The Remainder of March

I can't believe it is April already.  March has come and gone and life seems to be flying by.  Even though Spring didn't officially start until March 20th, we were well into it way before then.  With unbelievably high temperatures, everything started to grow super early as I shared in my last post.  On top of that, the magnolia tree bloomed earlier than we have ever seen.  Usually it blooms in mid to late April, or even into May, but this year the flowers popped before the month of March was over.  Here are some pics that Eric took:

To close out March, we also were able to spend a fun weekend visiting at our home with Eric's parents.  We had a great weekend stuffing ourselves at HuHot and the Olive Garden, and working on some projects at home.  Eric and his dad fixed our fence that had had a few panels blow over in a wind storm last fall (I forgot to take pictures), and Eric's mom and I had a great time working on things for the nursery and making some food (I made Italian Beef Sandwiches, and she made the  Chocolate & Peanut Butter Mousse Cheesecake that I had been eyeing up in my recent issue of Taste of Home Magazine.  It was absolutely delicious!!!  As for the projects, after spending a good amount of time at Hobby Lobby picking up supplies, I worked on making birds and Eric's mom sewed some pillows.   

As Eric said, "We got a new sewing machine & she works for Italian Beef!"  :)

Showing off the cheesecake.

One family picture before they headed home. 

We were also very thankful that Eric's parents were willing to drive our new ride to Kenosha from Michigan.  It was very nice of them to bring it to us so that I didn't have to drive all the way home from Michigan a different time by myself.  We also give a shout out and a BIG THANK YOU!! to Grandma Smiley for giving us her mini-van.  It is so nice to know that we have a family-friendly vehicle now (which will unfortunately replace Eric's truck), that we didn't have to spend our savings on...I also think Bono will thank Grandma someday when he/she realizes that the van saved him/her from riding in the back seat of my car with Emma and getting licked constantly during our long car rides! :)

Eric, Emma, Me (& Bono) & our "new" Mercury Villager

August 10, 2002: We will both miss this truck :(   ...but better things are just around the corner that make the sacrifice a bit easier