I picked up my friend Isla from her 'secured facility' yesterday and brought her home with me. She was happy to 'get out'. When I say that I usually mean that I have been keeping myself busy with something and have just not been able to leave the house as I have been preoccupied. When she says it, she means it 'literally'!

Anywyay, I had planned that she might help me with making an Amish Friendship Loaf. It was time as it was Day 10 on the recipe instructions. I have read and re-read this receipe a trillion times and it still seems fuzzy to me. Nevertheless, I worked through it once more. I asked Isla to mix while I got the ingredients, measured and then put things away etc. She was so cute. Her short term memory is 'not there' so I must have heard her say at least 10X 'If it doesn't turn out, you can always say that Isla did not have her glasses on and did not read the recipe right." At first I thought it was funny but then I realized she really thought she was saying it for the first time, EACH time she said it. It was kind of sad at the same time as funny. Anyway, we had a lot of laughs. The next thing she said was "This is sure getting thick" which always caused me to stop and check it out just in case there was something going wrong with the recipe - not that I could change anything by then!

So we popped it in the oven finally. Two loaves were made. I thought it was a cake but it turns out to be a bread loaf. Chocolate bread loaf. Very good too. Lots of cinnamon in it. So this morning I am taking one pan to work with me so others can enjoy it (and I don't eat the whole thing myself)!

I had bought a new 48 piece puzzle of Toy Story3 for the grandkids so I opened it up and we tried to do it on the table on the deck. We actually finished it after about an hour! 48 pieces...big pieces. I said I wanted to be able to do it before the grandkids tried it out. They seem to know how to do puzzles better than gramma. I can still remember trying to do a Spiderman puzzle with Josh when he was about 4 and he finally said to me "It's OK gramma, we can ask mommy to help us." How does a girl feel, eh? Well, she was very definite in every move. Things that were obvious she totally missed but once in awhile she would find a piece that fit where I didn't even see it - not that that is any accomplishment as puzzles definitely are not my thing. We had a few laughs and hopefully she enjoyed herself. Taking her back to her place she thanked me for 'getting her out' and for doing something different.

I feel good about her feeling good. I want to be more regular with her (not that she will notice) but I will.