Sunday, May 17th, 2015

Well, we were finally all able to stay home for the weekend and have some quality time in Ames.  Yesterday, we hosted Dan & Anne Becker (and their little boy Bash), Tim Nevins, and Lydia Metzger for a grill out at our place.  Bash is about a month younger than Nolan, so they were able to have a lot of fun together.  We had some music playing, and it was pretty cute watching the two of them bounce around and "dance".

Then today was spent at Reiman Gardens, Earl May, and Hickory Park.  This morning we spent a while at Reiman Gardens watching butterflys, and one even landed on me for a minute.  It was a very windy and a little misty out, but we still walked around outside and checked out the gardens.  

After that, we drove over to Earl May because I wanted to browse through some trees.  I've recently had the urge to plant a maple tree that would have nice colorful leaves in the fall.  We'll see when I actually get around to that though.  While we were there, I did end up buying a goldfinch feeder.  

Then for supper tonight we took Nolan to Hickory Park.  We ordered him a kid's "Saucy Southerner" with a side of cottage cheese again.  He seems to eat both of those pretty well.  Elizabeth had a vegetarian guacamole burger, and I ordered a smoked turkey & sausage link dinner.  

Sunday, May 10th, 2015

Normally the expression people say today is "Happy Mother's Day"... but today is more like Shitty Mother's Day.  It's going to be hard with every upcoming holiday or family event where mom would normally be there.  Especially today when it would normally all be about thanking her for everything she does.  This weekend Elizabeth & I took Nolan up to the farm to be with family for Mother's Day.  Eben and Amy where there on the farm, and we also met up with Chris & Marcia, David & Mark, Curt & Tonya's family, grandma Natalie, and Kathy & Marlin for lunch today.

I'm planning to place a different type of flower at Lynn's grave each year as a way to honor her.  This year I bought a bouquet of daises, which were her favorite flower.

Monday, May 4th, 2015

It's hard to believe that mom has been gone for three weeks now.

This past weekend I went back to the farm and helped Eben with a few things.  I know that it's going to be hard for him to get all of his normal work done now that he is by himself, so I just want to try and help out more often when I can.  Saturday I spent disking about 120 acres or so... 40 at "The Big Tree" in the morning, and 80 at "Brinkley's" in the afternoon.  At Brinkley's I found a big rock and had dad come over with the rock picker to get it.  It turned out to be such a big rock that it wouldn't even fit in the rock picker!  Dad had to scoop it up and basically balance it on the end of the rock picker.  Then on Sunday I mowed the yard at the farm and helped dad move a cow and twin calves across the farm to another lot.  We put in a few bales of hay for the cows.

While I was at the farm, many people were busy planting flowers in Lynn's memory.  I believe that Lynn's favorite flower was the daisy, but she always planted a lot of Marigolds as well.  Kelly planted some of both... once people saw her pictures on Facebook, may people did the same.

Kelly's flowers in memory of Lynn.

Amy's flower garden.

Elizabeth and Nolan "helped" plant these... I guess that Nolan basically played in the mulch.

Shannon planted these by her driveway.

Marigolds that Marilyn planted.

This next weekend will be mother's day, so Elizabeth and I will take Nolan back up to the farm so we can visit mom at the cemetery.