By Nicole

In honor of my most pinned pin , and because I promised to some time ago .  Yeah, photo albums and race recaps aren't the only things I flake on. Here is a step by step post about how I made my first monster truck cake. When my nephew turned three, I promised I would make his cake.  His instructions were to build a monster truck with flames that was running over spiders and shooting webs.  Tall order! I talked him down a little, but I decided to go all out and try to build this truck.  I was currently watching Ace of Cakes a lot back then, so rice krispies had become my new best cake tool. So I carved a rice krispie truck from a giant hunk of rice krispies and put it in the fridge to harden up again.  It was almost exactly the size of a loaf of bread.  In fact, I think I had smooshed two bread pan sized rice krispies together and then carved from there.   Once I was sure the truck was solid, I started frosting it.  I was tir...

Last March, I ran the Hot Chocolate  5k with my husband and my friend.  This is a race recap that is obviously a long time coming.  But, sometimes.... well.  Things take a while. That explains why I'm still putting photos into albums from when my 10-year-old was three.  Ahem. So, back to a race that was only seven months ago... not seven years.  Yay! Once I heard about the Hot Chocolate, I knew I had to run it.  For the chocolate at the end, of course! We live four hours from Seattle, so we drove over the day before and hung out at the Space Needle. We watched Jack the Giant Slayer on IMAX and then turned in for the night. Race day begins early... really, really early. That morning we just walked to the race start with a few other runners we met in the lobby.  Lots of people we met were running their very first 5k.  What a precedent!  My first 5k was our town's local Fourth of July Fun Run.  Twenty-five people, no water...

We are doing laundry tonight.  Real laundry.  Folding and hanging and using our dressers for what they were intended.  Cleaning our own room so that when we tell the kids to clean theirs, we aren't hypocrites.   It's a long time coming, and I had to sneak away to even type this!

There are so many things I would rather be blogging about tonight, but for some reason, all I can think about is my pillow. So, we are keeping it short and sweet. Meal plan for the week: Monday:  Leftover Ham and 15-Bean Soup with Corn and Chives Tuesday:  Breakfast for Dinner - Chorizo, Potatoes, and Eggs Wednesday:  We eat with Great Grandma Thursday:  Venison Stroganoff with Chanterelles, Squash, and Peas Friday:  Baked Halibut, Sprouted Rice Mix, and Asparagus Saturday:  Football Games!  We will probably eat on the road Sunday:  Steak, Beets, and Mashed Potatoes.  If I'm feeling really motivated, I might bake some rolls.

Grrrr.  I love my new KitchenAid.  I hate that this frosting refuses to thicken. Why, oh why do I experiment on the night of the cake assembling? So. This is my post.  It's all I've got.

A few months ago, Jason and I had the house to ourselves.  Something that should have been really exciting and romantic, was actually more stressful and frustrating. I was about to embark on my first ever DNS morning.  We were signed up to run the Tacoma Narrows... which I have run twice before and LOVE .  However, we were undertrained, overworked, and broke.  Instead, we were using a night that should have been spent casually traveling to a nice hotel room cleaning up, looking after animals and working out bills and our budget. I was irritated, sick to my stomach about not starting a race I had registered for five months ago and disappointed in myself for being part of the problem.  This isn't the first time Jason and I have had budget woes.  Now, we aren't on a fiscal cliff or anything, but sometimes we just get lazy and irresponsible with what God has blessed us with. Chores done, outside work complete... we enter the house and get ready to file, shr...