We decided...

That if we get pregnant with twins we are going to call them "The Twinkies." :P

Follie scan went fantabulous this morning. I have four measurable follies and a smaller 11mm that most likely won't catch up. Measurements were 18mm, 2 x 15mm, and 13mm. My E2 was a stellar 532! I think maybe the DIM supplement I've been taking is working quite well!

So, I took my hCG trigger tonight and we are headed to Bham tomorrow evening and staying overnight because IUI will be at 7:30 AM Saturday and The Monkey said he didn't know how "in the mood" he would be if we had to get up at 3:30 AM and drive! Can't says I blame him there! We are thinking about catching a movie tomorrow evening.

In other news I am incredibly excited about Halloween! We are having it at my sister's instead of here and her garage is perfect. The walls are dark and it kind of feels cave-like. We have big plans for decorating. The Monkey and I stopped in Spencer's this afternoon and I'll be damned if I didn't find some really AWESOME decorations that were on clearance! I paid $31 for two eerie looking mirrors with skulls holding black roses (they have a candle holder in front of the mirror). Then I found two neat looking skull things -- one is a tea light holder and the other is an LED thing. Really super cool. I am thinking we'll go back to Spencer's and check out some of the other things. I'm also (of course!) doing all of the baking and sweet snacks. We're also going to do punch and some savory snacks.

Yeah. Super excited!

Then it's going to be time to prep to make my nephews' birthday cakes by the 10th. And then Madison's birthday cake at the end of November. And my mom wants me to make a cake for her boss' birthday. Then my sister's birthday at the beginning of December.

Anyone want to volunteer to make my birthday cake?? It's my 30th after all! :P

Ok, going to bed now and hoping that I can get some rest and that tomorrow goes by quickly!

Oh, and also there was this:


We went out to eat before coming home and I was terribly tickled by our fortune's. The Monkey's is on top, mine is on the bottom. :D

Happy Birthday to My Monkey!

The Monkey is 37 today. He wanted carrot cake for his birthday (it's his favorite) and I wanted to scratch my cake decorating itch. So we compromised... I made him a "show off" cake and a carrot cake. Hehe...

I tried to incorporate something that I thought would reflect him but I couldn't think of what to do! Then I decided to do a Rubik's Cube.



My black fondant didn't turn out right so I did chocolate buttercream instead (tinted black). Also, the cube doesn't have cube dimensions (LOL!) but it is solvable (if it were, you know, real Rubik's Cube size).

countdown to the 2WW

My ovaries are officially sore. The Monkey came over to "squish" me on the bed (we do this a lot) and I screamed in pain because he squished me on the tummy and it hurt. He felt bad, poor guy.

I'm extremely anxious but also excited. But probably more anxious.

So to take my mind off of things The Monkey is going to take me out shopping for a shiny new KitchenAid standing mixer! [insert jumpy emoticon here] Then I think I will come home and bake something -- anything -- to try it out. I will probably wind up with the classic model even though the professional series is really drool worthy.

The Monkey turns 37 in a week.

restless mind... meet EASE

I walked to the mailbox this afternoon actually expecting it to be empty. Instead, it was full (got a shipment of medication). Underneath the package there were a few pieces of mail. One of which appeared to be a US Treasury check -- addressed to me. I opened it last afraid it would burst my bubble.

But it did not. It was my lump sum back pay for SSDI. My attorney got paid off the top so the remainder (that I got paid) is ours.

Today, relief is spelled V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!

Also, day four of injections went just fine. The teensy Follistim needles are all 'pshaw... is that all you got?" And I got a full extra dose out of the 300 IU cartridge FTW! I'm expecting something similar out of the Gonal-F pens. So I have a little bit left in my Follistim pen which I fully intend on using tomorrow and I'll finish up my dose with a second injection of Gonal-F. Thursday I go for my follicle scan. Hoping to see a minimum of three growing but I'll settle gladly for two, though. Well, to be perfectly honest, I'll be overjoyed with one good egg that results in a real, live take-home-baby!

The Monkey's birthday is coming up. I was having major issues coming up with a cake design that I could actually handle. Most of the things he enjoys would be exceptionally complicated and/or artsy (e.g. a WoW themed cake). So then I got to thinking about the time I was taking one of my many IT courses and The Monkey was helping me understand how to read binary. Then he showed me a binary clock which was exceptionally cool once I got the hang of reading it. I thought about making him a binary clock cake (which would be simple) but then I thought... binary... The Matrix! He's a total Matrix junkie. I can hardly watch The Matrix with him because he knows the dialogue so well. So I'm trying to search for designs that I can scam off of. :P With the back pay safely in our bank account, I fully intend on going out and buying myself the Kitchen Aid standing mixer I've been drooling over for... oh years now. They have it in a very pretty yellow at Bed Bath & Beyond. No more sore elbow for me! Huzzah!

new(ish) hobby...

I've been baking for years.  It's only been recently that I started really getting into decorating my baked goods.  Specifically cakes.  I guess I started with my sister's baby shower cake in 2007.



And eventually I started getting more and more creative.  I started collecting things for decorating.  Piping tips; spatulas; cake plates...  I got tired of freehanding my writing so I found stencils.  A cake leveler.  Etc and so on.

Last year I decided to make Madison's second birthday cake in the shape of a 2.  I was extremely pleased with myself.




The inside of the cake was bright green as well.  I guess I impressed my niece Deborah because it wasn't long after Madison's birthday that she told me that she wanted a rainbow cake.  Her birthday is in June.  :P

And so my wheels started turning.  And I did some Googling on rainbow cakes.  And I thought about making her a seven layer cake with white frosting so she'd be all WOW! when she cut into it and each layer was a different color of the rainbow.  But then I started wondering about fondant.  And I asked around and found out that making your own fondant is remarkably easy.  (No, really.  As in melt a bag of mini marshmallow in the microwave for about a minute and a half with two tablespoons of water.  Stir every 30 seconds to ensure even meltage.  Coat a wooden spoon in Crisco.  Once melted, add in about a pound of powdered sugar and stir until a ball forms.  Coat hands thoroughly in Crisco.  Knead until fondant is the consistency of dough.  Refridgerate and use the next day.  SO easy.)  So, I figured what the hell and played with it.

And I had a blast.  And I think my practice cakes turned out pretty darn good!  My first practice cake was HUGE.  Two tiered and everything!  I attempted to "marble" all of the colored fondant together but didn't like the effect too much so I won't be doing that on the final cake.



I think I want to add some pearl dust to the final product, though, to make the fondant shiny.  At least the colored decor.  So here is my second practice cake.  I made the two layers with different recipes.  The top layer is the winner (finer texture/crumb; tastier; more moist).  I am thinking about trying out a better buttercream icing recipe.  The one I've been using is more of a "decorating" icing recipe and it's really overly sweet (and kinda greasy since Crisco is involved).



















I would say, overall, it took me about five hours (collectively) to do everything.  It's pretty labor intensive to make a rainbow cake (all the mixing involved you know).  Plus I only have ONE ten inch pan (MUST remedy that!) so I had to bake the cakes separately.  I baked the cakes the night before and crumb coated them with buttercream and allowed them to chill over night.  Then I applied another coat of buttercream before applying my fondant.  My fondant work isn't perfect but pretty damn good for an amateur (and only my second try)!

I can't wait to do it again.  :)