Golfing Cake

Today is my dear friend/co-worker's 40th birthday. I decided I would surprise her with a cake in the morning. Well, it's not necessarily a surprise cause I asked her what kind she wanted, but the final version is a total surprise. A while back a blog I follow, Sisters Stuff, made a post about a golfing cake. Twyla and her husband love to golf so I thought it would be the perfect cake for her.

I think this is maybe my 3rd fondant covered cake...and I feel I didn't do too bad. Still need practice, but I think Twyla will like it! When I got done with the cake I looked outside and this is what I saw! Mother Nature is a dirty tease! It has been pretty nice lately and everyone was sure Spring was finally here, but then this has to happen! Ugh! I guess it is kind of pretty though. A little.


Look how BIG the flakes are! Good grief!



"I wanted to buy a candle holder, but the store didn't have one. So I got a cake." ~ Mitch Hedberg

Random Brooke Fact

I do not like coffee unless a.) my dad makes it, b.) I make it with French Vanilla coffee and an absurd amount of French Vanilla creamer, or c.) it is a delicious flavored Latte.

I honestly didn't start drinking coffee until a couple years ago and I don't know why I started. I've never liked the taste of coffee. At all. I always loved the smell of it brewing, but never the taste. I blame my dad. When I was younger, we'll say 10-years-old, we were camping at my dad's cabin. I was playing in the creek, minding my own business, having a grand ol' time when my dad comes outside and says, "Brooke, come here for a second". So, I wandered over to him and he says, "Try this" and hands me a mug. Well, me thinking my dad wouldn't ever make me taste something I didn't like took a big ol' swig out of the mug. What...the...hell?! It was cold coffee! If I remember correctly I gagged a little and made a face and asked dad what the heck he was doing. He laughed hysterically and said, "It's day old, cold coffee!" Not funny. Not funny at all!

So 18 years goes by without coffee ever touching my lips and then I get a brilliant idea that I need to start drinking coffee. Weird. So I experimented a little. I decided I liked French Vanilla flavored coffee with flavored creamer. A LOT of flavored creamer. Then I decided the creamer had to be French Vanilla too. I'm a genius! Genius, I tell you! (I use so much creamer that people ask me if I want any coffee with my creamer. So what's the point of me drinking coffee anyway?)

Mmmmm, creamer! :)

So, one day the time came to try coffee house coffee. So I tried a Latte. Vanilla Latte to be exact. Two shots. GROSS! So I tried it again later with one shot. Mmmmm, not bad! I later got bold and tried different flavors and discovered that Pumpkin Spice and Maraschino Cherry are my favorites! One day I went even bolder and ordered a Mocha or whatever. Double GROSS! Too strong!! The strongest I can go is a Latte with two shots (I slowly worked my way up).

The boldest I ever got though was letting my dad fix me a cup of coffee. Who in their right mind would let him fix a cup of coffee after what he did 18 years prior?! I would! :) I was pleasantly surprised. Dad did good. He uses instant coffee and adds just the right amount of honey and flavored creamer.

So, now I drink coffee creamer just about every day! (No wonder I gained 7 pounds! Sheesh!)

"Be a coffee-drinking individual - espresso yourself!" ~ Author Unknown (I'd stay unknown too if I came up with such a silly quote!)

Braces, Puberty, TMI?

It seems like just yesterday I was going through the awkward pre-teen years. My boobs were developing...wait a minute...I'm STILL waiting for those girls to fully develop! :) I had acne and braces. My hair always seemed to be greasy even though I'm sure I washed it on an almost daily basis. I had no sense of fashion (and I probably still don't even though I pretend to think I do). Why do people have to go through all that? Those were some of the most embarrassing years of my life...and they stretched a couple years into my early teens. Good grief!

Well, now I have to watch Pacen go through those awkward years. He has just begun and things really aren't too bad...yet. He's had a random zit here and there...nothing major like I had. No big red zits the size of Texas and I HOPE WITH ALL MY BEING that he doesn't have to deal with bad acne. His first major step into the awkward pre-teen years is braces! He got braces on the 14th. Things have changed since I had braces. He only has to wear them for 1 1/2 years. I had to wear mine for three! He gets to choose fancy colors (for his first visit he chose blue glow-in-the-dark for the top and green for the bottom). I had plain ol' silver braces. His Orthodontist is a young pretty woman who makes the experience very fun! My Orthodontist was an old man who wasn't fun at all. The list just goes on and on.

Doesn't he make braces look good?!

I'm curious to see what Pacen's pre-teen and teen years are like. I hope to make them less awkward than they have to be. I won't let him have terrible fashion sense (cause, remember, I am a fashionista! *sarcasm*). I will make sure he washes his hair often so it doesn't look all greasy. I will tackle that acne problem if it surfaces (there have got to be way more medicines and such out there to help with this than when I was younger)! I will buy him a training bra jock strap...support cup...do boys need those?! OH! MY! GOD! I just realized that boys deal with a lot more different things than girls! Forget making the pre-teen/teen years great for Pacen! Who the hell is going to help ME through them?! Who is going to talk to him about "flogging the log"..."polishing the sword"..."yanking the crank"...okay, okay, I think you catch my drift! Do they need a talk about it?! Am I going to accidentally walk in on my son while he's taking care of business?! TOO! MANY! GROSS! THOUGHTS! I don't want my baby boy to grow up! Someone please save me from this insanity!!

LOOK! He is still so innocent and naive (I like to think)! Please don't grow up!!

"Puberty is the sickest joke God plays on us. So you're just noticing members of the sex: 'Girls, girls, ooo'. Naturally you want to look your best, and God says 'No! You will look the worst you've ever looked in your life!'" ~ Eddie Izzard

Luck O' The Irish

Okay, so...this post is a week late, but...ummmm...better late than never I guess. On St. Patrick's Day I wanted to surprise Pacen with a cool breakfast, even though he normally doesn't want anything to do with breakfast. So, I drug my sleepy butt out of bed at 6:00 so I could get ready for work and get this special breakfast done before it was time to head out. Mind you, I am NOT a morning person, but if I have something special to do then I will get up at any hour. What is this special breakfast, you may be asking. :) Well, it was rainbow pancakes with little gold coin pancakes. Haha! Yup! Easy really. All I had to do was add food coloring to the pancake batter.

Well, I finally got the pancakes done and when I woke Pacen I told him there was a surprise for him in the kitchen. He looked at me and said, "MOM! It's breakfast isn't it? I DON'T eat breakfast!" (Obviously he's not a morning person either.) Well, he could obviously tell that his remark "deflated" me so he went in the kitchen to see what his surprise was. He was actually pretty impressed and decided he'd try a couple. Then he said, "Wow, mom!! These are the best pancakes that you've ever made! They aren't crumbly like usual." Haha! He is right though...normally my pancakes crumble and these ones were actually thick and fluffy. Maybe the luck o' the Irish was with me...helping me make perfect pancakes. Haha!


About ten minutes before we were to leave for work Pacen informed me that we forgot to dye his hair green like we normally do for St. Patty's Day. So, in a hurry I grabbed the green paste food coloring, dipped my fingers in, and proceeded to run them through Pacen's hair. What a mess! Luckily it got the job done and we were only a couple minutes late for work. Ummm, did I mention that Pacen had a wrestling exhibition the night of St. Patty's? Haha! Maybe it was the color of his hair that caused him to win...or the luck o' the Irish was with him. :)


"May you die in bed at ninety-five years, shot by a jealous husband (or wife)." ~ Irish Toast

Goodbye 20s, hello 30s!

Earlier this month I officially left the 20s. It seems so crazy! I'm actually really looking forward to the 30s! I have done/gone through a lot in my 30 years...all of which will hopefully make my 30s (40s, 50s, etc.) fabulous! I am now experienced with this little thing called "life". Well, obviously not an expert, but I'm a helluva lot more experienced than I was ten years ago. The 20s were like a "trial run". The 20s are spent trying to figure life out...how to live on your own, take care of the bills, work, and be a responsible adult. I think the 30s are when people really start to get comfortable with everything and a person can kind of take a sigh of relief. I'm not saying life is going to get any easier, although that would be nice, but now I'm at the point in my life where I just don't give a hoot about some of the things that used to bother me. I'm more carefree. I now have more of a "f*ck it!" attitude and I like it! This is MY life and I'm going to live it how I damned well please. So...GOOD BYE 20s, you were okay. HELLO 30s, I have a feeling you are going to be amazing!!!

Woohoo!!! 30s!!!

Ummm, let me explain the bright yellow wall, orange trim, and kid curtains. I switched bedrooms with Pacen a while back and I haven't had time to paint or buy new curtains yet. :) I do have the color created...I just need to find the time and motivation to paint.

"The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits." ~ Hervey Allen

Black & White

One day I was walking through my dining room and happened to notice the cool shadow that my candelabra was casting across the table. I was just starting to "get into" photography and I thought I'd try to get a nice picture of the candelabra and it's shadow. I took the picture in color...the candles are a pastel yellow and it just didn't seem right so I used Elements to change it to black and white and I was shocked at how amazing the picture looked after the change. That was about four years ago and this is still one of my favorites!


I'm joining Tracy at Tracy's Trinkets & Treasures for a black and white photo party.


"Colour is black and white put together." ~ Unknown