Stress, Car Trouble (Again), and a Bridesmaid Dress

Hello readers!  Things have been going relatively well for me since my last post over a week ago.  While I'm not stress free my stress level has definitely lowered which is a good thing.


School is my main cause of stress.  Spring break ended and I jumped back into classes and started new 8-week hybrid courses.  Lots and lots of work to be done.  But on the bright side while I have not finalized my internship things are definitely moving in the direction they need to so that I can get things finalized.  I've been meeting with the necessary people and discovering what my options are.  Hopefully I can move things along soon so I can take my stress level down another notch because I have this finalized.


Unfortunately my car gave me more grief.  This time being more than a $20 part and fix at home deal.  I broke the left rear spring in my car.  Thankfully I didn't drive my car when I thought something was wrong because if I had I would have blown a tire.  My dad was able to come to my rescue and make my car drive-able so it could be taken to the shop.  They were able to find used parts for it and get everything all taken care of for me.  This happened Friday and today was the first day I was able to drive my own car.  You don't realize how much you miss the comfort of your own car until it's taken away from you.


I was sized for my bridesmaid's dress this last Thursday.  I wasn't looking forward to it because I know I haven't been losing the weight I should.  I ended up ordering a size 16.  Not horrible but definitely not what I would have liked.  While over spring break I slacked on working out because no one was around to hold me accountable (Chelsea was in Arizona) I easily jumped back on that wagon.  Working out seems to be the easy part to me.  It's the nutrition I need to really focus on making changes to if I want to see results.  I don't want to do any special diets.  I just want to focus on making healthier choices, and enjoying not so healthy things in moderation.  Even the healthy foods I need to watch portion sizes to make sure I'm not eating more than I should.  My mom bought a Weight Watchers food scale that will weigh food along with providing the Weight Watchers Points for items so this will be perfect for the two of us to use.  Definitely need to get to using it so I start learning what a healthy serving looks like.


I've been doing some baking  recently which I hope to be sharing the recipe(s) with you soon!  One recipe was a success and definitely received two-thumbs-up from everyone who tried it and the other recipe wasn't exactly my favorite but I was told it wasn't bad.  I may be trying that one again, we'll see.


I'm off to bed now.  I work at 8 tomorrow morning and I've been struggling to get up on time since I'm used to sleeping until 7-7:30 lately due to starting work at 9 more often so I need my beauty sleep!


How's your week been going?  If you're in college are you ready for the semester to be over like I am?

Baking Experiment

Saturday was a day filled with baking for me.  I was finally going to try out a recipe that had been calling my name for a while.

I found the recipe for a Red Velvet Cake at How Sweet It Is.  You can see the recipe I followed here.

The cake was paired with a Cream Cheese Frosting originally but I decided to use another frosting recipe I found at How Sweet It Is, a White Chocolate Frosting.  You can see the recipe for the frosting here - along with some yummy looking brownies.

I baked this cake under the supervision of my grandma.  And let me tell you it definitely came in handy to have her around when one of the cake pans overflowed a bit while baking so when it was time to remove the cake from the pan it stuck.  My grandma came to the rescue and got the cake out!

Here are some pictures of the finished product.

Thanks G-ma for making it look pretty!

mmmm frosting

Definitely a red cake!

Overall there were mixed reviews of this cake.  My mom had trouble getting past the red color.  I personally didn't think the cake had much of a taste to it - probably due to the small amount of cocoa?  I always thought a Red Velvet Cake was a chocolate cake that's colored red.  My dad ate it and thought it was alright.  One of my aunts thought it was really good.  My uncle enjoyed it as well.  My other aunt is a bit picky and nothing about the cake thrilled her at all - not even the white chocolate frosting because it was too "stiff".

This was the cake I thought I would be taking to work for a food day but after this run through I decided not to.  I decided to make a Devil's Food Cake with the same frosting.  Yesterday I spent the day at my grandma's baking since I would have no time today to bake and frost a cake.  Tomorrow is the big day where I get to find out what my co-workers think of my baking skills.

I'll probably do a post including the recipe that I followed sometime soon after the food day tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

Questions for you...

Do you enjoy baking or cooking more?

Have you ever made a Red Velvet Cake?  How much cocoa was in your recipe?

Currently listening to...

Baggage Claim - Miranda Lambert

Baking Lesson Learned, 126 miles in a day, & Love at the Olive Garden!!

What is going on my blogger friends??  I've been a busy beaver these last couple of days so I'll just recap the highlights for you.

Thursday the most exciting part of my day was making a Chocolate Peanut Butter Bunt Cake.  It tasted FANTASTIC but didn't look quite as good as it did when Holly made it (check out her cake here).  I had asked my mom the night before when I was planning to make the cake how I got the cake out of the bunt pan.  She said to take it out of the oven and turn it over on a plate or something right away so that's what I did.  My cake turned out rather flat, almost brownie like instead of high.  When my mom saw it she asked what I did.  I assumed it was because I was caught up in the TV show I was watching and forgot to take the bunt pan off of the cake.  But after talking with my grandma, who is an awesome baker, it turns out my cake my have fell flat because I turned it upside down too soon.  According to my grandma I should have let the cake sit upright for about 10 minutes for it to set up and then flip the pan over on a plate or something, leave it sit for about 5 minutes or however long for the cake to fall from the pan.  Like I said, the cake still tasted really really good so it wasn't a complete fail, just a presentation fail.  Oh well, lesson learned for the next time I attempt to make it :)

Thursday when I was walking out of school to my car my aunt texted me asking if I wanted to go snowmobiling the next day if she could still get off of work.  I told her I would and I would be inviting my dad who also didn't have to work.  So Friday my dad, aunt, and I went on a 126 mile round trip ride.  We left our house, which is only a 1 & 1/4 miles from my grandparents' where my aunt still lives, and rode to Tomahawk (about 45 minutes by car) for lunch at Freddy's Pub & Grill.  Freddy's is a mexican place with amazing food.  I had a shredded chicken chimi (yum yum yummy!).  After eating we hit the trails again heading home, stopping once to use the bathroom (after eating & drinking you always have to go more on the way home lol) and again to put gas in.  We had started our trip around 12:30pm and were home around 7pm.  Overall it was a great day for riding, trails were awesome and the weather was great.

Saturday I had planned on working on homework all day so I could enjoy going out for lunch and shopping on Sunday without that voice in the back of my head reminding me about a bunch of homework that needed to get done.  But plans changed, my mom was no longer needed at a church function that evening so my grandma, mom and I ended up going to town to do some grocery shopping at Sam's Club and eat lunch.  We had lunch at Olive Garden, which I had only eaten at one time before and didn't like.  I decided to stay away from spaghetti or lasagna as that was what I remembered having tried the first time many years ago and not liking.  My grandma makes both so I think I'm biased as to what would taste good to me.  I had the Grilled Shrimp Caprese and fell in love!  Here's what their menu says: "Grilled marinated shrimp served over angel hair pasta with melted mozzarella, fresh basil and tomatoes in a garlic-butter sauce."  I could have done without the tomatoes as I didn't eat them anyways but I know now for next time, and there will definitely be a next time :)

And now today has been homework day, nothing exciting.

How was your weekend?  Do anything for Valentine's Day or are you like me and think tomorrow is just another day?

I'm going to leave you with a video from the 2010 CMA Awards of Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson performing one of my favorite songs from Jason's most recent album My Kinda Party.  This was also the best performance of the night if you ask me.  The song is "Don't You Wanna Stay", enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqmjDrecgzA&feature=fvst