Happy Birthday, Abby!

It's time for another trip down Memory Lane, this time remembering Abby's early years.  I've been thinking a lot today about that day 28 years ago when Abby was born.  Two things kind of stand out in my memory--that car accident that I had the day before (which is not a good memory) and then the memory of picking Dad up at school and heading to the hospital for a C-section. This was quite different from our previous birth experiences--they had all involved  middle-of-the-night drives to the hospital while in labor.

Just home from the hospital at 6 days of age, with her adoring siblings. 

Baptism, about 6 weeks old

About 3 months old

Right around the time of her 1st birthday

She always did think that her Dad was hilarious. :)

(Doesn't he look young there??)

At Grandpa and Grandma's apartment in Grand Rapids, sitting in Grandpa's old chair. And I think that's "Marlo" with her. 

Her favorite feature of her new kitchen---the phone!

One of my very favorite pictures! 

You can't really talk about Abby's early childhood without talking about her blankie.  Or maybe I should say blankies.  She had a bit of an obsession with silky-feeling  fabrics. (Actually she called it "sucky" since she liked to feel the fabric while sucking her thumb.) I think the first blanket she adopted was the green one that she stole from Matt. Then I got a new pink one for her that even had a silky pillow with it. And then there was the bunny blanket that had ears and binding that were silky.  The pink blanket and pillow were both loved to shreds, literally, and the green one ended up being cut in small pieces, a few of which still remain.  And the bunny blanket is also still with us, somewhere. :) 

She never liked it when the blanket had to be washed. She would sometimes stand out by the clothesline with one hand on the blanket and her thumb in her mouth. :)

Abby, Bunny Blanket, and Snickers

Flower girl for Maria and Kevin's wedding

And I had to include a few pictures from the "short hair" era.  I'm sure that I will forever be blamed for the fact that Abby was once given the boy toy at McDonald's because of her short hair.  Oh well, she was cute even in short hair, and it sure was a lot easier.  And the way I remember it is that she requested a short haircut. 

I always like those "missing-tooth" smiles.

I could go on to the years of glasses and braces, but I think I'll stop with this one. 

Happy Birthday, Abby!  You were the best 40th birthday present in the world!

Mother's Day Week-end

We went to Iowa for Mother's Day week-end. The main reason for going was for Adam's graduation from William Penn University. But it was an added benefit to be able to spend Mother's Day (or part of the day anyway) with the Wissinks. We drove down on Friday after having coffee with the Senior group at Panera. We got to Ankeny shortly before Rachel and Jeremiah came home from the Mother's Day Tea at Jeremiah's daycare.

If it's Friday evening, you will generally find us at Panera and we kept that tradition going.  For dessert we went for ice cream at Van Dee's. I had a butterscotch dipped cone---Wow! That was a blast from the past!

Adam's graduation ceremony was at 10 a.m. on Saturday. It was a bit of a drive to Oskaloosa, so we were out the door by about 8:15.  It was a very nice ceremony, and we were really happy that we could be there.  Adam's parents were there, too.

The happy graduate and his two of  his proud supporters.

We stopped in Pella on our way back to Ankeny and had lunch at Applebees.  We also got to see some of the tulip beds in Pella, which were beautiful.  I think they may have had Tulip Time a week too early this year---Rachel said that the week before a lot of the tulips hadn't opened up yet.  They were gorgeous when we saw them!

We didn't spend too much time outdoors on Saturday because it was extremely windy and quite chilly. The graduates had to hang on to their caps and gowns when they were walking around outside after the ceremony. :) 

Sunday morning there were Mother's Day cards and gifts and then we were off to church.  After church it was time for some pictures.

Jeremiah and his Mommy

Jeremiah with his Mommy and his Grandma

Jeremiah showed us how good he is at hitting the ball off the tee.  He's developed a new interest in this from watching his Daddy play softball. 

Adam grilled up some delicious steaks for lunch.

It was even warm enough to eat out on the deck. (well, some people did wear sweatshirts.)

One last picture of Jeremiah with Grandpa, or "Gramps" as he likes to call him. :)

After lunch we packed up and left for home again. We filled up with some of that cheap Iowa gas before leaving town.  Why does the gas in Brookfield have to be 40 cents more per gallon?!? :(  We had a good trip home, and the time went very quickly for me because I received phone calls from the rest of my kids while we were driving. :)

And I must share some pictures of my Mother's Day Flowers!  I've been spoiled!

I got this fuchsia from the Wissinks.

The little flowers are so pretty--purple on the inside, and deep pink/red on the outside. Now my challenge is to keep it alive!

And these tulips arrived from the Californians!  The buds were tightly closed when I first put them in water, but by the next morning most of them had opened up. They are beautiful!

Thanks to all my kids for making my Mother's Day special!  I love you all more than words can tell!

Springtime (???) in Wisconsin

When we were driving back from Florida in March, we were really hoping that we would find that Spring had arrived in Wisconsin while we were gone.  Alas, our hopes were dashed!  We still had some winter weather to endure in March, and even into April. 

This picture was taken on April 4, and this "ice pond" didn't go away until almost the first of May. 

And then on April 14, we got another dusting of snow. 

The only good thing about snow is April is that it usually doesn't last long. 

Of course, April also brings Dad's birthday. Abby drove up to spend the day with us. I took the lazy way out and bought this little cake at Metro Market instead of baking one. 

We had dinner with Abby and Neil at a restaurant on Lake Cook Road. We drove down, and Neil drove up and met us after his track meet. 

A BCS Dad (who works for Miller Brewing Co.) had given Dad tickets for the Brewer game on the 21st. So that was sort of like a little extended birthday celebration for Dad.  We had good seats on the Club Level  with some nicer amenities than you get in the rest of the park.

For the Sunday games, they have the "mini-sausages" do part of the race---it's kind of a relay race.  That was cute to see.

Bernie was happy---the Brewers won!

A couple weeks later (I think maybe it was May 1) we were given free tickets again. Very good seats again---this time in the Diamond Box, right below the broadcast booths.

I feel like we've been a bit spoiled with these free tickets and nice seats. Oh, and we also had passes for preferred parking for both of those games. That was nice!

One final picture to show that we are seeing signs of spring. I was very happy when the daffodils finally started blooming.  There are also tulips in bloom now and the trees are starting to get their leaves. The plants in front of the house are very slow in coming---it seems like everything is about a month later than it was last year.  Of course, last year everything was unusually early and this year it's unusually late.  One thing about springtime in Wisconsin---it's very unpredictable!

Florida Trip, part 5

One final post from our Florida trip, and these are just some random pictures that I took with the i-pad while we were at Tony and Jeane's. 

This is the back of the house where Tony and Jeane spent the winter. It belongs to Dan and Janet now, since Janet's mother passed away last year. I spent a lot of time looking out that big window, looking for an alligator. Not too long before we were there, Jeane saw one right by that palm tree! 

The first day we were there, I went out the back door and didn't close the door quite quickly enough, so I let a little lizard into the house. Fortunately Jeane is not as big a chicken as I am.  She got out her lizard-catching equipment and soon had him captured.

This is as close as I wanted to get!  Yeah, I know, he's really little. 

Dad and Tony going for a bike ride. These are the bikes that the Diekemas take with them when they travel, because they fold up.  I  thought that Dad looked quite humorous on that little bike---oh, and he was also wearing  Jeane's helmet. That REALLY looked funny, until she showed him how to adjust the straps so that it didn't just sit on top of his head. 

We saw a lot of these little ducks in their pond---I think they're called Muscovy Ducks, and they are kind of pretty.

And this guy was a very frequent visitor.

I REALLY wanted to get a good look at an alligator before we left. When we came home from church on the last Sunday, we saw one lying on the edge of the pond right by the entrance to their development. Of course, I didn't have my camera with me. So we walked back over there with the ipad. He was actually lying on that cement culvert on the edge of the pond, but before I could get a picture he slithered into the water. Just to the right of that culvert you can see his eyes and nose sticking up out of the water a little bit---that was the best I could do. 

After ten very enjoyable days in Florida it was time to head back to Wisconsin. We took a different route back, with an overnight stop just north of Birmingham, Alabama.  There were some pretty big storms that came through that area that afternoon, but we were fortunate enough to avoid them.  We did experience one result of the storm, though---Cracker Barrel was extremely busy when we went there for dinner, because they were one of the few restaurants that had power. All in all it was a great trip---I think we'd like to do it again!

Florida Trip, part 4--Sunsets, etc.

One evening Bill and Pat took us to a pier in Venice to see the sunset. There is a restaurant right by the pier, called Sharkey's. Waiting time when we were there was unbelievably long, like 90 minutes or something. We did NOT eat there, but just walked out onto the pier.

A couple of tourists on the pier. 

There were a lot of people fishing on the pier. One woman was cleaning her fish on that shelf, and she asked Pat to keep that bird away from her fish while she went to get something.

When she came back she told Pat to give the bird a piece of the fish (that would have been thrown away, I guess). I was glad it was Pat and not me.

The birds sure do hang around there---they're no dummies!

Sunset!

Those same two tourists again--I know, he looks like he's either drunk or half asleep. But I assure you, he was neither! Just likes to close his eyes when he has his picture taken. :)

One more sunset shot. This was actually a different night--same body of water and same sun, though. Just a different beach and a different night. On this particular night we nearly froze while sitting at a hymn sing on Venice Beach with Tony and Jeane.  Usually they end the hymn sing right at sunset, but this time they quit early because it was so cold. We went out for dinner after that, and were happy for the heaters out on the restaurant patio.

Stay tuned for one more post!

Florida Trip, Part 3--Stump Pass State Park

Another of my favorite things was our hike at Stump Pass State Park.  This is very close to where the Brassers were staying, so we also got to see their condo on this outing.  Very nice!  It wasn't a real warm day, as you can see from the sweatshirts, etc., but the sun was shining and it was very pleasant. Only one man joined the five women on this hike.

On the trail, which was mostly sand and mostly flat. Nice!

We spent some time watching this bird devour a fish up on that branch.

Pat could be a tour guide. She knows a LOT about Florida birds and other wildlife. Here I think she's pointing out a dolphin. 

The trail ended at this beach where there were lots of shells.

More shell seeking.

It doesn't really show up very well on this picture, but there are a lot of shells hanging on the branches behind us. 

Maybe a heron? I know Pat told me, but I don't remember.

My best souvenir of the day! I could hardly believe it when I looked down and saw a whole sand dollar!

Part 3 completed without losing any pictures!  I'm starting to get my confidence back. More to come.