Cake Tasting

Sorry I haven't posted about the cake tasting we did on Sunday but I have been busy getting ready for a presentation I had to give in my class Monday night. The presentation went ok but not great. I felt like I stumbled over my words a bit, partly because I wasn't 100% comfortable with the material. My instructor really liked it though and that's what matters in the end.

Ok, back to the cake tasting. The "baker" from Laulie Cakes came to our house with tons of yummy samples. Larry's mom and dad came over to partake too. We had pumpkin cake (which was our fav), Belini, Orange Creamsicle, Deulce de Leche, lemon with raspberry filling (our least fav), white cake with fudge filling, caramel, red velvet, and a basic chocolate. So, we picked our favorites, decided how many servings we need, and talked about designs. So, after all that, she came back with a price that was out of our budget and I should have expected it given all the specialty flavors we chose. Now we have to scale it down a bit and get it within our price range. No matter what we go with, the cake will be nothing less than fantastic! Here are a few pics of the tasting:





Next on the wedding planning agenda is that I am meeting with another florist to get some different ideas and prices. I'm checking out Gilded Lily in Smithton and my friend/client, Stacy, is joining me. I am also going to stop by Dave's Home Brew, where Cheryl works, to order the wine bottles and accessories we need to bottle our homemade wine. I have a short work-week thanks to Good Friday and I plan to take full advantage of it :)

The other new thing on my plate is that I picked up a temporary Saturday job at a little boutique in downtown Belleville, Circa. The owner of the store is having her first baby in May and was looking for someone to run the store on Saturdays until she gets settled with being a new mommy. So, to pick up some extra cash for the wedding, I decided to give it a whirl. The hours are from 10am-4pm but I can handle giving up my Saturdays for a while - hey, it's for a good cause, right?

Smell the Roses

Ok, so they aren't roses but I did meet with the florist yesterday to get some ideas for wedding flowers. Angie and I went to Walter Knoll downtown STL and wow, what an amazing aroma when you walk in the door! This location is their primary store and it was huge, filled with every kind of flower you could imagine! After pulling a ton of flowers and trying different arrangements, I really like what Linda, my consultant, came up with at the end. For the bridesmaids, I decided to go with shades of orange, burgundy and yellows which is perfect for fall. I am using some of the same flowers in my bouquet but adding in a few white lilies and hydrangeas. I think the colors look really good against the blue dresses and the price is very reasonable. The best part is that being a SLU employee, I get a 20% discount - one of the many benefits I reap. Here are a few pics of the flowers but keep in mind, it was put together quickly just for some ideas and the finished product will be much cleaner and hand-tied with pretty ribbon.


Bridesmaid bouquets


This is what it will look like against the blue dresses



Rough draft of my bouquet


She wrapped these up for me to take home, how nice!

Yikes!

I have been doing fairly well at keeping up with school work since I started back this semester, until now. During our first class meeting, each student was assigned a book to read about a development theorist and give a presentation to explain it. For some reason, I had in my head that I was scheduled to present on April 12th but I was sadly mistaken. I just found out that my day is March 29th. WHAT? I have not started my book yet so now I'm a bit stressed about it. It's only about 250 pages and looks like an easy read but still . . . I have a week and a half to read this book and create a presentation, ugh! I certainly have my work cut out for me this weekend :( At least I got some fun stuff in last weekend with the St. Patrick's Day parade on Saturday afternoon and a crazy bowl benefit that night.

Aside from that, not much is new. As far as the wedding, the only new thing is that I booked our limo, which is actually called a limo bus. We needed something big enough for our wedding party plus a few other people and the Hummer limo was the largest I could find but it only seats 20, which means 18 comfortably. I didn't want everyone to be crammed on top of each other so I went with the next best option. It doesn't look like much fun from the outside but the inside is awesome and fully loaded like a regular limo. Here are a few pics:





Next on the agenda is the florist and I am meeting with them on Monday, the 22nd to get some ideas and estimates. Then, we are doing a cake tasting on Sunday, the 28th and I'm really looking forward to that. Instead of having a traditional wedding cake, we are doing 5 or 6 variety cakes, thanks Angie for the idea. We are trying an Orange Creamsicle, Dulce De Leche, Bellini, and a pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting. YUM-O! I'll let you know what we decide.

Timmy's 3rd Birthday

It's hard to believe that it's already been 3 years since I beat my sister to the hospital when she called and said she was in labor. Nope, I wasn't excited or anything! Timmy has been asking for weeks, is it my birthday yet, do I get presents yet? Finally, his birthday is here and he asked "Is Santa going to bring me presents?" Too cute, right? And not bad logic for a 3 year old. Christmas=presents from Santa, birthday=presents, they must be from Santa too. My sister explained that Santa only brings presents for Christmas and mommy brings presents for his birthday. He really didn't care as long as he got presents. So, for his 3rd birthday, we took him to Chucky Cheese along with my little brothers and sister. Of course they had a blast and all moped around when it was time to leave. Here are some of the pics:

Wine Making Pics

Here are some pics from the wine making adventure on Tuesday. The white wine is in the 3rd stage now and the red wine is in the second stage. We are making one more batch, a blueberry something, but haven't started that one yet.


Transferring it from one container to the other.



The thick, gross sediment. I can't believe I drink this stuff!



Doing it's thing for the next week and a half.

Monday again . . .

It’s Monday again which means time for another post. Not too much going on this time. Hiccup is doing much better and even ran around the yard today like a crazy dog playing. It makes me so happy to see her like that! As for me, I’m still fighting a horrible cough that came on with my cold last weekend. I finally broke down and went to the doctor today and got some medicine to clear up the infection. I figured it was that or Larry was going to kick me out of the house because this cough is so annoying.

As far as the weekend, we got Super Mario Brothers for the Wii so I spent Friday night giving my thumbs a workout while Larry worked the Sheriff’s Department. Saturday was so beautiful outside so I did a little yard work. Larry had to work again and I didn’t feel like going out yet I was bored at home so Lisa invited me over and we had movie night at her house. Couples Retreat is hilarious! The best part of the weekend was Sunday, shopping for bridesmaid dresses with Team Wedding (that’s what I call the wedding party, LOL). We went to David’s Bridal in Fairview and some of the girls found dresses that they liked while others were a little iffy. The Sunset Hills store had some of the other ones they wanted to try so we took a trip over there. By the end of the day, all 6 girls found their dress and I am really happy with what they picked. I gave them the color and told them they could get any dress they wanted which was nice because I didn’t have to worry about 6 females agreeing on the same thing. Here are the dresses they picked and the color:











So starts another week of craziness. Tomorrow, Cheryl and I have to work on the wine, transferring containers, etc. Wednesday is training at the gym and Thursday is Timmy’s 3rd birthday so we are taking him to Monkey Joe’s for a little party.

Hope everyone has a great week and I’ll catch ya on the flip side!!

Whirlwind Weekend

This past weekend was a whirlwind and so busy that I don’t feel like I had any time off. I spent Friday morning in the urgicare with Larry because of his leg. We thought he had a staph infection but it turned out to be cellulites, which is an infection under the skin. It was very painful for him and could have gotten a lot worse, quickly, had he not gotten it taken care of. It seems to be better and he went back to work today.

Then, my sister got married on Friday so I went from urgicare to the wedding. Peggy and Brian have both been married before so they just wanted a very small, intimate ceremony. Instead of having a reception, they decided to rent a party bus and tour Clinton County. It was a total blast and the most fun I have had in a long time. I overindulged in the adult beverages and boy, was I paying for it on Saturday! I was supposed to train my clients at the gym at 8am on Saturday and was lying in bed thinking “there is no way I am going to make it through that hour”. Luckily, one of the clients sent me a text and cancelled so I didn’t have to suffer through it. The only bum deal of the night is that I dropped my camera and broke the lens. It bent and won’t go in or out so it looks like I’ll be camera shopping soon. Any suggestions of a good brand that will hold up with a drunk working it?

Peggy and Brian went away for a long weekend so I had Timmy and one of my little brothers from Saturday afternoon until Sunday evening. I took them to Cheryl’s so they could play with Chelsea and so we could transfer the wine that we are making for the wedding from one container to another for the second phase. We also started the second batch (red wine this time) so it was a fun, productive night. Pics to come later.

While all of this is going on, I’ve also been dealing with a sick dog. She has what I thought was a flu of some kind but it hung on for a full week so I finally took her to the vet last night. She was dehydrated, which I expected since she hasn’t eaten or drank much of anything all week. They kept her overnight to give her fluids and medicine to settle her tummy. He didn’t seem to think it was the flu given how long she had it and he speculated that it could be her pancreas or liver so he ordered a full blood work up on her. She is doing better today and depending on what the blood tests show and how she does with keeping food down, she may get to come home later. It sure is lonely without her but I know it’s for the best.

One last thing and then I’ll stop rambling for today. I got an email from someone who took my boot camp last summer asking me to be a guest speaker at her daughter’s Daisy Troop meeting on Thursday. She wants me to talk about the importance of exercise and teach them some exercises they can do on their own. It sounds like fun so of course I told her I would do it. Then, I got to thinking, what a great idea to promote health and wellness to children so my wheels are turning for other opportunities. If anyone knows of other Girl Scout troops, Boy Scouts, or anything like that, let me know and I’d be glad to volunteer.