Farewell Sweet Treats

So as most of my friends and family know, June 9th was my last day working at the bakery. For many reasons the work environment was no longer good and healthy for me. I made the decision to leave and go back to school and pursue a Masters degree in mathematics.

Me on my last Sunday - bittersweet

Sunday May 30 was the last Sunday I worked. Sunday's were my favorite day of the week. It was a calm relaxed day where everyone worked together as a team. In order to thank my fabulous Sunday group I decided to provide breakfast and snacks.

Breakfast and snack treats for my wonderful Sunday group :-)

It was a fun day with many of my friends and their families stopping by to see me off. I spent my lunch chatting with Kerri, Mira, Suzannah, Rachel, Warren and baby Aerik. After lunch Marissa and Megan from college stopped by. It was such an enjoyable day and if every day at work had been that enjoyable I probably would not have quit.

Regardless of how I felt at times during the day, I knew that leaving was the best thing for me. My last day of work did not feel any different than every day I worked. I continued to help customers, answer phones and do any work that needed to be done. I left the bakery with the same work ethic as when I started.

I did end my time at the bakery by giving hugs to my fellow employees, even some that I did not get along with so well. Lynn bought me flowers that were waiting for me when I clocked out. I left feeling complete. I was not sad or anything like that, I was simply content that I was making the right decision and moving on with my life.

The day at work was followed by dinner with Kerri, Rachel, Maggie, Suzie and their significant others. It was a treat to celebrate my last day with the people that made my work experience so wonderful.

Buca di Beppo with all of my favorite IOTC countergirls

As cliche as it may be, I am now onto another chapter in my life. I learned a lot from working at the bakery and I am now ready to move on to bigger and better things. I cannot guarantee that going back to school will go exactly as I planned. Let's be honest, it probably will not go as planned, but I am excited to see where life takes me.

Here's to hoping that everything works out and that my scenic route through life takes me through some beautiful places and on fun adventures. I am so excited for the future :-D

5 years of dating, 1 year of engagement, 1 fabulous weekend

Needless to say I am a little behind on blogging, but better late than never. About 2 1/2 weeks ago Kevin and I had the pleasure of going to Lake Tahoe for Doug and Laura's wedding. We made the decision early on to make the weekend into an extended vacation to celebrate being engaged for 1 year and dating for 5 years. It was an easy way to celebrate everything at once.

View from our hotel room :-)

We both took Friday June 5th off of work and made it a leisurely drive to North Lake Tahoe. The drive lead us through Sacramento and our state capital has the benefit of having Chick-fil-a. So Kevin and stopped there for lunch and thoroughly enjoyed the food we had not had since college. We finished the drive through slightly raining weather and made it to the Cal Neva Resort early Friday afternoon. We settled into our hotel room and then ventured out to explore the lake.

We headed clockwise around the lake and stopped at a beautiful vista point. We continued driving and it was getting close to dinner so we ended up driving to South Lake Tahoe for dinner. We ate some awesome pizza, got some ice cream for dessert (watermelon sherbet for Kevin) and then headed back to the hotel. The adventure continued when a raccoon tried to follow us into the hotel, but the manager kept the curious little creature outside.


Just as we arrived at the hotel Doug called Kevin and we headed back out to hang out with all of the college friends with a crazy double game of beer pong. The tables crossed adding extra challenge. After a fun evening we went to sleep to re-energize for the wedding.

Day 2 commenced and we continued exploring. We drove around searching for a place for lunch and stopped at Steamer's. They had a beautiful back patio with a view of the lake. We ate delicious sandwiches and then walked down the beach to step foot in the beautiful lake. The day was quickly fleeting so we headed back to the hotel to change in time for the wedding.

View from lunch - just feet away from the beach

All dressed up, we headed over to the church. The ceremony was simple, yet beautiful and followed by a super fun reception. The reception ended, but the fun times did not. Everyone relocated to the hotel lobby and played pool and foosball. Kevin enjoyed the rest of the evening, while I headed off to bed after an exhausting day.

Dressed up for the wedding - too bad you can't see the lake behind us

Sunday was the day most people were heading home so we went out to breakfast at The Log Cabin with Kevin, Robert and Rob and their respective significant others. After breakfast we said our goodbyes and Kevin and I headed off to Reno.

The drive was only about an hour which was nice and along the way we stopped on the side of the road and played in the snow. We couldn't say no, especially since the snow was only a couple feet away from us.

Me with my little snowball on the side of the road :-)

We made it to Reno and gambled a little, went to the water driving range and overall had a relaxing fun day. We headed back to Tahoe and after a short nap, Kevin went out to get dinner. We ate in the hotel room and watched a Star Trek movie. It was definitely a good end to a fun day.

Kevin golfing at the water driving range - he really wanted the free soda

Monday brought day 4 of our vacation and the time to head home. We started the drive home and of course stopped at chick-fil-a again. We enjoyed the time together and celebrated our 1 year engagement anniversary by relaxing and enjoying the time.

Saying goodbye to our hotel as we headed home

It was a fabulous vacation and great to see old friends. Here's to hoping that every day can be as fun and relaxing as the time in Tahoe was. :-)

Summer Project

So with the last days of my job quickly disappearing, I am planning everything I will do with my newly found free time. I have the basic list of keeping the apartment clean, cooking and baking more, finishing up projects that have been left by the way side and other such things, but me being the OCD person I am decided that this was not enough.

In order to guarantee that I would always have something to do I have added on yet another thing to my to do list, and it is taking care of my new vegetable garden. Officially I am not sure if it can be called a vegetable garden since there are only a few planters sitting on my balcony, but it doesn't matter. Regardless of the officially term for what I am doing, it should keep me busy for the summer. I have to tend to the plants, keeping them watered, fertilizing and then trimming them and making sure they stay healthy and hopefully produce some delicious vegetables.

Vegetable Plants: Two Tomato Plants, Cucumber and a Watermelon Plant (just for


My Herb Planter: Rosemary, Basil and Chives

I'm looking forward to taking care of my new garden and hopefully learning a lot about plants and gardening along the way. Should be an adventurous summer with many new things learned along the way.

Here's to hoping that this summer is the best yet and that the fun times continue to happen :-)

just what I need......a new hobby

Recently I have become addicted to baking blogs. Reading one is so much fun and then they gracefully link or reference to another which I just have to look at. I start reading that blog and get addicting and then keep blindly linking to more and more blogs. My google reader keeps me up to date on all the blogs but that is not necessarily a good thing. A lot of the blogs keep showing cookies they have decorated and I find them intriguing. So my new plan is start decorating cookies like the picture below.


It doesn't seem that difficult: just make royal icing, outline, let dry, flood with royal icing, let dry and then draw on the details. Sure I say that it is easy now, but just wait for my blog after I actually try it.

So my plan for the summer is to bake tons of generic sugar cookies in a variety of shapes and keep the in my freezer. I will then make royal icing and decorate to my hearts content. We'll see how much I actually enjoy it and how good I am at it, but it doesn't matter because I just want to try it at least once.

Anyways that is all for now, there will definitely be posts about either the amazing cookies I decorated or the chaos and disaster that ensue.

Here's to hoping that new hobby becomes a joy and new passion for me, and may all your passions consume your life and make you more than joyous than you could ever imagine.

Am I a Bakeaholic?

So I have come to realize that I have a slight addiction to baking. It is not so much that I want to eat the sweets, as I really just enjoy baking. I enjoy measuring, mixing, scooping, timing, and yes I do take a taste (or two) in the end.

Chocolate Chip Muffins
(with a little too much chocolate, if that's even possible)

I have recently started to bake at least 3 things a week. Saturday mornings are my ideal time because it is my one day off at home and I can bake before Kevin ever wakes up.

Needless to say I am well on my way to reaching my goal of baking 30 new recipes this year. In fact, I only have a few more recipes left before the goal is met. :-)

Homemade Oreo Cookies

If anyone ever wants a sweet treat, feel free to stop by because I always seem to have containers full of sweets with no one to eat them.

Here's to hoping that I continue to love baking and I continue to find other who are willing to eat my baking creations :-)

Is 99 years enough?

This past Thursday, April 8 2010, a wonderful man ended his 99 year journey through life.

Kevin's grandfather, Bop, was one of the most amazing people. He had a calmness and passion to just have fun. He lived a life that extended through the invention of cars, TV's, computers and countless other things, but it was the simple things he enjoyed the most. Bop loved his crossword puzzles, back massages, bingo, and simply spending time with family.

Bop ended his 99 years in life but will live on in our hearts and minds for eternity.

All I can say is 99 years is more than enough time to live life if you thoroughly enjoy every moment.

Here's to living your life and taking advantage of every opportunity that presents itself to you, and if you are lucky enough to live 99 amazing years, you will have lived each year to it's fullest.

May we remember Bop for the wonderful man he was, the amazing family he and Buba raised, and the knowledge and passion he has passed on to everyone he has met. 0:-)

Waste of a Saturday?

So am I the only person that feels like noon on a Saturday marks the day as almost over. I am lying on the couch typing this blog feeling like I have wasted away the day. Kevin, as usual, is still asleep even though we were supposed to leave the house 45 minutes ago to go to the Campbell Easter parade. Considering it starts in about half an hour, I can conclude we will not make it.

Lying around doing nothing makes me want the day to just be over. I have already wasted enough hours, why not waste the rest of the day too.

Not sure if anything will get done today....the only thing I am sure of is that today feels like a waste and it is hard to change that feeling around :-(

Here's to hoping something gets done today.

EDIT: we ended up going to a 41 acre pakr in the almaden hills and taking a 2 hour hike....yep, something did get done :-)