Ellenton Clinic luncheon, sunburns, outings and scrapbooking

Hi all-

Welcome back! I can hardly wait to tell you about all of the stuff that has been going on down here. But let me start by telling you all about the Ellenton Clinic Luncheon. It went really well. I am looking forward to sharing some pictures with you of it. And I would paste some in now, but my poor hard working husband (who has had a migraine since Saturday) has finally fallen asleep. But do not fear the photos will be forth coming shortly. And yes, I took many photos as the event progressed. I began snapping pictures as we were setting up and concluded while we had a full house of health care workers.

(The setting up begins)

I'm always amazed by how grateful the Ellenton clinic workers are and truly feel like they are blessing our lives much more than we could ever bless theirs. What I mean by this is that they are actually out in the fields doing God's work. They are being good neighbors to the poor and downtrodden. They are vaccinating, providing physical therapy, medicine and medical care for many migrant workers that would simply do without.Therefore it seems like the least that we can do to provide a good meal and desserts for these health care personnel.

Everyone is busy fixing drinks and finalizing details for our guests to arrive.

The first guests arrive and beeline it for the back table where there are an abundance of homemade desserts.

The masses descend upon us, and we are ever so thankful that they have.

Ah, good food and good company! Everyone is eating their fill.

We can now rest at ease that our event was a major success.

I was amazed by the number of people who were able to take off from work at St. Margaret's to help out with the luncheon too. Honestly, everything just fell into place. Each individual had a job...and everyone fulfilled their roll. Granted the subway sandwiches with lettuce and pickles were a snafu that we'd not expected, but since the tomatoes were recalled due to salmonella fears, we were thankful for the pickles.

Of course, I've not stopped serving tomatoes,here at home, (since the vast majority of our tomatoes come either from our garden or the local farmers market). Also, Georgia (thankfully) has been cleared from any Salmonella potential. Yay! After all there's nothing better than a good tomato sandwich during the hot days of summer.

Although, we've actually received a break from the overwhelming heat we'd had before this week. And even more impressively we've had nice thunderstorms come through our town each evening to provide water for our vegetables and flowers. Thank you, God, for taking care of the watering for us! :)

So since the weather has been a bit more mild (in other words it doesn't feel like 110 down here) I decided it was time to begin working on my summer tan. However, I made a rookie mistake. I should have known better. I didn't want to, nor did I have time to, lay around the pool all day long just to get a tan so I took myself back to the tanning salon that I'd visited during the later parts of last summer. And I got into the *same* tanning bed that I'd used then. I should have known better. It's a super bed, meaning that it's stronger than a normal one. Now, IF I'd gone to a normal tanning bed, I probably would be almost over my sunburn, but since I forgot myself (as I do most summers although rarely in a tanning bed) I have my annual beginning of the summer burn.

Thankfully, I'm not life guarding this summer so I can simply give my burn time to heal. And then, ladies and gentlemen, I'll head to a normal tanning bed (or outside) and build up my base before trying a super bed again. :) At least I've learned my lesson and I'm not overly blistered in the process.

However, I wish I had thought this through more fully, because I initially planned to head to the amusement and water park today. Needless to say, I decided against it since I've acquired a new skin shade for a few days. So instead, I enjoyed my time having a leisurely lunch with a good friend. We'd been at an educational workshop today (which was free oddly enough) and then decided to hang out for a while. And you just can't beat the Atlanta Bread Company! Yum!! I do so enjoy their food...it's so vegetarian friendly...and the chilled spiced Chai with whipped cream. Yes, I felt quite spoiled.

And since I was in this metropolis, I decided to visit Michael's. Craft stores can be a dangerous place, because there are so many great things to buy! Ya know? Well...several dollars lighter I can out with many treasures. I managed to gather up poly fiber for some new pillows that I'm sewing for our guestroom. If you come to visit I'll show them to you...or perhaps I'll even post a picture of them here when I'm done! I also got super gel, I assume and it seems to work much like super glue. Our little ceramic bird, in our bedroom is so thankful for it's beak back.

I found some nice faux flowers, purple of course, that I absolutely adore...and some accent beads to go into a vase in our bedroom. They fit in quite nicely with the chevan rose I recently received.

Then I found tubes of colored icing for cakes. I'm planning on making a cake for my husband for father's day with a tie on it, but wasn't sure how I'd make the tie work...now I know! Yay!! I'll definitely post a picture of it on here when I get it finished.

Finally, I found SCRAP BOOKING stuff. My supreme weakness and one of my favorite hobbies. Thankfully, they were having a sale on the stickers for the scrapbooks 40% off. WOW! So needless to say my wallet is no where near as light as it could have been.

And yes, I've already begun scrap booking again. In fact, I've carefully placed all of the stickers on their appropriate pages and now...I've simply got to print out pictures to go with them...well...for the pages we have pictures for...now. I went ahead and designed a "Paris, France" page for an upcoming trip.

I also picked out a page for the 4th of July and began working on it. Then there's the page for my garden, and finally the one for my husband's birthday. So needless to say I'll have plenty to record.

Well, I've talked every one's ears off today...but do tune in next time. Because I can hardly wait to tell you all about my next adventures. But until then, toodle loo! And Good night!