Saturday, April 28

Oh, Happy Day!  Yesterday afternoon I picked Sara, Matt and Evelyn up from the airport.  Evelyn did great on the flight, not so sure about Mom and Dad but despite the chilly weather they were glad to get back to the friendly Midwest.  Our first order of business was to pick up Flyer's Pizza.  After stuffing themselves with pizza they were ready to stretch out and relax.  Evelyn is such a good natured baby and enjoys just observing everything that is going on around her and she laughs and smiles at everything and everyone. Pat and Kara came out to see Evie and Sara and Kara got her "baby" fix. Evelyn took several little cat naps but after a bath she fell asleep around 10 and slept until 7 this morning.  Today we had lunch at Los Mariachi's in London, another favorite eating establishment.  We stopped by the Madison House and took Grandma Great to lunch with us so she could meet Evelyn and visit with Sara and Matt before they headed on down to Cincinnati and some Skyline Chili.  I'm sure they are having a rocking good time in Cincy.  It has been more than a year since Matt has seen his family.  I doubt that Sara or Matt will have to hold Evelyn the entire weekend.  It is just great to have them home for a while.

Thursday April 26

I know, I said no more garden! But alas, here we are. Sweet corn, peas, green beans and 4 cabbage plants in just in time for the rain.

Tuesday, April 24

We are getting geared up for our Hawaii visitors and certainly hope that Matt's ship is steaming into Pearl Harbor tomorrow morning as scheduled.  They have air reservations for Thursday night and should be arriving in Columbus around 2 pm on Friday.  I know Sara is a little worried about how Evelyn will do on the flight.  Personally, I am more worried about how she is going to handle the time change once she gets here.  We are so excited to see them all and will be spending lots of family time both here and in Cincinnati and Dover.  Lily will be celebrating her cancer-free 2nd birthday on May 7 so I had to order a Cake Creations cake for the party.  Hopefully, it will be adorned with Bubble Guppies, a Nickelodeon cartoon, that Lily really likes.  Luke is going to be performing with his pre-school for the Dover Days festival that same week end so we are just going to be having fun, fun, fun. He will be dressed in Colonial period clothing and I think they might do a May pole dance.  Should get some great pics from the capitol of the first state.  The city square is so quaint that you would expect to see Ben Franklin coming around the corner.  When Lily was born we went to the state house and it was in session with everyone in period costumes.  Very neat if you enjoy history, which I do.

On a sad note, I was heartbroken last night when I realized that the young woman that was murdered in West Jeff was a former student and basketball player of mine.  What a senseless tragedy!  It certainly is a test of my faith when such bad things happen to good people.  My prayers go out to the parents and family who are surely struggling to understand how something like this could happen in our little village.
Photo shows Paige looking over my shoulder.

Saturday, April 21

Evelyn is trying on her traveling duds. Better dress warm and don't forget your shoes, no slippahs!
Yesterday was a very good day, the barn swallows are back and even better, Matt and Sara are one step closer to coming back as well. They have their airfare tickets and if all goes as planned they will be arriving in Columbus International Airport Friday afternoon. That of course is contingent on Matt's ship getting into port next week as scheduled. We are certainly looking forward to their visit and showing Evelyn off to family and friends. I suspect that the cold spell we are having may be directly related to Sara and Matt's visit. I said before that we would probably have snow when they came home, of course that was when we were expecting them in February! In Dover news, Lily just can't seem to catch a break. She has had an ear infection for the last month and her pediatrician wants her to see an ENT about getting tubes in her ears. No matter, we will still be having a huge birthday bash to celebrate her 2nd birthday in May which will be especially sweet since Sara, Matt and Evelyn will be here and we can celebrate her last two scans that showed NO neuroblastoma cells. Praise the Lord!

Sunday, April 15

Lily's favorite area is the petting zoo, but it was so hot not many animals were out.

Cooling off in the bronze bear fountain.

Pony rides were lots of fun.

Today was our last day of spring break so Luke got to choose what we were going to do today. I know no one is going to believe this but I would have been happy going to the beach but Luke chose the Philly Zoo. So of course that is where we headed, not really thinking about it being the end of spring break for others and a Sunday afternoon and there was a Walk for Autism just down the street from the zoo and it was the first 87 degree day in a long time. All of the above factors meant sitting in traffic and fighting long lines and a ton of people at the zoo. We still managed to have a wonderful time. Tomorrow, I will be leaving after Luke leaves for pre-school and should arrive home around 8 or 9 in the evening. Always good to get back home!

Saturday, April 14

Taking the field, his first position was 2nd base.

Looking for the steal sign.

Congratulations for making it to 3rd base.

After the game Lily finds her way to sit with Luke on the bench

This morning was Luke's first T-ball game. His first and only practice was on Thursday so our expectations were not set exceptionally high. One thing on Luke's side is that his coach is very good. It didn't take long on Thursday to realize that he had done this before. He was extremely organized and had a knack for pulling the parents in to help. He had the kids excited about playing and used some non traditional ways to teach the basics of baseball. He also had the kids arrive 30 minutes early this morning and was able to squeeze in some practice. 4 innings seemed a little long but the kids seemed to have fun which is all that really matters.

Thursday T-Ball Practice

Thursday, April 12,

Killen's Pond State Park. We had a great camp site.

A hole in a rotten tree trunk. We needed to investigate.

Luke's very first fish, a crappe, I think.

The rest were all sunfish of a variety of sizes. Think he is excited?

Luke with his compass, leading us on our birding hike.

Our breakfast fire. We needed this to thaw out from the frigid night!

Our little Diva commandeered all of the chairs.

Luke took up tree climbing on this trip, Grandma will not be able to climb to your rescue for too many more years.

A fish from Luke's first fishing expedition.

Lily had a fever when I arrived and after a trip to the pediatrician we learned that she had another, or the same ear infection. So she is back on an antibiotic which will hopefully clear up the infection because if it doesn't, she will have to visit and ENT. On the positive or jubilation side, Dr. Rapon called to say that Lily is CANCER-FREE on her last scan. Alleluia!! Now if we can just get her healthy. Unfortunately, Luke has a bad head cold as well and as always they have shared those nasty germs with me. I must have absolutely no immunity to the Delaware strain of cold viruses. I forsee a visit to the Urgent Care when I return home. Of course my cold was not helped by the sudden cold snap and a certain camping trip to Killen's Pond. Luke had a great time though, so it was all worth it. I am glad that I threw in the little electric heater at the last minute. Other wise we may have been frozen last night. We had a great time fishing, hiking and even shared our cook out with Mommy, Daddy and Lily when they drove down for the evening. We have decided that as much as Luke likes to camp, Lily is more of a "Hilton" kind of girl. We spent the night and came back this afternoon just in time for Luke's first t-ball practice. I am pretty excited that I will get to see his first game on Saturday.

Monday, April 9

The egg hunt.

Presents for the new 5 year old, Lillie.

And no party would be complete without a cake.

We had a nice Easter. I just haven't had much time to write about it. I was pretty lazy after packing and preparing meals for Andy on Saturday evening that I didn't wake until 7:30 Sunday morning and missed the Sunrise service. We had Easter dinner at Bob and Ramona's which is always a treat to watch Daniel's little ones look for Easter eggs. After all the festivities I took Mom and Dad back to the Madison House.
Today I am driving to Dover, Delaware and making pretty good time. Andy stayed home this time and he is having lunch at the Der Dutchman with the retired teachers of Madison County. I am looking forward to some quality time with the grandkids. I made good time, left at 6:15 a.m. and arrive at 2:45 p.m.

Friday, April 6

Our flowering dogwood is in full bloom.

On our walk tonight, Molly and I got a good look at our neighborhood Pileated woodpecker.

A closer look shows that this is the male by his red mustache.

Here is our little Lily in recovery following her scan. Looks like Children's Hospital in Philadelphia tends to spoil their patients.

I'm trying to think back to what we have been doing since my last post. We did some yard work while it was warmer and Sunday I took my mother to church for the Palm Sunday service. She enjoyed seeing her friends but it also makes her sad when she realizes how much has changed over the last year. We had lunch at York Steakhouse with friends and later Mom spent some time at our house. I worked at the zoo on Tuesday and again today. Today it was crazy busy with more than 15,000 guests. I was working in the kangaroo walk-about and people were lined up waiting to get in. I don't think I have ever seen it that busy. When I got home Andy had finished mowing the yard. Lily finally got over her head cold and was able to have her final MIBG Scan today. Hopefully it will be her last for a very long time. We should hear from the doctors early next week to learn the results. Lots of prayers for another clean scan. I'm heading out to Delaware next week since neither of the girls is coming home as planned. If it isn't too cold, Luke and I are going camping. I will also get to see one of his t -ball practices and a game on Saturday. Pretty exciting stuff for Grandma. I expect it will be very entertaining. Should have some good posts next week if I can find time to write them. Andy is looking forward to the Madison County Retired Teacher's Luncheon at Der Dutchman on Monday. He told me that is one less meal that he will have to cook for himself. I think he will be fine. I've spent the last few days stocking up the refrigerator and freezer with easy to make meals. Happy Easter!