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#6 - crazy fondant cake

 

so i took a fondant & gum paste class. fondant and gum paste is one of those things that i really didn't want to learn. it didn't seem fun. and the amount of times i would actually use it seems low. so even now i can't explain why i, unexpectedly, signed up and took it.

BUT I'M GLAD I DID!  it was really fun. like, really fun.  and it's not as hard as i thought it was going to be.  i know that's probably hard to believe based on the excellence of my design in the above picture....but....if you aren't trying to do something that not even the teacher knows how to do, things turn out pretty well!

this cake was our final one, and i wanted to do something fancy. i wanted to make cascading ruffles like cake boss does.  HA! part of me feels like i want to make that cake 10 more times and see if i can get better. and part of me thinks i'm NEVER going to make that cake again.  actual outcome: TBD.

 

undaunted

 

one of my friends recently chose this is as our read for our book club.  i'm not going to lie....i was not excited. because i was being one of those people who put their opinion before their actual knowledge.

what i saw: 800+ pages, $40, church book, that i had 2 weeks to read.  deep sigh.

what i found out: i only needed 4 days, & i would have paid $80 without blinking.

in actuality i paid $18 on kindle and read it on ipad. if you have ability to read digital books, you should TOTALLY digital-borrow this from me....

i LOVED this book. There have been MANY books that have emotionally moved me - in all sorts of way - including making me feel like crying, but I can only remember one time, ONE time in my entire life, in ALL the books i've read, actually crying (Kite Runner, on a boat in greece, circa 2003.) ONE time where the emotion was strong enough to actually make tears come to fruition.

until now. i cried in the first 30 pages.  and then it just became the norm for the next 4 days. i would come out of my room to leave for work (which it made me late for work 2 days in a row) and zannie would say, "are you.....ok?"
"yeah, i'm good...."
"you look like you've been crying...."
"OH! yeah, yeah. i have been..."

i told my book club that i may be the only person left who hasn't read The Work & The Glory series, but that i was probably going to have to break down & read those too now...at least those won't end after 800 pages!

if you haven't already, then just trust me. read it. and then i want to arrange a road trip up to northern utah to actually SEE what's left of this trek. let me know if you want to be on the caravan list!

sunday dogma - from 4 year old......

dear heavenly father,

thank you for this day.

please help me to get bigger soon. so i can be a daddy.

and i want to be a daddy who is smart in his brain and makes good choices. and eats fish.

but not the nice fish-ys.

name of jesus christ, amen

rollerskating

 

i asked him a few days before we went if he wanted to go skiing in the mountains with tally, and he said yes. but it wasn't until we were actually walking down the icy path to the lifts that i realized he didn't know what skiing was.

up ahead of us were the massive tree-cleared slopes, and through the cloudy puffs of air from our breath as we trudged, tentatively, through slushy ice, we could see tiny black figures floating down the snow.

"look levi! there's some people skiing now!", i pointed up. there was a short, but marked, silence that i know means he's seriously pondering.
then, "mommy? are there any big boys here that could teach a little boy how to do that?"

the horsteds were with us, and we checked him & tally into the ski school. there was a balcony overlooking the marked off area they'd be working in, so i got settled in for a 3-hour show. honestly, i was very worried about him. the jury is still out on his athletic abilities.

his grandpa tells me not to worry about it, that he is like a baby horse: his arms & legs are too big for his actual size. he says he's still learning to use them with confidence. he'll get stronger. he'll be fine.

and as the years proceed, if it turns out he isn't athletic, i will be fine with that: it's one more thing we'll have in common. i only worry because i know how hard it is to WANT to be good at something, and not be. like, potentially, today.

 
 

i have to say, it was a rough start. he kept falling. it was fresh powder, and took much wriggling and arranging for him to get back up. plus, anytime he'd pick up any speed he would get nervous and sit down. i know that move by heart.

after an hour of that he got tired. and stopped trying. and then his instructor got frustrated. and it seemed, from my way-back balcony seat, that he was talking mean to him. i made michael change cameras with me because his lens would zoom farther, and i had to read the instructor's lips.

after a few more minutes of me doing my "mama bear" routine, michael told me to let him be. he gave me a long lecture about boys becoming men. after about a dozen eye-rolls and "ha-rumphs", and 'where's the manager?!' from me, he forced me to stop watching. we went inside & drank hot chocolate.

30 minutes of nervously pretending to have a conversation & sip chocolate was enough. i went back to the balcony and down below he was gone. i turned circles looking for him. scanning the slopes. 'oh no', i thought, 'they've given up' my stomach dropped,  'they made him quit.'

just then i saw his little helmet & his little smiling face...on the ski lift!! he was with his instructor. he got off the chair, turned, and skied down the mountain. hardcore snowplow all the way. but, still, skiing. a quiet smile spread on my face. it felt like we just might be ok - a boy with his mom.

 

later, when we were walking back to the car he said, "that was fun mom!"
"good!"
"i really like rollerskating!"
"you mean sk--"
"at first i wasn't doing very good, but then i started doing really good."
"yeah, i saw that....why do you think you started doing really good? what made the difference?"
"that's.....just the way i rollerskate", said matter-of-factly. he was asleep before we left our parking spot.

valentines

 

i am a sugar cookie connoisseur.  big time.  i'm pretty sure i left the womb & had my first sugar cookie in the hospital nursery. over the years, there have been many new-fangled "inventions" in the sugar cookie recipe world.

i say, "if it aint broke, don't fix it."

nothing beats the old school sugar cookies from the 70's.  especially if they come straight from the fridge. with some set & chilled frosting. not too thick, not too thin. it's an art.

i'm pretty much always on the super-lookout for an excuse to make sugar cookies.  and valentines is a no-brainer.  this year, because of my little baking...."thingy", i decided to throw in a chocolate sugar cookie batch too.  not so good. not bad. but not worth the effort. SEE! it wasn't broken and i tried to fix it!!

 

we also worked on the other valentines ritual: making valentine's cards for school. at 8am the morning before the valentine exchange @ school i set levi up at the dining room table with all sorts of paper, tape, glue, glitter, stickers, doilies, markers, envelopes, glitter, and some more glitter. i told him to create valentines to his heart's content, and left him in zannie's competent, crafty hands. with instructions for 7 valentines.

at 5:30 pm i was driving home from work when i got a text from zannie.  levi had finished 1, ONE, valentine. he had been working on it all day.

i got home and got him to cut the "art" on each vanlentine by 9/10ths. the next morning, i tried to get him to help me attach his valentines to the treat i had made for his classmates. he resisted.
"levi! what's the problem buddy? let's get these on & to your friends! you're going to be late for school!"
"but.... .... if i give these valentines to my friends, we're never going to see them again."

tears were shed. pep talks given. valentines delivered.

adventure

 

levi & i went on a little adventure together. we went out to the forum shops & had a little lunch. the plan was to watch some of the statue shows, and we had brought our sketch books. i thought it would be fun to draw with him for a bit.

 

"a bit" in my mind was 30-45mins. but it turned out to be FOUR hours. my little artist became oblivious to the rest of the world and got lost in his drawing. at one point he was even laying on the floor. in the middle of the forum. drawing ceaser agustus. he hasn't stopped talking about it since, and everytime i yell, "everyone out to the car!!"
he yells back, "wait mom! do we need to get our drawing books??"

 

i love that he loves this stuff. i love his little marker-stained hands. and i also love these masterpieces:

 

 

 

 

 

pink fluffy coat

 

when i was pregnant with levi i put out this lament. and i was right.

but then 3 years later came this little nugget. proving me wrong.

shortly after documenting the impending arrival of my daughter, i received a box in the mail. from a provo address that i recognized as one of my aunts & uncles'.

"hmmm....", i thought, "what's this about?" inside was....a BIG FLUFFY PINK COAT!!?? i just held it in awe. who does that? who remembers something you said 3 years ago, and actually puts in some time to help you out?? 

i mean, i can MAYBE imagine that i would go get the pink, fluffy, coat, but there is no way it would ever make it to the post office.  it would sit in its store bag in my garage for a couple years. and then i would transfer it to DI. it's happened.

this "winter"

if you live in the desert you have to put quotation marks up anytime you say or write "winter" or the city will fine you. and make you wear a bra 22 days IN A ROW! clearly that last part was made up...but i was trying to think of something really bad and....that's what came to mind.

pickles was hooked up with the pink fluff. she wore it....a lot. so far, she's not putting out any super-girl/princess vibes. at all.

 i mean, at. all.  if she weren't so bossy i'd forget i even had a daughter.

so it's a bit out of character the love she has for the pink fluffy.  she brings it to me while we're in the house all the time. she just wants to wear it. and she wants it zipped all the way up, hood on. today it was 86 degrees, and the coat arms are now almost up to her elbows. the hood has to stretch so far up that she has to hold her head at a slight incline to keep it on.

which makes it hard to do puzzles. but if you're pickles i. stewart, you don't back down when it comes to your favorite coat.

 

piper THANKS you aunt jane. you made her winter. and now her spring, apparently.

 

#4 - vegan chocolate cake

 

ever since my sordid love afair with red velvet cafe began, i've sprouted a vegan chocolate cake antena. at this point, i'm not exactly sure where it is located on my body, but i do know that i can detect a VCC within a 10 miles radius of me.  even in cupcake form. i can also change 3 lanes and swerve left into a parking lot in less than 100 yards. and, unfortunately, i seek them out often.

i decided to make my own. i got the recipe from allrecipes.com. SO SO SO good, and SO SO easy! even my parents commented more than once what good chocolate cake it was.  and they were right.  i have a feeling that i'm going to be making this cake....a lot.

i'm continually bugged (like, even right now) that those two stupid hearts are on the side of my "S" cake. it's the first time i've ever used melted chocolate in a decorators bag and...i dropped two little droplets on the side. i tried to wipe them off. which made them bigger. doi. and i had already washed my blue frosting bowl. so....they became hearts.  bug. bug. bug.