Happy Resurrection Day!

Here are David, Jerry & Kirk practicing with the BB gun.

Here are all of the "Easter-egg Hunters" showing off their loot.

Fred Taylor (Abby's dad), Jerry, Mom & Dad. Kirk & I sat with them to eat our ham dinner. Everyone brought delicious side dishes & desserts!

Robin, David, Gretchen, Chris, Jane (from Taiwan) & Mina. Anders was taking his nap, so Gretchen & Chris had a relaxing meal :-)

Heather, Jeff, Natalie (from Malta), Luke, Philip, Abby & Jessica Taylor.
(Sorry Jeff & Philip for the bad pic)

In our Easter duds

We are so grateful for our family & friends. On this Easter Day, we paused to thank Jesus for his sacrificial death and resurrection, so we too can be resurrected! Hallelujah!
He is Risen!

Serve Day at Granada

In January, Philip & Abby joined the Trustees committee at GHFC. They volunteered to be in charge of completely gutting and redoing the garden area between the sanctuary and the church offices. For the last month, they have spent Fridays (since Philip only works 4 days a week due to declining work) and Saturdays on it. Philip drew the plans for the area. They took out a truck load of dirt, put in new drainage, sprinklers, put in electrical lines, poured cement pads outside the office doors, drilled a hole in a rock to make a fountain, etc. Today was the day for the rest of us to help put the plants in the ground. Here are a few pictures.

Here's Kirk with his post-hole digger putting in Rosemary plants. It was a wonderful treat for Kirk to work under Philip's direction. Included in the plantings are 2 dwarf citrus trees- Kirk's favorite!

Here Philip is showing people how to gently get the plants out of the plastic pots.

It's so neat to see Abby come alongside Philip and help him with this project. :-)
They have worked hard on it together from the beginning.

Here's Abby planting Mondo grass.
They are also going to add 2 Crepe Myrtle trees and Kefir Lilies (sp?) & Camellias in the shady areas. Two fountains are going to be installed as well.
It should be beautiful!

31st Anniversary

Kirk took me to Le Vie en Rose French restaurant in Brea for our 31st Anniversary! It was a leisurely and delicious dinner. For dessert (my 3rd dessert so far this year) I had a fruit custard in graham cracker and chocolate crust. Kirk had a chocolate souffle that was really yummy! He held my hand & told me how much he appreciated me. :-) What a lovely evening!
Here is the picture we took with the camera on a timer before we left.

Purim Finger Puppets

The characters from left to right:
King Xeres, Queen Vashti with her mirror, Mordecai, Bad Haman and Queen Esther.

Aren't these a scream? The women's Bible study that I am in, is studying the book of Esther with the Beth Moore workbook and DVD's. It is an excellent study! I'm learning a lot of new things about the story.
Well, on Tuesday, I went with some of our 8th grade students to visit the Museum of Tolerance in LA. It's much like the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. Because it's a Jewish museum, they had a lovely display about Purim (since it began on Tuesday). I couldn't resist buying these finger puppets.
The Jews celebrate the Feast of Purim every spring to commemorate God's deliverance of the Jews through Queen Esther. On the card the puppets came on, is a brief synopsis of each character. For Queen Vashti, they say that she refused to go before King Xeres because she had grown a tail and had pimples! I've sure never seen that part in the Bible story! :-)
I will save these in my "Grandma Box" for future story telling opportunities.

Mom's 81st Birthday Gathering

The party was at Robin & David's.
Then we all went over to Philip & Abby's to see their new lamp.
Philip proudly displaying his bonsai that he created at the Huntington Library & Gardens with Mina and Terry Taylor

Luke & Philip by Philip's new Craftsman style lamp that he & Abby got for a bargain!

Enjoying the birthday cake and tea

Mom made her own cake (carrot cake with ginger & apricots) because she had more time than Robin did. Robin & David had
Anders for 3 days, so Robin made the delicious lemon sauce and creamy topping. Yum!

3 of the grandkids (before Luke arrived)

The Long Process of Getting a Cochlear Implant

In September, '08 I started the process of finding out if I am a cochlear implant candidate. I began with tests from a local audiologist and then waited for 2 months for a correct referral
(the first one was to an eye clinic!).
On January 19, Mina Taylor, Abigail, Luanne and I went on an outing to Los Angeles. Here I am standing next to a 30" ear model inside the House Ear Clinic. I met my doctor and began the preliminary tests and paperwork. Because I have an HMO for insurance, there are multiple "hoops to jump through."
After the appointment ( Luanne went in with me :-)) we went to Olvera Street for a yummy Mexican food lunch. This lady is making our tortillas by hand. Mina & Luanne each bought a dozen tamales to take home.

Here we are having our delicious lunch.

We went around for a tour and stopped at the Bradley Building. It was built in the late 1800's and has beautiful architecture.

Today, February 23, Luanne and I went again. This time I went through a 90 minute series of hearing tests. I HATE those!!! I always cry, but this time I ended up sobbing my way through them. :-( It's so incredibly frustrating to know I'm not hearing the words I'm supposed to repeat. But the good news is: my hearing is so lousy,
I am now a cochlear implant candidate!
Kirk & I will go back in 2 days for a 2-hour consultation about the surgery and talk to the doctor again. I'm hoping to have the "skull base surgery" in June after school gets out. I'll keep you posted.