One Semester of Spanish...

So, I've never taken a semester of Spanish, or any Spanish class at all. I have however picked up a bit here and there--enough that this "love song" was freaking hilarious!!

Addiction and Harry Potter

Although interestingly enough this is not about the fact that I could be...maybe...addicted to Harry Potter...maybe...

("OMG!!! Its Harry Potter!!! Can I take your picture!?!?")

Yes a part of me was afraid for my life...

Moving on.

I don't know how many other people watch So You Think You Can Dance, but I do. I love to watch the creativity of the dancers and choreographers in the many routines that are performed. I guess you could say I dance vicariously through them.

This has to be one of my favorite routines of this current season. Mia Michaels is an amazing choreographer!! Kayla and Kupono do a fabulous job portraying the story of this routine. Its about addiction. Kayla is the addict and Kupono is the thing she is trying to quit--whatever it may be--but she can't. It still gives me goose bumps when I watch it. Love it!!!



Also, went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince last night at midnight. We had a lot of fun, but... I loved the movie in a lot of ways, but in a lot of others it was a letdown. The Burrow doesn't burn down--the wedding is crashed!! What wedding? OMG I guess we left it out. Where did all of the action in this book go?!?! Where was the huge battle in the castle at the end? The bad guys don't just walk out without a fight!! There is a huge fight and people get hurt and others die!! Things that are important for the final book!! GRRRRR... I mean, to leave things out because it slows down a movies plot is fine, but to leave really important parts out because you want the Pope to like and endorse the movie? Please. Because of this they are going to have to alter the final movies and I am really not sure how much I really am OK with that. I guess that doesn't matter though, because my endorsement means nothing next to the Pope. Whatever.

I can only hope that maybe they filmed the scenes and that they might appear on a special addition DVD later. Regardless, it was a fun movie to watch and I will probably go see it again.

A New Favorite

The Script. They are my new favorite band. This is one of my favorite songs of theirs, although it a lot less well known that their hit "The Man Who Can't Be Moved"

I think this Irish Trio is pretty much amazing, (their lead singer, Danny O'Donoghue is very attractive and has an awesome voice as well, so that helps =]) and I hope you like them too!!

This is the best video of the song I could find that would let me embed it here, so please bear with me as you listen to Paul O'Grady for a few seconds. Besides, he has a cute Irish accent...

Anger, Heartbreak And Moving On

It is really hard when you care about someone to have things suddenly all fall apart around you. Especially when the reasons are insignificant or even make believe. How is it that easy to just let everything go?

I am done crying about things that I can't change. And by done crying I mean that crying isn't all I do anymore. Now I'm mad. I don't want to be, but the hurt runs so deep that I don't know what else to feel other than anger and hurt.

I don't know where things went wrong. We were always so close and now we couldn't be farther apart. When did the bridge we crossed lead in two different directions?

Maybe someday things will all work out. Maybe things can be similar to what they used to be. Maybe someday he will realize how much he hurt me. Maybe one day we will be friends again.

I'm not holding my breath because that is a lot of maybes.

People talk about soulmates, about them being the person you will spend the rest of your life or even eternity with. I don't think a soulmate even has to have anything to do with getting married. We are, were, I don't even know anymore, soulmates. We understand each other without ever having to say a thing. We are best friends and inseparable. We were supposed to meet and be a part of each others lives for a very very long time.

I guess that is part of what is making this so hard. I don't know what happened, but suddenly things are different. I miss my friend.

There is nothing left to do but move on. Thats all I feel like I can do now. I can't fight a battle that I know nothing about. I don't even know what the fighiting is all about. But what do you do.

Maybe he will come to his senses. Hopefully sooner rather than later. I've done all I can do--now its out of my hands. I just hope I can lean to accept the outcome, so matter what it may be.


I like this song. It relates to this situation. I thought I would share it.

4th of July Cabin Weekend

It has been a really long time since I have had an extremely physically demanding project to work on, but that all changed this weekend.

My dad's side of the family has a cabin near Brighton Ski Resort. I love that place!! There are so many memories! The cabin is, however, falling into disrepair. The blame for that is family wide after years and years of neglect, but thankfully so is the responsibility for fixing it. =] That is what this weekend was mostly all about.

The kitchen needed some huge repairs. Well, lets be honest, everything needs to be torn out and we need to start over, however we don't have that kind of time right now. So we opted for temporary fixing as best we could.

Surprise, surprise, but the cousins landed this job because the adults weren't really thrilled about painting. I think this turned out good though, because we had an entire day of prep and repair work before we could even think about painting. Chris and I spearheaded the team, got all of the supplies, all of the food, and did most of the prep work. There were so many cracks to be repaired and walls to clean, let it all dry...ya know. It was fun!!

Throughout the course of the weekend we saw almost all of the cousins at one point or another, some being immensely more helpful than others, but it was still good to see everyone. I just hope the not helping but still showing up to watch everyone work doesn't become a habit. Not only did we paint and such, but we also studied for and leaned to "hate" (just like Jessica promised us) law and the upcoming paralegal exam...talk about multitasking. =]

We also took midnight to two or three am card game playing breaks. It just wouldn't be "normal" without them.

Long story short, we got it all done in three and a half days!! And, if I do say so myself, it looks pretty much AMAZING!!! I am glad it is over (I slept for almost 24 hours after I got home), but it was completely worth it!!


This was before we had done anything.


Trying to channel Michelangelo...


Chris was a bit tall...


It was very dusty...


After repairs, before painting...


Chair, chair, ladder, on top of fridge...whatever works...


Josh working his painting magic...


Tiffany worked her way into a corner...


Jessica and one set of her totally cool law flashcards...


The finished kitchen


The finished hallway


The cool new stovelight we installed!!

Just in Case You Wanted to Know...

I purchased tickets to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince today!!...on the IMAX!! I'm pretty much excited! I am going with a bunch of my cousins from both sides of the family. Its going to be an awesome party!!

Lake Powell Family Reunion!!!

This past weekend was our yearly Weston Family Reunion!! Although it happens every year, this was perhaps the first true reunion in a while for the fact that EVERYONE (aside from our two missionaries) was in attendance at least most of the time! This year was also special because Grandpa turned 70 in May, so extra celebration ensued.



LeAdelle rented a 64ft. houseboat for the occasion which turned out to be the most perfect and amazing thing ever!! This houseboat was the Ritz Carlton of all houseboats!! It had 4 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, a huge kitchen complete with island, large dining room table/bed, a full refrigerator/freezer combo and a smaller freezer in the pantry; a living room with couch/bed, 2 each 48" flat screen TVs--one inside and one outside on the top level--both equipped with with satellite and each having their own DVD player, a sitting area and small kitchenette with small refrigerator on the top level, a slide off the back, and a hot tub in the center of the top level. It was absolutely amazing!! We had everything we needed for everyone to feel comfortable and do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted!!






Because it was our family celebration for Grandpa's birthday I made a cake. It was really awesome! It was vanilla cake with pineapple buttercream and pineapple filling. It was covered in fondant for the design's sake (I'm not really a huge fondant fan...), but if it hadn't been for the fondant the cake never would have survived the speedboat trip from the dock to the houseboat (let alone the 7 hour drive from my house to the dock). It was decorated to look like a simple game show spinner that read "Grandpa is older than..." All of the triangles said different things-- "the dinosaurs", "the pyramids", "sliced bread", "time", "you!", "the universe", "the wheel", and "dirt". Grandpa loved it, but pretended to be very offended. =] The grandkids were HUGE fans. Every time they walked past it they had to spin the spinner. It was cool.



Delivery by speedboat has landed itself at the very bottom of my preferred cake delivery methods. I knew that it wasn't going to be a great way to get my cake to the houseboat to begin with because the houseboat was so far away from shore, but I wasn't completely counting on the wind, waves and winding path we had to take. The cake made it safely...and still looked like a cake when we arrived, although a little bulgy in places. The only real damage to the design was the fact that "time" was erased on the bumpy ride over. I decided however, that it was better that I hold onto the cake and sacrifice "time" rather than letting go of the cake entirely and feeding the fish.

To keep all of the kids entertained we had a bunch of craft projects and such they could work on--painting wooden cars and trains, making dreamcatchers and tie-dying t-shirts just to name a few. The younger kids really liked painting the cars and then climbing the rocks by the houseboat to find "garages" for their cars and driving them all over the place. It was a bit stressful for them when we were out tubing and the adults decided to move the houseboat without advanced warning...

"Did you get my car?!"
"Are you sure?!"
"Did you check all of the garages?!"

We had to make sure they were all present and accounted for before we could be calm again. =] The dreamcatchers were slightly more time consuming and most of them weren't completely finished by the time we left, all of the kids loved it. Brett had the most patience for it, and quite a knack for making them. He completed two of them before we left and they looked AWESOME! I loved making the shirts. Everyone got to make their own shirts and it really ended up being an awesomely messy activity! =]





Now, a little about the water activities. I don't ski...but I tried. I failed. But I tried, =] It was awesome. Also, technically I was wake boarding, not skiing. However, none of the adults could get up on it, so I don't feel too bad. My aunt thinks it was too small to support the weight of everyone except the teenagers and younger. Whether that is true or not I don't know, but it made us all feel better. =] The tubing was AWESOME!! Squishing people is pretty cool... My favorite ride was with Jessica. She is a screamer (whether you hit a huge wave or not), it kept the ride pretty exciting. We had a lot of fun with the slide at the back of the houseboat as well.










Overall this trip was pretty much amazing and ended WAY too soon. I really can't wait for whatever we plan for next summer!!

Recently Brought to My Attention...

Relationships are interesting things...and can very quickly get extremely complicated and leave you wondering what happened. I am not sure really why things are suddenly all out of whack. Did I miss some all important, yet apparently secret social cue that signals the drawing of battle lines?

What do you do when people that you care about betray you and don't really seem to care. Forgiveness is key, but it is sometimes easier said than truly done. Especially when one party apparently feels like nothing was done to merit being forgiven. More than one cherished thing was lost that day, and we have moved on. Despite that I know that things will never be the same between us. Now that we are being pulled back into each others lives I am wondering how the tension will affect everyone. I hope that I will be truly able to forgive even if forgiveness is never asked for--that I can be the bigger person.

I think I missed the turn in my life that led me down the path of computer programmer extraordinaire, but it did. Maybe is should have been mentioned to me, oh, five years ago, when I could have actually learned how to do all of this in school, rather than having to try and pretend I know.

This is the cake of the week!! Mostly because it is the only cake this week... It is a pistachio cake with pistachio filling decorated to look like a basket of flowers. It is all edible and SO FUN to make!!

A World of Cupcakes

So, whats in a cupcake? Well, that depends on what you fill it with...DUH!!

These, sadly are not filled (per customers order).

However, they were definitely rockin' on the outside!!

Although the flags were very time consuming to make, they were a lot of fun!

Adventures in Cake

I was asked to make a toilet cake for a goodbye party for the janitor of Butler Middle School. I have never carved a cake before, so this was a bit sketchy in the beginning, but it turned out REALLY awesome. And they called me back and ordered more stuff for next week!!



It is hard...btw to hold a toilet cake and keep it from collapsing or tipping over while sitting on the floor of a van while driving on the freeway...


I made this chocolate fudge cake for the baptism of my favorite "niece" Abby. Everything on it is edible except for the wires in the roses on top. =]

The whole cake
Detail of the top
Gum Paste Rose Detail

As I keep adding to the list of cakes I am working on, I would love any new challenges that might come my way!

Still Alive

Contrary to popular belief I have not been hiding from or avoiding people. I have been really, really busy.

I am working back at Sounds again these days and it is keeping me really busy. About a week and a half ago I learned how to read and write in html code (in 2 DAYS!!) to create a few email templates for our stores and to help along with our ever quickly approaching store consolidation. With the economy the way it is these days we have been trying to do a lot more email marketing than we ever have before to try and increase business. So far it is working!!

I have also been taking some refresher courses in cake decorating since I have been home. I absolutely LOVE it!! Most of everything that is being covered in the classes I already know how to do, but I am learning some new tricks on top of all of the extra practice I am getting. In keeping with taking these classes and trying to stay in the culinary field I have been decorating cakes and experimenting with different flavors and techniques.

Life is just busy. Sometimes I don't like it because I feel like I never sleep. But keeping busy keeps me from dwelling on...everything. I guess everything has pros and cons though. Right?

Long Time No Blog...

I’ve been neglecting my blog recently for a few reasons, and after thinking about it a bit…well, a lot, the most prominent of those reasons would have to be fear.

I have been such an emotional wreck on the inside while having to appear to be really; really happy on the outside that my ability to truly express myself has become a bit conflicted. But I can’t sit by and feel that way anymore.

I had a really hard time leaving my life, my home and my family in Vegas. I have also been very unsure if I was and did make the right decision in returning to Utah.

I was so secure in who I was and what I was doing in Vegas. I had my niche, my friends and my adopted family. Leaving all of that behind and returning to Utah scared, well, actually still scares me. I mean, sure I know people here, I know business here, and I know things to do around here, but my life hasn’t been here for years.

What if I don’t fit in? What if, despite all of the relationships I still have here, what if we can’t pick up where we left off the last time?

It has been a really tough month, and it’s only getting marginally better every week. I know now, and I guess I have known all along that I made the right choice, but that has in no way made it any easier to cope. I am keeping busy, not that that means I get out much at all. I still cry, not as much as I did at first, but still often enough that I am beginning to notice how pathetic I would seem if anyone else was ever there to see it happen.

I just wish it wasn't quite so hard to feel both really, incredibly sad and also happy at the same time.

Life will get better. Mostly because I am not giving it any other choice. I am learning to do new things at work (computer programming, web design and html.) and taking a cake decorating class to help with practice and new techniques (not to mention making new friends). I wish I had time to do more culinary related things, but for now, my class is helping. Maybe soon I will post pictures of what I've been up to in the last few weeks, but until then, I'm back--and that's as good a start as any.

St. Patricks Day Bash

It was a relatively small one, but a bash none the less. All done in typical culinary nerd fashion as has become our tradition. =]

Nothing less than that rarely ever happens when everyone from school gets together. We cook WAY more food than we can all physically think of eating, play card games, watch movies, and enjoy one anothers company.

This time was no exception. We made (too much) Irish Stew which was delicious, the most amazingly delicious (despite the weird ingredients) cocktail wieners, and lime curd cupcakes that turned out to be quite dramatic but very tasty. We then proceeded to eat less than half of it throughout the night.

Everybody likes leftovers, right?

We had a few small hiccups in the ease of the evening, but nothing we couldn't handle. =] There was no blood (aside from the lamb that went into our stew) and no fires, so we chalked it up to a fantastic evening!!

Besides, even if there were, I couldn't have been blamed because "the lepricans made me do it" ...at least thats what my shirt said anyway... =]

This night was also special because it was a St. Patricks Spa Night. Pedicures, manicures and facials were the main order of the night. (aside from the food, obviously)


Best friends



Cooking in the kitchen...



"Oh, thanks for getting a chip with dip for me..."



The dramatic cupcakes...



Kat, Melissa, Me, James


It is getting harder every day to come to terms with the fact that I really am leaving my life here behind in just over a week. Change is never an easy thing to deal with and apparently my coping strategy isn't working...oh wait, what strategy?! How would one even going about having a strategy for the best way to leave the place they have lived for the last three years? I don't even know where to start. Every time I start to think about it I can't handle it. I know it wasn't this hard the last time my life changed drastically...

Last Dinner at The Art Institute

I cannot even tell you how happy that makes me just to type it out!!

The satisfaction in this statement and this finally being over did not come easily however. I mean, why should it be easy? Its not like after three years at school you should be able to run a basic catered dinner for 28 people...

(lets be honest, it really should have been a breeze)

Between our staffing dramas full of people not showing up, being dropped from the class and not knowing what they were doing in the kitchen, to dishes not working the way we wanted them to and deciding to change it ninety minutes before service and starting from scratch, the day was complete CHAOS!!

I was made sous chef that morning because our sous chef decided not to show up and was kicked out of the class.

They have decided at the school that they will no longer be ordering in mayonnaise and that we have to make it all ourselves. I was in charge of the hors d'oeuvres that needed mayonnaise I had to make it all by hand...easy but time consuming and a bit hard on the arm and shoulder...It was tasty and none of the stuffed tomatoes were left...

The first time our dessert was made, they left out the flour...(read a recipe lately?)...and the second time there was too much cake compared to the custard and it wasn't coming out of the pan in an appetizing looking way, so we scrapped it and had to come up with something else.

Dinner was a success in the fact that no one in the dining room knew that there had even been any problems at all. The food looked beautiful, tasted great and service ran very smoothly. That is really the mark of a successful dinner--flawless service and guest satisfaction.

Menu

Stuffed Poblano Peppers
Sherried Onion Soup
Salmon with Hard Cider
Orange Sangria Sorbet
Roast Pork Tenderloin
Pastel Imposible

















I am really glad it is over now though!