Cat Cake Mania!

The princess is having a birthday!  She requested cat themed cupcakes to share with her class but not Hello Kitty since her class has so many boys.

Nana and I began scouring Pinterest looking for ideas.  Sid's stipulation of no Hello Kitty look alikes definitely added to the challenge.  People love Hello Kitty.  Passionately.  Even the zombie version!

Let me just say that there are some creepy cat cupcakes out there in Pinterest-land.  Some looked like they were serving up realistic cat heads on a platter.  Ewwww! 

Nana and I felt up for the challenge and went our own way.  We decided to take our inspiration from one of Sidney's toy white tigers.   After a trip to Michael's and Safeway we were ready to bake!





We used the ziplock bag pour method to fill the cupcakes.  Worked like a charm!  No dribbles or spills.

 

We went with a yellow cake and a devil's food from Duncan Hines.  Damon's mom swears by Duncan Hines and they were pretty yummy!

The white stripes liners turned out really cute.  We used them for the devil's food and a pink patterned liner for the yellow cake.  We nicknamed them "crazy cat-lady cakes" while we iced them.  Future product line??!!! 

 

 

 

I whipped up a cake banner while we were waiting for the cupcakes to cool.  I was very pleased with how it turned out!   Adorable!!!

Here she is with the finished cat cakes!  Yay!  Happy Birthday baby!!!!

 

We used gel icing to free hand the faces, candy eyes and cut ears from patterned sugar paper.  The kids loved that everything was edible!  Big hit!  Thanks Nana for your help - you are amazing!

Welcome to Arizona! Everything Outside is Trying to Kill You

When we moved to Tucson, the first several people we met were super nice.  They also had lots of advice for new comers.  You might think that would include the best place to grab a pizza or where the closest Post Office is located.  Nope.  The first 7 people I met were full of information about the natural dangers of living in Tucson.

I'm a city girl.  I've seen enough episodes of Gilligan's Island to appreciate civilization and realize that I prefer experiencing nature from a distance.  Apparently, that distance in Tucson is much closer than I had prepared myself. 

The first danger I was told about was Gila monsters.  These little guys are the only venomous lizard in the USA and they are native to this region.  Yay!  Plus they live in burrows close to water.   So when I saw a big hole in our backyard which just happens to be on the other side of a pond, I freaked.  I tried to cover the hole with a big rock but my aim was off and I was only partly successful.  Then I was afraid to move it in case whatever was in there tried to escape and realized that I was the one who put the rock there.  Yes, it's completely illogical which is probably why Damon wouldn't help me put an even bigger rock over that hole.

We unknowingly coordinated our arrival to coincide with Tucson Rattlesnake season.  Our handy man Dave told me that a lady a few doors down had one in her front yard that he helped send to snake heaven.  He then showed me where he had been bitten by one on his hand a few years ago.  Our sweet neighbors Bill and Hilda also shared a charming tale about the one they had in their backyard.  It was apparently just "gorgeous" and over 4 feet long.  They also told me they're known in the neighborhood as the crack snake dispatching team.  Needless to say that earned them a spot at the top of my speed dial list.  A rattler was even found on the playground at Sidney's school during her first week.  Fortunately, the kiddo that first spotted it recognized the diamond pattern and got a grownup before any of the children got too close.  Now granted rattlesnakes are common in Texas, I just never saw one in my yard or felt that I needed to have a plan for when I encountered one.

Other things to worry about include:

Javalina pigs - They like to run around town and recently a pack had to be put down after attacking a woman who was walking down a busy street.  We even had one stop by our front door and gnaw on the plastic pumpkin I put out for Halloween.

Coyotes and bobcats - They live in our area.  I can hear the coyotes wailing at night and have even heard them turn one of the ducks in our pond into dinner.  I may or may not have started singing "The Circle of Life" from The Lion King to Damon while it was happening.

Bears - They sometimes walk around the parking lot of our local Safeway.

Scorpians - big, black, nasty scorpians.

Pack rats enjoy making their home in your bar-b-que pit or your car engine.  You should check at least once a month to make sure they haven't started a nest.  Our friend Joel recently had to have a family of them evicted from his car.

I woke one morning to the screeching of a pair of Harris hawks (shout out to the Desert Museum for helping me identify them) off our balcony.  I looked out and saw a great horned owl leisurely hanging out in one of our trees while the hawks tried to ruffle his feathers.  I showed Bill and Hilda the birds.  Bill told me that the owl was probably 2 feet tall with claws as big as his hand.  My excitement of having natural snake and rodent control was quickly tempered by fear of having my face slashed off.  

Bats fly around the neighborhood and will drink all of your humming bird food if you don't take it in at night.  They also took a bite out of the first orange on our tree to ripen.  Stupid bats!

Speaking of trees, mesquites are the most prolific trees in our area.  We have several in our backyard which provide a lot of shade.  Imagine my surprise when I was walking across the yard and almost stepped on a branch that had fallen during the night.  It was covered in 2-3 inch thorns just waiting to go through my foot.  The thorns can even puncture your tire if you drive over one.  Dave calls them Satan's tree after he had to trim them last year and I think that is a pretty apt name.  I placed a few next to our back gate as a surprise for intruders.  Actually, most of the plants outside are covered in thorns.  Several even look like they came out of a Dr. Suess book or were dropped off by aliens. 

We are slowly adapting to this new habitat.   The heat will probably be the most challenging thing.  A few hours in the sun wipes me out.  Time to buy new hats, water bottles and stock up on sun screen.

The Journey West - More Than You Wanted to Know

We left Texas at 7:30am on an overcast Sunday morning.  Damon drove the moving truck.  Sid, Star and I followed behind him in my car.  Sort of a modern day wagon train.  Thus began one of the longest days of my life.

We got to Pecos and ran into fog.  A fog so thick that at one point I couldn't see Damon in front of us.  I hate not being able to see.  Especially when I'm driving 70 miles per hour on the interstate with my kid in the backseat.  White knuckled and teeth gritted we slowed down to 50mph and kept going.  We were probably in the fog for 15 minutes but it felt like we were never going to escape all that whiteness.

Our first stop was in Van Horn.  We pulled into a service station for gas and a bathroom break.  Damon had to fill up twice since our card limit cut him off at $75.  The gas guzzling moving truck had a strong thirst!  Speaking of moving trucks - we went with Budget since we had seen several U-Hauls broken down on the side of the road when we had driven over to pick our rent house.  I took it as an omen.   

The drive down I10 is very pretty.  Not too much traffic and several nice views.  You can see Mexico from your car. 

I really really really don't like driving through El Paso.  It feels as though I've accidentally wound up on a Formula1 race track.  People weaving in and out of traffic.  They are crazy there I tell you!  It takes almost 30 minutes to get through all that highway insanity.  That's a long time to hold your breath and pray that no one side swipes you!

After we escaped El Paso unscathed, we had to get through the border check point.  I find this a little silly since I never left the country or crossed the border.  We passed through a camera station where they took a gazillion photos of me and my car and then had to stop for 20 questions with the border patrol agent.  He was standing there complete with body armor and an attitude.  It's probably not fun asking the same stuff over and over but it's not fun for me having to stop and answer it all either.  He asked if I was a US citizen, where I was going, why was I going there and if Sidney was my daughter and also a citizen.  This is one of those moments were putting your kid in a bilingual learning program can really backfire on you.  I said she was an American and thankfully Sid didn't bust out with the Spanglish until after I had closed the window and started to drive away.

Our next stop was in Las Cruces for lunch and another gas refuel.  Damon realized that he didn't have the gas cap for the moving truck.  He had left it in Van Horn after the double refuel.  Fortunately, he is good at improv and was able to make a cap out of an empty Coke can and duct tape.  Sid greatly enjoyed this little arts and crafts project since she was in charge of helping empty the soda can.  The girl loves her some Coca Cola.

Along the highway, as you drive through New Mexico, are several signs that say "Dust storms may exist."  I can tell you for a fact that dust storms do exist because we got to drive through one.  Yeah!  It was only a small one so I couldn't see for only a few minutes.  Again we kept on driving to keep people from running into us from behind.  We probably picked the weirdest weather day to make this trip.  After the dust storm, we of course drove into a thunderstorm.  Damon was concerned that his MacGyver'd gas cap might fall off so I would pull up next to him and Sid would check to see if it was still in place.  She thought this was great and probably the best part of the trip.  The gas cap held up through the rain and wind.  Duct tape strong!

We had our final stop in Lordsberg for another refuel and bathroom break.  The next thing we knew we were in Arizona.  Arizona roads are nice but the desert creeps right up to the white/yellow lines.  It seems that any second a desert creature will jump out in front of you.  None did but they could have.  We drove through Texas Canyon which is funny to me since it doesn't really look like any part of Texas that I've been to.  There are rock formations that look like a giant was playing with blocks.  It's a neat site and worth stopping for some photos if you aren't exhausted or trying to end a ridiculously long road trip.

Soon we were in Tucson and heading to our new house.  When we got to our neighborhood we had to figure out where the second entrance was since the moving truck wouldn't fit through the main gate.  This is our first time to live in a gated community and it's a little different from our previous homes.  We got a bit turned around finding the second gate and a bit testy with each other.  The gps came through and at long last we arrived at the house!

I had arranged for movers to meet us to help unload the moving truck.  The 2 guys that helped us worked really hard and knocked it out in 2 hours.  Shout out to Sunrise Saguaro!  We couldn't have done it on our own.  I slept like a rock that night.  The kind of sleep where you don't move from the moment you close your eyes.

It took us 11 hours to make the trip from start to finish.  Granted we had a few things pop up along the way and had to drive a ginormous moving truck.  We did it though and I hope that you will decide to make the trip and come visit us.  Tucson is a lovely town and I'm excited to be here.  It was worth all the crazy driving and bumps along the way.

Blown Up!

Have you ever wanted a do over?  To hit the reset button and change everything about yourself? 

My Texas life was pretty good.  My husband and I had fantastic jobs, a great home, close to friends and family.  Lots of cash.  Nothing to complain about.  Pretty much everything we should want.  We were coasting to retirement on cruise control.  But we weren't content.  Or challenged.  We wanted more.  We wanted an adventure.  We hit the reset button. 

My husband got a job in Arizona and everything changed over night.  Our house sold in a day and Odessa was in the rearview mirror before I could catch my breath.  Or process what had happened. 

Now I wonder - What were we thinking?!?!??!!!  Life was good.  And safe. 

Life now is uncharted.  Everything is unknown.  It's time to grow and there is a lot of pain attached to that. 

I see that it can be good.  Eventually better than what we had and where we were.  But there is risk.  And we are back at the starting line.  Granted we are more experienced and wiser - about some things.  But we left the safety net in Texas and the ground is far far below. 

So here I am.  Redefining who I am and what my role is in my family and just in life in general.  I'm freaked out! Hopefully when the dust settles I'm going to have learned and grown and will definitely have added to my life story. 

We took a risk.  It may not have been the smart play but it's what we did.  Let the Arizona chapter of our life begin!