Ali's 12th Birthday

So Derek's little sister, Ali Jo, turned 12 years old on Saturday. It's kinda weird for me cuz she was only 3 when Derek and I started dating. So I've seen her grow up and now she's almost a teenager! Yikes! I feel for Laurie (mom) in a couple more years! Anyway, she had a pool party at the hotel. She had 3 friends and some family come. And, of course, I made her cake. She had picked out a pool cake, but as always, I took it up a few notches.
I have to learn to start earlier and give myself more time. I always wait til the last minute. Wendy (my sister) always saves me by baking the cakes for me. She made the cakes on Friday cuz Derek and I drove to GF after work to get paneling for the garage. So then I just went to her house on Sat. to decorate them. About half way thru the decorating, I was really second guessing myself, but it turned out really freakin' awesome!!! I started at 12:30pm and didn't finish until 4:00pm or so. These things would be so much easier if I had my own house to do things in. Oh well, I make it work. So here are some pics.






Derek & Ali
I was trying to take a pic of Ali and me, but I only got myself! Dork!




Pretty cool, huh?! Everything on this cake was eatable! I love to take everyday food items and incorporate them into a cake. So you wanna know some of the ingredients?
Sand - ground up Nilla Wafers
Water - Blue Berry Jello, very concentrated so it wasn't too runny
Palm Trees - Pretzel sticks, Cocoa Puff "coconuts", and the "leaves" are white melting chocolate with green frosting coloring, piped free hand on to wax paper, cooled and then assembled.
Treasure Chest - 2 Hershey's Nugget chocolates with yellow frosting and sprinkles as gold, and red frosting with cinnamon dots for straps.
Seaweed - Green Fruit By The Foot
Butterflies - Bug Bites Graham crackers with frosting and sprinkles
People - Teddy Graham crackers with frosted eyes, nose, and swim suits
Fish - Goldfish Crackers with frosted eyes and "air bubbles"
Extras - Apple Gummi Ring for a inner tube, Fruit Stripes gum for a beach towel, and you can't see it, but I put 2 gummi starfish in the bottom of the ocean before I poured in the Jello.

I know, I know.....I'm amazing!!!!

Vegas Pics - These took FOREVER!!!!!

April and me with "Elvis" and "Mr. Roboto"

Outside M&M's World with "Red"

And we made Derek and Kevin get their pic taken with "Red" too.

Me and April with a huge stuffed cow at F.A.O. Schwatz Toy Store

Derek had to try on the space helmet!
Space walkin'!

Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender Car Show Pictures: Lots of Cars

This is a real Pin Up Girl photo shoot

These are made out of wood, but this is Derek's next projects with metal. Somebody's gotta make cool stuff for me!
Sailor Pin Up Girls

Doesn't he look adorable, under my umbrella-ella-ella-ah-ah-ah!
Shows over! And we both have matching souviners: sunburns!
The sun was so bright, I could hardly keep my eyes open!
April and me lookin' hot, at the Wynn Hotel entrance after checking out the strip club. Yep, I said strip club!

Our last night! :-( This is my new dress that I got at the car show.

Vegas--AND--Weight Loss?!

We got back from Vegas last Wednesday. It was so much fun. I really don't want to be back home and working. :-( We seen lots of fun stuff, went to the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender Car Show, and ate lots of really good food. I'll post some pics later on if I get time at work.

The really awesome news!!!

We actually lost weight while we were in Vegas!! I lost 1 lb, now at 27 lbs total and Derek lost 3 lbs, for a 41lb total! It must have been the fact that we shared almost all of our meals and drank water all the time and, oh I don't know, that we walked like 5-6 miles everyday!!! I am very excited about that, cuz I thought I was gonna come home 3-4lbs heavier!

If you can't wait for pictures, check out April's Blog. She took way more pictures than me and they are all really good...she is, after all, a photographer.

Pics from April's Pre-Birthday Party - March 29th

Me still looking adorable!


Doug in his Martini-Time shirt. I figured he'd get mad at me if I didn't post one.


April rockin' out!

April & Kevin being silly


Me and Derek


April enjoying our only bar snack...POPCORN!


The "Eyebrow" OOooooohhhh


Me being pretty! Ain't I adorable!

Dieter's Log: Day 72 - Vegas, Here We Come

I weighed in today since we'll be in Bismarck tomorrow to FLY TO VEGAS!!!!!!

I lost 3.8lbs, totaling 26.8lbs!! I now weigh 201! I almost made my goal of being under 200lbs before going to Vegas!

Derek lost almost 2lbs, putting him at 38lbs or so, I can't remember right off hand.

But I'm definitely excited for losing that much weight! I didn't think I'd make it that far! I do, however plan on gaining 3-5 lbs when we are in VEGAS! I'm sure Derek will do his best to keep us all on track, but I know I'm gonna sway a little bit.

We are driving to Bismarck this afternoon and we fly out at 12:20pm tomorrow. We'll be in Vegas by 3pm, Central Time, but it'll be 1pm in Vegas. We go back two hours cuz of time zones. Then we won't be back until next Wednesday, the 16th. We'll be back to Bismarck by 12 noon.

Well, I better go, I still have packing to do. And we have to work out, and I'm going tanning one more time before we leave.

I'll post when we get back!!