The Disappearing Lady

So anyone who reads my blog is probably wondering where the heck I've gone. The answer is hell. Seriously! I can only describe the last week as blissful. Day 1-5 of being on antibiotics immediately got rid of the chills, lethargy and hacking cough as well as the runny nose of doom. Day 6, I knew we had a problem because I had a runny nose. Day 7 the cough came back. I'm now two days past my antibiotics (they are all done) and I am truly right back where I started, complete with puffers not working, near asthma attacks daily and green as far as the eye can see. It sucks. So today I went to the walk-in, and, living in Smalltown, Ontario, they told me to go home and they will call when it is my turn. Heck ya!

But being sick and a DIY bride do not go hand in hand, especially when we are now less than three months out from the wedding! Eep! Yesterday I managed to put together my sister's invitation, as she wanted the work for her portfolio since she has a job interview Monday. I also managed to make these beautiful bags for my bridesmaids:

Beautiful, eh? The great tutorial I got on how to do these was found here: http://ashleyannphotography.com/blog/2009/11/21/diy-doily-canvas-bag/ Being in Canada I used coupons and $12 bags from Michaels, but you get what ya get! My only advice, less is more when it comes to paint, or put a newspaper between the layers so you don't get paint all the way to the back. Oops!

I also managed to get some rocking stamps for my invites. I had the choice between using three daylilly stamps or two daylillies and an ugly 7 cent stamp, so you know I am paying the extra $0.50 per invite. I'm insane. Here they are though...

Finally, Mr. Sunshine has been getting increasingly annoyed with the wedding room. Probably because it started out as a guest bedroom/junk room (we moved from a large 4 bedroom house with a basement to a small 2 bedroom house with a crawlspace) and has now become the guest bedroom/junk room/Miss. Sunshine's teaching stuff until the beginning of June when she can move it to her new school/wedding supplies/crafting supplies room. Needless to say he put his foot down and insisted we clean up! We flipped up the bed, are getting rid of the extra boxspring, cleaned out some junk and then piled boxes as high as the eye can see.

The view from the doorway. At least there is a path now!

It's like a pie-- mattress crust followed by teaching stuff filling, capped off with wedding supply boxes

Notice how nicely my teaching books and binders are shoved haphazardly into that bookshelf?

Well, the walk in just called which means it is time for antibiotics! Yay!

Until next time,

~Miss. Sunshine

A time to be sick

There is no good time to be sick, but there are certainly worse times to be sick. I thought this weekend would be one of them, but everything is working out somehow!

It all started last week with my fever making cheesecake. If you read back you can see how I was jacked up on tylenol trying to get it done right and still failed-- mostly at least. Well this week I went back to school and my sinus infection took a nasty dive into my lungs. Having athsma, it has not been pleasant.

Yesterday I left work at noon, carefully listening to the hacking coughs of three of my students, knowing I was going to be in bigger trouble if I didn't get to a walk-in clinic and rest. Living in a one-horse town, the walk in was closed for Orthodox Easter. My options were to drive 30 minutes back to the city I just left and wait a few hours at a busy walk-in, go to the ER for antibiotics, or just go home. I opted for the latter.

So yesterday was spent hacking up a lung. Today has not been better. I feel like death hit me with a Tonka truck! Runny nose, coughing, fever-- you name it I likely am feeling it.

So then comes the good news! This weekend was supposed to be when we get our Engagement Pictures done, but it is supposed to rain off and on today and thunderstorm on Sunday when we are scheduled. No good for an outdoor shoot. The photographer asked if we wanted to move it to the 21st and tons of problems were solved as other adventures were created!

Mr. Sunshine, being the lovely man he is, for some reason failed to mention to me that when we go to see Billy Currington in concert next Saturday, we will need to stay overnight because the concert will not end until 11 or 12 at night and it is a two hour drive home! So I quickly sourced a cheap hotel and booked us in. This worked out really well because our photo shoot for the same day is exactly halfway between our home and the concert! So next weekend we have an adventure on our hands! This also gives me one more week to shape up and get rid of this horrible cough and chest infection.

And now... off to the vets on my own with two large dogs for heartworm tests. I really can't complain because Mr. Sunshine worked from 6-3 and 5-10 last night and is working 7-11 or so today. I just wish I didn't feel so gross.

~Miss. Sunshine

Dinner with my parents

It's that time again! My mom always puts out the same meal (and no complaints for me!) for all major holidays; Easter, Christmas and Thanksgiving. I know every year I can count on her special mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, turnip casserole (although that has been fewer and far between as no one really likes it), peas and turkey and/or clove and beer ham. I love it! Have I mentioned how much I enjoy stability and routine? I think that if, for one year, I were to not have that pre-stuffed, frozen Butterball turkey with a huge side of stuffing and mashed potatoes the rest of my year would be shot.

Anyways, Easter always ends up being a special time for us, not for religious reasons, but because my sister was born on April 13. Usually this means that her birthday is right around our Easter dinner and we are able to see our relatives on her birthday week. In the last year or so these family holidays have become more important because my mother has been insisting on inviting Mr. Sunshine's mom and his brother that lives with her. It's truly heartwarming to see how well they have been accepted into our quirky little family. I think on one level my mom really relates to the future mother-in-law because both of their families live on the other side of the country. I know these times can be lonely for my mother, and perhaps for future MIL as well.

Well, this holiday is going to be exciting because we are switching dessert from our traditional pie, compliments of our local farmers market, to my famous Rocky Road Cheesecake. I started making this every year for my sister's birthday a few years ago and she loves it! I posted yesterday about how sick I was feeling and how kind Mr. Sunshine was as he ran out and getting the proper ingredients. While last night around 7pm I downed some Tylenol, took some decongestant, drank some water and waited 30 minutes. When the shivering death feeling went away, I got right on making that cheesecake! Mr. Sunshine thought I was crazy and told me to wait it out, but I knew that if I waited a minute more to start I would be dying by the end.

All I can say is that this was the worst cheesecake making experience to date, and I have made this exact cheesecake at least 15 or 20 times.

For the record, the only times I ever have to make something right away that Mr. Sunshine doesn't know how to, is when I am quite sick. He will certainly remember the mini lemon cupcake fiasco for his potluck at work this past February! This means that I am left alone and he can't do anything except say, "Um... maybe you can fix that?"

Anyways, I crawled into the kitchen and started on everything as quickly as I could, reading the recipe over and over to ensure I didn't forget anything. Then disaster struck-- I had accidentally picked up no fat cream cheese instead of low fat cream cheese. Now, anyone who has ever ate a cheesecake knows the fatty rich taste and texture is key! As I poured it in and beat it, the cream cheese, which was still cold from the fridge (supposed to be room temperature, but what can ya do), literally made the sugar and cheese mix look like melted ice cream. I knew I was in trouble right then. The second disaster struck as I went to fold in the melted chocolate and it clumped into the cheese mixture in little dots, giving this chocolate cheesecake a grey colour. Appealing, no? Finally, as I went to put it over the cookie crumb crust, the whole mixture poured out of the bowl like soup. Did I mention it was supposed to have the consistency of a thin paste? Good lord, I knew I was in trouble! As I baked it 5 minutes less than normal, it came out fully cooked (and possibly over cooked) with the sides a very golden brown. I doused the top with more caramel, pecans, chocolate and marshmallows than normal and prayed.

When I pulled it out of the oven it looked gorgeous... since I had hidden everything under the marshmallows. I knew I had to call my mom.

I called her and told her that I was about 99% sure this cake was garbage. Either the colour inside, the texture, the taste-- something was going to be horrible. We agreed to buy a spare pie from our local farmers market that, thank god, is open Easter Sunday for all of us who can't bake.

So will this Easter still be exciting? For sure. We are still going to have our usual spread and we have a back up dessert. Am I ever going to forget the time I destroyed this stupid cake? Probably not-- and neither will my relatives, but where would we be without reminiscing every year about that time we ate the saltiest turkey known to mankind, or the year where we cooked the turkey upside down and it tasted fantastic, or even that time where the turkey was done four hours before we wanted it to be and my mom nearly had a panic attack?

What stories do you have about the holidays? What traditions do you keep?

~Miss. Sunshine

How I know it's love...

Around noon Mr. Sunshine asked me if I had everything for my outfit for our engagement pictures next weekend. Of course I had forgotten about this (how he had remembered... well god bless the man). Anyways, he asked if I wanted to go to a local city that has a great "cowboy" boutique. I had popped some advil for a migraine and was ready to go.

Then came death.

Or sickness.

Really depends who you ask. *teehee*

Anyways, what then happened was 30 minutes of me sleeping in the car, Mr. S prodding me along and asking if I was okay every few minutes as I stumbled through the main street of the town towards the store, and finally me relenting and begging to go home. 30 minutes of sleeping later and he woke me up at the local grocery store because I had to grab some ingredients to make my sister's cheesecake for our family celebration of Easter and her birthday. Damnit!

At this point I was pretty much zombie like and Mr. Sunshine's jokes were not going over well. He said that since the store did not have all the ingredients we needed, he would drop me off at home and pick them up. I volunteered to go with him, feeling bad he was doing all this and I believe his exact words were: "I'm not asking if you want to be dropped off. I am dropping you off. Please don't come with me!"

An hour of sleep later and Mr. S came home with the wrong ingredient and some soil for his plants. Gah!

But you know how it is love? After putting up with my insanity and watching me crawl out of bed to attempt to make the cheesecake (followed quickly by, "nooo... tomorrow.... gah.... beddddd....") he made me food, got me a drink, offered to grab me some Tim Horton's chicken noodle soup and went out to get me the right ingredients so I can attempt to make that cake tomorrow.

What a man!

~Miss. Sunshine