I can't help but think of the things I am SO grateful for. In no particular order....

Good Music. Thank you Wilco, John Mayer, Of Montreal, Camera Obscura, pshhhh, and others.

Derek. BFF. Breadwinner. Lover. Goober Butt. BFF.

Basil, Ozzy, Asher, and Dez. Having nephews has changed my life in a beautiful way.

Mom = FUN. Always there. Good and bad.

Dad = Bonding. Really excited about the future.

Siblings= Can't and won't explain. Much too good to be explained.

In-Laws, Cousins, Step-Families.... etc= Bonus-MAJOR bonus.

Vacationing= Aaaaahhh.....New York and Boston. Thanks for reminding me the world is amazing.

BBQ= Great times this summer around the barbeque. Even better food.

Our Place= Everyday I mention how much I love our home. I belong.

One of the biggest things I am grateful for this year, is learning to get over conflict. It's been freeing, and that is what makes life easy to live.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.....

I'm in a rush to blog before Derek needs to use the computer for his class. Long story short, I worked day in and day out on an over-ambitious cake for this competition. My weakness is piping, and stupidly, this cake had a LOT of piping. My mom came over to drop something off last night in the midst of my misery, and was one of the few witnesses to see the huge bags under my eyes.

This morning I had Derek take of work to help me deliver the cake that I was already feeling if-y about. Everyone was happy with the results, but me, as usual. I have high expectations for myself, and more than anything, I know what these judges are looking for: perfection.

As Derek and I were trying to lift the four tiered cake onto the stand, a catastrophe unfolded. My wedding ring got caught under the cake, on of the brooches fell onto the floor, and the fondant on the bottom layer buckled on the edge of the stand. With about twenty people watching us set it up, the nerves weren't helping. The most helpful part were the people saying in clear loud voices "wow that cake is going to just crumble to pieces, I feel bad for that girl. She's screwed."

However, after being completely discouraged, I managed to recieve a bronze medal and some strict critizism from the judges. I'll never cease to love competing, no matter how hard it hits me. Here are the pictures of the cake. Luckily after the damages we were able to make it look fairly presentable:

Last night I decided we really needed to get to the bottom of things and make Derek's final list of top 5 celeb beauties. After I named off just about every star I could think of, we finally came to these final five:

1. Keri Russell

2. Rachel McAdams

3. Tea Leoni

4. Zooey Deschanel

5. Mila Kunis

Here is mine for kicks:

1. Jason Schwartzman

2. David Beckham

3. Brad Pitt

4. Jimmy Fallon

5. Stephen Moyer

Moral of the story is I'm dying to hear what everyone else's is... so I want to hear your post.

The sushi appetizer:

My Daikon fettucine salad:

Cucumber salad with sweet vinaigrette:

Teryaki salmon with potato crouqette:

Suprisingly good tofu cheesecake:

Chocolate tart: (So pretty!)

Donuts with maple ice cream: (Again, so pretty!)

It's $20 a meal, but you get five courses and its a really fun experience to watch the kids cook/serve, etc. You should make a trip sometime!

1. You can absolutely let your guard down sometimes. I have trouble trusting people, but sometimes it is perfectly fine to take the risk.

2. Be open-minded. Just because people have different beliefs or desires as you, doesn't mean they are wrong. The majority of people are trying their best to find happiness, and everyone is dealing with some kind of struggle. No matter how many times I judge someone, I always find out I'm the one in the wrong.

3. Forgiveness is one of the most important things to learn. Everyone makes mistakes, even big ones. It may take time, but there is always room to forgive eventually.

4. The grass is ALWAYS going to look greener on the other side, but take a closer glance. What you've got is pretty damn great. And if it's not, I hope you'll take the steps to make it great.

5. This is the hardest one for me, but when it seems like the whole world is caving in around you, it usually means that you are the one that needs to make a change. It's much harder, and inevitably impossible to change everyone else's perspective.

Please don't take this like I'm implying anything going on in my life. There are SO many events that have made me realize these things. I know this is all oober sentimental, and I don't mean to sound preachy, heaven forbid. This is mainly for me. Thanks to you all for being in my life, it's truly fabulous. 

It looks Hilarious!!

Modification: Reading the article it might just be for the webisode. Stupid.

My sister Kels, is in ninth grade, which means-- the year you have to job shadow. I assume everyone had to do this in school too. You have to pick a career and go to work with someone that does that for a living. So, Kelsy chose to go to work with me.

Sounds reaaally fun, but as Kelsy learned, baking isn't always as fun as it looks, and can be really tiring ;)

She ended up working with me for 5 1/2 long hours. Since we woke up at 5:45, by the end of the day she looked pretty beat up. But I had fun!! Haha, sorry I worked you so hard Kels! But thanks for picking me, I had a blast.

Kelsy was an AMAZING froster. She beat out a lot of the people I've trained:

This was the BEST part of the day. A family ordered 150 cupcakes with their daughter's face on it for her birthday. Kels and I had a good laugh making these. (blurred for obvious reasons)

Kels, I hope you don't hate cupcakes now,  I know you had a blast. Don't deny it!

Love you!

So GEN came in this weekend, but we only got to see her for like two hours, so it wasn't even worth it! Sorry Gen, I wish you had been here longer. But while she was hanging out at the house, my older sister, Malia, was wearing my mom's clothes, since she had spilled on hers.

Kristin and Gennie decided we should all throw on some of my ma's clothes, since some of them she has kept in her closet since the 80's. All of us, including my oldest brother, threw on our favorite outfits my mom has had throughout the years. Dano was the only sibling not there, since he was chilling at snow college :(

We even got my nephew to try on one of her jackets for a millisecond:

And lastly, the CUTEST pic of Grammy and Betos:

We love our momma. She always goes along with our jokes, thanks for the good times!

Anyways, a lady wanted a fun, mad-hatter like cake for her 40th birthday, so here is that:

And then this was for a 1-year-old's birthday. Cute ;)