So I love baking and have frequently baked cupcakes for random parties, but just recently got into baking cakes for people. Here are some of my recent adventures:
First stacked cake I ever made, also the first fondanted cake I ever made.
Second stacked and fondanted cake I made:
First sheet cake I made with buttercream and first piping i ever did... not bad it you ask me:
Second sheet cake I made with buttercream... I thought I could use the same icing tip to write that I used to make the dots... not my best decision.
So, hopefully there will be many more cakes and adventures but here's my start! :)
So I realize that I haven't written on here in a hot second... or two.... It's been a busy summerand hopefully I'll find time to give a quick wrap up of what that looked like, but I had something on my mind first.
Within the past year I've been going down a certain path with a focus on a singular goal, that I have yet to accomplish. And I don't wish to wallow in my lack of this accomplishment, but sometimes I do throw a small pity party for myself. (so sue me)
I have always thought that this would be a path I would take and never really considered the complicated mess reaching this goal would become.
Pardon my vagueness, just not ready to share with the world, but what the goal is really isn't the point.
Today I forced myself to step away from my usual mindless evening tv to have some quiet, personal time. I have a devotional, a journal and a daily Bible and try to get through at least one of those a day. (certainly not anywhere near everyday does it happen, but an A for effort, right?)
So tonight in the devotional I was reading there was the following quote:
"With God, it's never "Plan B" or "second best." It's always "Plan A." And, if we let Him, He'll make something beautiful of our lives." - Gloria Gaither
Sometimes I forget that while I may be on the right path, it doesn't mean that my goal is just around the corner. It may be five or ten or twenty more corners that I have to turn before I reach my goal... Though I certainly hope that it leans more towards the five than the twenty... But no matter how many corners or how many hurdles appear, they are all a part of the learning and growing process and that this is how God planned it so that I will be prepared when I do reach that goal and appreciate that success just that much more.
My new goal..... to let Him make something beautiful out of my life.
Mike's grandpa helped design one of the Good Year blimps and is still consulted on some of their projects. So Mike grew up around the blimps and even helped to build one while he worked for Good Year the summer before college and Mike's been on multiple blimp rides, but I certainly have not. So, Grandpa Block made the connection for us and we made the long drive down to Pompano Beach to take a ride on the blimp. It was quite fun! We got there just in time to see the flight before us take off and then met up with a guy Mike worked with back in Ohio who took us on a tour of the hanger and told us all about how it all works. And then we boarded the blimp and took a nice little jaunt down the south beach coastline, with nice views of the coast and some ridiculous houses. Mike and our friend Rob even got to fly for a little while. (both love planes and flying and just thought that was the coolest thing!) :) It was definitely a unique experience - the windows open, the nose can be at a 45 degree angle and it's no big deal, etc. But definitely fun and unique! Thanks Grandpa Block! You rock! :)
Here are some pics from our trip:
Looking out from the hanger where the blimp is stored:
About to get in the cabin, (note the guy hanging out to the bottom of them blimp, in an attempt to stabilize it - it was windy):
Up in the air, looking down the coastline:
Mike got a chance to pilot the blimp:
It's a pretty small cabin. This is me looking backwards from the co-pilot's seat:
As we come in to land, the crew grabs the lines to stabilize the blimp:
This past Friday through Saturday was USF's Relay for Life(an American Cancer Society fundraising event). I am the staff advisor for the student committee who puts on this event at USF. We have goals from ACS every year. This year's goals were 52 teams and $60,000. As of 7am on Saturday, we had 81 teams and $61,363.43! :) And I know the actual total will be higher because some donations are still coming in online. SO excited that it went well! People seemed to have a great time and the event went smoothly.
I was up at 7am on Friday and went to work in the morning, started set up at about noon, finished clean up at 9:45am on Saturday and finally made it to bed at 11am. So after 28 straight hours of being awake, I looked like this:
The hardest part of being awake for 28 hours is driving home and not falling asleep! Completely and utterly exhausted (it took me a good couple of days to get my sleep schedule back on track) but I'm always SO proud of what we can accomplish every year we do this! :)
Thank you to all of my committee and to everyone who help me meet my personal fundraising goal! You Rock! :)
