Spring Fever

We hosted a Zimmerman family grocery shower

for Tyler and Casey...in our new living room!

It was fun to finally have company over :)

Joel Graduates

from Prairie Central in May

Visitors

we had a lot of visitors this spring :) yay! Emily Sinn came to visit,

then when she left, I picked up my aunt Sheryl at the airport. Mom

came to visit both of us. Then that weekend, dad brought Grandma

Gerst over so they could go to my cousin's graduation in Congerville.

Whew!

Mom, Sheryl and me having lunch at Lost in Time in Fairbury.

David was starting an EMT job at Duffy Ambulance

in Pontiac that day.

Grandma crocheting in the shade.

Trying to keep down the weeds in our weed patch...

I mean, garden.

We put everyone to work when the whole family

was here :) and got a lot done. Our big job is

putting rock in our landscaping. We have been hauling

landscape rock from mom and dad's old house in

Iowa. It's really pretty, but really dirty after the flood!

Aunt Sheryl worked hard on getting the rock clean

and the landscape looks so much better.

Mom tackled the big job of sanding this old wardrobe.

It was one that Grandma Gerst had painted and made

into a cowboy theme for Uncle Bill when he was little.

Mom and I spent an afternoon striping the paint,

and she worked on the sanding. I told her I shouldn't

have let her leave without getting it done - it's a big job!

Iowa Trip

Emily came out to Illinois for her cousin's wedding. She spent about

a week, and we went out to Iowa for two days. We met Wendy Wettstein

and went to Bloomfield, meeting a lot of Emily's friends and visiting an old

church in Bentonsport. We met my mom and dad for supper in Mediapolis,

went to Oakville church for wednesday night, and stayed up way late at

Wendy's :) The next day we went to visit my dad at work, then Candace

had a bunch of our friends over to visit. Whirlwind trip, but worth it!

Emily, Wendy and me at Russel Wuthrich's in Bloomfield





Emily's church

Pulling the church bell!

Friends get together in Candace's to visit and for a "light" lunch :)

We went out to Oakville the end of April for Grandma Gerst's

90th birthday party. Benjamin's birthday was coming up,

so David and I took him swimming in the pool of the hotel

where we stayed. Then to supper at Applebee's and more swimming :)

Benji and his gifts


Mom and Dad come to visit

Are you levelheaded??

Playing with the tools David got from dad and mom

for his birthday.

After our floors were refinished (see pics below), my

parents came out to visit and help us get settled.

Dad did the huge job of cleaning off all the walls...

the dust was everywhere. :(

Mom, Interior Designer, helped me figure out where

to put up all my wall hangings. We spread them all over

the living room floor...very overwhelming at first!

But when we got done, it was a lot better!

After 7 months, we finally have decorations :)

OUR FLOOR SANDING PROJECT

Our living room as we were getting it prepped to sand.

We also re-did the office, stairs and upstairs hallway floors.

We ended up staying up til 2am for two nights in a row

(including David's birthday) and staying at David's parent's

house one night before the project was all done.

Finding lots of interesting things under the carpet.

A lid nailed to the floor to cover up a hole???

There's no turning back now......

Two Day Trip

David and I went to Oakville for a few days in March,

so Carly and I could celebrate our birthdays together

like we have every year for the past 20 years :)

We made an appearance at the Fellowship Center

for a world relief night, visited Grandma Gerst

and spent some time with Lindsy. Had supper with

Walt and Nola's and to Oakville Church for Wednesday night.

We stopped by Grandma's for a while and we took home

her sewing table to go with the sewing machine

that she gave me earlier! With her free space in her

sewing room, we moved a bookcase up from the

basement for her to put to use.

Cleaning at Grandma's. Benjamin and my mom came over to help

out and we all cleaned the bathroom, dusted, vacuumed,

swept and scrubbed.....

.....then played games!

Birthday Buddies! Carly and Janella

Colin and Barb had us over for supper and gifts to celebrate our birthdays.