And today, we have a two-fer!

Alison is 34 today! She's standing in a patch of hollyhocks that used to grow on one side of Balza's DX service station, which was demolished not long after this photo was taken.

It's also my Aunt Arlene's 91st birthday! Arlene is the eldest in my mom's family. She's holding my sister Karen in this photo, probably late 1960/early 1961, at my grandparents' house in Marshfield, WI. If this photo had been taken today, you might, at first glance, think that my grandparents are looking at their phones... but, no. Grandma is looking at a Polaroid picture, and Grandpa is staring into his coffee cup. My cousin Cindy is at left and that's just the cutest smile ever! So much to love about this photo.

Happy Birthday to Ali & Arlene!

Your heartstrings are not shoelaces -- they were never meant to be knotted.
― Angela Panayotopulos, The Wake Up

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I originally found a much longer quote, but this sentence pretty much cuts right to it*. As the reality of Kate's departure to Scotland becomes more... well, real (three weeks from today!)... I had a rather teary call from Maddy in Australia last night. Having heard some dreary prediction about travel as we were accustomed not returning until 2024, it was the last straw. She & Viv have both been working their tails off, so they're tired, there are other obligations, few friends, no time for hanging out or doing "anything fun," anyway... yadda yadda... and maybe it will and maybe it won't!

It's just so... ARGGGHHHHH!

And Maddy has a milestone birthday coming up! Thankfully, they'll be able to get away for a very short birthday celebration! And this weekend, in celebration of all the April birthdays (in case you've forgotten or are unaware, Ali on the 16th, Kate on the 22nd, and Maddy on the 25th), we're going to have a group video chat/toast. Looking forward to that!

In other news, Annie flew to Florida to get vaccinated and was able to get the one-and-done J&J jab yesterday. Then, of course, the J&J vaccinations were suspended today because of the extremely rare possibility of blood clots, but go ahead... tell a hypochondriac about how rare it is! Heh.

Boss Baby is ready to tell you whatever you need to know!

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*The Wake Up will be perfect for Book Bingo (sounds like it's a GO!) if I get "supernatural fiction" or something similar!

Tulips will soon be blooming, the rhubarb, irises and bleeding heart are starting to come up, and the bloodroot is literally EXPLODING out of the ground.

One of my favorite phases of the bloodroot emergence is the "cloaked" period, where the leaf slowly unfurls to reveal the flower bud -- it looks like it's wearing a cloak. This year, within a very short time, it was cool, then a little wet, and then HOT, and those flowers are just not waiting for the leaf/cloak to open, they're just pushing right through the top! Crazy.

You might spot a few snowdrops in that photo. There must be a million of them in bloom in the ravine!!

Kate & I had our second Pfizer jabs on Wednesday morning, and ran a few errands on the way home. Then I helped her move some things into a storage unit, but not before closing the car door on my hand.

OWIE!! That's also hard to capture in a photograph. The bruising is evident today into my index &  middle fingers. Thankfully, I had full use/movement right away, though certainly tweaked a nerve or tendon in there -- thankfully, that was only temporary and I haven't had any more "tweaked" feelings. I grabbed an ice pack right away and iced it in between moving two loads into storage.

And then I took a nap.

Because I had a reaction to the first dose of the vaccine -- somehow getting through the day-after at work -- this time, I took a precautionary day off and I really needed it! I slept most of the morning yesterday, with pretty low energy otherwise. (Good for crochet, and watching Monty Don!) It's so crazy how Kate & Rusty had no real reactions at all... nor did they suffer all that much when we actually had Covid (not that I'd want them to suffer!), and wonder if there's a correlation. I sort of doubt it, as there are no doubt countless random contributing factors.

I shall leave you with one of the best pick-me-ups I've had all week. I nabbed this screenshot from a Snapchat video that Ali sent the other day. Ginny & Malina were giving Davy a push in a swing at the park. He was loving it! And I sure wish you could hear it!

Have a great weekend!

I awoke to thunder this morning, with scattered thunderstorms predicted until at least noon.

The high temp is in the mid-70s (F) early this week, but, y'know, it's Spring In Wisconsin, so we'll see highs in the 50s again next week. Heh.

That's my budding lilac bush!

Kate will land in the UK a month from today! It's going to be a crazy-fast month and there's a lot going on, so I'm making a promise to be easy on myself...

I haven't been stitching much. Now that the weather is getting nicer and there's still so much more daylight left when I get home from work... it's just not happening.

I still watch TV in the evenings, though, so I'm making some progress on my crocheted blanket. I even took a few moments yesterday before the hullaballoo began to finish a row and take a photo.

I hope you had a nice weekend! Here are the highlights of mine:

Jün's top teeth are slowly emerging (aren't they big??)... and there are two more loose on the bottom!

Ali's always saying how much Ginny looks like me when I was little... it looks like she might have the same chin(s) when she's older, too! Haha.

Even without a smile, Malina makes a pretty cute bunny! (She was just.not.having.it!)

Look at the greening up behind Davy!! He's also working on some teeth! And wearing a cute, easy-to-knit sweater (Ravelry link) that I finished when Junah was a babe (it's quick, too, even though it took me a long time!)! So springy!

Here's to a good week! Who else is having egg salad for lunch today!!