I Made a Fancy-ish Cake!

So, I've never been good at cake decorating. The thought of it is VERY scary to me - especially since whenever I use frosting the decoration never turns out as I had hoped.

But my cousin, Carrie, and her husband and three children were coming from Seattle and were going to have dinner at our house. Since Gerald is the cook, he made dinner (hamburger sliders and hot dogs) and it was my responsibility to make dessert. I wanted to do something fun for the kids but still not the "boxed cake with frosting on top" look.

In my quest to be more "domesticated", I've started reading cooking magazines. I came across this cute recipe in Food Network magazine:



The recipe can be found here.

This recipe was super easy, and came out so cute!! Check out my version of the cake below:



The only thing is I had a lot of leftover chocolate cake that was crumbled to make the meatballs, and lots of extra "noodle" frosting... wish I had another event this weekend so I could utilize the leftovers and make another one.

This recipe is definitely going in the "keeper" file!

Project # 2 - Family Room

These pictures are from before we moved in and my in-laws were still living there.

This is going to be a long project. We haven't really started anything yet, but our plans are to have my 30th birthday party at the house. That being said, this room is going to get some major exposure, so it's been moved up to (one of) the top priorities for the house.

We have been able to remove the popcorn from the ceiling - a task which proved much lengthier than planned due to the age of the home. There were many large cracks that kept reappearing after being repaired. Personally, I think there might be some structural concerns from when the addition to the house was built back in the 70's, however, that's not something my husband wants to visit at this time. *sigh*

All the pictures have been removed from the walls. We'll be doing the actual swap-out of rooms this weekend. The sofa is going to be staying though as we need to buy one that will fit in the room. Our current sofa is built for a much smaller room and would be completely eaten up in a room this large.

Ideally, I'd like to rebuild the bar into a 90 degree angle as right now this bar is only 45 degrees, which makes it hard to make efficient use of the space closest to the wall. However, that may be a project for further down the road since I'm sure it's not in our budget right now! :)

The bar chairs will be going and replaced with something that just took my breath away!! :) See the palette below. My plan is to paint the walls a blue-ish grey color (Benjamin Moore Grey Wisp) with an accent wall where the TV is (Benjamin Moore Wedgewood Grey). I hope to go with champagne colored floor-to-ceiling curtains and espresso colored wood furniture. I'm still adding to the palette as I find items... but it's a great way to keep everything in one place and give an overall idea of the goal for the room:

Project # 1 - Bathroom Remodel

As stated in the first post, we recently redid the bathroom upstairs - although that was not our initial plan. We had originally intended to just replace the vanity. Unfortunately, that led to redoing the floors which led to replacing the toilet which led to us just redoing everything.

Here is the bathroom before:

(picture to come)

The vanity I purchased from a seller on Craigslist who bought a few of these when his company (a sink / vanity manufacturer) went out of business. It was gorgeous and a major steal!! It also came with the two mirrors - an added bonus! ;)

The tile we purchased from Montagna Lugano from Home Depot - it's a porcelain tile though you really can't tell by looking at it that it's not real stone. We ended up pulling it up through the entirety of the shower.

While the renovation itself is not a showstopper, it was a definite improvement and was done on a budget. The entire project (labor and all) cost us about $3,000. Not bad considering most bathroom renovations can cost upwards of $10,000!

Merrily We Roll Along...

I can't believe it's going to be Halloween. I also can't believe that in a matter of 9 weeks, we'll be in a new decade. How did that happen?

Speaking of new decades... my birthday is two days before the new year, and this year marks the big one. 3-0. Scary. It's kind of a nervous excitement for me. You see, for all of my life, I've always been the young one. I was the only child and raised around adults... young one. I skipped my junior year of high school and graduated a year early... young one. Went to college - young one in class. Got a job - young one. Ran in a pageant (that's another Oprah) - young one by about four years. Married my 32 year old hubby when I was 23... youngest of my friends to be married. Had a baby at 27... I'm sure you get the picture. Now I'm going to be 30. It's slowly hitting me that I'm not the young one anymore. There are dresses that I can no longer wear because I'll be "in my thirties". I'll become that classification of women who you see in the magazines where they say "oh this sexy dress is great for a woman in her 20's... and this argyle sweater is perfect for the mature woman in her 30's." Okay so maybe that's a little overboard, but you get where I'm going.

Life is changing. Now I'm slowly realizing that I want to be the fun mom who makes the cute arts and crafts gifts for her daughter's classroom friends. I want to be the happy homemaker who helps to make the house a home - furnishing it, decorating it, providing yummy dinners, and so on.

Seriously - what corner did I turn to become this person? Let me tell you - I am NOT crafty by any means. I'm the type of person who would much rather spend the extra money to buy the completed project than go to Michael's to buy the supplies and do it myself. But somewhere along the way, I've been bitten by the bug.

In the last few weeks, I've created a long list of things I want to do for our new house (painting each room being the number 1 priority). Maybe I'll be able to do it all, maybe I won't.... but we'll soon see how it goes. It may be a total failure, but I guess we'll never know until we try. On to Project #1 (which, thankfully, has been completed by our wonderful handyman, Julio.

October 19, 2010

So I'm trying to start up my blog again, because, goodness knows I'm horrible at keeping journals. I love to write, but I'm never good at keeping a diary of what I've done. I always figure that I'll remember it later so what's the point... only to find out later that I have indeed forgotten.

Okay so let's see if I can bring things up to speed. In March of 2006, we purchased a beautiful little house in Alhambra. It was a perfect starter home - 2 bedrooms and a den, 1 bathroom, completely remodeled so it was in turn key condition. We love our house and have had some wonderful memories there the past 4 1/2 years.

Once Sabrina was born, though, we quickly started to see that the house was too small for a growing family. Additionally, Gerald's dad had a stroke and the large 5 bedroom house that he and Gerald's mom live on was beginning to be too big for them - so they kindly offered to switch houses with us.

The house, though, needs some updating. So we recently began the process of renovating the house little by little. We started by removing the popcorn from the ceilings of the dining room, hallway, and playroom as well as installing copper plumbing upstairs (the downstairs was installed last year). What was supposed to be a 5 day project turned out to be a three week project.

In addition to the popcorn, I found an amazing deal for a vanity on Craigslist - the sellers purchased three vanities from their employer who was going out of business. Each vanity retailed for $3,000 each (two came with mirrors which brought the total retail price to $3,300). Unfortunately for them, only one vanity fit in their house. So they were selling the other two for $1300.

We only wanted one vanity, but by the time the seller got back to me someone else had offered to buy both at $1300 - so I offered $1500 and won both vanities! We ended up removing the old vanity from the master bath upstairs only to find the wood floor had rotted. So all the linoleum had to be removed and we were now going to have to place new flooring.

We figured since the flooring was coming out, and a new vanity was being put in, we might as well retile the shower at the same time and replace the toilet - so what was a simple vanity replacement turned into a complete bathroom remodel.

It took another two weeks, but in the end, the bathroom is absolutely gorgeous!

Now to figure out a schedule for the next project....

Sabrina Makes Her Debut!

Today was Sabrina's birthday! Sabrina was born at 5:48 AM on Thursday, June 5th, 2008. She was 5 pounds, 8.5 ounces, 19.5 inches long - and three weeks early! The doctors said she was very healthy and gave her the all clear!

Our Labor

I woke up on Wednesday and thought my water may have broken, but really wasn't too concerned. I figured I'd call the doctor's office just to make sure - they told me to come in right away. Gerald had a meeting in Rancho Cucamonga that he had to leave for at 10 AM, so I went by myself and made it to the doctor's office at 9:45 AM.

As the nurse was walking me back to the exam room, she said to me "So this is it! You're water broke, huh?" I told her that it might have broken, but I was pretty sure I was wrong. Within a few minutes, the doctor came in to examine me. He found more water, and I was also having a bloody show... so he confirmed my water broke and wanted us to check into the hospital as soon as possible. Funny enough, I was totally prepared for the baby to get here - her room was ready, her clothes were washed, everything was put away... but as soon as the doctor told me that I would be delivering Sabrina in the next 12-24 hours, I almost lost it. I could feel the tears pooling in my eyes... was I ready to be a mom?

It was about 10:15 AM at this point, and I called Gerald immediately so that he could come back home. He called his parents to pick up Callie, and we met back at home to pack up our things. It was such a strange feeling to realize that this was the last time Gerald and I would be in this house as just the two of us.

We made it to the hospital and officially checked in at 11:41 AM. I was immediately taken to the Labor, Delivery and Recovery suite (which was VERY nice!) and put on pitocin to help get labor started since my contractions (which I had been having for three weeks) really weren't doing much. I was only a 1/2 centimeter dilated (which I had been for a week or so) about 50% effaced, and the baby was at -2 station. Within a minute or two of the pitocin being adminstered, I could feel my contractions getting more intense.

The doctor came and checked me again around 2 PM - I had not progressed any, so they increased my pitocin. Around 6 or 7 PM, he came back and I had progressed to 1 centimeter and 80% effaced... but still far from where we needed to be.

Our friend Nicole came by and dropped off dinner for Gerald (which smelled soooo good, but I was on a liquid only diet and could not eat... boo ho!) We asked if she would mind staying since Gerald had to do some running back and forth to the car and speaking with doctors, and I didn't want to be left alone. She ended up staying the night with us which REALLY helped out as Gerald was having to leave my side more than we expected to speak with the doctors and nurses about our birth plan and other things we were wanting to make sure were done.

By 1 AM, I was in HORRIBLE pain; it felt like my insides were being ripped apart... I wasn't sure how much more I could stand, especially since I had no pain medication to help take the edge off. Since I was on pitocin, my contractions were augmented even moreso than natural contractions - so it felt like I was in transitional labor. I was sure I must have been about 7 or 8 centimeters, however when the doctor came to examine me again - I was only a tight 3 centimeters and still 80% effaced.

I lost it. I begged Gerald for the epidural. He asked everyone to leave the room so we could discuss it. Before labor, we were both set on the fact that we would have a natural labor, but I was exhausted and my body began fighting the contractions (making it even more painful) than to let the contractions do their work - which was why I wasn't making any progress. I was bawling and begged him to get me the epidural. 3o minutes later, the anesthesiologist came in - everyone else had to leave so it was just the anesthesiologist, nurse and me. The nurse really was great helping me to deal with the pain of the epidural - really the only part that hurt was the numbing agent before the epidural.

It took about three minutes, and all of the sudden there was no more pain. I could still move my legs, although they felt extremely heavy and felt like they were asleep. I could feel pressure from the contraction, but not the pain - I was in heaven. We were able to get some rest (although I couldn't sleep, just had my eyes closed).

Three hours later, the nurse checked me again. The babies head was VERY low - I was 100% effaced, and 10 centimeters!!!! The nurse, Alma, said it was time to start pushing. She helped me get to the point where the baby started crowning, then had Dr. Matsuda come in to deliver.

They brought in a mirror so I could see Sabrina as she came out - I loved having it as it allowed me to see exactly what was going on so I knew exactly where I needed to push, and helped me to focus. 45 minutes later from the start of pushing, Sabrina was born!

It was the most amazing feeling in the world - all of the sudden you have this immeasurable love for this child - all of the sudden you are someone's parent for the rest of their life. Gerald and I were awestruck - she was the most beautiful little baby we had ever seen.

They took her to get cleaned up, and then we were able to spend some time with her trying to nurse, but unfortunately she wasn't wanting to nurse yet. She was wide-eyed and very alert and barely even cried (she cried a little when they were cleaning her up, but that was it). Then they took her to the nursery for her examinations and we were transferred to the maternity ward. In four more hours, she was brought back to our room and has not left our side since.

Getting cleaned up...

Seeing Daddy for the first time...

Getting weighed...

Snug as a bug...

Meeting Mommy for the first time...

Daddy's little girl...

Our first family picture...

27 weeks - woo hoo!!

I've been seriously MIA - so much so, that I'm not sure if anyone is reading this anymore! How sad!! We've just been so busy getting ready for the baby - plus the third trimester exhaustion has kicked in, and I'm constantly tired (actually, tired doesn't even begin to describe it). It's like a go to sleep at night, wake up, and feel like I didn't sleep at all... even though I slept 8 or 9 hours.


Well we hit the 27 week mark this Tuesday, which officially puts us in the third trimester!! Time is going by so fast - I can't believe it! It's so exciting to think that just a few more months and our little Sabrina will be here.


At 26 weeks (the 18th), we had another appointment with Dr. Matsuda, where I had to take the dreaded glucose test. They give you this orange drink, which really just looks like a can of orange soda, and you have to drink it in 5 minutes. One hour later, they draw your blood to test your glucose levels and determine if you could potentially have gestational diabetes, which could lead to complications during birth (potentially pre-term labor, and higher birth weight babies). Everyone complains that the drink tastes horrible - I actually liked it. It tasted just like orange soda. I RARELY drink soda though, so it made me very tired.


We met with Dr. Matsuda while we waited for the one hour to pass. No ultrasound for us - but he measured my belly to determine if the baby was on target growth-wise (which she is), listened to her heartbeat (which was right on) and asked me how I was doing... just the normal stuff. My blood pressure was great - 108 / 67. Two days later, we got the results of the glucose test back - Dr. Matsuda called me himself to tell me the results, which made me worry that something may be wrong (and that I may have to take the 3 hour glucose test...)


It turns out, he said that everything looked right on target! My glucose level was 99, and he said they like to make sure it's under 140. My blood count was "excellent", my hemoglobin was 12.3 (they like for it to be from 11.5 to just above 12), and he said my iron was good too. Whew!! That's a load off!


That night we had our first childbirth education class. We had actually audited a class back in January to determine if this is the method we want to go with, so it was just a repeat of what we had already seen. This past Tuesday, though, was the first "new" class for us. It's definitely a LOT of information, but it makes me feel so much better to know that we're educating ourselves so that we can make the best decisions during labor to benefit the baby.


We've been trying to work on the baby's room too.... her changing table station came in. However, Pottery Barn didn't tell me that they assemble it for you when they drop it off, so we didn't have the space ready for them to assemble it. The guy told me it was really easy, so we should have no problems (we've assembled most of the furniture in our house by ourselves anyway, so I figured we'd be okay). Well, once we had the space ready, I figured I'd call Pottery Barn to see if they would send someone out to assemble it since they didn't tell me that in the beginning, but unfortunately, they refused.... so Gerald and I got to work.


Well unfortunately, it was not as easy as they made it sound. These teeny tiny screws are supposed to bind these big pieces of furniture together, but of course that didn't work - our biggest fear though was that this shelf that runs across the top of the unit and right above the changing station would come crashing down on the baby when I'm changing her diaper. So I called PBK and told them that - and wouldn't you know, they're sending a "furniture medic" out! So hopefully the station will be assembled when they're finished.


Our crib also came in - but since the changing station isn't ready yet, we can't assemble the crib.... boo hoo! We also got Sabrina's car seat... I can't wait to see her in it!


Our shower is in just a few weeks! I'm soooo excited!! I can't wait to get to see everyone... crazy that we're in that final stretch.


P.S. - For those that asked for the email on what people don't tell you about pregnancy, I promise I'm working on it.... will have it done shortly!! :)