The best gift on Mother's Day is being a MOTHER!!!

Isn't life grand?! Look at those roses...so very beautiful! We came home from Vegas on Sunday to our home filled with vases in every room of beautiful bouquets of roses from my garden. Nicole and Breanne's gift to me for Mother's Day! What could be better? Well of course being home with them and my grands would have been the BEST but we stayed and relaxed by the pool all day. I missed spending Mother's Day with the two, now so grown up, women who made it possible and wonderful to be a Mom!

I love my girls more than any words could ever express! They are beautiful from the inside out! I am truly so blessed. Thank you Lord for them!

The roses in my garden are bursting forth in grandness. I haven't been able to really get out and see them this week but the evidence is all around me in visual and aroma therapy. The top picture is one I took from the top of a vase in the family room, the girls used to float some blooms in. It is a fun picture.

The picture at right is a beautiful red bouquet that is on my nook table. It is full of Mr. Lincoln roses in full bloom. It is now Thursday and they still look and smell wonderful! There is another vase of them, pictured above, on my dresser.


The white one's above are my favorite all time roses! They are Iceberg's. Years ago, before he passed away, my dad gave me three bushes of them. We tried to keep them when we moved but they did not make it so I was sure to plant more of them in my rose garden...a whole slope of them! Aren't they gorgeous?! I will take pictures when I can get out to them (I came home from Vegas in a bit of a flare) so you can see them as they cascade so beautifully down the slope. Oh dad I miss you!!!

<------ Yellow roses always make me think of my good and loving friends, it is the rose of friendship!

These pretty and oh so fragrant purple blooms are on my night table. I can smell them when I sleep :) -----> <------ And these beauties are sitting in my living room :)

So now you get to enjoy the roses I have in my house. Soon you can see what is blooming in my yard!! God is awesome!

My First Rose of Spring :)

Each rose that comes brings me greetings
from the rose of an eternal spring! -Rabindranath Tagore


Here she is! My first Rose of Spring! It is an Antique English rose and she has several friends growing along side her. A beautiful yellow one and several pink. Each of my beds has blooms in it and there are hundreds of buds ready to burst forth! I absolutely cannot wait. I have my vases all washed and ready to hold them!

We are leaving for Vegas on Monday for a week and I am sad that many will burst forth while I am away. Bob will be here until Friday, so if they do open he can be reminded of my love for him and my missing him!!

Maybe the warmth of this day will encourage the buds to begin opening. We have had very cold nights with ice on the car windows for the past several mornings. I think all of my rose babies are saying HEY what the heck??? And now that it is getting warmer they may want to come out and show their full beauty. So I will for sure post more pictures of them as they reveal themselves :) So you can enjoy one of God's greatest gifts to us...ROSES!!

What are little boys made of....

You know the poem...well I raised two GIRLS. These boys are a hoot and a half! Last week, while at my house, Garrett caught his first lizard. In Grandma Land that is quite a happening (hence the piccy). I am excited to be a part of all of the firsts in their little lives and catching a lizard is no exception. Not just because it is a first but also because I happen to like lizards. I did find out something I never knew...in God's perfect creation, He made lizard tails segmented, so when a predator bites at their tails, with intent of eating them, the tail breaks off. They grow new ones like we grow finger nails I guess. How did I find out about this amazing little detail in life? Well, I asked to hold the first ever caught a lizard. As I was showing Dillon how to hold it...it jumped. Having the OH SO QUICK reflexes I do, I caught the slimy creature partly by the tail. I say partly because had I had just the tail he would have escaped; Nope, he didn't get away but his tail did fall onto the ground where it continued to squiggle for several minutes. I suggested that maybe Dillon should try to hold the now detached tail at which point I heard a very squimish, "Ughhh" behind me. Seems my daughter was not too impressed that the tail came off and was making disco moves on the welcome mat!

Fast forward about three days to Sunday afternoon at our house. The Cuellar boys were visiting and yes all four boys went on a lizard hunt and sure enough Garrett caught another one. He put him in a little zippered case he had. Soon they also found a cricket to join their cold blooded friend. About an hour later Gare came in and told us he was a bit worried about his lizard because he had a scratch on his eye and in fact maybe his eye was poked out. Again I hear the now familiar, "Ughhh" from his mom. Aunt Boo went out to investigate (she loves gore) and came back to inform that the eye was still intact and it really looked like a scratch with "just a bit of blood".

We pretty much forgot about the lizard until it was time for the Shaw family to head home later that night. Nicole reminded Garrett to go out back and release his lizard into the yard. Out he went. He came back in and said the little lizard must be very tired `cause he wouldn't wake up. "Mommy, he is doing just what he did earlier when I put him on my arm. He just sat there and didn't move". Good lizard?? Trained? Scared? We adults exchanged looks of knowing the fate of the poor guy. Nicole ushered Garrett to the car assuring him Papa would wake the lizard up and let him go. Papa went to the patio to check on the ill fated reptile. It was deceased he came back and told us. I once again hear the now all too familiar, "Ughh". "What do we do now?" my daughter asks. "Go home" I told her.

Let's fast forward to Monday morning...OK truth, afternoon, I go out onto the back patio to water my flowers. As I take my third step I freeze...why is that little lizard not scurrying out of my way?? Because Men are still little boys, that's why! I was certain to thank my husband for confirming the death of the lizard and NOT disposing of his cold little body so I could almost step on it!! I am now considering letting it dry out completely and then mosaicking it...

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. ² There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? ³ When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. ⁴ And you know the way to where I am going.” - John 14:1-4

What a loving God we serve. He wants to spend eternity with us. That is so hard to really comprehend! But He does. He knows our hearts. He has given His Son to us so we can be with Him. He gave His word to us so we can be ready to join Him and so we can share His love with ALL who we know!

I pray this Easter day will bring you to a better understanding of the breadth of His love for you!

Bed Head...

Have you ever really noticed that when you first wake up your hair is is not happy about it? And then after a while it calms down and is OK? I am a bit perplexed by this actually. I got up this day and looked in the mirror and almost turned to stone...I really did look like Medusa. I HAD to get coffee and as I always do, I went straight for the coffee pot. Then to my puter to read the news and catch up on email and stuff. After coffee comes potty and so there I went. As I passed the mirror, I looked at my hair and it was a bit calmed down and really laying quite nicely. I have now deduced that hair needs coffee too in the mornings! I have to qualify and say that I still need to shower and wash my hair but I am very happy that it lays down after an hour or so of being out of bed. You know, in case of a fire or earthquake, the emergency workers will be spared the horror of finding Medusa in the rubble!!

There is one exception to this new revelation; Bob Okarma. His hair does not lay down, no matter how many cups of java he consumes or how long he is up. Lol! It sticks straight up, like Bart Simpson's. It is really very comical and instead of turning to stone when I look at it, I am instantly put into a happy mood :) Yes, simple mind, simple pleasures.

OK, that is my blog for this day. I didn't wake up this morning thinking. 'I am going to blog about my bed head'...it just happened!

Do you think Jesus ever had bed head? I mean, I know the man did not sleep much, really, but when He did, do you think his hair was a mess when He got up? And did He drink coffee? He was a man afterall, and well, God...so maybe no bed head or coffee...Just `sayin...

Make it a good day. Do something nice for someone.

Salty, Harbor Dreams...

A blustery day! I know it is blowing hard out there because I can hear my favorite wind chime clanging a beautiful melody. I bought it on a road trip with "Sam". We were in Bishop, on the way to Boise to see my mom. We stopped at a craft fair in the park and we passed a vendor who had these beautiful metal chimes. As we went by we heard it clang and it sounded just like the boats in a harbor, in the breeze. If you have been to a harbor you know the sound...I can close my eyes and I am there. I soooo love the ocean!

We were blessed to be able to spend a week or two every summer at my mom's condo in Oceanside when my girls were growing up. We would always spend at least one afternoon at the harbor there. The fish and chips are to die for! "Sam" and I have made a few trips to shop and eat there too. She loves the ocean as much as I do!

To this day we still go, as a larger family now, to the Oceanside condo and to the harbor. I know my girls cherish the memories we made at "our" beach. And now they share memory making with their kids and husbands on the sand and at the harbor. Meemaw and Papa sit on the beach in chairs wearing hats and smiling at the memories and present fun.

So I had to buy the wind chime. The wind and sun here are reckless and uncaring in their eventual destruction of anything left outside. I knew when I saw this big metal piece that it would be safe hanging on my patio. I didn't know it would take me away so often, to places I so love being!

I can seriously close my eyes and smell the salt air and hear the water lapping on the sides of the boats in the harbor, seagulls mine mining in the back ground. Ahhhhh take me away....

I am at my Gram's house in Tiburon, California. It was a wonderful house on a lagoon just across the bay from San Francisco. The house was next to the Yacht Club where small boats were tied up, so many colors and sizes. I can go from there to the wonderful Fisherman's Wharf in The City by the Bay...my honeymoon with my beloved, walking amongst the fishing boats and musing about the their mystical names. Newport Harbor with it's huge yachts docked in expensive holds. Taking the car ferry with my friend from there to Balboa Island just to do it! Catalina Harbor and boats of all sizes and conditions moored in the Harbor, eating fish and chips and drinking a beer with Sam on one of our girl getaways. Oh and Boston Harbor, so long ago, during those Princess House days! I have to include San Pedro Harbor; the starting point of so much fun and a few somber times. It is also the home of the beautiful Queen Mary. And back to my salty, Oceanside Harbor. Kayaking through the waterways with Bob and the kids and out to the jetty where the fierce ocean waves beckoned us to join them. Renting a small motor boat a few years ago with Sam and my sister, Donna to make our own little cruise back to that jetty...talking about the next time when we would rent a BIG boat and take up the the invitation to crash the waves into the beautiful Pacific (Julie, remember you promised to come next time!!)!! All have the same smells and sounds and always the ever present clang of the cleats and rigging's against the masts...

Yummy Chocolate, Raspberry, Almond Cake

This cake is so yummy I wanted to share with you. The picture is not really the exact cake but is close. It is very dense and rich. Yummy!

3 cups sugar
3/4 lb melted butter
4 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp almond extract (I used Amaretto)
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup raspberry jam
1 cup mini chocolate morsels
3/4 cup sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 300.

Mix the sugar and butter in mixing a bowl on low. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add the extracts. Sift together dry ingredients and add to the batter, mixing until smooth. Pour into greased and papered 9" cake pan, reserving about 1/3 of the batter. Carefully smooth out a thin layer of the raspberry jam. Top with chocolate chips and half the sliced almonds. Carefully cover with the remaining batter. Sprinkle the top of the cake with the remaining sliced almonds. Bake for 1 hour and 45 min to 2 hours. Let cool for ten minutes and run a knife around edge and turn onto plate. When cool turn upright. Soooo delish!

Give all of your worries and cares to God, for He cares about what happens to you. I Peter 5:7

His care for us is truly amazing. I really cannot even fathom the breadth of the care He has for us! I see His hand in my life in every aspect. He protects, prospers and preserves me now and forever! What a promise we have in Jesus. As we come upon the celebration of His resurrection, Easter, I stand in awe of the sacrifice He made in dying on the cross so that we may spend eternity with Him in heaven. My sins no longer counted against me because He died to cover them! In that I know I have a responsibility to live for Him; To be a witness of His love and to share His ways with those I know and love! Thank you Jesus for my family and my friends! I count them as beautiful blooms in my life garden. I love to see them grow and flourish in the sprinklings of your word in their lives. Your love abounds!

This day as I can reflect on the weekend and smile because it was spent with my kids and grand children. Friday, Breanne, Nicole, the kids and Megan Fox, a sweet friend from the camp, and I spent all day and night at Disneyland. We had so much fun. I felt a bit bad because Breanne had to open on Saturday morning and we got her home after one a.m. . She was very concerned that Wookie was left at home all day an night! he was really OK.

Saturday I was left alone at home for several hours while Bob and Garrett went to have the oil changed in the car and Nicole, Megan, Dillon and Emmy went shopping for clothes for Garrett. My job was to "rest". I did, of course. I rested while I read my new Taste of Home magazine. I rested while I chose the desserts I wanted to bake for our evening meal. I rested while I called Bob with additions to the grocery list and again while I took out and organized the ingredients for the wonderful chocolate, raspberry, almond cake and yummy coconut meringue pie I made :)

We had beef stroganoff, green salad and garlic bread for dinner. Brian and I were left to make the final preparations while Bob and Nicole walked a few times around the block. (Nicole is on a mission to get her dad in shape). Emmy was soooo cute as she stood on the porch and watched as they left with her brothers and she had to stay home. She did not cry at all. She just followed them on the walkway until she ran out of cement. Then she came back in the house and "helped" her daddy and I prepare dinner. At one point she opend the pantry door and brought our a paper bowl and a bag of cereal. She was appearently going to make her own little snack!

We all ate in the dining room... one of my favorite places in our home! After dinner we watched Madagascar II with the babe's and munched on the yummy cake. Very fun. Breanne and Chris stayed home this day because she had to work and since we kept her up all night the night before she needed to sleep!

Sunday we went to church and after as the Shaw's and Papa went to have a picnic at the Phelan park, I went with "Sam" to Orange County to see her daughter and her boyfriend. I got a call from Nicole while gone, telling me that Emmy had fallen on a rock and lacerated her forehead. Oh my heart!! I hated that I was so far away. Emmy was really fine. The kids ended up taking her to the fire station where paramedics steri stripped her wound. She was actually sleeping while they did it lol! She is a funny kid :) "Sam" and I had a nice visit but didn't get to touch the sand of our beautiful ocean (it was one of our reasons for going down). Sunday evening Breanne and Chris joined us to watch Extreme Home Makeover. They did a home here in the desert. It was fun to watch as our community built a beautiful new home and Learning Center for a very deserving family and their wildlife sanctuary! We ate pie and had fun with Wookie during the commercials. Bob and I went to bed early, both tired from the busy weekend.

So today I sit and rest a bit more and reflect on the fun of the weekend and see God in His care for us! Everyone is safely home. Bob is safely at work at a job that we are blessed he has! Our bills are paid. Our home is warm and my roses are ready to bloom! What more can we ask?!

I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. Song of Solomen 2:1

Yes! roses are even mentioned in the Bible. God surely wants us to enjoy them to our hearts content! I am anxiously waiting for mine to erupt in beautiful color throughout my brown, sandy yard. It is still a bit cool outside but the water has been turned on to encourage spring growth. I have seen many beginnings of buds on the stalks. I can't wait to fill the cottage with fresh roses! This day started early for me. I woke with much energy and a desire to clean and organize :) I have finished my ironing and even did a bit of studying (my reward was being able to blog!!) I am hoping Nicole and the babes will be here this day as we are all going to Disneyland tomorrow. We have season passes that end in June. We are coming into the busy season at the park so we want to get as many visits in before the crowds. OK off to work on Meri's laundry. I also want to grout a few of my mosaic pieces but have to do a chapter of homework first! One must discipline ones self lol!

I just realized that some of you reading may not know who Meri is. Meri is my niece. She is the oldest daughter of my sister Bonnie and is the mother of Colton, Ronnie and baby Presley. Presley was born on September 23, 2008 with a heart defect and a few other issues. She spent the first ten weeks of her fragile life in the NICU at Kaiser, L.A. She had open heart surgery and then a G-tube inserted surgically which resulted in a complication requiring a tracheostomy. Presley is now home but still needs constant care by her parents. So I have committed to helping out by doing their laundry. i am also much blessed to sometimes care for Colton and Ronnie :) You can visit Presleys website @ http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/presleykathleencuellar to learn more about our precious babe and her family. God is good always. Have a blessed day!

Candied Rose Petals

You will need:
1 egg white
sugar
Fresh rose petals and leaves

Gently beat egg white in a small bowl. Sprinkle sugar on a plate. Dip rose petals
and leaves in egg white, thenin sugar. Dry on rack, then layer on wax paper with
paper towel between each layer.

Display candied rose petals on candy tray, as cake decoration or garnish for fruit cup.

My Wonderful Grands

"Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing." -Philippians 2:14-16

For they are the grandest of grand. How could we have ever known that when Garrett was born our hearts would explode with such a huge and special love??!!

The Lord has blessed us through Nicole and Brian with three of the most beautiful human beings ever created! Yes, I know I am so being a grandmother...Meemaw is what they call me. But seriously, they are especially wonderfully, beautimusly, AWESOME!

Garrett is now a big five. He is handsome with deep blue eyes. Garrrett is intense in everything he does. He is very precise in what he wants and in what he creates. I love it when he prays, esp. before meals. The other day he asked the Lord, "To please bless all of the humans". I thought that was so sweet and kind of funny. he is growing up so fast. he loves to play pranks on all of us. he is very much like his daddy...fun loving and busy!

Dillon turned three the end of September. He is our very sweet and sensitive little man. he ALWAYS shares his treats with whoever is with him. He loves to play cars and trucks on bumpies. Bumpies are any surface that has a curve or bump. Dillon loves to be outside and is also a cuddler.

Emmy turned one in December. She is the sweetest little girl I ever met. She also has a very funny personality. She is a happy third child. She doesn't need a lot to be content and makes herself busy playing with tupperware if she can't find anything else to please her little self. She has learned sign language and now even puts words together to ask for more drink please :)

Kylee turns eight in May. We only get to see her every other weekend when her daddy, Chris, has her with him. She loves to play with her cousins and is an expert on the Wii. I love her long brown hair and pretty brown eyes.

Of course I have to mention our grand dog Wookie! He is very cute. He is a dorkie doodle which accounts for his very cuteness and short legs. Remember Valcor from The Never Ending Story? The white, flying dog? Well Wookie looks like him. Except he is black with brown tufts over his eyes, around his face and on his feet. He has puppy breath still :)

So these are the little lights in my life. They are all scrumptious and they make the Cottage a very sweet place to be!

My Beloved Husband Bob

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud ⁵ or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. ⁶ It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁷ Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. -I Cor 13:4-7



Making cupcakes with Garrett.

And a picture of us and Garrett and Dillon (before Emmy was born). It was so fun trying to get the boys to both smile at the same time!

Yes I have a rubberband in my hair! We were cruising last September and we got picked for the Newlywed game. One of my answers was that he always leaves rubberbands from the newspaper on the end table. The next night we all had rubberbands on our napkins at dinner...yes he put them there!!

We surprised Bob at work dressed up as old ladies for his BD. I am Aunt Bea.





For over thirty five years I have been in love with the most wonderful man on earth! He is an amazing husband, father, grandfather and son...might as well say brother too :) From making cupcakes with his grands to sitting on the beach with me he enjoys life and adds much joy to it. Bob has worked as a surveyor for over thirty years and this past December he was laid off from his job of fifteen years. We enjoyed a few months of retirement and then he went to work for the US Census. Quite a difference than what he is used to doing! But he does not complain. He wants to work. What an awesome man to want to work to provide for us! I love him soooo much! I know I am a much blessed woman! I have included pictures of him from our life as the center of our world. Thank you Lord for him!!!⁴
Just chilling at our back yard party for Brian and Susanne last July and Dillon telling him a story a few years ago!

Chef Bob loves to cook! And he is good at it!!