Amazing quilt patterns!

For those of you who love to quilt or want to get started, a girl I knew in college has started a business designing quilt patterns, and they are incredible!! Check out her blog at http://web.mac.com/cjroskelley for info on where and how to buy her patterns. They are sold on her Etsy store, and nationwide at select quilt and craft stores! Her company is called Thimble Blossoms, and they are too cute!

Another Cake!

Today was my 3rd cake class, and last one of this level. I start level 2 in June, and am looking forward to that. Today I made a chocolate cake I decorated with what were purple buttercream roses (they got darker over time). It's loads of fun and I would recommend checking out your local Michael's craft store to see about taking the class! It's so fun!

A Big Pain in the Neck, LITERALLY!

Wednesday last week I my neck started feeling really stiff and painful. I thought maybe I had slept on it funny or something, but it hurt really bad! I couldn't look down or move it very much all and started having trouble sleeping because simple things like rolling over were really painful. Luckily, when I was in portland over the weekend it gradually started feeling better, so by yesterday I thought I was over the hump. Today tho, whoa nelly! It's worse than ever. I can't move my head to the right at all, I have weird pains running up and down my right arm, and the neck pain is pretty centrally located on the right side of my neck and upper back. This morning when I got to work it became apparent I needed to go to a chiropracter because I can hardly look down to grab files or anything I need to for work.

I had never been to chiropractor before. He was very nice though and said my pain is probably a result of lots of sitting at the computer with poor posture, and sometimes for no reason it can just show up at of now where or by moving my neck or head a certain way. He had me lay down to adjust my neck, and even laying straight down nearly brought me to tears it hurt so bad. He adjusted my neck, which is an experience I never want to do again, but have to on Wednesday. Just that popping sound alone makes my hair stand on end. He also put me into neck traction for 10 minutes, and that was rather relaxing, but the minute it was over I was back to feeling like crap again. Unfortunately with these neck things, you have to just wait it out because normally if it isn't causing numbness or anything it just needs to run it's course. I hate that answer. I am in so much pain, I would give anything right now for him to just make it all better. Work is torture! All I want to do is lay down! It takes so much effort to hold my head a certain way so it doesn't hurt that I am probably just straining my neck muscles even more by doing it! What a pain! Literally!

What's new this week?

It's been a busy week for Doug and I!! Here's what we've been up to!

- I had to go to Portland Thursday for the first half of my AutoCAD class at Clackamas Community College. It went Friday and Saturday 8-5. Friday most of the day was spent with the teacher lecturing and walking us all through various things in the program, whereas Saturday he lectured half the day and the other half we had some assignments to work on and they were pretty tough. I am glad that I can take my stuff to work with me tomorrow and get some help on it before the next class on Friday. So I will be leaving Bend again Thursday to do it all over again. The 3 hour drive is crappy but I enjoy the hotel room!

- Doug's branch is nearing the end of it's weekend overhaul. We stopped in last night when I got back into town to check it out, and see his work area and DESK! Who would have thought that would be so crucial?! But the place looks really good, and say a prayer it will all be up and ready tomorrow morning for them to open as usual.

- The weather has been so cold and crappy! SNOW! It's April and it's SNOWING?! Ah! Needless to say we are both pretty sick of it. Ugh. I am ready for summer!

- My first Wilton cake success! Today we worked on lettering and using the Star tip, and as a project had to make a character cake or a rainbow cake. Here's how mine turned out! It was pretty time consuming but I just love it and the time flies working on it! Now Doug and I get to the really fun part and EAT IT!





- We decided to get tickets to see Modest Mouse here in Bend Memorial Day weekend too, but are not going to go to both Death Cab For Cutie AND MM, so we are going to sell the DCFC tickets. If you know anyone who would be interested, let me know!!

- Memphis and Jackson are finally friends!! They bathe each other now, sleep together, play and have all sorts of fun! It makes me happy to see them get along together, and I finally feel at rest with the whole cat situation!!

Sweet Justice!

So the Wilton cake class saga continues, but with a happy ending! Doug was pretty frustrated with the whole disaster, so he went to Michael's last Monday after work and spoke to the manager about everything. She was very apologetic, and was going to see if she couldn't find a way for me to get in the class soon. So she arranged for me to take the class Sundays at 3:30 for the next 4 weeks FOR FREE! My first class was yesterday and it was so much fun! I am the only one in the class and my instructor showed me how to make the proper icing, how to get it the different consistencies and when to use each kind, how to ice the cake properly, and a few other things, like the beautiful Wilton rose! Since I am in the class for free, I was able to use the gift card Doug got me to buy a few supplies my teacher recommended. Now I am totally set and am so excited for next week where I have to bring in a frosted cake and I will learn how to do borders and writing and all sort of pretty things! I will post pictures of my progress along the way!

What's new?

I thought I would blog about what's new in our neck of the woods this week-

- My boss called Monday morning at work to say he would be in at 10am. We haven't seen him all week. It's now Thursday. He did leave a message this morning to say he would not be in today or tomorrow. Does anyone else find this really shady and weird?? I've lost a lot of respect for him. We (me and the ONE other person who works here) agree we could sympathize if he was sick or going through some family emergency, but instead of an explanation, we get- "Hi Guys- I wont be in today or tomorrow. Bye!" WEIRD!

- Doug has been super busy at work. With all the ups and downs of the economy and banking industry he has had a full plate. Plus they are remodeling his branch, which means chaos, but only one more week and he will FINALLY have a desk. He hasn't had one since he started there in November. Oh the little things!

- I have been working out everyday this week! I was doing three days a week, but now I am doing it Monday - Thursday. It's a little tiring on my muscles to do it every day instead of every other day, but in the end, I think it's worth the extra work, at least I hope it will pay off when swimsuit season starts! Either way it does feel good to be exercising again.

- We are supposed to have a high of 78 degrees on Saturday and I cannot wait!! Finally, some Spring weather!! Doug is planning to do a little fishing and we might go to an Alpaca farm! I have a weird interest in Alpacas and other farm animals, so we may go check it out! FUN!

- The next two weekends (after this coming weekend) I have to go up to Oregon City to take a class on AutoCAD for my work. I am little apprehensive. It's nice my work is paying for me to drive up there, stay, and attend this class, but what if I totally hate it? My boss has mentioned he thinks I'd be really good at it, and maybe so, but from what little experience I have had with it so far, it's been pretty frustrating. I guess I just need to go into it with an open mind, and if worst comes to worse and I hate it, it was never in my job description to do that kind of work, so I assume I am not obligated?! Anyway, kind of fun to get to go on my first business trip, but I will miss my hubby and the cats.

- They've announced the construction of a Sonic restaurant here, and Doug and I are pretty excited! We love Sonic! Yay for the simple things! And Ocean Water!!!!

- As you can tell from my 2 previous posts, we love our new kitty Memphis, and he has been so much fun! He came from his vet visit yesterday with flying colors and we are happy for that. He and Jackson are finally getting closer, and we hope by the weekend they might even sleep on the same couch together! Cross your fingers!

I think that's the update for this week, we are so exciting aren't we?!

At Work With Mom

Today Memphis has to go to the vet for his inital exam, courtesy of the Humane Society, to start him out healthy and happy. His appointment is right in the middle of the day, and to avoid running all over town and losing paid time at work, I went home for lunch and brought Memphis back with me to hang out for a while since the vet is on this side of town anyway. He has been such a good boy! He met the folks next door and my other co-worker, helped me file some papers, took a few phone messages and has since been sprawled out on my desk occasionally batting and swatting at the cursor when he sees it move on my computer screen! I took some pictures of him with my camera phone- he's too cute sometimes! Oh how I love my precious kitty cats!

Random Cat Cuteness

I am sure you are all sick of all the blogging I do about our cats, but if we had kids it would all be about our kids, so this is the tradeoff. For now, they are our kids,lol. But last night I witnessed pretty much the cutest thing I've seen a cat do. Doug and I are sitting on the couch watching Wheel of Fortune, yes we really are THAT exciting, and having some after dinner sweets- for me a package of graham crackers and some milk. Up comes Memphis on the couch between us and onto my lap sniffing at my graham cracker. At first I think he's just curious, and then he starts biting on the opposite end that I am eating. What?! So I break off a little piece and set it on the cushion between Doug and I and he starts chomping away and eats the whole bit and comes back to me to start eating my cracker again. I broke off another couple pieces and sure enough he ate those two! Silly cat! What cat likes graham crackers?! Then while I am sipping my milk I decide to tilk the cup down so he can fit his nose in to lap up come milk. Cats like milk right?! YES- and the little porker pratically drank all of mine. So when I decide he's had enough eating all of my food, he walks over to Doug who is eating an apple and starts licking the apple piece Doug is holding. So Doug cuts a small piece of apple off and puts it down and Memphis eats that up too, and looks up with these big brown eyes like, "Please sir, can I have some more?" It was the cutest thing I've ever seen. He just couldn't get enough of our people food! We tend to adopt cats with weird people food preferences. Sanka used to love Barbeque flavored Baked Lays, random!? I love our cats and the silly things they do that make us smile.

Meet Memphis!

Today Doug and I went to the Humane Society to pick out a new kitty for him. Jackson has been so lonely this week without Sanka, alone all day while we're at work, we felt it was time to get him, and Doug a new friend. We adopted an adorable 6 mo. old kitty we call Memphis! He is the perfect combination of playful kitten, and loving lap cat, just what Doug wanted!! We brought him home and have slowly been introducing him to Jackson. They are arch enemies at this point- Jackson who has NEVER hissed or growled, is making up for lost time, and Mr. Memphis is too busy exploring his new surroundings to even care. We have had so much fun playing with him and are excited to have him a part of our family now!!

Can't I get a little customer service here?!

So my sweet husband bought me a gift card to Michael's & a Wilton Kit as an Easter gift so I could sign up for the Wilton Cake Decorating 1 class I have been wanting to take for months. It was such a sweet gesture, and I could not wait to get into the class. Doug said he tried to sign me up for the class when he bought the Kit for me at Michael's but was told "we don't know when the next class will be. Just keep checking back" so he got a gift card for the class so I could sign up for it later. I called Michael's once during the week to see when the next course would start, but they still didn't have the schedule ready. So I called again Saturday to see if they had the schedule done. She said "Yes, the next class starts April 2nd at 5:30 for 4 weeks." I asked if I could sign up over the phone, but she told me I had to come into the store to do so because I needed to pay. I went over to Michael's to sign up, and the girl at the register couldn't seem to find the binder with the paperwork in it. Once she did, it had no paperwork in it, so she said I couldn't sign up. She said I could come back tomorrow to sign up because the manager who does it would be there. I said, "I already have called 2 times, and now driven down here to sign up. I shouldn't have to come back again." She takes my name and number and says she will have the manager call me the next day. So Sunday no one calls me, so I call to speak to the manager. She signs me up on the phone, and says I can pay before the class starts. I show up tonight right after work and ask to pay for the class. The girl helping me gets all confused and tries to find the binder which is missing again. She tracks it down, and gets the rest of my info, and I pay for the class with the giftcard Doug got me. She exclaims, "Oh, you're the only one in the class! It's right in the back by framing." So I head back there but still have a few minutes to spare so I look around. I go to the room at 5:30 and no one is there. I wander around some more and then go sit down again at 5:35. I wait until 5:45 and then go back to the front where NO ONE is working. I wander around looking for someone, and the same girl who helped me before asks if I am ready to check out. I say, "No, I am here for the Wilton class that was supposed to start at 5:30? No one is back there." She gets the binder again, and opens it up, why I don't know, but says, "oh. Well you're the only signed up so they probably cancelled the class." What?! What are you talking about, cancelled the class? I just paid for it. So at this point I'm starting to get really irritated. I say the girl "what do you mean? You just had me pay for it 20 minutes ago and sent me to the back, and now it's suddenly cancelled?! Why didn't you tell me this when I got here?!" She just looks at me. So I said, "Was anyone going to call me to let me know this?! So I didn't drive down here for no reason?" She said it was probably a lapse of communication between the teacher and the store. I am like, whatever. She then says, "Want to sign up for another class? There's one on Sunday's." But I look at the paper and see it's a level 3, not a 1, and she just looks at me. Then she proceeds to be even more incompetent which I didn't think was possible. She says, "So do you want a refund or to sign up for the next class?" "Well when does it start?" "I don't know" "So how am I supposed to sign up for a class you don't know when starts?!" She just looks at me. So she gives me a refund, but can't put it back on the giftcard Doug got me, so she has to put it on a second gift card, which now I have to remember the balance of. I let her know, "You know, this all has been extremely frustrating. Please let your manager know that next time you cancel a class you should probably call the people who have paid and signed up for it before they drive down here and arrange their schedule for something they have looked forward to." She just looks at me. So now I have 2 Michael's giftcards, no Wilton cake decorating class, an unused Easter gift my husband feels bad has been such a disaster, and the hope that the people at Michael's can get their act together before I go down there next time and lose my cool with em. ARGH!!