Friends

Funfetti Birthday Cake

Last week I described the cake on the left of the above picture. If you need a reminder, that’s a Chocolate Dulce de Leche cake. Yum! It really was an exceptional cake and I was extremely pleased with how it turned out. Although… maybe the bright birthday candles on it look weird… who knows.

Right now I’m sitting here watching recorded shows of Best Baker America. Their challenge was a mind-bending cake with Vanilla being present. Looking at my cakes above… I fail. Oh well! haha.

But today, let’s focus on that Funfetti cake on the right. And wow, there’s a lot of thoughts covered above in just a short period of time. haha… some days that’s how my mind goes. My husband jokes that I am the queen of Random! (more…)

Chocolate Dulce de Leche Cake

I made Dulce de Leche last week. Guys, it’s EASY! It takes a little time, but it’s super easy. Why oh why haven’t I done this before? Oh that’s right, because I didn’t have any reason to, until now. Now? What changed? Well… let’s start at the beginning.

Deb’s birthday was last Thursday. Every year on Memorial Day Weekend we find ourselves at the lake right around Deb’s birthday. We usually have a group dinner on Friday night, but Saturday night tends to be the BIG shindig. Then Sunday night we eat leftovers from the first two nights. It’s a lot of fun.

This year, plans stayed the same! I told everyone I was bringing the birthday cake. We also have another birthday that falls during Memorial Day Weekend, but I’ll focus on that cake later. Today, let’s talk about the Chocolate Dulce de Leche Cake because, oh. my. gosh. it’s amazing! (more…)

Fishing Sugar Cookies

I’m a couple weeks behind sharing these cookies. It happens. Life happens. I’ve had a lot going on in my life and I promise that a lot of things will have light shed on them very soon. Truthfully, just waiting on a couple more pieces to fall into place.

So Fishing Cookies. My friend Jody hit me up and asked if I’d do some cookies for her cute little boy. Hey, who am I to turn down that cutie! haha. He just had his birthday last month. They are totally into fishing. Now… the one way I would tell her NO is if she made me touch a real fish. Now… I have touched a real fish, I screamed, made the boat captain think I fell overboard. It was great. I’m not a fan of fish. haha.

But these weren’t real fish so we were good. We discussed a few different ideas/options and came up with fishing bobbers. Easy peasy. haha. But seriously, they turned out soooooo darn cute! If I do say so myself. (more…)

It’s Wedding Season

I don’t know if you know it or not, but summer has officially sprung! Here in the midwest we went from Winter to Summer. Spring, what’s that? I’m pretty sure last fall we didn’t know what Fall was. We just fell from Summer into Winter. Crazy Midwest weather.

But, that being said, It’s coming on big time wedding season. They say that people in the olden days got married in June because they took their yearly shower in June so they’d smell good. But for good measure they carried a bouquet of flowers to hid that musty smell. haha. I sure hope that was a joke! In this instance, I just hope I’m gullible because if that’s true, pew.

Last weekend, I went to a wedding. Yup, that’s where I was headed with all of that. The weather was gorgeous! We drove out to Big Hill Lake near Cherryvale, Kansas. I have a bunch of friends that live in that area. I was apparently only 3 miles from one of them. I’m not sure about the other… but on one of their farm websites they mention Big Hill Lake in their description on where they’re located.

When I got there, wedding preparations were already underway. As you can see, I got in on some good pictures of them making lemonade. We also had taste testers in this endeavor. It was fun. (more…)

Baptism Sugar Cookies

Guys, It’s truly been a bit since I’ve decorated Sugar Cookies. The last ones I did for anyone were the Ladybug/Steampunk. They were done at the same time. Then… I haven’t done any until Easter when we tried a different recipe. By the way, I like my recipe better when it comes to decorated sugar cookies. Those we tried around Easter mounded up and then sunk. Not so good on the decorating storefront.

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The Duck Race

If you’ve been paying attention to the weather around the country any this week, then you’ll know the Midwest was supposed to get hit with a HUGE potential of Severe Thunderstorms/Tornadic weather. I woke up this morning to a HUGE bang of thunder. I always say that all we need is a good thunderstorm and all trees just blossom BAM! Yup, I was right.

The other thing to note is we’re on baby watch 2018. No… not me. The horse’s sillies. One mare is 1 week overdue and the other is about 2 weeks out. With crappy weather like this, I halfway expected to walk out and find 2 babies on the ground. So far, notta.

But there is a light rain going on and by the time I was done feeding critters, I’m kind of soggy. Which reminds me of a day not too long ago that I got soggy. Let me explain…

Jared carrying me to shore on his back. Tori walking along side.

The Duck Race

A couple weekends ago we were helping out with Trails for Kids. One of the events to raise money is the Duck Race. We sell little toy ducks that float for $2/each or 3 for $5. Then we go to Sugar Creek, the creek that runs right alongside the campground. We dump them in, and the winner wins half the pot of money collected. Easy enough, right? Sure… (more…)

Ladybug Sugar Cookies

I was going back through all the sugar cookies that I completed last fall and realized there were 2 sets that I didn’t blog. This was one of my absolute favorite sets. A girl I went to high school with that I am distantly related to hit me up and asked me if I could do ladybug sugar cookies. I thought about it and was like, well, of course, those would be not only easy but extremely cute! Heck yeah.

I was so pleased with how they turned out. Absolutely adorable! These were some of my absolute favorite cookies

College Life

 

I’m not sure why the last couple days I’ve been stuck in the past. That’s how it feels anyway. Maybe because College seemed so easy… or maybe it was the phone call from Camille that brought back the memories. My {step}daughter is a Freshman in high school. She’s at the part of her life when grades totally matter. When she’s starting to think about her future. Starting to make plans about going to college (or not, but right now yes).

A lot can change in four years. Right now she has college narrowed down to two choices. One is in state, one is way out of state. But either choice she has plans to live at home (the out of state is with family). If there’s one thing I keep trying to stress to her, promise me she’ll live in the dorms at least 1 year. Bam! Seriously though, you learn a lot from living in the dorms, and that is one way you make those lifetime friends. (more…)

The Damn Water Tower

The other night I was watching a movie with my husband and my mother-in-law. I think it was My Secret Valentine or it could have been Very, Very, Valentine. Either way, it was a Hallmark movie. If you haven’t figured out… Hallmark movies are my absolute favorite. Christmas and non-Christmas alike. There’s always a plot twist right before they have a happy ending and they are always so predictable. Either way though, I like them. They give me that warm tingly feeling.

But while I was sitting there watching the movie, my phone rang. I answered the phone and it was my friend Camille. In college, I always teased and called her Camel Jockey. Sometimes to her face, sometimes not. I was caught off guard a little bit because I haven’t spoken on the phone with her for about 10 years. The last time we spoke on the phone, she had just gotten engaged. I found out via Facebook and was giving her crap to the point she called me.

We chatted for a good almost half hour. We reminisced about good times and bad. A few years ago I was sitting in my Midevil British Literature class when we went to break. During the break, I jumped on Facebook for a minute and saw a very scary message. She said something to the effect of don’t wait until the last minute to tell your best friend how you feel or something like that. I can’t remember the exact words because it’s been almost 3 years now if I remember right. (more…)

Hallmark Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving table

I saw a friend posted on Facebook yesterday (I think it was) a question asking if everyone had that perfect, Hallmark Thanksgiving Dinner. Then she asked what about those who had no one. I am paraphrasing. I guess I never really thought about it truthfully. We have Thanksgiving whether it’s my extended family or just my close family, either way, we celebrate it. In 2011, hubby and I made our first Thanksgiving meal. Prior to that we just attended Thanksgiving at family’s house.

I always had a goal to make a turkey. In 2012 we made our first Bacon Wrapped turkey. Yum! I think having a turkey is the only “traditional thing” we do. We play with sides. We play with turkey recipes. We’re not traditionalists. I remember one year at my aunt’s house she said we were having a “grown-up” Thanksgiving meal. It was good, but the only traditional part was having a turkey. I wish I was into taking pictures that Thanksgiving (as I am now) so I had a memory of what we actually had… I remember steamed green beans, roasted potato chunks, and that’s about my recollection of that menu.

But… do we have that Hallmark Thanksgiving Dinner? Good question. Here’s what Thanksgiving looks like at our house, give or take….

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