Lexi....."Contemplating"

Kendra just gave me a tutorial on the use of Picnik. I think I went a little overboard with this picture of Lexi but it was a good 1st attempt. Thought I would share it.

1st Day of Spring.....in Noblesville

Alexis is such a happy baby! She loves her brothers and her brothers certainly love her!!! Nicholas is taking a break from playing ball and having a chat. Can you tell that the weather was absolutely perfect?

Nicholas is quite the ball player. Between practicing baseball or basketball he is riding his bike or scooter. He loves running around and runs really fast since there is less wind resistance with the absence of his 2 front teeth!!!

Blake just runs! and runs! and runs!!! He doesn't necessarily want to play a game of anything.....just run! Of course, pirate pretending is always part of the fun!

Tom and I were glad to be in Noblesville for this weekend since we have heard that while we were in short sleeves down here, the weather back home wasn't so wonderful. Tomorrow afternoon is Blake's preschool "Spring Sing". We love it when we can attend anything for our grandkids. I'm sure that there is much more in the future....let the games begin!!!

Florida...Day 2

Beautiful day! A little chilly at times (60 degrees) but it's suppose to be in the 70's from now on and that's here in St. Pete. We are going farther south tomorrow so it will be even warmer than here.

We had a nice day. This morning (Saturday) we visited the beautiful Sunken Gardens. It was small but very beautiful, in fact, there was a wedding taking place in the "wedding garden". I'll bet that bride didn't plan on the temps being 60 instead of 75, which is the average.

Ready for our daily walk, we headed to the Friendship Bridge to walk the 2 1/2 miles across Tampa Bay. After we got there, there was a change of plan because it was closed. We have no idea why but we certainly missed the memo.

Visiting historical Ybor City was a real treat! It is Tampa's Latin Quarter. With the beautiful weather, the festival taking place was great. It had a festival, arts and craft fair, ethic food, and teams of people dressed up in the wildest ways for the Great Urban race which was a take off on the Great Race. So fun to watch. Some of the couples were running around with computers, GPS's, notebooks...crazy! The streets were antique brick and many stores had the wrought-iron balconies. Such a good time!

After lunch, Tom and I drove to Clearwater beach but it was chilly enough to walk along Gulf Boulevard. With such nice sidewalks everywhere, we used them.

Florida roads are pothole free, well marked and wonderful! Tomorrow we aim toward Punta Gorda checking out several places between here and there.

St. Petersburg, FL...Day 1

Today was our first full day in Florida. We woke up to sunshine and a very nice Comfort Inn breakfast. We put on our walking shoes and set out. Since Tom doesn't believe in parking close to any destination, we took a looooong walk to Demen's Landing and then to The Pier. (I bought some bandaids tonight!) . It was beautiful walking with blue skies and 60 degrees. This afternoon, we sat in the sun and read by the pool and after dinner I drove to Fort DeSoto Park to try to catch a sunset. But...we missed it! If we are late getting some where in Elkhart, it is usually due to waiting for trains. We missed the sunset due to a small sail boat going under a draw bridge!!! I could have had some gorgeous pictures!

Speaking of pictures...I took very few. I'm trying to be smarter about photos than usual. I haven't figured out why and it probably won't last very long...my smartness that is. The photos are the only ones I took today. Tom is sitting in "chairs" by the courthouse here in St. Petersburg. It was first thing this morning and is therefore wearing a jacket. The "lady" is me after eating 3 meals today. That won't happen tomorrow...trust me!

Temperatures tomorrow are to be 66 and going up from there. As the week goes on, it will be in the 70's!!!

89....and holding!

Happy Birthday Mother! How can my mother be 89 years old today!!! Oh...I do forget that I am 64! Where do the years go? Time used to seem to crawl and now it flies by! I remember Mother saying that. She often says now that she is so shocked when she looks in the mirror and sees her face because she doesn't feel as old as she looks. In fact, she says she feels about 50. I know what she means. I do the same thing. I would imagine that most people, if not all, do the same thing.


Mother is still a busy lady (relatively speaking).She has the same schedule that she has had ever since I can remember...get up at 10:30 a.m. and go to bed about 1:00 a.m. It varies but not by much. With her amazing musical abilities, she is in demand when it comes to playing piano/organ for different Eastern Star organizations. We were laughing the other day because someone was scheduling her to play for their installation a couple of years from now. Why wouldn't she be in demand? How many people have such gifts? How many people can sit on a piano bench for hours and play requests in any key and not have to have a stitch of music in front of them? When I speak of her gifts, she says that she thanks God every day for these abilities. I have no doubt...This is the woman who thanks God daily and "goes through every name of kids and grandkids before falling asleep". If I speak of her gift, her first response is to be modest until I ask her to name one person (not a professional but a 'normal' person, that can do what she does. That's when she realizes never to take this gift for granted.

Paula is on her way to Goshen from Noblesville as I write this. We will be at Mother's in Battle Creek by noon and spend the rest of today and until after brunch tomorrow with her. Tonight, Keith and Sharon will join us for birthday dinner. Should be a good time.

Tomorrow, knowing me, I will have a birthday photo of Mother. Good grief.....89!

February Birthday Celebration

What a wonderful weekend! Kendra's 37th birthday was Feb 13 and Brent will be 33 on Feb 28th. We picked a "middle of the road" weekend to celebrate. It seemed that every grandchild either had a cold or was recovering from one so the "germ killer" supplies were out in full force. It was worth it! That's what happens in winter weather.

Our house is small so we are always on top of each other but I'm so happy to have my kids around, I don't care; they might but I don't! Brent and Elizabeth bought a new computer this weekend (while Tom and I took Marley and Layla to the Jefferson School Spring Fling) so they had fun getting it up and running. Kendra, Nicholas and Brent were hysterical playing with the Wii games! The house was "rocking"!!! Presents were opened and games were played.

Alexis (10 1/2 months) has really grown since we saw her last! She is so happy and is getting stronger every day. She doesn't want to miss anything that is going on! This little girl LOVES music. Upon hearing music, she starts "rocking" to it! I caught it on video...now if I just knew how to put it into my journal. I'll have to check it out.

Nicholas lost one of his front teeth last week so we finally got to see it. The other front tooth is very wiggly. Can't wait to get that one out. I love that stage of missing teeth.

Kendra and Tom taught Nicholas and Blake games of "Uno" and "Guess Who" . These are such good games for kids to play. They had such fun! All of the g-kids did so well together! I am still amazed at how well everyone plays together. Again, there wasn't a single time when there was an argument! Amazing!!!!! Such good kids!

Today, I am beginning to write words for a song for the 2nd grade classes for Thursday. They are going to have an all-day reading day with "Magic School Bus" as a theme. They will read and study rocks and weather. I wrote a rough draft for the song this morning and now have a foundation to work with. I am going to go as Ms Frizzle so I am in the process of attaching various rocks (from my old collection) to my dress. I'm borrowing a curly red wig to top it off. So...that is in the works for the rest of the afternoon.

Mother's 89th birthday is March 1 and 2 and Paula and I are going to Battle Creek on the 1st and spend the night. Her card is the next project.

March 4-12, Tom and I will be in Florida (landing in St. Petersburg) and will have to figure out what we want to do there. We are hoping that we will see sun and have gorgeous weather. So...that's what's happening in our little world here in Goshen.

Marley Visits Great Grandma Carol

Today was a visit to see my mother in Battle Creek MI. I have taken Layla with me several times but never Marley since she is only 2 1/2 yrs. old. But I braved it and she was perfect. She never said a word coming or going. Just listens to music, looks out the window and "reads" her books. Amazing! She loved that Mother sat down at piano and asked her if she would play "ABC's". Of course Marley sang along (after being sure that Mother could play it in her key!) and I took pictures. Aunt Debbie was there and we all had brunch together and then played with toys and puzzles. It was a very fun afternoon.