Baseball and Fireworks, makes for a fun-filled evening....

So the other day I got a "mystery" txt message from this guy....  it  had seriously been FOREVER since we'd really talked aside from the random, yet sometimes yearly happy birthday/ merry chistmas, happy new year emails.....  and then there he was...  haha, back in California, from a long period of being "somewhere" else..... wanting to catch-up, with dinner and a baseball game..... hmmmmm....  ;)  Don and I met in college over 10 years ago, WOW!!  did I really just admit that?? haha ;)  and it was seriously amazing how we literally just picked  up where we had left off, especially since it's probably been a good 5 or 6 years, since we've really sat down and talked...  I LOVE the feeling of being comfortable with old friends.....  We went to dinner, the Angel game, and then watched the fireworks after....  anyone who knows me knows that this was seriously the "perfect" evening, filled with 4 of my most favorite things, food, baseball, fireworks, and good friends who can offer interesting conversation!!  :)

 a group shot!!  :)

Fireworks....  :)

 I had to post this one, because I was seriously impressed at the quality of this picture...  especially since it was from my phone!!  :)

The only thing I was really sad about was that this was one of the last Angel game's before the season ended....  so I guess we'll have to wait until next year to go again!

Welcome Fall!!!! :)

I'm soooo ready for fall this year it's not even funny....  as I write this, I'm sitting here in sweatpants, and a sweatshirt, drinking coffee, pretending that it's a lot chillier outside than it really is...  although I must admit that it helps that it's not a normal hot september evening.....  Today's weather has been perfect to welcome fall!  I can't wait for "rainy" inside days, hot chocolate, movies, and the perfect time for Ugg boots.....  Most importantly I'm looking forward to Pumpkins, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cake, that new pumpkin crumb thing Jaime made the other day....  and the holidays, the holidays are my absolute favorite time of the year, I love how all the stores go all out to decorate, and it just means it's almost time to bring out my "men".....  my snowmen who have been waiting all year to come out and play!!!  :)  I can't wait to bring another one home and to get all the other guys out too!!!  Every year around this time my store has a contest, and for some reason I was really excited to get the decorations going.... Maybe it's because it seems like summer really never came, so I feel like we should say farewell to it, and welcome the new season??  here's what I came up with to welcome fall!!!  after shopping for decorations for the display I want to go out and buy decorations for me!!!  I have so many ideas for fun "fall" projects I could do.....  YAY, for fall.....  I think today I felt how all my other friends feel about fall!!!  :)  I'm going to LOVE it!!!

Blessings.....

Often times I get busy "worrying" and complaining about the "MEAN" people that God has so nicely placed in my life....  haha!!  I say nicely, because I know that there's a reason he's placed them in my everyday life..... :)  I haven't really figured out what the reason is, but I'm thinking that it's to make me "stronger"!  ;)  maybe???  But at the same time he has surrounded me with wonderful people in my everyday life too...  I know what their purpose is....  to make me feel "fullfilled" and to make me remember that the world, MY world is not full of mean, negative people..... instead MY world is filled of people who care, respect and care for one another, with no strings attached....  :)  so with that in mind...  I will count my blessings today....  ALL of them....  :)

• there's nothing like an afternoon spent with good friends, friends who I can totally be myself with....  there's no better treasure in this world than a good friend....  Thanks girls!!  :)
• and what can I say about hugs and I love you's from the little people???  I can't even begin to express how much I enjoy quality time with them!!  :) 
• and then there was a while of snuggling from Mr. Owen today....  I LOVE when babies fall asleep on a person's shoulder...  and today I was in luck!  :)
• then there was my welcoming "lick" from Sisco when I came over tonight.....  He LOVES me, just as much as I love him....  ;)
• and wings and things...  I must be thankful for them today!!!  Gaby and I had that for dinner tonight....  and it was delicious!!  :)  alright not a "blessing"....  but I was thankful for them...  :)
• and sisters....  I have been blessed with a great sister too!!  I LOVE her
• and parent's, especially when they pack one's lunch for work!!  ;) 

So there it is....  my list for "count my blessings" tuesday!!!  :)

Cupcakes, cupcakes, everywhere........

So here we are almost done with cake class....  I must say that I think I'm suffering from too much class, and I'm about ready for it to end....  one more class and then I'll be ready to move on to the next thing!!!  ;)  I do have to say that the last 3 months have been great fun.....  and I feel like I have learned a ton!!!  :)  this last monday we made cupcakes, learned how to "fill" them....  and how to decorate them....  I made this lovely flower thing, that looked nothing like the one in the book, but it was pretty....  I know I may be a little biased!!  ;)

of course Gaby's turned out just like the one in the book, and nothing like mine!!  haha!!  figures!

and here are both of them together, same flower, yet nothing alike!!  :)

Then we moved on to decorating the tops, you can pretty much put ANYTHING on a cupcake and they look scrumpcious!!  ;)  Janet decided she would make Charlie a baseball one, since she missed his first day of baseball!!  :(  and the other one, was a pom pom flower, her's was awesome, mine on the other hand sort of looked like cousin "it".....  haha!!! 

Gaby's work station, and her pom, pom, flower in the back

My finished cupcakes, with lots of cousin "it's"..... 

I LOVED gaby's heart cupcake.... 

and I decided to put my beautiful flower on top of mine!!!  :)

I made carrot cake cupcakes and filled them with cream cheese icing.....  which I am now eating out of the container with a spoon.....  guess I made too much, and I wouldn't want it to go to waste!  ;)  filling the cupcakes made them fun to eat.....  it was a cupcake "surprise"  :)  Mabe that's why I feel like I have cake class "burnout", because I've eaten too much frosting, and filling, my body is saying it has toooooooo much sugar in it!!!  haha!!!

A day with Mom!!

Sunday was fun day with mom day!!  :)  we made our cakes on saturday night and frosted them sunday morning..  then we were off to learn how to successfully stack our cakes into something "cool"....  well I'm not sure how "cool" our cakes turned out to be, but they were pretty, and mine was nice and bright....  :)  and we got to spend some good ol' quality time together...  how could we not enjoy that??  I'm not sure that either one of us really take the time to hang out just the 2 of us....  actually I know we don't, one is always busy when the other one is available, and today was great..  we really did enjoy ourselves in class...  then we met my sister for dinner, and enjoyed her company too....  :)  my brother and dad got to hang out together while we were gone, so they had quality time too....  what a great family day we had...  I LOVE days like today....  I hope next week is as successful as today was!!  :)

Tall Cakes.......

.....So here I am, taking another cake class, as if once a week wasn't enough, my mom and I decided that it would be fun to take this "stacking, tall cake" class today, it was a 3 hour class in which we constructed, learned the techniques of stacking a cake and then decorated it......  we had a great time...  My only regret is that I didn't prepare before hand, or come up with my design before hand....  Krista my friend who I met 3 monhs ago in the fondant class also took this one, she came in prepared to make a witch's hat...  DAMN!  i thought why didn't I think of somethig cool like her??  so off I went to think of something to make....  while she costructed this.....

......I decided to make a basket with a pumpkin in the middle and flowers coming out of the top, I had help coming up with my design!!  ;)  If I were to make it again I would definitly finish off the basket, on the top with some more basketweave....  the white looks a little weird, and it doesn't really looked finished...  and then my sister suggested that If I had used a bundt cake pan for the middle cake, then we would be able to better tell that it was a pumpkin....  she was right...  despite all of that though...  i really liked what the "arrangement" turned out to look like, it was bright, colorful and fallish, which is what I was going for!!  :)

This lady used pillars for her cake....  and her lace design looked cool too!!  :)

Irene's cake was awesome as well....  I need to figure out how to get my cakes to bake tall....  hmmmmm...  she made her calla lilies out of fondant and then made up a flower, swirl thing to go around as a border on her cake...  and her white dots added a little 3D look to it too!  lovely!

Then there was Krista the overachievers, witch's hat....  and I only say that because I may be slightly jealous that I didn't think of something cool like her....  now if only I could find a good reason to make this cake???  ;)  I LOVED it....  I loved the fact that she even thought as far as making a spider for the hat, and a buckle....  if only I was that creative....  or maybe I should say if only I had planned ahead!!  :)

and my mom made a basket in the middle of her cake....  I liked hers too!!  it really did come together for her...  and she was so excited that she remembered how to do some of this stuff! 

My pumpkin in basket floral arrangement!!!  ;)  I guess at this angle you can tell better....  :)

Yay, for a fun-filled mother-daughter cake class sunday!!  :)

Happy 35th Birthday Mattie!!! :)

Matt turned 35, and we decided it was a great time to celebrate!!  Casey and Heather got a few people together and we went to Benihana's, man I hadn't been there in ages, and I was amazed how crowded the restaurant and all of it's surrounding places were....  I was definitly back in a college town....  there were people out past 8:30pm....  hahaha!! 

Our meal started off with this yummy soup.....

....and of course there was a volcano demonstration! ;) and that is as far as the food pictures got!  haha!  the food and conversation were so good that I forgot to keep going.....  ;)

Me, Matt, Heather, Lisa, Casey, baby Valentino and Emo.....  the turnout was fairly small this time, but we had fun celebrating Matt!  and Valentino was a trooper, dinner didn't end until almost 11, and he was as sweet as could be the whole time!!  :)