Last night I had a dream that my older sister was renewing her vows with her husband and I was the matron of honor and she made us wear these awful navy blue silk suits. In my dream I was so tired that I fell asleep on the stage and slept through the entire ceremony and reception. Once I finally woke up (in my dream) I was sitting on the stage by myself and ran to the reception only to find out that they had eaten all of the coconut cake that was shaped like an electric guitar.

Wade dreamt that he had to put a fitted sheet on a huge mattress and he was complaining because he can’t ever get a fitted sheet to fit a normal sized mattress.

An invitation for dinner

When you are on a whole foods diet springtime is the best time of the year. Everything that I want to eat is fresh, available at the farmers market or Rolling Prairie and I get to cook it with my kitchen window open (not really related to whole foods but yay for spring). This is without a doubt our families favorite dinner. I took pictures of it last night because I am trying to get better at macro photography (but there is only so much you can do with a crappy digital camera). And because I couldn't resist, everything looked so fresh and tasty. We like to eat it with a sparkling limeade or clementine sorbet for dessert. Will you come over some time?

Happy Earth Day

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. "
Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl, 1952
German Jewish diarist (1929 - 1945)

What are you doing for the planet today?

Tid bits

My favorite sweet snacks
Our postcard wall is filling up thanks to Annie and Alex (oh and Suzy and Katie) thanks guys!
Kitchen window

Friday Five

It's been a while for the Friday Five so I think I will double up this time. Feel free to play along either in a comment or on your blog

Five things I will definitely be doing this weekend
1. Finish clearing out the flower beds and go flower shopping with my Mom
2. Give myself a pedicure (I'm cheap and it is almost flip-flop time)
3. Call my sisters
4. Go to the farmers market
5. Finish making my Mom's Mothers Day gift

Five words to describe my life right now
1. in transition
2. joyous
3. exhausting
4. beautiful
5. tedious

Easy gardening

Yesterday, while Wade and Henry set up the SWING, I spent a few hours clearing out the garden beds on the north side of our house. Since we were not in our house last spring the little flowers popping up here and there have been welcome surprises. Just last week we noticed these dafidills and some tulips in our front yard.
But yesterday I found these in the garden beds. Lots of these all along the north side of our house. I can't wait to see what comes up.

My bedroom

What do you think?


No...it doesn't look like this now, this is just my inspiration.

Things that make me happy Thursday

My friend Emily told me that I should bring back the Things that make me happy Thursdays. I didn't even realize it had been that long since I last did one and honestly with the nasty weather and the fact that I only got 4 hours of sleep last night I am feeling pretty uninspired right now. But I can find something that I love to blog about....I love baby shoes. This week out of the blue I am going crazy with Henry's shoes. His feet are growing at records speeds and even his frog boots are getting to small {ah, moment of silence for the frog boots}. So, we are moving on. Size 8 here we come! Today I ordered new boots:And new kicks:
Everything is cuter in miniature. :)

Cripes

The AIDS walk is this Saturday and so is the Meatout Barbecue in South Park and it is supposed to snow! Snow in April! And why is it always the nasty weather on the weekends? UGH!

Cupcake training

I took a cupcake class tonight at the Merc.
*First let me just say that if you like to cook and you live in Lawrence and you have never taken a class at the Merc you are really missing out. This was the 4th class I have taken and they have all been great. It's really inexpensive-$10-$15 for Merc members nearly that cheap for non-members too. While we were in this class we signed up for a class in May called "Cooking with herbs from your garden". Oh, I can't wait.
*Second, I don't mean to toot my own horn but I left the cupcake class thinking that my cupcakes are better then the ones from the class. Everything she made was buttercream which is normally fine with me and her icing was so light and delicate, but it was all butter, it tasted like flavored butter. And her cakes were too dense and also too buttery. And it isn't just that my tongue has not tasted butter for a while, my friend in the class and my Mom both thought that the butter flavor was too much.
*Third, I learned how to make a fabulous raspberry icing with a so so so good chocolate cake.
*Fourth, I feel pretty confident that if I took the time to make some cupcakes I could probably sell them pretty easily. The chef said cupcakes are all the rage now, which always seems to be my luck...I feel like I have found something original and unique just before everyone else finds it and it gets played out. But I still might give it a try, I mean I live in Kansas, we are always months behind the trend.
*Fifth, I ran into my old best friend Megan at the class. It was slightly awkward as it always is when I see people I used to run with. I am just not good at the overly friendly high-pitched "Ohmygoshhowareyou?Ialwaysthinkaboutyouandmissyousomuch" stuff. While all of that may be true, I tend to lose interest in those conversations quickly. And, inevitably they lead to the "What are you doing now?" question which I totally despise because I am really not doing anything interesting. But it was good to see her and she looks really happy which made me really happy. Plus, I am fat. I hate running into people that knew me pre-baby or as I like to call it during the BSM era (before stretch marks).

Anyway, I promised Henry that we could make cupcakes this weekend since I had to miss out on bedtime tonight. I think we do a vegan version of those chocolate cupcakes with raspberry gauche. I will post a picture.

I have a new crush.

MLK

I am thinking of him today, on the 40th anniversary of his death. Just taking a moment to assess what I am doing in my life to lift people up and contribute to a peaceful planet. He is a reminder of the power of one person.

"Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase."
Martin Luther King Jr.

"We must learn to live together as brothers or parish together as fools."
Martin Luther King Jr.

Cold Feet

I had to take the pictures of the dogs down because we decided not to adopt one. I am sure the people at the ASPCA think I am a total punk for backing out at the last minute but I had a panic attack this afternoon thinking about caring for a puppy and a two year old. I think I was just overcome by cuteness. Now I feel really bad for the guy because both of his brothers will be adopted this weekend by my friend Emily. But I think he is in there with his Mom so he won't be alone and hopefully they will find a good home. Okay, I feel like total crap about this. I cried all afternoon. Seriously, I started crying at the grocery store when I saw a car drive by with a dog hanging it's head out the window. I am still going back and forth about it even though I know our house is not a good place for a 10 week old puppy. Being responsible sucks.

Now I have to let it go.

My birthday is only 5 months away

I have a perfectly good bike, a mountain bike with a seat the size of a Q-tip. When I got my bike 10 years ago for my high school graduation my rear end was, ehhh, about half the size it is now. I loved it, I rode the bike trails on it and all around town. In fact, the semester that I lived up on KU I rode that bike every day. But now, given my butt expansion, it is a little different situation. Basically, when I ride the bike people pass me and wonder "How does she ride that bike without a seat?" And I gotta say, besides the embarrassment of my ass envelope the entire seat, riding on that tiny hard little triangle is not very comfortable. We basically finish every ride with Wade saying "So, does your ass hurt already?" And it does, after only a few seconds on the bike it does... For those reasons, and the shear bad-assness of the bike below that I have decided I need a new bike. A bike like this. With a huge seat with springs underneath it, white washed tires, handlebars that are practically arm rests, oh, and orange. In fact, the only thing this bike is missing is a basket. So there it is. My birthday wish-an orange beach cruiser bike with a basket. I will even take a used bike that meets these very few requirements, I'm not picky. Oh, and I really need one of these too.................you know, for the cupcakes that I like to make after a long bike ride.