It seemed like it would never come, and now it seems so long ago. Our Vacation! It's a bit of a blur at the moment because, of course, after being home all summer, my office decided to send me on two work trips; one before and one after vacation. It's taken us awhile to recover from all the travel, laundry, and packing! But we are back in the game!

This vacation my primarily my mother's birthday present. On her birthday in March we told her we would take her on a vacation anywhere within the continental U.S. After much looking, debating, asking opinions, she settled on a Bus trip through the west! We flew out to Rapid City, South Dakota on the 12th of September and returned home from Salt Lake City, Utah on the 19th. It was fabulous!


While in Rapid City we visited Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore. Both were breathtaking, and each site had various museums and shops that were just as interesting as the monuments themselves. For example, did you know there really is a secret chamber behind Lincoln's head. Yup! It's true!


On our way to Billings, Montana we stopped at Last Stand hill where we got to the see the Native American monument that was finally built in 2003 and the Yuca plants had me intrigued.


There was also that turn we took in Montana where the storage doors on the bus opened and luggage went flying. :) Thankfully, nothing was lost or damaged!


We also stopped at the Buffalo Bill museum in Cody before heading into Yellowstone! Tom, My Mom, and I all loved catching glimpses of the buffalo, watching the various thermal features (aka. Geysers), and just taking in the natural wonders around us.


This was Tom's Favorite place in all of Yellowstone! The Yellowstone Canyon!





We definitely enjoyed Old Faithful. The picture on the right is it going off at night.


However, one of the more amusing portions of Yellowstone was when we stopped for lunch at Mammoth Springs. The Elk like to visit the little town in the park for two reasons: 1) no predators and 2) the manicured lawns. And apparently the head ranger's doorstep makes for a great napping too :)


After two days in Yellowstone we headed out into Grand Teton National Park where we were all mesmerized by the mountains on our River Float Trip. However the funniest part of the float trip was watching a little terrier and a river otter have a barking match at each other.


Our night we spent in Jackson Hole we went to a Chuck Wagon dinner complete with aluminum plates, singing cowboys, and some great grub! From there we were on to Salt Lake City for a last relaxing night before flying home.

All the people that were on the bus trip with us (48 in all) were very nice. We all enjoyed it immensely, my mom especially. However, we didn't find that $100 bill that Grandpa Bacon said he was going to leave us under a rock at Old Faithful :)

If you'd like to see all the pictures and video we took just click here.


And one last picture show! My cousin Conner turned 1 in July and his mom asked me to make his cakes! I was so proud of these clowns!


Sorry this was so picture heavy, but I hope you liked 'em.

It's time
So it's been a long time since I sent out an update - aka. posted on our website. Quite honestly I've been avoiding it because I didn't want to write about the 'big' thing that happened - the passing of my grandmother. And it's not because I'm not doing ok with it, I really am. It's not because I am avoiding any grief, I'm really doing fine. I think mostly it was because I was just tired of being sad. The months leading up were sad and tiring for all of us. The family as a whole is still recovering, and I think it's going to be very difficult for some of then when they realize that the family dynamics have now changed drastically and it will be hard for them to accept that it's never going to be the same again. She was the glue.

My mom, of course, is struggling. She lost her mom, how could she not be having a hard time! She has her good days and bad, but she's doing well. I'm really glad she has her job to get her out of the house everyday.

For me, the hardest part was before she passed, when the cancer took her eyesight. When she could no longer be who she was at the core of her being: a servant and giver to her family. She spent her entire life caring for and giving to her family. The hot meals in our tummy, the blankets that warmed us, the birthday cakes to celebrate, the knowledge we learned - that was her sole purpose and joy in life. Crocheting was the last thing she had that made her feel purposeful, and the cancer took it. I think the one thing that gave her solace was the fact that her legacy could live on, that at least one of her grandkids was going to keep it up. And that grandkid is me. I have her last projects at home and have been slowly plugging away at them, to finish them. And when I'm done, I'll start another.

She and I weren't as close as I was to my grandfather. He was the only father I ever had. But my grandmother and I, we are so alike. We both love to create things. We both love to do for people. It give us purpose, makes a part of the lives we touch. So in all the cakes and desserts and meals and blankets I make - she'll be there. For that reason, my grieving time happened long before she passed because I understood how hard it was for her and it was even harder to watch that strong woman breakdown. When the phone call came that night that she had passed I was relieved, but not for me, for her. Her pain was over and she moved on to her new job. Watching over us.

I only cry now when I think about her in heaven with my grandfather, together, happy. And telling him about what the family has been doing, how proud of us she is. Then I cry, but not with sadness, but with joy and maybe a tinge of jealousy. I'd love to give my grandfather another hug, but I'm sure she gave him one for me. :)

Thank you MaMa!

Mildred Louise Norris
June 17, 1924 ~ May 8, 2008


Now onto the other stuff we've been up to...

In May, Tom's cousin Dave graduated from the Wharton School of Business. Wharton is in Philadelphia and that was just too close for us to no attend, plus it was right after the funeral and Tom and I needed the break. And then God turned around and blessed us with a free hotel stay at a very swanky hotel right in downtown Philly. It was amazing! The weekend was great! We got to spend some great time with Dave, Jeff, Aunt Cheryl, and Uncle Bill.

My cousin Ashley had her baby the weekend we were in Philly. She's the first Great-great grandchild in the family. Jaylah Coryn, and she beautiful! I made her baby shower cake back in April. And speaking of cakes, I've made some new ones recently - go take a look.



Everything with the house is great. The last things we need to do are: replace the linoleum in the kitchen and bathrooms and then after that paint the bathrooms and front bedroom. We planted pumpkins again this year and they are growing along. I do however need to stop by Lowes (the hardware store) this weekend and get some mulch to put around the plant base and under the vines.

We've been hosting gaming nights at our house with some of our other friends that play World of Warcraft with us. We eat dinner together and then all setup in the basement with our computers and play into the night. It's totally geeky and totally fun! Plus I get to try new recipes on them!

Last weekend we drove down to Richmond, VA with our friends the Chase's (Scott & Jess) to see Jeff Dunham. For those that don't know, he is an amazing and amazingly funny ventriloquist. His jokes definitely aren't politically correct and are meant to get a rise out of people.... so if you aren't easily offended by jokes, I recommend you check him out. Just got to YouTube.com and look for Achmed the Dead Terrorist :) He, Peanut, and Walter are our favorite characters.

Cucumber is doing good. Her fur is still growing in from her surgery last November. But she's really enjoying the house, the space to run, and the windows! And yes, I'm showing more pictures of the cat! She's our kid, how could I not!


Tom is doing really well. His project / start-up company is doing good. The part of his idea that's never been done before and he had to develop himself is finished and works like a charm! *cheers* I am SO proud of him. He still has a few more months of work before he's ready to take a prototype to a school to try out, but isn't it just fantastic!?!?!!

We have also figured out how to make it rain. Yup! No more drought here!. Simply have a jeep wrangler, take off your hard-top, put on a jeep bikini top (click link for picture of what one looks like), and watch the rain come! It's been quite amusing and Tom's gotten drenched a few times, but he loves it!

Well, thanks for reading. I know it's been long :)

Jen's Grandmother
The past few weeks have been rough for our household. Right before Christmas my grandmother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. For those not familiar with this cancer, it's the most physically painful one you can get and there is no cure. Especially for an 84 year old with heart problems. We are now nearing the end. Honestly, I'm happy for her, happy that her pain will soon be at an end. The hard part is watching her suffer and deteriorate. She's not only been talking about my grandfather and saying that she sees him, but she's been asking for her mother too. Unfortunately this week she is at the point where she can no longer speak or care for herself at all. We are just praying that the end will come quickly without pain and suffering.

Please keep the family in your thoughts and prayers. The stress is putting everyone on edge and there have already been quite a few arguments and misunderstandings.


Our New Toy
On a happier note, Tom and I did make a change in our household last week. After much discussion we decided two things: We need a bigger vehicle and we should trade in the hybrid. In a few years we were looking a having to put out a significant amount of money to replace the battery unit, so now was a good time to trade it in. Yes we loved the gas mileage we were getting, but that did not outweigh the cost of repairs. So we started looking around. Checked out a few options, consumer reports, test drives, and settled on the Honda CR-V. Amazingly the dealer was able to give us a better deal on a brand new one versus a used one. So we are now the proud owners of a brand new 2008 Honda CR-V. Tom's even surprised at how much he likes it, not as much as the Jeep, but close :)

Cucumber has already learned to recognize the new car and is greeting me at the window when I get home from work.

But the story doesn't end there. Four days after we bought it, I went out to lunch with my team at work. While eating, a woman pulled into the spot next to me and hit our PARKED! brand new car. Thankfully they were good people and left their name and number so their insurance company will be paying to repair it.


Not just pictures anymore... Videos!
For those that have explored our Flickr photos when clicking on one of the links, you will be excited to hear that flickr now allows you to upload videos! So with the Flip Video Camera that Mom & Dad (aka, Nancy & Denny) got us for Christmas, you will be able to see our videos there as well. :) There's two loaded now, one of Cucumber and one of my cousin Conner (believe it or not, he's only 9 months old and huge! They are projecting he'll be way over 6 feet tall). We'll continue to take more videos, although we are both camera shy so few will contain us, but we'll post them as we go.

So that's the latest and greatest with us! Until next month!

Life has been good and busy here in Maryland. Last time I sent out an update (two months ago, opps) we had just emptied the apartment and had everything into the new place. Well, obviously, a lot has happened since then.
    * After seven weeks, the new couch we bought and chair that my mom got us *finally* came in.
    * Tom built a shelf in the laundry room to put his 5 test computers on! Yes, that is 5!! but they are no longer in the middle of the floor of the basement, so I'm happy :) My one request for the laundry/server room was to still be able to hang clothes to dry. A dowel rod fixed that!
    * We got all the clothes reorganized since not all our bedroom furniture fit in our new bedroom. A hanging compartment in the closet helped with that.
    * And after shifting things here, and then there, we finally figured out where stuff is going to be (for now!) and hung stuff on the walls in the living/dining area.
    * We've met our neighbors on both sides and they are both nice families. One actually works for the same company I do.

So, given the fact that I just haven't had a chance to take pictures of the entire house yet, I figured I would give you all a glimpse into our townhouse with the pictures that I *have* taken. Something is better than nothing, right? The ones below are of our living room. For more pictures Click Here.




On the non-house side of things:
    * I went with two of my girlfriends to see Bon Jovi in concert at the Verizon Center. It was a blast.
    * Our friend (that Jen has known forever!) that we would go to visit in South Carolina moved to Arlington, VA. We are very excited to have her close by! In fact, we are having dinner with her this week!
    * Tom invited over a couple of coworkers for a computer gaming night. It was such a hit that we are making it a monthly occurrence! Oh, how we love having a basement!
    * For Easter, my mom and a couple from our smallgroup came over for dinner after church. We grilled, watched the new Stargate SG-1 movie, and played some scrabble.
    * We celebrated my mom's birthday with a Stargate Cake and gave her the entire series of Stargate SG-1 for her birthday. We are also planning a vacation together as part of her b-day present. In September we are headed west for 8 days in the Mount Rushmore to Yellowstone area.
    * We had an open house last weekend to show off the new place!

Tom is progressing well on his prototype for his start-up company idea and his projects at work are going well. I have been crazy busy at work and taken on a lot of new tasking, but it's fun. Cucumber has settled in well and enjoys running up and down the stairs. We are all healthy and mostly just enjoying our house. It is so nice to not have to everything so cluttered; to have a place for everything to live.

The coming months look just as busy as the ones before it, but we are making sure to take out time for us, whether catching up on the tv shows our Tivo has recorded or just reading next to each other. The quiet time is nice :)

The stress finally got to us. The moving, the loading, the unloading, the moving... never ending!! We slept in and got take-out from I HOP. I rode in the car with him and so did Cucumber. It was a family affair :)

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Today was also the last day of the apartment! That also means we've got everything from the apartment into the house. Not unpacked yet, but in the house!!!! Tom went and did the walk through and turned in the keys. They got us on two things: they said the oven wasn't clean enough for them, and Cucumber tore two screens. All in all, for two years of living there, not bad. We'll still get the majority of our security deposit back.

Random updates:
1. Cucumber is continuing to heal well from her surgery.
2. Mom is doing well at her new job with my company and everyone loves her!!
3. My grandmother is continuing to deteriorate because of the cancer
4. Our new couch and chair should be here this weekend (please, please, please)
5. I cut my hair off a few weeks ago.
6. We bought a grill and it snowed on it.
7. We are goofs! :)

Tom and I took some video of Cucumber playing. They were playing the other day and she started "walking" the rail, and this morning she did it again. It was great! So we thought we'd share :)

( Click this link to see the videos )

So as you know we are in the process of moving into our new home. Load by load, day by day, closet by closet. Like anyone, probably like you, we have a lot of items made of plastic that we own.

Yesterday, tom brought over our little plastic container of files. He picked up said container to take it out to the car. Said container cracked/shattered as he picked it up. Strange, right? It was ok, we had a bigger one we bought awhile back as our numbers of files increased since our marriage.

Today comes. Tom picked up a large tub that we kept under the bed storing various stuff. It shattered. Then later, he went to pick up the small crockpot we have, the plastic handle broke off it.

Now either my husband has gained the strength of superman, or plastic becomes brittle after time, or there's just some weirdness going on in the Cocagne home :)

Hopefully the move will continue to go well without plastic breaking all over the place :) We'll post pictures once we get the place setup! Until then, take a look at Cucumber exploring the new house ( here )

Today we bought a house. As Tom put it, the most expensive day of our lives... so far :) Take a look at the video we took with our brand new video camera (flip video) that Tom's parents got us for Christmas!

As Jen is going to be out of town with training for work on Tom's birthday (and she couldn't wait any longer to give him his presents) he got to open them last night when Scott & Jess were over for Turkey Tacos and Margaritas. Yum!

1. He got Zelda Figures which he can use to liven up his desk at work.


2. A back up to his favorite shirt ever!!!


3. A TMNT Shirt from the old days ;)


4. TRANSFORMERS!!! 2-disc special edition



All in all a good haul :)

This fondant is the best stuff ever!
I opened up and it smelled like brownie batter -- it was wonderful!!! This is my find of the year :) It was so much easier to work with and tasted SO much better. :)




The Guitar and Record Player
This was made for a my coworkers father for his 60th b-day party. The part that I hate the most are the strings. The NEXT day after making this I found on my cake community site a woman who made a guitar cake and used spaghetti noodles for strings. SO doing that next time!






Felix the Cat
A different coworker ordered this for her husband for his b-day. Their last name is felix :)

First, a little background. More than a year ago I found a squishy lump on cucumber's neck. Needless to say it freaked me out. I took her thevet, they aspirated it and the cells looked fine. Months later, even after the lump got bigger, it just disappeared. About six months later another lump formed in the same spot. Again, we got this one checked and everything looked fine, but we needed to keep an eye on it. Since then, it's gotten bigger and harder.

We took her to the veterinary hospital to get checked out mid-October. Thankfully, the lump was not near her lymph nodes. That being said, they didn't like the firmness of thelump and given all the details we decided the best thing to do was tos chedule Cucumber for surgery. We scheduled her for the 19th of November.


Monday morning the, 5th of November, Cucumber was not herself. She stayed on the bed instead of following me around. She didn't come down the steps for food when I went down to leave for work. Both which are part of her normal routine. I felt the lump on her neck and it also felt different too. Instead of hard and long, it was squishy and round. We called the Vet's office and they were concerned too. Surgery was scheduled for Wednesday.

The scary part ofthe surgery was that the lump was on her jugular vein.  Thankfully the Vet was able to remove it without hitting the vein.  His initial suspicionis were that it had something to do with her thyroid but he wasn't sure. The mass was sent off for testing.

She was extremely disoriented from the anesthisia when I picked her up the afternoon of surgery and her pupils were dialated. She was kind of comical and pathetic at the same time. She seemed to be acting fairlynormal, but I could tell she was tired but she wouldn't keep still or lay down and sleep. Instead she would sit down, stare at a spot on the wall, and did that jerking motion with her head and eyes like when you are trying notto fall asleep at your desk. That was quite comical. :) Trying to keep a cat still is a HARD job. But we are making it ;) She stays in a good sized crate during the day and has to for the next few days before the Vet is ok with her having free reign of the house. Thankfully she's sleeping now instead of starring at a spot on the wall. And she's sleeping A LOT. She slept on my lap the other night for 5 hours and snored :)

The incision was and is SO much bigger than I had originally imagined, but apparently the mass was alot bigger than we had imagined too. She looks funny because since she won't keep still we cut a tube portion of a sock and put it over her head onto her neck. She keeps head butting things (which means she's happy) but it also means she could snag her staples.

The Vet called tonight. At first I thought they were just calling tocheck on cucumber. We took her in yesterday because we were concerned about an open section on her incision. Dr. Forrest asked how she was, I told him about our concerns with her incision etc and that it looked better and had re-scabbed over. Then he said the words....

We got the pathology results back.

I breathed in and held my breath. First words out of his mouth were... It's benign. I breathed out. Then listened intently as he told me that as a fetus they have something like gills on their neck and that sometimes if development is "off" they can form these kind of masses. They are benign but they just get bigger and bigger and press on the jugular vein. He said we got it at a good time, they got all the mass. And it shouldn't come back.

I was so relieved when the phone call ended that my arms were numb. And then I laughed and smiled. All we have to do now is get through the healing process and she'll be fine. We'll continue the antibiodics they gave us yesterday so no infection occurs.

She doesn't have cancer.She's doesn't have some kind of condition with her thyroid. She's going to continue to be a healthy happy cat.

Yeah for Cucumber! Thank God!

Halloween was fun this year. The day before we carved our pumpkins - a new experience for Cucumber so she was VERY attentive during the entire process. Sorry forgot to take pictures of the guts!

On Halloween, Tom's office had a chili cookoff at work. We entered by Turkey & Black bean chili and won first place by a landslide!!!! For the night it was fun with friends. Tom and I just started leading a smallgroup (aka bible study) for our church on Wednesday nights a few weeks ago. The one we were attending got too big so we split the group. Anyway, with it being Halloween and all, it was Mexican food and movies while handing out candy to the trick-o-treaters! We had some pretty good costumes - batman (my fav), love bug, princesses - all adorable!

How was your Halloween?

Click the Picture to see more of our Halloween fun, including carving, Cucumber bing nosy, and our decorations :)






And for some new pictures of Cucumber click this picture!

My coworker's brother (who Jen went to High school with) got married over the weekend. Jen made the grooms cake which was served at the rehearsal dinner. As the groom is an avid guitar player it was appropriate to make this cake just for him.







More pictures of the guitar on our flickr site

I won't lie, things have been crazy. I don't think the month of August actually existed. I think it's still hiding somewhere :)

1. Tom's parents came to visit during the first weekend in August, which was fantastic. Good food, scenery, wine, and family.
2. Jen was in Charleston for a week to do a CMMI appraisal (and getting kudos from the President of her company in a company wide email :)
3. Jen's grandmother had hip replacement surgery and gave us a scare afterwards that included some memory loss.
4. Jen got into a fender bender, which thankfully wasn't bad at all and the auto body shop did a fabulous job of fixing the car
5. Tom has been establishing the groundwork for his start-up-company idea, i.e., prototype of the product, business plans, research, etc.


So that's pretty much been life for us recently. On a happy note, we have 6 baby pumpkins. Yes, if you haven't heard, we have a pumpkin plant growing in front of our apartment. Totally on accident, but awesome none-the-less. The picture there is actually a month old - The plant is bigger now, you can see the marigolds that we intentionally planted better now, and we have 6 baby pumpkins with 3 more on the way ;)

Latest cake deliveries:


This cake and cupcakse were for a patriotic themed wedding shower. There was nothing left by the end of the party. Lots of seconds where had :)







These a coworker ordered for her wedding anniversary:

For more of Jen's Cakes, visit our Flickr Site.

Back in February, Tom got me a Tivo for Valentine's Day. It was a refurbished one, but worked just as well as a new one... until the initial 90 day warrenty ran out.

We thought, "Well, maybe it's just the hard-drive causing problems." So we buy a new hard-drive and install it. No change.

Tom calls the tivo company. Normally, the way it goes is that they will send you a new tivo for $50 bucks. Things went a bit differently for us. The following is a shorter version of how the conversation went.

Tom: My tivo's broke.
Tivo: Which one?
Tom: We only have one.
Tivo: Really? I'm showing you as having two... *checks around* Yes, you're definitely being billed for two tivo service contracts.
Tom: Well, we'd love to have two tivos but we don't.
Tivo: Can you verify you are getting billed twice?
Tom: *Goes to computer and checks credit card statements* Yup, being billed twice. Well, I guess it's a good thing the tivo broke *laugh*
Tivo: Ok.. now explain what is going on with the tivo.
Tom: *Tom explains the issues*
Tivo: Ok, because of the double billing, as part of our desire for good customer service, we are going to send you a paid label to print and mail the broken one back to us, AFTER you recieve the new one we are going to send you.
Tom: You are going to mail us a new one?
Tivo: Yep, free of charge. And we are going to refund all the double billing.
Tom: Thanks!

Just this past week our new tivo arrived! Just in time for that last episode of Stargate SG-1!!

Today, Tom performed open heart surgery on a mouse.



Thankfully the surgery was sucessfull! The mouse recovered and is now in good working order!

Our first year of marriage. We can hardly believe it. It's been a crazy year, we can't believe all the stuff that got packed into it. Family crisis, Jen's best friend's brother dying in Iraq, helping build a shed from the concrete pad up, Erin having two hip surgeries, Jen quitting her job, Jen starting a new job, planning four wedding related parties for my best friend, Jen going on work related trips, helping the best friend plan her wedding, our friends having their baby, pouring a concrete pad for Erin's handicap lift on the house, the actual wedding weekend, One year wedding anniversary!

Yup, that's our year in quick review :) We are hoping and praying that we will have some normalcy (whatever that is) over the next few months. Getting back to things we've been wanting to do like cook, play guitar, have conversations that don't have the word wedding, surgery, or concrete in them :) Looking forward to visiting to friends and family both here and elsewhere.

Life is good. Jen's new job is going fabulously - she's been able to make a really good impression on everyone and just four months into working there it seems like she's been there forever. Tom has sucessfully kept Jen sane with all the wedding planning and gotten his share of manual labor with all the house projects for our friends and Aunt Dawn (Erin's mom).

Honestly, in all the busy-ness that's been going on, we have grown closer, learned more about each other, learned how to love each other better, and look forward to many more years together.

They say the first year of marriage is the hardest. The circumstances around us have been hard. The marriage part - that's been wonderful!

Much has happened since I last posted an update.

Christmas
We drove out to Illinois for two weeks and got to see everyone for the first time since Tom and I became husband and wife. We had a good time, but it was very busy. We drove home with three days still left to just be at home. We very much needed that. You can see some of the pictures from our first Christmas together here.

New Beginnings
In mid January I (jen) started a new job with EMA, a company in Southern Maryland which does alot of work with the Navy Base. It's been two weeks on the new job and so far it seems perfect. Much better work environment than my last job (amazing difference), interesting work, great people... it's definitely made life in general less stressful.

Tom is still working at Manned Flight Simulator and putting the finishing touches on a project he's been working on for quite awhile. Now the slightly stressful part of starting a new project!

Family Concerns
My family has been plagued with health issues: My Aunt had a stent put in her heart, My Uncle having both major leg arteries cleared out as there were almost totally blocked, and my grandmother had a minor stroke... Lots of prayer going on to keep them healthy. And Erin has some kind stomach bug which is worrying Dawn a bit.

Life in General
Tom and I are doing well. We are keeping busy with projects. He's working on a computer network idea that might work well for school labs. We finally hung pictures in the last room that needed it - our bedroom. A friend and I threw a Baby Shower for our friends whose baby is due in March, and I'm now gearing up for Wedding related parties for my best friend Jess ( she's my maid of honor and getting married May 5th). In all that, we make/find time to spend time together watching our favorite TV shows - Heroes, Stargate, and Battlestar Gallactica - cooking dinner together, and playing computer games ;o)

Of course, Cucumber is happy. She loves chasing Tom around and playing tag. And, as always, cuddles with me. In fact, she's walking around me right now as I type! and about to curl up next to me.

We hope you are all doing well. Time for me to go to sleep. :)