The Riddle House Hauntings

Are you a fan of Ghost Adventures? If so, you may have seen the episode where the guys went to visit the Riddle House located in Yesteryear Village in West Palm Beach, Florida. Yesteryear Village holds so many of my childhood memories. I spent countless hours in the Village for vacation bible school when I was little. David and I also went on a camping trip to Yesteryear Village when we were little kids. My dad set our tent up right across from the Riddle House. That night was one of the creepiest nights ever. But that's a different story.

If you've watched the episode of Ghost Adventures or have ever done any research about the Riddle House than you know of it's past and the hauntings of a male who hung himself in the attic. If you've never heard of the Riddle House before you can learn more about its history here.

Now, let's get to the point of this post. I can remember when I was younger looking up at the attic window and telling my parents that there was a man in the attic. When they looked up, they did not see anything. Since that moment, I always believed it to be haunted. When someone told me that Ghost Adventures filmed at the Riddle House, I was so excited to watch the show. I was so shocked to hear them say that a man had hung himself in the attic. They also said he likes to look out the window. Could it have been the same man I saw so many years ago?

Since watching the show, I have be back in the Riddle House. Every time I enter, I hope to see that male figure again. I have taken countless pictures to see if maybe he will make an appearance and I believe he finally has.

Here is a picture of the front of the Riddle House. This picture was taken by a friend of mine and posted on Facebook. 

I zoomed in on the attic window as much as I could using my iPhone. I could kind of make out a figure. I then took a picture of the zoomed in original and began to zoom in even more using my iPad. Please keep in mind that this picture has been zoomed in but has not been edited. Look at the window, just above the right panel. What do you see? I can see a male face. I believe this is the same male figure I saw so many years ago. The hight and location of this figure is very similar to the first time I saw the figure with my own eyes. Some may not believe in ghost. But, I do and I believe this picture is proof that they do live among us. Leave me a comment and tell me if you can also see the face in the window. 

If you would like to view the Ghost Adventures episode, you can watch it here.

How to Make Cake Pops / Fail as a Domestic Diva

We are 4 months away from the wedding and the closer it gets, the more I want to nest. Part of that nesting phase includes learning how to become a domestic diva like my mother. I thought with the 4th of July coming up that I would try to make patriotic cake pops. Everything was going well until it was time to decorate. Bakerella and Pinterest make cake pops look like a walk in the park. They leave out the fact that it takes a whole day to create these babies and by the end of the day you'll be ready to pull your hair out. In my attempts to decorate, I threw a cake pop covered in blue chocolate across the house. That was a sight to see and a lovely mess to clean! But, none the less I did end up with a couple of cute cake pops. Here are the steps to creating them while failing as a domestic diva!


First, you'll need to gather all of your supplies. You need a cake mix if you do not plan on making a homemade cake. You also need a tub of frosting. I chose Betty Crocker Vanilla cake mix and frosting. You will also need candy melts to coat your cake pops. I bought Wilton Candy Melts from Michaels. I purchased red, white & blue since they are for our 4th of July party. You can chose whatever colors you would like. I also bought Wilton lollipop sticks from Michaels. The other supplies you see below are optional. The styrofoam was used to hold the cake pops while they were drying. I totally recommend picking some up. I bought mine from Michaels for $6.99. SO expensive in my eyes! I also bought a tip and decorating bags from Michaels because I thought I would be fancy and make cool decorations on the cake pops. Yeah, that never happened! Also supplies that I recommend which are not show below are Crisco, which will be added to the candy melts to make them thiner and fun sprinkles to decorate.

Let's get started! The first thing you'll want to do is pre-heat your oven. The directions on the back of my cake mix said to pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. 

Next you'll start combining the ingredients called for on the back of your cake mix. I put everything in my mom's Kitchen-aid mixer. 

Once your cake mix is ready, pop it into a cake pan and place it in the oven. My cake took 28 minutes.

Once your cake is done, take it out of the oven and let it cool. I let mine cool for about 20 minutes. I cut mine so it would be easier to pull out of the pan. 

Once your cake is cool enough to handle, start crumbling it in your hands into a large bowl. 

Next, add your frosting. I used 3/4 of the can but I think that was way to much. Try using half of it and remember that you can always add more but you can not remove it once it has been added. 

After your frosting has been added, role the cake balls using your hands. This step was a lot harder than I thought it would be! Once you are done forming them, pop them in the freezer for 15 minutes. This step is important because it's hard to work with the cake pops if the are still soft. 

While your cake pops are in the freezer, start melting our candy melts in the microwave. I put mine in for a minute and a half in 30 second intervals. You'll want to add the Crisco once the candy melts are melted. I added a little bit at a time till I got the right consistency which I never really got apparently. Next time I'll use a deeper bowl. This one did not give me enough room to dunk my whole cake pop in. 

This is when the trouble started! In every YouTube video I've seen, whoever is creating these cake pops just sets them in the chocolate melts and the come out perfect. The perks of editing I suppose! I was not fortunate enough to place them in the chocolate and remove them so easily. As you can see in the picture below, this is what happened when I tried! Not fun. I think my cake pops were to heavy and my bowls were too small to dip them in. I tried pouring my candy melts into a glass cup. I dipped my cake pop in and again, it feel right off the stick. I reached my hand right into that dang cup, grabbed the cake pop and threw it! I was so freaking frustrated.  

Once I calmed down a little bit, I held the cake pops above the bowls and applied the candy melts with a spoon and a butter knife. This seemed to work okay.

As you can see, making cake pops is not as classy as it seems. this is nothing compared to the mess I had in my mom's kitchen at the end of decorating. 

I was so happy that my first time making cake pops was not a total failure. I did end up with a couple of cute pops. Just so you know, the cake pops are sitting in the styrofoam I purchased. I placed foil over it to avoid getting candy melts on the block. That way I could use it more than once.

 

I didn't want the left over candy melts to go to waste so I made chocolate covered pretzels with them. All I did was dip them in the melts and added sprinkles. They were much easier to create than the cake pops! 

 

Making cake pops was a stressful event but I'm still glad I made them anyway. You never know how something will come out unless you try it. I will make them again in the future but I'll add less frosting, use more crisco, use smaller bowls and possibly use smaller lollipop sticks. If you have ever made cake pops, leave a comment below with any tips you may have. I know we'll all appreciate it! 

My Love Story

My fiancé David and I have known each other since I was eight years old and he was nine. He has lived behind me my whole life and did boy scouts with my older brother. As we grew up and started middle school we stopped hanging out and never talked. Every once and a while he would stop by my house and talk to my dad. He always had to stop by when I was helping my dad do yard work and I always looked like a hot mess. When he came by, I never looked at him or thought twice about him. During the summer of 2010 I was getting over a two year relationship and was just enjoying some much needed girl time with my friends. One night my friend Brandy (who I've also know since I was two years old) called and told me she was at this kid's house who lived right behind me and asked me to come hangout. As soon as she told me his name I told her she was crazy and told her I did not want to. I thought it would be weird to see him after all these years. But, I did add David on Facebook and we started to catch up. A week later we hung out and I can't say it was love at first sight but I did have a little crush on him. I kept trying to talk myself out of liking him because deep down I knew if we started dating that we would get married. I just did not know if I was ready to take that jump. After the first night we hungout we were pretty much inseparable. I went out of town for about three days right after we told each other that we liked each other and that's when I knew he was the one. I did not put my phone down the whole trip because we were texting 24/7. I want to say we made everything official about a week later on 8/16/2010. On March 13th, 2011 David got down on one knee and asked me to become his wife. We have now been engaged for over a year and are in the process of planning our beautiful wedding that will be held on November 10th, 2012! Follow us on our journey to happily ever after. 

         Here is a picture of us when David and my brother did boy scouts together years ago.

    (David is at the bottom on the left side and I'm on the right standing up.)

       Little did we know :)

Here he is asking me to become his wife on March 13, 2011!