Dear Mom (#5)

Your Dear Rachel post has inspired me to write a reply back to you.

I found two HUGE bags of cards/envelopes at Goodwill a while ago for a total of $8. I enlisted David's help (much to his chagrin) to organize the envelopes by size. David would rather not have organized them at all. Most of the cards were Christmas cards or simple sympathy/"just a little note" cards. I think I got a good bargain, what do you think? :)

You can't really tell how many are in each pile, but…there were a lot of envelopes.

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A month ago we celebrated David's birthday with an early dinner of his favorite meal: biscuits and gravy. I think i'm getting the hang of it!

David loves the frisbee!

 We also invited a few friends over for cake and hand and foot. I made the filling and frosting using this recipe, but the cake is my standard yellow cake recipe. It was SOOO good, but a bit finicky to put together… 

The raspberry filling was fine, but the mascarpone cream layer wasn't spreading very well.

I told myself that messy was ok as long as there was an even layer of raspberries and mascarpone/cream.

Next layer...

Getting the hang of it…it doesn't look half bad!

This is where it started to get super messy. The raspberries wouldn't stay put when I tried to spread the mascarpone layer.

And I still had to frost it with the white chocolate frosting. The frosting of choice was not so much frosting, as it was a delicious mixture of white chocolate and butter.

The picture from the website was pristine and beautifully white. And since there was no way (with the raspberries oozing from the center) that the cake would be all white, I settled for uniform pink sides.

Once I frosted it to the best of my ability I put it in the fridge for the icing to harden. I'm happy with how it turned out.

We miss the Bartholomew's (who moved to AZ) and the Chamberlains (who moved out of our ward). They have been excellent game-friends.

Happy 27th Birthday, David!

David and I lost the game, but we're looking forward to playing it with you in Hawaii!

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There was a farewell party held in the Bartholomew's honor with lots of food and friends. I made these mini tarts. It was super simple, just a bit time consuming. The cups are made from sugar cookie dough baked in mini muffin tins. The filling is cream cheese, powdered sugar, cool whip, and a bit of white chocolate.

Paul and David 

Paul, David, and Jeremy 

President Sullivan and David 

The Bartholomew's and Reece's

Love you and Dad (and the rest of the family!)

New Years and February Snow

I've been meaning to write this blog since…February. Oops. Better late than never? For New Years we invited all of the families in our ward that a) had no kids and b) lived in the midtown area for a New Years Bash. It was super fun to spend time with everyone.

We played movie charades and while I have a ton of pictures of everyone acting…weird…I don't have their consent to post unflattering pictures of them. David on the other hand...

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In February Georgia experienced two snow storms, the first of which paralyzed the city. I initially made fun of Georgia for reacting so strongly for a little bit of snow. But then it started sticking to the roads… and then every single business and every single school let their kids/employees out early so already crowded streets became nightmares. I would say it was even worse than what was being reported. It took some of my students 8 hours to get home from school. Some of their friends didn't even make it at all and had to spend the night at school or stranded on a school bus.  

My Uncle finally parked his car on the side of the road and walked the rest of the way home.

It kept right on snowing.

Look how deep it got!

And finally…silence. David and I have never heard the city so quiet.

But some good came of it! Diana and Omar made one of the only flights into Atlanta right before they canceled every flight in and out of the city. They tried to make it home via MARTA, but Diana's Mom couldn't even make it to the station before it became obvious that she needed to turn around. Even then it took her several hours to make it the 2 miles or so she already drove. As a result they bunked with us for the night! It was fun. :)

I've repeatedly told David how much fun it would be to be snowed in with nothing to do but eat and play games. I got my wish with an added bonus of the Valverde's joining the fun! 

We miss you, Diana and Omar!