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!!

My Friend "Sam"

Sweet as fragrant roses
`Tis to have a friend
On whom in gloom or sunshine
We know we can depend
Nineteenth-Century
Calling Card





"If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. ³ If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing."
-I Corinthians 13:1-3





What do you think about when you think about what a friend is? I really never thought about it honestly. Then the Lord brought "Sam" into my life. We met online actually, over ten years ago on a Lupus message board. I am not sure how she does all she does. She and her husband own and operate a home maintenance and repair business in the high desert. They are also starting a non-profit business making home repairs for the elderly, poor and disabled of the high desert communities. "Sam"also does many people's taxes this time of year. She cooks like the best southern cook. She has gifted many, donated, large appliances to people in need. I have never met a more compassionate, selfless person. I am blessed to call her my friend...my best friend. I love her so much. She adds warmth to the cottage. She and her family are a part of our family and will forever be. God knew why we needed to be friends and we try to edify Him in His gift to us of our friendship