I love my Daddy!!!

So Angela and I went out for supper instead of going to cake class tonight, and we ended up at Target. My Dad calls while we're wandering around and tells me "Did you guys get the second bed over there? If so, I'm going to cancel Tom on Friday." Confused Susan here ... "ummm ... ok, but the bed we currently have and treadmill don't fit in your van do they?" ... Favorite Daddy again ... "I'm going to hire 2 Men and a Truck" WOO-HOO!!! So now, we just have to pack everything up and figure out when to have them come out and get crap. At least I have most of the day off tomorrow -- gonna need it to get packing done and to have one of us go get a copy of my birth certificate because we (my parents and I) can't find it, and can't remember who has it!

Our Official "Move Date"

So Friday we have Dad, Tom, Nick, Nick's friend David, me, and Angela if need be (right???) lined up to move the furniture to the new place. Basically, as of Friday, we should, technically, hopefully be out of this little appartment and into our new palace. I'm hoping that we have no heart attacks. I haven't checked the weather forecast, but our main 2 guys helping are pushing 70 ... and have wives that have had strokes ... if they have heart attacks I may never hear the end of it! I told Nick the next time we move I seriously am thinking we need to hire movers to pack us and move us ... between the heavy furniture (which technically not sure either of us should be lifting, but we will be -- guess we need to invest in Tylenol or find the Alleve again) and the way the boxes and things I pack keep attacking me (I'm onto injury #3 at least ... 2 of them having involved some amount of blood ... and one looking like a suicide attempt (apparently the bill oranizer didn't want to get packed). I did manage to get one of the part-timers at work to say she'd come in and work for me from 8:45-2:15, then I'll only have to come in 2:15-4:45 -- not really worth the effort of coming in, but necessary. I told the 2 other teachers in the room that if they didn't need a part-timer in for the afternoon, to feel free to give me a call and I won't come in, no hard feelings (they don't like to have part-timers miss hours, even though all the full-timers are -- ugh!)

Decided to skip cake class tonight. I wasn't feeling 100% last night, so didn't get my icing made/colored -- I cheated and bought 1 can of Wilton icing to use for part of it. And tonight, was tired, felt like I should probably work on packing, and I'm still not 100%. Woke up this morning with a pounding headache, that never really went away during the day. Still with me now, but that could be because lunch as a pitiful taco and then 1/2 of a small package of rainbow popcorn. The Reese's didn't seem to help. Love how I give all this information that you really don't care about? Yeah, I ramble ... get over it.

Think that's all I have for now ... if not, I'll add more later.

Ranks of Grown-ups?

God, when did I become a grown-up??? Nick and I went and bought our first major appliance -- brand spankin' new washer and dryer. We decided on a front loader. Kenmore HE2 ... something like that. Got the pedastals for them -- went all out. Added bonus, we got an extra 10% off because we came back today to get them, and Sears had an extra deal today only. That's really all to update, ran a bunch of errands today -- hit Wal-mart to get boxes (they're my new favorite store, for now at least), returned some stuff to Target and Shopko that we got that we changed our minds on, or were missing pieces. Tomorrow I get to pack a bunch o' crap and haul it all over. Have I mentioned lately how much I hate moving?

Where have I been?

Just realized it's been awhile since I've posted anything ... apparently I've been busy :). We signed out lease Tuesday, and have started the fun process of actually really packing everything up and hauling over. If anyone's interested in moving the heavy things (read: furniture stuff), let me know! I'm already really liking the place, even though we really have hardly been there. We spent a lot of money, though, on new things for it ... and we're nowhere near done on that front. Today we get/have to buy a new washer/dryer set. I'm excited for that ... we've decided on a front loading pair -- more expensive up front, but should over time help save money on electricity and help our clothes last longer (Lord help me there, we never throw anything away ... I think I'm still wearing stuff from high school!)

Diet front (since that is really what this started about) -- nothing. Haven't exercised in God know's how long (other than moving crap), and have completely gotten away from journaling stuff -- think that happened in June when Nick's parents were here. Not sure how they broke me of that habit!

Cake class kind of sucked again ... enough that I'm debating if I want to go back next week or take it off. I had icing problems when I did my froggie transer (I was doing the same cake I posted last time). Put the wax paper on the cake to transer the picture over, and the icing came off instead of the gel staying down. Instructor's reason: you overbeat the icing. My reason: Could it have anything at all to do with the horrible high temperatures we've been having, and the fact we don't have air conditioning in our kitchen? 100 degree kitchen to me seems like it might affect that, since my last cake looked good. She also didn't help Angela figure out the parchment bag procedure to make it when she lost it, and couldn't remember how to restart it -- just grabbed and did. There was something else Angela did that the instructor kind of pointed out to the class -- and told us how to fix it -- but it was the way she grabbed her paper and said "learning experience" or whatever. Seriously thinking about writing Wilton and Michael's and complaining. It's depressing to leave what was supposed to be a fun night out sad and depressed instead. I didn't even end up getting to eat the cake I made (well, bought, I cheated -- another reason I'm wondering if my icing didn't stay on, that my Hy-Vee cakes weren't completely thawed or something when I iced them, or the fact I didn't level them ... God only knows, I don't really care anymore, but I do). When Angela brought me home, got my cake out of the back seat, and the bottom layer was where it was supposed to be, but the top layer and slid a couple inches over to the side ... strawberry filling starting to go everywhere. It was sad, and really, unrecoverable. One of the girls at work was sad too, cuz she came in on her day off for really good bean dip another gal brought in for her birthday, and my cake ... and there was no cake. I'm trying to decide if I want to keep going to these classes that I paid for, or if I just want to say "screw it" and teach myself the rest. Anyone have any opinions?

My New Obsession

Here it is, my first official decorated cake. Definetly room for improvement. It will help to go through one class with someone telling me what to do differently, and to have all the tips I need :) (I discovered after starting I'm short one tip ... probably gonna buy it before class Wednesday.) Just had to share, cuz I'm pathetic :) Now I can spend the rest of the day doing dishes (it's amazing how many dishes are created doing something this simple), packing, and mixing up stuff for Wednesday's class. It's going to be a busy week or two between class, packing/unpacking, cleaning, and then all the appointments I have next week too ... oh well, such is life.

Appeasement

Ok, I feel a little better now. I decided to try to salvage the one cake that hadn't crumbled (and sampled) to bits. Went ahead and frosted it, and crappily decorated. And now, I can officially say I've decorated a cake. Looks like a kid did it, but whatever. It's going into work tomorrow, if I remember to bring it, otherwise I guess it'll go to the trash. Nick doesn't like the Wilton Class Buttercream Recipe (and really, neither do I). Definitely only using it the one time I have to for class. Another thing learned, even if I only do the cakes for the class, I think investing in the cake turner thingie (wish I could remember what it's really called right now) is a good thing ... it was a pain in the butt to do this one without it. And I really wanted to torte the cake. Got to do that for class on Wednesday.

Oh, and in apartment news ... we should be signing the lease on Tuesday ... weeee ... no time for me ... between work, cake, packing, cleaning, unpacking, and cleaning ... so excited (and that's not an exaggeration either, sadly)

Cake Disaster

Apparently me and cakes are not meant to be. Went to my cake class last night, learned nothing other than we provide our own cakes. Fine, whatever ... not what I thought when I signed on for this, but I'll deal. Got 1 mix to make my cake for class. Decided tonight I wanted to try to bake, torte, frost, and decorate a cake for work tomorrow ... mixed up my mix, put it in my 2 8" round pans, baked (25 degrees lower than called, per instructors recommendation as I'm remembering) ... looked nice and golden when I pulled them out of the oven. Cooled, flipped out of pan ... and then they cracked as they cooled. I'm so annoyed (cake's really good, though). Gotta figure out what I did wrong, so I can try again ... since I have to have cake for class. Took pictures of the disaster after the crumbling (and some sampling :) ) happened.

Can't wait for Wednesday

Called the new place today to see if they had a clue when we should be able to move in yet. I got told that she should know Wednesday (maintenance guy has an appointment to check it out at 4:00 today). Cake class Wednesday night, better not be cancelled this time or I might seriously cry. Low volume today, so I got a new purse (which, sadly, is the whole reason I'm posting today ... I took a picture so I could post it ... cuz I'm uber pathetic).

Argh!!! Savvy?

We went and saw Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest today. It was pretty good, but I think I liked the first one better. According to Nick, that's the rule (of trilogies ... second ones always suck). The theater was really really full, not sure if it was sold out or not, but it was close at least. After we were done there, we drove past the new place to see if the grill and table was still there ... and everything's gone (thank God!) So hopefully, we'll get a phone call tomorrow (read: Monday, I'm apparently smoking the crack again) letting us know when we can move in, and maybe what the hold up was. The packing is not going the greatest right now, which is mainly because we don't have a deadline, so we're both kind of dragging our feet to do it. But, my closet(s) are getting empty. Guess that's it, for now, at least.

Cake Decorating Disappointment

So last night I bust my butt to get out of work (scheduled out 5:45, finally got out of there close to 6:00 after cleaning up, clocking out, changing clothes) to get to my cake decorating class on time (started at 6:30 -- across town). Shove a granola bar down my throat on the way to Michael's, get there on time, find the classroom and have a seat. Pretty soon Angela (who's taking the class too) starts joking "15 minute rule" and other non-sense. 6:45ish a manager/supervisor person comes to the classroom, looks in and asks "Do you have an instructor?" She calls the instructor, and/or back-up instructor -- not really sure which, or both, or what -- and finds out that there was some kind of family emergency thing, and the back up didn't know she was to teach the class and had no cakes or frosting ready ... so, no class. Angela and I ended up going out for dinner, and while messing around afterwards I get a phone call from some number I don't know. Answer it, figuring wrong number, and it's our instructor. Her daughter had heart surgery, so she kind of forgot about having a class to teach -- umm, yeah, I can understand how that would happen. Basically, no cake class this week, get it next week instead. I'm bummed, and feel like crap that I'm bummed when there was major surgery as the reason she couldn't be there.

Oh, and I had access to boxes yesterday at work, stashed them in another teacher's room ... and forgot about them when I left. I'm kind of hoping housekeeping threw them away last night, so I don't feel like a complete idiot when I go in. Still no word on when we're moving ... drove past it last night and the people moving out still have a table & chairs on the balcony, and the grill (big gas grill) was on the porch, with some antler things sitting on top. Really disappointing day.

Oh, so tired!!!

Yeah, so I started the fun process of moving boxes from Point A to Point B (to eventually get to Point C). The things I learned today:

1) The next time we move it's to the house we've built that we're going to DIE in (guess that means we need to build at least 4 bedrooms, and ranch style so we don't have to worry about being old and having stairs)

2) Nick should not be allowed to pack boxes with books (or anything else that can be squised in such a way to make it get HEAVY -- or so that it can easily pinch fingers in the box)

3) I'm really out of shape

4) My car is really not that good for moving things (hatchback sucks -- especially when the hydraulics that hold the trunk open don't work. I became quite the contortionist loading my car up.

5) Where boxes are at Russ's (love getting to go into Employee Only areas)

I'm sure there's more, but I'm too tired to think ... ready to be done with this already, and we've hardly started the process.

I Love Crocs

So I'm turning into one of those people that have multiple Crocs in multiple colors. I am now the proud owner of 3 different pairs (and styles). I have my navy Aspen's which I got last winter. Today I went on a quest for a pair of beach in pearl, and a pair of the Athens flip flops. And I succeeded. Went to Dillard's and got the flip flops in pearl/turquise ... and they are very, very, very chushy in the heels. But Dillard's didn't have my Beach's that I wanted, so went to Journey's and struck out. Hit Brown's Shoes at Eastpark, struck out ... then went to Moose's Tooth expecting to get crappy customer service again. Walked in, went straight to the Crocs ... and found my pearl's in size 8 ... and right after I found my shoes, an employee asked if they could help me ... so I definetly made a purchase today to reward their customer service (last time I went there I was searching and searching for something, couldn't find what I wanted ... or an employee). If I'm really pathetic later, I may post pictures of all my Crocs, cuz I'm proud.

I'm so excited ... this is gonna be such a kick ass month! Crocs, cake, and moving ... so good!!!!