the essence

Its been an eventful last several days (maybe a week already?). I am up to 9 piano students & I've been getting calls about it pretty much everyday. The lesson last Friday was canceled so I actually taught my first lesson in about two years yesterday. The time flew by and it was such easy money!

Back to last Thursday when Ray had his board meeting here. I was a mad woman, as I usually am when I'm trying to prepare for people. I was up early in the kitchen & then Ray & I went to Super Target to buy our front entry table (It was my valentine's day gift). We got back & he had to leave for some quick work. I went back to the kitchen to finish up the raspberry torte, which I've made several times. I had already made the torte & started whipping up the cream. I had even mixed in the chocolate. Problem was, for whatever reason the cream wasn't setting & it had been a long time since I whipped it & put it in the fridge.

So, I drove back to Target where they only had the huge container of heavy cream (I wasn't going to chance it on the light stuff again even though it ahd always worked before) & I ahd to buy more chocolate.

I got home, whipped up the new cream with no problem & started frosting the torte. In the middle of frosting, all of a sudden the torte & my new cake plate went crashing to the floor & shattered in smitherines. I let out a frustrated yell/growl picked up some big pieces, trashed them & stood up. All of a sudden I saw diamonds. You know how you get floaties in your eyes? Well, this was like floatie diamonds all over the place. I kept blinking & looking in different directions & after maybe 20-30 seconds they finally went away. So far my eyes are doing fine but I was a little concerened.

Anyway, I quickly made another torte (minus the raspberry because I had no more) & the dessert still turned out fine.

I was able to get Rach to come for lunch & she ended up spending the entire day with me. It was great hanging out, going to Target (again), washing baby clothes & watching Friends. Around 7:00 we met Erin at Barnes & Noble & had a three hour long gab fest, borderline gossip, which we tried to catch ourselves & stop. A lot of good stuff seemed to come from hanging out, lots of personal talking, some not to even be shared with our husbands.

Friday we had a funeral for Ray's great aunt (I think I had met her before) & then ran some errands. I don't remember a whole lot but I do know that we had youth group that night & took the boys. We also went to Rach & Con's afterwards for the guys to game. Us girls watched A Lot Like Heaven while I baked the cakes for Rachel's baby shower the next day. We got home around 1:00 & I crashed into bed.

The shower went well the next morning & cute little 8-weeks-pregnant-Val was there. Seriously, she looked incredible. I went out to Starbucks with her for a little while after hte shower to hang out. Since she's so far away now we hardly ever get to see each other.

As I was driving home on the Interstate I noticed that my speedometer was falling. I'd press the gas & it wouldn't really go back up. I kept getting slower & slower so I pulled over to the shoulder. My car was completely dead, Ray had to show houses in about 30 minutes, so Rachel came & picked me up. What a friend I tell you: pregnant, exhausted, just got home & she left again to drive out of her way to get me.

We got to my place & she waited around because earlier in the day my Dad was getting ready for an audition & he decided they should come visit me instead. (He's working on being spontaneous & doing quite well at it) I was thrilled & they even stopped on their way ehre & brought dinner. So I didn't even have to cook!

We had salad, bruschetta & Mom made these delicious bacon wrapped shrimp. They were WONDERFUL (Roger's recipe, I think). They were going to stay the night but Mom's allergies were bothering her so they left around 10 something. It was a nice little visit though.

Now, I'm very impressed if you actually read all of this (I don't always read the long posts of other people, this is kind of for me). I'll spare you details of the last few days, they weren't as busy as what I just wrote about.

We're still waiting for Rachel to have the baby though. She's SO low I'm kind of surprised it hasn't happened yet. Updates will come!