LAUGHTER, LIGHT MOMENTS, AND NUMBER THREE DONE

Life certainly has its twists and turns, slips and slides, and thrilling vistas. These past few weeks have proven this little description to be true. It has been a month to the day that I went into the hospital with all my problems, and I am still recovering. Comparatively speaking, my illnesses aren't seriously life-threatening, but they have stopped me in my tracks. One of my "comforts"??? has been the quilt which I am making for TJ. I've made many quilts, but this one has been challenging, challenging, challenging. I've made every mistake in the book and picked out and put back together every stitch in the quilt, but it has given me hours of busy work when I didn't feel like doing much else. I have about three hours' worth of hand quilting left to do, and I'll be able to send it off to TJ. Yesterday, I had lunch with my dear friend, Kathy, from my working days. She was very concerned about my surgery, when she is dealing, and has been since last summer, with the terminal cancer of her boyfriend, JR, the excessive stress of a special ed job, and the responsibility of being the breadwinner in her family. Kathy has taught me many lessons about dealing with tragedy with grace, and I've never seen it that grace so beautifully manifest as I did yesterday. Kathy and I love to laugh at our troubles as a way to deal with them, so we remembered jokes we've heard about gall bladder surgery and the funny, funny antics of our special ed students years ago.

A week or two ago, we mapped out a careful strategy for re-arranging the house to accommodate Marie's family. We had planned all along to move us upstairs, so that, come winter, we'd be heating only the upstairs, so this was the perfect opportunity to make that move. We'd moved the sewing room/study when we received the news that Marie won't be able to come due to Navy bureaucracy in the form of missing passports!! However, we pressed on, and have the move nearly complete. Now, there will be two guest rooms downstairs. The top picture is of Dad's Father's Day gift--a 42" tv.

The last picture is of our latest adventure. Dad helped Uncle Garth with some roofing. Aunt Joan and I are in the room that would be to Uncle Garth's left, chatting away and solving quilting problems!! Life is fun!!

I promise a blog soon about the reunion!! Love, Mom

MOM-NESS

Happy Mothers' Day to all our family moms. I've had lots of time to reflect upon my role as a mom and to be proud that I am a mom, grandma, and great grandma. I think Motherhood and all its attendant blessings is so sacred a topic that it's quite difficult to write about! I've thought of how each of my six children arrived. Mark flew in on a jet plane from Texas--age 11 or so--in a cowboy suit; Darla sneaked in on a blur of drug-induced labor and nausea; Susan whirled in on a winter storm; Steve sailed in on a beautiful June day with no fuss at all; Marie made her appearance--appropriately--on Labor Day; Tom chose a rainy August day to join the family; and Annie warmed a brisk, cold January day with her arrival. Each of the babies arrived with that special look of: "What happened? A few minutes ago I was in a quiet, dark, warm womb. How'd I get here?" So precious!!! All of you are beautiful, wonderful adults of whom I'm very proud. I love and admire and cherish you all.

Doesn't Grandma look good? She's showing off the "granny" rocker we bought her for her birthday. She turned 93 on the 8th. She's doing well.

The apple tree is extra gorgeous this year! I can't remember it ever being so spectacular. So is that handsome guy under the tree--spectacular that is!!

This is the little gazebo by the driveway. We're gearing up for summer fun by getting the gazebos and yard ready for the reunion.

Flower baskets are my Mothers' Day gift. Dad had to be Mom to these beauties. We bought them on a beautiful, warm day, but by evening the weather had turned, and Mom/Dad had to put them in the shed and coax them into perking up with warm water and sweet words.

The fig tree is also beautiful and there are three more hanging baskets and a wind sock to brighten the front of the house.

The deer are plentiful right now. Dad's resorted to chasing them off because there are so many roaming through the yard.

The Spring is beautiful; I'm on the mend, and life is, as always, wonderful. We hope it's the same for you. Loving being your mom, Love, Mom

SERENDIPITY

An early morning stroll brought some serendipitous moments today. We continue to marvel at our little bird sanctuary and the continuing return on the dollar!! As you look at the first picture, you can count five or six birds in the tree waiting patiently for their turn to devour black sunflower seeds. Feeding time is a regular chorus of chirping and calling to friends.

The lovely tulips were a lovely surprise. I could have sworn that I planted a large number of bulbs the summer before we left for our mission, but I had assumed that my memory was faulty, or none of them had survived. Today, as we were taking our stroll, I spotted these beauties out in the area we're trying to develop as "Aunt Annie's Garden." Not only have they survived but there are three or four clusters throughout Annie's garden. AND a rose bush that looked pretty sickly has blossomed and bloomed and survived!!!

We are doing well. Just before I was released from the hospital, Dad caught a head cold, so we have formed quite a chorus. I feel a little better each day. So does Dad. I have a pre-op meeting with the doctor in Portland on June 10, and we'll go from there. In order to cool down my gall bladder, I'm on a very limited diet. The doctor says, "Every food you love has to go! Mostly it's saturated fats and pop. Food--any kind--at the moment doesn't look all that great anyway. All is well--a little boring, but well. Enjoying Spring in the Gorge. Mom