Saturday, April 6, 2013

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Tonight's picture was taken in June of 2009. This was at the second party Mattie had to celebrate his seventh birthday. On the April 4th blog posting, I showed Mattie at his 7th birthday party in the child life playroom of the hospital. However, my friend Christine (Campbell's mom) was very thoughtful and generous to hold a birthday party for more of Mattie's friends at her house. The theme of this second party was clearly BUGS. In fact, James (Campbell's dad) dressed up as a roach and the cake was even ROACH shaped! But the creepiness was truly felt when Reptiles Alive (a company which hosts reptile parties for kids) came and the kids got to see snakes and a host of other things that made me scream. Mattie loved it and it was there that he met Sunshine, an albino boa constrictor. Mattie was fascinated by Sunshine, so much so, that his cancer buddy Jocelyn gave Mattie a stuffed animal version of Sunshine. Sunshine remains on  Mattie's bed today. Needless to say, this was a very special birthday party. I am so glad Mattie was able to celebrate his seventh birthday twice.

Quote of the day: You'd have thought that after suffering such a loss nothing else would matter to her but that didn't seem to be how it worked. She was fearful about everything now. It was as if she had finally seen the awful power of fate, its deviousness, the way it could wipe out in an instant the one thing you had been certain you could rely on, and now she was constantly looking over her shoulder, trying to work out where the next blow might fall. ~ Mary Lawson

Today was a glorious day by the Delaware seashore. It seemed timed perfectly with our departure home! Peter and I left Bethany at 11:30am and we were home by 2pm. It was a very uneventful drive home. Thankfully. Delaware is filled with farms! Farms for as far as the eye can see. While Peter was driving, I snapped several pictures. Here you can see soybeans growing. LOTS of soybeans actually. FOR MILES!

I had no idea what I was looking at but Peter told me this was a cattle farm with grain silos.

These long structures without windows are actually chicken coops. Traversing Delaware gave me an education for what life on a farm looks like.

I love these long metal sprinklers, which provide irrigation for the crops. Honestly we must have passed two dozen or more of these sprinklers today not to mention a ton of John Deere trackers and other pieces of equipment.

When we drove to the beach last week, the forsythia was not in bloom yet. But now a week later, the yellow flowers were simply glorious by the side of the road. As we drove into DC, we hit A LOT of traffic. Clearly we are NOT in Bethany any more. DC is packed with thousands of visitors to see the Cherry Blossoms. Typically the trees would have already bloomed by now, but with the unseasonably cold weather, the trees still haven't blossomed. Yet a ton of people were out and about in hopes for a chance glimpse at these beautiful pink sights. Needless to say we have exchanged sea birds and the ocean for traffic, airplane noise, and congestion. All sights that this "city mouse" is VERY used to.