Latest Happenings

June 22nd - Wednesday - 87 degrees - humid - showers this am

As usual has been a busy couple of weeks. Noell and Wyatt were home for a couple of week and Shawn and Maegan hosted a family picnic for all of us at their house, so Lou and I made a quick stop there after our Laurel Square Dance. We had a really good picnic and the weather changed quickly while we were there, it had been really hot and humid and a cold front passed through making all of wish we had brought along jackets. Lou and I even turned the heater on in the car for the short trip home.

The next week we had various doctors appointments locally and out of town. We also dropped off the RV at Camping World in Bath and are waiting for a phone call to go and pick it up. We had several issues that needed to be addressed before we can take it out for our next outing for the fourth of July holiday week.

I had to include a picture of the summer cactus in bloom. Michelle started this from a tiny slip when she was in grade school and the poor thing has been abused many times and re-potted after these many mishaps and this year it really strutted its stuff. It was beautiful and still is blooming.

Father's Day was very meaningful this year for many reasons, Janet and Brion called and asked if we could meet them in Manfield for lunch. They came up from Camp Hill to visit with Brion's father to cut his grass and to have lunch with Janet's dad and cut his grass and then back home that evening. Talk about a day dedicated to fathers! Lou had beautiful cards and phone calls from all of his kids and Janet and Brion always remember him with a Hess collector's item, this year a helicopter to add to his collection.

Krista went into labor on Saturday while at a funeral for the child of one of her girl friends so she spent the majority of Father's Day in the hospital; however, they sent her home for a few hours and in that time when she was at home, she, Steve and Michelle came down with cards for Lou for Father's Day. They even got a card for Estee to give to Lou, how cute is that? Michelle's card was the card that brought tears to Lou's eyes and also to Michelle's. Michelle was very close to her "Pa" before he died, but Michelle accepted Lou a little at a time and she wrote in this very special card a very special note just for Lou that would break your heart, if all of us could accept people as they are and for what they are wouldn't we all be happier? It made all of us proud to be a family.

The final joy of our Father's Day, Krista had a C-Section around 8:15 pm and delivered Matthew Steven - 9 pounds 4 oz. All is well, and they are home today. Praise God for a healthy baby boy.

Today our landscapers came so we have been edged and mulched, now I need to get the bushes trimmed, irises trimmed, and some thinning out done. The list goes on doesn't it???

Busy Update

June 7th - Tuesday Sunny and warm 85 degrees

After several long distant phone calls from family and friends to check on us Lou and I thought we had better get a post to the blog. We are indeed alright, just busy.

We have had four days in a row without rain and we have taken full advantage of those four days. Prior to those days, we have worked outside between the showers. We have had tornadoes very close to us, in fact, one evening, I grabbed Lou's hand and said we are going to Krista's house and going to her cellar, and he thought I was being a little over cautious; however, I have been through three tornadoes and have a great deal of respect for them, so he humored me and we took Estee and we were off. We were safe at that point, the storm has passed over us and we just experienced an evening without power and gave thanks that we did not experience the damage that many of our neighbors had.

Lou's daughter that lives in Owego has extensive damage to her home and her daughter lost her car from fallen trees. Thankfully no one was injured.

The pictures that I have posted shows some of the things that we have been up to since our return from Florida. We have had to make repairs to our fence and in fact we took part of it down, to make mowing much easier for all of us. We have our herb garden planted and finally were able to get the rest of our garden planted and our plants set out. We are still trying to get our yard back into shape and that is going to take several more cuttings before it will look good again. We still need to thatch and roll it, and we have the men scheduled to to the edging and mulching in mid-June and then things should look as they should.

The first rose bloomed today and I still don't have all of them fertilized, so guess I will wait now until after they bloom. The Japanese Iris are just beginning to bloom and are very full and beautiful. I was able to get the sidewalks and both decks stained before it started to rain again.

Lou and I attended a birthday party for his sister, Lenore that turned 80 on Saturday, all of her children were able to be there with the exception of one son, I had to leave early to attend Krista's baby shower of which was also attended well. She received so many lovely presents and we all had a good time.

Yesterday Lou and I spent the afternoon at our friends Lew and Joanne's house helping them restore order to their blueberry house. Lew has COPD and has difficulty doing things of that nature and my Lou was delighted to be able to help him, as Lew had helped him with so many things when he was caring for his wife prior to her death. A great way to repay favors. After the work was done we sat and had refreshments and chatted away the rest of the afternoon.

The next two weeks promise to be very busy as we have many appointments lined up and our square dance group has many things planned, busy with church groups and several family things and also we are expecting that new grandchild any day now.