GRASSHOPPER CUPCAKES--SHOULD I USE REAL GRASSHOPPERS? HMMMM

It's almost March!

That means it is time to

prepare for

St. Patrick's Day.

Quite a while ago I found 

these!!!

Grasshopper Cupcakes 

by Janell Brown

from her book One Sweet Cupcake-

 you can order here.

Don't those look delicious?

I think I will make these 

GRASSHOPPER CUPCAKES  

for MyHero

and maybe the grandkids.

I'll be busy collecting 

the ingredients today.

Oh- Look!

THIS will save me some work.

These are already 

CHOCOLATE COVERED!

You can order them here

MyHero is in for a

WONDERFUL SURPRISE!

ps-this is not a sponsored ad-

just something I found for fun.

PLEASE READ THIS-FROM DIANE @ LAVENDER DREAMS-BLOG SHUT DOWN

Hi everyone.

I am posting this for Diane@

Lavender Dreams.

Please follow her new blog-

her other blog was shut down.

I will let her explain in her own words

what happened.

Saturday, February 23, 2019

The Behemoth squashes the little Lavender Dreamer

That's right. "The Rise of the Machines" is upon us. Our former happy little blog (lavenderdreamstoo.blogspot.com) was suddenly terminated.

Why and how was it done? It wasn't someone reporting us. It was Google's automated piece of software (a bot) that roams the Blogger world looking for pre-programmed words of woe. Once it detects something it kills the whole blog without warning. Without any notification about these supposed offending words. Without an opportunity to fix anything. Just ZAP ... your digital life is deleted. Everything is gone!

Ten years of blogging, thousands of posts, many thousands of photos, over ten thousand comments and a hundred thousand heart-felt words all gone in an instant. Devastating! Be warned all you innocents in blogland.

The blog was actually removed twice, for "phishing". Which, as you all know, is absurd. We have never asked for your personal, private information. The Appeals process reinstated the blog the first time then the Google Bot zapped us again the next day. But the second time we were locked out of the Appeals process. We tried sending Feedback. Never got a answer. Tried to post to the Blogger Help Community. They never published the post. Located twenty phone numbers for Google. The numbers are all automated and only a couple allowed you to leave a message. We left messages. Never got a callback.

Google/Blogger pronounces you guilty using an "automated system" (their words) and gives you little or no opportunity to prove otherwise. It's been a nightmare. (for more details see the timeline post below)

So what choice do we have now that Google/Blogger has burned down our blog? Like the Phoenix from Greek mythology we shall rise from the ashes with this new blog. We will start over and hope that our many friends and followers will be able to find us and that they will never ever have to suffer the same fate.

Mr. Lavender D.

---

You can imagine how devastating this has been to me. I appreciate my sweet hubby taking the time to help me start a new blog. But can I ask all of you to do me a favor? Will you please put a sentence or two in your next post to let people know where I am and what has happened to me? You can say that my blog was unfairly removed by Blogger and we are trying our best to get it back, but for now I will post updates on the process here:

lavenderdreamsnew.blogspot.com

And also a plea to Blogger to bring back lavenderdreamstoo. We're a supportive community! Maybe they will listen if we all voice our consternation together!

Thank you, Lavender Dreamer Diane

You have our permission to copy and paste any part or all of this post to your social media. At the very least please post a few lines on your own blog about what's happened to Lavender Dreams and include our new blog address. Thanks. MrLD

A VALENTINE'S DAY TUTORIAL TO MAKING VALENTINES--A BLAST FROM THE PAST

With Valentine's Day coming up

I thought it would be fun

 (kinda like poking my eye out

with a stick)

to craft a few Valentines

with my grandgirls when they 

were little.

This, of course, involved

GLUE & GLITTER,

the bane of my existence.

I set up "stations" before

they arrived at my house.

Look how handy these sweet

chalkboard plates
(that my daughter-in-love made me)
 came in!

Station One:

Station Two:

Station Three:

This involves scissors & a hole punch

AND a paper cutter which the girls

are NOT ALLOWED to use.

I gave them a very sweet, gentle reminder

about "HANDS OFF" the slicer/dicer.

SweetCheeks said:

Yohu wouldn't do that enyways, Nana.

That is a stooopid sighn.

Hmmmm...That kid was smart even

when she was little.

Choosing materials each girl started

crafting. 

Thing One

Thing Two

And, last but not least,

Thing Three

How did everything turn out?

How much glitter was spilled in the process?

How many fingers were glued to eyeballs?

How many scraps of paper were

glued to the floor?

Maybe at some point

in the future when I

TRULY RECOVER

maybe all your pressing questions

will be answered.......maybe.....

This post will make SweetCheeks

smile as she continues to recover

from her surgery.

She is getting as spoiled today

as she was back then.

She is doing really well-

in some pain but is managing

it like a trooper.

HAVE A WONDERFUL

VALENTINE'S DAY
from our little 
Bright Eyes!

ps- please forgive the quality of those old pictures.

To tell the truth, I am not much better

at photography now.....

SWEETCHEEKS SURGERY RESULTS- PRAYER REQUEST UPDATE!

THANK YOU!

THANK YOU!

THANK YOU!

Thank you for all the prayers,

well-wishes and good thoughts

winged our way.

SweetCheeks went into surgery

this morning. 

We were prepared that she might

have to have a small surgery today

with a big one to follow on Monday.

Thank the good Lord,

she will only need the one surgery.

I don't want to get too technical

so I will just say that 

she had a VERY LARGE CYST

with a 'tether' 

on it that was removed and 

she will soon be home recovering.

She bore up like a trooper

but is still in quite a bit of pain.

SO---Your praying and/or healing thoughts

are still needed!

Please pray for relief from pain

and a fast healing.

Thank you and Amen!

I can't tell you how blessed I feel

to have a blog community that 

supports each other like you have

just supported me(us).

I know where to come when I need help!!

Soon our dancer will be

treading those boards again!

Have a wonderful weekend

(or what's left of it).....

UPDATE & CONTINUED PRAYER REQUEST-SURGERY SCHEDULED

Good Morning~

We don't have a lot of answers yet.

I can't give you many details

because we don't know exactly 

WHAT is going on.

There is an exploratory surgery

scheduled for today.

Depending on what they find,

there may be a more extensive surgery

on Monday.

We are hoping/praying that

doesn't happen.

Please pray for this girl.

She talks like a walking

MEDICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA

and is fully informed as to her condition.

Pray for peace of mind for all of us,

a surgery that gives finite answers,

and a relief from pain and for our 

SweetCheek's peace of mind.

I won't have my computer with me today,

so I won't respond until tonight or tomorrow.

When WE know more, 

I will tell YOU more.

Pray our little dancer is soon 

back to dancing again!

Thank you for all your prayers,

healing thoughts and 

well-wishes.

If you are part of a prayer chain,

please add her to the list.

Love you all-

Bloggers and blog readers are

THE BEST!!!!

PLEASE PRAY FOR MY SWEETCHEEKS

Please pray for our Julia.

I know many of you remember our

SweetCheeks from the time she

was a little girl.

I posted this plea on Facebook

but I know not everyone

visits there.

In the middle of a snowstorm

yesterday my daughter took

SweetCheeks to the ER.

She is in a lot of pain and

they cannot figure out what is wrong.

They have ruled out several of 

the big things.

She has a really high pain tolerance level

so for her to be feeling this bad

is kind of scary.

Pray they can at least figure out 

the source of her pain today.

I will keep you posted when

we know more.

If you are not a "pray-er"

please wing healing thoughts

and wishes her way.

Love my little girlie!!!

REMEMBERING MY BROTHER -SMILING THROUGH THE HEARTACHE

Six years  ago this week

my brother, Charlie,

walked into the hospital ER

because he wasn't feeling well.

On February 5th,  2013,

 4:04 pm he left the hospital.

He didn't leave the way we hoped,

nor the way we expected.

He went to a different home

than the one he left that last Tuesday.

He developed a very rare cancer

that affects less than 1% of

cancer patients.  It is fast moving

and there is less than a 1% chance

of survival.

I  struggled trying to figure

out why this has happened.

Then a peaceful thought came to me.

Our little granddaughter,

Anna Bella,  who would be THIRTEEN now,

needed an Uncle

to keep her company.

A great-uncle.

Great in more ways than one.

Wasn't he a cute little boy?

We knew that last morning that his

time to be with us was to be

short-lived.

They put him on a morphine drip

and he gently drifted away

without pain.

What you don't know about

my brother is that he was a 

joker-He loved to make

people laugh.

He was the "smiliest" person

I ever knew and he

dearly loved a good joke.

You know, even in moments of 

blinding pain there are

sparks of laughter,

After we said our good-byes and 

gave him permission to go "home",

we were all sobbing.

I told him: "You are so, so loved here

and Mom & Dad

and our grandparents and 

uncles and cousins and family

are all waiting for you-waiting to

welcome you to Heaven".

My sister-in-law added...

"And Snow White".

What? I asked.

Maybe you read a different

Bible than I do cuz I don't

think Snow White is in Heaven.

Everyone in the room erupted

in laughter.

In the burst of laughter

my brother, Charlie,

took his last breath of

life on this Earth.

We knew then that he 

was free to go because

in spite of our sadness

there was one last smile for him.

I'm betting that right now,

up in Heaven,

he is setting our little Anna Bella

up to some mischief

just like  I my father used to 

set him up.

He passed so-so peacefully,

with nary a complaint.

You did good, Charlie,

very, very good.

Now I feel like I have a 

GUARDIAN ANGEL

that watches over me.

As a family, we have moved on,

walking different paths than the ones 

we were on and that is okay.

Happy memories keep us company

on those days when we mourn

our earthly loss.

Take a moment today to 

tell someone you love them.

If there are rifts in your family,

mend them while you have time

for tomorrow is never guaranteed

and there are no "do-overs"

when death comes to visit.

Have a wonderful, blessed day.

I hope YOU have a 

GUARDIAN ANGEL

in your life!

ps.  Snow White?  She was Charlie's cat.