A Whirlwind

Piles of stuff, ready for move in

It's just a whirlwind of preparation here at the Thomas household, with recently returning from our camping adventure and preparing for our move this weekend into our new lodge.

Yesterday I finished the mountains of laundry from our weekend vacation.

Today I will work on a little writing assignment for our family's pretzel business.  (More on that later.)

Tomorrow I will purchase cart loads of groceries to take us through our move in week.

Saturday - Let the loading, hauling, and moving in commence.

Puppy Sheila is simply exhausted from this whirlwind of activity.  She has happily accompanied son Caleb from home to the lodge and back again, many times over the last several months.  She always seems to find her way back to her favorite corner spot on the couch.  If I remove that blanket for washing, she wanders around the house not knowing what to do with herself.

Reports coming in with news of the grandchildren are always good to receive.  Grandson Jarrod (15) is nearing the end of his first year of high school, and is involved with baseball.  He works at the local swimming lake during the summer - a great job for a young guy of his age.

His little sister Ellie (soon 3) had a nice time with the extended family at the Easter Sunday meal, in spite of a large furry bunny that continually circulated throughout the restaurant.  By the end of the meal, Ellie finally conceded a small wave and a grin towards the rabbit.

Ellie

Twin granddaughters Tori and Brianna (almost 8) are still showing everyone their character autograph books, Disney princess gowns, and Mickey Mouse earrings from their recent Disney World trip.  It's so obvious to everyone that they had a magical and memorable trip.

Daughter Sarah got a good report from her obstetrician yesterday.  With only 3 1/2 weeks until delivery (or less, I predict), baby Gabriel is preparing for his grand entry.  The doc says everything looks fine and the baby is in good position for birth.  Of course I keep my phone in my pocket at all times, and I'm ready to drop everything and make the seven hour drive to be with Sarah and Lance when the time comes.

Workers arrived here in our yard yesterday morning and began the process of Spring clean up.  First they took an inventory of which plants and bushes had not survived the Winter and would need to be replaced.  Then they trimmed, pruned, and removed all debris and any dead branches.  All the garden beds were raked, cleaned out, and re-edged.

First thing this morning new plants were delivered and placed around, ready for planting.  Later today a truck of mulch will arrive, and the workers will do the spreading.

Another day a different work crew will come and service the water feature, and a third crew will start repairing our lawn and planting new grass.  Our yard took a serious beating last summer when we had all the workers and their equipment in for weeks while they replaced our roof, soffits, eaves, and part of the siding.

We've begun to bring out the summer patio furniture, too.  Typically in the summer we enjoy several meals outside every day when weather is good.  Neighbors are always welcome, too.

I had a few pictures remaining to show you from our recent camping trip.  We saw numerous deer over the five days we camped, and they all seemed to be of good size and have healthy coats.  Obviously they are eating well.

At the lake we saw several of these.  Grebes?

And finally, I just realized I had recently passed my two year Blogiversary.
Here was my very first trial blog post:

Two years!  Time certainly seems to fly when you're having fun.

Let the whirlwind continue...