What's Happening?

Yesterday John and I rearranged the TV situations at our house. The TV Stand from upstairs went downstairs. And the TV stand from downstairs went upstairs. Sounds simple enough right? WRONG!

While the upstairs to down stairs worked out perfectly the downstairs to upstairs didn't. It was too wide for the space provided. We thought about selling. We thought about trashing it. But in the end we did some disassembly.

We knocked the two side shelves off and left only the center of the stand. Sad because it was an awesome TV Stand with great storage... but out of the two disassembled shelves I was able to build one complete shelf to go back downstairs for DVDs. So in the end it worked out great.

Also there was a TON of boxes in our basement that needed to be broken down to go in the recycle bin. We had a great plan that involved dinner, a movie and some box slashing.

 

This is how the night went:

 

*  First we did all the moving, and in the middle of that the pizza came.

*  Put the pizza in the kitchen and finish demolishing of the new upstairs TV stand.

*  Take pizza and drinks downstairs, but first we have to put all the furniture down there back in place.

* But wait, before we can move the TV stand into place I want to trim the carpet so the stand will stand flat on the ground. (It was half carpeted and half bare.) I cut off a foot of the gross old green carpeting that is just there on top of the cement floor. It was gross.

*  Clean up that.

*  TV stand goes into place with new 55" television. Shhh.... it's our Christmas present.

*  Hook up Blu-Ray Player & Wii.

*  Turn on a movie while I set up "dinner" and wish that I had the coffee table from the garage, but am too lazy to get it, so I use a stack of video game boxes and my basket tray. 

*  By this time the pizza is cold. Good thing I like cold pizza.

*  We watched Prometheus. It was alright.

*  After pizza had been consumed we piled boxes in the open space and started breaking them down with our utility knives.

*  Slice slice slice. Cut cut cut.... and then I stabbed myself in the knee with my knife. Ouch. I put a hole in my nice comfy work pants, and my leg. It bled like crazy, but it is only about 1/2 in long.

*  John scrambled for Band-Aids and super glue after throwing a tissue box at my head.

* Once the wound was glued shut, John finished breaking the boxes down and we watched the end of the movie together. (The ending that kept going and going and going. Seriously it had like four places where it could have/should have ended but it didn't.)

 

All in all it was a very eventful night.

The TV stand we moved upstairs has yet to be moved into place because the TV up there needs to be taken off the wall and lowered to the appropriate height. I think that's tonight's plan... after the physical therapy for my elbow.

And now for something completely different....

Now lets get into some other things in our Life…

It has been a long time since I have had a chance to sit down and compose my thoughts in to something.

Anyway… It has been a crazy busy year. It’s gone by way to fast. I don’t recall much of the months prior to July.

We bought a grill back in May, and spent many days on our back deck enjoying it… We LOVE our house. It has been so perfect for us.

Back in July I got to keep my brother’s 4 kids for a week while Keith and his wife moved all their stuff to Ohio. Rachel, (Keith’s wife,) couldn’t leave the state until August due to custody issues with their middle child. They two youngest are Keith’s the two oldest are from Rachel’s prior marriages. So since Keith took everything to Ohio with him I basically had 4 kids and a mom at my house for the entire month of July. Which I didn’t really mind.

We did go to St. George for a weekend in July for our nephew’s wedding. We all thought it was a little crazy to get married at 2 pm in the middle of July, but we’re just the family so we didn’t have a say in it… but the wedding was nice. No one died of heat exhaustion and there was ice cream.

August… well, that’s kind of a blur too. All I remember about that month is that we bought a new car. Because we wanted to, not because we had to. We now drive a Toyota Highlander. It’s dark blue. My favorite color.

In September we went to St. George again to visit John’s sister over Labor Day weekend. Her youngest was being ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood.

Saturday morning September 1^st  Kristin insisted that we go hiking, but my knee had been hurting I didn’t want to hike. Brother-in-Law Scott suggested shooting and 4-wheeling. Since 4-wheeling isn’t hiking I was all for it. After all, I’d never been 4-wheeling before... We should have taken the 4-wheeler breaking the back window of Scott’s truck as our bad omen… but we didn’t. When Scott finally had the 4-wheeler unloaded he asked who wanted to drive and I piped up and said that I did.

Dumb move.

Before even taking the first turn onto the trail I ran the 4-wheeler up a incline that ejected both myself and John from it. John was able to recover quickly and stop the 4-wheeler from coming back on us, but me on the other had was a different story.

As I said… I flew a few feet away from the ejection site. I remember landing on my butt first and hitting my head, but I don’t remember using my arm to brace myself.

I thought I had just sprained my wrist, and after a trip to InstaCare and an x-ray of my wrist I was presented with a new wrist brace and an ice pack and was sent away.

Fast forward to 11 days later and my arm still hurts like crazy so I go to my family doctor. After a few x-rays of my wrist and my elbow I’m sent to my Orthopaedic surgeon and he informs me that I have a broken elbow.

This time I left the doctor’s office with a nice blue sling. They didn’t cast it because it wasn’t that bad, and there was not going to be any surgery because the fracture was less than 2mm. I guess I’m just lucky I didn’t break my head. So I spent most of the month of September drugged and in a sling.

I am not required to wear my sling anymore, but some days it goes on just to stop my arm from hurting… yes, it still hurts. It probably will for a long time. This is the first bone I have ever broken.

On into October, and all of those summer projects I had on my list to do had to get done before it gets too cold. We were super busy….

• Painted room in basement for office space.
• Refinished the old wooden desk for my office.
• Installed a door to my bedroom.
• Chalkboard painted some coffee tables.
• Decorated for Halloween.
• Had a Halloween Party.

Also, we took a trip to Denver to see Van Gogh at the art museum there. And while there we took a drive up to The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, spent “A Day in Pompeii” at the natural history museum, and visited Molly Brown’s House after dark for Victorian Ghost Stories from the Sea. Which was pretty awesome.

We went with My sister Jessica, her roommate Toby, and Toby’s mom Pila. We had a great time. It snowed on us for two days. We ate at some “trendy” restaurants and got lost in some slums.  

We did watch several movies for Halloween-Movie-Month, but I can’t think of what they were. We did really enjoy The Cabin In The Woods. Now it’s on into Musical-Movie-Month.

Up until I broke my elbow I had been doing really well with my Cake business. I made a wedding cake for a friend at the beginning of August, and a grooms cake for a friend’s sister at the end of August. Both were pretty awesome. I’ll get them up on my cake blog eventually.

Anyway, that’s my life up to this point. I hope you have been entertained… Until next time.

And the list goes on...

I’ve done other things too:

 

I read a Book

 

Don’t Let Me Go by Catherine Ryan Hyde – I’m not really sure why I picked this one up to read. It’s not my usual genre, but there was something about it that made me want to read it…. I think it may have struck a note with my own abandonment issues… not that this book in anyway is even close to my own life.

The story is a bout a little girl whose drug addicted mom can’t be bothered with. The neighbors in the apartment building, including the reclusive former dancer Billy, ban together to help her out. It was a cute book. Not spectacular by any means, but an enjoyable read.

 

We saw a Musical

 

Wicked – This was alright. Don’t get me wrong. We enjoyed it. It was entertaining… but for all the hype that we have heard about it being such a fantastic musical – I think we were expecting more. Will I go see it again? Maybe one day. My favorite musical still remains Les Miserables.

 

Become addicted to this App

 

Where’s My Perry?

 

More Movies/TV

 

Phineas & Ferb – This show is just plain entertaining. It's on the Disney channel. (also on Netflix.) I haven’t seen an episode yet that I haven’t enjoyed.

 

Expendables 2 – Not for the feint of heart or those who abhor violence. This is a very violent and action packed movie. I don’t know the last movie I saw with so many decapitations and CGI blood. The movie is pure action entertainment from the first second all the way through. It’s chuck full of action heroes: Chuck Norris, Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Jason Statham…. The list goes on. What a great set of action fun. There were a lot (and I mean A LOT) of puns referring to everyone’s past films, but that just made it more entertaining. Seriously, if you like action movies you’ll love this one.

Why so silent??

It’s been a while since I blogged. I wonder if my two readers thought that perhaps I had died?

There has been a lot going on in the lives of the people at my house lately. Lets see if we can catch up…

 

Lets talk about Movies/TV first, shall we.

 

The Avengers (2012) – TOTALLY AWESOME! Yeah, we saw it. Midnight. Opening day. Can I just say that whoever decided that reserved theater seats were a good idea was a GENIUS! Yes, it’s true. I <3 Loki. The whole movie was fantastic. It was full of action, adventure, drama.. Joss Whedon’s sense of humor. There wasn’t a single thing about it that I didn’t like. We saw it twice in the theater… or was it three times> I don’t remember. I can’t wait for this to come out on DVD (September 25^th) so that I can own it and watch it again and again.

 

The Decoy Bride (2011) – David Tennant. This was just a cute movie about finding love when you least expect it. It would fall into the “Chick flick” category, but John sat and watched the entire thing with me. And he enjoyed it. The main female character is also the voice of Merida in Disney’s Brave.

 

Brave (2012) – LOVED! The music was fantastic. The story was meaningful. The animation was beautiful. There wasn’t a single thing I didn’t love about this movie.

 

The Dark Knight Rises (2012) – Meh. This wasn’t as great for me as it was for everyone else apparently. It was good, just not great. I’d rather just see the Avengers again.

 

John Carter (2012) – I really enjoyed this movie. I’m sad that it was such a flop and that Disney isn’t going to make anymore.

 

The IT Crowd: Seasons 1-4 – This is the first show in a very long time that truly is laugh out loud funny. It’s been a long time sings something has made me laugh so much. Now, keep in mind that it is a BBC production. There are a lot of “F” words used, and completely inappropriate things going on with irreverent humor, but some people just don’t care about that stuff… and it’s not that I don’t care that it’s there, it’s really a matter of I hear worse than that most days at my own office.  It’s full of moments that are so stupid they’re funny. Like THIS ONE. Sadly there are only 4 seasons.

 

Blassreiter – Anime. This one was just confusing about techno-zombies and… I don’t even know. It was entertaining enough.

 

D. Gray-man – Anime. Pretty good. Exorcists with powers to smite evil.

 

Vandread – Anime. A planet full of men who hate women and a different planet full of women who hate me. A group of women pirates get stuck with 3 men on the wrong side of the galaxy. There are some good moments, but as a while it’s just kind of Meh.

 

I’m sure there are more but I just don’t remember at the moment.

 

... and now some Music

 

Julie Fowlis – Gaelic music. This woman is the primary voice you hear on the Brave soundtrack. Her other music is fantastic to listen to. I highly recommend it.        

 

Brave Soundtrack – See my above statement. I love this soundtrack.  

 

Jonas & Plunkett – British folk-rock. I have really enjoyed this band. I only own the one album, but it’s really good.

How do you make this yummy frosting!?

Vanilla Butter Cream  

 

1 cube butter*
1/2 cup solid pure vegetable shortening
1 lb bag powdered sugar (or 4 cups sifted)
1 tablespoon Meringue Powder (may substitute with cornstarch)
1 tsp vanilla (or more if you want more flavor, just subtract the extra vanilla from the water)
7 - 8 tsp milk* or water

Beat butter, shortening and liquids together until fluffy.

Add powdered sugar and meringue powder.

Beat until light and fluffy (About 3 minutes)

This makes a STIFF consistency frosting (used for making stand up things like flowers)

For MEDIUM consistency frosting (used for making pretty much every other decoration) add an additional 1 TBS of water.

For THIN consistency icing (best for frosting the body of the cake) add 2 TBS extra water.

To make it chocolate: Add 3/4 cup cocoa or three 1 oz. unsweetened chocolate squares, melted, and an additional 1 to 2 tablespoons water to recipe. Mix until well blended

 

 

 

* Because I'm now dairy free I use the following substitutions for my recipe:

 

ü      1 cup solid pure vegetable shortening

ü      Water only

ü      1 tsp Butter flavoring

 

 

For White Icing use CLEAR Vanilla Extract (or white food coloring)

 

 

This is the Wilton Buttercream recipe found on www.wilton.com