Busy May - somebody's birthday

So busy … no time to blog!   - - -  That's how I had started this but it is not true any more. Several days I had tried to upload this photos and the program just didn't want to let me. I tried again today, first same problem but then I found I had to do it one at a time. 

Well, here it goes!

I left several photos out. Flowers from our garden and a hawk who had decided to visit us. But more important was our visit to Nashville. This selfie photo I took on May 15 in Bristol to send to Helen so she would know how we progressed with our driving. She would know where we were.  

Next day, Friday, Helen had arranged for us to help at William's high school to hand out cookies instead of her. She does this occasionally as a volunteer. I was quite nervous about it beforehand but ended up really enjoying it. It is done about twice each month. The students are asked to tell something good about there day and then get the treat. They came by after their lunch and were very friendly. The interaction was fun.

Next day, Saturday, we celebrated William's birthday. We had some balloons and this banner on the house so guests would know where to go/park.

Omi had volunteered to bake the birthday cookie and decorate it. Of course I had forgotten to bring "those tools" and didn't know what Helen had but all was good. 

(OMG, just this minute I saw that I made a spelling mistake. Everybody was either polite or didn't notice.)

And HERE is the link to watch him blow out the candles. I was to late and missed the beginning. Sorry.

Well, we knew that Helen was under a heavy time crunch with the move, end of the school year and all the final tests etc. So we hoped we could help with some chores. Sometimes we could, sometimes we could not. None of us were able to open the glass part of this fan light to change a broken bulb. We found good "how to" on the internet and even asked at Home Depot but nothing helped. It didn't want to give way.

We had some rainy days and even tornado watches but Sunday evening it was so nice that Helen decided to take us to a park to stretch our legs at least a little bit. The Centennial Park is really very nice and lots of people enjoyed a lovely time, picnics and ball games. It was great to see.

In the week we could help by picking William up after each day's test at 10:35 am when Helen was actually doing her teaching work. One day we took him to "Sushi Chain", a very interesting place. The little plates with different kind of sushi is floating by and you can eat as much as you like but don't take a red plate. Those cost extra. And eat up. Leftovers cost too.  But William doesn't have leftovers! The tower of plates is his!

He had to try the jello with chopsticks too.

Helen said that she likes to cook but one day I was allowed to make a tomato and cheese pie. It needs "blind baking". Of course my clay beads for that were in Virginia but we dry black beans.

Thursday May 22 was the last day of school.  We said good-bye to William in the evening and told him that we would not wake him next morning so he could sleep in. Of course we wanted to leave as early as possible. Helen insisted that we would wake her and she helped loading the car. Luckily it wasn't really that much. Ah, hate saying good-byes.

Everything worked out nicely. Got our tank filled at the Costco near Lebanon like last time. Here the half-way photo as usually but I took it from the other side. 

Next morning a soft-boiled eggs breakfast. I texted this photo to William with the text "please thank your hens and your Dad for a lovely breakfast". 

No question that free-range eggs taste better. Thank you, Helen, for sharing with us and Sarah too.

(PS: I am back dating this so it is still in the right month. Today: 6/7)

More April

Spring has sprung and we enjoy viewing our garden, trimming here and there, etc etc.

This photo of one of my bergenia is actually from April 3. Perhaps you remember reading that my sister in Germany had it along her house and it impressed me there. I was able to find it in a garden place close by where they are selling plants which do well here.

I am very happy about my rhubarb but not happy that it was blooming, I guess because we didn't water it when rain was scarce this spring.

And I did not freak out when I saw this snake between my lovely roses. It had a toad in the mouth. My Iphone photos has an identifier and told me it was a common garter snake. 

 

On Wednesday the 23rd we decided to go for a drive. We went to IKEA. We have two but not very close. One in Norfolk, Virginia, and one in Woodbridge, Virginia. Either one is at least an hour and a half drive away. We went north to Woodbridge were we had been before a few times. The main purpose was to check a few things out for Helen. We even could do some facetime with her to give her a view of something set up. It was fun.              (no, this in the photo was not it)

We have a free IKEA family membership for several years because we get free coffee when we visit. Ha-ha, we were there on the right day of the week. The special was: buy an adult meal and get two children meals free. Of course we had to have Swedish meatballs for lunch.

I had asked Sarah too whether she needed something and she put in an order of snack cups.

Helen was happy that she didn't have to order this glass pitcher by mail either. In hindsight ... should I not have bought one for myself? It is so pretty and practical. Good for hot or cold liquid.

April 24 - the rhododendron started to show its colors. Just wait.

Azaleas in the front. Wow!

Sunday 4/27 there was a buzz at the coffee hour after our church service. Our friends in the pew in front of us told us about their highschool's musical. It was the last performance and that afternoon. James and I decided that we could not miss it.

These three were part of the cast and it was so much fun. Addy, James and William are youth in our church and great to know. Such talent whether participating in this musical or helping/serving in church. We were happy that we had come to see them perform.

April the 30th - the rhododendron a week later.

I am not checking on FaceBook that often but I love to see the occasional entry from Helen. Obviously she has a lot of work now with the move ... one car load at a time between teaching ... but she wants to do it right and place things in the right places right away instead of something she doesn't really need just stuff somewhere. She shows a lot of patience. 

Here are some samples of her entries. We are so happy about it.

She had ordered a mattress for William which arrived rolled up. She took this photo when they had opened the rolled up package. By the way, those mattresses are incredible. They explode when you cut the vacuumed packaging. 

She obviously has fun!

And this is somewhat scary. I remember very well when my first born was at this point in her life. A friend who has a grandson the same age said: "that certainly enhances our prayer life."

Well done! He was cute and now he is handsome!

I do like heights!

Yes, the "Treehouse" seems to be working out. 

A bit about April

Amazing how busy you can be when you are retired. As soon as we were back James had to see his dentist. A molar had to be taken out. 

Our washing machine decided to give up on us and it was the week of sprint break here. We were having our three boys here on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday starting about 8 am. 

The first day the weather was so lovely that we decided to go to Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. Daffodils, Tulips and other spring flowers and trees were in full bloom.

 

 

When we came to this pond we met a garden employee who was observing a "resident". See the stone right of the middle on the far side of the water in front of the green tall grass?

The boys of course loved it and asked the gentleman a lot of questions he was happy to answer. I is a "good" snake which keeps the "bad" snakes away.

There is always a lot to see at LGBG but at no visit can we miss spending some time at this tree. It is so perfect for climbing. 

On the way home we all needed some "refreshments". Luckily we knew where the DQ was.

The next day we had to start off with this! Needless to say that it is a favorite.

It is conviniently very close to our church. We could combine that outing with doing a very good weeding job in front of the church buildings.

After lunch Papa needed a walk around the neighborhood. 

Lots of things were blooming even on the above field. Who has decided that dandelion is a weed?

Friday the boys wanted very much to visit the science museum. I know it was going to be full with visitors since it was spring break but we have season tickets and it doesn't really matter. We can go whenever we want and for long (or short) we want. 

This is what they call the "hamster wheel" and was the first on the list they wanted to do. 

Another favortie is the cage where they can measure how fast the throw the balls.

And yes, all three had to climb into the small space capsule.

Omi didn't feel like cooking lunch. It was more fun to be on the round table with the lazy susan in the Peking Restaurant. Of course we had to tell them about our trip to Xian to see the clay warriors just like the immitation in the corner.

We had been so lucky with the weather. Those three are too lively to be shut in by rain. But the rain the following week washed away some (only some) of the pollen. It had been especially bad this year and extra long. Yellow, yellow everywhere. 

Did I mention that our washing machine decided it wanted to be replaced? Decision, decision!

Arranging the delivery almost drove us crazy. It seems in today's world you are not able to talk to a real person but only robots. Finally it was done but the closet had to be rearranged because we decided on a toploader instead of the frontloader.

Saturday the 12th we had the three for the night. The parents had a adults-only dinner party at their house.

Look at them. They wanted to try out our glasses.

We did do some egg decorating though. Hard-boiled ones and also some blown-out to hang up on my Easter branches in a week. 

Holy week is always special. James and I try not to miss any service. Easter they joined us for the service...

... and joined us afterwards for a simple lunch. You know what the dessert was going to be, even without Helen and William which could not be with us this year. I put the ingredients on the table though and everybody made their own "rabbit".

Helen and William were still in the middle of moving. It is not easy when you do it one trunkful after the other. Helen hurried to get WiFi in the new place and the most neccessary things so she could do her work and teach from there and also spend the nights there. The word from Nashville is that they are both very, very happy in the new place. To hear that makes us parents very happy indeed.