Bridal Shower for Lisa!

My coworker Lisa is getting married next month so after work today we had a very casual shower for her at "Old Chicago". I made a cake (chocolate per her very specific request) and did some simple decorating of it to celebrate. Here are a few pictures....
My coworkers Kristen and Lisa, the bride-to-be....

The very chocolate cake for Lisa....

The whole crew at the shower!

Painted project

When my sister and I were little, my mom had a kids table for us that she painted and stenciled a Cabbage Patch doll on it (is there anything better for little girls?!). It was a table for us to play at, which we did quite often. Thoughout the years, it somehow didn't get sold or thrown away and my parents kept it in their basement storage. Now that I have my own place, and friends that visit with little ones, I thought I should have a place for them to sit, play and eat. I will hopefully stencil some Wildcats on it and may many future Wildcats sit here! :)

Before:

After:

Big day.

Today has been action-packed!! I worked for a couple hours this morning, had my parents over for a brunch of waffles and omelets to mark my last unplanned Saturday for the fall (I will be working a lot to cover a coworker's maternity leave), got my hair cut and drum roll.......I got internet and cable!! Since I have moved in to my house in July, I have waited to get cable as there weren't any new shows....until now. So, I will be trying to figure out how to manage the addition of TV to my life. I ended up deciding to go with AT&T Uverse and I now have the evil capability of recording 4 shows at one times- dangerous! I may never leave my couch again.....and I'm pretty excited about it. :)

Paula Dean and her cake

Sooooooooo, one of the other speech therapists at the hospital had a birthday Tuesday. I committed to making her and the 3rd SLP a bday cake. They just happen to fall two weeks apart so I recently made red velvelt cupcakes for Jason's birthday. Well, Barbra (birthday girl) had mentioned she liked strawberry cake. Not a personal fav, but not my birthday.....so I looked around and found a rich, rich cake on Paula Dean's website.


You could say that it turned out pretty well in the eyes of my coworkers. It was deemed "the best thing I have ever made" from one person; another therapist claimed it was "the best cake she has had in her whole life" and therapist said "if I would have had this cake before I got married, I would have asked you to make it for the reception". Whoa, serious cake love here people. Let me also say that I didn't loooooove the cake like these folks and probably won't make it again, but thought I would share in case any of you are strawberry cake lovers. Here is the recipe. Enjoy! :)

Adios, congrats and a sweet baby...

This past weekend I went to Kansas City with a two-fold purpose: for a going-away party for my friend Teresa and to go to a bridal shower for a former co-worker. I got the bonus perk of getting to stay with my friends Julie and Aaron and seeing their little baby Brooke; she is SO cute! My friend Teresa is moving back to her hometown in north central Kansas and some friends had a party to wish her well. Here are some pictures from the party and a few of sweet little Brooke who is just now 3 months old. No pictures from the shower, but it was really nice to see some many friends with such a quick trip!

Me with Teresa....

All of the SLPs from grad school that were there...

Julie with her smiley baby...

Baby Brooke again. :)

On a roll.

Last night I went with friends from work to Lawrence for sushi. Um, so freakin' good!!! Three of us were completely onboard with the sushi situation (love it), one hater and two new kids that were willing to try it. We got LOTS of rolls to try (pink lady was one of my favorites, it involved mayo; and another with mango was excellent). Very fun to hang with coworkers outside of the walls of work; looking forward to doing it again sometime soon! :) Here are some of the friendly faces and some of the GLORIOUS sushi rolls!!

Inspired.

Friday night my mom and I went to the movie "Julia and Julie". So very good. If you haven't had the pleasure, the premise is that Julie is a late-20s character who feels lost in a less-than-satisfying life and decides to cook her way through Julia Childs cookbook and blogs her journey. Now people, that is a blog!

I loved the movie as it shows how cooking is an adventure and sometimes things don't go right, or as planned, but you can try again or a different way. It was fun to go with my mom who I think is a fantastic cook. I attribute my love of cooking to how she included me in it when I was younger.

I made a pie yesterday for a bbq last night and there is something worthwhile about starting with a bunch of ingredients that separately don't mean much, but put them together and mmmmm. My favorite thing about cooking is having family/friends over to share a meal together. I think that comes from growing up where my mom put a great value in dinner time for our family. As a general rule, we didn't watch TV and it allowed us to connect and find out how everyone is doing. Something that I try to do still (super easy to do now that I currently don't have cable hooked up). As someone who loves cooking, this movie was incredibly enjoyable! I would highly recommend it for any of you that love to cook. :)