Spring Has Sprung!

Spring is here. I was living in denial for a couple of weeks because I knew once I cranked the mower it’s an almost weekly chore for seven months, however, the clover, dandelions, and onions growing in my yard are hard to ignore. Of course, the rain has put off my mowing quite a bit, but that comes at a price because the grass is tall and thick when I can get to it.

SURGERY
Ben had surgery last Friday to repair a hernia. He is recovering nicely and hasn’t missed any school (we were out last Friday and Monday for Easter).

We discovered Ben had a slight hernia a few months ago. The doctor said it needed to be fixed but was not urgent so we decided to schedule it after basketball season was over.

Funny thing about Ben is that he’s hardly told anyone. He only told his best friend as they were leaving to go home after school last Thursday, and I think he’s only mentioned it to a few friends since to let them know why he couldn’t participate in anything too physical for now. That apple didn’t fall too far from the tree.

TREE DOWN
Spring, of course, brings storms. We’ve been fortunate not to have too many bad ones this year, but I drove through a rough one coming home in the bus back on the 27th. The good thing was that all my passengers had been delivered and I was driving from Cross Plains home when I ran into the worst of it.

By the time I got home Donna Henry, the lady who comes to help mom some, was calling me to tell me that mom had a tree down. With all the trees in Mom’s yard we’ve been very fortunate not to ever have any significant roof damage, though we did have a limb knock out Mom’s bedroom window one time. Our luck held once again, however, the tree did take out the power and phone lines. Brad Keith came over quickly and cut the tree up so that we could use the driveway.

Mom wound up spending the night with us. The next morning the electrician was there early to repair the riser where the overhead electrical service comes into the house. This had been bent over about 60°. It wasn’t too much later that CEMC came out and restored power. I think AT&T replaced the phone line the next day, though Brad had reconnected it before they got there. We have a neighbor who wants the tree for firewood so once he cuts that up and carts it off the only thing left will be a hole in the ground where the tree once stood.

BACK PAIN
Exactly two weeks later (on the 10th) Mom fell in her bedroom. We didn’t think anything was broken at first, but by last weekend her back was really beginning to bother her. Turns out she has a fractured L1 vertebrae. We are still looking into the extent of the damage.

SOME FUN THINGS
We have been able to do a few fun things in the mix with surgery, back pain, and storm damage. Last weekend on Friday evening we went to First United Methodist Springfield to see their Easter musical which was really good. The next day we were invited to Jimmy and Morgan’s gender reveal party for their baby, and the ultrasound shows they are expecting a little girl. She is to be named Rachel Elizabeth when she arrives in late August. That evening we went to see the Davidson Academy Theatre Department’s production of The Addams Family Musical which was fantastic. And Vicki and Jenna have crossed an item from their bucket list when they went to TPAC to see the opera Carmen the other week.

As I mentioned above, we had a four day weekend last weekend with Easter, however, the middle school lock-in was that Thursday night (the 13th) so Nate went to that. He stayed up all night and when I brought him home the next morning he went straight to be and slept for ten hours (while Ben was in surgery).

We had a good Easter at church this year. Afterwards we had dinner over at Mom’s house. Jenna had brought a friend, Kristen, home who lives in her dorm and could not make it to her home for Easter. Kristen runs cross country and track for Trevecca. I think Ben was impressed that she runs 40 miles a week to keep in shape. She told us some of the guys on the team will run as much as 70 miles a week.

Monday was Jenna’s 19th birthday so we celebrated with another fancy meal over at Mom’s house before she left to go back to school. Hard to believe this is the last year all our kids will be teenagers.

RACING TO THE FINISH
One thing about this time of year is that you get on the back side of spring break and realize just how little time you have left until summer. We will be moving Jenna home next weekend, though she’ll have a few exams after that. Hard to believe her first year of college is almost over.

Jenna is going to stay at home and work this summer. She’s landed a job at the Historic Perk, a new coffee shop in Springfield. She’s also going to be working some to organize a summer mission trip to Haiti.

The boys and I have a bit longer to go to school, but the end is looming for us as well. These summers seem to roll around a little faster each year. Be that as it may, we’ve got to get there first.

OVERHEARD
Now that spring break is over there’s plenty of homework to occupy the boys’ time, however, we still know when they are taking a break from their studies with a video game. That’s when we hear them cheer or groan about something good or bad that happened. I’ll have to say my favorite expression comes from Ben. When something bad happens we hear, “Oh, my goodness!” If it was really bad it changes to, “Oh, my goodness gracious!” The good thing is that’s about the worst language I’ve ever heard out of that boy.

Occasionally Jenna goes upstairs and plays a video game with the boys. Jenna was home last night because she had to work in Springfield. Just this morning after Jenna had left for work we heard Ben yell, “Hey, Jenna…oh, I forgot she was gone.”

Joe