WEEK-END HAPPENINGS AND SWEET ANTICIPATION

We had SUCH a busy week-end. I am not going to lie; I am feeling it for sure this morning. Tired, but in a good way.

Joe's move went SLOW but well. I had intended to bring my camera but ran out of here in a hurry and forgot it. Their new house can only be explained in one word....GORGEOUS.....Not just the fact that it is roomy, clean, and well laid out with beautiful hard wood floors, a HUGE kitchen complete with a big center island, and two fireplaces, but the view is just spectacular. I could have sat in their new backyard for hours and not grown weary of the things to see, and the weather was just perfect too. Joe lives in the foothills of San Antonio Heights so they are completely surrounded by lush green foothills and trees and flower galore. Sooo pretty. The patio is all done in brick complete with a HUGE built in barbeque. The owners will provide all the gardening services which was I glad to hear, as this would be quite the place to keep up on. I am thinking this might be the new "Class Family" gathering spot, haha. The kids were quite excited and I  enjoyed interacting with them all day. Anabelle was there and is definitely feeling much better since her surgery, but Grandma thought she still looked a little pale. Evan has a cast up to his arm pit, so he is struggling a bit too, but was doing well. Jeffie and Cody both ran around not sure what to play with first. I think for Cody it was definitely the stairs, haha. Good thing he is such a little monkey and went up and down quite well. Leah and I arranged and rearranged the family room furniture trying to get the best "feel" we could. Actually she did the moving, I just directed! We got it looking REALLY good and then moved on to the bedrooms. I am afraid there is still A LOT of work to be done, but at least all the heavy furniture got moved. My other son's John and James and my hubby got quite the workout, but they do soo enjoy getting together. They all seem to enjoy the same sense of humor which does make things more fun. It was all in all a good day. Yesterday we headed down to San Diego EARLY (soo hard getting up, lol) and got to hear James give the message in the church down there that STILL does not have everything completely settled. Sooo much more involved with all of that then I would have ever known. I guess there is a slim chance that maybe it will not end going the way we hope, but either way I am not too concerned. They have put it all in the Lord's hands where it belongs and are trusting Him for the details. Last Tues James had to do a funeral service for a 17 year old boy. I felt sooo bad for his poor parents. This boy was a high school senior who was a great student and a superior athlete. He was in the middle of a swim meet when his heart simply stopped. No explainable reason...just stopped beating. The bottom line is you just never know. None of us is promised anything, and eventually we will all draw our last breaths here on this earth. Our lives truly are nothing more than a vapor. It is just soo hard to see such a young man with his whole life still ahead of him, gone soo quickly. He did know the Lord however, so there was a rejoicing that he is even now in heaven with Him. Anyway, back to yesterday morning. The service and message were wonderful, and ministered to me soo much as always. After church we went to lunch and then back to James's house to enjoy the grandkids for a while. We all ended up hitting the mall after that as I was wanting my son to pick out a couple of new shirts for his birthday which is Thursday. 31 years old! I can hardly believe it. He ended up only finding one, so guess we will still have some shopping to do. I also got the girls some new shoes and we found a shirt for JD for Easter. She found the girls just the cutest dresses at Costco in a pretty shade of purple and wanted to find something that kind of matched their dresses for JD to wear. We got a shirt with a plaid mint green and purple (believe it or not) color that is going to work just perfectly. By the time we finished our shopping it was time to head back to church, but Jeff was starting to really feel his activity from the day before, and my knees were hurting REALLY badly too from all the shopping, so we decided to head home. It was just a good week-end full of family and good times. I laid in bed last time praying and thanking God for ALL He has chosen to bless me with.

I got my cleaning crew (HOW I lOVE them!) to come early today and give all of my windows a good cleaning. They are just sparkling....definitely the cleanest they have been since I moved here. I am really hoping that the rain is over as I wouldn't want this to be messed up, but I just couldn't resist getting them freshly done before Mel comes; two more days and DEFINITELY counting. I am soo excited to see her. She went to the docs this morning and all is well. The doc told her he will treat her second trimester (which is just starting) just like a "normal" pregnancy, as he doesn't anticipate any surprises. Come the third trimester things will have to be closely monitored, but for now we have got 3 months stretching out in front of us that look to be problem free. YAY!! I want to tell you about Melody's friend Nicole who is married to Mike's cousin. They are all the same age, and were in the same class in school. Soo now they are not only GOOD friends, they are family. They also moved out in that area right after they married. They are about 2 hours away from Mike & Mel which makes them close enough to get together often. Especially the girls as they meet in the middle to shop and do lunch, haha. Anyway, they just had their first child, a boy last Wed. evening. He only weighed 5 pounds, and looks soo tiny. The docs are afraid that he might have Cystic Fibrosis. The test they have done takes a week to get the results. He has to remain in the hospital and Nicole has been sent home. Needless to say that is all quite scary and overwhelming for this young couple, and I would appreciate any prayers you might have time for them all. I am remaining optimistic that this is not the case at all, but I guess time will tell.

This will also be a busy week as we have every moment planned from when she arrives on Wed., until she leaves next Tues. It is also my grandson Jeffie's 7th birthday on Wed., and my son James's on Thursday. Soo lots of celebrating to do as well. We should be finding out the sex of the baby next Monday which I can hardly wait for. Her doc has no objections to her getting the ultra sound done, but told her not to count on it being completely accurate on the determining of the sex as it IS early. I don't care if we don't learn rather or not it is to be a boy or a girl, I am just excited to SEE the baby for myself. And for 25 bucks I am thinking the money will be very well spent!

I will be busy these next couple of days doing the things I want and have to get done before my girl comes. I am sure I will visit all of you in the early morning as always before my days really get going. I am praying that I not only stay well for her whole visit (seems like soo many are sick), but that my knees don't slow us down....ENJOY this wonderful Spring weather....I know I am.

Our grass did go in on Sat. morning while we were gone.  Here are a couple of pics of it all even though they don't really do it justice, plus having not seen the "before" it is hard for you to know the improvement, but I am quite happy with it all...

 As you can see it is just a VERY small little planter type area in the front...such a small patch of a land really.  But for us, after the HUGE lawns we've had in the past, it is perfect.  The back little area is FULL of Impatience which hasn't filled in yet of course, but should be really pretty when it does.   The house faces North, so it never gets a whole lot of sun... : )

A closer look at the Pigmy Palms

New potted plants on the porch

A closer look at the Azaleas...

New Easter egg runner and two little bunnies

A closer look at the bunny..soo sweet

A new place for my old bunny

Love this

More bunnies...I need some new candles for these...on my list for tomorrow