March Milestones

March brought us a special occasion ~  my birthday.  After a very mild winter, no snow and what looked to be an early spring, we were surprised by the cold that arrived in late March.  As a joke, I wished for snow on my birthday...and the Lord sent it!  Granted, it was just flurries, but it was a delightful addition to my 50th birthday!   Yes, I'm now 50....it just SOUNDS really weird to say it.  Inside, I still feel like a goofy kid, but the calendar and mirror say otherwise. Oh well...it was a very fun day for me.  My dear co-workers at FBCLS surprised me with a staff meeting-party including a cake, black streamers decorating the room, and a basket FULL of OLD goodies like duct tape to hold up sagging parts, a magnifying glass to help OLD eyes, spackling for filling in wrinkles, and lots of prunes!   It was soooo funny! And they totally surprised me.  What a delightfully fun day that gave me. I am soooo blessed to work there.
AND the next day (Wednesday) the church choir sang to me and gave me yet another cake!   Wow ~ what a fun and tasty week!
Hopefully, soon we'll make a trip up to N GA to the Wildflower Trail for a day-trip. THATS all I asked for for my birthday, but I have already been blessed beyond words by my family and church family. 

Murphy and I share birthdays ~  so Murphy is now 1 year old.... quite an accomplishment for the Goober Hound!  He's such a silly beast - still gets into mischief, and loves to play.  And he has become very protective of his territory, too...he barks & growls at strangers walking down the road.  Fine with me! I want him to look intimidating and protective of our yard, house and family.     He was quite happy with the chewy bone we gave him for his birthday.

 

I FINALLY got a picture of Murphy smiling. NOT the best quality picture, but it's such a fleeting crazy smile, and he's usually bouncing & wiggling like crazy when he smiles, but here it is...

Looks so scary!!!!

But it's just a silly grinning pup, excited about some popcorn.

 

 

Today was Easter Sunday. He is risen!! He is risen, indeed!!  A day full of blessings and joy.
An annual tradition at FBCLS is 'flowering of the cross'.   Everyone brings flowers and we put them on the cross out in front of the old sanctuary building. It so pretty ~ and a great place for family pictures. 

Upon arriving home from church, we do our annual torture session of family pictures.  Trying to get ONE decent picture of everyone together is a challenge. Someone is always grumpy or goofy. So I just kept clicking the camera remote and got a boat-load of pictures. Some nice, some unexpectedly funny, and some just totally weird....

 

Sit. Stay!  Learning to pose...
 

Good boy, Murphy!
 

 

 

We celebrated Easter with a family lunch at Ma's, so

I decided to make a Caramel Cake for Easter lunch. 

I had tasted one of these cakes for the first time back at Christmas when a little ol' lady made one for one of our pastors. Oh, it was heavenly!  So I decided to give it a try.  It was an adventure!  The cake part of easy. No trouble there. But the homemade caramel icing.... well, lets just say it sets up like spackling if you don't get it poured onto the cake at just the right time.  I ended up making a second batch of icing for the sides of the cake.

 

 
 

The end result LOOKED wonky.

We renamed it 'Cow Plop on a Rock Cake',

but it sure was yummy!!

 

 

But the Bunny Roll (made from my honey-yeast roll recipe) turned out mighty cute!

Happy Spring!!!   Happy Birthday to me!!! And Happy Easter!!!