Heavenly Love

Last week, my friend, Mitzi and I took a quick trip out to Salt Lake City for a couple of days so that we could attend Heidi Beck and Steve Cannon's wedding. It was such a special day and we felt so blessed to be able to be there. Just one year ago, we weren't sure that Heidi's dad, Whiz, would be alive by the end of the year. Well, here he is with his baby girl celebrating her big day a year and month later.

The Beck's are such an amazing family and have such beautiful children. When Whiz was diagnosed with ,Renal Cell Carcinoma that had spread to his brain, lungs, and leg last year his oldest son Travis had already returned from a mission and was at school in Idaho, but his two girls were on missions in Utah and Nevada. Although they were all very scared, they Tyler the next son (#4 child) faithfully put in his papers for a mission and is now serving in Canada, and Troy (#5 child and the baby) leaves for his mission at the end of the month. Both girls have since returned. They are a wonderful example to us of how to raise faithful children and serve their Heavenly Father.

Heidi had only been home from her mission a few days when her Steve showed up claiming to be in the area (he lives out west, not the Midwest). We think that he is just very clever and knows a good thing when he sees it and felt he needed to move fast before the other guys got to Heidi when she returned to school. Heidi told me about Steve on a shopping trip to Appleton the next week. I could tell that this was something special. And why wouldn't he be??! As I told Heidi, Steve's make the best husbands. I speak from experience.

While in Salt Lake, I had the opportunity to meet up with some old friends from Devon. Lucy Cockram Bray and Clare Cockram DeVroom now live in Utah, so we met up for some wonderful Thai Food for dinner. It was so good to see them and see how well things are going for them. It was great to catch up and hopefully our friendships will rekindle and we will get to see each other more. They're welcome to the frozen tundra of the Northwoods anytime.

I also went to a wonderful British food store I love called London Market and discovered that they have now opened a British bakery next door. I made Mitzi eat there for breakfast the rest of the trip. It was delicious. Seriously, there are many things I love about the states, but your bakeries are not one of them. I ate Sausage Rolls, Millionaire Shortbread, Vanilla Slices, Cherry Bakewells, Cream Tea Scones, Blackcurrant tea and Ribena squash to drink. Not to mention Bacon Butty Sarnies with HP Sauce slathered on. One word for you ... Heaven!!!! Luckily the visit was only for three days, so my backside still managed to squeeze into the airplane seat on the way home.

It was a great trip. I missed the Cute Guy and DeMillion munchkins terribly, but enjoyed spending time with Mitzi and revisiting the city that was our home for five years.

First Sweetheart Dance for Madison

This past Saturday was the Father/Daughter Sweetheart Dance at the YMCA that is held in town each year. This is a huge deal and bonding time for daddy's and their little princesses. This was the first year that Steve took Madison and they both had a wonderful time.


Madison was decked out in a pretty silk dress with new jewelry and her hair curled. Daddy looked super cute as always.

It took hours to curl Madison's hair and I'm sorry to say that the hole in the Ozone became a lot bigger that night thanks to the helping of hairspray and styling products it took to backcomb and curl her hair.Daddy made Madison feel extra special by giving her a corsage to wear (which is not shown because she put it on just before entering the dance, they twirled and danced her heart out and pretty much destroyed it by the end of the night). Daddy also gave her a special book, called My Little Girl by Tim McGraw and signed it. It was such a special night.

Steve said that it was impressive to see so many people there making a huge deal of spending special time with their daughters and teaching them how they should be treated. Limo's and tux's were not an uncommon sight.

For those of you who know the Cute Guy well, he isn't particularly fond of dances, but he was thrilled to go to this one and came away having had a great time. They had their picture taken and played and danced the night away.

I'm grateful that Madison has such a wonderful example in her father of what type of man to marry. Hopefully she'll be half as lucky as I was.

Who needs a quick chocolate fix?

What's one to do when you're watching the pregame to the Superbowl, have a house full of chips, dips, meat and all other salty football-gamish products and are craving a chocolate fix. You could make some brownies or a cake, but that's 20-plus minutes away at least. You could run to the store, but who wants to miss the game... not me. So, I turn to The Most Dangerous Cake Recipe which a friend had emailed to me and five minutes later - I'm in chocolate nirvana.

Here's the recipe for those of you who need a quick fix yourself, but beware ... once you realize how fast and easy it is to whip up a chocolate cake you might find your knitting projects not fitting you anymore around the waistline. Continue at your own risk.

5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake

4 tablespoons of flour
4 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons of milk
3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
3 tablespoons of chocolate chips (optional, but really the cake needs them - so do you)
a small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffe mug

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well.

Add the egg and mix well.

Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.

Add the chocolate chips (if desires - but seriously who doesn't desire chocolate chips) and vanilla extract, and mix again.

Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at high (1000 w).

The cake will rise over the top of the mug while cooking, but don't be alarmed, it won't spill over.
Allow it to cool a little and then tip out on to a plate.
Eat!

I cut mine in half and added some raspberry chocolate vanilla ice cream.
And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world? Because now you know you are only ever 5 minutes away from chocolate cake - day or night.