I Am My Mother's Daugher...

My mom is always throwing herself into big projects. Nothing can be simple. If she is asked to make a poster for a wrestling event, she ends up making at least 30 (one for each wrestler, regardless of whether or not they are going to wrestle that night), she makes dinner for the coaches and refs, she makes a mascot costume for a small child fan, and everything is done by hand. If someone asks her to bring a side dish to a pot luck dinner, she brings at least 6 different kinds just in case someone else forgot to bring something. She spends 60 hours a week on a hand out for her 18 month-3 year old class at church. (She's made cardboard ox-carts, bonnets, chaps, and vests just for a pioneer lesson, she's hand made flannel boars and magnet boards, she draws the characters, makes copies, colors them, cuts them out, laminates them, and then cuts them out again...) She is constantly making everything special by her love and effort put into things, and she never complains. That part I didn't inherit...I inherited the "throwing myself into seemingly impossible projects" part, but I lack her grace, patience, and talent in so many ways. This latest project I undertook was Jayden's birthday cake, AKA: The Birthday Cake from Heck. We decided that since we just had Christmas we'd try and make things special in other ways than just presents. We got him a basketball to go with his basket ball hoop, but I decided that since we were being frugal with the birthday presents, I would make up for it by making him the most ridiculously awesome (to him) birthday cake. We sat down with the Family Fun website and went through about 50 different cakes when he decided on one shaped like a pirate hat (standing up). I've done "specialty cakes" before, and this one looked fairly simple. I decided that instead of using a boxed cake, I would really go all out and bake it from scratch! And I would double the recipe because Dan's family was coming over along with Aunt Krissa and Rylee, and I wanted to make sure I had enough for everyone. I also decided that I would make everyone tortilla soup for lunch using dry beans instead of cans. "Piece of cake..." I thought. So, I set out making the cakes at 10:00 last night. I was going to make the pirate hat cake along with a big rectangular cake and decorate it like the ocean and stick some of Jay's pirate toys on top. I followed the directions exactly, but when the timer went off and I went to pull the cakes out, I screamed. The rectangle cake was OVERFLOWING all over my oven! The two circular cakes that made up the pirate hat looked done, but when I pulled them out to check them, they caved in! I will admit that I lost control and may have used some inappropriate language, but here was 10 1/2 cups of flour, 16 egg whites, 5 cups of sugar, and so on, appearing to be completely ruined. It was now 11:00 at night, I was exhausted from my day, and I burst into tears. All I'd wanted to do was bake a freaking cake and make it special for Jay (he'd been talking about his pirate hat cake all day) and I was a failure. I banished myself from the kitchen, cursing at myself, and locked myself in the office. My sweet husband held me while I cried and then went to the kitchen to see if he could salvage any of it. I called my Daddy and vented and cried to him a little, then tried to get my thoughts off of the darn cake by playing a little Halo. I don't know what miracle Dan performed, but he came upstairs about 45 minutes later and informed me that the cakes were done and looked good. Somehow, and I truly take no credit for this, but give it to a loving Heavenly Father and a dear husband of mine, the cakes ended up being perfect for what I needed. Everything went smooth this morning when I decorated the cakes and there is no evidence of my emotional breakdown last night...