Dreams and the path to acheiving them....

"Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and a belief in yourself, wisdom, hard work, determination and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe." -Gail Devers

 For as long as I can remember, I wanted to work in journalism. When I was little, I used to have this tape recorder and I remember going around and interviewing family members and having radio shows.When other girls had Barbie as their hero, mine was Robin Swoboda, an anchor in the Cleveland area, and when my dad brought home an autographed picture from her, I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I have always had a love for journalism and more specifically, sports journalism!
 I was different though, and I thought that this difference would keep me from ever acheiving my goal. When I was born, I had a birth defect that caused my skull to not fully form and caused my face to be not exactly perfect. I have had around 52 plastic surgeries to fix my face. As a result, I do not have, what society considers, a pretty face. As I grew up I realized that all the anchors and reporters were beautiful, and I started to think that I could never work in TV journalism.
 I have worked in retail and now banking. They were all great places to work and I am thankful for my job in banking, but recently I have felt like something was missing. I started to wonder why I hadn't pursued my dream anyway, there are lots of other things to do in journalism and broadcasting that don't include being on camera. So, after some thinking, I have decided to find a school that won't make me bankrupt and that will offer what I need and I am going to get my communications degree. It will be a long tough road and even tougher after graduation in this competetive field, but I will finally be able to say that I did what I have wanted to do since I was a llittle girl, and if I'm really lucky I will finally get to say, "Abby Olsen, reporting live."

Cupcakes!

This is it...my first blog post. I had thought a lot about what type of blog I wanted to write, and had many great ideas from family and friends. In the end though, I have so many interests that I thought that I would use this blog to write about life, no matter how random it may be. Here you will read about things I love, like hockey, baking and travel to name a few. So the wait is over, and with the holiday season coming up, I thought I'd start out with some cupcakes!

I made these beautiful cupcakes for a luncheon we had at work. To be honest, I was just going to go the lazy route and buy them, but I hadn't baked in a while so I decided to put in the extra effort. It paid off because I made some of the prettiest cupcakes I have ever seen! I used the new Pillsbury Easy Frosting that comes in a can and has a whipped cream-type tip. By starting on the outside of the cupcake and moving in a spiral motion inward, I was able to make these cupcakes that look like roses! It is so simple and you get beautiful results! Afterwards you can add some colored sugar crystals for an added effect.
Happy Baking!