Done and Done

I actually feel pretty accomplished this weekend. Friday night I baked a 10 inch round and a 6 inch round cake - at midnight due to our attendance at "Honey Boo Boo Live" otherwise known as the Cleveland County Fair. (Special thanks to the Hubby for staying up after I went to bed in order to take the cakes out of the oven.)  Saturday morning I got up early in order to make the frosting and frost the cakes before class... and discovered that my hand mixer had bit the dust.  After a quick trip to Walmart I was able to successfully frost the cakes and run out the door five minutes before my tall cake class.  (Again, a special thanks to the Hubby that helped me to make the frosting and then cleaned up the kitchen while I was at class!).  I signed up for the class to learn how to stack cakes and to get some decorating ideas for the baby shower cake I am making in two weeks.  It is a nautical theme and I think I have a good plan for the cake! I am excited to work on it!  Today I cleaned the house and gave the dogs a bath.  I also did about 7 loads of laundry - no thanks to Jasper's early morning vomit routine on the bed. :/  I also put out all of my Halloween decorations today.  I love this time of year and being able to put decorations out in the house...

AND - most importantly - I am going to cross a few things off the list! I finally finished our name by printing out a few pictures - hopefully you are able to tell the letter.  I like that we were able to do this on our own and now we can make changes to the frames with our future travels - or even spell out other words. 

My other major accomplishment of late is that I have stopped drinking soda.  I honestly have had a few sodas here and there, but not nearly as many as I used to drink.  I think I have had about 5 total in the last 8 weeks.  Most of those came at the same time as a headache as caffiene has always been my go to when I had a headache.  I find that now I even opt for water when presented with soda. 

I am going to leave you with a few pictures from our Pigeon Forge trip with the family...

How could you not love this face?

Criss Cross Applesauce

I had a moment of panic recently when I discovered that apple season is very limited.  A local orchard stated that they only had apple picking for one more weekend and then another stated that you could not pick your own apples due to an early frost.  I was in a bit of a panic when I did a little research and found out about Hendersonville, NC - aka Apple Valley.  I picked a destination and we passed about 6 farms on the way to the farm I had inputed in the GPS - Coston.  Upon arriving I walked up to the counter and told them my plan.  They directed me to the wagons, gave me two large baskets, and some sort of contraption to get the apples from the top of the tree. When asked how many I planned to pick I stared blankly and was told that two baskets equaled a bushel - way too many apples for just the two of us!

 

 

In order to completely knock this one off my list I had to actually make something with the apples.  Tonight the house smelled amazing as I cooked up some apples and cinnamon for applesauce.  Homemade applesauce and ice cream as a snack - so good.  I was told I had picked a "peck" of apples meaning that I have many left.  I plan to make an apple crisp and possibly some apple butter. 

 

We spent the end of last week with my family in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge,TN.  I love being able to spend time with my family and wish that I could seem them more often, but distance and travelexpenses make it difficult so I make the most of the time I do get to spend with them.  We visited WonderWorks, the Titanic Museum, Dollywood, and did some shopping in downtown Gatlinburg.  I took a ton of pictures - I really need to do some work to catch up on my scrapbook! I will leave you with a few pictures from the trip out of the 200ish I took. :)

Less than thrilled for his photo shoot. :)