Day 34 - An Easter Miracle - and Trees

(Day 34 of self quarantine) 

For Easter, 

some people want eggs, 

some want bunnies, 

some want ham. 

But this Easter, our family wanted 

LIVER!!!!

Yes, can you believe it? Our darling little Great-nephew Bennet Bicigo has been suffering and struggling for a year now with liver cancer. The first tumor was removed and a second one grew back quickly, and even larger. He just had surgery last week trying to remove it and it was too big and instead he was put on a liver transplant list.

Amazingly and miraculously, on Easter Sunday, a liver became available from a donor. Thank goodness for people who are willing to put other lives ahead of their own grief, and offer an organ donation from a beloved family member who is dying.

Little Bennett went through an extremely long surgery on Easter Morning, and we got the happy news last night before bedtime was that the liver was in and it was functioning! It's an Easter miracle for the Bicigo Family!!!

This is my older brother Steve's (Butch) youngest son Darren and his wife Chelsea who have Little Bennet, along with their little daughter Lilyan.

The world has been tumultuous and they have had a financial crisis during this questionable time of employment. I never solicit donations on my blog, but this one is awfully special and close to my heart.  A GoFundMe page has been started on their behalf:

Link to little Bennet's GoFundMe:

Bennet's Fight

from the page: Please add them to your prayers, and reach out if you might be able to help them in any way (both are facing losing their jobs due to the duration of his stay exceeding FMLA), I would be grateful, and I know they would too!

~~~~~~~~~

We are counting our blessings as Steve is finally starting to feel better. He's not totally up to snuff, and we're not sure exactly what it was that took him down so low and made him feel so miserable for a good two weeks.

Since his energy returned, a bit, we decided to hop on a new project that we have been thinking about.  It was a beautiful day earlier this week, with sun shining and warmer temperatures. A very kind friend of an old neighbor friend offered to let us dig up some beautiful young White Birch saplings from their woods.

We grabbed the shovel 

and in no time flat 

we had a trunk full to bring home!

They range between about 6 to 10 feet in height, so we staggered the variety of heights amongst each clump to make them into a nice landscaping feature.

These should transplant very well because where they were taken from is very similar to the land we are putting them on, and only 6 miles away.

By putting in a clump of 4, if one of them dies off we would still have a nice clump of 3 which I think is the most attractive way to grow white birch trees. We planted the clumps of birch trees in the front yard, balanced on each side of the house, so they are evenly lined up with the corners of the front porch. 

Let us hope they grow quickly and offer good shade and become a beautiful accent to our home.

~~~~~~~

They also told us to dig up a bunch of these small little fluffy White Pine trees. They are so soft and lush, and remind us of the huge white pines that were in our yard when we lived along the river. These little pines were actually located just around the curve from where our old home was. Perhaps some pine cones from our own original trees were part of the seeds that eventually spread down to create these children of the children of the white pine trees from our old yard?

We planted the little white pines into L-shaped formations, about 10 feet from the borders on each front corner of our property. They should make a nice accent and a definition to each side of our property, as well as a nice little backdrop. Might set up maybe a bird feeder or bird bath to look at from the front porch after they grow a bit?

Steve said he loves the sound of the wind passing through the long white pine needles --- kind of a whispery sound on the breeze.

While we were busy doing this planting, Steve remembered a cute little spruce tree back in our own woods. We moved that up to transplant into the front yard, front and center between the house and garage.  He said he hopes that someday it will grow large and we can decorate it with Christmas lights!!!

~~~~~~~

On Easter Sunday, I baked two adorable little Easter Bunny cakes. I was almost out of powdered sugar, but just like the old adage:  "Hey Neighbor, Can I Borrow A Cup of Sugar?"  my neighbor Sheryl had a bag to lend to the cause.  I decorated them up, and dropped them off at both of our daughters homes, along with some Easter surprises for the grandchildren. It felt good to do a little something extra special, even though we weren't going to see the children in person.

Our Easter Dinner was made extra special this year in spite of the corona-virus quarantine. Our oldest daughter cooked up a big family celebration meal at her home. Her husband got some aluminum takeout containers and with the help of their oldest daughter, they cooked up a wonderful meal. Their son kept their younger daughter busy, and they also colored wonderful Easter cards for Grandma and Grandpa.

When the meal was ready, they divvied it up among all of the takeout containers. They split the meals into two transport bags and had us come to their porch to pick them up.

One bag held a complete meal for us, and the other bag we transported out to our youngest daughter's home with her husband and two children. So everybody got a wonderful Easter dinner and we kept together by social media while maintaining our social distancing in each of our own homes. What a wonderful thing for them to do, and was an extra special effort during these difficult times.

Of course, she gave us so much food I think we will get two more meals out of the leftovers!!!

~~~~~~~

We woke up this morning to a final April Fool's Prank! 

We knew it was being forecast in the 4 to 6 inch range. We're very lucky to only get about 2 inches. It was still coming down this morning at 7 a.m., so we crawled back into bed for a while and waited for it to stop. By 8 a.m. the sun was out and everything started melting! Hopefully this will be the last snowfall of the year!!!

I popped out the door onto the front porch to get a couple pictures of our little L-shaped rows of White Pines in the two corners of the front yard. They show up better against the snow than in the grassy photos posted up above.

I saw the little neighbor girls next door quickly making a snowman this morning. It will be the last one of the season and it's going to melt fast. Goodbye Frosty, until next year.

The day is zooming by here, it's already after lunch.  We reheated some of our Easter Dinner leftovers for lunch. Thank you, Erin and Waylen!!! 

Back into Routines

Well, we are getting settled into routines and enjoying our house.  The dishwasher is now in place, and Steve's idea won out on the island choices (see last blog post) .  Wonder what is next?

The gas log fireplace?  

The first floor laundry room?  

Gutting and redoing the bathroom upstairs?  

Stay tuned to find out what we are doing next on This Old House! 

   

In the meantime..... this week:

We are gearing up to attend both of our grandson's FIRST birthday parties!

Mason Paul Pfundtner turned one year old today!  

We are going to his party tomorrow and I am working on a crock pot of calico beans to take along.

Then on Sunday, we are hostessing the Pfundtner Family Easter Gathering.  We rented the pavilion at High Cliff State Park to hold the event.  So far we are at 27 and counting.  I am making up three hams, 3 dozen deviled eggs, and another crock pot of calico beans.  Everyone else is bringing the side dishes and desserts, so we should not go hungry... LOL


Next Saturday is the other grandson's birthday party to attend.... wonder if I can bring leftover beans?

Clayton Timothy Lock turns one year old next Friday!

The other exciting thing that happened to me was yesterday afternoon.  It was warming up, about 50 degrees.... so I decided to hang out our comforter to get some fresh air.  The clotheslines out in the back yard are still surrounded by snow, so I decided to use the single line that is suspended from two posts on our upstairs shaker porch.


I hoisted the comforter in my arms and went out on the shaker porch  ... and the door LOCKED behind me!   This porch is flat black rubber roof, with a pile of snow on the middle of it.  I can only walk around edges in my stocking feet....  till all of the snow melts.   I tried and tried to pull on the door knob from the left and the right without stepping in the snow.  Nope...  I was trapped!

Then I gave up trying to keep my socks dry, and stood right in front of the door in the snow and yanked harder and harder, for more leverage?  Nope.  I was locked out!


Well..... I stood there for a while, wondering what to do.   Aha!  I will just crane my neck around the edge of the house and wait for someone to walk down the street.  I can call out to them to help me?  Right, invite a complete stranger to come into my house, to come up the stairs and open the door?    It is a small town, I should be fine.  But.....   nobody walked by.  About half an hour later-- I gave up craning my neck around the corner and decided on Plan B.

I looked around at my predicament.  

Well, I could jump over onto the garage roof, 

shimmey down the slope of the roof

and drop into the snow bank?  

(see pic from last autumn, so you can see how close it is)   

But then I was thinking:
Do I want to risk a broken leg or something right before two grandsons' first birthday parties and hostessing 27 people for Easter dinner on Sunday?

So I gave up on that idea too.

Plan C?    I was thinking I could start to hollar and hope the neighbors might hear me through their closed doors and windows?   I tried a bit, but both dogs were out on their tie-out ropes below me and kept barking each time, so it just sounded like annoying barking dogs.  Who is gonna look at that?

So, I gave up on that idea, fast.   I had now been out on the porch for an hour or more.  Good thing it was facing west and the sun was shining and it was in the 50's.  It could be a normal Wisconsin winter day and I would be freezing up there!

While thinking of a Plan D.... I heard a door open!

It was from the back door of two houses over (we never met them yet) and they were getting into their car!  I hollared and shouted and waved my arms!!!  (like a nut case)   and they saw me!

Now I was able to have the pleasure of meeting my neighbors Jen and Ryan!   I sheepishly explained my predicatment and she came in my house, up the stairs and she discovered the door wasn't really locked...   It was the door jam seal has slid over and blocked the entire door at the frame edge from opening!    I said KICK IT and she did, and it popped open!    In I came, wet socks, and dragging my comforter behind me.

I thanked them over and over and we made sure to meet again under more pleasant circumstances.

Steve has now fixed it and it won't be doing THAT to me again! 

(p.s.  perhaps next time I should carry my cell phone in my pocket?) 

Easter Gathering with the Pfundtners

Ahhh we hosted the Pfundtner Clan  for Easter Dinner, this year it was our turn.  Twenty eight folks were going to attend of the 35 invited. So we rented the new community center of the Pensaukee Township for our party.  It's a nice new building just a few miles from our home.  Nice, new, clean and well lit, it was a perfect place to have our party.

Steve and I went over the day before to decorate:

  

The Easter Bunny must have found it's way to the gathering too!

The two newest Pfundtners were in attendance... Chelsea Mae 2 months and Allegra Grace, 3 months

Next in line was little Jameson Michiael, 20 months, who seemed to have a Rabbit on his Back...

Soon to be added to our crew will be a new baby!!!  Here is cousin Jen showing the location of the new baby to be with her ultrasound photo!  Wheee congrats Robert and Jen! 

The little girls did some conversing and admired each other's Easter Dresses....

Great Grandma Pfun and Aunt Wendy got tricked into playing some ball with little Jameson.  Granfaddah helped them out a bit and kept the little guy busy.  I was occupied in the kitchen....

All the desserts from Grandma Pfundtner were lined up, the Hrlevichs came later and added a cheese cake to the dessert table... the food in the kitchen was all ready and the buffet line started.. .Yummmmmm   We had 3 hams, cheesy potatoes, deviled eggs, marshmallow salad, 7 layer salad and lots of veggies, dips and relishes.   It was quite a feast!

Erin brought me an easter lily in the middle of the buffet line, and Pete brought me a pretty flower arrangement with hydrangeas (my favorite!)  for on the table.... and Mom and Dad P brought us a spring flower pot that can be later transplanted outside with some purple and pink primulas..a kind of a primrose? We put those on the dessert table by her lovely plates of bars. Yummmmm

Here was our buffet line, ready to feast

Uncle Mark gave a great blessing, asking for prayers for all the recently sick family members.  The day became a wonderful family gathering with everyone in attendance.  Mom P is having such health issues with cancer, so it was wonderful that everyone found a way to attend this year.  We sure appreciated the effort.

As the meal went on, I snapped a few pics of everyone around......

 Andrew, Patrick and Ron Hrlevich, Paul and Maryanne Pfundtner, Frances, Ellie and Lynn Hrlevich

Maryanne Pfundtner, Frances, Ellie and Lynn Hrlevich, Wendy Pfundtner, Pete Pfundter to the corner

Pete Pfundtner, Robert and Jen Jones, Shirley and Mark Pfundtner, Heather and Dave Reh, Heather Pfundtner and little Allegra

Dan Pfundtner, Heather Van Den Busch, (Jameson in corner) Jesse Wade, Mark Lock, Faith Pfundtner
(and Erin Lock with her back to us getting some more ham for Jameson) 

And last, but not least, the hosts,  Karen and Steve Pfundtner

After dinner, Father Paul Pfundtner got in some serious discussions with his sons, Pete and Mark

(they solved all the World's Problems)

Our  daugtherinlaw, New Mommy Heather, and our son, new Daddy Dan, taking his turn with little Allegra

Our daughter, new Mommy Erin and new Daddy Mark with little Chelsea

Our daugther, Mommy Heather and Daddy Jesse with little Jameson

(Steve and brother Pete solving some more World Problems in the background)


As the party went on, the kids were passed around and soon became tired .....

Some folks are just party poopers!

 

Kids were passed around, and I grabbed both babies to make sure everyone had a chance to meet them.  Around the tables we went with babies and fun and stories... the littlest kids got to open up some little easter baskets and presents... the older kids got chocolate and treats...  and everyone got the company of each other.

And at the end... all the Little Baby Bunnies took a nap!