Christmas fuzzies and cupcakes

Christmas Cupcakes! I filled my first order of cupcakes this weekend for a friend from work. Three dozen cupcakes left to my creative genius, and here is what developed: A sour cream vanilla cupcake with buttercream icing, and a chocolate cupcake with mint cream cheese icing dipped in white chocolate, garnished with crushed peppermint. Mmm, boy. This makes me want to open a store.

Besides that, Christmas is coming! I am so incredibly excited. We have a silver and pink Christmas tree in our living room, and it is gorgeous. And even better, I get to spend Christmas in Idaho with my lovely family.

To ring in the Christmas spirit, I decided I needed to do a little gift giving. I signed up for Sub for Santa with the United Way foundation. Shopping for a five year old is a lot more fun than I thought. I don't think I've ever felt so many warm fuzzies as when I delivered those gifts. I guess you could call it the Christmas spirit...but it definitely reminded me of how truly blessed I am to have a wonderful family, stable job, caring friends, and a quaint little apartment. So if you're interested in getting a little of your own Christmas spirit (there's still two days left to do it!) or for next year, here's the link:

http://www.unitedwayuc.org/subforsanta/

Merry Christmas!

i have a feeling we're not in kansas anymore...

So last week I got back from a lovely vacation to....Kansas! I know, what? Well, it just so happens to be my best friend Lindsey's hometown. I couldn't have asked for a better break from the SLC with Panera, fully-cooked bacon, a Royals game, and more Panera. Mmmm.

cupcakes, cupcakes, everywhere.

The obsession with cupcakes has not stopped, and simply keeps growing.
Why, do you ask?
Why not?
These little morsels are just heaven in a bite.
Chocolate frosting loves vanilla cupcakes...just in case you didn't know.
And this week I went above and beyond. How could they get better?
Dip them in chocolate! Well....chocolate ganache. Wonderful.
Next stop...butterscotch ganache. Watch out.

i'm so behind i don't even know where to begin! i feel like a part of my life is lost because it has not been blogged. but here is what remains. lindsey and i went to california in may for marissa's wedding. lots of laying on the beach and good food. we also went to vegas in june, but i lost my camera somewhere, who knows!

other big events: i have a new nephew. christopher lucas denton. i love da babies.

Nieces and pedis.

Five reasons why I love my nieces:

1. They are just too cute.

2. They will dance in the car with me and not care who sees them.

3. They are not on a diet and will happily enjoy a hot dog or hamburger without complaining about their figure.

4. They get just as excited about pedicures and cookies as I do.

5. They are just too too cute.

cupcakes.

This week I went to an absolutely lovely tea party with some friends from work. Hopefully pictures to come from that. I have a newfound love for chicken salad...sad to say it's always scared me so I had never tried it before, but Brittney's was amazing.

We all dressed up and watched Sense and Sensibility after sharing some cupcakes I made. I forgot how much time I spend on the little pieces of heaven...but I am trying to find ideas to branch out. Maybe I will have to take a trip to the baking store today.

Cupcakes aside, the tea party was so fun. I'm grateful to have friends at work and love what I do. Cupcakes + gratefulness = warm fuzzies. Oh and shout out to Lindsey on the cupcake post.

the louder the music, the better the coping.

So this is not meant to be depressing. It will most likely come across that way, but I am surprisingly complacent about the whole ordeal.

I love my job, I really do. I am so grateful that I am in a position to help people every day. But lately work has been sad and full of kids that can't be helped. It's so frustrating when there's no outlook for them, but you still do all that you can do to help them and their parents deal with an awful situation. It's weird to be at work one day and come back the next, only to find an empty bed space because they withdrew support during the night.

We had a staff support meeting at work which I admit I was not very enthused about at first...sitting in a circle and "sharing my feelings". But it was different and actually calming to know that other people feel the same way I do. Believe me, I'm not one to moan and feel bad for a situation that I put myself in for choosing to work with sick babies. However, I liked that we did a quick check in with ourselves physically/emotionally and talked about our coping methods.

On the way home from work tonight I realized I listen to music at ridiculously loud levels in the car. Though I may not be able to hear when I'm older because of it, it is how I deal with things at the moment. I also eat cookies. The latter of which is not helping with the triathlon...I will work on that, haha. And did I mention I'm excited to get my piano tomorrow?! Maybe that will be a substitute for the loud music listening and spare me a hearing aid when I'm 60 years old.

So, here I am. The world of blogging. I'm done resisting and figure this may be a solution to my recent apprehension in writing in my journal. When I have too much to think about, I'd rather not think about it. And writing makes me think. Short blogging will have to do for now.

This weekend I came to visit my family for a couple of days. I think my favorite part was when my nephews wanted to sit by me at the dinner table - I pretty much felt like the coolest person in the world. They're too much fun.

I took this picture of Jake a couple weeks ago. I just love it. And I hope I get to see everyone again soon!