'March'in On!

Ok....having all this togetherness is causing Jim's sense of humor and love of puns to rub off on me --hence the title of this blog!  Actually it does show our excitement to have a cold and snowy  February gone.  We are just fine with February moving on out and going in to March.  We are ready for SPRING, but so far it is still very wintery.  March is definitely coming 'in like a lion' so we hope it will leave like a lamb!

This last week or so has been filled with many service opportunities.  We helped prepare and serve dinner at the Ronald McDonald House on Thursday.  Jessica and Mike's baby has been in the hospital for all seven months of his life and so they basically live here in Pittsburgh at the Ronald McDonald house.  They normally live about 3-4 hours away in eastern Pennsylvania. They were in charge of fixing a meal for the other families and asked if the missionaries would help.  It was great to visit with other families also staying at Ronald McDonald.  One woman was from Boston and has two children with liver problems.  One just had a transplant and the other will have one soon.  Her husband is staying home in Boston with another child.

Another family was the mom and
grandma of a 12 year old girl who has a rare form of leukemia.  They live an hour away and she has been in the hospital for two months.  They talked about what  a shock it was to take the little girl to the doctor one afternoon and a few hours later to have their whole lives changed.  We visited and felt an instant connection with them. They mentioned how they hoped they could give back and come and provide a meal one day when they are through with their ordeal.  We offered our help if they ever want to do that and gave them a pass along card with our contact info on it.

We also visited with a man who brings a service dog to the house to play with the siblings and family members staying there.  He said he had a friend who was Mormon and knew our church liked service opportunities.  Again--another small connection and someone familiar with the church.

We also fed the elders last night after they finished doing a service project to help someone move.  The elders in this area probably don't get fed by members as much as in some areas so we are trying to fill in the gaps as much as we can.  It is sure fun to get to know them all.

Then today (Saturday) we participated in a service project of fix up jobs in the home of Lois and Rod.  Rod has severe Parkinson's disease.  We also helped arrange for part of the crew to help Martha move some things to a storage shed.  It was a great opportunity for her to see church service in action and she really appreciated it.

We've decided that a mission is a fun opportunity to look for service and to have the time to devote to it.

Now for our news from home..... Courtney is now 16 and was
supposed to get her Young Womanhood Award in church this past week, but Atlanta had weather problems from "fear of snow."  It actually did snow a couple of inches, but after the whole city being shut down last year, the officials were probably extra cautious this year.  Anyway, the kids missed three days of school!  She should get her award this week and we are SO proud of her.  She has also participated in  a "Science Olympiad" and she and her friend came in 4th out of 26.  She also got to go see the play "Wicked" with her mom this past week.  She continues to love learning and doing good things in her life. We are so proud of her.

We recently heard about McCord too.  He is our 9 year old grandson, who has been playing indoor soccer this winter and got a goal last week.

 He has also become interested in riding horses over the last several months.  He has a perfect setup with his Grandpa Tico having the horses near his home for him to ride. He wrote to us recently that he is planning to have his own horse in June!  We're not sure about all of the details involved in this, but we wish him the best with his goal.   He is involved in 4H and as can be seen by his picture......he is one handsome boy!


Life keeps moving on and we just keep trying to catch up!