Thank You Thank You Thank You!!

THANK YOU AUNT LORRIE!!! Okay, you win. You are now officially my favorite Aunt! (Actually, I think you were my favorite even before this) I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Aprons!!

My wonderful, beautiful, thoughtful Aunt Lorrie and Uncle Mike (Jacob's Aunt and Uncle) sent me not one, but 2 aprons embroidered with my company's logo on them!!! Can you believe it?! She is so awesome. She did all this in the midsts of planning her son's wedding. Here are some pics of my new favorite posession: Here is also a pic of my business card that she got the Logo off of.

Star Struck...

A cool thing happened the other day. I recieved a call from none other than WILLIE GOLDMAN!!! That's Duff Goldman's brother...from Food Network's "Ace of Cakes"!! I was so star struck! For those of you who don't watch "Ace of Cakes", first of all, you should be ashamed of yourselves; second, it's the best show ever on the Food Network. It airs on the Food Network at 8:00 and 8:30 on Thursday Nights. It's a show about a bakery that makes insane cakes for people. Duff Goldman is the owner and head pastry chef. His brother, Willie, is his producer from the show and has actually made a couple of appearances on the show himself.

This is why he called: I was on the Charm City Cakes website and I had sent them an e-mail requesting to use a cute little quote that Mary Alice had said at the end of the "Sound Garden" episode. She said "...Going happily forward with cake in our bellies...". It was so cute that I wanted to use it as a slogan for my "Bite the Cake"

business. I wanted to put it on my cards and on my website. Anyway, Willie was calling me to make sure that I wasn't putting it on T-Shirts and selling them or something. They can't be held liable for anything that I do with it and they don't want me using their name for selling or business purposes. He was SOOOO nice. I totally enjoyed talking to him. I must say, I was a bit Star Struck.

Total Money Makeover...

Okay, I am so not one to say "this book changed my life!" It's cliche right? Well, I've got to say it...THIS BOOK CHANGED MY LIFE! Jacob and I thought we were good with money, and then we read this book. You know that dark cloud of uncertanty and doubt that you get when you think about your bank account?? Once you read this book, it gives you hope and direction. Jacob and I are so, so excited for the future and our retirement now! It tells you how to put your money where it's going to pay off the most debt the quickest. It's simple advice that ANYONE can do weather you make $300,000 or $30,000. It's sensible advice that applies to everyone...even if you already think you are good with money. It teaches you how to pay off even that debt that is concidered "acceptable" like cars and student loans, and even your house! Jacob and I have already paid off about $10,000 in credit card and medical debtscf in just 6 months!!!!!!!!!!! Are you kidding me?!! That's insane! We feel so fantastic and no longer have that looming cloud of worry and uncdertanty when it comes to money and the future. We plan to pay off Jacob's student loans and his car by the end of next year! My car is already paid for. I sold my beloved Jeep and am driving around a '98 Astro Van that we got a killer deal on a paid cash for. I am very proud to drive around my Astro Van because I don't have a payment on it and in a year or two, I can get a better car when we have enough saved up for it. Jacob even went as far as to sell his $19,000 truck and buy a very nice one for only $7,000 that gets even better gas miliage. We even had to sell it for less than we owed on it but by doing that, we still have less debt. We even re-fied our house to have a lower interest rate, pay off our principle but we still have the same payment. After the student loans and car is paid off, we will start paying our home off even more! Can you imagine?! Not even having a house payment by the time you are 45?! I'm telling you guys, GET THIS BOOK!.. and follow it! You will feel SO good. It might not be so fun at first to look at all your debt but at least you will have a plan and you will get hope again by dealing with it.

I'm taking Jacob to the Dave Ramsey Live Show in Salt Lake on the 17th. It should be a blast. I am such a fan. He really knows what he is talking about. Good luck everyone!

More Cakes

This is the Tinkerbell cake that Tiani and I did last weekend for my neighbor's baby girl's 1st birthday. Tiani did a fantastic job helping me and hopefully she learned something. She is going to make a fantastic pastry chef.

A little girl in my primary class had her 6th birthday today and the theme was "girly". They got purses as goody bags so her mother and I decided that a purse cake would suit just fine. It was so fun to do.

Let's go fly a Kite...

He would not let go of this bag ALL night!This lasted about 2 minutes, then it was back to the park...

For FHE on Monday night, our famiy went to the park by City hall and had a picnic and flew kites. So fun! The best part of that is that means it's finally spring time!! Horray!!

Discovery...

Last weekend we took a trip to the Discovery Children's Museum at the Gateway in Salt Lake. This place is AMAZING. All three of my kiddos LOVED it! They have a giant "Bee Hive" where you can put balls in all kinds of openings and watch them go up and down different tubes. This was Trevor's favorite. Then they have a "Kid's Town" where everything is their size and it has a house, a construction zone, a farm, a gas station, and even a grocery store! Lizzy's favorite part was the kid's-sized kitchen. (She must take after her mommy!) They even have little police and fire cars with costumes to match that the kids can drive around in. So cute. Upstairs, they have a Sesame Street area with all kinds of things to teach kids about their bodies. They even teach about poop...like I needed more reasons in my house to talk about poop! Upstairs, they also have a science room to learn about magnets and physics. They even had a little pad where you could build a building with blocks and see if it can stand up to an earthquake. Then we went outside to the "launch pad" where they have a helicopter that the kids can play in and even communicate to the control tower. (Ryan's absolute favorite!) Before we even went to the museum, I caught Lizzy telling Ryan that we were going to a museum and that he was not to touch anything. I told her that this was a "kid's museum" and that they could touch anything that they wanted to. She had a hard time comprehending that because she loves rules and hates to break them. She finally saw what I ment when we got there and decided that I was right. It was so fun to see them explore and discover all day and they were thoroghly entertained the entire time. They also slept quite well that night...

Easter Disaster in Primary...

I teach the 5 year olds in Primary and on Easter Sunday my very good friend's little boy decided that for the good of the class, he would tell them all that there was no such thing as an Easter Bunny. I was horrified as he proceded to announce that his mom and dad were the Easter Bunny. I tried to get him to stop by telling him that I needed to start the lesson (hoping that no one was paying attention to his little outburst.) but he would NOT let up. He started getting frantic and yelling to everyone that the Easter Bunny was not real. I couldn't just sweep this under the rug and distract the kids anymore...he had already done his damage. I finally had to take him outside and explain to him that the other kids didn't know yet and that he had to keep this secret to himself while the other teacher tried to console and reasure the rest of the kids of the lie that there was an Easter Bunny. It turns out that morning was the morning his parents decided to explain to him that there was no Easter Bunny because he was terrified the night before that there would be a huge bunny coming into his house while he was sleeping. His outburst was only in concern for the rest of the kids that might be frightened as well. He finally agreed to not shout "There's no such thing as the Easter Bunny" anymore so I took him back into class. I then had to explain to the parents of my kids what has transpired in class that day. It's one of those surreal moments in life where you sit there, watching it all thinking "this can't be happening". Ahhh...the joys of being a primary teacher.