...and Moving On!

Hi all! Well, I finally got some much needed sleep. It took me a while but at around 2 AM, I had to just tell myself to let it all go and go to sleep, which I believe worked because that was the last thought I remembered thinking about when I woke up at nine this  morning. It will take me a while to get back to the normal way of life [which doesn't include getting up 45 times in the night to check on my basement or get on my computer to check the weather in the middle of the night]. Getting some sleep last night was a great first step. : )

After all that's happened, my husband John and I have decided a few things:

1. We are definitely going to finish updating this house to sell in a year or two. And move on to a newer home, in a newer neighborhood... We both believe we have earned our stripes fixing up old homes. 
2. NO MORE BUNGALOWS. We hope! We love the character of old homes, but they are a lot of work and a pain on the rear especially the ones that have not been updated in two decades, just like the one we live in now. But I guess, not everyone is like us. We love to take care of our home, we make it pretty and instead of sucking the life out of it, we bring new life to it by updating it and making sure that all its guts are in tip-top shape.
3. If job situations do not get better in a year or two, the next house we are buying will be... well, let me put it this way, NOT HERE. 
4. Come hell or high water, I am going to get certified and will get back into teaching. : ) See the smiley face? I believe being a housewife is awesome... No clocking in and out, No boss, and I work when I want to. I have embraced it and I totally love it, but I think it is time to move on now and play awesome English teacher again. It is time to get back into those high heels and nerdy leather totes. [Yes, I taught in high heels. It was hard to think straight without them.] 
5. Definitely going where the Husband is happy career-wise.  He is great at what he does. And I have seen him work very hard for 6 or 7 years on the program he's been on. Him and I have decided, get the program that suits him... by hook or by crook. :) His specialty and his prowess is rare nowadays, I think he deserves to be in a place that respects the skills and the talent and the ear of people like him.
6. Maybe a baby? I don't know. That part is still a little gray [to me] as of this writing. I still cannot see why I  should or have to.  People always say, "you are not getting any younger." And I just laugh, I am really liking not having to lug a stroller and a child around when I want to go places. I am also liking that no third person is dictating where and when I CAN or CAN'T go. I will adopt when I am too old to have children and I start wanting one... there's only a million of them all over the world waiting for people like me to decide. :)
7. God is Listening. We know He has been and He always is and will be. There's been many, many times since John and I got married that we would go through rough times... but NEVER and I say NEVER have things NOT WORKED OUT at the end of the day. And even at times when we forget to pray and acknowledge Him, He Listens and answers our thoughts. So one thing I have learned, never tell God what to do. He knows his way around the ropes. And where he guides, He will most definitely provide. Worrying solves nothing and changes nothing. 
8. WE ARE GOING TO GET PAST ALL THESE. Yes we will. This is not our first rodeo and will most agreeably not be the last. : ) We are pretty resilient people and we are very very strong together... Not perfect, but we know that most of the time, when things get bad, we just need to stop and talk... and sometimes agree to disagree.   

Today I am just grateful for my husband. He is by no means perfect, but he is my perfect match. We aggravate each other sometimes, but we get over it... then we laugh about it later. Sometimes, you just gotta allow yourself to get mad and get upset when bad things happen [especially the ones that no one has any control of]... It will all be okay. Trust me, it will be. : )

Easter 2011

Easter this year was a little bit off because of the preceding event that week. The tornado hit, everyone lost power, it was hard for some of the family to think about partying and getting together. This is also the first Easter Brandi isn't with us. For John and I, that was hard all the more for Pat and Charlie [Brandi's parents] who went ahead and did not show up for Easter dinner which was held at Grandma and Grandpa R's because Mom and Dad didn't get their power back until the night before Easter Sunday. We traditionally have it at my in-laws but this year we had to change locations.

It is a given, pretty much every time there is a family gathering, I get to make dessert or I don't bring anything at all. lol That's just how we roll! This year, for Easter, I decided to make a happy cake. I got the idea from pinterest.com. I saw a photo of rainbow jello and tons more of rainbow everything including ROYGBIV stuff. So I made this:

The idea of the roses also came from a photo o I saw on pinterest. Apparently I didn't pin it because I couldn't find it anywhere in my boards. Sad. But I will keep looking and I will give credit where credit is due when I find the person responsible for this prettiness! 

As if the roses weren't happy enough, I made the inside ROYGBIV. Check it out!!!

Any crazy or non-crazy person alike can make this cake given you have a little bit of a crazy imagination. The cake took quite a few hours to make [from mixing, baking and cooling]. Do not ever frost your cakes when you are not sure that they are COMPLETELY cool. I've made that mistake before and I am never doing it again. In fact, now, I go to the extent of freezing my cakes before I do anything to them. I let them sit in the freezer for an hour before I start going nuts with the frosting.  

Anyway, Easter dinner went as planned and the food was awesome like it always is. And the cake, Yes! The cake did like it was supposed to... IT MADE EVERYONE SMILE! : ) This was my intention. Not just my family here but the whole town and a couple neighboring ones suffered the wrath of Mother Nature that week and had to deal with the loss of power... I thought I could make a bit of a difference at least in my family's disposition when they see this cake. And it did its job and even more!!!

I just used my favorite white cake recipe. I made 2 batches but I only used 1 1/2. Divided the batter equally among 6 bowls and colored them with the colors of the rainbow. I have six 9 inch round cake pans so it wasn't any trouble for me. Not every normal has the stuff I have so yeah, take your time and bake the cakes one at a time if you only have one 9-inch round pan. It is worth it, trust me!

This whole thing was made from scratch but if you choose to use box cakes, go ahead... It doesn't make you less of a person to do that!!! I am all for quick and easy. Except that that day, I had nothing but time to kill so I did it. :) Had I been in a hurry, Betty Crocker would've been my best friend. 

Here's something I thought about while I was making this cake: What if I flavored every layer like their color? You know, RED could be CHERRY... YELLOW could be LEMON... so on and so forth. Hmmmm... 

Now, go make something!!! :)

Of Tornadoes, Storms, Flash Floods, Etc

Hi all!!! :) Five days ago, I said "this has been the craziest week!" Gosh did I not know the next couple of days was going to rock our world [in a bad way]. And indeed, it is true what people say, WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS because boy, did it pour and flood our basement too! I am not going to show you all photos because it is rather disgusting and heartbreaking. We had about four inches of water in the deepest part [where the sump pump is] in our basement and two inches everywhere else.

If we don't have some of the most expensive living essentials down in our basement, I wouldn't have been so shaken up. But we do. Like every basement, we have our heating system [that we just spent a lot of money on for maintenance] is down there, our hot water tank that just got put in a few years ago by the people who used to live here, our new washer and dryer and our little bitty fridge that stores our drinks and other random things. However, I believe that GOD listened to my ailing heart that night because the water quit going up at about 1/4 inch away from hot water tank and my washer and dryer platform! And it stayed that way all night. The sump pump, although completely submerged and probably worn out, never quit pumping that water out of the flooded basement from Monday 12 midnight through Tuesday 3 PM [until every drop of water in the basement and under the sinkhole was gone]. 

I don't believe I have ever been so scared of rain until now. But of course, the ground is so saturated from last week's storms that even a bit of rain could start a flood. 

I didn't go to bed until 4 AM this morning because I kept getting up and checking the basement because it has been drizzling all night. I don't believe I will ever sleep again until I know it is not going to rain anymore. It is raining on and off still all day and it is going to do this all week from what I hear. 

Hope it goes away soon. But here's a happy thought:

Last week, on Tuesday, my husband and I out of boredom decided to drive to St Louis to wander around. It was a beautiful day [or at least, it started that way]. We went and ate at TGI Friday's and just kind of allowed ourselves to get lost. During that "getting lost" part he dropped me off at a Michael's store as he headed to a Gamestop and World Market four doors away. I bought this stamp set from TPC Studio and it kind of foreshadowed what was getting ready to happen.

One of the stamps in the set says, "God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage" and another one says "The task ahead of us is never as great as the power behind us." I got teary when I looked at the stamp the day after the tornado hit. When I picked up the stamp at the store, I had no idea I was going to need these words of wisdom the next morning when all I saw was destruction and devastation all around me and all I could see that that tornado did to my house is NOTHING compared to what other people had to deal with that day. And then again, a couple nights ago when my basement flooded. While ours had 4 inches of water in it, my neighbor two doors down from us had 18 inches. One of the people that my dad-in-law knows from a few blocks away from us had 5 feet of water in his basement. So I believe even if my heart was breaking as I watched my basement fill up with water, I believe in my heart that SOMEONE was listening to my silent prayer as I was picking stuff up from the basement floor that the flood could potentially destroy. 

Till next time!!!

What's Up?

Hi all! It has been three days since the storm hit on Tuesday night and there is still a good chunk of households here that don't have power including John's parents. Their power lines have been hit worst compared to the ones close to downtown. The power company has just today started working on their side of town. Last we heard, they were gonna have to start all over as if there was no power lines there... It is that bad. I have collected photos from our neighborhood and neighboring streets, I have taken them the day after the storm hit. 

(My husband just came to correct me, it wasn't a storm, it was a tornado.) :)

Anyway here are some photos to show you the damage. 

this is our only tree damage

this is my neighbor's tree from across the street

The only good thing that this storm/tornado has brought is that it brought our neighborhood together. While there was no power, we got to know our neighbors better and we all got to help each other process through what the storm has left us. And it is not a good sight. 

This is my in-laws' concrete fence and wrought iron gate. Weird thing is, my Dad-in-Law's Dodge truck

was sitting in front of this fence, but was UNTOUCHED! 

This is my Mom-In-Law and her dog, Asta this morning. She was watching the tree people clear some spots for the Ameren people. I took this and the photo below with my cellphone. This photo cracks me up!

This is a house just down the road from my friend Sara's house. We kept checking on their house

since Wednesday because they have been on vacation in Florida the past week.

We got our power back yesterday at around 11 AM. Sara's neighborhood just got their power turned on today. And my in-laws still don't have power and it is not looking promising for them tonight either. I will be praying for them until their power comes back on.

I hope everyone stays safe. :) 

Hi all! This has been quite an interesting 24 hours. First, my Hubby and I had to cancel our springbreak trip because gas prices are to the roof. Second, last night while we were at the grocery store on the west side of town, what seemed like a giant natural wrecking ball hit this very small town and uprooted trees destroying homes (which didn't include ours, Thank God!) blocking streets and ruining power lines, which leads to the third one. Yes, you guessed it, WE LOST POWER. And since then, 5 million Ameren trucks have driven by back and forth up and down our street... And 25 hours have passed, 80% of the town got their power back except for this small strip of homes (including ours). And the frustrating part is, nobody gets on the phone to tell you what the heck is going on. If only they would say something people won't get so irate. This is the secon im hi happened this year and as much as they charge customers, they better show up and deliver in times such as this.

If you are reading this, I apologize. I just want to scream silently... So let me! Just let me! You don't want to mess with this www-deprived girl. :)