Paul Andreas is (Once Again) an Ironman

I know I am behind in blogging, but this is a pretty big accomplishment so I thought I would post and try to catch up on our summer later. My brother Paul participated in Ironman Penticton today (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run). He finished in 10 hours 24 minutes and 139th out of 2595. He completed Ironman Louisville 2 years ago and I was lucky enough to get to go. Hearing the announcer say, "Paul Andreas you are an Ironman" was very emotional for all of us. And . . . even though we were not able to come this time - we are just as emotional Paul. We are so proud of your hard work and dedication. You deserve to enjoy some time off. We look forward to hearing all about it!!!!!!!

Cake School Drop Out

Yes - it's true - I have dropped out of cake school. Candis and I went to cake class on Monday night and it was terrible!!!! The teacher was completely unprofessional and Candis and I left very upset with her lack of teaching, constant complaining about her husband and family, and many other things. We both decided that it has stopped being fun. So, we have decided to drop out. We feel like we have learned all that we wanted to get out of this class so why continue? It is a lot of prep time and this week it was not worth it last week. So . . . we are officially quitters - and actually proud of ourselves. Most people are shocked that we quit - but feel the weight of the world off of our shoulders. Now we are off for a scrapbook retreat complete with prepared meals, hot tub, and massages without having to prepare for cake class.

Cakes

I have been very busy the past 4 weeks taking Cake Decorating - Course II. In this class we did not decorate a cake each night - we just learned the techniques on a practice board. Last night was our final class so we had to decorate a cake using many of the skills we learned in class. The cake was decorated in buttercream and the flowers I did at home out of royal icing (which I procrastinated so I was up until 1:30 in the morning finishing them.
Here are all the flowers I made for the final cake:

This is a pansey that our instructor made. Mine did not get painted at 1:30 am but I do love the way they look!

In the meantime, I made a cake for Vanessa and Debbie (at work) for their birthdays,

and cupcakes for National Cupcake Day (I don't even know if that day really exists but one of the schools that I work in needed a little pick-me-up so we created it - followed the next week by the Festival of Chips and Dip).

Next Monday we start Course III - Tiered Cakes and Fondant.

Update - Easter Weekend

It has been a while since I have posted on the blog. We have been pretty busy. For Easter weekend I went to Oklahoma to visit. Mom and Dad came from Canada and Paul and Emily came from Kansas to Judason and Amanda's house. Rob had LTC with the kids at church so he had to stay home. While we were in Oklahoma we celebrated Grandpa Andreas' 86th birthday.

The highlight of Rob's weekend was when I came home - not because I came home but because of the present I brought with me. At Christmas he bought a new driver in Canada but I did not want to bring it on the plane so we left it. Well . . . in true Bobber form, Dad created a "box" to bring it with them on the plane. Rob was very excited to have his driver 3 months earlier than expected - he thought Mom and Dad would bring it in June when they come for Jason and Krista's wedding.

Graduation

Tonight I graduated from Cake Decorating Course 1. We created a final cake that used many of the techniques that we used in class. I am already registered to take Course II with Candis (Lisa and Amanda are going to wait until the summer to take it.) Here is a picture of my final cake (I do have to give some credit to Candis for the cake - she brought it to my house to take for her this morning and she was called to go to Oklahoma to be with her Grandmother as they take her off of life support so she said I could do whatever I wanted to do with her cake. What happened to my cake? That is another story . . .)

Cake #2

Tonight's class was making flowers and decorating a cake with a couple clowns. This week went a lot better - I think we were doing more things that I was interested in making. Next week we do more flowers and stuff I was hoping to learn so hopefully we will have a cake that we will actually use. The teacher was impressed with my "add lib" on the boarder - the black drizzle. Here is my picture.

Cake Class

I started taking cake decorating classes with 3 friends last week. We are in course 1 and so far it has been pretty easy. Last week we learned how to make icing and bake a cake. I would say that I am a little beyond that stage but there are things in the class that I would like to learn so I am waiting until the 3rd and 4th class to learn those techniques. Tonight we spent the first 1 1/2 hours practicing and then with 15 minutes left in the class we finally started to decorate our cakes. Lisa and I had our "hands slapped" for moving on beyond the rest of the class from making stars to practicing writing. I did not pick the picture on the cake but here is a picture of my cake from class tonight. Iam not very happy with the writing but I started that part at 8:55 and we had to be out by 9:00 (30 minutes AFTER the class was supposed to end!). I believe that next week is clowns - which I am not sure I will use much but maybe we will practice making roses.

Finally . . .

We have finally received our computer back. Our friend Nick worked very hard on it!!!! He was able to save all my pictures and all of Rob's documents - we are so grateful!!!!

We will admit that while it took a while to get used to the inconvenience of not having a computer at home, we have been able to get a lot done. It is easy to get distracted by the computer and not do everything else that needs to be done. But, since it has been back we have made up for lost time. I have spent countless hours backing up all of our pictures on-line and catching up on blogs.

Not much is new here right now. This is the busy testing season in schools so Rob is really busy. A week and a half ago he had another kidney stone attack which finally passed a few days ago so he is feeling great!!! He has never done that before without having to have surgery so we are very glad!!!

We are still here!

I know I created this blog almost a month ago (and that I have only posted once) but we have not fallen off the edge of the earth. We are having trouble with our computer at home so internet access is very limited. We have returned from Christmas in Canada and are back to work. Last week our friend Candis had her tonsils taken out so we have had he daughter Allie this week so that Larry could take care of Candis. I hope to post more later . . . maybe with some pictures?

Testing from the Great White North

We are currently in Canada where it is -20 F. Rob and I came to celebrate Christmas with my family. Rob is really enjoying the weather (or not!!!!). Judson is helping me to set up a blog so this is our test post.