Happy Earth Day!

Blossoms in the spring

By Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell

Happy Earth Day, Earth!

What a wonderful world we live in - beautiful, fascinating, safe, peaceful, dangerous, harsh, mysterious, vast, surprising, and awe-inspiring.

I'm glad I live here.

In honor of Earth Day, I think it appropriate to give a gift.

So I will do something good for the Earth today. Maybe several somethings.

My gifts shall be:

- picking up any trash I see
- making sure I water only what needs water, not the sidewalk, gutter, or driveway
- turning off electrical devices I am not actually using
- planting something pretty (or tasty)
- giving thanks to God for such an amazing place to live

Tulips opened to catch the sun

Earth Day Haiku

 

Earth home, designed gift

fashioned by God's mighty hand

habitat for us

Fruit trees in bloom

What will your gift be?

A Cinderella Story

My life is just like a fairy tale. Perhaps Cinderella.

Except for the castle. And the ugly stepsisters and stepmother. And sleeping by the fire, though that has happened on occasion (my choice). I have cats, so no mice running around as friends. The huge estate is a mere city lot. And both of my parents are still alive.

I do have the prince. I suppose I could also say I have a castle. At least my home is a castle to me.

But the prince? He's my high school sweetheart.

Today, Monday, June 22, we celebrate 30 years of marriage.

30 years ago today, we:

~ dressed in our fancy wedding clothes and said our vows

~ celebrated with friends and family

~ began our life journey together as best friends, both literally and metaphorically

~ drove off into the sunset of our first trip as husband and wife, headed south to Disneyland for our honeymoon

~ embraced a marriage that would eventually lead us through circumstances of thick and thin, sick and healthy, rich and poor, tired and energized, messy and spruced up, stretch marked and scarred, hot flashing and temp wars, graying and balding, fighting and making up

~ stepped out on the road of beginning a family, a path that has blessed us with two adult children and their spouses, and four exceedingly wonderful and gorgeous grandbabies

My. I can't imagine being old enough to be married 30 years.

But I guess I am.

It's been wonderful, my love. And crazy, scary, challenging, difficult, amazing, fantastic...

You are Mickey Mouse to my Minnie.


Looking forward to another 30 years with my best friend.

Gender Reveal Party - Part 2

Hayden holding his gender reveal cupcake - the blue filling inside indicates the baby is a boy.

Welcome to our gender reveal party! Only 3 people knew the sex of the baby before the party. After the reveal, everyone knew about Baby Boy Aucutt.

I decorated a lighted year-round tree with pink and blue fabric strips.

The pink and blue table - complete with bandanas, cupcakes, a wide variety of pink and blue candies, napkins, and plates.

Pink and blue cupcake tree. Cupcakes were baked in pink and blue cupcake papers. I mixed pink and blue sprinkles on top of white icing. A pink and a blue plastic diaper pin adorned each cupcake.

Guests sported a clothespin that represented which sex they thought the baby was. Daddy Collin chose to show his choice by clipping it to his beard.

One fun activity was to make (yes, I made them) all of the guests pose with mommy-to-be. The fun part was the guests had to stuff a balloon under their shirt so they looked pregnant. Everyone was a good sport! Chelsie's grandparents are proud to be GiGi and G-Paw.

Nana and Papa join the photo game.

Drinks were clear lemon-lime soda with blue and pink ice cubes. I used food coloring to make the colored ice. The blue was the worst for dying tongues. But it looked pretty.

A cup of punch.

Pink ice cubes.

My sister and I painted our fingernails pink and blue.

Decorated cupcakes before the reveal.

I took one group photo of everyone who thought the baby was a boy.

A much smaller group thought the baby was a girl.

The revealing moment - Collin sees blue.

Even big brother, sister, and Daddy had to pose with Mommy.

All in all, the gender reveal party was a great success. We had loads of fun. I deem gender reveal parties the new wave of the current generation.


Angie Quantrell is a soon-to-be four-time Nana. When she is not chasing the grands, she writes, blogs, takes photos, and is working on simple living.