The upcoming week

At times it seems nothing is going on, but the coming week promises to be exciting, or at least full of activities.

The most exciting event will be Mayellen's arrival on Friday night from Texas. I pray our weather here in Virginia has warmed up by then. It seems we are under an unseasonable cool down weather event. Mayellen and I are planning visits to Williamsburg and the beach (Hampton), as well as a trip to see the Ginter Botanical Gardens here in Richmond.

Thursday morning at 9:30 am Zack will "graduate" from his 3 yr old preschool program. So, Nana will be there with camera, and hopefully he and all his class will perform well! It should be fun to see them. It's just hard to believe that a school year has ended.

I also have two appointments for PT for my feet. Remarkably, it seems that the exercises and the new shoes are already helping. I have a new series of exercises, some different, and some done differently. The man who fitted my shoes took a great deal of time, nearly an hour. In the end I have the orthotic insets I originally got 6 months ago, trimmed and altered differently for each foot, and also a heel cup in only my right shoe. I seems the right foot was over arching, trying to be "longer". The shoes are New Balance by the way, very comfortable.

Well, enough news for now. Hopefully between getting ready for company, having two swim classes and two Pt sessions and more than likely a grocery trip, etc etc I'll still have some time to update the blog!

Happy Birthday Eric

A great time was had by all! We made cupcakes, decorated the house and made presents for the birthday party, that Zack insisted we have, since it was a birthday. We had to hunt to find the Happy Birthday banner, it's the same one I have been using for at least 20 years! Still looks good! The kids had a great time decorating the cupcakes .... and tried them immediately to see if they were good. What do you think? Did they enjoy them and have a good time?

Footies

I went to the Podiatrist on Monday. The appointment was for casting for orthotics. Somehow, in my mind, orthotics should be a last resort, only one step up from surgery. Not to mention that Tricare won't pay for them. Anyhow, I told him I didn't think I was ready to have them made and after little hesitation, he said, "Would you like to try PT?" Now that was something SIL Sally and I have thought should have been part of the game plan all along. So, tomorrow, at 2:30 pm, I go for a evaluation for treatment. The podiatrist, for the first time, and I discussed shoes and he also gave me the name of a man who will fit me when I am ready to get new walking shoes. I spoke to the PT people, and they advised waiting on the shoes, until after evaluation and PT. That seemed to make sense to me, as how can the shoe guy fit you for a shoe and make gait or pronation changes if your foot might strengthen and or change as a result of PT?

So, maybe we are on the path to better feeties. We'll see.

Rex Begonia "Escargot"

Rex Escargo Begoina
Originally uploaded by Joanna Root.

My SIL Beth and I went to the Louis Ginter Botanical Gardens in Richmond today, and spotted this wonderful Begoinia in the Conservatory. Isn't this a great spiral leaf?

What is this picture about?

Can you see what is going on in this picture? When I looked out the window and saw this action I really could not believe what I was seeing. I even wondered aloud, "Am I still in America?" "Would (could) an American do this?" I bet you will never guess! Give up? Yes, No? Well, if you can't guess then I'll give you a hint. Click on the picture .... I think you will be surprised, and like me, feel sorry. Yes, he is carrying these logs with a strap tied around his head. Ouch.

This is our lawn crew, hauling wood out of the woods behind our house. What I couldn't get a picture of was them climbing the incline to get these logs to the lot above them. Not an easy job. It made me kind of sad to see them working like this, because I do think there could have been a way for them to have an easier time of it. Enviromental area or not, surely they shouldn't have had to carry these so far. I don't think you would see an American working this hard, and sure not for as little as I suspect these men make an hour.

Happy Easter to Everyone!

Here are shots of the Easter activities, the first is after the egg hunt. The kids are busy examining their goodies. The second shot was taken after dinner when we all adjourned to the patio to rest after dessert. The kids got chalk from the bunny so they went outside to try it out on the concrete. Eric was tracing their hands and feet here.

Hope everyone had an enjoyable day. We had a nice ham dinner, and carrot cake and coffee after. Everyone was well satisfied. Becky brought fruit salad and deviled eggs, and we all had plenty to eat! Zack declared the mashed potatoes a hit, even had seconds!

Saturday excitement

After reading about the exciting trip to the Zoo on Sally's blog and seeing Mike's great photo I decided I really did need to blog a bit, even if it won't be nearly as exciting. In fact. It will be down right boring. You have been warned.

My sewing room looks like a bomb went off in it. Eric said I was trying to stuff 10 pounds in a 5 pound sack. I found that a bit offensive and not totally accurate, but I know what he means. I am getting pretty cold hearted about what I am keeping but it's funny when you see something and wonder where it even came from. Other things are full of memories, like my Tiny Tears doll. Yes, I still have her and my Toni doll, and oh yes, Raggedy Anne is there too. All too precious to give up. I thought I had found every photo and negative from at least 30 years, and then I found another whole box. I am going to be going through pictures for years.

Surprisingly, I have more gardening books than knitting or quilting, that surprised me. I started a box for the library and added quite a few cookbooks. I kept all my Chinese cookbooks and filled one short bookshelf in the kitchen. If it didn't fit, it went to the library.

So, though the box pile is getting smaller, and I don't think there are too many more real sewing things to go in to the Sewing Room, there's plenty of personal stuff to sort, things from Brazil, smocking things to be itemized to try to sell, and the list goes on.

Retrospective pictures

Here's two pictures from the trip ...... That U-Haul was never out of my site!

April Showers - still waiting

Eric and I are eager for some rain. Trees are greening up and there are an abundance of cherry trees and redbuds in bloom. I even see signs of leaves on the dogwoods. Of course we say redbuds and wysteria in bloom in Texas, and here they are just beginning to show color. It has been interesting to see Spring in it's different stages as we worked our way west, and then back east. Today we drove about 100 miles north, and it was noticeable how much greener it is here in Glen Allen.

We continue working in the garage to clear out boxes and get things sorted again. I know I have to take a hard look at most of this stuff, but it is so difficult to part with things. I know, I know, I won't live long enough to sew and or knit up everything I have or would like to work on. But, I can hope.

We went to IKEA this morning, always an interesting store to shop in. We picked out two other units for the sewing room that I had looked at on the previous trip in December. Today we got a smaller bookcase and a corner unit. Once home, we spent about 3 hours getting everything together. I am always amazed how easily their furniture goes together. My only real problem with their things is how heavy the boxes are to handle. Eric did a great job getting it all in place, so tomorrow I will put in shelves and can open boxes of books and keep on working away.

We also made a quick trip into Lowes for some more plants. I should be able to get pictures of iris this week, as they will be the last to bloom in the front beds. We have had a nice show of color for the last 6 weeks at least. I'll recount our plant purchases later.