Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to write a quick post about Thanksgiving. There is something about this holiday that always gives me warm fuzzies. I'll admit that married life makes for some new experiences around holidays and I will also admit that for a time I felt like holidays were basically organized family feuds. I can now say I have had at least three Thanksgivings in a row where this is not the case! I have been looking forward to this Thanksgiving more than others. In June I decided that we needed to spend Thanksgiving in California this year. We rarely get out there and the kids had so much fun the last time we went for vacation. I just felt this strong urge, something pulling on my heart telling me we needed to be in California. Of course the biggest problem in getting to California is always HOW. Our lovely protege is no longer allowed to make the trip. Flying is out of the question unless the tickets are donated. The last time we went we rented a car and not only did it just cost a lot to begin with, we ended up paying a couple hundred extra to pay for the window that someone broke! So, our solution this year.... a new car!!! A brand new car! I never thought I would own one! It has been wonderful. The next dilemma was the weather. We were so happy to find that the forecast was clear. We enjoyed a wonderfully uneventful drive out. That is pretty good considering it's twelve hours with two young kids. I can't remember the last time I was so excited to go on a twelve hour drive. I really felt like a school girl. I woke up Tuesday morning with butterflies in my stomach! I was grinning all morning knowing that we'd be leaving that night to prepare for our departure to California!!! I am so thankful this year for a new car which provided a much needed opportunity to spend time with our family. We enjoyed a delicious feast with all five Koberstein boys. That makes for quite the interesting conversation, but it was so fun to see Louis with all of his brothers. We were missing his two sisters and their families, but we still had quite the crowd! Tomorrow we'll head out to San Francisco for more family fun and I can't wait! I enjoyed a nice, laid back day of talking, laughing, playing games, relaxing, cooking, cleaning, feasting, and just loving! Hurray for Thanksgiving!!!

Trying out some Courage

This honestly is really hard for me and makes me very nervous, but I've been wanting to do it, so enough being chicken! I started a cake blog. I just want a place where I can post some pictures of my cakes and hopefully get some feedback. I really hope for positive feedback, but I can handle the truth. Usually this is my downfall in any type of situation where I am selling my "talent or skill." I get negative feedback or harsh criticism and just quit doing it. (i.e. hairstyling...) So I am really going out on a limb here, but I just have to know! What do people really think? So... check it out and let me know what you like, and what you don't. Thanks!

www.camillescakes.blogspot.com

Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween!

This year Halloween was nice. It seemed that I took it at a slower pace than normal, so I was only "mostly dead" the following morning. I saved just enough energy to finish a cake, move a family to a new apartment, and clean up the house. Can I have a wonderwoman award now? Hee hee seriously, though. We went to Kaylee's school in the morning for a costume parade. After school I took the kids to Lee's Marketplace for the trick-or-treat while I did my shopping. It made the trip much more enjoyable for all. We also went to Papa Murphy's where the kids got their own personal size pizzas for lunch. At the crosswalk they enjoyed playing Star Wars. Afterwards, we went to see Donna at work and the kids thought that was pretty cool. Next stop, Dad's work for some awesome trick-or-treating! That night we went to our "tri-ward trunk-or-treat." In case you were wondering, I'm NOT a fan of those. I thought about posting more on this issue and then decided against it due to possiblity of offense. Thanks, Donna and Steve for coming for the kids! They loved seeing you there! Next up, dinner party at our house. My brother and his wife, my sister and her husband, and our good friends, Alton and Shirley joined us. We had pizza, salad, breadsticks, homemade rootbeer, donuts, cider, and egg nog. Yum! Then we played a rousing round of BANG! before all had to depart. It was a lot of fun!

Here are some fun pictures of the kids' costumes, our party, and a few cakes I made.... enjoy.

These are pictures of the kids at a Monster Bash at Kaylee's school. I thought they were hilarious!
Darth Vader and Princess Leia. So cute! And Uncle Jake the jedi. My kids' favorite uncle and the instigator of Star Wars at our house. Playing Star Wars at the crosswalk.Donna and kids at her workSteve and kids at the trunk-or-treat

I made this cake for my friend's son. His birthday was a couple weeks ago and they had a Halloween costume party. This was one of my funnest cakes to make!

This cake is the one I made the day after Halloween.

In the meanwhile.... an Award!!!

Well, friends... thanks for all the response. I still am undecided in my vote on whether to go private or not. The polls will close this week, I hope. I noticed that I miss a lot of your comments because yahoo keeps sending a bunch of them to my spam list. Grrr. In the meantime... I will hurry and post some things I want everyone to see.... starting with this!!!



Hee hee! My friend, Katie, or Con as I call her, gave me this! Wowie! Look at me go. So, now I get to tell you some more stuff about me....

6 things I value:

1. family

2. faith

3. education

4. dreams

5. work ethic

6. experience

6 things I do NOT value

1. laziness

2. tv

3. apathy

4. designer jeans

5. rudeness

6. people who speed through crosswalks

6 people I give this award to:

1. Megan H.- best view on motherhood

2. Megan J.- love the writing skills! Makes me think hard!

3. Elena-so many fun ideas here

4. Elise-what can I say? She makes scrapbook stuff herself!

5. Amber-just check the blog, folks.

6. Danielle-a letter of the week in prose!

These people have inspired me with their never-ending creativity. Examples next to their names! Thanks folks!

The Mother of all Worriers

I know you are all thinking that the title of this post is describing me, but guess what!? There is another mother who is even more gifted at worrying than myself! It's really about MY mother!!! Bless her little heart. I get a phone call a few times a month to let me know about the most recent freak disaster that is sure to occur to my children due to neglect or oversight. I do appreciate her motivation, but it doesn't help my anxiety. I try and take the casual, calloused, "yeah, thanks, mom, I'll think about that," approach, but internally I feel my stomach begin to churn and I lose sleep for days afterwards. Her latest call came tonight to let me know about a story that would be shown on the ten o'clock news. It was about a family who had recieved all kinds of demeaning and threatening comments on their blog. I know nothing else. I try and stay pretty disconnected with the world by not watching TV. Ok, truth is I am too cheap to pay for it, and I like not having it, so there! Anyways.... of course, I began worrying as soon as I non-chalantly hung up the phone. I have no idea about what kind of wackos are out there. I tried to set all my profile things to highest security. I don't know. I have been tinkering with the idea of going private. After all, I'm sure there aren't that many people who read this thing anyway! What do ya think? And if I do decide to go private, I only have two questions..... who wants to be invited, and how in the world do I do any of this???