Dear Kids,
        We really enjoyed Eli’s baptism yesterday, and then Bentley’s ordination after that.  What a wonderful family we have!  And this evening at 5:00 is Chloe’s baby blessing.  We’re really looking forward to that, too.  There’s a potluck dinner afterwards.  It’s a good thing it was postponed from last Sunday, because the weather was totally crazy!  We had more than two inches of rain here, and it snowed, besides.  It might not have been so wild at Paul’s house, but this afternoon will definitely be better. Oh, yeah, we had more snow Monday morning, and it stayed on the ground until mid-afternoon. Dad says one guy at his coffee club, an old-timer, claims that he’s seen snow every single month here.  I’ve never known it to snow in July, but then, I’m not an old timer yet.
        After the baptism yesterday, and the luncheon, eight granddaughters showed up here to do hair color.  Anna had two or three inches along her ends done in blue, and Meg had her whole head done in purple!  I didn’t have a hand in it, because they like to work on each other, but I had fun watching.  Both Meg and Anna left with their heads swathed in plastic bags, to keep the color from getting on anything.  Later last night Meg sent me a picture of her finished hair, and it’s really cool.  I’ll be seeing Anna later today.   I put some blue in Stuart’s very short hair last Sunday, and it looks really classy.
        My new grass seed is taking forever to sprout!  Maybe the snow and freezing weather have slowed it down.  You can see tiny shafts of green here and there, but I was hoping for much more by now.  Meanwhile, the robins are still pulling out worms.  There are six of them now.  Our kitties keep stalking them, but the robins are too smart.
        And the magpies are constant guests.  There’s a spot way out in back where I sometimes put out scraps for them, because I like to watch them fight each other for whatever there is.  (It’s mostly food from our Sunday visitors, since I mainly live on biscuits and cheese.)  Last Sunday Donna had a chicken carcass and some bones, so I put them out, and pretty soon the magpies showed up.  And two calico pigs!  I mean, we’ve had deer and foxes and goats and great horned owls, but pigs?  They were snorting and grunting over the chicken bones, until a guy in a SUV showed up.  He had to park clear out on the road, and walk in, and carry them out, one at a time, back to his car.  We were all watching from the glass door.  And these calico pigs were the ugliest things I’ve ever seen!  But he carried them as tenderly as if they were babies.  Maybe they’re his babies. I’m still getting used to the lifestyle here.
        But it’s  so much fun!  We’re never bored.  Lots of love, Mom 
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