Reflections on 3 Weeks with a 10 year old

When I first agreed to the idea of my nephew coming to stay, I mostly visualized these activities:

I totally got the jackpot on the Storm Chaser 3 times!!

Aw bumper boats!

Sometimes this is the only way they'll shower!

Setting things on fire is also fun!

Loved it!

 But it also came with having him around all the time. Like really, ALL the time (Insert Julia's parent friends comment: Yeah, duh!) because he didn't want to stay in our second bedroom, lovingly termed the crap room which is called thus because it's our storage room, so he was always out in the living room. I had to deal with making sure he brushed his teeth, discipline him when too silly or ornery, comforting him when he was sick and consoling him when he missed home (although parents a facetime call away was certainly helpful).

Eric was happy to get a card from home

But there were other great things I hadn't anticipated, like reading scriptures and saying prayers together. Eric showed really good understanding of what scriptures were saying and asked good questions when he didn't know something. It reminded me of what I have learned over the years and allowed me to remember knowledge and teachings I had taken for granted. We got the chance to pray for help when he lost his wallet and had our answer by finding it.

So, while it's great to have the dungeon apartment back to ourselves, I'm gonna miss my cute little errand boy and look forward hopefully having my own ten year old someday :D

Love this silly guy!

Brian's Cake Monstrocity

In May of this year I was scrolling through my newsfeed on Facebook, a usual activity after work, when I came across this glorious cake. A Reese's Overload Cake. I was anticipating the end of the school year and a glorious summer of baking and exercising (such a realistic combination, I know...) and I thought that this cake would make a perfect birthday cake for Brian.

On a side note, I have notice with friends and family that people with summer birthdays tend to feel neglected because none of their friends were available for parties or their family would go out of town on their birthday and it becomes kind of a looked-over thing. A similar thing happens for Christmas birthdays and people born in September, right when school starts or is in it's first few week. They get lost in the shuffle. Brian felt that way about his birthday too, so I always try to do something special to help him feel excited. I tend to buy his presents way in advance and so he constantly bothers me all month to know what they are and hopefully excitement builds all month. Although the first year we were married I got him the Lord of the Rings trilogy on blu-ray and I was so excited for him I let him open it as soon as it came in the mail at the beginning of the month and we watched it all month and then we went to San Diego for his actual birthday.

Anyway, back to the cake. Brian love Reese's peanut butter cups, so I thought that it would be the perfect cake to make for him. In the back of my mind all summer I planned to make it for him. Look how pretty and delicious it looked!

The thing is, I never really looked all that closely at the recipe. I didn't realize how much work it involved, but that was for future Julia to worry about. Then my nephew came to visit. He was a blast to have around and was definitely a cure for summer boredom, but it also meant I never really gave another thought to the cake. Birthday presents were ordered and wrapped and all the ingredients were bought for the cake, but still, I hadn't looked into the process much. 

On Brian's birthday, I started a crockpot meal to eat later and set it aside. And let's face it, dilly-dallied away the morning with my nephew playing video games and such. So in the afternoon, I started mixing the cake and baked it. The cake was delicious! It tasted like a giant peanut butter cookie. But it was taking too long to cool! I needed the pan to make the middle layer! Then it occurred to me....I probably should have made the cake portions the night before. Ack! I mixed the middle layer, which was basically a simplified cheesecake (Did I mention I'd never made a cheesecake, but I was magically confidant that it would turn out great?!) and the cakes still weren't cool enough, so I thought, oh well it's not going to be perfect and had Brian help me take the cake out of the pans. They were a crumpled mess, but I thought, "I'll just fill in the holes with frosting... it'll be fine....!"  Here is the progression of that logic in pictures:

Yeah, just cover that in frosting. It'll be fine!

That's the cheesecake layer smushed on top.

The cheesecake layer tasted great! But alas I also didn't give it enough time to cool and I understood now why they're often cooked in springform pans. However the recipe didn't mention cooking it in a springform pan so I thought this one might be special... wrong.

We'll just cover that mess in some frosting...all better!

See now that doesn't look horrible...wait yes it does.

More healing frosting. That'll do the trick!

Umm, it looks ok.

Except for this part.

Meh, we'll go with it!

A week later and frozen, it definitely doesn't look like that first picture from facebook.

  So, it never looked very pretty, but it tasted great!! And Brian says that's more important to him anyway. If I want pretty, I need to do more advance preparation, but advance preparation with cooking is one of my least favorite things! I like to just go in and get it done in one big hurrah, so until I master that part of my personality, this is what the results are going to be I guess.