Happy and Blessed Easter!

I don't know where the time has gone. This semester has been such a whirl-wind! I've been spending day and night, 7 days a week, working on these pediatric lectures, just trying to stay a jump ahead of the students. So far, so good, but it has not been particularly fun! It's called "surviving."

I'm so looking forward to the summer and being off. I'll teach for about a week - just to get them oriented and started. Then, I'm out of there! I don't know exactly when I'll head for Bozeman yet. I'm just watching the airfares. So far they are way too expensive. Every now and then there is a sale, but not for June yet.

ALLERGIES!!!! AARRGGHH!!! I will be so glad when this spring is over. Ordinarily, this is the most beautiful, wonderful time of the year in Alabama. But this year I have not been able to enjoy any of it. It has been the worst year for allergy sufferers. I'm on shots, oral medication, nose sprays, and eye drops. And still I'm miserable. It's the eyes - I can take sneezing and a dripping nose, but when I want to take my eyeballs out and scratch them with a wire brush, well..... you get the picture.

It turned warm really early this year. Everything has been in full bloom, and then a huge cold front came through last night. I'm not sure what it got down to, but the forecast was 26. Tonight it is supposed to be 24 - that will set an all-time record if it gets there. They are saying at that temperature the entire peach crop will be totally destroyed. That will be devastating. Peaches are a very big product of Alabama. About an hour south of us is Clanton. They have a water tower in the shape of a peach. We usually get a good number of peaches from there and freeze them, so we have fresh peaches all winter.

Mark and Fernanda closed on their house last week, but the furniture they bought doesn't come until Monday and Tuesday of next week, so they are still with us. Their things from Brazil are not due to be shipped out of Brazil until April 17th. It will be at least 2 weeks after that before they arrive. We'll loan them some kitchen supplies until then, but their summer clothes will be on the ship. I may get pretty warm here before their ship comes in.

I've got such mixed feelings about them moving. It will be bitter sweet. We are so settled here with them. Fernanda is such a big help with the house. The boys are a bit confused because they are used to visiting us and then going back to Brazil. I'm making a big poster for them with pictures of houses and people to try to help them get the concept of where Birmingham and Brazil are, how you get from one place to another, and who lives where. We'll see how it goes.

Jeannine seems to be doing better with the migraines. She is into her 3rd trimester now. Maya is talking up a storm now. She says, "Hi, Grandma," just as plain as I do. You can see in the video clip that she really knows her animals. Be sure to notice the little "spit" at the end of "sheep." I've laughed until I nearly get asthma.

Well, the boys are waiting to color Easter eggs, so gotta run. Hopefully, I'll not wait so long to post again. Things are about to get a lot quieter around here!