Blossoms for the Celebration

Pink blossoming tulip trees and bright yellow forsythia join the earliest spring flowers to make yards in town ready for the weekend celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. The full moon lights the sky, and the last two days have been delightfully warm with Spring’s promise. Soon we’ll have my favorite red buds decorating the countryside, and as the red buds’ blossoms fade, the dog wood trees will take over with white blossoms.

Leslie just arrived from Belmont, and the washer and dryer in my office/laundry room is already in motion. I like it that our college grandkids can do their laundry here and, thus, arrive sooner—just as our kids did more than a couple of decades ago when they’d come over from a Carbondale dorm for supper and save quarters at the same time.

When we moved here over eight years ago, the couple who bought our other house at the hog farm did not want our old washer and drier, so we moved them and stuck them in the garage. The new washer and dryer wasn’t hooked up for several months. By that time, I was in the habit of doing our laundry in the garage. It was right by the kitchen and much handier than this downstairs laundry. The builder insisted I put a laundry shoot from an upstairs bathroom down to this room, but I keep in covered for fear a little one might find it and explore where that hole goes. I do use this laundry room for all the downstairs linens and towels, and it is very convenient for this occasional use. I pulled the last sheets out of the dryer after Les arrived.

This winter we finally replaced the garage washer and dryer because they were in poor shape, and we figured the energy saving would be worth it instead of letting them completely break down. The last repair on them didn’t help them at all in my opinion, and it was a task for Gerald and our neighbor Scott to load them in his truck and take them to Harrisburg. I never thought about needing two sets of appliances, but it has turned out to be a very good thing. Twice we have had families living with us briefly during remodeling/schooling, and our frequent weekend guests like knowing there is a washer-dryer awaiting them at our house.

Tomorrow Gerald’s sister Ernestine is arriving in St. Louis escaping the snow in Rock Springs, Wyoming, for our warm spring weather. She is here for her high school reunion; and best of all, her daughter Leah is with her bringing her baby girl Emmy that we are all eager to meet. We had lunch with our niece Vicki yesterday so Gerald could put a car seat in Vicki’s car for Emmy.

Vicki is picking them up at the St. Louis air port and has a room all ready for them at her parents’ farm home down in the Mississippi bottoms, where Ernestine attended Shawnee High School. The Saturday night reunion will be at Fox’s Hollow, a favorite community gathering place for fish on the weekend owned and operated by a farmer nicknamed Foxy. I think they will be here Friday night and for Easter, but I am not really sure how this will all work out until the reunion is over.

At one time, we had three Vickie/Vicki Glascos in our extended family and at that time all three lived in this area, so sometimes doctors’ offices had mix-ups. It helped when Vicki Sue married Ernie and became Vicki Escue. We also have a son-in-law named Brian and a grandson-in-law named Bryan. At least the Bryan/Brian have different last names. More recently we realized that our newest great grandson Payton has the same name as one of Emmy's big sisters--Peyton and Kennedy.

The baby bed will be ready for Emmy as soon as Gerald moves it across the hall to the larger bedroom. (This is Mary Ellen’s baby bed that we traveled to Michigan and brought back with a truck load of other stuff when her nephew Samuel was born. After he went into his youth bed, the baby bed came to Woodsong, where it has had good use ever since.) Maddux’s high chair is still in the dining room from Christmas, so Emmy can use that too. (This high chair is one of two identical ones bought in 1993 when we had two grandsons born at the same time. One was passed on to Cecelie and ended up donated up there when Cecelie outgrew it.)

Leslie’s family is coming down from northern Illinois and will arrive tomorrow. Our daughter-in-law Vickie and granddaughter Geri Ann are coming through on their way to Tara and Bryan’s family at Aurora in northern Illinois. Gerry and Erin will have Saturday games and won’t be able to make the holiday. Mary Ellen and Brian’s family are going to the Villages in Florida to celebrate with Brian’s mother.

All the blossoms should make everyone’s trips pleasant. I wish the people in Rhode Island and Haiti and Chile and Iraq and Afghanistan had pleasant and peaceful conditions.