The Storm arrives Today!

Today is the big day in the lives of this Grand-Parenting couple. We get to entertain our daughter, her husband and their two daughters for 2 days. Then they leave for Dave's relatives in Minnesota. Since they spent 5 years in Munich, Germany, the granddaughters are nearly grown ladies. (What a shame for grandma and grandpa.) Yes, we've seen them about twice yearly and that isn't enough.

In about 10 days, daughter and husband return to New Jersey and granddaughters remain with us- we pick them up in Wisconsin. That will be entertaining for everyone. Four of us in the motorhome for a week and the two young ladies are used to having their own rooms! Grandma wants to show them the Iowa State Fair for two days. The other big event in their lives is that they return to New Jersey, as un-accompanied minors, which means that the airline will chaperone them. (We're paying extra for the service.) Hopefully it also might be the beginning of them flying out to spend more time with this set of grand-parents.

As mentioned in the previous posting, we moved my mother on Thursday. All went well other than she had forgotten that we were going to do it. (No harm done that we know off.) I guess that is age (98) showing. Two sisters were present and after moving her (down the hall, through the doors and into the care center hall), everyone started surveying the apartment and contemplating, "what are we going to do with all this stuff?" We took the weekend off but you can guess what happens on Monday? Who ever is available digs in and I hope we can make quick work of it after a couple of days. As happens too often in a large family, one sister is not happy with the arrangement and has passed on helping, which is regrettable! The question at the moment is what do we do with a 75 year old bedroom set that they received as a wedding gift?

On Saturday (yesterday), Sandy and I went to a cousin's funeral in Ames, about a 120 miles west of here. As so often the case, it was great to see so many relatives and visit with everyone except the deceased. Don spent his entire career teaching in the Ames school system and has left quite a mark in the community. But it is also a lesson to all of us that there comes a time when go to join our Lord. Since he was only 3 years older than myself, it does get up close and personal.

Otherwise, it is a wonderful Sunday afternoon here on the farm in Iowa, the sun is shining brightly and good breeze is blowing from the southwest.

Gene