Here I am in Pennsylvania

I flew into Philadelphia on April 25th and have enjoyed getting better acquainted with my kids and grandkids here in Glenmoore. Sunday was a great experience at their church as Jeff preached. Yesterday we all went to Shady Maple - an amazing smorgasbord with enough food for a couple armies! We didn't eat it all, but made good progress! As anyone from PA knows, Pennsylvania is beautiful, especially this time of year. I'm enjoying the spring flowers, but am still waiting for the warm weather! Good thing I bought those two sweaters while in Chesterton!

News from San Juan is that several ladies want to start an in-depth Bible study for the women and are trying to find a day when everyone - or most everyone - can attend. I'm excited that they came up with this idea "on their own"! I've been praying for months that something like this would happen! So, when I return to Mexico May 19th, we'll get together and plan out our study, time, and strategy!

Last I counted, we will have five teams down this summer to do ministry! It's exciting to have these folks join us and be a very special part of what we're doing! I will have to hit the ground running when I return to get caught up on all the activities of preparing for them to come. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy my time here with Jeff, Kim, Jeffery, Jesse, Austin, Raquel, Victoria, Calvin, Clara, Quincy and Ada!

Chesterton, IN and Traverse City, MI

It's been so fun being here at Chesterton with Mike, Kris and the four kiddos. One weekend Kris and the kids and I took a quick trip to Michigan (if you call 5 1/2 hours QUICK!) to see a bunch of Hanna relatives. What fun. On the way we ate at Big Boy. "We've never eaten here before" I was informed! It was a good experience!
Aunt Betty Jo provided the shovel and Mikey went to work! He just dug n dug n dug! See below for what Del did with that wonderful, delicious, vitamin-filled dirt that Mikey dug up!

Friday evening a bunch of relatives came over and Elia, Josie, Mikey and Del got acquainted with lots of cousins they hadn't met before. Here we see Aunt Betty Jo with Del and Jaqueline. It was SUPER to see everyone! Gram (my mother in law) just had surgery, so we visited her in the hospital. She isn't doing real well and is in a lot of pain. I felt badly, but am glad I visited.

That dirt is delicious. You ought to try it! You'll like it!

The sand outside Uncle Ed's house was WONDERFUL! The girls spent a number of hours getting filthy and of course having a blast! It's unbelievable what all you can do with sand and a few cans and utensiles! The BEST part of our visit was the gift from Uncle Ed - three very large jars of PICKLES! Wow! The kiddos are enjoying those MORE than you can imagine!

Elia is FIVE

I helped Elia celebrate her fifth birthday. It seems like just YESTERDAY she was born, and she's now five going on... Well, you know! The princess of the century! I made both girls dresses and bought a dog, a Spidey and a tiger outfit for Mikey! What fun!

Can you believe those birthday cakes!? Grandma Livovich made them and yes, they tasted as good as they looked! But it sure was a shame to cut them and ruin their beauty!

Our trip to the Arch

The train ride into St. Louis was almost as much fun and definitely as exciting as going up into the Arch! It was pouring rain when we got there and we had to walk about 1/4 mile, so we got enough shower to last us a dozen days or so! But OH so worth it!

Tia Elena (Aunt Elaine) and Elia "enjoying" the ride up! The next photo shows the tiny car we were sitting it, so maybe you can understand Elia's apprehension!

We rode up, up, up in this tiny "car". Some of us (I won't name any names) were a little frightened! It made a lot of scary noises and clumped and clamped a lot, but we made it fine!

It was exciting - and scary - to peek out the windows and look over the harbor.

Wow! We're high up!

The Arch

I've been in the U.S. since April 7th. It hardly seems possible! I started out in Warrenton, MO with my sister Elaine - or should I say I started out visiting my dentist, Dr. Paz, in Warrenton! I spent a few hours in his dental chair and now am sporting two new crowns. And a few less dollars! Elaine and I had a great time shopping, then on Wednesday daughter Kris and her four drove over from Chesterton, IN to have some more fun with us. We drove into St. Louis and checked out the Arch. Wow! Why didn't I do this years ago?? It is awesome and we had a super fun day. It started out POURING and by the time we got to the Arch we were soaked through, but dried out and didn't let little things like that get us down! If you're ever near St. Louis, be sure and go to the Arch - it's an unforgetable trip up and down!

Winter yesterday, summer today

Here in San Juan del Rio we don't go gently from winter, to spring to summer. No,no. One day it's winter (well, low 40's at night, 60's during the day - that's pretty winter, I guess) and the next day it's 89 degrees warm. My apartment upstairs from Alan and Beth's house has a skylight, which is real pretty and offers a lot of light, but during these summer days, it's HOT up here! So, Bethie and Cameron climbed up on the roof and put up a blue tarp, tying it down good, so it won't blow away. That helps keep the hot sun out for the summer, but also darkens my house considerably. But, if I were to choose: Dark or HOT, I'll take dark! I can always turn on the light! Thank you, Bethie and Cameron. Of course, they don't JUST do it for me - this also helps keep Cameron and Dayton's room, which is at the bottom of my stairs, cooler as well! Only one fan needed in their room now, not three! It could be worse. I could be in Nicaragua where there's no fan (since there's no electricity!!), no A/C, and 89 degrees is actually cool!