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.