Yay for a new NIECE

Evelyn Joy!

Congratulations Tim & Janine!!  

And congrats to big brothers Isaac, Alex, and Jacob.  

Earth Day haute couture

I suited up to clean the pond the other night.  Traipsing around in there is tricky business.  One is liable to get stuck in the muck.  Despite springing a leak in the right boot, I powered through and picked up two bags of junk from our corner of the pond.

One hears a lot about all those disgusting litterbugs this time of year.  No doubt there are jackasses who toss their junk out of the car window and such, but I suspect the Wind is a bigger culprit.  As long as there's Evil Wind in the world, trash and recycle bins will blow over and spew their innards all over creation.

Turtle Power!

Now that the bullhead carcasses have disappeared and the stench of dead rotting fish is gone, it is once again pleasant to live by a pond.  The thicker ice & snow pack of this past winter suffocated more of the poor buggers than usual.  This turtle was creeping around our yard last week.

We also enjoy seeing herons, egrets, lots of ducks, and a muskrat or two.  The frogs are really loud in June.  The ducks get all the stale bread during the summer and it's fun to see what else they'll eat.  They ingest all manner of cereals & crackers, but, say, gummi bears?  Not so much.  They 'chew' on them for a while before spitting them out.  Good entertainment.

This poor guy crawled back into a pond full of pop cans and water bottles and other random junk.  Need to get out the waders for the annual clean-up.

8 eyes

Nate and Adrienne just got new glasses.  Poor A was half blind for almost 2 weeks, stuck wearing her very 1st pair of glasses which are less than half the strength she needs now.  We were waiting for the new pair (#3) and for her 2nd pair to be repaired.

We had great weather again this weekend.  Little miss dramatic wanted to change into shorts yesterday and when I wouldn't let her, she raided the freezer for some ice packs.  Sheesh.  There's plenty enough laundry to do without all the wardrobe changes she requests.

I miss this show

Yay Jesus and Michael day

The stork didn't bring us our first kid, the Easter Bunny did.  We had a double celebration on Sunday, Easter + Michael's 11th birthday; the first time that Easter fell on April 4th since the day he was born in 1999.  At dinner, Michael let it go to his head a bit and remarked that everyone was at our house because of him.  He was told that Jesus edged him out.

He got a spiffy bike from Nana and Papa and a fancy skateboard and knee, elbow, & wrist pads from Grandpa and Grandma.  Later in the afternoon, though, he goobered up his special day a bit.   Michael came down the stairs too fast, fell, and landed hard on his back.  When he was still in pain an hour and a half later, I took him to urgent care where we spent more than an hour waiting to be seen.  Everything checked out okay, thank goodness.  How ironic that failure to walk down stairs correctly landed him at the clinic instead of the skateboard. 
Overall, we had a nice day with family.  Except that everyone pigged out on the candy that the Easter Bunny left for me and Nate, and ate all the birthday cake.  I was looking forward to leftovers.
Michael will turn 22 the next time Easter falls on his birthday.  I'll make two cakes and hide the candy.

Spring break + great weather...

...equals walks to the park, catching caterpillars and a boy covered in bike grease.