Sunday, April 28

Once again the spring has brought with it a multitude of "things to do"!  Andy has been busy keeping up with the early mowing and has already tilled the garden twice.  He has some starter plants in his greenhouse, tomatoes, green peppers, cauliflower and cabbage are among the plants awaiting warmer weather so they can be set out. 
Last Tuesday, I went to see one of my former students and basketball players, Devan Boggs, play in one of her final softball games for Capital University.  The weather was perfect and they defeated Ohio Northern in both of the double header games.  Devan plays short shop and has the top batting average on her team.  She also broke the season record for doubles for the entire conference.  You can tell she is a great leader on the team.  She is one of three seniors on the team this year.

My sister flew in from Atlanta last Wednesday so the last few days have been filled with visits to the Madison House and some fun things sprinkled in as well.  The weather has not been the best for her warm weather tastes, but we are making do.  Yesterday, she and I went on a docent planned trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo.  We left our zoo at 7 am on a charter bus and spent the day exploring the hilly zoo in Steele Town.  Although it rained nearly the entire day, we still had a very enjoyable time.

When we arrived, we saw a sea lion training

Meer cats in the children's discovery building

This zoo kept our polar bear girls until our Polar Frontier was completed.

One of my favorite exhibits, this is part of the original zoo.  There is a black bear in each doorway..

Despite the rain this was a beautiful setting.  We could see the elephant yard in the background giving the appearance of looking over the African savannah.

This was a baby ring-tailed lemur at the top of the branch.

This was in the primate building.  I apologize but I do not remember which monkey or ape this is.

Another mixed species exhibit with an ostrich and a herd of spring bok deer

a beautiful Amur leopard

African lioness sisters

The Amur tiger had just gotten his Sunday bone.  Our tiger, Mara, that just gave birth to 4 cubs was born at the Pittsburgh Zoo.

Snow leopard

 

We finished our day by stopping at Mehlman's Cafeteria in St. Clairsville for dinner before returning to the Columbus Zoo.

Thursday, April 11~A Day with Evelyn~

On Tuesday of this week I had the joy of babysitting for Evelyn.  Lucky for me she is at the tail end of her nasty cold and I suspect a virus that she so graciously shared with several of us over Easter weekend.  Sara had to complete an orientation for a job with Target that had been re-scheduled and I was able to help out by watching Evelyn for the day.  It was a beautiful day, the first 80 degree day of this spring so we took a walk around their apartment complex.  It isn't as nice as the walks we used to take when she lived in Honolulu but the weather was nice which was a plus.  Shorty went along so I had my hands full carrying the leash with a pulling dog, a camera, a bouncy ball and Evelyn who refused to be carried  and had her own route planned.  We finally wound around to the tennis court as I thought that might be a good place because it was contained by a fence.  Shorty proceeded to poop and I had already used her poop bag on the walk over.  At least it was at the edge and near the fence.  Evelyn only wanted to walk in the muddy spots around the outside edge and when she decided to sit it was always in the dirtiest spots on the court.  The wind kept blowing the ball to those same muddy patches so it was a constant battle trying to keep her out of the water.  It took me nearly 15 minutes to get both Evelyn and Shorty corralled and ready to leave.  The apartment complex does not have any sidewalks and both Shorty and Evelyn like to walk in the street.  At one point I had to get Evelyn out of the street because there was a car and that is when the "melt-down" occurred.  I had taken her away from her prescribed route and she was not happy about it, at all!  We finally made it back and after a while Evelyn calmed down enough to eat her two spoons of Spaghettios, I ate the rest and then we sat on the couch and she had her bottle.  Before long both of us were sound asleep.  Sara came home just as we were waking up and we went to the park in Sharonville.  What a nice place.  There is a sizable lake with paddle boat, row boats and motor boats for rent.  The playground was closed for renovations but we walked for a while along the waters edge before heading home.  I had a North America Region meeting at the zoo so I left soon after we arrived back at Sara's place.  I stopped at the Outlet stores in Jeffersonville and then on up to the zoo.  What a wonderful day!

I think Evelyn looks like her daddy in this picture!

Sharonville Park

All I wanted was a picture of me with Evelyn, Evelyn didn't!

Friday, April 5

I can't believe that I have gone nearly 3 weeks without a post.  I have been pretty busy but I haven't even started on the yard work yet so I really don't have a very good excuse.  All I can say is that all of my non-paying jobs seem to be taking up a lot of my time.  I may have to retire from being retired.  Both girls were home for Easter week end and we had a wonderful time just enjoying the pitter-patter of tiny feet in the house again.  (Well it may have been more like a bar room brawl at times), but we enjoyed it just the same.  Easter morning was a lot of fun and the kids went to Sunday School for the Easter egg hunt before heading over to Springfield to Grandma and Grandpa Foulk's house.  Evie stayed with us and unfortunately for her she was fighting a cold and not really her usual delightful self.

Easter Baskets at Grandma and Pop Pop's house

Evelyn and daddy, ready for church

Evelyn stealing Pop Pop's lazy boy when he got up to get a drink. She even stole the remote!

Feeding our neighbor's horses.

WJUMC Easter Sunday 2013

All ready for Sunday School

Everyone loves Evelyn!

What can I say? I'm cute!!

Monday morning we took Sara and Evelyn back home to Cincinnati and went to the Newport Aquarium.  It was pretty crowded because  the weather was cold and it was spring break.  The kids had a great time anyway and there were lots of hands-on activities to keep them occupied.  Trish, Luke and Lily headed back to Delaware today so now I have no excuse for letting the blog  go so long before making an entry.  (Except for that pesky yard work that will need to get done!!) 

Visiting the Newport Aquarium

Touching sharks