End of April updates

Wow! I can't believe that it has been so long since I first posted on this blog! Let's see, where to begin updating? We've recovered from the 2nd most snow for a winter ever recorded in the Des Moines area. Missed the record by an inch or two. At one point the snow was so deep that we were unable to get out of our home, "the North Pole". But the snow melted quickly but without too much flooding in our area, though there was more 'downstream'. Recently we've been having unseasonably warm weather. (better than Miami or Austin). We have our container gardens mostly planted. 4 tomatoes, 2 potatoes, chives, rosemary, basil, thyme, and a lot of flowers. We've been babysitting with our youngest great-granddaughter, Lorelia. She's just turned 2 and watching her grow, change, develop makes me sorry that I didn't have the time to just sit and watch my children at that age. Retirement has its advantages! When all we have to do is go to the grandson's home and play with Lorelia and not have to be earning a living, studying for classes, or even responsible for the housekeeping ... it's great. We've been picking up some 'extra' cash by helping a long-time friend on the weekends. I put the quote marks around extra because with our budget, extra doesn't really describe it. It's just money that we wouldn't have had otherwise but still gets spent. We've replaced Mrs. Claus's Blackberry because she found it didn't like being dropped into the swimming pool. She had decided to test the water temperature before changing into her swimsuit. Then she had to wade in with her dress on to retrieve the phone. We didn't go swimming that day. Went to Verizon to replace the phone. The new phone arrived overnight but it took us another two days of running back and forth to get it reprogrammed and working right. Today, I'm working on a valve for the blackwater holding tank on our RV. It appears to be open, however it is not emptying. So either it is plugged or not really open. I'll have to see about running a 'snake' down the toilet. I'll try to post more often (depending on when I can get a wifi signal)