Happy May!

We're all so happy it is May. The grass is green, we're seeing more and more perennials and the trees have buds on them. YEAH! We've grilled several times already and the firepit has already seen some action with fires and smores. This is the stuff late spring is made of!

It's great to see how all has come together in our yard - last year we were seeing a few green sprouts coming up. We had a handful of perennials and a couple of trees. That was it. Now there's grass, lots of rock/bricked in perennials, the swing set/play area is set up, we have a patio, garden and a lot of trees! Trav planted potatoes and onions this weekend and we enjoyed supper outside tonight on the patio. Grace was nearly beside herself to eat outside - she thought that was amazing. We had set the kids up at the little picnic table, but we had to put her in her booster at the table otherwise she just couldn't contain herself. She thought it was great that she could take a bite and then run over to the playset for a bit. It was adorable. Grace's newest trick is a skip/hop/run combo that is the cutest thing. She also had a pair of shorts on today and she loved them. First shorts of the season for Grace!

We had some buddies of Carson's over yesterday for a party and had some family over today to celebrate his birthday. Papa Chip arrived in town on Friday and smoked some pork tenderloin for us today in his smoker. Yummy! Papa can't believe how much both kids have grown.

Trav and I are both looking forward to the end of the semester. It's been a very busy stretch - more so than typical it seems. Trav is done with finals by May 14. Commencement will be in two ceremonies this spring, for the first time. Our Graduate/Professional ceremony is on Friday, May 15 at 4:00 p.m. and the Undergraduate ceremony is on Saturday, May 16 at 10:00 a.m. Needless to say, I'm quite excited for the afternoon of May 16 to arrive. :-)

We have some big dates coming up - Trav is having his tonsils out on Monday, May 18 in Fargo. Carson's will come out on Friday, June 5. Carson doesn't know yet...we'll wait until we're a bit closer to tell him. Carson's will be taken out at Fairview Childen's Hospital, since our transplant team wants to run some special pathology stuff on them - particularly since he's EBV positive. Our transplant team recommended an ENT to us (the only ENT we've seen in the Cities was at Children's Minneapolis). The U has several dozen ENT's. They recommended an ENT who just happened to be an ENT that has previously seen Grace when she was with Papa Ron and Nana Jane. This ENT did her ear tubes and removed some little skin tags from her ears. Coincidence? No, just another amazing part of these two little miracles' stories and to show God's power!

Things are getting a bit better around town - trucks are everywhere hauling clay - now in the opposite direction! It's still going to be a bit until things are 'normal'. The Red River is still at 25 feet (flood stage is 18 feet). So, it still has a bit to go before it is even in its banks.

We're gearing up for the week - stuff to do before bed!