2013 Week 20: Celebration Bookends

Sunday, Mother's Day, I drove the hour and a half to my mother's right after teaching the 2nd and 3rd graders in Junior Church.
When I arrived Mother had a great meal prepared and was admiring the bouquet of roses she found on the table when she got back from church. The card said they were from my brother Alan.

Later we went to the cemetery to take a look at other family members headstones.
The one task we wanted to accomplish on this visit was to settle for a grave marker for Dad's burial site.
We needed help to locate the three plots in the maze of hundreds so went back Monday morning when the office was open.

Grandma Hoyt's, Aunt Gladys', and Daddy's graves

Mother and I had a good time on Mother's Day. We didn't need to go out to eat or do anything special. We made potato soup together--wonderful comfort food. Remember, it was cold that day.

We stayed up late looking at my Fotos antiguas album on Facebook and reading the comment threads. I uploaded those ancient photos (digitized slides of our family's life in Argentina) over two years ago. Recently some old friends, new arrivals to FB, discovered them and an interesting conversation is going on, so many memories and emotions stirred.

Monday I arrived home in time to meet and have lunch with a delightful Taylor senior, Spanish major. We both so wished we had met earlier. She has been a faithful helper at the Red Barn, so Mike knew her and invited her over because she wants to spend time in some type of volunteer development-type work in South America. If you know of opportunities or have ideas, let us know.

Mike struggled with a bad head cold all week, it was much worse Tuesday. Even so, he had two meals started when I got back from the eye doctor and grocery shopping.

The Wednesday ladies Bible study group met here for the final brunch. Our leader shared slides and stories of their time in Israel. And one of the ladies brought the typical breakfast fare they were often served over there: fresh vegetables and humus dip (in the foreground).

We had promised the women a surprise at the end. Granddaughter Kayla (my tap teacher) and I performed the little dance we've been working on all year! Only the two of us because the other three ladies couldn't come. Don't think there would have been room for all five of us anyway. We also hoped to recruit more tap students in the mature age range. We'll see if any show up next Wednesday. We plan to record our routine at that time and then begin a new one. (Maybe I'll post the video.)

I don't know if you'll be able to see this, the strangest sight--a dark squirrel with a blonde tail! Very hard to capture a photo from the deck of a scampering squirrel off in the distance.

Friday I finally planted the flowers I bought Monday! 

The next day I discovered one of the flower boxes dug up, seriously disturbed by a racoon. Uggghhh. Mike put out a live trap.

So far I only worked on the flower boxes and the front flower garden. There is so much more to do before we leave for Spain in two weeks.

I tried to tidy up my writing area, but only made it worse. I got so caught up in sorting through the box of family archives, so enthralled by the treasures I was discovering, that nothing else mattered. There is material there for many many blog posts to come. I did write one Daddy post, however.

Saturday was my birthday. Mike and I spent the day at a prestigious art fair in Broad Ripple spread out in a lovely park. We especially admired all the ceramic art. There is truly no end to creativity.

In the ArtsPark sculpture, Twisted House, 2005

That evening was our scheduled church fellowship group dinner. Our hostess surprised me with a beautiful birthday cake decorated in an Argentine theme. So my day was complete!