One Day Late

It's amazing how time and age changes my perspective on things. This past cycle I was one day late. Although we're not trying to have kids, I was starting to get slightly excited that I could be pregnant. I even looked up when we would be due and starting thinking how I would change my schedule to be easier when the baby came.

No such "luck" this time. However, if I was that obsessed when we weren't trying to get pregnant, what am I going to be like when we are trying?

"Reason for Return?"

"Umm, because I spent too much money last month and I hadn't worn this yet and it still had the tags on it." How's that for an answer? I made some returns Friday and they showed up on my credit card today. Such a great feeling seeing my balance reduce =)

First Attempt at Roses

Joe and I didn't have any plans for the 4th of July, so I decided to decorate yet another cake. I was exhausted by the end! The night before I baked a white cake from scratch using a recipe I love. I must not have baked it long enough, because if fell apart. Boo and such a waste of butter. The next morning I made yet another cake, but this time from a box.

I think I tried to "learn" too many new things in one setting yesterday. I wanted to make my shell borders two toned--red and blue for the holiday. Something like such from Le Petit Pieroti's Blog. Well, that involves parchment bags. I don't know why, but for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to fold those darn bags. I'm sure you tube has a video, but I was too impatient to look for it...

After resigning to the fact that my shell border wasn't going to be two tone, I decided to give roses a try. Even though I added meringue powder to the icing, I think my icing still wasn't quite stiff enough because they kept tilting to one side as I turned the pin. I bet I attempted at least 20 roses to get the three I finally used, which still are wilting. I know, practice, practice, practice.

I'm also starting to think the buttercream icing is a little too sweet for my liking. If you're from Baltimore, it reminds me of Woodlea's icing. Don't get me wrong, I love Woodlea's icing, since I made three cakes this week, I'm sugared out. I'll look into another recipe that's not so sweet for icing the cake at least.

Work That Butt!

As I mentioned, I started PT for my knee pain again. Part of the program involves strengthening the muscles that help keep my pelvis and hips aligned so my patella can track properly. One set of these muscles is the gluteus medius, see picture. Man, we sure found an exercise to work them, my butt is so so sore. And no surprise, my left is weaker than right. So, since a fair number of ladies are always trying to "work that butt" I figured I'd share the exercise in case you want to try something new.

It's called "the clam," basically because you're moving your leg similar to how a clam opens its shell. The wonders of google images let to me these pictures for you from this site.

And the directions from their site as well:

a) Start position: lying on side with knees and hips bent slightly

b) Action: keeping feet touching, raise top knee, hold 5 seconds, slowly lower. Make sure not to roll hip/pelvis backwards. This is called cheating! I sometimes put my hand on my hip to make sure I don't feel it rolling backward. It is not necessary to move the knee upwards as far as possible, about 6 inches is plenty. You should feel the muscles in the outside and slightly to the back of the hip tightening during the exercise.

I'm starting with 4 reps of 15 on each side

1 Year Anniversary!

Sunday, June 28th, marked one year of wedded bliss. Originally we thought about driving down to Kansas City for the day, but we realized we didn't want to spend 6 hours in the car on our anniversary. Instead, we headed to Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, and it was about time, we've only lived here for 3 years. It was a beautiful day out and a great way to spend our anniversary.

Joe wanted to get me flowers for our anniversary, so after the zoo we head to Sam's club to pick up some fresh flowers, you can't beat their prices! On the way home we picked up Famous Dave's carryout and enjoyed a nice meal at home. The day was so "us" and we look forward to celebrating many many more.

Along with spending time with my dear husband at the zoo, I used the visit as an opportunity to play around with photography. So, here are a lot of butterflies (and others, of course) for your viewing pleasure.

Joe says Rhinos remind him of Jurassic Park

Joe caught the parrot pooping!

Football Cake

So here's my 2nd attempt at cake decorating. I think I made my brown icing too thin, I'm still working on proper stiffness. For the brown stars, I used the three-star tip...I liked the single star tip better because I can align the stars better, but it does hurt my hand a little from so much repetition.

This was my first time using the football shaped pan. The ends finished cooking before the middle, but that could be since I had the oven at the wrong temperature, which I discovered 1/2 way through the cook time. Now I know next time I need to read the instructions that come with the pan and not on the cake mix.

Oh! And I used another of Wilton's buttercream recipe with 1/2 c fresh butter (well just bought) and 1/2 c shortening and added the vanilla flavoring, it tasted so much better! I think the butter I used for the first cake was freezer burnt.

Joe's already tired off all of the cakes...well I think he's actually tired of me making the kitchen a mess, even though I clean up afterwards. I had to take a break tonight to get some good studying in, but I'm thinking I'll at least play with borders and flowers tomorrow.

I want crabs!

No, not that kind, get your mind out of the gutter. I'd love some freshly steamed crabs with Old Bay. Oh how I miss Maryland.

Courtesy of facebook.