May Flowers

We have had our fair share of flowers here, finally. What they say about April is all true, it really is the cruelest month. We had snow on Easter, something I don't remember in the story books, although the bunny is always white, so maybe an Arctic Hare?

Life had been busy for us here in Akron. Spring has brought outside activities that include lawn care, garage cleaning, mowing the lawn, searching in vain for our little wading pool that blew away, emptying the lawn mower bag, playing with toads and riding our bikes as much as possible. As soon as it hit 60 degrees, the kids managed to get us to set up the slip-n-slide. I guess that winter coat is pretty thick still.
Jan is riding her bike without training wheels, and is able to keep pace with the runners on flat terrain. Alec is starting to think about riding without the training wheels on, but is not quite there yet. His asthma seems to be better controlled at the moment. Anne is still getting into all sorts of trouble, stirring up trouble, and just plain trouble whenever she is not being a very delightful child, which is most of the time. Pati has been the best baby ever, smiles even when sick, and lights up with a huge smile with any drop of attention.

We have been to the Cleveland Botanical Gardens most recently, which was great fun. We get in free with our pass to a local historic mansion site here in Akron, so that was why we were able to enjoy it. They even had a small children's garden where volunteers help keep the kids focused, hand our free trees that dad gets to plant when we get home, and a large indoor section including a rain forest with lots of butterflies, and an arid region with lizards and hedgehogs and such. Quite well-done and we all had fun there.

That wasn't enough for us, so we went to the Cleveland Zoo and had lunch with the elephants again. Pretty fun to be able to be so close to so many zoos and parks and activities. That is the nice thing about this area; we are close to everything. Within a 2-hr drive we have 5 nice zoos, 2.5 aquariums, 3 science centers (OMSI type), Lake Erie, the world's largest roller coaster park and lots of indoor and outdoor waterparks (some day later we will discover these), and countless metroparks that are usable year-round.

We also are becoming a bit more involved in Church. Kristi and I have been attending a series of weekend classes on how to study the Bible and communicate effectively (Hermeneutics and Homiletics). I most likely butchered the spelling there. Has been good, and we seem to be fitting in a bit more as well. Is tough to get involved when I am not there much, but I think we are doing a bit better.

Well, I have nothing more to add, seeing how I am here in the ICU on call at 3:30 am waiting for a CT scan to be done on a lady who has a bleed in her brain.

Drop us an email if you feel like it, or drop by if you can.

David