monique

Changes

Spring is such a busy time of year! And with it comes
changes. Always.

Pastor Ruth is leaving July 1st. That was a surprise to
hear in church last Sunday. She and her husband David are
moving to West Point, New York where he has accepted a
position with a former colleague who has moved there and
offered him a position. It will mean a big change for them.
It may mean a big change for our church as well as there's
a rumor that we might cut our association with the other
small, country church with which we've been affiliated with
for many years and take up with another one instead. I
guess that means we would accept the pastor who's already
there as our own if that happens but I'm not sure. I
haven't heard yet if that's been decided. Perhaps I'll
learn more tomorrow when I go to choir practice. And things
continue on as usual. Signup sheets were passed around
during church for donations for the quilt show and I signed
up to make four fruit pies to sell by the piece. Tomorrow
I'll be mailing the information postcards to those who
signed up last year indicating they might want to show their
quilts.

John is having problems with his arm, the arm that was
damaged at work more than 20 years ago. He bought an
electric start lawn mower today and I told him that from now
on I would take on the mowing as my chore. He may be able to
do it with this mower but with working full-time and taking
classes he really doesn't have time anymore. He took the
day off today but it was to take care of a dentist
appointment (he's getting a crown) and getting his
cholesterol checked. I also went for my blood pressure
check appointment and also got a cholesterol test. My blood
pressure was fine and I'll just continue on the same
medication I've been taking. I took the opportunity to ask
the doctor about my slightly high white blood count from my
last blood test in September and he looked at my chart and
said I'd had a slightly high count the previous time I'd
had that test done, four years ago. He ordered a white
blood test which would show more information although he
seemed to think it may just be normal for me to have a count
a bit higher than usual. I also had a blood sugar test
done. All those results should come in on Wednesday and I
asked Marsha to mail me a copy.

Going back to the subject of mowing, John bought the mower
at Home Depot and while he was looking at mowers I was
getting flowering plants. I bought enough to do part of the
front yard and planted them when I got home so the front
yard is starting to look much more colorful.

There was a message from Don, the editor of the local weekly
newspaper, on the answering machine. He wants to make an
appointment to talk to me this week about doing a story
about the Snowbound quilt which I'll be working on during
the church quilt show. I called him back but he wasn't in
so I left a message. I guess we're playing phone tag.

I've gone back to making little hats for preemies on a more
scheduled basis. My plan is to make 26 hats and 20
hat/bootie sets to be sent to the William Beaumont Army
Medical Center in El Paso, Texas next month. Twelve of the
hats and booties will be made in camo yarn and six will be
red/white/blue. I've made 12 hats and 3 sets so far. I'll
mail them June 20th so they'll arrive by the Fourth of July
and then I'll start working on the ones for Veteran's Day,
the autumn holidays, and Christmas.

Later this week there's a quilt show in Harrisburg and I
promised them some quilts which I'll need to bring on
Friday. I'll need to pick them up again on Saturday. I'm
planning on buying some tickets to get barbecued chicken
dinners from the local elementary school, an annual
fundraiser that was begun long before my oldest child began
school in this district. I can't resist them; we live only a
couple of blocks from the school and the smell of those
chickens barbecuing get me every year!

Well, that's what the schedule looks like for this week so
far.