100000 Miles

I have never had a vehicle that personally put 100000 miles on it. That is until today. My car flipped to 100000 miles today.

Ranger or Morelli?

If you have read the Stephanie Plum series you know all about Morelli and Ranger. I have not yet read this book. I just picked it up tonight so I don't know yet if Stephanie has made her choice. Personally I am rooting for Morelli. Yes Ranger is hot but Morelli seems more stable and ready to settle down. Ranger is the knight in the shiny black car that always saves the day where Morelli is the shoulder to cry on. So if I had to choose I'd choose Morelli.

It's One of Those Days

I've been sick for a week. When I'm sick things tend to not get done. Todau I was feeling a little better and I ran to Linder's Flower Mart. I picked up some annuals to add some color and some perennials to fill some empty spots. I got done planting and watering and realized the lawn really needed to be mowed. So I mowed the front yard. I was going to wait and do the back yard but I just kept going. By the time I was done I had moved some plants, planted some new ones, put down a bag of mulch, mowed the whole yard and weed wacked the front yard. As a result I have a headache, sore throat, I'm congested and my ankle hurts. So far I've taken 2 Tylenol and 2 Advil and I'm icing my ankle. Just another day!

Elmo says, "I Like Pie"

Elmo says, " I Like Pie." Yep, that's what Sophia requested I write on her cake. I got it all put together tonight. It took a trip to Michaels to exchange my chocolate fondant but it's done! Last week after I talked to Sophia about what she wanted on her cake I picked up some chocolate fondant from Michaels. I lucked out and it was even on sale! Tonight I opened up the container and there was mold on it! So I ran to the store and exchanged it. I was all set to finish the cake! I stacked the cakes, iced them with the chocolate buttercream and covered them in fondant. I placed the color flow Elmo on top, added a red buttercream rope border and finished the cake off with the words, "Elmo Says 'I Like Pie'." That's what she wanted so that's what she got! I hope Sophia likes her cake!

Step Four: Buttercream Icing

While baking the cake I had extra battet so I made some cupcakes. That meant that I needed icing for them. I made a batch of buttercream. This is the best buttercream icing I have ever made! Since Sophia wanted chocolate I split the batch and added cocoa to half of it. I ended up doing some of the cupcakes with the chocolate, it was really good!

Step Three: Bake the Cake

Today was a busy day in the kitchen. I baked the cakes. They are awaiting the leveling, icing, fondant and decorating. Most of which will be done tomorrow!

Step Two: Making the Elmos

Tonight I spent about 4 hours working on the color flow Elmo for Sophia's cake. I made two hoping that neither of them breaks but if one does I have a back up. Color flow is a lot easier than I remember it. Maybe it's because while doing them tonight I had time to let the outline set before I did the fill in color. When we did them in class last year we didn't have time to let them dry. I sprinkled edible glitter on the red part to make it look more like fur. I hope she likes it!

Step One: Planning the Cake

Sophia's birthday was yesterday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOPHIA!! She asked me to make her a cake for her "road trip" party next week. So I talked to her tonight and we decided on vanilla cake, dyed red with chocolate icing then covered in chocolate fondant. Then she said she wanted Elmo and sparkles. So, I've decided that I am going to make the Elmo out of color flow icing, to do that I had to find a picture that would work. The only one that I could find was colored and I needed it to be black and white, well really only because we don't have a color printer here at home so I didn't want to waste all of the black ink. So I pulled it into photoshop and pulled the color out. So, this is step one, planning. I printed out two Elmos because you know if I only make one it will break. I picked up the chocolate fondant and Amy was nice enough to give me her color flow icing powder. Now, how to dye the cake red without it tasting funny?? Hmmm.. I think I may need to do a little more research.

Finally!

I've had this book for at least a couple of months. It had gotten mixed in with my cook books in the kitchen and I had kind of forgotten about it. This weekend I was cleaning the kitchen and came across it again. Janet Evanovich is a great author. I am really enjoying the book!

Finally a day of rest!

I swear last week was non-stop. Cleaning, shopping, vet, work... Late nights and early mornings. Yesterday I got up early to start the day. Finish cleaning, pick up pizzas, clean up the back yard. After a great night with the Jones family I got up today and decided I needed to rest. Bear and Isaboo thought they needed to rest too!

Bonfires and Friends

Amy, Bert and the kids came over tonight for a movie and a fire. What a relaxing night of just hanging around the fire and talking.

Playing in the Sprinkler

Last summer Bear became obsessed with the sprinkler and the water hose. He chewed up a sprayer and a sprinkler last year. Tonight Troy turned on the sprinkler to water the backyard and Bear started chasing it and biting at the water. He kept at it for at least 20 minutes. Troy and I were watching him and laughing when Troy took out his phone and shot this photo. I kept thinking I wish I had a video camera. That's when I remembered that my small digital camera does record video. So I shot a minute of Bear playing in the sprinkler. It has been so hot the last two days that I have been worried about the dogs over heating. Isaboo loves to be outside. She'll sit out there all day long if we'd let her. Bear is almost as bad! I wasn't worried about him at all today! He was soaking wet when we shut the water off that we had to leave him out there for a few minutes to dry off a little. It's so hot out that it didn't take him long at all to stop dripping.

Watch The Furry Ones For Signs Of Heat

Today was really hot and tomorrow is not going to be any better. In fact it's suppose to be worse. It's nights like this that you hear about people forgetting babies in cars, running too much and not enough water, in general people over heating. What you don't hear about is the animals. You know it happens. People have their dogs in the car and run into the store and only crack the window! Our car at 9:30am said it was 87 degrees outside and it had only been sitting for 30 minutes! Imagine was it was inside! Then you have people who leave the dog outside for hours on end. There's a shade tree it will keep him cool! Umm no! It won't I was outside yesterday for a couple hours and I kept checking the water dish I had brought outside for the dogs. I think in those 2 hours I filled it 4 times. Please people! Keep your animals cool and safe in this heat!

I needed this weekend

The last couple of weeks have been rough. First the storm and clean up and then returning to work after being on vacation. Not to mention the crud I've had. This weekend I finally slowed down a little. Yesterday I read two magazines! Troy and I made dinner together and stuck close to home pretty much all day. Today was beautiful! I woke up, made coffee and drank it outside, in the sun, reading a book, while the dogs played in the yard. I did some shopping for myself and to pick up something for dinner. We grilled dinner and ate outside. All and all it was a great weekend.

Waiting in Line

Why do people think that they can just cut in line? We decided to go see X-Man tonight and so far I have watched 5 people try to just walk into the theater. First of all, people are still exiting from the previous showing. Secondly, there is a line all the way down the hall and around the corner. Do you really think all those people are just going to let you cut in front of them? I am amazed at people some times. I don't understand how some people can think they are better than everyone else. You see it every where you go, the movies, the grocery store, restaurants. There's always someone complaining that they have to wait or that small party of two got seated before their large party of eight. Guess what people, the world doesn't revolve around you!

Flower Gardens

For the first 9 years we were in the house I didn't do much to the flower beds. A couple summers ago with the help of Amy and Lori I started redoing my flower beds so I have actual flowers and not just weeds! Last year's addition was a purple iris.

You Know You're Sick When...

You know you're sick when you can't get through a small iced coffee. Day 9. I'm ready for it to be gone!