A valentine to remember

Seriously, My Husband is the best. He secretly knows the way right to that soft spot in my heart that turns to mush when he enters.

This was our first Valentines Day as husband and wife. And he out did himself. Let me preface. As a child, I was HORSE crazy. As most little girls are. I wanted a pony so badly. It was my very existence. When I was about 12 or 13 my dad and his wife at the time bought a horse. She was nuts. She had previously been abused and had a history of erratic behavior. Shortly after she came home they bought another horse, who was mellow and sweet and easy. My step-sister and I were out in the corral every day. We would have slept out there if our parents would have let us. Eventually we joined a 4-h club and horses were our lives. I honestly think having a horse kept me from getting into trouble. I loved every minute of my horse life. Well, sadly, all good things must come to an end, and my dad and his wife split. We moved to Seattle and she kept my horse.

I always wanted a horse again someday. In fact I can recall a few conversations with Marty where I mentioned this. Well, being the amazing person he is, he held onto those words.

Enter a buckskin pony with a big heart and no job. He belonged to the brother of a guy who Marty works with. He was living his life away in a pasture doing nothin'. With permission of his owner I began going out to visit him. I'd take him some apples and carrots and spend some time just hanging out with him. We'd been told he was for sale, but at a price that was out of our range. Fast forward to February, he was offered to Marty at a price he couldn't resist.

And that's how Twister became my Valentine from Marty.


We are working on getting a good bond and had our first ride this last sunday. I have some video I'll post this week, I promise!

Excuses, excuses

Wow. Sorry about the lack of posting.

Obviously I am not good at blogging. I am good at lots of other things, like cooking, laundry, work, cleaning out the cat box, playing legos (according to Julian), surfin' the net, spending money, list making, reading three books at once, being a wife (I'm only writing this because my Husband says so) and numerous other things that occupy all my time there for taking away from me being good at blogging.

It's march already. Sheesh.

Have you seen January?

Obviously, I haven't since it's been almost a month since I've been here. Uh, yeah. Blogging, sure I can do that. Well, apparently not.

January was an eventful month.... kids back to school after break. It was a little hard to get back in the swing of things. I, honestly can't remember as a kid if I had trouble or not. I am sure I did, but maybe it's one of those things that you forget to make room for other crap.

Solomon got his top braces on. This was easy peasy for him. He is a tough kid.... however it was much harder on Marty and I when we saw the bill. *GASP*

We re-financed our house. This was a first for me, as Marty owned the home before he met and married me. But now, as of the 20th of January, I am a homeowner. We got a MUCH better rate and took out some moolah to remodel 2 bathrooms and the upstairs. We will, finally, have two working bathrooms and a bedroom for each kid! HA! We started by re-arranging everyone... this was interesting. We are feeling a little cramped as the office has been redispersed throughout the house for now. Yeah.... the computer is in our bedroom. Bleh. But it's only temporary.

So we tore some crappy drywall down and bought some wood to start framing in a room and a closet. It's exciting. I have visions of redecorating when it's all done. I am taking all kinds of before and after photos so I can show you just what we accomplished when we get there.

My wonderful Husband had a birthday in January too. It was very casual being he had to work a graveyard shift that night. Boo. We had mexican for dinner and his Mom made his FAVORITE cake. It's really divine. Chocolate cake with whipping cream and bananas between the layers, then frosted with whipping cream. And for those of us who despise don't care for frosting, it's lovely. We took a day trip to Port Towsend the following weekend to have lunch and go to this antique car parts shop. It is a pelethora of stuff right up my Husbands alley. He found a mirror for his old car, so he was happy!

So, now it's February and I am going to make an honest attempt to show up around here more often. Seriously. You don't believe me do you?

New Year

I wouldn't say it was a "resolution" but I have always wanted to learn to bake cakes from scratch. Don't get me wrong, Betty Crocker has cake in a box figured out, and in a pinch for time or an occasion of laziness boxed cake is brilliant.

But, I found this recipe and really found my inner baker yelling "whoa, you should try this!" So I did. Mine, does not look like the pictures from the recipe link. And the fact that you use a pound of butter in the frosting means it is NOT good for you to consume in large quantities or to eat a piece right before you have your cholesterol checked. Capeesh?

I gathered up my ingredients and began the LONG process. Your butter and egg whites have to be room temperature so there was some waiting for that to happen.


I opted to do a raspberry filling because the crowd I was serving does not fancy cranberries. I did, however follow the recipe using raspberries instead and found it to be a soupy mess, so I drained off the liquid and salvaged them. Next time I will make the filling a little different.


Cake batter done. It was a beautiful white color.

The cakes baked up really nice. I baked them for 37 minutes, testing the centers twice. This resulting in the centers falling a bit.

To make the butter creme the egg whites and sugar have to be warmed up over a double boiler while whisking constantly. My arm fell off after about two minutes, so my wonderful husband, Marty stepped in to take over! He saved me!



After the frosting was done you assemble and frost a crumb coat. After this point we decided to take a drive and get the kids out of the house. I, foolishly, put the frosting in the fridge. I think this is what resulted in the frosting breaking down a bit.

Here is the completed cake!

I couldn't get my chocolate the curl.... I think my vegetable peeler is on it's last leg. So I shaved it with a grater. I think it still turned out nice.

It was tasty. I love butter creme because it's not like eating plain sugar. The raspberry filling was so yummy with the cake too. I will make this recipe again!

What do you get a flamingo crazed girl for Christmas?

Hand painted flamingos of course! My very talented sister in law hand painted Marty and I each a bird. Mine is leopard print and Marty's has a heart with wings! I *heart* them!

Sorry about the cell phone picture... I'll try and take some better photos soon!

Whoa, sorry for the over use of the explanation point. I'll work on that.

Feliz Navidad

Christmas was wonderful at our house. The kids got up at 4:oo am. Yes, they lost their minds. However they weren't allowed to wake us until 7:00 am, 'cause we like to torture um like that. AND to make the torture worse, we have to eat breakfast first. Aren't we mean?

Santa packed the tree with goodies. The gifts spilled out from under the branches. After Marty and I got some coffee into our groggy systems, we made breakfast, (the traditional egg and bacon burritos) and then I donned my Santa hat and began the present handing out.

My husband spoiled me as usual, but my favorite gift from him was this....

That is our front door behind it, so you can tell just how big it is! I LOVE IT! He found the print, had his brother in law print it on vinyl and attach it to the board and then stained and built the frame himself. I tell you, Marty is a genius.

You can read more about the print here.

We moved a little furniture and hung it in the bedroom. Every time I walk in I can't help but stare at it.

To sew

Both of my Granny's were excellent seamstresses. Through both of them I managed to pick up some basic sewing skills. And when I say basic I mean, I can thread the machine and I can sew in an almost straight line. Needless to say I need more practice. My good friend Allison is an excellent sewer (is that a word?) She even has, *GASP* a serger! I'm a little jealous. We have plans to make a quilt together.

Lately I have become obsessed with sewing, as you can see by the amount of sewing blogs I read on a daily basis I mind you. The idea of crafting my own clothes is VERY appealing to me.

For Christmas I made 4 pairs of PJ bottoms for my nephews and brother and sister in law. They turned out okay. Can I just tell you I hate, no despise, okay, dislike sewing on fleece very much. Uh, yeah, you can't iron that sh*t stuff. It was good for me to try something this simple to get back into the sewing swing of things.

This last summer I was at an estate sale and picked up a few vintage patterns. I intend to try one out soon. They are simple summery dresses. So I have between now and summer to try and get one done.