Goodness, almost 3 months has past since my last entry.  Sadly, things have not been well. 

Earlier this month my grandmother, my Oma, passed away.  She was recently diagnosed with kidney failure and was terribly ill, in and out of the hospital; and definitely not able to maintain her desired level of activity.  At 81 years old she still lived by herself and was more active than most of us grandkids!  So we were deeply saddned but also relieved at her passing since now she is free and as active as she'll ever be walking the streets of Glory and singing praises to God. 

Today only added insult to injury as we got a call from the alarm company that the alarm at my Oma's house was activated.  I arrived before the police and thinking that I just forgot to shut the door all the way the night before and it was opened by the a/c kicking on or something,  I opened the garage door and when that was okay, I did what I know I shouldn't have and walked around back - the back door had been kicked open.  I ran and jumped back in my car, drove to a neighbors driveway and sat and called 911.  It turns out the crooks never even stepped inside.  Anyway, the house is secure and hopefully between the alarm and the neighbors barking dogs the criminals won't be back.  The police did get a shoe print but that's all. 

I do hope to get back to blogging someday but really don't know when that will be.   

We've had more winter in the last week than we did all of Dec, Jan & Feb combined I think!  We've been enjoying our evenings by the fire:

Just an update on my grandma - she is home now and is able to stay by herself.  The first week she was home we organized 24/7 care for her but I think just being home has helped her to feel better and she is able to be by herself now.  We did get her one of those "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up" buttons to wear, it gives us all peace of mind.  She has some wonderful friends and church family that help us by checking in on her usually a couple times a day and bring meals, so she is still not usually alone for very long. 

The doctors diagnosed her with a rare auto-immune disease that is attacking her kidneys ( there is really no way to know what triggered it).  She has suffered some kidney function loss but the doctors are managing what she has left.  She feels okay, the medications she's on make her feel jittery and nervous, so hopefully when the dosages are lowered or she is able to come off some of the meds she will feel more normal.  Our family appreciates your prayers.   

Look what we woke up to Tuesday morning:

Here we are 2 weeks until Spring and getting SNOW!  Of course I'm not complaing, I'm lovin' it!  We are actually expected to get more overnight.  Hopefully, we will wake up tomorrow to a winter wonderland.