Happy Birthday to One of My Favorite People In The World

Happy Birthday Heather!

Most of my favorite childhood memories include Heather and her two sisters Christy and Tiffany. Because we grew up on the same street, only two houses apart, we spent a lot of time together, having sleepovers, making up dance routines in the basement, having tomato fights in the fields around our houses, fingernail digging/scratching fights (I have two scars on my arms from her) and chasing Christy around the yard, pinning her on the ground and squirting mustard in her mouth....oh good old times.

As we have gotten older Heather and I have spent a lot of time traveling together. I have to say I love traveling with her and most of the qualities I most admire about Heather I have noticed and learned to apperciate while traveling with her.

Heather has an amazing passion for life. She is always up for any adventure and her enthusiasim is contagious. It does not matter whether I am calling her to go to a yoga class or a trip to China (New York, Europe, San Fancisco, Chiciago, or Disneyland). She loves to experience everything that each of these places has to offer. In order to do this she is meticulios (some might say a little nerotic) in planning her visit to a new city. You know you don't have to do any research when traveling with Heather because she will have done it all. She has a list of everything she wants to see, eat and buy in each city.

Before we left for Barcelona she called to and asked me if I knew that the largest park bench in the world was in Barcelona. I thought she was kidding but no......she was so excited and made all of us go to Park Guell to see the bench designed by Gaudi and it was one of the most amzing things I have ever seen.




How many stairs would you need to climb to get to the top of one of the spires at the Sagrada Familia church? Ask Heather she will know.


Heather has this same passion in raising her kids. She is always giving her kids the most amazing life experiences......taking them to Disneyland for Halloween, baking cookies with them and hosting amazing birthday parties. What great memorable experiences she is creating for them.

Heather is always so calm about everything and optimistic. I am a total worrier when I travel. I am sure everything is going to go wrong....miss the flight, lost hotel or cruise reservations and Heather could not be more opposite she is always sure everything is going to go just as planned.......and she is always right (with the exception of the train ride from the airport to our apartment in barcelona and the Portland Square Hotel in NYC) She tells me I am crazy when I want to get to the airport 4 hours early and to stop acting like a freak when I worry about other random things. For example when I thought we had lost dear Aunt Glenda in France I was so upset and nearly in tears but Heather was like oh well she will turn up ...and guess what she did. I have learned just to trust her good Karma and positive thinking attitude and relax. Sad to say I am still a mess whenever I travel without her.

Happy Birthday to Heather!

2 Little Angels Making Angel Food Cake

Sunday is a great day to work on my Marthas Stewart Baking Handbook goal. If I keep going at the rate I am going I should have the goal completed in 2012. Jake and Kaycie came down to my parents house and we decided to make the Angel Food Cake on page 178 of the book. Jake worked on seperating the egg whites and egg yokes. It was a challenge and we had to throw a couple of the eggs away. When we finally had 1 3/4 cups of egg whites we put them in the bowl of the Kitchen Aid mixer and using the whisk attachment we mixed and mixed and mixed the egg whites until they were fluffy and glossy.



We transfered the egg white mixture into a big bowl and gently folded in the flour.

We poured the batter into an angle food cake pan and baked it.


The cake baked for about 40 minutes. We let the cake cool for about an hour the pushed it out of the pan using the removable bottom on the pan.

We drizzled the plates with seedless raspberry syrup, then placed a slice of the cake and a whipped cream on the top.



It was so good. It was so much easier than I thought it would be. We had so much fun watching the egg whites turn fluffy. This is a recipe that we will make again. There are instructions on how to make a chocolate angel food cake by adding cocoa powder. Maybe we will try that one next.

www.zipit.com

I spent a fun filled Saturday with Lulu Belle and Kaycie. As part of my dog sitting duties I took Lulu Belle to the vet to have some stitches removed. After the vet we went to petsmart and bought a sparkly new collar and treats for the rest of the dogs. On the way home we made what I thought would be a quick stop at the car wash. Now if you can remember back to days when I drove the Honda I am sure you know that one of my favorite memories with the honda took place on another beautiful November afternoon last year at the cabin. Yes, this memory involves Lulu Belle stepping on the car door lock and locking me out of the Honda. Well if you thought that the Volvo was immune to the Devil Dog you were wrong.......this time she stepped on the key (yes I left the key on the seat) and locked me out. Luckily for me I was able to walk to the gas station and used the phone to call a lock smith to help me out.
While waiting for the locksmith Angie and kids drove by and helped pass the time. After the car was unlocked Kaycie came with me to help at the chocolate factory. We went to dinner with April and Kaycies boyfriend Thatcher. As we ate dinner Kaycie decided she was going to communicate with us by putting whatever she wanted to say between www. and .com. Her favorite phrase was www.zip it.com. Clever.
After dinner I remembered that I had made plans to go to a class at Pebbles in My Pocket so we ran up there, a few hours late, and played with my friends Ashley and Natasha. We had a lot of fun kaycie made lots of fun things using some of the fun paper and supplies we purchased there.

We got home late and spent some time feeding the dogs and put them in their sleeping spots the we went to bed.