April Endings And Beginnings

 I realized this is the last week of April and I thought I'd better do some blogging!  I hope to get to my blog buddies posts tonight too.  I'm happy to report that Jordan and I are healed up and putting this crazy month behind us!  So that's a good ending and then we have a real beginning....My Granddaughter, Driana, was due to deliver our first great grandchild in May but he decided to make an appearance last week! Little Roman James was born April 22nd at 9:02am, weighing 8lbs even.  It was a difficult labor and delivery, and she ended up with a broken tailbone and a bladder issue.  Roman had to go to the NICU for a few days with breathing problems but thankfully Momma and baby were able to go home Saturday.

Lots of dark hair! We'll see if that stays or turns blonde like Mom and Dad!  I'll look forward to getting to see him, but we'll let them get lots of rest and recoup first! The rest of our time has been spent getting the yardwork done and ready for planting of flowers and veggies in a few weeks.  We've had some pretty chilly nights with frost, so I usually wait until after Mother's day to plant flowers and then we usually do the vegetables near Memorial day.  However, we went to our favorite Amish plant nursery to get some raspberry plants, and I couldn't resist just one hanging basket!

All their flowers and plants were so nice, but I'll get more in a few weeks.  Just can't walk out of there without something though!  I still have strawberry jam from last year to use up before putting more up this June and I made a blueberry pie from the last of our frozen berries from our bushes.

It looked much prettier before I cut into it but it tasted delicious anyway! Speaking of the Amish...Jack had taken our big weed whacker to get the leaking gas tank fixed from an Amish gentleman that fixes all kinds of machinery.  We pulled into his place and besides tons of mowers and such, there were many of his children doing chores or helping him.  While I waited one of the kids came out of the barn to check on his little sister who was playing.  I snapped a pic that I thought was so cute of them.

He was so sweet with her!  He picked her up and carried her to the house as we were leaving.  Just made me smile!  Well, I hope your April has been good and I can't believe we're heading into May! Our weather has gone from 30 degrees to 80 and back down again.  We've also had those famous April showers and the flowering trees and bushes have not disappointed us! 

Night all!

Easter Doings

 We celebrated Easter a week late but that was also Greek Easter so no worries!  Growing up in my half Greek family we always had 2 Easter celebrations most years.  I didn't put on as big a deal as those good old days, but we still had plenty of food and some fun too!

A little food first!

Can't forget my annual lamb cake.  That's something we always had for Easter growing up.  Mom had a cast iron lamb mold that she got when she got married. My sister has that one and my brother Phil got me one some years ago so I could continue this tradition in my home.  I got a cast iron one for my daughter-in-law, Amy years ago.   I guess they are antiques now...like me!

Getting ready for the littles to do an Easter egg hunt.  Most years we do one for the adults, but we had a game for them to play instead after the hunt was over.  We only had 3 littles...Hazel, Tatem, and Aria doing the hunt, but they had fun.

Here's Aria finding some loot.  This is the only pic I got of her that day.

Hazel was enjoying herself.  She's getting so big!

Not to be outdone, little sis Tatem was a champ at finding those eggs!  The oldies played a silly egg game, and I didn't get any pics of it!  We had some good laughs, lots of candy and lottery tickets were won too.  The weather was beautiful, thankfully! Here's a few of the other family members that day:

Grandson Cameron.  This dude will graduate this year!  Time sure flies!

Granddaughter, Summer and her little baby bump! She's due in August.   Her sister, Driana, is also due but is too close to delivery for her and her hubby to make the 1 1/2hr drive down from Cleveland area.  We missed them!  Lots of new littles for future holiday fun!

My daughter-in-law Evelyn's daughters: Samantha (Mom to Hazel and Tatem) and Megan. 

3 of my 4 boys: Jack, Phil, and the much healthier Jordan having some brotherly chit chat! I'm glad we all could get together.   Wasn't sure that would happen after the crazy weeks we've had but thankfully Jordan got a clean bill of health today from his trauma surgeons and kidney doctor and my little messed up face is healing pretty good.  I worked on Monday and didn't scare the patients away!

I went from this:

This was last Wednesday.  To this:

This was Saturday.  My stitches came out Monday and I'm getting back to normal.  Life is full of ups and downs.  I've had enough of the "downs" so let's go for some "ups"!  Tonight we had a very vibrant sunset.

I hope it's a "red sky at night, sailors delight" kind of finish!  It does look like the trees on are fire though!  Happy late Easter everyone and good night!

April Has Brought Some Surprises

 Well, it's been a bit since I've posted.  My son is out of the hospital and doing pretty good.  Working just half days for now.  He still has some kidney issues to deal with but hoping it all gets better soon.  He was really banged up in the beginning as I said in my last post:

Now he's looking more human!

Now lets stay well Jord!  Just to make it more interesting, my sister had a little incident that landed her in the emergency room around the same time as Jordan's stay.  After knowing he would be getting out soon and in good hands with Jack, I drove to Chicago to help her out.  She didn't have to stay overnight at the hospital and went home but all her kids were heading out of town for Spring break, so I filled in! We had a nice visit, and I was able to help her with her Easter preparations as well as doing some fun shopping and just hanging out. Jack and I are going to celebrate Easter this Sunday which is actually Greek Easter.  My oldest son and his family were in Spain and on a cruise for their Spring break, so we decided to celebrate this weekend.   I went shopping and got some good deals on Easter candy on sale.  Thinking I might need a little more, Jack and I went into town to drop off the lawn mower tire that needed fixed and then go shopping for more junk.  Coming out of the Dollar General with nothing I preceded to trip on the curb and face plant in the parking lot!  Jack was waiting in the car and thankfully heard me yell!  I was bleeding pretty good as head wounds will do:

Looking lovely.  Nothing broke but my dignity.

3 CT scans and 11 stitches later, I'm good to go.  I hope those scrapes on the nose get healed quick!  What a crazy day.  Besides dealing with Jordan and my sister's health issues I was sadden to hear that one of our general surgeons passed away.   I worked very closely with Dr. Mary and couldn't believe  that she was gone.  She taught me so much and we had many long days and even longer nights around those OR tables. We laughed a lot too and shared many stories of our families and I felt she was a friend as well as a coworker.  I always tried to remember that doctors that I work with aren't my friend, no matter how much I may admire them or enjoy working together, but I made an exception in her case.  She left behind her husband, 5 children, and 2 grandkiddos. Her patients all loved her.  She did surgery on Jack on 2 occasions and I was glad she was there to help him.   RIP Mary, you are very missed at Samaritan.  I hope everyone had a lovely Easter and I'm looking forward to celebrating this Sunday and seeing all my kids and Grands that can make it.  Let's hope the rest of Spring is less dramatic than the beginning.