the mail did not come, the mail came, but the MAIL did not come.  I cannot think of anything else until it comes. plus a crazy braid.

I have a lot of crazy stories that are related to waxing.  First off I never have been able to spend the money to wax and so my mixed results should not be a surprise.  Back in the day when my sister was 13 she decided to help me out by liberally spreading wax all over a sensitive area.  After that I would go to the beauty school always with some bad, some good results.  In malaysia I tried a variety of waxing venues, and learned only to trust people who had similar hair consistency to wax your hair.  Most recently I have been doing it my self with pretty good results, which is a relief because I love living in a bathing suit all summer. 

Second, I tried Pavlova again and it worked this time, it was a great success, it would have been better chocolate, but I am just happy it worked at all.  The failure came when I decided to through those 4 left over egg yokes into a lemon cake.  We'll call it lemon brick cake see for yourself, probably tastes O.K. (not great) but seriously its a brick, I have a long history with brick cakes as well.

brick cake

success with pavlova



Last this is a super dreadful/exciting week because I find out about UF for nursing, so uhh...

I made an avocado pie for st. patrick's day today, it was pretty good, although since I never otherwise would have splurged (yes for us splurging means a few dollars) on avocados, I was almost tempted in the middle of mashing the avocados (no we don't have a kitchen aid or a blender) to just make guacamole instead, but I held true to my plans, mostly because Paul was looking forward to the whipped cream that was going on top.  So here's the avocado pie 

 Someday I will have cake decorating stuff, but for now I just save an plastic bags that seem of okay quality and they work pretty well.

 I added a tree smack dab in the middle of the painting....its not a bad tree but it ruined the composition.

                                       More card making, hopefully this will brighten her day.

spanish moss and bus people

Its springtime here and spring in Florida feels like summer somewhere else, but nevertheless it is beautiful.   We have a little potted garden that is sprouting like crazy, I think from here on out we are going to be saving all of our ice cream buckets to make way for the growing garden.  Unfortunately we are having some squirrel troubles, they come when were gone and dig up everything.  Its fine for the bigger plants, but not okay for the sprouts.

I have been taking a new bus route home, which takes me on a tour of a beautiful spanish moss filled neighborhood.  ANY house out there with a huge yard and giant old spanish moss lined trees quickly becomes livable.  If we're staying in the south, its going to include spanish moss.

Speaking of bus rides....mine was crazy today.  It start normal, there was two people across from me flirting, there were the typical odd-ones scattered around.  There were a few guys in the back joking about something (I couldn't even hear them)  and then all of the sudden this gangsta(not an exaggeration) that is sitting right next to me starts yelling at them, that if they want to continue they better be ready to "pop off" apparently that means fight. The threats were getting louder and louder, the language continuously more profane.  Then the bus driver stopped the bus and threatened them sternly not to start anything on the bus, to which their reaction was to threaten to "pop off" too, he threatened back.  None of this was helped by the untimely traffic we were stuck in.  Needless to say I was happy to get off the bus, and will be a little more cautious who I make eye contact with.  He happened to also transfer to the same bus as me, and spend the whole second bus ride on the phone loudly calling his ahem...friends to action against whoever those guys were on the bus.

                                                                 some more calligraphy

 There's our potted garden, except for its missing the two biggest plants, because they were out for sunlight.

Then there is me eating laughy (laffy?) taffy

Corny yes, but I am sort of on a medieval kick and I have and idea about doing an oil painting with medieval sort of quality to it, this was such a first try with water colors.

I LOVE THIS TREE!

more baking, more painting, more homework

So last week I sort of went on a lemon craze, first it started with a lemon meringue pie, then another one, and now we've got some more....this is what that looks like.

Then I wrote a paper, for my ethics class.  Do you want to hear about ethics.  Well here goes I don't even need that stinkin class, I need it for one program I applied to in Washington DC, how likely is it that we will go their ....not likely at all, because I don't think Georgetown is worth the extra money .  Anyway, so I am taking online, and this class has consumed my existence, who knew that Anatomy and Physiology would be easier than a measly little ethics class, now I know why I avoided philosophy my whole undergraduate existence.  On the other hand it is forcing me to read some worthwhile texts, that I have actually enjoyed.

Also I started another painting, never done a landscape before, so its a rocky start, but its coming along, even though I am not sure where to go from here. I will get there slowly.

Also, on a sadder note, my Uncle Doug died, despite all his problems and addictions we as his nieces and nephews have many positive memories of him, and definitely know that he loved us.

heartcake and clouds

I made a healthy cake and then since it is now peak strawberry season here, I put some strawberries in it.  This cake is super healthy. Thats why we like it. no recipe just wheat flour, oatmeal, baking powder, baking soda, buttermilk and tiny bit of brown sugar and love.

 yesterday we went to orlando, the clouds on the way home were awesome

 pretty soon I am going to be starting a new painting with some clouds, so I snapped a few

 in places with no mountains, the clouds can make up for it

 which one is the best? Can I pair a florida sky with a california mountain?

Cedar Keys

We don't know how long we will live in Florida.  Maybe we'll transfer schools in August, maybe we'll stay two more and finish here, maybe we will finish the LLM here and then we won't be hired anywhere else.  Either way while we are here we felt like we should do a little bit of (free) exploring.  So we headed over to Cedar Keys for the day, it was free, it was relaxed and even romantic.  We heard its not a place to swim but, we were regretting not bringing some bathing suits as soon as we felt the refreshing water.

                                In San Francisco they have seals in Cedar Keys they have Pelicans

                        the historic museum was closed but we rocked in the chairs outside

                turns out John Muir spent some time in Cedar Keys as well, although it ended in Malaria

                                                                     beautiful drive

Overall Cedar Keys was nice, low key and pleasant.  Almost eerily calm, no mountains to climb, no waves to challenge, I guess that why people come here to retire.

homemade marshmallows and haircuts!

Today I made homemade marshmallows, I read a bunch of recipes that said they were so good I would never go back store bought...I never will, because I never buy marshmallow.  I have to say I was slightly disappointed.  Then we dipped them in dark chocolate and no one was disappointed.

Yesterday I made buttermilk biscuits because 1- I had buttermilk, 2- no free bread this week (spring break) 3-no yeast for real bread.  Biscuits so easy, so delicious, so quick.

Also today I was working on my self-potrait and I am ready to rip the canvas and burn it.  Something is just off.  Paul's came together so easily.  This painting has just been frustrating.  Something is just off about it, and I don't have to skills or insight to fix it.  I want suggestions from the facebook crowd because I know certain artists will give me help, but I am even too ...embarrassed to post it uggg

Even though we are mostly doing homework for spring break, it is a lot of fun to be around each other all day.  I guess that's called newlywed and I love it!

 Also I cut Paul's hair, not well but I cut it.  Well at the ward activity on Saturday a sister missionary asked "is that your husband with the funny hair"  I was so embarrassed, poor Paul doesn't care how I cut his hair and lets me do whatever I want, and there I was failing him.  So I went home and watched some youtube videos about how to cut men's hair, and the results were pretty good.  Some people even complimented him on it.  Success!

                                          before haircut (paul won a book in his contracts class)

                                          post haircut (don't have better picture sorry)

Also someone thought the kitty should get a marshmallow too, he also thought it would be cute to take a picture.

da interwebz

I have two things I am feeling angry about 2 things right now, but I don't know if on the internet is the best way to vent about them.  I have a growing uneasiness (the entire world and me) about everything I ever read on the internet being recorded or judged.  I really don't want every little article I read to be tracked and all the slightly ridiculous cat pictures, and yes...celebrity gossip via yahoonews to be publicly known, but I guess I shouldn't have started a blog then should I. That is not one of the things I am feeling angry about, they are along the line of arbitrary grading and politics.
On a happier note I made a lemon meringue pie and a layered cheesecake (first layer plain, second layer chocolate).  No, we are not eating both of those. The pie is for eating, the cheesecake is for bringing to a ward activity.  And it was the first cheesecake I have made in awhile that hasn't cracked!  How did I do it?  No idea, but I mixed it less than usual so maybe that's why?

This is the song we sing when I bake...make no mistake!
no idea about this video but also can.