There are six cakes to make this week, including my first wedding!  I’m not so nervous about making it, but I am nervous about getting it there safely.  I’ll be counting on Kevin driving Rhonda the Honda about 10 miles an hour on the interstate.

Here are pictures from last week:

This birthday cake traveled to TN and made an appearance at the resort “Wilderness at the Smokies.”

Strawberry wedding shower.

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See the accurate portrayal of her tongue always sticking out?

Snow for the first time in Alabama made it a special weekend!

I tried desperately to get a picture of Maggie in the snow but this was the best I could do.  She is not a fan of holding still for pictures.  Especially when there is funny white stuff to sniff.

There that’s better.  She is much more content on the warm couch.  Happy birthday to you!

Friends often ask if I am staying busy with my cake business.  The answer is yes and no.  I will sometimes go for a few weeks without any orders and then all at once I’ll have a week like this past one where I have 5 different cakes to make!  So it’s a little challenging that I can’t space out my orders, but I guess that is to be expected since I am not doing this full time yet.

I did however really enjoy this past week because I got some unique requests, and I always love to try something new.

This is quickly becoming my most popular cake; here you see the kit kat cake Valentine’s edition.  Perfect for the chocolate/peanut butter lover- it is very rich!

A friend ordered this for her mom’s birthday and she is part of a knitting group.  She came up with the idea and I thought it was super cute!

Caution: for adult eyes only =)  This was done for a bachelorette party.  I was working in the kitchen one evening when I told Kevin “I need to make my bra early so it has enough time to dry.”  Never thought I would say that.

This is from a couple of weeks ago- a wild 14th birthday party.

Hope you’ve enjoyed some of the new stuff.  You can always view the website www.artbytheslicecakes.com where I keep my pictures up to date.  Mention it to your friends!

This annual cycle is even worse for me because
A. I have two whole weeks off from work.  When I am at home I tend to eat much more than when I’m in normal school routine.  And even before we get out for break there are tons of holiday goodies made available by kids and fellow teachers.
B. I despise working out.  I mean it- I truly don’t like to exercise.  I don’t get a rush out of running, and the thought of going to a gym makes me roll my eyes.  Once upon a time I did like going to aerobics class with my mom…but it was really more enjoyable because of the bonding aspect.

Have Maggie has helped us a little bit; she requires 2-3 walks a day.  But it’s just not enough exercise in my opinion.  Sometime last week I saw a segment on the Today Show about the Couch Potato workout.  Go ahead and scoff, I usually do it too thinking that is just another New Year’s resolution people won’t keep.  But I think this one really sounds do-able for a person like me.

The basic idea is that you take a 30 minute television program and all you have to do is keep moving for the entire show.  During the actual program you are doing low impact movement, then during the commercial breaks you switch to high intensity exercise.  It’s convenient because you can do it in your house and don’t have to go anywhere, no special clothes or equipment required, and you get to watch your favorite show in the process.  Oh and my favorite part: no running!

So we’ll see how this plays out.  Maybe you should ask me from time to time how it’s going to keep me accountable =)  Kevin and I are eating at Flemings tomorrow for part 1 of the anniversary celebration…I suppose the workout will start Monday.

So I thought I would do a review of the last decade and reflect on how far we’ve come.

2000- I was a freshman in high school.  I can’t remember anything big that happened that year.  But I know I spent the night at Virginia Hines’ house ringing in the new year with a bunch of girlfriends and I’m pretty sure we watched Spice World a few times while playing the BS card game for seven hours.

2001- I met my husband to be.  He was the student assistant for our all-girls choir.  What a dream job for him.  I also went to Washington D.C. and saw George W. Bush  inaugurated for the first time.

2002- I was on the varsity cheerleading squad.  I had mono for a long time.  Got to know Kevin better…and he boldly sent roses to my house on Valentine’s day when I was dating someone else.

2003- Kevin and I started officially dating on March 1st.  I auditioned at Samford for a music scholarship.  Graduated high school and moved into a 6 story building where I would share a bathroom with about 30 other females.

2004- Surprisingly, I have no significant memories from this year.  I suppose I made several road trips to Berry College.

2005- Moved into my first apartment with a roommate.  Kevin asked me to marry him on October 21st.  He graduated early in December.

2006- Had my senior voice recital.  Spent a lot of time planning a wedding.  Came to the realization that I did not want to teach high school choir (which had been my plan all along).  I decided I am much better suited for little kids.

2007- By far the biggest life changes happened this year.  I got married, took a honeymoon to Cozumel, finished student teaching, graduated college, got hired for a teaching job on the exact day I had prayed for, and we bought a house in June (moved in September).

2008- Maggie Magoo entered our lives; enough said.  I truly started to care about college football and my marriage improved dramatically.  Kevin and I went to our first UT game together in Knoxville.

2009- Lane Kiffin took over as head coach of UT football.  I started my cake business Art by the Slice.  I really started to feel like I’m getting the hang of this teaching thing.  Our first sweet nephew was born!  Kevin finished his MBA at Samford; so proud of him.

2010- Who knows what it has in store?  I can already tell you a couple of things.  We are taking a trip to Cancun at the end of the month (thanks to my awesome husband doing a great job at his work!)  We are finally going to take our trip to NYC in June.  I  meant it, we are really going this year!  My big bro will get to move back to the states and be much closer to us, hooray!  And then there’s always the question of when will we move to Knoxville…most likely not this year but stay tuned.

Here’s to a new year with new challenges and new blessings.  Happy 2010!

November and December were busy months at school.  We had the All County music festival followed by about 4 other programs.  I can only show pictures that don’t have close ups of kids so here is one from last Thursday’s Christmas show.

We spent Veteran’s Day weekend with Kevin’s parents in Cloudland Canyon (our new tradition).

I have been very busy with cake-making.  And I know I said I was done doing the cake catalogue pictures on here, but we are having some issues with the website right now.  So here are some of the latest:

A couple of weekends ago, the Georgia girls decided we would start an annual tradition of having a “baking weekend” before the holidays.  It was such a fun time, and I told them we absolutely had to get a group shot because I have no proof that they exist!  Unfortunately the old man I asked to take our photo had very shaky hands so the picture came out blurry, but he was sweet to do it.

Back up to Thanksgiving (sorry for going out of order) when the families came to Birmingham.  Again it was such a fun time.  Here is our only successful attempt at getting Maggie to face the camera.

Last night we had our church community group over for the Dirty Santa Christmas party.  Ahh memories….

And finally, we had our flat screen T.V. delivered and installed last week.  I don’t have any pictures but you can use your imagination.  This was quite a big deal considering we’ve been talking about getting one and then changing our minds back and forth for so long.  Now we are really happy with it and we basically just watch with our mouths hanging open.

I have one week (4 days to be exact) before we get out for Christmas break.  Hopefully I can post more often then.  Lots to look forward to in the coming weeks!  Thanks for stopping by.

This cake is an exact replica of a popular hamburger/hotdog place in the Tri-Cities called “Pals.”  And yes the building really does look like that!  When I was growing up it was always the joke around town to guess what color the Pals building would be next.  It seemed like they changed the paint color every week.  They have the best “frenchie” fries; Kevin and I always stop there when we go home.  In fact this picture is making me crave some Pals right now!  So hopefully my Johnson City friends and family will get a kick out of this.

FYI- I am going to stop doing my “Cake Catalogue” on this blog…Kevin suggested I transfer it to the blog on
www.artbytheslicecakes.com.  That is the official business website, and it makes more sense to write about my cakes there.  So check it out and I will try to post new pictures soon.

Close up view:

Below is a picture of the nursery bedding.  As you can see I added the “B” for baby just to be cute =)

I promise one of these days I will talk about something else besides cake.  But right now that and school are my life.
Busy, busy!