League Week Again

 For spring break this year, I was one of "those" people who work extra hours because they aren't in school. It turned out to be a good thing since what was supposed to be a one league week turned into a two league week when we found out Monday that one of the sales people hadn't written a 20 team league that was due Friday on the calender. Needless to say, that increased the pressure quite a bit. I tried to get a picture of all the shirts at once, but there were just too many. Thankfully, we ended up finishing the two leagues with their 52 teams, over 800 shirts, 2500+ prints, not to mention the few smaller jobs we did this week. We have a good crew and support from Dad and the rest of the employees.

Baking Saturday

We had a relaxing baking party Saturday with Gretchen, Marty, Heidi, and Michelle. I made rosemary bread that we enjoyed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil for dipping. 

Heidi made rye bread.

And Marty made chocolate cupcakes with cookie dough centers and buttercream frosting.

                       Here's the aftermath

Baked with Love

Mise en place for chocolate cake

 Our church had its annual Baked with Love auction this morning, so yesterday was baking day. I started things off in the morning by baking chocolate cake rounds with a recipe from Trisha, one of our relatives back east who is an excellent baker.

Later in the afternoon, I made the chocolate ganache icing and peppermint filling.

I used Jr. Mints to make my filling.

Michelle joined the baking party and made red velvet cupcakes with white chocolate macadamia nut cookie inside.

Here's my finished cake: A rich chocolate cake with chocolate ganache icing and layers of smooth peppermint filling.

After dinner, Dad baked peanut butter cookies.

Michelle's finished cupcakes topped with buttercream frosting and red sprinkles.

And Dad's finished peanut butter cookies with a chocolate glaze drizzle.

Bribery Works

We were bribed today at work by someone who went somewhere else to get their league shirts made. Five of the teams were messed up by the other business, so they came back to us to save the day. As part bribe, part thank you, they brought pizza and soda for the screeners today. It was great to have a free lunch and we enjoyed hanging out while we ate.

My First Trip to Selma

 I made an almost spontaneous trip to Selma yesterday to meet up with two of my London flatmates, Juan and Ashley. We had an early dinner at Sal's followed by chocolate dipped ice cream cones that were exceptionally messy. It was wonderful to see Juan and Ashley again and spend lots of time catching up and reminiscing.

Celtic Crossroads

Friday night Jonah, Michelle, Heidi, and I had the opportunity to see Celtic Crossroads perform at the Fox Theater. It was an amazing show, the musicians and dancers were so talented, and of course the Fox is a cool place to see a show. Taking pictures wasn't an option, so instead of having a post without pictures I'm including a collage from the weekend I spent in Ireland for you to enjoy while reading about the show. I'll try not to talk your head off since hearing about a show is never as exciting as being there, but it really was great.

They played mostly Irish music, but mixed in some Gypsy compositions, American blue grass, and other variety. All of them were incredible and could play so fast, I sat there staring in shock most of the time. There were two dancers too, who mostly did Irish hard shoe but also did a couple other traditional Irish dances, and they were very talented too. One of the songs was a solo by the percussionist with an Irish drum, during which one of the dancers came out and they did a duet of sorts that was amazing. There was also a harp player; I mean really, who plays the harp? It was so cool. The fiddle player and the banjo player were also insane. But I think I'm going on too much. I'll wrap up by saying we had a great evening of music and dance in a wonderful environment with great company. Oh, and one more picture from outside as we were leaving.

The White Board

For those of you who may be wondering what I'm doing since I quit Wildflower, this post is for you. I started working at Midtown about 2 months ago. At first I was working on sorting and organizing inventory, but then there was an opening in screening and I started working there. That has been going well, the crew we have is excellent. Since it is baseball season, our busiest time of year, I got to jump in with both feet and already have learned how to wash, emulsion, and burn screens, as well as getting to do some of the screen printing. I just learned how to use our six pallet machine today, which means I've now used 3 of the 4 machines we have. Also today, I got my name on the board! This is where Greg, the head of screening, writes what everyone is supposed to do that day. I'm official now.

Between

 Jaime and I took a walk Friday to enjoy the time between rain storms. Everything was green and smelled delicious.

When we got back, she casually threw a dart and hit the bullseye, shocking us both!

Enjoying Spring

I was inspired at Heather's house after school this week. Their flowers were blooming and I couldn't resist taking some pictures.

More Birthday Fun at Disneyland

On Wednesday, Jaime and I met the Nickells at Disneyland to celebrate March birthdays; Jaime's, mine, and Evan's. Jaime and I got there first and went to Disneyland, where we rode one of our favorite rides, Pirates of the Caribbean. Then we met up in California Adventure, where the kids wanted to take us on the Toy Story ride. The wait was long, but it was a great ride. We got lunch together, then split up. Jaime and I went back over to Disneyland.

We went on the Jungle Cruise



Big Thunder Railroad

and saw a pirate ship from Tom Sawyer's Island! We also went on the Haunted Mansion and got a frozen lemonade.

 We met up with the Nickells again for dinner and birthday cookies. Evan's birthday was Wednesday, so we made cookies that said "Happy" "b-day" "Evan" and everyone got a cookie with their name on it.

After eating, Jaime and I returned to California Adventure to use our FastPasses on Tower of Terror. It was a great ride! Then we found spots in our viewing area for the World of Color show. We were there 40 minutes early, but we still didn't get a great spot. The show was impressive. When it was over, we went on the Toy Story ride again and got to see some of the fireworks from Disneyland while we were in line. After the ride, we hopped back over to Disneyland one more time to use our FastPasses for Indiana Jones. We still had to wait awhile for that one, especially because the ride broke down for about 15 minutes, but it was a good one to end the day on. We headed out to the car and took turns driving and sleeping on the way back, arriving home at 3am.

Pottery with Evan

For Evan's birthday, I took him to ArtZone on Monday to make a piece out of clay. We were hoping to throw on the wheel, but the wheels weren't there so we decided to pinch pots by hand instead. It was a fun project to work on together and we both ended up with little bowls. They will fire them for us, then we get to go back and glaze them, then they get fired again before we get to pick them up. That evening, the Visalia Rescue Mission was having its second annual Empty Bowls event. Mom, the Nickells, Jaime, and I attended; for a $25 donation to the Rescue Mission, we got to pick out a hand made stoneware bowl made by local artists to take home and we ate a bowl of soup. 

You can imagine how excited we were that the potter's wheels from ArtZone were there and they were letting people throw on them! Especially because my friend, Andy, was one of the artists there helping people throw. Evan was brave enough to try it and he did such a good job, it was so cute. This is much harder than he makes it look.

Birthday Dinner

Since Evan and my birthdays are only 4 days apart, we celebrated together with a family birthday dinner on Sunday. We had spaghetti with sausage, garlic bread, and Caesar salad.

We had no trouble agreeing on what to have for dessert: apple pie!!

We each got to blow out candles on a pie.

Then it was time for presents; don't worry, I got some too :)