Let Them Eat Cake

Cake Fest 2010

(a.k.a. Matt's annual birthday celebration)

Featuring:

Peanut Butter Crunch Cake

Mango Buttercream Cake

Angel Food with whipped cream and mini chocolate chips

Burnt-Sugar Candy Bar Cake

BYU Brownies and

Toffee Bars

Since it was Matt's 32nd birthday, each of our guest families were invited to bring "32 of something" as a gift for Matt:

A card with "the 32 rules of the universe."

A 3-D human body puzzle with 32 pieces.

A poster: "The 32 Faces of Matt Dobberfuhl"

(be careful what you post on Facebook!)

A 32-word riddle that had to be solved using sugar-cookie letters:

"Accountant after reading a nursery rhyme to his young child: No son, when Little Bo Peep Lost her sheep that wouldn't be tax deductible but I do like your line of thinking."

Happy Birthday Matt.  We love you and had a great time celebrating your special day with some very fun and creative friends.

After a long, hard day of work:

3 Tax Accountants Walk Into a Bar...

Ok, so it wasn't a bar, it was a Fish & Chips Restaurant. But there were 3 tax accountants nonetheless. If you think dinner with us sounds like a blast, imagine the conversation during the four hour road trip. (...'so I told the guy, you can't put that on schedule D-1, it is only partially deductible! It needs to go on C-6! Can you believe he almost did that! We sure had a good laugh about that one.) Party!!

I had the opportunity to visit two Caterpillar facilities over the past couple days- Cat Skiningrove where we make the metal links/shoes used in tracks for many of our machines, and Cat Peterlee where we make articulated dump trucks that hold ~40 tons of material.

Peterlee was really neat because they take in raw steel plate, cut, bend, weld and assemble from scratch the steel frame . Of course they assemble the actual truck as well.

In between the two facility visits we nipped into Whitby (notice the use of an authentic English verb) for Fish & Chips at Trenchers- reportedly the best in the country. It was very good (although Linford's is a whole lot closer).

Here are a few photos from Whitby. No dracula sightings.

A Happy Anniversary

A lot has happened since we got married 9 years ago. We started by finishing.

...University, that is. I graduated from BYU in 2002 with a BA in Music. The following year I taught school and a lot of piano lessons until Matt graduated cum laude in 2003 with both his bachelor's in accounting and a master's in tax (also from BYU). We have fond memories of those years - as most newly married couples do - during the times of educational pursuits which, like most, included a lot of working hours (both in school and out of school), a tight budget and a few adventurous internships for both of us.

By the middle of 2003 we were ready to leave all the adventure behind, settle down, start a family and be "normal." We got pregnant, moved to Minneapolis, bought a house and Matt started his accounting career with KPMG. But, much to our surprise, the adventures continued...

In July 2003 our house burned down; a week later our first daughter was born. It's worth noting that we coped a lot better with the house burning down than we did adjusting to a new baby. Ironically, that did not prevent us from having another baby 2 1/2 years later.

Our second daughter joined us the end of 2005, December 29th to be exact, and Matt was especially thrilled... because her early arrival meant we would get the child tax credit for 2005 instead of having to wait another year.

By 2006 our "new" house started to feel small and Matt was working such long hours at the firm that Toddler Amy began to ask why Daddy didn't live with us anymore. This prompted some discussion and within a few months, Matt had landed himself a tax position with Caterpillar in Peoria, IL (and consequently, a better work-life balance).

We moved to Morton, IL in May 2006 where we spent the next two years in relative peace - if you consider "peace" including potty training children, removing wallpaper from every room of the house, ceramic tiling bathroom floors, and manicuring a 1/2 acre yard with over 25 rose bushes, a vegetable garden and a 2-tier playground/sandbox combo. We loved every minute of it and were glad to have finally settled into that "normality" we had sought after those years earlier...

We have since learned to not seek after "normality" as it doesn't really exist.

In February 2008 we accepted an overseas assignment with Caterpillar and now find ourselves loving another new adventure in life, this time in Peterborough, England. The house is smaller, the yard is smaller, and the WORLD is smaller. Just in the last year alone we've not only traveled throughout England, but also Scotland, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Malta and Egypt and have plans to visit a few other countries as well - something we had only dreamed about for our retirement years!

The little girls continue to grow beautifully and never cease to amaze us by exceeding our expectations in so many ways. We love everything about our family; it is our greatest blessing.

So because of that day, 9 years ago, when Matt and I were married and sealed together in a temple of God, for time and ALL eternity, we celebrate this little bit of TIME we have spent together and look forward to all that awaits us both in this life and in the eternities to come.

Matt & Girls with Mom gone

Lana left us well prepared. There was a very detailed schedule where Emily would be each day and what time to get Amy from school. Several meals with cooking instructions were premade and in the freezer. All the laundry was done. The house was cleaned. With so much done ahead of time- all I could do was fail. Lana left strings of mini candy bars above their beds and they could cut one down and eat each night (which usually required a 2nd visit to Mr. Toothbrush). The girls loved it and were counting down the candy bars till mom comes back. Actually we had a pretty good time. I got to leave work early every day and play with the girls. Our one big outing was to Colchester zoo. It was a 2 hour drive- which coincided perfectly with the playtime of The Incredibles. Amy was our camera lady and got some neat shots. The highlight was definitely feeding the elephant by hand.

Komodo dragon, weird bird eating meat, zebras and face painted Amy.

We missed her and are very glad she is back, but we did manage to have some fun (movies, late nights, treats from the post office, sleeping in Dad's bed) without her.

Cake Fest 2009

The annual Dobberfuhl Cake Fest began a few years ago when Matt couldn't decide on what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday. The solution? Bake all the cakes he wanted... and invite enough friends over to eat it up.

This past week we kept with tradition and hosted Cake Fest 2009 featuring Texas sheet cake (with buttermilk-chocolate & pecan frosting), cherry-chocolate cake (with fudge topping), cherries-in-the-snow, and the classic Vienna Torte. All that with the option of ice cream too! Just enough to satisfy the 21 guests we had over as well as a few sampling platters that went into work with Matt the following day. Happy 31st birthday, Matt!

Bye Bye Beardie

Matt hasn't shaved in the last month.

It started out as an agreement between us that he wouldn't have to shave during our week in Scotland if I wouldn't have to shave my legs. I almost made it the whole week, but caved on the morning we decided to go to the indoor waterpark. I didn't want to scare the nice Scottish folk with my hairy legs! And thankfully for all our blog followers, I didn't even consider the idea of photographing my "progress."

Matt, on the other hand, looked pretty good after a week of not shaving. In fact, I really liked it. So I asked him to keep it for a while...

Here he is a month later:

Even though I liked the look it just wasn't as nice a feel for "snogging." So, in the end, it had to go. Apparently, Matt worked through his grief by photographing the stages of its passing - something that caught me by surprise when I was uploading the photos this afternoon. I'll warn you, the second one down had me laughing so hard I was crying.

Hey baby...

Allo... my name is Inigo Montoya...

Ahh... back to normal!

Matt's Cookie Commentary 2008

I think we are at our peak for Christmas Cookie variety, so I wanted to post this before they get eaten or given away. From the top going clockwise we have:
Thumbprints: Light, flaky cookie coated in toasted walnuts, topped with a generous helping of red or green frosting.
Turtles: Star-shaped pretzel, smooth chocolate and caramel in the middle, crowned by half a pecan. Yum!
Sugar Cookies: Kid's favorite, can't go wrong. (of course each color frosting DOES taste different- ask anyone)
Holly Candy: Crisp cereal held together with gooey green marshmallow. Sprinkled with red fruit snacks for holly berries.
Spritz: The annual question of "What shape will this cookie press attachment make?" is answered with never-ending awe. The green dough always seems to get used to make Christmas trees. We almost ended up with blue hearts this year, but the press wasn't working right
Mini-Truffles: Oreos and cream cheese center enveloped in a smooth chocolate shell.
Stop by if you need a snack.
Matt

Matt's pasties

Wednesday yielded a huge - and very welcome surprise: Matt came home from work early (about 3:00 PM) and then he made dinner! And not just any dinner - authentic British pasties with sausage, potatoes, carrots and onion. He even made the pastry crust too!

Enchanted Yuletide Ball

Matthew (a.k.a. James Bond) and I went to a ball this past weekend in honour of a wonderful couple from our ward - Jim and Manita Martin - here in Peterborough. We danced - really danced (waltz, fox trot, swing), ate fancy food, and especially enjoyed socializing with our many new friends. Unfortunately, we got so caught up in the festivities that we completely forgot to get a good photo of us all dressed up in our formal attire... I think there may be one out there, but in the meantime, this one that I snagged off my friend's Facebook album (thanks Lorraine!) will have to do for now...

I'd also like to thank my sponsors: Holli, for the diamond necklace and black ring; Katy for the beautiful pale yellow bridesmaid dress that I wore those years ago at her wedding (I've heard it's rare to have a friend who can pick out a classy bridesmaid dress); and Matalan for the black sash and jacket-thingy that I wore over top the yellow dress to fit the "black tie" attire requisite.

Waterloo

All right... kudos to Katy who actually put forth her answer to my silly clue and got it right! Matt is traveling via the Eurostar (bullet train) to Waterloo, Belgium (near Brussels) to visit a large Caterpillar manufacturing facility.

Where in the World is Matt Dobberfuhl? (Part 2)

After enjoying a generous sojurn at home,

Monsieur Dobberfuhl is headed out once again to roam.

To the battlefield of Europe he embarks on his quest

wearing black, red and yellow displayed on his vest.

He'll have no time to waffle around,

for two languages he'll have to articulately sound

for whilst he is at this capital of the E.U.

there'll be his girls home missing him: boo-hoo!

Portuguese in England

This past Monday we spent the evening with the Barron Family whom we met through our church. Monday night is Family Home Evening night for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so together we shared in singing, prayer and a spiritual message. It has been a long time since we've spent FHE with another family but it was a special experience to feel the Spirit with new friends in a country far from home. (And they thought it was really cute to hear Amy pray with an American accent).

It is also interesting that Matt has been able to use his Portuguese language skills (though he claims to be quite rusty) in helping the missionaries with their work in this area. There are quite a few Portuguese immigrants that don't speak much, if any, English. Apparently it has been a problem in furthering the missionary work for a while and the members of our congregation here have been praying for a solution. It is really neat that Matt can help and something we wouldn't have ever imagined happening - needing Portuguese in England! It is yet another testiment that the Lord is very mindful of us and all His children and that we can serve as instruments in the hands of God no matter where we live.

Where in the World is Matt Dobberfuhl?

As if life in the U.K. isn't exciting enough, Matt had to skip the country after being here for only a week and head over to Kiel, Germany for a gathering of Caterpillar's European Tax Group. Kiel is located at the very north end of the country (see map) and Matt reported having a lovely view of the Baltic Sea from the balcony of his hotel room. CAT owns an engine company - MAK - that is infamously known for making German U-boats back in the day. Anyway, Matt's conference went well and he came back to England just in time to head off to London for a few days of U.K. tax training.

So where will Matt's next travels be? Well, there are sure to be visits to Caterpillar sites throughout the U.K. and Ireland, but his next BIG adventure will take place somewhere outside the European continent.... any guesses? (hint: not the Americas)

Grandma & Grandpa Are Going Away on a Mission

Matt's parents entered the Missionary Training Center (in Provo, UT) this past August in preparation for their 2-year assignment to the San Francisco, CA mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Their departure was the main reason behind all their kids and grandkids gathering for this summer's session of "Dobber-camp."