Early February 2011

This hangs in my daughter's house and it truly says it all. That is exactly what a good friend is and God's has graciously blessed me with good friends. Through my knee replacement surgery God has taught me a lot. He's given me much greater compassion for those in constant pain, a real appreciation for the many friends who have been there for me, an acceptance that there are things you must wait for --- the patience part God is still working on. I have found out that my recovery has been hard and long because I was given a very tight knee which is good if you are active and also they tend to last longer so I'm told. However, getting all those tendons all stretched out again has been an entire winter project. I am still going to PT 3 times a week and I work on it at home. I definitely see progress now and I'm seldom in any pain but I really do feel like my life has revolved around my knee way too long and then I think of Keith and Marie Richards and what they have had to go through and that gets my attitude straightened out real quick. Let's just say God has shown me a lot I need to change about myself through all of this.
Above is my grandson, Keenan, he is elder brother to Troy below. This is a picture of a picture I took at their house. Have you ever seen such determination on a face? Keenan plays Division 1 soccer at Long Island University.

We have had more time to visit with friends and family and we love being at our home church and being able to take place in their activities. This past Tuesday we went to visit out grandson, Troy, who is recovering from surgery. He had a benign cyst taken off his shin bone. Not much fun. We took him out to lunch and got him out of the house for awhile. We really had a nice visit and Nicky got to visit with his buddy, Roscoe.

This is our Friday morning Bible study group. We have about an hour of good Bible study and then we follow that with homemade soup and bread. It's a lot of fun. Last week was my turn to cook so I made chili, cornbread, and chocolate cake.

We've also had time to hang in the local coffee shop. This is a picture of Lee and my brother, Graham.

We really have enjoyed watching the birds just out the kitchen window. Above is a ed headed woodpecker and a female cardinal.

I've never seen so many cardinals but then again I'm not usually here to notice.

See this cute little tree? She said, " I don't know about the rest of you but I'm not giving up my leaves it is just too cold". We've thanked her many times for the little bit of color she left in the woods.

Nicky thought the snow was great at the beginning but he is really sick of it now especially with the ice on top of the snow. He looks at me as if to say,"there's not a decent place for a dog to take care of business out here.

Nicky has his sheep's coat on now and stays plenty warm.

This is why we don't do usually do winter!!!
It is beautiful to look at but I don't like living in it for months on end. This was an ice storm which hit about a week ago.

I will say one thing for this winter -- it has been sunny when it is not snowing. It has been very pleasant on the sun porch when the sun is out brightly it heats the entire room up and you feel toasty warm.

When the sun hit the ice on the trees it was a sparkling wonderland.
This is Lee cleaning the driveways after one of the storms. I wanted Jim Tull to see the new headlights Lee put on and the new enclosure he added. He also added hydraulics on the plow. He's a handy guy to have around isn't he?

Oops here come another one!!!! Get ready Lee