Sky's Birthday.

Hello, everybody!  I have decided that I'm going to try to get back into actually using my blog.

Sky's birthday was a few weeks ago and I want to share with everyone the awesomeness that was his birthday cake.  It took me about four hours (yes, FOUR hours.  Baking, making or, rather, seeding the raspberry sauce, icing, applying chocolate, and decorating...phew!) to make but, I made it myself; without a recipe.  (Although the cake was a mix.)  It was a lemon cake with butter-cream icing and raspberry sauce.

Here's a side view:

   Yes, those are white chocolate chips.  Yes, I put them on one by one--by hand.

And, the top view. ^^^

Birthday boy blowing out the candles:

And, the inside:

 

I have now decided to take a cake decorating class with my friend Alice-Catherine.  I will be sure to take pictures of all of the cakes I decorate and share them with you.  :)

I also planned activities for his 27th birthday celebration.  We went to Applebee's for lunch then went bowling.  We went up to the Y-mount parking lot with a few games and played Connect Four and War while talking and watching the sun set behind the mountains.  We love watching the colors on the lake as the sun goes down. Then, we went to Outback for dinner.  We did all these things the day before his birthday because it was Labor Day and he had off school.  On his birthday, I made and we ate the cake.  Then, on Wednesday, we went and saw the movie '9.'  I thought it was pretty lame but, he liked it so, it was all good.  He also loves his present I gave him of Avatar: The last Airbender Complete book 3.  We now own the entire series!  :)   His mom sent him some really awesome gifts, too.  He gets so excited on his birthday because he always gets so spoiled and I love to spoil him.

Choosing happiness

I've decided to ignore the fact that I'm in the middle of finals and focus on the happy things going on...

I recently found a wonderful thing on the internet. I have been searching for years for one of my favorite movies. It is an old version of Snow White that was made for TV and, in case you had no idea, there are about 50 different versions of Snow White. However, I finally found what I've been looking for on Amazon.com. I bought the DVD and had it delivered, all for the low, low price of $5.19! I was so ecstatic! I have never seen the movie without tracking issues and fuzziness. It is wonderful and I will enjoy it for many years to come!

Another bit of good news, better than the first, is Sky and I are trying for a baby! We've been trying for about 2 1/2 months and hope it will happen soon so we can have a baby next fall. We are very excited and I know Sky will be a great dad.

On a related note, I recently found out that my oldest brother's wife, Holly, is pregnant with their first child. She is due June 4th and I am so excited to be an aunt again.

We've decorated our apartment recently. We bought a Santa sign for our front door and lights for our balcony. We also decorated our Christmas tree and set up our three different Nativity scenes. I assembled and decorated a gingerbread house and we bought an advent calendar. It's so pretty and really festive.

I am really looking forward to going back to MD next Monday. We get in really late at night. :-( The next day, my mother-in-law, Christine, has made appointments for us to get our hair and nails done! I am so excited to get my hair highlighted, I've never done it before. Christmas is going to be nice, too. I'll be at home with Sky, my mom, dad, grandmother, brothers Wyatt and Shaun and sister Kimberly. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is the humidity. It is very snowy here in UT but it is still dry. I love it!

Listing, Fun!

I swiped this from my sister's page.

10 Years Ago I...
-was in 7th grade
-hated my little sister
-had a crush on so many boys.
-was mortified about the processes of puberty.
-wanted desperately to change my room. I hated it pink.

5 Things on tomorrow's to-do list
-Go to the doctor.
-Go to class
-Stop by the library
-Wash dishes
-Watch House

5 Things I would do if I were a millionaire
-buy a new wardrobe that fit me properly and I looked good in, and get one for Sky, too.
-College funds for all of our possible children to attend any school (even Yale) and grad school, if they wanted.
-Save for a house for when we get out of school and move to California.
-Buy a Prius
-and of course, 10% to church, some to World Wildlife Fund, some to Susan G. Komen Foundation and some to St. Jude Children's Hospital.

5 Places I have lived
-Rockville, MD
-Gaithersburg, MD
-Orem, UT
-Provo, UT
-um...premortal realm?

5 jobs I have had
-child care technician (I watched kids at a gym)
-Sales Associate at JCPenney
-something or other in the ER at Shady grove Hospital that I quit very, very quickly.
-Nanny
-Server at Brick Oven

What am I going to do?

Before today, I was pretty set on who I was going to vote for. I had chosen to vote for "Change Utah can believe in" by voting for Obama. Today, however, I discovered a lot of things about him that I didn't know. He, apparently, has no desire to protect marriage and family and in fact, supports abortion so strongly that I am surprised people are not comparing him to Hitler or Saddam Hussein...oh wait, they are. I was sickened by what I read about his views. I know that what I read was on some crazy right-wing website but, it had links to proof of what he was saying. I absolutly refuse to pay for abortions or support someone who wants to create embryos just to kill them for stem-cell research.

Now, I'm not saying that I'm wholely against the research, because I'm not. I am against the creation of the embryos en masse just to destroy them. That, to me, is stupid, wasteful and evil. Using fetuses from miscarriages or afterbirth material to run this research is a much better idea. This information will be vital to the medical community but, it is absurd to think that people in this country, even cripples, would ever support this audacious idea!

I also think it is ridiculous that he wants to get rid of all the ammendments that oppose gay marriage. This is just like my high school mascot all over again. I mean, come on, the people have already voted on this issue, why is he going to suddenly come back and say thay have no choice in the matter. What an egoist!
"Ok, so you're president, what are you going to do now?"
"I'm going to overturn laws that were inacted after the voting process was carried out and the American people gave their answer by a clear majority."
"Don't you think that will make people angry?"
"Oh, no...just because they voted doesn't mean they actually know what they want. After all, they voted for me even though I lied about what I believe and refused to answer questions about touchy topics. Why create a stir? I'll just do what I want, now that the brainwashing has clearly taken effect. I mean....that question is above my pay level..."

So, you see my prediament..do I vote for the young, idealistic, baby-hating, gay loving newcomer or for the old guy who has experience and is going to keep our troops in Iraq (where they don't belong in the first place) for 100 years and will drive our economy, health care and educational systems into the ground but loves babies and will fight for the family? That's right..I'm voting for Pedro. Spread the word....Pedro '08!

Thinking of a title is too hard.

I am glad that I am finally starting to get better. It's kind of odd though, because I was really sick from Thursday through Sunday but, started getting better Sunday night. I feel much less achy and gross but I am still coughing and nose blowing all the time. I hate it and I wish I would just be back to normal, already. I'm just glad to be able to get off the couch and go out.

My ward is really awesome. The Relief Society sent around a "Get Well" card on Sunday and had everyone sign it for me. I'm assuming my friend Candace (the RS Pres.) did it because I told her I was sick to help make sure she and her daughter weren't sick because they had spent Wednesday afternoon with me.

I was talking to Sky yesterday and I thought of another quirk that I didn't put down. I didn't really think of it before because my dad and Sky and I all do it. Anyway, I apparently sleep in a funny way. I fall asleep facing the center of my bed (and Sky) then right after I fall asleep, I wake up and roll over to face the edge of the bed with my left arm extended straight out above me and my fingers hanging off the top of the mattress. I have my pillow between my arm and my head. I also have to have a pillow between my legs from my knees to my feet to help ease the pain in my lower back. A third pillow is held in my right arm, keeping it propped and preventing soreness in my neck and shoulder. So, Sky claims this is odd because he can sleep in pretty much any position but, I have difficulty sleeping any other way. He usually does have the pillows in the same positions as I do, though.

On another note, I am not looking forward to cleaning my house again. I finally got it all clean then I got sick. I was too weak and tired to clean it and Sky sits and does nothing. So, instead of maintaining the clean, he made it dirty. It's quite annoying because now I have to clean everything this weekend. Argh! Hopefully, I'll be able to keep it clean after that. We'll see...

Quirky, quirky me.

My sister, Rebecca tagged me to do this so, here it goes:

The Rules:

Link the Person who Tagged you.

Mention rules on your blog.

Tell about 6 quirks of yours.

Tag 6 fellow bloggers to do the same.

Leave a comment to let them know.

1. I dissect all candy that I eat. KitKats are broken apart then the chocolate around the edges is eaten before I separate the wafers and nibble them slowly and individually (I do the exact same thing to Nutter Butters, too). Also, for Reese's, I eat the chocolate around the edge first then peel it off the bottom then top and eat the peanut butter last. I do this to Snickers, 3 Muskateers, York, Tagalongs (girl scout cookies)...everything. I even sort Nerds, M & Ms and Skittles and eat them all by color...it's very odd, I know.

2. I, like Rebecca, hate all hair that is not currently attached to someone's body. I hate showers, pools, floors. I wear sock and/or slippers at all times while in my house. I do not swim in pools and I refuse to clean my own bathroom; my husband has to do it. Earlier this week, the drain in my shower completely stopped flowing andI had to clean out the drain. I almost puked..all that hair...*shivers*.

3. I count incessantly. I count steps, tiles and stairs. I am always couting the lines used to make something, eg. the cuts needed to make the square shapes on the front of the pulpit in the conference center, during General Conference talks. I also constantly run my fingers along the edges of my finger nails (they are very square) and count over and over until I reach100. I also count the movements needed to crack my fingers, wrists, elbows and neck, up to 100. Once I reach 100, I start over and do it again..all the time counting. If the number of something does not reach 100, I find ways of counting lines or parts to make it at least add up to the 10s place.

4. All of my clothes, linens, socks, etc. have to be folded the same way. The seams, lines and size of all of the same kinds of objects must be identical. (Shirts all match, jeans all line up, towels are all the same exact size.) Also, they all have to face the same way in my drawers, no just dropping things in...it all has to be precisely organized.

5. I refuse to put vegetables on my plate until I have eaten everything else. I will eat my meal then eat vegetables before I take any seconds. I do this to keep the juice from the vegetable from running into the other food. Asparagus is especially bad.

6. I always check my shower for spiders before I get in. I look all over both sides of the curtain, all in the tub, the walls of the shower, around the bottles and behind the shower rack; it all has to be searched to ensure that a spider isn't going to crawl up my leg or drop on my head during the shower.

I tag Jennie W. , Carolyn D., and Kat H. and that's it cause they're the only friends I have who blog.

Advice and Darkness

Wow, I am so bad at blogging! I just never remember to do it and I can never really think of what to write.

Something interesting in my life is that while I don't have any children, I am now known in my ward as the "baby expert." Part of this stemmed from the ward camp out we had two weeks ago when everyone kept passing me their babies while they set up camp, ate, and played games. I could also calm everyone one of those babies even if they were crying. Some of my friends are even coming to me for advice on how to handle different aspects of their children's behaviors. It's odd, huh? I guess all that time I spent as a Nanny and reading parenting books really paid off. It's kind of fun being the advice person. It's not just babies, either. People ask me what to cook, how they should decorate, how to handle younger sisters and even what clothes to buy (that one I REALLY don't get, lol). I guess part of the reason why people ask me things is that I always have an opinion and I'm never afraid to give it, when asked.

Sky and I went out on a date yesterday, which isn't very common. We ate lunch in the food court in the mall and saw Dark Knight then got ice cream on the way home. It was really fun. (We also spent about $40, Bec.) I gotta tell you, I LOVED the movie. It is soooooooo good! I recommend everyone over the age of 15 see it. It's really dark and creepy and I even got a stomach ache from watching it (although that could have been the icky Chinese food we had before hand). It's so good; definitely the best action movie I've ever seen!

One final note: I'm finally going to meet my father-in-law! I haven't been able to see him before but, I will meet him soon!