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02/09/2003 Entry: "B&G the best day! (B & the cake too!)"
Well, let's see...B & Dh got home from their trip at the Exploreum yesterday morning bright and early. We started working on the cake early yesterday. Of course, I should preface this by saying we ACTUALLY started working on the cake on Thursday/Friday...planning to not have to RUSH at the end. Uhhuh. So Saturday evening finds us trying to finish the cake. I had made my special secret part of the cake (to be revealed soon)--and dh was mixing the frost, he ran B over to his friend's house where he had been asked to spend the night and then was home again. All of the cakes had been made and REmade...he is trying a new recipe of frost he was told was great by the people at the food company he buys food from for his Boat. He's mixing it and I keep hearing him grumbling. I ask what's wrong...he says nothing. Okay. We both tasted the new frost and said "eh...not too shabby"...
Fast forward to him frosting this GORGEOUS cake we baked to perfection...we had even colored the cake and marbled it blue and gold. YUUM. He's putting the frost on and it's cool...the color is bright gold/yellow. I'm doing the dishes for what seems like the millionth time in the last 24 hours (cake making/decorating produces ALOT of dishes)--I get to the bowl where the new frost was made and there's a big chunk of it on the paddle...I'm all...I think I'll eat that chunk of frost...and so...I do. What I experienced in the next 20 seconds I will never forget. My mouth was filled with the most disgusting and horrifingly terrible taste I have ever experienced from something that is supposed to bring back memories of birthday parties and licking the bowl when Mom baked cookies--all I can say is EWWWWWWWWW!!!!!  I asked in between gagging if my dh had actually TASTED the "new" frost. He says no...just a little bit when he was mixing it...you know just a lick...he was concerned but he puts on the final touches to the beautiful cake he has just frosted completely. I'm scraping my tongue with a paper towel while getting a glass of hot water to swish in my mouth to try and get rid of the taste of the frost when he gets a little more worried. What's wrong with the frost? WHAT'S WRONG WITH IT?? It's inedible. It's HORRIBLE. It is the nastiest thing I have ever tasted and I *love* frosting. Uh-oh. Yeah uh-oh is right.  Here's a bit of what he looked like at the time:
Because this is at 9:00pm the day before the banquet and he just used the grossest frost to touch the face of the earth to frost it. Oh dear God...please save us!!! Thankfully, I am married to an incredibly resourceful guy...he's such a blessing to me. He says "I'll go to the boat and make two cakes in our oven (we had to make 4 to make the bottom layer in our home oven)--it will take only a few minutes, while I am there I will take this stuff and make a huge batch of buttercream frost with our mixer because it's so big it will only take a minute!" Before I can say "okay" he's gone out the door. Whatta man. 
He returned about midnight with two new cakes, albeit...not the cool blue and gold swirly cakes, but beautiful cakes none the less. He also had the biggest tub of buttercream frost I believe I have ever seen. I nearly went into diabetic shock just looking at it and I'm thankfully not even diabetic.  And to top it off, this frost was the most glorious bright golden yellow color you've ever seen. This left me to make only ONE small batch of blue frost for the trim. We could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I should say at this point that my dh is not a night owl. Now normally, he's a little wired in general, but he has decided to take a vivarin because he's got to finish this cake. I'm thinking...okay...if you think it's a good idea. Note to self: hide the vivarin for future reference. Because see...I'm sorta tired at this point, dragging a little bit, and my dh is in there frosting the cake and it sounds a little bit like there is a rock concert/stand up comedy club/one man band going on in the dining room...and I'm getting a little worried because you know...by this time I had forgotten that he had taken the vivarin...and I'm thinking that he's lost his mind. I actually sat for about 10 minutes wondering what had happened to him before I remembered the caffiene pills he took. I was actually GLAD I remembered...I was thinking I needed to go find something to knock him over the head with before he hurt himself.
At any rate....by 3:30 am we were "nearly" done. Dh had taken ANOTHER vivarin pill and now was something like Weird Al Yancovich...in some strange psychotic version...after being locked in a room for a year as a child with only weekly reader, and suddenly being released into Disney World. It was a very strange thing...and then he informed me that I had better get the writing on the cake done because he could tell his hands were starting to shake and he wouldn't be able to do the border...ya think? So I do the writing...and we got the cake mostly put together (using cardboard platforms and dowel rods! Really!) and were heading to bed at 5:30 am. We put the cake in the car to make sure the cat didn't walk on it. We learned that from personal experience thankyouverymuch. Lucky for us it's winter, even here in AL...so we didn't have to worry about the frost melting.
We got up today...B came home...we got everyone dressed, got everything loaded in the car and were at the Hall by 3:00. We met the Cubmaster there and he let us in. Some more of our help arrived by 4...and we got about our business of setting everything up and decorating. Dh and I were "in charge" of this event. We did all of the planning, the decorations, the catering, and everything. SO I put the cake together (we had to put the decorations on there after we got there...you'll see!)--and let's see...our theme was America--so we had tables set up for the boys which had tootsie rolls and bubble gum wrapped up in patriotic wrappers...we had skirting all over the place, stars, balloons...well, it looked awesome. To top it all off the restraunt we used, Fazolis was INCREDIBLE!!!!!!! They came in set up everything, it was all absolutely DELICIOUS--they were SO wonderful...really took care of us!! The Cubmaster made dh and I stand up so he could thank us in front of everyone. People kept stopping to ask us if we were professional cake decorators...it was kinda cool!
Okay I'll not keep you in suspense anymore. The cake. My secret part of it was to create a bunch of little cub scouts who would be climbing up the cake. They were made entirely out of frosting...completely edible, and OH so COOL!!!!!!!!! I can't even say these pics to the lil guys much justice...We made a huge layer cake for the bottom and then 4 round cakes that were stacked on top of one of the corners. I took one of the bandanas from each of the levels of cub scouts and put it around each layer, then put the little cubbies climbing up the cake and on it. I put the arrow of light patch and pin (the highest award a cub can earn) along with the Boy Scout insignia on the top of the cake. I wrote "Pack 28 Reaching New Heights" I came up with that myself! (proud smile here) Okay here's pics for you!!
Cool huh?
Okay now that I have all of that out of my system...let me tell you what the night was REALLY about!! My son!! OH my!! First off, he gets more handsome every time he puts that uniform on! Tonight he was chosen to perform colors. He was the one who announced the colors, ran the detail, and led our pack in the pledge of allegiance. He was so proud!!! Ya'll should have seen him!! That's a VERY big honor--as the Scout has to be in perfect uniform AND be an exceptional Scout to be choosen for this honor.
Then when the awards were handed out B got the following: he earned his gold arrow point (that's when you have your bear patch, for every ten achievements you complete after your bear you earn a gold arrow point for the first ten, and a silver for every ten after that)--and 4 silver arrow points. He also earned his Astronomy, heritages, music, math & compass belt loops, (which are earned by doing basic skills in each area based on guidelines), and his astronomy, chess, art, & roller skating pins (which are earned by showing a deeper knowledge and understanding of a skill based on guidelines). He was so tickled!
So we were just absolutely so proud of B as he has worked so hard so far this year in Scouts!  He's such a good kid too...dh told me about the cutest thing he did yesterday. He had invited a friend to the Exploreum campout--we'll call him J and he's a really good kid. We drove him home after the campout was over, because they left at 7:30 am. Well, dh listens to them talking and they were discussing Moses. They had both bought these cool snakes from the gift shop that have the wire in them--so you can straighten them and then curl them up or whatever you want. So they were taking them and making them into a staff and then making them snakes. J said to B how that was a neat trick that Moses did with his staff when he turned it into a snake. B was very serious and says "that wasn't a trick"...and J says "haha yeah I know...it was just a neat you know...a cool..trick he did" and B says still very serious "that was no trick"...I'm actually rolling in the floor laughing as dh is telling me this because of the tone I know B was using which was...God doesn't do "tricks" he does MIRACLES baby and you better know it! Of course, I know that J didn't mean that it was literally a trick, but that it was a "trick" if you know what I mean. They moved onto other conversations, but you know I do know that I am glad that B knows what he means to say and says it. Made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
I spoke to the boy's Mom B spent the night with last night and she told me that he is the greatest kid--that she really loves him to peices and that she thinks he's a good influence on her son...that B is good for him. She also said she thought he was going to explode when he ate dinner last night--as she made lasagna (B's fave!) and he ate and ate and ate--and she thought he was too little of a guy to eat so much! I told her he was JUST like his Daddy. She said he was welcome at their house ANYTIME...which makes me so happy because I really liker her and her dh--as dh would say "they are good peoples"
As for my girls, they were SOOOOOOOO good today that I am going to take them all out for ice cream tomorrow. I love my kids so much.  I had such a good day today...and I LOVED being so involved and helpful and knowing that I made a difference. I loved watching my son go up there and get those awards and how he shined when he went up to the microphone to lead the colors...and how he just glowed afterwards. I loved that his other friend saved him a seat at their table...and that they all played a game of tag outside in the dark. I loved that my girls were such little princesses...and that when C thought she was going to die of total starvation before they were serving dinner that they gave me a breadstick for her and R and they were satisfied with that. I love that they let me do their hair so cute today, and that they smiled and laughed and played and had such fun, that they are now pooped! I love my dh that he worked SO hard on this week off for all of this to turn out right. I loved watching him be in control...as people would say what do we need next, he'd tell them "this and this and this" I loved how he smiled so big when they announced that he was the new Committee Chairman, and how he shook people's hands with this confidence and sureness I don't get to see because it's something he uses at work all the time but doesn't get the chance to show off around us very much. I loved the look on our children's faces when they asked dh and I to stand up and everyone clapped for us...they were actually proud of US. I am very in love with my family...my life right now. You know, there were little things that weren't perfect, some things people would have never noticed and maybe some they did, but you know I am so happy with the way everything turned out...and most of all I am happy that when we walked in the house with the bitter wind blowing from behind us, a gush of warm air blew past me from inside the house, and as I walked in my family was in a rush around me, as a flurry of shoes and coats flew by me, a million voices saying "can I have a drink" "where's my pins?" "can I play this" "where does this go" and so much more all in something most people would label as chaos--it enveloped me--and my heart nearly burst for the love I have for this chaos is mine. It's my gift from God. 
You can all remind me of that when I am knee-deep in laundry, someone has spilled red cool-aid on the carpet, I'm tripping over toys on the stairs, the kids are fighting, the phone is ringing, dh is sleeping on the couch at 9pm, and all I want is for calgon to take me away. 
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