Spring has Sprung

One week ago I was so pleased to find these little green sprouts making their way up through the wood chips in my front yard. It was the first day of working in the yard since last fall when we closed the yard down.

Here are some more daffodils coming up after the long cold winter.


This is the same flower bed three days later. They are really coming up fast.

More of the three day later shots.

And finally, this is the progress made in one week. Things are happening fast out there. We have worked in the yard for two Saturdays now and I feel like anything is possible. This year we could stay in front of the weeds. We could get our cold weather vegetables in before it turns hot. We could keep the flowers in the window boxes watered. Yes, in March I look ahead at the season and our yard can be wonderful. I want to be optimistically based in reality. Well, for now I am ahead of the weeds. It's too cold for the cold weather vegetables, so I'm alright as far as that is concerned and of course nothing has been planted in the window boxes so I'm on top of that. I'm feeling quite cheered.


This is a larger glimpse of the daffodils in the front yard. I am completely charmed by daffodils. I love that they come early in spring and they are so bright and golden. I also love that they multiply so easily and they just get better and stronger.

Another sign of spring is that all the local apple orchards get pruned back. These apple trees are on the side of the road that Rachel travels on to get to college. The trees get a cut back to such a point that a casually observer would say it was too much. But, not so.

I wish these were better shots, but you can see by all the limbs on the ground how much they trim back. It was fun to see them trimming in the morning and then again in the afternoon to see how much they had accomplished. I took this pictures from inside the car as Rachel was driving along.

Here is a picture of Seth working hard in the front yard cleaning out a flower bed. Working in the yard is no where near his favorite thing to do, but the weather has been warming up and it felt good to be outside and clearing all the old leaves and clutter out of the beds. Even Seth thought so.

This is a pictur of Elder Sonnenberg. He is from Washington state and has been a member of the church for two years. He has been on his mission for a little over one year. We love him much.

This is his companion Elder Atwood who is from Orem Utah. He's kinda goofy looking, but a real hard worker. He is the youngest of nine children and very skinny. We love him too.

There are so many things going on right now. Maurie has been very, very busy with his work for Abbott. He has a deliverable tomorrow and Tuesday and he is going a little crazy getting ready for it. He has not been home for a week and he has been putting 14, 16, 18 hour days trying to pull everything together. He stays at the Motel 6 in Waukegan, Illinois and he calls a couple of times a day. We will see him Tuesday night for sure. Abbott loves his work and has renewed his contract another whole year. We are very blessed and happy. They have also upped his salary and that has pleased him to no end.

The kids are happy and busy. Rachel is doing well in school. She is on spring break this week and is going to start looking for a job. Her sister Kate has offered her employment as a nanny for the summer, but Rachel has tended the boys many times and wants to look elsewhere first. Her visiting teacher's husband works part time at "Fun Fair", a local bowling alley/roller rink and says they are always looking for skaters to work the rink so she is going to apply there. She loves to roller skate. Seth and I have spring break next week and he has already been hired by a good friends mom to help clean their yard and take down an old fence. She said she would pay him and take him to the Wisconsin Dells for two days. She loves the good influence that Seth has on her son. The son's name is Eric Lapin and he is Jewish. He splept over last weekend and went to church with us in the morning. He thought church was nice and was a little curious and so we were very surprised when we were leaving for church this morning and Seth got a text from Eric saying he was at church waiting for us. His Mom had driven him there to attend church and be with good kids. So we had Eric with us again this week and we are very hopeful that this may develop into something. Dare we say conversion. Maybe a little too early, but we have the Mom's support and Eric loves being with Seth and the other boys from church. Seth already introduced him to the missionaries.

I have enjoyed reading all the randomness from family. So here are a few random things about our family. Try to figure who they could apply to.

1 I think my ears are too small.

2 I think everyone should read Terry Pratchett books. A good one to start with is "Guards Guards".

3 I feel there should be full tissue boxes in every room because of my allergies.

4 I like to add untried ingredients to my cooking. Tonights dinner spaghetti, chili, cream cheese and a secret ingredient.

5 We have a picture of the Savior in our kitchen and it bothers me because I feel he is watching me eat.

6 I enjoy the old TV series West Wing.

7 I feel if you don't know the lyrics then you shouldn't sing along.

8 I feel that lyrics are superfluous and if you know the melody then you should sing along, and do it loudly.

9 I'm learning slowly to eat a more varied diet.

10 I think that the most important part of my day is getting to hang with my friends.

11 I think that the least enjoyable part of my day is driving.

12 I think that the best day of the week is Wednesday when I attend games club.

13 I think the best time of the day is coming home after work.

14 I like to make work lists.

15 I am the biggest reader in the family.

16 I have never made a meal that was so good that I enjoyed cleaning up afterwards.

17 I'm surprised when I realize that I'm like my Mom.

18 I am a workaholic.

19 I just want to have fun.

20 I have funny sayings, like "Is this the person to whom I'm Speaking?" and "Your children were all born naked."