Grandma ME

Hi,
I am going to be a GRANDMA!! My daughter will be having her first baby in March, and we are all excited. Just this past week, her little tummy tum tum has really expanded! Sunday, she had a small, small little tummy. Wednesday, she had a pretty big one sticking out there! That day was also the first day she actually let me touch her tummy. She has her next doctor's appointment, @16 weeks, on my birthday. They hope to find out the sex of the baby in November, @20 weeks. Everyone is anxiously awaiting. This baby will be the first one, in this generation, on our side of the family. Rachel was the first grandchild, and now she is having the first grandchild...How fitting!
So, you can just call me Grandma!!!!!!

Critical Decisions

I have made one very important decision in my life. I am going to take off two quarters from school, writing my dissertation to be exact. I have been enrolling each quarter for several years, but I haven't been getting anything done. Many thousands of dollars later $$$$$$, I finally decided to take a break. I have been at this 'extra' schooling thing now for almost ten years, and I am plain old tired. I worked three years on my National Board Certification, then a year and a half on my Specialist degree, then I went straight into coursework for my Ph.D. After two and a half years of courses and then my comprehensive exams, I started the dissertation stage. Almost three years later, I have not finished the first three chapters. I have gotten two extensions, but life keeps me from writing. I have gotten a house full of stuff that has not been attended, and it looks like a hoarder house. I have many, many obligations to take care of my daddy, including his health and other affairs, and I am just way, way overwhelmed. I think that if I take off from the tension and the pressure of a timeline and a time limit, maybe I can focus on real life for a change. I hope to get this house decluttered during this time. That issue alone could help my brain become more focused and alive. Also, I am going to become a first time Grandma in March, and I need to be de-stressed when all of this happens. So, I am not quitting the pursuit of my doctorate, but I am delaying it for two quarters. I hope that this critical decision is a good one, and I hope that I can now accomplish the regular day to day life things that most normal people take for granted. Wish me luck on this journey to de-stress, de-clutter, and de-activate the tension and nervousness that is my everyday life.
Maybe I will finish a book or two that I have started, childens' books of course.
Wish me luck!

Catching UP

School has started again, so things have actually 'settled down' some...Believe it or not! I suppose the thing of having a schedule keeps me more settled. We are in a new location this year, while our old school is being torn down and rebuilt. I actually like the new location. We are in an old school that has a new building on the Army base. From what I understand, this particular location is going to be used each year as a 'holding place' for displaced schools such as ours. The school system has a building plan for more new schools, so I guess this idea of using Pulaski as a holding bin of sorts is a good one.
I have made lots of cakes this summer. The most recent ones will be added to this blog. I believe I put Lauren's cake up, of the Bieb, but I have a few more to add here.
After Lauren's birthday, Rebecca turned 13. She wanted a beach party, so I made a beach cake for her. Rachel and Kate helped me out on this one.




They enjoyed it. I have also started making candy. This process is much simpler than I thought. I bought several little molds and some of the candy that Michael's sells. Super simple...you put the candy in the microwave to melt and then put the melted candy in the mold. After the candy dries, you pop it out! Simple! I made shells and fish items for the cake. We used brown sugar for the sand and some fondant for the big wave. My brother asked for a giant wave with someone surfing. The giant wave was a small piece of pound cake that I had left from the previous weekend. It looked just like an approaching wave! I made a big sheet cake and put the ocean at one end and the beach at the other. I had some little flip flop candles that I bought a while back, just to have, and they came in handy for this cake! The cake turned out great!
For some reason, this first picture keeps loading upside down. I can't fix it!







After Rebecca's birthday came my brother Dewey. He has a love for his John Deere riding lawnmower, so I made a John Deere tractor for his birthday. I found a little toy one at Toys R' Us and used it as a model. I also put it on the cake. Of course, Little Dewey, Fella, 3D, thought it was his present, and immediately took it off the cake and started playing with it. He loves cars of any kind! I got it back onto the cake for a while, and then we let him have it to keep. I'm not sure why this picture is sideways!!!! I also made a lion for Dewey. His astrological sign is Leo the Lion, plus he sometimes growls at us! haha!




The next two birthdays were Julia's and Rachel's. Julia requested another castle cake. This year, I decided to make it all edible, and I found some neat things to use on it. I was at Walmart one day and found colored ice cream cones for - ONE DOLLAR!! I also bought sugar cones and colored mini marshmallows. I had all of the colored sugar and things to use already. I made a tiered cake and put the colored cones on each corner. I iced the sugar cones and put pink sugar all over them. Then, the sugar cones went onto the other cones to make the high turrets. The marshmallows were also used for the jagged turrets on a palace. I bought a Sleeping Beauty crown and a little Sleeping Beauty doll for the cake, and I put those on the top layer. I found some little wands that were the same color as the crown, so I placed those all over the cake, too. I used some of my sparkly edible glitter to shine it up a bit more. For the windows and doors, I used pink sugar wafers! I had some neat decorating candy that I used for the added little flowers and things on the windows and doors. It all turned out pretty well, and it didn't fall apart in the car on the way over this time. I let Julia help me make some of the candy we used, she put the last sugar cones onto the cake. That way, she felt like she made her own cake.








The party was also for Rachel, so she and Julia were princesses for the day. Rachel wore a yellow dress like Snow White, and Julia had on the full out Sleeping Beauty costumer all day. Ellen bought little tiaras for all the females to wear, and we had a great time. I told Rachel that I never could make her a castle cake, so this was her cake as well as Julia's cake! My Iphone camera doesn't show off the pretty pink and purple colors that I made. This year, I made a light pink and a light purple, and they were really pretty.







The next day was Rachel's real birthday, and I made her a Paisley cake! I found some napkins with a cute design, and I tried really hard to make it. I used the pink and purple that was left over from the castle cake. Then a few days later, we all went to Rachel's house to see Adam, who was home for the week. I made another paisley cake and was planning on getting it right this second time, but I changed my mind after realizing Adam's birthday is next week~ Even though I had already made pink icing, I turned the paisley into an exotic fish and added yellow and bright green~ I also put some green on Rachel's paisley cake, to make it look more like the napkins!





So, Rachel and Adam had a co-birthday party Tuesday night! I was happy to have them together.





As for birthday cakes, Adam's is the last one of the season for now! October is not far away, though, and there are too many to count in October!

July

July has come and gone. Wow! Most of the month was just a slow summer month. Unfortunately, the last week and a half was spent at the hospital with my daddy. He has not been feeling very well for quite a while. Finally, he just got really weak and feeling very bad. So, we took him to the Emergency room. He was diagnosed with low sodium, which can be very harmful to an elderly person. He spent 8 days in the hospital, during which time he was given IV fluids to raise his sodium levels. I am happy to say that he is at home now and feeling better than ever! We had a scary week, but things are fine now.
I have not had any time to do any writing of any sort, meaning my dissertation. I am on a final extension, so I must remedy that situation. Maybe now that my dad is feeling better, I can concentrate on my writing. It is rather difficult to close yourself up in a house to write when you know your almost 90 year old daddy is sick. Now that I know he is well, I hope the writing will materialize!
My nephew had a birthday Thursday, his 26th. My sister requested a pound cake, so I obliged. That one turned out pretty well and did not need any decorating. It was really a pretty light brown. I didn't think it was going to ever come out of the pan, though! I pounded and pounded that pound cake trying to get it to release from the pan!! hahahaha Finally, it came out all in one piece!
We have some other birthdays coming up, too, and I have to do some specialty cakes. Rebecca will be 13 in August, and she wants a beach cake. I have some ideas, so I hope they will come to fruition. My brother has a birthday right after this one. Also, my daughter has a birthday later in August, and my niece will be 5 right before that(castle cake already requested!). I think we are having theirs on the same day, since they are so close together. Too many birthdays so close together are crazy!
Things are looking up, and summer is rapidly coming to an end (for teachers, that is). Have a great weekend!!

Let the baking begin!

June came in softly and went out with a birthday bash! That was the beginning of cake season, Ellen and John William. July came in with a Bang and brought with it a Bieber fever request. HA! Lauren put in an early order for a Justin Bieber birthday cake. She asked me if I had a cake pan shaped like a person. I asked why. She said, with a little curled up smile on her face, "Justin Bieber". HA! So, I thought and thought about what to do. I could make some icing with color flow, which is the kind that you can use to trace over a picture and transfer it to a cake, or I could find pictures of the Bieb and use them on the cake. I finally decided to search the magazine racks for ole' Justin and try to use pictures. I could not believe it, but there are not very many Teen magazines out there to find! I only found one type at Walgreen's and then a different one at CVS. I chose the latter, because it had a big face shot that I could use on the cake. It also had some posters that I could give to Lauren. Finally, I made a big round cake with purple icing. I cut out the big face shot and some little pictures, too. I put some saran wrap on top of the cake and put the picture on that. Then I wondered how I was going to hide the edge of the picture and the wrap. So, I decided to make a big "frame" like a picture frame and 'bejewel' it with candies. I had some big round candies that I bought on sale after Easter, and I had some little star candies that I had found at Walmart a while back. I placed those individully, alternating colors. The little stars were hard to place, coz they are so small and my fingers are not so nimble these days! After dusting the cake with pink sugar and purple edible glitter, it looked pretty good. Then, I colored some fondant pink and purple and put four small faces around the edge of the cake. When Lauren saw the cake she said, "It turned out MUCH better than I expected." HA!! I couldn't believe she said that. I asked her what she was expecting, and she said she thought I was going to make a whole person. I guess she wasn't really expecting me to make a real BIEBER!! HAHA!!




My four year old niece 'called' me that afternoon to find out what kind of cake I was making. I suppose that my status in the family is now 'the birthday cake person', if that is the first thing a four year old thinks of when she finds out she is going to a birthday party! Yes, that is what she thought about right after her mom told her she was going to Lauren's birthday party! Anyway, I told her that I was making a Justin Bieber cake. Before I could explain what that was, she said, "A Beaver?" Then, she yelled to her mom, "She is making a BEAVER cake!!" That was soooo funny!

Next up is Rebecca's 13th birthday, in August. I haven't gotten her 'order' yet, but I wonder what it will be. Last year, her dad created a neat Mall Scavenger hunt for her and Rachel and I made a mall cake. Who knows what this year will bring!
I do, however, have an order for Julia's cake...Another Castle! This year, her favorite princess is Sleeping Beauty. So, I found a small Sleeping Beauty to put on the cake. Before I finally found the little doll, I found a crown and some wands at Party City. I will figure out a way to incorporate all of those things on the cake. I now know to make a cake that is not quite as 'soft' as last year's cake, so that the turrets will stay IN the cake and not fall OUT of the cake! I will also make the little flowers ahead of time to put on there, I hope.

And....we're off!!!!

Catching up and Cakes!

I have not posted any of my cakes in a while, so I will do that now. There have not been that many occasions for making cakes, since all the birthdays were in the Fall! Today, I used fondant to decorate a cake for Rachel's completion of her Master's Degree. I haven't used fondant in a while, and I really enjoy making creations with it. Of course, there is a ton of buttercream icing underneath it all!
At Easter, I made a bunny cake and some cupcakes. I had forgotten about those, until I was looking through my folder for the pirate cake I made last week! For Mother's Day, I attempted to make a teakettle and cups. It didn't turn out too great, because I traveled to my brother's house to make it, and I did not have all the necessary equipment, space, etc. THe amazing thing is that you use the princess carriage pan to make this cake. You can use that pan for other things, too.
We did have a birthday June 1st, though, for Ellen and another one on the 27th for J.William. I made a violin for Ellen, with my guitar pan. Then, I made a pirate, with his treasure chest full of gold, and a pirate ship for JW. His school is called the Raiders, so I made the pirate with skull and crossbones. These two pans have been begging for me to use them, so I put them to good use.
Today, I made a cake for Rachel, since she just finished her Master's Degree. I have a diploma from this school, so I made the emblem that is on the diploma. It took me several hours to do this, as I was working with fondant. The letters are painted with silver dust, but I am not sure if the silver shows up. The camera that is used is the one from my IPhone, so I never can tell what the pics will look like. All of my other cameras bit the dust, so the IPhone is my only source of "picturing".
Here are some of my recent cakes.

Tampa

Rachel and I are taking a trip to Tampa, Florida tomorrow. We are only staying for the weekend, but it will be a jam packed weekend! We are planning a trip to Busch Gardens on Saturday, so I know we will get a lot of sun that day! Last year, I got a really red face from being there all day, and I ended up with a great tan from just a day in the sun! This time, I believe sunscreen will be on the list to take!! I didn't even think about it last time. So far, the summer has been calm. The car is at the shop right now for an oil change, tire rotation, and general checkup. Gotta have a car in top notch shape for a road trip! See ya later!!