Busy weekend!

What a weekend! As I mentioned in my last entry, I was making desserts for today's Homecoming at church. My plan was to start relatively early (for a Saturday!) and get a lot of it accomplished and then read my novel while the oven did it's thing. Well, that didn't exactly happen.

We were still having trouble getting reception on our new TV. Mom called the store where they bought it and they said to bring it back and they would give us a new one in a box (They had purchased a display model because it was the last one of its kind in the store). Well, I knew where the general location of the store was but didn't know the exact location. Well, around 11:30 am, off we went down the road with me driving. Mom suddenly remembered she forgot her phone and the list of ingredients for something she was making for homecoming, but she still wanted to forge on to our destination. As I neared the location, I asked Mom which side of the road it was on. She said she couldn't remember because Dad had come another way and she was turned around. She said, "Left," and that's where I went. It didn't take us long to realize we weren't going to find it on the road we were on because the road ended. We went back around again and made another left, this time going deeper into the shopping area of this location. After a second futile attempt at locating the store, we stopped and asked a Petco employee where this store was located. She told us it was across the highway! We only had to make a RIGHT! And guess what....we found it after crossing the highway!

When we actually get into the store with the TV, we realize that we left the remote control at home! The first question out of the manager's mouth was "Did you bring the remote?" We had to laugh because it was certainly getting comical at this point. Immediately upon starting the conversation with the manager, another employee of the store walked up and proceeded to tell us the proper way to hook up the TV. I really felt like an idiot but in my defense (weak as it is), I didn't have a manual because they are all online now, and I didn't know that I was hooking up cables in the wrong ports. After we received our schooling, we left with the same TV we came with. Naturally, Mikayla, who was with us, had to go to the "little girls' room". Mom took her while I waited in the car. When she came back, she told me that she found out in the bathroom that she had had her phone the whole time! My brother-in-law had called her and she and Mikayla were the only two in the bathroom! HAHAHAHAHA! We could have prevented 15 minutes of time-wasting if we had called Dad!

As we head home, I was cruising down I-540 and suddenly realized that the road looked newer. It dawned on me that I had missed the I-40 exit and was heading for Highway 55! We laughed over that and went way out of our way to get to the grocery store. After getting home and eating lunch, I started on my desserts. Things went pretty smoothly, but obviously much later than I had planned. The only potential problem was with the Carrot Cake. After the layers were baked and cooled, I tried to remove them from the pan. I did spray them with non-stick spray, but they didn't want to cooperate. After a little help with a spatula, I was able to get them out in one piece. They were a little cracked, but still manageable. I found out by doing a little research, that I hadn't mixed the batter exactly right and that was the cause of my problem. Oh well, one has to make mistakes in order to improve. Next time, I will mix properly.

This morning, I got up early and make the frosting. I was nervous because I had visions of the cake splitting in half while I was frosting it. Gently I applied the frosting to the bottom layer (the worst of the 3) and then stacked the other two on top. After using all the frosting, the cake looked pretty good. I'm not very good at frosting a cake! HAHA! I didn't cut the cheesecakes until I was at church. The Almond Joy Cheesecake was not very cheesecake-like to cut, so it ended up being more of a hack-job than a slicing. After Homecoming, I was told that the Almond Joy Cheesecake was a keeper! And I also received several compliments on the Carrot Cake. I was happy after that because I didn't know if it would be good or not.

After cleaning up, we came home and crashed while listing to symphonic music on satellite radio. Isn't that stuff great?? Going from one piece of music to another without commercials! Gotta love it! By the way, I was able to get some reading in today! HAHAHA!

Here's a small update on the bluebirds...Three of the eggs hatched. The last I saw, they were really young. I haven't checked lately to see how they are faring. We seem to be attracting a lot of animals lately. Wesley found a Southern Short-tailed Shrew (Blarina carolinensis) yesterday and came here to show us. Mom was less than thrilled. I heard Brittany call several times this afternoon and Molly and Rolly are visiting everyday now. Some days they bring Daisy and Duke. I'm not sure what they like so much about our backyard.

I hope everyone has a blessed day! Today's words-of-wisdom--if you find a shrew, let him go. They don't do well in captivity. :-)