Been a long time

It has been a long time since I have done anything with this blog. I have not been idle so I will give a quick run down of what has been happening.Since I last wrote I have been to the doctor many times, had some medical procedures and tests, started volunteering at the Family History Center, started planning and preparing for the garden, and celebrated Don's birthday.I guess I will elaborate on some of the activities.

Medically I have continued pursuing help with my kidney and liver problems. The liver is now resolved, not exactly sure how it happened but I seem to be free of the anticipated problems. The kidney is still holding its own which in my mind is an absolute miracle, I seem to be learning how blessed I am with such good health when they say I am not healthy. I have taken my health for granted and abused my body for a very long time. Repentance and education seem to be a never ending process and not just restricted to our spiritual well being.

My left eye has been not healthy for many years and had gotten to the point it was in constant pain. When I visited with my daughter and her family the condition worsened to the point the eye needed to have surgery to remove a band of calcium deposit from my eyeball. Today my eye is absolutely pain free, an absolute miracle. I have even been able to look at the computer screen for extended times and the sun is not causing pain when I experience its rays.Returning to the Family History Center shift has been a real joy. I am so excited about some of the new things there. Of course the newest asset at the Center is a machine that can digitize records from film and fische. What a marvelous advance -- this allows us to document with images of events and data about our families, the documents can be viewed with close up technology, writing and pictures can be better interpreted, and we can download the information to media formats to take them home and add to our records. The only problem I have is I still have to learn how to fully operate the machine -- but I am very grateful to be exposed to it. The last good thing is the Center is allowing us to download the information with their special machine for free, another miracle in this day of economic upheaval.

I have not been well enough the last few years that we have not had a garden and this year I am hoping to revitalize the greenhouse and the garden. I am making plans for a parimeter garden for our family and really excited to see if I can do it. I have taken out the rosebushes along the north side of the front yard and am now preparing the soil for planting. I suggested to Don we plant dandelions (something I have started eating since last year) along the front but he is not going to allow me to do that -- oh well I will come up with something. My sister Donna is going to help me sort of plan other features in the backyard, hopefully easy care, visual pleasure, and high productivity.

Lastly, we celebrated Don's birhtday most of the week last week. The boys surprised Don with some computer software and updates he is going to really enjoy but as usual when something gets updated something else has to be done to allow the update to work properly. Don received some exercise equipment to help his back and I really hope it will. Tanya and Berret sang Happy Birthday on the phone to him and he was pleased to get a call from them. He has been real pleased with The Harris blog and seeing is grand daughter growing up before our eyes so far away. We all enjoy their posts.

Michael and his wife are doing well -- we are very fortunate to hear from Michael almost every weekday as he travels to and from work -- high tech work world has allowed us to keep track of our family with computers and cell phones and I am so grateful -- my apron strings are so long.

Last week I had a choice experience and tried to take a picture and I just did not seem to be able to get what I saw in a picture. It was a pussywillow tree in bloom. I have never seen a mature pussywillow tree in bloom before and when I saw it I remembered how my mom loved pussywillows and had a special song she used to sing as we were growing up. Such a wonderful interlude.