Being Alone {Or the Lack of It...}

Let me get a little personal here. Why not, right? This is the internet after all. 

Lately I have been getting pretty depressed. I'm not as in love with my job as I thought I would be, yet I make decent money so I'm sort of forced to stay as that is the main reason I am working. I have been super tired lately, like tired to the point where I don't want to even hang out with my husband when I get home, just sleep sleep sleep. And most of all, I haven't had a single girlfriend since I got married over a year ago. {Well, my best friend left on a mission in March, so I technically haven't had a gal-pal since then. BUT lets take the more extreme route (: }

Here I have been, for a little over a year, getting more depressed as the days passed. It seemed like even though I would try my hardest to hang out with girls, nobody gave it a second thought. I would get blown off by my single friends, and my married friends {most of which were newlyweds} were always "too busy." And I never really "connected" with anybody. I could probably count the number of times I've hung out just simply with girls on one hand. Pretty pathetic, right? 

Last night I put a really emo-ish post up on facebook. This is the link here. As you can tell, I found out that I am NOT ALONE. In case you were too lazy to look at the link or couldn't give a shiz about my dramatic life {sidenote, why are you even reading this??} i'll describe what happened. I said something along the lines of "why can't I get friends? Do I have germs or something?" {maybe that was a loose translation...} And what the people of facebook said next astounded me. Nearly every married girl {and boy... we're not sexist here!} that commented on my post AGREED with me!

I'M NOT ALONE.

I'M NOT A DEPRESSED PERSON.

PEOPLE UNDERSTAND ME.

It was probably the best thing facebook has ever done for me. 

So why is it that once we are wed to our one eternal love, we lose many {in my case, almost all} of our friendships? 

Before I was married, I wasn't friends with many girls. I had Marz-Barz AKA bff, but that was about it. It wasn't that girls didn't like me, we got along just fine. But I was mostly friends with boys. Well, once you get married, obviously, you can't just be BFF's with a bunch of guys. {Or at least I can't..... but hey! To each their own...} So when I was first married I just told myself that the reason that I didn't have friends was because all my "old friends" were men! 

Wrong answer, Chels.

As I have recently discovered, it isn't just me, and it wasn't just because all of my friends were guys. It's because this is a real thing that exists! I really couldn't {and quite frankly don't want to} get into the why of this, it's mainly just important for me, and for YOU to remember that you are not alone. Yes, there are girls out there that are party animals, and will always have their closest gals. And yes, I will always be jealous of these girls, but the main thing to remember that I {annnnd you} are not an anomaly. 

So branch out! Try to make new friends, and if {or in my case over the last year WHEN} this happens, don't take it too personally. A LOT of people go through this stage in their life! Be persistant! Don't give up, there are friends out there for you {and me!}!!!

Congratulations for reading this, I hope there is at least one person {besides myself} that reads this and can be blessed by knowing that their friendship life isn't over.

It's just the beginning of a new chapter! 

(: (: (: 

Strawberry Cake!

For Labor Day, I tried my hardest to not bake, but I gave up around 11 am and went to the store. I had already made one cake last weekend, and really didn't need to make more, regardless, I wanted to, and my husband was kind enough to let me go all out. Again.

My first attempt at an icing for this cake was a MISERABLE failure. But again, Erron came to the rescue and ran to the store to pick up more ingredients so that I could experiment with another type of frosting, and luckily it worked, and even better everyone loved it. 

ENJOY!

Fresh Strawberry Cake

prep: 45 minutes // bake: 30-35 // yield: one 9" cake

INGREDIENTS:

CAKE BATTER:

 1 cup butter
1 3/4 cup sugar
 5 egg whites
 2 teaspoon strawberry extract (alt. vanilla) 
2 cups pureed fresh strawberries
 1/2 cup sour cream
 3 cups cake flour
 1 tablespoon baking powder
 1 teaspoon baking soda
 1/4 teaspoon salt

FROSTING:

1 1/2 cups butter

1 1/2 cups shortening

6 cups powdered sugar (add to liking)

6 tbsp strawberry puree

3/4 tsp vanilla

INSTRUCTIONS:

Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour three 9″ cake pans.

2. In a large mixing bowl,beat sugar and butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy.  Add strawberry (or vanilla) extract,pureed strawberries,and sour cream.  Beat until combined.

3. In a medium mixing bowl,sift together flour,baking powder, soda,and salt.  Gradually add to butter mixture,beating until combined.

4. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.  Gently fold into batter.

5. Pour batter evenly into prepared pans.  Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

6. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes then turn out onto wire racks.  Cool completely.

Frosting:

1. Beat butter and shortening together until smooth.

2. Add 6 cups of powdered sugar, one at a time, beating to combine.

3. Add strawberry puree and vanilla.

4. Add the remaining powdered sugar and beat to combine.

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