We were

bird sitting Aria today.  It is her 2nd hatch birthday, and Natalie and Trent had a dinner to go to.  I made her a treat of raspberries and bananas, which she loved.

But even though I bribe her and try to have her cuddle with me, she still prefers sitting on Gary right up next to his face so she can peck at his face.  I'm jealous.

To quote Poldark:

"Ain't right, ain't fair, ain't proper."

The last few

days have all blended together.

Last night I was up until 3 am working on a photo project for Lydia's graduation.   In order to do it, I've had to organize all my photos, and it has been quite a project considering the number of times my computer has crashed and photos been imported and exported.   I plan to scan in all of the old photos from my albums and store them in a cloud and on thumb drives, so I don't have to do it again.

Thursday night I went to ER with my niece, Britt, with kidney stones.  She was in so much pain, and we were so glad once they figured out what it was and were able to control the pain.  She called me instead of her mom, because Lynn can't really leave Gary alone anymore.

He continues to fall and seems to be getting weaker.  It makes me heartsick.  He's bounced back several times, so I'm hoping that happens again.  He has faced this challenge of Parkinson's so gracefully, but I know it has been so hard for him.

I feel so blessed that I have been able to spend time working on his history with him.  It has been a very sweet time for me. We have been hanging out in the little room off the bedroom most of the time. We have made progress, but there are still many pictures to add and edits to be made.

Gary's brother in law, Bruce, snapped these pictures of us a few weeks ago when he saw us.  (They are staying with Gary and Lynn while they prepare to move back to California).

 Life is so fragile, 

beautiful, 

heartbreaking,

full of love, wonder, and sorrow

and priceless.

I didn't believe it

Would fit, but they made it.

Throwback Tuesday -- Happy Birthday, Natalie!

 I'm going through old photos and scanned in these 1999 birthday photos of Natalie.

I thought I would throw in this picture of Tiffany cleaning out her ears the same year.

Here are photos from in 2002 before we replaced her bedroom door.  This is what it looked like before we installed a nice new white one.

Today we went to Carrabas for lunch and then came home and "seriously considered vegging" by watching two movies.

We love you Natalie!

We finished

up the school year with our BYU Young Single Adult Ward.   I wasn't prepared feel as emotional as I was.  It is the last time we will probably see these students, and the bishopric Gary was a counselor to was replaced.  We have really enjoyed our association with the members of the bishopric. We have made new friends that we never would have had a chance to know.  I continue to be amazed at how selfless people are who give everything in their church callings.  I am still serving as the stake communications specialist and we don't know yet where Gary will be serving, but we will continue serving there for 4 more years.

Well . . .

Since my oven has been dead since Easter (thanks Roylance's for cooking 3 pans of rolls for me), I've had an excuse not to bake for a week.  So we had crepes for Natalie's birthday dinner tonight.  

It's been a very tiring day.

We started out at 8:30 am and finished by 8:30 pm.  We wouldn't have gotten nearly as much done without Jackson's help.  We enlisted him to help move the cement rims from where the tree was, but then he volunteered to come out and help Gary get the roots out.

He even proudly showed me big worm he found.

Throwback Thursday -- 1956

We went all dressed up to

 Jackson's last game home game on Saturday.  That was after we had been to Paul's funeral and out to lunch with Gary's family.  We would have missed more of the game if we had gone home to change. Fortunately it was nice weather.    

Fun

Throwback Tuesday - 1955

Instant Pot Boiled Eggs

These really were the easiest boiled eggs I've ever peeled!

Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs

Author: The Prairie Homestead

Prep time:  10 mins

Cook time:  5 mins

Total time:  15 mins

Ingredients

• Eggs (as many as you like to fill the bottom of the pot rack)
• 1 cup water
• Instant Pot electric pressure cooker

Instructions

1. Pour the water into the pot, and place the eggs in a steamer basket if you have one. If you don't, just use the rack that came with your pot.
2. Close the lid, set for 5 minutes at high pressure.
3. It will take the cooker approximately 5 minutes to build to pressure and then 5 minutes to cook. I let the pressure naturally reduce for an additional 5 minutes after the cooking cycle completed, and then did a quick pressure release. That's around 15 minutes, total.
4. Place the hot eggs into cool water to halt the cooking process. You can peel immediately, or wait-- it's up to you. (The first time I did this, I didn't plunge into cool water, and they still peeled very easily. The eggs were just slightly more cooked.)

Easter Egg Hunt 2017

They're

Multiplying