Visit to Washington DC

Congratulation to Sherquilter on entering the pie contest, what an adventure! It was fun to see the pictures.

Two weeks ago I was flying into Washington DC for a conference. Pam picked me up at the airport and I spent Saturday night with she and Sean in their beautiful home. It was so fun to see Pam and see where they live, they are such wonderful hosts. They were having a very busy weekend with the start of the National Academy of Science annual meetings. There was another couple, friends from Mich., staying with them also and Pan served us a wonderful brunch Sunday morning. I have included a couple of pictures here.

Pie Contest was great fun!

Hi all! Well, I didn't win any prizes at the Pie Contest in Florida...but had a great time! I have to say it was hard making a pie with everyone stopping to talk or watch you! Distracting! It wasn't my best pie, so I made another pie at my sister in-law's condo. Of course we ate the "bad" looking pie!:) Many ladies (& men) enter more than one pie...there were 15 categories and I saw some people bringing in cart fulls! Many of the winners this year were past winners and they then won again & again this year. They gave out 3 places for each pie and I swear the same women kept winning. But all in all, it was a great experience!

At home in Michigan- we are getting ready for new carpet in the house. What a lot of work...moving everything out! Johnny is home from college, so I'm putting him to work! Stacey is back to work and baby Logan is growing fast. Logan is almost 3 months old and he weighs over 15 lbs! He is trying to laugh out loud and we are so blessed to have them back in Michigan! Jessica has graduated from her student teaching year and has a job offer! She will be the teacher consultant for Midland county (about 1 1/2 hours away from us in DeWitt) for the deaf and hard of hearing kids. She is really excited and I think looking forward to having money! Well...that is the update from DeWitt....hope the rest of the Lusty family is doing well!

Cold Weather still in New Jersey

Boy, and I thought it was warmer here and the growing season was ahead of all the rest of you. Apparently I was wrong (at least for this spring). I keep wanting to bike to work and every morning I wake up it's in the 30's!. I just go back to sleep for an hour and workout at lunch. Strange, we got one entire day of rain on Monday, then the sun comes out every day, but isn't that warm. The grass is growing though. I mowed half the yard last night and I had to wear a hat and gloves. That was a first. Usually I'm totally sweating and wear my camel back so I can drink the entire time I mow (I can't help it; it's mowing for triathletes, all about hydration:)). It better warm up here soon. I have 4 weeks left before my first race of the year, half Ironman and its in the Pocono Mountains. At this rate, I'm not sure the ice has melted in the lake for the swim. It will be a cold race for sure. I'm still trying to finish all the work I had planned for my parents visit. I have to pull out fence posts yet (Dad brought a fence post jack and man does that work). He always said, you just need the right tool and you can do anything. I guess he was right, yet again. He will love hearing that.
Take care everyone

Pie Contest

Hello all, hope the weather is getting warmer. I see snow in northern MN and ND on the news, sorry! It is finally in the 60's here in NJ and will be in 70's this weekend. It will be good because my parents are coming out to NJ to visit me. I will try to get them to relax and visit, but we usually work on projects (I have so many). First order of business is hew roof for my shed. Of course, I will be the indian and Dad will be the cheif...he will keep me in line for sure! We have a world of fence posts to jack out too, so that will be another fun job. At least that one will be on the ground. Mom is going to catch up on her sewing (quilting) for her quilt block class and we will do some grilling. Sherri and John head to Florida today for a pie baking contest. I'm excited for her and hope she does well. I think her pies are the best in my book anyway.
http://www.piecouncil.org/great.htm is the website. The contest is this weekend, then they are staying extra and getting some R&R. Happy travels to the drivers!
Amy

Sunny Sunday in ND

Hi All,
It is a sunny afternoon in North Dakota, mid 40s, not quite warm enough to sit on the deck yet. I had the cushion for our deck chairs recovered this winter and I am anxious to get them out and enjoy our deck! Soon I hope. We had snow predicted for last night and today but it missed us again and we need moisture so bad we were even happy to expect snow!

Most of you probably haven't hear about Dawn and her ear adventure. She will need to write and give the whole story. She had a viral infection in her right ear and lost the hearing, after a round of steroids and antiviral meds she has recovered some of the hearing. Scary but we are thankful they were able to catch it early enough to restore some hearing and hopefully that improves with time.

Take care everyone, I'm headed out the door for a walk!
Lori

Spring is slow in ND

Hi All,
Mary it was good to read your update and so glad to hear you will be rebuilding, a great opportunity to design just what you want. It will be a long busy year for you both. Is your Mom back from TX yet?

We are cool and dry up here. Too dry really, not much snow all winter and no moisture so far this spring. Farmers and gardeners are concerned!

We spent Easter weekend with Aimee and Mark and kids. They are adding a bathroom in there house and remodeling the other two bathrooms. All done in stages to make sure they have at least one working bathroom at all times! We were able to help with some of the painting while there. Along with celebrating Bryn's 1st Birthday and Max's 3rd birthday. Busy weekend but we loved every minute!

House Fire Update

We are adjusting to being back at Mom's house, hard to believe its been 2 months already! We do plan on rebuilding, not really any other option, unless we wanted to move out of Aneta. So maybe by this time next year, we will be in our new house. We're not really looking forward to the hassle of everything, but know in the end it will be good. This house will be a bit bigger, a somewhat different layout, I will get my sunroom that I've always wanted, maybe a hot tub, so in the end if Doug and I don't kill each other, it will be better than before! We did manage to save some pictures, my good china, farm records, and some other misc. stuff. So at least we have some of our old things. But like Doug said, if we were going to move now would be a good time, because we don't have much to move! So we hope everything will work out. This homeless feeling really sucks! Anyway, we're all doing good, just thankful for a place to stay. So hopefully we won't get on Mom's nerves! Take care! Mary