She's home...

At 1am, on Thursday, April 30th, Alberta Poll (our beloved Grandmother)went home to be reunited with the love of her life, Grandpa and Father God. She is painfully missed and will forever be in our hearts and thoughts.
She loved her family dearly and always prayed the best for them. All throughout college, she supported me and was always so generous when Karl and I'd come to visit. "Are you hungry?" were typically the first words she'd greet any guest with. Always the tea kettle simmering on the stove and finger cookies and treats on the table...But my clearest memory of Grandma is one sunny and warm afternoon while I pulled out of her rather steep driveway. Looking up the steep cement stairs, I saw her in her doorway sending me off. She was so warm and loving to me; Karl remembers the first time he met them. He and Grandpa had the longest chat about fishing and hunting. Grandpa remembered Karl too when we came back quite awhile after that.

I miss them both...May you (Grandma) rest in peace and know that you were loved and will be sorely missed.
...She's singing with the angels; embraced in Grandpa's arms. Love you Grandma.

A refresher

So, since late March, much has been going on around here for us. I have started a class for credit toward my Professional Certificate, we bought a beautiful (and comfy) new love seat, Spring Break has come and gone, so has Easter. But, Karl and I were able to go North to mom's for Easter where we helped her tear down the wood planks from the walls and do some redecorating. j

The kittens are getting so big! Barb was generous to take the little black and white one, but there's still the male tabby. Mom's not sure what to do with him. Karl and I are under a bit of pressure now with Murphy and Bailey because Mikie says he wants all animals that are not his and Mom's to go by the time he comes home...We can't have the kitties in our apartment. And the house hunting goes on.

I know in past post I really thought that one house was going to be ours but, in the eleventh hour, two others placed bids and unfortunately, one was just above asking price. So, naturally the bank took that one. We're still looking and actually, this time off from looking has allowed for some turn over in the house options. We've really put out heart into decorating our little apartment and it feels like home, to an extent, ya know. Like how I want my own classroom, my heart longs for our own home. I just have to trust that God will lead us to it soon enough. We hope, and pray, to be in our own home by year's end. We're actually under a bit of pressure to, not only from the cat stand-point but also that we want to take advantage of the $8000 tax incentive.

I thought I'd link to the album from Easter up at Mom's. Lots of kitty pictures but a few of us doing our redecorating job.

Karl and I filed jointly this year; it was a success.


Here's a picture of our new love seat. I love the dark chocolate leather...It's so comfy.


We've also had the strangest thing happen this Spring. We've been having two Red-Winged Black Birds feeding from our bird feeders. They've even eaten out of our tube feeder intended for our Sparrows. The sunflower is their normal roost where I put sunflower seeds. One is an immature male; he has very little red on his wings. The second is a mature male who has blazing red patches on his wings. Their fun to watch but you can't move much in the house, they see very well. Here's them together.


Then the mature male. He's very pretty and quite the talker. His chatter is quite loud when it's right outside your window.


That's all, for now. Keep checking, you never know when it'll be new.
LOVE to all.