graduation fun...

baby shower/christening cakes

Dum, dum, da dum...

Wedding cakes and groom's cakes!

kid's birthdays

These are kid's birthday cakes I did for friends of mine or friends of friends.

Gus Hill

This is the baby shower cake I made for my best friend in St. Louis. Lindsey and I met when we lived in Oxford for three years. We walked together every night while our husbands studied for law school exams. She is the best ever. There are no words to describe our friendship and I am just so thankful to have her in my life. Ok about Gus...This past December Daniel and I traveled to St. Louis to throw Blake and Lindsey a couples baby shower. This is the cake she asked me to do. So, ta da!!!

The way to any man's heart...

...is through his stomach. Here's Daniel's favorite birthday treat. German chocolate cake. Although I haven't totally mastered the rum part of it, I think he still enjoyed it.

Dear friends and their special day!

These are a few of my friend's birthday cakes. Here we've got coconut lime cake, chocolate cake with buttercream icing, white almond cake with almond buttercream icing, and red velvet with cream cheese icing. I'll be adding another one soon!!!

Goin' to the Chapel and...

Here is a bridal shower and bachelorette cake.

Go State! Hotty Toddy! and Halloween always go together, right?

The next few cakes on this post are, of course, related to MS State and Ole Miss football as well as Halloween themed cakes. Colonel Reb all alone was a time when I decided to practice making my own fondant(so it would be tastier than rubber). I also wanted to dive into making something a little more detailed.

Bully is for a dear friend's son on his birthday! I just adore Cindy and her family! I don't know if I love them so much because they are Bulldog fans or because they are such good people. But, then again, being a Bulldog fan makes you a good person.

This is what I call a "brothers divided" cake. I did this one for a sweet student of mine who always LOVED giving me a hard time about being a State fan. Anytime I'd wear anything maroon or white or anything having to do with MS State, he'd say, "Mrs. Culpepper, your shirt, earrings, etc. are so ugly." simply because it was MS State related. When I baked this cake for him, I told him I spit on the Rebel side and I hoped he'd enjoy. :) He and his family are precious and I sure am going to miss him next year!!!

Now, for some "boo" tactics even though these aren't scarey at all.

Three's company

So, I have this dear friend who has three sweet little ones. Well, they are not so little now, but they are still sweet. When they were first born, I wanted to take something sweet to get her through each day. You know, give her energy? What should I take? A cake, of course!

bugs, bugs, everywhere there are bugs!

These cupcakes are in the shape of various insects. They were very tedious, but a whole lot of fun all at the same time. The theme for the birthday party was a "bug catching" party. So much fun!!!

Happy Birthday to You....

At Daniel's office each month, all of the birthdays for that month are celebrated in the conference room with one big lunch and cake. Usually someone from the office makes the cake, but on this rare occasion I was asked to make the cake. Yippee!!! This was one of my first cakes to make/decorate. It was just a vanilla cake with buttercream icing. I do everything from scratch unless I'm in a hurry or have lots of cakes to bake in a short amount of time. Then I cheat and use a box, but even then I've been told the cakes taste delicious.

Bless the Hands...

So, I've always been a praying woman, but when I met Daniel I quickly picked up on the sweet saying "Bless the hands that prepared it" during every blessing before any meal. I asked him why he and his family always said that and he said that it was just an appreciation for the one who took the time out to prepare the meal for them. He has carried this over to our family and I thought it was a cool name for my hobby. So, bless the hands...

Playing in the dirt...

Well, it's about time I posted new happenings around the Culpepper house. I've decided to dedicate this blog to things I love to do. Right now, it's cooking and gardening. I'll start outside and move inside with other fun blog updates. Last summer I decided I was tired of looking at a "neked" back yard since I spend most of my time with my caboose parked on the patio with coffee and book in hand. So, I told Daniel I was going to till up a border around the back of our house and patio about two feet wide. He was not impressed because this meant I would be destroying any "good" grass we had begun to establish in our two years of being here. After much sweet talking and cooking many of his favorite meals, I now have a beautiful flowerbed that wraps from my garage all the way around to the corner of my patio, and I did all by myself! Even Noel likes to look at the flowers. Check out the photo of her chillaxin on what she thinks is HER bench.

Halloween Eve

I was so looking forward to a nice relaxing night alone. Daniel is with his firm on a mandatory team building retreat at Old Waverly. Yeah, I know! What a nice weekend to be at Old Waverly when it's pouring rain. He's still not much of a golf dude so I guess he's ok with the rain for now.
As I'm enjoying my relaxing evening of Hulu and getting caught up on most of my weekly shows, my cell phone rings. I look to see who it is only to find that the person has blocked his/her number. I shouldn't have answered it, but I did. The "kids" on the other line told me I was "the lucky caller and that if I answered the next few questions right then I'd win $2!" I hung up immediately! Stuff like that makes me nervous! I know it was probably just kids, but I'm still going to set the alarm and sleep in the closet tonight. I know! I know! I am a scaredy cat.
So much of a scaredy cat that once a teenager rang my doorbell when I was home alone to sell me the Clarion Ledger and I never answered the door and stayed in the closet until Daniel got home. I later found out from a friend who lives in our neighborhood that it was only a teenager. :)

Goin to the Chapel...

Well, yesterday was my sister's wedding. I left on Thursday after work headed for Tuscaloosa to do "the wedding thing". When I got there, I enjoyed a nice run on the treadmill while Madz sat in front of me asking every two seconds "How far now?" I don't think she liked being there. :) We then went back to her apartment to peel the stickers off of 200 bubble bottles. Needless to say, I never want to see another bubble bottle again! Friday we went to get her nails/toes done and we had rehearsal and rehearsal dinner that night. All this time, I am really nervous because my throat was really sore and I was supposed to sing in the wedding. I was trying not let the nerves show. As the wedding day approached, the exhaustion began to set in. All of the wedding festivities went off without a hitch and both bride and groom looked fabulous! I didn't even cry during the wedding. I know! Hard to believe, huh? I did shed a tear or two on the way home, though. Now I can focus more on National Boards and getting it all packed up!

Happy March!

I started off my Sunday looking at the snow on the ground. After a great time of worship with great friends, we partied it up "baby" style at a baby shower for Sarah Beth and Brent. Their little bundle of joy's birthday is fast approaching! I got a few pages typed out yesterday on my boards and now only have two pages left. I can't believe I've made it this far! I tried to finish it up today, but with not much luck due to my relaxed state of mind after spending most of the afternoon laughing at Parker and Noel talking to each other.
I've discovered a new recipe some might enjoy. I'll put it on here, but you have to remember I cook WITHOUT measuring things so...Here you go! Enjoy.

1 lb of ground beef or turkey
1 can of baked beans
1 or 2 cans diced tomatoes
1 or 2 spoons full of brown sugar
"some" barbeque sauce
1 can black beans
1 can "white" beans (I can't remember what they are called.)

Brown the meat and mix all of the other ingredients together with the meat. Let it all simmer all afternoon (or for a few hours) and serve with cornbread.

Procrastination

It's been a while since I have updated here. I decided people might be interested in what has been going on since the last time.I decided at the beginning of the school year to try and get my national board certification. I began my entries with telling about how I have improved my career professionally and how this has impacted my students. Then came the math/science entry in which I chose to dissect cow eyes with my students. Needless to say, they loved it. Especially the second time we did it. Yes, I said second time. We dissected cow eyes twice because my first video of this lesson didn't turn out the way it needed to be. So, I dragged a friend to a slaughter house to pick up more cow eyes. (I ordered the first set of eyes from a biological supply company.). While we were at the slaughter house, a man asked me how I was going to cook the eyes because he thought I was planning on eating them. (ha ha!) After this I taught the writing lesson on taking a tour through the digestive system and then the history lesson on Civil Rights Leaders in MS. I even had a student shed a tear or two during the history lesson and video. This is probably the most fun I've had in my teaching career. Being forced to branch out of my comfort zone and stretch these young minds has been so interesting. Now, the typing it all up about what took place prior, during, and after each lesson has been NO fun at all. It has, in fact, consumed my weekends for the past 8 months. I plan on using this weekend to finish typing up my last entry and hopefully my wonderful husband will proof it. Spring Break will be used to pack and ship this whole thing. Daniel has been a real trooper during the whole process by taking care of many of my responsibilities around the house. Now, I guess I had better get back to work on all of this. Oh yeah, I've also been traveling back and forth to Tuscaloosa for wedding showers thrown for my sister. She and Stephen get married this coming weekend!!!

So, I just realized that I haven't posted an update in quite some time now. Well, let's see...what's been going on since August? The Today Show came to our school because they were doing a show on the prevention of Type 2 diabetes, and we walk with our kids every morning. They taped that and a portion of an educational seminar in my classroom on healthy choices. Some of my kids even got the chance to appear on TV. I was so very proud of them. Been going to showers for Rachel since she is getting married in TWO WEEKS! I know she is so excited. It makes me feel like getting married again (to Daniel, of course). We've just finished our first 9 weeks of school and I can't believe we only have 3 more to go! :) I had the best birthday a woman could ask for. My kids gave me so many gift cards and Daniel gave me such a wonderful gift of a quiet dinner for two at one of my favorite restaurants. I've put out halloween decorations and am awaiting the trick or treaters!

total conviction

total conviction
Friday night after a long day at work and a nice shopping trip with Rachel, I stopped by Subway to pick up a couple of sandwiches for Daniel and me. I was on the phone with Granny and Pop telling them about the Today show coming to our school on Monday and this man followed me into the Subway. He got in line behind me and was just as quiet as could be, waited in line so patiently and then I felt a strong feeling to buy his dinner too. I have never felt so strong about something in my entire life. As I ordered our sandwiches, I continued to feel this tug or maybe it was a slight tap on my shoulder, but it still seemed to say for me to buy this man's food. Keep in mind I have no idea who this man is. He looked as if he hadn't shaved in about two days and his clothes weren't name brand other than the Ugg female boots ( in September). Other than these things, this man didn't at all look homeless, but yet still I get the urge to buy his food. I was paying for our sandwiches and he told the young lady behind the counter what he wanted on his sandwich and I slowly walked out of the store without paying for his. Before I could get out the door, I noticed that he pulled out some $1s from his pocket and paid for his own. I had not paid for his and couldn't (still can't) get that off my mind. I have never felt more ashamed in my life. I felt like I had ignored God, I had ignored the call! I can honestly say that I will NEVER ignore HIM ever again.