Hey Nikki... missed you there... I AM smiling! And I'm sorry about you losing your Mom... so young...
And you, too, Opera. I'm grateful to still have my Mom and Dad.

Good luck with the party, Nikki!

Anna and Ellis-YES!! It is a VERY cozy couch too, good for a brief cat nap between books!!!!!

Nikkiloo-You know, for a BBQ brownies would be PERFECT!!! I bet your son would prefer them too. My son (now 16 1/2) would have been too embarrased by a birthday cake with candles etc.!!! (Or more to the point, he would have wanted brownies at the party and a birthday cake with the family the next day....He wants to have his cake and eat brownies too. AND he is thin! Looks to be taking after DH.)

Lizzie-The muffin recipe looked TASTY! I want to try that out.....

MeganGloria and everybody else I may have missed-HI!!! Hope you all have a great weekend!!!

For sflake, Nikki, and Opera....my sympathies are with you all. Both my parents are gone, and not a day goes by that I don't miss them. It has been 28 years since my DD died and 13 since I lost my mom. There are some days that the terrible loss really hits home...others it isn't as bad. But is is never easy.

I am the photographer in our family so staying out of family snapshots is, well, a snap! The pics I take of me are of the digital, taken on the sly, hidden on the computer, for "my eyes only" variety! The pic I use as my avatar is the only fairly recent one that I like at all. But hopefully that will change. Maybe one day when I get really brave I will share all my "before" and "after" pics with you. Maybe.