Thursday, Leap Day, February 29

This is our sweet little Evelyn during her tummy time.

Mommy thought I would look even cuter with this hat, what do you think?

Leap day was beautiful here with temperatures in the high 60s but elsewhere in the country it was a devastating day with over 27 tornados with up to 180 mph winds and massive destruction in several states. It is hard to imagine what that would be like. My prayers go out to those who are attempting to put their lives back together today. And it sounds like another storm system is coming in this weekend.
I am still getting the house put back together and I am trying to eliminate a lot of "stuff" that has accumulated over 30 years. We do have our gas insert up and running again now that it is 60 degrees outside. The decorative brick walls that they sent were the wrong ones and had to be reordered but at least we can use the fireplace and Scioto Valley is going to pay the service fee to have them installed.
Currently I am recovering from a double ear infection and a possible cracked rib. The rib pain was so intense that I went to urgent care on Tuesday. They put me on a Z-pack and Prednisone. I am starting to feel better. And.....on my way home from the zoo, as I turned down our road I spotted the first turkey vulture to return for the spring. The rest of our buzzards usually get here around March 10th.
I know as you are reading this you are thinking that I am a little late getting this post out and you are right, I just couldn't finish it last night. Went to bed instead.

Sunday, February 26

Trish, Lily & Luke giving Grandma Great her birthday flowers right before they headed back to Dover. Luke tried to negotiate another night in Ohio but Mom said he couldn't miss school if he wanted to remain the smartest kid in class. (That is what he thinks!)

Lily giving Molly Scooby Snacks.

Happy Birthday!! Time for cake and ice cream.

I think I had the greatest surprise ever on Friday afternoon. I returned home and saw a truck in the driveway. I noticed it had Delaware tags and when I went in the house I saw our son in law Chad on the couch. At first I thought he had probably brought a horse or one of his race bikes out here and had just stopped in to say hi. But then I heard it, those little giggles and then the excited "surprise Grandma!". Luke and Lily came running through the kitchen and latched on to my leg. It seems that Trish and Chad had to deliver a bike to someone in Pennsylvania and decided to come on out to Ohio to watch Pop Pop Ed's tournament basketball game on Saturday. And it seems we weren't the only ones to be surprised. They also played their little surprise at the gym on Grandma and Grandpa Foulk. Evidently they were good luck because Kenton Ridge defeated Urbana and will move on to play Bellbrook next week. We had a great visit but it was much too short. They left today around 12:30 and should be home by now if they didn't have to stop too many times. Before they left they stopped by our house to wish Grandma Great a happy 88th birthday. Now we are looking forward to a visit from Sara, Matt and Evelyn.
Tomorrow the cleaners will be here to finish up and on Tuesday the serviceman will be here to repair the gas insert that caused all of the mess. Then all I have to do is get my house back together.

Thursday, February 23

Sorry it has been quite a while since my last post. I don't think I mentioned the little issue we have been dealing with. Before I left for Hawaii in November, I noticed that our ceilings were looking a little dark. Of course, I tried to clean them but without much luck. When I got back I called a professional cleaning company to look at our walls and ceiling and was told that we probably had a home owners claim. After having our gas fireplace insert inspected we learned that our fireplace had been installed improperly and the soot had gotten into our furnace and then spread throughout the house. We have had cleaners in our house for the last week and I have been trying to pack, clean and declutter the smaller items to keep ahead of the cleaners. After cleaning they also painted the rooms and ceilings. They still have about a half days work left but it looks great and now I have all of my spring cleaning finished and it isn't even spring yet. In my spare time, I have stripped wall paper, some not very successfully, wired and installed a ceiling fan and replaced the old fan with a ceiling light. Once the cleaners are finished we have a wall that we are going to put wainscot paneling on because we could not get the old wall paper off. An easy fix.....I hope!

Tuesday, February 14

It has been a great day. Talked by FaceTime with Luke & Lily and got a picture from my other sweet heart with the card I sent her. Mr B and I celebrated with specialty sundaes from Shake & Steak.

Monday, February 13

Here comes the USS Port Royal entering Pearl Harbor.

Matt is at the far left, about 10 from the end near the gun.

Do you think this Dad is happy to be holding his little girl? I think so!

Hi Daddy, where have you been? So glad you are home. Now someone should be holding me every minute that I am awake.

Since this is such a late post, most of you will not read this until Tuesday so I will wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day! Today was a great day for our family. Our son in law, Matt got back to Hawaii today from his deployment. The USS Port Royal cruised into Pearl Harbor this morning around 9 am Hawaiian time. Matt was one of the first to leave the ship with all of the other first time fathers. He did have to return to duty but will be home tomorrow and Sara will present him with her "honey do" list. We had a nice meal at Ben & Joy's in Mt. Sterling for the Madison County Retired Teachers Luncheon today. It is always a good time visiting with friends that we haven't seen for a while. Have a nice day!

Saturday, February 11

All of the usual suspects.

Many people don't like this non-native House Sparrow but you can always count on seeing one anywhere you find people. They seem to like us.

An American Goldfinch in his winter olive-green feathers.

The Junco, also known as a "Snow Bird". Summering in the boreal forests of Canada, they think Ohio is their Florida.

The Downy Woodpecker.

Mourning Dove

One of our noisy Blue Jays.

A cute little Carolina Chickadee.

The male Northern Cardinal.

And this is the female Cardinal.

Another shot of the female cardinal.

Not one of my favorite feeder birds. The European starling is considered an invasive species.

A House Finch.

This is one of my favorites, a White-throated Sparrow.

I must say, I just love snow! Last night when I took Molly out around 10:30 it was absolutely pristine. Even with the clouds, the moon was reflecting off the blanket of snow with long purplish shawdows stretching out from the trees in the pasture. We caught a glimpse of about 4 deer gracefully gliding up the hill and out of sight. If it hadn't been so doggone cold out we could have stayed out all night it was that pretty and peaceful. This morning was no less beautiful and I found myself watching the birds at my feeders for about an hour. I saw no less than 14 species in that short time.

Monday, February, 6

Lily is the bravest little girl that I know. What a trooper!

Trish called around 2 o'clock today to tell us that Dr. Rupon said Lily's MRI looked good but after consulting with the rest of the doctors in the group Lily will have another full body nuclear scan at the beginning of March just as a precaution. If that scan comes back clean then the MRI's will move to every 6 months. Good news even though I wish Lily didn't have to go through the injections for the nuclear scan. It is a two day process, one trip to get the radio active isotopes injected and then the next day back again for the scan. Of course at her age that means another injection for anesthesia. Oh how we wish we could do the painful stuff for her, but she sure is a tough little bugger. We are just so grateful that she is where she is in her recovery. What a blessing for the early diagnosis and the great doctors at AI Dupont and Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia. Say a little prayer for all the children that are fighting childhood cancers with hopes that they will join last year's 350,000 childhood cancer survivors.

Monday, February 6

My newest saw painting is the patriotic themed eagles. The red-bellied woodpecker is one that I started about a year ago and never finished. Think I will put them down at The Abbey Gift Shop with my note cards.

Yesterday morning before church I spotted this pileated woodpecker on the power line pole that runs through our pasture. He had company, a red-bellied woodpecker was sharing the pole.

The pilieated is a crow sized bird and is the largest woodpecker species. (Unless we find an Ivory billed woodpecker)

Yesterday was another beautiful day. We didn't have handbell practice after church so when I got home Mr. B suggested we go out for Valentine's Day. I failed to mention to him that he was about a week early. (Hey, you can't blame a girl for trying to get two dinners out of one holiday.) I'm pretty sure he had been thinking about this for a while since he had coupons he had saved from the ads several days ago. We went to the Longhorn Steakhouse in Grove City and had a really good meal. Andy had the bacon wrapped, bourbon glazed sirloin that he sees on the tv advertisement that they do. We had a great time and the food and service was great. I spent the rest of the day painting, something I haven't really taken time to do at home. Of course I took some time out to take Molly for her 4:30 walk. Lily has her appointment with Dr. Rupon, her oncologist, this morning in Philadelphia. I hope to share some great news at my next post.

Saturday, February 4

Thought you might enjoy some recent pics of Evelyn.

Showing off her dimples.

Ready to go out dancing!!

The worlds greatest cowboy. It was cowboy day at pre-school on Thursday. Luke, who does not have a self-esteem problem, said he was the best! I'm hoping Lily is standing behind him or else he has a pony tail!!

This weather has got to make up its mind! Rain, snow, warm or cold just pick one and stick to it. Uhggg! This morning I went down to the Hall to watch Daniel's two oldest play their last basketball game of the season. It was the 4-5 year old league which has rules of their own. They play defense but can't steal the ball, no travels or double dribbles are called and there is no out of bounds evidently. The kids were having a good time though, which is the most important! I talked with Sara and she was able to talk to Matt last night. He should be home very soon if everything goes as planned. I'm sure they will both be glad for him to be home again! Evelyn went to her pediatrician yesterday and she weighs 10lbs. 6 ounces, still almost a pound less than Sara weighed when she was born. Also, keep Lily in your prayers, she has an appointment with her oncologist on Monday. They should get more in depth information about her last MRI.

Friday, February 3

Walking back to the bison field.

They were right up next to the fence.

The natural prairie grasses were full of song sparrows this morning.

After they decided we weren't going to feed them, they headed to the back of the field.

This morning I off-handedly commented that it was such a pretty day that we should head out to the Metro Park to see the bison. Low and behold, Mr. B took the bait and off we went. We took Molly along for her first ever walk away from home. She was a little timid at first but seemed to enjoy marking the sides of the trail and checking out all the new and different smells. She did not make any moves to get close to the bison. They were very close and we had a great view of all 6 of the female bison. Andy seemed to like the walk and the fact that we visited Steak and Shake afterwards. I'm glad we went today since it looks like more rain on the way for the week end.