Question of the Day

"If you could relive one of your childhood memories, which one would it be?"

I love this question because it brings about so many fond memories of my childhood! Probably because my birthday is around the corner, the first memory that came to mind was that of my many birthday parties at Christy Cove Park and the amazing homemade cakes that I always had at them! My mom would always bake the cake, and it was most often a Funfetti cake. Yes, that's right! My favorite cake in the whole world was the kind with the sprinkles in the mix that would make colored dots when it was baked. Best cake ever!

As far as the frosting, I loved the matching Funfetti frosting as well. But, there was more to the frosting than just that. As a young child, Mom would buy a package of stickers at the store that matched the theme of our birthday party. I definitely remember a Strawberry Shortcake year, a Rainbow Brite year, and a green M&M year. (Funny, I think my cakes matched a lot of my Halloween costumes as well!) I would then pick which sticker I liked the character's pose best in, and we would give that picture to dad. Dad would then use that sticker as a guide to draw the character onto the cake with frosting. Shane and I thought this was the coolest thing ever!

Then, when I got a little bit older and was no longer into character themed birthday parties, my birthday happened to fall on Easter one year. Well, I LOVE the Hershey chocolate eggs that have the pastel colored candy coating. So, as a surprise that year, Mom made my favorite cake of course, and decorated the entire top of my cake with those eggs. I was so excited! I was such a big fan that this then became a tradition for many years to come.

I remember a couple of random "phases" I went through with birthday cakes as I got older and into my pre-teen/teenage years. One year I was DYING to have an ice cream cake, so of course, off to Baskin Robbins we went. Well, I later found out that I broke my mom's heart by deciding that I wanted the ice cream cake that was in the shape of a fluffy white dog! I swear I wasn't trying to do anything by this...I just thought it was a really cute cake! However, the behind the scenes drama was that prior to my birthday we had recently given back our Bichon Frise puppy that we only had for 2 weeks. After years of begging our parents for a dog, they finally gave in and got us this puppy, which later turned out to be the runt of the litter and to have some severe separation anxiety and behavioral problems! The breeder had told my parents that they had 2 weeks to make sure it was a good fit, and if it wasn't working out, they could return it for a full refund. Well, on the 14th day...Maggie was gone. Looking back, I probably even named my cake Maggie or something atrocious like that. But at the time, it seemed like the right cake to get! I wore an outfit from Wet Seal on that birthday. It was a white t-shirt with pink elastic bands around the arms, and jean shorts that had matching pink elastic bands around the cuffs. I thought I was SO cool that I was finally old enough and could fit into a size 0 at Wet Seal. Yes, this is the same Wet Seal that is still around these days...but my how the clothing there has changed. My mom would not be buying me clothes from there anymore!

The other random birthday cake that I remember was the giant cookie birthday cake from Paradise Bakery.

After leaving home to go to college, the birthday cake tradition changed. We have now shifted back to the tradition that Mom grew up with when she was a child. Mom bakes the most wonderful angel food cake with her famous double boiler icing. The cake has rainbow sprinkles on it and always includes candles to light, sing to, and blow out hoping that your wish comes true.

I had the greatest childhood! All of these memories, stemming just from thinking about my birthday cakes of my younger years! Thanks, Mom and Dad!

P.S. Just thinkin'...I got distracted by my birthday cakes talk, but my birthday parties always had really cool games at them too! In addition to pinatas, we would often play the drop the crayon into the bucket, remember all of the items on the tray, who knows Kelly the best, Red Rover, and scavenger hunt games!

A weekend drive to Point Reyes

Cattle in the pasture on the farms on the drive to Point Reyes!

Me with the lighthouse in the background. I think they said it was 300 steps up to this point!

It was a gorgeous day!

The water was so blue!

My hubby, looking cool in his shades!

We had a great day!

Our two versions of heaven!

I had to laugh when my last two sets of pictures were for my ideal place to stop for a treat and then Paul's dream stop for a treat. My location was Miette, a local pâtisserie and candy store. I walked in and didn't even know what to do with myself. They had taffy, caramels, cupcakes, chocolate, and more! It was truly heaven! I enjoyed this "old fashioned cupcake" which brought back memories of my mom, because it was the same double-boiler icing that she puts on her angel food cakes. I was expecting the red dot on top to be a jelly bean or red hot type candy, and giggled when I bit into it and discovered it was a Boston Baked Bean! I hadn't had one of those since I was little! Anyhow, I loved this place, and can't wait to go back again!

Then we move on to Paul's heaven...El Farolito! Best mexican food ever! We enjoyed some nachos and a grande burrito, and washed it down with some mexican beer. Located in the Mission district, this is our new favorite mexican dive! We sat there, talking about which of our friends and family would fall in love with it. The list was long. I'm glad I could take my husband to such a wonderful establishment tonight. He is now ending his weekend a happy man!

SF Apartment - After the movers left!

So I flew out to San Francisco the weekend that the movers delivered the goods. Paul was already out there and staying with his buddy, Jake, who he works with now. He left for work on Friday morning, and left me the key for our new place. It was like Christmas...I could not wait to walk over to our apartment and go check it out!

So, around 7am I got up (thinking it was absurd that Paul had already been at work for 2 hours!), got clean, and walked over to our place from Jake's place. It was only a few blocks away. I got a bagel on the way from Noah's and admired Chestnut Street, the cute street we live by with all of the fun shops and restaurants and bars!

I arrived at the apartment door, opened it up, and found this! Holy crap! This is unpacking! Paul was prepared for it, I was not! He had moved more in his life. I guess I didn't expect everything to be put away, but I guess I expecting less massive piles, and more organized, spread out, items to be put away. From the looks of it, they are not allowed to put things on the floor, so they just pile them all in the sink, or bathtub, or on the desk. It was crazy! And yet, still exciting. The little organizer in me was totally pumped! Have I told you that I think I could be paid to organize people's lives? I love it!

It was like a giant puzzle. Ok, this needs to be put away, but the spot it goes in has this in it, so where does that go? And I basically worked like that until I found an open spot to put something away in. Well, I worked my little butt off so that I could win the game I was playing against myself of, "How amazed will Paul be with how organized I get this place by the time he gets off work!?!" Well, I won. He was very amazed. And yet, I think he expected no less! :) I was sending my mom photos from my phone of the mess, and then I would update her along the way of rooms as I tackled them. It was fun!

The thing that annoyed me the most was the built-in bookcase. I guess the movers have to put books on the bookcase, to say they are put away. But look at how they stacked them! It was twice as much work for me, because I had to take them all off, and then put them all back on the right way! How silly!

So...here are the pictures of what it looked like when I got there.

Moving Day

Well, this was a very sad day. We had movers come in and pack up all of our belongings and load them on a moving truck. It was time to leave our house on Luke to begin our adventure in San Francisco. I loved that house on Luke. It was such a beautiful and happy 1st house. I guess the thing to remember is all of the fun first memories that we created there that I will never forget. It was a great house to be newlyweds in!

On another note, this was the biggest moving truck I have ever seen! It stretched from the neighbor's house on one side of us to the neighbor's house on the other side. A true 18-wheeler. Well, maneuvering it in Phoenix was tricky enough, but getting it to the apartment in SF was going to be a whole other story. We were told they might have to shuttle our stuff to the apartment from another location where they could park the truck.

The good part of the move was we didn't really have to do much. Mom helped me A TON pack up all of the stuff that we would not have room for in San Francisco, and that we would keep at their house. It was hard to wrap up my beautiful china, but I'll have it again soon! Mom and I had fun doing this, of course. We can pretty much make any task fun together. :) However, other than the stuff that Mom and I packed and cleaned, which was actually quite a bit, the movers did all the rest. They packed all of the stuff that they were going to be moving, and they loaded it on the truck which was the best part! Then, when the truck arrived in SF, they would unload all of the boxes from the truck, and unpack all of our stuff. I told Paul, this is SO much better than us and a U-haul! :) We have officially been spoiled by his company, and we are never allowed to move again unless a company pays for this service! :) See you on the other side of the move!

Kelly presents at NASP 2008 - A good excuse for a trip to New Orleans!

After 5.5 years in Grad School, at last she graduates with her Ph.D.!