April showers ... of snow. So we grilled!

Back in January we hung a thistle seed feeder in front of the bathroom window. We had NO takers at all 'til about two weeks ago, and now the goldfinches are flocking to the feeder!! Hooray!! Can you see the two male goldfinches in the tree? We certainly won't be able to see them once the leaves arrive!!



This new camera has a great zoom!!!!! (Here they are again.)





My favorite thing about this picture is that I took it early enough in the season that you can see that the feathers of this male goldfinch are in the process of changing to their spring/summer BRIGHT YELLOW color! Cool! (I think.)



Well, I haven't yet taken the promised videos of Natasha's piano pieces, but here's something to whet your appetite for them. (?) :) A picture of the handwritten music of N's newest compositions, "Sea at Dusk" and "Sea at Dawn".




We had a couple families over last Sunday afternoon, and grilled -- even though it was SNOWING!!! lol My husband is really a dedicated griller, for sure! It was a good, good time. We put the three oldest children in the living room, three of the younger children at the table in the kitchen, and the rest of us crowded around the dining room table. I believe a wonderful time was had by all. :) This first picture shows little Jack with his daddy, Tate, who is one of THREE guys in the congregation who are taller than Jeremy!! Tate S., Kelly K., and Bill C. are all 6' 5" tall!! Shooee! Tate's wife, Susan, is maybe an inch taller than I am; they are exactly our age and Jack is their only child, age 4.










Ross, also in 4th grade, is one of Natasha's best friends. :) They are almost equally cooky. (sigh) Is that just a 4th grade thing, please tell me??!! His sister Devyn is in this picture with them.



With Justus, here, are Ross & Devyn's younger brother and sister, Caden and McKenna.



Karen H., a 50-something lady in the church, is really, really sick with cancer she's been fighting 3 1/2 years (diagnosed as Stage 4!). She has a wonderful family (with a history almost identical to Jeremy's family's) of five children, three of whom live locally. The other two, Texans, are coming to visit very often now, at Karen's doctor's recommendation.... We have been spending good times with them as well, including at the hospital. It is good to get to know them before circumstances turn toward the worse, which is clearly expected sooner rather than later....

Tulips *are* coming up where I planted them last fall!!!!! I wonder how many of them made it through the winter.... It won't be long 'til we'll see!

We went to the zoo for a FFFFFDay. We'd not been there since the fall (of course, N & Jeremy went there for their date last month), and it was super fun to be there on a spring weekday; the zoo was all but deserted! We really like to attend places when they're mostly empty. :) I took some pictures.


I appreciate that immediately upon entering the zoo, the first animal cage is the bald eagles', including an American flag. :) Yay!!




This is my favorite bird at the zoo. When it 'runs away' from people, it does a speed walk that makes its head jerk back and forth so fast its head feathers become just a blur!! I can't find the name of the bird. Anyone know it???



A peacock walked beside us for a long time at one point. Then it got in front of us. I decided to shoot a picture to document the memory. I think it was hoping to become a 'Feathered' Folding.



Inside the rain forest section, the Caymans were entertaining for us. We'd never seen them looking quite like this. One looked like it was standing up in the water. -silly-



I'm sorry, but in this picture it is difficult to see very well the children's cute little 'fish faces'.





Jeremy and I are going to make an effort to correct this strange truth: though we have been 'together' for nearly fourteen years, there are precious few pictures of us together/alone ... much less 'good' ones!! It's actually really annoying. However, at this point it is remarkably easy to fix the problem for future years, since we have a perfectly willing and capable 10yod just waiting to click the shutter. We had her take a picture of us with that rain forest background. The first one she took turned out blurry; then, she tried again and Jeremy surprised me!! LOL!! I LOVE MY HUSBANNNNNNND!! So good to me, he is. Awwwwww.....




Mike & Katheline, some of our closest friends from Oceanside years, vacationed with family in Michigan over their Spring Break. Since they were road-tripping it from their new (well, 5-years-new) home in Colorado Springs, they stopped to worship with us on Sunday a couple weeks ago!!!! Wow, it was nice to see them. Patti is 16 now, Dillon, 14, Gillian 12, and Logan 9. Eek, they're big. Ironic: They ended up visiting on a "fifth Sunday", which by contract is Jeremy's Sunday off! So they didn't even get to hear Jeremy speak! lol Still, it was great to worship with them and have some time together over lunch before they flew off back down the road - set to make it all the way home that day (uggh).

Tonight the children got their second class in weapons safety. Privileged kiddos ... they get for free, at ages 10 & 7, the weapons lessons Marine Privates get! In this picture Justus is showing off his page of the four rules of weapons safety, painstakingly hand-written. Key phrase: "Treat, Never, Keep, Keep" #1. Treat the weapon as though it is loaded. #2. Never point the weapon at anything you do not intend to shoot. #3. Keep your finger straight and off the trigger until you are ready to fire. #4. Keep the safe on until you are ready to fire.





Natasha's math assignments of late have been combining measuring with multiplication (e.g. square centimeters); she's having a blast. Justus is starting to learn about fractions. After a couple pages of working on it together, I had him do a third page by himself. When he brought it to me, done correctly (color the correct number of sections to indicate the fraction), I asked him to say for me the names of the fractions as they were written on the page. It started with 1/5, which he said correctly; he also said 1/4 correctly, and 1/3. However, at 1/2 he got stuck. After probably 20 seconds of working it 'round and 'round in his mind, he ventured this guess: "One 'twefth'?"

Pray for Mitch & Jo; Jenna will be home from residential care to spend this weekend with them for the first time since she was dropped off 2 months ago. (Most kids get to spend every third weekend at home, if I have my facts correct.) The weekend is not expected to be necessarily an easy, blissful visit, considering the reports from the professionals in whose care she currently resides. (sigh) Hard times.