Eggs at Midnight, or "Doesn't anyone else stay up late in this town?"

I made deviled eggs for our barbecue tomorrow. I used all of the eggs so we'd have a lot. Eggs complete, I went to the pantry to get brownie mix for the next part of our feast. Stupid! You need eggs to make brownies!

Ryan is at work, and baby Sam is asleep. I already walked around our apartments looking for lights on in the apartments of good friends (the kind you could say "I need brownies NOW" to and not feel stupid). No one is up. I even asked a guy smoking outside if I could borrow some eggs. YES I am that desperate. Sadly he is just visiting his daughter, and she's already asleep.

I am seriously thinking about waking Sam up and going to the grocery store. Is it worth it? I could just eat the rest of the jar of fudge...

Blog giveaways!

My friend Mary has her own neato crafty blog. This week she is giving away goodies to people who comment on her posts and blog about the giveaway items. I would love to win 2 things-

The Name Banner- I think it would look so cute in Sammy's room when we get a two-bedroom apartment.

The Photo Shoot- I love pictures of Sam, and having people take them who are actually talented at taking pictures is even better!

Go check out her blog! http://maryeclev.blogspot.com

Graduating and Becoming a "Grown-Up"

Graduation ceremonies for the School of Medicine were held on May 22nd. I don't technically finish until August, but I was allowed to walk in the ceremony with my classmates. I must say, receiving the hood for the master's degree is pretty awesome.

Yeah, yeah, I know that's not how you are supposed to wear it!

Even though poor Ryan had worked a 12-hour overnighter at the hospital, he still came to graduation the next morning. His unwavering support the past 21 months has really kept me going. I gave him my "stole of gratitude" after the ceremony.

After some group pictures outside, it started to rain. Once inside, I lost everyone! We did manage to catch up with one of my classmates, Heidi, after the ceremony. She and I have become such good friends over the course of working together through school. I'm glad we'll be colleagues in Salt Lake City. That is, of course, assuming I get a job!

Our friend Elisa (aka THELISA) watched baby Sam for us during the ceremony. She is so awesome. To double her awesomeness, she took some nice pictures of us.

I am in the interview process for a job here in Salt Lake. They say they are taking the hiring process slowly, so even if I get the job I probably won't start working until July at the earliest. Next week is my last week rotating through the Pregnancy RiskLine, so after that I will have some time to be a stay-at-home mom. I'm looking forward to it. It will be great to spend so much time with Ryan and Sam without having homework constantly on the back of my mind. I hope we have some nice weather so Sam can enjoy his new pool!

Topsy Turvy Cake

Being an avid reader of Cake Wrecks, I have been exposed to new ideas in cakery. My absolute favorite is the topsy turvy cake.

The Interwebs has several sites that teach you how to make these cakes, and Ryan and I (well, mostly me) thought we would try to make one for Sam's first birthday cake. Being haunted by our past cake disasters, I decided that we would make a practice cake first, to work on technique.

Not too bad, actually. Okay, there are crumbs in the icing, and the top stack is leaning a little, but on the whole, it looks as it should!

So Ryan and I were dinking around on our computers in the living room, when all of a sudden I hear a noise from the kitchen...

The top stack on our cake fell off! After I spent 30 minutes icing it to be sure it would stay together!! Rage!!!

Picking up a stack of cake bare-handed is messier than anticipated.

Our topsy turvy cake was more of a tipsy turvy cake... and what does turvy mean, anyway? In a nutshell, we have abandoned our hope of making a very fancy cake for our son's birthday. We might still buy some packaged fondant to make pretty designs for his cake, but we're sticking to what we know best: two 8 inch rounds stacked together with chocolate icing.

I need a new hobby.

Sammy Eats!

Sam is almost a year old, so we're trying to introduce him to "grown-up food". He does best with pasta, which he really likes.

Messy, but totally worth it!

Sam also loves bread and cheese, so making little sandwiches for him is also fun. He doesn't do so well with lunchmeat yet, though.

It's an adventure every day.

I like nice people

Sam and I took our first plane ride completely by ourselves this weekend. The kid is a handful (more like two hands full, for honesty's sake), so I was pretty worried about him freaking out on the plane and not being able to contain him. Lucky for us, the flight from Salt Lake to Denver is only about an hour long. We were so lucky on both flights- the gentlemen sitting next to us actually liked babies. On the first flight our seat mate showed pictures of his little girl to Sam (he loves pictures of babies) and gave him a RiceKrispies treat to play with. On the return flight our seat mate offered to hold him and get my bag from the overhead rack. Seriously, it means so much to this frazzled mother to have people act kindly towards my son.

While in Denver, Sam and I attended the funeral of the son of one of my best friends from my undergrad days. I think the death of a child is one of those moments where you know for sure whether or not you believe in God and trust in His plans for your life. My heart breaks for my friends, who will have to wait many years before they see their little boy again. I take comfort, however, in knowing that they know that they will see him again. Their marriage was solemnized in the temple of the Lord, and their children will be with them forever, even if they don't have the blessing of their company for more than a few months on earth. In looking for comfort I could share with them, I found this poem by President Gordon B. Hinckley:

What is this thing that men call death,

This quiet passing in the night?

'Tis not the end, but genesis

Of better worlds and greater light.

O God, touch Thou my aching heart,

And calm my troubled, haunting fears.

Let hope and faith, transcendent, pure,

Give strength and peace beyond my tears.

There is no death, but only change

With recompense for victory won;

The gift of Him who loved all men,

The Son of God, the Holy One.

After the funeral, my cousin Steven picked us up to take us back to the airport. I haven't seen him in a couple years, so we had a lot of catching up to do. We talked about how Facebook has both helped people keep in touch, and yet enabled us not to keep in touch at all. I know Steven is planning a trip to Africa with his jump team and his girlfriend, and he sees all my pictures of Sam, but we haven't really talked since we saw each other in April '08. It is kind of sad, actually. It further contributes to my love/hate relationship with FB.

In any case, the three of us had a great time hanging out. Sam looooved his bread crust treats at Panera Bread. Steven and I spent the car ride talking about things that are actually important. It was a good way to finish a trip that started off on a sad note.

My New Obsession

Last September, Ryan, Sammy, and I were all sick at the same time. This was before Sam got all mobile and wiggly, so the three of us spent many hours on the hide-a-bed in the living room watching Cake Boss. This prompted us to make our own fondant and decorate a magnificently layered cake, a la Buddy and co.

Yes, we're keeping our day jobs.

In any case, it inspired a love for beautifully decorated, imaginative cakes. I can waste hours online looking at pictures of amazing cakes.

And then I met Nina Fullmer, and started keeping up with her blog (yes, she does live in the apartment above ours, so I COULD just go say hi every once in a while, but this way I get to keep my pasty white skin from getting exposed to deadly UV rays.) Nina's blog's sidebar features a blog with the intriguing name of Cake Wrecks. Being rather obsessed with cake, I had to investigate.

Oh my hilariousness. This blog is dedicated to professional cakes that can best be described as "horribly, hilariously wrong." Like all the different ways you can spell "congratulations". And misuse an apos'trophe. And crazy carrot jockeys! Seriously, people, words cannot do this blog justice. You must see for yourselves.

My dearest wish is to be a Wreckporter. And if you are ever stumped on what to get me for my birthday, a CakeWrecks t-shirt would hit the spot.

Oh, I kill me. Hit the spot!

Downside? I pretty much always want cake now.