ice out

Over last week-end our little bay opened up and now the whole lake is free of ice and we are enjoying watching the sunbeams ripple along with the waves and seeing the trees reflected in the water. I am reminded of Judah at age 3 or 4 looking out at that sight and asking, "Do the trees live in the water?" My dear Aunt Mary who lived to enjoy the early years of our lives here on the lake always loved seeing the reflections.

On Monday night we went to Fargo for Wag to have the sleep apnea test and they found that lying on his back, which he always does, he was rousing 40 or more times an hour. When on his side it dropped to 4. So he is trying to adjust to making that change which has been hard for him since his back surgery. It should help him be more awake in the daytime.

This is a great time of the year for cultural events here, We have the MN Symphony Orchestra coming for a concert Fri, night and there are two live theater productions going on at the college and the Paul Bunyan Playhouse, There is a harpsichord ensemble concert Sunday and several college musical groups performing between now and the end of May, Earlier we had a wonderful concert featuring all the choral groups in town from the 5th grade combined choir to the high school and college choirs and two wonderful adult ensembles, and last week a great concert by our much improved and improving Bemidji Symphony OIrchestra. We are lucky to have such a lot of music available in our rather remote area.

We are enjoying ideal spring weather this week. I hope the volatile weather that has hit many of you in recent weeks is coming to an end and you are basking in the joys of spring. Love to all from Alice and Wag

Happy finches

Our birds were happy to have us home. Here you see a basket full of purple finches. Our goldfinches have come back and the woodpeckers, white and red breasted nuthatches, chickadees, blue jays and of course the squirrels are glad to see us again.

We are catching up on some doctor appointments and so far reports are good. Wag goes for his sleep apnia test next week. We are concerned about our grandson-in- law in Wis. who is going to have a proceedure to adjust a conjenital heart beat problem next Tues. It sounds complicated but the Drs. at U of Wis. hospital who will do it consider it basically routine.

Josh and Holly and the family are just now beginning the process of moving to the house they have finally been able to buy so we are excited for them. We are looking forward to the birth of our 6th great grandchild to grandson Judah and his wife Adrienne in the first week of June.

Now that I am home I seem to have figured out how to put pictures on the blog so there will be more coming. Thanks to Dennis and Gloria who put some on for me in Texas when I couldn't do it. Happy travels to your summer in Alaska, you guys.

We are enjoying being home even though we had a snow storm last week. Now it is spring and Our Easter service was a joy and I got my chance to direct the Hallelujah Chorus again.

Our love to all our extended family and friends. Alice and Wag

Sad Day

We made our trip home successfully avoiding the various storms that were ahead and behind us. However, we have been concerned for a few weeks about Maggie as she seemed to be more listless and not eating well. She had not had any of the contaminated food so we hoped it was something that could be corrected. However, she is 17 years old now and when we get to the vet's today we were crushed to find that she was suffering from severe renal failure and that the kind thing to do was to put her to sleep. We held her and stroked her during the process and there was no pain or discomfort just our tears. Keep us in your thoughts as we deal with a true loss in the family.