Cupcakes and Dutch Oven christening

Julie got me these cool Pampered Chef frosting mechanisms. Even though I said that I was done with decorating cakes, I really wanted to try these. I made spice cake with vanilla pudding (an experiment that turned out well) and used store bought frosting with some food coloring. We had some people come over and they seemed to be impressed. Thanks Julie!






I also used my new dutch oven to make my favorite chili. We took it to the CS BBQ today and it was all gone by the time we got home. Success!

Correction post

Okay, before you all think that I'm manic depressive or anything, I want you to know that it's not that bad. I'm not looking to throw myself off the highest building in Troy or going to gas myself in the bathroom. It was brought to my attention that I was being a lot more negative than my old self. Since this is bringing down others around me, I want to change my spoil sport attitude and concentrate on the good things in life. So before you think that I'm going off the deep end, I'm not. I just need to remember what the good things about Troy are.

Also, the interview yesterday turned out well. I got a job at a startup company called Celery. I'll be a customer service rep so that I can telecommute, which work perfectly with my holiday trips home. Everything is looking up already!

My new pot!

Edward's gift for me finally came. Check it out. It's BEAUTIFUL! And yes...it is a pot, more specifically a dutch oven (obviously not the fart under the sheet kind). I finally wised up and asked for what I wanted this year instead of just letting him get whatever he wanted for me. In the past this has resulted in an MP3 player, GPS, and external harddrive. Although these were very nice gifts, I'd much rather have a really nice pot. I'm sooooo excited. This year it's a dutch oven for me! I want to go hunt down a duck and cook it.

Thinking positive

Last night Ed and I had a nice long talk about staying here for his MBA (an extra year after I finish). At first I was very upset and wrote an overly dramatic "I hate the world" piece, which I won't post because of the foul language, but it ultimately helped calm me down. Ed pointed out that I've been so negative lately that he worries that if we move home and we give up everything (school and job opportunities) here that I will still be unhappy with my situation at home. Let's face it, finding a job in CA, especially SF, will be even harder than here. As much as I like my mom's cooking and my twin sized bed, I can't live under my parent's roof for the rest of my life. Getting experience out here would be much more beneficial for when I hit the Bay Area job market. Plus, the cons of moving home are just as bad, if not worse, than if I stayed out here with him to get his MBA (that is if he can get the funding). While reflecting through my writing, I realized that I don't just want a ring on my finger, I also want to go home. One is not good enough anymore. Even if we got married and then had to come back out here for school, I know that I wouldn't be any happier. I want to be happy with my marriage and not use as a piece of tape to keep me on the East Coast (besides, it'd be scotch tape, not duck). If Ed and I can make it through these ultimately insignificant four years of our life, then maybe we are meant for each other. I'm sure that we can make it through four winters in Troy and then be happy together for the next fifty years. All in all, I've realized that marriage won't solve the problem. I'm the only one who can do anything for myself at this point. And while I really want to move home and get married, I don't want to live my life with Ed and know that he's bitter that I held him back from getting a free MBA. If I move home in May then he will come too, which means that he won't get his masters in business administration or an MBA. Although I don't like the fact that he was putting a dollar value to himself in terms of the future job market, it does make sense. It would benefit us in the future. I had said that I want to go back in May and start a family. Of course he pointed out that neither of us are financially ready to start a family.

Be that as it may, I still know that I want to be home. As he is much better at looking at the future and focusing on it, I am trying to follow his lead by being more positive. I have noticed that I know that the future is the best thing to focus on, but I have difficulty doing that. So my only option is to focus on the positive things about living in Troy. We've come to the conclusion that I've been borderline depressed and that an attitude adjustment will do me good. We've discussed this many times, but now that there really is a possibility that we'll have to stay longer I think it's best for both of us if I rethink my outlook on life. I don't want to take any medication/go to the doctor for it because I don't think I'm that bad so I'm going to try to actually do something about it. I woke up to a bright and sunny day today so I'm feeling very hopeful. I emailed a friend about going to play soccer with her and I have an interview this afternoon. Things are looking good.

With that said, I'm trying to turn over a new leaf and would be very appreciative if you all, family and friends, would help keep my outlook on life on the up and up. Yell at me if you see any negative posts or chat conversations! Ed and I are in this for the long haul.

Thank you everyone!

Thank you for all of your birthday wishes! I really appreciate them and got a laugh out of a couple. Today was in all a pretty good day even though I had to work and go to school. The kids all sang to me, which embarrassed me thoroughly. They counted out how old I was. I was like "keep going...keep going..."because it seemed to take forever. Then we played football and I was able to make four touchdowns! My friend Jamel figured out that he had to lob the ball to me in order for me to catch it. Any harder than five miles per hour was not going to make it into my hot little hands. Since I could pretty much outrun the kids this worked well. The counselors however, were more of a challenge. It was a lot of fun though and I sweated A LOT. It was fun to actually play a sport and run around. I usually watch the kids at the playground so time went by much faster. Now I'm waiting for Ed to come back from the class so that we can go to dinner. I've decided to not do any school work today...even though I did do some reading earlier and had to go to class. I'm shutting off my brain for the night.

From the airplane

Well, it's back to good old New York for me. I'm currently on the plane somewhere over the midwest. I figured that I should start my blog back up to suppress the feelings of bitterness and irritation. Plus, I have pictures.

As most of you know, I spent that last week at home because I was throwing a baby shower for my good friend Melanie. All those invitations and name tags were finally put to use. The party was quite intimate. By the end everyone knew one another. It was a pretty good time, but I could feel myself fading. I had only had one small cup of coffee and the two Pepsis that I dashed to consume were not holding me over. But in the end, everything was okay. My ducky cake looked really nice and Melanie enjoyed the chocolate ducks. We were very ducki-fied.

Let me tell you about that dumb duck cake. The box lied! I should write them to get my money back. It was supposed to be a 3D cake that could stand up. Well, when I cut the bottom like the instructions said it stood up, but was really funny looking. For some reason the cake deflates when it comes out of the oven. I know that baked goods tend to do this, but it would have been nice if this particular cake didn't do it. I even tried to do that cake two different ways and it still deflated. Anyways, so I was sitting at the kitchen table and said "From this side the duck looks normal." then I turned the cake around "And this side looks normal." and then I turned it so that we could see it straight on and said "So what the heck happened?" This cracked my mom and bro up. Each individual side looked perfectly fine, but then when you looked at it straight on it looked like it should have been a flat cake that I tried to stand up. I was unable to fall asleep because I was trying to figure out a way to remedy my problem without having to lay it flat. My solution was to frost the flat side and then add the little star shaped frosting. Well, this was a lot easier to do in my head while I was staring at the giant Beatles poster on my ceiling. The frosting was not having it. In the end I just cut off the deflated part and laid the duck down. As you can imagine I was getting very frustrated that the cake wasn't turning out the way I wanted. My mom and bro were being really nice and trying to help me put the too soft frosting into the Pampered Chef frosting pump. After a few minutes of me being grumpy they cleared out until I was pretty much done. I had to keep putting the pump into the freezer so that the frosting would harden up. It wasn't until after I was done that I talked to Julie who said that I could have put confectioners sugar in it to make it stiffer. Duh. Why didn't I think of that? That's what I use to make my regular frosting, but I didn't even think about putting it into store bought stuff. Well, what's done is done and it turned out pretty cute. All I have to say is: Josie, you can be the family cake maker and decorator. I'm retiring.






The rest of the trip was great. On Monday my mom, brother, and I went out to SF to have pizza with my extended family. (My dad had to go to a boy scout meeting.) I guess to me a good trip home is when I get to eat a lot. And that I did. I have a sick obsession with weighing myself and I literally saw myself gain five pounds. My pants are a little too tight for me now. I also got a new computer while I was home. It was a very generous birthday present from my parents. I was originally going to pay them back for a little over half of it, but then today when I was leaving they said that I didn't have to. I didn't argue. One "are you sure?" was all I could bring myself to say. I might be jobless until after Christmas so I need the savings!

Christopher and I hung out a lot this week. It's a lot better now that we're older. We get a long so much better. Plus, I'm super cool. I started painting some of his Warhammer stuff to see what the appeal is. It is quite entertaining, however, I'm a perfectionist so it was taking me hours to finish one. I completed two figurines.

As far as work goes, I gave my notice at the Y about a month ago. My last day is this coming Friday. Now I'm looking for a job, preferably somewhere that will start my career. I'd like to work at a book store since publishing firms look for that, but I'm having a difficult time. I was talking to a small publishing company but they said "We'll keep in touch"....we all know what that means. So back to the job search. Since I want to go home for the month of December I think it'll be hard for me to find a really good job between now and then. Then when I get back in January I think that we might be able to move back home when I graduate (my fingers are crossed), that is in May. So trying to find a serious job from Jan-May will be a little difficult I think. I'm beginning to wonder if I should have just stuck it out at the Y, but I don't regret it. My boss is driving me crazy. If worse comes to worse I'll go work at Target or Petsmart or something. Somewhere where the employee turn around is pretty high. I would also like to go home in October to see Mel's baby, but I don't know if that's going to happen (I'd have to miss school and work...provided I have a job). And then there is always Thanksgiving. I want my family to come out to visit again this year, but we'll see. It'll be quite expensive and time consuming. If I can get Christopher out to see me then maybe we'll go down to Georgia, but no promises Annette! Either way, I don't want to be working during that week of Thanksgiving. Really, I think that I should just not work anywhere and just focus on my school work. Donations anyone? Just kidding.

Anyways, so that's about a weeks worth of blogs so I'm signing off with an alli-oop and a catch you on the flip side folks. Peace out yo.

I've been sooooo lazy. I haven't wanted to blog at all. Especially now that I'm home I don't want to sit behind my computer when I could be doing something else. So, when I'm feeling like I want to write again I'll start it back up.

Yay, the plumbers came!

Nothing much has been happening around here except that our water heater went out on Saturday. So I haven't had hot water for almost a week. It's kind of been a drag not having hot water for showers, but other wise it hasn't been that bad. I was just a little irritated because I took work off early so that I would be here for the plumbers. Well, they were a no show. But they're here now, which is good because Emmy and I both need baths.

Other than my minor water drama, nothing has been going on. I come home and watch the olympics and then sleep. I went to bed at 10 10 last night because I had stayed up until 12 30 watching women's gymnastics the night before. So I missed the men's individual event, but I was way to tired to watch. Oh! This Tuesday I actually got to go out with some friends. My coworkers and I got free tickets to this independent film called American Teen Movie. So we went out and had fun. It made me feel like I actually have a life. Hehe.

You forgot someone

Daddy, you forgot Kitty again. Don't worry, I'll keep him company.

More Georgia Pics

In front of the Levie house.

Breakfast!

At the Ben and Jerry's in Chattanooga, Tennessee before our Imax showing of Dolphins and Whales.

Cool 3D glasses for the whales.

The butterfly garden at the Chattanooga aquarium.

This butterfly landed on Julie's leg pretty much as soon as we got into the garden. Pretty cool.

Davie and a butterfly....seems like Julie and Davie are lucky with butterflies landing on them. I think I was more focused on taking pictures than anything else.

These are shoots that go down to the bottom of the tank to send food down to the fish down below. They're like reverse bank suction shoots. Our tour guide called them toilet shoots. For $15 we got a behind the scenes look at the aquarium. It was pretty cool. I'd never done something like that before.

Edward putting the veggie tube into the water for the veggie eating fish. They stuff the tubes with romaine lettuce and broccoli. All of the food that they give the fish is resturant grade. So all of the seafood that they were giving the fish (squid, small fish, and shrimp) could have been stuffed in my bag and cooked up for dinner. I think the stench would have lead them on that I stole some though.

The two sea turtles that the aquarium had were both rehab turtles. This guy lost his back flippers in a boating accident. He has to swim with his bottom sticking up in the water. The tour guide said that if he wanted to stay at the bottom of the tank he had to wedge himself into a crevice to stay down.

Yup, this is a frozen rat. The aquarium feeds them to the big snakes and stuff. They also had tiny little baby mice. They were frozen and looked like plastic hairless mice. They were a little creepy. I like my animals alive.

Look at the caption!!!

The ride home. Some little furry girl slept the whole way! She says "Thank you Pau Pau for the seat belt. You saved me from a couple of Mommy's bad stops."

Look how cool the stingrays are! They come up the wall to feed!

Bouncing in the shurbs

Emmy and Buttons jumping in the shrubs. Emmy was chasing her frisbee and Buttons was chasing Emmy.

Massive picture blog

Here are a bunch of pictures from our trip down to Georgia last week. We had SO much fun.

Edward and I on Uncle Walter's golf cart coming back from the acres and acres of corn and insects.

Our traveling group

Emmy looking into the toilet at the house that we were staying at.


Look at this gift basket that they left us on the bed. Julie got one too. There's so much good stuff in there! I couldn't believe it.

Wouldn't you want butterflies like these in your backyard?

Yummy squash casserole that I got a recipe for.

Country fried steak...mmmmmm

Having fun in the workshop with Great Uncle Walter

Me and the Doozer

Emmy got a bath pretty much everyday because she ran around so much that she got dirty A LOT.


Wanda's Restaurant! We were driving to the Chickamauga battle field and we saw this. I had to stop to take a picture for my mommy. So now we have pictures of Wanda's Restaurant and The Desmond Hotel!

The mill (I'm not sure that's what it's called) for the sorghum processing. Chip (Ed's second cousin once removed) is going to try to make sorghum syrup this summer with a friend of his.

This is the heating mechanism that they will use to make the syrup.

As far as we know, this is Emmy's first encounter with chickens. She also saw horses, but we didn't want her to get butted in the head by a testy horse.


This house is seriously as beautiful outside as it is inside. This is where we slept the whole time. Uncle Walter's place was just across the street.

A big house needs a big driveway. We'd take nice little walks down this driveway just to have a "romantic" walk.

Emmy paw prints!

This was definitely a Levie place.


I'm getting tired of waiting for the sets of five pictures to upload, so I'll have to finish tomorrow.

The Doozer and me

Well, Edward's plane for Sacramento was scheduled to take off 5 minutes ago. So now it's just me and Emmy. Maybe now I'll have the urge to get back into blogging. I still need to upload all of my pictures from Georgia. We only have a half day of work today because we're going to be working from 6:45am to 7pm on Friday so maybe I'll do it today. We're going to New England Aquarium! I'm so excited. Two aquariums in two weeks! I'm a happy, but tired girl.

Okay, I'm going to read a little bit before I go to work. TTFN!

Happy Birthday Goung Goung

Happy birthday Baba/Goung Goung! We won't say how old you are, but it's impressive that you can ride, hike, and canoe for miles at your age and I can't even ride a mile and a half at mine.


Ugh, this is uncomfortable Mommy.

Didn't you hear me?

Hey Ya'll!

Greetings from Georgia! We have a little bit of time, so I thought I'd blog a little about the peachiest state in the country. It's so nice down here. It's hot and humid like a steam room, but the people are so friendly I feel like I've had enough kindness to last me until Christmas in NY. We've been eating SO much and not getting enough time to digest it all. This is because we wake up for a full breakfast, clean up, can some sort of vegetable, eat a full lunch, clean up, can more vegetables, and then eat a full dinner. On the upside of me gaining a hundred pounds, I've learned how to make some really good southern food and I think we'll be having biscuits at every meal from now on.

I have more to say, but the keyboard at the computer I'm using isn't very good so I'm going to have to sign off for now. Bye!