Just Checking In...

Hello Bloggy friends! It's 7:30am and I just delivered an order of cookies for a Longhorn Tailgate party, and Chris Sligh is singing "Empty Me", so I don't want to get out of the van just yet :)
You can click on the song on my player up there and listen with me if you like!

Yesterday I didn't make it over here because I was trying to make cookies and teach school all at the same time...I don't recommend it. This morning we have the first football game of the season, so I'll be there for most of the morning, then I'll be doing laundry and watching the US Open for most of the day, if I can stay awake...I stayed up until the end of the Andy Roddick match last night, and then got up at 4:30 this morning to get everything finished and ready for delivery...yawnnnnn! It was totally worth it, because after a slow start, Andy pulled it out and won in 4 sets, but man I'm tired!

I have a few cake/cookie pictures that haven't been posted yet, so I'll try to get those up later for you.

Okay, song's over, gotta go rally the troops! Talk to ya'll later!

If It Works on Wednesday...

...then it should still be good on Thursday, right?

I was going to post my recipe for "Roast Turkey in a Crock Pot" for yesterday's "Works for Me Wednesday", but since yesterday was the first time I'd actually roasted a turkey in the crock pot, I felt I should wait until it was all finished to make sure that it actually, you know...worked for me. Unfortunately, by the time I got to eat any of it, it was 9:30pm and I was not willing to stay up late and post about it....BUT it did Work for Me!

So, here's what I did...please remember that I'm on a restrictive diet for my kidney disease, so this recipe has almost no salt except what may have been in the turkey itself...

Crock Pot Roast Turkey Breast

You will need: a turkey breast (one that will fit in your crock-pot :)), baby carrots, a red onion, celery, chicken or vegetable broth, poultry seasoning and other spices of your choosing, Kitchen BouquetTM

Spray your crock pot with some non-stick cooking spray.

Cut up 3-4 stalks of celery into 2 inch pieces and add to crock pot.

Add baby carrots (I think I used about a 1/2 lb. but it all depends on the size of your family...and your crock pot :))

Cut 1/2 of a red onion into wedges and add to crock pot.

Sprinkle veggies with Poultry Seasoning, Black Pepper, and spices of your choice (this time I used Chef Prudhomme's "Magic Salt-Free Seasoning"--and it was good!)

Rinse and pat-dry your turkey breast and place on top of the veggies. ( Since this turkey breast still had the cavity for stuffing, I went ahead and put some of the carrots, celery and onions in that cavity as well.)

Pour 1-2 cups chicken or vegetable broth over the turkey and into the crock pot (I use an organic salt-free broth)

Sprinkle the turkey with more of the same spices we used above.

Brush 1 tablespoon of Kitchen BouquetTM over the turkey for added flavor and "browning"

Turn crock pot on high for the first hour, then turn down to low for 6-7 hours. (I didn't get my turkey in the pot until about noon, so at 5 I turned it back up to high, and within the hour, the little plastic thingy that is supposed to pop up when the turkey is done, had popped!)

Also, every couple of hours or so, I basted the turkey with some of the broth in the crock pot.

When the turkey is finished, slice and serve with the carrots and a green salad.

(No one in my family is interested in eating cooked celery or onion wedges, so i puree them in my food processor and use them in other recipes--like chili--for added flavor.

I also like to save the broth and use it to make rice or couscous for another meal...yummy!

Okay, that was it. It turned out delicious, and my house still smells good! I'm thinking about trying to put some stuffing in the crockpot to cook with the turkey as well next time, but I'm not sure how that would turn out. For those of you who can eat salt, I know that the Stove TopTM stuffing is really good, and you could make that to have with your crock-pot turkey if you want!

For more "Works for Me Wednesday" tips, go visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer!

This Is Huge!

Ya'll, I'm writing this post ON MY PHONE!!! One of the things that has bothered me about Blogger was that although I could read blogs on my phone, I wasn't able to leave comments unless it was aTypepad blog. I couldn't leave comments on Blogger blogs, and I couldn't post from my phone.

BUT THEY FIXED ALL THAT!!!

And here I am typing a post from cheer practice! Of course, I can think of nothing to blog about, but I'm here anyway...JUST.BECAUSE.I.CAN!!!

I guess I should go now and find out what else I can do now...I wonder if I can post pics and videos from my phone now too??? Okay, I'm off to try and be geeky!

An Unsolicited Review

Howdy Bloggy Friends! We returned from our trip yesterday afternoon even though we weren't really ready to leave yet! I had hoped to blog from there a bit more than I did, and to post some videos and pics of all the fun stuff we were doing, but I was a bit too busy "doing" to be able to be "filming"! I got a little bit, but I haven't even checked to see how it came out. Whenever I was trying to video the kids doing stuff, Dave wanted me to take him back down the slide, and Ben wanted to do other stuff, so he couldn't watch Dave for me while I filmed. I'll load the video here in a minute and see if there is anything worth posting. I did manage to "Twitter" a bit, so if you follow me on Twitter, you knew pretty much what we were up to for most of the weekend.

You may or not remember that last year I had kidney surgery the day before we left on this trip. My mom and dad kept David, and I spent most of my time in the room while the kids participated in all the activities, and Ben played golf. But I have to say that even then, we loved the place! They were in the process of adding a new waterpark the last time we were there, but since it wasn't completed, they allowed the kids to participate in all the activities for free...it's usually $25/day. They dug for arrowheads, made necklaces out of the ones they found, had a shooting contest, rode ponies, and tons of other stuff. And in the evenings, they had different types of entertainment. One night it was singing and making s'mores by the campfire, and the next it was a roping demonstration. I managed to pull myself off the couch for the roping, and it was a fabulous show!

This year, the waterpark was all finished, and we spent literally all.day.long. in that water. Ben, Benji, and Maddie went golfing one morning while Jon, Dave and I went to the water park. Then, when they golfers returned, we had lunch and then I took Dave back for his nap while Ben kept the rest of them at the waterpark. I think the waterslide was the biggest hit all around, but I really enjoyed the "floating river" section. It was relaxing and fun all at the same time.

We were there for a "company trip" with Ben's office. They take everyone on a trip like this every summer. We've been to lots of different places over the years, but I think we've all agreed that we like The Flying L Guest Ranch the best. After our day in the waterpark, we had a big dinner in a private dining room and we had a contest to see who could come up with the best company song, and the winner would receive $100. (There is a long-standing joke about making the "new guy" sing the Company Song...but we never actually had one.) Anyway, Benji and I found a karaoke version of "Crazy Train" and we wrote new words and we all sang it at the dinner. Even Ben sang with us, and Maddie and Dave danced and played air-guitar. (Jon opted to sit in the audience and try not to be too embarrassed.) There were three other entries in the contest and they were all hysterical. In the end, they just couldn't pick one winner, so they gave $100 each to two of the entries and $50 each to the other two. I'm constantly amazed at how creative people can be. Those songs were hysterical! We were one of the $100 winners with our song. :)

After dinner, I took Dave back to the room to go to bed, and Ben took the rest of the kids back to the pool for some water-volleyball. After the volleyball was finished, they all headed to the on-sight Saloon for some karaoke time. I totally missed it, but both Benji and Maddie sang. Benji sang with some of the guys from the company, but Maddie sang all by herself. I wish I'd have sent the video camera with them, but we didn't know they were going to do anything but play volleyball. (They drank smoothies by the way...in case you were concerned, lol!)

On our final day, Benji, Maddie and I all went horseback riding after breakfast. They've never been before, but it was a lot of fun, and they both want to do it again next year. Jon is still nervous around horses, so he stayed behind with Ben and Dave. Maybe he'll join us next year. Unfortunately, we won't all be able to go together for a few more years, because the minimum age is 6, so someone always has to stay behind with Dave.

The only thing I would say in warning to anyone who is planning to go to The Flying L themselves, is to be sure and ask for one of the newer rooms. Ours last year was an old cinder-block duplex with only a small dorm-fridge, tiny microwave, TV, and a window unit A/C. The kids liked it just fine, but it wasn't all that comfortable for me recovering from my surgery, and if you have allergies, that window A/C will make them go crazy. This year we were in a newer duplex and it was 1,000 times better. We had a full kitchen, central A/C, and even a back patio. It was really nice and extremely comfortable, and even though we didn't spend a whole lot of time there (since I wasn't confined to the couch this time) when we were all there watching movies, or whatever, we loved it. In fact, we loved it better than our real house. :) All the kids wanted to move there, or at least bring that house back with us and live in it! There were also have some more "hotel-type" rooms, but we've never stayed in those, so I don't know what they are like, although I've heard they are nice.

So, we're back now, and it's time to unpack and catch up with the laundry and all that yucky stuff! I did manage to get a little bit of good video of Dave and Ben in the wave pool and on the waterslide, and a little bit of Benji on the "Frogger Path", so I'll let you see that now....while I'm off doing housework...ugh! Please note that the music on the video is just what they were playing there at the waterpark and it gets louder and softer depending on how close I was standing to a speaker at the time. :)

Howdy from the Flying L!!!

Hello Ya'll! I can't believe I actually got this thing to work! I had heard that I could hook my fancy T-Mobile phone to my laptop and use the "internet sharing" program to access the internet...and it worked!!! The crazy thing is, that I kept losing the connection on my phone when I tried to "Twitter" last night, but for some reason, it worked when I drove into town this morning, and it was still working when I got back here...as long as I was sitting in my van in the driveway. As soon as I came inside, it would no longer update "Twitter" for me. It kept telling me that the connection was lost...

So imagine my surprise when I tried the whole "internet sharing" thingy and it actually connected me to the internet!!! Woo-hoo!!!

The only thing is...now we must go eat our lunch. We're on a schedule here, and if you miss meal-time, you miss your meal! So, I just wanted to check in with you and make sure this thing was going to work. Now that I know it does, I'll be back later with some more updates from The Flying L Guest Ranch!

Odds and Ends

Last week I mentioned that I was going out to celebrate my sister's birthday all day long. This is because although the mother, the middle sister, and I all live within an hour of each other, the oldest sister lives about 3 hours away from the rest of us, and unlike the rest of us who all stay home, she has an actual job. Therefore, for birthdays and things we all agree to meet in a town that is half-way between her house and ours...on her day off. We usually meet for lunch and then wander through small town shops and such. However, since "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" was showing, we decided that it was a movie we all wanted to see together, and it was showing in the town where we meet! So, we met at a "K-Bob's" steakhouse for some lunch before heading over to the movie.

Now seriously, if you are a waitress, or are employed in any type of "service to humans" job, you should just assume that your patrons just might have a blog, and anything stupid that you do will be proclaimed across the internet...just a tip from me to you.

Our waitress, was very nice and she was chatty, like any good southern waitress should be. She took our orders, she didn't make fun of me when I asked for onion rings instead of fries, but then asked to have the onions and pickles left off of my burger. (I've been to some places that teased me..."Well, do you want onions or not???" But we all know that an onion ring and a raw onion are two completely different things, now don't we?) Anyway, she came out to tell us that our food was ready and asked me if I needed any mustard or mayo for my burger...which was ready, she just had to go get it. I don't know why, but she felt the need to let me know that my food was just waiting to be brought to me. Anyway, I took the mayo, turned down the mustard, and she left to go get my burger...which was ready, and waiting. Except that when she brought it to the table, there were my onion rings, an open bun with only lettuce and tomato (no pickles or onions), and nothing else. She had taken the plate out before they put the meat on it!

Not really sure if she was implying that perhaps I didn't need the extra calories that the burger patty itself added to the plate, or if perhaps she just felt that a vegetarian diet would be good for me...although she works in a steakhouse for pity's sake!

Anyway, she took my meatless plate back to the kitchen and brought it back with meat, and it was delicious. So I ended up with a good lunch and blog-fodder. It was a win-win when all was said and done.

Oh, and "The Sisterhood..." was great! I liked the first movie, so I bought the book, but decided that I really liked the movie better...I know that doesn't usually happen. After that I never read any of the other books, but the new movie kind of makes me want to give them another try. Or at the very least, it made me want to go buy the first movie and watch it again. So, if you liked the first one, go see the second one...you'll like it!

Now, you may or may not have noticed that I actually posted daily for most of last week, and then I disappeared again for a few days. I disappeared because I was catching up on some work around here (the kids and I totally cleaned and re-arranged the amusement park that is our backyard) and then I had to bake a bunch of Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls for Benji's Youth Group bake sale. And when that was finished, I had housework to catch up with (I am trying to totally clean and rearrange my house too) and I spent two days in the kitchen. It's sad really, but my daughter asked if we were moving because we were cleaning everything up! Sad, so sad.

Anyway, then I had to mess up my nice clean kitchen by making two giant cakes for This Vicki Courtney Event. I was so honored to be asked, and I had lots of time to come up with a design, so it was a really fun cake to make. I only made one display cake. The other was just a giant cake to be sliced and served, not to be looked at, so I didn't take any pictures of it. When Mocha with Linda asked me to make the cake, I thought it was a "Mother Daughter" fashion show, so I came up with the idea to do a runway complete with red carpet, lights, and mother/daughter dresses made out of cookies coming down said runway. When I found out how many people they needed to feed, I turned the stage into stairs to add more cake! Anyway, here is the finished product. There is a lot of detail on the carpet and the "floor", but lately when I post pictures the whole "click on this to enlarge" thing hasn't worked, so I don't know if you'll be able to see all the detail or not. I'll try it, but honestly I can't figure out what I'm doing differently. If you can't enlarge it, try clicking on my "flickr" photos on the sidebar, and enlarging it there...that is if you care to see the little details! Anyway, I couldn't capture it because of the flash, but those were real lights, and they really lit up! (There were supposed to be more of them, but some of them just wouldn't light...aarrgghh!) Someone commented, when I brought it in, that it was like an Ace of Cakes cake because it had real lights. I assured her that Duff would have used pyrotechnics rather than little light bulbs, but I appreciated the compliment!

So, now you know where I've been and what I've been doing...and in case you were wondering, today is more of the same. I need to re-clean the kitchen, I need to bake two cakes for tomorrow, and then I'll be doing laundry and packing for our trip this weekend! If I tell you that next week will be less hectic, would you believe me? Nah, me neither...but one can hope!

Ever had a punishment backfire???

So, the 3-year-old has taken up the new Olympic sport of "Spitting". He finds it amusing...the rest of us, not so much.

This morning I was finished with the whole "time out", "explaining why we don't spit", and every other thing I could think of to do, so I told the Boy that if he spit again, I was going to put hot sauce in his mouth. I like this one, because it is just as effective as soap, but since hot sauce is actually intended for human comsumption, I just feel it's a safer alternative.

Guess what the boy did? He spit...mmm-hmm. He did. So.....

I put a drop of Tabasco on his lip so that when he stuck out his tongue to spit again....SURPRISE!

Now, in the back of my mind, I really didn't think the hot sauce would work with Dave because Dave likes hot stuff. Ben enjoys"Flaming Hot Cheetos", "Jalapeno Doritos", etc., etc., etc., and Dave is usually right there sharing the bag with him. However, since I'd said I would, I did.

Well, the boy didn't like the Tabasco sans chips one bit...so he coughed and gagged, and puked.....on my foot and down his shirt. And then he stood there crying and saying, "Dave doesn't wike it. Huggy Mommy, huggy!" Translation..."My mouth is hot, I have vomit down my shirt and now I want you to pick me up and hold me. After you clean up the pile of vomit on the floor, of course." .....sigh.

On the bright side...there has been no spitting for the past hour and a half, and there is now at least one clean spot on my kitchen floor!

It's Like Deja Vu...All Over Again!

Since the bride and groom didn't really get to enjoy their cakes at the wedding last week, I made them some miniature versions and delivered them tonight at their first night back to the Youth Group at church. I didn't get real picky with them, and try to make them all smooth and perfect, I just tried to make something that was as much like the originals as possible (without driving myself crazy) so they could enjoy some of the cake as well.

This is the bride's mini...

...and the groom's....
...and it just so happened to be "Seniors' Night" at youth group where they honor all the out-going seniors and send them off to their respective colleges, missions, or what-have-you. So, I made a cake for that too. It's a simple one with just a generic edible image on it....contrary to popular opinion, I do know my limits and I knew a big fancy cake was out of the question with my schedule this past week! Besides, it was for a bunch of tween and teen-agers...they don't care, they just want to eat the cake, LOL! So that it on the cake front until next week! Woo-Hoo!!! Time to put my feet up and watch some OLYMPICS!!!! If you need me, I'll be on my couch! :)

Happy Birthday Sis!!!

Today, is my sister's 45th birthday! (Can you believe that NONE of those bazillion cakes I've made this week were for her???) I will be out all day celebrating with her and my mom and our other sister, but I wanted to stop in and leave a special Happy Birthday post to her! I wish I had thought to plan ahead and get a really embarrassing picture of her when we were kids to post, but alas, there is always NEXT year!

Anyway, Happy Birthday Dana!!!

Quick Pics

I'm off to run errands and then...bake and decorate more cakes!...what else, right?



But even though I completely forgot to take my camera to Mom and Tot day yesterday, I did have my trusty phone, and I snapped one picture of the Little Man and one of the Girl. This is a "Sprinkler Park" that is way fun for the kids and not nearly as nerve-wracking for the moms as an actual swimming pool. We can all sit and visit with each other while keeping an eye on all of our little ones...it's a great place for a get-together!





Okay, I'm out! Talk to you all later!

Another Busy Day...Do I Have Any Other Kind, Really?

This morning David and I have our first "Mom and Tots" day with our church friends. The real "first" one was a swim day last Friday, but as you know, I was busy baking cakes, making potato salad, baking bread, and herding cats children...so we didn't make it. Today, I have two more cakes to bake and a kitchen to scrub down after last week's cooking/baking extravaganza, and oh yeah, cheerleading practice, but WE ARE GOING TO MOM'S AND TOTS period. So, I'm outta here for now, but maybe I'll be back a little later if I'm still able to sit upright, LOL.

As a rule, I don't blog about the extended family...

...but technically Gerry isn't family until the wedding in November. Poor, poor, Gerry. You really should have married my niece earlier.

So yesterday we were all at my great-nephew's very 1st birthday party (which by the way was a really good party where all the kids had a blast, and my niece painted some amazing decorations), when I heard my future nephew telling a story...a Wal-Mart story. Apparently, he and my great-nephew were in Wal-Mart looking at a few items, and as is often the case when wandering through the Wal-Mart, he realized that they had been there for about an hour and they really should get going, so they headed to the check-out lanes. As is also usually the case in the Wal-Mart, all the line were quite long. So, he found the shortest line and proceeded to stand in said line. I'm not exactly sure how long he stood in said line (perhaps he eliminated that tid-bit of information from his story on purpose), but at some point he realized that his basket was empty....did you catch that? He hadn't found anything to buy at the Wal-Mart....but he was standing in the check-out line anyway! BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!!!

As I was picking myself up off the ground and wiping the tears from my eyes (you know, from all the laughing), I leaned over to my sister and said, "I wonder if he realizes that he's just been blogged!"

I think I might enjoy having some more blog-fodder in this family!!!

Busy Day Today

Today I'm baking cakes for my great-nephew's first birthday party, making potato salad, homemade bread, and cookies for the boys' motorcycle competition tomorrow, and cleaning my house for company that is coming on Sunday.....whew! I need to rest already!

I'll sneak in with a picture or two later, but I'll be mostly gone for the next couple of days. I will be Twittering though, and the latest update is always in my sidebar, so if you just have to know what I'm doing, you can check there!

See ya' soon!!!

Oh, and Mom, there is no longer a toilet in my driveway...I keep forgetting to tell you that! :)

Twitter, Twitter, Tweet, Tweet, Tweet!

Okay, how many of you out there have heard of this whole Twitter thing?

And how many of you, when you first heard about it, thought to yourself, "No, no, no, no! I'm not getting sucked into another reason to spend way too much time on the computer...blogging has already taken over my life!!"

I'm telling you, that was exactly what I said the first time I heard about it. And when I began to not even find the time to keep up with the blog, I definitely wasn't interested...until......

I actually had a few minutes this week to catch up on reading some of my favorite blogs and discovered that quite a few of my bloggy friends were Twittering. So, I clicked on their Follow Me on Twitter buttons, and low and behold...I'm Twittering too! It's like express blogging. In just a matter of seconds, I was able to catch up with some of my long lost bloggy buddies and catch them up with me as well. It's TURBO blogging baby!!!

And you know what makes it even better? I can Twitter from my cell phone!!! Now, I have a SmartPhone with real web browsing, so I don't have to worry about text message charges, but those of you with unlimited texting can Twitter from your cell phones for free too! I love my phone, and I love that I can go and read all my favorite blogs on it, but unless the blog is on a Typepad account, I can't leave comments from my phone--a mystery that still has me stumped--so you all never know that I was there at all! But I can not only read all my friend's "Tweets" on my phone, I can "Tweet" myself!!

It's really a lot of fun, and believe it or not has not taken over every waking minute of my day. I've caught up with a lot of my old blogging friends that I haven't "talked" to in weeks all in just a few minutes!

So, I said all that to say this, (one of my favorite Keith Lamb quotes!) come follow me on Twitter! You can follow even if you don't Twitter yourself, but if you do Twitter, be sure and let me know so I can follow you too!!!

Works for Me Wednesday

I know, I know, Works For Me Wednesday is on hiatus, but seriously, how often have I been here lately??? I'm sure you'll forgive me for posting one anyway, am I right?

Okay, so when I decided to start back up with my running schedule, I logged into my account over at Runner's World and while I was there, I started playing around with some of the features in the Training Log section and I discovered that not only could I have posted my walks as "Walks" instead of "Really Slow Runs" by using the "Other Activity" tab (DUH!!!), but I can also post my route right there on the website and it will tell me how far I ran!!! It's the coolest thing!

I clicked on the "Routes" tab, and then hit "New Route". This took me to a map. I entered my city and state and then zoomed in on my neighborhood. Then I clicked my starting spot, and all the way through my route, and it marked each mile and gave me my total distance when I was finished! It was the most awesomest thing EVER! I was also able to go in and plot all the routes I've run in my past workouts and plug them in to get more accurate records of my runs.

It's a really nifty little tool if you like to run through your neighborhood rather than on a track, but want to know exactly how far you've run. It's also really handy if you are training for a particular race. You just plot a course that is the correct distance of your upcoming race and voila! you have your training route! You can also use it in your training if you want to increase your runs by a certain distance.

So, THAT's my fabulous Works For Me Wednesday tip for today!! Let me know if you try it yourself and how you liked it!

Contest Winner...FINALLY!!!

Sorry, I didn't get to this last week everyone, but when I'm in the middle of making wedding cakes, the rest of my world comes to a screeching halt! And for those of you who sent emails to me last week and didn't get a reply...again, my profound apologies!!

So, this week is a fairly light week, and I'm trying to catch up on those things that I let slip over the past few crazy weeks. Football season has started, but neither of my boys made weight this year, so it's just the girl cheering this time. I always said that I would never put my girl in cheer unless she was cheering for one of her brothers, but the Man over-ruled me. He said that if she wants to keep cheering, she should be allowed to because she has enjoyed it, and she's good at it...all true, but still....anyway, the girl is cheering, the boys are dirtbiking, and David is still David, but all in all the schedule is lighter than normal without two boys playing football as well. :)

So, the first thing I started to catch up on was my exercise routine. I've fallen off the wagon as you can tell from my sidebar, but I started a new program this week mixing weight-training, cardio, and running and good grief am I sore this morning! Yesterday was my first run in over a month and I had to go back to my original training technique of running through one song on my MP3, then walking through the next and alternating that way. I'm hoping to be back up to running 5 miles by this November's "Race for the Cure"....we'll see how that goes!

The second thing I need to catch up on is my bloggy business. I have a "Third Day" CD, T-Shirt, and Lifeway Bookstore Coupon to give away for goodness sake! So, since I had a whopping 3 people enter the giveaway, I did the selection process very scientifically. I wrote all three names down and put them in a bowl and had the Girl draw one out! And the winner is.....

Denise at Stamping for Sanity!

Congratulations Denise!!! I've been listening to this CD since I got them last week, and it's really, really good! And now, since I need to get your winnings to you, we have an excuse to get together!!! (As though we needed excuses!)

Okay, I could stay here catching up with you all for hours, but we're still having school here in the House of Kids and Cakes, and I haven't had my breakfast yet and I'm STARVING!!! So, I'm going to go for now, and I'll check back with you all soon!

Wedding Cakes, Wedding Cakes!

Hello Blogland Friends!

Well, I made it through the wedding yesterday with my trusty helper, Benji! It was an all-nighter the night before, and we worked down to the wire the morning of, but everything turned out pretty well, and everyone seemed pleased with our work! Yea!!! One of my greatest fears is disappointing a bride on her wedding day...YIKES!! So, let's all heave a giant collective sigh of relief and look at some pictures that Benji took for me while I was cleaning up my mess! (He took "straight on" photos, and "looking down" photos, so I'll just include both in case there is something that you can see better in one or the other...

This was the bride's cake...

And this was the groom's...