She Who Bakes The Cake and She Who Takes the Cake!

Since the Cheese Hens ran away with the win yesterday today we will depart from March Madness to feature one of my favorite things...cake!

She Who Bakes the Cake
I am lucky enough to know a fantastic woman named Kate Danko. Kate and I attended high school together and now she lives in Fort Bragg, North Carolina with her husband and handsome twin two-year-olds Connor and Brandon. Kate's husband is in the military and he has spent 17 months of the past 25 months away from the family which has left Kate to handle raising her precious boys alone. What I've come to love about Kate is that she doesn't let the stress of having twin toddlers keep her from being creative and she is most creative when it comes to food. You'll have to check out her blog dankofamilyscoop.blogspot.com to see the full scope of her yummy food creations because today I'm only focusing on her cakes.

You see, Kate has photographed some cakes she has made and they are Amazing (with a capital A). With no formal training, a little fondant and a lot of creativity she manages to pull together cakes that are worthy of the Food Network. As you can see from these pictures Kate would fit right in with our group of women.

Crying Baby for a baby shower










Train Cake for Brandon and Connor's 2nd Birthday (Note the second picture which shows how she shaped the cake out of rice krispy treats to accomodate Brandon's food allergies).

And her talent doesn't end with baking cakes...she made this awesome diaper cake for a friend's baby shower.













She Who Takes the Cake
While I could certainly argue that Kate takes the cake that is a title that has been left up to YOU the readers of highlowaha. For the past several weeks we have had the nomination lines open for you to submit the name of a woman in your life who "Takes the Cake" to be honored by highlowaha. The competition was STIFF, you all came through with touching nominations of amazing women in your life. The HLA creative team had the difficult task of narrowing the field down to three finalists and from here it is up to you. In today's comment section please vote for one of the following three finalists:

Lisa Van Wallaghen
I nominate Lisa Van Wallaghen, my coworker and dear friend for the Takes the Cake Award! Lisa has only been working with me for about 8 months, and I already could not live without her! I have never met someone as selfless, genuine, passionate, and compassionate as she is. Lisa is a very empathetic person, and she cries all the time - at happy things, at sad things...just as an example, she cries at school events (like pep rallie - total fun days!) when she thinks about what a great school this is and what an amazing opportunity it is for all of the girls who go to school here, knowing that she gets to share that opportunity with families every day. She is a hard worker, who takes her job very personally, takes things home with her, thinks about new ways of doing things (at home in the shower!)...she is always willing and ready to go the extra mile and she makes my job so much easier. I can always depend on her to do things, and do them with a big smile. Outside of work, Lisa is completely dedicated to her kids (2 in college and 1 a high school freshman). They respect her, but also think of her as a best friend - it is evident as they call her to report all of their successes, as well as calls for guidance. I have truly never known someone so genuine. Lisa never says things just to fill the silence. She is thoughtful, positive, and encouraging. It is easy to see the glass as half full when Lisa is part of the discussion. In other words, I know of no one more deserving, no one more content to stay out of the limelight or take credit for all she does, no one who TAKES THE CAKE quite like Lisa!!!

Hannah Clayborne
I’m nominating Hannah Clayborne as a woman who takes the cake. From the time Hannah arrived at Bellarmine it was obvious that she was truly dedicated to try to make a difference on campus. Hannah works long and hard to make an impact on students’ lives each day that she comes to work. Despite working in a situation where her job is an uphill climb, (bringing multicultural competence to a campus that is historically filled with middle class, white, traditional aged students) she never lets on that she struggles or faces challenges. Hannah managed to get a group of students from Bellarmine to the Inauguration this January which I think is testament to the work she is doing. I can attest to the fact that Hannah impacted my work as a student affairs professional and I’m certain she has impacted many others during her time in the field. So you see, Hannah Clayborne really does take the cake and she deserves some recognition.

Molly Shotzberger
I would like to nominate my mom. Her name is Molly Shotzberger. She has been there for so many people throughout the years. She was at 9/11, down at the towers from day one and she did not leave until everyone else left. She must have spent 4 months there helping and caring for people. She has also gone to Iraq to help the people there. She went a year after the US sent troops in. She has been at most disasters in the US for the past 8 or 9 years. The most important thing that I think she did was put her life on hold to help my family. When I had cancer, she came and took care of myself and my children. I can never express to her how important that was to me. This is why I feel she deserves a cake.

Announcement

HLA T-shirt Winner: Each month we engage in reflection as a community on our high, low and aha. Each member who submits their personal reflection is entered for a chance to win their own Ray Wattson t-shirt. This month's winner is B.K. Root! Congratulations Brian...please take a chance to look at the GalleRAY and decide which Ray you would like on your very own t-shirt. Then send an email to highlowaha218@gmail.com letting us know which Ray you want and what size shirt to order for you.

Women's History Wednesday

Good morning from Virginia! Katie here welcoming you back for another Women's History Wednesday. As some of you know, we are spending each Wednesday during the month of March honoring a woman in our lives who has inspired us creatively. Cheryl started us off this month sharing the story of her aunt who taught her about Zentangles and last week Heather shared the story of her mother's creative ideas surrounding children. It is my pleasure this week to share with you the inspiration behind my work as a supervisor of undergraduate college students.

When I was an undergraduate at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky I had the pleasure of being a resident advisor in a freshman residence hall where I worked/lived on a floor with 40 female freshman students. My supervisor was the Hall Director, Shingi Nyamwanza. Three years later, now that I am a Hall Director in a residence hall, I find myself referring back to many ideas and tactics that Shingi used with us. The best thing about these ideas are their ability to be applied in a variety of arenas. This might include your work/role as a supervisor, Girl Scout troop leader, mother, sports coach, or PTA member.

1. The Accountability Jar. I'm not sure if this is what Shingi called it, but that's what I'm going to call it for today. This was a jar in which Shingi had each of us take a slip of paper and on it we were to write one duty or "chore" that we would like someone else on staff to complete for us on one side and our name on the other. Then we put all the slips of paper into the jar, and it stayed in her office. If someone was late to a staff meeting they had to pull a slip of paper from this jar and then complete this task for the person who wrote it. It was her creative way of keeping us accountable.

2. The High 5 Award. This is an idea that I have implemented with my staff this year. Each week, a different RA on staff would be awarded the High 5 Award. It was an outline of a hand on a piece of paper. On each of the fingers there was a different reason listed as to why that staff member had made a difference in the building that week. Some reasons might include: covering a night of sitting desk duty, helping with a roommate conflict, putting on a great program, etc. If I was the recipient during week 1, I was then responsible for giving the award to another staff member during week 2. I love this idea because it was not awarded by the supervisor, but instead it is awarded among equal members of the staff. I also love it because it is very inexpensive but can be very meaningful!

Thank you to Shingi for the impact she has made on my life. Hopefully she will check in with us today and make a post!

Before we close out for the day, we have one thing left to cover....Highs, Lows, and Ahas! As is our tradition here at Highlowaha, I ask that each of you take some time to share your High (best thing), Low (worst thing), and Aha (something you learned) from the past month in the comment section today. Beginning this new year on Highlowaha, we are going to add a new component to our tradition on these days. As we stated at the beginning of the new year, we would like to invite each of you to take a seat with us at the table each day to share in the creativity of this community. In keeping with this goal, we would like to invite one of you to join us each month to share your High, Low, and Aha within the post for the day. This individual will be randomly selected through the postcards in the Random Acts of Kindness box. (Not sure what I'm referring to? Check the post from 2/24) Each month on the 18th, we will draw a card from the box and this person will be our special guest for the following month. So, later today we will pull a name to be our guest for April! If you still need to get your postcard in the box, send it off in the mail to the following address:

Claudia Beeny
4012 Harvestwood Ct
Grapevine, TX 76051

For the month of March, we have invited Shingi to be the guest at our table and she has shared her High, Low, and Aha with me so I can post it here for all of you to see.

High - Spring is almost here! I love DC in the springtime :-)
Low - One of my closest girlfriends got laid off - I feel so helpless.
Aha - (so many this past month)- Life is all about building relationships. Its more about who you know not what you know... ( Sad but true. I could argue that that's also my low)

Don't forget to share yours with us in the comment section so that you can go into the hat to win a Highlowaha t-shirt with your favorite Ray on it!

Announcements:

Shamrock Shakes: Below are Claudia, Cheryl, and their boys enjoying some traditional Shamrock Shakes at the Beeny household on St. Patty's Day! Take special note of the McDonald's straws. As we know (via Claudia) all shakes are better when had through a McDonald's straw.
Cookbook: Don't forget today is the last day to submit recipes to Tera for the first ever HLA cookbook. Email them to tmichalski05@jcu.edu.

Women who Take the Cake: Don't forget about this easy way to honor a woman in your life. Send nominations by 5pm today to highlowaha218@gmail.com. Send a paragraph of 200 words or less describing why this woman "takes the cake". The woman we choose will be presented a cake on your behalf.

Leprechauns and Cowgirls

Change in plans. Katie was nice enough to let me (Claudia) steal this day from her. She gets that when your blog is about creativity and a creative idea comes up, you have to be flexible enough to go with it. That's what we're going to do today. We're going to follow the creative energy of Children's Courtyard in Grapevine, Texas. Stay with me if you're if you're still looking for an award winning St. Patrick's Day idea to use with your kids, neighbors, students, residents, family, or friends. I think you'll be impressed.

No worries for those of you who were not ready to switch gears for the originally scheduled Women's History Month programing. We will still feature questions for you to answer from the game, "Cowgirls Ride the Trail of Truth." It's the perfect way to join in community and to continue getting to know one another.

First, St. Patrick's Day. Yesterday morning I walked into school and immediately noticed this box sitting on the counter in Jack's classroom. Immediately drawn to anything that sparkles, I asked Ms. Psasha what the box was all about. She explained that the decorated box was a "Leprechaun Catcher" and that every classroom was making one. St. Patrick's Day is less than a week away and Children's Courtyard wasn't going to leave leprechaun catching up to the Luck-o-the-Irish. Instead, each classroom put on their creative caps and dreamt up exactly what they thought it would take to catch themselves a magical leprechaun and his pot of gold. To me this activity is brilliant - not only because it fosters creativity, but also because it helps to build a sense of excitement around this simple holiday. Check them out and tell me if you have a favorite leprechaun catcher?





This is a great weekend activity for just about any group of kids (young and old).

Now the questions...

Last week Heather laid the ground work for each of our Saturday posts in March. She explained that, in January when I attend Misty's Annual Potato Soup party, I became acquainted with the game, "Cowgirls Ride the Trail of Truth." The game comes with a box of thought provoking questions in the following categories: Sex & Body, History & Experience, Family & Friends, Spirit, Shadow, and Taste.

Today I will share a card of six questions, allowing you to pick your favorite question and to share your answer with the rest of us. If questions such as these can be used to help us get to know one another better, then imagine how much fun you could have asking them of your closest girlfriends. Consider planning a coffee, brunch, or lunch with your friends and letting these questions be your guest of honor. Or, what about mailing each of your girlfriends one question in a envelope with a self-addressed stamped envelope (do it on one of Peggy's great looking cards and score extra points) with the hopes they will mail their reply? What a fun way to honor the women in your life during the month of March AND to maybe learn something new about them!

Here are today's questions. Tune in next weekend when Katie actually gets the chance to serve as hostess (without being usurped by me) and presents you with another set of questions:

• How do I feel about getting older?
• Who is the most influential person I know?
• How do I feel when I hear a man praise his wife?
• If I could be invisible for a day, I would hang out at...
• When did I maintain a disguise?
• If I found out I had a life-threatening disease, who would I tell first?

You've got all weekend to answer! Answer one or answer them all.

Signing off until Monday...