Joel's Journey: a royal experience!!!

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

a royal experience!!!

* someone suggested this site for info on royal icing and after checking it out, I think she knows her stuff!!!!

When grandparents call to check and see if your still "alive," because you have not written a blog post, then its time to write a blog post!!!

I had a "royal" experience today!!! You can too!!!! That is if you have a "billion hours!!" I always seem to get myself into consuming opportunities!!! Mercy is having a "Hippity Hop" birthday on Saturday. She will be five years old!! So as usual I have all these ideas for her party. One being, making my traditional sugar cookies. This time I wanted to try something different, and that is where my "royal" experience comes in!!! I have seen sugar cookies decorated with the royal icing and they look incredible!! So, I thought I would try it out! First I found the recipe and tips to do it here. Then I had to gather a few materials that I did not have in my cake decorating box, the meringue powder, and the plastic bottles. I baked the cookies, cooled them and then the "long"fun began!! I only had 18 cookies to do, and I have not totally finished them yet, because you have to let them dry before you layer other colors of icing on, but oh my, I think I might make a vow not to do this again. I guess I wont make a vow, maybe a half a vow!! So if you have a "zillion hours," by all means make these cookies for your childs birthday. I am sure he/she will remember you spent a zillion hours making them after they take the first bite, which I hope they even taste good! So here are some pics (below) of how it went. You'll have to check back after Saturday to see the finished bunny cookie WITH ROYAL ICING!!!! hahaha!!!!

Anna is fixing dinner tonight!! So relieved, because I don't feel like cooking after my "royal" experience of a billion hours!! :) She is making King Ranch Chicken!

Bethany is really into technology!! She has always liked buttons, electronic things and she is very good with computer stuff. So for her 2011 kidding season, she has invested in a security camera for the barn/stalls. It is "live" feed right into our house on our flat screen. So we get to "watch" goats all day on TV!!! hahah!! She purchased it so she would not have to be at the barn all the time. Now she can just watch and wait from the house and monitor the labor until the its very close for the does to kid. Farmers have it easy these days!!! :)

The Texas job is going fairly smooth. There are some kinks they are having to work through, getting supplies there, communication ect. Terry and Elijah are working here in OKC and will go back and forth as needed.

Had a happy weekend with everyone being home. Cooked some burgers, Terry worked in the garden much of the day. Josiah, Josh, Jeremiah and I made a cowboy boot run and got some new boots for these fellows.

Dinner is almost ready. Terry and Elijah are almost here. Some are doing bowling, lazer tag with our church tonight,so guess it'll be Terry and I and the littles!!

Have a great evening!!

you outline the cookies first

handy bottle, a must!!

after outlining, you then "flood" the cookies using the handy
bottle filled with royal icing, then you use a
toothpick to spread the icing to the
edges

you have to let the cookies
dry for many hours before
you layer with other colors

2 comments:

Mountain Mama said...: Oh WOW! Those cookies look incredibly YUMMY!

I like the barn camera idea. Very nice.
blessings,
ashley; March 15, 2011 at 7:01 PM
The Zookeeper said...: I didn't look at your link but bakeat350.blogpsot.com is all about cookies and royal icing and how to sand them also. we love it. lots of fun!; March 16, 2011 at 7:58 AM

Post a Comment

Joel's Story

Joel, our 11th of 13 and a twin of Josiah, at age 3 was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer, on December 6th, 2006. Joel had three perfect years of health and he and Josiah celebrated their 3rd birthday Sept. 13th, 2006. The first of Oct. Joel started having unexplained fevers for a few days and would return to active play. After the fourth round of fevers we took him to our family Dr. which they said his iron was low, so we treated that for a few weeks and took him back only to have his hemo. showing lower than before. We were referred to a hematologists and saw him a few weeks with blood checks twice a week. At a visit on Dec. 4th we showed the Dr. the bumps, (which were tumors but we did not know at the time) on Joel's head and he was very concerned and we were told we needed to admit him immediately and start extensive tests the following day. Joel went through rigorous testing and then the dreaded results were given. Joel was at a stage IV the most extensive stage, but we were hopeful that the Lord would use the means of Chemotherapy treatments to restore Joel's body. Joel endured 8 1/2 days in the hospital, came home for Christmas, and returned for his second round of chemo Jan. 3, 2007. Joel had a seizure that night after midnight and went into a coma due to a tumor bleeding in his head area and causing his brain to swell. After tests the following days, the Dr. declared Joel "brain dead" and took us to court to force us to take Joel off life support, as we did not agree with the medical field's definition of death. Our family sought to stand with the scripture, "life is in the blood,"and until Joel's heart quit beating naturally, he was living. We were making arrangements to bring him home and on January 23, 2007 his little heart stopped beating and he went to be with the Lord Jesus in heaven. Our lives are changed forever. God is faithful in the midst of this trial and we look with great hope to be with him someday.