The "Big News" Blog

Alright, alright! People keep asking about the whole engagement thing, so I figured as always I better answer to the masses. I have been avoiding it because I don't want to bore people, but I better at least give an update. After this I hope to keep the "wedding planning" updates to a dull roar. This Sunday we went wine tasting with his mom as per tradition... it was great! Then we got some steaks and grilled with his mom and Gary. :) Monday we both worked and then went to a BBQ at his aunt and uncle's house.

The proposal:
No grand story here folks, but it was a perfect little story for me. I had to go to Arizona for business on Tuesday, May 22. Geoff drove me to the airport (just the local airport in Hillsboro for a charter/shuttle flight) and as I was getting out of the car he said "you almost forgot something!", then pulled out his ring box and said "Will you marry me?" There was some other stuff in there, but I promise nothing romantic or anything. :) I said yes and that was that... then I flew away.

The current plans:
I *just* found out today that we officially have a date, it's this August 11 in Dallas, TX. We chose Dallas because it's closer to my family (especially grandparents who are a good 10 - 15 years older than his) and somewhat centrally located. The timing is based on the fact that my sister is looking for jobs in Spain and that is one of the few times that she will definitely be in the country. Also, his brother and sister will be in school this fall and we don't want to wait a whole year. Those are some of the main reasons, although there are certainly others. We are getting married at Spring Valley United Methodist Church, which is my parent's church. Pastor Anna will be marrying us. We're going to Dallas June 15 - June 18 so Geoff can meet my dad and sister, so we can meet Pastor Anna, and for a few other wedding details. After the wedding we will most likely have a BBQ type party at my parent's house. I don't know much but I know there will be NO DANCING. :) I have been talking to a photographer I found on Craigslist named Annette (see the *Ann* theme? odd huh?) and I REALLY like her. I am thinking of booking her! For colors, we are thinking either just red, or a combo of red/orange/yellow/pink. Here Comes the Bride will not be played, it was vetoed by my sister and Geoff. Instead we will have Canon in D. (I'm trying to think of questions people keep asking me).

The Registries:
I am only writing about this because I find it funny and amusing for blogging and think my readers will appreciate it. We weren't going to register, but his family HIGHLY suggested it and that we do it soon, plus I think my mom would have thought we were crazy if we didn't. She said people will get you things regardless, so you might as well give them choices of things you like. Okay. Anyway, here are some of the funny things about registering: the MOST funny is that Geoff registered for a lint roller! I was like "why?" and he said "to clean my suit before the wedding". Hmmm okay, whatever you freak. :) And he said if I remove it he will then add THREE more. So yikes... better keep that on there. That's my favorite part of the registry now. Then... they asked us to pick out a "fine china" pattern and an "everyday" pattern. Only for the everyday pattern she picked up Noritake Colorwave mug, SLAMMED it against the desk and said "it's practically indistrucable, you must go with this". So we did (and actually we do both like it). But once we picked the fine china and everyday patterns... they added like 40 different items on there!! Bowls and plates and platters and serving stuff and salt and pepper! Yikes. Oh well. It was just a very amusing process, and I'm sure those that are already married can relate, but I thought I'd share for those who aren't because it was TOO FREAKING FUNNY!!

Future Plans:
We're not going on a honeymoon right after the wedding, but we will probably go on a cruise sometime this fall or early summer. We'll also have a party / reception type thing in Oregon where we'll invite all of our friends and family. We're hoping that will be at one of our favorite vineyards! NO idea on the date yet... it will have to either be this August / September or not until next spring because of the weather. We are NOT kicking out our roommates, we love them and want to "keep" them (many people have been asking that question). I think those are all of the answers to the "big questions".

Super productive night!

Today was a GOOD day. Oh first of all - it was a GOOD weekend... Geoff and I were able to go shopping for him and me... we got him a bunch of stuff for his motorcycle, including new tools, gear (helmet/jacket), parts he needs, and a little tent thing for the side of the house. He had been saving for a motorcycle so since he didn't actually have to pay for the motorcycle itself, he had plenty to spend on fun stuff. He even got one of those Craftsman tool chests... I had a FIELD DAY organizing that. I should take pictures of that too! Sooo much fun! And for me... well, more cake stuff! Actually, mostly it was just a storage cabinet and large pink basket (can't find a link) that I organized all of the cake stuff in. I should have taken before and after pics... but I forgot. It looks much better, and we finally have a dining room again! Yaaaaay! :) Oh, I almost forgot... Saturday morning, I made my first cake I got paid for! It was a success. Anyway, it was a great weekend of storage and organization.

Today was a great day at work... I had a great intro meeting with the new finance manager, I got a really nice voicemail, and one other thing that made me happy that I can't remember at the moment. Then at home Geoff and I talked to my sister online for a bit and he went off to an inventory way down in Woodburn. I talked to my sister more until 7 (she is working a super boring job right now), then went to the grocery store, made guacamole for dinner, finished 40 fondant roses and made 30 fondant leaves (oh yeah - I forgot to mention I started/made about 50 fondant roses yesterday... it took 5 or 6 hours! Finishing them and the leaves only took about 2 hours tonight), took a shower, and packed... and it's still before 10 PM!! See, quite productive. The packing is for Arizona - I feel like I spend half my time there these days, kinda like my senior year of college when I went to LA all the time! I love travelling. Especially to the same place over and over (wow that sounds lame) because you get to know the place and kinda feel like a resident. Okay that's a stretch, but I do enjoy getting to know cities and having them be familiar. Arizona is pretty familiar to me by now. I so love it too, so I'm excited I get to go again! I'll be there until Thursday, when I have my final cake class of my final cake course! Tear... but that's okay. It'll be good. :)

The Readers Are Revolting

I hear that my readers are outraged and demand blogging. I have actually heard this from two different sources.

First off, ARIZONA for the Hart and Becky wedding. It was two weeks ago and I STILL have not blogged about it yet - I've been insanely busy, more on that later. Anyway, I also have not had time to look for my camera charger so I haven't been able to download the pictures yet either. Boo! But Geoff and I got in on Friday afternoon and ended up with a Mustang as a rental... Geoff was WAY excited, he loves Mustangs! We checked in at our hotel and cleaned up a bit, then met Emily, Kathleen, Stacey, and Tim at Grilled Expedition for happy hour. I was so nervous... I felt like it was a first date rather than meeting old friends! I think I was nervous to introduce them to Geoff. But it was great! Emily and I talked about how Patrick secretly had these planning skills all along and he could have been the one to plan stuff in high school! Dang... he did put together a great night. After that we went to Gordon Biersch for dinner... it was good but a little cold and windy since we sat outside! Then we went to The Library to hang out. That was REALLY fun because the wedding party came and joined us there after the rehersal dinner, so we saw Hart and Becky, Anthony, and Nikki. It was such a college bar!! Very fun. At one point "Whoop there it is" came on and Hart, Emily, Patrick, and I all jumped up off of the couch we were sitting on and started dancing! It was so random... it brought back memories from Spirit Squad in 7th grade. We had a special dance to that song. Hilarious! Just a wonderful night.

Saturday was fun! We met The Cohens (Randy and Laura... friends of mine from grade school that I got together in high school and later got married) for breakfast at The Waffle House. Funny! Laura and Geoff both know me so well so it was funny to listen to them talking about me. Hehe. :) Then Geoff and I drove around, Geoff got his hair cut, we played mini golf, etc. Then we went to the wedding and the reception and had another great night! It was a beautiful wedding... I ADORE the pink and orange color combo and fun was had by all. Geoff and I are these cake snobs so we stared at the cake beforehand and commented on how much better we could do - yeah right. Seriously the cake tasted AWESOME though!! Sooo yummy. I think it was French Buttercream which I REALLY need to learn how to make! :)

Sunday morning we had an early flight out and then I was soooo sick. I didn't even go to my cake class, boo! I stayed in bed all day. Monday I had my second day of work at Hallmark, Tuesday I had Remicade, Wednesday I had Hallmark, Thursday I had gym class and cake class, and by Friday I was just fried. On Saturday morning I quit Hallmark... I know, that's terrible, but I was finding that I wasn't loving it and my friend Kendra pointed out "if you don't NEED a second job and you don't LOVE your second job, what's the point of having a second job?" Good point, so I quit.

Sunday morning I made a beautiful daisy cake (which I didn't take pictures of, I'm sorry!) to take to Geoff's parents for Mothers Day! It was A HIT and I got my first "gig" decorating a cake for a graduation (Geoff's brother Trevor's girlfriend Kristy's high school graduation). YAY! I'm soooo excited. It was a fabulous night.

This week has been insane at work and stuff at home has been busy too. Wednesday we drove down to Sheridan (about an hour and a half south) so Geoff could pick up his dad's old motorcycle. For those that don't know, his dad passed away in February of 2000 from cancer. His Uncle Jeff had been holding onto the bike (he has a HUGE barn) and asked Geoff if he wanted it. Geoff jumped at the chance so we went down right away to pick it up! He worked on it all day yesterday... I'm so excited for him. It's really special that he can have something of his dad's. :)

Tonight we're going to a BBQ at Kendra and Beau's and I have another "gig" for tomorrow morning - decorating a birthday cake for my coworker Cindy's daughter Emily! Very exciting.

So lots of excitement going on... just too busy to write about it. Maybe more next week! Oh and some pics if I manage to find my camera this weekend! I'm headed home now... it is time to be done!

I'll leave you with one more thing... Wednesday I was soooo busy at work and needed to get out for a little bit, so Geoff was nice enough to take me to lunch. We went to BW3s and they have this little on screen trivia thing that you can play with the whole country at other BW3s, Old Chicago, Applebees, and other restaurants. So we decided to play, and there are 7 questions worth 1000 points each. You get 1000 points if you answer correctly immediately, then it keeps going down as you take more time. I got about 6500 points and beat Geoff and he was mad – then we saw that on that round, I beat EVERYONE IN THE COUNTRY!!! I was soooo proud. Plus the local BW3s has a top winners board for the month, so I bumped down someone with about 5500 points that had been there since May 1!! HAHA. Then we played again… and I got about 5500 points and came in 12 in the country and then I got number TWO on the BW3 top local winners board. So I have the number 1 and number 2 spot. YAAAAAAAY for me. I’m sooo excited it was so fun!

Fly by post

I can't believe I haven't posted about Arizona yet! I had one of the most fun nights I've had in a looooooong time. I just had a blast with my old friends, and Geoff loved them too. I will post about that later today or tomorrow.

For now though... my family does something we call the "family chat bin" (don't remember where that came from)... basically it's an email to all of the people in the family, we probably get about 10 emails a day from it. Just my immediate family. Anyway, the bin has been kicking into high gear lately so I've been focused on that instead of my blog. This is what I wrote the bin this morning:

Good morning binners! Yesterday Hallmark was slightly better… I helped the sweetest old man who couldn’t see very well, so I read him the cards for mother’s day. It was pretty fun. He got two different mother’s day cards, one I couldn’t tell who it was for and one for his wife. Then he needed an anniversary card, but his wife was in the store so he was like “shhhhhhh”. So we went to the anniversary section and found him a card, he also had a hearing aid so I had to speak right into that so I could speak softly but so that he could hear. Pretty funny. He was very thankful. And then I checked out a lot of people and did some work on the card section. It is good but it’s not AMAZING. After that I went home and started going through the organics bin! We got some good stuff, including avocados so I can make some GUAC! Yum-o. Last night for dinner we split a ribeye steak and also had salad (all organic), peppers and onions grilled (onions were organic), and asparagus (organic) with cheese sauce. Mom, Geoff was a little bit skeptical of the cheese sauce but he LOVED IT. He couldn’t get enough! I told him I’d never had it much because it seems like Dad always gobbled it up every year and no one else got at it. Geoff said he’d have to be fighting Dad to get some! It was funny. He made it of course because I have no patience for things like melting cheese or chocolate or anything that could burn. Tonight while I’m at cake class he’s going to cut up some mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, and onions, oh and maybe a sirloin, for us to fondue up tonight. We still have stuff left over to make the dill sauce plus all the veggies so we are gonna do that! And we got another leek and Geoff was like “pleeeeeease more leek rings!” I didn’t know he liked them that much. Well, when we were finishing up with dinner, the doorbell rang and I opened it, and it was someone in a motorcycle helmet that said “gimmie all your money”. I thought at first it was my roommate Brad and his girlfriend Carmen, but it was Kendra and Beau!!! They were out on their motorcycles for the first time this year so they had to ride a bit to keep the batteries going, so they came to visit us! They stayed an hour or so and we had a really nice time! I love them. And they invited us to a BBQ at their house next week. We talked about me working at Hallmark and they said “ya know, if you’re going to have a second job, you better LOVE it. If you don’t need it and you don’t love it, what the heck is the point? It’s one thing to leave your ‘real’ job and say yippie I get to go to my fun job now, but if you’re not doing that, then quit!” So I think that pretty much summed everything up for me. I’m going to try Saturday (a weekend day) and then make my decision from there! But yeah, so it was a super fun night last night. Hope everyone is having fun in IC!

Tuesday

This weekend was pretty good... Friday Geoff and I opted not to go to the Way and instead work on a secret project which shall be announced in the future when and if the time is right.

Saturday I went to Aqua Fit at the gym with Cindy - what a debacle! The class was hilarious and the instructor was quite interesting. She was a 42 year old mother of 5 who at one point jumped into the pool with her clothes on. Crazy. Anyway, after that I met Katie at Starbucks and then went to Old Navy. Then Geoff and I went to Russell St. BBQ for dinner... it was the best food I've ever had there! After that we met Cindy and her husband and another couple at a place called Amigos II for cocktails. Fun!

Sunday I went to church at Solid Rock again. I was in one of those moods where I did NOT want to go to church... and I was like "well, I'll go and see what happens". I remained in my bad mood throughout the entire time until the very last song... and then it was great. I was glad I went. After that I went to Muchas Gracias and had a breakfast burrito... sooooo good. Then I said hello to Geoff at work. After that I took a nap, packed up for my cake class, and off I went! It lasted about 3 hours but it was soooo fun, I love the new flowers I learned! Then I made a salad, watched a tiny bit of Blood Diamond, and went to bed.

Yesterday I walked the golf course with Geoff, Eric, and Trevor after work, then Geoff and I went to Lloyd Center so he could eat dinner at Steak Escape. Then we went to Cheesecake Factory where Geoff got some cheesecake for dessert and we stopped by his mom's house to say hello. I was SO TIRED because I slept really poorly Sunday night, so I wasn't much fun.

Today I am making chicken salad wraps (I am using wraps instead of bread because we actually have tortillas around the house and I want to use stuff up! - basically I am just using this recipe for the actual chicken salad part) and leek rings for dinner. Even though I love WATCHING the Food Network, I never actually cook anything from it, so this will be a first. As an added bonus, this will use up some celery, onion, leeks, spinach, and lettuce from my veggie bin. To be 100% honest - that was the main reason I remembered these recipes, I was TRYING to come up with something I could do with my veggies. They are definitely accomplishing the goal of making me try new recipes and eat more veggies. YEAH!! :)

I also need to get my hair cut, stop by Target and the grocery store for a few things, color my hair, and make fondant flowers for my class on Sunday. Tomorrow I start work at Hallmark (which will last until 8:30) and Thursday I have a class at the gym and cake class (which lasts until 8) so this is my last full evening to get things done before I leave for Phoenix Friday morning. Lots lots lots to do! It will get done though. And I'm super excited about making my dinner! And work at Hallmark! And cake class. And Arizona!!! YEAH!!! It's gonna be a good rest of the week!!

Course 2 Final Pics!

The "overview"
A closeup of the basketweave... I do not like this picture because it shows the imperfections. In my defense, it is REALLY HARD on your hand, it took probably 30 - 35 minutes to do that basketweave technique and your hand just gets tired! Also, the birds look funny because it was raining the night I made them so rain got on them. The whole class had that problem.
A closer view of the top and the flowers.

Back

Sorry for running away so quickly yesterday, I had to go to a meeting. Anyway, last night we had dutch cheese fondue from The Fondue Cookbook (purchased at Crate & Barrel for only $11.99, they are discontinuing it so they had to order it special but it was way cheaper!), it was great! Geoff has much more patience to make such a thing than I do (I tried it once and made a big blobby burned cheese mess... although in my defense I didn't have the right recipe and it was New Years Day so I couldn't get all of the ingredients, etc. Addy and I had an interesting day and it's still a great story). Addy ended up coming over and a fabulous time was had by all. Our house was so full last night, Eric had a lady-friend over last night, and Kyle's girlfriend Jenny was there, and it was great! It is so fun to be in such a lively house.

Side note: I'm starving.

The organics bin was GREAT - it actually comes in box though, not a bin! Here's what we got:

• 3 Fuji Apples - *Local*
• 2 Red Bartlett Pears
• 2 Ataulfo Mango
• 4 Bananas
• 8oz. Strawberries
• 2 Leeks - *Local, farm direct*(Gee Cr.)
• 1/2 Snap/Snow Peas
• 1 Celery
• 6oz. Crimini Mushrooms - *Local, farm direct*(Hood river)
• 1 lg. Yellow Onion - *Local*
• 1 bunch Carrots
• 1 Lettuce
• 1 bunch Spinach
• 1 bunch French Breakfast Radish - *Local*(Groundworks)
• 1/2-3/4lb. Aparagus - *Local*(Inaba)

We had some carrots and apples as part of the fondue last night, and I had the strawberries for breakfast this morning. Yum!!! I need to find some more recipes for some of these other things. Very exciting. I was a little surprised because there was no bags for most of the stuff (except the strawberries and mushrooms), so I had to bag stuff up and root around looking for all of the little peas. But a lot of it was pretty contained. And now I know to be prepared. I can't wait for the next box!!

I think Geoff and I might go to the driving range during lunch, for $8 you can get 60 balls and lunch! It's super fun! He's busy today though and he's going golfing this afternoon with Eric, so not sure if he will have time or not. If not, I might just eat the pasta I have made or go to lunch at New Seasons with Cindy and Jill. So many great choices! Yum.

Tonight is class at the gym and then my last class of course 2!! So exciting. Tomorrow we're going to The Way with Addy and then not sure for the weekend. I'm kinda hoping I might be able to work a day or two at Hallmark if they call and hire me, but I'm not sure if they'd want me to start so soon. We'll have to see. I also have some chores I need to get done and at some point (like within the next year) I want to paint my bedroom light blue with brown trim. I don't love blue in general but I ADORE that color combo! :)

Slow

Not a lot going on lately... I have been cooking more and of course lots of cake stuff. Oh! And I got a call back from Hallmark - I had an interview yesterday and she's going to get back to me by the end of the week. The interview made me really excited about working there, so I hope it works out. It would be really great. I have my final class of course 2 tomorrow... these classes go by so quickly! So Geoff made me a cake this morning (he has the day off) and then I need to ice it when I get home tonight. Then I have all of my flowers ready to go and I will be doing buttercream on it as well (a basketweave technique). More later...

Pictures!

Trevor, Geoff, and Kyle next to the buttercream roses I taught them to make!! Hehe.

Lee and Shannon dancing with Shannon's parents at their wedding.

Us at Lee and Shannon's wedding - why does Geoff look so giant?!?! He's not *that* big!

My first fondant cake!! So fun. But it was soooo dry in the classroom so the drape is pretty cracked up, boo!!

Just a different view. I'm officially in love with fondant!

Organics and fondant

Highlight of the day: I ordered a bi-weekly delivery of a small organic fruits and veggies bin from Organics to You. I can't wait! My co-worker who referred me will get a free small fruits and veggies bin if I get two orders, which is awesome. I didn't even know that, I just put her name down as the referral source and then saw that, so it's a nice little bonus!

I also started my Fondant and Gum Paste class yesterday. Soooo fun! I'm really enjoying fondant. So this week for cake stuff I need to make another batch of royal icing (one of my batches didn't turn out very well... it can happen due to humidity, etc... as my instructor says icing consistency can vary depending on "if there was a bluebird out in Holland that day"). Then I have the third class of course 2 on Thursday. For next Sunday, I need to prepare a cake, leveled and iced for my second class of the Fondant course. Then next Thursday is my final class of course 2 and I need to bring a cake to that one too. Lots of cake stuff coming up in the next 2 weeks! I love it. And the guys love it too... they are always asking me to teach them stuff, it's very cute and funny. Darn, I left my camera at home, otherwise I would post a picture of three of them next to the roses they made last Thursday!

Friday Geoff and I went to The Way - it was disappointing... partially because I wasn't very engaged for whatever reason. I had prayed that day that I wasn't using The Way as something I was relying on to make me happy or anything, and I think God intentionally made it sort of "mneh" for me that night . I'm not explaining this well at all, but long story short it ended up being a good thing overall. Saturday we went to a wedding at the Grand Lodge - it was fun! We didn't stay very long but we had a good time. Saturday night seems to be a blur, I don't remember doing much. We did get a lot of chores done around the house. Sunday morning we went to church at Solid Rock, which is where The Way is held. This time it was Geoff's turn to not feel very engaged! He liked it though and I think we will choose it as our church - #1 reason is they have weekly communion, which is important to both of us (more critical to him, but I have always really appreciated churches that have it). Westport is a great church and they're doing wonderful things, but it just doesn't work quite as well for Geoff. I like Solid Rock better too because it's a little bigger and I love bigger churches. I am SO excited about The Way and Solid Rock. They have been fabulous in our lives and our relationship. Sunday we had BLTs for lunch, tacos for dinner, and strawberries for dessert. YAY for cooking at home. We're trying to get back into that again, one of the reasons for the organics box.

Today Geoff and I are meeting at home and then going to the gym. He's going to play racquetball with his friend Scott and I'm going to go to Body Works with my friend Cindy. Should be most excellent.

April

Okay. Last week was SO busy at work. Thursday I had class one of course 2 in my cake decorating series! I have the same instructor, her name is Pam and she is great. There are only 4 students in this class - they were all in my course 1 class too. The Way was cancelled on Friday night because there was a retreat - Thursday through Saturday, which are odd days but I suppose Easter put a kink in things. I did not go because of the date choices, which I suspect was an issue for others as well. Geoff has been *EXHAUSTED* because he has an inventory at work tomorrow so he hasn't wanted to do much after work. Needless to say, I definitely had a little cabin fever this weekend. Friday we stayed in and watched a couple of movies. Oddly, they both kept me interested for the entire time. I have no idea why, because that NEVER happens. Saturday I got up in the morning and cleaned the downstairs bathroom, the kitchen, etc. Then I started work - I've had two big projects at work lately so I've been working on them and got behind on normal day to day emails, tasks, etc. So I spent all day Saturday getting caught up on work-related issues. I got my email box down from about 250 to 13 emails! YEAH! That's always a good feeling. Saturday night (at about 8 - I had no idea I was working so late) I went to Olive Garden with Addy... yum! We had a great conversation and then went back and hung out at my house for a while. Sunday morning I got up and went to church for Easter... I tried a new church which I shall not mention because I was not a huge fan. I can't even pinpoint what I didn't like about it, and I know sometimes holiday/"special" services are harder to "evaluate", but it just didn't really work for me. I most likely won't try that church again. I brought Geoff Starbucks because he got Starbucks for me last year at Easter, and then I went home and read Nelson DeMille's new book Wild Fire. I love Nelson DeMille. He is my favorite author! If you haven't read his stuff and want to start, start with Plum Island. It's the first one I started with, my sophomore year in high school, and it's great. It's also the first one with recurring character John Corey. Corey appears in 4 of his books, including Wild Fire. So good!

Didn't really do much else yesterday, and by last night I was pretty crabby and wanted to get out and do stuff. Luckily I have a full agenda for today - I am going to stop by the bank, go apply for a part-time job at Hallmark (I LOVE working retail and I miss it and I've been waiting for them to be hiring for a while and now they are!), then go to Costco (I have a big list - 4 things I need pretty soon here and another few things that I will need in the next few months that there are coupons for in the April coupon book so I'm going to go ahead and buy them now), then go to the first neighborhood watch meeting! I'm really excited about that, I want to get to know more of my neighbors and also get the streets cleaned up a little (there are a lot of cars parked on the street all the time, and it looks junky and is super dangerous cause there are so many kids). After that I will go home and do some laundry and update Quicken. Ohhh how I love being busy. Just another great benefit of a part time job! I really hope that it's a good fit and that I get the job. So, that's my plan!

Cake Pics!

My second to last course cake - clowns. The technique is called "figure piping"

A clown up close. Sorry for the blurriness! None of my clown close up shots came out very well.

Geoff making icing. :) Hehe.

My course 1 final cake! This one was for my friend Kristie's birthday.

Close up of rose and leaf detail

Answering to demands

Okay, I'm alive and I have not abandoned my blog. Here's what happened - I had taken the pictures from my last cake class and wanted to put them up on my blog, only I hadn't downloaded them for like a week. About a week ago I finally put them on my computer, but then it had been so long since I blogged that the task just seemed daunting. So, I just shyed away. Then yesterday I decided (and Patrick confirmed) that I could and should just jump back in. I know you are all tortured by the fact that you will not know what happened for the last two weeks of my life, but that's okay.

Side note: one of my roommates is cooking steak and it smells SO GOOD right now. I think they must have dumped like the entire bottle of garlic powder on there. YUM.

So, cake decorating class is over, it was great - the next one starts this week! I can't wait! It really is a blast. I've been running more and Addy and I have been trying to run together at least once a weekend. Today's run was BRUTAL, I just was not feeling it.

Geoff has gone with me to The Way three times now - WOW. It has been so great for our relationship! The first time he went and was like "first of all I found the speaker to be really full of himself and then I felt like I wasn't a good Christian because I wasn't worshiping with my arms up" (he comes from a Lutheran background and hasn't had a whole ton of experience with more contemporary churches). So I pointed out that we ALL have areas of weakness and because of that particular speaker's background, it's logical that he would be more likely to sound full of himself. And I said that one of the things I love about The Way is that you are free to worship in the way that connects you with God best! If that's sitting or standing or kneeling or arms up or down or whatever, it's all about you and God. He said he wanted to try it again and LOVED IT the next time. He said what'd I'd said (especially about worshipping freely) made a lot of sense to him and he felt much more comfortable. YAY. Plus the speaker that night was excellent. We had another great conversation after that evening which was cool. Then we went again this past Friday night and had without a doubt what was one of the most important conversations of our entire relationship. It was fabulous and I'm still excited about it. God has REALLY blessed us through that ministry.

We're going to Arizona again in another month for Hart and Becky's wedding - that's VERY exciting, I can't wait for that! That's about it for excitement right now in our lives. I'll be back tomorrow. :)

Busy week! (and a grammar question)

This week is busy! Sunday was great - we went to the casino for brunch and played for a few minutes... to my dismay, there were no penny slots. So I did 5 cent slots for 15 or 20 minutes. I lost $1.05. Boo. (that is the worst I've ever done!) After that we went off-roading in Hart's Jeep - it was great! Super fun. We learned all about different types of cactui. Then we had dinner at a place called Oregano's - yum. Great food. Monday morning we both came back. I wasn't feeling well Monday afternoon / evening, so I didn't really get much done. Waste of a day, which is irritating. Tuesday afternoon I had my Remicade, and then went home and popped a cake in the oven, did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, emptied the dishwasher, unpacked, and tidied up my room. Geoff got home after about an hour and we had dinner at Hall Street Grill. We got home late and then went to bed. Well, actually I looked at cacti on the wiki first. It was fun. :)

Tonight I need to finish prepping for cake decorating class tomorrow (icing my cake, making a few more batches of icing, packing everything up, etc.) and then we're having dinner at Cheesecake Factory with Geoff's parents and his stepsister who is in town because she is on spring break! YAY, I love her. Tomorrow I have a class at the gym and then I have to rush over to Michaels for cake decorating. Geoff is taking Rebecca skiing tomorrow night... fun! Friday we're going to my friend Kendra's birthday BBQ, and Saturday we're going to Geoff's aunt and uncle's St. Patrick's Day party and then his friend Kyle's birthday party. Plus there is TONS to do around the house... it is a disaster. I was definitely feeling a little stressed about this last night, but there will be enough time. I need to update my Quicken... it is so behind and it makes me angry!

HUGE grammar drama! - Geoff wrote a note to one of our roommates asking him to make some time to talk to us tonight. He wrote "plaese make some time to talk to Kelly and me" and I said "no, it should be me and Kelly", so he corrected it. Then he wrote it again on a seperate white board and wrote it "Kelly and me" again... I corrected it again and he changed it to "me and Kelly". Not a huge deal... but then this morning his roommate had written back and responded and then wrote "P.S. it should say Kelly and me". Then I was like "OH NO - could I be WRONG?!" So I immediately emailed my mom, my personal grammar expert. She replied and said "I think me and geoff is correct. When you use "I" you say Geoff and I, but usually me goes first." That didn't sound like a very concrete answer, so I researched on the internet. I think I've concluded that it really doesn't matter - although for etiquette reasons, some consider "Kelly and me" to be more correct because it is more polite to put the other person before yourself. However, others argue that "me and Kelly" is more correct because "Kelly" could be replaced with "the most wonderful woman in the entire world" and it just sounds weird to put "and me" after that... "me and the most wonderful woman in the world" sounds better. Along those lines, I read in multiple places that it's not grammatically incorrect to say "I and Geoff went to the store"... again, it's a "politeness" issue. My mom has also sent an email to her sister (the other grammar expert in the family) to have her weigh in on the subject. I'd love to hear what you think too!

Here are a couple of my sources:
Source 1
Which is correct: 'my friend and me' or 'my friend and I'?

That depends on where you and your friend are in the sentence. In colloquial speech 'me' is often used where standard grammar requires 'I', especially when someone else is mentioned too. Sometimes people use 'I' instead of 'me', because they know 'me' is sometimes wrong, but have not understood the principle. (Others resort to 'myself', which can sound rather pompous.) I am the subject of the sentence, but the object of the sentence is me. If in doubt, take your friend out of the sentence.

Me and my friend went to a party last night. [Wrong]
I and my friend went to a party last night.
My friend and me went to a party last night. [Wrong]
My friend and I went to a party last night.

The mayor has invited me and my husband.
The mayor has invited I and my husband. [Wrong]
The mayor has invited my husband and me.
The mayor has invited my husband and I. [Wrong]

Incidentally, saying 'my friend and I' instead of 'I and my friend' is not better grammar, it's just being polite.

Source 2
I'm not saying that "me and Jane" is correct etiquette -- it just sounds better to most ears. There's no grammatical difference between "me and Jane" and "Jane and me", as far as I know. Grammar doesn't care about the order of the pair, but etiquette does.

Source 3
I hate to be technical on this point, but since it's the nature of our discussion, I believe it is proper to say "Pizza was delivered to me and Mike." You are correct with "Mike and I ordered pizza" wherein you allow Mike to be first, but since "me" is the direct object in the second, it should be first, so as to not run into the problem shown in this example: "Pizza was delivered to all of the little underground trolls that frolic in the woods and me." It gets somewhat confusing at that point.

A quick AZ Post

Arizona is AWESOME. I really really really want to move here - maybe a year or more down the line I will have that opportunity! Wednesday we got here and then after work had dinner with some people from work at Gardunos, a Mexican place that I have been to before in New Mexico with my grandparents. Then I went to my hotel but they'd overbooked it so I had to go all over creation to the new hotel they got for me - greeeaaaat. Luckily Geoff helped me out on the phone, finding the new place and all! I did get the night for free though. Thursday after work I drove up to Scottsdale to find Patrick's apartment. We hung out for a short bit and then went to sushi with Hart and Becky at Sushi Eye. YUM. I got in trouble for not sharing sushi, but I have learned the ways of these AZ people. Then we had this AMAZING warm cookie with ice cream and whipped cream at Tilted Kilt, then went to go pick up Geoff at the airport. Oh - I had a glass of wine at Tilted Kilt and it was HOT. They're like "hey, that's what our room temperature is here". So weird. Friday Geoff and I went to CSK Auto Headquarters (first picture below) so he could say he's been there. We also went to one of the Checker (second picture below) stores here too. We also ate at In-N-Out... yum. We did random driving around for the rest of the night. For dinner, we met Patrick, Hart, and Becky at Grilled Expedition - AWESOME food. Then we went back to Tilted Kilt so Geoff could try a cookie. Then a quick stop at Walmart for closed toe shoes and then we go-karted. I apparently go-kart like "an old lady on the freeway" - sad! Geoff thought I was having a miserable time and crying in my helmet the whole time... NOT TRUE! I was having a blast I just seem a little slower than others. My average lap time was a full 10 seconds slower than everyone else's. And I only got to do 11 of the 16 laps everyone else did. Seriously, I was THAT slow. Oh well. It was a blast, and Hart says Patrick and Becky started out that way too! Saturday Patrick, Geoff, and I went to Paradise Bakery for lunch - I never thought I'd say this, but I like it BETTER than Panera! Insane! Great food though. Then off to a Cubs spring training game! There are a few pictures from the game below... I had a BLAST. I love baseball... it's so nice and warm and relaxing and fun. After that we went and looked at bikes for Patrick... I hope he gets one! I LOVE biking. Then we picked up Hart for dinner and went to Los Dos... my coworker has RAVED about this place to me for about a year. The margaritas were great... I haven't had a margarita like that any place other than Mexico. The atmosphere was fabulous and the food was good too. SPICY. But good. It was seriously a great place, I loved it. Picture below! That is outside in the cantina. It was perfect. Perfect night. Then we played the Wii at Hart's house - I had NO IDEA how much fun it would be, it was great. Unfortunately he has two cats and I'm SUPER allergic to cats. I took Benedryl before we went but that made me tired... so I was tired and allergic. We went home after an hour or so. But I still had a super fun night. Now we're off to Casino Arizona for the Sunday brunch and then some gambling! YAAAAY for penny slots! :) Hehe. More to come later.

Oh yes - Geoff finally got a blog! Check it out!

Hello World

Wow, it seems that I haven't REALLY posted in a while.

Let's see... Thursday I went to the gym with Cindy and then went to cake decorating! It was REALLY fun, we went through all of the materials you'd need for class and then we watched our instructor decorate a cake doing all of the techniques we'll learn in this class (it's Wilton Course I, there are 2 more courses after this). After that I went home and watched 24 with Geoff.

Friday I took my usual nap (yay) and then Geoff came home from work with Comet, his parent's dog. His parents were in Vegas for the weekend so he picked the dog up from doggy day care and then was taking it back to their house. I went with him and we picked up Qdoba for dinner, then hung out at his parent's for a while. After that we went to The Way - it was Geoff's first time and he was a little overwhelmed/uncomfortable. He is not used to that style of worship, which generated a REALLY good discussion! It was one of my favorite conversations we've had in recent memory. It was fun... challenging and interesting. (he will probably think my use of the word "fun" here will be odd). The normal main speaker was sick, so he is going to go back at least a few more times to give the main speaker a chance and to see if he could adapt to that style of worship. We did run into several people we/he knew though - people from Quarterlife (the singles group where we met), a couple of friends of his brother, and my next door neighbor's brother. Oh, and a girl that is a friend of our friend Jenny... we couldn't realize how we knew her (and she couldn't figure out how she knew us), then realized that we'd all taken ballroom dancing lessons together last spring! RANDOM!! It's kinda fun how many people you run into at something like that. After that Geoff spent the night at his parent's house to babysit the dog.

Saturday Geoff didn't have to work until noon, so we went to Ihop for breakfast. I had their new cinnamon roll french toast, YUM! After that Geoff went to work and I went to town on the cake decorating!! It was pretty fun. I really don't remember what all I did Saturday - it was a worthless day I guess. Oh well. I had to bake the cakes and the first one took a while to decorate because I wasn't used to it. We had pizza for dinner. Oh!! I know what else I did - I went to a store called Cash & Carry (Smart & Final in other places). A coworker recommended it as a place to get cake supplies and it was GREAT. They had cake boxes (good for giving away cakes), cake boards, powdered sugar in big amounts, etc. And I didn't even explore the whole store, I'm saving that as a treat! It was like a Costco, but smaller, no membership fees, and geared more towards caterers for the most part. They had TONS of takeout containers, etc. They had more food items than I was expecting though. Anyway, definitely recommend checking the place out! Good prices and they take credit cards.

Sunday I slept in WAY late and missed church - ick! Then Geoff and I had lunch at Bugatti's and he asked if he could watch me decorate my cake. He had way more fun that he thought he would, and he even helped some too (he did the blue on the edge of the dino cake). Then he went to work. I went for a bike ride with Trevor and Eric and then came home, sat on the porch for a while (it was a GORGEOUS day) and then took a shower. Geoff and I met his parents at BW3s for dinner and heard all about their Vegas trip. They wanted to thank Geoff for taking care of the dog, so they got him a hat and shirt from the Shelby Museum (he is OBSESSED with the Shelby Mustang). We had a nice dinner and they invited us to go with them to Vegas next year (this same week) for the NASCAR race. Geoff and his stepdad really love NASCAR. They will get three day tickets for all of the pre-race events and Julie and I will just go for race day (we will be at the pool the rest of the time!). We'd go on Thursday and come back early Monday morning. How fun! So that's in the works. Then we went home, watched 24, and went to bed.

This week marks the "one year anniversary" of when Geoff and I remember getting to know each other better. On Wednesday of this week (Thursday this year, it was March 8th) we had Quarterlife and went to Applebees afterwards. Geoff was sitting directly across from me (he says he made Eric switch seats with him because he wanted to sit right across from me, I don't remember that). I was leaving for Spain the next morning to go see my sister, so I wanted to stay up all night packing, watching 24, etc. So I invited anyone to go to the 24 Hour Starbucks with me... my friend Serena and Geoff went. Actually several other people went too, but Serena, Geoff, and I stayed until 2 or 3 in the morning! (they both work retail and had the next day off). It started snowing about midnight and it was BEAUTIFUL. :) Geoff was going to volunteer to keep me company and awake while I packed, but earlier in the night I'd been talking about how it annoys me when people invite themselves to thigns, so he didn't (of course I didn't know all of that until later). But yeah, it was a great night, we talked for hours with Serena and had a blast. I did end up sleeping a little bit and then Geoff sent me a text the next morning to make sure I got to the airport okay (it had snowed quite a bit and he had chains on his truck). So sweet! When I told him that was this week last year he said "Let's go to Starbucks Wedneady night!" Too bad I'll be in Arizona without him. ;-)

I was thinking today about how different all of the blogs that I read are. I go into detail about every boring thing I do. Some people tend to be more topical, just focus on one thing that came up during the day. Those people tend to generate more comments. Some people are more random. And yet they're all interesting to read. Part of the fun of blogging is getting to know the person you're reading about better, and part of that is seeing their writing style.

Cake Pic Captions

Here’s the rundown on all the cake pics below (I finally realized that it’s much easier to do all of the pics and then the text, blogger doesn’t do captions very well):

1. The first two cakes I baked, cooling on my new cooling rack.
2. My cake decorating caddy – you can see quite a few tips and my 4 different bottles of color
3. My first layer… with the icing “dam” and then with raspberry filling
4. My first cake, iced but not decorated
5. The final result of my first cake… it looked a lot better before I tried adding the leaves (we don’t do leaves in class for 3 more weeks!)
6. Detail of my purple flower, with star filling
7. My second cake. I did dinos because I bought a box of 101 cookie cutters as patterns and dinos were one of the options. I thought a dino cake would be fun. I wish I had a 3 year old.
8. A picture of Mt. Hood over my house! My house is the tan one right below the mountain. How fun is that?!

The long awaited Cake Pics!

Fuzzy Posters and Cake, oh my!

So Monday Geoff was REALLY cute and sweet... he was just adorable. Can't get over it. Then Tuesday he was "poopy"... just feeling kinda blah, didn't want to do anything all day. But I needed to do a ton of errands! So he did them all with me anyway... we went to Bed Bath and Beyond and got a credit, returned something to Target and something else to Target, deposited some money into my bank - see, good errands! Got like $200 back between all of those things. We also went to Michaels to sign up for Wilton Course I - Cake Decorating. YAY!!! The course was free with purchase of the Wilton caddy. So while we were there, he asked if we could get Fuzzy Posters to decorate. Um, okay you weirdo! His family always spends Christmas afternoon watching movies and coloring Fuzzy Posters. So he wanted to do that. Apparently, he has a secret passion for coloring that I never knew about! He said he even likes coloring books! Funny. But cute. So we bought them and colored them while we were watching 24. It was my very first Fuzzy Poster - I'm almost done!

Yesterday we went to Costco to get oil for an oil change in the Tahoe, and then we went to Sears to look at appliances. My dryer took THREE HOURS to dry a load of towels the other night and I've had it up to here! A coworker just got a new washer and dryer from Sears and RAVES about them constantly. A weeks worth of jeans and fleeces for a family of 4 in one load dried in 40 minutes?!?! Wow. Geoff also told me he could put new tile in the bathroom (the laundry room is also a bathroom) and I could paint it... it would be GREAT. That room is so ugly... the floor is really cheap quality and has lots of dings and the wall is all banged up. Not sure why, the rest of the house is in great condition. But it's always been that way. I think grey tile with grey walls and a blue washer/dryer would be GREAT! But... we'll see. Not quite yet. After that we went home and watched more 24. We are in the middle of season 2 and it's REALLY GOOD.

Can't wait for cake decorating class tonight! This weekend I plan to make and decorate a few cakes, don't worry, there will be pictures!

Yikes

First of all, I have an anonymous commenter. Who are you?! I am confused.

Second, my hair is a HIT. I'm told the pictures don't do it justice at all, but people are raving about it. Everyone who has seen it in person seems to just love it. Geoff says it makes my eyes look bluer. It is fabulous!

So this morning I googled Costco Obsession just to see what people were saying about Costco and how easily it is to be obsessed. MY OWN BLOG popped up on the third page... I was like "oh, hello!". So then I googled it in quotes ("Costco Obsession") and it came up as the 4th item on the 1st page. Yikes. Maybe I should have given up Costco for Lent. There's always next year.

Did I tell you I'm going to Arizona on business next week and Geoff is coming with me? YAY I'm excited. It should be a fabulous trip. I will get to see Patrick and Hart and Becky and it will just be super funness! :)