Where have I been? To the annual LYFE conference for ladies! LYFE stands for Living Your Faith Everyday. It's an excellent conference that's 2.5 days of excellent teaching, great food and just the kind of good 'ol FUN that you have when you get away with your friends. This year they offered the photo shoot, so we had fun with that.

I also took a class from SIStv last week called Home Is Where the Art Is and given by one of our more "famous" Fashionistas, Claudine Hellmuth. She has her own line of paints and medium and sticky-backed canvas AND she's even appeared on the Martha Stewart show with her unique artwork techniques. I can add that she's a great online teacher! I loved the class, which involved making a little sampler of various mixed medium techniques. So FUN! I can't wait to begin incorporating some of the techniques into my other projects. I'm so glad I'll have this project as a reminder of what I did!

Chris and I went away Memorial Day weekend. Normally, we go on a one-day road trip. But this year, Chris suggested that we do an overnight and since it involved a meal at Teresa's Next Door AND a night in a hotel, well, how could I resist? There was a parade right in front of our hotel on Memorial Day and then we headed out and stopped briefly to visit Kevin and Ann and meet little Ava for the first time. We also stopped at Bill and Julia's in Mt. Gretna. I guess I forgot to pull out my camera for that short visit. Too bad, because they live in a really cool setting. Here's my collage of the parade AND little Ava is in there, too:

Last week was VERY full with getting caught up from being gone and then going away yet again to the LYFE conference. LIFE has been a whirlwind of activity! We finished off the week by going to Milheim, PA to see a local (sort of) Zydeco band. Unfortunately, Matthew had to work, so he missed it, but Chris and I went with Martha and Gary. (Deborah also had to do some catching up after being at LYFE with me, so she missed it, too.) And when I say, "missed it", I do mean "missed it" because they were fabulous. They were playing at a little natural foods cafe out in the middle of NOwhere. And it was pretty filled up with people. At one point, every single person in there was up dancing. You just couldn't help it! Fantastic and soooooo fun!

Yesterday was MY day to try to begin catching up. And I'm sort of continuing in that mode today. I went through my entire wardrobe yesterday morning - throwing out the unsightly and the unfitting, putting away the fall/winter and bringing in the spring/summer - all before ever coming down for my morning coffee. That happened finally at 11 a.m. Then I did some laundry and went about getting caught up on a few other things. M&M came over in the afternoon, so we took a break with them. Then Chris took Eva to a pet parade and carnival (I wanted to stay far, far away from the carnie food...) and I made my dinner and went down to crash in front of tv - something I haven't done for ages. I watched the 3 latest and newest episodes of John & Kate Plus Eight. *sigh* It's almost too sad to watch now knowing that their marriage may be breaking up. What is wrong with people? I'm sure it's complicated and I don't really know anything, but by their own admission they may not stay together. Eight little kids. Sooooo sad. If other people feel the same way I do, (too sad to watch) it will kill the show.

ANYway... THIS was a morning I've been looking forward to ever since we've adopted this little cutie:

She went to the vet's to get her claws removed. Now don't freak out. I fully intend on keeping her exclusively INside (although, she has actually escaped outside a couple times, but only for a few seconds - she's FAST!). That's our little Beatrix. Yeah, she's awfully cute, but don't be fooled. I wear her scars. She has inflicted more pain, drawn more blood and left more scabs on me than any cat I've ever owned. I covered the furniture just enough to keep it from being ruined. And she was light enough that the several times we caught her hanging from the TOP of the still like new, very expensive sliding door screen, it didn't actually do any damage. Geesh! That cat is CA-RAzy! She will be in for a bit of a surprise once she heals up, but I'm sure she'll adjust well. She'll just have to perfect her jumping (and landing) skills, because she will no longer be using her claws to do it. I'm sure she'll continue to entertain us with her antics and I won't be surprised if her attempts at jumping without claws will cause some accidents, but overall, I will be breathing a huge sigh of relief. And I think Rocky will like it better, too, as I've seen evidence of her boldness on him, too! Geesh.

Now I'm off to exercise and get some meal planning done. Perhaps, if I find the energy to brave the masses, I'll go get groceries this afternoon. I think a trip to WalMart is definitely in the plan. But Wegman's may have to wait until tomorrow when it won't be so busy (because I couldn't get there until after 4 p.m. at the earliest today and that's when everyone's getting out of work, too). Sayonara.