Thursday, July 23, 2009

Another Cake

Last year, Mom and I (Treasured Cakes) did a baby shower cake for a client. This year, the new mommy asked us to make the 1st birthday cake. We were very excited to do it! She told us it was an "Under the Sea" theme and that she wanted it carved into the shape of a "1". Not a problem :-) Mom and I let our imaginations go and came out with a cake that we both loved!













26 days and counting...

Until we leave for Paris, France!!! I have to admit, I'm getting pretty nervous. I know it's not necessary to speak the language there, but I know I need to at least know a little bit. I took 4 years of French in school and only remember bits and pieces. Hopefully that will get me by. If not, I've bought French for Dummies to help remind me a bit.

Another thing shaking my nerves is the actual traveling to get there. I've never been a huge fan of flying and I will be on a plane for 11 hrs to get there. I'm thinking there will be a bottle of NyQuil involved...

I really hope we get to do everything we want to do while we're there. We'll be there from Thursday afternoon to very early Tuesday morning. I know that sounds like a long time, but there is a TON of stuff I want to do and see while we're there.

Blake is the BEST for getting me my dream vacation for my 25th birthday! It's even better that we will actually be there ON my birthday so I will get to celebrate it near the Eiffel Tower :-)

Update on the E-Mealz

A few people have been asking how my new venture with E-Mealz has been going. I will say that it has saved us quite a bit in groceries!! Not to mention, the recipes are AMAZING! Blake and I were both very skeptical because we can be kind of picky eaters, but the food is so good :-)

For those interested, here is the link:
E-MEALZ Easy Meals for Busy and Frugal Families

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Riding with Blake serving papers and trying to stay cool... At least the A/C finally got fixed today, yay!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

New Cake!

Today was my "cake club" meeting, the Cake Divas, and we made a Fairy Toadstool cake with little fairies. Mom and I made one together so it wouldn't take as long and it came out REALLY cute!



Wednesday, July 8, 2009

4th of July!

For the 4th of July this year, Blake and I took my sister, niece and nephew down to Cedar Creek Lake where we got to see and spend time with my dad, Grandma Patsy and the rest of the family. We had a total blast! We rode on the boat out in the lake, went swimming and watched an airshow. During the evening we swam in the lake while watching the fireworks that were directly over our heads. They were so close to us that after every firework exploded, we got a nice shower of ashes, shells, and other debris. This is by far the BEST way to watch fireworks and celebrate the 4th.

My house is an oven...

Monday our A/C went out. In Texas, this is the worst thing that can happen during the summer. The one appliance in your house that you pray will survive. Our house got to 92 degrees inside :-(

Two nights and 2 1/2 days of no A/C and 5-6 fans constantly blowing and very little sleep led to a very grumpy Ashley and Blake.

Thank goodness that the previous homeowners had purchased for us one year of a Home Warranty (that expires this month). For only $60, the A/C guy came out today (Wednesday) and let us know that the fan motor was out. They have to order the part and it won't be in for a few days. They did, however, show us how to manually run the A/C. We now are back to our nice, cool house and loving it.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

My Animals...

For those of you who don't know, we have 3 animals in our house...

First came Zoe, full of attitude...














Next was Pebbles, the princess...














And finally came Jack, TROUBLE...














As some of you know Jack came to me under the false pretenses that he was a chihuahua (all I wanted was a small little lap dog). Later as he got bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and even bigger...the vet confirmed that he is a PITBULL/CHIHUAHUA MIX!!!! This was not what I was prepared for...

I am still having so many problems with Jack and desperately seeking the right person to train him. I've talked to many trainers and taken many of their tips and tricks and put them into use and got absolutely NO progress. I've never given up on an animal before, but if Jack can't get his act together soon, he will have to go. Granted, I will give him to someone that I know can care for and take care of him properly. But I am starting to think that this dog and I just aren't a good match.

E-Mealz

So, I've been put in charge of our food budget.

Great....

While I was listening to Dave Ramsey's talk show this afternoon with Blake, Dave Ramsey recommended something called E-Mealz that would save you tons of money on your food budget. I went online to check it out and it's AMAZING!

Basically, for $5 a month it plans out your meals for you and even gives you an item by item grocery list. If you choose a specific store, it gives you the prices and the average price for that whole week.

For a week of food for 2 people, it averages $40 a week. Now, from our past experiences this is a HUGE difference!!

We're going to try it for a few months and if it really works and makes that much of a difference on our food budget... I'm sold.

I'll try to keep an update on here to let everyone know how it's going. The first try is this coming up week.

If you're interested in trying it also, here's the link...
E-MEALZ Easy Meals for Busy and Frugal Families

The Month of June...

This should have been the best month ever! It was the first month of me officially working at home for Blake and being FREE!!!! Instead, I had a miscarriage, followed swiftly by a stomach virus, which was then followed by the flu. Really?!?! Three weeks in bed and I was officially tired of working at home. When I was finally able to get out of bed (the very last week of June) I did have a good time. Hung out with friends, saw a few movies and even got to see my dad.

I'm determined to make July amazing and have tons of fun!!

Starting Fresh...

So, after failing miserably at my last blog I've decided to start fresh. This will not be a blog about baking or cooking, but rather a blog about me, mine, and all that is my life. For some it will be the most boring blog out on the world wide web, but it will be a way for me to put it out there and those that want to read it are more than welcome.