Sunshine Maker Meg: Isn't it simple after all...

Good Afternoon!! I was just sitting here on my lunch break and thought "This past week has been pretty lovely, I'm going to blog about it" and now here we are! These are just a few highlights from the past 7 days or so...

This is Smudge. He is my parent's neighbor's cat and he is a love bug!! He usually hangs out in his own yard but last week he wandered on over to my parent's yard. I was at their house re-potting some herbs (basil, parsley, cilantro & cat nip) when I noticed this little guy start to head my way. I had just re-potted the cat nip and put it out in the yard to get some sun and it was quite apparent that Smudge had gotten a whiff of said cat nip during that process. Before I knew it, he was in the yard right next to it. He looked at me for a second and then starting eating as much cat nip as he could fit into his mouth! I stopped this adorable trouble maker from consuming all of the cat nip and then gave him a few pieces to enjoy (moderation is key, folks). As you can see from the picture above, he kinda liked it! Smudge now makes frequent trips into my parent's backyard in search for the cat nip!

Last Friday I came to the conclusion that I need a ukulele. They are smaller than guitars and the strings are more gentle on the finger tips so I figured that this would be an easy instrument to learn! Our friend John was kind enough to let me borrow his so I could learn how to play. He dropped it off on Sunday morning which was super nice!! Then, when I came into work on Monday, one of the doctors that I work with brought in a ukulele for me to keep!! She said that it just needed strings and it would be good to go! How nice!?!?!? So let's review this again: I came to the conclusion on Friday that I wanted a ukulele, by Sunday our friend let me borrow his so I could start to learn and by Monday one of my co-workers gave me one to keep! I am so very grateful :)

I picked up some strings at the store last night and Toph was kind enough to put the strings on and tune her for me! I start learning how to play the ukulele effective tomorrow and I am pretty excited about it...

This is my friend Tina. Over the weekend, we attended a BBQ hosted by the owner's of the hospital that we work for. It was a really great time but of course we couldn't behave ourselves. We found an empty picture frame in their house and decided that it just could not stay that way. We drew little stick figures, gave them fancy hair, some simple triangle shaped dresses and signed our names under each of them. We then put the picture in the frame, put it back on the shelf and let them know that we had left them a really great gift. I must say, that is some pretty fancy art work there! ;)

The other night after work, Toph and I didn't feel like going to the store so we decided to try to make something yummy with the things we already had in the house. I am not good at this whole "improvisational cooking" thing so I let him take the lead (and by the lead I mean I sat down at the table with a glass of red wine asking a lot of questions while he started making something delicious). I sat there and watched as a pile of cucumbers, tomatoes, cheese, garlic and basil turned into this yummy masterpiece. Toph has labeled this deeee-licious snack "The Beard's Cuke Boats" and they are soooooo good!

That covers it! A couple of random and wonderful things that have filled the past seven days. I hope everyone is having a great week so far!! And on a side note, if anyone has any tips for learning the ukulele OR any fun song ideas that I can try to learn please, please, PLEASE let me know!!