March 29th

We had a great visit with Lydia and the kids! We met Kara, Anna, & James along with Dylan & Lindsey at the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. It was fun to walk around and look at all the dinosaur bones and exhibits but of course for the young (and young at heart) the most fun was the room they had an interactive water/sand area that you could build your own dinosaur world and construct hills with sand surrounded by the flowing water. It included trees and lots of dinosaurs. OK, you can include Grandma in that fun activity. Grandpa Nix and Grandma Pat joined us and it was nice to have the chance to visit.

Lydia and I attended a bread making class at the Bosch store. We learned lot of fun things that we wanted to try out. On Friday I drove Lydia and the kids back down to Arizona. We took the Suburban so it was a very comfortable trip. Part of the way Lydia and I listened to the CD of New Moon (#2 of the Twilight Series for the uninitiated) but we decided to let the kids watch a movie so we had to turn it off. That worked out nicely because it gave Lydia and I a chance to visit in the front while the children enjoyed the movie in the back seat. On Saturday we experimented with our new bread making skills. It tasted better than it looked but we tried it again and it turned out beautifully. I had a few issues with Lydia's oven timer so I had a tendency to let things cook a little too long. I took care of that by sending her a new one when I got home that will ding for a whole minute when the time is up.. one soft little ding was just not enough for me, especially if I was distracted playing with the children or watching the new Twilight movie that came out Saturday... (likely excuse). Maybe next time I go down my baking efforts will meet with greater success. The children were great, Sarah is absolutley wonderful, Colling gave up his bed so Grandma could sleep in it, and even Mason pitched in to help me wash dishes.

I drove home on Tuesday, the 8 hour drive went by fast because I listened to the rest of New Moon and started on Elipse. It was a beautiful day but after I got home it began snowing so I was glad I missed the storm! I don't know if I will drive or fly down in April to take my turn as Lydia's patient but I will probably borrow the CD's again. I spent Wednesday and Thursday house cleaning and running errands.

Jef came home on Friday morning and Dylan and I met him at the Bungalow. Jef and Dylan worked hard and I made bread and chocolate chip cookies in the new 'compact' Bosch Mixer Jef bought for the bungalow. It only has half the capacity of my Bosch mixer at home with a different design so it will take some getting used to. My bread and cinnamin rolls were really good, so were the cookies!! Then I went over to play with Anna and James while their parents went out to dinner with some friends. Saturday I actually worked at the Bunglow sanding and staining the old mouldings for the ceiling. Jef and I were able to put up the last of the sheetrock in the dining room now that he and Dylan had fixed the sagging ceiling. Progress is slow but it is beautiful to see!

I am still looking for a job but I am enjoying my enforced retirement very much.