So I'm taking on a very special tackle it this week. On Wednesday, my husband and I will celebrate our sixth wedding anniversary, and I have some making up to do. Last year I accidentally agreed to work very late at a public event for my agency on the night of our fifth anniversary. I felt terrible after I realized my mistake, but there was no getting out of it. This year, I want to make that up and then some. We've planned to take a moonlight hike along the Tahoe Rim Trail for our anniversary this year. Gregg is in charge of getting all the gear we'll need and I am in charge of the picnic. Our anniversary is on a Wednesday night, so we'll need to go hiking after work, which will add to my challenge. I really want to make it special, so my project is to develop and execute the perfect hiking picnic menu! I need as much advice on this as possible, so anyone with suggestions, please comment. Thanks and I'll let you all know how it went next week.

I have been in love with books and reading truly for as long as I can remember. I have deeply fond memories of all of my siblings and myself gathered on my parents' bed at night, with Mother reading us some cherished story. Such classics as Where the Red Fern Grows and Ole' Yeller, to name just a couple, were the after dinner fare in our house. Daddy often worked far away and would be gone for as much as a couple weeks at a time. The evenings passed so pleasantly waiting for his return as we wandered through the pages of first one and then another family adventure...