Wedding update : *attempts to get ducks in row*

I don't even know where to begin. I've been wanting to write a wedding update for a bit now because it seems like it's all I've been working on but it's hard to find the inspiration to come up with something worth sharing.

Things are coming along and my mother has been pretty good at messaging me daily with her countdowns. Time is a tickin'.

I spent 2 days figuring out (read : re-re-re-doing) the seating plan to make sure everything falls into place. Also trying to keep things as organized and clear as possible because we are facing some pretty tight time lines when we get there. Plus, once we leave Moose Jaw whatever's left to be done will probably not get done so we have to make sure everything is good and ready to go before we get on that plane.

In a way, it's a bit of a relief. We'll know that everything's done by the time we get there so we'll be able to enjoy our time a bit better, I guess. Ask me that again in a couple weeks!

WOW! This post is going nowhere.

Baking and Wedding Update : SK Reception Cake

Red velvet with cream cheese filling covered with fondant.

We decided to host a pot-luck dinner for friends out here in Moose Jaw so we could celebrate part of our wedding with them. It was a great night and it was a great excuse for friends to drive a "couple" hours for a weekend visit! :) I thought it was the perfect opportunity to make my own wedding cake. 

This cake was absolutely delicious. It was my first attempt at red velvet cake and I have to admit it was a lot easier than anticipated. The ingredients were pretty simple too so that helped. I had planned a whole morning to do it but what ended up taking the most of my time was the decorating.

The filling was delicious. I did have a small problem with it being too soft so next time I think I will prepare it a day in advance and leave it in the refrigerator overnight. 

For the decorating, I used store bought fondant because it's just so much easier and much much quicker. I used basic cutting tools and just gave 'er.

I wouldn't use butter cream with this type of cake as I didn't feel the red velvet was very flavorful - you need something with a little kick. However, I'd been looking for a good cream cheese filling recipe for some carrot cake and I think I found the perfect one. Stay tuned... ;)
 
PS: I cannot take the credit for the little lemon tartelettes. My friend Julie made them - I suggested she bring a desert in case anyone didn't like red velvet cake. They were absolutely amazing and I will definitely be making some as soon as she sends me her recipe. :)

PPS: Please forgive the very poor quality of the first picture. I totally forgot to take a picture of it before we cut the cake and I snapped this one to send in a quick email to Maggie - thank goodness!

FRUIT! We have FRUIT!

No, Nick - not you! *shove*

My very pitiful attempts at gardening have finally been recognized by the gardening gods. Behold, our 2 first raspberries!

So the picture is a bit blurry but you can forgive my excitement, I'm sure!

We bought a hopeful little twig of a raspberry plant and now it's grown a couple branches and we're looking at probably another 5 to 7 raspberries before the end of the summer.

We didn't expect anything to come of it at all because we planted it so late in the season and well... I fail miserably at keeping plants alive let alone grow something that has an actual (and delicious) purpose. I'm quite the nurturing person... I promise. *faint smile*

Voila, my latest gardening success story!

PS: We totally ate the raspberries and they were totally delicious.

That kind of burp...

The kind you have to stretch out your neck for. *coughmaggiecough*

Reason #2256 why our dog is damaged - The Oven Monster

A bit ago, I posted a link to a blog post from Hyperbole and a Half's Dog entry claiming that it was a perfect depiction of Nova. Case in point :

Side note : Since we've had her, Nova's been introduced to crate training. We are firm believers in crate training a dog, especially a high energy dog like Nova. It allows her to have a "safe place" where she can relax and sort of "shut down" to fall asleep. If she weren't crate trained, she'd spend the entire night roaming around the house, investigating every little smell or sound - not good. Same as when we're at work - she's safe in there, not running around building on anxiety for being left alone. She just zones out and falls asleep, knowing we'll be back soon to let her out again. Basics of crate training but I always feel like I should explain because we often get weird looks when we say she's crated at night. Given her past, she's prone to anxiety so it's best for her to be contained - kinda like my messed-up self.

One random evening late after dinner, Js and I decided to go out to the movies. We looked up the show times online and saw that the last showing was in about half an hour. I had baked something for desert and it was just about ready so we stuffed a couple in my purse and away we went. Nova safely resting in her crate for the night, we left the house.

We came back, nearly 2 hours later and Nova was unusually quiet. Normally, the minute the car pulls up we can hear her whining her misery - how dare we leave her for such a long, unbearable time? This time, there was nothing - no cries, no weeping. As we walk up to the house we hear a faint beeeeep-beeeeeep.

"Where the hell is that coming from?"
"I don't know... sounds like it's from inside the house." The call is coming from inside the house!
"Huh... sounds a lot like our oven timer."
"Huh..."


We turned off the oven but in our rush to catch the movie, we forgot to turn off the timer. That timer is one of the most annoying inventions known to mankind. It's very pushy and insistent.


Beeeee-beeeep. I'm done. Beeeeep-beeeeeep. Com'on guys, I'm done! Beeeeeep-beeeeep. Hey, look alive! You ask me to tell you in 10 minutes, I tell you in 10 minutes and what do you do? You ignore me? I think not! Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep-BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

Our poor, poor Nova had to put up with nearly 2 hours of incessant beeping. Now, every time timer goes off or the oven beeps because it's done pre-heating (wouldn't it be nice if men had that function?) she goes into a frenzy! She runs in circles around whatever piece of furniture is closest and lets out weird little barks - not loud enough to get into trouble or to interrupt the Beep-BEEEEEEP Monster.


And that, ladies and gents, is one of the many ways our dog is damaged.

Gardening Pride

Someone clicked "More please!" to my last gardening post and, of course, I took that as a : Please, oh please, may we please read more about your wonderful gardening skills, oh Garden Master! Teach us!

Yes. Yes you may, Grass Hopper.

Everything seems to be growing and it looks like I managed to, somehow, coordinate everything so that there's almost always something in bloom. When the tulips were blown away, a couple days later the lilies came (left). The lilies will probably fade by next week and by then, there should be something blooming from that thing I planted late. There's a wee bud. I checked, it's true.

As you can also tell by the photo above the Denial Grass is doing quite well. Js has started to try and rip it out of the ground to prove to me that it's grass. I ignore him and his plan to sabotage my beautiful garden. He's just jealous because he doesn't have pretty grass like mine.

Note to Grass Hopper : Do not, I repeat, do not throw out any bit of cardboard that comes with your carefully selected seedlings. You will forget what they are until they bloom. Doing so may, however, increase the high thrills of gardening if you're looking for a little rush.

While we're on this topic, I'd like to report that something is doing quite well in the pot with the Mighty Stickers of Doom.  

Long story short - Goo gone does nothing. There are stickers on each side of this flower pot I bought. It's spent 2 summers outside and the stickers are still there. You can see them in the picture, mocking me.

Torticollis - not nearly as classy as it sounds.

Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwie. There is never a dull moment in the life of moi. This morning was not any different - one more reason to hate Mondays.

I woke up with a sharp pain going up my arm. Thinking "what the eff!?" I went to get up and quickly realized that my arm was hurting because my neck was a ticking time bomb of pain and misery. I thought I'd just roll around in bed and try to loosen up the tight muscles. It's 7:30 am, I still have plenty of time to shake this off and get to work on time. I fell back asleep until approximately 8am and it only made things worst. I couldn't even move around in bed, I had to toss the pillow to rest my head directly on the mattress and stretch out my neck. I still had a splitting headache and paralyzing pain down my neck and into my shoulder.

Js got me one of those microwavable heat cushion-bag things and I rest that on my neck for a bit as I tried to get a hold of someone to cover my shift. I had to call my boss and let her know so she took care of most of it - bless her little heart. I quickly realized that I would have to go to the ER to at least get some medication and a doctor's note for the day today. That's when the fun began.

I attempted to get up 4 different ways before I asked Js to just pull on my hands so I could sit up. It hurt like all shit but it worked. Do you think my allergies would have given me the day off considering my predicament? No dice. Sneezing while trying not to move your head just hurts more.

Me : Can you get me my bra?
Him : Where is it?
Me : I don't know.
Him : Please be more specific...
Me : Somewhere in the room... on the floor?!
Him : Here.
Me : ... ... can you get me underwear?!
Him : *mumbles*
Me : Okay thanks, you can go now.

Trying to salvage what was left of my dignity I thought : I can fucking do this. I can put on my damn clothes, it can't hurt that much. I just have to be smart about it.

Ten minutes later, sitting on the edge of the bed with my underwear around my knees, my bra failing at doing anything it's supposed to... I was tempted to throw my iota of dignity out the window but that would require too much movement so I left it there, in a small pile by my feet.

Me : Baaaaaaaaabe?!
Him : What?!
Me : I need your help.
Him : Doing what? *comes up the stairs*
Me : ... ... *small-cry-face*
Him : *walks in* ... well that didn't go over very well, didn't it!?
Me : No. *sob*

He helped me get dressed, reached for my clothes as I attempted not to scream out bloody murder with every movement.

Me : You'll need to brush my hair.
Him : Hum, no. I don't know how.
Me : What do you mean you don't know how? You just brush.
Him : How?
Me : Just... brush.
Him : *blink* I feel like we're 70 years old.
Me : I guess I can just put a hair clip for now...

To stop him from seeing his life with me flash before his eyes and reconsider the whole wedding thing, I give up. So not only do I look like shit, I feel like shit. I'm wearing only clothes I could point to, my hair is a cottony mess due to my tossing and turning and I don't even want to dare trying to get into the shower. I'll bathe when I can do it on my own thank you very much.

Now, for the teeth brushing adventure. I had to brush my teeth with my left hand so I feel like I cleaned a third of my teeth. It took me a while to figure out the spitting thing - I worked out a very unclassy system and now, it seems, there is toothpaste everywhere. Take sip of water from cup, rinse, spit in cup, rinse cup, try to ignore mocking boyfriend, repeat.


We made our way to the ER  and I got a prescription and some work restrictions. I can't lift, push or pull anything over 2 kilos - said the pretty pretty doctor with an accent. We went to Wal-Mart to get the pills and picked up a season of The Office for my entertainment today. I'm lucky it's Js' day off (he's not!) because he's home to take care of me. By "taking care" I mean - fluffing my pillow and watching me drool as I sleep away the pain.