Terrible Winter, Wonderful Spring

This was one of the worst winters we have suffered through since moving to Illinois back in 1967. 7 or 8 truly heavy snowfalls, which is a lot for East Central Illinois. Almost made us buy a snow blower. Except by the time we made up our minds to buy one: they were all gone. We'll see what we do in the Fall. We had enough moisture to help every drought-ridden state of the union and still have enough for us. Of course most of that moisture, as river water, has flowed down our many streams to the Mississippi and on to the Gulf of Mexico. Naturally, with all that snow and rain, Tepa did not get out a lot; except for one multi-week period where she was taking physical therapy for her back and legs and knees. Her arthritis and other problems are now at the point where she cannot put on her own pants, socks or shoes, and especially not a bra. Fortunately, I can still do that for her, along with cook meals, shop, clean house, do the laundry and whatever else she needs done. She drives whenever we travel around town. If we have to go anywhere on an interstate, that's my turn to drive. Because of my poor sight in my left eye, she doesn't trust my driving (in town) ;) Which I find hilarious, since she doesn't have a lot of problems riding with me if we have to go out of town, at a much higher rate of speed. Which of course happens less and less often.

Spring has been an entirely different matter. The early flowers were. The weather has had several extremely warm periods. So much so that I was able to pull the cover off the pool early in April for the very first time. Water is still too cold for swimming, but it is clear and mostly clean and I am sorely tempted each time I finish mowing the yard. My next pool project is to hook our new suncover on to the roller and see if its use really works and heats the pool? I hope so. We have had problems with our back toilet not working. Plumber came to day. Ran his snake and slid down into the crawl space under the house and came up saying "I can't help you. You need the Schoonover Sewer people. They can ream out the big sewer line and take care of that flood of stuff in your front yard." Great guy. Didn't charge us anything. Smart move. If we ever need a plumber we know who to call: Reliable Plumbing. I contacted Schoonover and they are to come fix it (we hope) in the morning.

We are looking forward to having a mini family reunion here in Champaign in June/July, along with the big Mostert-Wiltbank Reunion in Nauvoo. June 23-25. My sister Trudy Wiltbank had nine children, 40 some grandchildren and who knows how many great-grandchildren. While her husband Jim was alive they started having a family reunion every three years. This will be their first in Nauvoo. Since we were (relatively) close to Nauvoo, they invited our Mostert side of the family to join them at the Community of Christ camp on the south side of Nauvoo. Looks like Timo from Utah, the Kari's from South Carolina and the Mika's from Michigan definitely will spend some time in Nauvoo and here in Champaign. Not sure about the Erik's from Utah or Sherry and Troy from Wisconsin. We hope they can make it, but as Tepa says it is more important that they all come to Champaign in 2 years when we have our 50th Anniversary Family Reunion. At the moment Tepa is saying she is not going to Nauvoo. We'll SEE! Stay tuned for the resolution of this exciting saga. And have a great summer.