A Full Day

Today was a busy day. It started at 10 a.m. when our church had a baby shower for us. It was so nice of them to do that, and it was really a lot of fun. They had delicious baby muffins (how appropriate, I know!): pumpkin, blueberry, and frosted pumpkin, and baby lemon squares, as well as mixed nuts, mints in the shape of baby carriages, and punch. Each plate also had a little bag with a homemade chocolate-covered peanut butter truffle. Haven't had mine yet, but it looks delicious.

The best part of the shower was...okay, the presents were pretty cool, but that's not what was the best part was. The best part was looking up and seeing my mom and sisters walk in. Only one sister lives here; Mom and Rachel live 4 1/2 hours away. They got up at 4 a.m. to get to the shower on time and surprise us. It was so cool!

After the shower I spent some time with my mom and sisters and then Rachel and Mom had to get going to get home before it was too late. They'd been up for a while already! So after they left I put all the baby gifts away and then it was time to go to a concert I was in this evening. It was the Walla Walla Symphony Youth Orchestra, and they needed additional people. I was one of them. It was a pretty good concert, considering the kids were mostly aged 11-16.

Above is me and my mom at the shower this morning.

Just Plain Awesome

Today was actually quite relaxing and just another all-around great Sabbath. We slept in a little bit, and then I made a delicious breakfast of hash browns, scrambled eggs, and fruit. Then Jason and I made some music together - he played clarinet, I accompanied on the piano - before we went to church. The church service was wonderful. It was a male quartet (they were all over 50, but they sounded really good) doing old school Christian songs and hymns. Their harmonies were beautiful. When we came home, we made haystacks for lunch and then went for a walk before relaxing in the living room with the fan and popsicles. It was HOT. At 6:00 we headed into CP to have dinner with our friends Tobi and Michael. We had a delicious meal of corn tortillas with a mix of black beans, corn, green peppers, tomatoes, and lime juice. Then we played a game of croquet (Jason won).

Around 8:30, Michael's dad and brother showed up. They were there to watch a movie. Since it was a long movie and we didn't want to stay up that late, Jason and I left around 9, but before we did...I got to do something I've never done before and might not ever get to do again: I held a parrot. Rascal is a BEAUTIFUL bird, as you can see from the picture. His blue is tinged with bright green, and there's a bit of orange and red in his yellow. Definitely the most beautiful creature I've seen that close. Since my previous experience with birds was holding parakeets, this was quite a change. Rascal's beak was about as big as a parakeet.

Though it looks like his huge feet would hurt on bare skin, they don't. He's learned how to rest his claws on people so it doesn't hurt at all. He could make it hurt if he wanted to, but he's a very friendly bird. Michael's dad, Danny, has had Rascal since the bird was 6 months old; he is now a 12-year-old parrot. He will live to be between 85 and 105 years old. Rascal's beak is the most frightening part of him - though his eyes can be kind of creepy, too. His beak can snap a broom handle in half. Parrots have also been known to easily take care of curious cats sweeping their claws through the cage bars to swat at the birds. They simply bite the cat's paw off. Yes, completely off. Fortunately, since he's been raised since just about birth by Danny, and is ver well-trained. The only person he's ever bitten was Tobi, and Danny explains that the bird is very jealous because Tobi took one of the bird's boys away. He didn't bite her hard, but she had a bit of blood and a blood blister for a while, and it left a small scar. Just imagine what it would have been like if Rascal was REALLY mad. Though he did nibble a little bit at my arm, it didn't hurt at all; in fact I barely felt it.

Rascal behaves just as well as a well-trained dog. He comes when he's called, he'll respond to a sharp, "NO!", and he knows what "stay" means. He's a very gentle bird, but he does know he intimidates people. When I was holding him, he dipped his head quickly and moved a little closer to my face, and it made me yelp a little bit. He immediately mimicked my yelp and then attempted to do it again to make me scream again. When I laughed at something, the bird laughed, too - mimicking MY laugh!

When I'd finally given Rascal back to Danny, he put him on the floor to let him explore. He made his way over to where Jason and I were sitting, and since I was warned he liked to nibble on toes, I curled mine up. Jason was wearing sandals and he sat there watching Rascal approach. When Rascal got close enough, he lunged at Jason's feet, and Jason got out of the way just in time. Rascal wouldn't have hurt Jason, but it's still disturbing to see a beak that large and sharp coming at you at 30 mph.

Like I said, it was a fun evening, and I think this definitely makes my year so far. Parrots are just plain awesome.

Friday Evening Entertainment

Tonight Jason and I went over to our friends' house for grilled pizza. Yes, it really was put on the grill just like a burger. SUPER delicious. Rachel and Charley have a one-year-old boy, Levi, and he is so cute! Growing a lot, too. He's got 7 teeth now, and he's quite a bit more vocal than the last time I saw him. Such a cutie. He can walk a little, too, which is fun to watch. In the above picture, Charley is trying to get the coals going on the grill (it's new and they've never done it before, so it was an experiment night!), and Levi is...helping. We had a really good time, and enjoyed our hours spent with them. They're fun people and we don't see them enough.

The Start of it All

Well, sort of. I guess the start of it all was the...well...you know...that produced the embryo in the first place. But this is the REAL nitty-gritty - where the rubber meets the road. Or rather, where the parents meet the hospital. We started childbirth classes at St. Mary's tonight. It's a 6-week course with one 2-hour session each Thursday night. Tonight we watched a video about birth, and talked about what happens when the woman goes into labour, complete with stuffed doll and a model of a pelvis. The nurse doing the class is very nice, and it's a small group, so that's nice. So...one down, five to go. The only down side? We have homework.


They gave us this book (maybe 100 pages?) that we have to read over the course of the six weeks. I think it's a rather sexist, exclusive title for a textbook that dads are expected to read, as well. It should be, "The Gift of Parenthood." But no one asked me. Obviously.

A Surprising Discovery

Today I made a delicious discovery: No Sugar Added Fudgsicles. Back in the day, sugar-free foods and sugar substitutes didn't taste very good. They weren't appetizing at all. Today...that's totally changed. Since I have to really pay attention to my carbohydrate intake now, that means label-reading. I really like chocolate. And I really like ice cream. Fudgsicles are both put together...sort of. And these amazingly delicious chocolatey frozen treats have only 10 carbs per bar. So for dinner I could have a very decent serving of casserole, all the peas and corn I could eat (and I had thirds), and then enjoy a Fudgsicle for dessert. They taste just as yummy as the regular "sugar added" kind, and I was super impressed. I highly recommend these - even if you aren't required by your doctor to count carbs. Give them a try!

Yet Again

Today I had to go to St. Mary's hospital...AGAIN. No, it wasn't urgent or life-threatening...I had an appointment with a dietitian. Because I'm having to monitor my blood sugar, I needed to meet with someone who could tell me what foods were high in carbs, low in carbs, and how many grams of carbs I should eat at any given meal, etc. I learned that I can't drink fruit juice anymore (well, I can, but it takes up a LOT of my allotted carbs per meal), that most any breakfast food you think of is chock full of carbs, and that breakfast is the meal where you should have the least number of carbs out of all your meals. I learned a lot. So here's to eating better...which I should have been doing my whole life, really. Now it's just been forced upon me, which somehow makes it easier.

Anyway, the above picture is NOT St. Mary's hospital. It is the Catholic church the next block over. This is the view as you're leaving the hospital parking lot. It's St. Patrick's, and it's my fabvourite church in the valley. Isn't it beautiful? (Just ignore all the power lines...)

Wishful Thinking

These huge thunderheads were looming over the mountains this afternoon, bringing hope of rain, thunder, and lightning. I love warm weather storms! Alas, nothing came of them and we have maintained our clear skies this evening. Boo!

Accomplishments

Today Jason and I once again managed to get quite a bit done. My goal was to get the nursery put together (as much as possible at the moment). Above is a picture of Jason putting the crib together. The trick was figuring out how it was supposed to work. It's a second-hand crib (it was my little sister's when she was a baby...almost 21 years ago!), and it didn't come with instructions. So we had to figure it out on our own. We did it, and we're quite proud of ourselves.

Once it was put together, we had to put the mattress in and make the bed - using the adorable crib set we got in March.


And then we moved it into place and put the other furniture where we wanted it. Here's the end result:


Then, after the nursery was as done as it was going to get tonight, we decided to make dinner: Homemade ravioli! And yes, we did all of it - the pasta, the filling, the cooking. We even tried a new topping for it: Sage butter. Recommended with the recipe. It was delicious!


All in all, a great day! I can't wait to get stuff on the wall in the nursery. Next? Some chocolate, hopefully...

Enjoying the Evening

Today Jason and I took full advantage of our front porch. We had both lunch and dinner on our patio table, and the weather was perfect for both meals. Because the sun gets so high so early, by the time we were ready for lunch, there was just enough shade on the porch for the table. Tonight it's probably 70 degrees (perhaps a few degrees higher) and it was perfect (minus a few bugs), so after dinner we took a stroll down a street we hadn't explored before. It's just the next street to the east, but we'd never had a reason to go down there. It's nice and quiet, and all that's down there is a couple of houses and a bunch of apartments.

A New Experience

Well the results of my 4 hours in the clinic on Monday morning are in. I do NOT have gestational diabetes, but it was close enough that they've decided to monitor me to make sure I don't develop it. So...for the next two months I get to poke myself in the finger four times a day to check my blood sugar levels. Above is my new best friend: The black pouch where everything resides, including new needles and strips, the logbook where I record my blood sugar each time I check it, the monitor that actually tells me the blood sugar level (in the picture the black tab on the left end of it is where my blood goes - there's actually blood there in the photo if you look at the end), and the needle trigger. This isn't necessarily the most fun thing I've ever had to do, but I brought it upon myself by not being a healthy person in the first place. Just so you know, 95 is a good blood sugar number. So far, so good!

The End

Perhaps not the most flattering picture of me ever, but it's me, pregnant, at my last WWU Wind Symphony concert. Tonight we had our 2009 secular concert at WWVA, and it was a pretty good concert. Not our best, but good. We played Superman, some Holst, Symphonic Dance No. 3, and more. Oh, and one of my favourites: Aloft! (And yes, it has that exclamation point in the name of the piece.) I'm standing here at the xylophone, which I played more than once tonight. I also played marimba (with four mallets!), maraccas, bass drum, tympani, chimes, vibraphone, and triangle. Ah, the joys of being a percussionist - you don't ever get bored with your instrument!

Well, so long, Wind Symphony...it's been a wonderful 8 years, and as soon as I can, I'll play with you again. Thanks, Brandon, for letting me be a part of this group for so long. I will miss playing with this group.

Something Different

This was my office today. I wasn't feeling well yesterday so I came home early and took a nap. Then this morning I decided I really shouldn't go anywhere. It's a good thing, too, because I've felt miserable all day...and it's really not that much better tonight. I think I have a low fever, and I'm coughing an annoyingly raspy cough. Luckily, my throat isn't sore, and I'm not congested in my sinuses. That's always super annoying. At any rate, I hope to be able to go to work tomorrow...I've missed enough hours already this week as it is. This is one of those weeks I wish I was salary.

Colourful Evening

The sky tonight was fantastic! A storm was moving in from the Blues, and as the sky grew darker, the front of the fluffy clouds reflected the setting sun in beautiful shades of blue, purple, and pink. I couldn't resist taking some shots...but it's frustrating that it never looks as amazing in the pictures as it does in real life. So imagine this shot 10 times more beautiful, and you'll be close to what it was actually like. Now...if we can just have a good storm tonight...

Out of the Office

This is where I spent my morning. I went there thinking it would be a quick blood draw and then I could go to work and come back later for the final step. WRONG! For four hours I sat in the clinic waiting room, being called back once an hour for another blood draw and urine sample. And this was AFTER I was forced to drink about 10 ounces of "lime" flavoured sugar water in under 5 minutes. On an empty stomach. Talk about gross. I was doing a glucose tolerance test to test for gestational diabetes. And I had no forewarning, so I didn't even bring a book. I could've finished one in that time. At any rate, I don't recommend it.

Fortunately, they had a beautiful garden just outside the doors that I was able to enjoy for part of my morning. The breeze was the perfect temperature, and I even got to see a couple of hummingbirds. Plus, the wasps left me alone. It was amazing!

And, as a final part to today, my war wound (i.e. where I was vampired four times today):

A Productive Day

April showers bring May...cleaning days! Above is a picture of our back patio - AFTER we cleaned it. The pile in the middle will stay there until Tuesday when our trash can is empty again and it will all fit. Raina has taken to digging a tunnel in our yard, right where you step from the cement to the grass. You can see where it was - the left leg of where the yard is dirt rather than grass. We took a shovel to all the dirt she'd piled onto the patio and dumped it back into the hole. Then we put dog repellent on top of the dirt. Hopefully she'll leave it alone and let some grass grow there.

We did a lot today. Here's a list of what we accomplished:

1. Cleaned our guest quarters (i.e. the upstairs).
   
2. Got rid of a dead plant.
3. Potted the daisy plant I got from Jason's aunt for Mother's Day.
4. Vacuumed the house.
5. Cleaned the living room (it needed it).
6. Cleaned the patio and the patio chairs.
   
7. Moved boxes of books from the corner of our dining room to the shop.
8. Picked several meals to make over the next week or so.
9. Made a grocery list and went grocery shopping.
10. Succeeded in NOT stopping at Baskin Robbins or Dairy Queen on our way home from the grocery store, in spite of the fact that we were hungry and thirsty and it was 90 degrees.
11. Balanced our checking account.
12. Washed and vacuumed the car.
13. Jason practiced the bass clarinet (we have a concert on Thursday).
    
14. Watered the lawn.

In addition, Jason put a piece back on the vacuum cleaner that popped off randomly while we were using it today. Fortunately it wasn't broken, it has just slipped off. I guess we shouldn't throw our vacuum around so much.

All in all...a very satisfying day. Now we will sit back and enjoy the beautiful spring evening. And truly - it is a lovely evening.

Pregnant Lady Night

This afternoon Jason went to Portland with the steel drums. He's not officially in the group, but their bass player backed out on them and they asked Jason to fill in. He's on his way back tonight, and I have to drive back into CP to pick him up at some ungodly hour.

To entertain myself in his absence, I got together with a friend of mine who is also pregnant. Her husband was out of town due to music tour, as well, so it was quite convenient. She suggested dinner and a movie, and that's precisely what we did. We had red potatoes with celery and onions (delicious), and then we watched "Lost in Austen," which was a "take a chance" rental, but turned out to be quite good.

Damie's two cats, Molly and Noreen, are quite entertaining. At first Noreen ran away from me and avoided coming into contact with me...but wouldn't totally go away. He was too curious about me. Molly was friendly from the get-go. This is Molly in the photo...being friendly.

I'm Tired Now

It's been a LONG day.

After getting off work at 12:15, we stopped at the bank, the women's clinic, and Sweet Basil Pizzeria for lunch before heading back to the library so Jason could close. We'd just started from a red light when it happened. Sudden stops, quick reactions...and a few bumps. Above you can see some of the damage. We can't open the trunk. Here's a different angle:

The back right door doesn't close all the way, so the Highlander dings every time you accelerate from a stop. It thinks there's a door open. And really...there is. Note the taillight in the above photo, too.

Everyone was fine, though after relaxing a bit (we were there for about 45 minutes talking to the police and the other people involved), Jason and I felt a bit stiff and sore. No bruises though...at least none that we've found...and no cuts or injuries of any kind.

Just to be on the safe side, though, I called my doctor to see if there was anything I should do as far as a checkup. He asked a few questions, and then recommended I do a non-stress test on the baby at the hospital. So I headed back into town (I drove the Camry this time), picked up Ruth so she could come hear the heartbeat and whatever else they were going to do, and then went to the hospital.

The nurse found the heartbeat, and then strapped the detector to my stomach. Then she checked my reflexes, took my blood pressure, and asked a few questions. Finally, she told me it could be 30 minutes or it could be 2 hours...and then she left.

She came back a couple of times...once she brought me some cranberry juice, which was quite tasty. Finally, about an hour and a half later, she returned once more, with my doctor. He looked at the printouts, asked me a couple of questions, and said everything looked good. Apparently the goal was to get an average of two heartbeat accelerations in a 20-minute period. In the 90 minutes I was there, Little Miss had an accelerated heartbeat 8 times. "That's one good kid!"he said with a smile. Here's what the printout looked like:

So it looks like everything is fine, though I feel my back getting more and more sore as the evening wears on. Nothing to worry about, it's just from tensing up when we were rear-ended. But I do have to say...it's 7:30, and it's good to be home. Now, for dinner.

This is My Life

I'm a musician. It's what I do. It's what I've always done. Unfortunately, since graduating from college, involvement in music has been much more limited, due to having a full-time job and all. And, sadly, after this year, I won't be in wind symphony anymore. I'll have a baby to take care of, and both Jason and I can't be in the group. So next Thursday's concert is my last wind symphony concert. After 8 years, this is the end. I will miss it like nothing I've missed before (save Jason when I went to London for 3 months), I know. This is the section that's been my home away from home for 8 years. Every Tuesday and Thursday evening since September 2001. I've got a week to say goodbye...and I've got my ideas. :)

A New Trick

Jason's been working with Raina on a new trick. He puts a treat on her nose, tells her to stay, and backs away, forcing her to sit there without dropping the treat or trying to eat it. She doesn't like this trick, and in the beginning she would lay down and hide her nose in order to avoid it. But I think the getting the treat in the end bit won her over (finally), and she gave in. Now she does it reluctantly and does a pretty good job of it, too. Tonight she did it three times in a row, and did really well. The next part of this trick is getting to her to catch the treat in her mouth when she goes to eat it, instead of just dropping it on the floor and picking it up.

Baby Belly

Today I took my first "baby belly" photos. (Like the stretch marks? Yeah, they're gorgeous, aren't they?) I'm at 30 weeks and counting...though I still have to say that pregnancy time is super confusing. I put the same date into different calculators and some say 29 weeks, others say 30. So I think it's just that some calculate how many weeks I've completed, and others count what number week of my pregnancy this is. At any rate, here's Little Miss! Her first photo shoot!

Also...

I noticed for the first time tonight that my belly button - which has always been an extreme innie - is getting smaller. I suspect it's turning into an outie...that will be weird.

Old-Fashioned Entertainment...And the 80s

Last night Jason and I started a puzzle, but we got started late due to laundry and lawn mowing (we drove back from Boise yesterday, you will recall), so we didn't quite finish it before I had to get to bed. So we finished it tonight...and it took two hours to do the last 3rd of the puzzle. See all that hay behind the cow? Yeah, that was NOT easy. That's just about all we did on the puzzle tonight. The puzzle is called "Clothesline Chaos."

Once we finished, Jason decided to pop in a movie. He'd just gotten a couple through Summit (an inter-library loan system in the Pacific Northwest). It's an 80s movie, because he recently went on a kick to watch some 80s flicks. The one we watched tonight was called "Sixteen Candles" and it was...well...dumb. But, as Jason pointed out, I would've liked it as a 16-year-old girl.

Mother's Day

Today was, as all of you hopefully know, Mother's Day. To celebrate, My sisters and I planned a girls' morning out with Mom. We went to Denny's for breakfast and had a great time. Here we are, waiting for our table (there were a lot of people there - wonder why?): Mom, Rachel, me, and Ruth. Oh, and there are two others in the photo you can't see yet. ;-)

Happy Mother's Day!

A Cool Spring Evening

After a day of potlucking Mexican style (i.e. enchiladas, rice, etc.) at a second wedding reception for our friends Andy and Kelie, we headed back to my parents' house to spend the evening with them. After dinner, we all went out to the backyard to enjoy the cool evening. Morgan saw some quail on the fence, and when they flew down into the neighbour's yard, she wanted to see them again. So Uncle Jason picked her up and they tried to see if they could see the birds.

Then she just wanted to pull leaves off the tree in Grandpa and Grandma's backyard. So Jason and Morgan walked around with Morgan being "up higher." She's really gotten a lot better about warming up to us now that she's older. When she was little she didn't recognize us very much and wasn't sure if she wanted to let us hold her. By the time she got comfortable with us we were headed home. It's nice that she lets us play with her almost as soon as we arrive now. She's getting so big!

Home for a Surprise

Today Ruth, Jason and I drove to Boise to surprise Mom for Mother's Day. It was going to be a surprise for his mom, too, but she invited us here after we'd already planned to come, so there was no surprise there. This is a beautiful time of year for the drive between WW and Boise. It's about the only time of year the entire drive isn't ugly and brown. These are the Elkhorn Mountains around Baker, Oregon. The view was FANTASTIC on the drive, and I couldn't stop taking pictures. This area is almost always photogenic. At any rate, we really did surprise my mom...and we'll have Mother's Day pictures this weekend, for sure!

Canadian Candy

Okay, so technically this is British candy. It's made by Cadbury, but every country except America seems to be able to sell this stuff. All we get down here is the Easter eggs that aren't all that great anymore since they changed the filling. Anyway, the point is that this candy was DELICIOUS. To make a long story short, Jason and I ended up with $9.57 CAN to spend before we left the airport, so when we stopped at the gas station on our way to the airport, I grabbed a couple of snacks. This was one of them; I was determined to get something Canadian. And I don't like Smarties, so that was out. So I opted for Cadbury. This is a peanut butter caramel candy bar, and boy is it yummy. It's like a Butterfinger center (only not as sticky or chewy), surrounded by delicious Cadbury caramel, and dipped in chocolate. Oh man. I want some more of these, so if anyone is headed to Canada, you'll be my friend forever if you bring back some of these for me. And just in case you're wondering, no it doesn't say "Wonder Bra." It's "Wunderbar." (And why it has a Viking helmet on it is anyone's guess.)

The Interview

Well, we spent the entire afternoon and evening in Lacombe, Alberta, Canada. We were both exhausted before we even got there...a not-so-comfy bed and getting in quite late will do that to you. It was almost a 2-hour drive from Calgary up to Lacombe. We did it in our little mini car - it's a Kia of some kind; I'll get a picture of it tomorrow - and constantly made fun of the poor little thing. Once there, we had lunch in the cafeteria (an experience, to be sure...only one person in our group of six knew how the cafeteria worked), and then Jason launched into his long afternoon of meeting people, smiling, answering questions, and sweating. The building pictured above is the administration building at Canadian University College (a name which, I learned tonight, even the Canadians don't understand or like!).

The above (quite crappy) photo is a shot of where I spent my afternoon while Jason was in his string of appointments: The library's computer bank. Sheila (the assistant and soon-to-be head librarian) logged me in at 12:45 and I sat there and worked until 5:30. I got three stories done, did more research on two others, and waded through about 70 emails.

At 5:30, Jason was finally done with everything and Sheila offered us a tour of campus. We gladly accepted, and for the next 20 minutes we meandered past the dorm, the science building, the second dorm, the academy, the music building, and other misc. things. (Only not too many other things, because it's a really small campus. We walked slowly and stopped in a couple of buildings and it still only took us 20 minutes to get back to where we started. And yes, we saw the entire campus.) It was a little chilly...as you can see by the trees and the not-so-green grass, spring hasn't quite hit Lacombe yet!

This was my favourite place we went: Lakeview Hall. It's both a men's and women's dorm; men on one side, women on the other. The mezzanine level (where those stairs go) was modified with a floor-to-ceiling complete wall to separate the sexes. But it was the lobby that struck me. It's really a beautiful building. I didn't get to see any of the dorm rooms, but this area was lovely. The big picture windows overlook - you guessed it - a lake! The outsides of buildings may not look like much on this campus, but once you get inside, you're most often surprised at what they've done with the place. Such was the case here.

Just as an FYI, Jason felt the interview went well, and we should know by next week whether or not they are interested in offering him the job. Keep praying - not just that CUC will make the right decision, but that we will, too.

NOTE: For a photo of and post including our tiny rental car, click here!

Headed North

Today we worked a half day and headed to Seattle after lunch. Jason has a job interview in Alberta tomorrow, and we had a flight to catch. The Seattle airport has done a major renovation of their food court. It's beautiful! I don't know when they finished it, but this is the first time I've seen it. The view of the sunset behind all the planes taking off and landing...and the storm clouds moving in...it was fantastic.


The decor was very tasteful, and the place looked clean and new without looking overdone. We enjoyed a drink from Starbucks while passing time until our flight boarded at 9:30.

As for tomorrow...BEST WISHES, JASON!

Brewing Up Some Storms

I love this time of year! The clouds are so awesome to watch - they're constantly changing, and they are very different from the clouds that appear any other time of year. During the winter the cloud is the sky. It's just one big gigantic cloud that doesn't lift for more than about a day at a time between November and February. The fall clouds are cold and very unfriendly, and just look ominous and aloof. Summer clouds...wait. Do we even HAVE clouds in the summer? Not often...but when we do, they're thunderheads, billowing on the horizon, looking majestic and powerful. Spring clouds, though...they're happy clouds. They're on vacation, watching the world come back to life and enjoying the flowers so much that sometimes they part to let the sun show them brighter, and other times noticing they need a little lift, and dumping some rain. I love this time of year!

Rock Band

Today we did something different. Instead of eating at our house, we all went over to Ruth's boyfriend's apartment for breakfast. Ruth and Nick made pancakes, Jason and I made coffee cake, and Mom & Dad brought the juice. After breakfast (which was delicious, by the way), we hooked up Rock Band and got ready to play. The best part: We actually talked my parents into trying it out. That's my dad attempting to figure out what he's supposed to do on the guitar. Jason's holding the mic, I'm at the drums behind my dad, and Ruth is to the left of the photo with the other guitar. It was a family rock band! Mom played guitar, too, but after one song, both Mom and Dad decided to just let the kids play. They fell asleep! How they did that with Rock Band blaring I don't know. But it was great fun. Below: The pregnant lady takes to the guitar (note Dad in the background...)!

Spring Babies

My parents are here visiting this weekend, and after Sabbath lunch and a nap (for some of us), we decided to take advantage of the sunshine that had appeared after a grey morning. We grabbed our collection of old bread and headed to the one park we know of that has ducks and doesn't have signs saying not to feed them: Lions Park in College Place. The above sight greeted us at the far end of the pond. There are nine of them there, even though you might only see eight. They were so cute! And they were close enough to touch...though I resisted (it was tough). Finally, enough people gathered that it made Mama Duck nervous and she hopped off the rock where she was keeping an eye on her sleeping babes, plopped into the water, and quack-quacked until all nine of them were safely behind her. Then she led them into some overhanging branches at the edge of the island in the middle of the pond. There they waited, presumably until the crowd went away. The ducks didn't eat much, but it didn't matter...we enjoyed our time at the park thoroughly, thanks to these adorable babies.

Every Petal...

The wife of one of our history professors was diagnosed a few months ago with cancer. For a while they couldn't decide what kind it was, and after undergoing treatment for something it turns out she didn't have, she was just recently re-diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. A friend of hers - the wife of another history professor - organized a campus-wide Sabbath of support. She asked that anyone who knows Jonna leave flowers and/or notes of encouragement and support on the family's driveway gate. The evening was to start at 5 p.m. and go through sundown, welcoming the Sabbath with a gate full of flowers of faith. Someone had taped a note to the gate saying, "Every Petal is a Prayer," and when I arrived a few minutes after 5, several people were already there. They had bags full of lilac branches they were tying all over the gate. Someone else was there with a couple of potted geraniums. And others had already left bouquets of different types and colours of flowers at different spots on the gate. I added my bouquet (on behalf of a committee I chair at the university) and left again. I hope someone takes a picture when all is said and done. Jonna, we're still praying for you.