Evee's 1st Birthday...

This past Sunday Dennis and I were in Indy to celebrate Evee's first birthday, which is today! Of course I'm going to show pictures!

Out and about on a sunny day with her new shoes from Auntie Julie!

Getting ready to celebrate.

Mmmm...this sweet stuff is good!

She loves tissue paper.

A new summer hat!

Happy Birthday Evee! We love you!

Back to Rosy Mound...

Now that spring is here, the warmer temps have me out at one of my favorite spots...Rosy Mound Natural Area with its hiking trail winding through the dunes out to the beach and the 1,000 feet of stairs that hopefully will get my muscles back in shape and help to lose a few pounds. Dennis and I are gearing up to join our daughter, Julie, and our son, Josh, on the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) for a few days in May. We'll be hiking the first 50 miles with them beginning at the border of Mexico and heading north to Mount Laguna. Once off the trail, we'll head back to San Diego to be part of our son-in-law, Mike's, graduation on May 10th from Point Loma University. Meanwhile, Josh and Julie will keep hiking on the PCT for the next month! So, thanks to Rosy Mound, hopefully I'll be in shape to hike over 20 miles a day, carrying a back pack with 7 L. of water, among other essentials.

Rosy Mound not only has a physical element for me, but a spiritual element as well. I have always loved to walk and pray. I find it to be a great place to connect with God. I love living in a place where we are so close to water - I will miss that about West Michigan. The vastness of Lake Michigan reminds me of the transcendence of God, yet where sky and water meet I consider the polarity of a personal God who connects heaven and earth by His great love.

Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the ocean depths.
Psalm 36:5&6

It's good to be back to Rosy Mound.

The House is Moving...

I had been awake for about a half hour early Friday morning trying to get back to sleep, when just after 5:30 I heard a slight vibrating noise, something like when the washing machine loses it's balance and the agitation causes certain things in the house to rattle. As I laid quietly next to Dennis I thought it felt like the house was actually shaking. I adjusted my head on the pillow several times, thinking it was my own body doing weird things in the early hours of the morning, but, no, it had to be the house.

"Honey?" No answer.

"Honey, it feels like the house is moving." Still no answer.

"Honey?"

Finally a drowzy "What?"

"It feels like the house is shaking. Do you feel that?"

I can't even remember what he said, but we both drifted back to sleep. I assumed some big rig of sorts had passed by on 152nd, it's rumble reverberating throughout the house for a few seconds.

We had plans to drive to Cadillac that day to visit Dennis' folks. We ended up spending the entire time in the ER where Mom Jackson was having tests for some reoccurring symptoms that had manifested that morning (all tests came back clear). In the midst of the day we never heard what was making the front page news all across the Midwest.

I forgot about the incident until we were having a late dinner with some friends last night and somebody said, "Did you hear about the earthquake this morning?" It was then that we discovered that I wasn't delusional... the rattling noise and the shaking that had prompted our early morning conversation was a distant earthquake - a magnitude of 5.2 that rattled skyscrapers in Chicago!

We want the house to move quickly in this slow moving market, but an earthquake isn't our idea of a quick move.