Water Polo: got game?

Water Polo: got game?
Originally uploaded by ilovefremont2001

A package was dropped off on the front porch yesterday addressed to me. I didn't order anything, though I'm sure my wife will still check the credit card statement just to be sure. Inside the package was this awesome little onesie (I have no idea how to spell that kind of word). No note, no reason, no name of giver.

If you are the kind and wonderful person who found such awesomeness, thank you. You will make my son the coolest on the pool deck!

Introducing: My Son!

Introducing: My Son!
Originally uploaded by ilovefremont2001

Hi world. Laura and I went to the doctor's on Wednesday. The nurse showed us all the important identification parts and introduced us to our SON!. I would have taken her word for it, but she insisted on showing us the little detail.

As for the process-what an amazing thing!! Really! I could see the little fingers and feet. I wish it could have lasted a little longer. But after 15 minutes of that lady poking Laura's abdomen Laura seemed ready to be done. Wow. I'm so excited.

We are now accepting gifts of Legos.

the pink house

Adam and I have been in the process of settling in to our new home. We have the opportunity to rent an amazing house at an even more amazing price. The catch... nearly every wall was pink when we moved in. And on two non-pink walls, there were hand painted murals.

Here are a couple of pictures:

living room

dining room

kitchen
master bedroom

mural in the to-be-nurseryguest bathroom

Since moving in, we have been very busy covering the pink. The living room, dining room and master bedroom have been painted. The kitchen and guest bath went from pink and more pink to WHITE. Glorious white. The guest bath took two coats of primer and two of paint to cover the fuschia sponge paint. Adam was very dedicated to covering every speck of pink paint. Wallpaper was also removed.

Needless to say, according to current pregnancy guidelines (aka: dumb rules that don't let you do anything but I am sure are good for the baby) I was unable to help prime, paint or move. So, to stay busy, I baked a wedding cake. See previous post.

The paint supplies are now safely stored in the garage and no longer living in the dining room. Yay! We are still sort of in boxes. We have some furniture that was given to us for free (read: other peoples throw-away stuff) that we are hoping to replace as the finances appear. But we still have more space than we know what to do with.

We are so happy to have a space to really call our own. And to have some of the stuff that we haven't seen in over a year. Hello stand mixer, food processor and toaster oven! How I have missed you! Adam is also happy to visit Home Depot every other day for screws, paint, brackets, electrical outlets (yes, he turned off the electricity for that one!), etc, etc. He even pruned the avocado tree in the backyard and cleaned the garage.

So feel free to come visit, you will be sure to have your own room, but you might need to bring your own bed!

We promise to put up some after pictures... once it starts to look a little more like an after in here.

Cake

Since Adam let the cat out of the bag on ALL that is going on with us... I thought I would share about the wedding cake first. Because honestly, that might have been the most stressful of the news. The cake, not the pregnancy kept me up in the middle of the night.

Since this was my first wedding cake, I thought, why not go big? There were 500 guests, yes Five.Hundred.Guests at the wedding. In case you are unsure how that translates to cake... it means A LOT OF CAKE. The couple was highly, possibly morally, opposed to serving sheet cakes purchased from anywhere. They wanted every one of the 500 people to have the same shot at the wedding cake. So, I made more cake than I thought was necessary. The actual wedding cake was four tiers, each tier consisting of 3 layers. That is 12 cakes. Then, I made 3 sheet cakes, each with 2 layers. That is 6 cakes. Add them together, throw in the extra cake I had to make when I destroyed the first one and you get 19 cakes that I baked in 4 days. It was HOT in my kitchen. And my stand mixer was very tired.

The couple decided to go with all one kind of cake. Simpler for me. Vanilla buttermilk cake with strawberry lemon curd filling and buttercream frosting. It really was yummy and the filling was a beautiful pink color. Tasted like pink lemonade. How festive.

So, here is how it went down.
Day 1- juice a million lemons by hand for the lemon curd because store bought lemon juice is yuck

Day 2- bake 4 layers of 16" round cake... because this is what the first layer looked like when I tried to transfer it too soon. I knew it was too soon but I was impatient. I took a deep breath, snapped a picture, threw it away and then baked another layer.

Day 3- bake 3 layers of 12" round cake
Day 4-5 move (more on this later)
Day 6- bake 3 layers each of 8" and 4" round cakes
Day 7-8- unpack kitchen in our new home with my life-saving mother
Day 9- bake 6 layers of sheet cake
Day 10- make vat of strawberry lemon curd involving separating 4 dozen eggs
Day 11- make even bigger vat of buttercream frosting involving approximately 15 pounds of butter
Day 12- set up shop in church kitchen to layer cake, filling, cake, filling, cake, frosting and repeat for 7 separate cakes
Day 13- WEDDING DAY! assemble cake complete with plastic dowels and "please don't let this thing collapse on itself" prayers, add ribbon and piping, wait for florist to arrive with flowers, "assist" the florist in adding flowers... then collapse in a heap of headache and sleep for 6 hours


But, here is the finished product...
Not too shabby for my first try, if I do say so myself. And the good news, I would totally do it again. In fact, I would love to do it again. Even soon.

Hello Dear World

Yes, we are alive. Yes, we still plan on blogging. Yes, Laura is going to have our first baby! We have moved out of the missionary house, we have moved into our new permanant (temporary) dwelling. We have a year lease on a great house. Laura baked, frosted, and delivered the wedding cake. It was a big hit. Life is rolling on for us. Actually, a little too fast. After all the moving, painting, and caking we have been beat!

Check back soon.

food gig

I had the opportunity to put my schooling to work this weekend. I was asked to cater a going away party for 40 on Saturday. It really went about as well as anything you do with food can go. Dinner was served a little late due to some SLOW cooking chicken, but I figure it gave people a chance to chit chat.

I had a friend help with this event- which was a brilliant idea, if I do say so myself. She was a huge asset... hello, she did the Costco shopping, stuffed 40 chicken breasts, did dishes, and generally kept us on task.
Here's the menu we used:

appetizer

cold spinach dip

garlic toast

dinner
caesar salad

artichoke, parmesan and herb stuffed chicken

loaded mashed potatoes

dessert

chocolate mousse in white chocolate bowls with raspberry sauce and fresh whipped cream

Are you hungry now??

Unfortunately, the only picture I have is of the mousse cups (yes, we made the chocolate cups), and there isn't even whipped cream on it yet. What can I say? We were too busy to take pictures. And I gave my photographer the night off.

sugar buzz

Adam and I went to the grand opening of The Sweet and Saucy Shop in Long Beach.
It was beyond fun- beautiful store, delicious desserts.
Even though I was given permission to use any of the images, I was not able to load any of them... so click on that link above and be ready to crave some cake! How I wish I was getting married... just for the mini dessert spreads she does.

If you are anywhere within driving distance, you must visit. I recommend the chocolatey-coffee-kahlua cupcake. And Adam is a new fan of the double fudge cake lollipop. Be sure to bring some water, because you will need somethis to counteract the extreme sugar buzz that will come from "sharing 5 desserts".