February Wrap-Up

If you've seen Tyson's recently added Facebook photos, no we haven't had a baby. ;) And if you haven't seen them, you should. :) His cousin Hallie and her husband Mike (who live in Michigan) adopted a baby girl from Utah. We got to spend time with them while they were here, and got to see and hold Eliza when she was just two days old. Tyson was able to work on expanding his photography skills, too, and take some pictures of her and of their son Landon. They are the sweetest kids! (even though Eliza only wanted us to leave her alone during her photo shoots - LOL) And it was so great being able to spend time with them again. :)

Since I last wrote, I saw an orthopedist for my knee, and he said that the MRI looked very similar to a torn meniscus, but that the indicators didn't "go all the way to the bone," like they should. And my symptoms weren't adding up, either. Then he pressed his thumb on the underside of my patella, where I discovered that it's quite inflamed. Ow! Hahaha! So, now I'm in physical therapy for patella femoral syndrome, which is basically unexplained chronic or recurring knee pain. But the physical therapist's observations and recommendations make sense, and I am hopeful for a future with reduced pain. :)

This week I've been struggling with a lot of discomfort in my neck, shoulders and lower back. I can't turn my head much, and I can't lie on my right side. Thankfully, my lower back is about 90% better, and I'll be able to see the chiropractor on Tuesday. Also, I still managed to do my PT exercises four days this week, of which I'm pretty proud! :) Hee, hee.

And, if I start to feel down about it, I think of my awesome visiting teacher who has had a brain tumor her whole life. She randomly falls down sometimes, and doesn't have enough balance to do any real physical activities. She also has to wear a hat and sunglasses all the time to prevent insane light-induced headaches. And she is happy and cheerful and enjoys life! :) (And trying out new recipes! I have a partner in crime! Muahahaha!)

Tyson's website, ArchitectureLinked.com finally received 100,000 unique visitors this month! While I don't understand what that means nearly as well as he does, I know that it will increase our clout with search engines so people can find us more easily, and it helps us make money through advertisers, since we have more potential customers for them coming to our site. Yay!

On the food front, since I last wrote I made Remick a fortress cake for his 25th birthday, complete with gummie bears (both attacking and defending), Tootsie roll weapons and a whipped cream mote filled with Swedish Fish. The cake was devil's food, with whipped cream between its four layers, and finished with a chocolate fudge frosting.

the beginningthe finished masterpiecechocolate catapaultgummie bear catapault
battering ramdefending archerwhat four of us could stuff down

For Valentine's Day I baked a cake recipe that I made into cupcakes, mini cupcakes, and a mini layer cake. I piped strawberry jam into the cupcakes and frosted them with strawberry buttercream frosting. The jam needed to be piped in a lot deeper, and the frosting was either too cold to pipe, or too warm to hold it's shape, but they still tasted really good. :D For the cake, I sliced each layer in half, then used a heart-shaped cookie cutter, and cut them each into a heart shape. I then made two mini-cakes, with strawberry frosting between the first two layers, and strawberry jam between the second two. Then I tried coating them with "vanilla melty" that I tinted pink. Not good! LOL! I was trying to imitate Little Debbie cakes, but I didn't have any idea what I was doing, and the stuff was just too thick. The result was more like a Sting song, "Fortress Around Your Heart!" Tyson and I just chipped it off and enjoyed eating the rest of the cake. :D


Oh, and mom, when you come out here (whenever I have a baby), we'll have to make some homemade guacamole for you. We just tried out a recipe for it last night, and it was a keeper! :)