greetings! this is annie writing for my mom, who is laying in bed beside me. she is feeling really overwhelmed today, and is sleep-deprived thanks to her late-night talks with sister-in-law deborah, so i am reporting for her. the past few days have been busy, busy! my grandpa and grandma (tom and geneva) are here, and our very good family friend, mr. seyth miersma, stayed the night as well. deborah is attending church at the moment, but (my mom wants me to note), she has been an absolute godsend (she is pictured right, having a grand old time with mom).

seyth and jon

yesterday, i drove my grandpa's giant boat of a car (a lincoln, actually) to pick jon up at the amtrak station. we took bella along for the ride, but, upon realizing that we had arrived half an hour early thanks to the time change, decided to smuggle bella into a restaurant to wait for the train. it was a beautiful day; jon managed to make the right calls to bring out the sunshine for his arrival.

grampy and i smuggle bella with a big yellow bag



despite the blizzard outside, we are having a "farewell to my eye" party for mom later today. she was feeling anxious earlier because this is the last sunday morning that she will wake up in bed and see what she sees. so, i reminded her that today is only the last day that she will have two brown eyes!

bella is sitting here with us. do you remember the old warner brothers cartoons wherein characters would fight? there would be clouds of dust, some stars and exclamation points and the occasional foot or fist? well, that is bella at any given moment. that is to say, unless she is sleepy. if she is sleepy, she is the most darling thing. deborah and geneva went out yesterday to cause trouble at meijer and petco and came back with two outfits and an embellished carrier for bella. we will post pictures when she is next sporting any of these things. grampy is entirely smitten with the little girl and whispers about her supposed move to evansville.

bella "sits"

yesterday, after they returned from their adventures in holland (during which time geneva kept getting lost in the aisles of meijer), they made the most fantastic dinner! there was soup, salad, brie and crackers and french bread - 2 kinds! we are also eating cookies by the pound. it's disgusting, folks.

barb showed up to shovel our driveway and share dinner with us. it had been a long time since she'd seen deb, neva or grampy, so they had the opportunity to catch up after a number of years. joe also stopped in later, for a moment (the weather was not agreeable), and also got to say hello to everyone.

finally, mom wants me to note, how very happy she is that grampy (or "dad") is back in her life. enough said.

thanks to everyone, once more, for your thoughts, prayers, phone calls, e-mails, cards, comments and all kinds of expressions of love and concern. such things are getting us all through this time.