This is ridiculous! We have had SNOW every day for the past 6 days! The spring flowers just don't look right with snow coming down on them!

The kitchen windows got steamed up when I was cooking the other day. I noticed this strange pattern across it...what do you think it is?

It was a ladybug trail!

Isn't that so cute how it just wandered around like that?

Today I received the official approval to be moved up from Client Casework Associate to Supervisor!

Pre Easter dinner

So we finished the show and went back home. Emily got to spend the day alone with her Mom and Dad. They went to visit Great Grandma and Grandpa McCool and then hiked to the top of Multnomah Falls. We got the chickens into the oven and while they roasted, we watched the Bee Movie

Finally dinner was ready. We started out with pear bunnies that Emily assembled, roasted herbed chicken, barley pilaf, stuffing, peas, carrots and pea pods and home made rolls, finishing off with Red Velvet Cake.

After that, we had the egg hunt. They started out a little wild, then slowed down a bit until they found them all.

So now everyone is gone and look what is left of Easter dinner...

Go, Dog. Go!

Way back last fall, I bought tickets to take Joshua to see a play at the Children's Theater for his birthday. I didn't realize that Easter was the same weekend. Oh well, Joshua and I went to the play at noon and had a really fun time. I had no idea how they were going to make that book into a show, but they were very creative and did a fantastic job of it. He was camera shy, so the picture I took of him at the show, only shows his book. He was not about to have any of the actors pose with him for a photo after the show either. I did manage to get him to take one with me once we got back home.

Good Friday
Tonight I went to church (English version) for Good Friday service. It was a very unique service. Very meaningful and powerful. It started out with the usual songs, but the lights were low and they were more prayerful than usual. Quieter. Between songs, a person would go up and read a little paper about a struggle with some sin in their life. After each read their little paper, they would go over to a huge cross and pick up a hammer and nail that paper to the cross, they did this one by one between the songs. Then they stopped the songs, and passed baskets with paper and pencils in them and we were told that if we felt like writing a personal struggle, some sin we are facing in our own lives, then write it on the paper, and take it to the cross and nail it there. There were huge crosses all around the sanctuary. Next to the cross was a table with the bread and cups for communion. Each person would nail their paper and take the communion if they wanted to. When I was done, I sat there in my chair waiting for the others in the room to finish nailing, I closed my eyes and just listened to the sound of all those nails going in. Thinking of all those sins that Jesus died for.

Sometimes I think that my sin is the biggest in the world and then other times I think, well, everyone sins…it is not so bad…but as I sat there listening, I realized that we all have those sins, we all struggle, and even if I think mine is the worst, there is somebody out there who thinks theirs is the worst, but no matter how big, or small, it is sin…and sin is why Jesus did that for us on the cross.
It was very solemn…quiet except for those nails echoing.
Then the pastor got up and said…yes we need to look at those sins, we need to realize how needful we were for a Savior. We need to confess and repent. We need to remember those sins are on the cross. We have been forgiven. BUT…it did not stop at His death, if he had only died, then it would have been for nothing. He died, but rose from the grave. And that is why we can thank Him for those sins being on the cross, it was His victory over death that we celebrate on Easter. It was His Resurrection that gives us the forgiveness required to receive Eternal Life in Heaven.
Jesus died on what we call ‘Good’ Friday. Thanks to God, through the gift of His son Jesus...YES, IT IS A VERY GOOD FRIDAY!

Did you ever use a bread maker? A few years back almost everyone wanted one. The ones who had one raved about them. Things like, "Oh wow! It is so fast and easy, you don't have to do anything but put in the ingredients and wait. No mess, either" I never wanted one, I love to bake. I like to make things from scratch, I don't think it is too much work to make bread the old fashioned way. I like mixing it up, kneading it, watching it rise, punching it down, and then baking it. Besides that, those machines are HUGE, who would want to take up all that counter space for that ugly thing?

Well, Jessi is one of those people who had one. I say 'had' because for the last year, it has been sitting on a shelf in my house in storage for her while she is working in the Dominican Republic. I sorted out some closets recently and decided to take a look through her bread recipe books. Mmmm...there were some pretty good looking breads in there. White bread, sourdough, whole wheat, herb breads, breads with fruits in them, breads with meats in them, breads I had never heard of. OK, so why not just give one a try? So I lugged that HUGE machine into the kitchen. There were not instructions for it, so I went to the Internet and got the instruction manual. Yeah right, fast? So far no. I loaded the ingredients into the machine, closed the lid and ONE HOUR later...the house had the most delicious aroma of baking bread as I was slicing it up. It looked beautiful! It tasted so good! I found out that it can be loaded up, and a timer set so that it will come on and have fresh baked bread when you wake up! I just may have to rearrange those counter tops to make room for my new bread machine!
Home made raspberry jam, optional.

With McCool for a maiden name, you know I have to wish you a Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Spring has arrived!