We went outside Thursday morning to find all our neighbors picking up limbs and cleaning up their yards.  We made some pictures of our yard and our neighbors yards then went back inside for a bit.  Our Assoc. pastor, Frank came over to check on us.  He told us that there was power and telephones at the church so we decided to go up there to try and get a call out to Wade and to my mom.  Our cell phone had lost service completely on Wednesday late afternoon.  The kids and I loaded up and headed out.  We were amazed to see all the water in the Arroyo Colorado (it runs behind our neighborhood).  All traffic lights were out . . . trees down everywhere . . . we finally got to the church and made our phone calls.  Then we decided to just drive around a bit and maybe see if Walmart were open because we had no power and no a/c at home.  We got to the Walmart in San Benito and it was open - running on generators.  There was no cold/frozen food available but we were pretty well prepared so we just bought some fun food (fruit snacks, cookies, etc.) for the kids and then headed on home.  We took several pictures of flooded roads and trees down and all that.  We got home and started cleaning up our yard.  We found our broken skylight in several pieces in our yard.  After a little while some friends of ours came over to check on us and we all swapped storm stories. 

Our friends, Layne and Jill came back over and Layne climbed up on our roof and nailed down some roofing material over our skylight in case we should get any more rain.  He also sat up our fences that were down and temporarily nailed them into place.  Finally, he trimmed the broken branches that were still hanging.  Their son, Matthew, who is Adam's age stayed the afternoon with us and helped us clean up the rest of our yard.  And they invited us over to dinner that night.  They still had no power but they had a generator and had kept their freezers and fridge running and planned to grill some fajitas.  We had a great time at their house.  We ended the evening by playing dominos outside on the patio next to their pool.  Still no power at their house.  As we drove home there were lights on on our street and I got so excited!  But about 2/3 of the way down (we are on the end of the street) it was black -- still no power.  The kids and I stayed there that night but it was a long, miserable, HOT night. 

Friday morning we got up and headed to the church.  Frank and Melanie and our good friends, the Blakeslees (our children's minister and his family) still had no power and they had spent the night at the church where it was cool.  We decided to do the same on Friday night.  We spent just about all of the day at church.  I came home once to check to see if the power had come on (it hadn't) and to clean out my two refrigerators and freezers and throw everything away.  Our youth minister, Matt and his wife Sara had power at their house so they invited all us unfortunate ones to come over that night for supper and bring whatever we had in our freezers that had thawed that we wanted to cook!  Also, Matt and one of our youth guys came over and moved our little small chest freezer up to Wade's office and plugged it in -- most of the stuff in it was still frozen so it was all saved.  That night we all had a great time at Matt and Sara's house.  We got back to the church that night and our kids along with the Blakeslees kids had a blast camping out at the church.  I slept on the couch in Wade's office.  I actually had a cake order that was not cancelled so I baked it at the church and got up Saturday morning and decorated it -- that was a great, fun distraction!

Saturday we spent most of the day at the church and then I delivered the cake I had done and went by my house to check on power and pack up our clothes for spending the night at church again.  Our good friends Sally and Hank had power at their house so they had all us unfortunate ones (haha) over to their house for dinner Saturday night.  It was wonderful and we so appreciated the great food and the really great fellowship.  The Blakeslees power had come on so they were blessed to be at home on Saturday night.  Rachel spent the night with them.  The boys and I camped out at church again Saturday night in Wade's office.  It was really quite funny to wake up on Sunday morning, put on your clothes and you're already at church!

After church I called one of my customers who was supposed to have had their wedding on South Padre Island on Monday.  Of course, the Island was closed to non-residents and non-essential personnel so they had to cancel their plans.  I felt so terrible for them . . . but thankfully she said they had found a place to get married on Monday (in San Antonio, not here) so at least that worked out for them.  (Sheri -- I hope that you had a most beautiful wedding!  I'm so sorry that Dolly ruined your plans for a beach wedding!)

Sunday afternoon we went to the Blakeslees for lunch (what a blessing again) and then we hung out and watched a movie.  Around 3:30 I decided to drive over to my house to see how things were going.  When I pulled up in the driveway and turned off the van I noticed that our neighbors generator wasn't running... a good sign!  Our other neighbors were standing outside and they said the power had come on about 20 minutes earlier... YAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!!  I was so excited!

4 1/2 days without power = no air conditioning, was long enough!!!!  And as I type this blog on Tuesday there are STILL people in Harlingen without power.  When we lived in Hope and went through the ice storm Christmas of 2000 we were without power for a week -- but at least it was winter - we took all our food out of the fridge and put it in coolers outside and it stayed fine and we had gas logs to keep us warm... down here in the summer when there is no a/c it's stifling... please continue to pray for the people down here who are without power -- those who have lost their homes completely and those who have major and minor flood and wind damage.  Dolly hit us hard -- but it could have been so much worse.  We are thankful.

The Texas Baptist Men Disaster Relief Team arrived on Thursday.  They have been sleeping at our church as well.  They are set up to serve around 5,000 meals a day and the Red Cross distributes the meals.  Every year at convention meetings we hear of their volunteer work in different areas of Texas and I believe they even went to Lousiana in 2005 -- but it was such a incredible blessing to see them here in our town ministering to our friends and neighbors.  "Jesus with skin on."

It's been amazing to hear the stories of people coming together to help each other out -- just like our staff has been helping each other out by having everyone to dinner each night... and to hear stories of neighborhoods getting together to grill food and share what they have and get to know each other.  I know that God's going to use this hard time to bring some wonderful results and bring people to Him!

I talked with Wade one night and told him, I really am sorry that you're missing this... we're having a really good time!  haha  He wanted to come home when all this happened but I convinced him that we were all fine -- there was nothing he could do -- and that God had put him in Dallas for this time for a reason and he's found that out too.  Pray for him as he has three more days and then will be driving back here on Friday afternoon/night (9 hour drive).

And now... back to the fun stuff... I have a wedding cake tasting this afternoon... and a bunch of cake orders for the coming weekend -- life goes on!

Well, when I got up on Wednesday morning right after the power went off things were still relatively quiet.  I still can't believe our power went off so early when it was barely raining and the wind didn't seem to be that hard... but it had.  I turned on the radio and began to listen to the reports of Dolly's location and how she had strengthened during the night and was borderline becoming a category 2.  That made me a little bit nervous because we hadn't boarded the windows, so I just prayed!  One by one the kids got up and we had a breakfast of peanut butter sandwiches and just kept watching outside and listening to the radio.  One good thing about not having the windows boarded... we could see outside and we had some daylight coming in. 

The kids got out some games and we played a few games of Yatzee.  Rachel won every time... she was the Yatzee queen!  As the morning went on the winds picked up... they radio had predicted the full force would hit Harlingen around lunch time but it wasn't until really about 2:00 p.m. that the hardest winds were blowing.  I stood outside on the front porch with the video camera and the digital camera and tooks pictures and video.  We watched lots of limbs fall off trees and the wind blow them down our street... the power of the wind and the sound of it all was just amazing.  Then the kids told me that the skylight in our bathroom was leaking.  I went in and found water constantly dripping down all four sides of the skylight and there was this kind of mist falling . . . really kind of scary and yet the mist was kind of comical!  I emptied out a big rubbermaid storage box and sat it down to catch the water, put towels all around the cabinet and floor to catch the rest . . . and waited.

Then the kids came to tell me that water was coming in our back door into my bathroom.  We had sandbagged this door but the full force of the wind and rain were hitting that door and there was quite a bit of water coming in anyway.  We emptied the hamper of used towels and put them all over the floor to try and keep the water out - it worked okay.  We kept looking out the window and counting the shingles falling from the roof . . . then as I was walking through the house looking out windows I noticed a big section of our fence that had blown down.  And the wind and the rain just kept coming and coming - never letting up.  The guys on the radio let us know that Harlingen was really getting hit hard.  Apparently the storm had come ashore just north of us and we were in the southern eyewall (we would never get the "break" of the actual eye coming over us).  Dolly just sat there and pounded us for HOURS.  The radio guys kept taking calls from people in Harlingen and kept telling them (us) -- can you just hold out for 2 more hours?  Two hours later they were saying, "can you just hold out for 2 more hours? . . . I was really beginning the get a little stressed over the skylight.  What if it blew off or fell in?  What would I do?  So I tried to call a couple of different friends down here to ask for advice -- no cell phone service -- I tried to call Wade but couldn't get through to him either -- then I called my dad in Arkansas!  He talked me through and calmed my nerves that the skylight would probably be okay . . . and that if it fell in there was really nothing I could do but catch the water as best I could . . . anyway, talking to him helped me feel a little bit better.  The wind and the rain just kept pounding and pounding us -- I've never seen anything like it except on tv.

The kids got out the Monopoly game and I tried to teach them how to play, but I guess my nerves were too much on edge and I had no patience . . . plus the oil lamp didn't really give enough light to read all those little details of the game . . . so we gave it up.  Somewhere around 8:00 the storm seemed to have finally calmed down a little bit and it was getting dark so I decided we'd all just go to bed.  About 9:30 Adam woke me up because he couldn't sleep and he and I went into the living room and lit the oil lamp and turned on the radio.  The other two kids woke up and came into the living room and we fixed a bed in the middle of the living room floor.  They all eventually fell asleep.  Around 11:30 the storm was really howling again so I carried them all to bed and went to bed myself.  What a day!!!  And I couldn't wait for morning to get outside and see what everything looked like.

Yep, the big 4-0... in just a few short days I'll enter another decade!  wow... I'm getting OLD!  haha  Actually, I'm just realizing how YOUNG 40's really are!  Who knew!  hehe  I remember when my mom turned 40 and isn't this a hoot... my little sister and I made her birthday cake!  (my first one ever, I guess).  I would have been about 12 and my little sis would have been 2 -- okay, so I guess I actually made the cake by myself!  I remember my mom was smack in the middle of her cake decorating years and so I got out her Wilton Yearbooks and there was one with this fox on it and said something about being 40 and foxy so that's the one I decided to do... I guess we, ahem, -- I -- must have decided to make a cake from scratch instead of a mix (why I'll never know) but something went horribly wrong and I remember that the cake turned out about 3/4 of an inch tall and had the texture of one of those thick cookies like we used to get at the "cookie factory" in the mall.  Well, we (sorry, "I") decorated it and I would give anything to have a picture of that today... and bless my mom's heart, she ate it and said it was wonderful!  ...bless her...

Well, as you may or may not realize, "the cake lady" rarely if ever gets a cake on her own birthday!  People always tell me, "oh, we didn't want to just get you one from the grocery store..." and so, oh well, no cake for me.  Well, I decided this year I was turning -40- and by cracky I was going to have a cake if I had to order it myself!  So I e-mailed my most favorite cake buddy in the entire world, SUE, and asked if she would make my cake... I ordered an 8" double layer chocolate cake with chocolate frosting!  I CAN'T WAIT!  It's going to be sooooooo good!  And my little sister and her family are going to be here to celebrate with us!  I can't wait!  My sis' Kari and her hubby (affectionately called "Uncle Mose" by my kids) and her three beautiful girls (ages 5, 3 and 2) are coming for a visit!  This will be there first time to the valley and even though we'll be in VBS every morning next week, we are hoping to have wonderful fun-filled afternoons with them, going out to the Island, Wade taking them to Progresso, and them hopefully getting to enjoy lazing by our pool... and of course, celebrating my birthday together!  I CAN'T WAIT!

In the mean time... I have the honor of doing another wedding cake this week for a wonderful couple, Melody and Keith... and then another cake the end of next week for Ashley and Corbin... and I also want to give a couple of "shout outs" to Hillary and also to Paige whose cakes I've already done in the past few weeks...thanks, for the honor and the privilege!  I've enjoyed every one.

Well, I was just the other day getting onto my husband because he hadn't blogged anything since near the end of March and look at me!  May 19th... ahem... and not a word since January!  Also, I've gone almost as long without posting new pictures to my website!  First I had a little camera trouble and then once that was solved Wade took the camera with him on a trip and then when he returned I had just gotten out of the habit of making pictures, I suppose, and missed quite a few!  So, if you're out there and I did a cake for you in March, April or early May and you don't see a pix of it on my site -- and if you have one -- I would really appreciate if you would send it to me via e-mail and I'll be sure to post it. 

Well, now I seem to finally be getting back into the swing of things and since I'm not sure that I can catch up I'll just try to hit the highlights!

I have been having a blast recently with wedding cake consultations/cake tastings!  I've enjoyed meeting with all of these brides and grooms-to-be as well as others that have come with them to the tastings.  It's been fun to sit down and get to know each other and talk about what they wanted their cake to be.  I've said it before and will say it again... it's always an honor when someone chooses me for their most important day!  Last week was a wedding for one of these great couples and I truly wish Stephanie and J.M. all the best!  

My summer and fall are starting to fill up with wedding cakes and that's always exciting for me.  These last couple of weeks have also been really busy with all kinds of fun projects, cakes, cookie cakes and cookie bouquets, cake truffles and petit fours... and the next few weeks are pretty steady as well.  It's nice to be busy!

Besides all the wonderful cake fun we've been staying pretty busy as a family.  Last month Wade had a make a last minute trip to Arkansas to stay with his grandpa for a week while Wade's brother and his wife and kids had to make an unexpected trip to Ohio.  Our sister-in-law's father had become very ill and was expected to soon pass away and so they went up to be with the family and then stayed through his funeral.  This month Wade will be flying back to Arkanas for our nephew's high school graduation.  We're so proud of Justin!  I wish that the kids and I could go along it's just not going to work out for us to go this time.  And then . . . only a few more days until school's out and summer is upon us!  We can't wait!

Well, as I'm typing this here after midnight my eyelids are fighting to stay open so I'm going to close this down and say good-night! 

Here I sit on January 30th wondering what happened to the past two months!  December was a very busy month with tons of cookies and cakes.  Besides all of that I had the joy of doing a wedding cake for a very sweet friend of mine.  Such a beautiful wedding and such a beautiful bride!  The following week was Christmas and we  loaded up the family in the "big blue van" and headed to Arkansas for about 10 days.  It was a long trip and we spent several days in "big blue" traveling around the state seeing family and friends, but it was nice to spend the holidays we so many people that we love! 

And from the time I got back home I've been steadily busy with cake and cookie orders.  Things were really hopping when suddenly everything came to an unexpected halt... on the morning of January 17th my wonderful husband of almost 21 years had a small heart attack.  I took him to the ER at Valley Baptist Hospital and although all of the EKGs and the initial blood enzyme tests all showed nothing out of the ordinary, the next few blood tests did determine that Wade did in fact have a small heart attack.  On Friday morning, January 18th he had a heart catherization and it was found that one of his arteries was 100% blocked and the rest were for the most part clear.  They were able to open and clear the blocked artery and put in a stint and after a couple of days recovering in the hospital I'm happy to say that Wade is recovering well at home.  He even was able to return to preaching this past Sunday, which was great to see.  I praise the Lord for taking care of my husband and thank everyone who has prayed for him and done so much to take care of our family during this time - the phone calls, e-mails, cards, gift cards, plants, visits, food and taking care of our children... we've been overwhelmed with God's love for us through our church family.  Thank you!

Now that Wade is doing good and things are getting back to normal I'm gearing up for my 2nd Annual Cake Tasting Party next week.  I had so much fun with this last year and am looking forward to again this year trying out some new cake and frosting flavors as well as some cookies and other goodies for my customers to drop by and test out and share with me what they like.  I can't wait!  And the very next week is Valentines Day!  I've already gotten several orders from my Valentines Day Specials and am looking forward to being quite busy that week!     2008 has definitely started off with a bang!  I wonder what the weeks ahead will hold! 

Well, November is here... the days are getting shorter and the nights a little cooler (still waiting for the cooler "days" down here in the valley!) and as our thoughts turn to Thanksgiving I am once again in awe of how blessed I am.  I am married to the most wonderful husband in the entire world.  Wade has been my sweetheart since high school but as our years together have outnumbered our years *before* the other I've realized how much God has blessed me with a husband who is a man after God's own heart.  He's my biggest supporter and my biggest fan and I'm so thankful for my wonderful husband!  And I've also got the three most awesome kids in the world... Adam turned ten in September and Rachel just turned seven last month.  Aaron will be six in January and I can't imagine my life without these three incredible kids!  They bring such joy to my life and laughter and love to our home! 

I'm blessed to live in one of the most beautiful places in the world - the Rio Grande Valley - and am blessed to be a member of the most wonderful church in the world - First Baptist Church in Harlingen.  The folks here have made us feel at home right from the start.  They have welcomed us and loved us and made us a part of their family, which is such a blessing for a girl (yeah, I mean ME) who lives sixteen hours from her mom and dad!   And speaking of the rest of my family - today I received pictures in the mail of my little sister's family and her three beautiful girls... such a precious family and I'm so happy that she's my little sis'!  I am blessed to have my "big sister" who always lets me know that she is thinking of me through the e-mails that she sends and the love that she shows to me and my family brightens my days... her daughter, my most awesome niece who has grown up to be such an incredible young woman and of course, my most wonderful parents who have always "been there" for me and have raised me to know God and to always feel loved.

And this year I am particularly blessed to have met so many wonderful people through my little cake business.  And I mean this with all sincerety... I am truly honored when anyone asks me to be a part of their special occasion by ordering a cake or cookies or anything else.  I am humbled by their confidence in me and blessed by the continued support of my MOST WONDERFUL customers!  Every wedding cake that I have made this year has been just a great honor for me and I've so enjoyed meeting the wonderful brides and many of their families.

This year I am overwhelmed with thankfulness for all that God has done for me... and as always, overwhelmed with the fact that the God of this universe knows me by name and loves me even with all my faults.  And I hope that if you are reading this you know how much He loves you too (and if you don't know HIM - I would love to tell you how you can!!)!.

Wow!  What a week last week!  I think I set a new record for number of cake and cookie orders!  But I am thankful for each and every one!  I am limiting my orders for next week as we will be celebrating Rachel's 7th birthday and I will be going out of town for a few days.  It's hard to believe my little girl is getting to be so big!  We still don't know her party plans for sure but we've had an "Ariel" cake planned for her since last year's party!  I'm excited about doing it for her and can't wait to see how it comes out.

I've been working on my "Christmas Specials" and hope to have that page linked from my website in a week or so.  However, if you just can't wait.... here's a sneak peek at what I've got planned for this holiday season:  http://mycakesandmorespecials.bravehost.com  

I'm also planning to participate in another wedding show out at The Inn at Chachalaca Bend on November 11th.  If you happen to be out there that day please stop by and say, "hello."  I'm looking forward to meeting some brides-to-be and hopefully scheduling some weddings for the next year!

All in all it's been a fantastic year so far!  The Lord has blessed us so much!

I'm really excited about some of the new things I've gotten into lately.  I've started doing cookie bouquets and decorated cookies and cookie cakes on a regular basis.

[click on photos to enlarge]

Also, just yesterday I completed a couple of "sweets trays" for a local event.  The trays contained chocolate chip cookies drizzled with chocolate, chocolate cake truffles drizzled with white chocolate, chocolate dipped strawberries, vanilla and strawberry cake squares (think "petit fours") and sugar cookies with "Sweet Annie's" cookie icing.  It was long hours and a lot of work but it was just a lot of fun for me to do such a different variety of things!  I'm hoping that I will have the opportunity to do more of these type of things on a regular basis as well.

 

Wow!  I can't believe the summer has gone by so quickly!   ...and my last entry was over 2 months ago!  We've kept busy with lots of fun activities with church, Vacation Bible School in June, Children's Camp in July and Music Camp the end of July first of August.  Plus the kids have been involved with weekly activities at church which has been fun.  The end of June we took a couple of weeks vacation and visited our family and friends in Arkansas.  We had a great time.  Last week we spend a few days out at South Padre Island and it was very nice and relaxing... and now we have a little less than 2 weeks until school starts!

I've done a couple of wedding cakes this summer which have been a joy for me to do.  I have a few more coming up in September and I'm so excited about them too!  I've also done several other cakes plus got started again on cookie bouquets.  So that's been great.  Next week I will be doing another cake decorating event for our MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) at church.  I'm really looking forward to that.  Those ladies are so much fun!  Then the following Saturday, August 25th, I will again be participating in our church women's ministry showcase.  If you are reading this please come by and see my booth at the showcase!  You'll have the opportunity to try your hand at decorating your own piece of cake!  We had a great turnout last year and I'm very excited about this year's event.  Here's a link with more information: