I have been taking pictures, I promise!  But the last two weeks have been full of mayhem and chaos.  Here's a few...

Open house at my daughter's school.  Her big brother agreed to read Pinkalicious to her.  I agreed to slip an extra dollar into his allowance.

This was about half a second before the cat burped in my face.  Cat burps STINK, in case you were wondering.

My sorority's annual Founders' Day celebration.  It was beautiful and fun.

More sneezes.  I mean flowers.

Today was a really lovely day.

Hopscotchin'.  Yes, she's wearing snow boots.  No, she doesn't care.

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING.

Saw what I thought was an extra fuzzy small deer in the neighbor's yard today.  He may or may not actually be someone's escaped alpaca.

This is on a stalk growing between my yard and my neighbor's yard.  Shot this between storms.  SO MANY STORMS.

Sunday's photo included people whose permission I do not have to post their photo.

Monday--I was, uh, recovering.

Today I passed these beauties on the way into the church for a meeting.  

Mama and the cubs had fun on our little trip, but we're glad to be home!

One of the lamps in our room at the Great Wolf Lodge.  April 2.

On a quest to find the Rune of Freezing.  April 3.

March 29.  Inspecting (and approving of) my new quilting frame.

March 31.  Waiting for music lessons.

Today was the Easter egg hunt at church.  It was a good day to have it indoors.

Makin' bunnies.

SOON

Some days, I'm okay with the idea of not having any more babies.  Then I go to Target and see stuff like this when ALL I WANTED WAS CAT FOOD.

Argh.

Some stuff from the last few days, while I've been recovering from The Everything:

Saw a black squirrel in our yard the other day.  He was cute, but he was fast.  This guy, on the other hand, stood there and posed while I tinkered with my settings and took photos...

A cardinal that I think got into a fight with another cardinal over a lady cardinal...

And tonight's scout banquet:

I've been a total slacker lately.  I got hit with a total hat trick of a nasty cold, pink eye, and laryngitis this week.  With some luck (and a whooooole lotta tea), I'll be better this weekend.

As a follow up to a couple weeks ago, when kitty was seeking sunbeams...

The quilt is now layered and pinned, with the help of some wonderful, supportive women and the patience of a great husband.

Not the hardest puzzle I've ever put together, but definitely one of them.  It was a gift for my son.

Yesterday's picture of a robin, scraping for twigs.  I hope this means we've seen the last of winter.

what we have here...is one awesome possum.

KID.  He's totally not a possum.

Frost this morning.  After many days of snow melting, frost.

At least I can see most of our yard now.

This one didn't show very well.  But a week ago, we got four more inches of snow suddenly dumped on us.  The streets were in terrible shape.  School was cancelled.  It was also the last cold day of the season, because since then it's been consistently well above freezing.  My daughter is playing with running water from the retaining wall in our yard.

She saved her allowance for two whole months and got a PINK ukelele!

Tomorrow's project.  Was GOING to be tonight's project, but the seeds are supposed to soak overnight.

I've been bad about this lately.  I like to think I'll make up for it in a few weeks when the weather's nicer and everyone's outside and there's interesting things going on.

Well, I didn't get to take one yesterday, because everything was thawing like crazy and I was out getting stuff done.  Then today this happened:

School is out today as a result.  And the cat would like his sunbeams back:

Yesterday's picture is of an old Hello Kitty mylar balloon in my daughter's room.  She received it a week before Christmas and it is STILL FLOATING.  It's actually a little unnerving.

Today is National Panhellenic Conference Badge Day.  This is my badge.

I heard it all when I was in college...comments about buying my friends, comments about being a sorority slut, comments about acting like an idiot just to be part of a group that was going to be gone forever when I graduated...

Here's the truth.  I was never hazed.  I did not buy my friends.  If I was acting like an idiot, it's because it was four in the morning and we were all tired and it was the end of the term and we were all together goofing off.  I joined a sorority because I had found a group that had a core set of beliefs that aligned with mine.  My sisters helped me stay true to what was important.

And it's still there, many years later.  And it's gotten bigger and deeper and more beautiful with time.

There's a saying that floats around a lot in Greek Life circles.  "First, you become a part of it, then it becomes a part of you."  It's just as true today as it was in September of 1998.

This picture didn't turn out at all like I wanted it to.  Everyone was moving too fast and I couldn't get them to cooperate for very long.  She's holding a sign that says "Blessed are the pure in heart," and he is holding a sign that says "for they will see God."  I'm kind of bummed I couldn't get a closer shot of this one, but they were both being good sports about everything so I wanted to remember the moment.

Daughter fell out of bed last night.
And landed in a seated position.
And continued to sleep.

The kids in my daughter's class built this for fairy tale week.

(I did take a picture yesterday, but it's of a kid who isn't mine and I don't want to get into trouble.  Spoiler alert:  he looks like a four-year-old Harry Potter.)

Cub scouts were making Easter baskets tonight.

Ornithology is not my specialty.  But I think there's some red-tailed hawks moving into my neighborhood.

Right now, it's about 82" square.  I'll be adding ten more inches of border to each side before it gets layered and quilted.  Think I'm gonna have to borrow the hall at the church for layering it...

(Inspector No. 9-lives still approves.)

Daughter wanted to see the balcony at church this morning.  These stained glass windows are in the balcony.  There's a rose window above them (and also you can see part of the pipe organ).

Yesterday's picture.  I don't understand how this is a comfortable way to sleep.

Looking out my back door this morning.

Well...TRYING to look out my back door.  The window was a little obscured.

Having a glass of wine and going through the mail.  It's been an emotional couple of weeks for my friends--three people have gotten engaged, someone announced a pregnancy, somebody getting married next month, and on the flip side, there's been seven deaths, including someone's much-loved furbaby, and a miscarriage.  On top of that, two of them moved across the country.  To say nothing of all the miscellaneous health and weather issues.

This one's for all of you, whether we're celebrating or remembering.

Dinner tonight was roasted chicken in a Caribbean marinade and fresh green beans sautéed in garlic and olive oil.

You know.  Comfort food.

Well, I made it a month and a half into the year before I slipped.  I didn't manage to get a photo yesterday--between the terrible weather and a sudden bout of illness, I simply didn't mess with my camera yesterday.

Got this shot this morning, though...you know what they say about a red sunrise...

It's like there's some big furry deal about today...I just can't put my finger on what...

Oh.  That's right.  Fat Tuesday is just around the corner.