Smiling?

I've been thinking about this post for a while now, and so here it goes... well at least the idea about smiling. Have you ever noticed when you're smiling? Like a real smile, not a fake, plastered on smile? Lately it feels like real smiles have been sneaking up on me in random places like when I'm playing with Katelyn and Joshua and honestly enjoying myself or watching something funny in a movie. I spend a lot of my time faking a smile:
- a person I don't really care to be around walks up
- someone tells me a joke I don't really think is funny
- everything is ok when it's not
- I'm hiding behind it
- I'm expected to smile
etc. There are so many times I'm expected to smile. It's refreshing to enjoy a rare moment when the smile is natural. When I'm smiling because I'm happy and enjoying life. When it's my real smile. Not all of you have seen the "real deal" smile. I want it to be seen more. I want my smile to be real.

Two Posts in Two Days!

That's right, I'm posting again. It's ok. Read this post and the one below it. Actually this one is a follow up to the post below, so I'd read it first and come back to this one. I'll wait while you scroll down and read...

Oh you're back? Good deal. On to today's drama! Last night I got the baby cake baked, and I decided to decorate it this morning and then run and get a camera battery at WalMart, so I could take my own picture of the cake. (Riss' blog said they were having camera issues, so I didn't want to chance missing a picture of this cake.) So I get up, actually get out of my pj's and get a shower, and decorate the cake. I have about 45 minutes until cake pick up, so I grab my keys and run out the door to head to WalMart.

*SCREECH!* Someone is parked in front of my garage! So I call Chapel Hill to explain what's going on, and they give me the number for the towing company. The tow place won't tow without management approval, so I call Chapel Hill back (very annoyed at this point), and they put me through to a voice mail box! So I call back, and I'm hot at this point, so I'm relaying what has happened to the guy who answers and tell him something like, "and I need this car towed like 30 minutes ago!" He is actually very nice and calls in the tow for me (I called the tow place to double check), and in about 45 minutes the car would be towed. Meanwhile, I left this note on the car, "You see the garage in front of your car?! Yeah, my car is STUCK in there since you chose to park here! You better hope you get your car moved before I can get it towed!" Not my nicest note, but I'm so angry about this I can hardly see straight! Who parks in front of another person's garage?! So I call a series of friends to help me, and all of them have very legitimate reasons why they can't until I get to Erin. Sweet Erin lives in my complex, and she very kindly took me to WalMart to get the battery.

When we got back, the car was gone, but I know it wasn't towed in that amount of time. I called the tow place to cancel the order. So whoever you are, driver of a blue Chrysler Pacifica -- you got away this time, but perhaps you won't be so lucky next time. Good job dodging a tow bill! Jerk.

Thankfully I got the battery, so here are pictures of the cake I just finished. Notice that the small one is Lukas' baby cake (simply decorated), and there is one picture of the rocket on the invitation by the rocket on the cake. I think it looks pretty close! The icing is pale pale green, and the dots on the side are actually giant sprinkles. I hope it's good enough. No I'm not just saying that... freehanding the rocket wasn't that easy, and I know the red isn't true red bc I can't achieve that without chocolate icing...

Cake H-E-Double Hockey Sticks

No, I didn't make another cake of shame, but I did make a dumb mistake that's costing me a lot of time.

Let me start at the beginning. It's apparently cake season right now. I made a birthday cake for Katelyn, a small cake for Joshua's birthday, and now I'm working on Lukas Swayne's first year birthday cake. His cake isn't too bad really - Eric and Larissa are awesome. They're laid back and happy to let me work my creative juices as long as the cake is marble cake and has a rocket ship on it. I really put a lot of thought into this one. I have the picture of the rocket from the invitation, and I've been deciding the best way to put it on the cake: fondant, painting it, freehand piping icing, etc. Finally I decided that freehand piping the rocket in icing would be the best bet.

Oh wait I need to start back even further! This week is TAKS Math "Camp." The math department does math tutoring for an hour after school every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for about 3 weeks. Seeing as how I had a meeting after school on Monday and then stayed after school Tuesday - Thursday, I've had a week of not getting home until almost 6 pm (so basically 10 hour days). Needless to say, I've been really really tired, and I didn't get to bake Lukas' cake until tonight. TOTALLY part of my master plan. I had time to relax, bake, take my time.... all good.

Fast forward to 11:30 tonight. I have baked the cake. I have carefully piped the rocket ship on the cake. I am finally putting the finishing touches on the cake -- the border, and I realize, "crap, Eric and Larissa wanted a small cake for Lukas to dig in to on his own!" Well poop, wouldn't ya know I didn't bake that small cake? And wouldn't ya know I didn't have another cake mix at home? Wouldn't you also know that when I went to WalMart, they were out of marble cake, so I had to get yellow cake? Yeah... me being sooooo dumb, so here I sit at 12:45 am waiting for cake to cool enough for me to decorate it. (Now Eric and Larissa, if you're reading this -- do NOT feel bad! I'm totally happy to make this cake! I love decorating cakes; I've missed getting to do so lately! HONEST!) Yep, good thing I need to catch up on stuff on my DVR. :-)

Good news is that I think the cake looks really cute. My camera is broken right now, so I'm hoping they'll take lots of pictures for me, so I can have some to post and put in my portfolio. I've got to do another one (same cake) for Lukas' second party next weekend, but that should be easy. Kinda cool really - I made the cake for Larissa's baby shower, and now I'm making that baby's first birthday cake. :-) Wait, I did that for Joshua as well technically...

Anyways, not much going on this week. A little drama, but that's over and done with. Only about 9 school days until the TAKS test and then summer will be here soon! Can't wait! :-)

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

Today is Katelyn's 4th Birthday! Happy Birthday, Little Bear! Here she and I are with her Cinderella doll cake. Yes, it's another Joanna-made cake. :-)

Could I love my niece more? She is honestly one of the sweetest little girls I know. One of the best little additions to my life. She LOVED her cake and sat there looking at it all amazed for a while. It was such a joy for me to watch her play and enjoy her birthday. I am amazed at how old she is!

Speaking of sweet, sweet children. Joshua, my nephew, is also one of the sweetest additions to my life. I think we decided that he possibly enjoyed Katelyn's birthday more than she did! He ate pizza and cake. He had a blast watching everything, and he loved sitting with his Aunt Joanna. Here he is laughing with me. He kept putting up his cheek for me to kiss. What a cutie! He'll be ONE this week. Wow, how time flies!

I realize I've left my blog-readers without any reading material for a while. Sorry about that! The assignment from the last entry had its desired effects. Class had a great, deep discussion where we hit that personal level of connection that I was so desiring. Also, Ashley started a blog as a result of our class. Check her out!

Not much else is going on. I've been busy teaching, catching up on reading some comics, and making cakes. Should have more cake pictures in a week or so since I'm making Lukas' 1st Birthday cake(s) this week. On to a rocketship... sorry this one won't be standing up! :-)