Swine flu and Cakes... What a combination

It came.... It hit... It conquered. That's right.. the swine flu decided to come and visit our family last week and to say it wasn't fun would be an understatement. I noticed last Tuesday night as I was giving Gavin a bath that he felt extremely warm, and when I took his temperature it was a 103.5. That high of a temp really scared me. So I called Brooks, who was working late, and we agreed we'd call his doctor first thing in the morning to bring him. (We had just found out that my sister in law had gotten the swine flu, over the weekend, so we knew there was a chance he had come into contact with the "germs"-- Liz, glad you are feeling better now!) So, Wednesday morning comes around and I wake up feeling miserable. It literally felt like I had been hit by a large moving object, or that I had been run over. EVERY single part of my body ached. It was a really odd feeling. and then I spent the next hour in the bathroom welcoming more flu symptoms (need I be more discreet?!?!). At this point, I had gotten in touch with my best friend, whose husband works in the same cubicle as Brooks, for her to get in touch with her husband, who could then find Brooks, and pull him out of a very important meeting (sorry, babe), and have him rush home before Gavin woke up, to take care of both of us. What a blessing to have a husband willing and ready to come home and endure what he did (I just don't think he knew he was about to have 5 days of single parenting).

So, after a confirmed test for me (that nose swab thing they do to see if you have the swine flu is a weird test), three prescriptions, a steroid shot, and an episode of me passing out in the receptionist area of the doctors office (minus Brooks- because he walked Gavin to the car so we could get to his doctors appt on time), we arrived at Gavin's appt to hear the news he was infected as well.

Gavin handled the swine flu great. Other than high temperatures for two days, a lack of appetite, and a rare unwillingness to touch his apple juice, he was fine!!! You really never would have known he was sick. We were very thankful for this!! However, it made for a VERY active 14 month old, with only one parent in commission to tend to him. I must say, Sunday night, Brooks expressed his gratitude and appreciation for understanding how much I really do with Gavin on a daily basis at home. Brooks LOVED the time he got to spend with Gavin-- I LOVED hearing the giggles that came from the other room when I would wake up from a nap.

I, other than Gavin, had a rough week with the flu. I stayed in bed, literally, all day, everyday, from Wednesday to Sunday. I tried getting up every once in a while, but that lasted, maybe 5 minutes. I was very well taken care of and didn't mind spending several days in bed... the rest was great... but it was hard not getting to be with Brooks and Gavin.

Brooks' brother, Brandon came in Friday night and stayed til Sunday (he already had the swine flu so he was immuned). I think he helped Brooks survive the weekend. Brandon is always fun to have here and we love when he gets to come hang out with us. He chased Gavin around the house, played video games with Brooks, and even went and got us lunch one day.

Here's Gavin, on Thursday, he was sick... can you tell?

Once, I got over the symptoms of the swine flu, and completely disinfected my ENTIRE house, I stayed in the kitchen making my first "commissioned" cake. It was for a baby shower for a couple who go to our church, and the wife and I use to teach at the same school. I don't really feel that I'm ready to be "charging for my cakes", but my two best friends were hosting the shower and they insisted. I really had fun with this cake. I'm determined to be creative and not have the same look on every cake, so when they told me the theme was circus, and the colors were red and yellow, I immediately thought of the strips on a circus tent, and that kinda became my vision.

The bottom border is rolled up butter cream that I placed in the freezer for about 10 minutes to firm up. I saw this on a friends cake and thought it would be fun and give a cake a playful look.

Last night, I spent some time making a birthday cake for a friend of ours, in our bible study group, whose birthday is today. Since Halloween is this weekend, I really wanted to make a Halloween themed cake, but wasn't planning on making another cake for a while, so I put the Halloween theme onto his birthday cake. I really wanted to try chocolate butter cream icing, so I needed something that went with brown icing. I searched Bakerellas website and found she had lots of spider ideas so I went with that. I tinted the icing a few shades of darker brown, then found a picture of a webbed cake, and went from there. This cake was really fun to make.

Happy Halloween!