Bucket List #61 - Make a Wedding Cake - Complete!

When Olivia and Jake got engaged, Olivia told me she wanted to make her own wedding cake and asked me to be her sous chef.  Of course, I was in!  Olivia and I love baking together, and we make an awesome team.  It also would check something off my bucket list (I think...I probably technically was thinking I would make a wedding cake by myself, but we are going to count this!)  About a week before the wedding, we did a trial run.  Olivia did most of the trial run because it largely happened after my bed time, but it was a FULL trial run.  It was quite the success though!  We were ready to roll on the real deal!

Then two nights before the wedding, we made 17 cakes and six batches of frosting.  The kitchen was a disaster, but we sure had a lot of fun!

The night before the wedding and after setting up for the reception, we stacked and frosted all the individual tiers.

Between the luncheon and the reception, I successfully transported all the tiers over to the church and stacked all the tiers on the beautiful cake stands.  I touched them up, and then Tricia added the finishing touches with the flowers.  They turned out amazingly!  And they tasted amazing too!  Thanks, O for letting me assist in making your wedding cake!  Let's mark that off the bucket list for now, unless I lose my mind and decide to do this again on my own!

Dr. Deeds

He finally did it!  Deeds has finished school and he is now a Doctor of Physical Therapy!  He has to pass the national exam the end of January, and then it is a done deal.  He starts his first job on Jan. 7 in Nampa, ID.  Way to go, Deeds!  So proud!  Now he's the most educated member of the Cosby fam!  That hat is so funny!

We went to Rodizio Grill afterward to celebrate!  Yumm!!

Adventures in Dating

I hesitate to post on my blog about such personal things, but it is essentially my journal, and I want to remember these times.  I also know of about 6 people who read my blog and they are all related to me or dear friends who already know all this, so here it goes.
I met James early in September online (this whole online thing has proven to be quite fruitful for me!).  We emailed back and forth for a few weeks, and our first date was the end of September.  We met at a Thai restaurant in Sandy.  I thought he was very cute, easy to talk to, and just all around a great guy, and we had a lot in common.  He asked me at the end of the date if I would go on another date with him.  I said yes, of course!  On a side note, I really like when guys do that at the end of a first date.  That way you don't have to wonder and analyze and become a spazz waiting to see if he will call or if you should text him to thank him or what the next move will be if there is any next move at all.  Dating is so dumb! But it is kind of exciting and fun at the same time!
We went out again the following week downtown to the Church History Museum and to dinner at the Blue Lemon.  Again, I had a really great time and continued to be quite impressed with this guy.  The following week, I had tickets to the Carrie Underwood concert.  He was kind enough to be my date even though he doesn't love country music.

At the Carrie Underwood concert...our first picture together...ahhh, how cute!

We went out again the next night.  He took me to the Bombay House (my first time ever eating Indian food...love it!), and we went to Barnes and Noble.  At this point, I was still extremely impressed and starting to wonder if this boy is for real.  Is it possible for me to have gone on several dates with someone and there be zero red flags and love everything I have learned about the guy?  That is what was happening!
We went out again the next week before I left for my Chicago trip.  We went to Bruges Waffles and Frites and then wandered around downtown trying to find pearl sugar to recreate Bruges waffles.  No pearl sugar to be found.

Machine gun sandwich at Bruges

After that, I was in Chicago, and then he was on a cruise with his family.  Absense definitely made the heart grow fonder...for me anyway!  He took me up to Park City for my birthday, and we walked up and down Main St and went to dinner.

Park City - he's not abnormally tall, I'm just abnormally short!

We have gone to several BYU sporting events.  He has passed the BYU-fan/behavior-at-a-sporting-event test!

We double dated with the engageds last week and went to see Lincoln and got dessert.  We played around with the Hobbit display.  I'm hobbit size!

And we have of course done the typical lights at Temple Square date.

I even helped him decorate his parent's house for Christmas.  Here I am wearing the tree skirt as a real skirt.  I'm pretty dorky!

So the bottom line is that James is amazing and I adore him!  We are having so much fun dating and spending time together.  Hopefully posting this doesn't jinx anything!  It could all be over tomorrow (this is how dating goes, for me anyway), but I sure hope it doesn't!  He is a definite keeper!  Stay tuned as my adventures in dating continue!  It has been a crazy year in the dating department, but I'm overjoyed to be ending 2012 on a good note!