Keep Calm...

and eat a cupcake. That's what I did today. Now that I've finally gotten off my emotional roller coaster, I am back to having fun and enjoying the people around me. Today was nice. Marjorie and I met Christina at the Farmer's Market that they have in the stadium parking lot every Thursday. There wasn't anything in particular I was planning to buy, but I ended up buying some pretty amazing bread. It's Asiago Basil and it's made with 45% mashed potatoes. It is heavenly when toasted with a little butter.

 There was a little stand that was selling sausages and cheesesteak. Christina mentioned a fairly new place that she heard made some pretty authentic cheese steak. We were all hungry so we decided to go there for dinner. DP Cheesesteaks (Downtown Philly Cheesesteaks) was delicious. Marjorie and Christina both got the Mushroom Cheesesteak. I was tempted because I love my mushrooms, but went for the Cream Cheese Steak (it still had some mushrooms). It was really good. The cream cheese was all warm and melty and went so well with everything else.

And what place was just a few doors down from DP Cheesesteaks? THE COCOA BEAN! I haven't been there in a while. What better way to make myself feel better after a crappy couple of days? A yummy cupcake, that I didn't have to make myself. Sadly it was not a red velvet day. I got Party In My Mouth, a chocolate cupcake with a Nutella filling and cream cheese frosting with chocolate drizzle. I loved that one! You can't go wrong with Nutella. I also got a Mango Raspberry. I loved the raspberry cupcake, but I couldn't taste the mango. I was disappointed. I didn't really eat the frosting. The cupcake was good enough without it and the was just no point to eating it since it didn't taste like it was supposed to.

Before walking out the door of The Cocoa Bean, something caught my eye. They had t-shirts for $10. I bought one.

This is what the shirt says. It's lime green and the lettering is in hot pink. It was too hard to take a picture of myself wearing it (you couldn't read it all thanks to my short arms). I'm pretty happy with today's little outing and all of my purchases (minus the disappointment of a cupcake).

Waves

Yesterday was a rough day for my family. Certain events transpired and didn't have the expected outcome. Feelings of anger and frustration have been coming in waves throughout the last two days. I know it's over and done with and that there isn't anything I can do right now to change anything. I hate that feeling of helplessness. I really don't like to see people I love suffering or in pain. I wish there was something I could do make everything better. I can't help but feel that the outcome could have been different if I had been home and there in person to support my family, especially my sister. Ok, I'm done dwelling on what's already in the past. Time to look forward to the future and hope things turn out the way they are supposed to.

Sunday Sugar Extravaganza

Christina and I decided earlier in the week that we wanted to have a dessert party. I bought some new cupcake liners (from Etsy of course) and wanted to an excuse to make cupcakes. Christina wanted to make an easy frozen pie that I made a few weeks ago (I learned from Marjorie, who got the recipe off the back of a condensed milk can). It's so good that you have to have other people around or you'll eat the whole thing. Thank goodness I had Christina around when I made it! We chose Sunday, before ward prayer. It was also perfect timing because Marjorie just got back the day before so it was kind of like a welcome home party too.

We basically invited the whole ward and told them to bring a treat if they could. I ended up making cupcakes and brownies (the kind Nana makes) because I figured more people would just come to eat instead of bringing something. I underestimated the awesomeness of my ward. We had more than enough food. The majority of the ward was in our apartment and outside our front door (it was hot inside). Everyone had a great time eating and conversing. We even heard Beth & Cody's engagement story. After ward prayer, most people stayed for the Sunday movie. This week it was The Emperor's New Groove. It was a great night.

I wish I would have taken more pictures, but I was too busy enjoying myself.

These are from before everyone came. So this is just the food my apartment and Ally provided. 

My usual red velvet, but I added my new sugar pearls.

You can't tell how many people were here from the pics, but there were a lot. Most people were in line for food or still coming through the door. These are just the people that had a good seat.