No more news for me

This has not been a good day. Too many reports and other things due by April 15th. I put together a sample calendar for the district and it ended up on the board agenda for tonight, let me just say that I had to revise it four times today, even though I had a few other things to do.

As I was driving back to work after eating lunch the radio informed me that troops that are deployed are going to get the privilege of spending an additional three months in Iraq or Afghanistan.

I have been a good mom, I have been patient and faithful. But I know that our bear is ready to come home. His calls have had a little more homesick ring to them than ever before. He mentioned a couple of months ago that there was a pretty good chance he would be extended. Then the last time he called he was pretty sure he wouldn't be. This hit me like a ton of bricks. My eyes welled up with tears and even as I type this my eyes are spilling over. Maybe it is just PMS, but if I let myself go, I know I could have a good long cry. Next month his four years are officially over. He has spent 20 of those months in Iraq. I shouldn't complain, there are so many families affected by this. Young fathers and mothers who are away from their children.

I am sure that when he calls he will be upbeat and accepting, he always is. I just need to complain a little, to vent, because we miss him in our lives. He has spent over six years away from us already and we are ready for him to live close to us so we can get to know this wonderful man who has had so many interesting experiences.

So for now, we will continue to pray for his safe return and put on a brave front.

The picture was taken the first time he was in Iraq - he insisted that we all take turns putting a few shells through his new gun. Note that leaner is holding the gun - something she has never liked to do.

Birds and buds

Here are our babies - dacheese took this pic. They posed nicely for this.

The other picture is Rhayn's rose. It is getting ready to bloom and it will be beautiful just like her. It has three more buds on a lower branch and they should all bloom together.

Arizona Potted Birds

For some reason this year two different species of birds have decided that our back porch and our potted plants are the ideal nesting sites.

The nest closest to the house is a mourning dove. We think she has two eggs - they have hatched and we can now see a tiny bird next to her. Both parents take turns with the babies and the nest is never left alone. The plant that they selected is a philodendron that barely survived the winter freeze. It looks pretty rough at this time, but we don't dare do too much with it.

The other nest, in our asparagus fern, is four cute little guys. After trying to determine what type of bird this one was dacheese finally was able to figure out that it is a house finch. The dad is brightly colored, with a red head and red down his back. The mom and dad don't spend as much time with their babies as the mourning dove and we are hoping that we don't scare them off.

The hardest part is keeping the plants alive and not disturb the maternity ward or hurt the babies.

You never know what may happen in Abe's garden, or what you might see.

Birthday Bonanza week continues

On Thursday, we picked up mom and took her to LB Inn in Florence for a birthday dinner. She had lunch with Laree and Shari. When we picked her up she noticed a box on her porch filled with fresh flowers from her favorite daughter.

Mom, G'rat's family, JVA and SLA, Brie and Maddie and abeNanna enjoyed chips and salsa and some other food in celebration of her 86 birthday and Maddie's 18 month birthday.

That evening we received a phone call from our bear, thanking us for the easter stuff - a camo basket and camo eggs. We reminded him what day it was, so when he hung up he called his grandma. Leaner called her also and had Rhaynn sing her a Happy Birthday.

Birthday Bonanza Week

Thanks to one daughter-in-law planning an impromtu egg coloring event and inviting all the locals over, we decided to end the evening with a surprise b'day cake for a grand old lady.



The two older kids picked flowers from G'pas garden. We ended the evening with ice cream cake from Safeway.



We will continue the birthday bonanza (something we learned from our other daughter-in-law) all this week and make it special for our mom, grandma, and great-grandma.