Tagged by Heather

Sure, why not?
What was I doing 5 years ago:
1. Pregnant with Petra
2. Getting married (5 years ago Thursday!)
3. In college
4. Moving from IF to Firth
5. Getting a puppy (Eppie, still have her)


What are 5 things on my To-Do List today:
1. Clean house for showing
2. Surprise Dusty at work with lunch
3. Get last couple of items for girls' Halloween costumes
4. Go grocery shopping
5. Pay bills

What are my 5 favorite snacks:
I generally try to avoid snacking but...
1. mini rice cakes
2. soda
3. crackers
4. pretzels
5. whatever's handy

What are 5 things I would do if I were a millionaire:
1. Buy a house
2. Buy a van large enough for my whole family
3. Buy a Smartcar for Dusty
4. Travel
5. Deposit it and live off of the interest

Five places I've lived:
1. Idaho Falls, ID
2. Firth, ID
3. That's it.
4. Really, there aren't any more
5. No, Seriously. Pathetic, I know.

Five jobs I've had:
1. Assistant Fencing Coach
2. Substitute teacher
3. Plasma donor
4. Full-time mother
5. Sanitarium warden :)

I tag...
No one reads this except for Heather, and she tagged me!

More "Fun" With Fondant

I made another fondant cake for a block party we had last week. I had hoped that it would go a little more smoothly, since I now had some idea of what to expect, but it didn't really work out that way. Making fondant is really something like making bread. It has a dough-like consistency that you roll out and place on the cake as opposed to regular frosting which you spread with a spatula. The hardest part about fondant is that you have to knead it for hours to get all of the powdered sugar worked in as well as get it to the right consistency. Last time, I didn't knead in all of the sugar it called for in the recipe, I just worked it until it seemed like the right consistency, and then I used the remaining sugar to dust the counter and the rolling pin to prevent sticking (which, incidentally, it didn't do. I really need a roll and cut mat for fondant--oh, well, my birthday is coming up!)Anyway, this time, I was using a slightly different recipe (chocolate fondant) and I decided to knead in all of the sugar. In addition to literally taking over an hour to do, it also resulted in some very dry fondant--it wouldn't even say in a ball, it just crumbled into bits. So, I gradually added water, but I was terrified to add to much because I was getting pretty sick of the whole business and I didn't want to have to add sugar back in. Finally, out of sheer laziness, I decided to just use it the way it was. I rolled it out, but, of course, it cracked because it was so dry. I figured I would just cover the cracks with cut outs, but still, it was like frosting a cake with tootsie-rolls.

Finally, I got the cake covered, and that part at least went more smoothly the second time. Imagine taking a sheet of flat paper and trying to smoothly cover a round cake. Getting it on there without folds or ripples is pretty hard. My last cake didn't go very well at all, and that picture was taken from the worst side, so you can really see the mistakes.

Now that the cake was covered, I had to make yet another batch of fondant for the cut outs. I decided to try using the electric mixer with the dough hooks so that I wouldn't have to knead it all by hand. It didn't work at all. Back to kneading by hand. I wanted the cut outs to have very vibrant colors, so I ended up dying my hands with all of the food coloring I had to use. The cutouts themselves went pretty well, the only problem being that I had to place them to cover up cracks, rather than putting them where I wanted them.

In the end, I was pretty disgusted with the end result. I had a vision in my head of what I wanted it to look like, and it just didn't turn out. I also hate to take something that is less than perfect to a party. I guess they liked it though. I got several complements.

My mantra. Learning experience. Learning experience. Learning experience.

Fun with Fondant or Leah's Cake Walk Returns

A couple of days ago, I decided that I really wanted to learn how to do fondant. So, I opened up my Wilton cookbook and looked up the recipe. It turns out to be very difficult to make and work with, which I kind of already knew, but here is my first effort. Not too bad, I thought. This is something that I would really like to be good at. I think it's fun to have an occasion, some sort of criterion, that I need to design for, and then to create edible art. Too bad desire alone isn't enough.

Petra Walks.... Again!

There and Back Again

Yesterday, Petra and Talia and I went down to Shriner's again for a cast change. I can't remember if I have written about this yet, so I guess I'll give a re-cap.

I was originally registered to go to school part-time this semester. All summer, I just had this thought in the back of my head that maybe I should drop out. It got stronger and stronger as the summer progressed, and finally in August I decided to make it a matter of prayer and fasting. That confirmed my feelings and I dropped out with absolutely no idea of why. A week later, we took Petra to Shriner's, and her surgeon decided to do a casting series and surgery in November. The series involves going down to SLC every other week to get new casts, which will gradually improve the position of her feet, making the surgery easier. A week after that, we decided to sell our house.

So, yesterday was the second cast change. Petra was so glad to get the first set off, she kept saying over and over again, "I'm just so glad to move my legs!!" It made it pretty tough to turn around and put another set on. Oh, well.

We drove home after we were done at the hospital, but we couldn't go straight home because our house was being shown for the first time. It was sort of a bad day for it, since I wasn't home to get everything sparkly clean, but I am so glad that someone finally looked at it! Instead of going home we went to Lazy D's which is a small restaurant in Shelley owned by a friend of mine from the theatre. We always have fun there because there are always theatre people hanging around to chat with. The food is also pretty good. Incidentally, Dusty has designed the web-site for the theatre, and it's pretty impressive. The URL is www.thevirginiatheater.com , if you are interested in checking it out.

For Sale

I have been working like mad for the past few weeks to get our house ready to sell. It has been a very frustrating process. No matter how hard I worked, I never seemed to get anywhere. I had to sort through and box up everything we didn't really need in the house, paint every singe room except for the downstairs bathroom (it was recently painted) and clean everything. In addition to everything I could do (basically the tasks that didn't require any real skill) there was tons for Dusty to do. He had to finish re-modeling the upstairs bathroom (everything in it is new), put a new light in the stair well (it's really dark), put new carpet in the stair well (can you say astro-turf?), and put in a new front door. He also helped me with my tasks as much as he could, but we ended up starting this project just as school started for him. We still have a little bit of work left to do, but, Saturday night, we finally got this place officially listed! I was tickled to death to see that sign out in front of our house. It's happening!

For those of you who don't know, this all started when we happened to find a house in Idaho Falls that we really want. My best friend growing up and her husband just bought a new house, and we went to visit them. Her house has 5 bedrooms, and is very nice. Well, I jokingly told her that we should have bought it out from under them, since we could really use the bedrooms (our current house has 3 bedrooms with 7 kids and 2 adults--do the math.) Anyway, my friend said that there was a very nice house just one street over for sale. As we left her house, we decided to just drive by the other house to see what it was like. We went past the one that she had meant, but we saw another house down the road that sparked our interest right away. We got one of the little flyer things that told all about it, and it showed that there was a large shop on the back of the property as well. Anyway, we just thought about it for a couple of days, and I thought, "I wonder how much that house costs?" So, I called up the real estate agent and asked her. And, it wasn't too bad. So we thought about it for a little bit longer, and I said to Dusty, "You know, I feel like we really should go and take a look at that house." Ever since then, we have been referring to it as "Our House". The shop could be our very own fencing building, something that Dusty has been dreaming about for the past 9 years. And there is an upstairs family room that we can convert to a master bedroom (complete with its own bathroom!) making it a 6 bedroom house.

Now, we just have to hope and pray that our house will sell and the owner's of the other house will accept our offer.

Here We Go Again

Today we went back to Shriner's, and began a new casting series on Petra's feet. We will go back down to SLC every other week to get these casts changed. The idea is to gradually stretch out the skin and tendons to improve her feet in preparation for surgery in November. The more progress we make with the casts, the easier the surgery.

Theoretically, she should be able to walk in these, but as the knees are bent, I honestly have my doubts. However, I dug out her walker, and with some practice, I think that she will be able to manage it. Until then, I'm going to be sending her to school in a stroller, a short-term wheel-chair.