Kaylee's days...

I featured Alex for his birthday, of course, so here are some more Kaylee photos.

This was actually just after Alex's birthday party; grandpa Rathsack had called, and Kaylee got to talk to him for a few minutes, concentrating hard, it appears:

Kaylee likes Max and Ruby on tv, here she is having a snack while watching.

I wanted to see her pretty green outfit that she had worn to school, so came around the other side:

Today, we took her to Target, then to Potbelly sandwich works for lunch... chips finally put her to sleep, as we drove around looking at new houses and schools being built in the neighborhood.

Is that sweet, or what?

It was another very good day!  ;-)

Alex's Birthday

We got to Austin, today, to celebrate Alex's 6th birthday this afternoon.

This is a relatively new rest area an hour or so north of Austin that we think is really neat.

Nothing to do with Alex's birthday, but a neat new Texas place!

Arrion showed us her garden... beautiful day, by the way. Start with herbs...!

And, the onions, zucchini, green beans, tomatoes!

Ok, a birthday photo!

A rainbow sherbet and white cake birthday ice cream cake - cannot beat that!!

Alex got lots of different small and large lego kits - this was the City center that he really wanted:

But, what he really wanted was the DS! Oh, it was behind Mom's door.... 

I think he was happy - what do you think??  ;-)

It was a very good day!!  ;-)

Nine Irises - a couple days ago

OK, maybe I'm obsessed... this was a few days back, before the rain started. There were nine out (original two were gone by now) and there were still six or so buds! Neat!

It was another very good day!  ;-) - We'll leave for Texas on Tuesday to celebrate Alex's birthday on Wednesday!  ;-)

Retirement Update 19 Apr 2010

I haven't just commented on our retirement for a while. Let's see what happens:

1. We are over nine months in now, and I continue to be amazed how long it took us to find a comfortable routine. We have now, but it has only been a few weeks, it seems. It may be that this is the longest stretch when our routine was not interrupted by a required "trip/event" ... will continue to think about it.

2. I achieved one goal: to get my novel, Back to the Homeplace, published in the first year! Hope you buy one, if you haven't already. Thanks!

3. We spent four or five hours on the phone and internet today working on correcting errors in the way our Medicare account is set up, even though we were confident we had done everything right last summer. Our "Welcome to Medicare" physical exams last Dec 1 were not getting through the system correctly.... We made some progress on corrections, but it will be at least another ten days before we find out if what we did today fixed the errors. No one can explain why there were problems, but there were. Fit nicely with the "horror stories" that we have heard.

4. The cabin is getting "stained" by a contractor. It is happening without us physically doing it. Very nice. We are involved, but he is doing the work. Nice.

5. For the second time in a week, we just spontaneously sat down and watched a movie on the television set for the second time in four days. We hadn't watched a full movie for literally years, before that.

6. I am thrilled that the iris count was up to six this afternoon - to late for a photo, maybe tomorrow!


It was another very good day!  ;-)

Four Iris Blooming

Ok, there are now four iris blooming. Enjoy!

It was another very good day!  ;-)

Flowers in the spring

Last fall, I transplanted some Iris from the front "wild flower" bed to the back "fence line" bed. Happily, they have done very well, and the first two are in full bloom, today, with a promise of several more soon. Feels good!

There have been a couple of varieties of little violets growing in the back yard this spring. We've had a lot of moisture, but has dried out some this week. Here is a closeup of one of the latest. Nancy likes these!

The creek out back in the woods is still running, even though the run off in our back yard has dried up. Here is a view of the creek...

It was another very good day!  ;-)

Easter Dinner 2010

Colorful meal of pork tenderloin, fresh sweet potatoes, lima beans, deviled eggs and purple egg cake. Yum! And very healthy, as well.  ;-)

It is another very good day!  ;-)