Decorating Cupcakes

It has been quite a long while since I posted on here. Work and school have been taking up the majority of my life, thus there has not been much time for posting, much less for going and doing stuff worthy of taking pictures! This week though was finals week for the summer semester, and also my friend Brittany is hosting a bridal shower. She asked me to make her some "fancy cupcakes" for the shower, and I obliged. I had the initial idea to do chocolate, vanilla, and chocolate mint cupcakes, and Brittany requested a berry cupcake. I called both Miriam and Sally to get ideas on a berry cupcake, and also to try and learn how to make a cupcake beautiful. They were both extremely helpful, and Sal texted and emailed me lots of information that she found during her shopping trips and internet browsing. After borrowing, buying, and finding substitutes for the right tools and ingredients, I believe that I was pretty successful.

These are the Blueberries and Cream cupcakes, recipe courtesy of Sally.

The Spirit of Tasmania

Our destination from Strahan was to get to Upper Natone where we had booked a place for the night called "Natone Lodge." We were planning to get there in time to unload, eat dinner, and then go straight to Devonport to watch the ship come in that travels between Melbourne, Victoria (mainland Austrailia) and Tasmania. This ship, the Spirit of Tasmania, is one of the main passages for folks and vehicles traveling back and forth across the Bass Strait.

 Natone Lodge was not at all what we expected. This was one of our least expensive stays during the entire trip and it was the most luxurious

That Day In Tas When Jul Spied Upon A Miner

On our way out of Strahan (which you can read about here), we stopped to dip our toes in the ocean.

I don't know if this would be considered the part of the Great Australian Bight,

Strahan, TAS: Home of World Record Waterskiing!

(The prequel to this post can be found here.)
Welcome to Strahan, a little town on the west coast of Tasmania. Population: 636

Our little cabin at the YHA hostel.

The Saga of My Car(s)

The Silver Bullet

      At the end of this winter, Jason said that we were going to buy a new car. He had just driven the Silver Bullet to and from Montana in a snow storm with LT B. When they pulled in the driveway, the windshield was half covered in snow and ice. I felt horrible for them because I know that the defrost, heat, and windshield wipers leave a lot to be desired in the winter. However, since it was my car and I was the main person driving it, I never worried about it. I knew what to expect and how to deal with it. Jason, on the other hand, wasn't such a big fan of the Silver Bullet after

Spring in Virginia - The Sequel

After the big festivities surrounding the yard sale on Saturday (which you can read about here), Sunday was a day of relaxation. I went to church with Sally's and Peewee's, then went to have dinner with Katie and Sherman. After a delicious dinner and visiting with Sherman's parents, we decided that some Peanut Butter Chocolate ice cream from a local ice cream shop was appropriate. Katie and Sherman rode their motorcycles, which it was a beautiful day for that.

Katie's bike is special in that it gets to sit on the walkway.

Spring in Virginia

After contemplating going to visit family in Virginia for a few weeks, I bought a plane ticket on a spur of the moment two days before I left. One of the big reasons I wanted to go this particular weekend (the second weekend in May) was because of a yard sale. I told Jason that I wanted to go because I was a little bit nosy, and wanted to see what everyone was getting rid of! I had been getting emails about several of my sisters "purging" their houses, cleaning out storage rooms, and putting it all into one big yard sale. Another good reason to go was to see two nieces that I had not seen yet. And one more good reason to go was to see everyone else on the East Coast that I hadn't seen in almost a year. So after buying a ticket (which was still really cheap) on Monday, Jason drove me to the airport to catch my flight on Thursday morning.

The night before it had rained, froze, and then snowed, so when I left, I was bundled up for the cold. The flight seemed to take extra long this time, but everything was on time. When I landed in Charlotte, NC for my flight change, I was instantly hit with extremely hot weather. I'm thinking it was probably in the 80's at least. I had to shed my coat and wished I could shed a shirt and socks as well. I didn't have a long wait until I got the short flight to Washington D.C. where Peewee was going to pick me up. By the time I had to go outside and catch my ride, it was evening and wasn't quite as hot. Peewee, Bobby, and Sam very kindly picked me up and gave me a ride to Sally's house where I was going to reside. As soon as

A Sad Goodbye

As most people know, I have had a motorcycle since the summer of 2008. It was a beautiful 2005 Honda Shadow 600.

It's name was The Baby Bullet.

Between myself, Linden, and Jul, we drove that bike and my car out to Wyoming in August of 2008. Since then, I had ridden it a decent amount. I would take it to work, I'd take it to school, and I even took it on a few long trips.

The Longest Christmas Season

I think that this year, Christmas lasted for about 3 months. Jason and I had our own Christmas on December 25th, of course. After that, we went to visit his family as you can read about here. We spent the last of December and New Years with them. 

After coming home in January, every few weeks I'd get either an e-mail, phone message, or text message from someone in my family saying that there was going to be a Christmas package coming at some point. I think the first package that arrived later in January was from Jul and Linden. Jason, who was still working night-shifts at that time wanted to hurry up and open the package before he went to work that night.

There were specific instructions in the package on what Jason was to open and what I was to open.

Christmas Vacation

This past Christmas, our vacation took us to Missouri and Arkansas. Sadly, we were not able to make it to Virginia this time. On our drive to Missouri, we passed a museum that I have asked about every single time I have driven past it (which is about 4 or 5 times now). This time, we decided to stop. That's what vacations are all about, right?

Outside of this giant building is lots of huge military vehicles, which is what always caught my eye driving past.

It's Been Awhile.....

.....since I posted anything on here. As in close to 4 months. My last posts were continuing the journey that Jul, Linden, and I did around Tasmania. I have another post in the series started, but not finished. But I decided that I was going to take a bit of time tonight to try and post more current things.

One of the biggest events so far this year was when my sister, Katie, came out to visit for a week.

 She got to experience a great Wyoming winter, minus the wind, while she was here. I think the warmest day we had during her visit was probably around 15 degrees.