are looking forward to it.  I love my family (all 3 of them soon!) and enjoy being around them when I get the chance.  Lately, dad and I have been going on lots of dates and it's been so much fun.  I love getting to know my dad, and spending so much time with him.  It's sad it had to come after a loss, but I am happy I get to see him more often.

So, above are our most recent cakes.  The first was for Liz's bridal shower and the next is for the bachelorette party.  I wanted to make a penis cake (see pic I got off the internet) but she wanted a skull so we made it for her.

Lots of love to my friends and family, I love you and thank God for you every day.  I hope that Leslee is in heaven with grandpa, where they both feel good and are waiting for us.  But, not too soon - because we have lots of living to do!

Making Cakes

Our winter break has ended and today is our first day back at school. It is bitter sweet going back - in one way I love staying up late and sleeping in, but I also love the routine that being in school provides. It feels like I never left!

Over winter break we didn't do too much. We just relaxed and enjoyed staying in when it was cold outside. Christmas went by in a blur and so did New Years. Eb and I had one of the best New Years ever at Christine and Jeremy's, it was so relaxing and low-maintenance. I was worried about Leslee (my step-mom) all during the break, but enjoyed the time off to go and see her at the hospital when I could.

To pass the time when we'd get home (usually from Wal-mart) around midnight until we went to bed (around 4am) we made cakes. Every few months Eb gets a hair-brained idea and wants to do something new, and this time it was cakes. He decided on it, I think, because I showed him pictures of Tammie Coe's website and the wedding cake I want her to make for us. He sees things (that cost a lot of money) and then decides he can do them too (so they don't have to cost a lot of money). Now, he isn't making our wedding cake (don't get excited), but he did want to learn how she made cakes using fondant. So, we started making cakes.

All of our cakes are Betty Crocker cake mixes, we do not make them from scratch (we aren't that fancy). But, we do customize our own designs when using the fondant. If you've never heard of it, here's a definition: Fondant is a paste used to embellish cakes. It is usually made from sugar and water and then is sculpted to make designs on cakes. Eb tried making his own (see our first cake picture) and that tasted yummy, but was VERY hard to work with. He followed a recipe online and it turned out ok. Making his second fondant, he used marshmallows and it tasted better, but fell apart when trying to mold with it (no pics of that one). Then, he decided to just buy white fondant (at Wal-mart) and try working with that instead.

Boxed fondant (the cheap stuff) is edible, but kind of tastes like plastic to me. It's not very good, so we use vanilla extract when working with it to increase its yummy factor. It still tastes like plastic to me and I never eat it - but it looks great on a cake!!! We read last night that you can put butter flavoring in it to make it taste more like frosting so we might try that next time.

The fondant comes in white and costs about $6. It comes with enough to cover AND decorate a 9 inch round cake. It is white, so you have to add food coloring and cut shapes out all on your own. It also says on the box it comes with little flavor, so I guess you have to add to it to make it taste better. We fold it over a cake that is already made and frosted, just for a visual effect. The frosting is for eating, the fondant is mainly just for looking at (unless we can find a way to make it taste more like frosting!).

So, here are the cakes we made over winter break. They go in order from first to most recent, so you can see how good we've gotten at it. We were actually out last night for Kelly's (Eb's sister) 21st birthday and were asked if we made cakes. Eb and I got to thinking that this just might be another option (like ebay) for us to make some extra cash in our spare time. Imight just make up some business cards on the Mac and pass them out next time someone asks us about a cake!

And, if you're having a birthday this year, get ready because your present will probably be a cake!

Here they are, the first cake isn't that great - but we are getting better. The first and second were just for fun, the third was for Christine and Jeremy's New Years party, the fourth was for Kelly's Murder Mystery Birthday party and the 6th was for Kelly's actual birthday. (I have better pics of it when it was first made, but after being kept in the car all day the frosting melted and it caused everything to sag.) Tell us what you think!

As Marie Antoinette would say, "Let them eat cake!"