It's an Adam Sandwich!

We spent the afternoon celebrating Adam's birthday...a beautiful bit of weather

 with birds singing and breezes flitting through the leaves of the pergola.
 

 

Landon is 6!

Instead of a layered or sheet-style birthday cake, Landon's parents ordered cupcakes of various flavors for his Friday-the-Thirteenth party. If you'd been there, you could have chosen from

 Red Velvet, Wedding Cake,Sully (monster), Peanut Butter Cup,

 Chocolate Peanut Butter or Maple Bacon.

One big woof didn't take out the birthday candles as they were distributed among 12 big cupcakes.

Toward a Silver Cord

By the end of May, Hunter will complete enough hours of community service

 to qualify for the Silver Cord Award. Today he asked me to shop for the fabrics needed to make a tied blanket that will serve up warmth and comfort in a children's cancer ward.

 

He selected a fleece printed with the Monopoly game (he plans a career in finance) and a pastel blue for the fleece backing. Per instructions written for Pre-approved Silver Cord Activities, we proceeded through the simple process of cutting away selvages and slicing 1-inch-wide strips around the four sides of the soon-to-be tied blanket.

 

Tomorrow he'll bring it to the blanket mistress in the school office

and mark down two more hours of service. (We spent more time than that on the project but that's the credit allowed for this project.)

 

A few fun hours with my gorgeous, gentlemanly grandson,

 

College Roommates Reunited

Grandpa Al's Concordia College roommate, Denny, read Al's name on the local YMCA sign-in book five years ago and tracked him down. Ironically, Denny and his wife of Plymouth, MN winter every year at Pelican Pointe just blocks away from us. So coffee hour every Thursday at Panera Bread is something they have been doing ever since. They both like to talk.

 

Al and Denny

This spring, before Denny and Kay returned to Minnesota, they treated us to a concert by Minnesota's Barbary Coast musical group. It was a rockin' old-fashioned time with lots of

foot stomping and clapping. All a part of March madness in Florida.

This trio was just part of the six-member group.

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Grandpa Al is doing OK after another round at the hospital.

Infection.

Drugs.

Recovery.

 

It's another beautiful sunny day in Florida

 (after a long week of gray sunless hours)

We're about to celebrate Valentine's Day.

Our love to all of you!

Happy 2016 from the Jerdees and Underwoods!

 

We're a trifle early posting this...but our 5-year-old isn't going to make it to midnight.

It's bedtime for our littlest one!

Adam, Landon, and Kim Jerdee

Amy, Hunter, Blake, and Dave Underwood

And they didn't think it would snow...

The first blanket of snow came a little late this year.

I always say snow never falls before my November 13th birthday.

 This year, it waited a week to show up. It's a beauty to behold, that first five inches of pure whiteness against the black of tree structures left without leafy ornamentation.

Pure as the driven snow, nature's blanket covers the sleeping earth until spring.
From Florida, where we are missing the snow, I'm sending Landon some
reindeer food to sprinkle on the "lawn."

 

Photograph: Amy Underwood

 

Well, it'll be grey and unsightly by spring...

We're enjoying its purity for now!

 

Hope you all have a lovely Thanksgiving!