New Beginnings and T Minus 110

Happy 2010!! I hope everyone brought in the New Year safe!!

As for Brian and I, we had 7 friends over for an evening of food and fun! We decided to keep it low key and it was so much fun. We watched the movie "Public Enemies" ~ with Johnny Depp. I was actually surprised that there were a couple of us who really didn't know the history of John Dillinger and "Baby Face" Nelson or "Pretty Boy" Floyd and their notorious but famous history back in the Great Depression. Very interesting!!! Even the kiddos were into it!



Mmmmm Oreo Truffles. Yes, I cheated on this a little bit. I was distracted by a movie we were watching while simultaneously making these. So finally, I gave up and decided to just leave them un-coated! Oh well, they were still DELICIOUS!!! Not to mention gone by the end of the night!!!



There was even some male bonding going on after midnight! The kiddos had been running around blowing on their party favor horns and ringing some bells, shouting and whooping and hollering "Happy New Year" all around our building! This brought out our next door neighbor....opps. It was all good. He was just wanting to wish us a Happy New Year and join in on the excitement!!! In this photo, our good friend Adam is on the left, Brian is in the middle and our neighbor on the right.



Then it was Wii Bowling time! And can I just tell you how much fun it was? It was so much fun ~ and to think, I didn't even have one drop of alcohol at all! :)

So, who came out the winner when all was said and done?!? Yes, little 'ole me!!!! Woo Hoo!!!

I really enjoyed spending the evening at home with close friends! It was bittersweet in some aspects because I wished I was spending the time with family as well. Due to the distance factor, I know it's better and safe that my kiddo's didn't travel the hour and a half one way to join us in the celebration; nor was is feasible for us to spend New Years Eve in Minnesota with Brian's family, but being around close friends made up for it! It's rewarding to have such close friends to be able to share our milestones and memories with!

Today I re-start a past relationship with Jillian Michaels. Yes, I'm going to be seeing her every.single.day 6 days out of the week! I started her "30 day shred" program several months back, but just gave up. Not this time! I'm dedicated to devote 6 days to her starting today! (Honestly though, I have to admit that I can't seem to find the CD, but I'm determined to locate it today!!)

Today, I also start cooking healthy meals for us. The biggest thing for me to learn how to do is to not cook so much! I'm used to cooking dishes that is for maybe 4 people and it's just Brian and I at home. Needless to say we have tons of left-overs ~ which Brian generally takes for lunch the next couple of days then the rest gets thrown out. I want to learn how to cook meals for two. That way we don't waste anything!

Another goal of mine for 2010 (lifestyle change wise) is that I want to be more Eco-Friendly! I want to really focus on contributing to making the world a better environment for us! I have a very good friend who has an amazing Blog titled Eco-Friendly and Frugal which she shares very informational and educational tips! She has wonderful product reviews and often times awesome Give-Aways.

I've found some very frugal ways to save on everyday household cleaning supplies from another great blog titled The Good Wife ~ clicking her link takes you to her post where she shares all of her recipes for making your own frugal cleaning supplies.

I'm definitely going to use the wealth of information these two ladies share and live 2010 Eco-Friendly and Frugal!

T Minus 110

Yes ~ the big day is 110 short days away. Amazingly enough I am still behind!!!! As you all know, I've been in what I call a 'wedding rut' the last 2 to 3 months. I put everything wedding related on the back burner for some reason; I just wasn't into dealing with it. I'm slowly but surely coming out of said 'rut' and I am going to get off my behind and get things moving along!

Yesterday while out on our date day, I found some awesome Lindor Chocolate Truffles that I am going to put in the Welcome Bags for our cruising guests. It was a great start to gettting back on the track in the wedding planning process. Baby steps......

Oh.....another great wedding related task that's being accomplished (albeit not by me ~ but getting accomplished nonetheless) is CAKE TASTING!!! Remember, one of our AHR's (At Home Receptions) is in Minnesota....and yes, we live in California. So............. my awesome friend Jaye (who happens to be the author of Eco-Friendly and Frugal) is currently visiting family in Rochester, Minnesota for the holidays. Where exactly do Brian's family and friends live in Minnesota?!? Whoa.......Rochester. Where exactly is our Minnesota reception going to be? Yes, Rochester! And so the lovely Jaye has so graciously set up some cake tasting appointments!! She, along with Brian's sister-in-law got to taste several different cakes from The Gingerbread House in Rochester! I am so excited!! AND, they have another appointment today from another bakery! Woo Hoo! So far, the French Vanilla cake with Fresh Strawberries seem to be the hit! (My favorite of course!)

I know, I know, everyone asks me: "Are you making your own wedding cake since you do that for a living?" And my answer to that would be that I would LOVE to, and I am most certainly doing it for our local reception here in California, however for our Minnesota one, most definitely not! There is no way possible I could create exactly what I would like to have with only going to Minnesota 3 days prior to the event! It's stressful enough having to plan the reception across the thousands of miles to begin with!!!!!

So yeah....I suppose things are getting done. Maybe at a slow pace, but they're getting done.

Please take the time to look at my Verse of the Day today. Maybe make it a daily thing every day. I know that sometimes just reading something uplifting can have a huge impact on your day. :)

Have a great Friday and Happy New Year everyone!!

Reflections on the past year...good...and bad....

Can you believe we're 1 week away from Christmas 2009?!? I don't know about you guys, but hasn't this past year absolutely flown by?!? I can honestly say that it was a very eventful year! There were a lot of AMAZING events that took place (like my engagement ~ yipee) as well as some very disheartening events (like Brian's daughter uninviting him from her wedding - long story which I will share with my readers very soon!)

Let me share with you some of the 'Highlights' of our year 2009!!



March was my very first trip to Minnesota! Brian's best friend of 35+ years was celebrating his 50th birthday! These guys haven't been apart from each other's lives the entire time they've known each other!!! Jerry had no idea that we were flying in THAT MORNING, nor did he even know there was a party in the works!!! It was very, very emotional when they saw each other again!!! (Brian had moved from Minnesota to California 10 months prior to this B-day Bash ~ He had lived in Minnesota his entire life) I am so very happy that we got to be a part of Jerry's special day!!!!

But before that trip, Brian's daughter, Jackie came for a quick visit with some college friends. We got to show them around Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, as well as across the Golden Gate Bridge.

It was a great time!!! I'll have to admit, going to Minnesota was very nerve-wracking for me because number 1) I was going to not only be meeting his family, I was going to be meeting his grown, adult children! And number 2) It was going to be COOOOLLLLLDDDDD!!! However, I was so excited to see the Mall of America more than ANYTHING!

I couldn't believe there was a ROLLER COASTER in the middle of the mall! There was a ferris wheel, a log ride, a whole amusement park for kiddo's there! Not to mention the three or was it four levels?!? A gazillion stores, several Victoria Secrets, tons of restaurants and lot and lots to see! If you ever want to go there, I'd suggest you plan on spending an entire 8 hours just to be able to see and do everything there is to do! Trust me on this one!!! And if you have little ones, the Nickelodeon Park is very awesome!!!



I was so very honored to be with Brian when he met 3 of this Grandchildren for the very first time! It was so amazing!!! A year ago this past May, Brian re-connected from his daughter whom he hadn't seen for just about 20 years! Shortly after re-connecting with her, he was transferred from Minnesota to California, so they only had one opportunity to 'meet' for the first time before having to leave for California.

I just adore these three little boys! They are so adorable!!!



In April, a very good friend of ours got married and I was privileged and honored to have made her wedding cake! It was a 4 tiered square French Vanilla cake filled with fresh Strawberries! This is one of the few weddings where I was able to set up the cake and then enjoy the wedding ceremony along with the dinner and reception! It was a very fun, enjoyable evening!








In May, we ventured on our second trip to Minnesota. This time for one of Brian's daughter's graduation from University of Minnesota ~ Mankato. This is the same daughter who came and visited us in March. I'd have to be honest and say it was a very weird situation for me. I informally "met" the ex-wife. I had a lot of mixed emotions going into this trip, but very apprehensive!! All four of Brian's children from his 21 year marriage was there (all whom I met on our previous trip) and they were very cordial to me. However, I still felt oh....kinda out of place. Nonetheless, I enjoyed myself!



That same day was my 41st birthday as well. Brian's brother and wife took us to a very well-known, upscale restaurant in that area called the Hubble House. It was phenomenal!!! They have had very famous people come through their establishment and they had autographs from each and every one of them....all the way back in the day! As far back as Ulysses S. Grant! Seriously! I throughly enjoyed this birthday celebration!!!! Knowing Mother's Day was the day after my birthday and having to be away from home and my kid's kinda got me feeling a little depressed, but the dinner was very uplifting!!!



In early June, a big group of friends gathered at a local Mexican restaurant for Happy Hour. This particular establishment is famous for their $1.50 Margaritas on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Through the ever popular new Facebook craze, I re-connected with a ton of high school friends. One of these was my friend Victor. We went to Junior High School together and the last time we saw each other was the last day of my 7th grade year! That was 25+ years ago. He is such a great guy and came all the way out to join us this particular night!!! :) (Yes, I did have a crush on him back then!!)



Our final trip to Minnesota for the year was in late June. Originally, one of the reasons for this trip is because Brian's eldest daughter's wedding was on the Saturday the 20th. However, things changed and Brian was no longer invited to the wedding. (I was still invited should I have chosen to go...which I didn't). Not only was the wedding the reason for the trip, but also, Sunday the 21st was Father's Day and Monday the 22nd was Brian's birthday!!! We were there spending it with family and tons of great friends!!! As you can see in the picture, I got to see the Minnesota Twins play one of their last games in the Dome!!! Woo Hoo!! The most memorable moment of this trip was on Father's Day when Brian proposed to me in front of more than 10 of his family members!!!! Of course, I said "YES"!!!



In August, Brian's brother rode his Harley from Minnesota all the way out here to California! Yes, he did!!! It took him three days to get here ~ and that's pushing it, and three TWO days to get back! He was one riding fool!!! Anyhow, we spend an amazing 5 days doing the total tourist thing! We visited Santa Cruz, Yosemite, Sausalito, San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, etc. In this picture, we were at a restaurant in Capitola. This is a BEAUTIFUL restaurant! The have a "hillavator" in which you have to ride down in to the restaurant!! The restaurant is several split levels and has both indoor/outdoor seating.



In early September, I had the opporunity to see Julianne Hough and Billy Ray Cyrus perform in "Country in the Park" in at Gibson Ranch in Sacramento! Some very good friends of ours had VIP tickets so we had back stage passes along with Meet & Greet passes! Woo Hoo! We had free lunch and all you can drink drinks! Beer, soda, water, you name it! I had a wonderful time, but I have to say it was quite a disappointment meeting Billy Ray. He was not friendly, personable or anything! We were told prior to him making his appearance back stage that he would only do one autograph and one photo, however his guy had to take the picture. Whatever works I suppose! Meeting Julianne Hough was amazing. She is a very down to earth gal and was very nice to all the fans!!!



I almost forgot to mention our AMAZING Engagement picture session with the AMAZING Jaye Reilly! She is a very phenomenal photographer and a wonderful person! I couldn't be more pleased with how our pictures turned out! I am so very, very excited that we were able to have Jaye join us on our Wedding Cruise and she will be shooting all of our wedding related activities, along with the ceremony which will take place on the Beach on Catalina Island! http://www.jayereillyphotography.com/



In October, we went to the San Francisco Giant's last home game of 2009! Brian can actually say that he went to a Giant's home game!!We were lucky because the weather wasn't too cold, and in the same token it wasn't too hot either.

What's so special about this you ask?!? Well, when I was walking back to our seats after visiting the lady's room, what do I find?!? Brian down on his knees with a my ring!!! Yipee! I didn't know he had actually bought the ring yet. We picked it out and everything but we never ordered it....or so I thought!!!



My sweet dear 88-year-old Grandma Sally came for her annual visit from Hawaii! We were lucky enough to get together with her this time on 3 different occasions! And it's always so much fun getting together with all my ohana (that's family in Hawaiian)!! We get to see relatives we haven't seen in a long time, sometimes even meeting for the first time. We get to eat some awesome Filipino and/or Hawaiian dishes that I would never get unless Grandma was here! :)

Can't wait for her visit again next year!



Brian and I had a number of invitations for Thanksgiving this year ~ inlcuding one from my son and his girlfriend. Unfortunately, since Brian works in retail, he had to be at work the next morning, Black Friday, at 3 a.m., so naturally, we couldn't make the drive to Sacramento which is about an hour and a half North of us and enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with them. We did however, have a late lunch/early dinner with some very wonderful and dear friends of ours; Grandpa & Liz!



The 4th of December brings so many people's birthdays that I know. Seriously....I think I know 5 people personally who was born on the 4th of December! Last year I was honored to make some very good friend ours daughter's 1st birthday. It was a Castle Cake (which you can see here: http://cakes4fun.wordpress.com ) I was privileged enough to do her cake again this year. I absolutely loved the theme and I had complete fun creating this cake!!! It was a French Vanilla cake with Strawberry filling, iced completely in Pink Buttercream icing and decorated with Marshmallow Fondant polka dots and stripes! So much fun!!! Little Elise loved it as well!

So, you've just read though just a glimpse of our 2009. I have some photos of my children and I at different get togethers throughout the year as well. My grown, adult children along with my 13-year-old always seems to think that when I ask for photos of the three of them together, they have to pose silly. It's hard enough to get the three of them together at one time due to everyone's school and work schedules not to mention the distance, but really...do they have to always be goofy?!? I will dedicate a special post just for my children, staring my children. :)

Thanks for reading!!! Happy Friday everyone!!!

P.S. Don't forget about my GIVE AWAY!!!

T-Minus 136

Polka dots & Stripes for a Birthday Girl turning 2 years old!!! I was so honored to make her first birthday cake last year that I had to make her cake again this year!!! It was made with Marshmallow Fondant...yummy! :)

This past week actually flew by! I haven't done much wedding related or anything else. Been doing a lot of baking though. I have another week of relatively keeping busy baking and/or making christmas candies, and also Christmas / Birthday shopping!

For the most part, wedding related tasks are coming to a bit of a halt until the Holidays are over... but me being me, I hope to squeeze something, anything, wedding related DIY projects in the mix!!!

Today marks 18 weeks.... 18 weeks until we're off on the Carnival Elation with close to 35 friends and family members! I am thoroughly excited and can not wait for it to come already!!! It seems like such a long time away, when in reality it's actually right around the corner!!! Can you believe that the wedding date is only 136 days away. Wow. I remember when it was in the late two hundreds.... and now it's in the early one hundreds..... almost to double digits. HOLY FREAKING OUT!!!!

I'm so very glad that one of my best friends who moved away to Arizona is going on the cruise! We became such close friends really quick, worked together at a Law Firm and also at a local Karaoke Bar! :) Had fun times together for years!!! We kinda went our separate ways several years ago, but then re-connected and have been keeping in touch over the last year or so! :) So very happy she'll be joining us on our cruise!!! Yipee!!!

It's Monday! Weekend Recap & Photos!!

In 20 weeks, we'll be on our Cruise! Yipee! 20 freaking weeks. It's still unbelieveable. But, I'll get over it. Today I have a cake order (1/2 sheet ~ so it's huge) so I'll be working on that this morning. Meeting the client at Noon for pick up, then after that, I am going to take my broken Apothecary Jar back to Michaels!!!

Can you believe I did that?!? Well, it's not entirely my fault! They only wrapped the lid of the jar in paper before putting it in a bag. The entire jar itself was just placed in the plastic bag without any wrapping at all!!! And the wrapped lid was placed in the same bag too. Ugh...I didn't check it until this morning and I discovered it was broken. I know I must have done it, but still....if they would have wrapped the jar in paper, this probably wouldn't have happened!!! So, I'm going to go see if I can exchange it!!! :)

While I was at Michaels on Saturday, I also took advantage of their 40% off entire stock of candles coupon as well! I scored!!!

That was my Saturday! I spent some time shopping at Michaels!!! I spent the rest of the evening making 4 dozen cupcakes ~ two dozen for a client and two dozen for my football friends that get together on Sundays!!!

We always meet at 10 a.m. at a local restaurant/bar for Football Sunday!! And let me tell you, we make it a day! I walk in with my Starbucks Frappacinno and some baked goodies, while eveyone else orders Bloody Mary's or beer. Yuck. First of all, I HATE beer, and secondly, how can you freaking drink alcohol at 10 o'clock in the morning!!! Ewwwww.

Yesterday we had a BLAST. It was great! It was Brian's weekend to work, so he joined us at 3:30. He had such a great day at work and had some good news, so he was in a celebratory mood. Needless to say, he had two Bloody Marys, and several beers and was feeling no pain by 6 or so. I think this was the second time that I have seen him soooooooo hilariously intoxicated! I was worried because we had two vehicles at the restaurant and against all of my protesting, he insisted on driving home. Luckily we only live about 3 minutes from the restaurant and we made it home safe and sound!!!

Here's a photo of the cake I did this morning. It's a half sheet French Vanilla with Fresh Strawberries and Buttercream Icing. Mmmmmmmmmm. Just plain and simple ~ no writing necessary. I like easy! :)

Little Mermaid!!

I spent my morning making a Little Mermaid themed cake! :) It was so much fun to make. Alot easier than I expected!! I find it so much easier to work with Whipped Topping rather than Buttercream in some instances. However, Whipped Topping makes things "fatter" or "fluffier" if you will. AND, Whipped Topping requires refrigeration!!! Ha!

In between baking and decorating, we actually bought our Wedding Arch yesterday. Utilizing a 50% off coupon from Michaels, we only paid $16 for it!! Yippee!! I went to a huge Floral / Wedding Supply place in Modesto on Friday and saw a decorated Arch they had displayed and I absolutely LOVE it. I am going to try and replicate it ~ using our colors ~ because it was so simple!! And, that is what we're looking for since we'll have to bring the Arch and it's decorations on board the cruise ship with us!!! I'll have to go back to that store and take a picture of it so I can post it here!!!

I also got the remaining 30 MIB's labeled; got the shredded paper in the mailing boxes, put them all together, and labeled the boxes!!! ALL DONE. All we need to do now is hand them out to all of our California guests. Woot woot!

As of today, we're 157 days out until the actual wedding day. Not many days left huh?!? Yikes. That means we have 21 weeks before we leave for the cruise. TWENTY ONE. That is not many weeks at all. Double Yikes!

This means I have to get my pretty little behind in gear. I am officially in the "freak out" stage of this entire process. **** I need a stiff drink ****