It Is Time to make a change:)

Okay so at some point as a mom we will all go through this. I thought empty nesting was supposed to occur when your kids go to college. Well that is not entirely true. My boys are starting school. First of all HOW DID THAT HAPPEN. I seriously look at Blayke and think man really??? I thought we were just watching him learn that steak is the BEST meat in the world and that pooing in the closet was not what I meant when I said, "We don't poo in our pants anymore because your a big boy." I thought that was as big as he was supposed to get. LOL OK so obviously that is a bit of a stretch. However I do miss those days and wish they would have lasted a bit longer. Now its on to the world of Mrs. Van Hout's kindergarten class.

To say that he is excited would be a huge OVERSTATEMENT. He loves being at home but he also isn't REALLY upset about it either. I don't have to drag him out of the house every morning but I also don't have him running out the door either. I guess I can live with that. Maybe he will have the same attitude when it  comes time to college. He did however surprise us on the first day of school. He left mom, dad, and Benny on the sidewalk and sprinted into his classroom. It was very exciting for mommy to see some of his anxiety subside!
Well we are now on week 2 of school and we have both learned alot. First of all learning car pool is like the biggest science experiment on the planet. LOL I kind of mean that as a joke but it really is a long time in the car for mommy. We will figure it out better as the days tick off. Blayke has learned that mommy still expects to know about his day so he better start remembering or make something up until it sounds about right: )

Benny had an exciting week too. First of all he has never had mommy to himself for a week. Second of all he noticed how important it is that he has a brother around. Third of all he learned the value of pbskids.org. Well not sure if that is more his lesson or mine but he enjoyed it none the less. The house was sooooooo quite this week. Benny and Blayke don't fight a lot but there has always been that play noise that you can hear throughout the house. It was seriously lacking this week. We did get some outings though as we needed to be around others. Monday we went to the park to play with our best buddy Katherine. Then we went to the mall to play with our other friends Ana, Grant, and Andrew. Then Benny and I browsed a couple of stores.

Mrs. Amy is the lead teacher!

Mrs. Jennifer is the assistant teacher

Finally we rounded our week out by meeting Benny's PreK teachers. Mrs. Amy and Mrs. Jennifer. They are both very sweet ladies and I think he will really enjoy class with them this year. So at sneak a peak we met the class pets. Two frogs that that they are going to name on the first day of school. Benny of course picked Mark and Dave. We also found out that Katherine and Benny will be in the same classroom. This has caused some serious discussions about PDA not being allowed at school. NO KISSES AND HUGS. We have started reverting them over to High 5's : ) They are toooo cute together.



So we will see where this leads us in the coming weeks. One thing I know sure is this mom will start hitting the gym in the mornings and be able to get more housework accomplished. These are some very big changes but hopefully we will all continue to experience them as positive and continue growing. Man being a mom is very busy now: )

Pretty Pretty side of life!

So my latest cake class has me looking at cakes in a VERY different way. My teacher Kathy told me to take the flowers course and she will be the first to tell you that I argued with her. My exact statement was, "What do I need to know how to make flowers for on a boy's cake?" Mostly meant to be funny but aside from that I really enjoy that these are the kinds of courses you can take and talk back to your teacher and get away with it : ) No really though I was not up for taking this class. Then my parents bought it for me in honor of my birthday.
All of that hassle and I have to say I AM REALLY ENJOYING IT! Go figure right? LOL. So the technique is really amazing when you are doing these flowers. So now I have new enjoyment. Not that I really needed to have anymore enjoyment in this. So please enjoy some of the pics that I have attached. I will be making my final cake class cake on Tuesday.

So all of that cake class update I suppose one should be accountable for the weight loss section of my blog. I have not been to the gym since the last time I blogged. Ugh I know right! However all of that being said I have not gained any weight. I actually have lost another two lbs. Granted that isn't fab but its not a gain! Hopefully now that both boys are going to school in Aug I will be able to devote a little more time to myself!

So much time and so little to do; P

Okay so I don't know when the last time I have been able to say such a lazy statement but it actually be so true. It seems like over the last month it has been one illness after another. We are all finally feeling better so hopefully we will maintain our health for awhile.
I have been busy with cake classes though. I just finished one last week and my mom and dad bought me another one for my birthday. I am in the last class that I can take. I feel like I have been making the most out of them. I hope to now be able to sell my cakes as I feel like my portfolio has been expanded enough to get it going. My next goal is to print a few books of the cakes I have made and spread them around different locations in town. I guess it goes without saying leaving my business cards with those books :)

So this week I made a cake for a birthday party. I suppose I can tell you it was my own and a friends. The next day my husband told me that he wanted me to make him a cake as well so of course I obliged him. I have found that I really like chocolate cake over vanilla. For whatever reason chocolate cake seems to be moister and more flavorful. I would love to tell customers that white cake is not an option: ) do you think that would go over well?

My next cake is a baby shower cake that I am doing for a dear friend of mine. I am very excited about doing this one. She chose an animal theme which I have to say I love! I am a bit partial to all things boy. I like the bright colors. I can't wait to see how this one turns out.

I will update again soon. I must quit typing and get some sleep at some point this evening :)

Long time No type....

Hey followers of my success and failures : ) Okay so not that I am the worlds worse at working out but I have to say, "I SUCK!"
Over the last month we have had excuse after excuse to not get to the gym. First of all I had a wonderful visit with my Mother in Law. Then my great Mommy came into town. Followed by I am exhausted. Well yesterday I decided NO MORE! I got my lazy rump ass out of the house and got to the gym. I have to tell you it was quite pathetic. My workout was nothing like what it had been the previous month. I was an entire four minutes slower than what I had been.
So what do we take from this? At least my loser butt got it done right!?! I have to say I am proud of that. On top of that because my crazy awesome neighbor drags me out of bed every morning I have only put on two lbs. So we are back to hitting the rubber tread and getting more weight to come off.

So on top of that I have been given wonderful gifts from the HUBBY : )  I mean from the boys for Mother's Day ; P I was given a really nice stand mixer that is AMAZING. Seriously it mixes powders together without throwing them up in the air at you. Its great. But even better than that I got my enrollment in my second cake class. I am ubber excited about it. I can't wait to be done with the classes and start making more cakes for people. That being said I already have my next three cake ideas ready to go. One is a graduation cake and the other is a soccer ball for an ALL STARS birthday. Finally the last one is a cake for a baby shower. I am going to try Blocks. I think it would be adorable! I will definately keep everyone updated and post pics.

Let me take a second to the few people that do read my blog. I enjoy doing it (just like working out : ) I will try to not slack off again. Talk to everyone in a few.

The Epic Fail!

This week I had a very low experience. When I say low I mean it actually made me cry. So I had a very busy week planned but I had it all scheduled according to what was happening. The pirate ship cake I was so excited about this week was to be done. Then LOTS AND LOTS of mother in law time. Most of that turned out well. All except the cake part. Ugh! I hate even discussing it now but I figure I have already been honest up until this point so I better not try to hide the truth now.
So I had a misunderstanding with my friend as to when she needed the cake. So inevitably I was up all night to try to get it prepped in time for her party. Well I learned something about myself. After 11 pm I am good for watching TV and somewhat writing a blog. Those are the extent of my abilities. That being said it had to get done. So I set out with a mission of completing it. To say the least I was heart broken about the way the cake turned out. I don't think it was quite as horrible as I thought it was when I delivered it however it was BY FAR NOT MY BEST WORK!
I feel like I capable of soooooo much and this brought me back to reality of no matter how good you think you are or can be, you can be knocked off of that high horse in an instant (or at least it seemed like an instant). Well all of that said it was defiantly a lesson learned. However I will be remaking that cake even if it has to wait until the first week in May. I have decided to put my oven mitts back on and continue. I will show my kids that no matter how one particular bad event happens you should dust yourself off and keep on keeping on.
Now on to the other part of my life. I can tell I am sooooo much more in shape these days. I have walked Kennesaw mountain twice in a week. I even drug Mom in law up with me! Plus I had a smack in the face with this experience to but this one was the kind that should make one scream, "Harder, Harder!"
I know now your dying to know right!?! Well we went to Cracker Barrel. My favorite meal is the chicken and dumplings with Mashed taters, mac and cheese, and green beans. Now about three months ago I would have eaten the entire meal but today I couldn't even finish half of it. I was so excited because it is feeling so real the reality I am making for myself and my family.
This whole process for me is about my family and being the best me I can be and I have to say despite my horrible experience and in light of my wonderful experience I am pretty darn proud of myself. Life will continue on and so will I (hopefully shrinking most of the way ; )



PS sorry no pics of my miserable fail this week? Trust me your not missing much

Graduation Day!

So this week was my last day of my cake class. I officially "graduate" from Wilton school of Basic cake decorating. I think I got a 4.0 GPA but that is just a speculation! This week we discussed the art of ROSE making. Lets just say I have some practice to do on that : )

I chose to do an Easter Basket cake as my final project. I really liked the technic involved in the basket weave. I also experimented with how on Earth to form an egg for the basket. None the less once I actually got the cake done in less then a hour. The next cake I will be doing is next Monday. One of our family friends has asked for a pirate cake! Now this one should be lots of fun to do. I think I will start it on Sunday. Then my mom in law comes in town on Monday and I will bake her a birthday cake sometime before she leaves town.

Now as for the weight loss goal. I managed to get to the gym a whole one time this week. Yeah I know last week I was redetermined. As you can tell that attitude worked out well right? The truth is I honestly couldn't show my face in public for while this week. At the beginning of the week face exploded. Seriously it was soooooo swollen. I still can't believe how big it was. That being said then my sunburn started to peel. All of this lasted the entire week. Then Friday on my anniversary I went for it. I got to the gym and biked for 5 miles and then used the eliptical for 1.5 miles. This morning my neighbor invited me to go to Kennesaw Mountain to take the trail with her sister. I have to say I was a bit nervous about this. Many people I know have told me about how rough this trail can be. I really enjoyed it. There were a couple of times that I had to watch my breathing but over all it really was fun. Not to mention I have never seen Stone Mountain and I can't believe you can see it so clearly from up there (its 25 miles away). It really just reaffirms why I love living here! Maybe I will take the inlaw up there when she gets here! Oh and hopefully I still get to go next Sunday with the neighbor. I think she enjoyed me being there to even if she won't admit it! Lets see how this week goes with no cake decorating to do! Time to focus on weight this week I guess!

So I didn't do it! UGH

I have learned accountability and consistency is key to being successful. That being said I have desperately lacked in that area this week. UGH! UGH! When such things happen I generally feel that excuses are the only thing that make the wrong right so here is my list of them.
1) I had a crazy busy week.
2) I had such low energy from running out of my (helper) pills
3) I just down right am lazy sometimes.
So all of those out of the way now I can elaborate on what I am referring to. I only went to the gym one time last week. Then this weekend I vegged out as though I hadn't eaten in a month. Disgusting I know. I have a lot of work to get back on track so we will see what happens next week.

All of that being said not all areas of my life were colossal disappointments. My cake decorating raised my self esteem dramatically. I was able to complete my first cake for another person this week. Both the mommy and the boy were very pleased with the outcome. I have found the Internet a very amusing tool to my success of this cake.

I posted pictures on Facebook for all of my friends and family to see and I only got compliments. Friday was the big boy's birthday and of course we got to go celebrate with them. First stop was a jump house for the kids. We were checking in and somehow the cake came up. Of course pictures then got shown and the lady at the counter told me I needed to bring some cards in for them to give to parents hosting a birthday party at the place. I was so excited. I can't believe that so many people actually think there is so much behind the cake. Maybe it has to do with the underestimating of my own ability however I didn't feel like it was all that much to do. I guess it could have a lot to do with the fact that I  ABSOLUTELY LOVE doing cakes. I hope this is a start to a whole new world for me. I want to do this for a career.

So my goals for the next week is to finish an Easter basket cake that I started on my last cake class and to get my rear back in gear and hit the gym running tonight and at least two more nights this week.

Really?

So I am going to admit it not only to myself but also the world. I am addicted. I have a problem and I need help. I am having a love affair with Diet Coke. It has been my beverage of choice for the last 8 years. I love it I crave it and I wanna drink it all up.
That being said I have a saying about this nasty little concoction often referred to as water. I have been highly allergic and it is my desire to not die by forcing its consumption. Now that all of you know of my fears of this potion, let me tell you over the last two weeks I feel that I have officially been cured of all evil that this liquid contains. I have been regularly consuming vast quantities of it and actually some what enjoyed it. Can you imagine me enjoying water! LOL!
Now I have been told by various sources that drinking water is a good way to flush the body of horrible toxins within it. I don't know if that is true. I have gained three lbs in the last week. I can only conclude that the culprit is this H20 Formula. I have been exercising consistently and eating smaller portions neither of which should lead to extra pounds. I am also not very happy about this current conundrum. It is disheartening to me. I feel like this must be stopped immediately.
Now that being said I have completed my first completely butter cream frosted cake. I have to say I was SUPER proud of it. It was not an easy task as I tend to be a perfectionist. This cake literally took me three hours just to accomplish the base coat. I have found that butter cream although ideal for decorating may not be my dressing of choice for the cakes I bake. Now as for the cake itself. I tried two different types one had a strawberry filling and the other was a good ole chocolate cake. Both of which were VERY moist and tasty however the chocolate got a sliver of a kick higher on the rating scales. The poll was conduct of course by an independent marketing company made up of one neighbor, a 5 year old, a 3 year old, and a very happy hubby: )

I have had challenges this week with both areas in my life. However the cake was conquered. That means only one thing as to will this weight gain be conquered. We shall see what next week brings. Its CUPCAKE week!

Cake and Weighloss do go hand in hand!

So over the last month I have considered the things that are important to me. I have needed to come to some conclusions over what to do.
See my youngest son will only be home for another year and after that I won't be needed for seven hours a day. What will I fill my time with? So while shopping in my favorite craft store a couple of weeks ago, my husband saw that they were holding cake decorating classes. I have to say I didn't really want to take the basics course as I already know a bit about cake decorating and my favorite technique is fondant. That being said they don't allow you to skip to the fondant course. So I ventured into it. I am very excited about the possibility to do this semi professionally. So I told my husband that I would like to take on this hobby as a possible way of having a career but also being able to be a mom still at every possible minute.
I want to be the mom that is in the car line picking her kids up from school. I want to be at every event for my kids. Nothing thrills me more than seeing them be active with other kids. So I set forth in taking the class seriously. I am learning the ends and outs of butter cream (that I personally dislike), cake filling, and straight forward icing.
My adventure was an introduction to icing tips. We practiced on sugar cookies. I was a little set a back as I wanted to do the frosting of the cake. In the past when working with canned frosting I was never able to get the frosting smooth and I really wanted to master that. However this week that is what class was about setting the frosting on the cake. I pretty much have that down however when it was time to add the decorations I realized that maybe last week I shouldn't have been so hasty to start the cake setting. I had a one track mind and only used one frosting tip and felt like it needed to have smooth lines in the top. It ended up making the cake not look very good. I know I should have changed the tips and let the work for me but I didn't. So lesson learned. EXPLORE EXPLORE EXPLORE! This week I will practice with my tips and figure out what the best way to do decorations is going to be.
Now back to the part of wanting to be a very involved mom. I also strive to be a type of mom that my children are proud of. Over the last five years I have gained a ton (a bit exaggerated). I have struggled to lose it so I set out with a new plan. I will lose this weight. I will be a skinny(er) mommy for my boys. I am proud of this goal and so far it has worked out well for me. I have lost 8 pounds in three weeks. I have been to the gym three times a week. Every time I have gone I have managed to increase my workout routine. The first time I was only able to do a mile in 16 minutes. Pathetic I know. However the last time I went I was able to run a mile in 12 min. I have to say I literally cried after I accomplished that. I asked God for the strength to endure it and I did. I was so proud!
So all in all I am on my way to a new career and a new look! Next year is going to be fabulous minus losing my oldest to the world of all day school!