How To: Make a Wedding Cake

It was recently the birthday of a friend of mine and my roomie. The birthday girl said that she wanted to make a wedding cake. So we got all the stuff together...and what better to do on a snowy weekend? Let's take this step by step:

Bake Cakes, and Then Let Cool (We did 2 layers of each tier)

Make Dirty Icing and Filling

This is the cake before we did anything extra to it!

Make a moat for filling and then fill between layers (With whatever you want)!

Dirty ice each tier of the cake.




Roll out fondunt evenly. (You can use a wine bottle...or ask the neighbor for a rolling pin! HEHE)

Flatten and cut off extra fondunt.

Place in dowel rods to help support upper layers.

The roomie piping between the layers.











Almost the finished product...we still have to make the flowers to decorate it. But doesn't it look great?! :-)

This was such a blast to do. It was an absolutely amazing weekend with the snow and baking cakes. And to make it even better, I got to see A on webcam both days. That makes for a happy me. :-)

My roomie is thinking about starting a wedding business which does wedding planning, makes cakes, etc. So if you are planning a wedding or know of anybody who is let us know!

A Snowy Saturday

I woke up this morning at about 5:30 when my roommate was letting her parent's dogs outside. Yes, that's right...we have 4 dogs in our townhouse this weekend. I looked outside and at this point there was a just a light dusting of snow on the ground. Just a few hours later when I actually got up this is what I saw. This is my roommate, Ziggy (her dog), and the little one is Emma (one of her parents' dogs).

So it has been a fun day of playing in the snow and watching the dogs play or in the case of my dog at the beginning of the day...be scared of the snow.

After playing in the snow for a little while, my roomie, her bf, and I went for a walk to Kroger. On our way, there was some sledding action which occurred. Here's the roomie and her bf after they basically rolled down the hill. HA! Good times of course.

Once the three of us got back from our adventure we played some more outside with the puppies. And this time I remembered that my little one, Jewels, had a sweater. So, I put it on her and she all of a sudden got the courage to go out in the snow. It was great. The four pups had a blast just running around, and for 3 of them just basically sinking in the snow.

It has been a great day and I'm sure more snow adventures are going to arise tomorrow since we will probably be snowed in again. We measured a few hours ago and we already had between 10 and 11 inches so I'm sure we have more than a foot of snow at this point. Pretty crazy if I may say so myself. This is definitely not normal for Richmond. Especially since this is the second time we've gotten this much snow this winter. I can only imagine what the rest of the winter has in store for us. Wish that A was here to enjoy the snow with all of us but I was able to talk to him online earlier today and he's seen pics of what's going on. So at least he's able to "experience" it with us. Miss him like crazy but trying to stay strong and enjoy myself even if it would be great if he was here!

Frustrated Friday (or as A might say to annoy me, Fustrated)

I had written a blog last night, and really actually liked it. I went to "publish" my post and my computer would not let me. It logged out of Blogspot and every time I tried to go to the website to log back in it would say "Bad Request". So, my computer finally let me back on tonight. I'm not really sure what to write about tonight, other than for the fact that I am frustrated with my computer. I guess I will just write what I had written about last night, even if it is not a "current" thing, which you will understand once you read on.

Post Title: Thirsty Thursday

Or at least that is what we used to call them in undergrad. Yes, that is right I was a sorority girl (and still proud to be one) who used to go out if there was something to do even if it was a Thursday, or even for that matter a Monday or Tuesday. Tonight after class, I went out with a few of the girls from class for dinner, which included margaritas of course. After dinner and the end of the second evening class, we met up with some of the other girls in the program. All in all, it was a great night. Had a good time just hanging out with some of the girls. The other day I commented on another blog about having a group of girl-friends. I guess that is kind of what this was. However, it is not like we do this ALL the time. Although, we are hoping to make it happen more often this semester.

On a sidenote...to those of you with dogs: My dog just went to the bathroom on the living room floor (not really...because I am NOW writing this the next day). I took her outside about 15 minutes ago, she did her thing, and she came back inside on her own. So I was just sitting here writing my blog and next thing I know I see her just going to the bathroom. She just stood there looking at me as if...I really don't know what she could have been thinking. I mean REALLY?!?! I just took you outside and it's not like you were whining by the door and I just ignored you. There was absolutely no sign whatsoever that you were going to do that. Anyway...it's all cleaned up now. But does anybody know why dogs, or any pets for that matter, do stuff like this. It just doesn't make any sense.

Now that I have gone on a complete tangent about something that NONE of you probably want to hear about, I think that's basically it for the night. I love you A! I am so proud of everything that you are doing and miss you like crazy. But I am staying strong. And now I am just looking forward to this crazy snow that we are supposed to be getting late tonight. I wonder if we actually will get much, but I definitely wish that A was here with me so that we could get snowed in together. But I guess I'll write more about the snow tomorrow if we actually get any. Good night for now!

I Want it Wednesday

At risk of them being mad...I am going to "steal" this idea from Expat Girl and Samantha the Army Wife. I think it is really fun to think about what you are "wanting" these days. Just like they are saying today...I am wanting my soldier back home.

But to take that a little further. I don't just want him to up and leave Iraq because I am proud of him for what he is doing and he has to be there right now to do his job. So I guess that really what I want is for ALL of our troops to be out of Iraq and for all of them to return safely home to their loved ones. And it would be pretty great if all our men and women in uniform could be out of Afghanistan as well...but I guess that I shouldn't push my luck! HA. But that's what I WANT. So even if it's (unfortunately) not going to happen anytime soon, I can still want it. I am so proud of you A, all of your men, and ALL of those who are serving our country in harm's way. Keep up the good work and remember that you have a lot of people back here supporting and loving you! And I'll try to be more creative in what I want next week. :-)

Ice Cream

Have you ever had that craving where you just REALLY want ice cream or some other desert and you will do just about anything to get it? Well, my roomie and I both decided last night that we really wanted to get some ice cream. So we piled ourselves and the dogs (Yes the dogs went with us) into the car and off we went to Bruster's to get ourselves some ice cream because we figured it's a little cheaper than Cold Stone. Of course...we get there, and they closed about 15 minutes earlier. So our next stop is Burger King to get shakes because it's right there...we go through the drive thru and the shake machine (a.k.a. blender HAHA) is not working. So we are now off to Cold Stone because we just really want ice cream at this point and will pay any price. We pull in the parking lot, the lights are still on, we get out of the car, walk up to the door and the girl had JUST locked the doors. It is now 9:31 and they closed at 9:30. REALLY?? I mean REALLY?? You see us walking up and you won't even let us get ice cream...fine, don't take our $10 or whatever it would cost for two people to get ice cream. So, after all of that we ended up getting shakes from Chick-fil-a which were absolutely amazing. They definitely satisfied the craving...not sure it would have worked if we hadn't gone to 3 other places already, but hey...it was a LOT cheaper than either Bruster's or Cold Stone. So thanks for saving us money!

Grad School-Semester 2

I am currently working on my masters in school counseling. Classes started for this semester last week on Tuesday. So, today was my last first class for the semester. It's nice now to be able to see what the next 4 months are looking like for school. None of my classes seem like they will be too difficult, lots of work, but it's definitely going to be manageable. I'm looking forward to getting this semester started so that it can then be finished and I can see A for his R & R.

The weather was absolutely amazing this afternoon but now it's rainy and gross outside. Apparently we are supposed to be getting some snow this weekend. I really wish that A was here. I would love to just cuddle up with him on a snowy day and also go outside and play in it with him. But for now, I guess I have my puppy, Jewels, my roomie and her dog. I just feel so fortunate that I have such a great roommate. She has been there for me through a rough patch in mine and A's relationship and now she is here for me while we journey throug this deployment. Above is a photo of my puppy (absolutely terrified) when we go our first snow of the year in December.

Heard His Voice

So I just about had a heart attack 30 minutes ago. My cell phone starting ringing, I looked at it, and it was an unfamiliar number with the area code being my love's home area code. All I could think was that it was either his parents or his sister calling. And with having not heard from him in almost 3 days...why would they call? Much to my surprise and relief, it was him on the other end of the phone. I almost started to cry, but I held back the tears and stayed strong. He recently got magic jack and finally was able to get a phone so he could use it. But that was the last thing I was thinking when I saw the number on my phone. It was wonderful to hear from him and know that he is doing alright. And now I can store that number in my phone and know that it's him calling whenever my phone rings from that number!

On another note...this morning was an absolutely amazing Sunday. My "nephew" was dedicated to our Jesus Christ at church today. I am so proud of my brother and sister for being such wonderful parents to him and for leading him in a Christ-like life. He is only 10 months old, but he is such a delight. I have enjoyed watching him grow over the past year and a half (and yes...I did say he is 10 months old) and look forward to continuing to see him turn into an amazing young man. As we were talking last night, we said that he will definitely know how to treat women...considering the fact that he has 7 aunts. And if he continues to look as adorable as he does now, he is going to steal all the girls' hearts. That is alright as long as he treats them each with respect. I mean, he can't help it if they all fall in love with him! :-)

My First Post - Missing Him!

I have been writing a journal ever since the love of my life left for Iraq in December. However, one of my friends has been writing a blog and I've really enjoyed reading it. I told my "big sis" about it and she told me that I should write a blog as well. So here it goes! Hope my friend doesn't mind me stealing her idea! :-)

So it's been a long journey so far since he left, however, I cannot believe that more than a month has gone by. I just cannot wait to be in his arms again. Today I've been really missing him alot. I spoke to him on webcam Thursday before I went to class. It was amazing getting to see his face and hear his voice. But it's been hard because it's now Saturday and I have not heard anything from him since we spoke. I keep telling myself that "No news is good news"! But really? I would actually prefer to hear good news or just hear his voice.