Update on Dad

Dad's surgery was a success! They ended up replacing his mitral valve and doing two bypasses. The second valve repair apparently wasn't necessary.

It was an extremely long day (my apologies for not updating sooner-we were exhausted) but the news has all been good. He is doing as well as can be expected. We are so thankful and blessed.

Thank you for the prayers. We appreciate them more than we can say.

Prayer request

Tomorrow morning (Tuesday) Clarence's dad is set to undergo open heart surgery to fix/replace two valves and have two bypasses.



When we visited them in Florida this winter, we cut our trip short to save some of Clarence's vacation days, fully expecting to return to Florida within a couple of weeks for Dad's surgery. He opted not to have the surgery in Florida and came home earlier than usual, planning to have it done here. It's been 3 months since they came home but the day is finally here. I think we're all more than a little anxious-at least I know I am.

We would so appreciate your prayers for Carl-for a successful surgery and a good recovery.
Thanks!

Color coordination is everything

The girls' adopted grandparents attended their recital a couple weeks ago, even though Grandma S. hasn't been feeling well. They are so kind to the girls (and Clarence and I) and I am as thankful for them as we are for our own parents.

The young girls in attendance were passing out little sprigs of lilac blooms to all of us and I couldn't resist teasing Gordon just a bit. The lilacs did, after all , match his shirt so very well.



Isn't he a good sport?

The new pie plate

My mom was recently very excited to find a 12-inch pie plate.

It's like the one my grandma used when I was growing up, Mom says, though I guess I never paid attention to the size of Grandma's pies. I was always just happy to see pie (unless it was the dreaded mincemeat pie, complete with venison and who knows what else). Shudder. I realize I was a picky eater as a child but even now, with my much broader palate, you still won't find me trying mincemeat pie. Scarred for life, I'm tellin' ya.

Now that I've got that all off my chest...

Mom ended up finding a couple more of the extra large pie pans and gifted me with one. Allison's eyes lit up when she saw it. She loves making pie and Clarence and I, of course, like to encourage our childrens' passions. That's what parents are supposed to do, right?



We're trying to empty one of our freezers and it contains all our frozen fruit and veggies (among many other things-sigh). I was making pumpkin cranberry bread as part of the freezer purge and had half a bag of cranberries left. So, I asked Allison to use some of our frozen apples and the leftover cranberries to make a pie. Ahh, the perfect opportunity to try out the giant pie pan.

I think this is the prettiest pie she's made yet. And it is certainly delicious!