Can't Get Enough Cake

Been making stuff lately.

Trying to copy Costco's All American Chocolate cake (not the way it looks, just the way it tastes). This was for my Dad for Father's Day.  The cake was really rich and delicious. On the inside there are 4 layers with a ganache filling in between each one.  The side things I made by melting chocolate and spreading it thin on a pan, sticking it in the freezer and then breaking it apart and gluing on with frosting.

This was a birthday cake for my nieces (and my father-in-law :)). The inside is 4 layers with blueberry vanilla mousse in between each layer.  I dyed the cake purple and hot pink, so the layers alternate.

See how cute that little Brooke is?  

Jaislyn turned 9!

This was a coconut cream pie I made for a Memorial Day celebration. It was kind of an experiment (I've never made a custard pie before) and it turned out delicious!  I would make this again in heartbeat. The  crust is made out of coconut mixed with butter and baked until golden brown. Then you pour chocolate chips over top and smooth it all around as it melts.  MMMMMMM.   

Knee, Knee, Knee

Update on the Knee:

I got an MRI and all it showed was a lot of fluid and adema surrounding the IT band. I decided to take prednisone, an oral anti-inflammatory steroid.  It was the worst 2 weeks ever. I didn't sleep well so I was always tired and had a perma-headache; AND, it made me super emotional.

I've tried all sorts of different patches and creams. I got a TENS unit which sends pulses through my knee and apparently helps reduce inflammation. It's a really uncomfortable feeling.   My athlete friend recommended a local physical therapist/sports medicine guy, so I decided to try him out instead of the doctor I've been seeing.  My first visit they kept saying how tight the IT band was (which is CRAZY because I hadn't done anything more than walk on it for 2 weeks).  They gave me some stretches to do at home and told me to come back in a few days.  Surprisingly, the stretches really work. My pain has decreased significantly and it was a lot less tight when I went in the second time.

The PT told me I can start doing 20 minutes on a stationary bike and mild to moderate intensity--in the saddle the whole time.  I tried it out today and it didn't hurt a bit. I can't believe how just doing the right kind of stretches has made such a difference. Now most of my pain is just below my patella, not at the IT band. I guess that's good and bad.

My dear Watson is doing a 3 week CNA program right now. I see him when he drops me off at work in the morning, and then don't see him again until 10 pm. It's so sad.

Tens Unit: Electro-Stimulus

Sporting my blue PowWow shirt.  I have yellow, red, grey, and green. 

The weird patch I used for awhile. 

At the Physical Therapist. I was a little sad because they just told me how tight I still was. 

Mouse in the House

We got mice.

We saw the first one scurry through our storage pantry about a month ago.  My dear Watson tried all different traps in all different locations, but mostly they were just licking the peanut butter right off the trap and slipping by unharmed.  They ruined 2 bags of powdered sugar, 2 bags of pasta, 10 ramens, 2 ten lb. bags of pancake mix (I bought the first bag because it was on sale and I’m in charge of pancakes at the family reunion. Then I bought the second bag after the mice chewed through the first one.  I haven’t bought another bag yet), and a bag of brown rice.

My boss gave us a great tip for catching our food ruiners: wedge a peanut in the trap and put the peanut butter on top of the nut. Then, after they lick the PB off they’ll  start nibbling at the nut and…SNAP you got ‘em.

We tried it and after a little more than an hour we caught one.  This method worked pretty well for 6 or so more mice. We also got a couple in those sticky traps. That’s the worst though because then you have to go out and murder them.

My dear Watson caught a baby mouse in a milk carton and threw it away – just let him suffocate.  The next morning I found another baby dead in the toilet. It drowned, so we flushed it. 

A couple nights later we caught one in a box in the kitchen. 

The best by far is when we got 2 babies in one trap at the same time.  Never seen that before.

We’re up to 15 mice – 9 of them were babies.

Several times a day my dear Watson would have to go into the storage closet and throw out a dead mouse, then re-set the trap.  Our garbage man couldn’t come soon enough. One time I was at home and heard the familiar snap of a trap. My dear Watson was gone and for some reason I was feeling bad about his fate as a mouse killer/disposer. 

So I bucked up and went in with the needle nose pliers and picked up the trap with a dead mouse in it.  I got a bag and went on the front porch and took a few deep breaths. 

The hardest part was removing the bar that had broken the little neck.  I knew when I moved that bar the mouse would drop, which was just kind of disgusting.  It worked though, and then I tied up the bag and through it in the dumpster while plugging my nose without hands (a trait that most Porter’s have).

We haven’t had any more for a few days, so maybe we got the last of them. I hope no one in Heaven is recording mouse deaths. 

Arches

I loved the hike to Delicate Arch. It was my first time ever seeing it anywhere other than on a license plate.

The feeling as we looked down at the arch was strangely quite reverent. It seemed like no one dared speak above a whisper, and if you did, you immediately seemed out of place.  The air was still and we just sat there in awe and wonder at such an incredible creation.  How does something like that just happen? I know it's the handiwork of God, who created all things, and especially beautiful things like that for the enjoyment and benefit of man. I can't help but wonder if people who don't believe God created all things, maybe get a little piece of that feeling as they see things like this.

The rules on the arches website talk about how out of courtesy to the many people taking photographs, you shouldn't spend much time under the arch. So we each took a quick turn underneath and just took one picture. It was truly amazing.

On the way back from our hike (it's about 1.5 miles each way, so 3 total) my knee started hurting real bad.  That was another beginning to more of my never ending IT band saga.  I'll leave that for another post.

This is just a rock as we were driving to the delicate arch trail head. 

I think this is called 3sisters.It's also just along the road to the trail head. 

Balancing rock. A famous one at Arches. 

Balancing rock again. 

I just about stepped on this guy. 

See Delicate Arch in the background?

Some wind-blowing action going on with my hair. 

It was kind of over-cast, so we  didn't get a crisp blue sky, but it was  still cool anyway.  I think that's me standing under the arch. 

A nice guy offered to take this picture for us.

Me and my twin sister. Actually, that's just my not quite 11 year old niece, Kaitlyn. 

Me and Brynn! My dear Watson keeps messing up these pictures! He's been in the back ground of the last two. 

Me and Ellie! She's a big 5 year old now. 

Me and my big sis. I'm actually not THAT much taller than her....I was on a little hill. But I am taller than her. 

Us!

Enjoy!

How Much Wood Would A Wood Chuck Chuck

A couple weekends ago we went to Heber to split some wood.  My dear Watson's grandpa has a lot of land full of trees that needed to be cut down so a cousin can build a house on the land.  So we went to help.  Luckily, grandpa Watson has a cool splitter machine so we didn't have to split it ourselves. We just had to cut logs, load them on the splitter and then load them on the trailer. 

Surprisingly, this was really hard work. We were both way sore for a few days. 

I love spending a Saturday morning in Heber. 

The trailer full of wood.  It got a lot fuller than this. 

The cool splitter machine. 

Here we are!

That chain saw makes you look hot honey. 

This picture was an accident but doesn't it look SO cool? Minus my weird face that is. 

Vay to the Cation

We went on vacation last week. It was pretty awesome. 

We drove to Arches National Park and hiked to Delicate Arch. I'll tell you more about that with the next post when I get the pictures loaded. 

Then we drove around for an hour and a half to find a camping spot. Finally found one with no toilets, or even trees. I had to squat in the wide open desert next to a little bush. It was almost 10 pm and we were planning to cook dinner, but it was too late so we just went to bed.  The next morning, I decided our camp spot wasn't so bad.

Then we drove to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and hung out with my sister Sarah and her 5 kids.  We pretty much lived their normal life with them, including going on a field trip, to the school carnival, to Blake's Lotaburger, etc.  We went to a baseball game, played games, ate good food, and went on a hike. 

We loved every minute of it.

Then we drove all the way home in 9 hours. It ended way too soon. I loved being a part of Sarah's life as mom of 5 kids from 2 - 11 years old.  It kind of reminded me that raising kids is a bit difficult. When I'm in my 30's with several kids life isn't going to be smooth sailing. It will still be hard sometimes, so no sense in wishing I was there (because sometimes I do wish I could skip straight to 35 with 5 kids....I don't know why,  that's old :)). I think I'll just let it come at me one day at a time, nice and slow.

I remember when every one of her kids were babies, and I swear it was just yesterday.  I bet as a parent, life flies by even faster than as an Aunt. One minute you have your first baby, and the next your 6th (unless you never have 6 kids). 

Here are some pictures.  More to come.

Baseball game. Right behind home plate! Go Isotopes.

I love i-stuff. I think it's cool that we could take this picture of all of us, and see what we were taking a picture of thanks to the ipod touch.

Everyone on the Hike! Scott's taking the picture.

Me and my big sis.  Well, she's not very big.  Funny, most people thought me and her 11 year old daughter were sisters. :).

Nate and Ellie LOVE my dear watson. They call him Kami Baby.

16 mile Marathon

Oh man. Where to start?

My knee had been progressing all week. I had almost no pain, and only had to stop and walk 2 times every 3 miles.  I felt like I could probably run/walk the whole marathon.

Then, we walked around City Creek while we were picking up my race packet in SLC.  Three or four times during that little walk I took a step and had a sharp shooting pain in my knee.  It made me nervous and worried that I wasn't going to be able to run after all.

I ran.  I did the first 13.1 miles in 1:59 running/walking the whole time, and then at exactly that point (13.1) I had to start walking because the pain was so bad. I had to keep walking, and walking, and walking until finally mile 16 my dear Watson was there to cheer me on.  Basically, it took me 2 hours to run 13 miles, and 1 hour to walk 3.  I was in a lot of pain. My whole body was aching; I felt sick to my stomach and even after walking 3 miles I still couldn't run on it.

I couldn't imagine walking in this kind of pain for 10 more miles.  After a lot of tears and some stretching/massaging I decided I need to just bow out.

I'm glad I at least tried, and tried my best. I could have decided not to run altogether, but I'm glad I didn't do that even though it was painful.

I realized I have no idea what the protocol is if you have to quit a race before you finish.  So, we just left.

I memorized all 13 articles of faith and Hebrews 12:1.  I thought maybe memorizing scriptures would help keep my mind off my leg. It totally worked for the first 13.1 miles.

It's not the end of the world, even though it kind of felt like it for a minute.  My body is screaming at me to take a break from running to allow it time to heal in many ways. I got a migraine last week while running....that's never happened. I got diarrhea during a run last week...that's never happened (don't worry, I made it to a bathroom just in time). Take a break girl. That's what my body is saying.

Thanks to my sister Hannah and her family for letting us stay at their house. We had a really fun time with them!

City Creek!

I don't know what kind of face he's making here.  

Tiffinay & Co!!! If you look close in that blue thing you can see a giant solitaire diamond ring.

My dear Watson was totally there for me. He was with me at the start and several times along the way. I love him so much. He deserves a medal.  

I took TRAX to the starting line. I'm there in the grey sweater, walking to the start. 

I work bright pink and blue so you could find me easily. 

There I am again. 

This was the last picture my dear Watson took before he realized I was dying of pain. If you could see me up close it wouldn't be pretty.