After all the anticipation, our newest grandchild arrived on May 21.  Gideon Timothy Eggli, son of James and Sasha.  That makes nine grandchildren with the tenth to arrive any day now (Demri).

The remodel work progresses on our rental home.  Last week the new cabinets went in.  I could not have done it without the assistance of Steve and Bill.  I need to finish installing the wood floors, the tile, and the trim work.  Lisa and I have but three weeks to get the rental house ready for the painters.

The day to day work of remodeling a home has turned out to be great exercise for me as well as a great weight loss program.  My Fitbit keeps track of any weight change (it connects to our bathroom scale) and I have lost 13 pounds in the last month.  My pants are a bit saggy.  Lisa says I don’t need to lose any more weight.  “I’m not trying dear.  It’s simply happening.”

It’s that time of year.  The fawns have arrived.

It has been six months since my knee surgery and I still consider myself in recovery mode.  As long as I’m moving my knee doesn’t bother me.  When I sit idle for a few minutes it will stiffen up on me.  Then, when I get up, it take a few steps before the stiffness disappears.  It is getting better.  It’s just not happening as quickly as I would like.  It really will take a full year to recover.  

 

One of the items on our bucket list is to see the northern lights (Aurora Borealis).  Lisa and I always thought we would need to travel to Canada or Alaska to witness the event.  Not true.  On a rare occasion we can observe the northern lights from Anacortes (as seen in the picture above which was taken a couple of weeks ago from Anacortes).  Our disappointment was not being awake or knowing about the light show when it was happening.

A gale wind blew through Anacortes last week taking a couple of big limbs from two of our front ornamental trees.  It’s very sad to lose half of one tree and a third of another.  I don’t think they will ever recover.

Nephew Josh, from Utah, came out a couple of weeks ago and helped out with the remodel of our rental home.  While here, Ian also provided a day of labor.  Their time in service was very helpful.

 
Lisa has also been working on the house.

I’ve framed up the new bookcase in the hallway and have begun to install the new wood flooring.  The kitchen cabinets arrive next week.  I have been putting in long hours and we are concerned I might not meet our construction schedule.  I may be putting in even longer hours.  The work has had a positive effect on my weight.  I’ve lost over ten pounds since starting the project in April.

We have begun to receive our weekly produce box from a farmer in Anacortes.  The only problem with our first box is there is so much food we can’t possibly eat it all in one week.  What to do, what to do?

 
We have a new pair of sister missionaries in Anacortes.  Lisa and I took them to Rosario Beach last week to collect agates and rocks.  We polish the rocks for them, which take a couple of weeks to do, and include a pamphlet describing the different types of rocks found on Washington beaches.  Word has gotten out that we do this and it seems to have become a tradition.