Let's play catch up....

Since I am so far behind posting...... I have figured out how to catch up without doing one Llloooonnnggggg post. My plan is to write about one of my cupcake adventures at a time so it not just overwhelming. I will also play catch up with recent family events...
So for our first summery:

 I planned on baking.

Then I got a text "Bubbas hurt."

Hunter got hit by a truck.

The summery of events post to present
-Hunter got hit by a truck (A 4 door-big ass- truck going 50 mph) while riding his bike one morning in Abilene.

                             

-His L1 was fractured. He had road rash from head to toe (literally) And his helmet saved his head and his life!

-He had to lay horizontal for 5 (yes five) days until he got a "turtle" shell brace to begin his healing process

-Hunter had to re-learn everyday tasks.

- Everything became a process. He was dependent on other people to do EVERYTHING! and this killed him, but he started making progress towards his independence, and... 

-3 months later Hunter has been released from his brace, and is still recovering in great time!

Just because this is summed up in 6 bullet marks please understand that this was nothing easy about any of this.  It has been a long and trying and tiring 3 months but in my optimistic eyes there was alway a light at the end of this tunnel.

And as a result you will now meet some of the biggest advocates for SHARE THE ROAD  :)

Or in Hunters words Share the DAM Road.

THEN

Half of Texas caught on fire. And it was scary!

We were at the the coast for labor day weekend and got the first text saying that one fire was close to our house and one was close to my parents. After having an internal panic attach I was able to get ahold of my mom, and found out our source was incorrect! ~SIGH~

It was a stressful next couple of weeks with lots of players, amazing stories of people coming together and miricales of houses being saved.

My heart still burst for everyone still affected and thoses who lost SO much. I just can't imagine.

So to stay calm, what did I do? I baked....

Overdue post!!

Sorry for the LONG delay between posts! School started back and life has been crazy!! And now all the central TX fires are burning like crazy, and I can't sleep, so I guess I'll post an update...

Baking:

Not a whole lot of that has happened, but I hope I can get back on track!

Amee and I did make S'MORES right before school was back in.

This was a fun adventure! Somehow I got bit by a S'MORE bug and knew we just had to make some S'MORE cupcakes!

So we began with a graham cracker crust: graham cracker crumbs, butter and sugar

Then filled the cupcake with a simple chocolate cake recipe mix.

And Baked.

Now came our creative ideas on how to add the marshmallow... I do not own a kitchen fire gun, NOR did I see a safe outcome with going to the garage and firing up Christian's welding fire torch.. ;) 

(oh and I only had BIG marshmallows and none of the whipped marshmallow cream that all the recipes called for.)

So here is what we did:

idea 1) add a marshmallow to cooked cupcake, secure with a toothpick and stick in microwave for about 15-30sec

I LOVE putting marshmallow's in the microwave because the get HUGE!! haha. The above picture does no justice, I think it had deflated some by the time I remembered to take a pic...

Idea 2) melt marshmallow in glass bowl and frost cupcake

This was SOOO sticky!! but worked out ok. 

Idea 3) add marshmallow, secure with toothpick, place in broiler until toasted a golden brown

 The color on these was beautiful, but they didn't fall down so we had to help it a bit.

Now lets add some more Chocolate to finish these treats off:)

We simply melted chocolate in the microwave and added a little to the tops, and on a few we sprinkled some graham cracker crumbs. 

BEAUTIFUL!!! 

LET'S EAT!! :)

OHHH MYY LANTA! SOOO GOOD!! yes sticky, but good:)

I caught a mouse!

Sunday EARLY morning I heard the infamous squeek of a mouse in distress. How do I know that sound you ask? Because I have FOUR cats!! (yes 4) The cats have a "cat" door to come and go as they please, and thankfully for the parents, we can control which way that door can swing, or even at all.
This winter they lost the privilege of being able to have free range of their coming and going and were only allowed to go as they pleased. If they wanted to come in the house they had to wait for a human to open the door.
We took away their freedom when someone kept bringing in "play toys" and "presents", i.e. mice and snakes! Our little boogers would usually bring these gifts inside at night after I had gone to bed and usually when Christian was still up. Christian had to deal with the poor scared play toys (usually still alive). But every-once in a while  I would be home alone with my hunters and their catch.
If this were ever the case, Christian would get a phone call to "come home immediately" because my life was in danger!!
One time I was brave enough to put a bucket over the mouse so Christian had a surprise when he came home. It was this that sparked my incentive to catch a mouse by myself.
Christian tried bribing me with a new pair of shoes if I ever caught a mouse by myself.
This was in December....    I tried. I really did!!  But  I just knew that stinking little mouse was going to eat me if I tried to catch it.

Yesterday I got a new pair of shoes!!!! :)

When it really started getting HOT we put the door back on two-way entry. All was fine until last week, when we had out first summer present.
My hero of a husband fearlessly took care of the problem. Do not worry the little mouse was fine, even after C had to spray BC with water to make her drop him..
And then Sunday morning happened...
 I woke up to the pitiful squeaks, and nudged Christian to get up, urging him "it's a mouse! it's a mouse!" but after a late, fun night with the boys he was not budging! So I jump out of bed and headed for the door, armed with my squirt bottle. I VERY cautiously open the door, knowing that as soon as I did, that HUGE mouse was going to run at me. But he didn't. I flip on the lights and sneak down the hall and hear our couch guest (R) moan, "oh sorry, but they have a MOUSE!" he just moaned again and offered me no assistance! UGH these boys are cut off from now on!!
I see THREE cats huddled around our DVD stand and my hunters wives instincts kick in (JK). So I squirt the cats and they run off, and then I SEE HIM! His huge head sticking out from behind the cabinet, and I yell again "it's a mouse" but no heros this time.  I quickly run to the kitchen to arm myself with mouse catching supplies, a leather glove and a huge measuring cup. Ok I'm ready.  A couple of huge sighs later and I start to slowly move the cabinet forward. And there he sits. As fast as I can I move the cup down by him, but he's not running... Between screams, I nudge him into the cup. All 3inches if him are in. "Don't worry little guy I've got you now" Aww he is actually kinda cute. My new little friend was wiped out from being a play toy for three cats, but he was ok. I took him outside to our wood pile and he scampered and squeaked away.
I hope I never see him again.

Baking with my neighbor:)

Say Hello to Amee, the best neighbor EVER!

Today Amee and I decided to become a TEAM in my cupcake baking adventures. We made a plan to get together once a week and try out a new recipe. I couldn't be more excited to have a friend to encourage me and be an enabler to my new addiction! (I guess it helps that she loves baking too....)

Our first masterpiece together = Butterfly Devil's Food cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Frosting

TA-DAH!

These turned out AMAZING!

Meet my New Best Friend

This is "Mica" the Micro-fiber dust mop.

 I LOVE her! She picks up all the cat hair and dust off my floors. I can use her dry and then mop with her too! 

In the recent addition of our wood floors;

 I have been COMPLETELY grossed out my the amount of dirt and hair being tracked into our house daily. With carpet I felt like I was doing good running our RoboVac every other day, but now that I can see how dirty it really was, I don't think I will ever have carpet again! 

Before Mica I was "sweeping" 5 times a day to pick up all the cat hair from 3 indoor cats, in reality all I was doing was pushing around cat hair NOT picking it up. 

Enter Mica- I now only sweep 1-2 times a day, and she actually picks up the hair!! 

AHHHH clean floors= love......

Missing my husbnd

With Christian gone on a fishing trip for 10 days and NO phone service :( I have realized how much I have gotten used to having him around, even as much as he works (which is A LOT). I've always been cautious to feel dependent on anyone else, and I don't see this as dependancy, because he is my Best Friend and I just love having him around and doing things with him.
SO I needed to find something to distract my time. 
hanging out with mom-check
workout= BLAH no one to workout with
cleaned the house = like 10 times
all laundry done- check
all the kittens have a new home

AND so my new obsession started~~~~CUPCAKES~~~~~
I began my research online, read TONS of recipes and reviews and then began my baking adventure.......

• My first attempt was Red Velvet cake with cream cheese frosting 

These turned out pretty good, my favorite so far. The icing was the best part!! I will defiantly keep both of these recipes to use again.

• Second trial= "Reeces Peanut Putter Cupcakes"         Chocolate cupcake filled with peanut butter with a fluffy chocolate icing (I had some cream cheese icing left over and used it on some)

Sadly these were a flop :( The filling and icing were yummy, BUT the cake was to dense and was more like a really tough brownie.

I defiantly want to try another recipe for this kind of cupcake because who doesn't LOVE Reeces! 

• Third flavor= Chocolate chip cupcakes with chocolate chip icing, and in my "creative kitchen brain" I added mint to some of the icing so we had Mint Chocolate Chip icing too! 

Overall these were pretty good, a simple white cake recipe with choc chips added, and a buttercream frosting. The only part that didn't work out as planned is for some reason my chocolate chips all settled to the bottom...Strange!! 

• And my last attempt for the week was Lemon Cake with lemon buttercream frosting 

I love lemon so I might be bias to these, but they were lovely :)

I really want to run with my new obsession, so  I went out and purchased a book on 1001 cupcake recipes. And I can't wait to try more, but I ran out of time this week. Stay tuned and I will keep u updated on 1001 cupcakes. 

Well probably not all 1001 but some...

Married Life

We have settled in pretty well by now. Not a whole lot has actually changed seeing as we were not "traditional" and chose to live together before we were married.
 So I am already used to the Christian way of things, as is he with mine.
A LOT has happened in the past two months, let's recap:


THE WEDDING- May 28, 2011
It was a great weekend! All our family was in town for the BIG event, including 18 people from Christian's Family who came all the way from Germany to celebrate. 
Of course there were hic-ups, but when you have someone as "controlling" as me plan a wedding for 13 months, even these hic-ups had a plan:) 
We cried, laughed, danced and ate! It was an AMAZING night, and as much as I tried to just stretch it out and make it last, it just FLEW by...

 the crying part, recovering by a laugh :)

 Kisses and LOVE

Posing with MOM and Aunt in-between dances

June 4th- Stefan (little Brother in law) Graduated High School, and most of the Germans went home the next day

June 6th- We left for the honeymoon to JAMAICA

the happy newlyweds, it took lots of arm twisting and bribing to get C to wear this shirt!!

Goats were everywhere! Wondering through the streets and countryside, and somehow they managed to say out of the way of busses and cars. They belonged to people, and would graze where-ever they pleased during the day and then go home at dark.  

we went Zip-lining 

views at the Hotel 

This is Michael (next to C). Michael was the head chief at the resort where we were staying, and became a special friend of ours. We kept running into Michael at the resort and kept exchanging conversations, about where we are from, how was the food, what did we think about all the rain etc.
 I was always prodding Michael to tell me about himself, there was just something about his BIG smile that drew me in.
Finally, He told me about everywhere he had/ has been a chief, good bosses and bad ones and finally his family. Michael has two kids a 12yr old daughter and a 8yr old Autistic son. It was on this connection that Michael and I bonded. 

Michael took us into town to see the REAL Jamaica. We had to meet him off property to catch a taxi, if the resort saw us with the staff, it would have been trouble for him. 
He took us to: 
*eat Juci Patties, the affordable fast food of Jamaica *his barber
*his dentist (b/c he needed to make an appointment)
*the furniture shop for new and reclaimed/ used things- this is where we understood how poor and         sad the economy is. And where I felt horrible about spending money on stupid things to take home. But isn't this the case when you visit any country of this same stature. SIGH<

We went to the market where he shops, but it was a wednesday, so it was empty, except a few local venders. Michael explained how is was always packed on weekends when everyone came from all the surrounding towns to do theirs weeks worth of shopping. The market had everything from food, to clothes and cell phones.

Different local fruits. We actually had fun trying out new things! Some were VERY interesting looking, including the Jack fruit (bottom right).

More to come soon, have to stop for tonight...