These are a few of my favorite things...

In no particular order...

Sitting on the deck with a good cup of coffee, sun shining, hoodie on because it's 50 degrees
Crisp juicy apples
Gregory who does the mowing and yard work faithfully and cheerfully
The smell of fall in the air - dusty, dry leaves; marigolds and chrysanthemums
Drew and Carrie both doing well at their jobs
Phone calls with dear friends and family
Kim who does the shopping and helps with some terrific meals
Open windows and no air conditioning
Erie visit planned for mid-October
Dick shifting his work hours and carpooling so we have longer evenings
Fields of wild sunflowers as well as 6-foot tall prairie grasses turning to rust and gold and bronze
Nathanael who provides hours and hours of delight with his giggles

...and this list could go on and on and on...I AM BLESSED!

May 2010 -- A Bit of This and a Bit of That

Here's a hodge-podge of items from this past month:

Greg and Kim and Nathanael sent us a mug with Nathanael's picture on it for a late-Mother's Day/early Father's Day gift and told us we had to share.! When I had first dibs on it for a cup of coffee, Dick grabbed the camera to get evidence of my hogging. I don't think that was very fair of him; after all, Mother's Day comes before Father's Day!

Here's evidence that Ayse and Reyna are getting along much better...as long as they keep a few feet between them! (Greg and Kim, notice Bear lying on the floor waiting for Ayse's nightly attack and presentation to us in our bedroom.)

We went to Audra's 8th grade graduation, and here's a glimpse of the three Gimple men spending some time together:

And here's the Graduate with Grandma Gimple. Congratulations, Audra!

We also got to go to Wichita to support Paige at the State Track meet, and I had fun playing with Jackson and Lane while waiting for another race time to roll around. It was good to visit with family here, too! (I like the guy sitting in front of our family in the second picture, sleeping away with his mouth open -- such excitement!)

Ayse's "pose"

Notice the position Ayse seems to prefer to spend time with her people. Compare to Greg and Kim's latest blog showing the picture of Greg with Ayse from last November.

By the way, Greg, she sure is shedding right now. I told Dad I was going to brush her and collect a ziplock bag of hair to bring to you when I come. Dad said you'd probably think that was funny after you got past the idea that maybe that was all that was left of Ayse (a.k.a. Coyote Bait).

Making Herself at Home

Ayse's starting to make herself right at home now...just took some time to get adjusted. She's pretty comfortable around Abby so she's able to spend most of her time around the family now. Here she is with "her dog".

Okay, okay -- not too close! She's not really very fond of dog kisses though!

And here helping Daddy in his office...

...and sleeping in Mom's favorite chair (now baptised with calico cat hair)

...and in Dad's chair (at least the cat hair doesn't show up quite as much here, until you sit in the chair with dark slacks!)

My, what a messy, messy eater she is! It seems she can't eat without spilling food outside the bowl. She's now sharing the food dish with Reyna -- never at the same time; they barely tolerate each other so there's still room for improvement in that area!

Boston Baby!

I've been getting requests for Kim's "belly update" from our time in Boston, so here are some pictures from the shower.

These dear friends of Kim's did a wonderful job blessing Greg and Kim (and all of us) with a fun shower for little Nathanael!

The shower was in the church, and this is what greeted us coming in the door -- a "clothesline" of onesies, each with a letter from Nathanael's name with a corresponding picture beginning with that letter.

The whole "theme" surrounded the alphabet and primary colors!

A beautiful, very soft, Aunt Ann bear!

The perfect going-to-church outfit for our little man.

Posing for the measuring of Greg and Kim's combined girth for everyone to guess the circumference.

Nathanael cooperated by moving and kicking around (and having hiccups) so Grandpa and Grandma Gimple could get in touch with our little grandson!

There Is Hope!

I saw the first sign of my surprise lilies starting to push up through the cold dirt. It's good to see they're trying to make their way into the coming Springtime. I bought some seed potatoes, corn seed, and spinach seed at Bluestem on Saturday, so I'm getting ready for things to come. Of course, it'll be quite some time before those corn seeds can go in the ground, but it's just a little over two weeks until we'll have a chance to put the potatoes in on St. Patrick's Day. And I saw a very large flock of Canadian geese V-ing their way north! Yippee for Spring!

Good Grief!

Thanks, Larry, for the phone call to try to help me figure out my picture-posting issue. In the process of Larry's help, I noticed that I was supposed to click to accept the Terms of Service, and I had been forgetting to do that. Oh, well, I bet I'll remember that for awhile now! Glad it's solved.

And in addition I got to have a wonderful talk with Larry and with Galena, too, so that made it all worthwhile. :-)

Now here are the pictures that were supposed to be with the previous post:

Who do you think my new grandson will look like? His mommy...

or his daddy?

Whichever, he's bound to be a cutie!

Merry Christmas to all you dear ones that I won't get to see this Christmas, and can't wait to get to see the rest of you!!