mark and brooke: 2013

I don't know why, but out world has been made out to be a terrible, awful place, with terrible, awful people living in it. I blame the news, in part, for focusing on the negative and showcasing the evil in the world.

Also, my parents have had some bad experiences with their neighbors and so I've always been wary of people I see when I'm by their house.

Turns out, people aren't as awful as they're made out to be and strangers are not always mean people to be feared.

Last night I slid off the road by my parents house and was really stuck. I was hoping I would have enough cell service to call my Dad to come help me, and within a few minutes, I had 4 separate cars stop and offer their services. Only one had 4-wheel drive AND a tow rope, and he got me out of the pickle I was in. He also had walkie talkies and gave us one to communicate with him as he worked to pull me out of the snowbank- now that is preparedness at it's finest people! I was quite impressed and a little embarrassed that I had nothing to help me out of my situation... except a Dad about 1/2 mile away.

The kind neighbor asked me if I was up there hiking or skiing- I'm sure because I looked so unprepared. No. I've actually been up here SO many times that I should know better than to drive more than 2 miles an hour on that one particularly slippery corner.

Anyway, I'm just so grateful for kind people who came to my rescue so soon. Funny side note: a sheriff passed me and DID NOT stop to help. He came back later and said that he was sorry and didn't realize I needed help. Not sure how he missed that as I was off the side of the road with a huge pile of snow that I'd plowed with the front of my car. Oh well.

Just a few weeks ago, the night of that HUGE snowstorm, Mark and I got stuck in the middle of the road in his parent's suburban (that has four wheel drive, but for some strange reason couldn't handle the 12" of snow on the road- literally!) about a mile from last night's occurrence. Two cars stopped and helped us get our car to a safe place and I was so grateful for their help.

That makes 3 different neighbor couples who've helped us get unstuck in about 3 weeks. My idea of my parents' neighbors is shattered. They are nice, helpful people. I'm so glad.

It's so much easier to like people than it is to dislike them. And, I'm more devoted to paying it forward to help someone in need.

Thank you kind people.

Mark turned 30 this year and I wanted to make sure he had a really good birthday party. Turns out I don't really like party planning, nor am I necessarily gifted at it. When asked what kind of cake he wanted, he showed me a picture from Pinterest...so of course mine wouldn't look nearly as good. :) The one on Pinterest was a 30 layer rainbow cake and Mark was kind enough to not make me do that.

I took some cake classes from the woman who made my wedding cake, so I'm always excited to pretend that I can make nice cakes. :) Mark and I decided on alternating layers of double chocolate and classic white cake, which was MUCH easier than a rainbow cake.

9 cake mixes, tons of eggs, plenty of sour cream, and lots of some other ingredients later, we had 30 small cakes.

And now we begin putting it together... I got this cake board at Home Depot in the bargain wood section. They trimmed it down to the size I wanted and I only had to pay 51 cents for it. :) I love good deals!

Orange buttercream frosting between the layers...mmmm...