Visitors

Well, here I am again.

These past two weeks have been busy and fun.  I've been hosting house guests.

First, we had Chuck's sister and her friend come through here on their way to the east coast.  They arrived on Easter Sunday and left on the following Tuesday morning, so we had a couple days to enjoy a visit with them.

We went to the same park that Chuck and I like to take walks in and took pictures of the wildflowers that were blooming and just soaked in the springtime nature of the outdoors.

And we also took them to a quaint little coffee joint for a light breakfast before heading over to Notre Dame to walk around on the campus.

Notre Dame is a very nice and very large Catholic campus.  Walking around there almost made me feel jealous of the students who lived there.  

I am not Catholic, but the inside of the Cathedral was worth going into, just to see all the ornate decorations.

While I was walking around through this cathedral, I got to wondering what their "holy relics" are, knowing that all Catholic churches are required to have at least one.  As if the building read my thoughts, I promptly found a wall full of "holy relics" neatly displayed behind glass, including a lock of hair from "Mother Theresa", who BTW is not my mother and never will be.  Before I let myself loose on a rant, I better just leave it at that.

This building with the dome on it, I think it was the administration building, as there were a lot of offices in there. When you walk in there you see lots of huge paintings on the walls depicting Christopher Columbus.  I'm not sure why.  

We also got to see the Notre Dame stadium, but only from the outside.  They weren't letting anyone go inside.

So anyhoo, Joyce and her friend left on Tuesday morning, and later that same day we got two more visitors!

Stephanie and Lula are finally on their way back HOME, to Alaska, and stopped here for a week and half.  I am so excited for her because Alaska is where she belongs, and Lula will love it there too.

AND what's in for me, you ask?  Well, I get to keep my strong connection to Alaska and go visit her any time I want!  I don't like being reduced from a resident to a visitor, like a common tourist, but this is the way it's gonna be now.

With Lula here, the kitties reacted in different ways.  Peeka was the braver one, as usual.  She was afraid of Lula, but wasn't going to let her have the house.  By the end of their visit, Peeka tolerated her enough to let her get close......but not too close!

Weeners on the other hand, pretty much lived in Justin's dresser drawer the whole time.

Poor Weeners.

While Steph was here, we celebrated her 27th birthday.

 I didn't have a #7 candle, so I had to improvise with seven regular ones.

One day last week we went to Nappanee where they were having a Maple Syrup Festival.

They had LOTS of vendors there, and some carnival rides, but only ONE vendor was selling maple syrup.  What in the world.......?

I guess I was expecting a whole street full of maple syrup vendors.

After all, it was a Maple Syrup Festival, was it not?

They did have all you can eat pancakes there, though.

On another day, Steph and I visited the quilt shop and picked out her colors for her next quilt.  

But before I can start on hers, I must first finish this stack of other quilt projects.

 Here is a grosbeak that visited our birdfeeder the other day.  Never seen him before!  I wonder what other kinds of birds we will see this summer.

We still have those grackles hanging around; I hope they don't keep all the pretty birds away.

Then on Thursday, Joyce and her friend came back, on their way BACK from the east coast.  It was good for Joyce and Steph to see each other again - has it been 12 years?

(I thought I took pictures of them together, but I guess I didn't)

Yesterday Lula seemed bored so we took her to the same park where we took Joyce.

To my dismay, she jumped in the river.  Since we went to the park in our car, we had to make sure she had plenty of time to dry off before we went back home.

She really enjoyed running around in this big open space.

Supposedly this piece of metal came from "Ground Zero".

At least, that is what the plaque claims.

Eagle.

When Joyce and her friend came back, ALL of our guest beds were full!  I kept busy trying to be a good host, cooking meals, etc.  Seemed like I was CONSTANTLY washing dishes!  But I really enjoying having people here.  It breaks up my humdrum routine and reminds me that, even though we live far apart, I know I still have loved ones out there somewhere, just waiting for our next visit.

The house guests are all gone now, and the house seems too quiet, but I suppose I will appreciate normalcy again.

And now that Lula is gone, the kitties can relax again, but I don't know how long it will take for Weeners to peel herself out of Justin's drawer.

I am just thankful that, to my current knowledge, there is no kitty pee where there's isn't supposed to be!  I was kinda worried about that.