Hello ladies and happy every Holiday I missed. To those of you who do know me, I am back and mentally back on track (I think). To those of you who don't, well I was I am a member, love everyone here. Went away to do some great mission work and had some very tragic things happen. Many hours of therapy later, and actually returning to the Dominican I think I have healed, I am not bitter, sad, or frightened to leave my house any more. I am able to talk about it and I feel that I can share with postive feelings now. But enough of that. Am I to late for April? Please tell me that I can play in April? Max is 4 and we just looked at Co-op preschool. HE is a mama's boy and didn't want to go to big boy school yet. Maryanne~ I have a box for you that I need to send, but um lost your address.. So Merry Christmas when it comes. Ahh. I just don't know what to say or who to say it to because I am scared I will leave someone out. I tried to read as many posts as my brain can handle, but I am sure that I will need some help. Babies and ornaments, tornados and ahhh.. I am not in Kansas anymore. Please feel free to email me with any personals that you'd love to share. I apologize for being gone so long. If there is anything that you want to know email me. If I need to re-join let me know if there is room. Mayanne_ my big sis.. I hope all is well, miss you and thanks for all your support thru this, even though I was a bad lil sis and became an introvert. But guess what? I am back and better. Missed you all Laura.... beans

Hey ladies....glad you all had a nice Easter with kids and grands. It snowed this year so no egg hunt for us. Everyone just kinda did their own thing after lunch. Some of us played cards, others watched movies, played video games, napped or went to visit other families. Luvs~ Since 2 of my older kids "know" they request certain things in their baskets. They don't want a bunch of different candies, they'd rather have one big bag of a certain candy bar or a big bag of chips, etc. So it gets a little difficult to remember who asked for what, but it all worked out. The one thing the bunny forgot in the 5 yr olds basket was fishy crackers (the girl is addicted). I told her he must have dropped them out when he was hopping to our house. She said he should really be more careful, but was ok after that. ha They got one movie...Chipmunks the squeakquel. The Easter Bunny always comes to our house Friday night, they get their baskets Sat, we have our family easter get together Sat, then church on Sunday. Don't like the kids having to be hyped up on sugar at church so that's the way we've always done it. ha We being Southern have a ton of food for Sat lunch. Grandma is in charge of the Easter Egg hunt. She puts money (change and $1s) and candy in plastic eggs and hides them. She does a kid hunt and an adult hunt. (The adult eggs have bigger bills). Ensures everyone joins in the fun. ha Gotta go make lunch for the child. Trying to find a new project to work on. My 3rd child is turning 10 on Monday and will be having a sleepover on Friday and then we have a party for my Aunts b-day on Sat so don't know if I'll get to paint this weekend. We shall see. ~Anj

Good morning Anj, nice to hear from you. Sounds like you have a good plan about doing the baskets early. Good idea! GD had a group egg hunt on Tuesday with the Mommy and Me group. DIl said she was really into it this year, and it was fun to see the difference between last year and this year. They are coming here for dinner Sunday afternoon. After church and a nap for GD. ;o) I made up a basket for her, and I cut out Easter Bunny footprints that I am going to put on the front patio and leading through the living room over to the table where I hid her basket. Going to tell her to "follow the bunny prints". DH and DS are then going to hide some eggs in our front yard while she is absorbed with playing with the things from the basket. Hoping that will be fun for her. Glad you had nice weather so the kids could play outside. Bet they have all had a great time. Those flat bottomed eggs are nice, much easier to display sometimes. I keep forgetting to look for more when I am at Michael's. Thought I would paint a few more too--maybe try some other designs and such. I painted a bit yesterday. I am meeting a friend for dinner next Wednesday. I had found a pattern of two little mice painting handprints on an egg. She loves mice, so decided to paint the design on a little wooden plaque for her--she can just save it to use next year since I won't see her before Easter this year. Then I also started basecoating a small suitcase. Don't know if I told you about ordering the cd from ebay where a lady shows how she paints sort of shabby chic flowers on luggage. Anyway, I had found this one at TS for 99 cents and thought I would try it. Thought I could use it for storing GD's "dress up" items. I had to spray it with primer, then use old paint brush to "dab" different colors on for the background. Did that last night, discovered I need to dab on a bit more when I looked at it this morning. Then it gets a couple coats of sealer, then the design, then more sealer. Not really so inexpensive when you add up the cost of all the primer and sealer! LOL Can't wait to see your butterfly--that sounds so pretty. Have you ever tried any of the paints that you can outline with? Guess they are sort of a texture paint. I watched DD using them on tv. Tubes look like the fabric paint pens, and she just used them to outline and make squiggles on top of her painted flowers. You don't use a brush with them. She made it look so easy--but suppose that takes some practice too. I can only imagine the globs I would probably make! Ha ha Better get moving. I'll talk to you later. Luvs

Final pics this morning before we head out. I did not have time to get jelly beans, spent all yesterday either working from home or cooking and getting a manipedi. (I told the nail salon that if they sold a few groceries in the side their clients would be well satisfied, lol!) Table essentially the same configuration, with more flowers in vases (two more green hydrangeas added to each and the tall stuff eliminated......it finally dawned on me that the vases were Tall Enough. Am always trying to establish height in my floral arrangements from years of garden club seminars :-) but in this instance, not needed. I've put the baskets on chairs and have my two-tiered bakery server at the end of the table, it will hold small pastries and rolls and the horseradish-curry mayo and honey mustard butter will be in small serving dishes at that end as well. No ivy in the vases,it didn't look or hang right, so I used it on the sideboard instead. I took off most of what was there (candelabra and crystal decanters) and put vases of flowers with the bunnies, one pink chrome and another green glass, with hydrangeas, hellebores, and a bit of trailing ivy. It looks more garden-y and I think my mother will love it. She has been ill and is going back into the hospital tomorrow, so this dinner is really for her spirits. Dinner: honey baked ham, potato salad with fresh dill, stuffed tomatoes, asparagus, squash casserole, rolls, and carrot cake for dessert. Tidbits before dinner are pineapple and cantaloupe, and sea salt bagel chips with either homemade BLT dip or "Texas caviar," a concoction made with black eyed peas that I heard about on this very forum.