Weekend Update

Do you ever have those weekends when on Sunday night you think, "Whew...I need a few days to recover from the weekend?!" That is definitely me tonight!

First, to the Ned Update! After my post on Friday morning, they decided they need to reintubate Ned. Not really due to any setbacks, but they think he just might have come off the vent to early. He still has a lot of gunk (yep - that's the medical term!) in his lungs and with the vent in, they are at least able to suction and help him get it out. Reintubation led to a few issues with Ned's heart rate, but as of this afternoon when Alan and I stopped by, and this evening based on what we've heard, all of that has stabilized. The doctors continue to struggle to keep him sedated, so he's a little restless. You can tell he really wants to join in the conversation in his room! So, the prognosis for now is we continue to wait and see and we keep on praying!

Friday and Saturday were spent getting ready for a couples shower/barbecue for my dear friend Jen and her future husband Aaron. Three of us bridesmaids collaborated and put it together. It was a lot of work, but we had a lot of fun. Also, this gave me another excuse to try my hand at cake decorating. Here are a few pics from Saturday night.

Here's the backyard of Amy's house. She & her husband have a great house with the perfect backyard for a party and were very gracious hosts. The weather ended up being perfect and the mosquitos left us alone for the most part!

Here's Alan & Amy's husband Brett grilling it up! They did a masterful job with the dueling grills.

Here's the couple of the evening...Jen & Aaron! They are getting married in Pennsylvania (where they are both originally from) in September. They are two of my favorite folks!

Jen & I posed for a little shot. I love this picture - mainly because everything is GREEN!! I know, I know...it's a little ridiculous, my love for the color green.

Alright - due to the number of folks coming to the shower - I ended up making two cakes. Here's the first. It was a new recipe for the Best Chocolate Cake Ever. Ever ever ever. Not my title...but I got the recipe from HERE. For the icing, I used the recipe listed at that same website, but as I know Jen loves peanut butter (as does Alan), I tried what someone suggested in the comments of the recipe and added a half cup of peanut butter to the icing. It was a big hit!

I originally had not planned to decorate this cake, but there ended up being so many crumbs in the peanut butter icing, that I thought I'd throw something on there. I was thinking the future couple's monogram...but upon a little googling, I found out it's bad luck to use the monogram before they are actually married. Who knew? So, I did their initials in mini chocolate chips, with a little border. It seemed to turn out pretty good...and, I think I have a new recipe to use for Alan's birthday cakes. He was a big fan!



Here's the other cake I did...which was a sour cream pound cake with buttercream icing. This was the real experiment with decorating to see how I could do. I was going for cute engagement cake...and had originally planned to do a little writing...like their names & wedding date, but the stick figures ended up being slightly larger than I had originally planned. It was fun to do and I was pretty happy with how it turned out. My favorite part is her cute yellow necklace! I think I'm getting a little better and smoothing it out and piping in general. I'm still toying with taking a class. Who knows?

The other stuff that's going on right now is as follows:

• I've been fighting a cough since I went to camp 2 weeks ago, and have been struggling with sleep, so I think I'm finally going to the doctor tomorrow. I'm hoping it hasn't turned into bronchitis *blegh* and that we can figure out some good stuff for me to take to get rid of it.

• I have an interview - sort of - on Tuesday morning at a company in Mooresville. I'm actually meeting with the company's accounting recruiter to discuss what positions are open in the company and where we think I'd fit best, get a feel for the company etc. I'm cautiously optimistic.

• There's some pretty major stuff going on with my Grandaddy Conard right now who is approaching his 94th (I think that's right) birthday next month. It's health related and I'm still processing how I feel about the whole situation - thus the lack of bearing my soul on this topic just yet. He is an AMAZING man and I love him so much, and the stuff that's going on is weighing heavy on my heart. So please pray for him and for my mom and Aunt Louise as they continue to navigate this situation.

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!