Our beautiful Spring has arrived!

Each time I catch up on this blog I decide that I am going to write a short post each evening before I go to bed like I used to do back in "the old days" before Facebook.  And each evening it does not happen.  So once again, here is a long catch-up from the past week.  Like I always say, I do this mostly for my own memories.  

First of all I want to share this beautiful picture all by itself.  As I came outside our church on Monday evening, this was the view from the parking lot!

Speaking of our church, they made a big decision this week.  After buying land down the road several years ago for the purpose of building, they are finally ready to go ahead!  The old building is so very limited, and a new multi-purpose building without steps will be a tremendous blessing for our people and for all the community outreach the church does.  

Last week one day I worked outside pulling out/cutting off all the daffodil and tulip stems the whole way around the house.  I raked up  piles of stems and weeds everywhere and Dick gathered them up and took care of them when he got home. 

I was dismayed to see that our pink and yellow rose bushes that were so prolific last summer seem dead.  We googled and cut the stems down till we saw white instead of brown inside them.  Friends have told us that the ice storms we had this past winter may have killed them because of how the ice can freeze around the roots.  Thankfully the low-spreading rose bush that Sam and the kids gave us last summer is doing well as is the knockout bush.  So far no blooms though.  

I got a belated Mother's Day card in the mail from our daughter Miki in Sweden.  She has outdone herself AGAIN!!!  I cannot imagine how she does such detailed work!  You gotta watch this video!

One evening last week I stopped in to drop something off at Destiny and Alex's place, but it was late and I could not stay long at all.  Dear Elizer!!!  He made me cry, because he really wanted me to stay and play with him.  He was trying to lure me to the toy box, even patting the floor beside him and saying, "Sit."  Destiny said he cried when I left.  So did I.  

So the next evening we made up for it and had him here for a few hours.  We had so much fun!

Saturday promised to be a hot day, and it was already hot in the morning.  I had my coffee on the porch and pondered the day.  It turned out differently than I had pondered.  Destiny woke up with a horrendous migraine.  She gets them occasionally and this was by far the worst.  She got really scared when her hands and face were tingling and numb.  She called off work, of course, and went to the emergency room.  We decided it would be best for me to be there with her and Alex to stay with Elizer.  

Emergency rooms are a horrible place to be.  There was a LONG wait for an available bed in the emergency ward.  She was in so much pain sitting in that wheel chair and sometimes she could not help but cry.  Finally after several hours a bed opened up and she was hooked up to an IV.  She was able to sleep, which is so necessary for migraine relief.  The wheels turned very slowly and it was almost 5:00 pm when she was finally discharged with instructions to make an appointment with her primary physician.  Her headache was not as severe, but neither of us had eaten anything all day.  I had a bad headache too by that time! We stopped at the Taco Bell drive-through on our way to her house.  

I did not post anything on Facebook because I didn't want to make a bigger deal than necessary or embarrass her.  I prefer if no comments were made on Facebook about it when I link this post to Facebook.   She's doing fine now and has an appointment with her primary care physician on Monday.  Hopefully she can be prescribed something to either help prevent or more quickly bring relief to her migraines.  

After I took her home I took Elizer for a walk.  We love listening to the birds in the woods behind their house.  

On Sunday Destiny felt much better but was not allowed to go to work because the ER doctor had written a work excuse through Monday.  Waaaahhhh!!  But that meant we could do something fun.  She had never seen our favorite lake at Bald Eagle State Park.  So we packed up the stuff and a picnic lunch and headed there for the late afternoon and evening.  I was hoping Anthony and Lori and the boys might be able to join us, but that didn't work out this time.   Instead her next door neighbor lady and daughter joined us.  They have become good friends.  

When we arrived we laughed at how Elizer had fallen asleep with his legs crossed!  He immediately wanted to go to the playground, then we took him to the water and he loved it.

Such a beautiful place!!  But it wasn't long till dark clouds and wind were threatening.

We were planning to eat our picnic on our blanket by the lake, but we decided to be safe and went to an available pavilion.  It rained a bit and it was quite windy while we were eating, so we were glad we had made that decision.  

He liked the big boy swing.  His hair was blowing in the wind!

When we drove from the pavilion back to the playground there were not many other cars there, so Dick kept Elizer on his lap.  Oh my goodness, that boy thought he was really something!  So cute!

Destiny always has Mondays off because Auntie Anne's is closed.  But I was busy cooking for Anthony and Lori when she texted me that she wanted to take Elizer somewhere to see animals, but didn't know where.  I posted something on Facebook for suggestions and a friend from church told me to check the Penn State barns.  That was a GREAT suggestion.  

I was with them the whole time via FaceTime.  It took her a while to figure out where to go, but she persevered and finally found the beef and sheep barns.  Elizer had never seen farm animals in real life, but is crazy over them in books and videos, so he was so excited when he could see them up close and personal!!   

I knew that the manager of the sheep barns is Wendell Landis from our home area.  Dick and I know his parents.  When a guy came to open a gate for Destiny and Elizer she asked him if he is Wendell, and it was him.  She said, "My grandparents know you."  I ended up talking with him via FaceTime.  Hahahaha!! What a small world!

He told her where to go to find some pigs.  Not far from Beaver Stadium!  At first the pigs were pretty far away from the fence, but when they saw Destiny and Elizer they came walking right over!  

Later I picked up Austin from school and took him and their dinner to their place.  What a treat to go up their private road and see the rhododendrons for the first time this year.  They are late blooming, so this was just the beginning.  Ofcourse I had to walk around and get more pictures.  

On Tuesday morning I caught this cute pic of the birds outside our living room.  

On Tuesday evening I took Elizer for a walk again.  He loves being outside! His face totally melts my heart!

Yesterday when I picked Austin up from school he asked if I had time to go to the pond with him to look for frogs.  I did have time to do that!  It was a good frog day!  He caught four or five.  He likes to catch them, hold them, stroke them on the chin to calm them down, and then release them back to the water.  He really loves frogs!  I think that's sweet for a 13-year-old boy!

Sometimes getting them from the net is a challenge because they jump a lot and they're slippery!

Look how he strokes the chin.

Of course while I was that close to the rhododendrons  I had to get pictures of those as well.

When I came home I walked around the house to get pictures of some of our flowers.  It's such a great time of year!

I also took another look at the rose bushes and I think there might be hope for the yellow one!  There are green leaves at the bottom!  

In case you forget why I don't want to lose this one, here's a picture from October 22nd!  I love yellow roses!!

Today I will be picking up Hunter from school!  We're both excited about that.  He's been going to the YMCA after school, so I haven't gotten to see him. 

I would like to leave this post with that beautiful picture, but it would be wrong to not acknowledge the horrific school shooting in Texas this week.  SO MUCH PAIN AND LOSS!!  Knowing the pain and dysfunction in the 18-year-old shooter's life is extremely sad, but he should not have been able to so easily able to buy those guns.  I've seen friends say things like "guns don't kill, evil people kill," and blame it all on our "Godless society." PLEASE!!  I doubt those same people would think that England is less "Godless."  My friend Sherilyn Jameson shared this, written by Pete Grieg, a native of England:

Two school shootings since 1850???  Have you seen the long list of school shootings in our country just in the last 20 years??  

Dick is a hunter and he owns some guns.  So I'm not anti-gun.  But I'm anti "gun worship"!!  

That school in Texas was for grades 2, 3, and 4.  Our granddaughter Bianca is in grade 2, grandson Sammy in grade 4, and granddaughter Jada is in grade 4 as well.  That makes it dreadfully real and horrible. 

Lord, hear my cries!