Is This is Really Happening

wow...is this actually happening?  are we really doing this...

I'm not an unhealthy girl...

but I'm no athlete...

I'm not overweight 

(even if the Wii Fit keeps telling me I am!)

I'm just built different than some...

I have never done or been tempted to do any major, 

or non major athletic event in my life 

(okay so I ran like a 3K in high school...or maybe it was 1.5 K)

when I've heard of other that do major events

100+ bike rides, marathons, triathlons, etc, I respect them for doing it

(all the while thinking in my head that they must me slightly crazy)...

but then, back in December my sister-in-law invited me to do the Mermaid Sprint Triathlon...

Mermaid...

it's all women (I like that)

it's a tri (three events, swim, bike, run)

it's a "sprint" meaning that all three events are short...and when I say short, I mean short for typical athletes...which I am not...so this doesn't feel so short to me...

so thinking that I'd talk myself out of it if I invited some friends and we all bow out gracefully....

so that's what I did...I invited some friends to join me...and I must have sent it to the wrong friends 

because rather than getting 100% , "No thank you!"

I got a few, 

"YES, lets do this!"...

oops...

now I'm in...

can't get out now...

I had a few hundred excuses reasons I couldn't do it...

very valid excuses reasons

and a very few reason why I could...

but somehow the "coulds" won over the "could nots" 

and now it's less than a week away...

YIKES

did I just type that...

6.5 days to be exact!

it's been a very wonderful experience training with these women...

we've become a sister hood

the mamas that didn't think they could...overcoming and are DOING!

working around out of shape bodies...

old equipment...

families...

sick kids...

school schedules...

different gyms or no gyms...

dietary restrictions...

work schedules...

financial limitation...

and the list goes on and on

we all had reasons why we couldn't do this...

but we all made the choice...

the choice to challenge ourselves

the choice to become healthier

the choice to support each other

to have fun 

to do something outside the box...

two Saturdays ago we went out and did a mini version of the already short triathlon...but it was still fun to "test" ourselves...and we went out again this past Saturday

editors note...a major difference between men and women...how many men would have tried to figure out a way to get a picture of themselves in their wet-suits...this was done by hanging the camera on a branch from a tree and hitting the self timer and hoping the camera didn't twist in the wind...only took 4 times....

can I just tell you how freezing cold that lake water is!...YOWZA!...it's freezing...it was snow minutes before it was in that lake!  do you see the snow in the upper left corner...the water we are swimming in was at the top of the mountian just minutes before we were swimming in it!

...look for my blog in about a week and a half when I'm home and recovered from the real thing!

A Little Memorial Day Stroll

Thank You to all the men and women that have served our country and continue to serve our country.

Thank You for my freedom, 

for the freedom of my children

for the freedom to serve my God

for the freedom to worship my God

Thank You Grandpa and Dad 

and all the others in my life that have given so much for our country.

and a thank you to all the women...

the women who watched their sons

husbands

boyfriends

brothers

& fathers march off to serve 

not sure if or when they'd be coming home.

Here is a little Memorial Day "Stroll" through some pictures I have of family members that have served...

my Great Uncle Jack Young, he was with the last riding Army Calvary in World War II, he was killed in North Africa

my Grandfather Earl Roberts, Grandpa Earl served in World War II with the Marines in the Pacific Theater

...on the back of this photo "Happy Birthday Mom, Bud"

my grandfather Earl he signed this one "Lots of Love Buddie" 

the signs nailed on the palm tree say

"Photo Lab", "4th Marines Photo Intelligence", "Restricted Area NO Admittance"

(side note:  I never even imagined that they had "Photo Intelligence" in WWII...)

Love this picture of my grandparents not sure if grandpa was coming or going...

my grandparents and my Dad next to my Great Uncle Jack's (the 1st picture) memorial in Hawaii

my dad served in Vietnam, Marine Force Recon 

my husbands grandfather Woodrow "Woody" J Chambers served in the Air Force during World War II

Woody next to one of the planes he flew

my husbands grandmother, Lucille Mae Chambers as a "WAVE"

Lucille and Woody

Thank You...don't forget to thank a Veteran...
and take a moment during your Memorial Day "Holiday"
to remember why your kids are home today and the mail isn't being delivered...
and be thankful for the freedom that your family is enjoying today,
while you BBQ tri tip, go on a hike, splash in the lake, take a drive...

Where's the Cake...I Thought I Saw a Cake

oh, wait...it's camouflaged!

at the beginning of this week a friend on facebook posted a plea for a camouflaged birthday cake for her son...

I've never actually made one before, but knew I could make it with fondant...and since I was also making Wilson's rainbow cupcakes for preschool I knew I could also make the inside of the cake camo looking...so I told her I was interested and she took me up on the offer...

so I made the same recipe that I did for the rainbow cupcakes

and then split the batter into 4 different batches...it doesn't have to be even batches, and you can do any color you want, this would be fun to make blue camo for a baby boy shower, or for an ocean birthday

or do blues and greens for an "earth day" party...

or a pink and brown camo for a little girl

... or even a baby shower...

and you could color it brown or use chocolate mix with the yellow cake dyed pink...

or a strawberry cake mixed with a chocolate cake...

ohhh, I'm going to have to make that....

oops, tangent...

so I had three different shades of green and a brown (forgot to take pictures along the way)

then just globed them into the cake pans in different amounts and in different places...don't over think it, just do it.

then bake according to the size of pan you are using

let cool, and then cut the cakes to make them level

I then frosted and layered them with a chocolate butter cream frosting (didn't get a picture of that)..

set aside the cake and start working on the fondant...

I buy the Wilton brand that's pre-made...you can get it at Michaels or WalMart...

now if you've never used fondant before you should try...

it's like play-dough that you can eat...and cover cakes with...and make lots of fun stuff....

the camo cake is a pretty easy one to start with because you really can't mess up the look of camo...

divide up the fondant and start coloring the different batches the colors you want for the camouflage

 then I use the Wilton food colors, you can use less and get a really rich color...

I mix the color into the fondant inside a bag otherwise your hands will be COVERED in color...

then lay out your colors and start rolling

the directions on the box of fondant tell you to use powdered sugar rather than flour, the sugar just makes it all sticky, I was told by a friend a long time ago to use corn starch and it works great!

add some more and just have fun

then I wanted to add some camo words

I really wanted to put "Happy Birthday" but it was too big and would have all globed together...

so the birthday boy, Drew was turning 10, so I just camouflaged the #10 and his name into the top

then very carefully, with the help of my husband, lifted the fondant and layed it on the cake

smoothed it down, trimmed off the excess and then made some little camo balls to put around the base

I was going to make some bullets...

but they turned out looking not so much like bullets 

....and a little more like something I didn't want to put on the top of a 10 year old boy's birthday cake...

so I suggested to the mom to maybe add some army men to the top of the cake...

I hope they enjoyed it...maybe I can get mom to send me some pictures of the kids eating it the cake and I will add those....

Rain + Sun = Rainbows...

both my kids love looking for rainbows after the rain, or during the rain...

and we always try to remind them of the promise of a rainbow...

God's promise of protection, his promise to NEVER flood the entire earth again...

so when I signed up to bring cupcakes to Wilson's preschool graduation he suggested that I make rainbow cupcakes...

fun times...

I've made a rainbow/polka dot cake before and the dramatic part is cutting into the cake and seeing all the colors...

well...in case you forgot, there is no cutting into cupcakes...and I don't like to put extra work into something unless people know I've done the work...

so I needed to find a way to make rainbow cupcakes and have everyone see all the work I did...

I googled rainbow cupcakes and a few images came up, and one had the cupcakes not in the cupcake papers  but in wax paper...

GENIUS...you can see all the colors...

so I cut enough wax paper squares for the cupcakes (26)...

then formed them around the bottom of a small cup and then sat them in the cupcake/muffin tin...perfect fit

then mix up your cake batter (I used a simple yellow cake mix with a simple cake mix dr. recipe...recipe at the bottom of the blog)...you NEED to use either a yellow cake or white cake recipe...

divide your batter into the number of colors that you want/need to make your rainbow or polka dots...

and color each the color you want

I had planned on 5 colors...

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue...

very rainbow like...

and it wasn't until I had the cake all mixed up that I got out all of my colors only to discover I was missing my Red and Yellow food coloring...

so I left one batch the "natural" color of the yellow cake batter and then left red out entirely...

thinking...

"They're preschoolers, they won't notice that the rainbow cupcakes are missing red..."

then using a small spoon or cookie scoop, start filling your cupcake papers with one scoop of each color

then bake per directions...

remove from pans to cool and then frost with the color frosting you want...

I had planned on making 5 different colors of frosting and then once I realized I didn't have the red or yellow I just asked Wilson what color he wanted...he said green (I was actually a little surprised, he's a blue sort of boy)...

so I frosted them all green...

and I was also going to make little crayons out of fondant to top them all with...but then the boy got sick...and wasn't even going to make it to his preschool graduation...so I just left good enough alone...kept one cupcake at home for the sick little boy and delivered the rest to the little graduates...and it was raining for the "outside ceremony" they had planned for the graduation...perfect cupcakes for a rain soaked party...

picked up Wilson's graduation cap and school goodies and came home to "celebrate" his own personal graduation...

little boy bummed that he's not with all his friends...

and finding it rather silly that mom will only let him eat his cupcake if he wears his graduation cap...

are those eyes just melting you right now???

"hmm...mom, did you forget the red?"...

okay so preschoolers might notice if you don't have red in the rainbow!

but it's still good...can't believe that my sweet little boy is going off to kindergarten next year!

Easy Peasy Yellow Cake

1 yellow cake mix

8 oz, 1 stick butter melted

1 cup whole milk or half & half

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Mix together all the ingredients on low speed for 1 minute, scrape down sides and mix on medium for 3 minutes...

bake per directions on the back of cake box for whatever size pan you're baking your cake/cupcakes in...

frost with vanilla butter cream or chocolate butter cream frosting.

That's it...We're DONE!

have you ever had to work with someone you didn't like...

...you come to work and there they are...and it just makes your skin crawl...

I have someone at work that I've had problems with since day one...

LAUNDRY!

*

okay, so I've never been that close with laundry...

I don't think you could ever say we've been friends...

but I was trying,

    really, I was...

we sat down and talked some things out, 

   we both decided that we'd try to make this...

          ...this....this relationship...

work out...

we both realized that we will have to work together the rest of our lives so we would try to be nice...

and then she decided to ignore our "little talk"

...she not only messed up all the bedrooms in the house, 

she has the laundry room 

(yep, I even was so nice to GIVE her, her OWN room!)

and now the laundry room is spilling into the kitchen...

   she keeps complaining that I haven't put a door on her room and she needs privacy...

....well, I would LOVE to put a door on her room and slam it shut a few times...but I'm bigger than that and I'm not sure she deserves a door, or if she's even earned a door...

and now that she has messed up all the rooms in the house, she's even starting in on the bathrooms!

she has also just messed up my entire week!  I didn't plan on having to "deal" with her today, but I must...

LAUNDRY...I'm this close to breaking it off and kicking you out of my life for good...I with I could talk to our boss and get her fired, but I still haven't figured out who's in charge around here!

*note to readers...if you google "dirty laundry images" you might get more than you expected!

Projects I FINISHED This Week...

okay, okay... so I finished them LAST week...

I guess one of the projects I DIDN'T finish was blogging about them...

okay, so many times in my life I start projects, get frustrated and put them away...

or with a baking project, I just don't take pictures and end up serving it to my family rather then the intended purpose....

but I had a good week...

a snapshot of my week...

Mocha "Birthday" Cake for MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) end of year "birthday party"

Door sign for a friends grandparents, grandma likes giraffes.

Operation-Beautiful-Living Room...getting closer...new Old World Map wall hanging created for FREE above the TV...

close up of the old world map wall hanging thing I made for FREE

"No Girls Allow'd" and the ABC plaque are both signs I made from scrap wood and hope to sell at a local kids place...

oh, and I also did a mini triathlon run threw with some of the ladies that are doing it with me...we had a great time and can't wait for the real one in two weeks...

wait...

did I just type two weeks???  YIKES....

Making the Old New and the New Old

So, Operation-Beautiful-Living Room is still on...

I don't want to rush the process and end up with something I don't like...

anyways, we had the Credenza and TV up and working ...

but the wall decorations had me on hold...large wall...boring wall...blank wall......didn't want to overwhelm the tv  but also didn't want to keep it boring....

I wanted some floating shelves...found some inexpensive ones at Ross...$6.99 a piece...beats the $20 at Target!...

and then the large old world map thingy that I was wanting...

Beau and I both like maps, and old maps are better...

we had some old wooden planks from the upstairs linen closet demo..., I glued them together.

painted them white

then yellow

found a map image online by googling "old world map images" went into Publisher and created a document the size I wanted and pasted the map image in the document and printed it off...it took 10 pages...

cut off the white edges and then deco-podged it onto the planks

then sanded the edges to rough it up a bit

and I was done...I didn't seal it or anything, wanted to keep it rough looking...and make the new project look old!

the finished wall

I really liked how it all came together and I love even more that I re-used wooden planks that were headed for the dump, free images off line and old paint...I made the old world wall hanging for FREE...