Early Spring?

After our lovely, warm March, April hasn't been quite as nice. The poor trees, flowers, grass and animals are all confused. The dogwoods are blooming despite some cold temps that I thought might nip the buds.

The leaves are coming on the trees almost a month earlier than usual.

Geese on the muskrat den.

Mama and baby cardinal. (Not the best pic taken through the kitchen window) We've already had to cut the lawn. The daffodils are done for and the tulips are up but can't decide if they think it's warm enough to open and truth be told, most days it isn't. We've had snow, rain, wind, sunshine and occasional frosts. It's been crazy! In other news, our bowling season is almost over. Next Friday will be our "Fun Night". It's not going to be quite as much fun for our team as it could have been, sadly. The last night of bowling, position night, all we had to do was win one game and totals. Sadly, oh so sadly, it was not to be. To say we were disappointed would be an understatement. While the team we bowled against (two of our oldest and dearest friends) were good bowlers, they didn't even bowl all that well. Our team actually beat itself. We had a few rough games and very under-average numbers and that's what finally did us in. I think we only lost the whole thing by 11 pins. Yes, it was a very sad night. What really hurt is that we had been in first place so long, months, and for it to all come down to this one night was a shame. But enough, I'm over it, can't you tell. Showing our faces next week at the end of the night when they announce the winners won't be easy but hey, it's just bowling, right? It's so nice to see Scott getting up every morning and watch him head out the door to a paying job!! So nice indeed!! This last week he was actually staying at a friend's house dog/house sitting so we got a feeling what a true empty nest will feel like someday. It was nice. Don't get me wrong, sweet, dear, precious children! We love you all so dearly but it's also nice to watch you grow up and go your own way and make a wonderful life for yourself! So nice! Which brings me to more exciting news! In just under two weeks Tyler will be leaving South Korea and heading home!! We are all so excited to have him back home again! He's packing, selling and generally getting himself ready to leave his life of the last two years and head back to Michigan for a little stay before he heads out for his new life. Right now it sounds like he would like to go back to Hawaii but I don't know that that has been decided 100% yet since he would also like to have a job. Part of me wishes it would be a little closer and not so expensive to get there but Hawaii is closer than Korea, right? H is very busy today. He's been working for the last 1+ hour trying to install our new dishwasher. The other night I started the thing, went up to take a shower and when I got out of the bathroom a burning smell hit me and I spent the next 5 minutes running up and down stairs trying to find smoke! Turned out the panel in the dishwasher must have blown. There was a little brown spot on the panel and a horrible burning plastic smell that lingered for days. We knew there was no saving it so the next day I headed to Best Buy to scope out a new one and make sure it was going to be on the truck for Saturday delivery. H is swamped at work right now, in fact he wasn't even home for dinner two nights last week, including the night the dishwasher blew, so I knew he would only have the weekend to get it installed. It doesn't seem to be going all that smoothly right now but H always wants to do his own installation and not rely on someone else to do it. So, hopefully by tonight we'll have our brand new dishwasher working properly! Fingers crossed! (Update: it's in and working!!) I'm planning to go out to the garden sometime this weekend. I was hoping it would be a little warmer but I guess as long as it's not raining I will have to be satisfied.

The plot, ready for planting. (I worked in manure today. I only have to wait another month. Today was really chilly out there and super windy! Happy Earth Day!)

Garlic, coming up nicely after spending the winter sleeping.

Chives seem to be a perennial. Nice that I don't have to plant that again. And I think I saw some thyme or maybe oregano coming up too. I have to plant potatoes and carrot seeds. I've had the potatoes since last weekend when I was planning to go out there but then it rained so I had to wait. They are looking a little shriveled up so I hope they will be ok. (Update, I planted them today, Sunday). Two little pups are following me around, looking out windows, whining now and then. They really want to go run! Last weekend I tried to take them and there were 5 different dogs at the high school field! We settled for the junior high field but it's really not as nice. I guess I should give in and go take them. That's what a good dog mommy would do! (Another update: I took them to the high school and they loved it! Here's proof!)

Apparently Blogger has a new format. In some ways I like it better. You can put your pictures in the text where you want where before you had to move them from the top. However when I look at my "preview" post, there aren't spaces between different topics though I have them in the draft. I hope the final product looks better but I just wanted to let my two readers know, it's not me, it's Blogger! Guess that's all the news for this week (or the last couple weeks). It feels like we are in waiting mode, waiting for Tyler to come home, waiting for the weather to warm up, waiting to plant the garden, waiting for school to get out, waiting for summer. Have a good week!

Happy Easter!

Spring Break is officially over and it went by so quickly! We stayed home the first few days to try to catch up on a few things and get a little rest and to get ready for our road trip.

We left for Virginia on Wednesday morning and took the shortest route which I really dislike the most. The Ohio Turnpike is bad enough, full of construction barrels and very little construction and the Pennsylvania Turnpike is even worse. I'm always so glad when we are finally able to GET OFF, 8 hours later! We made really good time and arrived at Amber's by 5:30.

We were so busy I didn't even remember to take any pictures really until Saturday! I think I might haven taken a few pictures with my phone. Thursday Amber and Andy headed off to work and Grandpa and I stayed home with Quinn. We took her to the park, the library and then to Chipoltle for lunch. She had so much fun showing Grandpa around the park and library.

On Friday Amber worked from home and H spent the day putting new doors and drawer fronts on Amber and Andy's kitchen cabinets. They are thinking about selling their house and Amber scooped up a neighbors old cabinet doors which were just like hers but in better shape. The kitchen looked great when he was finished, just like new.

On Saturday morning we headed out to the Farmer's Market to look around.


Quinn enjoyed some freshly made doughnuts! The azaleas were in full bloom so we took the opportunity for a family picture!

Then it was off to the Easter Egg Hunt!!


A picture with the Easter Bunny was first on the agenda. We really lucked out because Amber and Quinn were like 3rd in line and after the hunt the line was probably 50 long!
The area where Quinn was looking was for 3 and under and the directions were no parents, just kids. Immediately all the parents jumped in running around with their children helping them pick up candy and eggs. I swear the whole thing was over in 5 minutes!





Quinn was a bit shell-shocked but I think she had a good time.






From the Easter egg hunt we headed back home to color eggs and make some deviled eggs.




Last night we went out to dinner and then Amber and I went to see The Hunger Games. The movie was good but the book was so much better.

This morning we had time for a quick Easter egg hunt but then Grandpa and I had to get goin' hitting the road and Quinn and family were headed off to church.


It was a long day of driving but we were happy to have good weather and not too much drama and we were so happy to get home! Scott took good care of the pups, the house looks no worse for wear and it's back to work tomorrow.