Cakes

I haven't updated anything in awhile since I have been so busy. Here are some pictures of cakes and/or work I have done in the bakery. I need to start bringing my camera to work with me because these were all taken with my phone (which isn't great).

Household updates

So, I am very very pleased with the animals' reactions to the homemade doggy/kitty food. Mya looks like she has lost some weight and is not licking or scratching at all. Bjorn has gained at least a couple pounds and I actually confuse him with his brother once in awhile when I see him out of the corner of my eye. Max and Corbin seem to be the same as before (maybe a little less licking/scratching from Max) but they were the two healthy ones before.

The dog food is a little more expensive to make when compared to the bagged food but the results are worth it. Mya isn't even on her joint supplements anymore (because they have yeast as one of the primary ingredients) and she does not appear stiff or uncomfortable. In fact, she was jumping around chasing her bonie (compressed rawhide) yesterday like a goofy puppy (like Max does).

The air is still thick here but it has been a little better the past couple days because of the sprinkles/rain.

Matt and Jared got back from deer hunting on Sunday so things are back to normal.

Jared's birthday is coming up on the 25th and I am hosting a baby shower on the 17th. So, I need to finish up some projects around the house and plan the cakes.

I am fighting off the beginnings of a cold right now but I think I will be okay with lots of medicine and sleep. At least tomorrow is my day off before starting at the bakery for this week.

I love my family. We may yell at each other once in awhile but I would rather have them there to yell with than have us all disconnected.

Exhaustion

I started my new job yesterday and am completely wiped out! At least my feet don't hurt as badly right now...although, once I started thinking about them while I was cleaning up at work, I could hardly bare to stand on them. Ouch!

So, I think I like my new job. It is definitely challenging because I feel like I am moving so slow but I think I have made some big improvements in just two days. I decorated about 8 cakes yesterday and today I did one with a piped horse (right up my alley) with horseshoes around the sides with a fence and a lasso as the top border. I even airbrushed a hot pink cake with black zebra print. My coworker is super fast and really talented so I feel like a turtle next to him but he is super helpful and shows me a lot of stuff.

Matt always tells me that I am the slowest person to do anything. I am trying to make sure that isn't true. In the decorating business, you have to be efficient (aka FAST) and produce nice looking things.

I am also learning (or have learned) that in this business, your work day isn't over until everything is complete. Finish the cakes and then go home. It totally makes sense, I just have been used to working within concrete hours. The only thing concrete with cakes is that it better be complete by the pick up time. ha ha.

This is really stretching me...and I think it is in a positive way. It is contributing to our household ($$), keeping me busy (super busy), teaching me so so much, and letting me be creative (even though it is exhausting). The only bad part is, between my work schedule at FCC and my work schedule at the bakery, it is really hard for me to visit home (Sacramento) and see my family. I hope things work out for the holidays but I have a feeling that I am going to be super busy and Matt and the kids are going to have to go without me. It makes me really sad and homesick but I have faith that it will all work out and be worth it in the long run.

Sometimes faith is the only thing that keeps you going. Every choice I have made up to this point has been the right one (not always the easy one) and I have learned a lot along the way. I know I am on the path home...it is just a matter of perseverance and patience. Our time will come. In the meantime, I hope my family can come and spend some time with me in Freshole.

Official Cake Decorator

I just got a job at an awesome bakery in town as a cake decorator! I am so excited!

My interview was this morning and I start next Friday.

It will be challenging, exhausting and SO much fun!!! I will be learning so much and they are looking forward to learning from me too (although they probably know everything I know already...haha). It is only a 4 minute drive from my house...and that is WITH traffic.

You can check out their website. They have delicious food and such a wonderful atmosphere. I was hoping to be able to get my feet wet in a little bakery but this is an opportunity of a lifetime that I never imagined would be an option with a well known, 7000 sq. ft. bakery/cafe.

Now, I need to open my mind and work hard to prove myself and pass my probationary period so I can continue living my little cake dream!!

Homemade Pet Food

I made two big batches of pet food today. One for the kitties, one for the doggies. All four of them gobbled their dinners up like crazy...especially Mya.

My decision to make their food came after Mya's allergy symptoms have seemingly increased and poor Bjorn is itchy too. I have been thinking about doing this for some time and have done a lot of research regarding the appropriate and inappropriate foods for both dogs and cats. It is kinda tricky to make sure they are getting all the right nutrients but I think I will get better as we go.

I have read that it may take up to 10 weeks to see improvement in symptoms if they are due to a food allergy. We will see. Mya has hot spots under her arms, her tummy is all red and she just seems really uncomfortable. Max even seems a little itchier than he should be. I will be substituting the dry dog food for their new made-with-love-food. The cat food will be a suppliment to the dry. Corbin seems to be fine with the dry food and Bjorn doesn't really eat it too much because of his sensitive tummy. We will see how it goes. My food looks WAY yummier than the canned food they eat now (the Petsmart brand). They cats already get Lysine everyday for their watery eyes.

It is a good sign when all four animals are in the kitchen with you while you are making their food.

So, this is what the doggies have in their food:
Ground Turkey
Brown Rice
Peas and Carrots (blended)
Chicken Liver (blended)
Chicken skin (blended)

This is what the kitties have in their food:
Chicken Thighs
Peas and Carrots
Chicken Liver
Chicken Skin (everything blended/chopped)

Yum Yum!!

Quick Blurp on 100 Year Cake

The picture of the Fresno City College cake ended up in the Fresno Bee. More anonymous advertizing since my name isn't listed. It is still pretty cool anyway.

Another cake order filled

Here is my latest cake. It was for a "shower" which I think was more a celebration for a woman who adopted a little boy. She used to work in my office before I was hired and was one of the few that made it to full-time in general counseling. So, my current coworker ordered the cake for the party. I have a feeling it tasted really good. It was chocolate fudge cake with chocolate ganache filling and enough chocolate butter cream to adhere the fondant.

100 Year Cake

I won second place (1st in my heart) for the cake decorating contest at my work celebrating the 100th birthday of Fresno City College (first community college in CA and second in the nation). The first place cake collapsed before it could make it to the ceremony (haha) so mine was photographed and posted on the KMJ (radio station) website. The link is below.

http://www.kmj580.com/pages/landing?blockID=308253

Here is my cake.

The front

The side (the other side was the same)

The back

Newest cakes

Here are my most recent cakes. I get lazy and don't post them. They are on my cake website too.

Newest cake

I did this cake for a Summer Sensation cake contest. One of the judges is Kerry Vincent...if you don't know who she is, you don't watch Challenge on Food Network. I had no idea that SHE was going to be a judge...I wouldn't have done my cake last minute if I had known. Oh well, lesson learned. I like my cake but it isn't very colorful. Still getting better.

Goodbye Titan

We sold our truck yesterday. It was depressing and I couldn't help from crying. Matt asked me if we were sure we wanted to sell it but we couldn't see that we had any other option. We just couldn't keep going the way we have been...scraping by every month...especially with the great potention of my hours being cut even more this coming semester. It was causing too much stress.
Our financial mistakes are ours alone and now we are fixing things. It is sad to lose our truck but we are looking forward to having our debts payed off and saving for a new (used) truck in the future. We will be very selective and conscience of our decisions from now on. This is a positive learning experience for us so that we can be more responsible, sensible and secure in the future.

A couple steps backward but making many more forward.

NEW WEBSITE

Check it out!

http://www.cakefancy.webs.com/

At mom's party

Mom's Cake Part I

I made the cake for my mom's 60th birthday party my sister put together this past Saturday. This was my first big cake and it seemed to go off without a major hitch...especially considering the 3 hours drive to my parents and then the 40 minute drive to my sister's to assemble.

I only have pictures from Courtney's cell phone right now but should be getting more from my sister soon. Of course I forgot my camera.

Everyone seemed to like it. The bottom cake was chocolate fudge cake with dulce de leche buttercream filling. The top cake was a lemon cake with strawberry and lemon curd fillings (like stawberry lemonade).

I will post more pictures when I get them from my sister.

Backsplash FINALLY Done

It took us almost 2 years to get to it but we installed the backsplash in our kitchen. Now we need to repaint the kitchen walls and almost all the walls in the rest of the house...oh, and the doors too. Yuck! I'm already getting overwhelmed again.

So here are the pictures. Matt cut and I laid the tiles. I then grouted and sealed and we worked together for the caulking.

Looks fan-freakin-tastic to us!! Sorry the pictures are kind of dark.

Before

After

Fresno Funk Fog and other stuff

I am feeling a little smidgen of the Fresno Funk settling in on me. Fresno is right behind LA in poor air quality, which I think puts us in the top 5 for the nation. My throat hurts today, Matt has been an allergy mess, and Courtney keeps making those irritating snot sucking noises up her nose...which she does anyway but now it is just more frequent, but that is a whole other issue. Jared seems to be able to handle the allergies like I do but that doesn't mean the air quality isn't a/effecting him.

My job is great as far as jobs go, I can't complain about my paycheck at all, and Matt seems to have a good amount of job security. We have a beautifully humble home, are able to pay our mortgage no matter how tight we are, are all in good health for the most part, and have food on our table every night. We love each other and are loved by others. I am grateful for all of these things and many more. I don't NEED anything more to survive and be happy but I feel like, although things are going along well, there may be a way to have more happiness. I don't mean a bigger house or more material things. I am talking about doing things, being surrounded by things/people, being in an environment that facilitates joy. Joy is partially a choice we make to embrace it, find it, and not hold onto things that inhibits it.

The grass is not always greener and that is what leads to the whizzing in my head. We have wonderful things going for us right now, as listed above. Is it wrong to look for other jobs when we are in a market where we should be happy just to have jobs? Is Fresno so horrible that it is okay for us to wonder what it would be like elsewhere?

I love my house. It is a good house, a little funky but built well considering. We have worked hard to transform this house into a great house...and pretty much succeeded. But here's the thing...my old house felt more like a home to me than this house. Not that this house ever did anything (yes I know it can't technically DO anything) but it doesn't have any energy to it. I've always felt that way about this house. Maybe I am just not being open to it. Maybe because I don't feel like Fresno is my home...and won't ever feel quite like home. Maybe I am caught in "the grass is always greener" trap.

I think I know what it is...and I have some responsibility in it. I married into a family. I wouldn't undo that but I just wonder if things could be different in the future. I have no family here, at all. I married into my husband's family and I still feel like an outsider. I am not putting fault on his family at all. Sure, there have been things that have happened (and still happen) where I don't feel like I am respected as a memeber of the family or a mother to the children but I can understand some of it because 4 years is really just a drop in the bucket when it comes down to it. Others have way more history than I do...and blood relation helps too.
Maybe it is a balance thing. I literally feel like, if you were to have a scale like the one in the hands of the Lady of Justice (can't remember what that is called), it would be weighed down completely on one side.

Mother's day-the kids were looking at old pictures at Matt's mom's house. I remember loving to go through my mom's pictures and still razz her about my sister having more that me...haha. I won't take that joy away from the kids and Matt and everyone else. But, it was a little difficult for me. Obviously, I am not in any of those pictures, I don't have any memories of the kids as babies, I don't have any pictures to share with them. Jared wasn't showing me any of the pictures that he was looking at and I realized it was because his mom was in them. I told him that I know she exists and he doesn't need to feel like he can't show them to me. So, he started shoving pictures in my face with his hand covering his mom or saying, "here's one without mom"...somehow that made me feel worse but I haven't figured out why yet...possibly because it drew my attention to her not anyone else in the picture. He doesn't mean to hurt my feelings and he was obviously trying to not make me feel bad by not showing them to me in the first place.

When Brittany left Matt's mom's before us, she hugged me and said she loved me. I told Matt about it yesterday. I said that I don't know if she meant it, but it was nice to hear. So, I'll take it.

I guess I just want to know that I am in a place where people are happy I am there, that I am a part of their life. Not that I have to be #1 or that anyone should be thinking of me constantly. Just more than someone who brought the kids over, someone that cooks dinner, picks people up, baked the cake, did the shopping, etc. It would be nice if someone ran outside to see me when I got home just because they were glad to see me, not because they wanted to go play with a friend. To be greeted at the door just because, instead of ignoring me in their room, sitting on the couch in front of the tv, or trying to run past me to play outside. The dogs and cats greet me...every day...just because they like to be around me...at least that's what it feels like.

I realize that I am probably being pretty sensitive. Most people with kids the ages of mine feel similarly, I bet.

Part of me wonders if it would be better outside of Fresno. Matt has no problem with moving to Sac or somewhere else. I think it is partly because of the air quality and partly because there are no opportunities for him here other than his current job (which he doesn't really like) and probably other things too...I can't presume I really know why. I don't want to be ungrateful for everything that we have...because I truly appreciate it all. We are incredibly blessed and I try to remember that each day and teach my kids to understand that.

But, I wonder, are there better opportunities for joy elsewhere?

Sugar/Gum Paste

I tried my hand and gum paste flowers. It is much tougher than it looks but I like a good challenge when the results are beautiful! There is a lot of planning that goes into it because it takes a couple days to finish one flower, beginning to end.

Day one - make stamens and let dry overnight
Day two - make flowers and let dry (I left them over night but a few hours would be okay)
Day two/three - dust with color and set with steam


I'm sure I will get faster as I practice. These are much more difficult that icing, fondant, or baking. The paste dries really quickly so you have to move really fast.

I found this awesome website where I can order my color powders each for $1-$2 less than the store in Fresno (that is a big difference when they are each $3.50-$4.50+ for 2 grams) and the silicone molds are cheaper and they have a larger selection (those things are expensive...like $35 for a two sided petal mold). When we have a little extra money, I am going to give them a try.

Anyhow, here are the results of my gum paste attempt.


Here they are all dry and waiting for color.



This was first attempt at color dusting...not so good.



Attempt number 2...way better!

Hair Day 5

Got my hair chopped on Monday. Originally cut my bangs and decided I hated them with my (then) current hair. So, I got it chopped. I love it because I don't have to do much to it! YEAH NO HAIR!! It is growing on Matt. He doesn't hate it but it is a big change for him.

This is right after I got home from the salon...not my styling.

Day 5. Pretty much did nothing to it but wet it and goop it up a little. Yeah no muss no fuss! Sorry it looks so serious. That is my relaxed face.

Here's a smiley face for you!

Before and After

Here are the before and after pictures from the 5 Ton Weight Loss Challenge. I hate pictures because it is easy to tell how much fat I still have to lose. I love pictures because they document the changes.

Matt and I are going to order the P90X workout stuff. I have proven to myself that I am not a pathetic weakling and now believe I can take on the challenge of P90X. I will have to modify things at the beginning (and so will Matt) but I think I can get some serious muscle definition by my birthday...which may turn out to be the 90 day mark if we get the system in time.

Jogalicous

I went for a jog today. 4.5 miles in 1 1/2 hours. I can't do a really fast jog right now because my knee is a little hurt but a slow jog with my knee brace is great. It was so much fun and it felt really really good. No pain, no soreness, no getting halfway out there and then feeling dead. It was awesome.

I am going to ride with Matt to work tomorrow and jog home. That will be a 6 mile jog on the bike trail. I will be taking my pepper spray with me so no worries.

Even though Fresno is not where I picture myself living for the rest of my life, where we live in Fresno is pretty awesome. I love that I can see the mountains (when the air is clear), that I can smell manure from CSU, Fresno on some days/nights, and that I can take a 4.5 mile jog around the ag from the college, through the college and back up by the livestock. I would love to live in the country but this may be the next best thing until that happens. All of this plus we are super central to everything we need.

When I moved here, I lost my comfort zone that kept me working out and motivated. I think I have finally found it again. I think I have discovered that my muscles are still there too. Yes it takes time to find your way, to get on track, but it is so worth it when you do. This 5 Ton Weight Loss Challenge has been the best thing ever in helping find myself again and start feeling good about myself.

Now I'm off to eat my lunch! Romaine with chicken (aka chicken salad but I didn't want anyone to think I meant the mayonnaise type) and honey mustard dressing. YUMMY!!!!

Cupcakes

Here are the cupcakes I made for Brittany's birthday/Easter.

Getting smaller...

I lost 3 more lbs last night at our weigh in. Total of 19.5 lbs lost and 25 inches. Yesterday was a super crappy day so the weight loss really helped me feel better. I need a break and a little more respect (students were KILLING me). I also need to relearn how to say "no" instead of saying "I guess" and being pissy. If I can't do it, I need to say that and let my guilt go.

We had a potluck for the students today because it is their last day before their work experience. Thank GOD! I couldn't take much more. I ate some naughty food but did NOT stuff myself and I will workout extra hard tonight. I'm feeling positive about the future.

Final note: Three more rejection emails from Los Rios. They're stupid but I'm okay with it right now.

Food is in the NEW FRIDGE!

I transferred the food yesterday and took some pictures. The old fridge wasn't crammed but the new one has tons of space (as you can see in the picture).

I am still grateful for our upright freezer in the garage. The single drawer doesn't cut it but it works for commonly used items.


Weigh in is tonight. I am feeling like I am going insane today so I hope the stress doesn't cause me problems on the scale. Too many weeks going nonstop is bringing me to my breaking point.

Fingers crossed.

Saved

My butt was saved from elimination again. I am too frustrated and embarrassed to let anyone know I needed saving again so I voted a million times for myself. I feel much better about my weight loss this week and I have been doing really well sticking to my diet and exercising.

Even my trainer told me not to pay attention to the scale. He weighs us because that's his job. I think I am in the "replacing fat with muscle" stage. I have lost about 4 inches on each thigh and close to the same on my waist. I am starting to augment my workouts with my "Ab Jam" video to strengthen my core even faster. My abs and arms are my weakest areas and the ones that need the most help.

On another note, I got some avocado at the grocery store today. YUMMY! I am looking forward to my salad for dinner.
Healthy fat=good bye fat ass.

Mya Got Me and Other Pics

Counter guy (Mike) trimming for our fridge, our new BEAUTIFUL fridge, and Mya trying to eat my face.