Giv'n a Holla from the East Coast

Well I don't have really anything exciting to report other that things are still going wonderfully and amazingly well! I was talking to a friend the other day about jobs and what we do in our spare time and I told him that I would still want to do what I do for a living, in my spare time. And I realized how lucky and blessed I am cause how many people can say that? How many people love their jobs enough to want to do it all the time? So I feel very lucky to, as dad would say, "Have something to be excited about when you get up in the morning." So thanks dad for always teaching us the importance of this principle, it definitely stuck with me and after lots of work and school I am now being able to utilize it.
I don't have pictures of my latest work as of yet because I wasn't wearing my pink helmet on the short bus I guess, and I left my camera at school. But I took pictures on my boss's camera and she is going to email them to me. I was very excited this week though because my boss let me do my first wedding cake, start to finish, all by myself. I have been helping her with them, but never allowed to do one all by myself. I guess I'm improving or something, for her to trust me with that responsibility. I'm sure you all laugh at me and I know this makes me sound like a geek, but it is such a rush to work on these cakes and then see the finished product, and think "wow, I did that!"
Plus I got to make a John Deere cake this week!!! It was awesome!! My boss had never done one before and she knows how much I love John Deere so she saved it for me and just told me to figure out how to carve it and build it, and then just run with it. So I did. I wasn't able to spend as much time as I would have liked because it was just a small birthday cake, but I think I've come up with ways to improve it. It did turn out very adorable though if I do say so myself.
Okay, okay. I'm sorry all I ever talk about is cakes. I wish I could say there was more going on in my life though, but there isn't too much. I'm so busy between school and work and traveling between the two that I don't have time for much else. I have been on some dates though with some guys upstate, which I have to say, I definitely prefer the upstate guys to the ones downstate. They're a little more rugged and more to my liking, although none are worth mentioning in detail. I also really like the ward a lot, everyone is very friendly. All in all life is fabulous! So to quote Robin Hood "OODALOLLY OODALOLLY!!" (and yes, I came up with the spelling all by myself! I'm not a spelling bee champ for nothin, ya know!)

Turkey Hunting

Well so far this is all I have to show for my attempts at turkey hunting. Ridiculous I know! I've been out three mornings and two of the three I shot a bird but they both got away. I'm extremely ticked about the whole thing!
So here's the story on how I got my extremely rugged battle wound. I was up in the tree blind which has plexiglass windows that hangs down, and you just prop them open with a piece of wire while you're hunting. Well after waiting for 3 hours, a tom walked out almost right below the tree blind, so I just barely stuck my gun out the window, setting up the shot when the window closed and slammed the scope into my eye which is how I got the black eye and the cut under my eye. This of course scared me because it was the last thing I was expecting and I jumped and shoved the scope up into my forehead giving me the big cut. But even after all this the turkey was still just sitting there, so I took off my sweater and tied it around my forehead to stop the bleeding and took the shot. I hit him and he dropped but he got up and ran away. And I had blood gushing into my eyes so I could barely see to take another shot. I am still so mad about not getting him cause he was huge too!! But I still have a month to get one so that's good. Eight stitches total, 6 on top and two on bottom. But even with the injury I definitely enjoy turkey hunting!! It's been some of the funnest times I've ever had hunting, other than rabbits with Quinn of course!
The ironic thing about it, is that most of the Sisson boys have this exact same scar in the same place from getting hit in the eye with a scope. So when I got home they all hugged me and said "now you're an official member of the Sisson family!" It was pretty funny.

More Cakes

These are the cupcake baskets we do. We do them in lots of sizes and they're very popular. We made 25 of them for the centerpieces for this particular wedding. It took forever!
I handmade each of those frosting flowers. about 700 total!

This was the wedding cake that went with all the cupcake baskets. They went to australia on their honeymoon. Hence the hideous cake toppers.

Sweet Sixteen party
Elmo
Christening (I even made the shoes!)
Wedding
This is the cake topper. How cute is that!!

Midterm

Well it's already halfway through the quarter if you can believe it!! I had my midterm today and it went awesome!! i was one of two perfect scores in the whole class. We had to bake a genoise cake, make italian buttercream and then do a few specific piping skills to decorate the cake. I'm lucky because I get lots of practice since this is what I do at my externship, but my chef was very impressed and said he understood why my supervisor at my externship would want to hire me. Only 6 more weeks til graduation!!! YEAH!!!!

Here are some pictures of stuff I took along my trek across the U.S. Never again do I want to make this drive, and I decided never should I be left to my own thoughts for such long consecutive hours!! I realized that I not only enjoy speaking to other human beings, but it is necessary! But I made it in one piece and I'm grateful for that.

Display in Cabela's in Nebraska
Never have I been so happy to see a sign before!!
The thing I miss most about Utah (other than the fam, of course!)

The longest and most boring state EVER!!!!!
One of the important things in life. LOL

Job

Well as some of you may know, others may not, I now have a job in place for after graduation. The externship has been going amazingly well, and I was invited by my supervisor/owner of the cake shop I'm working at, to work for her full time after I graduate. YEAHH!!! I'm very excited about this because I really like working there and I get along great with Joan and the other people that work there. It's a great atmosphere and she's an excellent teacher and very willing to share all of her knowledge with me. Here are most of the cakes I've made at my internship so far::Carousel (very 80's in my opinion, but we give the customer's what the want. Ha Ha)








My Proudest Creation So Far!!

For some people at the Saratoga Raceway

Bridal Shower (I even hand painted the leopard prints on the blanket!! Never knew I was an artist!!)

Externship

Well I finally have something new to write about. I started my externship this week up in Latham, NY (city just outside of Albany), and I absolutely LOVE LOVE it!!!! It's called Joan's Cake Chateau and owned and run by Joan Bonnier. She is a woman in her late 60's and she does all of the decorating by herself with the occasional help of her granddaughter.
The minute I walked in on the first day she handed me a bag of buttercream and told me to decorate some fondant cutouts for some cupcakes. After that I decorated 50 cupcakes and one cake. She is an excellent teacher and really knows her stuff. Plus she gives me a ton of responsibility and trusts me do decorate on my own. On the second day I walked in and she said that she had saved a horse cake and cowboy boot cake for me since it was my area of expertise. So she just showed me what to do and then left me to it! She doesn't micromanage or hang over my shoulder the whole time. It's very encouraging to have a professional put so much trust in me. I love it!!
And for the most exciting news, as I was getting ready to leave on Saturday, Joan told me that she knew that it was supposed to be an unpaid externship but that I was doing a great job and saving her tons of time and that she wanted to pay me!!! So she is paying me $8 an hour for now which covers all my gas and my train tickets back and forth. This was a complete surprise and such an incredible blessing. Heavenly Father has truly blessed and taken care of me. I promised Heavenly Father back in April of last year that if he would let me know if coming to New York was the right thing to do then I would do whatever it took to gather the funds and come to school. And that I would trust in him to help me make ends meet and have the strength to make the transition and move, and He has truly and 150% kept his end of the deal. I'm so grateful for my blessings and for the gospel. I love what I'm doing and where I am in my life and I don't think I've ever been happier!!