Sprinkles

The long awaited, majorly delayed opening of the "original" cupcake store Sprinkles was just a few weeks ago at Stanford Shopping Center. My friend Dyan went and loved it so she thought that she would spread the cupcake lovin around to me. We actually only waited for about 10 minutes to get our cupcakes, which is probably the shortest the line has been since opening.

The boxes are so cute
And its even cuter inside
Yummy- I got the vanilla made with Madagascar vanilla (which was actually my favorite one of the two) and then a black and white with chocolate cake, vanilla icing and real chocolate shavings.
Dyan loved every bite of her rich dark chocolate
Sadly, its too good to share Nora- she just has to have Cheerios for the next few years until she can fully appreciate the deliciousness.

A Brief Crafting Period

With William gone, to take a break from studies in the evenings, I have been undertaking a brief crafting period. And I probably won't be starting any more for awhile because it has taken a lot of information.

I collected stickers throughout my growing up, and I still have a whole box of them- many of them really cute. So, I decided to put them to good use and make some cards.
Awhile ago at mother's group, we started making these paper quiet/activity folders and I never finished mine. We had 3 different ones
ABC's Alphabet
Garden
Prophets of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
I had thought that this was going to be an easy project, but it actually took a lot more effort than I had anticipated. I colored the projects, labeled them, and then had to laminate them. It turns that it is super expensive to laminate at Kinko's- ($2 a page) and I found this out after doing 3 pages. I was going to have them do the 3 folders but since they are an odd size, it would have been $6 each. Fortunately, I found that out before having them done. I then tried these self-laminate pages that work ok, but not the best. It was fairly difficult to get everything to line up correctly. Then, I got these velcro pieces from Walmart and they are adhesive, and stick ok, but if you pull too hard, they come off. I'm not sure how well they will hold up for real use, but at least they look cute :-) I think though that after this, my crafting stint will end for awhile...again.

What Do You Say- Taking Chances

WOOHOO! It's official! I received the tickets in the mail today. My sisters and I are going to CELINE in Nov. in San Diego! If you don't know, we are HUGE Celine Fans. I first saw her LIVE in London back in 1999 but our favorite concert was when we saw her at her show in Las Vegas at Caesar's Palace. Our parents were so kind that we were able to get 3rd row seats on the far right hand side. It was an INCREDIBLE show- her voice is even better in person and the dancing was great too. At the end of the concert, she was walking off stage by us and the three of us were screaming and she looked RIGHT AT US and waved and blew us a kiss. I know that she made contact with us, probably due to our high pitched squeals. When we found out that she was again going on tour, we knew that we would see her- the question was which venue. It turned out that they just recently added a show down in San Diego, where my sister Sarah now lives, and so we will be there just before Thanksgiving. I am SO EXCITED to see her again and will prepare by listening- and doing my own singing along- to her songs. So what do you say?

It's His Turn

William is currently out of the country in London, England on business with Google. This was a more last minute trip, coming up last Tuesday. Thus, the flights were SUPER expensive- $1,000- for me to have gone. I LOVE London- I've been there 5 times on study abroad and then just a few days stopover on other European adventures. As much as I love London, I would rather spend that money going to a place that I have never been before. Also, William does not have very much time for "sightseeing"- left Sat. morning and arrived Sunday morning and then starts work for the week there. He will be going on some team building outings in the evenings, and he wants to have more of these opportunities around the world, so he is doing this one solo. But, I miss him- at least it is now less than a week before I pick him up from the airport :-) And I am so HAPPY for SKYPE. I had heard about it before, but never used it until today and it works GREAT! I can't believe that I can talk to him FOR FREE whereas if I used my cell phone, it would be $1.50 a minute. The conversation was actually quite clear and no real time delay. William said that he went to the Victoria and Albert museum, Museum of Natural History, and Science Museum this afternoon, which are great museums and the best part about London is that they are FREE. And these are all in the same area. William's hotel is right down the street from the Google office- like a 2 minute walk- so I'm sure that he will be very familiar with the area by the time the week is over. So far, I'm doing alright- I have been trying to finish up a few craft projects that I started a few months ago. I'll show the project later on. And I'm sure that there will be a greater than average number of blog posts from me this week too :-)

Practice, Practice, Practice

From elementary school throughout high school, I took piano lessons from my next door neighbor, Mrs. Pond. She was one amazing woman- having patience beyond anything I've ever seen (well, with the exception of William) with me. She was one of the organizers of the new hymn book (well "new" as in 1985 or the last edition) and so she made playing the hymns part of my weekly practice. However, my main issue with piano is that I get exceptionally nervous. It doesn't matter if I was playing in seminary, young women's, or my recital, I am so anxious that I start shaking while I'm playing. After my graduation from high school, I basically stopped playing regularly, but I have occasionally played for institute, sacrament, or relief society. The good thing is that over time, my nervousness has diminished- some what. It is still one of my greatest fears.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. William and I teach Sunday School to the 12-14 year olds. Our lesson that Sunday was about having a positive attitude no matter what the circumstances. The Lord has such a great sense of humor and a way to really test us to see if we truly do practice what we preach. IMMEDIATELY after giving that lesson, a member of the bishopric pulled me aside and told me that I was going to have an additional calling- that of Relief Soceity pianist. A few weeks before, I had filled in for our current RS pianaist, a good friend of mine, who was out of town and it turns out that I had to play for combined RS and priesthood. I was so nervous that I messed up several time and felt so horrible that I nearly started crying during the meeting. William reassured me that I did fine, but I wasn't believing him. After that, I knew that the ward wasn't looking for perfection with their piano playing or else they wouldn't have called me. I very graciously accepted the calling, knowing that the Lord wanted me to have a positive attitude about this.

I have been practicing nearly every day on the little mini roll out, table top electric keyboard that William received as a gift from his mom. It works pretty well to have me get the basic chords down and I then practice before church on the actual piano. And you have got to love my little pocket hymn book- it hast proved resourceful again and again. At first, I was very concerned about this calling, but after a few weeks, I am starting to enjoy it, being able to practice a little bit each day. That is one of the great things about our church. I know that callings are inspired and that they provide us with opportunities to make things that we previuosly weak become stronger. I know that I will never be a concert pianist, but I am so grateful that my dear piano teacher taught me how to play the hymns to help me and others help sing our praises to God.

Fall Fest

Yesterday, for our Hot Mama's group and Me, we had a fall fest! Melanie was an INCREDIBLE host- she prepared a fabulous butternut squash and lentils dish (with curry- yummy) AND, if that wasn't enough, she made sugar cookies for us to frost. Here are my cookies- they definitely wouldn't make it on Martha Stewart- they actually look like some of the kids made them.
At least they taste super good.

And here's a candid of the rest of the group- just look at all of the kids playing and having fun :-)
And we actually had a great discussion about politics and society- adding some much needed interaction for me :-) Thanks ladies for a great time!

Bones and More Bones

I have been obsessed lately with the tv show Bones and the books that the series is based on. Kathy Reichs is a forensic anthropologist who uses scientific information to identify bones and provide them with an identity and possible cause of death.I even was able to watch a PBS special about how this discipline is being used to going to identify bog people who were interred several hundred years B.C. I have always been a mystery fan, from Agatha Chrisite to Jessica Fletcher to Matlock, and so Kathy Reich's books have been just a great addition. I love her books because she mixes scientific findings with solving crimes. The only problem is that I have nearly exhausted all of her books- I only have her latest book, Devil Bones, to read and I am on the waiting list for it from the Mountian View Public Library. So, now its time to find another series to get involved with. Any suggestions?