Cupcakes Cupcake Cupcakes

Thats it. I've become hooked by the cupcake bandit. No, I'm not talking about an obsession with eating a cupcake...but with baking them. For Christmas, I got a cupcake cookbook from one of my students, another from another student, and one from Chris. I got a cupcake carrier from my sister, and the big top cupcake pans from my mom. One of the books I got is Hello, Cupcake. I've been contemplating this purchase for a while now, but I never could bring myself to getting it, I'm not really sure why. I got it from Addy, and from then on I began my plotting. Christmas cupcake...Christmas bulb cupcakes...for Christmas Eve, yup that was the plan.

So I set off on my quest to Market Basket for some candy. I needed things to manipulate to decorate the cupcakes with...well that was easier said than done. I couldn't find anything besides some spice drops and air heads...so I continued on my search. I ended up finding m&m minis (after a long search) and some licorice...and I finally (after going to 4 different stores) found light green and red decorating sugars.

Early Christmas Eve, the cupcake process began. My first time EVER making ANYTHING from scratch and I was successful...it wasn't hard either. I then cooked them and let them cool. I spent most of the afternoon baking, with a brief break to exchange presents with chris (he got me the best earrings ever, i love them!).

Here are 4 of the 18 cupcakes (I always have trouble getting 24 out of a batch, idk why) These were mine and Chris' favorites so I decided to take a picture of them.

Everyone at Christmas Eve loved the cupcakes, and I was so glad. I hope one day I can do this professionally, although I have a lot to learn.

A marvelous plan...

My preschoolers have their Christmas show this week. They are singing 4 songs...with hand motions. They look and sound so great. I'm so proud of them!

A little positive, a little negative...

I'm sick of my negative posts, so here I'll be discussing the good...and the bad.

Lets start with the good. Remember how my car broke? WELL...dun dun dun! I went out and bought myself a new car. I'm the proud owner of a brand new ford focus 2010. His name is Felix and he is awesome.

Work has been going great. Yesterday the kids had their show, and they were AWESOME. I'm so proud of them.

Now for the bad - you might be wondering why I'm here writing a post instead of teaching my class...seeing as it's 9:15 am. Welp, thanks to Chris, I have MONO. I'm exaggerating, it's not entirely his fault...he didn't give it to me on purpose, but man I hate it. I'm so hungry, that I'm not hungry anymore. I can't really swallow anything...unless it's soft. My diet has consisted of soup, popsicles and pudding for the last few days. I'm tired, but I can't sleep. I can't go to work...blah.

So I'm stuck here, researching crafts for my class and attempting to sleep.

Booo mono.

Yesterday morning Jamie yielded to all she hates...

I'm pretty aggravated right now.  I believe my last post explained all about my car, and how it was getting a new air conditioner. Well, its broken again. I was backing out of my driveway, and the brakes wouldn't work. I was rolling down the driveway with no ability to stop...I just kept rolling and rolling because the brake did absolutely nothing. Finally, I threw the car into park, pulled up the e-brake and shut the car off. It scared me so much.

So I told my parents, and they don't seem to care. I told Chris and he doesn't really seem to care. Basically, no one that really matters in my life cared. So today I want to go look into a new car, but I can't. I'm stuck with a broken car and no one cares.

What else is new?

I should stop whining, it's only been a day or two

Not much has been happening. Oh oh oh! I lost 3.5 pounds! Hooray.  I'm wicked proud of myself and even my mom was! I have been eating less, but I've never gone hungry. I let myself enjoy treats but I am strict during the week... So it's been good. Eventually I think I will start exercising, but right now I have an awful tummy ache.

Last week Chris and I went to Sweet which is a bakery located in back bay. First we met at Park St station and walked to California Pizza Kitchen. After that we literally ran across town and made it to Sweet 5 min before closing. We found a bus station on Mass Ave to eat our cupcakes. We met some interesting people, one lady who told us we should get marries asap. I think she scared Chris a little bit...partly because she had no teeth and partly because she mentioned the "m" word. I wish we took a picture with her.

The rest of the week was rather mundane. I had parent open house at school and had so much fun! My class has some excellent parents. I enjoyed talking to them. Unfortunately that night didn't end so well, but all is over with that. Infact, all is essentially forgotten.

Monday night I found an awkward thing on my leg so Wednesday I went to the doctors and got it checked out. My doctor is in Cambridge so it was convenient to visit Chris st Umass during his break then after class he came over for our weekly Top Chef tradition.

Thursday and Friday were the same as always. Yesterday I had lunch with my dad, visited Chris at home, then went out with Catie to visit Chris at Unos. I realized I go there too often because when I walked in the guy goes " can I seat u... Oh right you're looking for Chris" lol i lost my anonymity but that's ok! While there Chris's co worker and friend Catie scared the crap out of me and jumped behind me. I screamed.

I think that's all for now!

Sent from my iPod

Nothing to Say

I actually had a good hair day!

Woah!

This is a big dael to me. My hair rarely looks good for long periods of time. I mean I try hard to look somewhat good, but by the end of the day my hair looks like frizz central. Yesterday, Chris sent me to CVS to buy him some crucial work supplies: a lo-carb monster and some profile pens (I also bought him a gift of pop rocks for 69 cents, nothing is too expensive for my boyfriend!).

My lovely hair. It's ok, I don't love pictures of me...and the worst part is when I take pictures on my macbook, I have to angle my head down to not get the glare in my glasses. Wala...that's my hair, and a creepy face....so creepy.

Chris decided today that we're on a 1 yr plan. Our goal is to be healthier in 1 yr. Not necessarily skinny, but healthier. I wanna be able to go running and not get so winded. I started at 5 pm today eating better. I did eat some french fries, but I didn't eat much today so I think it's ok. I threw most of them away. I don't wanna be tooooo strict on my diet, but I want to get healthy so that means I need to work on doing some form of work out when I get home form work. I was thinking about joining a gym, but I know I won't go...so I'll do some work out dvds and go for walks. I need to be serious this time, once I lose weight Chris can't squeeze my fat anymore...that's the plan.

So another work week begins tomorrow. I'm going to take a shower now then get some early sleep. I'm tired because I had a really weird dream last night. In my dream, I kept getting stuck in my clothes, so I woke up hyperventilating. It was sooo bad. Tuesday is open house and I'm nervous!

That's all for now...happy Christopher?

And I say...

its alright.

A few months ago now, my friend Mike got married. There is an earlier post about it. At the end of the ceremony, his new wife and him walked out to 'Here Comes the Sun' by the Beatles. I never really thought much of this song. I mean who doesn't love the Beatles, I walked miles and miles just to take a picture of myself next to Abbey Road studios, I def have some Beatles love...but I forgot just how amazing their songs are, how AMAZING this song is.

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it's all right

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right

Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...

Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been clear
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it's all right
It's all right


So thats it for tonight. Something simple, something hopefully that touches a heart string or two. Listen to old music...sure I love me some Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Cobra Starship etc...but nothing can beat the classics. Listen to the Beatles...you won't regret it.

Hello, is this thing on? Is anybody listening?

Today I woke feeling lovely 
Happiness overflowin' knowin' somebody loves me 
Just think yesterday I was down and out 
Now there's not a single thing for me to frown about 

These lyrics are amazing, and ever so appropriate in my life right now. 

I've had some hard days lately just being sad, but today I woke up just SO happy about my life. There really was nothing for me to be happy about, well there always is, but nothing about today in particular. I woke up with a pretty stinky head cold...sneezy and stuffy! I didn't go to church due to my stuffiness, but rested all day...and all this boringness aside I'm happy! So happy! :)

If you read this, comment please...i wanna know whos checking it out!

I'll be yours forever...

...just tell me when to start.

I started this blog off with a nice little lyric by my favorite band, The Honorary Title. The song is Along The Way and I love it. It explains a lot about my life lately, as I've been a little sad without knowing why. Part of me knows a little bit why, but part of me doesn't want to admit it...i'll figure that out eventually.

I'm super bored right now. I spent most of tonight playing Sims 3 and just straight chilling. Around 8:45 the phone rang and I didn't recognize the number. I answered and no one was there...I freaked out. Then my mom called, the number had called her too...so I freaked out less. Come to find out, it was my uncle playing a prank on me. Gosh Uncle Mike, you scared me!

I've been so tired lately. Planning crafts and chasing preschoolers around all day makes me exhausted, and now I'm developing a little bit of a head cold. I've been sniffling non-stop, it's really no fun, and I keep sneeeeeezing. Achoo...scuse me.

So I continue on with my rather boring life, sitting on the couch watching Ultimate Cake Off, eating some pretzels and drinking a Mike's Hard. Weekends don't feel like weekends anymore. I don't know, when you feel kinda lonely you don't look forward to time without work...just gives you more time to think. I'm happy believe me, but I get lonely...Chris works and my college friends all live kinda far away, so I just chill out. I have friends at home, but haven't seen much of them...we all changed at college, and I still love them so much but we just don't do things. This is partially my fault, I don't really call people...but I miss being able to walk down the hall to see Catie, or across campus with Cassie to hangout in Allison's apartment.

I went to visit school the other day. It's the same and different..which makes no sense whatsoever. It felt weird, its not mine anymore...it's not my home. It lost its magic I guess...the new cafeteria is cool, but doesn't feel like home...I hate that...losing something that was so important to me for 4 years, gone in a few weeks...It's still a lovely school, but I don't feel like it's my college anymore...and I guess that's because it's not. I say this sitting on my couch wearing a Merrimack shirt...whatttttt?

Other than my brief moments of sadness, which have been frequent lately, I'm quite content with the path my life has taken. I'm in a happy and loving relationship, I have a great job, and quite possibly the cutest class of preschoolers on the planet. I have an amazingly cute nephew, and a great family. I have friends who love and care for me...so I guess my life is good...yes...I guess it is huh? I'll be sure to reread this whenever I get emotional, if I can see the happiness now, I will surely always be able to see it.

And with that I guess I should go do something else, or maybe get some sleep...not much going on tonight...maybe more sims 3? pathetic?...yes. do i care?...not really.

Its just after 7 am!

And I'm awake! Why is that you ask?

I GOT A JOB! huzzah!

I am now a working woman, an active member of society as chris said, i'm no longer mooching (i was unemployed for just about 3 days)

I'm now a preschool teacher for kids that are 3/4. They are so cute! We have a lot of fun.

I'm exhausted though...so I need to sleep in tomorrow hopefully...

This is all, boring I know but I'm getting ready for work. Chris said I never update, so I did...happy? lol

MY FIRST FONDANT CAKE!

First things first, my car never got finished! It's still at the shop 3 days later, so I will be getting it tomorrow we hope.

Now for better things! I made my first ever fondant cake today. Its a white cake, with chocolate frosting and strawberries in the middle, and covered in fondant. Here are some photos:

The cake together, after I put the filling...

Pictures of the filling...just milk chocolate frosting and some fresh strawberries.

The finished product! It looks a little dusty, cause I needed a lot of powdered sugar in order to roll it out without sticking. I only could find a star cookie cutter so I decided to use that.

So that's it! Two days worth of effort and that's the result and I love it.

I need to work on mixing colors, rolling it out, and cutting out shapes. It was a lot of work, but it was fun and I can't wait to make another!

Carrrrr

I am blogging from the meineke station.  My car is here being fixed. I have no ac and apparently my gas tank was rotting...And some gas was leaking out...fantastic. So I've been at hilltop for the last 4 hours in my dad's office waiting for the car to get fixed and now I came to get it and wala it still needs another half an hour. And so I wait...

I'm still looking for a job. Nothing has come my way thus far but I have found some pretty interesting job postings on craigslist. I hate getting my hopes up but today I found a pretty neat job prospect, I hope I land the job!

Lately I haven't been doing much. I saw (500) Days of Summer and loved it so much. The soundtrack is amazing! I suggest the entire world see this movie and then buy the soundtrack (I promise I am not endorced by the movie but if you're interested I'm game for a sponsorship)

Last week I had plans to blog about visiting my grandma, but I never got a chance to write it down. My grandma came to America from Italy in 1953 all by herself, while preggers. At that time you had to be sponsored to move to America so she came early in order to sponsor my mom, her 2 older sisters and my grandpa. Can you imagine? She left a small mountain village where she was related to almost everyone to come to America, because she wanted better opportunities for her family. I've always known about this but until now I never really could fathom the scope of what she did. 

As I visited her last week, she sat on the porch while I swept the porch. "Jamie don't worry about it" she said in her broken english. This is something else I never noticed... My grandma has always spoken broken English but yet no language barrier has ever been felt. Sure, my mom and my aunts have spent their fair share of time talking about my cousins and I right infront of us in Italian but the lack of communication has never been a huge issue. My nana has 5 daugters, 16 grandkids (7 with spouses), 11 great grandchildren and 1 great grandchild. She is more loved than I think she could understand.

She's worn black for a while now, since my grandfather died which was well before I was born 22 years ago. She lights candles in his honor and has a mass said for him once a year. I noticed a picture of my grandparents in their garden and I realized I've never seen as big a smile on my nana's face as she has in that picture which to me shows just how happy they were.

As I sit here typing this on my brand new iPod touch, texting on my sidekick lx and waiting for the car I own to be fixed I realize a few things. I owe this all to my grandparents. Yah my wealth has come primarily from my parent's support but think about this...my grandparents left a small village with no electricity so I could have all the opportunities possible...ok so not me exactly, but their family.

I don't know... That was a tad bit more introspective than most of my posts but it needed to be written. My car isn't done 30 min later so now I wait...hopefully not too much longer!

Home Sick.

I spent today lying in my bed and mainly sleeping. I feel like the day didn't even happen, as I cannot believe it's already quarter of 7.  I felt sick yesterday at work, really bad throat ache. As the day went on, my nose became stuffed. Last night, I went to Chris's and there I started feeling worse. I was getting really sleepy too! So I bought an energy drink (half of which is on the ground outside of his house, and on my flip flop) and made my way home about 45 minutes, almost falling asleep at the wheel. I woke up this morning feeling AWFUL so I called into work and told them I wouldn't be in.

So I've been home. I slept a good portion of the day, from about 8 am to around 3. I couldn't believe I got that much sleep, but I needed it!

Now I'm cleaning up. I moved into my new room on Sunday. My mom and I transfered my bed, dresser, tv and other stuff into this room, from my old room just next to it. This new room is bigger, although the rug is super ugly. So I guess I should get cleaning before she gets mad, although I think I should get a sick pass...

Tie dye and Mini golf

Two things I love: tie dye and mini golf. These two things are normally associated with the summer, but quite frankly I hate summer time.

On Tuesday, Chris, his friend Matt and I went mini golfing. It was a lot of fun and obviously I won, only 8 over par! I got a 50, Matt got a 64, Chris got a  67! Matt got a hole in one his first hole, and this was his first ever time mini golfing. Loser bought ice cream, and thus Chris got me a lovely lemon slush...yummmmy. Although he wasn't on his a-game for mini golf, Chris won me a little necklace in the claw machine.

We have been doing tie dye at work this week. It's been tons of fun. I LOOOOOVE TIE DYE. I am trying to find a white duvet cover with pillow cases to tie dye, and place with my black sheets. It would be hot.

Everything about this makes me SO happy.

So maybe it's because I went to a wedding today, or maybe I'm just in a good mood, but I literally love this video.

It's literally so cute and SO funny.

The wedding I went to today was awesome. It was the first of my friends to get married, which is scary. I'm at that age...and it's creeping me out. I have known my friend Mike since I was in 3rd grade, I'm pretty sure. I remember thinking he was so cool, being that he was in 5th grade and all. He's actually my neighbor, and also a friend from my church. I've seen Mike go through high school, like a few different girls, play softball a million times, and get through college. Since he was my neighbor, he usually drove me home from parties or hanging out, which I never minded because he drove his dad's super nice black bmw, and it meant I could stay out as late as I wanted, since my mom knew I had a ride. In college, Mike met Melissa and they fell in love. She has since moved to MA, and is quite possibly the sweetest person I have ever met. Seriously, she is just genuinely so nice, and I'm unsure if a mean thought ever goes through her head. I am so happy for the two of them! Congrats guys!

Welp, time to clean up my room and get a move on...I'm switching rooms :). Hooray big room, here I come!

This has been said so many times and I'm not sure if it matters...

I was just reminded of this fall out boy song by a girl I work with. I forgot how much I liked it...hrm. Interesting.

I literally have been leading the boringest life ever lately. I work Mon-Fri starting at 7:30 am, so I don't have much of a night life. Today, the highlight of my week, I woke up early to go to Starbucks...it was free pastry day. I got there at 7, and was so annoyed. The girl wasn't paying attention to me at all, like legit charged me for the wrong thing and stared at me blanking when I showed her my free pastry coupon. Then! The guy totally watered down my $3.20 passion tea lemonade! It was DISGUSTING. I love starbucks, but that just sucked. I was looking forward to it alllll morning (meaning from 615 when I woke up until 710 when it was gross)...and last night. Booo.

I worked in the office today, the school office. I am updating their database, which isn't too bad. It's somewhat exciting when a couple is divorced, it mixes things up a bit. How sad? I was jealous, because the campers watched Wall-e, but I was in the office. Wall-e...Ev-a. Oh man! And then there was an UP flyer on the ground and I almost cried. I don't know why that movie gets me so much.

Here is a picture of me:

Mind you, I pretty much despise photos of myself, but this is me with my graduation cake. This weekend I had my party! FINALLY! I graduated about 2 months ago. We went all out at Hilltop. My cake, along with the balloons and napkins, were blue and gold to mimic the colors of Merrimack. It was cool. I also don't love flowers on cakes, so my dad had it made with polka dots and streamers. I was impressed. I had an AWESOME time. I got to see some of my friends whom I haven't seen since school ended. It was just fantastic. We ate SO much food and had so much fun. I tried Corona for the first time, not a huge fan man. I also bought that dress for the party, I liked it. It was a little short. I was so sweaty at the party, but no one else was hot. I have been extremely hot lately, and I have no clue why. Hrm...

Now I'm waiting for Chris to get here.  Man, I'm sleepy.

I am literally addicted to this song. A guy at CopyCop had a ring tone that sounded like it and I sang it all the time when I worked there...give me that fish...(I don't even really like fish...except fish and chips and the occasional lobster)

It's been a while...

Sorry to all those amazing followers I have on this blog. I have had about 2 people tell me they've read it...woohoo. I do appreciate them though.

This entry will be short.

We call this photo 2 Brady's. This is my nephew. We were having some fun with photobooth. He's such a little cutie. I call him munchkin face or google. He is my only nephew and we hang out a lot. He is also my godson so that is cool and i love him.

Other than that I have not been up to much. I work a lot which is fantastic because I really need money for grad school. I have been going out with Chris and with friends. It has been a good summer, but I'm excited for school to start.

and if I can't support it, then I guess I'm gonna sell it.

I got some really really really ridiculously exciting news today but I'm not allowed to talk about it for a while. It is so awesome and I can't wait to tell everyone. 

In other news, today I worked for only 2 hours. There was a field trip and like 1 million teachers, so I wasn't needed. I came home and rested to be honest. I've been fighting a cold for a while, which thankfully never became mono (knocks on wood)! I was determined once Chris got mono it was my fate, but apparently it didn't happen. 

This weekend is once again filled with parties and fun. I have my cousin's engagement party, and also my grandmother's 90th birthday party. It is a surprise party, but my grandmother doesn't like parties. She doesn't like big deals or us to spend much money, so it should be interesting when she comes to the party.

Tonight I baked Indoor S'mores. They are super good. Tomorrow I am making Millionaire Shortbread Bars. Shall be amazing. I love baking but I HATE cleaning after, my mom thinks this is hilarious...or well...not not really.

I'm obsessed with this show Degrassi. I don't know why. Its pathetic...

I find this video utterly hilarious. Such a joke...

Where's the chapstick?

I have found myself constantly muttering 'so is life' as I go through my daily routine. 

"It's been raining for 10 days straight" my response - 'So is life'

"I'm tired" my response - 'So is life'

I guess if you think about it that way, lifes trials don't seem as bad. So next time you find yourself in a situation, for example "My car won't start!" just think...'So is life' It happens. Life happens. Stuff happens and eventually you get over it. I promise you this blog will be more about my interesting life and less about these gems of wisdom, but this is a lesson I have been learning lately, to take the good with the bad, to realize that life isn't always going to go your way, so you need to deal and move on. It's a typical approach, but one most of us forget.

This week the summer camp began. For those who do not know, when I was about 12 I started volunteering at a summer camp. My mom worked days and needed me to go somewhere, but I was too young to have a job. I would go to the camp and take the kids to the bathroom, or get them snacks. This camp also doubles as a school during the year, so beginning when I was 14 and legal to work I started doing aftercare. I worked afternoons watching kids, playing with them and occasionally helping with some homework. I have gone back there on and off since I left for college. I remember my last day at summer camp before I moved to school, I was pretty certain I wasn't going to make it, but I did. 

I started my summer working in Boston in an office which was great fun, but the commute was so expensive and took me almost 2 hours! The camp is very close to my house, and gives me the opportunity to work with kids and go on some awesome field trips. For now, I am just helping anywhere, but next week I head into kindergarten as a teacher!

As for my social life, I have had family parties every weekend this summer. Seriously, Chris (my boyfriend - will probably refer to him often so put that to memory) can't believe that I have so many parties. This summer alone my cousin Amy had a college grad party, cousin Michael had a law school grad party, my nana turns 90, cousin Freddy turned 21, cousin Freddy has an engagement party, friend Mike has a wedding shower and I have my own graduation party. This doesn't count my friends' parties either! Its intense! Oh and Father's day is thrown in there, then my dad's birthday, Rich's birthday, then my birthday! SO insane! Summer is crazy.

I am tired and need some serious bed! 

As I was writing this blog entry, my friend Jessharris sent me this video and now I shall share it with all of you! It's typically hilarious...