Beautiful and edible!

This is a cupcake that my sister made for her friend Rhi's birthday today...it is:

Orange brown-sugar cake, raspberry buttercream, white chocolate shavings, fresh raspberries and edible butterflies.

No seriously. She is that good.

G-dub.

Chad got his new hive of bees this afternoon (a whole post dedicated to that momentarily!) but I couldn't resist taking some pictures of Gwendolen while she hung out in the clover with her dude.

Chad intentionally planted red and white clover on the side of our yard where our - now two! - bee hives reside. We don't mow over there because  - well, obviously - it is for the bees. Since we have had this lovely warm weather and just enough rain, the clover has been in little clover heaven. It is about up to our knees now and Gwendolen loves to run through it.

Of course, "up to our knees" means over Gwendolen's head so I do deeply enjoy watching her gallop through it when all I can see are ears bouncing away!

Can you see that little Gwen face in there??

And here she is running towards me...this face rocks!

LOL.

My girl was snuggled in the nicely folded clothes and trying to hide herself by blending in with things that are no-where-even-close to her colors. I got my camera out to take her picture (because isn't that what cat parents do? Oh. I'm not normal? Darn.)

And she laughed at me.

Here she is still giggling.

Oh come on...doesn't it look like she is laughing?

I know she is yawning but the giggling was so much more appropriate for this goof ball that we live with.

Filled up.

I have a journal that I specifically write in when I am in church. I find that it helps me to focus on what the pastor is saying instead of letting my mind wander when I should be listening! I still fill it up with words, questions, ponderings, pictures, etc. and I tend to write in fun colored pens too. It is always a good and yet sad feeling when you fill one up. I filled one up a couple of Sunday's ago - which was actually perfectly timed because our church (Calvary Chapel Chattanooga - check it out - you'll love it!) just finished up a run through the entire Bible and now we are getting back to our super-in-depth studies at Romans (one of my favorite/most highlighted books!). I was gifted a lot of journals around the time I graduated high school and college and bought one or two in India and I am slowly filling all of these up. I've finally settled down with what I like the best...unlined, plain pages - usually an earthy cover/natural paper. I've enjoyed looking back over my notes, seeing how my thoughts have changed and yet always, always, always amazed at grace.

For a friend.

Chad's man bff (cause I am his lady bff!) just moved out - again - to a little apartment just 5 blocks from us! He's been moving around, mostly finding himself I think, and he is ready for another step out in to the real world again.

Every time I have a friend around my age move out on their own (unmarried), I am reminded how blessed I was when I finally moved out "on my own" to live with my then-new husband. We moved into a fully furnished, lived in townhouse where we wanted for nothing. We didn't even have to start buying toilet paper for a while!  So, I am hyper aware of people who are starting out, starting over, making a go of a fresh place to live. I decided that it would be nice to bring him a little care package/housewarming gift of sorts.

I assumed that since he is a dude that he needed a few basics because he forgot to buy them for himself...so, I included:

A small trashcan for the bathroom, a Febreeze plug in thing with a clean smelling refill (nothing too fruity or girly, I promise!), hand soap, dish soap, a new bath towel and wash cloth, and a basic first aid kit (that includes things like Tylenol, Pepto, bandaids, etc. to get him started).

Here it is all packed up and ready to take down the road.

I remember my blessings clearly and I just wanted to bless him a little bit too...

it should be fun to have him close by - a close friend for my sweetie! I am a little jealous - so my bff's - who's moving?? :)

Wrap up. (edited!)

So much for remembering to bring the camera home so I could post pictures about our fun trip to Nashville on Monday. Maybe next week? As for now, I am thrilled that it is Friday and I don't think I will have to work tomorrow so that is fabulous (I was planning to but I believe my meeting is officially cancelled!). So, I am working every weekend in April, for which I am resting up for now.

I did take the afternoon off - just a few hours of flex time to make up for the many, many extra hours that I worked this week. My to-do list is far too long for one weekend but let's see if posting it here will encourage me to jump on it instead of taking a nap instead:

- Clean up the kitchen (counters, dishes, and floor) - everything but the floor is done!
- Fold multiple loads of laundry and put it away (always the catch here!) - everything is folded and all of mine is put away. Chad is super picky about his hung clothes so he can put his own away....come on - I folded them!
- Clean all the other floors (meaning: rid the house of Gwendolen tumbleweeds)
- Clean off dining room table (yep. still atrocious. embarrassed.) - it's a modern day miracle!! finished! We can even eat dinner in there...
- Clean bathrooms (sinks, toilets, floors, and the shower curtain. yikes.) - done! The shower curtain is waiting to go through the washer with a load of laundry but everything else is finished!
- Organize fabric stash (more on this later)
- Paint wheelbarrow (yes. seriously. it is getting rusty.) - sort of done - well, started. Four layers/top is finished - drying now.
- Plan dinners for next week and then go grocery shopping - done! Minus the planning part so we will be having interesting meals all week!
- Wash and store blankets that we use on the couch - done! stored (right where Wooby can take a nap on them. Awesome.)
- Take off, wash, and store electric blanket from our bed (don't need that dude anymore - thank you, 80 degree March days)
- Mow the grass (Chad thinks the clover in our yard is the only pollen the bees can find. I disagree. So, I get to mow. Stinks being right sometimes.) - done! well, the front yard is done that looked so bad and I did it! It is such a gratifying job...even if my pansy hands are sore today from pushing the mower. Back yard is still bee-friendly.
- Finish and file the taxes. - you'll notice I just added this one so I can mark it off. But hey, it's done and we didn't owe and that's great!

So, let's see A)how much I can get done before Chad gets off work in 3 hours and B)how much I can get done over the entire weekend. And.....GO!

Big day.

Well, Girl Scouts has officially started celebrating their 100th Anniversary! We kicked it off yesterday with a visit to Nashville, the Tennessee State Capitol.

Check out this link to see us being recognized in the Tennessee General Assembly!
http://tnga.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=110&clip_id=5107
(around minute 19...)

I will post much more tomorrow when I have recovered from arriving home at 11:30 last night and when I remember to bring home my camera with loads of pictures on it!