My Cherrie Berry

So August begins....

This month means back to school.  Elexis starts on the 19th.  She has been ready to go back since the second week in July.  We have already got most of her school supplies.  We still need to buy the reams of copy paper and dry erase markers.  We have a couple special things planned for next week.  She is in an orchestra camp this week.  They are learning to play current music like Radioactive (Imagine Dragons), The cup song (from Pitch Perfect) and classics like Don't Stop Believin (Journey) and Kashmir (Led Zepplin).  She is really enjoying it.  She finished up cello lessons for the summer and starts her piano lessons back next week.  Next week we are also going to go to the Tulsa zoo to see penguins and polar bears.  It will be nice for a change of scenery.

Ok, so now another month means another challenge.  This isn't really a challenge though.  Every day your just supposed to blog about something that makes you happy.  Easy enough.  Today is especially easy because it is my very special kitty's birthday.  She is a whopping 2 years old today.  I honestly can't remember what our house was like without this feisty little kitty.  What started out as my daughter's kitten, has now become mine (yeah, we all saw that one coming).  She is my cuddle bug, fuzzy butt, chunky monkey, my sweet baby Cherrie Berry, Cher Bear, Cherrie Berry Pumpkin Pie (I call her all of these things on a daily basis).  This cat loves dog treats, will come when I call her, will give you kisses when you ask, fetches, has a special curler (one of those pink foam ones) that she carries around the house, loves the ipad, and plays with more toys than both my dogs.  I am so happy Elexis caught her (she was one of my mom's feral cat's kittens).  She helped me through a really hard time when I had to put my 16 year old cat to sleep.  I really do love my cat.  So...

Day 1: What makes me happy...Cherrie.  Happy 2nd Birthday!  Here are a few of my favorite pictures of her.  Some are repeats.

yep, she is a bit feisty, but very lovable!

Photo Day 1: Crust

Peach pie crust

Here is the photo challenge if you want to play along - It's all food.

Chocolate Lasagna

I made this dessert for my friend's birthday tomorrow. The recipe has been floating around Facebook and Pinterest for months.  I decided to make it today.  Here is the recipe.  Now, here are my pictures of the steps.  The only reason I took these pictures was because I wanted to play around with the lens I am renting.

The Base - Oreos

Process them up.

Pressed into the pan with melted butter.

Cream cheese, milk, sugar and Cool Whip mixture.

On top of the Oreos

Chocolate pudding goes next - I made Chocolate Fudge

More Cool Whip 

Top with mini chocolate chips

Let it sit in the refrigerator,  taunting your family.

I made cookies too!!

And just because she is so darn cute and I had the camera handy - Cherrie

My Photo Challenge

I talked last week about a personal photo challenge I wanted to do.  I invited another girl to join me and we did pretty good about it.  I got all 7 pictures taken and edited.





Monday:  Monochrome Monday - had to be in one color scheme

Text or Toy Tuesday - "E"

Whatever or Way back Wednesday - Photographer's choice or edit a picture taken a while back.  I chose Way Back.  Picture taken 2 years ago.

Texture or Thoughful Thursday - I guess Cherrie fits the bill on both

Food Friday - Oreos

Sign or Street Scene Saturday 

Song Title Sunday - Just Around the Riverbend (Pocohantas)

Loving this challenge.

Snow...

Beautiful wet fat flakes fell from the sky today.  It was wonderful to sit and watch through my windows.  I had a hot cup of coffee and revealed at the beauty God created while doing my Bible study.  It was wonderful.

All after school activities were cancelled for E's school.  We headed to her voice/piano lessons.  As we pulled up, her voice teacher texted and asked me if E would like to go sledding with her 2 little girls.  So, we bundled up and headed to the park right behind her house and had a great time.  There were a ton of people there and the news too.  The girls sled with Elexis and they built a snowman.  It was very cold, but very fun.

It is currently still snowing.  E is praying for school closing tomorrow.  I am not going to lie, it would be nice to sleep in.

I leave you with pictures from today.

The tree in my backyard

My backyard

Cherrie watching the snow.

My cat

I appear to be fairly obsessed with taking pictures of my cat.  I can't help it.  She sits for me longer than the kid or the dogs.  She doesn't mind that I stick the camera 3 inches from her face.  She is a very photogenic kitty.  I am sure people are tired of my cat pictures all over Facebook and Instagram, so I guess I will do a blog post full of the beautiful pictures of Cherrie.

A little back story on Cherrie.  A year and couple of months ago, my darling daughter, E, was at her Nana's.  My mom lives out in the country and has a few feral cats.  One of the cats had kittens.  There were only two kittens to be found.  Well, my child decided to sit out some milk and wait for one of these little baby kittens.  After some time, this little furrball came out to get some milk and E grabs her.  She takes her inside and bathes her because furrball is covered in fleas.  E then calls us and begs to bring this kitten home.  We already had a 16 year old cat at home that didn't take kindly to new pets.  After much pleading to her dad (I was an easy sell), he caved.  We told E that furrball would have to be completely flea free before coming home.  My mom kept her at her house for about 3 weeks and bathed her a lot.  E decided to name her Cherrie from a series of books that she reads.  So this is how Cherrie came to live with her family.  My dear 16 year old cat (who I have had since she was 6 weeks old) passed away in December, just 2 months after we got Cherrie.  Cherrie helped me through the loss.

Cherrie is a little spitfire.  She is very curious, very playful and it sooo entertaining.  She plays fetch with anything.  She loves the dogs.  She also loves dog treats and will sit with the dogs when the package comes out.  She doesn't like cups to be upright and will knock anything she can onto the floor. We love this little wall climbing cat.  Now for some pictures.

Baby Cherrie - 6 weeks old