snow day!!!!!

No school today!!!


The back yard...




Sunny likes the snow.




They all like it...well, not Duke. He just does his business, then stands next to me, shifting his weight on his old rickety legs. He will whine if I don't bring him in. When it was time for them to go outside a second time, he chose to stay inside on his rug.

I woke up early this morning and checked my phone, sure enough, school was cancelled. Paul was supposed to go hunting with Jonathan, but there's a travel advisory, and the snow is coming down, wind howling around the house...and it's so cold out there! 28 degrees, but so windy!

It's invigorating to go out into this storm, but so nice to come in, shake the snow off, put my sweater and slippers on, and have hot coffee. The dogs are tired out from the extra work it is to play in the snow, all three snoring on the couch...so I don't have to be on alert, watching for Sunny to start sniffing around, jumping up to take her out before she makes a little puddle. Oh the joy of puppies.

We had a wedding shower for Margaret yesterday and it was lovely. The food came out really good, and the whole thing fell together nicely, phew. My cake disaster...have I written about my cake disaster? Oh dear. Friday, I went shopping for the food for the shower. Then Miss Cam and I decided to go to Kohl's because I had $40 Kohl's cash and still need a nice dress for the wedding...first we stopped at McDonalds to get an iced coffee for me, and a frappe for her (I had a buy one get one free coupon) (It was so warm on Friday, we chose iced drinks. Today it's 28 degrees out.) Well, after we drove away, I sipped, and yuck, it had sugar in it! Not only do I hate sugar in coffee, I don't want to waste calories on it, raise blood sugar, ect. Cam felt bad because I really had wanted that coffee...anyway, we went in and looked for dresses. I told her I wanted something really big, really dressy, and really cheap. She would pull them out, and check tags and prices, and it was so funny. We found three to try on, and no way Jose'. No dice. I kiddingly whined about it, and Camille felt so sorry for me, I told her I was fine, I was just teasing her.

So after a day of shopping, we got home and put things away...(Kathryn so nicely did school with Jon and Char for me). It was time to make the cake. I did not feel like making the cake, but Saturday I had to work at the college football game, then go straight to Mali's new place for a housewarming party. So I made a homemade vanilla recipe that I have made before, it is scrumptious. Well. It burnt on the outside and was soupy in the middle. I tried to save it. I cut off the crusts, and tried to invert the pan and drop it out onto a tray, but only half of it came out of the pan. I was left with part of a cake, really moist yummy crumples of a cake. I wrapped it up, threw away the burnt pieces, and did my favorite Scarlett O'Hara impression, "I'll just think about it tomorrow..."

I ended up buying two cakes from Wegman's.

No one died from eating store cake. In fact, Wegman's makes super yummy cakes. The gold standard around these parts. It did almost kill ME, because to me, homemade from scratch is the ultimate, and I love making cakes for things like this. Plus, Wegman's cakes are expensive. But I survived, and it was so easy to not have to patch up that poor excuse for a cake.

Camille...she's so sensitive...when the cake disaster happened, I was all like, ARE YOU KIDDING ME????! But as soon as I started reacting like that, I realized she was standing there with a look on her sweet little face...and I asked her if she wanted me to get upset. She said, "No, Mommy!" And I told her that when she was tempted to get upset, to remember that God wants us to to be happy, to take things right, and not get mad and sad and stompy. It was hard for me, I admit it.

But I'm thankful I was able to buy replacement cakes.

And now we still have that poor excuse for a cake all wrapped up, ready to be mixed with a can of chocolate frosting, dipped into melted chocolate, and made into....cakeballs for a snow day!

There's a turkey in the 'fridge all thawed and ready to cook, so we're having a pre-Thanksgiving turkey dinner.

It's a good day.